72. Wolverine Origins #1 ... Marvel ... Quesada Covers

Yes, you know we just have to have another Wolverine review, didn't you? After all, he is still the most popular mutant be it in comics, movies or cartoons. So anyway, at the height of his popularity and back when comics popularity was making its second wave in terms of purchasing popularity, we see Wolverine finally getting his second ongoing aside from his one-offs, limited series, roles in various team books

So why the second book?

Similar to Spidey in the 80s and 90s, whenever a new book comes, there is usually a general theme/ guideline in the hopes of appealing to readers who are already fans and those who may like the character but not in his/ her first ongoing

In this case, it is because finally Wolverine has recovered his memories. And so, in this book, he goes about settling old scores including trying to see if he can reconcile to his son who is none other than Dark Avenger, Daken. Daken is one mean socio and psychopath!

For this first issue, we see Wolvie making the rounds and starting on his path, the path for the next few story arcs. And in this issue it includes him and the special blade that has the power to "kill" him and those like him as the sword can prevent or inhibit their healing powers

Umm the storyline is interesting enough and I love the covers but ... Dillon may not be the right artist. I like my Wolverine series darker, edgier, style of artwork not all these clear lines almost horizontal angle with hardly any background. Don't get me wrong. I am a fan of Dillon but his style doesn't work in all genres although in Preacher, it was a treat

Ratings: 7/ 10 (because of the awesome cover otherwise a 5)

71. Wildcore #1 ... Image ... Brett Booth

Brett Booth has one signature style in drawing and unfortunately, this series suffers from that. Don't get me wrong. I am a fan. I loved his physique for his heroes and overall work but the facial features are always one style and everyone looks the same

Creators aside, this is a continuing tale from Brett's previous: Backlash. Here the 'lash has found a new enemy far deadlier than his old enemy the Daemonites. These new "alien" enemies are supposedly more powerful and look human, more or less

Naturally, the aliens are after something too that will give them more power/ control/ whatever the lame reason of the day is. And naturally,  the 'lash tries to stop them when he finds out. The only thing is that they pretty much clean house with secondary heroes and the 'lash is with his back to the wall so to speak. So like the cover has disclosed, Zealot from the Wildcats is a guest star and this series is meant to be the first issue in the formation of a new group of heroes - to combat this new alien threat

And ... that's it actually. You can see that the only reason they put the title as Wildcore is to embrace Wildcats success. Otherwise, it could have continued as Backlash number whatever ... ah well ... whatever it takes to keep a title afloat eh?

Ratings: 8/10 (mainly for art and cover)

70. Wetworks vol 1 #1 ... Image ... Whilce Portacio ...

With this, Whilce shows us the pinnacle of his ability. You know it's going to be good simply from the teaser ads where we were told how long the wait was, how much ink, paper, etc was used in the production of this comic and it was no lie

Sad to say, this was before the online days and I didn't follow all the fanzine chatter so I had no idea Whilce had a personal tragedy that caused most of the delay but so glad to know he bounced back and produced something so much better than his Marvel days

I loved his work in X-Factor not so much in X-Men but here? He blew everything away

This is a comicbook, not a superhero comicbook. There are no costumes

It's about a military wetworks team i.e. people who go and do nasty stuff to others. On one mission, they realized that all is not as it seems and that they were being expended on account of they are being expendable. In addition, not only was their side hiding something, the enemies were not entirely human. It was a gathering of the creatures who lived in darkness - vampires, werewolves and others and apparently there is going to be a rebellion as an upstart wants to take over the ruling power and bring back former glory to his people

So our friends with guns realized they were over-matched and basically screwed. What did they do? Well as luck would have it, they stumbled across some biological shit in vats and accidentally blasted those vats and .... voila! Out jumps some shiny goo that latches onto one of them and ... transforms them one by one into shining warriors that are impervous to bites, scratches and bullets

That's the thrust of the comicbook ... actually I typed movie ... then had to delete it. See? This is that good. The first arc (3 issues) should and can make a good movie

Glad to have you back Whilce!

Ratings: 10/10

69. Weapon Zero T-4 ... Image ... Joe Benitez ...

First - just check out that awesome artwork on the cover and imagine, during the hey-days of Image, we have a new artist whose first solid sequential work is this book! I mean, it was like a WOW moment! In fact, I couldn't ever get ahold of this until years later from the back-issue bins and honestly, the artwork is just WOW

With a storyline by Walter Simonson, you can be assured that there is a real story besides characters just posing and prancing around. Heh!

So with that out of the way, firstly, like most new titles, it starts with a limited series. And the numbering for this is like a countdown with T - 4 being the first issue and ending at T - 1. Then there is a zero before the regular series starts. So it shows a lot of thinking and planning went into the production of this comic eh?

Next we have 4 characters from different timelines who slowly ran into each other in a facility. So why the time travel? And who exactly are the good guys and the bad guys because our earthers are plucked and imbued and experimented upon by the "supposedly" good guys. What's it all about?

This first issue is a brilliant teaser but leaves so many things unanswered that as a reader, you will be for sure back for more. The only other issue worth noting is that as it is the artist's first regular work, he did spend a lot of page space on "posing" for his characters and a  lot of empty/ white spaces

Other than that, this is one heck of an opening issue

Ratings: 9/10

68. Wolverine vol 2 #50 ... Marvel ... Simone Bianchi ...

Wolverine has always been popular in the comics world. Then came the cartoons and for some reason, he is also the number 1 overall fave. Finally we have the movies and yes, somehow or other, even movie audiences love him until he has had 2 solo movies to-date

So during his second volume at an ongoing, while there are many good issues, I am starting my review with this issue. Why?

Artist: Simone Bianchi

I do not know this person until here but just check out the work attached and let me assure you, in each page within, you have the same quality as the cover page. In fact, it is so gorgeous until you feel that it is a little too ... much? Hahahaha!

As you can see, I am ending this review here because I do not want to comment on the story but rather this is one time I am advising you to try a comic simply for the art regardless of the content. This is how good Bianchi is to me

Enjoy!

Ratings: 9/10

67. WildCATS vol 1 #2 ... Image ... Jim Lee ...

Back in the days when Jim Lee is the premier artist in the Western comics publishing world, he went on to form Image Comics with his mates and inspite of all their popularities (Rob Liefeld and Todd McFarlane), Jim is still, to a number of people, the man to beat in the sense that here is a guy who draws detail shit, jams tons of group action and able to (at that time) more or less meet deadlines

Even after all these years, the work within here is still great. It is not trendy like following the latest manga style or cartoony or anything. It is solid comic storytelling, chock ful of details, great colours and just plain good with angles, be it talking scenes or action scenes that keep this book such a hit!

So why did we choose to do this from issue 2?

Because of that F-ing cover. Yes, this is the time of enhanced covers. And check out this cover. Just plain awesome!

As for the story itself, well, basically a bunch of human-alien hybrids are being gathered to fight against the bad human-alien hybrids being led by the nasty aliens called Daemonites. As they put their action plan together, unknown to them the aliens have penetrated quite deeply into the US of A government. Unfortunately, their penetration has gone all the way to the office of power. And in addition, there are other services of the government that not controlled by aliens but still have their agenda as they do not know who the CATS are. And finally?

Youngblood, the government sanctioned super team is being set up by the former as their bodyguard against the CATS

And there you have it! A lot going on storywise and a lot going on with the artwork and a f-ing lot rocking this entire book!

Ratings: 9/10

66. West Coast Avengers Ltd Series #1 ... Marvel ...

There was a time, like 30 years ago (wow that makes me feel so old), when Marvel's Avengers was popular but not the flagship title. And there was only one Avengers title each month on the stands unlike now with its flurry of Avengers (New, Mighty, Dark, etc)

So when it was time to launch a spin-off title, this was it. A test. Thus a 4-issue limited series and it made good sense. With most series base on the East, who is looking after the West? So Avengers long-time member, Hawkeye is sent by the Vision to the West with his new bride, Mockingbird to establish a base for the Avengers. Of course, back in the main series of Avengers, we were given glimpses of the true intention of Vision in doing this

But aside from that, the fun is seeing Hawkeye and Mockingbird opening the ranks rosters and looking at potential applicants figuring who will fit in and who will not. That's after all the best part of a team book, eh?

And the cover says it all as it gives a good representation of the bunch of characters living on the West including some ex-Avengers like Tigra and Wonder Man

Of course, while all this positive energy is being projected, we need a villain of the piece and this series introduced us to a new player named the Blank who may or may not be attached to someone from the Avengers past and who is sometimes (in the hands of the right writer) a major power player

So if you have the budget and can find this issue, we propose you get it, read it and share it; not keep it sealed in its protective plastic cover (hah)

Ratings: 7/10

65. Unknown Soldier vol 1 #261 ... DC ...

This is sort of throwback kind of review in the sense that this is a review of one of the original war-series and this is my favorite series - not Sgt Fury and his Howling Commandos or Sgt Rock but this. Why? Because somehow inspite of the unbelievable disguises the general outline of the stories and how it resolves itself is far more enjoyable. Maybe because the premise is already stretching it from reality based to fantasy

So the basic outline is that of WW2. We have a soldier who is from a rich background but is horrible scarred. With that, he decided to perfect all his other skills and join the Allies for all sorts of covert operations

Why did I start with this issue? Well look at the cover. The soldier is infiltrating a castle with Nazis within to find (or find out) something. However, unbeknownst to him and the Nazis (but not the locals), the folklore about the castle is all too real as its master and mistress unleashes their own type of protection in the form of magical summonings. See? The red monster? That's not the only magic

All told in one issue too. What more can you ask for, eh?

Ratings: 7/10

64. Thor vol 2 #1 ... Marvel ...

There was a time ... a while now ... when Marvel was more into launching limited series, maxi series, one shots and new titles rather than relaunching its core titles. However, after a long run, even Thor, god of thunder finally succumbed to this fate when his first volume finally ended after exceeding the 500-issue mark

We were bereft of Thor goodness for a long while and were left wondering how and when he would return and when he finally did, after a good many years, it was a strong start!

Dan Jurgens (writer) the guy who made his mark by killing off Superman and JR Jr (artist) definitely brought their A-game here. For those of you who enjoyed his movies but not sure which volume to start, this is a good number 1 issue!

We have Thor finally after a long while away from Earth ... returning ... but naturally for any good hero to make his mark, he must have an equally challenging opponent to prove his worth, right? And for this return, we get none other than the unstoppable ... Destroyer! Yes that giant metallic, robotic monstrosity from the movie is the featured villain here

Of course for those familiar with the comics Thor, the first thing you will be asking is whether Thor is back as himself or sharing a body with another mortal like his past ... Eric Masterson? Don Blake? Or someone new?

And with a new series, there are some guest stars and new supporting casts in store. We are introduced to some new police officers and medical crew. And not to mention his fellow Avengers who are pleased as punch to see the son of Odin once again!

In terms of action, there is plenty! Mjolnir sings, glows, flies, whizzes by and generally crashing and smashing everything to pieces. Hey! With JR Jr on art, you can be assured of chunky heroes punching everything right? And lots of being thrown across the room scenes as well! Hehehe! Love me some JR Jr!

Relaunches don't come better than this, people!

Ratings: 10/10