Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category

Review: X-Men: Battle of the Atom: Chapter 1

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , , on September 8, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Battle of the Atom - Chapter 1So the latest crossover event has started, Battle of the Atom, where everyone and the kitchen sink decides to time travel, cause hey, why not?

I do like the way this starts out though, with Magik travelling to the future to see what’s going on, if it’s all been worth it. Turns out the future is just as dystopian as it’s always been for mutants. They can’t seem to catch a break. But then that wouldn’t make very good story now would it? (yes it would actually but tell that to Marvel)

In the present time, Scott goes and gets himself killed-ish. Thankfully a mutant healer fixed him up, but the fact that Scott seemed to have vanished into nothing for a moment is pretty messed up. It’s no wonder that they now want to send the kids back. I mean, you can’t really fault them for not wanting to screw up the timeline, but at the same time, it’s pretty harsh. You are basically sending Jean back to her death, Angel to a pseudo-death, and yeah… this is why you don’t play with time travel kids!

It was weird though, how Kitty didn’t really say anything when Scott showed up with his team, they just worked together like there wasn’t that big looming PLOT POINT over them. Though I suppose in the moment she appreciated the help? I dunno, I guess we’re supposed to ignore that for the more important plot points coming up with Scott dying-ish.

And now we have future mutants, I kinda hate that concept because it’s always ‘in the moment’ and nothing is really kept to canon for when these characters actually get to these ages. So if something you don’t want to happen, does, then you’re annoyed that the writers think this way. If something happens you wanted, then you have to live with the fact that it’s not really ‘destined’.

So yeah, time travel is always a lose-lose.

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Review: Uncanny X-Men #11

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on September 8, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Uncanny X-Men #11Go team! Now that all the newbies have gotten their sea-legs, they managed to pull together and do a pretty good job of fighting off that Sentinel attack.

That’s pretty much all there is to gain from this issue, other than Scott has something of a death wish. He really isn’t all that mentally stable since the Phoenix Five incident. It’s been effecting him in a lot of ways, some more subtle than others, and his resignation to just die and perhaps end a lot of the problems that way is just one more. I hope that we really get some movement and look at this side of him throughout the rest of the series. He went through a lot of trauma, really from the time his powers manifested and his parents died, etc. Stuff like this usually just gets pushed to the side though in favor of whatever the stories needs to do to get to the next big thing, even if that means making him do something completely random again.

Speaking of which, Battle of the Atom is next, a crossover event with several of the books, and something that will probably put him face to face to Jean again. This should be fun… or not… who really knows these days.

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Review: Wolverine and the X-Men #35

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on September 7, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Wolverine and the X-Men #35Well, that was actually a pretty decently happy ending, except maybe for Toad and possibly Broo.

Let’s do a checklist…

  • Quire and Idie are dating.
  • Broo is back to normal.
  • Paige is back to normal (sorta).
  • Kade is trapped (until needed again by the writers).
  • The White Queen was actually running the whole show (as it should be, not that it’s a good thing).
  • Logan isn’t closing the school.
  • The two Hellfire leaders are in ‘rehabilitation’.
  • Nightcrawler is back!!!

But the problems the characters face is that Paige, after coming back to her senses, might not still have feelings for Toad. It depends when she ‘lost her mind’ and how many memories she retained. If she just can’t feel the same about him as before, that’s going to be heart breaking.

And as much as Idie never forgot about Broo, even after hooking up with Quire, she still doesn’t feel ‘that way’ about him. Poor little guy. But glad to see him back to his senses nevertheless, even if I’m not really all that sure how it happened.

Next through is Battle of the Atom stuff, so we may not see much in the way of movement on this for a couple of episodes. In any case, I like the fact that this major arc didn’t end on a depressing note. There have been far to many of those of late.

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Review: Deadpool #14

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on September 7, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Deadpool #14Deadpool does leave a lasting impression on people. The moment Deadpool’s name is brought up in reference to being ‘partners’, Luke Cage nearly pops a blood vessel. Not that I can blame him, really.

This was really just a filler issue, The White Man comes back, there is some fighting, and Deadpool sends some kids into battle. Wait, what? Deadpool has always been very staunch about protecting children, it’s just one of those things about him that you can count on. I guess though, this is specific circumstances, his body hadn’t completely healed yet, and they were kids trained by Iron Fist himself. They did do a pretty good  actually. I guess it’s the ‘Dead Kids Walking’ comment that threw me there.

More movement on the organ donor sub-plot. Man, that girl has a high pain threshold. In any case, this seems to be our next plot arc, they are still holding off on Preston which is cool, don’t mind so much on that one. But I do want to know why for the past two years people have been harvesting Deadpool’s organs. Are they being used by someone with organ failure? Are they being used to do something with his healing factor? We shall see…

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Review: A+X #11

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on September 5, 2013| Leave a Comment »

A+X #11I don’t read Thor’s comics, but I’m pretty sure he’s not as big a douche as he’s played up to be in this issue of A+X.

I mean, the whole concept of A+X is Avengers and Mutants working together. And yes, you have an Avenger and a Mutant. But this isn’t so much two characters working together as mutual annoyance. Thor accidentally goes into Limbo, causes some havoc, and Magik gets all prissy about it, the two bicker, the end. Seriously, that’s the story.

The second one is Cyclops and Spider-Man, and here we get some decent depth. Scott looks like the bad guy, even though he’s not in this instance, truly. Peter looks like the good guy, even though he’s not really since he’s actually Doc Oct. In the end, the Doc plays a gamble that pays off, saving everyone after Scott does the right thing, or maybe the wrong thing? After all, what is worse, letting one person die, or giving the villain an even greater weapon? It is no wonder no one died in the making of that comic panel.

It’s just a shame that such a philosophical nugget of existentialism is regulated to half a comic in a throw-away series.

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Review: X-Men Legacy #15

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on September 5, 2013| Leave a Comment »

X-Men Legacy #15That moment when the comic specifically mentions Dr Who… then proceeds to steal directly from it. Well, at least they’re somewhat honest.

The whole ‘drum beat’ thing, totally taken from The Master in Dr Who. I was thinking it even before the parting shot at the end with the Uncanny X-Men. And yeah, looks like David is going to go after a little revenge. All because he lost his mother…

Speaking of which, what the heck? I knew, from spoilers, that she was going to die, but the shear amount of  rushing through the story was annoying. David gives his big long speech about how his mother was never there for him. She throws a few words back. They prove the Xavier in his head isn’t really Xavier. Then boom, they suddenly are hugging and they’ve made up. It’s all to neat and easy. I mean, really, David with his emotional issues… it was all too easy. Then she dies, lets herself die cause apparently she’s adverse to going against the natural order. But… mutants are natural, what is this ‘different worlds’ crap?

It kinda makes her out to be a bit of a bigot. Our World. Mutant’s World. Never Shall They Cross.  That’s segregation which has always been a tool of racism. Just throwing that out there…

p.s. why did the artist draw gabrielle like ruth? that’s just creepier than usual…

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Review: Deadpool Kills Deadpool #2

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on September 5, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Deadpool Kills Deadpool #2Ah, so this story is related to the other ‘Deadpool Kills’ stories after all, and not in a way that makes me want to face palm.

Seems that ‘our’ Deadpool is fighting for his life against the Deadpool that has serious depression. I mean, that’s really what this is all about. Deadpool says it himself when he comments about how he wants to “murder all the other Deadpools… every time [he] looks in the mirror”. For all the man’s laughs, he really is one walking bundle of self-loathing and clinical depression. He’s been kicked around, raped, you name it, and he’s not allowed to either a) live a normal life or b) die naturally. He’s stuck in this endless loop.

Haven’t we all been there at some point?

Let’s just hope the mini-series continues to play that secondary plot point and actually give us a payoff.

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Review: Uncanny Avengers #11

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on September 4, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Uncanny Avengers #11I’ve gone from reading this title through abject distaste to reading it with feigned interest, which is actually a step up.

Now that Remender has no excuse to have Wanda and Rogue in the same place, he’s not filling up the pages with petty smack talk. So, yeah, that’s a plus. There is not nearly as much mis-characterization going on, but I feel like that is only a temporary reprieve.

As for the Horsemen, the shear amount of dialogue pretty much ruins anything that could be considered dramatic or heartfelt. Seriously, all these characters talk way too much, both verbally and in the thought boxes. I’m pretty sure we were supposed to feel something with Wolverine and Daken… pretty sure.

Lastly… Wanda is being used a weapon cause of ‘destiny’ stuff… excuse me while I sit here and sigh.

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Review: Uncanny X-Men #10

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on September 4, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Uncanny X-Men #10This is why Sentinels are a dumb idea. You sick them on mutants and they blast their way through innocent civilians because they are freaking huge robots!

Anyway, lots of interesting things in this issue. For one, nice to see an exploration of budding mutant powers. Most of the main characters in the X-titles are older or somehow skipped a lot of the training phase, so it’s nice to see these new mutants working on trying to sort themselves out.

Magneto… still don’t know why he looks like Christopher Lloyd, or truly what side of the fence he is playing. All I do know is that he really does suck at relationships. Now he’s going to be reporting to Dazzler… who may be Mystique (depends if Mystique took her spot permanently or just long enough to do something). All I know is that things aren’t gonna end well.

Speaking of ending well, a pro-mutant rally is quite an interesting thing to see, and Bendis is trying really hard, but not too hard, to paint Cyclops as right. Considering how Remender is writing ‘the other side’ in Uncanny Avengers, you almost want to side with Cyclops just on the principle of the thing. You know, if you didn’t side with him already.

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Review: Morbius #7

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on September 4, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Morbius #7The misdirection is the oldest trick in the book, but that doesn’t mean it always works.

After what was feeling like a Spider-man book rather an a Morbius book, Morbius is drug back to Brownsville in one of the incomprehensible round about plot points I’ve seen in awhile. It really doesn’t make any sense at how stupidly overly complicated the whole thing seems to have been.

But, it’s not the end, not technically, and we still have movement on this story line in the next issue which might clear all this up and it could be pretty dang swanky.

But at the moment, I’m still trying to figure out how this story took such a dramatic turn in tone and style without an author change.

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