All New X-Men #8

Hey X-Maniacs, JT here with my second review of the week, All New X-Men. This is gonna be a pretty quick review, so... lucky you guys!

All New X-Men #8

Summary: This issue gets underway with past Angel and "Chillax. Bro" Angel flying when Warren realizes something is up with his future self. Their interrupted when they see HYDRA attacking Avengers Tower and the two fly in to help, that is until the Avengers show up and take out HYDRA completely. From there, they realize that there are two Angel's and pay the X-Men a visit at the Jean Grey School for Gifted Mutants. Captain America and Beast talk and while we don't see most of the conversation, we have it acted out for us by Iceman and Kitty Pryde in a joke that goes on for way too long. Afterward, Cap basically tells Beast to keep the Original Five under reins and keep him in the loop. The issue then comes to a close with past-Angel freaking out and trying to transport himself back home because he hates being in the future, until Jean Grey calms him down with her powers then says once again that the Original Five are staying.

Thoughts: Honestly, I was a bit let down by this issue. Nothing really happened, I mean the stuff with Angel's was kinda meh because Warren still doesn't even know why his "future self" is acting so weird. The stuff with SHIELD seemed pointless and only served to bring in the Avengers for a conversation that literally could've just taken place on the telephone, especially since all we got to see was the end of it. Speaking of that, the stuff with Kitty and Bobby saying what they thought Cap and Beast were saying started funny but it went on WAY too long. Five panels of them pretending to be Cap and Beast was kind of overkill. And the end with Warren freaking out then basically being "Doctor Light'd" by Jean was...yeah, it made Jean seem kind of villainous here, especially with her pious remark saying that Hank doesn't have the right to lecture people, especially since it was the Old Hank that said it. All in all this issue seemed like a miss and a placeholder until the Mystique issue that's coming next, which was weird since she put her plan in action in the last issue. Anyway, here's hoping the next issue is better.

Score: 4/10

Jean Grey: I can read your minds. Stop worrying. I'm in total control.

A+X #5

Oh hey, it's Saturday, which means it's my turn to do some reviews!  Yes, it's X, and I get to tackle A+X tonight.  This is a series that is barely on my pull list at this point...  However, one of the team-ups here is Loki and Mr. Sinister...  Two of my all-time favorite villains!  Written by the guy who did some of the best work ever with Loki...  Save this series for me Kieron Gillen!!

A+X #5:

Summary: So yeah, there's this Doop/Iron Fist story here...  All I'm gonna say is that it was completely unreadable.  If I had to give it a score, it would get a 0...  Let's move on to the Sinister/Loki tale, shall we?  We get started in Latveria, where Sinister manages to break into one of Dr. Doom's labs based on a letter from himself(before he died) to get a sample that Doom had.  Sinister does just that and manages to sneak out where he is met by Loki.  Loki reveals to Sinister that he had actually written the letter and that Doom had a sample of Loki's hair, which is what Sinister absconded with.  Loki takes the vial and prepares to leave, but is stopped by Sinister, who causes Loki to lose the ability to speak, thus halting any teleportation spells from the Trickster God.  Loki responds by tossing some magic in the air, which alerts Doom to the presence of intruders.  Doom sends out some of his failed experiments to deal with the trespassers, so Sinister ties Loki to him with a fancy tether and manages to best the experiments   However, Sinister knows that Doom himself would soon be upon them and would be a tad tougher than his failures.  Sinister agrees to give Loki his voice back so he could teleport the two of them to safety, warning Loki that the tether would detonate if Loki tried anything funny.  Loki sends the two of them away from Latveria, which leads to Sinister demanding the sample back from Loki.  It turns out Doom acquired the sample because he wanted to one-up Reed Richards, who had managed to clone Thor during Civil War, which is BRILLIANT!  Sinister wants the sample to do what Doom had thus far been unable to do, create a clone of Loki.  After Sinister lists off his accomplishments, Loki decides to give him the sample, which surprises Sinister.  Loki teleports away and we discover that he had no fear of Sinister creating a clone of him because Sinister was a man of pure science, while Loki was a god of chaos.  On the other hand, Doom, with his mystical acumen,  would almost definitely create a Loki clone some day, which was something Loki didn't want.

Thoughts: That second story made this comic SO worth it!!  Everything about it was genius!  The reason for the "team-up", if you can call it that, the actions of everybody involved, the outcome, it was all perfect!  Even the set-up, with Doom wanting to outdo Reed!  Genius!!  And Loki deciding, correctly, that Sinister was the lesser of two evils was great!  Plus I loved Sinister's thoughts on Doom...  It just seemed like the kind of snobbery Sinister would think.  Seriously, I loved that story!  Unfortunately, there were two stories in this comic, and the first one was horrendous...  So a 0 for the Doop/Iron Fist story and a 10 for the Sinister/Loki tale brings us to a score of...

Score: 5 out of 10.

I'll say it again...  Brilliant!!!

Superior Spider-Man #5

Hey guys and gals, today's a JT day, so you know what that means, an awesome review by the Superior blogger about the Superior Spider-Man. So let's get to it, because this intro is just for show!

Superior Spider-Man #5

Summary: This issue starts things off with the C.E.O. of Phizzy Cola, the parent company of Burger Town, dealing with all of the backlash of the murders by Massacre. Surprisingly, she's then approached by Massacre, as he'd gotten past her security by kidnapping the guard's family. He surprisingly offers his services to her, to kill a bunch of people while wearing a shirt of the competition, Mocha Cola, for a mere million dollars. That's a killer bargain! Yep...I went there. Back with the Superior Spider-Man, he's using Uatu Jackson's facial recognition software to find Massacre the next time he pops up in public. From there, Doc Parker heads off to meet the person that gave him a card for tutoring in the last issue. Turns out, she's a little person named Anna Maria, they talk as she feeds him and offers him tutoring, but he proves he's not just the pretty face Anna thought he was. They then eat desert, cause Doc's gonna probably end up dating a little person in Peter's body. After his dinner date with Anna Maria, Doc heads out as Spidey and his app goes off, showing that Massacre has been spotted in public. Spidey calls the cops and tells them where Massacre is and to keep him busy until he gets there, which Peter admits is pretty clever as he'd never thought to do that. On the way there, Doc accesses Peter's memories and remembers that Massacre likes to hold hostages in other places wired with explosives which he detonates remotely, and tracks the frequency and finds the hostages. Spidey frees the hostages and heads to stop Massacre, meanwhile Massacre is already opening fire on police officers and hostages. Spidey saves a kid that's almost shot by Massacre, thanks to Peter's urging, but is then upset he gave up his tactical advantage. Spidey gets close enough to subdue Massacre, while not even trying to save some bystanders that got shot in the process, which is seriously irking Peter. Spidey walks up to Massacre and Massacre tries to use his ace in the hole by saying he has hostages, but Spidey says he's already saved them, as Massacre pressed the detonator and nothing happens. He then picks up Massacre's gun and shoots him in the shoulder, then stomps his hand. Spider-Man asks Massacre what he should do with him, turn him in so he can break out and kill more people, or end him now...when one of the former hostages yells that Spidey should kill him. Massacre suddenly starts crying and says he's afraid, it's the first emotion he's felt in years. Peter tries to tell Doc that this means there's a chance he can be cured and that's why they don't kill, cause there's always hope. But Spider-Man says this means nothing, he's a killer and the killer will always hide inside him, so there's one solution, and Superior Spider-Man kills Massacre. The aftermath is some citizens are happy Spidey did it, as is Mayor Jameson. We also see Ms. Pullman is confronted by Spider-Man, who says he knows she paid Massacre to kill those people for publicity, and now she can tell the authorities everything or answer to him, as her apartment fills with Spider-Bots that crawl towards her. The issue ends with The Superior Spider-Man stating that it's now his job to watch over everyone and judge them all.

Thoughts: When I started this issue, I figured I wouldn't like it. Massacre killing for money seemed weird, and so did Spidey's little chat with Uatu, and I can't say I cared much about Doc's little date with Anna Maria, although I do like her character already. The thing that saved this issue for me was the really strong ending. Now, I love the Massacre character. He's got no emotions, he's ruthless, and he's kinda the James Gordon Jr. of Spider-Man, and I don't know who came first, plus I'm too lazy to look to see if Slott or Snyder did it first, but whatever. Point being, I'm a fan of the character and I'm sad to see him go. What I loved here was the symbolism, as Spidey killed a villain that murdered people, something many people wish Spidey or Batman would do, kill. It makes sense, but the symbolism is that Spidey would never kill, because he believes people can change...in doing so, he didn't kill Doctor Octopus, and that decision came back and bit him in the ass because Doc took his body and killed him. Even then, Spidey put his hope into Ock, hoping he'd do the right thing, and Doctor Octopus killed Massacre because he said that he'd still be a villain and a killer deep down, which is exactly what Otto is, even as Spider-Man. That logic, on top of Spider-Man using a gun and basically becoming big brother, is kind of reminiscent of Batman during the whole Brother Eye thing. So I'll say this, I'm excited to see what happens now, especially how people who know Spidey is Peter, like Carlie and MJ and the AVENGERS will react to him killing a man, as well as the reaction of the villains and citizens of New York.

Score: 7/10

Spider-Man: You are who you are. That killer will always be hiding inside you.

Stormwatch #18

Last review of the night is one of the few DC books I picked up this week, but it's also my favorite DC series, so that's a huge plus.  Yes, it's time for Stormwatch.  I really wish more people were picking this series up...

Stormwatch #18:

Summary: Engineer sends OMAC after Apollo, Midnighter and Zealot, since she wanted Apollo and Midnighter brought back to the Eye of the Storm.  We get a lot of fighting(and some funny stuff with Apollo pondering exactly what the relationship between Midnighter and Zealot is), which all culminates with OMAC sending the three heroes into a door to Hyperspace.  Engineer tells Midnighter and Apollo that they could either die or allow her to brainwash them, so Midnighter and Apollo decide to go out fighting.  However, Harry Tanner(who Engineer had brainwashed) reveals that he wasn't as brainwashed as Engineer had hoped and manages to wake Jenny Quantum up, who lets out a scream that destroys Engineer(Huh?!).  With that, Zealot heads off to do her own thing and Midnighter and Apollo finally share a kiss, ending this one.

Thoughts: This was SO anti-climatic!!  I was really enjoying things until the ending...  I mean Engineer goes from nearly ruling the world to suddenly blown up?!  This storyline actually felt like it was supposed to get like three more issues but somebody decided to abruptly end it now.  I don't know how long DC knew this was going to be Peter Milligan's final issue on this series(knowing the way DC is though, they probably told Milligan at issue #17...), but yeah, it seemed like Milligan was trying to wrap up his storyline as quickly as humanly possible.  Which was a bit disappointing, because I was really getting into the story here...  Oh well, I WAS enjoying everything before Engineer's sudden "death", from Midnighter, Apollo and Zealot's banter, to Engineer's crazy antics, but that abrupt ending...

Score: 7 out of 10

It's about time, Midnighter...

Iron Man #7

Thursday is an X review night, which means two new reviews for everybody!  Huzzah!!  We'll start the festivities with Iron Man.  So far this series has been strong.  Definitely better than average(for me anyway).  Enough intro, let's get to the main event.

Iron Man #7

Summary: So the Voldi want to try(and kill) Tony Stark for killing their god, the Phoenix.  Not good.  Luckily for Tony, a rogue Rigellian Recorder has stopped by his cell to offer up it's assistance   What is a Rigellian Recorder, you ask?  Basically a probe.  This one, 451, has gained a degree of sentience and doesn't want to see Tony punished for defending himself and his planet.  451 tells Tony of an ancient Voldi trail by combat.  The Voldi are no longer a war-like race, and as such aren't the best of fighters.  451 figures Tony can hold out in the arena for a little while, at which time 451 will snatch Tony's armor and presto, Tony is Iron Man and can leave/beat the Voldi into submission, etc.  Tony enters the arena, and being way more skilled in battles, defeats several Voldi fighters(with lots of headbutts!), which worries the Voldi Supreme Justicar, as Tony is becoming more and more popular with the common Voldi people.  To deal with this, the Supreme Justicar hires Death's Head(who has been EVERYWHERE lately!) to serve as Tony's final opponent...

Thoughts: This was, as usual, a good, solid comic book.  I really don't have any complaints.  Hell, I even got a huge laugh out of Tony worrying that one of the Voldi may figure out a counter for the headbutt.  So yeah, nothing mind blowing here, but good, solid stuff.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.

Tony Stark's headbutt is truly the greatest fighting move known to man.

Age of Ultron #1

It's a special Wednesday night review tonight!  X here with the first issue of Marvel's latest event, the Age of Ultron.  So a few facts before we get started.  My all-time favorite comic storyline was the Age of Apocalypse.  One of my favorite villains in all of comics is Ultron.  In theory, blending the AOA with Ultron SHOULD be a dream storyline for me...  Here's hoping that's exactly what we get here.

Age of Ultron #1(of 10): 

Summary: This issue gets started right in the thick of a decimated Manhattan, with Hawkeye killing his way through a rundown building being run by some thugs whose numbers include the Owl and Hammerhead.  After a mess of arrows through the throats of goons, Hawkeye comes across what he was looking for, Spider-Man.  Hawkeye goes to rescue Spidey, but is pinned down by Owl and Hammerhead.  To make matters worse, a battalion of Ultrons arrive on the scene and prepare to purge it of all human life.  Owl goes outside to rant to the Ultrons that they had a deal, while Hawkeye and Spidey get as far away from the building as they can.  Ultron blows the building and it's inhabitants up, while Hawkeye and Spidey use the cover to slink back to the downed SHIELD helicarrier.  Once inside the two are attacked by Luke Cage and She-Hulk, while Tony Stark analyzes them to make sure Ultron hadn't infected them with any nanites or the like.  Once the two are proven clean, Hawkeye rants about how the heroes had quit and let Ultron win.  Iron Man says that's because they didn't have a plan yet, but that their leader was coming up with one.  Their leader?  Captain America, who was sitting slumped and defeated in the corner.

Thoughts: Ehhh...  As I said in the intro, I really, REALLY want to like this storyline...  This issue was okay, but not great.  And I'm REALLY want great here.  The heroes who were here were a bunch of Bendis's favorites(Luke Cage, Spider-Man) and I can't stand the way Bendis writes those characters...  So yeah, that bugged me.  On top of that, Bendis broke out his patented inane dialogue for this one.  You know, when a bunch of characters are talking but not really saying anything at all.  I was hoping we'd get the good Bendis who has been killing it with the X-books, but instead we got the Bendis who made the Avengers books such a chore to read.  Again, I have to stress that I have very high hopes for this series, so I'm going to be a bit more nit-picky than usual.  No explanation from anybody about how Ultron won, no appearance by a main Ultron Prime, no real Ultron action at all, which was a bit of a letdown.  This was an okay start to this series, but I can't help but want better...

Score: 7 out of 10.

Since I'm not near my scanner yet, I don't have a picture ready to go...  But I WILL have one in a few hours!

New Comic Day! March 6th edition.

X here to proclaim that it is Wednesday once again...  And you know what that means!!  Yes, it's New Comic Day!!!  Huzzah!  Let's get right into which books I intend on picking up in a few...  Hypernaturals #9, Stormwatch #18, A+X #5, Age of Ultron #1, All New X-Men #8, Iron Man #7, Superior Spider-Man #5, Ultimates #22, Venom #32, Winter Soldier #16.  Nice, a pretty light week for me!  To be honest, there are a few really good books there, and a few really bad books there...  I mean hell, 4 of the 10 books I'm getting are books that I'm very close to dropping...  On the plus side though, there are also a few books that I love, PLUS the start of Marvel's event for 2013.  Yes, it's time to enter the Age of Ultron...  And yes, I will try to have a review for AoU #1 up later on today.  Besides that, I'll be busting reviews out on Thursday, Saturday and Monday.  And that'll wrap things up for me.  Now I'll hand things over to Mr. JT.  As for me?  Until later, X out.

Thanks buddy, ol' pal. As X said, it's comic day, so enough talk, let's get to the comics! My comic haul this week consists of Detective Comics #18, Earth 2 #10, Green Arrow #18, Green Lantern #18, Smallville Season 11 #11, Bedlam #5, Age of Ultron #1, All New X-Men #8, Iron Man #7, Superior Spider-Man #5, and Shadowman #5. So with a total of 11 books (SUCK ON THAT X!), I plan on reviewing Superior Spider-Man, All New X-Men and Green Arrow. So, as always, expect those on the designated JT days, Friday, Sunday and Tuesday. So til then, this is JT, signing off!

Uncanny X-Men #2

What's up everyone? JT here with my last review of the comic week, and it's the second issue of Uncanny X-Men. In the last issue, we saw that Magneto is the traitor of the team, giving information  to SHIELD's Maria Hill, now let's check in the the rest of the Uncanny X-Men.

Uncanny X-Men #2

Summary: This issue starts with Emma Frost explaining, in great detail how upset she is that she can no longer read minds thanks to the Phoenix Force, as well betraying Scott, the man that loves her. Scott interrupts Emma and asks her to join him in welcoming the New Mutants, but it turns out she was projecting her thoughts by mistake, on and off, and he heard some of them, which only makes her more angry since she can't even control who hears her thoughts and when. The two then discuss whether of not they hate each other, which they don't, but they can't get back together. Scott asks Emma to stay because she's an amazing teacher and the new mutants need her, and she agrees to stay to help them. Their interrupted by Magik, as she says everyone is ready, then asks if Scott and Emma are back together. They say no and Illyana says "Thank the Dark Lords." and she leaves, as Emma proclaims that she scares the hell out of her. Scott and Emma then head inside and start what's basically a mutant Orientation and give the kids the info on Sentinel's and whatnot. They then ask Fabio to show them his power manifestation, and suddenly gold orbs start popping up all over the place. One of the students ask where they are, and Magneto tells them it's the new Charles Xavier School for Mutants, as we see the layout includes a dorm, a cafeteria, classroom and even a Danger Room, but also a room marked "Off Limits". Some of the new mutants are excited to stay there, and the others, not so much. Illyana says that she remembers how afraid she was when she found out she was a mutant, and she's sure the same happened with Scott, about how they couldn't have a normal life but there is no such thing as normal, as Illyana's sentence is finished by one of the new mutants, and Emma calls her the smart one. After some deliberation, the kids decide (with the exception of the Healer) that they wanna go back and check on their families first, as well as grab some essentials since their moving, and Magik says she'll take them, so Emma says they'll all go. Magik makes portals for everyone, and Magneto decides to stay behind. Once they leave, he wastes no time in updating SHIELD of their whereabouts and states again that none of their powers work. When they arrive at Eva's house, one of the new mutants is checking out Magik, and she tells him "No, Boy... I would break you." She sounds like X's kind of woman. Anyway, Eva's reunion with her mother is cut short as none other than THE FREAKING AVENGERS arrive, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Iron Man, The Hulk, Hawkeye, Spider-Woman and Black Widow, as this issue comes to a close.

Thoughts: Holy crap, wordy Bendis is back ladies and gentlemen. He had Emma reciting a novel at the beginning of this comic. As for this issue, it was pretty average, we basically got to see inside the relationship of Scott and Emma as they decide not to date but to continue to work together, as well as see how Emma dealt with not having her powers. We also got a bit more character development on the new mutants, although this book could use one of those things on the opening page with everyone's picture and name so I remember who is who. I'd say the best parts of this issue were being freaked the eff out by Magik and seeing how quickly Magneto betrayed his team. I'm excited to see the Avengers confront Scott and his team in the next issue though. as for this issue, it was fine, nothing bad, nothing amazing, as X would say, a perfectly acceptable comic.

Score: 7/10

Emma Frost: I think you hate yourself so much that you can't imagine anyone not hating you.