Ultimate X #5 & Fear Itself: Black Widow #1

Next up on the review train is two more Marvel comic books I'm extremely interested in reading, but for two different reasons. Ultimate X has been a shockingly good series, but has been crippled by delays, so whenever a new issue comes out, I'm happy. Fear Itself: Black Widow could be VERY interesting depending on when during the Fear Itself event it takes place. If it takes place after the events of Fear Itself #3, it could be a must read. I doubt it will, but still...

Ultimate X Comics #5:

Summary: So wait, THIS was the last issue?! DAMMIT!!! *sigh* Okay, on with the review... This issue kicks off with Jimmy(that would be Wolverine's son) trying to buy some beer at a liquor store. After getting turned away for being underage, he heads outside where he is approached by a guy who says he'd buy Jimmy the booze, and wouldn't even take Jimmy's money, since he instead wanted Jimmy's life. It turns out the guy is Sabretooth(!), and that he wanted to off Jimmy before the kid grew up to be the kind of threat Wolverine was. Tooth beats the ever-loving hell out of Jimmy, but is prevented from delivering the deathblow by Quicksilver, who swoops in and drags Tooth away. Jean Grey ends up locating Jimmy and brings his battered body back to their hotel room. Since Jimmy's healing factor was working slowly to repair the multitude of damage done to Jimmy's body, Jean patches him up as best she can before heading out to recruit somebody else to join her cause... Bruce Banner! Banner has been working at a soup kitchen, and upon hearing from Jean doesn't want to help, since the Hulk was an uncontrollable monster. However, Jean tells Banner that she'd be able to help him keep Hulk in check, which would go a long way in Banner making amends for the Hulk's MANY crimes. Banner agrees to go with Jean, and later that day, the Hulk attacks Sabretooth in a bar, beating the hell out of him. After a while, Quicksilver and his group of mutants(including Mystique and the new Blob) arrive on the scene to confront Jean and her group. Realizing that they were WAY overpowered with the Hulk there, Quicksilver tells Jean that he never sanctioned Sabretooth's attack on Jimmy, and now that Tooth had been beaten for his actions, they were even. Not really looking for a fight, Jean allows Quicksilver to take Tooth and his team and leave. Jean heads back to the hotel with her team, and Jimmy wakes up, obviously shocked to see the Hulk standing there with the rest of the group. Jean tells them that the Hulk was in control of himself now, and then drops another bombshell, bringing Nick Fury into the room. Fury tells the group that he didn't approve of the way the government was dealing with the mutant situation, and that he was going to be providing Jean and her group with information to help them assist mutants in need. Jean tells the group that they didn't work for Fury or the anybody else, and that they'd do what they felt was the right thing to do for themselves and mutantkind. From there, the scene shifts to Quicksilver's base, where he tells his team that the US government and it's war on mutants had to be stopped, at which time he reveals HIS secret weapon, the Scarlet Witch!!

Thoughts: Yeah, so at the end of this issue we find out that this was the last issue of this “mini-series” even though it was originally promoted as a bi-monthly ongoing series... That REALLY sucks, because I REALLY like Jimmy, and was getting into the concept of this series. Oh well... It seems that in the coming months, Marvel is going to try to fix up their Ultimate Universe, with a new Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimates and Ultimate X-Men series. The Ultimate X-Men series is being written by Nick Spencer(which should be a good thing!), and SHOULD be picking up where this “mini-series” left off. I'll be honest, in many ways I see Jeph Loeb in the same light as I see Grant Morrison... He's very hit or miss, and tends to polarize comic fans. For me, I've always felt more positive than negative towards Loeb's work(he DID create Nate Grey!!!), but I also didn't read much of his Ultimate Universe works, like Ultimatum, which seems to be what pissed off a great many comic fans. With all that said though, THIS “mini-series” was Loeb at his best. I can honestly say I enjoyed practically every issue(not that there were a lot...), and I honestly hope we see another Ultimate X mini, or better yet, the characters in this “mini-series” show up as members of the new Ultimate X-Men comic. As for a score, I'm not sure it deserves it, but what the hell, it's my blog, and as such I'll give this issue a perfect score, the second one I've given out today!

Score: 10 out of 10.And that ladies and gentlemen, is an ass-kicking.


Fear Itself: Black Widow #1:

Summary: After what happened in Washington DC(so this DOES take place after Fear Itself #3), Steve Rogers has sent the Black Widow out to Marseille, France to deal with some terrorists, as well as to get her away from the “loss” she suffered in Washington... Grr.... Anyway, BW and a French hero named Peregrine head to a church and discover that a mess of terrorists had taken over the church since it also housed a secret French Ministry of Defense room. The terrorists manage to discover the launch codes for France's nuclear arsenal, and before Black Widow can attack them, have sent the codes to whoever hired them. After a quick tussle, BW leaves a few of the terrorists alive and interrogates them, forcing one of them into giving up the location of their leader. Black Widow sneaks onto a ship, and gets blindsided by some more terrorists and captured. The terrorist leader taunts BW before shooting her in the head(!). With BW out of the way, the terrorist leader decides to launch France's nukes at London, since he wanted people to fear his organization, not the Serpent. After having heard all the terrorist's plans, the Black Widow speaks to the terrorists, telling them that they had actually captured a life model decoy, and not the real Black Widow, and that the LMD was filled with enough explosives to sink their ship. With that, BW pushes a button and detonates her LMD, sinking the boat, killing the terrorists and saving London. This issue ends with Peregrine telling BW that they had won a victory worth celebrating, while BW sees nothing more than a hollow victory.

Thoughts: Eh, this wasn't a bad comic at all. It was a good little one and done issue, that starred Black Widow. There's nothing wrong with that. It did hint at the events of Fear Itself #3, but didn't come right out and SAY that Bucky had died, even though reading between the lines made me even more sure that Marvel made the dumbest possible move and killed Bucky, all for the sake of that goddamn movie... Anyway, like I said, this was a good comic that wasn't REALLY connected to the main Fear Itself stuff. While that did annoy me a bit, it didn't hurt my enjoyment of this issue, which is all that really matters.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Hey, can the Bucky thing have been a LMD too? Please?

Kick-Ass 2 #2 & Ultimate X #4

Hot DAMN, this past week BOTH Ultimate X #4 AND Kick-Ass 2 #2 came out! Why am I so excited by that? Well, Ultimate X #3 came out last JULY(yes, July!), while Kick-Ass 2 #1 came out back in October... For the record, I'm a HUGE fan of both series, so when I saw they were both coming out this week, I was pleased to say the least. Now the real question is this, after their respective delays, are they both going to be as good as they were? Well, let's find out!

Ultimate X #4:

Summary: This issue is narrated by Liz Allen's mother, who fills the reader in as to what Liz had been up to after Ultimatum. Not only do we learn that, we also learn that Liz's father was... wait for it... THE BLOB! Yup. Needless to say, Liz's mom decided not to tell her Liz that piece of information. After Blob's death at the conclusion of Ultimatum, Liz's mother discovers that Blob had left her a sweet life insurance policy to take care of Liz, as well as another child Blob had sired(Blob: Lady-killer?!?), a kid around Liz's age named Teddy. With the money from the life insurance, Liz finds Teddy, and moves to California with the two kids. Liz quickly fits in with the “cool” girls, while Teddy winds up falling in with the wrong crowd, most notably some dweeb named Evan, who encourages Teddy to break the rules, etc. After a hamburger throwing incident in the High School cafeteria, the principal suspends Teddy and Evan, which is fine by Liz, since she wouldn't have to worry about Teddy embarrassing her at school that week. The week passes uneventfully for Liz until Teddy and Evan are reinstated and they ask Liz for a ride home from school. Before Liz can give an answer, Liz's kinda-of boyfriend tells Teddy and his “girlfriend” to take a hike, at which point Evan pulls a gun and begins wildly pointing it around. The principal enters the cafeteria to try to defuse things but gets shot by Evan, who now feels like a big man. Teddy steps in front of Evan and tells him to stop, so Evan shoots Teddy too, and it's there we learn Teddy had inherited his father's mutant ability as the bullet harmlessly pops out of Teddy's chest. Having witnessed some of this scene on TV, Jean Grey grabs Jimmy Hudson and Derek Morgan and the trio of free mutants make their way to the school before things got any worse. The kids in the school are more panicked over the fact that there are two mutants present(Liz and Teddy), then the kid with a gun who actually shot somebody! Ah that wacky Marvel mutant logic... Anyway, Jean arrives on the scene and offers to take Liz and Teddy away from all this. Before they can agree, Quicksilver(!?!) arrives on the scene and makes a similar offer. Liz makes eye contact with Jimmy, and since he has those irresistible Hudson genes, she wants to go with Jean's group. However, Teddy is tired of all the digs Liz was always giving him behind his back and as such decides to go with Pietro. With that the two groups split up and this issue ends with Liz's mom realizing that she'd never see either of her children again.

Thoughts: Why can't this comic book come out on a regular schedule? Hell, I'd be fine with a semi-regular schedule. That's how much I love this series. This series does indeed prove that Jeph Loeb DOES still have some mad writing skills when he wants to, because this series has been top shelf from the first issue onward. I liked the story, I enjoyed the twists with Liz's mom and Blob, I liked the character development Loeb put into Teddy even though you know he's simply going to go out there and be your basic super-villain. In other words, I liked a LOT of what I read here. If I had a gripe, it would be the fact that Jimmy was pretty much an afterthought here. Other than that, good stuff. Oh, and on the back page they claim issue #5 will be out in May... I know I'll be keeping my fingers crossed!

Score: 9 out of 10.Yeah, she went there...


Kick-Ass 2 #2:

Summary: Kick-Ass gets invited to attend a meeting of like minded individuals, a bunch of costumed characters who have decided to band together to deal with the crimes the cops couldn't or wouldn't deal with. During the meet and greet, Kick-Ass realizes that Battle-Guy was his friend from High School, Marty Eisenberg. After getting the meet and greet out of the way, Colonel Stripes(who seems to have taken the leadership role) begins to set up the team's first “big” mission, busting up a mafia card game. The next day at school, Kick-Ass and Marty are feeling pretty smug about their newfound super-hero team-up thing... Or at least they are until they bump into one of the Goth kids who had signed up to join Red Mist's band of super-villains via Mist's Twitter account. That night, Kick-Ass and Battle-Guy meet up and hang out before they hook up with the rest of the heroes and walk right up to the door of the mafia card game and knock. Some goon answers, so Colonel Stripes smashes the goon in the throat and it's loosely organized chaos time! The heroes are on the mafia feebs before they know what's going on, and within moments, the mafia members are laying around groaning and holding various broken body parts. Colonel Stripes saves the best for the leader of the mafia, as he lets his dog take a bite out of the mafia boss's... Hmm, I can't think of a politically correct way to put this... Ah what the hell. The dog bites the guy square in the balls. There. While the mafia guy is convulsing on the floor, Colonel Stripes pulls out a handgun and tells the agonized man that they needed to have a talk.

Thoughts: Wow, this was a pretty quick read... But a lot actually happened. We learn that several members of Kick-Ass's “super-hero” team are mafia defectors, who found god or some such nonsense. In other words, I'm not buying that story as far as I could throw it. I get the feeling Stripes might just be looking to make a power play on the mafia(with his well-meaning, but oblivious) band of heroes backing him up. Could I be WAY off? Yes, definitely, and I probably am! Besides that, we have the Red Mist stuff quietly percolating under the surface right now... If I was wearing a hat right now, it would be off to both Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.

Score: 9 out of 10.Total carnage! I love it!

Ultimate X #3

Ultimate X #3: Writer: Jeph Loeb. Pencils: Arthur Adams.

Review: In the first issue we meet up with Jimmy Hudson, the son of Wolverine. Issue number two we learned that Jean Grey had gone into hiding and was calling herself Karen Grant. That issue ended with Jimmy finding Jean/Karen. In this issue we meet a police family. You have the older brother, Joe Morgan, who followed in his deceased police officer father's footsteps, his(very)pregnant wife, and his high school drop-out brother, Derek. While working his beat one night, Joe and his partner are called to a mugging in process, but discover only a frightened woman, who was telling the officers that her attacker was swooped away into the sky. Joe's partner decides to head to a rooftop to investigate, and when she arrives, she discovers a winged mutant holding the mugger over the ledge of the building demanding money from the criminal. The mugger complies and hands over his wallet, and the officer warns the mutant to freeze at gunpoint. The mutant manages to knock out the officer with a quick flick of his wings and after tying up the criminal he flies off. Joe and a few other officers discover his partner, bruised but otherwise unharmed, and she tells them that she was attacked by the creature the people in the neighborhood had been calling The Guardian. Eventually Joe returns to his small apartment and tells his wife about his day, while at the same time Guardian sneaks into a back window of the apartment, draws in his wings with a scream and collapses onto the floor... That's right, Guardian is Derek Morgan. Joe goes to check on his brother, who explains that he must have fallen out of his bed, before handing Joe the money he took off the mugger earlier on as rent. Some time passes, and the police decide that since this Guardian is a mutant he needs to be taken down hard. As such, the police take to the rooftops of the neighborhood and wait to find Guardian. Derek swoops down and grabs his brother, who was waiting on one of the rooftops with his fellow officers, and tells Joe that he was Guardian. Joe, being a law abiding citizen first and a brother second, pulls his gun and orders his brother to land with him and tells him to turn himself over to the proper authorities. Derek refuses, and after a tense standoff(in the air)Joe shoots his brother and the two go tumbling to the ground, hitting the water below. The police fish Joe out of the water, while Jimmy(who arrived on the scene with Jean a bit earlier)swims over to Derek and pulls him out of the water. Later on, Derek awakens in the sewers where Jean had patched up his shoulder. Jimmy and Jean explain that they were mutants and that they were hoping he'd join up with them. Derek is hesitant, since he still wants to try to talk to his brother, and Jean tells him that after a quick scan of his brother's mind, there's no way Joe would accept Derek and would undoubtedly turn him over to SHIELD. Jean offers to plant some memories in Joe's head which would cause him to forget that Derek was Guardian, and make him believe that Derek had moved to Cincinnati to take a construction job. After some thought, Derek okay's the idea, and the three mutants decide to head to their next target... Disneyland!(cue ominous music!)

What I Thought: You know, this comic is probably my biggest guilty pleasure. I had given the Ultimate Universe up for dead after the horribly disgusting Ultimatum storyline, but low and behold, this series continues to be VERY strong. Say what you will about Jeph, but his characterizations for the three characters we've met these past three issues have been spot on. The first issue made me into a fan of Jimmy, while issue #2 made me care about Jean. This issue did a fantastic job of pulling me into Derek's story, as well as his brother, who narrated this issue. Great dialogue, wonderful art, a story that is slowly developing into something interesting, I can't WAIT until August for issue #4!

Score: 9 1/2 out of 10.And then there were three.

Ultimate X #2

Two last Marvel reviews tonight before I switch gears and spend the next few days reading some DC books. I'm still spending most of my time studying and such, so I'm not really sure how many reviews I'll be posting tomorrow, but I'll definitely have something up.

Ultimate X #2: Writer: Jeph Loeb. Pencils: Arthur Adams.
Last Issue: 9 1/2 out of 10.

Review: This issue deals completely with a mysterious woman named Karen Grant. We get started with Karen dying her hair black and using telekinesis to get dressed... That just seems lazy to me... She has a few pieces of her old life hidden in her room, including an issue of a magazine with the X-Men on the cover, as well as Cyclops's visor, that latter of which causes Karen to break down into tears. After composing herself, she heads to the mall where we find she's dating some mall security guard, as well as working at a clothing store. Upon arriving at work, her co-workers throw her a little celebration for being the top salesperson of the month. Karen spots a picture of herself and immediately flies into a rage when she learns that her boyfriend had it posted on his Facebook page, after she had implicitly told him to never take her picture, and especially to not put anything about her online. Karen blows her boyfriend off and heads to the food court where she is met by Rogue. The two women hug until Karen realizes that the woman in front of her wasn't Rogue, but was Mystique. Mystique explains that the few mutants left need to stick together, but Karen refuses to listen to anything Mystique says, until Karen spots Sabretooth hanging around the mall while a bunch of innocent children ran about. With little choice, Karen decides to listen to Mystique and Sabretooth, and the three head out of the mall where they are met by Karen's boyfriend, who thinking Karen was in some kind of trouble, pulls a gun on Sabretooth, which results in Tooth gutting the hapless security guard. That action puts Karen into a rage and she proceeds to pick up a bunch of cars telekinetically and smashes Tooth with them. Karen tells Mystique to leave before she suffers a similar fate, and then uses her powers to halt the security guard's bleeding while using telepathy to convince everyone around that the guard was stabbed by a man with a knife, and that the cars crashed in the ensuing carnage. Upon the cops arriving, Karen heads back home knowing that she'll have to leave and start over elsewhere, when Jimmy Hudson breaks into her house and introduces himself to her as Wolverine's son seemingly knowing that she was really Jean Grey, ending this issue.

What I Thought: Hey, I liked this issue! I was definitely disappointed that Jimmy didn't show up until the very last page, but the stuff with Karen/Jean was enough to keep me interested in this comic. I only vaguely know what happened in the Ultimate Marvel U during the Ultimatum storyline(I had stopped reading the Ultimate titles right before that storyline began), but from what I'd heard, it was pretty awful. Thankfully, the first two issues of this series has been the opposite of awful, they've been surprisingly good! While I wish this comic came out monthly instead of once every two months, I'll happily wait until the next issue comes out to see what happens next.

Score: 8 out of 10.Yeah, that's one guy I sure as hell wouldn't want to tangle with!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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