2.205 (570) Captain America vol 5 (Ed) #1 ... Marvel ...

[This is a bit of a surprise considering how much I enjoyed this run and this run is the one in Cap's entire output that I bought from the floppies to the TPB to softcopies as I enjoyed both the art and story so much ... in fact thanks to the stories, I love the art as in the past I have seen Epting's work before in Avengers and found it acceptable but not someone I would follow ... not until here ... so why surprise? I have not done a review yet!]

So with the movie coming out soon ... and everyone having seen trailers ... what better time than now to do a review of one of Cap's most successful if not the most successful relaunch in Cap history ... and the one man who dared broke one of the "sacred" rules of comic books in the sense that no one dies forever except Bucky and Uncle Ben because ... Bucky finally makes a return to active duty in the Marvel U with this series ... and no need for spoiler alert ... this is the volume that resulted in the long running death of Captain America storylines ...

And what an opening issue this turned out to be ... everything is dark, full of shadows and overcast from the line work to the shadings to the muted colouring ... just perfection as we see right at the start that the current incarnation of the Red Guardian was caught by General Lukin and within the opening pages have his brains blown away ... literally! And Lukin is aligned with the Red Skull ... so we know something is seriously up because when there is the Skull in Cap's series, it is always dire kinda like Doom for the FF and Magneto for the mutants

With that done, we get a glimpse into the live of our star character, Steve Rogers aka Captain America as he takes down the usual bad guys only to be accosted by one ex-gal pal, Sharon aka Agent 13 of SHIELD (yes at this time there was a SHIELD)

For those of us who do not follow Cap's series before, we are surprised that they are ex-es but hey we do not need to know what happened, right? Well one thing led to another as we see Cap is under tremendous pressure and has some built up anger that he is taking out on villains (good on you Cap regardless of what SHIELD may think) ... and Sharon is there to assist and monitor him ... yup even Cap is under close supervision by the international agencies ...

But what really blew everyone away is not even the Cosmic Cube being part of the Skull's plans but rather the finale ... SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT because without a doubt, the Red Skull? He was shot right through his chest!

Ratings: 9/10

2.204 (569) Ghost Riders: Heaven's on Fire #1 ... Marvel ...

Wow talk about embarrassment. We are already at review 569 and we have never done a single Ghost Rider. We checked and was surprised especially since this character has had 2 movies of his own, quality being a separate issue (but hey blame Nic Cage, okay? Hahaha)

Anyhow, let's move on ... GR has had some nice long runs in solo series as well as the occasional team ups when he tries to be part of a group. However, this one is a limited series and all you (and us) need to know is that GR is either Blaze or Ketch being blessed/ cursed with powers that transforms him into a skeletal figure with blazing skull. His powers are strength, awesome motorcycle, some sort of stare and that chain of his ... and of course the fire

In this first issue, we see him and a chick (still not sure who) SPOILER ALERT tracking down leads as apparently one of the (arc) angels who is not Lucifer is having a plan of his own to literally shake the balance between good and evil by ... eliminating evil! Yes! And that is actually not good because by eliminating evil, there will be no Armageddon/ apocalypse and so the end of the world will be postponed indefinitely and not go according to God's plan

Thus GR is out there to hunt him down and put things back on track and that's how you know, our main man, GR is a good guy (ehehehehe)

Next up we have a quick cameo to an ugly version of Daimon Helstorm, he who is a son of Satan. Satan in Marvel is one of many evil entities but not the all powerful one in the Bible and he is also after evil

And finally we are introduced to the cult that is breeding genetic material for the anti-Christ. Apparently when the good guys struck even babies here are killed and one boy escaped ... who within days/ weeks have risen up the corporate ladder (a minor? really?) and he calls himself Anton Satan (pronounced as Shuh-tan) ... sigh ...

An interesting read but do bear in mind that interior artwork is vastly different from cover

Ratings: 5/10

2.203 (568) Captain America & The Mighty Avengers #1 ... Marvel ...

That title sure is a mouthful. I guess with all the relaunches and what-nots, Marvel is running out of ideas on what to name this series. So does it mean whoever is the next team leader will get the name in front of his or her team? Hehehe!

SPOILER ALERT

First up, I have never been a fan of Sam Wilson aka Falcon and with him taking on the mantle of Captain America? Nope. Just doesn't work for me but I was willing to give this title a chance since it boasts Luke Ross as interior artist. Yeah we just had to mention that because the cover is kinda weak as well ... Marvel does have this cyclical problem where they will have a barren spell with a dearth of good artists and the past few years seem to lean in this direction

Anyhow, while it has a 1 to its numbering, sad to say unless you are familiar with these characters, you are going to have a hard time enjoying this because there are so many characters and this all ties to a mini series or storyline that happened earlier. Even a loyal Marvel reader like me is left at a loss some times in this comic

We open up with Falcon soaring and taking down regular hoodlums with excessive violence without a care in the world for innocents. And then we read the blurb and was told that this issue happened after the Red Skull (him again?) tried and took over Prof X's brain and used it to fire off a salvo of hate vibes. So while that threat has been dealt with it seems like the world is a bit off its moorings with some good guys becoming less than altruistic and more extreme and the same can be said of the villain community

Whose the villain? There isn't. O there is one chap named Parnival (who was a brilliant villain in the Ka Zar lines of years ago) who is now a masked marauder named Plunderer - and he is more clown than threat along with his henchmen

And then as if that lame ass bit was not enough, we get to see more of False Fake Falcon acting his bit and it looks ominous especially since it involves Tony Stark the futurist

Ugh

Ratings: 5/10

2.202 (567) Batman The Long Halloween #1 ... DC ...

It has been a while since our last review where we actually liked an issue, eh? Well, with that, we thought it is time to be a little more positive so we dragged this issue out of our long boxes. As you know, we are not huge fans of Bat. Or artwork that is cartoony but this issue? WOW! It made us fans to artist Tim Sale to the point that we bought his Marvel "colours" series as well and were 100% satisfied customers

Why this title?

Well, because a murder (s) occurred on Halloween and subsequently as Batman tries to use his detective skills to track down the perps, he realizes that, once again, there is a pattern to the madness as each victim dies on some sort of holiday and the long part is because each issue continues to showcase Bats trying to track him or her down while the bodycount racks up

The question naturally is that is this a new lunatic in Gotham or one of the Bats old rogues up to no good?

Here in the opening issue, we see Bruce attending a wedding and on the sides, having a discussion with Falcone (yes the guy from the tv series Gotham except slight changes in supporting cast) where Falcone is as dirty as it comes and he has a proposition for Bruce not knowing that Bruce is Bats

At the same party is Selina aka Catwoman

Naturally while they meet as their human regular character disguises, when the party gives them space, Bruce goes to investigate while Cat goes to burgle. We also see others like Bullock and even a younger Falcone who wants to help learn dad's trade while dad wants him to keep his fingers clean

This entire issue is a fast read inspite of the many dialogue boxes because Sale's art is so fluid you feel like you are watching an episode on TV. He is that good. Naturally before the issue is out, we get to see the rest of the players including Gordon on the chessboard and we end with a murder done without words which makes it even more effective

As an opening chapter, it is fine and enough with intrigue to appeal to even the casual reader like me looking for something different and draw us in

Ratings: 7/10

2.201 (566) Bloodshot Reborn #3 ... Valiant ...

Bloodshot ... if I have to categorize him, I would say he is a cross between Wolverine and Cable because Bloodshot is a man who has had his memory wiped clean and been issued out as a warrior/ assassin and whatever shit work there is available to a man of his talents. And that talent is none other than to be a paid killer ... so what makes him special?

Well it is because in his blood there are a huge quantity of nanites i.e. tiny machines inside fixing him (like Wolverine) and so he recovers fast from any injury

Originally, this series came in the 90s and together with parent company folded. Hence it has been quiet. Then a few years ago, a few folks come about to renew the Valiant licences and so here we are and honestly Valiant as a rule has a decent reputation

Anyway they went bankrupt ... was bought over and re-relaunched but that fizzled even faster until this series or rather this particular turn at publishing. The initial TPB of all the Valiant U is so brilliant that I read all of them. Hehehe. And now?

Now they want to be serious about the business and ... thus when they launched this round, it was so good

Okay that's enough background info. Here in issue 3 all you need to know is Bloodshot regained his humanity but sadly for him, the nanites then go out in the world to cause problems. So like it or not, he feels that he is responsible and is now going after those who have been infected in order to terminate the person so holding and taking back his power base

A cutesy moment is lil Bloodshot and his dead GF - letting us wonder if BS is going insane or not

Ratings: 6/10

2.200 (565) Amazing Spider-Man 2015 #2 ... Marvel

You know how every now and then we always bitch about how some comics are so dense that if you dive into it, you will get lost. Well this 2015 relaunch of Spider-Man feels exactly like that. Now as we all know Spider-Man is Peter Parker who is a never do well, down on his luck guy who does the best he can with what he has

Here, we open the issue with him as filthy rich having his own huge conglomerate, board meetings, owning several buildings as his own internal monologue tells us and then he has hired Hobie Brown, the Prowler (guest star from old old old issues) as his bodyguard of sorts and is working with SHIELD! So basically he is the layman's version of Iron Man!

Say what?

Yup, that's exactly what went on in our minds as we read this issue ... totally lost and we have to wonder if this is in regular continuity or not. Hey don't get us wrong. We are the types who enjoy a good story more than anything but this? It feels so jarring

And the story while interesting is not all that as apparently one of the new tech from Parker gets stolen by Zodiac (a group of criminals who take their names after astrological signs, have real or fake powers and obeys the study of astrology - in short they can be nasty but rarely effective) ... so here Peter as Spidey goes after them together with the Prowler ... and boy were they lucky that there wasn't twelve of the Zodiac assembled as otherwise it would have been curtains

The fight isn't all that either

And with the interior artwork kinda weak similar to the cover ... you can bet it will be a while before we visit another issue of this particular run

Ratings: 3/10

2.199 (564) X-Force vol 1 #10 ... Marvel ...

The really, really good issues of X-Force that we enjoyed occurred in the first year of its publication because of Mr Liefeld. Like it or not, he brought a certain energy to his work that is hard to copy and when deadline looms or when he is preparing for his departure from the house of M, we have guest artists and in this issue, they featured someone named Mark Pacella

Mark ain't half bad but again like our earlier reviews on Khoi, we have no idea if the problem is Mark or inker or colorist. SPOILER ALERT. Our bitching here is that there is just waaaaay too many lines everywhere. A great example is page 16 where we get a scowling Kane opening his mouth in a growl at a standing Stryfe and the look on Kane's face is ridiculous. We are not talking age lines or shadows but simply that his entire face is full of lines and even Stryfe in his metallic uniform is inundated with lines to the extent that they no longer look metallic and shiny

Other artistic bits that make this a really jarring reading experience includes pages 19 and 20 when Sam aka Cannonball has his little heart to heart with Tabitha aka Boom Boom. Look at his creepy ass eyes! They are blue and without any eye balls. I am sorry but what the heck is this scene supposed to convey with eyes like that? The tale is supposed to show emotion, worry, sadness but that pupil less eyes? Sure we have all enjoyed it when it was Storm but here? It is so inappropriate

And then let's not forget the background lines! The worst example is page 22 final panel with Rictor. Look at that scrawl above his head. It's supposed to represent shadows. We know. So why not do it all in black instead of what looks like a lazy ass marker pen scrawl? Sigh!

As for the tale, this is basically the end of the first 9 issues of build up and setting the foundation for the next few issues except that with changes in creators, many of these issues will not be followed up properly or at all SPOILER ALERT

We open the first few pages with a messy artistic try ... where pages are split into halves with one tale focusing on Gideon and his little chat with fellow long living mutants called Externals ... while the other deals with Kane leaping after a fleeing MLF to their lair only to discover Stryfe

After this, the artist probably realizes it wasn't working and switch to more conventional storytelling and we get to see Cable acting mysterious and tough as usual explaining away why Sam returned from the dead and subsequently we close this issue with Weapon X Kane manage to escape alive from Stryfe and immediately called up a recruitment exercise ... and the first new member is Rictor. Come on! Is that supposed to make Kane's team tougher? Really?

Finally, we have the man in shadows who supposedly have been setting Cable up for no apparent reason and this time, he is setting loose Deadpool to go after the mole in Cable's operation and that mole is none other than ... Domino! Sigh!

Ratings: 5/1
0

2.198 (563) X-Men vol 1 Legacy #253 ... Marvel ...

In the olden days, anniversary issues like 12th, 25th, 50th, etc are supposed to be big deal with more pages, guest artists and freebies thrown in but every once in a while, it took a turn for the worse and for us, in this series, it did. The storyline was not rejuvenating the world of the mutants to make them a serious competitor with the Avengers continuing popularity surge. In fact, if one were to read this, it feels so second tier as if the powers that be were lost on how to make this work

I do not fault artist Khoi simply because I love his work on Mighty Avengers before that series ended and there are even more relaunches. But here, I am not too sure. It could be the ink or the colour or the overall direction but whatever it is, the art just fails to pop

And the storyline? Once more, the X-people are thrown into an alternate reality or potentially an alternate reality or perhaps merely a bastardized kind of world. Hey this is the final chapter of a storyline and we see the X-Men splintered with only folks like Magneto/ David Haller (Legion)/ Prof X/ Frenzy/ Gambit and Rogue around. So is this really the core X-team? Honestly? I have no idea

Anyhow, we see some super nasty giving everyone a beat down but large as he is, the suit he is wearing looks goofy and as the pages progress, we learn that he is but one of the many personalities/ aspects of David's fractured psyche. Geez how many times have we seen this scenario play out and played out better than this?

So once more, everyone is given a hard time trying to survive while piercing through his mental blocks and trying to free him so that the bad guy is either defeated or re-absorbed. Yup, that's it. If you have read New Mutants vol 1 #26 to 28, that's a better tale with awesome Sienkiewicz art. The art here isn't bad ... but the story just feels like an updated retread of something from earlier on

Ratings: 4/10

2.197 (562) Wolverine & Black Cat 2 Claws #1 ... Marvel ...

Yes we know we have reviewed the first issue of the first mini series rather recently. So why this, eh? Well ... why not is our answer. Heh! Actually, there is no particular reason except that we are curious how this one will turn out and to be honest ... Mr Linsner the artist assigned to this series is awesome but to me, his artwork largely is not suited to a tale like this. He should be given space to shine at what he does best i.e. women

Look at the cover. Look at Black Cat who looked so snugged in her costume. Awesome, right? Then look at Wolverine. You cannot think of him as someone who is rugged, nasty, bad tempered and whatever else because he just looked somehow goofy/ silly/ a pathetic clown. Sorry, folks, that's our opinion and the story itself is a continuation of part 1

Apparently, after that adventure, both Cat and Logan decided to get together to ... share memories ... say thanks to each other? Well, whatever it is, it is lame as it is just an excuse to get them together and before you know it, BAM time for another adventure ... so where to this time?

An alternate reality ... to be more specific, one where a cult Marvel series has taken root i.e. the War of the Worlds universe where Martians are conquering planet after planet and earth has fallen with its few remaining free men trying to make a stand wherever they may. Yup, you read that right. For those who are interested, Alan Davis did a recent take on this character in a 6-issue mini-series that has its highs and many lows

And here at the end of issue 1, if you are not familiar with them, you will be left with many questions. Will it make you go to find the next issue? For us, the answer is nope. We will do so if nothing else catches our eyes and we have time on our hands

Ratings: 4/10

2.196 (561) Civil War #1 ... Marvel ...

In view of the forthcoming Marvel movie, Capt A: Civil War; what better time than now to share with the reading world out there the actual series that was the inspiration for the movie? So without further ado, we present to you, chapter one in the limited series

SPOILER ALERT

Firstly, let's talk about Steve McNiven who has proven to us that here is his awesome capabilities where he shows that his lines are minimal and yet his skills are so great that with confidence, he lays out pages after pages, conveying layers of emotion effectively. No less so are the awesome fight scenes. The other artists that come off my mind that uses minimal lines would include Frank Quitely and Arthur Adams. Yes the latter has lots of details but within the details, he kept it sparse

Okay

As for the tale itself, Civil War starts because of reality tv ... yes you read that right. Reality TV programme was covering the New Warriors while they are out on a stake out and villain capturing mission. With someone like Speedball on the team, can you not expect it to go bad? So before they knew it, they were knee deep with several headaches that literally exploded around them and one of them was Nitro, the guy whose ability is to blow himself up and reassemble himself back together again ...

Now normally this explosive act is to break into something or get away from the heroes but here as Nitro loses it, he blows up ... kids! Yes, school going age children ... and right in front of the media

So as can be expected, a frenzy starts and paranoia steps in with those calling for potentially the end of the heroes and at this point, Stark comes in with the brain squad of Reed Richards and Hanky Pym proposing the legislation act for super humans. This is basically the old Mutie Registration Act but taking it up a notch. Stark believes that by having this, everyone who wants to use their powers for whatever reason must be evaluated to ensure that they can use it safely and responsibly and if not, training will be provided

However, as this is pushed through as law, it means revealing secret identities. While Stark assures that it will be kept with absolute secrecy, not all the heroes agree with him. Some claim it is to protect their loved ones from becoming a target while others just want to have a normal life. Whatever their reasons be, Captain America chooses to defend this group as he believes that people should be given the right to choose to disclose or not

Unfortunately, as the Act becomes law, anyone who doesn't do so then is infringing the law and becomes a criminal. And thus the action begins with Stark and SHIELD coming after those who refuse to register. The first one?

Captain America - good story, great art = awesome comic! O yeah the cover we are attaching is a variant from issue 3 ... so good is the tale that it inspires all variant artists to contribute and upped their own performance

Ratings: 9/10

2.195 (560) Fantastic Four vol 2 Heroes Reborn #5 ... Marvel ... #JimLee

To each his own ... that's what we say when it comes to the master, Mr Lee's artwork and here is an example of how good his work is that inspite of the fact that more than 2 decades have slipped by, it still looks as gorgeous as when we first read it and not the slightest bit dated

Here in the Heroes Reborn corner of the Marvel U in the mid 90s, we see that the development in terms of storyline is going ahead at breakneck speed. SPOILER ALERT First up is our friends Ben and the Torch who actually worked together throughout the issue without one silly quip after another which is refreshing as it shows them able to balance down time with serious issues. And they tackle an intruder by the name of Wyatt Wingfoot. The Wyatt in the 616 regular Marvel U is a friend of Johnny Storm's. Here he is a secret agent on the run

And so he brings our friends together to go after Mr and Ms Fantastic who as of issue 4 were headed to Wakanda to investigate an anomaly that came crashing to Earth

SPOILER ALERT Naturally as the cover indicates, everyone had been side stepped or rather kidnapped by Doom as Doom had already recovered said object crashing to Earth and that object is none other than the Silver Surfer. Doom is trying to find a way to power himself using the Surfer's own life force of cosmic energy

However, unbeknownst to Doom who thinks that he is the only ruthless manipulator and double crosser in the room, there is one more in the form of yet another Wyatt and before the issue ends, both Wyatts met and one turns out to be an alien!

What an issue! What a development!

Ratings: 8/10

2.194 (559) Blaze Legacy of Blood #1 ... Marvel ...

From one Ghost Rider series we move to another that takes place a while after that cycle of series was over and we see Johnny Blaze, bruised and scarred and disfigured. If you are not a fan like us, you will also be left confused wondering how he ended up with metal bits. But as it comes out in the 90s, we can assume that the trend was to follow people like Cable with one shiny eye hahaha!

Anyway, we see here that Blaza has once more given up the occult and
staying away from the second generation GR being himself and travelling with his carnival trying to rebuild what life he has left

Unfortunately evil being what it is will not leave him behind and this particular new evil SPOILER ALERT is a doozy of a baddie ... apparently there is someone called Ice Box Bob who is carving his way through many a body but is supposedly dead ... a child comes appealing for help and more mysterious events and individuals pop up including a stopover in a town that has even more odd characters ala typical horror movie

And so one thing leads to another and before you know it, Blaze and the Carnival were attacked by super nasty baddies that seemed able to take a hit or three from Blaze's only weapon and that is his gun that fires Hellfire bullets

The question then is what is Icebox Bob?

And the answers are definitely to keep reading ... while the story is entertaining enough, for me, the huge letdown is the interior artwork. It is super messy with lines and dashes and what not everywhere and makes you wonder if this guy works cheap or Marvel was having trouble finding qualified artists

2.193 (558) Spirits of Vengeance #1 ... Marvel ...

Waaaaaaaaaaaaay back in the early 90s, at the height of the speculation boom, every publishing company was trying to churn out titles regardless of quality and everything grim n gritty was the favoured flavour of choice

So what more grim n grittier than the Ghost Rider, eh?

Except that in this series, a spin off from the regular series, we have original GR Blaze now teaming up with someone or something who is purportedly GR but minus his human host, Dan ... Dan is apparently murdered by a half-demonic being called Blackout

Got it?

Even if you don't, not to worry. For once, this is a new series that may start smack in the middle of a bigger storyline but still easy enough to follow. SPOILER ALERT What you need to know is as per above. Dan is current GR but got killed and for some reason the GR entity didn't disappear back to magic land. Then Blaze is now married with 2 kids and making a living with the circus

Right smack in the middle of this, we see the resurrection of the first evil of the world (more or less) in the form of demonic mother: Lilith. She has been trapped for eons and is finally freed and as an opening move, she calls back her children from the mortal world to join her in burning the mortal world completely. Some of those appeared fast enough and so the tale is set

And that's what this issue is ... the return of Lilith and to show us how the odds are stacked against Blaze who is now a family man. Everything else happens in another issue of another comic or three before coming back to here in issue 2

Ratings: 5/10

2.191 (557) Iron Man vol 2 Heroes Reborn #4 ... Marvel ...

Does anyone know where Mr Ryan Benjamin, artist is these days? Because when he took over from Whilce Portacio, it was a huge pair of shoes to fill and fill it up right he did. Not only did he bring his own style and fluidity but he maintained some of Portacio's signature looks to ensure a smoother transition and for that, it made this reader happy

In here, we see the continuing tale of a Tony Stark who has finally found his reason to live and so is trying to be less of a bastard than he had been of late. This means also trying to survive various attempts on his life. His and some of his mates that is for you see, Hydra that was the villain from the first arc is not done with Stark yet and has employed one Whirlwind to come and rip Stark apart. The costume re-design is plain awesome ...

But wait a minute ... there is so much stuff happening here that Whirl isn't even the baddie yet for his issue but next. Instead here we have the Living Lazer and we are given a quick backstory on how he came to be ... after all this is Heroes Reborn ... before the age of deconstructed storytelling

And Living Lazer while looking amazing with awesome powers SPOILER ALERT was made short work of by Tony. Ah well ...

On a more personal front, we see that Potts is back assisting Tony and his one-liners with her are just hilarious. The only person that we have yet to understand is liaison Jasper Sitwell. We are not sure if the problem is with both previous and current artists (thus making him look devious) or that they are merely conveying the truth that is to be revealed further on in this series

But whatever it is, this is still one great read

Ratings: 7/10

2.191 (556) Badrock/ Wolverine #1 ...

This came out in the mid-90s ... during the height of the comics boom ... back when departing members of Marvel's all-star artist squad finally made good their relationship with Marvel and were discussing projects like Reborn ... so artist Liefeld (famous these days for Deadpool) ... decided to team up some of his characters from his corner of the Image-verse called Extreme with the mutant teams ... and this book is one of them

As a one-shot, it's got enough action and characterization to carry the book to its end. However, if you are not a fan of Wolverine or Liefeld, you probably shouldn't bother as it will not change your mind at all. On top of that, the story, at best is average

We have Wolverine during his Adamantium-free phase popping down to the Savage Land for a little R n R (we know, we know apparently in the world of X, the Savage Land, Antartica is always nearby!) ... and Badrock was abandoned by his team because of failing school grades ... and that's for the good guys (oh yeah as it is Savage Land, naturally, loser Ka-zar will be popping up)

On the team of villains we have an alien conqueror and the savage land mutates ... characters like the four armed fellow, leader like big brain chap and of course the useless Sauron who always talks so much but delivers so little ... and what's this all about?

Alien comes here to get his machine going in order to continue his conquering path but oddly enough ... while the blurbs say he is one mighty bad ass ... here he seems to be alone and easily SPOILER ALERT run off once trouble comes ... imagine that with the mutates combined, all he could do is take prisoner Kazae ... a man in loin cloth with no special powers or weapons beyond a hunting knife! Come on! What type of conqueror are you? A planet with no sentient life conqueror? Lame lame lame

Well, for once, Wolverine practised caution similar to cop movies and called back to X-Men base for help only to have his signal conveniently transmitted due to unexplained reasons to Badrock's game set ... and being a fan, Badrock decided to investigate ... hence the reason for this team up

Pretty mundane stuff

Ratings: 3/10 (I would have dropped lower but for the bonus poster by artist Marat Mychaels who is just soooooo good ... regular artwork is by Chap Yaep who is not my cup of tea)

2.190 (555) The Avengers 2010/2011 #12.1 ... Marvel ... #avengers ...

To celebrate the awesomeness of the then forthcoming second movie of the Avengers, Marvel was building up on a storyline that involves Ultron and this issue serves as the opening arc and what an issue it is ... with awesome superstar artist Bryan Hitch and his regular inker/ colourist onboard!

At this juncture, the line up has folks like Spider Woman, Jessica; Thor; Spider Man; Wolverine; Steve Rogers; Bucky as Captain A; Luke Cage and a ton more ...

And it all opens with an investigation into something mundane SPOILER ALERT that turned out to be a hiding hole for super villains such as the Wizard; Klaw; Red Ghost and his apes and more. But is that what this is all about? The Avengers are left in the dust wondering WTF happened when their lone Avenger's signal up and died and so began the task of tracking her down and giving assistance if they can arrive in time ...

Unfortunately for them, such a big team this time, they were just not prepared to discover that the mess the villains were involved including the husk of Ultron's body. So are they in control of his resurrection or his Ultron the ultimate play maker here, stringing them along?

Whatever, you know the shit's going to hit the fan and like we said, this is merely the first notes in what is going to become one heck of a story line!

Ratings: 7/10