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

And the rest

Another review dump. I'd expect this sort of thing to be the norm for a bit, you guys. Don't necessarily think that the books that are saved for Saturday aren't worthy of your time: still trust the little blurbs and the total scores. As with everything else on this blog, the decision that forces books on to a Saturday dump are practically arbitrary. Look, you get it, I don't know why I'm explaining it more except that, obviously, all I ever do is ramble. Let's just get to it.

All-New X-Factor 10
David (w) and Di Giandomenico (a) and Loughridge (c) and Petit (l)

Georgia has been taken by her supervillain father Memento Mori and the team is eager to get her back. Mori treats his daughter well, showing her his five-star hotel and giant mall, but also demands she use her powers in his service, which puts them at odds. With the team reassembled, they manage to get to Georgia. They teleport away with her with the help of a Serval Industries matter transporter which just so happens to leave Gambit, who inadvertently slept with Snow's wife, behind. Some strong parts in this that are maybe a little clouded by somewhat forced pop culture arguments (something David loves and I don't want to begrudge him but I will) and humor that occasionally hits but occasionally tries too hard. 4/5






Daredevil Road Warrior 0.1
Waid (w) and Krause (a) and Kalisz (c) and Sabino (l)

This is just the motion comic that came out not long ago that preceded Daredevil's move to San Francisco. Pretty sure I already reviewed it all (or at least parts of it!) but I had it on my list so here it is! Still alright, interesting to see a motion comic re-translated into a regular comic. I dunno, 4/5?

Deadpool vs. X-Force 1
Swierczynski (w) and Larraz (a) and Woodard (c) and Sabino (l)

After obsessed-with-time-travel millionaire Francis Talbot's grandson dies in a firefight in Desert Storm (this story is set pre-X-Force and all), he hires Deadpool, a hitherto unknown mercenary, to go back and save him. Cable, keeping tabs on Talbot, is disappointed that he would mess with the time stream so but agrees to go back with the new mutants (soon-to-be-X-Force) and retrieve Deadpool, who, of course, went off-mission to the American Revolution. After messing around in the 1700s for a bit and finding himself at odds with X-Force, Deadpool jumps to the Civil War. Kind of an interesting story developing here (that wreaks just a bit of havoc with the Marvel timeline) but perhaps a bit too much exposition here in the first issue to set everything up which, albeit, is a lot to set up. 3/5

Fantastic Four 100th Anniversary 1
Van Meter (w) and Estep (a and c) and Sabino (l)

The first in Marvel's new experimental line that asks what might be happening in decades to come for some key Marvel titles. First stop, FANTASTIC FOUR. The original F4 have been separated and/or lost in timespace for 15 years and Val leads the new F4 (including two of her own children and two other young heroes) from a control center. Visions reach out to her and she teams with her mother Sue to pull the other original members back into the real world. Hard to really summarize a standalone book of all-new made up things. Still, easy enough to get into, drags a little bit but that probably has more to do with not knowing what's happening and the exposition needed to establish all of that. Sort of interesting idea, best to just group this sort of thing with WHAT IFs though. 3/5

Guardians of the Galaxy: Galaxy's Most Wanted 1
Corona Pilgrim (w) and Di Vito (a) and Villari (c) and Cowles (l)

Movie tie-in that finds Rocket and Groot short-changed on a bounty when Groot realizes that Rocket has a bounty on his head. As a slew of bounty hunters turn on Rocket, Groot protects him (though his attempts at protection are first mistaken for betrayal by Rocket) and the pair manage to confront the rival hunter who placed the bounty, demanding he take it down. Predictable and rather cookie-cutter, which is often what you expect from a movie tie-in. It moves relatively well, but I think mostly it's because you can skip almost all of the dialogue and know what's happening. 2/5

Magneto 6
Bunn (w) and J. Fernandez (a) and D. Brown (c) and Petit (l)

Armed with his new information from Briar Raleigh, Magneto strikes and strikes and strikes at the Marauders, who, as it happens, are mostly clones of the key Marauders. He goes through legions of clones while the SHIELD agents on his tail try to piece together what they can from one of the Scalphunters he didn't fully kill, just horribly maim. Magneto, though, finds his way to one of the Marauder control centers and realizes he may just be able to reprogram the clones to work for a new master. Interesting stuff as Magneto may just be ready to build himself an army. Maybe a little less introspective than the rest of the series has been so far but still with the driving justice theme behind it holding the series up pretty well. 4/5






Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man 3
Bendis (w) and Marquez (a) and Ponsor (c) and Petit (l)

Miles reveals to Kate that he's Spider-Man and she runs off. Before he can chase her, homicide detective Maria Hill shows up to question him about the appearance of the other Spider-Men, who are now responsible for at least one death. Meanwhile, news gets out that Norman Osborn is alive and Monica Chang, ex-leader of SHIELD, leads a team to Oscorp to try to track him. He is there as they arrive and he decimates the team, including probably murdering Chang (certainly at least burning her face off). Miles hears that Goblin is alive and speeds off to Peter Parker's house, worried that Goblin will come for Aunt May. Of course, right as Miles realizes how unprepared he is for this fight (being a less-experienced Spidey than the original who died at Goblin's hands and now lacking his web shooters thanks to the somehow also alive Peter Parker), Goblin shows up. Pretty strong issue. I think that the dialogue once again bogs down what is an interesting and compelling story but there's enough happening right now and you can't help but care about Miles enough that it holds pretty well. 4/5

Miracleman 8
A. Moore (w) and Austen (a) and Oliff (c) and Caramagna (l)

Pluto has destroyed Cream and now leaps at Michael Moran, eating the gun out of his hand and taking two fingers with it. As he plays with his would-be victim, Moran comes enough to his senses to shout "Steppenwolf," the keyword that changes Pluto back to a regular dog, and bashes the dog's head in with a rock. After the hour passes, Moran changes back into Miracleman and hunts down Gargunza, grabbing him by the throat and bringing him to the edge of space before tossing him down to burn through the atmosphere. Dark ending, that, but a good look at what a full-powered and rage-filled Miracleman is capable of as he plows through trees and people alike, unyielding in his fury. 5/5

New Warriors 7
Yost (w) and To (a) and Redmond (c) and Cowles (l)

The new Inhumans who have taken Haechi's family hostage, waiting for his return, attack the New Warriors upon their entrance. They manage to capture Haechi and Sun Girl in their dark energy teleportation, leaving Justice behind to call the rest of the team, who are, in the case of Speedball and Jake Waffles, looking for traces of celestial energy and, in the case of Scarlet Spider, Aracely, and Mr. Whiskers, looking for demons surrounding them. With the help of old New Warrior Silhouette Chord, they trace the dark energy signature and find Haechi and Sun Girl. Haechi is tied up and unable to transform and the other Inhumans, disciples of Lash (from INHUMAN), are preparing to kill Sun Girl when she manages to shoot Haechi's chains off. They're safe for the moment but Lash himself finally appears and it's a whole different story. Meanwhile, the team's teleport is manipulated from an outside source and they land in a warehouse full of armed bad guys. Strong story, plenty going on but still enough time for the talented Yost to establish more about our characters. 5/5

Punisher 8
Maurer and Edmondson (w) and Carnero (p) and Pallot (i) and Fabela (c) and Petit (l)

With some amount of struggle and a fair amount of injury and losses (including Ortiz at the hands of an irritated Crossbones), Punisher manages to buy enough time for Special Forces Tom to get what remains of his troop out, sacrificing himself to be caught by Crossbones in the process. It's more a story about the Special Forces group and Frank's tangential relation to them (and the impact he would have on them in the time to come) than about Punisher himself, though it does put him firmly in Crossbones' grasp at the end. There's a little too much going on to make this a really clean read and a lot of the new soldiers look a little too much alike to separate particularly well, making the whole read somewhat chaotic and confusing. 2/5

Thor: God of Thunder 24
Aaron (w) and Alessio w/Ribic (a) and Alessio w/Svorcina (c) and Sabino (l)

Dario Agger managed to get away from the authorities to absolve himself of any blame and now, at a press conference, pins all of the blame on the fact that Asgardia stays in the sky above Broxton. The Congress of Worlds meets in Asgardia to decide if Asgard should move elsewhere on the World Tree and, of course, they decide that they should, despite Thor's protestations. Before they go, the gods do what they can to help Broxton clear out the rubble, leaving mounds of Asgardian gold and other gifts behind as well. Thor, disappointed with the way things turned out and mad that all he's done is destroy, just as he did when he was young, also delivers his own personal castle, his home on Asgardia, to Broxton so that the displaced people might live there while the town rebuilds. He also nominates Jane Foster to the Congress of Worlds to represent Midgard. Dario Agger, for his part, eyes the other realms for his own conquest. In the far future, King Thor and his daughters rebuild Earth but who knows for how long, as the All-Black merges with Galactus. The issue ends up being immensely powerful as Thor has plenty of time for introspection and finds himself depressed in the result. It's a very strong issue and a solid conclusion to an arc that could have gone either way. 5/5

SPEED ROUND: Superior Foes of Spider-Man 12, Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man 2, Miracleman 7

Superior Foes of Spider-Man 12

Spencer (w) and Lieber (a) and Rosenberg (c) and Cowles (l)

Boomerang's team has found him and his feeble attempts to convince them that it was Chameleon who betrayed them doesn't go over as well with them as it did with Owl. However, Owl backs him up and hires the team to get the painting back. They agree and Owl gives them a few more hired hands to help with Chameleon's security. When Boomerang, Overdrive, and Beetle make it downstairs, Overdrive takes the painting (a forgery, according to Boomerang), he aims for another new prize. Meanwhile, Hydro-Man has revealed to Hammerhead that Shocker has the head of Silvermane.

With Spencer and Lieber back and the main plot picked back up, the book immediately resumes its old tone and humor. It continues to be a sharp book, one of the funnier books on the stands from Marvel, and still manages to have a plot that's certainly compelling enough, which is all this one needs to be. I mentioned in the comments of Coby's Comics blog recently that it's possible my aversion to the new SECRET AVENGERS comes from the characters chosen to act the way they're acting because I don't buy it from those specific characters. This book feels very much like what that book is going for, something fun and exciting, while looking at characters from whom I can absolutely buy this sort of behavior. Really strong book right now.

Total Score: 5/5

Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man 2

Bendis (w) and Marquez (a) and Ponsor (c) and Petit (l)

Peter Parker is in Miles' room asking for his web-shooters back. He doesn't talk about how he returned from the dead, just citing that this sort of thing happens in their world, and he refuses to tell May about it because he doesn't want to give her a heart attack. After asking politely multiple times and being shocked by Miles' venom blast (accidentally), he knock Miles out and takes the shooters. Miles immediately believes it to be a clone and isn't sure how to handle the situation. Meanwhile, Spider-Man-like villains are robbing warehouses and Miles prepares to tell Kate his secret.

The book moves relatively well though it is absolutely loaded with back-and-forth dialogue. I have a number of complaints about that style of writing (all extremely well-documented, pretty sure that if you searched the phrase "back-and-forth" on this blog you'd get pages of responses) but here it works far better. It's not an action scene where such dialogue breaks flow and it's in a scene where a character would believably keep interjecting and the two characters may talk rapidly with one another. It starts to drag a little as it carries on but it works far better here than most of the other places I tend to point it out. More strong art from David Marquez here and we at least have a clear plot to talk about. Starting to feel like the name change to the much longer new MILES MORALES: THE ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN is in regards to the fact that Miles is set to join the 616 alongside, of course, the ALL-NEW X-MEN (WHY?)

Total Score: 4/5

Miracleman 7

Moore (w) and A. Davis and C. Austen (a) and Oliff (c) and Caramagna (l)

Dr. Gargunza explains to Liz about the situation in which they originally created Miracleman, Young Miracleman, and Kid Miracleman with alien-DNA and tech. They were meant to be the test subjects and Gargunza wanted to use it on himself, though he found that the process didn't work on people after a certain age that he had already passed. His new hope is to transfer his brain into the body of a baby already affected by the Miracleman process, AKA MM and Liz's baby. MM and Evelyn Cream turn up but Gargunza uses a trigger word he implanted to switch MM back to Michael Moran for an hour's time. He also sets an enhanced dog on the pair of them, which hunts and kills Cream before turning to Moran.

More excitement abound as Gargunza's inner-Doc-Ock comes out (YES, I'm well aware this all came out before the SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN switch but it's still a useful reference, OKAY, even if this one involves a baby and not a Spider-Man). Evelyn's demons finally catch up to him as the dog Pluto, changed by the trigger word Steppenwolf (pretty great), also catches up to him. Michael Moran's in something of a pinch as he faces Pluto with nothing but a revolver (which, you know, likely won't work) and the hope that maybe Miracleman will turn up again.

Total Score: 5/5

Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man 1, Amazing Spider-Man 1.1

Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man 1
Bendis (w) and Marquez (a) and Ponsor (c) and Petit (l)

Miles Morales has been through a lot in a really short time. After the death of his mother, the events of CATACLYSM have left the world without a true superhero team and unsure where they stand. Likewise, Miles has lost seemingly an entire support structure with the destruction of the senior team he was starting to gain acceptance with and the disappearance of his father, who left and hasn't been heard from since discovering his son is Spider-Man. Miles' life is a little in the air as he stays with Ganke and his parents and debates telling his girlfriend Kate Bishop about his double life. Things get more complicated with the emergence of two twin criminals dressed similarly to Spider-Man and with the surprise appearance of none other than possibly Peter Parker in Miles' room.

Story
Bendis is sowing some seeds here as the new series picks up while also making sure to establish the old ones (like how you always establish old seeds). Miles has reached the time where he has to decide whether or not to tell Kate he's Spider-Man and now has to debate everything that comes with that age-old decision (it's a very important time in a young boy's life when he has to decide whether or not to reveal his secret identity). On top of it, we've established a couple new villains (though Miles is dutifully ignoring them right now) and seen a twist at the end. Bendis is setting this one up to welcome in new readers (helped by a pretty neat cover) and kick off a new era in Miles' life. 5/5

Character
We get a decent look at Miles Morales here as he reacts to the disappearance of his father and he tries to figure out what he should do in regards to Kate but there are too many things to set up here to really go deep into character in the first issue of the new series. Marquez helps Bendis out here as he draws plenty of emotions for Miles that give us a sense of him despite space limitations. I'd have liked to see a little more out of him in the first issue here instead of the wavering (which is warranted but doesn't create the strongest first impression). 4/5

Writing
Despite the new villains (who back-and-forth it up) and the last page reveal, this is very clearly more of a resting issue, acting less like a Marvel superhero comic and more like...well, more like ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN, I guess. ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN won over a lot of fans when it kicked off and continued to surprise because it focused on Peter Parker every bit as much as it focused on Spider-Man. Bendis is sure to kick this new volume off with that same expectation for readers. It moves a bit slower than a purely action-based issue but that's what this book wants. 4/5

Art
Marquez's art really helps the book along, as I mentioned in the character section, by letting us see Miles' emotions in scenes where the space is too limited to really tell us what's going on. His emotions and action are both strong, though we don't see as much of the latter here. Can't complain. 5/5

Miscellaneous
I really like that cover.

Total score: 4/5


Amazing Spider-Man 1.1
Slott (w) and R. Perez (a) and Herring (c) and Eliopoulos w/Caramagna (l)

Flashback to Peter's early Spider-Man days as he flaunts his skills for money to help around the house. He's doing some minor crime fighting on the side but, in the wake of Uncle Ben's death, he feels responsible for bringing in money for the family (not to mention, of course, responsibility over Ben's death). While he tries to navigate the world of entertainment and begins to learn more about power/responsibility (and which must come with which), fellow high school prodigy (though, perhaps, even more prodigious than Peter) Clayton Cole continues to be inspired by the webslinger and develops his own web-tech, eventually donning a costume himself and calling himself Clash.

Story
Continuing on from one of the backing stories to AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 1, we see a little of Peter's past, a time where he continued to work in the entertainment business to make some more money before being called away to full-time crime fighting (and being a real Peter Parker). On top of it, we see our first glimpse of the new superhero/villain Clash, the brilliant young Clayton Cole in full costume. It's interesting to see Slott go back and retool the history a little bit, tying up some loose ends we didn't really know were there. 5/5

Character
Plenty to see from Peter here as we get the mix of pre- and post-Uncle Ben turning point. He's trying to learn the lessons his uncle taught him while also trying to establish where he'll go next and negotiate it with who he was before. There's a lot happening and a lot for Peter to react to and all of it works at establishing exactly who Peter was at the time. Pretty strong stuff. 5/5

Writing
Mostly strong writing here as Slott has a lot to set up and not a lot of time in which to do it. We get a sense of tons of characters (everyone from Aunt May to Peter to Liz Allan to Flash to Clayton Cole and a few other new characters) and of our entire story. Still, thanks to Slott's writing and the switch to Ramon Perez on art and Ian Herring on colors, the story carries a slightly darker tone than the typical Spider-Man story. Good work all around. 5/5

Art
As I intimated above, Perez and Herring do pretty phenomenal work to create a real tone for the book beyond everything great artists like Humberto Ramos have done with Peter recently. The book ends up having a tone like something illustrated by Francisco Francavilla or colored by Bettie Breitweiser, which is a pretty drastic tone change, certainly enough to show us a big difference between this story and the main series. 5/5

Miscellaneous
Certainly worth a read, even as something labeled as merely a .1.

Total score: 5/5