Category Archives: Reviews
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews
I’ve been wanting to do this style of comic book review for a long time, but I never end up reading all my new comics before the weekend. However, I’ve got some time on Wednesdays now, so I really want to start. My long reviews take awhile to write, and I can’t do one for every comic I read. So from this week forward (hopefully), I’ll be providing some shorter, quicker reviews on the week’s new comics.
I buy a large smattering of comics across both DC and Marvel, and a few Indy titles. If there is any comic you’d like me to review, let me know via e-mail or in the comments.
Let’s begin!
Amazing Spider-Man #696
Amazing Spider-Man #696
Writer: Dan Slott & Christos Gage
Artist: Giuseppe Camuncoli
Phil Urich is one of my all-time favorite comic book characters. His brief series as the good Green Goblin in the 90s was the first comic book series that I ever bought and read with my own money. So of course his transformation into the villainous, perverted Hobgoblin was sad. I preferred him as a down-on-his-luck hero. But with a character as minor and obscure as Phil, I’ve mostly just been grateful that he’s even appearing anywhere. So I’ve been following his career as the new Hobgoblin, and it comes to a head in this issue, as original Hobgoblin, Roderick Kingsley, returns to New York City to crush Phil for good – and, of course, Spider-Man is caught in the middle.
I’ve mostly been enjoying Slott’s Amazing Spider-Man run. He brings a light-hearted feel to the wall-crawler, with brightly colored adventures and really personal stories. This one is no different. Peter Parker has just been outed as the man who builds all of Spider-Man’s gadgets at Horizon Labs, so the Hobgoblin kidnaps Peter for the Kingpin. They want to hold him hostage so that Spider-Man will turn over a special briefcase he’s holding, little knowing that Peter actually is Spider-Man. So it’s up to Peter’s boss, Max Modell, to bring the briefcase in an attempt to free Peter. But just as the exchange is about to go down, Roderick Kingsley attacks, determined to kill Phil.
In the chaos of the Hobgoblin War, Peter and Max escape with the briefcase – which holds a key to Norman Osborn’s entire Goblin arsenal!
Comic rating: 4/5: Good!
This was a fun adventure, and your typical Peter Parker in trouble story. The Hobgoblin War idea is pretty cool, as the characters look absolutely wicked under Camuncoli’s pencils. Seeing them battle is the highlight of the issue. Orange is always a great color for super-villains. I’m hoping Phil puts up a fight, and the idea that Roderick is threatening Phil’s girlfriend might bring some heroism out of Phil. One can hope. The Peter action was fun as he pulled off some web-slinging skill, while simultaneously trying to keep Max from deducing the truth. So yeah, entertaining story, fun characters and the hope that one of my all-time favorite comic book characters gets to shine.
Join me after the jump for more! Including AvX: Consequences, Batman Incorporated, Invincible Iron Man, Talon and Wolverine MAX!
Review: Teen Titans #13
You guys are probably not going to believe me, but the newest issue of Teen Titans is actually good! Really good! Delightfully good! Teen Titans finally does what I’ve been suggesting this entire time: it slows down, nixes all that frantic action and actually spends some time treating its characters like real people instead of ‘x-treme’ cartoons. Even as an issue filled with narration and flashback, it’s still fun to read. Wonder Girl spends almost the entire issue telling her New 52 origin story, with Red Robin and Superboy providing witty commentary. And I do mean ‘witty’. I had some actual smiles and chuckles reading this comic.
Teen Titans #13
What’s that? There’s almost an entirely new creative team on Teen Titans #13? Ooooooh, that would probably explain a lot.
Comic rating: 4/5: Good!
The overwritten sledgehammer of Scott Lobdell is gone! While he still provides the overall story, fellow longtime comics scribe Fabian Nicieza steps in with the actual script, and the difference is extraordinary. I’ve always liked Nicieza’s work, but here it sings. The trio of Titans are charming, funny and sound like real teenagers bickering and bantering. Even Wonder Girl’s origin story is fun to read, since it’s an entirely new tale, with absolutely no connection to the Greek Gods or Wonder Woman. That might annoy some longtime Cassie Sandsmark fans, but I’m not one of them, so I wasn’t bothered. My favorite character, Tim Drake, got a new origin with the reboot. So it’s the same with Cassie. But trust me, hers is pretty cool.
The brightly called and frantically kinetic pencils of Brett Booth are also gone, replaced by Ale Garza, who brings a more simple innocence to the team. Don’t get me wrong, I liked Booth, but seeing this issue, it’s clear that he was only contributing to the insane feeling of the previous Teen Titans issues. I said it in almost all of my reviews, but the New 52 Teen Titans was written and drawn as if they didn’t think the audience had any sort of attention span. The art and the writing were wild and wacky, full of motion and movement and everything one might think a teenager likes. But it made for a bad series that never took the time to get to know its characters.
Teen Titans #13 is exactly what I’ve wanted from this series. It doesn’t solve every problem, but it’s a step in the right direction. It definitely helps to flesh out Cassie’s character a lot more. I only wish the rest of the team were in the book, but sometimes it’s better to focus on just a few characters. You can get a lot done that way, as Nicieza and Garza have now proven.
Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more review!
Review: Ultimate Comics: All-New Spider-Man #16
Brian Michael Bendis still doesn’t seem to have any idea what to do with this Divided We Fall/United We Stand storyline, so apparently he decided to just throw HYDRA at the problem. What should have been a fun issue of Miles trying to join the Ultimates instead quickly descends into a mindless, random fight scene for almost the entire issue. And not a very interesting fight scene either. It’s a dark, rainy battle against an army of identical henchmen, with art that doesn’t necessarily work in sequence.
Ultimate Spider-Man #16
That’s not to say this is a bad comic. It’s fun, well-written and full of action. It just feels like pointless filler is all, at a time when we should be getting some really exciting and fulfilling stories about young Miles Morales’ life.
Comic rating: 4/5: Good.
This is a big moment in Miles’ development as a superhero. He’s decided to volunteer for the Ultimates now that the country is falling apart. At only 13-years-old, he’s decided to step up and be a man, to accept all of the responsibility that his powers have unfairly placed on his young shoulders. And he’s doing so while keeping it all a big secret from his parents. Bendis has weaved a rather delightful web in Miles’ life. But this stupid crossover is just mucking everything up. It feels a little like Bendis’ is flailing, not sure how to handle something so momentous when his Spider-Man is only 16-issues-old.
This should be a big moment for Miles. He should be making character-defining decisions. It’s a little too soon for him to deal with something of his magnitude, but now that it’s here, Bendis should be making the most of it. He’s a skilled enough writer. And while there are hints and whispers of the potential, he doesn’t reach the finish line. Like I said, this is just a big, boring fight scene, but it could have been so much more.
Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more view!
Review: X-Factor #245
This is an absolute perfect issue of X-Factor. This kind of issue is exactly why I love this series so much, and why Peter David continues to be one of the most popular writers in comics. His work with the characters in this issue is a masterstroke of humor, camaraderie and the general fun of having friends, through good and bad. Breaking Points has been an up and down story so far as David cleans house, but he wraps it up with style and happiness. I am very, very excited to see what comes next for X-Factor.
X-Factor #245
It also helps that this issue seems to read my mind and give Polaris a new, more modern costume!
Comic rating: 5/5: Great.
I feel kind of guilty grading this comic with a perfect score. Like I said, it’s a perfect issue of X-Factor, as long as you love the same X-Factor that I love. This is a talking heads issue, with no superhero fights or really much action of any kind. It’s just this cast of characters butting heads, talking through their feelings and making some legitimately funny jokes. This issue is seriously funny. When Peter David really gets going on the talking heads issues, something about them just triggers his funny bone. This is a great issue of X-Factor, a great example of what makes this comic so much fun and just an all around pleasure to have in front of you. So why do I feel kind of guilty?
Because I think X-Factor has run its course. At least under Peter David.
This sounds like blasphemy, but it’s true. These characters all feel kind of stuck in a rut. All of these big changes that have been happening feel only skin deep. I just don’t feel a deep, emotional connection to these characters like I used to. Or maybe it’s just me. I’ve said this before, and I fear it still stands: Peter David has gotten complacent on X-Factor. So hopefully this new direction and reduced cast will shake things up a bit.
Though Heaven help Marvel if they ever cancel this book or change it in any significant way! I’m a comic book geek, I hate change but embrace creativity! Grrr!
Review: Scarlet Spider #10
It’s crossover time in Scarlet Spider, where our favorite wall crawler teams up with Venom to take on Carnage…and the Micronauts, for some insane reason. I’m not going to review the entire crossover, just the issues of Scarlet Spider that are involved. But I’ll provide recaps to make sure everyone is up to speed. This review will focus entirely on Scarlet Spider #10, the second part of the crossover. It’s a pretty good story, hampered only by the general silliness of the plot itself. It’s just my own personal taste, but I don’t particularly enjoy some of comics more fantastical elements. Especially when writers can’t modernize those elements and make them work with modern day comic reading sensibilities.
Scarlet Spider #10
This is basically my way of saying that I just don’t think it works when street-level or military characters are suddenly thrust into a magical micro land full of wild, random characters. But such is Minimum Carnage.
Comic Rating: 3/5: Alright.
There’s nothing particularly special about this issue or this crossover so far. I like the interactions between Scarlet Spider and Venom, and there’s a…minor sense of menace when it comes to Carnage. I’ve always liked Carnage. I wasn’t reading comics yet when his most famous story, Maximum Carnage,came out in the 90s, but I’ve read an issue or two here or there. And there was this palpable terror in the comic. Carnage is a serial killer given extreme super powers, and Maximum Carnage was all about him cutting free and just killing at random in the streets of New York City. People were terrified, the hospitals were overflowing with the injured and the superheroes were pushed to their limit. The Joker always has some kind of game or plan in the works when he kills people. But Carnage just killed indiscriminately, and few have the power to stop him.
Time, of course, has dulled Carnage’s menace. But there are hints and shadows of it in this series so far, not to mention the fact that Carnage has been treated like a pretty important character in recent years. Minimum Carnage comes on the heels of two separate Carnage mini series, one in which he took over an entire town and captured the Avengers. So Carnage has been on a pretty good streak recently, but this new series kind of goes off the rails…
Still, it’s readable. And it’s nice to see Kaine interacting with some other people from the Marvel Universe.
Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more review!
Henchman-4-Hire 