Weekly Crisis Quick Shot Comic Book Reviews for 04/30/08

Here's the rest of this week's reviews for everyone. Thor: Ages of Thunder was an amazing one-shot and worth checking out even if you dislike the current Thor run by JMS for whatever reason. The Spanish issue of Blue Beetle was...interesting. You can follow it without understanding and there's a translation at the back, but I think the gimmick hindered the issue more than it helped. IT was still enjoyable, but not as much as usual because of it, at least for me.

I'm still banging my head against a wall trying to think of something fitting for a new name for these follow up reviews on Thursdays, so you'll have to stick with the Quick Shot title for the time being. I kind of want it to be comic booky sounding, but I'm probably trying too hard and should just go with something simple.

So what did everyone think of the new Anti-Venom revealed over at Newsarama for the upcoming Brand New Day storyline? We call that jumping the shark in the television world. I imagine it'll be Mr Negative gaining the symbiote or a symbiote of his own, but it just sounds and looks ridiculous to me.

Alright, enough of the nonsense, on with the reviews!

AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #12
Written by Dan Slott & Chris Gage
Art by Steve Uy

Another solid outing from the Initiative crew. I wasn't a fan of Uy back when he did some fill-ins earlier in the run and I'm not a fan now. Other than that, I have no complaints about this issue.

If you're out of the loop, we just finished the KIA storyline where the MVP clone nearly killed everyone, the old New Warriors reformed and all the secrets of Camp Hammond were brought to Tony Stark's attention. This issue sees the aftermath of all that.

Hank Pym turned up alive early on here. I'm not sure if he's a new Skrull and this is where he replaced Pym for Secret Invasion or if multiple Skrulls have filled in for him when he "died" on that plane earlier and during the KIA arc or if it's the same Skrull and it actually survived. Suffice to say, he's alive here.

The previews made it look like everyone was prepping to go to a funeral, but it turned out to be a simple briefing. Rhodey wasn't willing to talk about his cyborg like appearance, so that's still up in the air. We also get to see a hearing with Iron Man present to find out what happened, but Gyrich is Gyrich throughout and nothing really comes of it.

As seen in the previews, Taskmaster and Ant-Man have some inappropriate, although a bit funny, comments for Dragon Lord's family when informing him of his death. I'm not sure I'd send either of those guys along to anything as sensitive as that and I doubt any family would want to see some guy in a skeleton-like mask at their doorstep to tell them their father died, but that's just me. Turns out Trauma survived his ordeal as well and Cloud 9, Komodo and Hardball's reactions were a lot of fun.

Finally, the issue ends with the graduation and if Slott and Gage simply write these characters off to pasture, I'll probably drop this book. I don't think they'll do that though, but as good as this is, I'm not interested in reading about a bunch of new throw away characters, provided that's what happens.

It's kind of sad to see how Cloud 9 has progressed from the free spirited girl that just wanted to fly on her clouds back at the beginning of the series compared to the jaded and cynical soldier she is now, but also a testament to the character progression Slott has set up over the course of the past year. I hope to see some more development with her and maybe some positive super heroics to bring back some of that lost childhood for her.

Verdict - Must Read


BLUE BEETLE #26
Written by Jai Nitz
Art by Mike Norton and Trevor Scott

This was the first issue in the Rogers-less era of Blue Beetle and, while I don't speak Spanish, it was very much the same Blue Beetle book I've always loved.

By this, I mean it's a light hearted affair that's packed full of fun moments with Jaime and his friends and family, which is my favourite part of the series.

Things like Jaime's grandmother knowing his identity after his mother told him and the comical aftermath of Jaime's "You told grandma!" scene where they both smack him are all things I've grown to expect from this book. Another great moment involving his grandmother is when she has him fly her off to see the sunset by her request.

However, the Spanish aspect of this issue did pull me out of it at times. Having the Parasite speaking Spanish for no reason or Jaime doing it when he's off by himself as the Blue Beetle, which he's never done before, made it feel like, at times, it was having them speak Spanish for the sake of speaking Spanish. As others pointed out, there was a translation in the back of the book, but flipping back and forth got a little old after the first couple pages (I did do it for the whole thing though), but it still made it a chore to "read" this issue at times.

Verdict - Check It


LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #41
Written by Jim Shooter
Art by Aaron Lopresti and Matt Ryan

This was another slow, but enjoyable issue of LoSH. I don't know the intricacies of these characters just yet, but I am getting a real feel for them at this point and I see that as a testament to how well Shooter is doing here.

However, it seems like this story is almost derivative of what Johns just did in Action. I assume both planned months in advance, so both probably came up with it on their own, but with one after the other, it's hard not to draw parallels.

For instance, the Legion are running into all kinds of problems with the governments to the point they are seeing heavy restrictions. This issue sees the introduction of rejected try outs being recruited by the government to supercede the Legion and the Legion having members arrested and facing the possibility of all of them being outlawed.

Again, not identical, but it reminds me of Earth-Man taking over with the rejects, the old Legion getting branded as outlaws and hunted down and so on. For what it's worth, I find the Shooter version a much more satisfying read between the two and I really enjoyed this issue.

Verdict - Check It


THOR: AGES OF THUNDER #1
Written by Matt Fraction
Art by Patrick Zircher

Alright, this issue was a little different than I expected based on the solicit, but in a good way.

Basically, it's set a long time before Thor ever appeared in the Marvel Universe or Odin tried to humble him by forcing him to live with humanity. In fact, the Thor presented here is arrogant, cocky and far harsher than the Thor we've come to know.

Some examples of this are the ways in which he dispatches the Frost Giants, brutally murdering them with precision hammer strikes and decapitations or is refusal to share his stockpile of apples from the world tree. It all culminates in the final parts of the issue when he refuses to celebrate with the other gods and it appears to be setting things up to explain Odin's reasons for forcing him to live with humanity.

For those wondering what, exactly, this issue is about, it deals primarily with the Enchantress, her role in retreiving the apples from the world tree and how the Frost Giants, for one reason or another, have tried to win her as a bride several times. We learn about the war with the Frost Giants, see a battle that destroys a wall, and even one disguised as an eagle that uses Loki in an attempt to kidnap her. Eventually, the Loki spirits Enchantress away and delivers her to the Giants, which causes a loss of the precious fruit of the gods and the strength and wisdom it conveys. Loki attempts to free her later, but it takes Thor to save them both.

Enchantress comes off as a much more sympathetic character than the one we've seen throughout the years and the way the other gods treated her and used her in bets was especially cruel, despite her devoted nature to her job as the only one that could take from the world tree.

My one complaint is with the narrative. It's very similar to what JMS did in recent Thor issues and the flashbacks with Odin, but those were only a spatter of pages and it worked well there. This is an entire issue of it and it is used far more liberally than in said Thor issues to the point I felt like just skipping the wall of text on some pages. It was well written, but I just found it was over used. This is only a small complaint against an otherwise perfect issue.

Before I finish this review, I have to comment on the art, which I rarely do, as Zircher did an incredible job here. I'd rank this up with Coipel in terms of detail and this book looks simply amazing. I hope he's on board for the two or three other one shots scheduled from Fraction.

Verdict - Must Read

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