Final Crisis Comic Book Reviews for 05/07/08

UPDATE - Changed to title of Quick Shot Reviews to Final Crisis Comic Book Reviews

Well, I've decided to just "keep it simple stupid" and just start calling both the Wed and Thurs reviews the same thing, the Weekly Crisis Comic Book Reviews, for the time being. It saves me from making a new banner and, hey, I'm lazy, so new name and reuseable banner is win-win for me, heh.

I saw Iron Man tonight and all I can say is go see it. NOW. Hell, even if you say it already, go see it again. It was awesome and I'll post more impressions on the weekend. My only complaint was the ungodly long wait for the credits to end so I could see the bonus clip at the end. Why couldn't they have just put it after the "big name" credits rolled by and then continued with the nobodies and special effects guys after showing us it? Waiting 10+ minutes for a 20 second clip was pretty damn annoying, no matter how good it the bonus clip was (and it was great).

Oh, and one more thing. My birthday is tomorrow (don't worry, you don't have to get me anything =p), so the Moments of the Week might be pushed back to Saturday, depending on how long the festivities end up lasting. They won't be missing until Monday like last week or anything, so just a heads up for that.

Enjoy the rest of this week's reviews and catch you on the flip side!

LOGAN #3
Written by Brian K. Vaughan
Art by Eduardo Risso

Surprisingly, this was the weakest issue of this series, despite all the build up and slow paced beginning that should have set up an explosive climax.

The bulk of this issue deals with the fight between Warren and Logan. His immortality-like powers have left him a flaming husk of a man and he's set to kill Wolverine. We get a relatively short fight that ends with Warren ripping Wolverine's heart out of his chest and eating it. This, somehow, causes his entire body to regenerate back into a humanoid form.

This all lead to a short interlude flashback to a midnight bath Logan had with his Japanese lady friend before Warren killed her. I'm not sure if this is just in his mind or if it actually happened, as we were shown quite clearly she tended to him, they ate, had sex and went to bed before Warren killed her. Not sure when they drew the bath and had some fun times there.

After the breif flashback, Wolverine gets up from his heartless state and proceeds to kill Warren in rather short manner, decapitating him off panel. We end with another flashback to the Japanese woman as Logan is in a near-death dreamlike state and she offers to take his memories of her away, to which he refuses.

Yes, that's it. I don't know what to say. I expected much more from Vaughan. Risso held up his end of the bargain with great art, but this story didn't need to be told and only served to add yet another Japanese woman to Logan's growing list of dead girls he dated and it featured every possible Wolverine cliche imaginable. Despite that, I enjoyed the first two issues. This final one, however, just turned into a generic fight that just ends out of the blue and the issue almost feels like it belongs to a different story compared to the first two.

Verdict - Check It


NIGHTWING #144
Written by Peter J. Tomasi
Art by Don Kramer, Rags Morales, Christian Alamy and Michael Bair

Nightwing continues to impress with this month's outing. We're treated to some more Dick Grayson moments with his new girlfriend and skydiving hobby and we even get to see Nightwing lock horns with Talia al Ghul in a nice scene.

It's great seeing him treated as one of the "big boys" again and dealing with things like Talia and the League of Assassins without the aid or mention of Batman or his need to babysit Dick. Still not sure I'm digging this reanimated dead guy dealio the bad guys are employing, but everything else has been spot on for this title of late.

My only real complaint right now is that I think Tomasi might be taking things a bit too slow. Yes, I love the character moments that have been littered throughout his run so far, but at times it feels like a little too much fanservice (not the T&A kind) and not enough focus or story development. It's a small complaint, but something I hope he picks up the pace on.

Verdict - Check It


NOVA #13
Written by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Art by Wellinton Alves

This was a much different beast than I expected, but in a good way. I just assumed it would be "Galactus shows up, Nova tries to stop him and he and the Surfer fight".

What we got was an interesting mystery / thriller as a mysterious pyschic entity wreaks havoc with evacuation plans on a planet Galactus is in the process of destroying. As Nova helps the last evacuees escape, the ships mysteriously malfunction and he decides to finally confront Galactus and request he hold back for a few hours so they can repair them and leave before he destroys the planet. This leads to a spectacular last page with Silver Surfer flying off with Nova as he deigns to bother the mighty Galactus.

Again, this is just a setup issue, but I enjoyed it much more than what I assumed was going to be a forced confrontation between Nova and the Surfer. Yes, we'll get to see that matchup, but it feels more natural after this issue and that last page is going to have me dying for next month to come sooner.

The introduction of the pyschic Shadow King-like creature was an interesting touch I didn't see coming. It appears, after Nova managed to capture it, it somehow managed to escape while he was helping with evacuations and infect the leader of this planet's people and he was the one who either sabotaged the ships or that he was at least responsible for getting Nova to petition Galactus, sparking the Surfer fight. Not sure where they're going with this subplot, but I'm looking forward to seeing how it plays out.

Verdict - Must Read


X-FACTOR: QUICK AND THE DEAD #1
Written by Peter David
Art by Pablo Raimondi

I'm not sure when this issue takes place, timelinewise, but it seems to be sometime after Quicksilver's encounter with Layla, where he tried to kill her. The quick and dirty summary for this issue is basically, Pietro is in jail, half out of his mind, battered and bruised and hallucinating images of Wanda, Crystal, Luna, Layla and Magneto as the scene is framed through some cellmates' interpretation of the events.

This culminates with Quicksilver somehow regaining his powers, escaping from the cell, doing a little jig and jumping off a mountain at super speed, then realizing he can't fly and slamming into a plane before landing in the ocean and being picked up by a cruise ship.

To be honest, I was less impressed with this issue than I thought I would. It wasn't bad, by any means, but Pietro's powers come back with no explanation other than his hallucination of Layla telling him he's forgiven, Pietro crying a bit and, blammo, powers are back. I'm not sure if his powers cut out on the jump from the mountain or if he was just too stupid to realize he'd end up launching off it and smacking into an airplane or if he even has them at the end of the issue. He seems quite happy, despite the plane incident and landing in the ocean, so I assume they are still back.

I don't think this needed an entire issue to tell either, so I'm a bit annoyed at paying for something that could have easily been done in 3-4 pages in a regular X-Factor book, but it's not like this was absolutely terrible or anything, so I guess it's not a total waste.

Verdict - Check It


YOUNG X-MEN #2
Written by Marc Guggenheim
Art by Yanick Paquette

Ugh, god, $3 later and five minutes of my life I'll never get back are the only ways to describe this issue. Cyclops explains the finer parts of X-Men behaviour in the form of why they kill now and how the Young X-Men better get used to it. Skrull or imposter of some kind. It had better be this or heads have to roll for this insanity.

After a complete disaster of a training exercise to capture Danger Room versions of the New Mutants, Cyclops decides the team is ready to get to work and sends them to hunt down each member of the Hellfire Club individually. In another brilliant moment of strategy, he breaks the team up into two teams to go after two targets at once, despite how terrible the team works together as it is.

As expected, both teams fail horribly in their opening attempts. Magma seems primed to roast one team, but Blindfold and Ink somehow take down Moonstar. I don't know how exactly, as she just falls over, despite having Blindfold at gunpoint and Ink on the other side of the room. Ink celebrates by batting Blindfold upside the head with the shotgun, knocking her out. I'm not sure if he's as annoyed at her terrible dialogue as I am or if he's betraying the team here.

Verdict - Avoid It

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