New Comix - Week of 8/22/12

None of my regular comics came in this week, so I just bought the new Lobster Johnson one-shot story.  It's hard to go wrong with anything by Mignola!

Lobster Johnson - The Prayer of Neferu

For those who don't know who this weird-named character is, he's  side character from the Hellboy Universe.  To my knowledge, Hellboy has only interacted with his ghost, as the Lobster was active in the 20's & 30's, decades before Hellboy was brought to our world by the Nazis.  Lobster Johnson is a Noir-style Batman-type vigilante who fights against terrorists, gangsters, paranormal threats, ect...  He is at least as ruthless as Batman and also relies on an array of cool gadgets to fight the good fight.  He's a very grim character and always shouts "Feel the Claw!" when he attacks.  One of his signatures is to burn a lobster claw into the forehead of his victims.

All that backstory explained, here's what happened in this issue.... We see a nefarious group of characters meeting at a club to see the unveiling of a recently "found" mummy.  It's understood that this group is some kind of a secretive, cultish, high-society organization.  A woman introduced as "Princess Nefertu" greets the crowd and presents the ancient corpse to the audience.  Suddenly Lobster Johnson announces that the mummy was stolen that same night from a museum and he swings into action yelling "Feel the Claw!"  The Lobster attacks, guns blazing, and drops numerous gangster types and cleared out the room by the time he addresses "Princess Nefertu", who he reveals is nothing more than a local criminal in Egyptian garb.  A hulking man with a sledge hammer attacks LJ from behind and eventually lands a solid blow, knocking out the vigilante.  When he awakes, he is chained to a wall in a basement as Nefertu and her big friend are beginning some kind of ritual involving the mummy and 3 of his ancient companions in a fiery cauldren.  Nefertu explains that she will harness the spirits of the 4 priests of Annubis who she has gathered and she will be granted ancient powers of the Priestess of Annubis and all they lack is the living blood of a "volunteer".  As they move forward to begin the bleeding process, Lobster Johnson makes them sorry for not chaining up his feet and kicks his surprised attackers, destroying their ceremonial knife and freeing the souls of the 4 dead priests.  The ghosts pull Nefertu into the fire where she dies, and then posses the corpse of the big man, who LJ killed in his escape.  When a spear through the head doesn't slow him down, Johnson's sprints upstairs where his weapons belt is waiting.  Apparently a possessed monster zombie is not match for a good, old-fashioned grenade.  The book ends with a view of the dead mobsters and closeup of the Lobster Claw burned into a piece of paper at the scene.

This was a short story, but it was full of pulp heroes, zombies, gangsters, and explosions.  All the things that make Hellboy books so great.  I wish Mignola handled the art duties here as well as writing the story, but Wilfredo Torres does a good job matching the art with the story.  I really dig this Lobster Johnson guy.  This issue makes me want to pick up his graphic novel that I passed on a few years back.  I'm pretty sure I would buy an ongoing Lobster Johnson comic, if one were available.  Fun fun stuff!

 - Default Pic of the Week, but worthy nonetheless.

Weekly Comix! - Week of 8/15/12

I picked up four comics this week and they were ALL good!  What are the odds?!?

Daredevil #17
Yeah, I don't follow Daredevil, but when Mike Allred shows up to draw a Marvel comic, I've gotta buy it!

Apparently, in the last issue of DD, Matt Murdock's pal and business partner, Foggy Nelson, found a box in Matt's office full of Matt's father's remains.  He was so put out by this grim discovery that he tells Matt that he can't trust him anymore and is dissolving their law firm.  I don't know the story behind the box of bones and dust, so don't ask.  I'm just here for the art.

This issue is mostly a flashback of a time when lame-o villain Stilt Man attacked their offices and tried to kill Foggy.  Daredevil stops him using a cool aspect of Matt's sensory powers and saves Foggy's life.  It ends with DD vowing to find out who is trying to turn Foggy against him and keep his life on it's newly optimistic track.

This story was very average, but the artwork was classic Allred.  You might now his style from X-Statix or Madman.  His work for Image Comics is a little too weird for me to read on a regular basis, but I love it when he works for Marvel.  If he drew Daredevil weekly, it would be on my pull list, but this was just a random one-issue stint.  Thanks, Mike!

Avengers Vs X-Men (AvX) #10
The Phoenix Force has divided itself into 2 host bodies, Cyclops & Emma Frost.  Cyclops is facing down the Avengers while Emma subjugates the mutants on the island of Utopia to her will like an angry Goddess.

The Avengers try to slow down Phoenix Cyclops while preparing Hope for some attack they've been devising.  No one, not Iron Man, Thing, Thor, or Hawkeye can even slow him down.  Suddenly he's hit with a wave of green fire and it actually hurts him.  Hope and one of Iron Fist's kung-fu buddies are in the air riding a red dragon that spits green fire.  The caption boxes name the dragon "Shao Lao, the undying source of the power of K'un Lun, carrier of the Iron Fist energy, endlessly reborn, and who legend says once defeated the Phoenix."  It hurt Cyke once, but he shoots an optic blast back and knocks the dragon from the sky.  Now the caption boxes say, "This one is young...too young...not strong enough yet..."  Cyclops goes in for the kill, when Hope screams "STAY BACK!" at him and shoots green dragon fire from her mouth and runs away surprised to have absorbed the dragon's power.  Scarlet Witch steps forward and unleashes her hex bolts, which have slowed the Phoenix before, but Scott is too powerful now and he laughs at her.  Hope screams "STOP THIS!" and Cyclops falls powerless momentarily to the ground.  She follows that up by kung-fu punching him in the neck and yelling "GO AWAY!"  Scott wakes up on the moon and we're told it takes him an hour before he can stand up again.  He thinks to himself that he needs more power...Emma's power...then flies back to earth in a fiery rage to battle his lover.  The issue ends with Magneto sending his thoughts to Professor X, asking him to come back because Scott and Emma are out of control.

Things are heating up!  I'm enjoying this series.  Not as much as Civil War or Secret Invasion from a few years back, but fun nonetheless.

Saga #6
One of my favorite titles continues as new parents, Marko & Alana, arrive with their infant daughter and poltergeist babysitter at the Rocketship Forest.  They were hoping their ride off the planet would be there, but it's been clearcut to nothing.  They start to despair when their ghost friend reveals some hidden planetary secrets and one remaining rocket tree appears from hiding.  It's literally a tree that can shoot through space like a rocket.  The tree requires a sacrifice for travel and Marko breaks his family sword over his knee, hoping to keep his oath of non-violence after last issue's battle.  The tree accepts and they escape from the planet.

The scene switches to where Prince Robot IV has shot and killed the bounty hunter known as The Stalk, thinking her to be a threat.  She had been talking to her lover and fellow bounty hunter, The Will, on her phone when she was killed and the prince picks up her phone, thinking it to be her agent.  When The Will realizes what happens he says this:

I would not want to be in Robot's fancy pants!  The Will has been shown to have a good heart despite his bounty hunting profession, but he has also been spoken of as a very deadly assassin.  Anywho, Prince Robot confers with his commanders and gets an idea of where the couple might be heading.

Back on the Tree Rocket, our heroes are surprised when 2 horned warriors teleport into their ship.  They use magic to take out the ghost babysitter then engage in battle.  Before anyone gets gravely injured, Marko stops the attack by yelling at the newcomers.  They stop and take of their helmets as the comic's narrarrator (the baby who is now grown up) explains that the baby's grandparents have come to live with them.  They're Marko's parents drawn to their location by the broken family sword!

This series continues to entertain.  I love how off-the-wall it is!  In last issue's review I mentioned that i hoped that The Stalk's death would cause The Will to side with Marko & Alana.  That may or may not happen, but he's certainly going to be a problem for Prince Robot, who's mission it is to capture or kill the couple.

AGAIN...THIS IS A MATURE COMIC BOOK.  There is bad language and occasional boobage.  If you can't handle that, pass on this amazing comic book until you're older.

Wonder Woman #12
In this storyline's finale, Wonder Woman and Hermes are all that stands between Apollo and Zeus's throne.  Hera just wants to kill WW's friend, Zola, who is about to birth Zeus's love child, but Apollo and Artemis move to join Wonder Woman and Hermes in battle.  As they engage each other, Hera throws Zola off the edge of Olympus where she will fall for eternity. Diana (WW) breaks away from Artemis and dives off the cliff after her as Hermes throws a feather at her legs, giving her the ability to fly.  She saves Zola, but Apollo takes the opportunity to sit on the throne, becoming the new King of the Gods.  Apollo banishes Hera and sets his sights on killing Zola and her baby who may someday challenge him.  Diana sends Zola away with Hermes and takes off her famous bracelets.  Artemis says, "Really? You strip yourself of your best defense against a GOD?"  Diana responds with, "MY defense? My cuffs were YOURS."  as she glows with power that had been kept in check by arm bands.

The next page is nothing but Wonder Woman kicking Artemis's &%@!  She then make a bargain with Apollo.  He will not pursue Zola's baby if, in the event that the baby does grow to fullfill the prophecy of killing a god and taking the throne, that Diana will be the one to stop it.  It is implied that she agrees as she appears in Zola's hometown hospital to check on her and the baby.  Zola suddenly screams that Hermes took her baby while she was unconscious.  Wonder Woman vows to find the traitor.  We then see Hermes in the home of Demeter, who is keeping the baby for now.  He says some vague stuff about what's coming and we get a glimpse of a figure (looks like Orion from Apokolips) emerging from the snow somewhere and using a boom tube.

Looks like the next story arch will tie in the Greek Gods to the New Gods of Apokolips.  I'm up for this.  I like this mythology take on WW, but it will be cool to see her interact with other DC superhero characters after seeing this side of her.  I was on the fence with this series and was on the verge of canceling it from my pull list, but I think they've hooked me into staying on for a while yet.

New Comix! - Week of 8/8/12

This week I read possibly THE most touching comic book of my life.  I literally blinked back tears.  Seriously amazing storytelling!

Spider-Men #4 (of 5)
This super-fun crossover continues after Peter and Miles teamed up to defeat Mysterio's Ultimate Universe avatar (that he controlled virtually from his hideout in the regular Marvel U).  By the time Fury and SHIELD showed up, Peter had disappeared, heading to Queens to see his family and try to make sense of his situation.

This issue starts with Peter standing on Aunt May's lawn with his mask off staring at May and Gwen.  Thinking he's a classless prankster, both of the women physically attack Peter, knocking him down.  Miles shows up then and tells them that it's really Peter, causing Aunt May to faint.  When she wakes up on her couch she quietly moves up the stairs and stops, listening in on Peter, Miles and Gwen's conversation.  They trade questions and each wants to know about their counterpart's in the other world.  Gwen keeps asking about her regular Marvel U self and Peter deftly evades the question, not wanting to tell her about her death.  May comes in then sits by Peter and asks him how he's here, if he's going back and if Uncle Ben is alive in his world.  Peter explains that, like his Ultimate Universe self, Ben's death inspired him to become Spider-Man because with Great Power comes Great Responsibility. May has stayed composed this whole time, but when he says that her eyes get big and she says, "Oh my God, it IS you.  Look at you."  Then she hugs him with all she's got, tears flowing from her eyes, just holding him close.    She continues, "We lost you.  We lost you and we didn't get to say good-bye.  And now you're all grown up.  You're here.  You're okay."     About that time, Miles notices the SHIELD car outside and says it's time to go.  Everyone hugs and says goodbye and heads outside.  Peter sees Ultimate Mary Jane in the crowd that has gathered across the street and reaches forward to call to her, but she runs away.  They get in the car and fly away (it IS a SHIELD car).  Back at the Triskellion, Peter meets Ultimate Tony Stark and they locate Mysterio's hideout.  Fury calls in the team and the last page is a great shot of a SHIELD strike team, Thor, Iron Man, and both Spideys swinging into action.  I would NOT want to be Mysterio in issue 5!

I wish I could show you that scene with Peter and Aunt May but my printer is being stupid.  The way it went down and the art and the pacing of the story...it was perfect.  When I turned the page and May was hugging Peter, I had to look away and blink my eyes.  I know that's not cool to admit, but dang it, it was touching!  Imagine anyone who's lost a loved one too young and what they would give to see how that loved one could have turned out and to hug them one more time.  This was so good.  I want to give this book of the year, but I'll reserve that call until I see what they've got cooking up for a finale!

This issue blew me away.  If you haven't been buying this series, I HIGHLY recommend picking up the Trade Paperback when it comes out.

Conan the Barbarian - Border Fury #1
I had an epiphany lately.  Just because I like a character doesn't mean I have to religiously follow their book.  With that in mind I cancelled The Mighty Thor from my pull list and added Conan instead for something new.  Thor is great and his comics have been somewhat fun, but they haven't been great for a while now and I try to only keep up with comics that I can see myself wanting to read again later.  I read good things about the current Conan direction, and being a longtime fan of that character, decided to jump in on this storyline at #1.

This story find Conan returning to his homeland, Cimmeria, in the frigid North lands with his lover, Belit, the infamous Queen of the Black Coast.  They receive a welcome from Conan's mother that's colder than the landscape.  She implies that Belit is a slave woman and tells them to find a place to sleep elsewhere.  The next day Conan meets with the clan elders and discusses the matter that brought him home.  A man is moving through Cimmeria killing and destroying everything around him, claiming to be Conan.  Conan swears to stop him and the elders suggest he leave his woman behind.  Belit is a pirate captain and a fearsome presence in her home region, so being dismissed by everyone has her in a deadly mood.  Conan stops her from killing some peasant women who laughed at her and tells her that she will indeed be coming with him.  The issue ends with a scene of devastation as the false Conan raises another town to the ground in his name.

This is an interesting story and I'm glad to be reading a new Conan adventure, but what really grabbed me about this book was the art by Becky Cloonan.  Female artists are rare in the industry, and choosing one for a "macho" book like Conan is a very bold choice.  I love seeing women draw mainstream comics because their artistic approach seems so different.  It's hard to explain the difference.  Everything seems...softer?  Conan still looks powerful, but he's more stylized and less bulky with muscle.  It's a strange choice for this genre of visual storytelling and for that I love it.  I'm looking forward to issue #2.

New Comix! - Week of 8/1/12

This was Spider-Man's week to shine, for both Peter & Miles!

Avengers Vs X-men (AvX) #9

In the last issue, the Avengers teamed up on the attacking Namor, and with Scarlet Witch's help managed to depower him.  His portion of the Phoenix Force then split into 4 and was absorbed by the remaining Phoenix-Powered X-men.  The Avengers, in the meantime, fellback to their last hideout, the mysterious kung-fu (I know, I can't believe they're resorting to mystic kung-fu either) city, K'un Lun.

The X-men have been capturing Avengers and are holding them prisoner in a Phoenix-made volcano in Siberia that houses the denizens of Magik's Limbo realm.  It's basically a volcano full of what most people think hell looks like, including the demons monsters.  Cap orders a strike on the prison in an attempt to free their friends.  Unfortunately, the prison is currently guarded by half of the "Phoenix Four", siblings Colossus and Magik.  The entire strike force would have been defeated and captured as well, but Spider-Manused his webs to pull everyone (including most of the prisoners) out of the volcano's enterance and sealed it behind them.  He then attempted to slow down half of the Phoenix Force on his own to buy them time to escape.  Believe it or not, it worked!  Pete got beaten to mush, but he managed to used his sarcastic whit to turn the increasingly paranoid and power-hungery mutants against each other.  They battled, attempted to gain the other's portion of the Phoenix power and defeated each other.  Their power then left them and went to the only Phoenix hosts left, Cyclops & Emma Frost.  The issue ends with Cyclops appearing above the city demanding Hope come with him to fullfill her Phoenix destiny.

The story moves along and focus's on my favorite character, Spider-Man.  What's not to love?

Pick of the Week!

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #13

In the last issue, Miles' uncle (the super villain) attacked him and in the ensuing fight, one of his gadgets misfired and exploded, burning the Prowler to a crisp and killing him.  Since then, (apparently) the Ultimate Marvel U has fallen apart and I didn't know about it because I'm only keeping up with this comic in that universe these days.  America has partially collapsed, with militias popping up around the country in revolt, Texas seceding from the union, and who knows what else. 

This issue opens up with Iron Man and Cap discussing the new Spidey with Cap saying he's too young.  Miles is informed by his father that his uncle has been murdered and that the news is saying that Spider-Man is the killer.  Miles spends a few days dealing with what happened and coping with the idea that the media thinks he's a killer.  Then while at school, he gets a text asking for him to meet up with someone.  He says "after school" and heads that way after his classes let out.  On the way he stumbles across Batroc the Leaper (a lame French villain) and foils his burglary attempt.  After evading the cops, Miles enters a warehouse and meets Aunt May and Gwen Stacy.  They discuss who he is and why he's doing it.  Just when Aunt May is about to give him something of Peter's, Cap steps out of the darkness and says, "Hold on, Ms. Parker.  I don't think he's going to be Spider-Man any longer."

This issue wasn't as exciting or enthralling as most, but I've enjoyed every issue of this series so far and this was no exception there.  Bendis knows how to write Spider-Man and Miles is just fun to read about.  Sarah Pichelli's art is missed, with her spending time on the awesome crossover SPIDER-MEN, but the fill in guy does a good job, except for Captain America's silly shoebox-shaped shoulder pads.

New Comics! - Week of 7/25/11

It's the RETURN OF AXE COP!  ... oh, and some other comics too.

Axe Cop: President of the World #1 (of 3)
Axe Cop is back!!!  What?  You don't know what I'm talking about?!?  C'mon, man!!!  Axe Cop!!!  He's the awesome product of a 5 year old boy and his talented 30-year-old artist brother!  The brothers have been cranking out the Axe Cop web comic for 3 years now and Dark Horse is releasing the 2nd full-color mini series.  This series is the craziest thing I've ever read.  It's the wildest stories a 5-year-old can come up with expertly drawn by a professional comic book artist!  Malachi (the writer) is now 8, but the stories are just as crazy as ever.  This is the only comic I know of that can out-weird Saga.

At the end of the last mini-series "Bad Guy Earth", Axe Cop killed off all the bad guys in the world by poisoning them and making them poop themselves to death.  The grateful citizens of Earth then made Axe Cop the President of the World!

This series starts off with Axe Cop ruling over a peaceful planet.  He creates a new town in Washington State, called Axeville where he rules from the "Gold House", which is a gold version of the white house.  Axe Cop prays to God asking if the bad guys will ever return.  God tells him there will be a million years of peace, but then the bad guys would attack from outer space.  To ensure this, God places a million-year forcefield around the Earth.  Not wanting Earth's defense to weaken over the next million years, Axe Cop sends all the superheroes into the future to fight the eventual bad guy invasion.  In the meantime, Axe Cop  does his thing, staying perpetually young thanks to his Chief of Staff's healing eye beams.  During this time Axe Cop meets a goo-powered hero with mind-controlling goo powers and dubs him Goo Cop.  He thens meets a talking Gorilla with gun fists, giant-growing powers, and a tail that shoots out jet fighters.  The Gorilla (named Junior Cobbb) comes from Gorilla Planet that is under attack by robot penguins.  Axe Cop, Goo Cop, and Junior Cobbb head to Gorilla Planet to save the gorillas.  They find that the penguins are impervious to harm, so they head to the Robot Penguin planet and disable their master computer, which kills all the penguins.  The gorillas want to recycle the penguins, but Axe Cop sees that their metal is tainted with evil and can't be recycled, only destroyed.  Junior Cobbb grows into a giant and shoots a volcano out of his tail (see below..this is great!), in which the penguins are destroyed.  They then head back to Earth.  Time passes and God's force field disintegrates as the heroes from a million years ago appear thanks to Axe Cop's time portal.  The army of good guys wait and wait and wait but no bad guys appear, so Axe Cop sends the heroes back to their own time and goes to bad disappointed.  He's awoken in the middle of the night by his Chief of Staff, Ralph Wrinkles the dog, and is informed that the bad guys are attacking Seattle and that there are roughly ONE BILLION of them!

Tell me that's not the best comic book plot you've ever heard!  Man, this book is pure fun!  I hope little Malachi makes enough off of this weird character to pay for college.  That would be awesome!

Check out more Axe Cop goodness HERE.

- PICK OF THE WEEK!!!

The Mighty Thor #17
Previously: All of Asgardia had been taken captive by a race of little alien dog nightmare monsters, putting everyone into a dream prison.  Thor escapes, waking up just in time to see The Enchantress and her newly created boyfriend, The Keep, heading for Asgardia's empty throne.

Thor and The Keep start pummeling each other, being that this is a Thor comic and all, and Enchantress drones on about how she created her own boyfriend since Thor wasn't good enough for her (she's been chasing him for eons).  Then Dr. Blake's head starts yelling at Thor and explains how after he "died" the last time, he and Thor were separated.  Thor didn't even notice, but Dr. Blake was left a shell of a person, having only been created by Odin to house Thor's spirit to humiliate him.  In response, Blake made a deal with the Enchantress that ended with him being a disembodied head and The Keep being made from his body.  Thor is bummed that his half host body person was so upset about being separated from him when the rest of Asgardia wakes up and The Keep and Enchantress are uncermoniously ejected from the land.  Thor goes and makes a deal with the nightmare alien dogs that gives them a representation in the assembly of the realms and he gives them Dr. Blake's head to put into a perpetually happy dream.  So weird.

The Keep is a pretty cool looking character and I was hoping for a more dramatic fight between him and Thor.  It wasn't bad, just kinda standard.  The art was pretty good.  The story was just above lame, but below interesting.  I really like Thor, so I'm holding out hope that the next story arch doesn't center around nightmare dogs or emo Oklahoma teenagers (that's a story thread that wasn't worth mentioning...see my previous reviews for some details if you care enough).

- This was a pretty standard Thor book.

Wolverine & the X-Men #14
In the midst of an ongoing war between the Phoenix-powered X-men and the Avengers, Colossus takes some time out to go court Kitty who is acting as head of the school during Wolverine's absence.  Colossus takes Kitty off to have a romantic lunch in a setting straight out of the old testament, with walls of water on both sides and eating their meal on the dry seabed.  Colossus tries to propose, but Kitty shuts him down and warns him that the power he holds is dangerous and changing him.  After a few attempts at love, Colossus gets mad and takes her back to the school.  He then decides to destroy it because Kitty chose it over him (in his mind).  The few remaining X-men on the grounds try to stop him, but don't even slow him down.  Kitty stand her ground and he freaks out on her, throwing her to the ground and telling her that he could kill her, bring her back to life, and maker her do whatever he wanted.  At that he pauses, realizing that he has become some kind of monster and flies away.  Just then Iceman, Rachel Grey, and Angel come back to the school, having left Cyclops's crazy X-team.  Kitty loses no time putting them back to work, as the school has been severely under-staffed.

This series continues to be a fun read and the quiet presence of Doop as an adjuct professor makes it all the better.  In this issue I thought we would FINALLY see some Doop action.  When Colossus attacked he showed up with a huge Cable-sized gun and shot it, but that was all.  We didn't even get to see what Colossus did to him, if anything.  C'mon!  This is the weird little guy who ate Thor's hammer, then spat it back at him duplicated 100 times!  This is the guy who created a wormhole to another dimension by popping a zit!  This is the guy who's brain exploded into pieces and had to live off the backup brain in his butt for a week!  All he can do is shoot a gun at Colossus?!?

Don't get me wrong, I love this book, but they're missing a lot of opportunities with Doop just floating around doing nothing.

- This continues to be the fun X-book to read!

Weekly Comix! - Week of 7/18/12

I'm juggling a lot of graphic design/illustration projects at the moment, so I've fallen about a week behind on my comic reviews, but I'm committed to keep them coming.

Avengers vs X-Men #8
The Phoenix 5 are starting to show signs of breaking as Namor sets off on his own to destroy the Avengers in Wakanda.  The Avengers lure him in and then go "Avengers Assemble" on his butt.  Namor gets ambushed by Spidey, Thing, Thor, Red Hulk, Dr. Strange, Vision & Valkyrie.  They beat him down pretty hard at first, but then he catches his breath and breaks Red Hulks arm to the point of bones sticking out of red skin!  As the tide turns in Namor's favor, Scarlet Witch steps in and matches Namor's power with her Magic.  Vision catches Wanda as both fighters collapse and the rest of the X-men show up.  At their arrival, the Phoenix Force leaves Namor and divides that power between the remaining 4, to their surprise.  The Avengers on the other hand, retreat to the mystical kung-fu city that is home to Iron Fist.  As they stand there, catching their breath, Hope asks, "So...what's the plan?  Is there a plan?"  and no one has an answer.

I feel like the plot is getting a bit stale again, but at least there was one heck of a fight to keep readers entertained.  Adam Kubert stepped in on art duties and did a good job, though I prefer Olivier Coipel's art personally.  Overall a good issue, but it didn't really move the story along very much.  I'm interested to see how the Phoenix 4 respond to the revelation that when one of them falls, the others become more powerful.  I wouldn't be surprised if they start turning on each other.

Saga #5
The weirdest, most entertaining series of the year continues with this opening scene.

Why, yes, that IS a robot prince sitting on a toilet!

Issue 5 starts off with the pooping robot (one of the generals of the war) being informed by his robot wife that she's expecting a baby, but that his father won't let him come home until he catches the two runaway soldiers and their baby, even if he misses the birth of his own child.  The robot pooper vows to be home in the first trimester.

His prey happens to be the star-crossed lovers that are the heroes of our little story.  As the focus shifts from the bathroom to the happy couple, they are being confronted by 6 soldiers from Alana's military (the "wings").  Marko tries to warn them away, but they get the orders to "pacify" and start firing.  Alana takes a slug in the shoulder and Marko quickly forgets all about his vow of pacifism.  He rushes forward with his blue, glowing sword and takes out all 6 soldiers.  He's about to kill them, when Alana stops him.  The rage leaves his face and he thanks her.   They tie up the soldiers, steal their ship and make their getaway.

In another part of the galaxy, the bounty hunter known as "The Will" is trying leave the sex planet, Sextillion, with the 6 year old prostitute he just saved.  He is confronted by her "owner" and realizes that the only way he can save the girl is to buy her contract, which is way more than he can afford.  He quickly calls fellow bounty hunter, The Stalk, to reconsider her offer of teaming up to catch Alana & Marko and split the profits.  On the other end of the phone call, The Stalk is standing by the captured soldiers shortly after the couple has escaped.  She tells him she's not interested in teaming up anymore and he says he only turned her down the first time because he's in love with her and was angry about the way they ended things.  Just then the Robot Prince rides up on a horse, hoping to capture the couple, sees The Stalk, thinks she's reaching for a weapon and he blows a hole in her chest.

This story is SO good!  It's amazing that they have managed to fit this much story into only 5 issues!  I'm hoping that the death of The Stalk will put The Will on the side of our heroes and he'll help them out instead of hunting them down.  He has been shown to be a pretty good guy deep down, despite being a tough bounty hunter, and I'd like to see him become the Han Solo to Marko's Luke Skywalker.

Before naming this book Pic of the Week I need to remind potential readers that this is a MATURE TITLE.  There are boobs and bad language in every issue so far.  If you're old enough to handle that kind of thing, then pick this story up.  If not, get a little older then buy the trade paperback.

- Pick of the Week!!!

Wonder Woman #11
The only DC title I'm currently following is the weak link in this week's comic stack, but that's not saying it was bad.  Just not quite as good.

In this issue, Wonder Woman's friend, and soon to be aunt...sort of, is at her small-town doctor's office for a pregnancy check-up.  While she's in the office, Apollo and Artemis show up intent on capturing the mother of Zeus's unborn child.  WW, Hermes, and Lennox try to stand against them, but they don't stand a chance and Lennox ends up getting punched in the stomach hard enough to crack his rock-hard form almost to the point of crumbling entirely.  Zola comes out of the office and sees the battle.  She hops in her truck and drives it into Apollo's back, only to have him survive the attack and grab her up under his arm.  Artemis and Apollo then leave with Zola leaving the heroes beaten in the mud.

The next scene is in Olympus where Apollo presents the pregnant lady to the vengeful Queen of the Gods, Hera, who then gives Apollo his reward, the recently vacated throne of Zeus.  The King of the Gods has disappeared and the other gods have been fighting to see who would take his place, and it looks like Apollo has won the spot except...Wonder Woman and Hermes are standing on it ready for round 2!

This book got of track for a few issues, but it's picking back up now.  I'm still a big fan of playing up Diana's mythological background instead of making her a female Superman.  This approach is WAY more interesting and fun.  I'm glad I stuck through the slow issues.  I'm starting to get excited again.

New Comix! - Week of 7/11/12

I'm not feeling great and it's late, but I don't want to get weeks behind in my reviews, so I'm pushing on.  These might be a bit shorter than usual though.

AvX Versus #4
The 2 fighters per issue series continues featuring Daredevil vs Psylocke and Thor vs Phoenix-powered Emma Frost.

The Daredevil/Psylocke fight was good,but basic ninja vs ninja type stuff.  There was some good philosophical dialogue between the two at the end and the fight ended in a draw.

Thor vs Emma was AWESOME!  The sole reason is artist/writer Kaare Andrews.  Andrews has an exaggerated style that you either love or hate.  I happen to love it.  Emma fights in her diamond form and taunts Thor about his pretty hair and implies that he's a cross-dresser.  Thor answers by giving her an enchanted hammer uppercut starting at her crotch and shattering her upwards.  The diamond pieces are seen entering the atmosphere, pausing, then zooming straight back down towards the God of Thunder.  Thor finds himself in the middle of a fiery diamond rainstorm that tears him to bits.  Emma reforms herself from the shards and proceeds to pummel Thor senseless.  Winner: Emma Frost.

This book is just fun reading and the art was really cool in this issue.  I wish Marvel would give the reigns of a flagship character's monthly book to him.

Avenging Spider-Man #9
This issue was meant to be a springboard for the revamped Captain Marvel character who gets her own book next month.  The problem with it is that it sucked.  Bad.

Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel) is a pilot (even though she can fly?  Why?) and offers to give Peter a lift to see his Aunt who just moved to Boston.  On the way they meet a high-flying Robin Hood wannabe and the armored bounty hunter assigned to bring her in.  Everyone fights.  Captain Marvel beats on the armored guy.  Spidey quips.  You know what?  I just can't make myself care about this story.  I started liking Carol when she was a member of the New Avengers a few years back, but I just couldn't care less about her here.  The plot was lame.  The dialog weak.  The ONLY good thing about this issue was the art by Terry Dodson, who is fantastic.  Not $4/issue fantastic though.  Not for me.

This is 2 crappy issue of this series in a row and the next issue continues this lame story.  I don't have money to throw away so I'm going to cancel this from my pull list next week.  If decent-looking issues come along after this story arch, I'll pick it back up.

The stars are for Terry Dodson.  If not for him this gets 1 or maybe no stars.  I don't have time and money to waste on subpar comics.

Spider-Men #3
Hey!  It's the opposite of suckiness!

The dual Spidey story continues with Peter and Miles teaming up against Mysterio.  He uses his illusion powers to conjure an army of Spider-Villains for the guys to face, but Miles makes it to Mysterio and shuts his avatar body down (see last issue's review for details).  As the Ultimates arrive to assess the situation, they find Peter missing.  Nick Fury tells Miles that Peter has gone to see this world for himself and to make sure he's not crazy.  We then see Peter quizzing a convenient store clerk about the very public death of the Ultimate U's Peter Parker.  On the last page we see Aunt May and Gwen leaving her house in Queens and stopping when they see a Spider-Man standing on their lawn.  They both start shouting threats at him (they are publicly known as that world's Spider-man's family after all) when Spidey pulls off his mask and the ladies are shocked to see an older version of Peter's face with tears streaming down his face.

This story is wicked fun.  Pichelli's art is top-notch.  That sappy ending even worked on me!  I love this series more than I thought I could.  Keep it coming, Bendis.  You're doing what you do best!

Pick of the week!!!

Wolverine and the X-Men #13
Gladiator, the Emperor of the Shi'ar Empire has brought a force to Earth to end the Phoenix threat and to retrieve is son from Wolverine's school.

The Shi'ar fight bravely and Gladiator is about as powerful as any Marvel hero, but he can't stand up to the Phoenix.  They beat him soundly by the end of it.  The cool thing is that althroughout the book, the focus isn't on Gladiator or even Wolverine, but on his son's bodyguard who came to live at the Jean Grey School with him, Warbird.  In this issue we learn Warbird's entire history and it's REALLY well done.  She is a surprisingly interesting character and this one issue has cemented her as a favorite in this series.  She's strong and ruthless, but deep down has the heart of an artist and a romantic.  This sounds cheesy, but it was a really good read.  Though Kid Gladiator ordered her to help him save his father, she followed higher orders and knocked him out to keep him safe.  In the end they are seen back at the Jean Grey school holding a battered, possibly dying Gladiator and looking for help.

I haven't had this much fun reading X-Men since Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men.  Nick Bradshaw took over art from Christ Bachallo this week and did a great job.  The art is always good and the story always entertaining.  Great series.