Some great stuff all around this week. I pumped out a quick batch of four reviews to start things off, but the Montreal Canadiens game has already started, so I'll probably update later tonight with one or two more, time permitting. Enjoy the reviews and let me know what you bought and though this week!UPDATE - Added Immortal Iron Fist revew.
DAREDEVIL: BLOOD OF THE TARANTULA #1Written by Ed Brubaker & Ande Parks
Art by Chris Samnee
I've already admitted my man love for Black Tarantula many times over and, I'm sure it comes as no surprise, I loved this issue starring him up until the very end with Daredevil letting him go after seeing him murder his cousin.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start at the beginning. Since we last saw Black Tarantula, he's been a busy man. He's become the bigger, meaner version of Daredevil in his own neighbourhood. He does everything DD does, stopping drug busts, muggings, etc, but most people end up in traction afterwards. He doesn't kill anyone though and that's the biggest reason, coupled with Matt's outlook on life after what happened to his wife, that Daredevil probably doesn't make it a priority to stop him. BT also takes any drugs and disposes of them as well as setting up a "charity ring" where he gives any drug or ill gotten money to shelters or aid centers in his neighbourhood. Kind of a Robin Hood type deal, except he's a big, sweaty man in a leotard and mask instead of a fairy with a bow.
If that was all that was happening, it would be a pretty dull issue, so, as to be expected, this new life Black Tarantula has built doesn't last long. His cousin seeks him out with the family's gang from Argentina in an attempt to kill him and take the Black Tarantula mantle from him, of which they believe he's sullied. They do this by dangling his wife and child in front of him, luring him into a trap.
After barely surviving the trap and suffering from multiple wounds and some poison, he ends up at Matt's doorstep, where he's brought in and recovers for two days on his couch. BT enlists Matt's help and they seek out his wife and child.
During the battle, it's revealed they are not actually his wife and child, but lookalikes and BT is caught in a bomb rigged to the unlucky bait. Daredevil is left to fend off the generic thugs as a flaming and severly burnt BT emerges from the flames, latches onto his cousin and throws him through a wall.
This leads to the aforementioned bad ending. Well, I like what Black Tarantula does, where he cuts his cousin's hand off and proceeds to dismember him as the panels fade out, but, as Matt comes out of the building with the survivors, he turns a blind eye on BT's handiwork and lets him pin the fire and destruction caused on the dead cousin. It's very much an Amazing Spider-Man #375 where Peter lets the homicidal Venom go free in exchange for not bothering him anymore and I didn't like the fact Matt let him do this. His wife's condition and current state of mind are no excuse for this and I was a little let down after so much good stuff.
Verdict - Must Read. Great issue with something I just can't agree with happening at the end. Puts a damper on my overall feeling, but this seems like something Brubaker will be picking up on with the threat of Black Tarantula's family coming after him in the future, so I'll let it go, for now.
DC UNIVERSE: ZEROWritten by Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns
Art by George Pérez, Tony Daniel, J.G. Jones, Aaron Lopresti, Ivan Reis, Philip Tan and Carlos Pacheco
It's hard to evaluate a book that only cost 50 cents and was probably tossed in for free with your weekly batch of comics at most shops. Do I judge it as I would a regular comic? Do I treat it as the "freebie" that it is? Is it fair to hold it to a higher standard?
I asked myself all these things before reviewing this book, but I still can't seem to find a way to review this title in a favourable light.
What is this 50 cent issue about? Nothing. It's 22 pages of fluff and thinnly veiled advertisements for Final Crisis and it's unsettling, and growing, number of tie-ins. This is not a conclusion of any sorts to Countdown if you were expecting that. It doesn't answer any questions lingering from that year long disaster. It's a mish mash of every upcoming tie-in, which dedicates about two pages to each of them, all held together by a paper thin narrative to what is probably going to be reguarded as the stupidest and most pointless resurrection of our time.
Resurrection? Well, that's pushing it a bit, as the reported return of Barry Allen by the NY Times and other news sources doesn't technically happen here. We get someone's narrative that, by the end of the issue, has a Flash lightning bolt in the corner and the issue ends with a lightning bolt over the skies of Keystone City. It seems to be confirmed by Morrison and Johns in interviews, but we don't see anything and there's no explanation here that I can see. He just comes back on a lightning bolt.
Other story beats this issue hits include a one or two page Batman and Joker interlude where he just deals some cards and alludes to a mysterious, super secret (don't tell anyone!) organization that's out to get Batman for reasons unknown, several Flash rogues and other villains listening to Libra preach about some evil lord almighty that they have to pray to for salvation as the sole reason they should follow him as the new Secret Society leader (who in their right mind wouldn't smack him upside the head and walk out? And I guess everyone gets back fine and dandy from Salvation Run), a page or two about Black Hand and some very, very inconsequential Power Rangers Corps images spliced over a two page spread that gives us no new information, and, finally, Manazons that look identical to the Spartans from 300. Joy.
Call me disenfranchised or cynical or whatever you want, but I'm less enthusiastic about every story in this book, with the exception of Blackest Night, than I was before reading it. Final Crisis, itself, is the one I'm most worried about with this Barry Allen resurrection nonsense.
Verdict - Check It. It's free, basically, so it's hard to tell anyone not to pick this up, but there's no story, the art, while featuring a great selection of artists, has no dynamic shots or anything I'd consider a "wow" factor and there's absolutely nothing here you didn't already know, except maybe the Spartans, er, I mean Manazons. If you paid 50 cents for this, it's as if you paid DC for the priviledge of reading their advertisements.
GREEN LANTERN #30Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Ivan Reis and Oclair Albert
This was a lot more enjoyable, at least for me, than the last issue. While still very much a rehash of Hal's origin, I guess having more focus and the slight alteration to the cause of Abin Sur's crash just made this issue feel like it was offering me something new that last month's failed to do.
It seems Abin Sur "liberated" one of the inmates he was interrogating last issue and brought him along for the ride to Earth. It appears the alien prisoners fed Abin a story about his ring failing him when he needed it most and, thus, Abin's reliance on a spaceship to transport him to Earth instead of his ring, explaining a major inconsistency in the need for his spaceship all these years.
However, while these prisoners probably told him a great many truths, the fact about his ring failing was designed only to feed his paranoia and fear, making it so that his ring would, in fact, fail him due to his own fault, not because of any prophecy. This allowed the prisoner to escape his ring construct shackles and attack Abin in the cockpit as they approached Earth. During the struggle, the alien tore open the ship and escaped. Abin, slightly injured, refused to leave the ship, as it's crash would have landed in a heavy population center, killing thousands. I assume his ring or, his willpower, was still to weak to protect him or stop the ship. Also, it's never explained if the alien survived re-entry or if he could fly o if he actually escaped.
Meanwhile, Hal Jordan is scraping by a living as a grease monkey working on planes after last issue's antics and attempts to get reinstated in the private sector as a flier for an old friend of his dad's. He refuses, but it's revealed he's selling his business to Carol Ferris in exchange for hiring Hal.
Shortly after, Hal, sitting in a recovered plane that crashed recently receives Abin's ring and is transported to him in much the same way his origin has always occurred. The difference is, Abin was shown programming the ring to transmit all the information he had on the Blackest Night to Sinestro before sending it off to find Hal. The issue ends with Hal flying around like a nut after pondering the meaning of Abin's last words, which ended with him muttering Sinestro's name.
Verdict - Check It. I'm still not sold on the need for this Secret Origin or, at the very least, the need for the rehashed material concerning Hal and Carol and so on. They still don't have enough new material to fill a single issue and I don't think next issue will reveal too much more, either. I'll give it a Check It, as it's a more enjoyable issue than Hal running around as a kid and getting kicked out the Air Force, but this is barely a step above anything you'd find on Wikipedia or from the back issue bins for a quarter, where the story's been told a million times.
IMMORTAL IRON FIST #14Written by Ed Brubaker & Matt Fraction
Art by David Aja
Goddamn, I didn't think it was possible to deliver so much win in one issue. Brubaker and Fraction manage to wrap up everything in one issue. There's no room for filler here. It's just wall to wall kung-fu action. I'm literally giddy as a school girl after having read this issue to the point I don't think I'll be forming coherent sentences by the end of this review.
Quick recap for the fools not reading this book. There's seven mystical cities. Each have a badass warrior in the same vein as Iron Fist. Every so many years they have a martial arts tournament to determine who's more badass. It typically involves kung-fu and wenches. This year, they are having such a tournament and Hydra is determined to invade and destroy K'un Lun with a train through a magic portal.
Suffice to say, the conclusion to such a story involves a lot of kun-fuing and a lot of asskicking. Last issue ended with the seven Immortal Weapons exiting the mystic portal Xao, the Hydra boss, created to invade. Picking up right where we left off, Danny and the other weapons put a royal beat down on Hydra of epic proportions.
How epic is it? Iron Fist channels his chi to align with the magnetic field of a train and becomes a human bullet, destroying the train in an instant and that's just the opening pages! While the Hydra goons are basically cannonfodder for the Immortal Weapons and the Heroes 4 Hire crew, that's even touched upon a bit, citing the Hydra guys are there for a paycheque while the rest are fighting for their homes and survival of their people.
Throughout the issue we see the Immortal Weapons unload their various secret moves and techniques on the wholly unprepared Hydra goons and whoever's responsible for the names of all the Weapons' secret techniques, like Bastard's Black Heartcrusher, Vaulting Mantis Spine Snapper, 88th Son of War and numerous other that litter this book needs a medal. Those are pure gold whenever I see a new one.
This issue isn't just about the Immortal Weapons though. There's also the insurrection in K'un Lun going on and, while the actual overthrowing of Nu-An is a little contrived (he runs down the stairs to try and escape the city without any guards and runs smack dab into the entire Army of Thunder and that's all there is to the rebellion), the Army of Thunder doesn't go to waste as they repel the invading Hydra trying to use the Rand Gate to enter K'un Lun and their bloody battle spills out into the real world as well, with the aid of Davos, of all people.
With most of Hydra on the run, Iron Fist confronts their leader, Xao, and asks him to surrender. Xao had lightning crackling from his eyes in anger earlier in the issue and he opts to jump to his death in lieu of surrender, but not before revealing to Danny that there is an 8th Capital City that no one ever knew about. Did he have power infused by this mythical 8th city to explain the eyes earlier? It's my guess, but it seems like Iron Fist is becoming a team book of sorts as, after the battle, the seven Immortal Weapons all opt to stay in the real world and investigate his claims.
In K'un Lun, the Thunderer becomes the city's new leader and the nameless girl that led his Army of Thunder is poised to take the role of Thunderer. Davos, who the Crane Mother stripped of power, surrenders to his father, the Thunderer, and confesses his sins. He actually seemed to be upset over the things he has done and it could be a real character defining moment for him here.
The end of the issue had the Thunderer putting him in charge of the dragon egg for the dragon each new Iron Fist must fight to gain their title. It seems the dragon is set to be reborn and Davos will guard the door as penance for his crimes. Will he take control of the Iron Fist power once it hatches or is he truely reformed? What happens if it's destroyed before hatching? I wish Brubaker and Fraction were sticking around long enough to deliver on all these plots they've set up!
Verdict - Must Read. I found the art much improved over recent months and the story, as the review shows, was simply amazing. It's rare to be this satisfied over a comic book or how a story turned out and if you haven't been following this book, make the eventual trade your top priority!
NEW AVENGERS #40Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Jim Cheung
This comic, by all accounts, should have floored me. It has great art, does its best to explain the Skrulls invasion efforst and reveals potentially one of the biggest Skrull sleeper agents in the Marvel Universe.
However, like last week's Mighty Avengers, I feel complete and utter disinterest. With the exception of the reveal at the last page, there was no big science or magic answer to how the Skrulls are undetectable or even plausible explanations as to how they can mimic brain patterns or have the same memories as who they are impersonating. The explanation given is "they just do" because they have the Illuminati's DNA. In the end, and I freely admit this is probably just me, for whatever reason, it just feels like Bendis repeating his interviews and the characters and story is just repeating everything he's said before about prophecies and how they're sleeper agents and so on.
The story of this issue features nothing but Skrulls, making me wonder about the completely random homage cover. They could have did an excellent Skrull related cover without the cover that has no baring on the issue's story, but I digress.
From the get go, we are introduced to the Skrull Princess Veranke, shortly after the Illuminati escape many years ago, and she is immediately set up as the religious fanatic, proclaiming about prophets and coming disasters, such as Galactus and the Annihilation Wave. The current Emperor silences her and has her abandonned on another planet. She's the same one we saw in the opening pages of Secret Invasion.
As we go, we see random scientific advancements in regards to the Illuminati's DNA and cloning before a shot of Galactus' destruction of the Skrull homeworld several years ago. This leads the Skrulls back to the former princess, who's prophecies have all come true, and she becomes the new Queen.
This leads to the final "explanation" of how they are undetectible and the introduction of the first new "Super Skrull", who I assume was Black Bolt's imposter or they all just look alike. Skrullektra shows up, as well, and explains her random contacts with Nick Fury, Daredevil and several others. Not sure if those are actual events that happened or just made up meetings. Finally, the Queen, herself, demands to be inducted into the program and asks for the most prominent and potentially destructive position and who she would have to replace. The final page shows the file brought up of Spider-Woman, implying, since this is in the past, that our Spider-Woman has been a fake, probably since she got her powers back. That's my best guess, at least.
My lack of interest doesn't stop me from seeing this is a great comic, when you get down to it, and I recommend it to anyone that's even remotely interested in Secret Invasion, but the only way I can describe my feelings for this issue is a big, "meh", of indifference. I really can't explain why I'm getting almost no enjoyment out of this. I don't hate it, like, say, Countdown, but I'm more or less running on "collector mode" now instead of buying it for enjoyment.
Verdict - Must Read. Despite my misgivings, I think the background information on the Skrulls, Elektra and the reveal of Spider-Woman, coupled with incredible art, make this a Must Read for just about everyone but me.
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13 comments:
You do realize that Sur was first fed that story about his Ring failing waaay back in that Alan Moore GLC story that started all of the current Green Lantern stories, right?
I appreciate a retelling of Hal Jordan's origin. If SCW really did bring in new readers then I'm sure they appreciate it too. Jordan doesn't have as iconic an origin as Batman, Superman and Spider-man.
I always hear people say "think of the new readers."
I a little surprised you think Final Crisis has too many tie-ins. Unless you count Countdown as a part of those tie-ins Final Crisis have fewer tie-ins than World War Hulk. I think it now stands at 3 minis and 5 one-shots in addition to the main story. In fact if DC were to double everything they have announced so far it would still be far less than IC, CW and SI.
go flyers!!
Your New Avengers review was an interesting one. You don't see a reviewer recommending a book that just wasn't their cup of tea often. That takes some objectivity or lack of haterade. Kudos to you.
@salieri - I don't recall the issue you are referring to, but I don't think he originally had anyone captive in his ship when it crashed, but I could be wrong. That's mostly what I was referring to.
@kwaku - I don't count Countdown in with the tie-ins, but it's probably a major factor in my dissatisfaction. They originally announced Final Crisis as a self contained mini with a few single issues tying into it. Every week it balloons up with more and more tie-ins announced.
Right now, we've got Rogues, 3 Legions, Blackest Night, Wonder Womans, The Requiem one, I think a Batman RIP one (Not sure on this, too lazy to double check), plus I think they said something about the JLA and a few others having some tie-ins.
I also kind of consider the Rann Thangarr and that new magic based one as unofficial tie-ins based on their "convenient" release dates and how they were ancillary titles back during Infinite Crisis. They don't hold the FC tag, but it comes off as being marketed that way.
My biggest beef is the drastic change in the tie-in status as just about every storyline in the DC is now a part of something DC said was going to be told on its own. Blackest Night and RIP and the Wonder Woman stuff just don't seem to click with that. Neither does the future 3 Legions story either. Its like they were "oh we have these events coming up in other books, lets promote them with tie-ins". I'll reserve judgement until they come out, but righ tnow, I feel a tad bit annoyed. I'm pretty sure I said this before, but at least Marvel lets you know they are screwing you over with tie-ins with the checklists for hte 50 some odd issues. DC just keeps announcing them every other week, just like they did with Countdown.
@humie - DAMN YOU FLYERS!
Flyers v Penguins Conference finals is going to be sweet. Habs aren't ready, and aren't big enough, it happens.
Back to comics;
I'm hoping GL is going to pick up and that this is actually leading somewhere. The fact that they're doing Origins kinda seems like filler until they can start the actual storyline (Is there going to be a JSA tie-in, with Alan Scott and Obsidian's finals words last issue?).
As for Iron Fist, I pretty much dropped it once news broke about Brubaker and Fraction off the book. Are you going to stick with it once the new team comes in? Or was this the final issue for you too?
I'm not sure if the Daredevil mini is worth a read, but considering Brubaker is on it, I might give it a try, how long is it supposed to run?
Spider-woman is a skrull. I'm getting more and more confused with where this storyline is going. They seem to be going in circles in an attempt to get us as confused as possible. Whats the motive here?
@ethreal - Not sure if JSA ties into this or not. I think that was just a take on him being green and the son being a shade. Both written by Johns, so who knows?
Im not positive, but isn't Fraction doing the next issue or two? I know Brubaker is done now, but thought Fraction was up for one or two aftermath issues. I absolutely hate the new Cable series, despite liking the character, so I'm not sold on the new creators, but I might, and I mean might, give his first issue a try, just to see how it is before dropping it.
The Black Tarantula story is like the Iron Fist one-shots that took the place of Iron Fist a couple times for that given month. STuff like the Prince of Orphans "origin" issue or what have you. This BT story is a one shot and it even has the "next time" preview page for next month's Daredevil. I suspect Bru's just setting up future stuff, but didn't want to make this an official Daredevil issue for some reason.
I agree on Spider-Woman. Confusion for confusions sake. She makes more sense than Elektra though. I get the Japanese underworld stuff and how easy it would be to replace her, but she's not on my list for world domination replacements. Not even close.
Yeah, the story was a bit of time ago, but it's where the Blackest Night prophecy comes from. The story was called "Tygers"; you can find it in "The DC Universe Stories Of Alan Moore" TPB, or scans_daily if you look hard enough.
I believe Spider-woman was replaced in NA #23, after the destruction of the Hydra base. The real Jessica Drew was last seen escaping the island, while the one who joined the Secret Avengers was a Skrull.
SW's actions before and after that issue seem somewhat different to me. Spider-woman was probably targeted for replacement because she was a triple-agent for SHIELD, Hydra and Fury.
Tiago José "Deicide" Galvão Moreira
Kirk, Batman R.I.P. and Wonder Woman are not FC tie-ins. DC decided to make DCU 0 a preview for upcoming stories, hence their inclusion. JLA 21 is a "tie-in" of sort, I think it is a prologue, to FC but after that I believe it is just the 3 minis and the 5 one shots.
Also, I believe SI is around 70 or 80 tie-ins already. And since all the FC tie-ins are by great teams am I don't really care if they matter that much because they will probably be good anyway.
@eric - The official list is something like:
* Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds
* Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns
* Final Crisis: Requiem
* Final Crisis: Resist
* Final Crisis: Revelations
* Final Crisis: Rogues Revenge
* Final Crisis: Submit
* Final Crisis: Superman Beyond
Grant Morrison has said that Batman RIP ties into Final Crisis as well.
-----------------------------
Does "Batman R.I.P." tie-in to Final Crisis? Morrison said that after "R.I.P." there will be a two-part story that “fits in” to Final Crisis, and is “kind of the last Batman story in a way.”
---------------------------
So, RIP is a tie-in based on the man writing both FC and RIP's opinion.
And, yes, Secret Invasion has a billion tie-ins, but it's been known for a while and there were very few lead ins. Countdown was very much the build up to Final Crisis and was advertised as such. Hence the name change to Countdown to Final Crisis. It ended up being complete garbage, but you can't really discount it either.
My biggest beef is mostly with how DC always operates with their events. "Oh, it's all self contained with a couple of tie-ins that we're announcing today.". The next month there's 5 more tie-ins. A month after we get a few more. It goes on and on like that all the time. Marvel tells you up front, "hey, we want your money and you'll be forced to buy these 50 tie ins. Enjoy.".
Both companies screw the fans over with senseless tie ins. DC just annoys me with the way they go about it.
I suspect several of hte FC tie-ins will be great books based on teh writing, but I doubt the Green Lantern stuff will be part of Final Crisis or, at least not in any non-shoe horned in kind of way. Most come off as things that were upcoming, needed some promotion and got an FC tag because FC's a big event. That's another problem I'm having with it.
Oh, and I thought I saw a Wonder Woman cover for one of hte tie-ins, so that's why I said it was a tie-in. Not because they were in this issue. I could be wrong, but I didn't double check either.
I'm reticent to get into this Skrull business. I think I've hit my threshold for these big events, and the crummy economy doesn't help.
Still, I'd wager the Jessica Drew replacement happened back during the mid-90's. After her series in the 1980's got canned & she was killed off, she was subsequently resurrected in the Avengers, albeit depowered. Before he died, Mark Gruenwald did a story that ended up as a backup for an annual which officially re-powered Drew & re-cast her as the official Spider-Woman. I considered it a fitting farewell gift to the character whose series he once wrote.
Still, if the replacement happened then, then it means that the Skrull queen received boob implants from Hydra's plastic surgeons. (See Frank Cho's 2 issue-run on "New Avengers".) I'll bet the queen executed a number of anonymous men for seeing her on the streets and muttering "fake" around her, and not getting the context of the remarks.
One thing I hate about crossover tie ins is when they totally mess up what a writer is doing in the book. Look at PADs entire run on Friendly Neiborhood Spiderman. He kept having to stop whatever he was doing and fit it around things like The Other, and the unmasking. And it seems like he was the only one to actually use the consequences of those stories. I remember an old Spidey comic that was concurrent to the casket of ancient winters arc in Thor. The last two pages had Spidey wondering how the day could get worse, and then it begins snowing in July. He decides to just go home. That was a nice nod to something going on that didn't dissrupt the book at all. As for GL Secret Origins, it seems from interviews that it's something Johns loved from the day. Sadly this is an age with Wikipedia, so the rehasing really isn't the best idea, and is kinda wasting time.
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