Catching up a little

Iron Man continues to entertain with issue four.  Tony Stark after some snappy dialog with Pepper Pots goes to the Paris Catacombs in search of the remaining tech magic that will create supers.  He finds something much more evil and deals with it.  I continue to like this story.

Marvel Universe vs the Avengers while a great title lacks several things.  The most important of these is that the Avengers have yet to fight the Marvel Universe – it is just a Hawkeye told though his eyes.  It seemed to me from the previews this comic was going to more along the lines of Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe where we would actually see conflict among heroes.  But instead we get yet another bland zombie story.

Hawkeye continues to be very good and entertaining.  This is the end of a two part story line that started grim but ended up being a trick on the readers, but that is ok the comic and story was still excellent.

Fantastic Four number two was cute and entertaining, I hope that is what they were going for.  Two issues of setup and they are off seems like the setup could have been done quicker.

Batman!

Detective Comics Batman continues with issue 15 and another Death in the Family Story.  I kind of liked this issue, but I had to go re-read the previous Death stories to find jar my memory about what happened last time.  It is hard to go wrong with a Clayface & Poison Ivy story line.

And I am now caught up with comics released December 5, 2012.  

Independent Comics!

Does Dark Horse Still Count as an indie comic book co?

I would not normally pick up a comic book like Colder, but it was highly recommended by my comic book shop.  I have to say it might be interesting and you might like it, but I don’t.  Colder is just not speaking to me and I normally like weird comics.

The Planet of the Apes Cataclysm is interesting, we are at issue four now.  We finally find out why certain Apes have been acting so strangely.  It will be interesting to see where this goes, but then we already know where this story ends up.   

Catching up...

All-New X-men #3 – So weeks after the “Big Event” none of these super mutants (including Cyclops or Magneto) noticed that their power had changed?  Yeah at least the new and old X-men finally meet.

Avengers #1 – A long boring story off Earth.  So now I believe Captain America is currently in another dimension in his main comic, in another different dimension with several Black Widows and now he is (spoiler) on Mars.  It may be time for them to just fight villains I was not expecting or hoping for grand space opera.  The teaser for future episodes says there will be more weird extra dimensional travel and back stabbing intrigue.  I will be dropping this comic.

Thunderbolts #1 was entertaining, but I am not sure I recognize all the suspects.  This issue was a bit wordy, hopefully the story will move along.

The G.I. Combat featuring the Haunted Tank and Unknown Soldier #7 was really good.  Well the Haunted Tank portion of the comic was really really good.  The first two issues with the Haunted Tank were silly, but this issue was really good.  No not going to give away the story.  The Unknown Soldier story is not good and I have been un-happy that this is the character the book spends so much time following.  This incarnation lacks the spirit of the character unlike how well the Haunted Tank turned out.

The comic Legends of the Dark Knight continue to deliver good stories with issue number three.  This issue tells the story of the people Batman helped.  The Batman is having doubts and he is his normal driven self.  But thanks to the Gotham PD clearing out the files Batman gets letters like his was Santa.  Actually my only complaint about this issue is that the font used to show the text is from a letter is hard to read for my old eyes.  I had to break out the magnifying glasses to read that part of the story getting old sucks sometimes.

Marvel Comics!

Once again the comic Deadpool comes through with a funny little rampage through a couple of un-dead evil Presidents.  The addition of Doctor Strange and Wong added some really good jokes.  I never really thought a comic based on bad one-liners could be this entertaining but after three issues Deadpool continues to shine.

Iron Man number three (of five in a limited series) continues to be a great comic.  This comic is well written and especially with this issue has a great moral story.  It is interesting to see the changes in the Iron Man Armor and Tony Stark’s crazy smart brain work while still being random.  Good Stuff.

(yes I am a week behind - but I am trying to make time to read more comic books!)

Comcis! DC Comics!

I am finally getting to some of last week’s comic books.  DC Comics Earth 2 started out great, but the current issue (number seven) had a noticeable lack of super heroes or action.  If the comic continues this slide in to X-men like whiny talking between the Hero and Villain (we know he is the villain from issue zero) I am going to drop this book.  It is a shame because I have so far really liked the different “wonders” and how different they are from what the Heroes are like in the main line DC Universe.

Worlds’ Finest Huntress / Power Girl number seven is entertaining.  This series has been good from issue one (even if a bit disjointed).  I really like the current story with the Robin (Damian Wayne) the interaction with the Huntress’s other world family could have been sappier and I am glad it was not.  It will be interesting to see if our worlds Batman has noticed or figured all this out yet.  I am kind of interested how Batman and Huntress meeting would be handled by the writer.

Before Watchmen

I have been reading the new “Before Watchmen” comics (all of them) I’m up to date on each series now.  I have to say the issues are rather uneven in quality; some of the books are excellent and other suck.  From reading about this maxi-series I understood that these books would be untold stories of the characters before the Watchmen comic.  But what we are getting is a rehash of the back stories told in the original Watchmen comic.  This points’ out the inherently impossible timeline of some of the characters whom would in some cases had been in the hero business since the 1930s while the main Watchmen story happened in the 1980s.  It makes the stories disjointed and uneven. Do not even get me started in the two pages per issue side story of the zombie pirate story I will not name.  In the original Watchmen comic the Pirate story fit into the main story in timing story and gave another angle at the morals of the main story.  The new story just sucks. 

I do want to say the Moloch series while seemingly slapped together to get more cash out of the series was good so far.  The issues written by JMS show a polish that the other comics are missing.

Batman!

Batman Inc. should be interesting.  But the “plot” is erratic and does not seem to have a focus.  While the “flashback” “dream” or whatever the middle story was supposed to be was interesting.  Frankly I do not know how much longer I will continue to read this book.

Batman the Dark Knight number 14 is a good issue, just some action and moving on.  None of that badly acted “fear” dreams.  I am not sure how many more “Super Fear Poisons” the Scarecrow can really keep making.  Batman is just immune at this point and that might include all of Gotham City as well.

Catching up

X-Treme X-men #7 was entertaining, robots disassembled by the dozens.  Not really sure what the point was to all the drama.  It was just an OK issue compared to previous stories in this series.

Issue number two of the All New X-men was an improvement over issue number one.  Much less whining and moaning.  This is the issue where they decide what to do and get to the future!  Still not sold on how this book is playing out versus how it was sold.

And this ends last week’s Marvel Comics.  I'm falling behind again.

more comics

Got distracted falling behind in reading a posting about last weeks comics.

Once again Thor God of Thunder was excellent.  I was concerned that issue #2 would not be as good as the first issue.  But the story telling continues to be interesting, the writing flows.  I am not completely sold on seeing the story told as the Thor at three different ages.  But so far it is working.  Good stuff.

Wolverine Max #2 was interesting, Wolverine is an old classic character and having a bit of story with him solo is cool.  I’m a little tired of the only way people are finding to make new Wolverine stories is to have him lose his memory.  I mean seriously the man can regenerated from a few remnant cells.  But for some reason his brain does not retain information until needed by the plot.

New Comics!

New Comic books!  Once again A+X was great!  With issue #2 again there was two short team-up stories in the style of the classic Marvel Team-Up.  First was a Rogue and Black Widow story with some interesting action.  The Iron Man and Kitty Pride story was a little more meh – if for no other reason than the writer seemed to have been told his story could not actually change anything with the main storylines.  

Ugh, Uncanny Avengers is a pathetic whiny childish waste of print time and money.  Issue #2 confirms that I made the right choice in avoiding the whole A vs. X event.  Stupid.  I guess that means I am no longer the target age for the X-men comics.

Gaming Dilemma

I’m conflicted; I have been running 1st Edition GammaWorld at DunDraCon for years and years now.  I love playing GammaWorld and keep hoping to inspire others to also run the game.  I am probably the GammaWorld expert at this convention.  Every year at least one person claims they will run next year for sure so that I can enjoy myself as a player, but they never do.  I am tired of running GammaWorld each year and having to come up with a new adventure each time (I get repeat players).  Most years I have to turn players away - one year I turned away 20 people.  I am thinking about running a Cyberpunk 2020 game this year instead – I love the setting and really enjoy the few games I get to play at DunDraCon each year.  The problem I am having is in confidence; I am far from the expert in the game system and several of the regulars have been playing and running CP for years.  I am conflicted do I work in my comfort zone and play a game I’m growing tired of or do I take a chance on going down in flames as a convention GM with a new system?

Comic Books!

I am going to cover four Marvel Comics here.  First up is Captain Marvel #7, this issue is an improvement over the last story line that was just a little over the top time travel silly.  Most of this issue is mostly story and character development between the current Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) and a previous Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau).  Their dialog is witty and well written.  The artwork for this issue was excellent and the underwater scenes were properly creepy.  I was happy to see the Monica Captain Marvel return as she was the first Captain Marvel I really remember from the pages of the Avengers.  I am looking forward to the next issue more than the previous story line.

Next was Hawkeye #4, this issue had a decidedly more serious turn in the story.  Though I am not sure if the writer wants Hawkeye to become the next Deadpool or Wolverine with this story, I still have issues with trying to take Hawkeye seriously as some super assassin.  I am happy with the story but will avoid a spoiler filled summary.  I still have problems with the artwork for this Comic Book.  I realize that they are going for a “style” but comics are supposed to be four colors and I would like to be able to tell the characters apart.  The cover is very different from a traditional comic and at first I thought it was a variant cover issue.

Then comes along the Indestructible Hulk!  I was somewhat dreading what was going to happen to the much misused Incredible Hulk.  Turns out that this reboot was well thought out and written, I even liked the art.  Not a fan with the Hulk’s haircut but can’t have everything.  I had enjoyed the previous attempts to make the Hulk smart or at least make Bruce Banner non-whiny.  So as I read I liked this story more and more.  (Spoilers)!

The Hulk or at least Puny Banner working with S.H.I.E.L.D. has great potential.  Quickly deploying the Hulk against security threats could be a great way to solve a problem if you do not wish to learn more of the villains after the fight. 

(End Spoilers) - So I am very interested in seeing how this comic turns out in future issues.

Then finally comes the comic Captain America #1 another in the string of Marvel Reboots.  We see that Steve Rogers comes from a broken house.  Then we jump in time for a short story.  Then we get the main story that has Captain jump dimensions.  This comic is weak; the story is stupid so far.  The artwork is good.   Disappointed and not looking forward to what is going to happen next.

More Comics!

The All New X-Men #1 sucked.  I just finished reading the issue and well the art was good.  Really I feel ripped off for spending money on this comic.  Note to Marvel Comics, the DC comics reboot worked because they wrote good stories.  It was also a true reboot and not just the aftermath of this year’s big cross over event.  What happens next year?  Another bunch of #1 comic reboots?

Next I read Fantastic Four #1, now that was an interesting comic. The Fantastic Four was one of the first comics I bought regularly.  So I was amused to see Johnny Storm the Human Torch is alive again.  I am not sure how that did not make the news at all.  Then the Thing was defeated by the Yancy Street Gang, again.  Seriously I am amazed that after all these years the Yancy Street Gang is a threat to the Thing.  The Thing can and has gone head to head against the Hulk for goodness sake.  Anyway we shall see where this story line heads.

Thor! God of Thunder!

Today I finally got a chance to read the New and Rebooted Marvel Comic Thor God of Thunder.  Issue number one was good.  The story hook was interesting and most importantly Thor was presented as a God.  So many people who write this character forget that Thor is a god, he is not a Superhero.  Though he does hang out with a lot of Superheroes while stuck on Earth he is not truly one of them.  It always bugged me when Thor turned into just another Super of the day or week or month.   I loved the JMS reboot of Thor all those years ago.  A reboot that was awesome until ruined so that Thor would fit into the Marvel Comic mold for a storyline not in his own comic.  I’m hoping that this new storyline continues to be entertaining and most importantly the story continues to be good. 

Batman!

I just finished reading the latest issue of the new comic book, Batman Legends of the Dark Knight #2.  This issue had a single entertaining story.  To avoid big spoilers I am just going to say the Joker is trying to help out.

I bought a copy of the new Marvel Comic book A+X because it was a variant cover of issue #1.  I knew nothing about the comic except it looked like another tie in to the A vs X super cross over extravaganza of the year from Marvel and was not expecting anything special.

But what I ended up with was a really good and well written team-up comic book.  I am a sucker for books that team up characters from different books.  I used to get the Marvel Team-Up book and the old school Defenders because it was so cool to see how different comic characters acted and were written by different people.  It could give you a whole new view on old stories and characters.  A+X gives me that cool team up action in the Marvel Universe.  The stories were a little short and really could use a few more pages each.  I think the Hulk and Wolverine story was cool and I hope it does get its follow up.

I know I probably should not enjoy the comic X-Treme X-men, but it is a really entertaining comic book.  Take a couple of popular and not so popular X-men characters; take their duplicates from other dimensions.  Those duplicates have similar personalities to the mainline characters they seem most like.  Then send them on a quest across dimensions to hunt down 10 evil Professor Xs.  Each comic has them meeting a different group of Marvel Supers from different dimensions – wackiness ensues.  Issue #1 (of 2012) were all the craziness was introduced was fun.  Issue #2 was not so hot.  But numbers three and four have been very entertaining.  We have had gods, monsters and Westerns to entertain.  I am happy with this version of the X-men.

Launch Date for WoW Expansion Announced!

Blizzard announced the date for the next World of Warcraft expansion.  After the mess that was the current expansion Cataclysm I am not really excited to see what happens in the next expansion.  I was so excited for Cataclysm it looked cool.  But in the end it sucked – my guild stopped playing I never got into any of the end game content.  In the previous expansion (Wrath of the LIch King) I was part of a fun guild, we crashed through all the content, we mastered the raids, and we rocked.  Now I have not played WoW in weeks and will probably unsubscribe.  WoW is just not fun any more.

Long time no blog

OH wow! Have not posted here in ages. Been busy in real life, G+ kind of took over my urge to post in a blog. Well G+ and FB that is. I will make a mental note to check in here a little more often. ;-)