Bought/Thought 05/12/07

[CaptainCanada]

House of M: Avengers #2

The first issue was okay, and I was leaning towards not continuing, but, on a lark, I bought it. And this one is better; more characters, more action, and the plot really gets underway. While the previous issue was narrated by Luke Cage, this one is narrated by police officer Misty Knight as she attempts to infiltrate Cage’s "Avengers" (they’re the mafia, but they’ve been so-dubbed by the Sapiens they help). Meanwhile, we get the debut of the Punisher (who manages to save his family from a gang of mutant killers in this reality, and is the token Sapien on an anti-Cage FBI task force led by John Proudstar/Thunderbird). Things move pretty quick here, as Misty starts to admire Cage’s defiance of the mutant rulers, even as she’s pressed to find enough information to bust him. Things come to a head at the issue’s end, when Misty is ordered by Thunderbird to kill Cage with a gun loaded with adamantium bullets; she fires...(this seems familiar)
Oh, and Tigra continues to have a rough ride even in alternate realities. She was rescued by Cage last issue, and has become his sex kitten, but then takes an adamantium bullet meant for Cage right through the chest! Ouch.

Justice League of America #15

The arc comes to an end pretty banally, honestly. Firestorm shows up to free the team, triggering a massive brawl, and the capture of most of the Injustice League, who are promptly handed over to Amanda Waller and Task Force X for transport to Salvation Run. Hal stops by to help too. There’s some decent witty banter in combat, and McDuffie actually depicts Black Canary as the leader of the team, rather than just telling us how great she is at it like Meltzer did. I was looking forward to McDuffie’s run, but so far it hasn’t been very interesting; ah, well.

Justice Society of America #11

The "Thy Kingdom Come" story continues, with some more character interaction, but so far there’s still not much in the way of a plot. The Justice League arrived last issue to meet with this new supposed Superman, and Wonder Woman’s lasso and Hal and John’s rings both say he’s the real deal, so the question turns to how to send him home, before KC-Supes tells them that his world has been destroyed, so there’s nothing for him to go home to. This could just be his perception from the bomb going off, or a metaphor for the destruction of superhumanity, or he’s possibly just lying because he’d rather stay here than go back. I have to say that this story just feels too crowded, and honestly better suited to a JLA book, since most of the characters I’d most like to see him interact with are on that team. Re: overcrowding, that’s only looking to get worse, as another recruiting drive is underway, starting with the new Judomaster. She was originally introduced in Gail Simone’s Birds of Prey, but she’s nothing like how Simone depicted her (for starters, here we’re told she barely speaks English, when communication wasn’t a problem). It may just be high expectations, but I think this story could be a lot better.

Ms. Marvel #22

The Monster Island arc continues, amidst the news that Aaron Lopresti will soon be leaving for DC, which is a blow to the book, because his art has been pretty much perfect since #13 (minus one fill-in for #20). Hopefully whomever is assigned to the title next will be capable. I’ll be interested to see what Lopresti does at DC. Anyway, this story involves Ms. Marvel working with Cru, whose backstory is revealed in this issue, and she (it’s a she) is a woman from another world who volunteered for experiments to create anti-Brood warriors, and thus became what she is now. Cru hijacks Ms. Marvel’s body to get revenge, sticking Carol inside her head for the time being, where she interacts with various old versions of herself, including Binary (a parallel is drawn between the experiments that made Cru and the Brood experiments that made Carol Binary). She also gets a lecture from Cru about spending so much time worrying about her issues and whether people like her instead of just taking action and dominating her planet. Another good installment, which ends by revealing that the Brood Queen Carol killed years earlier is apparently still alive, and delighted to have both Cru and Carol in her clutches. Reed is great with Carol, and her whole cast (the Lightning Storm guys make a brief appearance here, on their way to the Island to help; Sleepwalker has taken to calling Aaron "Machine Manwoman").

Uncanny X-Men #493 - Pick of the Week

The "Messiah CompleX" crossover hits its sixth issue, and it just keeps getting better. This is the best X-Men story I’ve read in a good while, and I’m counting Whedon’s stuff, which, even if it wasn’t so terminally delayed, can’t match the great scope of this story. In just six issues so far, we’ve got every X-team, Mister Sinister, Mystique, and the Marauders, the Acolytes, the Purifiers, Lady Deathstrike, and the Reavers, plus the wildcard of Cable. The only notable X-players absent so far are Magneto and Apocalypse; I expect the former to show up in good time, although not the latter. Anyway, as last issue revealed, Cable has the baby (and he’s got a nifty baby-carrier with an X on it and everything!), and is slowly making is way through the woods, apparently in fear of pursuit (Sinister thinks that he’s "damaged" somehow, although that isn’t apparent from the art). Meanwhile, the X-Mansion gets trashed again by the Sentinels, hijacked by nano-Sentinels that turned their pilots into robot-type things that look remarkably like Danger (I thought it was her at first); there’s something of a free-for-all battle before the X-Men manage to take them down, although one of the robot-pilots flies away. Brubaker’s gotten a lot better at doing superpower fights, as this issue amply shows. There’s a minor continuity flub here involving the New X-Men and Iceman, but whatever. Cyclops thinks that Cable might have done this, which seems rather unlikely, but given how desperate the situation is and how weird Cable’s actions seem, he might jump to that conclusion; regardless, finding Cable is first priority, and so Cyclops deploys...X-Force: Wolverine, Warpath, X-23, Wolfsbane, Hepzibah, and Caliban. And they’re off! (watch out, Hepzibah and Caliban, because you aren’t in any of the X-Force preview art, although Yost mentions that wasn’t the entire team)
Next issue promises Lady Deathstrike vs. Cable, X-Force on the hunt, and Layla and Jamie getting captured in the future. I can’t wait. I have to say, this weekly schedule is great for keeping the pace up.

 

[Red]

In other news Ultimates#3 sucked.

 

[PhotoJones]

Was there ever any doubt?

 

[Blader5489]

I thought it was good.

Loeb is usually a **** writer, but I thought he did a good job of playing off what happened in the first two volumes.

 

[PhotoJones]

I thought it was good.

Loeb is usually a **** writer, but I thought he did a good job of playing off what happened in the first two volumes.

He's usually ****ty? I thought the general consensus was that he's usually awesome, and that only recently has he been putting out some bombs. The Long Halloween, Dark Victory, When In Rome, Spider-Man: Blue, Hulk: Gray and Daredevil: Yellow were all superb.

 

[GoldenAgeHero]

yeah those are classics but notice his good work is always with sale.

 

[PhotoJones]

They make a good team, so what?

 

[CaptainCanada]

yeah those are classics but notice his good work is always with sale.

Not always, just most of the time; Hush was good, and Sale wasn't on that.

 

[Anubis]

Hush was pretty Meh if you ask me, and what's with the date on this thread? They do it all mixed up like in Canada or something?

 

[PhotoJones]

Yeah, Canadians are silly that way.

 

[GNR]

He's usually ****ty? I thought the general consensus was that he's usually awesome, and that only recently has he been putting out some bombs. The Long Halloween, Dark Victory, When In Rome, Spider-Man: Blue, Hulk: Gray and Daredevil: Yellow were all superb.

True that,don't forget For All Seasons.His writing on Heroes has been great though,the episodes he pens are always some of the best.Despite a pretty bland season,he managed to make the finale watchable and entertaining.

Hush was meh indeed Anubis.

 

[PhotoJones]

True that,don't forget For All Seasons.His writing on Heroes has been great though,the episodes he pens are always some of the best.Despite a pretty bland season,he managed to make the finale watchable and entertaining.

Hush was meh indeed Anubis.

I never read Hush and I've never watched Heroes, so I can't comment on those. For All Seasons was great, though.

 

[CaptainCanada]

They do it all mixed up like in Canada or something?

In Canada, we order things logically: Day/Month/Year.

 

[Kevin]

In Canada, we order things logically: Day/Month/Year.

That's stupid. j/k

 

[PhotoJones]

In Canada, we order things logically: Day/Month/Year.

Pfft. Logic. Whatever.

 

[Themanofbat]

Pfft. Logic. Whatever.

I guess that would explain the last 3 elections...

 

[PhotoJones]

I guess that would explain the last 3 elections...

Last three?

 

[Themanofbat]

Last three?

hahaha... I meant the last two...

I had to shovel out 24" of snow outta my driveway today... leave me alone!!!

 

[Dread]

Average week for me, and as usual, my LCS didn't have FEARLESS; they ordered NONE of issue #1 so I knew them having #2 was a long-shot. I'll pick it up on the weekend, HOWEVER, a big surprise was INVINCIBLE staring me in the face so quickly, so that more than made up for it.

I also flipped through ULTIMATES 3 #1, but didn't buy it, and have not regretted that decision. More on that later.

As always, full spoilers. Actually, this was a pretty great week overall. Not a bad way to kick off the last month of 2007, especially as I hate both Christmas and New Year's.

Dread's BOUGHT/THOUGHT for 12/5/07:

DYNAMO 5 #9: Enjoying the new price and once again enjoyed another installment of Faerber/Asrar/Rily's newest superhero franchise. It seems obvious that this is seen as a little "sister book" to Faerber's other Image superhero comic, NOBLE CAUSES, as the Nobles are mentioned by the villains of the issue. But in a way, many of Image's characters have sprouted from NC; even Invincible had his first technical appearance there. NOBLE CAUSES has been recommended to me, I just would be more willing to bite if some of those 7-8 trades started getting into HC's. Anyway, DYNAMO 5 operates free of that and I haven't felt lost at all; so long as you've been reading since issue #1, you'll be golden. With Visionary stuck having to explain his status as a superhero with his mother and Myriad still covering for the unconscious Gage at his high school (and likely dazzling everyone with his womanizing ways, especially as by some of his pal's reactions that Gage wasn't known for being attracted to black girls), Maddie is again forced to organize Slingshot and Scrap to investigate another rogue; this time it is Brains and Brawn, a psychic/tanker duo. It seems that Gage has awakened, only for it to be revealed that he is some sort of "psyche ghost" who can't interact with anyone else...except for Brains, who he happens to stumble into when he psychically seems to wind up back at school, where Myriad is impersonating him. This sets up the climax of the issue, where the pair engage in a psychic duel and Scatterbrain seems to overwhelm her rather quickly. Scatterbrain & Scrap have less luck against Brawn, who TKO's Scrap with a single blow! The duo manage to escape, and the last page reveals them forming a quartet with Voltage and Bonechill, which is pretty cool because "evil teams" always manage to test the mettle of any super-team. The discussion with Visionary and his mom, covering such awkward subjects as his "one night stand" deadbeat father and how Maddie went for the "all or nothing" radiation bath to empower the kids is also pretty good, with Mrs. Chang demanding a meeting with Maddie, no doubt, to see if her son should still be "playing" with the other step-kids. Naturally, Scrap & Slingshot are glad to see that Gage has recovered, but he has a surprise for Myriad. Naturally, this is more of the usual entertainment from this series. The heroic little step-family is an interesting set-up, especially as they all have families and lives of their own which may not match up. And while some of the villains may seem "generic", Asrar manages to give them solid designs so that it doesn't much matter. I especially like Bonechill. I just wonder when the ex-Capt. Dynamo side-kick, Quake, will be seen again. With the kids' enemies starting to unite (and before issue #12 at that), they may need all the help they can get. Much like INVINCIBLE, this series serves as a fun reminder to many older school fans of why they liked superhero comics in the first place, now that both Big Two companies seem to thrive on shock value and endless events. It isn't as good as INVINCIBLE, but...even INVINCIBLE wasn't as good by issue #9 as it would be later, so I see a lot of potential in DYNAMO 5. The trade of the first 7 issues is out and dirt cheap ($9.99), so go grab it if you haven't!

INVINCIBLE #47: Image has been promoting issue #50 for a while now, and claiming it will ship on 1/08, but given that Invincible had run into delay, that seemed unlikely for me. Finding this issue suddenly on the shelves at least shows Image may be trying to give it the ol' school try, and Kirkman in the letters pages claims to try to get out the next few issues every 3 weeks, which means we should have another issue at the end of the month and hopefully that goal of #50 before Feb. 2008 is possible. Considering "One More Delay" 's woes, it would be cool to see Image succeed here. Naturally, this is my favorite book right now, so any week with this shipping is a good week. The mafia type baddies, who last showed up maybe 1-2 years ago, finally re-appear as it seems Multi-Paul was an agent of the Asian branch of "the order", and since he was arrested on Titan's inheritated turf (taken from Machine Head back in HC #2), it is up to him to get Multi-Paul freed, a task that Titan vows to perform. Nolan runs into Allen in their space-prison as the Viltrumites are starting up on executing him. And Robot is trying to get Monster-Girl who be able to control a robot like he does, so she doesn't have to shape-shift and risk growing younger than she is. But the book has quite a lot of humor amongst the subplots, such as William awkwardly KUNG FU FIGHTING in Mark's spandex, and the first team-up of Mark &, uh, "Purple Omni-Boy" against Magmaniac & Tether Tyrant, who decide that robbing bank trucks beats hunting for legal work. The pair are quickly dispatched with, which is nice to see as once upon a time, they were an average challenge for Invincible (back before he could bench 400 tons). More of Oliver's unique perspective is revealed and the little scamp's pretty good in a fight. The last page naturally reveals what should be the trigger for the earth-shattering #50, which is Cecil employing D.A. Sinclair to create more Reanimen, only for the USA. I'm sure that Cecil's intentions aren't evil; he likely wants to bolster the U.S. defense force, since superheroes are finite and can be prone to things like death or being off-world. It could also mean that Cecil's realizes he is relying on Invincible as much as he did Omni-Man and may want to hedge bets against another betrayal. Naturally, D.A. Sinclair was a maniac who mutilated both the living and the dead to make his Reanimen, and employing him won't be seen as kosher by Mark, and possibly other heroes, too. Imagine of SHIELD employed Arnim Zola. Granted, they employed a messload of criminals for CW, but you get my drift. This is just more "classic Invincible"; some comedic moments, good art & colors, good characters that by now you care for, and some great action sequences. A building subplot are icing on the cake (and after all, who eats a cake without icing?). To me, it IS the best superhero comic in the universe, and I can't wait to see what issue #50 brings. I even don't mind the altered costume that is coming soon for Invincible (for those who haven't seen it, it basically gets rid of the yellow in his design). Calling Invincible the "Spider-Man" of the 21st century may be a bit of a stretch this soon in, but it certainly has captured some of that "magic in a bottle" of that era, all while homaging that era and what those comics used to do so well. And the T-shirts in the back look cool, even to someone like me who wearly wears something that isn't black (unless it is for work). 3 issues within 7 weeks? We'll see. But no matter how long or short the wait, Invincible is always worth it.

ANNIHILATION CONQUEST #2: To those worried after the first few pages, no, Blastaar isn't dead; Rocket Raccoon explains it rather well by the final chapter of the issue. This second issue seemed a lot better than the first, and that likely had a lot to do with Starlord and his crew appearing for much of it, because they have the best banter out of any of the three "squads". You have Moondragon, Warlock, and Phyla with High Evolutionary in one corner; Ronan, Super-Skrull, Wraith, Prax, and Ra-Venn's crew landing smack-dab in the middle of a battle between the Phalanx and Ravenous' Annihilus forces, and the Starlord crew, planning a raid on Hala. It seems Groot got enough water to grow back to full size since STARLORD #4. While Abnett & Lanning aren't quite as great with bickering team-dialogue as Giffen is, they manage to do a good enough job with Peter Quill & company. There is more Kree exposition with High Evolutionary & company, which is interupted by Ultron, who looks utterly bad-ass. The issue also shows Abnett & Lanning try to mimick Giffen's flair for "holy ****" moments from the first ANNIHILATION, and I am glad to see they're trying, because an ANNIHILATION without that just ain't an ANNIHILATION. I know some people may not be happy that Kang isn't here, but please, Kang wasn't turned into a Nekked Pin-Up Broad by Frank Cho in MIGHTY AVENGERS. Ultron NEEDED this, to get his he-man andriod nuts back. Kang's on the shelf, but at least he wasn't cheesecake. Let's say someone with wings gets torn into. Guess who. And Ultron in a cape never looked better, actually. Raney's art is terrific and the colors really make it look spacey like the last arc. AC may not live up to the success of the prior event, if only because expectations are higher, but it still looks to be a great ride from this issue. Hopefully, though, Adam Warlock does less whining and more blasting. Wraith is still being lost in the shuffle, but right now I'm not complaining too much, as in his own comic he was fairly introverted anyway, although his power to immobilize the Phalanx in "fear" is utilized here. The event is missing some of the stars of the last go, like Drax, Gamora, and Nova, but despite that I still am enjoying it quite a lot. It still has massive space battles, a showdown between clear villains and heroes, even if that means some unlikely alliances. Super-Skrull works a lot better up here than he does as a B-List FF enemy. And once again, it is great to see a return of the ultimate destroyer Ultron, and not Nekkid Psycho-**** Ultron (I still contend that Ultron would never, EVER, claim to love humanity, even as he was about to try to destroy it, under ANY circumstances). I'm actually optimistic about this series, and figure it will at least blow a lot of Marvel competition out of the water, and really, that's all that matters. And making space stories rock again. Hey, it has turned me around on the genre. And I'm stubborn. And STARLORD still needs a series unto himself and his crew; shame that Giffen is all DC Exclusive now.

Also bought, but will get to later: Avengers: The Initiative Annual #1, The Order #5, Ultimate X-Men #88, & The Twelve #0. The last one was essentially a paid promo for it, but it looks readable.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

He's usually ****ty? I thought the general consensus was that he's usually awesome, and that only recently has he been putting out some bombs. The Long Halloween, Dark Victory, When In Rome, Spider-Man: Blue, Hulk: Gray and Daredevil: Yellow were all superb.

I consider him to be in more of a Claremontian situation: he used to be really good, but most of his recent work is ****.

 

[sandwraith]

AC#2 is pretty good stuff actually. I like the idea that Adam Warlock might not be Savior after all, just a guide and the Savior might be The High Evolutionary who strikes me as a pretty curious "reluctant hero" type character. It's not that saving the Universe is just too much trouble for him but he just doesn't want to get his boots soiled...I sorta like that.

Aftersmash was pretty solid too. Finally the Tom Foster character is being led in the right direction. While Pak may have his detractors thanks to the whole Sentry/Hulk debate (FYI: Hulk/Banner whooped the "Sentry"). Some bad points though: Misty Knight. WTF??? I haven't followed Heroes For Hire but I thought she held a pretty good niche there. Now its 'Misty and the Death's Heads'??? No sign of Banner...Which sorta upsets me. I haven't seen Bruce Banner in a good long while since teaching Schizo-man what true grit meant.

Great...GREAT comic relief by Chris Giarrusso. Seriously, just three pages of the guy's work justifies the price of this book!

 

[Manic]

Now then. I'll try to be brief. Well, brief-ish.

Uncanny X-Men #493 / Messiah Complex #6
The plot thickens! Fantastic action! This is a controversial opinion, but I like X-23. No witty one-liners. Not talking smack just before a fight. She just dives into the fray. She also displays an amazing amount of loyalty, in that she'll sacrifice her own safety to protect her teammates.
Meanwhile, while I like Tan's art most of the time, he lacks consistency. Big time. Scott's sunglasses actually change shape with every panel. A few questions remain: Who attacked the mansion, as Sinister made it clear he had no immediate intentions of attacking the X-Men last chapter? What's Cable's agenda? I think he's working for someone, myself. Also, I'm 90% sure he had nothing to do with that attack. There has never been a reason to question Cable's loyalty. He always operates under the best of intentions. Scott just likes to find reasons to hate his son, so he doesn't feel so bad for being such a s***ty father.

X-Men First Class #6
The pages in my book were actually arranged in the wrong order. The second scene of the story started on the first page. The prologue started 6 pages in, followed by the opening scene. The humorous mini-comic was smack-dab in the middle. Was it just my copy, or did anyone else experience this printing slip-up?
Otherwise, it's the first part of what looks like a 2-part story. I'll give a review when issue #7 comes out.

Ultimates 3 #1
It sucked. The story appeared to have nothing to do with anything. I wasn't even aware Black Panther had made his Ultimate debut, but if this was it, then it's one of the worst debuts he could possibly get. All the characters seem to hate one another more than usual. A lot more. On top of all that, Joe Mad drew the 616 versions of half the characters. Wasp was white, Hawkeye was wearing a mask, and Quicksilver & Scarlet Witch have gone back to their old suits. Did I freaking miss something? Is this the Ultimates, or some other derivative universe where the characters are (somehow) even bigger ass holes?

Justice Society of America #11
Talk about shifting gears. It's the shiny, happy people! After putting down the Ultimates, even Batman and Obsidian look cheery. Anyway, Kingdom Come's Superman gets his identity confirmed, and tries his best to fit in. One interesting trend going on in this book is that its only purpose appears to be recruiting more and more superheroes. We're introduced to superheroes, their families, ect. Then we get a new hero. Citizen Steel, Wildcat Jr, yet another Mr. America, and now a new Kryptonian. Then I noticed something. We're only 11 issues into this new JSA book. Perhaps this is still all leading somewhere.

Justice League of America #15
On one hand, I've got to hand it McDuffie. He shows Dinah is a capable leader. We know Lex Luthor is out for more than just creating yet another Legion/Injustice team. And dear god, he managed to squeeze more black people into a single DC book than I have ever seen in my life. Black Lightning, Vixen, John Stewart, Firestorm, and Amanda Waller. That part of me that likes to see black comic book characters is a little giddy.
However, the part of me that loves a good story is a tad disappointed. We just got random Deus ex Machina-type calvary action. "By the way, we called for back-up from a handful of other superheroes-- some of which barely had any lines in this issue." Wow. Way to write yourself into a corner, McDuffie.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8 #9
"No Future For You" concludes with a fun little Avengers reference that goes over Faith's head. I like the idea of Faith & Giles teaming up without Buffy involved. I love both characters, and they're at their best when they aren't listening to Buffy "who appointed this girl leader, again?" Summers.
Having read Doctor Strange: The Oath, however, I have to say BKV has an odd fixation with magic spells that make people's heads explode.


Now if you'll excuse me, I have the vol. 9 trade of Y: The Last Man to read. Tra.

 

[yenaled]

We do Day/Month/Year in Britain also, but I'm so used to seeing Month/Day/Year this topic really threw me.

 

[Doc Destruction]

Now then. I'll try to be brief. Well, brief-ish.

Uncanny X-Men #493 / Messiah Complex #6
The plot thickens! Fantastic action! This is a controversial opinion, but I like X-23. No witty one-liners. Not talking smack just before a fight. She just dives into the fray. She also displays an amazing amount of loyalty, in that she'll sacrifice her own safety to protect her teammates.

You are not the only X-23 fan here. BOTH of her minis were absolutely amazing, and wonderfully drawn. I dig her big time.

 

[ImrtlLimpWrist]

Wow, ditto on Ultimates 3. Sure hope someone from Marvel stops by this site. Totally sucked.

Also ditto: despite not knowing half the X characters, I am really enjoying Messiah Complex. My only critique is Warpath ought to be called Wolverine Jr. How much more alike can they be -- why don't they just Superglue those knives to his hands?

JLA - okay except for Firestorm doing his Spider-man impression banter-wise.