Wolverine and the X-Men #2
Last issue we were left with Wolverine and his X-Men fighting Kade Kilgore and the new Hellfire Club. The new mansion was coming down around everyone, as two New York Department of Education officials were there to decide whether the new Xavier School could stay open. Needless to say, it doesn’t look good for Logan or his new school.
This book basically focuses on Iceman and the untapped potential that he possesses. It starts with a flashback from two weeks prior where Logan explains to Bobby that he expects big things from him. We then snap back to the present where the team is fighting the actual ground around them thanks to the new Hellfire Club, who are controlling the demolition from afar.
The new Hellfire Club has some bad stuff planned for Logan including changing the two NYDE officials into versions of Wendigo and Sauron and releasing Frankenstein soldiers armed with flamethrowers to burn everything to the ground, including the students.
Ultimately Iceman unleashes his potential by creating and controlling several “Icemen” to take down the Frankenstein soldiers. After this though, the fun just gets started as the Hellfire Club releases Krakoa the Living Island to destroy the X-Men. There is also a little hint at what could be a future Bobby/Kitty relationship, which of course is more of Iceman realizing his potential in more ways than one.
This is currently the only “X” book that I am buying. I pretty much dropped all of the “X” titles after Schism. Schism and its tie-ins really left a bad taste in my mouth. I thought I would give this title a try and the first issue was great! The second issue was good, but not as good as the first.
Pros – Chris Bachalo’s art is fantastic. It just doesn’t get much better than this work. I know not everyone favors it because it looks a little more cartoony than some like, but to me it looks simply fabulous.
Cons – The story just didn’t do it for me. It felt like featuring Iceman and focusing on his potential was just a story filler to get through the book. I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t go back to it for a long time. Iceman’s potential comes around every few years to rear its head and then becomes a forgotten plot point until someone says “yeah remember that Iceman could potentially be the most powerful mutant.”.
Rating – 5 out of 10. If you like the X-Men I would say pick it up, if not save your money for a better book.
Aquaman #3
For years Aquaman has been one of the lamest heroes in the DC Universe. Now this is not totally the fault of the character, but more so the fact that no one has been able to really capture the essence of the character. Well leave it to Geoff Johns to fix all of that.
Geoff really understands the concepts of the Aquaman character. He has done more for the Arthur in three issues than any other writer has in 20 issues. Johns even points out the fact that the population at large thinks Aquaman is a lame hero. In issue three, a cop actually tells Arthur (after Aquaman has saved everyone on the dock) that he will tell the press that Aquaman saved everyone, to help with his image. His image is the least of his concerns at the moment though.
A new species of something that can only be described as humanoid fish (think human body with piranha heads) has taken to the land in hunt of food. Food is pretty much animal flesh including human or dogs (as seen in the book). Aquaman must along with Mera must find out who these things are and where the live.
Apparently these “Piranah-men” as we will call them, wrap their prey in some sort of cocoon type shell in preparation of transport back to their home. The problem is that Aquaman knows nothing about these creatures. His empathic communication doesn’t work with the creatures so he can’t tell where they come from. It is up to him to find out more about these creatures.
Arthur picks up one of the dead creatures (Aquaman and Mera battled the creatures in issue two) from the battle and heads to the home of someone from his past, Marine Biologist Stephen Shin. This is where we get a little back story and possibly future villain for Aquaman.
When Arthur was small, his Dad took him to Stephen Shin to help him develop Aquaman’s powers. Shin was successful in unlocking some of Arthur’s powers but, then tried to kill him because Arthur would not take Shin to Atlantis. Visiting Shin is a last resort for Aquaman, but they need to find out as much as they can about the Pirahna-men.
Shin decides to help and determines that the creatures are from the Mid-Atlantic Rim. (Hey Biologists get paid good money to figure out where sea creatures come from in less than 30 minutes). After giving Aquaman the needed information he begs Arthur to let him keep the creature so that he could revive his career. Arthur says no and abruptly leaves, leaving the door open for a showdown between the two soon.
This is probably the best book Johns has created for the new 52. He is doing the same thing with Aquaman that he previously did with Green Lantern – taking a character that has seen his better days and turning him into something that noteworthy again.
Aquaman has never looked better. Ivan Reis is a madman with the pencils. With the amount of detail that goes into this book, I am surprised it comes out on time. I can only hope that this combination of writer/artist stays on for the long haul with this book.
Rating 8 out of 10. Like I said before you get the feeling that Johns is on the verge of turning what many perceive as a lame character into the next Green Lantern.
The Shade #2
First let me say that although I new of the Shade, I have never read anything about the character. I knew his powers were “shade-based”, and that he was a villain, but other than that this is the first I have read of him. Well let me qualify that by saying this series is the first because I started with issue 1.
This is a 12 issue mini-series, which I truly hope continues after the initial 12 offerings. There is something about this book that truly mesmerizes me and I think it could be the artwork of Cully Hamner. I won’t lie, I am a huge Cully Hamner fan. I own a nice piece of original art by him that features Batman punching out Guy Gardner from an Upper Deck card set. This book is some of Cully’s best work to date.
As for the writing, well things could have only improved for James Robinson after that horrible Justice League of America run. The good news is that Mr. Robinson can write the Shade. He makes this character very interesting and for lack of a better term cool!
The end of the first issue saw The Shade walking through a Park as Deathstroke jumped from the shadows and sliced off The Shade’s hands and head. Lucky for our anti-hero, that he sensed Slade’s approach and quickly stepped into the shadow. He created a facsimile of himself that ultimately took the bad end of sword from Deathstroke.
Someone is out to kill The Shade and he is now determined to find out whom. So The Shade goes to his lover’s house and tells her that he will be taking an extended trip out of town to hunt down this nefarious person. His trip takes him out of the country to help and hire the services of – Will Von Hammer. He is self-described as a Private Detective and a sex machine with all the chicks! Hey don’t we all think that?
After the two talk, they learn that Von Hammer was hired to find out if any samples were of The Shade’s blood were still in existence. The Shade has been around for ages. Sometime during the late 19th century the last vestiges of his humanity (including blood) were lost to the shadow-matter. The Shade himself was the only one that new this which makes for an interesting mystery, to not only find out who is after him, but how they know something that only The Shade would have known.
Rating 7 out of 10. This book gets a 4 out of 5 on art alone. Even if you don’t like the story, buy it for the art. Cully Hamner is a master!
Here is a short list of other comics that I have read this week and their ratings.
Random Ratings of the Week
Diablo #1 (DC Comics) – 6 out of 10
The Flash #3 (DC Comics) – 6 out of 10
Kick-Ass 2 #5 (Icon) – 9 out of 10
Mudman #1 (Image Comics) – 5 out of 10
Suicide Squad #3 (DC Comics) – 8 out of 10
Superman #3 (DC Comics) – 6 out of 10
Transformers #30 (IDW Publishing) – 6 out of 10