2.230 (595) Uncanny X-Men vol 1 #203 ...

Check out this cover! For some reason, anything cosmic just makes me wanna buy them all. So naturally I bought this one. Hehehe! And as the cover suggests, this is another crossover with Secret Wars 2 SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT

After the latest tussle between Earth's heroes and the Beyonder, everyone went back to their respective hidey holes to either lick their wounds or prepare for the next encounter with the Beyonder and in Rachel's case, she ponders upon the fact that the Beyonder made her an offer of granting her a portion of his power and never taking it back. So does she have enough power now to take him down? Or kill him outright?

For Rachel is not Jean and she is actually more like Wolverine having killed during her own era in one of Earth's alternate realities. While she is busy thinking this through, the rest of the X-team members are unaware until it is too late ... by the time they wanna interfere, she has already made up her own mind and she issued the Beyonder a challenge ... and he accepted

What transpires is obviously a wee bit wordy as both hero and villain exchanged words thanks to Mr Claremont. However, while we may call it intellectual BS, it still is awesome to read. Seriously. And the artwork just makes us go WOW ...

We do not need to tell you how it ends because any new comic reader knows how it ends. The excitement is in how it came to its conclusion ...

Ratings: 7/10

2.99 (464) Secret Wars II #3 ... Marvel ... #Avengers

Once more, there is an awesome cover to save this book but once again, this book fails because too much happens off this book itself and none is more apparent than the last page where the Beyonder wanted to see the Avengers only to discover that they are busy in space and dear old Jarvis has no idea when they will be back. What does the Beyonder do? Well, if you only read this book, you will have no idea because one panel he disappears and the next panel he is back depressed and saying "I really made a mess of that ..." whatever that is. See what we mean?

Horrible

But as the cover indicates, this is a tale about the Beyonder learning about humanity's greed for power and control over others except that once he is aware of this, there is no limit to him and thus he even tries to go down to the molecular or atomic level!

But we are skipping too far ahead. The tale opens with the Beyonder learning yet something new - fatigue and sleep. So he sleeps on the sidewalks. However, there is one weakness here in this tale yet again. When he was disturbed by the policeman, we get a recap of how he came to be here. Then later he recapped once more when others asked of him! Ugh!

However, what is more important is that in this issue, he first came across a prostitute ... who naturally has a pimp and sensing opportunity the pimp took him under his wings ... and naturally, the Beyonder outgrew this chap in mere moments (or pages as this is a comic). However, for a human, we can know satisfaction but for the Beyonder all he needs is desire for something and it happens. So he can easily control everyone and when he does that, the happiness doesn't last and he finds himself empty

And so he goes back to talk to all those who brought him upon this road ... and in order to do so ... he needs to release freewill back to them ... and towards the end ... one of these encounters is going to spark him on the road to issues 4 and 5 ... SO no SPOILER ALERT  required as we will not reveal it here

Ratings: 5/10 (again saved by the cover)

2.97 (462) Secret Wars II #1 ... Marvel ... #mutants

With the enormous success of the first secret wars, can there be any doubt that there would be a sequel? No. However, it is so popular, that the title has been shortened and the Marvel Super Heroes has been dropped

Herewith is chapter 1 - where we see the entity that originally assembled the Marvel Heroes has not actually given up on his objective when he permitted everyone to leave his battleworld planet. In fact, so disturbed by he/ it on what he has seen that he felt the only way he could understand is to experience humanity on its own turf

The main challenge I had with this series is the rather rushed artwork. One would think that with such a hit series, they could have assembled a team that takes a bit more time in the work but I guess Marvel at that time decided to cash in as fast as they could and thus this is the result. It's very workmanlike ... not saying bad, mind you ... but if you read it, you would know what we mean. In addition, the reviews at that time, were not so favourable although for me, it is generally a hit as it has more "philosophy" going on in this second series and many things for us readers to ponder upon

I guess if I were to say what's bad ... is the fact that the crossovers are everywhere in this second series ... and you really do need to read them to get the whole picture. Otherwise, it feels quite disjointed and rushed. Even this first issue is no exception

We opened the series straightforward enough with the arrival of the Beyonder to Earth and naturally the first person he made contact with is the Molecule Man as to the Beyonder, this is the first guy he knows who has powers anywhere near his. He is also puzzled why with so much power, Owen Reece does so little and is happy to hide in suburbia watching reruns and eating junkfood with his now flabby gal!

Others who detected his arrival include folks like Prof X who seemed to be ill and managed to send out a distress telepathic call before fainting. This is where we meant by crossovers. You have to read the X-Men to find out why the professor is in this shape. Then you have to read the New Mutants to find out why and how they assembled the team to go after the Beyonder

Now with no one knowing what form the Beyonder would take, it is surprising to see everyone then attacking a being granted special powers by the Beyonder. Everyone here including the Iron Man and Captain America. Once more you need to read other comics to find out how this villain truly came to be and finally ... the abrupt ending. Sigh!

Ratings: 6/10 (lost points cos of artwork and continuity heavy)