Archive for April, 2014

Review: X-Men #12

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on April 27, 2014| Leave a Comment »

X-Men #12Well, that ended rather abruptly…

They thought they’d defeated Arkea once before, but turned out they only got a piece of her and she came back. Now, they go after Arkea Prime, the main part of her, and in an issue they take her out… without even questioning if they got it right this time? No long epic battle, literally they just show up. Arkea’s ‘heavy hitters’ decide they have no loyalties to her and simply walk away. Then boom, Arkea is no more and everyone is happy and go their own way.

Huh?

Pretty anti-climatic for such a long build up.

Though it will be interesting to see what damage Selene and Maddie will cause and where they are going to go, that part of the issue was literally just set up for later and that’s it.  I really hope there is more to this Arkea thing because otherwise… this was a very disappointing wrap up.

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Review: Deadpool #25

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on April 26, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Deadpool #25I love how Deadpool and Crossbones sit down for a drink then chat before mindlessly beating each other up…

It really is just another day in the life of a Marvel Universe merc, stuff like this happens all the time. They swap stories, get in some punching, then it’s all done and over with. Only this time, the bad guy who screwed them both over conventionally shows up and gets himself garbage mashed. This entire arc is neatly wrapped up, Deadpool even gets paid!

All is right with the world… except, you know, there is a psychotic Preston in his head now… is that really Preston or someone using her face? With Deadpool you can never be too sure about what’s going on.

And, as always… this may be the end of one arc… but another is starting… and Deadpool gets married? In two issues? Isn’t that kind quick? Even for him?

Perhaps I should break down and read The Gaunlet series online…

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Review: X-Men Legacy #300

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on April 26, 2014| 4 Comments »

X-Men Legacy #300This issue is more like an Annual than an actual issue of the long running title… but that doesn’t make it any less good.

Can we talk for the moment how the girl is a victim of rape culture? She’s feeling hurt and betrayed, as she she should, and goes to the X-Men because she figures she’ll be normal amongst the freaks. This is kinda messed up on so many levels.

Then you have the ultimate retcon… the dues ex machina itself… ForgetMeNot… a mutant with the uncanny ability to go unnoticed. It’s quite a handy ability actually, if a bit of an unthankful one. It’s nice to see the Legacy writers look back on the series through his eyes though. And now we know who it was that had a crush on Rogue.

It’s a nice little story that ties up a, ahem, legacy of story lines from over several years. It has your typical X-Men message of “you’re important and special no matter who you are and what your faults are”. And it doesn’t try to be overly edgy or angsty or anything like that.

What it doesn’t do is explain what the hell happened in the previous Legacy run…

Bonus: Chellerbelle created a ForgetMeNot kind of character for her fic, The Air That I Breathe, long before this issue came out… only the character doesn’t appear for like twenty more chapters or something like that… but still…

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Review: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S01E19 “The Only Light In The Darkness”

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , , , , on April 26, 2014| Leave a Comment »

AMY ACKER, CLARK GREGGIt was the moment we saw coming… well… now… after we knew Ward was Hydra… and that it wasn’t a fake out…

The interrogation scene was a nice little introspective on the characters as they go through the lie detector, which is a classic set up that is made pretty fun here because of what kind of questions are asked in the interrogation. Their answers are pretty hilarious and telling. Then we get to Ward who only passes by virtue of causing himself great pain. Koenig isn’t too bright, you think he’d question the results of his test… but there you go.

Phil goes off to save The Cellist whom we have heard about since Avengers. I wasn’t sure how they were going to play this, if he would be ‘surprise, I’m not dead’, or whatnot, and they decided to play it old school, Phil keeping himself in the shadows. It was rather touching, truth be told, not melodramatic or anything. The speech was a bit much but then we all know Phil is the kind of guy to illicit such feelings… from the fans at least. The whole thing really was what fan fiction was made for.

But then you turn around and Phil is so pissed off at May it’s like he’s a whole other person. Priorities Phil… just cause she was spying on you for Fury and was basically running the whole operation…

but still…

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Review: All-New X-Men

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on April 20, 2014| Leave a Comment »

All-New X-Men #24I think we should just change this title to “Jean Grey: Fickle Red-Head”.

Yet again, Jean Grey is doing an about face from what was previously established only a couple of issues ago, and as a cliffhanger of course. This time she’s decided she’s actually guilty of mass murder and is indeed a monster.

I understand that she’s a teenager/young adult and that individuals are allowed to change their mind whether it be from learning experiences or fickle moments, but in this title Jean Grey has had more than her fair share of them and I don’t know if it’s because Bendis is trying to make her a ‘stereotypical teenage girl’ or he’s trying to show that Jean obvious has some mental health issues. Either way… it’s not being treated the way it should be.

The more and more I read this title… the more and more I feel like Bendis is just writing his own personal fan fiction with Scott as his self-insert and Jean his ideal woman… and this is a bad bad thing…

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Review: Black Widow #4

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on April 20, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Black Widow #4Natasha can’t seem to catch a break…

So far she’s either coming out even or down right failing in getting the job done. It’s not for a lack of skill or intelligence, she just can’t seem to get the upper hand.

While I like that it’s not all roses for our favorite assassin, it’s a bit disheartening that four issues in and it just seems to get bleaker. Cold War is a messy business, and as she points out, she’s a spy, not a rooftop jumping archer, this street battle stuff isn’t her style. Messy is good, messy is realistic, but at some point Natasha is going to have to put the hammer down otherwise I have to wonder who’s comic am I really reading?

You know, this title kinda reminds me of Gambit’s solo, very introspective but not in a new-reader friendly way. I like that we’re getting more than just a ‘mission of the week’ kind of thing but it’s a very tenuous line the series is walking right now if they want to keep new readers. But Natasha does have that extra boost from the movies… so maybe Marvel isn’t too worried about that.

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Review: Night of the Living Deadpool #4

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , , on April 20, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Night of the Living Deadpool #4So… wait… Deadpool’s conscious infects the Zombies so he’s consciousness becomes like a hive mind?

He essentially becomes the Zombie hoard…

I… I don’t know how to process this…

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Review: Wolverine and the X-Men #1

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on April 20, 2014| 2 Comments »

Wolverine and the X-Men #1New school year, new writer, new first issue, same old problems…

Quire is a graduate now but instead of moving on (not that there’s very many places to go) he’s still at the Jean Grey School, and now he’s a teaching assistant… oh the humanity. Seriously, really? This feels like some ABC Family tv series, or an after school special of some sort… which wouldn’t’ be so bad if WATX had some kind of niche other than ‘the kids are mutants’ because otherwise there isn’t a lot of meat on the bones of this story.

And the whole Fantomex thing? It’s like a story all on its own, like somehow two comics got mixed up at the printers. I suppose if I gave two shites about Fantomex it would be different, but I don’t, and his intro into WATX doesn’t make me want to. All I can figure is that somehow this is all gonna go bad… but flash forwards can never be trusted.

The last part with the Phoenix symbol everywhere would be interesting if not for the fact that the Phoenix is very much been there, done that.

But it’s not a bad issue, it’s just not a great issue, so it’s just there and hopefully going to pick up from here rather than stay at this baseline.

Though really, these artists need to try and remember just how old these kids really are…

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Review: Uncanny X-Men #18

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on April 16, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Uncanny X-Men #18The alternate title for this issue is ‘let’s see how much emotional trauma to Cyclops we can pack into a single issue’.

This issue jumps all over the place both with  the storyline and the art. We have a lot of pick up, filling in the missing moments from the past in-universe days. This is what happens when you have the same writer writing two titles so intricately tied together. He’s treating Uncanny X-Men and All-New X-Men like one title rather than two separate. So when there is an event that effects one title, instead of just touching the other title, it actually throws a wrench in it.

There are a few gem moments, like where Scott tells his younger self to swear off all women. But mostly it’s just a mess of stuff trying to get us to feel sorry for Cyclops…

or something…

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Review: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S01E18 “Providence”

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , , , , on April 16, 2014| Leave a Comment »

shield-providence-11So I guess Ward really is a bad guy… awkward.

I applaud that they decided to actually make him a bad guy. At first I thought maybe he was a Hydra plant who turned once he saw things go down, but killing those guards and telling Garrett about the sub-level pretty much cinch the idea that Ward is straight up Hydra through and through. This is gonna make things really fun and interesting… just as long as we don’t suddenly get bogged down with ‘his love for Skye will turn him’ kind of  romantic tripe.

And can I also say I loved Coulson’s breakdown? I mean, that was full on ‘broken man’ syndrome going on there. It was perfectly characterized and you could really feel for him. As Skye put it, he literally died for S.H.I.E.L.D. and to learn that it was infested with Hydra and they were all branded terrorists and Fury is dead and… and… oh someone give that boy a hug!

There was also the Lady in the Flower Dress, you could see the disappointment in her eyes when she discovered The Clairvoyant wasn’t really a clairvoyant. The lady was a true believer… so I wonder how that is going to play into things in the future. What price will Garrett pay for tricking her? I mean, she seems friendly enough… for now…

As for Providence, I’m not entirely sure what that place was and I was not endeared to Patton Oswald at all… but that could just be me.

Now that AOS is under the restrictions of waiting for Cap 2 to come up… things are really starting to heat up…

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