The Mighty Avengers #11

The Mighty Avengers #11 was an amazing read. I do not know if the Mighty Avengers comic has been this good or this is just the Original Sin storyline making things better. But I just have to say how great a comic is when it is good! The story follows Luke Cage to his father where we learn about the father's history with super heroics in the 1970s. We even get to see Blade in his full on 70s' glory. If you have not read this story go buy it now!

Amazing Spider-Man #1 Printing Damage!

Considering the very high cost I paid for the latest and greatest version of the Amazing Spider-Man #1 (V3 2014) I am disappointed.  If I have to pay $5.99 for a comic book I assume the paper quality will be better than a regular issue, heavier paper and maybe even glossy paper.  Unfortunately this new number one comic book was printed on low quality paper and every single copy I found had been damaged during printing / shipping.  I actually went to more than one comic book store looking to see if the problem with the comic was specific to my regular comic book shop or not.  This damage may also have something to do with the issue having more pages than is the norm.  But in the end Marvel Comics made a bad choice when printing this comic and it shows.  The book arrived at stores damaged.  The paper feels weird when you hold the comic.  The artwork does not look good with this choice of paper.  I am very disappointed and I have yet to actually read the stories contained in this comic.  I just do not get it this comic was important and heavily promoted the least that the publisher could have done was to put some effort into making for a nice presentation.  It is not like price was going to be a problem as I already see this comic selling for above cover price.

Now that Rant is out of my system time to go read some Spider-Man!

Marvel Comics - Original Sin #0 - Spoilers!

Spoilers! Below!


Marvel Comics Event Original Sin issue #0 – wait a second this is starting with issue number zero? And the series is zero out of eight?  Why not just make this a nine issue series and not make up one of those lame fake first issues by making a number one and a number zero.  Anyway, the story follows the most recent person to be the super hero Nova (Sam Alexander).  I have not been following his comic but in this appearance he seems like a skinny Spider-Man wannabe just not as smart and possibly whinier.  The advantage he has is this super stuff still amazes him and his sense of wonder is still intact.  Apparently Nova and the Watcher Uatu are buddies with Nova having some type of emotional attachment to the big silent all seeing Watcher.

First the story summary: After Nova defeats a giant evil robot posing as an ancient God singlehandedly he meets with the Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man and Thor).  During their conversation Nova learns a few things about Uatu and flies off to ask the Watcher a question.  Nova gives the Watcher a gift of some soil from the battlefield where the Phoenix Force was “destroyed” by the X-men and Avengers.  After being given the gift Uatu leads Nova through the Watcher’s base.  During the tour Nova finds a rather well stocked armory containing many powerful weapons including an Ultimate Nullifier (A little forshading?).  He then ends up in a monitor room where Uatu tells in video the story of why the Watcher’s do what they do.  Then we see that the Watcher watches not just our Earth (Earth of universe 616 for those that care) and our Galaxy but all realities and their variants just like being given access to all the “What If?” comics at once.  Nova then asks the question he has been dying to ask and then flies away.  We also learn that one of the Watcher’s reasons for all this searching is that he is looking for a universe where the Watcher’s and their first meddling with other races did not lead to the self-destruction of the Prosilican race in a self-inflicted Nuclear War.

I have always enjoyed the “What If?” line of Marvel Comic Books.  When well-done these stories were excellent they were the tales not told or told from another point of view.  A place where the good guys winning was not the only outcome and often leads to horrible endings.  Since these stories were told by the Watcher Uatu I liked him.  He was like that one cool historian people would not mock for his interests.  Frankly that is the only reason I picked up this new Mini-Series by Marvel Comics Titled Original Sin. The Watcher was a primary character and part of the story even as a murder victim peaked my interest.  At the very least this could be an entertaining disaster of a comic book story.  The first story here was well done if really more of hey this is the heavy lifting of all the backstory of the Watcher Uatu and what he does skulking about on the far side of the Moon.  I guess that is why the issue was labeled number zero and not number one you might be able to skip this issue.  In the end this issue was a good read and I was entertained.  I admit to being a little worried the story would suck.

Worlds’ Finest Huntress and Power Girl #15

Worlds’ Finest Huntress and Power Girl #15 – really this whole Dessad thing was just a lead up for a Forever Evil Tie in?  That is seriously disappointing.  I was thinking this story was getting better until the “cliffhanger” ending.   I have made no secret that I am unhappy with how DC Comics and this creative team have treated these two strong female characters that are the stars of this comic.  I do not like how suddenly as if by magic they cannot win any situation; their base of operations, their friends dying with no second thought by the creative team to how this will end.  Well now we know why the creative team was happy to ruin a really good comic.  They had to set things up for a mega-cross-over comic event.  Lame.

Robocop Last Stand #1

Robocop Last Stand #1 a Frank Miller Comic and all I have to say is it is about time!  It was the introduction issue so I was not expecting much but a lot of this issue felt more like filler than actual story.  Oh well there are eight more issues for the comic to improve.  The artwork is a bit over stylized and silly.  The art is really showing the age of the subject and it just looks bad.  Unfortunately I am sure that artwork is not going to improve that looks like a choice.  I have to say while the story so far felt like filler is not to say it was not good and interesting.

Avengers A.I. #2

Avengers A.I. #2  continues a short while after the end of the previous issue.  The Avengers A.I. team is trying to figure out the origin of a new android (for lack of a better category term other than robot) named Alexis.  The Vision as usual is being his logical best, Doombot still thinks it is Doctor Doom and acting like it, Victor Mancha is uncertain about his place in the team and Hank Pym is acting cool.  It turns out that the new villain Dimitrios is another A.I. that has taken over an old fully automated Iron Man armor and is trying to wage war on humanity.  He hijacks a Sentinel to attack Washington D.C. the attack fails of course, but not before giving Doombot a couple of fun lines before it loses its head in the fight; though it appears that the true plan of Dimitrios was actually to gain control of the Vision or at least access to his communication network making his monolog available to the entire world to view.  The monologue goes on and on for pages and could have been copied from any one of Magneto’s rants about mutants replacing humans.  But in this case replace mutant with A.I. and other mechanical / electrical based creatures taking over the world.  In other words just a bit of the same old same old in the Marvel Comics Universe.  But I must say the dialogue was good and the story was interesting.  Good stuff.   

Deadpool Kills Deadpool #2

Deadpool Kills Deadpool #2 and this is where it gets weird!  The story is actually sort of interesting here if somewhat confusing.   It is impossible to tell which Deadpool is trying to help out the “real”Deadpool and which Deadpool is trying to kill him.  But what can I say it is all very entertaining and someone has way way way way way to much free time on their hands if they can go about creating all these different Deadpools.  We visit a world that seems to be populated only by Deadpool variants of other Marvel characters.  Some of the Deadpools from the might Marvel Multi-verse are really crazy and could probably support at least an entire issue on their own.  But I have to give bonus points to Pandapool “the Species that endangers you!” and of course the Deadpool that shows up for the cliffhanger ending of this comic Galactuspool.

Hunger #2

Hunger #2 and finally the Silver Surfer shows up not our Silver Surfer but at least he knows what he is doing.  There is some time spent with Rick Jones trying to help survivors of the Galactus fight.  The Kree have a plan to cause stars to Super Nova in order to destroy not just the Galactus Swarm but the true Galactus as well.   It was kind of interesting seeing this Silver Surfer interact with Galactus.  Rick and the Surfer escape to Earth just before the star system is destroyed.  But it appears they simply drew Galactus and the swarm to Earth.  Fun times and it was a good time for a cliffhanger ending.  While not a perfect story it was interesting and I was entertained.

Iron Man #14

Iron Man #14 the Secret Origin of Tony Stark.  The God killer story actually turned out to be interesting.  Having Recorder 451, Deaths Head and Iron Man made for some interesting story telling.  There was also some really well written dialog.  Unfortunately after the good stuff the comic ends in a very typical and horribly corny cliffhanger.  Now if Tony cannot find a fix to the problem another world full of people will be destroyed, that world? Earth.

Ame-Comi Girls #6

Ame-Comi Girls #6.  The ladies of the comic are all teleported against their will to confront a new evil.  Turns out it was the same evil the reader has known about for a while.  It is Sinestra who looks like the Yellow Lantern but acts more stupid.  She is out to destroy the universe and start something new.  The good ladies get a power boosts and their outfits turn white.  There is then a long boring fight with much talking about life death and the universe.  The good ladies all die.  Talk about a cliff hanger and as the comic says “I bet you did not see that coming.”  I have to say again the artwork for this series has seriously gone downhill and even through each character in this book are very distinct there are many pages where it is impossible to tell one lady from another.  This comic has taken a turn I did not think possible, it got worse.

Batman Detective Comics #23

Batman Detective Comics #23 was more of the Wrath storyline.  Frankly this story is getting old yet again Batman is not smart enough or quick enough to save the life of Police officers in Gotham City.  What is worse is Batman knows who the bad guy is and what he does.  Bruce Wayne cannot even beat the bad guy in his everyday man disguise.  So Bruce decides to sell Wayne Industries as a means to find out the villains evil plan.  This ends with Alfred kidnaped and the bad guy launching his attack on the city.  This story just feels so much like the long and crappy Mad Hatter story or the Court of Owls lameness.  The 2^nd story was much better though the Man-Bat story is drifting into the same old same old cliché of comic book land.  Even though the Man-Bat story is starting to lose focus and continuity it was still a better read than the main Batman story. 

Dial H #15

Dial H #15 continues the fight against the Operator and Centipede.  Just a few of the good guys seem to be left and are continuing to lose while taking their fight to the bad guys.  I am not really sure I like this story.  Dial H is much more interesting as a fight back on Earth against low level villains using random low level heroes from the rather impressive back catalog of characters from the DC Universe.  So to have this all the result of a war that destroyed whole worlds killing billions and billions of living creatures is very much against the spirit of Dial H.  I keep buying the comic hoping this story line will end and something a little less depressing will show up – one can hope.

Earth 2 #15

Earth 2 #15 was very disappointing.  We were promised at the end of the last issue a good fight.  Instead the good guys going after Steppenwolf are defeated worst yet we learn the story in a bad flashback.  The dialog is terrible.  If the good guys were going to lose at least we could have seen the fight.   So that part of the comic ends after much buildup in a very disappointing cliffhanger as the world army moves to be destroyed by the three new villains.  We then see Hawkgirl captured without fuss.  We then see the fight in Gotham continue only to be accompanied by dialog that even the writers of the X-Men would consider bad.  The fight is interrupted by the Red Tornado (one of many robots made apparently).  I was rather disappointed by this issue so much of the old plot lines abandoned so that the heroes could go to war and though the war buildup story we got was interesting.  But now the creative team is just jumping past this to something else.  So very disappointed.

Superman Annual #2

Superman Annual #2.  This was an interesting story, I was a little annoyed that the creative team chose to us a Noir style of conveying the story.  It was rather suspect when the first thing that happens is Lois Lane dies.  Then we a have an annual long story explaining how we end up with Lois Lane dying in Superman’s arms.  There is an innocent victim looking for help, Lois Lane does her reporter thing and then the big reveal.  It turns out Brainiac infected a number of random humans with a super virus that gives them powers.  This was a warning that Brainiac would be back.  Oh and Lois Lane is not dead maybe, but she has been infected by the Brainiac virus.  It turns out that this annual was actual just backstory and advertisement for an “event” in the normal Superman and Action Comics universe.   The entire story was suspiciously heavy handed and left this reader rather disappointed.

Captain Marvel #14

Captain Marvel #14 makes me wonder what Marvel Comics has for killing off their popular and not so popular female characters.    It was not just killing her off but she had to sacrifice herself i.e. commit suicide to win the day.  It is bad enough that this is all part of some multi-part cross over series that actually should have ended in the previous month.   But worst of all she is not really dead.  It says so at the back of the book so all her friends’ mourning is just for effect and not real.  It is fake!  Things will go back to normal next time Captain Marvel returns.  Lame.  If I had not already bought additional comics I would have stopped collecting this series.

Fearless Defenders #7

Fearless Defenders #7 was good and continues the quality you would expect from the Defenders comic book.  Annabelle has received her reward with an afterlife in Valhalla.  Needless to say she is not happy with the warriors’ heaven.  It does turn out that Valkyrie is out looking for a way to bring Annabelle back to life.  How this all works out it kind of interesting, a spell is cast I could go on and but really that would just spoil the comic.  So just go get yourself a copy and read it.  Needless to say this comic ends with a to be continued moment.

Guardians of the Galaxy #5

Guardians of the Galaxy #5 – Introduces a Neil Gaiman / Todd McFarlane character Angela from the pages of Spawn.  This comic is one that is experiencing the aftermath of the Age of Ultron and the disruption of the Marvel Comic timeline.  Peter Quill goes looking for answers to his vision of the break in the universe while the rest of the team heads off to protect Earth from Angela.  Angela has no known record of existing according to the Guardians.  The dialog for this story was interesting and well written.  I like what has happened so far. 

Indestructible Hulk Agent of T.I.M.E. #11

Indestructible Hulk Agent of T.I.M.E. #11 – alright that was a very fun read.  The story continues the trend of Hulk / Banner stories being smart.  The timeline / universe has been broken for a number of reasons related in no small part to the Age of Ultron storyline.  S.H.I.E.L.D was trying to make a fix but failed.  It turns out that only the Hulk can survive this journey through time.  We are introduced to Zarrko a time traveling villain who wants to help in no small part because this is the Zarrko before he became a bad guy fighting the Hulk and Thor.  Zarrko has provided technology from the future to try and help fix the timeline.  While I agree sending the Hulk out to fix something as breakable as time is a bad idea this would not be a Hulk comic without him.  So there was some smart sounding dialog along with some nifty art.  The issue ends with the Hulk entering the time stream with a robot version of Bruce Banner along for the ride.  They emerge from the timeline at the feet of some cowboys who do the only smart thing when faced with the Hulk, RUN!  But when the camera shifts we see that it was not the Hulk who scared the cowboys but it was a T-rex.  If I was not clear I enjoyed this comic and thought it was not just entertaining but good.

Superior Spider-Man Team-Up #1

Superior Spider-Man Team-Up #1 – This comic was actually better than I expected.  So far my exposure to the updated Spider-Man has been subpar as this is a terrible character.  It was also annoying that the entire conceit of the comic is that Spider-Man is an asshole who goes around beating and nearly killing people.  But with the help of others he saves the day so everything is ok.  It would be nice if the creative team at Marvel Comics was not so bent on destroying Peter Parker and the  Spider-Man character.  I have said this before but it bears repeating it makes me sad that the Comic Book character that helped me got through life as a teen has been destroyed.  I am sad to see this trend continues and really if the creative team wants to stop publishing Spider-Man stories they should just stop.

Batman Annual #2

Batman Annual #2 was interesting.  This was the story of Arkham Asylum, an orderly’s first day and the asylums first patient.  We also had Batman because without him there would not be a Batman comic book.  Batman was at the Asylum to test some new security features.  The new orderly was there on his first day to try and help people, there was a joke about him being from Metropolis.  The first patient was there because she felt guilty for accidentally killing her parents back in the day before there was an Arkham Asylum.  She was still alive because she had a power that let her travel through walls and the rest what we call solid objects.  She was unhappy with Batman for turning her home and place of healing into a place of punishment where people such as the Joker are sent.  So she decides this time she will try to kill Batman in payment for how he changed her safe place.  It was an interesting and sad story, well done.  But the tie-in to the Zero Year was clumsy and not more than a single page – basically Zero Year was mentioned simply to help sell this comic.  If you bought this comic just because of the Zero Year tie-in you were robbed.

Batman Detective Comics Annual #2

Batman Detective Comics Annual #2 – This issue tells three related stories.  The first one is Batman tracking down a person who could make herself the perfect copy of a person but her copy was only a mask as she was no Clayface.  I am not really sure why but there is a one page appearance of the Wrath who saves the bad lady called Jane Doe.  She takes the identity of the person she copies and then does something bad, a bank robbery or jewelry store heist.  Batman figures it all out at the last moment and saves the day and Harney Bullock’s life.  The next story is kind of interesting in it appears to be Bullock going to confront Jane Doe about why she picked him.  But in the end it turns out to just Jane Doe being somewhat crazy.  The final story was kind of disappointing in that it is just Bullock feeling sorry for himself.  Apparently Bullock is unable to be the great cop that Jane Doe was while impersonating him.

Hunger #1 - Age of Ultron Aftermath

Hunger  #1 – Age of Ultron Aftermath.  It figures that Rick Jones would have something to do with the end of a Universe.  I just kind of expected it to be the end of our universe – but I kid - I always liked Rick Jones.  The problem is he was just in way to many other comics as the side kick for way to many years so what to do with him now?  Apparently he has been working for a group of Watchers as a Guardian of the Universe and it looks like the Ultimates Universe is where this story takes place.  Rick is visiting Earth to get a burger but gets grabbed by his Watcher and taken to a battle in space between the Kree and Chitauri to observe and not be seen apparently.  They watch the fighting until that Universes version of Galactus shows up (apparently just a giant robot swarm in that universe) and then something weirder happens.  Then another Galactus shows up from our Universe because of how Wolverine and others broke time in the Age of Ultron comic.  So our Galactus attacks the Ultimate Galactus and instead of absorbing (eating) each other they merge into a Super Glactus.  I said things got weird; the story was interesting so I hope the rest of the story is good.  To be continued….

All Star Western #22

All Star Western Featuring Jonah Hex #22 – I admit to not really being a fan of this story line.  Having Booster Gold show up in the past could have continued for another issue or two before wearing out the storyline.  But having Jonah Hex in the future and no one believing that he is a time traveler even after checking out his gun and clothes were authentic.  Not to mention if this is an unaltered timeline for the DC Universe time travel happens all the time so someone should be able to check his time particles or something to prove he was out of time and not just another Gotham nut job.  Why the JLA or Justice League or Superman was not called is just not believable.  I realize the writers were trying to contain the story but not having other heroes called just breaks my suspension of disbelief needed to read this comic.  What is worse is the fishy way Batman was finally contacted to see if Hex was telling the truth or not.  The escape from Arkham Asylum and eventual fight with the bank robbers was much appreciated as it got us the readers to some action.

Batman the Dark Knight #22!!

Batman the Dark Knight #22 – continues the Clayface is suddenly all powerful and unstoppable storyline.  Really the only person being fooled by this story is the creative team and maybe the people who thought a five issue Mad Hatter story was a great idea.  Because as a long time comic book reader I knew Jim Gordon would not just kill in cold blood a bunch of criminals with no real reason.  So it was obviously not him.  Just as it was obvious that Batman was not doing those bad things Clayface did while looking like Batman.  Just wake me when the Zero Year storyline starts.

Hawkeye Annual #1

Hawkeye Annual #1 where the young lady Hawkeye goes to Los Angeles to find herself.  The story is a little more disjointed than the regular comic’s storyline.  The story is actually good but there are large events that happen that make no sense.  She talks to her dad and things seem normal but did dad cut the credit cards or did the villain?  Considering Kate has won all kinds of target contests and been seen with large amounts of cash I find it hard to believe she has no money available to help her when needed in this story.  It is not just that but frankly it is unclear what exactly Madam Masque wants from Kate, she could just kill Kate.  But instead Madam Masque befriends her and invites her for lunch and wants to help Kate because Kate seems to need help.  While Madam Masque is talking the revenge is sweet talk her actions are less than evil.  She even just gives up the hunt and the story moves on to the happy ending as Kate watches the sun set in the West.  So I do have to say I liked the comic and the story was good there were issues with said story including several very wide plot holes.

Young Avengers #8!

Young Avengers #8 was entertaining but a bit bland.  This issue was basically the team jumping from world to world to world while chasing the bad guy looking for Billy’s twin brother Speed.  A couple of the worlds (dimensions) they visited were interesting but the team did not spend enough time there to develop the world.  Eventually they end up in the dimension where the evil mind controlling mother lived.  Some of the team got left behind and the rest of the team is working on a plan to save them.

Batman Superman #2

Batman Superman #2 was much better than the first issue.  It appears that our heroes Superman and Batman have been moved through time and dimension to a world that has other versions of Superman and Batman.  These versions appear to be older and wiser in addition to being married.  The story is still a little choppy in places jumping without transition.  But now that we have more of the players discovered things will hopefully improve story wise.

A+X #10

A + X #10 story number one was the Black Widow and FantomeX in a race to uncover whom or what is collecting DNA samples of all the old Soviet Era super powered people.  The Black Widow is trying to find out if rumors are true that new experiments on people are underway and FantomeX has been hired to steal the DNA database on a laptop.  They encounter several other “supers” and win the day.   This story really could have been expanded to be more than one fight and some vague dialog.  Story number two stars the Scarlet Witch and Domino and while the story was interesting and the resolution very clever.  I seriously could not get past the terrible art style.  Apparently bad anime style is all the rage when presenting a story with two cool strong female characters.  This is a four color comic book and not manga or anime so having characters looking all big eye small mouth just looks horrible.  The bad art design decision just ruins an otherwise good comic.

Deadpool #13!!

Deadpool #13 was another “classic unpublished” Deadpool story from the 70s.  The most interesting part of this 1970s concept story is the inside pages are colored as if this was actually a comic book from the 1970s or 1980s.  Meaning the pages were yellowed and some of the art looks like it is made from a bunch of ink dots.  The story itself is kind of bad.  The story is a parody of a Blaxploitation Movie with the story featuring the Heroes for Hire Luck Cage Power Man and Iron Fist vs. the White Man – featuring Deadpool.  The dialog was bad even for Deadpool he was written as if he was someone from the present  trying to fit into some old Blaxploitation flick than his normal snappy self.  Anyway while this comic had a couple of good and entertaining points the Iron Man story was better.

Iron Man #13 The Secret Origin of Tony Stark

Iron Man #13 Still in the Secret Origin of Tony Stark Storyline.  In this issue we the readers finally get to see Recorder 451’s actual plan.  Recorder found a giant robot suit that was used in the past to kill members of the Eternals.  Recorder went through all this planning and such with humans and Tony Stark.  Tony Stark is to be the compliant pilot under Recorder 451’s control.  This killer of gods will then be used to defend Earth and allow the people of Earth to continue unmolested by other races in the Galaxy.  This defense will lead to an Earth led empire and a period of peace in the Galaxy according to Recorder.  Now this would normally be a rather boring wordy comic except we have a return of Deaths’ Head.  I have to say having Deaths’ Head in the comic has really improved the action, I like him.  The comic ends on a rather large cliff hanger.  I liked this issue.

Thanos Rising #4

Thanos Rising #4 where once again I seem to have missed issues in this series.  The story is both fascinating yet horrifying at the same time.  Thanos has gone through his killing spree his genocide against the universe.  He selects his victim worlds and civilizations totally at random.  All because as it turns out his girlfriend; his only friend from childhood was not real.  His only friend was Death or his madness if you prefer to see it that way.  It is almost enough for the reader to feel sorry for the villain.  But Thanos has always been the villain in the Marvel Universe fighting the Heroes for so many years so there was no real way he would be anything but a destroyer.  Still a good story and I will need to track down the compilation once it is available.