Category Archives: Comics
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 12/7/13
Last week was a monster week for comics, so it stands to reason that this week is kind of light on the funny books. I’m not complaining, mind you. My wallet thanks the comic book gods. But it means there weren’t many books to choose from for this week’s review list. Still, there were some important issues, like the final issue of Fearless Defenders, which goes out exactly how it lived. And the first issue of Inhumanity, which turns out to not be what I expected, at all – and I mean that in a bad way.
This is also the week where I start to turn against Green Lantern. I wanted to have faith in Robert Venditti and the new creative teams, but I just don’t think I can agree with what he’s doing on a moral level. You’ll see when you get to the review…
Fortunately, it wasn’t all bad comics this week! Superior Spider-Man remains strong, and I decided to check out Green Arrow after a long time away. I’m glad I did. The comic looks to be almost as good as the TV show. But the winner of the coveted Comic Book of the Week is Amazing X-Men #2 by Jason Aaron. He definitely seems to be having fun, especially with Storm.
Comic Reviews: Amazing X-Men #2, Fearless Defenders #12, Green Arrow #26, Green Lantern #26, Inhumanity #1 and Superior Spider-Man #23.
And Magneto Gets a Comic!
Marvel is apparently still announcing new comics for their All-New Marvel NOW! promotion. Next up is a Magneto solo series by Cullen Bunn and Gabriel Hernandez Walta.
Loving the barbed wire helmet imagery
Announced in USA Today, the series is going to feature Magneto in a ‘noir’ setting. He’s heading to the street level, where he will use his broken powers to help mutants and punish the sorts of people he wants to punish. I’ve been enjoying Magneto a lot in Brian Michael Bendis’ Uncanny X-Men, so a solo series sounds pretty cool. I just hope Bunn knows what he’s doing. I fear for the longevity of a lot of these new solo series that Marvel is putting out. New comics don’t last very long. Will Magneto have the right kind of magic to make it in this world?
Bunn had this to say:
“Magneto in this story is very much a detective, seeking out and investigating threats to mutants before cutting loose with all the fury of a supervillain — or superhero, depending on your point of view. We can sympathize with him even though he has been responsible for terrible crimes against humanity,” Bunn explains. “He walks such a fine line. He’s standing up for his people — the mutants. He refuses to let them suffer as he has seen others suffer. But he’s taken steps to protect mutants that can only be seen as evil. His ideals are often ‘good’ while his methods are not.”
The series will launch sometime next year, and I know I’ll be picking up a few issues.
Also, this is probably as good a time as any to talk about the fact that director Bryan Singer has announced X-Men: Apocalypse the movie for 2016. He pretty much just dropped the title on Twitter yesterday, and we can easily assume who the villain is going to be. I don’t really have any thoughts about it at this point. I’ve never been a big Apocalypse fan, and I always assumed they’d get around to him eventually in the movies. A lot of sites on the web seem to think they’ll do an Age of Apocalypse storyline, possibly because that’s the only Apocalypse story that is in any way memorable.
But I highly doubt the movie-makers could pull off a full Age of Apocalypse movie. It would be insane. I still don’t necessarily think the moviegoing audience is going to be able to handle all the time travel and weirdness in Days of Future Past. But we’ll see.
Review: Scarlet Spider #24
The end of Scarlet Spider will soon be upon us, and apparently writer Christopher Yost wants to go out with a bang – literally. No, seriously, there’s a big explosion at the end. In fact, this whole penultimate issue is like a big explosion. The writing of cancellation has been on the wall for some time, so Yost has had plenty of time to prepare for these last two issues. The action and drama get pushed up to 11 as Yost seems to throw everything he can into the issue, including the kitchen sink. Storylines that he probably planned for future arcs get crammed into this one issue. Yost seems determined to blow our minds with this finale. If only the art was willing to do the same.
Scarlet Spider #24
Scarlet Spider #24 may be the beginning of the end, but writer Christopher Yost is not yet ready to say goodbye – and we are all the better for it.
Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.
From the very start, we all knew this was coming. The editors even acknowledge as much on the last page, saying their goodbyes now so that Yost can say his goodbyes in the last issue. The comic book industry these days just doesn’t support this kind of comic. Reaching the 20s in a solo series about a D-list character (at best) is a rare feat, and something to be proud of. Fearless Defenders, a comic launched under the promise of Marvel’s first all-female team, was cancelled this week with issue #12. That’s as far as they made it. But Scarlet Spider, a comic starring Kaine from the much-hated Clone Saga, made it to issue #25. That’s impressive.
I think what did the series in was the fact that it was still just a generic superhero story. Sure, Kaine is kind of an asshole, but this was still a comic about a guy with powers and a costume, who sets up shop to fight crime and super-villains, with a wacky band of supporting characters to play with. New solo comics like Hawkeye succeed because they’re doing something new and interesting with the superhero angle. Scarlet Spider was too much like the norm, starring a character that general audiences didn’t care about. So while it’s sad to see the series, go, there’s no denying it never had much of a chance.
Fortunately, like I said, this penultimate issue is pretty entertaining. Yost has nothing more to lose, so join me after the jump to dig into this exciting, action-packed issue!
The 6 Most Underrated X-Men
The Internet loves to make fun of the X-Men. Whether ranking the worst members of the team or the most pointless, the X-Men seem to be easy pickings for discerning Internet nerds. Well I’m a different kind of Internet nerd, and I’m here to offer my support for some of those very same X-Men! Because if there’s one thing you need to understand about comic books, it’s that there are no bad characters, only bad writers.
Some of the most overrated
By their very nature, the X-Men are going to feature some less-than-stellar characters. Most superhero teams like the Avengers or the Justice League only take the best of the best superheroes. But the X-Men are built on being a minority, featuring characters who were born with their powers. And those powers can be either a gift or a curse. Sometimes you get the power to shoot lasers out of your eyes or control the weather. And sometimes your sweat is acidic or your bones grow out through your skin.
Join me after the jump for the 6 most underestimated X-Men!
Review: Saga #16
And so we finally come full circle back to Saga #12, with Prince Robot IV interrogating Heist, and Marko and his family hiding in the attic. But of course, considering all the time we spent getting back here, there are a few new wrinkles to add to make the scene even more tense and exciting. Saga #17 looks like it’s going to be pretty awesome. But we’re not there yet. First, Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples need to drop the last few pieces into place. And as I’ve come to expect from this series, those pieces are just as much fun as can be!
Saga #16
Also, we quickly find out what the point of the hallucinations were on The Will’s paradise planet, so at least there’s that. So much for all my grumbling in the last review.
Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.
Like most issues in this volume of Saga, this one is about fleshing out the world and getting to know the characters. We’re solidly in Act 2 of this saga, I would say, and we’ve got a long way to go. One test of a good comic book series – or any fiction, for that matter – is if the writer can make the characters fun to read even when they’re just sitting around having coffee or playing board games. Vaughn succeeds. The conversations haven’t necessarily been as exciting as when they were all on the spaceship, but then Barr was a special kind of awesome. As was his brief relationship with Alana. Their scenes together were some of the best in the series so far.
That’s not to say everybody else doesn’t pick up the slack. There are a lot of great scenes in this issue between Heist and the family. He’s no Barr, but he’s still a fun character. And in this issue, everyone just works so well together, which is what we’ve come to expect. Plotwise, everything moves forward, especially the sub-plot about the two reporters. That might be taking a big leap forward.
But in the end, this is a penultimate cliffhanger issue. It’s all about finishing the set-up for what will hopefully be an epic climax!
Join me after the jump for a fully synopsis and more review.
Henchman-4-Hire 