Category Archives: Reviews
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 1/25/14
It’s another week of trying to break my wallet, but somehow I managed to hold on, read a bunch of comics and have a generally good week over all. I’m not quite as sick as I was for the past few weeks. That’s a plus, right? But here in Central New York, we’re looking at several straight days of single-digit to sub-zero temperatures. Go winter!
At least there were enough good comics to keep me warm! We’ve got new issues of Black Widow, Harley Quinn and Origin II already, and most of them are pretty darn good! Solid comics like Hawkeye and Wonder Woman are back, and we get the over-sized, over-sad finale of FF! Why do we live in a world where FF comes to an end after only 16 issues!?
Despite all those great comics, Comic Book of the Week has to go to Wolverine and the X-Men #40 because we’re finally getting some forward movement on the Cyclops/Wolverine Schism, and it’s everything I could have asked for.
Bromance renewed? We can only hope.
Comic Reviews: Batman #27, Batwoman #27, Black Widow #2, FF #16, Hawkeye #16, Harley Quinn #2, Origin II #2, Wolverine and the X-Men #40 and Wonder Woman #27.
Review: All-New X-Factor #2
Nope, I still don’t care for it. I was pretty harsh in my review of All-New X-Factor #1, but I had high hopes that the second issue would alleviate some of my concerns and prove that I’m an idiot. It didn’t. Not even a little. The second issue is just as generic and uninspired as the first. It doesn’t help that writer Peter David spends the whole issue in action mode, pushing what little character and creativity exist into the background.
All-New X-Factor #2
It’s not that All-New X-Factor is a bad comic, per se, it’s that I know PAD can do much, much better. So far, the relaunch is painfully mediocre, and that’s just not good enough.
Comic Rating: 5/10 – Alright.
There is nothing about the second issue of All-New X-Factor that has anything to do with ‘X-Factor’ as a comic or a concept, let alone this new Serval Industries angle. The mission to save a bunch of captured mutants could have been performed by any of the X-Men squads, either of the X-Forces, the New Mutants, the Fallen Angels, the X-Statix; anybody. Any chance PAD had to make this comic specifically about these characters is wasted. Gambit, Polaris and Quicksilver are all in fine superhero form, but nothing they do is particularly unique to them, least of all the dialogue.
Gambit makes a Star Wars reference in this comic that literally anybody in the universe would make. Captain America would make that same reference. I could see Magneto making that reference, it’s so simple.
I think part of the problem is that PAD (or Marvel?) just didn’t pick very interesting characters for this team. Gambit, Polaris and Quicksilver don’t really have anything to do with one another, but they’re all old hats at this concept. They all know what it’s like to randomly be part of a new superhero team, so they’re all familiar with what they’re supposed to be doing. But they’re not really familiar enough with each other to make the banter or interpersonal relationships all that interesting. There’s no wonderment involved in being on this superhero team.
So far, All-New X-Factor is just a group of workman superheroes doing their job, but it’s written as if this is all supposed to be really cool and exciting. Generic superhero comics are a dime a dozen, even at Marvel Comics. X-Factor needs to find a way to stand out and do something new.
Also, if you don’t remember the specific characters and the conclusion to the X-Cell storyline from 2007, you’re a little bit out of luck with this new issue.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 1/18/14
Holy cow, you guys, the Blob is back! The Blob! Not the Age of Apocalypse Blob, or skinny Blob, or powerless Blob, but the real, regular, normal, 616 Blob is back in all his glory in this week’s issue of Uncanny X-Men! With no explanation whatsoever, Brian Michael Bendis just brings back one of my all-time favorite comic book super-villains! And he’s great! Oh man, I hope Bendis has some fun plans for the character!
But the return of the Blob does not win Uncanny X-Men Comic Book of the Week on its own. No sir. Uncanny X-Men wins that title for an absolutely amazing Magneto story, which catapults him to maybe the most badass mutant on the planet these days. If his upcoming solo series is anywhere near as good as this issue, then we’re all in for a treat.
Fortunately, we’ve also got good issues of Thor: God of Thunder, Superior Spider-Man and some other titles this week. I even picked up Skyman #1 by Dark Horse!
But man, I’m so excited for the Blob!
I love the Hawaiian shirt, the sunglasses and the goatee; I love’em!
Comic Reviews: Amazing X-Men #3, Green Lantern Corps #27, Skyman #1, Superior Spider-Man #25, Superman/Wonder Woman #4, Thor: God of Thunder #17 and Uncanny X-Men #16.
Review: Cataclysm: Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man #3
If you haven’t already heard the good news, it seems that Miles Morales’ life as Spider-Man gets to continue in the Ultimate Universe. He’s not jumping over to the regular Marvel Universe. He’s not dying. Miles gets to live on and continue having adventures, which is fantastic news. I want to keep reading Miles Morales comics for the rest of my natural born life. I want to read Miles as an adult Spider-Man, like normal universe Peter Parker. That’s all I’m about: want, want, want! Unfortunately, I have been denied the excellence of Brian Michael Bendis’ original plans for Miles revealing his identity to his father, and that’s a shame.
Spider-Man Cataclysm #3
The final issue in this 3-parter is a bit of a let down, if only because not much really happens. The emotional confrontation between father and son is short and bittersweet, and the issue ends with just a continuation into the main Cataclysm series. It doesn’t serve as a finale to Ultimate Spider-Man or as much of a finale to this 3-parter.
Comic Rating: 6/10 – Pretty Good.
I don’t know what Bendis originally planned for the moment when Miles reveals his identity to his father, but I can’t imagine it was this. There’s no way Cataclysm was on the table back when Bendis was putting together his plans for Miles. So to have such an important moment wasted in the middle of this big mess is kind of disappointing. The confrontation happens in a logical and reasonable way, but it leaves a lot to be desired, and a lot on the table. That makes sense, considering the story is going to continue, but for a single issue, it’s just disappointing.
And there’s too much going on with Galactus destroying the world for anything else to matter. Everybody, especially Miles, is in crisis mode. Nothing slows down enough to be cherished. It’s all rush, rush, rush in every direction. So while that means the action is cool, all of the potentially important or interesting story beats are lost in the rush. And then, like I said, the end is just a ‘To Be Continued in the Rest of Cataclysm’ thing. So this issue is fine, and it’s well made, but everything is a little too discombobulated by Cataclysm to be really effective.
Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more review!
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 1/11/14
I’m a little embarrassed. There are only four comics on the review slate today, and none of them are Indie titles like I promised last week. But that’s only because I couldn’t settle on one I liked, and most of them were already mid-story. Fortunately, Image just announced a ton of new books coming this year, so maybe I can get in on the ground floor of some of those. But still, only four books this week! What’s wrong with me? Well, for starters, I’ve been a bit under the weather. Blame it on the Polar Vortex!
At any rate, at least we’ve got some good books this week! All-New Marvel NOW! has launched, and we’ve got the first issues of Avengers World and Black Widow, both solid starts. And DC Comics gives us a healthy dose of green, with both Green Arrow and Green Lantern! They should market that somehow. Too bad they already cancelled Green Team.
Comic Book of the Week goes to Green Arrow #27, which continues its so-far amazing The Others storyline – but don’t let the name fool you, it’s far more interesting than that.
That is some very pretty arrow shooting. How is it that both Green Arrow and Hawkeye are such great comic books these days?
Comic Reviews: Avengers World #1, Black Widow #1, Green Arrow #27 and Green Lantern #27.
Henchman-4-Hire 