Posts Tagged ‘comics’

Review: Black Widow #3

Black Widow #3Third issue in and the title seems to have stalled just a bit.

It’s not a bad story, but it’s a little bit of a rehash of what has gone before which, seeing there has only been two previous issues, is problematic. We have more existential commentary from Nat in another mission gone wrong because she’s distracted, and it doesn’t move forward the overall plot in any way. It’s not a terrible issue, but a stall this early in the title can be dangerous as a sign of things to come.

But, for these faults, it’s a beautiful comic with great flow and pacing. In some ways it’s very reminiscent of an episode of Burn Notice. It would make a wonderful filler issue… five more issues in.

With a SHIELD job on the horizon, hopefully we’ll start into the arcs and get this ball rolling.

 

 

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Review: X-Men #10

X-Men #10Well, that escalated quickly.

This issue is just bursting with sudden turns in the story line, and most of them don’t make any sense. Why didn’t Enchantress take out Monet properly? Why did they end up in the desert when they obviously had a lot better options (it had to take time to get there so why did they go there in the first place)? Why are the kids fighting when that goes against almost everything that school was founded on? And what moment did John and Rachael have cause I apparently missed it.

A hodgepodge of events ripple throughout this issue, everything from little side missions to Lady Deathstrike realizing that maybe she shouldn’t have activated the being intent on destroying the world. It’s a mess, that’s the only way to really describe what is going on in this issue.

And yet again, Wood is dragging up more female villains off the D-List (Dead-List) to go up against our group of females.

And this title was so promising in the beginning…

 

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Review: Ms. Marvel #1

Ms Marvel #1Marvel’s decision to have a Muslim girl pick up the Ms. Marvel mantel was a great forward step in growing the diversity that has always been lacking in our super heroes. The only problem is that they could have easily screwed it up by either trying to become too political about it, or worse, making her heritage be completely token.

So far in this first issue, Marvel is getting it right.

Kamala is a young woman who, like all young people, is having trouble figuring out who she is and where her place is. This is complicated by the fact that she is Muslim and, in the eyes of her classmates, “different”. Kids are cruel, and really, so are adults, whose bigoted nature can be very traumatizing. She wants to be herself, to fit in, but she also doesn’t want to give up who she is.

She’s a typical teenage girl, as she should be. Her family is also very typical in its dynamic.

One might think these were real people and not caricatures of a stereotype.

Go figure?

Now that she’s presumably gained powers, I can’t wait to see Kamala kick butt in wedged boots. She’ll have a few speed bumps on the road, that’s just natural, but she has the making of being a great super hero.

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Night_of_the_Living_Deadpool_2I may have a hatred for all things Zombie, but even I can see all the references to classic and modern Zombie films and movies in this issue.

I was waiting for the fourth wall references and the issue didn’t disappoint. In fact, the way they were done was understated and actually helped to forward the plot if you can believe it. All in all, this Deadpool mini-series has been the best written of them all so far. There isn’t a lot of random exposition. There isn’t an attempt to make things logical. It’s a freaking Zombie invasion and Deadpool is in the middle of it, enough said.

But, like all Zombie flicks, you can’t trust that anyone will survive the next panel let alone the whole issue and that is one of the main reasons I hate Zombie flicks. However, this beautifully underscores Deadpool who had this problem even before Zombies attacked, and who he himself might be immune to the Zombie virus.  It’s going to be a wonderful examination in existentialism as long as the story doesn’t devolve into random dick jokes from here on in.

Would it be ironic if the best and most realistic/serious take on the Zombie Apocalypse could come out of a Deadpool comic?

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X-Men Legacy #23So these last few issues were nothing but one long foreplay?

David and Ruth have been dating for awhile and it’s assumed that they do have a kid at some point if the events of Battle of the Atom are to be believed. In truth, I thought they were already doing the nasty on the astral plane so this is only mildly surprising.

What is awkward is this is all happening as the world ends. David is literally sucking the souls out of everyone and suddenly realizes he can freeze time… so what else is he gonna do? I suppose it makes sense since he believes one of them has to die and all that… but the fact that this whole issue leads up to the moment when it could have been doing something a lot more productive (not reproductive) is very disappointing. Spurrier is dragging out the arc and it’s really starting to suffer cause of it.

This title went from meh, to awesome, to wtf? That does take talent, I’ll admit.

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All-New X-Men #22Did we just have twenty pages of tropetastic teenage drama followed by punching and Jean getting kidnapped just to set up yet another Jean Grey-centric cross over after the last one literally just ended?

Yeah, pretty sure that’s what we got.

I can’t even work up the effort to properly review this issue except to say poor Angel, I feel ya man, I fee ya.

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Marvel Knights: X-Men #3Why is this a five part series? I would love to see this as an ongoing title in its own universe.

The X-Men are getting assaulted by their memories and it’s doing something to Logan who is suffering from all the signs of a major PTSD meltdown. This leads Rogue to take him on head to head when he wants to kill the unfortunate mutant who is causing all the problems. Rogue won’t let him punish the girl for something she has no control over.

This is Rogue! Not that crap Remender gave us.

The story itself is turning into a pretty straight forward mild-horror without a lot of twists or turns, and in a way, that’s perfect. There is only five issues, there isn’t a lot Revel can do without muddying up the panels and making it seem super ridiculous that so many things conveniently happen at once. Instead the pace stays quick and we get a lot of character driven moments.

Basically… how a comic should be.

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All-New X-Factor #2There is no way this much badass can be contained in one team… yet here we are.

Lorna looses her teammates and decides to wreck the place to get them back because she can. Gambit is a cat who always lands on his feet and his secondary mutation is Luck. Pietro is quick on his feet and the lovable jerk everyone just ‘loves’ but he gets the job done. Can we just have issue after issue of these three just going around being BAMFs?

Oh wait, that’s the point of this series.

I’m sure there is a plot in here somewhere. You have this mad scientist who seems to have figured out how to siphon mutant powers or something.

There comes a time when truly, the plot doesn’t matter, it’s all about the character doing what they do best. Right now is the perfect time, we’re learning the dynamic of the group, we’re finding out if this strange mix will work. And so far, David is showcasing the best sides of our trio with just enough raw edge for it to be realistic.

Love it… too bad David is just setting us up for pain later cause that’s how he rolls… but for the moment… I can’t get enough of it!

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Review: X-Men #9

X-Men #9Monet doesn’t really understand physics or the concept of ‘collateral damage’ does she?

Seriously, she just blows into that building thinking that she’ll take out Arkea that way? Yeah, no. All she did was make a hole in a building which spread debris everywhere and caused untold structural damage. Surprise, surprise, it did jack all to Arkea other than let her know that she might want to make her exit.

And sometimes I have to wonder why the Mutants are so surprised regular people don’t like them? Randomly breaking buildings doesn’t help. I know they are trying to stop the big bad but, again, not the brightest plan of attack. Is Monet always like this? And why didn’t one of the half dozen people talking to her think to themselves ‘yeah, that’s not gonna work’.

This is the first title I’ve read by Wood and going in I had heard a lot of good things, that he wrote female characters really well and is critically acclaimed… so this title really confuses me.

He dredges up D-List villains for them to fight, manufactures a romance with the only male character that is just bad as those pushed on the only female character in the reverse, and has no concept of basic spacial awareness (remember the train incident in the beginning with Rogue?).

I’m starting to worry…

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Review: Black Widow #2

Black Widow #2I suppose they do teach how to clean up after a murder scene in lawyer school.

That’s really what this issue is about, giving us an insight into Mr Ross’s personality. He’s going to be Nat’s ‘Girl Friday’ so an introduction was in order.  He’s not your typical lawyer, quick to do his owe stakeouts of questionable individual while Nat is out doing the heavy lifting. And he seems to take his advice from Captain Mal “if someone tries to kill you, you kill’em right back”. I like this guy, he’ll do nicely.

Nat does get her own adventure, just something small and deadly to show us that she’s not without her faults and has a lot to atone for. It also gives us a little bit of that softer side we saw in the first issue which allows the beginning of a multifaceted character development. Things are happening at a deliberate pace, Edmondson isn’t trying to throw us too far into the deep end nor is he tripping too much over the tropes. This is a good thing because Black Widow is a character that could easily be ruined by sloppy writing.

And let’s face it, she deserves a hell of a lot more than sloppy writing.

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