Bought/Thought 05/12/07

[TheCorpulent1]

Yeah, Warpath was definitely channeling Wolverine in a lot of those panels. But he can fly and he has super-strength, so he's better than Wolverine anyway.

 

[iloveclones]

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

With the specter of being associated with Rush Limbaugh in any way hanging over my head, I must say:

Ditto!!!

 

[TheCorpulent1]

X-23 hasn't been as unbearably awful in Messiah Complex as I thought she'd be, I'll give her that. She's still 100% uninteresting to me, though.

 

[iloveclones]

I hate both Christmas and New Year's.

Is it just me, or is Dread taking a few liberties on what he reviews?

Hate to see how Cupid and the Easter Bunny are going to fare in 2008. ( I hear Marvel wants Bendis to up their profile.)

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Cupid's a Skrull.

 

[iloveclones]

Cupid-as-a-skrull has "We need to give the boss' kid a job" written all over it.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Santa Claus is the reincarnation of the Kree Supreme Intelligence.

 

[iloveclones]

Now you're just being ridiculous.

 

[iloveclones]

He's actually the Beyonder.

 

[PhotoJones]

Quickies:

Uncanny X-Men #493 - Like Carey's X-Men with Ramos, this would be a bad place of a lot better without Tan's awful pencils. He really is one of the worst pencilers to ever draw this book. He's got no sense of design or perspective and he's one of the most inconsistent artists I've ever seen. Looking past the art, the story is very good, with only a few complaints from me. The biggest one concerns Angel. Did I miss something, or does Angel not have his healing powers now? There's all this talk of needing a healer, and I just kept thinking to myself, "He's right ****ing there, guys." Brubaker's notorious for ignoring certain powers for "the good of the story," so it may be an example of that. If so, it stinks. I did like that in this issue, the X-Men now officially have their backs up against the wall. Like the rebels in Annihilation Conquest and their "no tech or low tech" handicap, the mutants here are going to have to get through this without their telepaths. The X-Men are always at their best when they're the scrappy underdogs with little chance of coming out on top. I'm digging it.

Exterminators #24 - I like to pride myself on not reading crappy books, but of all the books on my pull list, this is by far the crappiest. This issue in particular, though, isn't as crappy as it has been, thankfully. It's a done in one story with art by Tony Moore (co-creator of the book) who hasn't handled the art chores in almost 20 issues now. Solicits say he's back for the next storyarc, but I'll believe it when I see it. Anyway, it revolves around a cruise ship facing a plague of killer butterflies. It's almost clever, but Oliver, once again, injects way too much of his own social commentary in it. Ellis and Millar have got nothing on this guy, in that regard.

The Sword #3 - Excellent, excellent, excellent. The Luna's are amazing. Every issue has so far has ended with a serious "OH ****!" cliffhanger, and it never fails to lose the pace or the tension in the following issue. This is better then anything on TV.

Northlanders #1 - I was really, really looking forward to this new book, mostly to see how Brian Wood would do a Viking book. As with most everything he does, he does this one very, very well. It's a very simple and direct story with a very simple and direct character. The art is gorgeous and compliments the young, hip tone of the book, while still maintaining the realism of actual Viking culture. Very well done.

The Order #5 - I always seem to forget about this book until it comes out. That's probably due to the characters all being new creations, and them not being shoved in my face by appearing in other books. That said, it's a great book with great characterization and great pacing. This is how to do a team book. Bendis should take note. In as many issues, we've gotten all the action (and then some) of Mighty Avengers AND all the awesome introspective characterization that MA lacks. We know who these guys are, why they do what they do, and what they do when they're not being superheroes. It's awesome. Definitely the best team book Marvel is putting out.

Avengers: Initiative Annual - How about that last page, huh? I'm calling it right now that Frog-Man is a Skrull. The dude in Kraven's "zoo" is the real Frog-Man.

Invincible #47 - Review proof. I did notice that the art looked a little rushed, but they're working their asses off getting this book back on schedule, so I commend them for that.

Dynamo 5 #9 - This book is such a fun read. There's no events or crossovers or any other kind of bull**** tied to it. It's just a good, solid superhero book with good, solid art. In this one, Gage's powers force him into the realm of Brains (think the Astral Plane) and he's gotta defeat her without the help of teammates/siblings. I really enjoy this book.

Atomic Robo #3 - I cannot get over how ****ing funny this book is. The banter between Robo and his Action Science Team is hilarious. I hope this continues past issue 6. I've heard that sales have been really good for a book from a brand new publisher, which is good news. The art is also so much fun to look at. This book is seriously a diamond in the rough.

Lazarus #2 - This got a little weirder then the first issue. It seemed like the first issue was grounded more in realism, while this one sort of just adandons that for crazy action and evil genetic experiments. It's not bad, but it's not the direction I thought this going in. The art is interesting to look at.

Surburban Glamour #2 - Like Lazarus, this one took a left turn out of nowhere and ditched whatever realistic tone it had in favor of all out fantasy. It's still a fun read and I'll complete the series. But again, it just wasn't what I was expecting.

Lobster Johnson: The Iron Prometheus #4 - This is cool, but I want some more LJ action. I want to know where he comes from and who he really is. Hopefully Mignola will get to that at some point, if not in the last issue (probably not in this last issue), but at least in another miniseries or a BPRD story, or something.

I also picked up The Infinite Horizon #1, Resurrection #1, The Vinyl Underground #3 and I think that's it. Big week...

 

[GNR]

X-23 hasn't been as unbearably awful in Messiah Complex as I thought she'd be, I'll give her that. She's still 100% uninteresting to me, though.

is her first appearance in NYX still going for alot?there's a copy in my cousin's stash in detroit which she doesn't even care about anymore since she's in Switzerland

 

[GNR]

Where's Black Summer at Photo?

 

[PhotoJones]

Oh, I forgot about that one. Yeah, I picked it up, too.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

is her first appearance in NYX still going for alot?there's a copy in my cousin's stash in detroit which she doesn't even care about anymore since she's in Switzerland

I don't know. I hope it doesn't sell for much. Not yours specifically, I mean I hope it doesn't have much value because, frankly, X-23 isn't a good enough character to warrant a high value on her old comics.

 

[PhotoJones]

She's not the worst character ever, but she's not very original, either. I just don't automatically despise everything with claws like some people do. I honestly haven't read enough of X-23 to make a judgement either way about her.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

She's a female Wolverine, plain and simple. She has maybe one or two more moments of vulnerability per year than Logan does, but she's a clone of him both literally and figuratively in everything I've read. Warpath is starting to get to that point too--a brash, more impetuous Logan with knives instead of claws and a few other powers. X-Force looks like it'll be really boring.

 

[PhotoJones]

Yeah, X-Force is going to really have pull something out if it's ash to be a decent read. But like I said, I really haven't read much with her in it. I don't know what sort of characterization Kyle and Yost have been giving her in New X-Men, and I doubt that you do either, since you don't read that book.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I know what characterization they've given her so far in Messiah Complex, where she's appeared for 2 or 3 issues so far. She's consistently been stoic both in and out of battle, and she tends to leap headlong into severely hostile situations, go crazy on whatever's in there, and get knocked out a lot. Sounds a lot like Wolverine to me. Except maybe the stoic part, but Wolverine's stoic as often as he is talkative.

 

[PhotoJones]

She had one line in the MC one-shot, about two lines in this past UXM issue, I don't remember her being the X-Factor issue and I didn't read the New X-Men issue. Hardly grounds to make a judgement on characterization.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

She featured heavily in the New X-Men issue, and she acted pretty much like the same Wolverine clone she is in all those other issues. Granted, there may be hidden depths I haven't seen, but she's been portrayed pretty consistently throughout MC so far as everything I've been saying she is.

 

[PhotoJones]

Wasn't she an underage, homeless prostitute? That's an interesting bit of characterization.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

To a point. It doesn't seem to have any bearing on her now, though.

 

[CaptainCanada]

Did I miss something, or does Angel not have his healing powers now? There's all this talk of needing a healer, and I just kept thinking to myself, "He's right ****ing there, guys." Brubaker's notorious for ignoring certain powers for "the good of the story," so it may be an example of that.

It would have to be a crossover-wide thing, not just Brubaker, since the lack of healers would be a plot-point for all the other writers. Nothing's been said, but I suppose you could write that off as M-Day eliminating his secondary mutation, like it did with Black Tom Cassidy, among others.

As to X-23's characterization, she's a different play on the Wolverine archtype; with Wolverine, he was all about finding the real person under all the years of conditioning, memory loss, etc., and struggling with his demons. X-23 was raised from birth as an assassin, so the big thing with her has always been how much personality there actually is under all her programming; she's never had a thought bubble/narration box in her whole history, something that the X-Force guys have said she'll actually get in that series. Think Wolverine by way of any of the Star Trek "understand humanity" characters like Spock or Data. She's one of my favourite characters on New X-Men.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Yeah... not really winning me over on her there. But I don't plan on reading X-Force or New X-Men after MC, so it's all good.

It'd suck if Angel lost his healing ability. I liked that aspect of the character, since he's no longer any use whatsoever offensively.

 

[PhotoJones]

He saved people from the fires/explosions in Alaska. He also made a good team with Kurt when they terrorized the Marauders by dropping and catching them.