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

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

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 #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