Category Archives: Marvel
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 7/22/17
Man oh man, it’s San Diego Comic Con weekend! So much cool news, so many good trailers, so much to get excited about! But for another year in a row, I’m stuck here in Central New York, about as far from San Francisco as you can get in the continental United States. Someday I’ll be out there.
At least this week was marked with good comics, like Batwoman, Harley Quinn, Power Rangers and the long-awaited second issue of the new Spectacular Spider-Man! All good comics, but Comic Book of the Week goes to Batman #27, as writer Tom King throws us a curveball with the unexpected new origin of Kite Man!
Knock. Knock.
Secret Empire continues to slog along. It’s getting a little long in the tooth at this point, and isn’t as sharp anymore. While The Mighty Thor is still good, but I skipped reviewing the issue again because it’s kind of just killing time. The War Thor is a neat idea, but he hasn’t done much of substance just yet. Still a great comic.
Also, in case you were curious, like me, the first issue of Astonishing X-Men does not yet feature the return of Multiple Man. I’ll let you know when it does! It was a pretty cool X-Men comic though. I like the idea of gathering a bunch of disparaged X-Men to go on an impromptu mission. I’d like it even more if they hadn’t added Old Man freakin’ Logan.
Comic Reviews: Aquaman #26, Batman #27, Batwoman #5, Harley Quinn #24, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #17, Ms. Marvel #20, Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #2 and The Wild Storm #6.
New Inhumans Trailer Still Looks Terrible
Comic Con has brought us a new trailer for the upcoming Inhumans show, and it’s pure garbage. Like, it’s clearly cut and cued like a professional trailer, but the material is just nonsense and terrible.
Somebody definitely wants to make a great trailer, but it just didn’t work out. The special effects are especially terrible. Can you believe Medusa’s hair in that trailer? Holy cow, that looks terrible! How did they let that see the light of day? And the makeup is bad, too. Triton just looks plain weird!
Inhumans might be the first Marvel project that I think looks bad from the get-go. This isn’t going to turn out well.
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The 6 Characters On My Defenders Team
Welcome to San Diego Comic-Con Week! It’s the biggest week in comics, and I’m excited for all the news and trailers and awesomeness bound to arrive this weekend! An expected highlight this year will be The Defenders from Marvel! They’ve got a new comic book, a new action figure line and their Netflix show arrives in one month! I can’t wait!
Only 50% of superheroes wear costumes anymore
As has become a tradition here at Henchman-4-Hire, I like to spend Comic-Con Week playing fantasy superhero draft. Superhero team rosters change all the time. Every new X-Men reboot results in several different team lineups. The Avengers or New Avengers or Champions are always changing! This year, I’m going to pitch you my Defenders lineup. If Marvel hired me to write a Defenders comic, these are the characters I’d put on the team!
In the past, I’ve dreamed up rosters for the Avengers, the Justice League, the Fantastic Four, the Teen Titans, the X-Men, X-Force and the Sinister Six!
One of My Own Personal Comic Book Wishes Just Happened
One of my favorite tropes in all of fiction is Evil Versus Oblivion, wherein a super-villain is a reasonable enough person that they willingly side with the heroes when there’s a bigger, more dangerous threat. Doctor Doom, Magneto and the Kingpin do it a lot, offering aid and resources to heroes when someone like Onslaught comes along and threatens to destroy all existence.
This past week, in the pages of Uncanny Avengers, writer Jim Zub and artist Kim Jacinto (with some assists) brought this trope to life with one of my favorite super-villains, a villain I like especially because he’s a reasonable guy.
The Shocker!
Hey! Secret identity, man, jeez!
SPOILERS for Uncanny Avengers #24 and #25.
I love the Shocker because he’s a working class, ordinary sort of crook who just wants to make some money. He doesn’t have an intense, personal hatred of Spider-Man, he’s not consumed with the desire for revenge against the wall-crawler, and he’s not just crazy and evil. He’s just a guy with some special tools that he uses to try to steal money.
And he was trying to loot the Gold Reserve with another favorite villain of mine, Scorpia, when they’re discovered by Rogue. They’re all in Manhattan during Secret Empire, wherein the evil Captain America has created a Darkforce Dimension bubble around the whole island. Monsters of all shapes and sizes are descending on the island and interrupt the villains’ looting.
Then it’s up to Rogue to convince Shocker and Scorpia to join her in fighting for their lives and stopping the monsters!
I bet’cha Zub was sitting on that one for awhile
This is literally plucked from my dream journal of comic book happenings. The Shocker being used in an Evil Versus Oblivion moment? That is what I want from comics. It’s like Zub reached into my brain and picked the absolute perfect character for this moment.
Granted, Shocker doesn’t go full hero — though while we’re on the topic, I think he’d be a great addition to the Uncanny Avengers. Shocker and Scorpia aren’t big on helping Rogue stop monsters, but they’re still involved.
Spider-Man: Homecoming had nothing on this!
And that’s enough for me. I don’t read Uncanny Avengers and I’m avoiding most Secret Empire tie-ins, but when a writer I like seems to literally read my mind and make my comic book wishes come true, I gotta respect that and buy some new comics!
Nobody respects the codename anymore
Also, I am now totally ‘shipping Shocker and Scorpia. So that’s a thing.
Double also, this almost makes up for Zub killing off Mach X a couple weeks ago. Almost.
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Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 7/15/17
Can you believe we have to wait all the way until November for another superhero movie? Man, what’s wrong with the world? Good thing we’ve got other comics to fill the time! Detective Comics, Hulk comics, Wonder Woman comics, X-Men comics and Squirrel Girl comics!
Unbeatable Squirrel Girl wins Comic Book of the Week because Ryan North and Erica Henderson revel in what it would actually be like to visit the Savage Land!
Gift shop pun game remains on point
I checked in on Amazing Spider-Man this week but decided not to review it because it’s largely a Secret Empire tie-in and I’m not super keen on reading or reviewing a ton of tie-ins. Thankfully, this tie-in is largely focused on Dan Slott’s ongoing story of Doc Ock taking back Parker Industries, so I dig that part of it. And it moves the Spider-Man/Mockingbird relationship forward a little, which I also like. But mostly it was a big, busy, crazy issue. So good times there!
Comic Reviews: Defenders #3, Detective Comics #960, Hulk #8, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #22, Wonder Woman #26 and X-Men Blue #7.
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