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Although I rushed to get the last one done three days late, this was done at an almost luxurious pace because I’ve been off on Christmas Vacation since Friday. I still have another two weeks of vacation to go, so expect no more delays for the rest of the year! Yes! Anyway, we have 1 Dynamite book, 4 DC books, and 18 Marvel books, giving us a grand total of 23 titles.
-Dynamite-
-Project SuperPowers 2 #5- Things really start picking up for our super powered gang. The Ghost and the Devil are busy battling Crusader clones when Black Terror shows up to help clean house. Meanwhile the rest of our heroes are trying to find a way to cope with Zeus. Zeus has Flame-Girl captive and he has something devious planned for her. Finally, the Supremacy has a new group of super powered heroes to combat Llama and his gang of rebels. This had some great action and the story has been moving along very nicely, making this an easy recommendation. Do yourself a favor and just pick up the whole thing. 1/1.
-DC-
-Batman #694- Batman searches for more information on Black Mask by questioning Penguin (and getting Mask to go after Penguin and seriously injure him). He wanted information on the bomber, who seems to have been given a watery grave thanks to Falcone. We don’t see much from Mask but he seems to have some sort of mental disorder (schizophrenia?). The kid who was shot while Batman was talking to him ended up dying and that may just push him over the edge. I really enjoy Daniels’ story-telling and art and he seems to have an idea of where he’s going with this. I like his take on Black Mask and how he’s integrating all the characters so far. 1/1.
-Batman 80-Page Giant #1- This was the way an 80-page special should go. Gotham is dealing with its worst blizzard in years and this epic includes 8 stories dealing with this event. We have Batman and Robin dealing with people made criminals under circumstance, Alfred saving a prostitute and giving her a better life, kids trying to be heroes and one suffering the consequences, the Veil returns and finds her way, Catwoman battling an old enemy, Poison Ivy deals with the cold, as does Dr. Freeze and Gordon. We end with a nice Batman one-pager drawn by Stephanie Buscema. Unlike the JSA 80-pager, this was a coherent story that you could follow easily across all tales. Having the same theme was helpful and really added to the overall enjoyment of the book. 2/2.
-Green Lantern Corps #43- Kyle is dead and this sends Guy into a rage, literally. A Red Ring finds its way to Guy’s finger and he’s gone off the deep end. Luckily, Kyle manages to find life again when one of the Star Sapphire’s revives him using the heart and love of Alyssa (I think that’s her name). Anyway, they decide they will find Guy and there’s a big Lantern there to help them: Mogo! Guy going into a rage was awesome, made only awesomer by Mogo appearing. 3/3.
-Superman/Batman #67- This unnecessary Blackest Night tie-in features Bizarro battling Solomon Grundy and tossing him into the sun. Meanwhile, Man-Bat does nothing to this story but he’s here anyway. I buy this because I regularly purchase this title, but this did nothing to keep readers of the title. Why would anyone waste money on a title called Superman/Batman when neither was featured and the story was incredibly bland and pointless in the grand scheme of Blackest Night. 3/4.
-Marvel-
-Amazing Spider-Man #615- Sandman is the next Spidey villain in the Gauntlet. Spidey gets involved in a mystery of a missing girl as his friend; Carlie is being set up for losing evidence. Spidey investigates and fingers Sandman as his culprit. He finds him on Governor’s Island. They battle but it seems like Sandman has no idea what Spidey is talking about in regards to the murder. Sandman also has new tricks up his sleeve in creating multiple versions of himself. I really enjoyed little things that artist Javier Pulido did, like drawing Spidey with socks and a hat while web-swinging out during the winter. I never know if Sandman is a hero or villain and what is his connection to the young girl he’s keeping? This is a good start for the Sandman story. 1/1.
-Amazing Spider-Man Presents: Anti-Venom #3- This ends the Anti-Venom saga. Venom and Punisher rescue the girl, kill the drug traffickers, and Punisher lets Venom go free. Was it because he was out of bullets or had a change of heart? I think this shows Eddie Brock in a new light and was a good character defining story. I don’t know how much mileage this will have in the Marvel Universe but don’t let it take away for what a good story this was and the Punisher/Brock interaction was always entertaining. 2/2.
-Astonishing X-Men #33- The whole bio-sentinel story is growing on me. Basically there’s a mysterious man behind the shadows that is resurrecting old X-Foes using Beast’s own research. No one knows who this guy is but after the X-Men stop a bio-sentinel and a revived Krakoa they head after his ship. There’s no one there except the head of Paradigm, a mutant whose mind can interface with machines. Cyke has one mission, kill Kaga; the man behind it all. Like I said, this story is growing on me and I can look past how late it is in the current X-Men continuity. Bio-Sentinels as weapons with a mysterious man behind it all? That’s the type of story I like! 3/3.
-Cable #21- Cable and Hope make it back to Earth, with Bishop of course, and now they are two years older. Hope’s powers manifest themselves for the first time when Bishop tries shooting her. Hope and Cable steal Bishop’s time-travel device and escape to the past. They arrive in Manhattan in 1614 and somehow Bishop is brought there, too. This cat and mouse thing is getting a bit ridiculous at this point. Also, the book featured three artists and it was jarring going from one artist to the other, especially considering the contrast in styles. Let’s not drag this out any longer and just bring Hope to the X-Men already. 3/4.
-Captain America: Reborn #5- The Red Skull is in control of Steve’s body and flaunts it in front of Sharon. Bucky and the rest of his gang fight this new Cap as Steve tries fighting Red Skull in his mind. Bucky and Cap lose, and it looks like Bucky’s about to be impaled by the Red Skull. The Skull made a team of MODOK’s for this event, but they were only really shown on one page. This isn’t as good as the death of Cap was handled, since I feel like we’ve seen this before. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still good, but it isn’t as fresh as some of Brubaker’s earlier Cap work. 4/5.
-Daredevil #503- The awesomeness from Diggle continues. He brings Matt to the forefront of the Hand and their mission is to stop the corruption of the police and of Osborn. Fisk is still in the mix, getting crooks to swear allegiance to the Hood or Owl (and keep his name out of things). Daredevil also realizes just how far the Hand will go. One took a trophy hand (how ironic) from a cop and he actually kills himself when DD tells him not to do that. I love Kingpin’s role in here, especially how he’s working with Lady Bullseye and DD in control of the Hand has been gold so far. 5/6.
-Dark Avengers #12- Hand surrenders to the Molecule Man but he’s wary of shenanigans being amidst. There were none but Sentry takes it upon himself to actually defeat Molecule Man when he realizes that he has the power to control atoms and molecules, too. The village and all the Avengers are restored and they all realize just how powerful Sentry is. We also see how Loki’s been controlling Norman in the last few pages and that will be setting up the Siege. This seems to be the only Bendis title I actually enjoy reading. He doesn’t clutter it with too many pointless monologue/dialogue segments and he’s making the characters interesting. This is my favorite Avengers title on the stands right now. 6/7.
-Dark Wolverine #81- The honeymoon’s over for this title and it has fallen back to Earth. Basically this is Daken and Ms. Marvel talking and exploring Daken’s past, which sees him killing an old woman. The art was really weird and the faces didn’t seem right. Plus, paying three dollars for an all-dialogue issue nowadays, that doesn’t immediately set us up for something else, is pointless and a waste. In fact, I have deleted this from my pull list. 6/8.
-Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth #6- The zaniness of this title continues with Deadpool basically taking the head through the portal. This is enjoyable, but am I the only one who thinks this is being really drawn out right now? I mean, what all has happened in the six issues? DP takes the head, goes to space and walks through a portal. It’s funny but I feel like it needs to move a bit more quickly. It gets a point for its humor and still being entertaining. 7/9.
-Realm of Kings: Inhumans #2- The Inhumans aren’t too happy with the interference of the Mighty Avengers and after Devos is taken out they express their disinterest. They don’t want to appear weak to their minions. Speaking of minions, the Mindless Ones are about to revolt thanks to some pissed off Kree citizens. Finally, while researching the Fault the voice of Black Bolt can be heard. That last reveal was damn cool, as was the whole dialogue between the Avengers and the Inhumans. Realm of Kings is off to a good start so far. 8/10.
-Hulk #18- If you paid four dollars for this like I did then you will be incredibly disappointed. It’s basically a Samson monologue with a shrink and it is obvious early on he is talking to himself. Modok watches on in approval. Well, I don’t care about Samson and I especially don’t care about spending $4 on a long talk with oneself. 8/11.
-Spider-Man: 1602 #4- I think that the 1602 Spider-Man is better than the Noir Spider-Man and this just highlights that. It’s Spidey in the 1600’s with versions of the Beast, Lizard, Pym, Octopus and even the Green Goblin. Peter meets Mary-Jane and joins her traveling performing crew but they are separated when Peter is kidnapped by Bullseye for Pym’s experiments. This is probably the freshest take on Spider-Man in an Elseworlds type of title since Spider-Girl first burst on the scene. 9/12.
-Spider-Man: Clone Saga #4- Reilly is wearing the Spider-Man threads and he battles Doc Ock unsuccessfully. Doc is working for Kaine and Kaine has him get some materials for him. Kaine turns on him and Kaine reveals he’s working with someone who wants to resurrect Norman Osborn. Meanwhile, Peter deals with life as a civilian and without the webs. I think this is following script so far with the Spidey titles back in 1996 but for one, it’s a lot easier to follow with just one title instead of the four or five that were on the stands way back when. This is doing a lot to make the Clone Saga actually interesting and readable. 10/13.
-Ultimate Armor Wars #3- This has been a surprise in the Ultimates line. It’s Tony looking for the man who has stolen his tech. He finds that the British are using them and he’s not happy, confronting them all. He makes an escape from them but runs into the equally mysterious Ghost. He sends Tony hurtling into the sea and his suit is filling up with water quickly. This is a decent James Bond type mystery/spy thriller. 11/14.
-What If – Daredevil vs. Elektra #1- This is the second really original What If in a row. This dates all the way back to the Miller/Romita Daredevil mini-series. While Matt tries to save Elektra it is Matt who is gunned down. This changes the lives of a lot of people. Elektra ends up working for SHIELD, Matt is resurrected by the Hand as their demon, and Foggy is working for the Kingpin. It’s a really well-thought out story with cameos by Stick, Fury, and Bullseye. So far this has been the best What If and the cover homage to the first appearance of Elektra was a nice touch. 12/15.
-X-Factor #200- Just when you think a title couldn’t get any more awesome. We join Madrox and the X-Factor crew as they search for the Invisible Woman. Their surprise at the end of the issue, with Layla’s involvement being hinted as awesome. Monet’s dad is also kidnapped and the terrorists want her. There’s another story featuring Terry coming to terms with everything that’s gone on in her life thanks to the Pastor Maddox version of Madrox. Other extras include a cover gallery and a reprint of Madrox #1. I love what Peter’s doing here, from little things like Guido asking if Shatterstar likes Gladiator movies to the grand saga of Madrox and Siryn. This is probably the best written X-title on the stands. 13/16.
-X-Force #22- This X-title is all about the action. Sure some cool details are in here (Wolfsbane is pregnant with something that’s not human) but this was all about Selene building her empire of dead mutants (and mutants who are now human thanks to Scarlet Witch) and the X-Men trying to fight off the Zombies on Utopia. We end this with Blink bringing in Selene’s heavy hitters to get a sword back of hers. This is non-stop action and I loved every panel of it. 14/17.
-X-Men: Legacy #230- This ends as you’d expect. Rogue and Bling manage to stay alive against Emplate before bringing his little haven back to our dimension. The X-Men make quick work of him and that’s one threat that is neutralized for now. Of course, the Zombies are coming! There’s a Hope back-up here (and in X-Force) that didn’t really do anything except show her growing up. This was a suitable ending to the tale. 15/18.
-The Bottom Line- It’s only days before Christmas, can you believe it? Anyway, Dynamite remains rock solid with the Project Superpowers and if they can keep the momentum going you can have an all-time great classic on your hands. DC had one misstep in Superman/Batman but the rest of the books were nothing short of great. I’d highly recommend the 80-page Giant if you can afford it. Marvel was good where it needed to be. The X-Titles were very strong (except Cable), What If was amazing, the mini-series were all good, and the solo stars like Cap, DD and Spider-Man kept their stories going very well. Last week was underwhelming, but this week was pretty awesome. Merry Christmas everyone!
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Questions? Comments? Shoot me an email.
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