Leftovers 9-17-14

Alright, as you may have surmised from the two other full posts on a Sunday, pretty busy day over here at Marvels HQ. I prepare, then, to ASTOUND critics (read: me) with the speed of these reviews. TO WORK.


All-New X-Factor 14

Scarlet Witch pays a visit to Polaris hoping to spend a day out with her half-sister, which Lorna does not want to do and invites Danger in the hopes that it won't be entirely uncomfortable. They go to a Renaissance Faire and drink and be merry before saving a girl from her creepy and possessive online stalker before heading out to a bar and drinking some more, where Wanda reveals that Havok had Quicksilver monitoring Lorna and reporting back to him. Peter David clearly had fun writing this book but it varies for the reader between fun and heavy-handed/somewhat inexplicable. Also, Lorna brings up her (and apparently every other mutant's) resentment of Wanda for M-Day yet encourages one of the world's most powerful and unpredictable mutants to drink despite her original wishes. Wanda also acts kind of like a child with some of this stuff, which could be an interesting character decision but doesn't really pay off or get explanation as such. Look, I meant to be going faster with these reviews then I kicked off with a book I had some real problems with. Seriously, I was aiming for like, three sentences. Total Score: 2/5


Deadpool Bi-Annual 1
Deadpool is hired by Sea World (it's a fake Sea World but it's pretty much Sea World, whatever, you get it, you're smart, I'm continuing) to stop Brute Force, a team of powerful, super-intelligent animals who have the ability to turn into vehicles, from continuing to attack their attractions. Deadpool agrees and at first has a relatively easy time against Brute Force (except for heavy Bear, who scares him off). His next attack on the team is postponed, though, when he realizes Sea World is evil and he teams with Brute Force to take down his own employers. It's a special bi-annual issue (as the title would tell you) that gives an extra ten pages to the story and is at least ten pages too long. There are bits and pieces of the issue that are genuinely funny but it reverts to fourth-wall breaking too often (I have my issues with that and I think they're probably documented but, in short, it's hard to make breaking the fourth-wall sound like it's not just a self-congratulatory writer winking too hard at the audience for approval) and it occasionally goes for lowest-common-denominator humor and now THIS self-congratulatory writer should probably get off his high horse and just rate the issue. Total Score: 2/5


Hulk 6

Doc Green (really don't like that name or the weird mohawk, you guys) attacks A-Bomb, eventually injecting him with his created serum and learning, indeed, that it's worked as A-Bomb shrinks down to Rick Jones and finds himself unable to transform again. Jones is real mad at Green but agrees to go with him to take out the next target. Green also attacks SHIELD and threatens MODOK to make sure he never toys with gamma radiation again. Meanwhile, Red Hulk gets a whiff of Doc Green's plans early and vows that he won't stand for it. I'm kind of interested in the story developing here but I'm finding Doc Green's appearance and attitude off-putting, which I believe is supposed to be the case, so I suppose points for that, but you also don't really want to read a book where you have nothing to like about the protagonist. Shaving the mohawk thing would be a good way to start. Total Score: 3/5




Hulk Annual 1
Patty Wolman, Banner's former scientist who wanted to commit suicide by Hulk, has been working with a mix of old and new research to create a sustainable forest but, as her health worsened, saw some setbacks. Now, with her mind going, she experiments on herself for the new VISTA project which would control whole sustainable systems with biochips and sentient plants and so on. It works a bit too well and she's enveloped into the Vancouver greenery, which begins to grow rapidly and envelop the whole city and its people. Doc Green fights back against it and eventually shuts it down with a chemical of his own design, though a Patty-like being, now Vista, survives and flees. Like the DEADPOOL BI-ANNUAL, this special length issue goes on about ten pages too long and drags like crazy, a result of Nero's attempts to characterize Wolman more and to show what she's been studying. It's possible everything he said was necessary to do as much as he wanted, but that doesn't make it an enjoyable or interesting read. Total Score: 2/5


Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man 5

Miles and Peter Parker have been surrounded by the cops in front of Peter's old house in the wake of the Green Goblin's reappearance. They manage to escape, though Miles is wounded leaving and picked up by detective Maria Hill, who vows to help him. Miles tracks Peter to MJ's house and Peter agrees to talk to the new Spider-Man there. Meanwhile, the spider-twins that have wreaked havoc on the city use the Green Goblin/Spider-Man distraction to heist some more specific materials and Green Goblin shows up to J. Jonah Jameson's apartment and gives him a full interview as a "reborn" Norman Osborn and Jameson shoots him. Plenty happening and aside from a couple of back-and-forth moments, it's setting up what could prove to be an interesting story for Miles. Total Score: 4/5






Nova 21
Nova finishes moving his family to their new apartment and sets off into space to follow up a lead on his father. He attacks the Chitauri planet where his father was last known to be a gladiator and finds that his father led a rebellion out of the prisons, stealing a ship with his fellow gladiators and setting off into the universe. Happy that his father escaped but now lacking any fresh leads, Sam returns home just in time to be expelled by Principal Philbin for his absences and tardiness. It's a tradition for teen superheroes to have trouble balancing their superhero life and their personal life, which always comes back to balancing school with their superhero schedule, but it's almost harder to get invested in this school problem with Nova being as powerful as he is. This isn't a cry about "school isn't important, why is Sam still there," it's more a note that most teen superheroes who struggle with this are heroes like Spider-Man or Ms. Marvel, who certainly have impressive powers and a lot with which to contend, but can't readily travel into space or leave their city on a whim (this isn't always the case, of course, but it seems more true). The reason I bring it up is that it seems to take some of the weight out of the expulsion, which isn't necessarily a slam on Duggan or his predecessors, since they all took time to focus on his troubles at school, but rather the logic of the whole thing. I read the last bit and kind of ended up going "so?" That's not a great cliffhanger. Total Score: 3/5


Savage Hulk 4
The story with the X-Men is still going and some of the X-Men work out of their binds while Hulk develops crazy strong telekinetic powers and ruins Leader (Leader only sent a drone to deal with this, so he's still out there and fine, though unsuccessful here). When the telekinetic energy in his head drains, Hulk leaps at the X-Men but Xavier manages to telepathic him down enough to leave without incident, leaving Xavier saddened that he wasn't able to help Banner but essentially restoring the status quo. The conclusion of this all-too-long arc drags just as much and pays off just as little as the rest of the arc. First arc of this new team-up book ends up not exactly delivering optimism for the rest of the series. Total Score: 1/5