Point One #1:
Summary: Okay, 7 stories here, and unfortunately? Most of them suck. Let's get this over with. The main thread between all of the stories is that two guys have managed to sneak into the Watcher's base on the moon while he was meditating(or something) and begin to look through the information he has stored, which reveals what may or may not be visions of the future(the Watcher can see all realities, so these could simply be other realities). After looking at the six other tales I'll be detailing in due time, the two men escape from the Watcher's base unseen, having gained the knowledge of how to kill a Watcher. Now the other six stories... The first concerned Nova trying to warn Terrax to get off of a planet before it was too late. Terrax instead wants to fight so Nova has to abandon the world, which is soon devoured by the Phoenix(a white Phoenix at that). Story two deals with the human resistance in the Age of Apocalypse, which basically consists of a bunch of the most deplorable characters in the mainstream Marvel U... And yes, of COURSE William Stryker is there, because he's EVERYWHERE!!! Next up, Kaine, the future Scarlet Spider, decides to stop a bank robbery, and not only does he stop it, he does it the Peter Parker way, that is without killing. Story four deals with AIM creating some kids in a lab with super-powers. Naturally the kids get away and want to take down AIM. They end up running into the Avengers. Story five details Dr. Strange learning of some sort of machine that could break the universe. The final story shows us a world where the Avengers lost the upcoming battle against Ultron and the planet was lorded over by the mad robot.
Thoughts: That sucked. In plain English. You know what the weird/hilarious thing is? The story I enjoyed the most was written by the writer I like the least in ALL of comics, Chris Yost! Go figure THAT out! Let's see, the Watcher story was okay, if extremely vague. The Nova story was pretty much useless since we don't know a) who Nova was, b) why the Phoenix was white, and c) why the Phoenix was rampaging through the universe destroying entire planets. The AOA story was utterly ludicrous! Why the HELL would I want to read a comic book starring THAT band of characters!? It's basically all of the worst anti-mutant racists banded together in a group! Yeah, nothing says “great read” like rooting for the racists... Idiotic... The Scarlet Spider one was, as I stated, my favorite of the bunch, as it wasn't insanely vague, and gave us some great character development in a few pages... Who knew Yost could write a story without murdering several children in the process! Color me impressed! The Coldmoon and Dragonfire/AIM story? All I'll say is that it was written by Fred Van Lente and was titled Yin and Yang... As I said, I won't be saying another thing about that story. The Dr. Strange story was probably the most confusing... It's a good thing I'm already planning on picking up the Defenders series, because if THIS story was trying to convince me to pick up the Defenders, it would have failed. Miserably. Finally, the second best story of the bunch(for me at least) was written by Brian Bendis and shows us the world if Ultron emerges victorious in his upcoming battle with the Avengers. It's Ultron. Not even Bendis can screw that up... Wait, you know what, I'll take that back because once Bendis DID screw up what should have been a slam dunk, cut and dry good Ultron story by inexplicably making Ultron female, thus destroying all of Ultron's issues with his “father” Hank Pym. But at least THIS Bendis/Ultron story looks promising. So out of 7 stories, only 3 would pass my “it didn't suck!” test, and only barely for the most part... Not good, Marvel... Not good at all...
Score: 4 out of 10.
Yep, my favorite story out of this one was written by Yost, a sure sign the Apocalypse is nigh...
wow! damn sorry this sucked so bad
ReplyDeletehey now bendis's might avengers ultron story was freaking kickass
YES that ultron model was female (a sexer verson of wasp to be exact) no disrepect but BIG DEAL!
i know u have a anti female version of chracters thing and on sinister i completly agree with you. but ultron has never had a male or female personality that ive noticed its like how there are male and female model Terminators and male and female braniacs
it was just a new model its personality didnt change really. i think ultron took that form of janet to mock pym.
like say had he took a phisicaly human form but male would it have bothered u less?
the x-terminated team thing im pretty sure will be the villians in the coming AOA mini series
ReplyDeleteso i dont think u where supose to root for them i think we are just being shown there prespective and creation in this story
Ugh... The female Ultron thing... You know, you putting it as Ultron simply trying to taunt Pym by taking on Wasp's form is probably the best explanation I've ever heard for that... But here's my thing. Ultron suffers from a classic example of the Oedipus Complex. He has always wanted to take the place of his "father" and take his "mother", the Wasp, for his own. That was why he created Jocasta, which was the writer(Roy Thomas?) giving us a direct link showing that yes, Ultron WAS suffering from the Oedipus Complex. Usually in Ultron stories, he wants to destroy humanity, but more than that he wants to prove himself superior to his "father". Becoming female really takes away from all of Ultron's earlier Oedipal leanings, as well as his father/son rivalry with Pym. Sure, making Ultron female made him "sexier" I guess, but it took away years of character development from Ultron. THAT is why I hated the whole female Ultron debacle. But if you enjoyed it that's completely cool. But I'll always like my Ultron as an angry adolescent trying to prove that he was better than his dad.
ReplyDeleteAs for the X-Terminated thing, I'm not so sure... If you look at the cover for Uncanny X-Force #19.1, it shows the X-Terminated standing side-by-side with the AOA X-Men with the evil AOA Weapon X in the background as the villain... If that's the case, I'll be rooting for Apocalypse-Wolvie, because there's no way I'll EVER root for characters like Graydon Creed, Donald Pierce or William Stryker.
Wow, thanks for saving me $6! I was skeptical even before reading this review, because I didn't see myself buying basically an anthology of all those free previews I see at the comic shop. I think I'll use the $6 towards buying up some Fear Itself tie-ins I didn't read (looking hard at youth in revolt and thunderbolts).
ReplyDeleteAgree this overall issue sucked, the only stuff I liked was the cover for
ReplyDeleteUncanny X force 19.1
And I am almost sure I will be rooting for Wolvie/Apocalypse here.
Not for the character you hate (barely know any of them) just Because Wolvie/Apocalypse looks great!
No problem, TRobb! If only I had the smarts to put this issue down at the comic shop! :P Oh, and for what it's worth, I'd STRONGLY recommend the Youth In Revolt mini over the T-Bolts Fear tie-ins... But then I am a HUGE sucker for the characters that were in Youth In Revolt, so take that into account.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised at how bad this one was, Alien... For that price, I was hoping for better than what we got here. As for Weapon X/Apocalypse, that should be a pretty awesome mini-series, although as I said, I'm not very fond of the X-Terminated characters...
Hey was it just me or was that guy with the firey powers from the Ying/Yang story look a little like an Asian Nathan Gray (X-man)?
ReplyDeleteYes, he did, which I really don't get, Anonymous... Especially since Nate is back in the Marvel U now. Why not give the new character a unique look so people don't confuse him for Nate?
ReplyDeleteAlso those ying/yangs have the same exact powers as that girl who was on gen hope, EXCEPT THERES TWO OF THEM!
ReplyDeletejust per curiosity
ReplyDeleteHow many spider-powered are around the marvel Universe?
HA! I didn't even think about that, Anonymous! So Van Lente was just stealing from every character he could think of when he created these two I see... Yeah, that'll get people interested in them! :P
ReplyDeleteHmm... Right now there's Peter and Kaine who have the pure spider-powers. Then I think it depends on what you'd consider spider-powers... There's Spider-Woman, Madame Web, Spider-Girl, Venom and Carnage, who all have some sort of spider-related powers. I could be missing a few, and some(Carnage) may not even belong on that list depending on the way you look at things, but off the top of my head that's who I'd go with.
I think that is all the people with spider powers. That Kraven mini-series seems to sort them all out since they were hunting all the spiders. I don't think Carnage counts although Venom seems to be thrown in the mix (I am assuming because he was attached to Peter Parker).
ReplyDeleteI am on the fence about X-terminated. In theory they seem to be hunting down all those who were with Apocalypse but it is weird to make a team of all the bigots (if they aren't bigots in this world it is pretty random that they all met up). If they work with the X-men like the cover suggests then I'm sure I'll hate it. I rather them be a team with questionable allegiance to any side but their own.
Scarlet Spider was pretty good and I disliked most others as well. The Ultron one seemed interesting.
I was thinking the same with regards to Venom and Carnage, Jermox... I definitely see Venom(especially the current version) as having spider-powers(what with Flash's Spidey worship), but Carnage not so much. I figured I'd throw him in there just 'cause I put Venom on the list.
ReplyDelete"if they aren't bigots in this world it is pretty random that they all met up" Exactly! It makes sense that they all WOULD be anti-mutant bigots, which would be the bond that brought them together. Granted, it makes sense for there to be a big anti-mutant feeling in the AOA, but I'm sorry, there is NO way on Earth I can ever root for ANY William Stryker. Absolutely none.
Thanks guys,
ReplyDeleteso were is Anti-Venom then ?
HA! See, there's another! I didn't even think about Anti-Venom! I'd probably put him in the same category as Carnage. His powers were so different from Spidey, I'd seperate him from the rest, but as with Carnage, you could probably make a strong arguement that he could belong there as well. As an off-shoot from the Venom symbiote, which was once bonded to Peter, and therefore could be looked at as Spider-ish.
ReplyDeleteAnd are all of them related to Peter Parker in some way?
ReplyDeleteLike Kaine being his clone..
Or Spider Woman and Spider Girl obtain his powers in a way totally unrelated whit Peter Parker?
And there was another Scarlet Spider before?
Nope, as far as I can remember(and I could very well be wrong), only Kaine is "related" to Peter, being his clone and all.
ReplyDeleteSpider-Woman's origin has changed a few times, but I believe the most recent one has her not related to Peter or his powers in any way. I recall Spider-Girl getting her spider-powers through magic, but who knows, maybe that was changed by now as well! :P
Yes there was. He was a clone of Peter named Ben Reilly. For a time in the 90's Marvel had it that Ben was the real Peter and that Peter was the clone, but went back on that after vast amounts of fan outrage.
you know this comic could have been way better and actually worth the money if they had just thrown in some previews for Avengers Academy,X-Factor and other maybe some other X Titles since they're apparently gonna have a big year.
ReplyDeleteAgreed 100%. I guess the stories we got here were supposed to show us the BIG events and/or new starts, but I'd have MUCH rather seen some in depth preview stories for comics and characters that I actually like/care about. Maybe if Marvel ever does another one of these types of books they'll keep that in mind.
ReplyDeleteOMG, I had such high hopes for this issue. I waited to read it until I got through "Thanos Imperative," and now that I waited I'm left thinking, "WTF?" As you said, the Scarlet Spider story is clearly the best of the bunch, followed by the Ultron one. I thought the X-Terminated one was just a little OTT. I mean, from the father who inexplicably hates humans to the core of his being to the kid getting the puppy in the box while his parents lie dead in the next room, it was just a little too "LOOK HOW BLEAK EVERYTHING IS!" for me. The Dr. Strange one was almost incomprehensible and the Asian Wonder Twins one is just so obviously a throw-away story. I mean, do we really believe they're ever going to play a major role in the Marvel Universe? Highly doubtful. In the end, the only real reason I wanted to read this issue was Nova, and we don't even get any confirmation it's Rich here. [Sigh.] I feel like a bully just stole my $5.99 of lunch money.
ReplyDeleteAh, JW... I wish I could have saved you from picking this comic up! This was one of the most disappointing things I've ever plunked $6 down for! Seriously, this comic actually got me LESS interested in several of the stories in it(Nova, AOA X-Force and Defenders)!
ReplyDelete