204. New Avengers vol 1 #3 ... Marvel ... David Finch ...

Yes for those who didn't know when they relaunched Avengers slightly more than a decade ago, they decided to add in the word new ... naturally thanks to today's market, there have since been some more relaunches even from this series ... so it's like (New) New Avengers and what-not ...

Well in issue 3, we finally see the big long drawn out fight to be more or less over ... with the heroes taking a moment's rest ... basically there's a breakout from the Raft prison ... and the Avengers after being disbanded ... well, they don't exist but the individual heroes come back to help arrest the criminals ... some got away and some don't ...

And naturally with Captain America and Iron Man around ... they got to thinking if they were wrong to break up the team and that there is a need for the Avengers after all ... and this also explains why this particular iteration of the Avengers will be different consisting of folks like Wolverine, Luke Cage and Spiderman

Forget the cover with the Sentry ... at this point the guy is merely background noise ...

So aside from some good dialogue that we get to read what else happens? We see some side plots being developed a wee bit more ... and then building up to the next arc ... not really a new arc but more of the same ... as the heroes discovered that they better go after some of the more violent criminals ... we will not spoil it for you except to say ... look at that cover and can you imagine ... the entire book is done in terms of artwork of that detail?

David Finch is awesome!

Ratings: 8/10

164. Ultimate X-Men vol 1 #41 ... Marvel ... David Finch ...

This next chapter in the arc is completely stand alone which is great. It is so well-crafted that you would not realize it is part of an arc. In fact, it reads not even like an X-Men book but can be a solo Wolverine one-shot

We open the book to find a picture postcard small town

Next a kid wakes up

And to his utter amazement ... he finds that everything is in his house ... just not everyone or anyone else ... he looks around but couldn't find anyone ... and at this point, you are thinking perhaps this is an episode of Twilight Zone?

SPOILER ALERT

Well, this is one incident where we get to see how bad sometimes mutations can be. In this case, this innocent looking lad, who is your average kid is going to get a f**king wake up call the day his powers kicked in!

Talk about nasty out of control powers

Basically by the time the lad realizes what is going in, he has done tons of damage and the only X-Man who can assist him is Wolverine. Yes. Wolverine. Assist a boy! For this particular chapter, the book ends quite ... abruptly ... but with no hidden motive and hints of a bigger picture. So it makes the book feel complete by itself ... sigh ...

Very powerful and emotional tale here folks!

Ratings: 9/10

163. Ultimate X-Men vol 1 #40 ... Marvel ... David Finch ...

You know what the best thing about this review blog? Because we don't do reviews of new comics, we do NOT need to follow whatever's new in stores this week, be it floppies or TPB

So we skip six months down the road when the first arc by Finch and Bendis (Writer) is over ... and now we start something called New Mutants ...

Being a HUGE fan of the 616 New Mutants (vol 1) ... I bought this thinking we are going to get to see Ultimate versions of the NM like Magma and Magik ... but trust Bendis to be different ... and in this case, it is different good not different for different's sake only

So the title and that cover ... well basically the New Mutant here is Angel

What is awesome is that as you read this issue, you will see that basically the trials and tribulations from previous arc continues here ... however, instead of having a breather issue ... Bendis cleverly utilizes this arc (instead of 1 issue) to introduce NM that the school goes about gathering ... so we get adventure, newbies and simultaneously tension from one subplot to the next

Here we see the fallout from the last issues where Jean actually kills others ... and oddly enough her guilt seems a bit less dramatic than what it was ... so Cyclops being her dear sweetheart keeps feeling something amiss and each time, he almost voices it out ... but kept holding back as is consistent with his character

On the flipside, we Angel and how his introduction causes a huge stir amongst the religious belt

And simultaneously we see something brewing in Hank Pym ... the Beast ... who is beginning to feel that ... maybe being a hidden mutant adventurer is not what he wants ... that and the tension with Storm and Angel ... makes ... a new love triangle of sorts?

A good opening arc!

Ratings: 8/10