Siege #4(of 4)

Two reviews up for tonight, and both of them were actually pretty good... The comics I reviewed that is, not the actual reviews, they're mediocre at best! Actually most of the comics I've been reading this week have been decent, which is going to make for a very tame Best of the Rest post... I'm going to have to read a few comics I KNOW will be bad so I can have some fun with them. Who wants to read reviews where everything is wonderful anyway? Certainly not I! Plus I always have more fun writing scathing reviews as opposed to glowing reviews... Anyway, that's enough of my personal reviewing preferences, let's get started with the posting!

Siege #4(of 4): Writer: BENDIS! Pencils: Olivier Coipel.
Last Issue: 8 out of 10.

Review: So Asgard has fallen and all of Earth's heroes are trying to halt the onslaught of the insanely powerful Void(Sentry's evil alter-ego). Seeing that the heroes were sure to lose, and never meaning for Asgard to be completely destroyed, Loki steals the powerful Norn Stones away from the Hood and uses them to super-charge the heroes battling against the Void. The Void realizes that something is amiss, and deducts that it was Loki who was empowering the heroes, so the Void simply grabs Loki and murders him right in front of everybody! Even though Loki was a lowlife villain, he was Thor's lowlife villain(not to mention his brother), so Thor flies into an Asgardian rage and throws every ounce of his power at the Void in an effort to stop it from killing anybody else. While Thor has the Void's undivided attention, Iron Man takes command of the HAMMER helicarrier and sends the entire massive ship hurtling straight into the Void. This strategy actually works, and the Void transforms back into regular old Robert Reynolds, who begs the heroes to kill him to end everything he's done. Thor refuses, instead telling Reynolds he'd pay for his crimes by seeking penance for what he had done instead. Unfortunately for the heroes, this brief exchange is all the Void needs to retake control of Reynolds and renew its attack. Finally, having had enough of the Void's madness, Thor just beats the hell out of it with his hammer until the Void was dead at his feet... Well that takes care of THAT! With that, Thor takes the remains of the Void/Sentry into space, and tosses the carcass into the sun. And that's the end of the main story. From there we get a few epilogues... Steve Rogers hands the shield of Captain America back to Bucky and tells Bucky that he was the Captain America the world needed now, not him. Later on though, Steve heads to the White House where the President asks him to take command of SHIELD/HAMMER, and Steve agrees, with the sole condition being that he would run things his way. The Avengers celebrate at Avengers Tower as the news networks report that the abomination known as the Superhuman Registration Act had been thrown out, and that Steve Rogers had accepted the position of America's top cop. While the Avengers/Young Avengers/and for some reason the Fantastic Four live it up, Thor arrives and puts the remains of Asgard atop Avengers Tower and pledges to assist the Avengers whenever they ask him to. This issue ends with Steve Rogers stopping by and asking all of the gathered heroes for their assistance for what was to come next.

What I Thought: Well, I never thought I'd say this, but BENDIS>Geoff Johns... Siege TOTALLY blew away Blackest Night in terms of quality and aftermath. I mean it wasn't even close... Trust me, nobody is more surprised then me! Hell, if BENDIS keeps THIS sort of work up, I'll have to go back to calling him Bendis again... Now, that's not to say there weren't a few small problems here, but for the most part, everything went perfectly. With the exception of the, “No More Mutants” junk, the Marvel Universe is finally headed back in the right direction. The classic Avengers are back(sure Wolverine and Spider-Man are still there, but I can try to overlook that), it's no longer illegal to be a super-hero in the Marvel U, AND Steve Rogers is going to be running whatever comes after HAMMER. Could I really ask for anything more? Well I could(ERASE the No More Mutants decree!!!), but for now, I'm just going to sit back and say good job BENDIS.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.Steve Rogers as the new head of SHIELD? Thank you Marvel!

Thor #609

Thor #609: Writer: Kieron Gillen. Art: Rich Elson, Billy Tan & Batt
Last Issue: 8 out of 10.

Review: This comic takes place directly after the fall of Asgard in Siege #3. Volstagg crawls out of the rubble while the other Asgardians try to fight off the Hood's men who were still lurking around the ruins of Asgard. Loki chooses this moment to reveal himself to the king of Asgard, Balder, but Balder refuses to believe Loki's claims that he had nothing to do with Osborn's invasion of Asgard, although he does readily admit that he isn't saddened by Asgard's fate. Balder decides to rally the few Asgardians who were left, and once he has called his forces to him, he exiles Loki from Asgard forever. This issue ends with Loki smiling and saying to himself that although exiled, he will still wind up responsible for saving Asgard and getting the last laugh at Balder.

What I Thought: This issue really didn't do much for me. Thor didn't show up, nor did Ragnarok, and Loki's parts were just kind of weird. I'm not sure why he wouldn't take credit for Osborn's attack, while claiming that he was partially responsible for what happened. That just didn't really make sense to me... Besides that, there was some back story that was being wrapped up, as well as Volstagg still bumbling around. Not exactly the ingredients to a great comic in my most humble opinion.

Score: 6 out of 10.I just figured I'd post a pic of Loki being abused...

Siege: Spider-Man #1

Hey all, tis your most gracious host(the all but omnipotent X)taking a break from studying for finals to post some quickly put together comic reviews! The two reviews I'll be posting tonight are definitely not my finest work(which is really saying something!), but since I didn't really care for either comic, I'm fine with that fact. Whoops, I guess I spoiled the scores for both reviews, didn't I? Oh well. Tomorrow I'll have two more Marvel reviews up, and they should be much better then tonight's reviews are... Hopefully...

Siege: Spider-Man #1: Writer: Brian Reed. Artist: Marco Santucci.

Review: This issue begins with Venom running rampant in Asgard(prior to it's crash in Siege #3)eating Asgardians... You know, if Venom is able to pull these “gods” apart and eat them, maybe the Asgardians should stop calling themselves gods and start calling themselves losers or something... Anywho, the perpetual thorn in Venom's side, Spider-Man, arrives on the scene and they have a good old fashion super-hero throwdown, ultimately landing in the streets below Asgard. Ms. Marvel heads to the scene to tell Spidey that he's needed up in Asgard, and she proceeds to rip Mac Gargan out of his Venom costume to halt his rampage. Since it was separated from its host, the costume attaches itself to Ms. Marvel and begins to attack Spidey anew, this time with the added power of Ms. Marvel. After a bit of a battle, Spidey tricks Ms. Marvel Venom into crashing into some power lines, which severs the symbiote's connection to Ms. Marvel. The symbiote crawls back over to Gargan and reattaches itself to him, so Ms. Marvel just picks Venom up and tosses him away. With Venom gone, Marvel and Spidey head back up to Asgard to continue the fight.

What I Thought: Meh. This comic really didn't do much for me, probably because I'm not now, nor have I ever been a fan of Ms. Marvel. I'm not really sure why she was the focal point of a comic called, “Siege: Spider-Man”, other then the fact that Brian Reed wrote her entire recently canceled series, and really must like the character. If that was the case though, why not call this comic Siege: Ms. Marvel or Siege: New Avengers or something along those lines? Eh, to be honest, this comic really wasn't good enough for me to spend that much time thinking about or talking about, so I might as well end this post now.

Score: 6 out of 10.Yeah, I didn't much care for this comic, but the "kiss me" line did get a laugh out of me.

Thunderbolts #143

Thunderbolts #143: Writer: Jeff Parker. Pencils: Miguel Sepulveda.
Last Issue: 7 1/2 out of 10.

Review: We kick things off here with Norman Osborn(who is being beaten by Tony Stark during Siege #3)calling to the Thunderbolts to see if they had acquired Odin's spear yet. Nuke responds affirmatively, and begins to head towards Osborn's location with the intention of turning the battle around. However, before Nuke can reach Osborn, fellow T-Bolt, Paladin stops him and takes the spear away, not wanting to see a maniac like Osborn wielding such a powerful weapon. Before Paladin can escape, T-Bolt Grizzly attacks him and tries to take the spear to Osborn, but HE is then stopped by Antman, who manages to knock down Grizzly. Mr. X then steps in and takes the spear for himself now, but he is opposed by the Mighty Avengers, who he is able to handle(thanks to the power of the spear), until the timely arrival of Quicksilver. X is unable to make contact with the speedster, and Quicksilver manages to break both of X's arms at super-speed with a lead pipe, obviously disarming him. The Mighty Avengers then concentrate their efforts on Grizzly and the Ghost(that sounds like a really sorry cartoon actually), and after a brief battle, take them down as well. During that battle though, Paladin and Antman had managed to sneak away with the spear and hide from the sight of the Mighty Avengers. Not being able to locate the spear, the Mighty Avengers head towards the final battle of Siege, while Paladin takes possession of the spear and him and Antman go their own separate ways. This issue ends during the aftermath of the not yet released Siege #4, with Luke Cage telling his wife that he was now going to be the leader of the all new T-Bolts.

What I Thought: Eh, this comic was OK I guess. It pretty much dealt with Osborn's Thunderbolts imploding from within, but since I never really had the same emotional connection to this set of T-Bolts that I had with the original team, it didn't do much for me. Speaking of not doing much for me, Luke Cage as the leader of the new T-Bolts? Umm, no thanks. I don't know when Luke went from street hero to well-respected leader of super-heroes(I guess about the same time Spider-Man did...), but I hate Luke in this role. I miss the old Heroes for Hire Luke Cage, but I guess those days are long gone... Regardless of my slight trepidation, I will be picking up at least the first storyline of the new T-Bolts, and then I'll take it from there.

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.Further proof that super-speed is an awesome power to have.

Siege: Young Avengers #1

Siege: Young Avengers #1: Writer: Sean McKeever. Pencils: Mahmud Asrar.

Review: We get this story started with Hulkling and Wiccan overlooking the wreckage that was Asgard. It turns out that Wiccan was a bit of a Norse Mythology buff, and as such, seeing Asgard in such a sorry state has left him depressed and despondent. Nonetheless, the two head off to see if they could find the rest of there teammates/other survivors. Eventually they run into Wiccan's twin brother, Speed, who has been racing around Asgard at top speed taking the injured out of the rubble and bringing them to safety. Speed leaves and Wiccan continues to wallow in self-pity. Meanwhile, Patriot and Hawkeye(the female Young Avenger one)are buried under tons of rubble which has left Patriot indecisive, since he is afraid to do anything that would risk the roof caving in. Back on the surface, Hulkling and Wiccan run into the Wrecking Crew, who are pillaging the throne room of the fallen Asgard. This pisses Wiccan off, so he breaks off his search for survivors and goes after the Crew. After a bit of a battle, the two Young Avengers manage to take down the Wrecking Crew, which lifts Wiccan's spirits. Back underground, Hawkeye grows tired of Patriot's indecisiveness and begins to slowly tunnel her way out. This spurs Patriot to help, and before you know it the two are on their way to the surface. Speed gives up his search for survivors after not finding anybody to help, and is ready to call it quits when he gets a pep-talk from Ronin(the former Hawkeye), which gives him a renewed vigor to see what he can do to help. Patriot and Hawkeye make it to the surface and run into Wiccan and Hulkling, who then bump into Speed, and together, the five young heroes decide to head towards the site of the big final battle to give the Avengers a hand.

What I Thought: Ah, the Young Avengers... I am a huge fan of the Young Avengers, I was from the first issue of their all too short series, all the way through whatever sporadic comics they've popped up in over the years. So it should go without saying that I was REALLY looking forward to reading this comic... Unfortunately, it just never lived up to my high expectations. For me, as a huge YA fan, it was just lacking. The characters were whiny and indecisive, and the story was pretty thin. While I was happy to actually see/read about these characters, this comic definitely left me wanting a lot more...

Score: 6 out of 10.Can anybody explain why Clint bothers to put his mask back on in this scene? His ID is public knowledge as it is, so why even bother with the mask?

Siege: Loki #1

Hey X-Maniacs, happy weekend! I've got me three new reviews to post tonight, all of them Marvels and all of them Siege x-overs. I'll probably have a few more Marvel reviews to post on Monday, and then I'll go and do a few DC reviews. But that's later, back to the here and now. I'm in a pretty good mood today since I only have one more week of school, and then it's six weeks of blissful nothingness. So expect things to be a bit on the slow side on the blog next week(finals and papers and such), before I can really pick up some steam the following week. Well, I'm not on vacation yet, so let me get to these reviews so I can finish reading the final chapter of my American History book.

Siege: Loki #1: Writer: Kieron Gillen. Pencils: Jamie McKelvie.

Review: This issue gets started with Loki explaining(to himself I guess)why he feels the need to destroy Asgard during Siege. Basically he's annoyed that although the Asgardians have escaped the cycle of Ragnarok, they are still trapped in the roles they had always held. Thor is still noble, Balder is still good, Loki is still Loki, etc, and Loki is sick of it all. As such he begins to manipulate events and people in order to guarantee the deaths of his fellow Asgardians, while assuring himself immortality. As such, he drives Norman Osborn crazy via Osborn's Green Goblin mask(which Osborn believes was talking to him), manipulates Doom into allowing the Asgardians to live in Latveria for a time, makes a deal with long dead Asgardian cannibals, hands the cannibals over to Mephisto in exchange for a little piece of Hell for dead Asgardians to go to during their afterlife, and then sells that plot of Hell over to Hela in exchange for Hela's guarantee that she would never take Loki into the afterlife, basically allowing him immortality on top of his regular advanced Asgardian lifespan. And that's basically this comic in a nutshell.

What I Thought: Meh. I was looking forward to reading this comic since Loki has been pretty conspicuous in his absence during Siege, and I was interested in seeing what he was up to. After discovering what he had been planning, I've got to say I was pretty underwhelmed. So Loki basically wanted to gain immortality on top of his immortality and then kill all of the other Asgardians... I was hoping for a little bit more from Loki, but as it was, this wasn't an unbearable comic...

Score: 7 out of 10.Note to self: When in Hell, don't call the devil generous.

Siege: Captain America #1

Three new reviews tonight! See, I told you that I'd start getting back in the swing of things soon! One DC and two Marvels, but expect to see a lot more Marvels then DCs over the course of the next couple of nights, since I have way more Marvel comics to read then DC books. Alright, enough talking for now, I should probably get to work here.

Siege: Captain America #1: Writer: Christos Gage Artist: Federico Dallocchio.

Review: I'm going to breeze through this review, because nothing of any real note happened here. After the fall of Asgard, Steve Rogers(or Cap 1 if you prefer)digs out of the rubble thanks to being shielded by... well, by his shield. That's what it's for, right? After coming to, he immediately begins to worry about Bucky, who he hopes survived the crash, since Bucky didn't have the shield. Cap 1 manages to come across Bucky, who is laying motionless with a c-list villain named Crossfire holding a gun on the prone Bucky. Crossfire spots Cap 1 and Bucky reveals that he was playing possum and the two Caps take the hapless villain down with ease. Later on, the two Caps come across a family who wound up getting caught too close to the fall of Asgard. The two parents beg the Caps to find their two daughters, and the Caps wind up discovering the girls, who are being held hostage by yet another c-list villain, Razorfist. Since Razorfist is holding his knife-arms to the girl's throats, the Caps can't make a move, however, one of the girls elbows Razorfist, allowing her sister to get away, while Razorfist slashes the girl across the neck. Cap 1 rushes to the injured girl, while Bucky goes after Razorfist in an attempt to draw his attention away from Cap 1 and the girl. The two fight for a while(probably longer then they should have since Razorfist is a loser and Bucky is a fighting dynamo), and after Cap 1 manages to stabilize the girl, the two Caps take down Razorfist. This issue ends with the Caps heading back towards the wreckage of Asgard to take part in the final battle.

What I Thought: This was the very definition of good, clean, harmless comic book fun. Nothing of any major importance happened(unless you're a Crossfire fan, and if so I pity you...), the story was solid, as was the dialogue and the art. Granted, Bucky's drawn out battle with Razorfist left me a bit disturbed(it's frigging Razorfist for god's sake, the guy's the very definition of cannon-fodder!!!), but everything else fit nicely. Christos seemed to have the dynamic between Cap 1 and Bucky down well enough, so there were no complaints there. With the exception of the Bucky/Razorfist fight, I had no complaints whatsoever.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.Jeez, when you have a tough time taking down Razorfist, it's probably time to call it quits...

Dark Wolverine #84

I've got a pair of Wolverine related reviews on tap for tonight. Besides that, I really don't have much else going on... A few of my subscription comics arrived in the mail today, so I'll probably take a peek at them tonight, but I won't be putting up any new reviews until Monday, with the Random Scan of the Week and the end of my spring break coinciding tomorrow. So yeah, all I plan on doing blog-wise tomorrow is the RSotW and a new post over at the pic blog, and that's it. The responsible thing to do would be to read a few school related things, since most of my schoolwork has vacated my mind during my time off. So that's how I'll be spending my Sunday, trying to remember what was going on at school last week, reading a few comics and if I can find the time, a little quality time with my PS3. Fun, fun, fun!

Dark Wolverine #84: Writers: Daniel Way & Marjorie Liu. Pencils: Giuseppe Camuncoli.
Last Issue: 8 out of 10.

This comic is the final part of Daken's role in the Siege storyline. We open this comic up with Daken reveling in the battle, ripping the Asgardians apart with his claws. Eventually he makes his way to Bullseye and a battered band of HAMMER agents, who are facing insurmountable odds. This situation leaves Daken at the proverbial fork in the road... He could easily sneak away from the battle and let the Asgardians overrun the HAMMER position, or he could step in and assist Bullseye and his battered soldiers... After a brief pause, Daken decides to stay and help, which brings him face to face with a panicking Bullseye. To shut Bullseye up, Daken plants a kiss on him(!), and tells Bullseye that they aren't retreating, they're staying and fighting. While that scene was playing out, the Hammer entrenchment was being surrounded by an army of furious Asgardian warriors, and Daken considers sneaking away from the battle via a nearby sewer pipe, leaving Bullseye and his charges to get slaughtered. Daken once again decides to stick around, not wanting to be called a coward, since that's the ONE thing he had never been called(you know what? I believe that!). From there we head to the Asgardian Fates, who seem displeased by Daken's decision to stick by the HAMMER agents. The Asgardian warriors attack, and Daken literally tears them limb from limb in an awesome scene where he denounces the Asgardians as gods, and announces that there are NO gods above him. Man is Daken awesome... Daken's actions buy Bullseye and the HAMMER troops the time they need to sneak into the sewer pipe, where they could try to find an escape off of Asgard. Later on, Daken catches up to Bullseye and his shattered men and tells them that the Asgardians are scared and on the ropes, and that if they are going to make any headway against their Asgardian enemies, they have to attack the Asgardians NOW, injured or not. After some thought, Bullseye bluntly tells Daken to go to hell, which nearly pushes Daken into a rage. He attacks a few of the HAMMER agents, and warns them that they'll either fight at his side, or they'll die at his feet. At that very moment, Norman Osborn arrives on the scene and tells the scared HAMMER agents that they need to follow him and press onward(pretty much parroting what Daken had said earlier). Much to Daken's shock, the troops follow Osborn, and Bullseye tells Daken that even scared out of their wits, the HAMMER agents could tell it was all an act with Daken, that he was a joke, and that nobody respects him, which is why nobody would ever follow him. YEOUCH! With that, Bullseye joins Osborn's forces and Daken stands there downtrodden. The scene then shifts, and Daken finds himself surrounded by the Asgardian Fates, where he complains to them that he fought and bled for those HAMMER soldiers, and they STILL wouldn't follow him. The Fates tell Daken that's because he's NOT a hero, which is why the HAMMER agents couldn't trust him. They then pose Daken with a simple question, would he like to see all of the men he fought for burn. Daken stops and thinks, flashing back on key moments of his life, and he realizes that he was never shown any mercy by anybody, and as such, he owed nobody any act of kindness. With that, he tells the Fates to let them burn, and the Fates teleport Daken back to the beginning of this comic book, where he first runs into Bullseye and his battered HAMMER soldiers. The same as before, Bullseye announces that they were being slaughtered, and Daken simply smiles, turns his back on Bullseye and the HAMMER agents and leaves the men to their fates.

You all know how much I love this comic! This is easily one of my favorite Marvel comics, and it's one of the VERY few comics I'll oftentimes read twice, just to make sure I was able to glean the full story. I loved how Daniel and Marjorie showed us throughout the first half of this comic that Daken was seriously considering turning over a new leaf, and that he seemed more then willing to lead Bullseye and those injured HAMMER agents against the forces of Asgard, provided they listen to his orders... But that's the thing about following orders, you can't/won't follow the orders of somebody you don't respect, and Bullseye and most of the HAMMER agents just didn't respect Daken, even after he saved their asses on more then one occasion. It was that event that seemed to help Daken remember who he was, not a hero like his father, but a cold-blooded, manipulative murderer, who only cares about himself and nobody else. In the end of this comic, after conferring with the Fates, Daken finally understood that. He isn't his father, more then that, he could probably never be his father, because Wolverine's actions are so counterintuitive to the way Daken operates. That's why the end of this comic brought such a broad smile to my face, because Daken realized that he was leaving Bullseye and his men to almost certain death, and he could care less about it. That in a nutshell is Daken. Nobody ever gave him anything or assisted him through his hellish childhood, and as such, why should he be bothered with the well being of others?

Score: 9 out of 10.What's not to like here?

Mighty Avengers #35

After some thought, I've decided to go back to the way I used to post reviews, that being one review per post. That way if there's a certain comic review you're looking for, it should be a lot easier to find it as opposed to having to sift through as many as 5 other reviews per post to find it. I figure that'll make things a little bit easier for you, my beloved readers. Yeah, that's right, I'm kissing up again! So everything will be as it always was, except I'll only have an introduction with my first post of the night, the other posts will be straight up reviews, so while Mighty Avengers is going to get an intro, Superman(which I'll be posting next)won't. There we go, I think I've adequately explained things, so with that, let's get to the reviews!

Mighty Avengers #35:Writer: Dan Slott. Pencils: Khoi Pham.
Last Issue: 7 1/2 out of 10.

This issue begins with two agents from GRAMPA(which is some kind of global security outfit)heading to the Infinite Avengers Mansion to tell Pym that his Mighty Avengers were no longer associated with GRAMPA, all thanks to Pym butting heads with Norman Osborn a few issues back. Pym seemingly could care less, since the Mighty Avengers disbanded after the last issue, and he's been spending his time trying to get Jocasta back online. While this is going down, Ultron is reassembled by the billions of Jocasta clones he managed to take over, and he begins to slowly take over the computer systems of the Infinite Avengers Mansion. Pym discovers from the agents of GRAMPA what had been going down in Asgard(during Siege), and when Captain America calls Pym to see if Pym would be willing to assist Cap's Avengers as they head into battle against Osborn and his HAMMER forces, Pym bluntly turns Cap down. After finishing up with Cap, Pym manages to reawaken Jocasta, revealing to her the he had created human-like arms and legs for her... DAMN is Pym crazy! Anyway, Pym hooks Jocasta back up the the mainframe of the Infinite Avengers Mansion servers, and she immediately panics, telling Pym to disconnect her from the mainframe before it was too late. Before Pym can ask what was wrong, Ultron appears on all of Pym's computer screens and announces that he plans to delete Pym. HA! Pym and company decide to make a break for it, but run into the billions of Jocasta robots Ultron had taken command of. Pym and his allies manage to escape the Jocastas by shrinking down and leaving a hologram of Pym and company behind. Pym and co make it to the main lab of Infinite Avengers Mansion, and Pym shrinks down his teleportation technology, hiding it in Jocasta, so that it wouldn't fall into the metal hands of Ultron. However, with the teleportational device not hooked up, Pym and company have trapped themselves inside Infinite Avengers Mansion with Ultron. The agents of GRAMPA decide to try their luck outside the Mansion, but find themselves in some sort of extra-dimensional void. This issue ends with Pym revealing that the dimension Infinite Avengers Mansion was located in was the same one Thor banished the Wasp to at the end of the Secret Invasion farce.

Well, there was some good here, as well as some bad. The good was ULTRON! Ultron is my favorite Avengers villain, and seeing him(yes, HIM!)back in all his unholy, robotic glory made me very happy. You don't know how glad I am to see that this comic seems to have rid us of that female Ultron garbage the Dread Lord gave us back during the beginning of this series. However, the non-Ultron stuff was a bit flat. Pym giving Jocasta human arms and legs was pretty creepy, as was the fact that he was hanging around in the dimension his ex-wife had been banished to. The next issue should be the final one for this series(I think), and it should also have the final(until the next time)battle between Pym and his maniacal robot son, Ultron. Whatever happens, I'm just hoping that the next issue doesn't see the return of the Wasp...

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Woo-hoo, it's the return of the ORIGINAL Ultron!!!

Dark Avengers #15 & Thunderbolts #142

Well, since I'm pretty engrossed in Dragon Age: Origins right now, I'm not really in the mood to do any reviews. As such, I'm going to be pretty quick with these reviews so I can get back to my game. Sure, that's not a very good excuse for posting sucky reviews, but it'll have to do. Anyway, the books I'm reviewing are two Siege x-overs, and let's face it, if you've read the main Siege books, you're not really missing out on much with the x-overs. OK, with that out of the way, let's see how quickly I can blitz through these reviews.

Dark Avengers #15: Writer: BENDIS. Artist: Mike Deodato.
Last Issue: 7 1/2 out of 10.

If you've read the Siege: The Cabal one shot from a few weeks(months?)back, then you know what went on through most of this comic, because this issue is just a rehash of those events. Here's the short form: Doom and Osborn have a disagreement over Namor being kicked out of the Cabal. Osborn threatens Doom with the Void, Doom doesn't back down, and the Void destroys Doom. We then learn that it wasn't actually Doom, but a Doombot, and the Doombot unleashes a swarm of nanites, which proceed to tear apart Avengers Tower. These events lead to Osborn evacuating the Tower, which is where the new stuff picks up. While evacuating, Bullseye takes the Sentry's wife on a private helicopter, and as per Osborn's instructions, he kills her, tossing her corpse into the Atlantic Ocean. After the mess with Doom is cleaned up, Bullseye returns to the Tower and tells the Sentry that his wife committed suicide rather then be with him, since she was terrified of him. The Sentry turns into the Void, attacks Bullseye, but is ultimately convinced by Osborn that Bullseye wasn't in the wrong. With that, the Sentry leaves to mourn, and Osborn gives Bullseye the, “good job” look, which Osborn's right hand woman, Victoria Hand picks up on, ending this issue.

Meh. There really wasn't NEARLY enough new content in this comic to justify the $3.99 cover price, since most of this comic dealt with events that I've already seen play out in the Siege: The Cabal comic... Not only that, but man was BENDIS in one of his bad dialogue moods... Ugh! Here's an example of what I most dislike about BENDIS'S writing style. During the scene where the Dark Avengers are evacuating the Tower, Moonstone, Venom and Daken have the following exchange about getting the Quinjet airborn.
Moonstone: Why isn't this thing working?? Venom: You have to turn the blue thing. Moonstone: I turned the blue thingy. Daken: I can fly it. Get out of the way. You had it on emergency lockdown. Moonstone: No, I didn't. Daken: Then how did it get in emergency lockdown? Moonstone: I don't even know what that is. Daken: Everyone in your seats. Where to, Ms. Hand?
And it keeps going on from there! It's just inane dialogue that adds nothing to the story... It's simply there to fill up the page, which(to me anyway)is such a waste of my time. Further the story, or develop the characters, don't just put dialogue for the sake of putting dialogue. Exactly what did that exchange accomplish? That Moonstone can't fly a Quinjet, but that Daken can? Couldn't that have been accomplished with much fewer words? And why exactly did we need to know that anyway? I don't know, to me it seemed like BENDIS really didn't have anything to do with this comic, besides killing off the Sentry's wife, so he just filled this comic with scenes from a comic that came out a while ago, as well as throwing in tons of annoying dialogue... On the plus side, the art was REALLY well done, and as most of my regulars know, I hardly ever notice the art in a comic. To me, Mike Deodato's artwork really made this comic tolerable.

Score: 5 out of 10.You've got to love Taskmaster's reaction to the Void.

Thunderbolts #142: Writer: Jeff Parker. Pencils: Wellinton Alves.
Last Issue: 8 out of 10.

This entire issue revolves around the battle between the Thunderbolts and some of the Mighty Avengers(Vision, Stature, Amadeus Cho and US Agent), as they all attempt to get their hands on Odin's Spear, which is on par with Thor's hammer when it comes to ultra powerful Asgardian weaponry. The T-Bolts are under orders to retrieve the Spear and get it to Osborn, while the Avengers want to make sure that doesn't happen. So after many pages of fisticuffs, as well as the reveal that the leader of the T-Bolts, Headman, is actually Nuke, the entire city of Asgard begins to crumble thanks to the Sentry's attack in Siege #3. After all of the dust has cleared, US Agent comes to and realizes that the Spear landed right next to him after the fall of Asgard. Agent goes to grab the Spear, but before he can, Nuke procures it, stabs Agent with it and this issue concludes with Nuke declaring that the Spear is now the property of Norman Osborn and HAMMER.

I enjoy a good all out fight as much as the next guy, and this issue gave me that. The art was crisp, and the dialogue didn't get in the way of the story(unlike in Dark Avengers #15), it added to it. The only thing I can honestly say I didn't like was that tool, Amadeus Cho, defeating Mr. X in battle... The same Mr. X who handed Wolverine his ass... Yeah, that definitely didn't work for me. Besides that, I enjoyed everything else about this comic, and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Jeez, Nuke must be challenging Magneto's record for most times returned from the dead!

Siege #3, Avengers: The Initiatve #34 & Thor #608.

Hey there X-Maniacs, I was going to do some terribly unfunny post for April Fool's Day, but I decided to spare all of you, and instead just stick with a few reviews. I'm also currently watching the Batman comic where Jason Todd makes his first appearance on eBay, there's 20 minutes to go, so I'm hoping the price stays around where it is so I can swoop in and snag it, since I'm on a Jason Todd kick(as is pretty evident by the spotlight over at my scan site!). Anyway, I have a trio of Siege related comics to go over tonight, starting with the penultimate part of the mini-series. So far this series has impressed me WAAAAY more then I expected, and to be honest, it's been a lot more cohesive then the huge mess Blackest Night became towards the end.

Siege #3(of 4): Writer: BENDIS. Pencils: Olivier Coipel.
Last Issue: 7 1/2 out of 10.

This comic gets started with the President of the United States and his cabinet watching the events of Norman Osborn's Siege on Asgard take place. The President is angered that Osborn went against his orders and went and attacked the Asgardians anyway. After some debate, the President decides to send in the military to arrest Osborn and shut down HAMMER. While that's happening, Captain America(that would be the original, Steve Rogers), and his ragtag group of Avengers launches an all-out assault against Osborn and his forces of evil. That fight rages for a while, while a little bit further off, the main event is taking place, with the Sentry, now fully under the control of his evil alter-ego the Void, battling the Thunder God himself, Thor. Thor hits the Sentry with everything he has, and the Sentry simply stands through it all... Well, THAT'S definitely NOT a good thing! Osborn, who is being trounced by the Avengers, calls for assistance, and the Hood and his army of super-villains arrive on the scene to assist Osborn. The Young Avenger Speed, brings the suitcase containing Tony Stark's Iron Man armor to Stark at the behest of Captain America himself, hopefully serving to bury the hatchet between those two heroes. The US Air Force attacks the HAMMER helicarrier and brings it down, while Osborn watches in disbelief, as his house of cards literally comes down all around him. Cap takes that opportunity to attack Osborn, but with his armor, Osborn is still more then a match for the Sentinel of Liberty. Osborn goes to blast Cap, however his armor becomes unresponsive, and as he tries to figure out what happened, Tony Stark, now in full Iron Man mode, arrives on the scene and tells Osborn his armor was being shut down. Osborn begins to panic, sensing the end, so he sends word to the Sentry to bring down Asgard itself, to which the Sentry stunningly does, completely destroying the floating city, sending it crashing to the Earth. From there, Cap tells Osborn he was under arrest, and Iron Man forcibly removes the armor from Osborn, revealing that his face was painted in the colors of the Green Goblin(???). The heroes knock Osborn down, and he tells them that they had made a grave mistake, as the Sentry hovers above all of the gathered heroes menacingly, while the sky around him turns black, which ends this issue.

Damn it, I didn't win my Batman comic... Anyway, this was another solid effort from BENDIS, although I liked it a little bit less then the awesome first issue, as some of BENDIS'S annoying dialogue began to rear its ugly head again. There was a lot to like here, such as Cap and IM appearing to finally make nice, Asgard being destroyed(I'm sorry, but I NEVER liked the idea of Asgard, home to Norse Gods, floating above Oklahoma!), and Osborn finally getting pulled out of his Iron Patriot armor. There were also a few, “What the HELL?!?” moments as well though, such as Osborn's face for some reason resembling the Green Goblin, and the Sentry transforming into a... giant spider looking creature... That's the best I can describe it! Also strangely enough, Loki has been absent through it all, even though it was his machinations that started this whole Siege on Asgard in the first place! So next issue, which is the last issue, should give us everybody vs the Sentry/Void. Since this is Marvel, and this is their yearly big event, I guess the main thing to wonder is, which character is going to die as this mini concludes?

Score: 8 out of 10.Umm, huh???

Avengers: The Initiative #34: Writer: Christos Gage. Pencils: Jorge Molina.
Last Issue: 8 1/2 out of 10.

This comic follows two stories, the Avengers Resistance battling the Hood and his gang at Camp HAMMER and the Taskmaster's role in the battle for Asgard. I'll begin with the Avengers Resistance story. The Resistance puts up a good fight, but are unable to bring down the Hood, who is using the immensely powerful Asgardian Norn Stones to empower himself and his henchmen. All looks lost until Penance(the former Speedball), decides to assist the Avengers Resistance, which is filled with many of his former New Warriors teammates. With the added muscle from Penance and the other non-evil members of the Initiative, the Resistance begins to turn the tide of the battle. At that very moment, the Hood is summoned to join Osborn's forces in Asgard, and he takes several of the evil Initiative members with him, leaving the other evil Initiative members at a strong disadvantage. Back in Asgard, the Taskmaster realizes that it's all falling apart for Osborn, but he decides to take a shot at Captain America, figuring that even if Osborn loses, beating Cap would help his rep as a mercenary. Taskmaster and Cap go at it for a bit, until Cap switches off with Bucky, since Taskmaster had never studied Bucky, and as such wouldn't be able to mimic Bucky's fighting style. Bucky and Taskmaster continue their battle until the fighter jets blow the HAMMER helicarrier out of the sky, at which point they both stop to watch the fireworks. This issue ends with the Sentry bringing Asgard down, while several members of the Initiative are still trapped inside, including star-crossed lovers, Constrictor and Diamondback.

This was a pretty good comic that did a marvelous job tying into the main Siege storyline. Stuff that happened in Siege #3 also happened here, giving the two books a very nice feeling of cohesion. Since most of the things that happened here simply expanded or retold what happened in Siege #3, I think it's pretty fair to give this comic the same score.

Score: 8 out of 10.My only complaint is that this fight didn't last longer!

Thor #608: Writer: Kieron Gillen. Art: Billy Tan, Batt & Rich Elson.
Last Issue: 8 out of 10.

This comic follows the Asgardians themselves during the events of Siege #3. While the majority of Asgardians are fighting against Osborn's forces on Asgard, Volstagg is being harassed by Thor's evil clone, Ragnarok. Ragnarok wants to kill Volstagg for what happened at Soldier Field in Chi-Town, but Volstagg is afraid to battle Ragnarok, fearing that he might inadvertently kill innocent bystanders again, just like in the Chicago incident. Instead of battling Ragnarok, Volstagg makes a run for it, and is pursued by the crazed Ragnarok. Ultimately Volstagg leads Ragnarok to the uninhabited area directly underneath the floating city of Asgard, and the two battle, since Volstagg can cut loose without worrying about collateral damage. The two fight for a few pages, and Ragnarok ultimately gains the upper-hand, knocking Volstagg away from the floating city. Before Ragnarok can reach Volstagg to deliver the death blow, the whole of Asgard collapses onto Ragnarok, ending this issue.

As with the Initiative book, this comic did a wonderful job of enhancing the main Siege storyline. You know, as much as I hate to say it, with how chaotic and disconnected several of the Blackest Night x-over comics were from the main Blackest Night mini-series, DC should REALLY take some notes from Marvel and Siege, because ALL of the Siege x-overs have blended PERFECTLY into the main Siege story! If nothing else, that's what has impressed me the most with the way Siege has moved forward, all of the various x-overs fit with the main story so well. This comic was no different, as it gave us some more of the Thor/Sentry battle from Siege #3, as well as showing the Asgardian's plight as they faced the magically powered Hood, who appeared in Asgard by way of Initiative #34 and Siege #3. Not only that, but it also gave us its own story, with Ragnarok battling the oafish Volstagg. The only thing that disappointed me was the ending, when Asgard fell on Ragnarok... I really hope that isn't the way Ragnarok goes, because I'm still awaiting a Thor/Ragnarok showdown. Here's hoping Ragnarok somehow managed to avoid the falling city before it was too late.

Score: 8 out of 10.Fake Thor vs a fat Asgardian... Strange...

Avengers: The Initiative #33, Dark Avengers #14, New Avengers #62, Thor #607 & Thunderbolts #141.

Well, with the next few days looking free and clear for me schoolwork-wise, I've got a lot of comic reviews to try to bust out before I wind up getting swamped with homework/papers/exams again... With that said, I'm going to post not one, not two, not even three reviews tonight, I'm going to post a whopping 5(!)reviews, and all 5 are a part of Marvel's latest money-grab... I mean MAJOR CROSSOVER EVENT, Siege!!! No, this isn't going to be a, “Let's bash Marvel post”(or at least I don't think it will be...), so far I've been pleasantly to SHOCKINGLY impressed with Siege so far. While Blackest Night continues to drag along in the DCU, Siege has been a well-paced, fast-moving x-over. And the biggest surprise of all? It's written by BENDIS! I'm sure the other shoe will eventually drop, and this x-over will leave me feeling sad and angry, but thus far, BENDIS has been alarmingly on his game, which is very much unlike him... OK, with all of the warm and fuzzies out of the way, let's see if these x-over comics continue to leave me happy, or will reality finally set in?

Avengers: The Initiative #33: Writer: Christos Gage. Pencils: Jorge Molina.

OK, we have a few different storylines here, so I'm going to tackle them one at a time to keep this review somewhat coherent... Or at least that's the plan. Besides that, it should be noted all of the action here takes place during the events of Siege #2. Osborn and his crew stand triumphant over Thor, which has Taskmaster grinning from ear to ear. Before he can do a happy dance or anything, Osborn disciplines him for attacking Thor against orders and sends him back to Asgard. However, Osborn allows Diamondback to remain, which leaves her wondering if he had managed to figure out she was a double-agent, also working with the Avengers Resistance. Before she discovers why Osborn asked her to stick around though, Maria Hill strikes and rescues Thor, while Constrictor arrives on the scene to spirit Diamondback out of there. After being sent away, Taskmaster battles a few Asgardians, only managing to get away from them after the Asgardians stop to watch what Sentry did to Ares. Away from all of this, at Camp HAMMER, the Avengers Resistance is attacking the undermanned facility, and are doing a pretty good job of making their way into one of Osborn's main bases. Before they manage to gain entrance, the Hood shows up and begins to blast the heroes with magic, rendering them unconscious. Before the Hood can kill anybody, he is attacked by Tigra, who was still looking for revenge against the Hood due to his brutal attack on her several months back. We end this issue with the Hood telling Night Thrasher of the Avengers Resistance(who he had been secretly conspiring with)that if he killed Tigra, the Hood would use his magics to return the original Night Thrasher to life.

You know, I don't know what's going to become of the Avengers titles after Siege, but whatever happens, I REALLY hope Christos gets one of, if not THE main Avengers book, because he's been incredibly solid on this series since he took it over. He did a wonderful job of blending his story into the main Siege storyline, while continuing to move the storylines from this series forward. We're definitely starting these reviews out on the right foot, with this one...

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.I'm so glad the Taskmaster is finally getting some respect in the Marvel U.

Dark Avengers: #14: Writer: BENDIS. Artist: Mike Deodato.

This issue actually takes place before Siege gets underway, and yet it has the Siege banner adorning the cover... We kick things off with Osborn's second in command, Victoria Hand, telling Osborn that he should go to see a psychologist to make sure that his Goblin side doesn't re-emerge due to the stress he's been under. Osborn says no, Hand says yes, and after several pages of this, Osborn finally agrees to do as he's told. From there, Hand walks into the Avengers conference room where Moonstone and Bullseye were in the throes of passion and blasts Moonstone with a gun that can even harm Moonstone as a lesson to stop disrespecting Osborn. From there, the Sentry, who is now fully possessed by the Void launches an attack on NYC with tendrils of darkness striking down from the heavens, causing widespread damage. The Dark Avengers hit the streets and try to save as many people as they can, and Osborn heads into the sky to try to talk the Void down. The Void complains about his Sentry side, and the Sentry's wife. The Void then insults Osborn, telling him that Osborn has no way to stop his rampage, but Osborn informs the Sentry that although he can't stop the Void, there are several other heroes who can. That gives the Void pause, and Osborn tells the Void that if he ceases his tantrum, he'd do something that would make the Void quite happy. With that the Void halts his attack on NYC, and this issue ends with Osborn heading into Bullseye's room later that night to inform him that when he gives the word, he wants Bullseye to murder the Sentry's wife.

Although I was annoyed that this issue had NOTHING to do with the Siege storyline, even though the cover clearly states that this was a Siege x-over issue, I have to say, this comic was quite good, which kind of scares me... I mean, whatever happened to BENDIS, the man who I could always count on providing a horrible story? I used to be able to say with confidence, even before I read a BENDIS comic that it would be terrible... However, lately BENDIS has been busting out some of his best work in YEARS! If he keeps this up, I may have to stop calling him by all caps... Now, there were a few dead spots in this comic, such as the LOOONG and boring conversation between Hand and Osborn(sorry, I have NO interest in Hand at all), but for the most part, the story was sound, BENDIS refrained from his usual annoying dialogue(for the most part anyway)and the cliffhanger ending was good. So yeah, as weird as it feels, I have to say that I did like this comic.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.A shiny new penny to the first person who tells me why this comic was a Siege x-over issue!

New Avengers #62: Writer: BENDIS! Pencils: Stuart Immonen.

This issue begins with Spider-Woman trying to kill Spider-Man thanks to the telepathic influence of Mandrill, who is basically a talking monkey-thing... *Sigh* This fight goes on for most of this issue, and eventually ends when Spider-Man somehow gets through to Spider-Woman, freeing her of her mind-control. The two heroes then take care of Mandrill and Griffin. Back at the New Avengers not-so-secret headquarters, Bucky and Steve Rogers manage to take care of some HAMMER agents and the Living Laser with some help from BENDIS'S FAVORITE character, Luke Cage, because in BENDIS-Land, one Luke Cage is WAY better then two Captain Americas... OK, since thinking about this comic is actually starting to piss me off, I'm just going to fast forward to the ending. All of the Avengers meet up at one of Nick Fury's bases and decide to go to Asgard to help Thor... Hey wait, didn't I already see this EXACT scene play out in Siege #2?

Well, this is what I get for complimenting BENDIS... Serves me right I guess. This comic was complete and total rubbish. BENDIS writes a HORRIBLE Spider-Man, probably because he writes mainstream Spidey in the exact same manner he writes teenage Ultimate Spidey. The dialogue was crappy, the story was pointless, and the payoff was something I've already read about in the Siege mini... In other words, reading this comic was a complete and utter waste of time.

Score: 3 out of 10.No comment...

Thor #607: Writer: Kieron Gillen. Artists: Billy Tan, Bat & Rich Elson.

We open this issue up with the Asgardians chilling(I guess Asgardians chill...)at a big old banquet dinner. While they're all eating and being merry, Fandral and Hogun alert the current king of Asgard, Balder, as to what transpired between the U-Foes and Volstagg at Soldier Field in Chi-Town. The two Asgardians explain to Balder that Volstagg, feeling terrible for the tragedy he was unwittingly a part of had surrendered himself over to the Oklahoma police force. While the Asgardians are discussing how to make matters right, Knut, who can apparently see the future(although he is more often wrong then right)rushes into the banquet hall and warns the Asgardians that Asgard will fall the following morning. Nobody buys Knut's ramblings, and Loki promises to take Knut back to him room, telling the other Asgardians that Knut probably simply had too much to drink. Knut begs Loki to believe him, and to Knut's surprise, Loki tells the old man that he does, after which time Loki kills Knut so he wouldn't be capable of warning the Asgardians to what was to come. The following morning, Loki manages to lock the watchman of Asgard, Heimdall, in some sort of magical nether-dimension, so he would be incapable of warning the Asgardians nor assisting when Osborn's forces attacked. With that, Osborn and company launch their attack, and the Asgardians, caught by surprise begin to mount a defense. Upon hearing about what was transpiring, Volstagg asks the cops who were watching over him to let him speak to the country to offer his forgiveness. The cops allow Volstagg to use a webcam to apologize, while casting doubt on Osborn's story that Volstagg acted alone. Volstagg then leaves the prison to help his fellow Asgardians, but he is met and attacked by Ragnarok(!!!).

This was actually the first Thor comic I've read in probably two years(I stopped reading after they turned Loki into a woman), and I have to say, I really enjoyed it! The story basically gave us some idea of what the Asgardians were going through while Osborn was rallying his forces against them. Plus the inclusion of Ragnarok at the end was VERY welcome. I've been waiting to see Ragnarok pop up again after he left the Initiative series, and it makes perfect sense for him to show up in this book. I know I'm definitely looking forward to a Thor/Ragnarok showdown. All in all, this comic was so good, I'm a little bit tempted to grab a few trades to see just what I've been missing.

Score: 8 out of 10.Man, I'd forgotten just how awesome Loki could be!

Thunderbolts #141: Writer: Jeff Parker. Artist: Miguel Sepulveda.

The T-Bolts get orders from Osborn to sneak into Asgard while Osborn and his forces occupy the Asgardians in order to steal a supremely powerful Asgardian artifact from Asgard's armory called the Spear of Odin. Osborn figures if he were to wield an Asgardian weapon against the Asgardians, he could possibly defeat all of Asgard. With that, the T-Bolts sneak into Asgard, make their way to the armory, fool around a little bit, and eventually discover the Spear. Before they can escape with the Spear, they are confronted by an Asgardian guard, who Mr. X actually manages to kill(!), before they run into the Mighty Avengers, ending this issue.

This was another comic I used to collect before I started reading DC books and had to cut back on my Marvel expenditures, and much like Thor, I was pleasantly surprised by this comic. Having not read it for quite some time, I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was into the story from the get go, which means the writer did a good job. Once again, if I have some extra money laying around, I may try to grab a few T-Bolt trades to see what I've been missing.

Score: 8 out of 10.Wow, I wonder who decided to start using Mr. X... What an utterly obscure character.

Daredevil #504, Mighty Avengers #33, New Avengers #61 & Uncanny X-Men #520.

As promised, I have a few new reviews to post tonight. However, all four comics I'll be writing about are Marvels, so sorry to all of you DC fans! I'll start off with the comic that should be the best of the bunch before things get progressively worse...

Daredevil #504: Writer: Andy Diggle. Artist: Roberto De La Torre.

We get underway with Daredevil ordering one of his Hand minions to begin the construction of a building in Hell's Kitchen called Shadowland. From there, DD is informed that his two good friends, Dakota North and Foggy Nelson have been suffering some professional setbacks, which pisses DD off, since he figured getting away from them would help their careers out. Angered at what he figures is Osborn striking at him through his friends, DD decides to send the Hand into Hell's Kitchen and proclaim it his, hoping to provoke a response from Osborn. From there we head to the Kingpin, who reveals to his second in command, Lady Bullseye, that it wasn't Osborn who was destroying the lives of DD's friends, but that it was actually him(!). Kingpin is counting on DD to confront Osborn, leading to a large confrontation between the two, which should hurt both sides. Kingpin then figured he can use that moment of weakness to continue to re-consolidate his power-base. Osborn gets wind of what DD was planning in the Kitchen, and responds by sending in a battalion of HAMMER agents(exactly as Kingpin had hoped)to the Kitchen, which leads to a massive battle between DD and the Hand and Osborn's HAMMER officers. While this is going on, Dakota and Foggy learn that it was Kingpin behind their recent misfortunes, and they realize that they have to try to get word to DD to alert him to the fact that once again the Kingpin is playing him for a fool. This issue ends with the Hand routing Osborn's forces, capturing them and locking them up in DD's underground lair.

Ah, so Kingpin has been playing both Osborn and DD... Brilliant!!! What an inspired storyline twist, one that I didn't see coming at all. Since Osborn should be out of power in a few short months(after the Siege x-over), everything in this comic is setting up for the Kingpin to once again take his place as DD's deadliest foe, the way it should be. Kudos to Andy(and Ed Brubaker before him)for setting up such a smart and unexpected turn of events.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.This series just keeps on producing some high quality stuff!

Mighty Avengers #33: Writer: Dan Slott. Pencils: Khoi Pham.

Osborn's Dark Avengers and Pym's Mighty Avengers reluctantly join forces to battle the Absorbing Man, who had managed to absorb the powers of a Cosmic Cube. Osborn figures he can end the battle easily by simply sending the Sentry to take down AM, but is shocked as AM uses his newfound reality manipulating abilities to tear the Void from the Sentry, which leads to the two halves of the Sentry attacking each other. Since nobody from either team can damage the nearly godlike AM, Osborn decides to tap into Project PEGASUS(which was where AM was being held), and he learns that the scientists inside were doing an experiment where they were hoping to transfer the powers of the Cosmic Cube into AM's ball and chain. Upon hearing this news and seeing that the process obviously worked, Osborn figures AM's ball and chain is inside the Project, and that it is probably imbued with the near limitless abilities of a Cosmic Cube, so he runs from the battle and enters the Project, hoping to gain possession of the Cosmic ball and chain. Pym, who was eavesdropping through Osborn's two-way radio, races after him. While this is going on, one of Jocasta's bodies in Pym's Infinite Avengers Mansion is taken over by Ultron(!!!). Back at the Project, Osborn and Pym arrive at the Cosmic ball and chain, and Osborn blasts Pym away, leaving nothing between him and godhood. Before Osborn can claim the Cosmic ball and chain though, Pym tricks him into believing that he had already used its powers, which would explain how Osborn had pretty much taken over the Marvel Universe. Osborn hesitates momentarily, which leads to Pym decking him and claiming the Cosmic ball and chain for himself. Pym heads outside, and tries to bring down AM with the Cosmic ball and chain, but meets no success. Inside the Project, Loki appears before Osborn and gives him an Asgardian sword which can undo AM's absorbing powers, thus severing his link with the Cosmic Cube. Osborn rushes outside and strikes AM with the sword, ending his threat, while his adoring public looks on. This issue ends with Pym heading back to the Infinite Mansion after realizing that Loki had a hand in Osborn's victory. Pym ends up finding a camera feed that picked up an image of Loki, and winds up comparing it to something he had on file, getting a 100% match...

OK, first the scene at the end of this issue. I'm going to guess that the 100% match Pym discovered was between Loki and the Scarlet Witch(who Loki was pretending to be as he guided the Mighty Avengers to do his bidding). The main story was all right, but the main thing that caught my eye here was Jocasta getting one of her bodies infiltrated by possibly my favorite Avengers villain, Ultron! The last time Ultron graced the pages of an Avengers comic, BENDIS had transformed him into a her, because BENDIS hates me. I'm hoping that Dan brings back classic Ultron, not BENDIS'S abomination.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Needless to say, if classic Ultron returns, I'll be doing my happy dance.

New Avengers #61: Writer: BENDIS... Art: Stuart Immonen & Daniel Acuña.

This is going to be less of a review and more of a vague overview, because I just can't stomach doing a full-out review here... The Hood unites his forces and uses his Norn Stones to destroy the Avengers hideout. He then sends various c-list villains after Steve Rogers and Bucky as well as Spider-Woman and Spider-Man. Cap and Bucky manage to barely hold thier own against the losers, while one of the Hood's villains manages to mind control Spider-Woman into attacking Spider-Man, ending this issue.

I'm sorry, but this comic was really bad... All of the things I hate about BENDIS(bad/repeated dialogue, inane storytelling, characters acting out of character)were all present here. If you have enjoyed the last few issues of this series, then chances are you'll like this comic. If you're like me, and you've wanted to wash your eyes out with soap and stick hot pokers in your ears after reading the past couple of issues of this series, then avoid this comic at all costs!

Score: 1 1/2 out of 10.AVOID THIS COMIC BOOK!!!

Uncanny X-Men #520: Writer: Matt Fraction. Pencils: Greg Land.

This issue gets underway with the undisputed god of the mutant race, Cyclops(who from this point forward shall be referred to as Lord Summers the First), ordering his minions, in this case, Psylocke, Colossus and Wolverine, to go to New York City to see who had sent the Predators to Utopia Island and to deal with the party responsible. The trio head to the Big Apple, and Wolverine picks up the scent of a Predator in the sewers, which is where the team heads. After a quick search, the team learns the Fantomex(!)had beaten them to the Predator and had successfully destroyed it. Wolvie tries to convince Fantomex to help the X-Men track down the people responsible for sending the Predator lose, but Fantomex declines, since he was hired by a third party to kill the Predator, and as such, his job was completed... My god is Fantomex awesome... Back on Utopia, or more accurately under it, Namor, under the direction of Magneto, has created a massive, Atlantian built pillar to support Utopia, thus preventing it from sinking into the Pacific. After thanking Namor, Mags heads to the surface to inform Lord Summers the First of what he had accomplished. Lord Summers the First, upset that Mags hadn't cleared the project with him first, basically tells Mags that NOBODY is allowed to do ANYTHING on Utopia unless Lord Summers the First had allowed it. Mags tells Lord Summers the First that he was only trying to be helpful and gain the Lord's trust, but Lord Summers the First tells Mags that he'll never be trusted. Back in NYC, the trio of X-Men trace the Predator to a location and break in, but the group of individuals who had sent the Predator out seem to be prepared for them. This issue ends with Professor X and Mags making up(awww)before Mags leaves Utopia to "do something good" with his life.

Hey, this issue wasn't half bad! Now I'm actually looking forward to the next issue instead of dreading it! Sure, Lord Summers the First was still acting like an asshat(heh...), but you know what? I expect it now. Sadly, I've finally come to terms with the fact that the character who was at one time amongst my favorites has been mutated into an unrecognizable, and wholly unlikable character. Oh well, hopefully Lord Summers the First will get killed off soon, so he can return in a few months as the character he used to be. The story was OK, I didn't really care too much about the trio of X-Men and their trip to NY, although it was awesome to get to see Fantomex again... If Fantomex was in more Marvel comic books, I think I'd be a slightly happier person. The stuff between Lord Summers the First and Magneto was interesting, especially depending on how Matt decides to play it out. Let's face it, Mags is now responsible for saving Utopia from a watery grave, which could have a major impact on the mutants living there if they discover what Mags had done for them. With Uncanny rapidly approaching issue #525, I'm hoping for a big showdown between Lord Summers the First and Magneto for leadership of Utopia, and I don't think I have to say who I'd be pulling for if such a battle ever did take place...

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.If only Mags would kill Lord Summers the First off... He'd automatically become my favorite Marvel character then.

Dark Avengers #13 & Wolverine Origins #44

First off, congrats to the US men's Olympic hockey team for picking up their first win today against Switzerland. While comic books are my passion, hockey ranks very high amongst my favorite things. Sure, nobody is giving Team USA a chance in the Olympic tournament, with powerhouses Canada and Russia the big favorites, but as a proud American, and a feral hockey fan, I'm one of the few who believes the young American team can make some waves in this tourney. Next up for the American team is Team Norway, which was spanked today by Canada, and then it's the big game against those Canadians... But since this blog isn't called X-Man's Hockey Blog, I think I should get to what this blog is supposed to be about, and that would be comics. I'll be checking out two books tonight, one I will probably hate, while the other one should be solid.

Dark Avengers #13: Writer: BENDIS!!! Artist: Mike Deodato.

For some reason we start in ancient Egypt where some guys are smearing lamb's blood onto the doors of their homes so their firstborn children will be spared from an angry and vengeful god... Oh boy, this is going to be a real BENDIS of a comic book, isn't it... We then go to a few months ago where we discover that Norman Osborn has been able to recreate the formula that gave the Sentry his powers. Osborn presents a thankful Sentry with the vial, and he drinks it, releasing the Void. Osborn then calls the Void his secret weapon, which means it looks like I was correct when I guessed the Void was Osborn's weapon for keeping the Cabal under control. After that scene, we head to right after the Sentry's wife blows his head off with a weapon left for her by Marvel Boy a few issues back. Sentry's wife reveals that before he became the Sentry, Robert Reynolds was a simple junkie, and that he gained his powers by breaking into a laboratory and drinking the formula which ultimately turned him into the Sentry. After this revelation, the Sentry returns to life as the Void, and announces that he is going to kill Sentry's wife for her actions. Before he can follow through on his threat, Sentry retakes control and demands that the Void leaves his wife alone. The two argue for a while, and the Sentry ultimately leaves Avengers Tower and races towards the sun with the hope that he'd burn up and die. Of course that doesn't happen, and the Void ultimately convinces him that if he just gives in to the Void, good things will happen, which is apparently what Sentry decides to do as this issue ends.

Well, the Dread Lord BENDIS strikes again! I wonder if he's contractually obligated to alter character's origins and personas, because it sure as hell seems that way! I've never seen a writer radically change as many characters as BENDIS has during his time with Marvel... It's really crazy. The Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, the Hood, Osborn, and now the Sentry, have faced radical changes at the hands of BENDIS, just to name a few. Now, I know what you're thinking, "He must have REALLY hated this comic!"... However, to be honest, this comic wasn't that bad. Sure, it annoyed me that yet another character has been radically changed by BENDIS, but it was the Sentry, and I really don't care about him anyway. To me, he's always been a poor man's Thor/Superman. If I was a Sentry fan, I'm sure I'd be pretty pissed, but as it is, I'm apathetic towards these changes to the Sentry's origin. That's a good way to describe how I felt about this comic actually, apathetic.

Score: 6 out of 10.So wait, now the Void is Galactus, and the Sentry is a junkie??? OOOOOOK...

Wolverine Origins #44: Writer: Daniel Way. Pencils: Doug Braithwaite.

We open this issue with Wolverine breaking Ruby Thursday out of her cell at the Raft prison. It seems that Ruby is an integral part of Wolvie's plan to finally bring Romulus down, and he explains to her that he'll set her free provided she assists him, which Ruby is all to happy to do. The warden at the Raft locks down that section of the Raft and puts the power dampeners on, which prevents Cloak from teleporting Wolvie and Ruby to safety. The warden receives a call from Romulus, who informs him that he'll assist the warden in taking Wolvie out, provided the Warden tells Romulus who Wolvie went in there to break out. Meanwhile, Wolvie steals clothing from a few guards and along with Ruby and Cloak, disguises himself as a guard. This only gets them so far before the warden realizes what Wolvie did, and calls HAMMER for assistance. Skaar shows up, and the warden mistakenly believes he was sent by HAMMER, so he tells Skaar what was going on, and that when he makes contact with Wolvie, he'll give the signal to return the superhuman powers to the occupants of the Raft. Skaar finds Wolvie and reports that he's made contact just as Ares of the Dark Avengers(who was the guy HAMMER sent), arrives on the scene and attacks Skaar. Since the warden shut down the power dampeners, Wovie has Cloak teleport Ruby out of the Raft, while he tries to convince Skaar that there is no reason to battle Ares, since Wolvie got what he came for. Upon getting out of the Raft, Cloak tells Ruby to lay low and await further instruction from Wolvie, so she leaves. Back in the Raft, Wolvie finally convinces Skaar to stop fighting Ares, and the two make an escape. This issue ends with Romulus catching up to Ruby and knocking her around, while demanding to know exactly what Wolvie was planning.

As usual, this was another solid outing for this series. Sure, I could care less about Ares, Skaar, Cloak and Rudy Thursday(what a bizarre character to bring back...), but even with all of that deadwood hanging around, Daniel STILL managed to make this comic book interesting. That's the sign of a great writer, being able to take a bunch of characters that I would normally avoid reading about and making the comic they're in readable. On top of that, and I NEVER thought I'd say this, the whole Romulus story has really grown on me... Now, when Jeph Loeb first introduced the idea of Romulus, I thought it was one of the most idiotic story ideas I'd read in quite some time... I'm supposed to believe that this one figure(Romulus)has been secretly manipulating Wolverine for nearly 100 years now, and nobody, not Wolvie, not Professor X, not SHIELD, nobody knew about him? Come on! But then, a miraculous thing happened, Daniel Way took the idea and really ran with it... He made it almost believable(almost), plus he managed to work Romulus into many of his stories, which helped make Romulus look like some kind of serious threat. Plus, unlike BENDIS, he was able to work Romulus into Wolvie's(and a lot of other character's)mythos without dramatically changing the characters. I know I'll be eagerly anticipating the next issue to see what happens next in the thus far highly entertaining Woloverine/Romulus battle.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Yeah that's right, Romulus has managed to grow on me!

Siege #2(of 4)

Well, instead of doing another Best of the Rest, or a Let's Talk About... post, like I was intending to do, I'll be looking at Siege #2 since my package of new comics arrived today. I honestly didn't expect to see this box 'o books arrive until Monday at the earliest, so I have to say that I'm pleasantly surprised. Of course, I now have ANOTHER huge pile of comic books sitting in front of me, and no time to properly review them... Oh, and I won't be posting anything new tomorrow due to the Super Bowl. I'll check out any comments left for me as always, but that's going to be all I do blog-wise tomorrow. As for my Super Bowl prediction, I'm going with the Colts over the Saints. OK, that's enough about football, let's get to the comics!

Siege #2(of 4): Writer: BENDIS! Pencils: Olivier Coipel.

We begin with Ares battling against Balder, who is the reigning king of Asgard. However, Ares is under the impression that Loki is the current ruler of Asgard thanks to Norman "Marvel" Osborn. While the two god sons battle, Ares is approached by Heimdall, who informs Ares that he's been lied to, and that Balder is indeed the ruler of Asgard. Ares then realizes that he had been tricked by Osborn, and sets off to speak with his boss. Speaking of Osborn, before he is able to arrest or kill Thor, Thor is saved by Maria Hill, the former leader of SHIELD. After watching that play out on TV, Steve Rogers gathers the New Avengers, the Young Avengers and those yahoos Nick Fury hangs out with(the Secret Warriors), and announces that it's time to take the country back from Osborn. Osborn, having lost Thor, sends Daken loose to hunt down and kill Maria Hill for her interference. As soon as he gives the command, Osborn is attacked by Ares, who has had enough of Osborn's lies, and decides to kill him. Before he gets the chance though, the Sentry attacks Ares at Osborn's behest, and the two super-powerful members of the Dark Avengers tear into each other. Speaking of tearing, after a spirited battle, Sentry literally tears Ares in half, putting an end to the god of war. While that is going on, the Avengers are preparing to board one of Nick Fury's ships in order to get to Oklahoma. Bucky gives Steve his shield back, and Jarvis gives Steve a suitcase, which almost definitely holds Iron Man's armor, telling Steve that if he should run across Tony, he should give it to him. With that, the Avengers get on the plane and start flying to the sight of the battle for Asgard. Daken finds Thor and Maria Hill, and winds up getting fried by Thor's lightning for his troubles. Seeing the blast of electricity on the horizon, Osborn sends Sentry after Thor, hoping to put an end to the Thor problem, once and for all. This issue ends with Osborn looking up just in time to see the shield of Captain America hurtling towards him.

Meh... I definitely enjoyed the prior issue WAY more then this one. However, I think that was kind of the intention of this comic. The first issue set the stage and gave us the opening salvo of the Siege storyline, while this issue began moving the major players into position for the final two issues of this mini. The next two issues should give us Thor vs Sentry, along with Steve Rogers leading his Avengers forces against Osborn's forces, with Loki still lying in the weeds. That sounds like some good reading to me, although the scales seem to be tilting away from Osborn a little bit early for my liking... Sure, we all know Osborn is going to lose in the end, but by the end of the second issue of this mini, he already seems to be pretty outmatched, with the combined forces of the Avengers and Asgard standing against him. My guess is that Osborn is defeated by the end of the next issue, leaving Loki as the true power the heroes must defeat to end this storyline. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, let me get back to this issue. Sentry killing Ares really didn't have much of an impact for me. Besides the initial, "Huh, Sentry is strong enough to kill a god..." reaction, Ares death means very little in the long run. He's only been an Avenger for a relatively short amount of time, and he always seemed like a boring, run of the mill power character. The only thing Ares death really does is give us reason to believe that if Sentry can kill Ares, then maybe he's be able to kill Thor... Although we all know that ain't going to happen! The lack of Pym and his Mighty Avengers was kind of interesting to me, since you'd think Pym and his band of misfits would have been right alongside Steve and the other Avengers. Jarvis giving Steve the suitcase, which almost definitely holds Tony Stark's Iron Man armor was also a nice touch, since the moment Steve gives Tony the suitcase, the whole awful Civil War mess should finally be forgotten. Honestly, that's the only thing I'm looking for in this mini-series. All I want is to see Tony and Steve standing side-by-side again, without all that political, Civil War junk sullying their relationship. As long as I get that one scene, I'll be one happy Marvel-ite.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Note to self: don't piss the Sentry off...

Dark Wolverine #82 & X-Factor #201

I still have to put the finishing touches on my most recent Comic Gazing post(which should be up sometime tomorrow night), so I'll save the lame small talk for that post. This post will be strictly business(well, for the most part). I'll be looking at two Marvel titles tonight, and guess what, one of them gets the rare perfect score from me! Read on to find out which one.

Dark Wolverine #82: Writers: Daniel Way & Marjorie Liu. Pencils: Giuseppe Camuncoli.

This issue is a part of the Siege storyline, just so you know. We get underway with a nervous HAMMER soldier accidentally vomiting on Daken's boot as Daken passed by. The soldier apologizes profusely and blames his nerves on the fact that he's afraid to be invading Asgard. Daken screws with the guy's head before beating the hell out of him, which sends the soldier to the infirmary, not the battlefield, which is probably a blessing in disguise. From there Daken runs into two of his Dark Avengers teammates, Moonstone and Venom. Daken tries to strike up some small talk with Moonstone, but due to the events of last issue, she blows him off. From there, Daken frightens some of the HAMMER soldiers by slashing himself across his brow and proceeding to lick the blood from his claws. By this point, Norman "Marvel" Osborn arrives on the scene and tries to rally his troops, which is met with sarcasm by Daken. Osborn proceeds to warn Daken that he'll be keeping a close eye on him. The scene shifts to some strange women who are watching Daken through mystical means, and who fear that he will be the man responsible for Ragnarok. Back with Daken, he runs across his favorite object of ridicule, Bullseye. Bullseye fears Daken will stab him in the back during the battle for Asgard, but Daken continues to toy with Bullseye's mind, referring to Bullseye as his puppet. Bullseye prepares to attack Daken, but before he can, Osborn intervenes and decides that since Daken and Bullseye are so eager to fight, they'll be on the front lines of the upcoming battle. From there we head to the battle between Osborn's forces and the forces of Asgard. Daken strolls through the carnage, killing Asgardians and ignoring cries for help from HAMMER agents until he runs across a massive Asgardian warrior. Daken whispers to the Asgardian warrior that he'd be willing to betray his side and deliver Osborn to the leaders of Asgard. Before the surprised Asgardian warrior can make up his mind, Osborn arrives on the scene and blows the Asgardian warrior's head clean off. Osborn confronts Daken and tells him to stop playing games, but Daken tells Osborn that war is the ultimate game. Finally having had enough of Daken, Osborn orders him to head to the area where HAMMER is meeting the most resistance. After receiving his orders, Daken screams to Osborn to look out behind him, and when Osborn turns to face the threat, Daken stabs Osborn clear through the back with his metal-coated Wolverine killing claw!!!!!!! This issue ends with Daken walking up to the bloodied, kneeling Osborn and placing the palm of his hand on Osborn's face, presumably to pop the metal claw through Osborn's head.

WOW!!!!!! It's not often I'll read a comic book and it will actually elicit a verbal response from me, but when Daken put his metal claw through Osborn's back, let's just say that a rather loud expletive left my mouth and leave it at that! That was probably the most shocking thing to happen in a Marvel or DC comic that I can remember reading/seeing in quite some time. I mean, that was COMPLETELY unexpected! Now, with all that said, there's NO way I can believe that Daken really stabbed Osborn... I mean, that had to be a hallucination, or just something that Daken played out in his head, because I can't imagine Marvel would have the audacity to kill Osborn off in an issue of Dark Wolverine. If and when Osborn buys the farm, it will be in an issue of the main Siege mini-series, at least I'd think so... Regardless of whether Daken really stabbed Osborn or if that was a dream, fantasy, whatever, the rest of this comic was pure gold. The way Daken interacted with everybody, from the common HAMMER agents, to his teammates, to the Asgardians was magnificent. I can honestly say that this was one of those rare comic books that I read with a huge smile on my face from start to finish. It was that good.

Score: 10 out of 10!!! You know, this is only the second perfect score I've given out in 2010. The first one? Dark Wolverine #81! This series is frigging amazing!Well, I think it's time for me to say it... Dark Wolverine is THE best comic book coming out of Marvel today, period.

X-Factor #201: Writer: Peter David. Pencils: Bing Cansino.

We begin this issue with Reed Richards plotting with a hologram of Dr. Doom in the Baxter Building... Huh, OK... Valeria Richards overhears the conversation and after shocking her father with an electric teddy bear, she collects her brother Franklin and the two children get the hell out of the Baxter Building. In the meanwhile, X-Factor decides to head to Latveria where, according to Longshot(after talking to Layla Miller with his psychometric powers), the Invisible Woman was taken to by a runaway Fantasticar. While that's going on, Monet is trying to get some kind of word on her father who was kidnapped by terrorists last issue. Guido promises to help her by calling some government contacts he still has back from his early X-Factor days. X-Factor heads to the roof so Shatterstar can teleport them to Latveria, but they are interrupted by the arrival of the Thing, who is still miffed about the way he was defeated by Guido and Shatterstar last issue. Guido and the distraught Monet arrive on the roof, and needless to say, a brouhaha breaks out between Guido, Monet and Thing. The rest of the X-Factor members head into Shatterstar's portal, while Monet, Guido and Thing fall into it, teleporting to Latveria. Upon arriving, Thing spots the imprint of the Fantasticar in the grass, and realizes that X-Factor was telling the truth when it came to the Invisible Woman being abducted to Latveria. Thing, Guido and Monet decide to attack Castle Doom, while Jamie and the rest of the team follow Layla's cryptic instructions and wind up arriving at a cemetery, where they find a freshly buried grave. This issue ends with Jamie and company digging up the grave and opening it to reveal... Mr. Fantastic?!?

You all should know by now that X-Factor is my current favorite X-book, but this issue did absolutely nothing for me. I'm just not digging the Fantastic Four storyline. If I felt like reading an FF story, I'd pick up the latest issue of the Fantastic Four! As usual, there were a few funny moments here, but for the most part, this comic was a drag to read. Maybe that's because I read the FAR superior Dark Wolverine #82 before reading this issue, but this comic just never really did anything for me.

Score: 6 out of 10.Man, Doom is one bossy hologram...