Bought/Thought 4/11

[deemar325]

Hey assassin old buddy, what happened with Gail simone?

I'd like to know also.


Oh yeah whatup people.

 

[jaydawg]

You realise Iron Fist is not in The Loners.

So am I in the minority when I say this is something that never gets old?

 

[Assassin]

He was talking **** about her on another messageboard and gail Simone pwned his ass, its all quite comedic.

No she didnt, she pmed me and asked me to stop because she didnt want to ban me. I stopped because I stopped reading her books so I couldnt critisize any more.

 

[deemar325]

Damn that sucks.

 

[WOLVERINE25TH]

My stuff.

http://www.215ink.com/reviews_041107_dc.php

 

[deemar325]

Your stuff? what is it?

 

[Red]

Dreads reviews most noticeably, the NA one are shorted than usual.

 

[MaskedManJRK]

GHOST RIDER #10: To my bemusement, the cover actually hypes TWO events; the icon for WWH is at the side, and the banner is under CASUALTIES OF WAR. Out of all the tie-in's, GHOST RIDER's is the mose shallow; basically the only connection that the corpse that Satan has just reanimated is the latest Jack O'Lantern, who was killed by Punisher in CW #6. This is stretching it at best, and considering GR sells moderately above the Top 50, one wonders if Marvel is pushing their luck for only a temporary and minor boost, if any. The story takes a bit of a twisted way of getting to the point of Blaze and the sheriff coming to an understanding to fight Jack O'Lantern/Satan and his army of zombies. As usual, Texeira's art is lovely, and worth the price alone. But sadly this has often been the case of GR, where the visuals were far stronger than the story. The story isn't bad, just a shame it's based around an utterly useless and dishonest origin retcon (it's dishonest because Way seems to believe it's not a retcon and just chugs along). The story is dragging a little but hopefully next issue seems some more kick to it. It is good to have a hero on the open road again, though. Readable, but not spectacular.

Is it a stretch tie-in? A bit, yeah, but I'm enjoying it, if not just because of Satan as Jack O'Lantern. The bit with him leading the zombies out of the cemetary, screaming "THIS IS THE WORST ARMY OF THE DEAD I HAVE EVER SEEN!" was hilarious to me. t:

NEW AVENGERS #29: Back to our regular programming, where superheroes fight other superheroes, and Bendis insists on ninjas. And Yu gets in two gratuitus arse shots of Elektra within the first 2 pages. This title has improved since CW started, but this issue suffers from some sketchy art and some of Bendis' wonky story order. In an attempt to liven things up, he switches back and forth between various flashbacks, as if he'd seen MEMENTO that weekend. The Mighty Avengers come off as *****ebags and even Ms. Marvel's semi-compassion isn't much better than the "Oh golly, this feels wrong but I'll comply with these nasty orders anyway!" baloney that Mr. Fantastic and Spider-Man gave us for half a year. Fortunately, Dr. Strange's magic comes off big here, allowing them to easily escape Iron Man and even hide in plain sight from him; until he sics Brother Voodoo of all people, who risks breaking some of Strange's seals. Iron Man also gets the runaround from Danny Rand's lawyers, but frankly the CW BATTLE DAMAGE REPORT already revealed this sort of bit, so I saw it coming. Bendis continues to be incapable of keeping a secret, and he gets no favors from Marvel, which is astounding considering he is their unofficial vice EIC. So the issue more or less ends where it started, and while some backstory was nice it felt a bit like filler. Interesting filler, but still filler. The Mighty Avengers are coming along as not much more than Iron Man's stormtroopers, though, as Marvel inists that Iron Man wasn't the antagonist of CW, despite what 99.999999999999999999999999% of their audience believes. So far, even with the stupid ninjas, this is a better arc than some, which isn't saying much for this title. So, any bets on how anti-climatic the second Ronin reveal will be? More or less than the first?

Wait, first off...there is such a thing as stupid ninjas?

But anyway, I digging this new approach the New Avengers is going. If my predition is correct, then the NA are going to be assisted by The Hand to take out the SHRA. This gray morality--though it probably annoys someone who hates it when these comics are anything but bright and optimistic--is a very interesting approach. I wonder how this will go.

NOVA #1: If you didn't read ANNIHILATION, get it. Buy the HC's, track down the trades, even DL it, whatever has to be done to have not missed Marvel's strongest event in years. For those concerned about sales, ANNIHILATION overall sold moderately, starting around the Top 40's and ending around the 60's, which considering that it was the midst of CW and starring characters who are C-List and lower prior, those are solid numbers. Amung the better selling mini's was NOVA, which is written by the same duo that pen here. This takes place some time after the end of ANNIHILATION #7 with Nova, the last Corpsman, stretching himself thin trying to respond to one crisis after the next because there are no more Nova Corps to patrol the universe. The Worldmind urges him to rest or rebuild the Corps, but Rider won't, insisting that any time wasted is time better spent helping. And so Rider goes about smashing giant Planet-destroying beings and smashing more bugs, only to break down upon finding an adrift space station, months too late. A reunion with Earth is set up when attempting to use his powers to travel through some stargate to respond to yet another crisis winds him smack dab near Earth, where Iron Man & SHIELD have detected him as a threat. Of course they do. He's a power outside of their control, and anything Iron Man cannot control is a threat. Hence why he "really hates magic". Anyway, the first issue shows how much Nova has grown. Sure, he does joke a little, but he has become a true champion, literally trying to rise above his limits to try to save the universe, one planet at a time. The war is over and he still hasn't given up on his mission. He still has issues from losing the Corps, but he doesn't let it render him into an inert emo ball. He flies out and he kicks arse. And he doesn't take lightly anyone who tries to get in his way; he isn't the kid who used to have trouble fighting the Rhino anymore, as he tears apart cosmic enemies rather quickly with the Worldmind and all the Corps' power at his back. Yeah, it's probably like Ion, but as I always say, if you are going to rip something off, at least get it right. There is a reckoning with Iron Man & The Thunderbolts for the next two issues, and while it may have seemed a little convient getting there, it should be worth the ride. I definately hope this book succeeds as like MOON KNIGHT and IRON FIST, it looks like another successful relaunch of an old franchise, least in terms of quality. The art's good too. Buy it!

I haven't read Annilation yet--waiting until it hits TPB--but I read this and very much liked it. I was suprised that it was actually beginner friendly. I assumed there would be a lot of jargon crap to go through, but it was pretty cool. I espicially loved this one line from Nova after taking out the spore for the bugs.

"Your ride is busted, I'm Nova, and you're all dead. Allow me to demonstrate."

Bad. Ass.

Looking forward to the next issue, wonder how he'll fare against Iron Man.

PUNISHER: WAR JOURNAL #6: At least the background isn't one still photo for the entire issue. And it continues the theme of breaking up the order of scenes to attempt to make them more interesting. Hey, look, I know it is a common literary tool, but some people do it well and others just use it for shorthand. Fortunately, while some bits of this book seem silly, like Castle in some ad-hoc "Captain Punisher" costume and the new Hatemonger, Fraction's had a bit of quirky humor throughout. I mean this is a book that had Punisher fight little Iron Man robots, after all. Hatemonger is manipulating anti-terror vigilance to wage war on Mexico and Punisher escapes SHIELD to try to fight him, but winds up bound to a stake in barbed wire with dogs about to eat him. Just about the usual for Frank. It's fairly silly, but it's not like Ennis hasn't relied on some wonky humor for the past, like, 700 years? He gave the Russian inflatable boobs and a dress for F's sake. And it keeps Castle's one-note schtick from seeming too stale. The concept of Punisher wanting to wear a silly Cap costume seems ridiculous, but I can't look away. And besides, no one said the fella was sane. He just does a service by offing crooks.

Actually, I think the concept of "Captain Punisher" actually got some merit after this issue--Punisher sees this Hatemonger guy wearing a Cap-like costume killing innocent people for reasons of "patriotism." The bastard is sullying Cap's name, after all the s**t the man went through before he died.

So this makes Frank angry. Very angry. And while normal people, when we kick something or curse outloud when angry, Frank puts on his hunting gear, gets some automatic weapons, and busts on the skulls of the wicked. Now he's going to do that, and, in his way, reclaim Cap's honor alongside it.

That's how I read it, anyway.

 

[Phaedrus45]

See, this here, people, is a real reviewist. Dread, along with BrianWilly, make these B/T threads worthwhile. Longwinded as they may be, they really get into it. You should all be ashamed. Thank You, Dread and BW.

I'd be more ashamed having a horrid picture of a naked David Hasslehoff as my avatar. That just creeps me out every time I see it.

 

[Kevin]

I'd be more ashamed having a horrid picture of a naked David Hasslehoff as my avatar. That just creeps me out every time I see it.

Don't knock the hoff, man. I wish every man was as sexy as the hoff... ew.

 

[Phaedrus45]

Thoughts:

She-Hulk #17: I've just realized it's been a while since I've seen a "Slott is God" thread; but, after reading another solid issue of She-Hulk, and especially comparing it to the dreadful Nextwave, it's clear he hasn't lost his touch. From the opening page decrying how worthless a "double-page establishing shot" of the SHEILD helecarrier is to the missadventures of Ms. Book dealing with the aftermath of her affair with Awesome Andy, this book hits on all cylanders. All this, plus She-Hulk discovering what really happened to her cousin, The Hulk. Can't wait for next issue. 9/10

Wolverine Origins #13: Still one of the quickest books you can read; but, sadly, one of the worst, too. (Definitely not as bad as Blade; but, with so many solid books coming out by Marvel, this is probably in the bottom 10.) First, I have never liked Steve Dillon's art with this title. It worked with other books, like the Punisher titles; but, it just tends to distract me from the story and his art just isn't good enough to warrant a full page spread (and this issue has three.) Second, I'm just tired of the storyline of "I have a son and never realized it." We have seen it recently in Batman and JSA, and this title does a very bad job with it. (Plus, with all of Wolverine's experience and with his numerous battles with better villians, we're suppose to believe this unoriginal character, Daken, is so much better than Wolverine that he totally wipes his butt all over the floor. 4/10

New X-Men #37: Marvel readers have been teased about the return of Magik for quite some time. I'm not sure if it's really going to happen this time; but, this issue is the prelude for "Quest for Magik," and it starts off with a bang! Sure, 11 of the pages are full-page spreads and two are a double-page spread; but, they are beautifully done, the pages are dark and mysterious, and by the time Blindfold's story is done telling about the fall and rise of Belasco, the readers will be hooked and dying for the next issue to come out. New X-Men continues to be one of the best X-Men related titles, and this storyline is going to continue that commitment to excellence. 10/10

Official Handbook - Spider-Man: I believe this is the third Spider-Man OHOTMU; but, this one does update the Spider-Man bio with a description of his new powers after The Other and how his webbing now comes normally out of his wrist. Plus, you get many new bios from the world of Spider-Man. 8/10

 

[yenaled]

I forgot about the bank holiday on monday, comics don't get here till tomorrow

 

[SouLeSS]

"Okay. Lets Review. Your ride is toast. I'm Nova. You're dead. Allow me to demonstrate."

Fixed it for you.

 

[Marcdachamp]

New X-Men- PICK OF THE WEEK! Wow. I was pumped for this issue when I heard that Niko Henrichon was going to be contributing to the art, but I really wasn't sure whether or not this arc would hold my attention. Besides, the last couple arcs, while good, hadn't grabbed me the way the first one did. Boy, was I wrong. This issue was a beauty. Phaedrus, I see you liked this. Anyone else enjoying this should definitely pick up Pride of Baghdad. Or, if you bought that, give this issue a shot. It's worth it for the visual treat alone. 9/10

New Avengers- Unlike Dread, I didn't read the Civil War Report, so I didn't know how Danny was going to be an Avenger with his identity public. I'm glad I didn't buy it, because it would've spoiled a great scene. I'm loving this group, and the book's direction. There's a great feeling that anything can and will happen in the Post-Civil War Marvel Universe, and I love that. Brother Voodoo showing up was nice. It's cool seeing Tony really using the toys at his disposal. It's how he's always been. Now, he has the whole Marvel Universe to play with. 9/10

Thunderbolts- Ellis is taking his time, but that's not a bad thing. He's showing us the motivations of each team member, and that's cool. He's delving into history pretty well, and that'll be fun as we watch this powder keg explode. This reminds me of Busiek's first year. We all know things are gonna spin wildly out of control, but the fun part will be seeing how things turn out. I'm worried for Songbird, though. Her death could make things interesting, on the other hand. It might get Robbie Baldwin and Chen Lu to show that this team does have heroes on it. 9/10

Punisher War Journal- Frantic. Crazy. A little goofy. But, most importantly, fun. The first page grips you, and really sets a great tone for this arc. Can't wait to see what happens next. 8/10

Spider-Girl- Waitaminute. Did Tom DeFalco use a double entendre? Man, that was unexpected. Cool, though. Nice issue, overall. I hate how Frenz is drawing May with small eyeholes, though. It bugs me. 8/10

She-Hulk- To be honest... I'm really not getting into this book as much anymore. I loved the first page, with the comic geeks talking about Helicarrier splash pages, but the rest was just ok. And I realize where Slott's going with She-Hulk sleeping with everybody, but it's getting kind of old. After World War Hulk, I might drop this in favor of Slott's Initiative. 6/10

Uncanny X-Men- IGN pretty much nailed this. We're almost finished with a year long arc and it just feels like it took way too long to get there. Maybe it's the fact that most Shiar stories feel formulaic to me, but I'm anticipating the end, because I really want to see if Brubaker can do better on this title. He's worked magic on Daredevil and Cap, but his X-Men just isn't impressing me as much as I'd hope. 6/10

Wolverine: Origins- A decent fight scene, but... poof, 3 minutes later, I'm done reading it. Even pre-paid cell phones don't charge a dollar a minute. 4/10

 

[MaskedManJRK]

Fixed it for you.

Sorry, my memory fails me at 1 AM.

 

[PhotoJones]

i'll make this quick, considering i'm on my lunch break...

new avengers #29 - not as good as last issue, but not bad. the biggest complaint i had was the flow. it seemed to me that for most of the issue yu's pencils and bendis' words were just a step off from each other...i dunno...maybe it's just me. it's nice to see brother voodoo again, and i assume he'll have a much larger role next issue.

there's not much else to say except that i'm digging this new direction, and i like the chemistry the new team has.

 

[Phaedrus45]

2nd Thoughts:

Stormwatch PHD #6: The best of all the recent "World Storm" titles to be relaunched by Wildstorm. The past 5 issues have been leading up to this issue, and it delivers. Like I've said in the past, I never followed along with Stormwatch (or any of the Wildstorm titles from waay back in the Image days, even though I do own the entire first 50 issues of Vol. 1 of the title); so, I don't know how important knowing of Wildstorm's past helps in understanding of these current books. For this title, once I got to issue #2, I was hooked. The characters, dialogue and art all work together so well. In this issue, the crap hits the fan, and we are getting Stormwatch's version of Assault on Precinct 16. While I've dropped some of the other World Storm titles, like the awful Gen 13, this one will stay on my pull list. 9/10

Grifter/Midnighter #2: I find this comic much better than Midnighter's current solo series. Midnighter is having awful nightmares about his teammates getting killed, and in this issue he teams up with Grifter after discovering his nightmares might be becoming reality. The comic looks good, and it reads decently. It makes me more interested in discovering more about both characters past. 7/10

Friday the 13th #5: I decided to try out two of the horror comics currently being put out by Wildstorm, this and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. At least with this comic, I see very little reason for anyone bothering to pick it up. I'll stick around to see how it all ends; but, the characters are even more two dimensional than what you see in the Friday the 13th movies and the story isn't original in the least bit (except for Jason obviously being interested in the main heroine, which seems more out of character than anything original). In this issue, the death toll rises; but, why anyone would care is beyond me. The characters aren't at all interesting, the comic lets you know in the very first issue who the one survivor will be, and the artist just wants to show the reader a bunch of **** and gore to try and appeal to their target reader. 5/10

After The Cape #2: This black and white comic isn't anything shooting of originality; but, the concept of an alchoholic superhero who can't live up to the dreams he has for his family, thus resorting to aligning himself with supervillians to achieve the dreams is a tragic tale. It does well in displaying the dark side of alchoholism, the need to support your family and look well in their eyes, and how all of it can effect ones job or life decisions. I believe it's only 3 issues long; but, I get the distinct impression it's not going to end nicely. 8/10

Death Dealer #1: Nat Jones and Jay Fotos do an excellent job of bringing Frank Frazetta's creation to Image comics. The art is absolutely beautiful, and the story is pretty interesting too. Basically, it appears an undead army has arisen, and issue #1 shows the rebirth of they mysterious Death Dealer. While the story isn't original, the art that displays the story should blow the reader away. After getting to the last page, I was real happy I chose to pick up this first issue, and next week I'm definitely going to add this title to my pull list. I can't wait for the next issue. 10/10

Mr. Stuffins #1: The second new comic I decided to take a chance on this week, and one I'll definitely not bothering with again. The story begins with a guy running from corporation bad guys who are after top secret information on a disk the fleeing man has on him. The guy runs into a toy store, switches disks in a Mr. Stuffins stuffed bear, and (of course) a kid and his neglectant father come into the store and purchase the same bear that has the disk. The fleeing man gets captured, the corporation bad guys discover the kid and his family have the doll, and they go after the family. All the while, the disk turns the bear into a current version of Boris The Bear, an assassin stuffed animal with the personality of The Punisher. The kid's family is going through a seperation, and all the parents do is fight and not really pay any attention to the kid. Yep, it's just as it sounds, just like a very bad movie that's been done numerous times before. Stay away from this mess. 2/10

Spider-Man Magazine #1: My LCN put this in my box, and not knowing what it was, I went ahead and purchased it. It just is a reprint of Marvel Adventures Spider-Man, Marvel Adventures Avengers, a reprint of an old Amazing Spider-Man comic, a reprint of a Franklin Richards comic, and then some additional stuff, like trading cards and puzzle games. The one thing that did impress me is how good the comics looked in this larger format. It seemed to make the comics a bit more impressive; and, if someone's looking to buy an elementary student a comic that can get them interested in Marvel comics, it's a pretty good deal at only $5.99. 6/10

 

[Kirk Langstrom]

New Avengers #29.

All i can say is; it was GREAT watching Dr. Strange completely own the (so called ) "Mighty" Avengers.

 

[BrianWilly]

52 Week 49
Great week. Things get tied up, things build to a climax, and the stage is set for the finale.

Chang Tzu secretly being a member of the Great Ten was a great move and ties a lot of the pieces of the story together in one *********ory stroke. And how awesome were the Metal Men here? Say what you will about DC willing to put down some D-listers, but they're just as likely to spotlight and respect some others. This series, and Countdown to follow, are abject examples of this.

I do worry about tying up further loose ends, though. What's going on with the space-farers and Buddy in particular? What's all this time is broken stuff with Skeets and Booster and when's that going to get fixed up? Is Batwoman dead or not? Stuff like that.

(8.2 out of 10)


Nova #1
"(Gutteral shriek of abject terror!)"

Teheheheheheaituahjgk I'm easily amused.

I've decided, and you should all agree with me, that Nova is the sole human left in the entirety of the Marvel universe who is still entirely sympathetic. Everyone else for the past year has ranged the gamut of fascism to utter stupidity to thuggish hamfisting, and here's this guy who's literally overworking himself to death trying to restore peace in the galaxy. That there is sexy, people. That there? Is sexy. I'm imagining having sex with that right now.

The concept of the Worldmind-ish persona babbling away in the protagonist's head while said protagonist is running around doing missions seems...really familiar...though I can't really recall any specific instances like it at the moment. The closest thing I can think of would be Oracle or some other tech operative constantly on the headphones and feeding you info, but that doesn't seem completely right either. Oh well, I'll know when I think of it.

So I really liked this issue, but I'm probably looking even more forward to what's to come. 'Cause, admit it folks, Richard Rider beating the unholy feces out of Iron Man and Robbie Baldwin is basically a guarantee of good times to come. Wow. I never thought Marvel would ever actually have my attention by promising pain to its more bastardly characters. But then, it's pretty much the premise of World War Hulk too, isn't it.

(8.8 out of 10)


Wonder Woman #7
Noticeably better in a lot of ways from the issue before. Though considering the poor quality of the issue before, permaybehaps that doesn't say much. The writing and dialogue still sort of teeters between the levels of "Are you kidding?" and "OH FCK JUST KILL ME NOW," but the plot moves along in somewhat interesting ways. WW's interaction with Nemesis is...surprisingly, pretty bearable. A bit cliche, but bearable. Sometimes even funny. Diana's internal monologue is still unbearably juvenile and emo, but at least it does seem to have a point.

Things go kinda really downhill during the second half of the issue, though. Seriously, the plot just...goes weird. She finds Circe in a bathroom and then Circe goes away? And what's up with the art? What happened, Johnson? You're usually leagues above this. Did you finally decide to match the quality of your work with the actual quality of the story?

Um, why is Sarge Steel an utter evil bastard now? Did I miss something? I seem to remember this guy being the nicer DC equivalent of Nick Fury. Did I miss something? Or, let me guess...Ms. Picoult is the one who missed something here. Doesn't this sort of destroy WW's new status quo before it was even established? I mean, Steel is her boss in her secret identity, but Steel is also the guy who would imprison her in a glass box and torture her for secrets to foreign weapons of mass destruction? What's she supposed to say when this is all over? "LOL I forgive him LOL I'll just keep working for him ladeeda everything's okay"?

The U.S. government wanting the technology of the Purple Death Ray (teheheharfuajk IlovethePurpleDeathRaysomuch) is a pretty feasible reason for wanting to go after WW and the events of Amazons Attack, and something that was actually established in Rucka's run so I'm all the more willing to accept it...but here for some reason Picoult still manages to make it seem completely random and out of the blue. For around half a year now we've been teased with the notion of the US government really having a hard-on for catching WW -- from the events of Manhunter and so forth -- and we're just given the reason here so straightfroward and so anticlimatically...it feels like we should've had a bit of foreshadowing about this, seeing as how it's a pretty important plot point. But no, what we get is "MUAHAHA WE ARE TEH EVIL GOVERNMENT WE CAPTURE YU FOR WEAPONS mine is an evil laugh."

(5.5 out of 10)


New Avengers #29
Okay...so far, so good. C'mon, who didn't get a laugh out of zombie Steve freaking the piss out of Iron Dick? Marvel made the man a giant bastard so readers will hate him, and then proceeds to have him and his team get pwned so readers can get their rocks off. It's so stupid, it works. Hell, I'm game. As I've said, I don't frankly care that much if they make Tony a villain. I just care that they're upfront about it.

Rand's lawyers cleverly sidestepping Stark's authority was sort of interesting, though I imagine that if Stark really wanted to get around that nonsense, he would get around it. And easily. I mean, where was all this legal semantics tomfoolery when Tony was bending the Consitution over and making it his btch? Where was it when he forcibly stopped Jen Walters' appeals from reaching the court? And now Iron Fist goes "LAW!" and Tony can do naught but shake his fists angrily at the air? Hnn.

Nice appearance by Brother Voodoo. What else to say? There's ninjas. I don't care about ninjas, and yet here they are.

(7.8 out of 10)


The Trials of Shazam #6
Has it only been six issues of this thing? Christ on a pogo, it really needs to end already. At this rate Mary will be starting her adventures before Freddy even begins to finish his.

So...not a bad issue. Straightforward, which is good for this series. The art is great, even though Freddy still looks like a pale-ass Bruce Lee. The white-dreadlocked antagonist chick whose name I can't remember finally seems to do something besides stand around acting smug and villainish.

Once again, of course and unfortunately, Winick is not content to just leave existing Captain Marvel cosmology alone and proceeds to "update" some stuff once again as if anything were wrong with it in the first place. So now Freddy can say Shazam without calling the lightning...unless he were calling it with his thoughts...or it's the right time...or...something...what? Ugh, I don't even care.

(7 out of 10)


Teen Titans #45
Again, better than previous issues in the sense that, well, sht actually seems to make sense. I still don't care, even a tiny bit, about any of the Titans East...but the regular Titans actually get around to doing stuff so it's all good. And Raven gets to finally do something! Seriously. Her superpower to make you emo finally gets put to good use when she doubles Risk's emoness, making his emo far too emo for anyone to handle.

It is sort of weird how it seems like the Titans were winning in one moment and in the next they just lost or something. Robin's like, "They've got more strength than us!" Wait, really? You've got Wonder Girl and Miss Martian, neither of whom are exactly pushoevers. And you've got the goddamn Batgirl, who should've been able to kill them all at the speed of AWESOME.

(6.9 out of 10)


Tales of the Unexpected #7
Hmm. The Spectre tales have all been good enough, but we've gone through this entire miniseries just to find out that Cris does actually have control over the Spectre? Didn't...didn't we just do that, during the whole Crisis Aftermath thingy? I guess I'll wait till the final issue to see what goes down but in retrospect this all seems sort of...I dunno...pointless? Good, but pointless? I dunno.

The Dr. Thirteen story is still absolutely, GLORIOUSLY filled with crack. Actually it seems less crack-filled than some former issues, but hell, it's still great. Vampire Gorilla Nazis? Never a bad idea.

(2.7 out of 5 for the Spectre story)
(5 out of 5 for the Dr. Thirteen story)
(7.7 out of 10)

 

[Darthphere]

See, this here, people, is a real reviewist. Dread, along with BrianWilly, make these B/T threads worthwhile. Longwinded as they may be, they really get into it. You should all be ashamed. Thank You, Dread and BW.

There's something on your nose there.

 

[PhotoJones]

There's something on your nose there.

yep. even i can see it from here. it's brown.

 

[Sebastos]

Anyone get Loners #1?

 

[Phaedrus45]

yep

 

[Dread]

See, this here, people, is a real reviewist. Dread, along with BrianWilly, make these B/T threads worthwhile. Longwinded as they may be, they really get into it. You should all be ashamed. Thank You, Dread and BW.

You're welcome.

Dreads reviews most noticeably, the NA one are shorted than usual.

I was in a rush to complete them before the night was over as I had fieldwork the next morning. Also, the more books I buy the shorter each review tends to be; weeks where I only have 4-5 I have more time for each one. Plus, honestly, I tend to ramble on about stuff I hate a lot easier.

1).Is it a stretch tie-in? A bit, yeah, but I'm enjoying it, if not just because of Satan as Jack O'Lantern. The bit with him leading the zombies out of the cemetary, screaming "THIS IS THE WORST ARMY OF THE DEAD I HAVE EVER SEEN!" was hilarious to me. t:



2).Wait, first off...there is such a thing as stupid ninjas?

But anyway, I digging this new approach the New Avengers is going. If my predition is correct, then the NA are going to be assisted by The Hand to take out the SHRA. This gray morality--though it probably annoys someone who hates it when these comics are anything but bright and optimistic--is a very interesting approach. I wonder how this will go.



3).I haven't read Annilation yet--waiting until it hits TPB--but I read this and very much liked it. I was suprised that it was actually beginner friendly. I assumed there would be a lot of jargon crap to go through, but it was pretty cool. I espicially loved this one line from Nova after taking out the spore for the bugs.

"Your ride is busted, I'm Nova, and you're all dead. Allow me to demonstrate."

Bad. Ass.

Looking forward to the next issue, wonder how he'll fare against Iron Man.



4).Actually, I think the concept of "Captain Punisher" actually got some merit after this issue--Punisher sees this Hatemonger guy wearing a Cap-like costume killing innocent people for reasons of "patriotism." The bastard is sullying Cap's name, after all the s**t the man went through before he died.

So this makes Frank angry. Very angry. And while normal people, when we kick something or curse outloud when angry, Frank puts on his hunting gear, gets some automatic weapons, and busts on the skulls of the wicked. Now he's going to do that, and, in his way, reclaim Cap's honor alongside it.

That's how I read it, anyway.

1). No denying that GHOST RIDER also had some funny lines, like the one you just mentioned. Guess that is why, horrid retcon aside, I still read the book faithfully, and manage to enjoy it.

2). Ninjas are overdone. I'd rather see a symbiote before a ninja these days. Heck, I'd even take the Jackal.

CW gave us nothing but "gray between" and I do get a little tired of it. But NA has definately improved. This roster seems to have more chemistry to it than the last. And Bendis, to his credit, makes no attempt to make Iron Man some conflicted noble hero and is embracing what a fascist, Big Brother-esque *****e he has become. His own solo's sales have boosted almost 100% since CW, so I guess some people find this interesting. It just seems a little weird that Iron Man's Stormtroopers get to fight actual villians, while the New Avengers are still hero infighting. I have had 7 months of hero infighting. Need a rest.

And it was great to see Dr. Strange kick arse, especially since next issue he apparently get stabbed with a katanna. But, ninjas aside I'd be lying if I didn't admit this is one title that definately improved since CW.

3). Half the audience is probably rooting for Iron Man to get some hubris beaten into him. And you are right, it was rather friendly to readers who sadly missed ANNIHILATION. Hope you enjoy the trades. Nova has definately evolved into a likeable bad-arse in 2006.

4). I never said Capt. Punisher wasn't something I didn't want to read. I even defended it from critics by comparing it to Ennis' sometimes overrated dark humor ploys with his MAX Punisher title. I suppose it does make some sense and it is good to see someone react to Cap's death without needing to do it in a shameless money-grabbing mini, but in their own book. Just at times Punisher seemed rather ambivelant to many superheroes and had shot at Cap in the past at times, so seeing Fraction have Castle almost bend over backwards in respect sometimes seems jarring. But to be fair, Millar sparked that trend in CW, too. Fraction at least has a manic sense of humor that keeps things interesting. I still like PWJ, don't get me wrong. The new Hatemonger actually looks a little like a cross between Frag-Smasher and The Grand Director in design.

Anyone get Loners #1?

I did. My review is on page #3. I liked it. Didn't anyone else get it? It deserves a chance.

Here is my reposted review, just in case you're lazy:

THE LONERS #1: After a mild degree of buzz from WIZARD and Newsarama, the spin-off mini to RUNAWAYS' first arc of their second volume is finally upon us. The cover is strange, with poorer art than Moline's interiors, and it literally has text at the bottom explaining the premise. In a way it seems like a movie poster, which will be the theme of all 5 covers, supposedly. But it did make the book seem odd. Maybe they are trying to make it look "mainstream indie" to try to attract some newcomers, but that seems odd considering it is a spin-off of the good but low selling cult fave RUNAWAYS. It is akin to the low selling Mirage TMNT comic having a spin off about CASEY JONES. Despite all their efforts, one cannot imagine the audience for this being large. I have been eagerly waiting for this launch for months now, and after some fears from the previews that it would be a spandex free, emo-palooza, well, those doubts are wrong. Yes, there is plenty of angst, but this is about a superhero self-help group, so it is supposed to have angst. But the second half of the tale does have genuine superhero action. Against an actual supervillian, to boot! Yes, yes, superheroes fighting supervillians post CW, and 500 civilians didn't even die. Shocking, but apparently Marvel can still publish these. Cebulski is coming off of X-MEN: FAIRY TALES and editting the first volume of RUNAWAYS. In a way the set-up of the heroes having a "superhero anonymous" meeting gives Ceb the ability to have his characters literally name themselves and summarize their stories. Ceb takes a step back from RUNAWAYS #6, which had the team become a de-facto team group. This time around, the group is back to their original premise to attempt to "kick the self-destructive habit" of superheroing because it always wrecks their civilian lives, and is dangerous to boot. Chris Powell (Darkhawk) is unstable and new member Mattie Frank ("the young one" of the Spider-Women) has her own horror stories from ALIAS. Civil War is mentioned as a reason for why the group needs to maintain their retirement, seemingly to adhear to the law. Julie Power ends up using hers and explains it as it being the hardest of all for her because she gained her powers as a child, younger than even the mutant Johnny Gallo (Ricochet), and cannot remove it via a costume like Micky (Turbo) and Phil Urich (Green Goblin). But it turns out Mattie really doesn't want to retire, and merely moved to CA to track down the MGH gang that messed with her, and manages to rope along Darkhawk and Ricochet into the battle. Their fight is well drawn and paced, and so within the first issue we sort of have a schism between this group. Half the team will be fighting the MGH dealers on the side, and half wonders where they keep running off too. The cover asks if the team can keep out of the spandex for good, and so far it seems like they won't. But I think that is the forgone conclusion. It's the ride getting there that counts. Honestly, in a way this is like DYNAMO 5, only with more established characters; a superhero series with a twist. Off to a solid start. It was worth the wait so far. Moline's artwork is also quite fitting, with some good colors/inks. Give it a try.

 

[Phaedrus45]

Yet More Thoughts:

Wonder Woman #7: The first four issues of Wonder Woman were pretty good ... and I understand why they had to change writer and artist ... but, considering the last three issues of Wonder Woman have been so subpar, it looks like I'll be dropping this title again. While they say Wonder Woman is part of the big three, it's clear DC is a man's world, and Wonder Woman just doesn't register on their radar. So many things stink about this comic, especially when issue #6 tried to make us believe Diana could hardly navigate around the city without looking like a caveman brought into our time. (Really? Diana can't pump gas or know how a subway works???) This title has turned into just the usual crap DC puts out now, and I ain't buying anymore. 4/10

52 - Week 49: It's kind of sad what 52 has turned itself into. At first, we were seeing a really great comic, which continually blended various storylines in each week's comic; so, if one particular story didn't interest you, another could. Now, many storylines seem forgotten as each issue focuses on just one particular storyline. I realize they are just tying everything up; but, what made this comic great is now missing. It's just another DC comic now. Plus, what made Marvel's original Secret War so great and made the readers want to get every issue throughout the entire year is missing here. Marvel gave us clues of big changes in their titles the month Secret War started: Spidey had a new costume, Colossus broke up with Kitty Pryde, and Thing was missing from the Fantastic Four. DC's OYL didn't tease us with anything to make us want to find out why certain changes happened in various comics. (For example, 52 should have showed who the father of Catwoman's baby was, not having the past year be revealed in her own comic.)

This issue focuses on setting the reader up for next week's World War III. And, while I love Black Adam and can't wait to see what they do with World War III, I just think how nobody in the regular comics act like many of the things in 52 have happened. It just seems to me like they are making this up as they go along. I'd rather be seeing what's happening in space. Even breaking up the days of the week in each book holds no significance. It's just obvious, the more I think about the last couple months of 52, the more disappointed I am how they choose to end it. 7/10

Teen Titans #45: I think my problem is that I compare this comic with those classic New Teen Titans stories I read back in the 80's, and they just don't compare. It's not fair to Beechen and Johns; but, it's like an American Idol seeing a classic song I love, and I just hear them butchering it. This story isn't terrible; but, there are so many characters and most of them are just versions of established, better heroes and villians I've read over the years. At least Batgirl will seem to be back to normal, now that Robin has taken away Slade's control over her. This is just your normal Teen Titans action issue with more action to come next issue. 7/10