Deadpool #51

I'm gonna have to rush a bit here as I've got work tomorrow and would like to at least get the rough drafts for tomorrow's comic books typed up... Yeah, so the introduction for this issue sucks... What can ya do?

Deadpool #51:

Summary: Deadpool's wacky, convoluted plans continue here as X-Force battles the Hand, since X-Force believed Kingpin had the serum that could negate Deadpool's healing factor, while Kingpin wanted to get his hands on the serum... Oh yeah, and X-Force and Kingpin both think the serum could negate any mutant power... Meanwhile, Daken is also looking for the serum, since he was led to believe(by Deadpool) that it could negate healing factors, which meant he could use it to kill his hated father, Wolverine. As for who actually has the serum? Tombstone. After nearly getting into a gang war with Kingpin set up by, you guessed it, Deadpool, Tombstone decides to head to the lab to get the last remaining vial of the anti-Deadpool serum before things got too hot. Unfortunately for Tombstone, Daken had been eavesdropping on his business and beats him to the warehouse, burning it down and presumably taking the serum. Meanwhile, Deadpool has gambled that if anybody was savvy enough to get his hands on the serum it would be Daken, so he tells X-Force to find the serum while he deals with Daken, since the two wouldn't be able to kill each other due to their healing factors... Not realizing what Deadpool was up to(or that Daken most likely HAD the serum), Wolverine sends Deadpool after Daken, and possibly his death.

Thoughts: This comic was ALLLL over the place, but in a good sort of way. There was a lot to follow, what with all of the plans Deadpool has put into motion, and if I'm being honest, all of those various plans did hurt my enjoyment of this one just a bit. I mean I loved how clever Deadpool ended up looking coming out of this one, but between Kingpin, the Hand, Typhoid Mary the various X-Force members, Hydra Bob, Deadpool himself, Tombstone, Daken, Spider-Man(yep, he was here too!), and some assorted hitmen and gangsters, this issue was a bit hard to follow from time to time... That's not to say I'm not enjoying the story, and that I didn't love the fact that the ending should set up Pool vs Daken, to the death(!), but I didn't enjoy this issue as much as I enjoyed the previous one.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.

Deadpool vs Daken next issue? You KNOW I'm there!

Avengers Academy #26

First review of the new week would be this week's Pick of the Litter, and my favorite ongoing comic series, Avengers Academy. Before saying anything else, if you haven't read JT's post on why Avengers Academy is so great, you should definitely give that post a read(you can find it here). Before I even open this comic, a quick note... I haven't handed out a single perfect score thus far in 2012... In 2011 I gave out 27 perfect scores, so about two a month... This year? Zip... Here's hoping I'm looking at the first perfect comic of 2012!

Avengers Academy #26:

Summary: So Jocasta and Veil have returned to the Avengers Academy and(surprise, surprise) are working with Jeremy Briggs(that presumably evil kid from a few issues back). Jocasta feels that the Avengers are an outdated idea, and the Academy would only lead to children dying, so she wants all of her work taken from the Academy, as well as the Academy's students joining with herself, Veil and Jeremy. Pym suspects that Jocasta's programing had been tampered with and Pym and Jocasta reach a compromise where they'd allow the Sentinel to scan Jocasta for any virus's or outside influences. While Pym and Jocasta are fixing the Sentinel, Jeremy arrives on campus with several of the Initiative cadets(including Hardball, thus instituting the Hardball Rule to this issue!) and makes his pitch as to why the students should join with him... He'd pay them and they'd be doing humanitarian work. After being repaired, the Sentinel scans Jocasta and reveals her free of outside influences, at which time Pym gives an impassioned speech about what the Avengers mean to him, as well as what they've done for him personally. Reptil makes a speech of his own, basically stating the obvious, that both sides wanted to make the world a better place, meaning there was no need for hostility and that they should be working together. Pym and Jocasta agree to keep in touch and try to work together, and the students pick sides(only Rocket Racer and Machine Teen leave the Academy). Hazmat is about to leave since she wanted Jeremy to try to cure Mettle of his powers, but Jeremy instead takes the pieces of Mettle Hazmat had acquired last issue(that's actually kind of creepy...) and promises to do something “good” with them, before telling Hazmat she should stay with Mettle. From there we jump to the future and find the future Academy members wondering if sending Reptil back in time had accomplished anything, at which time their leader, an old and probably crazy Pym says that future Reptil's actions will help their future(which seems to be a technological madhouse) come into being.

Thoughts: Oh well, the streak of non-perfect scores continues... This was an okay issue of this series, but sadly, that's all it was... Okay. I'm so used to getting great from this book that only getting okay is almost a disappointment! This issue seemed to simply be putting pieces into place, moving characters around and showing that Jeremy Briggs was still out there in the background. There were some really good moments, like Pym's speech, Ricochet's comments to Prodigy(that was SO awesome for the 8 or 9 of us that read the old Slingers series!), and of course Hardball(oh, and just so you all know, the Hardball Rule means that I add an extra 1/2 to the score of a comic where Hardball appears in, no questions asked)! So while I'm sure this comic will end up being better than like 80% of the books I'll read this week, it was still slightly disappointing...

Score: 8 out of 10.

Pym really would be insane or dead without the Avengers... Probably in that order...

New Comic Day! February 22nd edition

Hey there X-Maniacs! As luck would have it the comic gods smiled on me and gave me off from work today, meaning I was able to hit the comic shop nice and early to pick up this week's books! Huzzah! Here's hoping I get EVERY Wednesday off! Before we go any further, I'd ask anybody reading this post to check out something my buddy and co-writer here at the blog wrote about my favorite comic book series, Avengers Academy. He did a fantastic job summing up why that series is so awesome, and why everybody should give it a shot. Here's a link to JT's post.

Okay, with that taken care of, here's the comics I walked out of the comic shop with this week... Green Lantern: New Guardians #6, Justice League Dark #6, Teen Titans #6, Voodoo #6, Morning Glories #16, Avengers Academy #26, Avengers Solo #5, Captain America and Bucky #627, Deadpool #51, Magneto: Not A Hero #4, Mighty Thor #11, New Mutants #38, Secret Avengers #23, Uncanny X-Force #22, Venom #13.3, Wolverine and the X-Men #6, X-Men Legacy #262. So 17 books this week... That's definitely more than I wanted to see... What happened to the good weeks of 13 or 14 books? On the plus side, we have some REALLY good comic books here... On the flipside? There are also a few books that I seriously considered leaving at the shop due to how craptacular they promise to be...

First up, this week's Pick of the Litter, or the comic I most want to read... There are several Pick-worthy comics sitting here in front of me, but I have to go with the book that hasn't let me down yet, my favorite comic book currently being published, Avengers Academy #26. Morning Glories & Deadpool are also two books I'm also really keen on reading. On the other side of the fence is the Runt of the Litter... That (dis)honor goes to Uncanny X-Force #22... Yes, a comic that was ALMOST my pick for series of the year in 2011 is now my Runt two months into 2012... How times have changed... Seriously, the current storyline is so mindbogglingly bad, I very nearly stuck this one back on the rack at the comic shop. Justice League Dark & Venom were close to being the Runt, but I'm holding out hope that this is the issue where JLD turns the corner, and I have WAY more confidence in Jeff Parker to tell a decent Venom story than I did Rob Williams, who wrote the past two issues. Now, a few quick notes before I go... I'm not sure if I'll be reading Green Lantern: New Guardians #6, if I was reading it, it would have been the runaway winner of Runt of the Litter for the week, but if I DO read it, I'll definitely be reviewing it using Brightest Day Rules. Finally, I'll try to get a review for Flash #6 up as well... The GOOD Flash #6 that is... With about 17 books to read and review this week, Expect 2 reviews a night with a few three review nights thrown in there when I have the time. And that is that. Later on tonight(much later on tonight) I'll have review up and posted for Avengers Academy #26 as well as Deadpool #51. Until then? X out.

5 Reasons: Why you should read Avengers Academy

Hey X-Maniacs, this is JT bringing a feature to X's blog that was pretty popular over at my own blog, 5 Reasons. The premise of a 5 Reasons post is basically when I read a comic series that I enjoy so much, I list five reasons for anyone who isn't reading the series or is on the fence about checking it out that should hopefully sway them towards picking up a few issues. Previous 5 Reasons posts were about great series like Y The Last Man, Invincible, and Morning Glories. And as of 4:30 AM today, I'm all caught up on Avengers Academy, so I now present to you, 5 Reasons: Why you should read Avengers Academy.

1.) The Story - The idea for this comic alone is pretty genius. The plot features a six teenagers, all super-powered in their own ways, who were recruited by Norman Osborn while he was in power. He tortured most of the kids in order to jump start their super-powers because he intended to create his own team of super villains. When Osborn is taken down, these teens become the inagural team of the Avengers Academy. While the team is being trained as heroes and told they have the most potential, we soon find out that this team may actually have the most potential to do bad instead of good, so the Avengers are trying to lead them down the right path. Add that in with the whole gimmick of super powered teens with attitude and you've got a hell of a plot. I've often heard this book, and described this book as Morning Glories mixed with The Runaways. (I know this came out before Morning Glories, but let me have this!)

2.) The Cast - The six teens are pretty much made from scratch, which is great because they can be used in any way, and we don't know a ton about their past so there's always more to learn. The team features Reptil, a young man that idolizes heroes and has always wanted to be an Avenger, his powers include being able to transform his body into pretty much any type of dinosaur. We also have a former, lonely nerdy girl named Veil, who can turn into different types of gaseous forms, Mettle, a very mellow surfer dude that now has skin not unlike the mutant Colossus, but Mettle is always stuck in his current form, Finesse, a photogenic fighter that can learn any fighting style by sight but has trouble understanding emotions and other human quirks, Hazmat, a former average girl with an average life that is now confined to a suit since she's now a living radiation bomb, and Striker, a guy that wants to get famous by any means possible, even if it means using his powers of electricity to shock the world every step of the way. Normally that cast would be enough, but when you add in the faculty of Avengers Academy, Hank Pym, Tigra, Justice, Quicksilver and Speedball, formerly known as Penance, you have a hell of a cast that delivers one great issue after another.

3.) The Guest Stars - If you thought the cast was amazing, you're going to love the guest stars that pop in from time to time to help train the Avengers Academy. So far we've seen everyone from Cyclops, Emma Frost, Magneto, Captain America, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Hawkeye, The Juggernaut, and we've even seen the Academy students pop up in a two-issue arc of Amazing Spider-Man. As of the time of writing, there's even an upcoming fight between The Avengers Academy and The Runaways, which I personally can't wait for.

4.) It's Hilarious - This is probably the funniest book that doesn't have Spider-Man that I've ever read. Don't get me wrong, it's not always humor but when the humor is there, It is dead on! You can bet, pretty much any time you see Hazmat, Striker, Quicksilver or Finesse you're going to get at least one line that will make you laugh out loud. Where else can you get a kid literally confronting Hank Pym about slapping his wife around? Where else can you see Emma Frost compliment Tigra on her outfit and say it's perfectly acceptable attire for a teacher? This book has a lot of moments that will shock you, surprise you, and may even make you sad, but it also has quite a few moments you'll enjoy, even if it's something as simple as breaking the first wall and mentioning that Reptil is on a cartoon. Now I just gotta cross my fingers and hope somehow Deadpool becomes a substitute teacher one day.

5.) Christos Gage - Prior to reading Avengers Academy, I don't think I'd ever heard of Christos Gage, and upon further search I've confirmed I had not, which is amazing that as of this moment, he's one of my top five comicbook writers. After only twenty-eight issues (25, a .1 and two issues of ASM) he's already one of my favorite writers, along with people like Judd Winick, whom I've read for years. Gage has a special talent of making you connect with his characters, he makes each of the students relatable in their own way, he makes the faculty show concern for these kids that they want to succeed. He makes me care about how much Hank Pym cares about his wife, how much he hates his past mistakes, and I'm someone who didn't know much about characters like Pym, Tigra, Quicksilver and Justice before reading this book. What I'm trying to get across is that this man is an amazing writer, and not because he strings you along wondering what's next, he gives you answers, he puts little things in to make you think about and even if they aren't mentioned for ten issues, he seems to tie in everything. He handles a scene with Striker and a female cast member, that I won't mention because I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it yet, so well that it has that uncomfortable moment that would come from witnessing it in person, yet the dialogue all seems real. There's countless scenes I can mention where he does the same thing, but my words aren't nearly as strong as his, so all I'll say is this, Christos Gage has IT. What Geoff Johns had during Blackest Night, what Judd had during Under the Hood, what Spencer brings to Morning Glories, what Brian K. Vaughn brought to Y the Last Man, and what Bryan Q. Miller brought to Batgirl, Christos Gage is one of THE best writers right now in my opinion, all from reading what he's done solely in this book.

And there you are, five reasons that I feel you should read Avengers Academy. I hope you enjoyed it and feel free to list your own reasons that you think people should pick up Avengers Academy in the comments. Until next time, this is Jason Todd, signing off.

Avengers #22

And we've finally made it! One more review this week, and it is the comic book I least wanted to read upon getting home from the comic book shop last Wednesday. That comic? Avengers. The cover looks cool enough, but with Brian Bendis writing this, it's always a crap-shoot as to what we're going to get... Last issue as pretty good... Let's hope this issue follows suit.

Avengers #22:

What Happened: The Avengers have been captured by Norman Osborn(yes, that Green Goblin guy) and the combined forces of Hydra, HAMMER, the Hand and AIM. The villains do a lot of taunting while Quake(who escaped capture somehow...) looks into ways to free her captive teammates. Vision is also out and about(I guess he evaded capture the same way Quake did and then split up with her?) and he confronts Norman Osborn, who was holding court on the front lawn of Avengers Mansion. Vision goes to apprehend Osborn, so Osborn throws Vision through the door of the Mansion, after Osborn presumably overrides Vision's systems... Somehow... With that, the president of the United States decides to see if he can cut a deal with Osborn... Really?!?

Thoughts: Ah yes... One of my greatest comic book pet peeves... The cover that has NOTHING to do with what happens inside the book... Besides the misleading cover, this comic book was terrible. It was truly a Bendis special. I don't even know where to start... The fact that Quake is going to ultimately be responsible for saving the Avengers is the most clichéd thing that could have possibly happened(new team member saves his/her experienced teammates), so I'm not at all surprised that's the direction Bendis is going to go here. I also don't get the argument Bendis was trying to make with the president and his cabinet... It's not like Osborn was flying around as the Green Goblin, tossing girls off bridges and was locked away with no trial or anything... He was the leader of SHIELD/HAMMER, went insane, had several US citizens murdered in a terrorist attack AND instigated a war with Asgard! Seeing as that he was the head of SHIELD/HAMMER, why the hell WOULD he get a regular trial?! If anything he'd probably get some kind of court-martial trail, or if we want to get REALLY particular, since he DID organize a terrorist act on US soil, there's probably some special set of guidelines in place for dealing with a situation like Osborn's. Besides getting me good and annoyed by Osborn's bizarre self-righteousness, this issue really didn't give us anything important. The only event of any importance was Quake finding the guy who delivered the hologram of Osborn at Avengers Mansion a few issues back and forcing that guy to take her to Osborn... Which is another oddity if you really think about it... I mean Bendis has laid this story out to make Osborn look smarter than everybody else, and then leaves this HUGE loose end dangling. Why wouldn't Osborn have the guy who delivered the hologram killed, or even better, why would that guy even know where Osborn was!? Why would Osborn have a high ranking member of his organization, one with knowledge of where Osborn's bases were, deliver the hologram? Ugh... This comic really gave me a headache...

Score: 3 out of 10.

*sigh* Yeah, yeah, yeah... Norman Osborn is GOD. We get it...

Nightwing #6

Ugh... It's one of my least favorite comic books, starring one of my favorite comic book characters... Yes, it's once again for me to read Nightwing, this week's Runt of the Litter. Now, I usually write these introductions BEFORE I read the comic book, but in this case I read the comic first since I wasn't sure if I'd be using Brightest Day Rules here. As it is, after reading this one, I decided to go with a regular review... For this month at least...

Nightwing #6:

What Happened: We find out the Saiko, Raya and Mr. Haly's son Bryan were all plotting to eliminate Dick Grayson because Saiko blamed Dick for his death, Bryan was jealous of how close Dick was to his father, and Raya... Well, she really has no reason to go along with this nefarious plot, other than the fact that she seems to be mindlessly following Saiko. To kill Dick in the most flamboyant way possible, the trio plans a Grayson family tribute show to be held in Gotham City the very week the Flying Graysons were murdered. Not being able to come up with a good enough reason to call off the tribute show(besides the fact that Dick is the owner...), the tribute show goes on as planned, and Dick is pushed out to center stage to give an impromptu speech. While Dick is pontificating, Saiko sneaks into the building and sets off some silent alarms Dick had placed there. Dick rushes backstage and changes to his Nightwing attire and faces off with Saiko. For no reason at all, Saiko unmasks to Dick during the battle, revealing that he was the thought to be dead Raymond(who is... um, I've got nothin'...). While Dick is shocked by this revelation(and is probably trying to remember who the hell “Raymond” was), Saiko sets off a bomb under the big top

Thoughts: The best thing I can say about this comic was that it moved along quickly enough. There is just SO much wrong with this story... First and foremost is Saiko... Yeah, I know he's named Raymond, and I think he was involved with Haly's Circus in some way before his “death”, but that's it! I even googled “Saiko Nightwing” and STILL couldn't find out more info on Saiko! That's on Kyle Higgins, who, as the writer of this mess, should have done more to show WHY Raymond was important in the grand scheme of things... Besides that is Raya... Now, I get why Saiko is acting villainously here(he blames Dick Grayson for his “death”) and I get why Bryan Haly has sided with Saiko(he wants what Dick has, namely the Circus), but why the HELL is Raya working with those two?! She had nothing but good things to say about the Graysons! All I can piece together is that she felt somehow abandoned by Dick as a child... Which doesn't make any sense at all considering Dick was a minor when his folks died, and as such had to go wherever the courts put him(with Bats)... I'd say that maybe she was jealous of Dick and Batgirl's relationship, but she was already working with Saiko before she ever saw Dick and Batgirl together, so that shoots down that theory... So yeah, I'm totally blanking on why Raya would want to screw Dick over and allow dozens/hundreds of people to die at the tribute show... I guess I'll just chalk it up to bad storytelling and move on.

Score: 6 out of 10.

Yeah sure, why not reveal your identity to Nightwing for no good reason... Makes as much sense as anything else going on in this series.

Fear Itself: The Fearless #9

Well, we've finally made it to Tuesday, and the impending end of this comic week... I have three comics left to review, and one night to review them in, so I'd best get to work!

Fear Itself: The Fearless #9(of 12):

What Happened: After a bit of a chase, Valkyrie makes quick work of Storm, and leaves Crazy Mutie Island(Utopia) with the Serpent hammer the Brotherhood had stashed there. Meanwhile, the presently evil Daimon Hellstrom tells Sin that there were secret codes hidden in the mystic texts Sin had gathered, codes that claimed Valkyries could permanently banish the Serpent's hammers. Upon hearing that, Sin demands that Crossbones goes out and finds the hammer she wielded during Fear Itself. Valkyrie returns to her hideout and finds Captain America and Dr. Strange waiting for her. Long story short, Valkyrie reveals to the two heroes that she was collecting the Serpent's hammers so she could banish them forever... Upon her own death. After some talking, Valkyrie realizes that if Strange could find her using magic, others could, and this issue ends with Crossbones blowing up Valkyrie's hideout.

Thoughts: You know, I need a frigging scorecard to keep track of what Daimon's allegiance is nowadays... He's good in Venom and Journey Into Mystery, but evil in this mini... I mean I'm all for Daimon getting some more face time, but now that he IS popping up more frequently, can we keep his hero/villain status steady? Anyway, back to this comic... This issue was okay. It's odd, I was way more into the early issues of this series, but as we approach the end, I'm finding myself getting bored with it... This story has just gone on for too long now... Plus the way Hellstrom has been handled has been kind of annoying. I still think in the end he's going to screw Sin and Crossbones over, but his turn to the dark side here, especially considering the other titles he's currently taking part in, is really bugging me with this series.

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.

This week, Daimon Hellstrom is... evil.

Daredevil #9

Last review of the night, and it's a series that most everybody is REALLY high on, Daredevil. As for me, I've liked this series, but I'm still waiting for that “like” to turn into “love”.

Daredevil #9:

Summary: Moloids are stealing the caskets of the deceased and taking them deep underground for some reason. One of the stolen caskets in question belongs to Daredevil's father, which naturally sends DD underground to see what was going on. After stealthily following the Moloids, DD is shocked to “see” the Mole Man breaking into each casket he was brought by the Moloids in some sort of insane attempt to find something. This action drives DD into a rage, as he knows one of those caskets could be his father's, so he springs into action and wrangles the Mole Man while demanding to know what he was doing. Mole Man uses his trick cane to fire some electricity at DD, which incapacitates Ol' Hornhead. With DD out of the way, Mole Man continues opening caskets until he finds a woman inside and begins to dance with her(!!!!???!!!). As for DD, Mole Man has the Moloids toss DD into a pit with a large mole-creature's gaping mouth awaiting him at the bottom.

Thoughts: This was a pretty weird comic... Moloids robbing graves, Mole Man dancing with a corpse... Hell, I don't even NEED to list anything else! Just read that again... Mole Man was dancing with the corpse of a woman!!! That is BEYOND creepy! You know, I've never been a fan of the Mole Man. In many ways, he reminds me of the Penguin. Not only in stature and build, but in the fact that I always saw them both as characters that had no business being in modern comic books. They seemed like relics of the more comical 1940's-1960's. You know, joke characters that I could never take serious. After reading this issue, I may have to rethink my view on Mole Man! Mark Waid did a marvelous job taking a character I've always seen as boring and one-dimensional and making him seven different flavors of creepy! All I'm going to say is I seriously hope Waid doesn't even bother to try to rationalize Mole Man's actions here. Just make it look like he's gone TOTALLY off the deep end and leave it at that.

Score: 8 out of 10.

This is definitely an early frontrunner for the What the HELL?!? Moment of 2012!