Defenders #4

Two final reviews for the week and ol' X is officially done with his new comic pile! So a hearty huzzah to that news! Now, two things. Today was the first day I've had off from work in 6 days(which included the always fun 11 hour shift...). On top of that, it was the first day I was able to play Mass Effect 3, which arrived on Saturday, but remained sadly unplayed until today. So it should go without saying that my heart really isn't in these two reviews tonight. On the plus side, I read these books a few nights ago, so I already have the scores marked down, but the reviews? Expect some of my shoddiest work... And that's REALLY saying something!

Defenders #4:

Summary: So Dr. Strange and the Defenders have somehow moved that mystery machine AND the weird Prester guarding it to the Sanctum Sanctorum... Don't ask me how, I haven't a clue. After sending the Defenders away, Strange gets a visit from the college-aged woman he slept with a few issues back. The woman, Molly, wanted to see Strange again(he's older and interesting!!), but chickens out and asks to study a magic book instead. Strange lends her the book, and while looking it over at a coffee shop, Molly is confronted by a good-looking, evil mage who slips a magic homing beacon into the book, because New York City is full of those types... Really, I grew up there, so I'd know! Meanwhile, Strange sits in front of the mystery machine and meditates, which somehow leads to him bringing some former love of his named Martha back to life. Strange and Martha spend the day together until Martha finally asks the obvious question, what had happened to her. Strange tells her she had died, at which time Molly returns to the Sanctum with the book, awkwardly meeting Martha in the process. Molly hands the book over and rushes away embarrassed. Later on that night, the evil, good-looking mage emerges from the book as an astral projection and blackmails Strange into allowing him one hour, alone, with Strange's magical possessions. Strange is forced to agree to the deal since saying no would lead to the evil mage telling the authorities that there was more to Strange than meets the eye... Why would somebody who's an Avenger AND Defender, PLUS has magical mind manipulating abilities even care about that!? To deal with this, Strange takes Martha to Molly, and has Molly take Martha away to live out her life away from Strange's... well, strangeness... Yeah, sure, have your booty-call take care of your lover... Stay classy, Strange... From there, Strange uses his own formidable magics to trap the mage when he stopped by at the anointed time, ending his threat. This issue ends with Namor getting in touch with Strange after finding some sort of undersea weirdness.

Thoughts: See, told ya, sucky review. After I finished this issue off a few nights back, a made a notation next to the score I gave it. The notation simply read, “Okay-ish, but worth keeping?” That's a really good question, because this issue WAS okay, but I don't know if simply “okay” is enough for me to continue buying issues of this series at $4 a pop... At $3? Sure, it's worth it. But $4? I don't know... I think we're getting close to me dropping this series in favor of one of Marvel's other $4 books(Incredible Hulk, X-Men, etc), but only time, and my mercurial mood swings, will tell.

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.

Gotcha, sucka!!