Bought/Thought "OH NOEZZZ!!" Sept.20th Edition

[GNR]

I was happy to see Johnny and Sue join Cap's crew.Sure it'll be undone once it runs its course,but it's awesome to see.

Was that a rig Herc dumped on Iron Man?BAD ASS!

 

[Marcdachamp]

What a fantastic week!

Civil War- PICK OF THE WEEK! The death was a little predictable thanks to the delay, but it was still sad. I'm impressed with how tight the continuity in this event is: Cable leaving for Deadpool, the fight in ASM/FF... it's just very impeccable. The big surprise was the reformation of a team: Thor might not be a God, but McNiven is pretty damn close. That final page is chilling! I also liked seeing Nextwave taking a side, even if it was a small cameo. Sue and Johnny's scene was great. Another thing we saw coming (at least Sue), but it was a great scene. Interesting to see Cap's side faltering a bit. We can see how his and Tony's dedication to one side is hurting the middle. What an appropriate political allegory! I love it! 10/10

Astonishing X-Men- It's been a while since this issue genuinly astonished me, but Whedon and Cassaday really lived up to the title this week. We can really see the pieces falling into place, and I love the respect Whedon is showing for Morrison's run. Wolverine and Cyclops EASILY steal the show. Cassaday's art has felt a little off lately, but the beer can sequence and the final page made me fall in love all over again. 9/10

Sensational Spider-Man- I really expected this arc to be good. I looked at the idea, and I looked at the characters involved and I told myself this was gonna be fun. Y'know what? I was absolutely right. After the incredibly mediocre "Feral", Sacasa is treating us to the best case for Spidey unmasking I've seen. The long run will prove the intelligence of this move, but the stories are taking Spider-Man to levels of fun I haven't seen since JMS debuted on Amazing. Hell, even Medina is putting in a good effort. I'm not sure if I'm simply over-looking his art thanks to the story, but I'm actually not minding it at all. 9/10

Moon Knight- FINALLY! I've been enjoying this book, but I've been craving some action, and it didn't disappoint! It's great to see Marc Spector back in costume. Finch draws an amazing Moon Knight, and the, ahem, Moon Cave looks even better! 8/10

Runaways- Vaughan and Norton bring us a nice, big, Kirby style monster. It's cool seeing the team deal with something new. As usual, Vaughan's dialogue is fantastic. I loved Nico's comment about shrinking the Mole Man (wish we coulda seen it!), and the banter was perfect. The Gibborim? Chase, what are you doing? 8/10

Wolverine- Interesting to see Logan doing things a little differently. Tackling a major corporation is a little different from chopping off Nitro's hand, however. I like Ramos' art, but his Emma sucks. She doesn't have the elegance she usually has. 8/10

X-Factor- I expected the confrontation with Guido to take a few issues, but it makes more sense this way. Quicksilver needs a new costume, or something. He looks so out of place. I love his character and what he brings to the book, but put him in something more casual. Looks like Jamie's dupes are gonna get him in trouble sooner, rather than later, too. Nice. 8/10

Nextwave- Not as funny as usual, but still pretty amusing. The Captain finally get his moment, and Dirk is his usual, awesome self. 8/10

New X-Men- The art's back up to par, but this just felt like set-up for the final part. The ONE interrogation was pretty good, though. I also like David as the leader, even though he's powerless. That's interesting. 7/10

 

[Dread]

Today was a massive comic day, I got a good 10 books. One can't even blame it on "Civil War being late" because only the core title came out; the tie-ins this week (CW: X-MEN & WOLVERINE) aren't as heavilly connected to the title and thus on schedule. Marvel just simply shipped alot of books this week. Let's get started.

As usual, the spoilers are unlimited, but I'm sure those who didn't want any would steer clear of this and the CW topic by now.

DREAD'S BOUGHT/THOUGHT FOR 9/20/06:

52 WEEK #20: The lone DC book this week for me is as usual their stellar weekly serial, drawing me in with a bunch of winding plots starring B and C-Listers. The "A" plot is the Lost In Space Trio (Adam Strange, Animal-Man and Starfire) having more hyjinks with Lobo and his "space fish cult" before being forced to fight some alien parasites and flee for their lives. Naturally, Lobo is trying to stick by his "vows" and we learn his "eyeball artifact" was simply an organ yanked from a big space fish, which now will be cruising after then when Kori used it to save everyone. The concept of there being space-paracites to feed on the survivors of "dead" worlds, much as in biology there are plenty of creatures that feed on dead animals, is a simple yet cool concept to add to your space lexicon. Nearly everyone has a power moment here, from Animal-Man's wonky fire-breathing to Strange blastin' away on their ship to Lobo displaying Wolverine-level regeneration (hey, he had it first!) and Kori (still wearing Animal-Man's shirt) using the eye. The B-Plot consists of "organic Steel" saving some fire-fighters and then learning that, duh, since Luthor is creating metahuman powers, he can also strip them whenever he pleases (and thus control them). Duh. I mean, of course that was what he was doing, it's obvious. Oh, and Supernova breaks into Wayne Manor to look through artifacts from the Batcave, noteably Jason Todd's uniform and a chunk from Luthor's armor. Is he really Conner? Oh, well, more for next week. As usual, I'm on-board for what easily was DC's best project to come from the post-IC era.

ASTONISHING X-MEN #17: Well, Marvel kept their word at least this month; supposedly the title will be monthly from now on, a feat I am still skeptical they can pull off until issue #24. Still, I'll enjoy it while it lasts. As there wasn't a 2 month gap, there's less of a dead spot for this chapter, but frankly JUSTICE is still looking a lot better despite being bi-monthly. The fact is, this storyline just seems to be keeping the X-Men "busy" while Ord and Danger can build up to the UNSTOPPABLE arc, so I continue getting the feeling that this current arc is a nice way of tredding water. We get some more info here, but not all of it in a concise piece and while I am sure Whedon knows where he is going, I am starting to tire of being strung along. With 52 it's more acceptable because you get 4 issues a month. Each issue of JUSTICE is packed to the gills. But for this arc, I'm sure there's some way to skim it down to 4-5 issues, not 6. Apparently what's in Xavier's "lock box" is some piece of alien flesh that Cassandra Nova's psyche is in, and with it reclaimed she can find a new host. They psychically trick Shadowcat into believing she had a baby named "Micheal" that the X-Men trapped in there to get her to fetch it. And they call the "good" (or "less evil") Emma Frost an "imposter", while the White Queen/Perfection is seemingly "real", and I don't get it yet. The folks at SWORD claim that "Frost is attacking the Mansion" so this all may be her and Nova's psyche here, but it's still getting annoying. We still have more of "prissy Logan" here, but it's not as irksomely overdone and he seems to come out of it...by looking at a beer can. Yes, this is a reference to the "I Like Beer" narration from a few issues (and about 2 years, seemingly) ago, but it just felt like something a TV writer throws in to shamelessly get a cheap laugh, kind of like a fart joke or a crude sexual reference. Maybe I just don't get Whedon's style, to have a "seriously serious life-or-death" sort of story going on and then in the middle, throw in a bit from a comedy movie. I mean, really, BEER gets Logan to snap out of it!? Come the F-on! That's something an emotionally challenged 12 year old thinks is clever, which means it's fodder for generic comedy movies or TV shows. Or maybe I just need a sense of humor sometimes. I mean, you can't have a serious, surreal adventure and then a bit out of ROAD TRIP into the same story. It doesn't gell. At least not for this particular story, IMO.

Oh, and it appears Lockheed is SWORD's "spy". Considering they deal with aliens and he's an alien himself, it's a no-brainer and quite clever, I liked it. I also liked the ending 2 pages, but I have no clue where Cyclops got the gun or why he can't shoot blasts. Are his powers "gone" or is he simply controlling them? And if he can control his blasts now, why shoot a gun? Because this storyline has more than enough stuff to need to read another issue for without a cliffhanger. We still don't know the Frost/Queen/Perfection thing and I have a feeling it'll make my head hurt. The X-Men are about to rally (Logan is out of it, Piotr is up and Hisako wants to help), but it just seems like this storyline has drug out far longer than it needed to, and not all of that was because it was a bi-monthly for the first few issues. Still, it was better than the last issue, but I'm basically waiting for this arc to end to get to the REAL action, because I'm pretty sure UNSTOPPABLE will be better. Or at least hoping.

For the record, I'm not reading UNCANNY because I didn't care for Brubaker's Vulcan/retcon from DEADLY GENESIS, and I am sick to bloody death of "X-Men space stories". They've now officially gone into space more often than the Fantastic Four and every incarnation of the Starship ENTERPRISE. What once was a lark has now woefully distracted the X-Men from their premise and I hate it. I know Whedon is sort of doing the same in ASTONISHING, but, to be fair, he didn't retcon in the Vulcan fiasco. And I don't read X-MEN because I can't stand Bachelo's art or the line-up. Astonishing still has the best roster and art, and probably dialogue, of a lot of the X-books.

CIVIL WAR #4: There's a topic elsewhere with spoiler tags, I'm not putting any up. The reveals here aren't as major as the "unmasking" but if you haven't read the issue, please stop here. Just scrool down until you see another bold text and don't even decode the blurring letters.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that professionally speaking, the fact that Marvel had to delay their entire "event" and thus stretch it into early 2007 makes them look rather childish. They should have foreseen stuff happening since Millar & McNiven are hardly new employees. That said, I haven't come down as hard as some because a few months ago I was frankly drowing in CW material and needed a break, and the delays unintentionally delivered that. There were still tie-ins that weren't as connected to the core title (CW: XM, WOLVERINE, MS. MARVEL, YA/RUNAWAYS), but that freedom from the ones that were (ASM, FF, CW itself and 2 issues of FRONTLINE) gave me a bit of a rest from the bleeting on both sides, the darkness, the mire, the death and the destruction of major characters and the MU itself. You can only take so much of this stuff at once. So the month-break was refreshing, and I now am less weary of CW than I was in, say, mid-June or July. And the delay also helped smaller, non CW books sell better in the month of August; USM, ETERNALS, YA/RUNAWAYS, and a few others all sold thousands of more issues without having to compete with as much CW stuff. Further proving the theory that Marvel pushes a lot of its own books into sales downers. How else to explain why ETERNALS #3 sold better than #2?

CW has what HOM ignored, a strong moral dilemma at the core. However at this point, that moral dilemma has been debated with the same handful of arguement points for so long that I want some mindless smashing, and thankfully Millar will always deliver that better than Bendis would. So here it is, the fight that ended in CW #3 and the aftermath breifly peeked at in ASM and FF is shown here. I seriously needed a good explaination as to why Thor would be on the pro-SHRA side, and thankfully Millar gives it; I was cynically not expecting it so it was nice to be pleasantly surprised. Basically, Iron Man pulled a "Lex Luthor from SUPERMAN IV" here; took a strand of Thor's hair and cloned himself a "psuedo-god-clone" thing, complete with a techno-hammer. Some are calling him Thor 2.0, but you could also call him "Nuclear Thor" because he basically has the same origin and almost the same personality: "Grr, Destroy, Hurt Wretches!" But considering how long Thor hung around the Avengers and that apparently Iron Man is like Batman and has been planning on how to best kill all of his friends in case they go rogue, I can see why this happened. The "D.B." who showed up in FF was probably the real Thor, but in CW it's just a copy. With not only power, but psychological effect (making everyone pause in shock). The Secret Avengers take a beating and Goliath is killed by Nuclear Thor; some people called it a while ago (I didn't), although it did reak of "we need someone to die, so someone dies" sort of thing. However, Goliath's death shocks the superhero community even more, as some more heroes join his side off-panel and even Iron Man's sex toy, Spider-Man, is starting to question things. No, it wasn't way back when he was being ordered to punch out the YA or watch friends like Hobie Brown get arrested for not signing a document, no, it was only now that Spidey starts to question stuff. Oh, and Mr. Fantastic is back to being a Nazi Doctor; normally he's actually emotionally driven. He can shut off into "science" mode but usually just as a plot device to have him and Sue have a marital tiff (most writers can't write a happy marriage if you held them at gunpoint), but he was never this callous. So Sue stands her ground, helps the Secret Avengers escape, takes her brother and skips. And good for you, girl; her farewell letter was rather well written; for once Millar's juvenile tendancies didn't drag a text down (have you ever heard Sue sound like a 2 dollar ****e and mention having sex only to tire Reed out? Me neither. See, juvenile. But it didn't hurt it here). Even Iron Man is conflicted as Foster was once his ally, although he is reminded of his purpose by Mrs. Sharpe.

(For those keeping tally of who is on who's side, note Debrii, Triatholon, Justice, Living Lightening, Firebird and the cast of NEXTWAVE amung Cap's Secret Avengers, although Nighthawk and Stature seem to quit. But wouldn't Stature leaving muck up the continuity of YA/RUNAWAYS? Unless that series is set before CW #4. Ah, the fun of massive crossovers.) And you have the "mystery masked man", who may be Punisher or Nick Fury or an Elf With a Gun for all we know.

And then Millar and CW go off the deep end and lose any sort of "impartiality" the story had. Not only is Mr. Fantastic an unfeeling "fascist" (Sue's term), Spider-Man a sell-out and Iron Man a paranoid schizo with genius IQ; now the pro-SHRA side are unleashing vicious super-villians to track down the rogue heroes because they lack enough meta-boots on the ground. We're talking tagging Venom, Lady Deathstrike, Bullseye, Jack O'Lantern, Taskmaster, et al against the Secret Avengers. These aren't your "bank robbers" like some of the Thunderbolts, these are hardened, professional mercs and killers. The equalivent to sending the Unabomber & Jeffry Dahmer loose to get some "anti-war activists". Yes, yes, Stark mentions stuff about "nanobot tags" to Janet/Wasp about it, but that is besides the point. This is siccing vicious killers after your once-comrades. This is like letting Saddam go free so he can track down someone for you. There is no way you can claim the title isn't picking a side now. You can't root for someone who'd open a door with Venom, Bullseye, et al gleefully licking their chops and go, "Have at 'em, boys!" I said months ago that CW would and should be a field day for villians, and it looks like it's proving true. Especially since you know damned well that these nanobot bugs aren't fool-proof, and even then, a force that sends supervillians to do their dirty work isn't something you can root for. Marvel's U.S. gov't has routinely deputized supervillians into being soldiers, but it never, ever, EVER works out in the long run. Not only is Iron Man and company allowing it, but they're pointing at the target. And if Iron Man's so smart (a fact Marvel's insisted on reminding us a lot these days), then if Stark couldn't control Nuclear Thor, a being he CREATED FROM SCRATCH, then why does he expect to control hardened criminals who routinely get past authorities to up their body counts?

CW promised to change the face of the MU and it's being true to it's word. But eventually you run out of characters, teams, relationships, etc to destroy and eventually you have to CREATE something. Will there be enough time to create jack ***** before WORLD WAR HULK comes in later 2007? Or will that just provide more destruction? There's a good reason the stereotype of a lot of fanboys is "bitter, angry, cynical". How can you not? So, CW's exciting and all, like being in the midst of a drive-by shooting, but luckily there's also ANNIHILATION with less guilt-feeling action.

CW: X-MEN #3: Right on schedule, with the loosest of connections to the event, the sequal of SENTINAL ONE/THE 198 continues. Gen. Lazer and John Dee (the mutie version of Puppet Master) spark a fight by controlling Cyclops, and suddenly the X-Men are boxing with Bishop, Micromax, Sabra, and the SENTINAL ONE's. Paquette's art is still good overall, but I can't stand his Beast; he's going for some sort of "puma" look but Hank keeps looking like a bear. Fortunately, Beast figures Cyke was being mind-controlled and soon Val Cooper and Reyes figure out the obvious...Gen. Lazer's a supervillian fascist bigot with a hidden agenda. Duh. I mean, all he did was twist his mustache and laugh into his cape for about a year. However, before the situation can go under control, X-Force (or at least Shatterstar and Domino) go out to help the X-Men, and Shatterstar mortally wounds Micromax, a D-Lister that I doubt too many on this side of the pond care about; I know I don't. And while I didn't read THE 198, it seems odd that you can have some Marauders like Scalphunter and Arclight standing near survivors of the Morlock Massacre like Caliban and Erg, and they aren't ripping into each other. It'd be like Sabra standing next to Red Skull and not doing squat. Good news? Cooper exposed Lazer and the in-fighting has been resolved, sorta. Bad news? The 198 are locked inside that bunker that is now set to explode, killing "half the remaining mutants left on Earth". So, 10% of "a few hundred thousand, a million maybe" is now 396? Good to know. I believe there are more pandas than mutants still. And the "amnesty" package seems dubious as plenty of those mutants, like Toad, are actual criminals. Granted, the U.S. has a history to granting block amnesty to large blocks of persecuted minority races...eventually. Look at some amnesty grants to illegal immigrants, surely an oppressed minority (some of 'em). So I guess it is realistic, especially in the wake of CIVIL WAR when they'd probably want to sweeten the pot as much as possible to get more mutants to enroll into gov't superteams. Why not? So it works. Liked the issue, although the concept of the 198, the SENTINAL ONE and so on have a lot of kinks to them, but they've had 'em since DECIMATION, which was why most of the core books only gave 'em token acknowledgement. And it's an adventure of the original X-Men that ISN'T based in some psuedo-past (see X-MEN: FIRST CLASS), so for what it is, it's enjoyable. Not groundbreaking, but enjoyable. And that's fine.

GHOST RIDER #3: The main thing I dislike about this GR relaunch is that it has, so far, an utterly pointless retcon. That retcon is that after decades of material claiming it was Mephisto, not "Lucifer", who made Blaze into Ghost Rider, this relaunch decides to scrap all that and pretend it was "Lucifer" (or yet another unnamed demon taking his name) all along. SIGH. Considering that Mephisto always served the same role of the Devil in most Marvel stories he was involved in, it just seems like a waste to retcon this. Despite that, the art is good and the story isn't bad. This issue is an entire "Ghost Rider vs. Dr. Strange" issue, where Strange arrives to investigate Ghost Rider's reappearence and sudden boost in power (that he can't control so well), and Ghost Rider thinks it's yet another trick by "Lucifer", so he continues to fight. Meanwhile, Lucifer and his undead killer army continue to have exchanges seemingly left over from PREACHER. Some people have claimed Way is "Ennis Lite" and there are some style simularities. Still, this is a simple "hero fights hero under a misunderstanding" issue as the cover promises, so taken at that it delivers. The bit with GR's bike was also funny. It ends with GR giving Strange the "Penace Stare", which means that Blaze likely has inherited all the powers of the "Danny Ketch" version, who became more recognizable in the 90's. Fair enough.

MOON KNIGHT #5: Between the decompressed storyline and the routinely late issues, plus the "same pucker face" art of Finch, it's easy to knock some chips into this book's armor, but I am enjoying the read overall and I enjoyed this issue a lot more than I expected too. Specter and Marlane (and a sudden musket shot from Samuels) rally past Taskmaster, who was slow in his attack only because he was ordered to leave Marc alive long enough for the New Committee to gloat a bit. Finch makes him look like a creepy alternative to Moon Knight himself and Huston keeps his dialogue amusing. The only bit I didn't like was Taskmaster at the end whining to the Committee about he isn't made "for personal combat". WTF? Yes, Taskmaster usually chose to abandon a lot of fighting if he could to avoid jail; he routinely could flee from the Avengers. And he usually kept merc jobs to a minimum while he made dough training "underlings" for crooks. But at the end he seemed like a coward who couldn't handle "personal combat" and that's just not true. This is a guy who can disable half the Avengers and not break a sweat. He's supposed to be Marvel's template for Deathstroke the Terminator and here he just sounded like a priss. But that aside, it was a good issue, with a battered Specter being driven back to the "Mooncave" or whatever he calls it to declare "vengence" against the Committee. That one bit at the end stank but I won't hate 95% of an issue for a stumbling 5%. I am getting a feeling of this being a "DKR" for Moon Knight, and the sales are backing it up. As for how Specter can even stand (barely), it's obvious. Khonshu, or whatever he believes is the god, has his back. Boosts his strength at night under a moon (look at the second-to-last page; it IS a full moon night). I've always liked Moon Knight and so while story has been slow, it's picked up towards the end, pretty much like half of Bendy's DD issues. Vigilante crime noir and I like it, one bad line notwithstanding. Finch's art also fits the gritty tale very well. Between this and CW, Taskmaster's having a busy year.

 

[Dread]

Friggin' post limit...The rest of the B/T:

RUNAWAYS #20: With BKV's issues being numbered (4 more after this, basically until Feb. 2007's #25 when Whedon takes over), naturally I am appreciating his parting arcs all the more. RUNAWAYS has continued to be that "rock" of a book for me, a book that is still good when others take a downspin and creates as much as it destroys. Yes, characters do die here but it's been a breeding ground for making some, from random villians to new characters like Victor or Xavin. Norton's art also continues to kick arse. Vaughan promised that "the death of a friend isn't something you get over after an issue" and this one makes that clear; Chase wants Lotus of the ex-New Pride to help him set up a meeting with the Gibborim to get Gert back from the dead. It hasn't been stated but as Young Wilder needed a "pure sacrifice" to get what he wanted, I am sure Chase may intend for Lotus to be his; if so, that is quite dark, and explores what Chase hinted at a few times. Without Gert, he's not as noble. Lotus tries to appeal to him about her own perspective (as he just as turned 18 and can be tried as an adult), but so far he isn't listening. Considering all the mystical stuff in the book and the fact that there are no end of Marvel characters who cheat death (hell, Wonder Man, who often has called LA his stomping grounds, has been resurrected at least twice and counting), so it makes total sense that Chase would do whatever it takes to try to bring her back, even if it means his own honor in the process. It also seems like he's not afraid to have Old Lace "go to town". Elsewhere of course is the main plot, with the Runaways stuck fighting a giant mystical monster unleashed from some artifact that their parents had (an easy plot device to further "justify" battling it). It's a simple superhero action plotline, but Vaughan works it well enough as it's the characters and their interactions that sell the story, not the villian. Molly's strength I still wonder if it is psionic (will) based as Nico gives her a "caffine" spell and suddenly she's stronger than she's ever been. And c'mon, those who hate her, she's adorable. And she doesn't come out of a brainwashing spell by looking at a beer can. Norton excells at the action scenes as the Runaways rally to find the source of the monster, although battling it causes a lot of property damage (I can almost agree with some of Iron Man's words about them in his CIVIL WAR FILES, but he's been a *****ebag so I won't. Just another solid issue. Man, I wish Vaughan could stay forever. However, he claims he'll leave the book "at it's peak" and I can't wait for that ride. 30 days for the next issue never comes soon enough. Hopefully the fair-weather fans who'll flock to the book at #25 because of Whedon read the HC's or the digests and realize just what they've been missing from the original creator(s). Good action, compelling plots, good characters, what's not to love? It's books like RUNAWAYS that make the phrase, "make mine Marvel" still worth something.

ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #34: After a debut issue lost in alien jargon, Carey & Ferry get off to a better roll with the second, as the Fantastic Four fight the "Seed 19", aliens with bizarre powers who have fled their world onto Earth's. Turns out they drew another from their planet, Gallowglass, who does a lot of destruction before leaving with his quarry, a prisoner they fled with. So now the Four are being pulled into an outer space conflict, and I get it. This is the UFF doing those wacky space operas that the core title was so well known for, only it's Ultimate so you have to get past 60's conventions, like the aliens talking plain english. It makes it more of a chore to read but I can see where it is going. It's about time the Four had some adventures like this, usually it's the X-Men these days. Still nothing that compares to Millar's underrated run, but starting to look up. Ferry's art is gorgeous, of course. I never doubted it wouldn't be. Carey seems to have taken the "bizarre characters have equally bizarre names" chapter from Morrison ("Fountain! Walking Unreadable Monniker! Decode the Indigenes!" See, I can do it too). But at least it's the Four in a space story again. Or something. Hopefully the later chapters explain the world and the war better so us Indigenes can grasp the whole shebang.

WOLVERINE #46: Another chapter in Wolvie's CW arc with art by Ramos, who apparently thinks anatomy is for the unimaginative. Have Logan flex his giraffe neck all you want, man. Logan's too manly for "proportion". That aside, it's stories like this that give "events" a bad name. Not that the story is bad, no way, it's fine Wolverine tough-guy grit, complete with simplistic dialogue ("Anythin' can be killed if you hack at the right spot" sort of fare). But I mean turning a former comedy franchise like DAMAGE CONTROL into an evil corporation that is profitting from Civil War and superhero conflicts and indirectly caused Stamford in the first place. Because all corporations are evil, at least in the eyes of a writer who never had a job above "entry level", like most comic writers. But I digress, yes, corporations are evil and have alterior profit motives that cloud their morals, at least from that one always-evil CEO (those under him are just followin' orders). It's doing a story like that with DAMAGE CONTROL. It's like raping and murdering Sue Dibney, turning Max Lord and Skeets into conniving evil masterminds...wait, that's happened. Thanks a lot, DC. You know damn well Marvel's a copycat monkey. No idea good or bad that DC does, it won't use. What next? I'm waiting for Howard the Duck to cannibilize Christian babies and for Milk & Cookies to join up with Carnage and start raping nuns. Why stop with DAMAGE CONTROL? Suck out all the fun out of every and all franchises, because comics today are too gosh darned "mature" to crack a smile. Just don't get shocked when fans have internalized that bitter, depressing attitude. Not sure if this was an editorial mandate or Guggenheim's idea. The only saving grace is that it was claimed that DAMAGE CONTROL wasn't always like this, they only got this way recently when some rotten bastard bought their shares and took over, sort of like when Kingpin controlled 50% of their company and used them as pawns for ACTS OF VENGENCE. But it still doesn't sit well. The rest is enjoyable tough-guy macho action. Wolverine's been lured into a trap and is fighting armored goons with stolen villian weapons. Can he survive an adamantium buzz-saw to the neck? Well, he survived having all of his flesh burnt off and just being a skeleton (or coming back from blood like Lobo can do in 52 #20), so of course so.

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS #1: Before I get into the quality of this first issue (it's a fun read), I will address a point. Back when DEADLY GENESIS "merely" debuted in the Top 15 instead of the Top 10 last year, Joe Q threw a hissy fit about why stores underordered it. Why oh why could they underorder a key X-Men mini series? The answer is THIS. This is why. X-MEN: FIRST CLASS is a perfectly enjoyable little story with fun writing by Parker and excellent art by Cruz. But it serves nothing to the X-Men as a whole except to have yet another X-book on the racks. Mini-series have been notorious for this for a good long time now, especially the 5-6 years that Joe's been EIC. Stores would overorder anything with an X on it, and then be stuck selling these at half price at con's to break even. So when DEADLY GENESIS, yet another X-Men mini series came out, the stores didn't bite as hard. But that time, the wolf was real; it DID really matter for once. But Marvel & Joe Q caused that situation with their shameless overmilking of the X-line, and the fact that they're utterly clueless about this point is both funny and irksome to me.

As a concept itself, the book is shakey. Obviously a lot of the original adventures of the "first class" were done in the 60's, with stories and art that weren't in keeping with the times. So Parker & Cruz want to add more adventures to the founding, teenager X-Men that are made with a more modern mindset in mind. Modern art, designs, some dialague and tech, etc. But there are problems. Marvel's continuity claims that the period from the FF debuting in 1961 until now has been "ten years, give or take", so at most 11-12 years. But at one point, Iceman mentions an X-Box, and at another, email, terms that would not have been used if you want to claim these are the teenage X-Men and it's "10-12 years ago", or 1994 (email would be in its infancy 4 years later and in '94, SNES was still the rage). FNSM #6 or whatever had that same problem. It's bits like that that drive the story to a grinding halt and make you note the problem. Which is a shame because this is fun, pointless X-past stuff. Parker keeps the spirit of the old stories, with the X-Men having weird adventures with their old codenames and interactions, and Xavier the perennial teacher, it's simply scripted and drawn with 21st century audiences in mind. But aside for a fun story it really does nothing for the X-Universe as a whole, and I can understand stores underordering it and it not selling well. And I can understand them thinking every X-mini will follow suit. You reap what you sow, Marvel.

This is, however, a rare story that is a one-shot tale, so you don't "have" to buy the next. I may or may not depending on how heavy a week it is. Pointless good times here. Although I tire of many modern writers or editors feeling the need to "apologize" that stories in the 60's and 70's were a little corny. Let it GO already. We KNOW. We don't need an explaination or a remake. We want good stories IN THE PRESENT.

 

[Xofenroht]

Civil War #4- I'm glad it didn't turn out to be who I knew it wasn't. Of course I feel a little cheated, because I wanted to see the REAL him this time around except instead I got this watered down and cheap copy. For those who left...good. I imagine Pete was talking to MJ and May and planning on getting them out of there and far away from the US before he goes underground too. I CAN'T believe the Pro-Reg side would stoop THIS low though. Geez...Iron Man sounds alot like Batman.

X-Factor #11

Spoiler

These recent developments about Madrox's connection to Mr. Tryp are great. I can't believe David is going the "Changeling" route. Hopefully it sticks and is retconned. This only raises one question though...could Apocalypse and Storm also be Changelings?

 

[Darthphere]

I was actually thniking about the Cassie thing.

 

[Not Jake]

Maybe I just don't get Whedon's style, to have a "seriously serious life-or-death" sort of story going on and then in the middle, throw in a bit from a comedy movie. I mean, really, BEER gets Logan to snap out of it!? Come the F-on! That's something an emotionally challenged 12 year old thinks is clever, which means it's fodder for generic comedy movies or TV shows. Or maybe I just need a sense of humor sometimes. I mean, you can't have a serious, surreal adventure and then a bit out of ROAD TRIP into the same story. It doesn't gell. At least not for this particular story, IMO.

Yeah, I guess you just don't get Whedon's style. Or the style of things that are good.

 

[Banshee]

Does anyone here read Aquaman. I normally just drop by these threads to read what Dread has to say, do the lurk thing since im too lazy to write any reviews. But I wanted to see if anyone has any opinions on Aquaman but it seems I'm abotu the only person reading it.

 

[Darthphere]

I love this Dread/Not Jake banter.

 

[Darthphere]

Does anyone here read Aquaman. I normally just drop by these threads to read what Dread has to say, do the lurk thing since im too lazy to write any reviews. But I wanted to see if anyone has any opinions on Aquaman but it seems I'm abotu the only person reading it.

I read it, but I didnt do reviews last week.

 

[Not Jake]

I sort of want to pick up Aquaman, I like Busiek I mean, and I can sort of see Aquaman not sucking...my shop has all the OYL back issues, so I've been thinking about it. Is it really good? Because it would have to transcend "good" for me to pick it up. It has to be REALLY good.

 

[Darthphere]

I sort of want to pick up Aquaman, I like Busiek I mean, and I can sort of see Aquaman not sucking...my shop has all the OYL back issues, so I've been thinking about it. Is it really good? Because it would have to transcend "good" for me to pick it up. It has to be REALLY good.

I really like it personally.

 

[Zoken]

Exiles: Well, that was one way to do it. And we thought wolverine was over exposed before! This title ends with Little Elsie blowing up in Brother Mutant's face to distract him long enough for the other Wolvie's to get their claws under them again and lay into him. a delightfully nauseating moment (Much like a tilt-o-wirl) where we find that Zombie Wolverine didn't just eat an alternate version of himself, he ate SIX! Of course he left the adamantium bones for someone else to clean up.

The Exiles don't do much in this issue except inspire the wolverines to do what they were supposed to do, and then intimate about the next issue, which looks to be going cosmic.

Runaways: The leaping back and forth between plots was a little jaring, but didn't hurt the story. Chase and Old Lace are quite the intimidating duo, and I have to wonder where this darker path will lead them. The Runaways are still bickering, but at least Molly gets to rock out loud, and she declares the Leap Frog her friend (Cute!) I am so going to miss Vaughn, but I have some high hopes for Wheadon

Civil War: Okay, that last panel fell under the file of "WHAT THE HELL ARE THESE PEOPLE THINKING!?" Hiring Bullseye? Hiring Lady Deathstrike? Hiring... Mr pink stocking cap (Seriously, who is that guy?)? The plot advances likably, though I really don't understand why in the hell Cable, who seems to be so gung ho every where else is playing the ***** here. One would think they could maintain continuity when they are doing a multi-title crossover, but apparently not. A good excuse on Thor, and somewhat believable. How exactly did Hank (Was that him questioning Peter?) figure Peter was being suspicious? He was asking a perfectly reasonable question, especially after what had happened. Either Hank is a *****e (My opinion tainted by the Ultimate universe) or they are making some big leaps of logic with little basis.

 

[Ben Urich]

I thought for sure that

Spoiler

Falcon

was going to be the one to bite it.

Not that I care.

 

[Nasty-B]

Friggin' post limit...The rest of the B/T:


Because all corporations are evil, at least in the eyes of a writer who never had a job above "entry level", like most comic writers.

Marc Guggenheim, the writer of Wolverine, was actually an attorney before he became a writer.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I sort of want to pick up Aquaman, I like Busiek I mean, and I can sort of see Aquaman not sucking...my shop has all the OYL back issues, so I've been thinking about it. Is it really good? Because it would have to transcend "good" for me to pick it up. It has to be REALLY good.

I think it's pretty good. Maybe not really good for me. But, keep in mind that I'm a big fan of the real Aquaman. You obviously have no attachment to the real Aquaman, so the Aquanewb story would probably be perfect for you.

 

[Not Jake]

maybe I will pick it up on the recommendation of both Darthphere AND Corp

It's just, I'm already picking up Wonder Woman...how many chronically late DC titles do I really want

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Has Aquaman been late a lot? It felt like a long time between this issue and the last, but I thought that might've just been me and my stupid head doing its usual stupid things.

Anyway, chronically late titles are cheaper than titles that are on time in that you have to wait longer to buy them, so how much could it really hurt?

 

[Not Jake]

I thought people were always complaining about it being late, maybe my brain fabricated said events. It's always trying to deceive me

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Goddamn brains. You can never trust them. They're all gray and wrinkly.

 

[Marcdachamp]

Civil War: Okay, that last panel fell under the file of "WHAT THE HELL ARE THESE PEOPLE THINKING!?" Hiring Bullseye? Hiring Lady Deathstrike? Hiring... Mr pink stocking cap (Seriously, who is that guy?)? The plot advances likably, though I really don't understand why in the hell Cable, who seems to be so gung ho every where else is playing the ***** here. One would think they could maintain continuity when they are doing a multi-title crossover, but apparently not. A good excuse on Thor, and somewhat believable. How exactly did Hank (Was that him questioning Peter?) figure Peter was being suspicious? He was asking a perfectly reasonable question, especially after what had happened. Either Hank is a *****e (My opinion tainted by the Ultimate universe) or they are making some big leaps of logic with little basis.

Cable wasn't being a *****. He was leaving to go release Deadpool and challenge the president head-on. Just because he left, it doesn't mean he shared Kyle and Cassie's opinion.

 

[CaptainCanada]

Hiring... Mr pink stocking cap (Seriously, who is that guy?)?

I thought it was Green Goblin, but Wizard's Civil War Room identifies him as "The Jester", apparently a Daredevil villain who last appeared in Bendis' "Decalogue" arc.

How exactly did Hank (Was that him questioning Peter?) figure Peter was being suspicious? He was asking a perfectly reasonable question, especially after what had happened. Either Hank is a *****e (My opinion tainted by the Ultimate universe) or they are making some big leaps of logic with little basis.

The person Peter talked to post-battle was Hank/Yellowjacket, but the guy who guessed he was acting suspicious was Reed/Mr. Fantastic (notably, Yellowjacket isn't with Tony and Reed at the end when they go to meet the newest iteration of the Thunderbolts).

 

[supermarvelman]

Isnt it kinda funny that Goliath and Micromax died?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I didn't even know Micromax was still around.

 

[supermarvelman]

Well not anymore.