New Exiles 12

was much better than I expected.  I think in my old age I may have grown tired of Claremonts over-exposition though.  I still love his stories and plots, but I’m wondering if someone shouldn’t help with the actual uh…words?  Not just the dialogue but the thought bubbles, all of that, whatever the technical term is.

A Shadowcat who goes all Magneto on jerkassWolverine (who Sabertooth suddenly calls Howlett all the time..I forget if he learned that on their world or is it just a random post-origin continuity insert?)…”possibly” killing him?

Tell me more.

I’ll hold off on cancelling it for a few more issues and see where this goes.

04/24/08 – brief thoughts

New Exiles 05

Don’t be tricked by the Alan Davis cover!

Oh my god! The pencils…stabbing my eyes out…alternating between anime knock off and horrible Davis knock off. I’m sorry Roberto Castro, but if you can’t even stick to one style to knock-off, please don’t try. You’re going to give me an ugliness seizure. I really hate singling out individuals and calling their work bad – but this stuff is painfully irregular. The script isn’t particularly strong, but it would be fine with serviceable pencils. Since it doesn’t have those, the book sucks.

Death of the New Gods 08

Talk about talking heads! But that’s ok I guess. What I think was really shoddy was how the “character” of Orion changed so much btw. this and Countdown 2…he can’t talk at all then suddenly he can yell prophecies.

Superman-as-Jimmy-Olsen was kind of amusing, but overall I think this issue just fell really flat. Having the finale blunted/broken by Countdown 2 didn’t help things much either.  The whole continuity jar-up is really annoying (Orion DID die…and Darkseid knew the Source had resurrected his “spirit” already…except that was the real Orion and not just a spirit. DUM dah DUM DUM D-U-M-B) and seems like it could have been fixed too, but whatever.

Justice League of America 20

Wow, if this wasn’t a phone-it-in-issue I don’t know what was. Maybe I’m just not a fan of done-in-ones because the seem so out of pointless – as this issue certainly does – or maybe this one in particular just sucks. The pencils are pretty middling too (not as bad as New Exiles above), which doesn’t help. Not to say that they are bad, but nothing “pops”. All the red coloring in the first section is really boring too – even though it’s a fire scene it doesn’t have to be so damn RED! (Leave that up to the new Hulk please). The panel of the side of Wonder Woman’s face on page 12 or so, bottom right is fucking fearsome.

Here, I’ll save you from buying/browsing this painful issue. See obvious pic at right. What the hell is that? She looks like a devil mannequin from the 14th layer of hell. You’ll know it when you see it. Scary isn’t it?

Hulk 03

This one went too fast. I don’t think I’ve ever been a fan of Loeb’s writing, but I didn’t find this one particularly bad, just strangely paced – it felt like it only took me 2 minutes to read it.

Secrets are closer to being revealed, but nothing yet.

Oh, well Banner is back to dumbass Hulk again. Yeah, that’s awesome. After Pak spends so long building us a wonderful new Hulk incarnation, we’re back to dumbass Hulk. I’m sure there’s a good reason for it, but there’s a reason I’ll buy Pak’s Hulk hardcovers and won’t touch this (or anything Loeb writes really) with a 14.3 foot pole.

Uncanny X-Men 497

This arc’s not bad, it’s a decent diversion. Nothing to get excited about though, at least not yet. I’m not digging the plastic-y looking pencils. Hmm…maybe it’s the coloring I don’t like? I’m not “artsy” enough to be able to tell – basically, everything just looks like it’s coated in a layer of plastic and slightly muddied up.

Young Avengers Presents 04

Some cute character work here, but it’s been so long since I saw them in action I don’t remember Vision’s story. Going to have to re-read some trades I guess. Pencils weren’t bad here .

Thor 08

The whole package here – great writing, a bit of violence, and beautiful pencils and colors. I’m really liking the JMS take on Thor, just like I liked his take on Spider-Man (it was the only one I’ve really liked since I started reading comics and now, unfortunately, it’s all wiped away. So it goes.).

Ultimate Fantastic Four 53

I’m loving Tyler Kirkham’s pencils and the green hair. Carey’s plot is pretty decent, almost old school, ff-stylings. I’m wondering if he wiped the other heroes memories…because they were killing a loootttt of people.

Mighty Avengers 12

Since Avengers members only appear in scattered panels, I’d call this more of a Marvel Spotlight on Nick Fury/Secret War, and not “Avengers” so much, but hey it’s all Bendis so it’s a mesh anyway right?

We find out how Fury found out, and get a little tie-back into that Secret War thing from a few years back, not to mention get left with what is supposed to (I think) be a nasty cliffhanger – but I suspect it’s mostly red herrings. No way Wolverine & Spider-Man are Skrulls, sorry, that would be too stupid and really, really not make any sense. Lockjaw I buy…hmm…ok wait, flip it. Maybe the faces that are circled are the ones he knows are not Skrulls. That I buy. Still, Lockjaw. I miss that guy (remember, he’s actually an Inhuman, not a dog!).

I’m not buying Spider-Woman as cool or interesting though, sorry Bendis. Maybe with a new name or something that makes sense for her powers. The costume + flying & energy blasts + name is just too much cognitive dissonance for me I guess.

04/17/08 – Conquest’s end and other odds

Annihilation: Conquest 6

(OK, I didn’t buy this one yet, but I’m grabbing that hardcover as soon as it’s out!)

It’s been a while since a crossover title was actually somewhat required reading for a mini – and I don’t mind it once in a while. As long as they don’t overuse the gimmick, it’s cool. But then again, if you didn’t read Nova 12 you’ll still be OK – all you need to know is that he brought some help back.

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X-Men: Divided We Stand 1

UGH.

The writing is not horrible, but I can’t stand where they are going with ANY of the characters in this mini. OK, that’s not quite true, the Nezhno story is ok because it doesn’t really go anywhere. Well, he pines, but that doesn’t count. Although understandable, I hate what they did with Anole mostly because it was just stupid and mean on Cyclops’ part. Now we know he has some kind of master plan and the X-Men are getting back together, but what they have done to the students is just stupid and cruel. Same with Hellion – abandoning him in a hotel – REALLY??? A kid with that kind of power and you want him running around bitter at you? Ohhhhhhhhh Kaaaayyyyyy. Cannonball is acting like a stupid war-brat or something, which I can’t recall him ever being before. I could possibly see this being in line with his characterization in the Warren Ellis (or whoever) revamp that ended out the X-Force series, but it stinks to high hell against everything else. I guess it’s a set up to why he’s a “bad guy” in the so far insipid Young X-Men series.

Oh, and Northstar’s characterization was so far out of anything I’ve seen before…I’m sure they can just chalk it up to post-resurrection stupidity but man, he was just a blank slate here. He could have been anyone who decided to show up and deliver random statements.

I decided it was not worth buying and left it at the store. I’m trying to limit my crap intake and limited series are a great place to start cutting.

Avengers: Initiative 11

Does she really have a kiss of death – where’d that come from? Or was it just general vamping to distract him.

More gratuitous violence as the government Avengers get their butts handed to them by the tactigon too. I was pleased to see that 2 of the Scarlet Spiders made it out, I was thinking Slott would wipe the slate on them with this. Clones can be really interesting when done well, and not just used as mindless fodder. I hope he keeps this in mind.

Next issue is the graduation issue and after that is another class of newbies – I’m curious how long they’ll follow this model of swapping out the classes every 13 issues (and hopefully keeping up with previous class members) – and of course if they’ll even last until the 3rd class. So far I think I like it, it definitely invests more of a sense of importance when you know that not everyone will make it through the year, and the ones that do might wind up seeing actual page time in another comic (as I’m hoping some of the members will).

Man is that an UGLY cover. And Slapstick is one creeeepy mofo.

PS. Are we going to get the Hardball->spy plot resolved or what?

New Exiles 4

So this wraps up the first “New” Exiles arc. It’s not a particularly interesting wrap up. We get a new recruit who’s half black Atlantean (which could have been an interesting thread in itself, I’m guessing Namor’s father was African?) and…some stuff happened in the world they grabbed him from. The Black Panther seals the planet and Namor is on the moon and the moon and Earth shall war and blah blah. Sorry, not really that into it. It wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t anything special. I’m still enjoying seeing all the alternates – so please stick to that CC and no more making new characters with really dumb names like that stupid guy with the guns.

How does the Tallus work these days anyway? I forget what the logic behind it still knowing what’s up with a quadrillion realities is without the bugs to drive it.

Oh, and Amara’s queen of the moon. The moooooon I tell you!

Young X-Men 1

Urgh.

The plot here is twelve kinds of stupid, but I’ll try and reserve my judgment until the end of the arc, because there’s obvious a twist coming. If the (old) New Mutants really are going to be “bad guys” in this brave new x-world then I may finally be done with the X-books. That just makes no sense, and would trash my two of my three favorite x-characters (Sunspot & Cannonball…only Iceman would be left), not to mention my comic book childhood. The New Mutants were the x-characters my gen of readers grew up with and we make up most of the comic readership these days, so I really hope they get more respect than this.

I won’t even bother wondering where all the cool “Young” X-Men went, or what the shit is up with this dumbfuck tattoo character. But, like I said, I’m giving it an arc.

Cable 2

This was ok I guess. Certainly better than a number of the original Cable issues. Not better than the Weinberg stuff or than C&DP though. I’m not liking Bishop as a villain at all, although I can buy the rationale for it – I mean, it’s at least not TOTALLY out of left field (only deep center field). The whole gun thing was really annoying anyway, and CC was the only one that ever wrote him decently (especially in the defunct and horribly titled X-Treme X-Men) – so I suppose it’s not really a loss. We’ll get a (maybe even temporary) great villain whom we sort of understand and we are pained to watch…which makes for more drama I admit.

All in all though, I really like Cable better with a supporting cast. His shit gets tired when it’s just him. No, the baby doesn’t count, it’s just a bjornament at the moment.

The pencils look good of course, and the cover is kind of cute with its whole bionic-arm-western-pistol-duel thing.

X-Factor 30

I saved the best for last of course. Well, the best that I bought seeing as how I’m not picking up Conquest until the hardcover.

Of course Arcade was always a “gimmick” villain, but now even moreso – rarely does it take the various X-teams long to wrap him up – and I think this is a good thing. This was a nice done-in-two-or-three arc (oh wait – there’s still one issue to go! I have a feeling that will just be aftermath though. Funny, aftermath of the aftermath! I like it!) that not only directly picked up plot threads of the previous “big event”, but used those plot threads to move itself forward in a new and interesting (but not gimmicky way!). Not to mention working in some Arcade silliness. And a REALLY ugly cover. Well, just ugly in the sense that his face is ugly, but it fits. I’ve always assumed he was sort of modeled after that Mad Magazine guy, and this is a nice, modern spin on his classy goofy face.

So what happens aside from the Arcade trouncing? A random civilian gets killed. Monet acts really weird – we’ll assume it’s just electro shock for now – but it will be interesting to see if any of that carries forward. We get some teases at where the team might be headed for the future in the way of the statements made by the broke and suicidal mutant-hater. Rictor almost loses his nuts. And Madrox gets shot a lot. See? It sounds silly when I tell it, so just pick up the book.

Other thoughts for the week:

The Skrull special covers are ugly. I pretty much hate them all. The hidden variants are amusing (there is one for Young X-Men and even Exiles (???) evidently), but I wish all the main books (Avengers primarily) were variants so I could get a non-Skrull cover.

All images linked from CBR this week. Head over to that link for the rest of April’s Marvel solicitations.