Captain America #9

Final review for this Saturday night? Hows about a little Captain America. This series has been surprisingly so-so for me, but here's hoping it starts to pick up with the inclusion of Machinesmith into the picture.

Captain America #9:

Summary: Since Captain America is still depowered(thanks apparently to Machinesmith), he's helpless to stop any of the Madbomb created riots, nor able to do anything about Bravo's jailbreak. Instead, Falcon heads off to try to figure out who was behind the rash of Madbomb induced violence. Meanwhile, Sharon Carter is trapped in the Secret Avengers Quincarrier with Machinesmith. Machinesmith toys with Sharon for a while before finally moving in for the kill. However, Sharon tells Machinesmith that killing her would also lead to Machinesmith's death, since she had rigged the Quincarrier to explode, prior to which a massive EMP wave would sweep through the Quincarrier, destroying Machinesmith's wireless consciousness. Since the EMP pulse would kill Machinesmith and the explosion would kill Sharon, Machinesmith offers Sharon a deal... He'd tell her how to give Cap his strength back, IF she allowed him to leave the Quincarrier unmolested... From there we head back to Falcon, who was meeting with Viper at Ryker's Island. Viper tells Falcon that he wanted out of the Serpent Squad/Society, and that if Falcon could get him into the witness protection program, he'd tell Falcon where the Serpents had been getting the Madbombs from. After getting the information, Falcon heads to a warehouse and is struck down by some sort of sonic defenses. Falcon falls at the feet of Bravo, who tosses a miniature Madbomb at Falcon, which proceeds to explode. This issue ends with Sharon entering Avengers Mansion and telling Cap and Iron Man that she had the information that would give Cap his powers back.

Thoughts: For me, the Sharon/Machinesmith battle stole the show here, plain and simple. The other stuff(with Cap and Iron Man, and with Falcon) was good, but I've always been a big fan of Machinesmith, and like Sharon, so their battle made this issue for me. I also liked that Sharon apparently let Machinesmith leave, since the deal was the info for Machinesmith's freedom. It shows you that a) she a different kind of person from Cap, who almost definitely wouldn't have made a deal with Machinesmith, and b) she REALLY cares about Cap, enough to let a criminal the stature of Machinesmith go free. On top of all that, you know Cap's going to want to know where/how Sharon got that information, and you have to wonder what his reaction will be when he learns who Sharon made a deal with... All in all? Good stuff here.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.

Yeah, that's right, I'm a Machinesmith fan. And?

Grifter #7

First up tonight we'll be taking a stroll over to the DC side of things and check out the latest issue of Grifter. Now, if the cover is any indication, this SHOULD be an awesome comic... But the cover of comics are often deceptive(especially lately...) so we'll see...

Grifter #7:

Summary: That piece of the Stormwatch ship that fell to Earth a few issues of Stormwatch back is discovered by Grifter, who could telepathically hear it calling out to him. Before Grifter can figure out what the ship was trying to warn him of, Midnighter(!) appears on the scene, demanding to know what the hell Grifter was doing there. Grifter doesn't want to tip his hand to Midnighter since he didn't know who Midnighter was(on account of Stormwatch being a secret team), but does mention Daemonites, which aren't known to exist by the general public. Midnighter tells Grifter that he had stumbled onto the wrong secret, and couldn't let him leave alive... Midnighter is all sorts of awesome... Grifter takes offense at that and pulls a gun, at which time Midnighter proceeds to disarm and beat the hell out of Grifter. Every move Grifter attempts is countered by Midnighter, all while the piece of the ship is begging Grifter to reach out so it could give him a memory transmission. Grifter manages to get Midnighter to knock him INTO the piece of the ship, at which point Grifter receives the transmission from the ship, much to the chagrin of Midnighter. The transmission tells Grifter about the existence of Stormwatch, amongst other things, and when Grifter tells Midnighter this, Midnighter decides that Grifter had to die. Meanwhile, we discover that Grifter's brother had survived the helicopter crash from a few issues back and was looking for revenge on Grifter. Back with Grifter and Midnighter, Grifter comes to the conclusion that there was no chance in him defeating Midnighter, so he successfully fakes his death, which convinces Midnighter to leave. With Midnighter out of his hair, Grifter ponders what he had learned, namely that a Daemonite of immense power had escaped from the fallen piece of the Stormwatch ship... Realizing that the only way to get close to the Daemonites was to convince the world he was a villain, Grifter heads off to do just that. This issue ends with Helspont(!!) deciding that he had make Superman an ally of the Daemonites, since Supes was the main threat to Helspont and his band of Daemonites conquering the Earth.

Thoughts: I really enjoyed this comic... It was a good, fun read. Midnighter was all sorts of awesome here, as Nathan Edmondson really wrote both Grifter and Midnighter well in this one. Sure, this wasn't Midnighter's comic, but in a fair fight? Grifter has a snowball's chance in Hell at defeating Midnighter, and that's what we got here. It's a shame that Edmondson is getting lifted from this series soon, because he has things finally starting to fall into place, and I can see good things in the future of this series.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.

Midnighter is frighteningly awesome.

Weekly Comic News for March 17th

Hey Todd Squad, it's time again for that weekly comic news content that you are constantly craving. I apologize for missing last week but considering there were like two news columns worth mentioning, plus I had a Birthday coming up, I figured I'd take the week off like the slacker I am. Anyway, let's get to this week's newest news.

Y, The First Film

After years of on-again and off-again film news, it's been announced yet again, this time on the heels of the recent debut of Saga, that a film adaptation of Y, The Last Man was once again in production. The film now has a new writing staff working on adapting the series into a movie script, you can read more about it here.

Low on Thunderbolts

Thunderbolts is coming to an end in May, sources report. The long running series is apparently set to end at issue #175, which will prompt a new, unannounced title from there. The final issue will double ship along with a second-to-last this May, to read more click here.

Captain Marvel joins the Avengers?

With the recent name change of DC's Captain Marvel to SHAZAM, Marvel has opted to take back the name. This July, Ms. Marvel will don a new costume, a new name, and a new solo series written by Kelly Sue DeConnick, as she becomes Captain Marvel. I'm kind of conflicted about Ms. Marvel becoming Captain Marvel, but as long as they don't change the character too much I doubt I'll mind, I'm expecting the only changes to be the name and costume. (Read More)

The Spider vs. The Iguana

Another one of the villains for the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man video game shows us that one of the villains will be a new version of an old school Spider-Man Villain known as The Iguana. I don't know much about the Iguana but he definitely has a good look, and fits in with the theme since the main villain is The Lizard, I wouldn't mind seeing The Iguana show up in some form of the comics. (Read More)

Todd McFarlane replaces Todd McFarlane?!

It was recently announced that Todd McFarlane will once again start writing the Spawn series at issue #220, but it turns out he'll be replacing noneother than himself. The current writer of Spawn, Will Carlton, was actually a pseudonym used by McFarlane, meaning that he's been writing Spawn since #185. Read more about Todd McFarlane, Spawn Writer and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air fan by clicking here.

Ultimate Spider-Man Trailer

Before I get out of here, I figured I'd link you guys to the trailer of the upcoming Ultimate Spider-Man animated series on Disney XD. So sit back and enjoy, and be sure to let me know what you guys thought of it.



And that's it for me everyone. Thanks for reading and feel free to let me know what you think, until next time, I'm your friendly neighborhood blogger-man, Jason Todd, signing off!

X-Men Legacy #263

Last review of the night is the series that is probably my favorite X-title(not named X-Factor), X-Men Legacy. Man, what a difference a writing change can make on a comic series...

X-Men Legacy #263:

Summary: Wolvie's team and Our Lord and Savior Hope's band of brainwashed lackeys team-up to take Exodus down. Even though he is defeated Exodus is kind of smug about it, since he claims that he wasn't defeated until Lord Summers mutants and Wolvie's mutants worked together, thus proving what he had been saying all along, mutantkind needed to be reunited for it's own good. Our Lord and Savior Hope takes Exodus back to Crazy Mutie Island with her, since she claims that Wolvie wouldn't be able to adequately hold a villain of Exodus's power. From there Wolvie's team heads back to the school and Wolvie tells Rogue that after she went behind his back and called Crazy Mutie Island, he wouldn't be able to trust her anymore. Later on, Rachel Grey and Rogue have a heart-to-heart and Rachel tells Rogue that most of the faculty felt Rogue did the right thing... When pressed by Rogue though, Rachel tells Rogue that she felt the only reason Rogue called Crazy Mutie Island was so she could see Magneto again. Rachel basically tells Rogue to figure her feelings regarding Magneto out, before it led to trouble for the school. With that, Rachel takes her leave and Wolvie's team finds itself a pretty splintered group.

Thoughts: Eh, not bad. Naturally, my enjoyment of this issue was hurt, a lot, by the arrival of Our Lord and Savior Hope... Man, you don't know how badly I'm hoping the events of AvX leads to Hope going away... Forever! Regardless, Christos Gage did a great job of fracturing the members of Wolverine's faculty here, which will undoubtedly lead to some good storytelling down the road.

Score: 7 out of 10.

I also hate stabbing people who agree with me... But sometimes I just have no choice...

Journey Into Mystery #635

Our first review for this Friday night? The latest issue of Journey Into Mystery, starring the awesome Kid Loki. With each passing issue I can't help but fear that we're getting closer to the end of the Kid Loki era, as you'd think Marvel would want full-grown Loki around for the movie... Whatever the case may be, I shall enjoy my Kid Loki while I still can.

Journey Into Mystery #635:

Summary: Loki, Leah and Hellstrom(currently VERY good) go around the world waking people up before Nightmare could kill them. Why would Nightmare kill them? Because their sleeping minds contained an enormous amount of fear due to the Fear Itself event, and Nightmare wanted to harvest that “fear stuff”, becoming the most powerful fear lord around. Besides that, Loki is being forced to stay awake since his mind contained the greatest amount of “fear stuff” due to his close proximity to the Fear Itself events. After lots of teleporting and traveling, Loki, slowly getting delirious due to lack of sleep, takes Leah to the side and tells her to pull the “fear stuff” from his mind. Leah is hesitant since that act could possibly kill Loki, but Loki forces her to preform the ritual. Leah's magic is successful and upon getting the large amount of “fear stuff” Loki calls Nightmare to him. Nightmare arrives, intrigued by what Loki was holding. Loki offers Nightmare the “fear stuff” from his head, since such a large amount would give Nightmare what he needed and as such Nightmare wouldn't have to go around murdering people in their sleep anymore. Needless to say, Nightmare happily accepts that offer and escapes back into the Dream Realm before Hellstrom arrives on the scene. Hellstrom is furious that Loki double-crossed him like that, but Loki explains that by giving Nightmare what he wanted Hellstrom would have the time needed to free the other people who were trapped in their nightmares. Hellstrom is pissed, and this issue ends with Hellstrom threatening to kill Loki for his antics.

Thoughts: Hellstrom, Loki, Nightmare, of course I enjoyed this one! Yeah, sure, I didn't fully get the way this issue ended, nor am I 100% sure of what Loki's plan is, but overall I enjoyed this issue, and really, that's all that matters.

Score: 8 out of 10.

Hellstrom is currently: Good in this issue.

Batman and Robin #7

Last review of the night is the first DC comic to be read by me this week. The prior issue of this series ended with a great cliffhanger, now it's a matter of seeing whether Peter Tomasi can build from those final few pages from issue #6.

Batman and Robin #7:

Summary: This issue picks up where the last one left off(duh!), with Nobody torturing Robin while Batman listened. However, some fancy driving gets Bats to Nobody's base(a boat) quicker than Nobody had anticipated. From there we get several pages of a very bloody battle between Nobody and Batman, eventually ending with Bats defeating Nobody. Pissed about the whole, “Torturing his son within an inch of his life” thing, Bats has a momentary lapse in judgment and decides to drown Nobody in the acid bath Nobody eliminated his victims in. Before completing the deed, Bats snaps back to his senses upon seeing Damian and pulls Nobody out of the acid before any real harm is done. With that, Bats checks on Damian and with the boat sinking decides to get the three of them out of the water. While Bats is searching for a way out, Nobody is whispering to Damian that he'd be back to kill them all and that Damian knew what needed to be done... With that, Damian drives his fingers through Nobody's eye-socket(!), apparently killing the villain.

Thoughts: Hey, I have to give kudos to Tomasi, he got me invested in this story big time last issue and he delivered another great issue here. Most of this issue was a fight scene, and it was well put together by Patrick Gleason. The ending here gives us yet another extremely strong cliffhanger, with Damian seemingly murdering Nobody. You'll notice I've used the words “apparently” and “seemingly” when describing Damian's actions, because I'm not sure I buy that Damian actually killed Nobody. I DO think that was his intent, but I can't help but feel that DC will chicken out and have Nobody end up alive with brain damage or something similar. Oh, and one final thing. Why is Bats so angry that one of his villains was trying to murder his son here? Bats is the one putting Damian in harm's way as Robin, so shouldn't he be pointing the finger of blame at himself? Just sayin'... But regardless, after this issue I know I'll be eagerly awaiting the next issue. Again.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.

Oooooo, it's on now!!!

Daken: Dark Wolverine #22

Hmm, I was totally unsure what comic to read first tonight, so I decided I'd read a comic with a character that I really enjoyed. And although he's been written horribly as of late, I AM still a huge fan of Daken, and as such have decided to read the latest issue of Daken first tonight... Yeah, I'm surprised by this as well...

Daken: Dark Wolverine #22:

Summary: Last issue Daken set off bombs outside the Baxter Building, Avengers Mansion and the Sanctum Sanctorum. Daken figures that the people who were killed by the bombs would galvanize other regular people to rise up against the superheroes scattered throughout Manhattan. In the aftermath of the bombings, Mayor Jameson decides to lock Manhattan down(he does that an awful lot...) until Daken is captured. Meanwhile, Wolverine is a drugged up mess wandering around Manhattan thanks to Daken and the Heat drug. Mr. Fantastic and Iron Man pick up readings of several other bombs spread throughout the city and send the Avengers and FF out to track down and disarm the devices, with Reed heading towards the largest bomb, located at the top of the Empire State Building. Upon arriving Reed runs into Daken, who waxes poetic to him about families and how unnecessary they were, as well as telling Reed that the other bombs were actually fakes. After talking for a while, Daken attacks Reed and manages to slip him some Heat pills(damn does he have a lot of those pills...). Reed's form loses molecular stability due to the Heat and this issue ends with Daken tossing Reed off of the roof while preparing “to go out on a high”.

Thoughts: This was actually the closest Rob Williams has come to “sounding” like Daken. While I'm not sure I get Daken's plan(it's gonna take more than three bombs to get the people of Manhattan to turn against it's heroes... Ignoring that abomination that is Civil War of course), I did enjoy seeing Daken in all out asshole mode. Instead of getting lovesick Daken, or drugged up Daken, we got asshole Daken, which is a WAY better character to read about. Yeah, this issue wasn't perfect, but with only one more issue to go >:( I can honestly say I have no clue how this series will end, and that makes for an exciting read.

Score: 8 out of 10.

He's got a point there... Get it?

Avengers Assemble #1

Last review for the day? The THIRD monthly Avengers title Marvel will be putting out... And yes, it's written by Brian Bendis... Because he has to write EVERY Avengers title, I guess. I am a tiny bit hopeful that Bendis will steer clear of his usual insanity and give us some old school Avengers action in this series, since this series is obviously geared towards people interested in the Avengers movie, and not interested in Bendis's man-crush on Norman Osborn... Or at least that's what I'm hoping...

Avengers Assemble #1:

Summary: What a bad name for a series... Great battle cry, bad title... Anyway, we begin with a new version of the Zodiac forming. From there, the Avengers unveil their newest home(or one of them anyway), a rebuilt Avengers Tower. We switch from that scene to the desert where the Hulk is watching the army transport something. A water based member of the Zodiac(Aquarius I'd guess) attacks the army, which brings the Hulk into the fray to help the army... Who naturally misunderstands and figures Hulk was working with the Zodiac member. Eventually (probably) Aquarius escapes with an object the army felt was very important. Hulk also leaves after getting a piece of (probably) Aquarius's costume. From there, Hawkeye and the Black Widow are in Latveria tracking down the stolen object when they run into the massive Taurus. Thor and Iron Man respond and engage Taurus, while Hawkeye and Widow steal the object from Taurus's forces and try to escape. Unfortunately for the Avengers, Taurus defeats Thor and Iron Man(!?!) and throws Thor through the truck Widow and Hawkeye were trying to escape in, ending this one.

Thoughts: Eh, same Bendis, different title. While I am grateful that Norman Osborn didn't pop up here, the dialogue was still the same dialogue Bendis has been using for years now... The stuttering, the repeating, the inane conversations, they were all still here. Now, the story has some potential, as Bendis is at least giving us a threat from the Avengers past(for a change), but with a twist. I'm interested in seeing where this series is going to go, but I must admit, I am a bit disappointed in what we got here as well. Oh, and I love how Hulk and Thor were here even though things haven't been straightened out for them in their own series's...

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.

Mayhaps the Avengers should have stuck with Tanarus...