125. Conan the Barbarian #129 ... Marvel ... Gil Kane

And now for our 125th review ... which in the old days of comics would mean something significant ... we decided on a review of the Barbarian. Why is this unique? Well firstly during the original run, it was a licensed property that was then produced from Marvel ... however, after a while, when the series finally ended and nothing new came forward ... somehow it ended up in Dark Horse ... and Dark Horse even issued coloured compendiums of Conan ... so I read this from vol 17!!! Mind you, I have seen the compendiums but never bothered to buy them until last week when I ... for some unknown reason felt the need for a different genre of reading material ... and ...

GIL KANE THE ARTIST is awesome!!!

There I said!!! I knew he was one of the greats but I just couldn't recall his style but when I got home and opened this? WOW! It looks a bit like Barry Windsor Smith except that in place of Barry's "round spots" ... we have lines similar to a more refined Joe Kubert ... but what really works is that even though it is not over rendered ... it reads so well! All I know is you have to give it a try!

And this story?

Wow! This is a multi-chapter arc ... basically a quick recap, Conan continues stumbling through life when a place of refuge saw him coming across a boyhood friend ... however, with Conan, nothing goes right ... and within a few hours, they were attacked and the villains carried his mate off leaving Conan with his mate's wife and kid ... only to discover that the lady is not even human but some sort of priestess serving some old gods ... so our friend the baddie wants power that he cannot reach as he has not her knowledge ... and to confront her directly he feared she still would not reveal ... so in this case, it's reverse sexist hostage time! Grab the bloke and hope the wife caves in! Cool, eh?

In this chapter, Conan and the family comes to the ancient site to retrieve one of the sought after items and it's battle time galore! Lots of great sword swinging action here but it never overwhelmed the need to tell the tale ... all in, a great chapter in the Creation Quest arc

Ratings: 7/10

124. Hulk vol 1 #447 ... Marvel ...

There was a time when the Hulk series lost its direction ... and this issue is pretty much their last attempt to arrest the decline prior to rebooting ... and here we see from the cover, a savage Hulk. The story takes place after Heroes Reborn

For those who followed that limited series, an amalgam of Prof X's dark side along with Magneto has put the entire Marvel U in danger and in order to contain the threat, a number of Earth's Heroes sacrificed themselves. Hulk was sent to break through the armour and that he did and as a result he became Banner. Banner sacrificed himself by using his body to help contain the outpouring of energy

In this issue, the monument or remnant that was the Hulk in the park began to tremble and BAM the Hulk is back. Naturally no one expected this and when they do, the Hulk is at his dumbest HULK SMASH mode ... there is no room for affection ... no room for human warmth ... there is only Hulk Smash .. and Smash he does

Awesome ... now if only the artwork was awesome, this would have been a decent chapter!

Ratings: 5/10

123. Hulk vol 1 #204 ... Marvel ...

And from that brief respite in the world of DC, we take a jump back into Marvel ... and back in time to the Hulk's early days! This is an interesting chapter. You see, at this juncture, Hulk has found his green love, Jarella again and they were brought back to our world from the micro-world that she inhabited

And during this trip, instead of the army hounding him, the army is actually helping him to try to rid himself of the Hulk ... something new to me as I never even knew Ross actually had a period like this ... all the while, Banner's love is Betty but she has married Talbot ... that I also didn't know ... and Talbot is having issues as he was captured recently and tortured ...

So the drama aside, what else?

The villain of the piece is not really the villain. For you see, another scientist named Kronos (how coincidental) has discovered and built a time machine. For a human test subject, they offered Bruce stating that if he went back to the past, he could prevent the accident from happening and thus never become the Hulk. And as he did so, the moment he never became the Hulk, well, the world he knew has changed, eh? And he seemed to be the only one who remembered

Rick is dead because he didn't go and save Rick but rather save his own skin and his sanity is hammered by this, his own self-preservation ... also has his true love changed? And what is the right thing for Bruce to do?

Many questions and as you can see even though this is a HULK SMASH book ... there is a lot more for the brain to ponder than what one might expect of a Hulk comic

Ratings: 6/10

122. Tales of the Teen Titans (80s) ... DC ... #50

Since I read this 30+ year old titles only in the here and now and I was never a loyal fan of DC, I have no idea if the Titans were so popular until there were spin offs or this is merely renumbering or relaunching ... I bought this because it had gold lettering (I know, I know) and it said 50th ... back then, every special 1, 25, 50, 75 etc were "commemorative" and this is a double-sized extravaganza

I only know Donna Troy, Wonder Girl who is getting married. I have no idea who her fiancee is and who a number of the guests are. So is this a good issue? I would say if you are not a fan, then this is not a great buy but merely good afternoon reading

What is nice is that from start to end, we do not have drama in the form of villains popping up to ruin the wedding. All we have is Garfield, Beast Boy trying to be the perfect host for the wedding going about like mad arranging for everything ... while we get glimpses of all the other players, their thoughts, and how they view the impending wedding ... with much happiness naturally ... we also get to share in some of the dramas in the Titans' lives especially Cyborg (I didn't know he thought he was a monster!)

And we get a view of Raven ... I didn't know by this time she had left and was in a confused state herself ...

But the wedding and all it entails was beautiful ... and if you are a fan, I guess this would be a great issue

Ratings: 5/10

121. Teen Titans (80s) #22 ... DC ... George Perez ...

There was a time, not that long ago, when I got into the Titans because of artist Perez. And each time I ordered back issues from Mile High, I would add in a few. So it was a nice surprise when I was going through one of my shelves to discuss about a dozen unread copies still in their sealed bags

This is one of them

Now aside from the WOW artwork from Perez (I am always amazed at the details and emotions in his work), what made this issue great? Well, we are given a villain in the name of Baron Blood who is apparently more than just a baron ... more than just a leader of a new religion from a small country ... and in fact, he is more than what everyone thinks .. and in his machinations we are shown that not over those he crave political power, he craves personal power as well

And the Titans, unknowingly find themselves charging headlong against him unprepared for the media manipulation to come ... hey they are teens ... so we cannot be too surprised by the occasional recklessness and nowhere more so is this shown than here in this issue ... suffice it to say that even though he was attacked, the Baron managed to turn this into a me

120. Cable & X-Force 2012 #1 ... Marvel ... Salvador Larocca ...

Poor Salva! Here is an artist who can draw fast with a clear, distinctive style of his own and if paired with right inker and colourist, his work is astoundingly beautiful! See Namor. Yet for some reason, Marvel enjoys pairing him up with people who are great but do not suit him and the end result? Well, less than good

Example: his run towards the second half of the X-Men somewhere around the 150 to 200 range

And here is no difference. Check out the cover and imagine the interiors are equally in that vein. Dark, muddy, rushed ... and dull! Uninspired! Sigh!

For the storyline, it's a bit unique. The characters they have assembled include Forge, Domino, Colossus, Cable (naturally) and Dr Nemesis. So as you can see, there are 2 brains in this group and 2 tough guys. Colossus is the odd one out! Naturally where Cable is involved, there must be a mission and he is going to be grim and gritty ... like a guy who always have constipation eh? Hahaha! And he makes matters worse than it is ...

Overall, it's a decent first issue. However, I expected a whole lot more and actually after reading the first TPB, was not inspired to continue

Ratings: 4/10

119. Cable vol 1 #30 ... Marvel ... Ian Churchill, artist ...

Well, from that limited series and its success, it's only natural that Marvel would launch an ongoing, right? And this series is the result. It enjoyed a very long run and I have to admit I have quite a number of the issues starting from 1

However, the only reason I am starting a review from #30 is because I found the artwork and story confusing and "lame" from 1 until about 25 ... then it improved dramatically for a dozen or so issues ... before it went back to "lame" ... and after that, I couldn't be bothered to follow it any more

So what makes this special? Check out that awesome cover ... now imagine inside all pages are the same ... beautiful artwork, colouring and glossy paper!

As for the story, at this juncture in Cable's journey, he is partnered with a character from his future named Blaquesmith, another psychic type character. During this journey, we have X-Man, supposedly another version of Cable from another world (Age of Apocalypse) ... the main difference is that this guy has no techno organic virus so his powers can roam free ... and he is so powerful that the more he uses, the faster he burns up and approaches his own death!

So he is confused and on the run ... unsure who he can turn to ... if the school of X and Prof X is no longer trustworthy ... then there is Cable who has tremendous potential power but using it to keep the virus from consuming him and thus is very limited ... here he finds someone whose power is so over-the-top that he can even freeze every single snowflake!

As the cover indicate, naturally they have a fight but before they can royally thump each other ... guess what? We have our 5th psychic type character in the form of Exodus ... and he is a nasty who is supposedly very old as well ... and he comes to see what all the hoo-ha is all about ... at the end of the issue ... just in time to say? To be continued ... similar to this review ... hehehe!

Ratings: 8/10 (2 points for artwork, 1 for cover)

118. Cable Limited Series #1 and 2 ... Marvel ... John Romita Jr, Artist ...

From that one blip of a review into the current decade, we once again slipped back a few ... to the first ever Cable solo series. Yes, there was a time, when Cable was an emerging character in New Mutants and then X-Force ... and at that time, to flesh out his character a wee bit more ... and to test his popularity ... Marvel issued this ...

It's something of an origin in the sense that if you are a current reader of Cable ... you will know that he has sooooooooooo many origins ... since he is a time traveller ... Askani son, warrior, protector of Hope ... and whatever else that the writers can come up with ...

But waaaaay back then, this was not the case ... all we know is Cable is a soldier from the future trying to save the mutant race but going back to the past and fighting for it ... so when this series came out, it was a huge hit ... unfortunately I found JR JR's art in this series a huge ... shortfall/ shortcoming? Sure we have glossy paper but the colouring, inking and general linework appears too rushed without sufficient details ...

Anyway, here we get a better glimpse of where Cable comes from i.e. his version of the future ... and why he travels through time ... how he first encountered Stryfe ... who the Six Pack are and their mercenary ways ... and naturally a huge fight scene with over-the-top sacrifice ...

The ending is rushed because it is 2-issues and there are tons of gaps in the logic and flow ... and for me, it was merely the hype of Cable back then that made this series a success ... the ending is kinda cheesy going for the effect of a movie ... sigh!

Ratings: 5/10

117. Captain America (2012/2013) #1 ... Marvel ...

Remember our bitching about the relaunches? Well, someone asked us for more up-to-date reviews and here we try to oblige. First up, the last decent run of Captain America was during Brubaker and after that series ended ... the next relaunch lasted less than 2 years or so before this particular run

What they were banging on is John Romita Jr on art! And while he delivers, the entire story is a bit odd. In fact, it almost feels like the oooooooooooolden days of Kirby when Cap actually goes to other dimensions and what-not!

Basically, in this series, Cap gets yanked into Dimension Z (no spoilers because that's the title of the arc) and here things are a bit wobbly or rather very wobbly and Earth and life as we know it is not that anymore. Cap being Cap, he tries to stand up for the down trodden and somewhere along the way, he encountered a kid ... that he ends up protecting ... without knowing who the kid really is or belongs to ...

Also please note that ... time in Dimension Z is potentially different than that in the 616-verse

Will you continue to buy this? I actually don't know ... I tried it on TPB and was less than impressed

Rating: 6/10 (2 points for art)

116. Ultimate X-Men vol 1 #1 ... Marvel ...

After the launch of the Spider, can the X-people be far behind? Nope. And to a large extent, the X-Men movie franchise has stories that are tied to this series rather than the regular X-series although the uniforms are more inspired/ or co-reflected from Grant Morrison's run in the regular Marvel-verse X-Men

What is good about this series?

The Origin

We open the book with slam bang action and even when it slows down to talking heads, it is awesome because there is so much going on that each page is a revelation of something else or other ... basically in the Ult-verse, the X-Men are far more grim and gritty than the 616 (we kid you not!)

The opening sequence is of Sentinels attacking and evaporating various individuals leaving people wondering and panicking in the streets. Of course, we all know they are attacking mutants but to everyone else? Robots from out of the sky appearing without notice and just zapping another bystander? Yup ... then we queue a few different scenarios as we see some of the X-Men living their ordinary lives before being dragged into the melee that is the Mutant wars ... they are recruited by Cyclops and a playful yet harder edged Jean Grey ... and these are fun recruitment scenes ... love the reveal on Colossus

And the best part is even though Wolverine is on the cover, he doesn't have much of an impact on the entire comic ... and it still read well. So all we need is a good writer and artist, eh? Adam Kubert turns in his usual ... although I would have preferred his brother Andy ... Richard Isanove is the colourist and his work is breahtaking as usual ... with some scenes looking like hand sketched with colour pencils while others digital colouring

Ratings: 8/10

115. Ultimate Spider-Man vol 1 #91 to 94 ... Marvel ...

O yes ... for those wondering about the vol 1 ... if you are reading current Ult S-M, there's a new chap under the mask ... and no, it is not a temporary change because this is the Ult U, not Marvel U. So the new chap is a politically diversified character i.e. non-white ... you know what? For me, I am not Caucasian and am from Asia ... and I never have problems with "white" characters ... I like Peter Parker as Spider-Man! Peter with his growing up pains; his hopes and fears; his never-do-well lifestyle ...

Anyway, let's focus on this story arc. As you can see, the title is Deadpool and here we see a revamped version of the Ult-verse Deadpool. However, while the costume is largely the same, the character is not. This Deadpool is nasty - he isn't the Merc w a Mouth who talks non-stop, makes crazy quip and is generally crazy. This one is crazy but crazy to kill everyone who is a mutant. Sigh!

And for other new intros, we have Ult-verse Reavers (all those half human half robots you see on the covers) and Ult-verse Mojo (just a fat crazy chap) ... double Sigh!

As for the story itself, at this stage, Peter has just dumped MJ because he felt the craziness in his life will spill over and endanger her just like it killed Gwen. So here dear Peter bumped into Kitty of the X-Men and they decided to hang out ... and in time become a couple ... note that Iceman is Kitty's ex while Colossus has a crush on her but she chose Spidey ... a bit of relationship goody there for readers ... and as per first issue of this arc, Kitty proves that she has given the relationship much thought ... she realized if she dates Spidey as X-Men Kitty ... and then dates Peter in real life, Peter's secret identity might be compromised ... because for her, she has no secret identity ... hence the new costume for when she is with Spidey and Spidey only

Anyway, as luck would have it, on the crazy country where Mojo is (not dimension or universe anymore), they hate mutants and want to persecute them. This is apparently the X-chaps made an incursion into that country but hey like me ... if you don't read Ult X, it's cool you don't need the backstory

All you need to know is they come shopping and kidnapping X-Men and in a moment of panic, Kitty managed to drag an unknowing Peter into the mix and BANG you have it ... instant crossover goodness!

Best part of this arc? Tons of drama between Kitty and Peter and tons of action once the heroes land in crazy Deadpool land ... and the ending! Woof! Drama when the heroes win! It's a bit too ugly in bits about racism but ... well ... it's comics, right?

Ratings: 7/10 (love the colouring and artwork)

114. Captain America vol 4 #1 ... Marvel ...

I think I got the volume right but with all the relaunches, who really knows! It's a good thing we can post pics. Otherwise ... ugh!

Anyway, after all the many launches and relaunches, ups and downs, Marvel brought in a unique writer. John N R - for me, he was the Vertigo chap so for him to do CA, it was unique. How is he going to do the action sequences? Well, here in the first issue, he shows us. Unfortunately, he is partnered with Cassaday and while Cassaday for some reason is hot property in today's comics, for me, he is a better cover artist and pin up than actually in story telling as there is a certain stiffness to his artwork. But anyway ...

This here is a story told in one issue. More or less

What do we mean?

Well, here you have a dire situation developing. So what do we do? We sent in Cap and he cleans house more or less. Naturally, to get you coming back for more, there is a sort of backstory plot to develop this into a first full arc but if you read this, you will still come out of it satisfied

I don't want to say too much about this particular first story and arc in view of the fact that the so-called villains on surface is related to religion/ politics and in view of today's world situation when I am typing this, well, less said the better

But it is a lovely cover though, right?

Ratings: 6/10

113. PITT #6 ... Image ...

Do you know why when Ed McGuinness and J Loeb did Hulk Red we finally started buying TPB in sequential order? It is because it reminds us of this: the awesomeness of giant size monster like characters trashing each other. Comics. Art. Action. = Goodness!

So in issue 6, as the cover implies, our friend PITT in his quest to stay on Earth, understand his connection with human child, Timmy and coming to terms with Jereb, the consciousness within him; he has to have a run-in with a secret organization that is supposed to be another set of good guys. However, as no one knows anything about PITT, Axiom (name of said org) assumes that PITT is dangerous and causing all the problems in the city. Hence they tracked him down and it's slug fest time

Who is in Axiom? Some old dude, a guy who can "fly" with wrist shooters, a strong lady, another guy with blades who looked like a wash-out Blade from Marvel and finally Sauras, the huge green chap you see on the cover

As usual, the joy here is Keown's artwork and as usual, he uses the entire page for our enjoyment. So minimal captions, lots of action makes this another easily digestible and highly enjoyable issue

Try a PITT if you have never. You will like it

Ratings: 7/10

112. Team Youngblood vol 1 #11 ... Image ...

Since everyone is into spin-off, can Image's first comic not have one especially when the concept is so open to spin-offs? Naturally, no and here we have Team Youngblood ... as per the cover, we know there is going to be Badrock and the villain is going to be Overkill

Overkill is a Spawn villain who is like a super huge, super tough cyborg assassin. So did Badrock finish him off so easily? Well, yes and no

Firstly, it is Overkill ... but not ... but that's not the main point of this issue. This issue is all about having a one-issue story told simple and fun. We have Badrock enjoying himself and suddenly finding himself smack into the middle of this nonsense with a somewhat rejuvenated/ returned to the land of living Overkill

And so a fight ensues

Yup Badrock didn't have it easy but in the end, he gave Overkill a run for his money (yaaaay Rock)

Ratings: 5/10

111. Thunderstrike #1 ... Marvel ...

This is yet another spin off series that came during the comics boom. For me personally, about the only main thing I like and can comment about this series is as follows: do you like to read that Shakespearean style of English as espoused by Thor and his Asgardian chaps? If not and you prefer a more straightforward English speaking dialogue, then at last, this is one Thor-like series for you

For you see, a while back, during one of Thor's time on Earth, he became entwined with a new mortal who is not the good Doctor. Then a series of stuff happened and they became separated and could, once more, life live as their own man

So in this series, our mortal was granted power of his own. If he chose to, he could continue his career to protect the mortals of Midgard (Earth) when Thor is not around. So should he or shouldn't he?

Obviously the answer is he would like to try. The only challenge is that he is now having to juggle hi new found abilities and limitations i.e. in the past, when merged with Thor, he is already experienced but with a new hammer and slightly different limits and abilities, he has to learn the hard way and this first issue is an exploration of that

The next good bit?

At least they tried to introduce an arch villain in the form of Blood Axe who is a conflicted individual himself. And in the trials of his career, Thunderstrike is going to be getting a lot of screen time with the police gang, but a special unit of BLUE

Finally, to round things up, we need to see a personal aspect of him and this is his mortal private life as a divorce whose ex- is already seeing someone. And he has a kid who lives with mommy not daddy but still loves him dearly

And there you have it, the necessary additional tension to make the character's personality supposedly have more depth ... if you can call that soap opera bit depth

The artwork didn't work for me and with a ho-hum story, I didn't bother with the remainder of the series

Ratings:3/10

110. Maxx #1 ... Image ... Sam Kieth ...

I have no idea what Sam Kieth is doing these days but at the height of his popularity, he did some great mood-inspiring covers and some decent mini-series at Marvel with characters like Hulk and Wolverine (naturally)

So in the Image boom of the 90s, he contributed his own title called Maxx and what a unique title it is from artwork to storyline. Apparently this is related to something on the TV channels but as I don't have access to much TV during that time (I know, I know, shocking, right?) I am unable to verify

All I can say is that the artwork is so different from the masses that any new Maxx on the racks is a standout. When you flipped through, the action sequences and storytelling style is unique. So what's it about?

Well if you are reading this, you are going to be so confused that you may wish to re-read certain pages or the entire comic. We actually have scenes of a ditzy girl living a life that seemed to be in the real world and yet perhaps she is a dreamer or daydreamer or high on drugs. Then at the same time we are taken to a dessert scene in the outback ... and you have to wonder if this is her imagination or an alternative dimension or world where the characters are the same but behaved differently as if even from a different era ... and all the while you are left wondering what's the point of this series? Just a slice of life style of tale or something else?

Naturally with a cover like that you know there will be scenes in there that could be ... "in your face" ... and what is unique also is ... the cute-sy type of potential bad guys (little whites and little blacks) ... and one strange looking chap!

See?

A very mixed bag of messages in these pictures

Ratings: 6/10

109. Hulk vol 2 #25 ... Marvel ... John Romita Jr

 
Honestly when Heroes Reborn was over and everyone returned to the normal Marvel Universe, Hulk started off not with a bang but a whimper where the series are waaaaay too serious i.e. boring and not enough splash pages worth of Hulk Smash!

I am not saying the stories are bad but without the right artist to go with a tense storyline, somehow the Hulk series would just meander on and on ... and personally, the first 24 issues did this. Unfortunately. However, the culmination of the past few issues subplots translate into one huge main plot by writer Jenkins and Marvel is smart enough to give this series a kickstart by giving regular artist Hotz off and slotting in JR Jr

You see JR Jr by now has a very stylized artstyle and if there is one thing he does well, it is chunky characters who are going to try and knock each other's socks off and here, he doesn't disappointment. Banner has found out who is responsible (or so he thinks) for his rising tide of problems and he began tracking down the baddie. As the cover announces, it is the Abomination who is going to bear the brunt of his anger and when Banner is angry, the Hulk comes out to play

With the rain whipping throughout the issue while they fight, the artwork is breathtaking!

Hulk slugs it out with Abomination ... and at first Abom thought he had a chance but this is one pissed off Hulk ... and the ending is just ... well if this is a movie they may not want to even film that a film tag warning you it is strong PG or perhaps higher rating. It is that strong an ending fight! Loved it!

Ratings: 8/10

108. Generation Next #1 to 4 ... Marvel ... Chris Bachalo

A loooooooong time ago, Marvel did something rarely done. They made a huge storyline that actually resulted in some ongoing titles being temporarily cancelled for a few months to be replaced by some other titles before returning and this is one of the better ones

The original title is Generation X (a newer incarnation of New Mutants) ... spinning out of the world of the Mutants ...

And here, following from the mega storyline of Age of Apocalypse, all the mutant titles were stopped and relaunched with new artists, new storylines, new world ...

And in this world, as the title implies, the age of humanity is over ... Apocalypse the villain rules the planet with a select crew of omega level mutants ... and supporting them are other mutants. For those who do not know, Apocalypse is a mutant bornt hundreds of years ago who over time seemed to develop shape changing ability, regenerative ability, power beam shooting ability and whatever else each writer who uses him can think of ... so you can forget his real history except that he is really old and was born in Egypt probably during the days of Pharaohs

Here he rules based on a silly old premise, the strong survives and the weak deserves whatever shit the strong shovels on them. So he uses his mutant gang to rule with an iron fish. In Generation Next, they are still a group of younger mutants but who fight for right. Unfortunately, this means carrying out expeditions against the bad guys. What is charming about this book is the costume redesign done by artist Chris Bachalo

And the outstanding simple storyline of where the kids are growing up, trying to learn their lessons, learn to use their powers and yet be kids at the same time. As for their mentors, unfortunately they are not from the regular Marvel 616. Here is a group of hardened mutants

What will leave an impact on you is the end of this mini series ... what Colossus did in his rage to free his "heart" ... was awe-inspiring ... and then what he did in terms of sacrifice to continue to free his "heart" is absolutely shocking ... I actually was stunned and saddened and wished the outcome had been told differently

It is that strong a tale for me

Ratings: 8/10

107. Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2 #4 to 6 ... Marvel ...

These 3 issues are basically the second half of the story in this, the first arc of the relaunched GOTG series under Jim Valentino. Let's start with the covers. If you see the first 3 and you compare to 4, you will note that finally Valentino is getting into his own signature style and becoming more expressive. Is this a good thing? Well, I am a fan but honestly as the series progresses, the artwork gets a little too cartoony for my taste because we are talking space opera and dynamic storylines and then the artwork? Doesn't feel right

The good thing is at this point in the series, its popularity is growing and Valentino is becoming fast mates with the group of superstar artists who will someday launch Image and invite Valentino along for the launch. Here you can see some of the covers JV with the other future mates of Image. Example: 5 has McFarlane's name on it

In terms of storylines, basically, this brings what was already a tensed situation to its boiling point. We start off with issue 4 wherein the alien race that discovered a jettisoned (Tony) Stark cache, broke its code and came to worship Stark as their saviour from the stars ... comes to massive blows with the GOTG to the point that Firelord (ex herald of Galactus) makes an appearance ... unfortunately even with age and experience, Firelord is still the same old hothead of a thousand years ago!

And in 5, as the GOTG closes in on their search for Captain America's shield where Vance believes that it has a symbolic strength that can gather the remnants of humanity (helloooooo not everyone is American but what the heck, right?), the other group also in the hunt finally comes to the fore and as the cover implies make their official claim to the Shield

With 6, it's fight time. About the only amusing part is that when the bad guys got the Shield, they thought that its (SPOILER ALERT) power was in the Shield like it can generate some sort of destructive energy wave or something ... and they tried to activate it and couldn't! Hah!

So all in all, if you have never read GOTG, these first 6 issues is a good start! No regrets here

Ratings: 7/10

106. Kazar vol 2 #1 - 4 ... Marvel ... Kubert!

Ka-zar is Marvel's answer to Tarzan. He is related to some rich English family. He is a child lost while on exploration and grew up to be wild only to return to civilization but naturally there should be some differences, right? So Ka-zar grew up in a place called Savage Land, a reserve where there are dinosaurs (I know, I know). His best mate is a Sabertooth tiger and he returns to the wilds instead of staying in civilization

On the plus side, he met a lady from our world who loved the wilds so much, she joined him

Anyway, there are many volumes but I called this vol 2 and hope I am right because it is the second attempt at a long running series. The preview pages by Kubert is awesome and if they had managed to keep a decent artist, the series would have lasted but Kubert left within the first year and naturally many collectors including me left within a few issues after that. Not surprised that it got the axe finally!

As it is short-lived, who is the main villain or arch villain? Kazar's brother. No this is not a spoiler as he has appeared elsewhere before

It starts off in the Savage Land. We see a happy domestic that unfortunately is not that happy with some marital strife. Not surprise, right? Life is the same everywhere you go. There is always happiness and tough days but with Kubert on art, we see some amazing scenes and angles although sometimes the poses of the characters may not be totally accurate but who cares? The panelling itself is a wow factor all by itself. Sigh!

Anyway aside from their marital woes, the Savage Land, located in a secret access in the Antartic is suddenly invaded by someone who actually is a tough cookie and can stand not only the cold but give everyone a hard time for their money

So it's a new combatant and once more, awesomely drawn by Kubert

So our jungle lord goes all out trying to solve the mystery behind this intrusion and tracking the villain all the way back to the modern world while all the while wondering if this is not just an excuse to return to civilization

A great opening arc that will leave you wanting more


Ratings: 9/10

105. Infinity War #! to 6 ... Marvel ...

After the overwhelming success of the first mini series, a sequel was rarely in doubt and true enough Marvel released volume 2. With the word Infinity, you know it means that the Infinity Gems must still have a presence in the series, right? Right

Basically, instead of Thanos, this series' primary villain is the Magus. The Magus is one facade of Warlock's personality. You see, years ago, when Warlock was created and in his various adventures, he had an incident where the 2 sides of him, the good and bad were separated from his core being. This is why Warlock always looks so cold and almost unemotional and can do the necessary things that needs to be done regardless of how others perceived him because for him, the ends justify the means, literally. He is not your typical do-gooder and can do what is deemed evil to get what he wants

So the bad side of him has emerged as an individual named the Magus. In one of the futures, Magus has formed a religion around him and here in our world, he is trying to scheme his way to retrieve the Gems in order to rule the Universe. Yup, here in Infinity, we are not talking company, country or earth. We are talking whole universes

About the only disappointment for me is the artwork. Yes, they have Ron Lim and yes, I think he does supersonic work in Surfer but having this series come out and with extra pages every month, his normally super polished work looks so rushed and incomplete. There are some very obvious pages where the lines are sketchy at best and almost no detailing

However, on the flip side, at least there is a decent set of covers. Hah! And sales wise, naturally this fails when compared to series 1

Ratings: 6/10

104. Impulse #6

This issue has humour, Humberto Ramos' awesome cartoony artwork of people with big feet and on top of all that, a story with heart! What more can you ask for eh?

Okay. As the cover implies, it is a tale about Monsters but here the Monsters are not all they seem. Is it the large creature lurking in the darkness? If so, what makes the creature thus? And what's that with Impulse and his best bud? Is there anything going on there? And no, it's not a gay hint!

There's multiple layers of storylines wrapped in this one issue and we learn things as Impulse does because not everything in life is as what it appears on the surface. Impulse being raised in cybervid world is like a kid mentally younger than his physical appearance and thus he judges things on the surface. However, here he learns that the world of normal life is far darker than he can ever expect and he emerges ... changed ... a little more mature ... not so naive

Ratings: 8/10

103. Unknown Soldier vol 1 #244 ... DC ...

And from Marvel, we swing back to DC

And from super heroes, we take time now to explore the WW2 zone and this time, the trip is moving more towards Asia as our hero is dumped there to help assist in finding out how a sub can escape any attempt at destroying it while simultaneously bombing to smithereens all Allied ships plying the same route

And as a guest star or two, we have heroes from that era visiting the soldier. So in a way, this is ... a team-up of sorts as well. Oh well ...

The guest star is Storm, a chap from another war book called the Losers (I think) and it is told in 1 and rather entertaining as Storm is using a small PT and his skills trying to trap the sub and bombing it although the first couple of times left both Storm and Soldier stunned. Even as the Soldier tried to break away to check out his own suspicions, he drew up empty ... naturally by the end they figured out what was going on ... even though the only clue they gave us was the bird (and I am not spoiling it for you here) ... I could never figured there was a link

Ratings: 6/10

102. Marvel Team Up vol 1 #116 ... Valkyrie and Thor ... Marvel

Here's another review from this series. Hey! What can I say except that I loved team-up books more than solo? I guess that's why most of my collection are group comics and I hardly ever buy solo like Thor or Iron Man preferring FF and Avengers

This issue's title has Valkyrie although in smaller words it says Thor and similar to our last review, there are references in this issue to past MTU and Thor's own tales although the recap within is done so well that you don't need to know about the past to enjoy this book

Basically we have Spider-Man under stress from part-time job while trying to finish graduate school deciding one fine night to go out for a swing to de-stress (yeah, right!) while somewhere in the city, Valkyrie feeling bored is flying around to enjoy the night air as well. Unfortunately due to the unique nature of her mystical sword, it attracted the essence (yes we kid you not) of an old MTU villain. And so they hid within and slowly try to possess her to seek revenge on Spider and Thor

On Thor's front, it isn't that simple too as apparently in yet another past life, Thor and Val had a relationship thing going. In the past 15 years, people are screaming about ret-con. Here in the past, it shows comics have already been ret-conning because here when Thor met Val, they went all goo-goo eyes at each other just because he remembered his love (not her though). So how come when in the past without his memories of their time together, she didn't make googly eyes at him, eh?

But ignore the love for the moment and you have a decent tale!

Ratings: 6/10

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