New Comix! - Week of 5/9/12

Only came home with 2 comics last week.  One was great and the other one should have stayed at the store.  Let's get to it.

Avenging Spider-Man #7
Avenging Spidey is basically a team-up book pairing Spiderman with various heroes on random missions.  In this one Spidey teams with one of my favorite heroins, SheHulk as they foil a museum heist and end up fighting an Egyptian god.

The story starts off with Spidey and SheHulk teaming up against a monster that has been plaguing the New York sewers.  After wrapping up the monster (literally) SheHulk says she has to rush off to an event her Law Firm is hosting at the museum.  Spidey tries to accompany her but she turns him down.  He ends up following her there anyway.  No sooner has SheHulk arrived than the two heros foil a robbery by two Egyptian god worshippers trying to free their deity from a cat statue.  The robbers are caught but not before awakening the statue.  It picks SheHulk to be it's champion and she grows a cat tail, much to the delight of Peter Parker.  The museum is suddenly overrun with cats who come together and form a 50-foot-tall cat deity out in the street.  SheHulk readies to fight the god thing when Spider-Man (who has spent all issue talking about how much he loves Egyptian mythology) shows up wearing a bull head.  He says he's the servant of some greater Egyptian god and that everything is under control in modern day New York City and that the Cat God can go back to where it came from.  The Cat god concedes to the more powerful god's wishes and disappears.  Spider-man then continues to pick on SheHulk's cat tail even though it has vanished.

This book is so fun.  Most fun I've had reading regular Marvel U Spider-Man in years.  I've really been enjoying these team-ups but him with SheHulk is top notch.  She's usually pretty snarky herself but around Spidey she's got nothin'.  He pretty much cracked wise the whole time and she pretty much threatened his life through the whole ordeal.  Very funny dialog.  Great artwork.  Great job.

 - Pick of the Week!

Avengers Assemble #3
And then there's this.  This book features the creative team behind most of the fantastic Ultimate Spider-Man series so it should be a great book.  But it's not.  The purpose of this book was to be an easy jumping-on point for new or returning comic readers brought into the comic shops by the mind-blowingly awesome Avengers movie.  Knowing this I expected the plot and dialog to be dumbed down but...C'MON BENDIS!  Here's what happened.

A group of lame no-name villains have been given enormous powers based on the signs of the Zodiac.  In the first 2 issues the Avengers had a few run-ins with this group and were outmatched for the most part.  Now the entire Zodiac group has shown up at the Helicarrier and it's fight time.  They fight a lot and there's a lot of lame dialog and then Tony Stark realizes that the villain's powers are being sent to them like a broadcast.  He shoots a gun that shuts down the transfer of power and the Zodiac's are depowered immediately.  Suddenly a huge figure touches down, revealing the power behind this lame super villain group, Thanos.  I was about to get my hopes up about this story when he started talking.  What Thanos says is some of the lamest excuse for SuperVillain dialog I've ever heard.  Something like, "You have angered the Mad Titan, warrior of death.  For this I will kill your planet."  Ugh...

AVENGER'S MOVIE SPOILER ALERT BELOW!!!

The dialog was WAY dumbed down.  The art was similarly uninspired.  The Villains were beyond lame.  The ONLY reason I MIGHT pick up the next issue is because I'm interested in learning more about Thanos since watching the Avenger's movie (stay through the credits).  His dialog was so lame in his one panel appearance though, I can't imagine it will be any good.  Maybe I'll feel less blah about this title in 4 weeks and I'll give it a shot for the sake of the villain.  Maybe.

  - This was not good.  The only reason it got 2 stars is because the Avengers are awesome even in a terrible story.

New Comix! - Week of 5/2/12

Just bought two new comics this week and I'm almost a week late with the reviews so let's get to it!

 Avengers vs X-Men #3

To get caught up on the AvX backstory read last week’s posting about AvX Versus #1.  That’ll help.  Some additional info you’ll need before I can review this issue is that, as the Avengers and X-Men were fighting all over the island home of the X-Men, Wolverine snuck in the back way and attempted to murder the girl who the Phoenix is coming for.  He believes there’s only one way to save the Earth from the destructive Phoenix and that is to kill the host while they still can.  As he attacks, Hope is filled with some of the Phoenix’s power (due to it getting so close to Earth) and she fries Wolverine in the air and runs away from the island.

At the start of issue #3, Wolverine is waking up from regrowing his flesh and Spider-Man is there to quickly hand him some pants.  As he runs outside he discovers that the X-Men had tricked the Avengers with an illusion and were already gone, gaining a head-start in the hunt for Hope.  The Avengers whittle down her possible locations to 5 different areas and split up into teams.  Cap insists that Wolverine come with his team to the Savage Land in Antarctica.  As they fly south, Cap takes Wolverine into a storage room in the back of the jet to explain how he will not allow Wolverine to murder the girl.  Wolverine says there’s no other way and so Cap decides to force the issue and they start brawling.  This fight seems pretty silly to me.  Why are these “heroes” always punching each other?!?  That being said, Captain America vs Wolverine is the fight I never knew that I needed to see!  Silly or not, this was a great fight!  They go round and round with neither one gaining the edge, until Giant man joins in and kicks Logan out the back of the plain where he falls a few thousand feet and lands in the snow.  The last image of the issue shows Logan rising from the snow, his face shadowed and breath foggy in the air as he says, “Well, alright then.  I guess it’s up to me.”  Check it out!

This issue wasn’t the best storytelling I’ve read in the comic world, but it had what this entire series is all about…awesome hero on hero fighting.  I can’t help it!  It was fun!  Gosh!  Props to John Romita Jr. for some pretty nice artwork as well.  I mostly like him on Spider-Man exclusively, but there were some really nice moments art-wise in this issue.  Especially that Wolvie in the snow bit.

 – Book of the week!

 Ultimate Spider-Man #10

So, the new Spider-Man, Mile Morales, got his powers from a test tube spider that hitched a ride out of OzCorp with this Uncle Aaron, who happens to be a world-class thief.  Aaron wasn’t even after the spider, but he knows how Peter Parker got his powers, so it doesn’t take him long to figure out who the new little Spidey is swinging around town.  In this issue, Aaron asks Miles to meet him on the roof of a high-rise downtown.  Most of this issue is them talking, but it was still fun to read.  Uncle Aaron  (a.k.a. The Prowler) is trying to force Miles into teaming up with him.  After going round and round on the issue, he tells Miles that the Scorpion is in town and is a real villain that needs to be taken down and that they could do it together.  He doesn’t tell Miles that the Scorpion came up from Mexico with his gang chasing after The Prowler!  At the end of the issue Miles texts his uncle and says, “I’m in.”. 

This is an interesting spin.  Miles is only 13 years old and is having a hard time telling his favorite uncle “no” even though he now knows that he’s a criminal.  I’m curious to see how this goes down and how Miles is going to get away from the bad influence of his uncle.

Not terribly exciting, but a solid issue with continued character building for the young Spiderman.  Quality storytelling and good artwork.

New Comix! - Week of 4/25/12

Wow! I can't believe it's been 6 months since my last comic review!  Since then we moved our family to Houston and I just never picked it back up.  Guess it's time to get back on the saddle.  Prepare yourself though.  It's going to be wordy until I get you caught up on everything.

AvX - Versus #1
Since I've been away from reviewing Marvel has kickstarted their big crossover story of the year, Avengers vs X-Men.  To properly review this book I will need to give you a quick synopsis of what's happened.

Years ago Jean Grey was killed by a mutant who thought he was Magneto at the time (until Wolverine beheaded him) and the Phoenix force disappeared.  No the Avengers have discovered that it's out in outer space and headed for earth at blinding speeds.  They have also discovered that it is headed for young Hope Summers, the "Mutant Messiah" that Cyclops is sheltering on his mutant island, Utopia.  They fear for the safety of earth, given the destructive nature of the Phoenix, and plan to take Hope into protective custody for the sake of Earth.  Cyclops and the X-Men also know about the Phoenix coming back, but hope that it signifies a rebirth for the mutant race that has had only one new birth (Hope Summers) since M Day years ago, the day that a crazed Scarlet Witch depowered most of the mutant population.  Needless to say that when Captain America showed up on Utopia looking to take Hope with him Cyclops was not inclined to acquiesce to his request (thank you Barbossa) and answered him with an optic blast to the shield.  The helicarrier then comes through the clouds with 2 dozen Avengers pouring out ready for battle and the story begins.

In AvX Marvel is doing something that's half genius, half douchey.  In the main AvX book individual fights are shown starting, described with a word box about how incredible the fight is, then the story moves along without showing the fight.  To see the fight you have to buy this series, AvX Versus.  See what I mean?  It's cool that they are expanding the fights that fans want to see, but at the same time they're practically MAKING you buy a tie-in book.  Whatever...I think it's fun.

Each AvX Versus book features 2 fights, each drawn and written by a different creative team.  In issue 1 we get to see Iron Man versus Magneto written by Jason Aaron and drawn by Adam Kubert and Thing versus Namor written by Kathryn Immonen and drawn by (husband?) Stuart Immonen.  I'm not in the "know" on these writers, but these artists are the real deal.  That's a good thing because the story in this book is very minimal. This is ALL about the fight and both artists do a great job.  The only thing I didn't like about this book was how both fights ended.  Things were going along great and then both fights end very abruptly and without much impact, almost like there was time limit or something!  SPOILERS AHEAD!!!  The Avengers win both of these fights, but again, I'm not sure why.  Both fights are neck and neck and then...over?  Magneto gets disheartened when he feels the oncoming presence of the Phoenix out in outerspace and Iron Man just flies off claiming that he won?  Underwater Namor and Thing are duking it out back and forth when Thing rips the tusks from an underwater monster and uses them to pin Namor to the ocean floor and...fight over?!?  He just walks out of the water the winner and you can clearly see Namor in the background flying out of the water already free.  How is either of these a win?  Neither of the Xmen fighters are out of the overall war!  Plus, it's not like Namor to get embarassed in an underwater fight and just let it go!

The story was pretty week the more I think about it, but the brawls were so fun and the art so good, I'm going to forgive quite a lot.

 - Book of the Week!

The Might Thor  #13
In my last post before I disappeared for half a year I told you how Thor died inexplicably at the end of last years' mega-event, Fear Itself.  That's when things got weird.  Sorry, but this is going to take some explaining...

After Fear Itself, Odin picked up his dead brother and disappeared leaving the 9 realms without King.  His wife, Frigga, teamed up with 2 other goddess-types that I can't be bothered to remember to become the triad known as the All-Mother and announced their plan to unite the 9 realms under one kingdom called Asgardia.  All seemed to be going well with the rebuild of fallen Asgard and the Mighty Tanarus continued to protect both Asgard and Earth...wait...WHAT?  Who the junk is Tanarus?!?  He's Odin's son, Asgard's Champion, and founding member of the Avengers of course!  Confused?  So was I.  It turns out that Agard's enemies used Thor's death as an opening and replaced him in the hearts and minds of the world with an imposter, Tanarus.  No one even remembered Thor.  Everything they knew about Thor got transferred to Tanarus, who didn't even look like Thor or carry a hammer.  In fact, Tanarus ends up being the Thor villain, Ulik the Troll in disguise!  Back to the story...the only one who seems weirded out is Loki who can't remember Thor but knows that something is up.  With the help of the now-grounded Silver Surfer they go about trying to bring Thor back.  In the meantime the soul of Thor finds himself on a floating viking ship in limbo with other dead gods awaiting their turn to be eaten by Demigorge the god eater.  He's weak and doesn't remember who he is until Loki manages to turn Dr. Blake's stick into Mjolnir.  When that happens Thor regains his memory and power (and hammer) and leads the dead gods into a battle with the Demigorge.  Both stories came to a head at the same time.  Evil Tanarus betrays Asgard and attempts to kill the All Mother as his troll army attacks the city.  Meanwhile, Thor destroys the Demigorge and returns to Asgard just in time to turn Tanarus into a smear on the pavement and save the day.

This brings us to issue 13.  Thor's a little mopey about having died and been resurrected (again) but gets over it when he's asked to open up a part of Asgard that Odin sealed eons ago.  Thor says that Odin's gone so who cares and busts in.  He finds a ruined tunnel and follows it to a hord of awakening stone monsters.  He tears through them with ease, but eventually gets overwhelmed by their sheer numbers.  Back at the entrance, the Asgardia architect who asked Thor to clear the area enters the room to find Thor laying on the ground muttering with a weird tentacle monster/dog thing sitting on his chest and exclaims, "We've freed the Mares!"  Turns out all that fighting was done in Thor's head, instigated by this weird monster thing.  I'm curious to see where this goes.

Back in Broxton, Oklahoma, Don Blake is whining to some blond lady about how he has no memories before med school and how he was just an empty shell for Thor to inhabit.  In the end he says he's sick of this weird half-life and if he can't have his own memories he wants to be Thor again.  The blond lady is revealed to be the Enchantress and Blake is offering her his soul to become a God again.  Wow...this could get interesting.

Decent story with plenty of promise, topped of by some very nice artwork.

Extra Review

Saga #1 & 2
This book by Brian K. Vaughan came out since I've been away from reviewing, but it's worth mentioning here because I will be raving about it in upcoming reviews.

Quick backstory:
This story is Romeo & Juliet in outer space.  There are two rival species who have been warring for centuries across the cosmos.  Unfortunately for our two main characters, they are in love and on opposite sides of the battle.  These two former soldiers have rejected the war of their forefathers and in the first issue welcome a baby girl, Hazel, into the world.  No sooner has the mother (Alana) given birth than they are on the run from soldiers who would kill them both for treason.  The father (Marko) has renounced violence so they run.

In issue 2 they are lost in a supposedly haunted forest trying to get away from their pursuers.  Both sides of the war have sent bounty hunters out after the couple, afraid that their story would demoralize the other soldiers and inspire more rebellion.  One of the most feared bounty hunters in the galazy, "The Stalk" finds them first.  She's a creepy half woman/half spider and she takes out Marko before he even knows what's going on (stabs him through the shoulder with her tongue!).  As Alana, Hazel, and The Stalk have a showdown, red eyes appear all around them and the bounty hunter runs away.  Alana turns around to see the ghosts of murdered children asking if she needs a hand.

One of the best parts though? The book is narrated by a now grown-up Hazel.  She's telling the story of her birth and the trials her parents went through to protect her.  Very nice, unique point of view.

Let me just say, this book is fantastic.  It's not for all ages though. There's boobs.  There's robot sex.  There's rough language.  That doesn't change the fact that this book is great.  It's fresh.  It's original.  The artwork is great.  I can't wait to follow this book!  Plus, it's nice to read something outside the superhero genre every now and then.  I can't recommend this book enough (to those mature enough to handle it).

 - Book of the Year!

New Comix! - Week of 10/19/11

I read 4 important issues this week, but half of them were let-downs.



Fear Itself #7 of 7
As I've mentioned before, this Marvel crossover event just hasn't held the weight that previous stories have carried. It should be a big deal that Odin's big brother has come back to take what's his with the Earth being their boxing ring, but it somehow rings hollow to me.

In this issue: The Serpent and his forces converge on Asgard in Oklahoma (if you don't know about this by now it's your own darn fault) as Captain America attempts to hold them back long enough for help to arrive. Help does arrive in the form of Thor and Iron Man, the latter bringing with him Asgardian-made weapons to amp-up the Avengers. There are a bunch of cool fight scenes, the main one being between The Serpent, who becomes a dragon, and Thor. Thor was destined to fall in battle with his evil uncle and sure enough, that's what happens. Thor seems to slice and dice the Serpent for most of the fight and at the end they both fall and Thor crawls to his friends with his last strength only to collapse having sacrificed himself for mankind. WHAT?!? Thor's DEAD? Because of THIS story?!? Bah. That's just dumb.

My take: This story was just a bunch of cool fight scenes tacked on top of a meh-level story and they end it with Thor dying even though he never seemed to take any mortal wounds in the fight. Why is he dead? It's all so vague! I wanted to like this series. I LOVED the art. I liked some of the imagery and there were some cool moments. Overall feeling about it...LAME. There's no way Thor's really dead because of this joke of a story. I don't believe it.

- Great art. Meh story.





Justice League #2
Here's another disappointment. In the "New 52" relaunch the Justice League is DC's flagship title, starring all of their biggest characters. The 2 biggest names in DC (Geoff Johns & Jim Lee) and working together so what could go wrong? How about taking all of your most iconic characters and taking away all the aspects of their personality that made them likable? That might do it.

In this issue: In the first story Green Lantern and Batman teamed up for the first time and went looking for Superman. They found him and, of course, they all started trying to punch each other. Here that fight continues until the obvious misunderstandings are finally explained. The Flash is brought in to this story via Green Lantern calling for backup. They all bicker at each other and each character gets to be a bit of a d-bag in their own way. In the end the artifact that Batman and GL took from their attacker in issue 1 starts beeping and a bunch of Parademons from Apokolips jump out. The same thing happens at S.T.A.R. labs and the hero who will be Cyborg gets half his body burned up by the event. At the end it is promised that Wonder Woman will be joining the book in issue 3.

My take: I pretty much said it all in the intro. This story and it's characters have no heart. The art looks great. Some of the subtle changes to the characters are very nicely done, such as Superman clearly not having an alter ego yet. I just feel like they traded in decades of wonder character building for a bunch of shallow, crabby losers. I'll keep reading for a while to see how the team comes together and to see if they can get their heads out of their...well, you know.

- Great art. Meh story.





Superior #6 of...6?
This issue was supposed to be the last of the story. Every promotion I've seen for this comic has said it was a 6-issue mini series. Now that we get the 6th issue, it ends without a conclusion and the last page shows the cover of the next issue, which looks to be the final fight we all thought we were getting in this issue. Weird.

Quick synopsis: Superior is the story of a middle-school aged boy named Simon with Multiple Sclerosis. One night a space monkey comes to visit him and tells him he will give Simon unlimited power for 7 days. Suddenly, Simon has become Superior, a Superman-type character straight out of Simon's comic books. Simon takes a few days learning his new powers then flies into action right all of the world's wrongs in the span of a week. For a detailed retelling of these events, see my reviews for issues 4 and 5. In the last issue the monkey comes back and tells Simon that his 7 days are up, and he becomes a crippled boy once more. The monkey goes on to tell Simon that unless he ever wants to feel the power of Superior again he must sign over his soul! Yup, the monkey is a demon from Hell! It was all an elaborate ploy to win over a little boy's soul!

In this issue: This whole issue revolves around Simon grappling with his decision. He's on the verge of making the deal, but the Lois Lane-type reporter that has been trying to get Superior's story talk him out of it. In a surprisingly touching turn, the seemingly selfish reporter tells Simon how she used to have Leukemia and had to live in a recovery center for a few years as a child. She takes Simon to that same center to meet with the kids currently living there and helps him to see that he really is blessed to have what health he does have and to have a family that loves him. In the end, she drops him off at his worried parents' house (a scene right out of BIG) and the family is reunited. Unfortunately the space monkey isn't giving up that easily. He comes to the school bully who Simon taught a lesson to once he had Superior's powers, and he offers to make the bully into Superior's arch nemesis, Abraxsis...a killer robot monster! As Simon sits at home watching tv with his parents, Abraxsis comes on the news as he knocks over a skyscraper with an oil tanker. He's calling Simon out and now our little hero has to rethink his options.

My take: This was not the battle royale that I had hoped for when I picked it up, but that battle is still coming and this was a really good setup issue. I appreciate the Millar took to the time to write this issue, giving appropriate weight to the scenario of a character pondering selling their soul. I also appreciate him stretching the book past the planned # of issues to tell the story right...assuming that is why it didn't end with issue 6.

Fun Fact: I just read that there is a Superior movie in the works. Sweet! I'd totally go see that!

5 Stars - Solid story-telling and fantastic artwork from Lenil Yu.





Wonder Woman #2
This revamped WW story finds Diana (Wonder Woman) in the midst of god drama. Zeus has been going around sewing his wild oats, and his wife, Hera, has been going around behind him cursing his offspring. Now Wonder Woman is stuck in the middle trying to protect the human woman.

In the last issue: Hera sent some vicious centaur warriors to kill Zues's latest pregnant conquest. The woman would have been destroyed, but Hermes (the god of speed) shows up and teleports her to Diana's apartment, just as he takes an arrow to the gut. Diana gets the scoop from the woman, then uses the teleportation key to appear back at the woman's farm and proceeds to kick some centaur tail Xena style. After chasing off the attackers, WW gathers the woman and Hermes, and goes for help.

This issue: Diana takes Hermes and the pregnant woman to her Amazon home of Paradise Island. The women there despise men, but Diana protects the injured god from them and gets him the aid he needs. Afterwards we get to see some of WW's home as she watches, and eventually participates, in the Amazon gladiator-style training matches. As she discusses the pregnant woman's situation with her mother, Queen Hippolyta, Hera's daughter Strife appears on the island, causing confusion among the Amazon's and tricking them into attacking each other. Diana sees through the ploy and takes the fight directly to the goddess. The scene ends with Strife saying she just wanted to come talk to her sister...Diana. Whoa! Zeus is Wonder Woman's dad too! Dang, he gets around!

My take: This comic book is SO cool and SO not what we have come to expect from Wonder Woman. For years she has basically been a star-spangled, girl-version of Superman. This book takes her in a totally different direction. This is much more of a fantasy/mythic story than a superhero story. When Diana fights she if vicious and brutal. Like a patriotically-dressed Xena on crack. On top of the fun storytelling, the artwork is super cool and fits this character perfectly. I have never cared much for this character and only picked up this book for the cool artwork. I have a feeling Wonder Woman is going up a few notches in my book with this series.

I had a hard time deciding which was the better book of the week between this and Superior, but I'm going to give a slight edge to WW, just because the whole take on book is so fun.

- Book of the week!

New Comix! - Week of 10/12/11

It was an Ultimate week in comics for ol' Trav. Not that the comics were that stellar...I just bought all Ultimate Marvel comics this week.


Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #3
Look at that cover! It's the Amazing Spider-Butt!

The story of how Miles Morales becomes the new Spider-Man continues. In the last issue, Miles texts his lego-enthusiast/fellow nerd, Ganke, and tells him about his newly discovered spider-powers. Ganke is sure that his buddy is destined to be the next Spider-Man and is totally geeking out. Miles isn't so excited. They go for a walk to discuss the situation and come across an apartment fire where people are screaming for help out of the upper windows. With Ganke pushing him on, Miles walks up to help. The firefighters tell him to get lost, so in the coolest scene of the issue, he takes off his shoes and leaps over the firefighters and sticks to the wall. He crawls up to the screaming lady and pulls her out the window. She freaks out and pushes away and ends up falling, but luckily the firefighters have a giant air pillow/trampoline thing waiting below. Then Miles jumps into the building and emerges with a little girl in his arms. The firefighters start congratulating him, but he quickly runs away to throw up in a nearby alley. One of the firefighters says, "I told you Spider-Man was black!" Ganke follows Miles into the alley and Miles is adamant that he does NOT want these powers and he does NOT want to be a hero!

Next we see the boys settling into their new charter school. It's a dorm-type live-in school and Ganke is Miles' roommate. Things are going well when they get called into the gym for an emergency situation. There's a superhero war going on nearby, so they are taking precautions. When asked for details one of the teachers says she heard that Spider-Man has been shot! (This is all happening to Miles before Peter Parker died.)

My Take: This was another really strong character-building issue. It wasn't terribly exciting, but I think they're doing this right getting us to care about these kids before introducing the costume or the villains or any of the extra stuff. I want to give this book 5 stars, but it just wasn't exciting enough. It was good, but not exciting. I'm about ready for Miles to bust out the suit!

- Book of the Week!





Ultimate Comics X-Men #2
In the first issue of this relaunch we saw the remnants of the X-Men scrounging around in hiding as the US government hunts down mutants in the aftermath of a devastating attack on mankind by Magneto. In this issue, Kitty, Iceman, and the Human Torch (who now insists he's kind of a mutant as well) leap into action to save Rogue from 3 Nimrod-class (stupid name, i know) sentinels. They can't seem to hurt these robots, but they do manage to save Rogue and get away. On a nearby rooftop Rogue tells them that God told her to come out in the open like that so she would get attacked and that Kitty would come save her.

Jean Grey is going around gather young mutants for the cause, but is only referenced in this issue by William Stryker's son, who is hunting down mutants for the government. It is strongly hinted that God or someone he is sending, is going to show up and shake things up very soon.

My take: This was not a very compelling issue for me. The coolest moments involved the fight seen between the Torch and the Nimrods. I keep hanging on to this title to see how the new X-men team will shape up and what direction it will go in, but without my favorite characters, I'm losing interest fast. I have high hopes for Wolverine's son, James, but he has done jack squat so far. I may go ahead and drop this book and just read about what happens online. Comics are too expensive to buy books that don't WOW me.

New Comix! - Week of 10/5/11

Had a light week this week, so I ended up picking up a book for the awesome cover art alone. Let's start with that one.



X-Men Schism #5 of 5
I haven't been keeping up with the X-men lately, but here's the gyst of what's going on. Mutant kind was wiped out almost to extinction. Cyclops took up leadership of the species and with Magneto's help raised his old meteor base from the depths of the ocean and created an island safe-haven for mutants off the California cost, and named it Utopia. Utopia has had it's share of troubles, but in this series the X-Men go up against a new Hellfire Club. During the story, apparently some new Sentinels were created that are created by forming out of whatever metal is around when it is activated. Basically a big magnetic junk robot. There's a big junk Sentinel heading for Utopia, intent on wiping out the residents while at the same time Wolverine and Cyclops come to blows over differing philosophies. Cyclops believes that all mutants are needed in the fight to defend the species, including children. Wolverine believes that children deserve the right to be children and not be made to put their lives on the line as well as take lives. Apparently their shared/deceased love interest, Jean Grey, got brought up in the last issue and they tore into each other.

In this issue: The giant sentinel is literally attaching them while they fight each other. Cyclops blows wolverine's face off his skull. Wolverine stabs Cyclops through the arm and hand. Just when it looks like they'll both be crushed by a giant fist, the X-men kids (who are the only other mutants on the island at the time) jump into the fray and defeat the robot. In the aftermath, Wolverine comes to Cyclops and says that he wants no part of what he has going on at Utopia, that he's leaving, and anyone who wants to come with him is welcome. Cyke tries to talk him out of it, but it's too late. The blackbird gets loaded up with a bunch of mutants I don't know and they fly off. Going by the promo art for the upcoming issues, it looks like Iceman, Kitty Pryde, Beast, and Nightcrawler go with Wolverine, but that's not conclusive. As the issue ends you see Wolverine's team of X-men arriving at their new/old home, the now-destroyed Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.

My take: While i haven't been following this series for a while, I was interested in how this split would come about, and it was pretty interesting to read the reasoning behind each side's beliefs and to see who fell where when it was all over. The art was fantastic. Like I mentioned, I mostly bought this issue for it's amazing cover.






Superior #5 of 6
Superior is a book that I have been following since issue #1. I like reading different takes on Superman-type characters (see Sentry). In this case, a boy named Simon is dealing with a rapid onset of multiple sclerosis that has quickly taken him from being healthy and athletic to being practically wheelchair bound. One night he is visited by a well-spoken space monkey. It says it can give him his whatever his heart desires. When he wakes up, he's Superior, his favorite superhero. He immediately wigs out and runs away from home, trusting only his best-friend Chris to help him. Think of it like the movie "Big", but instead of turning into Tom Hanks, he turned into the most powerful being on the planet.

In this issue: After he and Chris discover and master each of his powers, he meets with the President and gets ready to help mankind. In one day he single-handedly creates peace in the Middle East without any casualties. Then he feeds Africa, stops an earthquake in China, averts a tidal wave in Australia, and falls in love with intrepid reporter, Maddie Knox. Just when she's about to use her womanly whiles to discover his secret origin the space monkey returns!

Whisked away with the monkey to an undisclosed location, the monkey congratulates our hero on becoming the most beloved man on earth and asks him if he enjoys his new life. Superior answers that of course he loves his new life. He replies, "I used to dread waking up in the mornings, but now everything's perfect. I love my life like this. I wouldn't give it up for the world!" The monkey replies, "good" and turns him back in to a crippled little boy. When Simon (the boy) asks why he's doing this, the monkey mocks him and says, "haven't you guessed what I am? Sell me your soul and I'll make you Superior again. Turn me down and it's back in the wheelchair!" YIKES!!!

My take: This book is tons of fun coupled with fantastic art by Lenil Yu. It's been a blast to see a superman-level character interacting with real current hot spots like, Afganistan, Iraq, & China as well as speaking with President Obama, playing basketball with LeBron and Batting for the Mets (these are the rewards he accepted from Obama for all his help :). Mark Millar has really crafted what would be a young boy's dream life. The crazy twist of having it all be a devious plot to take his soul was a nice touch as well. I didn't trust that monkey from the get-go. Cool story. Great art. This one would be a good buy when it comes out in collected paperback.

- Book of the Week!

New Comix! - Week of 9/28/11

Tonight I read one of the most repulsive comic books I have ever read. Luckily I was able to follow that up with 4 really great comics. I'll start with the worst one and get it over with.


Kick Ass 2 #4
The whole idea behind the Kick Ass book is to see what the life of a real-life vigilante might be like. It's dirty. It's painful. It's often times pretty funny. This story arc has focused first on a team of like-minded vigilantes, and then on a new team of villains. In the last issue the villains found the leader of the vigilantes and brutally murdered him. In this issue, they upped their game to a disgusting level. The villains, lead by a guy calling himself Mother%&#$er goes after Kick-Ass's crush from the first story arch. The things that hey do once they get to her neighborhood are so horrendous that I won't be going into details. It was truly disturbing.

Not only will I not buy a Kick-Ass book again, but I will probably be throwing the last 2 issue straight in the garbage. To quote the movie, Billy Madison, "I award you no points and may God have mercy on your soul."

- WORST BOOK EVER!


Now to cheer it up a bit.




Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #2
This issue continues the story of how young Miles Morales gets his spider-powers and how he reacts to them. So far he can run fast, jump high, stick to walls, turn invisible, and zap people with his "venom blast". While he has a long heart-to-heart with his dad in this issue, it's his dorky friend who he tells everything to and the dorky friend does some research online. Miles assumes that he is a mutant, but his buddy looks up how Peter Parker got HIS spider-powers and puts 2 and 2 together and suggest to Miles that he just might be Spider-Man 2!

There is a lot of talking in this issue, and hardly any action, but they are setting up this new character and the dialogue is good enough that I didn't mind all the word bubbles. Bendis is doing a great job with the story and character building and I was really sucked into this book. I sincerely like this Miles kid and am excited to see him take on the mantle of my favorite comic book hero.

- Close 2nd to Book of the Week





The Mighty Thor #6
This issue wraps up a pretty cool story arch, so I'm going to try to put the pieces together for you, even though it's likely to be confusing.

The Summary: The "World Tree" that holds the 9 Realms was split apart during a war in the last story arch. Odin sends Thor in to fetch the "World Seed" from the tree's heart (Yeah this is all very abstract stuff). The seed has immense power and Odin hopes to use it to break the cycle of Ragnarok (i think that was his point). Galactus and the Silver Surfer show up because they believe that eating it would sate Galactus' hunger forever. The Asgardians won't part with it, so an awesome war breaks out between the 2 forces. In the meantime, citizens from nearby Broxton, Ok have approached the Asgardians to tell them that they have to leave because the Oklahomans are tired of all the danger around their town. They are led by a preacher named "Mike". Suddenly Galactus and Odin fall to Earth, both wounded from their battle.

In this issue: Galactus stands up ready to destroy both the Asgardians and the Oklahomans. Preacher Mike tries to beg for mercy, but Galactus says "No!" Just then Thor's hammer flies from his hand and into the hand of the Destroyer armor that has emerged from Asgard. Galactus grimaces and decides not to challenge the power of the Destroyer weilding Mjolnir and powered by the seemingly unconscious Odin. A this moment it is known that the World Seed has vanished. Loki (who is now a boy of about 10 years old or so...I'm not getting into that right now) was working behind the scenes during this whole series and hid the seed away were not even HE knows where to find it. This stops the conflict and saves Asgard, since the item Galactus wants is not longer present. The Surfer, though, was touched profoundly by Preacher Mike's quest for peace and wants to stay on Earth longer to be reconnected with that human spirit. He asks Galactus if he can remain on Earth to make sure the Asgardians never re-aquire the World Seed, until after they have all passed away, in which case Galactus can then come consume the seed with no conflict. In his stead, the Surfer recommends Preacher Mike to be the new Herald...and the big guy agrees! Since the Surfer likes humans so much, Galactus turns him into flesh, like a human, instead of his silvery form, and tells him that he is tethered to Earth. The further he ventures from it, the weaker he becomes. Preacher Mike then goes with Galactus to become "The Praetor".

My take: This was a very fun storyline with a lot of twists, turns, and sweet cosmic action! The turn of events with Preacher Mike going with Galactus was just great and seeing the Surfer argue against wearing clothes, even though he's not silver anymore was hilarious! A lot of cool character moments happened in this issue and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

- Book of the Week!





Batman The Dark Knight #1
The only Batman-related book I bought from the "New 52", The Dark Knight proved to be a good choice. The series continues with the always-awesome David Finch drawing and co-writing and the fun just keeps rolling. We open up to see some cool action shots of Batman, who quickly changes to Bruce Wayne and makes a public appearance (very Tony Stark-like) at some gala event. Things are going smooth until a new hothead at the GCPD accuses Bruce of funding the Batman's activities. He's going to be a problem. Then news comes out that there is a breakout at Arkham Asylum and Batman is on the scene. There are several fan favorite villains in the breakout, but Batman is most concerned with Two-Face. By the time he finds him, something has happened to Two-Face and he comes out of the door looking like the friggin' Hulk! He then says something stupid which makes for the only lame thing in the whole book, "Call me One-Face".

Finch's art continues to amaze me. He's the perfect Batman artist. Story was nothing special, but then it was a solid Batman story, so that's not a problem. Good book.







Green Lantern New Guardians #1
This is the book were my favorite GL Kyle Rayner landed after the new #1 shakeup and I really wanted to like it. Luckily it turned out to be a lot better than the GL Corps I read last week.

First off, let me explain why I like Kyle so much. First off, he's a cartoonist/graphic designer just like me. He also designs his own unique GL uniforms and they are always crazy cool. His mask is probably the coolest in comics. More than that though, he's a very optimistic person, who has fun being a superhero and it shows. He's also been called a dreamer (not in a good way) by other Green Lanterns, but that's just why he's my favorite. He keeps things fun and awesome.

The story starts off re-telling Kyle's origin story about how/when/why he got the last Green Lantern ring after Hal Jordan went nuts and killed off the Corps in Emerald Twilight. Then the scene changes to multiple ring wielders losing their rings across the universe. A yellow lantern loses his ring and gets killed by the victims he was threatening. A red lantern loses his ring and dies (because the red lantern's ring is his heart). A Star Saphire (pink ring) loses her ring and would have suffocated in space if another SS hadn't come along. The rings all converge in one place, right in front of Kyle on Earth. All the rings say that he has been chosen and he has NO idea what's going on. Just then representatives from each of the other Lantern Corps show up furious with Kyle for stealing one of their rings! I've got a feeling a big fight is coming up next!

Okay, I'm partial to this comic because i think Kyle is so dang cool, but I really enjoyed this issue. It was just plain fun. The story is a little vague so far, but I think it will make a lot more sense as subsequent issues come out. The art is very fun and pretty high quality, for the most part. There are a few places that the artist has some weaknesses, but overall I really like his style.