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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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. 

Age of Ultron #4

Age of Ultron Book Four was interesting.  The Luke Cage and She-Hulk plan failed badly with the She-Hulk throwing Luke Cage out of the building hoping he would get what they learned about Ultron to the other heroes.  The other survivors made their way to the Savage Lands.  The Red Hulk and Taskmaster disagreed and the Red Hulk kills the Taskmaster and then the Red Hulk exits Chicago.  The Moon Knight and Black Widow were hiding in a Nick Furry bolt hole and found that Nick Furry had a plan for when Ultron took over the world or at the very least the end of the world.  When the group of Heroes from the S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier reaches the Savage Lands they find that the Savage Lands had also been attacked by Ultron and as in other parts of the world there were survivors; they also find the remains of an Avengers Quinjet.  Almost immediately they meet up with Ka-Zar: Lord of the Savage Lands who leads them to his village.  Here they find a dying Luke Cage whom relays the information from when the She-Hulk and he met with the Vision.  It turns out that Ultron is attacking the world from the future and that is why no one has been able to find where Ultron was hiding.   With that information provided the three groups of heroes meet up with the Red Hulk, Moon Knight and Black Widow make themselves known.  It is now time to go get Ultron the Black Widow says.

Age of Ultron #3!!

Age of Ultron #3 was good.  This issue moved the story along as the Heroes have finally set on a plan.  She-Hulk and Luke Cage are going to try and infiltrate Ultron’s Headquarters and try to learn something about what Ultron wants and why there are survivors.  That plan has Luke Cage “Selling” or trading She-Hulk to Ultron.  They got the idea from Hammerhead and the Owl who until killed claimed to have bought safety from Ultron by trading (selling) it Heroes.  We then cut to Chicago where we see the Red Hulk, the Taskmaster and Black Panther trying to capture part of an Ultron Unit to examine.  This gives us a chance to see the Red Hulk have a big fight trying to buy time for the others to escape, unfortunately the Black Panther dies; it appears that the Taskmaster does escape.  We then return to Luke Cage and She-Hulk whom are brought to see not Ultron but The Vision (dun dun dun… cue dramatic music).  This issue was a great improvement over issue two as something happened. 

Age of Ultron #2 !!!

Age of Ultron #2 was just a long and uninformative monolog by Spider-Man.  We got to see the Black Widow and Moon Knight in the ruins of San Francisco but that was just more set up of the main story.  We do get to see Moon Knight kill a guy that looks a lot like Paul Giamatti before the guy could steal from the Black Widow.   This issue seemed to just be a holding spot and stalling until Captain America finally says something.  The cover art is completely and totally false and misleading.

All New X-Men #8!!!

All New X-Men #8 was a good issue.  I was glad the Angel finally got some face time and better yet he got to do something with his future self.  The fight at Avengers Tower was great and Hydra needs help as attacking an empty Avengers Tower is just wimpy.  There are a number of great lines in this story including Captain America saying “Why are there two of you?” and even the Hulk has a quizzical look on his face.  Having Ice Man and Kitty Pride narrating the talk between the current Beast and Captain America was well done and amusing.  But having the original Scott Summers come out and give his little talk was great, though I am getting a bit worried about Jean Grey while she is learning all her new / old powers.  Overall this was a great issue!

Captain Marvel! #10

Captain Marvel #10 where to make things interesting we make our hero Carol Danvers to stubborn to stick with doctors’ orders and get some rest.  So macho, so much like the stereotypical male why not just bring back the first Captain Marvel?  I am not saying woman cannot be stubborn but sheesh.  I like the to-do list “taped” to the first page of the comic that was an amusing idea.  I am starting to like Captain Marvel’s assistant Wendy who seems to know when to not follow the bosses’ orders.  Saving the subway was well dialoged.  Bringing in Captain America and his flying motorcycle could actually be a good idea if Carol survives to the next issue.  The fight with Deathbird was kind of stupid if not for bringing in the end of issue cliffhanger.

A + X !!

A+X #4 is still holding to the two stories one book part one is the Beast and Spider-Man and the second story is Captain America and Quentin Quire.  Planet of the Beasts was very good I would go so far as to say it a one of the best stories I have read in a long time.  It was funny and the two smart characters got to sound smart while doing their super thing.  I am sure they both appreciated the chance to not be mocked for having and using their brains.  The whole planet of the beasts was apparently lifted directly from the Planet of the Apes movies.  Spider-man got in some good quips; the storm moved along and ended in a park.  Good Stuff.  The second story is alright but the whole earn each other’s trust is a little old.  I do not even know who Quire is or where he has appeared or where he ends up at the end of the story.  The M.O.G.O.D.! were used well for entertainment and comic relief. 

Winter Soldier!

Winter Soldier #14 was alright, but the story was just stuck in the noir trap and was getting really old.  I was rather disappointed that after all the murders all the random killings, the killings of characters that were once major the bad guy does not get his just reward at the end.  The whole point up to then seemed to be this comic is different and people will die and suffer yet the bad guy lives to fight another day.  Not that Ed Brubaker has a large ego or had writers block to not fill the last page, but wow the dude has a large ego and as a buyer and reader of the comic I doubt his sincerity of loving the character he just fucked over.

Post #100!!

Captain America

Captain America #3 was horrible, death, destruction and disgrace of the name Captain America.  This is such a horribly written story.  There is no clue about future redemption of the story or those at Marvel Comics who thought this story arc would be good.  It was bad enough to kill him to make a deliberate ignorant political point back in the Civil War story arc but to do such a horrible story again.  This should be the final issue I bought and I will never buy another comic in this series ever again.

Captain America!

Captain America #2: I don’t know who thought this would be a good story line.  But when the first words on the second page after the summary of the first issue are “One Year Later” it is fairly certain that the story is going to be stupid and suck.  This story is disrespectful to the character, the reader and the history of Captain America and all he stands for.   The writer, the artists, the editors and Disney itself should be a shamed of what they have done.

Well with Captain American & Black Widow 640 the inter-dimensional other world adventure is finally over.  It would have been nice to see a little more of the other heroes they found at work.  But oh well.  At least this story is over and Captain America is free to be trapped in another dimension for at least a year.

Avengers!

Avengers #2: Frankly this is story is stupid.  I know it is a comic book, but seriously it is like reading the whiny X-men.  I’m going to stop reading this before I watch a once grand comic book not just destroyed but disgraced.

AA Avengers Academy Murder World #2; yeah that still stocks and Walt Disney Company should be so proud of their writers killing children.  Good job.

There sure are a lot of X-men comcis!

Cable and X-Force #1 like many X-comics started out kind of lame. I call it the X-Men whiny. But once past that the story was kind of interesting. It was an interesting way to bring together a father and daughter. I will check out at least the next issue.

X-Treme X-Men 7.1 is another entertaining romp around the Marvel Universe. Now we have Brood, a giant Xavier Skywhale and other fun. I continue to enjoy reading this comic good stuff. It is hard to say more without giving all the fun away.

Catching up...

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

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

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

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

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

Comic Books!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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