Home
D&D
Music
Banner Archive

Marvel Comics Timeline
Godzilla Timeline


RSS

   

« Mysterious Lights Coming From Rifts in the Earth | Main | Death porn at Weather.com »

SuperMegaSpeed Reviews

Uncanny X-Force #15 - And so, after dragging that out for 15 issues, the team has been on exactly one adventure together and their problems with Bishop will have to be resolved in another title that i'm not going to be getting. I've been trying to mentally train myself for the past several years to think of a story arc, say four or six issues, being the equivalent of a single issue from 1980. It helps with my perception when, say, Colossus becomes Juggernaut or Spider-Man is replaced by Doctor Octopus. These stories feel like a new status quo because they go on for so long, but it's really just a couple of story arcs. If Colossus was the Juggernaut for like two issues of Claremont's X-Men in the 80s, we'd all just think it was awesome. But when it goes on for so long and it gets presented as a real change, some of us get agitated. So accounting for decompression is important. But it's getting to the point where you have to think of an entire series as being a story arc. There was no team called Uncanny X-Force. There was just a group of people that happened to be in the same place when a situation presented itself. It's a bit hard to accept in realtime but maybe when i read these 15 issues all at once one day for my timeline project, it'll feel like the equivalent of a random Danny Fingeroth fill-in issue of Iron Man or something and i'll be like "Sure, this was fine.".

X-Men #8 - There was no Sisterhood of Evil Mutants composed of Lady Deathstrike, Typhoid Mary, and the Enchantress. There was no all female team of X-Men called X-Men. See? I can do this. I actually have no problem with the Enchantress being on a team of mortals; she was in the Masters of Evil, after all, and the reasoning used her for including her makes sense. This book is really fine, even if they tricked us with the art teams again.

Daredevil #34 - This was great, as usual. But i want to briefly gripe that Waid included people complaining about "the one percent" in the category of people that are like the Sons of the Serpent. I think it dilutes a stronger point that people exploit racial anxiety to get people to vote against their own interests (e.g.), but i understand Waid's desire for a broader message of tolerance. So i'm not griping about him including people who complain about "wingnuts", be they right-wingnuts or left-wingnuts. We should accept that people will have different political views. But people talking about income equality are not being intolerant or trying to manipulate people for some ulterior reason; income inequality literally is the issue that all the other issues are obscuring.

Indestructible Hulk #17 - Mark Waid likes the phrase "poke the bear" this month, considering he uses it both here (in reference to Tony Stark stepping on Bruce Banner's ego and turning him into the Hulk) and in Daredevil (in reference to Kristen McDuffie's speech about the Sons of the Serpent). I'm debating whether or not i liked the depiction of Stark in this issue. What's happening here is Tony Stark's personality is morphing into something like the movie version, and it's a good strong characterization which has roots in the comic version but it's more extreme than the comic version. And i like it a lot. But at the same time, with all the history Stark has in the comics dealing with Bruce and the Hulk, his actions in this issue are immensely dumb.

Fantastic Four #15 - Seriously, you guys, i picked the wrong time to start reading this book. Karl Kesel! Of course i would pick it up (i see Fraction is still getting top billing; i guess that's because he came up with the uber-plot (again, this would have been two issues in 1986)). But i didn't need all this alternate reality stuff. Especially since i'm getting the same thing but funny in FF. I could have managed with just a footnote that said "And also, all this same stuff happened but different to the Fantastic Four".

FF #15 - See, this version has a Darla bobblehead, Thing virtual fighters, Sun Tzu arguing with Julius Ceasar, and Leech, Arti, and company buzzed on Mountain Doop.

Secret Avengers #13 - Who is this Andrew Forson upstart that is outsmarting MODOK? Blasphemy. I'm also not sure who Anton Trask is. I thought maybe he was related to Larry and Bolivar. And maybe he is. But the way he revealed himself i thought he was already established as someone that i was supposed to know, and that appears to not be the case. You know what sucks? Reading a comic and not knowing if you're not understanding stuff because the comic's unclear or because there's history that you're not aware of. Better storytelling would help, so that Trask telling us his name wasn't presented like it was a revelation. Consistent use of footnotes would help so that i'd know that the absence of one here meant that i be sure he wasn't an existing character. Anyway, we plod on with this thanks to MODOK and Taskmaster, but this is another one that when it's cancelled i'm going to look back on and say "oh, so that was basically a two-issue story".

Superior Spider-Man Team-Up #8 - Fun. Love the idea of Ock-Spidey getting a pep talk in arrogance from Namor to restore his faith in himself (it might have been funnier to set it up like the scene from Amazing Spider-Man #3 where Johnny Storm gives a pep talk to Peter Parker's school after Peter is defeated by Ock). And i love that it ended with Ock-Spidey punching out Namor for endangering "his" city.

Young Avengers #14 - Downtime epilogue and an origin for Miss America Chavez. Nice. Of course, there was no team called Young Avengers, etc.

Superior Foes of Spider-Man #7 - This was awesome. The new Beetle is now my favorite villain, and this is definitely my favorite current title. Too bad the book is shedding readers by double digit percentages with every issue.

By fnord12 | January 5, 2014, 4:06 PM | Comics


Comments

Uncanny XF: what exactly was the point of this series? i think they create new "titles" for single story arcs now. and this is why there never needed to be an X-Force team. perhaps this makes sense to them monetarily because there's an initual surge for a new title as people get on board to see what's what (plus they trick you with the creative team, effectively doing a bait and switch once you're hooked). and there's little incentive to make it last or be good in any way since they already tricked you into reading it. tom brevoort's already got your money, suckers.

X-Men: really not sure why Psylocke trailed Typhoid Mary all the way to Sublime's office just to allow her to get into Sublime's head and bugger off with the locations of the meteorite bits. you'd think mebbe in order to save herself some work, she'd kinda stop that part from happening at least. now they're going to spend the whole time playing catch-up to Lady Deathstrike & co. why?

i'm kinda confused as to why the Enchantress was yelling at Lady Deathstrike's plane to "get out of here" and waving around a stick like a crazy lady. if i were stuck in some impenetrable sphere and someone managed to get a jet thru it, i think i would be like "hey, give me a ride". silly me.

DD: er...what's up with Doctor Strange? he was all crooked and hunched over. that he's feeling uncomfortable in that part of town (wha?) isn't really an explanation. and Murdock's observation that he seemed "twitchy" was not adequate to describe how he was drawn. Strange looked like how i look when i've had a back spasm.

Hulk: so, you might focus on how douchey Iron Man is in this issue. really, they're all pretty douchey, but let's not forget these are the same people who decided that shooting the Hulk into space was the "right" thing to do - douchebags, one and all, and a very tough decision as to who gets crowned king. but for me, my ire went in a different direction - Maria Hill, you bitch. exactly who gave Pym and Stark permission to use Banner's lab without even so much as a courtesy notification to Banner? sure, it's a SHIELD facility, but i doubt she would have been quite that rude about it if it were some other super scientist there. plus, there were negotiations in the beginning about autonomy. Banner and Hill have been butting heads from the beginning where she wants more access and he doesn't want to give it to her. so i think this was another power play. petty, considering they're dealing with a world crisis and not very smart considering Banner's personality. so, yes, i blame Iron Man and Giant Man and the rest for being asshats, but i also blame Hill for being an idiot. not to say Banner isn't overly sensitive, but dude, you knew that. wtf were you thinking?