2.203 (568) Captain America & The Mighty Avengers #1 ... Marvel ...

That title sure is a mouthful. I guess with all the relaunches and what-nots, Marvel is running out of ideas on what to name this series. So does it mean whoever is the next team leader will get the name in front of his or her team? Hehehe!

SPOILER ALERT

First up, I have never been a fan of Sam Wilson aka Falcon and with him taking on the mantle of Captain America? Nope. Just doesn't work for me but I was willing to give this title a chance since it boasts Luke Ross as interior artist. Yeah we just had to mention that because the cover is kinda weak as well ... Marvel does have this cyclical problem where they will have a barren spell with a dearth of good artists and the past few years seem to lean in this direction

Anyhow, while it has a 1 to its numbering, sad to say unless you are familiar with these characters, you are going to have a hard time enjoying this because there are so many characters and this all ties to a mini series or storyline that happened earlier. Even a loyal Marvel reader like me is left at a loss some times in this comic

We open up with Falcon soaring and taking down regular hoodlums with excessive violence without a care in the world for innocents. And then we read the blurb and was told that this issue happened after the Red Skull (him again?) tried and took over Prof X's brain and used it to fire off a salvo of hate vibes. So while that threat has been dealt with it seems like the world is a bit off its moorings with some good guys becoming less than altruistic and more extreme and the same can be said of the villain community

Whose the villain? There isn't. O there is one chap named Parnival (who was a brilliant villain in the Ka Zar lines of years ago) who is now a masked marauder named Plunderer - and he is more clown than threat along with his henchmen

And then as if that lame ass bit was not enough, we get to see more of False Fake Falcon acting his bit and it looks ominous especially since it involves Tony Stark the futurist

Ugh

Ratings: 5/10

2.202 (567) Batman The Long Halloween #1 ... DC ...

It has been a while since our last review where we actually liked an issue, eh? Well, with that, we thought it is time to be a little more positive so we dragged this issue out of our long boxes. As you know, we are not huge fans of Bat. Or artwork that is cartoony but this issue? WOW! It made us fans to artist Tim Sale to the point that we bought his Marvel "colours" series as well and were 100% satisfied customers

Why this title?

Well, because a murder (s) occurred on Halloween and subsequently as Batman tries to use his detective skills to track down the perps, he realizes that, once again, there is a pattern to the madness as each victim dies on some sort of holiday and the long part is because each issue continues to showcase Bats trying to track him or her down while the bodycount racks up

The question naturally is that is this a new lunatic in Gotham or one of the Bats old rogues up to no good?

Here in the opening issue, we see Bruce attending a wedding and on the sides, having a discussion with Falcone (yes the guy from the tv series Gotham except slight changes in supporting cast) where Falcone is as dirty as it comes and he has a proposition for Bruce not knowing that Bruce is Bats

At the same party is Selina aka Catwoman

Naturally while they meet as their human regular character disguises, when the party gives them space, Bruce goes to investigate while Cat goes to burgle. We also see others like Bullock and even a younger Falcone who wants to help learn dad's trade while dad wants him to keep his fingers clean

This entire issue is a fast read inspite of the many dialogue boxes because Sale's art is so fluid you feel like you are watching an episode on TV. He is that good. Naturally before the issue is out, we get to see the rest of the players including Gordon on the chessboard and we end with a murder done without words which makes it even more effective

As an opening chapter, it is fine and enough with intrigue to appeal to even the casual reader like me looking for something different and draw us in

Ratings: 7/10

2.201 (566) Bloodshot Reborn #3 ... Valiant ...

Bloodshot ... if I have to categorize him, I would say he is a cross between Wolverine and Cable because Bloodshot is a man who has had his memory wiped clean and been issued out as a warrior/ assassin and whatever shit work there is available to a man of his talents. And that talent is none other than to be a paid killer ... so what makes him special?

Well it is because in his blood there are a huge quantity of nanites i.e. tiny machines inside fixing him (like Wolverine) and so he recovers fast from any injury

Originally, this series came in the 90s and together with parent company folded. Hence it has been quiet. Then a few years ago, a few folks come about to renew the Valiant licences and so here we are and honestly Valiant as a rule has a decent reputation

Anyway they went bankrupt ... was bought over and re-relaunched but that fizzled even faster until this series or rather this particular turn at publishing. The initial TPB of all the Valiant U is so brilliant that I read all of them. Hehehe. And now?

Now they want to be serious about the business and ... thus when they launched this round, it was so good

Okay that's enough background info. Here in issue 3 all you need to know is Bloodshot regained his humanity but sadly for him, the nanites then go out in the world to cause problems. So like it or not, he feels that he is responsible and is now going after those who have been infected in order to terminate the person so holding and taking back his power base

A cutesy moment is lil Bloodshot and his dead GF - letting us wonder if BS is going insane or not

Ratings: 6/10

2.200 (565) Amazing Spider-Man 2015 #2 ... Marvel

You know how every now and then we always bitch about how some comics are so dense that if you dive into it, you will get lost. Well this 2015 relaunch of Spider-Man feels exactly like that. Now as we all know Spider-Man is Peter Parker who is a never do well, down on his luck guy who does the best he can with what he has

Here, we open the issue with him as filthy rich having his own huge conglomerate, board meetings, owning several buildings as his own internal monologue tells us and then he has hired Hobie Brown, the Prowler (guest star from old old old issues) as his bodyguard of sorts and is working with SHIELD! So basically he is the layman's version of Iron Man!

Say what?

Yup, that's exactly what went on in our minds as we read this issue ... totally lost and we have to wonder if this is in regular continuity or not. Hey don't get us wrong. We are the types who enjoy a good story more than anything but this? It feels so jarring

And the story while interesting is not all that as apparently one of the new tech from Parker gets stolen by Zodiac (a group of criminals who take their names after astrological signs, have real or fake powers and obeys the study of astrology - in short they can be nasty but rarely effective) ... so here Peter as Spidey goes after them together with the Prowler ... and boy were they lucky that there wasn't twelve of the Zodiac assembled as otherwise it would have been curtains

The fight isn't all that either

And with the interior artwork kinda weak similar to the cover ... you can bet it will be a while before we visit another issue of this particular run

Ratings: 3/10

2.199 (564) X-Force vol 1 #10 ... Marvel ...

The really, really good issues of X-Force that we enjoyed occurred in the first year of its publication because of Mr Liefeld. Like it or not, he brought a certain energy to his work that is hard to copy and when deadline looms or when he is preparing for his departure from the house of M, we have guest artists and in this issue, they featured someone named Mark Pacella

Mark ain't half bad but again like our earlier reviews on Khoi, we have no idea if the problem is Mark or inker or colorist. SPOILER ALERT. Our bitching here is that there is just waaaaay too many lines everywhere. A great example is page 16 where we get a scowling Kane opening his mouth in a growl at a standing Stryfe and the look on Kane's face is ridiculous. We are not talking age lines or shadows but simply that his entire face is full of lines and even Stryfe in his metallic uniform is inundated with lines to the extent that they no longer look metallic and shiny

Other artistic bits that make this a really jarring reading experience includes pages 19 and 20 when Sam aka Cannonball has his little heart to heart with Tabitha aka Boom Boom. Look at his creepy ass eyes! They are blue and without any eye balls. I am sorry but what the heck is this scene supposed to convey with eyes like that? The tale is supposed to show emotion, worry, sadness but that pupil less eyes? Sure we have all enjoyed it when it was Storm but here? It is so inappropriate

And then let's not forget the background lines! The worst example is page 22 final panel with Rictor. Look at that scrawl above his head. It's supposed to represent shadows. We know. So why not do it all in black instead of what looks like a lazy ass marker pen scrawl? Sigh!

As for the tale, this is basically the end of the first 9 issues of build up and setting the foundation for the next few issues except that with changes in creators, many of these issues will not be followed up properly or at all SPOILER ALERT

We open the first few pages with a messy artistic try ... where pages are split into halves with one tale focusing on Gideon and his little chat with fellow long living mutants called Externals ... while the other deals with Kane leaping after a fleeing MLF to their lair only to discover Stryfe

After this, the artist probably realizes it wasn't working and switch to more conventional storytelling and we get to see Cable acting mysterious and tough as usual explaining away why Sam returned from the dead and subsequently we close this issue with Weapon X Kane manage to escape alive from Stryfe and immediately called up a recruitment exercise ... and the first new member is Rictor. Come on! Is that supposed to make Kane's team tougher? Really?

Finally, we have the man in shadows who supposedly have been setting Cable up for no apparent reason and this time, he is setting loose Deadpool to go after the mole in Cable's operation and that mole is none other than ... Domino! Sigh!

Ratings: 5/1
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2.198 (563) X-Men vol 1 Legacy #253 ... Marvel ...

In the olden days, anniversary issues like 12th, 25th, 50th, etc are supposed to be big deal with more pages, guest artists and freebies thrown in but every once in a while, it took a turn for the worse and for us, in this series, it did. The storyline was not rejuvenating the world of the mutants to make them a serious competitor with the Avengers continuing popularity surge. In fact, if one were to read this, it feels so second tier as if the powers that be were lost on how to make this work

I do not fault artist Khoi simply because I love his work on Mighty Avengers before that series ended and there are even more relaunches. But here, I am not too sure. It could be the ink or the colour or the overall direction but whatever it is, the art just fails to pop

And the storyline? Once more, the X-people are thrown into an alternate reality or potentially an alternate reality or perhaps merely a bastardized kind of world. Hey this is the final chapter of a storyline and we see the X-Men splintered with only folks like Magneto/ David Haller (Legion)/ Prof X/ Frenzy/ Gambit and Rogue around. So is this really the core X-team? Honestly? I have no idea

Anyhow, we see some super nasty giving everyone a beat down but large as he is, the suit he is wearing looks goofy and as the pages progress, we learn that he is but one of the many personalities/ aspects of David's fractured psyche. Geez how many times have we seen this scenario play out and played out better than this?

So once more, everyone is given a hard time trying to survive while piercing through his mental blocks and trying to free him so that the bad guy is either defeated or re-absorbed. Yup, that's it. If you have read New Mutants vol 1 #26 to 28, that's a better tale with awesome Sienkiewicz art. The art here isn't bad ... but the story just feels like an updated retread of something from earlier on

Ratings: 4/10

2.197 (562) Wolverine & Black Cat 2 Claws #1 ... Marvel ...

Yes we know we have reviewed the first issue of the first mini series rather recently. So why this, eh? Well ... why not is our answer. Heh! Actually, there is no particular reason except that we are curious how this one will turn out and to be honest ... Mr Linsner the artist assigned to this series is awesome but to me, his artwork largely is not suited to a tale like this. He should be given space to shine at what he does best i.e. women

Look at the cover. Look at Black Cat who looked so snugged in her costume. Awesome, right? Then look at Wolverine. You cannot think of him as someone who is rugged, nasty, bad tempered and whatever else because he just looked somehow goofy/ silly/ a pathetic clown. Sorry, folks, that's our opinion and the story itself is a continuation of part 1

Apparently, after that adventure, both Cat and Logan decided to get together to ... share memories ... say thanks to each other? Well, whatever it is, it is lame as it is just an excuse to get them together and before you know it, BAM time for another adventure ... so where to this time?

An alternate reality ... to be more specific, one where a cult Marvel series has taken root i.e. the War of the Worlds universe where Martians are conquering planet after planet and earth has fallen with its few remaining free men trying to make a stand wherever they may. Yup, you read that right. For those who are interested, Alan Davis did a recent take on this character in a 6-issue mini-series that has its highs and many lows

And here at the end of issue 1, if you are not familiar with them, you will be left with many questions. Will it make you go to find the next issue? For us, the answer is nope. We will do so if nothing else catches our eyes and we have time on our hands

Ratings: 4/10