Category Archives: Reviews
Review: X-Factor #253
The Hell on Earth War continues in this issue of X-Factor and it’s still pretty good. Not great. Not bad. It’s just kind of entertaining and enjoyable to read. And I think that’s good enough. I would like to see something really dramatic or amazing happen, but I’m not expecting it. The best issues of X-Factor are usually the quiet, introspective issues. Hell on Earth War is definitely not that. It’s big. This is probably the biggest storyline X-Factor has ever done, at least in terms of in-comic scale. Hell has come to Earth, and both the Avengers and Fantastic Four make cameo appearances.
X-Factor #253
In terms of scope, this storyline is huge. And it feels like it within the story. That’s a good thing. But something like the Hell on Earth War serves to remind us how little an impact X-Factor has on the rest of the Marvel Universe. And that’s a shame.
Comic Rating: 4/5: Good.
My opinion has wavered up and down a bit on this storyline so far. It has its faults. Few of the characters feel particularly engaged in the actual storyline. Everyone just kind of feels like they’re being dragged along with no real emotional depth. The story revolves around Tier, who we barely know or have any connection to at all. And the story makes it perfectly clear that Tier is the only character who can actually stop the various Hell Lords, so what is there for X-Factor to do?
But beyond those faults, it’s still an entertaining story. The characters are written well, the villains are strong and Tier isn’t so bad. Writer Peter David is keeping a fairly rapid pace, and the stakes are definitely high. It also feels like there might be a twist or two coming up somewhere along the line. I guess we’ll wait and see. I am enjoying the story, and I remain cautiously optimistic that it’s going to be pretty awesome in the end. Though I am slightly annoyed that my favorite character, Multiple Man, has been sidelined for who knows how long.
Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more review!
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 3/16/13
This was not a good week for friend-of-the-blog Jason Aaron. I’ve been a huge fan of his Thor: God of Thunder series, and have enjoyed his Wolverine and the X-Men comic, but both of them take horrifying nose dives in quality this week. I was shocked at just how bad those comics were. Maybe it’s because they both take a break from the normal storytelling to focus an issue on the villain. Is Aaron just bad at villains? I couldn’t say, but both comics were very disappointing.
On the better side of things, we have a few Batman titles tackling the fallout of Damian’s death, and we have hot and cold Brian Michael Bendis. The second issue of his Age of Ultron is a dud, but the new issue of Uncanny X-Men is everything I want from this comic. It’s on fire, and easily wins Comic Book of the Week. This is the best Cyclops has been since Joss Whedon was writing, and honestly, this is the best any superhero has been in years!
Comics Reviewed: Age of Ultron #2, Batman #18, Batman and Robin #18, Fearless Defenders #2, Thor: God of Thunder #6, Uncanny X-Men #3, and Wolverine and the X-Men #26.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 3/9/13
This week kicks off Marvel’s new Big Event comic the Age of Ultron…but it’s kind of a slow build so far. We’ll have to see if it picks up in the second issue, which comes out next week. Talk about accelerated shipping. Beyond the big stuff, we’ve got a good collection of quality comics. I think I liked every single issue I read this week, everything from the important titles like Avengers and All-New X-Men down to the smaller stuff like Green Arrow and Winter Soldier. Though now that I think about it, I need to buy more independent titles. Seriously, can anyone recommend any good comics that aren’t Marvel or DC?
But until then, I’m going to stick with the big guns, and it actually surprises me to say that Comic Book of the Week goes to Avengers #7! Where did that come from? I have really had it in for this series since issue #1, but Jonathan Hickman really knocked it out of the park this week. He actually made me interested in the New Universe.
They look just as surprised as I am
Let’s hope he can finally write a solid superhero story.
Comic Reviews: Age of Ultron #1, All-New X-Men #8, Avengers #7, Green Arrow #18, Green Lantern #18, Superior Spider-Man #5, Winter Soldier #16.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 3/2/13
Robin Week comes to a close with my official review of Batman Incorporated #8. It’s actually a very good comic, so it’s great to see Damian go out at the height of his awesomeness and popularity; kind of like Seinfeld or Calvin & Hobbes. I would even be tempted to give Damian’s demise the Comic Book of the Week, but that award has to go to Hawkeye #8. Writer Matt Fraction had an amazing week, delivering the one-two romantic punch of Hawkeye and FF, two amazing comics that reinforce why I love the medium in the first place. If you’re not reading either book then you’re definitely missing out.
Who would have thought that coming out of the big The Avengers movie last summer, the two characters with the best comics would be Hawkeye and Thor? Speaking of which, why doesn’t the Black Widow have her own comic series? That seems like it would be a no-brainer, especially for Marvel NOW! Oh well, this is why Marvel is not paying me the big bucks.
Comic Reviews: Aquaman #17, Batman Incorporated #8, FF #4, Hawkeye #8, Talon #5, Uncanny Avengers #4, Uncanny X-Force #2, Uncanny X-Men #2 and Young Avengers #2.
Review: Teen Titans #17
Teen Titans #17 was very close to being one of the best issues in the entire series so far. Even with Lobdell’s horrible habit of introducing villains in cutaway scenes that are apropos of nothing, this was still a good comic for the actual Teen Titans themselves. But then he goes and blows it with a pretty lame final page surprise. For the first 2/3rds of this comic, it actually looked like Lobdell and co-writer Fabian Nicieza were going to do a good job in treating the Titans as real people. They even managed to surprise me by injecting some really cool drama into the group. I thought they were actually on to something new and meaningful.
Teen Titans #17
NOPE! What I thought was meaningful, character-based drama turned out to be just the start of another stupid storyline. Dammit, Teen Titans, why must you continually shoot yourself in the foot?
Comic Rating: 3/5: Alright.
Since the very beginning of this series, I have said time and again that the best way to make Teen Titans work is to treat the characters like real people. We need to see the Titans interacting like real friends and teenagers more than we need to see them thrown up against the latest, lamest super-villain. And for the first part of this book, Lobdell and Nicieza actually do that. We’re introduced to their new headquarters, they talk about what the attack by Joker has done to the team and we get a lot of really good scenes between the individual characters. The scenes don’t go as far as I think they should go in terms of establishing these characters, but it’s leaps and bounds above what we’ve seen before.
And if there’s one thing I can say Lobdell has done well, it has been keeping Tim Drake at the center of the comic. He’s the most fleshed out of all the Titans (though that’s not saying much), and Tim goes a long way in keeping the series from being unreadable. And for most of the book, Tim is even better than he’s been before. Lobdell and Nicieza use him really well.
But then they mess it up. And they do it on purpose. The twist ending is almost painful to read in just how badly they screw up a good thing.
Henchman-4-Hire 