Avengers #4

Two reviews on tap for tonight.  The first one is a book that is hanging on to my pull list by an absolute thread...  If I give this comic a score under a 6?  I'll be dropping it next week.  Plain and simple.

Avengers #4:

Summary: *sigh* The Avengers are still dealing with the "origin bombs" The Father/Ex Nihilo/whatever the all powerful, god-like entity Jonathan Hickman ALWAYS has to add to his stories, attacked the Earth with in issue #1.  Hyperion manages to puzzle out that there was a sixth impact sight from the "origin bombs", in the Savage Land.  A group of Avengers head there and find out that AIM was already there.  AIM has fooled around with the cocoon that was created by the "origin bomb" and unleash some sort of creature which attacks.  The Avengers take the creature down and apprehend AIM, and leave Hyperion behind to watch the cocoon...  I guess...  I honestly don't know, nor care by this point.  This one ends with AIM revealing that there had been a seventh "origin bomb" crash site(naturally), a site only AIM knew about.

Thoughts: This issue also had Hyperion's origin, but it's basically a retake on that mess Hickman did in the Ultimates, he even uses the SAME terminology, Father and Children and junk.  As for this issue?  I'm done. I'm not going to spend $4 on a comic written in gibberish.  I was honestly hoping that with Bendis gone we'd actually see the Avengers fighting super-villains again.  Not Norman Osborn and random street level villains. Instead, Hickman has decided to go uber-sci-fi, with "origin bombs", weird cocoons, ANOTHER Father and his Children taking over the world(although to his credit, for ONCE he didn't use Reed Richards!), in other words, the same old nonsense.  So yeah, end of the line for me...  And think about this, I suffered though YEARS of Bendis and never dropped Avengers.  In 4 issues, I'd say Hickman is WORSE than Bendis!  Next week I'll switch this title with Avengers Assemble, and add Secret Avengers(once the Marvel Now! reboot begins).  At least then I'll be able to read some REAL Avengers stories again...

Score: 4 out of 10.

Is there some unwritten law somewhere that says Jonathan Hickman MUST have gibberish in everything he writes?!

Avengers #3

Second(of three) reviews tonight is going to be Avengers.  I have not been a fan of this series at all thus far, but hope springs eternal, and I'm optimistic this will be the issue that draws me in...  I mean, it has to!  I don't want to drop an Avengers title from my pull list!!

Avengers #3

Summary: Stuff happened   The end.......  No?  That won't do?  Trust me, it's better that I stick with that instead of trying to sift through the mess that was this comic...  *sigh*  Fine...  I'll give it a shot.  Ex Nihilo manages to create life on Mars, but his life only speaks in gibberish...  Nihilo is pleased because that was unexpected...  Yeah...  Anyway, Cap and his AVENGERS ARMY arrive and attack Nihilo and his group of weirdos.  Even with an AVENGERS ARMY at his side, Cap sees that Nihilo and his crew were proving to be too tough for him.  Luckily for the AVENGERS ARMY, one of them is Captain Universe, and Nihilo and his weirdos seem to recognize her as... Their god?  The universe?  I don't know, but something.  Oh yeah, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Capt. Universe was randomly talking about pies the whole time.  So yeah, all of the weirdos agree to stop fighting except for Aleph, who didn't think Capt. Universe was their god/creator/universe/whatever.  Capt. Universe disintegrates Aleph to end his trouble.  With that, Nihilo agrees to stop destroying/creating on inhabited worlds and decides to stay on Mars.  As for the Avengers, they go back to Earth.

Thoughts: Wow, it's finally happened.  Jonathan Hickman has officially out-crazied Grant Morrison.  Compared to Hickman, Morrison's work is a piece of cake to understand...  There's a surefire way for me to tell I'm not enjoying a comic book...  After a few pages, usually by the halfway point, I'll just start skipping dialogue and looking at pictures in an attempt to decipher the story.  This issue had me doing that about two pages in...  The villains were uninteresting and confusing, the story was bizarre  and the ending came out of nowhere.  Hickman has his fans, which is good.  I, however, am definitely not one of them.

Score: 2 out of 10.

Yeah sure, pies...  Makes about as much sense as anything else in this mess...

Avengers #1

So, Jonathan Hickman...  Truth be told, I dropped the Fantastic Four and Ultimates comics because I just couldn't take his Morrison-esque writing style.  Hopefully him getting away from Reed Richards who seems to be a huge crutch for Hickman) will make this a more enjoyable read for me.

Avengers #1

Summary: Some random villain named Ex Nihilo decides to make Mars a lush planet with new lifeforms.  He's joined by some woman named Abyss and a robot named Aleph.  Before starting his terraforming of Mars, he randomly blasts Earth with some terraforming bombs, which naturally brings the Avengers(the movie version in this case) to Mars.  The villains easily defeat the Avengers and Ex Nihilo drops Captain America back on Earth, just because, I guess.  Cap, recalling an earlier conversation with Iron Man about making the Avengers larger, puts out a call to all sorts of obscure heroes because nowadays everybody gets to be an Avenger.  And a slew of random characters show up answering Cap's call, ending this one.

Thoughts:  Well, this was what I feared...  Hickman seems like he wants to be Grant Morrison, but he actually makes LESS sense than Morrison!!!  It's awful.  After reading this issue, I'll be dropping new Avengers from my pull list(before it even releases!) and will put the series on a VERY short leash.  I have a terrible feeling within a few months the unthinkable will happen and I'll be longing for the simpler days of Bendis as the Avengers writer...  Naturally, if you were a fan of Hickman's work on Fantastic Four and FF, I have no doubt you'll enjoy this, because he's moving in the same direction here.  If not?  Good luck...

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.

Avengers Assemble!

The Best of the Rest! September 19th edition.

So this was supposed to be the spot I posted my third and final review of the week, with JT closing out the comic week tomorrow with his third review.  But you see, I ended up posting my first review on Wednesday and throwing the whole schedule out of whack(cue JT saying something negative about me...).  Since I've already posted my three reviews for the week, and don't want to leave an empty day(I won't be the first one to do that, JT will!), how's about I cobble together a quick post about ALL of the comics I read this week!  Yeah, that'll work!  Since I didn't really read most of these books with the idea of reviewing them in mind, I don't have any number scores for them...  Instead, I'll use the good old thumbs up/thumbs in the middle/thumbs down system.  What the HELL is that, you ask?  Thumbs up means a comic scored somewhere in the 8 to 10 range, in other words, a good comic.  Thumbs in the middle would be around 5 to 7 1/2, or an okay to meh comic.  Thumbs down?  You guessed it, a comic that falls in the sub-5 range, you know, a bad comic.  I don't really know why I felt the need to explain that...  Oh no, I'm in one of those moods where I can't stop writing!  I'd better get to the meat of this post lest this intro goes on forever!!!

Let's see, we'll get started with Red Hood and the Outlaws #0...  JT pretty much summed up my feelings for this one with his review, so I really don't have all that much to say here...  I will say this though...  If not for the idiotic Joker reveal, I probably would have given this comic a thumbs in the middle.  As it is, it gets a thumbs down and likes it.

Avengers #30 was your basic Bendis/Avengers comic book.  Spider-Woman and Hawkeye discussed their relationship while fighting Mr. Negative's goons...  It was as exciting as it sounds.  Honestly, I wasn't sure what the hell Bendis was going for here, since Hawkeye hadn't actually done anything to wrong Spider-Woman...  Basically she was pissed that Hawkeye and the Scarlet Witch MAY have unresolved feelings for each other...  Yeah..  If you like bad soap opera-esque comic books then THIS is the comic book for you!  For me, it was a thumbs in the middle, mainly because it(kind of) focused on Hawkeye, no matter how thin the story was.

Ah, finally a good one!  Daredevil #18 was probably the best comic I've read this week...  No, scratch that, it WAS the best comic I read this week, and if I was giving out scores this one would very likely get a perfect score.  Seriously, this issue was fantastic.  Mark Waid is(unsurprisingly) crafting a wonderful story here, as this issue actually makes the reader doubt DD's sanity.  The entire series has been seemingly building towards this storyline, and I have to say, this issue would be a great jumping on point for new readers...  Just sayin'...  Oh yeah, thumbs WAY up.

Next up is Dark Avengers #181.  All I can really say about this comic is that it happened...  I think I've reached the point now where I just want the Bad Bolts to return to the present and the Dark Avengers/Thunderbolts/whatever they're called to finish their mission.  Thumbs in the middle.

Rolling along it's Mighty Thor #20!  I don't know why I added an exclamation point to that, nor why I'm thinking out loud, but let's go with it...  This was another really good issue in the Everything Burns storyline(I really love that title, btw).  Asgardia is still being hammered by Surtur's forces and Thor is still down and out. However, there was a slight glimmer of hope for us Kid Loki fans, as this issue kind of makes you wonder if Loki betrayed Thor, as it seemed in the prior part of this storyline, or if Loki is actually planning on saving his brother.  I'll go thumbs up for this issue and fingers crossed on Kid Loki not going full blown villain.

New Mutants #49 had Nate Grey in it...  That's pretty much the only positive thing I can say about it...  Well, that and the fact that this issue ended the whole Evil Doug Ramsay from the future story.  I've never cared for Doug no matter how much Marvel tries to show he's more than a guy with sucky powers.  This story did nothing to change my opinion of Doug.  Thumbs down...  Sorry Nate...

Ultimates #15 was a comic I seriously considered giving a full review to, mainly due to the fact that it was getting mainstream press attention.  But as you can see, I decided against that course of action...  So yeah, anyway, this comic.  I have to admit that I enjoyed this one.  I've been enjoying the direction the Ultimate Marvel U has been going for a while now, and this was no exception.  This issue, especially in the way it was told, kind of perfectly led to the whole, "Captain America is the president now!" thing.  It didn't seem forced or anything, which was something I was afraid of.  And I can actually see Cap, especially the Ultimate version, ESPECIALLY considering the way things have been going in the Ultimate U, deciding to become the president.  It'll be very interesting to see how this experiment works out going forward.  For this issue though?  Thumbs up.

Oh god...  Not THIS comic...  Ugh, it's Venom #25...  I'm actually surprised, horrified and yes, a bit impressed at how quickly Cullen Bunn took this series from a book I always look forward to reading, to something I barely want to open...  Why would you want to add a supernatural element to this series?!  Who sat there and thought, "You know what this series is missing?  DEMONS!!!"  This is kind of like the mess that Scott Lobdell made out of Red Hood and the Outlaws, in that you take the lead character and put them in a situation that makes no sense...  I don't get why Daimon Hellstrom was used in this mess, I don't get why a battle between the Hell Lords is taking place in this series, I don't get any of it!  Hopefully things straighten out with the upcoming Minimum Carnage storyline...  Thumbs down.

And finally we arrive at X-Factor #244.  This was, as usual, a good, solid issue of this series.  It wasn't as good as some of the prior issues, but it was solid.  I will say this though...  I'm very curious to see where Peter David is going with this story...  He's really breaking the team apart here, it'll be interesting to see how things shake out and who's left standing.  Thumbs in the middle.

Sweet, I'm done!  That means I can go back to playing Borderlands 2!  Huzzah for me!  Until... Um, whenever the hell my next post is supposed to be, X out!

Avengers #26

Yup, it's time for Bendis and his Avengers madness... All I can really hope at this point is that I can get through this comic with my sanity intact...

Avengers #26(AvX x-over):

Story Points:
-The Space Avengers are bummed that Beast's anti-Phoenix device didn't end the threat of the Phoenix and that the space bird was still headed towards Earth.
-However, Protector realizes that Thor's hammer managed to absorb some of the Phoenix's powers, which ends up leading to a Plan B for the space team...
-Thor heads out against the Phoenix, ALONE, and attacks it with his hammer.
-Shockingly, he actually harms the Phoenix to the point of it retreating, but is absolutely thrashed in the process...
-But with the retreat of the Phoenix the Space Avengers at least have SOMETHING to hang their collective hats on, as well as some new data collected from the battle between Thor and the Phoenix.
-Unfortunately, Protector turns on the team, proclaiming that he had to take all of the Avengers data on the Phoenix and send it to the Supreme Intelligence, who he was secretly working for.

Thoughts: Wait, did my eyes deceive me, or was Bendis's name on the cover of this comic!? This was EASILY one of the best Avengers issues he's written since the early issues of this series(say issues #1-6 or so). I mean wow, Bendis didn't do all of the things I usually complain about in this one... The dialogue WASN'T out of control, and DIDN'T take away from the artwork, the story DID make sense, and none of the characters annoyed me with their constant chattering... Maybe THIS is the team of Avengers Bendis should stick to writing, because he did a fantastic job!

Score: 9 out of 10.

Avengers #25

We'll close out the night with one more AvX crossover comic. This one comes from the mind of Bendis, so who knows what I'm in store for... Say what you will about Bendis, but he usually has a big problem trying to coordinate his regular books with event books, so I'm not feeling optimistic going into this one...

Avengers #25(AvX tie-in):

Summary: This is pretty much a flashback issue from before the Avengers invaded Crazy Mutie Island. Bendis DOES give us a splash page from the battle on the Island, thus explaining how this is an AvX x-over issue, I guess... Anyway, Captain America is feeling glum due to the way things have been going down lately. Thor stops by to lift Cap's spirits, and Cap gets even better news when Protector shows up and tells Cap where a major AIM base was located. Cap assembles the Avengers and heads to the AIM base, bringing the criminals down, and finally giving Cap a win after a string of embarrassing losses. This issue ends with Protector being told by the Supreme Intelligence(who sprouted an extra set of eyes specially for this issue) that he was to intercept and contain the Phoenix Force, and was to eliminate anybody who got in his way of doing so.

Thoughts: I'd have given this issue a full half-point higher if Norman Osborn didn't appear here! Seriously, I can't even remember the last Avengers book Osborn DIDN'T appear in! Sure, it wasn't actually Osborn, just Osborn talking on TV, but goddamn it, enough is enough Bendis!! NO MORE OSBORN!! Anyway, this wasn't an awful issue. It shouldn't have been labeled an AvX tie-in, because it barely tied into that event, but what can ya do? The end with the Supreme Intelligence talking to Noh-Varr was kind of interesting, if only because Noh-Varr(which is a better name than Protector...), to my knowledge, hasn't had any dealings with THIS dimension's Intelligence. The Intelligence he dealt with was from his dimension. Besides that, I thought the Inhumans led the Kree now, NOT the Intelligence... Eh, I'm not gonna thing too hard about it, because it'll just give me a headache... Bottom line, this wasn't a very good comic, but it wasn't a horrible comic, and sadly, that's about as good as it can get for this series.

Score: 6 out of 10.

I love that battle cry... It had better be in the movie...

Avengers #24.1

Okay, we're going to start the night off with a slight change of plans... The first comic I'll be reading/reviewing is going to be Avengers #24.1. Next I'll be checking out Avengers vs X-Men #0. And that'll do it for tonight. My hours got switched around at work for tomorrow, and as it is now, I have to be in there really early, which means no Daken review tonight, plus the three comics I plan on reviewing tomorrow night(Daken, Morning Glories and X-Men Legacy) will probably wind up being posted later than usual... Okay, with the housekeeping taken care of, let's dig into tonight's books.

Avengers #24.1:

Summary: Finally having a few moments of downtime after the Norman Osborn Saga, Vision asks Iron Man why She-Hulk “killed” him during Avengers Disassembled. Iron Man hedges and haws for a bit before revealing that the Scarlet Witch(Vision's one-time wife) had been responsible for She-Hulk's actions as well as disassembling the Avengers and decimating the mutant population... Yes, Bendis obviously hates Wanda... With this knowledge, Vision heads to She-Hulk and She-Hulk apologizes profusely for what she did to Vision, with Vision accepting the apology. From there Vision heads to Crazy Mutie Island(Utopia) and picks a fight with Magneto(!), since Vision felt most of the problems in Wanda's life were due to Magneto. The two argue and threaten each other for a bit, before the two come to a sort of truce, since Mags felt that Wanda's only real shot at happiness may just come from Vision. However, pissed by the way Vision spoke to him, Mags literally throws Vision from Crazy Mutie Island back to San Fransisco just to show who had the real power between the two of them. Vision returns to Avengers Mansion where he's scolded by Captain America for starting trouble on Crazy Mutie Island. Vision offers to quit the team, but Cap tells him that he understood what Vision was going through and this one ends with Cap comforting Vision.

Thoughts: Not bad. This issue was definitely a HUGE step in the right direction for this series, especially in light of what we had been getting for the past several issues. I mean it wasn't fantastic or anything, but it was a good read. Not only that, but Bendis managed to keep his dialogue(mainly) under control. Sure, there were a few moments of unnecessary dialogue(Magneto's scene and Cap's weird conversation with Hawkeye and Spider-Woman being two examples), but for the most part this was a highly readable comic. So hey, it looks like we're starting this week off on a high.

Score: 7 out of 10.

It's time to take out the trash!

Avengers #24

Well, this can't be any worse than the last review, now can it? Oh wait, it's Norman Osborn and Brian Bendis... Of course it can be worse...

Avengers #24:

Summary: So Norman Osborn is a Super-Adaptoid now... Sure, why not? He goes around absorbing the Avengers powers, until Iron Man figures that Osborn would have some difficulty adapting to Protector's alien physiology. This proves true, and with Osborn's system a mess due to trying unsuccessfully to adapt to a Kree, the rest of the Avengers grab a hold of him, overloading his adaptoid-ability and ending the threat of Norman Osborn... After a good 3 years... In the aftermath, Osborn is in a coma, the president wants Captain America to make a speech to calm the public down, and Madame Hydra still has many of Osborn's HAMMER forces working for her under the Hydra banner.

Thoughts: That's about as much time as I plan on spending on this one. If I never see Norman Osborn again, it'll be too soon. That's how terribly Bendis has written both Osborn AND this story. To end this review on a positive, I'm going to say that I'm happy this storyline is over.

Score: 4 1/2 out of 10.

Yup...

Avengers #217 (March 1982)

One final Retro-Review before I get a sweet, sweet pile of new comic books after work tomorrow. Having taken a cursory look at what's coming out this week earlier tonight, I couldn't be more psyched. But that's for tomorrow and New Comic Day. Tonight we take a trip in the way-back machine to 1982 to read some classic Avengers. Onward!

Avengers #217:

Summary: This issue kicks off with the Avengers(who seem to only consist of Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and Wasp at this point) heading to Avengers Mansion for a meeting. Iron Man arrives first and is told by Jarvis that some goof in armor named the Mechano-Marauder was demanding the Avengers head outside to face him. Iron Man decides to deal with the Marauder himself and the “battle”(if you even want to call it that) is pretty damn funny with Iron Man basically toying with the Marauder while the other Avengers show up for the meeting, greet Iron Man and pay practically NO attention to the Marauder. After having his fun, Iron Man takes the Marauder down and the Marauder tells Iron Man that the reason he challenged the Avengers was because he wanted to look like a somebody. Interestingly enough, this isn't the last time the Marauder pops up, as the man in the armor is Fabian Stankowicz, who attempts to menace the Avengers every now and then, before taking Cap up on a job offer and joining the Avengers staff for a time. Anyway, the Avengers have their meeting at which time Wasp asks to be named Chairperson, since Cap had held the position for such a long time. The other three Avengers have some reservations(mainly that Wasp was still hurting over her VERY recent divorce from Hank Pym), but vote her in unanimously. From there we head to a disheveled and downtrodden Hank Pym, who is wandering the streets of New York, with his life a mess of his own making. Pym tries to call Stark Enterprises to talk to Tony Stark, but gets hung up on by an inexperienced receptionist. From there Pym heads to a bar where he is met by the villainous Egghead. Egghead claims that he wanted to go straight, and says he had created an artificial arm for his niece, Trish Starr. Egghead didn't want to take the arm to the girl himself since she despised Egghead, and asks Pym to do it for him. Egghead practically begs and offers Pym a half million dollars to do this, so Pym agrees to help Egghead out. After examining the arm and finding no threats, Pym takes the arm to Trish and puts it on her, at which point Trish becomes a mental slave to Egghead... Oh poor Pym... Egghead explains that he knew Pym would examine the arm, so he was controlling it by remote control, which is why Pym didn't find anything awry. Egghead then tells Pym that he would force the arm to self-destruct if Pym didn't go to Nebraska and steal a mess of adamantium so Egghead could create an army of invincible robots. Pym reluctantly does as he's asked and steals the adamantium, loading it up in a truck. While driving away with the Egghead possessed Trish, Pym is confronted by an Avengers Quinjet. Pym is pleased to see his former allies, until Egghead tells Pym to defeat his four allies, lest Egghead detonates the arm and kills Trish. Pym attacks the surprised quartet of Avengers, and actually has some success at first... But seriously, Thor, Iron Man and Captain frigging America are there, so Pym eventually loses. Once he loses, Pym shouts at Iron Man to block the signal Egghead was transmitting to Trish, since that would prevent Egghead from detonating the arm. Iron Man scans the area and discovers no outside signals being beamed to Trish since Egghead disconnected from Trish the moment Pym lost. To make matters worse, Trish has no recollection of Egghead possessing her and only recalls Pym forcing her to steal the adamantium with him... Damn, Pym is screwed here! Pym pleads with the Avengers, swearing that Egghead had been behind the whole ordeal, but due to his prior behavior, the Avengers don't buy it, and this issue ends with the Avengers taking Pym into custody and sending him to prison.

Thoughts: This was a really enjoyable read. I mean we had a little bit of everything here. From the comedy portion in the beginning with Iron Man and Fabian(seriously, Cap and Iron Man's conversation WHILE IM was battling Fabian was classic!), to the parts showing just how far Pym had fallen, to Pym getting double-crossed by Egghead, to the tragic end with Pym, this was a strong comic. Yeah, there were a few things that bugged me(if Pym examined the arm, shouldn't he have discovered some sort of explosives since Egghead was threatening to blow it up? Plus, why didn't Pym tell Iron Man to block the incoming signal EARLIER in the battle as opposed to the end?), but overall this was a good read, one that sets the stage for later events which culminate with the death of Egghead himself. Overall? Good stuff.

Score: 8 out of 10.

There goes Pym, smacking Wasp around again...

Avengers #23

Ugh, it's time for Avengers... Or as it's become, the Norman Osborn show... I don't know what Bendis's obsession with Osborn is(is it the hair?), but if you think back to some of Bendis's earliest Marvel work(Ultimate Spidey), Osborn is a huge part of it... It's really quite weird...

Avengers #23:

Summary: Madame Hydra, on the orders of Norman “God” Osborn, offers to hand Captain America over to the US government provided the US tried the Avengers as war criminals and allowed Osborn and HAMMER to replace SHIELD(because that worked out SO well the last time). Cap actually has to tell the president not to negotiate with terrorists, at which time the president orders the army to take in Madame Hydra. However, her Hydra agents turn into Hulks and tear into the army. Meanwhile, Quake frees Spider-Woman, Iron Man, Storm & Red Hulk from their HAMMER captivity... Called it... The heroes prepare to go after God Osborn, but instead, God Osborn(brimming with superpowers) and a slew of Hand ninjas surround the heroes, ending this one.

Thoughts: There's not much for me to say here. It went down exactly as I expected. Quake, the most inexperienced Avenger(yes, she has experience, but not Avengers experience), ended up saving the more senior members of the team... It doesn't get much more clichéd than that. Besides that, Osborn is still being portrayed as a flawless god. So yeah, the Avenger fan in me didn't enjoy this comic much at all. On the plus side, it wasn't as bad as the last issue, so there's that... I guess...

Score: 4 1/2 out of 10.

*Gasp* I NEVER saw this coming!!!

Avengers #22

And we've finally made it! One more review this week, and it is the comic book I least wanted to read upon getting home from the comic book shop last Wednesday. That comic? Avengers. The cover looks cool enough, but with Brian Bendis writing this, it's always a crap-shoot as to what we're going to get... Last issue as pretty good... Let's hope this issue follows suit.

Avengers #22:

What Happened: The Avengers have been captured by Norman Osborn(yes, that Green Goblin guy) and the combined forces of Hydra, HAMMER, the Hand and AIM. The villains do a lot of taunting while Quake(who escaped capture somehow...) looks into ways to free her captive teammates. Vision is also out and about(I guess he evaded capture the same way Quake did and then split up with her?) and he confronts Norman Osborn, who was holding court on the front lawn of Avengers Mansion. Vision goes to apprehend Osborn, so Osborn throws Vision through the door of the Mansion, after Osborn presumably overrides Vision's systems... Somehow... With that, the president of the United States decides to see if he can cut a deal with Osborn... Really?!?

Thoughts: Ah yes... One of my greatest comic book pet peeves... The cover that has NOTHING to do with what happens inside the book... Besides the misleading cover, this comic book was terrible. It was truly a Bendis special. I don't even know where to start... The fact that Quake is going to ultimately be responsible for saving the Avengers is the most clichéd thing that could have possibly happened(new team member saves his/her experienced teammates), so I'm not at all surprised that's the direction Bendis is going to go here. I also don't get the argument Bendis was trying to make with the president and his cabinet... It's not like Osborn was flying around as the Green Goblin, tossing girls off bridges and was locked away with no trial or anything... He was the leader of SHIELD/HAMMER, went insane, had several US citizens murdered in a terrorist attack AND instigated a war with Asgard! Seeing as that he was the head of SHIELD/HAMMER, why the hell WOULD he get a regular trial?! If anything he'd probably get some kind of court-martial trail, or if we want to get REALLY particular, since he DID organize a terrorist act on US soil, there's probably some special set of guidelines in place for dealing with a situation like Osborn's. Besides getting me good and annoyed by Osborn's bizarre self-righteousness, this issue really didn't give us anything important. The only event of any importance was Quake finding the guy who delivered the hologram of Osborn at Avengers Mansion a few issues back and forcing that guy to take her to Osborn... Which is another oddity if you really think about it... I mean Bendis has laid this story out to make Osborn look smarter than everybody else, and then leaves this HUGE loose end dangling. Why wouldn't Osborn have the guy who delivered the hologram killed, or even better, why would that guy even know where Osborn was!? Why would Osborn have a high ranking member of his organization, one with knowledge of where Osborn's bases were, deliver the hologram? Ugh... This comic really gave me a headache...

Score: 3 out of 10.

*sigh* Yeah, yeah, yeah... Norman Osborn is GOD. We get it...

A Quick Look At... Avengers #21

And the final comic to be reviewed this week? None other than Avengers #21! Let's get to it!

Avengers #21:

What Happened: Norman “I'm NOT the Green Goblin!” Osborn's multi-pronged attack on the Avengers seems to meet with success this issue as Osborn's HAMMER forces take out Spider-Woman, Hawkeye, Storm, Red Hulk, Protector and Iron Man(who's systems were apparently hacked by Osborn's forces). This issue concludes with Osborn's forces preparing to finish off Vision, Quake and Captain America.

Thoughts: You know what? I really enjoyed this one! Sure, I COULD have gone more into detail about what happened, but what's the point? My write-up was basically what happened. Osborn's various forces downed the Avengers. Plain and simple. Sure, there were a few things that bugged me, such as Iron Man's armor getting corrupted AGAIN, but overall, I have no major complaints here. Hell, even Protector(Marvel Boy) got to look relatively good against Iron Man before he was finally defeated. Sure, this comic was entirely skippable, since nothing really changed from the prior issue in THIS issue, but hell, I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth! After months of terrible Avengers comics, this was almost like a breath of fresh air!

Score: 7 out of 10.

Best page of Bendis dialogue EVER!!!

Avengers #20

The last comic to be reviewed in my new comic pile? This week's Runt of the Litter, Avengers #20. I am SO not looking forward to reading this... I mean I was actually considering reviewing this issue using Brightest Day Rules... THAT'S how much I expect this one to suck! Seriously, I am expecting the absolute, total and complete worst here... PLEASE prove me wrong, Bendis...

Avengers #20:

What Happened: We start off by learning that it wasn't actually Norman Osborn confronting the Avengers at their press conference, but a hologram of Osborn. Red Hulk ends up getting rid of the hologram before Iron Man can trace the signal, which means the Avengers have to try to find Osborn and his HAMMER lackeys the old fashioned way. With that, Captain America splits the team into a four groups and sends them out to various old Osborn haunts. Naturally, all four locations are traps, and this issue ends with the Avengers on the defensive.

The Good: After we got past the complete stupidity of Osborn and Viper as well as Osborn and the press conference, this was a pretty solid story! The Avengers were ambushed on four fronts, all but one of the traps making pretty good sense. For a change, I'm actually looking forward to the next issue of this series.

The Bad: Iron Man being corrupted by HAMMER and/or AIM probably shouldn't have happened... I'm pretty sure Tony Stark's technology is heads and shoulders better than AIM's. The beginning of this issue was Bendis at his worst, especially the utterly pointless conversation between Osborn and Viper. No matter how much he wants it to be otherwise, I just can't take Norman Osborn as a serious threat to the Avengers... Spider-Man? Sure. But Earth's Mightiest Heroes? Nope.

The Verdict: The good here definitely outweighed the bad, so huzzah for that. This issue turned out to be a very pleasant surprise, as I was expecting a comic so bad I'd be using negative numbers to score it. Was it perfect? No, of course not, but it was WAY better than what we've been getting from this series for the past 8 months or so. So for that, I have to say I am happy. Hopefully Bendis will wrap up this Osborn story and get back to the relatively good stories we were getting back when this series relaunched.

Score: 7 out of 10.Yeah, that's kind of creepy...

Avengers #19

Wow, I really put this issue of Avengers low in my new comic pile! I mean it was #19 out of 20!! Considering how much I hated the last issue, I guess that's not a huge shock, but still, you'd think as a huge fan of the Avengers I'd have wanted to read this sooner...

Avengers #19:

What Happened: Captain America puts the Avengers together. Vision is magically repaired(I don't know what that means for the OTHER Vision). Bendis put random people on the team to prove, once again, that he doesn't care WHO'S on this team. I sped through this comic as quickly as possible because it was horrible. Oh, and Norman Osborn in street clothes crashed the Avengers big unveiling.

The Good: Um......... I don't think Wolverine or Spider-Man are on this team anymore... That's a good thing. Other than that? I got nothin'.

The Bad: This comic was so boring I literally skipped huge chunks of dialogue. The Avengers now consist of Storm(who's only there because Black Panther doesn't want to be there...), a Red Hulk, Protector(who a short time ago was an alien terrorist) and Daisy Johnson(who was added to the team seemingly on a whim by Cap!)!!! Ponder THAT for a moment.

The Verdict: Yeah, I know the Daisy Johnson marks are going to come out swinging, but at this point, I could care less. I just won't comment back to them. There is NO way Daisy Fucking Johnson should be an Avenger. None. The Avengers: The Earth's Mightiest Heroes, and THIS is the team line-up!? For real?! And I love Bendis's explanation for Vision being there. Tony Stark hit “the reset button or lever or something”... and THAT'S how Vision came back! I mean is he even trying anymore at this point?!? Maybe it's time for Bendis to drop a few titles, because his work as of late has been absolutely horrendous. This series is an absolute mess. Horrible.

Score: 0 out of 10.Blah, blah, blah, blah. I think it's time to dust off the Brightest Day scoring system for this series.

500 for 2011!

Hey, this is my 500th post for the year! Huzzah! At the rate I'm going, 600 for the year is definitely possible, and I'd say that I have a SLIGHT shot at hitting the magic 700 number. I can't imagine I'll be able to match my all-time high post number, which I set in 2009(755), but this year will definitely mark my second highest blog posting total. All in all, things have never been better here at the blog as the month of October has been my best when it comes to visitors, so thanks to all of you guys who stop by to read my madness, because let's face it, if nobody was coming here I'd have closed up shop long ago. And just so this post isn't a complete waste of your time, here are a few comic scans!

YEAH!!! You show that newspaper who's boss, Zemo!!!


What bargain is Bats talking about... The way he's standing over Jason gives me a REALLY bad feeling...


“Damn you!! Damn you all to hell!!!!!”

Avengers #18

Now this should be an interesting comic book... If I understand things correctly, this issue takes place AFTER the events of Fear Itself and deals with Captain America tasked with putting together a new squad of Avengers seeing as that two of their number(Bucky and Thor) perished during Fear Itself. Let's see what happens here!

Avengers #18:

Summary: Wow, I was sure wrong... This issue shows us that a disgruntled agent of SHIELD had been collecting samples from various superheroes, super-villains, aliens, the works, and having become disgusted with superhuman after the events of Fear Itself, hands these samples over to Norman Osborn and AIM(or HAMMER, I guess). As for the Avengers, well, they really don't DO anything. Captain America tells Tony Stark to rebuild Avengers Tower, most of the Avengers head to Avengers Mansion to live while things are being rebuilt, and Cap tells the gathered Avengers that he had to reevaluate who was going to remain an Avenger.

Thoughts: What the hell was THAT?! Seriously, the cover to this issue REALLY misled me big time! Frigging Bendis... Leave it to Brian Bendis to take something as simple as picking a new set of heroes to be on the Avengers and not even be able to do THAT in one issue!!! This comic was most definitely an example of Bad Bendis. Here's hoping we get Good Bendis next issue. Oh, and why the HELL is Luke Cage the owner of AVENGERS MANSION?!? I know Bendis loves him and all, but Avengers Mansion has been in the Stark family for YEARS! *sigh* Let me just end this post now before I go insane...

Score: 2 1/2 out of 10.On the positive side, Hawkeye was here. On the negative side, everything else.

Avengers #17

And now, it's Bendis time! Whenever I open a comic book with Bendis' name adorning the cover, I realize that I'm either going to get a pretty good story or something epically bad... Lately, with the Fear Itself stuff, things have been epically bad as Bendis just doesn't seem able to write a coherent story around Matt Fraction's Fear Itself story. So to say I'm feeling pessimistic about THIS comic is an understatement!

Avengers #17(Fear Itself tie-in):

Summary: Having just returned from Brazil, Spider-Woman, Protector(I STILL hate that name, so I'm going to call him Marvel Boy instead...), Hawkeye and Ms. Marvel arrive at the former site of the recently destroyed Avengers Tower. While the mechanized Nazi war machines were surrounding the rubble, Ms. Marvel wanted to launch a surprise attack, but Hawkeye, as the senior Avenger present, tells the rest of the Avengers to stay back and wait to see what the Nazis were up to. Before long, Sin teleports to the rubble, at which time Hawkeye ignores his own orders and shoots her through the neck with an arrow... HA! Hawkeye is awesome... Anyway, with their cover now blown, Ms. Marvel flies at Sin and begins to absorb the energy Sin was tossing her way, eventually releasing it back at Sin, staggering her for a moment. Unfortunately, Sin recovers quickly from Marvel's attack and blasts Marvel far, far away. Before Sin can turn her attention to Hawkeye, Spider-Woman and Marvel Boy, the New Avengers arrive on the scene and attack Sin and her mechanized henchmen. While Sin and her forces are distracted, Marvel Boy uses his advanced Kree technology to call up several of Tony Stark's Iron Man suits from the rubble of Avengers Tower and has the suits join in on the Avengers side. The suits don't last very long since most of them were damaged in the fall of the Tower, but the distraction did give Marvel Boy the time needed to hack into the Nazi war machines and destroy them all, wiping out Sin's Nazi army. The Avengers figure they've won and tell Sin it was over, which only causes Sin to scoff at them before teleporting away. The Avengers are pissed that Sin escaped from their grasp and swear that they'd get her yet, and this issue ends well after the battle has ended with Captain America realizing that he had a lot of work to do in putting together the Avengers... Again.

Thoughts: Hey, you can't go wrong putting two of my favorite Marvel characters in the same comic book! Hawkeye was pretty close to being written perfectly here, and I'm liking almost everything about Marvel Boy's Avengers run... Well except for that damned Protector name... Can't we just rechristen him Captain Marvel and be done with it? The original doesn't appear to be coming back anytime soon, so the name IS available. But let's get back to the story here. Bendis kept his annoying dialogue down to a minimum, although it did sprout it's ugly head from time to time. Really, did we need Spider-Woman complaining that her stuff was in Avengers Tower when it fell, or Spider-Man talking about the yummy muffins Jarvis makes? A shitload of people had been killed all over not just the country, but the world, including fellow Avenger Captain America(Bucky Barnes) and Spider-Man is thinking about muffins? Yeah, yeah, I get that he jests to lighten the mood, but his dumb remarks seemed woefully inappropriate here. And Spider-Woman's comment really blew my mind... Instead of worrying about the people who may have died due to Avengers Tower collapsing, she's worried about her STUFF?!? See, it's times like that Bendis needs to reel in the dialogue, because sometimes? Less is more. But besides those little hiccups, this WAS a pretty good comic, so I'll end this post on that positive note.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Hawkeye rules. End of discussion, case closed, 'nuff said.

Quick Hits: Invincible Iron Man #507, Venom #6, Avengers #16 & Fear Itself: The Home Front #5

Hey there X-Maniacs. I bizarrely decided to pick up Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 the other day, and I'll be damned if I'm not enjoying the hell out of it! When it first came out a few years back I was put off by the whole Civil War storyline(being an unrepentant Captain America mark and all), but after playing it I have to say, even with the Civil War junk surrounding it, it's not bad! I just finished the first playthrough today(I was anti-registration, naturally), and figure I'll start the second go-round tomorrow... Which is kinda/sorta a problem for the blog... See, if I spend my free time playing comic book based video games, I don't have that much time to read and review actual comic books... And that's why I'm going back to the old, lazy X standby, Quick Hits! I'll do 4 Marvel reviews tonight, 4 DC reviews tomorrow, and... something on Monday. I don't really know. Meh, I'll know when I get there. So there you have it. Now, on to the shoddy, half-assed “reviews”!

The Invincible Iron Man #507(Fear Itself tie-in):

What Happened: We're following two stories here, one dealing with Pepper Parks(as Rescue) running afoul one of the Hammer girls in Paris. I don't know which one. Hammer tells her armor-clad goons to attack Pepper, which causes the Serpent possessed Grey Gargoyle to wander over, squash one of Hammer's goons(causing the others to run away... HA!), and snatch Pepper and the Hammer girl. The other story deals with Tony Stark and those damned, drunken, treacherous dwarfs. One of the dwarfs betrays his fellow dwarfs(as well as Tony and Odin) by making a deal with one of the Serpent's henchmen. The dwarf gives the Serpent's henchman a piece of Tony's hair, and the Serpent's goon(after killing the dwarf), creates an evil, magical Tony golem, which promptly attacks half-drunk Tony.

Thoughts: Well, I've definitely read better issues of this series. This was the first Invincible Iron Man/Fear Itself tie-in that just didn't do it for me. The pacing seemed off, and Tony spent the whole issue hanging out with dwarfs... Seeing as that I've always hated dwarfs, that's a bit of a problem. Oh well, hopefully things will pick back up again next issue as we race towards the conclusion of Fear Itself.

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.Yeah, that's not gonna work...


Venom #6(Spider-Island tie-in):

What Happened: The Jackal sends one of his mutated spider-creatures to break through the quarantine Mayor Jameson had put Manhattan under. Venom arrives on the scene and helps Gravity and Firestar take the creature down(glad to see those two are still hanging out after the cancellation of the Young Allies series). Venom brings the creature back to base, which is exactly what it wanted. It proceeds to break out of the tube it was placed in and runs amok, at least until Flash is able to re-bond with the Venom symbiote and take the creature down. The army now locks the creature in something more secure than a tube, and discover that the creature was actually Steve Rogers?!

Thoughts: This issue definitely deserved better than a Quick Hits review. It was really good! As usual. It seems that the Spider-books are really bringing the awesome these past couple of months. The story was really good, the art matched the strong story, the dialogue was solid, and the tie-in to Spider-Island wasn't huge, but was enough to justify the “Spider-Island” logo on this issue... Unlike about 70% of the Fear Itself tie-ins that have NOTHING to do with the main Fear story. The Steve Rogers reveal at the end was kind of strange, but I figure the Jackal managed to get a hold of Steve's DNA and made a creepy spider-clone, since that's what he does.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.And Steve thought losing Bucky again was bad!


Avengers #16(Fear Itself tie-in):

What Happened: Steve Rogers(with Bucky's shield but not in Captain America garb), Sharon Carter, Maria Hill(who I hate) and Victoria Hand(who I simply dislike) head to a castle in Sweden on some intelligence stating that Sin was there... Even though we know Sin is either in Washington DC, New York City, or Dayton, Ohio... That last location still puzzles me, but whatever, the point is that Steve is apparently an idiot. Needless to say, Steve and the ladies walk into a trap and run afoul Master Man and the Exiles(the Red Skull version, not the reality hopping version). Before Steve and his women can fully defeat the Nazis, Daisy Johnson(really?!?) arrives on the scene and topples the castle. Steve is pissed that Sin hadn't been there, but come on, he should have known better!

Thoughts: My thoughts on this comic can be summed up in one word... Meh. This comic wasn't actively horrible or anything, it just wasn't necessary. Seriously, how could Steve POSSIBLY think Sin was in Sweden? Did he think that she attacked DC, headed to NYC(after a quick pit stop in Dayton), and then figured, “What the hey, I'm gonna cool my heels in my castle in Sweden for a bit, and then I'll head back to NYC to continue with the whole, 'spreading fear!!' thing.” The logic here was a bit wonky, which I can forgive if the story was a) really good, or b) furthered something. This comic didn't accomplish either of those. The story was mediocre, and Steve is sad over Bucky's death. We get that. The sooner Bendis gets away from the Fear Itself tie-ins the better, because this series was WAY better before the crossovers began.

Score: 6 out of 10.This is the best dialogued page Bendis has EVER done!!


Fear Itself: The Home Front #5(of 7):

What Happened: Great. THIS comic... Last issue St. John's, Newfoundland was buried under waves of water by Attuma after Attuma defeated Speedball. This issue the people of St. John's help each other out, which is inspiring to Speedball. He decides to take a video of the people to show the world that even after being drowned, those hearty Canadians weren't afraid(yes, really!). Speedball sends the video back to Miriam Sharpe in Stanford, Connecticut, who posts it online to show that there were people who WEREN'T scared of the Serpent. The Sisters of Sin see the video and decide to teach Miriam fear or something. The second story included Amadeus Cho, who I hate more than any other comic book character NOT named Barry Allen, which says a lot! As such, I didn't read it. The third story dealt with Mr. Fear who seemed bummed that he wasn't the one spreading fear, while the last story starred some guy named American Eagle...

Thoughts: This was about as bad a comic as I've read all month. Usually the first story, the Speedball one, carries this comic for me, while the other three stories range from lackluster to god-awful. The problem here was that the Speedball story was really bad. Since the first story started me off on the wrong foot, and the second story had Amadeus Cho in it, this comic was sunk for me. I just couldn't get into the Speedball story at all. What the hell was the point of Robbie staying in St. John's to play cameraman? If the people were taking care of themselves(plus Jocasta was there helping too), shouldn't he be elsewhere, doing something useful?! Robbie bravely standing up to Juggernaut or battling Attuma was what I enjoyed about the first four issues of this mini. This issue? I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it was only a one issue aberration, but I don't think it's going to get any better with the next issue probably giving us the epic showdown the world has been clamoring to see, the Sisters of Sin vs Miriam Sharpe...

Score: 1 1/2 out of 10.Help the drowning people or videotape them... Hmm, if I was a hero, I know which move I'D make...

Quick Hits: Fear Itself: The Home Front #4, Avengers #15, Daredevil #1 & Captain America Corps #2

Hey there X-Maniacs, X here with a cheap excuse of a post... You see, after last week's monstrous pull list, ol' X needed a bit of a breather... I mean reviewing about 20 books every week can be tough for one guy to do! So I'm going to dust off one of my great old ideas that everybody used to love... And by “great old ideas” I actually mean “lazy ass ideas” and by “love” I actually mean “hate”. Yes, it's time for a tired blogger's best friend, the Quick Hits post!! Here's how this'll work. Basically I'll take four comics, give a synopsis of each comic(in five sentences or less), give my thoughts on them, add a score and a scan, and that's it. I very well might do another one of these posts tomorrow, before getting my lazy self back to the full reviews. But hey, a half-assed review is better than no review at all, right? Right?!?

Fear Itself: The Home Front #4(of 7):

What Happened: Speedball tries to prevent Attuma from destroying St. John's, Newfoundland(that's in Canada for those of you who suck at Geography), and succeeds... For a moment. Basically all Speedball does is MASSIVELY piss off Attuma, who floods the entire city, presumably killing thousands, as well as possibly Speedball himself. There were three other stories in this one too, but they all sucked, so I'm going to exercise my blogging right to pretend they never happened!

Thoughts: Well, it sucks that I had to pay $4 for what was basically a 14 page comic. Sure, the Speedball story was written by Christos Gage, who'd I'd easily put in my top five list of favorite current writers, but considering I didn't even read the second story(starring Jimmy Woo and the terrible Agents of Atlas), the third story was a one-pager written AND illustrated by Howard Chaykin, whose art I don't like(to put it nicely!), and the last story was about the Blue Marvel, whoever the hell THAT is, I definitely didn't have a lot to enjoy here... So while I DID enjoy the Speedball story, I have to take the other stories into account as well, thus bringing this issue's score down to a...

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.When in doubt, post a splash page!


Avengers #15(Fear Itself tie-in):

What Happened: The Serpent possessed Hulk is wreaking havoc in Brazil, leaving Spider-Woman, Protector(can't we PLEASE just call him Marvel Boy again?), Ms. Marvel and Hawkeye to deal with him... Yeah, that'll happen. Everybody talks for hours, and the battle ends with the Avengers LITERALLY hiding from the Hulk... Yeah...

Thoughts: I don't think I'll ever understand Bendis. I mean does Avengers editor Tom Brevoort actually read the Fear Itself Avengers tie-in issues Bendis is writing, or does he just shrug his shoulders and figure, “Ah that Bendis... I know he'll do good work, no need to check to see what HE'S doing!” Because Bendis has been pumping out some of his worst work since Secret Invasion in Avengers and New Avengers since Fear Itself started, which leads me to draw a single conclusion. Bendis should be kept FAR, FAR away from crossovers. Either that or take him off of one of the Avengers titles, because this was literally unreadable. And yes, I know what the word “literally” means. I literally could NOT read this comic. I skipped several pages of useless dialogue, because it served NO purpose. Can we please get the Bendis who wrote Ultimate Fallout #1 back, because Fear Itself Bendis is frightfully terrible...

Score: 0 out of 10. Yup, for the second straight week, a comic gets the dreaded imperfect score. You know, there was a time when I went MONTHS without giving an imperfect score. How I long for those days...It's official. Bendis is out of control again...


Daredevil #1:

What Happened: Matt Murdoch has returned to Hell's Kitchen and has restarted his law firm with Foggy Nelson for the 1,987,345th time. This time though, any lawyer he goes against in court throws the fact that he is Daredevil in his face, ruining many of his cases. Besides that, he gets a tip from the new Assistant DA that one of his clients was in bigger trouble than Matt realized, and that maybe Daredevil could help the guy out. While sleuthing, DD is disoriented by a gun that specifically messes with his senses, and this issue ends with Captain America's shield hurtling towards him(!?).

Thoughts: Eh. I really have no complaints here. I trust Mark Waid as a writer implicitly, so I'm going to hold off judgment until I've read a few issues. There were a few things here that bugged me, Matt's super-chipper attitude, the fact that ONCE Matt returned to New York so did Daredevil(and Matt wonders why everybody knows he's DD...), but like I said, I'll wait a few issues before I decide to really praise or bash this series.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Real classy... Throw a pencil at a blind man...


Captain America Corps #2(of 5):

What Happened: After being defeated by the Ameridroid, the Captain America Corps are captured(ROLL CALL! Steve Rogers from 1941, Bucky from before Fear Itself, American Dream from the M2 Universe, US Agent from the beginning of his days as the Agent, and Commander A from the future) and tortured by the nefarious Americommand. The Cap Corps manage to escape, free a few other “undesirables” such as Peter Parker, Luke Cage and Sam Wilson from prison, before they are taken out of that reality by the cosmic Contemplator. While the Contemplator is explaining to the Corps that the world was messed up because there was no Steve Rogers to hold the Avengers together, there seems to be some dissension in the Americommand, as two agents seemed tired of Major America's barbaric rule.

Thoughts: I know I said it before, but it bears saying again... Eh. Nothing really special here. The story was okay, although there's still a mess of things we need to find out including how the Americommand managed to take over the country, who Major America is, and how the Contemplator was going to have the Cap Corps fix things. Since it's a Captain America mini-series, and my poor, poor Bucky is in it, I'll continue reading, but here's hoping things pick up a bit next issue.

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.Best team EVER!!!

Avengers #14 & Avengers Academy #15

We're still in the midst of my Fear Itself books, as I tackle two of the Avengers family of books as they tie into FI. Last month's issue of Avengers was mind numbingly bad, so I'm expecting NOTHING from this month's offering, but Avengers Academy is one of my favorite Avengers titles, so hopefully it keeps up it's momentum here.

Avengers #14:

Summary: For my own sanity, I'm going to skip all of the useless dialogue that Brian Bendis seems obsessed with filling this comic with and simply get right into the meat of the story. The Thing received one of the Serpent's hammers in Fear Itself #3, and is immediately confronted by the Red Hulk, who joined the Avengers not that long ago. Red Hulk tells Possessed Thing to stand down, but Thing isn't having that, and slams Red Hulk across the face with his hammer, drawing first blood. Red Hulk gets up and fights back, but it becomes readily apparent that Thing is now a full power-level above the Red Hulk, and he basically pulverizes Red Hulk, knocking him several blocks away before turning his attention to Avengers Tower. Thing turns all of his power towards the Tower and unleashes wave after wave of magical force at it. Red Hulk sees what Thing was thinking and rushes over, trying to brace the falling building with his own strength, but it's for naught, as the building collapses on top of the Red Hulk. While Thing is surveying the damage he wrought, Red Hulk comes smashing out of the wreckage and attacks Thing anew. However, Thing once again proves to be the superior powerhouse, and uses his hammer to hit the Red Hulk as hard as he possibly could, sending the Red Hulk sailing far, far away, and in the words of Jarvis, never to return.

Thoughts: See, Bendis doesn't NEED to fill page after page of every comic with rambling dialogue! This comic was WAY better than the last issue, mainly because Bendis reined himself in and let the action in the story do the talking. I mean if you have John Romita Jr. doing art for you, let HIM tell the story with his art! This issue actually tied into the main Fear Itself books nicely(unlike last issue...), and basically showed us what happened to the Thing after he got his magical hammer. Now unfortunately, I'm not a huge fan of either the Thing or the Red Hulk, but I was still able to enjoy this story. I'd imagine a fan of either of those characters would like this one even more. Here's hoping THIS Bendis sticks around for a while, and not that other gabby Bendis...

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.It's EVIL Clobberin' time!


Avengers Academy #15:

Summary: With the Raft broken apart, and super-powered criminals racing away from it, Steve Rogers calls on Hank Pym and the Avengers Academy instructors to head out to New York to try to apprehend as many of the villains as they could. Steve also tells Pym that if worst comes to worst, he'd ask Pym to let the Academy cadets out to assist with civilian rescue and stuff like that. Pym is hesitant, but tells Steve that if need be, the kids would be ready to do what they had to in the name of the Avengers. With that, Pym calls the staff together and decides to leave Tigra behind with the kids, since her power set was least suited to deal with a mass super-villain break out. Before leaving, Pym tells Tigra that if the kids are deployed, he's entrusting her with keeping them alive, which is a more important task then anything him or the rest of the staff would be doing. A little bit later, Tigra gets word that Washington DC was under attack by Sin's forces(as seen in pretty much EVERY Fear Itself tie-in), and decides that she had no choice but to bring the kids to DC to try to help evacuate civilians. Upon teleporting to DC, Tigra and the kids come face to face with Sin's Nazi death machines, and begin to try to save as many people as they possibly could. While that's going on, Jocasta sends word to Pym that the students had been deployed, which gives Pym a greater urgency to capture the Raft escapees so he could head to DC to be with his students. Back in DC, Tigra does her best to assist the kids in helping as many people as they could, as well as keeping them focused and not shell shocked by the horrible events occurring all around them. In particular, she manages to get Striker's head in the game, since he was still a bit of a basket-case due to being “killed” by Michael Korvac a few issues back, while dealing with Mettle, who accidentally killed one of the men controlling the Nazi death machines. Pym and the Academy staff return to their base after dealing with many of the Raft escapees, and Pym immediately wants to head to DC, but is told by Maria Hill(who took over command of the Avengers when Steve Rogers decided to lead the battle on the ground) that he was needed more in Dubai, where the possessed Absorbing Man and Titania were razing the countryside. Realizing that there were no superheroes in Dubai who could deal with the Absorbing Man, Pym RELUCTANTLY sets off to face the Absorbing Man. Upon arriving, Pym is immediately attacked by the 20 foot tall and monstrously powerful Absorbing Man.

Thoughts: Wow, this was a fantastic comic book. I have no other words to describe it. I mean I know that Christos Gage is a great writer and all, but this comic was, for lack of a better word, perfect. Not only was the story perfectly done, Tom Raney's artwork fit the events here perfectly. You could see the pain etched on Pym's face when he realized that he had to leave his students in Washington and head to Dubai. The artwork made the story that much more powerful, which is always a good thing. And the story... Pretty much every character was written fantastically. From the kids, who originally were chomping at the bit to get to DC, but rapidly realized the hell they were stepping foot in, to Tigra, who had to try to save as many civilians as she could, all while trying to keep her students not only safe, but mentally together, especially after seeing the atrocities happening all around them. And of course there was Pym, who desperately wanted to go to DC to assist his kids, but realized that the entire population of Dubai was more important than his own feelings. The parts with Striker, who nearly went into a shell due to having “died” once before, and Mettle, who was horrified that he actually took a life, were amazingly done. I mean I've NEVER liked Tigra, and this comic had me feeling terrible for the plight she found herself in... This ONE issue actually made me into a Tigra fan! All I can do here is give this issue a WELL deserved perfect score and tip my hat to Christos Gage and company. THIS is what all the other Fear Itself tie-ins SHOULD be like!

Score: 10 out of 10.Absolutely perfect!