Posts Tagged ‘Review’

Review: Marvel Knights: X-Men #2

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , , on January 11, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Marvel Knights: X-Men #2Now this is how you do Rogue.

With so much horrible characterization of Rogue coming out of Remender, it’s great to see that someone over at Marvel still understand what makes Rogue tick, it’s just a shame that this is a mini. Not only is Rogue rough and tumble in her fighting but she is understanding and forgiving of someone who may have done something really bad but is obviously suffering and remorseful because of it. No pettiness here, no sir-ee. (Though, honestly, I think the memory was from the other girl, but we’ll see.)

Wolvie, on the other hand, is kinda off his rocker but that must be the point as Rogue is pointing it out for the audience’s benefit. Kitty just seems to be herself which is also good considering she’s not had the best characterization either under Bendis.

Seriously, can we just give Revel his own comic because he obviously know these characters. I guess not being forced to shoe-horn his story into the greater Marvel Universe has allowed him to not feel the need to just ‘make it work’ and actually present these characters as they should be.

As for the story itself, it’s all pretty mysterious what’s going down. There are some weird drugs made by gun-hoarding isolationists and the Sheriff is in on it… this can’t be good, and I can’t wait for more…

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Review: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S01E11 “The Magical Place”

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , , , on January 11, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Agent Melinda May - Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. "A Magical Place"Always trust May, she’s got this.

The second half of the season starts off with giving us the best episode yet. First off, Skye is not the most annoying character ever. She does get a fair amount of screen time but she’s actually being useful and productive rather than just running around whining then suddenly saving the day with her ‘mad hacking skills’. The way she gets what she needs in this episode is interesting and fun. For once I’m not rolling my eyes at her. Ward on the other hand…

But more importantly, in this episode, we learn about Coulson’s death… because he apparently did actually die, but Nick Fury does not take ‘death’ as an answer.

Coulson went through several operations to bring him back to life, seven at the very lease, and the brain surgery scene we saw was only the tip of the iceberg. But here’s the thing, if they took his skull off like that… why isn’t there a scar? There is no way they put the skin back on and completely avoided even the hair growing a little strange… unless they are saying that MCU medicine is just that good? It’s possible, they did bring a man back to life. Or maybe something more sinister is at work. It was pointed out that Let Me Die = LMD and Life Model Decoy = LMD. Coincidence?

There is still a lot more here they aren’t telling us but at least they gave us plenty to keep us satisfied for now.

Hopefully the improved quality of this episode is signs of better things to come in the future, but with the teasers pointing to being more about Skye and her background… ugh.

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Review: Amazing X-Men #2

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on January 5, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Amazing X-Men #2Now this is more like it.

While there was wonderful characterization of Nightcrawler in the first issue, I was worried about how everyone else was treated. It was all kinda… off. Then I read issue #2 and it is so much better, especially with Storm kicking butt and proving why you do not want to mess with her, and Bobby shows signs of his Astonishing X-Men days, and Northstar is having way to much fun.

Sergeant Snikt, meet Captain Stabby Pants.

That’s just gold.

But other than establish that Wolvie and Northstar were sent to Heaven (ironically) and Storm, Iceman and Firestar were sent to Hell (also ironic), there isn’t much to this issue other than some down and dirty fighting, plus a cameo from Xavier. Yeah, if ghost-Xavier is going to be a thing, then this totally won’t end well for anyone.

There is nothing wrong with an issue of fun and fighting because, well, it’s fun! It did actually further the plot too as it put all our characters into motion.

Then we have our wonderful Kurt, a Captain without a ship, who is going to do some solid butt kicking here soon… and I can not wait.

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Review: Fearless Defenders #12

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on January 5, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Fearless Defenders #12Alas, another great title ends due to sales figures while certain horribly written team books carry on simply by grace of having so many big names in it the fan base is spread wide.

Seriously, while I understand the mechanics of how these things work and how, as a corporation, the bottom line does matter, it’s moments like these that I just wish change the laws of economics.

In the end, we are left with the final eighth Shieldmaiden/Defender chosen as well as a cold understanding coming between Annabelle and Val. The Amazon’s are still left in limbo, we aren’t sure what’s going to happen to them. Oh, and Morgan LeFay is back from the dead.

That can’t be good.

It’s a real cliffhanger of an ending, leaving so much open like it could have started a new arc. An arc that would have been interesting and exciting no doubt. So it’s not the best ending, but not the worst, and something we’ll just have to live with.

But will we ever know what will happen with these ladies or LeFay?

Even bet is ‘probably not’ which is very unfortunate indeed.

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Review: Deadpool #20

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on January 5, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Deadpool #20This issue made about as much sense as the 1970s…

But that’s okay, I’m sure the next arc will feed off what happened in this supposed ‘inventory issue’ and we’ll gain a better understanding of just what Deadpool was gathering and what Cosmic Baby Poop has to do with it all.

Normally I’d be annoyed with yet another flashback filler issue like this, but Posehn and Duggan present it as Deadpool not feeling up to anything at the moment. He needs time to decompress from what happened over the last arc. I really feel that this is the best possible response to what happened. Even if he’s back to being ‘typical Deadpool’ in the next issue, it’s only because he had a moment to process before putting back on that smile. This is truly a realistic response and shows that these writers really understand that Deadpool is a hell of a lot more complicated than a single joke.

I just hope this next arc isn’t quite as soul shattering.

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Review: X-Men Legacy #21

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on January 4, 2014| Leave a Comment »

X-Men Legacy #21And now we’re starting to drag a bit.

This entire issue seems to be one long diatribe about how the escaped part of David’s mind is bad news in that it’s slowly eating away at the very fabric of, well, everything. Yes, we kinda figured this out in the last two issues which seemed to explain the exact same thing as a way to legitimize what was done to David.

Ruth doesn’t seem to like what’s happening, she feels this is all self-fulfilling and David is just setting himself up to destroy the world or be destroyed by her. Frankly, I’d listen to her, but at the same time, how are they going to stop the Xavier wannabe?

In the end, this is just way to much of a needless filler that was getting us to the main event, if we’ll even get the main event in the next issue.

This title really has a lot of highs and lows…

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Review: Uncanny Avengers #14

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on January 4, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Uncanny Avengers #14Well, that was pointless.

Rick Remember has been described as a ‘shock jock’ writer. Basically, he jumps out with a whole bunch of ‘shocking moments’ where people are killed or put into other high stress moments just for the shock value alone. Of the three (maybe four) people who likely died in this issue, it’s a toss up as to how many will actually be dead which makes all these deaths pointless. The ones who live are obviously not dead, yawn+cop-out. And the one (ones) who actually die will have their deaths marginalized by the sure scope of the moment. It’s so freaking annoying because Remender doing this wastes so much time and panel space when he could be doing proper character and plot development which could be then used to create truly emotionally satisfying moments.

Basically these shock deaths are a cheap trick and sign of a crappy writer… but it’s eaten up by this new generation of fanboys (and fangirls) who seem to think that death=real and real=good. In reality, a well-written-death=good, and just killing people off for the shock value is almost never a well-written-death.

Then you have everything else in this issue, the total mis-characterization of Rogue continues. Wolverine’s seemingly ‘about face’ regarding Wanda in a ‘I said she had to be stopped but duh I didn’t mean kill her’. Seriously Wolvie? And Sunfire is continued to just be window dressing. Still not sure about Wanda’s relationship with Wonder Man in regards to her previously established relationship with Cap.

I’ve actually cancelled my subscription to this title, but I’ll likely pick up a few extra to see how this arc ends. I’ve never actually cancelled a subscription to any title, I almost always just ride them out, but I felt that I needed to do this because this title is just rife with the worst possible problems of everything from bad writing to sexism. I’ll pick up the next few issues to finish the arc and then that’s it. I don’t think Remender can do anything at this point to win back my subscription (not that my subscriptions matters to anyone but me but it makes me feel better).

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Review: All-New X-Men #19

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on January 2, 2014| Leave a Comment »

All-New X-Men #19Mutants are analogues, this has always been true.

The X-Men are also no strangers to religious intolerance, it’s the unfortunate reality of human nature. So it’s no real surprise that the X-Men are once again coming up against religious zealots who believe it is god’s will to destroy all mutants. The parallels to modern minorities is obvious here but not overbearing and I will never deny a comic’s attempt at social commentary as long as it’s done well or at least tastefully.

However, all we get here is very little, few comments from Angel, and it’s mostly just an excuse for people to punch each other and chase after X-23. I got nothing against some beat ’em ups too, but I hate it when potential is teased then just ignored.

Otherwise, this feels like a filler episode, just something to get us to the big X-23 reveal…

Somehow I feel this can’t end well…

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Review: Wolverine and the X-Men #38

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on January 1, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Wolverine and the X-Men #38Broo is awesome and anyone who disagrees can personally be eaten by Krakoa.

Finally getting back to school matters since the end of the Battle of the Atom crossover, we have the introduction of two new students. Through them, we get a glimpse of the school and learn that it’s pretty much like every school ever, just super powered. You have all the cliques that one would expect to see in a Mean Girls-esque setting.

To make things more intersting, apparently Bobby isn’t taking the break up with Kitty all that well (which seems a little odd against all the stuff that happened in Astonishing X-Men but that’s pretty on par with how these comics run, continuity wise).

Everyone is still bitching at each other for trying to cause the destruction of the world, again, as that seems to be the default setting for everyone right now. Just as punching and stabbing things is Wolverine’s default setting.

And Mystique is still pretending to be Dazzler (did they ever explain if the real Dazzler is dead or just being held someplace?) and up to no good, per usual. Our two new students seem to be spies. I’m sure they will wreck havoc and possibly do so with the aid of the former Hellfire Club members they have brought to the school.

Being a teenager in the X-Men universe really does have its moments, doesn’t it…

 

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Review: Deadpool Annual #1

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , , on December 31, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Deadpool Annual #1Well, that solves that then.

Way’s introduction of Deadpool’s White Thought Box is one of the more controversial aspects of his run on the title. Was it the natural progression of Deadpool’s psychosis or just a way of reducing Deadpool further down into a joke? Regardless, when Way’s run ended and Poshen took over the White Box disappeared without so much of an explanation… until now.

Deadpool runs into Madcap, a character who has been around since the 80’s. Madcap is himself insane after losing his family and being mixed with a compound that makes him as immortal as Deadpool. Deadpool is just trying to kill Daredevil when Madcap shows up and interrupts him. Then Daredevil shows up, then Thor (who was getting a latte), and the whole thing goes sideways and both characters are reduced to ash by Thor.

That ash then reforms into one individual, the body of Deadpool with Madcap hanging out in his mind.

Yeah, sounds about right.

I’m not entirely sure what I want to think about this pseudo-retcon of the White Box. What does this mean for all the interactions between Deadpool, the Yellow Box, and the White Box? How does this affect Deadpool’s character development?

Will the comics bother to address this?

Probably not.

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