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

Click Here to Read More!

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.

Click Here to Read More!

Weekly Crisis Comic Book Reviews for 04/30/08 - Updated

Some great stuff all around this week. I pumped out a quick batch of four reviews to start things off, but the Montreal Canadiens game has already started, so I'll probably update later tonight with one or two more, time permitting. Enjoy the reviews and let me know what you bought and though this week!

UPDATE - Added Immortal Iron Fist revew.

DAREDEVIL: BLOOD OF THE TARANTULA #1
Written by Ed Brubaker & Ande Parks
Art by Chris Samnee

I've already admitted my man love for Black Tarantula many times over and, I'm sure it comes as no surprise, I loved this issue starring him up until the very end with Daredevil letting him go after seeing him murder his cousin.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start at the beginning. Since we last saw Black Tarantula, he's been a busy man. He's become the bigger, meaner version of Daredevil in his own neighbourhood. He does everything DD does, stopping drug busts, muggings, etc, but most people end up in traction afterwards. He doesn't kill anyone though and that's the biggest reason, coupled with Matt's outlook on life after what happened to his wife, that Daredevil probably doesn't make it a priority to stop him. BT also takes any drugs and disposes of them as well as setting up a "charity ring" where he gives any drug or ill gotten money to shelters or aid centers in his neighbourhood. Kind of a Robin Hood type deal, except he's a big, sweaty man in a leotard and mask instead of a fairy with a bow.

If that was all that was happening, it would be a pretty dull issue, so, as to be expected, this new life Black Tarantula has built doesn't last long. His cousin seeks him out with the family's gang from Argentina in an attempt to kill him and take the Black Tarantula mantle from him, of which they believe he's sullied. They do this by dangling his wife and child in front of him, luring him into a trap.

After barely surviving the trap and suffering from multiple wounds and some poison, he ends up at Matt's doorstep, where he's brought in and recovers for two days on his couch. BT enlists Matt's help and they seek out his wife and child.

During the battle, it's revealed they are not actually his wife and child, but lookalikes and BT is caught in a bomb rigged to the unlucky bait. Daredevil is left to fend off the generic thugs as a flaming and severly burnt BT emerges from the flames, latches onto his cousin and throws him through a wall.

This leads to the aforementioned bad ending. Well, I like what Black Tarantula does, where he cuts his cousin's hand off and proceeds to dismember him as the panels fade out, but, as Matt comes out of the building with the survivors, he turns a blind eye on BT's handiwork and lets him pin the fire and destruction caused on the dead cousin. It's very much an Amazing Spider-Man #375 where Peter lets the homicidal Venom go free in exchange for not bothering him anymore and I didn't like the fact Matt let him do this. His wife's condition and current state of mind are no excuse for this and I was a little let down after so much good stuff.

Verdict - Must Read. Great issue with something I just can't agree with happening at the end. Puts a damper on my overall feeling, but this seems like something Brubaker will be picking up on with the threat of Black Tarantula's family coming after him in the future, so I'll let it go, for now.


DC UNIVERSE: ZERO
Written by Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns
Art by George Pérez, Tony Daniel, J.G. Jones, Aaron Lopresti, Ivan Reis, Philip Tan and Carlos Pacheco

It's hard to evaluate a book that only cost 50 cents and was probably tossed in for free with your weekly batch of comics at most shops. Do I judge it as I would a regular comic? Do I treat it as the "freebie" that it is? Is it fair to hold it to a higher standard?

I asked myself all these things before reviewing this book, but I still can't seem to find a way to review this title in a favourable light.

What is this 50 cent issue about? Nothing. It's 22 pages of fluff and thinnly veiled advertisements for Final Crisis and it's unsettling, and growing, number of tie-ins. This is not a conclusion of any sorts to Countdown if you were expecting that. It doesn't answer any questions lingering from that year long disaster. It's a mish mash of every upcoming tie-in, which dedicates about two pages to each of them, all held together by a paper thin narrative to what is probably going to be reguarded as the stupidest and most pointless resurrection of our time.

Resurrection? Well, that's pushing it a bit, as the reported return of Barry Allen by the NY Times and other news sources doesn't technically happen here. We get someone's narrative that, by the end of the issue, has a Flash lightning bolt in the corner and the issue ends with a lightning bolt over the skies of Keystone City. It seems to be confirmed by Morrison and Johns in interviews, but we don't see anything and there's no explanation here that I can see. He just comes back on a lightning bolt.

Other story beats this issue hits include a one or two page Batman and Joker interlude where he just deals some cards and alludes to a mysterious, super secret (don't tell anyone!) organization that's out to get Batman for reasons unknown, several Flash rogues and other villains listening to Libra preach about some evil lord almighty that they have to pray to for salvation as the sole reason they should follow him as the new Secret Society leader (who in their right mind wouldn't smack him upside the head and walk out? And I guess everyone gets back fine and dandy from Salvation Run), a page or two about Black Hand and some very, very inconsequential Power Rangers Corps images spliced over a two page spread that gives us no new information, and, finally, Manazons that look identical to the Spartans from 300. Joy.

Call me disenfranchised or cynical or whatever you want, but I'm less enthusiastic about every story in this book, with the exception of Blackest Night, than I was before reading it. Final Crisis, itself, is the one I'm most worried about with this Barry Allen resurrection nonsense.

Verdict - Check It. It's free, basically, so it's hard to tell anyone not to pick this up, but there's no story, the art, while featuring a great selection of artists, has no dynamic shots or anything I'd consider a "wow" factor and there's absolutely nothing here you didn't already know, except maybe the Spartans, er, I mean Manazons. If you paid 50 cents for this, it's as if you paid DC for the priviledge of reading their advertisements.


GREEN LANTERN #30
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Ivan Reis and Oclair Albert

This was a lot more enjoyable, at least for me, than the last issue. While still very much a rehash of Hal's origin, I guess having more focus and the slight alteration to the cause of Abin Sur's crash just made this issue feel like it was offering me something new that last month's failed to do.

It seems Abin Sur "liberated" one of the inmates he was interrogating last issue and brought him along for the ride to Earth. It appears the alien prisoners fed Abin a story about his ring failing him when he needed it most and, thus, Abin's reliance on a spaceship to transport him to Earth instead of his ring, explaining a major inconsistency in the need for his spaceship all these years.

However, while these prisoners probably told him a great many truths, the fact about his ring failing was designed only to feed his paranoia and fear, making it so that his ring would, in fact, fail him due to his own fault, not because of any prophecy. This allowed the prisoner to escape his ring construct shackles and attack Abin in the cockpit as they approached Earth. During the struggle, the alien tore open the ship and escaped. Abin, slightly injured, refused to leave the ship, as it's crash would have landed in a heavy population center, killing thousands. I assume his ring or, his willpower, was still to weak to protect him or stop the ship. Also, it's never explained if the alien survived re-entry or if he could fly o if he actually escaped.

Meanwhile, Hal Jordan is scraping by a living as a grease monkey working on planes after last issue's antics and attempts to get reinstated in the private sector as a flier for an old friend of his dad's. He refuses, but it's revealed he's selling his business to Carol Ferris in exchange for hiring Hal.

Shortly after, Hal, sitting in a recovered plane that crashed recently receives Abin's ring and is transported to him in much the same way his origin has always occurred. The difference is, Abin was shown programming the ring to transmit all the information he had on the Blackest Night to Sinestro before sending it off to find Hal. The issue ends with Hal flying around like a nut after pondering the meaning of Abin's last words, which ended with him muttering Sinestro's name.

Verdict - Check It. I'm still not sold on the need for this Secret Origin or, at the very least, the need for the rehashed material concerning Hal and Carol and so on. They still don't have enough new material to fill a single issue and I don't think next issue will reveal too much more, either. I'll give it a Check It, as it's a more enjoyable issue than Hal running around as a kid and getting kicked out the Air Force, but this is barely a step above anything you'd find on Wikipedia or from the back issue bins for a quarter, where the story's been told a million times.


IMMORTAL IRON FIST #14
Written by Ed Brubaker & Matt Fraction
Art by David Aja

Goddamn, I didn't think it was possible to deliver so much win in one issue. Brubaker and Fraction manage to wrap up everything in one issue. There's no room for filler here. It's just wall to wall kung-fu action. I'm literally giddy as a school girl after having read this issue to the point I don't think I'll be forming coherent sentences by the end of this review.

Quick recap for the fools not reading this book. There's seven mystical cities. Each have a badass warrior in the same vein as Iron Fist. Every so many years they have a martial arts tournament to determine who's more badass. It typically involves kung-fu and wenches. This year, they are having such a tournament and Hydra is determined to invade and destroy K'un Lun with a train through a magic portal.

Suffice to say, the conclusion to such a story involves a lot of kun-fuing and a lot of asskicking. Last issue ended with the seven Immortal Weapons exiting the mystic portal Xao, the Hydra boss, created to invade. Picking up right where we left off, Danny and the other weapons put a royal beat down on Hydra of epic proportions.

How epic is it? Iron Fist channels his chi to align with the magnetic field of a train and becomes a human bullet, destroying the train in an instant and that's just the opening pages! While the Hydra goons are basically cannonfodder for the Immortal Weapons and the Heroes 4 Hire crew, that's even touched upon a bit, citing the Hydra guys are there for a paycheque while the rest are fighting for their homes and survival of their people.

Throughout the issue we see the Immortal Weapons unload their various secret moves and techniques on the wholly unprepared Hydra goons and whoever's responsible for the names of all the Weapons' secret techniques, like Bastard's Black Heartcrusher, Vaulting Mantis Spine Snapper, 88th Son of War and numerous other that litter this book needs a medal. Those are pure gold whenever I see a new one.

This issue isn't just about the Immortal Weapons though. There's also the insurrection in K'un Lun going on and, while the actual overthrowing of Nu-An is a little contrived (he runs down the stairs to try and escape the city without any guards and runs smack dab into the entire Army of Thunder and that's all there is to the rebellion), the Army of Thunder doesn't go to waste as they repel the invading Hydra trying to use the Rand Gate to enter K'un Lun and their bloody battle spills out into the real world as well, with the aid of Davos, of all people.

With most of Hydra on the run, Iron Fist confronts their leader, Xao, and asks him to surrender. Xao had lightning crackling from his eyes in anger earlier in the issue and he opts to jump to his death in lieu of surrender, but not before revealing to Danny that there is an 8th Capital City that no one ever knew about. Did he have power infused by this mythical 8th city to explain the eyes earlier? It's my guess, but it seems like Iron Fist is becoming a team book of sorts as, after the battle, the seven Immortal Weapons all opt to stay in the real world and investigate his claims.

In K'un Lun, the Thunderer becomes the city's new leader and the nameless girl that led his Army of Thunder is poised to take the role of Thunderer. Davos, who the Crane Mother stripped of power, surrenders to his father, the Thunderer, and confesses his sins. He actually seemed to be upset over the things he has done and it could be a real character defining moment for him here.

The end of the issue had the Thunderer putting him in charge of the dragon egg for the dragon each new Iron Fist must fight to gain their title. It seems the dragon is set to be reborn and Davos will guard the door as penance for his crimes. Will he take control of the Iron Fist power once it hatches or is he truely reformed? What happens if it's destroyed before hatching? I wish Brubaker and Fraction were sticking around long enough to deliver on all these plots they've set up!

Verdict - Must Read. I found the art much improved over recent months and the story, as the review shows, was simply amazing. It's rare to be this satisfied over a comic book or how a story turned out and if you haven't been following this book, make the eventual trade your top priority!


NEW AVENGERS #40
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Jim Cheung

This comic, by all accounts, should have floored me. It has great art, does its best to explain the Skrulls invasion efforst and reveals potentially one of the biggest Skrull sleeper agents in the Marvel Universe.

However, like last week's Mighty Avengers, I feel complete and utter disinterest. With the exception of the reveal at the last page, there was no big science or magic answer to how the Skrulls are undetectable or even plausible explanations as to how they can mimic brain patterns or have the same memories as who they are impersonating. The explanation given is "they just do" because they have the Illuminati's DNA. In the end, and I freely admit this is probably just me, for whatever reason, it just feels like Bendis repeating his interviews and the characters and story is just repeating everything he's said before about prophecies and how they're sleeper agents and so on.

The story of this issue features nothing but Skrulls, making me wonder about the completely random homage cover. They could have did an excellent Skrull related cover without the cover that has no baring on the issue's story, but I digress.

From the get go, we are introduced to the Skrull Princess Veranke, shortly after the Illuminati escape many years ago, and she is immediately set up as the religious fanatic, proclaiming about prophets and coming disasters, such as Galactus and the Annihilation Wave. The current Emperor silences her and has her abandonned on another planet. She's the same one we saw in the opening pages of Secret Invasion.

As we go, we see random scientific advancements in regards to the Illuminati's DNA and cloning before a shot of Galactus' destruction of the Skrull homeworld several years ago. This leads the Skrulls back to the former princess, who's prophecies have all come true, and she becomes the new Queen.

This leads to the final "explanation" of how they are undetectible and the introduction of the first new "Super Skrull", who I assume was Black Bolt's imposter or they all just look alike. Skrullektra shows up, as well, and explains her random contacts with Nick Fury, Daredevil and several others. Not sure if those are actual events that happened or just made up meetings. Finally, the Queen, herself, demands to be inducted into the program and asks for the most prominent and potentially destructive position and who she would have to replace. The final page shows the file brought up of Spider-Woman, implying, since this is in the past, that our Spider-Woman has been a fake, probably since she got her powers back. That's my best guess, at least.

My lack of interest doesn't stop me from seeing this is a great comic, when you get down to it, and I recommend it to anyone that's even remotely interested in Secret Invasion, but the only way I can describe my feelings for this issue is a big, "meh", of indifference. I really can't explain why I'm getting almost no enjoyment out of this. I don't hate it, like, say, Countdown, but I'm more or less running on "collector mode" now instead of buying it for enjoyment.

Verdict - Must Read. Despite my misgivings, I think the background information on the Skrulls, Elektra and the reveal of Spider-Woman, coupled with incredible art, make this a Must Read for just about everyone but me.

Click Here to Read More!

Weekly Crisis Comic Book Reviews for 04/23/08

This is a rather brisk update and definitely one of my shorter set of reviews, but I'll make up for it tomorrow with some more extended Quick Shot Reviews. For now, enjoy this edition of the Weekly Crisis Comic Book Reviews.

MIGHTY AVENGERS #12
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Alex Maleev

Not sure why they chose that cover for this issue, as not one of those characters appears in the book. In fact, not one Mighty Avenger, unless you count the recently defected Spider-Woman, shows up here. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's bad enough when they have fake or sensationalized covers for events that happen in books and now we're getting completely random covers altogether. I guess I miss older covers that gave you some idea of what a book was about.

This month's issue takes a break from current events and tells us what happened to Nick Fury post-Secret War. If you didn't read that mini-series, it was actually pretty good and worth a read if you're interested in what lead to Fury's ousting from SHIELD.

Anyways, the issue is comprised of flashbacks to various time periods, dating back to over 2 years ago, Marvel time, and deals specifically with Fury's first encounter with the Skrull infiltration.

During Fury's self-imposed retirement, Countess Valentina DeFontaine, the same one that recently killed and replaced Dugan in Secret Invasion, pays Fury a little visit. Fury, always the spy, follows her while using his cloaking watch and finds her talking to another human about getting Fury's access codes and doing it for the Queen and so on. Fury returns to the apartment and holds the imposter at gunpoint, demanding to know who she is and what she wants. When she refuses, he shoots her in the head, killing her. I'm a little confused at this point, as she bled green from the initial wound and I thought they bled red blood with the new undetectable replacement. The dead Countess reverts to her Skrull form, leaving Fury to ponder the situation.

Another scene showed Fury infiltrating the SHIELD Helicarrier and having a chat with the then newly appointed Director Maria Hill and giving her some vague advice on watching out for the Skrulls without actually mentioning Skrulls.

Finally, we get closer to the presnet where Fury hooks back up with Spider-Woman and she becomes a triple agent for SHIELD, Hydra and Fury. Fury actually tells her about the Skrulls, which makes me curious about her actions with Skrullektra.

The issue ends with Nick Fury looking over a bulletin board full of photos of numerous heroes. He has several circled in red and others in blue and, I'm assuming an artists error, has doubles of all the Young Avengers for some reason. My guess is red circles represent definite or high propability Skrulls and blue circles are either not Skrulls or people he is unsure of.

Verdict - Check It. There's no Skrull reveals here, there's no major revelations on Fury's underground movements and, while not a bad issue, this doesn't answer any questions I had about Fury or Skrulls and does nothing to bolster my interest in Secret Invasion. I did like this issue and it was a good read, but I expected a lot more from this considering we're smack dab in the middle of a major event.


THOR #8
Written by J. Michael Stracyzynski
Art by Marko Djurdjevic

The more I read of Donald Blake, the more I feel he's either editorially mandated baggage or JMS added him into the book with no concrete plans for him. He's clearly the weakest link in this title and I found myself impatiently waiting for the next Thor or Asgardian related segment or shift of focus off of Blake.

Picking up where we left off last issue, Donald Blake and Thor are separated after Thor enters the Thorsleep, formerly known as the Odinsleep, to recover from his overexertion after freeing all the remaining Asgardians. Blake took this time to journey across the country to find an old acquentence in the form of his old flame, Jane.

The best part of the issue is the father/son heart to heart Odin and Thor have in this issue along with their battle with Surtur. Apparently, Surtur placed part of his essence in the underworld so that he would survive Ragnarok and Odin's eternal struggle with him is preventing him from returning to the land of the living and possibly heralding a new Ragnarok. We get another flashback to Odin's early days and how he came to "adopt" Loki. I loved the narrative for this, as it parralleled last issue's with the Bor's name replaced by Odin's for the 'why should we fear' type narrations.

It turns out Bor was coming to Odin in his dreams and constantly plaguing him after Odin left him to die and never tried to save him and Odin agrees to Bor's request to adopt a son of their enemy in exchange for Bor never bothering him again. Odin thought this was a compromise or forgiveness from Bor, but it is speculated at the end that it was Bor's revenge with the amount of chaos Loki eventually caused. In the end, Thor forgives Odin and offers to restore him now that he knows his spirit is not being held in a mortal, but Odin refuses, glad he did no suffer the fate of his father and that Thor would not forsake him. He opts to stay and battle Surtur and to leave Asgard to its new fate under Thor.

As for Blake, he meets up with Jane, they chat for a bit and it's revealed she was married, had a child and is now getting divorced after she felt Blake's return. It seems it was as if Blake had been erased from existence when Ragnarok happened, but Jane still felt him tugging at her. Sadly, Blake is only there to find out if she was holding onto Sif's essence and not allowing it to leave her body instead of some heartfelt reuninon. Jane takes it a little rough, but they reconcile before he leaves.

However, one of Jane's patients gets looked after by a black haired nurse as she speaks with Blake. It turns out the old woman on her deathbed is, in fact, Sif and the nurse is Loki, who seemingly knows this is Sif and taunts her with a mirror showing Sif's true self to the old woman.
To be honest, I was expecting Loki to be changed a bit with his return to the land of the living. He / she's Loki and it's inevitable that she'd return to her old ways, but this was a quick turn from how I feel she'd been portrayed up until now and I expected her to have a more morally ambiguous or less proactive approach this time around.

Finally, the art was still great, but I found there were several times where it was lacking or possibly rushed. It's hard to tell, to be honest. The Thor / Odin scenes were excellent, but most of the Blake pages feel barren and lack the same level of detail and Loki's breif appearance looked terrible compared to last issue. Now terrible is subjective. It's better than most books, but terrible in relation to the rest of the issue.

Verdict - Check It. For the Thor / Odin stuff, it's a Must Read, but the other half focused on Blake, I find it's a take it or leave it type of story and I'll be glad to see the two recombined next issue and more focus shifted back to Thor and company.

Click Here to Read More!

Weekly Crisis Comic Book Reviews for 04/16/08

I was hoping to get a few more reviews out tonight, but I'm dead tired and practically wiped. I didn't even get to watch any hockey tonight. I'll make it up to you all tomorrow with the Quick Shots with some more thorough reviews mixed in there. In the meantime, enjoy this handful of reviews.

ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST #6
Written by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Art by Wellinton Alves & Tom Raney

Annihilation: Conquest originated as a storyline for Nova, much like how Secret Invasion started as a New Avengers story. It's not surprising, then, that many of the problems with this event stem from the fact that many of the characters and their actions are completely inconsequential and only serve to take up space.

For instance, Ronan, Wraith and the Super-Skrull took up a lot of time and space with a four issue mini-series and many scenes with Ravenous and the modified Kree Sentinels. In the end, aside from Wraith's deus ex machina-like powers against Ultron, these characters did absolutely nothing.

In fact, the event was set up with a fairly epic scope, as the Phalanx were revealed and conquered all of Kree space and then the revelation of Ultron in A:C #1. From there, the series devolved into a rather mundane black ops mission by Starlord's team to destroy the tower, completely by passing the whole Phalanx army / conquered galaxy aspect of the series. Only in the last issue do we get the whole cosmic war aspect of the event and it comes from characters that haven't even factored into the story bringing in another deus ex machina style solution in the form of Warlock and his Technarch buddy, Tyro. To say the event underdelivered is an understantment.

However, while the event aspect of this series fell flat, that doesn't mean this was a bad book or a terrible storyline. If you can look past the enormous expectations after the original Annihilation and treat this as a regular storyline, this is actually a really good series in its own right.

That said, this issue delivered all the action this series has been severly lacking. If you aren't reading Nova, and you should be, you're left in the dark over the sudden appearance of Warlock and Tyro. Hell, you're left in the dark about Nova, Gamora and Drax and how they're back and no longer infected, but I digress.

This motley crew of heroes, with the aid of Groot's destruction of the Babel Spire, pierce the Phalanx space barrier that had engulfed and blocked off Kree space and proceed to save Starlord and company from Ultron and the Phalanx. Warlock's stomping of Ultron as he entered the fray was one of the highlights of the issue for me.

Meanwhile, with Kree space opened to the rest of the universe, the quantum bands that power Quasar are rejuvinated and it seems Warlock's, the cosmic one Ultron stole his new body from, not the Technarch one (confusing or what?), disembodied soul is now inhabiting the bands. Quasar is informed she must stop Ultron and return Warlock's soul to his body before it's too late.

As Quasar makes her way to the battle, Warlock, the Technarch one, uses his mutated techno-organic virus on Ultron, in Warlock's organic body, and Ultron's consciousness flees the body, leaving the husk on the ground. Quasar quickly revives Warlock by returning his soul to his body.

From here, things get a little too wonky for my tastes. Ultron's disembodied consciousness floats off into space and takes over the approaching Praxagora, as she, Ronan, Super-Skrull, Wraith and the army of Kree Sentinels approach the planet. Ultron then reprograms the Sentinels to be under his command and causes Praxa to detonate her star-like core, not before his consciousness flees yet another body. Apparently the entire crew survived the explosion with the Super-Skrull's invisible force field powers. Don't worry, they don't do anything else in this issue. Just there for random plot advancement.

That army of Sentinels? They return to the planet and form a giant Ultron body. His original body was made of adamantium, an unbreakable alloy. Now, he's simply cannonfodder robot armour. I guess this plan looked good on paper.

So, what's the big plan? Warlock, the cosmic one, not the Technarch, pours some of his power into Quasar's bands, she forms a new sword construct and, with Wraith's random powers doing some kind of mojo, slices Ultron, destroying his body. I guess his consciousness is floating in space or survived somehow, despite Wraith's powers supposedly keeping it locked down. The ending felt rushed and a bit contrived, but it wasn't absolutely terrible, despite my rather sarcastic tone in the description.

Oh ya, all those Phalanx? With Ultron dead, they all stopped moving. The Technarch duo went around later with Wraith and magically removed everyone's infections and, while the Kree are still quite devastated, everything is relatively back to normal.

Of note, the High Evolutionary seems to be set up as the next big bad of the universe or possibly a plot thread for the new Guardians of the Galaxy series. With Ultron and the Phalanx distracted, he took the army of Warlock pods he was entrusted with last issue and flees to continue his research. He could conceivably create an unstoppable army of sorts from this, so this will be picked up sometime in the future.

Verdict - Check It. I liked it, but I'm a bit biased with regards to this book. There's a lot of flaws I'm easily able to overlook that many might scoff at. While not a series I'd call a true event, this is still an enjoyable story. Disappointment over this not being as good or better than the original Annihilation is the biggest detriment and something most people will find hard to overlook when evaluating this series.


AVENGERS: THE INIATIVE #11
Written by Dan Slott & Christos Gage
Art by Stefano Caselli

This storyline took a rather different route than I expected. I had some issues with it, but it was still another great issue of this series.

Last issue, we ended with Cloud 9, Komodo and Hardball running into the old New Warriors, made up of Justice and several ex-NW Initiative members. This led me to believe we'd see the old team in action again and this is where some of my disappointment came from with regards to this issue. What we ended up getting was one page of Justice getting owned in one hit, another with Slapstick reduced to a blob of goo (he gets better) and then the Mighty Avengers come out of nowhere to take over for the D-listers. Or, at least, that's how they came off based on this development.

There was an interesting scene with Warmachine as they showed how Cloud 9 and company and KIA made it to MVP's home. While passing through the Negative Zone portals to other Initiative bases, Cloud 9 has a funny "explanation scene" with Warmachine before he opts to stay behind and delay KIA. We only see the aftermath of this battle as the Scarlet Spider's pursue KIA, but it shows Rhodey with his helmet off and half his face was cybernetic. Anyone know when did this happen? Was it during his time with ONE? I never heard of anything like that happening to him, so this was a bit of a shock to me.

Back to KIA, as I said he owns the old New Warriors, not to be confused with the new New Warriors made up of ex-X-Men (holy messed up adjectives Batman), the Mighty Avengers step up to bat and pretty much hold their own against KIA. They aren't exactly super effective, but they aren't one shot'd like every other character that's gone up against him.

This buys Cloud 9 time to use her womanly wiles on KIA, who is a clone of MVP, who, while only having seen Cloud 9 once before dying, somehow has feelings for her and this distracts the killing machine from not killing her on the spot as she gives him the kiss of death with a toxic cloud kiss. Momentarily stunned, KIA gets held down by the Scarlet Spiders weird robot leg arm things as the other clone of MVP (ARGH CLONES!) sticks the mind wipe device on KIA's head, effectively making him brain dead and stopping him.

Mutant Zero was in this with Gyrich for a panel or so and we find out she goes back to a "zero room" and she literally had to leave Gyrich when she started feeling weak and head right back there. This is an old mutant we've all seen before and I have no idea who she is or could be.

Overall, the KIA arc has been a fun, action packed romp that had lots of character building moments, specifically with Cloud 9, Hardball and Komodo, three of my favourite characters in this book. Hopefully we get to deal with some aftermaths of this arc before getting sucked into all that Skrull madness.

Verdict - Must Read. It's confusing talking about a book when I have to differentiate old and new versions of teams with the same name or deal with four characters that are all clones of another character, so this review might come off a tad negative in connotation, but I really enjoyed this arc. All that remains is to deal with the aftermath and hopefully find out Slott didn't kill off half the characters in the book.


COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS #2
Story by Paul Dini
Story consulting by Keith Giffen
Script by Sean McKeever
Art by Jesus Saiz and Jimmy Palmiotti

I should really just stick this in the Quick Shot reviews because I have absolutely nothing good to say about it and I could describe the events in a paragraph, but I think I need the space to vent my frustrations, so here we go.

This is a weekly series. As such, we expect some form of continuity from week to week. Last week, we had Darkseid, about 6 to 8ft all, battling Superman and ending with a giant sized Jimmy Olsen. Mary Marvel was happily WHAP-ing away with Kyle and Donna and Ray was dancing in Jimmy's head with Apokalips anti-bodies hunting him down.

This week, Darkseid and Jimmy are doing Godzilla impressions, Mary is missing in action, Kyle and Donna are fine and saving people from Darkseid and Jimmy's fight and the explanation for Darkseid being 100ft tall is that "he's freaking Darkseid". Amazing.

After a couple pages of this ridiculous farce, Atom, completely unmolested by anti-bodies, takes the repository of the New Gods souls out of Jimmy's head, shrinks Jimmy back to normal and then crushes the device in his hands. It was the size of a baseball or larger at this point and I'm confused as to how it got inside Jimmy's head in the first place if it was that big, but whatever, it's Countdown.

After that, Orion shows up and kills Darkseid after 15 pages of giant energy explosions. What, where'd Orion come from? Didn't he die in Death of the New Gods? Where have you been? This is Countdown, we don't explain these things. We drop a boomtube, introduce a character we've never seen in 50 other issues of this series and kill of the big bad Darkseid unceremoniously in a dozen repeated panels that feature Orion and he blasting each other with energy explosions.

On top of that, Superman and several other heroes are on the sidelines and Superman tells everyone not to help because this is Orion's fight, despite his constant interference in the Death of the New Gods storyline. If he cared so much there, why let him fight on his own here against someone that just destroyed half of Metropolis? For the cherry on top, after Orion kills Darkseid and is critically wounded, Superman tells everyone not to go help him or try to save him and this is his moment or some jazz. Superman. Tells people not to try and help someone. He can move at the speed of light and get him to someone that can treat him or boomtube him somewhere, yet let's him die in the gutter or whereever he wanders off to.

Verdict - Avoid It. I can only imagine what this carnival freak show of a comic book has in store for next issue. I guess the Salvation Run villains will arrive in Metropolis from a boom tube and start a big brawl or some other garbage. Maybe Mary Marvel's disappearance will be explained, who knows?


IRON MAN #28
Written by Daniel & Charles Knauf
Art by Roberto De La Torre

This was another amazing issue of Iron Man and brings a close, for now, to the Mandarin arc. I honestly expected this to be dragged out a little longer and, based on the ending, it might just be put aside for all the Skrull business coming up (note: I assume this will have tie-ins to Secret Invasion).

If you've been following along, you'll know that the Mandarin put a beat down on Tony and his actions have caused Tony and SHIELD to be taken to task for causing some rather large political no-no's with nothing to show for it.

Under questioning from the UN, Tony states his case about the Mandarin and the airborn Extremis virus, but they refuse to take him seriously since he has absolutely no proof whatsoever. This causes Dugan, who's not dead or a Skrull here, to execute Tony's "do things like Nick Fury" order as SHIELD, without Tony knowing, locks down the UN under Maria Hill's orders, who is far from the bitch most make her out to be in this series, and Dugan escorts Tony to a waiting escape exit where his old red and silver Iron Man armour is waiting for him in another nostolgia inducing splash page of goodness, much like the incredible issue #25 had with the old red and yellow armour.

From here, we get an interesting break down of the situation by Tony as he pieces together everything he knows about the Mandarin at this point and, with a little help from Dugan and Senator Kooning's actions, pinpoints his current hideout in China. It ends up being a bio research lab of one of the Mandarin's companies that specializes in climate research, specifically cloud lining and manipulation. Turns out he's going to seed the clouds with the virus and have death literally rain down on everyone.

As expected, we get an epic rematch between the two, of which the highlight is definitely Tony ripping a handful of rings from the Mandarin's back. During a break in the battle, Mandarin informs Tony the missile payloads are already being launched and there's nothing he can do about it.

As you recall, Tony's Extremis powers were locked due to his pysch evaluation by Doc Samson with a power inhibitor on his ankle. With little other choice, Tony lasers his back heel off and slides the ankle bracelot off in time to use his Extremis powers to scramble the missiles guidance and launch them into the stratosphere where airborn Extremis becomes innert with the extreme temperature.

The Mandarin apparently takes his own life as he destroys a large container of Extremis, resulting in Tony freezing him and the virus. The issue ended with the Mandarin's frozen body cast being cracked open to reveal an empty shell, implying he escaped somehow.

Aside from the Extremis deus ex solution to the Extremis virus, this was an excellent conlcusion to a storyline that has been building since the end of Civil War. If political thrillers with plenty of action are your thing, this book has been exceptional and I'd recommend picking up the post-Civil War trades. This volume of Iron Man has probably been the best period for stories in Iron Man's long history.

Verdict - Must Read. Action, suspense, satisfying conclusion to a long running storyarc and lots or wiggle room for any fall out or follow up to the events. Not much to complain about here.

Click Here to Read More!

Weekly Crisis Comic Book Reviews for 04/09/08

I was busy working on some database stuff and lost track of time, but I did manage to pump out this batch of reviews before bed. Wasn't really disappointed with anything I picked up this week. They weren't all like this week's JSA, but, aside from Countdown, which doesn't even count at this point, nothing really stuck out as being overly bad. As always, feel free to let me know what you think of the reviews and any other books you may have picked up this week. On with the reviews!

FANTASTIC FOUR #556
Written by Mark Millar
Art by Bryan Hitch

Fantastic Four #556 is flawed, but enjoyable comic. There are numerous inconsistencies with the rest of the Marvel Universe in regards to the crux of this issue, ie, the battle with CAP, the modified Hulkbuster-like sentient robot from Nu-World.

As I said, CAP is on a rampage, executing his programming to seek out and destroy all forms of weapons and starts with an Alaskan military base. After frying five hundred or so soldiers and destroying the base, SHIELD puts the call out for all available super-heroes to come stop this thing.

That's all fine and dandy. We're in a post-Civil War world where this kind of thing should be a piece of cake to do. However, as the Fantastic Four, sans Reed, arrive on the scene, CAP has mopped the floor with thirty or fourty super-heroes, including most of the Mighty Avengers and even unregistered heroes, such as the New Avengers. Yes, this robot took out the Sentry, the most powerful being on the planet, and even Tony Stark, a man that can interface with any electronic device on the planet. How SHIELD put the call out to the New Avengers, Dr Strange, Hercules, the Young Avengers and several other non-SHIELD personal, got them all up to Alaska and didn't arrest anyone remains a mystery.

The other heroes eventually wake up, after the three FF hold their own against the robot, but you have to pretty much ignore everything that's going on in the Marvel Universe proper to look past the various hero appearances here. This is written for trades and is off in its own little bubble anyways, so I doubt anyone will be overly bothered by this.

Outside the battle, the issue managed to find time to expand Johnny's subplot with the super-villain girlfriend and it looks like his reality TV show is still in the works. There's not much to say about this, though, as it's mostly just laying foundation for the next four part arc, but I'm not sure I buy Johnny letting a criminal go like this, even if it's for some quality time between the sheets.

But, in the end, this is a fight issue and there was very little in the way of character moments. I did, however, love the last splashpage with Reed. CAP, after finishing up with heroes, initiates his teleporters and starts targetting foreign countries' military bases, as well, and, just as everyone is panicking in the control rooms, Reed comes on the line telling everyone to sit tight because he's on his way as the splashpage shows him coming back from the other side of the universe (don't ask) on one of the Fantasticars (or a hoverbike-like vehicle at least). It's rare to see Reed having a badass moment like this, so I still can't help but smile everytime I look at that page.

Verdict - Check It. Despite some glaring holes in the story, I still enjoyed this book. It's not the best book on the market and, if you came on expecting Ultimates,