Posts Tagged ‘comics’

Review: Marvel Knights: X-Men #1

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , , on December 26, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Marvel Knights: X-Men #1The Marvel Knights imprint is the TV-14 of comics. They aren’t quite deserving of a mature rating, but they aren’t really for kids either.

That doesn’t necessarily make this a better comic, this one just happens to be a better comic.

Getting away from the politics and insanity that is the standard Earth-616 universe, Marvel Knights takes Logan, Kitty and Rogue to a small country town which has some serious issues. Namely, mutant kids are getting hunted down and killed. Obviously it’s a job for the X-Men.

The story is pretty straight forward but not over-simplified. The fact that it’s removed from everything else allows it to exist just as it is. It’s almost like a filler issue only five issues worth of filler that doesn’t have to set anything up. This makes it a nice soft read with a mystery at its heart that isn’t going to be some lame excuse for another cross over event or some such. It’s really just a good read, I don’t know how many ways I can say that.

I can only hope it can keep up with this and give us a nice little story. Seeing as it doesn’t have a lot of baggage dragging it down, it looks promising.

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Review: Fearless Defenders #11

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on December 25, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Fearless Defenders #11Heroes should know better than to take a vacation.

Hippolyta wants to reform the Amazons, making them bigger and better than before, but minus a lot of the bloodshed and general ‘kill all the things’ attitude they are kinda known for. She throws a big party and everyone is invited.

So, of course, in Mean Girls fashion, LeFay crashes the party using some throwaway baddies. She then causes some distrust and discord in the ranks just to get everyone’s hackles up.

It’s a story that is a bit of filler to get things moving to the next story arc, but knowing that this is the second to last issue makes it very bitter-sweet and pale. One more issue, it’s all going to come down to one more issue that is going to have to carry most of the climax by itself.

This kinda makes me worried, but hopefully we’ll have a good ending to a title that ended way too soon.

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Review: All-New X-Men #18

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on December 21, 2013| Leave a Comment »

All-New X-Men #18As a person, I like Jean Grey, but as character, I despise her.

This issue was going along rather nicely despite the fact that it’s still weird to see Kitty on Scott’s side, but her interactions with Illyana were pretty cool. Then suddenly this issue is all about how much everyone loves Jean Grey. It’s not even a commentary on how good of a person or whatever she is, nope, it’s about a bunch of guys who can apparently only think about why Jean doesn’t love them. To make it work, their thinking is horribly wrong and flawed, a lot of it is why the term ‘friendzoned’ is now offensive. No one can seem to write Jean as her own character, it’s always about her relationships and how everyone is in love with her.

I know, these are teenage boys and they are hormonal like that but do we really need panel after panel of these boys and their unhealthy obsession with Jean? Because that’s what it is, really unhealthy and I’m actually glad that Bendis does try to show how idiotic Hank is being and lets Jean get rightfully upset over how wrong the whole thing is. But at the same time, it all feels trite because he caps it off with a ‘rescue from the Angel’ and now there seems to be another goddamn contender in the ring.

Basically, what Bendis has here is an opportunity, he can either show how the objectification of a female by males is a bad thing by correcting these boys behavior towards her, or he can turn this into some kind of ‘wet dream’ fantasy over a character he had a hard on for when he was a teenage boy.

Forgive me if I don’t have a lot of faith right now, especially since this whole series seems to be one bad ‘teenage romance’ trope from the beginning.

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Review: X-Men Legacy #19

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on December 21, 2013| Leave a Comment »

X-Men Legacy #19Well, that escalated quickly…

David is given to S.W.O.R.D. because the plot says so. While he’s there, that one crazy dude that he preemptively stopped from trying to destroy all the mutants, or Earth in general, whatever, pays him a visit. We’re then treated to pages and pages of exposition as he tells David how that piece of David’s psyche that escaped is trying to destroy the world or at least give it a really bad day.

This is something that kinda bothers me, when comics just throw out body counts of a hundred here, a hundred there and so forth… I wonder if someone has sat down and added up how many people get killed off in some random act of violence throughout the entirety of the Marvel Universe in any given month? Just a thought.

Anyway, so yeah, David is pretty damn powerful and just a piece of him is running amuck and causing lots and lots of damage. The only answer to all this is to kill him, of course, and with the Shadow of the Phoenix, natch’.

This can only end in tears…

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Review: Amazing X-Men #1

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on December 20, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Amazing X-Men #1 Variant Cover by Scottie YoungDo you really need to ask us if we missed you Nightcrawler? Cause, seriously, that’s a dumb question. Of course we missed you!!!

Your reintroduction to the Marvel Universe was near perfect. We saw a piece of your thoughtful soul and a piece of your swashbuckling heart.  At one point you’re fighting with three swords, do you know how all kinds of awesome that is? Do you?! And then your dad shows up and it’s all kinds of awkward but you deal with it masterfully. Seriously, if this is the direction this story is going to take with you, well, Captain, I’m ready to set sail!

Nightcrawler’s wonderful rebirth almost makes up for the fact that the back end of this issue is a bit off, and in some places, really off. The introduction of Firestar into the series is interesting as she quickly realizes that the school is all manner of crazy. This in and of itself isn’t an issue. It’s the random characterization of the other characters that are just wtf? I can’t see ‘Ro not taking a second to at least properly welcome Firestar, but here she’s really pissy. Warbird is way too territorial (like seriously, her being territorial regarding ‘breeding partners’ is actually counter to everything I know about her). Everyone else is serviceable but these two were so OOC in prominent ways that I couldn’t but scratch my head and wonder if I was still reading the same comic.

But hey, it’s just the first issue and they had to set up the inter-dimensional travel through the gate created by the Bamfs (omg that  was awesome I love the Bamfs!). Can’t wait to see where we get to next!

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Review: Deadpool vs Deadpool #4

Posted in Behind the Scenes, tagged , , on December 17, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Deadpool Kills Deadpool #4This Deadpool series has been a bit like Chinese food… initially satisfying but after an hour or so you feel kinda empty.

There are some solid introspective moments that shows that Bunn understands that Deadpool is more than a cheap joke. Deadpool has deep seated psychological issues and it’s no wonder that he’s trying to kill himself across all the dimensions. But it’s also no wonder that he wants to live just as badly, that’s just how far that rabbit hole goes.

But much like the preceding mini’s, there is a lot of stuff jammed into a small space and even with the pages dedicated to nothing but carnage… I kinda have to wonder if truly needs a Parental Advisory, well, this is like PG-13 instead of R. Then with the ending so quickly falling into place with the ‘oh, it’s not over yet’ tag at the end and it really turns this into what it blatantly is: a money grab.

It’s still better put together than the Killustrated mini, but it’s likely something that’s going to be forgotten in years to come when it had the possibility of being so much more.

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Review: X-Men: Battle of the Atom #2

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , , on December 15, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Battle of the Atom #2So basically this whole crossover was just an excuse to get Kitty and the original five to go to Scott’s side, cause that’s all I got out of this final issue.

You get all this lead up, a big ass battle, then old!Jean goes and vaporizes herself and yay, story’s over, some people died, but all’s good, everyone is going back to their corners and don’t mind Kitty throwing a temper tantrum.

There is very little solid character development and the whole thing seems rushed even though they had  something like ten issues to work on this. Everything is literally thrown together with a bunch of cut/paste epilogues. You might want to blame the fact that with a cross over event you have several different writers and some the nuances can be lost. But in the end, this was one of the worst wastes of time in a long while. Even AvX had better characterizations and an better overall plot.

One good thing I can say about BotA #2 is there is one page that is pretty much solid. It’s the page where Jean bitching out Scott and Wolvie for basically being the reason why everything sucks right now. Because, yeah, their stories are at the center of why the X-Men Universe can’t have nice things. They are both jerks with unhealthy obsessions over a woman and who need to be slapped and forcibly retired imho. And the saddest part is that neither of them can see it.

And apparently neither can the writers.

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Review: Marvel Now What?!

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on December 15, 2013| 2 Comments »

Marvel NOW WHAT!I do like it when a person or company can make fun of themselves… and that is exactly what Marvel Now What?! is all about.

I mean, this book really has everything.

They make fun of their own characters like having a story about how Captain America is not adjusting well to the modern world, and in turn take a jab at Catfishing (the internet kind, not to be confused with Noodling).

There is even a What If story that examines a popular fan-AU pairing: Thor and Storm. I’m pretty sure this is a direct response to DC putting together Wonder Woman and Superman in their reboot.

And, of course, it makes fun of its own policies, such as the endless crossovers and just throwing everything and the kitchen sink into the mix in hopes of boosting sales.

Could it have been even more satirical, certainly, there were some pulled punches, but overall, it was a rather fun read that just makes you chuckle and laugh, which considering that most of the Marvel writers don’t consider writing anything less than ‘let’s be as depressive and homicidal as possible’ as their main plot devices, makes this story is a nice change of pace.

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Review: Uncanny Avengers #13

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on December 11, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Uncanny Avengers #13As much as I’m not caring for this title, deaf Captain America is pretty hilarious.

It’s also good to see that Wanda has a plan, I would have been seriously disappointed in Remender (moreso than usual) if he continued on and just had her mindlessly follow the twins. Of course, Wolverine doesn’t have nearly as much faith in her as we do because the second the twins told him Wanda had switched sides he’s all “well, guess gotta try to kill her, again”. Wait, maybe that isn’t actually out of character…

I also want to know what Wanda’s relationship is with Cap because there was something going on there not too long ago. Are they actually dating, did they agree not to be exclusive? What?.  Because now she’s taking Wonder Man to bed? I’m all for the girl enjoying herself with whatever guy she wants but if she’s in a relationship with Cap then why is she sleeping with the guy who has an insanely deep crush on her where she doesn’t return his feelings because she quote ‘thinks of him like a brother’? Awkward much?

And that’s just the tip of what bothers me about this issue, including the unfortunate characterization of Janet and the constant rambling of the writing.

But I really don’t care enough to care to complain anymore…

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Review: Wolverine and the X-Men #37

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on December 11, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Wolverine & the X-Men #37Wolverine is never having sex again? Yeah, like that’s ever gonna happen.

While I do continue to tire of the constant future stuff, especially how most of it will never come to past, I did love the scene between Quire and his future self. That was pretty perfect to be honest.

However, the characterization of several characters seems to have gotten out of whack through the whole Battle of the Atom arch. Specifically Kitty is all over the place, and was Maria always this bitchy? This is the second to last book in the arc and I feel like they are pushing everyone into the direction they want them to be at the end. From the spoilers I’ve gotten for post-BotA books, I don’t think I’m all that off in that assessment.

Basically, I can’t wait for this arc to be over and everything to get back to normal… or what passes for normal in the X-Men universe.

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