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

2.217 (582) Conan the Cimmerian 2008 #25 ...

When Dark Horse first launched its own line of Conan comics, I will admit I tried but was not a fan simply because of artist Cary Nord who by the way I loved in his run of Daredevil. Still what was good about the DH run is that once a certain part of Conan's canon (no pun intended) came to its end in terms of decent tales by its stable of creators, rather than pushing and squeezing for every little drop, DH merely chose another era and out comes another run

Issue 25 is the final issue of the Conan the Cimmerian run and what a glorious end this has been. The arc may have been 4 issues but its origins stemmed from earlier arcs even. To sum it all up, bascally Conan somehow found himself to be in the company of mercenaries and even ended up as the leader and fell into service of kings

However, not being a politically savvy chap, our Barbarian found himself played out and left for dead. So while surviving by dragging himself up inch by nasty inch and in some pages of this series, that is literal, Conan chance by surviving and running into Olivia who was once a princess then became slave before embarking on her freedom flee. The two of them crossed paths here while running away from an Empire hellbent on killing both and where should they encounter but a cursed isle whose true origins have been lost to history that was unrecorded

And on this our final tale, we see everything coming to the fore - with Conan realizing that something was wrong with the inhuman seeming statues and breaking free only to encounter the gigantic creature that had been following and tracking him and Olivia for the past issues ... while the pirates who had given him a run for his money woke up to death as the statues revealed their true identity

It is a long tale of fight fight fight as Conan shows that he is every bit as savage as any creature of the jungle but yet ultimately he can be honorable as within him beats the heart of a man's man and the brains of a human (or some such nonsense)

Hahaha

All we can say is that this is a fantastic run and worth your time to delve within

Ratings: 6/10

2.216 (581) West Coast Avengers vol 1 #62 ...

West Coast Avengers - one of the newly launched series in the 80s for new collectors of that era (me that is) who can actually afford it from issue 1 and thus I collected this for quite a long run before giving it up when the artwork became inconsistent (muddy)

Here in 62 we see Paul Ryan at the helm and while his work is never show offy ala the Image founders club, he gets the job done and does it quite well. We see in this issue the end of another story arc. And this is not just an ordinary arc. If you are to believe the threads, basically this tale is going back years to the early stages of the existence of the Scarlet Witch and the early plans of Immortus

What are we talking about?

SPOILER ALERT

Basically, we finally found out that Immortus is but a student/ pawn/ employee of a future all powerful trio called Time Keepers. His task was to have control over 7000 years and to find a being who can be nexus to an all powerful force that can keep the timelines from diverging. This means that if no divergence, then the Time Keepers own future is preserved. Naturally we are not told why they worry that it will diverge

All we know is that Immortus chose the Scarlet Witch to be such a nexus because of her potential. As she is lacking in raw power, apparently he is the cause of her power increasing over the years and of late, also causing her to lose control by breaking her will apart through the loss of the Vision and her magically enhanced and created twin boys!

Our Avengers charged into Limbo to confront Immortus only to discover that all their brute might is insufficient to the task and what it took was  Agatha Harkness, the old lady of wizardry in the Marvel realms, whose astral form somehow managed to reach out to Wanda and reminded her of who she was and who are her friends who truly love her and would give their all for her. With that, she finally broke free and manages to turn tables on Immortus!

Ratings: 5/10

2.215 (580) Warlock and the Infinity Watch #21 ...

There was time, a while ago, when Jim Starlin launch the Infinity Gauntlet mini series and it was just plain awesome gathering the world's and universe's heroes and entities against Thanos as the power mad Titan finally assembled all the Infinity Gems thus giving him mastery over all elements of time, space, power, soul, mind etc which means he is almost like a demi-god

Naturally with such a series and its consequent success, Marvel had to try for round two with the Infinity War ... and as the momentum fades ... instead of giving it a rest Marvel pushed for one more round the Infinity Crusade ... where Adam Warlock's good side that was cast out of him had taken the form of a female and she calls herself the Goddess ... with the intention of bringing universal rapture to one and all by force if necessary

And so this issue is one of those that are part and parcel of the bigger series. Where this particular has the opportunity to shine is that it is one big slugfest I kid you not. We started with Hulk and Drax encountering Thor in space where Thor is on the side of the Goddess but at this point in his career, he was already having mental issues. And so we see Hulk floating back to planet side when knocked away leaving Drax and his power gem slugging it out with Thor

There are a few pages of dialogue with Moondragon trying to get Thor back to Earth through a mental/ astral projection but aside from that it is one long drawn out fight between two powerhouses. So what could go wrong here?

The artwork

I am not sure if this is because of artist Tom Grindberg's style or Bob Almond inker but the characters seemed to bloat everywhere in different parts of their body from panel to panel and page to page with some tiny heads and some fat thighs not muscular. It is so painful to view this. You can say that perhaps they are trying to do a Mike Mignola? But failed? Sorry guys so not for our palate

Ratings: 3/10 (could have been nil if not for so many fight panels)

2.214 (579) Weapon X (2012) #18 ... #marvel #mutants #wolverine

And so it ends, this new arc for what is (as of this review) the longest running series bearing the title of Weapon X. Yup, Weapon X - supposedly the codename for Wolverine when he was undergoing some sort of wacky experiment that gave him all his nastiness

Anyway, for what it's worth while the artwork is decent and so is the storyline, decent just doesn't cut it anymore. And that's why we knew the series was definitely heading for the chopping boards and chopped it was before the third year's run was over

What's this particular storyline about?

In terms of backstory, all you need to know is that the Director of the old Weapon X program is back and started a new facility with some mysterious funders for cross purposes. To get the program its teeth and to hook in us readers, the first two arcs showed a recruitment drive and some "heroics" or rather drama about the heroes all the while having a human agent named Jackson undermining his authority and ultimately kicking him out of the number one spot

At this point, right up until this arc, we are never sure why Jackson wanted the job. It is neither power nor limelight and definitely not for the cash

Be it as it may, here, we find that the X-Men has figured out something is indeed going on and needed a mole. SPOILER ALERT. So they decided that the young and angry mutant Jonothan Starsmore, the Brit guy whose face and chest were blown apart when his power came into play way back when ... is the perfect candidate and they set him up well

And as part of his recruitment drive, Agent Jackson decided that Chamber/ Starsmore must prove himself by killing SPOILER ALERT Sublime, the head of a company that is harvesting mutant genes and splicing them onto willing buyers. Barbaric, eh?

Does Chamber pass this initiation test? Well, it took a good several issues worth of storytelling but YES. And that's basically it. As to what comes next, we have to wait and see. Was it worth it? Honestly? No - too long winded to get to this point and we still didn't see the X-Men tackling the bad guys and we still do not know why Jackson is doing what he is doing. Sigh!

Ratings: 2/10

2.213 (578) We are robin #1 ... DC

Talk about capitalizing on popularity ... while I am not a follower of DC or Batman but I have liked Tim Drake's turn at the role and actually collected all his limited series and the ongoing ... except when he became Red Robin

And so when this hit the stand, I was curious enough to pick it up ... and boy what a disappointment this was! Let's do this methodically shall we?

First up, the cover design is cool and I thought it would continue within ... unfortunately not and Mr Bermejo whose name appears on the cover is also not doing art. In fact, the art is all over the place with its lines and looks just messy and a difficult read ... the heavy shadows didn't help!

Secondly, there appears to be many characters and some know each other while others do not ... and by many, I am referring to the Robins. So I was confused as I do not know them and do not understand why they use the same name but with nothing in common except for the name and logo. Sigh! Surely in a first issue, if the writer decides not to give us some back info, at least make the story accessible enough or with sufficient tension to draw us in and let the reveal come later?

Finally, the story left not a mark on me. As I read through all I can think of is how many more pages to go. Yup, it was that interesting. Basically there was an incident and out pops Robin ... and then more Robins ... and we end the issue with ... nothing! Sigh!

I still have four more issues to go through ... will keep them for a very rainy day!

Ratings: 2/10

2.212 (577) Star Wars: Darth Vader and the Ghost Prison #1 to 5 ... Dark Horse ...

[Note this limited series was published during Dark Horse's run of Star Wars comics]

I know, I know. We just reviewed another Star Wars series a couple of days ago. But then we stumbled upon this and it was so, so, so good that we went and read the entire run at one ago. On top of that, we flicked back and forth just to enjoy the beautiful pieces of artwork

So what made this special?

Hmmm awesome covers is one reason. It features our fave, Darth and lots of cannon fodder (hahaha). But finally, the fact that it introduces new characters within the framework of the movie and then ending them SPOILER ALERT so nicely with a twist that we can accept them as canon and hence the reason why they do not appear in other chapters of the movie and know that we will miss them!

Okay

Firstly the tale is after the war when Palpatine seizes power with Darth and like any gigantic empire, he needs an army to control the masses and bring a semblance of order to the galaxy/ galaxies. Naturally, aside from the clone soldiers, Palpatine needs a slew of academies to train those grey/ green shirts

SPOILER ALERT

However, not everyone here is psychotic and while the story starts light heartedly enough as we see cadets coming for graduation, with the usual pranking ensuing, almost as if this is one of those teenage coming-of-age kind of movie, we know this is not going to be long before tragedy struck and o what a brilliant twist there was in the tale as our brave young protagonist was taunted into a spaceship ... trapped ... only to protect him as he found out when the entire city was bombarded

Apparently, the headmaster has had enough of his cadets (and son) dying in the war and blames the Emperor and Vader for not caring about their men, wasting them needlessly for the sake of greed and ego. And so he has been patiently seeding his own brand of hatred for them to become revolutionaries!

But that's the charm of this tale. We see the point of view from the headmaster and those who support him. And we see Vader coming without much talk throughout so as to make him more ominous. Then we see another loyal member of Vader's peer also defending the Emperor except while he is loyal to the Emperor, he is not so to Vader as he knows what Vader is capable of and how selfish Vader can be and on top of that, we see a new protagonist who is eager to be all that he can be in his hatred of the original system of government and naively believe that if he turn to Vader, he will have a future

How all these ends, you will have to read it for yourself. Go online or buy the TPB. Worth the money!

Ratings: 10/10

2.211 (576) Red Hulk #6 ... Marvel ...

And so we come to the end of the first arc in this AWESOME run of the Hulk. As far as I know, this is the third volume in the relaunch of Hulk and this is one series that I agree was worthy of the relaunch format because we are introduced to a second hulk while Bruce and his green alter ego is still around and they kept us guessing throughout on who is really this new Hulk. Even as we reached this finale, we are still not provided with the truth ... of course by now all of us know who ... but at that time? WOW!

And the art is by someone who I do not like ... before this ... Ed McGuinness ... but here, in this run, with the right inker and colorist, he is equally AWESOME!!!

So what's this particular issue about? Well, after Red Hulk made his presence known to the Marvel U at large going about seeking vengeance on villains and teaching heroes a lesson or three ... he has caused so much problems that there is geographical disaster looming ...

And so ... finally ... all the heroes decided to band together to take down the Red Hulk in this issue. Who is featured? We have Blue Abomination aka Rick, Bruce Green Hulk, Red Hulk, Green She Hulk, Iron Man, Torch, Thing, Thor and Ares

But what is really cool here? In this issue? At the end of the huge battle, for some weird stupid reason, both Hulk and Thor departed leaving Red Hulk unconscious only. Yup. Stupidity

However, to ensure we have a bit more confusion, we get to see Samson being bad with a gun and Ross Thunderbolt making an appearance saying odd mysterious things ... all to egg us on ... so we know this arc may officially finished but the tale is far from over and the Red Hulk is free and coming back to cause more problems. Stupid heroes!

Ratings: 8/10

2.210 (575) Darth Vader & The Ninth Assassin #1 ... Dark Horse ...

This series was published back when licensing was with Dark Horse before it reverted back to Marvel. And let's be honest here - Dark Horse has a house style for most of its output under the Star Wars umbrealla - not saying it's bad because I actually like a lot of their output especially on Star Wars Empire and Crimson

And in here, the work is generally acceptable but if you are not a fan of the Wars, then, nothing here is going to attract you beyond curiosity or a passing glance. That's the truth

For those of us who do like them, this is AWESOME!

SPOILER ALERT

Here we see Vader going about his business but unbeknownst to him, someone rich and powerful is plotting his downfall and why? Because in one of his many, many "adventures", Vader has unknowingly hit home for this rick bloke

And what do rich people do? Why, as the title indicates, he goes all out to hire the best possible assassin to take Vader down. The fun is that as we come to the final part of the assassin only do they reveal that apparently others have been employed by this bloke as well but none were successful. The only good thing is Vader is unaware that they were hired by him. Otherwise, well ... he wouldn't have his head on his neck/ shoulders, eh? Hehehe!

Issue 1 ends with the assassin employed and that's that. So if you wanna know more, buy the next issue!

Ratings: 6/10

2.209 (574) Ultimate Comics Thor #1 ... Marvel ...

When the Ultimates line of comics was launched something like 15 years ago, the best series, in my humble opinion was the Ultimates - a new version of the regular universe's Avengers. They rocked because they were less flashy and they take their stand in more realism

So after the success of that series, there are some spin offs like Captain America, Iron Man and Thor - the Big Three of Avengers

In this Universe, we are unsure of who Thor really is in the regular series. We know for sure he is powerful but he also seems to be plagued with doubts like maybe he is some sort of guy with delusions that he is the original mythology Thor. And then there is the matter of the fact that his hammer and power belt is from some European augmentation program. So who is he really?

Well, in this series, we open the first issue with something awesome and the first is the artwork by Carlos Pachecho. He is perfect for this series with his crisp line work and detail background. Even the pale colouring works as we see glimpses of the past where SPOILER ALERT the Nazis seem to be working with Loki against Asgard. Of course, naturally Loki being who he is, is playing everyone around

Meanwhile in the modern world, we see a Thor being kept locked away and scribbling ancient writings while those who treated him thus has brought in a specialist to determine if Thor is indeed who he say he is or delusional basket case. So who is this expert?

All we are going to tell you is keep reading because this is one heck of a series!

Ratings: 7/10

2.208 (573) Blue Beetle (New 52) #1 ... DC ...

Honestly I liked the run by Ted Kord (character) several years ago and actually bought the floppies from back issue bins for his entire run with some issues costing more than others and found them enjoyable. However, when the next ongoing was announced with a new younger character in the suit, I only tried issue 1 and dropped it as it was way off what I had expected with the Scarab giving a space suit to a Hispanic character!

So when they announced new 52 had a new Blue Beetle, I was surprised and when I bought this online, well ... colour me not impressed because hey we get another round of Hispanic like characters. Sorry if I am reading this wrong in case they are not Hispanic ... I am not against diversity in comics but being Asian and having collected Marvels/ DC/ Image for the past twenty over years ... I guess I am in the minority here but I have never felt the need to have the characters reflecting my own racial origins in order to "collect" the comics, so to speak

So how was this? Art is pretty okay but not my kind of thing and while this is an issue one, I find it convoluted and messy. I like the outer space bit fine as we discover that there are races against the Beetles and that the Scarab may not be as benevolent as we once thought

What I find confusing is the human element because if this is a first issue, why does it seem to have ties to previous issues? And why is there no recap? I don't know who is related to whom, why this girl's party is such a big deal ... who the blokes are and why o why do they get involved in such nuttiness!?!?!?!

Ratings: 3/10

2.207 (572) Bloodstrik #18 (first ongoing series) ... Image ...

Karl Alstaetter - was a surprise find for me when this series was discovered (via discount bins). His lines are so full of energy. His figures are huge but not overly chunky and his women ... are acceptable although they tend to be very bony thin hahahaha ... but that's for that era, eh?

And the colours on this? Wow! I mean check out the cover! Killer!

This issue is part of the Extreme corner's crossover event ... and it comes with an excellent recap page right on the first page so that we are all caught up on events as we moved on (See? Marvel? Have you forgotten that you used to do this very well too?)

Anyway, at this juncture, Bloodstrike is Cabbot Stone, an individual and no longer part of a team as it was when it was first launched. And Cabbot is having memory issues ala ole Wolverine. So while he is trying to figure out what the shit is going on, he is dragged by a mysterious group of heroes to embark on a mission to protect some good (New Men) and some bad (Warwolf) guys and gals for reasons we will find out as the series progresses

And at this very moment in time, Bloodstrike has allied himself with a handler named Gunther supported by the 2 ladies (we mentioned above) Athena/ Lily/ Bailout whichever is their real name (whatever - who cares, right?) although they are drawn very manga/ anime style and cute ... and a grumpy guy called Tower who we all know should bite the dust ASAP Hahahahahaha

Naturally as this is an Extreme book, cannon fodder are a plenty and they are well armoured but their only purpose is to shuffle around, get shot and scream death or dying screams. I kid you not. That's what all those chunky armored things or dudes do in this book - sort of too expensive eh to invest in such technology?

While all that is going on, we take a side step to show that the Extreme universe is multi-faceted and no storyline is linear ... kind of like the twists and unnecessary turns (sometimes) in Hong Kong movies ... so we see sexy lady Glory (Wonder Woman wannabe) from Amazonia (see?) being recruited by Roman (Namor wannabe) ... while unbeknownst to her, something horrific has already infected her own lands ...

And finally, to end this with 2 quick scene changes, we get a glimpse of an ultra baddie called Crypt (and if you do not know him from other books then there is no point going into a long winded explanation here as he pops up in the last panel only) and a couple of panels on Brigade for whatever that is worth as it doesn't contribute to the story in anyway ... sigh ... a good tale ... great art ... but the pacing in this issue is all over the place

Ratings: 5/10

2.206 (571) FF (2011) #6 ... Marvel ...

[This review is now being typed on 10th Jul 2016 with the last entry 2 months ago in May 2016 ... however, to ensure continuity of "publishing dates", this will be shown as published on 2nd Apr 2016. As to why it has been so long since my last reviews, well, the only lame excuse I have for you readers is that I thought not many people were reading and so I stopped but now I realized I enjoyed doing this and like any writer, we write because we are compelled to write so here goes ...]

When the FF was relaunched in this itineration, much was expected especially the huge deviant in terms of costumes to white and black instead of their more traditional blues. And without Mr Storm in tow replaced by Spidey, what a kicker eh?

Sad to say, for whatever, reason, the first artist involved who shall be nameless for this review left so quick and now we have someone else filling in the shoes and what a bummer! Not saying he is bad because he gets the gist of the game but it just isn't my taste!

If you are like us, who reads comics for pleasure and no longer avid followers, you will be generally confused by what is going on in Marvel for the past five years or so and this issue is no different. We see that the FF is in the middle of some intergalactic war between "kings". We do not even get to see them much as the story keeps flipping back to the past and present of the Kree and we see what the nasty Supreme Intelligence has in store for its own future ...

And of course some battle scenes ... but as so much is going on ... it takes the format of snapshots so we never really get to see anything develop and thus are unable to empathize and be dragged into the tale ...

Even the ending the so-called cliffhanger ... feels rather ho-hum

Ratings: 4/10