Category Archives: Reviews
Review: X-Factor #255
Penultimate chapters usually rock, and X-Factor #255 is no exception. The balance of power has tipped in the Hell on Earth War, and only the raggedy band of mutant heroes we know and love has any chance of saving the world. Writer Peter David does a great job of setting up the final challenge and positioning X-Factor as the last hope for the fate of the planet – minus one of their own! That’s right! A member of X-Factor dies in this issue, and it’s quite sad.
X-Factor #255
The Hell on Earth War has been generally good all along. It’s dragged a little, maybe, and not all of the characters have had meaningful moments, and Madrox has been almost completely absent, but I’ve enjoyed it and I’m ready for the grand finale!
Comic Rating: 4/5: Good!
Hell on Earth War has been generally entertaining. No part has really blown me away, or connected emotionally, but I’ve enjoyed it better than some of PAD’s other big X-Factor stories. Like I mentioned, most of the characters have just been along for the ride, with all of the emotional weight going to Tier, a character who we don’t really know. And my favorite character, Multiple Man, was quickly saddled with that odd demon transformation, taking him out of the fun. But those are just personal gripes. The rest of the story has been good.
The scope and scale of the Hell on Earth War has been very intense, some of the biggest X-Factor has ever seen, and PAD has kept the pacing sharp. The story hasn’t dragged too much, with something interesting happening in every issue. This issue is no exception. Tier gets a proud moment, there’s an epic fight between Strong Guy and Monet, and Mephisto successfully sets himself up for next issue’s boss fight.
Can X-Factor save the day? Or will their cancellation come early? Join me after the jump to find out!
Review: Scarlet Spider #16
I’ve been writing a lot lately about how my favorite comic book stories are the ones that focus on the characters as people first and superheroes second. I want to read about heroes who have real lives to worry about, with real drama, real friends, and who act like real people. Scarlet Spider is a comic that definitely gets it, but at the same time, it makes one crucial mistake: Kaine is the center of his social life, and everyone revolves around him. And considering the character and the story, that shouldn’t be the case at all, and it’s a little weird.
Scarlet Spider #16
Still, Scarlet Spider remains an entertaining comic. Here is a done-in-one story about love and romance, which I very much enjoyed, but which was hampered by terrible art.
Comic Rating: 4/5: Good.
The sooner Khoi Pham is gone from this comic, the better. I’ve disliked his style since he started drawing Scarlet Spider, and this is his worst issue yet. There’s a big, climactic moment towards the end of the issue that writer Chris Yost has been building towards for some time, and Yost nails the scene, but Pham fails to stick the artistic landing. And it’s a real shame too, because I thought the story served the moment very well. At least Pham draws a very good Armadillo.
Anyway, as I was saying, the one problem with Scarlet Spider is that Kaine is the center of his social life. According to the story, Kaine simply arrived in Houston one day, and just happened to meet Wally, Donald and Annabelle over the course of his first few days in the city. That they became friends isn’t the issue, it’s that Wally, Donald and Annabelle don’t seem to have lives outside of Kaine. One would think that they had their own friends and family, and entire lives in Houston before Kaine randomly showed up. Yet everything they do seems to involve Kaine, each other and Aracely. It’s a weird gripe, I know, but it reinforces the fiction of it all.
Still, it always makes for a good comic when your love story involves Scarlet Spider fighting the Armadillo at a rodeo!
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 4/27/13
Wanna know a surefire way to eat up an afternoon and sap your will to read and review comics? Have a root canal. Ouch. My tooth is still sore a day later. I do not recommend sitting through one of those if you can help it. Of course, I also highly recommend eating as much candy and junk food as you want. So I guess it’s a double-edged sword. Or that I’m full of bad advice. Either way, the latter half of my week was a little busy, so today’s reviews will be a little shorter than normal, as in I skipped a few books I normally would have reviewed. But I also took this time to try out Young Avengers again, because if you guys and gals have any recommendations you’d like me to try out, and I more than willing to listen.
That doesn’t mean I’ll necessarily enjoy the comic the same way that you do – as you’ll see in my Young Avengers review – but I’m still more than willing to give any comic book a try. Though I will always love my favorites. This week, FF #6 wins Comic Book of the Week for its usual mix of hilarity and awesomeness. Though I think Guardians of the Galaxy wins joke of the week.
Marvel really, really hope Rocket Raccoon will work
I’m still not liking Guardians of the Galaxy very much, but it was legitimately a little bit funny this week.
Comic Reviews: Batman Incorporated #10, FF #6, Guardians of the Galaxy #2, New Avengers #5, Talon #7, Uncanny Avengers #7, Uncanny X-Men #5 and Young Avengers #4.
Review: Ultimate Comics: All-New Spider-Man #22
Oh Miles. Poor, poor Miles. In this issue, our young hero finally learns the price of being Spider-Man. And it’s not just a dead uncle. Miles learns the hard way that Spider-Man can’t save everyone. That no matter the power or the responsibility, you’re going to let people down, and that not everything is under your control. And that there will always be giant rampaging monsters to contend with. They never go away. Writer Brian Michael Bendis gives us the most emotionally devastating issue of the new Ultimate Spider-Man yet, and it’s as powerful as you’d expect from such a great comic.
Ultimate Spider-Man #22
I’m saddened by both the actual loss and pain Miles goes through, and the loss of potential that I don’t think this series managed to sufficiently explore. Still, amazing issue nonetheless.
Comic Rating: 5/5: Great.
I’m not going to spoil the big moment just yet. I’ll save that for the synopsis. Suffice to say, it’s a doozy, and I’m excited to see what it does for Miles’ growth as a hero. Granted, that sounds a little morbid, but you’ll see what I mean when we get to it. I’m also disappointed in what this moment takes away from the series. Some people might say this moment was inevitable, but at 22 issues into the series, I didn’t think anything was inevitable. And even when the previews started hinting that something bad was going to happen, I definitely didn’t imagine this.
I read somewhere that this might be the end of the unofficial Act 1 for Miles’ superhero career, and I can believe it. Bendis has been telling a fantastic story over the course of these 22 issues. Miles has been an incredible hero, from humble beginnings, through a lot of highs in his superhero career, and with the occasional lows. I definitely look forward to seeing what comes next.
Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more review!
Review: Teen Titans #19
We are off the rails here, people. We are through the Danger Zone. Forget everything you thought you knew about Teen Titans and prepare yourselves for ultimate dissatisfaction. Everything I have ever complained about with Teen Titans has come home to roost. We are through the looking glass so hard that my hyperbole machine is going to crash. Wow. This is a terrible comic book, but it almost feels par for the course for Teen Titans. Not since the horrors of Harvest and N.O.W.H.E.R.E. has this series been so bad.
Teen Titans #19
Everything I have hated about this comic is here in this issue. Terrible characterization, clunky, obvious exposition, characters and villains who come out of nowhere, an almost painful lack of subtlety; this one is off the chain.
Comic Rating: 1/5: Terrible!
This comic is bad from page one. It’s one of the most chaotic and leaden comics I have ever read. This is supposed to be the big, New 52 introduction of Trigon, but I couldn’t have imagined it being more mishandled. Trigon was one of the big bads in the pre-reboot continuity. He was one of the Teen Titans’ biggest enemies. But now he’s just pathetically wasted. There’s nothing new or interesting about this rebooted version of Trigon. Any mystique he used to have has been stripped away. The new Raven had a bit of mystery as well, but that is cruelly torn from her with this new issue.
There’s maybe one or two good things about this comic, and I’ll mentioned them in the synopsis, but they seem like flukes. Or they have more to do with different comics, which doesn’t help the Teen Titans much at all.
This is the worst possible version of the Teen Titans I could have imagined going into the New 52. The characters are poorly defined, their relationships are underdeveloped, they spend 90% of their time in costume playing superhero, the villains are terrible, and the comic has little to nothing to do with the DC Universe as a whole. I’m probably most disappointed in that.
But we might as well get to it. Join me after the jump for a full synopsis of this crapshoot.
Henchman-4-Hire 