Dread
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Second week of 2008 and fortunately it is another average week in terms of comic amount for me, after ending 2007 with a wallet-buster. I certainly am enjoying the rate. I figure this top section is best to comment on stuff I flipped through at the store, but didn't buy or pay as much strict attention too. I flipped through this week's ASM, Part 2 of Slott/McNiven's BND launch, and maybe it requires more attention, but it still isn't grabbing me. The Spidey-Mugger seems a little odd, and naturally OMD is fuddling things. I'm not convinced to take the plunge at this stage, 3 weeks later, either. Trade is likely, but who knows. The first part "sold out" and there will be a second printing, so once again it appears that the anger of fans online leads to sales in the real world. It'll be Feb. before we know how well BND sold, though, in hard numbers. If it can surpass 105k within a month, it will have outsold half of OMD, which, shipping thrice a month, means each issue has to sell beyond 35k each, which is almost a given (hell, I wouldn't be surprised if each issue sold beyond 90k each). It'll be a sales hit. I also flipped through HULK #1, and while I wasn't convinced to buy it (and seeing a new, revived and red-haired Darkstar was a trip), it seemed like a fun action title with some sweet art by McGuinness. As for Loeb, his "Marvel Exclusive" writing has ranged from mediocre to horrible, so I am curious how this fared in that dept. But, so long as you have colorful people punching each other look that cool, it won't matter. It'll still be there in another week or so if I change my mind.
Now onto the detailed stuff. Spoilers as always.
Dread's BOUGHT/THOUGHT for 1/16/08:
BOOSTER GOLD #6: Apparently, covers that actually depict what occurs inside are becoming rampant about the industry these days; I recall when they almost seemed outdated next to "generic iconic pose #457.A". This issue naturally picks up where the last left off, with three generations of Blue Beetles (past, present, and future) appearing before Booster (after he'd failed to save Batgirl from Joker and learned it was "fixed time" and he couldn't from Hunter) and asking him to save Ted Kord, which is what Booster has wanted to do for ages now. Naturally, this means Johns & Katz have to not only revisit COUNTDOWN TO INFINITE CRISIS (back when IC was actually something people got excited about), but they also get to revisit Jaime Reyes, the newest Blue Beetle. Johns introduced him in IC but Giffen & Rogers defined him for two years (give or take) in his own solo series, and frankly they write his banter a lot better. I'm so used to how they write him that seeing Johns & Katz give it a go seems awkward, like he appears more generic than usual. I suppose that is a testament to the talents of Giffen & Rogers that they handled this character better than Johns did, although Johns likely didn't have the time or chance. Shrugging off his injuries from the Joker as well as Hunter's orders (then pleas) to reconsider, Booster goes for it, and what is important is that it feels like the right decision for the character. He's wanted to save Ted for ages now, he hated that he couldn't, even in COUNTDOWN when he was hospitalized, and now when he is being thrown a chance, he's diving for it. I'm no DC buff (I think the term I have heard for DC equalivants to "Marvel Zombies" are "DC ****es", but I could be wrong), but I knew about these prior events, but I still didn't mind the rundown of Blue Beetle's life and death that Johns & Katz give, to frame things in perspective. So they basically, and literally, storm into the middle of Beetle's death scene in COUNTDOWN and undo it, with the Beetles taking out the OMAC soldier and Booster literally taking the bullet for Kord. While not exactly the best with Jaime, Johns & Katz manage to make him sound seperate from the Golden Age Beetle and the Futuristic Beetle, which is actually more important for the issue. If they all sounded monotone and interchangable, it would ruin the story. Presumably, keeping Ted Kord seperate from time and allowing the world to believe him dead will keep things tidy (I forgot if his body was ever found and autopsied before this issue; DC has been grim like that these days, but as Colossus can attest, faking a body isn't too hard). For whatever sore Ted fans there were who still were irked about his death, watching him beat the spit out of Max Lord had to feel cathartic; kind of like if in a few years, Spider-Man goes back in time, punches out Mephisto with Dr. Strange and goes, "I love my wife you piece of ****. May would understand and we'll find another way to save her, and if not, she's given me the blessing to grow up." Ah, well. Maybe some DC continuity buffs can see the quibbles that I can't, being a DC Outsider (pun intended), but for me I just enjoyed the story for what it was and the always great art of Jurgens & Rapmund. In a universe that has seen a share of loss and pain, it was great seeing Booster save his best friend, if only for an issue. There likely will be reactions to this, as Hunter seems to be pushing Booster's ancestors into costumes earlier than expected. Next issue is #0 for a belated "Zero Hour" tie in and I have no bloody idea how that works. I thought Zero Hour was, basically, "The sun is shorting out and Hal Jordon decides to stop being a villain to recharge it, then dies, then years later becomes a Specter, then gets reborn into a flawless superhero who never made any mistakes because DC is run by old timers". But I could be wrong. Either way, BG has become essential DC reading to me, and is a kick to read every month.
UMBRELLA ACADEMY #5: Rocker Gerald Way and artist Gabriel Ba' continue chugging out one of the best superhero team launches of the past year, and definitely the most creative and quirky. THE ORDER's great, but this is for tastes who like to dip less mainstream every now and then. The whole series has a very Mike Mignola-esque feel to it and I would be curious to hear/read that creator's opinion on this. The issue picks up with a waitress giving her account of .005 basically slaughtering a strike squad that came for him and his chimp comrade Dr. Pogo (and the police apparently had to bring chimp investigators because of that). Basically, #5 is not to be messed with. Spaceboy and Rumor have a bit of a heart to heart, and Kraken gets some info from the detective, AKA Batman & Gordon. Vanya, who has become a dangerous music-based killing machine, strikes the Umbrella Academy outright, slaughtering the poor Dr. Pogo and smashing The Horror's memorial statue. And it ends with perhaps the best (and funny because it is so unrealistic) newspaper headline ever. It sounds a bit stiff when I recap things, but the charm of this series really cannot be summed up in any review. Don't let prejudice against a third party comic company or "musicions/famous professionals doing comics when Joe Schmoe's have to struggle to get in" resentment keep you from this horribly entertaining blend of superheroics and manic whimsey. This is the comic equalivent of the response to, "And now for something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT..." Way's first hit in the comic biz is a home run, which ain't too shabby. The front and back covers are of course never wasted either, with a diary entry to recap things and an Encyclopedia entry to cap them. There is only one issue of this mini left, but a ton of life in this budding franchise. Jump right in, blokes or Yanks. It's a perfect day.
IMMORTAL IRON FIST #12: The credit list grows even larger for this issue, as while Aja does the present scenes and Kano the flashbacks, Javier Pulido fulls in about 7 pages worth of material for Aja. His style is simple and while Aja is naturally superior, it meshes well and doesn't clash much at all, and while I noticed the shift, I wasn't too miffed by it. Getting out a timely issue is paramount, after all, isn't it? As always, the issue utilizes flashbacks to fill in the gaps of Rand's past, as well as the past he inherited from his father and now Orson, while intersplicing them with the present. The basic premise of the story right now is a mystical martial arts tournament, with HYDRA on the outside trying to get in (and destroy K'un L'un), but what has emerged is a budding civil war within K'un L'un, led by Danny's master, the Thunderer. The main event of the issue, besides watching the Heroes for Hire kill some more HYDRA goons before getting dogpiled and captured, is the Prince of Orphans deciding to bend the rules a bit to fight Davos the Steel Phoenix, to literally pummel some sense of honor & respect for the tournament after the match with Tiger's Beautiful Daughter (who was disfigured and nearly murdered in cold blood by Davos). And it appears Brubaker & Fraction are hitting all home runs when it comes to introducing new characters, as the Prince, or rather John Aman, is pretty awesome, seemingly able to use his chi to move at fast speeds in an energy form, and seems unbeatable. The flashbacks also help cement down what separates Davos from Danny and the other heroes of K'un L'un, and the different between a tournament and thuggery. Davos is twisted and likely will only learn the wrong lesson from it. We have a special coming out and then another issue, and the pace is becoming like CAPTAIN AMERICA; a bit slow, but there is a methodical logic to it and it seems to flow naturally. Stuff happens every issue; it hasn't quite reached that point of "get ON with it" like some other writers. I am looking forward to that Battle Royale, though, and hopefully it won't be much longer. It was also good to see some level of respect among some of the competitors, even if they will eventually be opponents. Danny also shows he is smarter than others think, which is always good for a title hero (Spider-Man has seemed eager to prove stereotypes of him being a buffoon for the last 1-2 years now). Naturally the book is review-proof; if you are one of the 32-34k readers who collect this every month, you don't need me to tell you it is one of Marvel's best relaunches of a 70's property. If you're not, you chose a poor book to trade-wait on. Even the covers strike the right tone with the imagery and the design, where Iron Fist isn't just a guy in ballet slippers and a mask who fights crooks, but something akin to another world and genre at Marvel, one done very well. Seeing how great this title is pretty much reveals how badly his mini from 2003 pooched it. Few characters are hopeless, they just need to await the best creative team, hence why writers should be careful who they slaughter for shock value. As always, one of Marvel's must-reads.
MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS #5: The cover made me chuckle and think, "When was the last time Ka-Zar sold an issue of something no one read before? By Greg Land no less!" And while nothing official is coming from Marvel yet, the sales on this 90's relaunch of the famed anthology series have been dire. I doubt issue #3 sold within the Top 100 and the 12th should likely be the last. The VANGUARD story chugs along and actually manages to get more interesting, as among the backdrop of NYPD Det. Stacy Dolan investigating a strange murder mystery, some other heroic figures seem to get a bead on things and involve themselves. It may be another eclectic band of heroes retconned into having been a team. Things get sticky with Yelena Belova being one of them, as she was specifically burned by Sauron and then transformed into a Super-Adaptoid, then killed in battle against the New Avengers in NEW AVENGERS SPECIAL a few years ago. Either someone's a Skrull or a LMD. The rest are Blade (who isn't seen killing a vampire for once, he must be drunk), Micromax, and the new Dominic Fortune (from the last SABLE & FORTUNE mini some years back, which sold about 12 copies). The story was always interesting and not it gets moreso. The WEAPON OMEGA story chugs along at the end with Pointer/Guardian being tested on via his Canadian handlers and manifesting some multiple personalities/brainwaves from all the mutants whose energy has empowered him, while U.S. Agent wants Pointer's shrink to get on the ball. Despite DiVito's art, I am slowly losing interest. Gage & Chin start a 3 part SAVAGE LAND story involving Roxxon Corp. sending their favorite lackey, Killer Shrike, to invade the Savage Land to plunder it's resources, and he gets his ass handed to him by Ka-Zar twice. It was good to see Shanna in some comic that wasn't a T & A Cho-imitation mini that seemed destined to be read with one hand. Moon Boy makes the most random of appearances and it kind of worked. I normally am not a Ka-Zar fan (even though he had a series in the 90's that lasted a while and got some acclaim), but I thought the story worked. The last story is "Breaking Away", a Wrecking Crew story by Hagan & Johnson, which was probably the best of the issue. It basically details how the Wrecking Crew escape prison in Canada after being beaten in OMEGA FLIGHT #5, but it is the art and the interaction between the thugs that makes it work as a simple, one-shot 8 pager. Some of the lines are hilarious, too. MCP has some good reads to it, but the market hasn't been able to support an anthology series for years now, and especially not one that is shipping less issues than it did a decade or so back in it's previous volume. I'll read it while it lasts but I won't mourn it's loss much. I hope some other B and C listers can get some good 8-pager's out of it, though.
NEW WARRIORS #8: The second issue in under 4 weeks, and the end of the Jon Malin fill-in on art for now, as Medina is due back next issue. The art is still "stiff" and I still seem to have to wait to read some character's names in dialogue to figure out who is who (especially the girls without iconic costumes or hats), but the action scenes are better and it really is nothing offensive to me for a fill in run. But, it is all subjective. Midnight's Fire shows up and fights the new Night-Thrasher, mistaking him for Dwayne (it is really his brother Donyell), and Silhouette maintains the charade. Turns out Thrash actually invited Fire over to try to recruit him for his New Warriors, an offer he promises to "consider" despite their grudge and one in which he is a pawn, working for a mystery menace. The issue also makes apparent that the New Warriors seem to have two sides; Night-Thrasher and everyone else, who are quickly seeming to gel together, and whom Jubilee seems to becoming a centralizing figure. Night-Thrasher seems more interesting in rebelling against Stark & SHIELD, who he sees as "fascists", while the rest of the team, or at least Angel & Beak, have doubts about being labeled "terrorists" by some in the media and just seem to be out there to fight criminals for the most part, and see the non-registration as enough of a rebellion. In a way it is interesting because while Donyell professes to have changed, he has still chosen a side that is against authority, not unlike his life as a hood in some ways. The rest of the team, having been trained as heroes to some degree by the X-Men prior to becoming New Warriors, have a different perspective. I also liked some of the discussion regarding how the X-Men "abandoned" a slew of then once they lost their powers; I saw that bit in NXM where they started busing out kids just because they had no powers and thinking, "They preach co-existence but don't practice it well", regardless of safety issues (the bus was attacked anyway). Ultra-Girl continues to lead their Junior Guardsmen program, which is sort of like an overzealous superhero version of the Boy & Girl Scouts (only with more costumes and less cookies), while Rage & Justice have a short talk. Gracia the colorist may have made an error, because he colors Rage's mask white/baige instead of the yellow it has been since he returned to his 90's costume during CW. I actually didn't mind because a yellow mask always struck me as too wrestler to me, but I'm unsure if it was intentional, and if so, why? Seems odd to have Rage deliberately change mask color. Anyway, Beak & Angel's kids show up and they seem to have more of 'em than cultists in the Midwest, but they were cute. I actually liked these 2 issues of a bit of a break to have the team interact a bit without punching stuff and it looks like Sofia will choose her gimmick and the heroics will continue next issue. This series isn't what we all expected at first, but Grevioux has created something enjoyable to read, and I look forward to this every month.
Now onto the detailed stuff. Spoilers as always.
Dread's BOUGHT/THOUGHT for 1/16/08:
BOOSTER GOLD #6: Apparently, covers that actually depict what occurs inside are becoming rampant about the industry these days; I recall when they almost seemed outdated next to "generic iconic pose #457.A". This issue naturally picks up where the last left off, with three generations of Blue Beetles (past, present, and future) appearing before Booster (after he'd failed to save Batgirl from Joker and learned it was "fixed time" and he couldn't from Hunter) and asking him to save Ted Kord, which is what Booster has wanted to do for ages now. Naturally, this means Johns & Katz have to not only revisit COUNTDOWN TO INFINITE CRISIS (back when IC was actually something people got excited about), but they also get to revisit Jaime Reyes, the newest Blue Beetle. Johns introduced him in IC but Giffen & Rogers defined him for two years (give or take) in his own solo series, and frankly they write his banter a lot better. I'm so used to how they write him that seeing Johns & Katz give it a go seems awkward, like he appears more generic than usual. I suppose that is a testament to the talents of Giffen & Rogers that they handled this character better than Johns did, although Johns likely didn't have the time or chance. Shrugging off his injuries from the Joker as well as Hunter's orders (then pleas) to reconsider, Booster goes for it, and what is important is that it feels like the right decision for the character. He's wanted to save Ted for ages now, he hated that he couldn't, even in COUNTDOWN when he was hospitalized, and now when he is being thrown a chance, he's diving for it. I'm no DC buff (I think the term I have heard for DC equalivants to "Marvel Zombies" are "DC ****es", but I could be wrong), but I knew about these prior events, but I still didn't mind the rundown of Blue Beetle's life and death that Johns & Katz give, to frame things in perspective. So they basically, and literally, storm into the middle of Beetle's death scene in COUNTDOWN and undo it, with the Beetles taking out the OMAC soldier and Booster literally taking the bullet for Kord. While not exactly the best with Jaime, Johns & Katz manage to make him sound seperate from the Golden Age Beetle and the Futuristic Beetle, which is actually more important for the issue. If they all sounded monotone and interchangable, it would ruin the story. Presumably, keeping Ted Kord seperate from time and allowing the world to believe him dead will keep things tidy (I forgot if his body was ever found and autopsied before this issue; DC has been grim like that these days, but as Colossus can attest, faking a body isn't too hard). For whatever sore Ted fans there were who still were irked about his death, watching him beat the spit out of Max Lord had to feel cathartic; kind of like if in a few years, Spider-Man goes back in time, punches out Mephisto with Dr. Strange and goes, "I love my wife you piece of ****. May would understand and we'll find another way to save her, and if not, she's given me the blessing to grow up." Ah, well. Maybe some DC continuity buffs can see the quibbles that I can't, being a DC Outsider (pun intended), but for me I just enjoyed the story for what it was and the always great art of Jurgens & Rapmund. In a universe that has seen a share of loss and pain, it was great seeing Booster save his best friend, if only for an issue. There likely will be reactions to this, as Hunter seems to be pushing Booster's ancestors into costumes earlier than expected. Next issue is #0 for a belated "Zero Hour" tie in and I have no bloody idea how that works. I thought Zero Hour was, basically, "The sun is shorting out and Hal Jordon decides to stop being a villain to recharge it, then dies, then years later becomes a Specter, then gets reborn into a flawless superhero who never made any mistakes because DC is run by old timers". But I could be wrong. Either way, BG has become essential DC reading to me, and is a kick to read every month.
UMBRELLA ACADEMY #5: Rocker Gerald Way and artist Gabriel Ba' continue chugging out one of the best superhero team launches of the past year, and definitely the most creative and quirky. THE ORDER's great, but this is for tastes who like to dip less mainstream every now and then. The whole series has a very Mike Mignola-esque feel to it and I would be curious to hear/read that creator's opinion on this. The issue picks up with a waitress giving her account of .005 basically slaughtering a strike squad that came for him and his chimp comrade Dr. Pogo (and the police apparently had to bring chimp investigators because of that). Basically, #5 is not to be messed with. Spaceboy and Rumor have a bit of a heart to heart, and Kraken gets some info from the detective, AKA Batman & Gordon. Vanya, who has become a dangerous music-based killing machine, strikes the Umbrella Academy outright, slaughtering the poor Dr. Pogo and smashing The Horror's memorial statue. And it ends with perhaps the best (and funny because it is so unrealistic) newspaper headline ever. It sounds a bit stiff when I recap things, but the charm of this series really cannot be summed up in any review. Don't let prejudice against a third party comic company or "musicions/famous professionals doing comics when Joe Schmoe's have to struggle to get in" resentment keep you from this horribly entertaining blend of superheroics and manic whimsey. This is the comic equalivent of the response to, "And now for something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT..." Way's first hit in the comic biz is a home run, which ain't too shabby. The front and back covers are of course never wasted either, with a diary entry to recap things and an Encyclopedia entry to cap them. There is only one issue of this mini left, but a ton of life in this budding franchise. Jump right in, blokes or Yanks. It's a perfect day.
IMMORTAL IRON FIST #12: The credit list grows even larger for this issue, as while Aja does the present scenes and Kano the flashbacks, Javier Pulido fulls in about 7 pages worth of material for Aja. His style is simple and while Aja is naturally superior, it meshes well and doesn't clash much at all, and while I noticed the shift, I wasn't too miffed by it. Getting out a timely issue is paramount, after all, isn't it? As always, the issue utilizes flashbacks to fill in the gaps of Rand's past, as well as the past he inherited from his father and now Orson, while intersplicing them with the present. The basic premise of the story right now is a mystical martial arts tournament, with HYDRA on the outside trying to get in (and destroy K'un L'un), but what has emerged is a budding civil war within K'un L'un, led by Danny's master, the Thunderer. The main event of the issue, besides watching the Heroes for Hire kill some more HYDRA goons before getting dogpiled and captured, is the Prince of Orphans deciding to bend the rules a bit to fight Davos the Steel Phoenix, to literally pummel some sense of honor & respect for the tournament after the match with Tiger's Beautiful Daughter (who was disfigured and nearly murdered in cold blood by Davos). And it appears Brubaker & Fraction are hitting all home runs when it comes to introducing new characters, as the Prince, or rather John Aman, is pretty awesome, seemingly able to use his chi to move at fast speeds in an energy form, and seems unbeatable. The flashbacks also help cement down what separates Davos from Danny and the other heroes of K'un L'un, and the different between a tournament and thuggery. Davos is twisted and likely will only learn the wrong lesson from it. We have a special coming out and then another issue, and the pace is becoming like CAPTAIN AMERICA; a bit slow, but there is a methodical logic to it and it seems to flow naturally. Stuff happens every issue; it hasn't quite reached that point of "get ON with it" like some other writers. I am looking forward to that Battle Royale, though, and hopefully it won't be much longer. It was also good to see some level of respect among some of the competitors, even if they will eventually be opponents. Danny also shows he is smarter than others think, which is always good for a title hero (Spider-Man has seemed eager to prove stereotypes of him being a buffoon for the last 1-2 years now). Naturally the book is review-proof; if you are one of the 32-34k readers who collect this every month, you don't need me to tell you it is one of Marvel's best relaunches of a 70's property. If you're not, you chose a poor book to trade-wait on. Even the covers strike the right tone with the imagery and the design, where Iron Fist isn't just a guy in ballet slippers and a mask who fights crooks, but something akin to another world and genre at Marvel, one done very well. Seeing how great this title is pretty much reveals how badly his mini from 2003 pooched it. Few characters are hopeless, they just need to await the best creative team, hence why writers should be careful who they slaughter for shock value. As always, one of Marvel's must-reads.
MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS #5: The cover made me chuckle and think, "When was the last time Ka-Zar sold an issue of something no one read before? By Greg Land no less!" And while nothing official is coming from Marvel yet, the sales on this 90's relaunch of the famed anthology series have been dire. I doubt issue #3 sold within the Top 100 and the 12th should likely be the last. The VANGUARD story chugs along and actually manages to get more interesting, as among the backdrop of NYPD Det. Stacy Dolan investigating a strange murder mystery, some other heroic figures seem to get a bead on things and involve themselves. It may be another eclectic band of heroes retconned into having been a team. Things get sticky with Yelena Belova being one of them, as she was specifically burned by Sauron and then transformed into a Super-Adaptoid, then killed in battle against the New Avengers in NEW AVENGERS SPECIAL a few years ago. Either someone's a Skrull or a LMD. The rest are Blade (who isn't seen killing a vampire for once, he must be drunk), Micromax, and the new Dominic Fortune (from the last SABLE & FORTUNE mini some years back, which sold about 12 copies). The story was always interesting and not it gets moreso. The WEAPON OMEGA story chugs along at the end with Pointer/Guardian being tested on via his Canadian handlers and manifesting some multiple personalities/brainwaves from all the mutants whose energy has empowered him, while U.S. Agent wants Pointer's shrink to get on the ball. Despite DiVito's art, I am slowly losing interest. Gage & Chin start a 3 part SAVAGE LAND story involving Roxxon Corp. sending their favorite lackey, Killer Shrike, to invade the Savage Land to plunder it's resources, and he gets his ass handed to him by Ka-Zar twice. It was good to see Shanna in some comic that wasn't a T & A Cho-imitation mini that seemed destined to be read with one hand. Moon Boy makes the most random of appearances and it kind of worked. I normally am not a Ka-Zar fan (even though he had a series in the 90's that lasted a while and got some acclaim), but I thought the story worked. The last story is "Breaking Away", a Wrecking Crew story by Hagan & Johnson, which was probably the best of the issue. It basically details how the Wrecking Crew escape prison in Canada after being beaten in OMEGA FLIGHT #5, but it is the art and the interaction between the thugs that makes it work as a simple, one-shot 8 pager. Some of the lines are hilarious, too. MCP has some good reads to it, but the market hasn't been able to support an anthology series for years now, and especially not one that is shipping less issues than it did a decade or so back in it's previous volume. I'll read it while it lasts but I won't mourn it's loss much. I hope some other B and C listers can get some good 8-pager's out of it, though.
NEW WARRIORS #8: The second issue in under 4 weeks, and the end of the Jon Malin fill-in on art for now, as Medina is due back next issue. The art is still "stiff" and I still seem to have to wait to read some character's names in dialogue to figure out who is who (especially the girls without iconic costumes or hats), but the action scenes are better and it really is nothing offensive to me for a fill in run. But, it is all subjective. Midnight's Fire shows up and fights the new Night-Thrasher, mistaking him for Dwayne (it is really his brother Donyell), and Silhouette maintains the charade. Turns out Thrash actually invited Fire over to try to recruit him for his New Warriors, an offer he promises to "consider" despite their grudge and one in which he is a pawn, working for a mystery menace. The issue also makes apparent that the New Warriors seem to have two sides; Night-Thrasher and everyone else, who are quickly seeming to gel together, and whom Jubilee seems to becoming a centralizing figure. Night-Thrasher seems more interesting in rebelling against Stark & SHIELD, who he sees as "fascists", while the rest of the team, or at least Angel & Beak, have doubts about being labeled "terrorists" by some in the media and just seem to be out there to fight criminals for the most part, and see the non-registration as enough of a rebellion. In a way it is interesting because while Donyell professes to have changed, he has still chosen a side that is against authority, not unlike his life as a hood in some ways. The rest of the team, having been trained as heroes to some degree by the X-Men prior to becoming New Warriors, have a different perspective. I also liked some of the discussion regarding how the X-Men "abandoned" a slew of then once they lost their powers; I saw that bit in NXM where they started busing out kids just because they had no powers and thinking, "They preach co-existence but don't practice it well", regardless of safety issues (the bus was attacked anyway). Ultra-Girl continues to lead their Junior Guardsmen program, which is sort of like an overzealous superhero version of the Boy & Girl Scouts (only with more costumes and less cookies), while Rage & Justice have a short talk. Gracia the colorist may have made an error, because he colors Rage's mask white/baige instead of the yellow it has been since he returned to his 90's costume during CW. I actually didn't mind because a yellow mask always struck me as too wrestler to me, but I'm unsure if it was intentional, and if so, why? Seems odd to have Rage deliberately change mask color. Anyway, Beak & Angel's kids show up and they seem to have more of 'em than cultists in the Midwest, but they were cute. I actually liked these 2 issues of a bit of a break to have the team interact a bit without punching stuff and it looks like Sofia will choose her gimmick and the heroics will continue next issue. This series isn't what we all expected at first, but Grevioux has created something enjoyable to read, and I look forward to this every month.
I think I may make him the same offer I made Cap, since he's on board.
