669. New Mutants vol 1 #57 ... #newmutants ... #birdbrain ...

[This is reviewed and posted on 5 February 2018]

[Yes, we are going backwards and reposting a review. Hahahaha! But we are trying to ensure we have no breaks if possible but honestly, we have no idea if we are even able to do it but we will try the best we can, okay?]

Anyway, this issue is a continuing storyline of the New Mutants except the fact that this is the issue, that in our opinion, is the start of a downward slide in the life of this title, that will have a few points of uplift (like the crossover fall of the mutants and inferno) but other than that, there is nothing to stop until Rob Liefeld came onboard with his over-the-top super energetic artwork and the introduction of characters like Cable and team

At this time, we see the New Mutants letting Magneto finding out that they have rescued a creature from the zoo believing that he is a mutant of sorts. He however behaves more like a real bird (mutated) than a human (mutating into part bird). So while Magneto harrumphs all over the place, the mutants squabble amongst themselves on whether what they did is right including a short trip outside for burgers and learning how crazy the bird creature is

After a lot of unnecessary drama, Magneto agreed to give the creature a go but they will need to somehow learn more about him ...

And for us, the creature is nowhere near interesting to warrant our continuation ... in fact, there are many such throwaway characters in the comic verse ... o yeah at this time, Bret Blevins who does some decent art elsewhere came onboard and the art just deteriorated with very coarse line work and simplistic cartoony style where everyone's head is so much bigger than their body (sigh!)

Ratings: 4/10

2.303 (668) West Coast Avengers vol 1 ongoing #38 ... #Avengers ... #WCA ...

[Posted on 28th Nov 2017]

Hah this is actually reviewed almost 11 months down the line because .. we were kinda in a depression kind of funk ... or at least that's what the past two to four years felt like honestly but now we are trying to pick up the pieces of our lives and hence putting reviews back in place

So there was a time when comics publishers felt the need to keep up their end of the obligations in terms of books coming out. Hence they would commission stories as inventory to be slotted in when a particular team needs a break. This is so that your monthlies continue to come out as such. And this is one such book so for those who have been following this series, there is a bit of change in artist (not for the worse though) and Mock has longer hair ...

And this story is actually entertaining because during the quieter moments, the Avengers were called to come and investigate an issue ... and the villain du jour as the cover indicates has got something to do with rock music (hahahaha) and getting his abilities from demonic entities (we kid you not)

As it is a one-off story, it naturally ends with the villain being whupped and everyone going happily home while in truth the strain has started in the once peaceful lives of the Whackos as the truth of Mockingbird's deeds are becoming known and Hawkeye chose the Avengers above his bride! ASSHOLE!

Ratings: 5/10

667. X-Force vol 3 #23 ... #wolverine ...

[This is reviewed and posted on 21st Feb 2018 - more than a year later - we know, we know!]

This issue of X-Force is not for you to read if you are not a regular of the team or if you have not started on this particular storyline called Necrosha because it doesn't waste a panel in any flashback for the casual reader. We know this because we have neglected X-Force and the Marvel world for a bit but the Necrosha storyline is generally very entertaining. So it is worthwhile for you to track down past issues and get in on the ride

Here we see Wolfsbane already down but for a reason not from this storyline. Her then-boyfriend from Asgard, a wolfen prince brought her back to the X-world hoping to find a cure i.e. another mutant healer except that he is down for the count as well

While amidst all these, the dead mutants are rising en masse and preparing to assault the X-people's current home of Utopia under the leadership of Selene, Hellfire Black Queen and demi-goddess wannabe as well as a plethora of new and very deadly recruits

On other front, we see the Vanisher in supposedly one of his panic moods and also come to the X-world looking for the healer because the healer was supposed to have implanted a tumor within him to get him to calm down from his villainous urges and provide them with his service until such time Wolverine deems appropriate to cure him

So two significant things happen: one is the wolf prince begged Hela, Asgardian goddess of Death to come and do a deal ... and she says she cannot heal all or rather bring any back to life without a corresponding trade. However, as he found out that Rahne is with child and he has only 1 life i.e. his to offer, he decided to risk it all and ask her to bring back the healer

Secondly, we see the musclebound Warpath and some of the X members battling it out against the invading hordes only to be captured because they wanted a knife in his possession. What does this entail? Only future issues will tell us!

Rating: 7/10

2.254 (619) Blue Beetle (1986) ...

A few reviews ago we did number one and now we are in number two. Why? For some reason, we

actually like Ted Kord's version of BB and in fact we like BB better than most DC Heroes. Go figure, huh?

SPOILER ALERT

At the end of issue 1, as it was an 80s style comic, naturally it ended with a cliffhanger as the fire-bug villain bombed out an entire old building while our Beetle hero tried to do his bit combating the villain and helping out innocents. So we opened this issue with him pinned under tons of stuff and without real superpower of sorts or even body armor, Ted is hard pressed to get out of this but get out he does. Otherwise the issue would be the end of this run, eh?

Naturally as the villain is new, we are given a run down on how he became who he is in terms of his choice of powers and his anger towards who and why. Now to ensure you don't get bored, there is the usual added layer of foreshadowing of future problems to come including potential sabotage and betrayals by those who know Ted in his civilian guise. Naturally these are old in short panels leaving more to be developed at a later stage and trust us, the writer did build up in later issues for all these to come to a head

However, at this point, after he rested a wee bit, our man Beetle is back on the case trying to find out more on the villain and how to nail him the next time they meet and meet they did for the climatic battle and it was a decent battle. What is awesome is we see the Beetle doing Daredevil style moves with leaps and punches instead of depending on gadgets except for the fact that Beetle is more of any style fighting goes kinda chap, know what we mean?

The ending is kinda abrupt yet climatic and because this is issue 2, we are only left with a blurb of the villains of issue 3 at the closing credits box. As we are not fans of DC, we have no idea if the next round of villains are already active in the DCU or again newly created for this and honestly, they do not look that interesting just like this fire setting character. The saving grace is still the Beetle

Ratings: 6/10

2.253 (618) New Mutants vol 1 #100 ...

Back in the olden days, as in the 80s and 90s, when I was collecting comics as they were coming out, rather than TPB and softcopies, when a series was slowly dying thanks to diminishing sales, usually the hype was just that - hype. They would give us average stories and change artists to maybe newcomers who need time to hone their skills and I would be left wondering how the F are they supposed to turn it around. Of course, as we grew up and with hindsight, we realized that there is always the possibility that the publishers had some commitments and while they know the series is due to cancellation, they moved the better talents to booming properties and simply use cheaper talents to fill the commitments. Basically we were used - the readers and buyers! It doesn't sound nice but it is the truth

Hence, once in a while, it is nice to see a reversal in trend. The New Mutants did strongly in its early years and especially when Bill S was onboard. After that, it was still good with Claremont on stories and Guice on art. Unfortunately for me and I do believe a fair bit of others, Bret wasn't the right choice of artist. That and the strange storylines with that spyder like character and whatever was going on before and after the big mutant crossover of Inferno drove sales downward

Thus the arrival of Rob Liefeld was a saving grace. Of course, now that I am older and reading this book once more, I can see the other side of the artwork - the part where critics like to hammer him but like I said in my first paragraph, in Rob's case, he put in a lot of energy and spark into the New Mutants transforming them from teenagers with angst into young people who actually have huge responsibilities thrust on them and the challenges that they faced were more grim and gritty though no less worse than the threats before

If there is one thing Rob is good at, it's energy. Look at that cover. It just rocks! While the interior artwork has its moments, we can feel the rushness of the artwork where the artist has to just churn out to meet the deadlines and with a double sized issue? Well, we can understand some of the panels are less than impressive but visually it connects and in fact, I believe if they have a better colorist (or perhaps the challenge is with production quality?),  it would be better

Anyway, story wise, this is the final issue of New Mutants as the team is largely changed in terms of new faces, departure of old faces and the relaunch of X-Force. So here on the final issue SPOILER ALERT we are introduced to even more characters. First up, Lady Domino was just with us a couple of issues ago and last issue was bye bye Sunspot....

So naturally in terms of character development, a lot of chit chat is going on between Cable and Domino and then Cannonball and Boom Boom about changes and moving on and whether who should stay and who should go and what-not

But then in the midst of this we are introduced to Shatterstar who just pops in and is running and fighting everyone he meets. Naturally in terms of visual he is so awesome but Cable pops him easily hahahaha. And where there is new guy who is a hero, we found out that his villains are chasing after him to Earth from Planet Mojo

Now if that wasn't enough, the sneaky person in shadows from earlier is revealed as none other than a new claw person now that old claw person Wolfsbane is no longer with the team and she comes with her own set of problems in the form of Masque of the Morlocks!

And so there you have it ... new members with new problems but that's not all. O no. We end with an awesome epilogue where the Mutant Liberation Front's mystery leader is finally revealed as Stryfe who removes his helmet and ... gasp ... looks exactly as Cable!

What's going on? Well way back then when this came out it certainly left a lot of us hankering for X-Force 1

Ratings: 8/10

2.252 (617) Bloodstrike vol 1 #22 ...

[This review is actually typed on 8th Jan 2017 ...

With all the internet news on what Mister Liefeld is up to thanks to his last year's success Deadpool movie, a character he (co) created while at Marvel, apparently finally his movie deals for his own Image/ Extreme etc studios are on the way ...

And honestly speaking I was a huge fan of his group of books from way back when simply because they have awesome covers and some great artists who were just starting out then. Sure some times the storylines can read a little choppy and the dialogue is over-the-top but hey it's comics. I go to it for escapist fare. If I wanted something more grounded there is always the real TV news, right? Heh!

Anyway Bloodstrike started off strong then the storylines sort of lost it for me even though I bought it all but towards the end, with Karl on board as artist, it got back on track and I wished they actually finished the series properly with the missing issues 23 and 24 instead of leaving it here at 22 (25 was a promo stunt from Image waaaaaay back when with a few comics issuing 25 a year before the actual numbering reached there ... to prove to fans that Image does plan its work ... or some such justification)

So what's in store for 22? A recap. First Bloodstrike was a team of people or operatives who died and came back like zombies except that they can function like regular folks. Somewhere along the line they were badly defeated and we see a mystery figure bearing the name Bloodstrike as a solo operative. After that, the 'strike had a new posse of two chicks and one handler and one big guy or some such combination ... before the original team came back and hooked up which is where we are at when this issue comes out. See? A lot in 22 issues, eh?

And with this issue it is part of an ongoing arc where a group of villains break out of their cells and 'strike team was assigned to go bring them in since these are super powered freaks who are hellbent on death and destruction.

The saddest thing SPOILER ALERT is that when 25 came out he was flying solo again. So naturally this issue had to pave the way which means the bad guy gets to eliminate everyone (temporary or otherwise) just in time for the 25th issue that had already been issued. Sigh! Get it?

There is a lot going on, and a lot of word balloons, but I just wished that they had taken their time not to rush this book so that artist is given more time to make the interiors just as awesome as the cover

Ratings: 5/10

2.251 (616) The Punisher 2009 #14 ...

[From one milestone to another as this review ... if we are to go back to original numbering sequence ... means we are at 616 ... yes 616 and that's a heck of a lot of reviews but what we are excited is that that is what the Marvel U is known as the 616 in a multiverse concept ... but if you are the casual follower or reader of comics or you for the moment come from the world of movies then please ignore this fanboy ranting ...

Okay we know we just reviewed a Punisher issue but we just just just had to do another one because this run is so excellent. I mean, just look at that cover. It tells you so much from its almost retro style artwork of the early days when comics come in all genre including horror anthologies, western and love to what is now predominantly superheroics ... sigh ...

This issue has its own special shout out moments in the form of two artists involved to tell a tale. Primary artist is doing the actual present-day (so to speak) tale or storytelling while the flashback is painted style by another artist and it works well

Basically after the brou-ha-ha with the Oriental armor clad goons, the Punisher has no choice but to go back to his current assistant of info and whatever (a kid or teenage by the looks of it) and digs for info since his monster buddies are in deep shit and unable to be with him anymore and what a load of history was unnerved

So this is a flashback to the origins of the villains and we get it in two different era. We see how the scientist himself who is involved got his start and why he hates monsters so. And then we see the military arm and how they got their start and what happens in Japan and all those monsters (so cool right?)

Naturally the conclusion gives the Punisher even more fuel to fire up his anger and go gunning for some bad guys ... unfortunately we are left hanging as we are then not shown this and have to wait for the next issue ... argh!

Ratings: 8/10

2.250 (615) The Punisher 2009 #12 ...

[Firstly happy 2017 every and in case you are wondering WTH should you, dear reader, come across this review blog, basically I have slipped so badly in terms of being timely that today is 8th Jan 2017 and I am here in Jakarta, Indonesia for the past three days ... so I am hoping to somehow catch up and be current on my reviews ...

[Secondly, happy 250th ... so good to know that we made it in our so-called year 2 or series 2 of reviews to hit the big 250 ....

Alright. For those who somehow enjoyed the Punisher but never feel quite there with Frank's series and relaunches, well this one is definitely different. It ran for about three years before another relaunch but what was cool here is Rick Remender, one of the then, rather new writers at Marvel who showed us his love of the company and this franchise ... he started off with Frank in the midst of a Marvel group crossover and him having issues with folks in the Avenger, Norman Osborn and a gallery of rogues

And just in case you are wondering how he can top his own work comes this issue and the start of his year 2 on the title where he has Frank killed (really) earlier and resurrected as a Frankenstein monster!

SPOILER ALERT

So in issue 12 while not a double sized celebration, it has so much going on as we see Frank starting to learn about what has happened to him ... and as he is now part machine what he needs to do to survive his days. If that isn't bad enough, amongst the Monsters community, there is even secrets and hidden agendas as the uglies do not band together under a sort of utopia brotherhood. So we get glimpses here and there of things that are brewing

And because this is a Punisher comic, we also see the start of villainy as armor clad guys with guns and samurai style swords come a hunting into the sewers where the Punisher currently stays with his new found family

So you know it's going to be a bloodbath in the issues ahead!

I love this so much I got doubles of some issues and will get the TPB!

Ratings: 9/10

2.249 (614) Captain America vol 1 #110

Sorry we couldn't find a good copy of the cover to include in this review but hey we decided to go really back to the good old Marvel vaults and dug this up so to speak for your edification! And what an issue it is

First up, the art. I am not a fan of Steranko but I am honestly stoked after seeing this issue. The individual page and panel composition are so good and the action scenes are just plain action packed. Of course this being a comic from that era, there are styles that may not be my taste just like fans of pure manga may not like American style comic art but other than that, the sheer energy just bounces off the page!

Now as for the story, we open up with a Cap who has come to terms with his new life in the "modern" life. Unfortunately thanks to the wonder that is the Marvel Universe SPOILER ALERT the Hulk decided to make an entrance for purely no specific purpose except to literally run across Cap's path and because Hulk is on one of his mood swings to the negative side, naturally Cap got involved with the military. Rick Jones who at this time is a pal of Cap rather than hanging and tailing the Hulk happens to be around and tries to calm down the Hulk to end the fight to little avail

However, what is the highlight of this issue is SPOILER ALERT when a rested Rick finally awakens and decides to shock Cap by donning on Bucky's costume. The reaction of Cap is expected but what is unexpected is Rick's opinions on Cap's feelings and how he managed to raise a very convincing argument to the point that Cap had to give in. Yes this is done in a couple of pages and panels because this is not the age of decompression storytelling. Hehehe!

And good thing too because to prove that Rick is ready what happens next but an Avengers alarm and only Cap and Rick are around to respond and so the new dynamic duo (sorry) leapt to the action to encounter ... Hydra!

Yes all that in one single issue! Plain awesomeness

Ratings: 7/10

2.248 (613) Blue Beetle (1986) #1 ...

Well, there are so many volumes of the Blue Beetle and so many people who have held onto the title that it will be a chore to just iron it all out. So for the sake of this review, the main hero is Ted Kord. And he is the guy who bit the dust a while back in DCU, got it?

In our opinion, we actually enjoyed all 24 issues of his series which we collected from back issue bins and find him to be more entertaining than later volumes including current day

Ted Kord - in his human alter ego guise is another rich industrialist like Batman and Iron Man. The only difference is that when he suited up, he has a decent suit but still with underwear on the outside and a lame ass weapon of a gun. His cool bit is his Bug, the transport airship

Anyway this issue starts off quick because Ted is already the Blue Beetle and he is hitting the scene of a fire growing out of control. At its epicenter is a man in a fire retardant suit spreading ... fire (you guessed it). Well what did you expect for a villain if the hero is still so weak, eh? Naturally even this, Ted couldn't handle and the villain escaped

SPOILER ALERT

Writer Len is awesome as he takes the downtime to immediately fill us in on the history of the Beetle from Ted's predecessor who seemed to possess some sort of real super power and then how Ted came into the role. This is fast paced and a good read

Naturally in the vein of 80s comics, there must be a cliffhanger to rope you in for issue 2 and if you think so far the hero is lame, then probably you wouldn't think much of the cliffhanger as it promises more bouts with that fire setting freak. For us, something about that blue suit makes us interested to come back for more. Yes, shocking, if you read our review you wouldn't think we are fans, eh? But we are and we loved every issue of it. Or perhaps artists on this title played a pivotal role, eh?

Ratings: 5/10

2.247 (612) Captain Marvel vol 1 #1 ...

With all the success to-date from Marvel in the cinemas, obviously there is talk about a Captain Marvel movie and it will probably be, highly likely, Ms Carol Danvers. So we decided to go waaaaay back into our archives and dig this issue up.

This is from Marvel comics' first Captain Marvel who is actually an alien warrior/ soldier named Mar-vel. He is of a protective nature instead of just warring and decided to throw his strength in the defence of our planet when one fine day he found himself on earth

As for this issue, though it is number 1, it is not his first appearance. In fact, when you first read this, you will be totally lost because we see Cap already on earth and fighting the robotic Sentry whose mission is to kill Cap. And alongside Cap, we see earth soldiers and one security officer by the name of Carol Danvers. Yup, the same lady who at this point in Marvel history is a normal human being minus any sort of powers

After a hard fought battle, it is sad for us to know that inspite of his powers, Cap is not powerful enough (and this is a recurring theme in his subsequent adventures) and he was only saved SPOILER ALERT by other Kree faction who are on his side and aware of his situation. We get to see glimpses and a few panels from a number of, at that time, new members to the cosmic side of Marvel's 616 universe - like Ronan, Kree Supreme Intelligence, and others

But at the end of it all, while there is an ending, it leaves you feeling neither here nor there. The story starts from somewhere else and the ending has no clear cut victory for us to cheer for Cap. In fact, it doesn't even have a cliffhanger to make you come back for more

Ratings: 5/10

2.246 (611) Batman New 52 #1 ...

I love the campy tv series with Batman and Robin for some odd reason and I love the Robin series with Tim as the third Robin but for some reason, unless there is something special in the Batman universe, I hardly ever even bother to flick through the comic be it Batman or Batman Beyond or Detective Comics or any other of his mini series etc

So when New 52 was introduced years ago, I decided to pick it up primarily because out of curiosity and artist Greg Capullo. Now while the story was highly entertaining Greg's artwork has taken a new turn with linework being more sparse and I am undecided if I actually like this new style

Anyway storywise we open up with Batman in another one of his beat-em-up adventures kicking many villainous thugs and what-not SPOILER ALERT before ending with a chat session with his fav police chapppie (guess who). At this point in his career, we see a Batman who has had his fair share of adventures in the form of trophies in his Batcave and he is joint in his civilian human guise by trio of Robins (yes you read that right). So none of that angst and what-not. Everyone got along which is a nice change for a first issue. Who are the Robins?

Dick Grayson the first and who looks like a teenager here in this series. Tim the third and who looks on the brink of teenager dom and finally Damian, Bruce's supposed real blood relative as his bratty but adorable self

For those in the know, you can expect that every writer tries to inject a bit of Detective work in each Batman saga and no different here. As we see, after a social event to lighten the mood but which also sets up point for the future storylines, Batman investigates a gruesome murder scene and one that immediately throws him in turmoil because of direct correlation to his human alter ego, Bruce. What that embodies and forbode is where the writer leaves us hanging and hopes that we are interested enough to pick up the next issue

Which means at the end of the tale while enjoyable we are not given an inkling as to who the master villain will be for this first arc. This is a high risk because for the casual fan, it may not be enough to pull them back just like us. We decided to wait for the TPB

Ratings: 6/10

2.245 (610) Alpha Flight vol 1 #115 ...

The wonderful thing about doing reviews of comics without following the latest releases is of course giving the reviewer hindsight on the fate of the comics although there is one trend that is always prevalent from comics and that is when sales are down and they are slated for the cancellation axe, the comics quality drops significantly. O you will get the letters where there are fans raving about new directions and new artists and you will find editors replying with all sorts of positive energy but the majority of that fans' series who pops in and out just to see if there is any more point in collecting that series know the truth and that is what happened to Alpha Flight

Take this issue for example. Look at that cover. Not saying it's bad but it's literally trying to cash in on the 90s trend of blood and gore and gnashing teeth. And the choice of interior artwork is Pat Broderick ... again not saying it's bad but his artwork is pedestrian at best and you know he will be slotted in a book that is not expected to top the charts

That having been said how is the tale proper?

Well issue 114 was the build up issue and so this issue supposedly delivers the big punch with a villain named Wyre because his body has wires of a sort coming out. Wow talk about innovative names eh? But hey it's the 90s. Love the title though - Extreme Prejudice which is so Rob Liefeld at that time hahahaha

Other than that, we see Wild Child fighting Wyre and actually giving Wyre a hard time regardless of the misleading cover SPOILER ALERT TOO LATE ... so once the rest of the team sort out another mess and got to the scene, the villain is for sure you know going to panic and skedaddle leaving us with more "mysteries" for the future ...

And because they want to give us something to lure us back for next month's issue, the last page and panel is something ominous with the words Weapon X ... yeah, right, like for sure because of that we will all rush back, eh?

But basically that's it. If you are looking for a jumping on point, this issue is so not it. Unless you are a regular reader there is nothing here to attract you. And if you are a fan of comics much later after this era, you will definitely not buy this

Ratings: 2/10

2.244 (609) Stormbreaker Saga of Beta Ray Bill #1 and #2 ...

I am not a fan of horse-face space-alien who carries Thor's hammer although I will admit that when he was first introduced in the pages of Thor many decades ago, it caused quite a stir amongst us fandom but since then, he is just another Hammer wielder

So when this series came out years ago along with a continual stream of limited series, obviously it slipped under my radar but now having had the chance to read it, I must admit it is entertaining. Perhaps if one's budget was limited, then even after an issue, it would not compel me to add to my pull list but if opportunity permits, yes, it is a good enough buy

As the first issue indicates, this starts at the midst Disassembled where not only are Avengers disassembled but also the world of Thor and his people met their cyclical end of Ragnarok. While this is happening, on Bill's homeworld, plot is afoot between religious orders and the scientific and military arm to determine whether they should continue to count on a warrior who is rarely there and prefers to hang around throughout the known galaxy

Naturally with such scenarios, each party is not what it seems and everyone has something hidden

However SPOILER ALERT what none of them realizes is that the threat that is coming to their planet is none other than planet eater Galactus who is being viewed by Bill's people as one of their own ancient malevolent god forms

And this time Galactus has a bloodthirsty herald named Stardust

The fight scenes are just plain awesome and you actually feel for the loss of Bill from one place to another and from one world to another. It is just heart rending and will leave you rooting for him and for the next four issues ... always assuming you have the budget to buy of course hehehe

Ratings: 6/10

2.243 (608) Fantastic Four v 1 #606

If you are a regular reader of our reviews, you will know by now how often we gripe about renumbering. Now our problem isn't just the actual process of relaunching with number 1 but the fact that after a while, be it a year or three, it reverts back to the original and so on and so for. For the casual reader, it is fine but once you get hooked and you want to read in sequence, it gets kinda challenging, see what I mean?

Anyway ... let's get on with this issue where the artist is (sigh) Ron Garney. I know he has his fans. And I know for some reason he was quite popular during Cap A. But I also know for our team here at reviews, he was never our kinda artist. So when he was given this issue to be penciller, we had to take a deep breath before we could plunge into the pages, so to speak. Hehehe

After the last few issues of jam packed action, we open this with the same feeling and for that, kudos to the writer because we see the FF doing what they do best, Strapped into their space ship and flying through uncharted space encountering all sorts of danger. The book flips between earlier when we see the team sitting around discussing potential hazards of the journey and then flip back onto the journey itself

However, after nearly two thirds of the way through, we are given a HUGE CURVEBALL. In fact, it is so delightful a curve ball that we are not going to reveal it for what it is. As otherwise, it would be a huge spoiler and literally spoils any other enjoyment you may get out of buying yes buying and reading this book

Suffice to say, it all ends like a good Disney tale with winners all and smiles everywhere ... o yes this is a tale told in one issue and a great jumping on point for us personally for the casual reader who wants to understand what makes the FF tick

Entertaining to the last page!

Ratings: 7/10 would be higher if different artist!

2.242 (607) Avengers vol 3 #5 ...

It has been a while since our last v 3 review and so we finally reached issue 5 and honestly while I did enjoy some of the past decades Avengers especially the first round of New Avengers and Mighty Avengers, unfortunately, with each relaunch and renumbering it got harder and harder to follow unless one is a constant reader. Sigh!

In Issue 5, the Avengers have just been reassembled with a whole new team as of end of 4 and this time consists of some all time fave and two so-called active reserves ... and as our cover clearly indicates, the Avengers have another run-in with the Squadron Supreme

For those who are wondering, basically years ago, Marvel did a maxi-series on this group of heroes in an alternate universe. There the mighty took it upon themselves to reshape the world thinking that with their power they can bring some sort of utopia to their world. Now as we all now even here in the real world that no such thing can ever be and if might is all it takes, we all also know that it's only a matter of time before things crumble

So the Squadron is their world's kinda Avengers too and while on some mission or other ended up stuck on our world looking for their way home

This issue opens up nicely with the new team having personal time like some going shopping and others exercising and training to hone their skills while even more others are in the lab trying to help out. And as the title is Avengers, all you need to know and I am sure all you are expecting is that a call will go out and before you know it, it's time for AVENGERS ASSEMBLE

As is common now in comics, that call is attended to which leads to a common misunderstanding with our two teams coming to blows. Normally the blows would be sorted out within a few panels but not this issue. With Perez at art, everyone wants to see big groups of heroes pounding the tar out of each other and both writer and artist did not disappoint

In other words, the tale ain't done here and we have to come back for Part 2

Hah!

Ratings: 8/10

2.241 (606) Crimson #8 ...

Humberto Ramos' penciling is full of energy and an excellent development from a manga style with oversized feet and hair to stylized facial expression or should that be the occasional explosion? Regardless, I liked his work from DC's Impulse and have followed him for a while from one series to another. However, if there is one gripe I may be permitted to express: it is his covers. Somehow, they are not popping if you know what I mean and this issue is no difference

Contentwise, we open to see Scarlet, the lady who hunts vampires with a crossbow and dressed in skin tights and a cloak, fight against another attack of some sort of creature (demonic children?) and while this is the opening scene, as the series progresses, we are given more to think about as we see Alex, our protagonist (human turned unwilling vampire) agonizing about life in general while his mentor, the odd shaped creature named Ekimus is hovering over someone close to Alex

So is Alex turning into a vampire a mere accident or something more?

And while we are pondering this, we also get a glimpse of good guy cop who is trying to help Alex's parents find where their son has disappeared too starts getting visions of someone who looks a lot like him except dressed in King Arthur esque armor?!?!?!?!

And if that is not enough, is that Alex and Scarlett developing feelings for each other? Now while this may seem normal to you for us, because of the artwork, when they first met, we thought she was like a young adult (above 21) while Alex is mid to early teenager hood (14 to 16). So what gives, eh?

Sadly, this issue while moving the main story arc forward does little else and feels like one of those in-between chapters in what could be a potentially exciting book. So if this is your first taste, we recommend you do not make a decision but go and buy the first TPB collecting issues 1 to 6 for a better feel of what this tale is about

Ratings: 6/10

2.240 (605) All Star Superman #2 ...

This is one of the oddest comic mini or maxi series I have ever read - not because it is by Grant Morrison but because of the tone of the entire series. If you read each comic by itself, it feels so self contained which is awesome and yet as the series progresses (because each issue is so good both art and storyline that you are drawn to come back for more) you get to see the overall arch and its linkages sprinkled throughout each issue in minute amounts

This entire issue deals with the fact that Superman is in love with Lois and wants to give her a special birthday surprise. However, she doesn't know yet that he is Clark. So he whips her up on his broad shoulders or should we say he hoist he car and flew her to his fortress

And then he gives her a tour of the mysteries contained

We are given access to her thoughts when Superman went somewhere private (to prepare for her present which we will not SPOIL for you readers who have yet to try this) .... as Lois does what a nosey reporter does ... nosing around and her misunderstanding of so many things there made her think that perhaps her own life is in peril for discovering some shit about Superman's lineage! Hah!

It is light hearted, it is funny, it is charming and Frank Quitely's controlled linework tells this tale so wonderfully!

Ratings: 9/10

2.239 (604) Archer and Armstrong (2012) #2 ...

You know how some comics when you first heard about it or even glance upon the cover you didn't think much of it? Until somehow, some day, when you happen to be so bored and your fingers itch to turn the covers on some comic that you never tried and you find yourself addicted? This is that title for me. Once I read issue 1, I had to go get the TPB and from that onwards until the big 25, I followed this title

And in issue 2, we see that the fun and mayhem from issue 1 continues unabated

But firstly, artist Clayton Henry who is never on my to-read list delivers up an awesome job and going forward, if he ever does anything, I know I would give his works at least a one-issue trial

Anyway, all you need to know is that Archer is a young teenager who was raised in a cult like compound. Unfortunately he and all his fellow youthful troopers have been lied to by their leaders. The cult's intention is to seize upon some almost mystical like items that supposedly when joined together can grant immense power to them so that they can control the world and its destinies or some such nonsense which however as the pages are turned seemed to be the truth and that item actually has that ability

And that very item is linked to Armstrong and his brothers who ... as we will find out are near immortals having lived the centuries and though may be hurt are near impossible to kill

So in issue 2, Archer has to make a hard decision to believe what he is seeing happening in front of him or believe his so-called parents. However, this is not all about a teenage rebellion. Nope. We have lots n lots n lots of action with them busting each other and then busting their captors. After that, there is a quick jaunt to certain places in Europe where more head-busting ensues

So all in all a very fast paced action issue that manages to squeeze in humour and characterization. Awesome!

Ratings: 8/10

2.238 (603) West Coast Avengers #10 ...

Wow it's ... it's just wow! That's how I feel about the first year or two's worth of issues from the old WCA series. Firstly the stories are interesting with a good combination of lighter moments (mainly from Hawkeye and Mockingbird) as well as character developments (Wonder Man and Hank Pym) to the usual bad guys trying to takeover

But this issue is a true testament to the strength of the series

Simple clean lines gives us the ideal way of drawing super heroes accompanied by colours that literally pop and prop up the line so well ... loved it!

In this issue, we start off with the Thing actually wanting to join the WCA. And Hawkeye deciding to choose the Thing instead of Firebird (religious sort of gal) ... however, this is just during the Thing's own title where he mutated into something more rockier. And so as expected when the time comes for the press, he skipped town

We spent the rest of the issues following the WCA as they go about trying to find out where is Ben since they didn't know about his mutation and so many times they come close until ... a villain called Headlok decided to ambush them with the help of the Griffin. Now we are not told at this point why the 2 villains decided to just jump on our heroes because hey there should be a plot right? So if you are jumping into this series here, then we will keep mum

Suffice to say that as this is a told in one type of tale we did get resolution in the form of closure on the Thing's status. And boy is it a sad ending

Ratings: 7/10

2.237 (602) Fallen Angels #1 ...

Honestly we have no idea what was the purpose of this entire mini-series. Seriously ... average artwork to average story (some issues are actually boring) ... issued during a time when mini-series were still not the norm ... one would expect this to be huge but it was not

Anyway, Prof X has files on mutants including students and one of his files was on Sunspot and the potential for him to be a bad guy some day simply because he is headstrong and comes from a moneyed background and his daddy is some sort of industrialist while his mom is some of professor type that goes all Indiana Jones

So to make a long story short, as the cover shows, Sunspot lost his cool and smacks Cannonball aka Sam aka his best friend down. Shocked more than anything made Sunspot panicked and he fled along with a few others

And that's what this is about

Sunspot left with a few of the other Mutants going to the streets trying to find their purpose in life and whether they should move on, just exist or go back. There are some pluses here. We got some new people introduced during this series. And we get to see some characters from the Marvel U who hasn't been seen in a while

And that's just about it ... a ho-hum kinda effort that didn't make me feel like continuing to buy this when it first came out

Ratings: 3/10

2.236 (601) Factor X #1 ...

Right - I am surprised I have never reviewed a single issue of this four issue series so let's get to it. Basically this happened during the mid-90s in the original Age of Apocalypse run where all the mutant titles got canned and for four months, we get alternate versions of these titles. So Factor X is X-Factor ... more or less ... perhaps more less if you get what I mean

Here in this opening issue, we see that Cyclops is Mr Prim and Proper to a certain extent in the sense that he carries out his master/ boss wishes to the point that he actually loses one eye. And in this universe, as he is a mutant he is one of the master race and his own master is none other than Sinister

During this time, he was in-charge of slave pens where humans etc are being caged for uses including experimentation and being menial labour... serving alongside him is his younger brother Alex aka Havok who has a bit of an inferiority complex except in this universe, that inferiority has developed into full blown jealousy and potentially hatred. So what can happen if this is left unchecked eh? Well you won't get it in this one issue but if you are patient enough you will find out and it can be shocking!

Speaking of shocking, as the cover shows, we also get the Dark Beast who has many of the same traits as our regular Beast except that here he has not the ability to relate to anyone on a humane level. Thus to him the science is all and his passion is to experiment on anyone and everyone. Hence his awesome love of the slave pens

With that out of the way, the story progresses and we see a Scott struggling with his inner self trying to justify what he is doing on a daily basis while surrounded by those who actually loved the stage of ruin and despair and carnage all around him. You just know that it will not be long before all goes BOOM

Ratings: 6/10 (o yeah  artist is Steve Epting before he became awesome on Captain A)

2.235 (600) Fantastic Four vol 2 #7 ...

SPOILER ALERT

There! I decided to put that right at the start because I have no idea how we can do this without that. So after six issues of non stop running and fighting and dodging and blowing things up, can we expect life to slow down for our Fabulous Foursome? Yes

Reason is because after the nightmare of the crossover with the other Heroes Reborn titles, we see Ben aka the Thing with severe radiation burns on his hands and recuperating. Lucky thing for him (no pun intended) that the beautiful Alicia Masters who is blind yet seemed to have an awesome ability to dress up and pair off clothes and make up wonderfully (colour not texture) has a thing for the Thing (pun intended) and she is visiting him

Thus creating the opportunity for the rest of the team to go back and do some stuff

Unfortunately whatever they may wish for was not meant to be as before they know it BANG they have split up and each appear to be in a different time or place or universe. Reed, Sue and Johnny had to face some cold hard truths

The biggest shocker of all is the arrival of Mr Non Intervention, the Watcher as apparently he was the one who orchestrated their temporary displacement and after what he deemed to be enough, he whisked them back leaving them with cryptic messages. It's always thus, isn't it? Hehehe!

So yes there is some drama and action ... but not all out war here ... I guess that's as good as it gets with the FF. Oh yeah! Jim Lee has vanished from the art side and given the reins to Brett Booth who generally does a good job except for his facials

Ratings: 6/10

2.234 (599) Fantastic Four vol 2 Heroes Reborn #6 ...

Waaaaay back then or about 20 years ago (damn has it been that long?), when this book was coming out, it was a huge hit regardless of what some critics were saying (originally). We have artistic superstar retelling the original tales of the FF and updating not only costumes but storylines. In fact, rather than decompression storytelling, this is like an overload trying to cramp as much as possible into each issue and the surprising thing is inspite of the amount of dialogues, it is still a very good looking book thanks to the entire creative team from penciller to inker to colorist

In issue 6, as the book approaches its half year point, we see the end of one tale, the start of another that will crossover into the other books and also the start of yet another thread for issue 7. In short, this is one heck of a comicbook storywise

First up, we see the conclusion SPOILER ALERT to the Silver Surfer issue as we see that the Super Skrull has mistakenly thought (so childish - seriously) that by absorbing some of the Surfer's powers, he will have enough to challenge Galactus himself. The FF proved him wrong by wakening the Surfer and letting Surfer kick Skrull butt

Unfortunately the place they were having their all-out was Latveria because it was Doom who originally kidnapped the Surfer hoping to syphon the Surfer's Power Cosmic for himself. That ended in a dramatic explosion where once again probably owing to lack of pages we see the FF depart without clear conclusion on outcome or even following up later

So we have a potential ticking timebomb underground, Surfer surviving with potential world devouring status coming to pass and finally, an enraged Doom who as usual will plot his revenge. Unfortunately as if that isn't enough, we get a whiff of something going horrendously wrong in USA where it affects a certain green-skinned monster. So what book is next for you to buy?

Avengers #6 and all the others that has #6 before coming back here for 7

Ratings: 8/10

2.233 (598) Uncanny X-Men vol 1 #206 ...

The first question that comes to mind when reading this is how much longer can writer Claremont keep up with this greatness? He has been churning out issue after issue of tense, continuous laden goodies for fans, be it new or those following for years and each issue there are always either new plot developments or he progresses on existing sub plot threads slowly nurturing them to the fore for a future primary storyline

In this issue, we see the culmination of subplots from before the big 200

Mystique in her wheeling and dealing finally got approval and pardon for the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in return for them performing services for the government. While the concept is not new but the oddity here is that there is no attempt to even clean their image or at the very least new uniforms to confuse the general public before releasing them out into the wilds so to speak

Anyway, in view of what happened in 200 where the trial of Magneto was Hung, SPOILER ALERT, amongst many other issues, it has been decided that the X-Men is not on the side of the angels anymore or at least their status is more a shade of grey

So when the opportunity arises, as the cover indicates, Mystique launches Freedom Force and the moment they come across the X-Men, her ego got the better of her and it's all out fighting!

Awesome!

Ratings: 7/10

2.232 (597) Uncanny X-Men vol 1 #205 ...

We were going to stop and change to a different title but this issue is so freaking awesome that we just had to do a review. After 204's breather with Nightcrawler, Marvel continued to do a "told in one" issue and this time with Wolverine ... and to ensure that the tale packs a huge PUNCH, they brought in artist superstar, Barry Windsor Smith

And boy did Mr Smith delivered! Big time!

Right from the very first page, we knew it was going to be different from the art style to the darker colours and the moody shadows

This comic started with the full introduction of then new villain the Reavers and Lady Deathstrike. We also get to see a Spiral who has plans and intentions of her own that goes beyond Mojoworld and Mojo ... or is she merely carrying out her mistress' plans?

But whatever her plans might be, the truth remains and that is that she was the one who called into being the transformation of Lady Yuriko into Lady Deathstrike

And with that covered in the first few panels we get to see how the story goes into even higher gear as our reavers started hunting Wolverine. Naturally, as everyone knows, a cornered animal can be ... you know what ... and Wolverine when cornered, gives back every bit as good as he got. In short, it's a close quarters fight ... on the one hand you have the cyborgs Reavers with their weapons versus Wolvie's claws and on the other, the reborn Deathstrike and her claws versus Wolvie DAMN!

This is good no great comics

Ratings: 9/ 10

2.231 (596) Uncanny X-Men vol 1 #204 ...

As is the wont in Marvel's merry days, after a series of issues that has way too much doom n gloom, Marvel will take an issue for a breather. This breather may be in the form of a stock comic or something in continuity

In issue 204, after all the drama with Prof X being yanked into outer space and Magneto now part of the X-Men (a first of sorts way back then) and the Secret Wars saga with Rachel/ Phoenix having the ability to wipe out the Earth, Marvel decided to spotlight this issue on a character that has always had some popularity and that is the blue coloured Nightcrawler

During those days, Nightcrawler besides his ability to teleport looked like the slimmer version of Beast. He is even agile and comes with a tail and can stick to rough surfaces almost like Spidey. Night fancies himself to be in the mold of an olden day's world sword fighter, a swashbuckler ... sort of a pirates like Johnny Depp before Pirates of the Caribbean

And as the cover clearly indicates, this is a light hearted romp through various scenes as he goes about getting involved in rescuing damsels in distress ...

And that's all there is to it. Nothing monumental happens. Nothing that will change Night's life one bit but it's all in good fun and reading this comic was indeed fun

Ratings: 6/10

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

2.229 (594) Uncanny X-Men vol 1 #202 ...

Okay. Enough with the New Mutants eh? Now we switch on to the main team - Uncanny X-Men and what a ride this series has been for the past 100 issues. Chris Claremont really gets the characters and here he shows that he can start a new tale in the midst of impending crossover time (Secret Wars 2) and still managed to make it standalone so well

As the cover indicates (and what a lovely lovely cover it is), the Sentinels are back. And you all know what it means! Mutant hunting time ... yup for those not in the know SPOILER ALERT ... Sentinels are basically created to hunt down and exterminate mutants and here, that's what they do

So our team, still licking their wounds after their past few issues of hectic over the top stress and tension, are ill equipped to face the robotic death traps. However, in this instance, it is not a case of lacking raw power but rather focus

Still with Rachel, baby Phoenix on their side, they cannot lose, eh?

What you need to know is buy this comic and just read it and enjoy it. The art and colours work so well here with the tale

Ratings: 7/10

2.228 (593) New Mutants vol 1 #46 ...

We skip 10 issues down the road and what do we get? We see the Mutants run smack dab into yet another major mutie crossover and this time it's the original SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT Mutant Massacre

Recap time: the original Mutant Massacre is basically a bunch of nasty mutants going down into the sewer tunnel homes of Morlock mutants and killing them. Anyone get in the way and they get slaughtered as well. At this juncture, the man behind the scenes were never revealed and it ended with no conclusion except a lot of violence and wiping the deck clean. This is the miniseries that saw Kitty having problems becoming solid, Nightcrawler injured and took a long time to recover his ability to teleport and Colossus having problems becoming human ... and Angel ... well ...

As for our kids, the mutants were at school but they have friends among the Morlock community and it's a hot debate as to whether they should go down there to assist or not. Naturally Magneto protests and states that they are students not heroes or warriors like the X-Men which he is right. Unfortunately as the cover indicates, the X-Men at this stage were kind of wimpy inspite of the might that they still possess and let the bad guys walked all over them without them doing much damage except to one or two of the bad guys

O yeah at this point, X-Factor had just started but the X-Men didn't know that it was a front for the original X-Men to act and they nearly but not quite run into each other here in this series

Ratings: 6/10

2.227 (592) New Mutants vol 1 #36 ...

As comics come out once a month and it is not exactly cheap, you cannot expect too much downtime from one issue to the next not if you want to keep your fans coming back each month and so without further ado, after last issue's supposedly fresh start for the Mutants when they come back to their school, we see them land smack in the middle of Secret Wars 2

SPOILER ALERT

For those newer readers to this world, SW2 is when the Beyonder from SW1 decided to come to Earth to learn what it is like to be finite and to have physical appearances

In this issue, as per the cover, we see Shadowcat of the X-Men suddenly coming into possession of the Soulsword. The Sword is mystical in nature and is connected to her supposed best friend, Ilyanna. So if it comes to Kitty, it means something bad has happened to Magik aka Illyanna

And that means also for the Mutants

So Kitty goes on an adventure trying to find out if what she is seeing is really happening or not and learning the hard way that the Beyonder may not be necessarily cruel but he does hurt people all the same, intentionally or not

Not for the casual reader as it is too dense

Ratings: 6/10

2.226 (591) New Mutants vol 1 #35 ...

[Seat belts in everyone and prepare to be jetted through some of the early issues of the New Mutants. Why NM? Because we are huge, huge fans of volume 1, that's why so there!]


Thirty five as the cover indicates is sort of a turning point in both Xavier's school as well as the life of the younger mutants. You see, this story kind of takes place, if memory serves correctly after Uncanny X-Men vol 1 #200 the trial of Magneto where Prof X finally succumbs to his injuries that have been mounting and is yanked away to be with his beloved to rest and recuperate ... SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT ... and in his place in comes Magneto whose trial did not end conclusively one way or another. And therein lies the hokum of comics ... villains that have killed can be given second chances by heroes as heroes are judge and jury in that world hahahahah!

So naturally at first with no one around to explain things in a rational way, the New Mutants act out by trying to be rebellious ... or at least some of them did ...

And the Mutants themselves have been having a tough time too because recently they came through a tough time where Dani Moonstar ended up a Valkyrie while Karma an original founding member possessed them and caused havoc ... when they discovered that she is now crimelord and blubbo of some seedy underworld gang ...

And as the cover also clearly indicates ... Magneto made the smart move by giving them a chance to vent their mounting pent up frustration on him in the then Danger Room.

Very cluttered and clunky artwork though the facial expressions do come through sufficiently well to convey the emotions running in this issue. While this issue is sort of a downtime in between major storylines that has crossover impact, it is also a welcome breather to let us know the protagonists much better

Ratings: 6/10

2.225 (590) Alpha Flight vol 1 #43 ...

I know we just reviewed an issue from this series recently but hey the reason we are now jumping

back here is because after Byrne left in Alpha's first volume, a lot of current and 90s superstar folks got their headstart on this particular series. In fact, if you had continued on this series you will find the likes of Jim Lee and Whilce (I think) on some of the issues to come. This is similar to another series Punisher

So for this particular issue, what is really good is that the writer manages to make the Purple Man's character super powerful and a worthwhile villain!

Basically the scenario is this: the Alpha's are tired and have earned their rest for a wee bit of period. But what's a superhero comic if we do not have action? So we start off with the big prison break out of Mesmero (another villain who can possess others - what's this about Purple Man, you ask? Wait for it okay?) ... and love the way he did his break out

So by the time it reaches the ears of our dear Alphans, Mesmero had not only gotten clean away but started taking control of a town. Naturally when he found out that Alphan's are on the way he had to do something to stop and this he did in fashion using the awesome Sentinels

SPOILER ALERT

And in order to take down Mesmero, the Alphans had no choice but to utilize a purple skinned lady (not Hulk related sorry) ... as she has the same power as her daddy ie possessing and controlling and her daddy is none other than the Purple Man. Kind of like if your skin is yellow you must be Yellow Man ... ah well ... but still what was great here is everything - from the told in one issue storyline to character developments to supporting characters coming to the fore and some decent action scenes

Ratings: 6/10

2.224 (589) Static #1 ... DC Milestone ...

There was a time when Marvel was coming up with New Universes and to compensate, DC went a similar route of making DC comic universe more grounded in reality except that DC decided that not only is the setting required to be changed from say Metropolis to ugly-artwork city but that the characters must reflect more diversity. Well ... when something becomes forced upon, it rarely works and unfortunately that experiment is called the Milestone Universe

Here we review the most successful of those characters which was a surprise as a number of the Milestone folks are gang members style and grim and gritty but here we have a scrawny, almost geeky African American kid who found one day that he had gotten powers of the electric kind. Hence the name and as for his costume, well, he is still a kid so you cannot expect him to pop by somewhere and whipped out something cooler, right

This is a decent opening issue that gives us insight into Static as a hero and as regular person type of character. The villain of the issue is no one earth-shattering but enough to give us a taste of what Static is really like ... you might say that is the only purpose of the villain

What I didn't quite like is the artwork both interior and on the cover. The artist has no potential but perhaps with the boom of comics in that time, they could not wait for the artist to get more practise and experience and BANG put him on a solo title

What made this title a success is that years after its cancellation, there was an animated feature made!

Ratings: 4/10

2.223 (588) Sabretooth Open Season TPB

Sabretooth in the comics world is one big meanie and he is not always dumb like in the movies. In fact, the movies sort of makes him out to be nothing but a hired dumb hick of a thug. But in the comics, he might have started out as a sadistic assassin for hire who also somehow seemed cannibalistic ... however, over the years, he has become more and more of a schemer, a multi-faceted sort of character

So here in this TPB ... unfortunately while it is a tale of many chapters, thanks to the uninspired artwork within, not the cover, it sort of made the entire tale become draggy. All you need to know is that there are some people living up north in the cold and there are some egghead types doing some stuff there or some such thanks to their odd uniforms. One thing led to another and before you know it, because Sabretooth is all tooth and nail we have Sasquatch of Alpha Flight popping by

And is that enough? Or do we need one more so-called truly nasty villain?

You can tell by the second paragraph I am so not enamoured with this book, eh? I hope so

Ratings: 2/10

2.222 (587) Supreme Power Nighthawk #3 to 5 ...

 Steve Dillon has to be one of the most awesome comicbook artist ever. He draws generally very straightforward clean lineworks with almost no fancy camera angles. Almost everything is viewed from a straight to the front horizontal style and yet it works. Perhaps it is how he conveys emotions so well with but a few lines

Anyway, for some reason he always pairs with writers who writes the shit out of the violence in each comic book and here it is crazy

We have Nighthawk a guy who is an angry African American with no superpowers but dresses himself up and uses some gadgets kind of like a lame ass Batman type.

In this alternate universe, in this storyline, he goes up against an ordinary guy, a loser sort who decides for whatever reason to kill and so our hero has to stop him but this loser is not exactly stupid, see? Not only will he slice you up he loves a bit of the old poisoning too

And so Nighthawk finds that perhaps even an ordinary fellow can be an extraordinary man and perhaps he should quit being an angry man in crazy country

Ratings: 7/10

2.221 (586) Thing vol 1 #20 ...

As the cover indicates, something is even more wrong than normal after last issue's encounter with all the classic movie monsters like mummies and vampires and Frankenstein monsters.

And this issue is what's up with his hottie of a gal pal?

You see, somewhere along their journey, Ben and lady warrior wannabe got parted. So naturally being of the heroic persuasion, Ben immediately goes off in hot pursuit tracking every lead and trying hard to get her back. Only she seemed not to want to go back.

No, that's not quite right.

Actually she seemed totally hostile to his very presence.

So what happened? Did someone mindwashed her? Did he travel back in time to before they ever met? Or is this a clone of her? Or something even more sinister?

Hey this is comics. So the possibilities can stretch on quite far

Ratings: 5/10

2.220 (585) Thing vol 1 #18 ...

After liking number 19, I actually tried to buy what I could on the discount bins and naturally this was one of the easier finds.

This is an interesting tale.

Here we see Ben continuing on his journey with that leggy female warrior from the Battleworld of the Beyonder.

If you are new to this, basically, after the first Secret Wars, Ben Grimm decided not to go back to Earth with the other heroes because here he can transform from Ben to the Thing at will. So armed with a gadget from Reed that will allow him to go back to Earth any time he wants, he stayed back and before he knew it, there is a strange shadowy figure somehow tracking him and putting him through various challenges.

But not everything is bad.

On the plus side is this woman whom he came across who seemed attracted to him as both Grimm and Thing and this issue continues their journey as they come across even more crazy turns on Battleworld.

Artwork is acceptable and easy to follow not so much flash though

Ratings: 5/10

2.219 (584) Alpha Flight vol 1 #114 ...

In the first series of Alpha Flight, ever since creator Byrne moved on, it has struggled to find a captive audience and slowly but surely loses ground. Like one of the letter writers in this comic, I too struggled to 100% drop this title as the joy from Byrne's run kept me coming back to sample this well of creativity hoping to find something worth my buck

But this issue is not it

SPOILER ALERT

The storyline is average at best as they tried to push so many subplots in to the end that the book reads very disjointed with no major focal point here. Artwork is by Pat Broderick. Definitely not my cup of tea as his linework gets too chunky and clumsy frequently. Inker Bruce doesn't help unless it is
Bruce's fault that the art looks like that

So here we see the end of an adventure as the members of Alpha Flight take their down time and instead of chilling out or bonding, they decided to rip chunks out of each other because ... this comic came out during the grim n gritty era ... so we have a leader who just still dresses up in full uniform while flying around or walking around ... and the scientist Sasquatch still experimenting on his on again off again girlfriend, something he has been doing 100 issues ago ...

As if that is not enough, we see then fan favorite Puck trying to be useful but ultimately not able to contribute and Northstar being his usual angry self

Now as this is a superhero comic, there is a villain of sorts but the villain is the son of the original jackal - a Spidey villain (say what) and Heather sends Beta Flight, the junior team in training to settle him without even bothering to have one single senior to evaluate or support or guide ... way to go Heather you bitch! As can be expected, everything goes to tatters the moment they encounter the villain as no one has any idea of how to defeat the bad guy or is even prepared to meet him. They are just stumbling along, literally to get from a to b

And the comic just keeps jumping from scene to scene every couple of pages or less!

As for Wild Child, well, he is supposed to break out and go mad as per the cover. Don't hold your breath as it didn't happen in the comic itself

Ratings: 3/10

2.218 (583) Fantastic Four vol 1 #577 ...

Dale Eaglesham is on duty in this issue of Fantastic Four and you know it is just going to be detailed, smooth and a good read. Coupled with decent colouring and this book is a great opening chapter to a new epic. I say epic because this issue is indeed a game changer in two aspects - the Inhumans and the cosmic corner of the Marvel U

We start off with a quick back step into the not too distant past and then time passes ... and before you know it something gigantic comes forward to the moon. Naturally our friends the FF discovers this before anyone else. And being the intrepid explorers that they are, they journey upwards and outwards into space and the moon only to find out the truth and that truth is the true origins of the Inhumans as a race not a super hero team

SPOILER ALERT

Basically the earth spawned Inhumans have learnt that the Kree who created them eons ago had gone across the galaxy to seed other races trying to find those that are not at an evolutionary dead end to see how far their genetic structure can be developed. It is their hope that somehow with this knowledge it can help the Kree to give their own genetic structure a kick in the nuts so to speak. So aside from humanoid Inhumans, we see now that there are four other success stories and while the assembly here is "peaceful" some of the alien races have been known to be vile villains:

(a) Fin people - or those who watched GOTG movie knows, the Yondu tribe
(b) Wraithkind - for those who follow Rom these are super nasties
(c) Horsies - and for those who remembered early Power Pack from the 80s/ 90s, well here it is a reappearance by their buddy and savious
(d) Badoon - another GOTG group where this alien race wiped out and conquered huge chunks of the future

So why are they all here safe in the knowledge of their origin?

Well suffice to say this is but the opening gambit and we have to continue to find out more. With the awesome art and decent storyline albeit another retcon of sorts, this makes a must buy for the next issue

Ratings: 7/10