Wonder Woman #613 & Wolverine: The Best There Is #8

Two more comics today as I inch closer and closer to the bottom of my new comic pile... In other words, we're starting to get into the comics I'm not all that keen on reading. But when you have really low expectations of something, it could always give you a pleasant surprise! Unless we're talking about Brightest Day, which just plain sucked...

Wonder Woman #613:

Summary: As of the last issue, teenage Wonder Woman has come face to face with the threat that's been plaguing her these past 13 comics, regular Wonder Woman... Or is it??? It turns out evil Wonder Woman is actually the real Wonder Woman, but possessed by Nemesis, the Goddess of Retribution. Nemesis managed to get her agents, the Morrigan to lure Wonder Woman to her lair, where she was able to possess Wonder Woman with the intention being to use WW's awesome powers, coupled with her own godly abilities to wipe the world clean of humanity, since humanity makes murder, and all of the souls of the unjustly killed cry out to Nemesis. However, while Nemesis was in the process of possessing Wonder Woman, the gods managed to sneak away a small piece of Wonder Woman's essence, which became Wonder Woman: The Teenage Amazon, the best weapon against Nemesis possessed WW. Unfortunately for teenage WW and the gods, Nemesis WW is basically Wonder Woman WITH the added power of a god, which is something teenage WW is unable to overcome. The two battle, and after some spirited scuffling, Nemesis WW manages to impale teenage WW with her sword... But wait! That's exactly what teenage WW wanted, as she wraps the strand of WW's life given to her by Clotho a few issues back around herself and Nemesis WW, combining herself with WW and expelling Nemesis from their body. Now whole again, with Nemesis turned to stone, WW gloats about how Nemesis's evil plot had failed... Or at least she does until Nemesis turns back into flesh and blood and attacks WW anew with an army of souls crying out for vengeance.

Thoughts: Man, this is so weird... I mean I absolutely hated the beginning of this storyline, and with good reason... It was Wonder Woman, listening to an Ipod, carrying on conversations with a talking cat for god sake!! It was horrible! And then something happened halfway through the story... J. Michael Straczynski moved on to other projects and left Phil Hester to finish out the storyline from his notes. And from that point forward, the story really picked up. I don't know if it was Hester who should be credited with the turnaround, or if JMS would have done the same if he had stayed on the series, but I'll be damned if I didn't start to really enjoy this storyline! That just goes to show you, even when you're reading a storyline and have zero hope for it, it MAY just do a complete 180 and surprise you! Unless we're talking about Brightest Day, which, as we all know, sucked throughout.

Score: 8 out of 10.See, THAT'S why you don't piss Wonder Woman off!


Wolverine: The Best There Is #8:

Summary: We kick things off with Wolverine trying to battle a giant Phalanx-like spider that popped out of some woman while Monark Starstalker and some guy named Paradox(who I have zero knowledge about) stand back and watch. Monark and Paradox say helpful things like, “You need to make the spider smaller...” but do little. Eventually the spider becomes as large as the apartment building the woman was in, consuming Wolvie... I guess... I honestly don't know what the hell happened here and am basically guessing at this point... Monark and Paradox attack the giant spider as Wolvie cuts his way out of the wreckage that was the building. Paradox shouts to Wolvie to make the spider smaller, which Wolvie does with repeated slicing. From there, Monark tosses a space grenade at the smaller spider and, um... captures it in some fancy space metal. Paradox, who was infected by the spider, manages to burn the infection out of his system(as well as his clothes), and Wolvie realizes he was dealing with spacemen, which pisses him off.

Thoughts: My god, this comic was nearly unreadable! I mean, it was one of those deals where instead of actually understanding the story you're kind of making things up as you turn each page. I have NO idea if that review I typed up is even close to what was actually happening, but I am about 43% confident that I managed to describe(most) of what I read... In other words, this was a big mess. On the bright side, the first storyline of this series started off similarly, with me not comprehending anything, but by the conclusion, I was really enjoying it. Here's hoping something similar happens with this storyline.

Score: 2 1/2 out of 10.And on this page, stuff happens...

Wolverine: The Best There Is #7 & Incredible Hulks Annual #1

Two more Marvel comic books to get through before I switch things up and start going through the DC comics I picked up last Wednesday. As for the two Marvel comics in question? I really don't have much to say about them until I read 'em.

Wolverine: The Best There Is #7:

Summary: Having been doused with pretty much every disease possible the past few issues, it's safe to say Wolverine's healing factor is a bit taxed. On Crazy Mutie Island, Beast(who I thought left Crazy Mutie Island on bad terms with Lord Summers) is looking over Wolvie and reporting his findings back to Lord Summers and Her. They decide to lock down the lab Wolvie was in to prevent anything Wolvie was carrying from escaping before retiring to their quarters for the night. Upon waking up, Wolvie simply leaves the lab and heads to the kitchen and begins to eat everything in sight to help his healing factor out. Lord Summers, Beast and Her decide to leave Wolvie alone, so he heads into the living room and hangs out with Dazzler... Okay... The two talk for a while, and Dazzler makes Wolvie a new costume, since he didn't want to wear anything from his room. After that's done, Wolvie heads out and locates the woman who led him into the past few issues of madness, but she is promptly killed by some guy I don't know and Monark Starstalker??? Wha?!?

Thoughts: This is a strange series... When it all comes together it's really enjoyable(like the last two issues), but when it doesn't, it's as confusing as hell... This issue was more the latter. Sure, there were a few places where I laughed out loud while reading, but for the most part? Confusing as hell. Meh, maybe things will make more sense come the next issue.

Score: 5 out of 10.......


Incredible Hulks Annual #1:

Summary: This is the third part of the Identity Wars storyline that ran through this years Spider-Man and Deadpool annuals. Since I'm in a rush, I'm not gonna recap those issues, but luckily for you, I'm sure I have them posted on the blog, so it should be a simple matter to find them! We learn that alternate Bruce Banner had become the Sorcerer Supreme of his world, and had managed to banish his Hulk half to Hell. That's all fine and good, but when 616 Bruce Banner arrived in the alternate dimension, his Hulk half went to Hell, and alternate Bruce's Hulk was set free... Yes, it IS very confusing. Alternate Hulk wants to kill alternate Bruce, so alternate Bruce(at the recommendation of Spidey) casts a spell that makes Deadpool look like alternate Bruce, which causes alternate Hulk to attack Pool. With some time to think, alternate Bruce comes up with a plan to re-banish his Hulk, but needs Bruce to allow the Hulk back into his body. Realizing that alternate Hulk was way worse than his own Hulk, Bruce agrees. Alternate Bruce casts a spell, and summons the Hulk, who attacks alternate Hulk. Eventually, through some magical chicanery, alternate Bruce forces alternate Hulk back into his body, and turns back to himself. Temporarily in control, he orders the Hulk to snap his neck before alternate Hulk took control again, which he does, ending the threat of alternate Hulk. From there, Spidey discovers a note from the now dead(?) alternate Bruce, telling the trio to head to Parker Labs the next day. When the time comes, the trio head to the appointed spot and discover alternate Peter Parker, apparently returned from Hell, thanks to alternate Bruce. Alternate Peter is sorry for all the evil he committed, and helps return the trio of heroes to their proper dimension, ending this story.

Thoughts: Well, this storyline sure took a nosedive! I really enjoyed the first two parts of this story, the Deadpool and Spidey ones, but this issue just fell flat for me. For whatever reason, I just couldn't get into the Bruce Banner: Sorcerer Supreme stuff. Deadpool was more or less an afterthought here, and even Spidey didn't do all that much. I guess with this being a Hulk annual, that makes sense, but with me not exactly being a Hulk fan, it all just didn't work for me. Add a story with too many Hulks and Bruce Banners, and yeah, this comic wasn't my cup of tea.

Score: 4 1/2 out of 10.It's Hulk vs Hulk! How original!

Captain America #618 & Wolverine: The Best There Is #6

Last reviews for today, as I've pretty much reviewed everything in my new comic pile! And a full two days before Wednesday!! That usually NEVER happens... So that means I get to be creative for tomorrow's post... I have a pretty good idea of what I'm going to do for tomorrow(think “old” and “Batman”), but since it's not set in stone, I'm not going to say just yet... But that's for tomorrow. Let's take care of today first!

Captain America #618:

Summary: Sharon Carter and Black Widow manage to fight off the various Russian soldiers they were confronted by last issue, and the two women learn that somebody named the Red Barbarian, a former KGB agent, was behind the framing of Bucky. Widow decides to go rogue to try to help Bucky, and “loses” Sharon in order to help Bucky while not incriminating Steve Rogers. Bucky is still being tortured in the Russian prison he was locked up in, with seemingly EVERY inmate in there having their own reasons for wanting to hurt and/or help Bucky... Seriously, I didn't know what the hell was going on half the time! Ultimately we learn that the Red Barbarian wanted Bucky to be faced with several people from his old Winter Soldier days in order to force Bucky to recall some deep seeded activation code that the Red Barbarian and his KGB ilk had implanted in Bucky's brain. Finally, Steve Rogers is trying to figure out how Henry Peter Gyrich fit into the whole Bucky mess. It seems that Gyrich helped facilitate Bucky's transfer to Russia after talking to an old Russian diplomat friend of his. Before Steve can talk to the diplomat, the guy turns up dead, killed by a deep cover Russian spy, who then killed himself, leaving Steve with no leads.

Thoughts: Gah, what was this all about?! Usually I absolutely love this series, but this issue was just... All over the place... Sure, there were parts of this issue that bugged me on the heels of reading Fear Itself #3(which I won't get into in case you've yet to check it out), but still, I expected to enjoy(and understand!) this issue a lot more than I did. Normally I'd say the sooner this storyline was over the better, but in light of recent events, maybe I should be cherishing a certain character in this series while I still can...

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.Man does Bucky's life suck...


Wolverine: The Best There Is #6:

Summary: Okay, first things first, I didn't review issues #3-5 on the blog because I just recently picked up issue #3, which I was missing for some reason. Long story short, I figured why bother wasting my time reviewing issues #3-5 when I'd probably be the only person to ever check out those reviews? So in lieu of reviews for issues #3-5, here's a BRIEF rundown of what happened... Wolvie is trapped by a total nutjob named Winsor who wants to test Wolverine's healing factor to see if it could be used to cure his son from a mutation that makes the kid super-smart. Winsor threatens to blow the kids head off unless Wolvie goes along with Winsor's insanity. Not wanting to risk the kid's life, Wolvie suffers through days(weeks?) of torture which allows Winsor to test the limit's of Wolvie's healing factor. Eventually the kid tells Wolvie that his life was never in any danger, and that Winsor had a strange mutation that caused him to create an unlimited number of diseases within his own body, which is what Winsor really wanted to cure. Now figuring the kid was safe, Wolvie decides to kill Winsor, but has to get past Winsor's unkillable henchmen first. There we go. All caught up. Wolvie carves his way through Winsor's goons(literally) until he finds the Corruptor, who had also been captured by Winsor. From there, Wolvie heads towards Winsor's office and after a quick run-in with Winsor's lab assistant(who was being fed a diet of Corruptor's sweat, making her more compliant) grabs Winsor by the neck and prepares to kill him. However, Winsor reminds Wolvie that killing him would result in Winsor's body releasing a mess of viruses... To deal with that, Wolvie drags Winsor back to the lab Corruptor was being held in and forces Winsor to touch Corruptor, at which point Wolvie tells Winsor to create a virus that would cure him of his mutation. With Winsor now harmless, Wolvie unhooks Corruptor from the machine's that had kept him sedated and decides to let Corruptor deal with Winsor however he saw fit. With this whole nightmare out of the way, Wolvie runs out the door and collapses outside.

Thoughts: You know, I hated this story the first two issues. I mean it was, for lack of a better term, batshit crazy. It was so crazy that I didn't have the slightest idea as to WHAT was going on! Even after having read the entire 6 issue storyline, and having read 4 parts in a row, I'll admit that there were still a few aspects of this story that left me confused as hell... But with that said, by the end of this issue, I was thoroughly enjoying the story! Go figure! I guess that says something about me though... Anyway, we don't know what happens to Winsor, what the deal was with Winsor's assistant and the weird mobster they pulled out of the quicksand back in the first issue, nor do we ever see Winsor's son at all this issue, which were a few of the things that bugged me storywise this issue. But for the most part? The out and out insanity here made up for the little quirks that bugged me, and made this a Wolvie story I'd remember, if only for the absolute madness that went on during it.

Score: 9 out of 10.Man does Wolverine's life suck... What?!

Wolverine: The Best There Is #2

Review: This issue begins with Wolverine talking to Beast about what happened to him last issue. Beast tells Wolvie that it appears that he was drugged by the Corruptor, and after seeing a picture of the Corruptor, Wolvie knows that wasn't the guy who drugged him. Having some idea of what he was dealing with now, Wolvie heads out to track the guy who drugged him the previous night. Wolvie's search brings him to an abandoned warehouse, where he is attacked by a drugged man with a knife. Wolvie cuts the guys arms and legs off(um, overkill much?!)before he is confronted by Madcap(!!!). Wolvie makes the mistake of making eye contact with Madcap, which seems to drive Wolvie crazy(even though that's not exactly how I remember Madcap's powers working). Wolvie sees visions, but is able to snap out of it and decapitate Madcap. Wolvie heads inside and is led towards the man he was hunting by some goon named Goth. Although expecting to find the man who drugged him the prior night, Wolvie is instead confronted by a frightened man wearing a paper bag on his head... Uh-huh... Anyway, before Wolvie can figure out what the hell is going on, he smells two other goons outside the room and lunges out of the room at them, driving his claws into their chests. Unfortunately for Wolvie, these guys don't die, and while his arms are stuck in them, one whips out a machine gun and shoots Wolvie up, ending this issue.

Thoughts: Well, first things first, this issue was hundreds of times better than the last issue. Whereas last issue made NO sense, this one at least seemed to follow a story-thread. It seems that all of Wolvie's enemies here are immortal, even though I'm still not exactly sure what their game is. This comic was as gory as you'd expect, it does say “Parental Advisory” on the cover, but I'm still kind of perplexed by the censoring of the profanity... There are a few occasions of cursing in this comic, but they get the “####” treatment. If you already have dismemberments, and a parental advisory, why not just add the cursing and go the full monty? Meh, besides that, I'm glad that this series has become somewhat coherent, and I'm looking forward to seeing where the next issue takes Wolvie.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Poor little crazy Daken.

Wolverine: The Best There Is #1

Wolverine: The Best There Is #1

-We start off with a naked Wolverine being forced to fight a mutate in a dog fighting ring thanks to a mind altering(and mutant power dampening)collar around his neck.
-Eventually the mutate accidentally damages Wolvie's collar, freeing him to kill the mutate, the people running the dog fighting ring and everybody watching the sorry spectacle.
-From there Wolvie(wearing one of those tuxedo top t-shirts)catches a ride with some woman who decides to take him to a party.
-Next up, some mystery villains dig a mutant with a healing factor out of quicksand to take to their base.
-Before the mystery villains take the mutant with the healing factor away, the leader of the group burns the mutant with his touch, and one of the mystery villains reveals that he's a cannibal... Um, sure... I guess.
-Wolvie heads to the party and meets up with the mystery villain from earlier(the one with the burning hands).
-Meeting this villain seems to free the inhibitions of the people he crosses paths with, which leads to the party becoming a riot, and Wolvie gutting himself with his claws.

What in the blue HELL was this all about?!? I literally didn't understand a single thing that happened here... First off, how the hell did Wolvie get SO drunk that he was captured by some hicks, and then forced into a dog fighting ring? What the hell was up with those weird villains? Why was Wolvie acting like a drunken hairdresser at the party, cutting hair with his claws? What a mess this was... On the bright side, it can only get better from here! I mean, I don't think it's humanly possible for things to get any worse...

Score: 0 out of 10.Yeah, this scene pretty much sums up my feelings on this comic...