Bought/Thought 03-12-08

[Aristotle]

Are we still doing these? If we are, I guess I'll start it off with the first few books I've had a chance to read.

Countdown #7--It's better than last week, but only because it doesn't touch on that whole Darkseid thing. I'm not forgiving and forgetting that there are apparently THREE death-and-rebirth-of-the-New-Gods scenarios in play right now (Morrison's, Dini's, and Starlin's), and none of them seem to jibe. And that's aside from the two Brother Eyes (Dini's and Dixon's) and the two Legions (Johns' and Shooter's, or maybe Waid's if you think about it). I'm really just about this close to calling Countdown and all of its tie-ins an Elseworlds tale and be done with it. I like my DCU better when it makes sense. Anyway, more to the point of our story, Countdown. Still haven't had much explanation on just where the hell our Challengers of Fantasticism are right now, although apparently Jason's done been kicked out, or left, or something. In fact, it almost feels like we're back to what we were doing for the first 20 issues; not moving the series forward in any appreciable way whatsoever. The best thing about the issue was the Bane origin, which I didn't even read, I just liked the art. Boys, you get six issues to make me a give a damn again. FIX IT. 5/10.

Serenity - Better Days #1--First things first, it is just fantastic to get another tale of the Serenity crew. I can't quite tell how much of this is Whedon and how much is the other fella, but it's a pretty good Whedon-style yarn, at any rate, in the sense that the dialogue is heavenly and true to the characters, which is more than you get from a lot of adaptations. As for the story, it just doesn't quite seem to achieve the perfect balance of action and characterization that Whedon's show had, but nothing really has since the series ended, not even the movie or the other comic mini. This is mostly about as good as I expected, and the cover actually doesn't look so ****ing stupid when you see it up close. 8/10.

Wolverine #63--I feel so dirty for liking a Wolverine solo book, but I can't say no to this arc. I decided to pick it up since it was Divided We Stand tie-in, and I'm a sucker for crossovers and X-Men stuff, and I haven't been disappointed. In fact, I've been pleasantly surprised. Wolverine's done really well here, if a bit over the top (but when isn't he?), and I love to see Kansas in a comic book, however peripherally. I'm just really hoping that the whole thing pays off and he really does kill that dirty *****. She was the first Marvel character I ever hated based on just who the character was, rather than the fact that she was a Marvel character, so naturally this story and me make a pretty good fit. 8/10.

X-Factor #29--The guys 'n' dolls of X-Factor take a turn into the wildly weird, but finally it's explained at the end of the issue. Really, Peter David's X-Factor is the kind of storytelling I spent 40-odd issues of Countdown hoping for out of Dini and his squad. It's tight, it's concise, it makes its point without too much fluff, but it retains a continuity and a general arc of motion. Put Peter David on a damn weekly, whichever one comes after Trinity. 9/10.

 

[Blader5489]

Thunderbolts #119 - This is the greatest comic book ever. I may be exaggerating a bit, but that's because Ellis and Deodato Jr. have blown me away for the tenth time in a row now. ****ING AWESOME ISSUE!

Avengers: The Initiative #10 - Best issue of the KIA arc so far. Pretty much encompassed everything that's been a part of the book so far, even an appearance from Mutant Zero! But I have to wonder, while everyone's busy being killed or maimed, where the hell is War Machine?

Wolverine #63 - Both this and the last issue really surprised me. Initially, the only reason I picked this up was because of the "Divided We Stand" tie-in, but it's actually been pretty enjoyable (so far) for being a Wolverine solo book. Good stuff.

 

[Kraven]

Avengers: The Initiative #10 - Best issue of the KIA arc so far. Pretty much encompassed everything that's been a part of the book so far, even an appearance from Mutant Zero! But I have to wonder, while everyone's busy being killed or maimed, where the hell is War Machine?

I could be wrong, but I think in the first issue (of this arc) he mentioned he was taking the Dragon King, or some dragon-themed supervillain, to the Negative Zone prison. He might just be taking his time with that.

 

[Egotastic]

Amazing Spider-Man #Whatever - Brand New Day has been completely "meh" so far, and this issue is probably the best example of it's mehness. Gale writes this new villian, Freak, right? His deal is that he's mutated himself and in the confusion or whatever, has misplaced the blame for all his life's problems on Spider-Man. So he vows his revenge. Yawn. I'd much prefer JMS (warts and all) than this.

The Last Defenders #1 - This one wins the award for worst McNiven cover ever AND ugliest trade dress. Thank God the stuff between the covers was pure gold. Casey's a hell of a writer and Muniz (working off of Giffen's layouts) is proving to be a hell of an artist. There's a lot going on in this book, from the Son of Satan to the Serpent Society to...well, just read the book. My only complaint is that this entire will sell well, the fans will love it, Casey will want to continue it and Marvel won't approve another mini or ongoing. Welcome to the new Omega Flight.

Annihilation Conquest #5 - Like BND, this story has suffered from some seriousness mehness. It's not nearly as vast and high stakes as the first Annihilation and not nearly as well written. Still, it's not awful. I did like DnA's heavy use of continuity. It was nice to have the strong ties to the rest of MU that the first Annihilation lacked. Too bad it's not enough to save this sinking ship. It seems that for everything DnA get right, Raney botches (Rocket) and for everything that DnA get wrong, Raney scores with (Groot). One more issue to go and here's to hoping that Guardians of the Galaxy is worth this waste of $18.

Nova #11 - Now here's a book that's never a waste of anything. For as disappointing as AC is, DnA continue to rock the house with Nova. And now with Pelletier on board (albeit for two issues) the book has never looked better. Seeing Cannonball in that tiny cameo just made me want to see Richie deputize him even more as a Centurian. It'll never happen, of course, but Sam and Richie would make for a great team in my opinion.

Avengers Initiative #10 - Even if the story sucked (it does not), I'd still buy this book every month for the ****ing fantastic Caselli artwork. He's a true gem, and my pick for breakout talent in the past year. His faces are so expressive and his pacing and layouts are such a perfect match to Slott and Gage's scripts. Such a good book. Is Tarene really dead, though?

Mighty Avengers #10 - This series started out strong enough, quickly got terrible and now it's better than ever. I feel bad for the people who dropped it because it really is a good Avengers book, as far as the last few issues are concerned. The scenes with Bob, Tony and Doom were good (and not just by Bendis standards, either) and the overall quick moving story is such a breath of fresh air when you compare it to the first six issues of this book where the Avengers just stood around thinking to themselves. Bagley's art is also a crap ton better than I remember it being on Ultimate Spider-Man.

More reviews to come...

 

[CaptainCanada]

Booster Gold #7

After spending several issues dabbling in one-shot visits to past DC continuity, we plunge headlong into that old trope, the dystopic alternate/altered future, where Maxwell Lord and his OMACs and mind-controlled Superman hvae the world under martial law and most heroes are dead. Booster and Beetle fly around and assess the situation, dodging the OMACs and generally displaying the entertaining chemistry that makes them such a fan-favourite (and, I'll say again, the crushingly obvious finale to this is Ted going back to die, so I pray Johns and Katz have something more innovative up their sleeves). Some of Jurgens' strongest work on the series yet. At issue's end, the duo are rescued by Green Arrow and Hawkman, the leaders of the resistance (as Booster puts it, you know things are bad when they're working together).

Fantastic Four #555

Only 111 issues away from #666. I'm still getting used to the lack of panel borders in this new format (but I like the cover, with the title and promo lines). Millar and Hitch hit their second issue, this being the arc largely focussed on Reed; I've enjoyed the first two issues so far, with the only real issue being that we've seen basically nothing of the Four as a team; Sue isn't even in this issue, and Ben barely is. Mostly we follow Reed as Alyssa and her hubby bring him up to speed on the Nu-Earth situation: our planet is screwed, so they've built a new home for humanity, and are taking the occasion to do some social engineering, such as outlawing weapons, and building giant war machines that look like Hulkbusters with a Captain America paint job (named "CAP") to keep the peace. At issue's end it goes rogue, so look for some good action. This is an interesting change of pace for Millar, and it continues to be pretty good. A subplot about Johnny getting into a dangerous liason with a supervillainess kind of straddles the humourous/stupid line, but we'll see where it goes.

Mighty Avengers #10

In some respects the plot in this arc isn't moving more quicker than the plot of the first arc, but in this case Bendis has covered it a lot better by making each issue it's own little adventure, each with a radically-different setting; there was the Venom bomb of #8, following by the Latverian invasion of #9, and now this little jaunt through the Kirby-dotted past of the Marvel Universe (set in New York before Giuliani took a "brilo pad" to Time Square) as Doom and Iron Man team up to keep the Sentry under control and get back to the present. Bendis writes some good dialogue between the two armoured men, and Doom gets a priceless putdown/aside to the fans. Bagley's art is really good, and well-suited to the sort of faux-70s colouring and inking used for most of the story. Bendis really can do a solid superhero story, though the usual tics are still here. Anyway, I like it.

Wonder Woman #18

This issue has two parts, for all intents and purposes: one part is about Diana talking with Nemesis, and, like all his scenes, makes me want to gouge out my own eyes; the other part sees Diana transported to the Khund homeworld with Etta Candy to help them fight of an alien menace, as well as a mysterious local Green Lantern, and it's great and reminds me of why I like Wonder Woman so much. Putting these two parts together results in a very schizophrenic issue. Simone on Scans_daily says that there's more to the Nemesis stuff than appears here, and I'll do my best to give her the benefit of the doubt, but I've been doing that a lot with DC's handling of Wonder Woman for the last two-ish years, and I've been consistently burned every time. Guest-artist Bernard Chang offers some solid and enjoyable pencils (with very nice colouring).

X-Factor #29

The "Messiah Complex" followup hits its second issue, as X-Factor continues to disintegrate under the pressure of being "the only game in town" since the X-Men are gone, Layla's still nowhere to be seen, and the Siryn pregancy drama (really more of a comedy) continues, with entertaining results. The villain of the piece is Arcade, it seems, and he can either be fun or annoying; since it's David, probably the former. Pablo Raimondi is gone, for good, it seems, with a fill-in artist handling the art, and doing a damn good job. However, we now know that Larry Stroman comes on in July, and I don't know if I'm game for that; his art just doesn't work for me. Given the huge number of things to buy out there, I may have to bow out when this arc is over, which is too bad, because the writing is enjoyable.

 

[webhead921]

Mighty Avengers 10: A cool issue. I just started reading Mighty Avengers after the sentry arc, and it's been fun so far. I thought Thing's appearance was pretty funny. The ending is keeping me looking forward to the next issue, because I have no idea what the hell is going on

Fantastic Four 555: I've never read fantastic four prior to 554, but I like it so far. I was a big fan of the Ultimates, so I was looking forward to reading fantastic four for the first time under their run. The artwork's quality is as good as Hitch's work on the ultimates. I'm looking forward to see how this new world is going to work out.

 

[SouLeSS]

Gotham Underground #5

Damn is this book good. It's got wildcat saying he's close to be legally an ardvark cause of all the bugs he's eaten on the bikes with Robin. It's got Alfred in there kicking some ass breaking Matches/Bruce out of jail. It's got Bane flipping out on White Shark because he was making fun of him. Dick gets shot cause Vigalante's a dick. Penguin having an army of people that are the 'next' version of all the other villians. It's still the best Batman story in years. If you arn't picking this up, but you're picking up the other Bat titles, you need to grab this.

 

[Brainiac 8]

Annihilation: Conquest isn't as good as the first one, but it's far from a waste, heck it finally gave us the genuine awesome Ultron, instead of lame-o pms Ultron.

Plus Starlord + Rocket Raccoon = Ultimate win

 

[Doc Destruction]

Gotham Underground #5

Damn is this book good. It's got wildcat saying he's close to be legally an ardvark cause of all the bugs he's eaten on the bikes with Robin. It's got Alfred in there kicking some ass breaking Matches/Bruce out of jail. It's got Bane flipping out on White Shark because he was making fun of him. Dick gets shot cause Vigalante's a dick. Penguin having an army of people that are the 'next' version of all the other villians. It's still the best Batman story in years. If you arn't picking this up, but you're picking up the other Bat titles, you need to grab this.

Isn't that last week's book? If not, I'm gonna kill my LCS.

 

[Egotastic]

Annihilation: Conquest isn't as good as the first one, but it's far from a waste, heck it finally gave us the genuine awesome Ultron, instead of lame-o pms Ultron.

Yeah, and it only took five issues to get there. Lame.

Plus Starlord + Rocket Raccoon = Ultimate win

Raney's complete disaster that is Rocket Raccoon keeps whatever DnA are doing with him from being as cool as it should be. Seriously, Raney draws him like some sort of monkey thing with creepy insect legs.

 

[Darthphere]

Egotastic, who are you? Really.

 

[kguillou]

Has anyone read New Avengers 39 yet?

 

[ssj wolverine]

Wolverine #63

One of the best comics out period. Great writing. The arc should have been longer.

Mighty Avengers #10

Alot of fun to read. Boy Sentry gave Ben an embarrassing asswhipping didn't he?

 

[Docker2.0]

Amazing Spider-Man #Whatever - Brand New Day has been completely "meh" so far, and this issue is probably the best example of it's mehness. Gale writes this new villian, Freak, right? His deal is that he's mutated himself and in the confusion or whatever, has misplaced the blame for all his life's problems on Spider-Man. So he vows his revenge. Yawn. I'd much prefer JMS (warts and all) than this.

The Last Defenders #1 - This one wins the award for worst McNiven cover ever AND ugliest trade dress. Thank God the stuff between the covers was pure gold. Casey's a hell of a writer and Muniz (working off of Giffen's layouts) is proving to be a hell of an artist. There's a lot going on in this book, from the Son of Satan to the Serpent Society to...well, just read the book. My only complaint is that this entire will sell well, the fans will love it, Casey will want to continue it and Marvel won't approve another mini or ongoing. Welcome to the new Omega Flight.

Annihilation Conquest #5 - Like BND, this story has suffered from some seriousness mehness. It's not nearly as vast and high stakes as the first Annihilation and not nearly as well written. Still, it's not awful. I did like DnA's heavy use of continuity. It was nice to have the strong ties to the rest of MU that the first Annihilation lacked. Too bad it's not enough to save this sinking ship. It seems that for everything DnA get right, Raney botches (Rocket) and for everything that DnA get wrong, Raney scores with (Groot). One more issue to go and here's to hoping that Guardians of the Galaxy is worth this waste of $18.

Nova #11 - Now here's a book that's never a waste of anything. For as disappointing as AC is, DnA continue to rock the house with Nova. And now with Pelletier on board (albeit for two issues) the book has never looked better. Seeing Cannonball in that tiny cameo just made me want to see Richie deputize him even more as a Centurian. It'll never happen, of course, but Sam and Richie would make for a great team in my opinion.

Avengers Initiative #10 - Even if the story sucked (it does not), I'd still buy this book every month for the ****ing fantastic Caselli artwork. He's a true gem, and my pick for breakout talent in the past year. His faces are so expressive and his pacing and layouts are such a perfect match to Slott and Gage's scripts. Such a good book. Is Tarene really dead, though?

Mighty Avengers #10 - This series started out strong enough, quickly got terrible and now it's better than ever. I feel bad for the people who dropped it because it really is a good Avengers book, as far as the last few issues are concerned. The scenes with Bob, Tony and Doom were good (and not just by Bendis standards, either) and the overall quick moving story is such a breath of fresh air when you compare it to the first six issues of this book where the Avengers just stood around thinking to themselves. Bagley's art is also a crap ton better than I remember it being on Ultimate Spider-Man.

More reviews to come...

Spiderman is missing JMS and Slott big time. This seemed like a filler issue, as did MA. Anny was ok and it finally explained how Ultron got with the Phalanx but it's nowhere near as good as the original series. Sad to say, but I can't wait to just get this series over with so Guardians of the Galaxy can get started.

 

[kguillou]

Wasnt New Avengers supposed ta come out this week, the guy at my comic store said that it hadnt even come out this week???

 

[Blader5489]

New Avengers #39 was delayed to the end of the month because the artist (David Mack) blatantly plagiarized the cover, among other things.

 

[GNR]

Egotastic, who are you? Really.

You're on to something.I noticed it the moment I saw Ego's reviews.Then again,I don't remember him reading so much marvel.

 

[Anubis]

Hey everybody! Calculon's back!

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I read Avengers: The Initiative at lunch. Decent issue, but I'm kind of getting annoyed at the level of shock-and-awe I'm seeing. According to the recap page and this issue, Yellowjacket, Tarene, one of the Scarlet Spiders, and someone else I can't remember are dead, Constrictor and Crusader are now maimed, and the actual New Warriors (as opposed to the ex-X-people who'v co-opted the name) are about to get into one of those fights over a misunderstanding that comic fans purport to hate so much in crossovers. Yeah, we know Yellowjacket, at least, is coming back and Von Blitzschlag just pulled a random new power out of his butt to save himself in this issue, and Constrictor and Crusader could both get prosthetics, but it all just seems like too much. This is the kind of thing I'd expect to see in a Millar issue or one of Bendis' few action issues. Is it endemic to writing a big comic at the center of the Marvel universe or something? Slott used to be better than this.

 

[moraldeficiency]

I read Avengers: The Initiative at lunch. Decent issue, but I'm kind of getting annoyed at the level of shock-and-awe I'm seeing. According to the recap page and this issue, Yellowjacket, Tarene, one of the Scarlet Spiders, and someone else I can't remember are dead, Constrictor and Crusader are now maimed, and the actual New Warriors (as opposed to the ex-X-people who'v co-opted the name) are about to get into one of those fights over a misunderstanding that comic fans purport to hate so much in crossovers. Yeah, we know Yellowjacket, at least, is coming back and Von Blitzschlag just pulled a random new power out of his butt to save himself in this issue, and Constrictor and Crusader could both get prosthetics, but it all just seems like too much. This is the kind of thing I'd expect to see in a Millar issue or one of Bendis' few action issues. Is it endemic to writing a big comic at the center of the Marvel universe or something? Slott used to be better than this.

I read it during lunch today too, and while I agree with some of that, I don't think it's as bad as it seems. Slott's moving to a new set of characters and to give some real drama we needed to either see the old group fail or succeed spectacularly so the new group either has to live up the the legacy started or fix the mistakes of the past. Obviously Slott's went with the horrible disaster, but I only see it setting up later arcs and adding a dramatic element. The questionable choices of "heroes" like pym and guantlet and the "anti-heroes" the baron and gygrich are currently biting them in the ass. What other outcome did you expect? And the "students" pay for the mistakes of their "masters", that's a pretty common element in any storyline. I guess what I'm saying is this isn't shock for shock's sake but an element that (I hope) will be a major driving force in later issues and arcs. These death's have a point and a significance that government control might be just as bad if not worse than unregistereds (is that a word? well it is now.) just up and running loose, which makes it different than millar or bendis that kill or beat women just to get a rise out of you. Plus I like that he's taken the shock element from the first issue and, not only brought the character back many times over in different forms, but made him the shock element to haunt the group both emotionally and now physically. Now maybe I'm completely wrong and this is just shock for shock's sake, but I saw a touch of brilliance in what he's saying and doing with this storyline, we'll see if that plays out or if it's just a coincedence.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I'd agree if it were main characters like Cloud 9 and Hardball being killed off. But the people most brutalized so far have been Yellowjacket (who'll be back), and then ancillary characters who've barely appeared like Tarene and Constrictor and one of the Scarlet Spiders. Hell, look at the way the whole scene with Tarene was set up--she's popped up here and there in several issues, but the only time we ever actually get anything substantial with her, she's offed moments later. That screams of a sacrificial lamb scenario, like Slott looked at his script and thought, "This needs some more blood. I know, I'll build a whole scene around a tertiary character to tug at readers' heartstrings, and then I'll kill her violently with something totally unconnected." It just seems cheap to me.

The arc as a whole has been good, and I see what he's doing with the casualties to make KIA a credible threat, but it's just gotten a bit tiresome to me.

 

[Egotastic]

Well, I don't think we've gotten any confirmation on Tarene's "death," so I'll reserve judgement until then.

 

[Anubis]

Lets be real here, the only one you actually care about him offing is Tarene, am I right?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

No, I was pretty annoyed that Constrictor's now armless, too. It's really the circumstances of the deaths and maimings that annoy me. I've never liked seeing characters killed off for killing's sake.

 

[moraldeficiency]

I totally agree about tarene, but when the dust settles we'll see what's actually going on. See I could make this same arguement about MVP in issue #1 but as we see that was actually done to bring the character more into play with bigger plans, so all I'm saying is we should wait and see before passing that judgement. Maybe he is just notching up the body count, but I think there's other matters going on. The aftermath will tell, but so far I've been pretty happy with these characters and their interactions as well as the sequence of events used to bring them into the spotlight. I just don't see slott crapping on other creations strictly for shock value, though it wouldn't be the first time I overestimated a writer's ability, hopeless optimistic that I am.