735. Wolverine Weapon X #6 ... #Wolverine ... #WeaponX ... #Mutant ...

[This is reviewed on 4th Dec 2017]

A bit different this series in the sense that the first arc ended less than six issues which is more of the norm for the past few years of Marvel stuff. So here in issue 6 we start round 2 and I am not sure maybe Garney is growing on me. The characters are still feeling more like rough sketches but when he does backgrounds, it was properly drawn and in adequate detail

But enough about the art

The tale is quite good. It starts right in the middle and we see a confused Logan trapped in a straight  jacket mumbling and answering questions. We are given bits and pieces of whoever is speaking to him and never the whole issue and we know that wherever he is, he is in deep shit. And we are left wondering why isn't his healing factor working if he is being fed with some kind of drug ..... all these serve as effective inducers to us to read further and actually follow the series and storyline through ...

There is enough gruesomeness in the madhouse even though it is not a straightforward superhero versus supervillain issue here. The people we are introduced is quite a mixed bunch, obviously. There are cannibals and a giant sized man and what not and we see some interesting characters in the background as well. Look out for the guy who is banging his head against the wall until bleeding

So how did Logan end up here? That's the question

Does anyone know where he is? Not yet ... but help will be coming ...

Ratings: 6/10

3.4 (734) Fantastic Four vol 1 #537 ... #FF ... #Thing ... #Doom ...

[This is reviewed on 2nd Dec 2017]

For those who are not in the know, this issue is part of the lead up to Marvel's then big company wide crossover, the first Civil War. At that time, Thor and his entire Asgardian pantheon had supposedly finally met the end of the gods, Ragnarok and disappeared from the face of the Earth

And as the cover shows ... and this continues from the previous issue, Thor's hammer has suddenly shot through from his world until landing in Oklahoma. And so many including the government are trying to unearth its special properties to no avail

Doom was last seen trapped in Hell and while he didn't explain to Reed how he got back, we the readers are given glimpses via flashbacks. Apparently on his last ropes and surrounded by a type of demons, a sudden energy blast created ripples across many realms. And as Doom approaches it, he was witnessed to the fall of the gods and saw that at its nucleus, the force blast was the hammer of Thor. And so he leapt into one of the ripples and was swept away

While his doombots kept Reed and company busy, Doom made a play for Thor's hammer with only the Thing standing in his way and even then, it was not enough

However, unfortunately for Doom, his ego was his downfall. He figured that just because he was privileged to witness the Asgardian end, and he had a touch of the magic as he leapt into the ripple, he must be worthy to bear the power of Thor. As his hands reached for the hammer, a blinding flash of light ripped right through all and sundry and blasted once again into space leaving all humbled including Doom

SPOILER ALERT

Such is Doom's ego that he departed and with Reed wondering if maybe Doom had awaken some force from beyond by his contact ... what's really important are the final 2 pages as we see the back and distant view of someone boarding a bus with a one way ticket to Oklahoma whose back bore the initials of DB (Don Blake Thor's first alter ego) ... and potentially signaled the return of Thor ...

All in all, lots of good action scenes and a riveting storyline leaving us wanting more ... so even though it is part of a larger whole, this chapter by itself is complete and a very worth while and entertaining read

Ratings: 6/10

3.3 (733) Alpha Flight vol 1 #9 ... #johnbyrne ...

[This is reviewed on 30th Nov 201]

This cover belongs to my all-time favorite covers list. Just look at it! Giant Sasquatch and rocky Thing! And that's how they opened this story. It's a set up tale for part 2 next issue but this part is so enjoyable that you do not feel cheated somehow as we see Walter aka Sasquatch (previous issue dealt with Northstar and Aurora and so it is Walt's turn now) doing his alter ego's life work of research when their scanning caught onto something and that something appeared to be rocky Mr Grimm

However, as they placed him in a convalescing room while another chap studied him, what should happen but a huge twist ... and Walt and crew went out into the cold darkness trying to track down Grimm when in truth, it was none other than the Super Skrull that they have brought back who was momentarily trapped in Grimm's body shape. With his other FF powers, he had murdered a significant number of the research team leaving only Sasquatch to confront him next issue!

With that as the opening tale, on the flipside we see Aurora as a depressed schoolgirl committing suicide by jumping off the roof only to discover she can fly. After this, we are rushed through the scenes as we see her being tormented by both fellow peers and the teachers and yet for some unknown reason she decided to be a teacher herself and to return to her alma mater. Does that make sense to you? She isn't even seeking revenge!

About the only thing that is worthwhile for us is the glimpses that we get of her dual personality and the ending features another guest star who is not even mentioned on the cover: Wolverine who at that time was with the Flight and came a recruiting inviting Aurora to consider joining his team!

Ratings: 6/10

3.2 (732) Gambit 1993/ 1994 #2 ... #X-Men ... #Gambit

[Posted on 29th Nov 2017]

There are so many X characters populating the comics world these days all fighting for their moment in the sun so to speak but there was a time, not that long ago, when a new character was to be celebrated and that was how Gambit came to be. He was first introduced in Uncanny as someone Ororo came across and subsequently brought back to the mansion. And as time develops, SPOILER ALERT, he developed feelings for Rogue and his friendship with Ororo became distant.

He was always portrayed as a Nightcrawler type of swashbuckler thief who has his ways with the ladies and  we guessed he liked the unattainable ones especially since Rogue's powers does not permit skin contact

Anyhow, as time went by, his entire history became very convoluted with the X-teams finding out he has a wife, then his died, then supposedly she didn't and then he was a villain before he joined the X-Men and subsequently maybe he just was a villain all along ... sigh ... while it is good that characters grow but total changes like this feels a little too much ...

As for this, it is his first limited series of a few before he got his start in an ongoing that didn't last before he finally faded in obscurity of a sort although he makes his appearances here and there including a Wolverine movie hehehe

So in this issue what you need to know is in New Orleans there are two factions - one is thieves and one is assassin. Gambit was adopted into the thieves faction while his wife was an assassin. He fell in love, they brokered peace between the guilds and subsequently he left her. The guilds are formed by a lady named Candra who gave them gifts of powers n long life and what-not and she herself is an External, an offshoot of mutants who can live extremely long lives almost immortal like

Confusing eh?

But for some reason by his leaping about and swinging a stick, Gambit can defeat all the assassins that come at him be it here or in other books and that sort of makes you think if assassins are like the hand ninjas = mere cannon fodder hahahaah

So ... one more time ... this issue deals with Gambit coming home to his in-laws to see for himself that his wife is indeed back from the dead although we are not told how and why. While here, Rogue his then girlfriend follows without his permission to discover the truth though one wonders why as he is not divorced yet! Anyhow, his brother in law, in a state of greed has broken some age old covenant and went for more than  the assassins entitlement and is now depicted as a man with weird facial expressions draped in black who kills or attempts to kill Gambit and all his family

And as this issue unfolds, it focuses very well on both story and action which is the saving grace here because while the art is good taken on a panel by panel basis but as a whole, it feels very much rushed and a style of its times, if you know what we meant

Ratings: 5/10

1. (366/ 732) Power Pack vol 1 #4 ... @MarvelComics #PowerPack

[Posted on 20th Nov 2017]

Wah-hoo! We are now in year 3 of our reviews and if you are following the sequence this is either review 366 if vol 2 or 731 if vol 1. If we are following based on calendar days, it is even longer than three years as we have not been doing daily reviews for a few years now ...

Anyway we chose this issue to review as it holds special significance for us. This is our very first issue of Power Pack and we bought this when we were still schooling. So obviously it definitely hit a chord close to home. And this is such a wonderful tale as it ends the opening story arc of the Pack

It introduces us to who the Power family are, it shows us how the kids got their powers and subsequently who the villains and the heroes are and in this the final chapter, we SPOILER ALERT get to see the kids finally coming to good grips with their powers as they stage and escape from the lizards and rescuing their parents. However, as the parents had some alien bandage on them, their conscious thoughts were not exactly there and for some weird reason, the kids and their alien saviors (horse like creature) decided it best that the parents are not aware of what happened. How nutty is that eh?

But aside from this one tit bit, the entire comic is an enjoyable ride. It feels like reading a family style sci-fi fantasy adventure yarn. Very good, very cinematic and the artist is just perfect as the kids do not look like miniature adults but rather still kids with the right proportions from head to torso

Colouring is even brilliant here. No modern day computer colours but good palette

Ratings: 8/10

2.365 (730) New Mutants vol 1 Special Edition 1 ... #Mutants ...

[This is posted on 27th Nov 2017]

There was a time, in the 80s, when Marvel managed to churn out a few mutant issues out of sequence but because it was such a delightful read, all of us loved it and bought, bought, bought them all. There is an Alpha Flight/ X-Men series where the X-teams encountered Loki and got away with it. So as expected, Loki would plan revenge and revenge starts with the end of issue 34 when Amahl Farouk aka Shadow King was defeated and Shan aka Karma was rescued

So instead of going home to USA, Storm who was on a sabbatical away from the X-Men, offered to take them on a break to some romantic idyll of an island holidays and that's how this issue opens. Naturally before the team can have a few good days, in comes Asgardian warriors and one by one everyone is defeated with ease

When they recovered their senses, the Mutants and Storm found themselves in the clutches of Amora aka the Enchantress who has done this on behalf of Loki as apparently all Loki need to do to get around his promise to higher powers is assign his revenge through an agent like Amora (say whaaaaat) ...

The good thing is Illyana tried to teleport everyone away and sent them to different parts of Asgard and different times SPOILER ALERT and this is what happens to each with some truly having long lasting changes that has yet to be retcon ...

Miraga aka Dani fell in with a bunch of Valkyries and crazily enough was accepted by them thus coming across her flying horse, Brightwind

Fat Karma landed in the middle of some dessert encountering a kid and while she hates what she has become, she could not give up her live and thus strive across miles and days to take care of her and ... loses all the bloat becoming a hottie ...

As for Sunspot, he found the Warriors Three ... which suited his ego just fine while Sam fell in with the Dwarves who can make weapons including Thor's hammer ...

As to be expected after their individual journeys, they managed to reunite for the final all out battle against Amora ... but the story doesn't end here as it continues into the X-Men annual ... but the battle did end here so there is an ending

What is truly Amazing is the work by artist Art Adams from cover to interior. Every single panel was simply amazing

Ratings: 10/10

729. Avengers vol 1 #254 ... #Vision ... #Starfox ... #Isaac ...

[This is posted on 7th Dec 2017]

This is how they used to rock the world when Avengers and storytelling were tight with no decompression style unlike today. Imagine the huge battle in Asgard with Thor and his fellow Asgardians that took months of build-up ultimately spilling over in Avengers 249 and then for 250 it is yet another menace called Maelstrom

While all these was happening, we see what initially happened in the 230s of a Vision hurt and recovering ultimately developing into something darker ... with the Vision thinking that the only way to really protect the world and make it a better place is if he indirectly assumes control of everything via machines. That's why he was busy coordinating with ISAAC Titan's ultimate AI computer that runs that world

In this issue, the Avengers finally pieced everything together and rush back to the mansion to confront the Vision who then projects himself as different forms to combat each of the Avengers' teams to better suit them. For example: Warrior Mode to fight people like Hercules and a more humane feature for his wife, the Scarlet Witch

However, in the end, as is expected, they managed to convince him of the error of his ways and he reloaded his true self back into his true body. Nevertheless the governments of selected countries were aware that something had invaded their systems. And so while the primary thrust of the story is over, its repercussions will definitely be felt in the days/ issues to come

Ratings: 6/10