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.

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 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.

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.

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. 

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.   

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. 

X-Treme X-Men #13 !!!

X-Treme X-Men #13 was the final issue of this run and rather disappointing since it was a middle comic of a larger story arc over a number of other X-Men related comic books.  The good guys do not win in the end it is just a cliff hanger to get you to buy a different comic book.  The transition was jarring from the end of last issue to this issue.  A lot of characters die or the aftermath of their death in another comic happened in this issue.  I am disappointed that the end of such a great comic book was treated so shabbily.  It was really the only good X-Men comic running right now.  I am so disappointed I am not going to track down the other issues to find out what happened or follow the story.  I did a little reading using online summaries and the story arc was rather disappointing and reviewed badly.  Sigh – one of the best versions of Wolverine and Hercules ever and they were wasted.

All New X-Men #10

All New X-Men #10 was a really lame issue.  The creative team took a really good setup and ruined it with yet more whiny moaning crap that drove me from reading the X-Men in the first place.  Seriously nothing happened in this issue but talking, even when the bad guys robbed and murdered across the country pretending to be the X-Men from olden days all that really happened was talking.  I’m very disappointed.

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.

A + X #6 !!!

A + X #6 Gambit + Thing and Wolverine + Captain Marvel with this month’s theme being Poker games and bluffing.  Wolverine and Captain Marvel were in a poker game showdown with each trying to get the upper hand in a battle of wills.  They argue and then the Avengers Tower is broken into by someone in a big suit of power armor calling itself the End.  Captain Marvel asks the End a “who would win” question and the next thing you see is Hawkeye and Spider-Woman running into the room to see the three not fighting but playing poker.  The second story of The Thing and Gambit starts with the Thing playing poker with the Yancy Street Gang (well three of them anyway) before the game starts the Gang brings in a ringer who turns out to be Gambit.  Gambit and the Thing have a history that the reader gets to see.  In the end it turns out The Thing and Gambit ran a scam and stole the pot from the Yancy Street Gang.  Both stories were well told and entertaining – I was entertained.

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. 

X-Treme X-Men #12

X-Treme X-Men #12 has yet another jump to a new location.  At the end of the last issue the good guys were confronting the three evil Xaviers.  Though now they are in an Egyptian world with the Xaviers in control with the good guys sneaking around looking for a victory.  There is a speech and a plan, the team attacks but opens a portal and while the side effect is the death of two of the evil Xaviers it appears they destroyed that world.  We also get a glimpse of the evil destruction on the other side and it looks like Sentinels again.  I was thinking Sentinels make sense in that in the past Sentinels have decided killing everyone is the only way to get rid of mutants some might have decided killing the universe was an even better plan.

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.

Wolverine #1

Wolverine #1! Starts with a half disintegrated Wolverine assuring the reader or a bystander not to worry he is a Super Hero.  He says this I assume because yet again Wolverine looks horrible.  But while Wolverine is trying to assure us that everything is ok a madman is killing innocent Coffee House visitors.  Lots and lots and lots of people die and then Wolverine gets off his ass and fails to save the day.  This comic has potential but seems more interested in killing innocent bystanders like some rabid terrorist than providing an interesting story.

X-Treme X-Men #11 !!!!!

X-Treme X-Men #11 was clever as the reader never really sure which villain the heroes were helping to end the fight.  The X-Treme X-Men were fighting to save the last of the humans on this current Nazi / Atlantean world.  Though the end splash page was and “conclusion” was a little disappointing as somehow the good guys missed a few of the evil Xaviers.

Wolverine Max!

Wolverine Max #4 is disappointing in that most of the comic is Creed (Sabertooth) ranting about how Wolverine is evil and not a good guy.  I’m also confused that even though Creed knows Wolverine regenerates he thinks that somehow he could cause Wolverine permanent brain damage.  I am also going to repeat my statement that it is really lame and clichéd to have Wolverine, the guy with the best healing power ever, could have such a crappy memory.  At least the plot advanced and we now know who actually committed the act of terrorism in blowing up the 747 from the first issue.  I admit to rolling my eyes upon viewing the last splash page of the comic that advertised that next issue will be the “Final Showdown” between Wolverine and Sabertooth – which leads me to say really? All the other final showdowns were fake and this one is the real final showdown?  Maybe Wolverine will finally die and Marvel Comics (AKA Disney) will willingly lose all that money from pissed off Fanboys.  Oh well I can dream.  I will lay odds that Sabertooth dies (again) but will somehow return to life in some future comic book adventure. 

X-Treme X-Men #10

X-Treme X-Men #10 – This issue is mostly devoted to the back stories of some of the team, we already got Kurt’s (Nightcraler) backstory.  With this issue we get more backstory for the Scott “Cyclops” summers and his world and American Civil War with mutants.  Then we learn where James Howlett (Wolverine) and Hercules came from and why they knew each other.  Then we meet this worlds Namor and then a Nazi Xavier.  Unfortunately the team is in a confused state not knowing who to fight or trust.  Once again I think this could be very interesting.  As a student of alternative history it will be interesting to see how this all works out and well the team will have to kill Xavier even if he turns out to be a good guy.

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!!

All New X-Men!

All New X-men #6 continues the saga and really I’m just glad Angel found a friend at least for a little while.  It was really just a bit of drama in the story much like a normal whiny X-men story.  Then again it is time for Mystique to appear – but that has been telegraphed a while now in the advertising.