Category Archives: Marvel
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 4/20/13
I think I have a problem. There’s something definitely wrong with me. I’ve loved superhero comics all my life, but these days I tend to glaze over at long, drawn out fight scenes, and instead love the quirky, humanizing stories. My favorite comics these days are titles like Hawkeye, Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman, where the focus is almost entirely on the characters first, superheroics second. The witty banter, the human emotion, the simple, everyday experiences, this is what I love. You can keep your spandex-clad superhero punching out the latest Nazi clone. I’ll take a scene where Wonder Woman and her friends sit around trying to think up a name for the new baby.
That easily wins Wonder Woman the title of Comic Book of the Week for me. The scene is just so adorable, and uses all of her extending supporting cast to really establish who these people are, why they’re together and what that will mean going forward. There will be action, there will always be action, but what I’ve come to love most about comics is when that action is offset by moments of real character. I hope I’m not alone. And I hope they’re always as good as this.
Good, clean fun
And I hope Orion is OK. Seriously, he’s my favorite character in Wonder Woman so far.
Comic Reviews: Age of Ultron #6, Batwoman #19, Captain Marvel #12, Green Lantern: New Guardians #19, Justice League #19, Nightwing #19, Red Hood and the Outlaws #19, Superior Spider-Man #8 and Wonder Woman #19.
Review: X-Factor #254
More X-Factor, more Hell on Earth War goodness! The battle for the fate of the Earth marches on into Part Five, and it looks like Peter David is finally moving his various pieces into place for the big finale. Specifically, he has Mephisto start making the sort of power plays that put him dead center as the story’s true villain, while X-Factor deals with some more internal problems. I rather like that. I’m not so much a fan of big, chaotic fights between superheroes and faceless demon spawn, but I love it when superheroes bicker and talk with one another. That’s just something weird about me, I guess.
X-Factor #254
We get plenty of both action and talking in this issue, which is another solid installment of the Hell on Earth War.
Comic Rating: 4/5: Good.
One thing that’s interesting to note is that the recap page mentions a meeting between Peter David and his editors at Marvel HQ. As we all know, the recap pages always contain some fun, behind-the-scenes tidbit, usually about PAD’s life and family. This time we learn that PAD has a lot of big, big plans for X-Factor in the coming months, which I’m taking to mean that the upcoming ‘End of X-Factory’ storyline is just going to be a chance for him to relaunch the series with a new focus. Marvel has been talking about Marvel NOW! Wave 2 being on the horizon, and I think X-Factor is going to get a little shake up. I’m excited for this…in theory. If we find out that PAD is ditching all of his characters and going in a completely new direction, then I will be less happy. I’m hoping, instead, that he just plans to streamline the current team and figure out a new direction to take all of them.
As long as PAD is still writing a Multiple Man comic book, I will be one happy camper.
But that also gives extra emphasis to the Hell on Earth War, which might turn out to be the big, penultimate story of this volume of X-Factor. PAD has been writing this ongoing tale for years now, and this looks to be his big blowout adventure. I can definitely get behind that. The story is fast-paced with usually strong character work. The stakes are higher than they’ve ever been for X-Factor, and mostly we get to see everybody working together (or knocking heads) as they try to be superheroes and save the world. You couldn’t really ask for more.
I Just Don’t Know How to Feel About Jamie Foxx’s Electro
The first set pictures of Jamie Foxx’s Electro hit the Internet this week…and I just don’t know how I feel about them.
It was a 60s look
No, he doesn’t look like that. The yellow and green costume with the weird, lightning bolt mask is Electro’s original comic book appearance. And I’m happy to say that they didn’t try to recreate that costume for Amazing Spider-Man 2. That would have just been silly.
They’re going with something completely different…at least for now. Check it out after the jump.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 4/13/13
We’ve got some good and we’ve got some bad this week, sometimes down to the very franchise. I’ve already ranted a lot about my disappointment with Batman and Red Robin, so at least the regular Batman book is good enough. On the Marvel side of things, the Avengers have a mediocre to strong output, whether it’s Age of Ultron, Avengers or Uncanny Avengers. You might even be surprised to learn that some kind of plot finally develops in Age of Ultron! I didn’t see that coming!
But speaking of Avengers, the star this week is Thor, as his series, Thor: God of Thunder, easily hammer-smashes the competition to win Comic Book of the Week! I was disappointed last issue with the weak origin for Gorr. But when Jason Aaron focuses on his various Thors, the comic is gold! It’s also the funniest comic you’ll read all week. Perhaps even the sexiest.
Sounds like my kind of woman!
Comic Reviews: Age of Ultron #5, Avengers #9, Batman #19, Batman and Red Robin #19, Hawkeye #9, Thor: God of Thunder #7, Uncanny Avengers #6, Uncanny X-Men #4.
Some Marvel LEGO Goodness
Check out this gameplay trailer for the upcoming LEGO Marvel Superheroes game!
Looks pretty cool to me. I like the full voice acting, even if the jokes can be pretty lame at times. Still, everyone looks great, and that giant LEGO Sandman looks fantastic! They should turn him into a playset of some kind.
Henchman-4-Hire