Category Archives: Comics
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 3/11/17
Comics! Uhn! Whaa-aat are they good for? Absolutely everything! Say it again! Yep, still reading comics over here. And this week I kind of went overboard on the reviews, since a lot of my favorites came out, like Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Detective Comics and Power Man and Iron Fist!
Comic Book of the Week goes to Nova #4 for another delightful issue! I haven’t been a Nova fan since Annihilation, but oh boy, this new series has been a blast! I’m even enjoying Sam Alexander for the first time ever!
And his sister!
Meanwhile, I was really on a tear about the X-Men this week. I don’t know what came over me, other than a combination of nerd rage and disappointment. The X-Men franchise needs a proper reworking after years of wheel spinning, and I fear that ResurrXion is not the answer.
Comic Reviews: Detective Comics #952, Jessica Jones #6, Justice League of America #2, Mosaic #6, Nova #4, Power Man and Iron Fist #14, Silver Surfer #9 and Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #18.
The X-Men Assembly Line
This is bugging me more than it should. It’s been bugging me all week as Marvel has slowly revealed the roster of their newest X-Men comic. I just want to write this down so I can refer back to this article as many times as I might need to as it keeps repeating in the years to come.
This week, Marvel unveiled the lineup of the new Astonishing X-Men comic by revealing two characters at a time over the course of several days — even though they didn’t do this when they announced the rest of the ResurrXion comics. For some reason, this one is super special.
The full title, lineup and premise was revealed on Thursday.
There are more details at Marvel.com.
The reason this has been bugging me is because of something I’m going to call ‘The X-Men Assembly Line’. This is where Marvel takes the X brand, adds any one of a number of available suffixes, adds a random adjective at the top and then assembles a random assortment of perfectly ordinary X-characters and calls it a complete comic.
Look at that roster and tell me that couldn’t also qualify as Uncanny X-Men or Extraordinary X-Men or X-Force or Uncanny X-Force or X-Factor or Wolverine and the X-Men or any other possible X-title?
They have been doing this like clockwork every year or two for what has probably been forever, but what feels really common in the past few years.
They already have it planned for 2017.
They did it in 2015.
They did it in 2013.
They did it in 2011.
They did it in 2008.
I’m pretty sure it’s been happening nonstop since at least E is for Extinction in 2001.
It’s the same thing, over and over again. Marvel just churns them out. Slap a bunch of characters together, call it an X-Men comic and let a writer or two putter around for a year or so. Throw in some classic villains. Maybe a random romance while they’re at it. Remember when Iceman and Kitty Pryde were a couple? Remember when we had two, simultaneous versions of X-Force? Remember when Rogue put together a team with Mystique, Sabertooth and Lady Mastermind?
I just want stability. I want team rosters to matter and character relationships to exist beyond a single writer’s whims. When was the last time we had a new character relationship as interesting or as exciting as Scott and Emma? When was the last time any of the X-Men characters actually developed a fun and meaningful friendship with another?
I just want X-Men comics to be good again.
I also wouldn’t mind if Multiple Man and/or Mimic showed up in one of these random rosters for once!
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The Ending To Inhumans vs. X-Men Is Worse Than I Could Have Imagined
Oh, dear lord. How has it come to this? Everything that could have gone wrong in the finale of Inhumans vs. X-Men goes wrong in the new issue. A violent sect of religious extremists are given all the credit and hailed as heroes. The legitimate good guys are shamed and retreat with their tails between their legs. And even that turdburglar Young Cyclops gets a moment to be even more of a sanctimonious prick.
And on top of all that, no Strong Guy!
And so my Strong Guy Watch has ended
I try not to let comic book stories bug me as much any more. I don’t want to come off like the typical Comic Book Guy, getting all heated over these funny books. But man, nothing raises my ire more than Marvel grinding their supremely awesome Cyclops storyline into the mud. For years there, they were telling the most exciting, nuanced and brilliant X-Men story in a long time. Renegade Cyclops was like reading gold.
But Inhumans vs. X-Men is the final indignant boot heel into all that good will. Cyclops is dead, his legacy rotten to the core, and Medusa gets to be the pretty, pretty princess superhero that Marvel wants.
This is madness.
Join me after the jump! Full SPOILERS for Inhumans vs. X-Men #6.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 3/4/17
By the time you’re reading this, I am preparing for an incoming shipment of Gamer Girl & Vixen graphic novels! The books I raised money for last Spring will be here by the end of the month, and my partner and I are preparing all the packages to ship out to everybody who ordered a copy!
Haven’t ordered your copy yet? Don’t worry, they’ll be available soon!
Until then, we’ve got a bunch of regular, awesome comics to enjoy! And not that I was going for any special theme, but this week it’s all badass solo lady comics, and one comic about a filthy hobo. Good times. Comic Book of the Week goes to the latest issue of Hawkeye for wrapping up its first storyline in style.
Truer words
Kate Bishop actually made two appearances this week! She makes a quick cameo in America #1, but unfortunately, I wasn’t as big a fan of that new series.
Comic Reviews: America #1, The Dregs #2, Harley Quinn #15, Hawkeye #4, and Unstoppable Wasp #3.
6 Superheroes Who Need to be Turned Into LEGO
Want to hear something that boggles my mind? There’s going to be a Detroit Steel LEGO set coming out this year. Do you remember Detroit Steel? Of course you don’t. The character existed for a very brief part of Matt Fraction’s run on Invincible Iron Man as a sort of hyper-patriotic, Red State version of Iron Man. He’s a military soldier piloting a big, red, white and blue super suit.
And he’s going to be in LEGO!
Matt Fraction must be so proud
That’s insane. Is LEGO really so out of ideas that they’re turning to Detroit Steel to come up with viable sets to build and sell? Why don’t they just give me a call? I’m bristling with ideas and I would love to share a few after the jump!
Also, I’m probably totally going to buy the Detroit Steel LEGO set. I loved Fraction’s Invincible Iron Man. It was the first ongoing Iron Man comic I ever read.
Henchman-4-Hire