Bought/Thought 11/19

[fifthfiend]

You mean a masterful Meister of alliterative astonishment, in the mighty Marvel style!!

 

[moraldeficiency]

Not really true. It's entirely possible for someone to enjoy a Millar or Bendis story over a Lee story because a given Bendis or Millar story basically is whichever Lee story but with more modern trappings and a higher level of polish. Doesn't mean Lee wasn't brilliant when he came up with the original work of whatever level of inventive brilliance just that the same thing looks better to some people after it's been tarted up under Bendis or Millar's writin'-pen and whichever newfangled artist's drawin'-inks. This doesn't even mean that those people don't recognize that Lee was the much more inventive writer they just like those ideas better when they're presented in a different way.

That's true because Casablanca was a beautifully crafted movie with amazingly well-written dialogue. Lee may have been a lot of things but I don't think anyone's ever really accused him of being a master of dialogue.

Ah, but now we're talking about personal preference and we're away from actual story or writer quality. I like plenty of things crappier than some quality works, but I'd wouldn't say that they're better except as brain candy I happen to enjoy. Updates are fun, I actually enjoy the majority of some of millar's work better than most, but I recognize it for what it is.

I guess it depends on how you look at it. Modern dialogue, the angst of being a superhero, the idea of having personal thoughts during fights or in situations, that was pretty much created by lee for Spider-Man and was groundbreaking. Now it is more refined and people like to whine far more today then they did back then, but sometimes less is more and to just touch on an idea and leave it to the reader to decipher the meaning can be more effective than simply beating out every thought in someone's brain onto a page. Look I love good dialogue but there are sometimes when something a little less might be more impactual than hearing everyone explain their every thought. But I agree he wasn't a master of dialogue, he did invent the current form all these "masters" of dialogue follow now though, while recycling his same stories again and again.

I'm getting way to far away from the bought/thought though, so I'll stop and come back when I get some books this weekend to review. No one want's to read this much of my thoughts on anything.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

You mean a masterful Meister of alliterative astonishment, in the mighty Marvel style!!

Ooh, points off for using "style" instead of "manner." Everyone knows it's "the mighty Marvel manner."

 

[fifthfiend]

I like "style" better.

But yeah and so it's clear I mean personally I totally do prefer Lee's stories to more modern ones because I happen to prefer his particular set of stylistic quirks and cliches and find them like a million times more charming and expressive than the set used by a Bendis or a Millar today, I just don't think it's inherently illegitimate to prefer this or that modern writer to Lee just because their work happens to be derivative of his.

 

[Dread]

On your FF review, you know what I love most about Millar/Hitch's FF run? How utterly irrelevant it is. No one is talking about it, and the hype for this book before it was released is now non-existant. Utterly forgettable. It won't even make it in the top 5 of great FF runs.

That's not my point at all though. It doesn't matter if it's good or bad, it's the fact that they hyped this up to be the second coming of christ, hell they had the audacity of comparing it to the Lee/Kirby run because it was going to be as many issues. The fact that no one talks about it has to be doing something to Millar's over inflated ego.

Yeah, I remember that. Virtually everyone was predicting this would be a Top 10-20 selling lock. In September, issue #560 couldn't even sell in the Top 25. It lost over 30,000 readers from the launch issue of their run to the second. It averages 58k now, but FF sold that well back in November 2007 when McDuffie was on. Considering that FF at times has sold around 40-49k under most recent writers without a crossover, 58k for a run that isn't connected much at all with what Marvel is doing is pretty good for the Four. But, as you say, it isn't the second coming of Kirby that many insiders, WIZARD and Newsarama predicted.

For the record, Millar & Hitch have actually managed to release 8 issues within nine months, which is pretty good for them. Lateness isn't a factor here. July was the only "skip" month thus far.

Millar is an A-List writer; he was before his stories started becoming movies and he certainly is now that WANTED was a movie hit and they are ridiculously filming KICK-ASS before the actual COMIC IS EVEN FINISHED! That's probably due to Hollywood's desperation, but that is another topic. Anything he writes will always get more attention than it deserves, hence why starpower is a big thing in comics. Grevioux can write a typical adventure story in NEW WARRIORS and the market barely yawns. If Millar does it on any title, it gets at least three Newsarama articles and some WIZARD coverage. But you could say that about most A-List writers.

The Fantastic Four haven't been able to move beyond a B-List franchise for years now, and Millar & Hitch haven't been able to elevate them.

Frankly, I would also say it is becoming too typical of Joe Q's tenure to ridiculously overhype certain runs by comparing it to classics that have proven the test of time, or even to use that as an excuse. How many times as Joe trucked out the, "does anyone remember WATCHMEN ran late" to explain why one of his Typical Franchise Arcs #4 is running 1-4 months behind (or more in some rare instances). Like anything published since 2000 is even WORTHY of such comparison. I know it is an easy tactic of youth to make such broad comparisons, but geez, man. Simply because an A-List creative team is on the book doesn't mean it will produce an A-List story every time.

The irony is that Millar, both here and in his WOLVERINE run, seems to be bucking the trend and going for stories separated from the core arcs, stuff that used to be delegated to mini's or maxi's.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I'm curious about why his Wolverine arc wasn't a mini-series, myself. It's just an extended What If.

 

[moraldeficiency]

I'm curious about why his Wolverine arc wasn't a mini-series, myself. It's just an extended What If.

Actually this timeline is factoring into the mainstream. The same place wolverine's at now (50 years in the future) is the same timeline that the people from the FF are coming from (450 years after that) so at least there are some effects. But really, who cares? This is the second time I can remember I'm actually liking a wolverine comic, personally I wouldn't care if he stayed with this stuff.

 

[javi1024]

Amazing Spider-Man #578- PICK OF THE WEEK! Marcos Martin has to be one of the best artists that Marvel has brought over to this title. He bring so much energy and style to this series, and he is a perfect match for Waid's writing. This was just a great issue. This is, at its core, a perfect Spidey story. And that last page? Fantastic. Two weeks until the next issue? Rough. 9/10

yes i loved this week's ASM. and honestly i don't know what it is about Martin's art. im usually attracted to the "flashier" artists- Choi, Finch, Eaton, Romita Jr.- because they really catch my attention, but there's something in the simplicity of Martin's art that i love. and thank you Brain Trust for using his classic rogues. 10/10

Uncanny X-Men #504- first off thank you for the break from Land. its good to see a book where the X-Men aren't smiling in every frame. the tour through Cyke's head was really cool plus the great dialogue , and now the cover we've been analysising for months finally makes sense. We get the first look at Colossus after what happened to Kitty, and i'm beginning to like the idea of Madelyn's return the deeper we get into the story. and Wolverine wasn't in a single panel! t: 8/10

X-Men Legacy #218- i'm really enjoying Original Sin. it's one of the few times i will buy all the titles in a crossover that are outside my regular pull list. i did get a little upset how powerful they continue to allow telepaths to be (last i heard Charles wasn't an illusionist) but it was small and added to all the action which i liked. 9/10

Street Fighter II Turbo #2- i miss Alvin Lee's art, but this guy (can't remember) knows how to draw fight scenes- Ryu vs. Ken was awesome. but now the tournament is officially starting and i can't wait til next months line-ups. i love how theyre not limiting themselves to just the characters actually in Super Street Figter II, especially since they didn't have every Alpha character in the previous books. also got a look into who Abel is and apparently he's connected to an established character. 8/10

 

[Dread]

I'm curious about why his Wolverine arc wasn't a mini-series, myself. It's just an extended What If.

So it would sell better. More often than not, a mini about a franchise title will sell a little less than the title itself. Case in point, the SECRET INVASION mini's selling much less than the X-Books or even Millar/Hitch FF.

 

[Marcdachamp]

yes i loved this week's ASM. and honestly i don't know what it is about Martin's art. im usually attracted to the "flashier" artists- Choi, Finch, Eaton, Romita Jr.- because they really catch my attention, but there's something in the simplicity of Martin's art that i love. and thank you Brain Trust for using his classic rogues. 10/10

It's very different, but a great style. Love him on the book.

And Thunderbolts was a VERY close second for me this week. Very good stuff.

 

[gildea]

Ah, but now we're talking about personal preference and we're away from actual story or writer quality.

Aren't they basically the same thing?

Millars run IMO has been rather lackluster thus far but I don't think you can objectively prove it's inferior to the 'good old days'

 

[WOLVERINE25TH]

The difference between Stan Lee and Mark Millar is people will STILL be talkin' about Stan Lee 30 years from now. Millar, not so much.

And fer what it's worth, my two cents on the subject is FF has been horrid since they came on. It doesn't feel like the FF, and as was stated they already DID a future clashin' with the present story, as well as another over-hyped death of an FF member that in the end has absolutely no real legitimate impact. Remember A Death In The Family? This run is trash, an' I'll be glad when they get off and let some real talent back on to bring the book back to where Waid had it.

 

[iloveclones]

IRON MAN DIRECTOR OF SHIELD #35 - not so much a review as a question: When did Rhodey become a cyborg? Could you point me to some issues that I might be able to pick up on Marvel DigiComics?

 

[kguillou]

It hasnt been explained yet dude, it's part of Marvel's new gimmicky marketing strategy,"We'll introduce some radical out of the blue changes right away and then spend the next year or two back-tracking trying to explain how these changes took place." Call me a traditionalist, but whatever happened to writing a story that actually leads up to a big change instead of the big change coming out of nowhere?!?

 

[Mr. Green]

Greg Pak said that question would be answered in War Machine #1.

 

[fifthfiend]

Marvel's new gimmicky marketing strategy

If it's new then it's at least 7 years new, it's not like Morrison didn't pull the same thing with Beast in 2001.

 

[kguillou]

^^Oh yea true, i forgot about Beast. Well, still it seems like Marvel's using it alot more these days though.

 

[Jennifer Walters]

At this risk of derailing the thread yet again....



Try to remember I may not share your opinions and I may not be exactly who you would like me to be, but I continue to do this cause it's something I like to do.

 

[SUPER MARVELMAN]

Actually this timeline is factoring into the mainstream. The same place wolverine's at now (50 years in the future) is the same timeline that the people from the FF are coming from (450 years after that) so at least there are some effects. But really, who cares? This is the second time I can remember I'm actually liking a wolverine comic, personally I wouldn't care if he stayed with this stuff.

So the Old Man Logan is also The Hooded Man?

 

[SUPER MARVELMAN]

yes i loved this week's ASM. and honestly i don't know what it is about Martin's art. im usually attracted to the "flashier" artists- Choi, Finch, Eaton, Romita Jr.- because they really catch my attention, but there's something in the simplicity of Martin's art that i love. and thank you Brain Trust for using his classic rogues. 10/10

Uncanny X-Men #504- first off thank you for the break from Land. its good to see a book where the X-Men aren't smiling in every frame. the tour through Cyke's head was really cool plus the great dialogue , and now the cover we've been analysising for months finally makes sense. We get the first look at Colossus after what happened to Kitty, and i'm beginning to like the idea of Madelyn's return the deeper we get into the story. and Wolverine wasn't in a single panel! t: 8/10

X-Men Legacy #218- i'm really enjoying Original Sin. it's one of the few times i will buy all the titles in a crossover that are outside my regular pull list. i did get a little upset how powerful they continue to allow telepaths to be (last i heard Charles wasn't an illusionist) but it was small and added to all the action which i liked. 9/10

Street Fighter II Turbo #2- i miss Alvin Lee's art, but this guy (can't remember) knows how to draw fight scenes- Ryu vs. Ken was awesome. but now the tournament is officially starting and i can't wait til next months line-ups. i love how theyre not limiting themselves to just the characters actually in Super Street Figter II, especially since they didn't have every Alpha character in the previous books. also got a look into who Abel is and apparently he's connected to an established character. 8/10

What I didn't even know Street Fighter was coming out again.

 

[Manic]

Fair warning, everyone. I've become an absurdly lengthy reviewer...


ANGEL: AFTER THE FALL #14
Apparently, I'm the only person on the Hype! still reading this title. The Angel Season 6 thread is dead.

Anyway, this issue starts with a humorous fight between Groo and some sort of airplane/dragon hybrid. Aside from a cheap chuckle, this fight is used to show that a mass of demons are on their way to Gunn's hideout. Meanwhile, inside Gunn's hideout, Spike pops into the room, despite having been staked through the heart and dusted at the end of last month's issue. How? Well, it turns out Gunn has had his hideout rigged with a 5-minute time loop. It's not an especially efficient time loop, as Spike can still remember everything that happened, and nobody moves back to the place they were standing 5 minutes ago. Basically, it's like a status quo loop. The gang stands around and waits for the loop to hit Angel so he'll heal up, but most of his injuries happened more than 5 minutes ago. Spike suggests siring Angel back into a vampire to save him, which Angel agrees with (he can't really speak, but he caption-box narrates this entire issue), but Connor would rather let Angel die than see Angelus. However, this all becomes moot when the army of big nasty demons bust through the wall and tell them that Angel can't be allowed to die. Why not? Why would demons working for Wolfram & Hart want to save Angel? Well, do you remember how the TV show always said that Angel would play an important role in the apocalypse? It turns out Angel will bring about the end of the world. No, not Angelus. Angel. And Wolfram & Hart needs Angel alive to do that.

Meanwhile, Gunn has stabbed Fred. Well, it's not Fred. It's Illyria pretending to be Fred. It turns out Illyria hasn't been turning back into Fred, nor are they separating into different beings again. It turns out Illyria is just going crazy. By taking on Fred as a human vessel, she has access to all of Fred's memories and her mind, and it's making her want to be Fred. In fact, after Gunn stabs her, she refuses to take back her Illyria form, and even briefly uses her wacky time powers to turn Gunn human and put a blue sky in Los Angeles. This only lasts for a split second, of course, and Gunn is the only one who notices it because for one brief second, he literally felt alive again. So now Gunn has a new plan: take Illyria to a magic machine he's building in secret (a machine he thought of, and has the power to restore people to a previous state), and turn "Fred" back into Illyria so she can use her full power to restore LA and all of its people to Earth.

Yeah, it turns out Gunn didn't think up that machine by himself. WR&H has been sending the images into his mind so he'd build it for them, although he didn't know the images were coming from them. Why? For Angel. WR&H anticipated Angel dieing, so they needed someone to create this machine to turn him back into an ensouled vampire. Why even turn Angel into a human if they were planning to change him back? Just to punish him, I would imagine. Anyway, the army of demons grab Angel's body and carry it to Gunn's machine. Angel's crew follows. The demons pull Gunn out of the way, and throw "Fred" off of the machine before putting Angel's dieing near-corpse onto it. "Fred" talks to Wesley's ghost about what Gunn was trying to do, and then she realizes what's been so wrong with her. She just can't accept that Fred will never come back, and that Wesley will never fully come back, and that she should go back to her original form. No, not just the form of a blue woman. She's going back to her original "giant creature of undeniable horror" form, and she's going to use her immense magical powers to put an end to everything. I mean... everything. Existence, to be exact.

It looks like this book is winding down to its conclusion. I hear #17 will be the final issue before "After the Fall" changes its name to "Aftermath" or something.

This issue was alright, but it suffered from something that the past few issues have suffered from: they're cramming 10,000 big reveals and surprise twists into each issue. Yes, I'm glad they aren't trying to desperately cram all of this into #17, but these are still too many reveals compared to the slower first few issues. It feels like they all should've been spaced out even more. To echo comments I've given about the art in the past, the current artist is doing a decent job of making the characters look like the actors who originally played them, but his facial expressions are WAY off. Anyway, I'll probably be begging for him to come back when Urru *shudder* comes back for the next few issues.


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DOCTOR WHO: THE FORGOTTEN #3
Allons-y!

Once again, we join the Doctor and Martha, trapped in some sort of museum with artifacts from the Doctor's life. When we last left off, the Doctor recovered his memories up to his 3rd incarnation, and tried to reverse the polarity of something involving his keys, sonic screwdriver, and finding the TARDIS. Long story short, he can't find the TARDIS. It's like it doesn't exist anymore. In hopes the recovering more of his memories will help them somehow, Martha hands the Doctor a bag of jelly babies that used to be his. The Doctor thinks for a minute, and we're hurled into a 4th Doctor flashback...

It's the 4th Doctor and the 2nd Romana, standing in the streets of Paris. And why not? It's a lovely city that has a certain... feeling. A kind of... fragrance. It's like a... bouquet.

*waits for someone to get the "City of Death" reference*

*waits*






Okay, back to the review...

Romana is complaining that they were just in Paris, and that she thinks the TARDIS' randomizer probably only have about 5 destinations in it. They see a mime on the street, who apparently falls into a mysterious portal that appeared in front of him. The Doctor and Romana follow the mime through the portal, leading them to an underground catacomb under Paris, with the mimi nowhere in sight. They run into a troupe of 17th century French soldiers, who are also lost in the catacombs. The French soldiers continue to wander aimlessly, but the Doctor & Romana see the mime from earlier, and chase him through the sewers until they find... (wait for it) ... (wait for it) A MAN-EATING MINOTAUR WEARING A LOVELY RED BERET! Oh shock! Oh horror! Ooh la la!
The minotaur tells the Doc and Romana that he'll let them go if they answer his riddles correctly, but thus far nobody has ever done so. And if they fail, he'll eat them. Also, the mime was working for him. Dirty bastard. Never trust a mime.
Anyway, Romana humors the minotaur with his riddles while the Doctor offers our beret-sporting friend a jelly baby. When Romana fails to answer the riddle correctly, the minotaur turns to see that the Doctor picked his pocket, and stole the key leading to the door outside.

Cut back to the 10th Doctor and Martha in the present, and the Doctor gets the idea to look for a Time Ring. He tells Martha that a Time Ring is probably their best way of getting out of there, and since the museum has so much crap in it, they're bound to find one somewhere. However, the mysterious man in the museum's control room decides to stop them by releasing giant spiders. Meanwhile, Martha goes out to look for the time ring, which should actually be a bracelet with wibbly wobbly writing on it, and the Doctor finds a cricket ball that jogs his memories a bit. This, of course, sends us into another flashback...

The 5th Doctor is playing a game of cricket, with Tegan and Turlough watching with other spectators. Suddenly, the writer decides to retcon some of Russell T. Davies' wacky ideas into past Doctor adventures by having the Judoon show up on Earth. They land at the 3rd Doctor's old house (the one UNIT apparently gave him when the Time Lords exiled him to Earth), where they are looking for something called the Eye of Akasha. The Doctor asks Turlough to run to the TARDIS (and not just to hide under the control panel) to retrieve his old diary. The Doctor searches his old diary, and sure enough, he seems to have picked up an old Eye of Akasha that he stored in his house back during his 3rd incarnation. He quickly retrieves the Eye, seemingly hands it to the Judoon, and gives them one final warning as they depart: the Judoon have no jurisdiction on Earth, and should they come back, the Doctor will alert the Shadow Proclamation, and have the Judoon's police-esque authority revoked. As the Judoon leave Earth, they notice that the Doctor has given them one of his old cricket balls instead of the Eye. The Doctor pulled the old switcheroo, with some good ol' misdirection.

Back to the 10th Doctor, and it hits him: the Auton that attacked him and Martha in the last issue wasn't trying to kill them. It was send to leading them away from something. Misdirection. See what he did there? Of course, at this point, Martha has wandered off in search of the Time Ring, and the issue closes with her being attacked by at least 6 giant spiders. To quote Martha, "Think I'm scared of a couple of spiders? I've lived in student housing!"

I really like this comic. It's like a giant love letter to old Doctor Who fans. Of course, I have limited knowledge of old pre-2005 Doctor Who episodes, but this luckily turned out to have the few flashbacks I actually "got." The artist seems to have changed, as Pia Guerra (Y: The Last Man) didn't do this issue. The new artist isn't bad, though, and tries to look like Guerra's work. At the very end, we're treated to the cover of issue #4, which shows the 10th Doctor standing with the 6th and 7th Doctors.


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UNCANNY X-MEN #504
Lands is off for this arc? The Dodsons are on art duty? Hooray!

I've just about given up on guessing what all of this villains are up to in this book, but it's pretty clear that there's some huge plot that being carried across each story arc since issue #500. I say this because we once again see Cyclops' first wife, Madelyne Pryor, and her brand new Sisterhood. Maddy (who is supposedly evil again for no given reason) is promising her Sisterhood that she'll return their loved ones from death if they pledge their loyalty to her, and help in her war against the X-Men. It looks like Spiral is also part of the Sisterhood, and she is seen creating androids or cyborgs in a lab.

Look, everyone! It's Colossus! Oh, how we've missed you, Colossus. You strangely disappeared as soon as Pixie was given more screen time. But now you're back! Also, Pixie is nowhere to be seen in this issue!
Anyway, Pete is trying to get himself a tattoo, but finds himself unable to stay in his fleshy form. I'm assuming that the slightest bit of pain is causing him to instinctively shift to metal, which is breaking all of the tattoo parlor's needles. Pete goes to talk to Nightcrawler, who mentions that Pete seems to stick to his metal form a lot more, these days. I can only assume it's because he's so distraught over Kitty's death that he can't untransform for very long. We've seen stuff like this happen before. When Genosha was destroyed, Emma was stuck in her diamond form for days on end. Toward the end of the issue, Pete finds a nice Russian restaurant, where he runs into a man who once hurt his father. Looks like it's time for payback.

Meanwhile, Emma has noticed that Scott has been unusually distant lately. Emma decides to pop into Scott's head to see what's on his mind, and (though the power of psychic metaphor) Scott's mind manifests itself in the form of a hotel filled with nothing but women. Women everywhere. It's every woman Scott has ever been remotely attracted to. This includes classic 70s Storm, mohawn Storm, 90s Storm, ninja Psylocke, Savage Land Rogue, Dazzler, Mystique, a random waitress, and even Deathbird (which I did NOT see coming). There's also another Rogue in Scott's mind who serves as the bellhop. Oh, and Emma appears to be a classic flapper girl while walking in his mind.

One group that Emma notices is completely absent is Scott's collection of redheads. By that, I mean Jean and Maddy. Nowhere to be seen. Emma did walk into a room where she found Scott's black box, however. Apparently, Jean taught Scott how to create a "black box" that houses all of his secrets and repels psychics from opening it. Even Emma's astral body can't bring herself to touch it for very long. Scott assures her that the only things he keeps in there are strategic secrets, and it looks like Emma accepts that answer for the time being. Of course, we all know that Scott is hiding stuff like X-Force and the fact that he just unknowingly slept with his first ex-wife (he's the only superhero I know of with several) not too long ago.

Meanwhile, in Argentina, Hank and Warren are talking to a scientist and Nazi-hunter named Dr. James Bradley, aka Dr. Nemesis. I had to do a little research, but I managed to dig up some info on him. It turns out Dr. Nemesis was a 1940s superhero/adventurer back when Marvel was known as Timely Comics. Apparently in the early 1990s, someone has written an Invaders comic that retconned James Bradley from a Nazi-killing hero to a Nazi-sympathizing villain named Dr. Death. In his appearance in this month's Uncanny X-Men, it appears Matt Fraction has ignored the Dr. Death retcon, as Dr. Nemesis is once again a Nazi-hating scientist in a smooth white suit & hat.

You gotta admire Matt Fraction for pulling all of these ignored Golden Age heroes out of his ass. Over in Immortal Iron Fist, he took an obscure 40s hero names John Aman/Amazing Man, and turned him into the Prince of Orphans, one of the baddest mutha****as alive.

Anyway, Hank and Warren have recruited Dr. Nemesis to come to San Francisco and join Graymalkin Industry's "think tank" of scientists dedicated to reversing M-Day.

Oh, and at the very end of the issue, Karma points out that footage of the Purifiers torching Cooperstown, Alaska (where the little strawberry blonde--then redheaded-- Messiah was born) have been leaked to the news networks, prompting journalists to ask the people what will happen if a mutant is born in their town?


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It turns out that asking kids to take drugs is like asking a slug to do salt. Abovetheinfluence.com apparently felt the need to tell us that in 2 pages.
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X-FACTOR #37
Stroman is gone? De Landro has taken over art duties? Hooray!

Right. Well, Val Cooper walks into XF Investigations' home/HQ, and tells Terry the truth about a majority of their assignments: Jamie has been taking jobs from Val and the government without the rest of XF knowing. Terry, who trusts Jamie, doesn't believe her. Of course, as the readers, we know from previous issues that Val is telling the truth, which makes Terry's unwavering faith in Jamie all the more sad. Val does manage to cross the line a few times, like by constantly referring to Terry as Terry (her full name is Theresa, and Terry is a name only her closest friends call her. I use it, but I'm a fan, and I refer to Professor X as Charlie and Chuck), and bringing up Banshee's death. Val tries to tell Terry and Rictor that she isn't their enemy, and that she has no intention of separating Terry for her baby.

Meanwhile, Jamie, Guido, Monet, and Longshot are on their mission to rescue Darwin. The dude with the tattoos on his chin (or is he just a Skrull? I can't really tell) has traps laid out for them, but an explosion meant to kill them merely knocks them back, thanks to Longshot's luck. The only real casualty is Monet's outfit, which is taken care of when one of Jamie's dupes gives up his shirt to her. As XF walks through the building, they run into a troupe of hired soldiers, who they quickly take out thanks to Longshot's lack of qualms with killing his enemies. There's also an incident where Jamie is trying to interrogate a soldier, but one of his dupes hits him, causing him to produce another dupe inside of the soldier's mouth. The soldier's head kinda explodes when the dupe manifests itself. It turns out the dupe that hit Jamie and caused him to kill the guy was saving Jamie's life, as the soldier was about to stab him. This is some kind of cynical, hardcase dupe who I imagine might be the one who went on to work for SHIELD. And what about the dupe that manifested itself inside of the soldier's mouth? He's on the floor, covered in the soldier's blood, traumatized. Jamie doesn't want to reabsorb him. Anyway, XF finds the head of this organization, who it turns out has been cloning his own army of Darwins. The very end of the issue, however, is much more shocking: Terry's water just broke.

I gotta say, I really like De Landro's art. He's recaptured the noir feeling this book hasn't really had since Sook and Calero were on pencil duty, and he seems to ahev traded Longshot's mullet for a decent haircut. It's like an Owen Wilson haircut, only less feminine. There's also a panel where we see a close-up of Darwin's face, and I gotta say, it's one of the few times I've seen Darwin drawn with any African facial features (Darwin is half black and Latino, although his mutation gives him grey skin). The colorist, Jeromy Cox, also gets kudos for remembering that Theresa is a strawberry blonde, and that her hair should be orange instead of red. Monet, while not back to her original chocolate skin tone, is once again darker than every other character in this book. There was an instance of inconsistent art, however, with Guido. On one page, he got shot by an energy weapon that fried his shirt off. A few pages later, his shirt was back and as good as new.

 

[Manic]

Part II for that ass...


YOUNG X-MEN #8
Action, witty banter, consistent characters, subplots, AND decent pacing? Color me impressed.

The first few issues of this book weren't exactly... well, good. However, writer Marc Guggenheim has publicly apologized for the first story arc, and the past few issues have been pretty good. This issue in particular was actually pretty damn nice.

Ink, realizing he's not a mutant, decides to walk out on the X-Men. Dani considers going after him, but Scott briefs Dani & Bobby on a more important matter. Ink's tattoo artist is the mutant, and he has the power to give powers to anyone he puts a tattoo on. There's no telling how many people he may have given powers to, and one of them was caught on camera using an exploding fist tattoo to break his brother out of prison. Scott tells Dani & Bobby to send their team (yes, Scott is actually using the kids as an official X-Men squad) to visit the tattooist, Leon Nunez.

We next see Anole and Rockslide training in the bell tower of their abandoned church HQ by fighting a bunch of robots. Really, you gotta love Victor and Santo's back-and-forth dialogue. Their training session is interrupted by Dust, who is sporting an all-new costume. I like it, actually. She's wearing the same yellow/black design as the rest of the team, only it's a loose and flowing dress (all religion aside, it's been stated that Sooraya just plain prefers to dress modestly), and she's still rocking most of the abaya and niqab. She's showing a little wrist/forearm, but I think that only happens when she lifts her arms for something.

The Young X-Men touch their jet down on the roof of Nunez's tattoo parlor, where Dani and Bobby begin questioning him about whether he knew he was a mutant, and if he knows anything about the people he's been giving tattoos to. He's completely uncooperative, but it's okay, because Anole (using his chameleon stealth power) and Dust (who went through the vent shaft) snuck into Nunez' back room to look for clues. They found a picture of one of Nunez's tattooed customers (the same one who broke his brother out of jail, no less) with apintball gear, which leads them to check with the local paintball business. It's out of business, which makes it a good place to look for their suspect.

At this point, it's become blatantly obvious that the Young X-Men are acting like cop-show detectives. Anole even comments on it a couple of times, leading to more of Anole and Rockslide's funny exchanges. When the team checks out the abandoned paintball place, sure enough, there's a small group of tattooed thugs hanging out there, including the guy they were looking for. When the X-Men confront them, they jokingly refer to themselves as the Y-Men, and a fight breaks out. The ensuing battle goes from bad to worse when one of them calls for more tattooed backup, causing the X-Men to get horribly outnumbered.

One thing that happens in this issue is that Jonas Graymalkin (who I'm just going to call Jonas from now on, since his last name/codename is the name of the X-Men's business) is once again caught talking to himself. When he did that in the first few issues, it turned out he was telepathically communicating with Blindfold. Or was he? At the end of this issue, we're introduced to a girl with dreadlocks who calls herself Cipher (so much for the rumors of Doug Ramsay coming back), is wearing an X-Men yellow/black uniform, and tells Ink that his teammates are in trouble. Who is she? No clue, but I'm assuming she's psychic if she knows what's happening to the X-Men. Guggenheim did also promise that there was a new teammate coming that's been there since the first issue, so I guess this would be her.

All in all, I enjoyed this issue. I think I'm going to like this book after all, and I no longer regret having it on my pull list (which I only did at first to spite Kyle & Yost's New X-Men, which I dropped after a few story arcs).


----------


FANTASTIC FOUR #561
And now the all-too shocking Death of the Invisible Woman!

Future Sue died, and absolutely nobody is shocked. In fact, nothing about this issue's conclusion surprised me. Future Sue died instead of our regular Sue. Doom fulfilled his promise to kill whoever was behind this all by killing... well, Future Sue. The people of the future were transported to the Spare Earth Reed's ex-girlfriend made. I will admit to being surprised that the Hooded Man turned out to be Wolverine.

Frankly, I'm not the least bit upset that Future Sue died. Not just because her death means squat to the status of our present Sue or because Millar didn't provide a way to become emotionally attached to her (Millar? Writing characters you care about? HA!). I mean that Future Sue was an ice-hearted B-word.
"Hey, Sue. We need a cosmically powered person to hook up to our Galactus Engine. Are you going to sacrifice yourself for the greater good or anything?"
"What? Hell no. Let's kidnap my younger brother and hook him up to it."
"Are you sure? He might die."
"I'm sure."
"No hesitation, huh?"
"Nope. Kill the bastard."
"Do you want to at least look away while he's screaming in agonizing pain?"
"No, I want to look my kid brother in the eye as he dies."
"..."
"It's in memory of my husband and all he sacrificed."
"Whatever helps you sleep at night, b****."

It looks like Val's secret is out, by the way. At the beginning of the issue, Reed learned that the nanny is really a future version of his wife when he checked the security tapes of her escape. Aside from her powers as a clue, Reed would've seen Val speaking clearly when she called her "mom."

She-Hulk was a little wasted in this story arc. She showed up in the last issue, got thrown out of the Baxter Building with Thing, then popped up in this issue so she could babysit Franklin & Val while the rest of the Fan4 tracked down the New Defenders. Talk about your brief and useless cameos.


----------


FLASH #246
Damnit, I just started buying this title!

Of course. Why wouldn't this happen? I start buying the Flash's book, and a few issues in, he's already lost part of his power and his wife is about to die. Well isn't that wizard?

For anyone who missed the previous issue, Queen Bee has been attacking the Flash, and launched a full-scale poisonous bee attack on the West household. Linda was badly stung, and ended up in a coma. They transferred her to JLA headquarters, where the kids will also be staying for their own safety. The friend that he is, Roy brought over his daughter Lian to keep Jai and Iris company. What follows is a series of flashbacks about Wally and Linda's relationship, and all they've been through together. It's a really touching scene, seeing the West family by Linda's side.

Batman approaches Wally and tells him that whatever reason Queen Bee has for attacking Flash's family, it probably has to do with the time-slowing device she stole from Amanda "Gimme a Break" Waller. The Flash then breaks into a government facility where he can hack the system and look up whatever information Waller has on her device. Flash can tell exactly what it is, though: a gateway to the Speed Force.

That has to be put aside, however, because Dr. Mid-Nite calls Wally to tell him that Linda's condition is worsening. Desperate, Wally decides there's only one place he can turn: The Spectre. Raven summons the Spectre for him, but she herself leaves as she doesn't want to deal with him. The Spectre informs Wally that what's happening is destiny, and Wally's wife has to die. Today. And to make matters worse, Queen Bee (or someone who works for her) has disguised herself as Linda, and kidnapped Iris and Jai while they were out for a walk with Roy & Lian. Things are looking really bad for the Flash, folks.

 

[iloveclones]

Greg Pak said that question would be answered in War Machine #1.

After I posted, I actually went and googled War Machine. According to wiki, he was injured in War World Hulk.

And yeah, it seems a strange change. It's not like they didn't have an opportunity to start dropping some hints over in Avengers:Initiative. If anything, that would have created a little demand for his series.

I've never been a War Machine fan, so I doubt I'll pick this up. He seems like such a typical 90s creation.

 

[moraldeficiency]

Aren't they basically the same thing?

Millars run IMO has been rather lackluster thus far but I don't think you can objectively prove it's inferior to the 'good old days'

not really, there are some things I love (like Rocky 4) which I know are crappy but love anyway, while there are some great works (a lot of art comes to mind) which I know are great and genius but couldn't care less about.

It is all subjective but I'd say someone that simply rehashes the same thing someone else created with a more modern spin without putting anything new or creative as their own mark is inferior to the originator. Just my thoughts and how I evaluate one creator over another.



Marvel Man- according to millar, yes the hooded man is old man logan +450 years.

 

[Themanofbat]

ANGEL: AFTER THE FALL #14
Apparently, I'm the only person on the Hype! still reading this title. The Angel Season VI thread is dead.

I have the issues, but I've yet to watch Season V yet, so I'm waiting to get caught up...