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I am so crazy busy right now (read the blog entry from this past Sunday for a full explanation) that I won’t mince words here. Image is represented by a single title, DC pops a big number with 10 comics (nine which are here) and Marvel turned in 13 comics for a total of 24 books. Let’s just get to this and we’ll all be happy when this is posted by 11:59:59 on Tuesday.
Spoiler Alert
Marvel
-Amazing Spider-Man #601- A new artist? I don’t remember Kitson working on this issue last week. The Chameleon reappears and he ends up kidnapping Parker after he started working for JJJ (a favor to his father and Peter’s new step-dad). It looks like Pete’s bitten the dust by the end of the issue, too, being burned away in a pool of acid. MJ is still around and she runs into Harry. I wasn’t blown away by this though having Chameleon in here is pretty cool. 1/1.
-Cable #17- Cable finds Hope, who is two years older and in love with the boy who is hiding her and whose father needs to find her. Cable takes Hope and basically tears her away from the boy to escape to space and away from Bishop. This seemed like a huge leap from last issue. Do we see any of Hope escaping Bishop? No, just a two-year jump. Actually that was a good way to advance this story in an age of seemingly “methodical” paces. It will be interesting to see Cable deal with a Hope that is starting to act a bit more like a young kid and brat. 2/2.
-Captain America: Theatre of War #1- This is a more current Cap story that takes place in the Iraq war and follows a triple-amputee soldier who was put in that position by Cap. It is his story of survival and coping and then thriving in his position. It’s a touching tale coming from a war that is still on people’s minds. Jenkins really wrote this as a tribute to his friends and it is a fitting tribute. 3/3.
-Deadpool #13- Man, this title is so insane it’s great. Deadpool is a nut and he’s in full force here, buying a ship to become a pirate and landing on an island. He ends up meeting a blind girl who complains about lack of protection on the island. Bob (Hydra Agent Supreme) convinces Deadpool to fight these pirates. Pirates? You know this had to be crazy. Another awesome gem from Way. 4/4.
-Incredible Hercules #132- Hercules has young Zeus with him and their interaction (the much older Hercules and his much younger father) is great. Baldar the Brave finds Hercules and asks him to don the Thor mantle to help defeat Malekith. This works well since Zeus can use his ability to control lightning to mimic the powers of Thor and Hercules uses his golden mace. They head off to defeat Malekith but neither know that Malekith actually set all this up. Herc is always an enjoyable comic to read though I do miss Cho. I guess Zeus will be a good kid sidekick for now. 5/5.
-Marvel Comics #1- This is actually the Marvel Comics #1 from 1939 complete with a new inking/coloring job. It looks great, though I’ve read this already awhile back when I read the Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Marvel Comics Vol. 1 collection. The restoration here is superb. 6/6.
-Marvels Project, The #1- This is a fantastic concept. It starts around 1938 with the death of Two-Gun Kid (who was an old man but had seen the future) and told of a dawning of the age of Marvels. He had been speaking to Dr. Thomas Halloway (who became Angel) and shortly after Two-Gun’s death the Torch and Namor showed up. The origin of the Torch is pretty much taken word for word from Marvels #0 but it’s an awesome premise and I can’t wait to see more on the origin of Angel and the birth of the Marvels. 7/7.
-Thor: Tales of Asgard #4- These back-ups really start picking up and forming a great long arc. It follows Thor and Loki captaining a ship to find a threat to Asgard. They encounter a rough storm, goblins, and a goblin queen. Then Odin tells Thor to come back since the danger is at home and we see a vision of Ragnarok by a local prophet and all of this is orchestrated by Loki’s betrayal. We haven’t seen this happen yet, though. I think it’s really interesting reading this now. The Marvel style back in the day was Stan would have an idea and Jack would draw each panel while basically writing the story in pictures and Stan would write it from there and fill in dialogue. There’s a couple of references to New Gods and how the old gods would die only for new ones to be reborn. It is suggested that this was the plan Jack had for Thor, for the Asgardians to die and the New Gods to be created but Stan nixed it. It did pan out for Jack at DC years later. The stories are short (5 pages each) but told as a longer narrative it still works well. 8/8.
-Ultimate Avengers #1- Hawkeye finds Fury (who is out as SHIELD leader) and he tells him Cap is really pissed. It turns out that Cap met the Red Skull, got his ass handed to him by Skull and then found out the Skull was his son. I’m sure Fury had a hand in this, making a test-tube spawn from the frozen loins of Cap. It’s a serviceable intro issue that sets up a new villain (Red Skull) and the start of a new team of heroes. 9/9.
-Ultimate Spider-Man #1- Spidey is back and alive. He is working at a hamburger joint and isn’t having a great time. The world is still recovering from the Ultimatum Wave, too. There’s a lot that’s different. May knows that Peter is Spidey and is cool with it, Gwen is dating Peter, a new vigilante is out on the town (an Ultimate Hood?) and the end sees Johnny Storm show up on Peter’s doorstep looking for a place to stay and another supervillain (Mysterio?) knocking Kingpin out of a skyscraper. The art is a huge departure from Bendis and Immonen and will take some getting used to. I guess relaunching titles is the new fad but was a relaunch of USM necessary? It wasn’t a disappointing issue but it wasn’t anything groundbreaking, either. 10/10.
-Uncanny X-Men #514- Utopia rolls on. The Dark X-Men battle the new Sentinels as the X-Men watch on in the wings studying them. It appears another group of X-Men will be tackling the Dark Avengers, too. This is a table-setting issue no doubt about it. Not too much happened (except the new Sentinels) but it does set up the battles between the teams that will be occurring. 11/11.
-Uncanny X-Men: First Class #2- Colossus tries to help Nightcrawler but the only way Nightcrawler can be helped is through a trial. He tells his feelings about the terrigen mist ceremony (he doesn’t like it), the Inhumans get pissed, the X-Men show up, Jean loses control, a BIG FIGHT occurs and order is eventually restored and all goes back to normal. These obviously aren’t going to have big ramifications since we all know what happens in continuity but some of the relationships here (especially Scott and Jean) are quite worthy to delve deeper into what was in the original comics. 12/12.
-X-Men: Forever #5- The old Storm makes her escape as the Consortium shows its power by kidnapping Fabian Cortez. The X-Men return home and Hank tells them that mutants have a short life-span. Seems Charles has been keeping this a secret from them. Oh, and Wolvie is still dead. I still question if this is where Claremont was going with the X-Men back in ’91 (Marvel wouldn’t let him kill Wolvie I’d wager) but it’s been different and I can appreciate that. 13/13.
DC
-Action Comics #880- Codename Patriot really picks up as Ral-Dar (the guy who shot Zod) flies to Earth with Superman and Supergirl in hot pursuit. It turns out that Ral-Dar is working with General Lane. So it makes sense that Lane would orchestrate this sort of war to get the Kryptonians off of Earth forever. Nightwing and Flamebird are also captured by Lane by the end of the issue. I think Codename Patriot is picking up steam and is a great follow-up to Planet Krypton. 1/1.
-Batman #689- Dick is really getting into being Batman and enjoys putting on a show. He’s been busting up illegal gambling rings left and right with all the tips coming from a man working with Two-Face. Two-Face is setting up this new Batman. Penguin has something to say about it and he employs Clayface and a villain called the Soldier. Batman leaps into action and knows he’s fallen into a trap. I love the art of Bagley so this is an easy winner for me. 2/2.
-Blackest Night: Batman #1- Batman and Robin find Bruce’s grave desecrated as the Black rings continue finding more dead fingers. Deadman’s body gets a ring and that brings Deadman over to his dead body. He learns all about the Black Lanterns and looks to Batman for help. He soon realizes that the Batman he knew was dead and Dick is now in the cowl. Things go from bad to worse for the Bat family as the dead parents of both Dick and Tim are resurrected with a black ring. First off, bringing in Deadman is just a great idea and second of all, this is ten kinds of awesome. 3/3.
-Blackest Night #2- Things go from bad from worse as more old heroes are rising. Aquaman is up and wreaking havoc on his family, killing and bringing back Aqualad. Deadman battles his body from resurrecting, it looks like Psycho Pirate visits Shadowpact and the Spectre and William Hand resurrects Spectre host Crispus Allen! That’s quite a use for raising the dead. Flash and Lantern continue battling Martian Manhunter with little success and when they think he’s defeated they are shocked (as we readers are) to see zombie versions of Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Firestorm and the Dibny’s. This is really awesome stuff. 4/4.
-Final Crisis Aftermath: Escape #4- Escape gets crazier as Tresser tries to free Chase. Amanda says that she should be free and she is. She and Tresser try to escape, enter some sort of dream realm, and find one of Flash’s treadmills to use. Tresser wakes up in another unknown place. This is a whole Checkmate thing and even though I didn’t read the book near the end of its run I do enjoy how wacky this tie-in as been. 5/5.
-Green Lantern Corps #39- Kyle and Guy are flying back to Oa when they are bombarded by black rings. They rush forth and see their planet is destroyed. It seems the Black Rings are searching for the dead in the Lantern crypts. Guess what, they found them. So the dead, including Jade, are rising. Another excellent tie-in. 6/6.
-Red Circle: Inferno #1- We meet Inferno, a amnesiac who can’t remember anything but knows he needs to stop a bomb from blowing up a ship. The Hangman gets involved and Inferno is labeled a villain by the end of the issue. I don’t think this character was any great shakes but the story was decent and there was nothing inherently bad about it. 7/7.
-Red Robin #3- The cover is really cool, with the skull and Red Robin being right over it. So Drake continues his search for Bruce and after combating a German Viking at a museum he finds an ally in Ra’s Al Ghul. Red Robin has really done a 180 as a character. It’s interesting to see Nightwing become a more jovial Batman and he is acting more like Drake used to. Drake has really taken Bruce’s no-nonsense approach. Maybe I am reading into that a bit but it just adds another level of appreciation for me as I read this. 8/8.
-Superman Secret Files #1- This is a great primer for any fans jumping onto Codename: Patriot, from summarizing the current story and characters as well as throwing in a couple of small stories to enhance what’s going on. We see Ursa’s reaction to Zod’s assassination attempt, Chris (Mon-El) working with his human partner (and a relationship developing?) and Supergirl hating her best friend since she seems to be with-holding information on her father’s death. I found myself liking this a lot more than I thought. 9/9.
Image
-Mice Templar II #2- Mice Templar continues the awesomeness as Karic and Cassius break free of the goblin moles when the spirit of evil descends upon them and Cassius makes a deal with the moles to save them. Intrigue continues as King Icarus seems to be set up by the rats he has working for him. The deep mythology here is amazingly done and the little back-up essay about devils and demons and how they relate to Mice Tempalr in particular really just enhance this title. I encourage all to give this title a try. 1/1.
Awards
-Book of the Week- Blackest Night #2 is an easy choice for a winner and since it’s 11:18pm I will make the easy choice. It has everything, great action, an awesome plot and surprising reveals. It’s an event worth the money.
-Disappointment of the Week- This is a nice week of no bad comics.
-Cover of the Week- Batman #689 is the winner this week. I just really enjoyed the black and white cover with Batman almost tearing through the cover.
-The Bottom Line- I can’t believe how close DC and Marvel were in terms of total books this week. It hasn’t been this close since the third week of January (DC 6 – Marvel 9). It isn’t that Marvel released less it is the arrival of Blackest Night dropping a bunch of books. When you go a perfect 23 out of 23 it’s always fun to get through. Sure time and stress are two problems I faced this week but it’s on time and I had a good time readin’ ‘em. That’s all for now, it is time to study for one of my exams and do more housework!
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Questions? Comments? Shoot me an email.
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