Bought/Thought for April 23rd, 2008

[DoomJester]

I don't have a lot of time right now to give a long review, so I'll go for very short ones.

Thor 8
Great book this week! The Djurdjevic run has was great! The characterization was great, and there are some plot revelations which should be interesting, but also raise a few troubling questions, in the sense that you'll ask yourself "does that really make sense?" And the issue in many ways hangs its hat on that. Did we really need a talk between Odin and Thor? Probably not, but it gives us a a great fight! Surprisingly, I enjoyed Donald Blake portion, but I feel Jane really was dropped in just to give us a the big reveal... All in all, Thor 7 and 8 were fantastic reads, fun for anybody who's ever really wanted to read some Thor, or is just interested in pretty art. If JMS can keep pacing like this, everything else will fall into place.

Batman 675
Let me say that I love Batman, he is the reason I read DC, even if there were better books out (and actually, there are lots of better books than Batman now), I would never drop Batman... well, maybe for Dark Tower! But still, I love Batman, this issue was atrocious. I thought this was the RIP start, when I didn't see that Ross cover, and I knew we were in for one of those "stop-gap" issues, where the writer has nothing to right but they have to get an issue, so any trash gets put on the page. I expect a lot better from Grant, from many writers. Poor art, a girl telling Bruce she doesn't know who he is. I've never heard that one before! Then the series is broken up by by Nightwing and Robin's time out, and some Talia/Damian conversations. So, you've essentially got three stories, none is enjoyable, and the art is bad. So, by the last page, which could've been interesting, you don't care. Really dissapointed, and this is a bad time for Grant to do an issue like this because Final Crisis and RIP are hyped projects and this could scare some people away from him (if they didn't know him).

X-Force 3
More set up. I wasn't very impressed, and I don't think I'm going to be either. Oh wow, no villains have ever plotted to destroy the X-men before! I don't quite understand the characters completely as well... I understand the X-men, but not the Purifiers. You know the Purifier higher-ups are doing something big, but you don't know what, and you're supposed to be in the dark, because there is tension building within the Purifier ranks because not even some of the Purifiers know what's up. That isn't a bad technique to try, but I'm not feeling it. And part of that is the set-up-- villainous plots are a dime a dozen. Just get on with it! The dialogue is good, the characters have an excuse to be unnecessarily edgy, so just get on with it. I may get rid of this series.

Uncanny X-men 497
Same problems as X-Force honestly, except the characters aren't edgy. I like Emma and Scott here. Great couple. Problems with issue-- Has anything happened to Emma Scott? Do you believe anything will happen to Wolverine before X-men 500? You see the problem in reading this book and ending it the way Brubaker did?

Mighty Avengers 12
Over-hyped issue. In my mind there were no major Skrull reveals. All dialogue basically. Dread was right, Nick tailing that girl in the spy suit was almost laughable. Why did he even suspect? I don't know, he's Fury. Art was good, but Maleev's high-point was Confession.

 

[Red]

I really enjoyed Mighty Avengers this week.

 

[Dread]

Dread's Bought/Thought for 4/23/08 Part II:

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS #11: Dragotta fills in for most of the issue for Cruz, and does another bang-up job. His art is very appropriate for this series and I never miss Cruz when he is around. Coover gets in a few pages of flashbacks in her "Marvel Girl" style and it works very well, and has always been appealing.

The actual story is a bit weird, and relies on the XM:FC's biggest continuity flub; that is, involving Man-Thing in their adventures, considering these are supposed to be the mid-60's era X-Men and Man-Thing didn't show up until 1971. But because the tone is humorous one can let it slide. The issue focuses mostly on a group called the Continu-iTeens, who somehow have access to a Marvel Comics shipping facility near Man-Thing's Nexus of Realities that allows them to get comics that tell the future. Unfortunately, Mysterio has access to the waters of that swamp and is using them to menace the city with bizarre illusions (and is none too thrilled to be fighting the X-Men instead of Spider-Man). In a way it naturally has fun with continuity obsessed fans but in a way that is lighter hearted than some other attempts and comes across as wacky fun.

Personally I think having the X-Men battle some of Spidey's enemies is a cool idea (X-Men Vs. Doc Ock for some reason has appeal to me) and I might have wanted a showdown with Mysterio to be a bit more straightforward, but when a comic is as goofball as this, it doesn't matter. The Teens are triumphant, the X-Men chase off the villain and it is smoothies for everyone.

It almost is hard to believe the X-Men actually were once this light-hearted. But XM:FC is a good break from the suicide-level angst of the core X-Books.

YOUNG AVENGERS PRESENTS #4: The long awaited Vision issue and as per the design of the mini, done by another creative team. This time it is by Cornell & Brooks, with Strain on colors. Now, not everyone likes Mark Brooks' style, but I do, and think it usually is very good for young hero tales. I also had never read anything from Cornell to the best of my knowledge, but in this tale he proves capable of delivering a solid adventure story.

While Vision has the cover blurb, Stature/Cassie Lang shares the issue with him as the object of his desire. Left isolated at Camp Hammond, Vision 2.0 uses his hologram technology to impersonate Tony Stark to get her into a diner to talk. Apparently since the end of the Civil War, he has been traveling the globe to "discover" who he is. While he has Iron Lad's brain patterns and is "him" in that way, he is his own person and Vision 2.0 has made strides in discovering who that is, to the point of naming himself "Jonas". He also wants to pursue a relationship with Cassie. Cassie, for her part, is angry with him and the rest of her team remaining unregistered even after Capt. America surrendered, thinking it is due to the "romance" of being rebels without a cause. Someone should probably go tell the New Avengers that, too. She also doesn't quite share Vision's logic of, "I'm technically sort of Iron Lad and share his emotions, so we may as well pick up where he left off". Alas, a random attack by AIM, apparently the only agents that Bucky hasn't killed yet, decide to try to steal Vision for themselves. The ending comes as little surprise.

The situation where Vision is merged with Cassie drug out a little long and was a bit awkward, personally. But it wasn't a deal-breaker. Much like ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #1, this is the second Brooks one-shot to end in the two heroes making out in a splash page, and while it isn't as good as that one-shot, it still is entertaining and satisfies the parties involved. It is good to see Vision progressing here, and sure, his relationship with Cassie is awkward and screwed up, but wasn't the ORIGINAL Vision's relationship with Scarlet Witch exactly the same? He only loved her because Wonder Man, whose brain patterns his were based on, did. Once he lost those patterns, the relationship ended, for a while. Hopefully these two won't have demonic babies.

I am curious as to how Grevioux will pick up after this story when he handles Stature solo, as to how well his story will go along with Cornell's depiction of her. This was probably my favorite issue since the first. The worst one of the mini so far was the Hulkling one, and even that wasn't bad at all. Still, if Marvel has long term plans beyond the next mini, they'd better start hyping it early to get the sales back up, because this mini is selling at least 50% less than their last one in 2006.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Dread's Bought/Thought for 4/23/08 Part II:

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS #11: Dragotta fills in for most of the issue for Cruz, and does another bang-up job. His art is very appropriate for this series and I never miss Cruz when he is around. Coover gets in a few pages of flashbacks in her "Marvel Girl" style and it works very well, and has always been appealing.

The actual story is a bit weird, and relies on the XM:FC's biggest continuity flub; that is, involving Man-Thing in their adventures, considering these are supposed to be the mid-60's era X-Men and Man-Thing didn't show up until 1971. But because the tone is humorous one can let it slide. The issue focuses mostly on a group called the Continu-iTeens, who somehow have access to a Marvel Comics shipping facility near Man-Thing's Nexus of Realities that allows them to get comics that tell the future. Unfortunately, Mysterio has access to the waters of that swamp and is using them to menace the city with bizarre illusions (and is none too thrilled to be fighting the X-Men instead of Spider-Man). In a way it naturally has fun with continuity obsessed fans but in a way that is lighter hearted than some other attempts and comes across as wacky fun.

Personally I think having the X-Men battle some of Spidey's enemies is a cool idea (X-Men Vs. Doc Ock for some reason has appeal to me) and I might have wanted a showdown with Mysterio to be a bit more straightforward, but when a comic is as goofball as this, it doesn't matter. The Teens are triumphant, the X-Men chase off the villain and it is smoothies for everyone.

It almost is hard to believe the X-Men actually were once this light-hearted. But XM:FC is a good break from the suicide-level angst of the core X-Books.

One of the things I love most about XMFC is that they'll venture outside the mutant microcosm. Spidey enemies, Man-Thing (whose presence I didn't mind at all), Thor, etc.--all are fair game for Parker, which is great because it allows XMFC to become as much a looking glass back on the whole Silver Age Marvel universe as a look back at the original X-Men.

 

[Dread]

One of the things I love most about XMFC is that they'll venture outside the mutant microcosm. Spidey enemies, Man-Thing (whose presence I didn't mind at all), Thor, etc.--all are fair game for Parker, which is great because it allows XMFC to become as much a looking glass back on the whole Silver Age Marvel universe as a look back at the original X-Men.

Exactly, and that is why I like the series and see it as a fun interlude to buy.

Plus it does kind of put to the forefront the notion that without mutants to defend, the X-Men have little purpose. The original stories had them doing plenty of superhero stuff. Some may argue that kind of stuff was generic, but after a few decades getting to revisit it is fun.

Yeah, X-Men and "fun" usually are not together.

That, and a lot of the original 60's stories from this era have not aged well and I appreciate Jeff Parker making them work with some modern storytelling elements and ideas. For instance, I like what he has done to the "Coffee @ Go Go" joint.

But then again, I've liked pretty much all of what I have read from Jeff Parker so far.

 

[Xofenroht]

Man...I really enjoyed this latest issue of "Batman". I really don't see what was wrong with it. It's a perfect lead into Batman R.I.P. and wraps up what has been a theme in Morrison's Batman run, Bruce losing his mind. We've all talked about this happening, Morrison has been touching on it for some time now.
I was actually surprised to see him lose it the way he did and then to have Jezebel Jet come in after the fact and properly I.D. him.
Whenever the story cut to Robin and Nightwing, they were talking about Bruce's condition. By the end of the story, they're right in the same building as Bruce which sets it up wonderfully for the Batman R.I.P. arc. I hope we get to see Jason Todd pop up.

 

[GNR]

Man...I really enjoyed this latest issue of "Batman". I really don't see what was wrong with it. It's a perfect lead into Batman R.I.P. and wraps up what has been a theme in Morrison's Batman run, Bruce losing his mind. We've all talked about this happening, Morrison has been touching on it for some time now.
I was actually surprised to see him lose it the way he did and then to have Jezebel Jet come in after the fact and properly I.D. him.
Whenever the story cut to Robin and Nightwing, they were talking about Bruce's condition. By the end of the story, they're right in the same building as Bruce which sets it up wonderfully for the Batman R.I.P. arc. I hope we get to see Jason Todd pop up.

-horrendous art (poor storytelling,messed up facial expressions especially on Bruce)
-Jez's dialog during the dinner scene was so flat and silly (are you into s&m?)

The destination was great,but the journey was rough and jagged.

 

[GNR]

Man...I really enjoyed this latest issue of "Batman". I really don't see what was wrong with it. It's a perfect lead into Batman R.I.P. and wraps up what has been a theme in Morrison's Batman run, Bruce losing his mind. We've all talked about this happening, Morrison has been touching on it for some time now.
I was actually surprised to see him lose it the way he did and then to have Jezebel Jet come in after the fact and properly I.D. him.
Whenever the story cut to Robin and Nightwing, they were talking about Bruce's condition. By the end of the story, they're right in the same building as Bruce which sets it up wonderfully for the Batman R.I.P. arc. I hope we get to see Jason Todd pop up.

-horrendous art (poor storytelling,messed up facial expressions especially on Bruce)
-Jez's dialog during the dinner scene was so flat and silly (are you into s&m?)

The destination was great,but the journey was rough and jagged.

 

[Xofenroht]

Ahh well, it's a matter of floating boats. I liked it enough to be satisfied, though the art reminded me of Quesada's work, which I don't really like all that much to begin with. Either way, I'm glad Bruce finally went nuts.

 

[yenaled]

The art did kill the issue, but I really love the deconstruction of Batman that Morrison is doing.

 

[Hush]

I bought Superman/Batman and it was pretty freakin cool. I am enjoying this run and book more than anything in the entire comicbook world cause im sick and freakin tired of events so im not giving into either sides big ones. I just want to read a good comic book story and this is it. The All-American Boy looks impossible to beat but hey it will be fun. How much I hate Waller is unfathomable. All in all this book is awesome with a very neat idea for a story and it will still be the only book i buy til i read your guys reviews of Final Crisis #1 to see if I should spare the cash and give into and event. I also bought Wizard 200 and that was neat, very few ads it seemed which was cool and very kind of them. I hope another comic will be good again and not drama laden or event laden.

 

[El Bastardo]

Batman 675
Let me say that I love Batman, he is the reason I read DC, even if there were better books out (and actually, there are lots of better books than Batman now), I would never drop Batman... well, maybe for Dark Tower! But still, I love Batman, this issue was atrocious. I thought this was the RIP start, when I didn't see that Ross cover, and I knew we were in for one of those "stop-gap" issues, where the writer has nothing to right but they have to get an issue, so any trash gets put on the page. I expect a lot better from Grant, from many writers. Poor art, a girl telling Bruce she doesn't know who he is. I've never heard that one before! Then the series is broken up by by Nightwing and Robin's time out, and some Talia/Damian conversations. So, you've essentially got three stories, none is enjoyable, and the art is bad. So, by the last page, which could've been interesting, you don't care. Really dissapointed, and this is a bad time for Grant to do an issue like this because Final Crisis and RIP are hyped projects and this could scare some people away from him (if they didn't know him).

No, you have one story. You have three pieces to the story. It is very much not a "stop-gap" issue. I'd suggest you reread it, probably, and maybe a couple times if you really need to. I'm not saying you have to like it - like and dislike are on a subjective scale, being opinions - but something is not trash simply because you don't understand it.

Essentially, this issue solidifies and spells out what Morrison has been doing throughout his run on Batman, and indeed, since 52. I could draw you a road map, or you could just read the post quoted below:

Man...I really enjoyed this latest issue of "Batman". I really don't see what was wrong with it. It's a perfect lead into Batman R.I.P. and wraps up what has been a theme in Morrison's Batman run, Bruce losing his mind. We've all talked about this happening, Morrison has been touching on it for some time now.
I was actually surprised to see him lose it the way he did and then to have Jezebel Jet come in after the fact and properly I.D. him.
Whenever the story cut to Robin and Nightwing, they were talking about Bruce's condition. By the end of the story, they're right in the same building as Bruce which sets it up wonderfully for the Batman R.I.P. arc. I hope we get to see Jason Todd pop up.

 

[Xofenroht]

Not to mention Morrison shouldn't be blamed for the illustrative art.

 

[El Bastardo]

Not to mention Morrison shouldn't be blamed for the illustrative art.

You mean... Morrison doesn't draw it, too? OH, is THAT what one of those OTHER names is?

 

[GNR]

Not to mention Morrison shouldn't be blamed for the illustrative art.

No but he should be blamed for the terrible dialog during Jez's outrage at the dinner table.

Don;t get me wrong,I like what Morrison is doing here,but this issue was probably the weakest to date.

 

[J. J. Jameson]

Art was good, but Maleev's high-point was Confession.

Confession was one of the best things out of Civil War for me. One of the more powerful Bendis issues I'd read in a long, long time. And the artwork so so beautiful. New Avengers #22 was also highpoint of Civil War.

However, I have to disagree with you and say that MA was very good this week. After the first arc, this title really picked up. I liked the Doom arc quite a bit, but #12 has definitely been the best issue of the series.

 

[DoomJester]

No, you have one story. You have three pieces to the story. It is very much not a "stop-gap" issue. I'd suggest you reread it, probably, and maybe a couple times if you really need to. I'm not saying you have to like it - like and dislike are on a subjective scale, being opinions - but something is not trash simply because you don't understand it.

Essentially, this issue solidifies and spells out what Morrison has been doing throughout his run on Batman, and indeed, since 52. I could draw you a road map, or you could just read the post quoted below:

Let's say "trash" was too strong of a word. I still greatly disliked the issue, and I have a sneaking suspicion that you saying I didn't understand the issue, is a way of saying "if you understood what was happening you would've liked it."

Is there some marginal value to the issue? Spelling out what he had done since 52, and his run on Batman... and considering that he concluded his previous run last issue, I disagree that the issue had any marginal value. So I called it a stop-gap issue. The previous issue had a great ending, and really made this issue unnecessary.

This issue was the same issue I would've criticized, and have criticized other writers for. Because it is Grant Morrison doesn't mean you first have to see if someone "understood" him. And it isn't as though this deconstruction of Batman is new. RIP may be, but this is not new. And I criticized him for as much. I mean, I did more than called it a trashy stop-gap issue.

But you're right-- the issue does summarize stuff for people have not been reading Batman, you get a feel for where Bruce is. I'll give the issue that much.