Generation Hope #13

Well, on the plus side, this comic can't POSSIBLY be as bad as Avengers #19 was... The bar is set REALLY low, Gen Hope, good luck!

Generation Hope #13:

What Happened: Hope's team(which now includes Pixie for some reason) has a training skirmish with Lord Summers' Extinction Team(and Boom Boom/Meltdown), which ends when Magneto tries to kill Zero. From there Hope notices a mutant signature on Cerebra and scolds the Stepford Cuckoos for not telling her about it. Before the Cuckoos can stop Hope, she's teleported with her team to Pakistan near the Chinese border and sends her troops out. Eventually they run into an American who looks suspiciously like Sebastian Shaw, who opens his coat, showing bombs, and blows himself, and presumably Hope's entire team up before Hope's astonished eyes.

The Good: The cliffhanger. That was the good in this one.

The Bad: Let's see, the battle with the X-Men, the conversation with the Stepford Cuckoos, Primal's still idiotic dialogue, Zero putting the moves on a brain, the trip to Pakistan, Pixie, Sebastian Shaw as a suicide bomber... Did I miss anything?

The Verdict: Gah, this sucked. And hard. Well, it would be bad form to drop a series that I JUST put back on my pull list, so I'll give this series at least one more issue(probably two knowing myself), but good god was this awful. Granted, it wasn't Avengers #19 terrible, but it was close. Now, while I detest almost every character in this one, I will say that Zero and Transonic have some potential. Hey, check me out, I just said something kind of nice about this series! I think I'll end this post there, since I'm sure everything else I type will be very negative.

Score: 2 out of 10.Well, as far as brains in jars go, I guess Zero could do worse...

X-Factor #222 & Generation Hope #9

I've reached that point in the week where I don't have anything left to say for the introduction... So just think up your own intro while I get to the two comics on tap for today.

X-Factor #222:

Summary: This issue begins in earnest with Wolfsbane and Shatterstar making it back to X-Factor's offices having avoided all of the various demons that were hunting them down. Thanks to Layla erecting a mystical barrier, the team is safe and sound inside the offices... Or at least most of them are... While watching the various threats from the window, the team becomes somewhat confused as the demons all rush off into hiding, just as a taxi pulls up. As luck would have it, Guido and Monet, who were just on their way back from the hospital, get out of the car, which leads to the demons all charging out and attacking. Before the two are completely overrun, Siryn/Banshee/whatever she's calling herself nowadays heads outside to assist, but is unable to buy Monet and Guido the time needed to get inside to safety. Not wanting to see her friends killed, Wolfsbane heads to the roof and tells the demons to come after her since she was the one they were after. While the demons are distracted, Jack Russell(!!) charges out and attacks the demons, tearing into them. Once the demons are taken care of(for the moment), Jack heads up to the roof to tell Wolfsbane that she needed to go with him if she wanted to keep her unborn child safe.

Thoughts: With each passing issue, I find myself warming more and more to this storyline... But for me, the story wasn't the best thing about this issue... I've always said that Peter David is one of the BEST writers when it comes to writing dialogue, and man did he prove that again this issue! There were several moments when I found myself laughing out loud at some of the one-liners and quips that were being thrown around. Good story, good art, and hilarious dialogue equals a very happy blogger!

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.Everything Longshot had to say here was hilarious!


Generation Hope #9:

Summary: This issue begins with Our Lord and Savior Hope checking with the Stepford Cuckoo who was manning Cerebra, since the Cuckoo was responsible for keeping an eye out for any new mutants who may pop up. From there we head to a university in the UK where three friends were playing truth or dare. While in the middle of the game, one of the guy's mutation suddenly kicks in, which results in his skin beginning to melt off. His friend decides to take a picture of the spectacle and uploads it online, which I find ALL kinds of weird... I mean, if MY friend's face suddenly started to melt, I doubt the first thing I'd do is reach for my cell phone... I'd probably run out of the room screaming like a banshee... Maybe that's just me though. Anyway, Our Lord and Savior Hope gets her team together and they head out towards the university, while the melty-faced new mutant, realizing that his life had been ruined, grabs a knife from the kitchen, runs into the bathroom and offs himself. Our Lord and Savior Hope and the rest of the team somehow mentally “feel” melty-face's death, and arrive on the scene too late. Shadowcat(the team's chosen chaperon), somehow figures out what happened, which leaves Our Lord and Savior Hope furious, but unable to do anything other than promise that the next time they'd be faster. From there we fast-forward a month, where Zero(the obligatory EVIL Japanese member of the team) returns to the UK in order to kill the guy who uploaded the video that resulted in melty-face killing himself. Before he can complete the deed though, he's met by Wolverine(of all people), who explains that he followed Zero because he knew what he was planning on doing and that killing the party responsible for melty-face's death wasn't going to bring melty-face back. Zero reluctantly decides to retrieve his weapon and the two head off for a drink.

Thoughts: Huh, you know what? This was probably my favorite issue of this series by a MILE. I mean, it wasn't spectacular or anything, but it was a well-told story that didn't continuously shove Our Lord and Savior Hope in our faces every single panel. It really didn't develop any of the Gen Hope members any further(well, except for Zero, but he's probably the only interesting character in this entire book already), but that's fine since I don't particularly like any of the characters in this comic anyway. They're all so bland and empty... That's probably why I enjoyed this issue though. It focused on melty-face, his “friend” and Zero, and stayed away from Our Lord and Savior Hope and her band of losers... That's actually a pretty sad testament to this series, that I like it more when the main characters aren't spotlighted...

Score: 8 out of 10."What's this? My friend's face is suddenly beginning to melt? I'd better grab my camera!"

Uncanny X-Men #538 & Generation Hope #8

I'll be finishing last week's new books with the two X-related titles I like the least, Uncanny X-Men and Generation Hope. Since I'm expecting absolutely nothing from these two books, the bar is set really low, meaning maybe I'll wind up pleasantly surprised... Although I wouldn't bet on it...

Uncanny X-Men #538:

Summary: Wolverine and Kruun wind up being too evenly matched so Kruun cheats to win by sticking Wolvie with some darts to mess up his healing factor, before sticking a device on him which causes Wolvie to become nearly weightless. While that's going on, Shadowcat(DAMMIT! I was hoping she was dead!) rushes over to Colossus to try to patch him up. Kruun heads over to them and tries to attack Shadowcat, but it appears Shadowcat is no longer trapped in her intangible form, and can avoid Kruun's attacks. Oh, and she woke up a bunch of X-Men before heading to Colossus. Seeing that the battle was lost, Kruun surrenders, telling the X-Men that he had acted alone and without the knowledge of his people. Shadowcat tells the team that wasn't true, as Kruun's wife knew what he was up to. Not wanting to see any harm come to his woman, Kruun tosses a smoke grenade and rushes inside to find her. Shadowcat beats him and shows Kruun that Kruun's wife had sacrificed her own life to fix Shadowcat with some lame Breakworld magic trick. Kruun is heartbroken, and does the same spell his wife did to Shadowcat to bring his wife back to life. This also allows Kruun to stay alive(somehow...), and the mayor of San Francisco allows the Breakworld refugees to live in a section of San Fran provided they behave themselves. And that is about that.

Thoughts: I'm going to put this right out there so everybody understands where I'm coming from. I HATE Shadowcat. Passionately. She served a purpose in the 80's(I guess...) as the token spunky/incredibly annoying teenage girl that Chris Claremont is obsessed with writing about, but that role has been filled by several other characters over the years. Now she's just sort of around. Doing nothing of note. Why she was brought back is mind-boggling to me, because she's one character who served her purpose YEARS ago, and died an acceptable, heroic “death”. And yet here she is, wasting space. That in a nutshell is how I felt about this issue and this storyline. I hate Shadowcat, I'm not a fan of Colossus the pervert, so I hated this storyline. If you like those characters, chances are you'll enjoy this one. Me? I hated it.

Score: 5 out of 10.Dammit!! Why won't she just die already?!?


Generation Hope #8:

Summary: Lord Summers and Our Savior Hope meet with the X-Men's lawyer to discuss what to do about the Teon situation. The lawyer feels that Teon's parents would win the battle for Teon's custody, but Our Savior Hope refuses to give Teon up without a fight, so Lord Summers decrees that they'd fight for Teon's rights in court. From there, Our Savior Hope FINALLY talks to her team and tells them to pick codenames for themselves, which they all do. After that, Our Savior Hope and her useless followers(what? They don't even get a team name! They're just called Gen Hope! They MUST be useless!) meet up with the lawyer and they all head to court. The court scene is as boring as you'd expect it to be, with Teon's parents arguing why he should be with them(“He's our son!”) and the X-Men's lawyer arguing why he should be with them(“We can help him!”). Finally Teon takes the stand and is suddenly not a complete blithering idiot, and tells the court why he wants to stay with the X-Men. Since that's what Teon wants, the judge rules for the X-Men and this issue ends.

Thoughts: You know, reading this review you'd think I hated this comic, but that's not the case. This actually may have been one of my favorite issues of this series.(although that isn't saying much). The beginning was good, with Our Savior Hope's worthless followers finally picking codenames(Now I can FINALLY call them by name!), but the courtroom scene did NOTHING for me. As a matter of fact, it bored me so much I actually skipped large chunks of it. Then there was the fact that Teon took the stand in his own defense AND was able to speak intelligently... If he could do that in court, why the hell is he always running around saying stupid, unfunny one word dialogue?! I think it's safe to say I am NOT a fan of Kieron Gillen's writing. I've read every issue of this series, as well as all of his work on Uncanny, and I can't point at anything and say I really enjoyed it. I'm still trying to be optimistic with this series, but I don't know...

Score: 6 out of 10.Sure, this makes about as much sense as anything else in this series...

X-23 #10 and Generation Hope #7

Two Marvel, books to get started with today, including one of the worst Marvel books on the market today! Which book am I besmirching? Read on and find out!

X-23 #10:

Summary: This issue gets underway with X-23 trying to kill herself by slitting her wrist in a bathroom... Well THAT'S a pleasant way to begin! Naturally, she heals, so I'm not sure what the point of that is, but whatever. X-23 emerges from that bathroom and sits at a restaurant table with Gambit, who tries to cheer her up by giving her a cupcake... This is getting pretty weird... Gambit notices the blood on X-23's hands and asks her about it, so she runs away. Gambit gets up to chase and overhears two waiters talking about all of the blood in the bathroom and puts two and two together. Eventually Gambit finds X-23 sitting down near a bridge and goes to comfort her, getting slashed in the arm for his trouble. X-23 is mortified by what she did, but Gambit blows it off(like I do whenever I'm stabbed) and they head back to their hotel room, where Gambit makes a phone call. A day passes and Wolverine and Vampire Jubilee arrive, which leads to X-23 trying to kill Vampire Jubes, since she was, you know, a vampire. Wolvie puts a quick stop to that and heads to the roof to talk to X-23 alone. X-23 reveals that she's disturbed by the information she received from Daken about her early years, which is why she's been so melancholy/suicidal as of late. Wolvie tells X-23 that things aren't that bad, and winds up talking about how much worse things have been for Vampire Jubes as of late, before he then sends Vampire Jubes and X-23 away to hang out... Um, okay... With the girls gone, Gambit scolds Wolvie for the fact that he treats X-23 and Vampire Jubes differently, telling Wolvie that X-23 was probably hurt by Wolvie's actions. From there, Vampire Jubes chases off a few drunks who were hitting on X-23 and X-23 responds by cutting herself in the neck, drawing blood, and drawing Vampire Jubes straight towards the wound.

Thoughts: You KNOW Marjorie Liu is a great writer by the fact that even though I didn't particularly like this comic, I never wound up being completely bored/annoyed by it. The story here really didn't do anything for me... X-23 was suicidal, AGAIN. Wolvie was inattentive to X-23's feelings, AGAIN. Gambit was X-23's dutiful sidekick, AGAIN... You get the point. With that said though, I feel I should have hated this comic more, but in the end, even with it's various flaws, I'd still consider it a perfectly acceptable comic.

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.Hey, it's Vampire Jubilee!


Generation Hope #7:

Summary: Okay, this is going to be a painful review... An unborn baby is a mutant, and it's powers have activated INSIDE it's mother... The unborn child mind controls everybody in the hospital and the surrounding area(except for Our Savior Hope, and the other... ugh, “Lights”), leaving them as the only people with a chance to end the DIRE THREAT of the unborn baby... Of DOOM!!! Sorry, I have to find ways to amuse myself if I'm gonna get through this review. Kenij the Evil Light manages to link the team to the baby's mind through one of his tendrils, which he attached to the baby's mother. Each light tries to convince the baby to be born, and they all fail... At least until Teon the ANIMAL Light stares vapidly at the baby, somehow convincing it to want to be born... I swear, I just lost 50 IQ points typing that last line... Teon the Animal Light then DELIVERS the baby, hands it to Our Savior Hope, who raises it over her head “Lion King” style(!?!?!), “fixing” it or something. The Lights all parade away happily and this one ends with Shadowcat telling them that Teon the Animal Light's parents were suing Crazy Mutie Island to regain custody of their son or something.

Thoughts: Well... This was easily one of, if not THE worst Marvel comic I've read this year. Sure, DC has churned out comics worse than this one(I'm looking at YOU, Brightest Day!), but on the Marvel side of the fence? Yeah, this was horrible. Anybody wondering why this comic was selling so poorly, look no further then this issue. I mean really, what was Kieron Gillen thinking when he came up with this story?!? Needless to say, this is a title that I can't see myself sticking with for much longer. But you know what? I'm going to stop this post right here, because this is one of those times where I could just KEEP complaining...

Score: 2 out of 10.I can't believe I wasted $3 on THIS!

A Few Thoughts on... Some random comics!

Okay, here's the deal guys and gals... I still have a few comics from last week to get through, and I just picked up about 15 comics or so(plus a trade) from the comic book shop yesterday, meaning that once again, I am falling behind in my comic reading. Add the impending end of the school year, and yeah, I'm pretty busy. So in order to try to blitz through a few of last week's books, I'm going to try something new here... I'll be doing this post like a 10 Thoughts post, just with WAY less than 10 Thoughts per comic. Let's give it a shot and see how it goes!

Generation Hope #6.

Synopsis: The Gen Hope kids head to Germany after a new mutant pops up on Cerebro(or is it still Cerebra?). Upon getting there, everybody in the hospital is either unconscious or acting crazy, and we discover that the new mutant registered was still in its mother's womb.

-So now instead of Rogue serving as Hope's liaison, Lord Summers the First has decreed that Shadowcat would be the new liaison between himself and Hope... God, that's like trading an old shoe for sack of dead rats...

-This comic is SO much worse than any other teen-oriented series I'm currently reading from the big two right now(Teen Titans, Avengers Academy, Children's Crusade) it's not even funny...

-I can't believe that we're FIVE issues into this series now and the kids STILL don't have codenames! They finally have costumes, but if you want people to be able to talk about these kids and know who they are, you NEED codenames!It's Hope! And random mutants #1-5...

-Sticking with that train of thought, I'm not sure if I've ever read something from Kieron Gillen that I've truly enjoyed...

-So basically I'll probably give this series until the Summer, and if it doesn't pick up substantially, I'll be dropping it.

Score: 5 out of 10.

X-Factor #218.

Synopsis: Guido's been shot, and the three female assassins who shot him have targeted Mayor Jameson next. Luckily for Jameson, he's being protected by the rest of X-Factor and the Black Cat. The assassins flee, but are being tracked by Black Cat, while X-Factor gets Guido to the hospital where he is pronounced dead, and then recovers(?!).

-I love me some Black Cat, so it was great seeing her in this issue. Yeah, I know she's not a mutie, but it sure would be awesome if she joined the team full-time.Black Cat showing up is a BIG plus!

-I can't say I know what's going on with those three metal female assassins, or why they targeted Jameson, but I trust Peter David's writing, so I'm sure this will all work out for the best... Probably...

-I have NO idea what was up with Guido dying, and then suddenly being healed... No idea whatsoever!

-This was definitely not one of my favorite issues of this series(nor is it one of my favorite storylines), but Peter David's writing(and the inclusion of Black Cat) at least make this one readable.

Score: 6 out of 10.

Supergirl #63.

Synopsis: Supergirl has been trapped at Harvard University by some crazed nerd. While SG is trying to figure a way out, Fake Beetle, Robin and Miss Martian are being mentally probed by the nerd. Eventually SG gets free and confronts the nerd, who reveals himself to be... Dubbilex?!

-The fact that Dubbilex could break through th mental defenses of both the Fake Beetle and Miss Martian, but NOT Damian made my day...

-...Until he DID break through Damian's mental defenses...Come on, Damian is stronger mentally than that!

-The stuff with SG figuring out how to break free from Dubbilex's robots did nothing for me.

-To be honest, pretty much everything about this storyline isn't doing anything for me!

-And speaking of Dubbilex, who thought THAT was a good, exciting reveal?! I mean I read the entire Superboy series from the 90's, so I know the character pretty well, but most other people? Maybe they should have foreshadowed that reveal a bit better...Um yeah, I doubt many people cared about this reveal...

-Much like Gen Hope, I can see myself dropping this title pretty soon...

Score: 4 out of 10.

Justice League of America #56.

Synopsis: Eclipso has taken over several shadow-based characters and has attacked Alan Scott's Emerald City, managing to put Alan's daughter, Jade, under his thrall. Some members of the JLA(and Saint Walker) try to take the battle to Eclipso, but his forces overwhelm them and they are captured by Eclipso's ally, Obsidian.

-Hey look, Obsidian is a bad guy again! Wow, what a SHOCK!!! In case you can't tell, I'm being VERY sarcastic...

-Man, I really hated a lot of the characters that were in this issue on the JLA... Saint Walker(one of Chairman Johns' idiotic creations)and Congorilla(a damned talking monkey) in particular.And there's the damned talking monkey...

-So this issue gives us a battle between Zauriel(or “Zaurel” as the comic spells the name... Idiots...) and Eclipso. Now Zauriel is an angel. A real angel, complete with holy powers. And yet he winds up defeated by Eclipso with relative ease. On the other hand, Saint Walker is more than able to hold his own against Eclipso... Thus proving that it's way past time for somebody to get James Robinson away from this series, because he obviously has NO idea what he's doing anymore...Eclipso takes Zauriel?! Really?!?

-You know, speaking of Robinson, I LOVED his Starman work, but other then that, I really can't say any of his other work has wowed me. He just can't seem to write mainstream characters at all...

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.

Action Comics #899.

Synopsis: Lex Luthor assembles the rest of those black globes in space and learns that Brainiac had manipulated him into assembling the globes for him... But wait! Lex reveals that he knew what Brainiac was doing and defeats Brainiac in single combat. He then uses the globes to summon a god-like creature from the Phantom Zone, defeats it and bonds with it, turning into Lex Luthor: God.

-Why does everything have to be so complicated?! I mean, was I just really tired when I read this last night or something? We have Brainiac telling Lex he manipulated him, to which Lex reveals that he was aware of Brainiac's influence. Then they fight. Then Lex somehow defeats somebody who Supes himself had difficulty beating. Then Mr. Mind shows up and begins to try to explain what the deal with the black globes were. Then some god shows up. Then Lex fights the god. Then Lex BECOMES the god... Sheesh...

-I have no clue why Mr. Mind was here. Much like talking monkeys, I also hate talking bugs...Great, a talking bug...

-I'll admit, Lex snapping Brainiac's neck? Super cool... Although it probably shouldn't have been possible...Should it have happened? No. Was it cool? Hell yeah!

-Lex Luthor: God, actually has some real potential. You KNOW Supes is gonna be in for it now!

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.

Quick Hits: 3/23/11

Hey all, tis your loyal servant X with a few more comic reviews, as well as a heads up. Once again, my county is under a Winter Storm Warning(from tonight until Thursday morning), which means two things... The first is that I am now officially sick and tired of the winter. Enough with the snow already!!! The second is that if the weather is as sucky as it's supposed to be tomorrow, I won't be able to make it to the comic store, and as such there won't be a New Comic Day post. Even I'm not crazy enough to go driving to the comic shop dodging snowflakes and idiots. If I'm not able to make it to the comic shop tomorrow, I intend on posting a few more reviews, but we'll see what happens. Anyway, that's what's going on with me, let's get to today's reviews!

Thunderbolts #155:

Summary: After having been informed last issue that he needs to add a magical member to the Thunderbolts, Luke Cage meets with Dr. Strange and Daimon Hellstrom, who decide that Hellstrom's sister Satana(!!!!!) should be made into a Thunderbolt. Luke and Strange take Man-Thing to Satana's hidden base and manage to fight through her minions and magic spells, finally getting to her and collaring her. Having been defeated, Satana decides to quietly go along with Luke and Strange, especially after seeing Man-Thing(weird...). Besides that, Fixer, Songbird and US Agent begin training the Thunderbolts beta team.

Thoughts: First things first, I am a HUGE fan of Daimon Hellstrom, and as a result, I'm quite fond of Satana. So adding her to this series only serves to make this series even stronger(for me at least). So that's the good. The bad is... well, everything else here... For whatever reason, I just wasn't able to get into this comic. The scenes at the T-Bolts base didn't do anything for me, and Luke and Strange's search for Satana also didn't impress me. I honestly don't know what it was, but this comic just sort of fell flat for me, which is unusual for an issue of this series. Oh well, hopefully next issue we go back to the way things were the past couple of months, that being good.

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.It's Satana!!! I think...


Generation Hope #5:

Summary: We get started with Magneto taking Professor X to meet Hope for the first time. Hope act like a jerk to Xavier before going on her way, much to Magneto's amusement. From there, Hope goes to train her... I don't know WHAT to call them, Generation Hopers? You know, the mutants she found and saved. From there she walks out of Emma Frost's class on Ethics(seriously?!? What's next, Wolverine teaching a class on passive resistance?!?), followed by her Gen Hopers. Hope gets a letter from Beast telling her to be careful for as long as she was on Crazy Mutie Island(Utopia), since it wasn't the utopia some people were making it out to be. Beast's letter even goes so far as to tell Hope her best bet was to leave the island altogether. Hope tries to talk to Wolverine, but he blows her off, so she heads to talk to the resident dictator of Crazy Mutie Island, Lord Summers. She basically tells Lord Summers that the Gen Hopers were going to be sticking with her, and that she didn't want Lord Summers or his Gestapo agents keeping an eye on her or her friends. Realizing he couldn't risk driving Hope from Crazy Mutie Island, Lord Summers agrees to Hope's terms, ending this one.

Thoughts: This is a hard series to get into... You see, I hate Hope. I really do. I don't like her whole, “I'm the mutant messiah” thing, and her attitude sucks. On top of that, I'm STILL waiting for the other kids in this book to develop personalities. I mean the boys are starting to stand out a bit(although not in a good way...), but the other two girls in this book are just completely forgettable. On top of that, I still don't know anyone's names(besides Hope of course). So yeah, there's a lot I don't like here. However, the story in this issue was pretty good. Go figure! I enjoyed the interaction between Prof. X and Magneto, I loved Beast sending Hope a letter imploring her to leave Crazy Mutie Island, and as much as I hate Hope, I hate Emma Frost more, so I enjoyed Hope making a fool of Emma. I'm still waiting on some codenames and some further character development for the kids in this book(a team name wouldn't hurt either...), but I can definitely call this issue a Perfectly Acceptable Comic.

Score: 7 out of 10.I love that Beast is STILL putting the screws to Lord Summers!


Avengers Academy #11:

Summary: We're not fooling around here, as we kick right off with Veil using Dr. Pym's computers to pull the Wasp's body out of... wherever it went after Secret Invasion. Pym rushes into his lab to see what was going on, and is surprised(and probably a bit disappointed) to see a woman who wasn't the Wasp standing there(YAY!!!). Quicksilver rushes in and the two Avengers try to figure out where they know this mystery woman from, when Korvac(!) arrives on the scene, demanding the Avengers get away from his wife. From there we learn that Pym was mistaken and that the discorporated energy he thought was Wasp was actually Carina Walters, wife of Korvac and daughter of the Collector. Korvac tries to reconcile with Carina, but she doesn't want to hear it, telling Korvac she sent her molecules throughout the universe just to get away from him. Korvac still refuses to listen, figuring Carina was just confused, but she reiterates that she wants nothing to do with him. By this point the rest of the Academy students and advisors are on the scene and they tell Korvac to get lost, to which he responds by trying to kill everybody there. Justice manages to deflect the blast with his telekinesis, and the full roster of the Avengers and New Avengers arrive on the scene to deal with Korvac. Jocasta takes Carina and the students to a safe room, which makes Carina laugh since she knows there's no place safe from the near omnipotent Korvac. In time, Korvac manages to down the full roster of the Avengers(including Thor himself!), although he is slightly weakened by Speedball of all people. Having witnessed the battle mentally, Carina tells the surprised students they have the best shot at beating Korvac, provided they allowed her to pull their older selves out of the timeline so they'd have their full range of powers. The kids agree, and this issue ends with the grown-up students charging off to deal with the menace of Korvac.

Thoughts: Now THIS was what I'd call an Avengers comic book! It had everything I grew up loving about the Avengers. An INSANELY powerful super-villain, a kick-ass battle, and a crazy swerve at the end. Seeing the Avengers go up against Korvac, and watching him take them ALL down, even Thor, was all kinds of awesome. I was a bit annoyed that according to Carina the only people who could hope to stop Korvac was the Academy students(um hello, he beat THOR!!!), but this IS the Avengers Academy comic, so I guess it would make sense that they'd be the ones to get to face(and inevitably defeat) Korvac next issue. What more need I say? This series is everything the Teen Titans and Generation Hope SHOULD be.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.Oh man, you KNOW it's on now!!!

Quick Hits: 2/22/11

Rejoice True Believers, it's yet ANOTHER all-Marvel edition of Quick Hits! I'll get back to DC tomorrow, but today is a Marvel-ous day. See what I did there? Pretty clever, no? Meh. Anyway, we have three comics to get through so hows about I shut my yap and get started?

Generation Hope #4:

Summary: Having captured Kenji(the EVIL Japanese “light”)the X-Men load him onto their plane and fly back to Utopia with Hope and the other 4 “lights”... God, I REALLY hate that term, “lights”... I don't know why, but it really irks me. Maybe it's just me. Anywho, the X-Men touch down on Crazy Mutie Island and tell the “lights” that they'll be given rooms after they get checked out by Dr. Nemesis. The animal-like “light”, Teon(I think that's his name...) decides to attack Wolverine to see who the alpha... um, alpha animal themed mutant is and gets put in his place by Wolvie. While the other “lights” are getting their various check-ups, Emma Frost and Lord Summers talk to Kenji who explains that he never meant to hurt anybody, he wasn't in control of his body, etc. Emma doesn't think he's lying, so Lord Summers agrees to let him stay on Crazy Mutie Island. Nemesis tells the “lights' about their powers, and they are given rooms. They meet up with the now contrite Kenji and he apologizes to them all profusely for his earlier actions before heading to his room to act all crazy.

Thoughts: I basically still have the same problem with this comic that I've been having with this series thus far... None of the “lights” stand out. Besides Hope, I only know them by vague descriptions... We have Animal Boy, Blue Girl, Self-Loathing Girl, and Horny Boy... Those are REALLY sucky codenames... Well except for “Horny Boy”. That has potential. The other ones though? Pure suck. The only new mutant who stands out is Kenji, and that's only because he's crazy. The last page teaser image showed that the kids appear to be getting costumes next issue, which means codenames should follow(I hope!). Once they have codenames I'd figure they'd become more distinctive and I'd be able to tell them apart better... Or at least that's what I'm hoping for.

Score: 7 out of 10.Oh, you KNOW he's up to no good!


Wolverine and Jubilee #2(of 4):

Summary: Jubilee wakes up in a strange room and finds a glass of blood which she takes a sip of before wondering where she was. Wolverine enters the room and tells Jubes he had taken her to Siberia, since there wasn't many hours of sunlight, and even when there was sun, it was usually overcast. Wolvie decides to do the whole “tough love” thing to snap Jubes out of her vampire funk, but Jubes is on to Wolvie's games and isn't buying. After Wolvie's failed tough love experiment, the two head back to their hotel where the hotel owner tells them some sort of sob story about zombies having invaded a mine in the town. The duo head to the mine and Jubes basically singlehandedly defeats all of the zombies while Wolvie watched. With the zombie trouble taken care of, Wolvie and Jubes head back to their hotel room, and this issue ends with Wolvie waking up to find the mysterious vampire woman from last issue standing over the fallen Jubilee.

Thoughts: See, now THIS was what I wanted out of the last issue of this mini-series! Just Wolverine and Jubilee. Not the rest of the crazy, and QUITE annoying X-crew. I liked Wolvie's attempts at forcing Jubes to deal with what she had become in his own unique Wolverine style, and I was even happier when Jubes caught on to what Wolvie was playing at and wouldn't feed into his games. I mean there really wasn't MUCH story advancement, but that was fine, as the dialogue was really well done and captured Wolvie and Jubes relationship really well.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.I'd bet Wolvie didn't see THAT coming!


Amazing Spider-Man #654.1:

Summary: Although this comic was called “Amazing Spider-Man”, it very easily could have been called Amazing Venom, since the new Flash Thompson Venom took center stage here. We see Flash on his first mission with the Venom symbiote, trying to mess up Flag Smasher's Ultimatum plans. Flash infiltrates a meeting between several of the world's major economic players and spots an Ultimatum agent, placing a bug on her person. Later on, Flash discovers that Ultimatum had captured one of the people at the meeting, and using the bug he placed on the Ultimatum agent he is able to track the terrorist group down. Flash finds the captured man and tries to get him out of there, but is accosted by Flag Smasher and his goons. The goons throw some grenades at Flash, blowing his legs off, which puts him into an old school, “I'll eat your brains!” type Venom rampage. Flash decimates the goons, and bites off Flag Smasher's hand before regaining control and getting the captive out of there. Upon meeting with his commanding officers, Flash explains that the mission went well, and although disturbed by what he had seen, the captive doesn't let on that Flash lost control. Although they can't prove anything, Flash's commanders suspect something fishy happened on that mission, and are concerned when they take the symbiote off of Flash but are only able to get 99% of the symbiote out of Flash...

Thoughts: I definitely enjoyed this issue, and as such am REALLY looking forward to the upcoming Venom series. Several important things happened here, namely Flash losing control of his temper and the symbiote taking control of his actions, as well as the fact that 1% of the symbiote remained in Flash's system, meaning permanent bonding with the symbiote is a possibility. Oh, and on a personal note, it was nice to be able to type the word, “Flash” in a comic book review again, even though this wasn't the Flash I necessarily want to be reading about...

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.Yummy!

Generation Hope #3

Review: After being spoken to by something resembling the Phoenix Force, Hope wakes up on the streets of Tokyo, surrounded by her teammates. They tell her that Lord Summers had decreed that the fifth newly-minted mutant was to be killed because he had gone too out of control... You know, I remember a time not that long ago when Cyclops would try to solve his problems with strategy, not murder... Anyway, Hope doesn't want to see the fifth mutant(Kenji)killed, so she tells her teammates to run interference with the X-Men while she makes mental contact with the out of control Kenji. Hope manages to get close enough to Kenji, while her teammates hold off the X-Men(uh-oh, Lord Summers will probably have them executed now!), and Hope manages to speak to Kenji mentally. It turns out he was already pretty crazy even before his powers manifested, so after a battle of wills, Hope manages to drain most of his powers and knocks him out with a punch. With that she collapses, ending this issue.

Thoughts: You know, I really want to like this series... I sincerely mean that. The problem I have here is there really isn't a character that I can relate to... Hope walks around telling people, “Let me be your Messiah” and since I have yet to be the Messiah for anyone, I just can't relate to a character like that. Then you have the two girls. One is from Africa and thinks she's possessed, while the other one is blue and has a bad attitude. Well, I can't relate to the first one, while the second one could possibly be kind of interesting. Rounding out the team is the two boys, one of which being for all intents and purposes an animal. That leaves ONE male member of the team! Meaning if you're a teenage boy, you pretty much have ONE character to relate to! I seriously don't get that... Why would you build a team so female heavy unless it's specifically a female-oriented team(like Birds of Prey)? Besides the out of whack choices of characters to build this team, none of them really have defined themselves very well... Sure, Kieron Gillen is starting to give the kids some personalities, but with the exception of Hope, I don't know ANY of the names of the other kids. They're basically Fire Girl(who doubles as Ice Girl), Blue Girl, Animal Boy and the Speedster... Take a series like Young Avengers... By the third issue of that series, I knew who pretty much everybody was, and the Young Avengers was a much larger team. They had codenames and distinct personalities, something I'm still waiting for here. I'm still holding out hope(heh-heh)with this series, and I'll be sticking with it through the long run, but Gillen should REALLY consider adding some more male characters and giving these kids codenames, pronto!

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.Um, no thanks.

Bonus Best of the Rest! Dec. 11th edition.

Yes, you read this post's title correctly, this is a BONUS edition of the Best of the Rest! Since I'm mainly done with school(I am SO not sweating my Chem test on Monday)until the middle of January, I wanted to finish up most of last week's comics before I started reviewing the stuff I picked up this past Wednesday. So there you go, a quick and relatively painless(well unless you're a fan of Gen Hope...)Best of the Rest post. Onward!

I've got nothin'...
Usually before I start the reviews for one of these posts I'll post SOMETHING about me, comic books or a combination of both... Well since I just posted a BotR post yesterday, I don't have anything to add here. So why even add this? Force of habit I guess...

First up is Marvel's latest effort to a)push their younger mutants and b)shove Hope SO far down our collective throats she could probably see daylight, Generation Hope #2! The story here is that the newest young man to receive his mutant powers has gone quite mad, and not even Hope can sooth his madness... I KNOW, I'm shocked too!!! Cyclops, Rogue and Wolverine(along with those other new mutants)stand around outside wondering how Hope was doing against the new mutant. The answer? Not very well. The new mutant tosses her around for a bit before rampaging out of his apartment. Of course before going after the new mutant, who could be killing dozens of people, Chairman Summers demands that Hope is collected first. With Hope taken care of, the senor X-Men go after the new mutant, but he's too crazy and powerful to be stopped. This issue ends(comically to me)with the other new mutants standing over the fallen Hope telling her that they need her... Are you KIDDING me?! Seriously, are you kidding me?! What a joke this series has rapidly become. And only two issues in... Have you ever seen that episode of The Simpsons where Homer plays the voice of Poochie the dog? At one point Homer heads to the TV executives and gives them several ways Poochie could become a bigger star, including, “Whenever Poochie isn't onscreen, all of the other characters should be asking, 'Where's Poochie???'” THAT is exactly what this issue was like! It's bad enough that Marvel actually named the ENTIRE team after Hope, but all throughout this comic, whenever Hope wasn't around, everybody was wondering where she was, what she was up too and if she was alright! Talk about overkill... See, after having Hope presented as the end all, be all and do all for the X-Men, I now realize I hate her... It's like she can do no wrong, and everybody becomes blithering idiots whenever she's around. Yep, I think that I'll be cutting ties with this series once this first storyline concludes... Score: 3 out of 10.

Sticking with Marvel(but improving greatly)let's take a look at Captain America: Patriot #4(of 4). This issue starts with FBI agent Skinner pretty much accusing the Cap of the late 1940's, Jeff Mace, of treason. Prior to that point though, Skinner had been trying to to ruin Jeff's life, separating him from his long-time girlfriend, giving him lousy assignments(in one funny scene, Jeff, as Cap, has to tell a classroom full of students the proper way to “duck and cover”), and other go nowhere jobs. However, Jeff manages to learn that Skinner was working on a top secret government project behind the FBI's back, and threatens to reveal Skinner's duplicity to Skinner's bosses. As a compromise, Jeff resigns as Cap, and Skinner leaves Jeff and his girlfriend(FBI agent Betsy Ross)alone, promising to never pester them with his treason charges again. And that's pretty much that. Jeff and Betsy move to a small town where Jeff starts up a newspaper and the two(presumably)live happily ever after. I really liked this issue. Hell, I can go one further and say that I really liked this mini-series. Jeff Mace is one of those characters that nobody really knew much about, making him the perfect character to get a mini-series. THIS is actually what comic companies should be using a mini-series for. To give us the history of a barely known character. But going back to this issue, I enjoyed Jeff's interactions with Agent Skinner, I liked their compromise, and it was nice to see something end happily ever after for a change. Score: 8 out of 10.

Okay, that's it for Marvel this post, the next three reviews will be from the DC side of the fence, starting with Freedom Fighters #4. We start off with the Jester from the 1940's telling his grandson(the current Jester)to get revenge on the Arcadians for the death of his son/his grandson's father. The younger Jester promises to do just that before teleporting away. While that is going on, Mimic breaks Black Python loose from his restraints at the Enclave A prison facility on the orders of some guy named King Bullet(wow, what a lame name...). The two villains then cause a full on prison break, at which time the Freedom Fighters teleport blindly into the middle of the battle thanks to Phantom Lady's unpredictable powers. The prison guards attack both the prisoners and the Freedom Fighters since the prison was top secret and doing all sorts of despicable experiments on the prisoners, and as such didn't need any heroes nosing around. So after a whole mess of random fighting, this issue ends with the Freedom Fighters coming face to face with King Bullet and his group of villains, who had every intention of getting out of prison. Meh. This comic was better than the last few issues, but it still didn't do much for me. The part I enjoyed the most was with the Jester(s), and they only appeared briefly during the beginning. I WANT to like this series, but so far no good. I'm not ready to give up on this series just yet, but my patience can only last for so long... Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.

Next up is JSA All-Stars #13... I'm going to blitz through this one, because I hate the story going on here. While the All-Stars are off on some alien planet fighting an evil alien warlord, Cyclone(who is powerless)is trying to figure out why there are two clones of herself(with powers)hanging around. Oh, plus one of her classmates at school managed to give himself Cyclone's powers after doing some kind of test with her DNA. Cyclone and the other two Cyclones head back to the All-Stars headquarters to figure out what was going on when they discover... oh god... like 9 more Cyclones... And so it gets worse... That annoying robot at the All-Star's base explains that the nanites in Cyclone's DNA(huh??)created clones of her when they thought she was going to die to preserve themselves, which explains(I guess...)all of the other Cyclones. So um, the nanites in Cyclone's bloodstream hopped into the bodies of other women around Cyclone's age and made them all look identical... Whatever. Bottom line is that the Cyclones defeat Cyclone's classmate, which gives the original Cyclone her powers back(somehow). From there the robot fixes the clones(somehow...)and the rest of the All-Stars return from the alien world, blissfully unaware of this really bad story. Ugh. I hate Cyclone, so imagine my unmitigated horror at the sight of nearly one dozen of her! This was by FAR the worst storyline I've read since this series began. The best thing I can say about it? At least it's over. Score: 3 1/2 out of 10.

One more and I'm out of here... We'll end things with Secret Six #28. Much like the JSA All-Star review, this is the last part of a storyline I have ZERO interest in. As such, I'm going to go the cheap route and just hit on the main points here. The two different teams of Secret Six members(who were on opposite sides of a battle in the world of Skartaris)decide to work together to defeat the main bad guy starting all sorts of trouble in Skartaris. Eventually Black Alice(yet ANOTHER character I can't stand)swipes the powers of the bad guy and defeats him. From there the two Sixes leave Skartaris and head to Amanda Waller, who gives them all pardons and tells them she'd be interested in working with them again. The only good thing about this issue is the ending, which sees Giganta attacking and preparing to torture Dwarfstar for his role in the death of the Atom(Ryan Choi), who Giganta was interested in romantically. I know I've said it before, but I see I'll have to say it again, I am SO glad this storyline is over... Two separate teams of Secret Six members hanging out in the prehistoric-ish world of Skartaris is NOT my idea of fun. Plus whenever Black Alice ends up saving the collective bacon of the team, I always get pissed off. BUT, Giganta being told by Waller of Dwarfstar's role in Choi's death, and her subsequent reaction boosted this comic up a few points score wise. Score: 5 out of 10.

BONUS Random Scan Of The Week!???

Generation Hope #1

Overall: This issue deals solely with Hope and the other four “lights”(or newly manifested mutants)heading to Japan to locate the fifth and final light. You see, when these new mutant powers manifest, they leave the “light” confused and crazed until Hope can touch them, restoring their sanity and giving them control over their powers. Before Hope and the other lights(as well as Rogue, their chaperon)can get to Japan though, the fifth new mutant manifests his powers and goes on a rampage, killing people all throughout his apartment building with bizarre fleshy growths protruding from his body. Hope and company arrive on the scene and manage to ditch Rogue(who was tasked with keeping the new mutants alive), before heading into the apartment of the out of control new mutant. Eventually Hope reaches the newly minted mutant and tries to help him, but he seems to be deformed both physically and mentally, and this issue ends with the fifth new mutant erecting an enormous energy dome over his building.

Meh. I've got to say, this was a really disappointing way to start this series off... I kind of knew going into this comic that I probably wouldn't enjoy it based on the lead up in Uncanny X-Men, but I was still hopeful. Unfortunately, that hope went unfulfilled. It's not even necessarily the story or anything, because the villain of this piece seemed pretty interesting in a completely off his gourd sort of way. No, it's the five main characters in this series that bother me. I don't feel connected to any of them. Usually when there's a new junior X-Men team(Gen. X, New Mutants/Academy X), I'll automatically be drawn to at least one of the new students. Be it Chamber, Synch, Wither or Elixir. There'd always be that one character I'd tend care about. Here, not so much. I could care less about any of these characters. I can't stand Hope, and the stories for the other four characters just don't do anything for me. I'm not really sure what the target audience for this series is(teenage girls perhaps?), but I don't think it's I'm it.

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.That's one ugly mutie!