A Quick Look At... Avengers #21

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

Avengers #21:

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

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

Score: 7 out of 10.

Best page of Bendis dialogue EVER!!!

A Quick Look At... Supergirl #5

Next up, the final DC review of the week, Supergirl. This series has been SHOCKINGLY good, far better than I'd have EVER expected it to be... Hopefully I didn't just jinx things here...

Supergirl #5:

What Happened: Using her Sunstone as a guide, Supergirl flies through the galaxy, coming across a wormhole. SG goes through and ends up at the floating Kryptonian city of Argo. After a quick look around, SG discovers the city completely abandoned, but does manage to find a working control matrix, which she uses to fire up her Sunstone. The Sunstone has a message from SG's father who confirms that Krypton had indeed blown up, and that he was trying to figure out a way to launch Argo off of Krypton before it exploded. While he is talking, he is suddenly blasted from behind and the message abruptly stops, much to SG's horror. SG freaks out and goes on a rampage until she bumps into somebody called Reign. Reign claims to be a Kryptonian weapon called a Worldkiller, and asks SG to help her discover the truth behind Krypton's destruction. SG is still throwing a temper tantrum, so Reign gets pissed off and beats SG unconscious, leaving her behind while Argo slowly drifted closer and closer to the sun it had been circling.

Thoughts: As usual, this was another strong issue of this series. Not only was the story/art/dialogue strong, we were also introduced to ANOTHER interesting villain here. That's something the writing team of Michael Green and Mike Johnson have done a great job with in this book... Setting up future enemies for SG to face off against. So many other rebooted DC titles just seem so listless, while it's obvious that Green and Johnson know what they want to do here, and are putting several longterm plans into motion. Besides Batman, this is probably the most complete DC comic, post-reboot, that I read.

Score: 7 out of 10.

Dammit, Krypton's done blowed up again!

A Quick Look At... Thunderbolts #169

It looks like we're back to the evil Thunderbolts here based on the cover.

Thunderbolts #169:

What Happened: FYI, the evil T-Bolts are now trapped in 537 Britain... Troll leaves the evil T-Bolt tower to hunt for some food, but runs afoul the Black Knight. The Knight and Troll battle(since Knight thought Troll was a real troll), at least until Knight realizes he was fighting a female and ceases battling. Boomerang, who was sent out to retrieve Troll before she got into trouble(too late!), knocks Knight out with a boomerang, steals the Ebony Blade from Knight and leaves with Troll. Naturally, this leads to King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table approaching T-Bolts tower demanding satisfaction. The T-Bolts, dress in period costumes, try to convince Arthur that they had been shanghaied there due to an evil sorcerer and meant Arthur and his knights no harm. Arthur wants the Ebony Blade returned, Boomerang doesn't want to return it, and after some hostile words are exchanged, the two sides battle. Eventually Satana decides to cast a sleeping spell on the knights to end the battle, but has the spell reversed by Merlin. When the T-Bolts awaken, they find themselves locked in Merlin's personal dungeon along with several other fanciful creatures.

Thoughts: I really don't have much more to add to this post... This comic was perfectly acceptable. Sure, I didn't like the idea of Merlin besting Satana with magic, but it was explained in a way that made it palatable for me. Other than that though, I have nothing really good nor bad to say, so let's move on.

Score: 7 out of 10.

Sure, steal the Ebony Blade... Nothing bad can come of that I'm sure!

A Quick Look At... Invincible Iron Man #512

Um, what's next... Ah, Iron Man. Or Invincible Iron Man. Whatever. Let's get to it!

Invincible Iron Man #512:

What Happened: After his defeat at the hands of Living Laser last issue, Iron Man gets brought to the hospital, but forcefully refuses treatment since he didn't want the emergency room staff to screw with his damaged repulsor unit. Meanwhile, the Mandarin pushes Ezekiel Stane around, demanding Stane readies the Dreadnoughts for an attack on China. Stane is pissed. Back with Tony, he hangs out with Anthem in a coffee shop until a cop shows up to arrest(?) Tony for his actions in Times Square and the emergency room the prior night. Tony flies the coop. From there, Blizzard and Living Laser complain about the way Mandarin had been treating them, and contemplate attacking him. Damn lackeys... Next, General Babbage complains that as a drunk, Tony shouldn't have possession of the Iron Man armor. Finally, the Dreadnoughts attack China.

Thoughts: I enjoyed this issue. We had a lot of characters show up, and a lot of pieces move around the chess board. I'm still not sure what Mandarin's endgame is(how does attacking China ruin Tony Stark?), but I did like seeing that Mandarin's lackeys were plotting against him. It's little stuff like that that really helps enhance a comic book's story for me.

Score: 8 out of 10.

I have to admit, Matt Fraction has been doing a great job writing the Mandarin.

A Quick Look At... Fear Itself: The Fearless #7

This issue should give us a huge Wolverine vs Crossbones battle... Needless to say, I expect blood... And LOTS of it!

Fear Itself: The Fearless #7(of 12):

What Happened: While the Avengers and Dr. Strange try to deal with Sin and the demons attacking Project PEGASUS(and wonder where Daimon Hellstrom went), Wolverine and Crossbones have themselves a throwdown for the Serpent hammer the Project had acquired. Crossbones ends up getting stabbed in the gut, but manages to put Wolvie down with a few point-blank shots to the chest... At least until Wolvie hops up and stabs Crossbones through the chest(!!). There's your Avenger right there folks... Anyway, Valkyrie arrives on the scene and assists Strange in shutting down the portal that was freeing the demons at the Project, while Hellstrom is busy betraying the Avengers and blasting Wolvie in the back(!?!?!). Hellstrom heals Crossbones and heads to Sin with the hammer. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Sin agrees to take Hellstrom with her and she teleports away with her DOA crew, Crossbones, Hellstrom and the Serpent hammer.

Thoughts: What the HELL was THAT?! As a fan of Daimon, it should go without saying that his decision here annoyed me... A LOT!! But, I'm willing to see how things play out before I blow a gasket or anything like that. While Daimon's actions were vexing, I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed the fight between Wolvie and Crossbones. I was initially afraid that Crossbones was going to win(seriously, he's not in Wolvie's class fighting-wise), but in the end, the right outcome occurred. And yes, it was a VERY bloody battle, as it should be. With Daimon's apparent defection, I'm quite interested in getting my hands on the next issue.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.

Boo-yah!!!

A Quick Look At... Batman #5

Next up, probably the gem of the DC reboot for me, Scott Snyder's Batman.

Batman #5:

What Happened: Basically this issue deals with Batman slowly going insane due to being trapped in the Owl's maze. Plus his water supply is probably being drugged, thus adding ti Batman's ever-growing madness... But yeah, this entire issue deals with Bats simply wandering around the maze, trying to avoid the light and winding up back where he started... Repeatedly!

Thoughts: Yes, I know that wasn't much of a review(thus why it's a “Quick Look At...” review!), but seriously, that's the entirety of this issue! Bats haplessly roaming around that maze and slowly going crazy. Scott Snyder actually added a nice little touch to show us just how crazy Bats was going by having the comic pages go sideways and upside-down at certain points in the story(which led to a very confused me turning the pages the wrong way every now and then...). Greg Capullo's art and Snyder's story REALLY hammered home how disorienting the Owl maze was, and made this an interesting, and quite good read.

Score: 8 out of 10.

Don't you just HATE it when that happens?!

A Quick Look At... Hellblazer #287

Before I get to the next review, I just wanted to let it be known that this will be the only post I do tonight on account of me celebrating the Giants heading to the Super Bowl! What an awesome game tonight... Anyway, I won't be able to comment on anything today, but I do plan on posting a whopping four reviews tomorrow and two more on Tuesday to FINALLY get myself caught up. Oh, and it should go without saying that come February 5th? Super Bowl Sunday? I most definitely won't be online! With all of that out of the way, it's time to head to Vertigo and see what John Constantine is up to this month... If nothing else it should be insane... And have a lot of profanity!

Hellblazer #287:

What Happened: Having been blackmailed by his scummy niece, Gemma, Constantine heads to Hell in order to talk to his sister(Gemma's mother) to find out... something. I'm not sure, but bottom line, Constantine has to go to Hell in order to stop Gemma from sleeping with his father-in-law by chatting with his sis. While in Hell, Constantine bumps into a duplicitous demon and ends up being transported to a room holding all of the people whose lives he'd ruined. When he turns around, he's confronted by... The devil? Maybe? Another demon? I'm not really sure...

Thoughts: Besides my confusion over WHY Constantine is in Hell, and who that demon on the last page was, this was a good read. I know in the pre-reboot DCU, Blaze was inexplicably made into the devil over the FAR superior Neron, but post-reboot, and especially in the Vertigo books, I have NO idea what “their” devil looks like. So this could have been the devil, or some powerful demon Constantine pissed off during his last foray into Hell. Regardless, I'm definitely looking forward to the next issue.

Score: 7 out of 10.

Ah Constantine...

A Quick Look At... Amazing Spider-Man #678

And for the second consecutive week, it's time for another issue of Amazing Spider-Man... If you are trying to get me to drop this series, Marvel, you are doing a splendid job!

Amazing Spider-Man #678:

What Happened: A fellow scientist at Horizon Labs shows Peter Parker a doorway that leads into tomorrow... Yes, a doorway to the future. The scientist proves this by bringing Peter a newspaper from the next day. Curious, Peter steps through and the room is replaced by a catastrophic scene of a decimated New York. Peter quickly realizes that by stepping into the future-room, he had messed up reality and the bad future was now set to occur. Peter switches to Spidey and with the scientist telling him what Spider-Man was supposed to do from the newspaper from the (good) future, Spidey goes about tackling every crime he was reported as stopping. Unfortunately, time is almost up and the future room was still showing the bad future, meaning there was something Spidey still had to do.

Thoughts: This was a pretty good comic. I know it's not going to be everybody's cup of tea, what with the alternate dimensions, and time play, but I've always enjoyed stories like that, so I liked this. I didn't get exactly why Spidey going into the future room screwed everything up, but it's not like that's too big of a deal.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.

See, that's why you don't get changed up an alley!

A Quick Look At... Daredevil #8

Next up as I try to blitz through this week's comics? Daredevil. This is the second and final part of the storyline that began in last week's Amazing Spider-Man.

Daredevil #8:

What Happened: Spidey, DD and Black Cat head to the home of the scientist who created the missing holographic device that was stolen and discover him hiding in a safe room. DD smells poison on the scientist, who quickly admits that he had been involved with the frame up of Black Cat with regards to the “stolen” device. While Spidey takes the scientist to the hospital, DD and BC track down the device and while DD is returning it to it's case, BC gets an offer to work for the Black Spectre organization in stealing the Omegadrive from Matt Murdock(Daredevil!). We don't learn what BC says, but after the mission, she ends up back at DD's apartment for some sexual situations. However, they are interrupted by a phone call from Foggy Nelson telling DD that his father's body had vanished from it's grave.

Thoughts: Meh. This was an okay story, as usual. I mean I really haven't read a TERRIBLE DD story yet, but I also haven't read a great one either... I'm not exactly sure where all of the love for this series is coming from. Oh well, maybe things will pick up for me next issue.

Score: 6 out of 10.

Poor Spidey...

A Quick Look At... Nightwing #5

Here's another rebooted DC series that SHOULD be way better than it is. I mean it's Nightwing... This should be a slam dunk to write! And yet we get Dick Grayson traveling cross-country with a circus...

Nightwing #5:

What Happened: A voodoo priestess summons a demon to force a clown that she loved to marry her... Yes, really... Trust me, I couldn't make something that stupid up to save my life! The demon abducts the clown, but Nightwing spots what was happening and follows the rampaging demon back to the graveyard the priestess was operating out of. Nightwing manages to trick the demon into going back to Hell(or wherever it came from) and cuffs the priestess, thus saving the clown. Meanwhile, Raya is in cahoots with Saiko.

Thoughts: Gah! What the hell was this all about?!? A clown and a voodoo priestess? Plus a rampaging demon?!? I just don't understand... Would it be THAT difficult to take Dick Grayson, put him in Gotham City(or New York, Philadelphia or any other major city) and have him deal with street-level threats?! Why the hell is Nightwing fighting demons?!? Ugh... This series has been such a disappointment...

Score: 5 out of 10.

Yeah sure, Nightwing versus a demon... Why not.

A Quick Look At... Red Hood and the Outlaws #5

Here's a series that's been surprisingly bad considering the character in it... Let's see if things pick up here.

Red Hood and the Outlaws #5:

What Happened: Arsenal arrives on the scene to assist Starfire against Crux, and the two of them manage to take the mutated freak down. Meanwhile, Red Hood kills the member of the Untitled he'd been battling for the past issue or so, but doing so causes the Untitled to revert back to human form(why?). Naturally the townspeople see the aftermath of the battle and chase after Hood with pitchforks and rifles... Yes, really. Hood rendezvous with Starfire and Arsenal with a mess of angry yokels hot on his heels.

Thoughts: Yep, we hit rock bottom here. This was definitely the worst issue of this series thus far. Five issues in and we still don't know what the deal is between the Untitled and the All-Caste, or who broke the truce between the two groups. Hell, the bad guys here, the Untitled, don't even seem to know who broke the truce! This comic is a confusing mess, plain and simple. Really, since you have two street-level heroes, why are we dealing with monsters, magic swords and immortal old women? On the plus side, as usual, the artwork was very good.

Score: 3 out of 10.

Don't ask me. I have NO clue what's happening here!

A Quick Look at: Batman and Robin #7, Blackest Night: JSA #2, Teen Titans #79, Avengers: The Initiative #32 & Ultimate X #1.

Hey everybody, it's your insomniac buddy X here to bedazzle you with some of the worst work every to appear on the Internet! Since my body doesn't seem interested in sleeping anymore, I have decided to simply lay awake and read comic books for the better part of the night. Hey at least I'm accomplishing something, right? On the plus side, I'm very rapidly reducing the size of my comic book pile. On the negative side, no sleep makes brain work not so good, so I'm not even going to bother attempting full reviews for the 5 new comics I read through last night. Instead, I'll give a(very!)brief synopsis of what happened in the comic, followed by my thoughts on it. Lastly, I'll dish out my score, and a pic from each book, so if nothing else, at least these reviews should be WAY quicker for you brave souls to read through. All right, enough small talk, it's game time!

Batman & Robin #7: Writer: Grant Morrison. Artist: Cameron Stewart.

Batman arrives in jolly old England and, with some assistance from Knight and Squire, winds up finding an active Lazarus Pit. Dick decides to toss the corpse of who he thinks is Bruce Wayne in the pit, and waits for "Bruce" to emerge from it. Oh, and Batwoman also shows up... Don't ask me why.

You know, I'd been warned about this comic by a few of my blogging amigos, most recently by Jason Todd, who cautioned me that reading this comic would probably cost me several braincells. JT, YOU WERE RIGHT!!! I honestly haven't the slightest idea as to what the hell was going on here... Weird British villains, Batwoman in a coffin, Knight and Squire, Batman's corpse, Damian floating around in a tube... Wha??? Reading this comic made my head hurt, but at least the artwork was nice, I guess...

Score: 2 out of 10.Does anybody know where I can buy an English-to-Grant Morrison Dictionary?

Blackest Night: JSA #2(of 3): Writers: James Robinson & Tony Bedard. Pencils: Eddy Barrows & Marcos Marz.

While Mr. Terrific is attempting to create a light source that would defeat those dastardly Black Lanterns, the Black Lanterns decide to trick the JSA into allowing them access to Terrific's laboratory. Instead of mindlessly attacking the JSAer's, they pretend to be nice zombies, which allows Black Lantern Earth-2's Lois Lane access to Terrific's lab(thanks to Power Girl, who considers E-2 Lois her mother), where she gives her BL ring up to Earth-2's Superman, who was defeated in the Blackest Night: Superman mini-series not all that long ago.

I actually enjoyed this comic a lot more then most of the other BN x-over issues. It was nice to see the BL's actually come up with a plan other then, "Terrorize the heroes who were once their friends/lovers." I loved the fact that the BL's were smart enough to momentarily sacrifice themselves in order to gain access to the corpse of Earth-2's Superman. The next issue of this mini should be extremely interesting, since there should be almost no conceivable way the JSA should be able to take BL Earth-2 Supes, as well as the army of BL's knocking at their door.

Score: 8 out of 10.Jeez, how many times is Earth-2's Superman going to return from the dead?!?

Teen Titans #79: Writer: Felicia D. Henderson. Pencils: Joe Bennett.

Static reveals to the Teen Titans that he has to return home to Dakota(Umm, which one?), because a virus is striking the place. I'm not really sure how Static plans on fighting the virus, but whatever I guess. Upon arriving home, he refuses to tell anybody where he'd been, which leads to his friends and family acting distrustful of him. The Teen Titans eventually decide to follow Static to provide him with some emotional support, but before they arrive, Static uncovers a plot by a pharmaceutical company that was benefiting from the virus, and he winds up getting laid out by some big bruiser named Holocaust.

Eh, this was an OK issue I guess. Since I only know Static from the Terror Titans mini-series and the handful of Teen Titans books he's been in, it was nice to get a look into his life. I can't say he(or the vague Dakota)was very interesting, but since he's still a work in progress, I'm willing to give Static, this storyline, and the new writer the benefit of the doubt... For now.

Score: 7 out of 10.Miss Martian has a migraine? I guess she must have read Batman and Robin #7 too!

Avengers: The Initiative #32: Writer: Christos Gage. Pencils: Mahmud Asrar.

This is a Siege tie-in issue, and it takes place before and during Siege #1, just so you know. Instead of turning tail and running from the battle against the Asgardians, Taskmaster decides to stay and fight, hoping he'll finally be recognized as an A-list villain due to his actions. The Constrictor and Diamondback are torn as to whether or not they should battle the Asgardians, and ultimately Constrictor is convinced to assist Norman Osborn's anti-Asgard crusade by the Taskmaster. Eventually Osborn takes the battle directly to Thor himself, and several of his heaviest hitters attack the God of Thunder, including Taskmaster. Diamondback can't decide what to do as she watches the battle, and before she can make up her mind, Osborn's forces have felled Thor. Besides that, the Avengers Resistance(think the former New Warriors)learn that Osborn was behind the destruction of Soldier Field in Siege #1, and they decide to attack Camp HAMMER while Osborn and his forces are preoccupied in Asgard.

Not bad, not bad at all. I've never made a secret of the fact that I've always thought Taskmaster was a WAY better villain then he was constantly being portrayed, so I was happy to see that he had a hand in downing Thor. The Constrictor/Diamondback love story is still rolling along, and since Diamondback kept wishing Captain America was there to watch her back, I've got to believe her relationship with Constrictor isn't all he was hoping it was. The Avengers Resistance taking on the nearly deserted Camp HAMMER is actually an extremely good idea, why not destroy the base of your enemy while he's away? All in all, this comic was quite good. As usual.

Score: 8 out of 10.Yeah that's right, the Taskmaster rules.

Ultimate X #1: Writer: Jeph Loeb. Pencils: Arthur Adams.

In this issue we meet Jimmy Hudson, who was given to James and Heather Hudson by Wolverine as an infant sixteen years ago. With Wolvie dead as a result of the Ultimatum storyline(really?!? They killed off their most popular character?!?), Kitty Pryde hunts Jimmy down, reveals to him that he is the son of Wolvie, and presents him with some of the Ol' Canucklehead's belongings. Among the belongings is a holographic message from Wolvie to his son, where Wolvie asks Jimmy to listen to an idea he had for him. With that, Kitty gives Jimmy the whole, "You're a mutant in a world that hates and fears you" speech, but Jimmy isn't fully convinced he actually IS a mutie, until he pops out three bone claws, ala Wolvie. However, Jimmy's claws wind up coating themselves with metal after they've been popped, unlike his old man. By now, the Hudsons track down Jimmy and Kitty, and needless to say, they are none to happy that Kitty told their son he was adopted without their prior knowledge. This issue ends with the Hudsons having to decide what to do now that the cat was out of the bag.

First off, up until about two years ago, I had collected every single comic book that came out of the Ultimate line of books. Ultimate Spidey, Ultimates, Ultimate FF, Ultimate X-Men, if it said Ultimate on it, I brought it. Then I began to read DC comics, and since I needed to drop some Marvel books in order to afford the DC comics, I ended up dumping all of the Ultimate titles. From what I've read about the Ultimate Universe since I stopped collecting, it's probably a good thing too, because it sounds like that line of books went to hell in a handbasket... I only brought this comic because I needed to add another $3 to my comic book order in order to qualify for free shipping, so needless to say, I figured I'd buy this series one time only, read it, probably not like it, and then forget about it... You know what? I was WRONG! I REALLY liked this comic! Jeph told a very simple, basic coming of age mutant story, and he did it extremely well. The story was well done, the art was good, the dialogue was solid, I liked the Hudsons, and most importantly, I liked Jimmy as well. Trust me on this one, nobody is more surprised by the fact that I liked this comic then me, it's been a while since I've really enjoyed Jeph's work, but if he can keep producing high quality stuff like he did here, I will happily stick around for the ride. So yeah, I'll definitely be buying issue #2

Score: 9 1/2 out of 10.I can tell you from experience, that hurts as much as it looks!