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Post by legios on Jul 4, 2008 20:06:11 GMT
Legion of Superheroes #43: The very definition of "old-skool" in many ways. Two groups of legionnaires find themselves in desperate backs-to-the-walls fights, whilst the Science Police make their move to arrest the entire Legion and impound their headquarters. It feels like the sub-plots that Jim Shooter has been weaving through his run are beginning to develop into a main plot in their own right. There is a satisfying feeling of the story building to a natural head over the last couple of issues. There are also some nice character moments for individual Legionnaires - Braniac Five's backhanded compliment to one of the Science Police is lovely, as is the sarcasm which he and the SP Seargent proceed to deploy. We've seen this sort of thing before - the Legion under threat of proscription in various permutations, but the storytelling is solid and the pace of the story has been maintained well over the run so far. A shame that rumor has it Shooter has departed the book as of whenever they run out of his completed scripts. I'm hoping that it isn't true as he has been good for the quality of the book (not that sales figures reflect that - but "Legion" is creator-proof anyway. Wil l Eisner could come back from the dead to take the book on and it wouldn't affect sales one iota.)
Astonishing X-Men#25: Picked this up out of curiosity, as I was interested to see what Warren Ellis did with the X-Men. I may well switch to waiting for the trade on it, having been burned badly with the Whedon/Cassady run. There is no doubt as to who is on the writing chores on this book - when a Marvel comic starts with a panel of the team's newest member complaining on Twitter that she needs a better superhero name it is as good as a neon sign. Fortunately it shows no sign of disappearing into empty futurism. This first issue is driven by the character interactions and Ellis seems to have a nice handle on the various members of the team. His Cyclops is fairly close to note-perfect, and his Emma is a joy to read. (Yes, if she had started smoking she would be the traditional Ellis self-insertion character, but Emma has sounded like an Ellis character pretty much since she joined the X-men anyway.) He even manages to make Storm sound almost like a human being. Some of the underlying ideas are quite nice too - we get the first hint of Ellis' take on the "only Y remaining mutants" idea, opening that up to question in a fairly plausible way, and the idea that somewhere in the Far East there is a place where the Marvel Universe is dumping the carcasses of all those alien ships that keep getting shot down/crashed on Earth is quite a nice idea.
I'm not 100% sold on Simone Bianchi's art so far, and I have some concerns that pacing wise this might end up not dissimilar to "Newuniversal" or indeed the previous run on "Astonishing". The first issue shows potential, but I'm not sure that this is one I will be picking up in singles.
Karl
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jul 11, 2008 21:05:16 GMT
The last 3 weeks worth of comics were all picked up today. Not read all of them yet but what I have got through
Astonishing X-Men 25 Competent job by Ellis on his first issue (should have read UXM 499 first though) Art was OK- glad to see Cyclops' visor back to the shape it aught to be - though like all 3 of the X-Books I have here the art is far far too dark.
Uncanny X-Men 499 Nice wrap up to both storylines here. Mobile conversation with Logan at the end is great.
X-Men Legacy 213 Good load of explanation in this issue as Xavier suffers at the hands of Sinister (!) and Remy & Sebastian Shaw team up. Good stuff.
Young Avengers Presents 6 of 6 Hawkeye Written by Matt Fraction - Art by Alan Davis (looking much better than his recent UXM run) Oh this was good. We get Kate's relationship with Eli and what's happening there bookending the tail but the real nub of the story is Kate meeting Clint Barton - the original Hawkeye - and their exploration of who owns the name and the bow. Issues 1 and 6 of this LS (the Brubakerand Fraction issues) were tops.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jul 12, 2008 14:10:26 GMT
More
Last Defenders 5 More fun. Nothing set the world on fire but a good fun LS. One to go
Secret Invasion Runaways Young Avengers 1 of 3 Far too much Runaways for my liking with all the YA being relegated to background roles (bar Hulkling) Artist drew the YA far too young as well.
Secret Invasion 4 Lots of running around shooting. And a last page reveal.
Captain America 39 The Grand Director puts his Cap uniform back on and runs into the Bucky Cap. Good as ever
Avengers Initiative 14 One of the Initiative discovers he can detect Skrulls. Which leads to hillarious consequences one the Crusder gets onto him.
Mighty Avengers 15 How Hank Pym got replaced. Can no-one write Wasp like Stern did ?
New Avengers 42 Tribute cover to one of my favorite Avengers covers (221) with a lovely Cosmic Code Authority logo ! Continuing the story of how Spiderwoman was replaced bringing us up to House of M in filling in the gaps. I think it insinuates she hired Electro (issue 1) but it ain't clear - we know the Skrulls did though. Nice background stuff.
Generally I'm finding the SI tie ins to be quite good.
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Post by legios on Jul 13, 2008 14:57:55 GMT
Captain Britain and MI13#3:
Things shape up pretty much as I figured they would this issue - things become desperate as the Skrull invasion force, now bolstered with all the magic of Avalon head straight for the Palace of Westminster, and Pete Wisdom is forced to take some terrible risks in order to turn the tide. Although a lot of the actual plot can be seen coming a mile off, it shines in the telling. Cornell seems to have a firm grasp on how to use legacy quite deftly, drawing on elements from Alan Moore and Alan Davis stories amongst others but using them in unexpected ways. It all leads up to one of those classic "in our darkest hour" last page reveals. Good strong stuff. Leonard Kirk's art has grown on me a lot too. Three strong issues under its belt, this title is off to a good start.
The Invincible Iron Man#3: Not so sure about this. Much as I like Matt Fraction I'm not sure if this title isn't actually spinning its wheels a little. It isn't that it is terribly slow or anything - a fair amount of stuff happens this issue, I'm just not sure that it adds up to a great deal of advancement of the plot. The title means well, and I think wants to get back to the general idea of Iron Man as a proactive superhero type, merged with a side-salad about technological development and it's relationship to humanity. I'm not sure that it is engaging my interest terribly much. I like Matt Fraction a lot as a writer, but it feels like we have only really got to where we should have been at the end of #2. Tettering on the brink of being dropped.
Guardians of the Galaxy#3:
Still hitting on all cylinders as far as I am concerned. Unashamedly space-opera in its outlook, this title seems at home with outlandish ideas like Dyson Sphere's as settings. Not ashamed to wear it's heart on its sleeve in terms of being an action thriller, just in space, with a Raccoon and stuff. I like the way Abnett and Lanning are chossing to tell the story, using quick cutaways to mission debriefs to move the action along rapidly and to give us some character insights at the same time. This title isn't big, clever or deep, but it isn't trying to be - it wants to be solid space-opera action and it seems to be achieving that nicely. It is setting up some nice little mysteries to play with as well - why is Vance Astrovick (of the "other" Guardians of the Galaxy) here, why is he amnesic, and why was he floating in space frozen in a big lump of ice along with the gates of Avengers Mansion. Fantastic last page reveal as well - one that makes you go "hang on, but if that's the case. Then what about.....?" Pacey and entertaining, I'm definitely onboard with this for however long it manages to stay afloat.
Station#1 (of 4):
Another interesting project from Boom! Studios, whose output I always try to keep a weather eye out for. Basically a murder mystery set aboard the International Space Station. Does a very good job of creating a sense of reality to its setting, and its characters. The depiction of the ISS rings true with what I have seen in photographs and what I have read, and it is nice to see a zero-g environment depicted well in a comic. The art is pretty good all-round really, with a double page spread that is incredibly effective. The writing seems to be up to snuff as well - perhaps a little light in terms of depth of characterisation - but then it is a four-issue semi-murder mystery so that kind of comes with the territory. It is well paced though, and has one of the least immediately lethal but most disturbing methods of murder I have seen in quite a while. Production values are, as ever with Boom!, very good indeed. Different to the majority of the fare that US comics serve up, and well worth giving a go.
Karl
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Post by The Doctor on Jul 13, 2008 15:25:46 GMT
POWERS(vol 2) #29: As I've mostly switched to trades for cost reasons, this is one of only 2 floppies I still pick up. If only it came out a bit more often, so it forever hangs on the edge of being dropped by me. But, including the Bendis interview up the back, I got a full hour's reading out of it, and there are few comics that can say that. So it survives the cut yet again. I look forward to the next issue, in 2011.
-Ralph
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jul 22, 2008 23:34:55 GMT
X-Force #1 - pretty decent, gorgeous artwork. Got 1-3 on the way in a compilation volume |
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jul 27, 2008 17:15:37 GMT
X-Force Legacy of Vengance (Collects 1-3) and X-Force 4 I suddenly had the urge to read this. Been hearing some good stuff about it and glanced at 4 in Borders which looked nice so ordered away (5 is en route with IIF16 and the Skrulls 1 shot). Yes it's good. Decent art - best on any of the x-titles even if the artist (who's name escapes me) draws an odd Wolfsbane. Story has lots of links to past X-Men continuity, but it's done well. Worth a look, enjoyed it.
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Post by The Doctor on Jul 28, 2008 12:40:04 GMT
Dan Dare #7 was pretty bloody good. Fine end to the first series of the relaunch. Beware though: double-sized issue means double price!
-Ralph
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jul 30, 2008 13:08:59 GMT
X-Force Legacy of Vengance (Collects 1-3) and X-Force 4 I suddenly had the urge to read this. Been hearing some good stuff about it and glanced at 4 in Borders which looked nice so ordered away (5 is en route with IIF16 and the Skrulls 1 shot). Yes it's good. Decent art - best on any of the x-titles even if the artist (who's name escapes me) draws an odd Wolfsbane. Story has lots of links to past X-Men continuity, but it's done well. Worth a look, enjoyed it. Imwas hoping there'd be a review of 5 by now, along with the Skrulls book and Iron Fist 17. But it looks like they may have been lost in the post ! |
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Post by legios on Jul 30, 2008 20:44:50 GMT
Dan Dare#7: As Ralph says, very good indeed. Provides a suitable and satisfying conclusion to the story, both in terms of blood and thunder action (and it does play the "navy movie"card to the hilt) and in terms of the characterisation. The whole series has made a strong case for why Daniel McGregor Dare and the brand of british heroism that he represents still has value, and has made it well. (It even manages to slide in a little bit of relevant political commentary on the side without it feeling like it harms the story). It hasn't broken new ground, or revolutionised comics. What it has done is told a solid story of heroics in the face of adversity and convincingly brought Dan Dare back into play as a viable character, with his essential qualities intact. Tremendous stuff. Worth waiting for the trade if you haven't been reading the mini. It has read very well issue by issue, but I think the experience will be just as good as a collected volume.
Karl
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Post by Philip Ayres on Aug 1, 2008 16:32:57 GMT
Immortal Iron Fist 17 Hard to describe. It's the same comic, and yet not the same comic. Somehow that "something" that was there has now gone. It didn't read badly or anything..... just wasn't quite the grade that it had been.
X-Force 5 A very quick read, mainly due to a lot of full page panels and one double paged spread. But that's OK as it's a very fast paced issue, there's little time passing from cover to cover. You'll gather from the cover that a certain long term X-Man version is back... Still lots of ties to old continuity, still a pretty good read. Looks gorgeous.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Aug 3, 2008 13:12:14 GMT
X-Force ain't no dog You know I said i thought the comics went missing ? I reordered them. 5 mins later they turned up. Grrrr. Anyway in with the reorder was this. Wish I hadn't bothered, not by theregualr art or writing team, doesn't get it at all. Avoid.
So I've got spares of X-Force 5, Skrulls Special and IIF 17. Speak by tonight if you want them.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Aug 6, 2008 15:25:34 GMT
Uncanny X-Men 500 I went reaching for my Marvel Universe on page 1 of the story to see who a certain character was (I was right, which had relevance later on) and come the end I was noting a link to the X-Force story. In between ..... it's a bit of a surprise that the High Evoloutionary hasn't had more to do with Mutants in the past. The story itself ? Workmanlike, nothing special, nothing too bad. A little formulaic maybe - Magneto and the Sentinals in an anniversary issue. Fraction's first issue with Brubaker. We'll see how they go.
X-Men Legacy 214 Big fight. OK nothing special this month. Not sure what's going on on the last page - is "he" reborn as her or what ?
X-Factor 33 Longshot and Darwin pop up. As does Darwin's Dad looking for him. Hang on, Hasn't Darwin been missing for donkey's years ? Well it didn't read like that from the comic, it seemed like we had a parent who's child had recently vanished. Hmmm. Oh and Longshot ain't Longshot. Boo. I'll assume he was backstage and the end of UXM 500.
Captain America 40 Bucky Cap vs Mad 1950s Cap. Good fight. Great solution to it.
Avengers Initiative 15 Nice hommage cover to #1, continues 3D man's attempt to warn the world about Skrulls and Crusader's attempt not to get revealed. Flashback to Crusader's insertion onto Earth.
Mighty Avengers 16 How Electra got replaced. In Flashback.
New Avengers 43 Where the Cap on the ship came from. In Flashback. Can you see the common theme in the Avengers books ?
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Post by The Doctor on Aug 6, 2008 16:02:20 GMT
Phil kindly sent me some spare comics. Read X-Force #5. Not, ah, to my taste. Looking forward to reading the Skrulls handbook!
-Ralph
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Post by Philip Ayres on Aug 17, 2008 21:27:27 GMT
Last Defenders 6 So the Defenders are from the future, and Kyle's got to get them together ???? Too much left hanging. Sorry didn't work for me.
Astonishing X-Men 26 Felt good and right again. Artwork still on the dark side.
Secret Invasion X-Men 1 Skrulls come to San Fransisco and get a shock to find the X-Men here. Something brewing with the Skrull religous beliefs and Nightcrawler.
Secret Invasion Runaways Young Avengers 2 Can't remember a thing about it - left no impression.
Secret Invasion 5 Agent Brand finds Reed Richards and busts him and his Skrull detecting knowledge out, and they go to rescue the heroes from the Savage Land. Maria Hill has her single finest moment ever when it turns out she's listened to something Nick Fury told her. And Clint gets a nasty shock. No reference at all to the last page of 4 with Cap and Thor !
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Post by Philip Ayres on Sept 1, 2008 21:45:12 GMT
X-Force 6 Great stuff. Maybe not the best hoping on point for the new fan but.... This 6 issue arc is the best X-Men material I've read since Morrison. It shouldn't work - ultra violent team of killer X-Men in continuity fest but it does. Art's been great - different artist on the next arc I believe. And the continuity fest .... I believe Kyle/Yost were doin this stuff on New X-Men but nobody was seeing it. They'd had Nimrod, the Purifiers (Rev Stryker's group) and Magik in there. They've picked up Nimrod and the Purifiers from that book and moved things round a bit so by the end of this one we have several of the X-Men's most lethal mutant hating human classic foes on the loose again (several of which were very dead and were brought back using another piece of X-Men continuity) *and* we've had Archangel back, but can still have Angel in the X-Men. Wuh ? No it all makes sense, and works. Trust me. Pick the trade up when it comes out if you've missed these issues first time round. The reprecussions of this story are already being seen in Uncanny and Young X-Men.
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Post by The Doctor on Sept 1, 2008 22:14:27 GMT
I read your duplicate of X-Force #5, Phil, and, er, I thought it was horrid. Sorry!
-Ralph
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Post by Philip Ayres on Sept 1, 2008 22:28:57 GMT
It was half way through the story and a very brisk issue as I said when I looked at it.
What didn't you like ?
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Post by The Doctor on Sept 2, 2008 7:00:47 GMT
Art, story, characters, plot, premise.
Oh well!
-Ralph
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Post by Philip Ayres on Sept 2, 2008 9:30:15 GMT
Fair enough. 5 wasn't the best issue of the series, but the whole 6 issue run ticked the boxes for me.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Sept 2, 2008 21:26:40 GMT
Immortal Iron Fist 18 A big fight, carried off well. 2 OK issues from the new team. Not a huge disaster.
Immortal Iron Fist: The origin of Danny Rand Reprints of Marvel Premiere 15 & 16 with a new 2 page framing sequence. Not the best Iron Fist issues - I already had them in B&W and believed the framing sequence was longer. The new colouring stinks though. Not X-Men Neal Adams Visionaries stinks, but still not at all good. Doesn't work wih the art style.
Uncanny X-Men 501 Pixie's been assaulted and the X-Men go after who've done it - the Hellfire Cult - who turn out to be in the thrall of Empath who in turn is controlled by "The Red Queen".... who looks very similar to a certain X-Man/X-Man Villainess. Some groundwork for Inferno II bring laid perhaps ?
X-Men Legacy 215 Charles and Scott have a "chat". Stuff happens at the Hellfire Club. And Rogue goes back to the X-Men's base in Australia.
X-Factor 34 Anyone's comic shop got a She-Hulk 31 ? I missed part of the crossover. Big fight. Mindless drivel, which is off form for X-factor
She-Hulk 32 Which I bought thinking it were the previous issue. D'oh !
X-Factor: Layla Miller I've missed Layla. Fabulous tale of Layla's little trip to the future. Lots of knowing stuff.
Avengers Initiative 16 More Skrully nonsense.
Mighty Avengers 17 A background tale of touble with the Hank Pym skrulls
New Avengers 44 Another background tale of how the Skrulls got their idea for invading Earth. Convolouted, but clever.
Captain America 41 A couple of cogs fall out of the Red Skrull's plan. Good stuff as ever.
So out of that little lot, really liked the Cap, X-Factor Special, Iron Fist and X-Force (from yesterday)
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Jaymz
Drone
Posts: 2,380
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Post by Jaymz on Sept 2, 2008 23:29:36 GMT
Anyone's comic shop got a She-Hulk 31 ? I missed part of the crossover. 2nd print out this Thursday. |
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Post by Philip Ayres on Sept 3, 2008 11:38:02 GMT
Ta. Much obliged. Shouldn't it be Friday as Monday was a Bank Holiday in the US ?
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Jaymz
Drone
Posts: 2,380
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Post by Jaymz on Sept 3, 2008 23:40:48 GMT
Ta. Much obliged. Shouldn't it be Friday as Monday was a Bank Holiday in the US ? Nope, stock is sent from Diamond US to Diamond UK at weekends so US public holidays do not affect UK shipping. And I think they might even be a week ahead with some of the stock. |
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Post by legios on Sept 5, 2008 19:09:07 GMT
Well, that was a quiet comics week for me. It could only have been quieter if nothing I was buying came out at all
Invincible Iron Man#5:
On paper I should be really enjoying this. There is nothing actually wrong with it whatsoever - the pacing of the story is good, the art is nice, hero and villian come together for their first proper mano-a-mano and it results in a decent fight. It should be a winner really. What I can't put my finger on is why it doesn't click with me. I can think of a couple of possibilities. Firstly, although the story seems to be flirting with the idea of "the world and the rules of the game have changed" (in that regard it shows what I am coming to think of as "post-world trade centreist" thinking), with Ezekiel Stane being portrayed as a player in a decentralised market dealing in Weapons of Superheroic Destruction, and taunting Stark for still thinking in terms of the "old ways" of reacting to threats. The problem is that the story doesn't entirely seem to be wanting to engage with these themes. They feel like they are being jammed in sideways and fitted around a fairly non-descript "son of old villian back for revenge" storyline. The whole is feels far less than the sum of the parts. The other thing that is putting me off is that we appear to have reached to point where the US-UK exchange rate for comics has reached 1:1, with a $2.99 title costing me £3.00. Given that I am feeling less that 100% engaged with the title and it is costing me half the price of a paperback book..... I doubt I will be keeping this on past the next issue or so at this rate. Don't get me wrong, it isn't terrible, it just feels like it could be so much better.
(Also, for some reason it has a cover of Iron Man rendered as an ape or monkey of some kind, which seems random in the extreme)
Karl
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Post by The Doctor on Sept 5, 2008 20:53:41 GMT
You were charged £3? Methinks you were charged the wrong amount. $2.99 still goes for £2.15 in most brick and morter stores, $3.99 for £2.85.
Talking of prices, I have noticed that almost all minis and specials from the Big Two (not just the Big Events) are now at $3.99 with some $3.50 and $4.99 price points creeping in. I reckon 2009 will be when most comics on stands go to $3.99 at which point, wave goodbye to many periodical sales and trade sales to go way up in the current economic climate. Readers know to expect around $3.99 from independants, but not from the Big Two.
RE: Iron Man ape cover. Mavel are going through a phase of their titles having random apes variant covers. Bit like when they were doing the zombie thing.
-Ralph
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Sept 5, 2008 20:57:18 GMT
Ah but I am assuming Karl bought this comic in ROBBING FUCK CENTRAL or FPE as it's known.
Andy
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Post by legios on Sept 5, 2008 21:06:15 GMT
RE: Iron Man ape cover. Mavel are going through a phase of their titles having random apes variant covers. Bit like when they were doing the zombie thing. -Ralph Ah, that would explain it then. Ta muchly. It seemed very random when I picked it up. And Andy, you are correct - it was bought in RFC, it was the only comics shop I was likely to be near for the next week or so and I needed some reading matter for the train back to Planet Falkirk. I wasn't best pleased by the damage to my wallet that much was certain. Talking of prices, I have noticed that almost all minis and specials from the Big Two (not just the Big Events) are now at $3.99 with some $3.50 and $4.99 price points creeping in. I reckon 2009 will be when most comics on stands go to $3.99 at which point, wave goodbye to many periodical sales and trade sales to go way up in the current economic climate. Readers know to expect around $3.99 from independants, but not from the Big Two. I think you are probably right, and it will certainly put a crimp in my periodicals buying. If it does happen, and I'd say it is likely, I will likely drop quite a few things that are "on the cusp" at the moment and consider getting them as trades as and when. It is rapidly reaching the point where it is no longer financially rational for me to buy things in floppy format. Karl |
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Post by The Doctor on Sept 7, 2008 10:08:57 GMT
Comic Book Comics #1 & #2: A rare gem I stumbled on by chance. It's the history of American comics done in comics format. It's very cleverly done and often quite funny as well. It's difficult to describe. Have a look at previews here: www.eviltwincomics.com/cbc.htmlWell worth a look. -Ralph
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Sept 16, 2008 10:40:04 GMT
Had a shot of Ralph's comics when he was through, I can say that these comics should be picked up. Brilliant stuff.
Read Secret Invasion: X-Men 1 & 2 mostly on the strength of the art - I do like Cary Nord's work. Decent enough stuff, but I do long for the days when a crossover could be incorporated into a title's ongoing storyline. The editorial fiefdom's at Marvel are somewhat tiresome.
Andy
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