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Well, another week has come and gone, and another week finds me late with this thing. It’s just school and work are killing me right now and as a result this like the last thing I have time for in my life. Oh well, by the end of February I should be back on track, since one huge time-killer of mine will be over. This week was a pretty decent week in terms of pull-list size. There were 28 total titles, which breaks down to 8 DC’s and 20 Marvels.
Spoiler Alert
The Main Event
-Final Crisis #7- I guess all good things must come to an end. I guess it’s not necessarily true that the reverse is true, that all bad things must come to an end. Luckily, this mini-series has come to an end. Now, I am not saying it is bad, I think a better word may be too ambitious. Grant Morrison is one of the great writers of our time, there is no doubt about that, but this may have been too much for what comic book fans are accustomed to. The storyline was very big, I think too big for the 7 issue mini-series that housed it and even the tie-ins. Take for instance all the Japanese heroes that were introduced. What purpose did they serve other than a minor plot point. There was a lot of development over the first few issues that didn’t really develop into anything. Like this issue, I couldn’t even tell you what happened. A whole bunch of alternate world Supermen showed up, the Monitors were there, and maybe Batman’s alive? I don’t know. I haven’t read any message boards in ages so I don’t know how the casual fan is taking this, but I just was way too confused after the third issue. There’s no doubt about Morrison’s skill but this was one that started off too big and just couldn’t live up to the standards it set itself. At least with Secret Invasion we had a new Marvel Universe to look forward to, things had changed. What are we looking towards here? 0/1.
Marvel
-Amazing Spider-Man Extra #2- This was an enjoyable comic with two stories, the first being Anti-Venom breaking up a Mr. Negative drug bust (interesting how Brock is so entwined with FEAST, which is run by Mr. Negative, though he doesn’t know it) and Wolverine spending his birthday with Spider-Man. I really liked this one. 1/1.
-Avengers: The Initiative #21- Clor returns, and so do the New Warriors. Eh, there was nothing too interesting here. 1/2.
-Captain America #46- Buck teams up with Namor to try and retrieve the body of the old Human Torch. Along the way, we see how Buck was supposed to kill Zhang (who is the one who kidnapped the Torch) and botched that mission. Great espionage storytelling from Brubaker. 2/3.
-Daredevil #115- Lady Bullseye is after Daredevil for one reason, he wants Murdock to lead Hand! He refuses, all hell breaks loose, and next issue is the return of Kingpin. Just really kick-ass storytelling. DD is the best it’s ever been. 4/5.
-Darktower: Treachery #5- Roland will have a marriage arranged to Aileen, but his heart is with Susan Delgado. A new trickster shows up and Farson is getting closer to getting his revenge. This is like a slow-burn, the story is unfolding little by little, and I wonder how it will conclude in the next issue. Another excellent issue. 5/6.
-Incredible Hercules #125- Cho and Hercules, with the help of some women against Artume, defeat her and restore the world to order. Good conclusion. 6/7.
-Fantastic Four #563- Thing gets engaged and the evil that Doom knows is getting closer to our world. I don’t know which way to go with this, it was okay, and I want to see who this villain is, but do we need to see Thing get engaged again? Still, better than that last Death of Invisible Woman storyline. 7/8.
-Marvels: Eye of the Camera #3- Sheldon continues fighting cancer as he snaps pictures of the new Marvel anti-hero. It’s on a trip to photograph Punisher that Sheldon suffers a setback to his disease. It’s a very human story, centered around these marvels, and it is standing up so far. 8/9.
-Ms. Marvel #35- Ms. Marvel sees the new Avengers, doesn’t like it, and neither do the worshippers of the Church of Hala. They commit mass suicide, Ms. Marvel investigates, sees the Noh-Varr there and, well, nothing much happened that I found interesting so I’m gonna stop typing. 8/10.
-New Avengers #49- Osborn helps Luke Cage get his kid back, then Cage turns on him and returns to his New Avenger team. A very strong issue, especially coming out of the Secret Invasion crap we had. 9/11.
-Nova #21- Nova doesn’t want to give up the power of the whole Nova Corps so Worldmind takes it by force, and strips Nova of his powers! This is the most interesting Nova has ever been. 10/12.
-Runaways #6- The Majesdenians and the Runaways battle, but the Maj’s leave when Katrina says she will give herself up. In the turn that everyone saw coming, it was really the Skrull husband who turned himself in. Standard by-the-numbers story but it fit for a debut arc from Moore and Ramos to set the title back on track. 11/13.
-She-Hulk #37- She-Hulk gets out of jail and gets her old job back, but things will go sour when the Elephant dude attacks Jazinda (who is impersonating She-Hulk) and she is revealed as a Skrull! Interesting twist, especially post SI. 12/14.
-Skaar: Son of Hulk #7- Silver Surfer comes back to prep the world for Galactus, so Skaar imprisons him with an obedience disk. I don’t have any problems with this. 13/15.
-Stand, The #5- Somehow I missed #4, but whatever, this is just the shizzat. Capt. Tripps makes his walk towards where he’s going as the world goes to hell in a handbasket. It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine. Awesome. 14/16.
-Ultimate Spider-Man #130- May is arrested for knowing information about Spider-Man, but she’s not telling. Meanwhile, Peter is enroute to Manhattan when the Ultimatum wave hits and he goes out to help others. It works well in the context of what’s going on in the Ultimate U. 15/17.
-Wolverine: First Class #11- Wolver-wolf-man-ine is helped by Kitty Pryde. I just didn’t care. 15/18.
-X-Men: World’s Apart #4- Storm defeats the Shadow King with the help of the Panther force and all is fine with the world. Good enough for a point, but it has no lasting impact whatsoever. 16/19.
-X-Force #11- Eli Bard has ties to old X-Men foe Selina, who is as old as dirt, and so is Eli Bard now. Eli owes Selina big time, and offers up zombie Caliban. It sounds ridiculous, but it was worth the price of admission. It’s a new character and it’s a dark twist on the current X-titles. 17/20.
-Young X-Men #10- Cipher is a mutant who has been around for awhile, spying on the Young X-Men at Cyclops’s behest. Meanwhile, Dust is dying and Pierce says he can help her, but only if she frees him. 18/21.
DC
-Batman #685- Catwoman gets the better of Hush, and then leaves him to Robin and Nightwing who trap him in a Bruce Wayne apartment. Hush vows revenge and all. I don’t know how this will play out without the titular character but this was pretty good. 1/2.
-Faces of Evil: Kobra #1- There’s a new King Kobra, and he kills a whole bunch of snake babies that we didn’t care about in Checkmate. The villain is a nobody, but it was a compelling story. 2/3.
-Final Crisis: Revelations #5- The biblical overtones, from Vandal Savage being Cain (of Cain and Abel) coupled with the awesome return of Spectre and the Question, as well as the return of Crispus Allen. The best Final Crisis book by far. 3/4.
-Justice Society of America #23- This FOE tie-in sees Black Adam return with a bang, get his wife Isis back and beat the crap out of Capt. Marvel. This was an awesome return for Black Adam. 4/5.
-Superman #684- Parasite is the basis of the his FOE tie-in, though he plays a minor role if anything, as this centers around Guardian summoning the Science Police, the two Kryptonians (Firehawk and Nightwing I think their names are) and General Zod returns on New Krypton. 5/6.
-Trinity #35- We see the origin of Edward Nigma, the Earth-2 Riddler and how he really only has the best of intentions for his world but he doesn’t know if he can deal with Morgaine destroying this world. Meanwhile, we see that Kellel became human and his wife (Lois?) is the one that broke him. Deep man. 6/7.
Wildstorm
-World of Warcraft #15- Another good effort thrown in by Simonson, as Lo’Gosh returns home the rightful king and a new character emerges, an orphan in the hands of a magician with his mother still looking on. There’s a great LOTR-vibe going on this title, with all sorts of mythology thrown in. I started out buying this for my dad, a big gamer, and I find the stories to be some of the best in terms of Sci-Fi/Fantasy out there. 1/1.
Awards
-Book of the Week- I didn’t really think about this when writing this (2 weeks late mind you) but I think it has to be the Stand. Looking back, it just kicked ass. I was really impressed with this. What an awesome book.
-Disappointment of the Week- I have to give it to Final Crisis #7, just because all the build up and all the hype led to something that was just too confusing, too over ambitious. Maybe I need to sit down and read all 7 issues back to back, but as it stands, I just didn’t get it, or enjoy the last few issues. Fun Fact, this is the first time a writer/artist combination won DOTW two consecutive weeks.
-Cover of the Week- Nova #21 was just a really cool cover, featuring the end of Nova, and his costume just lying there on the chair. Awesome.
-The Bottom Line- Yeah, sorry this thing is two weeks late, and the next one is late, and the third one is late, but now that I am done with all the stuff at work that eats up all my time, we’ll be back on track by the end of February for sure. Good week, tainted only by my slowness in getting this posted.
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Questions? Comments? Shoot me an email.
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