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Welcome back to another week of comic book craziness. This week looks to be really awesome. First off, Wednesday Comics was just really cool last week and I was so pumped to read it. In fact, I don’t think I did it justice last week so I have a little something else in store for that title. Besides Wednesday Comics, DC bursts out with Blackest Night this week. I was always a Marvel fan but right now I am totally on the DC bandwagon and this week I’m expecting great things from the Distinguished Competition.
Spoiler Alert
Marvel
-Agents of Atlas #8- The Agents are busy shutting down rogue Atlas cells including one that is taking drifters and performing experiments on them. Of course they show up to stop the cell after they’ve captured the Hulk. Well, you know there was going to be a big fight. Eventually all is fixed when Hulk calms down a bit. Woo is off on his own (with M-11) looking for a splinter group of Atlas led by the jade Claw. This is awesome stuff. 1/1.
-All Select Comics #1 – Marvel 70th- The main feature focuses on the Blonde Phantom who solves a pretty tricky crime. It’s a good noir-ish story. The real star for me was the Marvex story, just because of how ridiculous it was. Then I look at the reprints of Marvex and how the writer just spoofed the original stories so well. 2/2.
-Amazing Spider-Man #599- The big conclusion sees Harry fighting his father, Spidey getting involved and Harry actually besting his father. He is ready to kill him but Spider-Man talks him out of it. Everything is tied up nicely with the reporter being told in no uncertain terms not to print her story, JJJ Sr. and May’s wedding is ready to be held. We still have the issue of Menace’s baby and what will happen to Harry which should be interesting to read. I wasn’t crazy about this arc, but after all the great stuff that’s been in Amazing, not everything can be a winner. Still, in the Dark Reign storyline this is the first time Norman’s really been defeated. 3/3.
-Captain America #601- This is a special issue of Captain America. Brubaker writes a decent story of Cap and Bucky fighting vampires in World War II and the story wasn’t anything too Earth-shattering. The real draw of this issue was art by the great Gene Colan. Colan was almost lost to comic book fans when his health deteriorated in May of 2008, but he pulled through. His art is as dark and grim as it ever was and his trademark style is fully evident. This is one where I would recommend solely on the legend that is drawing it. 4/4.
-Dark Avengers #7- The Dark X-Men vanquish the rebel mutants at Union Square before bringing them back to Norman’s base of operations. Emma is a little worried about the treatment of the mutants and has a good right to be; Dark Beast is experimenting on them and already did work on the real Beast. Emma learns of this through Xavier but holds off on any action for now. Meanwhile, the Dark Avengers and the Dark X-Men argue before fighting. Well, it’s bound to happen when you have all those crazy people in the ring like that. This was a lot of fun and I really look forward to how this develops. I almost forgot, Cyclops goes to meet Norman and tells him to surrender. Norman pretty much swears that Summers will be dead before too long. 5/5.
-Dark Reign: Mr. Negative #2- Spider-Man is still all Negative’d up and dispatches the Hood’s goons. Negative sends Hammerhead to meet with Norman and tells him to call off Hood’s troops. Brant, meanwhile, has been interviewing Negative’s wife and digging a bit too deep and so Negative sends Spidey to kill her. Finally Hood shows up for some old-fashioned gang leader fighting. This is a really cool mini so far that no only ties into Dark Reign but is important for the Spider-Man titles, too. 6/6.
-Deadpool #12- This is nothing but a fun look at the relationship between Deadpool and Bullseye and Bullseye basically paying Deadpool to stay quiet while Norman is in power because Deadpool got the better of Bullseye in battle. It’s two complete and utter nutjobs and the way its been written was amazing. If you’re not buying Deadpool you should definitely check it out. 7/7.
-Incognito #5- Oooh, the plot thickens. Overkill is saved by Ava Destruction and throughout this issue we slowly have everything revealed to us. Ava had a relationship with Overkill’s brother before he was killed and reveals to Overkill that she is dying. She does have information on how the super-powered beings came into existence (meteorite or alien, one of the two) and that Overkill is not alone. They head to a secret lab but the evil doctor knocks them down as Dick Deadly sends out an Overkill clone to kill lots of people so they can pit it on Overkill. This has been the best issue of the series by far. 8/8.
-Mighty Avengers #27- We start with the origin of the previous king of the Inhumans who has been wiped out of history and whose name can never be muttered again after Black Bolt defeated him. This is important because some of the Avengers spot him and witness him “Alpha Flight” the Chinese People’s Force. Yikes, he’s powerful. Meanwhile the rest of the Avengers chill in their new Infinite Avengers Mansion with doorways to just about everywhere. I always like huge villains who can’t be beat and when you tie in the fact that he’s Inhuman just adds to the cool factor. I didn’t like this at all when it came out but I am glad I stuck around for it. 9/9.
-New Mutants #3- Cannonball and Sunspot save Dani from Legion and then leave her in the prison since she’s powerless. They try to stop Legion but when they find out that Dani is still in trouble they hustle back to the prison. Luckily Magma and Magik are there to save her. Dani’s not too happy with Cannonball to say the least. She armors up and wants to take the fight to Legion. Meanwhile, Magik heads into the head of Legion and Sam tells her not to do anything or kill anyone in there. So she does anyway. The New Mutants are all grown up and have much different attitudes than when they were younger. It’s a bit darker and I like it. 10/10.
-Timestorm 2009/20999 #3- I’ve kind of lost my interest in this mini-series. It seems to throw all these 2099 characters in here and completely change their origin to fit the story. What is the actual point of this story, too? We see that the times are starting to cross into each other and that Punisher is involved somehow. I’m just not digging it right now. 10/11.
-X-Factor #46- Cortex is commanded by his leader to take out Madrox who happens to be in the current time. Madrox is with Layla and Doom and learn of a Doomlock or a robot that when used or attached to you will affect your future and your timeline when sent to the past. Speaking of the past, Siryn shows up to stop Monet from killing Lenore and stopping Cortex from controlling her, too. Things get all sorts of weird when future Sentinels show up from Layla and Madrox’ time. Another awesome issue. 11/12.
DC
-Action Comics #879-Lane’s troops try to capture the four Kryptonians they find but all four manage to escape. Lois, meanwhile, finds that her father is not buried in his grave so he must be still alive. Meanwhile (part two), one of General Lane’s meta troops goes out and captures the two evil Kryptonians. I really like Flamebird and Nightwing. There’s a Capt. Atom back-up that tacked a dollar onto this title and it seems to be he’s in the past fighting when he flashes ahead to him standing in front of the JSA. Interesting. 1/1.
-Blackest Night #1- Oh man. William Hand steals from Bruce’s grave on the eve of super-hero remembrance day. The Lanterns celebrate in Coast City which was decimated when Superman was reborn. Everyone remembers the heroes that have been lost. The newly-resurrected Flash can’t believe all those that have been lost since he’s been away. All those lost is exactly the fuel that the Black Lanterns need. The black rings are sent out throughout the universe, the scarred Oan attacks all the other ones and the dead are being reborn. The big surprise at the end sees Hawkman and Hawkgirl meeting their end at the Hands of Hand and the two newest Black Lanterns. I won’t spoil it here but this was everything it was cracked up to be and more. This was awesome. 2/2.
-Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps #1- This three-issue mini-series really just examines some of the characters representing the different types of rings. We see Saint Charles of the blue rings (hope) and his biblical journey, Mongul’s son and we all remember off the yellow ringers (fear) and finally the Indigo Tribe which we don’t really know much about. They represent compassion. Blackest Night is currently my favorite event comic right now. 3/3.
-Final Crisis Aftermath: Escape #3- Tresser is still all kinds of confused but things are getting a bit clearer. There’s a wheel that people with hidden facial features have been spinning to see what their outcome will be (like escape, peace, violence, etc). Tresser opts to be chained to the wheel to save Chase. This is really interesting and I am getting a big Prisoner vibe from this comic. 4/4.
-Superman/Batman #62- This is a nice one-off tale about the sidekicks, Tim Drake and Supergirl. We see their first team-up taking place at Arkham Asylum and despite being a hairy situation they were able to get through it. This takes place almost in its own universe since Batman is dead, Superman is gone, and Robin is now Red Robin. I like how it is just there for good stories and not for real continuity heavy stuff. 5/5.
-Wednesday Comics #2- You’ll just have to read the full-length review tomorrow! 6/6.
Awards
-Book of the Week- Like you have to ask? Blackest Night #1 kicked all kinds of butt and was the easy choice this week. It had everything an opening issue should have, it had a brief recap for people who may not be that familiar with the characters, it had the big holy crap moments, and it had great art and writing. With Johns picking up the nod as writer of this issue he now takes the lead in BotW awards back from Abnett and Lanning with his ninth win.
-Disappointment of the Week- Timestorm really just fell out of favor with me. I just don’t really care for it anymore. It started off cool but really fell off the map with the one-shots.
-Cover of the Week- Blackest Night #1 had just a kick-ass cover, with the skull unleashing all the black rings into the universe. Ivan Reis just hit it out of the park here.
-The Bottom Line- DC really carried the week for me and it’s the first time I think I’ve ever written that. Wednesday Comics is still fresh, the World Without Superman stuff continues to be good and the Blackest Night comics knocked my socks off. They had an incredible week and I eagerly await the rest of the Blackest Night.
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Questions? Comments? Shoot me an email.
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