Bought/Thought 12/10 (SPOILERS)

[Marcdachamp]

Dark Reign- PICK OF THE WEEK! I almost skipped this week, but this made me stop in. It's been way too long since I've had some Bendis/Maleev goodness. We pick up right where we left off, and I'm happy for it. I really liked Emma, here. A lot of people are worried that Bendis and Marvel are making her a villain again, but, instead, it feels like they're picking up the threads from Whedon's run, and I'm happy for that. I think Whedon did a better job with her than Morrison, and that's saying a lot. Maleev draws an excellent Doom, and Bendis has tightened his characterization since Mighty Avengers. The bits between Doom and Namor were great. The death came as a big shock. I've expected it, but I thought we'd see it in

Spoiler

Thunderbolts. I'm also thinking Norman's trump card is the Void, while we're in a spoiler space.

. Anyway, this just has me even more excited for Dark Avengers, Thunderbolts and the Uncanny X-Men Annual, so I guess it did its job. 9/10

Transformers: Maximum Dinobots- This was a lot of fun. Really reminds me of the UK Headmasters stories with Skorponok. Roche kills on art. Man, IDW really has a great stable of artists. Loved the Skyfire reference, too. 9/10

Amazing Spider-Man- Good issue, but a little TOO old school in parts. Look, I get it, Peter is overprotective of May because of what happened with Ben. I didn't need it spelled out 10 times. I liked it, and Weeks was solid, but I think Stern went just a little overboard on the internal dialogue. 8/10

Astonishing X-Men: Ghostboxes- This was an iffy buy for me after the first issue. I wasn't pleased about the script taking up so much space, nor with the price, but I flipped through, liked what I saw and went for it. Knowing more what I was getting into, I feel I can judge it better. The stories are pretty dark, but I enjoyed them. The art is beautiful, and I liked this better than most of Ellis' run so far. 8/10

Spider-Girl- Interesting how Defalco is working Jenkins' old Green Goblin story into his Spider-Girl stuff. This was one of the better issues in a while, with some good appearances by May's superhero supporting cast. I wish Defalco would realize how much more interesting they are than the lame High School crowd we've had shoved down our throats lately. 7/10

 

[SouLeSS]

Final Crisis 5 was really good. I got in an argument with the guys at my LCS cause they were snickering at me "gobbling up that event garbage" when they were picking up their Watchmen and Sin City volumes , but in my typical badassedness I put them in their place with a swift demonstration of my Karate skills.

 

[javi1024]

Amazing Spider-Man #580
ehh...wasn't too crazy about this one. the Shocker was such a great read and Stern is supposed to be a Spider-Man legend, so it was a real disappointment. kudos to the artist and his JRJR-esque Spidey, but other than that there's nothing worth mentioning. 5/10

Batman: Detective Comics #851
another story written by another legend with the character...and another meh issue. i was really hoping it was gonna be about Dick and his relationship with Bruce, but they only touch on it. 6/10

Superman/ Batman #54
this one was pretty cool. Batman has the power to clean up Gotham now, and he's really using it. this has been a good year for the title. 8/10

X-Men/ Spider-Man #2
this is my PICK OF THE WEEK. great art, and its so cool seeing the 80s heroes battling and referencing established continuity from both series. its like you can just take this and insert it into X-Men/Spider-Man history and it would fit seamlessly. and even though its set in a different era from the first issue with the O-5, they're still one fluid story. cannot wait for the next 90's issue! 9/10

 

[CaptainCanada]

Best of the Week:

Booster Gold #15

I've been waiting to see where Jurgens would take things; he created these characters more than 20 years ago, and now he's come full-circle (indeed, character-wise a lot of the pieces are back to the early parts of his run, like Michelle, a character who was literally dormant for basically the entirety of his absence from the Booster character). So far, so good. This has the feel of the earliest issues of Booster v.2; light and funny, as Booster and his supporting cast bumble their way through the timestream and earnestly try to save the day (Jurgens brings back a bit more of Booster's commercial-oriented thinking than Johns and Katz, who had more or less dispensed with that to try and make him a Serious (Comedic) Hero; he's still far less self-involved, though). DC did a great job with the fill-in writers on this title; we're now seeing Dixon's issues tied in, and Remender's left obvious hooks, so those four issues weren't just the wheels spinning while Jurgens readied his stuff. Also, "the true model of the Mona Lisa" is one of the four or five most common "historical mysteries" answered by time-travel stories (up there with the fate of JFK).

Captain Britain and MI13 #8

Another good issue; this has become a solid and reliable fantasy-based superhero book. Storywise, the repercussions of the release of all those demons in #4 continues; the idea of Plotka responding by using the Mindless Ones to claim this dimension for Hell exclusively is neat (the whole idea of the Dukes of Hell and the backstory of the Mindless Ones is pretty cool overall). A bit more development on Vampire-Jackie, and we progress a little further to resolving the whole Ebony Blade continuity snarl that Hudlin caused several years ago. This series is clearly aimed at building up certain characters, Brian most of all; we get another assertion of his post-resurrection increased powers (this time, of mind). Cornell continues to perhaps assume a bit too much knowledge of Wisdom on the part of the casual reader, but I read it, so that doesn't affect me.

 

[hippie_hunter]

I was thoroughly disappointed with Secret Invasion: Dark Reign. I usually like Maleev's art, but it was horrible in this issue. Namor looked like a drunken homeless bum and Loki looked like a tranny.

And Bendis was rather sub-par. Emma is not the leader of the X-Men, Cyclops is. He's the one who secretly set up the assassination squad. He's the one who led the move to San Fransisco. He's the one who decided not to open up a school. And it's quite silly when Emma and Cyclops both told Tony that they weren't registering, that Emma will get the X-Men to register under the Green ****ing Goblin. This issue makes me think that Magneto is still more suited for the Cabal than Emma Frost.

And the Doom/Namor scene screams of next year's event: Civil War part deux, but with this time Norman Osborne fighting against the forces of Dr. Doom and Namor the Sub-Mariner.

 

[Marcdachamp]

I was thoroughly disappointed with Secret Invasion: Dark Reign. I usually like Maleev's art, but it was horrible in this issue. Namor looked like a drunken homeless bum and Loki looked like a tranny.

And Bendis was rather sub-par. Emma is not the leader of the X-Men, Cyclops is. He's the one who secretly set up the assassination squad. He's the one who led the move to San Fransisco. He's the one who decided not to open up a school. And it's quite silly when Emma and Cyclops both told Tony that they weren't registering, that Emma will get the X-Men to register under the Green ****ing Goblin. This issue makes me think that Magneto is still more suited for the Cabal than Emma Frost.

And the Doom/Namor scene screams of next year's event: Civil War part deux, but with this time Norman Osborne fighting against the forces of Dr. Doom and Namor the Sub-Mariner.

Emma is the headmistress. No one refers to a co-leader in any type of setting as a "co-leader," it's just "leader."

 

[Dread]

So I guess Joe Biden isn't the Vice President, he's the President.

 

[hippie_hunter]

Emma is the headmistress. No one refers to a co-leader in any type of setting as a "co-leader," it's just "leader."

Regardless of what she's called. Emma is clearly not in charge of the X-Men and is not a co-leader. She's second-in-command. The vice-president. 2nd place. Whatever you want to call it.

Cyclops is clearly the head honcho of the X-Men. He's the one who set up X-Force, the X-Men's assassination squad, and he's keeping it secret from Emma. He's the one who closed down the Xavier Institute and led the X-Men's move to San Fransisco. He also told Emma that he's keeping other secrets from Emma.

Bringing in Emma Frost into the Cabal because she's the leader of the X-Men when she clearly isn't, is downright stupid. Norman Osborn telling Emma that she should come out and have the X-Men support Norman is downright stupid, especially since they know who he is. Especially since they already told Iron Man they weren't going to support registration.

Magneto would have been a much better choice. Norman could have made the same promises to him in regards to support for mutants and promise to turn him back into a mutant and restore Genosha in return for his support would have made much more ****ing sense than Emma Frost.

 

[hippie_hunter]

And the more I'm thinking about it, the clearer it's becoming on what Marvel's next event is going to be Dr. Doom, Loki, and Namor against Norman Osborne.

 

[kguillou]

Well think about it dude, Norman probably knew there was no way Cyclops would join a meeting with Dr. Doom and Loki in the room, so he chose the second in charge. Plus Emma used to be bad so she kind of relates to everybody in the room. Seems like a logical choice to me.

 

[Marcdachamp]

Well think about it dude, Norman probably knew there was no way Cyclops would join a meeting with Dr. Doom and Loki in the room, so he chose the second in charge. Plus Emma used to be bad so she kind of relates to everybody in the room. Seems like a logical choice to me.

Beat me to the punch.

 

[MightyAvenge]

Me too.

 

[Bubonic]

Punisher: War Zone #1: The only big problem with this book is that it carries the same name as the movie.

If you think b-movie cheese is the only way to lighten up the mood around Punisher, you need to revisit Ennis's old MK Punisher stuff, and then get into this new chapter.

The book opens up with a really funny conversation between a low rung mafia soldier being walked down to his execution and one of his better "friends" there to do the dirty deed.

It's a very funny scene you could picture in the Sopranos, and it plays off perfectly here. They're just very casual about the whole thing, and it makes it all the more absurd and hilarious.

Then Punisher ended the joke with an exclamation, it was grand.

The reason why this guy was set to be whacked is more over the top then anything in the movie, but I had a better laugh with it anyways.
It's over the top in a much more original way that played well in this medium anyways, yet something you might expect to see in Monty Python.

The guy in question really is pathetic, and even though it looks like Punisher is just keeping him alive long enough to be his inside man, I think one of the reasons he didn't shoot him on the spot is because he's a harmless idiot.

He's a real d-list soldier, he drove the big boss's son around and took his abuse, but he wasn't a hard man... he wouldn't even shoot a chimp when he had to because he didn't have the heart to kill something that innocent, I think that could go into some of Castle's reasoning.

The return of Ma Gnucci has me excited for the next issue, but I'm not sure how I felt about the introduction of Elite's son. Is it more satire about super-hero cliché's, or him falling victim to one?

This sort of feels like a holiday gift from Ennis for me.
I enjoyed the movie on a very basic level, but I left disappointed anyways because I'd fallen in love with the Ennis stuff and knew the character deserved better.

Although I much prefer his MAX interpretation, MK is still great because it actually shows you can make the Punisher intentionally funny, and still craft interesting characters, interesting dialogue, and a real good look at the rational of Frank.

A big 9.5/10 for me, only losing the .5 because I'm wary of where this thing with Elite's son is going.

 

[Darthphere]

Final Crisis 5 was really good. I got in an argument with the guys at my LCS cause they were snickering at me "gobbling up that event garbage" when they were picking up their Watchmen and Sin City volumes , but in my typical badassedness I put them in their place with a swift demonstration of my Karate skills.

Yes, because when you get rocked verbally, the best thing someone who doesn't have an intelligent response can do is resort to violence.

 

[moraldeficiency]

violence is always the best response in any situation.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Captain Britain and MI-13 #8
Solid issue. I was a little confused about Cornell making the revelation that Dane's blade isn't the Ebony Blade such a big deal last issue, since he insisted that he knew all about the Ebony Blade debacle and would work to fix it in this series. Well, he put my mind at ease with this issue, since he does indeed reference all of the crap that's gone down with the multiple Ebony Blades and even has Dane confused as to why he's so deeply affected by the fact that his blade is fake. A minor point? Maybe, but it's still kind of sad that I assumed the worst since a shoddy knowledge of continuity is now the rule rather than the exception.

Anyway, the rest of the issue was great. The Spitfire/Blade stuff in particular was great. They are so gonna be f***ing soon. I really want to know more about Spitfire's vampirism now. Blade's papier-mache sword was great as well; I love quirky magical devices.

I'm wondering whether Meggan was really Meggan after all. Her nature was tied to others' perception of her due to her empathy, so if Brian was really pushing himself to believe she wasn't real, I suppose that could've made even the real Meggan wink out of existence. Kind of sad if that's what happened, but also a pretty effective plot on Plokta's part.

Speaking of Plokta, I'm curious about these Dukes of Hell. I wonder who the other ones are now. Is it a reference to that cabal of the rulers of different hell dimensions we saw last week in X-Infernus? That was Mephisto, Blackheart, Satannish, Hela, Dormammu, and Belasco (although he wasn't there because it was all about who'd get his seat). I've always thought Marvel's Hell should be organized into one cohesive whole, with different versions being merely aspects of the same place ruled by different beings. It'd be cool if Plokta and that group from X-Infernus are a move in that direction.

I Kill Giants #6
Last issue, just when you thought you'd figured this series out, it dropped the mother of all plot twists straight onto your face. This issue follows up on that, with Barbara finally facing her first, real, full-fledged giant. The dialogue between Barbara and the giant hints at something deeper going on, seemingly reinforcing the idea that all the fantasy stuff was just a figment of Barbara's imagination, but Sophia and the obnoxious bully b**** both clearly see and react to the giant in this issue, so I'm left confused. There's another issue to go, so I'll probably be able to piece everything together by the end of that issue; although, this series has been anything but obvious in a lot of its storytelling, so I could see the question of what the fantasy elements' true nature is being left open-ended.

Anyway, the art is gorgeous, and that's coming from an unabashed hater of almost all anime. Niimura has a scratchy style that somehow blends into whole pictures beautifully while leaving a lot of the internal detail looking a bit chaotic but effective.

The little cartoons inside the back cover are hilarious, by the way. Kelly and Niimura must really like each other to be able to poke fun at themselves and each other that way. Kelly's neglected kids are great, too.

 

[fifthfiend]

Yes, because when you get rocked verbally, the best thing someone who doesn't have an intelligent response can do is resort to violence.

And then brag about it on the internet.

 

[mjdiddy1]

I was under the impression Emma was there to read Osborne's mind to know that the offer he was putting on the table was legit but also who say's Emma doesn't have ulterior motives that open the door more for Cyclops' mutant agenda?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Cyclops' only mutant agenda is to ensure mutants' survival. I don't see why Emma would need to sit on the Illuminaughty to do that. Just make the same statement to Osborn that they made to Stark: "We're not going to play your game, so don't f*** with us and we won't destroy you."

 

[mjdiddy1]

I don't think Emma is evil because if she is it negates her storyline in Manifest Destiny (like Marvel would really care)when she felt guilt over all the wrong she has done. That's why it was odd to see her with all these guys. So there's got to be more to it.

 

[GNR]

Bought:

Powers Vol.1 and 2
Astro City:The Dark Ages Book One
Alias Vol.3 and 4

Thoughts later.

 

[Gilpesh]

B.P.R.D. - War on Frogs #2

Loved it. Interesting to see the less indestructible members of the B.P.R.D. dealing with the frog creatures that even gave Hellboy a tough time. Also, it pulled off a great survival horror story...


And yes, I only got one comic... I'm not cool.

 

[SouLeSS]

Yes, because when you get rocked verbally, the best thing someone who doesn't have an intelligent response can do is resort to violence.

Why do you post here again?

 

[Blader5489]

And the more I'm thinking about it, the clearer it's becoming on what Marvel's next event is going to be Dr. Doom, Loki, and Namor against Norman Osborne.

They've certainly been building to Doom making a move against the MU for the past year or so. He's allied with Namor, Loki, and Red Skull, so a rivalry with Norman would be the last straw before Doom goes into conquer-the-world mode.

 

[Darthphere]

Why do you post here again?

Because I'm better than you.