Another week, another pile of comics, and life moves on nicely. This was one of those weird Fifth Wednesdays, so not as many comics, but we do have some important ones like the end of Power Rangers and the start of X-Force.

Comic Book of the Week goes to Ultimate Spider-Man #7 because I liked it the best out of the comics I read this week.

Meanwhile, the Kickstarter is up and running for the second issue of the Cloakroom, the short story anthology for students in Scott Snyder’s Comic Writing 101 class. Snyder has a ton of stuff going on these days, and I haven’t even really dug into much of it yet, but I’m happy to support my classmates! I was featured in the first issue, and hope to see many more issues to come! So go support up-and-coming comic writers!

Comic Reviews: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Darkest Hour #1, Ultimate Spider-Man #7 and X-Force #1.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Darkest Hour #1
Writer: Melissa Flores
Artist: Simona Di Gianfelice
Colorist: Raul Angulo with assistance by Jose Enrique Fernandez
Letterer: Ed Dukeshire

It’s big, it’s sloppy and it’s rushed, but it’s an overall fine and acceptable end to this era of Power Rangers comics. The next era has been announced, but we don’t know yet what it’s going to look like.

The final battle is on! Dark Specter and his forces invade the Void, and Ranger Slayer and the Solar Rangers hold the line until the rest of the good guys show up. We get a couple of small moments with the likes of Kimberly and Tommy or Bulk and Skull, but not too many. Ultimately, the Rangers all do a massive team morph on the tallest mountain and that just zaps Dark Specter into defeat.

Comic Rating: 6/10 – Pretty Good.

Look, I’m disappointed. This issue feels very, very rushed, especially considering we’ve been building to this single issue for the past two years! All of the potentially BIG moments — like Eltar coming to help — are rushed through quickly as we move on. Dark Specter, the greatest villain in all of Power Rangers, fights off a couple of Rangers, walks up to the mountain and then just gets zapped into defeat. And how did this zap differ from any other zap that was ever possible? I dunno. It doesn’t help that there’s no rhyme or reason as to which Rangers are on which side of the fight, with all of them just blending together (including the main Rangers, since their costumes are now alternate White versions). We don’t even get a big moment of Billy morphing despite all of the building up around him in the past few issues.

I held on to so much hope that this final issue would be epic, but it deflates faster than a whoopee cushion.

Negativity aside, the issue is still good enough to get across the finish line. We do get some nice character moments, like a goodbye from Kimberly and Tommy. And the action remains strong, with a ton of different battles going on. And the artwork holds up, for the most part. And the story does come to a satisfying conclusion, in terms of defeating Dark Specter. So it all still works and doesn’t careen off the rails. It’s just very lackluster considering how long we’ve been building to this and everything that supposedly takes place in this issue.

At least they don’t kill Matt for shock value…but they also don’t do anything with him. So…will he be coming back in the next series somehow?!

TL;DR: Despite two years of build-up, this final issue feels like a rushed and lackluster effort to just get over the finish line.

Ultimate Spider-Man #7
Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Artist: Marco Checchetto
Colorist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit

This is a far more slow-moving and serialized comic than I expected.

Harry has recruited Oscorp scientist Otto Octavius to look over both the Green Goblin and Spider-Man suits. They’re both Stark Tech, and Otto discovers that they’re also both running in safe mode, that there are a ton of other features they can unlock. Chief among them is the onboard A.I. partner. Peter wants his AI to just be himself, while Harry chooses his dad. They spar and try out these new gimmicks, and then Iron Lad shows up at the end to recruit Spidey to the Ultimates.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

Like pretty much every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man so far, this is a well-written, expertly drawn, nicely paced chapter of a big ongoing story. Hickman is doing a fine job balancing all of his characters, from the main draws like Peter and Harry, to the excellent supporting cast. I’m very much enjoying Jonah and Uncle Ben as crusading journalists. And MJ and Gwen should be a fun friendship if it can fine time to flourish. And then we’ve got the likes of Otto Octavius weaved into the mix in a supporting role. So this is clearly a case of a big Spider-Man picture being set up in advance, and each issue just progresses the story a bit further.

Which is fine. I guess I anticipated more individual stories and encounters, with classic rogues, but we just had a quick appearance by the Shocker and that’s it. Spidey spends far far more time just hanging out with Harry than doing any real superheroing. It’s a little weird, but it’s also not terrible. The book is what it is, and I’m enjoying it so far. Even if it feels like Spidey is more of a side character in this ongoing feud between the Green Goblin and Kingpin…which, in turn, isn’t getting the emphasis of a main story because it’s arguably not the main story. It’s an odd balancing act that might be shortchanging both stories.

TL;DR: Another nice chapter of this clearly serialized story, though sometimes I feel that Spider-Man himself is taking a side seat to everything else.

X-Force #1
Writer: Geoffrey Thorne
Artist: Marcus To
Colorist: Erick Arciniega
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna

Here I go reviewing another new X-Family comic again!

Forge seems to have invented a tiny little globe that somehow tells him of cracks that need to be fixed. So he’s assembled a team of Sage, Rachel, Betsy and Tank, who we don’t really know. They head to Japan chasing a crack and fight a goo monster, with help from Surge, who just happened to be there, and Deadpool, who Forge hired for this one mission. Turns out Deadpool is the key to killing the goo monster. Did Forge know that in advance, and that’s why he hired Deadpool? Maybe.

Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.

Honestly, I don’t think this first issue of X-Force had anything all that special to write home about. It’s just a new branch of the X-Men with this particular cast. There doesn’t appear to be any angle or hook — at least at this point — to distinguish this from the other X-Men team comics or as an X-Force comic in particular. Forge is as good a leader character as anyone else, and he puts a team together and they go on a big superhero mission. There’s some hand-waving dialogue about how they want to keep it all secret for some reason, but nothing about this goo monster is any different from any other superhero encounter.

One specific problem I had is the use of Deadpool. He overshadows and outshines all of the other characters on the team, even though he is very specifically a one-off guest star for this single issue. Rather than spending time with our new cast members, we get Deadpool brought in to do his thing. We don’t spend any time getting to know the brand new mutant character, Tank, but we get a bunch of Deadpool. It does more harm than good, in my opinion.

But all this negativity aside, X-Force #1 is still a solid and enjoyable start, if this is the X-Comic you want to get behind. The character moments we do get are written well, and seeds are planted for ongoing issues, and Forge and Sage make an OK lead duo going forward. The artwork is also very good and easily carries the action and the characters. So it’s a competently made comic book.

There’s just nothing particularly special or very X-Forcey about it so far.

TL;DR: Solid, enjoyable start to the new comic, but X-Force #1 doesn’t offer anything truly unique or original to help it stand out from the crowd.

The comics I review in my Hench-Sized reviews are just the usual comics I grab from Comixology any given week, along with a few impulse buys I might try on a whim. So if there are any comics or series you’d like me to review each week, let me know in the comments.

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