Comic Book Weekly Reflection 4/12/13

I’ve been feeling lucky this week!  I’ve gotten a couple of A’s in my homework, books I ordered came in, I have done shockingly well playing Marvel: Avenger Alliance, and most importantly; every book I read this week (besides one) was very good.  No mehs or nays to be found!  As such, let’s dive in.

 

Be warned, there will be spoilers below!

 

Avengers #9: Okay, this is the one book I mentioned that I thought wasn’t good.  It continued Hickman’s tradition of slow pace story telling that’ll end up putting you to sleep while you wait.  However, this was one of the comics I reviewed for Adventures in Poor Taste, so go check out my full thoughts of there on this one:

 

Is It Good?  Avengers #9

 

Batman #19: The comic starts off with a bank robbery committed by none other than Bruce Wayne himself!  It ends with him running over Jim Gordon with a motorcycle at the end.  Flashback six days and we find Batman investigating the unexplained suicide of a friend of his.  Through his research into the case, he discovers that Clayface is responsible and has been impersonating his friend, even managing to match his DNA!  The issue ends with Clayface attacking Bruce Wayne, preparing to steal his identity.

 

Now this issue was very different than usual in comparison to the rest of Snyder’s Batman run so far, with it being rather small in focus and focusing more on Batman’s detective skills.  Also, the comic isn’t has overwritten has it usually is for once, focusing more on letting the images tell the story or normal dialogue scenes between the characters.  Sure, there are some of parts that tend to get over-wordy, but those moments are less and some of them are very interesting (like the stuff about Clayface for instance).

 

All of this change is actually rather refreshing and highly welcomed by me.  Sure, I have enjoyed the longer and bigger stories this comic has offered, but this smaller scale tale was really good.  Snyder really shines when his Batman stuff is like this, harking back to his Black Mirror tale.  Add in some great looking artwork and you have easily the best issue of Batman this year.  I have little compliants towards this and I’m proud to give this comic the pick of the week for me.

 

Constantine #2: Like Avengers, I covered this comic over on APT, so you can check it out over there.  I will say though that this comic was an improvement over the last one:

 

Is It Good?  Constantine #2

 

Saucer Country #14: And so the series closes out for now in this issue as the election night has been finally reached and the votes start to be tallied.  Like before, I’m going to keep quite on this, but I will say the final outcome was surprisingly to me.

 

I have really enjoyed this series while it lasted.  All the mystery, the characters, the interactions and dialogue, and world building in this series has been completely topnotch from start to finish in my book.  This issue continued this trend, though I do admit the ending still leaves a lot on the table and many questions left unanswered, which can be disappointing.

 

Still, the writer Paul Cornell promises us that the series will return in the future when he gets the rights back from Vertigo.  As such, this is not a real true ending, but a conclusion to one part of the series.  When this series returns, I’ll there and ready to return to its world.  I highly recommend this comic and hope you guys enjoy it as well.

 

Team 7 #7: Team 7 heads to a small island nation to put a stop to its leader and his growing metahuman weapons.  The team is backed by their new pilot, Steve Trevor, and their newest weapon, Majestic.  All seems to be going well until the team learns just how dangerous their mission is and ends up being in the way of Majestic ultimate plan to defeat the enemy, by wiping out the island with a giant tidal wave.

 

With one issue left after this, a glaring problem can be seen.  This comic feels extremely rushed as it tries to squeeze in every last bit of plotline and answers it can before it is cancelled.  It succeeds, but it’s kind of clunky.  There’s no time for character development, emotion, or other building of any kind as this story.  Heck, it ends feels a bit disjointed between this and the last issue, like we jumped ahead at least three issues.

 

Not to say this is an awful comic by any stretch, it’s just stretched far too thin.  I enjoyed the dialogue bits, the action, and how this is all coming together.  It’s just not completely firing on cylinders liked I hope it would.  Still, if you are still with this comic, I say stick it out to the end to see how it all finishes out.

 

The Fearless Defenders #3: Last issue we had Hela, Queen of the Dead, resurrecting the former leader of the Amazons, Hippolyta, to help aid Valkyrie’s mission of creating a new set of Valkyries and to now fend off the threat from the Doom Maidens.  Reluctant, Valkyrie and the others agree to letting her join them and track down where the Doom Maidens are being resurrected.  When arriving on the scene, they are a bit too late and the evil warriors have been resurrected, though they do manage to rescue Moonstar.  During their fight with the baddies, Valkyrie is shocked when they refer to her as their long lost sister, another Doom Maiden.

 

This issue was not as good as the last one, but was still enjoyable in my book.  The characters are all memorable and work great together, their interactions and dialogue scenes being a true highlight.  The action is good and the evil Valkyries all do have a nice and interesting look to them.  I do admit though that the true villain that resurrected them, Caroline, isn’t all that deep of a character, and that the facial expressions are extremely limited in the art.  All I kept thinking was: Dull Surprise!

 

Still, I would be lying if I was not enjoying this comic.  It’s quickly become one of my favorites that Marvel is producing and one that I really hope everyone is checking out.  It’s probably the best all female team book out there right now.

Saucer Country #14

Cover:

 

So long Arcadia, it’s been fun.

 

Plot:

 

The polls are closed and all that’s left is figured out who won the presidential election.  Meanwhile, Professor Kidd finally learns who the mysterious magical helpers exactly and what they’ve been doing to him all this time.

 

Our Heroes:

 

Arcadia while remain awesome to the end.

 

Our Side Characters:

 

Thank god the Major got some incredibly willing people to do this strange s**t.

 

Dialogue:

 

And now, an exposition drop!

 

Art:

 

Hey, her skin got lighter when she walked on stage!

 

Most Memorable Moment:

 

Well I wasn’t expecting the election to end like that.

 

Final Page:

 

Goodbye!  I’ll see you all something in the future!

 

What We Should Take from This Comic:

 

Arcadia has won the election in the most unusual of ways, but won it none the less.  Lots of questions have been answered, but we still do not know what happened that night many months ago.  Whatever the answers may be, she and her cabinet will surely find out in the future.

 

What We Do Take From This Comic:

 

Hopefully, it doesn’t take Paul Cornell too long to get the rights back so he can get back to work on this comic soon.

 

Yay or Nay?

 

Yay

Comic Book Weekly Reflection 3/15/13

This week went better with the fact that I was actually able to read everything I wanted to.  Nothing from Image this week, just good old DC and Marvel (there’s a Vertigo comic as well, but that’s sort of attached to DC in a way).  Also, this blog is now one month old and there hasn’t been too many difficulties.  Let’s hope it stays that way.

 

Be warned, there will be spoilers below!

 

Avengers Assemble #13: This issue is the conclusion to a two part.  We have Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Spider-Woman discovering what happened to that missing girl and also coming across an entire group of lizard people, who used to be normal until they start abusing this drug.  I won’t say much about it is kind of interesting in how it all goes down.  The issue ends the heroes winning obviously and it being revealed that Hawkeye has this mysterious chip from Black Widow that can guarantee her help for something in the future.

 

To me, this comic feels like it has what I want out of an Avengers comic.  Great characters, enjoyable action, interesting missions, solid dialogue, and that it feels like a team book.  The characters are all working together and showing why they are important to the mission.  Add in some funny lines, an interesting mystery at the end, and great art; and you got yourself probably one of the most underrated Avengers comic currently putting out.

 

It’s a great example of showing that comics don’t always have to epic and large in scale, they can be small and enjoyable little tales that feature our favorite heroes being the characters that we love.  I really wanted this issue to be my pick of the week, but there was an even better and much more enjoyable comic this week.

 

Batman #18: This picks up where Batman & Robin left off this week (which we’ll get to as well), with Batman just pushing himself to the limits and putting himself more into his work since Damian died.  He’s been going five days straight without any sleep and his reaching his limit while also becoming more violent.  All of this has caught the attention of teenager Harper Row, who we last saw in issue 12.  Since then and becoming inspired by him, she’s been training to do some crime fighting of her own.  Of course, Batman rejects the idea and pretty much explains easily why the hell she should not be involved at all (while also shouting it at her).  However, Row is able to get through to him enough for him to calm down and start slowing down so he doesn’t get killed.  The issue ends ultimately with two of them meeting again and making peace, but I still get the impression he doesn’t want her to be a vigilante.

 

Lots of people had been wondering if Harper Row will be the next Robin and honestly, I don’t think she has earned it yet and be the end of issue, I don’t think she’ll be getting the position anytime soon as well.  Could she become Robin in the future?  It’s possible, but not anytime soon at least so I’m going to play the waiting game and see how she develops overtime.  Other things I heard were that people were saying this was very much like A Lonely Place of Dying, which brought about the introduction of Tim Drake as Robin back in the 90’s.  I never read it, so I can’t compare this to that old story.

 

The comic was perfectly fine as far as I’m concerned.  Harper Row is slowly being developed and we are getting a better understanding of her now.  She’s rather likeable and amusing, so she was just fine.  Batman was a bit of dick in this issue, knocking her through a wooden fence, though I get why considering his situation considering he’s been going for 5 days straight without stopping, he’s a bit unstable, his emotions all over the place after the loss of his son, and he does not want her to get involve and decided to show & list how unprepared she was.  Batman seems to be settling down after this issue, so he’ll probably back to normal somewhat next issue.

 

Dialogue was fine and there were a couple of good lines (especially between Harper and her brother), though Scott Snyder does tend to overwrite with tons of dialogue and inner thoughts from the characters.  While the story was ultimately fine and about more of an outsider looking at how Batman is on the brink of self-destructing, it’s kind of boring.  Not much happened with Batman sort of returning back to square one with his emotions, so this rage didn’t last long.  Not much action and some scenes kind of drag on or don’t add anything to the story.  There’s also the art with has the duo of Andy Kubert and Alex Maleev, which both do a fine job of drawing.  However, the change between them is extremely jarring and through me out of the story a bit.

 

So really, I liked the issue just fine but there were problems with it.  I don’t think it was good as Harper’s real debut issue back in number 12 despite developing her more as a character.  I think Snyder blew all of his skill on closing out Swamp Thing last week, so we were left with something that was just alright.  Oh well, maybe next month.

 

Batman & Robin #18: This issue is just pure silence; with absolutely no dialogue of any kind (whoever letters this comic got a nice break this time around) outside of a letter at the end of the comic.  It basically just shows the aftermath with Bruce, Alfred, and Damian’s dog Titus and how it has affected them.  Though it’s mostly just focusing on Bruce, as we see him constantly see Damian everywhere during his patrol, but not really being there.  It ends with him unleashing all of his rage and anger on the crooks of Gotham, and then leaving them all piled up on the roof of the Gotham P.D.

 

Batman & Robin has been one of those comics that I read, but kind of forget about later on after I read it.  It’s fine, but never really does anything to make an overall impression on me.  This, however, did for once.  I don’t often see silent issues where the comic just relies on the art to tell its story (I think the only time I ever saw anything like this was when I read Negima), so it was rather interesting.  I found the emotion to be quite strong and the story itself just as strong with how it’s portrayed.  Some of the layouts with the panels were pretty nice looking at well, especially when Batman finally starts attacking criminals.

 

The only real problems I have with this comic is that it is a very breezy read, going by really quickly with the lack of dialogue, and also my own issues with the art itself.  I’m not that really that big of a fan with how the artist draws faces.  Still, it’s all rather nitpicks in a rather well put together comic.  Definitely worth a look if you don’t normally read it.

 

Fearless Defenders #2:  The issue begins with us meeting Dani Moonstar, who is captured by Caroline le Fey, villain we saw in the last issue, who wants to make her into a Valkyrie for some reason.  Then from there we focus on Valkyrie, Misty Knight, and Dr. Annabelle Riggs heading to Asgardia to seek some help on their current situation.  It is learned that Valkyrie is supposed to create a new Valkyrior, otherwise the Dommaidens (evil Valkyries) will return to fill the void.  The issue ends with them meeting Warrior Woman, who may be just the woman they need for the Valkyrior.

 

Now this issue was just plain fun through and through.  All the characters are awesome and so us why they are so great, with Moonstar fighting waves of baddies to Misty Knight jumping in to Valkyrie fight Hela, the Asgardian goddess of death.  There’s tons of great dialogue and these fun little caption boxes that have a funny line that describes a character when they first appear.  There’s some great action and the story progresses (not a lot mind you), allowing us to see why exactly this new team is needed and being formed.  It’s all really just great.

 

If you noticed my reaction shot, you’ll see that I didn’t really I have much to say on the subject.  It’s certainly not badly drawn and everyone looks good, but it’s also really not noteworthy.  It’s serviceable and gets the job down, but it’s really not what will leave an impression with you after this issue ends.  You’ll be remembering how great the characters are and the amount of fun you had with it.  This was my pick of the week and something you should be checking out as well.

 

Saucer Country #13: With the series almost over and the mysteries & conspiracies growing, I’m going to refrain from revealing the plot of this and the next issue.  You’ll have to read that for yourselves.  However, I will say that I really dug this issue.

 

The dialogue is still as strong as ever and I find myself still hanging on every word they say.  The characters are still great, with Harry having a particularly great moment during this issue when someone reveals to him that he knows that Arcadia thinks she was abducted by aliens.  The plot continued nicely and I’m really excited to see the Election Day results turn out.

 

Not much to say other than that since I’m trying to keep hush hush about it, but it was really good.  Too bad that Vertigo is cancelling the comic next month, but what can you do?  I’m going to miss this political and sci-fi thriller…

 

Team 7 #6: Speaking of comics heading for the chopping block, here’s one of them now (though it’ll be cancelled in May)!  In this issue, Team 7 heads for the Advanced Prosthetic Research Center to see what the hell is going on there, with Alex Fairchild going there in particular to rescue his daughter.  However, things go to crap as they discover the place has been overrun with robots that have transformed the humans into metal machines like them.  Also, a couple start dying off and by the end of this run, I’m pretty sure more of them will be dead as well.

 

This issue was not as good as last month’s but still fine regardless.  It had solid action, good character moments, a few good lines, an interesting final page to keep me curious until next month, and a rather sad and depressing scene where my favorite character gets killed.  Also, this issue raises a very interesting question.  Caitlin Fairchild gets robotized and killed in this issue by Slade.  This comic takes place back in the past, but in modern times and in another comic called The Ravagers, she is perfectly alive.  I don’t think it’s a writer screw up at all, but a rather interesting mystery that I hope gets addressed here.

 

Not much else to say about this comic.  It was fine and read well, but that’s pretty much it.  I’ll continue with this comic to the end to see where it goes, but I’m hoping for something rather epic to wrap everything up here.

 

Uncanny X-Men #3: Cyclops, his pals, and his students have a run in with the Avengers in this issue.  The Avengers are there to arrest Cyclops for killing Professor Xavier, but he tries to B.S. his way out of it by making a speech and showing off for the cameras in the area.  Before both teams can fight each other, Eva, a mutant with the power to stop time in certain spots, freezes the Avengers in place, allowing for the mutants to escape the scene.  Feeling confident about this encounter; Cyclops takes Magik, Emma Frost, and Magneto to the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning to possibly do some recruiting for his side.

 

This issue is odd for me to say the least.  On the one hand, a lot of these characters in the comic are jerks or egoistical pricks, including our main characters.  It kind of makes you want them to lose in a way just so you can see them fall extremely hard and get a much ass kicking, especially Cyclops and Hawkeye in this issue.  On the other hand, this is issue was really enjoyable to read.  Great dialogue and humor (love those guys reaction to the Hulk and Magik’s evil plan of clogging toilets), solid character bits, improved artwork with a better splash of color to it, and an overall interesting ending that makes me want to know where this will go.

 

Uncanny X-Men is pretty good and is slowly improving in my mind, despite the silly costumes the heroes are wearing now and how jerkish the characters can be.  I still like All New X-Men more, but this is slowly growing on me.  I’ll be sure to check out the next issue.

 

Wolverine #1: Our issue begins in a mall where some dad is holding the place hostage with an alien ray guy and Wolverine on the ground, slowly healing from getting hit with the ray gun earlier.  The intensity builds until the dad kills off most of the people in the mall and Wolverine finally healing enough to kill him.  However, the trouble isn’t over when the guy’s kid gets ahold of the ray gun and goes evil himself, causing Wolverine to chase after him and find out what the hell is going on.

 

Written by Paul Cornell, who also writes Saucer Country, this was a very big surprise for me.  I never really expected to like this all that much since I’m not a huge fan of Wolverine.  He’s cool and all, but I like other characters in the Marvel Universe more than him.  However, the writing here was really solid, presenting him as a very likeable character and setting up a situation that makes you wonder how he’s going to deal with it.  There are also some good character bits and dialogue that really makes this rather enjoyable to read.

 

The story didn’t really move quickly and the art is just decent, but nothing special.  However, this was a surprisingly good comic and has my attention.  Whenever I see the next issue, I’m definitely going to give it a shot and I do recommend you guys to try it out as well.

Saucer Country #13 (2013)

Cover:

 

Woman off Screen: Hey!  Get your own iPad!

 

Plot:

 

Before Professor Kidd can kill himself, his magical helpers offer to direct him to some proof of UFOs.  Meanwhile, Arcadia and her team get ready for the big day as things slowly start coming into focus.

 

Our Heroes:

 

That’s right, you tell him Harry!

 

Our Side Characters:

 

So I wonder who our leak is here.

 

Dialogue:

 

It’s always nice to be absorbed into the dialogue in the comic for once.

 

Art:

 

You know, sometimes it looks like the blonde ages and deages between panels.

 

Most Memorable Moment:

 

Wait what?!

 

Final Page:

 

See Most Memorable Moment.

 

What We Should Take from This Comic:

 

So… he’s not delusional, the Bluebirds were founded by a nut, and apparently there is a leak in the group?  Argh!  So much is happening!!

 

What We Do Take From This Comic:

 

Why must it end next month!?

 

Yay or Nay?

 

Yay

Comic Book Weekly Reflection 2/15/13

Our first week of the blog has come to a close, so let me actually reflect back and actually talk a little bit more about the comics I read this week and truly give you what I thought of them.

 

Be warned, there will be spoilers below!

 

 

Ame-Comi Girls Featuring Supergirl #5: This was the wrap up to the first arc of Ame-Comi Girls, with Brainiac finally attacking Earth; with only Supergirl, Power Girl, and a couple of Manhunter robots to stop everything.  There wasn’t much in the way of character development this time around, so we really don’t have too much of an idea of what Supergirl is like, unlike the rest of the main cast we got to know so far.  It also doesn’t really end the Brainiac storyline, just of letting it bleed into the main series, starting next month.

 

What I do say what was actually good about it was that the action was great; the humor and banter between characters was enjoyable as always (Robin and Jesse Quick were the biggest treat in that department); I do like some of the interesting changes they made for this universe, like the true reason Krypton was destroyed or how Brainiac found its planets to devour; and I also really enjoyed the art on this, with its manga-ish style and colors.

 

The comic was really a lot of fun to me and something I hope continues to be this good when the main series truly begins next month like I mention.  Despite the other comics I read this week, which certainly are better written or drawn, this was my favorite comic of the week.

 

Batman #17: Probably the most controversial title of this week, Scott Snyder brought an end to his Death of the Family storyline.  Here, we finally see what Joker was planning this entire time, what truly happened to Alfred, and what this “death” would be for everyone.  And what happened was actually nothing.  Nothing at all.  Alfred was “jokerized” but none worse for wear, the Bat-Family members all survived, and Joker was defeated in a mind game and fell once again down something very tall.  Well actually, in a bit of reversal, Batman actually wants to bring the family a bit closer after these events, but instead, they want some distance from him.  Don’t see that often, so perhaps that’s our symbolic death.  A fracture in trust and family bonds between allies.

 

Lots of people heaped praises (IGN in particular slapping this comic with a 10 out of 10) and some others called for Snyder’s head after this ending.  I think both wrong in particular regarding this finale.  I found it actually pretty good, since I actually would believe the Joker would do something like this.  I mean, it’s not like he hasn’t pulled a bait and switch before on Batman, like in the opening of Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth.  However, it can feel a bit cheap to have nothing, outside of some distrust between heroes, so I can see where people are coming from even if I perfectly fine with this ending.    I’m also not sold on the overabundance of dialogue in this comic, when the art (which is just beautiful and amazing) can perfectly tell and give the emotion of some scenes just fine.

 

It’s not a perfect issue like people claim, but it’s neither as horrific as others make it out to be.  I’m thinking after all this emotion and hype settles down, people should come back to this comic and reread it.  Should give people a better perspective and thought on this comic after all of this craziness.  For me, I’ll do just the same, but I still believe I will enjoy later down the line.

 

Katana #1: Okay, I’m not kidding when I say this: I had no idea what is going on in this comic.

 

Seriously, I couldn’t tell you what the plot of this comic is at all.  Katana has come to Japantown in some city in California to… work on her sword skills or hunt down some evil people?   I don’t know!  It’s so disjointed and poorly told that I can’t make heads or tails of what the purpose of anything is!  You’ll just have to read the comic and see if you can understand what the hell is going on in it.

 

Then as you’ll read it, you’ll see the other problems with this comic, besides the lack of a goal.  The pacing is bad, character motivation is extremely vague, and the dialogue is terrible.  Then there is the art itself.  It is so bad.  Everyone is completely scary looking from their freaky facial structures to their dead and soulless eyes.  The buildings are poorly drawn, the action is clunky or stiff, and the coloring makes it really dull.  There’s also no inking, which is personally something that bothers me more than others, but it actually makes some of the work look unfinished, especially when you look at people’s faces.

 

So, with all of my complaints, you may recall that I gave this comic a meh instead of a nay, which is when I completely dismiss a comic.  To be perfectly honest, this comic is hilarious in how bad it is.  That dialogue I mentioned?  It’s a laugh riot with the clichés, silly monologues, and dumb banter and talking between characters.  I was really cracking up while reading this.  Then there are points with the art where Katana actually makes these goofy battle cry faces where her mouth is twisted open in an extremely goofy manner.  It’s all just so bad.

 

On a positive note, I will say Katana is an interesting character from what is presented and eluded during the comic.  This mysterious past, her combat expertise, the conversations she carries on with her dead husband’s soul trapped inside of her sword, and her drive all add up to a good start for her.  Perhaps as the series goes on and her inclusion with Justice League of America (we’ll get to that when it actually comes out), she could develop into a really great character.

 

It’s really hard to say that you should check this comic out since it’s really not that good, but I would be lying if didn’t enjoy it to some degree.  I also seen and heard from people who do enjoy it and see things in it that I don’t, so maybe this could appeal to you more than it did me.  So what I’m saying is, if you see it in the stores, maybe flip through it and see what you think.

 

Saucer Country #12: With this series sadly approaching its conclusion (April is when the last issue hits) and knowing full well that it won’t wrap up without answering every question, reading this issue was rather sad for me.  In the story, the election night is closely approaching and Arcadia and her team try to win some last minute points with people.  Meanwhile, we have a bombshell dropped on us when we learn the Vice President candidate that Arcadia elected turns out to have been also abducted by aliens in the past while the issue ends with Professor Kidd about to hang himself.  Lots of things went on in this issue besides that, but it was also really good as well.

 

The writing was as good as always, with great dialogue scenes and character moments.  The art was also just as good with Ryan Kelly, a really underrated artist from what I find, bringing these characters to life with their facial expressions and body language.  It’s all so really good, but it’s almost all over as well.

 

I know that the writer, Paul Cornell, has said that he plans on continuing this series when the rights return back to him, so not everything is completely lost.  Still, I am going to miss it for the months it’ll be gone.

 

Team 7 #5: Speaking of comics getting cancelled and coming to a close, Team 7 will also be getting canned as well.  You know what truly stinks about that though?  The comic has actually started getting good again.  After a brief flash forward to the future where we see Deathstroke confronting his old team member Lynch, we find the team resting up after the whole Eclipso mission back at base.  Dinah Lance confronts Lynch back then about the true purpose of the team, Fairchild and Deathstroke have a good character moment, and we also see a lot of cameos and references of important things to come (Hank Hensaw who is future Cyborg Superman, Ladytron, Majestic, and the Spartan program).  Lots of great things and great hook at the end with cyborgs/robots rising up in the past while Majestic mysteriously reappearing in the present.

 

And all of this stinks for me with this comic getting cancelled in May.  All of the interesting plot development, the introduction or reintroduction of characters from the past or Wildstorm universe (who I really don’t know of, but will certainly make fans smile), the great characterization and good moments between others, and potential of great future storylines really just disappoint me that all of it will probably not be fully explored!

 

While I certainly didn’t have as much fun with this comic as I did with others this week, I’ll still miss it when it’s gone. It’s also a bit of a shame for the writer, Justin Jordan, in a way, since both books he was working on at the time (this and Deathstroke) both got cancelled together.  Sure he got Superboy to write now, but still.  Hopefully his final issues for this comic will at least bring this comic to a satisfying conclusion.

 

Uncanny X-Men #1: The only Marvel book I checked out this week, this was pretty good.  A mysterious individual (who turns out to be Magento in the end) turns himself into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody and offers Agent Maria Hill a chance to ruin Cyclops, the new big face of the Mutant Revolution.  We don’t know what the plan is, but it certainly won’t be good I can tell you that.  Also during the comic, we have a flashback scene where Cyclops and his crew recruit in a new mutant with… bubble/ball/spherical abilities?  I have no idea what his powers are.

 

For a first issue, I think the plot is laid out well enough and the hook at the end with Magento being the one who wants S.H.I.E.L.D. to take down Cyclops was actually pretty surprising.  There’s tons of potential here for me to be interested in checking out the next issue and the character motivation for why Magento wants to do this is pretty good (Is it consistent with his past appearances in other comics?  I have no idea).  The action was also pretty good in the fight scene, showing off everybody’s powers quite well and what each of them brings to the table.

 

On the flipside, I’m not sure why I should like any of these characters.  From what I was given and shown in this comic, no one seems particularly likeable (or interesting, maybe, but likeable?) or has given me a reason why I should care about them.  Maybe future issues will do that, but I need something like that for a first issue.  Then there is also the art.  I’m a bit mixed on it.  I like the art’s style, but I’m sure if his cartoony visuals are best for this comic.  The characters are also occasionally hard to tell who they are.  I wasn’t able to identify who Magik, Emma, or Magento (in nonflashback form) was from looking at them.  Finally, the coloring done for the stuff in the present was fine, but I found the colors used to illustrate the flashback to be rather dull.

 

Still, I did come away liking this comic and interested in seeing where it would be going in the future.  I like All New X-Men the better of the two X-Men comics Brian Michael Bendis is writing, but this was fine as well.  Maybe a different artist and some better character writing could fix this up to a must read new Marvel Now title.

Saucer Country #12 (2013)

Saucer Country #12

Cover:

Hmm... I don't think he was born in this country...

Plot:

Election night is almost upon Arcadia and her team as they try to score some last minute points with America before voting begins.  Meanwhile Professor Kidd starts mentally breaking down and we learn an interesting fact about Arcadia's pick for Vice President.

Our Main Character:

It could be worse.  You could have hired a delusional individual that doesn't have accurate delusions.

Our Side Characters:

So everybody in office or running for office is crazy or not what they appear to be.  What a shock!

Dialogue:

Whoa, I'm getting deja vu listening to this political talk.

Art:

I like how if you just change the skin coloring and eyes, you can totally get the same aliens from earlier.

Most Memorable Moment:

Well at least they didn't probe you.

Final Page:

No!  Listen to you figments of your imagination, you still got much to live for and to uncover!

What We Should Take from This Comic:

The race is close and tighter than ever and more information is being discovered about what is going on.  However, things are still as shadowy as ever.

What We Do Take From This Comic:

I'm thinking of that TV show V now, how about you?

Yay or Nay?

Yay