Category Archives: Reviews
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 3/15/14
Welcome to the Ides of March my friends! Why isn’t this holiday celebrated anymore? You never heard about any other Ides of any other months. I wonder why this one went out of style…oh wait…right. But let’s not dwell on history’s murderous past! Let’s celebrate the present, and all the great comic books its giving us!
First of all, Captain Marvel is back! It was one of my favorite comics from the past year, and I was very excited to see it return…until it started making some startling changes! We’ll see if they’re good changes or bad. Beyond that, we’ve got explosive issues of Batman, Superior Spider-Man and Superman/Wonder Woman, as well as the second issues of X-Force and Fantastic Four. One of those is doing better than the other. And now I’m starting feel like a broken record for declaring Hawkeye #17 the Comic Book of the Week. But with panels like this one, how could I choose anything else?
It only gets better from here
This is a story you’ve got to see to believe.
Comic Reviews: Batman #29, Captain Marvel #1, Fantastic Four #2, Hawkeye #17, Superior Spider-Man #29, Superman/Wonder Woman #6 and X-Force #2.
A Completely Biased Review: Mimic and the X-Men #6
Rejoice brothers and sisters, for the gods of comicdom have heard our cries! At long last, the next issue of Mimic and the X-Men has come out. Mimic and the X-Men #6 dropped this week, finally giving us hale and hearty Mimic fans some overdue closure. It’s been, like, a year and a half since the last issue. What the heck did Marvel expect us to do? Read Hawkeye? Well I have read each and every issue of Hawkeye, and I haven’t seen a single Mimic appearance.
Whoa, brainstorm: Mimic and the X-Men #7 by Matt Fraction and David Aja. Fraction has written Mimic before! Heck, Fraction brought Mimic into the modern day! It would be an instant bestseller! But until then, we’ll have to settle for this issue, which might just be the greatest comic book in the history of medium.
Comic Rating: 9/10 – Great!
That’s the Mimic, baby! The coolest, most underrated, and probably handsomest X-Man to ever ‘X’ a man! He makes his glorious return to comic books this week, and it is the sweetest of nectars. We have writer extraordinaire Christos Gage to thank once again for giving our boy Mimic some much-needed love. The dude clearly is thinking at a higher level than most other comic book writers. He sees the value in Mimic, loves that cool new blue and white costume as much as the rest of us, and generally has some all around good stories in mind. This is the comic that every Mimic fan (and by that I mean, every comic book fan) dreams of reading.
But hold on, if I could be especially serious for a moment (not that I wasn’t before), this really is a great issue. And Mimic love aside, Mimic and the X-Men #6 introduces a new character who might have just become my favorite X-Man of all time.
Whoever had the genius idea for ForgetMeNot deserves some kind of medal. My heart’s breaking over here!
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 3/8/14
The new Marvel #1 issues keep pouring in! This week we’ve got Magneto, Moon Knight and the new relaunch of Wolverine and the X-Men. Personally, I have been super satisfied with the All-New Marvel NOW! campaign. It has produced some wonderful books – and some real stinkers. Fortunately, the releases this week are all mostly good.
I was very tempted to give Uncanny X-Men the gold star this week. I’ve ranted and raved before about how much I’m loving Cyclops these days, and the new issue is all about Cyclops! But then I got to thinking…we’re 18 issues into Uncanny X-Men, but has Brian Michael Bendis even gotten around to starting this ‘Mutant Revolution’ of his? The Uncanny X-Men have mostly just swirled around themselves this whole time, accomplishing little. And that kind of bummed me out. Fortunately, a new issue of She-Hulk came along to warm my heart and win Comic Book of the Week!
I hope there are some Patsy Walker fans in the audience!
Not only is Charles Soule going to be writing about legal logic, but he’s a master of drunk logic as well!
Comic Reviews: Forever Evil #6, Green Lantern #29, Magneto #1, Moon Knight #1, New Warriors #2, She-Hulk #2, Uncanny X-Men #18 and Wolverine and the X-Men #1.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 3/1/14
This week, Aquaman attends his high school reunion. And no, that’s not the set up for a joke. It sounds like one though, when I write it out like that, doesn’t it? But seriously, it’s a legitimate story, and it’s utterly fantastic! I seriously wish more DC comics these days were like Aquaman. Do you hear that, DC superheroes? Be more like Aquaman!
As for Marvel heroes, you need to be more like Hawkeye. Even more seriously, how did we not see Hawkeye coming? I am going to gush about this comic every week that it comes out, because I think Hawkeye is not only the best comic book on the stands today, but it’s also the wave of the future, baby! And it’s just so weird, considering Hawkeye the comic probably got greenlit because of Hawkeye in The Avengers movie, and the two characters couldn’t be more dissimilar!
Hawkeye #15, the epic team-up of the Barton Brothers, easily wins Comic Book of the Week.
And that is why Barney Barton is not a superhero.
Comic Reviews: Aquaman #28, Fantastic Four #1, Hawkeye #15, Superior Spider-Man #28, and Wolverine and the X-Men #42.
Review: Teen Titans #28
If I’m being completely honest, I don’t think writer Scott Lobdell did such a bad job creating pathos in Bar Torr’s rebellion against the Functionary. There is real emotion in his fight to free his people from a corrupt and evil government. So it’s a shame this comic is actually about a club of colorful, teenage heroes who wouldn’t know real emotion if it was beat into them with a crowbar. The Teen Titans are caught in the middle of a war that doesn’t belong to them, and they’re stuck flailing around in an embarrassingly desperate attempt to be useful.
Teen Titans #28
But in the end, the Empire wins. The Rebel Alliance loses. And Teen Titans has apparently decided to just cut its loses when it comes to the new and unique characters created for the soon-to-be-cancelled series.
Comic Rating: 3/10 – Bad.
If I could keep this honest streak going, I was mildly entertained reading this issue, because it’s largely just a bunch of action scenes. The art is actually pretty good, and the pacing is pretty OK, at least when characters aren’t having lengthy thought bubble monologues, and Lobdell engages in his favorite pastime: painfully blunt exposition. The new Evil Superboy has appeared in how many issues now? And in each one, he apparently has to mentally remind himself of his own motivations and personal storyline. It’s maddening!
But at least Evil Superboy gets to actually impact this issue, or stand out as a character. Red Robin, Wonder Girl and Raven are absolutely lost in this story. But they don’t just fade into the background, oh no. Instead, they insist on trying to stick their big noses into this war that has nothing to do with them, and likewise insist that everyone involved should adhere to their limited understanding of 21st century standards. It’s like the Titans are incapable of understanding the context of where they find themselves. It’s a war for independence from a murderous government, but the Titans seem to think they can just get everybody to play nice and negotiate – and this is coming from teenagers who have dedicated their lives to vigilante violence.
But at least those three don’t get character assassinated. If you thought Lobdell was burning Kid Flash’s character to the ground, just wait and see what he has in store for Solstice. I hope you hadn’t grown too attached to her.
Join me after the jump to find out why killing in a war for freedom is wrong, but murder in the name of love is righteous!
Henchman-4-Hire 