Category Archives: Reviews
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.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 4/6/13
This week we explore the dichotomy of Brian Michael Bendis. He is one of the most popular comic book writers of our time, and has helped shaped the modern Marvel Universe in ways we can’t grasp now. He is a living legend in the comic book world. But sometimes he can be a really bad writer. I think I know now why Age of Ultron wasn’t given the hype or push of Civil War or Avengers vs. X-Men. It’s a terrible Big Event comic. If Age of Ultron really does rewrite any part of the Marvel Universe beyond just adding a Spawn character to the comics, I will be very disappointed. This may be Bendis’ worst Big Event comic.
But at the same time, Bendis has turned the X-Men franchise into one of the best comics being published today! His work on All-New X-Men and Uncanny X-Men is some of the best he’s ever written. Almost all of the characters involved are more dynamic than they’ve been in years, and the story itself is one for the history books. It just keeps getting better and better! All-New X-Men #10 easily wins Comic Book of the Week, and I eagerly await the next chapter next week.
Ptui!
Maybe Bendis just drinks a different kind of coffee on the days he’s writing X-Men vs. the days he’s writing Ultron.
Comic Reviews: Age of Ultron #4, All-New X-Men #10, Green Arrow #19, Green Lantern #19, Indestructible Hulk #6 and Superior Spider-Man #7.
Review: Scarlet Spider #15
I was perhaps a bit harsh on The Other last issue. I never read the original storyline, so I suppose I have no room to judge. And it helps when this follow-up issue uses The Other to turn Kaine into an ass-kicking, man-spider-fueled warrior of doom! He pushes his powers to the max in this issue as Kaine takes on the Wolves, and it’s a pretty great fight. Those Wolves have been cruisin’ for a bruisin’ for several issues now, and Kaine delivers.
Scarlet Spider #15
Otherwise, this is a pretty standard issue of Scarlet Spider. Kaine defeats the bad guys, we get a few answers about Aracely and there’s a series of epilogues pointing towards the next few stories. Solid, entertaining issue all around.
Comic Rating: 4/5: Good.
Even the art is better, I think. I haven’t been happy with Khoi Pham’s pencils since he took over, and I still don’t like them, but he does a pretty nice job with this issue. The fight scenes are good, though not as good as the former artist Ryan Stegman. That guy knew how to draw action scenes. Another artist shows up to help out with some of the epilogues, and I like his work a lot too. So the art is just as solid as the story.
I’m not sure how much this issue moves Scarlet Spider forward as both a character and a series. The Other might be here to stay…or it might be over with already. We won’t know until the series continues, the ending could go either way. I think I’d be cool if Kaine had the ability to randomly turn into a man-spider monster when the situation called for it. Definitely a power that Spider-Man doesn’t have.
Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more review!
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 3/30/13
The reviews are going to be a little short this week, I’m afraid. The problem with being an amateur blogger is that I’ve still got a day job and car problems to deal with, and it’s just my luck that I’d have to excessively deal with both in the same week. But I still bought my weekly stack of comics, I’m just going to have to cut out some of the usual reviews I would have done just to save time. Still, got a nice crop of comics this week, with some winners, some groaners and some disappointingly mediocre offerings.
Seriously, I could not be more let down by the first issue of Brian Michael Bendis’ Guardians of the Galaxy. I’m super excited for the upcoming movie, but if it’s anything like this first issue, maybe I should lower my expectations. Guardians of the Galaxy is almost exactly like DC’s Threshold, and I hated that series. I doubt I’m going to even bother with more Guardians.
And if that wasn’t the only surprise, I’m going to award Comic Book of the Week to Uncanny Avengers #5! I’ve been picking on the series since it began, but this issue gets all its ducks in a row, including a new artist, and is pretty impressive. Though apparently also very controversial, as I’ll explain in a bit. First, some levity.
FF remains pretty damn awesome.
Comic Reviews: Age of Ultron #3, Batman Incorporated #9, FF#5, Guardians of the Galaxy #1, Talon #6, Uncanny Avengers #5 and Wolverine and the X-Men #27.
Review: Teen Titans #18
Maddening! This series is maddening! Sometimes Teen Titans can be pretty damn good, with solid characterization and the hint that something interesting and entertaining will happen. Then Teen Titans will shoot itself in the foot and run around bleeding everywhere because it just loves pointless cutaways and ridiculous character motivations. Evil Tim Drake continues to be a ridiculously stupid idea. Seriously, if Evil Tim Drake wasn’t in this issue, this would have been one of the best issues of Teen Titans to date. But he just ruins everything!
Teen Titans #18
But he’s not alone. If you were hoping Trigon might amount to something cool…nope! Or what about the two stupid new villains that were randomly and awkwardly inserted last issue? They show up again and are even more pointless than before.
And then there’s Lance. Fuck Lance.
Comic Rating: 2/5: Bad.
Sorry for the cursing. But seriously, to hell with that guy. Lance is the worst character in the New 52. Even worse than Rush! He makes absolutely no god damned sense! Scott Lobdell introduces him in Teen Titans as one of Amanda Waller’s agents. Fine. Even though he’s got a ridiculously generic costume and name, that’s still fine. Then Lance shows up and promises he can cure Solstice. Also fine. But then in that same issue, he’s pulled away by unseen forces to go off and appear in Birds of Prey. What!? Why!? I didn’t read about Lance’s adventures in Birds of Prey, but they were apparently important enough to warrant a one-panel cameo in the Teen Titans Joker issue, and then he’s mentioned again in this issue as having disappeared. What the Hell!?
Why bother bringing the character into Teen Titans in the first place if he’s not going to stick around or do anything, and instead is going to have a big story in Birds of Prey?
And Lance is just the tip of the stupid character iceberg. Teen Titans is full of them, and I’ll gladly point them out as we go through the synopsis. Sadly, it pains me to say that the stupidest character of them all is Evil Tim Drake. Even his haircut is stupid. But what makes it even worse is that for the first half of the book, he’s actually pretty awesome.
Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more review.
Henchman-4-Hire 