Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Quick Comic Reviews - October 20th, 2010




The Siouxland Voice site has been acting up.  So yes, I've been updating my blog.  Unfortunately my feed isn't loading there like it should be doing.  Not sure what's going on there.  So just bookmark my page instead.  You know you want to anyway!  Finishing up a batch from last week.  Didn't get them all reviewed, but I did try.  Just a LOT of titles last week!

The Thanos Imperative #5 - Written by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning and Art by Miguel Sepulveda.  This issue felt a bit more disjointed than usual.  We got a lot of Nova in this one, so if you like Nova, this is a pretty good issue for him.  We also find out about a turncoat in the midst of the Revengers and it actually makes sense.  The artwork in this issue was a bit more spotty than usual and it was hard to make out what was going on in some scenes.  It seemed a bit rushed and lacking details in a few spots as well.  I really like this whole Cancerverse story and how it is using Thanos and the Guardians of the Galaxy.  I thought the message from Starlord to Nova was extremely hokey, but I guess they needed to find some way to teleport Nova into the midst of all the action.  And boy, we get the start of the ultimate fight in this one.  There is a giant surprise at the end that leaves Rocket Racoon and Peter Quill in complete shock.  How will this all end?  I detect a ruse going on with that ending since the series is over next issue.  But another very solid issue, taken down a few notches because of hokiness and artwork, but still pretty decent.  With it just being decent, unless you're collecting this series, it isn't a must buy.


Secret Six #26 -  Written by Gail Simone and Art by J. Calafiore. We follow the two seperate Secret Six teams as they prepare to do combat with each other.  Bane quickly allies himself with the natives, as much as by brute force as anything else.  We also get a conversation between Amanda Waller and Spy Smasher who are the apparent string pullers behind the different Secret Six groups.  The stakes are very high here too.  We also see Catman's further bestial descent, which has been interesting to witness.  Really, this issue has a lot going for it to like.  Calafiore's artwork is just beautiful as always.  I really like the lettering done in these issues as well.  It certainly makes the Secret Six title more identifiable just by the fonts and style they use.  So is the story enough for a hearty recommendation?  For $2.99 it's one of the better buys every month and this month really holds true to that.  An interesting story that we want to see how it unfolds, plus a somewhat shocking ending that leaves us wondering what Gail has in store for us next.  A worthy book, but as always, not for the weak of heart.

Incredible Hulks #614- Written by Greg Pak and Pencils by Barry Kitson.  As Hulk's son makes his way towards Earth, the Hulk Squad has a mission.  We start off with his team battling the Secret Avengers.  As the planet hurls towards Earth, the planet of Hiro-Kala's is met with resistance from Earth.  Hulk and crew then commandeer their own ship to take the fight away from Earth.  Overall, not a bad storyline, just feels like another big bad thing happening yet again.  Earth is met with impending doom in these stories so often anymore that these things start to lose importance.  In some aspects, you wish someone would say, "ok we've got enough problems with the Chaos War and Thanos Imperative, let's wait until those are done."  The Marvel Universe is the worst possible place to live.  The writing is fine, the artwork is pretty decent.  Then we have a small story about Bruce and Skaar.  Written by Joshua Williamson and Art by Mirco Pierfederici.  This is almost a pre-cursor to the story we just read.  Nothing exactly groundbreaking here.  Could they not have just written this into the regular issue instead of making this a mini-story?  I'm confused.  It's an ok issue with a pretty big Hulk story arc, but nothing very special.

Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #3 -  Written by Peter J. Tomasi and Penciled by Fernando Pasarin.  Have you ever had a lay-over at an airport?  That's what this issue felt like.  So we are at the home planet of the Blue Lantern Corps and guess what... we stay there pretty much all issue.  It gives background and some motivations for characters and helps us figure out what's going on, so that was good.  However, there didn't seem as much forward momentum as you need early on in a series to really pull your readership in.  The Sodam Yot return was a pretty interesting situation as he has his own cult and everyone else is out to get him because they lost their powers.  Bleez, the angry angel from hell is not very interesting, just looks cool.  Then we meet more of this Zardor in an unknown sector.  Honestly, Zardor is a very uninteresting villian so far.  Some Warlord like dude we've seen a million times before who is just a rotten person.  Go figure.  Oh, sure, this issue isn't terrible.  The artwork is pretty solid and there is some great color work going on here.  At the end of the day, Emerald Warriors was just a tad too tractionless to get going, so I can't recommend it this week.

X-Men #4 -  Written by Victor Gischler and Penciled by Paco Medina.  Holy crap... I think I enjoyed this issue.  The X-Men start launching attacks at the sinister Vampire forces.  Dracula has gone "off the map" and isn't helping.  Things start going from bad to worse when the team finds out that Wolverine is now fully vamped out.  First off, I really enjoyed the artwork!  It really has made strides as they've gotten more comfortable with the characters.  I liked Angel's teaming up with Blade and the mini-exploits we saw.  The pieces are in place and we are now at the point where the story feels enjoyable.  Some of the other X-Titles have had decent stories, but awful artwork lately.  This one was the other way around.  I do think that this could be a turning point for the series.  The fight scenes were well done and the whole issue had a fun, yet intense feel to it as the proverbial crap was hitting the fan.  Worth checking out if not buying.



The Amazing Spider-Man #645 - Written by Mark Waid and Art by Paul Azaceta & Matthew Southworth.  Spidey is mad.  Spidey is FIGHTING mad!  After losing the baby, Peter goes on a rampage to take out all the villians to show them how pissed off he is.  Boy did they make a mistake!  I have to give credit here, Azaceta's artwork wasn't bad in this issue at all.  He finally seems to be getting how to draw the characters a bit better and it showed.  A lot of Spidey just kicking butt and taking names as he thinks the baby was killed.  The villians running scared of Spider-Man is really pretty fun and you find yourself cheering him on to beat the snot out of each one of em.  A good amount of humor is mixed in with some darker moments.  Definitely an interesting issue and the best from the Mark Waid and Paul Azaceta.  Of course, I'm betting that Azaceta had a good amount of help from Southworth, but hey, I'm trying to give Paul SOME credit.  Actually worth checking out and maybe even picking up!


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