129. Marvel Team Up vol 1 #142 ... Marvel ...

There was once, a rather new Avenger, who because of her (yes her) power levels, was immediately accepted into the Avengers' roster even though she was more of a trainee. Who are we talking about? Spidey's co-star in this issue of Marvel Team-Up: the new Captain Marvel

Her name?

Monica Rambeau and she is an American, African-American

Her power?

Supposedly the ability to transform herself into any range of energy so she can shoot bolts, heat things up, fly at (near) light speed and transform her body into any form of energy. So she should (theoretically) be unbeatable, right? Kind of like telepaths that can fry one's brains ...

But naturally in comics, they can be beaten otherwise there is minimal tension and drama in the storylines

So in here, we have Spidey going to cover a social event as PPP (Peter Parker, Photographer) for the paper he works for while a robbery takes place. The robbers are not in street clothes but in henchman clothes although for them, most are tall and geeky so makes one wonder, right? And as they are having a good time clearing out the exhibit, both Spidey and Captain Marvel arrives to stop them

In this issue, the master villain has yet to be announced at the outset which is good as it makes us want to read what's inside and the cool bit besides henchmen getting beaten to within an inch of their lives? They managed to trap the good Captain

Ratings: 8/10

128. Longshot vol 1 #1 to 6 ... Marvel ... Arthur Adams ...

Aaaaaaaaaand we are back to the land of Marvel to marvel at what is the next great thing from the Marvel archives and here we have Longshot - a mutant originating from another dimension called the Mojoverse where all the locals are so tuned into TVland

For those who do not know, basically in Mojoland, live revolves around TV broadcasting with the leader/ ruler called Mojo (whoa). In that world, all the conquerors are fat creatures with insane broad smiles and sits on mechanical legs while the more regular skinnier type with legs that actually function live but to serve these fatso-s

So Longshot is one of the rebels who escaped from that crazy world seeking help to go back and kick Mojo's ass and he is a regular in the X-Men verse. His power? Aside from jumping around and throwing small blades, he has "good luck" powers similar to Domino from X-Force. His signature look? Leatherware and an eye that gleams and sparkles

This limited series is actually an origin of sorts where we get to see how he reaches Earth and is lost. The people who encounter him and got hurt. And finally those who are sent to hunt him down. We also got a taste of home life for Longshot where he is no so naive as he appears to be when on Earth

The amazing Arthur Adams turns every panel into something to gaze and study at. The only problem is the quality of paper that over time made the drawings look murky. If you have a chance, we suggest you grab hold of reprints or TPB on better paper stock

It is great reading, good story, outstanding artwork

Ratings:8/10

127. Earth 2 ... #1 to 6 ... DC ...

I have no idea what they meant by Earth 2 except for the fact that DC stories have almost similar characters across a multitude of parallel universes. So when I saw this in Tradepaperback (collected) format in the book store, what made me actually buy this is the artwork from the front and back (always checked the interior as today there is a fondness for different artists on covers and interiors). As it looked incredibly detailed, lots of action sequences and awesome colouring, I decided to give it a try and I am not disappointed!

First up is the cover and unfortunately Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and their hangers on all DIED (SPOILER SPOILER) within the first few pages. Apparently on Earth 2 the heroes perished in the fight against villains and at first no one expected more supers to come popping out of the woodwork except perhaps for those "engineered" by the government

So naturally to ensure that there is a comic series to tell, the supers started popping up one by one and the best part is that this series wasted no time in doing so with slow moving origin issues. We have the girl with the wings popping up and the origins are left to be revealed in bit and pieces later on ... we have good old Speedy before he became a speedster and his is a tale that is full of action ... and then the obligatory political correctness of a gay couple ... who becomes the lantern ... ah well ... even this is done with a lot BOMBING and EXPLOSIONS (literally)

And so for them, there must come a strong opponent in order for them to gel together. Who is it? A new, utterly over-the-top version of Grundy! Seriously! I know very little about the previous chap but this one? Whoa be careful!

I read the entire TPB in one seating - it's that good and remember, I am not a DC Fanatic!

Ratings: 7/10

126. Darkness vol 1 #1 ... Image ... Marc Silvestri ...

For some reason, I am a fan of Marc Silvestri even though his style always looked so rushed with lots of lines everywhere. And then the facial features are exaggerated. So I really failed to understand why I followed his work in X-Men and Wolverine ... and collected his Cyberforce from start to end ...

So naturally when this was announced after Marc's hiatus for a while ... and it was promoted the heck out of it ... I picked it up ... and ... well, it is a unique tale because it is not about superheroes, mutants or cybernetics

For those who actually do not know, it is about Jackie Estacado, an "adopted" son of a "mafia" type don ... who grows up amongst the bad hats ... lived that kind of life ... and loves to please his "dad". In short, he is a bad guy. And this book does not set out to redeem him

In fact, in this tale, we are told that there is a girl he likes but doesn't sleep with while the rest are casual one night stands. He kills as he pleases but he drinks milk in a bar! So to his utter shock and disgust, when he comes of age, he finds himself blessed with the power of the Darkness, an ancient force that materializes only when he is an adult and with this he can form constructs with minds of their own in shadows ... unlimited constructs to cause havoc and destruction ...

Naturally there are those who seek to teach him how to use this while others will become his opposition for the power and the power's own opposition. Got it? Well the first issue will reveal a lot but not everything. Suffice to say if you get the first 2 to 4 issues, it is enough for you to decide to continue or not ... I didn't because of the artwork. Sorry, Marc!

But I did follow up on the back issue bins later on ... especially when Benitez came onboard! Hehehe!

Ratings: 6/10

125. Conan the Barbarian #129 ... Marvel ... Gil Kane

And now for our 125th review ... which in the old days of comics would mean something significant ... we decided on a review of the Barbarian. Why is this unique? Well firstly during the original run, it was a licensed property that was then produced from Marvel ... however, after a while, when the series finally ended and nothing new came forward ... somehow it ended up in Dark Horse ... and Dark Horse even issued coloured compendiums of Conan ... so I read this from vol 17!!! Mind you, I have seen the compendiums but never bothered to buy them until last week when I ... for some unknown reason felt the need for a different genre of reading material ... and ...

GIL KANE THE ARTIST is awesome!!!

There I said!!! I knew he was one of the greats but I just couldn't recall his style but when I got home and opened this? WOW! It looks a bit like Barry Windsor Smith except that in place of Barry's "round spots" ... we have lines similar to a more refined Joe Kubert ... but what really works is that even though it is not over rendered ... it reads so well! All I know is you have to give it a try!

And this story?

Wow! This is a multi-chapter arc ... basically a quick recap, Conan continues stumbling through life when a place of refuge saw him coming across a boyhood friend ... however, with Conan, nothing goes right ... and within a few hours, they were attacked and the villains carried his mate off leaving Conan with his mate's wife and kid ... only to discover that the lady is not even human but some sort of priestess serving some old gods ... so our friend the baddie wants power that he cannot reach as he has not her knowledge ... and to confront her directly he feared she still would not reveal ... so in this case, it's reverse sexist hostage time! Grab the bloke and hope the wife caves in! Cool, eh?

In this chapter, Conan and the family comes to the ancient site to retrieve one of the sought after items and it's battle time galore! Lots of great sword swinging action here but it never overwhelmed the need to tell the tale ... all in, a great chapter in the Creation Quest arc

Ratings: 7/10

124. Hulk vol 1 #447 ... Marvel ...

There was a time when the Hulk series lost its direction ... and this issue is pretty much their last attempt to arrest the decline prior to rebooting ... and here we see from the cover, a savage Hulk. The story takes place after Heroes Reborn

For those who followed that limited series, an amalgam of Prof X's dark side along with Magneto has put the entire Marvel U in danger and in order to contain the threat, a number of Earth's Heroes sacrificed themselves. Hulk was sent to break through the armour and that he did and as a result he became Banner. Banner sacrificed himself by using his body to help contain the outpouring of energy

In this issue, the monument or remnant that was the Hulk in the park began to tremble and BAM the Hulk is back. Naturally no one expected this and when they do, the Hulk is at his dumbest HULK SMASH mode ... there is no room for affection ... no room for human warmth ... there is only Hulk Smash .. and Smash he does

Awesome ... now if only the artwork was awesome, this would have been a decent chapter!

Ratings: 5/10

123. Hulk vol 1 #204 ... Marvel ...

And from that brief respite in the world of DC, we take a jump back into Marvel ... and back in time to the Hulk's early days! This is an interesting chapter. You see, at this juncture, Hulk has found his green love, Jarella again and they were brought back to our world from the micro-world that she inhabited

And during this trip, instead of the army hounding him, the army is actually helping him to try to rid himself of the Hulk ... something new to me as I never even knew Ross actually had a period like this ... all the while, Banner's love is Betty but she has married Talbot ... that I also didn't know ... and Talbot is having issues as he was captured recently and tortured ...

So the drama aside, what else?

The villain of the piece is not really the villain. For you see, another scientist named Kronos (how coincidental) has discovered and built a time machine. For a human test subject, they offered Bruce stating that if he went back to the past, he could prevent the accident from happening and thus never become the Hulk. And as he did so, the moment he never became the Hulk, well, the world he knew has changed, eh? And he seemed to be the only one who remembered

Rick is dead because he didn't go and save Rick but rather save his own skin and his sanity is hammered by this, his own self-preservation ... also has his true love changed? And what is the right thing for Bruce to do?

Many questions and as you can see even though this is a HULK SMASH book ... there is a lot more for the brain to ponder than what one might expect of a Hulk comic

Ratings: 6/10