Category Archives: Reviews
Review: Huntress #1
Law of averages makes it clear that DC Comics was likely to publish at least one comic starring a female character who didn’t get naked in her first issue. The Huntress, Helena Bertinelli, dresses down into a sheer nightie, but she does so for a legitimate crime-fighting reason. The lasciviousness is actually part of the story! For the rest of the adventure, she’s an ass-kicking superhero who saves some girls, beats up some bad guys and doesn’t need a man to define her character. They even upgraded her costume to get rid of the exposed midriff and thighs!
Huntress #1
But then DC had to go and ruin the whole story by making it part of Earth-2! Those bastards!
Comic rating: 5/5: Great!
I’ll get to the Earth-2 stuff later in this review. It’s complicated and I want to make sure my non-comics readers understand why it’s such a sour note. If you ignore it and don’t give a rats ass about that sort of thing, Huntress #1 is a great comic. It’s a nice introduction to the heroine, a great character study for her attitude and style of crime-fighting and it sets up a nice story. This shows promise as a nice little mini-series exploring an oft overlooked superheroine. Anyone looking for a simple story that is not bogged down in continuity or characters should give the Huntress a try. There’s a lot to like about this issue.
And writer Paul Letvitz even managed to make her sexy without resorting to the same debauchery and titillation that a lot of other DC comics have with this new revamp.
Review: X-Men: Schism #5
And so the X-Men are split asunder! Destruction has come to Utopia, but a growing rift between Cyclops and Wolverine has brought the two long-time allies to blows! Who is right? Who is wrong? Can they put aside their differences in time to save the day? Can the X-Men as a family ever recover from that stinging comment about Jean Grey? Can the X-Men defeat one solitary Sentinel? The answer to a lot of those questions is ‘yes’. But as to whether or not the big X-Men split makes any legitimate sense, the answer is most definitely ‘no’.
X-Men: Schism #5
I am not ashamed to say that I completely agree with Cyclops on this one. Wolverine’s decision and his reasoning for breaking the X-Men in half fly in the face of decades of X-Men history! I just don’t buy it.
Comic rating: 3/5: Alright.
That’s not to say this wasn’t an enjoyable issue. The fight between Cyclops and Wolverine came to a great conclusion, and remained epic and brutal throughout. The day was saved in wonderful superhero fashion, and the debate between the two star characters was both respectful and intelligent. They didn’t just part ways flipping each other off, is what I’m saying. The years of respect and camaraderie remained between them, even as they went their separate ways. All in all, I’d definitely say that X-Men: Schism was a worthwhile story. There were some annoying parts, like everything with the new Hellfire Club or Idie, and the character rift wasn’t as clear until issue #4, but now that it’s complete, I think it’s a good story.
But Wolverine’s reasoning is just ridiculous! As much as I may have liked this issue, I had to bring it down a grade for how foolishly stupid and naive Wolverine seems, and how the titular split doesn’t make any sense. Spoilers and more after the jump.
Review: Gears of War 3
Well that was awesome. The final game of the Gears of War trilogy comes and goes with a bang, a boom, a splatter and the rev of a good chainsaw. But most of all, it was a blast. Fun to play, great for multiplayer mayhem and with a pretty good story to boot. I recently finished the story mode campaign, but I plan on playing the multiplayer modes for the next several months. It’s got a great lasting appeal. Gears of War 3 is just as hectic, epic and shotguntastic as the first two games.
So no trilogy curse, as far as I’m concerned. I give it a 5 out of 5: Great.
Should I have expected anything less? This was one of my most highly anticipated games of the year, and it’s lived up to every expectation. Gears 1 was the first game I bought on my X-Box 360, and Gears 2 came along a few years later. While the story hasn’t been Shakespeare, the gameplay has been top notch in game after game after game. That’s not to say the story is lame. It may have started off as simple in the first game, but by this third chapter, we were dealing with real depth and character emotion. I was definitely shocked on more than one occasion with the story this time around. And the death of Dom’s wife in Gears 2 was quite sad.
But we’re here to talk about Gears of War 3, maybe the best of the trilogy.
Last Round of DC Rejiggering Reviews
The final week of all-new #1 issues has come and gone, and the DC Rejiggering stands fully revealed at last! I plan on doing a full retrospective later in the week, so for now I’ll just focus on capsule reviews for the titles I picked up this week. We actually have a pretty good crop, with DC seemingly saving some of the best for last. I also got to finally read Teen Titans, starring my favorite DC character, Tim Drake. And I’m confident in saying that I’m happy with his new status quo. Red Robin as leader of the Teen Titans is a good direction for him, compared to just Red Robin solo hero from before the rejiggering. I like the costume change too.
New costume/Old Costume
But I’ll get to the larger retrospective later. For now, on to the reviews!
Review: Ultimate Comics: All-New Spider-Man #2
The spidery world of Miles Morales grows a little bit bigger in this second issue. Some of it is welcome and exciting, and some of it is too much too soon. But once again writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Sara Pichelli knock one out of the park in terms of character and storytelling. Miles takes a few big steps in this issue and learns some important life lessons – not to mention spider lessons. That the reader gets to go along for the ride is the real treat.
Ultimate Comics: All-New Spider-Man #2
The All-New Ultimate Spider-Man is off to a good start. But I don’t think the characters have yet earned the heavy drama in this issue, at least not Miles’ father.
There will be spoilers!
Once again, decompression is the name of the game. Bendis is taking his time introducing us to new star Miles Morales, and he’s also taking the time to introduce Miles to his new spider-powers. We all saw Miles get bitten by the bug last issue. Now it’s time to see what that means. I do not mind the decompression, especially not from Bendis. He practically introduced the concept to the world of comics with the original Ultimate Spider-Man. He writes great dialogue and really delves into the personality of his characters. Unfortunately, we only get a taste of Bendis’ usual snappy banter in this issue. Too much is given over to a long speech by Miles’ father. It’s a nice speech, but we don’t yet know the character enough for it to matter.
At least the rest of the issue is Miles having a goofy, youthful conversation with his dorky friend Ganke.
