Weekly Crisis Comic Book Reviews for 05/14/08 - Updated

I was really pleased with this week's haul. Not only was it bountiful, but they were almost all, universally, amazing issues. I was really happy that I decided to pick up Amazing Spider-Man again, as this was quite literally one of the best issues of that series I've read in a long, long time. Batman RIP read like a prologue or teaser more than the first part of a major story. Guardians of the Galaxy brought the goods and has the scope and scale that Annihilation: Conquest should have had and Thunderbolts was more insane telepath goodness with the Green Goblin getting in on the action.

I'll try to update later with some more reviews of stuff like Sky Dolls, The Walking Dead and Wonder Woman, the latter two being titles I missed on my previews that were brought to my attention by commenters.

Oh, one more thing. I didn't forget about the archives of my old reviews. I've been chugging along diligently (okay, lazily) and am nearly finished with all the Wednesday reviews. Still have the Thursday ones to do, but there's far less of those than the Wednesday versions. One of the reasons I've slowed down is that every time I get a chance to do it, I usually plow through a bunch, but Blogger comes up with a spam protection captcha (insert random generated letters to continue) after 30 or so posts. Considering I do 10+ reviews a week, it makes it annoying to keep going once it comes up, but I'm really going to go at it this weekend to finish up. I'll probably launch the new archives within the next week or two.

Enough of my excuses, hit the jump and enjoy all the reviews!

UPDATE - Added Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four #1 and Wonder Woman #20 reviews.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #559
Written by Dan Slott
Art by Marcos Martin

For some reason, I hate to admit this about a Brand New Day story, but I really, really enjoyed this issue. Maybe the first storyarc just had to deal with having the taste of One More Day still in my mouth or the expectations of having to prove all the retcons and magic nonsense were worth the effort, but I found myself loving just about every minute of this issue. To be honest, I think it actually felt like I was reading the old Spidey again. It was fun, easy to get into and there were lots of things happening throughout the issue to keep me interested and entertained.

First up, we open with the new villain, Screwball, in the act of fleeing from Spider-Man after a daring daytime robbery of some random gambling den. She and Spidey engage in some great back and forth banter, which lasts just long enough not to feel forced or get stale, as they make their way across town, both highly agile characters doing various acrobatic feats along the way.

Screwball, if you haven't heard, is an internet attention whore that has people set up to film her robberies and escapes in action and broadcast them live on the internet on her very own webpage.

She actually manages to elude Spider-Man, prompting him to ask how she's managing this with his spider-like speed and agility. She only quips she's into parkour and he's too slow to keep up. This leads to my only complaint with the issue, being that they use the word parkour about a million times, as if they are beating us over the head with it, but it's only a small gripe. As she makes her last escape, she quips that it's all about the "Parkour luck", which actually made me laugh a bit as even Peter groaned out a, "she did not just say that", in reference to his Parker luck.

This was only the opening act of the book and the rest focuses on the paparazzi aspect of this storyline, in that Peter gets reassigned to the paparazzi section of the paper to put his "ninja photography" to work on catching celebs in action, which he takes a liking to and is actually quite good at doing with his spider powers.

I found it interesting that we've never seen Peter try this before or, at least to my knowledge, it has never happened in the books. It just seems like a natural fit and it was a nice twist to the character. I don't forsee him staying with it, everyone from Robbie to Aunt May and even Harry were a little annoyed and concerned over his bottom feeding new job.

Finally, the other new villain, who I had the least amount of interest in, Paperdoll (think that's her name, it wasn't actually stated), was actually incredibly interesting, and creepy to boot! I'm not sure what her powers are, but she seems to be able to blend into walls and has a fixation with paper that seems to have some connection to her powers. She's obsessed with a celebrity that Peter was covering earlier in the issue and is stalking him. She bought an entire newsstand's stock of DB paper's simply because his picture was splashed on the front page and went back to her apartment, which is covered with photos of him, and pinned a new one up. She "shed" her skin, for lack of a better term, and appeared ghost-like or paper thing, possibly blending into the wall, and was kissing the photo.

The art was really good for this issue, as well. Marcos Martin is a great artist, but I don't hold him up in the top echelon, like a McNivan or Hitch or what have, but his style really fit this book and I loved one page where he had Peter mulling over what to do with a photo as he walked up, down and around a building before coming to a stop upright as he made his decision. Great stuff.

Verdict - Must Read. Definitely worth picking this issue up, even if you dislike much of the BND stuff. At the very least, you can drop it after the three issue story is over. However, I think you'll all be very impressed with this issue and, hopefully, the entire storyarc.


BATMAN #676
Written by Grant Morrison
Art by Tony Daniel and Sandu Florea

Batman RIP officially starts with this issue and it felt very much like a prologue or teaser than an actual story. We begin with a brief introduction to the Black Glove, showing off some very Morrison-esque characters. You'll know what I mean when you see them, as they are about as conventional looking as the Authority is diplomatic.

Afterwards, we get a random chase scene that seems designed only to show off the "new" Batmobile. I say "new" only because it looks identical to just about every other standard Batmobile design we've seen except this one has, oooohhhh, red lights.

The chase ends predictably and leads to a scene back at the mansion where Bruce begins undressing upstairs as he enters his room, where his current girlfriend, Jezebel Jet, who recently learned he's Batman, is waiting for him.

As they embraced, we listen in on Alfred and Robin going over all the changes and craziness Batman's been through over the past year with his trials in 52 and the recent near death experience. It felt very much like a "hey, you guys that picked this up for the big event, but don't know anything about the current run, this is a recap" and had me wanting to just flip through the pages to until something new came up.

We then have Bruce talking with Jezebel about his parents at their grave as she shows him a letter from the Black Glove, requesting their attendance at a party, to Bruce's shock and surprise, as they are the ones he's looking for.

The issue ends with a really creepy Joker segment that has me wondering what was real and what wasn't. This is definitely the prose version earlier in Morrison's run and doesn't even try to explain how he was in Salvation Run, even though they basically say all the crazies are missing earlier in the issue, which seemed to reference said Salvation Run.

The Joker scene opened with Arkham's doors open, blood running down the steps and then switches to a more monotone colouring scheme of the interior. Joker is seen amongst blood stained hallways and dead bodies strewn about as a television talks about an airborn Joker virus killing millions. We then get a shot of his therapist talking to him before the power goes out and the Black Glove request his attendance at a party to kill Batman. As the power comes back on, we see a normal coloured version of this Joker with blood stained clothing and cell.

So, as you can tell, I have no idea if Joker was imagining all this death during his session or if the dead bodies are from the Black Glove infiltrating and if that Joker virus is even real or not. I'm pretty sure it isn't, but the scene was one of the more disturbing takes on the Joker I've read and a bit insane and confusing at the same time, which I imagine was the intent.

Verdict - Check It. The Joker scene was great, but the rest of the issue felt like filler and recaps for new readers jumping on for this event. The art was excellent by Daniels, but I hope the story picks up next issue.


GREEN LANTERN CORPS #24
Written by Peter J. Tomasi
Art by Patrick Gleason and Prentis Rollins

Well, Mongul is one messed up individual. Apparently, the planet he's seeded with the Black Mercies has a ring around it. Nothing special, right? We've seen lots of planets with ring formations. Hell, our solar system has a bunch of them in the outer parts. Well, not like this one. It's made of dead bodies and it's thick enough to impede the Lanterns' descent to the planet. Awesome.

Oh, speaking of the Black Mercies, I was afraid this issue would turn into a rehash of the last Green Lantern appearance by Mongul where Ollie and Hal had perfect dream worlds for two issues before taking down Mongul in the span of a few pages. Well, not this time. It appears Mongul has reverse engineered the Black Mercies to be more in line with the Sinestro Corps' fear motif and they now generate absolute fears for those they enslave.

Ion and Arisia received a two page splash page depicting their inner fears and Ion's appears to be related to the Blackest Night prophecy from back in the old Alan Moore Green Lantern Annual. It seems to have him getting attacked by shadowy figures with giant metal poles, similar to the White Lobe's stabbing him with the lead pipes in the Annual, a scene where a rainbow of rings pierce his chest, showing the various corps' rings flying through his chest, and other shots of him failing as Ion and being the "last one", in reference to last Green Lantern. Not a spot on reenactment, but pretty interesting nonetheless. Arisia's fear sequence showed her buried alive, from back when she "died", and even a shot of what looked like Parallax escaping from a Manhunter's body and jumping at her. Something to look for in the future or just random fear related dreams?

The rest of the issue deals with some boring, for me, at least, recaps of Mongul's origin and history for those that don't know who he is or only came on during the Sinestro Corps War and the search for Ion and Arisia. The GL's retrieve both, who appear to be alive, but in critical condition, but are interrupted by an angry "queen" Black Mercy that seems upset they killed so many of her children. Not sure how it will put up a fight, though.

Where was Mongul during all this? Well, he was making some kind of planet seeding gun construct as he fired the modified fear Black Mercy seeds into space to, I supose, land on random or targetted planets and begin spreading fear and taking over those planets, too. I suspect he'll show up next issue for the showdown with the Green Lanterns.

Finally, we had a seen with the sciencells on Oa, where Sinestro, and every other Sinestro Corps member held captive, begain cutting themselves and drawing symbols on their cell windows. I'm not positive, as I don't have my Corps symbols memorized, but I think they looked like the Red Lantern logo, but it could have simply been the Sinestro Corps one.

Verdict - Must Read. It was a great issue that had some very interesting developments for everyone. I enjoyed the fear dreams Ion and Arisia had, although I still dislike Ion being out of action so easily, and was impressed with Mongul's continued plans and just about everything was done right this issue with the sole exception being that boring recap section.


GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #1
Written by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Art by Paul Pelletier

Guardians of the Galaxy was a great first issue, but, much like The Order, decided to use the reality television style action scenes broken up by the random character in studio talking sections. Maybe it's just me, but I don't particularly care for this type of narrative, but, at the same time, it wasn't enough to stop me from enjoying this issue. I hope they don't choose to go with this style of narration for the entire series, though.

The events of this issue are relatively mundane and easy to describe. The GotG, who are nameless at this point, have discovered that space is broken, due to the Annihilation Wave's forced entry and destruction of the Kline, and Warlock wants to fix it. This leads to their first battle with, to my surprise and delight, the Church of Truth.

For those unawares, Adam Warlock has a lot of past with the Church of Truth and they touch on it briefly here, but, like me, choose not to go into it too much, as it deals with time travel, alternate realities and other complex stuff. Just know that they are a bunch of zealots that convert or destroy anyone that is not a part of the church and they once worshipped Warlock, or his evil counterpart, Magus. This opens up a lot of great story paths that could eventually lead to an appearance by Magus or Warlock returning to that persona on his own or what have you.

Back to the summary, the issue deals with the team kicking ass and taking names as they attempt to stop the ship from colliding with one of the fissures in space, which are the "broken" parts that Warlock mentioned. Intersperced, we get each members reality TV log of the mission and the reasons and recruitment scenes for each of them.

They aren't as bad as I make them out, and the Rocket Raccoon drinking binge with Starlord and Gamora's getting upset with Nova for calling her for a recruitment instead of a booty call followed by make up sex were some of the highlights of the issue, but I just didn't like how they broke up the action all the time. This is probably a personal preference, though, so some will like, others will have the same issues I do.

Another one of my favourite scenes was the return to Knowhere, the current base of operations for the team, where we get to see "Mister Cosmo", the talking Cosmonaut dog from recent Nova issues. He's still just as funny and it looks like he and "Comrade Raccoon" have some issues with each other that I can't wait to see explored.

We end with the reintroduction of Mantis, who's the team's shrink, for lack of a better term, and no longer a field operative, and Groot, who's still a twig, but growing nicely. Mantis didn't seem like the Mantis from Starlord or Conquest. She's still mysterious and has the odd speech patterns, but, and it's hard to explain, her actions and speech just seem off. She's far more of the Matrix-style Oracle now, giving random omens and what not.

She has her little reality TV moment where she reveals she knows the team will be named the Guardians of the Galaxy in 24 hours time and that in nine months, one of the team members will betray and kill them, but can't reveal it to anyone due to consequences of revealing the future and other mumbo jumbo. Again, it came off much less like the Mantis I enjoyed in previous appearances. Bug was no where to be seen, despite being at Mantis' bedside at the end of Conquest.

Everyone had their time to shine this issue and all had some memorable scenes. Raccoon and Cosmo had lots of fun coming up with random names for the team, Drax had a funny "should I stab it, would stabbing it help?" type of line, Gamora and Nova had their recruitment scene and so on. There was definitely something for everyone and I'm looking forward to more of the same next month.

Speaking of next month, the issue ended with a fissure in space and the team suiting up to go stop it. Coming from the rift this time was a frozen temple-like object and clearly seen in the ice is Captain America and his shield, frozen. They spoke of alternate dimensions outside of ours beyond these rifts, so it could be related to that, but it looked a lot like Thanos' temple from Infinity Gauntlet, but the ice made it too difficult to tell, so it could be anything at this point. I thought the Cap shield meant a trip to Earth, but looks like they're going in a different direction.

Oh, one last thing, it seems the Church of Faith has a woman in charge and is quite interested in who the mysterious invaders of their ship were and it looks like they will be the villains of the piece.

Verdict - Must Read. If you like Green Lantern / GLC, Nova, Annihilation or fun team books, this is a must purchase for you. I'd recommend everyone give the first issue a shot at the very least. Easy jump on point, lots of great characters and solid art make this a hard to pass up book for anyone.


SECRET INVASION: FANTASTIC FOUR #1
Written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Art by Barry Kitson

As Secret Invasion is a comic book event and comic books don't typically kill off major characters, I didn't exactly expect the Fantastic Four, or two, since it's just Johnny and Thing, to die with that Skrull Negative Zone bomb set off in Secret Invasion #1, but I still get annoyed when it ends up being just a cheap gimmick used to build up suspense when we all know it means nothing.

Case in point, no one dies from this giant, swirling Negative Zone vortex and it was literally designed just to pull the Baxter Building and Reed Richards' inventions into the Negative Zone. What looked like some big, "OH SHIT", type explosion is simply another random day at the Baxter Building, as evidenced by one of the onlookers making the same joke in one of the panels about how stuff like that happens everyday with the FF.

So, while I did enjoy this issue, I have trouble accepting the very concept that it's built around, namely being sucked into the Negative Zone when they should be killed.

As for the issue, it does explain what happened to Sue Richards, sort of. For those interested, she was off on a conference in Vancouver during SI #1 and a Skrull Reed Richards was waiting for her in her hotel. She knew right away it wasn't him and the Skrull used his own invisible powers to disable Sue. Not sure why she isn't dead or why she was taken captive.

Meanwhile, we see the events, step by step, as the Skrull, who was revealed as Lyja, to no one's surprise, since it's been on covers for this series' solicits. In the Negative Zone, the Thing looks after the kids while fighting off some of Annihilus' bugs, which I assume didn't bother to join the invasion into our universe. Johnny, on the other hand, goes to check on Sue, who they saw enter the lab before the N-Zone portal blew open.

He starts questioning "Sue" and, through stupidity or just plain bad Skrull intel, Lyja can't remember Sue's favourite movie and is found out fairly easily. Good thing they are "undetectable". I guess Reed's big discovery before Pym shot him was the ability to ask the Skrull imposters questions.

Verdict - Check It. The creative team works well with what they were given by Bendis, so I can't fault them for an otherwise decent issue, but the majority of my complaints are more Secret Invasion related and the setup of this issue than the actual issue itself. I'll probably stick around for the whole thing, so it's not a terrible book by any means.


THUNDERBOLTS #120
Written by Warren Ellis
Art by Mike Deodato

Man, they shouldn't release the Thunderbolts one-shots so close to the infrequent appearances of the actual book. It just makes the one-shots seem so much worse than they are and goes to show that very few are as twisted or insane as Ellis is.

As predited, Venom didn't suffer any fatal wounds in his epic battle with Swordsman last issue and the symbiote is actually repairing him as we speak. Swordsman seems to have regressed to a more childlike state as he stumbles aimlessly through the compound and the telepaths are ramping up their plans and now forcing the Tbolts to target civilian workers.

Oh, and Norman Osborn was awesome and has my vote for president. As witnessed throughout this storyarc, he's gradually been losing it, probably due to the telepaths, messed up meds by Moonstone and general Goblin insanity. This issue sees it come to a head as he goes to collect his Green Goblin costume and equipment from storage in one of the more entertaining naked dictations I've read as Norman makes mad plans for presidency, bemoans having to do everything himself, from knocking up (god, why are they referencing this?) and killing the blonde girlfriend (Gwen Stacy for those not in the know) to running the Thunderbolts. It's a great scene and you can look for it, and many other Goblin related scenes, in the Moments of the Week.

Once fully garbed in one of the cooler renditions of the Green Goblin costume to date, Norman begins searching for Swordsman and Venom to put a stop to their tantrums. He stops casually to ask two guards where they are and they can barely spit out an answer before he takes off, cackling all the way, to kill Venom and Swordsman. We later see him catching up to Swordsman, who is practically whimpering like a child, and verbally berates him, saying things like he was born when a pig coughed and so on before absolutely tearing into him with bombs and those razor sharp batarangs. We find Swordsman, later, crucified, with the batarangs pinning him to the wall, near death and bleeding profusely as we cut to Norman, who's about to slaughter the entire complex population thanks to the telepaths' prodding.

The other Thunderbolts weren't forgotten either. Radioactive Man wants to give everyone cancer and, before he can do anything, one of the guards starts bashing him in the back of the head, knocking him out. Songbird questioned him and he said he didn't want cancer and Songbird agreed and complimented him on a good job before leaving. Moonstone was pushed towards going after Doc Samson and Penance, who are still having a casual chat about him becoming Speedball again. I'm not sure how they will stop these telepaths, as everyone seems to be insane, incapacitated or under their control at this point, so I hope Ellis has thought that far ahead and we don't get some rushed conclusion.

Verdict - Must Read. It was another deliciously insane issue of Thunderbolts and makes me sad that Ellis has made enough money off of us and is going to go do other stuff now. Might want to trade wait on this one if you haven't been picking the series up, but it is definitely another amazing issue of Thunderbolts.


WONDER WOMAN #20
Written by Gail Simone
Art by Aaron Lopresti

This issue marks the beginning of the four part, Ends of the Earth, storyline. To be frank, I'm not sure what's going on in this issue, but I like it.

We begin with Wonder Woman in her winter garb, making her way through the harsh winter climate searching for the Mead Hall. She is beign followed by wolves, which she is forced to put down before finally entering the hall. In this winter waste land, she does not have her powers, but is still quite formidable.

There, she encounters Beowulf, the man she is looking for. It just so happens he is looking for Grendel in this place and it leads them to butting heads before agreeing to put their differences aside and teaming up against the other hall inhabitants, who all happen to be Grendel supporters.

Meanwhile, it cuts to Diana Prince at her job, six hours prior to the Beowulf encounter. She's been promoted by her boss, Director Steel, but he seems to have suspicions about her ability to survive encounters that would normally kill a person. I'm not sure if he knows she's Wonder Woman, but it's surprising how a pair of glasses can mask your identity in the DCU.

After the promotion, Diana and her friend, Etta Candy, celebrate over lunch before returning to her office, where the red eyed man from earlier issues is waiting. He has a sword, which Diana easily takes from him and knows she is Wonder Woman. He's not there to fight her and offers to let her use her lasso on him to see the truth.

What happens next is a bit odd, even for someone like me who knows very little about Wonder Woman. She goes almost catatonic and, in some panels that cut to her inner pysche, we learn that the man, known as Stalker, has no soul and Diana is trapped in an empty void of darkness. Etta grabs the lasso and enters this void and helps bring Diana back from the abyss, but she still remains in shock afterwards. Stalker then reveals that Diana isn't strong enough to do what he wants and has helped remove her compassion so that she can help him kill D'Grth, otherwise known as the Devil. Not sure if this is Neron in the DCU or not.

Verdict - Check It. The art was excellent and I especially enjoyed Wonder Woman's arctic attire and the entire Beowulf section. The entire issue, while a bit confusing as to how or why she was searching for Beowulf didn't bother me so much as it made me want to find out more, which is a good thing. I'm not sure if this whole kill the devil routine will end up being a great story or not, so I left this as a tentative Check It, despite enjoying the issue a great deal.

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Iron Man Movie Review

I saw Iron Man on Thursday and was completely blown away by it. I loved all the trailers for it, especially the one with the "I am Iron Man" music playing, but I was kind of on the fence in regards to if it was going to be good or if the trailer had all the good parts in it, as it looked like it was just going to be Iron Man vs. some jets and a knock off armour. Thankfully, it was the former and few movies have I enjoyed for every minute, from start to finish, like I did with this movie.

As always, my reviews are full of spoilers and this will be no exception. So, if you haven't seen the movie yet, I'd recommend holding off on reading this until you do so. I won't go into a full plot breakdown, as that's covered in a variety of other places already, but there will be spoilers, so tread lightly.

First off, I just want to show off this awesome fan-made costume someone made for the opening a couple weeks back. I wish I had the time or motivation to make something like that, but, for now, I'll just have to stare on with nerd envy.


What I Liked

Not Just An Origin Story

While this is a standard super-hero origin movie, it actually had a story, fleshed out characters and real action, unlike others that just have the hero fly around or pose in their costume while showing off powers one after another.

Great Characters

Robert Downey Jr will forever be known as Tony Stark in my mind. He was absolutely perfect. Many forget, with all of Downey's troubles in his personal life, that he's an exceptional actor and without him, I don't even want to imagine how this movie would have turned out.

Also, Jeff Bridges turned what could have been an overacted and Superman Returns' Lex Luthor-ish performance into a menacing villain that didn't fall into the typical super villain tripe.

Other key performances came from Terrence Howard as Jim Rhodes, who I can't wait to see in the sequel, and, surprisingly, a perfect performance from Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Pots.

Fan Service

There was plenty of fan service for the comic fanboys. My favourite was the "Next time, baby." line from Jim Rhodes, as he looks longingly at the prototype black and grey Iron Man armour, alluding to his War Machine armour.

Another great, but obscure, one was the Iron Man cartoon theme song. You'll have to be quick to notice it, but it shows up in a rather obscure form and I'll let you guys pick it out, if you haven't already.

I guess the biggest one was the Nick Fury and Avengers Initiative bonus clip at the end of the credits. I love the new Marvel Studios due to stuff like this. It actually feels like a universe now that we can see "crossovers" like this in the movies. I can't believe DC and Warner Bros hasn't exploited this with their movies yet.

No "Tobey McGuire Syndrome"

By this, I mean the fact Iron Man doesn't lose his helmet in the first 5 seconds of every encounter just so we can see the damn actor's face. We know who's playing the character. You pay them millions of dollars. There's no reason for the mask to come off all the goddamn time!

Thankfully, this only happens once and for a very brief moment, and in a very plausible situation, in the final battle with Iron Monger / Stane. They kind of get around this with the interior armour shots of Stark's face and his HUD inside the armour alla Tony's Extremis interior views in the comics. These felt natural and didn't pull me out of the movie like seeing Christian Bale or Tobey McGuire instead of Batman and Spider-Man, the actual characters I came to see for those movies.

Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark

I know I said this already, but he really makes this movie. The switch from the boozy, womanizing asshole that only cares about making weapons and money at the beginning of the movie is almost the story of his life and Downey displays the perfect amount of emotion during his trials after being captured and dispalying Stark's newfound resolve to change the world. I can't believe I'm even contemplating this, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him get an Oscar nomination for his role, something I never thought a "comic book movie" actor could possibly do.

Fun fact - one of my best friends and former university roommate is named Robert Downey Jr. Yes, he's even a Jr.

Action and Special Effects

They don't go overboard on the action scenes, but this isn't the Hulk movie from a few years back where all we saw was Hulk throw a tank and punch a couple dogs before fighting a water cloud at the end or Superman Returns where the villain of the movie is a giant rock. Bolstered by a great story and competent actors, the action scenes add just the right amount of excitement and keep you on the edge of your seat.

Whether it's his escape in his original Iron Man armour or the badass walking away as the tank blows up scene or his final fight with Iron Monger, there are no "filler" action scenes here. Everything is perfectly excuted and leave you dying to see what they'll throw at you next.

On top of this, the suit and all the effects were amazing. I'm surprised at just how often we got to see the suit in action, as it must have eaten up a nice chunk of their budget animating it.


What I Didn't Like

It Ended

Seriously, we have to wait three more years for a sequel? I hope they film two back to back next time or I may go into withdrawal.

The Power Source On The Chest

This is a small nitpick, but the suit is covered in titanium gold alloy, yet they leave this bright, glowing power source right in the center with what looks like a glass case covering it. Even on the Iron Monger armour, they don't go to any length to cover it up and I half expected Tony to just rip it out of his chest at some point to end the fight. I've suspended my disbelief with everything about the movie already, so I'll just assume it's some invisible paint or ridiculously strong glass or plastic covering.

No Mandarin

Another small complaint, but he is pretty much the only big name Iron Man villain outside the odd Dr Doom adventure and he's primarily a Fantastic Four villain anyways. They reference him with the Ten Rings named terrorist cell and talk of Ghangis Kahn, so I expect he'll be in the next movie. I think he could be the first recurring villain for 2 and 3 if they go with the traditional Mandarin appearance and rings on fingers followed by the current Knauf version with them embedded in his spine. I think the movie turned out better without him, though, as they were mainly doing the origin this time around, so I guess it was for the best he didn't appear.


Verdict - Must See

Great story, great characters, lots of comedy and the most faithful comic book to movie adaptation to date. I don't typically do this, but I'm probably going to go see this again next week when my brother comes for a visit. It was that damn good.

As you can see from the likes and dislikes, there's almost nothing I can fault this film with that wouldn't just come off as nitpicking. I don't even go into the comical parts of the film, like Tony and Jim drinking sake on his private jet or Tony's workshop AI's and his bloopers while testing out the prototype Iron Man suit. Oh, and let's not forget, "Tony Stark built this in a cave! With a bunch of scraps!". Truely the greatest meme to come from that movie and a hilarious line that could have been extremely corny, or cornier, if delivered from another actor.

The Dark Knight Returns and Hulk have their work cut out for them if they want to measure up to Iron Man in the battle for Best Comic Book Movie this year. I'm still going to both movies, but the bar has been significantly raised for them and any future comic book movies.

Before I wrap this up, here's a cool shop of an Iron Man still shot depicting what War Machine could potentially look like in the inevitable Iron Man 2. There's a small bit of red visible on the helmet if you look closely, but, overall, I think the unknown creator did a great job on it and that small defect can easily be overlooked. Add a little bulk to his armour and it would be perfect.

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Weekly Crisis Comic Book Reviews for 05/07/08

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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Weekly Crisis Comic Book Reviews for 05/07/08

Alright, I have a confession to make. I bought GTA4 yesterday and I think that is excuse enough for any possible delays or lackluster updates for the next, oh, 3 years or so. Just a heads up in case I ever need an excuse for delayed postings.

Pretty light week for me, as I said in my previews yesterday, but some noteworthy releases, nonetheless. The new Iron Man book was an interesting take and should be a great alternative to the excellent Knauf's offering if you dislike it for some reason or supplement for current readers of said book. No worries of forced crossovers or need to buy both titles so far.

Secret Invasion #2 came out and I was a little disappointed by the non-fight they had broken up by a freaking dinosaur, but the series is looking up with the Skrull invasion in full force by the end of the issue.

Nova was amazing, as usual, but I focused on other titles for today's reviews. Action Comics Annual was lackluster, either do to subpar art, considering the time frame, or disinterest from the huge delays or even just a rushed ending. Not sure which.

Most everything had something I enjoyed about it, though, so I wasn't unhappy with any of the purchases in the grand scheme of things. Good week overall. Hit the jump for the reviews.

ACTION COMICS ANNUAL #11
Written by Geoff Johns and Richard Donner
Art by Adam Kubert

I'm at a loss as to how to treat this book. I felt the same way as I did when Ultimates 2 finally ended or any other random oft-delayed title finishes up a story after months and months of void. It's hard not to be bitter over the delays and at the same time I'd like to at least judge the book on its own merits before harping on the lateness.

In the end, I can't help but feel underwhelmed, even without the delay. First off, the art is subpar, by Kubert's standards. The colouring and inking help it a lot, but backgrounds are completely barren at times. Off the top of my head, when Clark rescues Lois, it's just ground and a blue background for every panel on the page. Maybe a little bit of generic crystal slapped in for posterity. It's not a major character moment or artistic decision either.

One double page splash with Superman and Lex talking consists of the same background copy and pasted in about a dozen or so separate panels. It's just rushed and / or lazy work. Also, many of the buildings seem like they were either "referenced" or digitally coloured over pictures of New York or any other real life city. The striking difference between them and the colouring of the characters really pulled me out of any images with them in it. Superman has like two blue and two red colours used for his costume and its shading, making him look pasted on the background instead of a part of it. Is it the artist's fault or the colourist's? I'm not sure, but I think it's whoever did the backgrounds and that's probably Kubert.

There are many pages like this and seeing that the delays are all Kubert's fault, seeing the art turn out like this is a disappointment. At least Ultimates always looked fantastic, despite the huge delays by Hitch. Note, the characters look fine, but it's almost like he drew the images and a ghost writer (ghost artist?) came in and did his backgrounds for him.

As for the story, I'm left a little unimpressed by its conclusion, but, for the most part, enjoyed it. We get the prerequisite brawl between the Superman Revenge Squad and Zod's army and Superman and Zod's fight has a lot of impact, but the ending just fizzles with most of the Kryptonians coming off as cannonfodder, even though they have the powers of Superman, and instead of any resolution, everyone just gets dumped back into the Negative Zone by Lex Luthor's tinkering with an escape pod and a random "reverse propolsion whiplash effect" that pulls anyone that was in the NZ back into it at the push of a button.

The things I did like, though, were mostly concerning Lex Luthor. This, and I don't recall him being written like this in the regular DCU before (I didn't read the One Year Later stuff if he began acting like this there), was basically an All-Star Superman version of Lex and I loved it. He's usually much less entertaining than seen here and his early verbal sparring match with Superman was great. Later, he has a similar chat with Lois concerning her choice in husbands that was great. Finally, I loved his "doing this for humanity" excuse and motivation for his hatred of Superman and some of his points about Superman not inspiring humanity to be better, but to only rely on his godly powers makes sense if you think about it. The last pages with Christopher Kent getting the credit for saving everyone instead of Luthor and his reaction to reading the article was great as well.

In the end, though, I never really felt any emotion or impact from this. I'm not sure if it's because of the writing or if I should blame the complete distatchment on the months since I last read this storyline and how my excitement for this issue coming into it was almost zero. For something as Earth shattering as a Kryptonian army invading and conquering the world, imprisoning all its heroes and destroying all human based resistence, this story had no impact on anything and makes the supposed threat seem laughable in comparison to how they try to build it up. Add in the ineffective Superman-like army that gets taken down by scrubs like Parasite and Metallo in seconds and how there is no actual conclusion to this fight other than everyone getting put back in the Negative Zone and it's as if this story, which could have easily been a major event for DC, is barely worthy of a footnote.

Verdict - Check It. It's not a bad issue, but not worth the huge delay either. Add an indecisive conclusion and it's really only worth picking up if you absolutely must read how this storyline finishes. Maybe it'll read better in trade or for people less jaded over delays.


INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #1
Written by Matt Fraction
Art by Salvador Larroca

Cashing in on Hot on the heels of the Iron Man movie comes the new Invincible Iron Man ongoing. I was a little confused at the need for a second title with how great the current one is and considering the current one isn't exactly doing gangbusters in terms of sales, but this title definitely brings something new to the table for Iron Man fans.

However, if you absolutley love the current title, don't feel pressured to pick this book up, as it has no ties, whatsoever, to the current book. Where some people might view this as a Mighty Avengers style addition to the Iron Man: Director of SHIELD's New Avengers, it couldn't be any further from the truth. Where those are different, yet basically the same, Invincible and DoS are on completely different ends of the writing and story focus spectrums. Similarly, if you loathe the current title, you probably owe it to yourself to give this one a shot, as it might be right up your alley if you dislike the political, noir thriller stlye the Knauf's are employing.

Alright, now that I've laid some groundwork, how was the book? To be frank, I'm not sure. Did I like it? Yes, I'm pretty sure I enjoyed it. At least, enough to come back next month for more. But was it a great book? I can't really say. It has the markings of a great book with beautiful art and great writing from Fraction, but I found the pacing a little off and, considering this isn't a new character or anything, it seemed like there was a little too much handholding in terms of story and plot development and more focus on explaining Iron Man and Tony Stark to people. This isn't an origin rehash issue by any means, but there's a lot of inner monologue text boxes giving us insight into who Tony is, what his fears are, what makes Iron Man what he is and so on that frame the story.

Basically, there's a rather strange set of suicide bombers in an African village. The three men had movie Tony Stark-like glowing circles on their chests and all started glowing before exploding in the equivilent of nuclear bombs without the fallout in this small area. The rest of the issue deals with the slow paced narrative on Tony Stark, his reactions to the bombings and fears of the Iron Man tech being outdated or becoming easily reproduced so that anyone with the money can practically use it.

The only other thing of note is Ezekiel Stane. He's been seen in the now defunct Fraction-written The Order, but now seems to be set up as the main villain for this title by Fraction. He was the one behind the new weapons used by the suicide bombers and has, himself, developed new weapons that seem to be variations of Extremis, in that they are organic based and allow him to generate repulsor-like blasts from his finger tips, survive falling out of a building and so on.

It's hard to describe what happened in this issue, as it's very much a talking heads story with little to no action or noteworthy developments other than the initial bombings and Stane's brief appearance, but I am intrigued and want to see more. I get the feeling this is so slow due to the whole fitting the trade sized stories, but will wait a few issues before judging it as such. For now, it's a new and very different Iron Man book compared to Director of SHIELD and I believe it's something everyone will have to check out themselves to decide if it's for them or not. Don't worry about having to buy two Iron Man books a month to understand what's going on or anything like that, as this stands on its own and as different as night and day to the current book. Right now, my money is on DoS as the better book, but I'll give this a few issues before making any official statements.

Verdict - Check It. I think some will love it and some will hate it. It's a very slow paced first issue, but has the makings of being a great title. However, time will tell.


MIGHTY AVENGERS #13
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Alex Maleev

To be honest, I don't feel like I got 22 pages of story here. It's basically four or five 2-3 page vignettes as Daisy, or, as I call her, Earthquake Girl, goes about recruiting Nick Fury's new Howling Commandos. We don't really get any idea who these people are, any reason to care about them, one way or the other, and very vague, if any, explanation of their power sets. In fact, after reading it, I couldn't honestly tell you the names of any of them other than one was Ares' son and Layla Miller rejected them. Basically, I care as little about them now as I did before reading this issue, which is to say, I don't care who they are. Not a good thing.

As I said, the story is Daisy recruiting people for Fury's new Commandos. We opened up with Daisy meeting up with Fury, who's in disguise as a black Nick Fury in a jumpsuit, eyepatch and all, which I found funny for the world's greatest super spy, but I digress. She's a little pissed at being left out to dry when he disappeared, which I found odd, as she disappeared in Secret War with him, or so I recall, and I thought she was always his second hand man with his new underground role. Anyways, she doesn't hold a grudge and goes on a trip to find everyone for him.

Turns out, Fury kept a secret file that no one else has ever seen about a bunch of humans with the potential to be powerhouses that he could use as tools if he ever needed to. That makes them perfect now that he doesn't know who to trust and this is why he's recruiting them.

The ragtag group consisted of, as I said, Ares', of Mighty Avengers' fame, son, who has never shown any signs of powers that I know of, who is now the God of Fear, Phobos. He can make anyone afraid by looking at them. Another is a Puerto Rican girl named Yo Yo Rodriguez. I'm not sure what her power is. She ran really fast after a theif, blew past him and then slingshotted back to her starting spot against her will. Some kind of time manipulation thing that causes her to snap back or actual Flash-like speed? Not sure why she slingshotted back. Next up was a guy named J.T., who is the grandson of the original Ghost Rider, Phantom Rider, and he can turn chains (or everything?) into flaming chains. Good stuff.

After that, we get the best part of the story with Layla Miller. She knows stuff, in case you didn't know. She acts like Layla, asking and answering Daisy's questions before she gets a chance to and tells her that if she joins, they will fail and that without her, they won't. She also has to deal with mutant stuff, which I assume was Messiah Complex, since this is set in the past.

Finally, we have a Dr Strange-seeking magic guy and some huge, freaking guy that specializes in serial crushing. Okay, I made that last one up, but there is a huge guy that's in jail who Daisy bails out and erases all his criminal records. Don't know his power either, but I suspect it's hitting stuff real good like. Issue ends with Fury telling them he owns them all now for the rest of their lives and they will always do what he says and they will make the world a better place to live in. But first, they have to train. He begins by asking if they know what a Skrull is.

Verdict - Check It. It was a pretty generic introduction to a bunch of generic people. I have no idea who they are, what their powers are and don't really care either. Just looks like they'll be knock off Avengers. However, they'll play an important role in Secret Invasion, so I guess it's worth checking out if you want some clue as to who they are, but it'll be just that, a clue. Nothing really revealed here.


SECRET INVASION #2
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Leinil Francis Yu

Again, we get a whole bunch of sound and fury, signifying nothing. The big standoff from last issue with our heroes vs. the 70's Skrull versions? Uh, it happens, sort of. Add some random "who's a Skrull?" innuendo and that's all folks.

Let's start with the big brawl we were promised. Our Luke Cage gets skittish and throws the first punch for no real reason other than to start a super-hero fight, but that's fine, everyone loves those, right? Well, not so fast. This fight consists of a splash page and then a focus on the freaking Vision Skrull telling Sentry he's the Void and he caused all this, making Bob run off like a crying little girl, just like every other goddamn Sentry appearance ever.

After this, we get some random pages showing one or two punches, Ms. Marvel flying Tony off to that delapatated building they were once held captive in, where he builds stuff from scrap, and then a dinosaur breaks up the party, ending the so-called "fight".

Thankfully, the T-rex squashed Spider-Man and Hawkeye, revealing both to be Skrulls, but Mockingbird sticks around to cry over it and insists she's the real deal. Ronin, who's Hawkeye, in case you've been living under a rock, asks her about October 12th and she's shocked he knows about it until he reveals who he is. She tells him it's the expected birthdate of a baby they both would have had if it hadn't been miscarried.

Okay, this automatically proves, without a shadow of a doubt, she's the real deal, as neither one has told anyone about this before. Ever. Seeing as there are no telepaths in the Marvel Universe, I could see how this would be impossible information for the Skrulls to gather. Oh wait, there's telepaths EVERYWHERE and the Skrulls even have their own. My guess? Both are Skrulls and it's a cover story to try and prove they both aren't and cause more confusion.

Anyways, Mockingbird tells them all Cap is the real deal, too, because he's the one that got them all back home. Righttttt. Cap got them all back home and the Skrull invasion just happened to start as soon as they landed. No way he's a Skrull.

Finally, we see why the heroes were lured to the Savage Land as the Skrull armada arrives in New York and goes all Independance Day on a bunch of buildings as everyone watches the Baxter Building blowing up for the 20th time. This is followed up by an army of Super Skrulls version 2.0 being teleported down to start, I don't know, killing people or something. They look pretty badass though and are nothing like the Skrullektra or Blackbolt versions or even the recent one that tried to replace Echo. I loved Mr Fantastic Strangebolt, as I call that amalgamated Skrull. The One-Eyed Wolverlossus (that would be a great porn name) was neat as well. Cudos to Yu for the great designs all around on these guys.

Verdict - Check It. I was a little disappointed at the cop out T-rex fight stopper in the Savage Land and not much else happened, but I'm actually a bit excited by the final splash page with the Skrulls.

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Weekly Crisis Quick Shot Comic Book Reviews for 04/30/08

Here's the rest of this week's reviews for everyone. Thor: Ages of Thunder was an amazing one-shot and worth checking out even if you dislike the current Thor run by JMS for whatever reason. The Spanish issue of Blue Beetle was...interesting. You can follow it without understanding and there's a translation at the back, but I think the gimmick hindered the issue more than it helped. IT was still enjoyable, but not as much as usual because of it, at least for me.

I'm still banging my head against a wall trying to think of something fitting for a new name for these follow up reviews on Thursdays, so you'll have to stick with the Quick Shot title for the time being. I kind of want it to be comic booky sounding, but I'm probably trying too hard and should just go with something simple.

So what did everyone think of the new Anti-Venom revealed over at Newsarama for the upcoming Brand New Day storyline? We call that jumping the shark in the television world. I imagine it'll be Mr Negative gaining the symbiote or a symbiote of his own, but it just sounds and looks ridiculous to me.

Alright, enough of the nonsense, on with the reviews!

AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #12
Written by Dan Slott & Chris Gage
Art by Steve Uy

Another solid outing from the Initiative crew. I wasn't a fan of Uy back when he did some fill-ins earlier in the run and I'm not a fan now. Other than that, I have no complaints about this issue.

If you're out of the loop, we just finished the KIA storyline where the MVP clone nearly killed everyone, the old New Warriors reformed and all the secrets of Camp Hammond were brought to Tony Stark's attention. This issue sees the aftermath of all that.

Hank Pym turned up alive early on here. I'm not sure if he's a new Skrull and this is where he replaced Pym for Secret Invasion or if multiple Skrulls have filled in for him when he "died" on that plane earlier and during the KIA arc or if it's the same Skrull and it actually survived. Suffice to say, he's alive here.

The previews made it look like everyone was prepping to go to a funeral, but it turned out to be a simple briefing. Rhodey wasn't willing to talk about his cyborg like appearance, so that's still up in the air. We also get to see a hearing with Iron Man present to find out what happened, but Gyrich is Gyrich throughout and nothing really comes of it.

As seen in the previews, Taskmaster and Ant-Man have some inappropriate, although a bit funny, comments for Dragon Lord's family when informing him of his death. I'm not sure I'd send either of those guys along to anything as sensitive as that and I doubt any family would want to see some guy in a skeleton-like mask at their doorstep to tell them their father died, but that's just me. Turns out Trauma survived his ordeal as well and Cloud 9, Komodo and Hardball's reactions were a lot of fun.

Finally, the issue ends with the graduation and if Slott and Gage simply write these characters off to pasture, I'll probably drop this book. I don't think they'll do that though, but as good as this is, I'm not interested in reading about a bunch of new throw away characters, provided that's what happens.

It's kind of sad to see how Cloud 9 has progressed from the free spirited girl that just wanted to fly on her clouds back at the beginning of the series compared to the jaded and cynical soldier she is now, but also a testament to the character progression Slott has set up over the course of the past year. I hope to see some more development with her and maybe some positive super heroics to bring back some of that lost childhood for her.

Verdict - Must Read


BLUE BEETLE #26
Written by Jai Nitz
Art by Mike Norton and Trevor Scott

This was the first issue in the Rogers-less era of Blue Beetle and, while I don't speak Spanish, it was very much the same Blue Beetle book I've always loved.

By this, I mean it's a light hearted affair that's packed full of fun moments with Jaime and his friends and family, which is my favourite part of the series.

Things like Jaime's grandmother knowing his identity after his mother told him and the comical aftermath of Jaime's "You told grandma!" scene where they both smack him are all things I've grown to expect from this book. Another great moment involving his grandmother is when she has him fly her off to see the sunset by her request.

However, the Spanish aspect of this issue did pull me out of it at times. Having the Parasite speaking Spanish for no reason or Jaime doing it when he's off by himself as the Blue Beetle, which he's never done before, made it feel like, at times, it was having them speak Spanish for the sake of speaking Spanish. As others pointed out, there was a translation in the back of the book, but flipping back and forth got a little old after the first couple pages (I did do it for the whole thing though), but it still made it a chore to "read" this issue at times.

Verdict - Check It


LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #41
Written by Jim Shooter
Art by Aaron Lopresti and Matt Ryan

This was another slow, but enjoyable issue of LoSH. I don't know the intricacies of these characters just yet, but I am getting a real feel for them at this point and I see that as a testament to how well Shooter is doing here.

However, it seems like this story is almost derivative of what Johns just did in Action. I assume both planned months in advance, so both probably came up with it on their own, but with one after the other, it's hard not to draw parallels.

For instance, the Legion are running into all kinds of problems with the governments to the point they are seeing heavy restrictions. This issue sees the introduction of rejected try outs being recruited by the government to supercede the Legion and the Legion having members arrested and facing the possibility of all of them being outlawed.

Again, not identical, but it reminds me of Earth-Man taking over with the rejects, the old Legion getting branded as outlaws and hunted down and so on. For what it's worth, I find the Shooter version a much more satisfying read between the two and I really enjoyed this issue.

Verdict - Check It


THOR: AGES OF THUNDER #1
Written by Matt Fraction
Art by Patrick Zircher

Alright, this issue was a little different than I expected based on the solicit, but in a good way.

Basically, it's set a long time before Thor ever appeared in the Marvel Universe or Odin tried to humble him by forcing him to live with humanity. In fact, the Thor presented here is arrogant, cocky and far harsher than the Thor we've come to know.

Some examples of this are the ways in which he dispatches the Frost Giants, brutally murdering them with precision hammer strikes and decapitations or is refusal to share his stockpile of apples from the world tree. It all culminates in the final parts of the issue when he refuses to celebrate with the other gods and it appears to be setting things up to explain Odin's reasons for forcing him to live with humanity.

For those wondering what, exactly, this issue is about, it deals primarily with the Enchantress, her role in retreiving the apples from the world tree and how the Frost Giants, for one reason or another, have tried to win her as a bride several times. We learn about the war with the Frost Giants, see a battle that destroys a wall, and even one disguised as an eagle that uses Loki in an attempt to kidnap her. Eventually, the Loki spirits Enchantress away and delivers her to the Giants, which causes a loss of the precious fruit of the gods and the strength and wisdom it conveys. Loki attempts to free her later, but it takes Thor to save them both.

Enchantress comes off as a much more sympathetic character than the one we've seen throughout the years and the way the other gods treated her and used her in bets was especially cruel, despite her devoted nature to her job as the only one that could take from the world tree.

My one complaint is with the narrative. It's very similar to what JMS did in recent Thor issues and the flashbacks with Odin, but those were only a spatter of pages and it worked well there. This is an entire issue of it and it is used far more liberally than in said Thor issues to the point I felt like just skipping the wall of text on some pages. It was well written, but I just found it was over used. This is only a small complaint against an otherwise perfect issue.

Before I finish this review, I have to comment on the art, which I rarely do, as Zircher did an incredible job here. I'd rank this up with Coipel in terms of detail and this book looks simply amazing. I hope he's on board for the two or three other one shots scheduled from Fraction.

Verdict - Must Read

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