What You Should Have Read #66

Comic Books Released Sept. 12, 2012

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS, SO PROCEED WITH CAUTION!!

Avengers Assemble #7 - First off, I'm dropping this title as soon as Bendis and Bagley wrap up their run. Bendis has not been wowing me with his Avengers work since AvX started. Marvel NOW, rather than serving as a jumping-on point, is providing me with a number of options for shorting my hold list. This series has been better than Avengers or New Avengers, but not by much. I think Bendis is leaving the franchise at just the right time, if not a bit late. There was a lot of ambiguity in the issue, and things just happening. None of the normal human Avengers died in the vacuum of space. Thanos used a cosmic cube to "destroy" cosmic beings then apparently became "reality." I did enjoy the art, though. Bagley's work is reliably pleasing.

Avengers vs. X-Men #11 - I had hopes for this series. High hopes. With the lackluster beginning, I was hoping it would end strong. My hopes were bolstered with a somewhat more engaging middle, but now, nope. Although it reads like two characters COULD have died, only one actually did. And you know what? Big whoop. Seriously, Professor X has been redundant for quite some time, at least as long as the mutants moved to Utopia, probably longer. He has no allegiance to Wolverine's "side" or Cyclops' "side." He no longer teaches or leads mutants. He's not fighting for tolerance or mutant rights. Hell, except for that Legion story a while back, I can't even remember the last time he showed up in a book. Sure, he's Scott's father figure, but even that's something that's been put on the back burner since at least Schism. The only way this would carry any weight for me is if there would have been a build-up sprinkled throughout AvX at least and ideally through some of the X-books. As it stands, the dude just falls down. Hell, I had to read the "AvX Commentary Track" on Comic Book Resources to confirm that he actually WAS dead. Other than Wolverine telling Hulk to throw him, there is no reaction other than people just standing around. Hell, Magneto being taken down got more of a reaction than Charlie's death. And really, how many times has Xavier been killed? And is it actually possible to kill one of the greatest telepaths in the Marvel Universe? Dollars to donuts he's alive somewhere on the astral plane, just waiting for the next big X-Men crossover to happen so he can return. So no, I don't like. It's cheap, it's easy, and really, it's sloppy.

Batman #0 - As much as I'm loving Snyder and Capullo's Batman, I think the gem of this issue was the back-up. It starts out as the "origin" of the Bat Signal, but we're also treated to a brief glimpse into the pasts of Tim, Jason and Dick...and it all comes back to the Bat Signal. I did like the main story, but I was a bit taken aback by Bruce's non-reaction to the death of the bank employees. I thought he'd at least berate himself a bit when he got back "home." Nope. Just more dead people in Gotham. Other than that, though, good script by Snyder and good-looking art by Capullo. Can't wait to see where the Red Hood Gang pops up after (or during?) the upcoming Joker story.

Journey into Mystery #643 - So, what do you really think is going on here? Is Loki back to his evil ways, or is this another scheme within a scheme within a scheme? Regardless of the answer to the former, I'm sure latter is still true. Whatever the reasoning and whatever the outcome, I'm ready to end my close association with the Asgardians. It was a fun and surprising run, something I never thought I'd buy regularly, but my interest is starting to wane, despite the best efforts of Mr. Gillen.

New Avengers #30 - Although Iron Fist was nowhere to be seen in this comic (remember when the covers teased a scene from the comic? A plot point? I miss those days), this was a passable tie-in to AvX. And really, it had as much to do with the main AvX story as this week's Wolverine and the X-Men. The ending was pretty predictable, and truthfully it was a long time coming. I'm okay with Luke quitting the Avengers and focusing on his family. What does a man with indestructible skin do after something like this, though? Private security? Security guard? Is he actually qualified to do anything? If Avengers Academy were still open I'd think he would make a good teacher. It'll be interesting to see where Luke goes from here.

Shade #12 - This was an extremely verbose issue, but it did the one thing I've wanted since I started reading Starman, but I didn't think we'd get it with this limited series: The Shade's origin. This was a good story for those whose introduction to the Shade was this series. For those of us who consider Starman the best thing they've ever read, there were some great nods to the series. Charles Dickens. Culp. Piers Ludlow. Had Deathstroke not been included in the beginning of this series, I'd assume this was set in the pre-New 52 DC universe. As it stands, I don't see how it can be in DC's new continuity. The JSA never existed, so Jack Knight's legacy wasn't there. Don't care, though. It was a great series, and I hope we see some more in the future. We need to learn about Scathach. My only problem with the issue was the Shade's journal entries. Maybe it was just me, but the script was difficult to read. With the amount of writing on the page, though, I don't think any attempt at making it slightly more readable would have worked. It would have covered up too much of Gene Ha's beautiful artwork.

Uncanny X-Force #31 - This is by far my favorite incarnation of X-Force, and I've been around since the beginning. I really came down on Betty's side with this issue. Why not kill Daken? Just 'cause he's Wolverine's son? What is different about his situation? Like she said, they're ready to kill Evan because of what he MIGHT do, but Daken roams free despite all he's already done. Wolverine doesn't even like him, right? Doesn't think there's any chance of rehabilitation?

Wolverine and the X-Men #16 - This is a very loose tie-in issue to AvX, but that doesn't mean it's a bad issue. In fact, that might make it better. Killgore's takeover of the Hellfire Club is explained, and as much as I disliked the little tyke and his gang when they were first introduced, I enjoyed the story. A lot. I liked Emma and Scott's reaction to how evil the kids really are. I liked the prison break. I liked Killgore's origin. Yup, that means I liked the book.

What You Should Have Read #45

Last Week’s Comic Book Awesomeness

Action Comics #2 – This is my Superman. I don’t care if it takes place “five years ago,” this is a Superman I can like. Cocky, smart, not God-like in power. He can be taken down and bound, at least for a bit. He can’t fly yet, but he can leap tall buildings in a single bound. I think I’m really going to enjoy watching him grow in this series. We’ve also got Steel and Metallo and a Lex Luthor who doesn’t quite know everything yet. This is also the Grant Morrison that I like. His writing is smart, but it’s not weird like all his other stuff lately. This is just a good book.

Fear Itself: Uncanny X-Force #3 – Wade’s little rant to Jonathan Standish was the basic plot of a joke: “A religious man is on top of a roof during a great flood. A man comes by in a boat and says ‘Get in, get in!’ The religious man replies, ‘No I have faith in God, he will grant me a miracle.’ Later the water is up to his waist and another boat comes by and the guy tells him to get in again. He responds that he has faith in god and god will give him a miracle. With the water at about chest high, another boat comes to rescue him, but he turns down the offer again because God will grant him a miracle. With the water at chin high, a helicopter throws down a ladder and they tell him to get in, mumbling with the water in his mouth, he again turns down the request for help for the faith of God. He arrives at the gates of heaven with broken faith and says to Peter, ‘I thought God would grand me a miracle and I have been let down.’ St. Peter chuckles and responds, ‘I don't know what you're complaining about, we sent you three boats and a helicopter.’” I’m viewing Standish as a stand-in for a certain conservative religious zealot whose name I don’t even like saying.  It’s not that he’s got a Voldemorty, ominous name, it’s just that it makes me nauseous. This book ended up being tangential to Fear Itself, not necessary at all to the main mini, but it was a good story with some beautiful (if not a little dark) art.

Swamp Thing #2 – Scott Snyder has really become a writer to watch. Between this, Batman and American Vampire (I’ve got Severed but haven’t read it yet), the guy has some great stories under his belt. But while I enjoyed the explanation of Alec Holland’s place in this new DCU, it’s not what I liked most about this issue. Wrightson Diner. Bissette Motors. Totleben’s Motel. Three artists who are almost synonymous with Swamp Thing, immortalized and honored in this issue for their past contributions. I like it artists do things like that. Makes me smile.

X-Men: Schism #5 – Well, this is the start of a new era for the X-Men. We’re finally getting the Wolverine vs. Cyclops battle we never really wanted, with each character heading up a new team of X-Men on opposite sides of the country. I tend to like shake-ups like this in the beginning, as with Spider-Man’s “Brand New Day” event. I hope, as with BND, I end up enjoying these new mutant stories once the shine has worn off. I enjoyed this mini for the most part. I liked watching the divide between Logan and Scott grow, especially after Idie’s actions. My biggest problem had to do with the action. Those bratty, super-smart kids are just random, interchangeable villains…and I hate them. It’s not that they’re not good villains, I just don’t like bratty, super-smart kids as uber baddies. It just doesn’t click for me. The briefcase Sentinel was never really portrayed as a scary threat. It was talk up a lot, but almost all of the action against it was off panel. I thought the most effective use of action in this mini was Quentin Quire’s scheme in the first issue.

Probably for the rest of the month 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 it 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 my experiment this weekend proved to me that I actually AM making a spot of cash whenever the ads are clicked. So I’m going to put this little disclaimer on the bottom of all my posts for the next month or so, and I hope you’ll take an extra 10 seconds after reading my blog to click on an ad. Thanks so much!

What You Should Have Read #34

Last Week’s Awesomeness

Okay, so this was apparently spoiled in the solicits for the first issue of the next Green Lantern series, but I didn’t see it so I didn’t know about it. Even though it was late, I liked the ending of “War of the Green Lanterns.” It was event that didn’t automatically revert to the previous status quo, and apparently a lot of the changes will survive into the new DC Universe. Okay, Johns…you’ve got me sufficiently curious to see where this is going to go in the relaunch. Kudos.

In New Avengers #14, Mockingbird needs something to hit so she can test out her new powers? Can anybody think of anything better to hit than a bunch of Nazis? Didn’t think so.

Damn you, Brian Michael Bendis. You’ve made me cry while reading a comic book, and this is only the second time that’s happened. The first was also a funeral, that of Ted Knight, the Golden Age Starman. And then you went and had that little girl ask Aunt May if she made Spider-Man breakfast like his mommy? Holy shit, that just tore at my heartstrings. Since Ultimate Spider-Man began, long ago when I was in college, it has been my favorite Spider-Man title. Although I’ve always been older than this version of Peter, I’ve connected with him so much more than the 616 version. And now he’s gone. He went out like a hero, and he’ll be remembered as the best of the Ultimate heroes. Kudos, and damn you.

Since I’m fully back into the world of the X-Men, I would have read Schism despite the artist. But it’s drawn by Carlos Pacheco, and he’s probably one of my top three artists, so I’m really excited about it. I’ve been a fan of his work since…Avengers Forever? Turns out I’m more impressed with the story than the art. Something just seems…off about Pacheco’s work here. I loved the script, though. Jason Aaron is doing a great job with Wolverine, and he really captures him here. I don’t like the kid, though. Unless the kid actually turns out to be possessed by Quire, I just don’t like the idea of having a pre-pubescent kid starting wars and being massively evil. Also, how does Prelude to Schism fit into this?

What You Should Have Read #32

Last Week’s Awesomeness

I was always a big Venom fan, but I took a hiatus from comics right about the time Marvel started pumping out a bunch of Venom mini-series, so I never felt Venomed out. I liked the evolution of the character, from Eddie and then to Mac after Eddie got cancer. I LOVED what was happening with him in Thunderbolts. I’m okay with the current incarnation, I guess, but I’m just waiting for Flash to be in over his head. As for Eddie Brock, I gave a big eye roll when Anti-Venom was introduced. It just felt too easy, like the creators weren’t even trying. Opposite color scheme, somewhat similar powers, skewed idea of heroism…Marvel already tried a watered-down, “heroic” Venom. But I’m liking the current storyline, and I like how he’s trying to prove himself to Spidey.

I realize that nobody really dies in comics, but Black Bolt is back? Did this happen in a comic I haven’t read? I knew HE wouldn’t stay dead (as opposed to Ant-Man and Jack of Hearts, who are also back), but I’ve been following the cosmic storylines and I have no recollection of his return. I’m assuming it’ll be brought up in the next issue of FF.

Hey there, Valkyrie. Way to rally the troops. After that, though, the end of the issue almost brought me to tears. Of course, I’ve been close to tears most of the week anyways, so it’s not that difficult to get me there right now.

Crime Master might be a good guy, but he ain’t no dummy.

For some reason I had assumed that Wolverine: The Best There Is was a mini-series even though it didn’t say so in the issue box on the cover. Looks like I was wrong. I’m enjoying the smart and sarcastic writing, but I’m liking the art less and less each issue. I liked Juan Jose Ryp while he worked on various Avatar projects, but I’m not feeling like he’s fitting with this book very well. Or maybe it’s just this issue. I did like it when he was drawing freaks and whatnot, and I like his Beast, but his Cyclops and Emma aren’t doing it for me. Maybe I just don’t like him drawing “normal” people. That aside, the little back-and-forth Scott, Henry and Emma had going about nudity was great.

What You Should Have Read #30

Last Week's Comic Book Badassery

After a long hiatus, I picked up Uncanny X-Men (and the rest of the X-line) again with the Utopia storyline. Dr. Nemesis was already a member of the team, and I knew nothing about him. Truth be told, I still don't know much about him. I like it just about everytime he's allowed to talk, though.

Supernatural is probably my favorite regular season show. It's a worthy successor to Buffy and Angel, as it's well written, well acted, and contains just the right amount of humor. Hell, I even went to a Supernatural convention a couple of weeks ago (it wasn't ANYTHING like the episode where Sam and Dean went to a Supernatural convention). So when Peter David puts a Supernatural reference in a comic, you're damn right I'm going to take notice

Cyclops has never been one of my favorite X-Men. I like his power set, his origin, his look, and his leadership ability. But overall, I just don't like him as a character. I loved this panel though, how he tells Rockslide, the strongest of the X-kids in that room if not the most powerful, that he'll be the first one Cyclops will take down, and Rockslide knows it's true. That panel right there now has me looking forward to Schism (well, besides looking forward to some regular Carlos Pacheco art).

And from the same issue we get another bit of massively egotistical Magneto. Not much different from the page I pulled from the last issue, but I still think it's awesome.