Purchased/Pondered, 2/23/11 (Spoilers)

[JewishHobbit]

Uncanny X-Men 533 - Okay, Fraction sucks on X-Men, and even moreso when Land's on pencils, we all know that by now, but this issue was one of their better ones; I mean, it wasn't good, it just wasn't as horrendous as usual. There's even one scene that litterally made me laugh out loud.

Misc. villain - "Of course, what we were thinking about was breaking up your jaws."

Pixie - "Oh, man. Bad guy trashtalk. I love that. YOU'RE MEAN! AND LOOK BAD AND SMELL FUNNY!"

And Land even found a suitable picture to copy for Pixie's facial expression!

But that was the highlight of the issue. The rest of it moves forward with the Quarantine plot. Issue #notFraction can't get here soon enough!

Black Terror 14 - YAY!!!!! I'm excited because this is the final issue of the series freeing up some comic buying money! That's one less issue that I like but will have to drop asap!

As for the comic itself, not bad. The title's been better but it was a decent issue to end on. The generic 90's-looking villains are pining for Black Terror with a woman who is literally Pandora in tow. Meanwhile, Black Terror is face to face with his counterpart Bob Benton. As it turns out the two personalities were separated a few issues back and by issue's end Terror decides to let Bob remain the good portion of himself, a healer, while he goes on as just the Black Terror to do what is needed.

All in all I enjoyed the series and continue to like the Project Superpowers line. Both this and Project Superpowers: Chapter 2 are now finished and I was worried that with low sales this would be the end but Dynamite has recently announced that they're taking a break to get their ducks in a row and more Project Superpowers projects will be launched late 2011 (including Project Superpowers: Chapter 3 and a mini based on the Ghost... possibly more). Can't wait!


And finally...

Echo 28 - I won't go into much detail but the issue was fine. I just feel like the ending of this series has been dragged out and it's starting to get a little old. The title's been heading toward its conclusion for quite a while now... just get there. I don't know what the last issue for this title is going to be but last I hear it was going to be "around 28-30 issues" so it should be ending any time now. I'm think 30 would make sense, but we'll see. I'll have to look into it. I'm looking forward to that for the same reason as Black Terror... if the title ends there's one less ongoing that isn't ending but I still like that I'd have to drop.

I'm grateful for Black Terror, Echo, and Secret Warriors for that... if Echo and Secret Warriors would ever actually end (I know Secret Warriors has another 4 issues but I feels like it should be wrapped up by now).


So yeah, no need to go into detail if you've read my reviews but Amazing Spider-Man was best of the week and Uncanny X-Men was the worst.

 

[WOLVERINE25TH]

I'm wondering, was the villain of X-Men supposed to be a REAL mystery, or did they just give it away on purpose?

 

[Themanofbat]

Seeing Scarlet Spider and the Jackal in there made me ecstatic... though I don't understand why Kaine was there. I thought people said he ended up living and becoming the new Tarrantula or something?

At the end of The Grim Hunt, Kaine does indeed appear to dig himself out of the grave as the "new" Tarantula... but Peter doesn't know this (yet), so as far as his dream sequence goes, he believes Kaine to be dead...

 

[JewishHobbit]

Ah, that makes sense.

 

[Keyser Soze]

Just reading Morning Glories #7.... am I to assume it was down to a horrible editing snafu that the F-word is given the &%@* treatment, but the C-word is published uncensored?

 

[Keyser Soze]

SCALPED #46
Scalped continues to be the best comic on the shelves today, as "You Gotta Sin to Get Saved" heats up. Only 2 chapters in, and already this arc is building up a sense of dread and impending doom not seen since, well, "The Gnawing" storyline in Scalped last year.

AMERICAN VAMPIRE #12
A really good story, with the most nuanced portrayal of Skinner Sweet we've seen in the series thus far. But it was hampered by the fill-in art. It was competent enough, even good by regular comic standards, but the art of American Vampire has been so spectacular throughout the previous 11 issues that here the visuals felt lacking, and it was like reading a different comic. Goes to show you how much art brings to a comic.

INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #501
After this book being glacially paced for so long, I was taken by surprise by an issue where stuff happened. And what resulted was probably the best single issue of the series we've had in about a year. Doctor Octopus actually makes a great foil for Iron Man, and I loved the rivalry built up between Stark and Octavius here. I feel bad for Doc Ock. He's one of my all-time favourite comic villains, but ever since Norman Osborn was resurrected, it seems Marvel have made a concentrated effort to devalue him as much as possible to cement the Green Goblin's status as Spider-Man's undoubted arch-nemesis. So I enjoy getting to see him portrayed as a real threat again. The storyline seems set to get even better with the next chapter, too. Comics like this remind me that Matt Fraction can be great when he's on form. But on the other hand...

THOR #619
It's funny how a single comic can be so bad it puts you off an entire series that you've been buying monthly for a couple of years. After several months of nothing happening, finally something happens.... and it's underwhelming and anticlimactic. Not even my love of the characters and the fact the movie is almost here can keep me buying this. I'll get the next issue to finish the arc, and unless it's absolutely spectacular, I think I'm done with Thor.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Now that I know how integral Asgard is to Fear Itself, I'm assuming Fraction's terrible work so far has been a result of his trying to reposition the Asgardians so they're ready for that event. That's the only way the rushed resurrections and utterly ridiculous character behavior makes sense to me, and it lets me hold out hope that The Mighty Thor will be better than this crap.

 

[Dread]

This was the week I was done with THOR, period, and I haven't missed it. I don't care about Fraction's reasons for being terrible on it and INVINCIBLE IRON MAN anymore. Well...okay, he was probably better on INVINCIBLE IRON MAN, but just barely.