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.

Earth 2 #12

Earth 2 #12 was good it was a nice entertaining conclusion to the three part Doctor Fate story.  We get a bit of the story out of order and not because of magic but that is a minor complaint.  Doctor Fate fights Wotan, while Green Lantern and the Flash keep the world army away from the fight.  They do manage to save the Flash’s mother.  Hawkgirl has a quick cameo but that was more of a way to introduce Green Lantern into the story again.  Doctor Fate wins the fight even while arguing with the soul of the original Doctor Fate.  The group ends up in Green Lantern’s home (minus Hawkgirl) in the skyscraper he owns they are planning on what to do next when breaking news happens.  The World Army has learned Steppenwolf had taken over the country of Dheran war had been declared and the world was about to attack.

Worlds' Finest Huntress and Power Gril #12

Worlds’ Finest Huntress and Power Girl #12 was very disappointing.   Having Desaad show up pretending to be Mister Miracle was an inspired plot twist.  But for whatever reason making it so that no one but Power Girl or the Huntress could see his true form or the fight was lame and a sure sign of sloppy lazy writing.  Then having Power Girls Tony Stark like Business Empire magically crumble with no way to stop it was well copying 30 year old Iron Man stories.  Then having Desaad attack and kill off the normal people that worked for Power Girl and helped to make the story interesting makes me less likely to buy future issues.  I had enjoyed Worlds’ Finest current incarnation because it was based in the current Batman New52 world and lived by those rules.  But now Desaad can just summon tanks and armies to crush unpowered normal people and no one in the world notices; not the Justice League, not the Justice League of America (they were formed to stop this crap) no one in the world notices.  It is just breaking from the already established continuity of the comic.  Disappointing.

Indestructible Hulk #7!!

Indestructible Hulk #7 was interesting.  Lots of stuff happened.  It appears the Banner and the team has travel back in time before Thor had met the Hulk and the Avengers.  The fight with the Frost Giants continues but sort of just fizzles out.  One Frost Giant manages to put an arm through the portal and makes a mess of things.  The people at the base are forced to disable the portal and that creates a problem.  One of the Frost Giants using magic is impersonating one of Banners Assistants.  Thor’s dialog is very entertaining.  Overall this was a good entertaining comic.  

A + X #7

A + X #7 was another excelling amazing and fun issue pairing members of the Avengers and X-Men fighting to save the day.  The first issue has Iron Man (Tony Stark) and the Beast working together to prevent the corruption of an anti-Hulk weapon by a computer virus.  The dialog was well written and sharp with Tony completely on target with his wisecracking and genius.  The Beast also had some great dialog.  In the end Iron Man fails to prevent the computer virus from taking over the power armor that was meant to fight the Hulk.  The now rogue armor is winning the fight when the Hulk shows up returning from a mission and destroys the anti-Hulk armor accidentally.  It turns out this was all set up by Bruce Banner as a way to remind Tony Stark and the Beast who was the smartest of them all (in the Marvel Universe anyway).  The second story stared Iceman and Thor.  They are fighting against a new Frost Giant whom had entered our human world to destroy it.  He had a new weapon that was all power full.  Thor was doing the traditional trying to smash the bad guy with his hammer while Iceman quipped at Thor’s bad luck, because frankly Iceman was much outclassed.  Also Iceman was enjoying mocking Thor.   Thor manages to power the Casket of Ancient Winters an object that could destroy the world.  One side effect of the onslaught of a powerful winter blast was to increase Iceman’s powers.  Iceman manages to take down the Frost Giants where Thor had failed.  The humor in this story was really good and in the end even Thor got the joke.  As I said above both stories were very entertaining and if you have not checked out this team-up comic you should.

Deadpool #8

Deadpool #8 was very interesting.  The story starts out with a recap and showing that the previous “flashback” and “unpublished” issue ties into the new story line.  Deadpool makes plans with Agent Preston whose soul lives now that she is dead.  Turns out the demon from the previous issue is calling in the debt owned since Deadpool did not fulfill their contract correctly – Deadpool is required to hunt down and kill people who had made deals with the Devil.  The team regroups with Benjamin Franklin and the Necromancer and then head off to try and fix things.  Deadpool manages to capture the first target and while walking away he is waylaid by a pretty woman and friends.  Once Deadpool was taken down they harvested his blood and organs.  Apparently this has been going on for a while now and they are good at the harvesting.  This is weird even for Deadpool and another plot that the writers might follow up on at a later time.

Deadpool Killustrated #4

Deadpool Killustrated #4 was somewhat interesting.  Deadpool kills a few more interesting characters but no epic battles or long story telling as happened in the first two issues.  Reading this comic right after reading Deadpool number eight from the regular Deadpool series made me realize this mini-series was weak in comparison.  It seems as if they creative team is just interested in making another mini-series after another doing as little work as possible after the first issue. 

Fantastic Four #7

Fantastic Four #7 happens in the very very very very far future the end of time actually.  In addition Blastaar is still alive.  The residents of the future are very nice and helpful allowing the Fantastic Four to fix their ship.  The kids do something very clever.  The Fantastic Four steal Blastaar for what appears to be a stupid reason and dump him into the Negative Zone.  Ben Grim has turned human and is currently not the Thing.  The merry band is on Ben’s request is apparently heading home.

FF #6

FF #6 was again very disappointing.  Well the part where one of the Mole Kids deciding it was female that was kind of interesting.  What was bad was how most of the issue was dedicated to the Yancy Street Gang bullying Darla Deering, the solution taken by Ant-Man was to cyber bully them back.  I’m not sure that if the gang was truly as apt as hackers as claimed in this story that one hack back would stop them.  If it was me and I was a punk kid I would keep right on doing this thing that made me money and got me attention.  That is the problem this comic book says that the correct solution to being bullied is to do something worse back to your bully.  Not find a peaceful way to resolve the issue or go to the proper authorities when your phone is hacked.  No you need to get revenge.  So where does this cycle stop?  Does it stop with guns killing people?  It just shows to me that the people working on this comic are not taking the job seriously.  I’m very disappointed.

Guardians of the Galaxy #2 !!!

Guardians of the Galaxy #2 was good it was basically a fight interspersed with a flashback.   The good guys fight to save the Earth and specifically London from alien attack.  There was also a flashback to a meeting of powerful people including Peter Quill’s father J-Son of the Royal Conclave of Spartax where there is a frank discussion of what to do with the Earth.  It was kind of cool to see who showed up for this little shindig lots of powerful leaders.  All of them at one time of the other have invaded attacked or otherwise messed with the people of Earth the; Supereme Intelligence of the Kree Empire, Gladator leader of the Shi’ar (Ok they know they are not rulers of the Galaxy) Young Annihilus leader of the Negative Zone, Queen of the Brood! The All-Mother of the Asgardians Freyja and Y-Gaaar of the Brotherhood of the Badoon. Back at the battle I was amused by how the good guys kept trying to contact others on Earth for help in the fight.  I especially liked the count down on power level of groups they should try to contact; The Avengers, the Fantastic Four, Defenders then how about the Power Pack.  In the end the heroes win the battle but are “arrested” for violating the agreement that no one was to land on the Earth.  

Young Avengers #4!!

Young Avengers #4 was a mid-fight issue but at least Hawkeye and Marvel Boy show up and rather dramatically save the group from the disco.   Marvel Boy’s parents arrive and the fight goes on air born and away from the city.  Loki finally talks Wiccan into giving him his powers.  Loki appears to run away leaving the group to fight the evil parental clones. 

All Star Western Featuring Jonah Hex #19!!

All Star Western Featuring Jonah Hex #19 – where Jonah meats Booster Gold in the old west.  The story starts with a lot of posturing until Hex establishes his dominance over Booster Gold (was there ever any doubt?).  Hex is after an evil outlaw gang and Booster is the sheriff of a local small town – unsurprisingly the gang Hex was tracking arrives at the town and robs the bank burning down most of the town and killing many of the townsfolk.  Needing a rest before heading out after the bad guys we learn the story of how Booster Gold became sheriff of this small town which somehow includes information from before Booster arrived in the time period of the current story.  The backup story is another Stormwatch story of the Master Gunfighter.  He comes upon a wagon train attacked by bandits and the blood on the ground from the fight attracts what appear to be werewolves that can be killed by regular bullets.  Apparently the Master Gunfighter is good at fighting the supernatural.  The survivors are sent off to a nearby town and the Gunfighter is met by Stormwatch.  I was not really impressed by the backup story and the main story needed more time to develop.  I fear that this Booster Gold has not retained any of his character development from previous storylines.

Katana #3

Katana #3 guest stars the Killer Croc which is kind of interesting and makes for an interesting fight at the end of the book.  As for Katana she spies on the bad guys, she trains and then hunts down and fights the bad guys.  It was all rather disappointing and the story feels disconnected from the first two issues of this comic book series.  Without Killer Croc breaking her sword and releasing the Creeper it would have been a total loss.

Before Watchmen - Comedian #6

Before Watchmen – Comedian #6 was probably the best story of the series.  Unfortunately all we got was a retelling of what we already knew about the Comedian and his backstory from reading the original Watchmen series.  We already knew he killed him and now we knew he cried about it.  It says volumes about this Before Watchmen series that a simple recap issue is the best of the set focusing on this character.

Age of Ultron #6!

Age of Ultron Book Six was interesting.  The heroes were broken into two teams in this issue one went to the future and the other went to the recent past.  The two heroes who went to the past were Wolverine and Sue Storm.  They went into the past to kill Hank Pym in an attempt to prevent Ultron from ever being created.  The other larger team went to the future in some stupid plan to attack Ultron in his future where he dominates the world.  In the past Wolverine and Sue Storm steal a flying car from a youngish Nick Fury and fly to Manhattan in search of Pym.  Considering the importance of the situation there was a lot of talking.  The group in the future did not fare well because well they were trying to sneak up on a world controlling robot that had had forever to prepare. 

Captain Marvel #12

Captain Marvel #12 was a long drawn out full issue fight that ended up being boring and uninteresting.  The fight included a lot of taunting dialog between Captain Marvel and Deathbird.  We also see the story evolving from Captain Marvel’s doctor and another doctor consulting on her case.  The two doctors talk through the problem and figure out it seems that Captain Marvel is being poisoned.  The weakness of this issue might have something to do with this being a tie in issue with an Avengers title.  In fact Spider-Woman makes a non-speaking cameo in a few panels of the comic.  Anyway this issue was disappointing and very subpar compared to previous issues of this comic book.

Iron Man #8!

Iron Man #8 was good and entertaining.  Tony Stark fights or at least runs from Deaths Head for a while killing time.  Eventually Recorder 451 activates the Iron Man armor and it goes to rescue Tony Stark – the P.E.P.P.E.R. operating system continues to be entertaining but P.E.P.P.E.R. is no Jarvis.  Tony is able to rearm and fight off his pursers.  While he is off fighting the Eternals show up and begin destroying the Voldi world space station.  At this point Recorder 451 confesses that this was all his fault and apologizes for misleading Tony and destroying the Voldi.  Tony returns to see the devastation and swears that he will track down Recorder 451 and make it pay.  There is no mention if Deaths Head survives or not.  This is the disappointing end to the Godkiller story arc.

Wolverine and the X-Men #27 AU (Age of Ultron)

Wolverine and the X-Men #27AU (Age of Ultron) was interesting and storytelling all in one.  This was the story of Sue Storm and Wolverine making their way from the Savage Lands to Manhattan to confront Hank Pym as detailed in the main Age of Ultron book.  Both characters have an interesting adventure while exploring a S.H.I.E.L.D base in search of a power pack for their stolen flying car.  Wolverine encounters the Brood and Sue spies on her family.  It turns out this small out of the way S.H.I.E.L.D base was into a little over everything.  Their actions have no obvious consequences that would interfere with the main storyline.   

Thunderbolts #8

Thunderbolts #8 continues the story of the search for special weapons or armor that might be very dangerous.  The team heads to stake out and capture the arms dealer of interest and for some reason that makes no sense to me they kill Deadpool (for what that is worth he will be back).  The Thunderbolts then attack and kill everyone at the meeting but the arms dealer.  They question the guy and he answers a phone given to him by the seller of special items and then a big boom happens to end this issue on a cliff hanger.  Considering the team is the Red Hulk, Venom, Elektra and Punisher I am not truly concerned that they would not survive the explosion.  In fact I will be highly disappointed if the next issue does not begin with a Deadpool quip.  But I suspect that any normal that had survived to this point including the arms deal would not survive the bomb blast.

Age of Ultron #5

Age of Ultron Book Five was good.  There was very little action beyond the Red Hulk getting zapped by the original Nick Furry.  The story starts out with a flashback to a few months ago when Hank Pym Tony Stark (Iron Man) and Reed Richards fixed the Vision.  We then flash to current events where we find Austin Texas had not yet been destroyed for some reason, until now.  We then get to see the planning and arming session of the Good Guys in Nick Fury’s secret bunker.  The Red Hulk gets Ares God of War’s axe and Tony gets his old not networked or hackable by Ultron armor.   The plan turns out to be part of the group using Doctor Doom’s time platform to attack Ultron in the future.  Once they are gone Wolverine decides to power up the platform to go back into time to kill Hank Pym before Pym builds Ultron.