By fnord12 | December 13, 2013, 4:24 PM | Comics | Link

SuperMegaSpeed Reviews

I went on a business trip a few weeks back and have just about caught up with the pile of 1986 comics i read on the plane, but it's at the expense of currents. So let me catch up now .

Uncanny X-Force #14 - I've been keeping Nathan Adler up to date on this arc due to his interest in the Demon Bear, and he expressed some disappointment that it was Cassandra Nova, not the Shadow King, who was controlling the revenants here. See his latest fix about the somewhat similar outsign spirits, the Shadow King, and how it all relates to vibranium for more about that. Of course that's just a sneaky plug for Nathan but to bring it back to this story, it could have used an explanation for the revenants that wasn't just introducing some new concept out of nowhere. To learn that every person on Earth is shadowed by a duplicate demon that we've never heard about until now is a bit hard to swallow. And i'm still confused about parts of it. Is Cassandra Nova meant to be a revenant version of Professor X, or is she herself just a revenant Cassandra Nova, or is she regular Cassandra Nova that just happens to have taken control of the revenants? And what about the Demon Bear; i understand that he's meant to be a revenant too, but is he an evil duplicate of something on Earth? And also, the Demon Bear seemed to come back with Bishop from the future, so is there also a non-future Demon Bear roaming around the Earth? By my count that's potentially three Bears: Future Demon Bear, Present Demon Bear, and Non-Demon Bear. Add Tygra to lasso them up and you've got yourself a hot new series. Sorry, off target again. Umm, i guess it's possible i should really know the answers to my Cassandra and Bear questions but as i've said before - and as becomes very clear when trying to keep Nathan updated - this storyline has been ambling along for some time now, and it's been difficult to keep interest up and memory working between issues. I was hoping for a conclusion this issue - maybe with the idea that since Psylocke had recently tamed the Bear it would have helped them defeat Cassandra - but instead we have Puck and Psylocke banished to the revenant dimension at the end. One thing i will say is that the revenant doubles have given Sam Humphries the ability to do some character work; i liked the temptation of offering Psylocke her original body back this issue.

Ok, at that rate we're never going to get through all these issue. Let's move a little faster.

Hulk #15 - Ok, good. That's over with. Remember when i was afraid this series was going to lead to a big continuity reboot. Hah hah, i sure am paranoid! There's no doubt that Hulk punched continuity at the end of this but it doesn't seem like it's going to affect anything outside of this series.

Hulk #16 - I do wish this book could have a consistent artist. This story felt fill-in-ish. It also doesn't seem to have anything to do with Inhumanity, which i am fine with but what's with the cover banner?

Avengers A.I. #6 - I've been whiffy on this series but let me show you some things (forgive the quick poor quality phone scans):

So yeah, i liked this issue.

I do want to say that even though this issue is cute and funny, i like the much more serious treatment of Henry Pym's psychological condition. I think it's handled well.

X-Men #7 - I haven't been keeping up with Lady Deathstrike, but i'm always wary when something happens to a character like we see here where she's no longer a person, but instead a nanite injection. Maybe that happened already in something i missed. But it seems to take away from what the character was. I don't know, i don't have a specific problem with it in this case, just a general aversion. In any event, i think Wood's story is good. I liked the use of Monet as a wildcard element in Deathstrike's planning, and i'm looking forward to seeing Deathstrike team up with Typhoid Mary next issue. And the Dodsons were relatively restrained. So, this was good!

Daredevil #33 - A fun visit with the Monsters. It did get me thinking about how wildly different Satana's appearances have been this past year or so, but i mainly blame that on Peter David.

Young Avengers #12-13 - A really great conclusion to what's been a really great series. Apparently a limited series. Jerks. Still one more epilogue issue to enjoy, anyway.

FF #14 - I see Matt Fraction's name is still in the credits, but it seems like there's been more references to past continuity and a clearer explanation of what's going on with Doom, Kang, and Annihilus than we've seen when he was more fully on the book. Possibly just a coincidence? Or maybe there was something i was missing from the Fantastic Four book (note to casual readers: FF and Fantastic Four are two different titles. Other note to casual readers: how can you possibly be making any sense of these reviews? What are you doing here?!)? My first foray into Fantastic Four last issue blew my head straight off, so i suspect not. Anyway, loving this; sorry that it is ending (a phrase they will engrave on my tombstone).

Superior Spider-Man Team-Up #6-7 - After so much build up i was surprised to see it wrapped up so quickly. But if you are going to wrap it up, why not with a battle with everybody's favorite iteration of the Masters of Evil. Definitely enjoyed this even if the art felt a bit murky. That was especially a problem when issue #7 began in medias res; i was flipping back to the previous issue to see when Sun Girl was thought to have died. Actually i am still not clear about that. I also thought her shouting "I'm biracial!" was clunkily done, but i do like her as the daughter of Lightmaster.

Iron Man #19 - I think the way these Iron Metropolitan issues are going to go is i'm going to pick it up, say, "hrmmm, this arc, i'm not really interested in this...", and then read it and remember that i'm supposed to trust Kieron Gillen because it's a good story. And it is.

Indestructible Hulk Annual #1 - I thought we were starting off by revealing that Tony Stark and Bruce Banner went to school together, but it was just a one time conference and i guess i can live with that. Less so the idea that this one professor had such a profound impact on Banner's life but we never heard of him before. Still, this was fun. I enjoyed Iron Man's manipulation of Hulk.

Secret Avengers #12 - I often mention that i normally read my books in order of increased anticipation, so readers may be shocked to see this at the bottom of the list. But i had so many books to get through that the usual ordering just got lost; otherwise this would be near the top of the pile and Young Avengers and FF and Superior Spider-Man Team Up would be down here. Still, that's anticipation; in fact i did enjoy this book much more than i have been for this series. And i really mean that, i'm not just saying that because of who shows up on the last page.