Bought/Thought for August 25th, 2010 - SPOILERS

[TheCorpulent1]

The depths of his heroic aims were debatable, I suppose. I personally felt like he showed he'd truly changed. I guess if you had reservations about it the whole way through, this Captain America arc might just be confirmation of your suspicions.

 

[Dread]

Ah, yes, I had forgotten about that one. Still, that's just one arc, though, it's not as if his whole run with Bucky has been nothing but that kind of stuff. It has been rooted in his past, though, but more in a self-exploration way, at least that's the way I've taken it

Indeed. I haven't gotten completely tired of it, but I do notice the pattern.

I figured that must be the case, that you simply haven't been able to pick it up yet. For that reason, I didn't reveal hardly a thing about the issue. You're the only other person on here reading it, no matter how much we might recommend that book. The couple surprises I wanted you to experience when it came out.

S'okay, I made sure to avoid most of your review. If I haven't read a comic, I avoid reading reviews about it. I'm funny that way.

 

[runawayboulder]

I'll never forgive Brubaker for Deadly Genesis. I dont know what stupid juice he was drinking when he nearly destroyed Prof X's characterization and brought in yet another summers family member. Brubaker seems to like the whole "dig up something from the past and have it bite you in ass now" thing and its starting to get tiring. I loved his Captain America for a long time but now it seems like the only stories he's telling are "Bucky's done something bad in his past and its come back to haunt him". Why cant we just move on and look forward and write new adventures? Why does everything have to be a "hidden backstory" story??

The 3rd Summers brother was hanging over the X-Men loooooooong before Brubaker took over (X-Men #23 in 1993 to be exact). He was the guy to finally be tasked with bringing the story out there. And many of previous writers have tried to villainize Professor X at some point. Anybody remember the Xavier Protocols when Charles basically wrote a book on how to kill all of the X-Men one by one....? It was during the Onslaught saga when Xavier BECAME a bad guy.......because he controversially mind-wiped Magneto......see where I'm going with this.

I'll agree Bru ain't perfect, especially based on his recent opening arc of Secret Avengers, but some of this stuff regarding him is a little bit of a stretch.......

 

[Dread]

The 3rd Summers brother was hanging over the X-Men loooooooong before Brubaker took over (X-Men #23 in 1993 to be exact). He was the guy to finally be tasked with bringing the story out there. And many of previous writers have tried to villainize Professor X at some point. Anybody remember the Xavier Protocols when Charles basically wrote a book on how to kill all of the X-Men one by one....? It was during the Onslaught saga when Xavier BECAME a bad guy.......because he controversially mind-wiped Magneto......see where I'm going with this.

I'll agree Bru ain't perfect, especially based on his recent opening arc of Secret Avengers, but some of this stuff regarding him is a little bit of a stretch.......

To be fair, there was already another character who was "rumored" to have been the 3rd Summers brother. His name was Adam-X, and his codename was "X-Treme". He was half human, half Shi'ar as well as a mutant, and he had claws, swords, and mixed denim with spandex. Could you tell he was from the 90's? At any rate, whether he had any relation to Summers at all was never established, and he hasn't been seen since the 90's.

It would have been less of a task to bring back Adam-X and make him into some sort of maniac, than to create this whole other secret history for Vulcan or whatever. I mean, Brubaker had Jack Monroe go crazy at random and it was all touching and tragic. Xavier had skeletons in his closet before, the issue was after and around DEADLY GENESIS, so many more were brought up that he almost looked worse than Magneto. But, Brubaker wanted to make some new characters, retcon them into the past to make them important, and so on. One could go, "but why would he revive some old character," but, Grand Director was seemingly dead for over a decade before he decided to bring him back in an interesting way. Heck, Brubaker brought Dr. Faustus back and forgot he was supposed to have been crippled; guess Red Skull offers quite a medical package to underlings. I always imagined Protocide could have been an interesting character to see Brubaker's take on.

No, Brubaker didn't invent that 3rd Summers brother subplot, but he sure made it a lot more complicated. Abnett & Lanning made Vulcan a great villain, but that was after Deadly Genesis. If you could get credit for other writers handling your characters better, then Bendis actually would deserve all that praise. All he does is write crap that others do better.

Brubaker's done better since, and virtually all of it has been on CAPTAIN AMERICA. But while I'd argue he deserves much of the acclaim and A-Lister status he has (more so than, say, Bendis or Millar or even Fraction to a degree these days), he's hardly perfect. CAPTAIN AMERICA REBORN was a bit of a mess, at best. And after a decent start, the first arc of SECRET AVENGER was underwhelming (at best). And I try to pretend I never bought DEADLY GENESIS.

 

[JewishHobbit]

He brought back Orson Randall from the past in Immortal Iron Fist and then killed him to play up Davos.

He brought back Vulcan from the past in Deadly Genesis and then killed Banshee to play up Vulcan.

He brought back D'Ken from the past in Rise & Fall of the Shi'ar Empire and then killed him to play up Vulcan.

He brought back Bucky from the past and then killed Nomad to play Bucky as Winter Soldier up (to my understanding)

Though not quite fitting the formula, in Daredevil he brought back Punisher and Black Tarantula (and screwed up his character) but from Daredevi's past he brought back Master Izo and before that "killed" Foggy Nelson.


I wonder who's coming back from the past and will die soon in Secret Avengers!!!

 

[runawayboulder]

Hopefully NO ONE!

But JH what you mentioned is the oldest trick in the book. Sacrificing one character to push another. Just like pro wrestling when a new bad guy comes out and whacks Hulk Hogan with a chair in order to make him look like a legitimate threat.

Honestly Banshee kinda sucked, not as a character, but because the X-Men creative team did jack s**t with him for the longest. When was the last time he was an important character in X-Men? Generation X? A book that probably cracked the top 75-100 each month when it came out? He wasn't used good since Claremont in the 70's. I wouldn't have been shocked if they kicked around the idea of it being Iceman getting killed by Vulcan at first.

 

[TimBisley]

You're right. Banshee sucked. I mean, he's a guy, named Banshee.

 

[Dread]

To be fair, Brubaker created Orson Randall, so however he decided to kill him was up to him foremost. That said, Danny still hasn't fought Davos over that. Davos became a begrudging ally in some of the antics after that, but while Danny's made good use of the extra chi he absorbed from Orson as well as the books he had, there's still been no rematch with Davos. IMMORTAL IRON FIST, though, was another great run for Brubaker, albeit he also had Fraction alongside.

I liked Banshee. I won't lie and say he was my favorite X-Man or even on a Top 5 list of Favorite X-Men, but he would have been on my Top 10. Before Wolverine was revealed to be 100 years old with all this war time experience he didn't remember, Banshee was the "veteran" of the group; like Sunfire, he'd debuted before GIANT-SIZE X-MEN #1, but unlike Sunfire, he stuck around. And while GENERATION X wasn't the best seller, it did last about 75 issues, which is a damn long time by even 90's standards. Not even DARKHAWK lasted that long. That was the book where Emma Frost began her road to heroism, mentoring alongside Banshee. The worst part about him was some of the stereotypical stories that he was in, such as stuff involving leprechauns.

 

[squeekness]

Dark Wolverine #90

This comic has really gone downhill, as we prepare for a new relaunch next month. It's felt as if we're just biding our time; and, this final issue is a whole lot of narration about nothing. We see Daken walking through the city, thinking about what his next path in life is going to be; and, the only hint about that comes in two pages of a tarot reader who picks up on his presence. (And, even that tells us a whole lot of nothing.) I would venture a guess that old storylines will finally be dropped; and we can get away from the Logan vs. Daken stuff that continually comes up. It also might appear that Daken will fight for the side of good...which I think would be a huge mistake.

I got the impression that Daken was thinking about setting up his own empire. In effect, taking Romulus' place, only starting it from scratch instead of simply taking over.

 

[kguillou]

Don't get me wrong, i love Brubaker and he's done right by us far more than he's done wrong. Daredevil, Ironfist, Cap, have all been phenomenal stuff. Its just that i notice a pattern with him and he tends to cling to the method of messing with the past and integrating it into the present.

He's not the only one, its a popular shock tactic that lots of writers like to use and personally i think it comes from laziness and lack of creativity to create new stories but whatever.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Is it really fair to credit him on Iron Fist, whether you're praising or criticizing the series? Brubaker himself admitted that that whole series was like 90% Fraction.

 

[kguillou]

Really? I didnt know that. Honestly, if i didnt know any better i would've said it was mostly Brubaker. I think its cause that series had that noir-ish tone that he's known for.

 

[Dread]

I wasn't sure of the ratio of work between Brubaker & Fraction on IMMORTAL IRON FIST. I know I'd read Brubaker claim that Fraction was the one who came up with the other Immortal fighters as well as the whole "8 cities of heaven" thing. I kind of assumed Orson was Brubaker's idea, since that seems to suit his style, but who knows. I'm sure Brubaker put in more work than Bendis did for the first arc of SECRET WARRIORS.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Bendis: Oh hey, you can use Daisy and these random other kids I created if you want.
Hickman: Thanks!
Bendis: Yeah, whatever, just gimme a co-creator credit and like half of your paycheck from that s***.

 

[Dread]

Or rather, Marvel insisted on giving Bendis some credit for the first arc to make sure it sold decently. And hey, the title may actually last two whole years. That's like a decade in Quesada time!

 

[JewishHobbit]

Hopefully NO ONE!

But JH what you mentioned is the oldest trick in the book. Sacrificing one character to push another. Just like pro wrestling when a new bad guy comes out and whacks Hulk Hogan with a chair in order to make him look like a legitimate threat.

Oh I know that, and frankly, I don't mind when it happens as long as it's done well. But when it's done all the time it gets old. But the point of my post wasn't necessarilly someone dying to make a villain look better, but a villain coming back from the past followed by someone dying to make them look powerful. That's more than just a normal formula, that's combining two normal formulas (that by itself is pretty good) but then doing it over and over again like a one trick pony.

I mean, seriously, if a person can't see what Brubaker's done then they're blind loyalists. I mean, I like Bendis, but I can definately see most of the faults that people fault him with. Brubaker's are just as obvious.

Honestly Banshee kinda sucked, not as a character, but because the X-Men creative team did jack s**t with him for the longest. When was the last time he was an important character in X-Men? Generation X? A book that probably cracked the top 75-100 each month when it came out? He wasn't used good since Claremont in the 70's. I wouldn't have been shocked if they kicked around the idea of it being Iceman getting killed by Vulcan at first.

Generation X was a good book and it did really well by Banshee. It turned me into a fan of his. And really, Generation X was canceled not THAT long prior to Deadly Genesis, only a few years. And he did play a big role in the X-Corp storyline between the two. And unlike Dread, I'd say Banshee was DEFINATELY in my top 5 X-Men... potentially even top 5 heroes in general.

 

[Phaedrus45]

Green Arrow #3

I didn't like the first issue that much...but, I thought the second showed signs that things were picking up.

Nope...this issue is the worst of the bunch and seriously makes me question whether I should continue with it. Last ish, it appears that Ollie gets wacked with an arrow through the middle of his skull. Not to worry, though. The mysterious jungle has a lake that will miraculously cure the dead...or near dead. We meet a new character, who sparks zero interest for me. He kind of looks like many other DC uninteresting characters I know. And, we get flashbacks of what a tool Ollie's dad was.

Yeah. Here is a theme I am completely tired of reading about in comics: Parenting issues! It seems to be the fallback storyline to give a character new depth. Lately, it feels like a tired cliche.

What a HUGE disappointment! I might be a bit harsh in my ranking; but, it's how I'm feeling right now reflecting on this issue.

X-Factor #208

I bumped this comic up in my reading order when I saw someone on here cursing out Rahne. Figured I better read it before I saw a huge spoiler.

Yep, now I understand why that person was peeved at her.

I thought about a conversation JH and I had last month; and, while JH might be happy, I found it pretty weak that David steered clear of any religious damnation of the gay relationship Rictor and Shatterstar are having. (It's not how I feel; but, I would believe it's possible that Rahne would. Sure, she's changed over the years; but, all her religious background and beliefs don't just fly out the door so quickly. It would have been nice to see her come to terms with her feelings versus her old beliefs. Yet, who knows what she believes any more.)

That ending was interesting, even though Rahne comes out looking like a total B. This is one disfunctional group!

Superman: Secret Origin #6

Sure, the ending isn't as good as the issues that preceded it; but, that's only because those previous issues were so dang good, and Johns had to wrap it all up in a nice, sentimental package in the end. It doesn't take away that, for me, it's evident that Johns should be writing Superman and getting away from the Lanterns. (Seriously. Johns Lantern stories are getting progressively more boring. This comic showed a new spark that makes it my favorite Johns comic of the last year.) Overall, I give this mini a good ! It's definitely one of the best Superman stories to come out in a long while.

Curse Of The Mutants: Storm and Gambit One-Shot

Spinning out of X-Men, Storm and Gambit are sent away to retrieve Dracula's body (it's still missing the head, though). While this issue isn't as good as what I've been reading in X-Men, I still enjoyed it. What's cool about this storyline is it has a rich history, especially the classic X-Men Annual with featured Dracula going after Storm. Naturally, that history leads the X-Men's two resident thieves (Storm and Gambit) to retrieve the body in a place covered with vampires.

Ok, one thing I don't understand. We see Gambit all back to normal in this issue; when, the last time I saw him he was in Limbo all evil and such. Did I miss him changing back and acting like his old self?

This was a good companion issue to the Curse Of The Mutants storyline. It's not essential reading; but at least it's somewhat important to that story, unlike the one's from the last X-Event.

 

[WOLVERINE25TH]

What I still wanna know is when the hell did Rahne start gettin' promiscuous and start sleeping around? And when the hell did she hook up with the wolf-god guy?! I've been reading X-Books for practically their entire run and all that just came outta nowhere to me.

 

[squeekness]

Curse Of The Mutants: Storm and Gambit One-Shot

Spinning out of X-Men, Storm and Gambit are sent away to retrieve Dracula's body (it's still missing the head, though). While this issue isn't as good as what I've been reading in X-Men, I still enjoyed it. What's cool about this storyline is it has a rich history, especially the classic X-Men Annual with featured Dracula going after Storm. Naturally, that history leads the X-Men's two resident thieves (Storm and Gambit) to retrieve the body in a place covered with vampires.

Ok, one thing I don't understand. We see Gambit all back to normal in this issue; when, the last time I saw him he was in Limbo all evil and such. Did I miss him changing back and acting like his old self?

This was a good companion issue to the Curse Of The Mutants storyline. It's not essential reading; but at least it's somewhat important to that story, unlike the one's from the last X-Event.

At the end of issue #3 of Hellbound, Remy reverts back to his own self and then they all went home like nothing ever happened, something not even close to being realistic. I imagine a world where the Xs hand in field reports on completed missions, if only to keep tabs on the bad guys and how the team mates were faring. You'd think someone might have mentioned Gambit's problem with Death to Cyclops, but I guess you never know....

What I still wanna know is when the hell did Rahne start gettin' promiscuous and start sleeping around? And when the hell did she hook up with the wolf-god guy?! I've been reading X-Books for practically their entire run and all that just came outta nowhere to me.

This was new to me as well, but then someone mentioned that in a long ago issue of X-Factor Rhane crossed paths with the wolf guy in Asgard or some such. They had known each other previously I guess.....

 

[TimBisley]

If you don't like cliches, stop reading comics.

 

[Phaedrus45]

If you don't like cliches, stop reading comics.

What a cliche!

 

[TimBisley]

What a cliche!

 

[JewishHobbit]

I finally got my comics this week but likely won't have time to review them, but I'll give some quick thoughts.

X-Men 2 - I finally got this, though I spent the past couple weeks debating on it. I'll admit, I enjoyed it. I felt this was the best portrayal of Colossus that I've seen in quite some time. It was a small scene in the beginning but it was good to see. And as Phaed's said a few times, this really is better than Uncanny right now, which is horrible. I just hate the $4 price tag.

X-Factor 208 - This didn't feel like it was written by Peter David. I don't know what it was but it just didn't feel like his work but someone trying to immitate his work. Anyhow, the issue was just okay for me. It's still on the potential chopping block, but there's quite a few more books in more dangerous waters, so it should be okay for the time being.

Avengers 4 - Decent issue though it's still kinda "What the heck's going on?!" It does feel better than the typical Bendis arc though, so that's good. I like all the big villains in it though, though I'm sick and tired of time traveling stories.

Secret Warriors 19 - I love this book but this arc felt like filler to me. I'm glad it's done. Eager for the series to reach its end and see how it all turns out.

X-Men Legacy - Decent comic. I missed the Children of the Vault storyline from a few years ago so the villains do nothing for me at the moment, but I like Magneto and I like the students, so that's the draw for me. It's an okay issue, better than Uncanny's stuff, but X-Men was MUCH better than this.

Green Arrow 3 - I loved the previous 2 issues, I'm not sure about this one. The arrow through the head and yet lives was a bit out there for me. It's not the healing waters of the forest as much as the fact that he lived long enough to get there. And whiel I like the idea of a knight with the archer, the knight beliving himself to be Galahad is kinda wierd. Oh well, hopefully this won't fall in the same trent as every other time I've started reading this book... LOVE it at first and it slowly fades into a boring mess.

Echo 24 - Man this book is winding down and I'll be sad to see it go. Great issue, but as Phaed says, each issue feels too short and leaves you wanting more.

Batman 702 - This was a good take on the mindset of Batman as he's killed in Final Crisis. It's supposed to explain how he got into the past, and I guest it did, but I still don't really get it all that much. Oh well. I haven't decided if I'm going to continue on this title once Daniel takes over, as I buy too much as is and plan on picking up the two new Batman books that's starting soon (Batman: The Dark Knight and Batman Inc.). If it starts on a slow week I may consider it, but if not this may be the last issue of this title that I buy.

 

[Tron Bonne]

Batman 702 - This was a good take on the mindset of Batman as he's killed in Final Crisis. It's supposed to explain how he got into the past, and I guest it did, but I still don't really get it all that much. Oh well. I haven't decided if I'm going to continue on this title once Daniel takes over, as I buy too much as is and plan on picking up the two new Batman books that's starting soon (Batman: The Dark Knight and Batman Inc.). If it starts on a slow week I may consider it, but if not this may be the last issue of this title that I buy.

Well, just in case you don't know, it's looking like both of those will be $3.99 books. I know that you look out for that a lot, so I thought I'd let you know in case you didn't.

 

[hippie_hunter]

X-Factor #208

I bumped this comic up in my reading order when I saw someone on here cursing out Rahne. Figured I better read it before I saw a huge spoiler.

Yep, now I understand why that person was peeved at her.

What Rahne did was completely unforgivable. It's one thing to be angry about Rictor hooking up with Shatterstar, and hell, it would provide one incredibly interesting story. But it's another to completely lie about a pregnancy so you can prevent someone from "turning gay."