101. Marvel Teamp Up vol 1 #103 ... Marvel ...

Why did I start my next 100 reviews (hopefully) with this? Because I happened to chance upon it last night, dug it out and re-read it, not that I bought it when it was new, of course but via Mile High Comics (hi, Chuck!)

So how was it,, you asked?

Well, firstly, I loved the artwork. It's typical Marvel comics of the 80s but done well. Look at that cover. You have perspective and depth in the page and I love Ant Man because of the uniform. Hehehe! No further comments on this

As for the tale, apparently it is an indirect continuation from Avengers wherein Ant Man had encountered the villain Taskmaster before. So in this tale, Task is running his Academy for villains' grunts. What he does is recruit criminals and in a way clean up the streets freeing them from petty thieving and what-not. Then he trains them for use as grunts by master criminals and super-villains. Hence super-powered crimes will go up but not the petty ones ... ooo like purse snatching and house robbing. A community service in a way, eh?

Well, Ant Man here is Scott Lang and he was a former criminal. So someone who he knew had offered him to join up only to be knocked off within minute of leaving Scott's home. Therefore our buddy the Ant decided to investigate

And how does our friend Spidey got involved?

Because in his photographer guise of Peter P, at the Bugle, Jonah noticed this trend with the burglaries and crime rates and sent him to the district to check it out. And there you have it! It is a logical meeting between heroes ...

Best part? You get to see Spidey actually surprised, fought and lost to Taskmaster as per the cover. So that's no hype! Awesome action, enjoyable read!

Ratings: 8/10 (1 point extra here for Ant Man)

100. Ultimate Spider Man vol 1 #1 to 5 ... Marvel ...

For our 100th review, we decided to start on a title that effectively jumpstarted the Marvel U for the cinema-going crowd and younger generation. And that's the Ultimate Universe. Although it has been more than 10 years now, it is still going on albeit in different form

What makes this different from the regular Marvel U?

Basically it was decided that there was too much ongoing continuity in the existing Marvel U and some of it no longer makes sense if you are into continuity. In addition, it makes it hard for new readers. I am not sure how true that is because the essences of comics is comics reading and comics collecting and hunting back issues and trading for them was part of the fun!

Anyway, if this Ultimate is to be successful, in time to come, it would have created its own continuity problems and unfortunately that is what's happening now more than a decade later. Therefore it has started having its own limited series, off-shoots, revamps and reboots

But let's go back to the start of it all. Write: Bendis; Artist: Bagley

And what a joy it is to read. So what if it is decompression storytelling? This first five issues reintroduces us to the nerdy world of Peter Parker who is more a kid than a teen and looks like it. They have updated it for today's world with handphones and what-not. But some of the characters remain the same

Peter is a book nerd genius with a heart of gold. He live with his aunt and uncle and one fine day, in the lab, he got bitten by a Spider and he freaked out and went ... blacked out, actually! Naturally once the momentum is over, as it was a class trip, we can expect the usual school ragging and what-not which is essentially part of the joys as we get a good glimpse ... all the while, Peter is learning to adapt to his gifts and trying to learn more ... he is also trying to see who he can confide in as sometimes, it just seems too much ... o and there is young Miss Watson too!

This first five issues is basically that - retelling the origins. And they do it so well that even I, who has been reading comics for close to 1.5 decades when this series came out but never collected Spidey actually found myself buying it and later online because it reads so daaaaamn well!

And the covers? Wow!

Ratings: 8/10

99. Ms Marvel vol 1 #2 ...

Following from our last review, let's take a look at one of the most successful lady superheroes with their ongoing series: Ms Marvel (from Marvel not DC as DC has a longer run with Wonder Woman). Anyway, here we have Carol Danvers who in her civilian guise is no longer involved in military or spy or any such thing but instead involved as the editor of a new print effort focusing on the woman's angle! And to get a publisher, she is with the Daily Bugle's JJJ. Perfect, right? For those who know JJJ in comics or the movies, that is

And during this stage of her career, she is still unsure of her being Ms Marvel as she would get dizzy spells, transforms, fights and suddenly wakes up as her normal human half

What we loved about this issue is here is a scantily clad woman talking about woman's rights and using her powers to whip the men she encounters and boy did she whip them alright! Hehehe! The Destructor is a "smart" guy whose main power is his ray from the helmet that if he zapped her, she gets ... umm ... hit and pain (?). O gee ...

But the one we loved here is the Scorpion. A chap who wears his underwear on the outside and gets himself royally kicked and beaten by our dear MM. The cover is for real. She even chucks him right through a ... ummm ... save it for you to read, eh? Hehehe!

Ratings: 7/10 (mainly for that Scorpion bloke)

98. Mighty Avengers vol 1 (2) #1 ... Frank Cho ...

Okay. Why I put vol 1 (2) is that during the original run of the Avengers, at one time, they had the title The Mighty Avengers ... so I am not sure who qualifies for which and hence this ... but this series came at the height of popularity when Bendis made the Avengers reach the top of the charts and kick out everyone else including Spidey/ Batz/ Mutants

So what do you do?

You do a spin-off. When this was launched, it was supposed to give you the powerhouse members of the Avengers as the first team had become more and more "street" with people like Luke Cage. So as the cover shows, we have Iron Man, Sentry, Wonder Man, Ms Marvel, Ares and ... Black Widow (and tiny Wasp). Naturally one have to wonder (no pun intended) why they included Ares as he is not the strongest or most intelligent in that set. So what can he offer them?

Hmm ...

For artist, they chose the guy who is famous for his curvalicious babes, Frank Cho. I know he has many fans but sad to say, I am not one of them because I find his babes have huge chunky thighs (sorry, mate) and to me it screams of cellulite! Hahahahaha!

For this tale, it's basically a formation of the team and going out to kick some major bad guy ass. However, the most important is the villain coming up in issue 2 and this is but a foreshadow of the next. Also as the cover says INITIATIVE ie part of the Marvel U world structure after Civil War and this is the group that supports Iron Man's registration of powers

Ratings: 6/10

97. Marvel Team Up vol 1 #148 ...

This is the charm of the old Marvel Team-Up. While each issue has a different guest star, the writer can still continue with a 2 or 3-parter story and this is one such story. The direct correlation started in 147

Here, the villain that Spidey thought was tough but solo, turns out to be ... so much more ... and to his dismay, even the power of Thor may not be enough. For you see, at the sound of trouble, Thor in his mortal guise rush in to aid without knowing fully the villain of the day or his special powers and gets the stuffing knocked out of him ... and thus we have the joy of Spidey trying to get Thor back on the side of the good guys

Some good fight scenes here but not over the top. If it had been today's issues, this is one story that can stretch to 3 issues and with huge over the top fight scenes. The latter would have been welcome as far as I am concerned

Ratings: 7/10

96. Marvel Team-up vol 1 #149 ...

About 40 reviews ago, we covered the final issue of this series. So now we go backwards ... one issue before it ends ... and at that time, there was a spin-off on X-Men called New Mutants that had a decent crowd. So here is Cannonball back when he was more of an insecure chap who cannot really control his power and speak like a country bumpkin ... unlike some of his later character developments where he became cold and harsh ala Cable

Anyway, this is a tale told in one and refreshing light-hearted tale too

There is a villain of the day to make the 2 heroes join together and fight him but he isn't the highlight of the tale. It is about Cannonball coming to the big city and using his meager savings to buy something nice for his mom ... except when problem starts, he needs to go assist but at the same time tries not to loose the present ... and all the while, as Spidey is a big city hero, Cannonball assumes that underneath the mask, Spidey is one of those big city big shots, rich and well adjusted never realizing Peter Parker is also always close to broke

Charming

Ratings: 7/10

95. Future Imperfect #1 and 2 ... Marvel ...

What story is sooooooooo BIG that they needed a prestige format 2-issue limited series to tell the tale? Why it's not the story but the creator! We have George Perez coming onboard to tell one possible future of the Hulk and this is one limited series that didn't bullshit its impact because the new intros here survived into guest star roles in subsequent ongoings - both good and bad guys and even supporting casts

First up, George Perez!

I wasn't there when George was working his magic on DC but I was onboard when he was on Avengers vol 3 and it was magic. Sure his characters do not have dynamic poses ala the Image crowd but George draws them so well and so full of life and chockful of details in each tiny panel that you are just left with a ... WOW I JUST READ an incredible COMICbook feel ... know what I mean? Heh!

As for this, it takes place when Hulk was intelligent i.e Banner controlling Hulk with none of the psycho problems that go with it. So to make a long review short, Banner gets zap into the future. Before he knows what is what, out in the square, a buncha guys in armour is zeroing in on some of the populace and zapping them out of existence

Being the good guy that he is, Hulk jumps into the fray and draws attention to himself because ... finally the rebels have found someone who can not only help them but have the power to confront the mastermind behind the evil of their world

And when you find out who the true evil is ... it's delicious. Lots of good action and lots of dog soldiers biting the dust. What more can you want? Hmmm perhaps today's standard of computer colouring? Hehehe!

Ratings: 8/10