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« Comics: March 2009 | Main | Comics: May 2009 » ComicsSuperMegaSpeed Reviews Captain Britain and MI13 #10-13 - Chris Sims promised me Dr. Doom vs. Dracula On The Moon!, but all i got was a brief conversation. These issues suffer from the same problem as the Secret Invasion crossover - too straightforward. It's like they're overcompensating for the too-many-wacky-ideas-at-once approach of the original Pete Wisdom series. These issues are OK, but they're pretty much at the bottom of my pull-list (or, i guess, at the top, since i save the best comics for last). Daredevil #118 - Continues apace, is good. X-Force #14 - Must... resist... impulse to buy Cable parts of this crossover. Look, people, these guys can make Stryfe interesting, and they're responding to my demands to include Apocalypse. How can i not like it? And they threw in Deadpool for laughs as well. New Avengers #52 - Spider-man's funny. And the scene with him worrying about using a stolen Quinjet was a nice character moment. I like the Dr. Strange Quest for the New Sorcerer Supreme plot, but at the same time i don't want anyone besides Dr. Strange being the Sorcerer Supreme (and certainly i don't want some other b-list magic character getting the title. I could accept Wiccan, or someone new, although i suspect it'll be Strange in the end anyway (or a reversal in a few years). MightyGodKing has been making some great pitches for letting him write a Dr. Strange book so we have to keep Strange as the Sorcerer Supreme to give him his chance.). Guardians of the Galaxy #13 - Man, this is so good, this should be the main storyline in this War of the Kings crossover. And that's not even taking into account that scene with Rocket Raccoon and Starlord planning their strategy, or Cosmo telling telepathic jokes. Captain America #49 - I always went with "Anti-Commie Cap", but if "Fifties Cap" is a mouthful, i guess that is too. I thought that whole sequence was more Bendis than Brubaker, but i liked it. A lot of references and continuity here (including some revisions - which i suppose are necessary - to Peggy Carter) that probably aren't noticeable at all to people who haven't just read through all of the 70s Cap stories, but are a nice Easter egg for those who have. Plus, i really liked Luke Ross' art. First time i haven't been disappointed by the lack of Epting. Hercules #128 - If it wasn't for the footnotes, i wouldn't have realized that this Typhon was the character from those old Avengers issues. That Typhon didn't have snakes for feet, after all, although i have to admit they are a vast improvement. As always, this is a super book. I find the way Dietrich Smith draws Hercules' body hair to be extremely disturbing, though. By fnord12 | April 29, 2009, 10:04 PM | Comics | Link BBC: The ants reproduce via cloning - the queen ants copy themselves to produce genetically identical daughters. This species - the first ever to be shown to reproduce entirely without sex - cultivates a garden of fungus, which also reproduces asexually. By fnord12 | April 15, 2009, 11:23 AM | Comics & Science | Comments (2)| Link By fnord12 | April 14, 2009, 3:28 PM | Comics | Link War of the Kings: Ascension #1 - If you went back in time about 10 years or so and told me that i'd be reading a comic about Darkhawk, i probably wouldn't have been fazed. "Well," I would have said, "any character can be interesting if handled well by a good creative team." 1999 fnord was a pretty reasonable guy. Still, if you told him, "Well, the book actually is by a creative team that you like, but nevertheless it's not very good", he probably would have said "Yeah, that sounds about right." The fact that you'd time-traveled just to talk to him about comic books would have made perfect sense, ofc. Late update: I forget to mention... i guess i must have missed wherever this story started, but a little bit more of an in-story recap would have been nice. Last i remember, Darkhawk was working at Project Pegasus. By fnord12 | April 13, 2009, 9:40 PM | Comics | Link Slay your enemies and all you desire shall be yours. By fnord12 | April 9, 2009, 7:37 AM | Comics | Comments (1)| Link Secret Warriors #3 - Was this Gorgon guy really that good? And how do we know that Contessa hasn't been in on the "Hydra really runs SHIELD" conspiracy from the beginning? Anyway, good issue. I like the art, too. War of Kings #2 - I enjoyed this more than the prologue and the first issue. Still have some problems with the premise, but i guess it's got potential. I think the scene with Crystal providing water for the sick was a bit contrived, and i'm still confused about how the Inhumans are trusting Maximus so easily, but not bad, not bad. Agents of Atlas #3 - I'm liking this series quite a lot. I enjoy the machinations/politics going on between Atlas and Osborn, and the scenes with Namora dealing with Namorita's death were really good. And i enjoy all of the flashback scenes quite a bit as well. The one thing i didn't love was the cover, which spoils the last page of the issue. This has been happening a lot lately with Marvel, and it's weird. They used to do this in the 70s and people complained. Now they've finally come away from their "iconic" cover phase and they go right back to their worst habits? Weird. But from a sales point of view i guess it makes sense. Regular readers are going to buy the book anyway. This way, fans of Captain America may pick up the book for one extra issue. But i don't like it. Captain America comics 70th anniversary special #1 - Ugh. I guess it's just that i've been reading comics for so long, but i've read so many stories about why Captain America is so super that they're really getting hard to read. And this was just terrible, with this contrived idea that a pre-Super Serum Steve Rogers just happens to get into a fight (and win!) (using a garbage can lid as a shield!) with three Nazi spies who are after the Super Serum. And that's how he was really chosen to be Cap? Stupid, stupid stuff. Pride & Prejudice #1 - Marvel really blew it with this one. I guess they were treating this like just another Classics Illustrated or something; i really don't know. But there is this huge fan base out there for Pride & Prejudice related material, and this comic, if done well, could have really tapped into that. They could have even gone beyond the original story: there's a bunch of recent (relative to the age of the original) novels out there that take place in the Pride & Prejudice 'universe', so to speak, and there's no reason Marvel couldn't have had an ongoing series just like the old Star Wars comic. But this was really terrible. First, the art was awful. Just awful. When the characters didn't look like glamor girls, they looked like zombies. And then it's condensed so much that you jump from scene to scene without hitting any of the characterization or introspection that makes the original worth anything. It's basically a plot outline with pictures. Oh well. An opportunity to reach out beyond the typical comic book audience wasted. After Watchmen... What's Next? #1 - I kept thinking this was going to be good, but it kept jumping around and it didn't really explain how everything that was happening was related to the end of the Watchmen series. I was really surprised to see Batman and Superman show up; i didn't realize Watchmen took place in the same universe. A little wordy, and i didn't like the jamboree style art, either. Every page had a different artist, so the book never got a chance to develop a consistent look. By fnord12 | April 7, 2009, 9:51 PM | Comics | Comments (5)| Link It's not fair, really. Somehow Kirby pulls off making a guy on a surf board totally awesome, but when Rich Buckler tries to tap into that same magic with a hockey goalie, it just doesn't work.  P.S., let's not bring the Black Racer into this. By fnord12 | April 7, 2009, 4:33 PM | Comics | Comments (1)| Link Moondragon is an interesting character, always struggling with her elitist inclinations and the influence of the Dragon of the Moon, but did you know how deep her evil roots go? Lookit her original name in her first appearance:  Man, i've had to make up names on the fly for D&D that are better than that (Let's hear it for Priesto!). By fnord12 | April 7, 2009, 4:24 PM | Comics | Comments (1)| Link |