|
|
 |
Hey all, I hope you enjoyed your Memorial Day weekend. It is Tuesday so that means back to work for a lot of us, including me. Well, it was nice to have those days off (I actually had a 5-day weekend) and I feel a little more energized. I snuck in a trip to DC for the weekend (where I got all the reading done on the road). Anyways, we have 1 Dynamite title represented below, preceded by 4 DC titles and finally 15 Marvel comics which starts this review off. It’s interesting (to me at least) that I read the Marvel comics last, though they are the ones I review first on here.
Spoiler Alert
Marvel
-Agents of Atlas #5- The Agents draw the attention of the New Avengers so that the NA could intentionally destroy the stronghold of weapons the Agents are sending to Osborn. Spider-Man figures all this out and it seems tensions would be eased, until M-11 recognizes Wolverine as Logan and shoots him with laser beams. This causes a big fight to which the Agents flee. I love the twist of the Agents luring the New Avengers to destroy the weapons in order to get to Osborn. I love this title. 1/1.
-Amazing Spider-Man #594- 24/7 concludes with Spider-Man defeating the new Vulture in the new Yankee Stadium as the general public turns on him. He’s Spider-Man, what can you expect if not conflict? He also meets his roommate (Vin’s sister) who catches Peter naked, and JJJ Sr. proposes to May. Another well-crafted issue and storyline, and I always look forward to this title. 2/2.
-Captain America #50- This is a second stand-alone issue so a new arc can begin in next month’s #600. It is Bucky’s birthday and he remembers all his past birthdays, with most coming in the war and then not remembering any while he was the Winter Soldier. It’s a look at Bucky’s history more than anything, with a touching finale. There’s a Marcos Martin recap of Cap’s comic book history, too. Martin is one of my favorite Marvel artists at this point in time. 3/3.
-Dark Reign: Fantastic Four #3- Reed continues looking through all the alternate universes for answers on peace while Sue, Johnny and Ben are sent through alternate versions of themselves in weird timelines. Valeria and Franklin are stuck in the building and watch as Norman descends upon them, wanting to stop the FF from doing their experiments and their super-hero-ing. This is offbeat enough for me to really dig this title. 4/4.
-Fantastic Four #566- Doom’s master makes his long awaited arrival to Earth, and he’s not pleased with what Doom has done. Meanwhile, Reed finds a dead Watcher from another dimension. Kind of boring, but I actually like this new villain that is much more powerful than Doom and I hope the FF have an interesting way to defeat him. 5/5.
-Hulk #12- Rulk is happy that he’s won after killing everyone, but when he doesn’t get what he wants he kills the Gamemaster, forcing Collector to change things back to the way they were. Yeah, it was kind of Deus Ex Machina, but the action scenes make up for that tired writing technique. 6/6.
-Marvel Mystery Comics #1- This has been the best of the 70th Anniversary titles thus far, thanks to the fact that all the guys who were in the original Marvel Mystery Comics (Namor, Torch, Toro, Ferret and Angel) battle a huge robot named Blockbuster (a green flame cyborg from a previous issue of MMC). This was a lot of fun that really captured the feel of the anthology stories. 7/7.
-Planet Skaar Prologue #1- Skaar is on Earth and for some reason he’s able to draw all the gamma-irradiated beings to him, including She-Hulk and Hulk. There’s something of a battle that is stopped by Norman Osborn and a nuke, and Skaar seems to be gone, but we see that he’s actually become a human! This was subdued for a prologue, but it lays the basic necessities of the story. 8/8.
-Punisher #5- Punisher runs into Microchip, who was resurrected by the Hood. Hood also resurrects other D-List villains for Castle to kill during this series. Hmm, I liked the title and it was interesting for what it was, but I don’t think I will be keeping up with this for financial reasons. A good issue and a good intro story, but not enough for me to stick around. It gets a point for being good, however, as there’s nothing really wrong with it. 9/9.
-Skrull Kill Krew #2- One of the monstrous Skrulls is able to change back to her human form, and more Skrulls are killed. The racist Skrull is revived with a really cool ending about the new president. It’s enjoyable but I feel my lack of knowledge of these characters hurts my enjoyment of this title. 10/10.
-Thunderbolts #132- The Thunderbolts go through a lot of trouble to stage the death of Mister X only to recruit him to the team. This was a lot of fun, though it shows how comics have changed over the last 40 years. This would’ve been about 3 pages of story in a Silver Age book, stretched out to 20 here. It was good, but sometimes waiting for all the stories to conclude and get going can wear a bit. 11/11.
-Timestorm: 2009/2099 #2- Wolverine battles a bunch of Hulks in 2099 and runs into Ghost Rider. Punisher 2099 is still captured in the present, and one of Miguel O’Hare’s co-workers blames him for his son’s Scorpion like deformity. This was good enough for me, and I love seeing all these 2099 characters again. I’m still waiting for the X-Men and Spider-Man! 12/12.
-Uncanny X-Men #510- The X-Men battle the resurrected women and seem to defeat them, until Wolverine tells them that they stole a piece of Jean Grey’s hair to resurrect her. Why would he keep that? I love the story so far, though it goes before with what I said about stories being stretched. I have to say, Land’s art is just bothering me. Everything looks the same and you can’t distinguish between the women’s faces. 13/13.
-Wolverine: Noir #2- Wolvie meets up with Creed to look for his partner but ends up getting his ass handed to him by Creed. A pal that Logan met earlier (Yukio) gets beat up and put next to him, too. Not the best of the Noir series (Spidey and X-Men were far better) but it is an interesting take on Wolverine. I just hope they don’t lose steam with these, considering Luke Cage is coming down the pike soon. 14/14.
-Wolverine: Weapon X #2- Wolverine runs into the green-clawed super-healing Weapon X’ers and after fighting a few of them decides he should run the hell away and fight them individually instead of as a group. I like these green-clawed foes. This could be a great Wolvie book. 15/15.
DC
-Batman: Battle for the Cowl #3- Nightwing goes after Jason Todd and Tim Drake. Nightwing battles Todd one on one and learns that Black Mask is behind it all, but doesn’t know who the Black Mask is (and neither do we, yet). Tim is eventually saved by Damien and Squire. It is suggested at the end that Nightwing dons the cowl. That should make for some interesting stories in Batman when it comes back. Nightwing goes from the brink of death in Final Crisis to the new Batman. 1/1.
-Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance #1- This story focuses on the Japanese heroes that Grant Morrison created specifically for Final Crisis that didn’t really do anything. So they are given a secret base 52 miles above the Earth (c’mon, 52 miles?) where they can continue to be televised and made stars of. They really want to be super-heroes though, and not just publicity whores. I tell you what, these characters are a lot more interesting now than they were in Final Crisis. 2/2.
-Superman/Batman #60- Superman and Batman show up in a city they don’t know. It is called Gothamopolis and the heroes of that city show up to take out Superman and Batman. The characters are all combinations of popular heroes here. For instance, we have Night Lantern (Nightwing and Green Lantern) as well as a host of others. They battle Doomstroke (Doomsday and Deathstroke) but don’t realize the true villain mastermind is Lex Joker. The last one doesn’t have a clever name but the Amalgamized DC Universe is a really cool concept. 3/3.
-Trinity #51- So far this is the best string of 51 straight comics I have read since the days of the Uncanny X-Men as written by Claremont. So, all the heroes band together to help save the world while the Worldsoul is putting it together. Despero spears Enigma, and Morgaine turns on Despero. She wants to World Soul’s power However, they are no match for the returning Trinity, who give up their power and return to the normal guys we know and love. Well, that’s it for the series, all tied up nicely. Well, except for the Crime Syndicate showing up ready for a fight! This was just awesome. 4/4.
Dynamite
-Black Terror #4- The conclusion to Black Terror sees BT and his fellow pals take down the president and the Patriots who sided with him. The Inheritor’s show up and Black Terror is relieved to see the Kid Terror alive, as well as a whole bunch of the other sidekicks. It was a decent conclusion, and I am stoked to see how this plays out in Project Superpowers 2. 1/1.
Awards
-Book of the Week- There were some great comics I read but the most fun I had was on Superman/Batman #60 with the Mash-Ups. It reminded me of the great Amalgam stories from 1996.
-Disappointment of the Week- I couldn’t find major faults with any of the titles, even low-performers from Uncanny X-Men and Fantastic Four turned in good performances this week.
-Cover of the Week- Superman/Batman #60 was an easy pick this week. The classic Superman/Batman poses with the Mash-Up city underneath was just gorgeous. Full props to Francis Manapal for the cover art (and the interior art, too).
-The Bottom Line- Well, I am literally finishing this at 11:20pm. It was a long (but great weekend). I took a bus over to Washington DC for Saturday through Monday and got a ton of reading done on the bus (these comics as well as two collected TPB’s) and I had to finish this by tonight in order to have it posted by tonight. I can safely say I did it. Next week should be interesting, since it looks like a big week based on the solicits with one less day to read the titles (thanks to the delay in shipping on the Memorial Day Weekend). I hope you enjoyed your Memorial Day weekend all!
|
|
|
|
|
Questions? Comments? Shoot me an email.
|
|
|
|