Busy, busy, busy Wednesday for me, but I've got a first, Marvel-centric, wave of reviews for everyone. I usually try to mix it up with DC and Marvel, but there were several new or unique books I don't usually review in the pile that screamed at me for reviews and they all happened to be Marvel books. I'll try to get some DC, maybe Booster Gold or GLC, out later tonight or even some of the Marvel regulars, like Nova or New Avengers. If not, you can find them all tomorrow in the Quick Shot Reviews. Feel free to let me know what you guys think about the books you picked up this week. On with the reviews!
UPDATE - Added The Walking Dead and Wonder Woman reviews. I figure I'd stick with the off-the-beaten track comics for this week's reviews instead of going back to the ones I always do. I'll cover them tomorrow in the Quick Shots for posterities sake though.
I also made Fantastic Four my Comic Book of the Week. I'm not sure if it's the absolute best this week, but I had a lot of fun with it. I can say that about parts of other books, but there wasn't anything in FF that I really disliked or didn't want to see more of.
UPDATE - Added The Walking Dead and Wonder Woman reviews. I figure I'd stick with the off-the-beaten track comics for this week's reviews instead of going back to the ones I always do. I'll cover them tomorrow in the Quick Shots for posterities sake though.
I also made Fantastic Four my Comic Book of the Week. I'm not sure if it's the absolute best this week, but I had a lot of fun with it. I can say that about parts of other books, but there wasn't anything in FF that I really disliked or didn't want to see more of.
COMIC BOOK OF THE WEEK
FANTASTIC FOUR #554Written by Mark Millar
Art by Bryan Hitch
I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed the first issue of Millar and Hitch's run on Fantastic Four. There was crazy time travel adventures, lots of funny lines, the team feels like a family for the first time in a long time (both kids actually show up in the issue and are acknowledged as existing! Shocking, I know.) and it channels a lot of the things that made the old stories great.
However, if you're expecting Ultimates starring the Fantastic Four or even the same thing as Millar's Ultimate Fantastic Four run with Greg Land, you'll be surely disappointed. This is very much an old school take on the team combined with Millar's trademark high concept storytelling.
Another thing that will let people down is Bryan Hitch's art. Now, 'let down' is a bit harsh, but his pencils are much more loose and less refined than his Ultimates work. It's still brilliant artwork, but you can see he didn't put nearly as much time in it as he did with Ultimates 1 or 2. It's probably between his old Authority work and the Ultimates in terms of quality, which is leaps and bounds above just about every other book on the market, but a marked drop from his last work.
Getting back to the story, as I said, I really enjoyed this issue. It's by no means the greatest FF story ever told, but if this is just the beginning of the run, I'm looking forward to what he has in store for the next 15, and hopefully more, issues.
I'm sure everyone's seen the time travel opening segment in previews, but it still needs repeating - that's the kind of hilarious little adventures the team should be getting into. We don't need to see how or why it happened, but it's a nice touch seeing it, kind of like a James Bond action sequence opening before the starting credits and the movie gets going.
This issue introduced Reed's old, hot female friend from university. She's going to be dubbed "Mrs Fantastic" based on interviews with Millar, but I think that's just due to her intelligence and has nothing to do with her gaining powers. She's supposedly 1 IQ point higher than Reed and is currently working on a new project that they want to get Reed's help or input on. The final page reveals it as
Last thing I'd like to touch on is the format or layout of the issue. As you can see from the cover, it has a very magazine-esque look about it. That's not limited to the cover, as the innards see large, white, rectangular dividers separating all the scenes. I found them kind of distracting, almost as if something got cut out during printing (they don't even put solid black border lines around panels) or as if someone took white out and smeared it across the page. The big white boxes with single huge letters to start of text, such as when they have a scene change and they put The Baxter Building in the corner of the box. In this case, the T will be about half the average panel size with a big white box around it, and still no solid lines or border, leaving this gaping white box on the side of the image.
Verdict - Must Read. Don't let my harping on about the magazine layouts or just about anything negative I had to say stop you from picking this up. It's the most fun I've had with a Fantastic Four issue in years. It's worth picking up just for the Doombot Herbies. The fun story and solid art is just a bonus.
THE WALKING DEAD #46Written by Robert Kirkman
Art by Charlie Adlard
I'll let the recap box for this issue catch everyone up on the recent events:
Previously:
The shit has hit the fan.
Note that cover. Just a cool piece of art that won't even play out in the book, right? Uh, uh. Not in Walking Dead. My boy, Tyrese, met his end this issue at the business end of the Machone's sword using Governor. Not only did he kill him, but he drove him up in the back of the truck, turned it around so everyone in the prison could see and then proceeded to hack at the kneeling Tyrese's neck until his head finally came clean off. Dull sword + one armed man = pretty damn gruesome death. He even kicked the body off the back of the truck when he was done.
If that was the climax of this issue, the ending with Michone revealed to be alive, along with a heavily bandaged head, and a gun to the back of hte Governor's head. The look on his right hand man's face just before you turn the page is for the big cliffhanger is priceless.
Verdict - Must Read. The opening pages were a bit slow, consisting mostly of fallout from the exodus of people last issue. However, around page 10 or so this issue took off. Kirkman must be gearing up for some shift in focus because by the looks of this arc, there won't be much of a prison population left by the end of it.
WOLVERINE #62Written by Jason Aaron
Art by Ron Garney
Here's a title I rarely pick up. There's some inconsistencies with the other Wolverine starring title in these reviews, aka X-Force, but, otherwise, I enjoyed this issue for what it was. It is by no means great, but I'm interested in seeing more, which is something.
That inconsistency I spoke of deals with Cyclops and X-Force. In this issue, Cyclops meets alone with Wolverine, much like in X-Force, and they discuss, as Cyclops is prone to do these days, overt killing. Cyclops sends Wolverine off on a killing trip to find Mystique. In X-Force, an almost identical scene has Wolverine asked to go on an overt killing trip with the rest of X-Force to take down the Purifiers. He's also off in Russia with Colossus and Nightcrawler in Uncanny and fighting the Hood in Avengers, but I'm focusing on these two because they are identical scenes and both tell him to go in different directions in the post-MC X-titles.
Can't believe I went on that long about something so trivial as how Wolverine is appearing in multiple books at the same time. Moving on, this issue uses the classic in the past / in the present dual storylines technique. Apparently, Mystique and Logan met up about 80 years ago (forget the date, 1920's I believe) and had some adventures along the way. This is juxtaposed with the present day as Wolverine hunts down the trechurous Mystique with plans to kill her. Mystique isn't going to go quietly and lays a few traps for him along the way, from the old bomb and run trick to framing Wolverine for a murder. The issue ends with Wolverine finding Mystique, but us finally being clued in that Mystique murdered the peasant at the beginning of the issue while imitating Logan and the angry mob ready to lynch Wolvie before he can get to Mystique.
To be honest, I didn't catch the Mystique as Logan in the beginning, so either I'm a little slow today or that was well done. I'm not sure what purpose the flashbacks serve at this point. I don't see any bearing on the present day, other than to say "hey look, Logan and Mystique know each other!". Maybe some big secret will be revealed at the end of this, but I felt like I was reading two disparate stories rammed together with jarring scene changes.
The art was excellent. Everything flowed naturally and it was very consistent throughout. It's neither flashy nor dull or lifeless. Pretty much the kind of art you'd wish every book had as the standard.
Verdict - Check It. I'm not sold on this yet. I don't see them killing Mystique, but I don't see a point to this story if Logan doesn't, so I'm torn on that aspect of whether this story will accomplish anything. The flashbacks, while, again, neat backstory for him andMystique, serve little purpose, at this point, and only distracted me. However, I'd call this a wait and see type of story. It could be good or it could end up terrible. We'll know after three more issues.
WONDER WOMAN #17Written by Gail Simone
Art by Terry Dodson and Rachel Dodson
Gail Simone was made to write this book. Her opening arc wrapped up in this issue and it was a exceptional finish to an amazing debut on this title.
Last issue say Diana's mother shot and her former personal guard preparing to finish the job as Diana and her monkey friends took out the nazi infestation.
Turns out, those personal guard managed to procurse some, literally, godly weapons that are able to wound Wonder Woman with relative ease. They take her mother and prepare a funeral pyre ritual for her. As the leader handles the pyre, the other three pit Wonder Woman's 'new' Amazon teachings against their old school offerings that sees Diana go through several rounds of magic arrows, clubs and spears before she finally decides to use their own sneak tactics against them.
This leads to the inevitable conclusion with Alkylone, the leader of the foursome. Based on the interspersed flashbacks of the final night where they tried to kill the baby Diana to 'save' the Amazons, the group, Alkylone particularly, are a pretty tragic group. While the end battle with Diana sees her plunge to a 'there's no body' demise in the shark infested waters below, I'd wager we'll be seeing Alkylone again and look forward to it.
There's not much else to really say. Despite being quite enjoyable, it read fairly straightforward with little bad to say about it and most of the good is hard to quantify or describe. It's just well written and a fun to read comic with excellent art by the Dodsons.
Verdict - Must Read. Good, solid, fun comic book with great production values and excellent writing and art. I am curious to see where Simone goes with the new god Diana now worships and if it will affect the way the gods that birthed her from clay react or how her powers work.
X-FACTOR #28Written by Peter David
Art by Pablo Raimondi
Who are all these new characters in X-Factor? I don't remember Guido, Rictor, Therysa or M. Oh ya, this book took a hiatus for four or five issues and was forced to drop the various characters and storylines that were going on here for the twenty-some odd issues before Messiah Complex.
Bitching about lack of real X-Factor for several months aside, this was a solid return to form. However, the bulk of the issue is dedicated to the aftermath of MC with Wolfsbane packing up to head to X-Force and Madrox playing the emo card a little too much as he pines for the days when Layla Miller was the light of his life. It's nice to actually see a book follow up on the events of a major crossover, but I hope we don't have to put up with this angst filled drama for too long and can get back on track.
Again, this probably sounds like I hated the issue and that's as far from the truth as can be. It was pretty strong overall and, as I said earlier, it was great to see the numerous X-Factor characters back in their own book for a change. I found it a little odd such a huge Purifier force had set up shop in Mutant Town without drawing any suspicions, but they served their purpose of allowing Madrox to vent.
Verdict - Check It. I'm not sure this was quite up to par for the typical X-Factor issue. Compared to the usual Must Read X-Factor, this one falls short, but it's still better than most books that come out, so definitely worth checking out.
X-FORCE #1Written by Christopher Yost & Craig Kyle
Art by Clayton Crain
Team Claws was surprisingly strong in this debut issue. I had some hopes with Yost and Kyle at the helm, but I can't lie, my expectations were about as low as the original Liefeld monstrosity of a book.
Thankfully, while not perfect, this is book might actually serve a greater purpose and if you were a New X-Men fan, this is picking up on a lot of Purifier related material, specifically what happened with Nimrod.
First up though, Cyclops is a Skrull. There can be no other explanation that I can think of for the numerous things he's done during and post-Messiah Complex. He formed a temporary kill squad during MC to track down and kill his son, Cable. His son. On no evidence and for no reason other than Cable saved the baby from Sinister and the Purifiers. He's told Wolverine to abandon his teammates and go kill anyone who gets in his way of finding the baby in the final part. Here he reforms his little kill squad again and, yet again, includes Laura, a teenager Logan entrusted to the X-Men to look after and keep from being used as a killing machine again. He even tracks down Proudstar and recruits him, despite knowing how much the death of Caliban affected him, and still sends him off with his personal death wish to kill for him. Add in his complete indifference to Xavier's death or missing body in the recent Uncanny X-Men and I can't think of any other explanation for this completely out of character Cyclops.
Phew. With that mini-rant out of the way, let's get back to business. You all know the story now, Cyclops wants a kill team for proactive solutions. First stop is the Purifiers, who have just attacked a SHIELD installation and procured an unknown object. Seeing as it's the first time they've killed humans, Cyke sees this as a something quite dangerous for mutantkind and wants it stopped now. He sends X-23 in first and has Wolverine and the rest of the team meet up with her. Wolfsbane was told to stay behind (as if that'll happen).
From here, there's a lot of blood and killing as we find out more about the Purifiers' goals. Seems they have the Nimrod still strung up on a cross and the little thing they stole turns out to be Bastion's head. They attach Bastion's head to the Nimrod body and it reforms into the more humanoid Bastion model, who quickly informs the Purifiers that there are mutants near by, leading to more killing.
This all ends with the Purifiers pulling out a captured Wolfsbane with a gun to her head. X-23 calls their bluff and continues killing as the issue ends with a BANG and, I assume, Wolfsbane's death. However, I'll go out on a limb and say either Bastion killed the Purifier or maybe Hepzibah recovered enough to follow them and fired. I can't see them killing off Wolfsbane, what with her being pregnant and all [note: see comments - I misread the opening pages with Siryn confessing and mistaked it for Wolfsbane. She is not pregnant.], but I guess I can't discount it either.
If you've seen previews, the art is pretty good. Everyone is a little too muscular, though. Wolverine has arms bigger than his head in some scenes. I like it on the whole, but it comes off a little too, I'm not sure how to describe it, but plastic-like springs to mind. It's like the characters are posed in each panel and not natural or fluid. Everything has a pin-up feel to it instead of telling a story. So, I like the art and I don't at the same time. It's a pretty ambiguous description, so you'll just have to look at some previews if you haven't already and decide for yourself what you think of it.
Verdict - Check It. It's a solid first issue. I think we'll know for sure whether this is just some cheap 'what if we put 5 Wolverine-like characters in one book!' premise or an actual comic with a decent story and reason for following along every month.
On a personal note, as I read a lot of books through the 90's, so I'm kind of happy to see Bastion return. Zero Tolerance might not be a big deal to most, but I enjoyed the pre- and post-Onlsaught (up until Joseph clone nonsense) era X-Men and, for me, it's awesome seeing Bastion used again.
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14 comments:
hey yeah i was not really feeling the messiah complex spin outs as much as i would have liked...but i loved dcs green lantern black canary
Great site.
Is it me, or is the "M" tattoo on Madrox incredibly erratic? You see it when he is fighting the Purifiers, but not when he is talking to Rahne.
Guardians of the Galaxy first cover was released, looks pretty good.
http://media.comics.ign.com/media/142/14234878/img_5267629.html
oh and what is up with sue's googly alien eyes on the cover of #554? dare I say, skrrrullll???
The M tattoo wasn't erratic. He says shortly after coming out the Purifier window that his sweat was washing off the makeup he was using to cover it up. I think it should have been more clearly stated at the beginning isntead of as a one-off comment in th emiddle of a fight, but they do try to explain it's disappearing act.
@humie - Ya, I saw that Guardians cover and it looks fantastic. I hope the lack of Groot and Mantis doesn't mean they die in Conquest. Warlock not showing up on it was odd as well. Reminds me more of Infinity Watch with Gamora and Drax on board and the potential for Adam to be in it.
Still awesome to see another space book and by Lanning and Abnett to boot!
Thank Athena they've laid that old diseased bird that people used to loosely refer to as 'Wonder Woman's Mother' firmly in the Elysian Fields. Gail Simone just earned profound respect and thanks from me and my two-years-my-junior sister for burning Hippolyta all over again.
hey, man - do you have to be spoilery in your reviews? i found out shit i didn't wanna find out! at least put a spoiler warning in there somewhere...
but far be it for me to tell you how to work your site. i love your writings and your opinions, but it would be nice to have a spoiler-free review, or spoiler-warning reviews.
@daniel woburn - I'm actually surprised this is the first time anyone has said anything about spoilers in my reviews.
I always worked under the assumption if someone was coming here looking for a review, then they wanted to know everything that happened in the issue. For instance, if Jean Grey returned and you read she did in a review, you'd want to go pick it up now. If I just said "someone comes back from the dead", that could be several dozen X-characters, and that's just from the last storyline. Kind of disappointing if you go buy it and find out it was just some random Marauder back from the dead.
I'm not opposed to spoilering stuff, but I have no means to black out the text and require it be highlighted and I don't think most people would want that either.
Also, I'm not really sure how to go about writing a spoiler free review. It's hard to discuss stuff when you can't talk about what happened. It ends up being like the more mainstream sites with generic 'it was good and wait til you see what that fight was like and I won't spoil it for you, but somethign happens after it!'. I don't consider that a review.
Going through this week's reviews, the only thing I saw that might be I guess a big spioler would be teh Walking Dead review, but if you read the last issue, you know he was captured and if I had said someone dies, it would be the same thing as saying he died.
If you have any suggestions on what I could do, specifically, to be less spoilery, please let me know. Again, I operate under the review = summary with spoilers + opinion and thoughts on issue. Maybe put a general spoiler warning before all the reviews? Some specific examples of what you'd rather have left out of reviews would be nice so I have a sense of what you consider too much information.
What does everyone else think? Too spoilery? Would you like me to cut down or do you see a book you didn't buy with some major spoiler revealed by me and decide that's something you would like to go pick up now to see?
I like a review that tells me what happened in the comic - I can't possibly buy and read them all.
Anyone who doesn't know what happens in a comic (or any other creative work) probably shouldn't read a review of it.
(If you want teasers, stick to the Previews.)
Woah, did I miss something? since when is rhane prego? I know siryn is.
Eh where was it stated Wolfsbane was pregnant? If you're talking about that Pregnancy test from X-Factor, it was already made clear recently it was Siryn's
Ya, that's a major goof on my part on Wolfbane's pregnancy. I read the preview pages for X-Factor last week when they came out and just skipped over them this week. Saw the red head in the church, clicked with her being religious and moved on to her leaving.
Short and long of it, I messed up and didn't read it properly. I'll add a note in the reviews about that being wrong.
No, don't change the review format. I know what to expect from your reviews and so skim over the reviews of comics I haven't read yet and read the reviews of comics that I am not going to buy in depth to get a feel of what I'm missing. Yours is the only site that provides this format of review don't change it. It's the site I always come to first because the reviews have facts and opinions in equal measure.
I love MOTW too best feature on any blog site I've seen!
Pete.
yea i really do enjoy your review style. knowing that there could be spoilers, i skip the reviews of books i haven't read yet. but having the spoilers is great for books i'm not going to pick up. keep it up, sir.
Monet smashing Rhahne's I-Phone was worth the price of admission in this issue of X-Factor for me. I love your review format. Don't change. I agree with others. If I have'n't read the books yet, I just skip it. If anything, you help me decide what to read first...
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