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« Why is the Black Widow Posed Like That? | Main | Where's My Microgrid? »

SuperMegaSpeed Reviews

Black Widow #5 - Still not loving Noto, but i thought the fight sequence with Hammer of God was better this time. I spent the entire issue wondering if i was supposed to know Tori Raven which, i wasn't, but Damo Dran, who i do know, was introduced just as casually, which is the sort of thing that gets me confused. Still, i said that this series might get better if it got into a continued story, and that does seem to be the case. Dran is possibly the closest thing the Widow has to a solo arch enemy, and he's also pretty obscure, so i'm pretty amazed to see him being used in an "indie" style book like this, but i like it (there still should have been a footnote). Doesn't look like he's going to be the main bad guy, even. Anyway, i think this limps along hopefully for me.

Superior Foes of Spider-Man #11 - Another fill-in, which is a shame and surely a buzz killer. Last issue's fill-in matched the tone of the series pretty well and was pretty good. This one, not so much. I really don't like the concept of a Super-villains Anonymous, but Spencer made it work in the earlier issues, i think because he used it as the basis for a story and jokes, instead of just being the joke itself. Tom Peyer's Grizzly story was pretty fun - if nothing else this issue gave me "the whole nine yams" - and yes, he's one of the sadder villains to have been invented, but the problem with a story like this is it makes Grizzly irredeemably terrible. Give the guy a better costume and a good story, and there's really no reason that Grizzly couldn't have been an awesome low level super-villain. I could definitely see him as a Thunderbolt. Be hard to see him come back from this. Hell, i even see Dr. Bong as potentially usable in the right setting, but i can't picture him coming back after being in a support group with that Hippo character. By itself that would have been fine, though. The real problem with this issue is the Looter. Now, i have no special affinity for the Looter, but just last issue we saw him as the buff, successful, awesome guy that the Superior Foes were comparing themselves unfavorably to. So how did he go from there to a terrified broken skinny dude? I know we gave up on "continuity", but can't we at least have some consistency between two issues of the same series? It's pretty insane. Isn't there an editor that approves these stories? Are there two Looters in the Marvel universe? That's at least one too many. And then to end this goofy goofy issue on the earnest "we need to control the crazy violent Spider-Man inside ourselves" message. A tone change from Uncle Grampa to One To Grow On. Weird.

New Warriors #3 - Now this was great. Fun dialogue. Loved the snarky Speedball asides. Kid Nova calling the Scarlet Spider "Spider-Man" (and the more sincere "Spider-Man wouldn't have failed" from Scarlet at the end). Enjoyed Sun Girl blasting the new Inhuman to make her point. Good characterization of Justice as the by-the-book boyscout. Loved the Luna Lovegood-ish Hummingbird ("This is Sam. He's been to space."). And i'm liking the High Evolutionary's plan (i'm assuming he's on the wrong track, but i still like the idea of it and the Marvel history that's informing it). I still wouldn't mind if the whole team had finally gotten together by now - i thought we were heading to that for an ending of this issue - but i guess i'm going to have to get used to this kind of pacing.

Iron Man #24 - Continues to be great. Gillen seems to get stronger when he's got mystical stuff to work with, so Malekith his elves are helping him there.

Captain Marvel #2 - I see that we're back to dumb Drax. Generally speaking, the Guardians of the Galaxy didn't feel quite "right" to me, but they felt better than they did in the Bendis GotG issues i read before i couldn't stands it no more. Rocket Raccoon / pet rivalries are always fun. Overall this was OK, and i'm hopeful it gets better as we get going and Carol actually locates the plot.

Daredevil #1.50 - Umphf, um, ok. #1.50. Well, that's very precise. Did i miss #1.49? Is this part of a market research effort to see if a #1.50 sells better than an annual? Yes, it's the 50th anniversary issue of Daredevil, so i guess we should be looking at Marvel's post-modern issue numbers for clues about the story. #2.WOLVERINEGUESTSTARS might be next. As for the content, well, the Waid/Rodriguez story was good even though i don't really love or need stories set in the future. The fact that it's sort of a rosetta stone for the upcoming series is interesting, though. And the Kesel/"Colan"/Palmer (Kesel drawing in the style of Gene Colan) story gets points just for showing me Gene Colan art in a very different context than i'm used to plus (i originally thought this was posthumous Gene Colan art but it's not) referencing the crazy, crazy Mike Murdock stuff in a really fun way. But that thing in the middle. I almost didn't read it. But then i did and just wished i didn't. Is that really in continuity? Was Daredevil married to this woman? Another dead love interest? I love that we're at the point where if someone needs to crank out a quick Daredevil prose story for a jam issue, we just invent another woman that can fall in love with Daredevil and then die. And did anyone want a prose story? All and all, the Kesel story was fun but this issue was basically skippable, so maybe that's what i should take a .50 to mean in the future.

By fnord12 | April 16, 2014, 5:32 PM | Comics


Comments

Had a glance at new warriors and it looked good. I'm just afraid to buy it because I don't want to invest in a book that will get renumbered back to issue 1 just to get new readers in. Every issue is a new issue; it's the golden rule.

Had a look at new warriors and was tempted to buy it but didn't because marvel tend to renumbered their books to bring in new readers. Every issue is a new issue to someone I don't understand why they don't get that

Sorry for double post. Darn iPad

Black Widow: is totally plodding. but all Marvel comics have been plodding for years now, so i've come to expect that. this story is plodding a little better than others. and that's the bar Marvel has to clear nowadays. as long as the story eventually reveals who Tori Raven is and why we care, i'm ok with it mostly because, unlike fnord12, there are lots of times where i don't know who someone is even if they are a known character. so, i'm in wait and see mode with this one. it's not bad enough to stop getting and it's not good enough for me to love. gah!

Iron Man: every time they say the name of the fire ring, i think they've changed it. like how they couldn't remember from one issue to the next that they had named the chick Red Peril. i don't know if that's actually true cause i'm too lazy to pull out the previous IM issues. i just think it in my heart of hearts when i read it.

i'm not going to make a thing of it this time (cause i know you're tired of hearing it), but just know i have problems with a couple of the female elf depictions. they're not super awful. just not good.

Captain Marvel: the GotG made me cringe. just ugh. they became popular because of how Abnett & Lanning portrayed them. so what do they do? rewrite it all and remake the characters. wth happened to Gamorra? i hope they go away soon so i don't have to keep looking at their stupid faces.

Daredevil: i'm pretty sure somebody's in trouble for wasting my time with this. i know i'm going to get in trouble for saying this, but the Kesel story in the end was the worst. i was able to skim the Waid and Bendis ones, at least. the Kesel one just was so over the top cheesey that i couldn't stomach it and gave up after a few panels.