Reviewing the Week: April 25, 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Sean May) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 23:59:00 +0000

Now that I'm able to make posts whenever I want, hopefully I'll be able to get reviews up a whole lot quicker. Nothing wrong with the previous format, it was just a little bit laggy, you were reading reviews for last week's comics on the following Thursday. Alright, well, with that out of the way, here come a fresh batch of reviews from this week:

The Mighty Avengers #12
Written by Brian Michael Bendis | Art by Alex Maleev
Marvel Comics | $2.99

And so the relevant Secret Invasion tie-ins begin (nothing against Ms. Marvel...but, you know), and this one is about as relevant as they get. Nick Fury makes a long-awaited reappearance, showing everyone what has been happening to Marvel's favorite one-eyed S.H.I.E.L.D. agent over the past few months. The main story is told in a flashback, but it quickly comes to the present time, setting the stage for a very major subplot that will factor in to Secret Invasion.

I'm not a regular reader of The Mighty Avengers, but that shouldn't really be any kind of impedance to anyone else who doesn't read the book regularly. This issue is less Mighty Avengers #12 as it is Secret Invasion #1.5. This issue is important, Fury will play a key part in revealing Skrulls during the invasion, so I would say if you have any sort of interest in following the storyline behind Secret Invasion, you need to get this issue.

...also, the last two pages of this issue are really important. If Fury is going to be Skrull Tracker #1 over the course of this crossover, then the last double splash page reveals that he has some very big targets in his sights as possible (or even confirmed) Skrulls.

If I would have to make any complaints about the issue, I guess it would be Alex Maleev's art. It's not that Maleev is a bad artist, I just didn't feel that this was his type of book to draw. It's functional, but I would have rather seen someone else taking the drawing chores

Rating: 8.7/10

Ultimate Spider-Man #121

Written by Brian Michael Bendis |Art by Stuart Immonen

Marvel Comics | $2.99

There are really two stories being told within this issue of USM: one of them is good, the other is pretty mediocre. The first story concerns the continuing saga of Peter Parker's personal life, which is rife with women vying for his attention, the charred remains of a baby doll, and the new revelation that his friend, Liz Allen, is a mutant. The other story involves the return of Omega Red, and, well, it's sort of lame.

Thankfully, most of the issue is taken up with Bendis' trademark dialogue, and the scenes inside Peter's high school classroom are brilliant. Bendis seems to really understand teenagers, and it shows at least as much in this issue as it has in the previous stories.

The Omega Red story, on the other hand, just seems like a reason to put a big scary villain in front of Spider-Man now that the Green Goblin is out of the picture. In this issue, Omega invades the offices of the Daily Bugle and yells at J. Jonah Jameson for a little while before Spider-Man beats the shit out of him. Hopefully this is just the first chapter of the story, and Omega Red's involvement will make more sense, but right now it just feels tacked-on

Another thing, Stuart Immonen is just knocking it out of the park again with art. I've really enjoyed his involvement with the book, and hopefully he'll put in a 100+ run of issues on this just like his predecessor, Mark Bagley

Rating: 7.9/10

(more reviews to come as I read my books for this week)

Welcome, Immigrants!

noreply@blogger.com (Sean May) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:29:00 +0000

Alright, so I hope I at least brought some of you over from my 72 Hours column, as well as maybe some new subscribers.

In honor of all of you coming over, I'll leave some of the content on this site up to you. What would you like to see on this blog? Reviews? Spotlights on old material? Comics news? I'm open to anything comics related, really.

Let me know in the comments.

And, I do promise there will be more content on this site soon. Reviews for this week's books are coming on Thursday or Friday

Coming Soon...

noreply@blogger.com (Sean May) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 18:58:00 +0000

Nothing here right now, sorry...but just wait

The Comic Shelf

Reviewing the Week: April 25, 2008

Welcome, Immigrants!

Coming Soon...