Category Archives: X-Men
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 2/16/13
Do you like Batman and the X-Men? Because those are the only comics that came out this week! Or at least, they’re the only comics on my pull list this week (if we don’t count Scarlet Spider). But wow, what a great week for Batman and the X-Men! Death of the Family ends in Batman, with a sort-of epilogue in Batman and Robin. The Internet is crowing about the finale of Scott Snyder’s Joker story…but I just don’t get it. Sorry. I guess it went right over my head. Still entertaining though.
The real treasure this week is the first issue of Brian Michael Bendis’ Uncanny X-Men, debuting Cyclop’s new team of mutant revolutionaries! I have very much been looking forward to this comic, and it does not disappoint! Uncanny X-Men #1 easily wins Comic Book of the Week!
Pax Utopia
Comic Reviews: Batman #17, Batman and Robin #17, Uncanny X-Men #1, Wolverine and the X-Men #25.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 2/9/13
Welcome to a week of interesting firsts! We’ve got the first issue of Fearless Defenders, Marvel’s new all-girl team of heroes. We’ve got the first issue of Winter Soldier written by incoming writer Jason Latour, who’s taking over for the legendary Ed Brubaker, the man who resurrected Bucky in the first place. Those are some mighty big shoes to fill. Brubaker wrote a nice letter at the end of his final issue of the series, about how humbling it was to go from trying to convince his editor that resurrecting Bucky would be a good idea to finding out that the ‘Winter Soldier’ would be the title of the second Captain America film. I hope that happens to me someday.
We’ll also see the first issue of Jeff Lemire’s take on Green Arrow. As well as the first times I’m actually happy with Avengers and New Avengers. In fact, New Avengers #3 wins Comic Book of the Week!
Comic Reviews: All-New X-Men #7, Avengers #5, Fearless Defenders #1, Green Arrow #17, New Avengers #3, Superior Spider-Man #3 and Winter Soldier #15.
Review: X-Factor #251
I take back any bad thing I ever said about the Hell on Earth War. I can’t believe I ever doubted Peter David. This story has been fantastic so far. PAD is writing it at such a fast pace that the story never slows down, it never lingers. I thought all of his previous high-concept mythical stories had that problem. They stretched on forever until their impact no longer mattered. But so far, PAD and this story are on a roll.
X-Factor #251
Though if I’m being entirely honest, when PAD explains the motivation behind the Hell on Earth War in this issue, it’s a far-fetched and arbitrary. But I’m comfortable with it.
Comic Rating: 4/5: Good!
The justification for this war is kind of silly. There’s no way around it. The idea of all of Marvel’s various hell lords getting into a fight is a cool one. It definitely has potential. But PAD comes up with a very arbitrary reason for their fight. At least he ties it into the X-Factor story in a neat way. That’s a definite strength of the story so far. All of the storylines PAD has been crafting over the past few years are coming together in a smooth way, from the birth of Tier to the corruption of Strong Guy. And while it’s sad to see Strong Guy as such a villain, it’s definitely adding to the personal feel of the story. This is X-Factor’s story and they are at the heart of the action.
Any story can be about the devil fighting a bunch of other devils for the rulership of Hell. And any story can feature superheroes beating up bad guys. But you’re not going to have a good story unless you’ve got good characters, and unless the reader actually cares about the characters. Well PAD has got things down pat, and the Hell on Earth War is burning up!
Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more review.
The 6 Characters on My Random X-Force Team
Why is Marvel putting out two separate but incredibly similar X-Force comics these days? Alright, stupid question. The answer is to make more money, obviously. That’s why there are so many different X-Men titles. But from a creative standpoint, what the heck is Marvel thinking? I have read both Cable and X-Force and Uncanny X-Force, as well as various creator interviews, and it looks to me like the two books might as well be mirror images of one another. Both are about a random assortment of X-characters randomly banding together to fight a random threat. What happened to the days of yore, when the name ‘X-Force’ actually stood for something? When the title was used to tell new, off-kilter stories that were different from the normal X-Men?
Cable and X-Force is about Cable, Domino, Forge, Hope, Colossus and Dr. Nemesis battling the techno-organic virus. Uncanny X-Force is about Storm, Psylocke, Puck, Spiral and Fantomex battling a new designer drug, and possibly Bishop. If you don’t read comics regularly, then it’s possible that those two sentences don’t make a lick of sense. But even if you do read comics, it’s like the Marvel writers just threw darts at a wall of character names to decide who was going to appear in their version of X-Force.
And that sounds like an awesome game! So being the creative guy that I am, I’ve decided to play it as well. If Marvel suddenly decides to give me the reigns to create my own random X-Force team – let’s call it ‘X-Treme X-Force’ – then these are the 6 characters I would use.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 1/26/13
What a week, what a week, what a week. Good thing there’s always comics to keep us entertained and excited. And another busy week brings us several different Avengers and X-Men comics – including the second X-Force title – as well as the penultimate chapters of the Third Army story in Green Lantern. Is it living up to all the previous Green Lantern sagas? No…not yet. But it’s still fun! As is the new Young Avengers series, and the latest issue of FF, but then we always knew that series was going to be fun.
Seriously, people, there are a ton of new comics this week. But the coveted Comic Book of the Week has to go to Wolverine and the X-Men #24. It’s cute, it’s fun and it reminds me why I loved this series so much in the beginning.
Iceman knows how to show a girl a good time
Comic Reviews: Avengers #3, Batwoman #16, FF #3, Green Lantern #16, Green Lantern: New Guardians #16, Justice League #16, Nightwing #16, Red Hood and the Outlaws #16, Uncanny Avengers #3, Uncanny X-Force #1, Wolverine and the X-Men #24, Wonder Woman #16, Young Avengers #1.
Henchman-4-Hire 