Category Archives: X-Men
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 12/7/13
Last week was a monster week for comics, so it stands to reason that this week is kind of light on the funny books. I’m not complaining, mind you. My wallet thanks the comic book gods. But it means there weren’t many books to choose from for this week’s review list. Still, there were some important issues, like the final issue of Fearless Defenders, which goes out exactly how it lived. And the first issue of Inhumanity, which turns out to not be what I expected, at all – and I mean that in a bad way.
This is also the week where I start to turn against Green Lantern. I wanted to have faith in Robert Venditti and the new creative teams, but I just don’t think I can agree with what he’s doing on a moral level. You’ll see when you get to the review…
Fortunately, it wasn’t all bad comics this week! Superior Spider-Man remains strong, and I decided to check out Green Arrow after a long time away. I’m glad I did. The comic looks to be almost as good as the TV show. But the winner of the coveted Comic Book of the Week is Amazing X-Men #2 by Jason Aaron. He definitely seems to be having fun, especially with Storm.
Comic Reviews: Amazing X-Men #2, Fearless Defenders #12, Green Arrow #26, Green Lantern #26, Inhumanity #1 and Superior Spider-Man #23.
And Magneto Gets a Comic!
Marvel is apparently still announcing new comics for their All-New Marvel NOW! promotion. Next up is a Magneto solo series by Cullen Bunn and Gabriel Hernandez Walta.
Loving the barbed wire helmet imagery
Announced in USA Today, the series is going to feature Magneto in a ‘noir’ setting. He’s heading to the street level, where he will use his broken powers to help mutants and punish the sorts of people he wants to punish. I’ve been enjoying Magneto a lot in Brian Michael Bendis’ Uncanny X-Men, so a solo series sounds pretty cool. I just hope Bunn knows what he’s doing. I fear for the longevity of a lot of these new solo series that Marvel is putting out. New comics don’t last very long. Will Magneto have the right kind of magic to make it in this world?
Bunn had this to say:
“Magneto in this story is very much a detective, seeking out and investigating threats to mutants before cutting loose with all the fury of a supervillain — or superhero, depending on your point of view. We can sympathize with him even though he has been responsible for terrible crimes against humanity,” Bunn explains. “He walks such a fine line. He’s standing up for his people — the mutants. He refuses to let them suffer as he has seen others suffer. But he’s taken steps to protect mutants that can only be seen as evil. His ideals are often ‘good’ while his methods are not.”
The series will launch sometime next year, and I know I’ll be picking up a few issues.
Also, this is probably as good a time as any to talk about the fact that director Bryan Singer has announced X-Men: Apocalypse the movie for 2016. He pretty much just dropped the title on Twitter yesterday, and we can easily assume who the villain is going to be. I don’t really have any thoughts about it at this point. I’ve never been a big Apocalypse fan, and I always assumed they’d get around to him eventually in the movies. A lot of sites on the web seem to think they’ll do an Age of Apocalypse storyline, possibly because that’s the only Apocalypse story that is in any way memorable.
But I highly doubt the movie-makers could pull off a full Age of Apocalypse movie. It would be insane. I still don’t necessarily think the moviegoing audience is going to be able to handle all the time travel and weirdness in Days of Future Past. But we’ll see.
The 6 Most Underrated X-Men
The Internet loves to make fun of the X-Men. Whether ranking the worst members of the team or the most pointless, the X-Men seem to be easy pickings for discerning Internet nerds. Well I’m a different kind of Internet nerd, and I’m here to offer my support for some of those very same X-Men! Because if there’s one thing you need to understand about comic books, it’s that there are no bad characters, only bad writers.
Some of the most overrated
By their very nature, the X-Men are going to feature some less-than-stellar characters. Most superhero teams like the Avengers or the Justice League only take the best of the best superheroes. But the X-Men are built on being a minority, featuring characters who were born with their powers. And those powers can be either a gift or a curse. Sometimes you get the power to shoot lasers out of your eyes or control the weather. And sometimes your sweat is acidic or your bones grow out through your skin.
Join me after the jump for the 6 most underestimated X-Men!
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 11/30/13
Oof. Who knew that comic books take Black Friday so seriously? There were a metric ton of new releases this week, including a lot of my favorite titles. If I wasn’t already broke, this week’s haul would have done a number on my poor bank account. Fortunately for us, my love of comics feels no shame, and I bought a bunch of issues anyway!
And what a great bunch of issues! Superior Spider-Man and FF remain as good as ever. I still feel bad for anyone not reading Superior out of spite. You folks are really missing out on some neat stuff. And issues like FF #14 make me sad that the comic is coming to an end soon. Speaking of endings, this week also saw the finale for Infinity with issue #6! The end has been a long time coming, and it’s…good, but none of my complaints were ever addressed. There’s no big twist resolving everything.
Infinity ends about as well as one could expect, with the good guys winning and the bad guys losing. At least nobody was needlessly sacrificed in the name of cheap thrills. The same can be said for the end of Aquaman – or, at least, Geoff Johns’ run on the character. He wraps up all his big storylines in glorious fashion and doesn’t kill Mera or anyone else just for shock value.
Of course, neither does Hawkeye #14.
Aquaman #25 almost won comic book of the week. It came close. But then I read the adorable, squeeful Hawkeye #14 and there was no other choice.
Comic Reviews: Aquaman #25, FF #14, Hawkeye #14, Indestructible Hulk #16, Infinity #6, New Avengers #12, Red Lanterns #25, Superior Spider-Man #22.
The 6 Coolest Native American Superheroes
We here at Henchman-4-Hire are firm believers that every holiday should stick to its designated time period. All those doors in The Nightmare Before Christmas exist for a reason! Christmas needs to wait its turn, because there’s a very important and valid holiday in November: Thanksgiving!
Even if we all can pretty much agree that the historical First Thanksgiving was probably nothing like what we were led to believe growing up. Pilgrims and Indians coming together in peace and harmony to feast on a big, plump turkey on November 28? It’s probably more fictional than Bigfoot. But let’s not worry about that now, let’s take a look at the 6 coolest Native American superheroes – and thankfully, not all of them are wearing super-powered feathered headdresses.
Henchman-4-Hire 