Hey all, X here to finish this week off with a BotR post! Last week I was joined by my king, the illustrious JT. This week? This week I'm not sure if JT is here or not... So yeah... If he does decide to add a few comics, you'll know it's him by the blue text. If he doesn't decide to join in? Then just ignore everything I just typed... Okay, with that taken care of, let's get into it.
Fantastic Four #6AU: This was the obligatory Age of Ultron tie-in issue. Now, I'm sure you're wondering, "But X, aren't the F4 doing the whole Swiss Family Robinson thing? How are they involved in this event?!" To that I respond, "Marvel wants money!!! And event crossovers equal cash!" Basically, Black Panther somehow contacts Reed through space and time and tells him that Ultron had attacked the Earth. The F4 leave the kids behind and return to Earth, where they are killed one by one by Ultron's droids. Only Sue survives, and she ends up with the resistance. I actually enjoyed this issue. But I think it was the Ultron fan in me who enjoyed this and not really the F4 fan. I can't help but enjoy a comic that sees Ultron masquerade as Dr. Doom, and then proceed to kill the Thing. Yeah, there were some holes and the F4 being a part of this event felt a bit forced, but still, I liked it. Score: 8 out of 10.
Teen Titans #18: Ah Scott Lobdell... This issue opens with five pages of Tim Drake crying over Damian Wayne's death. He literally cried for FIVE straight pages! I don't know when Tim and Damian became so close, but there ya go. From there, Tim heads to the Titans and complains about them not doing enough to protect teenage heroes. To that end, Tim and the Titans attack the Suicide Squad since Amanda Waller had captured a teenager with powers. But wait, it turns out Waller did no such thing, and that Tim only went after the Squad to make a mysterious deal with Waller. And then Trigon flew through the sky on a three-headed horse. Really! I don't even know what to make of this series anymore... Last issue Tim was possessed by Raven and making out with his female teammates left and right. This issue Tim wasn't possessed by Raven... Maybe... Unless he was when he was with Waller... Possibly... So by this point, I have NO clue as to whether Tim is possessed or not... But Trigon DID fly around on a three headed horse. Of that I am sure. Score: 6 out of 10.
I, Vampire #18: This was the penultimate issue of this series. All I can really say about this is that it looks like Tig finally died(YAY!!!) and Mary came back from the dead. Again. This issue just flat-out didn't click for me. Of course it didn't help that Constantine-lite was hanging around. So yeah, sadly, I didn't enjoy this one. Still, I'll miss this series when it's gone, because the early issues were great. Score: 4 out of 10.
Thunderbolts #7: The "team"(and I use that term as loosely as possible) are now on-board a submarine. Flash wants to mutiny against Rulk because Rulk hasn't been forthcoming with information... Or something. Rulk beats everybody up, and then tells them that he had been using them to clean up areas where there were gamma bombs. But wait! It turns out Rulk was wrong and that somebody has been creating gamma batteries instead of bombs. Meh. I'm giving this series two more issues, if it doesn't improve? I'm done. Score: 4 1/2 out of 10.
A+X #6: Two stories in this comic, as usual. The first one stars Wolverine and Captain Marvel. They're playing poker, they argue a bit, a villain attacks, but ends up joining the game. The second story gives us Thing and Gambit beating the Yancy Street gang in poker... Yup, two stories, two tales about poker... And yes, that is indeed very weird. I enjoyed the Wolvie/Marvel story more out of the two, but I can't say I'd recommend either story unless you're a hardcore fan of the four characters here. Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.
FF #5: Hey look, it's another FF comic! In the same post! Madness!! This comic has nothing to do with the Age of Ultron storyline, which is especially weird, since it would make more sense for this team to deal with Ultron since they're still on Earth and all... Anyway, Old Torch goes crazy after some guy touches his coat and tries to torch a neighborhood. Scott and the gang end up defeating him and let Herbie watch over him. Alex heads to Latveria to seemingly warn Doom of Scott's plans. The reveal at the end shows us that Medusa is secretly working with Wizard... Damn it! This is a series that I would drop without a second thought... If it would get bad! Instead, I find myself enjoying this series, when I know I shouldn't! If I'm being honest, I can see myself dropping F4 before I drop this title... How weird is that! Score: 8 out of 10.
Hey crew, JT here with two reviews for the BOTR post so we can end things on a good note. So here are my reviews for Scarlet Spidey and Morbius, The Living Vampire.
Scarlet Spider #15: This issue featured Aracely running from Los Lobos, but she's eventually caught by the sibling Werewolves. Before they can do anything, a blood thirsty, six eyed, freaky looking Kaine shows up and engages Los Lobos. Kaine manages to rip out the brother's eye, and stabs him through the chest with his... spider...leg or whatever their called. He then pulls a Superboy Prime and rips the Werewolves arm off, causing the sister to pick up her brother and run. Kaine goes to attack Aracely but she somehow connects with him, through her powers and I guess Kaine's memories, and he sheds his horrible skin and is himself again, with a long beard and shaggy hair. From there, Aracely helps Kaine get back to his normal self by cutting his hair, going to get his tattoos redone since they've been removed due to his full body healing, and he gets back to his life, but now he knows he doesn't have to wonder if he's a monster, he definitely is. From there we see Julia Carpenter, still in her coma, whisper Kaine's name, as well as see someone else saying The Culling will soon began. No one tell Marvel that DC did a story called The Culling like a year ago. The issue comes to a close with Aracely being possessed and the Male Werewolf being killed by some old dude with a beard. (This review was way longer than I expected.) So basically, this entire story was pointless, everything is how it was before except now Kaine has given into The Other, knows he's a monster...for now, and Aracely is possessed. Score: 4/10
Morbius The Living Vampire #3: In the last issue we saw Morbius bite a chunk out of Noah the gangster's neck. He's immediately shot at but dodges the bullets until Noah's hideous girlfriend shoots Morbius in the neck. Once Morbius wakes up from...being shot in the neck, she tells Morbius to use his doctor skills to save her boyfriend or she's going to torture Morbius and kill his friends, a girl by the name of Becky, and the kid she babysits, Henry. Morbius agrees to help and fights his blood lust to do so, but Noah wakes up halfway through and attacks, so Morbius slams him down and kills him in the process. Oops! The issue ends with Noah's ugly girlfriend entering the room to see Noah dead then yelling that Morbius and his friends are dead!!!! Well...this issue was not as strong as the first two. Nothing happened in this issue either really, it was kind of filler. Morbius bit a chunk out of a dude's neck in the last issue, he tried to save him and he died in this one. So you literally could've skipped this issue if issue two ends with Morbius biting Noah and issue four starts with Noah being dead. So... yeah. Score: 3/10
And that's it for us, thanks for dropping by the check out the best of the rest post for this week, and be sure to check out my review tomorrow for Injustice: Gods Among Us #3. On behalf of my buddy X, and myself of course, this is JT, signing off!
Dude, seriously, WTF with "Scarlet Spider?" Not only was the Other storyline completely absurd since, like you said, Kaine just zipped off that skin like it was a Halloween costume, but I thought we resolved the "monster" problem with Donald's talk with him during the Christmas issue. Plus, in part because I'm going through old comics, I recognized the Lobos from some old issues of "Spectacular Spider-Man" and "Web of Spider-Man." But, there, Esme was Eduardo's lover, not his sister, according to Wikipedia. So, unless Yost is going to a really icky place, he seems to have his continuity wrong. Ugh. What an effing mess this whole arc was. I'm hoping we can just pretend that it didn't happen. (I'm passed the point of wishing he'd stopped bitching about being a monster, since that's clearly never going to happen.)
ReplyDeleteI was so happy JT decided to tackle the Scarlet Spider issue, because I didn't want anything to do with it after putting it down! It was awful!! I too am hoping we can just put this arc behind us and pretend it never happened, JW... Terrible...
DeleteI had no idea the Lobos were a thing before this issue! And apparently, neither did Yost! :D
Seriously, dude, what an effing mess.
DeleteThe Lobos were part of the "Gang War" storyline that ran through those titles for a while in the late 80s or early 90s. I don't remember them vividly, but I'm in the Ws in scanning in my comics into Comics Collector so they were brought to the front of my mind! You should read the Wiki entry, though, if you get a chance. It has a surprising Gloria Grant development that I had totally forgotten about.
Wow, check you out making progress with your collection! I'm currently stalled... There are just so many comics laying around, and my filing system is SO bad that I've been avoiding finishing things off... What I really need is to just take a day and concentrate solely on ordering, filing and scanning my books.
DeleteI don't think I've ever read those comics... But now I want to! I was already planning on filling in the holes to my Maximum Carnage books(I loved those as a kid!), so I may check the Gang War stuff out as well.
Seriously, it's probably taken six months. I'm pretty anal-retentive about organization (which probably comes to a shock to no one!), so they were already in order. But, it's pretty awesome to know exactly how many comics I have with Spider-Man in them!
DeleteAlso, I meant to tell you, but I've been reading some back issues that I got a few years ago but haven't gotten a chance to read. I missed everything between "Messiah Complex" and "Second Coming," so I'm starting there. I thought "Divided We/He Stand(s)" and its tie-ins was pretty amazing and "Manifest Destiny" is possibly even better. Great stuff. It's also weird seeing Scott so happy. Man, things go down hill fast!