Comic Book Moments of the Week for 04/16/08 - UPDATED

Seeing as I only picked up two or three DC books this week, it's no surprise the moments are dominated by Marvel. If you happened to pick up any DC, or any other, books that I didn't this week and think there's a moment worth spotlighting, let me know and I'll try to get a scan. I didn't really see much talk on any DC boards, so I'm not sure if anything noteworthy really happened in the handful of books they put out this week. Anyways, enjoy the moments!

UPDATE - Forgot the Captain America, an Avengers Initiative and a X-Men: DWS moments.

ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST #6

"This is the part where Ultron teleports in and hits me."

This is actually the bottom and top of two separate pages, so I think it had a much more dramatic effect in the actual book. Thankfully Mantis wasn't killed here, but she is comatose in the hospital at the end. I'm sure this will be picked up on in the Guardians of the Galaxy series launching soon. I loved this new version of Mantis and hope she isn't out of action for too long.

"We are not pleased!"

This was the highlight of the issue. Warlock's entrance and battle cry were perfect. It was left up in the air, but I wonder what's going to become of Warlock and Tyro post-Conquest. The New Mutants team was recently seen in the Young X-Men. Can a reuninion with Warlock be far behind?

AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #11

"My legs, Roger, my legs..."

Hardball and Komodo are my pick for couple of the year. Shame he's a backstabbing traitor that stole top secret military secrets and sold them. This scene in particular, though, was quite powerful and made even moreso if you happen to know that Komodo's human form already had her legs amputated and that is the reason she took the Lizard formula and became Komodo in the first place. So, while her Komodo legs will regrow due to the lizard properties, it still hurts like hell and the psychological aspect of it is what makes this scene work in spite of her healing factor.

"Oh, shut up and die already."

Gyrich, you magnificent bastard. I nearly spit my coffee out when I read this panel. Caught me completely off guard when he told him to shut up and die. While Gyrich is a prick, that's kind of the point and I hope he doesn't end up removed from this series after the KIA events become public knowledge.

"War..machine?"

Anyone know what was up with this? Last I remember, he was in ONE and then he was here and I don't recall any Terminator-style changes to War Machine.

"There's not a single word in there I approve of."

Cloud 9 is awesome. Slott did a great job of using her character to "recap" what happened in previous issues and War Machine's reaction caps off a perfect scene.

"Kiss of Death"

This was a very creative use of Cloud 9's powers that nearly took down KIA and weakened him enough for the finishing blow by the original MVP clone.


CAPTAIN AMERIC #37

"Look out for the internet!"

This completely random dream from Bucky ranks up with the "what is myspace" jokes for Cap that were going around after Sally Floyd's little rant in Frontline. I suppose people that were frozen for 60 years would probably have messed up dreams like this as they reconcile the past with the present, but it's still hilarious to me.

"You're not Steve!"

The common theory from commentors and various message boards is that this the imposter Cap from 1950's during an unsuccessful relaunch of the character before his eventual return in Avengers. He became known as the Grand Director and it's a plausible guess based on everything Brubaker has ruled out in interviews.

COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS #2

"He's freaking Darkseid!"

Words "freaking" fail me.

"It's okay, let him die."

Yellow line separates two separate instances of Super-dickery in this week's Countdown. First, when Orion shows up, everyone else wants to help stop Darkseid, who just wiped out half of Metropolis in his battle with Jimmy and is a universal threat that could probably kill Superman one on one, yet Superman tells everyone to just let them fight it out because it's father and son. Let's ignore how Supes butt his nose into all the New Gods stuff in Death of the New Gods already and had no problem helping Orion there. Finally, after he kills Darkseid, Superman tells everyone to let Orion go and to not bother trying to save him and to let him go die in the gutter or some backalley. Who approved this garbage?

INCREDIBLE HERCULES #116

"Beer"

This is roadmap I mentioned in my review of this title. I think me and Hercules would get along just fine. Ba-ba-ba-beer, beer, beer, beer.

"For the Skrulls have already conquered Earth."

Didn't expect this. I knew this title was going to be tying into Secret Invasion, but the whole decapitated Skrull head still caught me by surprise. Hopefully they explain where Athena got it from or I guess that be who she got it from.

IRON MAN #28

"Old school armour for the win!"

I'm going to buck public opinion and state I love the old school Iron Man armours. Maybe it's just how ineffectual the Extremis version is, what with the face guard always being torn off like tissue paper or the fact the Gibbon or White Rabbit could probably beat Iron Man when he's wearing that armour, based on how Iron Man is portrayed in other books. Anyways, I wasn't expecting this armour to be waiting for him in his escape hatch and he kicked all kinds of ass with it later on.

"That's pain. That's Motrin pain."

Note to self - don't have alien rings surgically implanted into spine. Or, at least, wear a shirt so they can't easily be torn out by men in cybernetic battle armour.

"Zrrraaaapppp!"

Yes, that's Tony zapping his own heel off. He's wearing an Extremis power ankle inhibitor that stops him from using his Extremis powers. The Mandarin has launched Extremis air born virus missiles that need to be stopped. The logical solution is to cut your foot off, remove the ankle and use your powers to stop the missile. Doesn't mean it's not going to hurt...

X-FACTOR #30

"My keen deductive mind says that Arcade is behind this."

Less focus on D-list villains, more focus on character moments like this is what X-Factor needs. Still a great book, but treading water post-Messiah Complex.

"Nice hair."

Monet was zapped with a couple thousand volts by one of Arcade's traps and is a little out of it and extremely pissed here. Another one of my favourite moments from this week's issue.

X-MEN: DIVIDED WE STAND BOOK 1 #1

"We were just kids."

It's not often we get to see the side effects to the X-Men lifestyle, but this Anole story was a great example of it. Anole is a teenager and you can see he's really struggling to come to terms with what he's been through, how Cyclops basically kicked everyone out and how it's impossible for him to return to his normal life. There's another scene I forgot to post, but it was of Anole in school and it shows the X-Men barely teach any "normal" schoolwork and he was months behind all his friends.

"I am...home."

A picture perfect example of 'home is where the heart is', as this is clearly not what Nehzno considers to be his home anymore. I went on about this story at great length in my review this week, so I'll just touch on one other thing with this moment. It's kind of sad seeing that New X-Men group shot because I know were never going to get to see the team together like that again.

"Wolverine? Is that you?"

Ugh, this was an absolutely brutal attempt at drawing what I believe is supposed to be Wolverine. While most of the artwork was great in Divided We Stand, I guess a few duds were bound to slip by editorial.

"Oh, and Northstar?"

I called this a punch in the face, but on second look, it's definitely an elbow by Anole. I liked the final panel where Anole tells him to tell everyone to keep away, "even Santo". It showed that, even though Santo antagonizes him all the time, he doesn't hate him and the "even Santo" part tells me he considers him a close enough friend that he had to add that little bit to the end. Good stuff.

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