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Well, it’s time for another month to come to a close. February went almost exactly the same way that January did. I picked up 77 titles this month, just 1 more than last month. This week saw 1 Dynamite book, 1 Vertigo book, 3 DC books and 15 Marvel books. Actually, there were 6 other Marvel titles thrown in that were Siege related that I picked up for some inane reason. I didn’t read them but I thumbed through them and they weren’t worth the time. The Siege mini-series is decent but this stuff was all just rehashing stuff from that mini without a different take or view of what was going on. They were all titles I had previously dropped so I need to make sure they don’t slip in there (and I buy them) again. There was a DC book I didn’t read, either. It was Blackest Night Green Arrow #30 and was another one I just had NO interest in.
Spoiler Alert
Vertigo
-Northlanders #24- Winter drags on, Thorir is found dead and Hilda is in very bad shape with Gunborg. In fact, Gunborg decides to take over the village and the violent way he does it is illustrated beautifully here. It seems that now Hilda is alone against these monsters who want to rebuild their settlement to suit their savage ways. What an incredible story so far. 1/1.
Dynamite
-Project Superpowers 2 #7- It seems like so long since I got this title. This really sets up the pieces more than anything else. The Flame and his group look for Flame Girl. They find her but Zeus is ready on the attack. Pyroman is there, too, and is it true that he is the son of Zeus? Well, we’ll find out. The Inheritors are still around planning an offensive on our heroes, Mr. Face and some of the other mystics get a vision on how to defeat Zeus, Black Terror and his gang leave New York, and the Lama wonders if Samson and Target have become creatures of myth. Like I said, this was a table-setting issue but it kept things interesting (especially with the Zeus stuff). 1/1.
DC
-Batman and Robin #9- Batwoman is revived in the Lazarus Pit, allowing Bats and Batwoman to head back to Gotham, save Damien and stop Zombie Batman. The Batman and Robin of England stop Pearly Charlie English but I don’t really care about that little sub-plot. Anyway, Dick is sure that Bruce is still alive. I wonder what Grant’s fascination with those English characters are (besides the obvious – that he’s from over there). I like the direction this is going with Dick agreeing with Red Robin about Bruce being alive. I really enjoyed seeing Batwoman in here, too. 1/1.
-Blackest Night #7- This was just kick-ass on multiple levels. If you want fighting you have it here. There are some fantastic splash pages from Ivan Reis that is worth the price of admission alone. First off, Lex goes crazy with greed and goes after the Lanterns. This little diversion allows Nekron to raise The Entity, the light that began all life (and was hidden on Earth, where life began by the Guardians) and Nekron is slowly killing it. Meanwhile, the rest of the Corps decide to join together to stop the Black Lanterns. Hal reveals that the Entity is like Parallax, that it needs a host. Hal is about to become one with it but Sinestro, angry with yet another Guardian lie and hidden truth, holds Hal off and he becomes one with the Entity and the most-powerful Guardian. This is setting up to have an amazing conclusion! 2/2.
-Blackest Night: JSA #3- I really enjoyed the conclusion of this book. Kara holds off Superman just long enough for Mr. Terrific to build a device that combines magic and wipes out the Black Lanterns in the metro area. The device idea was silly (why not make a bigger one and wipe them ALL out) but the emotional moments with Kara and Superman as well as the zombie Johnny Quick and her daughter makes this worth a read. 3/3.
Marvel
-Amazing Spider-Man #622- I sense a fill-in here! It’s a single-issue story that features Morbius wanting Peter’s blood (sold by the Black Cat) to do experiments on and the second story is Flash going through the five stages of grief in reverse. It just screamed fill-in. It wasn’t bad (at least it was timely because of the Black Cat selling the blood angle) but it didn’t have anything to do with the on-going Gauntlet story. I do have to say this; the art was good on this book. 1/1.
-DarkTower: Battle of Jericho Hill #4- This was a great issue. Roland and the Affiliation discover Randolph is the traitor but not before many months go by and not before Alain suffers death at the hands of Roland and Cuthbert, though it was Randolph who set up their miscommunication. Roland and his group return home get rid of Marten Broadcloak but must face the oncoming army of Farson! This had great pacing and this whole series has really picked up since the Fall of Gilead started. 2/2.
-Deadpool #20- This was incredibly fun. Deadpool and Spidey continue their team-up. The Hit-Monkey shows up and doesn’t want anything to do with Spider-Man but has no problem blowing Deadpool away. This is just so much fun you can’t not enjoy it. 3/3.
-Fantastic Four #576- It seems that FF is now a series of one-off issues that is building a bigger story. It really harkens back to the Lee/Kirby days of single issues and slowly starting to build into something greater. Here the FF investigate an underworld empire under Antarctica, stopping AIM from fighting them and Sue becomes the voice of man in their underwater council. I really love the HERBIE blackberry that gives us updates after the events of the comic. I like what Hickman is building here. He’s really getting into the individual characters first and that is important. 4/4.
-Marvels Project #6- This issue sets up the teaming up of Marvels Big Three. Namor is angry and he looks for the Torch (who happens to find Toro during his search for Professor Horton) before finally finding him and unleashing a giant wave onto New York. There are cameos from a bunch of the Golden Age heroes as they help clean-up New York. Cap is the one who ends the battle by whacking Namor with his shield and this was the first time these three guys were together. This is still going strong. It is filling in a lot of holes in the Golden Age to explain how these three came together. 5/5.
-Nation X #3- This continues short stabs at different characters on Utopia. We see Armor fighting Danger over the events of Astonishing X-Men before they clear things up (Danger is feeling guilt so Armor lets it go), Magik makes Anole realize how important the farming is, Jeffries gets a visit from his ex-wife and they patch things up before she dies and Cannonball is in here. I have to say that only the first story was really good but it was resolved way too quickly (probably due to space limitations). I like the idea but this issue was definitely lack-luster. 5/6.
-Realm of Kings: Inhumans #4- Crystal, Gorgan and Ronan deal with Maximus who has suddenly gone mad again. He engineered the Kree forming a rebellion against the Inhumans. They fend off all his robots before Medusa shows up saying Maximus has been following HER orders! Medusa seems to have gone loco after losing her husband. Speaking of, Triton saw an echo of him in the Fault and is heading home when everyone on his craft start exploding with what looks like cancer and tumors. I like how Medusa is acting here and it’s a new turn for her character. As usual the team of A&L don’t disappoint. 6/7.
-Spider-Man: The Clone Saga #6- The Goblin is revealed! (Harry) Norman is cloned and comes back! Harry fights everyone! Norman tells Harry to let it go and sacrifices himself to save Peter! Kaine returns the baby to MJ and May! We have a great conclusion! Why couldn’t the regular Clone Saga be this easy 14 years ago? It wouldn’t be considered one of the greatest stories ever but then it wouldn’t be the biggest joke, either. 7/8.
-Ultimate Enemy #2- A creature attacks Fury but leaves when Spidey and Torch show up. So it leaves and Spider-Woman (who escapes) before showing up at May’s door. The creature reminds me of Kilowag. The Thing and Sue fend off the blob that attacked them and Fury wonders who is behind it all. It is a good mystery so far and for two issues it has me hooked. 8/9.
-X-Factor #202- So the Reed here is actually an evil Doom from another dimension. Doom and Layla are actually working together and seem to be helping the FF. The evil Reed has a confrontation with Strong Guy and they fight as the rest of the X-Factor (and Reed) get into Castle Doom. Eventually the evil Reed is stopped (beheaded by Shatterstar’s teleportation) and Madrox worries about what Layla is up to. You know my love for X-Factor and this issue shows why I love it. Great writing (especially Val’s and Layla’s snarky attitude) and great stories being told. 9/10.
-X-Force #24- X-Force descend upon Selene’s kingdom of undead but is it too late? Warpath escapes from the clutches of his dead brother (thanks to the Vanisher). There’s lots of battle scenes here (though the art is too murky and not all that clear). Selene even sacrifices Eli Bard to ascend into “godhood.” Don’t worry, X-Force still plans on killing her! I wasn’t on down on this issue as last time but it’s hard to really enjoy it if I can’t see clearly what is going on. I know it fits the feel of the book but it is a little too dark. 9/11.
-X-Men Forever #18- This was a slower issue than the rest but it does what Claremont can do very well. He focuses on a certain character and really drives home some great stories focusing on said character. Here Cyclops has gone back to Alaska to be with his son and family until he’s kidnapped by the Consortium. So Cyclops, Havok, Polaris and Corsair team-up to save Nathan and take prisoners for questioning. Scott decides to join back with the X-Men to stop the Consortium (who just got new prisoner Fabian Cortez) once and for all. 10/12.
-X-Men: Legacy #232- Magneto single-handedly defeats Proteus, Rogue stops the infected X-Men that were affected by Proteus, and Destiny mentions to Blindfold that she has a dead brother. I guess this tied things up nicely which is what really want from these books but I wasn’t terribly impressed with what was going on here. 10/13.
The Bottom Line
I gotta get this posted so I won’t talk too long. Once again the X-titles were underwhelming. Maybe there are too many stacked at the end of the month so the good ones (like X-Factor) really show how much it outclasses the other ones (Legacy & X-Force). Maybe that’s something to reflect on by the fourth week of March, too? Though March has 5 Wednesdays so who knows what that means for the schedule of books. Next week looks very light, with only about 8 books I’m picking up (according to what’s shipping). Well, this is literally posted at the 11th hour!
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Questions? Comments? Shoot me an email.
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