Catwoman #1

Here's a title I picked up based solely on the writer. I've always been a HUGE fan of Judd Winick's work, and if not for him being the writer here, I'm not sure if I'd be all that interested in reading a Catwoman solo series. As such, this is one of those series I'd be willing to drop if it doesn't wow me within the first three months...

Catwoman #1:

What Happened: This issue begins with some goons breaking into Catwoman's apartment and blowing it up. Catwoman, who managed to escape with her cats just before the goons entered, is obviously a bit perturbed by that turn of events and heads to a friend of hers for some information on a place to stay as well as any jobs to rake in some money. CW's friend tells CW about a penthouse apartment that would be vacant for two weeks, as well as a meeting of drunken Russian mobsters where CW may overhear some juicy info. CW goes to the meeting in disguise, hears about a painting that she could steal and sell to the mobsters for big money before running across some man from her past(I think?) who was supposed to be locked up. CW confronts the man in the restroom and beats the ever-loving hell out of him before escaping from the angry Russians. She goes back to the penthouse where Batman is waiting for her. Bats wants to know why her apartment was blown up, but instead of answering CW gets frisky and the two wind up getting intimate on the floor.

The Good: I like the way Winick portrayed Catwoman here. The mystery of CW's apartment being destroyed could have some legs.

The Bad: The flashback scene didn't tell us who this Russian guy was or why Catwoman hated him... Did he shoot her friend? Sister? Mother? Who knows. Surprisingly, the story wasn't particularly interesting. Catwoman and Bats being an item with no backstory kind of annoys me.

The Verdict: And the above average comic reading streak comes to an end at 8... This wasn't a horrible comic or anything, it just didn't hold my attention. It was just a bunch of loosely connected stuff. Oh look, CW's apartment blew up. Oh look, CW's in disguise beating some guy up for some reason. Oh look, CW's on top of Bats. Speaking of Bats, I could have done without a Batman appearance here. Having him show up this early in the series takes something away from Catwoman and her story. That's what I liked so much about the Nightwing series, it focused ONLY on Nightwing, not Bats or the other Bat-family members. I'll stick with this series for one more issue, but the clock has begun ticking...

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.Yeah! Kick that guy's ass for some reason!!

X-Men: Schism #4

This has been a very interesting mini-series for me. On the one hand, there are parts that I'm REALLY enjoying. On the other hand the main villains are a bunch of 10-12 year olds who keep making fart jokes... So needless to say, I'm a bit conflicted... If we get away from the mini-Hellfire Club, this issue could be great. But with every fart joke I'm forced to read, I'll be deducting a 1/2 from the final score...

X-Men: Schism #4(of 5):

Summary: Lord Summers takes Idie back to Crazy Mutie Island(Utopia), while Wolverine, Dr. Nemesis and Madison Jeffries are still in San Fransisco trying to figure out how to stop the Sentinel the mini-Hellfire Club left there for them. This particular Sentinel is incredibly advanced and is able to pull metal into itself as it goes along, growing ever bigger and more powerful as it goes along. Jeffries uses his technopathy to try to communicate with the Sentinel but learns that it barely has any thought-process, all it wants to do is grow more powerful and eradicate mutants... After it disposes of Wolverine by blasting him into the Pacific, it turns it's sights onto Crazy Mutie Island and begins to march through the waters towards the island after knocking Nemesis and Jeffries out. Lord Summers tries to recall the X-Men he sent out to deal with the Sentinels that had been activated in various countries all over the world, but none of them are able to get back in time... In other words, Summers was caught with his pants down... Big time! Summers blasts the Sentinel from the island, but it continues to slowly march across the waters towards him. With no choice, Lord Summers is prepared to use the youngest mutants on Crazy Mutie Island(the ONLY mutants on Crazy Mutie Island!) to help him make his final stand against the Sentinel. Before he can lay down a plan, Wolverine swims to shore and tells Summers that he wouldn't allow Lord Summers to throw the lives of the kids away since they had little to no chance of standing up against the Sentinel. Summers disagrees and tells Wolvie that they weren't children, they were now X-Men, and as such they'd defend their crazy island to the last man. Wolvie storms inside Crazy Mutie Island while Lord Summers begins planning the defense of the island with the kids. Just before the Sentinel reaches the island, Wolverine returns and tells Summers that he had just armed 2,000 pounds of plastic explosives in his bedroom(as an aside, why did Wolvie have 2,000 lbs of plastic explosives in his bedroom?), and was planning on pushing the trigger to detonate the island once the Sentinel came ashore. With that, Wolvie tells the kids to evacuate the damned island as fast as they possibly could. Lord Summers tries to talk Wolvie out of blowing up his warped mutant kingdom, but Wolverine realizes what any rational X-Men fan figured out long ago, that the X-Men had lost their way and gone off the track somewhere along the line. Since he couldn't convince Wolvie to hand over the detonator, Lord Summers pulls out the Jean Grey card and tells Wolvie that Jean never loved him, that instead Wolvie scared her... Oooo! Wolvie counters that by telling Lord Summers that if Jean were alive now, she'd be more afraid of Lord Summers... Oooooo!!! And with that, it's on. With the Sentinel rapidly approaching, Wolvie and Lord Summers tear into each other as if they were the worst of enemies, with Wolvie trying to defend the detonator and Lord Summers trying desperately to get it away from Wolvie. This issue ends with the two mutants brawling on the beach just as the Sentinel arrives.

Thoughts: Now there we go!! THIS is what I want to read about in an X-Men comic book! No children making fart jokes, just a great story and an AWESOME battle scene. And the best part for me? Lord Summers and Wolvie pulling the Jean card at each other. That was some inspired dialogue so kudos to Jason Aaron for that. This issue also did a great job of framing exactly what's gone wrong with Cyclops these past few years for me... He went from being a strong leader who cared about his teammates, to a militant dictator who cared about his piece of land. I still find it kind of odd that it's Wolverine who is standing against Lord Summers here, as I'd expect Wolvie to want to stand and fight the Sentinel until the bitter end, but in a way Wolvie always did have a soft spot for the younger, female X-Men(Shadowcat, Jubilee, X-23, Idie), so I guess I can understand why he wanted the children to evacuate the island. This issue finally gives us Lord Summers and Wolvie coming to blows, and it should go without saying that I am FIRMLY on Wolvie's side here. Here's hoping Wolvie or that Sentinel can knock some sense into the head of Lord Summers.

Score: 9 1/2 out of 10.Oh SNAP!! You know it's on now!!!

Batman #1

There's no introduction needed for this comic. It's Batman #1 by Scott Snyder. It's bound to be good!

Batman #1:

What Happened: Thanks to some assistance from Dick Grayson(who was masquerading as the Joker), Batman(Bruce Wayne) manages to quell a riot in Arkham Asylum. From there he throws a party at Wayne Manor showing his vision for Gotham City's future(hint: it's big and shiny). While mingling with Gotham's fatcats, Bruce overhears Commissioner Gordon on his phone learning of some gruesome murder. Bruce excuses himself from the party and heads to the scene of the crime as Batman, meeting Harvey Bullock there. Bullock(who sadly didn't get the same makeover Amanda Waller and Commissioner Gordon got with the reboot) shows Bats the corpse, some poor John Doe who was tortured for several days with several throwing knives sticking out of non-fatal spots in his body. Bats notices some skin under the dead man's fingernails and runs it in the Bat-computer while he discovers a hidden message on a painting in the dead man's apartment, a message claiming that Bruce Wayne would die the following day. As for the skin under the dead man's fingernails? It's a perfect match to Dick Grayson(!).

The Good: The cliffhanger was exceptionally strong and has me quite interested in getting my hands on the next issue. Unlike in Detective Comics #1, Batman was working closely with the GCPD, as you'd expect. The story itself was good, as was the art. No complaints on that front. If you look really close during the riot at Arkham scene, you see a quick glimpse of a disinterested James Gordon Jr, meaning there's a great chance Scott Snyder will bring him back sometime soon.

The Bad: We all know Dick isn't behind the murder! He has his own series! It would have made more sense for Damian or even Alfred's skin to have been found under the victim's skin, since either one of them would be a more likely suspect since they don't actually have a series of their own. The Bat-writers/editors need to get together and figure out whether Batman is hated by the GCPD or not... Bruce Wayne was more Tony Stark(a futurist) than classic aloof playboy Bruce Wayne here, but I guess that's because we're sticking with the Batman Inc version of Bruce... I guess... It kind of bugged me that Alfred had a higher trust value to Bruce than Dick, who's been working with him forever.

The Verdict: Great stuff here, as expected from Scott Snyder. I really liked the cliffhanger, but like I said, we all know it can't be Dick behind the murder. On the plus side that most likely means the villain behind all of this knows Batman is Bruce Wayne(why else use Dick?), and that's always fun. But yeah, this is another winner from DC. I have been having GREAT luck with the comics I've been reading lately!

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.The new Dynamic Duo?

Fear Itself: Youth In Revolt #5

While probably not the most popular choice for my next review, this was a comic that I didn't want to put off reading too much longer because besides Iron Man, it's been the best written Fear Itself tie-in. So while I may be the only one who winds up reading this review, I know I'll enjoy typing it up.

Fear Itself: Youth In Revolt #5(of 6):

Summary: Thanks to Gravity and Hardball's epic throwdown last issue, Las Vegas is suffering a major earthquake. Cloud 9 and Thor Girl head into a hotel to try to evacuate it before it comes down, but as they begin herding the people clustered inside along, the building collapses. Thor Girl manages to hold much of the wreckage up, but she realizes that her strength would eventually ebb and that Cloud 9, the civilians and even herself would be crushed by the falling debris. Moving away from that cheerful scene, we head to Hardball and Gravity, who were both knocked out after their tiff last issue. Prodigy and Firestar head over to the two and manage to wake them up, with Prodigy telling them they had to go inside the earth's surface to try to fix the damage to the fault line they caused. Along with Telemetry, Firestar, Hardball and Gravity head into the unstable earth and Gravity and Hardball combine powers to create an electro-gravitational field that would repair the fault and stop the earthquake... Or something sciency like that. Prodigy is monitoring the four heroes from the street and loses his transmission with them just as the earthquake ceases, leaving him unsure as to whether they survived or not. Back inside the collapsing hotel, Cloud 9 manages to break through to Thor Girl, convincing her that she was strong enough to lift the rubble up enough to evacuate the trapped people. This pep talk actually works and Thor Girl bench-presses the weight of the hotel, allowing Cloud 9 to ferry the people inside to safety. Thor Girl gets outside and is confronted by Prodigy, who kind of/sort of had Thor Girl locked up early on in this mini-series. Prodigy tries to reason with Thor Girl, explaining that he had to lock her up because of the widespread fear across the country due to her Asgardian links. Thor Girl doesn't want to hear it and this issue ends with Thor Girl bringing the hammer down on Prodigy... Literally.

Thoughts: Yep, I still love this series... I mean it's just the perfect series for me. It's chock full of b-list hero awesomeness! I don't even care that the Serpent nor any of his Worthy were in this issue, it didn't matter because I love pretty much all of the characters that were in these pages. I do find it a bit odd that Sean McKeever is writing Gravity as such a whiny punk as compared to the uber-awesome Hardball, but I guess that just goes to show that he's such a good writer he can write a character that he created with no bias. Needless to say, I can't wait to see how this series ends. Here's hoping Hardball gets offered a spot on the Avengers when it's all said and done though!

Score: 9 out of 10.It's not said NEARLY enough, but Hardball is The Man.

Ultimate Comics Hawkeye #2

Sticking with Ultimate Marvel, here's a mini-series from Marvel's Ultimate line, starring my favorite comic book archer, Hawkeye. Sure, it's not the 616 version of Hawkeye, but it's STILL Hawkeye, and that's what's important.

Ultimate Hawkeye #2(of 4):

Summary: With Bangkok under siege from mutants recently created by the SEAR(Southeast Asian Republic), it's up to Hawkeye and a small contingent of SHIELD agents to try to get the two scientists responsible for the mutant creating serum back to their lab to create a copy of the serum to hand over to Nick Fury. After fighting through the battered streets of Bangkok, Hawkeye manages to get the two scientists to the lab, but it's in a state of disrepair. As a matter of fact, the lab has been so badly torn up, the scientists can't even find their notes on the serum. In other words, recreating the serum seems to be completely out of the question. With that option taken away, Hawkeye has to move onto Plan B, escaping Bangkok with his SHIELD agents and the two scientists. Hawkeye manages to get to a SHIELD safehouse hidden in the city and gets through to Nick Fury. Before Hawkeye can tell Fury too much, Fury sends Hawkeye a video of the leader of the Bangkok mutant uprising, a man named the Oracle of Change. During the message, the Oracle insinuates that he had access to the serum and was planning on using it on the populace of Thailand. With that, Fury gives Hawkeye his new orders, hunt down the Oracle and get the Serum from him. Hawkeye is fine with that and inquires about back-up from his Ultimates teammates. Fury informs Hawkeye that all of the Ultimates were currently engaged, but that he was sending his Ultimate X covert mutant squad over to assist, a team that included Jean Grey and the Hulk(!).

Thoughts: I've got to say, I'm enjoying this mini-series. Everybody knows that I'm a huge Hawkeye fan, be it the 616 version or the Ultimate version, and this mini is giving me all the Hawkeye a guy could want. This issue was fast-paced and solid, and next issue, with the impending arrival of the Ultimate X team could be really good, especially the interaction between Hawkeye and the Hulk. I really can't think of too much more to say, so I guess I'll end this post now.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.It doesn't matter which universe it is, Clint Barton rules all.

Ultimate X-Men #1

Check it out, it's another #1 comic for me to review! This time it's from Marvel, as the Ultimate Universe continues to get it's makeover. We've already gotten a new Ultimate Spider-Man series and a new Ultimates series, now it's time for the new Ultimate X-Men series.

Ultimate X-Men #1:

Summary: Valerie Cooper, the US liaison on superhuman and mutant affairs, holds a press conference to officially announce what the press had managed to dig up, that the US government was responsible for the creation of mutantkind with some experiments up in Canada as a part of the Weapon X Program some 60 years ago. Needless to say, this news has pissed off the US's allies the world over and has led to widespread rioting throughout the US. From the news conference we head to a couple of characters who will seemingly play a major role in this series... Let's first start with Jimmy Hudson, the star of the recently ended Ultimate X series. Upon hearing that mutants were created by the government, and that his father, Wolverine, was the first mutant created, Jimmy heads off to visit the shuttered Weapon X Project headquarters. Karen Grant(actually Jean Grey) is too late to save a girl, who recently manifested her mutant powers, from her own parents, who had killed the girl since they felt that being dead was preferable to living life as a mutant. Quicksilver interrupts a meeting between Nick Fury and the president of the United States and claims that he wants to help the president with his recent mutant troubles. We also get some glimpses of other mutants(Storm and Colossus to name two) who were living in government sanctioned concentration camps, as was the law(either a mutant surrenders to the feds or they can be shot on sight), and this issue ends with Shadowcat, Iceman and the Human Torch(who were living in the Morlock tunnels), seeing a news report that Rogue was being attacked by a Nimrod sentinel and deciding to head up to the surface to help.

Thoughts: This was a very good start to this series. Granted, I HATE the fact that Shadowcat is going to be the female lead in this series, but if that's the worst thing about this series I can tolerate it. Besides Shadowcat, I like every single other character in this comic book. Jean, Jimmy, the Torch, Iceman, Quicksilver, hell, it's almost like I chose that line-up myself! I'm also fine with the government being responsible for mutantkind in the Ultimate Universe. It's a bit of a stretch that from Wolverine a mutant “virus” formed that led to hundreds(thousands?) of mutants being born, but that's something I can overlook. All in all, this series seems to be in very good hands with Nick Spencer. As a matter of fact, the Ultimate Universe is looking really good in general since Marvel shook it up. And look, Marvel didn't even have to reboot the entire Ultimate Universe to make it interesting!

Score: 9 out of 10. You know, that's the forth 9 score I've handed out today. Methinks somebody needs to find a new favorite number...Wolverine's hairstyle must be genetic or something.

Nightwing #1

And now I get to take a look at my favorite former sidekick, Dick Grayson! Well, it's actually a tie between Dick and Bucky Barnes, but since this is a DC post, I'll let that comment stand. Dick has been Robin, he was Nightwing, he became Batman BRIEFLY in the 90's, went back to being Nightwing, became Batman for a rather extended run these past couple of years, and is now Nightwing again. I'll be the first to admit, I am sad to see that Dick's run as Batman is over, but here's hoping Kyle Higgins can make Dick as Nightwing as awesome as Dick as Batman was.

Nightwing #1:

What Happened: After a year of being Batman while Bruce Wayne was away, Dick Grayson has moved back into the more comfortable role of Nightwing. While Dick is getting his new/old life back in order, Haly's Circus has returned to Gotham City for the first time since the deaths of Dick's parents. Dick heads over to visit his old circus buddies after some trepidation and finds himself having a great time. Eventually Dick heads back home when he's jumped in the street by some costumed villain packing a fierce set of claws. Dick manages to sneak away when some hapless cops get sliced up by the villain and switches into his Nightwing duds. Unfortunately, the villain winds up getting the upper-hand on Dick and is moving in for the kill as this issue ends.

The Good: Dick Grayson was the star of this series. The story was strong and easy to follow. The art was good. The cliffhanger was good. The villain of this piece has a grudge against Dick Grayson for some reason, adding some meat to the villain's character. No other members of the Bat-family popped up here, allowing Dick to have this issue completely to himself.

The Bad: There really wasn't any bad here... If I had to nitpick, I'd say that I'd prefer it if Dick operated outside of Gotham, since there are enough costumed vigilantes already running around Gotham.

The Verdict: So far two of my favorite rebooted DC titles have been written by Kyle Higgins. That's good because DC REALLY needs to get themselves some fresh, new, talented writers to keep up with Marvel's strong foundation of writers. Hopefully DC was smart enough to lock Higgins up to an exclusive contract. The bottom line here? This series is DEFINITELY a keeper.

Score: 9 out of 10.Don't you just hate it when the super-villain you were fighting flips away like that?

Red Hood and the Outlaws #1

First things first. For those of you who are new around here, I am X, and I have a sidekick fetish... Hey, at least I'm man enough to admit it... Yeah sure, I enjoying reading series's about first-string heroes such as Batman and Spider-Man, but my favorite characters always wind up being secondary characters or sidekicks. That's why THIS is the series I was most looking forward to when the DC reboot was first announced. It stars two of my favorite sidekicks/b-list DC characters, Roy Harper and Jason Todd. So if I enjoy this series, all is right in my world. If I DON'T enjoy it though... Well, let's just hope it doesn't come down to that...

Red Hood and the Outlaws #1:

What Happened: We start things off with the Red Hood or Jason Todd if you prefer, breaking Arsenal(that would be Roy Harper) out of confinement in the Middle Eastern country of Qurac. The two used to be allies, Roy got himself captured and Jason deiced to help his old buddy out. The rescue goes smoothly, until the duo run into a bunch of tanks. Luckily for Roy and Jason, Starfire is on Jason's side(in more ways than one...) and takes the tanks out. From there, the trio head to an island to kick back and relax for a few weeks. Jason is met by some strange woman named Essence and is told all sorts of cryptic stuff about something called the All Caste. Bottom line, somebody was murdered and Essence was asking Jason to avenge the death(or something along those lines). While Roy and Starfire are playing hide the arrow(heh...), Jason heads off to see what had happened to the All Caste. Jason finds a deceased elderly woman and while he is mourning her, he is suddenly confronted by some zombies.

The Good: It's frigging Jason Todd and Roy Harper! There's your good right there!! Scott Lobdell nailed the characterizations here. Roy was Roy again(thank god) and Jason was pretty much himself as well. The breakout portion of the story was well done and a lot of fun. Essence seems like she could be an interesting character. There also seems to be a backstory building with Starfire and some guy from Chicago.

The Bad: The second half of this story was pretty confusing. I didn't like the lips on Jason's helmet.

The Verdict: Hey, Lobdell didn't mess this up! My week is bound to be great now! I am a bit worried about newbies to these characters/this series who may have been turned off by the confusing second part of this issue, but as a fan of both Roy and Jason I'd implore people to stick it out with this series. If the story catches up to the characterizations here, this series should be nearly perfect! Whew... And to think I was worried about the way this issue was gonna turn out...

Score: 9 out of 10.Huh, Starfire is STILL a whore, even after the reboot...