Bought/Thought May 11th 2011

[Phaedrus45]

I disagree about the 50's Avengers. I would buy a book with that team any day! It's been the one highlight of the current storyline, and I hope we get more of them in the future.

REBELS #28

Another DC book gets the heave-ho. It's too bad; because, between it and Adventure Comics and Legion Of Superheroes, it's the best. That said, Bedard has not captured the feel of that first amazing storyarc; and, revisiting the Starros with this current one only highlighted what was sorely missing. (Bigger names, like Lobo and Firestar, do not make a comic better. In fact, it doesn't seem like Lobo is bringing any new readers to these various comics.)

I'll miss this book. It was one of DC's current best, and I'd take it over any of the numerous bat-titles that continually get put out...or Green Lantern, for that matter. for the issue... for the cancellation.

Super Heroes #14

This is never Tobin's best title; but, it always takes a HUGE step back whenever a guest writer fills in. (Guess Tobin is doing a bit too much lately.) Only thing I liked about this issue was finding out Thor's favorite show on t.v. is Sponge Bob Square Pants.

On a side note, it seems as if Tobin might have abandoned his new Avengers team that made up the first 12 issues of this book. That's too bad. They had a good dynamic.

Incredible Hulks #628

Ok, I know what I'm not enjoying about this title: Amadeus Cho. Boy, does he drag a book down, and seeing this title turned into an Incredible Hercules style book has me longing for a new writer. Even more, I want a new direction for the Hulk. Get rid of the many colors of Hulkdom. It just gives people bad images of Loeb.

The Lone Ranger: The Death Of Zorro #3

These three issues of this mini has been better than the entire run of Dynamites main Lone Ranger title. It's a good storyline with rich characters, and the writing is top-notch. Can't wait for the next issue!

X-Men Legacy #248

The aftermath of Age Of X. Yawn! Just when you're glad it's over, they try and drag it out a bit more. I like that the characters keep their memories...and, that their lifetime they experienced in one week is drastically effecting them. (Something you don't see much in these types of stories. Usually, people just get on with their lives like nothing happened.) I'm not too sure what the Rachel Summers part of this story is about; but, the more I think about this issue, the more I'm actually enjoying it. We don't get any action, but we get a good amount of drama and character development.

X-Men #11

Don't let the cover fool you! This has VERY LITTLE to do with Curse Of The Mutants. All we get is a "once upon a time in Xavier's past" tale, where he tries to cheer up Jubilee, who (again) is feeling down for being a vampire. (Boy, is THIS going to get tiring!) At a high $3.99, this issue felt like a HUGE wast of money! Hard to believe many of us were recommending this book when issues 1-3 came out.

Avengers Academy Giant-Size One-Shot

I'm so happy Marvel finally released this mini...and, even more happy we got it packaged all together in one large sized issue. (It saves me about a buck, too.) Most people are going to be turned off by the $7.99 price; but, it does has some significance...or, hopefully will in the future of some of these character's personal lives. (The book does make you scratch your head on how lame Arcade comes across...as, he never really achieves his goal, even though he doesn't have any trouble capturing superheroes. But, that's part of the storyline, too; so, I was glad to see Tobin address that issue.)

WOW, I just looked and noticed Tobin wrote this book. No wonder I enjoyed it as much as I did.

Avengers Academy (whatever the issue number is)

That one-shot leads nicely into this "and-now-for-a-little-something-different" type of issue. We get an Avengers Academy prom; and, I enjoyed this issue quite a bit. Loved seeing the Young Allies back with the Avengers Academy...and, older members of the Initiative; and, I hope we get more of this interation in the future.

 

[Dread]

Avengers Academy Giant-Size One-Shot

I'm so happy Marvel finally released this mini...and, even more happy we got it packaged all together in one large sized issue. (It saves me about a buck, too.) Most people are going to be turned off by the $7.99 price; but, it does has some significance...or, hopefully will in the future of some of these character's personal lives. (The book does make you scratch your head on how lame Arcade comes across...as, he never really achieves his goal, even though he doesn't have any trouble capturing superheroes. But, that's part of the storyline, too; so, I was glad to see Tobin address that issue.)

WOW, I just looked and noticed Tobin wrote this book. No wonder I enjoyed it as much as I did.

Avengers Academy (whatever the issue number is)

That one-shot leads nicely into this "and-now-for-a-little-something-different" type of issue. We get an Avengers Academy prom; and, I enjoyed this issue quite a bit. Loved seeing the Young Allies back with the Avengers Academy...and, older members of the Initiative; and, I hope we get more of this interation in the future.

That was AVENGERS ACADEMY #13, BTW. Hope you like the Academy, because they're about to be all over again. The next two issues of ASM will be written by Gage and feature them, and of course ACADEMY #14. I do like to see Marvel strongly promoting this series, although it could be argued that leaving it to fend for itself for a year, and thus sales slipping from 46k to 23k, was perhaps a misstep. But, better late than never.

I liked both these issues; the GIANT-SIZE led directly into "Avengers Prom" by how Spider-Girl reacts to Reptil (although their adventure with Arcade had to have taken place before the Korvac battle; for my own geekness I sort of assume it happened after AVENGERS ACADEMY #9 or so).

If I was stunned by one angle of the Arcade story, it is how no character seems disturbed by the fact that Arcade DRESSES them while they are unconscious. I don't think any character, going back to the X-Men in the 70's, have displayed any reaction to this fact beyond, "Gasp, I'm in my costume!" No character in the history of Marvel has shown any concern that Arcade could have at least fondled someone while they were unconscious. This is a universe in which Puppet Master has become a serial killer and sex slaver, and Starfox was put on trial for date rape, after all. CRACKED.COM I believe once made fun of this angle, having Colossus or someone else think something to the effect of, "We've been kidnapped and drugged by an insane carnie; there's no way we WEREN'T raped." Given that all of Arcade's targets this time were minors, I was stunned none of the street wise kids thought that was a big deal, not even the robotically logical Finesse.

I did like how Tobin played with the idea that Arcade's reputation would be in shambles because of all the times he has failed to successfully kill super heroes (even if he has been successful at killing anyone who wasn't a costumed hero). In real life, of course, Arcade is a C-List X-Men villain who naturally can never succeed and kill off anyone "important". He's had better luck providing occasional robots to help villains train with, as he did for Mystique once. It might be interesting if he adopted his business pattern due to this; charging to CAPTURE heroes, rather than kill them, and perhaps have some sort of "paid entertainment" angle with bets and whatnot. In a Hickman issue of FANTASTIC FOUR, though, he showed (or confirmed) that Arcade is genuinely insane and unable to hold off on his compulsion. In that story, Arcade had taken a sabbatical from being a villain and was to open what was to be a successful toy shop in Manhattan with the Impossible Man; yet, he threw it all away because Human Torch happened to come along and he couldn't resist trying to kill him.

As for the "Super Hero Prom", I agree it was a great issue. No bleakness, no fighting, just some fun and some character development. It was very cool.

 

[JewishHobbit]

First and foremost, I'm done with New Avengers. This book turned to total s**t after it's promising first arc. The 50's Avengers is a horrible idea and makes no sense. I hope it gets ignored in the future like it's Peter and MJ's kid. Next issue is a HUGE maybe and I usually hate to drop something in the middle of an arc as a matter of principle.

I disagree about the 50's Avengers. I would buy a book with that team any day! It's been the one highlight of the current storyline, and I hope we get more of them in the future.

I'm with boulder on this one. Despite how much I loved the first arc, this one has just been painful. I hate the old 50's team and the art makes it even worse. The art's better on the modern story but it's very boring and drawn out due to the focus on the 50's plot. I'm just eager to see this arc over and I hope nothing more comes of it.

X-Men Legacy #248

The aftermath of Age Of X. Yawn! Just when you're glad it's over, they try and drag it out a bit more. I like that the characters keep their memories...and, that their lifetime they experienced in one week is drastically effecting them. (Something you don't see much in these types of stories. Usually, people just get on with their lives like nothing happened.) I'm not too sure what the Rachel Summers part of this story is about; but, the more I think about this issue, the more I'm actually enjoying it. We don't get any action, but we get a good amount of drama and character development.

I didn't have time to do Reviews this week but honestly, X-Men Legacy was going to be my Best of the Week! Despite whether or not you liked Ages of X, this issue was a solid aftermath with a lot of character potential and building to future storylines using Ages of X. I'm very curious to see how the Cyclops/Frenzy thing plays out. I love that Ages of X got Chamber back to his old firey self. I loved the idea of how Rachel got pulled into Ages of X while not being on Utopia and how that's leading to the X-Men's bringing her, Havoc, and Polaris back into the fold. I was very drawn in for this book and loved every moment of it.