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It’s the official first full week of school and I am trying to find my way with this schedule. I enjoyed the summer off but now I need to figure out when I will have time to do all my reviewing. I will try to work on DVD/wrestling reviews for about an hour a day (which will give me time to do all the WWE Classics.com content and finish at worst one DVD every other week) and work on the comics during the weekend. I think that should work out well. I don’t know if that’ll still be the plan when my shows start up again. Anyway, enough of my ramblings, let’s just go to the tally and the reviews. There are 5 DC comics (6 with Wednesday Comics) and 15 Marvels for a nice even number of 20 for this review.
Spoiler Alert
Marvel
-Amazing Spider-Man #604- We see how Spidey escaped from the Chameleon and he’s able to save New York City before seeing the devastation left by the Chameleon (including being on speaking terms with Norman, Mary-Jane, and a relationship with Vin’s sister). We also learn that the Chameleon was working for Kraven’s wife. The character synopsis of Peter Parker was well done during this arc. The addition of Kraven’s wife back into the Spidey-verse will definitely lead somewhere. Since this title went tri-monthly it has gotten a lot tighter in terms of storyline. We have all these plot threads that are introduced and they always get paid off since we have three issues a month. 1/1.
-Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Exodus #1- This is the epic conclusion and it is everything it should be. Deodato and Dodson do a great fight issue where the X-Men basically take apart the Dark X-Men and Avengers and claim Asteroid M as their sanctuary. Norman goes to the press and calls this a victory since the mutant menace is gone. This was an AWESOME fight issue and I loved it and not only were the fights well-illustrated but it actually concluded the story in a way that made sense. 2/2.
-Dark Reign The List: Avengers #1- Norman has a list and you can make your Mikado jokes here. Anyway, Ronin helps out Norman by going to attack him. That proves to be his undoing since he’s easily captured by Norman. The other people on the list are Daredevil, The X-Men, Nick Fury, the Punisher, the Hulk, Wolverine and of course Spider-Man. This was a good kick-off to the List. 3/3.
-Dark Reign Young Avengers #4- The real Young Avengers make their cuts (they keep Enchantress and Coat of Arms) and the new YA don’t like these choices. Their leader, Melter, contacts Norman Osborn and brings the YA into a trap where the Dark Avengers are waiting. I think this tie-in has introduced us to interesting characters that I don’t think will have any real lasting impact in Marvel, unfortunately. These are decent characters and I like how the Young Avengers are talking down to them even though they aren’t much older. 4/4.
-Incredible Hercules #134- I really like how we go back and forth between the Hercules and the Cho story. Hercules (impersonating Thor) meets with Queen Alflyse and sleeps with her and unwittingly gets her to lead a whole army against Earth and Asgard. So Thor is ready to impersonate Hercules and stop all this. This whole thing is tongue in cheek and this tells a humorous story in the way that Deadpool does while also keeping the story grounded and enjoyable. 5/5.
-Kick-Ass #7- Kick-Ass is captured and he sees Big Daddy and Hit-Girl get decimated. Big Daddy isn’t really a cop but a comic collector who is using his comics to fund his project. He’s killed and Kick-Ass has a desperate plan to escape. Hit-Girl, who everyone thought was dead when she was shot out a window, is alive and she and Kick-Ass are there to take on the rest of the gangsters. This is just wild, chaotic, action and story-telling at its best. 6/6.
-Marvels Project, The #2- I think of this as a table-setting issue. Our heroes have appeared for the first time and here they are finding themselves. Torch wants to become a cop and help people, the Angel sees how some of his masked comrades are killed and more importantly Fury and Red help Erskine escape the Germans. This is doing a great job tying together all the early heroes of Marvel into one narrative. 7/7.
-Marvel Zombies Return #2- This is another zombie-infesting story set in a certain time of the Marvel Universe. Here it is a drunken Tony Stark. Giant Man shows up to feast and Iron Man falls victim. Only Rhodes in the Iron Man armor proves any resistance. This reminds me of what was so enjoyable about the original series; just zombies eating people with plenty of blood. You don’t need tons of continuity to understand and enjoy this. 8/8.
-Hulk Team-Up #1- Angel and Iceman team-up with the Hulk to stop some weird robots that may be from the Gamma Corps. It was never that well explained why they teamed up. I don’t know, I felt this was pointless. There’s a somewhat amusing Hulk/Dazzler team-up at the end. The story wasn’t terrible but you have to ask yourself, was it worth the $4 and in this case the answer was no. 8/9.
-Nomad #1- I thought I’d pick this up to see what it was about. This follows the Onslaught Universe Bucky as she looks for a role in our Marvel Universe. She uncovers a plot by her classmates and when she investigates she finds a wolf-man. I think that’s when you know you’re in trouble. She returns home wounded and mysteriously finds the Nomad costume on her bed. This was intriguing and I will be sticking around for the next three issues so, job well done. 9/10.
-Thor: Tales of Asgard #5- The Lee/Kirby awesomeness continue as we follow Thor and his allies into battle with a warrior wielding the eye of Warlock and a Dragon. This is Kirby and Lee at their best and the short stories really allow them to be creative in the way they tell a story. It’s great to have these all in one collection for easy reading instead of spread across 5 Masterworks Collections. 10/11.
-Thunderbolts #135- Widow and Songbird try to make their escape but Norman had been playing them the whole time and they end up captured along with Nick Fury. This paints Norman as the crazed yet brilliant mastermind and a lot of times people forget how brilliant he is. I like to see how this plays out. 11/12.
-Ultimate Avengers #2- We see more about Red Skull being Cap’s illegitimate child and how the Skull abilities were things he was born with. He escaped from SHIELD when he was 17 because he could and killed many due to the spite he had for life in general. Fury is aware that this guy is on the loose and gets his own team of Avengers together to stop him. This was actually an incredibly well set-up plot so far and I think this take on Red Skull is really unique. 12/13.
-War of Kings: Who Will Rule #1- This is a nice way to tie up any loose ends from the War of Kings. The Shi’ar empire is in shambles and Crystal knows she’s next in line to rule but after a little bit of political strife during Black Bolt’s funeral The Guardian decides to take the crown, which many thought he should’ve done. This ends ominously enough with Darkhawk and Magus plotting nefarious things. I look forward to the next arc of this massive tome. 13/14.
-X-Men: Forever #7- This doubles as two decent stories. One focuses on the X-Men traveling with Fury to South America and running into a sentinel and the second is a cool Fury/Logan team-up from WWII where Logan killed a guy named Trask, probably the father of the one who originally created the Sentinels. I like plot points that tie together so well like that. 14/15.
DC
-Blackest Night: Batman #2- Deadman, Batman and Robin battle some zombies and try to save Barbara Gordon and Commissioner Gordon. Red Robin shows up and they are flying away when Dick and Tim’s dead parents attack. This black ring is just raising ALL the dead it seems. It’s a cool tie-in and it is very logical for Tim and Dick to have to face their dead parents. The Wayne family seems to have more death than any where else in the DCU. 1/1.
-Green Lantern Corps #40- Speaking of dead people returning, another place where death is rampant takes place on Oa, which is now just a big pile of rubble. The Guardians are just black goo, the Black Lanterns are doing a number on the Lanterns, the Alpha Lantern’s have their power usurped by Clarrisi. Kyle also deals with the zombie Jade and spurns her advances. There is just so much going on here it is almost impossible to document it all. That’s what I want in my event book tie-ins, things that are important to the main series and plot points that make sense in the title it is appearing in. This is still a Green Lantern Corps book. 2/2.
-Red Robin #4- Red Robin and the band of assassins that Ra’s has lent Robin are searching for Bruce Wayne and Tim finds a bat cave painting that we saw from the end of Final Crisis. No one believes Tim, not even Dick and the two argue it out. Well, Tim found it and he’s all happy, until an assassin named the Widower from the Council of Spiders kills his three partners and mortally wounds Red Robin. I really like this darker version of Red Robin. He, more than Dick, is playing that dark character that Bruce always played but if you can imagine is even darker and will go to longer lengths to get what he needs. 3/3.
-Secret Six #13- The Secret Six have always been a team that always seems on the brink of self-destruction and this seems to be the final nail. All the members have bolted (except for Deadshot and Ragdoll) to save Wonder Woman from the evil prison master. They release all the imprisoned Amazonians, the ones who happened to attack DC during the whole Amazon’s Attack thing, and they are ready to break out. They will have to deal with a huge wolfman cannibal who was just freed as well. There is a great controlled chaos to this book and it is completely different from most superhero books. 4/4.
-Superman: World of New Krypton #7- Superman returns home to Krypton and is named the new military leader. His first act is to oversee the Kryptonians bring a moon from Jupiter to their planet so they can have tides and all. Unfortunately, they are attacked by some Thanagarians and now the moon is hurtling out of control into New Krypton. Yikes! I question why they needed a moon but a hurtling celestial object heading for your home planet is always interesting. I like Superman’s new role here and Lane has successfully made Superman an outsider in his own world, and that’s a credit to the writing so far. 5/5.
Awards
-Book of the Week- Kick-Ass #7 was my favorite this week. It’s just so different from what is on the stands right now. It was a brutally violent book but the violence doesn’t overshadow how good the story is.
-Disappointment of the Week- Hulk Team-Up was just not worth the money this week. I think I explained why up above.
-Cover of the Week- Marvel Zombies the Return #2 had a really cool Zombie Iron Man flying on like a bird of some sort (a vulture?) that reminded me of the Silver Surfer in some way.
-The Bottom Line- This was a great week of comics which is nice because my week freakin’ sucked. Whatever. There was some cool things here and I don’t really have anything else to say right now.
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Questions? Comments? Shoot me an email.
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