Hey all, time for another helping of Comic book reviews. After skipping last week for only having 2 issues to read, I will be reviewing those along with today's helping of releases. This was another great week of releases. Spider-man continuing chase just gets worse, We learn about Strikers origin, The return of the Black Lanterns, Gods at War, Wolverine fighting everyone he killed, and Wonder Woman on a detour...to hell. Today's reviews are Amazing Spider-man #644, Avengers Academy #5, Brightest Day #11, Chaos War #1, Wolverine #2, and Wonder Woman #603.
Amazing Spider-man #644
Story: Spider-man is still being chased by everyone, the villains, civilians, and police. The villains are ganging up on each other now by taking each other out to get to Spider-man and the baby. He's biggest encounter is with The Rhino, who he manages to tame and have him leave him alone until he gets the baby safe and protected. As Spider-man reaches the Avenger mansion, the baby changes into a little demon and attacks him, Spidey realizes that it was Mysterio all along and knocks him out with ease. Meanwhile Carlie is searching for Peter in the rubble and is attacked by Tombstone, but then the cops save her and Tombstone leaves with the fallen villains at the coffee shop. Mary Jane, Lily, and Harry go to an old friend of MJ's and hide out in a panic room for the time being. While those are going on, women are panicking over who's baby spider-man has, as J.J. Is met by S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents and they inform him that the child is Osborn’s. Back over to Spider-man as he deals with Vulture and a rat guy thing....He spots Harry and hands him the baby, finishes off the two and as he returns to Harry, he is told shocking news. Peter is enraged and goes off to settle all scores.
Review: As Destroyer said, this is a good issue, I found this a good halfway issue for this arc. There isn't much in terms of revelations with the characters, except with Carlie, who I think has a greater future in the Spider-man universe and may become the next Gwen Stacy. I do hope we see plenty more villains in the next two issues. I'm dying to see just a pure battle royale with everyone he has faced up til now. I did find it distracting with all those women yelling and screaming...like a bad episode of Maury. In terms of the who the real main baddie that's after this baby, I really hope its a big surprise, so far Doc Ock is the main villain, which is good, but not his biggest threat. Much like Gillien, this is the teams Swan song, so far its really good, hoping it won't falter in the last two parts.
Art: Well its still the same style and is kinda meh, but it I feel it growing on me in terms of the heroes and villains, while everyone else have these funny looking expressions. Not bad, not great, but good so far.
Grade: With a solid issue and a major twist in the story, a long with a slightly improving art style, this issue gets an A-
Avengers Academy #5
Story: This issue shows the origins of Striker and how he is the “celebrity” of the group. We see how he gained his power and that Osborn treated him better than everyone else. Steve Rogers has a cameo in this issue as a trainer and takes out all the students with ease. Striker acts out against Rogers while some are huge fans. Striker hits on Finesse but fails, he tries with veil and that fails for now. Pym takes the students into NYC and are attacked by Whirlwind. He blames Pym for Janet dying and that he should not have the title of WASP. Pym fights whirlwind as the students fight him off and are caught in the act. Striker tells Pym that its time to bring them into the spotlight. Veil tries to show off to Justice who is making out with Ultra Girl, Veil feels foolish and kisses Striker. During this issue he tells Jocasta all this and he leaves her standing there.
Review: Let me make this as clear as possible...I HATE STRIKER!!!!!...I hate... I HATE!!!!(Patton Oswalt) Him.....He is this universes Booster Gold...all he cares about is making money and being the center of attention. He comes off as a douche and a total A$$hole. He has no care for his fellow students and only sees the women as objects he can own....That said this was a good issue, but reading this A-holes life story makes no difference in that its his moms fault and its implied that his manager was gonna molest him, and his power activated out of defense. I preferred the B-story with Pym and the kids trying to have fun. The one person that is truly left out in this issue is Reptil, he's in the background most of this issue but will be center stage in issue #6.
Art: The artwork is really great in this issue. The characters fighting Rogers was done really well. I like the redesign of Whirlwind, seeing him in the Avengers cartoon a few days back and in this
issue was a really cool difference. The fight with whirlwind was kinda hard to follow..there's a picture of Hank apparently growing to avoid Whirlwind...I think.
Grade: apart from Striker taking over this issue and one odd panel, this was a good issue. I give this issue a B+
Brightest Day #11
Story: Aquaman and Black Mantra are fighting it out as Jackson flees with his other father. Meanwhile this issues main focus is on the return of Black Lantern Firestorm now called Deathstorm. He takes Professor Stein and one of the kids fathers in order to mess with their emotions which would trigger a new big bang. He takes them to the white lantern battery and corrupts it with the Black energy and reviving the 12 Black Lanterns of the revived heroes and villains. We see J'onn landing on back on his home planet of MARS and discovers a huge forest has grown.
Review: This was a great issue. I loved seeing how powerful Deathstorm is and he isn't doing a thing at all. He is just toying with them and allowing them to cause the destruction of all things which he could do right now, but he won't and he that makes him a real threat. Johns bringing back the 12 heroes and villains Black Lantern forms is an interesting twist into this tale being told. Will this greatly alter their own fates or is this the will of the White Lantern. I like these issues that are focusing on few characters and hopefully as we hit the halfway we get more characters into the story, preferably the villains.
Art: The artwork is stellar as ever. The return of the Black Lanterns is so cool and they are much darker in this than in Blackest Night. No real errors I could find in this, they are very thorough and careful.
Grade: A great solid issue with a great ending to the issue and stellar artwork, this issue gets an A.
Chaos War #1
Story: Hercules arrives on Earth in a powerful state of omnipotence and warns of the heroes of a coming war that will destroy all of reality and the multiverse. The heroes have a hard time believing him since its Hercules. Amadeus Cho arrives to calm his friend down. Hercules, Amadeus, and his girlfriend are taken to the All-Fathers and Hercules attacks them. Thor knocks sense into him(literally) and tells him he is on his side. Hercules hears them all and brings them to one place and gives the most epic speech ever. They are given a portion of his power and they fly up to attack the Chaos King but the heroes are halted when they are attacked by the lord of nightmares power.
Review: We have two events taking place right now in the Marvel Universe; Shadowland and Chaos War...and Chaos War delivers on all aspects. This is a story about scope, and how grand and epic this battle is. This is a battle for everything that was and will be. Chaos War is being billed as being bigger than Infinity Gauntlet, if this can top planet tossing and battle with Eternity then challenge has be met my friends. Hercules's speech is by far the best I seen in any event, I mentioned Doctor Strange had a speech in O.M.I.T was good but this one was much better. The battle has just begun and I can't wait to see how much more epic this will get
Art: The artwork has moments of surrealism to it, The beginning with the Lord of Nightmares and all the All-Fathers(Including Balder) was just awesome. Seeing all the various heroes on a single page reminds me very much like Crisis on Infinite Earths. This is a series that I'm sure we are gonna see lots of interesting artwork as we progress.
Grade: This first issue hits it out of the park with a high and all powerful battle for all things and amazing surreal artwork, this is a must for all fans, this gets an A+
Wolverine #2
Story: Wolverine still stuck in the depths of hell and he is attacked by all the people he has killed. The demon that has captured him is toying with Logan in hopes that he could “break him”. This fails quickly as Logan unleashes his bone claws and goes to town on all his foes. Meanwhile on Earth Logan’s current girlfriend and Mystique are trying to contact people Logan knows. They call one of Logan's old flings as she is attacked by Possessed Logan. Mystique waits for some familiar faces...TWO GHOST RIDERS AND SON OF SATAN. Logan still hasn't been broken until Mariko is pulled in and whips Logan til he screams. A familiar face hears Logan's scream and is off to rescue him, Logan's old team mate PUCK.
Review: AWESOME........OK OK...guess I better do an actual review huh...Alright this is one of the best follow up issues to the first issue of Jason Aaron. He has a knack for doing gruff, gritty, and down and dirty characters. He “gets” Wolverine and does an amazing Job of not demonizing the character but giving him weight and gravitas, rather than being just some dude with metal claws. Those familiar to my reviews is that I LOVED LOVED LOVED Aaron's run on Ghost Rider and the fact they appear on this title just made it greater so we know for sure that Ghost Rider will be done EXTREMELY well...this is a good sign...we may see another new series after this...PLEASE!!!..alright...so yeah this has a great premise and it seems they are gonna have in hell not much longer with Puck coming to his rescue, can't wait for more to come
Art; What is great about this series is the detailing in all the demons and inhabitants of hell. They all feel very original and menacing. No Mephisto looking demons, these are beaten with ugly sticks deformed monstrosities along with the minions that Logan killed. Also with Logan in hell we get to see massive scarring and damage, which is sweet to see Logan actually hurt.
Grade: For having a strong follow up and amazing artwork, this issue gets an A+
Wonder Woman #603
Story: Wonder Woman fights bird women while taking her fellow Amazonian to a safe location. They overpower her and send her to hell. She finds a way out quickly and is met by the army guys. They tell her to go to a certain area and meet the man who killed her mother.
Review: Come on JMS, you can do better than this, you made THOR amazing again and you are doing an good job on Superman, so why can't he figure out how to do WW right....I mean its a well thought out idea of reinventing her character to make her more “modern” but taking away her origins and putting in a new one is a hard one to swallow, especially when we don't know how it happens. I see this a stall issue, JMS wanted to prolong this arc and gave use a minor and pointless detour to hell. I still have some hope this goes in a better direction, the only way out is up and thats where hopefully JMS brings us later.
Art: The look of hell is not as cool as Wolverines but still pretty neat. WW is still sexy as hell so I see no complaints there.
Grade: This is is just small misstep in JMS, hopefully he returns to form and we get better material out of this...for now this issue gets a C-
So that's this weeks dose of comics. I hope you all get a chance to read these. Next week is a whopping 8 issues. A new series is introduced and I am about to read the Superman: Birthright so I will review that once I complete it and do a full review on it. So til next time, ComicCritic87 OUT!!!!