Reviews 4/4

[Guest raptor]

Exiles #12: Another great issue, but nothing much happens. A new team of eXiles called Weapon X shows up (1st appeared in #5). That original team has expanded from 3 to six members. Garisson Kane is dead, and new members Storm (16 years old), The Spider (parker + symbiote), Vision (no major changes, yet), The Hulk (Jen Walters) join AOA Sabretooth and an unclarifies version of Deadpool. Plus, Sasquatch is Heather Hudson, and black. Wassupwitdat? (3.5)

 

Spider-Girl #46: Kinda bleh. Spider-Man is coming out of retirement, and Spider-Girl must save the surviving members of Fantastic Five from a murderous Skrull. (2.5/4)

 

Uncanny X-Men #405: Nobody in their right mind can say this storyline is bad. Nightcrawler and Angel finally stop taking Banshee's shit and get proactive. The person pulling Banshees strings is revealed, and one of the better final pages in recent X-Men history leaves him incapacitated in the most brutal of ways. Plus, Madrox gets all tipsy! Nightcrawler/Chamber blow up real good! Fever Pitch acts like a dick! Be there! (4/4)

 

Ultimate Spider-Man #21- An altogether good issue, but I don't like where Bendis is taking the storylines. Having Spidey be accepted by the genreal populous kinda takes the edge off him. However, Bendis doesn't do much wrong, so maybe it will lead to something better. Plus, Green Goblin is back in time for the movie. Good stuff, that. (2.5/4)

 

Morlocks #1(of 4): Decent exposition. I'm glad to see Geoff Johns take on an X-related title, and the new Morlocks have potential. I'm not sure if this story is official Canon, but it starts of pretty well. (3/4)

 

Alias #8: Bad words abound in this issue. Fun for all ages, says I. Anyhoo, I never really liked Rick Jones, but Bendis' crazy take on the character is fun. He seems to be reliving the Kree-Skrull war, thinking everyone is trying to kill him. Paranoia at its finest. (3.5/4)

[Guest Vyce]

Okay, on Uncanny X-Men.....

 

I gotta say, I hate the "Stacy X" character.  I blame Casey for introducing her.

 

I'm seriously longing for the days of Marrow.  Marrow was a BILLION times more interesting than this bitch.

[Guest areacode212]

I'm pretty psyched because I managed to complete my collection of Exiles on Friday. I won an eBay auction for issues 3 and 6-11, plus the seller was Village Comics, who happen to be in the same city as myself. So, since they were cool enough to allow pickups (not everyone does), I headed down there after work and picked up my package, along with #s 5 & 12. So, I'll re-read the TPB, then start devouring the series. I'm looking forward to it.

 

Anyway, since this is, after all, the SmarkBoard, I'll be using star ratings:

 

Detective Comics #769 - I know this whole Chinese drug gang storyline is just there to give Batman something to do while he drops the Wayne persona and all his friends sit around worrying about him, but it's fucking boring! Things get slightly more interesting when Allen and Montoya interview Alfred. **, but the good "Josie Mac" backup brings it up to ***.

 

Alias #8 - It's pretty funny how Bendis dumbs down his writing style for the Rick Jones biography pages. Interesting to see how paranoid Rick Jones has become, but the story doesn't really move forward very far. Maybe it'll read better a second time. **

[Guest raptor]

I'm also not real big on Stacy-X, but I didn't like Marrow all that much either. I'm come to realize that I won't like everyone on the team, and to just enjoy the rest of the characters.

 

Plus, I don't believe Chuck Austen is using Stacy on his run, so she'll be out of our hair soon enough  Then again, we do have to deal with Northstar on a regular basis:(

[Guest Judas14]

Plus, I don't believe Chuck Austen is using Stacy on his run, so she'll be out of our hair soon enough  Then again, we do have to deal with Northstar on a regular basis:(

Bad news, as Stacy X has been confirmed by Austen in being in the line-up when he comes aboard. And given Austen's statement that he's going to be addressing Northstar's homosexuality in the book, it seems that we might be in for either two storylines coming out of Stacy X's continued pressence:

 

1. Stacy X falling in love with Northstar and constantly scheming to get him in bed

 

2. Stacy X and Northstar verbally fighting each other like Karen and Jack from Will and Grace do

[Guest areacode212]

(originally posted on WDI, when I thought this board was dead)

 

Well, if this Stacy X character is that horrible, hopefully Morrison won't get his hands on her. And anything resembling Will & Grace is pretty unwelcome.

 

I didn't buy Transformers either. Was the original Marvel series *really* that good, or is the comics-buying public following in the steps of (Hogan) wrestling fans in helping to bring about this wave of 80s nostalgia?

 

Anyway, back to the reviews (I wonder when my first "hot poker up the ass" rating will come). This second batch of comics is a lot better than the first:

 

X-Force #126 - "Just how many times you gonna save my sorry BUTT?" We get the secret origin of Dead Girl (nice shot of the WTC as she's recalling being alive), who's developing into a pretty interesting character. There are a few developments in the relationships between U-Go-Girl and Guy, and between Tike and everyone else, as well as some great lines, as usual. Another great issue of one of the best comics on the stands. ****.

 

Queen & Country #7 - More good espionage stuff from Greg Rucka. D.Ops has a talk with the agency psychiatrist to get to the root of Tara's depression. Meanwhile, in Kabul, Tom & Ed desperately try to recover the contact list from various dead letter boxes, while simultaneously avoiding the Taliban. Can Tara find some way to help them from London, 3,000 miles away? I'm glad this series is going monthly in May. ****

 

Deadline # 1 (of 4) (Book of the Week) - Penciller Guy Davis helped bring us Sandman Mystery Theatre back in the day, and it's nice to see him on *another* title that shows a different side of the super-hero game. I've never heard of Bill Rosemann before, so I wasn't expecting a lot, but this issue was terrific! Kat Farrell, being a rookie reporter for the Daily Bugle, is stuck on the "cape" beat, where she has to interview jerks like the Human Torch (having just burned down part of Union Square Park). "Typical cape. Makes a mess and then leaves the scene to go lounge around his high-rise penthouse. Meanwhile, us working stiffs live it up in studio apartments for $1,200 a month."

 

Betty Brant lets her know that there's an opening on the Crime desk, but she has a week to deliver a major scoop to prove that she can handle it. So she heads around the city, letting us enjoy cameos from Juggernaut (in civvies), Turk (from Miller's Daredevil), and a "cape-friendly" tattoo artist, who, naturally, uses adamantium-tipped needles. Like Alias, this is a look at the MU from the point of view of a regular citizen who has a few contacts in the "cape" community, with a protagonist a lot of "working stiffs" can relate to. Hopefully this is successful enough to one day merit an ongoing. Good shit ****

 

So, with 3 **** comics, 1 *** and 1 ** issue, it appears like this was the WWF IYH: Canadian Stampede of comic book weeks. Oops. I haven't read Pounded #1 yet, but technically, it came out the previous week, so it doesn't count. I also picked up The Ultimates #1-3, so I can read the "Ultimates #3" thread without worrying about being spoiled.

[Guest areacode212]

While I was studying on my school's terrace, I decided to take a break and catch up on all the issues of eXiles that I haven't read...

 

Exiles #12 - Well, the "evil leapers" of Exiles (last seen in the Alpha Flight arc) are back, though they don't actually *seem* all that evil, at least for now. But you know it'll happen--if not in this arc, then at some point down the line. There's some major heartbreak for TJ and a familiar "what if" moral dilemma for the team. Since it's This gets *** 1/2 (out of *****) from me.

[Guest starvenger]

>Well, the "evil leapers" of Exiles (last seen in the Alpha Flight arc) are back, though they don't actually *seem* all that evil, at least for now. But you know it'll happen--if not in this arc, then at some point down the line.

 

That's what makes it interesting.  We know what they're doing is wrong, but are the members really evil?  Winick is doing a good job here in giving us just enough information to make us think about what COULD happen.

[Guest areacode212]

Quantum Leap was cancelled before we ever found out more about Alia, Zoe and Lothos (the evil Ziggy). Hopefully, Exiles will last long enough for us to see this whole thing through. If this is the path that Winick is following, he'll probably do something similar, where the team encounters their "Weapon X" counterparts every once in a while, but learning new info every time (are their trips being "controlled" by the same being, or different ones?)

 

It does bring up some interesting questions. Were these particular "Weapon X" members chosen, because they were of a more amoral bent than the Exiles team, therefore more willing to undertake "dirtier" missions? Or is there a darker, more malevolent purpose behind all this?

[Guest Vyce]

I didn't buy Transformers either. Was the original Marvel series *really* that good, or is the comics-buying public following in the steps of (Hogan) wrestling fans in helping to bring about this wave of 80s nostalgia?

 

It wasn't that good, but it is the 80s nostalgia that made me pick up the comic (and why I regularly pick up the G.I. Joe comic).

 

What can I say?  Transformers, G.I. Joe, He-Man....these were my favorite cartoons growing up.