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Wednesday Is New Comic Book Day! (Reviews 03-17-10)

By | March 18th, 2010
Posted in Reviews | % Comments


Welcome back, friends of all ages, races, sizes and species! We’ve got a great round-up of comics for you this week, and an exciting book for our BOTW slot. I’d also like to remind you, we’ve got this brand new rating system up:

0: Uwe Boll will direct the adaptation of this comic
0.1 – 1: Burn upon touching
1- 1.9: Abysmal
2.0 – 2.9: Art. Writing. Editing. All bad.
3.0 – 3.9: You’d be a masochist to pick this up.
4.0 – 4.9: “I’ll give it another month…but that was not good.”
5.0 – 5.9: “Really? The Watcher? In the face? I guess it was fun.”
6.0 – 6.9: “Hmm. That was decent.”
7.0 – 7.9: Well made but a few problems
8.0 – 8.9: Nearly flawless
9.0 – 9.9: Outstanding
10: Perfection. Issue of the year contender

For those wondering, Pass would be anywhere from 0 to 3.9, Browse would be 4 to 6.9, and Buy would be from 7 to 10. So what are you waiting for? Hop on past the jump and enjoy!

Also, are there any books you’d like to see us review? Let us know in the comments, and one of us will get right on it! We’ll also keep those books in mind for future weeks!

Book of the Week: Siege #3

Matt’s Thoughts: I’ve gotta say, when it comes to the big battle of “who is pulling off the better event,” I am in love with Siege. I love it’s very being in that it cuts right to the chase, doesn’t bull around at all, and smashes you around in the face with a hammer. Seriously – a lot happens in this issue that I feel we shouldn’t have seen yet if only because I’m so used to long drawn out events. I mean, we had the official defeat of Norman Osborn, which you imagine would be a final issue moment, but it’s not! And on top of that, things get worse and yes, I did not fully see it coming. Bits and pieces of it sure, but not entirely.

Of course, this is a double edged sword. As much as I love the fast paced action and straight to the point story telling, a part of me kind of feels hey … are we rushing this? Already there are several elements that are pretty fairly under developed, and some ideas I would like to see expanded on. Granted, Bendis has said that that is what the tie ins are for, and it does paint a very cool and epic war story, but due to the fact I’m used to such greater events as a whole, I can’t help but be a little nervous about the general pace of this book.

All that aside, I really enjoyed this. This wasn’t as shocking as the last issue but definitely had some amazing moments, especially the last couple pages. Some great one liners, some great moments, and I genuinely can’t wait to see how it all ends. Although, I do wish they had given me some kind of plastic toy for buying this.

David’s Thoughts: This issue was one that was filled with a lot of huge concepts and big moments. Moments like the shrouded President of the United States giving the order to take down Hammer, Thor taking on The Sentry, Norman Osborn revealed as a complete nutcase (like we needed a reminder), the fall of Asgard, the return of Iron Man, and the true evil being revealed. These were huge, huge turns, and they ranged in success.

What worked in particular were the moments with Thor. Bendis has a real grasp for the character which almost makes me wish he’d been writing him for the past seven years. His showdown with The Sentry was surprisingly one sided and filled with epic Thor lines that sent shivers down my spine. Excellent work there, just like the destruction of Asgard and the big reveal at the end were well played. Iron Man/Tony Stark’s big return was also pretty rad, as were the reaction shots to the reveal of Osborn’s face (“Toldja” was absolutely classic).

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The big demerits for the issue come from the constant narration coming from the White House war room. While I understand what Bendis was going for there, it felt like a storytelling crutch he was using and something that removed me from the immersive battle scenes being depicted on the page. That disconnect greatly hindered my reading experience from an otherwise quality issue.

Oliver Coipel on the other hand put together another full out masterpiece, making destruction on a huge scale about as close to beautiful as it can possibly get. He rocked the house, and is rapidly making up for his uneven performance on the debut issue of this series.

All in all, this was a solid issue, but not the Earth shattering (besides in the literal sense) entry I was hoping for.

Gil’s Thoughts: Holy Christ, what an action packed issue. When we were promised a smack down drag out fight, he wasn’t kidding. We definitely got that in spades, and it was gorgeous. Oliver Coipel did a spectacular job rendering the event, and it rivals Mahnke’s work on Blackest Night for sure.

But while I enjoyed it, it’s not a very substantial issue. It’s a giant fight, which is ok, but there’s not much. And also, I noticed the President was a moron, being hand held throughout the issue, causing a lag which shouldn’t have been there.

Other than that, it’s a fantastically fun issue, but I think you need to turn your brain off before you read it to truly enjoy it.

Brandon’s Thoughts: Here we go! Only an issue to go and we finally get some crazy awesome action! While I still feel the pacing isn’t a hundred percent where I would want it to be as a reader it still is by far the best issue of the three. There was some serious jaw dropping action going on here and a lot of it leaves us with some serious WTF?! Oh SHIT! moments.

Between Asgard and Sentry the Marvel universe is in for some serious shit. All of which I think will lead to some seriously excellent storytelling in the near to distant future. I am especially interested to see where the Sentry’s story goes from here. All this and I haven’t even touched on some of the other pieces of the issue that were good.

One of the best parts of the book has to be directly after Norman starts to snap finally. The shots of characters saying, “I told you so” had me laughing out loud. I mean we all knew it was coming and Marvel has made it no secret that it was bound to happen so it was perfect for these moments to occur in the pages of this book. I also liked Norman’s claim that he was saving everyone. I mean technically he’s right isn’t he?

All in all good read and it left me really wanting to see how this will all end. I’d say that is the description of a great penultimate issue. Wouldn’t you?

MATT’S REVIEWS

Brave and the Bold #32
Brave and the Bold is one of those titles I never thought I would be buying, but with JMS on the title and David praising the hell out of it, I knew I pretty much had to. With these series of team up one shots I’ve come to expect a lot from his books, which include but are not limited to interesting character stories, unusual pairings, and more down to earth or “realistic” ideas. This issue… it wasn’t par for the course, to say the least.

Our heroes this time were Aquaman and Ettrigan The Demon, and they were fighting off a great Lovecraftian beast from below the sea while with a normal human who, for some reason I didn’t quite get, was dragged along with them into the depths. Considering Aquaman hasn’t been in a comic for quite some time, this is one of the few places you can go to read a decent Aquaman tale, and the Demon is always fun. But in this, they didn’t quite mesh. Something felt off about the book, and it definitely didn’t live up to my standards for JMS. The last issue was the Joker and the Atom as the Atom had to decide whether or not he wanted to save the Joker’s life. That’s an amazing character story. Yet now we’ve got giant fight sequences and little to no character arcs? It just doesn’t fit.

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Jesus Saiz does a great job with the art though. There are plenty of great visual moments in this, such as when Aquaman summons all his fish friends to come fight the monster and save the day. That was really awesome. Jesus Saiz, who has done all the art for this run, has been doing an amazing job at giving each book it’s own “look” while maintaining his artist style. It makes each book feel more unique while still fitting in with the greater thematic whole. Unfortunately for the story content, this just doesn’t fit in.

So this is a good book, but it’s not a great book. If I wanted to prove to someone that a title like this was worth buying, I couldn’t really use it so much as I could previous issues in JMS’ work. I feel like he’s had this book and done a great job with telling unique stories, and in this one he tried to be a bit more modern and it fell flat. Still a nice read, though.

Final Verdict – 7.0 – Buy/Browse

Supergirl #51
Everybody knows I’m a pretty apologetic fanboy when it comes to the Supergirl book and often give it high reviews. This week is absolutely no different. Spinning directly out of the Last Stand of New Krypton, this issue features not one but three of my favorite Superman elements. In fact, it contains the ONLY three elements of Superman I really like: Supergirl, Superboy, and the Legion of Superheroes! Aw yeah!

As New Krypton deals with the attack from Braniac, the Legion are branded terrorists and Superboy is in there along with them. As everyone fights for their life, Supergirl and Mon-El (who just may be the next all-star superhero couple apparently) try and organize everyone to little success before Mon-El leaves to help Superman and Supergirl tries to find her mother. What I really like about this issue is it clearly works as a great companion to the Last Stand of New Krypton arc. Like I said, it picks up right where LSTONK#1 left and goes on to explore a new angle of the story while pushing the story in a forward direction, like a crossover should.

The odd thing about this whole story is that Last Stand is being written by two of the three Superman writers anyway, so you’d think all of it was “worth reading.” All that means is that you have to buy a lot of books for this crossover. Eh. It appears to me that, if you just buy Last Stand, you’ll get the whole story. So if I were you and I didn’t want to buy every crossover, I assume that would be ok. I suppose we’ll find out later.

As per usual, the book is a grand read.I suppose it is a different pace since it’s in the middle of a crossover between all the Superman books, but that doesn’t stop it from being an enjoyable read. If I compare it to the original New Krypton arc, I’d have to demerit it some points, though. New Krypton was a slower but well paced crossover, where as Last Stand is a giant fight sequence, and it’s spinning out of events that I frankly didn’t care for. The ONLY Superman book I’ve been actively reading is Supergirl, and at the end of the day that’s the only one that matters to me.

Either way, Supergirl is still awesome. Did this issue integrate well within the arc? Yeah. Due to the fact that this is the side arc that features the Legion and Conner, will it kick ass? Yeah. So I’m not overly worried.

Although, as an additional note, the reason for and the actual fight that is shown on the cover? That was pretty lame.

Final Verdict 8.2 – Buy

Choker #2
Choker is weird. It’s a cool book to read and look at, but it’s a very weird comic, and I’m torn about it. I feel like it wants to be a weird mix of Chew and Powers, but at the same time I feel like I’m not getting. I can acknowledge a well written and well drawn comic book, but after the craziness of the first issue, I feel like I missed something here.

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To start off, right off the bat I was confused. We had two new characters to the story that are clearly essential to the plot, a brand new element to of murder and dinner to deal with, and an odd disconnect from the previous issue. In fact, it took me until almost the very end of the issue to understand how things connected together. I can’t tell if this was just me being dumb or not, though, because I read the issue twice through to make sure I was following along. As much as my reading skills could be down, I can’t help but fault the comic for not having a narrative that makes it more accessible in single issue format as opposed to just getting this as a trade.

That being said, I really adore the artwork. Ben Templesmith’s use of colors for whole pages and scenes is really awesome, and the noir aspect of the book really connects. That right there is my favorite thing about this book: just looking at it. It most definitely is a unique visual experience for a comic book, and it was definitely the more saving grace of the title for me by the time I finished the issue.

All in all, Choker isn’t a bad comic, but it is one that I definitely think that (due to it’s own weird concepts) is better left collected in a trade. Either that, or I’m just not getting it. I really was left in a blank hole for the first three quarters of the book though, and that shouldn’t happen.

Final Verdict: 6.7 – Browse/Wait for trade

The Authority: The Lost Year #7
The Authority: The Lost Year is an interesting idea. We’ve got all these open ended notes from Grant Morrison, and then you’ve got a writer with the talent and name of Kieth Giffen handling the story. These are two very different writers, although both are fine with their fair share of high concept pace. But back in issue #3, there was a definitive tonality shift as to how Giffen was picking up this book, because the first two issues (collected in a nice little reader) were full of Morrison’s high concept-y stylings as well as very little dialogue. Then there is Giffen, who can implement high concepts well and hit the right tone for an Authority story, yet he loves his dialogue and he expands on ideas in his own way.

Despite these two writers intense differences, this book is being pulled off extremely well.

As far as I can tell, the original idea for this book dealt with the Authority universe hopping around, seeing all these different versions of themselves. It’s not an idea that is all that far fetched for the group, especially when they started with Warren Ellis, the inventor of the Bleed. This issue sees the wrap up of the previous issues new universe, in which the Authority are split in half and ruling different sides of America with iron fist. What works most about this issue rather than the previous issue is that this issue gets more core concepts of the Authority right. Granted, the team now is vastly different than it used to be, but it’s that idea that these guys are so good at what they do that they get in and get out and do their damage as a unit without explaining it on the page. All we get is, “Wait, I have an idea!” and then everything goes. I love that.

Giffen also is getting his core tonality down a lot more. In this issue, the Authority spends more time being sassy and the villains spend more time making odd diatribes than they have for previous issues. I really felt like this was a much better follow up to what Ellis and Millar did than anything else I’ve seen of the Authority so far. In fact, based on what I’m told of what happens in between the end of Millar and this, it makes much more sense to just jump from Millar’s book straight here if you want to continue reading a good Authority story (as long as you accept that you will be missing a couple pieces and there are new characters). As much as I was nervous about someone tackling Morrison’s ideas, I’m really enjoying how Giffen is choosing to handle this.

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That being said, if I had the choice between Morrison writing and Giffen writing, I’d pick Morrison. Those two first issues read like a dream, and I would’ve loved to see how Morrison handles alternate universes. Those that remember Final Crisis (and I know you do) will remember all the crazy alt-universe stuff Morrison introduced there, so reading The Lost Year is kind of like say, “Ok, so I can have my cake, but I can’t really eat it. I can nibble.” Which I suppose is fine, because really there’s no reason to eat a cake by yourself.

Of course, with the next issue featuring “used car salesman Midnighter,” I can only expect my rating of the book to improve.

Final Verdict: 7.0 – Buy/Browse

DAVID’S REVIEWS

Joe the Barbarian #3
This is the best looking book on the market right now. Without a doubt. With only JH Williams III’s work on Detective Comics rivaling it, there have been absolutely zero other books that match the quality of art Sean Murphy is throwing down on a monthly basis in his collaboration with Grant Morrison. The richness of detail and the intricately thought out design of locales and scenes is as expansive of world building as we’ve ever seen in the world of comics. Take the second to last page of the this issue: I’d be willing to bet that Murphy set up his own home to figure out exactly what type of shadow the window would leave in that shot.

The thought process behind each and every scene is astounding. It’s the one and only time I can really think of where the art on the page completely and utterly outdistances the work of Grant Morrison. While Morrison is doing a great job of telling this hallucinatory tale of a boy having a severe reaction to his diabetes and the adventure he may or may not be going on, Murphy is just at peak level skill right now.

The story evolves even more within this story, as we now find out that Joe is the prophecied hero of Toyland and it is his destiny to save them or to die trying. Our (not so) merry band of heroes grows by one here, and each character is fully their own and endearing in their own special ways. Morrison is pulling more on the substance card here, and it’s him at his peak skills.

Really, if you take one of the best writers in the industry and pair him with an up-and-coming (and insanely talented) artist, it’s hard to imagine this book as possibly unsuccessful. So here we are, with Joe the Barbarian three issues in and exceeding the already prodigious expectations that surrounded it. Bravo all. Bravo.

Final Verdict: 9.2 – Buy

American Vampire #1
As you may have been able to tell by my post from yesterday, I’m a bit excited about this book. While most of that stemmed from the potential of the art, I’ll get into that in a bit, instead choosing to focus on the writing first.

Incredibly enough, I did not know that this book was going to be two different stories working in parallel. It makes perfect sense given that there were two writers attached, with newcomer Scott Snyder and little known Stephen King (okay, that last part may be a bit of a lie) splitting writing duties. The two tales have a lot more in common than just the appearance of bloodsuckers. They are both steeped in horror traditions that never go out of style: pages drenched in a sense of dread and foreboding; genuinely unexpected story turns regardless of what our expectations are; and to top it off, character archetypes that we’ve long had connections to which enhance the shivers creeping up our spine.

As Snyder himself says in the Vertigo Editorial this month, his theory on why King’s tales have long scared the world is related to his subversion of the familiar. Evidently he took careful notes, as his story about young actress Pearl Jones completely and utterly nails this feel. Beginning with a shrouded figure throwing Pearl’s wasted body away into a landfill, we think we know what is happening but we quickly realize nothing is as it seems. Every character Pearl meets is met with pure and unadultered suspicion by the reader, and with this our fear for the enchanting lead quickly escalates.

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It’s easy to assume that King realizes Snyder’s talent, as he delivers a delicious tale himself featuring “too tough to die” Skinner Sweet (seen in the first story as well) soon after his capture by the Pinkerton Agency. Our expectations push us in one direction, but when King quickly reveals the truth of the situation towards the end, it’s both completely obvious and abjectly hidden to the reader. It’s a classic train heist story that goes horribly astray, and features beautiful language from the master storyteller.

While the words were great and all, the art is simply remarkable. Rafael Albuquerque’s talent is an unquestionable thing, and he gives us two variations on his already spectacular artistic formula. For Snyder’s section, he gives us a look with cleaner lines and heavier inks to match the tone of the story effortlessly. For King’s section, he keeps his inks looser and his pencils sketchier to properly blend into the era the story takes place. This isn’t just great art…this is brilliant storytelling. I’d be remiss in my duties if I didn’t mention the contributions of Dave McCaig as well, whose colors as important to the equation as any other factor, matching the glitz and the grime of the tale with equal aplomb.

American Vampire is a phenomenally well told tale, immersing us in this darkly beautiful variation of the world we know and love. The contributions by all cannot be underrated, as this is one of the best debuts in recent memory.

Final Verdict: 9.5 – Buy

Guardians of the Galaxy #24
This book is rapdily approaching X-Factor territory for me. While I love the stories from Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, the inconsistent look of the book kills me. This month we had work from Wes Craig, who to me is the weakest link of their varied stable of artists. His work often reminds me of a homeless man’s version of Michael Avon Oeming, giving us a mix of cartoony and occasionally bizarre looking character models and relatively spare detail work in scenes. His storytelling is functional, which is about as low on the artistic compliment scale as I can get.

This is even a up and down issue for DnA, as the first half of the issue with Team Magus (that’s what I’m going to call them) is pretty weak sauce, using a repetitive narration scheme to rob the issue of any forward momentum right off the bat. This is not how you write a comic. This is not how you write a comic if you’re DnA, the backbone of Marvel’s cosmic universe (this criticism will make sense if you read the book). The Team Starlord business is better, if only because Starlord rules and his team features Groot and Rocket Raccoon (characters DnA seem to feel far more comfortable with).

Of course this book ends on a very high note, as we get the doubly great wrap up of Phyla Vell’s Maelstrom led adventure (it ends in “ouch”) with the big reveal at the end, as well as the hysterical reaction of Gamora to Major Victory’s big save of the Guardians.

Still, it’s a bit of an inconsistent issue altogether. A bit of a mixed bag, but still, a fairly entertaining one.

Final Verdict: 5.7 – Buy

Siege: Embedded #3
I enjoyed the first two issues of this series. I really did. I found Brian Reed and Chris Samnee’s story of Ben Urich, his camera man friend, and Volstagg making their way to the Siege of Asgard to be a very entertaining romp that worked in a completely different way than the other “Embedded” or “Front Line” series did. It was really working.

Never did I think I’d say this, but the lack of Volstagg completely killed this issue. Well, not only that but the fact that this issue starts at some point in the middle of the first issue of Siege and wraps up towards the end of the third issue. It’s a story told in fast forward rather inexplicably, and it quickly went from one that was basely amusing to trying fairly quickly.

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It doesn’t help that Samnee’s art quickly goes from remarkably solid to a middling impersonation of Sean Phillips in one issue. It looks and feels like a bit of a rush job, really lacking in basic storytelling and sometimes getting muddled in the shadows of scenes.

A rather forgettable issue from a series that started out entertaining, which is kind of tough to take as a reader. Reed is a high quality writer, so hopefully he refocuses for a big finish next month.

Final Verdict: 5.2 – Browse

GIL’S REVIEWS

Dark Avengers #15
Despite being a tie-in to Siege, it really doesn’t seem to have much going on with the central story. This is both its winning and its failing. On one hand, it’s nice to see that the tie-in is going a completely different route, expanding on what the hell is going on with The Sentry. On the other hand, if you don’t LIKE The Sentry, you may not care what’s going on here.

But while you may not like The Sentry, the art in this book, provided by Mike Deodato, is absolutely insane. His pencils are off the charts good like normal, and the dark inks and colors perfectly translate the tone of the arc to the page. I love it.

Bendis is writing a good story, further tweaking the origin and powers of The Sentry. But like I said earlier, if you don’t like or care about The Sentry, the story definitely suffers. It’s a shame it’s so reliant on this highly polarizing character. My one gripe is Lindy’s third or fourth trip to that refrigerator that was sent up ironically this week in Green Lantern #46.

But Sentry notwithstanding, it’s still worth at least browsing.

Final Verdict: 6.0 Browse

Green Lantern Corps #46
My God. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Green Lantern Corps is the best book under the Green Lantern banner, and this issue continues this trend. Tomasi is handling his half (third) of the Blackest Night epic with a true vision and it’s a blast to read. There’s plenty of that emotional attachment too, with the return of that vaunted Refrigerator made famous by Ron Marz and infamous by Gail Simone. It was unsettling to see once again, but then again, it’s kind of the perfect way to close the book on that dark time in the history of Kyle Rayner.

Patrick Gleason, February’s artist of the month, is further proving himself worthy of the title. The art is unbelievably intricate and detailed fight scenes, with some panels that I’m surprised made it past the censors. This month’s issue is probably the goriest I’ve seen, with severed heads and legs being blown clean off. I’m really surprised that DC was OK with this, but then again, why wouldn’t they be?

Unsurprisingly, this is a definite buy. There’s no reason this shouldn’t be read by everyone, especially those who are following DC’s Event.

Final Verdict: 9.0 – BUY

Hercules: Fall Of An Avenger #1
I’m not going to mince words, this is fantastic. I felt like I was really at a funeral for the Prince of Power, hearing other heroes regale us with adventures they shared with the late great Hercules.

I laughed along with Thor as he told us of a battle he shared with Hercules against Giants with a drinking contest. That’s right. We get to see Hercules falling down drunk with his buddy Thor. It was immensely gratifying, and I smiled while reading it.

Then there was Namor. The king of the seas who’s always so serious he makes party clowns frown, told us of a time when Hercules fought him to make him feel better. While it may seem odd to you and me, it makes perfect sense for someone like Herc.
Oh, and my favorite of the book. We hear about all the women he bedded in the Marvel U, most of them fairly recent, but entertaining nonetheless. The dark elf was particularly likeable, over-sharing to the point of embarrassing herself.

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The weak point is the art. I’ve grown to not like Olivetti’s art. It comes off too cheesy and leaves me feeling a flat. It’s a shame. If it were the regular artist on the Incredible Hercules book, it would have been nearly perfect.

Final Verdict: 8.9 – Buy

Fables #93
I love Fables. I really do, but while I really enjoy it, it seems to have taken a dip in quality since the death of Boy Blue. It seems to me that Bill Willingham, while being a very talented writer, it’s almost like he’s spinning on his wheels trying to tell every story he can, but instead it gets scattered and I almost can’t remember what was going on with Mr. Dark, or the villain I thought we were supposed to be so worried about, and even the deal with Frau or Bigby and company.

That being said, while the book itself is scattered and can be hard to follow, it’s still really well written. In this arc, we’re visiting Fly’s kingdom and the fallout of a particularly raucous celebration after a championship baseball game that ended in the death of a citizen at the hands of the MVP of the winning team (a goblin at that) and the trial that follows. It was more of the political intrigue that we’ve come to expect from Bill Willingham’s fairy tale franchise. The art, while not provided by Mark Buckingham, was still fit for the series and is nearly as detailed Buckingham’s lush pencils.

Overall, the book is still fun, but it doesn’t quite mesh with the story, much like the great Fables Crossover some months back. If you missed this issue, you won’t miss much.

Final Verdict: 5.8 Browse

BRANDON’S REVIEWS

Nation X #4
This is the final issue of this mini series anthology. It was a fun ride that had it’s hits and misses. This issue was the same. The initial Doop story by Milligan and Allred was the one I anticipated the most. I loved me some X-Statix and sorely awaited this issue as the creators of that title finally combined efforts once again.

The Doop story was great but it had one serious let down. If you compare Doop’s speech to the Doop translator it doesn’t work! This is a big misstep as a ton of the Doop fun in X-Statix/X-Force was translating the Doopenese. It was so much fun to see what out loveable green blob was saying. Not so much here. Other than that the story was full of twists and turns and in general was a lot of fun.

The best story though for me was the Warpath vs the kids story. It had some of the kids trying to sneak into the kitchen to capture some ice cream. The refrigerator though is guarded by Warpath and the whole thing is a riot. Great story that really makes the anthology concept of Nation X shine.

Outside of those stories the others were mediocre at best. They just didn’t provide the same entertainment value or even memorable moments like the others did. This is something that seemed to be a normal occurrence for this series. Half awesome and half just kind of eh…

Final Verdict: 8.0 Buy it! Doop! (Minus Doop factor this baby gets a 6.3 Buy it in trade)

X-Factor Forever #1
Review pending, check back soon!

Batman #697

First of all is it me or is the page of Batman kicking Dr. Death and Strange’s asses in the dark an homage to the Batman Animated Series opener? I mean it starts with the dudes looking at us in the dark and then they get just mugged by Bats. I could be wrong but if not then mad props to Daniel!

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Anyway on to the issue at hand huh? I think the art here, as usual, is gorgeous. Between Daniel here and Ngyuen on Streets of Gotham we are getting some amazing Batman work month in and month out. Daniel’s Batman and Black Mask are two standouts in this regard. Daniel’s Black Mask looks terrifying and his Batman looks no less intimidating. The action shots are blockbuster big and convey the perfect impact to knock the reader back in awe.

As far as the story goes I felt a little cheated. The big reveal of Black Mask’s identity is something I had been eagerly awaiting. The payoff though while not a bad idea seemed to come too early in the long run. The character behind the mask really could have been left to develop a bit longer before being chucked into a situation that revealed him and ended him up where it did in the end. There are just too many questions that arise and too few answers.

Another issue I had was with the introduction of Catgirl. I mean we all saw it coming, her name is Katrina for Christ’s sake, but the costume is terrible and seems really rushed. I mean what of Selina’s previous sidekick? Did we already forget about her?

All in all for such an anticipated issue I felt at least a little disappointed in the outcome. I think it is still a fun read but I had my qualms to be certain.

Final Verdict: 7.1 Buy it if only for the amazing art

Doomwar #2
Review pending, check back soon!


Matthew Meylikhov

Once upon a time, Matthew Meylikhov became the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Multiversity Comics, where he was known for his beard and fondness for cats. Then he became only one of those things. Now, if you listen really carefully at night, you may still hear from whispers on the wind a faint voice saying, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine is not as bad as everyone says it issss."

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