ULTIMATES 2 #13
(w. Mark Millar, a. Bryan Hitch)
Well, it looked amazing. And although I don’t know that the 8-page spread in the middle added anything to the story, it was pretty cool for what it was. (I’m not sure that it was quite worth the delay, however.) For a comic book with extra pages, it read quicker than some of my regular-sized books this week, and that’s unfortunate. These might read better in their collected forms, although I recently re-read the first twelve issues and this stand-alone fight didn’t really have any kind of resonance. (Maybe because it was filled with armies of heroes and villains that we've never seen before.) Still, this is all too bad, because I’ve really liked the Ultimates, and after the much criticized Civil War, I was rooting for Millar to have a home run. Whoops.
X-FACTOR #19: People are really hating on Koi Pham, eh? And what an odd group of villains that have come together.
UNCANNY X-MEN #485
(w. Ed Brubaker, a. Billy Tan)
I was pretty patient with this series, as I’m a big X-Men fan and a big Ed Brubaker fan, but unfortunately, now that it is over, it was a bit of a disappointment. Problem #1 for me was that I never was able to give a rat shit about Vulcan (and his horrible name), regardless of what Brubaker tried. But having him be a nut ball, romance Deathbird and become the leader to an uninteresting Shiar Empire just leaves me indifferent. We’ll eventually get the next part of the story, probably in the Havok-led Starjammers mini sometime soon, but I keep feeling that for an epic, we probably shoud have been at this end point at issue 7, rather than 12. I didn’t read X-Men in the Starjammer hey-day, so the death of Corsair wasn’t a big deal to me. But it works in the sense of giving Havok a purpose that he’s lacked in a while. Hepzibah being on Earth is a bit out of nowhere, but she’s got a fun visual and we’ll see how she plays off of the other characters. The art deteriorated as the series went along, and it bums me out that Billy Tan never got back to the pretty awesome job he did on part one. Maybe it was because of the lead time he had on that one. I’m not as down on the title as it may seem, as truthfully I’m still excited for more from Brubaker. It hasn’t completely lost me.
WASTELAND #9
(w.
I’m getting happier with this title, but I think we are definitely getting to a point where you are going to be really into this series, or not at all. There are a lot of characters, a lot of names and a lot of plot lines going. Now, nowhere near Tolkien levels, but I can see some people just not having the patience for this. There will need to be re-readings, that’s for sure. Anyway, it was another good issue as we settle in to the second storyline. The flashbacks make a lot more sense this time, as last issue, I wasn’t even sure what the first two pages were. Our heroes were tracked down quicker than I expected, but that means we’ll possibly get to see Michael in an action scene.
FABLES #61
(w. Bill Willingham, a. Mark Buckingham)
Lots and lots of good things going on here in the book of Fables: The reveal of Frau’s spies was excellent, although at first it made me think it was too easy, and then it made me think that Frau could be even scarier than I thought she was, (even after her flashback in 1001 Nights). I enjoy her on the side of the Fables and I would hate to see her turn to the “dark side.” Flycatcher and Boy Blue opened the issue with a pretty entertaining conversation, leaving Flycatcher kind of in limbo as to his next move, which set up pretty perfectly the fun ending with the Forsworn Knight. Bigby and Snow possibly getting involved again excites me too. This is mostly a recap of plot points, but for fans of the series, the pieces are all being put together nicely is all. Looking forward to how this all plays out. Nothing else that I read really stood out, so this was probably my FAVORITE BOOK OF THE WEEK.
MIGHTY AVENGERS #3
(w. Brian Bendis, a. Frank Cho)
Well this was much better than last issue, where we stalled for an entire issue, but once the fists started flying here, it was pretty damn good. The Ultron/Sentry fight was a lot of fun, even though Sentry got his ass handed to him. (How powerful IS this new Ultron?) And where was his backup? With a team that has Ares, God of War on their side, shouldn’t he have been pitching in with Sentry? Odd team choices. Good moments for both Ms. Marvel and Black Widow in this issue. Good Avengers fun, even though the Tigra scene was gratuitous.
ALL-STAR BATMAN & ROBIN #5
(w. Frank Miller, a. Jim Lee)
Holy shitty comics Batman! It's almost embarrassing how all-over-the-place this comic is. Like an old guy trying to be cool by doing something that was cool a decade ago. It just doesn’t work. On one hand, I can see taking Batman to the next logical extension, he would be even crazier and even more violent. Same with the horribly annoying version of Wonder Woman, but this time taken to the level of militant man-hating Amazonian. It’s all just horribly misguided and kind of lame. The kiss with Superman at the end of the argument was laughably bad (and clichéd ta boot). And don’t get me started about the “I love you Batman” girl. This is not good, no matter who wants to spin it that way, because although this all comes across as a parody, I don’t think Miller wrote it that way. And even though he was my very first ”favorite artist” in comics, Jim Lee isn’t right for this story. His ultra-pop style is exposed a little as mere cheesecake when accompanied by the Miller script.
LOCAL #9: I really feel like I’m watching this girl grow, and I’m really going to want a continuation of this series when all is said and done.
FALLEN SON – CAPTAIN
(w. JephLoeb, a. John Romita Jr.)
Well first off, I was caught off guard by the inclusion of Hawkeye, but was really happy that he showed. I really liked the initial interaction between Tony and Clint, and was all sorts of excited for this to be the best book of the mini-series so far, but then it started to fall apart for me. I wish Hawkeye would have never put on the Captain America outfit though, kind of a deal breaker for me. He needed to put it on before he realized he shouldn’t have? Another character maybe, but this didn’t work for me here. And are the Young Avengers in the Initiative or not? And is anyone else sick of waiting for Hainberg for a new series? (And now that I think of it, it bugs me just a little that Tony knows Clint is back. Hahaha. I’m just ranting now.) John Romita Jr. is the shit though. As always.
ULTIMATE SPIDERMAN #109: How scary has the Ultimate Kingpin become for our poor little Peter Parker? Really good scene between the two.
AQUAMAN: SWORD OF ATLANTIS #52: It's silly, it's serious, it's goofy, it's good, it's bad and it all works. For me. So far.
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF
(w. Brad Meltzer, a. Ed Benes)
Three issues into this crossover (out of five) and I finally feel like I know what the hell is going on. Even if the reveal of the villains, as well as the woman on the last page, went right over my head. Meltzer still loves to fill the page with a ton of words via voice-over in that “okay, who is THIS box?” way, but overall I like the character interactions. The banter between Hawkgirl and Red Arrow was fun, as well as the moment he shared with Power Girl about his flirting. If I can, let me take this moment to wonder out loud about Power Girl’s tits for a second. Why exactly are they hanging out? Has this ever been explained in a story? I mean, as I read the character, she just seems like a woman that would be a little more self-aware, and put 'em away. Right? Also, for the second issue in a row, I found myself entertained by the Wildcat character. Funny.
COUNTDOWN #50: I’m not having too much trouble following, but I’m just not invested in anything, so it's hurting my enjoyment. The Mary Marvel storyline is the best one so far.
EX-MACHINA #28
CABLE/DEADPOOL #40: X-Men #198B? This was a waste of the title. Though I think Deadpool’s team (especially the hilarious Bob) could carry this title by themselves.
STORM SHADOW #1
(w. Larry Hama, a. Mark Robinson)
I love Storm Shadow. I love Larry Hama. I love G.I. Joe. Granted, if it wasn’t for the original series, I might not even be reading comics. So I’m REEAAALLY happy that some 20-odd years after I started reading, he’s back writing the characters. Especially this one, since Larry was always so much fun with the ninja mythology. So of course, I’m a little sad that this was a bit EH for me. It was just kind of uninteresting. There was nothing really going on that mattered to me, and that could be because I just didn’t like any of the new characters that were introduced. In fact, most of them were downright silly. The art wasn’t my cup of tea either, with a little too much manga flow to it, but because of that influence, there was some really cool action moments. I’m not done by a long shot (in fact, I’ll probably give it more of a chance than your average comic reader would), but I’m definitely hoping that it gets better.
MOON KNIGHT #10: Um, what was that issue about?
ULTIMATE X-MEN #82: Boring again.
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