Thor God of Thunder #10!!

Thor God of Thunder #10 was so much better than the filler issues of the past.  This is a comic book about a God of Thunder a god of conflict there has been way to much whiny talk.  Now the Thors fight the good fight against the death of all gods (whatever that means).  I mean seriously a bomb that will just kill the gods is a fairly lame idea especially since if you believe the storyline Gorr has been killing gods without the bomb.  Bombs in comic books are dumb plot devices to create false tension and suspense where otherwise there would just be a fight.  It also appears that despite claims to the contrary the daughters of Thor are not dead and neither are many of the gods made slaves.  They get a chance to find in the end along with all three Thors.  So of course instead of just wrapping the story up nice and neat we get yet another cliff hanger.  To be continued…

Thunderbolts #13

Thunderbolts #13 where we finally learn the backstory to Mercy.  She once fought the Hulk and was left for dead in a coma.  General Ross the Red Hulk had freed her in the past and then tracked her down now.  We learn all this in a flashback that covers almost the entire comic book.  It is a rather wimpy story thread and it actually makes the reason for this team lame.  At first the comic seemed to be a way for Ross to fix things that were wrong in the world.  Some of the problems he caused and other problems were caused by other people / heroes or whatever.  But instead all this random death and destruction is to keep some vampire powered villainess fed is not that great a plot point.  While the story itself was good I am disappointed in the overall plot.

All New X-Men #14

All New X-Men #14 was entertaining I think the only reason I bought this issue was the cover art.  Unfortunately this cover has nothing to do with what happens inside, I might have missed the set up from the previous issue since at some point I said I would never buy this comic book again.  Anyway, Dark Phoenix rules!  There was actually a bit of interesting dialog and stuff going on with the original X-Men with Kitty Pride and Wolverine.  They were fighting a few new and old villains along with a bunch of Hydra that seemed to just be there to get beat up.  Having the Avengers show up went smother in the story telling this time.  Not a bad issue.

Batman '66 #1

Batman ’66 #1 tries very hard to recreate the corny but fun 1960s TV version of Batman.  I have to say the dialog was very close to the original and the story was enjoyable.   The TV aesthetic of deceptive cliffhangers does not translate as well to the printed version of the show.  But I was not reading this for a perfect copy of the TV show I just wanted to see if the writers and artists could pull off the 1960s flashback properly or not.  I have to say the art was really good and they even remembered to make the character look somewhat like the original TV actors.  So we had an amusing Riddler story with a guest appearance of Catwoman.  Though I must say during the action scenes Catwoman looked a bit more like the Black Widow than the ‘60s Catwoman.  Overall this was a very entertaining comic book – good stuff.

Fearless Defenders #6

The Fearless Defenders #6 was another excellent issue.  We see the completion of the fight against the Doom Maidens and Valkyrie who had become the Doom Maiden of Rage.  But after beating all the other supers it came down to Annibelle the one without powers to save the day.  We all knew that was going to happen but I was happy to see it was what the writer did.  The end of the issue has a good speech that could easily have been from the final issue of a series.  They are Defenders and I am really happy I kept reading this comic.

Hawkeye #12

Hawkeye #12 continues the trend of this comic book being excellent.  But instead of following Hawkeye we end up following his brother.  We see flash backs to when they were kids growing up and the horrible conditions of their home.  The brother gets beat up by the Bro gang a couple of times and it seems to be a theme in their life.  Good story.

Indestructible Hulk #10

Indestructible Hulk #10 – showed that the Hulk while a wild mess of destructive powers, if he likes you things can still work out.  This issue continued the story from the previous issue where Daredevil and the Hulk were hunting down a powerful weapon lose in New York City.  Things go from bad to worse and in the nick of time Hulk saves the day.  The story was told from Bruce Banners point of view with what he was told about the adventure.  It was all very interesting and continues the really good story telling of this renewed Hulk comic.

Young Avengers #7!

Young Avengers #7 was where the writers play catch up to where they want the story to resume.  There is a lot of text and talking about what happened between the escape from the mother parasite and the now of the comic.  Prodigy finds the Young Avengers and asks for their help to find Speed.  The team makes a hole in time and space then they head to another dimension.  It was all interesting and well written but felt a bit like filler.

Batman #22 Zero Year!

Batman #22 Zero Year: The Zero Year idea is interesting and well written so do not take what I say next as saying the comic is bad it is actually good.  But I have to say we have already done the Batman Year One story, the secret origin and story before Bruce Wayne became Batman.  One of the things I liked about the New52 Batman was we did not need to repeat the same old stories.  I am also thinking that Red Hood One sounds a little too much like the Joker.   So I am rather disappointed that DC has gone to yet another gimmick to try and boost sales.  Instead it would be nice if the creative team was allowed to just make good stories and not constantly try to make the next great comic blockbuster.

Superman Unchained #2

Superman Unchained #2 : The Unchained book is a great idea.  It is Superman with different stories and at the moment we are still dealing with a younger hero.   Unfortunately while issue number one was entertaining, issue number two was just more of the same.  The world is scared of Superman, they all know he is just here to take over the world and kill all the humans.  This despite the fact that he has done nothing but be a good guy.  Lex Luthor has even been found to be evil and locked up in jail.   But that is all ruined with this lame terrorists group that is impossible to find or fight.  The “countdown” to save the people in the collapsing skyscraper was badly done.  This is Superman he is not going to fail.  If he was to fail it would not take this many pages, he would just wake up from being hit by the robot and it would all be over.  Then there is the Cock fight (really I’m not making this part up) with Lois Lane’s father.  It seems he has daddy issues and is taking his issues out by building super weapons to kill Superman.  After issue number one I was hoping that quality would continue but unfortunately the quality of the story failed immediately upon reaching issue two.  I hate to say it but even the art is just not up to the quality of issue one.  The art seemed phoned in.

Worlds' Finest Huntress and Power Girl #14

Worlds’ Finest Huntress and Power Girl #14 continues the downward spiral of a once really clever and interesting storyline.  Once Desaad entered the picture this comic just turned into a pile of stupid.  Suddenly the strong confident women who are the star of the comic devolved into incompetence.  They are unable to fix, stop or figure out what is going on around them.  Yet for five years they were on their way to running the biggest most technologically advanced company in the world.  The comic really feels like someone at the DC office decided oh we can’t have women doing well without a man to save them.  Disappointing.

Age of Ultron #10 A.I.

Age of Ultron Book 10 AI was a retelling of Hank Pym’s life at the end of the Age of Ultron book.  I do not know if this is just an advertisement for the Ant-Man movie in production.  It could just be a prologue to the Avengers A.I. comic coming up next.  But the creative team sure wanted to re-tell the origin story of Hank Pym in a bad way.  I am sure there is a good reason here, but as a long time comic book reader I have to say there was no reason for this comic book.  Really it was a waste of effort to create and read.  But if you know nothing about Hank Pym and all his alter egos this might be worth your time to read.

Avengers A.I. #1

Avengers A.I. #1 is a new comic spinning off from the Age of Ultron mega super cross over comic series of the moment.  In this comic Hank Pym uses his genius to fight against an A.I. he accidentally created when he helped defeat Ultron.  This new fast replicating A.I. is apparently like Ultron and is out to kill all humans.  Being the first issue of a team book most of the story revolves around bringing the team together.  So far I think I like the Doombot (a robot built by Doctor Doom that is used as a stand in when the writers do not want Doom captures or blown up dramatically – there are a lot of them) the best at least it is honest with itself and others on the team.  A team consisting of Hank Pym, Monica Chang (director of S.H.I.E.L.D. A.I.), Victor Mancha (Ultron’s Son IE Ultron built him), the Vision (Victor’s older brother), and the Doombot could just be a very entertaining comic.  If for no other reason than Hank Pym is overly enthusiastic and positive about the whole adventure.  Good Stuff!

Deadpool #12

Deadpool #12 seems to bring to an end the whole demon Vetis storyline.  Deadpool and Vetis fight, Vetis has all kinds of new powers thanks to all the souls Deadpool acquired.  But with great timing the Necromancer arrived with Mephisto to save the day.  As usual the story was full of good dialog but the fights are getting a little old.  I am glad this story is over for now and I am hoping for something a little more interesting going forward.

Deadpool Kills Deadpool #1

Deadpool Kills Deadpool #1 could be the start of something interesting.  This is another limited series based around Deadpool.  It appears that someone is going around the Marvel multi-verse killing as many different Deadpools as possible.  The killer looks a lot like another Deadpool and apparently there is more than one which makes sense when you are able to pick from an entire multi-verse of worlds.  We will have to wait and see if future comics in this series are good or not.

Uncanny X-Men #7!!

Uncanny X-Men #7 – I thought I stopped buying this comic but for some reason I picked up this issue (it was in the pile).  I do have to say, I always had a soft spot for Illyana Rasputin (Magik) from back in the old days with the limited series and being Colossus little sister.  This comic was interesting because Illyana had come to see Doctor Strange for help because she needs with the magical portion of her powers.  Apparently she has absorbed the entire dimension of Limbo into herself.  There is a bit of story with the Cyclops rebel group.  But in the end this is a story for Magik and it was good.

Young Avengers #6!

Young Avengers #6 the issue started awesome with two new young folks Speed and Prodigy.  We first meet Prodigy working “tech-support” but not the type of tech-support you would expect, what he does is give advice with problems for heroes and villains.  He helps with a Skrull surplus bomb and how to handle Elektra in a fight.  We then get introduced to Speed and his five minute work day – yes he is the speedster.  The two guys have lunch and sort of bond.  When they get back they find the office burgled by someone wearing Patriot’s uniform, the two guys stake out the office and confront the bad guy.   But the bad guy wins the fight somehow defeating Speed.  Prodigy tries to talk with the bad guy but this resolves nothing and leaves the reader with a clumsy cliffhanger.  Frankly I was hoping in this issue with a continuation of the previous story ark.  Not continuing the previous storyline left me kind of disappointed in this issue.

All Star Western Featuring Jonah Hex #21

All Star Western Featuring Jonah Hex #21 started out strong with Booster Gold getting himself and Hex sent through time.  I really wish Hex had the time to actually kill Booster since he has been nothing but an unfunny pain the entire time he has been in the comic.  But instead Hex gets dropped into the future at some point and ends up fighting Batwing.  Even though this is the “future” and people (especially) the heroes should know of Hex no one does.  Hex ends up in Arkham Asylum despite his skills and abilities, basically he was railroaded by the story and in typical lame comic book creators desire to not work hard while getting paid end up with this lame cliffhanger of Hex being helpless.  But I’m sure in the first pane of next month’s comic he will again be in control of the situation.  Lame.  The Stormwatch backup story was entertaining, but as I predicted (I think) suffers from being a story cut in two that was too short to fill the space.  This story would have been much more entertaining if shown in full and not broken up.  Anyway, Doctor 13 had a little too much garlic in his system and that killed the vampire queen.  Despite my complaints this was an entertaining story – good stuff.

Batman Superman #1!

Batman Superman #1 was terrible; the writing was sloppy and inconsistent.  Having the two big guys of the DC universe team up in their own book should have had a better less stupid story.   At this point I’m just going to move on and not waste my time trying to point out the bad.  The good is we see Superman and Batman and apparently how they first met in the DC New 52 universe.  The writer seems to be trying to teach the reader something about bullies in an allegory.   But that does not really work when the fight setup is a fake.

Batman the Dark Knight #21

Batman the Dark Knight #21 is finally the end of the way to long Mad Hatter storyline.  Batman’s girlfriend died in the previous issue.   So for some reason Batman wants vengeance for her death and believes that Mad Hatter had something to do with the death.  So we see Batman “go crazy” he hunts down and beats up the Mad Hatter. Unfortunately this is not Frank Miller’s Dark Knight.  I have to say that nothing in this story needed to be covered over so many issues of the comic.  Not only was the story not original but it ended up as not mattering since the comic re-set in the last pane of the comic.  Anyway I hope no one else wasted their money on this comic the last few issues.

Detective Comics #22

Batman Detective Comics #22 seems to want to be the next Iron Man comic.  We have a mysterious high tech villain who is killing members of the Gotham Police Force.  The villain is foreshadowed by a meeting between Bruce Wayne and a new business man in town Caldwell who apparently has enough cash to just buy Wayne Tech.  But even before that we flash back to a previous story where the police thought that Batman was killing Police Officers and in fact this one police officer still thinks Batman did it despite evidence to the contrary.  Frankly at this point making the Gotham PD even more stupid is rather disappointing at this point in the history of Batman.  Anyway the backup story with the Man-Bat continues to be interesting and maybe it will actually go somewhere.  This story really should have had its own comic even if it was a one shot.

Dial H #14

Dial H #14 was very confusing.  The story makes no sense that suddenly the good guys are going from disaster world to disaster world fighting people convinced the main characters are vampires and destroyers of worlds.  I just think the creative team is just trying too hard.  After the chalk world story I was hoping the good weirdness of this comic would return and the comic would become good again.  I guess I was overly optimistic.

Earth 2 #14

Earth 2 #14 – I really enjoyed reading this comic.  The war with Steppenwolf and the country he seized.  Green Lantern, Doctor Fate and the Flash attacked first followed by a standoff with a “stealth force” of other super powered people.  They agree to work together when they are attacked by Steppenwolf’s hounds.  There was a very interesting conversation between Khan and General Foster.  Their talking was a bit of catch up as the Earth 2 storyline jumps ahead and character development for action.  So far this story continues to entertain.

Trinity of Sin: Pandora #1 A Prequel to Trinity War

Trinity of Sin: Pandora #1 A Prequel to Trinity War.  I bought this comic before I realized just how silly and out of control this upcoming “cross-over event” was going to become.  But seriously Pandora – especially this Pandora – being punished for picking up a skull is just seriously the lamest plot device ever.  Unfortunately this was the high point of the comic.  The rest of the comic is Pandora going through time failing to be able to fix the world – until now.  Oh well at least I did not pick up the rest of this series unless it happened to cross over into one of my regular comics.

A + X #9

A+X #9 staring Wolverine and Captain America in a story where they kill a giant snake and some giant ants, they then fight a “chimp” with the Shaman’s staff.   They end up rescuing Doctor Strange and commiserate about the bad things humans do to animals.  This was a disappointing story, we learn nothing new about the characters and the dialog is rather mundane for these characters.  The second story followed Quentin Quire and Pixie and Eye-Boy as they try to steal from Doctor Strange as part of a bet.  This story was at least entertaining and the X-kids manage to save Doctor Strange (well sped up his release) from the demon D’Spayre.  The second story was good.

Age of Ultron #10

Age of Ultron Book 10 was very interesting.  The time travel, the secret messages and the fight with Ultron was well done.  But after 10 issues of the main book, a number of “tie-in” stories that actually had nothing to do with fighting Ultron or the main story at all.  After literally shaking up the Marvel Universe and making massive changes by killing off major characters.  All we end up with is teasers for new comic books.  I find this very disappointing.  Ultron is a cool comic book villain yet in the end nothing changes.  Not only does nothing actually change in the Marvel Universe but the last few pages are splash page advertisements for other comic books.  This is the kind of crap that makes me grumpy.

Cable and X-Force #10!!!

Cable and X-Force #10 – where there is a lot of talking and a quick fight.  I just have not been keeping up with this comic I guess I just keep missing issues and now I’m really confused.  I like the sub story with hope meeting Blaquesmith the little alien whom owns a convenience store.  Though it appears Hope instead of learning something useful got blasted into a time portal.  The rest of the team sits around talking until some Avengers faction appears and they fight, Cable gets caught again or so it seems

Captain Marvel #13

Captain Marvel #13 was entertaining, but misses a key point in suspenseful storytelling.  If the bad guy is supposed to be secret do not give away who the bad guy is on the first page.  I realize this issue is in the middle of some overarching story ark that I did not know about at the time and I missed picking up those other cross over issues.  Anyway this comic has a lot of cameo appearances from famous people and it is all in good fun.  With luck in the end Captain Marvel will be able to fly again at the end of this story and that stupid part of the story will be over.

Indestructible Hulk #9!!

Indestructible Hulk #9 continues being very entertaining.  Apparently as part of his agreement with S.H.I.E.L.D. Bruce Banner must make a phone call once a week to ensure S.H.I.E.L.D. has not do something bad to Banner or the Hulk.  It turns out this special person is Daredevil and his lawyer alter ego.  I think Banner is starting to get on his handlers nerves because in this adventure they drop him while still Banner at a ship they are attacking.  The ship was being used by smugglers carrying super level weapons.  One of the bad guys gets away and this leads to an interesting Daredevil and Hulk team up entrance.  In the end the bad guy gets away and meets Baron Zemo.  This could be interesting.

Morbius the Living Vampire #6

Morbius the Living Vampire #6 was disappointing.  Having Spider-Man show up should be great as him and Morbius have history.  Unfortunately we get the lame assed girlfriend beating bystander murdering Superior Spider-Man.  So when the new villain shows up she / he kicks Spder-Man’s rear.  We expect Morbius to get beat up as that is how this comic has been going.  But as for the Superior Spider-Man?  Let us just say he was lacking in the Superior aspect of his name.  It all winds up with a meeting between the super science villain and the Rose.  Why people would be surprised they had something bigger planned is beyond me.

Thunderbolts #11

Thunderbolts #11 continues the story with the Leader getting his mind back.  For some reason the team has gone to London to meet Electra’s brother who is using the Gamma Powered remote controlled robots.   The brother is trying to get himself killed to become a martyr at the hands of super powered people.  Fights happen and things go boom, the leader is being comforted by Mercy foreshadowing his return as a super genius smart person perhaps.

Superman Unchained #1

This review my be a repost enjoy!:

Superman Unchained #1 was a very entertaining comic book.  The action, the story telling the artwork flowed across the pages of this comic.  There is no boring origin story and almost no mention of Superman’s human parents and hometown.  The story simply starts out with the destruction of Nagasaki Japan by the American’s dropping a bomb that looks a lot like a human during World War 2.  We then flash to the present where Superman is saving the day as someone has managed to fire satellites from Earth orbit at the planet like giant bombs.  Superman mentions that he has destroyed or diverted all the satellites heading for populated areas and we get to watch him work to literally defuse the most dangerous satellite shooting out of orbit.  The satellite has a reactor core that would be like a bomb if it were to hit the Earth.  Superman fixes the bomb problem by slowing the descent by disabling the Satellites decent.   Using his X-ray vision did not work to short out the engine controls so Superman changes the wavelength of his vision to Gamma vision and that turns off the engine.  In the end Superman manages to save the astronauts and the military base that was being targeted.  Back in Metropolis Superman interrupts an escape attempt or helicopter crash. During which he has an interesting conversation with Lex Luthor that was as I said interesting and full of potential – Lex actually sounded smart and composed compared to how he had been acting in other New52 Superman stories.   The next scene is with Jimmy Olson and Clark Kent, Jimmy looks a lot like Seth Green for some reason, it might be the new hipster look or I am just getting old.  While the two are making chit chat Lois Lane calls to point out errors in Clarks latest Superman Saves the Day blog post.  While they are talking the Daily Planet Chief Perry White comes in to complain to Lois about advertisement placement.   Lois drops at least one clue about how the plot of the comic will develop and then tells Clark that the reason his article was wrong was because Superman had stopped all eight Satellites heading for Earth.  Superman takes off to see who or what had deflected the Satellite and finds a big handprint on the Satellite debris that he does not recognize.  Superman is then attacked by torpedoes.  We then flash to a secret military base full of cool looking high tech weapon systems. All the while Lois’s dad (apparently) monologues about how being discovered by Superman is not really a problem because they have their own Superman already – the end.  Then there is a short story of Perry White’s past and a pair of binoculars his Great Uncle gave him, binoculars that appear to be the very pair used in the first pages of this comic book.  While Perry is talking there is another story also in the current day of a fishing trawler pulling a man from the ocean whom wants to talk to Lois Lane badly – even though his eyes appear to have been melted.  There is also an interview with Scott Snyder and Jim Lee that was just somewhat interesting.  At this point I just want to know how the American Government managed to keep a being as powerful as Superman a secret for seventy years?  They kept this super being a secret mind you while he / she has been used in operations during the seventy years since the creature was dropped on Nagasaki Japan.  If this comic book turns into an American Military against Superman comic I will not continue to read or buy the comic.  If I wanted a teen angst story I would just read one of the million X-Men comic books that Marvel Comics produces.  I do have a hope that having Jim Lee on the creative team means that the stories will be good and in which case I will continue to buy this comic because issue number one of Superman Unchained was well done and entertaining.

Deadpool #11

Deadpool #11 – another excellent issue of Deadpool, where Deadpool  goes and cook dinner for Agent Preston’s family and gets some help from an S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.  Deadpool then goes hunting another soul for Vetis.  This new victim is a shape shifter.  This lets him meet Luke Cage’s girlfriend, chase Black Widow and fight Daredevil.  The Daredevil fight was cool.  Deadpool gets his man (err man disguised as a cheerleader) and Vetis shows up. Deadpool brags how he tricked Vetis by killing the Necromancer.  Vetis is not amused and fire erupts and everything.

Guardians of the Galaxy #3!

Guardians of the Galaxy #3 was good.  We get to see the good guys locked up and then miraculously escape from the ships brig.  While this was going on there was another conference of Empires and the other leaders are starting to dislike the King of Spartax.  The Guardians of the Galaxy manage to take control of the Spatax battleship they were held upon.  Then Peter Quill sent a message to all Spartax ships questioning his father’s motives and reminding his people that he was arrested for protecting the Earth from invasion for trying to do good.  This was a very interesting if somewhat talkative issue.  I especially enjoyed the Spatax soldiers inspecting the Guardians ship.

Thor God of Thunder #9!

Thor God of Thunder #9 – this was a grand comic book, the kind of comic book you always imagined comic books were like when you were a kid.  This comic book held three Thors, the young Thor of the Viking age, the middle Thor the Thor of our comic books and movies and then Thor the Elder Thor the King of the Gods of Asgard.  The three gods joined up to fight and slay Gorr the God Killer.  It was truly an epic fight that shattered worlds.  Gods died and actually that is my only real problem with this story. There is a planet full of gods and while they were slaves to Gorr they just died.  He killed them all just to gain more power to fight the three Thors.  He killed Thor’s granddaughters (apparently) and no one lifted a hand to defend themselves – yet Thor did save an entire planet (moon he called it) to save the people there – this is where the story really breaks down.  The creative team also needs to decide how long this story will be – three issues or five and what was the start of the “God Bomb” storyline - and as I said before a bomb? Seriously?  Sigh – Besides that this was actually a really good comic I was very entertained as this was a really good issue!

Batman #21 (Zero Year)!

Batman #21 (Zero Year) – Ok that was interesting.  I am really not thrilled with the whole going back to a simpler time in Batman’s life.  Going to see when Batman was just Bruce Wayne in a bat suit.  But at least this one started out with promise – I say promise because the story starts out “Six Years Ago” with what looks like a post-apocalyptic look.  The kid fishing in the subway was a good touch.  But then we flash back again to when it is just Batman and Pennyworth doing stuff.  Bruce is still legally dead and yet some of his relatives have figured out Bruce is still alive.  There is lots of talking, lots of building up stuff that might mean nothing.  But I would rather see what happens with the Red Hood gang and why Gotham City is even more messed up than normal – so it is time for the writers to move things along now please.  Good stuff!

Legends of the Dark Knight #9

Legends of the Dark Knight #9 was not up to the high standards of the previous issues.  Scarecrow creates another fear powder and we see another drug induced fantasy.  Batman breaks out of another mental prison, the end.  The backup story was cute with some cool Catwoman action but otherwise it was more of the same.  Maybe I am being a little harsh but the first couple of issues of this comic were really good.

Batman Li'l Gotham #3!

Batman Li’l Gotham #3 was the Valentine’s Day issue.  The first story was cute and if not for the watercolor style artwork it would have been much better.  The story highlight was seeing how many DC heroes could make guest appearances – both good guys and bad.  The joker was the star being chased by Harley Quinn.  The second story was a Robin (Bruce Wayne’s son Robin, the dead one who is currently still dead) and Katana but not the new52 Katana this was the teenage kid version.  This story was also entertaining.

All Star Superman #1 SE!

All Star Superman #1 Special Edition was an advertisement for a graphic novel.  The story was typical Superman and very entertaining.  It appears that Lex Luthor has figured out a way to kill Superman after all.  The cliffhanger was entertaining.

Worlds' Finest Huntress and Power Girl #13

Worlds’ Finest Huntress and Power Girl #13 where what was once an interesting and entertaining comic book degrades into just another cheesecake and hitting things comic.  Having Desaad suddenly show up and be able to totally ruin the ladies lives and business, killing their friends in the process is just horrible sloppy writing.  Not to mention there is no way that our worlds Justice League or Justice League America would not notice these fights and show up.  Taking out islands, taking out buildings and part of cities you just don’t ignore those things.  I am so very disappointed.

Age of Ultron Book Nine!

Age of Ultron Book Nine was kind of boring.  I am not really sure where to start.  The epic battle that started in the last issue with the 2^nd timeline the writers are calling Age of Morgana Le Fey did not happen.  There was an explosion that ended the fight apparently.  Wolverine finds Tony Stark from the Le Fey timeline babbling about how they had to stop trying to fix the timeline.  So Wolverine goes back in time and stops himself from killing Hank Pym.  They pull this off just by talking and Sue Storm shows up to add to the confusion.  The three of them Sue Storm, Wolverine and Wolverine seem to convince Pym to add a kill switch to Ultron.  Then they head back to the savage land to return home.  It appears that one Wolverine Kills the other (I did not think that it was possible to kill Wolverine with his regenerative healing factor).  Sue Storm and the surviving Wolverine head to the time platform.  This was so very disappointing the issue that promised an epic fight turns out to be just nothing but talking.  The idea of a Wolverine vs. Wolverine fight was nothing more than them moping and a one panel kill shot.  I am starting to lose my enthusiasm for this epic cross-over adventure.

Really Great Piece of Cyberpunk Art

I found this over on G+ and felt the need to share!

 

 

I tried to share this with friends on FB but FB said this image violated community decency standards.  I would have understood if the artists did not want it posted and I could not post it due to copyright issues but I just do not understand how this could possibly violate decency standards.







Cable and X-Force #9

Cable and X-force #9 – This was an all Hope all the time story, it did co-star Captain America, Rogue and Havok.  These heroes from the Uncanny Avengers are trying to keep Hope from joining her father (stepfather?) on whatever dam fool crusade or something like that.  But Hope has them tricked as she is Cables daughter and she had a plan.  While most of this issue was just talking it was interesting seeing the plot move along and the different heroes interacting.  Good Issue.

Fearless Defenders #5!

The Fearless Defenders #5 – Where we continue the Doom Maiden story line.  We first see Moonstar Hippolyta and Valkyrie awaiting the arrival of the Doom Maidens in a remote and far away part of our world.  The Doom Maidens arrive riding dragons, one of which Hippolyta kills.  The fight is interrupted by the arrival of a large number of female super heroes – it is a rather dramatic splash page.  We now add to the battle Spider-Woman, Black Cat, Tigra, Hellcat, Elektra, She-Hulk, Storm, Thundra, Tarantula, Colleen Wing, Black Widow, Captain Marvel and Misty Knight.  While the Valkyrie traveled to the out of the way place, Misty Knight had gone recruiting supers to help in the fight.  Some are destined to be Shield Maidens (only nine actually) but apparently having a few extra heroes is not a bad thing.  We learn a number of things about Annabelle Riggs and Moonstar.  The story here remains very interesting and I cannot wait for the next issue.

Iron Man #11

Iron Man #11 – the Secret Origin of Tony Stark Part 2.  In this issue we get more flash back to Howard Stark and his wife deciding to let Recorder 451 fix their child so it will not die.  But more than that Recorder 451 wants to improve their child in order to make a savior for mankind.  Recorder fears that the other races / empires in the galaxy will soon begin to fear humanity and in a few short years attack and destroy all life on Earth.  In order to prevent this extermination Recorder 451 wants the Stark child to be that super genius we have come to know and love – Tony Stark.  This is another well written and paced story giving us the Secret Origin of Tony Stark.  I am entertained.

Winter Soldier #19

Winter Soldier #19 Final Issue!  For a final issue it did very little to wrap up the story line very well.   The Electric Ghost on the other hand was unable to follow up on the badass she seemed to be in previous issues.  She Saved Bucky’s life and tried to fix her life and save her father.  But given the chance she did not alter the timeline (wait are you sure this is a Marvel Comic it did not chose to muck up the timeline again) and escaped an exploding Satellite with the Winter Soldier only to drown in the ocean – maybe.  I’m not really sure the point of the old man giving Bucky the pep talk.  The lighting in those panels looked weird.  Then the Winter Soldier is back with the Black Widow and everything was fine, but then it turns out he was just using the Cosmic Cube or whatever it was to do some time traveling (messing with the universe?).  I am disappointed that this comic was canceled as it was often an excellent comic with good stories.  But with the upcoming Captain America movie being subtitled “The Winter Soldier” I guess the powers that be were afraid of confusing people with a good comic.  This story even felt chopped short which was disappointing considering how long some story arks were stretched to the point of being filler.  But in the end this is just another comic book I liked, that I thought was good that was canceled. 

All New X-Men #12

All New X-Men #12 was really lame.  I am not sure how many more issues of this comic I grabbed before realizing the All New X-Men comic had totally jumped the shark.  Well beyond the whole time travel thing.  While it was cool and all to have Thor, Captain America, Havok, Rogue and the Scarlet Witch show up.  All we really had was the brothers Summers reunite out of time.  We had a reminder that for some reason the Scarlet Witch has not been properly punished for her crimes and she wants to be punished.  We also come to the time where only in an X-Man comic book would people still believe the whole good guys are criminals but really bad guys in disguise plot line.  It is a story line so old Stan Lee stopped using it because even he decided it was lame.  Especially since in Cable and X-Force comic Captain America, Rogue and Havok do not fall for the exact same plot device (This same week even!).  This comic had so much great potential with the old original X-Men meet their current lame assed selves.  But instead we just get yet another whiny X-Man comic.

Batman Detective Comics #21

Batman Detective Comics #21 – I enjoyed this issue.  It was interesting that the creative team decided to bring back the woman from the issue zero story.  Once again a super hero is menaced by someone from their past who they thought was dead and now has super mystical ninja powers and they are an assassin.  Mio now calls herself Penumbra and she has shadow ninja powers.  Unfortunately for her those powers can apparently be counteracting by bright lights.  A light provided by Harper whom appears to be another potential Robin.  The backup story was another Man-Bat story and it was a good story and with luck this backup story will lead to something but if not at least it is a good backup story.

Dial H #13!!

Dial H #13 or the narrative of Open Window Man.  The group of Dial heroes from last issue has travelled to a world where all the people all the happening occurs as chalk drawings on a wall.  While the others train or try to figure out their next plan of action Open Window Man finds and talks to a child on the wall.  The child is never named but it turns out to be a re-telling of the Batman story or in this case the Open Window Man origin story.  Essentially this issue through almost no action catches us the readers up with what is actually going on in the comic.  The story makes a bit more sense now at least to me.  Now to see what happens next!

Earth 2 #13

Earth 2 number 13 continues the interesting storyline started in recent issues.  Captain Steel enters the giant fire pit in Rio de Janeiro – there is a long backstory told by Commander Khan of the Earth Army to some world government paper pusher it is interesting but it is just backstory and does nothing to actually advance the plot.  We just learn that yes Captain Steel is very powerful.   We then go to Hawkgirl who is still investigating the death of the Green Lantern’s boyfriend, where she fights some evil mutants with some help of the new Batman of Earth 2.  The comic ends on a cliff hanger with Captain Steel exiting the pit in bad shape and with a warning that the Red Lantern is here and they must save the world from her.  Overall this was a good comic information is good and the story still advanced.

Indestructible Hulk #8!!

Indestructible Hulk #8 continued the expedition into Jotunheim the realm of the Frost Giants.  There is a bit of story development and talk about how Thor’s Hammer was able to keep the unworthy from picking it up.  Then the portal home reopens and the Frost Giants attack.  Agent Coulson and Director Hill hold the portal while Hulk and Thor fight to thin the crowd of Frost Giants.  Being a comic book eventually everyone makes it home safe and sound.  It was a fun comic to read.  I like how even the Hulk shows some of his animal smarts when saving Thor. 

Morbius the Living Vampire #5!!

Morbius the Living Vampire #5 where I seem to have missed issue number four.  Really the Rose is the main villain behind everything going on here?  That is just so lame and disappointing.  The entire random hero thing was much more entertaining.  Not even going into details about the good stuff in this issue I’m so disappointed.

X-Men #1

X-Men #1 – This is another X-Men issue number one, I assume they get a number one because the title is just X-Men and none of the other prefixes.  This book was sold as the all women / hot girl version of X-Men.  I don’t know a counterpoint to the DC comic Ame-Comi Girls – in which case at least the X-Women have their regular costumes and are not sexed up.  The story starts with Jubilee and a child heading to America and Xavier’s School the X-Men base.  Rogue, Storm and Kitty Pride had off to escort Jubilee to the school safely.  There of course is a problem and the X-Men have to save the train and passengers from a crash.  It turns out the spooky guy who has been following Jubilee was John Sublime an adversary of the X-Men and if the prologue was correct one of the oldest being in the universe.  He shows up at the school and surrenders, he wants help defeating his sister Areka Prime who may be worse than he is (or he just wants protection).  The story was good for a first issue.  I am not sure if I kept collecting issues of this comic if not I may just grab the collected trade paperback.

Adventures of Superman #1

Adventures of Superman #1 was alright but really nothing special.  The comic was three short but complete stories.  The first story has Superman fighting a homeless guy who took some drugs that gave him superpowers that allow him to fight Superman toe to toe.  The homeless guy dies and of course it turns out to have been a plot by Lex Luthor.   The second story was one that has been retold many times, it is two kids player Superman and arguing about who gets to be Superman and who gets to be the villain (and which villain).  It was kind of a cute story with sloppy but alright art.  I am not sure if this was their desire but we see Superman eavesdropping on the kids playing Superman.  So either Superman is super narcissistic and likes the hero worship or he is creepy spying on little boys.  The third story has Bizzaro as the villain.  Somehow Superman convinces Bizzaro to leave the earth wearing some kind of harness – the harness is a NASA wearable probe and Bizzaro is off visiting another planet.  I don’t know the story was weird even for a Superman story with Bizzaro.

Batman the Dark Knight Annual #1

Batman the Dark Knight Annual #1 – I have seen that often annuals are afterthought comics with stories squeezed into the schedule of a regular comic production schedule.  Sometimes this results in really crappy and painful to read comic books.  Other times an annual is an epic story full of comic world shaking events that change the comic book universe as we know it.  Then there is this comic and it is neither as it is a good story.  The Mad Hatter, the Penguin and the Scarecrow are invited to a home with the promise of an intriguing business proposal.  The usual suspects show up at the location and find out that they were invited into a trap; it also turns out the location chosen was the Arkham youth facility now long closed down.  Oh and it is Halloween Night – the night of trick and treating.  We then get to watch the three villains minds go wild with fears of the Batman gone crazy again and out to get them.  This leads to all sorts of interesting actions.  But in the end it turns out that the Batman just wanted one night that did not require him to run around in costume.  I was amused and entertained.

Earth 2 Annual #1

Earth 2 Annual #1 was good it was entertaining and just plain fun.  While the cover of this issue has a strange looking Batman (Earth 2 Batman #2?) the real story follows the Atom.  We get an origin story for the Earth 2 Atom which is kind of interesting and makes him a more interesting and sympathetic character.  We follow him on a mission to catch a war criminal hiding in a less lawful part of the world.  The fight was interesting, but then we move on to following other heroes.  We see Steel, we see the new Batman and we meet two of the former soldiers of Steppenwolf.  It was all very cool and interesting it was nice to see some backfilling of the Earth 2 history up to current events, even with the silly cliffhanger it looks like a story jump is coming and the creative team used this annual as the bridge.  Things are about to get interesting and I am hoping the creative team does not mess it up.

A + X #8

A + X #8 stars in story one is Spider-Woman and Shadowcat (Kitty Pride) and Lockheed the dragon.  Story two has Deadpool and Hawkeye and I kind of cringe considering both these guys are wisecracking heroes.  So when Spider-Woman texts the Lockheed Dragon to go on a mission with Kitty Pride the are searching for a meteorite of an unknown metal that has been stolen and about to be sold to bad guys.  Apparently Lockheed can smell the metal and they know this because he helped Spider-Woman in outer space once.  Somehow Kitty Pride does not know this story.   There is some amusing running commentary from a civilian in the subway car with the three heroes and Spider-Woman and Shadowcat talk about all this secret S.W.O.R.D / S.H.I.E.L.D stuff knowing that no one would believe the crazy homeless guy – even though he sounds perfectly sane at the moment.  The dragon catches the meteorites sent and the next thing you see is a huge splash page of the Absorbing man fighting a mob of AIM and Hydra agents.  At this point I went from so far so good to oh wow cool.  During this fight they use their real names in front of the bad guys!  Through some very clever dialog Kitty fights and defeats the Absorbing Man singlehandedly.  The AIM and Hydra guys surrender, the meteorite is recovered.  I have to say once again that the dialog in the A + X comics can be really clever and entertaining.  It is fun to have super heroes be smart once in a while.  The Deadpool / Hawkeye story will need to be amazing to beat that story.  The second story is Deadpool and Hawkeye, Hawkeye is driving a car through Grand Central station and down some subway tracks.  Deadpool appears to be more worried than the Hawkguy about them making it to the bad guys alive.  They of course make it to the bad guys in one piece and the fight against pirates begins.  Deadpool decides to also fight with a bow and arrow with of course hilarious results.  They win after even more cleverer arrow shooting.  While entertaining this story just cannot compare to the first.

Uncanny Avengers #8AU (Age of Ultron)

Uncanny Avengers #8AU (Age of Ultron) was a good story; unfortunately it was another Ultron story that happened without Ultron in another timeline that will most likely disappear. The least that could have happened in this story is to have seen at least one Ultron. Upon seeing this cover I was really hoping that Kang would do something interesting. Instead this story appears to just be filler and a training mission for Kang’s adopted children to hunt down and kill someone. But they are sent to kill Colonel America who just happens to be trying to bring Caliban of the Morlocks in to face trial for murder. But Havok, Rogue, Calisto argue with the Colonel until Kang’s kids attack. Lots of Morlocks die, Havok dies, Rogue dies all while there is a philosophical debate about the future of mutant kind. Frankly this story was even more pointless and meaningless than the main Age of Ultron story in this timeline. This is just another tie in for no useful reason as it has nothing to do with the main Ultron storyline or the Uncanny Avengers storyline – the Uncanny Avengers is a comic so bad I have stopped obtaining copies even to review. Bleh.

Deadpool #10!

Deadpool #10 was rather amusing; but first the sad part with the Necromancer and Ben Franklin leaving the group because they could.  The next guy Deadpool is to kill turns out to be some guy also being chased by Spider-Man.  So of course we get a bunch of Spider-Man’s second rate villains to fight.  There is a big fight with the Taskmaster, Lady Stilt Man (is that really her name?), Paste Pot Pete and the Leaper.  With a team like that you know they are going down quick.  There were some good jokes in this issue and I was amused when Deadpool manages to steal a web shooter.   This comic reminded me how much I dislike the “New Superior Spider-Man” just such a terrible character and insult to Spider-Man fans everywhere.  But despite that problem this was a good comic none the less.

The Fearless Defenders #4AU (Age of Ultron)!!

The Fearless Defenders #4AU (Age of Ultron) was interesting.  Unlike the other comics based in this alternative timeline the creative team did something interesting with the setting.  The story is based on Hippolyta getting revenge on the person who killed her and her people the Amazons.  We get to see Latveria in this timeline and it is interesting.  I especially liked seeing the Destroyer (the Asgardian super weapon) laid out dead across part of the capitol.  The story goes that for some reason Doom has been holding gladiatorial games since the end of the magic technology war.  It turns out this was a distraction as the real power behind the thrown was Aries God of War.  Lots of interesting otherworld stuff happens and the good god wins and rallies her Amazons to fight.  Though I don’t know what will become of this since these issues tend to be one shot stories.  I am starting to think this Age of Ultron minus Pym is going to be the next world / timeline that will dump characters onto the main marvel timeline.  Oh I should mention that Wolverine, the Hulk and Colonel America have interesting Cameos along with other characters from the regular Defenders story line.  So I give this comic a good rating.

Fantastic Four #8

Fantastic Four #8 was interesting.  Because Instead of returning to see his loved ones; during his day (for some reason the others kept saying week) of being human.  Ben Grim decides to visit the past and beat up the Yancy Street Gang who were shakedown loan shark type 1930s gangsters.  He meets some of his relatives and helps them out.  But this nice storytelling is ruined by some off stage event back on the time machine with Reid, Sue and the kids and now the Thing is in trouble.  Mind you he is not in trouble for going to beat up people in the past but for something else he might have done while attending college.

Young Avengers #5!!

Young Avengers #5 was good.  Loki feels guilty for abandoning the other young supers and in the end returns to the battle.  After displaying some cool looking magic allowing the good guys to do some smashing they escape to a deserted location to make some plans.  The plan appears to be stay away from crazy parasite mother from another dimension and become super heroes.  Then the comic ends rather dramatically as if the series was over which makes even less sense than any of the previous issues of this comic.

All Star Western #20

All Star Western #20 Featuring Jonah Hex and Booster Gold – The first story in today’s adventure is the Jonah Hex and Booster Gold story.  Unfortunately or fortunately depending on your point of view the evil gang that Hex and Booster were hunting are found dead.  Everyone is dead but the gun crazy guy who fits in the cage where they find him.  Booster in an effort to limit the body count for one day sneaks into a small town.  This is the town with the people who killed the evil outlaw gang.  The townsfolk are not good people and we first meet them when they are killing survivors of some sort.  Booster manages to get away even after being shot many many times.  The leader of the bad guys is not happy and swears he will shoot Booster himself.  This story was entertaining and had lots of clever dialog between Booster and Hex.  Booster it seems while not having all his memory is still more than a bit of a whiner.   The Stormwatch story was much better than in the previous issue but needs more space to fully develop.  They are hunting a vampire queen on the verge of taking over the world using magic (what again?).

Batman the Dark Knight #20!!

Batman the Dark Knight #20 ugh that was terrible.  The artwork was bleak and stark it would have been kind of cool and stylish but instead it just looked like a lazy artist not able to make one person look different from the other.  Then we are still dealing with the Mad Hatter unable to deal with the fact he had a bad high school.  The police and Batman are still unable to figure out where all the dead people floating in the river (or ocean or sewers) came from.  This despite Batman is able to have Alfred hack into top secret government files in just a few hours yet for some reason he can’t figure out where all the people died.  It is just so lame.  Frankly the big finally is lame I mean seriously lame and well frankly the bleak artwork foreshadowed the event that I was more disappointed that the creative team stretched out the torture and abuse of a woman so long.  The people who wrote and approved this story and artwork are just sick women hating fucks if they think this is somehow being creative or good.  They should be ashamed of themselves and I hope their parents never see this horrible evil work.  There is also the problem that there was such a long story block set up for the Mad Hatter and obviously there was not enough creative people on the team to stretch the story out this many issues and we are still not done.  Just Ick.

Batman Li'l Gotham #2

Batman Li’l Gotham #2 was much better than the previous issue.  The first story with Batman Nightwing and Mister Freeze was cute and heartwarming as a silly Christmas should be.  The second story was supposedly a New Year’s Eve Resolution / Revolution story of the three evil women of the Batman universe Catwoman, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn.  But frankly the story was rather week and a retread of what has gone before.  As always the artwork in this comic is lazy and sloppy looking.  At least I only have one more issue left to read.

Age of Ultron Book 8!

Age of Ultron Book 8 was a bit of a letdown.  I thought I had bought a book continuing the Age of Ultron storyline.  Instead all I found was another X-man with guest stars from a variant universe.  This was an entire issue that did nothing but introduces another timeline / universe and somehow hopes we care about character we had never seen before.  I know I said I was looking forward to the next issue but that was with the expectation that this new word and characters would advance the Ultron plot.  I was rather disappointed with the focus on Tony Stark / Iron Man ruling the future because if I wanted to read that comic book all I have to do is go buy the Civil War storyline and after.  I was hoping to see the Wolverines meet or Sue Storm meet her family, or Doctor Strange does something cool or any of the other variant heroes do something.  It is bad when one of the tie in comics is better than the core book.  This was a disappointing issue.

FF #7!

FF #7 was much better than the last few issues as in it made sense.  The entire problem the last few issues was Bentley 23’s father the Wizard.  Anyway much hilarity and confusion ensued; Leech actually got to use his powers that apparently are no longer area of effect.  I really do not have much more to say about this issue.

Iron Man #10 Secret Origin of Tony Stark

Iron Man #10 – The Secret Origin of Tony Stark Part 1 – wait last issue was labeled as part of the Secret Origin storyline.  Anyway, we do not get to see everything that Howard Stark and Recorder 451 said in their little movie.  Tony aka Iron Man does not believe it but we get a flashback where Recorder tells more of the story.  But in reality what we get is a caper job where Howard Stark plots with an alien and some human friends to steal Recorder  451 from other aliens living in Las Vegas.  The crew includes Jimmy Woo, Dum Dum Dugan and Thunderbolt Ross.  They manage to steal Recorder and make their getaway.  It all ends with another to be continued moment in the future.  This was a rather amusing and entertaining story.  I am interested to see what happens next.

Thunderbolts #9

Thunderbolts #9 was the aftermath of the bomb going boom in last issue.  We had a little retelling of the bomb from the other group of players.  The team ends up fighting a squad of Crimson Dynamos which is an interesting fight.  There is for some reason a flash to a C.I.A. outpost in Afghanistan where the agents worry for their lives because they ID people above their pay grade AKA the Thunderbolts team.  The plot continues to move along and at least this issue was less whiny.

Cable and X-Force #8!

Cable and X-Force #8 was good but I have missed some issues here and have no idea what is going on plot wise.  While confusion might not be unusual for this comic I need to try and find the missing issues to find out what is going on to give a better review.

Dynamite Comics Battlestar Galactica #1

Dynamite Comics: Battlestar Galactica #1 was really bad.  It started with a multipage recap of the first Battlestar Galactica movie.  It moved onto Adama having nightmares about the destruction of the colonies.  Then the Galactica and the fleet are attacked by the Cylons and they are losing badly.  So at the insistence of a young Doctor Zee the Galactica deploys temporal weapons.  Things go downhill from there and everything disappears.  I bought this comic because it had the true Battlestar Galactica characters and not the lame assed SciFi Channel Battlestar Galactica characters.  I figured how bad could it be and I found that really bad was possible.  Adama does not even look like either actor who has played him or the previous comic book versions.  The story set up is just stupid.  If someone cannot come up with a decent story without resorting to time travel it is truly a bad sign.  I am so very disappointed.

Avengers Assemble #15AU (Age of Ultron)!!!

Avengers Assemble #15AU (Age of Ultron) was interesting but in the end it felt more like a checklist or inventory of what happened to the super powered people in the United Kingdom – especially in London.  I enjoyed the Doctor Who reference coming from the Ultrons arguing with a civilian.  We had Captain Britain, Excalibur, the Black Knight, a second rate Hero called Computer Graham and a young lady with magic soccer shoes.   After introducing all the players the Heroes except for the Black Knight and Excalibur head off to fight Ultron.  It turns out that Computer Graham’s power is to interface with computer games and Captain Marvel and Captain Britain and the kid fight to get Graham close to Ultron.  They hope Graham’s power will help them defeat Ultron.  But they manage to only shut down an Ultron node while getting everyone killed.  It was rather a downer and while I am sure the creative group was hoping for some “triumph of the human spirit” feel, but all we really got was all the fighting heroes died.   These were the heroes that could hold off Ultron and gather not just survivors but supplies to keep the survivors alive.

Deadpool #9

Deadpool #9 was another cleverly written comic.  But the hunt down the next soul to kill thing got old fast especially since Deadpool is not into the killing and joke slinging like normal.  I guess having a good lady sharing brain space makes Deadpool more concerned about others.  The travel to the First One’s library was actually entertaining and at least they found some information to move the plot along.  Not much else to say about this comic.

Fearless Defenders #4

Fearless Defenders #4 was good if a bit wordy.  The Doom Maidens are risen and getting more powerful by the moment.  Valkyrie is it turns out a Doom Maiden.  They manage to save Moonstar and they all escape.  Valkyrie has a flashback and proposes a plan of action.  While there is not much to say about this issue it was entertaining and moved the story forward.

Thor God of Thunder #8

Thor God of Thunder #8 was entertaining as previous issues had been while some were lacking.  Young Thor is working to help build the godbomb along with thousands of other gods.  Young Thor meets his Granddaughters the Goddesses of Thunder (all three of whom are wearing a lot of spandex for some reason even if they are not wearing much clothing at all).  Young Thor manages to get hold of a bomb build by the slave gods and goes to try and destroy the godbomb.  All he does is toss himself into space.  Where he manages to hit the middle Thor with a shark – where the shark came from no one knows.  But it is an amusing break between old Thor asking for more ale.  The final splash page is very nicely done and dramatic as all three Thors united together are ready to attack Gorr the God Killer.  While the story is interesting this whole Godbomb story tacked onto the original Three Thors against the God killer storyline is just disappointing.  The original story with the growth of the Thors seemed well done and interesting and then just abandoned.  I am still waiting on an Explanation on how Gorr a mortal was able to not just kill gods not just gods in single combat but entire pantheons of Gods.  Gorr killed thousands of Gods if not millions of them.  Then those he does not slay (which is against the stated storyline) he has been enslaving gods to mine minerals to build his bomb.  I’m still waiting to find out how some peon has been able to pull this off.  It is obvious that Gorr is now a god by virtue of his slaying of gods but it still does not explain his ability to slay so many gods.  I fear that in the end of this story arc everything will be erased and go back to gods are powerful and un-slayable.

Batman #20 !!!

Batman #20 was the continuation of the stupid Clayface story with Clayface having a new power when he mimics other people.  The fight was interesting none the least.  I especially like how Batman fakes out Commissioner Gordon with the supposedly fake DNA to show he was not actually Bruce Wayne.   This all seems to just be an excuse to set up the Batman Year Zero storyline starting next issue.  There were a few weird things going on that could only be explained by no one knowing who Batman really was.  Then there was the Superman team-up story with the demon or ghost.  It was interesting and thankfully short.  I did think it was funny that Superman could not find Batman at the end of the story.

Batman the Dark Knight #19!

Batman the Dark Knight #19 was interesting but this Mad Hatter storyline is getting old.  The Mad Hatter is trying to reproduce some part of his life before he became a villain.  In fact after all this time no one has been able to figure out how the Mad Hatter has been taking his victims even though hundreds of people walk off at the same time to the same meeting place.  I realize that lots of people die in Gotham every day but if hundreds of people drown themselves in one go as we see in this issue it seems maybe someone would notice.  But in the end it just feels like sloppy writing and editing.

Age of Ultron #7

Age of Ultron Book Seven was really good.  If it had been an issue of the Fantastic Four or X-Men (or one of the Wolverine titles) I would have been ecstatic.  Instead the story (which ends in a cliff hanger) has nothing to do with the Ultron story even if the first few pages were Sue Storm and Wolverine wondering if they had done the right thing or not in killing Hank Pym.  When our heroes return to the “present” they are attacked by the Defenders seemingly acting much like the Avengers.  It was very interesting to see the “present” heroes and how they were different from our main timeline counterparts.   Wolverine was still the stereotypical Wolverine and the Thing along with Dr. Strange seemed normal.  But Colonel America (Looks like Nick Fury), The Hulk (with Bruce Banners Brain) Captain Marvel (Jean Grey?) Cable (Cyclops) as well as Star-Lord seemed different.  The biggest change seems to be Tony Stark has gone all armor and protecting us for our own good.  I am interested in seeing how this sub story turns out but would prefer some focus on the main story.

Hawkeye #10

Hawkeye #10 was alright and slightly interesting.  But the story was simply filler and a flash back with almost no dialog.  Someone was trying to be arty or at least pad out an entire issue of a comic book without having real dialog or action.  I was disappointed.

Iron Man #9 The Secret Origin of Tony Stark!

Iron Man #9 was awesome the story was so good I will even forgive the writers for stealing the intro tag from the Hawkeye Comic Book.  Apparently this comic book is the story of Tony Stark (IE Iron Man) and what he does when he is on a break from the Guardians of the Galaxy; Star Lord even makes a guest appearance at the beginning of the story.  Tony seeks out and finds Deaths Head and hires him to hunt down Recorder 451.  Deaths Head has some really great lines and banter with Iron Man.  They manage to track down 451 and Deaths Head turns Tony over to recorder 451.  Not so much betraying Iron Man as Recorder had paid first and more than Tony had promised.  This is where it gets weird as Recorder 451 shows Tony Stark a film (Yes a film) recording of Tony’s father much like from the movies and Tony’s father is apologizing and saying how much he loves Tony and then we see Tony’s father and Recorder 451 sharing the same time and space on film.  I will be very disappointed if this is all just some mind washing on the Recorders part.  But it did deliver on the tag line “The Secret Origin of Tony Stark”.

Iron Man the Coming of the Melter!

Iron Man the Coming of the Melter was a one shot collection of a modern Melter story and an older story.  The first story was interesting and co-stared War Machine.  The story itself was typical comic book.  The good guys get beat up and embarrassed then spend time hunting down the bad guy.  Then there is a big fight and the good guys win.  There was a bit of corny dialog but at least the story was entertaining.  The second story was funny and had Iron Man going to a comic book convention while hunting down the Melter.  There is much hilarity as all the people in really good consume confuse Tony and stress him out.  Another villain appears and there is a fight and Tony is saved by some guy in an Iron Man costume.  In the end the consumed guy wins the day and Tony Stark as Iron Man is kicked out of the convention.  This second story had potential but it was mostly wasted here as the story lacked the context of the time period and continuity of when it was written.  This one shot felt as though it was missing some commentary or editorial explaining whatever was going on.

All New X-Men #11

All New X-Men #11 was truly really bad.  I’m sorry I kept buying this comic book series.  If I had wanted whiny spoiled stupid X-Men comic books I would just read the main line of X-books.  I liked this comic series because it was different.  But now it is just the same as all the other X-books.  Disappointed.

Batman Detective Comics #20

Batman Detective Comics #20 or the Emperor Penguin comes to power.  Somehow the Emperor Penguin spends the first half of this comic kicking Batman’s ass.  He hangs Batman from a tree and leaves him to die – always a bad idea to not ensure the job was complete.  How Batman did not notice that maybe the Emperor Penguin would be a threat makes a big case that maybe Batman is not really that great a detective.  Meanwhile the true Penguin Cobblepot gets his out of jail for free card played.  The Penguin then goes and saves Batman from dying and they work together to capture the Emperor Penguin.  It was all a rather routine and boring Batman compared to the more recent stories.  We then get a backup origin story of the Emperor Penguin, the son of a no-body mobster killed for no reason.  Once in Blackgate prison the Emperor Penguin is taken to see the “Boss” of Blackgate prison and kills him after they talk for a bit.  Then on his way back to his cell he tells everyone to call him Emperor Blackgate.

Dial H #12

Dial H #12 was confusing and seemed to go off in a totally different direction from where the story left off last month.  The repair creature goes off kind of randomly chasing dials while Roxie and Nelson fight with Centipede and the other guy hand to hand.  Then things get weird.  Suddenly there are more heroes and sidekicks that you could poke with a stick, they all end up back in the hidden Canadian military base where there are another bunch of dial users and a lot of people saying I’ll tell you all about it later.  The repair thing and Centipede get pushed back through the portal to the signalverse or wherever the dials come from.  Then someone points out that this was exactly what Centipede wanted as if it was a bad thing.  At this point I will say that the creative team for this comic has totally lost their way.