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