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We’re back with another October TPL. It’s October meaning that school is in full gear, my college course is about half-way over (with me not doing enough work at all), the MLB play-offs are heading towards the World Series (Let’s Go Yankees) and it’s starting to get cold. Up in New York City we went through a cold spell and I am not looking forward to winter at all. Anyway, we’re here to talk comics so let’s talk comics! Both DC and Marvel wound with
Spoiler Alert
Marvel
-Deadpool #900- Wow, 900 issues already? This has about 500 different Deadpool stories (or what seems like 500) featuring a bunch of people who’ve worked on DP before. It’s funny at some point, introspective in others, and the cover gallery at the end is a funny jab at other recent anniversary issues. It’s DP so you can’t take anything seriously. This was all in good fun and was a joy to get through. 1/1.
-GeNext #5- This ties up the GeNext storyline (Kali is defeated) neatly, which it should since it was a 5-issue mini-series. Are we done with the GeNext crew? It’s a good story following the X-Men: The End stuff but I don’t think it’ll have any legs after this. 2/2.
-Incredible Hercules #135- Hercuthor and Thorcules battle it out (which takes up a good portion of the issue) before things are settled down and the threat of Malekith is ended. This was actually a really fun battle between the two foes and in the hands of Pak it was presented in a different way than we are normally accustomed to in a Thor/Hercules battle. 3/3.
-Marvels Project, The #3- The beginnings of the Marvel Universe continue, as Torch works as a cop before becoming a hero to all when battling Namor at Coney Island. The Ferret makes an appearance as the Angel continues investigating the death of Phantom Bullet. I love how Brubaker is tying all the early Golden Age stuff together. There’re so many layers here (including stuff with Erskine and Fury) that makes it really awesome for anyone who’s read Golden Age Marvel. 4/4.
-Nomad #2- Nomad is still out of time, and truly is a Nomad. She is friends in this world with the person who is a brother in her old world so when she turns down his advances he’s dejected, though she’s like ew. He quickly joins the cult that is invading the school and he may be becoming the skinhead he was in the Onslaught Universe. This was a comic that I bought the first issue to try it out and I’m still here. Nomad is surprisingly deep in terms of character and I will be back for #3. 5/5.
-Uncanny X-Men #516- Magneto shows up at Utopia looking for a place to stay. Charles doesn’t like it, but Cyke is cool with it. Meanwhile, some dude (Game-master or something?) sends Scalphunter to Utopia with 5 Predator X monsters and danger is a’comin’. I hate Land on art here (his stuff doesn’t fit with the scenes and it’s like every panel has a ridiculous pose) which is a shame since the story is actually decent. A good story tops bad art, so this gets a point. 6/6.
-Uncanny X-Men First Class #4- This was a boring tale of Storm and Jean getting captured while with Misty and Colleen and Storm has to break into SHIELD at the will of their capturer. This wasn’t all that interesting, and I don’t understand how it would tie into continuity either (Storm being wanted by SHIELD). This just didn’t do it for me. 6/7.
-Web of Spider-Man #1- This is a cool concept for Web of Spider-Man. We have three stories, one adding background information to current storylines (this time it is a Kaine story that honestly was a bit dull), the always awesome Spider-Girl (who escapes her captors but is too badly beaten to deal with Man-Bat) and a fun all-ages type story dealing with Frog-Man. The latter two issues are drawn by a Buscema (Sal and his either daughter or niece). The first story wasn’t great but Spider-Girl’s here and that’s always worth a point. 7/8.
-X-Men: Forever #8- The X-Men deal with the new breed of Sentinels as Fury confronts Trask, the granddaughter of the man he killed in WWII. The Sentinels are slightly different this time around and the X-Men don’t know why. This is still a decent book, and I like what Claremont’s done with it. 8/9.
DC
-Action Comics #882- Supergirl, Thara and Chris encounter Reactron, who is working with the K-Squad at General Lane’s insistence. Well, Reactron turns on the K-Squad after the Kryptonians give themselves up and he’s ready to kill the imprisoned Kryptonians. I was really getting into this story. I really have to buy Supergirl now to see how this thing ends. The Capt. Atom back-up story reveals that Natasha Irons is there to help Capt. Atom, who is stuck in a magic world thanks to General Lane (that guy gets around). This one I’m not too interested in, but it’s tying into the main story which is cool. 1/1.
-Batgirl #3- Batgirl tackles Scarecrow all by her lonesome and battles back against his Thrill drug. She really exerts herself as the new Batgirl and Barbara Gordon, originally against this, realizes that Stephanie can work as the new Batgirl. These three issues set up the Barbara/Stephanie relationship well and it gives the title a good foundation to build off of. 2/2.
-Batman #691- Batman, with the help of Alfred, are able to stop Two-Face and convince him that Dick Grayson is in fact Batman. Two-Face is carted away but is freed by Black Mask and he’s the new crime boss around Gotham. Meanwhile, Dick and Alfred decide to take down the Batcave and while they are removing things, Dick finds a data key with information on the death of Dick’s parents. What was Bruce hiding? I wonder if writer’s of all the Bat books will keep up with the no Batcave thing (since I know for sure that Batgirl uses it). This was like Batgirl in that it set up the new Batman and we know a lot about the character. Plus it set up two potential stories (Black Mask and the murder of Dick’s parents) that are intriguing. 3/3.
-Blackest Night: Batman #3- This is a great story of Dick and Tim seeing their dead parents and the Black Lanterns coerce both into fits of rage at the people who killed their parents. They eventually regain control and get the help of Etrigan to stop the Black Lanterns. The two freeze themselves so the Lanterns can’t find them and they fly off into the night. The writing here was really well done, and you could feel the rage of both men as they relive the deaths of their parents. 4/4.
-Detective Comics Annual #11- This is the follow-up to the Batman Annual last week I thought as a follow-up it did a decent job of introducing Azrael. He helps defeat Amon and all the rest of the gang. It was decent, like I said, but it really didn’t do anything for me that would urge me to buy the Azrael ongoing. I enjoyed the two annuals for what they were. 5/5.
-Final Crisis: Escape #6- Tom Tresser comes in contact with Brother Eye and the OMAC behind it all and in the end he’s joined the Global Peace Agency. This was really well-written. I like how Brandon strung along the readers for this ride before revealing all at the end. This was different and it was my second or third favorite FC tie-in (with Dance). 6/6.
-Green Lantern Corps #41- We have a lot more fighting, a lot more dead people coming back with black rings, Kilowog meets his old trainer, an it looks like an Indigo Lantern shows up at the end. I don’t know how to take this. If you read only GLC it is enough to get all the facts but if you read all the Blackest Night books, it’s like, enough with the same thing already! 6/7.
-Red Robin #5- Red Robin survives the attack and is now deeply entrenched with the League of Assassins. Lucious Fox’ daughter gets caught up with it, too. This is a new story featuring the Spider Assassins and their leader seems really interesting. Red Robin is rockin’ right now. 7/8.
-Secret Six #14- This ends the whole slave island thing with the Secret Six coming together to save the Amazon’s and put an end to the evil slave-lord. This was a fitting conclusion to the arc that’s been set before and we head off to another storyline with Bane taking control of the group and throwing out Scandal from the group. Simone is solid on this book and that’s why I keep buying it. 8/9.
Awards
-Book of the Week- There wasn’t a lot to love this week. Sure, most books were good, but not many stood out from the pack. Incredible Hercules was the book that stood out for me. It was just an awesome battle between Thor and Hercules with a lot of great action sequences and some fun tongue-in-cheek writing from Pak.
-Disappointment of the Week- It’s tough to hate on Blackest Night because it has been so good but I really felt like Green Lantern Corps #41 was just more of the same.
-Cover of the Week- Secret Six #14 by Daniel LuVisi was just a really cool photo-realistic cover featuring Bane. It was just visually striking and really captured the power of the character.
-The Bottom Line- This was a quick week for me. I can do 18 issues in hours if I’m motivated enough. 16/18 is good for any week.
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Questions? Comments? Shoot me an email.
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