As always, here's the Weekly Crisis Comic Book Reviews. I've got the standard first batch of reviews for you and, since I'm lazy and don't have all of them done right now, I'm going to try and have a couple more up for you by the end of the night.Of note, I flipped through Ultimates 3.3 (no, I'm never buying that book). I didn't think anything could be that bad. Well, there's the other book I flipped through, Hulk #2, that could challenge it for the crown of worst book ever written, but it'd be a tough call and I think I'd need a committee or panel of judges to make that ruling. I just hope Black Panther doesn't end up being revealed as Cap. Wow, would that be retarded.
On a brighter note, Iron Man and Iron Fist rocked this month, Iron Man especially. I'll let the reviews do the talking, so hit the jump and all that.
UPDATE - Added a Mighty Avengers review.
IRON MAN #26Written by Daniel & Charles Knauf
Art by Roberto De La Torre
Comics like Iron Man #26 come along once in a blue moon. They are perfect on just about every level that it is hard to believe a comic could be that good. All the hype and build up for this Iron Man and Mandarin confrontation delivered in every way possible. There was no way I could consider any other comic this week for Comic Book of the Week.
If you aren't reading this title, Mandarin has been plotting in the shadows for a while now. He's taken a Ra's al Ghul kind of motis operandi this time around and wants to use Extremis to wipe out the majority of humanity and start over. He has no desire to rule either, as he is a negative for Extremis compatability, meaning he dies when the bioweapon is used.
The whole time, he's been working against Tony, faking Maya's death, using her to create his new Extremis weapon and, in general, making Tony's life hell. Well, last issue, it all came to ahead as Tony realized the Mandarin's been alive all this time and is behind everything and the issue ended with Tony, with his Extremis powers blocked and using one of his old Iron Man armours, finally meeting up with the Mandarin.
This issue consisted of Iron Man and Mandarin kicking the crap out of each other six ways from Sunday. If the Iron Man movie can channel half the energy and explosiveness of this fight, it'll make $texas at the box office. It's hard to believe this is the same Iron Man that over in Hulk #2 is taken out by Hulk hitting him with a single F-16.
Not only was the fight great, but the supporting cast, in the form of Dugan and Hill, were also handled extremely well. I can't understand why people dislike Hill so much, as she's been excellent in every appearance in this book and her character and personality are revealed perfectly through her interactions with Dugan here.
Verdict - Must Read. I've only recently started following Iron Man back around the end of Civil War and it has continually improved every month and everything the Knauf's have been building to really paid off here. The only thing I'm worried about is how they will ever top this issue.
COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS #10Story by Paul Dini
Story consultant: Keith Giffen
Script by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti
Art by Ron Lim and Mark McKenna
So, uh, are we supposed to forget that Mary Marvel has been killing people, fighting other heroes, teaming up with Eclipso and has been generally a completely unredeemable character for most of Countdown simply because the gods, who shouldn't even have anything to do with Mary's powers if Trials of Shazam are to be believed, say so? And where did she get her powers back from? She just randomly shouts Shazam and she's Mary Marvel again? I assumed the gods being imprisoned would stop them from aiding her, so how did she get the lightning back to free them?
Whatever, I've learned to stop getting hung up on the random and unbelievable occurances in Countdown a long time ago and, despite them, I still enjoyed this issue, for the most part.
This week's edition consists of the girls freeing the gods that were imprisoned by Granny Goodness. Ya, the real Athena and what not. As I said above, Mary did this by shouting Shazam and calling down the thunder to free them. For helping Mary, a couple gods empower Harley and Holly, most likely temporarily. This leads to them going on a killing spree (seriously, I'm not lying) as they systematically take down every single one of Granny's honour guard with precision arrows to the throat and what have you. Mary acts all innocent and tries to get them to stop. Before they can get revenge on Granny, the New God Killer / Source kills her. It was a bit odd, though, as Granny was reduced to ash instead of the regular hole in the chest dealio.
Meanwhile, Jason "I'm not the Hood anymore" Todd broods some more, tries to help / kill Una and then leaves Karate Kid to be killed by said OMACified Una. Good times.
On the other side of town, Piper is getting some Faustian advice from Desaad, who wants him to use his flute to become a god by channelling the Anti-Life Equation. Just kill me now.
Finally, OMAC has some daddy issues as he takes control of all of Apokalips. He seems to just want Batman to see how big he's gotten and be proud of him. Awww, isn't that sweet. Wonder what Darkseid has been doing, what with his little planet getting taken over while he sits on the throne playing chess with a Monitor.
Verdict - Check It. Still seems like a lot of filler and anti-climax since the end of the war a few issues back, but it was still a decent outing.
IMMORTAL IRON FIST: ORSON RANDALL AND THE GREEN MIST OF DEATH #1Written by Matt Fraction
Art by Mitch Breitweiser, Chris Brunner, Lewis Larosa and Russ Heath
I was a little worried the multiple artists on this issue might drag the story down. Thankfully, I was wrong about that as the artist switches are signalled by switches in time frames in the story.
As you may have guessed, the Green Mist of Death is, in fact, the Prince of Orphans, whom we say open a can of green mist ass whooping on Davos not too long ago. It turns out John Aman was contracted by the Seven Celestial Cities to hunt down Orson for his fleeing his duties and the theft of seven coins, one from each city.
We get to see the cat and mouse chase between the two men throughout the years as Orson goes from place to place and adventure to adventure with his merry band of friends, the Confederates. Orson outright fears John Aman and I have to assume Danny would pose no threat to him either based on what I see in this issue if he ever ended up facing the Prince of Orphans.
While Aman is hunting Orson, he is not without honour and on numerous occasions opts to let Orson go, whether it's due to one of Orson's friends being injured in the fight or saving Orson from a would be Frankenstien. Orson finally gets to the Prince when he poses the question to him of how did the seven coins actually get to Earth in the first place.
The final confrontation between the two men is when Orson's father is dying and Aman kidnaps him, prompting him to come to Aman. Aman reveals he was merely playing the part and was keeping his father alive. It is revealed Orson's father built teleporters for all the cities and John has been used all this time.
In the end, we see how Aman ended up on the Thunderer's side at the end of last issue. Orson told Aman of the Thunderer's planned coup and told him to wear the mark if he wanted to join them at the next meeting of the seven cities.
My only complaint about this issue is that it basically goes from point A to point B in a linear fashion. It's a great ride, but it's still a fairly predictable story and there's not too much plot development for the main storyline. Still, good to see more of Orson. I found this removed too much of the mystery behind Prince of Orphans, but that's too be expected when you learn more about mystery men, I suppose.
Verdict - Must Read. A great trip through the various adventures of Orson and some much needed background info on the Prince. I'm still left wondering what happened to Orson to have him end up in that opium den at the beginning of Bru and Fraction's run on the book, though, as it's drastically different portrayal from here with the Confederates.
MIGHTY AVENGERS #9Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Mark Bagley
I'm not sure what to make of this issue. It's done and over with in about a minute flat. It consisted of countless splash pages featuring the Mighty Avengers versus an army of Doombots followed up by pages of Doom and Iron Man standing around holding hands that ended with the two of them sent back in time to a Kirby-esque world, which I guess implies early days of the Marvel Universe. Oh ya, the Sentry tagged along for some reason.
On top of that, it did not tailor to Bagley's strengths in the slightest. It still looked alright, but the man is not what I would consider good for epic scope and battle sequences that would warrant like four back to back double spread splash pages nor several pages of two armoured characters holding hands in a stalemate.
Even now, though, I can't figure out if I even liked this issue. I don't think I hated it, but, for a book featuring a battle with Dr Doom, it kind of fell flat. Ares continues to be a doofus in Bendis' book and is basically a meathead and completely unlike his revamp miniseries from a few years back and even differs from the version over in Incredible Hulkules. It's funny, but kind of belittles the character at the same time.
I did like the parallels to the Doom vs Iron Man fight where they went back in time in Tony's own book many moons ago, but I'm getting tired of the Iron Man armour diagnostics. He runs out of power in 4 minutes. What's the freaking point of his 'Extremis powers' if the new suit is as useless as a can opener at a pickle fight. Yes, that makes no sense and neither does how useless Iron Man is in every book that isn't Iron Man or Captain America. It even made Doom look bad as he suffered from the same fate. At least Bendis remembered Doom knows magic. Kind of a plus.
Verdict - Check It. I don't know if it's worth checking or if you should just avoid it. I doubt you'll miss anything if you don't pick it up and it was a rather pedestrian outing for this title, which is bad if you consider they are fighting freaking Dr Doom here.
RUNAWAYS #29Written by Joss Whedon
Art by Michael Ryan
Only one more issue and this title might just be able to get back to a semblence of its former glory. Whedon has really tanked what was once one of Marvel's best books. The insanely long delay didn't help either, but it can't be blamed for the dreck that's being passed off as a story.
Despite that rather imposing cover, Gert's parents appear in maybe one panel this issue. Seems they're building a bomb or something to kill all the heroes, supers, moon people or whatever we're calling them in this time period. This helped along by a battle royal that comes out of nowhere and a couple of random killings (not of anyone we should care about though).
But what about Chase and his time travelling? Well, we get an off hand comment from Xavin that he left and that's about it. I'm guessing he shows up at the last second with an alternate timeline Gert or that future winged monstrosity to end this contrived nonsense.
It might sound like I'm beating around the bush and not telling you much about what actually happened, but nothing happens. Gert's parents send some of this time period's super powered individuals to fight the Runaways and their new friends. It takes 20 pages or so to get to that fight and aside from one or two pages, nothing important happens.
Verdict - Avoid It. Even without the huge delay, this would still be dreadful by any standard. Bring on Terry Moore please. Maybe he can save this book.
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6 comments:
people hate maria hill because she fired the first shots of the civil war. at cap. for no good reason.
my thoughts when reading runaways...
I waited since october for that?
Man, I read the whole Hulk issue and I found it to be a great train-wreck book with incredibly cheesy dialog and lovely art. Just to depress you some more Hulk #1 was the second best selling book in January if you haven't read yet.
Oh, for flip's sake. Are you telling me that in a fight against DOCTOR DOOM, one of the biggest bads of the whole Marvel U, they will STILL have the Sentry doing something inconsequential off-camera?
That tears it. The Sentry is one of my favourite characters, but he just should not be an Avenger at all. Either he fills the Superman role or he shouldn't be there, it's as simple as that, and to waste him off-panel all the time makes a mockery of the whole thing.
Reading the solicits for MA next month the Sentry does seem to play a big part in it.
Not to worry about Mary - Grant Morrison has stated that he'll be really upping the levels of darkness in her for Final Crisis, with a fight against Supergirl in there somewhere.
Plus, Jeph Loeb? Must be fired. Please.
Jeph Loeb is a hack.
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