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I just want to take a moment and wish everyone a Happy New Year! I can’t believe I made it through the whole year (since April at least) with little or no delays in TPL! I hope I can keep this going for all of 2008! This was a weird week in terms of picking up the books. They weren’t released until Friday and I actually didn’t have any time to pick them up until Sunday afternoon. I thought that due to the holidays the load may be a little lighter but who was I kidding? 15 DC’s, 17 Marvel’s and 1 Wildstorm title combine to make 33 comics that I must read in less than 3 days to be posted. Luckily I have no work those 3 days so I am optimistic. Unfortunately I start work again on the second. They couldn’t give me one more day off to recuperate? Oh well. Let’s check in on the first edition of TPL in the year 2008!
Spoiler Alert
The Main Event
-Giant-Size Avengers #1- This is really just a collection of stories that really don’t tell too much. I mean, it’s cute in its own way but I don’t know if it was worth the five dollars. The whole issue revolves around Wasp, Black Widow and Ms. Marvel fighting crime then leading into other stories. There’s one of Gyrich being worshipped on another planet, some crazy being taken out by Wolverine, Spider-Man being shown what it is to be an Avenger, and one of Alfred writing about being a butler. There are two reprints as well, one of Avengers #58 and another of #201. I wasn’t too impressed with this collection.
-Amazing Spider-Man #545- This was only the most talked about issue of the week. I think if you’re reading this you all know how it ends and if you don’t, well Peter and MJ choose their marriage to end and May to live. MJ also whispers something into Mephisto’s ear, what some speculate is a way out. So May lives, MJ is gone, and Peter welcomes back his friend, Harry Osbourne, from rehab. First the pro’s, I thought this issue was very well-written and a nice send-off for JMS. If nothing else he will be remembered as writing some of the most controversial Spider-Man issues possibly ever. This would be no different. I guess that leads to the cons. I don’t know what they were thinking. Was the marriage really that bad for Spidey? Reed Richards has been married for how many decades now? The execution seemed off, too. Peter seemed very selfish and MJ didn’t seem too mad at this turn of events. I would be pretty pissed. I think this just has more questions than answers right now. Is Peter turned back twenty years now? Will we be watching a young Peter growing up in Brand New Day? How will this affect the rest of the Marvel Universe? Is Peter’s identity known to the world? Is he in the New Avengers? Will Brand New Day answer this or will it not even matter? I think the whole series was well-written and the young girl we saw last issue being the unborn daughter of MJ and Peter was a nice kick in the gut. In the end I will call this well-written but the fact it leaves more questions than answers makes it ultimately a disappointment.
Marvel
-Avengers: The Initiative #8- This issue starts with someone attacking Pym. He starts remembering that he had the idea of the fifty-state initiative. They show the troops coming back after beating Dragon Man, a new batch of recruits show up (including Ant-Man) which Cassie has a problem with leading to a big fight which their new trainer, Taskmaster stops. Finally we see a giant person about to shoot Pym, possibly a clone of MVP. This was an interesting issue.
-Captain America #33- Faustus tells Skull that Bucky is now gone. We see Bucky in SHIELD custody without his arm and Black Widow prepares to interrogate him when the arm breaks free and goes back to Bucky, who escapes and finds Stark. Stark and Bucky fight but Tony shows him a letter Steve gave him, telling Tony to watch Bucky and keep Captain America alive. Tony’s plan? Bucky will become the new Captain America!
-Captain Marvel #2- Captain Marvel is back! He has a chat with Ms. Marvel, a former flame, and while they are chatting, the defeat the Cobalt Man. Stark asks Sante to continue investigating Marvel and his obsession with a certain painting. Nathan investigates this cult of Marvel. In the end, Marvel meets with Stark due to some outside interference and the Kree shows up. Yikes!
-House of M: Avengers #3- Misty turns on Proudstar and the mutants and runs off with Cage and his group. Castle starts questioning Proudstar and his team’s ethics towards humans but Proudstar basically tells him if he leaves his family is in trouble. Castle goes to Cage and gets his family safe passage to the last haven for humans (Wakanda) and helps the Avengers put a virus on their computer and then cripples Taskmaster. Proudstar is not too happy and goes to people Cage just talked to, Kingpin, Bullseye and Elektra in order to double cross Cage. Interesting turn here and I think the return to the House of M was a smart idea, especially in the eyes of humans.
-Hulk vs. Fin Fang Foom #1- This one takes place in the past and Hulk tried to escape from some humans and ends up in the Arctic. He changes back to Banner and is saved by some scientists. The scientists then unearth Fin Fang Foom and long and short of it, Hulk and Fin Fang Foom fight, with Hulk getting the upper edge, flinging Fin to the moon. This was just a fun romp. The first appearance of Fin Fang Foom is also reprinted.
-Iron Man: Director of SHIELD #24- Iron Man continues investigating why all those people have turned up missing and the answer is shocking. They all share the same type of genetic code with him that allows Extremis to be used in him. He can’t believe it but it’s confirmed true when one of the missing shows up, Extremis enhanced, and he needs the help of Ultra Man and Samson to stop him. Mandarin is continuing to use Maya to disperse Extremis. This was a very interesting issue that finally brings the previous issues into play. We have a main villain and a bunch of super powered people that can now battle a powerless Iron Man.
-Marvel Previews #53- Darktower: The Long Road Home takes the cover for these previews. I didn’t really get a chance to look through this yet, but it looks to be a good month for Marvel in March.
-Marvel Spotlight: Spider-Man BND/OMD- I didn’t finish this in time for release, but a review is forthcoming.
-Marvel Spotlight: X-Men Messiah CompleX- See above.
-Marvel Zombies 2 #3- The Zombies are seperated from the humans by a forcefield but Gladiator is inside it and he is hungry. He starts fighting the humans but Forge finally stops him, while wearing an old Iron Man armor. The Zombies leave to look for Reed’s portal to other universes but Forge has stolen it, too. Spider-Man, who is now a good-guy, warns them the Zombies will be back to fight for it and they don’t have the manpower for it. Forge shows off his secret weapon, Captain America’s brain in the body of Black Panther’s dead son. Niiiice! This continues to be one of the best mini-series of the past 10 years.
-New Warriors #7- Night Thrasher goes to the grave of Dwayne Taylor (the old NT) and Silhouette shows up. She tells us this NT is Dwayne’s brother, Donzell. Jubille trains the troops in the use of their gadgets, and Stark unveils his new team of Junior Guardsmen, possibly in response to the New Warriors and is led by former Warrior, Ultra Girl. I can honestly say this was the best issue of New Warriors to date but it could get better. There hasn’t been too much action yet and I don’t feel or know anything about these characters yet.
-Thor #6- Thor is told of a darkness seen by Heimdall. He goes there and finds many people trapped there. He frees them after defeating Destroyer (who seemed to have Baldar the Brave inside him) and finds a woman he thinks is Sif but is really Loki. Loki seems to have a partnership with Doctor Doom for some reason. In the epilogue some Asgardians show up for a town party and Asgard seems to be missing. Hmmm? This is still light on real action but the search for the Asgardians has been interesting to read thus far.
-Ultimate Power #9- The Hulk is unleashed on the world, and all the superheroes band together to fight, and finally, defeat him. Hyperion says someone has to pay for these crimes and Spidey suggests Fury since he started the whole thing. Fury is kept by the Squadron while the rest of the heroes look for Doom. They head back, with Barda who will keep an eye on them, and without Fury. So Fury’s gone from two Marvel Universes now. I guess the absence of Fury will lead to Ultimatum but the execution wasn’t too great in my opinion. Nine issues was a bit long just for that.
-Ultimate Spider-Man #117- Peter wakes up after being knocked out by Green Goblin. He is pissed about his son’s admission and goes to talk to him about it. They both turn into Goblins and fight. Norman gets the upper hand but accidentally kills his son. He turns back to his human form and asks to be killed, which SHIELD obliges. Peter is bummed and talks about Harry in class.
-The Zombie: Simon Garth #2- There’s a lot going on in this issue. The inbreds prepare to kill the agent they caught when the infected son starts biting everyone. Cherry, saved by a mute Simon, looks for her traveling companion Elizabeth but runs off when Simon doesn’t speak. Simon ends up saving Elizabeth from Zombie dogs. Simon is an awesome character so far and the inbred guys are just creepy. This is building up very nicely so far.
DC
-52 Aftermath: The Four Horseman #5- The craziness continues for our three heroes! Superman battles (and defeats) Yuurd. Batman battles (and defeats) Zorrm. Superman and Batman team up to look for Azraeus after they learn these Apokolipitans were reconstructed using dead humans of Bialya and possibly some Superman DNA. Roggas breaches the wall at Oolong Island so the Doom Patrol and Wonder Woman head out to stop him. I hated the last issue but I can’t honestly say this one was bad. It told a much more concise and clear story and finally things are happening.
-Action Comics #860- Superman and the Legion try to free Braniac 5 but learn he has already teleported away. They do manage to save Polar Boy. They head to old Metropolis (which is now underground) in an effort to find Braniac The Earth heroes find them and attack and somehow Superman is transported to Brainiacs planet, where he is captured and told he will be killed. Wow, out of the frying pan into the fire. There were a lot of characters I wasn’t familiar with here, but I have enjoyed the ones they’ve introduced. It seems like there is a ton of stuff I am missing since I don’t know the LSH continuity but this is written so I can at least follow along. I want to see how this ends before I hold judgment.
-Blue Beetle #22- Blue Beetle continues investigating the Reach and finds some astonishingly bad news. It seems they have undetectable amounts of a mind-control substance in the biosphere so that in 100 years time they can actually come back to Earth and after an elaborate scheme make the Earth a slave race. Wow. They’ve been building to this perfectly with hints dropped along the last 5-6 issues. The Reach are pissed Beetle found this out, as well as one of their spires and one of their created meta humans (Tavos). Beetle tells Tavos the news and he sacrifices himself to stop a Reach device so Beetle can escape. There are a bunch of other smaller stories running along here that don’t bog down the story but build slowly over time. This title is anything but consistent.
-Brave and the Bold #9- This is a really interesting idea for the Brave and the Bold. Instead of telling one team-up story they actually touch upon three different team-ups over time that all have to do with this Megistus character mentioned in the Book of Destiny. First, The Metal Men and Dial H for Hero battle some mechanical beast, then Blackhawk and Boy Commando fight in Ra’s pyramid against mummies drawn up by Megistus in WW2 and finally a current team up of Atom and Hawkman where the villain is dispatched and appears in the book, which has become alive and is attacking one of the Challangers, June, who is in the book. Uh-oh. I think I mentioned this last month but the previous arc stunk to high heaven but this one has really jump started the book of destiny stuff.
-Countdown Arena #4- Finally this is over. I was expecting to some great action between alternate world versions of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern but for the most part I was wholly let down. Here we have a group of characters we really don’t know or care about fighting to be on Monarch’s team. This issue sees the Supermen fight and try to band together to take him down. It fails and Monarch seems so powerful that no one can defeat him, which they’ve showed over and over the previous three issues. Red Son Superman joins the team as one of the other Supermans gets away with the rest of the heroes. I say, who cares?
-Countdown to Adventure #5- Adam Strange gets overrun on Rann as Animal Man is revealed to be the cause of the outbreak, not Firestar as they originally thought. Animal Man cures some of the infected before getting taken away. We go back to Forerunner who is rescued by a docile breed. They are attacked by pirates and she takes over the pirate ship and gets rid of all the crew save a few people. I dare say that this may be the best Countdown Tie-in. The first Forerunner story was boring but the last few have been revealing and seem to be building to something. I loved the three guys lost in space last year and their story keeps getting more compelling.
-Countdown to Final Crisis #18- This issue of Countdown actually gives us some meat to eat with instead of just scraps. This deals almost exclusively with Ray Palmer and the utopian Earth he inhabits. It seems he has been there for a while. He saw this earth’s version of himself die before meeting Jean and he took over the role. He comes clean to everyone about his world when the Challangers show up and there’s one final shock, Bob is ready to kill Ray! I didn’t see that one coming! This was the best issue of Countdown in recent memory, and possibly the best so far. There’s also two pages of Mary Marvel laying the smack down on Eclipso.
-Crime Bible: Five Lessons of Blood #3: Greed- Renee asks for Batwoman’s help to get the Crime Bible that Penguin will be auctioning off soon. They are able to secure the book and Renee goes apeshit trying to get it so she can learn more of its secrets. This is a nice angle on the whole book of death thing, that Renee is being sucked into it seemingly uncontrollably. She says she just wants to help Batwoman, who leaves pretty pissed at her, but the secrets won’t be revealed to her when she opens the book. She is becoming what she is drying to understand and stop.
-Death of the New Gods #4- Superman, Orion and Mr. Miracle find the Forever People, who are dead. Miracle uses the Anti-Life Equation to bring them to life to find out who did it but they can’t say and evaporate. They leave with more questions than answers. Superman suspects it may be Infinity Man, and warns the others. Darkseid releases Desaad from his rule after receiving some potion he’s going to use. Metron continues investigating how the murderer got so powerful and even heads to before men ruled earth. Mantis and Kalibak want revenge and get the drop on Miracle at the end of the issue. This is building nicely and even though answers are being revealed slowly it is not being done in a way to make the stories boring. Starlin is telling the story he wants to tell and its been a great ride so far.
-Flash #235- Flash starts bossing around some of his JLA friends and they don’t appreciate it. He is just trying to protect his city and his kids. They head into the water to battle the water beings but it is all an illusion that only the Flash can see through. He goes back home to see it has been overtaken. Jai left to fight and Flash meets up with him. He is scared he’s going to die. They battle some monster creeps at the end. The back-up tale sees Wally bringing Bart to their safe world in time to stop an assassination attempt on Gorflack. I love the back-up.
-Gotham Underground #3- Scarecrow escapes from the Suicide Squad and tells it to the Ventriloquist. They take the info and say they’ll get revenge. Bruce is in jail as Matches when Zsasz attacks and severly wounds him. Bruce eventually takes him out but passes out from blood loss. Penguin has a dinner with Tobias Whale which doesn’t go well. Robin and Oracle investigate where Matches is and what is going on in Gotham. An invisible assailaint attacks them until Wildcat (huh?) shows up to knock the assailaint out. It turns out to be Spoiler! A new gangs attacks Ventriloquist and his clique. I have no idea how Wildcat ties into this, but the issue was one surprise after another.
-Green Lantern/Sinestro Corps Secret Files #1- This is a Handbook style book on all the notable Green Lanterns, their history, culture and the Sinestro Corps. I didn’t go through it all but it was really interesting as far as these types of books go. They aren’t long summaries of the characters so its quick to read through, and it adds some insight on the recently concluded storyline.
-The Legion of Super-Heroes #37- This first issue in Shooter’s run on the title functioned basically as a reintroduction on all the characters which newer fans like myself appreciate since I have only read the title the last two years when Supergirl was on the team. We see Lightning Lad floundering as new leader of the team, sending in the wrong people on the wrong missions, like Triplicate Girl being attacked by a huge monster when the power hitters are battling rats. The focus of the action is on Titan, at a ski resort that is about to be attacked. Saturn Girl, Star Boy, Timber Wolf and Invisible Kid are there to protect them and Invisible Kid seems enamored with of the snowboarders who is deemed a freak by many and attacked by a group of youths. The Legion on Triton battle valiantly against the threat but a mix-up at home causes the transporter to be off limit to the rest of the Legion and they are basically on their own. This was a nice way to introduce all the characters while still maintaining an interesting story. I look forward to the continuation of this arc.
-Teen Titans #54- The Titans are still in the future battling a Starro with a bunch of Sinestro rings. The present Titans don’t like their future selves, they find out that Flash and Connor are really clones and we see how Robin became Batman thanks to Luthor. The present Titans stop the threat and return home, with Cassandra saying she’s over Connor and kissing Robin. I didn’t like the storyline. Maybe I need to read it again as one set instead of a month apart but I thought the arc lacked any real direction other than showing a possible future of the Titans.
-Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters #4- Uncle Sam and Doll Man II learn about Doll Man, his wife dying, and being neglected. Sam says he’ll help and Doll Man lets him. They head home to gather the troops and return, right into Red Bee, who has broken free and has gone crazy. She keeps talking about some Collective she wants all the troops under and takes control of them at the end! It seems she’s gonna turn them all into drones, the whole world even, with her as Queen Bee. There wasn’t inherently wrong with this issue, so I can’t really say it was bad, but it lacked a certain something that made the first mini so entertaining. I hope we don’t see the end of Red Bee in this mini-series, though.
Wildstorm
-WildCATS: Armageddon- Void picks up Charis, aka Nemesis to show her the future. She meets with Grifter and Zealot to learn how this happened. You know, the villains came back and destroyed the world. Majestic is evil now, too. She learns she has to find someone called Savant. We’ve seen this before in the other Armageddon’s and the only read addition to this was this person Savant.
Awards
-Book of the Week- Countdown to Final Crisis #18 was the highlight for me this week. It was just a great look at Ray Palmer in his ideal world and then it all comes crashing down for him when the Challangers arrive and then Bob turns his gun on him! What a reveal!
-Disappointment of the Week- From one Countdown title to this: for the overall displeasure the four-issue mini-series gave me, Countdown Arena #4 easily takes this award. The whole mini-series was just a big let-down from what I was originally expecting.
-Cover of the Week- There were some absolutely stunning covers this week, like Marvel Zombies 2 and Brave and the Bold but the best one has to be Hulk vs. Fin Fang Foom #1. It is just a great action shot showing how monsterous Foom is compared to the Hulk. The Hulk is wearing his classic clothes, too, making this an easy winner for me.
-The Bottom Line- I thought this was a very controversial week for comics thanks to Amazing Spider-Man #545 and I think a lot of fans were pissed this week, but it doesn’t take away from the other titles. There were some good nuggets tucked in there. The main event was probably the worse I’ve had since doing TPL but the 15 other DC and 12 other Marvel titles were generally better than worse. I think the holiday letdown affected my thinking of these, and I kind of had to rush through these in three days so it may seemed a bit rushed. Oh well, my thoughts stand. Happy New Year everyone!
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Questions? Comments? Shoot me an email.
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