Bought/Thought November 4th, 2009 --SPOILERS

[squeekness]

Hope nobody minds if I start this, I read all my stuff already, I only got two books this week.

Fathom #9 -- This book is okay, but a little underwhelming from when our beloved yet now deceased Micheal Turner was doing the writing and the art as well. Aspen goes through more changes as she fights the Black and ends up with some new suit of armour that's kinda fairy looking. Eh. I was buying this for Killian anyways who alas, wasn't really his old bad ass self in here. One more issue and this series ends. It will be the last one that I buy.

BUt on a brighter note:

Astonishing X-men #32. I'm liking this second arc much better than the last one. I'm not a huge outer space fan, but this second arc seems to be to be easier to follow than the first, but maybe that's because Bianchi's no longer doing the art. The best part of this book? Flirty Beast!

Not sure where this follows in the timeline of things -- Emma's able to change back and forth so there's no Void splinter in her head, but yet there are some hints of Necrosha in here as dead mutants are starting to walk around. Maybe Ellis just needs to be updated on Emma's condition, lol.

 

[AgentEnforcer]

Captain America Reborn 4: Things are starting to come together as Cap's message he left with Vision in the past is played for Pym and Richards in the present. Sharon Carter's blood contains some sort of chrono-anchor for Cap in the present. Skull heads to Latveria where Doom and Zola have finished the machine which Sharon originally damaged. Cap continues on his time jumping travels until he gets to the day where he is lost and frozen and Bucky "dies". He decides he will do his best from letting it all happen, as the memories of that day have haunted him non-stop. As Bucky is attached to the rocket thing, Steve falls off and then goes through a time warp vortex.

Spoiler

He wakes up in the present, much to everyone's delight except for Sharon, who is still captive, asks Steve what is happening in horror. Cap, unmasked, looking sinister (complete with red skulls in his eyes) says that he definatly is not Steve Rogers.

 

[Mike555]

Going to be getting my books tommorow so cant wait to see beast being so confident again yeah.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Quick thoughts on my comics this week:

Assault on New Olympus Prologue was awesome. It filled me with utter delight to see Herc pummel the ever-loving s*** out of Spider-Man. I wonder what this means for Herc and Hebe going forward. And Herc and Namora. And Herc and Snowbird. You get the idea. Speaking of Namora, the Agents of Atlas backup was great. I actually stopped short of reading it right away because I noticed it said it picks up from X-Men vs. Agents of Atlas #2, which was a couple comics down in my stack, so I read that and then came back to it. Good thing I did 'cause the backup would've been totally confusing without that issue before it. Anyway, Aphrodite's fully on Venus' case now, so it should be interesting seeing the Agents cope with the full fury of a god and all the awful s*** she can send against them--starting with Venus' creator, who appears to be a giant goddamned kraken. Awesome.

Captain America Reborn was good. The plot finally moves forward substantially and, even though it moves in literally the exact direction we all knew it would, I'm still looking forward to where it goes. Brubaker can and has taken pretty unsurprising plot 'twists' and turned them into phenomenal stories before, so hopefully he'll do the same in the last two issues of this series. Kind of curious where Steve-O's consciousness is if the Skull's now occupying his body. The one low point of the issue is that I was very dismayed to see Hawkeye killing HAMMER agents left and right. Apparently Brubaker subscribes to the murderous Bendis interpretation of the character.

X-Men vs. Agents of Atlas was a pretty satisfying read. I was glad to see Xavier factor into it so much. Reminded me of X-Men: First Class, which this crossover grew out of as much as the Agents of Atlas series, it seems. Parker's great with the nods to continuity here. Warren immediately tries to confront Namora and figure out why the Agents stole Cerebra, playing on their history together in World War Hulk. Beast and Gorilla Man eventually remember each other from when Ken helped the X-Men out in First Class. Good stuff. I'm curious to see how this Venus/Aphrodite conflict works out, too.

Deadpool Team-Up was fun. It was great to see Nightmare return and try to get revenge on Herc for the events of "Sacred Invasion." Arcade's motivation was somewhat less interesting but still convincing. I have no idea who that blue-haired chick was, but I'm not even sure I'm supposed to know. Deadpool fighting a monster composed of his own dueling dialogue boxes was great. And the last page was classic, especially the little note at the bottom.

 

[JewishHobbit]

Money's tight so I have to wait until Friday to get my books, or later, so I think I'm going to dodge this thread until then. Sucks! I hate getting my stuff late.. and with the last issue of End League, and two issues of Project Superpowers coming out this week... oh it just sucks

 

[Themanofbat]

I wouldn't say that Herc pummelled the ever-loving s*** out of Spider-Man, though he did het a few face slaps in there...

 

[JewishHobbit]

Why was Herc fighting Spider-Man? I don't read Incredible Hercules so I don't know what's been going on there.

 

[Themanofbat]

Hebe, Herc's wife from Olympus, is at the FEAST center where Aunt May works and is having a conversation with Peter about relationships, and while I'm not sure if she has these abilities, Peter finds himself kissing her just as Herc walks in and wants to basically kill Peter for rubbing his rhubarb... you can imagine how the rest plays out...

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Peter kissed Hebe, Herc's wife, and Herc punched him through a building. An entire building. Peter took the opportunity while Herc was coming after him to change into his Spider-Man costume and Herc then beat the crap out of Spider-Man while demanding he tell him where Peter was and arguing about the finer points of marital fidelity. The fight ends with Spider-Man buried under about a dozen cars and Herc and Hebe reconciled.

 

[Themanofbat]

Spidey held back...

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Yeah, I'm sure that part where he tried to pummel Herc and wound up hurting his own hands was because he was just giving Herc love-taps.

 

[Themanofbat]

Let's make out...

 

[JewishHobbit]

Peter macking on yet another woman... sadly, BND seeping into other Marvel books

But that sounds great in regards to Herc

I was so close to picking the title up if not for that $4 price hike. I know it has a back up but I have -56% interest in the Agents of Atlas, so it does nothing for me. I already sacrefice $1 for Incredible Hulk, though I don't read the She-Hulk back up... I'm not going to be doing that to anymore comics and am already considering dropping Inc. Hulk for that purpose.

But man do I love Hercules At least I get him in Mighty Avengers, a good substitute for now.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I'd skip lunch for a day or two rather than drop iHerc, if money became that much of an issue to me. It's an absolute must-read for me. Agents of Atlas backups are just a happy bonus, since I love the team.

 

[CaptainCanada]

Assault on New Olympus Prologue - well, that was an unexpected intrusion of seriousnes into Herc's marital life. From what I can determine, Hebe only made two appearances in the 40 years preceding this series, and all of the major writers of the character (Layton and Stern, for example) wrote him as if he was single, so it's interesting to see the writers make such a deliberate effort to make Herc look like a somewhat hypocritical *****e. It's well-done, and does make sense. The fight between Hercules and Spider-Man was hilarious ("Did I mention I totally beat the Juggernaut once?"). Seeing Athena so unexpectedly frazzled by this is a change of pace. I kind of wish they'd give a bit more information on whatever it is Hera's planning, though.

Black Widow: Deadly Origin #1 - Cornell's writing essentially an integrated history of a character with a backstory that's been sporadically added to by a bunch of different people over the years, and he's doing a good job of it so far. I like the idea of using all of the different periods of her career in one place (and all her relationships), because normally you only see one such setting referenced at any one time. Leon's flashback art is perfect for the flashbacks; Raney's not quite in the same league, but it's good. I'm not sure if the opening sequence (modelled on a James Bond adventure) needed to be that long, but whatever.

Captain America: Reborn #4 - the story struggles a bit against the fact that the solicits for next year have pretty comprehensively shown us where this thing is headed, but whatever, it's not like Steve returning was that big a question mark to begin with. The first two issues were a bit slow to start, the third improved, and this one is easily the best issue yet; looks like the second half will be big on action. I love how all the big villains are written together - unlike say the DC Legion of Doom, Marvel's heavies can rarely tolerate being around each othe for long without a lot of sniping (Doom constantly insulting Zola, for example). Looks like it's going to be an Avengers raid on Latveria to the rescue; I was wondering whether the Skull's consciousness has totally displaced Steve's or is cohabiting, Lukin-style. I'm guessing the latter, since the Skull wanted out of such a predicament, and there's no obvious use for that vial of Sharon's blood that Reed has if they don't need it to fetch Steve's consciousness out of wherever it is. Bryan Hitch's work feels more and more at home on the title.

Deadpool Team-Up #899 - not really a fan of Deadpool, but this issue was written by Fred Van Lente and guest-stars Hercules, so obviously I'm there. I liked the followup to "Sacred Invasion" with Nightmare wanting revenge (I wonder if we will see him again in the main title before Pak and VL's run is out?). Deadpool's anarchic personality is fun enough when he's paired with a more realized character, and Herc is a good foyle. I especially liked how he had to fight the personification of his duelling narrative captions, and solved the problem by lobotomizing himself temporarily (an the fourth-wall-breaking diss at the readers, followed by the cut to Arcade and Ms. Locke 2.0).

Immortal Weapons #4: Tiger's Beautiful Daughter - mark this down as the biggest surprise of the week. #1 was excellent, #2 was mediocre, and #3 was good - I wasn't sure what they were going to do with TBD, who was arguably the vaguest character on introduction. But Swiercyznski (taking writing chores on the main story for the first time in this miniseries) delivers a pretty comprehensive origin story with a good plot twist, and makes her a pretty well-realized character (though this story, like really all of the others, weirdly doesn't given any time to the Heavenly Cities they're supposed to be the champions of). Khari Evans supplies some quality art for the story, though it can't be helped that Tiger's Aja costume design is a bit on the side of gratuitous. The Iron Fist backup feels, well, pretty obligatory. But whatever.

X-Men vs. Agents of Atlas #2 - heh, I read the Assault prologue and abruptly had to stop and go read this before the AoA backup. The X-Men and the Agents eventually realize they shouldn't be fighting each other, Woo apologizes, and then they go rescue Venus - I thought the latter sequence was a bit on the short side, though Aphrodite giving Venus a tramp-stamp was hilarious. I also liked how Parker integrated last issue's seemingly-irrelevant retro-60s strip into the main story. Really, the main thing I took away from this is that Parker should really be writing one of the X-titles, because I like his take on the characters (apart from his immature Wolverine bashing).

 

[JewishHobbit]

I've never cared about Herc, but then i read the secret invasion tie-ins and loved them. I debated on contnuing but couldn't afford it. Then i considered dropping other stuff to start collecting it and they raised the price, so that turned me against it as well.

Maybe once I drop most of the Avengers titles after Dark Reign I might try it, but I doubt it. I hate the Marvel system of $4 an issue and it's really turning me off of Marvel in general, so I actually see myself dropping more as time goes on, not adding.

 

[Phaedrus45]

Money's tight so I have to wait until Friday to get my books, or later, so I think I'm going to dodge this thread until then. Sucks! I hate getting my stuff late.. and with the last issue of End League, and two issues of Project Superpowers coming out this week... oh it just sucks

I only got one issue of Project Superpowers, which was Bring On The Bad Guys. Let me know if the other one did come out; because then I'll have to hunt it down.

 

[Phaedrus45]

A new week! As usual, waaay too many comics to read, so I'll do it in spurts.

Official Index To The Marvel Universe #11: I love getting handbooks and this Index; although, I wish they'd get finished with recapping Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Uncanny X-Men. I want them to get to the many, other titles Marvel has put out. (For me, I really think they should have done a year by year Index. That way, I can see all the comics I might have missed during a particular month.) Still, love this, especially seeing the covers I never had a chance to get, and the little notes at the bottom, letting you know of the special things about each comic.

Age Of Reptiles - The Journey #1: Ricardo Delgado is back! Age Of Reptiles was a neat little title that I still remember from the 90's. I believe only two minis were ever made, and I still have them in my collection. This comic is all art, and Delgado lets that art tell his story. It's nice not to have a narrative going throughout this title, just letting the reader enjoy the visuals to tell the story. In this first issue, you get a large group of various dinosaurs making a one day journey to try and get to a warmer environment. This is not a safe journey, as predators are all around, and Delgado lets the reader know about the "circle of life." Nice beginning!

Haunt #2: Second issue, and maybe my enjoyment of it has waned a bit. It's very 90's, with a very simplistic story filled with violence and gore. In fact, I'm looking at the cover, and doesn't Haunt just look like one of the undead characters we are currently seeing in Blackest Night? I love Kirkman's stuff, but this is really an homage to those early Image titles...low on plot and heavy on graphically violent art. It's all very Spawn. (And, one of my problems with Spawn was it never seemed to go anywhere....it's why I stopped collecting it around issue #60.)

The plot is as follows: Daniel Kilgore (a very comical last name) is a priest (who smokes waaay too much...I really appreciate that comics don't glorify smoking any longer) who's brother is some kind of undercover government operative who has been killed. Daniel seeing his brother's spirit, begging him to keep his wife safe. As seen in the first issue, people come to abduct the wife, and before they can kill Daniel, he turns into a Spawn-type character when his brother's spirit takes over his body. (Kind of Brother Voodoo-ish.) This second issue just see's the brother's spirit still imploring Daniel to help him out (of course, Daniel doesn't want to, and is pretty much forced into these situations, regardless of his feelings), while Daniel comes across death and danger wherever he turns.

I'll still read this for a bit; but, hopefully the future issues don't just keep playing up the reluctant hero aspect of the comic, or get bogged down with a character who really doesn't go anywhere.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

(apart from his immature Wolverine bashing).

Trapping a character under a statue is immature?

 

[moraldeficiency]

Anybody writing a story with wolverine getting bashed or trapped under a statue or doing anything other than being an unstoppable ultimate badass is a winning X-writer in my book.

 

[Phaedrus45]

I like doing my reading and reviewing in threes. I picked issues this time that have already been reviewed. This way, I can hopefuly avoid spoilers.

Astonishing X-Men #32: Thank God "The Box" storyline is done, because this current one is so much better in all regards. Maybe best of all, the art is vastly improved, and not all dark and hard to look at like before. I love how Ellis devoted most of this issue to the X-Men doing battle with a new version Sentinel. It's been a while since the Sentinel concept felt very new...or they seemed very frightening...heck, can't remember the last time I remembered reading a good Sentinel story. Loved seeing The Brood, again, too.

That's one of my complaints with the other X-books. They've got so many new characters, that many of my favorite X-Men just aren't seen much anymore....or, we see them for an issue or two, and they seem to disappear. Of course, as pointed out, this title seems to separate itself from the other X-titles by not being current with events happening outside this story.

Deadpool Team-Up #899: I wasn't looking forward to this comic...but, the first issue wasn't that bad. Maybe it's because both characters, Deadpool and Hercules, worked well together...that Van Lente did the writing...and, it's a one-off story that doesn't get dragged out for 5 issues. Good, decent issue.

EDIT: OOPS, forgot I didn't review Cap.

Captain America Reborn #4: Good, solid issue! Things have picked up, and while you kind of knew where everything was heading, I'm dying to see how Brubaker resolves everything. I did keep thinking as Cap was time traveling through his past that it was very reminiscent of the Baron Zemo miniseries that came out a few years ago (how crappy is it that we haven't seen him since that Thunderbolts mini). Also, I loved the art!

 

[TheCorpulent1]

That Baron Zemo mini was awesome. I miss ol' Helmut.

 

[CaptainCanada]

Trapping a character under a statue is immature?

Parker doesn't like Wolverine, has said as much in interviews, and that he uses any appearance he makes to have other characters beat him up.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Can't really fault him for it, given that plenty of other writers do the same with various other characters. At least Parker stays truer to Wolverine's character than, say, Ennis did to Spider-Man's in Marvel Knights Punisher.

 

[moraldeficiency]

Parker doesn't like Wolverine, has said as much in interviews, and that he uses any appearance he makes to have other characters beat him up.

Awesome, parker twenty cool points for bucking the trend.