712. Avengers vol 1 #267 ...

[This is reviewed on 7th Dec 2017]

After the full ending of Secret Wars 2, we were left wondering what is next for the Avengers ongoing title and this title certainly opened at the right pace with nothing to waste on slowing down the pace.  In fact, the cover is perfect because we expected Kang and the X-Men and while both do appear, not everything is as per our expectations and thus made the story infinitely more appealing

We see the opening with Storm coming back to the waiting Avengers as apparently she is now a member of them while Colossus is coming out of a building with the President! This immediately made us the readers wondering what is going on. But then a ceremony takes place with Tony Stark running out to try and stop what is going on with the scene.

And KABOOM ...

The scene shifts and we find out that there is something called a council of Kangs where each variant Kang are trying to eliminate different alternate reality Kangs that they deemed to be weak and an embarrassment to them. And of course, the primary Kang is somewhere behind the scenes doing other stuff

On other fronts, we see Captain America and Captain Marvel hanging out trying to understand each other better and along came Namor as well. So Cap A being the senior guy tries to share his thoughts about Namor with Cap M who is powerful but the newest Avenger and she comes very opinionated

Meanwhile back at the mansion, love starts to blossom between Wasp and Paladin only to have them whisked away to a foggy dimension where resides Kang. So what happens next, eh?

Ratings: 6/10

711. New Mutants vol 1 #52 ... #NM ... #Mutants ...

[This is reviewed on 19th Dec 2017]

We are psyched that NM is going to be a movie and regardless of what direction, for sure we are going to watch it and we want to remind all the so-called purists using this review that the NM characters are indeed darker than most of the original X-Men and New X-Men and this is a great issue

So after a long run of non stop problems from dying at the hands of the Beyonder to resurrection and then subsequently to an attack by the Magus that resulted in the mutants running all over time and space before congregating on an alien planet for all out final battle, they are home together as a team and this issue opens strongly with them in a fight to the death against the Marauders, a deadly band of assassins that at that time was the primary antagonist running through one of the X-titles crossover a couple of years ago killing almost all Morlocks and injuring several X-Men

It takes us a few pages in before we realized and are told that this is nothing but a danger room exercise but it provided the much needed action as the mutants realized the danger they constantly put themselves in if they venture out without much thought for their own actions ...

However, what is of more substance is as per the cover indicates wherein Illyana aka Magik whose power is teleportation via discs of light through Limbo and has been raised by ex-lord of limbo, demon called Belasco ... well, when Magus tracked them, he also attacked her realm and converted S'ym, her main demon into a being like him

So now S'ym has decided he has enough power to start a revolution and takeover everything and everyone. The problem for Magik is if S'ym controls the realm, then she cannot access it and thus has no more use in terms of her mutant powers. And with regards to her magics, it doesn't work on earth and that scares her as she sees no end to the problem ... not until in a fit of teenage rebellion she dragged current headmaster Magneto to Limbo ... and to her surprise, his magnetic powers easily locked S'ym in place and he even offered to restore her by destroying him

What's her decision then? The answer is a delight and a showcase of who Illyana really is

We loved the cover by Bill S and the general storytelling is very good. The only problem is in the detailing where the faces and panels looked kinda sparse at times as it is by Leonardi not our ideal artist

Ratings: 7/10 (for cover and story)

710. The 198 #1

[This is reviewed on 9th Jan 2018]

There was a time when Marvel became so much of a mess that we had to step back especially on the mutant titles and if not for digital we would have missed a gem such as this one because we remembered seeing this title but the cover alone was a turn off. We are not saying the cover is bad because it is very stylized and taken as a war poster, it is awesome but the thought of this style in the interiors sort of made us balk

However, as it is digital and there is a sale going on, we tried and was immediately wowed by the interior artwork. Good job!

But what was even more interesting is that there is a good balance between development of the storylines and characters with the necessary showing of powers. So we see that the Xavier school is temporarily using its grounds as an emergency place for mutants, those who still possessing their powers and those who do not. And they are ably assisted by the government for this effort which is good

On the side that moves the story along is Toad who is in mutanttown trying to have a good time as he is one of the lucky few to still possess his powers after the fiasco that was Wanda Maximoff in House of M. And sure enough an incident happened with a fellow mutant that even unknown to him, he felt the urge to be a "hero". So he went ahead, rescued her, and brought her to the 198 camp

What is more important is the introduction of Mr M or Absolum. Is he mutant or not? He is dressed in ordinary clothes and his ability seems to be everything. While helping someone else, his patient suggested he go assist the mutants and that's what he seems to be going to do by walking across the country to reach the Xavier School but what will happen next is anyone's guess because that's where this tale ends making us definitely looking forward to issue 2

Ratings: 7/10

709. Incredible Hulk vol 1 #300 ... #hulk ... #thor ... #avengers ... #spider-man ... #drstrange ...

[This is reviewed and posted on 8th Feb 2018]

This is the big one from the Hulk's first run and it was a great run at this juncture. What you need to know now is that the Hulk has been on a mental morphing journey. He has been a savage child-like monster before taking some new treatment and becoming a smart man Hulk. The Hulk became smart and has Banner's intellect and personality and in essence become one person, not split anymore

Subsequently, as each issue comes out, we see the Hulk becoming faster to be annoyed and then becoming angry ... and then over the past few months, as we see others becoming concerned, from 299, unfortunately thanks to Nightmare, Dr Strange discovered that Banner has been manipulated and in the end succumbed to his nasty Hulk half!

And in this, issue 300, is basically the one where he becomes fully a monster without even a bit of humanity inside as Banner has disappeared. So he is a real savage now attacking the city. And all the heroes assembled to save the city and stop Banner

Who appears here?

Well you have people like Spider-Man and Daredevil helping the civilians. Then there are the Avengers coming to try to slow down or stop the Hulk before learning he is a full fledged monster. So the only one who can even give him a hard time is Thor and Thor is definitely not up to stopping the Hulk because the angrier he gets, the stronger he gets! There is even Power Man and Iron Fist.

In the end, Dr Strange decided that banishment is the only way. So he sought other worlds that can handle the strength and savagery of the Hulk. However, he found none and so the solution is to cast Hulk to the Nexus of all worlds to let Hulk wonder and find the right world for him

In essence, this ends a long arc for the Hulk and set up 301 as a totally new direction. And this is how the Hulk or any comic should be. There is no need for new number 1 so that fans who enjoys can trace and go backwards and buy other comics to catch up. In addition, as you can see, this is not the first time Hulk has been cast to other worlds except that in the latest round, we have World War Hulk and that is equally good although similar Hulk is sent into space/ beyond

All in all, a good read!

Ratings: 8/10

708. The Invincible Iron Man vol 1 #188 ... #avengers ... #ironman ... #brothersgrimm ...

[This is reviewed and posted on 7th Feb 2018]

Okay. Let's do a quick recap for those not following Iron Man closely

At this juncture, Tony Stark has recovered from his alcoholism and is now working to find himself once again by involving on a smaller scale new technology design and what not with a brother and sister team. In the meantime, the person donning on the super hero suit is none other than Jim Rhodes

And again, at this juncture in the storyline, Jim finds himself of late succumbing to bouts of prolonged excruciating headache whenever he uses the armor. He asks Tony to check and Tony agrees and confirms that it is fine. Well, it isn't and it is souring Jim's perspective and relationship with Tony

Of course being a super hero comic, they need some action and in this case, it is in the form of the Brothers Grimm. And here they are attacking some facility resulting in Jim aka Iron Man coming to the rescue. However, he was not as effective as he could be because ... tra-la-la ... in the middle of a fight, he got a migraine!

So while he did enough to be the hero, the villains manage to flee and we know they will be back again to annoy him some other day

All in all, an average type of comic

Ratings: 4/10

707. The Mighty Thor vol 3 (1999) #16 ... #JohnromitaJr ...

[This is reviewed and posted on 6th Feb 2018]

After taking a breather from his work on year 1, JR Jr is back and he took up where he left off where the nonsensical adventures of Thor once again takes a back seat as he and writer Jurgens continued with the bigger picture ... and similar to the opening chapter, we see once more new villains ... and once more intrigue abounds ...

Because while Thor's mortal half may be having a nightmare with people trying to "get him" and doctors trying to find out his real identity, Thor felt that he has to depart to settle the nightmare that once again plagues Asgard as someone new, the villain of the day, flashed there and immediately started taking apart the better warriors of Asgard as if they are nothing much

And what about Thor?

To Thor's utter surprise, his initial launch was halted without so much as a hard breathing moment or two - literally just halted like he is totally inconsequential. So the question then is who is this bloke?

And while all this is going on, Odin is watching it from afar with his councilor ... except something isn't quite right here? So SPOILER ALERT who is behind all these? Well. Loki is back as Odin in disguise but that raises another question, when did Loki took over? How far back does this scheme go? All questions to be answered in future issues

Ratings: 6/10

706. Uncanny X-Men vol 1 #212 ... #mutants ... #rogue ... #Sabretooth ... #wolverine ...

[This is reviewed and posted on 5th February 2018]

The pace of action doesn't let up and while Wolverine's popularity is on the rise, the creators at Marvel definitely need to cash in on him by putting him on the cove and even blatantly state this is round 1 although round 2 is not so clear as future fights are not clearly labelled as such

However, here we see the X-Men who are in serious injury being treated while Wolverine decided to return to the tunnels to take revenge or rather avenge those injured and dead and supposedly take back one person alive for questioning on why the Marauders do what they did. Like most of the storylines back then, it seems as if monthly is not enough for Claremont as he has so many ideas bursting at the seams that he will follow up maybe months or even years later

Which means in this issue that as Wolverine journeys to the tunnels, who he encounters is only 1 person - Sabretooth and regardless of their fights, he could not bring down the 'tooth and left with a stalemate because he decided to rescue and bring back the Morlock healer (to help the many injured in the X-Mansion)

On other fronts, we see a Storm running away from the Mansion as the realization hit her that she has too big an ego daring to lead both X-Men and Morlocks while actually being a poor leader. She doesn't give a damn to the Morlocks letting them do whatever they want until something like this happens. And as for the X-Men she took them down to rescue the Morlocks without bothering to even plan for a fight with the Marauders ... which is actually a great bit on this storyline, truth be told, as it shows maturity in the thinking instead of just slam and punch and moving on ... however, the tying up is kind of lame with Rogue giving her a quick talking to and she pulls herself together ... ugh!

Ratings: 7/10

705. Uncanny X-Men vol 1 #211 ... #x-men ... #marvelcomics ... #marauders ... #harpoon ...

[This is reviewed and posted on 5th Feb 2018]

Once again, when the cover opens up, we get a splash page. It looks so good with the Marauders standing and posing and looking every bit menacing! Hehehehe! And then the storyline takes off like a rocket!

One more time, after the last big hoo-ha issues, we see the X-Men recovering again and some are at something that looks like a farm and what-not. And while they are doing it, what happened is that some of the Morlocks burst through the X-Mansion's lower levels asking for sanctuary and salvation because they are on the verge of being slaughtered to the last man. And Storm although powerless is the leader of both X-Men and Morlocks and it is her responsibility

So tense negotiations are in place between Storm and Magneto before the X-Men went to the lower levels and this time, it is carnage unlike anything the X-Men has ever seen. In fact, it is so bad and the X-Men is so unprepared that while they go around trying to defeat the villains, they are caught in the storm of carnage and chaos to the point that we see Colossus KILLING Riptide (guy who spins himself fast and release some small nasty spikes)

Many an X-man is cut down and worse case is they have no idea what the villains' powers are . Who is Harpoon, Arclight, etc? And what kind of damage will they inflict on the X-Men? Well, we will give you a rundown on who is affect - Colossus, Kitty and Nightcrawler and the ramifications go for quite a few issues after this all the way until both Kitty and Nightcrawler joined in the formation of Excalibur waaaaay down the road

Ratings: 8/10

704. Uncanny X-Men vol 1 #210 ... #x-men ... #mutants ... #massacre ...

[This is reviewed and posted on 5th Feb 2018]

After the huge events of the past twelve and more issues, the X-Men have finally earned themselves some down time and some down time here is actually very weird. One the one hand we have some members recuperating like Wolverine while on the other hand, we have others trying to find out what happened to their missing members during the final battle with Nimrod. They found Nightcrawler about to get staked by an angry mob while Rachel Phoenix is no longer anywhere on earth or at least where their Cerebro could locate it

Simultaneously, as per previous issues, Chris Claremont, writer has continued to push forward with his next major arc by introducing us to a mutant who has a Hellfire Goon as her boyfriend. She is running and fleeing and we see that he was first eliminated for trying to protect her and then finally BANG it was her turn ... and guess what?

Thanks to her, the newest villains, the Marauders have used her to find where the Morlocks are ... and they are getting ready to terminate every single mutant they can find! Yes! This is the issue where the Marauders officially are introduced (although there are hints here and there in the past) and the next few issues are going to be awesome

Of course in subsequent years and decades, this storyline is built upon with the introduction of Sinister and even Gambit was retconned into this team but at this point, all we know is that they look nasty and they are out for blood regardless of motives and our X-Men already suffering from diminishing membership and power sets are going to be plunged into another nightmare

On other fronts, we get a glimpsed of Cyclops and his new team, the Exterminators, posing as mutant hunting humans (while in truth are X-Factor) ... and Magneto being approached by Shaw to consider an alliance with the Hellfire Club since Professor X is no more on Earth and Magneto temporarily leads the X-Men and the School

Ratings: 7/10