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Started by Previsionary, December 24, 2008, 11:48:35 PM

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Previsionary

Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-men #1 (3):

Since Uncanny and this crossover both came out at the same time, I only grabbed one book this week. I more or less dropped Uncanny (again), so this is Fraction?s last chance to get my money back especially with the 4-dollar price tag this crossover boasts. Anyway, this is the big storyline that threatens to change the X-men dynamic once again. How will it pan out? Find out now!

Spoiler
Simon Trask and his followers plan to march in San Fran while promoting Proposition X. However, that won?t fly to well with the X-men and their supporters also staged on the same streets. The two groups have a face down, and, of course, violence breaks out! Unimaginatively, the X-men get the brunt of the blame and Cyclops is ordered to get his ?people? under control. Things go to hell in a hand basket once Norman shows up. Ok, maybe not, but there is a lot of violence following his arrival. Noticing that the X-men can?t keep their city under control, Norman realizes that he and his Avengers will have to swoop in and save the day. And by ?save the day,? I mean ?beat up the X-men for our customary showdown!? As things come to a close, Emma learns Norman?s new plan of action for keeping the mutants in line, Cyclops is taken into custody as is Beast (who is already in jail), and Xavier, in a wheel chair, is shown as the mutants' new leader as he distances himself from Cyclops? or does he?

Overall, this issue was nothing but one giant showdown after another. Fraction did use more of the cast than he ever has, but no one got any sufficient amount of screen time outside of Beast, Cyclops, and Emma. Fraction also managed to hurt the ending to an X-force storyline by using characters that were last seen to be captured and about to die AND for some reason, Carol is still shown to be alive at this point even though she died. Amusingly, this issue is what I?d describe as mostly fighting. That label was applied to issue 510 as well, but the crossover pulls it off much better. I guess that?s another negative mark against Land. Oh well. Anyway, this book didn?t really psyche me and I didn?t really care for the ?shocking? Xavier twist. Tis a 3, for me.
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AfghanAnt

#301
Why were there 9 inkers on this issue?

Also how the hell are they going to fix thing once this disaster is over?

Previsionary

They'll just move in another "new" direction. Speaking of, Beast is one of the most ruined X-characters in recent time. This week hasn't been good to him in the least bit. Uncanny, Astonishing, and the DA/UXM crossover effectively knocked him off his high horse. Speaking of crossovers, don't you love when crossovers result in almost nothing changing? Hi, Messiah War!
Disappear when you least expe--

AfghanAnt

Quote from: Previsionary on June 24, 2009, 11:34:13 PMSpeaking of crossovers, don't you love when crossovers result in almost nothing changing? Hi, Messiah War!

lol

Previsionary

#304
Wolverine: First Class #16 (3):

I know I haven?t been reviewing this book much, but it?s really not a book I have much to say about. The original writer, Van Lente, was replaced with PAD some time ago and the issues so far have been good. Over the last few stories, Wolverine teamed up with Daredevil and Elektra to protect a woman who held a most coveted item, and the next issue featured Kitty wanting to meet Thor to show off to her bratty frienemies.

Spoiler
You Dazzler fans, all 2 of you, this is the book for you! It?s all about her. When someone leaves a threatening message on Dazzler?s mirror in her dressing room, Ali seeks out Professor Xavier?s help only to wind up under the watchful eye of Wolverine and teen sidekick, Kitty. Ali isn?t so pleased with Wolverine?s involvement, but Kitty (and Siryn) are jumping off the walls.

On the bus, Kitty tells Siryn to be her backup because she obviously didn?t want Teresa to come on the mission in the first place. While traveling, Ali learns that one of her singers has come down with strep throat and Siryn offers to replace her. This only proves to make Kitty more jealous as Siryn has a beautiful voice.

Jealousy issues aside, the big event finally comes up, and Dazzler and Siryn are putting on a show. Kitty notices a strange man in the crowd and instructs Siryn to up her vocals causing Dazzler?s powers to spike. As the crowd is blinded, Kitty rushes into action and takes care of business with Wolverine offering his assistance. Of course, things weren?t what they seemed and Kitty finds herself being embarrassed. After the show, Kitty then thinks she knows exactly who is threatening Dazzler? her manager! True to form, Kitty was wrong again and the real culprit turns out to be the manager?s ex-boyfriend, who wanted to get back at Dazzler for stealing his GF?s time. He tosses a pie at her (Dazz) and we find out the threatening message was really Pie and not Die. The book ends with the X-men back at home and Kitty learning from her mistakes. Obviously, Logan gets the last words of ?Disco sucks.?

This issue was a fun, quick read similar to X-men First Class. I?m a little iffy on the plot and the ?twist,? but other than that, it was nice to see Kitty, Siryn, Wolverine, and Dazzler all interacting together. The art was very exaggerated. I guess you could compare it to a Saturday morning cartoon. Other than that, nothing really stood out. Tis a 3. Yay for Dazzler getting characterized again. Fraction, take note.

Wolverine: Weapon X #3 (4):

Last issue, Wolverine found himself overpowered by the adamantium men/Strikeforce X and took refuge in the woods. His pursuers gave chase and slowly began to realize that they had just fallen into Logan?s trap.

Spoiler
In the jungle, the Strikeforce X members are trying to track down their prey, Wolverine. One would think that the 12 of them could catch and defeat Wolverine with no problems. Well, friends, one would be wrong. Logan had been employing guerrilla tactics the whole 5 days and managed to take down one member of the team and was able to kidnap another.

Meanwhile in San Fran, the reporter from the last two issues manages to track down more information about Rexxon and the Black Guard from the vice president of the company. She learns that every member of the Strikeforce X was a dishonorably discharged soldier that signed up for the experiments. As the VP tries to leave, the HR department of the Blackguard capture and attempt to kill him? luckily, the VP has luck on his side as his capturers find themselves full of bullets courtesy of Maverick.

Back to Wolverine, Logan attempts to reach out to his hostage by appealing to his human side. It doesn?t work, and the kidnapped soldier makes a run for it. No worries, Logan anticipated this and took measures to track down his prey no matter where he goes.

Shuffling on back to San Fran, the reporter finds herself attacked by someone from the Black Guard who managed to break into her home. Unfortunately for the would-be murderer, the girl manages to realize he?s in the house before any misfortune befalls her. Even worse, the killer then finds himself in a losing struggle with Cristopher Nord (Maverick) who tells the reporter he?s there to help her. The book ends with congress debating the Black Guard issue and Wolverine tracking down his hostage and taking out his eye.

Out of all the Wolverine books on the market at the moment, this is my current fave. Jason really has his voice down and the story is enjoyable thus far. It helps that this book is accessible to a new reader and doesn?t try to ham itself into continuity like some other books do. Also, I must say it?s pretty cool to see Maverick back in action as I haven?t seen him in awhile. This issue is a 4 for me.

Astonishing X-men #30 (3.5):

Last issue, the X-men tracked down Forge to see why he was creating mutants? or whatever.

Spoiler
This issue opens where the last one left off. The X-men are face to face with their old friend and the tension immediately begins to boil. Beast tells Forge that he isn?t really creating mutants, but some type of monstrosity, and Forge will hear none of it. He rants at the team for standing around doing nothing while he did the real work. He?s tired of being drafted into other people?s wars and this time, he?s fighting his own war and there?s nothing the X-men can do to stop him. He took the precaution of activating an inhibitor before the team even arrived.

As things continue to boil, Armour phone goes off as she?s been twittering the whole time the older X-men have been trying to appeal to Forge. On the phone is Agent Brand and she wants to talk to Forge. During this conversation, Agent Brand threatens Forge, and seconds later, Wolverine finds the inhibitor that?s blocking their powers and breaks it with his claws. Having lost all control over the situation, Forge is convinced to open the ghost box to fight ?his? war; however, the X-men don?t plan on sticking around as Agent Brand is primed to fire her weapon if anything so much as steps a foot outside the box. Mere seconds after the X-men hop in their jet and take off, a beam of zettawatt energy rips Forge?s stronghold apart, travels through the ghostbox, and continued to rip that world apart. The book ends with Beast giving his long explanation of what happened, trying to reminisce about the past, and Storm getting over the loss of Forge.

This issue may have been the more exciting issue of this long, long storyline, but the X-men essentially stood around for several pages as Forge spouted off crazy. Essentially, Beast and Agent Brand beat the threat of Forge and whatever could have been in the ghost box using a powerful laser. Too bad Beast and Brand didn?t even consider what might have been on the other side of that box and allowed a world and a teammate to die. I still don?t particularly like Bianchi?s work, but it seemed to be slightly better this issue than the last several few. Also, Forge got off a joke that I really enjoyed ("Emma Frost. I didn't recognize you with your legs together."), but we all know what happens to characters that tick off Cyclops. They disappear!  Anyway, this is a 3.5. Midly amusing, but I can do without storylines that make my dislike of catBeast strengthen. Let?s hope the next arc of Astonishing comes out much more frequently without the awkward art.
Disappear when you least expe--

marhawkman

I thought the forge thing wasn't that bad. And Ghostboxes? Destroy Plz. I'm expecting Forge to live.

GhostMachine

Captain America #600

What would be issue #51 of the current Captain America series is given the aaniversary numbering treatment for what would have been issue #600 if the series that started with Captain America #100 (It having been Tales of Suspense for #s 1 to 99), and is over 60 pages. The issue shipped with two different covers - released in equal amounts, so there is no gimmick cover - one by Alex Ross and one by Steve Epting (fortunately my comics shop gave me the Alex Ross cover; I like Steve Epting, but the Alex Ross cover design is better).

The issue starts off with a really cool two page origin recap (narrated by Steve Rogers), with the top panels being blue and focusing on the star on his shirt and shield and the bottom panels being alternating red and white stripes. The rest of the issue is mostly short viginettes (most a few pages long) featuring different characters - both friends and allies of Cap (including his old roommates from the era when he lived in an apartment building) and villains. Ed Brubaker wrote most of the issue, with different artists handling the different stories (Howard Chaykin handled the art chores on a sequence featuring the 1950's Cap who is running around - thankfully not in costume in this story). The're aslo a pretty good story written by Mark Waid that is pretty good, and the book closes with a two page comentary by Cap co-creator Joe Simon, a re-print of a story from the Golden Age: a battle with the Red Skull from Captain America Comics #16 from 1942, and a gallery featuring the covers from every issue of Captain America (including the issues of Tales of Suspense).

There are also some tie-ins to the death of Captain America, and some of the sequences featuring Sharon Carter set up the upcoming Captain America Reborn mini-series.

One bit of bad news:
Spoiler
Rikki Barnes, the female Bucky from the Heroes Reborn Captain America series drawn by everyone's least favorite artist, is on the regular Marvel Earth. She meets Patriot in the issue.


I give it a 4/5 - the cover gallery could have been more pages to allow for bigger pictures of the covers, and two of the short viginettes were fairly bad.

Previsionary

Reborn and Uncanny 513 came out. I don't plan on reviewing today (and I didn't buy Uncanny); so, does anyone wanna replace me for the week?
Disappear when you least expe--

AfghanAnt

Quote from: Previsionary on July 02, 2009, 03:19:44 AM
Reborn and Uncanny 513 came out. I don't plan on reviewing today (and I didn't buy Uncanny); so, does anyone wanna replace me for the week?

I actually thought Uncanny was ok this week. I don't know if it is the art but I didnt hate it.

deano_ue

reborn could be interesting but the reason steve is comming back totally cheapens his death, it's just bad writing

Previsionary

I wouldn't classify it as bad writing "right" away, though it does remind me of a book and I've seen people compare it to Lost (which I can understand) and Batman/Darkseid (which I can kinda see, but don't agree with). Ed Brubaker went into why he chose the direction he did, but I don't remember where I saw it. The basic reasoning came down to the fact that Steve is basically reliving major parts of his past as a literal interpretation of his mantra: "man out of time." However, the road taken to reach this point has some flaws in it, but I'll give Bru a chance to tidy everything up before I fully judge it.
Disappear when you least expe--

AfghanAnt

#311
After reading Fraction recent interview at CBR, did anyone else totally miss that the blonde dude with the hat was Adam-X in UXM 513? I'm a little underwhelmed with this appearance. He doesn't seem like the guy who would scream "let's get "f'ing" extreme".  And "bros". He's not a frat guy, he's an roayl interspecies mutant who is probably not Katherine Summers' son.

Also shouldn't he be in space? When did he get back to Earth?

Podmark

#312
From what I've heard Fraction gets everyone's personalities wrong (Hellion leading an angry mutant mob- I can maybe buy that, but "He?s not really one for strategy" and wearing an Omega gang shirt argh! And what was Sunspot doing there? Does he at least check with Wells? And Meld, seriously?)

Fraction said somewhere way back that he wants to get as many mutants into the story as possible.
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Previsionary

Yes, Fraction gets the majority of X-men personalities incorrect and hearing that he sees Pixie as Wolvie's sidekick and somehow thinks she's a mix of Jubilee and Kitty = frightening. Basically, one should be scared if Fraction has an interest in any of their favorite characters outside of Ironfist and Ironman.
Disappear when you least expe--

AfghanAnt

#314
Quote from: Podmark on July 07, 2009, 08:45:06 PM
From what I've heard Fraction gets everyone's personalities wrong (Hellion leading an angry mutant mob- I can maybe buy that, but "He?s not really one for strategy" and wearing an Omega gang shirt argh!)

Fraction said somewhere way back that he wants to get as many mutants into the story as possible.

Yeah, Avalanche and Sunspot also seemed out of character. In fact, everyone is. Even though I thought the issue was a stark improvement over the last 6 plus issues, I'm starting to realize he doesn't do his homework. In fact his little blurb said Cloak and Dagger were druggies...when did that happen? They were forced to use drugs (with a lot of other runaways) but that does not make them abusers...urgh...I wish he would leave Adam-X alone. Since Vulcan appeared I have been waiting for him to either A) replace Lilandra as emperor of the Shiar (he is DKen's son) or B) finally be revealed as Katherine Summers' defile baby.

EDIT: I can't type defile!

Podmark

Quote from: AfghanAnt on July 07, 2009, 09:04:52 PM
Yeah, Avalanche and Sunspot also seemed out of character.

Yeah I edited Sunspot into my post later. And I added Meld too. Meld might only be from a 4-issue mini but if I remember right he totally wasn't the type to be in this group.
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bdrake

i just wanted to say although his basic plots are goods faction suffers from "please forgive how  dumb i act this issue " sysdrome. which alarms blaring and the masion under attack collouis runs in unarmored and is sliced open by spirl? wtf? wasnt that covered in basic danger room 1, uhhh armor up when were attacked. geez

Previsionary

From what I gathered from reviews, that whole mesh-up of characters was a little off. I'm not sure why Sunspot and Hellion would be hanging out with Avalanche in the first place. Avalanche should be miffed with the X-men in general for what a few of them did to his bar just to teach him a lesson he didn't need (at the time). But, at this point, I wouldn't be surprised if Kitty found her way out of that bullet just to stand around in the background of this "riot" storyline Fraction refused to build up to. In fact, if she doesn't appear, I will be SHOCKED! :P
Disappear when you least expe--

AfghanAnt

#318
I feel so late on this but this morning I read that whole Liefeld backlash to Rictor and Shatterstar. Hasn't it been hinted their relationship was closer than friends for like 15 years now? Is their non-platonic relationship really a shock to anyone? Does anyone even think Shatterstar being revealed as gay is that big of a deal? Because I was honestly underwhelmed. It was sort of like the Alpha Flight/X-Men crossover where Rogue touched Northstar and found out his "secret" and like 10 years later he came out.

It's not like Iceman (who a lot of people think is gay) kissed Northstar.

I think the only part of this whole comic drama is that Liefeld seems to think this was such a terrible thing to happen to one of his characters. If anything he should still be getting flack for the way he disrespects anatomy and reality.

thanoson

Ok, I counted 18 pouches in that pic alone. Plus, is that guy carrying a sawnoff laser shotgun? How could I have missed this pic?
Long live Slaanesh, Prince of Pain!!!

Podmark

Apparently Liefeld wasn't paying attention because Shatterstar and Rictor would have been a couple years ago had a writer not left the book before revealing it. David just finally tied up a loose thread.
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deano_ue

just shows you how out of touch i am with x-men i didn't know one character in the group meeting you lot are talking about. and from when did people think iceman was gay

Ares_God_of_War

I gave up caring about Shatterstar when he went from being someone from mojoworld to some sick kid who had a spirit or whatever of someone from there to like the 8th summers brother.

Honestly I never thought he would connect to anyone, man or woman, in a meaningful way and I kind of liked that about the character. Made him more alien in a way. Also I am curious about the Rictor thing though since I dont remember getting that hint from him but it really has been a while since I saw him anyway.
"That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange eons even death may die."

marhawkman

Quote from: AfghanAnt on July 08, 2009, 02:09:48 PMI think the only part of this whole comic drama is that Liefeld seems to think this was such a terrible thing to happen to one of his characters. If anything he should still be getting flack for the way he disrespects anatomy and reality.
Feh, That cap pic is one of his worst. Seriously... you CAN'T draw a profile and a shot of somebody's pecs!
Liefield's obsession with pouches wouldn't be so bad if he knew how to put them where they don't get in the character's way....

AfghanAnt

Quote from: the_ultimate_evil on July 08, 2009, 07:11:08 PM
just shows you how out of touch i am with x-men i didn't know one character in the group meeting you lot are talking about. and from when did people think iceman was gay

Iceman is Gay

Even Family Guy thinks Iceman is gay.

Quote from: Ares_God_of_War on July 08, 2009, 07:37:10 PM
I gave up caring about Shatterstar when he went from being someone from mojoworld to some sick kid who had a spirit or whatever of someone from there to like the 8th summers brother.

Honestly I never thought he would connect to anyone, man or woman, in a meaningful way and I kind of liked that about the character. Made him more alien in a way. Also I am curious about the Rictor thing though since I dont remember getting that hint from him but it really has been a while since I saw him anyway.

Well around the same time Shatterstar started having any sort of feeling besides kill, murder, battle Rictor was helping him adjust to living on Earth like watching TV (which was weird for me considering where he's from) and normal stuff. Sometime during that they both started sharing a bed together and being very protective of each other. That is from like Mid-90s (right before Onslaught probably).

As for Shatterstar I think what Loeb did to him has been reversed (sort of). Last time I checked he was from Mojoworld again (sort of).

deano_ue

Quote from: AfghanAnt on July 08, 2009, 08:22:33 PM
Quote from: the_ultimate_evil on July 08, 2009, 07:11:08 PM
just shows you how out of touch i am with x-men i didn't know one character in the group meeting you lot are talking about. and from when did people think iceman was gay

Iceman is Gay

Even Family Guy thinks Iceman is gay.

i knew about the family guy joke but just guessed it was them poking fun, didn't think there was a whole thing behind it

marhawkman

Not that much...

I'm tempted to file it with Xena/Gabrielle.

Previsionary

#327
Anyone read anything good this week?

Spider-man annual (3):

This was ok. I'm still wary of mainstream spidey even attempting to rely on the clone saga for storylines. Also, the Reilly's seemed like a very interesting pack. The Parker luck continues, though I now question his mental state a bit more than I usually would.

X-men Legacy 226 (4):

Loved it. This issue seemed to be full of action the majority of the Xavier issues lacked. Also, it was nice seeing a bunch of side mutants that haven't been used in awhile, and Rogue with control over her powers = good. I hope her brisk scuffle with Ares results in the return of her super strength long term though.



Incredible Hulk 600 preview: http://comicbookresources.com/?page=preview&id=3014&disp=table

Fred Van Lente = Tolerable. Jeph Loeb = UGH, NO! Conclusion: Tole-ugh!
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GhostMachine

Captain America #601

I'm going to keep this short:

1. Artwork by Gene Colan. That's reason enough alone to recommend buying the issue.

2. The story is a flashback told by Bucky America to other heroes (including Nick Fury) about a mission he and Steve went on during WW II that involved vampires (Baron Blood is involved, but not directly; he doesn't actually take part in the story). And you know vampires + Gene Colan = a very good thing. (He was THE Tomb of Dracula artist!)

3. The mission has historical signifigance. Gene drew the cover to the last issue of Captain America Comics that was published in the 1940's, and storyline-wise
Spoiler
At the end of the story Bucky A reveals to Nick Fury that it was their last mission before they got involved with a certain experimental plane.....
.

HIGHLY recommend this issue.