Posts Tagged ‘Review’

Review: Deadpool Killustrated #1

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on January 23, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Deadpool Killustrated #1

Deadpool Killustrated #1

Review: Deadpool Killustrated #1

The special mini-series of Deadpool Killustrated is basically Deadpool “butchering stories from literature’s finest authors”. Sounds like fun, our favorite fourth-wall-breaking merc-with-a-mouth tearing up the classics. It’s a concept you can’t really go wrong with… but amazingly, they found a way.

I sit down to enjoy the first issue and from the cover I’m expecting some fun to be had with whale guts, but all I get instead is page after page of the writer explaining to us how it’s possible for Deadpool to be running around mucking with the classics.

Really?

REALLY?

It’s DEADPOOL!

Do we really need to a reason for him to do anything?

And if you did want at least a slim veil of a connecting plot to Deadpool vs the Marvel Universe then you could have knocked it out in like two pages, three tops, not spend at least half of the book trying to make this all legit when you could have had more fun with whale guts!

It looks like they are trying to somehow make this series cerebral, that Deadpool’s fourth-wall breakage has driven him a little crazy or something because he realizes he’s at the whims of writers and all that… but maybe if they had parcelled that out over the mini-series instead of the dreaded ‘info dump’ it would have been more compelling.

There were a few nice touches, two actually, and that’s it: the thing with Pinocchio (perfect match) and the introduction of a possible nemesis there at the end. Again, if they hadn’t already told us everything, the Pinocchio incident would have had more punch in a ‘wait, what does this mean?’ moment.

Hopefully the next issue will be better because it won’t have to explain everything to us, but at the moment, well, I can understand why Deadpool wants to kill the writers.

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Review: Arrow S01E11 “Trust But Verify”

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on January 23, 2013| Leave a Comment »

CW's Arrow

CW’s Arrow

Review: Arrow S01E11
“Trust But Verify”

Now, I admit, comics, due to their long running and serialized nature, tend to border on the soap opera genre. However, they aren’t actually soap operas. Could someone please tell this to the writers of Arrow?

First of all, we have the prerequisite episode where one of the main character’s former hero/mentor turns out to be mixed up in something and is quite probably the bad guy. Mostly a yawn and a criminal underuse of Ben Browder. Seriously, it’s freaking Crichton! Just point him in any direction and let him loose!

Secondly, the little sister is as whiney as ever. “Mom is a cheat and a liar,” blah blah blah, “I’m gonna be cliché and get wasted and wreck my car.” Do we care? Should we care? Maybe if she hadn’t been such an annoying character from the the very first episode onwards who just sounds spoiled and worthless. I get what they are trying to go for, she did lose her father and brother and all that, but tone it down and find a fresher angle.

As for Tommy and Captain Jack, once again, nothing but ‘relationship drama’ that walked straight out of 90210. Seriously, two major subplots in this episode and they are both “I have issues with my single parent.”

It wouldn’t be so bad if it was a one off episode but more and more Arrow has become saturated with soap opera drivel that should be on a show like Dallas, not a super hero show. You don’t see them making speeches every five minutes about how they feel on shows like Burn Notice, do you? Which, if you think about it, is pretty much the same show-ish.

The writers need to make these characters more relatable and likable by toning down on the speeches and giving them obstacles and villains with more substance than flavor of the week. We need to see them react, not listen to them talk about their reactions.

Oh, and this episode was seriously lacking in the Dresden. Really, you can never have too much Dresden… who is apparently married to River Song… okay, yeah, I think the internet just exploded…

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Review: All-New X-Men #6

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on January 20, 2013| 1 Comment »

All-New X-Men #6

All-New X-Men #6

Review: All-New X-Men #6

This issue is a little slower, mostly it deals with Jean and Scott.

Jean is coming to grips with the fact that now she is a telepath, plus she now knows what has happened to her. That’s a pretty heavy burden to carry seeing as she died several times, her family was horribly killed cause of her bloodline, and Scott was, well, Scott. So really, this is just backlash from the last issue but without any real hook.

Scott continues to be an outcast because of things he hasn’t done yet, which will probably lead him into becoming what everyone fears he will become. He steals Logan’s bike and goes into town and we have a very typical ‘fish out of time’ scene. Though it does beg the question why does Logan have that much cash in his jacket? A fight ensues and Scott runs off to presumably confront himself again. This can’t end well.

Angel finally meets Angel. It’s a bit awkward both for the young Angel and the reader. Old Angel is a bit Looney Toons which I dont’ think young Angel has quite caught onto by the end of the small scene. Maybe we’ll get more in the next issue.

Speaking of next issue(s), Mystique is back in the game and has her sights on young Scott… why? I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

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Review: All-New X-Men #5

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on January 18, 2013| Leave a Comment »

All-New X-Men #5

All-New X-Men #5

Review: All-New X-Men #5

While Hank is attempting to save… Hank, Jean discovers more about herself than she probably ever wanted to know.

That’s really the crux of this whole issue. The one member of the team who is dead finds out why… and when she does, she doesn’t like what she sees. Granted, no one wants to be dead, but considering everything Jean went through, all the times she died and came back, her relationship with Scott being such as it was… it is enough to terrify anyone… and I’m pretty sure that’s what happened.

Jean is smart, she knows if they go back then the Professor will find out and wipe their minds and they won’t have learned anything from seeing the future. A bunch of people are okay with that but she’s not okay with it. She claims they can do better here, fixing the modern world, but in reality I think she just doesn’t want to die, or at least not in the way it happened, nor after Scott cheated on her.

Speaking of which… after learning her fate through Hank’s memories, Jean wants nothing to do with Scott, told him to stay the hell away from her.

I feel sorry for Scott, I really do, this kid hasn’t done anything wrong. Sure, he’s capable of doing many wrongs but he’s a product of his environment… of events both within and outside his control. There is no guarantee he would go all revolutionary or cheat on Jean if he had the chance to again. Wolverine is all about ‘second chances’ like he did with Quire but apparently that doesn’t extend to Scott who is only lucky Wolvie doesn’t gut him.

I fear that if young Scott goes the way of old Scott they will have no one to blame but themselves.

p.s. on a side note, I hope they drop any idea of Wolverine and Jean hooking up, I know he loved her but this Jean isn’t the same one he knew, but more importantly, she’s jail bait, and while Wolvie doesn’t age, if he hangs around waiting for her to become legal… mucho creepy… but thankfully he looks to have moved on from her and will be hooking up with Storm soon.

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Review: Arrow S01E10 “Burned”

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on January 16, 2013| Leave a Comment »

CW's Arrow

CW’s Arrow

Review: Arrow S01E10 “Burned”

So, let me get this straight. Oliver spends five years surviving on the Island, joining the Russian mafia, and beefing up into a super-archer… but the first time he gets his butt kicked he calls it quits?

Not to mention all the other fails in this episode, not the least of which is why does a cop leave a vital piece of evidence just laying out on his desk.

But again, the show suffers two major pitfalls that are driving me crazy. The first is the villain. Once again it might as well been a common street mugger for all the care that is given the bad guy. I don’t know how big Firefly was in the comics but here he burns some buildings down, gives a little ‘you left me to die speech’, then becomes one with the flame. There is nothing in any of this that makes us care at all about the villain, let alone that Arrow actually does just about nothing to defeat him.

The reason Batman has been so successful in so many other mediums is that great care is given to the villains. They are either made sympathetic or truly scary. They also get a chance to come back and make things even worse. Not so in Arrow. These named characters are made to be fodder.

This might have been forgivable had the main characters not spent the whole episode making speeches. “I have to be this” “I have to do that”. Not only are they making these long speeches but they do them standing still. This makes everything very stagnant and dry. Plus, I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, if a character has to give a speech to explain how they are feeling and whatnot, then you’ve already failed in basic characterization. We should be shown all this, not told through constant talking.

I really hope this isn’t a sign of what we can expect from Amazon… Wonder Woman needs to be treated better than that.

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Review: Morbius #1

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on January 16, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Morbius #1

Morbius #1 – Skottie Young variant

Review: Morbius: The Living Vampire #1

I admit I only bought X-Treme X-Men for the cover and that turned out to be a really smart move as it has been a top-notch read. I may have done it again with Morbius: The Living Vampire, which I only picked up for the Skottie Young variant. It’s so cute!

I never heard of Morbius as I’m not a Spider-Man follower, nor am I really big into what is now the ‘modern vampire’, but I decided to read it because hey, I have it, might as well, right?

This literally hooked me from the first page.

I love this writer’s style, the first page is black with only a single line of text. He continues this trend by using either a blank black page or set apart white text with things like “Advantages of being Vampire-ish”. It’s different, it’s fluid, quirky, I love it.

Also, and this is of major importance, the writer understands that this is a first issue of a solo series for a character that is not mainstream. Like I said, I had no clue who Morbius is/was before getting this issue… now I do. Joe Keatinge, the writer, walked the fine line of telling us who Morbius is without either becoming a massive info dump, assuming too much of the reader, or assuming too little of the reader. He also gave us just a taste of action and ending on a moderate cliffhanger.

Basically, this is what has been missing from of a lot of the relaunches, especially solo series launches. Too many of the writers act as if they literally are still in the middle of a title which makes it more difficult to capture new readers. Just because readers have a general idea who Tony Stark/Iron Man is doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give us at least a run down of the major things that have happened up to this point. (side note: read the new Iron Man #1 and as a non Iron Man reader I found it very unapproachable)

Sure, the story in Morbius #1 is a tad on the cliché side and a bit tropey, but the single fact that not only does Keatinge mix things up in style but also successfully introduces you to a character is something that can not be ignored. I had this put on my pull list and we’ll see where it goes from here.

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Review: A+X #3

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , , , , , on January 16, 2013| 1 Comment »

A+X #3

A+X #3

Review: A+X #3

I read a review for this issue and found it to be so completely opposite of how I felt about A+X #3 that it was almost comical.

The first story is Storm and Black Panther. Not only does Storm act a bit petty at times (though admits to it) but she really does have classic ‘ex-girlfriend syndrome’ while BP just stands around all ‘well, I did the right thing’ even though he’s the freaking King and basically Batman meaning he can do whatever the hell he wants.

This is only less shameful than their fight in the AvX matchups where Storm declares “maybe if we had children we could have worked things out”. Iron clad proof that there needs to be more female writers on staff.

Course, I then admit to my hypocrisy when I mention the second pair up of Gambit and Hawkeye, two gentlemen who are very easy on the eyes and women just fall all over (and who are currently battling it out for sales of their launched-at-the-same-time solo titles), and just how yummy they are.

Granted, their rescue of a ‘Damsel in Distress’ is pretty cliché and worn, but then this is Gambit and Hawkeye, it’s what they do, this is partly why women love these characters so much. Gambit is the smooth talking badboy while Hawkeye is the beefcake jock. In the end, Hawkeye gets the lady’s attention but Gambit steals it away, again, this is what these guys do. Never has there ever been a more perfect defining moment for either of these guys.

I’m pretty sure the reviewer I mentioned above is a Hawkeye fan-boy and didn’t like that Gambit got one over on him… but if Gambit didn’t, then it wouldn’t be Gambit, or even Hawkeye, the guy who can’t even go out and buy some scotch tape without everything going wrong, and still not get the tape.

Now I’m waiting anxiously for the next issue which sees Captain American paired with Kid Omega… that should be… fun?

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Review: WatX #23

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on January 10, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Wolverine & the X-Men #23

Wolverine & the X-Men #23

Review: Wolverine & the X-Men #23

Okay, major question here, just how in the world did they get all the costumes back on if they a) never left the circus and b) have been in a constant fight? Yeah, yeah, I know, it’s a comic book.

We wrap up the Murder Circus and Frankenstein plots for the most part, but again, as both the monster and Kid Frankenstein are kind of a random addition to the story, and they focus on their origins without us having any time to get to know them, esp the kid, his sudden acceptance of ‘who he really is’,  just falls flat.

Granted, this is good background for later, but for now it was basically filler for a lot of fun images and one-liners.

Forget your pathetic teenage hormones for one second!
Focus on killing Zombie Clowns!

I heart you Warbird. Never Change.

The one really good saving point is Idie, just what is going on with that girl? Quire is not stupid, he sees something is up. Question is, what is he gonna do about it?

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Review: X-Men Legacy #4

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on January 10, 2013| Leave a Comment »

X-Men Legacy #4

X-Men Legacy #4

Review: X-Men Legacy #4

While here we have something a bit more solid in both the story structure and development, I can’t help but think that the writers are suffering from a classic failure of fan fics: don’t drag others down just to build up your character.

It seems to me that the writer is going out of his way to make the X-Men who go after David be the stupidest and most belligerent as possible inside their character… just so David can snark at them, call them out, and be the ‘good guy here’.

What I really want to know though… is why Blindfold? Why does she have a special something-something with his brain patterns, snuck in, shut him down, but then later got ganked?

A lot of this is not making a whole lot of sense… but some of the one-liners are pretty good zingers… so it’s hard to tell where to stand in this title… for now.

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Review: WatX #22

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

Wolverine and the X-Men #22

Wolverine and the X-Men #22

Review: Wolverine and the X-Men #22

This is a little late, to be honest I ran out of time and then forgot to add it. I forgot likely because while this issue was better than #21, it still wasn’t quite up to par with some earlier WatX issues.

It was good to see that at least a couple of the adults were able to work through the mind control and it’s not, in typical kid’s show fashion, left to the kids alone to save the day. Kitty’s reaction to throwing a kid through a window was kinda priceless.

I’m not really happy with the sheer amount of death that seems to be all over this comic, both of adults and kids. Course, that’s an issue I have with a lot of the comics right now so not really going to go into it right now.

The Frankenstein story which came out of nowhere last issue still isn’t all that engaging, especially as we know very little about the Hellfire Club member who apparently is the last descendent of ‘The’ Doctor Frankenstein. Granted, we’re learning about him now but having previously very little contact with him makes this sudden thrust of his ‘origin story’ a bit random and we have nothing to reconcile it with.

It is fun to see the characters act OTT but still something in character, some good one liners and all that, but so far this all just fills like, well, filler.

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