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I am actually starting the basic outline of this before I even finished the 11/04 edition of TPL. Yeah, it was like 5 days late, but I literally had the week from hell. I now know what they mean when they say, “when it rains, it pours.” Boy were they right whoever said that!
Spoilers Ahead
The Main Event:
-Ultimatum #1- This is what we’ve been building up to in the Ultimate U, and as it stands for the first issue, it delivered. Things are going on as normal in the world (New York City) until there is terrible Day After Tomorrow like weather. The Fantastic Four blame Namor, but he’s not at fault. The whole world is going mad and soon Xavier finds out what’s really happening. He sends a mental command to all the heroes that are important and tell them Magneto is behind it. Mags is pissed and the world has to pay. There will be massive casualties here and it’ll be interesting to see how it affects the smaller Ultimate U. This was an opener to show the scope of how far Magneto’s anger goes. 1/1.
-Final Crisis: Resist #1- The Crisis is in full swing, with evil (Darkseid) having won and taking over the world. There are still bands of resistance, including Mr. Terrific, a teleporter who sleeps with Cheetah on a mission, and when all seems lost, one final gambit is made. Mr. Terrific sees Sasha sacrifice herself to activate the OMACs around the world, in a last ditch effort to Resist. It definitely ties this now to Infinite Crisis, and seeing the despair of this small patch of heroes and their one last hope at triumph gives this a whole Empire Strikes Back feel, where the Rebels are at their nadir but brighter days are ahead. 1/1.
Marvel
-Adam: Legend of the Blue Marvel #1- This was something I thought was going to be a crappy Sentry rip-off (old hero unearthed) but it features a very interesting concept. You have a super-hero (think Superman abilities) who saves the world over and over, but when its revealed he’s black, the country (in the turbulent early 60’s) immediately turns on him. Even John F. Kennedy Jr. gets in on the action, asking Adam to step down for now. He did, and he hasn’t been seen since. Fantastic book that is all the more appropriate now that America has elected its first African-American president. 2/2.
-Amazing Spider-Man #575- The conclusion to the whole Hammerhead saga sees Hammerhead get beaten by Spider-Man, showing that Hammerhead is still a joke. This was what it was, nothing too groundbreaking in the whole Spider-Man mythos but it was enjoyable and that’s enough for me. 3/3.
-Avengers The Initiative Special #1- This is a cute story of Komodo and Hardball and their burgeoning relationship, and how Hardball is keeping one big secret, that he’s a Hydra agent. He tells Komodo and she gets help, but he turns on her anyway and stays with Hydra. This is a great original tale that I haven’t seen in comics before, an Avengers member working for Hydra. Wait a second, phone call. Nevermind that last comment **COUGHCOUGHSPIDER-WOMANCOUGHCOUGH**. The back-up with Trauma was awesome, showing that Nightmare is actually his father. 4/4.
-Cable #8- Bishop reveals he is trying to destroy the timeline to get to Cable who is being chased by freaking cockroach soldiers. WHAT THE &@^$? Take a big pass on this, I mean, cockroach soldiers? 4/5.
-Daredevil/Captain America #1- This was a European tale (though they don’t tell you WHAT European country, though it seems like Italy based on the bios of the two guys who did this) and is an interesting team-up of Captain America and Daredevil teaming up to take on Death-Stalker. You don’t see team-ups like this anymore, and this was a big call-back to the Silver Age tale where the heroes meet, fight each other, then team-up to take on the bad guy. This is well worth a look to see Daredevil and Captain America at their best. 5/6.
-House of M: Civil War #3- Magneto frees Genosha then takes matters into his own hands, having Sabretooth kill an American anti-mutant supporter. This leads to a US strike force being sent to Genosha, led by Bucky, who is Captain America here, and who looks like the freaking Comedian from Watchmen. Anyway, Magneto goes off to fight this resistance and Xavier ends up getting gutted by Buck. Well, now we know how Xavier died in House of M, and why Magneto went ape-shit and took over the world. This shows that House of M has some legs when it comes to stories and seeing how Xavier died makes this a winner. 6/7.
-Iron Man: The End #1- I had no idea this was coming out as I must’ve missed it in the solicitations way back when. This is another Michelinie/Layton team-up and is just as good as everything else they’ve done. We see an older Tony Stark, who appears to be suffering from some sort of Parkinson’s. He has a big project to make an elevator to space but its rocked by an unnatural earthquake caused by Roxxon. He goes to investigate and is just embarrassed by the Crimson Dynamo. Tony faces a grim realization, he can’t do it anymore. He gets a protégé to take over not only Stark Industries but also the Iron Man mantle. This is just a really satisfying way to end Tony Stark’s run as Iron Man if it ever came to that. It was sweet and sentimental, and didn’t take away from the character at all. This is one of my favorite The End stories, right up there with Hulk and Punisher. 7/8.
-Marvel Zombies 3 #2- Machine Man and Jacosta head to the Zombie world and Kingpin has taken over, and is actually harvesting clones for the Zombies to eat. The only human left is Kingpin’s wife. Machine Man and Jacosta get the blood sample but Machine is feeling heroic and doesn’t want to leave yet, since he wants to save the clones (that he sees as his fellow discarded android). This is a different take on the Zombies universe and once you think they’ve run out of legs you have something like this. I like where this is heading. 8/9.
-Weapon X: First Class #1- This is Logan and Xavier looking through Logan’s memories and Logan remembering the whole Weapon X thing for the first time. Sabretooth is involved, too. The back-up is an interesting one of Sabretooth meeting with a bald guy with glasses you think is Cornelius but is actually Xavier. The back-up was cool, but will the main story have anything different or unique from the awesome Windsor-Smith classic. This gets a point for the back-up. 9/10.
-Wolverine & Power Pack #1- Wolverine battles Sauron, who has hypnotized the Pack. Logan frees them by roughing them up a bit and Sauron is no match for the 5 of them. These are always fun, this is no exception, and for a continuity free all-ages read, look no further than this. 10/11.
-X-Men and Spider-Man #1- This takes place immediately after X-Men #66, which is where the original X-Men title ended for those who didn’t know. I thought this was covered in the Hidden Years by John Byrne but maybe that’s out of continuity now? Anyway, late 60’s X-Men and Spider-Man battle Kraven and Blob. There was nothing wrong with this one, and the whole twist at the end means this has an underlying plot. 11/12.
-X-Men: Manifest Destiny #3- Bobby comes face to face with Mystique, daring her to kill him, we see the (uninspiring) origin of Graymalkin, who was buried by his father and is over 200 years old, and Colossus is still bummed that Kitty is gone. Take a pass, nothing to see here that makes it worth the $4.00. 11/13.
-X-Men Pixies & Demons #1- This is the Director’s Cut version, meaning we get the original FCBD story, the original outline (which was cool to read) and the script. It basically brings Pixie back into the X-Men fold if you haven’t read it. I can go either way on Land’s art, sometimes it bothers me and other times it doesn’t. It doesn’t today, so this gets a point. 12/14.
DC
-Adventure Comics Special #1- This deals more with Guardian (from the Jimmy Olsen special) than the Kryptonians arriving, but Guardian tells of his origin (he is a clone, he destroyed a plant with other clones of him save his new “daughter”) and then goes to Metropolis to be a hero. This wasn’t a necessary component for the New Krypton storyline unless Guardian plays a MAJOR role, but it definitely seems to stifle the story that was just in part 2 with Doomsday arriving. It was a good origin story, but shouldn’t be part of the NK storyline. It gets a point, but caveat emptor. 2/2.
-Justice Society of America #20- The JSI of Earth-2 come to Earth, they fight for a bit, the denizens of E2 bring Power Girl back where the JLA show up to save her as Starman of all people clear things up with his “Roadmap to the Universe,” uniform. Power Girl is returned home and Green Lantern wonders aloud to Mr. Terrific if Gog could bring back his daughter and her wife. This continues being the best thing that Johns is writing on the shelves in my opinion, as he’s combining the multiverse and the whole Kingdom Come angle into one epic storyline. 3/3.
-Secret Six #3- The Secret Six escape with Tarantula, evade the crippled guys offense and finding out what the card is that everyone wants, a (get this), get out of hell free card. Well, it’s certainly not something you’d find in a Monopoly game. This is really outlandish, but that’s part of the fun that is Secret Six, something that kept this around long after the original IC tie-in way back when. 4/4.
-Trinity #23- Black Adam makes an appearance, Firestorm has his mind examined and they find what he thinks is true and Morgaine has completely ripped apart Paris by the end of the first part. The second tale deals with Green Lantern dealing with his techno-virus, Kanjar Ro escaping but only to run into the army of Despero and Kronas is watching it all. Another solid issue. 5/5.
Dynamite
-Project Superpowers 2: Sketchbook- This is just a sketchbook for the Superpowers stuff, with cover roughs for the solo titles. This was free and free always gets a recommendation. 1/1.
Wildstorm
-Storming Paradise #4- The War continues! The Japanese are still planning their comeback, getting aid from a German scientist. Patton makes an appearance here, trying to drive back the Japanese troops. It’s fit that this came out before Veterans Day, and I like the WW2 action and the “what-if,” aspect. 1/1.
The Awards
-Book of the Week- This was a tough week to choose a winner. Almost every book got points but none of the titles really jumped out at me. The most interesting one, and most surprising, was Adam, Legend of the Blue Marvel. I just love the socio-political themes this book has. That it’s called Adam (the first man in biblical terms) may have something to do with him being the first hero.
-Disappointment of the Week- Cable #8 was just too silly for words. It is trying to be a serious book, then has human cockroaches attack? C’Mon. I felt insulted reading this.
-Cover of the Week- Justice Society of America #20 was an easy winner, with the awesome Alex Ross pencils just killing on the Earth vs. Earth-2 JSA’s. He’s working on another streak here, hitting on 3 out of the last 4 awards, picking up 14 total wins.
-The Bottom Line- Just a solid week of comic reading. I have nothing else to say since a) this is late again (though only by one day) and b) I am tired. See ya next week, where we will see if I can get one of these damn things out on time!
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Questions? Comments? Shoot me an email.
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