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)