Slightly Late Reviews

I really have no excuse for this, other than moving furniture, and...and stuff.  It was an all Marvel week, which rather surprises me.

Angela: Queen of Hel #4

I've  been liking this book so far, I really just like Sera, and it's nice to have Leah back, but man, this is starting to drag just a little.  They've been fighting in Hel, to presumably free all the dead angels from Heven, sent there, by Freya's curse, after they stole...and supposedly murdered her baby.  I can understand where she might be pissy. 

And there is a quest, and Balder and Tyr and even Skurge show up,which is nice, but still no sign of Hela, although finally...FINALLY she shows up on the final page, and it's a doozy.  Is it okay for me to say that I am actually rooting for Hela to win?  Why the heck would Angela want to rule in Hel?  It doesn't seem that bad a place, it has the Disir, and all those cool characters from Journey into Mystery hanging around doing cool dead stuff.  I would think that Angela would just want to rescue her dead companions, most of whom don't like her all that much in the first place, or at least make a bargain with Hela so that they would be treated a little nicer or something.  Angela is kinda mean to her brothers too. 

I like her supporting cast, but I don't really like Angela herself all that much. She's a bit of a cypher, and one-dimensional.  She only makes bargains, and she cuts people's heads off a lot.  That's about it.  Making her and Aesir hasn't done much to broaden her appeal.  Frankly, I'd like to see her meet her parents for a change.

But anyway, not terrible.

All New Avengers #4

Out of the nine thousand Avengers titles out there, this is the one that I am enjoying the most.  I am a little confused however. In this book, Tony Stark seems to be mostly broke...he's sold the tower and a bunch of his tech, and they are operating out of an abandoned warehouse or something. He DOES convince Jarvis to come back and buttle for them however, which just thrills me to no end.  But in his own book, I'm pretty sure that he is still rich.  Whu huh?

Thor seems to be enjoying herself a whole lot in this book too. She grabs Falcon...er...Captain America and plants a big wet one on him, which startles the heck out of him, but he does enjoy it.  The younger members of the group all stare and get amazed a lot.  They think Vision is a little creepy and robotic, but he's the one who saves the day by stopping the villain Cyclone, who is busy leveling the casinos in Atlantic City.  He's probably just saving the state a ton of money since they will have to be imploding them eventually anyway, but no, he's working for one of those new nefarious  companies that provides Villains-for-Hire. 

It's all fun, and fast paced, and a little tongue in cheek, which is nice. 

Daredevil #3

Well, Matt's witness gets killed, and then Ninjas show up, and brother, Matt sure does hate Ninjas.  His boss isn't happy with him, and he gets demoted to Night Court, which is particularly hard on him, since he does his vigilanting thing at night. As he wonders to himself...he gave up Kirsten and Foggy for this? 

Pretty darned good as usual.

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #3

I more or less picked this up on a whim when it first came out, and it is a little on the bizarre side.  A giant red Tyranosaurus Rex running around with a little girl in his mouth doesn't really seem to bother people as much as you would think it would.  But he's a pretty cute T-Rex once you get to know him.

Then the new Hulk shows up,and I do believe this has something to do with all the monster hunting he is doing in his own book.  It's fast, it's fun, and it's a hoot.


Squirrel Girl #4

And speaking of hoots...God I do love this book.

Doreen was zapped into the 1960's along with a bunch of other college kids, and it's probably all Doom's doing, and he's managed to go back and change time as well, and things...well things aren't looking too good.  You can't always fight your way out of your problems by throwing squirrels at them. 

And then another Doom from the new future shows up. And oh...I did not see that coming. But I am panting to find out how this all ends.

Hilarious as always.


Saga #33

Well, Saga isn't a Marvel book. But damn, it is a marvelous book.

In this issue we get reintroduced to a pair that we haven't seen in quite a while, mainly, Upsher and Doff, the journalists who figured out what was actually going on, but had their work destroyed by The Brand, who is now dead.  They run about the universe searching for clues and find them, and then of course they run afoul of The Will. 

Man, has he put on some weight.  And no Lying Cat, but he does have the Dog.  Who is awfully cute.  He lets them live, but they are working for him now. 

Not a huge advancement in the plot, but a nice issue to let us know things are still going on, and characters are still a part of the whole picture.  And frankly, I could watch Fiona Staples draw pictures of just about anybody.

So a pretty good week on the whole!

What On Earth?

So...I was spelunking in my Photo Bucket, and came across this picture.



For the life of me, I couldn't understand why it was that impressed me so much that I had to save it.  Yes, it has Hal in it, and that's nice, but he isn't getting hit in the head, nor is he showing off his behind.  The sharks are kinda scary.  Batman is there, for some reason.  I don't even remember what book it is from, although I would have to guess a Justice League.

Then I saw the title, that I had attached to the picture, and it said, "Aquaman's Butt".

Oh.

That's why.

Thursday Reviews

Not a whole lot this week, which seems to becoming the norm for me lately. 

*sigh*

Lucifer #2

I loved the old Carey Lucifer, and was sorry when it ended, so I am happy to say that this new version with Holly Black is pretty darned good so far. Also Lee Garbett is the artist, and I adored him on Loki: Agent of Asgard, so I can still get my fix of tall Otherworldly siblings fighting. 

We have Lucifer back, and Gabriel without his wings, and together they just snark up the place. Terrible things are happening in Oklahoma, and the brothers go back to Hell, where they run into all kinds of trouble, and Mazikeen still has a soft spot for Lucifer.  It's well written, beautifully drawn, and I am IN!

I tried watching the Lucifer television show, and was less than impressed however.  Tom Hiddleston has ruined me for tall dark sarcastic Gods apparently.

Robin: Son of Batman #8

No Pat Gleason on this issue, which surprised me.  This actually seems a bit like a fill-in issue, but it is pretty good.  As Alfred cuts his hair, Damian tells a tale of derring do, as he was still returning relics from his Year of Blood, along with Maya, and they fulfill a prophecy and incidentally run into their older more obnoxious selves and earn a little bit of redemption perhaps. It sure as heck beats the tie-in with the whole Robin War fiasco.

So...pretty good actually.

Sinestro #19

This...is starting to drag a bit. Actually a whole lot.  Not a whole lot has changed since last issue, they are still fighting the Pale Bishops on Earth.  The big cliff hanger was that Superman had been changed into a Sinstro Corp member, but they don't do a whole lot with it, he teams up with Wonder Woman and a lot of other villains and such and they fight, and Sinestro pontificates about how versatile Fear is, and what losers the Green Lantern Corps were, and actually admits that he might have succumbed to just a wee bit of hubris himself. 

But seriously, this is really starting to go on and on and on.  Cullen Bunn could have wrapped this up a couple of issues ago.  I am starting to lose interest.

I seem to be getting a whole lot crankier than I used to be about my comics. 


Hellcat #2

I have to admit that this was my favorite this week.  Patsy is working in a clothing store, and not...doing well.  It does seem awfully terrifying by the way. Her new roomie stops by, she still has so-called fans giving her problems, and Hedy is a real...pain in the butt.  Also a new villainess shows up, who is just out and out stealing stuff, but magically disappears.  And Patsy gets fired for taking too long on her break or fighting crime or something.

So she sends out an SOS to her peeps and everyone shows up at a sandwich shoppe, including Squirrel Girl, Valkyrie, She-Hulk, Kate Bishop, Monica Rambeau and America Chavez.  I could read a book about this bunch ALL DAY LONG!  Now that is an Avengers lineup!

The art is adorable, the writing is equally so.  It's nothing too ridiculous but...oh heck it is ridiculous, and that is part of its charm.  I loved this.


Ms. Marvel #3

And speaking of charming, poor Kamala is confronted by Dr. Faustas, who is allied with Hydra, and they are drugging everyone and taking their neighborhood!  Even Bruno! Especially Bruno!  So she has to go and ally with Bruno's new girlfriend Michaela, who is just the cutest little cuddlebug ever.  She's a smart little cuddlebug too, and has Bruno's data and encryption codes on a pendant, and she and Kamala break into the High School, and manage to isolate the virus and make...a cure. 

Yes, that's a bit over the top, but hey, I can completely go with it.

They spray the crown with their anti-Hydra spray, and everyone gets their brains back, and beat up Dr. Faustus.  So...things are saved and back to normal, right?  Well, a lot of people are still mad that Ms. Marvel "endorsed" the pillage of their neighborhood, and don't believe her when she says that it was done without her permission.  But at least they get to go off and eat ice cream, so it ends in a win. 

Lovely as usual.

For a Change

It's been a while since I've done some good old-fashioned Guy/Hal fisticuffs.  And seeing Hal getting hit in the head by Guy just gives me the warm fuzzies.



Back when Green Lantern Was still my absolute favorite book.

So Depressed

Man...Alan Rickman died.  David Bowie died.  This has not been a good week. 

When I was young, 69 seemed to be ancient.  Now...not so much.  Quite young actually.  Sooner than it should have been. 

I was going to put up scans of Hal getting hit in the head, which is always amusing, but I'm not...in an amused sort of mood.

Damn.

Thursday Reviews

What a nice little week.

Batman meets the Man From U.N.C.L.E. #2

Now that Batman '66 is over, this is the next best thing.  Thrush continues to cause trouble for Bruce Wayne, since they are the ones in charge of breaking all the bad guys and girls out of Arkham, in order to recruit them for their nefarious organization.  Meanwhile, it turns out that Alexander Waverly is an old buddy of Alfred's, and he has his suspicions about Bruce Wayne, since Thrush is trying to hit billionaires up for cash.  Also, if I ran a Spy organization I am not sure that I'd be filming a PSA about it, but hey...comics.

It's all good lighthearted fun, and therefore right up my alley.


Fables #13

Is it me, or is this thing really really starting to drag on a bit?  I love seeing Bigby and Snow of course, but I'm not all that into the new characters so much, and every issue it seems more of the same.  I know that it is apparently based on a video game, which I don't play, but is there really all that much story there?  The same thing occurs to me with the Injustice series going on.

So, Bigby fights, and bad guys do bad things. 

Gotham Academy #14

Maps is feeling a bit down since the Academy won't let her on the Yearbook staff or something, so she makes one of her own, or has one made, and it's cute and adorable with different artists and different escapades and stuff. 

Cute, but not really deep. And to be perfectly honest, I wasn't exactly sure what was going on in the last story. 

Green Lantern Corps: Edge of Oblivion #1

Now this is more like it!  I still can't bring myself to read about Hal, because his book is so very very dull.  But now we have the GLC back again, although...they are still stuck in Relic's world, and nothing at all has really happened between the end of the last series and this one. We do have Ethan Van Sciver on art however, which is always nice. 

All the remaining Lanterns are standing around trying to figure out just what to do.  Guy is back in snark mode, which is how I like it, and as usual,he has all the best lines.  That's my boy!  They also decide that perhaps there are other lanterns lost out there, and have Mogo light up, which serves as a beacon to some of those self-same lost Lanterns which is good.

It also draws the attention of another world which is busy crashing into Mogo...which is bad.  And a couple of heavy-weight types start throwing their...weight around a bit, so naturally they all fight for a bit. Then the Krypton...er..."Guardians" of this world announce that they are actually good guys and so are the Lanterns and that they should team up or something, since they want to get the hell out of the dying Universe and into ours.

Salaak, is the only one with a brain and thinks that this seems rather suspicious, but Kilowog is all for it, since he is the last of his species too, and what the heck, it's a big Universe or something. So they have a talk about it and decide to help them out, which of course leads to some skullduggery.  Always with the skullduggery.

But hey, it is GLC space-faring action, that I love, so I am down with this so far.



All-New, All-Different Avengers #3

Is it me, or are Comic Book titles getting really really long nowadays?  Yeesh!

We have Iron Man, and new Thor and new Captain America and new Vision along with Ms. Marvel and new Nova fighting a Chitauri who has teamed up with the evil new owner of Stark's Tower.  I guess Tony needs the cash or something but he really shouldn't be just selling off assets to ever villain that wanders by with good credit. 

They fight the good fight and decide to become the fifteenth version of the Avengers, because why the hell not?  But it is fun, and it does have some of my favorite characters in it, so I rather like this. And Kamala and little Sam are rather adorable. 

Scarlet Witch #2

This is a very stylish book.  Certainly rather different visually from a lot of other offerings out there.  Wanda is over in Greece, talking to Hecate, because something strange is going on with Magic.  Well, I do believe that Doctor Strange told her that, but that's another book.  There is a reincaration of the Minotaur running about causing mayhem, and Wanda figures it out, it is actually just silly old Man-Bull who has been amped up a bit.  But naturally, there is something else going on in the background, and it is all rather intriguing, so pretty good so far.



The Mighty Thor #3

I do like this book.  A lot.  I'm getting my much-needed dose of Norse Gods, a really spectacular version of Loki, and Jane Foster doing her thing, although it probably wouldn't hurt to actually listen to Loki once in a while.  But she has her own issues with him, since he used to love to kidnap her back in the old days, and that is actually a pretty darned good reason for her to be mad at him. 

I still don't know where Odinson is hanging out, or why it is that Odin seems to have gone of his royal rocker, but I am pretty sure that Cul has something to do with it.  And considering how obnoxious Freyja was to Loki I'm not all that sorry so see her sweat for a little bit.  

Tough on the poor Elves of course, but darn it if Malekith isn't have such a very good time with all of his shenanigans. 

Really really Good.

So...quite a nice little week after all.  I actually read some DC this week, after nothing last week.  I do wish that I could read more, but I'm pretty happy with Marvel at the minute.

Thursday Reviews

Well, last week was so tiny, and this week isn't a whole lot bigger.  I will say one thing.  I have dropped so many books over the past months, that my weekly bill has gotten a whole lot smaller.  This makes my beloved Comic Book Store owner Matt cry a lot, but what can you do?

Not a single DC book this week.  I just couldn't face Space Gambit again.

Doctor Strange #4

Man, I am liking this book a whole lot, and I had some serious reservations at first. But it is just so...so completely bonkers, and unashamedly so, that I find myself to be completely entranced.

Things are starting to get serious.  All of the other Sorcerers Supreme in all the other dimensions are dead, or seemingly so, and Steven is starting to get seriously worried.  All the mages on Earth show up at the incredibly cool "Bar with No Doors", which is buried deep under New York City and you have to be able to conjure yourself in, so no problem with tourists apparently.  He warns all the other mages about the problem.

Then he gets an urgent call from Wong and goes home, where cute little Zelma the Librarian is horrified to discover that the books in his library are...dying.  So he has some lunch, which is both hilarious and completely disgusting, and goes out looking for trouble.  Which naturally finds him. 

The dialogue is great, the story is great, and the art is great. This is a pretty great book.

The Totally Awesome Hulk #2

So, Amadeus Cho is now the Hulk, being helped out by his sister, and for some reason, Spider-Man and She-Hulk, as they face off against Lady Hellbender, the Monster Queen of Seknarf Nine!  Amadeus, being the immature young man that he is, wants to flirt instead of fight, because you know...hormones or something.  She's after the same monsters that they are, and naturally, there are some miscues and misunderstandings along the way. She's not actually evil, she is basically trying to retrieve the monsters from around the galaxy, and put them in what amounts to a Wild Animal Park, where they will be safe. 

And then Fin Fang Foom shows up. 

You just can't be wrong when Fin Fang Foom shows up. 

It's silly and fun and awesome, and Frank Cho does the art, so this is high on my list of great books too.


Invincible Iron Man #5

Well, Doctor Doom and Tony manage to finally subdue Madam Masque when an evil demon is actually trying to take her over. It is a bit of a tie-in to Doctor Strange, which actually works quite nicely.  Poor Mary Jane is just cranky, because she was at the grand opening of her new club, which naturally gets trashed by the rampaging Superheroes.

She's sitting on a park bench,when Tony wanders by, and she's a bit cranky at first...naturally.  But he's there to offer her a job, instead of hitting on her. Basically he wants her to be his new Pepper Potts.  I hadn't been reading Iron Man before this, because I hate it when Tony is a complete asshole, so what the heck happened to the REAL Pepper? 

I presume that MJ is going to accept.  Tony does seem to have a thing for redheads telling him what to do.  Also, Doctor Strange does show up to help subdue Masque and tell Tony what is going on, and also because...they are Awesome Facial Hair Bros.  And yes Tony, it was worth it all just for that line.

Pretty damn great too.

I'm on a roll!


And to finish things off...


Archie #5

If you had ever told me even a year ago that I would be reading an Archie comic, and LOVING it, I would have said that you were totally mad.  Mark Waid has something to do with it, and oh God, so does Fiona Staples.

Jughead and Betty are scheming to free Archie from Veronica's talons, and call in none other than my favorite Riverdale resident...Reggie Mantle.  I KNOW that Reggie is a complete jerk.  But still...I've always liked him.

Here, he is a complete jerk of course, agreeing to help the pair rescue poor naive Archie, in return for a new fake I.D.  And believe it or not, he does what he says he will.  It goes awry of course, but not because he didn't live up to his side of the bargain.  And of course he gets his comeuppance in the end, which will probably not end well for anyone, but it is a great story in a great series.

God, this week was seriously great!  So...so great.

What the Hell?

Well... apparently they have killed off Namor. Dammit Marvel... and you were doing so well lately!

Son of a bitch.

 I liked Namor! Yeah, he was a bit of a jerk, but heck...I am a Guy Gardner fan. I have a "type" apparently. And you have to admit that for all his rampages, he did help us fight Hitler. He just wanted us to stop using his underwater kingdom as a toilet... and who can blame him?

Also he wandered around wearing nothing but a pair of green scaly speedos...and I am ALL in favor of that.

He was also one of the oldest comic book characters around.  My only solace is that he'll be back sooner or later... hopefully sooner.  But gee Marvel... this seems more like a DC move, and all I can say is...I am so disappointed in you.


Also... all I got at the comic book store was Howard the Duck... which was a lot of fun as usual. So not much in the way of reviews. But certainly some good old-fashioned nerd rage!