Posts Tagged ‘Review’

Review: Black Widow #1

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

Black Widow #1Note to self: Do not get on Black Widow’s bad side.

In this first issue of Black Widow’s new solo, we’re thrown straight in. We think we’re treated to a complicated back story, but it’s just a feint. We think she’s out to kill someone, but that’s a red herring.

If this doesn’t scream old school cloak and dagger, then I don’t know what does.

There is the trope of ‘former bad person taking out bad people to atone’ that we have to deal with, but as long as they can keep from being preachy about that and make it about the how instead of the why, then this could be one fun ride where nothing is as it seems. I like it when a story can keep me on my toes.

Top this with Phil Noto’s wonderful artwork and you totally have me on board with this title.

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Review: A+X #16

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on February 2, 2014| 2 Comments »

A+X #16I honestly don’t understand the purpose of this issue.

The first teamup we get is a flashback to Spider-Man stumbling over Psylocke in the middle of a battle. Then a grenade goes off and she is mortally wounded. Then the X-Men come and take her away and Spider-Man is left to a very obvious trope or forgetting his grocery list. It’s all so very pointless. Even if it may be the turning point in the evolution of Psylocke, there is almost no indication of this for those who are not X-Men readers.

This is a story that should be very profound and heart wrenching but it’s not given enough depth and falls flat.

Then we continue with the Cap and Cyclops story where everything is turned on its head. The Skrulls aren’t bad people and Doctor Doom took out the LMD. This seems to be nothing but one long advertisement to buy the new Nova comic. Seriously, that’s what the binary means that the LMD sputters before he dies.

Nice one Marvel…

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Review: All-New X-Factor #1

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on February 2, 2014| 4 Comments »

All-New X-Factor #1I refuse to believe Remy was that careless and didn’t get himself caught on purpose. This is Remy LeBeau we’re talking about…

I suppose though he could have been having an off day, there’s been a lot going on with him lately, what with everything that happened in his solo, the stuff with Rogue, it’s a lot to handle. But still… Remy freaking LeBeau!

Convenient plot point aside, we get an introduction of Serval Industries and how they apparently want to help people. To do so they have started their own little group of crime fighting super heroes (like this hasn’t gone badly in the past). Of course everyone is very paranoid about this, I’m paranoid about this, but Polaris seems to think everything is on the level. I don’t think I’ll ever trust Serval but I guess we’ll have to see.

I love the interactions between everyone already, it’s like a dysfunctional family and that is pretty awesome. There is plenty of wit and banner to make me smile. If the writing stays on this level, then I’ll be very happy!

As for the new uniforms, I don’t know what all the complaints are about, we’ve seen much, much, worse in the past.

So, yeah, first issue in and I’m liking this title, which is a good thing because it’s the only title with Gambit in it!

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Review: X-Men #8

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on February 1, 2014| 2 Comments »

X-Men #8Yeah, I don’t buy this.

Typhoid Mary manages to break into the Jean Grey school, steal something, then only gets found on the way out and is so far ahead that if Betsy wasn’t a telepath she would have made it? No, no effing way. There are too many people not to have some roaming the halls or errant powers to account for, the danger room is part of everything so the instant she was found she could have been gobbled up, and not to mention the lawn is alive.

This goes way past my ability to suspend disbelief.

The rest of this is typical villain escapades… and we pick up two new female villains so that they can start a sisterhood. I can’t be the only person annoyed that an all female team is only fighting female villains, some of which are being brought up from the dusty corners of semi-obscurity… seems like it’s defeating the purpose in there.

As for the whole thing between Roxy and Mercury… I have only one thing to say that:

Sherlock - Do Your Research

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Review: Deadpool #21

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

Deadpool #21When will people learn you can’t kill Deadpool and it will only hurt your more?

It’s good to see that Deadpool is actually starting to really get around to helping Preston out of his head, but they’ve run into a snag. SHIELD has some less than savory people in it and one is using a LMD of Preston to do some dirty work to make himself rich. But he’s not too bright either, putting a hit out on Deadpool? Worst. Idea. Ever.

All in all though, this issue is a pretty standard set up for some classic Deadpool shenanigans to come.  The twist being that Coulson is involved… and on Deadpool’s side.

This should be interesting…

Oh, and how they kept pushing the information that Eleanor might still be alive makes me hope that this plot line isn’t dropped and will be back sooner rather than later.

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Review: All-New X-Men #20

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , , on January 21, 2014| Leave a Comment »

All-New X-Men #20Rule #1 of Comics: Never, ever, EVER, trust the cover.

As much as I’m glad X-23 doesn’t actually kiss Scott, I’m annoyed that she ‘doesn’t do hugs’. X-23 does do hugs, she just doesn’t hug people she’s only known five minutes who took her to a former Weapons X facility. I hope Bendis understands this distinction. X-23 is a great and complicated character who has a really sad backstory, not to mention what just happened in Avengers Arena, but knowing how much Bendis likes to ignore established backstory, I’m sure none of this will come into play.

But at least the whole issue isn’t one long bad teenage drama fest (Jean is jealous that Scott thinks X-23 is hot, hypocrite much? trope much? Bendis unimaginative much?) and we see that Stryker’s son is out for mutant blood. The scary part though is that what he says does make a lot of sense when taken from an angle. All you have to do is dehumanize mutants and he is perfectly legit. This applies to so much else in our world and it is truly the biggest danger the mutants will ever face. Nothing hurts deeper than ideology gone wrong.

The team is taken out, well except for Angel, and considering the rhetoric that was spilled his way in the last issue with him being, well, an Angel, I have a feeling we might actually pull away from the Jean/Scott drama for a bit and focus on one of the other characters for awhile…

One can hope…

 

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Review: Uncanny X-Men #15

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on January 18, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Uncanny X-Men #15There is such thing as trying too hard not to be sexist.

People have to go shopping, especially when they literally have nothing but the clothes on their back to their name. Toiletries, underwear, I mean, I know comic book character never seem to change their clothes but realistically they need these things. There is also another thing called cabin fever, something that is especially troublesome in cold, desolate, areas. You don’t need a whole page of “don’t judge us, we are strong, independent women, but we need to go shopping” when both the need of basic items and cabin fever affect both genders and could easily be explained away as such in a quarter of the space. Writing that whole ‘don’t judge us excuse’ is basically Bendis not wanting to be called sexist for sending the girls shopping because, apparently, he thought it was an inherently sexist thing they were doing.

So it’s less of a ‘i’m not sexist’ and more ‘i’m sexist and don’t want to get called out’ kind of moment.

As for the story, this is a tie-in to the new Inhumanity arc going on right now. Inhumans are getting the spotlight because Marvel still owns the movie rights to them and likely will try to use them to make up for the lack of mutants in the MCU. So we’re treated to the discovery of a new Inhuman with some incredibly powerful abilities. He takes out all the X-girls and then gets carted off by people’s unknown (though maybe they are known, I haven’t been reading the Inhumanity arc).

Will this have any impact on the future of our team? Probably not, but as filler issues go, it’s decent once you get past the first part.

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Review: A+X #15

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , , , , , on January 18, 2014| Leave a Comment »

A+X #15One has Blue Fur and the other is wearing Horrible Pajamas.

That’s literally all I took away from this first team up in A+X #15 which pits Science vs Magic with Beast and Dr Strange. While the story is fun and there are a few good one-liners, this is a pairing I would have loved to have seen across a whole issue rather than just half. This seems to be the biggest issue with A+X (beyond constant reuse of characters rather than always going for something new), with only half an issue to tell a story you often get something short and sweet. For some of these stories that works just fine, but for others, it really does make the story feel empty. Like they really could have done more with it.

Also, does this cover image make Dr Strange look like Wil Wheaton? Just a little…

Then we have the continuing adventures of Cap and Cyclops. Now, the only reason these two are working together is because the Skrull guy could confirm that those two are not Skrulls. Then, with their Skrull captured (cause the guy was smart enough to move his heart), they head off looking for a Skrull safe house… and call in backup. Why does this feel like it’s negating the whole reason these two enemies are working together? How can Cap or Cyclops trust that Emma, the Cuckoo’s, and Ant-Man are not Skrulls? I know they needed Emma to to conveniently use her telepathy to save the day… and I suppose you could argue that it’s the fact that they are using the powersets of said individuals are a good reason to trust they are who they are… but still, it defeats the purpose of the teamup. If all Cap needs “proof of powerset” then he could cuff Cyclops and be done with it.

Ah yes… plot holes..

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Review: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S01E12 “Seeds”

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , , , on January 16, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Agents-of-SHIELD-SeedsToo Cool For School? Bad puns just can’t help themselves…

AOS continues to be stronger this second half of the season. We get another non-Skye-centric episode that didn’t feel like it was trying to be a non-Skye episode. Our team heads back to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Science Academy to hunt down a prank gone wrong. It’s nice look into how S.H.I.E.L.D. works but at the same kinda odd. I mean, if you go by Thor 2 (the most recent MCU movie) S.H.I.E.L.D. still isn’t that well known across the world unlike the CIA or NSA which every British person has heard of even if they don’t understand their particulars. Yet, in this episode, SHIELD has not just one, but several independent Academies that seem about the size of a City College at least. Yeah, NSA, CIA, they may have specific training camps and stuff but nothing on that scale, they usually hire out of University rather than doing it all themselves… yet SHIELD is still “a secret” according to Darcy?

Considering what happened in NYC I’m sure Darcy is the odd one out here but I can’t help be a bit nitpicky.

Anyway, I had a point, didn’t I?

Ah, yes, this episode was well rounded in how it was laid out and presented the characters. Skye’s story finally moves forward, giving us some interesting information about the circumstances of her being orphaned. Because we actually have forward movement in her story rather than lateral, this episode avoids more ‘annoying Skye-time’ pitfalls that we saw throughout the first half of the season.

Also, the other characters are finally becoming part of the episodes rather than part of ‘character-theme’ episodes. Basically, everyone is really starting to mesh and work as a group, character wise.

Was the story itself all that thrilling? Not really… it lacked the umph of scenes like the spinning room, but it shows that this show knows how to be more cohesive. A great sign for things to come.

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Review: Wolverine and the X-Men #39

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , , on January 12, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Wolverine and the X-Men #39If you know someone who doesn’t understand why prejudice is a bad thing, then make them read this issue.

As hit and miss as WATX has been of late, this latest issue does hit it clearly on the nail without being too preachy. The two ‘fake-mutant’ S.H.I.E.L.D. agents seem to be of different minds. Joey is more open to seeing the mutants as people while his sister, Josephine, seemingly came into the mix believing they were nothing but doomsday weapons waiting to happen and will let nothing change her mind. Both of them interpret the situation through their own view. Where Joey sees nice, if eccentric, people, Josephine sees a blood thirsty army in training.

Is it wrong to be cautious and logical about a situation, not glossing over faults? No, but one must be reasonable when doing so. So Eye-Boy may be practicing shooting when no one is noticing, is that because he wants to be an assassin, if you got to know him then you’d realize he’s not got the disposition for such things. He’s simply trying to understand his mutation better considering he has the best hand-eye coordination ever and target practice is the best training for that.

If you have blind hatred for the ‘thing’ then you never get to know the person.

And there are so many questions that still remain going into the next issue. What are these orphans-turned-agents’ backgrounds that made them this way? Why is Dazzler aka Mystique sending them in to destroy the school? And why is S.H.I.E.L.D. stockpiling Sentinels?

Why is it everything I read right now can only end badly?

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