Welcome back to Weekly Crisis Comic Book Reviews! Couple great books amidst a sea of average to mediocre books this week. Missed Green Lantern at my local shop, so no review of that this week unless I find a copy at the other shops in the area. On with the reviews!
Comic Book of the Week
Nova #5 - If a book has Annihilation of the cover, you should be reading it. End of story. While Annihilation was the best story of last year, Annihilation: Conquest appears to be the best of this year, with only Sinestro Corps War providing any kind of competition.
This issue picks up right where we left off last month with a new Nova, Ko-Rel, and Richard, our current Nova, lying in stasis with the Worldmind initiating some healing protocols. The action comes fast and hard as Gamora and her Phalanx squad arrive and immediately begin executing their orders to capture Nova. Ko-Rel deals with the initial assault of Phalanx with relative ease and chats with the Worldmind concerning explanations as to why her and orders for what to do. Apparently she will be Nova 001 and her primary duty is to protect the Worldmind and Nova Prime (Richard) while he recovers.
She is not given much choice in the matter and handles it as well as can be expected. When the Phalanx assault the Kree ship housing the recovering Richard Rider, Ko-Rel tries to lure them all away to spare the rest of her crew from further casualties. While an admirable plan, she did not account for Gamora and she stealthily infiltrates the Kree ship, killing multiple crew members, until reaching the barely conscious Nova. I will not spoil the end of this issue, but Conquest just ramped up and I can not really tell what is going to happen now as things are definitely not looking good for the good guys or the universe at large.
If you are not reading this book, or any Conquest for that matter, go out and pick up this and the Starlord and Quasar titles, as they are worth every penny. If you are worried about not knowing anything about the cosmic characters or hating cosmic stories in general, know that you are not alone and I hated cosmic stories and barely cared or knew about any of the characters from Annihilation or Conquest and both are now two of my favourite stories of all time from the past 20 years. Couple the current Sinestro Corps War with them and it seems like all my favourite stories are taking place in space. I did not manage to grab a copy of the sold out Green Lantern at my comic shop, so Nova will get the book of the week for me this week with basically no competition from the rest of my pull list. If I manage to get a copy of GL today at one of the other shops, I will try to update with a review as that appears to be a major contender from the buzz on the internet that I have been reading.
The New Avengers #33 - The countdown to Skrullmegeddon is on. I was disappointed to find absolutely no Spider-Woman or major discussion about her "betrayal" from last issue. In fact, almost no indication these people just crashed from an airplane is apparent in this issue. I am curious to find out how non-metas like Hawkeye survived this plane crash when the only padding was from Spider-man's webbing. Another thing that stands out to me is the fact Luke Cage points the finger at Spider-man as being the resident Skrull on their team when he, himself, has been one of the most "Skrully"-like person on the team along with Dr Strange. Cage went from tiara wearing, Christmas shouting blacksploitation character and is now leading the Avengers, married and with a child. While I do not think he is a Skrull, [Strange is my pick with the missing in Civil War and "my cape does not work under these conditions" from last issue and his whole lack of magic use in general] I find it really odd he would choose Spider-man simply because he switched sides in Civil War.
Having just read The Hood hardcover, as I missed the series when it originally came out in 2002, I was quite impressed with The Hood, also known as Parker Robbins for the uninformed. While I am still a bit concerned with how this low level street thug will become a Kingpin of Supers, I am willing to give Bendis the benefit of the doubt as he is building on an excellent new character and his work with the actual Kingpin in his Daredevil run gives me all the reasons I need to have faith in his writing.
This issue itself has a lot of stuff going on ranging from the team recouping in a Chicago hotel room and dealing with rampant paranoia concerning Skrulls. Combined with the behind the scenes action of The Hood establishing himself through his acquisition of Deathlok and putting The Owl in his place for trying to operate without The Hood's permission and The Hood meeting up with Wolverine, we are given plenty of bang for our buck. This issue has a lot of build up with just enough smattering of action to keep me wanting more and I look forward to next issue and the confrontation between Wolverine and The Hood, which will either cement The Hood as a top tier villain or job him out to the all encompassing Wolverine and end any build up he might have had.
Many people complain about the artwork of Mr Yu, but I personally love it and feel it suits the tone of this series perfectly. Along the same line, if he was the main artist on Mighty Avengers, I feel that he would be a terrible fit and probably call for his removal. The dark, gritty, washed out style of his work on NA adds so much to the book in my opinion and really compliments the characters he depicts.
All-in-all, this book was almost my pick of the week, but the next book on my list steals that title with ease.
Black Adam #1 - Too little, too late. That is all I can say about this new Black Adam mini-series. This book should have launched right after 52 or, at the very least, before it was revealed what his magic word was changed to and that he got his powers back in the pages of Countdown. Despite this, I still gave this book a shot and I was glad I did.
While not the best book of the week, this was still quite enjoyable. I have to admit, ever since he tore the guy in half in the early weeks of 52, I have been a huge fan of Black Adam. His portrayal in 52 lead me to read more of his back story and I was quite happy to hear he was not being thrown to the way side at the end of 52 when this series was announced. We start this issue off by finding out that Adam has been hiding out with several loyal followers from Khandaq for the last while. With no access to plastic surgery, Adam takes drastic measures to change his appearance and has his followers literally beat his face in. Once he is suitably bruised and swollen, he and his followers set out to recover his dead wife's remains so that he can resurrect her in a Lazarus Pit of Ra's al Ghul fame. After recovering her remains by sneaking into police state Khandaq, Adam's followers sacrifice themselves so that he may escape with her unimpeded. We end the issue with a dip in the Pit and the return of Isis. Whether this is permanent or something more menacing is left to next issue.
I was truly surprised this issue was not rated for mature readers or that it did not come with some kind of warning. This issue contains, but is not limited to, multiple visible deaths, cannibalism, murder, torture and more. Pretty graphic and violent stuff for a comic book not marked for mature readers. However, it fit what I would expect from a Black Adam book given his current state of mind and I thought it was an excellent issue. I recommend this to anyone that enjoyed 52, JSA or has any interest in post-52 Black Adam.
Countdown #38 - I have to admit, Countdown has seen a noticeable improvement in quality over the last two or three weeks. It has gone from a completely forgettable waste of paper to a fairly average book. It is by no means a must buy or even something I would recommend to anyone but the most die hard DC fan, but I do concede it is improving.
This issue, despite the cover, does not focus very much on Mr Action. We basically see him apply to the Teen Titans, whom he said he thought were too angsty last issue when trying to decide what team to join. When Robin "tests" Jimmy, we find out that his powers will not work unless he is threatened. As Robin held back and did not want to hurt him, Jimmy could not access his powers. This takes place over about two pages and that is all we see of Mr Olsen for this whole issue.
In other news, we see the results of the Calculator hacking Oracle's network in an attempt to steal the identities of all the known super heroes. As a Computer Science major, I find this whole storyline completely ridiculous. The jargon they use, the fact they think a single hacker could do the kinds of things these two do in seconds, the supposed reversals and counter measures they use to stop each other are simply way too off the wall and this is from someone who reads comics about super heroes. Why Mrs Gordan would keep the identities of her friends and colleagues on an unsecured computer connected to the internet in the first place is idiotic at best. On top of this, Karate Kid mysteriously has an illness and proclaims he will die. When he found this out is another mystery. Before Lightning Saga? After? Off panel when Brainiac told him to stay in this time period? So many simple questions that should have been answered and were not. These do not add suspense or mystery or intrigue. They are simply annoying inconsistencies.
Another blunder of a plot point concerns the Rogues. Question and Batwoman have two known criminals, both connected to the murder of the Flash, and because Trickster acts like a complete retard playing with two puppets, Montoya simply lets them go because she believes they are too stupid to possibly have killed the Flash. While funny as hell, it made absolutely no sense. When questioned by Batwoman, she simply states she was a detective in Gotham and that her instincts tell her two super powered criminals who were present at Flash's death and have prior history with attacking Flash are innocent because they are stupid. Even if they were innocent, and they are not based on my reading of Flash #13, they are still known criminals and on the run from the law. There is no reason they should have been set free.
The only story that seems to be progressing nicely these days is the one I personally do not care for and that is the corruption of Mary Marvel. I just do not agree with the need to increase her bust size, make her more edgier and antihero-like, but I do think the story is being handled as well as could be hoped with this series. Mary and Zatanna take down a character I am not familiar with, but is pointed out to be related to the New Gods. Mary displays more power and figures out she does not need Zatanna to tutor her while Eclipso watches her reckless displays of power. In the end, we also find out that the Monitor's have been watching the events with the New Gods and that the death toll from the mysterious killer has reached the double digits. Darkseid is seen at the end of this issue and I hope it indicates a more prominent role for him in upcoming weeks after the 15 weeks off since issue 52.
Still far too many inconsistencies and down right stupid developments to recommend this book to anyone. There is also the problem that many of these storylines will be jumping ship to mini-series in the coming months, among them being Mary Marvel's, Red Hood / Donna Troy, Forerunner and several others. While I am less than impressed with this weekly requiring even more tie-in books to understand, hopefully it means that the main storyline will emerge and the many plot inconsistencies can begin to smooth out and I can actually recommend this book to someone.
The Incredible Hulk #109 - This issue of Hulk picks up where the book was two months ago in #107 where Hulk had finished putting the beat down on Hercules and we were left wondering if Hulk would accept the humans' offer to help him. From there, the action ramps up as it retells a condensed version of the events that transpired in last weeks World War Hulk #3 before giving us a glimpse of what kind of conditions the heroes Hulk has captured are in and a cliffhanger confrontation between Amadeus Cho and the Hulk.
For anyone reading Incredible Hulk solely for the WWH tie-in, this issue does not seem to add much to the main story. It continues following the actions of characters that have not been seen in the main mini-series, such as Amadeus Cho and Angel and so on. By their absence in the main story, I can only assume the actions they partake in in these issues will have no bearing on the overall story. So for those picking it up on the basis it will impact the WWH story, I believe you are wasting your money.
For those that enjoy Pak's Hulk or wishing for a decent story, this issue is well worth checking out. I enjoyed the exchanges between Cho and Rick Jones, as one believes in Bruce Banner and the other the Hulk, and their ideologies on how to best approach the situation are played off quite well. I was glad to see Cho growing up a little from his previous childish ways and stepping up to use his intellect to help coordinate the evacuation of civilians. I look forward to the next issue as the cliffhanger at the end with the confrontation between Hulk and Cho should shatter the misconceptions Cho has concerning the altruistic nature of the Hulk. Overall, a great issue that supplements the main series of WWH without requiring the reader to pick it up. This is how tie-ins should be. Good stories that supplement and are not pumped out to cash in or boost sales of a title.
Comic Book of the Week
Nova #5 - If a book has Annihilation of the cover, you should be reading it. End of story. While Annihilation was the best story of last year, Annihilation: Conquest appears to be the best of this year, with only Sinestro Corps War providing any kind of competition.This issue picks up right where we left off last month with a new Nova, Ko-Rel, and Richard, our current Nova, lying in stasis with the Worldmind initiating some healing protocols. The action comes fast and hard as Gamora and her Phalanx squad arrive and immediately begin executing their orders to capture Nova. Ko-Rel deals with the initial assault of Phalanx with relative ease and chats with the Worldmind concerning explanations as to why her and orders for what to do. Apparently she will be Nova 001 and her primary duty is to protect the Worldmind and Nova Prime (Richard) while he recovers.
She is not given much choice in the matter and handles it as well as can be expected. When the Phalanx assault the Kree ship housing the recovering Richard Rider, Ko-Rel tries to lure them all away to spare the rest of her crew from further casualties. While an admirable plan, she did not account for Gamora and she stealthily infiltrates the Kree ship, killing multiple crew members, until reaching the barely conscious Nova. I will not spoil the end of this issue, but Conquest just ramped up and I can not really tell what is going to happen now as things are definitely not looking good for the good guys or the universe at large.
If you are not reading this book, or any Conquest for that matter, go out and pick up this and the Starlord and Quasar titles, as they are worth every penny. If you are worried about not knowing anything about the cosmic characters or hating cosmic stories in general, know that you are not alone and I hated cosmic stories and barely cared or knew about any of the characters from Annihilation or Conquest and both are now two of my favourite stories of all time from the past 20 years. Couple the current Sinestro Corps War with them and it seems like all my favourite stories are taking place in space. I did not manage to grab a copy of the sold out Green Lantern at my comic shop, so Nova will get the book of the week for me this week with basically no competition from the rest of my pull list. If I manage to get a copy of GL today at one of the other shops, I will try to update with a review as that appears to be a major contender from the buzz on the internet that I have been reading.
The New Avengers #33 - The countdown to Skrullmegeddon is on. I was disappointed to find absolutely no Spider-Woman or major discussion about her "betrayal" from last issue. In fact, almost no indication these people just crashed from an airplane is apparent in this issue. I am curious to find out how non-metas like Hawkeye survived this plane crash when the only padding was from Spider-man's webbing. Another thing that stands out to me is the fact Luke Cage points the finger at Spider-man as being the resident Skrull on their team when he, himself, has been one of the most "Skrully"-like person on the team along with Dr Strange. Cage went from tiara wearing, Christmas shouting blacksploitation character and is now leading the Avengers, married and with a child. While I do not think he is a Skrull, [Strange is my pick with the missing in Civil War and "my cape does not work under these conditions" from last issue and his whole lack of magic use in general] I find it really odd he would choose Spider-man simply because he switched sides in Civil War.Having just read The Hood hardcover, as I missed the series when it originally came out in 2002, I was quite impressed with The Hood, also known as Parker Robbins for the uninformed. While I am still a bit concerned with how this low level street thug will become a Kingpin of Supers, I am willing to give Bendis the benefit of the doubt as he is building on an excellent new character and his work with the actual Kingpin in his Daredevil run gives me all the reasons I need to have faith in his writing.
This issue itself has a lot of stuff going on ranging from the team recouping in a Chicago hotel room and dealing with rampant paranoia concerning Skrulls. Combined with the behind the scenes action of The Hood establishing himself through his acquisition of Deathlok and putting The Owl in his place for trying to operate without The Hood's permission and The Hood meeting up with Wolverine, we are given plenty of bang for our buck. This issue has a lot of build up with just enough smattering of action to keep me wanting more and I look forward to next issue and the confrontation between Wolverine and The Hood, which will either cement The Hood as a top tier villain or job him out to the all encompassing Wolverine and end any build up he might have had.
Many people complain about the artwork of Mr Yu, but I personally love it and feel it suits the tone of this series perfectly. Along the same line, if he was the main artist on Mighty Avengers, I feel that he would be a terrible fit and probably call for his removal. The dark, gritty, washed out style of his work on NA adds so much to the book in my opinion and really compliments the characters he depicts.
All-in-all, this book was almost my pick of the week, but the next book on my list steals that title with ease.
Black Adam #1 - Too little, too late. That is all I can say about this new Black Adam mini-series. This book should have launched right after 52 or, at the very least, before it was revealed what his magic word was changed to and that he got his powers back in the pages of Countdown. Despite this, I still gave this book a shot and I was glad I did.While not the best book of the week, this was still quite enjoyable. I have to admit, ever since he tore the guy in half in the early weeks of 52, I have been a huge fan of Black Adam. His portrayal in 52 lead me to read more of his back story and I was quite happy to hear he was not being thrown to the way side at the end of 52 when this series was announced. We start this issue off by finding out that Adam has been hiding out with several loyal followers from Khandaq for the last while. With no access to plastic surgery, Adam takes drastic measures to change his appearance and has his followers literally beat his face in. Once he is suitably bruised and swollen, he and his followers set out to recover his dead wife's remains so that he can resurrect her in a Lazarus Pit of Ra's al Ghul fame. After recovering her remains by sneaking into police state Khandaq, Adam's followers sacrifice themselves so that he may escape with her unimpeded. We end the issue with a dip in the Pit and the return of Isis. Whether this is permanent or something more menacing is left to next issue.
I was truly surprised this issue was not rated for mature readers or that it did not come with some kind of warning. This issue contains, but is not limited to, multiple visible deaths, cannibalism, murder, torture and more. Pretty graphic and violent stuff for a comic book not marked for mature readers. However, it fit what I would expect from a Black Adam book given his current state of mind and I thought it was an excellent issue. I recommend this to anyone that enjoyed 52, JSA or has any interest in post-52 Black Adam.
Countdown #38 - I have to admit, Countdown has seen a noticeable improvement in quality over the last two or three weeks. It has gone from a completely forgettable waste of paper to a fairly average book. It is by no means a must buy or even something I would recommend to anyone but the most die hard DC fan, but I do concede it is improving.This issue, despite the cover, does not focus very much on Mr Action. We basically see him apply to the Teen Titans, whom he said he thought were too angsty last issue when trying to decide what team to join. When Robin "tests" Jimmy, we find out that his powers will not work unless he is threatened. As Robin held back and did not want to hurt him, Jimmy could not access his powers. This takes place over about two pages and that is all we see of Mr Olsen for this whole issue.
In other news, we see the results of the Calculator hacking Oracle's network in an attempt to steal the identities of all the known super heroes. As a Computer Science major, I find this whole storyline completely ridiculous. The jargon they use, the fact they think a single hacker could do the kinds of things these two do in seconds, the supposed reversals and counter measures they use to stop each other are simply way too off the wall and this is from someone who reads comics about super heroes. Why Mrs Gordan would keep the identities of her friends and colleagues on an unsecured computer connected to the internet in the first place is idiotic at best. On top of this, Karate Kid mysteriously has an illness and proclaims he will die. When he found this out is another mystery. Before Lightning Saga? After? Off panel when Brainiac told him to stay in this time period? So many simple questions that should have been answered and were not. These do not add suspense or mystery or intrigue. They are simply annoying inconsistencies.
Another blunder of a plot point concerns the Rogues. Question and Batwoman have two known criminals, both connected to the murder of the Flash, and because Trickster acts like a complete retard playing with two puppets, Montoya simply lets them go because she believes they are too stupid to possibly have killed the Flash. While funny as hell, it made absolutely no sense. When questioned by Batwoman, she simply states she was a detective in Gotham and that her instincts tell her two super powered criminals who were present at Flash's death and have prior history with attacking Flash are innocent because they are stupid. Even if they were innocent, and they are not based on my reading of Flash #13, they are still known criminals and on the run from the law. There is no reason they should have been set free.
The only story that seems to be progressing nicely these days is the one I personally do not care for and that is the corruption of Mary Marvel. I just do not agree with the need to increase her bust size, make her more edgier and antihero-like, but I do think the story is being handled as well as could be hoped with this series. Mary and Zatanna take down a character I am not familiar with, but is pointed out to be related to the New Gods. Mary displays more power and figures out she does not need Zatanna to tutor her while Eclipso watches her reckless displays of power. In the end, we also find out that the Monitor's have been watching the events with the New Gods and that the death toll from the mysterious killer has reached the double digits. Darkseid is seen at the end of this issue and I hope it indicates a more prominent role for him in upcoming weeks after the 15 weeks off since issue 52.
Still far too many inconsistencies and down right stupid developments to recommend this book to anyone. There is also the problem that many of these storylines will be jumping ship to mini-series in the coming months, among them being Mary Marvel's, Red Hood / Donna Troy, Forerunner and several others. While I am less than impressed with this weekly requiring even more tie-in books to understand, hopefully it means that the main storyline will emerge and the many plot inconsistencies can begin to smooth out and I can actually recommend this book to someone.
The Incredible Hulk #109 - This issue of Hulk picks up where the book was two months ago in #107 where Hulk had finished putting the beat down on Hercules and we were left wondering if Hulk would accept the humans' offer to help him. From there, the action ramps up as it retells a condensed version of the events that transpired in last weeks World War Hulk #3 before giving us a glimpse of what kind of conditions the heroes Hulk has captured are in and a cliffhanger confrontation between Amadeus Cho and the Hulk.For anyone reading Incredible Hulk solely for the WWH tie-in, this issue does not seem to add much to the main story. It continues following the actions of characters that have not been seen in the main mini-series, such as Amadeus Cho and Angel and so on. By their absence in the main story, I can only assume the actions they partake in in these issues will have no bearing on the overall story. So for those picking it up on the basis it will impact the WWH story, I believe you are wasting your money.
For those that enjoy Pak's Hulk or wishing for a decent story, this issue is well worth checking out. I enjoyed the exchanges between Cho and Rick Jones, as one believes in Bruce Banner and the other the Hulk, and their ideologies on how to best approach the situation are played off quite well. I was glad to see Cho growing up a little from his previous childish ways and stepping up to use his intellect to help coordinate the evacuation of civilians. I look forward to the next issue as the cliffhanger at the end with the confrontation between Hulk and Cho should shatter the misconceptions Cho has concerning the altruistic nature of the Hulk. Overall, a great issue that supplements the main series of WWH without requiring the reader to pick it up. This is how tie-ins should be. Good stories that supplement and are not pumped out to cash in or boost sales of a title.
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