Big New Comic Day!

Awesomeness, thy name is Wednesday! What a GREAT bunch of books I came away with today at the comic book store! First off, Batman: Streets of Gotham #15 came in the mail today, but with the lousy review it was given by my amigo JT, I don't foresee myself reading that anytime soon. So let's move on from there. I wound up picking up 16 comics today, and many of them look EXTREMELY interesting! So without further ado, here's what I picked up today; Avengers: The Children's Crusade #2, Brightest Day #9, Captain America: Forever Allies #2, Hawkeye & Mockingbird #4, JSA All-Stars #10, Red Hood: The Lost Days #4, Secret Six #25, Shadowland #3, Shadowland: Elektra #1, Young Allies #4, Franken-Castle #20, I am an Avenger #1, Superman: The Last Family of Krypton #2, Taskmaster #1, Wolverine: Road to Hell #1, Freedom Fighters #1. So yeah, that's a lot of books. But not only is the quantity large here, the quality is pretty high as well. I can't wait to dig into Children's Crusade, Hawkeye/Mockingbird, Red Hood and Shadowland. I mean those are some of my favorite titles right there! Besides that, several of the other comics are pretty solid as well. Shadowland: Elektra, I am an Avenger and Forever Allies also have the potential to be pretty good. Plus with this issue of Franken-Castle in my possession I can finally read the entire Franken-Castle/Dark Wolverine x-over, since I now have all 4 parts in my possession. I'm sure there'll be a few bombs in there as well(I'm looking at YOU Brightest Day!), but all in all this is the most psyched I've been about a Wednesday in quite some time! As always, throw me a comment if you want me to review any of the aforementioned books, that way I'll know to put 'em on the top of my “New Comics” pile. Besides all of that, I MIGHT not be able to respond to any comments left here tonight, as I have some Science and English homework that looks like it may take some time, plus I have all of these great books to dig into as well! So even if I don't respond tonight, I'll definitely make sure to respond tomorrow. Alright, that'll do it for me, I have homework to get to... X out.

Impulse Mondays.

Hey there X-Maniacs, X here to announce a new weekly feature! Let's face facts, nobody likes Mondays. They signal the end of the weekend and the beginning of the work and/or school week for most of us. As such, Monday tends to be my least favorite day of the week. So I was wondering, how can I beat the Monday blues? After some thought, I realized that this was a job for Impulse! Yes, Bart Allen, not just one of my favorite DC characters, but one of my favorite characters in all of comics, is the answer to defeating the Monday blues. So every Monday for the foreseeable future(or at least until I forget to put a post up!)I'll be posting some random Impulse scan from my comic collection. I honestly won't know what I'll be posting until like 10 minutes before I post it, but I'm sure it'll be funny none the less. I guess that's about it. Enjoy the Imp-sanity, X out.From Impulse #13(May 1996).

Picto-Review: X-Men: Curse of the Mutants-Storm & Gambit #1

X-Men: Curse of the Mutants-Storm & Gambit #1: Writer: Chuck Kim. Pencils: Chris Bachalo.


We get things started with a flashback(note the black and white coloring!)where Storm and Gambit are told to retrieve the headless body of Dracula in order to return the dethroned King of the Vampires to life. Why only Storm and Gambit? The Vampire base is surrounded by a magical field preventing the X-Men from teleporting a large force in, so with Storm and Gambit both being accomplished thieves, they get the call.


Storm and Gambit manage to sneak onto Creepy Vampire Island and gain entrance to the vampire base via a cave.


Unfortunately, the two are discovered by a roving band of vampire guardians and attacked.


Luckily for Gambit and Storm, Dracula's first born son, Janus, joins the fray and assists the two X-Men. Janus also wants his father brought back to life and his treacherous brother Xarus defeated.


So Storm goes off to discover the means in which the vampires were keeping teleporters off of their island, and Gambit and Janus head off to find Dracula's decapitated body. Unfortunately, the vampires were expecting Gambit and Janus...


Gambit and Janus wind up fighting a losing battle against the vampire horde, while Storm discovers that the vampires were using innocent civilians as part of a black magic ritual to prevent intruders from accessing their island home. Faced with the prospect of failing her mission and costing Gambit and Janus their lives, or killing the innocents to break the spell, Storm decides to kill the captives to break the vampire spell, thus allowing the X-Men to teleport a team to the island.


With that, the X-Men arrive, beat up the vampires and collect Dracula's body. So although Storm's mission was a success, she can't help but feel terribly guilty for killing the innocent victims of the vampire's spell.

What I Thought: I actually really enjoyed this comic. To be honest, I've really enjoyed this whole, “Vampires vs Mutants” thing WAAAY more then I thought I would. I'd all but given up hope on the X-books, but so far the vampire storyline has been the best thing to come out of the X-books in 5/6 years(although that's not really saying much). It was nice to see Storm return to the type of character she was back in the 90's, before her ridiculous and wholly unneeded marriage to Black Panther. Storm belongs with the X-Men, and she should be in a leadership type of role(better her then that damned Emma Frost!). Gambit also fit into this issue well. Granted he was more or less the damsel in distress, but he served his purpose and didn't really annoy me much. All in all, good work here. This storyline is slowly giving me some hope that the dark days of the X-books(thanks to writers like Chris Yost and Mike Carey)are finally coming to an end.

Score: 8 out of 10.

Picto-Review: Shadowland: Moon Knight #1

Shadowland: Moon Knight #1(of 3): Writer: Gregg Hurwitz. Pencils: Bong Dazo.


In this comic we discover that Khonshu, the Egyptian God Moon Knight is empowered by, has become annoyed with Moon Knight's lack of focus on his mission of vengeance.


One of Khonshu's agents(that weird Profiler guy)heads out and finds a new avatar to serve as Khonshu's deliverer of vengeance.


Moon Knight discovers that his long time girlfriend is pregnant with his child, but is called away from her by Steve Rogers, who asks him to get captured by the Hand to see exactly what Daredevil was doing to the people he was capturing in Shadowland.


So while Moon Knight is causing a ruckus in Hell's Kitchen, his pregnant girlfriend is being pummeled by Khonshu's new avatar, the Shadow Knight, ending this issue.


What I Thought: Ugh. What a waste of time THIS comic was. It was barely connected to the Shadowland storyline, and the Moon Knight stuff was pretty bad... I hated that Marlene(Moon Knight's pregnant girlfriend)was used as nothing more then a plot device to set up the Moon Knight/Shadow Knight confrontation. That reeked of lazy writing. It's sad to see that the whole, “Women in Refrigerators” plot device is still alive and well in comics. If not for the art this comic would have been a total waste of my time. The art was pretty, the story was pathetic.

Score: 3 1/2 out of 10.

Secret Avengers #4

Secret Avengers #4: Writer: Ed Brubaker. Artist: Mike Deodato.

Review: This issue starts up with Sharon Carter discovering that Ant-Man had somehow returned from Mars and was back on Earth. Ant-Man explains to Agent Carter that he wandered into a teleporter on Mars and was now standing in a room full of crazed villains wearing nuclear bombs on their backs. Back on Mars, Steve Rogers decides that the only way he can fight the Serpent Crown possessed Nova was by donning Nova's helmet and accessing the Nova force. Steve puts on the helmet and transforms into Steve Rogers: Super-Nova! Possessed Nova senses what had happened and attacks Steve and his Secret Avengers in order to prevent them from halting his mission(opening an inter-dimensional portal and unleashing an Ancient God who would destroy this universe). While Steve and Nova battle to a draw, the rest of the Secret Avengers try to fight off Nova's possessed minions as well as the Ancient God, who was slowly beginning to cross over to this plane of existence. Archon(a robot who was created by the Watcher's thousands of years ago to battle the Ancient God)steps in and assists the Avengers, telling them to destroy the machines that were allowing the Ancient God access this dimension. In the meanwhile, Ant-Man watches as the bomb-toting villains stroll into the teleporter and head towards Mars. Ant-Man leaps after them and blasts them, setting off their explosives and destroying the machines that were being used to transport the villains from Earth to Mars. This explosion reaches through the teleportational void and destroys the machinery that was allowing the Ancient God to cross over, ending it's threat. With Nova monetarily distracted by the carnage around him, Steve tears the Serpent Crown from his head, freeing Nova from it's mind control. Steve hands the Serpent Crown over to Archon, who promises to take the Crown somewhere safer before leaving. And with that the Avengers decide to hop a spacecraft and head back to Earth. This issue concludes with Agent Carter revealing to Steve that it appeared as if Nick Fury had been working with the villains who were trying to awaken the Ancient God.

What I Thought: Meh... First off, I am a HUGE fan of Ed Brubaker's writing. When given the opportunity, I have been known to gush over his work for hours on end. I'd even go so far to say that he is currently the best comic book writer in the industry today. BUT, I just never really got into this storyline... I can't exactly figure out why, but something here just didn't click for me. Maybe it was the lack of a big time Avengers foe(the Serpent Crown and the Shadow Council??), or maybe it was the lack of cohesion from the Secret Avengers themselves, but something just seemed missing here to me. Although I'll still be looking forward to next month's issue, which should shine some light on Nick Fury's apparent evil antics(I say it's one of those Fury robots), this particular storyline was a bit of a letdown to me.

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.Awesomeness, thy name is Steve Rogers.

New Comic Day!

Hey there X-Maniacs, it's Wednesday, and as is the tradition around these parts, that means that it's a New Comic Day! As always I'll list the comics I picked up at the comic book store, and then leave it up to you guys as to which ones you want me to review. Sound simple enough? Great! Here's the books I picked up today: Teen Titans #86, Superman: Secret Origins #6(which means I can FINALLY read this mini), Superman/Batman #75, Shadowland: Moon Knight #1, Outsiders #32, Fantastic Four #582, Captain America: The 1940's Newspaper Strip #3, Black Widow #5(I just read BW #3 & 4 last night!), Detective Comics #868, Avengers #4, Storm and Gambit #1, and Namor: The First Mutant #1. So that's the new stuff. Besides that, my Amazon order came in the mail today, which gave me Invincible: Ultimate Collection volumes #3 & 4. So all in all, good stuff for me! That's gonna have to do it for this post, I have a little bit of homework to take care of, and then it's time to read some comics! X out.

Picto-Review: Shadowland: Daughters of the Shadow #1

Shadowland: Daughters of the Shadow #1(of 3): Writer: Jason Henderson. Artist: Ivan Rodriguez.

This issue begins in earnest with Colleen Wing waking up to discover the the Hand had been sneaking around her apartment leaving her cryptic messages in her bathroom... Creepy...


Curiosity gets the better of Colleen and she decides to head to Shadowland to see what Daredevil wanted, as well as learn what he knew about her mother. Before she manages to get to DD's castle, Colleen bumps into her best friend, Misty Knight. Misty tries to convince Colleen not to take DD's bait, which leads to Colleen telling Misty to mind her own business.


Colleen is discovered trying to sneak into the Shadowland compound and is attacked by several Hand ninjas. Ultimately White Tiger arrives on the scene, halts the fighting and invites Colleen inside.


White Tiger takes Colleen to DD, and DD reveals that Colleen's mother had worked for the Hand as a member of the ultra secretive Nail. The Nail was comprised of five females who would serve as assassins for the Hand. It was as a member of the Nail that Colleen's mother met her fate.


After dropping this bombshell on Colleen, DD then asks her to lead the version of the Nail he was putting together, which gives us our cliffhanger ending.

What I Thought: As with Shadowland: Power Man, I wasn't expecting much from this mini. Hmm, let me rephrase that a bit... I wasn't expecting ANYTHING from this comic! Once I heard it was going to star Colleen Wing, I was pretty disappointed. Colleen is just one boring character who had never appealed to me in the least. So going in I really wasn't expecting much. But surprise, surprise, this was a pretty good comic! The story really pulled me in. The interaction between Colleen and Misty, as well as DD's revelation about Colleen's mother actually made Colleen seem kind of interesting to me, which is something I NEVER expected to happen! When you go into a comic expecting nothing and come out looking forward to the next issue, you know the creative team did a brilliant job.

Score: 8 out of 10.

Picto-Review: Shadowland: Power Man #1

Shadowland: Power Man #1(of 4)+#: Writer: Fred Van Lente. Pencils: Mahmud Asrar.

This issue starts by introducing us to the NEW Power Man. He was caught in Bullseye's destruction of that building in Dark Reign: The List: Daredevil #1(that's a mouthful)and some how developed powers from that... Weird way to develop powers if I do say so myself...


The new Power Man goes around selling his super hero services on Craig's List(HA!)and winds up running afoul the Hand in the process.


A few of the Hand ninjas who battled Power Man recognize traces of Iron Fist's fighting style in Power Man's attack and decide to warn Iron Fist to keep his students out of their business.


Power Man(in his civilian identity of teenager Victor Alvarez)checks his e-mail account and discovers that somebody was requesting his services. What he doesn't know is that Iron Fist and Luke Cage were behind the request since they wanted to speak with him.


We end things with the new Power Man trying to take off the head of the old Power Man while Iron Fist looks on surprised.

What I Thought: Huh, not bad at all. I really wasn't expecting much from this mini, so imagine my surprise when it actually turned out to be pretty good. I like the idea that this Power Man is selling his super-hero services on Craig's List. It's an interesting spin on the old Heroes for Hire idea. Luke Cage and Iron Fist were good together(as always), the new Power Man has some real potential, and the story was good. What more could I have asked for?

Score: 8 out of 10.