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SuperMegaSpeed Reviews

Point One #1 - This is several weeks old at this point, but they were giving them away for free at Wanyas' comic shop, so he picked it up for me. And... Marvel really had some balls charging $5.99 for this. It's clearly a promo/advertisement book. It should be free. Anyway, i don't think anything here really changed my mind about the books i've planned on getting. The X-Terminated or whatever seem pretty lame. I still don't want to read about Kaine the Scarlet Spider. Nothing in the Dr. Strange piece convinced me to ignore the bad reviews i've seen of Fraction's Defenders. Absolutely nothing happened in the Ultron story but i'll still be completing Bendis' Avengers run. And the Phoenix preview was written by Jeph Loeb, who thankfully won't be working on the X-Men/Avengers crossover so it didn't help with deciding on whether or not i'll be getting that (although i hope they didn't really kill Terrax in that throwaway scene; i really hate when they feel they have to kill off some long established and often cool character just to show how powerful some new threat is. and we already know the Phoenix is powerful, so what's the point?). I did think Van Lente did a good job introducing the new fire & ice characters, but where will they be appearing? Most of all, i really enjoyed the framing sequence with the Watcher.

Avengers vs. X-Men Program Guide - Since we're reviewing promo material, i might as well say that, having read this, i guess i will get the crossover. It doesn't seem like it'll be great, but the premise makes sense and the writing wasn't too bad. I had withdrawal symptoms when i didn't get Fear Itself even though by all accounts i seem to have made the right move, so if this crossover seems like it'll be even a notch better i guess i may as well go with it. So bring it on.

X-Factor #232 - I think i just picked the wrong time to start reading this book. Another alternate universe fight, and now all these alternate universe characters are in the real world so i guess we're not moving on yet. It's been a weird book, honestly.

Winter Soldier #2 - Not nearly enough super-ape action. It's partially a problem with the art: in theory, this book contained a machine gun toting gorilla who punched out Bucky and then escaped in a jet pack. In practice there were a lot of angular muddled panels further obscured by snow. I had a similar problem with what should have been a cool action sequence with Nick Fury. But beyond the art, this is still mainly a spy story that just happened to feature a gorilla. I was hoping for a more super-hero-ish story. And more Dr. Doom. This is still a good book and i expect things will continue to build, but i want my super-apes vs. Dr. Doom, and i want it now.

Avengers #22 & New Avengers #21 - I go through the same thing every time these books come out: prior to actually reading the issues, i agree with the criticism that this is a rehash of the previous Dark Avengers storyline, but then when i read them i actually enjoy it. I thought the battle with Clor was well done, and the scenes with the captured Avengers in the other book was handled nicely as well. I like the way Osborn is manipulating the public and the government, which is the sort of thing the Avengers aren't well equipped to handle (and i know people don't like that Luke Cage is so easily goaded by Osborn, but go back and read any issue of Power Man & Iron Fist: Cage is a hothead). So, i'm liking this. I'm still confused about the Vision though and all the comments that he's "back". Is there a Young Vision and a Vision now? That wasn't the way i understood things when the Vision was revived in Young Avengers. I also didn't like the way his face was drawn, but the art was generally ok (although i prefer Deodato's art in New).

Thunderbolts #170 - Favorite book. Great characterization. Nice art. Troll have dragon! The team can time-travel for as long as they like.

Avenging Spider-Man #4 - This one issue did a better job with character development for Hawkeye than both issues of Jen Van Meter's Avengers Solo that i read, and it also managed to be funny and a good adventure story at the same time. Good stuff. Glad to see this book can still be good without Joe Madureira's art, but i hope the sales numbers agree.

Avengers Academy #26 - Well i guess that thinned out the herd a bit. I enjoyed this while i read it but thinking about what to say now i realize it's an entire issue of people standing around arguing with each other, and i know some people don't like that.

New Mutants #38 - Very few writers would dare revisit Bird-Brain and the Animator, but not only do Abnett & Lanning do it, they do it well. I also really enjoy this interpretation of Doug Ramsey, which Zeb Wells should get the credit for but Abnett & Lanning have continued it nicely. "Isn't she spoken for?" "But I would speak for her much more articulately!" Glad to see someone new on art. I like it. Bird-Brain was nicely creepy and i liked Fernandez's Warlock, especially that menacing final panel. The regular humans looked fine, too!

By fnord12 | February 26, 2012, 12:43 PM | Comics


Comments

i am finally prepared to comment.

Point One: of all of the promos, i liked the X-Terminated, Age of Apocalypse story best, despite the lame name. i think i'm just a sucker for AoA stuff. i have the gold covered trades to prove it. but nothing particularly stood out as a "must get".

A vs XM: having read this, i am tentatively optimistic that this crossover will not be quite as awful as i imagined when i first heard about it. that being said, i can't stand the endless crossovers. i'd like my individual titles to have time to actually get on with their own story lines instead of constantly being sucked into some crappy crossover story line. also, the artists need to come to some consensus on Hope's age. Frank Cho's drawing her like she's 20 in the #0 preview and Romita, Jr.'s drawing her like she's 13 in the #1 preview. pick one!

X-Factor: hey, can we go back to the blue-faced Doctor Strange/Madrox, disciple to the Sorcerer Supreme world? cause that looked kinda kewl. way kewler than the house full of random people having random conversations about boring shit that Madrox is so keen to return to. and not just - can this Madrox go back there and be confused and useless. i mean, can we do that dimension's story instead?

WS: the problem wasn't that there wasn't enough gun-toting gorilla action. the problem was that we were not allowed to see any of it. let's go thru all my specific complaints. you love this. i know you do.

1) back at "headquarters", sitwell shows Bucky and BW an image from a security cam. i can't tell wtf is going on in that image because it's all blurry shadows of body parts. i deduce that someone is prolly killing someone else. could be a knife. could be a spyglass. my problem isn't that i can't identify their faces but that i don't even know if they have faces. now, if the image was supposed to be grainy and hard to see, then i would accept this. but in a closeup, they make sure to draw the guy's face very clearly. i guess Guice was just too lazy to bother with making the actions in the first image discernible.

2) the next page is more shots of Sitwell, BW, and Bucky. they're surrounded by ginormous, lit monitors. except for 2 shots of the BW, everyone's in the dark. even if the room had zero lights other than these monitors, there are so many of them and they're so huge that the room would be pretty damned bright. you can only identify who people are by the shape of their shadows. i am going to be generous and assume this was done as an artistic choice cause this book is "dark" and "artsy". i'm trying very hard not to just assume Guice was too lazy to bother actually drawing anyone's features so he kept them all in shadow.

3) really? BW threw a lab coat over her regular costume and pinned up her hair and nobody thought she looked shady? why the hell is she constantly undressing in these missions? and is she running around in socks or did she just put those heeled shoes on over her black boots? this isn't a "Guice, you suck" commentary. it's a "Guice, why?" commentary. in case you can't tell the difference between the two.

4) let's play a game. every time black widow's legs are wide open in a fight, you smack yourself in the head. tell me how you feel at the end of the issue if you're still conscious. she has hands, ferchrissake! she can hit people with more than her feet! her custom weapons are on her wrists! this isn't Adam West Batman where all Batgirl ever did was kick goons! *hrmph*

Avengers/NA: i have no clue who is on Osborne's team. who are the 2 chicks? so confused....

can we please stop with the cliched "Spider-Woman in bondage" thing?

otherwise, i enjoyed the books. still hate the Osborne's a big time player plot, but i'm going with it.

TB: i disagree with fnord12. stop with the time traveling already! i do love Troll, though.

Avenging SM: SM is too nice of a guy and nobody ever appreciates him enough.

AA: is Jocasta always that much of a jerk? and i can't believe Hazmat just handed over pieces of Mettle to that weasely Jeremy Briggs. i mean, c'mon. cereally? all of this paranoia these Academy kids carry around with them and she just ups and trusts that he's not going to do something sinister with this? fnord12 and i disagree on this. he doesn't think it's a big deal because it's not like Briggs couldn't have gotten a hold of samples himself if he wanted them. i think that's besides the point. i think it's out of character and just dumb of Hazmat to make do something that could potentially end up biting them in the ass if Briggs turns out to be the asshole he's made out to be.

NM: look, they've been moved into their house for how long now? why haven't they stopped to go shopping and get X-Man a pair of goddamned shoes?? and how about a shirt if you're gonna be out there fighting bad guys? body armor would be even better, but at least start with a shirt. No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service.

**what the hell is the deal with the Avengers vs. X-Men ad with the creepy looking Spider-Woman and Gambit? they're all spindly and their faces are awful. they're baring their teeth at me. why are they baring their teeth at me? i thought the point of an ad was to make people look at it and go "ooh! what's that?" not "ew! what the hell is wrong with their faces?", but i was clearly mistaken.