Best of the Rest! April 17th edition.

Hey all, X back again with a new Best of the Rest post.  Between myself and JT(whose reviews with be in a blue text), there should be plenty of comics to check out.  So instead of talking about it, let's get to it!

Venom #34: Yes!  This is exactly what I want from this series!  This issue starts off with Toxin kicking Venom's ass, which leads to the mysterious cannibal showing up to join the fight.  However, Toxin is all, "Who invited you, bitch?!" and proceeds to BITE the head off of the cannibal!  That in turn leads to Venom biting off one of Toxin's arms!  Excellent!!  Toxin shrugs that off, grows a new arm and continues the ass-kickery.  Venom finally halts the assault by injecting Toxin with the serum that keeps his own symbiote under control.  Toxin rushes off since his symbiote was acting up, and Venom drags his battered ass to a rooftop to recuperate and prepare for round two. So yeah, Cullen Bunn just needs to keep doing this.  Every single issue.  Because this issue rocked.  Score: 8 out of 10.

Iron Man #8: 451 manages to get Tony his armor before Tony is murdered by Death's Head.  That leads to a massive brawl between Iron Man and DH, which 451 uses as a distraction to deactivate the cloaking device the Voldi had been using to hide from the Celestials.  The Celestials arrive and obliterate the planet and everybody on it.  Needless to say, Tony doesn't appreciate 451's actions and announces that he would have vengeance.  This issue was a meh for me.  It wasn't awful by any stretch, the fight between Tony and DH was cool, and I enjoyed 451's swerve, but I'm not going to remember this issue past tomorrow.  Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.

Daredevil #25: Matt finally comes face-to-face with one of his tormentors, a guy wearing a facsimile of his original yellow attire named Ikari(which means 'Fury' in Japanese).  Oh, and Ikari?  He has all of DD's enhanced senses.  The two have a spectacular battle across the rooftops of Manhattan, ending up in a sporting goods shop.  DD manages to set off the sprinkler system, and hopes that his foe's inexperience with his hyper-senses will cause him to become totally disoriented by the noise and falling water.  And it's a great plan.  Except for one thing...  Ikari isn't blind!  Ikari beats the ever-loving hell out of a shocked Matt, who has no choice but to turn tail and run away, all while Ikari yells taunts after him.  Yeah, this issue?  Awesome.  I NEVER saw the swerve with Ikari having his sight coming, and when Matt realized Ikari COULD see?  Amazing!  I wanted to scream FOR Matt!  That's how perfect the reveal was.  Amazing work by the incomparable Mark Waid.  Score: 9 1/2 out of 10.

X-Factor #254: Hey, this "Hell" storyline is still going on...  Okay...  Tier decides he doesn't want to kill the Hell-Lords, which pisses Polaris off since Tier kind of has to or everybody is screwed.  Meanwhile, Mephisto is unsurprisingly knocking off the other Hell-Lords, polishing off Hela right after she had killed Asmodeus.  Jezebel, Possessed Madrox and Guido attack X-Factor since Jezebel needed Tier if she had any hope in defeating her father(Mephisto).  That leads to a showdown between Monet and Guido.  This issue was solid.  Much like most of this storyline.  It's okay.  It's not great or anything, it's okay.  To be honest, I'm to the point where I'm waiting for this storyline to just end already...  Score: 7 out of 10.

Nightwing #19: So Dick Grayson is in Chicago now, as he's decided to track down and capture Tony Zucco, who, in case you were unaware, killed Dick's parents.  The cops hate Nightwing because the cops in Chi-town hate costumed heroes, and Dick is broke because he won't ask Bruce for money.  Because they're feuding again after Death of the Family and Damian's death.  But honestly, do those two really need a reason to feud?!  They're almost always pissed at each other for one reason or another!  But I digress...  So yeah, Dick has no money and has to take a roommate in his apartment...  Because that's smart for a masked hero like Dick...  Anyway, it seems Zucco, who was the person who murdered Dick's parents, is the mayor's chauffeur or something...  The mayor is corrupt, it seems.  On top of that, the Prankster is punishing criminals.  So yeah, Dick's first issue in Chicago?  Not perfect.  But hey, it wasn't awful, so there's that!  I have to say, even though he appeared on a grand total of one page, the Prankster seems extremely interesting.  I liked the costume and I liked his brand of vigilantism.  So I'll be looking forward to seeing more of Prankster and less of Tony Zucco, who was the man responsible for the deaths of Dick Grayson's parents.  In case you hadn't heard...  Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.

Dark Avengers #189: This is the penultimate issue of this series, and I have to admit, I won't really miss it...  It started off with such promise, but man did it fall apart quickly...  Basically Evil Dr. Strange dies when he randomly explodes.  That frees Skaar from Evil Strange, so Skaar can finally attack Evil Thing.  Ragnarok picks up that dimension's Thor's hammer(wait, how?!), which makes him turn into a guy who looks like the Executioner...  And AIM is still up to something, but damned if I know what!  Yeah, I don't have anything else to add to that issue...  Score: 4 out of 10.

Nova #3: In this issue of Nova, we see our protagonist run into The Watcher. He eventually is able to see through the Watcher's eyes that there are a ton of ships in the distance, but since he doesn't know what to do with that knowledge, he heads back to Earth. On Earth, Sam's mom hints she may know about Sam using his dad's helmet and says he can talk to her about anything. After that, Sam is approached by Gamora and Rocket Raccoon, who tell him he's the last of the Nova Corps and they start training Sam. In the midst of training, the Guardians mention the army that's on the way to attack Earth, and Sam tells them he saw it, thanks to the man on the moon, so they send Sam on recon since his Nova helmet can see the cloaked ships. The issue ends with Nova getting blasted in space by the ships, so I guess they can see him. Oops. I enjoyed this issue, it was nothing spectacular but it was a solid read. Score: 6.5/10

Captain Marvel #12: This issue focuses on Cap Marvel and Deathbird's aerial fight with Cap confined to her flying bike. After a long, tough battle, Cap finally defeats Deathbird, but has to fly at the end to due so, which weakens Cap due to the lesion on her brain. Throughout the issue we see her doctor talking to another doctor, the new one having dealt with a case like this before. It turns out his patient was Captain Marvel's friend, Helen Cobb, although she supposedly died in a fire. The doctors meet Cap at home to give her some news that we aren't privy to until the next issue. The issue ends with the mysterious man in the park revealing himself to be Yon-Rogg, now fully powered due to Captain Marvel's fights with Deathbird powering him. This was another solid issue, I enjoyed the fight with Deathbird but all the Doctor mumbo jumbo kinda slowed things down for me. I'm not familiar with Yon-Rogg but after looking him up and seeing he's the one that kidnapped Carol which led to her getting her powers, I'm excited to see where this goes. Score: 7/10

Justice League #19: This issue opened with Jason Todd and Alfred talking, so yeah, that's a free point from me. The two are attacked as some mysterious man who makes his way through the scan and past Batman's retinal scanner somehow to Bats' contingency room, as he has a case with a plan to beat each member of the League. The mystery man steals Superman's case, which has Kryptonite. Batman eventually returns and Jason is beating himself up for not hearing the intruder sneak up on them but Bruce says she's just glad Jason and Alfred are okay. After some help from Aquaman and Cyborg, they aren't able to figure out how this person got in or what they were after, Batman seems to know but plays dumb. Meanwhile, Superman and Wonder Woman fight some terrorists in Kahndaq, but Americans aren't allowed there, so Kahndaq is contemplating waging war on America. Batman meets with Supes and Wondy and they discuss how they went about things when he reveals he knows their dating, and also that someone came to the Batcave and took something to hurt Superman. The issue ends with Firestorm and the Atom, two of the newest Leaguers being attacked in the Watchtower by none other than Despero, wearing a Kryptonite ring. I enjoyed this issue surprisingly. I definitely didn't expect for this review to be so long. I enjoyed seeing Jason and Alfred, so... do more of that, Geoff Johns. I also enjoyed seeing Supes and Wondy fighting crime, and the odd way they influence one another, kinda reminds me their relationship in of Injustice: Gods Among Us. Lastly, this mystery man that knows Bruce could be interesting if done the right way, I'm curious to see who he is and why he'd help Despero, since I don't think it's him. Oh, and I like the new Atom, she rocks. Score: 8/10

Alright gang, that's it for me and mi amigo. Tomorrow, expect a new type of review from X, which he'll explain then, but until now, on behalf of buddy X, this is JT, signing off!

Best of the Rest! Week of 3/20/13

Hey all, X here with his final post of the week.  Yes, it's time to take a look at the Best of the Rest!  This time with 100% more JT!  Yes, mi hermano, JT, will be pitching in this week.  Probably to bring the post quality waaaaay down... But at least I'm here to bring some respectability to the proceedings.  Huh, it probably wasn't that smart to insult JT right off the bat since he'll be closing this post out, and as such will get the last word...  If I was smarter I'd delete the insults...  Meh.  So here's how it'll work.  I'll post my thoughts on a few comics, JT will post his thoughts in a different color, and then JT will close things out.  Boom, simple.  Like JT!!!  HA!!!!  *ahem*  Anyway, let's get this bad boy rolling.

Daredevil #24:  This was actually the high-point of this week's BotR post...  Which doesn't bode well as we move forward...  Basically DD is inching closer to finding out who the mystery villain who has been putting the screws to him was.  Foggy learns that he had a rare type of bone tumor, and the doctors weren't sure if it had spread or not.  Yeah, this comic is great, no doubt.  Mark Waid has a little something for everybody here.  Heroes, villains, secret plots, some drama, AND mutated dogs!  What more could one ask for?!  Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.

X-Factor #253: We get some escalation in the Hell on Earth war, as the various devils begin to wage war upon each other on Earth.  Satana tries to kill Tier(because Satana is frigging AWESOME), but Tier chases her away.  Polaris decides the best course of action was to sic Tier on the Hell-Lords, since he can hurt them.  And Madrox is a demon thanks to Mephisto.  Sadly, this comic didn't really do it for me.  I mean it was all right and all, and I LOVE that Peter David showed that other heroes were involved in battling the demons, which you don't often see in a story like this, but the narrative was kind of spread all over the place...  We were in Mephisto's hell.  And on the streets.  And watching demons fight.  And in a hotel room.  It just didn't gel for me, which is very rare for this series.  But hey, I'm sure I'll be heaping praise on the next issue, so one not-so-good issue isn't a big thing.  Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.

Saga #11:  First things first, I LOVE the hell out of this series!!!  With that out of the way, I have to admit, this issue didn't really do it for me.  Basically Marco's father helped the group get away from the space baby, but at the cost of his life.  Marco and his mom naturally don't take the death well.  That's really the extent of the main storyline here.  I've got to admit, Marco's dad dying here was a bit disappointing.  I thought that character had some legs, and figured he'd slowly fade away as the issues progressed.  Instead he popped up a few issues ago and died.  If he would have stuck around a bit, the impact of his death probably would have been greater, but sadly, that's not what we got.  Even though this wasn't my favorite issue of this great series, it still wasn't bad, which shows you the quality of this title.  Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.

Invincible #101: So yeah, Eve is pregnant again.  This time though, she has a doctor who specializes in super-human biology, and learns that she can't use her powers while she's pregnant, which you KNOW will come into play down the road.  Robot hates Mark, Cecil hates Nolan, and Thragg hates everybody.  That about sums this one up.  I hate to sound like a broken record, but again, this issue just didn't hit the mark for me...  I don't know what the problem was, but I just never connected to this comic.  It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great...  Score: 6 out of 10.

Indestructible Hulk #5: Hulk manages to defeat Attuma with some help from Lemurian rebels.  Plus one of the Lemurians makes out with Hulk.  Here we go again, you know the song I'm gonna be playing...  I never connected with this issue...  Yep, again.  There was some good here, namely Attuma, who Mark Waid wrote brilliantly, but I never fell into this story.  It was okay.  But that's all.  Score: 6 out of 10.

Dark Avengers #188: Oh boy, this comic...  Um, the Dark Avengers are still trapped in an alternate Earth.  There's some sort of mystery there concerning AIM(I think...) and the Spider-Man of that world is worshiped as a god by the likes of Shang-Chi and Misty Knight...  But he gets killed by Tigra.  Oh, and Moonstone died, but came back over the course of this comic.  See, now this comic?  This comic was bad.  Not okay, just bad.  I was willing to go along for the ride at first, I've repeatedly stated that I love alternate dimensional tales, but this one simply isn't working for me.  Probably because we have like zero character development going on here. Seriously, I have NO reason to care about ANY of the Dark Avengers.  We REALLY need to get away from the main story here and shine a light on the characters on this team...  Score: 3 out of 10.

DC Universe Presents: Starfire #18: Basically we see Starfire as a slave, then free, then allowing herself to get caught so she can free more people. The former top dog that wanted to free everyone was jealous, so he attacked her and she sliced his hands off with his sword. Upon gaining the chance to free everyone, the slaves were so afraid of Starfire they just wanted her to go, which she did. So... useless story sadly, nothing really happened, if only it showed that Star's a tough S.O.B. and scares people. Sad thing is, Joe Keatinge's last issue that starred Roy Harper was pretty good. Score: 2/10

Captain Marvel #11: Captain Marvel's been diagnosed with a lesion on her brain that expands every time she flies, it's not fatal but if she continues to fly it'll wipe away her memories, so now she's using a hover-bike, which she hates. We find out that she has some mysterious man stalking her, and he's been sending a new Deathbird, dubbed Newbird by Carol to her apartment building. Carol heads off to find Newbird and engages her in a fight in the sky, with her hover-bike of course. This was a pretty good issue, Carol continues to be written likable and fun, and the story of her not being able to fly, after putting so much emphasis on her love of flying throughout the series has been great. Score: 7/10

Justice League #18: The League is looking for new members because a few of them are busy with their cities or ruling Atlantis. Possible recruits are Black Canary (She's on the BoP...), Black Lighting, Blue Demon, Element Woman, Firestorm, Goldrush, Nightwing, Vixen, Zatanna and Platinum of the Metal Men. Platinum goes crazy, predictably, and the League and candidates take her down, with the help of The Atom. By the way, Atom is a Hispanic woman now. The League ends up picking Atom, Firestorm and Element Woman over Vixen, Zatanna and Canary because they're stupid, and Nightwing isn't interested in joining. The issue ends with them finding out their recruitment files have been hacked, so someone has info on all these heroes now. Oops! I was flabbergasted that they didn't pick at least one of the three women I named... but whatever. That aside, this issue was kind of predictable, especially with Platinum's heel turn. Score: 5/10

New Avengers #4: With time running out until Earth crashes into another Earth, the Illuminati decide to go to the other planet and try to use their Infinity Gems to blow it up, since the Illuminati's Gems broke in the last issue. Once they arrive, they see on this planet the Statue of Liberty is replaced by a statue of the Master of Magnet himself, Magneto. They also see Galactus is already about to eat this planet, but instead of counting this as a win, they decide to fight his Thanos-like herald, because why not? This issue was fine and dandy until the weird ending where they decided to fight a villain on a planet that's dying... the same planet they came to destroy. Also, I was expecting more with the fallout of them mind-wiping Captain America but not too much came of that. Score: 6/10

Red Hood and the Outlaws #18: This is Lobdell's last issue of RHATO, and after surprisingly enjoying issue 19, I was looking forward to this issue. Jason came to the realization that the reason he has lashed out at Bruce and the rest of the family is because he was trying to escape his past, but he needs to embrace it instead of run away from it. We also find out his face is going to be fine in the future thanks to Alfred's handiwork. We end things with Jason finally waking up and he's about to apologize but Bruce cuts him off and hugs him as the issue ends. I really enjoyed this issue, Jason finally being welcomed back to the fold is something I've wanted for a while as a Jason Todd fan, so this issue was a huge plus for me. Plus it really made sense for Bruce, after losing Jason once, then losing Damian, I doubt he wants to risk being distant with Jason any longer. The only thing I really had a problem with was this being billed as "Requiem" issue and Damian was never mentioned once. Score: 9/10

And THAT'S how you do a best of the rest post! Not like that farce X did last week. Anyway, I can see this being a weekly thing if mi hermano is up for it, so we can knock out even more books, considering sometimes people want info on books we read but don't review. So, look forward to me guiding X like the giant idiotic man-child he is through these posts on a regular basis. So that's it for me, until my final review of the week tomorrow. So til then, for myself and X, this is JT, signing off!

JT's Take: Captain Marvel #1

Hey blog readers, In case you've been living under a rock, there's a a new Captain Marvel in town! She's not Billy Batson or Freddy Freeman, but when ya see her you may say SHAZAM! Haha, yeah, I couldn't resist that intro. Anyway, let's jump right into things with the first issue of Captain Marvel!

Captain Marvel #1

Summary: This issue starts off with a big fight with Captain America and a newly costumed Ms. Marvel taking on The Absorbing Man, he's trying to steal a moon rock so he can get... moon powers. Yep... Lol. The Absorbing Man pays more attention to Captain America instead of Ms. Marvel, which proves to be a mistake, since Ms. Marvel is a force to be reckoned with, and also outranks Captain America in the military, which she hilariously mentions. After taking down The Absorbing Man, Cap. tells Ms. Marvel that he thinks she should take the name Captain Marvel, but she says that Captain Marvel is dead and she's taken enough from him already, she won't take his name, but Cap. tells her that his name was Mar-Vell, and she kind of took his name a long time ago. He says Mar-Vell would want her to honor his legacy, but the conversation is cut short when Captain America gets a call from the president. After sparring with Spidey for a bit and asking him a few questions about the name Ms. Marvel and her new costume, Ms. Marvel goes out and flies. She flies into space, all the while recounting her origin and her hero, Helen Cobb. After her flight to deep space and thinking of how her hero would do things, she flies back towards the Earth and proclaims she's "Taking the damn name." The next say, we see Carol taking care of her friend Burke, whom apparently has cancer. She seems to be a fun character, so I'm looking forward to seeing more of her sarcastic jabs with Carol. Carol then discovers that her hero, Helen Cobb has passed away. From there we see a flashback of Carol meeting Helen when she was a bit younger, and we see the two had a bit of a friendly rivalry. The issue ends with Captain Marvel at Helen's funeral, before taking her ashes up into space and releasing them, something that was undoubtedly Helen's final wishes.


Thoughts: First things first, the art in the comic is interesting. Sometimes it seemed kinda odd, other times it was great. I love the design of Captain Marvel's suit, I loved how Cap was drawn, the small things like Carol's posture when she isn't fighting opposed to when she is are pretty well done. Also, the comedy in this comic is great, the little jabs between Carol and Captain America, or her and Spidey, and how stupid yet hilarious The Absorbing Man was really helped my enjoyment of this. Another thing I really enjoyed was the news page at the beginning, talking about how Ms. Marvel was now Captain Marvel and how she was auctioning off her old suit for charity. That shows a great deal of character from that one panel, plus hopefully some super villain will start wearing her Ms. Marvel suit. All in all, I liked this first issue a lot, and I'm definitely on board for the long run.

Score: 8.5/10

Captain Marvel: Three seconds in a museum and you're sound asleep. Why am I not surprised. Next time I'll skip the punching and just read you a book.