Defenders #5

One more review and this week is finished. We'll close out the week with a series that is thisclose to being dropped, Defenders. This series just hasn't clicked for me, AT ALL, so this will be the issue that decides whether I keep this series, or whether I drop it... You know, if I DO drop it, that'll give me the perfect excuse to start picking up Scarlet Spider and/or Avenging Spider-Man...

Defenders #5:

Summary: Dr. Strange, the Silver Surfer and Red She-Hulk join Namor under the sea to look into a massive door Namor had discovered. The Surfer impetuously blasts the door open, releasing some ancient Atlantians. Namor tries to exert some control over the Ancient Atlantians since he was the king of Atlantis and all, but before bowing to him, the ancient Atlantians want to look around to see what kind of job he'd been doing as king. Meanwhile, Strange locates a picture inside a ship that was locked behind the door with the ancient Atlantians(a picture Namor seems enamored with), as well as a dead Prestor Omega guy. Iron Fist uses his money to fund the Defenders bringing the ship to the surface(so THAT'S why he's on the team!), while the ancient Atlantians return to tell Namor they found his leadership wanting and as such were going to kill him. This issue ends with Fat Cobra bursting through Iron Fist's door ranting that somebody was killing the Immortal Weapons.

Thoughts: Well, this issue sure made my decision to drop this series easy! Sorry, but I'm not going to pay $4 for a series that I have zero interest in. Plus the next issue brings us Fat Cobra and the Immortal Weapons?! The only thing missing would have been an appearance by Our Lord and Savior Hope to really up the suck quotient! So yeah, this is officially the final issue of this series I'll be buying. But then, with the way this series has been falling down the sales charts, it may not be around much longer anyway.

Score: 3 1/2 out of 10.

That is what you'd call the final straw.

Defenders #4

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

Defenders #4:

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

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

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.

Gotcha, sucka!!

Defenders #3

Okay, we're at the bottom of the comic pile, and as such have the comic books I'm not all that keen on reading... Defenders has been... strange since it started up, what with the odd storyline and many of the characters acting out of character. I'm still REALLY pulling for this title to make it, because it COULD be a nice change from the dozens of Avengers or X-Men team books plaguing the comic market... Let's see if Matt Fraction can get things to make some semblance of sense here...

Defenders #3:

Summary: With Nul rapidly approaching the... um, weird machine at the heart of Wundagore Mountain, it's up to the Defenders to stop Nul from destroying the machine, which could possibly destroy all of reality. Or at least that's what Prester John was hoping would occur. You see, John had built himself a spacecraft and planned on fleeing the Earth with the New Men before Nul attacked the machine and broke reality(presumably). While the Defenders tried(unsuccessfully I might add) to stop Nul, John blasted off, but was followed by the Silver Surfer, who wasn't going to allow John to leave unscathed. The Surfer manages to use his Power Cosmic to force John's ship far into space, where it would never reach any other planet. Back at the machine, Nul has gotten past the Defenders and the only thing standing between Nul and the destruction of the machine(and possibly all of reality) was the machine's mysterious guardian. Before Nul could make any hostile move towards the machine, the mysterious guardian... um, waved his hands at Nul and made him vanish from existence... Huh. With the threat over and done with(apparently...), the Defenders ponder what they should do next, and are shocked when Dr. Strange suggests stealing the machine.

Thoughts: Well that was pretty anti-climatic! Seriously, some weird, random little man made one of the Serpent's most powerful minions simply vanish? From reality?! Just like that?!? I don't know what I was expecting here, but that definitely wasn't it... So far this storyline just hasn't done it for me... I don't get why Prester John was leading the New Men, I don't get the little man with the omega hands, and I was quite annoyed that Nul went away that easily. Seeing as this is one of Marvel's $4 comics, I need to see more out of this series, or it's gonna wind up on the scrapheap...

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.

Really? It's THAT easy?! I bet Odin feels like a chump!

Defenders #2

Two reviews on tap for tonight, the first of which is the second issue of the Defenders. The first issues was, if I'm being perfectly honest, bizarrely bad, to the degree that I actually considered NOT picking up the second issue. Now, I know Matt Fraction is a good writer as evidenced by most of his Iron Man work and most of Fear Itself, but that first issue? Bizarrely bad. Let's hope Fraction worked out the kinks here and we get a good comic book and not a weird farce.

Defenders #2:

Summary: Prester John and his weird animal-man forces manage to defeat the Defenders when John traps the Silver Surfer in a bubble created by his weapon, the Evil Eye... Oh yeah, and Iron Fist manages to expel the bullet that shot him last issue by focusing his chi(or something) in case you were wondering... Prester John locks the Defenders up in a cell, but they manage to escape when Dr. Strange scares Red She-Hulk unto turning human, which allows her to slip through the bars, change back into her hulk-form and destroy the controls keeping the Defenders trapped. Meanwhile, Nul, the Breaker of Worlds, is continuing his march towards John's headquarters. The Defenders run into more of John's forces, but manage to fight them off, at least until John arrives with the Surfer, still trapped in his bubble, and threatens to kill the Surfer with the Evil Eye. Dr. Strange tries to explain to John that the real threat here was Nul, who was rapidly approaching, and John surprises Strange by admitting that he WANTED Nul to arrive. It seems John had discovered a “Concordance Engine”, which John figured would open a portal in time and space allowing himself and his men to leave their current dimension and head to one not as violent and destructive as their current one. Since John's massively powerful Evil Eye couldn't break the Engine, John reasoned that Nul could. With that, Nul arrives at John's base, and the Defenders are really trapped between a rock and a hard place.

Thoughts: Much better. I still don't understand why Fraction decided to use Iron Fist, of all the characters in the Marvel Universe, as the team's comedic relief(hell, Speedball isn't doing anything! Use him!!), but alas, he is. Other then Iron Fist's idiotic actions, I can't say anything really bad about this one. The art was fine, the story flowed nicely, and the cliffhanger was fantastic. So all in all, good stuff. Still, I don't get Iron Fist's inclusion here......

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Iron Fist as the team joke is just odd...

Defenders #1

Hey there all, X FINALLY here with the first review of the night. Yes, it's up about four hours later than I usually post stuff, but better late than never, right? Eh. Anyway, first up tonight is the first issue of the new Defenders comic written by Matt Fraction. I was one of the people who actually enjoyed Fear Itself for what it was, and I'm hoping Defenders continues Fraction's strong work as of late...

Defenders #1:

Summary: This issue kicks off proper with the Hulk coming to Dr. Strange for help. What could possibly lead to the Hulk asking ANYBODY for help? Nul, Breaker of Worlds, the being Hulk had merged with during Fear Itself, was still around due to Hulk breaking free of Nul's influence before the Serpent was killed(it happened in the Fear Itself: Hulk vs Dracula mini, fyi). Hulk tells Strange that as much as it irks him he couldn't help out since he was worried that coming into close proximity with Nul may force the two to bond again. Strange gathers Namor and the Silver Surfer and Hulk recommends Strange take his wife, She-Hulk(or Red She-Hulk), to replace the muscle they would be lacking without Hulk... What is it with Marvel heroes just lending out their wives to super-hero teams?! Anyway, Strange realizes that he needed transportation and turns to Iron Fist and his snazzy new airplane to handle that, thus adding Iron Fist to the team. After compiling some data on Nul sightings, it turns out that Nul was marching towards Wundagore Mountain, which could have severe repercussions seeing as that Wundagore had a mess of crazy energies within it. While the Defenders are flying towards Wundagore, the airplane goes dead and gets shot out of the sky. The Defenders manage to land with no real damage done to themselves, at least until Iron Fist is shot by Prester John(who seems to be working for Nul) and several of the High Evolutionary's manimal creatures.

Thoughts: Huh. I didn't like this one. Go figure. I mean storywise, I see great potential here. Nul is a huge threat, one that would definitely give this band of heroes a run for their money. And the team itself(well, expect for Red She-Hulk, I'd have MUCH rather regular She-Hulk) is good. However, there were just oodles of things that I thought were wrong. The characterizations for so many characters seemed off somehow. Namor was fine, but Iron Fist was in some sort of bizarre Tony Stark mode, and the Surfer... I don't have a clue what's going on with him... Last I knew, he was depowered and living in Broxton, Oklahoma, in Mighty Thor, a series WRITTEN by Matt Fraction! Then add Prester John to top everything off, who, last I recall, had ceased being a bad guy and had worked with Cable on Providence... In a way, reading this issue felt like something out of the Twilight Zone... It was all just somewhat off. I'm still holding out hope for this series, because like I said, the story here could be great, but for me, this issue didn't start off on the right foot.

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.So wait, did I miss something in Mighty Thor concerning the Surfer or something?