Bought/Thought October 28th, 2009 - SPOILERS

[THANOSRULES]

I figured Mantis was referring to the fact that he shouldn't be alive, since he's way older than any human should be. The suit probably had to change some stuff around to preserve him for all those years.

I forgot how things went in the last days of the Old school Valentino GOTG with his condition.

I know he had the suit on for hundreds if not thousends of years, and was able to remove it eventually..but then he had to wear a new suit..but this was his old suit he was wearing? Never really explored!

I just love both Vance and Starhawk, It was nice to have ties to the old team, which was such a cool underrated 90s book. Seems like blown opportunity to some cool story arcs with 2 Vances in one universe, the shield, and the afformentioned grey area about this Major Victorys actually status as our Major Victory. Plus, I thought this Vance had some nice moments and depictions.

I havnt read the new issue yet, going to pick it up today so I'll have more thoughts. I havnt Loved the current art, but the book is just so dang good.

 

[Phaedrus45]

I have so many comics to still read; but, figured I better get to the three that I see already reviewed here, as I've somehow been avoiding all the spoilers.

Necrosha #1: I see it's already been said on the first page of this thread...but, wow, does this feel like a total rip-off of Blackest Night. Maybe it would have appealed to me more if not for that; or, maybe it's just that even though Clayton Crain has interesting art (and, from meeting him twice at the Emerald City ComicCon, he's a real nice guy), there is no life in his characters. (For some reason, the art distances me from the characters. They are almost too creepy.)

I am more interested in this than Nation X. I love seeing some of these old characters return, if just back from the dead. (I guess they still have their mutant powers....does "No More Mutants" not effect the dead?) It's just too bad Kitty isn't around for when Doug Ramsey returns. That's where the real drama would have been found.

Fantastic Four #572: I was somewhat interested in this storyline...but, the ending just fizzled for me. Haven't we seen this "family and love is more important" story with Reed one too many times? You think he would have learned by now. I'm dying...DYING...for someone to finally bring the Fantastic Four back to the greatness I remember from the 80's. (Hell, F4 was even one of my favs back in the 90's! I loved all that Evil Sue, Replacement Fantastic Four, and Lyja stuff.)

Guardians of the Galaxy #19: Is it me, or does it seem like we had a most excellent storyline coming out of GOTG #17, only to have this crappy conclusion take away all my anticipation??!!?? The art is just awful, taking away from so much from the story, and it all just felt thrown together. Characters show up out of nowhere (Kang and Drax come to mind), and it just felt rushed. Maybe Realm of Kings made for a sudden change of plans...it sure felt that way to me. I'm just severly disappointed with this title. Way to come down from a nice high!!! I'm more than a little peeved.

 

[THANOSRULES]

I have so many comics to still read; but, figured I better get to the three that I see already reviewed here, as I've somehow been avoiding all the spoilers.

Necrosha #1: I see it's already been said on the first page of this thread...but, wow, does this feel like a total rip-off of Blackest Night. Maybe it would have appealed to me more if not for that; or, maybe it's just that even though Clayton Crain has interesting art (and, from meeting him twice at the Emerald City ComicCon, he's a real nice guy), there is no life in his characters. (For some reason, the art distances me from the characters. They are almost too creepy.)

I am more interested in this than Nation X. I love seeing some of these old characters return, if just back from the dead. (I guess they still have their mutant powers....does "No More Mutants" not effect the dead?) It's just too bad Kitty isn't around for when Doug Ramsey returns. That's where the real drama would have been found.

Fantastic Four #572: I was somewhat interested in this storyline...but, the ending just fizzled for me. Haven't we seen this "family and love is more important" story with Reed one too many times? You think he would have learned by now. I'm dying...DYING...for someone to finally bring the Fantastic Four back to the greatness I remember from the 80's. (Hell, F4 was even one of my favs back in the 90's! I loved all that Evil Sue, Replacement Fantastic Four, and Lyja stuff.)

Guardians of the Galaxy #19: Is it me, or does it seem like we had a most excellent storyline coming out of GOTG #17, only to have this crappy conclusion take away all my anticipation??!!?? The art is just awful, taking away from so much from the story, and it all just felt thrown together. Characters show up out of nowhere (Kang and Drax come to mind), and it just felt rushed. Maybe Realm of Kings made for a sudden change of plans...it sure felt that way to me. I'm just severly disappointed with this title. Way to come down from a nice high!!! I'm more than a little peeved.

I just read GOTG and have to agree with your thoughts. It seemed rushed and a bit ridiculous of an ending. Especially the very end when moondragon gives her debriefing to the audience.

2nd off their were obvious flaws in the battle with magus..I mean how was Magus even this powerful? He was never depicted at such levels even in Infinity War. Gamora can regenerate, Major Victory has had his suit punctured a few times and been fine, not only that he trained for a long time with that shield and it was kinda lame the way he went out "aw jeez". Several people seem to repeatedly use the "aw Jeez" phrase.

It was a ridiculous issue in almost every way..and the art was actually somthing that increased this effect. I'm not going to say the art sucked..because I liked it, but its just not a fit for this book.

DNA are better than this...very disappointed.

 

[squeekness]

I know this came out the previous week, but I only just read this today. From Merc With Mouth #4, this pic was too priceless not to post (unless someone already did). This book just keeps getting funnier by the issue.

 

[Vort]

LOL. That is great.

 

[squeekness]

Deadpool is just plain hilarious. He never disappoints.

 

[Phaedrus45]

I might enjoy Deadpool more if Marvel wasn't shoving him down my throat. Wade is best in small doses.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I think I might scale back my Deadpool to just the occasional issue of Deadpool Team-Up, depending on who's in it. I'm getting the same feeling from his ongoing that I get from Wolverine: First Class: it's fun, but it's often fun in spite of the plot and I don't really care where it's going. I guess it's because Deadpool's part of the X-universe and I really have no vested interest in the X-Men whatsoever. Now that Beast is safely out in space with SWORD, they could all die tomorrow and I wouldn't care.

 

[squeekness]

I'm the oposite. I mostly read the core X-books with the occasional wandering out like Avengers and spot bits of Hulk of Daredevil.

 

[Phaedrus45]

Last minute reviews before the new Bought/Thread starts up:

Halo Helljumper #4: This is an all-out action issue, as the two Helljumper troopers try to save their butts and those of their fellow members who are heading into big trouble and not realizing it. I guess Peter David does an ok job; but, Halo isn't exactly a video game that makes for interesting stories. (Not to mention, all these Halo soldiers look alike; so, there really isn't any emotional involvement with particular characters.) I have to give Bendis some credit; because the previous mini he wrote did make you like some of the characters...but, they weren't Halo soldiers. For most people, I'd say "Skip It." There are much better comics you can pick up, like Ender's Game.

New Avengers #58: I really liked this issue. There were a few decent action scenes, and the stuff involving Norman Osborn having to save Luke Cage's life was nicely done. (Love the scene with Night Nurse and Ms. Marvel-Bad Version...just can't they come up with a universal look for Night Nurse...she looks different in all her appearances in these separate comics.) Good issue....now, I just wonder if this was before the last appearance of Luke in Thunderbolts.

That's one problem with so many of Marvel's characters making appearances in so many different comics. I'm not sure where they exactly fit in to one another, especially some characters who have shown up so often, like The Hood. Plus, Bendis is known for completely ignoring what other people write.

Marvel Divas #4: This was a very good mini...much, much better than the similiar book currently out, Models. The combination of humor and drama works so well. I'm sure this comic is modeled after Sex and the City; and, the reason why that show worked well was the same thing: Mixing the humor with some good drama. In this case, the drama is cancer, and the humor arises from these four gals past relationships. Most important, the gals know the friendships they've made are more important than the fleeting relationships.

Good mini...surprised me very much, and I hope we get another soon.

 

[Phaedrus45]

Ender's Shadow #2: Am I the only person reading this? I say it time and time again...this is one of my favorite comics Marvel is currently putting out. The two series, Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow, have now blended together nicely, and we are getting scenes from each book being duplicated within the pages, and while Ender's Game might be the main title, Ender's Shadow might actually be surpassing it. That's just because the main character, Bean, has such a complex history..and, even though he's now a part of the Command School, the search for his history has been ongoing.

I think what's most interesting is that both titles let us know that everything we are reading is eventually going to lead to battles with these mysterious aliens that have wreaked havok on Earth...but, the sole focus of both titles have been with the training in the schools. We haven't seen a single alien, and the dangers for these young kids are from their fellow students or the people set up to train them. (Compare that to the Halo minis, you see why they fail. You have nothing invested in the characters. But, before any of these see actual combat, the reader truly cares for them.)

Superman-Secret Origin #2: Better than any of the ongoing Superman titles, Geoff Johns is doing a great job retelling Superman's origins. In this second issue, we get Superboy's first meeting with the Legion Of Superheroes. That's really secondary to the good stuff, which is what Johns fills in to Superman's origin...like, the second time he meets Lex and why Lex wants to get out of Smallville and go to Metropolis...or, something so insignifant, like does Superman wear underwear under his costume.

I liked when Johns retold Hal Jordan's origin and first meeting with Sinestro, and he's doing an even better job with Superman. This is a definite Must Have in my collection.

 

[Phaedrus45]

X-Factor #50: Remember how good X-Factor was before Messiah Complex? Peter David had the perfect team of past favorites that, while not A-list mutants, gelled well together. In fact, I would argue the character that held it all together was Layla Miller. Now, this title has been turned to crap. They got rid of Rahne Sinclair and sent Layla into the future. Sure, I always knew that eventually Layla would return...but, never in that fashion. She gets aged, has sex with Madrox (which really is beyond creepy, when you think about it...especially since he just lost a child), and with the conclusion of this issue, I guess we can just figure that she's pretty much come to an end.

What a week for putting characters to rest. First Guardians Of The Galaxy, and now X-Factor. Issue #200 looks interesting...but, I doubt it will be enough to get the bad taste out of my mouth.

 

[Phaedrus45]

Still no new Bought/Thought, so I'll keep reading last week's comics and giving some quicky reviews. All three have been touched on here; so, here's my take:

X-Men Forever #10: This title is taking quite a lambasting, which shouldn't be surprising. Bashing Claremont is almost as easy as bashing Liefeld. Still, I'm going to be one of the rare people who says while this is clearly not a great X-title, I do find it interesting, and thinks it has tons of potential. I love that Claremont is able to spin things off from when he left X-Men and have a sort-of free reign on what he wants to write. It's like a grand What If?...and, what's he's done the past 10 issues is far better than his last stint on New Exiles.

This issue just focuses on the funeral of Wolverine. (Is Claremont going to keep Logan dead? Doesn't really matter to me; but, it does make this divergent timeline a bit different.) I loved seeing the old characters and teams from the early 90's showing up, and it got me thinking that I'd love to see this title incorporate some of the old 90's storylines into it. Sure, X-Men history might change, but maybe some of the stuff would happen differently from what we remember it to be. (I don't expect this; as, Claremont seems happy just making everything that happens since issue #1 be completely different from the 616, including the revelation at the end of this issue that Cable is still a young child who is living with Scott's parents.) I think what I like is it does feel like a comic that would have come out in the 90's...kind of like hearing an old band's new album, and it is still the same stuff they used to put out back in the day. It might be dated, but sometimes listening to something dated is just what you want at that minute.

Ms. Marvel #46: I really don't know how much I like this ending to the Ms. Marvel war between Carol and Karla. It's been kind of a strange storyline, and this ending is no different. Nothing really gets resolved (maybe a main complain in the Dark Reign stories I've been reading), but I did like seeing Karla as Moonstone for a short while. I'm expecting we won't be seeing that again. (For the record, I was always a humongous Moonstone fan, ever since reading her first appearance in Hulk so many years ago.)

I think I didn't like that, to me, these two characters weren't acting like I expect them to act. It felt like Brian Reed had an interesting idea for this comic, and forced both the characters into his story. I've been reading both characters for a long, long time, and the way they acted didn't ring true to how I envision them.

Wolverine-Weapon X #6: Great cover! And, the first part of the story was just as great!!! The previous storyarc was alright; but, this one really grabbed my attention. It was better than either of what I've read in Wolverine Origin or Dark Wolverine. (The only complaint is paying $3.99 for a comic without any extras.)

 

[Phaedrus45]

It keep forgetting one important review I wanted to discuss: The latest issue of Wizard that came out this week. Not only do I HATE the new format, did any notice that the price guide is now gone??? All we get is one page of the graded comics. Really??!!?? How many comic buyers actually go out and get their comics specially graded? (I think that's the biggest rip-off in history. I don't care what container you put it in...just because it's professionally graded should not mean you can charge that much for a comic.)

It seems to be the way of magazines to eventually get worse and worse. I have yet to see a magazine actually get better as time goes on. (For example, I used to love Entertainment Weekly...and, even though I subscribe to it still every week, most of their articles are complete garbage.) This Top 50 format Wizard is now using just condenses articles to little blurbs, and confines them to this strict format. Is anyone thinking, "Oh, Wizard has a new format...now I'll buy it!" I doubt these changes we keep seeing from Wizard do much at all. In fact, all it's done is continually reduce the size of their magazine.

Of course, I shouldn't complain too much about not having the price guide any longer. It seems half the issues presented in it were just varients now. Why give a price guide on comics that most comic fans don't own? I want to know the price of the regular comic...not the ones most comic shops and dealers over price immediately to their clientel.

I shouldn't complain about the lack of a letter page. Most times, they just used those pages to make smart ass remarks to those who send them.

Oh well, just like Entertainment Weekly, I'll still buy it.

 

[WOLVERINE25TH]

I consider X-Men Forever to be the first official fan fiction story ever.

 

[squeekness]

I've read better fanfics, lol. I just wish it was better than it is because it's an interesting roster. I've always liked Sabes as a semi-hero but he's not quite evolved to that status just yet here. Plus my fave Gambit is just too underused for my tastes.

 

[Aesop Rocks]

Captain America: Reborn #4

!!!!!!!SPOILERS!!!!!!!!

What the **** did I just read? I love the Reborn series so far, I really do. I love the race against time and the race of good and evil. #1-3 were really good reads and They made me wanting the next issue to come out, I was dying for 4 to come out. Well, it did and, I am beyond pissed off. Not by the art or anything, the story is wonderful. It's just what they did. How the **** can you capture Steve out of a random point in time and put his arch enemies mind into him?! That's a low blow, Marvel. It made me so mad and I am still mad. He doesn't deserve that and, I'm more than sure they'll save him but until then, that was such a low blow.

 

[squeekness]

^^ Makes me glad I skipped it.

 

[Aesop Rocks]

Oh no, it's a WONDERFUL read.

I just...wow....damn.