Leftovers 8-6-14

Hey guys, not that you're not used to a more sporadic schedule of late but I'd like to note I very nearly have an excuse for not posting yesterday (ignoring totally not posting Friday when I was just tired). I was at Boston Comic-Con, a con that started just nine years ago and has really exploded into something huge. It's not so big as some of your more established cons (your SDCC, your NYCC, your Chicago one whose name currently escapes me), but even the difference between this year and when Amanda and I went two years ago is CRAZY. It was at a bigger venue and the lines wrapped around the building all day long. Tons of cosplayers, tons of retailers, several cool celebrity guests (like John Barrowman, Sean Astin, and Jewel Staite, listing the people I was pretty pumped to be near), and, most importantly great artists like Neal Adams, Joe Quinones, Ming Doyle, Maris Wicks, Norman Lee, Jorge Molina, Greg Capullo, Kate Leth, Shelli Paroline, Braden Lamb, and oodles more (first half of that list is people from whom I bought stuff, +Neal Adams, the second half is just people I like but I didn't even get around to really seeing), and writers like Mark Waid and Scott Snyder. Lots of great people, lots of great art, pretty solid experience. LOOK, HAVE I SUCCESSFULLY DISTRACTED YOU FROM NOTICING THERE WAS NO POST YESTERDAY? Great, mission accomplished. I'll probably post pictures of the stuff I bought at some point. You know, low quality images of images. Don't let that dissuade you, though, everyone from whom I bought was awesome and all the stuff I bought was equally awesome. Okay, now that THAT'S through, let's get to the eight or so books we need to cover today. Yipes.

Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man 4
Bendis (w) and Marquez (a) and Ponsor (c) and Petit (l)

Kate's upset that Miles is Spider-Man, revealing it IMMEDIATELY to her sister, who says they have to break up because their parents will kill him and possibly Kate for her involvement with him (INTRIGUE, RIGHT?) but Miles has his own problems as he fights the ultra-powerful and somehow resurrected Green Goblin in front of Peter Parker's old home only to have Peter Parker, decked in full Spider-Man gear again, intercede and team up with Miles to drive Goblin away. The highly publicized fight is seen by everyone in their little worlds and suddenly Peter Parker's alive again. The book, when it gets to the fight, moves pretty well. The Kate stuff is a bit slow and I still feel the relationship is a little sudden and tortured. The fight is good but this seems like one of those stories that can only be judged when we have all the information. REGARDLESS, here I am judging it: Total Score: 4/5



Miracleman 9
A. Moore (w) and Veitch w/R. Bryant (a) and Oliff (c) and Caramagna (l)

Miracleman returns just in time to find Liz having very sudden contractions. Not wanting to give birth on Gargunza's facility, MM straps Liz into a truck, telling her to blast the heat in the cold air, and flies her to a nicer place. Meanwhile, a couple of spooks visit young Johnny Bates, still comatose, in the hospital. They go into his mind and can't find traces of Kid Miracleman there, so they leave, allowing him to come out from hiding and question their appearance. Back with Liz, an incredibly graphic birth scene happens and a baby is born, to the delight of Miracleman and Liz, replaced by surprise when the baby says "ma-ma." Plenty happening here, nice bit of Miracleman pondering life and death and birth and so on as we see full-on graphic birth. Sorry, limited vocabulary here, I have nothing to say but "graphic." Pretty weird, guys. I'd have bought it if you just showed me the baby born, probably just would have assume there was a graphic scene off-panel. Total Score: 3/5


New Warriors 8
Yost (w) and To (a) and Redmond (c) and Caramagna (l)

Haechi and Sun Girl are trapped in the presence of Lash and two of his ambassadors, one who controls the "puppets" (read: humans) outside to hold off the New Warriors and one who is pretty much made of knives. Lash offers Haechi a place with them and he considers it, remembering the humans who beat him when he first gained his new powers, but rejects it, remembering the man who saved him from the punks that day. Outside, Water Snake and Scarlet Spider get annoyed with Justice as he's unwilling to use much force against the mind-controlled humans attacking them. Fortunately, Hummingbird is able to eject the Inhuman Nocculus from their minds so they can pass. Facing the might of the New Warriors, Lash and the two other Inhumans leave, swearing to meet Haechi again. Meanwhile, Nova arrives at Mount Wundagore to learn from Jake Waffles that the team has already completed a couple of their missions without him and, according to Speedball, he sucks. Tons of fun spread throughout the issue but well-balanced by seriousness and action. Chris Yost has written some of the most enjoyable Marvel stuff over the last four or five years, from my much-mentioned and much-beloved Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes to AVENGING SPIDER-MAN/SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN TEAM-UP to SCARLET SPIDER to this. Such a great energy in this book and some real, genuine laugh lines to boot. Total Score: 5/5


Original Sin 3.4 - Hulk vs. Iron Man
Waid and Gillen (s) and Gillen (w) and L. Ross (a) and Guru eFX (c) and Caramagna (l)

Iron Man escapes below Troy to find a new suit and turns up in a Hulkbuster to bust Hulk, who, in fact, busts him, knocking him out and drugging him before taking him, trapped in his own ruined suit,  out to the gamma testing site where Hulk was born. While Hulk derides Tony, ready to punish him further, Tony shows him one last piece of information, including Banner's original plans for the bombs and Tony's updates. As it happens, Tony was hired to power-up the bomb behind Banner's back but he actually discovered when he examined it closer that Banner's excessive shielding would have ended up doing far more harm than good, likely killing Banner and tons of innocents in surrounding cities as a result of Banner's "safety precautions." The updates Tony made, though still potentially responsible for the Hulk (never quite cleared up), saved lives, including Banner's. Banner apologizes, going on to thank Tony, but Tony keeps some information to himself, including an email he sent to Banner after looking at the bomb (which Banner deleted) that may have set Banner on the track of adjusting the bomb himself to keep it from Hulkifying him and also would have paved the way for plenty of Earth-friendly technologies Banner could have discovered, sparing Banner from knowledge that may legitimately have caused him to commit suicide (or try, you know that Hulk guy). Pretty strong stuff and a nice little ending for the science bros but I can't help but be a little disappointed that Tony is apparently arguably a bigger hero than he was going in and not just a little bit of a villain. I know you don't want necessarily to taint your cash cow but I liked knowing that his hubris had such a huge ramification on the Marvel Universe (not the first time, certainly, that would have been true, but still a pretty poignant one). Total Score: 3/5


Original Sin 5.3 - Thor and Loki
Aaron and Ewing (s) and Ewing (w) and Garbett and Bianchi (a) and Woodard, Dall'Alpi, and Peruzzi (c) and Sabino (l)

Thor and Angela fight with Angela gaining the upper hand thanks to her speed and brutality while Loki learns about some Heaven history from the queen, who reveals that she once had a deal with Odin that had her and her angels watching over Midgard to protect it from jerk Asgardians. When she betrayed Odin and joined up with the Frost Giants and other enemies to Asgard, war was declared and the battle that "killed" Odin's daughter started. Loki, though, is just as much an outsider to Asgardians and a villain to these honor-bound people as the money-craving angels are, she points out. Back outside, Angela is stopped from killing Thor as the queen and new "Mistress of Strategies" decide that he's more useful alive than dead. That Mistress of Strategies? A transformed woman Loki, of course. This is probably the first issue of this tie-in that starts to give a little more new information and contextualizing, though it does drag a bit when that happens. Still, it seems like a classic Thor/Loki story as Loki has gone ahead and seemingly betrayed his brother and his people for whatever quick gain or long con he could be playing at. Strong enough to pass, slow enough to overstay. Total Score: 3/5


She-Hulk 7
Soule (w) and Pulido (a) and Vicente (c) and Cowles (l)

She-Hulk and Hellcat have been hired by a scientist/inventor duo to work out the terms of a contract that would sell their new revolutionary shrink ray, the Shrinko (more affordable than Pym Particles), to an outside buyer. One member of the team, Rufus (the marketer), wants to sell while the other, Reza (the brains behind the Shrinko tech), wants to keep it out of the buyer's hands. Their partnership is 50/50 so Rufus would need Reza's approval to sell but Reza, in a fit of anger over the way the proceedings are going, has shrunk himself down and disappeared. She-Hulk calls in resident shrinking expert Dr. Pym for a hand and she, Pym, and Hellcat shrink themselves with Pym Particles to find Reza. Pym isn't optimistic and actually knows Reza's work, saying that Shrinko tech isn't ready for human testing and that people tend to explode with some great force when using the tech on themselves. After a couple scares and some in-fighting between She-Hulk and Hellcat, they find Reza and rescue him from some cats nearby. It turns out that the buyer interested in the Shrinko patent is Pym himself (Pymself), wanting to help them perfect their tech in exchange for a small percentage of the profits. Reza doesn't believe his exploding claims but quickly learns that he might have a point when his own severed finger, left behind in a coke can in which he hid himself from the cats, explodes, safely out of range thanks to a She-Hulk toss. Reza and Rufus agree to sell to Pym but She-Hulk already has a new case waiting with an elderly Captain America waiting in the lobby. Another fun issue and we've already seen this neat little formula, wherein a story runs kind of underneath but really quietly while individual episodes involving the superhero community in legal battles takes the spotlight, work really well and this one is no exception. Plenty of fun, a good deal of heart, and some fun art ideas. Total Score: 5/5


Superior Foes of Spider-Man 14
Spencer (w) and Lieber w/R. Ellis (a) and Rosenberg (c) and Cowles (l)

Very slight break in the action as the team regroups at Boomerang's secret safe-house. We learn why Overdrive joined this gang (trying to fight Spider-Man so he can eventually be recognized by the hero and, in turn, become a hero himself, like your Hawkeyes or Black Widows or so forth) and stole that bus that time (a very brief affair with Beetle after evading Mr. Negative's henchmen trying to collect debts from Overdrive exhausted him and they escaped their car on-foot, needing to power up the bus in a pinch when they needed new wheels). We also learn that Speed Demon's beloved corgi was actually a missing dog he adopted and he was missing for most of this while he did the right thing and returned the dog to its owners. After the stories and repartee pass, Boomerang mocks Shocker one too many times and he emerges from the bathroom and blasts them all. As I mentioned with ROCKET RACCOON this week, this book continues to be just a lot of fun and great humorous moments, grounded a little (as far as Marvel grounds anything) by its perpendicularity to the rest of the universe. Spencer's got something really fun here and he's doing just what he needs to with it. Total Score: 5/5


Superior Spider-Man 32
Slott and Gage (s) and Gage (w) and Camuncoli (p) and Dell (i) and Fabela (c) and Eliopoulos (l)
Spider-Sanction: Gage (w) and Kubert (a) and Beredo (c) and Eliopoulos (l)

SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN returns as, during the events of SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN 19 (the exploding temporal portal, or temportal, that brought Spidey 2099 to the present and set of Spider-Man's exit from Horizon Labs), Superior Spidey is sent to 2099 in Miguel's place (universe course-correction). He manages to swipe some tech from Alchemax and create a computer for himself based on Anna Maria (little weird) and starts to jump in time and into other universes accidentally. However, each universe he hits on his way home has dead Spider-Men in it, hunted by the same adversary. Eventually he realizes how dangerous this adversary is and begins to assemble a team of Spider-Men from the universes he visits, eventually hoping to amass an army (he already has six including himself by issue's end). SPIDER-VERSE is coming and this is our prelude to it. It's an interesting story and one that allows the story to take place and commence, thanks to time jumping, with Superior Spider-Man getting his hands dirty too. Follow-up story SPIDER-SANCTION gives us a tease of one of our new Spiders, a colder, more withdrawn, and more brutal Peter Parker who has been driven to kill by the events in his life and who joins Doc Ock's army only when assured they'll be looking to kill the assassin. Some pretty cool stuff as the Spider-Man event of the year bears down on us (funny that this is the event in the year when Peter Parker came back from the dead). Total Score: 4/5

Leftovers 7-30-14

Alright all my buddies, here's the deal. I am committed to telling you about every Marvel book EVEN WHEN I have no motivation to do so. So let's play a game wherein I blaze through the last ten books I have to review (TEN, WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH THAT?) in thirty minutes or less. CAN WE MAKE IT HAPPEN? Only time will tell. Worth noting that secretly I'm pushing to knock out ten in ten minutes but that seems improbable, particularly given my propensity for expounding.

100th Anniversary Special Guardians of the Galaxy 1
Lanning and Marz (w) and Duarte (a) and Delgado (c) and Sabino (l)

The ragtag group of Guardians decades from now battle a Silver-Surfer-extra cosmic-power-imbued Galactus dead-set on consuming Knowhere to gain the knowledge and power of the Celestial whose head Knowhere is. The Guardians fight back alongside Galactus' saboteur herald Vance Astro, who is actually Peter Quill in disguise. The universe is saved and check out Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, in theaters now. Total Score: 2/5











All-New Ghost Rider 5
F. Smith (w) and T. Moore (a) and Staples w/Sanz (c) and Caramagna (l)

Robbie Reyes has to decide if he wants to use the spirit of vengeance within him to, as his teacher wants, change his community through positive action or, as the spirit Eli wants, burn it all to the ground. As a gang fight between Zabo and his men and Grumpy and his men breaks out, Robbie is forced into action to save his brother and the other innocents around. Mr. Hyde rips Grumpy in half and begins to beat on Ghost Rider but overdoses on drugs in an attempt to keep Ghost Rider down. Robbie decides to try to be a hero for the community instead of a monster. More good stuff from this book. Total Score: 4/5

Avengers World 10
Spencer (w) and Checchetto (a) and Mossa (c) and Caramagna (l)

All of the storylines we've seen in this book so far converge to begin to feel like some greater force is driving them. China's newly revealed SPEAR helps SHIELD and the Avengers in the fight against the dragon carrying Madripoor while Iron Man tries to "debate" Andrew Forson on live TV to poor results while Morgana Le Fey's army of the dead begins to march on Earth and while Cannonball and Sunspot bring the children of the Avengers back to the present. So much happening, so much still to come. Lots of fun writing and fun moments here and I AM TAKING TOO LONG. Total Score: 4/5

Cyclops 3
Rucka (w) and Dauterman (a) and Sotomayor (c) and Caramagna (l)

Cyclops and his dad end up stranded on a desolate planet as a result of a ship failure and Cyclops accuses his dad of being a drug addict. Corsair reveals that he's not addicted to drugs, per se, he's kept alive by the drugs he's been taking and the amount he has will only last him through 27 or so days so it's either they get off the planet, which seems unlikely, or they spend a nice final month together. Not a bad story and this certainly gets to the heart of the series quickly. Total Score: 4/5










Guardians of the Galaxy 17
Bendis (w) and Bradshaw and Oeming (a) w/Wong (i) and Ponsor (c) and Petit (l)

Captain Marvel has saved Peter Quill and he calls his ship back to him, sending it crashing out of its lock-up, before he takes it to fly straight at his dad in the city, pulling off at the last second. He and Carol need to find the other Guardians. Gamora and Angela call in quickly enough to just be picked up and they fly to a point in space where Drax is getting beaten by Gladiator, rescuing him easily enough. With J-Son's crimes revealed, the Supreme Intelligence wants nothing to do with him and returns Rocket peaceably, also giving their best known location for Groot. With the team re-assembled (except for newbie Venom, who intentionally avoids them on Knowhere), they're ready to enter ORIGINAL SIN. This arc screams of an ad for the movie: some stakes but ultimately a way to introduce each character without too much actual characterization. Total Score: 2/5

Iron Man Special 1
S. Ryan (w) and Handoko (p) and Poggi, Yeung, Livesay, and N. Lee (i) and Redmond (c) and Cowles (l)

So this story is still going then, hm? Total Score: 2/5

Iron Patriot 5
Kot (w) and G. Brown (a) and Charalampidis (c) and Cowles (l)

With Terrence Rhodes in the Iron Patriot suit punching at the villain, Rhodey has to stand around and hope that his dad hits the manual release on the other guy's suit. He finally does, launching Rhodey out of his inert suit and into the fight himself. He punches and punches at the villain, breaking plenty of his own body parts in the fight against metal, but eventually subdues him, though it comes too late to save his father, who took quite a beating in his own fight. Someone was pulling the strings on the villain but Rhodey never did figure out who and the villain himself gets smothered in his hospital bed by another mysterious character. Is this a win for America's new defender? Who knows? Still, pretty fast read and this continues to be easily my favorite book from Kot, who doesn't have the time to get into his writing patterns that tend to annoy me elsewhere. Total Score: 4/5



Original Sin 3.3 - Hulk vs. Iron Man
Gillen and Waid (s) and Waid (w) and Bagley (p) and Hennessy (i) and Keith (c) and Petit (l)

As Extremis-powered Hulk destroys Iron Man's labs in the hopes that the hero will come rushing home, Iron Man continues to investigate his own memories, praying that something is wrong. Iron Man hopes to lay low while he tries to figure things out, heading for Troy in the thought that Hulk won't realize to go there, even if Banner would have. However, he's not accounting for smart-Hulk and he's met by massive resistance when he touches down. The city, though, is built to be defensible and takes the fight to Hulk long enough that Iron Man can sneak away to his armory. On his way he realizes even more about that night that will make him look EVEN MORE VILLAINOUS. Still some interesting stuff, though I'm not a huge fan of Bagley's art here and I'm already a little tired of the "OH NO, I ALSO DID WHAT" endings of these issues. Total Score: 3/5

Secret Avengers 6
Kot (w) and Walsh (a) and Wilson (c) and Cowles (l)

Lady Bullseye is still alive and wants a meeting with Black Widow, enough that she's taken over a bullet train with a dirty bomb on it. Hill sends Widow and Spider-Woman to deal with it but they quickly learn that it's a trap (well, more than the trap they expected) as someone set another sentient bomb like their own new teammate Vladimir on the tracks and it opens a portal out of the world, sending Black Widow and Lady Bullseye through it. Meanwhile, MODOK announces that something had sex with the Fury to cause its pregnancy and Hawkeye tries to find Coulson only to be led to Deadpool hanging out with AIM. Some weird stuff here. I think the tone is starting to settle in on this book, which is an upside, but it still feels weird to have a book that's trying to go almost full-bore humor play with such big pieces of the Marvel Universe, pieces that have distinct personalities already and don't necessarily fit this way (I always dislike the Black Widow-as-bloodthirsty-killer design you occasionally see in books). Still, climbing out from under me really hating this book. Total Score: 3/5


Personal Total Score: 35 minutes or so. SO VERY CLOSE. I had to ramble on and on, didn't I? I just had to give extra summary when no one asked for it.

Original Sin 6, Original Sin 3.2 - Hulk vs. Iron Man

Original Sin 6
Aaron (w) and Deodato (a) and F. Martin (c) and Eliopoulos (l)

Nick still won't confess or deny the murder of the Watcher but he admits that he called all of them there (aside from Rocket, who turned up on Moon Knight's and Gamora's behalf) in the hopes that at least one of them would want to take up his mantle, that these are the people most able to do his job. Fury Prime, who also reveals that the Infinity Formula keeping him young is now gone and he's aging rapidly as a result, returns to his work and begins interrogating the Orb on how to make the eyes talk. The team he left behind fight the other Furys in the hope that they'd get to the other Fury just as the Avengers also arrive only to find Nick waiting for them in a battle suit.

Look, who killed the Watcher? I don't want to say that there wasn't interesting stuff in here because I think there still was but I've often chided events for lasting too long and I think this event is suffering from that in this very issue. Aaron does a solid job keeping the pace of this issue moving but you're not in an event to see the rest issues or to reset for a minute. You're in an event because something huge is happening. Nothing huge happened in this issue. It felt like a recap of the last one and a prep for the next one, which will be the penultimate issue. Not a lot more I can say about it. AND YET, this review took SO LONG TO WRITE. I'm a little out of it, you guys. Long day. ANYWAY, don't let that cloud your judgment of my Total Score.

Total Score: 2/5


Original Sin 3.2 - Hulk vs. Iron Man
Gillen and Waid (s) and Gillen (w) and L. Ross (a) and Guru eFX (c) and Caramagna (l)

Tony buys an unsuccessful motel nearby to where the original gamma bomb went off, trying to remember what happened there back when he and Banner once yelled at one another there, as Banner goes to Arno to work on a tweak for Extremis. Tony remembers back to a time with Thunderbolt Ross wherein he was officially paid to help Banner, back to the fight the two geniuses had, and back to his decision to knowingly sabotage the bomb. Meanwhile, Banner's tweak worked and he's off and running.

I liked this issue a good deal more than the first for a couple reasons: first and foremost, it's an actual addition to the story as opposed to just kicking things off with information solicits and interviews told us (again, not Waid nor Gillen's fault there, but still made for a more boring read). Second, though, I really do appreciate that Tony very clearly is the villain here. We all know that Tony was a war profiteer and an arms dealer and, you know, still rather Tony but drunker and less ethical. To then have Gillen make Tony completely at fault for what's happening, a pretty major "completely at fault," is pretty gutsy, particularly where this is still a well-liked "hero" character. Strong move. Still some slowness to the plot as we build to the climax (there was some good new information and information that colored the story a bit more, but by and large, it didn't give much new).

Total Score: 4/5