721. Youngblood Strikefile 1 #Image ... #Robliefeld ...

[This is reviewed on 6th Jan 2018]

This is a surprising edition to the Image Universe when it was first published primarily because the main youngblood title was still in its nascent stage and they have already sprouted this title but hey we are not complaining because it boasts some awesome artwork and great storylines dealing with the backstory of the primary Youngblood characters

So in issue 1 there are two tales of three chapters each. First up is Diehard and you get this crazy over the top kinetic artwork from Rob. One gets the feeling Rob is really motivated because the action scenes are just crazy. Story wise, they take us back to WW2 when there was a super team called the Allies that had Diehard (of that era), Glory and Super Patriot (before he became a walking metal monster)

And after the war, something or other happened, then Patriot was stolen to be retooled. Glory recruited Diehard to go against the bad guys and free Patriot and obviously this version of Die Hard agreed. Now we have to wonder why with all of her own powers and abilities, this is a solo mission for Die Hard, eh?

Anyway as they say it will be continued

On the second tale, it features Chapel and like it or not, while Chapel looks grim and gritty, he doesn't do much in the Youngblood title. He is merely one of many that carries guns and looks grim n gritty and in Youngblood, you have others like Dutch etc doing the same. Hence aside from dark skin tones, he doesn't really stand out

Good choice of artist though - Jae Lee made Chapel looked more like a demon than a human

As for the story, we see how Chapel was someone named Bruce who together with Al Simmons (his pre-Spawn days) and a chap named Duke were mercs for a powerful corporate mover n shaker, Jason Wynn. And during one of their last missions together, Chapel was asked to ice Duke for betraying them. What exactly he did was never revealed because ... hey they need to be mysterious, okay? Hah!

Anyway, not long after that, the team broke up but Jason went on growing his power base while Chapel ended up in Youngblood enjoying the celebrity lifestyle. However, for some unknown reason, Jason has a mission for Chapel and summoned him. But what will happen next?

To be continued ...

Ratings: 7/10

720. Captain Marvel vol 1 #25 ...

[This is reviewed on 20th Dec 2017]

We love the design of Captain Marvel's uniform and am so glad that they changed to this from the original normal Kree soldier uniform. However, we have no idea about the fascination of many marvel creator on this hero because like it or not, his powers are average and while he has guest starred in other mags, his own series is about 60 or so issues and then he died, literally and there has never been another relaunched on him ie they kept him on ice. There are others who have assumed the title like his son and a Skrull imposter but never the original

But that's neither here nor there so let's get back to basics and it is that here as per his usual standards, Jim Starlin knocked it out of the park and what made this even better is the fact the writer gave Starlin lots and lots of action scenes to do

As the cover genuinely indicated, Captain Marvel faces not only the heroes but many others within for you see in this issue ... it opens with some space suited blue Kree attacking Cap and he easily defeated them. But before he could grill them for the reasons, they spoke something odd and then disappeared.

At this juncture, Cap is still sharing consciousness and body with one Rick Jones. And as he tried to puzzle out what was going on, he stumbled into a nightmare wherein a lady had laid a trap for Rick to be framed for murder! But is all as it seems?

No

Because like we said (coincidentally) in our opening paragraphs, the truth behind this issue's problems are two Skrulls. One is the brains and hence all this weird planning and the other is the Super Skrull. By the time Cap has figured out that there is more than meets the eyes going on, the battle had escalated and in the end, the Skrulls were forced to reveal their true identities. Unfortunately being aliens with advance technology (read that as teleportation), before the good Captain can nail them flat, they disappeared again leaving the name of Masterlord behind and leaving Mar-vel wondering who is Masterlord and what are his real plans and why he has a hate on for Mar-vel .... which as we know means to be continued

Ratings: 7/10

719. Iron Man vol 1 #55 ... #IronMan

[This is reviewed on 20th Dec 2017]

This is the continuing adventures and story arc of Iron Man that involves the Blood Brothers (ugly dudes on the cover) along with Drax the Destroyer (totally different from his movie version) and Thanos (along with his origins). So this is a great read

Artwise, it is okay for its times and in fact, can be considered good because it flows very well from flashbacks to current, from talking heads to action scenes

And the tale is as such ... Drax the Destroyer is captured by Thanos and so Tony Stark aka Iron Man is captured by the Blood Brothers and being brought to where Drax is ... cue flashbacks as we see the tale of how Thanos is but a normal titan except that in his mad quest for power, he created weaponry in a world where peace is supreme. Hence his daddy kicked his ass and banished him or some such stuff. Not happy (obviously) he went on a journey to recruit other equally nasty individuals to join him to get revenge on daddy dearest and what does daddy do? He asked his "energy only" daddy ie Thanos' granddad for assistance who said he can only aid but once and created the Destroyer by bringing a dead mortal back to life (not much help actually as Destroyer is significantly less powerful than Thanos)

Anyway, a fight ensues and Destroyer is captured ...

Daddy however managed to find a way to activate Iron Man's chest plate that shot forth a beam of energy freeing Drax and Drax in turn frees Iron Man. Together they whupped the Brothers' butts and then went for Thanos

As this is from the age of non-decompression story telling, the tale does actually end and quickly because it turns out the Thanos they had the final encounter with is but a robot of the actual. So where is the real purple dude? Somewhere ... out there ... planning and scheming for his next plot

Conclusion?

A Good Read

Ratings: 7/10

718. Thor: Deviants Saga #1 ... #Thor ...

[This is reviewed on 18th Dec 2017]

This year's Thor movie, Ragnarok seems to combine some loud music with offbeat colours in the film and action comedy because based on trailer, that's what it is. So in view of that we are trying to find a Thor limited series to reflect some of that upbeat energy and here we have artist Stephen Segovia who seems to be able to infuse so much detail into his line work and yet somehow in many of his published work the final product always appear weaker - not sure if due to inker or colorist but any how ....

This opening issue is pretty straightforward as we see an intruder into once fabled Asgard for at this juncture Asgard is still in ruins and Thor has yet to find/ revive all the fallen Asgardians. So who should come by but a deviant seeking something of power that can help her either rule their underworld kingdom or restore their race's virility ...

Who are the Deviants?

Well they are one of two offshoots of humanity created by mighty Celestials that travel the cosmos doing research and experimentation. Deviants are as their name sake where every child is born with unstable DNA and thus looks different from parents while their opposite is Eternals who have very long lives and specific power sets

As Thor battles the protector of the object that the lady Deviant wants to steal, she disappears with it and thus Thor knew that he must go retrieve back the object because it has the potential to unravel reality as we know it. He warned her but she didn't believe him and basically she is just stealing anything that she can (We know ... weak right?)

And that's it ... the end of the issue ... straightforward ... and thus not expected to be a success. They could have found room in the regular Thor mag for this actually ... sigh!

Ratings: 5/10

717. Warlock 1972 #3

[This is reviewed on 18th Dec 2017]

According to all those online articles that we read recently as we are usually not so up-to-date on trivial news and actually real news as well, there were comments that initially Warlock was meant to be featured in GOTG 2 and hence back issue prices went up. Or was it speculation that he will be in Infinity?

Anyway, that is neither here nor there

What you really need to know is that Warlock is a synthetic man created in a lab to be perfect with all sorts of abilities but when he was hatched, he rebelled against his creator. Ever since then, he has always been more "mystical" and "zen" and "soul searching" than the average superhero and tries not be involved in earthly hero versus villain kind of mess. Perhaps that is why while his design is awesome, his series have never lasted and the longest is probably the one with his team called the Infinity Watch

From a comic perspective, Warlock is the driving force for comics with Thanos and the Infinity Stone/ Gauntlet/ War but the movies will differ most likely ...

In this issue, apparently he has been revived and is back to his real self. So as he is in a boat sailing away from the first two issues of adventures, he is rudely summoned by the High Evolutionary (artwork is quite weak as he is supposed to be pulled into another realm but they used an effect looking like air bubbles when one goes swimming?!?!?!?). At this juncture, we are treated to pages of flashback on how Warlock ended up on the Evolutionary's alternate earth, the fight and the victory so much bla bla bla

However, as the story progresses we see an underwater sub coming and attacking Warlock as he stands on the prow of his little vessel which is quite an odd place to be. Anyway even though he won the fight quite fast the sub escaped only to resurface later when Warlock is at a missile/ rocket launch in an army base (damn there are so many such places right? What with Hulk and Captain Marvel ...)

As it turns out, the villain in question is not Apollo but rather another New Man from the Evolutionary's world and by the end of the issue, Warlock still has not defeated him leaving us with a kind of cliffhanger to see if Warlock can save his human friends from this beast. Sigh! Boring!

Ratings: 4/10

716. Wolverine & The X-Men vol 1 #41 ... #Marvel ... #Mutants

[This is reviewed on 8th Dec 2017]

One more issue until the end more or less before the next iteration of this title and we kept on wishing Nick, Artist would come back for one last round of interiors but sad to say, this is not the case. However, the tale itself is strong, thank goodness and it deals with Toad

You see, Toad started as nothing more than an annoying member of Magneto's Evil Brotherhood of Mutants whose main ability is hopping around. After that, he somehow came upon intelligence and even formed his own Brotherhood. However, no matter what he did, he got trashed by various groups of X. Even when he started his secondary mutation of having his tongue becoming really like a real toad i.e. can shoot out of his mouth very, very long; he was still pretty much getting beaten up on

So the X-Men can actually offer him sanctuary (yes suspend your disbelief because this is comics and someone can claim to repent and be forgiven!) ... and he has been serving as a janitor at the school while falling in love with Paige Guthrie who was losing her mind and becoming literally insane!

As this story opens, Toad decided to move on after his secret was discovered even though his time in the school has changed him. And as he was leaving, he knew he was going to miss the place because it has Bamfs and Junior Krakoa ... however, before he could really exit trouble came to them in the sense of ships attacking them and two of the baby Hellfire lads making their escape

SPOILER ALERT

Here the tale took a turn for the odd because as we can see, the pace switch from straightforward storytelling to flashback as we see one of the boys waking up and finally taking to school councilor, Paige! Yes while she is recovering they let her, mutant psycho crazy gal, be councilor to the other kids. WTF?!?!?!

And we see that Toad wanted second chances and somehow, the Frankenstein lad knew it and had somehow some sort of agreement. So Toad attacked the other kid in other to prove himself to Frank. Again WTF?!?!?!

Entertaining even if the tale is very disjointed

Ratings: 5/10

2.350 (715) X-Factor vol 1 #71 ... #X-Factor ... #Mutant

[Published on 28th Nov 2017]

As we celebrate our year 2 (so to speak) milestone 350th review, we selected this as a good example of how to kill a book on an upswing ... after a slow run in the mid 40s to 50s Marvel brought in superstar Whilce Portacio where they drove the tale right up to the end where baby Nathan was sent to the future to be cured!

So how do you top that and the end of many crossovers?

First, you changed the entire team in comic book terms from the original X-Men to Havok/ Polaris/ Multiple Man/ Strong Guy or Guido/ and Wolfsbane .. basically characters with potential not yet realized and then you change the concept to them being real government dogs ... serving whatever needs the government needs

Then simultaneously you change the art team to someone who produces this work. It looks like an artist's first stab at professional work and sincerely we hope Marvel didn't pay top page rates because regardless of the hype about how excited they may be, for sure, the casual fan like us will be shocked at how "ugly" things look ... sorry ... one issue and we dropped it! And we never came back until the 99th and 100th issues back when it was floppies ... sigh!

Ratings: 2/10

2.349 (714) West Coast Avengers ongoing vol 1 #22 ... #avengers ... #Marvel ... #IronMan

[Posted on 28th Nov 2017]

This is an awesome read and a multi-parter. We recalled when it first came out, we felt that it kind of dropped the momentum of the earlier issues but after re-reading this in one seating have to admit that the writer and artist did one hell of a job because every single chapter or issue of this comic, the characters split into yet another time zone ... so by end of it all everyone was everywhere and trying to find their way home ... you just have to read this to understand what we are talking about ...

And the fact SPOILER is that this is the arc that has ramifications in the lives of Hawkeye and Mockingbird for several years not just empty hype because at this juncture Hawkeye is still upbeat about holding onto the Avengers code of no killing while 'bird is from SHIELD and can kill

Anyway, at this part of the game, all you need to know is that when the WCA tried to track down a villain, they were fooled into stepping onto Doom's ole time travelling platform that can only work backwards in time. So figuring that out they realized they have no choice but to time jump to either meet the FF or others who can fix for them so they can return to their own time

And when the WCA reaches Ancient Egypt, they are having problems fighting off the locals at that time under the control of Rama-Tut aka another version of time travelling villain, Kang ... while simultaneously being recognized by the ancient priests of Khon-Su (Moon Knight's deity) ... and Strange and Clea and others are also having some travelling in this juncture ... and finally of course as the cover indicates that the FF are also there fighting against Kang

But this is not the end of the journey as the WCA is going to miss every opportunity to join them and head home to their time ... and please note that Mock is kidnapped by the Ghost/ Phantom Rider while they were traversing through the Wild West!

So much goodness, so much action!

Ratings: 7/10

2.348 (713)Power Pack vol 1 #6 ... #Marvelcomics ... #SpiderMan

[Posted on 21st Nov 2017]          The charm of this comic continues unabated as the author Louise Simonson shows her prowess at capturing the spirit of a young family where we see the kids almost hero worshipping Spider-Man and now that they have moved thanks to dad's new job closer to NYC where photos of Spider-Man was always captured, they are hoping to encounter Spider

However, while the boys were harbouring such hopes, the girls encountered "Baby" aka Dragon Man. They christened him thus because of his very innocent and childlike behavior and thought it great to keep it a secret from the boys

We also get glimpses into their new lives as they adjust to a big city pace and we see how mom and dad are still very much in love inspite of all the problems that have been plaguing them

And as the cover has clearly disclosed, they do as a group finally encounter the Amazing One when Dragon Man does one of his usual mood switches and goes to kidnap a scientist for someone else

All in all, a simple, delightful tale told in a linear fashion that makes us want to come back for more

Ratings: 7/10