Topic: Books
This week I hit the jackpot with the new comics! A lot of quality comics hit the shelves, so I thought I'd review some of my weekly loot:
Avengers vs X-Men #1,2, New Avengers #24, Avengers#25, Wolverine and the X-Men#9: All these comics tie in together to describe the opening salvo of the war between the Avengers and the X-Men. While it got off to a medicore start with issue 1, things kicked into high gear with issue 2. Once all the set up is over with, they jump right into the action. Cyclops and Captain America face off over the Mutant Girl, Hope. Cyclops believes the Phoenix Force could join with her and restart the mutant species. Cap thinks it would be more like the end of everything as we know it. This debate quickly breaks down into punching and blasting because its more entertaining than talking, and because Cyclops was being kind of a D-Bag. (Seriously, I think thats an ongoing subplot: Cyclops evolving into an even bigger dork) There a great moment when the Avengers all leap out of the back of the Helicarrier as its floating over the X-men's island, and the face punching commences. One of my favorite scenes is what the narrator describes as "the most expensive punch in history": Emma Frost turns her skin into diamond and pounds into Iron Man's multi billion dollar armor. Some say that these Mega-cross over events are just gimmicks to require readers to pick up every issue of every series just to know what's going on. I say Marvel is doing it right. You can follow the story with the main series (AvX) without reading anything else, but the other series will give you different perspectives of the same event, kinda like all the issues you pick up that week are happening at the same time. Its all well planned out. What's really impressive is how it feels like other cross over comic events lead into each other. For example, The Dark Phoenix Saga from the 80's, and the Avengers Disassembled story which lead to the House of M story, which lead to the Messiah Complex story, all contributed to the AvX story. (Scarlett Witch causing mutants to be an endangered species, and Hope being the first new mutant lead Cyclops to act the way he does) I'm sure the final outcome will set up more stories down the line. Overall, very epic. Can't wait for the next issue in two weeks. I rate it with 8 exclamation points: !!!!!!!!
A few quickie reviews:
The Invincible Iron Man #515:
I was excited reading this one. Its the turning point. After issue after issue of Tony Stark getting his butt handed to him by life (and Mandarin behind the scenes) he's anout to turn the tables on the bad guys. At the end Rhodey asks him how they fight back. He tells Rhodey: "We don't. Checkmate means we lost. They won that game. Now they're playing ours." At that point I shouted out loud, "YES!!" Its okay no one heard me. Writer Matt Fraction does a good Iron Man. He's like the Batman of the Marvel universe: he always has a backup plan. I give it 7 exclamation points: !!!!!!!
The Walking Dead #96
I don't want to be one of those pretentious geeks who always say "The comic book is way better than the tv show" But it is true. I love reading each issue. I burn through them in a matter of minutes and can't wait to read the next one, even if like in this case, not much actually happened. The conclusion of the "A larger World" storyline is just a set up for the next storyline. It is a good set up though. Looks like Rick and his posse will be facing off against a bunch of cutthroats soon. 6 exclamation points: !!!!!!
Invincible #90
This is usually a great comic. The last few were pretty exciting. This one was okay. Dinosaurus is kind of interesting. He a crazy dinosaur guy who is more of an intellectual threat than a physical one. I like the idea of replacing the main character with a minority character, but his behavior seemed a little stereotypical (was he hitting on Invincible's girlfriend?) Plus you know, unlike Ultimate SpiderMan, this is only temporary. Eventually the original Invincible will be back. 5 exclamation points: !!!!!
Ultimate Spider Man #9
In Ultimate Marvel, Peter Parker died. Miles Morales is the new Spider Man. While he is the opposite of Peter in background and appearance, they're the same at heart. I like how his Power/Responsibility origin tied into Peter's death. I resented how much the origin story was dragged out over several issues, but you can really relate to him and cheer for him when he wins. He's even more of a rookie than Peter ever was, so you really feel like he might not make it out of each situation he gets in. By the end of this issue I was getting worried about poor Miles. 7 points: !!!!!!!
Uncanny X-Men 10:
This came out last week so its a lead up for AvX. Captain America is even in this one and he notes that saving the world isn't Cyclop's number one priority. Like I said, Cyclops is turning into a D-bag. What was cool though, was the introduction of a VERY interesting villian. Unit. He's basically a leftover robot weapon from an ancient alien race that almost ruled the universe at one point. He was scary, threatening, and with no effort made asses out of all the x-men. At the end of the day he simply let them capture him as part of some evil plan...7 points: !!!!!!!
Whew! That was a lot more typing than my delicate fingers are used to, and I still have yet to read: Amazing Spider Man, Wonder Woman, G I Joe, and Fantastic Four. Like I said: jackpot!
UPDATE: I just read Fantastic Four #605:
Normally I wouldn't bother adding in another entry like this. I though Hickman's run on FF was great, but a little overrated. So, FF was towards the bottom of my reading list. But this issue was something special. This is one of those issues that come along every now and then that could be looked at as a work of art separate from the ongoing story. Now that they changed the future, Reed Richards and his time traveling dad jump ahead to see what the future holds in 1000 year increments. What they see is surprising and touching. You will love Ben Grimm (Thing) if you didn't already (I already did- he is so underappreciated. Like Wolverine, what makes him great is that you eventually realize there's a lot of heart under that tough guy surface) Everyone should pick this issue up even if you never read a Fantastic Four comic before. In fact I might pick up a few extra copies to hand out to people. 10 exclamation points !!!!!!!!!!
