weekly loot: june 20

X-MEN: ENDANGERED SPECIES
(w. Mike Carey, a. Scott Eaton)
So as I’ve said a couple of times here in the past few weeks, I’m a pretty big X-Fan, and I’m excited for the year building up to the big crossover, and this is arguably the start of everything. So what happens? Well, it’s the funeral of a non-descript mutant where a lot of mutants show up, no matter how unlikely. I mean, I get what they are trying to do, a Mutant dying is one closer to extinction, but it was a stretch at times. There were conversations between New Mutants and X-Factor people, basically trying to hammer these points home. Sam questions Bishop about his foreknowledge, which I assume will be important in the future; Beast sets up the Endangered Species 20 parter with a joke-popping Jamie Madrox; and Wolverine and Cyclops have a seen-it-before conversation where they go on about how they have to keep fighting. All of this was good and all, but I would have liked to have seen these characters making conversation about other things: Havok missing, Xavier back (didn’t Cyclops kick him out?) and other important things. Still, not in the cards, I get that. The best conversation for me was Xavier and Shaw. Only because I enjoy the moments where the biggest baddest villains of the X-Universe just seem to want the same things as Xavier. An average issue, not good, not bad, but the good news is: Carey GETS the X-Men, and as we move into more action and build to more character moments we should be in good shape.

WASTELAND #10: Well, we got some answers. I think. I enjoyed it, but I may need to read it again.

CAPTAIN AMERICA #27
(w. Ed Brubaker, a. Steve Epting & Mike Perkins)
Well, Captain America is still dead. But who the hell cares, because we have BAD ASS BUCKY BARNES to take over the book. A few years ago this would have sucked, but right now, I couldn’t be happier. I love that Bad Ass is smarter and just plain better than everyone in the room. Poor Black Widow got steam rolled, though I guess that has extenuating circumstances. Sharon being almost suicidal is a bit much for me, but her and the Falcon together works for sure. To be honest, Brubaker is making it all look far too easy here, and I can’t wait to see where we go from here. Cap all of this with some sweet Epting and Perkins art, and you have yourself a BOOK OF THE WEEK. Brubaker is on fire.

INCREDIBE HULK #107
(w. Greg Pak, a. Gary Frank)
Now THAT’S a fucking fight. So far HERCULES vs. HULK wins in the World War Hulk fights. Gary Frank’s art was awesome here. I loved the use of the full-body shots during the punches and the close up reaction shots of Hercules. I FELT these punches. Awesome. As for the rest? Amadeus continues to be charming, as he plays everyone around him to some extent to get what he wants. I was also happy to see Namor addressed in all this, and to see Namora from Agents of Atlas get a cameo, so that those characters don’t go back into limbo. The only misfire for me was the stealing Angel’s money thing. And then he acts like it didn't matter. Huh? I doubt that Warren would have just moved along, but I guess they can write in later that Cho doubled his money while he had it, abusing the stock market or something. Fun stuff.

IRON MAN #19
(w. Christos Gage, Jackson Guice)
The first satellite World War Hulk book, and it was okay. I mean, in-between all the narration that is still working overtime to justify Stark’s actions, I actually really liked the approach to World War Hulk that this issue took. All of the others so far are from the Hulk’s POV, and this one had a more ground-eye view of the menace that is coming. The Hulk felt scarier here than in the other issues because of it. Aside from the fact that this issue was repetitive, it was entertaining. Guice’s pencils were good and I’m happy that Gage is getting some more mainstream play. I did miss the Knaufs a little, and the approach they’ve been bringing to the comic.

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #110: Bagley’s penultimate issue, and it was pretty good. More next issue when the baton is passed for real.

FALLEN SON – SPIDER-MAN: Was it just me, or did Finch have some serious anatomy issues in this comic? Might be the best of the bunch so far, but still nothing “must see” here.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #541: This was a bit boring. Bring on One More Day.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #10
(w. Brad Meltzer, A. Ed Benes)
I repeat, DC doesn’t want my money. Hahaha. It was the end of the big crossover with JSA and I’m glad really. So much was going on with so many characters, that although I was doing a good job of following along, I didn’t get the inside jokes and plot threads that Johns and Meltzer were playing off of. I had no idea which Flash that was at the end, or even less who the people with him were, and it was all just lost on me. Whatever, what’s next? I’m with Meltzer’s run till the end, and the only reason I can come up with is because I really want to like the JLA.

AQUAMAN: SWORD OF ATLANTIS #53: Holy shit, Manta was over the top, but I’m still having a good old time with this series.

EX-MACHINA #29: Starting to gain some momentum again, as I’m back on board to see where this is all leading. Good issue.

SPIRIT #7
(w. Walter Simonson, a. Chris Sprouse)
(w. Jimmy Palmiotti, a. Jordi Bernet)
(w/a. Kyle Baker)
The least likely story of the three, ended up being my favorite. Simonson/Sprouse and Baker were the ones I was looking forward to going in, and Jimmy’s stole the show. This could actually be one of my favorite things that Jimmy has ever written, if I think about it. It had a lot of the old Eisner work feel, with a little playfulness in the panels and storytelling. Jordi’s pinup-y art was a lot of fun. The Simonson one was good enough, just feels like something I’ve read before (looked nice) and the last one, Baker’s Sin City riff, I just didn’t get. And didn’t it have horrible lettering? Looked like those comics that some 15-year old does locally and gives away for free at your local comic book store.

MADAME MIRAGE #1
(w. Paul Dini, a. Kenneth Rocafort)
I’m thinking really hard, trying to say some good things, but it really isn’t any good. Sadly, Madame Mirage and her sidekick, both scantily clad, fight a Big Evil Company that engineers bad guys. Here she chases a couple down, they are murdered and she disappears cryptically. Too much of a Top Cow vibe for me. The pencils are good, but the colors didn’t always work for me. It's really too bad, because I wouldn’t mind reading some regular Dini work, but with this and Countdown he’s just not doing it for me. No more for me unless I start to hear amazing things as the months go along.

MEGATRON: ORIGIN #1
(w. Eric Holmes, a. Alex Milne)
Blame this purchase on being hyped for the movie. Or rather, blame “being hyped for the movie” for me going out and buying every Transformer comic currently in the IDW-verse, and then blame that for this purchase. Did that make sense? Anyway, I recently got them all and it has been hit-and-miss (for another post), but I was kind of excited for the Megatron origin. In some ways, I think it’s the best Transformer thing I’ve ever read. It’s a good Megatron origin for sure. He began as one of many workers on a mine colony, who helps start a revolt when the Sentate (read: The Man) comes to shut them down. They are working hard to make his point of view a bit sympathetic, and although I’ve seen this kind of story before, for the most part it works. Transformer comics that I’ve seen don’t usually have this kind of pathos. The art was good, but at times it was muddled and it was hard to make out the characters from time to time.

MOON KNIGHT #11: I’ve been really patient with this book, but it's treading water. Huston’s run ends at 13?

STORM SHADOW #2: A lot better than issue #1, carried by its action, but still don’t know if I care about the story, especially Storm Shadow’s annoying anime niece.