789. Dark X-Men (2009) #1 ... #mutants ... #marvel

Okay quick recap time: there was a period in comics history, however implausible it seems, that all the heroes were publicly shamed and the world went mad and decided that the Green Goblin aka Norman Osborn can and should be in-charge of security for the world instead of heroes like SHIELD, Avengers, Tony Stark ... as such, Norman started assembling his own team of heroes. HAMMER replaced SHIELD. He has his own Avengers team and somewhere along the way, he decided to have his own X-Men

Who comprises this team? Mystique - simply because no one is ever sure of her agenda as she switches sides all the time (stupid choice we know), Mimic - who is never really a bad guy and until now still plays the insecure but powerful chap, Dark Beast - psychotic biologist who loves to experiment on living subjects and torturing anything that can scream and bleed and Omega - the guy who woke up one day to discover he can such the mutant abilities off of anyone and wield that ability (and in short he is even scared of his own shadow) ... Norman is destined to fail ...

Anyway, this opening book has a unique scenario with a lot of regulars chanting a phrase and walking towards the edge of a cliff kinda like those lemmings of old. So what is really going on? That's what Norman wants to find out

But while this is supposedly the thrust of the matter, the X-Men all have other worries and that is basically what Norman has over each of them to control them. Naturally especially Mystique wants to find a way to be rid of that control and play her own game and we just know that it is going to come to a boil in a matter of issues

As for the good guy who is coming to oppose them? Shocker of shockers, Nate Grey aka X-Man. But why??? Well, we have to buy the next issue to find out

Ratings: 6/10 

788. New Mutants vol 3 (2009) #6 ... #newmutants ... #mutants ... #cypher ...

Okay so in the last review, we did the first chapter of Necrosha and it continues directly into here. While again the artwork is better on cover than interiors (sorry Marvel) but the storyline is plain awesome because this time, they took what would have been a lame ass kind of ability by Doug Ramsey aka Cypher whose mutant power was languages as in he can understand/ translate all types of languages and made it into an offensive power

Many many writers in the past didn't know what to do with him. Hence the easiest way out is to kill him, resurrect him and kill him again. And if that didn't work, merge him with Warlock the techno organic entity or have him be infected and whatever else crap that goes round n round in the comic world

So what made this different?

The resurrected Doug Ramsay is tasked by Selene to kill her blood relative, Amara aka Magma and uses Ramsay because he was a former NM and knew that his presence would make them hesitant. So yes, he came, he begged and in her confusion, he whacked the shit out of her leaving her bleeding

And when the Mutants came barging in, more or less, that's when Doug took a turn for the cool as he calmly fights all of them utilizing his ability to read languages including body language and how they would each have their own preferred fighting styles and what-not. He actually gave even Sam and Roberto a hard time deflecting their blows and all that!

The savior of the piece came from another low profile mutant named Karma who possesses the mutants except Doug and uses them to fight against him. This immediately threw Doug for a loop because now his old friends were fighting very clumsily and in unexpected ways since they are not in control of their physical selves and that was the only way they could even land a blow at him. Unfortunately for all concerned, just as they thought they had defeated him, in came a confused Warlock who had no idea why they were all fighting and Doug literally zapped the life out of him by infecting him with a different virus code and ripped his head off!

That leaves everyone wondering if Warlock is dead!

Ratings: 7/10 (again we minus 1 point for interior artwork)

787. X-Necrosha #1 ... #mutants ... #x-men ...

This story arc came out maybe 8 or 9 years ago and with the deluge of new materials, somehow or other, this kind of went under our reading radar and that's because there has been so many renumbering and relaunches that we did not know what to buy and read but all that aside, the artwork here is by Clayton Crain

Crain is a digital artist and while his covers are generally good, he seems to have an issue doing interiors and quite frequently, they look very dark/ muddy/ hard to make out. It feels like you are watching a B-grade movie or even lower. Don't get us wrong. We are huge fans of Crain but for the covers

Anyway, this title is certainly entertaining especially to long time X-Men and New Mutants readers because we open with Selene, the Black Queen of the Hellfire Club actually revealing the truth about who she is! We knew she was long lived and uses life force of others to sustain but to potentially be thousands of years old? Born during a time when people are literally cavemen? And her mother gave everything up for her and so did her tribespeople? WHOA!

So Selene is the leading nasty bad guy or villainess in this series and what she harbours is that she has been patient for far too long. She has tried to achieve her true potential to be a demi-god. And to be that, she needs lots of sacrifices. Unfortunately, she was let down several times in the past and in the 20th/ 21st century, she thought to learn more about modern civilization by aligning with the Hellfire Club. Unfortunately none of them really give a damn about her goals and this she showed us in her narration. What is her solution then? She actually gave credit to Emma Frost using young mutants and thus, she set out to recruit her own team except that she brought only killers and confused/ misguided/ disillusioned mutants to her side and spin them onto her own web so that they are loyal to her

And as this issue progresses, we watch in shock and awe as she sets up her power base in the former mutant island Kingdom of Genosha (now she renamed Necrosha) while her young followers and a former lover who is also thousands of years old put her plans into motion including attacking the X-Men on their home island of Utopia. But all this is merely distraction for she plans to resurrect as many of the dead mutants as possible and while they fight for her, she gathers for the right time to absorb them all for her greater purpose

However, to make matters worse for the heroes, someone else is making an entry except that until the end of this issue, we still have not an inkling of this special old villain's return. Not even a hint.

Amongst those making a comeback include Destiny, the first Thunderbird and Cypher. What the new writers did with Cypher is simply amazing and you will have to follow next few issues in the crossover to read it all!

A great first issue!

Ratings: 7/10 (lost 1 point for artwork)

786. The Incredible Hulk vol 3 #30 ... #hulk ... #redhulk ... #xemnu ...

Ed McGuninness is born to draw this comic because before this, when I see him on other comics, sorry to say, I used to shun it after 1 issue but here, for whatever reason, his cartoony facial expressions combine with clean lines and over-the-top gigantic, chunky characters work a treat!

Basically, this issue is a "throwaway" of sorts i.e. in between arcs there is a breather and here we see two old characters making a comeback. First is Impossible Man and he is here to be a middle man, a referee, an annoying brat between the next big spectacle of galactic sport fighting between the Hulk (s) and Xemnu,, the second comeback character

Who is Xemnu?

He is apparently some terrifying sportsman from outer space who came to Earth in the early days of the Hulk's first run before finding that the madder Hulk gets, the stronger Hulk becomes and can become too much for him to handle. So after years of pondering and planning, he figured he has found the right strategy and comes back for a grudge match

Unfortunately his information is not updated and he is not prepared for the fact that there is now a Red Hulk and a Green Hulk, both of which are indeed separate people and not just one person's various phases of transformation. In that sense, with the Impossible Man's interference of joining both Red and Green (hence the cover) as one, the Hulks have their advantage to rout Xemnu once again

As we said at the start, it is a fun issue and beautifully drawn. Something you can come back to over the years and flick through and enjoy without the need to commit your mental energies into a complicated storyline or make you turn the pages for the next chapter. Yet because it is entertaining that if your budget allows, this is the type of tale that will make you consider picking up the next issue as well. This is HOW comics should be done

Ratings: 8/10

785. The Invincible Iron Man vol 1 #191 ... #marvel ... #ironman ... #avengers ...

The cover is just plain awesome. Even though the armor is the original gray and clunky one, it still evokes of power and awesomeness because until today in time, we humans in the real world, not in comics are still unable to don all these powerhouse suits for our normal day-to-day lives. Hahaha!

Storywise, Tony Stark is now comfortable running a tech whiz firm with mates, a brother and sister team, Erwin and Clytemnestra (yes a mouthful) ... while Rhodey who is in the Iron Man suit is slowly but surely going bonkers. It all started with him wearing the armor and getting migraines. As it gets worse, each time he talks to the team to help him, and they fix, they assured him and still not get done

And as each issue progresses, basically, Rhodey for some odd reason, has started getting self doubt because he believes that as Stark regains his old self confidence, he may want Rhodey out of the armour but not so directly telling Rhodey. And good old nasty Rhodes feels he wants to be Iron Man forever and not willing to surrender the suit. All these are in his mind, obviously

That is the main thrust of this storyline

The villain of the issue is not a major one - Vibro who appeared a few issues ago is basically being incarcerated and acting up to escape using his Vibration powers. As Rhodey is going nuts (even during the opening pages he was busy destroying plants!), events progress fast and Stark with his new team decided that he may have to step in to assist Rhodey hence the old armor ... but that is for next issue ... all we get is that Stark has taken out and dusted off the old fellow and donning it ... is it enough for us to come back for the next issue? For us, yes because we want to see not Stark slugging it out with the bad guy but with Rhodes

Ratings: 6/10

784. Thor vol 3 (1999) #13 ... #thor ... #odin ...

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

There are artists who are synonymous with selected runs of comics making it their own and for Thor, the first one was Walt Simonson. After that, there came a flurry of artists, good or bad, it was still artwork, of a sorts but when JR Jr came on this launch, his work was simply outstanding lending so much seemingly raw power to the title that just suited this tale perfectly!

After the first 12 issues, as the tale of the Dark Gods and impending disaster is still not over, we see 13 continuing strongly with no abatement in the excitement quotient. And as proof, you should just turn the cover. That splash page of Odin is simply over the top awesome!

And while this issue is not so much about action, it still packs enough drama to make the casual reader flipping the pages until the cliffhanger ending ...

Basically we have seen the Dark Gods coming to attack and subdue Asgard with ease, we saw Thor struggling to protect his family and friends and seeking help from all quarters including Hercules and even the mighty Destroyer ... so now when all is said and done, there is but the manner of the surprise character in all this drama, Marnot and who is Marnot?

Why, as the tale unfolds, SPOILER ALERT, we discover that Marnot is none other than one of Odin's loyal birds given knowledge and abilities by Odin himself as a contingency plan while making himself and everyone forget about the bird so that should disaster befall the Golden Realm, as disaster did, none can pry the knowledge of this contingency from any living being's minds including Odin himself

Additionally while all this is going on, and as Thor finds out more about his new mortal guise, Jake, we see Jake's life going to hell as apparently the humans find narcotics at his place?!?!?! So next issue, readers, please buy!

Ratings: 7/10

783. Weapon X (1995) #1 ... #mutants ... #x-men ... #Phoenix ... #wolverine ...

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

Over the years, there are a few titles bearing the wordings of Weapon X but honestly, this is the main one that while featuring Wolverine, is still totally different because it was during the original Age of Apocalypse run ... where after the nightmare that happened and the world changed selected X-Men titles at that time was cancelled and replaced with these where the X-characters are now living in an alternate world with no idea of what happened ... and as readers at that time, this was an unprecendented stunt where we had no idea how long this mode was going to run for ... so it was an exciting time to be a reader ...

Adam Kubert delivers some awesome covers ... while his interiors ain't sloppy either ... hahaha!

Anyway, this issue opens right smack in the thick of matters with no background story and all you need to know is that the world has gone over to Apocalypse and his horsemen and they have been slowly taking over the entire globe with pockets of human resistance fleeing to some free zones in Europe

In this issue, Wolverine has already lost a hand that never re-grow for whatever reason and he and Jean are part of a tag-team duo that goes out to be saboteurs and agents etc for the human faction. So we see the opening sequences of them in the midst of action before flying on the backs of Sentinels back to their own base. Unfortunately, the bad guys here are not like the 616 and they do not hold back punches. So when they strike back, casualties abound

We also see the Summers brothers being loyal to Apocalypse being magistrates i.e. officers in the enforcement of the will of Apocalypse

So where will this tale lead? It is a good enough opener that makes you wonder and come back for the next instalment, that's for sure

Ratings: 7/10