Best of the Rest! May 1st edition.

Hey all, it's time for the first of FIVE Best of the Rest posts in May!  Yep, May is one of those months where we're gonna end up with five Wednesdays, so I'll be getting even more comics, which means you guys will be getting even more reviews!  So it's a win/win!  Or a lose/lose, depending on your prerogative.  Anyway, the usual rules apply here.  I'll get this party started with a few reviews, and then JT will take over with a few reviews of his own, but in blue text.  And if the last few BotR posts are any indication, much longer reviews than I've been busting out...  Seriously, JT, when did you become Mr. Wordsmith!?  I'm gonna hear it for that remark...  Anyway, let's get this party started.

Thanos Rising #2: This issue brings us a 15 (or so) year old Thanos, who is on a quest to discover why he is different from all of his fellow Eternals.  To that end, he's been dissecting various creatures, but has yet to find anything.  The girl who is still hanging around him(who I STILL say is Death), recommends Thanos ply his trade on something more complex...  To that end, Thanos kidnaps and kills two of his classmates, in the name of science.  Or at least that's what Thanos tells himself at first.  However, he soon realizes that he enjoys the torture and murder, and that when he is killing, he doesn't feel alone.  Still, Thanos craves answers about why he's different, so this issue ends with Thanos capturing and preparing to dissect his own mother.  Now THIS is more like the Thanos I remember!  Sure, the stuff with the girl/Death probably doesn't need to be in here(I don't like the idea that Death had a role in Thanos's obsession with her), but I still could be wrong about her being Death...  Who knows, maybe she's actually the woman who ends up bearing Nebula...  Regardless, this mini-series is still hitting almost all the right notes for me.  Score: 8 out of 10.

X-Factor #255: Mephisto ends up defeating the other Hell Lords and puts an end to the Hell on Earth war.  He makes himself a palace and has apparently become the ruler of not only Hell, but the entire world.  Tier decides that instead of hanging back he'd go and face Mephisto.  Mephisto is aware of this and relishes Tier's challenge.  Plus, Monet apparently dies while fighting Guido and Madrox is still a demon.  I enjoyed this issue way more than the past few Hell war issues.  Maybe that's because this storyline is coming to a close...  I don't know.  Anyway, this storyline is actually what the Age of Ultron SHOULD be.  A self contained story in one of the Avengers titles...  Just sayin'.  Score: 8 out of 10.

Iron Man #9: Iron Man hires Death's Head to help him track down 451.  However, it turns out 451 hired Death's Head first, and Death's Head leads Iron Man into 451's clutches.  This one ends with 451 revealing he had been working with Tony's old man...  Wha?!  Um, yeah, this one was weird...  I'm not even going to say anything about that ending yet...  I'll give Kieron Gillen another issue before I flip out about Tony's father working with an alien who hadn't even been around until 3 issues ago...  THIS is the story they wanted to coincide with Iron Man 3!?  Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.

Indestructible Hulk #7: After some brawling between the Frost Giants and Thor and Hulk, one of the Frost Giants transforms into one of Bruce Banner's assistants and infiltrates the group...  Didn't know Frost Giants could do that...  The Frost Giants want access to Banner's portal technology, thus the ruse.  However, SHIELD shut the portal down, which has left Banner and company stranded.  Oh, and it turns out that Hulk actually didn't lift Thor's hammer last issue, it was only moving because Thor was calling it back to him...  Which is what I was hoping to see here.  Besides that, not much to say here.  I'm not really feeling this storyline...  It's not horrible or anything, it's just not my cup of tea.  Score: 6 out of 10.

Ultimate X-Men #26: The all-female power struggle continues!!!  Kitty and Mach 2 join forces since the US government wanted to take Utopia's land back.  Jean decides to help them since she didn't want Utopia toppled by the government, because Jean wanted to absorb the Utopia mutants into Tian.  And we find out that Psylocke has been manipulating both sides to her own ends.  I don't know what the hell Brian Wood is going for here...  He's already writing one X-Women book, why is he turning this series into another!?  And how is Psylocke able to spy on, and mask her actions from Jean, who is, presumably, more powerful that Psylocke?!  Seriously, if it wasn't for Jimmy Hudson, I would be SO done with this series...  Score: 6 out of 10.

Invincible Universe #2: Stedman's forces manage to hold off the dragon long enough for Robot to fix up Liu. Liu manages to reabsorb the dragon and teleports away, not even thanking an irked Stedman.  On top of that, Stedman's assistant dies during the dragon attack, which leads to us seeing a softer side of Cecil.  So I liked this comic...  Sue me.  What can I say, I was always a mark for Cecil, so yeah, this comic hits just the right notes for me.  Plus I've been a fan of Todd Nauck's work since Young Justice, so that helps.  Anyway, if you're a fan of little known, obscure characters, like I am, then this is a series you should definitely check out.  Score: 7 out of 10.

Detective Comics #20: In this issue we see Batman finally pursue Ignatius "Emperor Penguin" Oglivy after robbing a bank. Batman arrives at the former home of the Oswald Cobblepot and is met by the Emperor Penguin who is now a monster of a man. Having tampered with and used Man-Bat serum for speed, a serum from Poison Ivy to give him tough, bark-like skin, and venom to make him extremely strong. Emperor Penguin surprisingly beats the hell out of Batman and then ties a chain around his neck and hangs him from a tree. Batman is then saved by Cobblepot of all people, who wants his life back and is willing to help Batman to beat Oglivy. Batman takes the fight to Emperor Penguin a second time, this time fighting him as a monster instead of a man, and manages to take him down with acid and a high-powered taser. Afterwards, we see Cobblepot give Bruce Wayne back the building he'd stole from under him, renaming it after Martha Wayne, then telling Bruce he can have the spotlight, he just wants the shadows. In the epilogue we see Emperor Penguin take out the main boss in Blackgate Prison and deems himself "Emperor Blackgate". I liked this issue, Emperor Blackgate's backstory made sense, he's been built as a threat and I can easily see him taking the role Black Mask once had. This has been a pretty awesome first arc by Layman and I'm interested in what he has planned next. Score: 8/10

Earth 2 #12: In the most recent issue of Earth 2 we see the newly christened Doctor Fate finally engage in battle with Wotan. Across the world in China, Hawkgirl and Green Lantern investigate the death of GL's dead boyfriend and stumble upon a shipping container full of a bunch of dead Parademons. GL's ring notifies him that he's needed elsewhere and he heads off to join Flash in Boston while Hawkgirl continues the investigation. While the two mystical beings face off, Flash and Green Lantern run interference and keep the peace while protecting civilians and taking down the government officials that attack the heroes. Fate eventually takes down Wotan and banishes him to another dimension. Afterwards, Fate, Flash, Flash's Mom and Green Lantern, who reveals his identity of Alan Scott to his allies, offers them a place to stay, since the government knows who Jay and his mother are and are after them. Before they can take him up on his offer, Fate informs them that the evil Steppenwolf has taken control of a dangerous country named Dherain. This was a fine issue, nothing great but far from bad. My only problem was how Wotan was built as a threat in the last few issues and talked about how much better he'd become to best Doctor Fate, then he's easily dispatched in Fate's first battle as the new Doctor Fate. It hurt the credibility they'd used the past issues to establish. Score: 6.5/10

And that's it for Mr. Wordsmith! I planned on reviewing Green Arrow but due to an extremely busy weekend that leads into an extremely busy week, I didn't have the time. But it was my last issue, so sadly I don't plan on reviewing anymore issues. Now let me end this post before I give X more ammo to call me names for giving you guys detailed reviews. Speaking of which, be sure to check X's Throwback Tuesday post tomorrow for a good laugh. Til next time, this is JT, signing off!

Ultimate X-Men #22

First of two reviews tonight is Ultimate X-Men.  Here's hoping this is a good one...

Ultimate X-Men #22:

Summary: Many of the world's governments are mistrustful of the mutant seed the citizens of Utopia came up with, and aren't interested in using it, basically because it would put all of the farmers of the world out of business.  Third world countries welcome it though.  On top of that, Husk returned to Utopia, much to the delight of Iceman and the chagrin of Kitty.  After Iron Man halts another attempted attack on Utopia, he comes up with a plan with Kitty to make the world think the mutant seed was destroyed  while Tony worked behind the scenes to get the seed accepted by the world's governments.  This one ends with Mach Two leaving the main Utopia area with her group of miscreants (now including Husk and Iceman), Iron Man finally leaving the reservation, and a shadowy group of government types plotting against Utopia.

Thoughts: Yeah, needless to say, I was not feeling this comic at all...  It just never grabbed me...  I'm honestly not all that interested in Kitty vs Mach Two(who would be?!), and couldn't care less about those two having a power struggle.  I guess that's probably my main problem with this comic in a nutshell actually.  The only character I care about at all is Jimmy.  I don't like 616 Kitty, Ultimate Kitty, any Kitty!  Add the fact that this series has been kind of stagnant since the mutants arrived in Utopia, and I can easily see myself dropping this series after another issue or so.  Here's hoping something interesting happens soon.

Score: 6 out of 10.

Fun, movies, women, Tony gets it all!

Ultimates #20

Three reviews for this Monday night, with the first one being the Ultimates.  This series has really picked up since Jonathan Hickman left it(although, in fairness, I can't stand Hickman's writing), to the point where I actually look forward to it every month.  The team is still trying to pull America back together and just last issue have discovered that Nick Fury(the 616 one), appeared to be working with Hydra.  Onward!

Ultimates #20

Summary: We begin with the guy who looks like 616 Fury(going by the name of Scorpio) working with the Death's Head faction of Hydra.  It turns out that this particular Hydra faction was more radical than the rest of Hydra and that they were actively hunting SHIELD tech.  On top of that, they had managed to get their hands on some powerful SHIELD weapon called the Torch.  After analyzing the tape of Scorpio, SHIELD and the Ultimates have come to the conclusion that it actually wasn't Scorpio, but was their own Nick Fury in disguise.  Captain America is disturbed by the prospect that Nick had gone rogue, but many longtime members of SHIELD refuse to believe that Fury has turned.  Hawkeye asks to be let into the Hydra camp so he could extract Fury and prove that Nick was still on the side of the angels.  Cap okays the mission and Hawkeye sneaks into the base, under the cover of an explosion.  Hawkeye finds Scorpio in the tent with a fellow Hydra agent, as well as The Torch.  Hawkeye holds the Hydra agent at gunpoint and asks Scorpio a question only the real Nick Fury would know the answer to, but Scorpio doesn't answer, instead drawing his own gun and aiming at Hawkeye.  With Hawkeye momentarily thrown by Scorpio's action, the Hydra agent gets free and Scorpio knocks Hawkeye down.  By now, the leader of the Death's Head Hydra sect arrives(a woman named Crimson) and demands that Scorpio executes Hawkeye before Hydra abandoned the now exposed camp.  This issue ends with Scorpio lining Hawkeye up for the fatal shot.

Thoughts: I enjoyed this issue.  I was a bit thrown by the fact that Scorpio was apparently Nick Fury in disguise  if only because it would have been kind of cool to see 616 Nick running around in the Ultimate Universe causing all sorts of hell.  If I had a gripe here, it would be that Cap and most of the Ultimates were so quick to believe that Fury had gone bad...  Why couldn't he be undercover?  Other than that though?  This was a perfectly acceptable comic book.  No more, no less.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.

Damn you, 616 Nick Fury!!!

Ultimate X-Men #21

One more review for the night(that's a lie!  There's actually another!!) and I've polished off 6 reviews in three nights...  Just like the good old days!  Anyway, we'll finish this week off with a review of Ultimate X-Men.

Ultimate X-Men #21

Summary: On Utopia, Kitty Pryde(with the backing of Tony Stark) meets the press and says the the mutant nation was giving the world the seed they had created, a seed that would grow anywhere, regardless of the environment   Needless to say, a lot of the media is dubious of Kitty and her so-called mutant seed.  Some of Kitty's own people are also angry with her, as they resent being stuck on Utopia and don't like Kitty's olive branch to humanity.  Later on, a group of mercenaries attack Utopia, but the mercs are taken down pretty easily since Tony was still there and had his Iron Patriot armor with him.  Kitty demands answers from the mercs, and when they won't talk, Jimmy threatens to start popping claws into heads.  That makes Kitty freak out and start screaming at Jimmy(the hell!?) about how they had to be peaceful.  Jimmy asks what they were supposed to do when they were being attacked by guys with guns, so Iron Patriot strolls over and tells them that they couldn't be completely pacifist  nor could they run around attacking everybody.  Um, thanks Tony...  And THAT ends this issue.

Thoughts: What the hell was with Tony and his bizarre pep-talk !  "Now you can't be completely peaceful...  But you can't be warlike..."  Thanks for that sage advice, Tony...  The weird ending notwithstanding, this issue wasn't all that bad.  I enjoyed the middle of this book with Mach Two continuing to plot against Kitty, and was interested to see Jean monitoring the situation in Tian.  I will say this, I don't get what Mach Two wanted to do here...  I mean, I hate Kitty as much as ANYBODY, but Mach Two's plan seemed to be, "We'll attack the humans."  There are like what, 20 mutants living in Utopia?  What are they going to attack? A small town?  A large supermarket?  But hey, she hates Kitty which makes her alright in my book!  Other than Mach Two though, this current mutant seed storyline really isn't doing it for me...  Here's hoping we go somewhere else pretty soon.

Score: 6 out of 10.

Can't we all just get along?!?

Ultimate X-Men #18

So in the end I decided to review Ultimate X-Men instead of New Mutants(which was kind of boring) or Winter Soldier(which was FANTASTIC, but would have taken a lot of effort to write a semi-coherent review for).  Of course, I've already posted mini-reviews for both New Mutants and Winter Soldier over at the forum, as well as scores and thoughts.  So hit the forum up if you're interested in talking about those two books, or any comics really.  Anyway, last review of the week time.  Let's get to it.

Ultimate X-Men #18

Summary: Kitty Pryde successfully leads her ragtag mutant army against the Sentinel force, taking down the Sentinels and apparently ending the menace of William Stryker once and for all(we can only hope...).  While Kitty and her group are fighting for their lives, Rogue is fooling around with Quentin Quire, who can touch Rogue(or at least make Rogue think he can touch her).  After the battle, Nick Fury sets up a meeting between Kitty and the new president of the US in the Ultimate Marvel U, Captain America.  Cap basically offers Kitty a reservation for mutantkind to live on(because we all know reservations worked out SO well for Native Americans!) or a cure to their mutations.  In other words, they can live on a reservation or not be mutants anymore...  Hmm, decisions  decisions ..  Anyway, Kitty acts all aghast that Cap would dare to offer her a chance to get rid of her mutation(and all of the hatred that goes along with it) and leaves the meeting crestfallen.

Thoughts: Okay, I'm just gonna come out and say it...  Is it REALLY that bad to have your mutation "cured"?  I mean living a normal life, NOT being attacked by crazed robots or wild bigots, is that REALLY a bad thing?  But naturally, Kitty acts like Cap pissed on her leg or something when he broached the subject.  Go figure.  If anything, the reservation idea should have disturbed her more, because, much like Utopia, putting a bunch of mutants in a stationary place is a recipe for disaster.  Especially in the Ultimate U, where humans hate mutants even more than in the 616(probably deservedly so due to Magneto's antics).  On top of that, my hatred of Kitty is well documented  so I don't like her as the "face" of mutantkind.  Besides those little gripes though, this comic told a good story and hopefully got rid of William Stryker.  Now let's hope he stays gone...

Score: 7 out of 10.

Oh great...  MORE Sentinels!!!

Ultimates #16

So last issue Captain America won the emergency presidential election.  That actually gained the Ultimate Marvel Universe some serious mainstream attention(for the first time in a while).  Now we see if Sam Humphries and the rest of the Ultimate crew can make this thing work.

Ultimates #16:

Summary: This issue opens with Cap giving a speech stating he's willing to answer the call of the people and take on the job of president.  After being sworn in, Cap takes off in a jet to try to fix the mess the country has become.  That angers Carol Danvers, who wants Cap to return to the temporary White House, but Cap just tells her to deal with the political crap as his Chief of Staff, while he goes about reuniting the country. With that, Cap takes Thor and Iron Man and they rapidly put an end to the hostilities between North and South Carolina.  Cap then sends Iron Man to the West Coast Nation to convince them to reenter the Union, which Iron Man succeeds in doing.  He asks Thor to head to Wyoming, where a top secret SHIELD facility had fallen off the grid, however, Thor wants to investigate an Asgardian rune that was found in Texas.  Cap tells him the most important thing was to secure the weapons in Wyoming, so Thor dutifully heads off...  Cap hops back in his jet to deal with the Dictator of Detroit and gets a call from Senator Underwood, who tells Cap to stop running around unilaterally and get back to Washington to do things with talk and compromise, not force.  Cap blows him off and continues his mission to bring the country back together.  Underwood gets in touch with acting head of SHIELD, Marvin Flumm(in the 616, Mentallo), and since they were working with the mysterious Morez, who wanted Wyoming left alone so his Hydra forces could ransack it, Underwood tells Flumm to shoot Cap's jet down with a missile.  Flumm fires the missile and Black Widow appears, having been spying on Flumm's conversation with Underwood at a miniature size thanks to Pym particles.  While Widow and Flumm fight, the missile system announces a successful hit, but Cap storms in the room and tells Flumm that the missile had been tricked into hitting nothing by Stark Tech.  With that, Cap destroys Flumm for betraying the country, and you know, trying to assassinate the President of the United States, before calling Underwood and telling him that his time was over, which leads to a defeated Underwood resigning(with the help of a little arm twisting by Hawkeye).  In Wyoming, Morez is annoyed by Underwood's resignation, but has already entered the Wyoming base and was looking over the weapons with the leader of Hydra.  Morez senses Thor nearby and tells the Hydra leader to leave him alone, at which time Thor walks in, figuring Morez was Loki, which would explain why he was sowing such chaos throughout the nation.  But wait!  This issue ends with Morez revealing that he wasn't Loki, but was actually Modi, Thor's son!

Thoughts: Hey, you know what, I really enjoyed this comic!  Issue #1 of the Captain America as POTUS era was a success in my opinion.  I liked Cap basically blowing off all of the politicians and continuing to act as Captain America, a man of action, not President Rogers, a guy sitting in an office signing paperwork.  So yeah, all the Cap stuff was great, as was the way the other Ultimates were used.  Widow being named head of SHIELD, Hawkeye intimidating Underwood into resigning, Iron Man talking to the Silicon Valley jerks and getting them to come back to the Union, and of course Thor...  See, I dropped the Ultimates series a few issues back because I can't stand Jonathan Hickman's writing(for the most part).  The only thing I did like that he did was put Thor's son away in the World Tree, and I'm happy to see Thor's kid popping up here, especially as a villain, because that can lead to a lot of good...  Especially since he seems to be the only person left with Asgardian power thanks to Thor's actions(I think Thor is still using armor that was designed by Iron Man to imitate Asgardian powers) back when EVIL Reed Richards was killing all of the Asgardians.  But yeah, this issue was really, really good, and the future looks damn bright here.

Score: 9 out of 10.

I'd vote for him.

Ultimate X-Men #11

This series has been SO bizarre! There have been times when I've flat out wanted to drop it, while other times I've enjoyed it. As it is, this series is my lone link to the Ultimate Universe, so here's hoping it's good.

Ultimate X-Men #11:

Story Points:
-The Nimrod Sentinels attack Camp Angel.
-John Walker helps the mutant children(and Storm) escape from the Sentinels.
-With the Nimrod's being unstoppable and all, the president of the United States ceded control of the southwest to the Sentinels... Wait, what?!
-This one ends with the Sentinels creating a Mastermold Sentinel in the desert.
-Oh yeah one more thing, that Mastermold had better not be Stryker...

Thoughts: This comic FLEW along. There wasn't a slow moment, and the story just flowed from one page to the next. I can't say there was ever a moment when I was bored or anything. As for the story itself, it was pretty good... It wasn't great, and I'm curious to see where Nick Spencer is going here, but it WAS a good read, which is all I ask for.

Score: 8 out of 10.

Ultimate X-Men #10

One more review for the night, to complete the comic book trifecta, as this one is from Marvel. Well, actually Ultimate Marvel... Same difference...

Ultimate X-Men #10:

Summary: Camp Angel has fallen and the government's officials have been taken prisoner by the angry mutants who used to be captives there. Storm doesn't think the mutants should kill the government officials who were in charge of the camp, since that would make the mutants as bad as, if not worse, than their former guards. On the other hand we have Stacy X, who feels the mutants should wreak a bloody vengeance on their former guards. Storm manages convince all of the mutants in the camp to take a democratic approach to the situation and vote on which direction they wanted to go. The vote comes back tied(really?!), at which point Colossus, who had been locked in solitary confinement emerges to cast his vote. Storm seems confident that Colossus would see things her way, at least until he crushes the skull of one of the officials(!), throwing his lot in with Stacy X and her followers.

Thoughts: Here's the thing. The story here is good, the art is good, everything is good. Except for the fact that we STILL haven't gone back to Jimmy and the real X-Men for a whole mess of issues now... We just keep setting up different stories in different areas... Which is well and good and all, provided we actually get to see the main characters from time to time! The flow of this series is just so weird...

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.

This scene desperately needed a comical “CRUNCH” sound effect...

Ultimate X-Men #9

Okay, I'm gonna start hitting speed-review mode, seeing as that I still have a few books to read and the coming week is gonna be murder on me work-wise. So let's start blowing through these reviews! As always, if I skip something or glance over it, send me a comment or an e-mail and I'll be happy to fill you in more.

Ultimate X-Men #9:

Summary: This issue takes place fully in Camp Angel, which is a mutant... um, let's say internment camp, just to be nice. Storm has had a large role in keeping the mutants relatively calm, at least until the mutants see Valerie Cooper's broadcast where she says the US government was responsible for creating the world's mutants. This sends the trapped mutants into a tizzy, so the commanding officer at the camp tries to calm the mutants down by making a speech which basically amounts to him saying that he had no clue what the government was talking about. By this point Storm has cut her hair and is through playing nice, which leads to this issue ending with Storm confronting the commanding officer after destroying a Sentinel.

Thoughts: Meh. This was the third(it was at least the third actually) issue of this series where we didn't see Jimmy and his band of X-Men... Which is kind of weird. Last issue was a spotlight on Quicksilver(or Jean, or something), while this one was a spotlight on Storm. So we had a storyline about a Stryker(I don't care to remember which one), and then we moved away from the main team for a few issues... Of a new series!!! That's just plain bizarre. And since this issue ended in a cliffhanger, you'd have to think we'll STILL be away from the main team of X-Men for at least one more issue. That's all kinds of strange...

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.

Now that Storm cut her hair you KNOW it's on!

Ultimate X-Men #8

Last review of this evening is the latest issue of Ultimate X-Men. I'm still extremely hopeful about this series, especially considering who the writer is and the fact that we don't have the idiotic “No More Mutants” rule to follow here, but so far this series, while good at times, hasn't quite reached that “great” plateau... Here's hoping the greatness starts............ Now!

Ultimate X-Men #8:

Summary: This issue opens with Valerie Cooper meeting with Nick Fury, mainly to complain about the fact that Fury had allowed Karen Grant(that would be Jean Grey) to fall into the hands of Xorn and Zorn... While Valerie is complaining, Nick shocks her by having Karen walk into their office, even though Karen was supposed to be on the other side of the world in the Celestial City. Karen explains to Valerie that she was powerful enough to trick the entire world into thinking she was in the Celestial City, including anybody who thought they saw video footage of her. Valerie is thrown for a loop and leaves the office, at which point Nick has Karen force Valerie to forget ever seeing Karen there. From there we head to Xorn, who asks to see Karen. We learn that in actuality Karen was physically with Xorn, and had sent a telepathic manifestation to fool Nick Fury into thinking she was actually with him. This issue ends with Karen changing into her true Jean Grey form and swearing her allegiance to Xorn.

Thoughts: Well, there were a few interesting little things going on here. Unfortunately, I don't care about the SEAR, Celestial Cities, or Xorn/Zorn... So yeah, that definitely hurt my enjoyment of this one. If you liked the Ultimate Hawkeye mini-series from a few months ago, then this is a must read comic. If, like me, you weren't a big fan of that mini, then this issue probably isn't going to be very impressive to you.

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.

So wait, this is a double-double cross?!

Ultimate X-Men #7

First up today is the latest issue of Ultimate X-Men. The best thing about the Ultimate version of the X-Men? No Decimation.

Ultimate X-Men #7:

Summary: This issue basically recounts Quicksilver's last few actions, which all led to the Nimrod Sentinels gaining access to Cerebro technology. Quicksilver blames his thought to be dead sister, the Scarlet Witch for this calamity, since he was following her plans... However, Wanda points out that Pietro DIDN'T follow her plans to the letter, as he boinked some random woman when he was supposed to be meeting with “God”, an action that screwed up her well crafted plans... Supposedly. Wanda tells Pietro to go and beg for God's forgiveness, so Pietro heads to Egypt, where followers of God were worshiping outside a cave. Pietro enters and begs God's forgiveness, and is granted the absolution he wanted. And who was God you ask? How about his father, the thought to be dead Magneto!!

Thoughts: I love that Nick Spencer is basically undoing all of the bullshit that Jeph Loeb did during that horrendous Ultimatum event... Now I'm I'm sure some of you are thinking that's a somewhat hypocritical thing for me to say seeing as that I'm usually such a stickler for continuity. But when it comes to Ultimatum? I say it was SUCH a terrible event it SHOULD be forgotten, and erased from continuity! I mean hell, if DC can erase their entire history, why can't I pretend Ultimatum never happened? Anyway, this was an okay comic with an ending I never saw coming, seeing as that EVERYTHING was pointing towards Apocalypse being the “God” in the cave. The Magneto reveal was a HUGE swerve that has me mildly interested in the next few issues here.

Score: 7 out of 10.

Man do I hope that's not a shapeshifter...

Ultimate X-Men #6

ALRIGHT!! It's time to dig into my favorite comic book series, Ultimate William Stryker, starring William Stryker, written AND illustrated by, you guessed it, William Stryker! Yes, that was sarcasm(it doesn't travel well through the Internet...), and yes, saying I am sick and tired of William Stryker is akin to saying I am sick and tired of slamming my head into a brick wall... Both make me irritable, and both leave me with a pounding headache. Here's hoping someone(ANYONE!!) kills Stryker so we are rid of him... At least in the Ultimate Universe.

Ultimate X-Men #6:

What Happened: Sweet, Stryker IS dead! Now I have to become a fan of Ultimate Kitty Pryde! Anyway, Stryker DID manage to take control of all of the Nimrod robots in the United States before he died, and since the Nimrods had been recently uploaded with information from Cerebra(which Quicksilver gave the US as a show of good faith), they could track down and kill mutants anywhere. Kitty manages to use her phasing powers to protect many of the mutants Stryker was planning on publicly executing, so the Nimrods leave since they had way easier targets to get to elsewhere. From there, Kitty, Iceman, Human Torch and Jimmy Hudson bring the mutants to their base in the Morlock tunnels, and are followed by Rogue. Rogue tells the mutants that she wasn't REALLY a traitor, but was trying to gain Stryker's trust so he'd touch her(to “cure” her), at which time she'd swipe his powers from him. Kitty doesn't believe her and demands to know who gave Rogue such a plan, but Rogue can't tell Kitty and company... Why is that? Because the man who gave her the plan to steal Stryker's powers asked Rogue to keep a secret for him. That man? Professor Xavier(!!!)!

Thoughts: Wooo, Stryker is dead! That means this comic will be getting, at the very least, a 7 for a score! Besides Stryker being gone, the rest of this comic was pretty solid. We have several mysteries going on, such as Quicksilver conveniently handing the Cerebra tech to the US government where it falls into Stryker and the Nimrod's hands, as well as Prof. X apparently being alive. Am I angry that the Prof is alive, even though he was killed off during Ultimatum? Nope, not at all, because as far as I'm concerned, EVERYTHING that happened in Ultimatum should be disregarded because it was complete and total garbage. I have to say, things seem to be looking somewhat up for this series going forward.

Score: 8 out of 10.Yay, Sentinels...

Ultimates #5

It's time for the latest issue of Ultimates, which means I'm finally getting close to the bottom of my new comic pile. As that sentence should indicate to you, I have VERY little interest in this series, or the whole, “The Future Foundation gone bad!” storyline Jonathan Hickman is doing here. Unless this issue scores about a 6 1/2 or so, expect this to be the last issue of this series I pick up.

Ultimates #5:

What Happened: This issue is, for the most part, a total set-up issue. The various members of the Ultimates, from Nick Fury on down, have to deal with the collapse of the SEAR(South-East Asian Republic), and it falling into mutant hands, as well as Crazy Reed Richards conquering Europe. The only real important thing in this issue would have to be the Falcon sneaking into Crazy Reed's cleverly named city, The City... For a genius, Crazy Reed sure isn't very creative... Anyway, with the world in turmoil, and America in need of a beacon of hope, Nick Fury goes out and contacts Steve Rogers, who was living in the wilds of New Mexico eating rattlesnakes. Steve turns down Fury, ending this issue.

The Good: For once I wasn't completely baffled by what I was reading. Reed Richards didn't appear in this issue! It was nice to finally see Cap show up.

The Bad: The specter of Reed Richards loomed large over everything happening here. None of the various storylines in this one interested me in the least. The scene with the ghosts of the Asgardians and Thor was just embarrassingly bad. I guess 11 year olds might have gotten a giggle out of that... I guess...

The Verdict: I think it's safe to say I have little to no interest in the Ultimate Universe anymore. It's unbelievable that Marvel managed to piss away what was once a pretty great idea. Maybe I should stop giving DC so much crap, because while I haven't liked their reboot as much as I liked the previous DCU, Marvel's soft reboot of their Ultimate line has just been terrible. I'll definitely be dropping this series, meaning I'll only be picking up Ultimate X-Men now... And to be honest, if Marvel was to fix the things I hate about the 616 X-Men(ie: the “No More Mutants” garbage), I'd be happy to drop Ult. X-Men as well. But as it is, the only place I can actually see new mutants pop up is in the Ultimate Universe, so I'll stick with Ult. X-Men... For now...

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.Yep, that makes it official. Come tomorrow I'll be dropping this series.

Ultimate X-Men #5

Okay, let's stick with the X-Men but switch things up and check out the Ultimate X-Men! This will be the last comic I review in 2011, as I'll be posting my Year End Awards next(probably around 7 PM Saturday). So let's hope we close out 2011 with a bang!

Ultimate X-Men #5:

What Happened: Quicksilver manages to smooth talk the president of the United States into sending a fleet of Nimrod Sentinels after William Stryker in exchange for Cerebra, which would allow the president to know where all of the mutants in the US were. Valerie Cooper is fully against making a deal with Quicksilver, but the president feels the public support for collecting the free mutants would outweigh everything else, and as such makes the deal with Quicksilver. As for Valerie, she begins to dig deep into William Stryker's files to see what his issues were. Speaking of Stryker, he's in Times Square(you know, this is the FORTH time in two nights a comic I've read has had major action taking place in Times Square) curing mutants of their powers and then murdering them for not repenting their sins. Iceman, the Human Torch, Jimmy Hudson and Rogue arrive on the scene, and before they can attack Stryker, Rogue betrays the rest of the team since she had a preexisting deal with Stryker, where she would betray several mutants to Stryker in exchange for being expunged of the “sin” of being a mutant. Shroud arrives on the scene and attacks Stryker before he can kill anybody else, at which time Valerie makes the shocking discovery that Stryker himself was a mutant, and that his power was to control machines. With that, all of the Nimrod Sentinels the president sent to Times Square to take Stryker out fall under Stryker's sway.

The Good: The Stryker revelation was a nice little twist that I didn't see coming. The cliffhanger was good. If this team of X-Men were to stay like this(maybe minus Rogue), I'd be fine with that. I enjoyed the parts with Quicksilver.

The Bad: I know I've said it before, but it bears repeating... I am sick of Stryker!!! Okay, so now he's a mutant... Fine, that's something different, but he's STILL the same boring-ass character he's always been! Now he just has some powers... With Rogue betraying the team to Stryker, there's NO reason she should be allowed to stay on this team. Forgiving her would be, to me, unforgivable. While the cliffhanger was good, it means we're stuck with yet ANOTHER Marvel comic in which Stryker appears next issue...

The Verdict: This comic was okay, even with Stryker in it. I'm pretty certain that Nick Spencer should be able to have himself a nice little run on this series... Once he gets away from Stryker!!!

Score: 6 out of 10.I have to admit, I'm not usually for killing characters off, but when Stryker gets whacked I'll be doing my happy dance!

Ultimate X-Men #4

Moving onward, it's time to take a look at the Ultimate Marvel series that's the safest on my pull list, Ultimate X-Men. I've already dropped Ultimate Spidey because two monthly Bendis books would be too much for my sanity, and Jonathan Hickman tends to write over my head, which is making me question whether or not to keep up with Ultimates. Now, I haven't been that enthralled with THIS series, but it IS my favorite of the bunch... So far...

Ultimate X-Men #4:

Summary: Oh give me a frigging break... This is the William Stryker Special Issue... Every X-comic needs one of THOSE! *sigh* I've already gone on at great lengths about how much Stryker sucks and how much I hate him, so I won't get into it again here. Suffice to say he's the most worthless villain in the X-Men's rogue gallery, his character sucks, and he's been WAY overused lately. Anyway, blah, blah, blah, Stryker hates mutants, blah, blah, blah, Magneto killed his family, blah, blah, blah. Stryker kills a mess of cops in Times Square and opens up a van carrying a mess of mutants, proclaiming that he was gonna kill them. Iceman, Human Torch, Jimmy Hudson and Rogue decide to stop him, but after losing Peter Parker, Shroud doesn't want to help. So the four mutants leave without her and this one ends with the boy Jimmy rescued last issue informing Shroud that Rogue was actually a sleeper agent for Stryker. Because she's a complete and utter moron or something.

Thoughts: Yeah, whatever. There are my thoughts on this one in a nutshell. Wake me when this damned Stryker storyline is over, because I could literally care less about him. Seriously, I'd rather watch paint dry than read ANOTHER story about William Stryker.

Score: 1 out of 10. It would have been a 0 had Jimmy not appeared...Damn did Jimmy get his father's hair or what?!?

Ultimates #4

Last post of the night is this week's Runt of the Litter(thanks to the toss of a coin), Ultimates #4. I hate to say it, but if things don't pick up here soon(ie: start making some damn sense!), the only series from the relaunched Ultimate books I'll be reading is going to be Ultimate X-Men...

Ultimates #4:

Summary: Thor enters the City and ends up finding Capt. Britain, who is about to be killed. Thor rescues Britain and is confronted by the leader of Children of Tomorrow and his top goon. The leader(who is unsurprisingly revealed to be Reed Richards) has the goon beat Thor up and tells Thor he was allowing him to live, provided he went back to his teammates and SHIELD and told them that the Children of Tomorrow wouldn't attack the world any further provided they were left alone. With that, evil Reed leaves and Thor bemoans his existence, at least until Odin and all of Asgard's dead appear before him and cheer him up(or something) since Thor can see dead people now(or something)... Anyway, Thor returns to the Ultimates and tells them that the leader of the Children was... *gasp* Reed Richards!!!

Thoughts: Um, I don't get it. Not the story, for a change I actually DID get that, which was a pleasant surprise. What I don't get was the Reed reveal... I thought that was revealed back in like the first issue of this series... I mean I've been calling him evil Reed in all of my reviews for this series. I thought it was ULTRA obvious that it was Reed, and thought it was common knowledge. Now it wouldn't have been common knowledge to the Ultimates and SHIELD, but for the reader I was under the impression that it was, which was what made the reveal so bizarre... This whole issue kind of built towards the reveal of Reed as the Maker, which would be akin to an issue of Spider-Man building up to the reveal that Peter Parker was Spider-Man... It was just odd. Looking past that though, this issue as a whole was okay, and really, that's all I ask. Hopefully once we finish off this storyline Jonathan Hickman can show us that he can write a Marvel comic book WITHOUT Reed Richards in it, something he has yet to prove...

Score: 7 out of 10.You tell him, Nick!

Ultimate Hawkeye #4

And this marks the final issue of the Ultimate Hawkeye mini-series... Honestly, I can't say this mini has done much for me, other than give me an Ultimate Hawkeye mini-series. Maybe something completely unforgettable will happen here, and I'll look back at this mini-series as something special. In reality though? I'm not holding my breath about that.

Ultimate Comics Hawkeye #4(of 4):

Summary: So the created mutants of the SEAR(Southeast Asian Republic) have decided to call themselves either Celestials(Led by Xorn) or Eternals(led by Zorn), while referring to regular humans as Deviants... Get it? Ugh... Anyway, Xorn's Celestials are more peaceful while Zorn's Eternals are a bit more war like. Whatever, says I. Since Zorn was beating up on the Hulk, Xorn brings Hawkeye and Ultimate X to Zorn to stop the fighting. Zorn and Xorn babble for a while, and when I wake back up I see that Xorn has asked one of his telepaths to tell everybody in the world that they would be allowed to live in either the Celestial City or the Eternal City, provided they came in peace and took the Serum which created the SEAR mutants. Ultimate X decide that they want to remain in the twin cities, as they were tired of working for SHIELD(already?!), and the Hulk also asks to stay, but since he had killed a few Eternals, he gets cast out. As for Hawkeye, he declines the invitation and asks for, and receives, a sample of the Serum, which he brings back to Nick Fury, ending this mini-series.

Thoughts: Ugh. This sucked. I've got to say, in many ways Jonathan Hickman is very much like Grant Morrison... And I don't mean that as a compliment. Morrison has a habit of writing over the heads of his readers, and I can see that Hickman tends to do the same. I mean really, Xorn and Zorn, floating cities and mutant serums, and Eternals, Celestials and Deviants? Really? What ever happened to the days of straightforward storytelling? I hate the whole Eternal, Deviant, Celestial thing in the regular 616 Marvel U, and while Hickman gave it a slightly clever twist(and eliminated the giant space gods), it's not something the Ultimate Marvel Universe needed, at least in my opinion. The bottom line here is that I am glad this mini is over, because while I'll always support Hawkeye regardless of the universe, I'm happy I don't have to read anymore issue of this mini.

Score: 4 out of 10.Look, it's a picture of Hawkeye!

Ultimate X-Men #3

First book up for tonight? The third issue of Ultimate X-Men. I honestly expect big things from this title(it's not shackled by the rules the 616 X-books are chained to), and yet it's rehashing an idea from the 616 X-books that I hate... That idea? The Purifiers...

Ultimate X-Men #3:

What Happened: Valerie Cooper, the US's advisor on mutant issues, is shocked to see Quicksilver meeting with the president. It seems Quicksilver wants to assist the US and as such is offering them Cerebro tech to help them locate mutants. Meanwhile William “I suck and am horribly boring” Stryker is planning something nefarious. Back in the Morlock tunnels, Shroud, Iceman, the Human Torch and Rogue are surprised to find a young mutant boy there. The boy and his brother(a big mutant worm looking thing) have brought Jimmy Hudson to the sewers in search of help. It seems Jimmy broke out of Stryker's jails and freed a bunch of fellow mutants before being shot and knocked out. Jimmy eventually wakes up and tells the X-Men(I guess that's who these mutants are now) that they had to move quickly before Stryker struck. Alas, Stryker has already enacted his crazy plan and blows up much of New York's Times Square while babbling about the Lord.

The Good: Jimmy finally showed up(and pretty much joined the X-Men). There's the highlight of this one. I am an unabashed mark for Jimmy Hudson, so I was really happy to see him do something other than get captured in this comic. I liked the parts with Quicksilver, and am intrigued to see what his(and the Scarlet Witch's) plans are. The art here is really good.

The Bad: I HATE WILLIAM STRYKER AND THE PURIFIERS. And it's not a good hate either. You know, like how I hate somebody like Sin. See, I hate Stryker because he's a boring character with zero redeeming qualities, whereas I hate Sin because she's a villain. On the one hand(with Stryker) I don't want to read about him at all because he adds NOTHING to a series. On the other hand I WOULD read a comic with Sin in it because I want to see her get her comeuppance. The hate I feel for Stryker is the kind of hate that will get me to drop a comic book because I don't want to see his boring ass...

The Verdict: Yeah, that was the only thing I'd consider truly bad about this issue... But unfortunately, the main story is revolving around Stryker, which means I didn't enjoy the majority of this comic. Seriously, if almost ANY other villain was in Stryker's place, I'd have enjoyed this one WAY more. As it is, I just want this storyline to end, preferably with Jimmy digging his claws into Stryker's head, thereby ridding the Ultimate Universe of his annoying character forever! There is SUCH potential in this series, but as long as Stryker is in it, that potential can't be reached...

Score: 6 out of 10.Aww... He's just like his daddy!

Ultimates #3

I honestly don't have anything to say for the introduction of this comic, so let's just get to the review.

Ultimates #3:

Summary: With Thor cut off from the source of his godly power due to the Asgardian gods being killed by the Children of Tomorrow/the Evil Future Foundation, Iron Man presents Thor with a Thor-ish suit of armor and hammer outfitted with the power of teleportation. With the Evil FF's city spreading rapidly across Europe, Nick Fury leads SHIELD and the Ultimates against the forces of the Evil FF... And loses spectacularly. The Evil FF's offensive weapons decimate Fury's SHIELD helicarrier fleet, while their defensive capabilities are able to stand up against the strongest weapon in Fury's arsenal, a nuclear warhead. With his forces reeling, Fury is forced to retreat by way of Thor's teleportation. Our heroes are upset by this turn of events, but nobody more so than Thor, who says his good-byes to Iron Man before teleporting directly to the Evil FF's city to meet his fate.

Thoughts: Meh. This issue was what it was. The Ultimates and SHIELD going up against the Evil FF, throwing everything they had at them and being forced to retreat. That one sentence sums up this entire issue perfectly. Nothing else really happened. I mean the battle scenes were well drawn and all, but this isn't the sort of comic book that I'll remember fondly a week from now... Hell, I doubt I'll remember reading this issue at all! I'm still half expecting Thor to die and his son from last issue to claim his mantle, but that's stuff for down the road. To be honest, I'm already looking forward to this storyline ending, mainly to see if Jonathan Hickman is capable of writing a comic book that isn't in some way, shape or form connected to Reed Richards...

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.I know I say it a lot, but Hawkeye rules!

Ultimate Hawkeye #3

After a mostly disappointing look at a few DC comic books yesterday(and one fantastic Marvel comic), it's time to get back on track with a trio of Marvel books today. We'll start today off by taking a look at my favorite comic book archer, Hawkeye... Well, actually Ultimate Hawkeye, but that's close enough to the real deal.

Ultimate Hawkeye #3(of 4):

Summary: Now joined by Nick Fury's Ultimate X team, Hawkeye decides to split his forces into two since there are two main bases the new mutants who have declared war on the SEAR(Southeast Asian Republic) were operating out of. Hawkeye and pretty much everybody else will sneak into the northern base to steal a sample of the Serum that was creating the mutants, while the Hulk would go to the southern base to raise hell and cause the mother of all distractions(under the watchful telepathic eye of Jean Grey though). With his brilliant plan worked out, Hawkeye sends the Hulk to the south and he wreaks havoc as as expected, while the others sneak into the northern castle. Unfortunately though, Jean's telepathy ends up getting blocked, and she loses contact with the Hulk. The Hulk continues his rampage regardless, but ends up facing a foe who is able to revert him back to his Bruce Banner form. As for Hawkeye and company, they run into the shadowy leader of the mutant uprising, who tells them there was no need to fight since they had created PLENTY of the Serum and were willing to share.

Thoughts: I liked this comic. It was good, solid, and easy to follow read. So the last issue of this mini gives us a twofold problem... First off, Hulk's been de-powered and is at the mercy of his mysterious foe. Secondly, Nick Fury doesn't want to share the Serum, he wants SHIELD to have sole ownership of the Serum... That puts Hawkeye in a bit of a pickle, since the leader of the SEAR mutant uprising has revealed that he has such vast quantities of it. If the secondary leader of the uprising was able to put down the Hulk, who knows what sort of powers the leader of the uprising can throw at Hawkeye and company. And Hawkeye is going to have to attack the leader of the uprising since he has to destroy all but a sample of the Serum... So yeah, good stuff here. Hopefully the last issue is as good(or better!) as this one was.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Hawkeye: Ultimate Fighting Machine!