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*Note* I had this finished by Saturday, I just plum forgot to post it yesterday, sorry!
This was a good week. I got back from an entertaining trip to Pennsylvania, I was able to relax and work is still a month away. I just want it to take a looong time getting here. So I sauntered (well, walked) into the shop and picked up 21 comics, (1 Wildstorm, 6 DC’s, and 14 Marvels), as well as 3 hardcover trades (X-Men: Kitty Pryde & Wolverine, Marvel Masterworks GA Cap Vol. 2, and Howard the Duck Omnibus), so it was a heavy load. I don’t have anything else to say. I guess by the time this comes out, all the news will have hit of the San Diego Comic-Con. It is actually Friday night as I write this and I heard the news of the Image project, and it looks awesome.
Spoiler Alert
The Main Event
-Uncanny X-Men #500- One of my favorite series ever hits their 500th issue. I clearly remember getting the 300th issue, but didn’t read the product by the time the 400th came around, but I’m back, and the X-Men never left. So the X-Men have a new base of operations outside of San Francisco, and things are going well for them. Now, we have a couple of things going on here, first, a filmmaker is using the Celestial in LA and Sentinels are brought as an art exhibit. The X-Men don’t like it and show up at the premiere. Magneto shows up and brings the Sentinels to life, and they cause havoc attacking the X-Men. They soon find out Magneto isn’t a mutant but is using state of the art technology to mimic his mutant powers. The X-Men stop that threat, but Magneto escapes. It seems that High Evolutionary provided Magneto with the tech and that’s a real interesting twist there. The issue ends with Emma and Cyclops sending out a telepathic message to all mutants, that the X-Men in SF will be a safe haven for all mutants. The last scene is of a hellfire gang about to attack Pixie. This was a loaded issue, and two men handled the art, Greg Land and Terry Dodson. I loved the Dodson art, but I don’t know if Land’s artwork is doing anything for me. I like High Evolutionary getting involved, and how SF will be the new safe haven for mutants, as you know there will be bad people coming out there. 1/1.
-Two-Face Year One #1- I think this has something to do with the Dark Knight movie coming out last Friday (saw it, loved it). That movie featured Harvey Dent who we all know becomes Two-Face. Now, I don’t know what to expect from this, maybe something interesting, maybe a new take on Two-Face and his origin, and since it was a $6.00 comic book I thought it would be worth the money. Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to its prestige format book status. The origin is a simple retelling of events that occurred in Batman: The Long Halloween and this really doesn’t introduce anything new. Huntress Year One, despite being not as popular or mainstream, is a much better book. If I wanted to see Harvey’s origin, done much better, I would read Long Halloween, not this simple synopsis. 0/1.
Marvel
-Angel: Redemption #3- Angel doesn’t come home for Christmas, he shows a friend who has an abusive father (or guardian, whatever), and the zealot is using a mutant to track (and kill) other mutants and is now going after Angel. Nothing great here, you can take it or leave it. 1/2.
-Avengers: The Initiative #15- 3D-Man has goggles that can see Skrulls but Freedom Ring (who is actually a Skrull) bent reality to make the goggle screwy. Freedom Ring is another Skrull who is against his own people (like Teddy from Young Avengers, Jaz, John Lennon Skrull) and fights against his people, killing his old friend. All hell breaks loose with the Invasion hitting New York, the Initiative going in (except Ant-Man, who bails). 3D-Man may play a big role in this, and Initiative has been a good tie-in. 2/3.
-Black Panther #38- Black Panther continues fighting Killmonger as Monica LeBeau breaks free of her prison. Lambeau kills Killmonger and Killies son is pissed and vows revenge on Panther. Eh, I didn’t like the issue, or the whole arc, and it didn’t do anything for Panther or the title and hopefully the Secret Invasion tie-in will kick-start this title. 2/4.
-Daredevil #109- Dakota has a run-in with her father who tells her to stay out of it, Murdock looks more into the death of the kids that Big Ben took the rap for. Enos Slaughter is involved and DD breaks into his now legit operation. A copter flies overhead waiting to take DD out and it may be the government and Dakota is shot at issues end. The mystery is getting better, and building, and Brubaker is the king of crime stories like this. 3/5.
-Marvel Comics Presents #11- This title certainly hit a wall fast. The Vanguard character kills everyone to keep the secret of him going, Machine Man has built this whole place for him to simulate himself going crazy, Stingray stops an underwater beast after the beast eats him and chokes to death on him, and finally Weapon Omega confronts the people who are testing him. He has told someone else and the whole operation is busted. I just can’t wait to get to the end and finally finish this comic. It’s been a bit of a mess unfortunately, with stories that really don’t entertain or even tell good stories. 3/6.
-New Avengers #43- This issue focuses on Spidey with Shanna and Ka-Zar in the Savage Land, and killing the Cap there, revealing him to be a Skrull. We look a bit at how this Skrull became the new Cap, and how these Skrulls really think they are who they are impersonating. A decent tie-in, but it didn’t add too much to the whole Secret Invasion thing. Still good enough for a point. 4/7.
-New Warriors #14- The New Warriors are distrustful of Night Thrasher, and even more so when he mysteriously disappears at the onset of the Invasion. He goes to an old hideout where the old New Warriors show up. This leads to the new New Warriors showing up and a tussle ready to be had. The cover ripped off X-Men #100 (well, it was an homage) but inside we were treated to the best New Warriors story in a looong time. 5/8.
-Secret Invasion: Skrulls! #1- This is a Handbook style look at the Skrulls and their history in the Marvel Universe. You know what you’re getting with Handbooks, but this was pricey ($5.00). It had some good info in it, though. 6/9.
-She-Hulk #31- She-Hulk knows she should be rational and not fight X-Factor, but she does anyway. We look to the previous few hours where Jaz tells She-Hulk they need to find the Skrull high priest who provided religious support for Invasions. It seems this Skrull is taking the appearance of Longshot, and Darwin finds out at the end by touching him, even after Monet couldn’t find anything. I am glad Peter David is writing this tie-in, since he’s combining the best of the two titles he writes, while making it very convenient in the whole Invasion tie-in, without making it take over the whole book. 7/10.
-Thunderbolts #122- The Thunderbolts deal with a menace, which takes up half the book, even though it is a big bee, Swordsman has a real weird relationship with his sister, and Capt. Marvel shows up at the end. Not a great tie-in by any means. I was hoping Marvell showing up would start the book, since we saw it already in the SI main story, and I just don’t find myself caring about these characters unfortunately. 7/11.
-Ultimate X-Men #96- The rogue X-Men are getting hooked on Banshee, a super drug that allows mutants to get even more powerful, and it seems that Wolverine was the basis behind the drug. They used his DNA to create it according to Spider-Man. Wolvie is very mad at this and confronts Peter about this, even using his claws and ripping him open, causing his heart to fall out. Is this the last story for the Ultimate X-Men? With Ultimatum coming, there are no solicitations for this after the title. The last story is a very good one so far, making Wolverine a major part of the whole thing, and even tying into Ultimate Origins. 8/12.
-Wolverine: First Class #5- Wolvie and Kitty steal a Blackbird and head to Alpha Flight. We don’t know why but we see a little history of Wolvie with Alpha Flight, one that makes a lot of sense. Wolvie was with the team when a band of criminals kidnapped a powerful Canadian politician. It seems the criminals were tested on with adamantium and are slowly dying. Only Wolvie’s super-healing is saving him. As it turns out, the reason Wolvie and Kitty went there was to try to save one who was in an adamantium prison, but they were too late. Wolvie’s anger at Dept. H was the reason he left in Giant-Size X-Men and the fact that this tied in so seemlessly was just perfectly executed. This was a lot more than I was expecting from a title like this. 9/13.
-X-Men: Legacy #214- The final part of this saga ends here. Sinister has taken over Xavier’s body, but Xavier’s mind won’t give up so easily. Xavier/Sinister battle Sebastian and Gambit but they destroy Sinister’s device and Xavier expels him from his body, ending Sinister forever? Gambit and Xavier return home and need to speak to Summers, as Sebastian reveals a new member of the Hellfire Club, a Miss Sinister. A woman who looks like Mr. Sinister but a female version. Interesting twist at the end. I liked this first Legacy arc, as Sinister was back better than ever and Gambit is back in the pages of an X-Book. 10/14.
DC
-Batman: Gotham After Midnight #3- We finally meet our mystery villain (I think they are calling him Midnight), and his meeting with Clayface. He tells Clayface he can really be super-powerful by eating people and getting much bigger. So Batman obsesses about the mystery case when he is interrupted by the Bat Signal. A monstrous Clayface is on the loose and Batman dons a huge robot costume to stop him. We finally get to see the villains crazed, Death-like face, and it seems to be him urging these villains to do bigger and better things, and throwing Batman off his track. 1/2.
-Justice League of America #23- Zatanna tries to see what’s wrong with Vixen but its actually magic beyond her prowess and Animal Man is connected to it as well. Amazo has escaped and lays an ass-whooping on the JLA, until Green Lantern attacks him and causes Amazo to bail. Amazo comes back and takes them out, and Vixen tries to call on her siphoned powers, but the magical being controlling her tells her she can’t. Amazo looks to kill Vixen at issues end. I like where they are going with Vixen, and combine that with a fun fight, you have an enjoyable issue. 2/3.
-Robin #175- Robin recounts Bruce being in a cave during 52, and how it changed him. He contemplates the fact, with Spoiler, that Batman may indeed be crazy. Robin takes Batman’s case book to his cop friend to corroborate some facts to make sure everything Batman put in there was factual. If not, Robin may have to take down Batman. I have been down on Robin a bit lately, but this is a great RIP tie-in, further pushing the point that Batman may have in fact lost it, mentally. 3/4.
-Superman #678- This was a weird issue, Superman gets smacked down by Atlas, we see a little of Atlas’ past (including panels looking very Kirbyish) including scenes of an Army guy asking Atlas to take down Superman. Atlas warns him he will take over the world. After that little origin, Superman flies back saying it is time for round two. I guess it was a serviceable origin for Atlas, though I really don’t care about him yet as a villain. Maybe it was because we saw him in Trials of Shazam, if it was even the same Atlas. Not essential Superman storytelling or anything. 3/5.
-Trinity #8- Enigma and Morgaine ask Despero to join them, making a Trinity of their own, a very evil Trinity of course. Meanwhile, Bruce is throwing a party at his mansion as Superman battles some robot. Diana has a talk with a friend about her role as Wonder Woman and she doesn’t like what she hears. Back at the mansion, Bruce is attacked by the wolves seen in previous issues and want to mark him like Wonder Woman’s been marked. The second story deals more with the evil Trinity and Tarot being brought to them, as a main player who is more powerful than we know. Some being is released from the egg Despero has. Another good issue of Trinity, as the dual stories really help move the plot along and keep the story entertaining and easy to follow. 4/6.
Wildstorm
-Number of the Beast #8- We saw what was going to happen in Armageddon, that there would be a flash of super-heroes showing up and the Earth would end. Surprisingly, this is exactly what happened, and the influx of super-heroes were the High clones. They were the ones that caused the big explosion in Armageddon, and this issue shows that it was the Highs that caused this explosion. The one thing I had with this was that you had about 20 issues leading up to this, and really I felt the payoff was a little weak. We knew what happened, and although it changes the static quo was changed in the Wildstorm universe, it took way too long to get there. That is a general assessment of the mini-series, and although overall I was not impressed with the whole series, this was an entertaining issue and summed up the mini-series well. 1/1.
Awards
-Book of the Week- Wolverine: First Class was a surprising winner, weaving an incredible story that weaves so well into Marvel continuity that it is surprising no one ever did it before. Just a fantastic book.
-Disappointment of the Week- Well, there was a lot to pick from this week, as both Marvel and DC had their share of misses. Two-Face Year One was just a waste of money and time in my opinion, and was a sure-fire winner. It was nothing new, and no new insights into the character of Harvey Dent.
-Cover of the Week- Uncanny X-Men #500, the Alex Ross cover, easily takes home top spot this week. It was just a great cover of the classic X-Men.
-The Bottom Line- For some reason, both companies faltered a bit. Maybe I am a tougher grader, or becoming disenchanted with some titles, or maybe it was just a bad week. I dunno. I still have a few trades to plow through before the new books drop this Wednesday, so I will keep this brief, I hope next week is better
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Questions? Comments? Shoot me an email.
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