New Mutants #28 & Ultimate Fallout #3

Okay, this week's comics have been brought, put in the order I want to read them, and are all set to go! First off this week is a look at my top pick, New Mutants #28, as well as the mini-series that's reshaping the Ultimate Universe, Ultimate Fallout #3. I'm going to try to get two more reviews up tonight after these, but I'm definitely not going to make any promises... Anyway, on to what I'm hoping will be two awesome comics!

New Mutants #28:

Summary: This issue kicks off with Moonstar inviting an old therapist friend of hers over to take a look at the mess that was her team. The therapist, Gus Grim, is led around by Moonstar, with their first stop being a look at Nate Grey in the Danger Room. Nate is cranky over the fact that Sugar Man's recent experiments had stripped him of most of his powers, leaving him with a minuscule amount of telekinesis. Nate demands that the Danger Room puts him into a battle scenario, but with his powers diminished, the Room had been programed to ignore Nate's requests. Our Lord and Savior Hope is also watching Nate in the Danger Room, pissed off that Nate was there and not old man Cable. Moonstar asks Gus for advice on Nate, and he recommends letting Nate battle some robots, since if he was to hurt himself he'd probably come to terms with his newfound limitations. From there Gus visits Cannonball, who's in a pissy mood over the whole lame Age of X crossover. After some talking Gus gets to the bottom of what was really bothering Cannonball, the fact that he was afraid to lead his friends and teammates into battle. Next on the hit list is Karma, who was working with Face, who comically has NO face... How clever....... *ahem* Anyway, Gus basically calls Karma selfish since she had made Face reliant on her. From there he heads to Magik's cell, and proceeds to vomit up some demons from Limbo... Man do I hate it when I do that... The demons tell Magik that they had hitched a ride in Gus and had gone to Crazy Mutie Island(Utopia) to free Magik. Magik explains to the confused demons that she didn't want to be freed, since staying imprisoned was the only way she'd ever regain the trust of her friends. With that she calls for Danger, who sends the demons back to Limbo. After that, Gus meets with Moonstar and she asks if he'd agree to meet with her team on a weekly basis. Gus explains that he went after the New Mutants he spoke to in a harsh manner(when he wasn't busy throwing up demons), and didn't think they'd want to hear from him again. Moonstar disagrees, telling Gus that some tough talk was just what the team needed to get their heads back on straight, so Gus agrees to return every week. This issue ends with Nate fighting(and losing) to some robots in the Danger Room. Before one of the robots could take his head off, Our Lord and Savior Hope arrives on the scene and extends the olive branch to Nate, offering to train him to protect himself now that his powers had left him, as Cable had trained her.

Thoughts: First the positive. Nate was still hanging around, which makes me think that he's going to be a regular in this title, which is great because that means Nate will be SOMEWHERE, which is better than nothing. Yes, it pissed me off to no end that Our Lord and Savior Hope had to come into the Danger Room and save Nate, but I'll deal with those little indignities in order to see my favorite comic character back in action again. Overall, I liked this comic. Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning managed to make Magik(somewhat) likable, which is a minor miracle since I always saw her as a bit of a bitch. The therapist was kind of tough on Karma and Cannonball, but it made for a good read. As long as Nate is in this series I see myself enjoying it, since I know in my heart that Abnett and Lanning's work with Nate can never be as bad as the crap that used to go on in the X-Man series... The next few issues look to be Fear Itself x-overs, so we'll see how that works out.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.You know, Nate has always had a thing for redheads who may be related to him... Just sayin'...


Ultimate Fallout #3(of 6?):

Summary: We discover that Tony Stark's dead brother Gregory was a member of a group of self-made million/billionaires who had banded together to do what they thought was right for the world, even if that meant stepping on people to get their way. The group(which is called the Kratos Club) offers Tony his brother's spot, which leaves Tony with a lot to think about. From there we find Kitty Pryde acting like her regular annoying self, storming out of Peter Parker's funeral, complaining about the world in general. She bumps into Iceman in Central Park, who was crying over Peter's death. Kitty takes pity on her old teammate and reveals that she knew of a safe place for mutants, and she'd let him go with her if he promised that he wouldn't use his powers, draw attention to himself, etc. Iceman agrees, as long as they could bring the Human Torch with them... Well that's kind of weird... From there we head to Karen Grant(actually Jean Grey) who was mentally working with Bruce Banner in an effort to get Bruce to control his Hulk side. Karen manages to put Hulk/Bruce in a trance just as Nick Fury enters the room. Fury tells Karen that since he was offering to protect her team, he needed to know for sure that Karen could keep the Hulk under control... Since if she couldn't, Fury would have no reason to keep Karen and her team safe. When faced with a question like that, Karen timidly tells Fury that she could control the Hulk, which ends this issue.

Thoughts: Not great, but not bad. The Tony Stark stuff was interesting, as was the stuff with Fury and Jean, while, as usual, I hated every scene Kitty was in... I just hate her, whether it's in the regular 616 Marvel U, or the 1610 Ultimate U. It's sad but true... If the Ultimate X-Men comic was comprised of the characters from Ultimate X as well as Iceman and Human Torch, I'd be overjoyed. Add Kitty to that equation, and my enjoyment diminishes... A lot... Back to this comic though. It furthered a few things for the new Ultimates and Ultimate X-Men comics, but completely took a step away from the Ultimate Spider-Man stuff, which kind of sucks, since the Ultimate Spider-Man story was what got me into this mini-series to begin with!

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10. Huh, I didn't realize that Bobby and Peter were that close.

New Comic Day! July 27th edition.

Hey all, it's Wednesday, meaning it's time for the weekly New Comic Day post!! As usual, I picked up a ridiculous amount of books this week, add that to the fact that I am very deeply entrenched in Mass Effect 2(which is an amazing game), and yeah, this post is going to be uber-short! Before I get to the stuff I snagged today, here's a look back at last week. Last week's Pick of the Litter was Invincible Iron Man #506, and it delivered as expected, coming away with a strong 9 out of 10 score. On the other hand, last week's Runt of the Litter, Generation Hope #9, came away with an AMAZING 8 out of 10... Considering that book usually gets scores under 5 from me, an 8 is a minor miracle! Overall, the average score for last week's comic books was a 6.44, which was actually different than the past two weeks, which eerily came out to an identical 6.65. On the negative side though, that's the lowest average score I've ever had...

With that taken care of, on to this week, and the books I just picked up a few minutes ago at the comic shop... Action Comics #903, Detective Comics #880, Gotham City Sirens #25, Teen Titans #98, Wonder Woman #613, Invincible #81, Amazing Spider-Man #666, Captain America and Bucky #620, Fear Itself: The Deep #2, Fear Itself: The Worthy #1, Mighty Thor #4, New Mutants #28, Ultimate Comics Fallout #3, Venom #5, Uncanny X-Force #12, Wolverine: The Best There Is #8, X-Men: Schism #2 & Batman: The Dark Knight #4. So as usual, nearly 20 comics, as my summer of insane comic book spending rolls on. This week's Pick of the Litter was extremely easy, as it HAS to be New Mutants #28. This is really the make or break issue for this series for me, as this should have all of the fallout from the past three issues involving my all time favorite comic book character, Nate Grey. It could be insanely awesome, or it could be horrifyingly bad. I shall put all of my trust in the hands of the capable writers, Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. As for the Runt of the Litter, that “honor” goes to Fear Itself: The Deep #2.... And let me tell you right now, that was a VERY difficult decision, because this is one of those RARE weeks when I'm looking forward to nearly every book I picked up... If you've been around this blog often, you KNOW that doesn't always happen! And that'll do it. It's back to Mass Effect 2 for me, before I get a few comics up and posted later on today/tonight. Here comes the Random Scan of the Week, and as for me, it's X out time.

The Random Scan of the Week!“I'm Jason Todd, and I ain't NOBODY'S bitch!!” JT, that was for you.

Justice League of America #59 & Superman/Batman #86

I've finally hit the bottom of my new comic pile, just in time for tomorrow's new comic day! Huzzah! The last two books from last week are two DC titles that I'm not really looking forward to reading in the least. As a matter of fact, I expect them to be lackluster to bad... Here's hoping I'm wrong!

Justice League of America #59:

Summary: This comic is actually SUPER easy to review, which is a nice change of pace. This issue begins with Eclipso recounting how he killed the Justice League and conquered the earth, before setting off into space, defeating every other race and killing everything in the universe... Great job, Eclipso!! Or is it... In actuality we learn that the Atom and Blue Starman managed to free the Shade from Eclipso's mental domination, which led to all of the shadow-connected beings under Eclipso's command becoming free. From there, Saint Walker used his hokey hope powers to allow Eclipso to see what he truly desired, the scene I described earlier. With Eclipso's army gone, and Eclipso himself happily living in a fantasy land, all of the heroes rally and attack him, beating on him until he reverted back to his human half, Bruce Gordon.. From there all of the heroes use their various powers to put the moon BACK together(and don't ask me how they did that, 'cause I have NO idea!), before they happily leave. However, that happiness doesn't last long as this issue ends 5 weeks later with Batman(Dick Grayson) announcing to the Worst Justice League Ever that they were being disbanded(probably because of their repeated acts of sucktitude).

Thoughts: I actually enjoyed this comic way more than I probably should have... There were a few plot holes here and there(like how the hell the heroes managed to put the moon, which had been split in HALF back together again), but this comic was very fast-paced and action packed. Honestly, I have no real complaints, so let's move on before I think of any...

Score: 7 out of 10.Hell, this issue was worth it simply to see a giant squid kill that damned monkey!


Superman/Batman #86:

Summary: While Batman digs into who killed the reporter who had managed to connect that Bruce Wayne and Batman were one and the same, Superman(in his civilian guise of Clark Kent: Ace Reporter) wanders around Gotham, interviewing people while trying to figure out if he should run the dead reporter's story on Bats/Bruce. Eventually Bats(as Matches Malone) heads into a bar the dead reporter frequented and learns that anybody who had any substantial information on Batman was supposed to put it into “The Box”, which was actually a empty mail box... Back with Clark, after speaking with the editor of the Gotham Gazette, he's still conflicted as to whether he should run the dead reporter's story or not, eventually deciding to return to Metropolis to try to come to a decision. Going back to Bats, he heads to The Box, reaches a hand in and is bitten by a pair of super sharp gag teeth, a sure sign the Joker was the man behind The Box, and consequently, the reporter's murder. Bats finds a note attached to the teeth and realizes that the editor at the Gazette had informed Joker that Clark had the information the dead reporter had discovered. This issue ends with Clark sitting in front of his computer, trying to decide what to do, with the Joker standing behind him in the shadows, preparing to swing a massive mallet at the back of his head!

Thoughts: What can I say? I enjoyed this issue a lot! I must be in an unusually good mood tonight or something... The split story of Bats trying to figure out who was trying to preserve his secret identity by killing the reporter, while Supes went around interviewing folks in Gotham before having to decide whether to run the dead reporter's story or not worked well. Now if this story turns out the way it looks like it's gonna, I'm going to be pretty pleased. It looks like the Joker killed the reporter in order to keep Batman's identity safe... Now I'm sure some of you are wondering, “Why the hell would Joker do THAT?!” Joker's vendetta has always been with Batman, NOT Bruce Wayne. You could probably make a strong case that Joker is well aware of Batman's secret identity, but just doesn't care. In a weird way, Batman being outed as Bruce Wayne may take some of the “fun” out of Joker's relationship with Bats. I may be in the minority, but I like the idea that Joker KNOWS that Bats and Bruce are one in the same and doesn't want anything to get in the way of their little nocturnal escapades. As for the ending, I kind of had a problem with the idea of Joker(with a big-ass mallet) sneaking up on Clark Kent, a man with super-hearing. That just seems wrong to me. Now let's say Joker DOES get the drop on Clark(somehow...), there's no way Joker can hurt Clark with that mallet, but if Joker was to connect, he'd rapidly realize that there was more to Clark Kent than meets the eye, endangering Clark's secret identity. So while the ending may seem kind of dumb at first glance, it's actually pretty interesting, since it could destroy Supes life...

Score: 8 out of 10.I NEED a pair of those teeth!!

X-Factor #222 & Generation Hope #9

I've reached that point in the week where I don't have anything left to say for the introduction... So just think up your own intro while I get to the two comics on tap for today.

X-Factor #222:

Summary: This issue begins in earnest with Wolfsbane and Shatterstar making it back to X-Factor's offices having avoided all of the various demons that were hunting them down. Thanks to Layla erecting a mystical barrier, the team is safe and sound inside the offices... Or at least most of them are... While watching the various threats from the window, the team becomes somewhat confused as the demons all rush off into hiding, just as a taxi pulls up. As luck would have it, Guido and Monet, who were just on their way back from the hospital, get out of the car, which leads to the demons all charging out and attacking. Before the two are completely overrun, Siryn/Banshee/whatever she's calling herself nowadays heads outside to assist, but is unable to buy Monet and Guido the time needed to get inside to safety. Not wanting to see her friends killed, Wolfsbane heads to the roof and tells the demons to come after her since she was the one they were after. While the demons are distracted, Jack Russell(!!) charges out and attacks the demons, tearing into them. Once the demons are taken care of(for the moment), Jack heads up to the roof to tell Wolfsbane that she needed to go with him if she wanted to keep her unborn child safe.

Thoughts: With each passing issue, I find myself warming more and more to this storyline... But for me, the story wasn't the best thing about this issue... I've always said that Peter David is one of the BEST writers when it comes to writing dialogue, and man did he prove that again this issue! There were several moments when I found myself laughing out loud at some of the one-liners and quips that were being thrown around. Good story, good art, and hilarious dialogue equals a very happy blogger!

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.Everything Longshot had to say here was hilarious!


Generation Hope #9:

Summary: This issue begins with Our Lord and Savior Hope checking with the Stepford Cuckoo who was manning Cerebra, since the Cuckoo was responsible for keeping an eye out for any new mutants who may pop up. From there we head to a university in the UK where three friends were playing truth or dare. While in the middle of the game, one of the guy's mutation suddenly kicks in, which results in his skin beginning to melt off. His friend decides to take a picture of the spectacle and uploads it online, which I find ALL kinds of weird... I mean, if MY friend's face suddenly started to melt, I doubt the first thing I'd do is reach for my cell phone... I'd probably run out of the room screaming like a banshee... Maybe that's just me though. Anyway, Our Lord and Savior Hope gets her team together and they head out towards the university, while the melty-faced new mutant, realizing that his life had been ruined, grabs a knife from the kitchen, runs into the bathroom and offs himself. Our Lord and Savior Hope and the rest of the team somehow mentally “feel” melty-face's death, and arrive on the scene too late. Shadowcat(the team's chosen chaperon), somehow figures out what happened, which leaves Our Lord and Savior Hope furious, but unable to do anything other than promise that the next time they'd be faster. From there we fast-forward a month, where Zero(the obligatory EVIL Japanese member of the team) returns to the UK in order to kill the guy who uploaded the video that resulted in melty-face killing himself. Before he can complete the deed though, he's met by Wolverine(of all people), who explains that he followed Zero because he knew what he was planning on doing and that killing the party responsible for melty-face's death wasn't going to bring melty-face back. Zero reluctantly decides to retrieve his weapon and the two head off for a drink.

Thoughts: Huh, you know what? This was probably my favorite issue of this series by a MILE. I mean, it wasn't spectacular or anything, but it was a well-told story that didn't continuously shove Our Lord and Savior Hope in our faces every single panel. It really didn't develop any of the Gen Hope members any further(well, except for Zero, but he's probably the only interesting character in this entire book already), but that's fine since I don't particularly like any of the characters in this comic anyway. They're all so bland and empty... That's probably why I enjoyed this issue though. It focused on melty-face, his “friend” and Zero, and stayed away from Our Lord and Savior Hope and her band of losers... That's actually a pretty sad testament to this series, that I like it more when the main characters aren't spotlighted...

Score: 8 out of 10."What's this? My friend's face is suddenly beginning to melt? I'd better grab my camera!"

O Captain! My Captain!

Here's a quick look at the 4 comic book movies from this summer, as well as how they fared during their respective opening weekends...

#1. Captain America: The First Avenger... $65.8 million.
#2. Thor... $65.7 million.
#3. X-Men: First Class... $55.1 million.
#4. Green Lantern... $53.2 million.

Yep, I couldn't be happier about the way this year's summer movies turned out. 'Nuff said.Take THAT, DC!

Batman: Gates of Gotham #3 & Zatanna #15

Hey yo X-Maniacs, after a two day period in which I reviewed 8 comics(in less than forty sentences!), it's back to the regular, normal-sized, two for one reviews that you've all come to know and love... Okay, maybe not love... Anyway, it's two DC books on tap for today, with two Marvel books due up for tomorrow. Let's get to it...

Batman: Gates of Gotham #3(of 5):

Summary: This issue begins with a flashback to the Gates brothers circa Gotham City 1900-ish. All you really need to know is that the Gates were the architects responsible for designing many of Gotham's major landmarks, they sided with the Wayne family over the Kane family, which led to the death of one of the Gates brothers, almost certainly due to Kane sabotage. In the present day, Batman(Dick Grayson) is trying to figure out who was destroying many of Gotham's landmarks, getting little help from Hush and the Penguin, who both seem to know more than they're letting on. Bats sends out Robin and Red Robin to search the home of a collector of old relics to see if they could turn up any information on the supposedly stolen costume being worn by the individual responsible for destroying the landmarks, while he takes Black Bat to the Gotham Herald building to see what newspaper archives they could dig up to figure out why certain landmarks were being struck, as well as a clue as to which one may be the next to fall... And that's pretty much it...

Thoughts: Meh. I just wasn't able to get into the story here. It seems pretty obvious as to who the mystery saboteur is, the guy who was collecting the relics, Dillon May, who just so happens to be the spitting image of one of the Gates brothers, but maybe that's just misdirection on Kyle Higgins/Scott Snyder's behalf... Or maybe not. If it is May, I'm going to be kind of disappointed, because that's not much of a swerve... His (great-?)grandfather was screwed over by the Gotham fatcats, so he decides to bring down all of the things that bear the fatcats names... Hopefully I'm wrong though, and this story really takes off the next two issues.

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.I wonder how much it galls Timmy to call Damian, "Robin"?


Zatanna #15:

Summary: After a magic performance, Zatanna is kicking back in her dressing room when a poisoned arrow comes flying through her window, slashing her across the throat... Don't you just HATE when that happens?! Unable to speak and beginning to feel woozy, Z decides to escape from her dressing room through a trapdoor in a closet. This buys Z some time to get away just before a bunch of armed goons storm the room. Following the blood trail, the goons figure out where Z has gone and shoot at her through the floor... Wait, if they wanted her dead in the first place, why didn't they simply shoot the arrow into her skull to begin with? Anyway, Z manages to emerge on the stage of the theater, where she grabs some sort of liquid, pours it onto a scarf and wraps the scarf around her bloody neck. The goons soon spot her and try to shoot her full of arrows(yes they were carrying both machine guns and crossbows), but Z escapes into the rafters, but not before catching a bullet to the thigh. Once again, the goons follow the trail of blood, this time leading to a rest room. Instead of entering, the goons simply aim at the door and empty their guns at the rest room(!), opening the door to find Z sitting on the floor, surrounded by bullet holes, although she herself wasn't hit by a single bullet because she was apparently using bullet-time or something... With Z hopelessly cornered and unable to speak, the head goon walks over to her and does what any good villain is supposed to do in such a situation, reveals who he was and what his plan was! Bottom line, the goons were from a long line of hunters who tracked down mystical type creatures and killed them. Unfortunately for the gabby goon, telling his story gives the liquid Z put on her scarf from earlier on the chance to fully heal her vocal cords, giving her back her powers. From there, Z dismantles the goons and finishes the beating by sending the goons back in time to the Salem witch trials, where the crazy residents of Salem figure they were witches and decide to burn them at the stake. But don't worry, Z presumably teleports the goons back to the present before they get roasted alive... Probably.

Thoughts: There was A LOT of stuff in this comic that really didn't make sense if you took the time to sit back and ponder it all... I mean, for me, the main problem was the fact that the goons didn't simply gun Zatanna down from the start... Why bother with the poisoned arrow if they had a vantage point to sniper her from? Shoot her in the damn head and you've won! For this entire issue it seemed like the goons weren't actually trying to kill Z, which kind of bugged me. Well, that and Z's uncanny ability to dodge bullets... Seriously, how do the goons shoot like 100 bullets into the rest room and manage to completely MISS Z?! Weird... If you overlook those various little story hiccups, this issue wasn't that bad. It kind of read like one of those summer action films, where the hero gets shot at for two and a half hours, dodges nearly all of the bullets and manages to come back and defeat the villains at the end thanks to various daring escape scenes. This was good, stupid fun.

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10."Sasquatchen"? Wait, does that mean they hunt Canadians?

Quick Hits: Fear Itself: Deadpool #2, Iron Man 2.0 #7, Uncanny X-Men #541, Fear Itself: Fearsome Four #2

Another day, another Quick Hits post. The four comics I'll be taking a look at today are all Fear Itself tie-ins, and to be completely honest, they ranged from not that good to out-and-out terrible... I mean reading these books took some real willpower from yours truly! Well, let's get this cavalcade of comic crap out of the way... As always with these Quick Hits posts, I'm only spending 5 sentences or less on the actual review before heading to my “Thoughts” the score and the scan. If you want to know more about one of these comics, feel free to inquire about them in the comments section, although after reading these comics I can't imagine ANYBODY would want to talk about them...

Fear Itself: Deadpool #2(of 3):

What Happened: Deadpool's plan of having the Walrus terrorize a small town(in disguise), moves along smoothly, so Pool readies the second phase of his plan, defeating the Walrus and reaping the rewards from the town. Pool basically has his way with the Walrus until nightfall, when we find out that the hammer Pool gave to the Walrus to attack the town actually had some sort of bizarre werewolf/healing factor negating powers, which helps the Walrus take Pool down and out.

Thoughts: You know what the sad thing is? Out of the four comics I read for this post, THIS was the best one of the bunch! Things only go downhill from here! Honestly, the best thing about this issue was the cover, which was hilarious. I mean this issue had it's moments, I did enjoy Pool in a VERY lame disguise directing the idiotic Walrus's attack on the town, but the story has practically nothing to do with Fear Itself, except that Pool got the idea to give Walrus that hammer because of the Serpent and his Worthy. If you're following the whole FI event, this is a very easily skipped mini-series.

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.Deadpool's Serpent disguise = Awesome!


Iron Man 2.0 #7(Fear Itself tie-in):

What Happened: The Immortal Weapons try to close the gate to Hell which opened in Beijing thanks to the Serpent's hammer tearing reality asunder. Before they can shut the portal, Iron Fist winds up getting possessed and attacking the rest of the Weapons. Luckily, War Machine is also there, and he takes on the possessed Iron Fist. The battle rages for WAY longer than it should(I mean War Machine is a frigging tank!), but War Machine manages to defeat Iron Fist with some mystical help from Dr. Strange from afar, who was spying on events. The Weapons then close the portal, nobody seems to know what the problem with Iron Fist was, and War Machine's part in Fear Itself thankfully comes to an end.

Thoughts: I am so glad this issue ended this series involvement in Fear Itself. I barely care about Iron Fist and hate the Immortal Weapons. I mean I like War Machine a lot, but he was almost a second thought these past few issues... Instead we get those damned Immortal Weapons and their completely asinine names(The Handsome Monkey King, The Bride of Nine Spiders, The Prince of Orphans... Are you kidding me?!), nothing really happening involving Fear Itself, and War Machine, who happens to be wearing a state of the art suit of armor, having difficulty defeating Iron Fist, a guy who kicks things... Yeah, this was pretty brutal.

Score: 4 out of 10.Apparently, you should always bet on the guy who kicks things instead of the guy in the multi-million dollar suit of armor.


Uncanny X-Men #541(Fear Itself tie-in):

What Happened: Lord Summers sends out a few waves of X-Men to probe the Serpent possessed Juggernaut for weaknesses, which only leads to his most powerful X-Men making a tiny crack in Juggy's helmet. So naturally, Lord Summers sends out Our Lord and Savior Hope, who manages to pull the Juggernaut's helmet off... Typing that line leaves me SO pissed I can barely finish typing this up... Anyway, Emma Frost tries to enter Juggy's mind to shut him down, but can't, and this issue ends with the X-Men unsure what to do next.

Thoughts: You know, this issue started off well enough. Lord Summers actually enacted a plan that made great sense all things considered, since he was dealing with an old foe with vastly improved abilities... And then Our Lord and Savior Hope showed up... Seriously, Kieron Gillen HAS to get away from the X-books, because his obsession with Our Lord and Savior Hope is bordering on the unintentionally hilarious! I mean every goddamn issue of this goddamn comic book lately has revolved around goddamn Hope!! And do you know what that's doing to me? It's making me hate her with a passion I usually reserve for Barry Allen... THAT'S how much I'm starting to hate Hope! I'm comparing her to the character who singlehandedly destroyed most of my interest in DC comics! Hope has got to go, and Gillen has got to go with her, because once again, he ruined what could have been a very good comic book.

Score: 5 out of 10.Next up for Our Savior Hope, defeating every super-villain in the Marvel Universe simultaneously while explaining the finer points of the Negative Zone to Mr. Fantastic...


Fear Itself: Fearsome Four #2(of 4):

What Happened: The Man-Thing defeats Frankenstein, She-Hulk, Howard the Duck and Nighthawk(collectively known as The Worst Team Ever) before moving deeper into NYC. When the ragtag group regain their senses, Frankenstein gives his origin story(REALLY!?! Was that necessary?!) before the team continues after Man-Thing. It turns out the Psycho Man is also after Man-Thing, since he sees Man-Thing as a weapon he could use to further enhance his emotion control abilities. With the Psycho Man on one side, and a crazed Man-Thing on the other, who should show up but the infamous New Fantastic Four(Wolverine, Spider-Man, the gray Hulk and Ghost Rider) from the past. Sure, why not.

Thoughts: What can I say? The story was barely coherent, the artwork was done by two or three different artists, giving this comic no sense of cohesiveness, and Howard the Duck was here. What did my poor, darling She-Hulk do to deserve inclusion in THIS awful mini-series? And to make matters worse, there wasn't a single appearance by the Serpent or his Worthy, thus breaking my first rule with calling something a Fear Itself tie-in. Sure, Man-Thing going crazy is a direct result of the Fear Itself events, but that's not the same as an appearance by one of the main Fear Itself threats. This is another FI “tie-in” that should definitely be avoided...

Score: 3 out of 10.Ever wanted to see a duck talk to Frankenstein? Then you're in luck!!

Quick Hits: Fear Itself: The Home Front #4, Avengers #15, Daredevil #1 & Captain America Corps #2

Hey there X-Maniacs, X here with a cheap excuse of a post... You see, after last week's monstrous pull list, ol' X needed a bit of a breather... I mean reviewing about 20 books every week can be tough for one guy to do! So I'm going to dust off one of my great old ideas that everybody used to love... And by “great old ideas” I actually mean “lazy ass ideas” and by “love” I actually mean “hate”. Yes, it's time for a tired blogger's best friend, the Quick Hits post!! Here's how this'll work. Basically I'll take four comics, give a synopsis of each comic(in five sentences or less), give my thoughts on them, add a score and a scan, and that's it. I very well might do another one of these posts tomorrow, before getting my lazy self back to the full reviews. But hey, a half-assed review is better than no review at all, right? Right?!?

Fear Itself: The Home Front #4(of 7):

What Happened: Speedball tries to prevent Attuma from destroying St. John's, Newfoundland(that's in Canada for those of you who suck at Geography), and succeeds... For a moment. Basically all Speedball does is MASSIVELY piss off Attuma, who floods the entire city, presumably killing thousands, as well as possibly Speedball himself. There were three other stories in this one too, but they all sucked, so I'm going to exercise my blogging right to pretend they never happened!

Thoughts: Well, it sucks that I had to pay $4 for what was basically a 14 page comic. Sure, the Speedball story was written by Christos Gage, who'd I'd easily put in my top five list of favorite current writers, but considering I didn't even read the second story(starring Jimmy Woo and the terrible Agents of Atlas), the third story was a one-pager written AND illustrated by Howard Chaykin, whose art I don't like(to put it nicely!), and the last story was about the Blue Marvel, whoever the hell THAT is, I definitely didn't have a lot to enjoy here... So while I DID enjoy the Speedball story, I have to take the other stories into account as well, thus bringing this issue's score down to a...

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.When in doubt, post a splash page!


Avengers #15(Fear Itself tie-in):

What Happened: The Serpent possessed Hulk is wreaking havoc in Brazil, leaving Spider-Woman, Protector(can't we PLEASE just call him Marvel Boy again?), Ms. Marvel and Hawkeye to deal with him... Yeah, that'll happen. Everybody talks for hours, and the battle ends with the Avengers LITERALLY hiding from the Hulk... Yeah...

Thoughts: I don't think I'll ever understand Bendis. I mean does Avengers editor Tom Brevoort actually read the Fear Itself Avengers tie-in issues Bendis is writing, or does he just shrug his shoulders and figure, “Ah that Bendis... I know he'll do good work, no need to check to see what HE'S doing!” Because Bendis has been pumping out some of his worst work since Secret Invasion in Avengers and New Avengers since Fear Itself started, which leads me to draw a single conclusion. Bendis should be kept FAR, FAR away from crossovers. Either that or take him off of one of the Avengers titles, because this was literally unreadable. And yes, I know what the word “literally” means. I literally could NOT read this comic. I skipped several pages of useless dialogue, because it served NO purpose. Can we please get the Bendis who wrote Ultimate Fallout #1 back, because Fear Itself Bendis is frightfully terrible...

Score: 0 out of 10. Yup, for the second straight week, a comic gets the dreaded imperfect score. You know, there was a time when I went MONTHS without giving an imperfect score. How I long for those days...It's official. Bendis is out of control again...


Daredevil #1:

What Happened: Matt Murdoch has returned to Hell's Kitchen and has restarted his law firm with Foggy Nelson for the 1,987,345th time. This time though, any lawyer he goes against in court throws the fact that he is Daredevil in his face, ruining many of his cases. Besides that, he gets a tip from the new Assistant DA that one of his clients was in bigger trouble than Matt realized, and that maybe Daredevil could help the guy out. While sleuthing, DD is disoriented by a gun that specifically messes with his senses, and this issue ends with Captain America's shield hurtling towards him(!?).

Thoughts: Eh. I really have no complaints here. I trust Mark Waid as a writer implicitly, so I'm going to hold off judgment until I've read a few issues. There were a few things here that bugged me, Matt's super-chipper attitude, the fact that ONCE Matt returned to New York so did Daredevil(and Matt wonders why everybody knows he's DD...), but like I said, I'll wait a few issues before I decide to really praise or bash this series.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Real classy... Throw a pencil at a blind man...


Captain America Corps #2(of 5):

What Happened: After being defeated by the Ameridroid, the Captain America Corps are captured(ROLL CALL! Steve Rogers from 1941, Bucky from before Fear Itself, American Dream from the M2 Universe, US Agent from the beginning of his days as the Agent, and Commander A from the future) and tortured by the nefarious Americommand. The Cap Corps manage to escape, free a few other “undesirables” such as Peter Parker, Luke Cage and Sam Wilson from prison, before they are taken out of that reality by the cosmic Contemplator. While the Contemplator is explaining to the Corps that the world was messed up because there was no Steve Rogers to hold the Avengers together, there seems to be some dissension in the Americommand, as two agents seemed tired of Major America's barbaric rule.

Thoughts: I know I said it before, but it bears saying again... Eh. Nothing really special here. The story was okay, although there's still a mess of things we need to find out including how the Americommand managed to take over the country, who Major America is, and how the Contemplator was going to have the Cap Corps fix things. Since it's a Captain America mini-series, and my poor, poor Bucky is in it, I'll continue reading, but here's hoping things pick up a bit next issue.

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.Best team EVER!!!