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Well, it is Thursday night as I start this, which means its two days late already, and I know I won’t finish it tonight, so it probably won’t be finished and posted until Friday. There’s no real reason for the delay, I just had a busy week. If this seems rushed in the comic synopses and points, then it probably is. Anyway, here’s the rundown: 15 Marvels and 8 DC’s add up for 22 total books.
Spoiler Alert
Marvel
-Amazing Spider-Man #573- This is the finale to New Ways to Die, which I thought was a bit underwhelming considered how good it was. Venom fights off the Anti-Venom, Spider-Man battles Norman Osborn and uncovers a plot of Normie’s to test using some illegals, Spider-Man is blamed on the Osborn factory being destroyed, Harry’s girlfriend starts hitting on Peter, and Eddie Brock still lives. There’s a back-up featuring Stephen Colbert that bumped the price up a buck, I’m sure. It didn’t really change anything for Spidey, but as a first real big story, it served its purpose. The art of Romita Jr. was the best part of this issue. 1/1.
-Astonishing X-Men #27- The X-Men start bickering like a real family, something that I’ve missed since the Claremont days. Beast asks Agent Brand to check the device and she tells them it’s a Ghost Box, a device that opens to other dimensions. They find an undiscovered piece of China where the Chinese version of the X-Men lived and died after M-Day. The mystery deepens! Very strong issue. 2/2.
-Captain Britain and MI13 #6- Spitfire’s alive, and the guys investigate a strange apartment where a magic demon is giving people everything they want and then stealing their soul, and even Capt. Britain is tempted. Nothing wrong with this one. 3/3.
-Guardians of the Galaxy #6- Drax killed everyone to find the Skrulls then learns that it was Cosmo who was transporting these peaceful Skrulls. The Guardians battle the Knowhere security, and the team finds out at the end of Adam’s tampering with their minds in making them join the Guardians, and they aren’t happy. A solid issue, though not really relevant to SI. 4/4.
-Hulk: Monster-Size Special #1- This is like the Hulk Halloween special, and they should’ve called it as such to increase sales. There’s a Hulk/Frankenstein battle which was quite good, then other smaller tales featuring a werewolf, Goom, and a prose tale by Peter David with Dracula. This was a serviceable Halloween issue, and something a bit different than what we are seeing in the Hulk right now. 5/5.
-Iron Man: Agent of SHIELD #34- War Machine keeps fighting Skrulls, tries to help the Russians, but is captured. Eh, does War Machine factor into SI at all other than this? This was meaningless. 5/6.
-Mighty Avengers #19- Another meaningless SI tie-in, as Captain Marvel is killed, only to have Mar-Vell see him die. I don’t know if Cap is actually dead but he didn’t look good at all. 5/7.
-NYX: No Way Home #3- NYX keeps me interested, as the group looks for their lost teacher, Cameron, as the group uses their powers to get out of trouble, save their wounded friend, and Bobby needs to use his powers to save his brother, and leaves himself amnesiac. Very intriguing. 6/8.
-Runaways #3- The Runaways seem to be growing apart (thanks to Nico’s spell) as the Majesdanian’s regroup to attack the kids and take back Karolina. I love Moore’s take on this, as well as the electric pencils of Ramos. 7/9.
-Secret Invasion: Front Line #4- Urich and company are robbed, get into the Stark Building when it opens, leaves with a young girl and shows up at the scene of a battle. Completely irrelevant for the SI story at this point, and it seems SI has outlived its use. 7/10.
-Skrulls vs. Power Pack #4- The Power Pack defeat the Skrulls and solve the Puzzle Planet and learn they could be Eternity’s Children. A fun issue, and the best issue featuring Skrulls this week. 8/11.
-Ultimate Origins #5- The shocking truth has come to pass, humans created mutants, and the Watchers warn that this is what is going to destroy the world, so they send a herald in the form of Rick Jones, who looks to be Ultimate Nova. Very good mini-series that gives us a very good reason for Ultimatum and Magneto being really pissed at humanity. 9/12.
-Uncanny X-Men #503- Pixie shows up to beat up on Empath (the bad one who is more powerful) as Scott has some hot sex with Emma while they are in the Hellfire Cult building. Of course, he finds out it isn’t here and suddenly comes to the conclusion that Madeline Pryor is alive. I didn’t like the Scott/Emma thing, as it was way too forced, and the issue was a whole lot of nothing. 9/13.
-X-Men: World’s Apart #1- This is a story of Storm being torn apart from both things she loves, the X-Men and Wakanda. She’s outcast by the Wakandan’s and Black Panther thanks to an old foe returning, The Shadow King. I like Shadow King returning, so I am liking this so far. 10/14.
-Young X-Men #7- One of the members is not a mutant, the reveal to it was really cool and Dust tells Pierce she’s dying. The mutant turns out not to be Ink, but his tattooist. I think that is a great twist. 11/15.
DC
-Batgirl #4- Batgirl, Ravager and Marque have a run-in with Deathstrike, though they come out of it relatively unharmed. Batgirl gets a message from Oracle that sends her to Platinum Flats. This was nothing groundbreaker or even noteworthy. Take a pass like I should’ve. 0/1.
-Batman and the Outsiders #12- Batman’s gone, one of the members (Re-Mac) is dead and the others blame Batgirl for allowing Remac to try and trace Batman, a move that caused him to explode and die. Remac was one of the few things good about this series and now that the star is missing the title is really floundering. Now it seems we’re may be headed to a Batgirl and the Outsiders. Count me out. 0/2.
-DC Universe: Decisions #3- It seems that Bruce backed a supporter just to get closer to them. The mystery unravels as to who is controlling the bodies that lead to the attempts on the candidates, it is Jericho. The reveal was really cool, especially with Jericho taking over the body of Green Lantern at the end. A good and timely series. 1/3.
-Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds #2- Prime unleashes a can of whoop ass on some Legionnaires, and even kills the last ever Lantern. The crisis is impending for the Legion so Brainiac brings together two alternate version teams for help. He also sends for help from the real last member of the GL Corps, Sodam Yat, who previously battled Prime in the 21st century. Perez is just killing on this title with all the stuff he’s drawing. This is one of my favorite FC tie-ins. 2/4.
-Final Crisis: Rogue’s Revenge #3- The Rogue’s get their revenge, helping take down another speedster (Kid Zoom aka Inertia) then bail. The real Flash still wants revenge, though. I have to say, I really enjoyed how this turned out, with the fleshed out rogues of the Flash, banding together to try and atone for what they did. They actually appear somewhat honorable. 3/5.
-Justice Society of America #19- This continues with the Magog/Gog storyline, with even Black Adam getting involved. There’s an interesting little JLA Civil War thing going on, with those siding with Magog facing off against those who think he’s not what he seems to be. In the end, Starman seemingly explodes with the heroes from Earth-2 popping up. Nice touch having Jerry Ordway draw the opening sequence on Earth-2. This is one of my favorite DC stories going on right now. Very good issue setting the JLA being pitted against themselves as a new threat emerges from Earth-2. 4/6.
-Superman’s Pal: Jimmy Olsen Special #1- This is quite a long story of Jimmy Olsen investigating an old murder of a woman whose husband became a super-powered assassin. Olsen is still powered here, and although there was nothing wrong with the story, I just didn’t connect to it at all. 4/7.
-Trinity #20- Firestorm does some research on the new Trinity-less Earth, where the JSA didn’t go into hiding in the 50’s but came out of hiding and basically ran the super-powered country. Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman never appeared on this Earth. The second tale features Krona trying to look for soldiers and killing a world in the process. I love the pacing of this, and the new Trinity-less world has a lot to offer, especially through the eyes of Firestorm (who apparently saw Superman first show up on the world). 5/8.
Awards
-Book of the Week- This was a tough pick for me, as I was kind of underwhelmed by it all. JSA #19 was the clear pick, as the infighting is just great and I like where this is heading, with the impending threat of Magog and people not knowing where their allegiances lie.
-Disappointment of the Week- This had a lot more contenders. The most meaningless SI tie-in this week was the Mighty Avengers title, and since it was devoid of any Avengers, this gets the “win.”
-Cover of the Week- JSA #19 by Alex Ross was the coolest for me, with all the JSA members starting to square off against each other.
-The Bottom Line- I think my taking so long to do this that it took away some of my enjoyment from the titles, hence the lower grades. Oh well, at least this is done and posted for the your enjoyment.
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Questions? Comments? Shoot me an email.
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