Review: Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man #1
About a year ago, for my friend’s wedding, I bought him his first Miles Morales comic (I also bought him a toaster that burns the Spider-Man logo into the middle of the bread, but that’s beside the point). I bought him the hardcover collected edition of Miles’ debut. My friend is a diehard Spider-Man fan, especially Ultimate Spider-Man. He’s also the kind of casual comic book reader who didn’t know in advance that Ultimate Peter Parker was going to die, and when it happened, he felt a real, emotional loss that still stings to this day. The dude loved Spider-Man.
Ultimate Spider-Man #1
He was hesitant to give Miles Morales a try, but he finally got around to reading the comic earlier this year. When he told me he liked it, I told him to keep reading, because it only gets better.
Miles Morales is back, and even though the comic has a new title and a new #1, I’m very happy to say that it’s business as usual for the Web-Slinger.
Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.
Forget everything you know about Cataclsym…mostly. A few of the events from that story, like the death of Captain America and the disappearance of Miles’ dad, play into this new issue, but for the most part, people seem to have moved on from Galactus threatening to destroy the planet. Life goes on. Ultimate Spider-Man goes on, and for that I’m grateful. I said it all the time in the build-up to Cataclysm: Ultimate Spider-Man is too damn good to get caught up in all that other nonsense. But at least when Bendis does get wrapped up into that stuff, he handles it with his standard aplomb.
Miles and the gang are back and up to their old tricks, the major events of the past few weeks barely even registering. Miles is still Spider-Man. He’s still dating Kate Bishop. Ganke is still hanging around. The only real change is that Miles’ dad has taken off. I thought Miles’ reveal to his father during Cataclysm was rushed, and a poor place to insert such an important moment, but it happened and we have to live with it now. And like I said, Bendis handles it superbly. He makes Jefferson’s abandonment a real sticking point for Miles. I’m confident Bendis will turn this into a quality storyline in the future.
Even though Marvel has slapped yet another mouthful of a title on this series, it remains the same Ultimate Spidey we know and love. Though I feel bad for my friend who’s going to have to wade through Cataclysm, Divided We Fall and any other Big Ultimate Events that I’ve forgotten about.
As Always, Man is the Real Animal
Check out the new trailer for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes!
I really liked the first…um…the second..uh…the first installment of the second reboot of the original Planet of the Apes, there we go. So yeah, I’m pretty excited to see this new sequel. The effects look good. There’s less James Franco. Why not add another movie to my already growing list of summer blockbusters?
What say ye, movie and blog fans?
Review: Teen Titans Annual #3
Holy crap, you guys, I actually liked Teen Titans Annual #3! I fully expected an explosion of horror and bad writing. But damn if Scott Lobdell doesn’t pull one out in the end. I would like to think, that over all these long years of me writing Teen Titans reviews, that you readers have come to trust my judgement. Or maybe you’re finding my blog for the first time and don’t know what to believe. Perhaps you, like the rest of us, just wanted to see how the final issue of Lobdell’s Teen Titans would turn out. I’m happy to say–no, ‘happy’ isn’t the right word. I’m…comfortable saying that Teen Titans Annual #3 isn’t the train wreck I thought it was going to be.
Teen Titans Annual #3
In his final issue on the series he introduced to the New 52, Lobdell manages to go out on a high note, so he’s got that going for him, which is nice.
Comic Rating: 6/10 – Pretty Good.
Two things make this final issue pretty good: focus and teenagers. This Annual features the return of Harvest, the villain that technically brought the Teen Titans together at the start of the series. He was a bad character then and he’s a bad character now. But it’s clear from this issue that Lobdell had intended to stretch this story out across several issues. I would bet dollars to donuts that he had always expected to get around to this story, and he never intended it to be only one issue long. But time makes fools of us all, and here is is cramming everything into a single, oversized issue. On the one hand, it sucks, because there are a lot of themes and moments here that would have benefited from a little room to breath, like his attempts to flesh out Harvest’s character and motivation. Predictably, they’re terrible. But maybe Lobdell could have done something more with them. Of course, that’s a big maybe.
On the other hand, forcing Lobdell to rush through this story keeps the focus of the issue tight. I can’t say that the story is all that good, but at least it doesn’t meander and he doesn’t have time for all of his worst traits, like he did in the recent space story. The whole adventure is over and done with in a single issue, and, again, it wasn’t half bad.
As for the teenagers, Lobdell actually takes the time to treat his characters like real people. The first half of the issue, or at least the first few pages, are the Titans out of costume talking to one another about the future of the team and their duty to try and stop Harvest. This was the #1 thing lacking from Lobdell’s Teen Titans: real, human interaction. Had this series regularly contained even an iota of what we see in this issue, maybe it would have been good. Of course, this is still Lobdell’s Teen Titans, and we quickly leave that human stuff behind, but while it’s there, it’s enjoyable. I can say that with conviction.
We also get our first look at what Kenneth Rocafort will be like on art duties. There are times it looks good and times it looks bad, so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what he really brings to the table.
Teen Titans Annual #3 finally brings to an end Scott Lobdell’s horrendous comic. It was all mostly bad, but in his final issue, he wraps the comic up nicely, fixes a few mistakes and hopefully hands the thing off to some much better creators. Join me after the jump to finally put a cork in this sucker.
6 Things I Want to See in Future Amazing Spider-Man Movies
Bring on the Amazing Spider-Man mega-franchise! Despite most of criticdom apparently hating The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and box office predictions less than ideal, this comic book geek was a big fan, and an even bigger fan of everything director Mark Webb and Sony Pictures seem to be doing with the Spidey franchise. I love the idea of Sinister Six and Venom movies. I love Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man. And I’m especially enjoying the various villains and Easter Eggs popping up left and right.
Though the mystery about Peter’s dad should be dropped like a hot potato.
Why do we need anything more than ‘radioactive spider bite’?
After reading several reviews, I thought I wouldn’t like The Amazing Spider-Man 2. But just like my doubt with the first one, the actual movie blew me away. Garfield is just so great as both Peter Parker and Spider-Man that I can’t help but love the films. So if he sticks around for a few more, I can’t wait for Amazing Spider-Mans 3, 4 and 5! There are more than enough villains from the comics to use, and more than enough classic character elements to bring into the films to keep them rolling along. And clearly Webb and Sony aren’t afraid to write their own stories and twists to the character.
But if they’re running out of ideas, I have some of my own for them to use! Click the jump to see my suggestions for all future Amazing Spider-Man sequels!
First Gotham Trailer Full of Promises
The first trailer for the TV show Gotham debuted last night, and it’s full of promises for all sorts of Batman-related stuff – just none of the stuff we want to see.
I wrote about this show a few weeks ago, and I think this trailer just embiggens everything I was worried about then. Look at them tease all of the individual villains, the ones promised in that leaked script that the people at io9 didn’t like. But other than that, I suppose it looks OK. The show has been picked up for at least 13 episodes, and you better believe I’m going to watch them. But I remain slightly hesitant.
Of course, I’m still watching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., so I’ll give anything a chance.
Henchman-4-Hire 