Hey all, time for a special review section this week. Sadly this was a weak week for releases. The only biggies were Brightest Day #15 and Shadowland #5, also my new reading of Heroes for Hire, which I will review, next week. This week is a special edition of my comic reviews, this week I cover the one-shots and limited series of CHAOS WAR. Yeah I kinda broke my rule about not buying stuff from outside my listings but I said, hey I should give these a look at least. So the ones that are part of a limited series, I will review with my other readings as well. So with that, lets begin with Alpha Flight
Chaos War: Alpha Flight
Story: Set in the events of Chaos War, a member of Alpha Flight strikes a deal with the Gods of the Elder Night to bestow them power, enough to defeat the Chaos King, along with the bargain, the old team of Alpha Flight is restored to life, only to defend the enemies they fought before. Their ally Snowbird, says the deal was a trick and that the gods would turn on them. The team realizes the gods were defeated with ease, but decide to team up with the God Squad to take down the Chaos King in the final epic showdown.
Review: Having small to no knowledge of who the Alpha Flight, except that one episode from the 90s X-men, I enjoyed this issue. It shows a team questioning all kinds of motives when it comes to them returning to life and dealing with the gods along with their trickery. The team has a good amount of fighting scenes, and we get a great build up for issue #5. So if you are following the main series, this one-shot is a must
Artwork: The artwork is fair, if not decent. It's nothing amazing or stylish like many tend to do, but this has some nice coloring and character designs.
Grade: I give this issue a B-, its got some good moments and decent artwork. Not a team for me, but not bad.
Chaos War: Chaos King
Story: This part of the Chaos War is set before the attack on earth. The issue is split into three stories. The first is the fall of the Zenn-la Pantheon of Gods, the Second Story is Impossible man getting owned by Chaos King, and the Third is the fall of Hell. I love the first and third story, the second one was weak. The war the gods of Zenn-la battling out the Chaos king was really amazing and quite touching. The second with Impossible man was just silly, he tried to impress the Chaos King with his powers, but got trumped with ease. The third one is just crazy and over the top. Its Satan channeling all the flames of hell and does battle with the Chaos king.
Review: This is a great read, if you want to know the back story to this character, and I loved learning about this entity. As I said, the first and third stories are the best, because they deal with the final moments of great powers, sadly knowing the outcome is the same, but its them going out with a bang. They go into great detail with Zenn-la and how that the Gods and Humans walked as one, but split after some time. It was only one that gave one of the gods hope, and you know who it is. The beginning of the third story, involving the Devil and Chaos King is great. Satan is basically bargaining with him not to take over his realm and all realms of Hell. The second one has on relevancy to the story, and seems very much like filler.
Artwork: All three stories do have wonderful artwork, the first story especially. I loved the look and design of Zenn-la. The combination of Science and Mysticism can be seen and its amazing. The second story has ok artwork, pretty good. The Third story has great designs of Hell and the minions. Its all about the background and whats going on around it.
Grade: I give this issue an A-, its a great prequel to the event and has some good artwork, skip chapter 2 tho, unless you like the character getting slapped around like a gnat.
Chaos War: Dead Avengers #1 of 3
Story: A small group of former members of the Avengers have been brought back and are stunned to see they are the only ones alive. They question why they have returned, until the spot people running from monsters that are removing the people from existence(that scary). They are then greeted by a former villain, Grim Reaper and prepare for battle.
Review: I loved this issue, I love the idea. The concept is sweet, bring back lower tier heroes to one of the biggest events happening. The tension as to what happened along with them coming to terms with their second chance at life were some great moments of writing. We get a few characters back stories from Swordsman and Vision. Of all the characters that died, I actually felt bad for Yellow Jacket II, she had a sad way of going out. If this is the “Avenger” team Van Lente mentioned this is pretty impressive, sadly it's obvious they are only temporary, but maybe Mar-vell will return somehow.
Artwork: This has some better artwork that Alpha Flight but not as impressive and amazing as Chaos King. The best moments involve Captain Marvel and the battle scenes.
Grade: I give this issue a B+, its a strong story with an interesting cast of heroes, along with some good artwork.
Chaos War: God Squad
Story: Taking place somewhere between the events of issue 2 & 3 of the main event, The God Squad heads into the Shinto realms to a secret location. As they travel, they are met by the Wakandan deity, a giant white Panther. She joins their quest, as they head into the forest. They arrive and are greeted by the Moon God and Ocean Gods, who Venus has fond memories of. The two gods take them down to the prison where the Chaos King once lived. The Sun Goddess comes down and does battle. They have an epic battle, then Venus RELEASES THE KRAKEN that devours a few of the other gods. They prepare for the upcoming showdown.
Review: This is a great fill in issue, much like Chaos King, this gives us a nice little insight into what they are doing to prepare for the ultimate battle for all reality. This has a lot of great action beats and has an overall interesting story. The inclusion of the Wakanda white panther was really cool, and she has one of the best moments in this entire event so far. I like this team-up of unlikely allies joining together for a common goal. Also Hellstrom has a lot of great one liners, and is the highlight of this series.
Artwork: This has some really great looking artwork. Some of the designs of the characters are really good. I like how silver surfer is not all silver like. The battle scenes are the best moments in the issue, the scene with the Yokai especially.
Grade: I give this issue an A-, it's one of the better one-shots in the event, some great battle scenes and a great artwork that fits the issue.
Chaos War: Thor #1 of 2
Story: Thor does battle with an amalgam monster that is composed of an entire pantheon of gods...IN SPACE. He has one of the most epic of battles and is shot straight down to Earth, crashes in the woods but quickly became Blake. Blake wakes up in a strange woman's house, where he stays with her for awhile to collect his bearings. She tells him about what occurred to her and how she prayed to all religions to find some answer. She goes nuts and leaves Blake be. He apologizes but they are attacked by one of the fragments that landed near by.
Review: I find this to be an interesting and a landmark issue. While yes it has one of the greatest battles in any issue of this series, it does a great attempt of showing the human element when we are dealing with a war of gods. This is mostly a Donald Blake issue, and his dealings with this woman who has a crisis of faith, which I'm sure many people tend to get at one point in their life. The human conflict and the emotions in this, do bring up great questions to ask. Even Blake talks to her like he has no idea, and he has a Norse God living within him, that's a great part of showing his Humanity as well. Like I mentioned, the battle in the first half is epic as a battle involving Thor can get.
Artwork: The battle scenes are the show stopper, they made this giant god thing so huge and amazing, it does remind me of Gurren Lagann. The rest is pretty cool. They have some cool shots of clay statues of various Deities, including Thor. The final shot with the monster fragment is really awesome.
Grade: I give this issue an A+, it has an amazing and over the top battle, touching human introspective thinking, and the artwork is really well done.
So that's all for this week, I hope you all give these a quick read, perhaps in collected form or single issues. If your wondering why I chose to read these instead of shadowland, well it has way too many tie-in series or one shots. As mentioned I will review the rest as they are released, but I won't read the X-men series of this, as I said, I won't get into the X-men stuff unless I start some where that can let me know what I need to know. Next week is not gonna be a big week either, but I will review the end of Shadowland, the new Heroes for Hire, and Brightest day, along with that weeks releases. Also a new mention, currently in developmental stages, once I get a new laptop with webcam, I may do a podcast review or a video review, I like to evolve these reviews to the next stage. Well til next week, catch you all later, ComicCritic87 OUT!!!