Leftovers 8-13-14

Hey all my buddies, we've reached the end of another long week and I've reached the end of another string of longer reviews. You know what that means: focusing up to whip out this review dump in under an hour (tricky business, that, considering how many I left for myself. Did you guys realize I hadn't actually reviewed AMAZING SPIDER-MAN or SPIDER-MAN 2099 yet? Because I sure didn't). LET'S HIT IT.

Amazing Spider-Man 5
Slott (w) and Ramos (p) and Olazaba (i) and Delgado (c) and Eliopoulos (l)

Spider-Man and Silk make out for a while until she reveals that she knows he's Peter Parker, which jolts him back into his regular state of mind. Disturbed by both of their actions, he brings her home to try to figure out what should happen next, but they quickly end up making out again until Anna Maria comes home. She tells him that Sajani hasn't appeared to any press events as scheduled and he must do it himself, so he goes on J. Jonah Jameson's new talking heads show and begins to talk about his desire to capture and cure Electro and other villains only to be interrupted by Black Cat and Electro busting on to the set to hold Peter hostage. Silk emerges and fights the pair while Peter changes but Electro manages a hit on Peter that renders him immobile while Cat prepares to unmask him on live television. I still really don't like this Black Cat-Electro team-up and I really hate the crazed Black Cat that's emerged from it. Also, her luck powers seem to be working overtime, as do her luck-based mantras and BOY that never gets annoying. Total Score: 2/5


Avengers Undercover 8
Hopeless (w) and T. Walker (a) and Beaulieu (c) and Caramagna (l)

It's been three months since the kids joined up with the villains and some are ready to join up officially while the others are on the cusp of being in deep enough to turn the tables on their "allies." When the now-together Hazmat and Anachronism decide they've gained enough trust, they escape momentarily to contact Hank Pym and tell him what's been happening. He's not thrilled but he agrees to help them when the moment comes. Unfortunately, Zemo seems wise to their game and brings down each one of the kids not already under his sway (Death Locket seems pretty entrenched already and Cullen is being controlled by Daimon Hellstrom). It's a really nice bit of sleight of hand by Hopeless as he keeps the reader focused on the changes that have occurred over the last three months and on which of the kids will follow through on their original plan before revealing that Zemo already has the drop on them because, you know, in retrospect, of course he does, he's Zemo and this plan isn't foolproof, let alone Zemo-proof. Good issue. Total Score: 5/5


Avengers World 11
Spencer (w) and Ienco (a) and Mossa (c) and Caramagna (l)

The Avengers kids are on hand and they prove themselves by taking down a flock of SHIELD agents before Maria agrees to their help. They go to AIM Island and, with the help of Manifold, take down plenty of AIM agents and use a device to gather the intelligence AIM has gathered and block its transmission. They manage to stick it to one of the bio-networked AIM agents and then distract Forson long enough to escape while the present Avengers head to the White House to defend it from AIM, who have more or less declared war on America after Iron Man's "attack" on Forson on live TV. Mostly interesting stuff here though the re-emergence of the Next Avengers mostly just serves to confuse me as to why they're back and, you know, timeline stuff and the like. Whatever, still doing alright. Total Score: 4/5


Deadpool 33
Posehn and Duggan (w) and Lucas (a) and Staples (c) and Sabino (l)

Deadpool fights off wave after wave of Ultimatum soldiers before their boss Flag-Smasher appears and Deadpool gets incapacitated enough for Flag-Smasher to throw Ellie out the window. Deadpool struggles to his feet and begins his attacks anew, furious and sad, until Genesis shows up to help his ol' pal Deadpool with own pal Quentin Quire in tow. Evan caught Ellie going out the window and the girl is unharmed, which doesn't keep Deadpool from annihilating Flag-Smasher, ensuring he stays alive so no one else picks up the mantle and comes after him and threatening him with horrible consequences should he ever come near Deadpool or Ellie again. Deadpool convinces Preston to take Ellie in and he himself buys a house across the street from Preston to be in constant view of his daughter. Meanwhile, Adsit reveals to Preston that Deadpool killed his own family. Pretty good issue, plenty of fun and interesting stuff here. I don't love Lucas' art, which makes anyone unmasked look fairly grotesque and kind of distracts from the situation at hand. Not bad otherwise though. Total Score: 4/5


Fantastic Four 8
J. Robinson (w) and L. Kirk (p) and Hanna (i) and Aburtov (c) and Cowles (l)

Thing is accused of murder, Sue attacked the Avengers after losing her kids, and Johnny's been booted from his live tour in favor of Robinson's ALL-NEW INVADERS creation Radiance. Thing is moved to a high-power prison facility and Sue and Reed are brought to Eden, a community hovering above Lake Michigan led by a man named John Eden because creativity isn't worth anything, I suppose. This is a book I legitimately finished, planning to read a few more comics upon its completion, and I found I couldn't continue because sometimes books are just too bad. It seems telling that the blurb they took from a Newsarama article for the cover simply says "Marvel's premier dysfunctional family" and not anything lauding this actual series. It seems like something is pulling the strings here on the F4 and you can almost be assured that's true because Robinson basically has Reed say it a couple times without actually saying it because Reed apparently hasn't figured it out yet but is taking liberty to simply dance around it. Maybe they didn't have any space to say it outright because they had already used up all of their real estate on exposition. I really don't like this book. Total Score: 1/5


Hulk 5
Duggan (w) and Bagley (p) and Hennessy (i) and Keith (c) and Petit (l)

Hulk has been injected with Extremis and it's made him incredibly smart, though it made him also shave his hair into a mohawk and start calling himself "Doc Green" so maybe we're meant to question exactly how smart he really is. He's smart enough, though, to have formulated a way to cure gamma-enhanced beings, though the serum won't work on himself. He's realized that gamma-enhancements are too dangerous to have around and he's made enough of the serum and fashioned enough adamantium nanites for delivery to the other gamma-enhanced beings, starting with Rick Jones, who isn't so crazy about the idea. Very interesting new direction for the series as Gerry Duggan takes over the book (a little sad that it's not Mark Waid because I was going to talk about how I met Mark Waid last week and he was delightful and very kind but now I have no idea when I'll be able to mention it). I'm distracted, still, by the mohawk and the name Doc Green but I like a lot of the other stuff. Total Score: 4/5


Inhuman 3
Soule (w) and Madureira (a) and Gracia (c) and Cowles (l)

Lash has taken a few more Inhumans to Orollan, though no one really knows what to make of his cultish ways. Meanwhile, Lineage has sought council with Medusa to tell him what he knows about Black Bolt's plan, gleaned from the information he's received from the voices in his body. Allegedly, something worse is coming for the Inhumans and Black Bolt unleashed the Terrigen Mists because they'd need all the help they can get. Medusa brings a handful of combatants to Orollan to tell Lash about the threats and to warn him off killing any more Inhumans, which he very reluctantly agrees to. Lots of good stuff here and a lot of interesting new places to go but you do have to get through a lot of exposition in this issue to get to the meat of the series. Total Score: 4/5






GUYS, maybe there will be more later but I am burned out and APPARENTLY I really left a ton for myself for today/tomorrow so I'm takin' a break. Love you all, spoilers for the future post: THUNDERBOLTS and X-FORCE are both worth reading. Can't say much else.