"No longer like a toad in these foul cellars will I secret the venom of hatred -- for you shall bring me love!" - Erik
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« Comics: June 2007 | Main | Comics: August 2007 » ComicsSuperMegaSpeed Reviews Two weeks worth of good stuff: Iron Fist #7 - I thought this was pretty good until min showed me otherwise. I thought it would be cool, kind of like a Sandman thing, for them to tell stories of Iron Fists throughout the ages. I thought the story was interesting but that it ended kind of abruptly. I liked it over all. Then min showed me that the book had three different artists (i need to start paying more attention to the art), and the one who did the last half of the book was just terrible. Mighty Avengers #4 - No help with the New Avengers continuity issue here, but this is still a good one. Poor Sentry. Does anyone remember seeing the Sentry's wife in World War Hulk? That would help with placement. Ugh, there i go talking about continuity issues instead of doing a review again. Hey, it was good, what can i say? Captain America #28 - I love Sin's Serpent Squad although i think she's been a little loose with the snake theme. I mean, she's not dressed like a snake at all and another guy on the team is an Eel. Eh, she's an anarchist, so i guess i shouldn't expect attention to detail. The rest of this issue was great as well. I was a bit surprised to see Sharon Carter vamping a bit on the rooftop with Falcon. That's not like her. Is this the start of a Sam/Sharon romance? A bit soon after Cap's death, no? Update: It turns out the Eel was a founding member of the original Serpent Squad. My bad! Amazing Spider-Man #542 - great way to resolve the Kingpin conflict without having Spidey actually kill. Decent story. While i've enjoyed JMS's run on ASM, it's time for him to move on. Super-Villain Team-Up #1 - Yeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaah! MODOK! Nicely done, and even a line making sure the Armadillo's chronology is in order. Quasar #1 - This has the unfortunate distinction of being the first comic in this pile that i read, so even though i remember it being Very Good, min had to remind me what happened in it. The one thing i'll say is that something happened along the way with the Super-Adaptoid. Intially he could absorb the powers of anyone he was in the vicinity of. Now he's just got the powers of the early Avengers. I guess it's a good thing for Quasar, though. Oh i just remembered: i really like the idea that the quantum bands are somehow corrupted because Annihilus wore them. Starlord #1 - Similar to Super-Villain Team-Up in the sense that it is mining the backwaters of Marvel continuity in order to make a motley team. This one went for the truly bizarre, though. Groot? Now i have to go back and update the historical significance rating of Tales To Astonish #13. "First appearance of Groot". Rocket Racoon was great, too, and i've always loved the *tic* Bug. Very well written, too. WWH: X-Men #2 - good god, someone get Gage an X-book permanently. Better yet, make him the main X-Men writer. I haven't enjoyed the X-Men this much in years (Sorry Morrison and Whedon, but it's true), and he does an awesome job of filling me in with these new people i'm not familiar with, and making me like them. And what he did with the Juggernaut, in like 3 panels, was just fantastic. Plus: super cool fight scene. Iron Man #20 - Only problem with this is i think Dugan already ran SHIELD for a while after the last time Fury 'died'. Maybe not. I'm having conflicting memories of it being him and/or G.W. Bridge. But still, this was excellent (oh, and it's Gage again). I loved Dum Dum bringing in the agents that have had experience with the Hulk and getting their analysis and then making a decision. Unfortunately it's Iron Man's book so we had a little bit of a Deus Ex where the final decision was made by Stark but i still thought it was a great look at a guy who's been in a permanent #2 spot suddenly being put in charge. Hulk #108 - Some unnecessary water treading, although is it possibly showing that the Hulk is being manipulated by the Rick Jones analogue (perhaps without the bug even knowing it)? I'm confused and annoyed by all the bug people, as evidenced by my refusal to learn their names. And was Gary Frank only drawing the one issue? Oh well. World War Hulk #2 - This, on the other hand, rocked. I like how it looks as though Rick or the Sentry (but not She-Hulk) could potentially have reached the Hulk through his rage but Illuminati members screwed up the chances of that. Beyond that, great fights! By fnord12 | July 30, 2007, 10:01 AM | Comics | Comments (1)| Link By fnord12 | July 23, 2007, 4:23 PM | Comics | Link You know i love Mystery Science Theater. Why didn't you tell me about this? Since this format doesn't require obtaining the rights to the film being skewered, Nelson and company have been able to move upward to a better, bigger budget class of bad movies to heckle. Found on one of Peter Sanderson's weekly columns. He also gives a great review of Lee & Kirby's original Galactus trilogy and compares it to the FF sequel (It doesn't hold up). By fnord12 | July 23, 2007, 4:21 PM | Comics & Movies | Comments (1)| Link From the "Keeping You Occupied at Work" Department: Jesus and Mo By fnord12 | July 20, 2007, 1:15 PM | Comics | Comments (1)| Link The current story arc in Mighty Avengers has the team forming and immediately having to go out and deal with a Mole Man incident. As they first respond to the Mole Man monster, they mention the fact that they hadn't even had time for a training mission before going on active duty. That threat directly morphs into the Ultron story with no rests in-between. However, in New Avengers, the underground team has been pursued by the Mighty Avengers. I assumed that those NA issues simply took place after the initial Mighty Avengers arc. But in the most recent issue of New Avengers, they are affected by an EMP generated by Ultron, meaning that the current NA story takes place simultaneously with the Ultron story. So there is no time for the Mighty Avengers to fight the New Avengers after they've formed but before they face Ultron. That's a real mess. This isn't geeky "Why doesn't Banana Man remember that he can defeat the Flaming Artichoke by funneling mustard gas through his loin cloth, like he did in Tales of Anticipation #13?" continuity. This is very basic "where are your characters" continuity that any writer of fiction needs to keep track of. And if Bendis (who i love), the writer of both books, slips up, why doesn't his editor Tom Brevoort (who i also love) catch something like that? Hopefully this will be resolved somehow. Is there time in the Mighty Avengers story where they can go after the New Avengers that i missed somehow (the issues are currently in the borrowing chain)? Does Ultron release a second EMP in a future issue of MA? Were the Mighty Avengers in the New Avengers story actually Skrulls? If there is no answer, i'm gonna have a hard time placing these comics in my collection. By fnord12 | July 18, 2007, 8:37 AM | Comics | Comments (2)| Link New Avengers 32 - i enjoy all-dialogue issues but i'm sure there will be howls in racmu. Bendis writes a very funny Spider-Man. this Skrull stuff is going to be very cool. i also like the 'casket of ancient winter' type cross-over, with the New Avengers' plane losing power due to events in Mighty. Also means that the Tony Stark that Spider-Woman is taking Elektra-Skrull's body to is currently possessed by Ultron. But if you're dealing with Skrulls, why wouldn't you go to Mr. Fantastic? Punisher War Journal 9 - ... No really, it's not over yet? This was actually slightly better than the previous issues and has more of the 'Punisher fights Super-Villains' angle (the whole point of this series) since the Hate Monger is using... hee hee... H-Rays, which means he is a real Hate Monger and not just a racist in a costume. But the pacing is still glacial. Omega Flight 4 - It took 4 issues (out of 5?), but we now have a team. Good full-issue fight scene but action sequences aren't this artist's strong suite (God help me i like Yu's fights better, although Kolins is a better artist overall). Nova 4 - this was good, but not good enough to make me regret not getting the first three non-Annihilation: Conquest issues. I don't think the Phalanx are being written correctly. They are machines; they would be much more menacing even if they were dispassionate even when they are losing. We shouldn't see them saying things like "Incredible!", and they shouldn't ever use exclamation points. Wraith 1 - rumors about Wraith actually being ROM don't seem to be based on much. Sure he's got a gun which could be a new type of Neutralizer, but he isn't using it like one. The name obviously could point to some sort of Dire tragedy that happened to the character but scans are showing him as human. And what's with the darkforce-like powers? Dark sorcery? If he's not ROM, I hope there is some sort of twist to this story since it's looking pretty generic right now (i'm down on this writer after the Super-Skrull series so i'm probably being unfair). The Phalanx complaint i had with Nova applies here, too. Moreso, actually. By fnord12 | July 16, 2007, 9:01 AM | Comics | Link Runaways - not the funniest issue so far and i'm not thrilled to see a ton of super powered people living in 1907 but still pretty good. Chase's reaction to the Gert hologram was a good scene, and i'm looking forward to the confrontation with Gert's parents. The 1907 Punisher was cute. Ms. Marvel - MODOK is gone and so am i. This issue was a mess and i'm not interested in any of the plotlines they are setting up. Thor - Three panels worth of story stretched out over 22 pages. This was awful. The art was terrible. And i don't like Donald Blake on a good day, let alone when he's yammering on and on about pseudo-mystic nonsense. Ant-Man - This was cute but i'm sort of relieved it's being cancelled. It's right there on the cusp of being interesting enough to keep getting. Some issues are funny and/or a good character study of a non-heroic superguy, and some are just kind of blah. This falls more into the second category. I feel sorry for anyone who bought this because of the World War Hulk crossover. By fnord12 | July 9, 2007, 9:26 AM | Comics | Comments (2)| Link Three weeks of comics! Plus several recent back issues of Ms. Marvel. World War Hulk #1 - This is gonna be good. Pak is a good writer - he's got some funny lines and good characterization and also makes the Hulk sufficiently menacing. And i love a good Hulk buster armor. But if the Hulk is serious, why didn't he kill Black Bolt? Avengers #31 - God help me now that i'm used to Yu's art i actually kinda like it. Yeah it's scratchy and distorted but it has personality. Anyway, everyone is up and arms about the Avengers just fighting ninjas. In their earliest appearances the Avengers spent a fair amount of time fighting communists and men from forgotten cities who just used swords and a lot of other types of non-powered grunts. So i don't see the problem. If you only fight other super-powered types you forget why your characters are special. The ending is interesting, but let's see where they go with it. Punisher War Journal #8 - Looking at the most recent sales chart, Marvel had a huge spike for this story due to what people thought was going to be a tie-in with the death of Captain America. It's a shame that it wasn't. A story about Punisher going up against the Red Skull's goons would be a lot more interesting than this slow-ass Hatemonger plot. The point of this series was supposed to be the Punisher taking a more active role in the mainstream Marvel universe. This doesn't fit the bill and it is taking way too long. Ironically the only thing keeping me from dropping it is that it won't ever end! Iron Fist #6 - I'm liking this quite a bit. I enjoyed Luke, Misty, and Colleen. No complaints. Amazing Spider-Man #541 - Like i said last issue, if this is supposed to be Peter lashing out in irrational anger over the injury to his aunt, it is taking way too long and we are losing the immediacy of it. And we know in the end that Peter won't kill the Kingpin because he already appears in other stories that take place after this one (I do appreciate the footnotes letting me know where this takes place in relation to Daredevil). Annihilation Conquest Prologue - I'm glad i decided to follow this. It's quite good. I'm enjoying watching the new Quasar adjust to her new powers, i'm very happy to see the spaceknights, and i love who the bad guy is going to be. Now i'm going to have to pick up some crappy x-men back issues to figure out how the Warlock/techno-virus stuff i'm familiar with ties into the Phalanx stuff they did in the 90s. Real nice art, too. But i don't know why they're trying to pretend it's a mystery who Quasar has to find in order to save the galaxy. It's obviously Rocket Raccoon. Daredevil #98 - Nice fight issue. Fantastic Four #547 - This was very good. I love the Frightful Four and this is a good incarnation. Pelletier's art is really nice except he draws people with gigantic lips. McDuffie's got a great knack for witty dialogue and humor. Good stuff. Captain America #27 - Super fantastic. And thank you for leaving the Black Widow's origins in the Cold War era, whatever the explanation for her youthful appearance is. World War Hulk: X-Men #1 - My one problem with the WWH stuff is that i feel like i keep reading the same damn thing over and over again. Is anyone picking up this spin-off book not familiar with events in the main series? Did i need another recap? One panel could have done it, not half a page. But that's a minor complaint. This was very fun. I haven't been following the New X-Men but Gage does a great job introducing the characters and making me care about them. The question of how Xavier would have voted was an excellent one. And i don't care how much of a loser fanboy it made me, i got giddy when Wolverine showed up. Iron Man #19 - Again, too much repetition with the main World War Hulk series, but at least this is the ongoing so people that just read Iron Man need to be filled in. Nonetheless, i like Gage a lot and this is nice art as well. Hulk #107 - Gary Frank's art is awesome. I like that the Hulk series seems to be focusing more on the Hulk's supporting cast while World War Hulk proper will be following the Hulk himself. It seems like we might be setting up Mr. Perfect Amadeus Cho to be wrong for once as the Hulk will turn out to not be what Cho is expecting, but we'll see where that goes. Last issue it seemed like Mr. Fantastic was using Angel and Hercules as plants but in this issue they seem genuine. Hercules isn't that good an actor, even if Angel is. Again, we'll wait and see. Ms. Marvel #14-16 - I picked these up because i couldn't resist the lure of MODOK and i'm glad that i did. This series has improved quite a bit from the early issues i've read. It may be due to the change in artist - i'm actually enjoying this art - but the writing seems improved as well. MODOK is awesome, even if he is dying - that scene where he hovers into the room with his henchmen and says "Kill anything that moves", that is cool. By fnord12 | July 2, 2007, 7:19 AM | Comics | Link |