Blackest Night #1

In this, the first issue of Blackest Night, Carol Ferris shoots a robot in the crotch with the power of love.

Ok, so a lot more happens either side of that one scene. Some good, some bad. But overall this is a pretty solid start to DC’s 2009 event.

Tales of the Corps #1

I understand what they’re trying to do with this 3 issue miniseries. Using it to shine a light on lesser characters that don’t get a whole lot of backstory in the regular titles. But two out three of the stories here just aren’t that interesting. First up is an origin for Saint Walker, that doesn’t add that much more to his character. Yes he went through many, many horrible events one after the other before finally realising his destiny, but so what. Name one saint that hadn’t endured a long shitty existence before getting their halo?

The second story isn’t all that exciting either. It spins a tale of  Mongul’s childhood during one magical summer where he was the ruler of some aliens who had crash landed on his plant. But who cares because that kid grows up into an asshole tyrant who uses a magic ring to control his severed arm and who also ripped another alien’s tongue out just so that alien wouldn’t talk back to him anymore.

Luckily, the third and final story shows some merit. Full points for having the nomadic Indigo Lanterns sound like characters from The Gods Must Be Crazy.

Dark Avengers #7

I discovered I enjoy reading Dark Avengers written by Matt Fraction a lot more than when it’s written by Brian Michael Bendis.

Complete List

Blackest Night #1 (of 8)
Blackest Night Tales of the Corps #1 (of 3)
Wednesday Comics #2 (of 12)
Agents Of Atlas #8
Dark Avengers #7
Incognito #5
Mighty Avengers #27
X-Factor #46

Green Lantern #43

Remember those books from the 90’s where the bad guy, or some other “special guest star” would take over a book, spray painting or otherwise covering up the main title? I kind of wish they did something like that here, as this book is totally Black Hand’s story.

It serves as a nice prelude to Blackest Night, retelling Black Hand’s life story and touching on his childhood, first appearance in a Green Lantern book, his role in the recent — and overly long — Secret Origin arc, right up to Green Lantern: Rebirth. There’s also a callback to the German-speaking  Gremlins that kidnapped him soon after. It looks like Johns has another bad guy/girl waiting in the wings once Blackest Night wraps up. Unless they’re a major player and I’ve completely misjudged who it was supposed to be.

While I can appreciate Philip Tan’s character designs, his rushed, rough pencilling on the book itself really didn’t do anything for me. Doug Mahnke on the other hand should be perfect fit for this book. I’m only familiar with his work on Superman: Beyond and the last issue of Final Crisis. But the way he was able to have the characters convey even the smallest emotion should be a great boon to a book entirely devoted to exploring large facets of the emotional spectrum.

Wednesday Comics #1 (of 12)

After Trinity I was all but ready to give up on the weekly comic format. Trudging through 52 issues of epic space opera that alternated between molasses-speed introspection and smash cuts of earth-shaking battles took a lot out of me.  But I think DC had the measure of their audience. They knew that the next weekly had to be something special. Something with a touch of novelty to draw an audience made up of those already worn down and those looking to break into the comics scene. Something with a strong creative team to keep people coming back. And I think they’ve done it.

There’s 14, one page stories contained within, all of varying quality (but none of them terrible).  That they’re all set “outside continuity” isn’t a great problem. The character’s basic personalities and drivers are all there. Green Lantern wears green, flies in space; Superman beats the hell out of robots while protecting humans.

Though this is only the first issue I do have my favourites already. Neil Gaiman and Mike Allred’s Metamorpho is just the right amount of 1950’s pulp adventuring; while Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner’s Supergirl is, in a word, cute. Sgt. Rock, Batman, Kamandi are three more stories that have me biting my nails and hanging for the next issue. I guess the only story I really have a problem with is Wonder Woman. It’s overly wordy and the panel layout makes it incredibly hard to follow. If they’re going to continue  framign it in the same way I’d suggest using arrows to direct the reader from one panel to the next, much like traditional large format newspaper comics have.

I really hope this works out for DC. I’d love to see this done as a yearly event. Sometimes its just nice to read a comic that just wants to entertain you and isn’t hung up in pushing things in “a bold new direction!”

My local comics shop had completely sold out of copies by Monday. So hopefully DC see this as a sign that most of the speculators have left the market and that there’s people out there willing to read their stories regardless of what the damn thing is printed on.

Complete List

Booster Gold #22
Green Lantern #43
Wednesday Comics #1 (of 12)
Dark X-Men Beginning #1 (of 3)
Ms Marvel #41
X-Men: Legacy #226

Green Lantern Corps #38

This issue got me thinking about how much Countdown failed Kyle Rayner as a character. In Countdown he was little more than transport for the other characters. Using the most powerful weapon in the universe as directed through his artist’s mind to create bubbles and flat boards for them to ride on.

The Kyle we see in this issue is confident and most importantly proactive. The back half of this book has a great confrontation between Kyle, Guy Gardner the Alpha Lanterns. Peter Tomasi should be really proud of how well he’s fleshed Kyle out. This isn’t the same character from the ION series (that I dropped halfway through due to overwhelming meh-ness). In linking him to Guy and Sorinik Natu Tomasi has given Kyle both purpose and passion.

Art by Patrick Gleason is good. Very good in fact. It must take a lot of work to draw this book. What with 99% being aliens of different shapes and sizes. Then having those aliens appears consistently across every page. It’s really impressive work. I don’t know why Gleason isn’t doing more in the industry. He’s definitely one to follow.

Uncanny X-Men #513

I’m still not 100% sold on this book.

I get what they’re trying to say with the storyline. Proposition X is a partial allegory of California’s Proposition 8. And if the story was a meditation on how Proposition X (proposed sterilisation of all mutants) it could’ve been incredibly interesting. But this is a Marvel Universe under Norman Osbourne’s Dark Reign. So he has to pop up to reiterate what a giant asshole he is. Again.

And there’s the little things that didn’t need an extra layer of comic bookiness added. Like Simon Trask, the man reponsible for organising the march that starts this whole thing, being revealed as some sort of cyborg or Sentinel of some kind. Wasn’t it enough that he was this horribly blinkered bigot? Did he really have to have the electro/mind control thing going on too?

Now that I’ve reread that, it seems weird to be complaining that a comic book is too much of a comic book. But there you go.

On the plus side the character’s voices are spot on.VBut then Fraction was always good at that.

The art work by Terry Dodson is top notch as always. Some won’t like the thick outline around each character, but I’m a fan.

Complete List

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #26
Witchfinder In The Service Of Angels #1 (of 5)
Batman and Robin #2
Green Lantern Corps #38
Secret Six #11
Agents of Atlas #7
Uncanny X-Men #513
Angel #23

Detective Comics #854

My only brush with Greg Rucka came through his work on 52. Where he put a lot of work into the entwined stories of  Batwoman and The Question. So I guess it’s only fitting that I get reacquainted with his work through a book that stars those two characters. Yes I’m aware they had their own post-52 miniseries, but I didn’t read that as, to me , that particular story seemed to have been played out in the pages of 52 already.

At first glance the Kate Kane in this book seems vastly different than that one who appeared in 52. She’s less a socialite and more of an army brat. She’s got tattoos and it’s implied she sleeps (or slept) around. Yes, she’s still a lesbian, and yes it comes up but only in a way to flesh out her “committed to the mission” mindset.

Before this book, id you’d asked me to point out art by JH Williams I woul’dve had no chance. Would not know him from a bar of soap. After reading this book I have every panel burnt out to my brian. In a good way of course. And the panel layout. Wow. There’s one two page sequence depicting that I loved. A series of lightning bolt panels depicts Batwoman talking to Batman then heading back to base and changing back into civillian clothes, underscored by a shot of Batwoman, on her motorcycle, shooting across the page.

There’s this incredible amount of energy that crackles off every page.

Meanwhile over in the Question backup…sorry “co-feature”, Renee Montoya seems to have become DC’s answer to the Heroes for Hire. Using an email account and/or website to solicit investigative work. Her first case pitting her against human traffickers.

It reads like it was originally pitched as a full length story that’s been slimmed down through precise cuts. Nothing is missing really, but there’s no great explanation of the bad guy possible motives, just that he’s the damn bad guy.

Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia #1

After the letdown of an event that was Brian Michael Bendis’ Secret Invasion I harboured a feeling that, given half a chance, Matt Fraction could easy write the next Marvel event. And here it is.

I’m glad it’s not a company-wide thing as I really couldn’t handle another one of those from Marvel. But it does carry the Dark Reign tag, which I cna’t really get enthused about. Even though most of the Marvel side of my pull list involves Dark Reign in some way.

The story seems organic enough. At the end of Secret Invasion, when Norman Osbourne was given the job of…well whatever the hell it is he actually does, he put all mutants on notice. Telling Emma Frost that if they couldn’t control themselves then he would. Or words to that effect.

In this first issue of the indeterminately long miniseries (there’s no “#1 of #3″ on the cover, just “Chapter One”) Simon Trask organises a march on San Fransisco in support of a new law to sterilise all mutants, which of course leads to all hell breaking loose. Really, nobody watched the first 10 minutes of Die Hard 3?

With half of San Fransisco on fire Norman Osbourne makes good on his promise and sends in the Dark Avengers to control things. Which of course they don’t because they’re all psychopaths. Then Norman takes Emma Frost aside reitterates whats he first told her and then promotes her to Leader of All Mutants. Charles Xavier shows up to talk down Cyclops, but it’s revealed to the  reader that the real Charles Xavier is lying in a prison cell with his brain leaking down his shirt. None of which makes a whole lot of a sense.

But, this is only the first issue, and I’ve got enough faith that Fraction will spin out a few interesting concepts before bringing everything to a decent conclusion.

Of  course Marvel get full praise for keeping Greg Land as far from this story as possible. Marc Silvestri handles the art in a passable fashion. It’s a lot more basic than his linework from back when Grant Morrison wrote the book, with most of the humans looking like scarecrows. And a small but significant drawing of a continuity-breaking, male Loki.

Complete List

Detective Comics #854
Green Lantern #42
Astonishing X-Men #30
Avengers: Initiative #25
Dark Avengers #6
Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia #1
Immortal Iron Fist TP Vol 04 Mortal Iron Fist
Ms Marvel #40
New Avengers #54
Runaways 3 #11
Secret Warriors #5
Thunderbolts #133
Uncanny X-Men #512
X-Factor #45
X-Force #16
Wizard Magazine #214

Power Girl #2

It seems a little too soon to use the second issue as an exposition tool and drawn out origin for the bad guy. Sure, it goes against convention, but you know what? I didn’t mind it. Because the rest of the issue was devoted to Power Girl taking on an albino gorilla with a superhuman brain. I could read that kind of thing forever.

Incognito #4

Still good. Still very good in fact. But it feel like the 2 month gap between issues #3 and #4 killed the momentum somewhat. This issue is pretty much entirely fallout. Zack is discovered, interrogated by the SOS, a government agency tasked with taking down rogue superpowers. (Which I guess in a way makes it the CIA of Incognito) and put back on the streets sans powers. The improbably named Ava Destruction throws a wrench into the whole idea of the bad guys coming for Zack’s blood. The pulpy elements are still there, but the noirish tones have really started coming to the fore.

Mighty Avengers #26

I was all but ready to give this up after last month’s issue. It’s pretty easy to bag the book with it’s slow pacing and characters don’t do a hell of a lot — except for Hercules, who may just be the funniest character in the Marvel stable.

But then you get an issue like this  with crazy Warren Ellis-style Zeno Rooms, sonic screwdrivers and scientific equations that take philosophy  into consideration.

It’s still dangerously close to being dropped, but if Dan Slott can keep loading the book with off the wall science stuff and improve character interaction then it’ll keep it’s spot on the pull list for now.

Complete List

Ex Machina #43
Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance #2 (of 6)
Power Girl #2
Cable #15
Incognito #4
Mighty Avengers #26
X-Men: Legacy #225
Angel #22

Booster Gold #21

This issue of Booster Gold is the first DC books to showcase their new backup story concept, or “co-features” as they’ve decided to call them. A way to keep minor, but loyally followed characters that can’t support their own book on the shelves.

If this little 10-page story, about Blue Beetle beating up a giant robot called THINKO! for 3 hours, is any indication then the recently cancelled ongoing series must’ve been an absolute gem to read.

Flash: Rebirth #3 (of 6)

I’m not sure I understand the point of this series. Green Lantern: Rebirth was fairly straight forward: “Hal Jordan died a villain, so lets bring him back to life in a way that reaffirms his hero status. ”

But what about Barry Allen? He died a hero, saving the universe from the big bad at the time only to pop up in Final Crisis as the universe’s attempt to cure itself of Darkseid (no, really!)  There had to be an incredibly good reason to keep him around after that, past editorial whim.

Even with the patented Geoff John’s villain reveal page at the end of this issue I’m still at a loss as to why this series exists.

Green Lantern Corps #37

When I showed this cover to Ange her immediate reaction was “Oh yuck.” I couldn’t have said it better myself. It’s a horrible drawing of Arisia.

Watching the Daxamites freak the hell out when their superpowers kicked in went a ways to making up for the terrible cover.

Uncanny X-Men #511

Look, I wouldn’t go so far as to say Greg Land is ruining Uncanny, but when every character is posed like a model and either smiling or laughing or making a “porn face” regardless of whats happening around them then the art becomes at best, panel filler or at worst, utterly detrimental to the story.

I’m sure the script for this page went something like:

STORM floats at the window as a gust of wind BLOWS past her EXPLODING the glass into a million fragments that BLAST into the MASTERMIND SISTERS sending them reeling.

While Land had done an neat trick by having the pieces of glass appear outisde the panel walls, they don’t seems to convey any direction of movement. Ther are far worse examples of his stilted style, but I’ll do you a favour and spare you the burden of looking at them.

You can imagine how happy I am that next issue doesn’t seem to have been touched by Land at all. I’m even happier that it’s centered around Beast and his X-Club. One of the better ideas to come out of Fraction’s plan for Uncanny X-Men.

X-Factor #44

Another solid issue from Peter David. It’s been said that X-Factor is the best X-title being put out by Marvel at the moment. I couldn’t agree more.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #25

I’ve mentioned this back when Jane Espenson had her turn in the writing seat, but the big problem with bringing in ex-writers of the Buffy TV series is that, while they may be pretty damn good at screenwriting, they’re just not that good at putting together a story in comic book format.

Case in point: In the opening pages of this book, Doug Petrie writes a conversation between Xander and Buffy that, spoken by actors would be incredibly snappy, however on the page it reads more like Yoda with multi-personality disorder. It’s frustrating to read.

I’m not sure how long they intend Season 8 to run but right now the series just seems to be dragging it’s feet. It’s time to start wrapping it up, boys and girls.

Power Girl

I really, really like this book. It’s everything mainstream superhero books aren’t right now. It’s fun, whimsical, features a solo female as the protagonist, has an ape-with-a-human-brain as the antagonist and doesn’t co-star Wolverine.

Amanda Conner’s art helps to raise the book even higher. Characters actually show emotion (Ed Benes take note) and she does a good job of moving the camera around in a way that doesn’t obscure the story (Ed Benes).

I hope DC aren’t hinging it’s future on a some incredibly large sales figures. Power Girl is probably too much of a niche book to edge into the monthly top 10. To my knowledge Ms Marvel, Marvel’s equivalent female superhero, has never even hit the top 20 and it’s at #38 and quite happily chugging along.

New Mutants

This should go without saying, but when you’re trying to hit the reader with the shock return of a long dead bad guy you probably shouldn’t feature that character on the wrap-around cover.

Just saying.

Complete List

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #25
Flash: Rebirth #2 (of 5)
Power Girl #1
Trinity #49
Agents of Atlas #4
New Mutants #1

Green Lantern #38

There’s no messing around with the Hal Jordan-as-a-Red Lantern stuff from the end of the last issue. It’s dealt with by the middle of the book, in a way that puts a lot of emphasis on why the Blue Lanterns exist. Of course there’s a  downside in that it unfortunately destroys my theory that Hal Jordan would control all the rings by the end of the War of Light.

There’s a lot to enjoy in this book. The way it jumped from Ysmault to Earth to Qward to the Vega System providing little hooks into future storylines. Like Carol Ferris returning to the Star Sapphires (now Violet Lanterns) after playing a major part in their formation way back in The Sins of the Star Sapphires story arc; Sinestro escaping back to Qward to prepare for his incursion into the Green Lantern Corps book to face off against Mongul for the leadership of Sinestro’s eponymous Corps; and the Controllers heading to the Vega System to remind everyone that the Agent Orange story starts next month.

As the Blackest Night mini-event gets closer both Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps books are picking up a lot of momentum, especially this book. I still remember how slowly Secret Origin plodded along just to set up Atrocitus as the Red Lantern big bad, so I really shouldn’t complain about pacing. I got what I wished for.

X-Force #12

Back in New X-Men Kyle and Yost spun some really great tales featuring the kids versus long time X-Men foes like Reverend Stryker. When they announced the move to X-Force (along with initial character sketches) I was, much like the rest of the internet, immediately skeptical. A year later I’m happy to say that I was wrong. X-Force is good. Better than it deserves to be, for sure, But I like it.

Well ‘liked’ might be a better word. This issue was just very, very underwhelming.

It starts off with the team quickly realising that they weren’t exactly successful in keeping Bastion from the getting his robot hands on the Legacy Virus (as seen last issue). D-grade mutants start showing up in the middle of pro-human rallys, with their powers flaring wildly out of control, killing all the protesters.

Apart from that, not a whole lot actually happens this issue. There is an incredibly awkward exchange between Rahne, in wolf-humanoid form, and some sort of Asgardian wolf-god. But the less said about that the better.

If I was going to choose a shining moment it would be finding out, on the recap page of all places, that Domino has a real name.

Just so I don’t end on a downer I thought I’d mention the colouring. The usual muted grey/brown palette gets a huge kick this issue with the addition bright oranges and pinks of the energy spikes spinning off the Legacy Virus-infected.

———–

I’m off on holiday next week, so no reviews for a couple of weeks. Once I’m settled in I’ll be changing the reviews up a bit. I’m running low of the spare time needed to properly review a books so I’ll just be reviewing the one book each week. I’m going to randomly pick the book out of the weekly pile so it could be the worst or it could be the best.

Complete List

Green Lantern #38
Trinity #39
Avengers: Initiative #22
Mighty Avengers #22
Ms Marvel #36
New Avengers #50
Runaways vol 3 #7
Thunderbolts #129
X-Force #12
Wizard Magazine #210
Angel #18

Ultimate Fantastic Four #60

60 issues? Thats it? Man, even the manga version of Sabrina the Teenage Witch managed to hit 100 issues before it bowed out.

Ultimate Fantastic Four started out with a strong idea. Four teenagers — transformed into vaguely elemental forms through a mishap with an experimental transporter — team up to have adventures through time and space. It should’ve been fun as hell, and it was for the most part, until Mike Carey came on board and things began to go wrong.

Starting with his regular run all the technical/scifi stuff (stacked universes, time travel) was pushed to one side — replaced with some ridiculously convoluted Space Opera. Really, what the hell was that Seed Nineteen stuff about anyway?

With Carey gone I’d hoped they’d be able to bring the title back around, make it fun and exciting again, but this was not meant to be. As near as I can tell the new writer was brought on solely to provide filler for Jeph Loeb’s Ultimatum. The remaining two main characters team up with two enemies to head to Atlantis, a place they’ve already been despite what they say, to use a macguffin that makes no sense whatsoever. All this was easily explained when I discovered the writer’s main source of income was writing episodes of Heroes, the scifi equivalent of eating paste.

Because this is just an Ultimatum book masquerading as an Ultimate FF title it doesn’t even get it’s own finale. There’s a quicky revelation and then a ‘to be concluded in Ultimatum and Ultimate Fantastic Four: Requiem’.

Two books? If this is an indication of how the Ultimate universe will work once the line is rebooted after Ultimatum, with the stories bleeding between titles and into one-shots, then count me out. I get enough of that with the real Marvel Universe.

X-Factor #40

Like last issue this book starts off with a note from Peter David that we don’t spoil any of the content in this issue. And there’s a lot of important stuff happening here.

The bulk of this story consists of a meeting between Jamie Madrox and one of his last independent dupes, Pastor John Maddocks (last seen back in issue #16). While for the most part it’s just two identical talking heads having a theosophical discussion it’s written (and drawn) well enough that it’s never boring. Madrox has a lot on his mind after the events of the last issue. Its refreshing to see a comic book character work through things in a realistic, human way rather than brushing them aside and switching to “punch everything” mode.

There’s a series of small reveals that culminate in one huge reveal that, if you’ve been following X-Factor from the beginning like me, should put a huge grin on your face.

Complete List

Adventure Comics #0
Trinity #38
Dark Avengers #2
Ultimate Fantastic Four #60
Uncanny X-Men #506
X-Factor #40
X-Men Legacy #221

Green Lantern Corps #33

Know what I really, really liked about this issue? The inclusion of a smack-talking, Steve Buscemi look-alike called ‘Imecsub’. It was a nice callback to Geoff Johns created Isamot (Tomasi backwards) and a cool way for Tomasi to ‘pass it on’.

The rest of the issue is a period of downtime. Giving the main characters a quick breather before plunging into more ‘Blackest Night’ fun times. Kyle Raynor and Guy Gardner share a beer; Raynor and Natu, a kiss; Sarnek(?) and Violet Lantern Miri, words. It’s obvious that Peter Tomasi is having a lot of fun with this. Especially in the scenes where Raynor and Gardener involve the rest of the Corps into helping paint a mural on Oa.

There’s no eyeballs raining from the sky, babies being cut out of wombs or other horros. This comic is the dreaded f word. It’s FUN.

The backup Origins and Omens story focuses on Kyle’s recent history and teases that we’ll see a Black Lantern Jade in the upcoming Blackest Night. Despite her physical body being blown to space dust way back in Infinite Crisis.

Incognito #2

When I reviewed the first issue I kinda bitched about how the supporting characters weren’t exactly multi-dimensional. Well I take that all back.

I thought it’d be a lot longer — we’re talking issue 4 or 5 — before the Zack’s boss, the Black Death showed up, but I’m glad to be proven wrong. I’m still unsure about what sort of threat he poses to the general populace (apart from telepathically talking to people in black, evil looking thought balloons). But it’s something.

The story keeps flowing from pulp to noir fairly seamlessly and at a decent clip. Scenes like Zack’s mad scientist creator literally picking the brain of a precognitive guy awesomely called Max Gazer shoring up the pulp, almost EC Comics side. While Zack spends some quality night time with a girl with serious damsel-in-distress issues, who barely acknowledges him in his daytime civilian identity.

What I most like about this issue is that everybody has their own dark agenda. Not just the bad guys, but the “damsel” and even Zack’s new best friend. Zack is trying (not very hard) to be the hero, but the world has decided that he’s bad guy. It’ll be fun to see if he can push past that peer pressure and be the better man.

Complete List

Hellboy: The Wild Hunt #3 (of 8)
Booster Gold #17
Green Lantern Corps #33
Trinity #37
Incognito #2
Angel #17

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #22

So, they’re really running with that whole “vampires aren’t that bad” thing? It’s not some crazed fever dream? Brave move that.

This is yet another ‘done in one’ that puts the focus on one member of the Buffyverse, this time Satsu, only the second person to share “special hugs” with Buffy and not die a horrible death.

There’s not a lot of plot here: Kennedy is sent to Japan to evaluate Satsu’s performance as leader of the Japanese slayer expansion (that seems to solely consist of Satsu herself). When not fighting demonic Hello Kitty-esque toys, they engage in a lot of back and forth banter to bed-in that they’re real honest to goodness lesbians just like you see on TV. And then there’s that ending that involves a flare, a giant Voltron-style monster, a secret weapon that almost, almost makes up for the boring bits in the preceding 20 pages.

There’s a lot of retreading here. Reiterating things established long ago in the Buffyverse. Yes, Satsu likes Buffy (Season 8) Yes, she’s a lesbian (season 8). Yes, Kennedy is too (season 7). Yes, vampires are now the ‘in thing’ (last issue!)

This season has to be finishing up sometime soon. I do wish they’d hurry up and build on the Twilight threat already.

Final Crisis: Legion Of Three Worlds #3 (of 5)

If you’re going to do a story that features three times as many characters as normal then you’d better lock George Perez down. And if you’re going to feature Superboy-Prime as the main antagonist then you’d better lock down Geoff Johns. Lucky for us DC have done just that.

Now they’ve also marked this as a Final Crisis tie-in (even though the main story finished last week, but hey, time travel!) it’s more of a thematic sequel to the Sinestro Corps War and Lightning Saga with a bit of Infinite Crisis thrown in for good measure. So basically all the major ‘events’ that Geoff Johns has been working on for the last five or so years.

So maybe thats the hook into Final Crisis? Geoff John’s examination of the last five years of his career, matched up with Grant Morrison’s examination of the last ten years of his.

But I could just be clutching at straws.

George Perez does some amazing work here. Filling every panel, every page to bursting point with heroes, villains and plenty of action. Last issue ended with the Legionnaires facing off against their analogues in the Legion of Super-Villains, while Brainiac 5 summoned two alternate universe versions of the Legion to assist in the battle. This issue opens with the battle still raging and the Legion getting beaten back to their headquarters. The alternate Legions — minus every Lightning Lad, XS and one Light Lass — fly out to join the battle in an incredible Perez splash page. Brainiac 5 uses those remaining to bring back the one character everyone knew was coming (telegraphed way back in Lightning Saga). But that doesn’t make it less impressive when they do arrive.

It’s pure, dumb fun. The only downside is that we now have to wait seven weeks until #4. really DC, thats the best you could do?

Complete List

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #22
Final Crisis: Legion Of Three Worlds #3 (of 5)
Secret Six #6
Trinity #36
Secret Warriors #1

Final Crisis #7 (of 7)

Well this was certainly something.

If you didn’t read Superman: Beyond before this final issue I would imagine that this would come across as a garbled mess.  Even after reading S:B, it still has a lot of rough edges.

It’s main strength is that it doesn’t play out as a typical event line-wide comic (though it is hindered by misdirected marketing on DC’s behalf). There’s no great universal upheaval that affects every single character. This is Superman’s story and, to a lesser extent, Batman’s. But it is enjoyable, and that’s the main point.

Like all serial minis there’s a lot of questions left unanswered. I could write these down, but instead I’ll direct you to The Final Crisis FAQ project over at Comics Should Be Good. They seem to be doing a better job of it.

Legion of Super Heroes #50

Wow. I take back everything I said about Final Crisis’ empty ending.

I’m well aware that Jim Shooter had to hack at the main plotlines he’d been building for the past year, but this is just ridiculous. What should be a huge monumental battle between good and evil is not much more than a skirmish between seven Legionaries and a handful of bad guys.

The dangling thread about the fate of Dream Girl, something given all of three panels over the last four issues,  is given a resolution at the very end, but with most of the work seemingly handled off panel it just comes across as filler. Then there’s the big reveal last issue of Princess Projectra being the final Big Bad. But that’s completely dropped.

I’ve only read one issue of Geoff John’s Superman and the Legion of Superheroes and the two issues of Legion of Three Worlds, but they’ve been a lot more fun to read than the last year or so of this series. I guess that’s the major problem I had with this title. Jim Shooter forgot to make it fun, and it suffered for that.

Long live the Legion!

Note: I’ve read that Jim Shooter didn’t even write this last issue. Can’t wait to here the story behind that.

New Avengers #49

I sat down to read this fully expecting that the “search for the baby” plot would be stretched out for at least six issues. That Bendis managed to resolve it in under 22 pages, with next-to-no decompression, is nothing less than a small miracle.

If Bendis can keep that pace up for at least half a year then I’ll be a happy guy.

Complete List

Final Crisis #7 (of 7)
Legion of Super Heroes #50
Trinity #35
Avengers Initiative #21
Ms Marvel #35
New Avengers #49
Runaways 3 #6
X-Force #11
Wizard Magazine #209 Dark Avengers Cvr

Green Lantern #37

Originally I wasn’t going to review this book, but when the Irrepressible Rory Byrne demands you read it,  adding “You will shit bricks” you’re required to at least put a few words down.

So here we go.

At the end of the last issue there was this great expectation, from Space Ganesh and the other guy,  that Hal Jordan would become the leader of the Blue Lanterns. This issue starts out with him “politely” refusing the offer before tearing off on the two space hippies and heading after Sinestro, who’s been spending his spare time crucified on the Red Lantern’s central battery after being captured during the Rage of the Red Lanterns one shot.

There’s some clear delineation between the three rings: Green are cops, Red are animals and Blue are saints. They later live up to the bible metaphor by parting an actual red sea. The true nature of the red spectrum is explored a bit more. It seems that the rings are little more then parasites. After purging the host body’s blood they take over motor functions and most thought processes. Much like those horrific wasps that ride around on cockroaches.

While it’s not the first time Hal Jordan has worn multiple rings (see here and here) that chapter ending definitely rates as one of the coolest moments of this entire Green Lantern volume. Yes, Rory, bricks were shat.

Dark Avengers #1

There’s two ways they could’ve gone in this issue:

• through a series of small interconnected scenes, show “the boss” travelling around putting the team together through a number of every expanding word balloons; or
• something interesting.

Guess which road Bendis went down?

I’m probably being too harsh here as the book isn’t a total wash. They’ve got Mike Deodato on art  for one thing, continuing the good work he did on Thunderbolts. I thought the expressions on each of the ex-Thunderbolts, especially Bullseye’s, as they realise all their dreams have come true were great. Deoadato on art and most of the Thunderbolts starring. They couldn’t have made it any more obvious that this is a continuation of the Thunderbolts line.

Hopefully the new members aren’t going to take the Sentry’s mopey bullshit. If I could have one request, please give me one issue where they beat the ever-loving shit out of him for being such a sad case. Do that and I’m in for the long haul.

Mighty Avengers #21

This is a great example of how to make the Ultimate line redundant. While over in Ultimatum They’ve had to deal with a flood submerging New York, here in the regular old 616, New York has been hit with a deluge of blood, Canada is choked with flesh eating locusts and somewhere else  the New Avengers are being used as fertiliser for fast growing sentient plants and the entire state of Oklahoma has vanished. Suddenly the split second flash flooding in the Ultimate universe doesn’t seem that ultimate anymore.

The recruiting scenes aren’t all that dissimilar to those in Dark Avengers, but they’re carried off a lot better. Biblical-level crazy shit is a great motivator. The book shares a lot of the same beats as Dark Avengers, but the way Slott writes dialogue makes it a much more entertaining read. See Amadeus Cho’s conversations with Pym. Both books also share a similar antagonist. Dark Avengers gets Dr Doom’s ex, Morgane Le Fay while Mighty Avengers has a possessed Quicksilver and some shirtless guy who likes writing on himself

Which book you grab depends on how you like your heroes. Do you like the bad guys masquerading as the world’s heroes, albeit officially? Grab Dark Avengers. Do you like you heroes just doing hero-ey stuff? Grab Mighty Avengers. Do you like your heroes to be the underdogs, struggling to get on in a world where they’re operating illegally? Grab New Avengers. (reviewed next week, fight fans!)

X-Factor #39

There would be a fairly detailed review here. I say “would be” because at the beginning of the book Peter David swears all readers to secrecy and asks that we don’t spoil the book. So I’ll honour that. What I can say is that the book is well on it’s way back to it’s first year levels of awesomeness. After flipping to the back cover I had to sit alone on the couch for a good five minutes just to digest what I’d read. It’s been a long time since a comic had that much of an emotional impact on me. Bravo, Peter David, bravo. Good to see the art back on track after the misstep that was the Stroman period too.

Complete List:

Final Crisis: Superman Beyond #2 (of 2)
Green Lantern #37
Trinity #34
Astonishing X-Men #28
Dark Avengers #1
Mighty Avengers #21
Thunderbolts #128
Uncanny X-Men Annual #2
X-Factor #39
X-Men: Legacy #220
Angel: After the Fall #16

Final Crisis #6 (of 7)

Forget the naysayers, Final Cris #6 is great.

No, I’m not going to write paragraph after paragraph defending the book. It’s awesome, even with one minor problem.*

I didn’t read Batman RIP, or it’s followups, so I can’t comment about how it fits in with Final Crisis. But I did read Countdown so I can help out if you’re struggling with the cognitive dissonance needed to get through it.

Speaking of Batman, having him his one rule to put a god-killing bullet in Darkseid, then paying with his life, was one of the best things I’ve read in a long time. Oh, and he’s not really dead, you guys. Read the story again. Hell, just read the Sonny Sumo pages. Not. Dead.

More good things: a Tiger-man on Tiger-man battle, where the Tiger in a tweed jacket and bow tie comes out on top; and a subplot about shifting the planet’s population to a parallel universe to save them; ending with a variant of the now classic CoIE Superman pose. They’ve got me hooked.

*The art. They’re up to around 4 or 5 artists now, so there’s little consistency from page to page. I can see why JG Jones was inking his own pencilings too. Whoever they’ve got to replace him is just awful.

Green Lantern Corps #32

I don’t understand these Faces of Evil tie-ins. Is it supposed to be a  showcase of the baddest character featured in a book? If it is, then Kryb isn’t it. Sure she’s creepy as hell, but not what I’d call evil. Especially with the revelation that she considers the Green Lantern Corps to be a malevolent danger to the well being of the children she collects, and isn’t searching for  food.Though I don’t know how that translates into the “ability to instill great fear”.

But that doesn’t really matter as the rest of the issue is pretty damn cool.

There’s Kyle’s clever way of removing Kryb’s mind-control; the grisly death of a red shirt Green Lantern; a new law enacted in the Book of Oa; the resignation of a large contingent of the Corps, who I’m sure will no doubt pop up as violet, blue or some other colour of lantern down the track; and an interesting, but not unexpected fate for Kryb.

I really enjoyed the Violet Lantern’s ring classing Kryb as a ‘heartbreaker’. I liked the way the Violet ring communicated in general. I’m glad they’re not just a straight up female version of the Green Lantern Corps, but have their own rules and methods for dealing with their enemies. Though their recruiting process is a little extreme, especially compared to the Blue Lantern’s “extended interview” way of recruiting to their particular corps.

Complete List:

Booster Gold #16
Final Crisis #6 (of 7)
Green Lantern Corps #32
Trinity #33

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #21

Jane Espenson is second writer for the Buffy TV series, after Drew Goddard,  to tackle this comic book continuation. Unlike Drew she’s only here for this one issue. The focus is on the vapid Harmony, written here dumber than she was by the end of the last season of Angel for some reason.  Still just as crafty as ever though, as she goes on a one vamp mission to get thrust into the media spotlight so she’s never denied entry to nightclubs or exclusive parties ever again.

Meanwhile there’s a subplot about a new potential slayer,  fresh out of a street gang, and Andrew’s attempt to sign her up to another one.

Without over analysing it this reads like a “message” issue about how the American media (especially MTV) will give anyone airtime as long as they’re kooky or different enough and the possible results of that, sexy or otherwise. With the usual Buffy spin of course.

Even though it’s a done-in-one there’s still greater ramifications for the Buffy universe ‚as this issue shows that the general public might not be the big fans of Slayers that Buffy and team think they are.

It could’ve done with a bit more fleshing out, but it’s Espenson’s first ever story in the comic format so I can’t really really fault her. At least it’s better than the Loeb-tastic previous issue.

Shrugged #8

I can’t remember the last time I read an issue of this book. It feels like it’s been a year, maybe longer. I can’t remember any characters motivations, how they got into their current situations. page is that this issue features a bunch of kids teaming up with angels(?) to battle a bunch of evil demons(?) that look like 1930s gangsters, and their leader who looks like Emperor Zurg from Toy Story.

They fight, the demons betray each other and two characters are revealed to have died and ascended to angel status. I assume this is a major plot point given the amount of panels devoted to it, but for the life of me I can’t remember if those characters were ever given the spotlight. In the end the bad guys lose and the status quo returns. I assume.

Having no reference points, or even a “previously on…” section kills this book. As this is Michael Turner’s last writing credit before his death last year you’d think the company would’ve put extra effort into giving people a heads up about what has come before. Had they done this the book may have moved from boring and predictable to substandard. There’s just no way of knowing.

Complete List:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #21
Hellboy: The Wild Hunt #2 (of 8)
Secret Six #5
Trinity #32
Criminal vol 1
Shrugged #8

There was just no way I could get to the city on Boxing Day to pick up a stack of comics. I was too busy spending every hour of daylight trying to build a barbeque. So I’ve lumped both Boxing Day and day after New Years Day hauls into the one post.

Incognito #1

Incognito is fantastic. Mark my words: This will be the stand out title of 2009.

Incognito is the story of Zack Anderson — one time supervillian, now lowly file clerk. After ratting out his evil superpowered boss, Zack has a new identity thanks to the Witness Protection Program. There’s a downside though, as he’s forced onto meds to dial back his superpowers to normal human levels by his government-appointed handler.

Mostly the book is about Zack trying to deal with a life in a world he really doesn’t care for.  And the interactions with people he views as being beneath him (ie. everybody). If these parts weren’t written as well as they are then the book would just fall apart.

There’s small moments when the book hearkens back to the original pulpy Golden Age comics of yesteryear. Case in point: his powers were given to him and his brother by an overzealous scientist in a dank cave. Using SCIENCE!

Things like that really appeal to me.

I’ve never come across Phillips’ art before, but I like it. It reminds me of David Aja’s style on the first few arcs of Marvel’s Iron Fist. Characters are expressive and action scenes are kinetic and bloody. In civilian clothes Zack is a beaten down white collar in a dead-end job. But when he puts on the domino mask he seems to stand taller, with more authority. It’s the little things like that that make a book great.

If I had to complain about something it would be that the supporting characters aren’t that well defined. I don’t know anything about his brother or his ex-boss. At one point the handler threatens Zack with putting him in the same prison cell as the boss, but the scene comes across a bit flat as at that point there’s no indication of who his boss is. Having Zack not really react to the threat doesn’t help that much either.

There’s a note in the back of the book from either Brubaker or Phillips or both that suggests if I liked Incognito I should read Criminal. Based on what I’ve seen in Incognito I’ll be grabbing the first Criminal trade as soon as I can.

Ultimatum #2 (of 5)

I’ve been slowing pairing back my Jeph Loeb-written books. Waiting until they’ve completed a story before seeing them off. But this, this Ultimatum bullshit is just so horribly written and presented that I’m teetering on giving up on the entire Ultimate universe altogether. A universe where an obese man who’s never before shown cannibalistic tendencies can chow down on the entrails of a woman and enjoy it is not a universe I want to read more about.

I bitched and moaned about Ultimates 3, but when it ended I hope editorial would reign Loeb in a bit. Maybe teach him that there’s a big difference between the Marvel 616 and Ultimate universes. But no, once again they’ve given him carte blanche to produce Ultimate shit.

Finch’s art doesn’t help either. He was great on the first arc of New Avengers, so I’m not sure what went wrong. Sure foreground characters are recognisable, but with this new sketchy style he’s rocking everything else behind them is a mess.

The one good thing is that Ultimate Thor no longer speaks in the Shakespearean way that was introduced in Ultimate Power (and more popularised  by the original 616 Thor) and has reverted back to something similar to how he was portrayed during Ultimates 1 & 2. That this is the only good thing I can say about the issue is depressing as all hell.

Complete List 26/12:

Final Crisis: Secret Files #1
Green Lantern #36
Trinity #31
Avengers: Initiative #20
Ultimate X-Men #99
X-Force #10
Wizard Magazine #208 Wolverine Movie Cvr

Complete List 2/1:

Flash #247
Trinity #30
Incognito #1
Ms Marvel #34
New Avengers #48
Runaways 3 #5
Ultimatum #2 (of 5)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #20

Readers of this site and followers of my Twitter account may know of my utter disappointment with anything that comes from Jeph Loeb’s hand. So it was with utmost trepidation that I sat down and started in on this book.

Just a note of warning: this is a book for the hardcore fans only. Unless you’ve been watching the show since episode one you will be lost.

The meat of this book is a flackback to season 2 of the TV show in the style of the animated series that was proposed wayback when.

There’s a couple of decent enough moments in the book, Like Buffy thinking back to Angel’s words of advice and getting them mixed up. But the majority of it is just incredibly bad. Like the “real-life” scenes that bookend the cartoony middle. The characters are written so over the top that they border on parody. They get worse once the cartoon sequence begins.

And Loeb? Points off for using the same lame Wizard of Oz reference that you used in the season finale of Heroes. It wasn’t good then and it’s not good in this book.

Thank the various gods that this is just a one shot. I don’t think I could handle another Loeb issue.

Mighty Avengers #20

When Secret Invasion started way back at the start of the year both the Mighty and New Avengers books were hijacked to provide for filler material.

You could easily class this book as more filler, but the writing, by Bendis, is just so much better than the main Secret Invasion book. I wonder how much better SI would’ve been had Bendis stuck to the small character-focused arcs, rather than resorting to scenes where the Skrulls break out the big guns.

Probably my favourite part was the silent montage of Ms Marvel filling in Hank Pym on the Marvel Universe happenings since he’s been gone. Can’t wait for the inevitable photoshops where Captain America’s death is replaced with pictures of Sarah Palin. If it hasn’t happened already that is.

There’s three artists listed in the credits: Lee Weeks, Jim Cheung and Carlo Pagulayan. I don’t know why they needed three different artists to finish off this book as it’s just a standard 22 pager. No upsizing at all. Which is strange as this is Bendis’ last issue of Mighty Avengers. Dan Slott takes over next month ad for the foreseeable future (hopefully).

Complete List:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #20
Ex Machina #40
Trinity #29
Avengers: Initiative #19
Dark Reign New Nation
Mighty Avengers #20
Thor: God-Size Special #1
Thunderbolts #127
Ultimate Fantastic Four #59
Uncanny X-Men #505
X-Factor #38
X-Men: Legacy #219

Booster Gold

This is the first issue written by Dan Jurgens, creator of Booster Gold and drawer of said character since issue one of this particular ongoing. This issue is a  lot more light-hearted than the previous issues written by Rick Remender. While adventerous, his issues were completely lacking in charm. But enough about ol’ Rick. How does Booster Gold stand up now?

Better. Much, much better. It’s not quite Geoff Johns level, but this Booster has just the right amount of self-indulgent goofiness and Skeets has the right amount of know-it-all sidekickiness going for him.

I would’ve preferred this to be a done-in-one issue, but it looks like we get another multipart story, spinning out of the storyline Remender followed. Is this Jurgens’ way of ignoring Remender I wonder?

After a cute opening scene with Booster and Goldstar in 16th century Italy looking for food and fame, the story quickly becomes a search for Rip Hunter and their headquarters that seems to have vanished from the timestream. There’s a fun sibling fight then Skeets informs the two that all evidence points to time traveling knife, misplaced during the Killer Moth mission, being the cause and not Goldstar’s posing for a portrait with Leonardo da Vinci as Booster suggested. Booster meets up with future fellow Justice League International teamster Elongated Man, in a scene that would mean a lot more had I grown up reading JLI. Then Booster is flung through time to somewhere next month’s solicit reveals to be World War 1.

This book sits fairly low on the month-by-month sales chart. Lower than Blue Beetle and Birds of Prey. I hope that doesn’t mean that this book is up for cancellation. Though I wouldn’t be too surprised, given DC’s cancel-happy attitude these last few weeks.

Green Lantern Corps #31

Confession time. Kryb scares the every loving shit out of me. This is Kryb:

Seriously, it took all of my willpower just to post that picture.

Not only is she a superpowered baby-stealing alien that runs on fear. Her “milk” also acts as a DNA-specific mind-controlling agent if it gets on your skin. Jesus H. Christ. The only way Kryb could be more creepy is if “she” was a “he”.

Despite the recent ick factor Green Lantern Corps has been great to read. Expanding on the emotional spectrum where the standalone GL book has become more tightly focused.

Yes, we know that the Love Lantern is going to defeat Kryb and break the hold over the other lanterns. Well at least I hope that’s what happens. Before Kryb cuts the baby out of Amnee’s body, thanks. The third law of Oa, “no relationships between Green Lanterns”, is only going to end in disaster. But if the Guardians actually thought things through instead of just reacting to everything then we wouldn’t have the Manhunters or the Alpha Lanterns.

Yes, this book is creepy, but it’s creepy in a “look through your fingers” kind of way. And I love it for that.

Complete Pull List:

Booster Gold #15
Final Crisis #5 (of 7)
Green Lantern Corps #31
Justice Society of America HC Vol 03 Thy Kingdom Come Part 2
Justice League of America #27
Secret Six #4
Trinity #28
Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Boxes #2 (of 2)
Secret Invasion Dark Reign
Wizard Mag 2009 Platinum

Secret Invasion #8 (of 8)

Firstly, just a few things about this issue I found to be incredibly dumb:

1. Janet Pym (founding member of the Avengers)‘s death is portrayed terribly. Shes paralysed by  massive amounts of pain, until Thor generates a cyclone as tall as her that appears to engulf half her body. Then she dies.
2. SHIELD is a UN-based agency, so the US President can’t do shit about it. Unless of course the President is Bendis himself.
3. All the heroes that were replaced by Skrulls weren’t killed, instead the aliens kept them locked in a ship floating above the earth ready for some wandering hero to come across them. Which they do.

Now on to the review proper.

It’s hard to review this book without touching on the seven issues preceding it. So forgive me if I seem to jump back and forth.

I came into Secret Invasion with middling expectations at best. After House of M, Civil War and World War Hulk  I was tired. Very, very tired. The whole series was roughly 4 issues too long. I can only guess that it’s as long as it is because Bendis wanted it to match up with DC’s 80’s “secret invasion” series Millennium.

As far as finales to crossover heavy events goes it doesn’t completely suck. The framing device (a debriefing) works well and is a nice change from seven long months of people screaming and firing bullets at each other.

Norman Osbourne kills the Skrull Queen and in doing so sets himself up as the new defacto ruler of the superhero community. Whats interesting is that if he’d pulled the trigger a fraction later we’d be looking at a year of “King Wolverine rules the world”. Although with the amount of Woverine titles currently put out by Marvel you’d thing that was the current status quo anyway.

The book finishes up with the obligatory Marvel brand non-ending that sets up the much darker universe and the various Dark Reign tie-ins for the next year or so. (At one point Nick Fury literally disappears off the page. No doubt reappearing in the upcoming Secret Warriors title).

Based on the solicits I don’t see myself buying any of the new books Secret Warriors included. I’m just burnt out. As a marketing exercise to get people to invest in yet another new line of books Secret Invasion has failed. As far as the story goes it gets a passing grade. But only just.

Complete Pull List:

Hellboy: The Wild Hunt #1 (of 8)
Trinity #27
Invincible Iron Man: The Five Nightmares HC
New Avengers #47
Secret Invasion #8 (of 8)
Secret Invasion Front Line #5 (of 5)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #19

It’s incredibly hard to review this issue of Buffy. The previous issue shipped nearly 3 months ago so I’ve forgotten nearly everything that’s happened in this storyline. All I remembered when going in was Buffy was 200 years in the future with Fray (the last Slayer), Dark Willow was again the Big Bad, Nice Willow was trying to get Buffy back and Dawn was in the forest with Xander.

To properly review this issue I’d have to go back through the last few issues to catch up. Due to poor filing skills thats not going to happen, so I’m stuck reading this book with only a vague recollection of whats come before.

So, the story. Buffy fights Fray. Fray fights Buffy. Dark Willow tries to kill Buffy “to save the world”. Dawn and Xander fight ghostly goblin-things with some help from magical forest sprites and a handful of Slayers. Buffy kills Dark Willow. Buffy returns to her present. Oh, and Riley makes an appearance at the end with a Twilight scar on his chest.

So Twilight is the Initiative? This and many other questions remain unanswered in this issue.

The art serves the story well. While the characters are not hyper realistic like in the ongoing Angel series, I was still able to recognise Riley easy enough.

The 3 month delay is a real shame, because up until this point Season 8 has been a lot of fun to read. I’m worried that the huge delay shook a few readers loose. I’m sure this storyline will read a lot better in trades. So someone Jefah should enjoy it a lot more than I did.

Double shame is the consistently bad Jeph Loeb is writing the next issue. It makes me wonder if they’re intentionally trying to lose readers.

Thor: Man of War

How do you surpass the Blood Colossus — a vengeful giant made from the blood and flesh of fallen vikings and powered by a god — that appeared in Thor: Reign of Blood? The short answer is “you don’t”. But Man of War doesn’t suffer from a lack of Blood Colossi at all.

This, the third (and last) book in Matt Fraction’s series of Thor one-shots is a great yarn about what happens when gods get pissed off at humans, other gods and existence itself. While a lot darker and grittier than Reign of Blood, or Ages of Thunder before it, Fraction still manages to weave a lot of black comedy (the best kind of comedy!) into the story.

The book is divided into two halves with a different artist handling each part. Clay Mann (really?) does a decent enough job on the first half, right up until the Storm Giant shows up. The next few pages of battle were incredibly hard to follow, until I spent a few minutes staring at each panel and trying to suss it all out.

The final part, drawn by “artist” Patrick Zircher, is a lot easier to read. Maybe because he didn’t feel the need to invoke the z-axis like Mann. Odin and Thor’s final battle has just the right amount of bloody Viking action to keep me wanting more. But sadly this looks like it for Fraction’s Thor. You will be missed.

Wolverine: Origins #30

It feels a bit weird to be reviewing the last issue in a two book crossover. But after last week’s far too happy reviews I needed a book I knew would be bad. Of course I wasn’t counting on Buffy dropping the ball this week.

Anyway, on to this issue. It begins with Wolverine squaring off against against his *shudder* son Daken. At least it lets Mike Deodato draw the one good panel in the entire book. A worm’s eye view of the two, claws out and ready to get slicing. While this is happening Profesor X lies dead on the floor. victim of a psychic bomb planted deep in Daken’s mind. Oh, whats that? He’s not dead just unconscious? It seems the damage from the bomb triggered in the last issue was ineffective against the “fractured nature of his mind”. Uh, right.

Wolverine retreats to his happy place in an attempt to hold back the beserker rage he’s well known for. But then his “Julie Bowan in white lingerie moment’” quickly becomes “Grandma making out with Shooter McGavin while wearing a KISS mask” and the fight is back on.

Professor X brings them both into Wolverine’s happy place and explains that Daken draws his rage from the same place. Back in the real world Daken stabs Sebastian Shaw before he can kill Professor X. Then Daken and Wolverine wander off to rejoin their own storyline. Phew.

Deodato’s pencils are fine, but hey’re let down by substandard inking. The less said about Daniel Way’s writing, the better.

Complete Pull List:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #19
Legion of Super Heroes #48
Trinity #26
Ms Marvel #33
Runaways vol 3 #4
Thor: Man of War
Ultimate Origins #5 (of 5)
Ultimate X-Men #98
Wolverine: Origins #30
X-Force #9
Wizard Magazine #207