Birds of Prey #6

Birds of Prey #6

-This JUST came in the mail today, even though it was released like a month ago... Yep, DC's subscription service REALLY sucks.
-Last issue Huntress and Lady Blackhawk headed to Thailand to try to rescue Black Canary from her nemesis, the White Canary.
-Unfortunately, Black Canary can't leave Thailand because White Canary had kidnapped her adopted daughter, Sin.
-White Canary promised to release Sin provided Black Canary fought Lady Shiva(THE greatest fighter in the DCU)to the death.
-Unfortunately for Black Canary, on her best day she has little chance against Shiva, and she is currently nursing a broken wrist.
-Black Canary asks Huntress to serve as her second, and as tradition dictated, Huntress had to challenge Shiva on Black Canary's behalf.
-Instead of challenging Shiva for Black Canary, Huntress challenges Shiva herself, figuring that Black Canary had way more to live for than she did.
-White Canary immediately accepts the challenge, agreeing to release the captive Sin and her foster family once the battle between Huntress and Shiva had concluded.
-Black Canary is incensed, since there's no doubt that Shiva was going to kill Huntress.
-Right before the fight commences, one of the White Canary's henchwomen decides she can no longer abide by White Canary's antics, and tells Black Canary the location of Sin.
-Black Canary rushes away, and Shiva and Huntress begin their battle, with Shiva battering Huntress with her masterful fighting techniques.
-Black Canary manages to locate Sin and ferry her to safety.
-Huntress badgers Shiva and takes a hellacious beating, but Shiva becomes so infuriated by Huntress's non-stop taunting that she falls prey to some dirty fighting tactics(Huntress literally spits her own blood into Shiva's eyes!)and Huntress manages to knock Shiva off her feet, much to the shock of everybody present.
-By this time, Black Canary returns and interrupts the fight, telling White Canary that she had rescued Sin, and therefore the battle didn't need to continue.
-White Canary doesn't want to call off the battle, since it was supposed to be to the death, but Shiva ends the fight, stating that the battle had no time constraints, meaning they could pick up the battle at any time.
-In other words, Shiva hadn't broken her word, just delayed the conclusion to her fight with Huntress indefinitely.
-Having lost Shiva's support, White Canary storms away, swearing revenge like any good super-villain would.
-This issue ends with Shiva giving Huntress her props for knocking her down, while Black Canary thanks Huntress for her insane risk.

Wooo, this comic was well worth the wait! Huntress is probably my favorite female DC Comics character, and her battle with Lady Shiva made me into an even BIGGER fan of Huntress. Everything about the fight was awesome, from Huntress challenging Shiva by throwing a drink in her face(!), to her taking a beating from Shiva, to her actually taking Shiva off her feet. Anybody who reads this comic and DOESN'T become a Huntress fan is, quite frankly, insane! Besides the fight, there were other little character development scenes here that really hammered home just how great a character Huntress is. There was some stuff with Hawk and Dove, but I glossed over it, because it didn't add to(nor take anything away from)the main story. I still wish Hawk and Dove weren't even on this team, but as long as Gail Simone continues to write a comic THIS good, I can overlook those two worthless Brightest Day additions. I know I'll be looking forward to the next issue, whenever DC decides to send it to me that is...

Score: 10 out of 10.What's up here? Huntress is taking Lady Shiva to school, that's what!

Shadowland #5(of 5)

Shadowland #5

-Ghost Rider helps Foggy Nelson climb to the top of Shadowland Fortress, because besides being the Spirit of Vengeance, he's also an all-around nice guy.
-Ghost Rider attacks the Beast-possessed Daredevil and is defeated when DD sucks the flame off of GR's face... OOOOOkay then.
-DD discovers Foggy sneaking around the Fortress and goes to kill him, but is attacked by the DEADLY POWERS of Iron Fist.
-Elektra then enters the weakened DD's mind(wha-huh?!)and convinces him to impale himself with Elektra's sword(still in DD's mind), thus breaking the Beast's hold on him and killing DD...
-Or does it?!?
-With the Beast gone, the rioting New Yorkers halt their rampage, and the police bring order back to the streets.
-The heroes mill about Shadowland Fortress, but manage to lose sight of DD's body, which has disappeared.
-Kingpin arrives at the Fortress and takes control of the remaining Hand ninjas.
-Matt Murdock, wearing a hoody, which is this generations over-sized trenchcoat, goes to church to repent his sins.

Blah. This mini-series started out with SUCH potential. I mean in the first issue, DD killed Bullseye with a sai, in an awesome display of poetic justice. Unfortunately, things have been slowly going downhill from there. Basically, all this mini accomplished was Bullseye's death, and then a whole lot of nothing. Matt isn't DD anymore, but that can be easily fixed, Black Panther, who had NOTHING to do with the Shadowland storyline will be taking over the DD comic, and the Kingpin will be leading the Hand. Whoop-dee-do! Big deal. I was expecting some MAJOR fireworks to close this series out, and instead I got DD literally sucking Ghost Rider's face, and Matt Murdock going to church...

Score: 4 out of 10.That gives a whole new definition to the term, "sucking face"...

What If? Iron Man: Demon In An Armor #1

What If? Iron Man: Demon In An Armor #1.

-The premise here is that instead of getting Reed Richards as a roommate in college, Victor Von Doom gets Tony, “Life of the party” Stark.
-Initially Stark and his drunken tomfoolery annoys Doom, but as time progresses, Doom begins to buddy up to the rich playboy.
-It turns up that Doom was only using Tony, and Doom tricks Tony into swapping bodies with him, meaning Doom's mind was in Stark's body, while Tony's mind was in Doom's.
-And to make matters worse, Doom wiped Tony's memory to boot!
-Tony winds up getting expelled from college and deported back to Latveria, while Doom uses Tony's fortune to create Stark Universal, a leading weapons manufacturing company.
-Meanwhile, Tony starts up Doom Industries in Latveria, since he's still a genius, even if he doesn't remember ever being Tony Stark.
-Doom Industries begins to chip into Stark Industries bottom line, so Doom heads to Latveria in a green and silver Iron Man suit to destroy Tony's company.
-Tony dons a, you guessed it, gold and red Dr. Doom suit and the two battle, with Tony emerging victorious.
-Doom tries to bargain with Tony, revealing to him that they were in the wrong bodies, and offering to switch them back to their proper bodies, provided Tony doesn't turn Doom in for attempting to destroy Doom Industries.
-Tony says nuts to that, since Doom had sullied the name of Tony Stark, and decides to remain Victor Von Doom, who was well respected in this world, turning Doom over to the proper authorities.

I'm a sucker for What If's, and this comic didn't disappoint. Sure there were a few things that bothered me, such as why wasn't Doom trying to rescue his mother, but the few inaccuracies weren't enough to ruin this story for me. All in all, a good story, although my review probably makes it sound WAY more confusing then it actually was!

Score: 7 out of 10.Hey, check it out, it's Doom Man vs Dr. Iron!

Batman: Orphans #1(of 2)

Batman: Orphans #1

-First off, this is a flashback story to the simpler days when there was one Batman, Tim Drake was still Robin, and Nightwing(Dick Grayson)was working out of Bludhaven.
-We open with Merlyn killing a fake Robin, which naturally grabs the attention of Batman and the real Robin.
-Meanwhile, a fake Batman is putting together an army of street kids and training them to work for him, with the best of the bunch getting the honor of serving as his Robin.
-Robin and Nightwing swipe the fake Robin outfit off the corpse from earlier, and along with Batman the trio looks it over for clues.
-Bats(as Bruce Wayne)leaves to attend some social function, leaving Nightwing and Robin alone with the costume.
-Eventually Nightwing and Robin suffer fear attacks and realize that the Robin outfit was laced with Scarecrow's fear toxins.
-Poor Bruce begins to suffer a delayed reaction to handling the costume while at his event.
-As for the streets kids, they accidentally kill some crazy bum in the sewers.

I REALLY wanted to like this comic. I really, really did! Unfortunately, the whole story was told from the perspective of a really annoying reporter(and her asinine cameraman), which took away from the main story for me. I mean, in theory this SHOULD be an awesome story that I should be fawning over, but it just never clicked for me... That damn reporter annoyed the hell out of me and none of the street kids caught my eye. Maybe it was too much school work when I read this or something, but I just found myself bored by this comic.

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.*sigh* There goes another Robin...

Wolverine: The Best There Is #1

Wolverine: The Best There Is #1

-We start off with a naked Wolverine being forced to fight a mutate in a dog fighting ring thanks to a mind altering(and mutant power dampening)collar around his neck.
-Eventually the mutate accidentally damages Wolvie's collar, freeing him to kill the mutate, the people running the dog fighting ring and everybody watching the sorry spectacle.
-From there Wolvie(wearing one of those tuxedo top t-shirts)catches a ride with some woman who decides to take him to a party.
-Next up, some mystery villains dig a mutant with a healing factor out of quicksand to take to their base.
-Before the mystery villains take the mutant with the healing factor away, the leader of the group burns the mutant with his touch, and one of the mystery villains reveals that he's a cannibal... Um, sure... I guess.
-Wolvie heads to the party and meets up with the mystery villain from earlier(the one with the burning hands).
-Meeting this villain seems to free the inhibitions of the people he crosses paths with, which leads to the party becoming a riot, and Wolvie gutting himself with his claws.

What in the blue HELL was this all about?!? I literally didn't understand a single thing that happened here... First off, how the hell did Wolvie get SO drunk that he was captured by some hicks, and then forced into a dog fighting ring? What the hell was up with those weird villains? Why was Wolvie acting like a drunken hairdresser at the party, cutting hair with his claws? What a mess this was... On the bright side, it can only get better from here! I mean, I don't think it's humanly possible for things to get any worse...

Score: 0 out of 10.Yeah, this scene pretty much sums up my feelings on this comic...

Heroes for Hire #1

Heroes for Hire #1

-We kick things off with Misty Knight contacting Falcon and Black Widow via her secret base and having them take down a truck with a shipment of Atlantian drugs on board.
-From there she sends Moon Knight to one of the drug warehouses, where he discovers the pushers were using some innocent people as guinea pigs to further develop their drugs.
-Next Misty sends Elektra to the penthouse apartment of the drug kingpin, where it's probably safe to assume Elektra kills the guy.
-Finally we head to Misty's base of operations, where we learn she was being fed all of her information from somebody else.
-The surprises don't end there, as we learn that Misty was actually in a trance the whole time, and was being controlled by... Oh come on... The frigging Puppet Master...

Well, I WAS enjoying this one until the reveal at the end. The Puppet Master is to the Marvel Universe what the Penguin is to the DCU. In a word, useless. And ugly I guess. But mainly useless. I also have to say that Misty's role in this comic was WAY too close to Oracle for my comfort. I mean all she was missing was a wheelchair! Besides Puppet Master and Misty/Oracle Knight thing, this comic wasn't that bad. I enjoyed the way the other characters were used, and Elektra killing an Atlantian drug kingpin always makes for a good time. Now hopefully Puppet Master will be defeated quickly(or killed!), Misty Knight will join the other Heroes on the streets, and Puppet Master will be defeated quickly(or killed!)... Oh yeah, plus here's hoping Puppet Master is defeated quickly(or killed!)!

Score: 6 out of 10.Look out, it's Batman! I mean the Dark Knight! Oh wait, it's just Moon Knight...