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« Comics: November 2009 | Main | Comics: January 2010 »

Comics

Merry MODOK Christmas

Min and i are off until the new year, so we'll leave you with Marvel's What The--? Christmas Special.


By fnord12 | December 24, 2009, 4:51 PM | Comics & My stupid life | Comments (1)| Link



SuperMegaSpeed Reviews

Seems like i say this every time, but... lots of books to go through. This represents, i think, two weeks of comics:

X-Babies #3 - I don't really know what's going on in this book or why i'm being subjected to two versions of the Star characters. But i think this is the first time we've seen more creatures of Mojo's species. I always thought he was unique, but i guess i didn't read any of his post-Claremont appearances. They are icky.

Siege: The Cabal #1 - Doom is awesome. That is all.

Psylocke #2 - I hope min is enjoying this. Mainly i feel like it's just clearing the decks so that the next Psylock mini-series can be good.

Sword #2 - I like this. I liked the Death's Head fight, i'm intrigued enough by the captured robot guy, i like Gyrich's political maneuvers. I just wish the Beast didn't look like a goat.

Dark Avengers annual #1 - Can't say i love the new Marvel Boy costume. And there's some questions about how Noh-Varr, who comes from another dimension, is considered part of this dimension's Kree empire. Or where Supremor even is considering he's not currently around and the Inhumans are running the Kree empire. But that all aside, i thought this was pretty good. It was a good use of an annual. Steve Rogers' appearance at the end of this issue was unfortunate, though.

Deadpool Team-Up #898 - They've got a lot of balls using the "Zapata Brothers" as the team-up partner for the second issue of a Team-Up book. I wish Van Lente was writing this entire series instead of just the first issue. I don't know how Deadpool supports 3 mediocre books per month.

Fall of the Hulks: Alpha #1 - Holy crap, this was awesome. Awesome, awesome, awesome. A genius bad guy Illuminati. Brilliant. And incredibly well written. And Pelletier's art is either getting better or growing on me. I think he's easing back on the giant lips.

Marvels Project #4 - I'm just saying, they know this book is going to be a hard sell. But they want it to do well. They've got top talent on the book. I want it to do well. I like books that examine Marvel's continuity. I appreciate a good build up. I'm sure it'll read better as a trade. But you'd think they'd make sure each issue had a little zazz. It's a good book. It's just a little slow when read in the single issue format.

Nova #32 - A little suprised they're taking this detour into an alternate reality and a plot about the Sphinx in the middle of the Realm of Kings storyline. But it's still quite good.

Realm of Kings: Imperial Guard #2 - Meh. I mean, it's actually well written and everything. But Imperial Guard + Starjammers = yawn. Keep at it, though, Abnett and Lanning. I actually like the Imperial Guard less than i liked Darkhawk before you came along, but i have faith in you.

Thor #604 - Ugh, this was terrible. Walt Simonson did great things with Norse mythology. But prior to him, a lot of the Asgardian stuff in Thor was muddled and a real drag on Thor as a super-hero comic. This issue's plot reminded me of those bad 70s comics. And i guess i was hoping that with a new writer we wouldn't be starting in the middle of one of Straczynski's plots. I'm also not happy with the handling of Doom. And can we get Thor out of that awful armor?

X-Force annual #1 - I liked the art on the first story. The writing was ok too. The story wasn't anything great. I loved Deadpool in the X-Men costume in the back-up, though.

Necrosha: The Gathering #1 - I hate these little short story things. I guess it's better than a bunch of handbook entries. But i could have just skipped that.

New Avengers annual #3 - Some panels the photorealistic art worked for me, some panels it didn't. More good than bad. And i liked the story.

X-Men Legacy #230 - I guess i thought X-Men Legacy was a book that examined past X-Men continuity. Not this issue. It's just an X-Men story. But it's not bad. I got this issue by accident, and it starts in the middle of a fight. But i thought it was pretty good. Just a big fight scene, but no problem with that. I enjoyed this Emplate character, who i know is a Generation X villain because they made a toy of him that i didn't buy at the time cause i didn't know who he was.

Deadpool: Merc With A Mouth #6 - Apparently i'm obligated to keep getting this for some indefinite period of time.

Astonishing X-Men #33 - Warren Ellis is writing straightforward super-hero comics. A few high concepts. but it's basically just a well written adventure story. Which is fine by me. Ellis does a good job of making Cyclops look competent, which i appreciate. Not loving Jimenez's art, actually. With everyone having an angly nose and harsh eyebrows. And i see Lanning is actually doing finishes, which i don't appreciate because i was getting this run because of Jimenez. But i'm actually enjoying the writing more than i thought i would.

Doctor Voodoo #3 - Going from promising to poor rather quickly. I don't think Nightmare was the right choice for the series' first arc.

X-Force #22 - I'm a little disappointed that the Hrimhari plot is just being dealt with on the margins of the crossover. I would have liked a whole arc devoted to that. I'm enjoying this 'event', though.

Daredevil #503 - So we are seeing some serious moral ambiguity here. Which is what we wanted. Ok.

Thunderbolts #139 - No one ever understands me when i say "Gimmie a red" so i'm glad to see that phrase brought back. I didn't even realize that Scourge was Nuke (Why is Scourge Nuke?). But this was bascially an Agents of Atlas issue, and i like the Agents of Atlas. And OFC, thanks to Jeff Parker, i now like these Thunderbolts, too.

Dark Avengers #12 - I liked Victoria Hand's negotiations with the Molecule Man. I'm a little worried about the Sentry apparently becoming even more powerful, but i like the idea that Moonstone is going to be his psychiatrist now. Remember when she was Blackout's psychiatrist, scheming against Baron Zemo? Is Osborn sure he wants her doing that?

Captain America: Reborn #5 - Alright, you got me. Military Organisms Designed Only for Killing Superheroes. You win. It doesn't matter that the "Red Skull in Captain America's Body" plot has been done about 10 times.

Realm of Kings: Inhumans #2 - So i'm reading this, and i'm like, hey, maybe i should get the Mighty Avengers issue that leads into this, cause i like these characters and this is really good...

Mighty Avengers #32 - ...then i read this, and i'm like, what is this crap, why did i get an issue of Mighty Avengers? This is terrible.


By fnord12 | December 24, 2009, 9:15 AM | Comics | Link



Marvel Sales

October.

DC's Blackest Night series bumps Marvel out of the top 6 slots. Marvel's top selling New Avengers comes in at #7. And DC almost approaches Marvel in total market share as well. This Blackest Night must be something else.


By fnord12 | December 4, 2009, 2:40 PM | Comics | Link



SuperMegaSpeed Reviews

Deadpool #5 - No doubts on the decision to drop this in favor of Deadpool Team-Up.

Dark Reign - The List: Amazing Spider-Man #1 - Was the purpose of these List books to show Osborn continually lose? I guess he captured Hawkeye and killed the Punisher, but he's failed on all his other list items. Not quite what i was expecting. But these were a nice glimpse into what was going on for the books that i'm not reading.

Models #4 - This wasn't a great series, but it wasn't bad. I actually liked the little mini features where they commented on the costume designs from other current books best. Let's just say that i wouldn't necessarily buy an Origin of Iceman one-shot by the writer of this series.

Spider-Woman #3 - This isn't really picking up. I'm actually not sure if it makes sense to introduce the Hydra element before really getting into the alien hunting bit. But even beyond that, it's just dragging and i really hate the art.

Ares #2 - A totally different type of book than the first issue. But i like it. Nice mythology stuffs and the overt tribute to Ray Harryhausen. And it clears up the confusion from last issue - Phobos wasn't missing, it's just that Hera implied that he was in trouble.

Fantastic Four #573 - This was a terribly crafted book. A real disappointment. First, the cover was completely unrelated to the story. But that's not a surprise. Beyond that, we have a narrative frame that starts with Sue Storm telling Franklin that he's in trouble, but it proceeds with Franklin telling a story that has almost nothing to do with him, and it ends with Sue just happily tucking Franklin in bed, no reference to any "trouble", and a bizarre "reveal" that it's Franklin's birthday the next day. In the meantime we have a story where the two members of the Fantastic Four are completely ineffective, or rather just incidental to the plot. And the day is saved by the annoyingly super-intelligent Valeria, and off-panel at that. It was just a big mess. After the Reed-only arc, i was looking forward to a seeing how Hickman did with the Thing and Human Torch in this issue, but this was basically another Reed story except with Valeria playing the role of Reed this issue. And beyond that, it was just very poorly constructed.

New Mutants #7 - I felt like the pacing of this issue was a little off, with half the book devoted to the New Mutants reacting to the Hellions trying to get in the door, but i'm still liking this. I'd put the odds that i continue with this series after Necrosha X at about 50/50.

Secret Warriors #10 - Surprising to see this book focus exclusively on a mythological angle. Phobos' godliness has been pretty much downplayed in this series before, which makes sense for what's essentially a spy book. But that's not to say that i have a problem with the new focus for this issue. Quite good. I would have liked to see something of a debate between Balder, Hera, and Quetzalcoatl, but i guess Phobos' response to the first question pretty much shut them up, which was kind of cool. My only concern is figuring out when it could possibly make sense for Hercules and Hera to be in the same room together given the ongoing events in the Hercules book.

Thunderbolts #138 - Well written, but i'm going to have to give myself some time to decide if i care about these characters. And i think it's funny that the Agents of Atlas are going to be showing up here, too. Is it possible to over-expose a group that doesn't have its own book?

Dark Avengers #11 - Only complaint is that Moonstone should have made an attempt to get through to the Molecule Man with her psychological training. That aspect of her character seems to have been forgotten. Beyond that, i liked this a lot.

Realm of Kings #1 - When did i call it Realm of the Kings? I thought i was being scolded for that, but i must have misunderstood. Anyway, this was Quasar vs. the Cthulu Avengers and i liked it a lot.

Guardians of the Galaxy #20 - They were supposed to reveal that Cosmo wasn't really dead at the beginning of this issue. I guess they forgot. Next issue for sure.

Realm of Kings: Inhumans #1 - I liked Pablo Raimondi's art. The story was good too. I'd like to see more politics over super-fights, and i'm hoping that Maximus' obvious intentions aren't played out too quickly since we've been down that road enough times. But this was a good set-up. And seeing the Initiative Avengers show up was a surprise.

New Avengers #59 - It's a little odd seeing Brother Voodoo ready to work with the unregistered heroes. It wasn't that long ago that he was working with the registered heroes to counter-act Dr. Strange. I found that to be "wrong" at the time and i'd like to see that acknowledged either here or in Voodoo's book. Anyway, i guess now that it's Osborn and not Iron Man on the registered side he had a re-evaluation. I really liked the 'Luke Cage has friends and he never asked for a damn thing' bit. This was a good issue. And the tracker or whatever in the heart thing was kind of obvious, but it occurred to me that no one on this team has any kind of tech skills, so i guess it makes sense that they'd miss it. But what's up with Valkyrie? Not sure how i feel about the "thick and pasty" look.

Hercules #138 - Super good.


By fnord12 | December 3, 2009, 11:16 PM | Comics | Link



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