GoldDustBoi's House of Ideas - Comic Blogs and Reviews

Flash Review - 3/14/12

noreply@blogger.com (golddustboi) — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 05:04:00 +0000

Age of Apocalypse #1 – When it was first created, the Age of Apocalypse was new, exciting, and incredibly innovative, and it even warranted 2 one-shot issues to fill in some background on these incredible new takes on classic characters. Then for the 10 year anniversary of the storyline (yes storyline, as in it had a beginning and an ending) we got another one-shot plus a 5 issue limited series to catch us up on what had happened to these character, all of this is still good. I was skeptical to say the least when I heard about the crossover with X-Force, and more than a little leery about AOA Nightcrawler, but please someone tell me how they strip Jean Grey and Sabretooth of their powers, have them join up with B-class human villains and then call it a new series?! This is honestly just a huge mistake, and it will undoubtedly ruin the legacy of this incredible storyline. I suspect it will not have more than 12 issues or less so I will buy them, but this is just an insult to the original concept.

Avengers Academy #27 – Eh…not as great as I would have expected it to be. First of all, I am not as into the Runaways as I am Young Avengers or even the defunct Young Allies so this issue was already at a disadvantage. I find the entire Runaway crew to be kinda lame and mostly just knock-offs of the Young Avengers so when they came here and started acting like their bratty superior selves it was even more of a turn off then I had anticipated. Why do they keep associating the Academy with these cheesy “Next-Gen” teen teams? Why don’t they every actually meet the Young Avengers? Or the New X-men/Generation Hope? Instead we get the Young Allies (which was an slap in the face to Firestar since she used to be an honest to goodness Avenger) and the Runaways? This book has come such a long way so we can definitely bury one or two bad issues but let’s get it together people!!

Avengers Prelude: Fury’s Big Week #1 – On the other hand, this issue was significantly better than I would have expected! When watching the various Marvel movies, it seemed like it was one story after another with no connection and Nick Fury showing up at the very end of all of them, but this series is showing us that that wasn’t the case. According to this book, not only was Fury involved behind the scenes of all of the scenarios from the beginning but in some cases, they were happening practically simultaneously! I thought that was a really cool twist to the stories. Other than that, this doesn’t really add too much new information to the mix, it more just added continuity to the separate stories in an effort to bring them all together for the big showdown. Nothing terribly exciting but still worth a read.

Defenders #4 – I’ll be honest, I am not really clear on whats going on with this Prester Omega character and the giant squiggle but I loved this peak into the past of Stephen Strange. I mean we know all about his life as a vain surgeon before learning magic and we know about his long time love with Mistress Clea of the Dark Dimension, but this seems to be from even before any of that. Before his time as a world class surgeon he dated a woman names Martha who left him and began her own life and family, and now she had returned to him by some untold magical means (probably to do with the squiggle). Unfortunately this is not to last and she once again left him to discover the meaning of her new life, but she did lead Stephen on the path to let someone new into his life, his grad student Molly…who he already slept with. Ignoring the clear ethical violations involved, she’s nothing like what you would expect him to go for and yet might be exactly what he needs.

Fear Itself: The Fearless #10 – It’s really at the point now where my eyes and ears bleed every time I have to type the words “Fear Itself”, but yes this series is still happening. On the bright side, this issue is finally making the series exciting! I’m bored to death of Valkyrie moaning and whining across the globe and I’m tired of Sin’s maniacal posturing too, but the idea of the Serpent having it’s own Destroyer is a pretty cool concept. I also found it intriguing that Crossbones doesn’t seem to be as on board with her grand schemes as he once was. The big battle scene at the end was truly epic though. I mean you have ALL the Avengers (not to mention the Fantastic Four and the Thunderbolts) present at once and every demonic supervillain that Marvel has churned out in the last 25 years like (Master Pandemonium, Witchfire and Blackout just to name a few). Maybe after 4 months of boring drawn out nonsense, we will actually get an exciting ending to this endless epilogue.

Uncanny X-men #8 – Great ending to a bit of a strange story. It started out as a mission to save the inhabitants of Tabula Rasa from what amounts to rampant lethal skin cancer, but what really made this issue was some of the finer character moments that were seen. Namor putting his harpoon to good use with the Tapeworm Queen while Hope develops more than a small crush on him. Cyclops putting the needs of an entire species first (and they WEREN’T even mutants). And my personal favorite: Illyana and Peter fighting for their lives in the underground caverns of Tabula Rasa. It is truly amazing to see how far these two siblings have come. Colossus becomes more of a powerhouse on the verge of losing control with every issue while Magik has gone from demonic princess to powerful voice of reason. Watching him lose control of his very form from tapping into the power of the Juggernaut was one of his more intense moments ever since Illyana died back in 1993. Of course we can’t forget the foreboding scene between Psylocke and Magneto at the end. What side are they really on? Was that just tough guy talk from Magneto or is something more sinister going on that we don’t know about yet? Or even worse, is he just implying that they are both killers and therefore alike…

Venom #14 – And Circle of Four comes to a close…and what a close it is! First let me get it out of the way and say I HATE ALEJANDRA! This incarnation of the Ghost Rider has one horrific issue after another. I honestly just don’t know what the writers are even thinking at this point. Watching her flat out push Flash from a moving taxi in the middle of a firefight in Hell was just the absolute last straw! I mean really, who the hell does that?! I’m just glad her own title is ending. On the bright side, we got to see when Venom officially joined the Avengers (or Secret Avengers)…the only annoying thing is that we knew that was coming weeks ago if you’ve been reading that title.

Wolverine & the X-men: Alpha & Omega #3 – It’s…interesting. I am not sufre I love it or that it was a necessary storyline but it’s definitely interesting. I love the whole idea of Quire’s construct, it’s like a huge video game that Wolverine and Armor can’t find the end of, and I like even more that he loses control of it when he goes to sleep. One thing I am not really into is that Wolverine’s body wakes up as the “Berserker” when his mind isn’t in residence. I am not going to dig through my back issues to find out where, but I am sure at some time in the past his mind has been removed from his body by some force and I am pretty certain that this didn’t happen. Either way I still maintain that this could have been a one-shot instead of a 5 part series, but whatever.

X-Club #4 – I love this series. It started out a little strange…and now it’s just completely out there weird! Is it me or did we find out that not only is Danger somehow pregnant but she and Madison Jefferies are in love? What the hell are these people doing over there on that island!? The best part of this is entire story however is the telepathic starfish stuck on top of Nemesis’ head. He’s just such a douche all the time it’s nice to hear the ridiculousness that goes on in his head. I’m looking forward to the conclusion of this story, but also just for the series to be over.

X-men #26 – AGH!! I AM SO BORED OF VAMPIRES! If I wanted to read about vampires I would pick up some old Chillers or Tomb of Dracula issues. This is X-men…X-MEN…I want mutants, and world saving. Not undead vegetarians. I have said it before I am bored of Raizo Kodo and his band of creeps and I am even over Jubilee’s storyline. They need to get her under control or just get rid of her but either way they need to be done with the vampire storylines.

The Last Crusade? - Review Avengers: Children's Crusade #9

noreply@blogger.com (golddustboi) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 04:59:00 +0000

There are simply no words. A year and a half, 9 issues, a one-shot and more anxiety then I can put into words here it is finally over. And all I can say is this: What a colossal LET DOWN. The Young Avengers have been everything that the New X-men never were and this was supposed to be the pinnacle of their story as well as a jumping off point for their future. Instead we are given an empty issue with little no to progress, no real direction to the ending to speak of, and a number of characters left in limbo with no clue as to what is happening to them now let alone what WILL be happening to them. We were promised a conclusion to the Scarlet Witch’s saga, a new line-up for the Young Avengers, and a lead-in to the huge Avengers vs. X-men storyline. In my honest opinion, none of these things happened in this book.

This entire “Crusade” was centered on the children’s journey to find Wanda, the mutant Scarlet Witch, and along the way we encountered Magneto, Doom, the Avengers, the X-men, X-Factor, and former comrade (and future enemy) Iron Lad not to mention traipsing through time and changing the past. During all of this we were supposed to see a resolution to Wanda’s story and, possibly, and reversal of M-Day. Well only someone who has never read comics before would think that all the mutants were going to get their powers back so that really only leaves us with Wanda’s evolution as a character to really follow and to be completely honest that stopped back in issue 6 when she realized and accepted that Wiccan and Speed were really her children. Since then we have travelled around, fought some Beyonder-like force that Doom took a hold of and rescued Scott Lang but once she restored Rictor’s powers, Wanda almost became irrelevant to her own story. The rest of this “Children’s Crusade” became focused on defeating Doom (like every other Marvel storyline ever), preventing the X-men from killing or capturing Wanda, and figuring out what to do with the Young Avengers. There were many people who said that this series wasn’t worth the time it was taking, but I defended it and said that the payoff would be worth it. I am thinking at this point that I may have been mistaken.

Now as for that new line-up for the Young Avengers we were promised… What new line-up!? I have been a comic collector for about 20 years at this point and when I hear new line-up, I think of new characters, new powers on old characters and a new direction or mission for the team in general. None of these things happened to the team this issue! Cassie and Vision died. They died! Cassie from the battle with Dr. Doom while Vision is torn apart by a jealous Iron Lad. Iron Lad (or should I say Young Kang the Conqueror at this point) then just up and leaves to go into the timestream and cause god knows what damage. And in the aftermath of all this Elijah just quits being Patriot. QUITS! That’s not a new line-up, that a roster massacre! When this issue closes we don’t see a new line-up for the team, we see a moratorium to the team existence. In both X-men and Avenger lore, when someone dies, they get a statue in the garden so why do the Young Avengers get one if in theory they are still around with this supposed new line-up? The only, and I do mean ONLY, possible change I see to the line-up (besides deaths and departures) could be Scott Lang sticking around as team mentor in honor of Cassie but to be honest, that would be such as stretch as to do the team a great disservice.

I don’t know what the writers were thinking when they plotted this issue but this was possibly the worst ending to one of the best series in recent Marvel history. It opened up with so much promise and potential for the future and a pledge to tie up many loose ends as well as lead into the next huge storyline. Well we cleared up some important issues concerning the Scarlet Witch, but the only loose ends that were cleared up regarding the Young Avengers as a whole were the varying deaths that we were abruptly given at the very end of the series. And regarding the supposed lead-in to Avengers vs. X-men, if I hadn’t seen dozens of promos that included Wanda and Hope with “AVX” plastered across the top, I would have had no idea that this book had any connection to the upcoming storyline. In fact, at the very end of Children’s Crusade, we aren’t even sure where Wanda is! All we know is that she’s not captive and Billy (Wiccan) could contact her if he so chose to…which he apparently doesn’t. I spend a year and a half of dedication to this series and I expected a little more payoff then deaths, disappearances, a gay teenage kiss and some snarky comments from Ms. Marvel. I guess everyone who said this series wasn’t worth the time, could quite possibly have been right after all.

My Weekly Pull List - 3/21/12

noreply@blogger.com (golddustboi) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 21:07:00 +0000

Cable's mission comes to an end...but who will be alive at the end? Breakout at the Peak in Uncanny X-men! Havok and Polaris finally back in action with X-Factor! And the stunning final issue of Generation Hope!

Avengers Prelude: Fury’s Big Week #2

Avengers: X-Sanction #4

Fear Itself: The Fearless #11

Generation Hope #17

New Mutants #39

Uncanny X-Men #9

X-Factor #233

Marvel Comics On-sale - 3/21/12

noreply@blogger.com (golddustboi) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 21:00:00 +0000

DEAD continues over in Deapool! Things begin to heat for Valkyrie in the next to last issue of Fear Itself: The Fearless! The comic prelude to the Avengers blockbuster continues in Fury's Big Week! And the New Mutants are held captive by Warlock, their own teammate!

Amazing Spider-Man #682

Avengers Prelude: Fury’s Big Week #2

Avengers: X-Sanction #4

Deadpool #52

Fear Itself: The Fearless #11

Generation Hope #17

Invincible Iron man #514

John Carter: The Gods of Mars #1

Kick-Ass 2 #7

New Mutants #39

Supercrooks #1

Thunderbolts #171

Uncanny X-Men #9

Wolverine #303

X-Factor #233

My Weekly Pull List - 3/13/12

noreply@blogger.com (golddustboi) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:29:00 +0000

The movie Avengers team assembles in Avengers Assemble! Marcus Johnson confronts his father in Battle Scars! Hellstrom, Loki and Leah vs Nightmare in Journey into Mystery! And it's Exodus vs Wolverine's X-men PLUS Generation Hope and the New X-men!

Avengers #24

Avengers Assemble #1

Battle Scars #5

Carnage U.S.A. #4

Journey into Mystery #635

Wolverine & the X-Men #7

X-Men Legacy #263

Marvel Comics On-sale - 3/13/12

noreply@blogger.com (golddustboi) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:22:00 +0000

The culmination of Norman Osborn's plans for the new HAMMER! Carnage U.S.A. keeps on slaying! The penultimate issue of Daken! And the final issue of X-23!

Avengers #24

Avengers Assemble #1

Battle Scars #5

Captain America #9

Carnage U.S.A. #4

Daken: Dark Wolverine #22

Fantastic Four #604

Incredible Hulk #6

Journey into Mystery #635

Marvel Adventures Heroes #24

Northanger Abbey #5

The Punisher #9

Scarlet Spider #3

Ultimate Comics X-Men #9

Wolverine & the X-Men #7

X-23 #21

X-Men Legacy #263

My Weekly Pull List - 3/7/12

noreply@blogger.com (golddustboi) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:05:00 +0000

Over 15 years after its creation, the Age of Apocalypse gets it own monthly title! Avengers Academy clashes with the Runaways! The conclusion to the Tabula Rasa saga in Uncanny X-men! And Storm must confront her dear friend-turned-vampire in X-men!

Age of Apocalypse #1

Avengers Academy #27

Avengers: The Children's Crusade #9

Defenders #4

Fear Itself: The Fearless #10 FI

Marvel’s The Avengers Prelude: Fury’s Big Week #1

Uncanny X-Men #8

Venom #14 C4

Wolverine and the X-Men: Alpha and Omega #3

X-Club #4

X-Men #26

Flash Review - 2/29/12

noreply@blogger.com (golddustboi) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 05:34:00 +0000

Angel & Faith #7 – Call me crazy but I’m just not that into Faith’s father showing up. And not just that I don’t trust him (that much is pretty much a given) but that I am just not that intrigued by him even showing up. I always got the impression that he was a big douche but that he was out of the picture for whatever reason. Now a still-sane Druscilla on the other hand…THAT I can read ALL DAY. It’s almost even creepier seeing her with all her scruples because now there’s no rational excuse for her strange behavior (or in this case her strange lack of strange behavior I guess). In both cases I am at least curious enough that I can’t wait for next issue.

Avengers #23 – Eh…once again another lackluster installment of this over reaching story arc. I am getting so sick of Norman Osborn at this point, I don’t care what powers or whatever that he has acquired, Viper is a much more interesting adversary during this entire scenario. The Hulk-like creatures they’ve created are already getting overused and boring, and once again we spent an entire issue without seeing Storm take any sort of feature role. What was even the point of bringing her on if they were just going to lock her up? I get that they are focusing one by one on the different members (with Red Hulk, Quake and now Vision all getting some feature time) but when may I ask is Ororo’s turn?

Astonishing X-men #47 – YAY! It’s over! This is quite honestly the dumbest storyline that I have seen in an X-book in quite some time. What was even the purpose of it? They made a big deal over Scott and Storm kissing a few issues ago and then it turned into this entire weird ass other dimension nonsense (like we don’t already have enough of that). And it really just seemed like they were trying too hard to make the whole thing so damn deep, with Scott wearing Magneto’s helmet, the evil Xavier named Savior, and Scott cracking a beer to Logan’s honor at the end. It was just all too forced and reeked of “they don’t know what to do with this book” in my opinion.

FF #15 – I am so over this title. I gave it more than a fair chance I think and I was even excited to see the whole Power Pack reunite. But to be honest, it just seems like a continuation of the Fantastic Four title I dropped months ago and promises to be even more closely tied in the coming months. I think I’ll give it a few more issues (I’ll have some spare cash since a few of my other titles are getting cancelled) but I don’t really have a lot of high hopes for this one.

Venom #13.4 – OK they may have jumped the shark on this one folks. I’ve really been enjoying this storyline so far. Red Hulk has really grown on me, I’m always a Ghost Rider fan (no matter how ridiculous the writer’s choice of host is), and I even like the Flash Thompson version of Venom, but I feel like they went a little overboard with that last page monstrosity that melded the 3 together in a fashion. I wonder what sort of condition Alejandra will be in at the end of this whole ordeal since her own title has but one issue left before cancellation.

Hand of Deception - Review New Avengers #22

noreply@blogger.com (golddustboi) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 04:22:00 +0000

Wow, I know they’re heroes and all but unlike their slightly uppity Avengers counterpart, the New Avengers are definitely a group you DON’T want to screw with. Between Wonder Man’s ambush and Osborn’s two-pronged attack, this team of superheroes has gotten completely fed up with the villains attacking them in their own house! Following an embarrassing beating by the new Dark Avengers, Cage & co. are confronted by American military forces right on their own front lawn, and let’s just say it went down poorly. I still think that this entire Osborn scenario is getting to be too much between both books but at least this half of the story is keeping things interesting. I just wish that Luke (and Jessica) could learn to stop storming off by themselves every time there’s trouble.

Now the real star of this entire story, however, is Victoria Hand. Major kudos to the writers for the way they have delicately plotted her course since the very beginning of this series. We all naturally assumed that she was working for Osborn in some way, but to be honest even I didn’t see her double status working for Captain America coming. Her confrontation scene with the New Avengers showed a new level of ruthlessness from them, as they walked her through her own faux death by falling from a window, as well as a new level of depth for Victoria herself. Thank goodness for the living lie detector team, Daredevil and Wolverine, or who knows what might have come of Miss Hand. Following this entire debacle I am looking forward to seeing how her relationships within the team change and grow from this latest information.

Additionally, it was nice to see some crossover between the two parts of the storyline finally. Osborn’s grand design has been playing out in both main Avengers books but until this very issue we haven’t seen any connection between them, as though they were two completely separate stories. Here we finally saw the leaders of the Hand and Hydra, Gorgon and Viper respectively, sowing the first seeds of their deceiving Osborn (which I think we can all agree was just a matter of time). Then to see them both lording over the captive body of Captain America, brought a measure of continuity that I think the entire story was lacking.

And last but certainly not least, perhaps my favorite part of the entire issue, was the Avengers OTHER secret agent in Osborn’s midst: Skaar, Son of Hulk. Personally, I was excited when I saws him join Osborn’s Dark Avengers, something of an homage to his father, the original Hulk, being a founding member of the Avengers. Its funny because we see Skaar cause so much havoc (even if it sometimes isn’t on purpose) that we can easily forget that, when he’s not all green and Hulk-y, he’s just a little boy underneath. Seeing him scream “Avengers Assemble!” and betray his Dark Avenger teammates was not only shocking, but also a great cliffhanger to lead us into next issue’s finale.

Flash Review - 2/22/12

noreply@blogger.com (golddustboi) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 05:04:00 +0000

Avengers Solo #5 – Well the good news is that the series is over. And it finished up just how it started: Hawkeye’s story sucks and the Academy back-up carried the book. All we learned from thids book is that the top Avengers all still barely trust each other and are willing to do shady things behind each other’s backs. On the other hand, I am really curious to see how this “test” that Finesse and Striker were put through affects their relationship with their professors in the future. Here’s to more West Coast Avengers fun in the coming months.

Magneto: Not a Hero #4 – It’s not that I didn’t like this series per say, it’s just that it seemed like the entire thing could have been told in a one-shot rather than drag it out for several issues. I was sort of expecting Astra to be a bit more important and maybe even see more of the deformed Brotherhood clones. And Joseph was such a great character back in the 90’s and now they kind dumbed him down to “Well you’re good now, Magneto, so I’m going to be bad. And not just bad…badder then you ever were”. I am never really a fan of just bringing characters back from the dead only to throw them away again. Like why couldn’t Joseph return and ACTUALLY become the evil Magneto while Max (the real Magneto) continued on as an X-man? Good story, but the length made it boring.

New Mutants #38 – You know, I was JUST talking about this with a friend of mine recently. “Why did they bother bringing Doug back and then do nothing with him? And what ever happened to Bird-Brain and the Animator’s other creations?” I swear I was just talking about it like last month, and there they are! Many comic creations from the 80’s were a bit cheesy and cartoony but that was the style back then so now the challenge presented to writers is how do you bring these corny characters back in a way that keeps to their origin but also updates them for more modern readers? HERE’S THE ISSUE WITH THAT ANSWER. When Bird-Brain last hung around the New Mutants, he was a clunky awkward caricature but now in his dramatic return, we see an updated Bird-Brain who is strongly reminiscent of his original drawing but even a seasoned reader couldn’t help but be startled but his fearsome look as he attacked Dani and the rest of the team. More importantly then Bird-Brain’s new style is Warlock’s sudden shift at the end and refusal to let any of them leave the island. One can’t help but wonder how far he will take that ultimatum when his friends don’t back down.

Secret Avengers #23 – I love the team, and the new direction of the book. I think Captain Britain is at his most snarky in this title, much more so than we have seen in the last few years. What I don’t like is when they give us stories of characters that spoils the ending of another storyline. Like when Valkyrie joined this new line-up for example, clearly that means that she lives through the end of Fear Itself: the Fearless with at least some measure of strength and power to her so it almost defeats the purpose of us reading the end of Fearless. Well they did it again, this issue with Venom. I am all for Venom joining this team, I think it will be nice to have a Venom around that a little less Lethal and a little more Protector, but they already stated flat out in this issue that he recently saved Las Vegas from being sucked into Hell. Now obviously the chances of the Marvel writers actually sucking Las Vegas into Hell are remote at best, but, for the sake of storytelling, maybe they should not have mentioned that until the final issue of Circle of Four? Just a though here guys, work with us!

Uncanny X-Force #22 – Some real high and low points in this issue. High points include Besty still rocking the Lady Britain outfit (which is a nice welcome change from her normal unitard and AOA Kurt starting to loosen up a bit around his new comrades in the midst of this insane Otherworld War. Now on the other hand, some bad or just weird parts of the issue were creepy muscle-controlling guy and his grow ass power, the nonstop barrage of Otherworld battling and creatures (almost as if they were trying to squeeze an entire huge war into just 2 or 3 issues), and last but DEFINITELY not least is Weapon III slicing Fantomex’s face right off his head (which is just as bad as Deadpool’s entire head being severed while he continued bantering). The entire storyline is just turning into out to be a bit much and poorly handled I think.

Venom #13.3 – Eh…I dunno. This storyline started out really strong and I was into it, but now it’s starting to peter out a little bit. Part of the reason for my lagging interest could be because we already know that this ends with everyone being fine. Red Hulk is over in Avengers. X-23 is with Avengers Academy. Venom just joined Secret Avengers. And Ghost Rider is presumably still alive and being a bitch, but who really cares at this point about her. It’s also worth mentioning that I hated Mephisto in this issue because I just saw and LOVED him over in New Mutants a few weeks earlier. I’m going to of course get the last few issues of the story but my hopes aren’t as high as they once were.

Wolverine & the X-men #6 – I LOVE a good Brood story! I do, it almost doesn’t matter what else is going on because I just love reading about Sleazoids. And not a person on this Earth hates Brood aliens more than Kitty Pryde so it’s MORE than fitting that her entire body would be being invaded by them. I love seeing how Broo reacted to his brethren being so close by (and even more glad that he chose to protect Kitty from them). I’m a little less into the whole gambling story but I get it, they are trying to keep a large portion of this book light and happy so that fine, I just hope they don’t put so much emphasis on “fuzzy warm feeling” that we lose the quality of the story and the character development. Oh and who’s this creepy alien coming after Broo? How many people even know he’s there?

X-men #25 – Sigh…I just…don’t care. Yeah, I don’t care about this anymore. I am getting really tired of Raizo Kodo and his band of miscreants, and to be honest, I’m not really that invested in Jubilee anymore. They’ve ruined a classic character to the point where I just don’t even care anymore. It was bad enough when they took her powers but this vampire deal has really run its course. The best part of this issue is that they finally dealt with Storm and her history with vampires. Maybe with Deadpool showing up next issue, this whole thing will get a bit more interesting.

X-men: Legacy #262 – BIIIIIIIG Let Down. I was expecting this issue to be about the two sides of X-men meeting up for the first time to take down Exodus and then go their separate ways maybe a little less angry. No instead the entire issue was a cross country chase with him and a brief and over-before-it-started disagreement between Logan and Rogue. And the only ones of Cyclops’ X-men that even appeared was Generation Hope (which mean this is either before Kenji’s mutiny or after and it didn’t go very well) which was a completely let down. I don’t really understand why Hope showing up is worse than Cyclops since as far as I can tell she is the one person he won’t kill but I guess that something we will get into last issue since they only showed up for the last page.

School's Out! - Review Avengers Academy #26

noreply@blogger.com (golddustboi) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 00:39:00 +0000

I was already loving the new direction that this book was taking before this issue even happened and after this all I can say is…AWESOME! I’m a huge fan of the Avengers West Coast so I was thrilled when they brought us back to the old compound and even added Hawkeye to the faculty to give it a real AWC feel, but the one thing I wasn’t feeling was all the extraneous character that were supposed to be coming and going. Well, this issue took care of that plus a few of the other issues (albeit minor ones that is). I see this book taking the momentum that it has been building and going forward in directions that we can’t even guess about yet!

First of all, thank god we’re seeing Veil again! When she first left the team, I honestly thought it was a big set-up. I honestly thought that she was leaving but that we were still going to be following her in the pages of this title and watching while she spied on Jeremy Briggs…but then she disappeared. I mean, we saw her in the future flashes with the older versions of the team (minus Lightspeed and White Tiger by the way...) but she was the character with the most depth and room to grow, I felt, and she just appeared from the present timeline story. Now not only is she back, but she brought the Initiative kids (who we haven’t seen since Fear Itself) with her AND Jocasta, returned from faking her own death. What I didn’t count on was her coming back to steal students from the Academy with Jocasta and try to shut the school down. I mean clearly Jeremy is up to something shady, but what is she thinking? Even if she doesn’t agree with some of the decisions that come with being an Avenger, where would she be without the Academy? Slowly discorporating with no idea it was happening or any clue how to stop it, that’s where!

And as for Jocasta…talk about an ungrateful piece of scrap metal! I have no idea if she’s under Ultron’s control or not, but for a being that thinks she’s so highly evolved she has become one of the most contemptuous and abrasive robots ever. “I am not here to fight, but to disable the technology that I installed. In other words, all of it.” Last I checked that equipment was created in an Avengers lab, using Avengers supplies that were bought with Avengers funding. So where does she get the right to just take (or some might say steal) it from them? All while basically telling the students of this school that if they stay there they will not only die but ruin the world. I agree with Hawkeye’s assessment that she has been “drinking Wonder Man’s Kool-aid”.

One great thing that happened is they deflated the slightly over inflated cast of the title. I loved when they moved to the Costa Verde compound (or I guess it’s campus now) and made it into a real school for Avengers. What I wasn’t really feeling was all the extra characters that came with it, especially the ones that we never even saw. It was great that they added Hawkeye, Lightspeed, and White Tiger to the cast but then we had Butterball, Batwing, Lyra, Power Man, Rocket Racer, Ricochet, X-23, Turbo, Whiz-Kid, Hollow, and Machine Teen and Rover all joining the campus on some sort of part-time basis. Why? So they had a huge cast to draw on whenever they conveniently needed someone to fill a particular power requirement for a story? Most of these characters have been seen only once or twice in the background of an outdoor or group scene so why bother bringing them in at all? More importantly, why bring them in if you are going to have someone else take them away in a few issues (before even properly showing any of them on-panel)? And the ones who don’t leave, are they going to continue to barely be background characters or will they actually become part of them team (which will swell the cast size to be way too much. They should have just left the cast as is and added the one or two characters that they actually had plans for.

These big issues aside, the issue had a few other great moments. Veil’s reaction to Striker telling her that he’s gay was priceless: “Well, duh”, Hank’s impassioned speech about what the Avengers mean to him (which was interesting considering the mental health and personal problems his association with the team has brought), and Haz-mat choosing at the last second to stay at the Academy with Mettle were just a few of the great smaller moments in this issue. However, the crux of the entire issue was the reveal on the last page: Hank Pym (20 years later) is the mastermind behind the future versions of the Academy. What is that plan? We still don’t know, but with every single issue I wonder more and more what the hell happened to their future that’s making them go to such lengths to ensure it happens their way. Here’s to yet another stellar issue from this creative team and I can’t wait to see where they are going with this future storyline.

Marvel On-sale - 3/6/12

noreply@blogger.com (golddustboi) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 23:00:00 +0000

ITS HERE ITS HERE!!! Finally the conclusion to the Young Avengers: Children's Crusade! This issue will lead us into Avengers vs X-men and give us a new line-up for the team! The Academy battle the Runaways in Avengers Academy! Circle of Four concludes over in Venom! And more adventures with Valkyrie in Fear Itself: The Fearless!

Age of Apocalypse #1

Amazing Spider-Man #681

Avengers Academy #27

Avengers: The Children's Crusade #9

Defenders #4

Fear Itself: The Fearless #10 FI

Hulk #49

Marvel’s The Avengers Prelude: Fury’s Big Week #1

Thor: Deviants Saga #5

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #8

Ultimate Comics Spider-man #8 (Variant)

Uncanny X-Men #8

Venom #14 C4

Villains for Hire #4

Winter Soldier #3

Wolverine #302

Wolverine and the X-Men: Alpha and Omega #3

X-Club #4

X-Men #26

C4 = Circle of Four

FI = Fear Itself

My Weekly Pull List - 2/29

noreply@blogger.com (golddustboi) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 22:20:00 +0000

The conclusion of Cyclops dimension hopping adventure in Astonishing X-men! The HAMMER falls over in Avengers while Osborne's plan comes to fruition in New Avengers! And the penultimate installment of Circle of Four in Venom!

Astonishing X-Men #47

Avengers #23

FF #15

New Avengers #22

Venom #13.4 C4

C4 = Circle of Four

Flash Review - 2/15/12

noreply@blogger.com (golddustboi) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 21:40:00 +0000

Avengers #22 – Oh come on Avengers, you are really dropping the ball with this new line-up. Between experience and sheer power, this team should be able to handle almost anything that is thrown their way. Instead we get Viper seducing/tormenting Captain America (which she would never be able to do if he wasn’t tied up already) and trying to bring Spider-woman back to Hydra (which she was never really a part of to begin with), newest Avenger Quake beating on Osborne’s agent with her fists in broad daylight (as if the Avengers don’t have enough problems right now), brutal battle’s with the Red Hulk’s inner ear germs and Norman Osborne tossing the Vision like tissue paper. Not even a one panel glimpse of Protector or Storm in the entire issue, because you know they are powerless and weak and couldn’t possibly be any help, and to top the enough steaming pile off we have Barack Obama (or the shadowy implication of him) actually agreeing to try and work with Osborn. What the hell are you people doing over there!

Fear Itself: The Fearless #9 – Probably the best issue of this crappy series so far but even still the entire point of this title is lost on me. We already know the Valkyrie won’t die or even be thrown off the Avengers because she’s still appearing with the brand new line-up in Secret Avengers (unless they are going to tell us that the past few issues of that book all happen before or immediately after the Serpents attack which I really doubt). The best part of this issue was the battle with Storm which, while being amazing and epic (as is any battle where Storm really cuts loose), was a little too over done especially when Valkyrie smashed Storm in the face with a mystical hammer since, I think we can all agree, would have killed anyone who doesn’t have some sort of invulnerability. And did anyone else notice how Dani Moonstar and Emma Frost just sort of disappeared from the scene once the battle began? Because last I recall they were standing right there, and at least Dani has a flying horse that she could have followed them with. Overall still bored with the series and can’t wait until its over and I never have to see a book with the banner of “Fear Itself” ever again.

New Avengers #21 – Sigh…yeah Osborne is screwing things up over here too as Dark Reign part 2 continues….yawn. Now admittedly the Dark Avengers part of Norman’s plan is much more interesting than the HAMMER part of his plan but I think they are just over using Osborne way too much and I’m getting tired of him quickly. I will hand it to them that Ragnarok is awesome though! Watching him battle Luke Cage beats anything going on over in Avengers proper. My favorite part of this entire part of the Osborne storyline is the defamation of the Avengers rep, a trend which was started in the Avengers Annuals with Wonder Man’s attack. I’ve been reading X-men for the last 20 years and they have been vilified by the media and military for years so it’s interesting to see the Avengers take some of that heat for once. I am looking forward to the conclusion of this storyline in the next few issues whereas I just want the main Avengers portion of it to end.

Uncanny X-men #7 – OK this Tabula Rasa storyline is growing on me a bit, I wasn’t such a huge fan of it at first. I think the “Primative’s” views on humans and our language abilities are hilarious, which is good because there’s been a distinct lack of any levity in this title for a long time now. One thing I am noticing though is that Storm seems to have developed the same time-traveling/teleportation power that Wolverine gained a few years ago. How else could she be fighting new species in Tabula Rasa, hunitn Jubilee over in X-men Volume 3, and captured by Norman Osborne over in Avengers ALL AT THE SAME TIME. See this is the problem when you start putting characters in too many books at once. At least when Thing joined the Avengers, you saw him take time off from the Fantastic Four (or FF at the time). More importantly I can’t wait to see more of Magik and Jugger-lossus (or is it Coloss-ernaut) next issue. Illyana has been my favorite of the younger generation ever since I collecting X-men Series 1 trading card and found her in the deceased X-men category so having her as a member of the flagship book was a dream come true for me. The problem is that with everything else going on in the X-world, we haven’t had a chance to see much of her and her newly disturbed brother (who doesn’t seem to be handling the power of Cytorrak as well as he would have everyone else think). Here’s hoping that next issue we get lots of subterranean mayhem from the Rasputin siblings!

Venom #13.2 – OK this story isn’t quite what I expected (although I’m not quite sure WHAT I was expecting) but it’s still really awesome. I am still bored to tears with the new Ghost Rider, they clearly missed the mark with Alejandra and need to revert back to Johnny Blaze as Ghost Rider immediately. Otherwise, Flash Thompson as Venom is pretty sick, its nice to see a Venom who isn’t inherently evil and tries to control the symbiote rather than work with (or for) it. It is a little weird watching Hellstrom here being a good guy while in the same week he’s over in Fearless helping the bad guys but whatever, they are probably just plugging him wherever they can because he’ll have a new book or one-shot coming out. Either way, this isn’t a total waste of money to read this series but it’s certainly not a must have.

X-Factor #232 – BORED NOW! I’m sorry, it’s bad enough they teased us by saying that Jaime was dying and then he clearly just jumped to another dimension but do we really need multiple issues of lame ass dimension hopping to follow it up?? If this arc ends with anything besides him dying (for at least a little while) then I am going to be kind of pissed. I waited for months to see Havok and Polaris rejoin the team and we still, after several issues, only had the one splash page of them PLUS we haven’t even seen the rest of the team! Jaime isn’t SO interesting that we want to see issue after issue of just him. It would even have been better if we jumped back and forth from this world to wherever Jaime is so we at least got to see the team’s reactions to Jaime being gone and Alex and Lorna coming back. I can tell you this, I’m going to be more than a little upset if after Jaime’s storyline we go back to the team and Havok and Polaris are already all settled in as the new leaders. I want to see reactions! I want to see complaints! I want to see whatever snarky comments Monet has to make! And I want to see all this no

Marvel Comics On-sale - 2/29/12

noreply@blogger.com (golddustboi) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 18:51:00 +0000

Sorry guys, I know I'm a bit behind on this week's releases...

A small list this week to give our pockets a break for once! The Circle of Four continues as while our quartet tries to stop Earth from being sucked into Hell by Blackheart! Power Pack guest stars in FF as the Counsel of Reeds saga comes to a close! And Spider-man in space over in Amazing Spider-man!!

Amazing Spider-Man #680

Astonishing X-Men #47

Avengers #23

FF #15

Moon Knight #10

New Avengers #22

Scarlet #6

Six Guns #5

The Twelve #10

Ultimate Comics Ultimates #7

Ultimate Comics Ultimates #7 (Variant)

Ultimate Comics X-Men #8

Venom #13.4 C4

C4 = Circle of Four

My Weekly Pull List - 2/22/12

noreply@blogger.com (golddustboi) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:38:00 +0000

Cyclops' and Wolverine's X-men come face to face for the first time since Schism in X-men: Legacy! Intergalactic gambling for the future of Kitty Pryde and the Jean Grey School! The final battle between Magneto and deranged clone Joseph! And the final fate of vampire Jubilee!

Avengers Academy #26

Avengers: Solo #5

Avengers vs. X-men: Program #1

Magneto: Not a Hero #4 RG

New Mutants #38

Secret Avengers #23

Uncanny X-Force #22

Venom #13.3 C4

Wolverine & the X-Men #6

X-Men #25

X-Men Legacy #262

C4 = Circle of Four

RG = ReGenesis

Marvel Comics On-sale - 2/22/12

noreply@blogger.com (golddustboi) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 22:43:00 +0000

Hawkeye's solo adventure coming to its exciting climax! Blackheart's hellish Circle of Four continues! More misadventures in Otherworld in Uncanny X-Force! And return to Ani-Mator's Island in New Mutants!

Avengers Academy #26

Avengers: Solo #5

Avengers: Solo #5 (Movie Variant)

Avengers vs. X-men: Program #1

Captain America & Bucky #627

Deadpool #51

Dorothy & the Wizard in Oz #5

Fantastic Four #603

Magneto: Not a Hero #4 RG

Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #23

Mighty Thor #11

New Mutants #38

Secret Avengers #23

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #7

Uncanny X-Force #22

Venom #13.3 C4

Wolverine & the X-Men #6

X-Men #25

X-Men Legacy #262

C4 = Circle of Four

RG = ReGenesis

Hope's Falling - Review Generation Hope #16

noreply@blogger.com (golddustboi) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 05:21:00 +0000

All I can say is – it’s about damn time! For months now, Hope Summers has been walking around like she’s god’s gift to the mutant race and like she can do whatever she wants since no one can stop her. And she really crossed the line when she took physical control of Kenji to defend herself from Laurie that was the last straw completely. Being Cable’s daughter, and therefore Cyclops’ granddaughter, doesn’t really carry much weight when you treat your grandfather like garbage and challenge his authority at every turn. It’s really no wonder that things came to a head the way they did in this issue.

It’s been no secret that Laurie hasn’t had fuzzy feeling for Hope for quite some time now so it made perfect sense for Kenji to go to her first. I was even excited to see the return of some familiar faces from the X-men foes gallery, in the form of Dragoness, Random, Litterbug, Erg and Bliss, to torment and question her high and superior attitude, but I never expected to see such a full scale mutiny against Hope, especially not by half of her own team. What did she really expect though? She holds Laurie against her will, makes Gabriel use his life threatening powers at her whim, forcibly control Kenji’s very body, and even lies to the one person who still trusts her, Sebastian Shaw, when he asks if she knows about his past. Something I am sure Cable tried to teach her, in their travels through time, was the importance of earning and keeping trust. So why does she feel she is above such pleasantries? Why does she feel like everyone, even the people who aren’t directly under her control, need to simply accept her doing whatever she wants at any given time? And unless she changes her attitude, and quickly, I could easily see a future like the one Kenji envisioned where all new mutants are enslaved to her will. Seems like a major disaster waiting to happen.

The big shock for me was Emma Frost in this issue. I knew she wasn’t Hope’s biggest fan, but I never expected her to go that far to bring her down. I’m glad that someone was finally willing to say what we’ve all been thinking since Hope appeared “the Phoenix could be lurking inside this wretched girl waiting to kill us all”. OBVIOUSLY! I wouldn’t be surprised if we found out that Hope was somehow (possibly even unconsciously) preventing Scott from seeing the danger surrounding her. I suspect that Scott will be furious when he wakes up from his enforced siesta, but he will eventually see that whatever happens next is for the best and no one’s fault but Hope’s. I can only imagine what she said to Magneto to get him to join in this rebellion, but he is the only other senior team member present during the last page’s debacle.

I think that Hope had this coming and deserve whatever she gets at this point. She just swooped in after Cable died and expected everyone to bow to her every whim and that was before she really understood her powers and mutant messiah rap. She expected everyone to adapt to her methods, which were earned in one war torn future after another, rather than try to acclimate herself to her new environment and fit in with this timeline’s inhabitants. If Cable were still around he would tell her to stop being such a brat and grow up already, but unfortunately he isn’t around right now…or is he? Only the final issue of X-Sanction will be able to tell us. Until then I can’t wait to see how this mutiny turns out next issue.

Flash Review - 2/8/12

noreply@blogger.com (golddustboi) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 04:13:00 +0000

Battle Scars #4 - FINALLY! It took 4 issues of boring battling between everyone in the world and Marcus Johnson. We saw some creepy aging guy at the very beginning and Nick Fury (sort of) at the very end…and that was interesting! Other than that everything in the middle was still boring as hell. I love Deadpool and Taskmaster but every panel that didn't have them on it seemed like a complete waste of time to me. And the big shock ending that he was Fury’s son…wasn’t such a big deal to be honest, I kind had that suspicion a while ago. Here’s the twist though. He’s not Nick Fury, he’s the living LMD that we saw over in Secret Avengers…oooooo! With only 2 issues left, there’s no point in stopping the series now but what a wait of 6 issues.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 9 #6 – I love a good Nikki Wood as much as the next Buffy fan but to be honest that was the only good part of this issue…oh that and the return of Spike! The story of Spike going on a police ride-along was a great secondary story but the whole issue in general was a little flat. Also, it was also really great to see Principle Wood again (especially since the last time we saw him was with Faith in the show’s finale and now she’s off on her own with no explanation of why they split), maybe we will get to see more of him but I doubt it. I know the show was big on having a few quiet episodes in-between the huge events but someone should tell the writers that that doesn’t always fly with printed stories. We didn’t even get a cliffhanger ending…

Carnage USA #3 – SUCH…a disappointment! I keep saying it but this series has just left me completely unfulfilled with each issue. The team of Avengers they threw together for this is boring, the storyline was weak as hell, and the best part of the issue was the appearance of Venom (the worst and least of the Venoms ever) at the very end. The symbiote weapons that the soldiers are using are lame, the use of Scorn/Tania Nieves is lame, and Carnage’s entire plane to subjugate the town and make them pull out their own teeth is the worst. The preceding Carnage limited has Shriek, Doppelganger, and all sorts of craziness so we were led to believe that this sequel was going to be bigger and better than ever. NOT SO MUCH.

Journey into Mystery #634 – First and foremost I loved the Buffy reference at the very beginning! If anymore remembers season 4 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, there was a Halloween episode that involved an impending God of Fear being summoned and we find out at the end that the words next to his miniscule picture mean “Actual Size” so I loved the opening splash page of this issue. After it was a bit of a downhill slide though. I love a good Nightmare story but I prefer him corny and campy not actually evil and sinister. Last issue was better and hopefully next issue will be great, but this one was a little weird. But Journey has been great lately so we can ignore one slow issue.

Secret Avengers #22 – First issue of a brand new era! Love the new line-up. Hawkeye will be a great leader for this new team…if he can get Brian Braddock under control that it. I have seen Captain Britain and his uppity attitude in the past (mostly in old issues of Excalibur) but he seemed like he mostly got that under control until now. I think it will be great to see the dynamic between two leaders (who usually would never have even crossed paths) as this new team progresses. I am surprised to see Giant Man joining the team since “covert ops” never really seemed like his thing but Hank Pym is a great character no matter where he is so it should be fun to watch. Thrilled to see Black Widow and Beast are still around, but I somewhat question the presence of Valkyrie. I already think that The Fearless series is a complete waste of time and money but by having her show up here we already know she lives through that story (with her sword and some measure of her powers) and joins this team…so why are we supposed to even bother with Fearless??

Venom #13.1 – SO much better than the first part! The art is better, the villains were more interesting, and the storyline was pretty good. Watching the Antitheses take apart their “good” counterparts was exciting to say the least. I mean who would have thought that X-23 would get taken down by a cheerleader?? I have loved Blackheart ever since Hearts of Darkness back in the 90’s so it’s great to see him coming back with some devious plots that don’t involve taking down Mephisto. I’m not sure how I feel about Daimon Hellstrom and Dr. Strange suddenly being everywhere in the Marvel Universe at once I’ll reserve judgment on them until later.

Wolverine and the X-men #6 – What the hell!? That skank Kitty Pryde woke up at the end of last issue all preggers and we’re all left wondering “Who’s the father?” The answer this issue was creepier then we could have ever expected: Kitty is pregnant with millions of Brood designed to kill just her. Again I ask “What the hell!?” And as if it wasn’t bad enough to hear about her inhaling brood, we got to watch her inhale a mini Kid Gladiator…ewww. And as much I love the Brood and their stories…didn’t we just have TWO Brood related stories over in Astonishing X-men within the last year?? I wish they wouldn’t over use such a great X-villain so much. And way does Wolverine insist on making Kid Omega so heavily involved in everything? It’s one thing to keep him under watchful eye at the school but another all together to make him an integral part of important missions. Which leads me to…

Wolverine and the X-men: Alpha and Omega #2 – This is why he shouldn’t trusted or forced to participate because even if they pressure him into helping they have no guarantee that they can control him or trust him not to betray them. And since he is a telepath able to create and control something as elaborate as his mental prison for Wolverine and Armor, who could really stop him without Jean, Emma, or Charles around? I’m sorry but I just don’t see Rachel (sorry…”Ms. Grey”) being up to the task without the help of the Phoenix Force or its echo. And one last thing…does this mean that Armor is now longer going to be in Astonishing and is here now?

X-men #24 – I’m not really feeling Raizo Kodo and his band of vegetarian vampire followers (especially since they are popping up everywhere now) but in a way this story did need to happen. I mean, unless they were going to make Jubilee go crazy and evil, they needed to have some way of getting her under control. Unfortunately it may end up meaning that she leaves the X-men AGAIN to go join his group, which would be a big shame since she JUST got back with the team. On the bright side…wait there is no bright side, here’s to Jubes staying for more than just a few issues.

Date With a Devil - Review New Mutants #37

noreply@blogger.com (golddustboi) — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:36:00 +0000

This series just gets better and better every issue! These last few issues since ReGenesis have been just amazing just amazing, total throwbacks to the feel of the original series from the 80’s. There’s lots of campy humor, character development and quirky mutant “surrogate family” fun all around. To be honest I wasn’t sure that I like this line-up of the mutants when it first rolled out after Schism (after all there’s no Cannonball. No Boom Boom. No Wolfsbane! And they threw Doug Ramsey in and left him there to do nothing) but they have really made the most of this “light” team and even threw in X-man as a brand new member (which they haven’t done with New Mutants (Vol. 1) #87 when they added new member Cable to the roster). Nate Grey fits right into the crew seamlessly with the other returning classic characters as we see Magma fulfill her deal with Mephisto and go on a date with the devil himself.

First of all, I am glad they didn’t drag the “date with a devil” angle out forever. I really thought that it was going to be some weirdness where they were in some crazy perilous situation and he popped up saying “OK time for our date”, whisking her away to some perilous solo adventure. Oh no! This is a completely different Mephisto, complete with nerdy glassed and loose fitting shirt and tie, and (if anything he’s said is real and true) this is my favorite version of him ever! Secondly, WOW! If he’s being real then he really pulled out all the stops for Amara. The fact that the date was IN Hell itself was a pretty good jumping off point but then add in the erupting volcanos, bright red corvette, and the band and serving staff of the damned and who could even resist? Magma, that’s who. Never one to be easily impressed she instantly asked “What do you want from me? You’re the devil so you must want something to leave me and my friends alone.” Surprisingly enough, he SEEMS to not want anything. He even made it sound real. According to the devil, conning people out of their souls is easy and boring after millennia of doing it and every once in a while he wants to go out and actually have some “normal” fun with a girl like everyone else (although I think Northstar may have other ideas heh).

Well once she saw he wasn’t in it for her immortal soul; she then also wasn’t falling for his games anymore. She quickly asserted control of the date and took them out of hell to a local diner. From here on, it got even funnier! Just the fact that a red skinned man can sit in a diner and have it not be completely out of the ordinary showed just how far the (Marvel) society has come. Back in the 80’s, that still would have incited a riot if Nightcrawler sat out if the open like that. Instead it was Magma getting the evil glares for her failed attempt at working in the same diner. A brief explanation about the “diversification of Hell” and an ironic saucy sauce joke later, and this date ended up being an actual smashing success. And of course, what first date would be complete without the awkward and hesitant kiss at the end of the night. For most of the issue I thought there was going to be some kind of twist coming at the end, but this kiss and Mephisto’s sheepish reaction to it made the whole thing seem real to me. With the epilogue of him throwing rocks at her windows to ask to call on her again made this one of the best date issues I’ve ever read. Here’s hoping they go out again!

Of course no date is complete without the girl’s family diligently sitting home waiting and worrying about her. Between Dani being half interested sister and half disapproving mother and Bobby being half jealous boyfriend and half over protective father, we have the entire family gauntlet right here in our very own dysfunctional mutant clan. I even thought that the touch of Warlock’s techtag bracelet for her was a nice touch…if it had last for longer than one block of the car ride. One thing that I’m not really onboard with is Bobby’s intense and (in my opinion) sudden crush on Amara. These two have known each other for years (and yeah he’s flirted but it was always in fun), but now he’s completely head over heels in love with her (and not her with him). Also it hadn’t occurred to me until this issue that X-man joining the team is a lot like a younger Cable re-joining since they are genetic duplicates (or alternate reality counterpart or whatever) and I am glad to see him practicing his newly reduced power successfully. Other non-date related fun: Warlock still has his hidden hellhound hiding in a closet, thanks to Lil Loki over in Journey into Mystery. Dani’s trying to go visit Illyana on Utopia, but unfortunately she busy being sucked underground in Uncanny X-men. And Doug trying to track down Dr. Strange (you know, just in case). Al while Bobby mopes in a corner. Classic New Mutants angst and character building. Keep it coming guys!!

The Blink storyline went on a little too long for my liking (especially since she didn’t even stay with the team) but this standalone issue more than made up for it. It could have easily been another Hell adventure of the team, but that’s been done more times than I can count at this point so I am glad they went with this instead, and I LOVE this version of Mephisto. His character is always handled so differently by the various writers that have gotten their hands on him, but I am really hoping that we see more of this version in the future…you know, on their next date.

My Weekly Pull List - 2/15/12

noreply@blogger.com (golddustboi) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 03:37:00 +0000

Duplicity abound between the Avengers, HAMMER, and Hydra in Avengers this week! Kenji (Zero) shows Generation Hope what he's been planning! The Extinction Team fight the Immortal Man with some unexpected help in Uncanny X-men! And the Circle of Four road to damnation continues in Venom 13.2!

Avengers #22

Fear Itself: The Fearless #9 FI

Generation Hope #16

New Avengers #21

Uncanny X-Men #7

Venom #13.2 C4

X-Factor #232

C4 = Circle of Four

FI = Fear Itself

Marvel Comics On-sale - 2/15/12

noreply@blogger.com (golddustboi) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 03:27:00 +0000

Ultimate Scarlet Witch returns in Ultimate Comics X-men #7! The endless march of Fear Itself: The Fearless continues its endless tale with Valkyrie vs Wolverine! Morbius makes an appearance in Amazing Spider-man #679.1! And meet the new Silver Samurai in Wolverine #301!

Amazing Spider-Man #679.1

Anita Blake: Circus of the Damned – The Scoundrel #4

Avengers #22

Avenging Spider-Man #4

Casanova: Avarita #3

Daredevil #9

Dark Tower: The Gunslinger – The Way Station #3

Fear Itself: The Fearless #9 FI

Formic War: Silent Strike #3

Generation Hope #16

Halo: Fall of the Reach – Invasion #2

Incredible Hulk #3 (2nd Print Variant)

Invincible Iron Man #513

New Avengers #21

New Avengers #21 (Movie Variant)

Thunderbolts #170

Ultimate Comics X-Men #7

Uncanny X-Men #7

Venom #13.2 C4

Winter Soldier #2

Winter Soldier #2 (Amazing Spider-man 50th Anniversary Variant)

Wolverine #301

X-Factor #232

C4 = Circle of Four

FI = Fear Itself

Flash Review - 2/2/12

noreply@blogger.com (golddustboi) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 04:15:00 +0000

Avengers Academy #25 – Well it was really nice to see them finally step up the action after a few episodes of character buildings and shady glimpses of the future, but I’m still not completely sold on this storyline. It’s nice to see Reptil and Finesse’s future daughter and all the zaniness of the other future Academy students, but I am just not really feeling too invested in where the whole thing is going. It was funny watching Hazmat fry X-23 and Rover’s head get taken apart, but that’s where most of the excitement was. Even the surprise ending of Jocasta and Veil coming back wasn’t really issue-saving news.

Avengers X-Sanction #3 – Eh…it doesn’t suck but the series is a bit light. I loved the Summers family reunion at the end of the issue but for the most part the entire run just feels like a cheap way to bring back Cable and a momentary stop over before the big Phoenix storyline coming up. There’s only one issue left and the sotry hasn’t been boring so far so no huge complaints. I do wish they’d been a bit more creative with Cable’s return though.

Defenders #3 – OK writers let’s calm down now! This is all getting a little bit weird. I am totally down for the Nul storyline, and I love a Mount Wundagore tale as much as the next person but all the business with Prester John and the other Prester John is just a little much. I’m not giving up on the series yet (mostly because Red She-hulk is so damn cool) but let’s get it together guys!

Fear Itself: The Fearless #8 – ::Sigh:: Yes everyone, I’m sorry...but this series is still happening. The best part about this issue was guest appearances by Emma Frost and Dani Moonstar with Emma actually showing her rarely seen soft side. The fact that she bothered to mention that Dani would not be punished shows just how far she’s come. Other than this scene, I was bored to tears with this entire issue. I just can’t wait for it to be over.

Uncanny X-men #6 – OK I’m a little unsure about this current story but it’s exciting at the very least. Lots of fighting and action going on but for some reason I still find the whole Tabula Rasa situation to be a bit strange. Maybe it’s because it reminds me of a Neo-Savage Land minus the arctic locale but who knows. This has forever and always been my favorite title but it saddens me to say that so far Wolverine and the X-men is kicking Uncanny’s ass. Listening to the 65 million year history of this new world from their jailer/ally was interesting, and maybe we will get to hear more about it but as far as the Immortal Man story, I’m not feeling it.

Venom #14 – I don’t usually read Venom but I decided to pick up this issue for the Circle of Four storyline and so far…eh. The art’s not great (Red Hulk looked slightly handicapped in my opinion) and I am not really getting grabbed by the storyline. It’s only a few weeks’ worth of issues so I’m gonna keep collecting the story to see if it gets better but definitely off to a slow start (except for the flaming centrifuge…that was cool).

X-Club #3 – The best part of this series is it’s funny take on the usually SO serious science crowd of the X-men. Now I will be the first to admit that Madison Jeffries objectophelia is more than a little bit creepy. I hope that the mind-talking starfish never comes off of Nemesis’ head and that we see him riding radioactive hammerheads forever! That sadly will not be the case, but I’m at least having fun for these few issues, even if the storyline is a little iffy.

X-Factor #231 – Excuse me! Where’s Havok and Polaris. I waited months for last issue and them to join and not only did we just get a last panel cliffhanger but now they aren’t even shown in this issue. I’m completely over Jaime’s reality jumping adventure. Get over it writers! Bring him back so we can get back to the rest of the team. I imagine Monet is going to have a LOT to say about Alex and Lorna taking over the reins of the team…and I am eager to see it! I will say this much. When did Deathlok cyborgs become the go to guest star for Marvel titles again? He’s all over the place now!

Otherworld War - Review Uncanny X-Force #21

noreply@blogger.com (golddustboi) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 03:07:00 +0000

Jesus, remember in Excalibur (Vol. 1) when the Captain Britain Corps was a bunch of limey blokes who hung around Otherworld, a kooky land where magic reigned and Merlin occasionally caused his silly mischief? Yeah well that’s over. This isn’t your parents Otherworld kids! In this new magical realm we have warring factions, a brutal Captain Britain Corp who does just punish criminals but erases them from existence, and a sane Jaime Braddock has more than a little bit of influence. Also Deadpool still has no head following his decapitation last issue. The best part of this issue is that it gave us an update of where some of our ole English favorites are lately.

I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t read the MI:13 title when it was running so I might be a little bit behind on my Captain Britain and Meggan history, but I know all about him ruling Otherworld and her being Gloriana and what not. What I didn’t know was what happened to Saturnyne and Widget in the last bunch of years! Truth be told I only picked up the entire original run of Excalibur (issues #1-70) like a year or two ago, so all the stories involving these two character are relatively fresh for me and it was exciting to see them around again. For Widget it was nice to see him (or, more accurately, her since Widget is technically the spirit of Kitty Pryde from the future, but that’s a much longer story then I have space/time for now) returned to his former floating head form again, and I hope that we see more of him/her before the storyline ends. As for Saturnyne, well I was a bit taken aback by her whole involvement in the situation. I mean, she was always yelling about punishing this one or that one and threatening to erase Earth-616 from the multi-verse, but to be honest they always seemed like idle threats used mostly to motivate Captain Britain or Excalibur into action. Like back at the end of the Cross-Time Caper, after having Phoenix chased across England and the timestream, she clearly wasn’t fooled by a simple “Kitty Pryde” disguise. She chose to let the Phoenix host go free, but yet she’s going to have Fantomex from reality for shooting a kid that MAY have grown up to be Apocalypse? And as for the strange phenomenon of him being the only Fantomex in any reality…well so what? That’s just another trait that he and Rachel Summers have in common. I think there’s more going on here than just his shooting of Apocalypse Jr., and I bet Jaime has something to do with it…

And is it me or did Otherworld suddenly get much larger and more brutal?? In the past, the most we’ve seen of this mystical realm was the Elysium Fields surrounding the Starlight Citadel but all of a sudden we are getting a new look at this ethereal realm complete with evil forests, ram-headed evil mystics, and Besty Braddock siding against her brothers and the entire Corps. On the bright side we also got to see Besty in the guise of Lady Britain, which we haven’t been seen since the late 70’s-early 80’s. I’ve never seen the land of Otherworld take on such a brutal tone and rely so heavily on physical force rather than magic. Even the supposed erasure of Fantomex is uncharacteristically brutal when we’ve certainly heard of characters being “erased” using a spell or some other less violent method. Needles into his brain just seemed to be a be unnecessary in my humble opinion.

Overall this was a great second chapter to this arc. We had some updates on some old favorites, and an expansion on a long standing world not to mention revisiting an old look for a popular character. I am not sure that I like the brutal tone that the writers are giving to this once light hearted and magical world but I still give them lots of points for creativity. I’m also not completely sold on the art; Greg Tocchini’s art rings a bit cartoony for my taste but still, he rendered the character very well. On the other hand, it was nice to see Nightcrawler’s reaction to other people mistaking him for his counterpart softening a bit. He was far too caustic originally so it’s nice to see him relaxing into his new life better. Thus far, I think this arc is off to a great start, and I can’t wait to see what’s going on and if Jaime is secretly still completely insane.

My Weekly Pull List - 2/9/12

noreply@blogger.com (golddustboi) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 01:55:00 +0000

Do we finally find out what the hell is up with Marcus Johnson this week in Battle Scars? Magma goes on a date with...Mephisto! The battle between Wolverine and Kid Omega heats up! And the hunt is on for vampire Jubilee in X-men!

Battle Scars #4 SH

Carnage U.S.A. #3

Journey into Mystery #634 SH

New Mutants #37

Secret Avengers #22

Venom #13.1 C4

Wolverine and the X-Men #5

Wolverine and the X-Men: Alpha & Omega #2

X-Men #24

C4 = Circle of Four

SH = Shattered Heroes