What You Should Have Read #56

Thoughts on Last Week’s Comics

Amazing Spider-Man #678 – Spidey sees the future and realizes he’s the only person who can prevent the destruction of New York. It’s a really good story, but the best parts are the Peter Parker moments in the beginning. Once he gets his Spidey duds on, things move incredibly quickly to an uncertain conclusion. Good issue, but I can’t really say if I’ll like the story as a whole until it’s finished.

Avengers #21 – This issue went by WAY too quickly. We get at least a glimpse of everybody, but they’re all getting their asses handed to them. It’s not very reassuring. No Osborn, either. I guess he was busy over in New Avengers.

Avenging Spider-Man #3 – Are these Asgardian mole people? Their language “looks” Asgardian, or what I seem to recognize from Fear Itself and the Thor books. Rock trolls or something? Doesn’t matter, I guess. This story was kind of tricksy. It wasn’t so much a Red Hulk/Spider-Man team-up but instead a Spider-Man/JJJ story, and a pretty good one, at that. I’ll admit, I was skeptical when this title was first solicited, but this was a good start. I’ve always enjoyed the various Spider-Man team-up books because the character works so well with other heroes. He’s like super Jerry Lewis to everyone else’s super Dean Martin. I love that analogy. Feel free to use it, but give me credit. ;)

Daredevil #8 – The relaunch of this title has been solid. Not crazy-awesome-good like it was when Bendis was writing it, but still good. The crossover with Spidey? Also good. I like how it wasn’t just cobbled together just to get these three (can’t forget Black Cat, can we?) characters together. No, it flowed nicely from events happening in both books. The kicker for me in this issue was when Spidey discovered Matt and Felicia. Man, that was heartbreaking, and it’ll stay with me for a while. I’m assuming it’ll stay with Pete, too.

Fables #113 -  This is a filler issue, but really, are any issues in this series TOTALLY filler? Even the ones that seem ridiculously out of place? No, I imagine the sorcerer king will show up again, as well as either the porcupine or the witch who cursed him. Maybe even the turtle. It was a good enough issue, but rather plain all by itself. I’ll be more excited about it when I relive it after the eventual pay-off.

G.I. Joe #9/G.I. Joe: Cobra #9/G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes #9 – These two books have been great at showing how each side has acted during the meteoric rise of Cobra, but now they’re starting to overlap more. Really, this could have been one book/title. That’s not a slight against the story or the books themselves. I’m impressed how everything is flowing and coming together. I know that Cobra eventually has to lose, but right now I’m enjoying their successes.

Invincible Iron Man #512 – Not a lot of action this issue, but tons of set-up. Set up for all the bad guys: the main one, the lackeys, and the ones who don’t even know they’re bad guys. Tony thinks his world is in the crapper now? It looks like things are about to get exponentially worse, and that always makes for entertaining storytelling. I love the idea of the Stark Resilient Lifearmor. It also makes me think, Marvel could have quite an event in the future, the kind where everyone becomes an Iron Man. House of IM instead of House of M. Iron Island instead of Spider Island. Crisis of Infinite Iron Men instead of…whoops, wrong company, but you get the idea.

Moon Knight #9 – I’ve said before that I’m a Bendis whore, but it’s a somewhat selective whoring I practice. Anything new? Sure. But I haven’t read EVERYTHING. I don’t read Powers. I wasn’t that into the guy when it started hitting shelves, and I just haven’t gone back and picked up the series yet. I want to, though, especially with the TV show ending up on FX…assuming the pick up the reworked pilot. Anyways, not everybody can hit a homerun each time they’re up to bat is what I’m saying. Moon Knight is one such not-a-homerun. I was about to drop the title, then I read that’ll it’ll be ending with issue #12, so I guess I can stick around for a bit more. My biggest gripe with it is that it isn’t fun. The same schtick is being used over in Deadpool, and it’s being done better. MK’s voices aren’t clever (even Spidey) or insightful or anything. They’re just there to narrate things. That’s just boring.

Thunderbolts #169 – I’m enjoying this trip through time. I was less impressed with the Jack the Ripper stuff than with the Invaders stuff, but this Camelot story, especially after reading the last few pages, looks like it’ll be awesome. I find it hard to believe, though, that either Fixer, Centurius, or Moonstone don’t recognize the name Black Knight or his weapon. He was a pretty important Avengers for God’s sake.

Ultimate Spider-Man #6 – Good, solid story. I like that, this isn’t a story about Spider-Man, it’s more about Miles. Just like the first series (Ultimate, at least) was always more about Peter than his alter ego. The only thing I don’t like is the new Scorpion. I say new because you might not remember it, but there was already a Scorpion. He was a clone of Pete. Now, I’m not saying that I have any love for him, but Bendis couldn’t think of a new name for this new guy?

Uncanny X-Force #20 – I’ve got problems with the issue, and that makes me sad. I’ve loved this series, but bringing in the Captain Britain mythology put a hurtin’ on my noggin. That and the muddy art. It’s weird. The art is good, even beautiful, with individual, smaller panels. For the big panels, splash pages, or double-page spreads, it’s just muddy and confusing. But back to Captain Britain. I read Excalibur for about three issues during the X-line reboot of the early ‘90s, but it never grabbed me. Because of that, I never got into Brian or his history. I’m hoping this isn’t too confusing for me.

Wonder Woman #5 – Well, that’s surely an interesting form for the god of the seas to take. I like it. Why assume that all the gods are humanoid in form? This was the only DC comic (Well, regular DC comic. Fables doesn’t count.) I got this week. I’m enjoying it, but it’s not because of Wonder Woman. It’s the story and the people around her, and I worry that that might eventually lead me away from the book. With Aquaman and Deathstroke, I’m enjoying the characters and what they’re doing. Not Diana, though. I just can’t get into her, and I feel like not enjoying the character that the book is named after will eventually wear me down. 

Also, in case you've forgotten: When I can remember to add this to the bottom of my posts, I’m going to whore myself out with an impassioned plea: click on the ads. PLEASE click on the ads. I don’t care if you exit out of it immediately or actually look around. This isn’t some professional blog where I believe in the products I’m shilling. These are automatic ads placed by Google. But when you click ads, I get a little bit of money, and as a single father of three, every penny from every source helps...especially with Christmas bills here and an unsure/shaky work situation. So I’m going to keep this tiny bit of begging at the bottom of my posts, and I hope you’ll take an extra 10 seconds after reading my blog to click on an ad. The only thing it costs you is time. :) Thanks so much!