He has a way with women...
He has a way with men...
He has a way with words...
And he's funny to boot!
Agreed!
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Daken!
Hey X-Maniacs, it's the original Comic Book Malefactor here to give the people what they want! You see, it looks like I'll be picking up a lot of comics tomorrow... No wait, let me rephrase that... It looks like I'll be picking up A LOT of comics tomorrow. Seriously, wait until I post the New Comic Day post tomorrow! It's insane! Anyway, the next week should be chock full of comic reviews, but alas, I have no new books to review today... I've been spending my free time reading Witchblade(which is REALLY good, and makes me want to buy more trades), the SHIELD mini-series from last year(it has Leonardo da Vinci in it, of course it's good!), as well as rereading the Young Avengers series for the first time since 2006, and yes, it's still as fantastic as I remember it being! But I really don't feel like doing a trade, mini-series or back issue type of review... So then, what kind of post should I do? Well, why not do a post on one of my favorite Marvel characters, the Dark Wolverine himself, Daken! So yes, this post will be full of Daken goodness! I mean, there's lots to like about Daken...
He has a way with women...
He has a way with men...
He has a way with words...
And he's funny to boot!
Agreed!
He has a way with women...He has a way with men...He has a way with words...And he's funny to boot!Agreed!
Monday, July 11, 2011
Vengeance #1
I only have one reviewable comic left to take care of until Wednesday, which explains why this particular comic is getting the single review treatment. Um, that's about all of an introduction I have... Enjoy the show?
Vengeance #1(of 6):
Summary: God is this going to be a shambolic review... We get started with some guy dancing with Stacy X and some c-list celebrity at a club. Stacy X is basically a mutant hooker with the heart of gold... Yes, really! Anyway, the pseudo-celeb and Stacy take the guy up to a private room for some freaky snake-mutant sexual shenanigans... Yes, really!! Before things can go too far, Magneto busts into the room and declares an end to the sexual shenanigans! It seems that Mags has decided that with so few mutants left, he wasn't going to allow mutants like Stacy X to degrade themselves... But it was okay when mutants were plentiful?! The guy doesn't exactly appreciate Mags screwing up his freaky snake-mutant action, and draws a gun on Mags. Mags prepares to laugh that off, being the Master of Magnetism(and Sensibilities), but the gun fires a blast as opposed to bullets, with the blast hitting Mags square in the chest. The blast robs Mags of his powers, at which time the guy introduces himself as the Ultimate Nullifier(which is actually a cool name for a character, all things considered). Stacy X and the pseudo-celeb decide to exit stage right, and Mags decides to try to beat the Nullifier up. Considering the Nullifier is presumably in his late teens, and Mags is like 90, that fight goes exactly how you'd expect it to. Figuring he was done for, Mags tells the Nullifier to make his death quick, at which time the Nullifier reveals that Mags power loss was only temporary. Mags powers return, and he decides to leave, but not before warning the Nullifier that if they were to meet again, things would be different. From there, the Nullifier pulls out his phone and texts that he'd be returning to base. As for base, it consists of Beak and Angel(?!?!!!?), as well as some woman called Miss America. Beak and Angel are the techies behind the group(which was calling itself the Teen Brigade for some unfathomable reason), with Miss America actually doing stuff, since she had powers, unlike Beak and Angel. Miss America winds up finding an abandoned military installation with only one individual held captive there, what appears to be a younger version of the In-Betweener. Miss America takes the possible cosmic entity out of the base while the (maybe)In-Betweener babbles about stuff. Oh, and then weird creatures descend from the heavens to attack Miss America or something. Adolf Hitler, Nighthawk, Fin Fang Foom(or a random dragon, I don't know...), the Red Skull, some goons in masks and an old guy also make random appearances here as well.
Thoughts: Well, this was definitely something... I'm not sure what I was expecting with this comic, but what I got most definitely wasn't it... I mean, I hear about a mini-series written by Joe Casey is coming out, with some sweet cover art featuring Magneto, and I figure, “Yeah, I'll spend $4 to check that out!” After reading this though, I can't help but think my $4 could have been better spent... This issue was just ALLLLL over the place! I literally have NO idea what was going on, besides the fact that some guy in his underwear beat up Mags, and Beak and Angel(probably my LEAST favorite characters from Grant Morrison's New X-Men run) where here. Something about the Teen Brigade? And Kristoff? And a random Hitler cameo?! WEIRD!!! Okay, here's the thing. Since I've already picked up the first issue of this mini, I figure I might as well pick up the second issue if only to see if it starts making some sense! Maybe Casey just needed an issue to introduce some new characters/ideas and stuff, and everything will be smooth sailing from here... I mean, it COULD happen, right?
Score: 4 out of 10.
Wait a minute... Didn't Stacy X lose her pheromone powers after M-Day?!
Vengeance #1(of 6):
Summary: God is this going to be a shambolic review... We get started with some guy dancing with Stacy X and some c-list celebrity at a club. Stacy X is basically a mutant hooker with the heart of gold... Yes, really! Anyway, the pseudo-celeb and Stacy take the guy up to a private room for some freaky snake-mutant sexual shenanigans... Yes, really!! Before things can go too far, Magneto busts into the room and declares an end to the sexual shenanigans! It seems that Mags has decided that with so few mutants left, he wasn't going to allow mutants like Stacy X to degrade themselves... But it was okay when mutants were plentiful?! The guy doesn't exactly appreciate Mags screwing up his freaky snake-mutant action, and draws a gun on Mags. Mags prepares to laugh that off, being the Master of Magnetism(and Sensibilities), but the gun fires a blast as opposed to bullets, with the blast hitting Mags square in the chest. The blast robs Mags of his powers, at which time the guy introduces himself as the Ultimate Nullifier(which is actually a cool name for a character, all things considered). Stacy X and the pseudo-celeb decide to exit stage right, and Mags decides to try to beat the Nullifier up. Considering the Nullifier is presumably in his late teens, and Mags is like 90, that fight goes exactly how you'd expect it to. Figuring he was done for, Mags tells the Nullifier to make his death quick, at which time the Nullifier reveals that Mags power loss was only temporary. Mags powers return, and he decides to leave, but not before warning the Nullifier that if they were to meet again, things would be different. From there, the Nullifier pulls out his phone and texts that he'd be returning to base. As for base, it consists of Beak and Angel(?!?!!!?), as well as some woman called Miss America. Beak and Angel are the techies behind the group(which was calling itself the Teen Brigade for some unfathomable reason), with Miss America actually doing stuff, since she had powers, unlike Beak and Angel. Miss America winds up finding an abandoned military installation with only one individual held captive there, what appears to be a younger version of the In-Betweener. Miss America takes the possible cosmic entity out of the base while the (maybe)In-Betweener babbles about stuff. Oh, and then weird creatures descend from the heavens to attack Miss America or something. Adolf Hitler, Nighthawk, Fin Fang Foom(or a random dragon, I don't know...), the Red Skull, some goons in masks and an old guy also make random appearances here as well.
Thoughts: Well, this was definitely something... I'm not sure what I was expecting with this comic, but what I got most definitely wasn't it... I mean, I hear about a mini-series written by Joe Casey is coming out, with some sweet cover art featuring Magneto, and I figure, “Yeah, I'll spend $4 to check that out!” After reading this though, I can't help but think my $4 could have been better spent... This issue was just ALLLLL over the place! I literally have NO idea what was going on, besides the fact that some guy in his underwear beat up Mags, and Beak and Angel(probably my LEAST favorite characters from Grant Morrison's New X-Men run) where here. Something about the Teen Brigade? And Kristoff? And a random Hitler cameo?! WEIRD!!! Okay, here's the thing. Since I've already picked up the first issue of this mini, I figure I might as well pick up the second issue if only to see if it starts making some sense! Maybe Casey just needed an issue to introduce some new characters/ideas and stuff, and everything will be smooth sailing from here... I mean, it COULD happen, right?
Score: 4 out of 10.
Wait a minute... Didn't Stacy X lose her pheromone powers after M-Day?!
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Titans Annual #1 & Secret Six #35
Okay, so the two DC comics I reviewed yesterday turned out to be slightly better than I expected. Granted, I had low expectations going in, but still. Today I'll be looking at two series that routinely score around a 4 or a 5, in other words, I usually don't like them... So once again, the bar is set pretty low...
Titans Annual 2011 #1:
Summary: This issue begins with Osiris obliterating the army of Qurac, which had been waging war on Kahndaq. With the forces of Qurac dealt with, Osiris declares that he was now the sole ruler of Kahndaq, much to Isis's dismay. Meanwhile, Deathstroke manages to scare the Worst Justice League Ever away from his jet by revealing that he had a nuclear device hidden inside it. Not only that, but he also had a lead box on the plane, which causes the League concern since whatever was in the box had to be worse than the nuke. Having gotten a few hours before the League would confront him again, Deathstroke takes the Titans to Kahndaq to speak with former Titan, Osiris. From there we head to Deathstroke's base, where the Tattooed Man meets Dr. Impossible and... Ugh... Dr. Sivana. Impossible tells TM that Deathstroke knew he'd return, before handing TM a teleportation device that would bring him to Deathstroke. Upon arriving in Kahndaq, Deathstroke is attacked by Osiris, who was angry that Deathstroke hadn't been able to resurrect Black Adam as promised. Deathstroke manages to convince Osiris that he was still working on bringing Black Adam back, telling Osiris that he was only one step away, but that he needed Osiris's assistance in holding off the League when they inevitably attacked again. Osiris agrees to help Deathstroke against the League, provided Deathstroke agreed to head Kahndaq's armed forces. After Deathstroke agrees to those terms, the two shake hands just as the League descends on Kahndaq. The League wants to arrest Deathstroke, Osiris won't allow it, so the two factions tear into each other. The battle is leaning towards the League until the Tattooed Man teleports to Deathstroke, who immediately tells Tattooed Man to deal with the League's heaviest hitter, Supergirl. Since Tattooed Man's powers are based in magic, he manages to weaken Supergirl, at which time Deathstroke opens the lead box from earlier, pulling out a Kryptonite covered sword. Deathstroke attacks Supergirl from behind with the sword, slashing her a few times. Atom interrupts Deathstroke's fun, and the battle continues to rage on, destroying more and more of Kahndaq. Finally having had enough, Isis turns the weather and land against the League and the Titans, separating them and declaring the fight over. She dismisses the League from Kahndaq, telling them that if they returned it would be considered an act of war. Not keen on starting an international incident, the League collect their injured and head home. Isis then declares herself the leader of Kahndaq, telling Osiris that he was too reckless to lead the country. With that all taken care of, Deathstroke reveals that he got what he really wanted from the battle, Supergirl's blood. Deathstroke grabs a bloody piece of Supergirl's cape, and takes the team back to his base, where he hands the cape over to Sivana so he could finish whatever experiment Deathstroke had him working on. That Worthless Junkie questions why Deathstroke needed Supergirl's blood, and Deathstroke explains that it was needed to save the life of somebody near and dear to him, Jericho.
Thoughts: First things first, before I even begin talking about the story, dialogue, art or anything else here, there's something I feel the need to mention... During the League's battle with the Titans in Kahndaq, Jade ends up being drawn in the place of Cinder in one panel, making it look like Starman was battling Jade, his own teammate, while calling her Cinder... Now yes, that's a small thing, but still, it's pretty amateurish. I mean this isn't some little indy comic company, it's a DC comic! Doesn't anybody proofread the comics before they go to print? So yeah, in today's day and age, that's the kind of mistake you really don't expect to see in one of the Big Two's comic books. Looking past that at the story, I was left kind of flat here... This is another case of me just not really caring about the storyline since it's all going to be moot in two month's time. Will Black Adam come back? It doesn't matter. Will Deathstroke be able to save Jericho from whatever malady is affecting him? Once again, it doesn't matter... This wasn't a terrible comic or anything, it just dragged on too long, especially considering the fact that I could care less about the outcome.
Score: 6 out of 10.
When in doubt, post a splash page!
Secret Six #35:
Summary: After having spent the past few issues in Hell(thanks to Ragdoll, who's been completely forgiven mind you), Bane decides that he's been living his life all wrong. Since he's destined to spend eternity in Hell anyway, even though he's lived what he'd consider a righteous life, Bane decides to do whatever he wants while on Earth, and I'll give ya three guesses as to what Bane wants... That's right, to destroy Batman's life. To this end, Bane decides to kill the people Batman cares the most about, since physically breaking Bats back in the day didn't stop him. Bane writes a list of four people Bats cared about, Red Robin, Batgirl, Robin andHuntress Commissioner Gordon(it was originally Huntress, but Catman balked at that idea), and tells the team that they'd break into pairs and kill/maim/break those four individuals while Bane kept Bats occupied. Since he needed one more person to round out his team, as well as information on the Bat-family, Bane and the Secret Six(actually Secret Eight, but who's counting?) attack the Penguin while he's aboard his private boat. After some coaxing, Bane manages to get Penguin to agree to join the Six(Nine) to take down Bats... Once and for all.
Thoughts: Well, I didn't hate this comic, which makes this issue way better than the past several. Yes Ragdoll is still hanging around, even though he should have been killed issues ago, and Knockout is back for some reason, but at least Bane's epiphany has given the team some direction. They're not sitting on the fence, half good and half bad, they're not being mercenaries, they're being villains, period. If Penguin hadn't been in this issue, I'd probably have scored it even higher. Penguin or not, this was probably the best issue of this series I've read in months, which makes perfect sense in light of the fact that it's being canned with the reboot...
Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.
Good to know!
Titans Annual 2011 #1:
Summary: This issue begins with Osiris obliterating the army of Qurac, which had been waging war on Kahndaq. With the forces of Qurac dealt with, Osiris declares that he was now the sole ruler of Kahndaq, much to Isis's dismay. Meanwhile, Deathstroke manages to scare the Worst Justice League Ever away from his jet by revealing that he had a nuclear device hidden inside it. Not only that, but he also had a lead box on the plane, which causes the League concern since whatever was in the box had to be worse than the nuke. Having gotten a few hours before the League would confront him again, Deathstroke takes the Titans to Kahndaq to speak with former Titan, Osiris. From there we head to Deathstroke's base, where the Tattooed Man meets Dr. Impossible and... Ugh... Dr. Sivana. Impossible tells TM that Deathstroke knew he'd return, before handing TM a teleportation device that would bring him to Deathstroke. Upon arriving in Kahndaq, Deathstroke is attacked by Osiris, who was angry that Deathstroke hadn't been able to resurrect Black Adam as promised. Deathstroke manages to convince Osiris that he was still working on bringing Black Adam back, telling Osiris that he was only one step away, but that he needed Osiris's assistance in holding off the League when they inevitably attacked again. Osiris agrees to help Deathstroke against the League, provided Deathstroke agreed to head Kahndaq's armed forces. After Deathstroke agrees to those terms, the two shake hands just as the League descends on Kahndaq. The League wants to arrest Deathstroke, Osiris won't allow it, so the two factions tear into each other. The battle is leaning towards the League until the Tattooed Man teleports to Deathstroke, who immediately tells Tattooed Man to deal with the League's heaviest hitter, Supergirl. Since Tattooed Man's powers are based in magic, he manages to weaken Supergirl, at which time Deathstroke opens the lead box from earlier, pulling out a Kryptonite covered sword. Deathstroke attacks Supergirl from behind with the sword, slashing her a few times. Atom interrupts Deathstroke's fun, and the battle continues to rage on, destroying more and more of Kahndaq. Finally having had enough, Isis turns the weather and land against the League and the Titans, separating them and declaring the fight over. She dismisses the League from Kahndaq, telling them that if they returned it would be considered an act of war. Not keen on starting an international incident, the League collect their injured and head home. Isis then declares herself the leader of Kahndaq, telling Osiris that he was too reckless to lead the country. With that all taken care of, Deathstroke reveals that he got what he really wanted from the battle, Supergirl's blood. Deathstroke grabs a bloody piece of Supergirl's cape, and takes the team back to his base, where he hands the cape over to Sivana so he could finish whatever experiment Deathstroke had him working on. That Worthless Junkie questions why Deathstroke needed Supergirl's blood, and Deathstroke explains that it was needed to save the life of somebody near and dear to him, Jericho.
Thoughts: First things first, before I even begin talking about the story, dialogue, art or anything else here, there's something I feel the need to mention... During the League's battle with the Titans in Kahndaq, Jade ends up being drawn in the place of Cinder in one panel, making it look like Starman was battling Jade, his own teammate, while calling her Cinder... Now yes, that's a small thing, but still, it's pretty amateurish. I mean this isn't some little indy comic company, it's a DC comic! Doesn't anybody proofread the comics before they go to print? So yeah, in today's day and age, that's the kind of mistake you really don't expect to see in one of the Big Two's comic books. Looking past that at the story, I was left kind of flat here... This is another case of me just not really caring about the storyline since it's all going to be moot in two month's time. Will Black Adam come back? It doesn't matter. Will Deathstroke be able to save Jericho from whatever malady is affecting him? Once again, it doesn't matter... This wasn't a terrible comic or anything, it just dragged on too long, especially considering the fact that I could care less about the outcome.
Score: 6 out of 10.
When in doubt, post a splash page!Secret Six #35:
Summary: After having spent the past few issues in Hell(thanks to Ragdoll, who's been completely forgiven mind you), Bane decides that he's been living his life all wrong. Since he's destined to spend eternity in Hell anyway, even though he's lived what he'd consider a righteous life, Bane decides to do whatever he wants while on Earth, and I'll give ya three guesses as to what Bane wants... That's right, to destroy Batman's life. To this end, Bane decides to kill the people Batman cares the most about, since physically breaking Bats back in the day didn't stop him. Bane writes a list of four people Bats cared about, Red Robin, Batgirl, Robin and
Thoughts: Well, I didn't hate this comic, which makes this issue way better than the past several. Yes Ragdoll is still hanging around, even though he should have been killed issues ago, and Knockout is back for some reason, but at least Bane's epiphany has given the team some direction. They're not sitting on the fence, half good and half bad, they're not being mercenaries, they're being villains, period. If Penguin hadn't been in this issue, I'd probably have scored it even higher. Penguin or not, this was probably the best issue of this series I've read in months, which makes perfect sense in light of the fact that it's being canned with the reboot...
Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.
Good to know!
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Batman and Robin #25 & Superboy #9
And we're back to DC today... I've got to admit, with the exception of Batman and Robin, none of the DC comics I picked up this week are really that interesting to me... Too bad I don't have some more Marvel/Fear Itself comics left to read. Eh, who knows, maybe DC will surprise me in a good way for once...
Batman and Robin #25:
Summary: We get started with the Red Hood(That would be the awesome Jason Todd to any noobs out there) ditching Batman(Dick Grayson) and Robin so he could rescue Scarlet on his own. After contacting Scarlet's kidnappers, Jason heads to an abandoned middle school, where he finds the mystery woman who took Scarlet. The woman forces Jason to disrobe, and scans him to make sure he wasn't carrying any concealed weapons(must resist urge to make concealed weapon joke...). As soon as the scans come back clean, the mystery woman releases Scarlet, and Jason tells her to run away while she still can. Scarlet doesn't want to, and Batman and Robin arrive on the scene, having tracked Jason thanks to a GPS he swallowed before “ditching” the Dynamic Duo. With the mystery woman and her goons distracted by the new arrivals, Jason gets dressed, grabs his guns and prepares to get some good, old fashioned revenge. Jason begins shooting at the goons, but is quickly jumped by Bats, who gives the whole, “No killing!!!” speech. Jason angrily agrees to play by Dick's rules, until he spots an opportunity to escape with Scarlet. With Bats and Robin dealing with the goons, Jason grabs Scarlet and makes a break for it, getting to the roof of the school and discovering a helicopter. Jason and Scarlet get in and take off, but are soon pursued by Bats and Robin, who... um, I don't know, beat up and then tied up the bad guys, called the police, grab a cup of coffee, learn just what the mystery woman's problem with Jason was, and then were right on Jason's tail. Jason pushes a remote control which sets off a bomb on some train tracks, and radios Dick, telling him that he had 6 other bombs on those tracks, meaning Dick could either follow Jason, or disarm the bombs. With no real choice, Dick goes after the bombs, and Jason and Scarlet get away scot-free.
Thoughts: Oh well. When I first heard about this three part storyline a few months back, I was beyond psyched! I mean it was Jason Todd, probably one of my top 5 favorite DC characters, written by the man who writes him better than anybody else, Judd Winick! I was expecting three consecutive perfect scores! Instead I wound up reading three mediocre comics... After I finished this comic I took a moment to sit back and ruminate on this storyline... Yes, ruminate! “Why wasn't it as good as it should have been?!” I wondered... And then I figured it out. This wasn't Winick writing HIS Jason Todd, it was Winick writing Grant Morrison's Jason Todd! Yes, the dialogue was good-to-great, something Winick is a master at, but the story, and even the look of Jason was the Morrison version! And anybody who knows me knows I hate the red-headed, acne-riddled Morrison version of Jason Todd... Now if Winick would have written HIS version of Jason, I'm SURE this storyline would have been eight different shades of awesome. But he didn't, and so it wasn't.
Score: 7 out of 10.
I guess those goons know what Jason's natural hair color is...
Superboy #9:
Summary: Okay, this one isn't going to be easy to review, so bear with me... The Phantom Stranger has brought Superboy, Krypto, Psionic Lad and Simon Valentine: Boy Genius to the bizarre city below Smallville named Hollowville... Oh, and it's named Hollowville because the Hollow Men live there. See, it makes sense now, right? Anyway, The Phantom Stranger tells Psionic Lad and Simon Valentine: Boy Genius to search for the captured Lori Luthor while he takes Superboy and Krypto to destroy the factory in the center of Hollowville. Simon Valentine: Boy Genius, being a genius and all, convinces Psionic Lad to change his name to Psion, so that's what I'll be calling him from this point forward. Simon Valentine: Boy Genius and Psion find Lori tied up in some barn, and while Simon Valentine: Boy Genius is untying Lori, Psion is contacted by his superiors in the future who tell him that he had to kill the future's huge threat now, since the situation in the future had reached a critical stage. The huge threat in question? Simon Valentine: Boy Genius! Yeah, I know, SHOCKING... Anyway, Psion doesn't want to kill Simon Valentine: Boy Genius since they were friends and Simon Valentine: Boy Genius gave him a new codename and all. Psion decides to ignore his superior and is blindsided and knocked out by Parasite, who works for the Hollow Men now. I guess... Maybe... As for Superboy, the Phantom Stranger leads him into the factory where Superboy finds himself surrounded by thousands of cloned bodies of himself. The Phantom Stranger reveals that the evil Took family was planning on powering the Superboy clones with the souls of every living being in Smallville. Upon hearing that, Superboy questions how the Phantom Stranger knew all of this information, and the Phantom Stranger reveals that he was the one who was going to put the souls in the cloned bodies(!!). At this time Eben Took(the head of the crazy Took family) shows up and Took and the Stranger thrash Superboy and Krypto. Superboy asks the Stranger to stop what he was doing, at which point the Stranger reveals that he was an impostor Phantom Stranger, and that he had captured the real Phantom Stranger(!).
Thoughts: Looking back, that review was a bit more sarcastic then it needed to be. I actually enjoyed this issue quite a bit. We finally learn that Psion had been sent to the past to kill Simon Valentine: Boy Genius, which was, in all honesty, no surprise at all, so I'm glad Jeff Lemire just came out with it already. We also learn about how many of the events from earlier in this series were connected to Eben Took and his Hollow Men. Plus the reveal that the Phantom Stranger leading Superboy around was a fake TOTALLY took me by surprise. I definitely didn't see that one coming. Nor did I expect to see the real Stranger a helpless captive at the end of this issue. There are going to be two issues of this series released in August as Lemire has to wrap up his run before the reboot, and if they're as good as this one, I'll definitely be looking forward to them.
Score: 8 out of 10.
But he was using the Phantom Stranger's dialogue box!!!
Batman and Robin #25:
Summary: We get started with the Red Hood(That would be the awesome Jason Todd to any noobs out there) ditching Batman(Dick Grayson) and Robin so he could rescue Scarlet on his own. After contacting Scarlet's kidnappers, Jason heads to an abandoned middle school, where he finds the mystery woman who took Scarlet. The woman forces Jason to disrobe, and scans him to make sure he wasn't carrying any concealed weapons(must resist urge to make concealed weapon joke...). As soon as the scans come back clean, the mystery woman releases Scarlet, and Jason tells her to run away while she still can. Scarlet doesn't want to, and Batman and Robin arrive on the scene, having tracked Jason thanks to a GPS he swallowed before “ditching” the Dynamic Duo. With the mystery woman and her goons distracted by the new arrivals, Jason gets dressed, grabs his guns and prepares to get some good, old fashioned revenge. Jason begins shooting at the goons, but is quickly jumped by Bats, who gives the whole, “No killing!!!” speech. Jason angrily agrees to play by Dick's rules, until he spots an opportunity to escape with Scarlet. With Bats and Robin dealing with the goons, Jason grabs Scarlet and makes a break for it, getting to the roof of the school and discovering a helicopter. Jason and Scarlet get in and take off, but are soon pursued by Bats and Robin, who... um, I don't know, beat up and then tied up the bad guys, called the police, grab a cup of coffee, learn just what the mystery woman's problem with Jason was, and then were right on Jason's tail. Jason pushes a remote control which sets off a bomb on some train tracks, and radios Dick, telling him that he had 6 other bombs on those tracks, meaning Dick could either follow Jason, or disarm the bombs. With no real choice, Dick goes after the bombs, and Jason and Scarlet get away scot-free.
Thoughts: Oh well. When I first heard about this three part storyline a few months back, I was beyond psyched! I mean it was Jason Todd, probably one of my top 5 favorite DC characters, written by the man who writes him better than anybody else, Judd Winick! I was expecting three consecutive perfect scores! Instead I wound up reading three mediocre comics... After I finished this comic I took a moment to sit back and ruminate on this storyline... Yes, ruminate! “Why wasn't it as good as it should have been?!” I wondered... And then I figured it out. This wasn't Winick writing HIS Jason Todd, it was Winick writing Grant Morrison's Jason Todd! Yes, the dialogue was good-to-great, something Winick is a master at, but the story, and even the look of Jason was the Morrison version! And anybody who knows me knows I hate the red-headed, acne-riddled Morrison version of Jason Todd... Now if Winick would have written HIS version of Jason, I'm SURE this storyline would have been eight different shades of awesome. But he didn't, and so it wasn't.
Score: 7 out of 10.
I guess those goons know what Jason's natural hair color is...Superboy #9:
Summary: Okay, this one isn't going to be easy to review, so bear with me... The Phantom Stranger has brought Superboy, Krypto, Psionic Lad and Simon Valentine: Boy Genius to the bizarre city below Smallville named Hollowville... Oh, and it's named Hollowville because the Hollow Men live there. See, it makes sense now, right? Anyway, The Phantom Stranger tells Psionic Lad and Simon Valentine: Boy Genius to search for the captured Lori Luthor while he takes Superboy and Krypto to destroy the factory in the center of Hollowville. Simon Valentine: Boy Genius, being a genius and all, convinces Psionic Lad to change his name to Psion, so that's what I'll be calling him from this point forward. Simon Valentine: Boy Genius and Psion find Lori tied up in some barn, and while Simon Valentine: Boy Genius is untying Lori, Psion is contacted by his superiors in the future who tell him that he had to kill the future's huge threat now, since the situation in the future had reached a critical stage. The huge threat in question? Simon Valentine: Boy Genius! Yeah, I know, SHOCKING... Anyway, Psion doesn't want to kill Simon Valentine: Boy Genius since they were friends and Simon Valentine: Boy Genius gave him a new codename and all. Psion decides to ignore his superior and is blindsided and knocked out by Parasite, who works for the Hollow Men now. I guess... Maybe... As for Superboy, the Phantom Stranger leads him into the factory where Superboy finds himself surrounded by thousands of cloned bodies of himself. The Phantom Stranger reveals that the evil Took family was planning on powering the Superboy clones with the souls of every living being in Smallville. Upon hearing that, Superboy questions how the Phantom Stranger knew all of this information, and the Phantom Stranger reveals that he was the one who was going to put the souls in the cloned bodies(!!). At this time Eben Took(the head of the crazy Took family) shows up and Took and the Stranger thrash Superboy and Krypto. Superboy asks the Stranger to stop what he was doing, at which point the Stranger reveals that he was an impostor Phantom Stranger, and that he had captured the real Phantom Stranger(!).
Thoughts: Looking back, that review was a bit more sarcastic then it needed to be. I actually enjoyed this issue quite a bit. We finally learn that Psion had been sent to the past to kill Simon Valentine: Boy Genius, which was, in all honesty, no surprise at all, so I'm glad Jeff Lemire just came out with it already. We also learn about how many of the events from earlier in this series were connected to Eben Took and his Hollow Men. Plus the reveal that the Phantom Stranger leading Superboy around was a fake TOTALLY took me by surprise. I definitely didn't see that one coming. Nor did I expect to see the real Stranger a helpless captive at the end of this issue. There are going to be two issues of this series released in August as Lemire has to wrap up his run before the reboot, and if they're as good as this one, I'll definitely be looking forward to them.
Score: 8 out of 10.
But he was using the Phantom Stranger's dialogue box!!!
Friday, July 8, 2011
Uncanny X-Men #540 & X-23 #12
Two X-books, one yet ANOTHER Fear Itself tie-in, the other the latest issue of X-23. I didn't really enjoy the last issue of both series, but I'm at least cautiously optimistic that both series pick up here...
Uncanny X-Men #540(Fear Itself tie-in):
Summary: This issue begins with the Serpent possessed Juggernaut landing just outside San Fransisco. He bumps into some guy and proceeds to possess him... What?! From there we learn that Lord Summers is meeting with the mayor of San Francisco, discussing why none of the Fear Itself related carnage has come to San Fran, while Colossus meets with his sister Magik, who had been locked up under Crazy Mutie Island for being too crazy... You know, it's really bad if you're too crazy for a place named CRAZY Mutie Island! Namor stops by the bedroom of She Who Shall Not Be Named's bedroom and wants to sleep with Her... UGH! Have the events of Fear Itself driven Namor completely insane!? Think about the diseases, Namor!! Anyway, Her turns Namor down and he leaves to deal with the Fear Itself stuff happening in Atlantis. By this time Juggernaut has arrived in San Fran and has amassed a bunch followers. Lord Summers, who sees this on the TV in the mayor's office, realizes that it'll be up to the X-Men to stop an opponent who has become more powerful than ever before.
Thoughts: Okay, I'm just going to say it... When the hell did Juggy gain the ability to possess people?! I mean I've read like 98% of the Fear Itself comics, and I'm confident I've read every single Fear Itself comic Juggy has appeared in. I've seen him march across the country, from New York to Chicago, from Missouri to Las Vegas, finally ending up in San Fransisco. Never once in those travels has Juggernaut shown the ability to possess somebody! Never!! I don't even know what else to say here... This issue featured characters I either don't like(Her, Shadowcat), characters I'm indifferent towards(Colossus, Lord Summers), or characters who should have remained dead(Magik)... So yeah, once again, as usual with something written by Kieron Gillen, I didn't enjoy this issue. The art was quite good, but it was done by Greg Land, so no surprise there. The story though? Meh.
Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.
Man is that armor disturbingly tight...
X-23 #12:
Summary: Wolverine and Gambit arrive in the French subway system to stop X-23 from killing Vampire Jubilee. It seems X-23 has gotten a whiff of that trigger scent that makes her go crazy, explaining her rash actions. Anyway, Wolvie keeps hold of X-23 until the trigger scent wears off, at which time the mutants realize that somebody was pumping an experimental version of the trigger scent into the subway, a version of the scent that would send anybody into a homicidal rampage. X-23, Gambit and Wolvie don gas masks(where they got them, I have NO idea!), while Vampire Jubes doesn't need a mask because of her vampire physiology. The people in the subway go crazy, and begin attacking everything in sight, and X-23 rapidly realizes that they couldn't allow the crazed mob to reach the the streets above. To that end, X-23 dashes out of the subway to corral the few people who escaped the subway already, while Jubes positions herself at the top of the stairs and presumably shoves people down them to keep them from getting out. Outside the subway, X-23 tackles a crazed woman and her baby, and is relieved to see that the trigger scent was rapidly leaving their system. A strange cloaked woman approaches X-23 and speaks cryptically to her before running off. X-23 pursues the woman, but loses her up an alley, instead finding an envelope with a note and some money. By this point, Gambit, Jubes and Wolvie emerge from the subway since the threat was over, meeting up with a perplexed X-23. Upon arriving at their apartment, X-23 shows the rest of the group the note, which tells her to track down somebody she had been ordered to kill a while back, but had managed to disobey her conditioning and leave this person alive. From there, we get some bonding between Wolvie and Gambit as well as Vampire Jubes and X-23, and this one ends.
Thoughts: Meh. I can't say I enjoyed this issue at all. Maybe I was setting my hopes too high, but with Wolvie and Vampire Jubes guest starring these past few issues, I was hoping for something a bit more exciting. Instead we got a shopping trip, some crazies in a French subway, and that's about it. I like the mystery with the woman in the cloak, the dialogue and art was good, but the story just didn't do it for me. Oh well, here's hoping things pick back up again next month.
Score: 5 out of 10.
That is definitely not a good sight!
Uncanny X-Men #540(Fear Itself tie-in):
Summary: This issue begins with the Serpent possessed Juggernaut landing just outside San Fransisco. He bumps into some guy and proceeds to possess him... What?! From there we learn that Lord Summers is meeting with the mayor of San Francisco, discussing why none of the Fear Itself related carnage has come to San Fran, while Colossus meets with his sister Magik, who had been locked up under Crazy Mutie Island for being too crazy... You know, it's really bad if you're too crazy for a place named CRAZY Mutie Island! Namor stops by the bedroom of She Who Shall Not Be Named's bedroom and wants to sleep with Her... UGH! Have the events of Fear Itself driven Namor completely insane!? Think about the diseases, Namor!! Anyway, Her turns Namor down and he leaves to deal with the Fear Itself stuff happening in Atlantis. By this time Juggernaut has arrived in San Fran and has amassed a bunch followers. Lord Summers, who sees this on the TV in the mayor's office, realizes that it'll be up to the X-Men to stop an opponent who has become more powerful than ever before.
Thoughts: Okay, I'm just going to say it... When the hell did Juggy gain the ability to possess people?! I mean I've read like 98% of the Fear Itself comics, and I'm confident I've read every single Fear Itself comic Juggy has appeared in. I've seen him march across the country, from New York to Chicago, from Missouri to Las Vegas, finally ending up in San Fransisco. Never once in those travels has Juggernaut shown the ability to possess somebody! Never!! I don't even know what else to say here... This issue featured characters I either don't like(Her, Shadowcat), characters I'm indifferent towards(Colossus, Lord Summers), or characters who should have remained dead(Magik)... So yeah, once again, as usual with something written by Kieron Gillen, I didn't enjoy this issue. The art was quite good, but it was done by Greg Land, so no surprise there. The story though? Meh.
Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.
Man is that armor disturbingly tight...X-23 #12:
Summary: Wolverine and Gambit arrive in the French subway system to stop X-23 from killing Vampire Jubilee. It seems X-23 has gotten a whiff of that trigger scent that makes her go crazy, explaining her rash actions. Anyway, Wolvie keeps hold of X-23 until the trigger scent wears off, at which time the mutants realize that somebody was pumping an experimental version of the trigger scent into the subway, a version of the scent that would send anybody into a homicidal rampage. X-23, Gambit and Wolvie don gas masks(where they got them, I have NO idea!), while Vampire Jubes doesn't need a mask because of her vampire physiology. The people in the subway go crazy, and begin attacking everything in sight, and X-23 rapidly realizes that they couldn't allow the crazed mob to reach the the streets above. To that end, X-23 dashes out of the subway to corral the few people who escaped the subway already, while Jubes positions herself at the top of the stairs and presumably shoves people down them to keep them from getting out. Outside the subway, X-23 tackles a crazed woman and her baby, and is relieved to see that the trigger scent was rapidly leaving their system. A strange cloaked woman approaches X-23 and speaks cryptically to her before running off. X-23 pursues the woman, but loses her up an alley, instead finding an envelope with a note and some money. By this point, Gambit, Jubes and Wolvie emerge from the subway since the threat was over, meeting up with a perplexed X-23. Upon arriving at their apartment, X-23 shows the rest of the group the note, which tells her to track down somebody she had been ordered to kill a while back, but had managed to disobey her conditioning and leave this person alive. From there, we get some bonding between Wolvie and Gambit as well as Vampire Jubes and X-23, and this one ends.
Thoughts: Meh. I can't say I enjoyed this issue at all. Maybe I was setting my hopes too high, but with Wolvie and Vampire Jubes guest starring these past few issues, I was hoping for something a bit more exciting. Instead we got a shopping trip, some crazies in a French subway, and that's about it. I like the mystery with the woman in the cloak, the dialogue and art was good, but the story just didn't do it for me. Oh well, here's hoping things pick back up again next month.
Score: 5 out of 10.
That is definitely not a good sight!
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Heroes for Hire #9 & Thunderbolts #160
Another day, another batch of Fear Itself crossover issues to read. This time around we'll be checking out the first of the Heroes for Hire Fear Itself issues, as well as the next part of the Thunderbolts Fear dealings. Say what you will, but Marvel is REALLY getting their titles behind Fear Itself, aren't they! It seems like nearly every Marvel comic I picked up this week is connected in one way or another with Fear Itself... Anyway, enough small talk, on to the comics!
Heroes for Hire #9(Fear Itself tie-in):
Summary: This issue kicks off with Paladin trying not to get himself killed by the Serpent possessed Thing... Now THAT'S how you start a comic book! Paladin calls in to Misty Knight for some assistance, and she sends the Gargoyle out to help. With Yancy Street destroyed, Misty tells Paladin and Gargoyle to try to lure Thing out of that area so the rescue crews could get in... Easier said than done. Meanwhile, some smalltime criminal pharmacist living on Yancy Street has been doused in chemicals and turned into some sort of monster. While all of that is happening on Yancy Street, Misty sends the Shroud to the Raft prison to survey the damage and try to wrangle any super-villains who try to escape. Shroud is able to hold his own against a few of the villains, but is soon confronted by more powerful villains. Misty sends Elektra in to assist the Shroud, and the two manage to put down a few minor villains and enter the fractured prison. Inside the prison, the Purple Man is preparing to throttle the life out of the comatose Puppet Master, but is soon confronted by the Shroud and Elektra. Before the two heroes can make a move on the Purple Man, a whole horde of Purple Man controlled villains enter the room, intent on keeping the heroes off of their master.
Thoughts: No complaints here. We had an appearance from one of the Serpent's Worthy, which validates the Fear Itself banner on this comic, as well as several heroes dealing with the fallout from the events of Fear Itself. Add Elektra and the Purple Man, and you've got the makings of a perfectly acceptable comic book. So like I said, no complaints here, let's move on.
Score: 7 out of 10.
I am SUCH a fan of the Purple Man... First off, his real name is awesome. Secondly, when used correctly, he's a HUGE menace!
Thunderbolts #160(Fear Itself tie-in):
Summary: With the world gone crazy thanks to the Serpent and his Worthy, the Thunderbolts decide to go after their possessed teammate Juggernaut, with the hopes that they could free him from the Serpent's possession. To that end they teleport just outside Chicago(which is where Juggy is headed) and decide to try to do the unthinkable... Stop the Juggernaut. The team starts off with Songbird creating a pink road under Juggy's feet, leading him around in circles. With Juggy disoriented, Moonstone approaches Juggy and tries to use her psychiatric training to ease Juggy's rage. Unfortunately, Juggy is having none of it and knocks Moonstone away. As a last recourse, Satana links herself and the rest of the team with the Ghost and sends him inside of Juggy. Satana leads the team through Juggy's inner self, where they find Juggy's soul being taken over by one of the Serpent's henchmen, Kuurth. Satana tries to banish Kuurth from Juggy's body, but Kuurth resists Satana's spells and instead tosses her and her teammates out of Juggernaut's body. Juggy lashes out with his hammer, scattering his teammates, leaving the T-Bolts with no other recourse than to attack Juggy head on. That goes about as well as you'd expect, and this issue ends with Juggy literally dropping the hammer, sending a massive shock wave out that literally shakes Chicago.
Thoughts: I could have just cut and paste my comments from the Heroes for Hire review above because this issue left me feeling the exact same way. We finally got the Juggernaut/T-Bolts showdown, the T-Bolts tried EVERY trick in their arsenal to stop Juggy, but they STILL came up short. There was one thing that did bother me with this comic, but it really wasn't the fault of the writer, Jeff Parker. It's more on Marvel's editorial staff... In this issue the Juggernaut was headed towards Chicago. In Fear Itself: The Home Front #3, which came out a few weeks ago, Juggy was tearing through Missouri. In Fear Itself: Youth In Revolt #3, which came out the same day as this issue, Juggy was rampaging through Las Vegas. Finally, in Uncanny X-Men #540, which came out the SAME day as this issue of T-Bolts and Youth in Revolt, Juggy was in San Fransisco... Now, it's conceivable that Juggy DID walk through all of these states, but he hasn't exactly been shown to be moving all that fast in ANY of the Fear Itself comics I've read, which makes me wonder how the hell he made it from New York to San Fran in what had to be less than a week, if not sooner... With Juggy appearing in so many Fear Itself crossover issues, you'd think editorial would have done a better job figuring out where Juggy should and shouldn't be each week, and how he managed to move so quickly from one location to another. But enough about that, this comic was good, and that's the important thing.
Score: 7 out of 10.
Don't they know who he is?!?
Heroes for Hire #9(Fear Itself tie-in):
Summary: This issue kicks off with Paladin trying not to get himself killed by the Serpent possessed Thing... Now THAT'S how you start a comic book! Paladin calls in to Misty Knight for some assistance, and she sends the Gargoyle out to help. With Yancy Street destroyed, Misty tells Paladin and Gargoyle to try to lure Thing out of that area so the rescue crews could get in... Easier said than done. Meanwhile, some smalltime criminal pharmacist living on Yancy Street has been doused in chemicals and turned into some sort of monster. While all of that is happening on Yancy Street, Misty sends the Shroud to the Raft prison to survey the damage and try to wrangle any super-villains who try to escape. Shroud is able to hold his own against a few of the villains, but is soon confronted by more powerful villains. Misty sends Elektra in to assist the Shroud, and the two manage to put down a few minor villains and enter the fractured prison. Inside the prison, the Purple Man is preparing to throttle the life out of the comatose Puppet Master, but is soon confronted by the Shroud and Elektra. Before the two heroes can make a move on the Purple Man, a whole horde of Purple Man controlled villains enter the room, intent on keeping the heroes off of their master.
Thoughts: No complaints here. We had an appearance from one of the Serpent's Worthy, which validates the Fear Itself banner on this comic, as well as several heroes dealing with the fallout from the events of Fear Itself. Add Elektra and the Purple Man, and you've got the makings of a perfectly acceptable comic book. So like I said, no complaints here, let's move on.
Score: 7 out of 10.
I am SUCH a fan of the Purple Man... First off, his real name is awesome. Secondly, when used correctly, he's a HUGE menace!Thunderbolts #160(Fear Itself tie-in):
Summary: With the world gone crazy thanks to the Serpent and his Worthy, the Thunderbolts decide to go after their possessed teammate Juggernaut, with the hopes that they could free him from the Serpent's possession. To that end they teleport just outside Chicago(which is where Juggy is headed) and decide to try to do the unthinkable... Stop the Juggernaut. The team starts off with Songbird creating a pink road under Juggy's feet, leading him around in circles. With Juggy disoriented, Moonstone approaches Juggy and tries to use her psychiatric training to ease Juggy's rage. Unfortunately, Juggy is having none of it and knocks Moonstone away. As a last recourse, Satana links herself and the rest of the team with the Ghost and sends him inside of Juggy. Satana leads the team through Juggy's inner self, where they find Juggy's soul being taken over by one of the Serpent's henchmen, Kuurth. Satana tries to banish Kuurth from Juggy's body, but Kuurth resists Satana's spells and instead tosses her and her teammates out of Juggernaut's body. Juggy lashes out with his hammer, scattering his teammates, leaving the T-Bolts with no other recourse than to attack Juggy head on. That goes about as well as you'd expect, and this issue ends with Juggy literally dropping the hammer, sending a massive shock wave out that literally shakes Chicago.
Thoughts: I could have just cut and paste my comments from the Heroes for Hire review above because this issue left me feeling the exact same way. We finally got the Juggernaut/T-Bolts showdown, the T-Bolts tried EVERY trick in their arsenal to stop Juggy, but they STILL came up short. There was one thing that did bother me with this comic, but it really wasn't the fault of the writer, Jeff Parker. It's more on Marvel's editorial staff... In this issue the Juggernaut was headed towards Chicago. In Fear Itself: The Home Front #3, which came out a few weeks ago, Juggy was tearing through Missouri. In Fear Itself: Youth In Revolt #3, which came out the same day as this issue, Juggy was rampaging through Las Vegas. Finally, in Uncanny X-Men #540, which came out the SAME day as this issue of T-Bolts and Youth in Revolt, Juggy was in San Fransisco... Now, it's conceivable that Juggy DID walk through all of these states, but he hasn't exactly been shown to be moving all that fast in ANY of the Fear Itself comics I've read, which makes me wonder how the hell he made it from New York to San Fran in what had to be less than a week, if not sooner... With Juggy appearing in so many Fear Itself crossover issues, you'd think editorial would have done a better job figuring out where Juggy should and shouldn't be each week, and how he managed to move so quickly from one location to another. But enough about that, this comic was good, and that's the important thing.
Score: 7 out of 10.
Don't they know who he is?!?
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Fear Itself: Uncanny X-Force #1 & Fear Itself: Wolverine #1
We've got some more Fear Itself comics to get through before I call it a day, this time two brand new 3-part mini-series, both starring Wolverine. I'll be interested to see how closely tied into the main Fear Itself comic these minis are. Without even reading them my guess would be they're BARELY connected to the main Fear story, and are just a way to get Wolvie's name out there. But who knows, maybe I'm wrong! Only one way to find out...
Fear Itself: Uncanny X-Force #1(of 3):
Summary: Okay, this issue gets started with two separate threats for X-Force to deal with. The first one is a crazy suicide bomber who screamed out the word “Purify!” before killing a bunch of people, the second is a quick Internet video showing what appeared to be a tied up, super-powered kid in what would seem to be a pretty dire situation. X-Force feels the two events are both connected to those crazy Purifiers, and decide to get some answers. To that end they sneak into the penthouse of a secret Purifier financier and kidnap him. With the rich bigot tied up, Wolvie threatens to let Psylocke loose in his mind unless he talks. Not wanting a dirty mutant mucking around in his brains, the bigot tells X-Force the name of the Purifier's leader, Jonathan Standish, as well as the most likely location of the kidnapped kid, an abandoned military base in Baltimore. X-Force rushes to the scene and tears through the Purifiers stationed there, but are unable to find the kid. Wolvie grabs one of the Purifiers and threatens to do him grievous bodily harm(what, he did!) unless the Purifier gave up the whereabouts of the kid. Unfortunately for Wolvie and company, this Purifier explains that his group didn't have the kid, and that Standish was leading a splinter group of the Purifiers... And what of Standish? After seeing the actions of the Serpent's Worthy on television, he has come to the conclusion that the Purifiers were wrong to only target mutants, since all superhumans were obviously wicked abominations. With that, he enters the room with the captured kid, turns on the camera, puts the gun to the kid's head and warns everybody to save themselves from the hell superhumans had made the Earth by taking their lives. With that, he pulls the trigger and ends this issue.
Thoughts: Okay, so there really wasn't a STRONG Fear Itself connection in this issue, but Rob Williams did use the Fear events to advance this story, which is a good thing. Sure, we didn't get X-Force vs any of the Serpent's Worthy, but at least the events in this issue occurred BECAUSE of the events of Fear Itself. As for this issue, it was good. I have to admit, I enjoyed it. You had crazy bigots, X-Force killing said bigots, and the head bigot acting like a loony religious fanatic! All in all, good stuff!
Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.
Crazy religious fanatics... The bane of every mutant's existence.
Fear Itself: Wolverine #1(of 3):
Summary: After Wolverine deals with the Scarecrow in New York, Wolvie's girlfriend, Melita, heads over to shoot the breeze with him. While the two are talking, Steve Rogers calls Melita and asks to speak to Wolvie... Considering Wolvie has an Avengers card and presumably a phone of his own, that makes absolutely NO sense... Anyway, it seems some British terrorists from STRIKE stole a HAMMER helicarrier and were flying it to NYC. Needless to say, Steve wants Wolvie to deal with it. Wolvie gives Melita his Avengers access card and tells her to see what she could dig up on STRIKE and the stolen helicarrier at Avengers Tower, while he deals with the STRIKE goons. When the helicarrier arrives in New York, Wolvie hops off a building and cuts his way inside, while Melita heads to Avengers Tower to see what kind of information she could dig up on STRIKE. Melita discovers that the stolen helicarrier has chemical, biological and nuclear weapons on board, and Wolvie gets jumped and taken down by two of the STRIKE goons.
Thoughts: See, now THIS issue had nearly nothing to do with the main Fear Itself event, which annoys me... A lot. Terrorists steal a helicarrier and it's up to Wolvie to stop them. There's nothing about that premise that needs the Fear Itself stuff attached to it. That easily could have been used for any Wolvie mini-series at any time. So yeah, right off the bat this comic kind of irked me. Add a bunch of British terrorists from a defunct evil spy organization and one of Norman Osborn's helicarriers and you have the recipe for a comic I could care less about... Oh well. They all can't be winners.
Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.
Eh, I only posted this picture because I liked the bad guy calling Wolvie, "THE Wolverine".
Fear Itself: Uncanny X-Force #1(of 3):
Summary: Okay, this issue gets started with two separate threats for X-Force to deal with. The first one is a crazy suicide bomber who screamed out the word “Purify!” before killing a bunch of people, the second is a quick Internet video showing what appeared to be a tied up, super-powered kid in what would seem to be a pretty dire situation. X-Force feels the two events are both connected to those crazy Purifiers, and decide to get some answers. To that end they sneak into the penthouse of a secret Purifier financier and kidnap him. With the rich bigot tied up, Wolvie threatens to let Psylocke loose in his mind unless he talks. Not wanting a dirty mutant mucking around in his brains, the bigot tells X-Force the name of the Purifier's leader, Jonathan Standish, as well as the most likely location of the kidnapped kid, an abandoned military base in Baltimore. X-Force rushes to the scene and tears through the Purifiers stationed there, but are unable to find the kid. Wolvie grabs one of the Purifiers and threatens to do him grievous bodily harm(what, he did!) unless the Purifier gave up the whereabouts of the kid. Unfortunately for Wolvie and company, this Purifier explains that his group didn't have the kid, and that Standish was leading a splinter group of the Purifiers... And what of Standish? After seeing the actions of the Serpent's Worthy on television, he has come to the conclusion that the Purifiers were wrong to only target mutants, since all superhumans were obviously wicked abominations. With that, he enters the room with the captured kid, turns on the camera, puts the gun to the kid's head and warns everybody to save themselves from the hell superhumans had made the Earth by taking their lives. With that, he pulls the trigger and ends this issue.
Thoughts: Okay, so there really wasn't a STRONG Fear Itself connection in this issue, but Rob Williams did use the Fear events to advance this story, which is a good thing. Sure, we didn't get X-Force vs any of the Serpent's Worthy, but at least the events in this issue occurred BECAUSE of the events of Fear Itself. As for this issue, it was good. I have to admit, I enjoyed it. You had crazy bigots, X-Force killing said bigots, and the head bigot acting like a loony religious fanatic! All in all, good stuff!
Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.
Crazy religious fanatics... The bane of every mutant's existence.Fear Itself: Wolverine #1(of 3):
Summary: After Wolverine deals with the Scarecrow in New York, Wolvie's girlfriend, Melita, heads over to shoot the breeze with him. While the two are talking, Steve Rogers calls Melita and asks to speak to Wolvie... Considering Wolvie has an Avengers card and presumably a phone of his own, that makes absolutely NO sense... Anyway, it seems some British terrorists from STRIKE stole a HAMMER helicarrier and were flying it to NYC. Needless to say, Steve wants Wolvie to deal with it. Wolvie gives Melita his Avengers access card and tells her to see what she could dig up on STRIKE and the stolen helicarrier at Avengers Tower, while he deals with the STRIKE goons. When the helicarrier arrives in New York, Wolvie hops off a building and cuts his way inside, while Melita heads to Avengers Tower to see what kind of information she could dig up on STRIKE. Melita discovers that the stolen helicarrier has chemical, biological and nuclear weapons on board, and Wolvie gets jumped and taken down by two of the STRIKE goons.
Thoughts: See, now THIS issue had nearly nothing to do with the main Fear Itself event, which annoys me... A lot. Terrorists steal a helicarrier and it's up to Wolvie to stop them. There's nothing about that premise that needs the Fear Itself stuff attached to it. That easily could have been used for any Wolvie mini-series at any time. So yeah, right off the bat this comic kind of irked me. Add a bunch of British terrorists from a defunct evil spy organization and one of Norman Osborn's helicarriers and you have the recipe for a comic I could care less about... Oh well. They all can't be winners.
Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.
Eh, I only posted this picture because I liked the bad guy calling Wolvie, "THE Wolverine".
Beware, Fear Itself #4 spoilers ahead!!!
Yep, I posted my review for Fear Itself #4 earlier, which you can find here, but just like I did with the last issue, I wanted to dedicate a full post to the events that occurred in Fear Itself #4. So let's dig into FI #4 and see what we can find. As stated in the title of the post, there WILL be spoilers, so read on at your own risk! Okay, if we're going to talk about Fear Itself #4, then I think the best place to start is with the fate of Bucky... In this issue we find out that Bucky is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, dead. Killed by Sin. Now, I know Matt Fraction has it in his head that if Bucky was going to die he should die at the hands of the Red Skull, but come on, who REALLY considers Sin to be the REAL Red Skull? I mean yes, she took the name, but to me, and I'm sure many others, she is NOT the Red Skull. So yeah, since Bucky is dead, I hold Marvel, Matt Fraction and yes, even Ed Brubaker responsible, because he SHOULD have told Marvel, “Hell no you can't kill Bucky! Have you seen the awesome work I put into developing that character?!” Now yes, I am infuriated about Bucky's death, but, and call mean a naive dreamer, I'm STILL, even after this issue, holding out hope that this isn't the end of Bucky... Maybe at the end of Fear Itself when the Serpent is defeated Odin can do the right thing and undo some of the Serpent's damage? Maybe he could bring Bucky back from the dead? I mean he is Odin, a GOD, if anybody can do it, Odin can. So Odin, I shall be praying that you do the right thing here! It would be REALLY easy to change the title of that “Captain America and Bucky” series to simply “Bucky”...
Okay, the next big revelation from this comic was the reveal that the Serpent was actually Odin's brother. Not only that, but the Serpent(who I'm not sure we can really believe, all things considered) states that HE was the rightful king of Asgard, and that Odin the Usurper took it all away from him, imprisoned him and rewrote the world in Odin's image. The Serpent continues, telling Thor that if Odin kept THIS a secret for thousands of years, who knows what else he hid from Thor and the other Asgardians. Since, in the Serpent's mind, Odin is the bad guy here, he asks Thor to join with him so that together they could take Odin to task for his various falsehoods and transgressions. Naturally, Thor turns down that offer, since the Serpent was basically wrecking the Earth to build an army against Odin, so the Serpent teleports Thor to the Thing, who took down the Red Hulk, and the Hulk, who is the Hulk, figuring those two behemoths would deal with Thor, thus helping the Serpent avoid the prophesy concerning his death at Thor's hands. Okay, lot's to go through there. All of the Serpent's words were pretty interesting, and with the way Odin has been acting as of late(like an ass), that seems to give more credence to the Serpent's words. However, with a name like “The Serpent”, his classic, stereotypical super-villain look, and the fact that he's been allowing his forces to run roughshod over the Earth, it's hard to believe anything he says. To me, it seems more likely that the Serpent MAY have been the initial king of Asgard, but was too evil/corrupt/whatever, and as such was taken down by Odin and locked away. The fact that he sends Thor to what could be his death at the hands of his most powerful minions, also doesn't exactly help the Serpent's case that he was the wronged party here.
We also get Steve Rogers putting the Captain America uniform back on so he could lead the shell-shocked Avengers in the field of battle. With Steve playing Cap again, it would also appear that Nick Fury will be taking back Steve's position as Director of SHIELD. I have NO problem with either of those moves, since with the Captain America movie coming to theaters in a few weeks, you KNEW that Steve would become Cap again, because apparently, at least in the eyes of Marvel, comic fans are SO stupid that they wouldn't be able to understand that there was a Captain America out there who wasn't Steve, since Steve was Cap in the movie... It would be nice if comic companies realized that fans aren't THAT dumb... Hell, if memory serves me right, when the Dark Knight was released in theaters, Dick Grayson was Batman in the comics, not Bruce Wayne, and the sale of Batman books remained as strong as ever! I COULD be mistaken there, but I think my timing is right.
The last big shocker from this issue was Iron Man demanding an audience with Odin. Being a man of science, Tony Stark doesn't exactly believe in the whole, “Odin is a GOD!” thing, but in order to try to save his planet, he knows that he needed Odin's help. In order to gain Odin's attention, Tony drops to his knees and gives Odin a sacrifice... The one thing that meant more to him than anything else, his sobriety, as he downs a bottle of champaign. Odin, being the smug bastard that he is, then reveals himself to Tony, telling Tony that he was now listening. What more can I say about this scene? I guess in a way it bothers me because Tony's sobriety has always been so important to him, and no matter the threat(like in Iron Age #1), he's managed to keep himself away from the bottle. But in another way, Tony giving up the thing that meant so much to him in order to gain an audience with Odin, shows just how desperate times have become. It also keeps Odin looking VERY unlikable, which let's us fans continue to wonder if MAYBE he really did screw over his own brother for power...
So there you have it, an in depth, spoilerific look at Fear Itself #4. While the fact that Bucky is definitely dead here DID hurt my enjoyment of this issue a lot, like I said earlier, I'm still hopeful Bucky's death can be reversed. I mean hell, if he came back after being dead for like 60 some odd years, he can come back from this, right?? Thanks for reading, and if you feel like discussing anything related to this issue, feel free to post a comment. Well, until next time, X out.
Okay, the next big revelation from this comic was the reveal that the Serpent was actually Odin's brother. Not only that, but the Serpent(who I'm not sure we can really believe, all things considered) states that HE was the rightful king of Asgard, and that Odin the Usurper took it all away from him, imprisoned him and rewrote the world in Odin's image. The Serpent continues, telling Thor that if Odin kept THIS a secret for thousands of years, who knows what else he hid from Thor and the other Asgardians. Since, in the Serpent's mind, Odin is the bad guy here, he asks Thor to join with him so that together they could take Odin to task for his various falsehoods and transgressions. Naturally, Thor turns down that offer, since the Serpent was basically wrecking the Earth to build an army against Odin, so the Serpent teleports Thor to the Thing, who took down the Red Hulk, and the Hulk, who is the Hulk, figuring those two behemoths would deal with Thor, thus helping the Serpent avoid the prophesy concerning his death at Thor's hands. Okay, lot's to go through there. All of the Serpent's words were pretty interesting, and with the way Odin has been acting as of late(like an ass), that seems to give more credence to the Serpent's words. However, with a name like “The Serpent”, his classic, stereotypical super-villain look, and the fact that he's been allowing his forces to run roughshod over the Earth, it's hard to believe anything he says. To me, it seems more likely that the Serpent MAY have been the initial king of Asgard, but was too evil/corrupt/whatever, and as such was taken down by Odin and locked away. The fact that he sends Thor to what could be his death at the hands of his most powerful minions, also doesn't exactly help the Serpent's case that he was the wronged party here.
We also get Steve Rogers putting the Captain America uniform back on so he could lead the shell-shocked Avengers in the field of battle. With Steve playing Cap again, it would also appear that Nick Fury will be taking back Steve's position as Director of SHIELD. I have NO problem with either of those moves, since with the Captain America movie coming to theaters in a few weeks, you KNEW that Steve would become Cap again, because apparently, at least in the eyes of Marvel, comic fans are SO stupid that they wouldn't be able to understand that there was a Captain America out there who wasn't Steve, since Steve was Cap in the movie... It would be nice if comic companies realized that fans aren't THAT dumb... Hell, if memory serves me right, when the Dark Knight was released in theaters, Dick Grayson was Batman in the comics, not Bruce Wayne, and the sale of Batman books remained as strong as ever! I COULD be mistaken there, but I think my timing is right.
The last big shocker from this issue was Iron Man demanding an audience with Odin. Being a man of science, Tony Stark doesn't exactly believe in the whole, “Odin is a GOD!” thing, but in order to try to save his planet, he knows that he needed Odin's help. In order to gain Odin's attention, Tony drops to his knees and gives Odin a sacrifice... The one thing that meant more to him than anything else, his sobriety, as he downs a bottle of champaign. Odin, being the smug bastard that he is, then reveals himself to Tony, telling Tony that he was now listening. What more can I say about this scene? I guess in a way it bothers me because Tony's sobriety has always been so important to him, and no matter the threat(like in Iron Age #1), he's managed to keep himself away from the bottle. But in another way, Tony giving up the thing that meant so much to him in order to gain an audience with Odin, shows just how desperate times have become. It also keeps Odin looking VERY unlikable, which let's us fans continue to wonder if MAYBE he really did screw over his own brother for power...
So there you have it, an in depth, spoilerific look at Fear Itself #4. While the fact that Bucky is definitely dead here DID hurt my enjoyment of this issue a lot, like I said earlier, I'm still hopeful Bucky's death can be reversed. I mean hell, if he came back after being dead for like 60 some odd years, he can come back from this, right?? Thanks for reading, and if you feel like discussing anything related to this issue, feel free to post a comment. Well, until next time, X out.
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