Geez guys, just a whole bunch of new releases to talk about. Plenty of good and/or interesting stuff out this week so let's get into it.
Avengers Undercover 1
Dennis Hopeless and a few of the AVENGERS ARENA kids return as, following the events on Murderworld, most of the survivors are more than a little lost. Will the at-risk youths turn to villainy with Baron Zemo or are they putting their lives in danger for a greater cause? I was caught off-guard by the quality of AVENGERS ARENA but their will be no such surprises here as I'm expecting a fun ride with some fun characters.
Black Widow 4
It's the first issue of BLACK WIDOW after the whirlwind first three issues all came out within about a month and a half. Will monthly shipping mean that BLACK WIDOW loses some of its fast-paced magic? PROBABLY NOT, it's just a really good book and it's on this list more for that than for anything else.
Captain Marvel 1
The relaunch of everyone's favorite Kree-based human superhero! After a phenomenal series last time out under the guiding hand of all-star Kelly Sue DeConnick, Carol Danvers returns, but how much of her is really there? With ENEMY WITHIN not that far behind her, how much of her memory does she have? How prepared for new threats and old friends is she? How prepared is she for her upcoming journey into space with, who else, the Guardians of the Galaxy?
Hawkeye 17
Clint and Barney are seriously injured and presumably easy pickings for the tracksuit draculas and the Clown, if he's to return. On top of the injuries themselves, Clint has sustained serious hearing damage. As someone who already had hearing issues in the past, what will this mean for everyone's favorite Hawkguy? Fraction and Aja are calling this the dog-issue of sign-issue issues. Confusing, sure, but certainly good news.
X-Force 2
After a thrilling first issue with a lot to keep an eye on, Si Spurrier launches the controversial team into their first undoubtedly action-packed mystery. Who is the new mutant that X-Force's enemies have used as a weapon and bound up to be used later? What will Psylocke do after she so quickly broke her "no killing" vow? How crazy will Marrow continue to be? What's happening with Hope that's got Cable so on edge and Hope so "technically alive?" So many questions and so much to look forward to.
HONORARY MENTION:
X-Men Legacy 300
Be sure this week to check out the very special X-MEN LEGACY 300, the 300th issue of books titled X-MEN LEGACY. I believe it's meant to be a special extra-sized issue, priced at 4.99, and it will feature story from X-MEN LEGACY writers Mike Carey (focusing on Xavier, currently dead), Christos Gage (focusing on Rogue, currently dead), and Si Spurrier (focusing on Legion, currently never existed). Should be a really fun time and boy it'll be nice to see one more Spurrier-David Haller story. Looking forward to it.
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Aaron leaving AMAZING X-MEN, Kyle and Yost to take over
Scheduling demands have forced Jason Aaron to leave new title AMAZING X-MEN after only six issues, as CBR reports. His run will end with April's AMAZING X-MEN 6, which will be the conclusion of the current arc and Nightcrawler's return. Issue 7 will feature the fantastic Kathryn Immonen writing before Craig Kyle and Chris Yost take over on issue 8. It will mark a return for the two Thor: The Dark World writers to the X-world after their run on an X-23 miniseries and books like YOUNG X-MEN back in the 2000s. Aaron's explanation is here, in several tweets:
So yeah, because of my overall schedule demands, I had to step away from Amazing X-Men a bit sooner than I'd hoped.
— Jason Aaron (@jasonaaron) March 10, 2014Though as far as parting shots go, I think the Return of Nightcrawler is a pretty satisfying way to end my tenure as an X-writer.
— Jason Aaron (@jasonaaron) March 10, 2014Without Amazing, that leaves me writing Original Sin, Thor, Southern Bastards and a couple of other things I can't talk about yet.
— Jason Aaron (@jasonaaron) March 10, 2014It was definitely weird to leave the X-verse behind after spending pretty much my entire Marvel career there.
— Jason Aaron (@jasonaaron) March 10, 2014But I couldn't be happier with the stuff I'm working on now. Fun times ahead!
— Jason Aaron (@jasonaaron) March 10, 2014Sunday, March 9, 2014
This week's picks
Tricky week this week. There weren't many that were true standouts based on the impact they had or the glee I felt reading them. I toyed with just knocking the "top three" down to one or two but the day I can't figure out three comics worth reading shall be a very sad day indeed. This isn't, then, necessarily the three comics that, if you're going to buy comics, are the ones you should go for (with the exception of MOON KNIGHT). Instead, these are the ones that really went for it this week and certainly are worth mentioning.
Moon Knight 1
A pretty good first entry, giving us a look at our hero and the problems he'll be facing this time out. Of course, they're in the same ballpark as the problems he's dealt with before, but Ellis is taking a slightly different approach to them, giving them an almost more mythological feel to them, which is, of course, a nice move. Shalvey and Bellaire are incredible and the series is off to a solid start. This one should be fun and I'm sure it's going to be one that really makes us think and that will be different than everything we've seen from Moon Knight before.
Punisher 3
This series continues to really press on what makes a solid PUNISHER book. It's raw, it's calculated, it moves with logic and reason, and it's not afraid to get its hands dirty. I don't know that it's in my list of favorite books being released by now (geez PUNISHER, BLACK WIDOW took literally no time to crack that list, it's taking you upwards of three issues) but it would have to be a really phenomenal book to win me over to a PUNISHER solo series. He's not my guy, I get that. With that said, Edmondson's put together a compelling book with an interesting lead and some good supporting characters. Mitch Gerads, for his part, has done a terrific job selling me on LA and on the sort of war Frank is fighting. Keep an eye on this one.
She-Hulk 2
I'm in favor of the SHE-HULK series in just about every aspect. I've immediately come to like Charles Soule (as has, it seems, the entire comic industry, given the raves I've heard about books like SWAMP THING over at DC), I like the idea of more female-led books, I like She-Hulk as a character well enough, and I'm happy to check out Pulido's art. Still though, the book hasn't exactly gripped me the first couple issues out, though it's certainly putting a lot on a book to ask that it work for me right away like I'm expecting. I'm not necessarily asking for that, I think, just stating that this one hasn't burst out of the gate like so much HAWKEYE, BLACK WIDOW, or NEW AVENGERS. Regardless, it's certainly establishing its world and its tone, both of which will be paramount for the book ahead. If it can keep this up and keep pressing, it'll find itself in an awfully favorable position when the stories start hitting.
Moon Knight 1
Punisher 3
She-Hulk 2
Saturday, March 8, 2014
Nova 14, Night of the Living Deadpool 4
Nova 14
Duggan (w) and Baldeon and Pallot (a) and Sotomayor (c)
Nova and Beta Ray Bill have teamed up and they're headed after Skaarn. Sam remembers that Skaarn said he was going "nowhere" which Bill translates as "Knowhere," an old Celestial head that now serves as a neutral ground to many travelers. Skaarn IS there, meeting with a sketchy alien from whom he's trying to buy (or, as eventually happens, steal) a weapon called War Bringers. Bill sees him as he kills the alien and takes the remote he wanted anyway but Skaarn stops Bill mid-attack by radioing to his ship to tell them that if he dies or doesn't come back for some reason, they're to kill the Korbonites onboard. Outside, the War Bringer comes online right beside Sam and he, of course, ends up fighting it. It's very nearly powerful enough to kill him but his last minute adrenaline surge and will to live end up overpowering the robot and he survives. Bill comes to meet him there and tells him that they have to go to Knowhere's Continuum Cortex to be teleported away or else many on the ship will die. Skaarn teleports Bill away as Nova projects an image of himself into the teleported, making Skaarn believe both have gone. Free to try to follow Skaarn now, Nova finds himself called away telepathically by Cosmo, the "watchdog of Knowhere." He is, of course, an actual dog (one time member of the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Annihilators) whose powers have been weakened by a poison Skaarn used. Nova isn't alone as the story continues.
There are important pieces here, obviously, but a lot of the issue is dedicated to filling out the arc and to giving us just a little more character. The issue starts with Nova and Bill saving a damaged spaceship on their way out to Knowhere which leads into a story about how Bill nearly died saving his people once before being saved by another of the Nova Corps. The story is meant to inspire Nova and it clearly does enough of the trick as he recalls it when he brings down the War Bringer. This is Sam Alexander's real first experience with the things that are more his birthright, the deep cuts Marvel Cosmic stuff as he has now gone to Knowhere, dealt with Beta Ray Bill, and even met Cosmo, ratcheting the number of Guardians of the Galaxy he's met, past and present, up to three. This Nova is clearly going to be something interesting as we've now seen him deal with things on Earth, which he'll likely continue to do here and in NEW WARRIORS but he's still spending a good amount of time in space. Not often do characters drift between the two, usually preferring to stick to Earth or space. Could make him a pretty important cog in this universe.
Night of the Living Deadpool 4
Bunn (w) and Rosanas (a and c)
Deadpool finds himself seemingly alone now in a world filled with reluctant zombies, wondering how he turned zombie and back to kill everyone he was trying to save. He finds the zombie AIM agent he had met last issue and uses his head to direct the two of them to the AIR base, hoping that there would be some semblance of cure there. He gets there after a long and hard struggle and finds what appears to be the cure derived from clones of Deadpool himself. He doesn't have much time to celebrate as he's quickly overwhelmed by zombies. In a last ditch effort, he drinks as much cure as he can and allows himself to be eaten by the zombies. Anyone that bit him or was bitten by someone who bit him or so one and so forth ends up replacing their zombie tendencies and their mind with Deadpool's, making it essentially a plague of Deadpool now.
I've been very lukewarm about this book all the way through. I've thought some of the ideas were interesting, though the book was maybe a little overtly laden with references for me. I also liked the art and I'm kind of a sucker for black and white with only a specific splash of color, as this book had. It's hard to criticize this ending too much because, frankly, you don't see a lot of zombie related media ending well, or even ending at all. Sure sometimes people will get to some island, or embrace the zombies, or find some little hideaway home somewhere, but it doesn't explain anything major. No one has ever shown a real cure for zombies (aside from removing the head, destroying the brain) so, if nothing else, this one gets points for trying something new right as we got to the end. Of course, it's rather deus ex machina as a severed head directs Deadpool to the AIR lab and the lab has, in good condition, gallons of "cure" derived from Deadpool himself. Still, it's a bold choice, even if it's one that doesn't really track with me. Whatever, play by your own rules, I suppose. This style off-shoot Deadpool will return in DEADPOOL VS. CARNAGE.
Duggan (w) and Baldeon and Pallot (a) and Sotomayor (c)
There are important pieces here, obviously, but a lot of the issue is dedicated to filling out the arc and to giving us just a little more character. The issue starts with Nova and Bill saving a damaged spaceship on their way out to Knowhere which leads into a story about how Bill nearly died saving his people once before being saved by another of the Nova Corps. The story is meant to inspire Nova and it clearly does enough of the trick as he recalls it when he brings down the War Bringer. This is Sam Alexander's real first experience with the things that are more his birthright, the deep cuts Marvel Cosmic stuff as he has now gone to Knowhere, dealt with Beta Ray Bill, and even met Cosmo, ratcheting the number of Guardians of the Galaxy he's met, past and present, up to three. This Nova is clearly going to be something interesting as we've now seen him deal with things on Earth, which he'll likely continue to do here and in NEW WARRIORS but he's still spending a good amount of time in space. Not often do characters drift between the two, usually preferring to stick to Earth or space. Could make him a pretty important cog in this universe.
Night of the Living Deadpool 4
Bunn (w) and Rosanas (a and c)
I've been very lukewarm about this book all the way through. I've thought some of the ideas were interesting, though the book was maybe a little overtly laden with references for me. I also liked the art and I'm kind of a sucker for black and white with only a specific splash of color, as this book had. It's hard to criticize this ending too much because, frankly, you don't see a lot of zombie related media ending well, or even ending at all. Sure sometimes people will get to some island, or embrace the zombies, or find some little hideaway home somewhere, but it doesn't explain anything major. No one has ever shown a real cure for zombies (aside from removing the head, destroying the brain) so, if nothing else, this one gets points for trying something new right as we got to the end. Of course, it's rather deus ex machina as a severed head directs Deadpool to the AIR lab and the lab has, in good condition, gallons of "cure" derived from Deadpool himself. Still, it's a bold choice, even if it's one that doesn't really track with me. Whatever, play by your own rules, I suppose. This style off-shoot Deadpool will return in DEADPOOL VS. CARNAGE.
Friday, March 7, 2014
Loki: Agent of Asgard 2, Punisher 3, She-Hulk 2
Loki: Agent of Asgard 2
Ewing (w) and Garbett (a) and Woodard (c)
Loki is hot on the trail of Lorelai, Asgardian and younger sister of Amora the Enchantress with whom both Thor (thanks to Loki's magic) and Loki (thanks to Loki) have had romantic trysts. The All-Mother wants all Asgardians returned home and so have tasked Loki with finding Lorelai and bringing her back, but he's not entirely forthright with them (as is his way). He's after Lorelai, sure, but it's for his own purposes. He finds her robbing a casino and manages to scare her off from it in the midst of the heist, from within the vault, but it allows him to track her movements afterwards. She's gone back to ground which means conning people at speed dating so Loki finds himself at speed dating telling this whole story of Lorelai to fellow speed dater and new female lead for the book Verity Willis, a girl who cannot be lied to. Well, she can, but she'll know it was a lie. She won't necessarily know the truth but she'll know that's not it. I couldn't be rolling my eyes ANY HARDER, DEAR READERS.
Lorelai makes her return to the 616 after, coincidentally, an appearance in Marvel's Agents of SHIELD just this very Tuesday. Call it fate, call it karma, but now Lorelai is taking over very small parts of the Marvel Universe. That's not really why I'm here though, is it? No, no it's not. I'm here to talk about Verity Willis, a redheaded girl covered in tattoos who is able to see through Loki's disguise as an older and non-costumed up human when he appears in front of her at speed dating. The problem I have with Verity Willis is OH MY GOD SO MANY. Look, Al Ewing has gained some good faith in my book. I liked his short times on AVENGERS ASSEMBLE and some of the other AGE OF ULTRON tie-in books and I've come around on his MIGHTY AVENGERS and I liked the first issue of this series. I don't even hate this issue. My problem with Verity Willis is that she feels SO VERY FORCED. Ignoring the fact that her given name, apparently, is Verity (and she's had this power seemingly forever so don't tell me she's an Inhuman whose power reflects her inner self because I WILL NOT BELIEVE YOU, THEY DON'T MANIFEST UNTIL ADOLESCENCE AND ALSO INHUMANITY JUST HAPPENED so I ask you how could she even have been EXPOSED to the Terrigen Mists), she is so blatantly the counter to Loki that it is a ridiculous story. I talked a lot about how Nuke was interesting in recent CAPTAIN AMERICA comics or, perhaps even more applicably, how Dr. Mindbubble is an interesting foil because both Nuke and Mindbubble have different aspects of Captain America in their origin or in their actions but both are very clearly fighting for something at odds with Cap. However, both are also DEEPER than their connection to Cap so they can exist elsewhere. Verity Willis, even after just one issue, is so clearly writer's room'd around Loki that it's crazy. It's really hard to get past, you guys.
The issue does a lot of other stuff that I'm not so onboard with, including somewhat distracting layouts and looks that aren't dissimilar to, for example, HAWKEYE 8, which found Cherry sending Hawkeye comics the rang of old romance novels. Here's the thing: this may be unfair, but it was great in HAWKEYE and it doesn't work for me here. Part of it is simply that LOKI's attempt came second and it's never good to come second in something innovative like this. Part of it too is that it doesn't really fit; when HAWKEYE did it, Fraction and Aja and Annie Wu (who drew the various romance-style covers spread throughout the book) put it in several times, making it the tone of the comic and ensuring it became part of the layout. LOKI does it once and does a couple other weird things with captions here and there and it gives the comic a "we're really trying too hard" feel. Sorry about the three paragraphs here guys, noticed that it was running a little long and wanted to break it up a bit more (also I just looked back at some of my old, less uniformed stuff on the blog and some of it is REALLY hard to read with the layout I haphazardly used. Whatever, guys).
Punisher 3
Edmondson (w) and Gerads (a and c)
Punisher is up against Electro on an LA highway and quickly realizes he's outmatched. He hasn't planned for this fight and Electro has, leaving Frank at a distinct disadvantage. He manages to create a diversion by shooting the gas tank of his own previously exited RV and escapes to be picked up by Tuggs, coyote in tow, later. Castle and Tuggs talk about what Electro could be doing with the Dos Soles but can't come to any real conclusions. Frank goes back to the well of one of his intimidated (by which I mean really-beat-up) informants and learns where the Soles are holed up. He prepares to strike at their compound but realizes that he's, perhaps, underestimated his opponents. He still does solid work taking down the Soles' guards, even managing to pretty safely transition from roof to ground, until Electro gets the drop on him and knocks him down, promising to bring him to the boss.
More intense fighting and more hunting down the Soles drives this issue. We're not getting anything particularly earth-shattering in the presentation of this iteration of Punisher but what we are still getting is a solid presentation of a comic book. It's well-written and well-illustrated. The tone is very consistent and exactly the sort of tone we need on a Punisher book. On top of that, the story is compelling and the pacing is perfect, which may save it from becoming boring from people who haven't really been Punisher fans in the past, perhaps because the idea of just shooting through hordes of gang members doesn't really appeal to them (guys, I'm talking about me here, it's not all that veiled). I think it's a testament to Edmondson and Gerads that I'm enjoying this book since I feel like I really shouldn't be. It has a lot of the token pieces that makes Punisher uninteresting to me without really adding anything huge of interest but I am still interested in this series. It's the power of tone and pacing more than anything else (though I'm also pretty into the art style of this one too). Hopefully it continues to be solid as we push forward.
She-Hulk 2
Soule (w) and Pulido (a) and Vicente (c)
She-Hulk has moved into her own law office in a brick building leased out by an ex-mutant who has leased the building exclusively to people with powers, knowing how hard it can be for such people to find office or living space in New York, given the liabilities they are. She-Hulk's first order of business is hiring an assistant, which she does when everyone waiting flees for some mysterious reason and she's left with one applicant, Angie Huang, a strange woman with an impressive resumé and a pet monkey named Hei Hei. The second order of business is finding business. As she has no clients (except the case that her former law firm sent her away with where she and several other super-powered and super-powered associates are defendants), she makes a few calls only to find herself met with resistance from everyone. She calls it a day and goes out at night with Patsy Walker, AKA Hellcat. Hellcat is having problems of her own and ends up having, perhaps, a little too much to drink and insists that She-Hulk come with her to beat up some bad guys. They crash a secret AIM base Hellcat learned about from a SHIELD agent during some date and they're attacked by the two AIM agents stationed there. She-Hulk easily takes down the guy in full robot suit she's fighting with but Hellcat has been captured by the other. She-Hulk threatens him but ultimately says that they can just walk away from this if he lets Hellcat go. He does, the heroes tie them up, and they all go on their way. The next day, She-Hulk gets her first client, Kristoff Vernard, son of Victor Von Doom, wishing to defect from Latveria.
I try to ignore other reviews, no matter how small they may be, when I'm preparing my own review. I prefer to go in with my own opinions, get them out of the way, then realize how wrong I am. In this case, though, I saw some tweets from cartoonist Darryl Ayo that talked about giving away SHE-HULK 1 halfway through it then read all of SHE-HULK 2 because it was a much more confident comic. I see some level of truth to that; I do think that SHE-HULK 2 is already feeling more confident about its place and in its main character than SHE-HULK 1 maybe did. On the flip-side, I do believe that SHE-HULK 1 was a better story. Granted, there's decidedly not a lot happening in this one; Jen is trying to find work so she's not exactly doing a ton in this issue whereas she had a case set up for her in the first issue. However, I thought this one was more about world-building in a lot of ways than the nice start that issue one had. Still a pretty solid issue here. I think Javier Pulido's art is going to draw a lot of love it/hate it response and I'm not really sure where I fall on it. For what it's worth, I think I really like Muntsa Vicente's colors with Pulido's art. I think that the two of them together are creating a very interesting and colorful world for She-Hulk to live in, something that isn't often true about new books. We'll see about this one, guys. We'll just see.
Ewing (w) and Garbett (a) and Woodard (c)
Lorelai makes her return to the 616 after, coincidentally, an appearance in Marvel's Agents of SHIELD just this very Tuesday. Call it fate, call it karma, but now Lorelai is taking over very small parts of the Marvel Universe. That's not really why I'm here though, is it? No, no it's not. I'm here to talk about Verity Willis, a redheaded girl covered in tattoos who is able to see through Loki's disguise as an older and non-costumed up human when he appears in front of her at speed dating. The problem I have with Verity Willis is OH MY GOD SO MANY. Look, Al Ewing has gained some good faith in my book. I liked his short times on AVENGERS ASSEMBLE and some of the other AGE OF ULTRON tie-in books and I've come around on his MIGHTY AVENGERS and I liked the first issue of this series. I don't even hate this issue. My problem with Verity Willis is that she feels SO VERY FORCED. Ignoring the fact that her given name, apparently, is Verity (and she's had this power seemingly forever so don't tell me she's an Inhuman whose power reflects her inner self because I WILL NOT BELIEVE YOU, THEY DON'T MANIFEST UNTIL ADOLESCENCE AND ALSO INHUMANITY JUST HAPPENED so I ask you how could she even have been EXPOSED to the Terrigen Mists), she is so blatantly the counter to Loki that it is a ridiculous story. I talked a lot about how Nuke was interesting in recent CAPTAIN AMERICA comics or, perhaps even more applicably, how Dr. Mindbubble is an interesting foil because both Nuke and Mindbubble have different aspects of Captain America in their origin or in their actions but both are very clearly fighting for something at odds with Cap. However, both are also DEEPER than their connection to Cap so they can exist elsewhere. Verity Willis, even after just one issue, is so clearly writer's room'd around Loki that it's crazy. It's really hard to get past, you guys.
The issue does a lot of other stuff that I'm not so onboard with, including somewhat distracting layouts and looks that aren't dissimilar to, for example, HAWKEYE 8, which found Cherry sending Hawkeye comics the rang of old romance novels. Here's the thing: this may be unfair, but it was great in HAWKEYE and it doesn't work for me here. Part of it is simply that LOKI's attempt came second and it's never good to come second in something innovative like this. Part of it too is that it doesn't really fit; when HAWKEYE did it, Fraction and Aja and Annie Wu (who drew the various romance-style covers spread throughout the book) put it in several times, making it the tone of the comic and ensuring it became part of the layout. LOKI does it once and does a couple other weird things with captions here and there and it gives the comic a "we're really trying too hard" feel. Sorry about the three paragraphs here guys, noticed that it was running a little long and wanted to break it up a bit more (also I just looked back at some of my old, less uniformed stuff on the blog and some of it is REALLY hard to read with the layout I haphazardly used. Whatever, guys).
Punisher 3
Edmondson (w) and Gerads (a and c)
More intense fighting and more hunting down the Soles drives this issue. We're not getting anything particularly earth-shattering in the presentation of this iteration of Punisher but what we are still getting is a solid presentation of a comic book. It's well-written and well-illustrated. The tone is very consistent and exactly the sort of tone we need on a Punisher book. On top of that, the story is compelling and the pacing is perfect, which may save it from becoming boring from people who haven't really been Punisher fans in the past, perhaps because the idea of just shooting through hordes of gang members doesn't really appeal to them (guys, I'm talking about me here, it's not all that veiled). I think it's a testament to Edmondson and Gerads that I'm enjoying this book since I feel like I really shouldn't be. It has a lot of the token pieces that makes Punisher uninteresting to me without really adding anything huge of interest but I am still interested in this series. It's the power of tone and pacing more than anything else (though I'm also pretty into the art style of this one too). Hopefully it continues to be solid as we push forward.
She-Hulk 2
Soule (w) and Pulido (a) and Vicente (c)
She-Hulk has moved into her own law office in a brick building leased out by an ex-mutant who has leased the building exclusively to people with powers, knowing how hard it can be for such people to find office or living space in New York, given the liabilities they are. She-Hulk's first order of business is hiring an assistant, which she does when everyone waiting flees for some mysterious reason and she's left with one applicant, Angie Huang, a strange woman with an impressive resumé and a pet monkey named Hei Hei. The second order of business is finding business. As she has no clients (except the case that her former law firm sent her away with where she and several other super-powered and super-powered associates are defendants), she makes a few calls only to find herself met with resistance from everyone. She calls it a day and goes out at night with Patsy Walker, AKA Hellcat. Hellcat is having problems of her own and ends up having, perhaps, a little too much to drink and insists that She-Hulk come with her to beat up some bad guys. They crash a secret AIM base Hellcat learned about from a SHIELD agent during some date and they're attacked by the two AIM agents stationed there. She-Hulk easily takes down the guy in full robot suit she's fighting with but Hellcat has been captured by the other. She-Hulk threatens him but ultimately says that they can just walk away from this if he lets Hellcat go. He does, the heroes tie them up, and they all go on their way. The next day, She-Hulk gets her first client, Kristoff Vernard, son of Victor Von Doom, wishing to defect from Latveria.I try to ignore other reviews, no matter how small they may be, when I'm preparing my own review. I prefer to go in with my own opinions, get them out of the way, then realize how wrong I am. In this case, though, I saw some tweets from cartoonist Darryl Ayo that talked about giving away SHE-HULK 1 halfway through it then read all of SHE-HULK 2 because it was a much more confident comic. I see some level of truth to that; I do think that SHE-HULK 2 is already feeling more confident about its place and in its main character than SHE-HULK 1 maybe did. On the flip-side, I do believe that SHE-HULK 1 was a better story. Granted, there's decidedly not a lot happening in this one; Jen is trying to find work so she's not exactly doing a ton in this issue whereas she had a case set up for her in the first issue. However, I thought this one was more about world-building in a lot of ways than the nice start that issue one had. Still a pretty solid issue here. I think Javier Pulido's art is going to draw a lot of love it/hate it response and I'm not really sure where I fall on it. For what it's worth, I think I really like Muntsa Vicente's colors with Pulido's art. I think that the two of them together are creating a very interesting and colorful world for She-Hulk to live in, something that isn't often true about new books. We'll see about this one, guys. We'll just see.
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Uncanny X-Men 18, Wolverine and the X-Men 1
Uncanny X-Men 18
Bendis (w) and Rudy (a) and Staples (c)
Scott's X-Men have figured out that the O5 X-Men and Kitty are missing and, when they find a piece of Shi'ar weaponry, they piece things together awfully quickly. Then we look back a couple weeks ago to when Illyana brought Kitty to the Xavier School so she could talk to Scott before bringing the rest of the kids there. And, of course, she tries to kill Scott before Scott explains to her how much he hates himself and so she shouldn't kill him because then she'll hate herself. A week later, she brings her team. Scott has an awkward exchange with Jean and then an awkward exchange with Scott and then it's the present and they're gone and they have to decide if they want to find a spaceship and go after them or if they hope for the best.
I want to preface what I'm about to say by noting that I totally understand why the X-Men who didn't side with Scott feel the way they feel about the death of Charles Xavier. I get their anger, I get their sense of betrayal, I get their confusion, I get their sadness, I get their loss, I get it. That said, I am sick to death of former friends prepared to kill Scott. On top of that, I don't believe Kitty Pryde, heart and soul of so many X-Men teams, would legitimately consider cold-blooded revenge assassination. Overall though, I'm just sick of seeing it. I know it hasn't been that long since Xavier died but I don't need to see everyone try to assassinate Scott for it, particularly in a world where people get taken over by cosmic entities or bad guys or whatever else ALL THE TIME (I think Wolverine has a more real gripe which is that he was fighting very firmly on the side of "don't let the Phoenix come to Earth," which is different than just "Xavier is dead because of you." He also had his own problems with Cyclops before that so...). And it's been apparently like, I don't know, a month since Xavier died in this Universe. Bendis claims, through Scott, that Kitty was trapped in space only a year ago, meaning that just about every significant thing with the X-Men over the last five to ten years has happened in the span of one year. Marvel time is totally messed up; it's the result of wanting to keep characters from aging out of usefulness while still trying to maintain a timeline over decades and decades of backlog. That's why most people don't try to draw attention to it. Here, though, Bendis wants to create his own continuity, trying firmly to set Kitty's time trapped in a space bullet into a real timeline and, personal gripe, getting in a useless reference to the fact that Kitty's favorite band is the Beatles (BOLD STATEMENT). Look, what I'm trying to say is I'm mad I have to complain about all this stuff again when I could be talking about what I did and didn't like about Marco Rudy's really interesting art in this issue. There's a lot of stuff I liked about it and a lot I didn't like and now, look at that, we're out of time. SORRY EVERYONE.
Wolverine and the X-Men 1
Latour (w) and Asrar (a) and Silva (c)
The latest class has graduated from the Jean Grey School but don't think that means the X-Men are about to let Quentin Quire out of their sight. Instead, they've made him a teaching assistant, a disastrous idea motivated by the fact that the older version of him appeared last year as a new Phoenix. The first day of summer session starts with a disaster as Rockslide, who didn't graduate with the rest of his classmates, causes a ruckus and Storm has to get involved, blaming Quentin for things getting out of control. They fight, with students like Rockslide and Hellion also getting a piece, and Quentin storms off. Meanwhile, Beast is up in space with a couple of other students and Wolverine is fighting his way through the Block, an inter dimensional prison Fantomex has set up, to get to its owner. When he eventually finds Fantomex, he tries to convince him to become a teacher at the school, even going so far as to bringing Evan, Kid Apocalypse and adopted nephew/pet project of Fantomex, with him. Fantomex refuses but who knows if other events will force him into action, particularly as, back at the Jean Grey School, an image of the Phoenix has appeared on every screen available.
Like with Aaron's run (which ended, you may forget, just one week ago), this one already has a strong focus on the students of the Jean Grey School or, perhaps more accurately, on Quentin Quire. Aside from the teen drama and the problems at the school and everything else, though, there is a real threat lurking somewhere on the corners of things. There are questions here and there (like why Wolverine has decided to let most of the staff go on vacation at such a seemingly crucial time or what the plan with Quentin, who doesn't respond well to adult pressures or manipulation, will be going forward) and obviously Latour is swinging for the fences right out of the gate (I think I'm mixing my metaphors here) as he introduces the Phoenix as a possible villain again immediately. We'll have to see where this one goes and how it gets there before I can really judge it. Too early, my friends, still just too early.
Bendis (w) and Rudy (a) and Staples (c)
I want to preface what I'm about to say by noting that I totally understand why the X-Men who didn't side with Scott feel the way they feel about the death of Charles Xavier. I get their anger, I get their sense of betrayal, I get their confusion, I get their sadness, I get their loss, I get it. That said, I am sick to death of former friends prepared to kill Scott. On top of that, I don't believe Kitty Pryde, heart and soul of so many X-Men teams, would legitimately consider cold-blooded revenge assassination. Overall though, I'm just sick of seeing it. I know it hasn't been that long since Xavier died but I don't need to see everyone try to assassinate Scott for it, particularly in a world where people get taken over by cosmic entities or bad guys or whatever else ALL THE TIME (I think Wolverine has a more real gripe which is that he was fighting very firmly on the side of "don't let the Phoenix come to Earth," which is different than just "Xavier is dead because of you." He also had his own problems with Cyclops before that so...). And it's been apparently like, I don't know, a month since Xavier died in this Universe. Bendis claims, through Scott, that Kitty was trapped in space only a year ago, meaning that just about every significant thing with the X-Men over the last five to ten years has happened in the span of one year. Marvel time is totally messed up; it's the result of wanting to keep characters from aging out of usefulness while still trying to maintain a timeline over decades and decades of backlog. That's why most people don't try to draw attention to it. Here, though, Bendis wants to create his own continuity, trying firmly to set Kitty's time trapped in a space bullet into a real timeline and, personal gripe, getting in a useless reference to the fact that Kitty's favorite band is the Beatles (BOLD STATEMENT). Look, what I'm trying to say is I'm mad I have to complain about all this stuff again when I could be talking about what I did and didn't like about Marco Rudy's really interesting art in this issue. There's a lot of stuff I liked about it and a lot I didn't like and now, look at that, we're out of time. SORRY EVERYONE.
Wolverine and the X-Men 1
Latour (w) and Asrar (a) and Silva (c)
Like with Aaron's run (which ended, you may forget, just one week ago), this one already has a strong focus on the students of the Jean Grey School or, perhaps more accurately, on Quentin Quire. Aside from the teen drama and the problems at the school and everything else, though, there is a real threat lurking somewhere on the corners of things. There are questions here and there (like why Wolverine has decided to let most of the staff go on vacation at such a seemingly crucial time or what the plan with Quentin, who doesn't respond well to adult pressures or manipulation, will be going forward) and obviously Latour is swinging for the fences right out of the gate (I think I'm mixing my metaphors here) as he introduces the Phoenix as a possible villain again immediately. We'll have to see where this one goes and how it gets there before I can really judge it. Too early, my friends, still just too early.
Big day of CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER news
I KNOW, I'm super biased about this movie. I may end up just skipping reviews entirely the week it comes out and just writing about the movie every day. ANYWAY, today has been a pretty big day as Marvel released a new clip from the movie (pretty spoiler-free, I'd say, and it gives us our first glance at Batroc) and CBR released a slew of new articles with interviews and the like. Check some of 'em out!
Co-Writers Markus and McFeely: "Winter Soldier" Will "Punch You in the Face"
Anthony Mackie As "Captain America: The Winter Soldier's" Falcon
[Directors] Joe and Anthony Russo Delve Into "Captain America: The Winter Soldier"
[Head of Marvel Studios Kevin] Feige Says "'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' Plays On Multiple Levels"
Lot of neat information in here and the Mackie interview is particularly charming as Mackie talks about wanting to be in Avengers 2, a relationship subplot he decided was in this movie, and working with Chris Evans and Samuel L. Jackson. Fun stuff.
Co-Writers Markus and McFeely: "Winter Soldier" Will "Punch You in the Face"
Anthony Mackie As "Captain America: The Winter Soldier's" Falcon
[Directors] Joe and Anthony Russo Delve Into "Captain America: The Winter Soldier"
[Head of Marvel Studios Kevin] Feige Says "'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' Plays On Multiple Levels"
Lot of neat information in here and the Mackie interview is particularly charming as Mackie talks about wanting to be in Avengers 2, a relationship subplot he decided was in this movie, and working with Chris Evans and Samuel L. Jackson. Fun stuff.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)