Category Archives: Reviews
Review: The Avengers
The Avengers was phenomenal. It was amazing. It was deliriously wicked. It was the perfect blend of mind-blowing action and heart-tugging giddiness. I could wear out the Thesaurus with the ways in which The Avengers movie lived up to everything I had hoped, and shined in ways I could not have imagined. We comic book geeks have been waiting for this movie our entire lives (and more specifically, since 2008), and Marvel Comics and director Joss Whedon have delivered a superhero extravaganza!
The new kings and queen of Hollywood
The Avengers is not only now the definitive superhero movie, it has raised the bar for all Hollywood blockbusters that will ever be made from this day forth.
Rating: 5/5: Great!
With The Avengers, this grand, long-gestating experiment by the Marvel movie people has come to glorious fruition. I always had faith that they could pull it off. Iron Man in 2008 was a brilliant film, and when Samuel L. Jackson appeared at the very end and teased ‘The Avengers Initiative’, I knew there was hope. Then The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger, all came along over the past few years, each one exciting and highly entertaining. I’m a fan of all of these films. But could Marvel really pull off The Avengers? Could they not only bring all of these major characters together into one film, but have it make sense and live up to the overwhelming hype?
I should be ashamed for even including those questions in my review. The answer is so incredibly ‘HELLS YES!!’ that I’m almost afraid of having my Internet License revoked.
Every Avenger gets a moment (or more) to shine. The humor is legitimately funny and delightful. The fights and action scenes are clear and exciting, with no blurring or over-editing. The Avengers are people first, action stars second; with a lot of character-based drama. Loki as the villain is far better here than he was in Thor, and easily carries the antagonist role. The climax was sufficiently chilling and climactic.
And the Hulk absolutely steals the show, smashing his way into our hearts. I could not be more pleased with this movie.
Some **SPOILERS** to follow.
Review: Avengers vs. X-Men #3
Now that the big brawl is over, it seems like the real fun is going to begin. I really enjoyed this issue of Avengers vs. X-Men, as the story moves from the rather sudden, impromptu fight of last issue to some downtime that raises the pacing of the series even higher. I’m glad that this series isn’t just going to be a big brawl to end it all, because that would have become real boring real fast. Instead it seems there’s going to be more to Avengers vs. X-Men than just fight scenes. This issue contains strong dialogue, some excellent character moments and what I consider to be a real exciting shift forward.
AvX #3
And with Captain America’s actions this issue, I’m confident that siding with the X-Men is the right call. Cap kind of crosses a few lines here. He almost seems out of character.
Comic rating: 4/5: Good!
This issue starts with some great dialogue between Captain America and Iron Man as they try to assess the consequences of their actions. I really liked how it felt, especially coming from Iron Man. Then the X-Men pull a fantastic twist, and the story jumps into a whole new gear. This series is 12 issues long and now I have no idea what to expect. Avengers vs. X-Men is definitely keeping my attention, though the issue doesn’t end as strongly as it started. Still, I like what I’m seeing. The story is told very clearly, the events are ramping up and getting more exciting and I don’t feel lost when it comes to the central conflict. This event feels as important as it should feel.
Even though some of the individual players are a little off, it still makes sense for these two heroic teams to come to blows. And best yet: I don’t have any complaints about the art this issue! So we’re looking at another solid chapter of Avengers vs. X-Men. Nothing to blow me out of the water with excitement yet, but maybe we’re getting there.
Review: Teen Titans #8
So everybody gets new Tron-inspired costumes! That’s got to count for something, right? Why do they get Tron-inspired costumes? Who knows! But apparently that’s what NOWHERE does when it captures young metahumans. So if nothing else, I can at least stop complaining about how lame NOWHERE is as the bad guy. They finally step up their game in this issue to reveal some pretty nasty goings ons.
Teen Titans #8
Unfortunately, that doesn’t make for a good issue. But at least it’s not as terrible as last month.
Comics rating: 2/5: Bad.
At the end of the last issue, the Teen Titans were grabbed by the evil Harvest and NOWHERE. This issue gets pretty freaky. NOWHERE has some people who can warp reality, so the Titans are put through some really weird, sometimes confusing torture shenanigans. The idea is to break the Titans by revealing their inner most secrets, except that nobody has very interesting secrets. We get little vignettes about each character, but none of them really build the characters up at all. At the very least it puts the Titans in a precarious situation as they gear up for the big crossover event with Superboy and Legion Lost (for some reason).
Though somebody get guest artist Ig Guara away from superhero comics immediately. Ig Guara is a good artist, but holy cow do some of his characters absolutely suck. When your costumed superhero looks like a kid wearing big, uncomfortable pajamas, you were not destined to draw superhero comics.
An Incredibly Biased Review of Mimic and the X-Men #2
And lo, the skies parted and the light shone down upon us as the world was gifted with the greatest comic book of all time this week. An event nearly 50 years in the making rode into our lives on a tsunami of awesome and fansanity! For here is an issue that has made my years of being a comic book geek and scouring the back issue bins worth it. Your favorite superhero and mine, the Mimic, has thrown down the gauntlet of mediocrity and declared in one voice that he would not go quiet into the night!
How did Mimic not even make the cover?
The X-Men will never be the same. And we are all blessed for it.
Comic rating: INFINITY/5: Scrumtrulescent!!
Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a perfect issue. We spend an inordinate amount of time focused on characters who aren’t Mimic. I don’t know what writer Christos Gage was thinking, but considering the badassery of his treatment of Mimic in this issue, he’s easily forgiven. But there’s a lot to slog through. The comic is called Mimic and the X-Men, after all. I suppose he had to squeeze a few other X-Men in there. Otherwise, what would Mimic have to joi…oop! I don’t want to spoil anything in this opening blurb. That would take away everyone’s fun!
And there is nothing more fun than reading the greatest comic book ever published starring the coolest, most underused superhero to ever grace our eyeballs!
Join me for the glory of the word after the jump, if you can contain your excitement. We’re in for one hell of a ride!
Review: X-Factor #234
In which two members do some soul searching while everyone else enjoys a much deserved group hug. And that’s mostly it. This issue of X-Factor had a few certain story beats it wanted to hit, so it did. Everything else is just kind of fun, generally moving a few different plots along while taking care of the ‘Madrox is back from the dead!’ angle. It’s not the big, emotional scene of awesome I was hoping for, but it’s definitely some good team bonding. We also have Madrox and Havok start butting heads, so that was fun. Though I hope we see some more of this team drama in the issues that come.
X-Factor #234
This issue also featured one of the most adorable superhero group hugs ever.
Comic rating: 4/5: Good.
This issue is also book-ended by the Isolationist’s story, as the mysterious woman is finally revealed in full. But their little segments add absolutely nothing to the overall threat they’re trying to convey, and I find myself rolling my eyes at them even more than last week. They are not threatening, they are not interesting and I have little to no desire in seeing them eventually face off against X-Factor. This book’s greatest strength is when its characters can act like real people, and deal with grounded, street-level adventures. The idea of them facing off against two far-out super-villains seeking world domination just doesn’t interest me in the least.
Fortunately, this issue mostly focuses on the good characters and what their lives are like together. So that’s a plus.
Henchman-4-Hire 