There are quite a few books that I haven't reviewed
recently. I've been getting bad about keeping up on
my reviews so that all changes today. Here, in the
newest form, my comic reviews.
Avengers Books:
With the exception of Initiative, there isn't much
to say. New Avengers 47 was probably the best it had
been up until 48 came out. 47 dealt with Luke Cage
going to find his dad and it had poignant moments.
He searched out someone else's help, and he got it.
It was a nice look into his psyche, especially since
we've rarely seen that. What happened in 48
completely ruined that and made no sense. He joins
NORMAN OSBORN because he thinks Norman will have
better luck finding his missing kid? I'm sorry but
that's as stupid as Norman taking over the world's
government and security. It makes less sense because
the newly forming team spends the entire issue
talking about how they're going to look for his kid
now and they only have a problem for the first
issue. So he joins the dark side. Dumb. And will be
my last issue in the New Avengers world. Sure I like
the new team, but it just doesn't seem worth 3.99 a
month to be pissed off at stupid stuff like this.
Mighty Avengers 20 sucked. Hank Pym bitched and
moaned about his dead wife and that was about that.
Avengers: Initiative 19 was great. Full-on
badassness given to 3-D Man as he whooped all kinds
of Skrull ass and took no prisoners, including
Crusader. The entirety of the issue actually made
more sense and helped to explain better what
happened at the end of Skrullmageddon, so more power
to this book. It's the Avengers book that will
survive the purging.
Dark Reign New Nation was pointless. Sure it told
cool stories about characters getting their own
books, but I'm only slightly excited for any of them
(except Secret Warriors which will be awesome). I'm
not really interested that much in Agents of Atlas,
slightly in War Machine, even more in Ronin/Mockinbird,
and a little bit more in Skrull Kill Krew (less so
after that terrible story). And Secret Invasion Dark
Reign Special did two things. It sucked and had
Norman Osborn with the wrong hair. He looked like
Willem Dafoe while Namor looked like a drunken fool.
Oh, and two other things it did: Sentry is the
shadowed dude that will attack them if they don't
stay in line with Norman's plans (guarantee it) and
Norman showed his true colors at the end. I couldn't
be any less excited for Dark Reign than I am right
now.
Ultimatum 2, which I guess kind of counts as an
Avengers book, sucked worse than Mighty Avengers 20.
If Magneto reveals at the end of the arc that he's
really the Hangman Killer or even Harvey Dent I will
be happier than I am reading this book. The artwork
wasn't even that great. Finch's Thor looked awful,
oh and really Jeph Loeb? Do you really want to try
and have a dead Captain America in both Universes?
You're an idiot. The fact that Blob ate Wasp made no
sense. The fact that Magneto, with all of his
powers, USED HIS HANDS to kill Xavier by snapping
his neck was probably the dumbest thing in comics.
Posturing bullshit. That's what this comic is.
Long-standing changes for the Universe better happen
or I will never read another Jeph Loeb comic again.
X-Books:
Deadpool 5 shows consistency, it shows a creator who
knows how to grow and how to tell a great story in a
different way. Why people don't think Daniel Way is
a good writer is officially beyond me. Sure he
writes comics that are quite and to the point, but
that's good. He doesn't piss away time with long
arcs. 2 issues. In and out. Deadpool vs Zombies vs
Doctors vs Mercenaries is a comic that I can get
behind and really enjoy. There aren't many character
growth moments, but it's still a good book. Fun and
stupid and just what this reviewer needed after some
heady bullshit.
The second entry from Way is Wolverine Origins 31
which brings one problem with it: this book changes
artists way too much. Great story, great ideas,
bringing Cypher back and tying all the way back to
issue 95 of Wolverine's first ongoing is great.
Tying everything together makes this continuity
junkie happy. It will keep me coming back for more.
But the changing artists and flavors is killing this
book. It went from Steve Dillon's clean lines to
Segovia and Deodato's grittier pencils back to
Paquette's cleaner cartoonier vibes. It needs a
definite artist, one who can stick here for longer
than 2-3 issues. That would make this book better.
Great character work from Way on this one, so we get
two comics, differing feels to both, and a really
good kick-ass story in both. I'm digging his
Wolverine much more than anything Mark Millar can
do.
X-Men Legacy 219 was pointless. The same problems
being felt in Origins is felt here. When Scot Eaton
is the artist, I'm happy, and he's coming back. But
Phil Briones' art, while great, feels very in line
with the 90s X-books drawn by Adam Kubert. Seeing
him as the ongoing artist of Origins would work. But
here, not so much. The story is pointless and it's
just a quick aside to show you that yes Xavier is a
badass and yes Juggernaut is still a hardass even
though Chuck is better. Didn't need to be here
really.
X-Factor 38 again suffers from the changing artists
as we change after the first 4 pages from Larry
Stroman (who has been very hit and miss) to Nelson
(looking more like Tom Grummett than usual). The
story is alright, it's another quick one. The best
part about it is the two endings. Madrox uses his
brain to get the team out of a jam and Val Cooper
gets shot. Rictor is the best part of the issue as
he gets to be a pain in the ass and flail a gun
around, but when Cooper gets hit, this could be bad
for the team.
Captain Britain and MI-13 8, while witty and funny
and clever, is just not doing it for me so much
anymore. Everything seems telegraphed. Captain
Britain is doing exactly what a superhero would do
and fighting the Mindless Ones while the rest of the
team is getting screwed over by Captain Midlands.
Which sucks as he was quickly becoming my favorite
character in this book. So I'm close to finished
here too. We'll see how the rest of the arc goes.
Cornell needs more work.
Uncanny X-Men 505 continues the trend of bringing
the awesome back to the X-team. This is the best the
book has been for a very long time. Fraction shows
his chops in the characters interactions as well as
the action set pieces. Bringing back Madison
Jeffries as part of the Fringe team and making him a
nutjob, again, makes this continuity whore a happy
camper. Having Pixie bring the secret of X-Force (or
at least X-23's sneaking off in the middle of the
night and coming back bloody) was great. It showed a
better version of why Emma Frost would join the Dark
Illuminati (I will not call them that stupid name
from the internet, I choose not to). It actually
explained things better than Bendis did in the
one-shot and it made sense for the character. And
FINALLY, FINALLY, after all the bullshit about how
Joss Whedon brought back Colossus and made him a
good character, someone actually does something with
him besides have him pine for Kitty or piss and moan
about her death. Cebulski did in X-Infernus, but
this is the first ongoing that actually uses him
since he's been brought back (including Astonishing,
which barely even featured him except to punch
things). His pain is on his shoulder and his actions
speak much louder than his
words. He's finally back for all the fanboys to
rejoice.
Ghost Rider Books:
You have no idea how excited I am to say books after
Ghost Rider. These correspond to the best of this
rundown. The two books that make me more excited
than words, and the fact that there are two of them
just edged out Unknown Soldier 3 for book of this
week. Sadly. I do ever so love that book.
Ghost Rider 30 is one of those rare treats in a
comic, it feels like a movie but you get to read it
in serialized form. I've mentioned previously how it
feels like a grindhouse movie, which it always does,
and here, it feels like one of those action-horror
movies like the Thing. It really does. A lot happens
this issue. Danny Ketch continues his war against
the Spirits of Vengeance and takes his battle to
Tokyo where he siphons the energy from yet another
Rider and leaves him alone and worthless. Johnny,
two other Riders, and Sara continue their search for
Danny, who, with the Pigeon/Crow (it looks more like
a pigeon in this book and more like a crow in the
mini) finally sees Zadkiel and the readers learn of
his plans.
And it all ties together with the beginning of this
Ghost Rider series so well. He wants to run heaven
and destroy everything and getting the Riders out of
the way will help with that. It's classic it's
amazing. Oh and then Danny gets a team of his own
with the Black Host joining him in his hunt. But
Kowalski getting the hellfire shotgun from Michael
Badilino? That made my heart skip a beat and my love
for Ghost Rider turn up another notch.
And over in Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch 3, Spurrier
continues his tale of Danny getting used and treated
like a sucker. Great art in both books from Huat and
Saltares. We get to see the Rat-Men in this issue as
a cast of demons that have been around for
centuries, and we get to see Danny let loose. He
gets more power and he gets closer to his current
role as headhunter for Zadkiel. What's next?
Others:
There are books that I read that I don't review.
Like Age of the Sentry, Madman, and Invincible.
Books that if I reviewed I would have nothing bad to
say. Unknown Soldier 3 is slowly becoming a book
that I have nothing bad to say about it and it makes
me happy.
It's a book with an African protagonist, set against
a realistic setting and a real backdrop and real
world problems and there is just not enough good
things to say about this book but why aren't more
people buying it? It really has a message and
deserves your money in ways that most other books
don't.
Moses is torn between his duty as this new soldier
and a human being trying to protect life and not
destroy it. He is torn between who he was and who he
now is. His wife opens up the search for him and the
entire world will change. Especially once he cuts
loose near the end and just begins to run rampant.
Dead of Night Devil-Slayer 4 ends a MAX mini that I
probably could have done without. Had it not been
for the artwork by Chris Samnee, one of my favorite
artists going right now, I wouldn't have bought it
or continued buying it. My local comic shop guy
didn't buy but 2 copies of each issue because it
didn't sell well, but because I love the crap out of
his art, I bought one. Each time it came out. The
last issue ended like most last issues trying to set
up an ongoing. Intrigue, mystery, and the search for
more story to be told and more reasons to buy
another issue of it if it ever came out. Not much to
it that you haven't seen before. But I will say
this, if the book comes back, without Samnee, I
won't buy it. |
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