2.151 (516) New Avengers vol 1 #5 ... Marvel ...

Before you read any further ... the most important thing to know is ... the artwork is DAVID FINCH! And if you are a huge fan like us, then this is most definitely for you. Buying softcopy is not enough. You need at least the tradepaperback or even the floppies. So glad we got it when it originally came out in sequentials hehehe!

Check out that awesome cover!

Alright as for the storyline, it continues as the (unofficial at this point) Avengers continue to track down escapees from the Raft break out while trying to figure out what the F is really going on but they haven't much time. Why? Because they are in the Savage Land and as the opening pages show, dinosaurs are trying to chomp them up

Yup Savage Land that unique piece of warm climate somewhere in the snowbound south where apparently time stood still, well, not really except that evolution is kinda screwy there

Anyway, to our Avengers' utter surprise out comes Wolverine and what a NASTY scene it was when he jumped on Spider-woman. Damn! But that's important is that after teasing everyone with the cover way back in issue 1, Bendis finally got around to introducing Wolvie to this ongoing volume of the Avengers. Naturally a short fight ensues before everyone questions everyone else on why they are in the Savage Land

The cool bit here is when the nasties uses vertigo and WHACK them all unconscious SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT the bad bit is why did the mutates not kill them? They know the Avengers are super powerful and they are nowhere near their league. So you know in a few pages, even though they are stripped and naked (yes you read that right) the Avengers are so going to wipe the floor with those mutates. Sigh!

And as for Wolvie? The person he is tracking is Lykos, Sauron a chap who sucks mutant energies to transform himself into pterodactyl. Yup, that's it. Come on! Sabretooth I can understand. Even Jugs but Sauron? Never understood why no one bothered to just shoot the old wild life out of him, eh?

Ratings: 7/10

2.150 (515) New Mutants vol 1 #1 ... Marvel ...

Yeeeees! Yaaaaay! For our volume 2 or "year 2" or "season 2" reviews, we hit our 150th review which is just awesome. So at this point, we have to wonder, do we start with calendar year as year 3 or do we wait until we hit 365 like a normal year? Reason is volume 1 was reviews done daily but as time progresses and we added in movies and novels reviews amongst others, we did this on alternate days and even then, we are severely behind by now nearly 3 weeks or thereabouts.

We think, for ease of reference, we will wait until 365, eh?

Anyway, for this special occasion, we review the original, the first splinter X-team waaaay back when mutants were at the top heap of the comics monthly sales charts and popularity. Here, author Claremont decided to go back to the early days of the X-Men when the school is more a school than a training ground for super-heroes which was what the X-Men had transformed into. And here, in their first issue though not their first appearance (for that you need the Graphic Novel), we see newbies:

1. Xian (Vietnamese and ability to possess people) - sad she never stayed long enough and only popped up whenever someone remembered to use her

2. Mirage (American Indian with the ability to channel someone's deepest fear) and at this stage still feel that she is not of much use and generally scared of everything

3. Cannonball (your typical red neck geek?) who is having huge issues controlling his power in the sense that he can generate and fly but had to tone down the sound of his flight or even turn

4. Sunspot (Brazillian) and the only one who can control his power which is like low grade Superman as he uses the sun to charge his body into super strong form and ... that's it. Lame? But the visuals are great though

5. Wolfsbane (Scots) who can ... change into a full blown wolf form or a were wolf ... hey every team needs someone savage with claws, right? But she is the lamest of them all in the M U hahaha!

Anyway, here in issue 1 they are brought together in X Mansion and gets to know each other ... with all the usual teen angst and conflicts unfolding ... and also to know the Danger room as Prof X (who seemed unnecessarily harsh and cold here) shows them the ropes of the room and how much more they have to go through training to be acceptable

Sideplot wise, we have 2 (hey this is Claremont). Firstly is the government keeping an eye on them which is fine but what is amazing now that we have re-read is the plot about Moira McTagggert and Gabrielle Haller because what started here in 1 will get full blown main plot attention only from issues 23 to 25! How's for building up suspense, eh? Imagine plotting that far down the line! Awesome, Claremont, just plain awesome!

Ratings: 6/10 (not enough fights - sorry that's why I buy comics)

2.149 (514) Alpha Flight vol 1 #7 ... Marvel ...

[Even though the date is 9th Dec but we are doing this on 3rd Jan 2016 - Happy New Year - so we are going to do a batch of bullet reviews to catch up, okay? As we are reading a lot of newer stuff not just comics from decades ago ... hehehe and want to share with you all]

In this, the 7th issue, the spotlight is on the speed twins of Northstar and Aurora. Waaaay back then, they travel together and do things together. Waaaay back then, when they joined hands, they can generate super powerful intensity light that blinds opponents and waaaay back then, we were not given the knowledge about Northstar's sexual orientation. Got it? Good, then you are ready

Here the issue splits into three, not just two from the previous format as writer John Byrne (awesome chap) decides not to waste our time by having sub plots littered throughout the main thrust of the story and what is this main thrust?

Well, firstly we have Aurora in her human, prim n proper personae going through a check up to determine if she is "normal" as her brother worries that her split personality may cause more damage to come and true enough, it does show up her in bits and pieces but basically aside from this, the remainder is prelude to something else as the twins run across old friends who on the surface seemed to be doing fine until a stranger comes along

Flip to the next shortest segment and we see a man who is down on his luck and have a poor outlook on life suddenly being approached by a snazzily dressed lady and you just know that troubles a brewing for the future eh? Because this lady is on a recruitment drive ... but for what? Well, this IS a sub plot

Finally we venture further into the past as Byrne continues his take on the individual origins of the team. Here is Snowbird and it actually goes waaaaay back to how researchers found some ancient sites of the old "northern" gods of Canada ... naturally Shaman is involved ... and we see Snowbird finally arriving in the human world as a one year old child! Now that is truly an origin, eh?

Ratings: 6/10 (would have rated higher if the main storyline had a little more villainy and action)

2.148 (513) Stormwatch vol 1 #10 ... Image ...

This is a shocker. As we checked our archives, we are embarrassed to admit that we have never reviewed a Stormwatch issue. Why? Because the first few issues of Storm was actually very entertaining with great artwork, colouring and a decent line up of characters

Here in this issue, the artwork has morphed into something more serviceable and less posturing but still good. The artist in this issue even tried something different with 2 page spreads broken up with side panels. All well and good, eh?

Storywise, this takes place immediately after Image's original novelty i.e. each title that wants to ... can participate by printing issue 25 of their series ahead i.e. after Stormwatch 9 came out ... it was 25 before 10. So here in 10 we get a SPOILER ALERT glimpse of what went on with 25 ....

For the Stormwatch portion of this 25 event, the writer decided to make it a time jump forward where leader, Battalion discovered that in just a short time, he was dead, his psycho father is back to being a major super bad guy and many of the team he led is either killed or been transformed. So he started off this issue by logging his thoughts for the future incarnation of the Watch team when he is called to duty (hey this is a comics and we need our action)

Apparently, the super nasty looking chap from issue 4, Talos who escaped is discovered. As expected, from Image of that time, the strength and abilities of the bad guys tend to waver. Here the threat is supposedly great but easily taken down. Talos is attacking a special weapons firm to steal some of their tech for himself when Watch comes in to kick his butt and kicked it they do and ... that's it ... hehehe

Ratings: 5/10

2.147 (512) Moon Knight vol 3 (2007) #7 ... Marvel ...

Approximately 450 reviews ago (can you beat that?), we did a batch review of the first story arc and how awesome this series' re-launch was. So we figured, it's time we move to the second story arc

The awesome bit first - David Finch is still on art duties. So it means that no matter how lame this story is, it will still rate well simply because of his work but thank goodness, this first chapter continued strongly in the vein of the first arc

As the cover shows, there is a cameo by Spidey (and no stupid super hero fight here). This tale takes place at the early part of Civil War, the Marvel event where heroes are split owing to the registration act with Iron Man on the government's side (obviously since he loves their defence contract money hahaha) and Captain America on the opposing side (proving that there is a difference between government and country)

Anyway, we start off with Marc slowly getting back in the groove even as his body is complaining about the hardship he puts it through, he is doing the rounds on the rougher neighbourhoods giving hoodlums a hard time. Naturally his own inner demons are still popping up as if they are real instead of figments of his imagination but the thrust of this entire issue is to hint at the villain that will be appearing in this particular arc (someone who loves clocks - sorry I couldn't even spoil it for you if I wanted to as I am not a 100% follower of Marc's earlier volumes and have no idea who this villain is except that he isn't knew) and Marc doing the rounds trying to assemble a crew to work with him so that he can carry on his plans of being the superhero vigilante once more

And amongst the rounds include a visit to his old pilot/ mercenary buddy, the gay French guy nicknamed Frenchie in his restaurant, an old African American lady and a few others ...

SPOILER ALERT About the only thing we can spoil it for you is that on the last page, Captain America pops by and then it's to be continued moment. See? Civil War crossover

Ratings: 6/10

2.146 (511) Bloodstrike vol 1 ongoing #3 ... Image ...

When you are a kid in your teens and you go to a comic book specialty shop and this cover just stands there on the racks ... you know you want it because just look at it! Two chaps going at it full blown. Isn't that even more awesome than any of those wrestling and MMA events? This book with Dan Fraga as artist onboard kicks all kinds of @$$ ... and the colorist is improving by leaps and bounds too ... hehehe

Anyway as the cover indicates, this is the fourth and final part of the Blood Brothers saga (in Bloodstrike that is). To sum it up, there are two brothers, John and Cabbot with the former being the elder brother. When growing up with their psycho father, they were consistently pit against each other with one being weaker. Naturally when both grew up, they have no love for each other ... and father dearest makes appearances SPOILER ALERT in later issues

However at this juncture, John had gone off from his tenure in Youngblood owing to disciplinary issues in anger management and formed his own group to supposedly show up the govt (yeah right and you never get to see much of this unfortunately) ... so to cover their tracks, the govt sicced their new team from Project Born Again (read that as reanimated bodies i.e. zombies of a sort) to take down and if required kill everyone in John's team. Coincidentally this new govt team is led by John's younger brother, Cabbot

Got it?

So this issue opens like most Bloodstrike issues with awesome interior artworks and revelations - the first of which is the mutation of Coldsnap right there on page 1! Day-mn! And while the fight continues as each side tries to take down the other (for the remainder of the issue it is one awesome fight), on another part of the world, good old sexy Lethal went on a recruitment mission to help her buddy, who she tries to assure everyone else is not her buddy (hmmm) ... suffice to say that if you read this issue, you are guaranteed excitement up the wazoo ... everything is just so good here ... and the only letdown would be the second story of some knights in space where while the artwork is good enough but unfortunately with Dan Fraga in lead story ... this one just looks so sad that I skipped it after the first 2 pages ... that's how good the main tale is hah!

Ratings: 7/10

2.145 (510) Captain America vol 4 (2002 to 2004) #2 ... Marvel ...

It's been over a year since I reviewed issue 1 of this volume and not because I do not like the first 6 issues (I love it) but that the topic, if one were to randomly read just an issue, might seem inappropriate in our world of today what with all the bombings and terrorism going on but author Ney Reiber hit this subject matter so well in his own view that I figured ... let's do this

In issue 1, you have Steve as Captain America being on missions not against supervillains but against bombs and what-not in good ole USA. But as this is a super hero comic, you just know that there must be more to it than that

What stands out in this volume is the narrative manner of artist and caption boxes where both worked so well ... at times it seems like a monologue and at times as if from a third party yet everything reads seamlessly

This issue SPOILER ALERT opens with a kidnapping ... and then is revealed that there is a mad bomber plot going on ... and this time they attacked a church in a red neck part of USA with a reporter being forced to "report" from the terrorists point of view ... but basically what they are doing is to drive out Captain A. So you have to be wondering say what?!?!?!

And Cap sensing that time is running out realizes he has no choice but to go charging head on hoping that his skills is enough to see him through

Now before anyone goes jumping to conclusions, yes the guy at this point calls himself Al Tariq and he has kids dressed up with head scarves and long robes ... and that's the cliff hanger but hang on ... I encouraged you to read the rest of the next few issues because you will discover that author Rieber has thought this through ... and it's not necessarily anti-Muslim or Islam issue but something akin to almost paranoia in the West ... using doubt to tear apart a society ... good stuff

Ratings: 8/10