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.