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!

Quick Comic Reviews - October 20th, 2010

Quick Comic Book Reviews - August 22nd, 2010

This installment, we find a hidden gem and a horrible new title that will make you throw-up in your mouth a little bit.  Brightest Day finally has another solid issue and me and Paul Azateca throw down in a knock down, drag out, battle royale for the ages.

Brightest Day #10 – Written by Geoff Johns and Peter J. Tomasi with Art by Ivan Reis, Scott Clark and Joe Prado.  This issue focuses on Firestorm and Aquaman’s stoylines.  Professor Stein finds out that something big is going on with Firestorm and reveals it to Jason and Ronnie.  Could Firestorm recreate the Big Bang?  Then we are off on a hunt for Aqualad.  Black Manta wants to find his son and he’s racing with Aquaman to get to him.  Manta’s son starts learning the truth about his father from the man he thought was his father.  This issue is smart in that it focuses on two stories and makes sure we understand them.  Unlike last issue’s Martian Manhunter story, this one makes some sort of sense.  I particularly like the Aqualad storyline and him finding out who his father is.  It’ll be interesting to see how much Aquaman trusts Mera from here on out.  The artwork is better than usual and consistent through-out.  Definitely one of the best Brightest Day issues.  This one is actually worth checking out!

Daken: Dark Wolverine #1 – Written by Dan Way & Marjorie Liu and Penciled by Giuseppe Camuncoli.  We start with a flashback that Daken has about his father, good ol’ Wolvie.  Then we’re off to Milan where Daken is attending a fashion show and being a total douchebag like usual.  He has a person there designing his new costume which is a take on the old Wolverine outfit.  We also learn of a mysterious man who is giving Daken orders.  There were times in the Dark Avengers that I really liked Daken and how he manipulated things.  However, he’s really being portrayed as a man with no redeeming qualities and it’s hard for a reader to get into a character like this.  The story wasn’t very interesting and didn’t feel like it actually advanced anything.  We had a brief interlude with a mystery man and the information revealed means nothing if you haven’t read the new issue of Wolverine.  I really liked the artwork here, but that was the only redeeming quality of this issue.  When you think about it, that’s very much like Daken himself.  Oh, you also get a bonus history section about Daken which could be helpful to new readers.  Overall, skip this issue unless you have to have a number one, because this issue is forgettable at best and I hope the writers have some ideas on how to make Daken a character we might be able to identify with.

Thanos Imperative #4 – Written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning with Art by Miguel Sepulveda.  Drax has disintegrated Thanos while in the Cancerverse.  This could have huge ramifications as the Avatar of Death is needed to save our universe.  Lord Mar-Vell traverse our universe looking for an anomaly to make sure our universe doesn’t introduce death into his.  Nova and friends make sure that he doesn’t kill the anomaly that is Namorita.  So the events unfold in epic fashion.  There is a lot going on, but not too much and everything happens at a brisk pace, really engaging the reader.  Some people are probably sick of Thanos, but I still find some enjoyment with him.  Plus any comic with the Guardian of the Galaxy earns bonus points with me.  But Abnett and Lanning really paint a picture of a universe that is nothing but a nightmare and it trying to expand has our whole universe going nuts.  There are some very interesting moments in this issue!  The artwork is pretty good stuff in this issue and I can tell what’s going on here and who everyone is.  I had a complaint about that in past issues as they made it hard to understand what was going on in the story with the artwork.  But a very good issue, if you want to try a “cosmic” storyline, this is definitely one to check-out!

Shadowland: Power Man #2 – Written by Fred Van Lente and Penciled by Mahmud Asrar.  The new Power Man continues his fight with Luke Cage.  We also get some background into his character this issue and see him and his family and what happened to his father.  A mysterious person sends out their forces to attack the new Power Man.  Suddenly there’s bad 70’s Harlem bad guys flying around.  Names like Cheshire, Cockroach Hamilton and Mr. Fish.  These guys are the Rivals, a group that Luke Cage belonged to long ago.  Wow, what a power packed issue.  No pun intended!  Okay, well, it was intended, but live with it folks.  I like finding out more about the new Power Man’s background.  Boy is this kid powerful!  There is also a great feel of these 1970’s Harlem style bad guys that is just fun and amusing.  I hope to see more of them in the future, but not so much that they should come back often.  I think this comic has the makings of a great series.  Mahmud Asrar’s art continues to improve this issue, even though it was pretty weak out of the gate.  I really liked it much better.  He still has a few rough spots, but it does not detract from the comic.  He just has to get to the point where his artwork ADDS value to the story a little more and he’ll be great.  I’m expecting big things out of this and strongly believe you should all pick-up and support this exciting new comic!

The Amazing Spider-Man #643 – Written by Mark Waid and Art by Paul Azaceta.  Spidey rescues the baby from the clutches of the nefarious Doc Ock.  But now what?  Spidey has to figure out what the heck he’s going to do and the choices aren’t as easy as he had hoped.  Especially with Electro and Sandman joining the fray.  The story is fun, a little over-the-top, but yuck on the artwork.  Azaceta needs to be replaced and soon.  I can’t stand his art and he’s ruining what might be a really fun story.  At this point, all he does is show the weakness in this story because now you’re not feeling the story properly.  Then again, maybe this whole story is supposed to border on the ludicrous and the ridiculous artwork is supposed to augment that.  If so, poor choice, because it looks like amateur night.  If a new reader picked up this issue, what would they think?  That’s how Marvel should view one of it’s top line comics.  If nothing else, keep using Paolo Rivera who does a great old school feel style.  I just can’t recommend this due to the awful artwork.

Young Allies #4 – Written by Sean McKeever and Penciled by David Baldeon.  Nomad and Arana are being held captive by the Bastards of Evil.  If that wasn’t bad enough, they are about to be executed on live TV.  Now it’s up to Gravity, Toro and Firestar to save the two before things get really messy.  That’s the basic premise of this issue and it’s very well executed.  Some people might frown on a couple of overtones here so far.  First, he blew up Ground Zero with a nuclear character and now he has his heroes with sacks over their heads about to be executed terrorist style.  So it is very possible you could be offended by this.  The Bastards are just rotten people and you really want to see them get their tails whipped permanently.  There is another character at the end that is behind all of this and I’m hoping we get a good explanation for all the damage that is being caused.  I have faith in McKeever, because so far this has been interesting.  The artwork is pretty great as always.  A pretty decent issue and a super-team that is still in its fledgling stages, might be worth checking out.

The Incredible Hulks #612 – Written by Greg Pak and Penciled by Tom Raney.  So the World War Hulks is now over and we see how the “Hulk Family” is handling things.  Betty Banner seems to be having trouble coping with it and Bruce pushes just the wrong buttons to cause some chaos to ensue.  An amusing little story in this one.  It summarizes all the members of the “Hulk Family” pretty well.  But it comes off a tad lame at times.  The problem I’ve had with Hulk for awhile is you never know if the comic is taking itself seriously or not.  It always plays this half-tongue-in-cheek style that’s hard to get a feel for.  Sometimes I wish they would take it a little more seriously, but all these Hulks, it’s hard to take them very seriously at this point.  So, while I want to like it, it isn’t easy.  Then we have the back-up (or is it the main) story of Dark Son.  Written by Greg Pak and Scott Reed with Pencils by Brian Ching.  We’re further introduced to Hulk’s other son, Hiro-Kala.  Hiro has gotten rid of the Old Power and used the Worldmind of the planet K’ai.  He manipulates it for some unknown reason as they are hurtling to who knows where.  I’m guessing Earth, but I could be wrong.  The whole story is a tad confusing and I feel like I’ve missed something with this story.  Honestly, it just isn’t very interesting.  Maybe I would have to go back and read the Planet Hulk saga to appreciate.  Then again, maybe I’m not missing anything.  Either way, the art here is very good and better than Tom Raney’s in the first half.  I guess the issue is ok, but I’m just not interested and I’m not sure if it would hold anyone else’s interest either.

Technorati Tags: incredible hulks,greg pak,tom raney,dark son,scott reed,brian ching,young allies,sean mckeever,david baldeon,amazing spider-man,mark waid,paul azaceta,shadowland,power man,fred van lente,mahmud asrar,thanos imperative,guardians of the galaxy,dan abnett,andy lanning,miguel sepulveda,daken,dark wolverine,dan way,marjorie liu,giuseppe camuncoli,brightest day,aqualad,geoff johns,peter j. tomasi,ivan reis,scott clark,joe prado

Quick Comic Book Reviews - August 22nd, 2010

Quick Comic Book Reviews–August 20th, 2010

 

Thanos Imperative #3 – I kind of like these cosmic sagas and this one has been pretty solid so far.  I’ve been a big fan of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning and they continue to provide solid stories that I can always count on liking.  I also like that I don’t have to buy a million tie-in issues to see the full story.  It is all self contained and that has a certain charm to it.  This issue we follow Thanos further into the Cancerverse where Death has died and Nova assembled a strike team to go after Namorita.  The explanation behind why Death doesn’t exist there anymore was ok, a tad weak, but alright.  My main complaint is the artwork.  Miguel Sepulveda does such a poor job that I can’t figure out what’s going on half the time.  Sometimes he makes the story harder to follow than it should be.  I had to go back a re-read to figure out who was saying what because the pictures didn’t seem to tell me well enough.  Just terrible stuff.  The artwork makes me mad.  This should be an issue worth buying and it is just to stay up on what’s going on, but the artwork almost turns me against it.  Buy for the story, not the art.

X-Men #2 – Well, that wasn’t quite as bad as I was expecting.  So in X-Men, we’re still talking about Vampires and their virus they’re unleashing and the want they have to get to the mutants.  But the story gets much better this issue than in last.  It’s still pretty hokey in spots and still hasn’t grabbed my imagination.  There’s a smidge of me that’s really trying to like Victor Gischler’s work, but I don’t.  His story just didn’t seem very imaginative and everything just falls flat for me.  Paco Medina’s artwork was hit and miss.  The early pages I liked pretty well and then it seemed a tad different later on.  His Cyclops just drives me batty, he draws him even more stiff than you would Al Gore.  His mouth on Cyclops looks really weird half the time, I just didn’t care for it.  This series promises to be the big miss of the summer.  And there ain’t no cure for the summertime X-Men #2.  Dah dah dah dunt.  Just skip it, save that money for something else.

Avengers Prime #2 – I like the word “meh” for some reason and it kind of describes this issue.  The issue isn’t terrible actually and there are some fun moments.  There are just weird things that I didn’t care for.  Are the troll-like dudes who talked to Tony Stark hard on hearing?  One moment he’s shouting about being friends with Thor and then ignore him.  The next time he talks about it, they say “Our lord Thor?”  Well, duh, can’t you hear?  I hate gaps in logic like that.  The final reveal towards the end wasn’t too awfully shocking and I found myself saying, “Who even cares?”  This is not the best work Brian Michael Bendis has done.  But since we’re going crazy on Avengers EVERYTHING, might as well pile on more issues to cash in on the future movie and build up interest.  I can’t say that I blame them.  There are far worse issues you could buy, but this is mostly meh.

Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #1 - Peter Tomasi has been doing a fine job with his Green Lantern Corp runs and he stumbles a tad out of the gates, but still tells me a story I’m interested in and entertained by.  I’m interested in seeing how things play out between Atrocitus/Gardner/Ganthet.  Also there seems to be more things working in the background.  I guess I’m a bit biased because the Green Lanter Corps stuff has always been some of my favorite stuff and if they can get back to just telling some good stories, I’m a happy man.  Still, I’m not sure what the heck of the first 10 pages of this issue is even there for besides filler.  It gets better towards the end though.  The artwork is well detailed and there’s a wall of skulls and some scenes in this issue that are just fantastic.  The artist Fernando Pasarin is doing some pretty good stuff here and I’m interested in seeing more of it.  The storyline isn’t the best, but like I said, picks up steam.  If you like the Green Lantern Corp stuff Tomasi did, this isn’t quite there yet, so time will see.  As for this issue, not a must buy, just ok.

The Amazing Spider-man #639 – Joe Quesada cannot write revisionist history worth a lick.  This issue was a mangle of rewind, half-rewind, present, rewind, blah.  His story just doesn’t seem to be adding up as to why MJ and Peter didn’t get married.  And then he takes a total wimp-out in several spots and you’re left wondering what the hell is going on with this storyline.  It feels like he decided he was going to do it overnight and then threw out a script that would last several issues.  There really isn’t anything going on here that’s very interesting at all.  I’m not fond of Joe Quesada’s hybrid art on his pages because he draws Peter to look like a mutant elf.  Hmmm… come to think of it, he does resemble Nightcrawler in these.  Paolo Rivera has some decent “throwback” artwork going on and that’s where the real storytelling happens.  He is the only bright spot in this pile of poop.  Skip it, maybe something will happen next issue but don’t bank on it.

Hawkeye and Mockingbird #3 – Jim McCann can write and this series keeps up a pretty steady pace.  This issue is high on action and the artwork of David Lopez captures it all and does it justice.  So in this issue Mockingbird goes after Crossfire after what he did to her mother.  A pretty straightforward issue with backstory still moving along.  The relationship between Clint and Bobbi, still having their disagreements, is good stuff as well.  But really, a LOT of action in this issue and it is done fairly well, so I can’t complain when there a GOOD action sequences, because that’s part of what makes comic great.  This is a fantastic series and this is a solid issue. Not quite as good as #1 & 2, but pick it up and enjoy!

The Invincible Iron Man #29 – We further our storyline involving Stark Resilient getting up and running, Pepper get the repulsor tech put back in her, and the Hammer girls running roughshod.  A lot of storylines working well together and giving us another good story.  This issue has a few more dull spots than others, like the argument with Maria Hill and Stark just wasn’t particularly well done.  Then we have these weird giant launchable flying penises is the only way to describe them.  Apparently they’re Detroit Steel’s flying penises, but boy were they poorly designed and the whole concept of them (okay, they aren’t REALLY penises, they just look like them) is really quite lame.  Download an app and fly them?  Really?  Have they actually seen the limitations of cell phone technology?  It just came off flat.  Everything else in the issue after that is pretty decent, but the first several pages were groaners.  It did finish strong though and may be worth picking up for one hilarious scene with Tony and Pepper.  Salvador Larroca gives this series a unique feel with his artwork, but he loses points for the flying penises.  Matt Fraction’s writing is once again good like I said, except for the first several pages.  Buy if you’re already elbow deep in the series, otherwise not a must buy.

Technorati Tags: X-men,Avengers Prime,Brian Michael Bendis,vampires,green lantern,emerald warriors,Peter Tomasi,Miguel Sepulveda,Amazing Spider-man,Thanos Imperative,Dan Abnett,Andy Lanning,Namorita,Nova,Joe Quesada,Fernando Pasarin,Hawkeye,Mockingbird,Jim McCann,David Lopez,Paolo Rivera,Matt Fraction,Invincible Iron Man,Salvador Larroca,Victor Gischler,Paco Medina

Quick Comic Book Reviews–August 20th, 2010