162. Ultimate X-Men vol 1 #34 ... Marvel ... David Finch (artist) ...

[If you are a regular reader of my reviews, you will know I am a huge fan of Finch. So for once I am not going to extol whole paragraphs to Finch and why I am so into his works]


Anyway, after the successful launch of this particular series, with mainly a Kubert onboard as artist, how do you top up or at least match the success when Kubert wants to move on? You put one of the hottest artists in American comics publishing of the past decade - Finch and this series just moved up another notch

Just check out that awesome cover. Wolverine is gritty without being too chunky while Spidey actually seems like a regular high school kid who thanks to his newfound powers now exercises regularly. In fact, I would love to collect Spidey if Finch is onboard as artist

Hmmm ... I still ended up talking about the art, eh?

Okay

As the cover indicates, this is a new arc entitled Blockbuster and the opening scene here is awesome. We have a quiet scene that sees Wolvie leaving the X-Mansion and chilling out. However, life with W is never quiet and next thing you know, men in diaper trucks are shooting the F out of him and those bullets? Actually hurt

So he needs to get away and get away he did (as expected). However he has been through a world of hurt and he is hurt by a team of agents that seemed to be govt. But are they?

As he turned tail and flee, again NO spoilers here, the cover tells all, he seeks refuge in the house of one Peter Parker ... simply because in one of their earlier team-ups, apparently W tailed Spider home! If this is not retcon ... then again I have no idea which issue they are referring to but it doesn't matter. We see Peter freaked out and then ... it's team up time! 

Ratings: 8/10

161. Weird War Tales #55 ... DC Comics ...

Although it is short but the main story in this comic is interesting

During the war, the axis discovered a powerful creature and instead of panicking and killing it, the axis powers decided to train it to kill allied soldiers. The technique employed? Pavlov's experiment style ... so it came to the Allied soldiers who infiltrated ... that they were being decimated by this strange creature ...

... until one chap managed to turn the tables on the bad guys ... without harming the innocent creature

Ratings: 6/10

160. Weird War Tales #82 ... DC ...

The good thing about comics like these are that you do not need to read them in any proper sequential order. O sure there are occasionally references to a previous issue (like origins) and once in a blue moon a storyline that runs beyond one issue but they are straightforward and you can more or less understand with little confusion

This particular issue's cover is the main story and again, it more or less tells us what happens within

Basically, in an occupied territory of the Nazis, some of the soldiers took advantage of their positions by looking for local ladies to serve them. Some are nothing more than sex slaves while others fall in love. Unfortunately being the brutes that they are depicted, naturally they offended the wrong people

So one of the ladies decided to do ... as the cover shows ... a little magic ...

The head honcho falls head over heels in love with his little lady ... and every trip, she asks for a little souvenir/ keepsake. If he rejects or refuses, then she rejects or refuses him ... and to his own surprise, he finds he wants her so badly that he would do anything or rather give anything ... and so ... over time, she assembles enough pieces of souvenir from him to exact her own brand of revenge

No this is NOT a spoiler ... the cover has already told you all that much without spelling it out, that's all

Ratings: 6/10

159. Weird War Tales #95 ... DC ...

From superheroes and tights and capes, let's take a jaunt back in time in terms of publishing schedule and topic to Weird War Tales. War comics is something I discovered late but found them to be entertaining because they provide a welcome relief from the usual drama and slam-bang over-the-top action of superheroes series

WWT sometimes have a successful strip that will then continue taking up pages in every issue (but rarely the full issue) until some other character takes prominence. In this issue, it is a mish-mash of stories with some very brief

However, the cover story actually took place in side and is quite interesting even though the actual scene as per cover may not be the same within the internal storyline. And we start with this issue because it bears a little more resemblance to our usual superheroes' stuff

We have the war (naturally) and we have people in the same army outfit but with some being a bully to others. So the one chap who was bullied decided to bring forth an ancient incantation to sort of teach the bully a lesson. However, like all such magics in all such comics, a lesson (with morals) need to be taught and hence we are left wondering if it is an illusion or did the nasty as per the cover actually occur?

In short, there are NO Nazis ass kicking this issue but rather something more supernatural ...

Ratings: 5/10

158. Spider Man vol1 #6 & 7 ... Marvel ... Todd McFarlane ...

I have always wondered if the superstar artists were fans ... at one time ... take for example Todd. He was huge on Marvel and even bigger in Image. Then he diversified in animations, movies and toys where he made a killing. And lately, he is back drawing Spawn etc ... but I wondered if he was a fan of any comics from the big Two from his youth ... and whether he occasionally draws them ... because his work is very stylized and though I am not a big fan of Spawn or his Amazing S work, here? Huge fan! Got two copies of every issue!!!

This is a 2-issue arc. After the first chapter finish with the Lizard which was Todd's first time out as writer, he trims his words and gives us a much tighter storyline. I am glad it is 2 issues. One would have been too cramped and 5 or 6 too padded. This is perfect

Here we see an old Nemesis Goblin going bonkers as unholy fires touched him, transformed him into an actual walking, guttural muttering goblin on 2-legs. And he also felt that he is on the side of the angels as in literally out to save souls against the devils

So to open his crusade, he recruits the innocents and in this case, kids! Naturally Spidey comes along to knock on his door and you can expect fisticuffs. As this was the 90s, and grim and gritty was in ... Ghost Rider was another hot commodity having many spin off titles and ... thus a natural to guest star here! But at least it makes sense as Ghost Rider looks demonic but is a man within trying hard to "protect the innocent" even though he is the Spirit of Vengeance ... or at least at this point, he still is/ was before his own origin went through upheavals in the years to come ...

These are two AWESOME issues. So go get it

Ratings: 8/10

157. Spider Man vol 1 #23 ... Marvel ... Erik Larsen ...

Back in the 90s, when Image was formed, after Todd Mc left this title, who did Marvel thought could cover Todd's huge footprint? Erik Larsen. Why? I have no idea. Perhaps because Erik has his own distinctive style? But the fact is that Erik's work, though full of energy, can appear sloppy ... sorry to all the Erik fans out there ... hey I am a fan of his Dragon works!

And speaking of the Dragon, perhaps when Marvel brought Erik on-board, they were not aware that he, too was leaving Marvel for Image to be one of the co-founders too? Because he left them, lickety-split!

Anyway, this issue marks the end of Erik's first multi-parter arc on the Spider-Man and it has been one fun, fun, fun ride. On the serious side, we have MJ's acting career going uphill except that she has been hired to be in a mega-blockbuster film franchise with a nude scene. Hence she is split between honoring her husband's wishes not to be in the film or ... if this is the film that will launch her career into the stratosphere

All the while, as husband goes out to be Spider-Man, he over the course of the six issue arc, finds that the Sinister Six has reformed and each issue, more villains popped out and each issue, Spider gets more and more guest stars to help him out. In this grand finale, on the side of the good guys, we have Ghost Rider, Deathlok, Hulk and the Fantastic Four. The sad part is that it is a regular sized issue so everything is just cramped in ... and this is where we say thank goodness it's Larsen who somehow manages to do it although it reads rather poorly! Sigh!

Ratings: 5/10

156. Power Pack vol 1 #2 ... Marvel ... June Brigman and Louise Simonson ...

In the original series of the Power family, it lasted for a good 5 years plus and the first 12 issues were simply awesome with heartfelt stories, good artwork and great guest stars. Naturally a series like this needs to be refreshed when sales dip. From our opinion, we believed that rather than refreshing, Marvel made it into a specialty shop sales only hurting the business and then extending the publishing schedule while hiking up prices. And finally using terrible artists ... because they thought that the series would never grow new readers so they were catering to the small rabid group of fans ... well if they think like this, even those fans will get sick of the crap artwork, right?

No wonder it got cancelled after that final 12 issues or so out of 62 I think was so bad!

But anyway this is at the start of the series. Check out the cover. The kids looked like kids not stunted adults. And check out the clean lines that convey so much emotions and how about those colours? Imagine this is before computer colouring. That cover is as good as it gets for me!

As for the tale, this is part of the first arc where the kids gained powers. In this issue as the cover already tells you, the kids learnt more about their individual abilities and uses their costumes that was made by their intelligent space ship ... and along the way, we see subplots building up where the space alien baddies come to the fore ... the baddies are Snarks .. lizard like ... while the good guys are horse like ... hey it's a kiddie book as well!

Since it's the kids first proper adventure, the good thing is that we get to see them being clumsy, scared and fighting in the form of reacting rather than like little superheroes which makes this quite an enjoyable 20 minutes reading experience

Ratings: 8/10