782. West Coast Avengers vol 1 Annual 1 ... #WCA ... #Avengers ... #Hawkeye ... #Tigra ...

[This is reviewed and posted on 6th Feb 2018]

Well with the next coming Avengers movie, we decided to jump backwards in time and pull out a gem of a storyline. Basically at that time, the Avengers were Marvel's premier fighting force and generally enjoyed a decent working relationship with governments and enforcement agencies. However, it has been building up in both teams (East and West) that someone seems to be able to coordinate and attack them using their past strengths and failures. So who is it?

Quicksilver

Now, before we continue with the review, we would like to say that apparently if you have super powers, you have the right to keep switching from hero to villain with generally minimal repercussions and your buddies in the heroes' fraternity will defend you to the death. I mean, how many times have Quicksilver cause havoc? And yet each time, once time passes, he is back to being a good guy and he isn't the only one, eh?

And the best part is in the super powered fraternity, there is no law for them to follow. They can make their own conclusions deciding that no one can judge them except they themselves. Look at the debacle with the Scarlet Witch and M-Day! UGH!

So, here in this issue, the first Annual from our Avengers West, we see that after the nightmare that ended up with their incarceration and fleeing ... it is Quicksilver. The crazed mutant once again has flipped and decided to blame everyone for his anger and confusion including his wife, Crystal and he even deserted his own baby, Luna

Utilizing the Zodiac for his own dastardly purposes and spread across the four corners of the Earth, he had hoped to divide the Avengers and only he himself is fast enough to zip everywhere and give everyone a hard time. Unfortunately, and generally illogically, all it takes to stop Quicksilver is the Vision broadcasting a picture of his and Wanda's twin boys to ask him if he can be angry with innocent babies. Seriously?

And with that, Quicksilver froze, conflicting emotions and went away ... and the Avengers let him go. Dudes! What the F is wrong with you all? Sure the story is good and entertaining but ...

Ratings: 6/10

781. New Mutants vol 1 #53 ... #Newmutants ... #mutants ... #sunspot ...

[This is reviewed and posted on 5th Feb 2018]

The cover to this issue is such a great design with the layout and colours working to maximum effect and this issue is so entertaining and yet, in a way, totally irrelevant for the most part because it is not about key issues, introducing anything new, or even a new super baddie!

Anyway, after the past two years' worth of stories in both New Mutants and X-Men, we see that the team is finally back home on planet Earth in the right time period and beginning to accept Magneto as their new Headmaster. As such, in Magneto's own way, he thought he should reward the young people with a good time to let their hair down. So what does he do? He asks them to join the Hellfire Club gala night

Naturally some of the kids are eager to go and have a good time while others like self-righteous Rahne aka Wolfsbane (the obligatory claws character of this group so to speak) pretends like everyone there is super evil or whatever ... grow up, girl!

And it is a nice night in general as we see the kids finally meeting up again with the Hellions ... Emma Frost's then students kind of like the New Mutants opposite numbers ... some of the reunion are more joyous than others ... such as the delight Wolfsbane finally have when she ran into Catseye once more and both girls shapeshift for a wee bit of fun ...

On the flipside, Miss High and Mighty Cheyenne, Dani Moonstar exchanged harsh words with her American Indian counterpart, Warpath only to discover some mutual grounds and exploring ...

So you get the idea that all is fun and fun ... however as this is a comic, they just need to give us something as an incentive to return next month and this Claremont ably provides us with 2 items. The first is something that has since been mined until today for stories and that is Douglas Ramsay aka Cypher having nightmares that he is being infected by the techno organic virus of his friend 'Locke as they have merged a few times before in times of war and combat

And as for the second, it involves Cypher having a good time at the tables playing along with Roulette (yes her code name) before realizing that she is probably using her good luck bad luck powers on him to help him win and in a fit of drunkenness he did something unpleasant ... so naturally all the teams come rushing in ... and to settle matters as young people are wont to do before coming to blows, they agree on a competition ... a scavenger hunt of sorts that is to be continued in the next issue!

See what we mean by the hook?

Ratings: 6/10

780. New Mutants vol 1 #51 ... #mutants ... #newmutants ... #shiar ...

[This is reviewed and posted on 5th Feb 2018]

With the forthcoming New Mutants movie, we are posting a few more reviews from the original series and the original series was generally a good read overall from 1 to 100 albeit with hiccups along the way but at least it was one continuous series, not a series of re-launch

So this issue is actually not just on the New Mutants but also what is happening over in the X-Men title of that era as we see the fact that after much deliberation, Magneto actually consulted Storm who was the leader of the field team and it was agreed that Magneto accept Sebastian Shaw of the Hellfire Club's offer to join them in some sort of joint capacity ... always with the aim of ensuring that the X-Men can monitor what is going on ... while on the flipside, Shaw hopes to influence and get the X-Men to stay out of his hair ... ah, Storm you are ever a crappy leader at that time especially with your decision-making abilities

Meanwhile on the other side of the Universe, we see the New Mutants finally reunited after their time/ space jump of the past issues and where are they? Together with a Professor Xavier who is healed (thanks to Shiar technology). So while they are generally having a moment of blissful reunion, the Prof has some tough decisions to make. Will he stay with his love, Lilandra to try and fight to take back her crown from the baddies? Or will he, in seeing the nightmare from the Mutant Massacre and generally what is going on back on planet Earth, go back to Earth to support both teams of students?

Ratings: 6/10 (the art is kinda so not our taste)

779. Uncanny X-Men vol 1 #209 ... #mutants ... #x-men ... #colossus ... #wolverine ...

[This is reviewed on 5th Feb 2018]

Look at that cover! This is how Sentinels should be. Huge not gigantic and inspite of a robotic appearance, still exudes menace. And this is Nimrod coming to terminate all mutant life-forms!

Nimrod towers over the X-Men and the Hellfire Club proudly proclaiming his intent to all who would listen which is a blessing for the X-Men because if not for him, they would be in trouble. With this, it has shifted the focus of the Hellfire Club's attention and they tried to attack Nimrod only to discover that while they are powerful in their own rights, they have never tackled an opponent who comes prepared and has various skill sets

Selene finds her ability to control inanimate and non-organic constructs useless as she cannot affect his structure while Shaw tries charging at Nimrod only to be deflected with such force as to send him flying unconscious into the night skies

While all this is happening, a beaten Wolverine and Nightcrawler went about their business clearing the place of Hellfire goons who are planning to snipe at the X-teams ... and as for Rachel ... she who caused all this gathering in the first place?

Well she is still struggling to survive using her teke powers to hold her body together after Wolverine's stab ... only to stumble upon something magical that she had not noticed before in the park. Unbeknown to her, this is another aspect of the Bodyshop ... magical baddie Spiral from Mojoworld's little factory where she can remake a person in a totally different persona merging different technologies together including one's mind ...

And while that is interesting the real joy is in watching how the X-Men use their brains to find a way to bring down Nimrod one more time! Yes they did try some same old tactic as when they first encountered Magus and that gave us a bit of a shock (which we have to wait for future issues to find out what happened to Nightcrawler) but the whole battle with Colossus and Shaw and Kitty and Nimrod ... the panels are a joy to read!

Awesome!

Ratings: 9/10

778. Uncanny X-Men vol 1 #208 ... #mutants ... #x-men ... #Phoenix ... #marvel ...

[This is reviewed and posted on 5th Feb 2018]

Okay. After the last review, we are not nasty enough to leave everyone hanging. So the most important thing is ... page 1 ... that awesome pic of Kitty Pryde is so, so, so good! Hahahaha! Seriously, let's go for the real thing:

Wolverine fucking stabbed Rachel ...

There ... so we see Rachel running around after being stabbed because of her awesome telekinetic powers ... she is obviously in pain and depressed and sad that Wolverine, a killer, would not allow her to kill Selene but rather kill her!

In the meantime, the rest of the X-Men go around with their bloody problems because they are still issues with the Mutant Massacre where the Morlocks are going to be murdered (next big arc) ... and as Rachel flees the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club has an emergency meeting because their home was invaded and trashed by the Phoenix ...

Sebastian Shaw permits the usual cannon fodder to join them as they go to hunt Rachel Phoenix ... and it is a good fight as we finally see more power sets from the Inner Circle including the fatty. Hahaha!

But the shocker of the day is when Nimrod, the Sentinel from another timeline come onboard. He was there a while back in 194 (if we are not mistaken) ... and he learnt a hard lesson about teamwork. So now that he is re-charged and repaired, he is ready for round 2. Will he terminate any X-Men? Only next issue will disclose!

This is the awesome bit about comics from back then - great storyline and shows us all the cliffhangers making us come back for the next issue and the next! Chris Claremont - we salute you!

Ratings: 8/10

777. Uncanny X-Men vol 1 #207 ... #marvel ... #mutants ... #x-men ...

[This is reviewed and posted on 5th Feb 2018]

Yes and we are back and we are going to do a long series related to Marvel's merry mutants. Why? Because they are finally having a resurgence of sorts in terms of new issues with decent creative teams and also hopefully thanks to Deadpool movie and a resurgence in X-Men movies as well ...

So we selected 207 because LOOK AT THAT COVER! Damn! JR JR can draw ... simple lines but so much raw power and emotions!

In this particular issue, we see that Rachel still has the ability to tap in to the Phoenix force but she has since disassociated herself from the X-Men (a team she joined about 20 issues ago and hence never a full-fledged member) ... the reason she has to flee is because she decided in 202/203/204 to take on the Beyonder and literally try to kill him because he has offered her the chance ... and she did it right on the lawns of the Xavier homestead! Which naturally goes against the teachings of Xavier ... for those who are not fans of the X from back then do note that the current style and livelihood of the X-people is different from the 80s/90s

And the person they sent to take her down is Wolverine! He is the typical psychotic at that time who is the X-Men's sole killer

Anyway in this issue, Rachel Phoenix heads for the Hellfire Club because Selene has just been instated as the Black Queen. Rachel knew her from back then when she tried to suck the life-force out of Rachel (in the late 180s issues of the  X-Men) and so being from an alternate future, Rachel has no qualms about tracking Selene down and trying to do her in

What is really good about this issue is the vast  amount of backstory we see as Rachel's waking and sleeping nightmares and gives us a glimpse into her life in the future and how horrid and horrifying things were

The ending leaves us hanging because Wolverine confronts her one more time ... inspite of his own injury and she is not obliterating him on sight ... so did he kill her because the last panel is the word SNIKT??!?!?!?

Ratings: 8/10

776. Sentinel Squad ONE #1

During the time when mutants were being decimated (No More Mutants), the government was trying alternatives to help ensure the remainder is save i.e. no crazy regular humans attacking and making them NIL. Naturally on the flipside, there are those who will be using this as excuse to protect themselves from superhumans

And so this issue opens as per the title, Sentinels are now being put forward again except that for some reason it is now being modified by Stark and others for the government. The only thing is you would think they would change the faceplate. After all the original Sentinels were to hunt and kill mutants. They could have made a different appearance and colour to ensure it doesn't look intimidating but we guess the powers-that-be at Marvel decided not to risk it with a limited series but had it tied to a core title like the X-Men to ensure sales

For whatever the real reason may be, we see X-Factor ex-boss, Valerie explaining, and quite appropriately, that in the past, there were issues with Sentinels and that is because of the limited processing ability of AI in the Sentinels. To overcome this, and to ensure that the government never lose control of the Sentinels again, they will put humans within. So this is a new switch in the design and programming

Once this preamble starts, we are then given views of the incoming team that will man the Sentinels including mutants and you know that there will be the usual soap opera. We immediately see some supporting mutants while others against and still others faking their own abilities. So more drama to come

The main disappointment for us is the average, static artwork. Cover is nice but interiors are nowhere near as good

Ratings: 6/10

775. Young Avengers vol 1 #7

There is always talk about an official year 2 or second volume to this run but aside from guest appearances and some short limited series here and there, it hasn't materialized yet which can be a disappointment if you really enjoyed this like us but then again can be fine if you consider this like a novel with start and end

As this comic came out in the era of decompressed storytelling, it means that issue 7 is the start of a new arc and while it indeed gives us a lot of new storylines popping up along with the major issues, it is also a moment of downtime

First up, we see the kids arranging a meet-up to catch-up on whether they have told their parents yet and in the case of the gays, whether they have that as well to their parents. So there are some funny sequences between the gays about perfect son-in-law and witches versus warlocks but if you are so anti this, you better stay away then

But more importantly is they are waiting for their Captain America wannabe who didn't show up because ... he is not investigating something nasty going down .. .even though we weren't shown he was shot SPOILER ALERT but more importantly he was trying to find a way to bulk up ie drug enhancement state. Yes he encountered Hyde for all of a few panels but the ending is a shocker as his Young Avengers' mates opened the door only to find Eli shooting himself up with a compound into his veins!

On other front, the senior Avengers are trying to figure out what to do with the kids and you see Spidey giving out his quips while Cap as usual is Mr Super Serious while Iron Man Stark is testing on the Vision ..

See? A lot of small things going on but very entertaining read ...

Ratings: 8/10

774. Youngblood vol 1 #10 ...

[This is reviewed on 4th Jan 2018]

This book especially the ending message shows creator Rob Liefeld at his best not just as an artist but as a sincere comic producer because he actually decides to put this, the first Image book of which he just returned with issue 6 on temporary sabbatical because the storylines demanded it! Respect!

In addition, during this time, when Platt was working with Extreme, Rob even credited him for the inspiration of some of the pages within and it is obvious on the stylistic differences

So what about the actual book itself?

Well, in term of art, you can be sure that on the larger panels when Rob has the space and not feeling rushed, his primary characters all look beautifully rendered and the fight sequences though some do not flow so well are still full of energy. If there is one thing Rob is good at it is definitely bringing a sort of feral kinetic-ism to his work and this is nowhere near more obvious than in this comic as the fight ends with the good guys finally kicking the asses out of the bad guys

The only joke (not as in funny ha ha) is that Warwolf or whatever the bad guy's name is ... is a joke. He looked so cool at the previous issue's reveal but here? He attacked Knightsabre and got his ass kicked not once but twice! Come on! He cannot even pose a threat to one Youngblood operative - talk about talking through your mouth! Hah!

And the other one is that the bad guy was having a good time and you know he was going to be giving the heroes a thumping but either Rob ran out of pages or something because one moment he was blasting the team down and then chatting away to fight Shaft but the next Shaft shot arrows into him and he is defeated. Dude! Why didn't he just blast Shaft? After all, energy beams travel faster than arrows

And that is that ... the main thrust of the storyline ...

As for the connection to the bigger picture, it basically concerns ex-member Chapel who has an incurable disease and is trying to find salvation when he hears about someone he iced coming back to life i.e Spawn. Hence he killed the homeless to lure Spawn out to hear how Spawn came back to life and finding that eternal life can be had from hell itself he SPOILER ALERT shoots his own brains out ... yup he shot his brains out ... for real!

So brace yourselves if you are reading this for the first time because you will need to go find the next chapter!

Ratings: 7/10