Thunderbolts #1

Unlike Avengers #1, this is a book I'm actually looking forward to.  Dan Way as the writer, and an interesting bunch of characters here.  I'm not sure how a character like the Punisher will work in this book, but removing character logic, this line-up looks sweet!  Let's delve into things and see what we've got.

Thunderbolts #1

Summary: We kick off with Punisher, having been captured in a warehouse, being met by Thunderbolt Ross(the Red Hulk).  Ross wants the Punisher to join a team he was putting together, a team that understood that you couldn't simply lock criminals away, you had to cut them out of society.  From there, we see Ross approaching Venom, Deadpool(who does have a history of enlisting in government projects), and Elektra.  Back with Punisher, Ross tells him that there were about 400 mobsters heading to his location and that he had to decide quickly.  Ross offers Punisher an escape route, but since it's Punisher, he wants to confront and kill the mass of mobsters heading his way.  With that, Ross Hulks out and the two decimate the mobsters, ending this issue.

Thoughts:  Now this?  This was SO much better than Avengers!  The story made sense, it was a fast, easy read, in other words, it was everything Avengers wasn't.  I really don't have a huge attachment to Hulk, or the Hulk-related characters(with the exception of She-Hulk), and as such have never had a problem with Ross as the Red Hulk.  My one complaint would have been that he wasn't Avengers material(which is kind of a moot point now since EVERYBODY is Avengers material nowadays apparently), but this?  Ross leading a group of soldiers and mercenaries against villains?  This is the perfect spot for him.  Even Punisher joining made sense...  Or at least as much sense as Punisher on any team COULD make sense.  I still don't see Punisher working with the likes of Elektra and Deadpool, but the soldier in him may be willing to listen to Ross...  For a time.  Anyway, I think this book could be a HUGE sleeper title, and I look forward to seeing how long it takes before Punisher is trying to kill his teammates.

Score: 8 out of 10.

Gah!  Mimes...

Amazing Spider-Man #699

Hey everyone, JT here, the quicker, better talking, better blogging, better LOOKING, all around just better blogger. And, now that my grand introduction is out of the way, let's get to the reviewing shall we? Today's review is the third to last issue of Amazing Spider-Man (thanks to 699.1) and after the huge revelations of #698, let's see how things worked out for... Doc Ock in this issue.

Amazing Spider-Man #699

Summary: We start things off with Peter dying in Dock Ock's body, but luckily the doctor's on the raft save him due to their Hippocratic oath, but make it known they aren't happy about doing so. From there, Peter frantically thinks of a way he can get his body back, but not before thinking of all the evil that Otto can do as him, not only as Spidey but as Peter Parker as well. He then realizes that since Otto has his memories, he may be able to get Otto's memories as well. Turns out he's right, and after living through a backhand Otto took from his dad as a child, and a horrible memory that involved Otto, Aunt May, and pre-wedding...festivities, Peter finds what he's looking for, how Doc Ock got into his mind. Turns out when Peter used he helmet that Doc Ock used to control his Ock-Bots, most recently in Ends of the Earth, he was giving Doc access to his mind, and he used the last bits of his time to make a Gold Ockbot (which we'd seen, and which Madame Web warned Peter about a few issues ago) to inject Spidey for the switch, which it did after the Hobgoblin fight, when Pete's Spider-Sense was still on the fritz. Peter uses Doc Ock's mind to get the Gold Ockbot moving again and manages to get it to a computer where he basically offers six million dollars to people who can help him break out of the Raft, a risky idea but the only way Peter can escape. While he does this, the Lizard tells Doctor Octopus, since he's supposed to die soon anyway, that he's actually found a cure, and he's Curt Conners in the Lizard's body, fulfilling his penance, but he needed to tell someone, so who better than the dying man? Peter's gambit pays off when Hydro-Man, Scorpion and The Trapster (Formerly known as Paste-Pot Pete) show up and break Doctor Octopus out, hooking him up to a portable life support machine that The Trapster made. They then ask Ock who's next, as the plan is to break out two more people, thus making a new Sinister Six. Alistair Smythe and Morbius plead to be released by Peter (as Ock) says no one else is broken out, but he offers the Lizard a chance, who of course turns him down, now that Connors is in control. The...um... Fearful Four I guess, escape from the Raft via a portal and the issue ends as Doctor Octopus says they need to catch Spider-Man, and they need him alive.

Thoughts: Slott does it again! The last issue of Spidey was genius, we got a full issue of Otto as Peter, now we got to see Peter as Otto and how he dealt with the situation. The thing I love most is that there's a time limit now, Peter doesn't have long to try to get his body back, and that's the interesting thing. The fact he had to rely on villains to break him out shows how bad things have gotten for Peter, hell, even Paste Pot Pete was there! Also, I loved that Slott mentioned their meeting, which took place in the excellent Human Torch/Amazing Spider-Man mini-series he wrote. Another interesting thing about this issue, the whole Connors/Lizard thing... I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Superior Spider-Man has claws for scaling walls... maybe there's a relation there with The Lizard controlled Connors? Once again Slott gave us an issue where he answered questions and made us ask even more, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.It was as good as the last issue, but it was damn close.

Score: 9/10 

Doc Ock (Peter): Dear lord, my life in the hands of Paste-Pot Pete. How does this get any worse?

Avengers #1

So, Jonathan Hickman...  Truth be told, I dropped the Fantastic Four and Ultimates comics because I just couldn't take his Morrison-esque writing style.  Hopefully him getting away from Reed Richards who seems to be a huge crutch for Hickman) will make this a more enjoyable read for me.

Avengers #1

Summary: Some random villain named Ex Nihilo decides to make Mars a lush planet with new lifeforms.  He's joined by some woman named Abyss and a robot named Aleph.  Before starting his terraforming of Mars, he randomly blasts Earth with some terraforming bombs, which naturally brings the Avengers(the movie version in this case) to Mars.  The villains easily defeat the Avengers and Ex Nihilo drops Captain America back on Earth, just because, I guess.  Cap, recalling an earlier conversation with Iron Man about making the Avengers larger, puts out a call to all sorts of obscure heroes because nowadays everybody gets to be an Avenger.  And a slew of random characters show up answering Cap's call, ending this one.

Thoughts:  Well, this was what I feared...  Hickman seems like he wants to be Grant Morrison, but he actually makes LESS sense than Morrison!!!  It's awful.  After reading this issue, I'll be dropping new Avengers from my pull list(before it even releases!) and will put the series on a VERY short leash.  I have a terrible feeling within a few months the unthinkable will happen and I'll be longing for the simpler days of Bendis as the Avengers writer...  Naturally, if you were a fan of Hickman's work on Fantastic Four and FF, I have no doubt you'll enjoy this, because he's moving in the same direction here.  If not?  Good luck...

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.

Avengers Assemble!

New Comic Day! December 5th edition

Hey comic crew, JT here with this week's New Comic Day post! This week I actually have a pretty decent haul of comics, so let's jump right into them, shall we? This week I picked up Detective Comics #15, Earth 2 #7, Smallville Season 11 #8, Invincible #98, All New X-Men #3 (again already?!) Amazing Spider-Man #699, Avengers #1, Hawkeye #5 and Thunderbolts #1! This week, I plan on reviewing All New X-Men #3, Amazing Spider-Man #699 (the last one I'll review since X gets #700) and lastly, Invincible #98! My review days are Friday, Sunday and Tuesday, so expect to see my reviews then. And that's it for me, now to hand things over to my buddy X.

Oh snap, I'm getting Spidey #700?!  I'll have to send JT an Xmas present or something now!  Anyway, happy NCD folks!  I am the smarter and better looking blogger around these parts, the man known only as X.  And here are the comics I'll be picking up this week...  Hypernaturals #6, Stormwatch #15, Invincible #98, All New X-Men #3, Amazing Spider-Man #699, Avengers #1, Avenging Spider-Man #15(maybe...), Hawkeye #5, Iron Man #3, Punisher Warzone #2, Ultimates #18.1, Thunderbolts #1 & X-Factor #248...  Hey, those are some pretty good books there!  I'm kind of spoiled for choice when it comes to what to review...  I guess I'll go with Hawkeye #5, Thunderbolts #1 and Avengers #1.  My reviews will be up on Thursday, Saturday and Monday.  As for the first review of the week, I'm currently leaning towards Thunderbolts since I figure I'll enjoy it more, but I may just do Avengers first to get it out of the way...  Needless to say, I am not a big fan of new Avengers scribe Jonathan Hickman...  But yeah, one of those two books will get the Thursday review.  And that's that.  Until next time, X out.

Thor: God of Thunder #2

Last review of the week, and it's going to be Thor.  It was either this one or FF, but since I did review the first issue of Thor at the forum(and nobody really seemed too keen on an FF review), here we are.  Let's see what Jason Aaron gives us this issue.

Thor: God of Thunder #2

Summary: This issue follows a younger Thor, one who went around Earth with the vikings, warring upon the enemies of the vikings and their gods.  During one fateful battle though, the gods Thor was supposed to fight on the battlefield showed up dead, leaving young Thor curious as to what could have killed the two.  Thor heads up into the clouds and gets his answer, some bizarre god-killing creature.  The god-killer and Thor battle, and the god-killer ends up gaining the upper hand on Thor, and is preparing to strike the deathblow.  However, the god-killer makes the mistake of asking what Thor was the god of, and Thor responds by striking the god-killer down with a massive blast of lightning.  Thor ends up unconscious on the ground, while the god-killer is nowhere to be found.  Back in the present, Thor manages to defeat the god-killer's construct, and promises to avenge the deaths of the gods the god-killer had recently killed.

Thoughts: I have to say, Marvel has been hitting it out of the park(for the most part) with their Marvel Now! titles.  I enjoyed the first issue of this series, but the jumping back and forth in time kind of took me out of the story a bit.  This issue rectified that by focusing solely on Thor from the past, and showing us his entire battle with the god-killer.  The battle was great, the lead-up to the battle was great(as we saw a younger, more brash and cocky God of Thunder , and Thor's thoughts during the battle were great.  I have to say, I had no major complaints about this one and am intrigued to see what happens when Thor and the god-killer face off again in the present.

Score: 9 out of 10.

It's not every day Thor gets a beating like THAT!

Venom 27.1

Hey guys and gals, JT here with my last review of the week, Venom's .1 issue. After the Minimum Carnage storyline and the oddly confusing Hellstrom storyline, I don't know how long I'll be following this series, so hopefully this pushes it in the right direction. This will be a quick review since I've got a lot on my plate at the moment, so bear with me guys and gals.

Venom #27.1

Summary: This issue started with Flash beating the hell out of some thugs he needed info for, even when they gave up, he continues to beat them senseless. Afterwards, he visits Hellstrom at the Raft, who gloats about Flash still having a marked soul and Flash starts to get angry and is made to leave. From there he visits his Mom, as she now lives in a nursing home, then meets with a guy named AJ, who Flash bullied in High School and broke his arm because he was gay. Flash apologizes to AJ, and AJ says it's all right, but AJ's husband and AJ whisper in another room about how AJ still wakes up with nightmares of Flash attacking him, but AJ doesnt find him scary now, he just pities him. From there we see Flash sleeping that night when he wakes up with red eyes, obviously possessed, and phones for the suit. From there we see him (as a creepier, sleeker Venom, not quite Agent Venom) attack a thug he put in the hospital, then he visits Flash's mom, and creepily tells her he'll be watching her sleeping. The next day, Flash meets with Peter and they talk about how he bullied Pete, with Pete basically saying Flash had him afraid to go to school and such, but he had to move on, and Flash says he'll do the same, and announces he's leaving New York and not coming back, as this issue ends.
 
Thoughts: This issue was fine, I could've done without the whole "Venom possessed thing", especially since he's leaving New York now so he won't be watching over his mom as creepy Venom or whatever, but the stuff with Peter and AJ was pretty well written. I'm perplexed though because even though I liked this issue, I don't see myself following Flash to Philly, but time will tell I guess.

Score: 5.5/10 

Venom: I'll watch you sleeping.

A + X #2

Alright, I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't overly fond of the first issue of this mini-series.  The Captain America/Cable story was okay, but my god was that Wolverine/Hulk story a mess!  Here's hoping we get two great stories here, although looking at team-ups, I doubt it...  Although the creative teams could very well save this issue.  We shall see...

A + X #2:

Summary: The first story deals with Rogue and the Black Widow having to take down a Sentinel on Black Widow's day off.  The two start off somewhat adversarial, but in the end make a good team.  The second issue has Tony Stark trying to recruit Kitty Pryde to join Resiliant.  She sneezes Broods into Pym Particles and the two are forced to defeat the Brood, which they do.  Tony decides keeping Kitty, and her phasing abilities around would probably be a bad idea.

Thoughts: Speaking of bad ideas, this comic...  See what I did there?  Anyway, yeah, this comic was all around terrible.  I should have just reviewed Thor and FF instead of this one, but what's done is done.  The Black Widow/Rogue story had Widow acting oddly out of character, while the Kitty/Iron Man one just wasn't funny, which is shocking since it was written by Peter David, who is probably the best comic writer of all time when it comes to stirring humor into a comic.  In other words, I would highly recommend skipping this one.

Score: 4 out of 10.

Yup...

Batman: The Dark Knight #14

Hey guys and gals, JT here with my second review of the week, and once again, the only DC Comic of the week reviewed here. Man, things are not looking good for DC. Anyway, let's get to it!

Batman: The Dark Knight #14

Summary: Things start with a bang as Batman, now on his feet after the torture from Scarecrow in the last issue, attacks Dr. Crane. The two battle and Crane breaks his wooden scythe off in Batman's shoulder, but not before Batman uses his grappling hook to shoot through Scarecrow's jaw. Batman uses this time to escape, as Scarecrow removes the hook string from his now dangling jaw. Batman, bleeding and still out of it from Scarecrow Toxin, escapes from the house and tries to make it back to the cave, meanwhile Scarecrow grabs a vial of his strongest toxin and releases the girl he'd kidnapped, and takes her to safety when he trips and falls, and tells her to run away, which she does, as his secret base explodes. Batman is wandering through the streets, incoherently when a gang finds him and plans on taking him out and becoming legends, but Robin shows up and saves his dad, and takes him back home, where Alfred nurses him back to health. Next we see Scarecrow, somehow having survived the explosion and now he seems livid, after hearing a report that Batman saved the girl from the explosion, when in actuality Scarecrow saved her. From there we see Scarecrow meet with The Penguin and pay him in diamonds for something he needed, and we quickly find out what it is. The issue comes to a close as we see Scarecrow dispensing Fear Gas, on Christmas nonetheless, all over Gotham, which has resorted to people eating people and scratching off their own skin, as the issue comes to a close.
 
Thoughts: This was an odd issue. I enjoyed it but Batman came off more villainous up until the end. I get that he was in fight or flight mode, but the hook through the jaw seemed kinda outta character for Batsy. Plus, Scarecrow saved the girl and everything, which made him seem like not such a bad guy until he got pissed and ruined Christmas, Grinch style. Other than that, this was an okay issue, it went by really quick, and this story seems to be stretching out more than it needs to, but I'm not complaining.

Score: 7/10 

Girl: Be careful, now he's mad.