Comics are Awesome II

[Onslaught Six]

He got a new costume?

Cool. Spidey always gets the best alternate costumes. I don't think I've ever seen one I didn't like. (Somehow I've started amassing Marvel Universe Spidermens. I have three or four now.)

My comic shop didn't have Death of Optimus Prime! It must have sold out. As prevention, I added MTMTE and RID to my pull list. Fuck it. I'm in it for the long haul now.

This makes my current pull list:

-Mega Man
-TMNT
-TF RID
-TF MTMTE
-Atomic Robo and the Ghosts of Station X (I'm not strictly subscribed but there's always a few issues left when I get there later in the month)
-Animal Man (the same; I'm also kind of holding out on the book to wait and see where it goes or until it starts getting bad.)

I may end up dropping Animal Man by my birthday in June.

[BWprowl]

Waitaminute.... Didn't Aunt May shoot Electro 3 times in the chest during the Death of Spider-Man story? And then his energy basically exploded? How is he still alive?

Because Comic Books.

[Sparky Prime]

Because Comic Books.

I meant how do they explain it.

[Onslaught Six]

Reviews! Asshole long review here. Feel free to skip.

IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #3, #4: I’ve been loving IDW’s take on the TMNT universe so far. In these issues, we see Casey Jones get a lot more development on his backstory (He’s a very troubled youth!), an explanation of how the hell he gets money to eat and pay rent (scholarship money), and more backstory for the Turtles and Old Hob. I’m just gonna summarize the whole arc because, fuck it, I don’t remember which bits happened in which issues. I’ll also just tell it chronologically.
In this universe, the Turtles and Splinter were pets who were in Baxter Stockman’s lab. April works there as an intern. Stockman is apparently working for a ‘General Krang’ who is supplying him with mutagen as well as some crazy super-intelligence stuff. In previous issues, two ninjas (presumably Foot) show up and try to steal some documents and shit as well as the Turtles and Splinter, but they escape, getting covered with ooze in the process. A cat tries to steal one of them (Raphael) but Splinter bites out the cat’s eye. The ninjas try to grab them but Splinter and the other three Turtles escape into the sewer. When they come to, they discover that they’ve mutated into the familiar forms we all know. Raphael, meanwhile, wakes up in an alley, with no knowledge of his origin. The cat, who the Turtles call ‘Old Hob,’ shows up at Baxter Stockman’s lab and asks how badly Stockman needs Splinter and the Turtles to be there ‘alive,’ and offers to find them.
A year goes by. The other Turtles spend their time ninja training while Raph eventually meets Casey Jones, beating the piss out of his father. They get an old lady’s purse from some hooligans and try to return it to her but she freaks out about their appearance. Oh well! The other three Turtles have a disagreement about how they’re always searching for Raph—Donatello especially seems to have taken the view that Raph is fucking dead and has been for some time, while Leo doesn’t want to let it go. Mikey says they should just up the scale that they’re searching for him and also try to beat the shit out of more people along the way. Win-win, right? Hob eventually corners Raph and Casey when the other Turtles show up and beat the crap out of Hob and the goons. Raph nearly kills Hob but the others stop him. They go home and have a nice reunion with Splinter.

This first arc is great and it sets up a lot of things that are similar and yet different about this take on the TMNT. Krang is present but we don’t know if he’s an Utrom or not (or if Utroms are even a thing) and so far Shredder hasn’t been seen in any capacity, although Baxter Stockman refers to a “competitor” of Krang’s, and hey—ninjas show up and there’s only like one clan of ninjas in the entire TMNT universe. Gotta be the Foot!
The art is just great; it has a sketchy quality while still being refined and I never feel like I can’t tell what’s going on. The only thing is that I feel like the Turtles don’t have enough visual differences between them and the colouring doesn’t help—the first arc has them all wearing the classic comics red bandanas, and while usually you can tell Leonardo and Donatello apart because they have shoulder straps, Don doesn’t appear to have a shoulder strap in this incarnation. The four Turtles also all have different skintones, which should theoretically make them easier to tell apart but I still occasionally get confused—maybe it’s just me. Dialogue and context clues also tend to clear things up; Michelangelo swears more and calls everyone “bro,” while Donatello appears to be the only one who calls Splinter “Father.” Aside from these minor issues (which get resolved later, see next review) I highly recommend it. Don’t seek out the individual issues, because the trade is coming out in February and it’s currently $12 on Amazon. Pick that up instead!

IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #5: This is just stuff that came out this month for TMNT, so I’ll review it individually!
#5 opens with Splinter on the run in the streets from some dudes who work for Hob. Splinter compares it to an old story that we’ll see more of in a bit. Meanwhile, the Turtles are ninja training and Raph seems to be picking up quickly, but laments the fact that he hasn’t been given any weapons yet like his brothers.
Splinter again flashes back to the old story—a story of Hamato Yoshi and Oroku Saki. Saki ruled the Foot Clan and they were supposed to go kill an emperor, but Saki wanted to kill all the innocents surrounding it as well so that the Foot would be known by their ruthless reputation. Hamato Yoshi obviously didn’t think this was radical and said, “Fuck you, man,” so Saki ostracized him from the clan. Then the Foot show up at Yoshi’s house while he’s out and kill his wife, Tang Shen, and are about to kill her and Yoshi’s four sons—clothed in red, blue, orange and purple. Yoshi arrives and is understandably fucking pissed, but Shen says that her dying wish is not for Yoshi to avenge her and kill Saki, but to flee with their children, so he does.
In the present: Casey Jones is going to get cut from the team if he doesn’t get his grades up. April is putting up an ad for free tutoring for any class in exchange for “self-defense lessons,” obviously realizing she’s kind of a weakling after being attacked by the ninjas last year. As April and her friend leave the college building, we see Casey Jones go in. (Can you see where this is going? Casey needs tutoring. April needs to know how to wear a hockey mask and beat dudes with Jose Canseco bats.)
Splinter is still running home and beating the piss out of Hob’s goons. He makes it home, just as Hamato Yoshi did in his story at the beginning…
Yoshi returns home to a field where he sees his four sons practicing ninja shit with the familiar weapons of the Turtles when Oroku Saki and the Foot show up. Saki is wearing some obviously awesome Shredder-esque samurai armour. They line up Yoshi’s sons, and are about to execute them. Yoshi prays, to Buddha, and to “all the powers in the universe,” that he and his sons will be reunited one day, and that he will be able to face Saki again, “warrior-to-warror.”
The Foot execute Hamato Yoshi’s sons. Yoshi says that the promise to his wife no longer applies, and he’ll destroy Saki. Saki says they will ‘never’ meet again, and kills Saki.
In the present: Splinter is home! And from some contextual shit, it’s actually Christmas. (April mentioned this earlier in the story but I forgot to.) It seems like the book is actually moving along at a semi-realistic pace as this issue came out just last Wednesday.
Splinter gives his sons each a gift. He says that when the Turtles were searching for Raphael, they wore the colour that was his favourite, as a reminder that they were trying to find Raph. But now they’re together, so it’s time for some individuality, and gives the other three Turtles their own personalized colour headband—orange for Michelangelo, purple for Donatello, and blue for Leonardo. Not about to leave Raph out in the cold, he gives him a pair of sai.
Casey visits his mother’s grave. April sees her mother.
Donatello asks how Splinter knows red was Raph’s favourite colour was red, and Splinter says he’ll tell them…in the next issue. Fuck!

TMNT #5 is great. I’m really liking the changes done to the origin so far—there’s been a lot of different interpretations of the Hamato Yoshi/Oroku Saki origin story. The original comics had Saki and Yoshi fighting over a woman (Tang Shen), as did the original 1989 live action film. In the comics, Yoshi killed Saki, and Saki’s brother Oroku Nagi swore vengeance. In the film, Saki simply killed Tang Shen and Yoshi. In the 1988 cartoon, Oroku Saki knifes the back of Hamato Yoshi’s gi to the wall so he can’t bow to the Supreme Leader of the Foot Clan, so they throw him out. Yoshi becomes Splinter in that version; there’s a constant quest in the show of trying to find a way to restore Splinter to his original form. (If you win the NES Konami TMNT game, Splinter actually becomes his human self again at the end! Fucking weird.) I’m not sure what-all went into the 2003 TMNT show because there was a lot of weird origin stories going on in that one, so I won’t go into it.
Here, it’s good because it’s not focusing on Saki and Yoshi fighting over a woman—instead, they have a difference of ideology, and Tang Shen gets stuffed in a fridge as a result. I’d find this pretty meh-worthy if it weren’t for the fact that the art very much implies that this was a ‘long’ time ago—everyone is wearing feudal-era clothing and some of the Foot dudes are wearing demon masks. How it ties into Splinter and the Turtles (especially the new addition of Yoshi having four sons!) is still unrevealed but I suspect will come into play next month.
I really like how the series started with the Turtles having all-red bandanas and then later gave them the individual colours. I said above how I was having problems distinguishing them so this solves it nicely—and as much as I love the all-red look, I’m still a fan of the cartoon and film interpretations, so seeing the Turtles in all-different coloured bandanas still puts a smile on my face.

IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Raphael One-Shot: ARGH! I hate when comic companies do things like this! I realize it’s in homage to the original TMNT comic series from the 80s, but the fact is that it’s now another title that someone could have missed out on—and considering what happens in this issue, it’s pretty important stuff that shouldn’t be missed! Luckily, my comic shop guy is pretty cool and figured I would want it so he just threw it into my bag for me.

On with the plot! Raph and Casey are beating up some dudes. Casey starts talking about how nice it must be now for Raph to have a family (the issue takes place after TMNT #5) and Raph just kind of shrugs it off and wonders why Casey is being so whiny. They hear gunshots and run off to investigate. They see a black dude with a purple mohawk, red vest and Kanye sunglasses and a white dude with a pilot’s hat and green tanktop. (These guys look familiar?!) They’re chasing someone wrapped in bandages with a cloak. Raph shows up and beats up the thugs and Casey arrives shortly after to beat one down with a Jose Canseco bat. (Two for one sale, pal!)
Raph then finds out that the person in the bandages is a furry mutant—a snow fox named Aloplex with a purple eye mask and some clothes on. (And boobs. Um, hooray?) She says she was taken prisoner by some scientists and given a genius serum, presumably the same stuff Stockman has. Raph offers to help her and take her back to the lair to see Splinter, but then realizes this might be a trap and throws her off and building. She catches herself, and then they fight, because she realizes she’s been found out. Raph asks who sent her, she says “Right, let me just bring you to them. That’ll go over well.” Then she disappears with a flash bang grenade.
Leo says they shouldn’t patrol alone anymore—groups of two minimum, and for Raph to stay away from that part of town for a while. Raph instantly disobeys to go hang out with Casey. Raph says he has to stick with them now, and Casey starts to say goodbye when Raph is all, “No, fuck that, you’re my buddy, you’re part of this now.”
Cut to a hideout where Aloplex is with the two thugs from earlier—it was all a setup to try and capture Raph. The two thugs are pissed and start asking Aloplex when they’re going to change into mutants like her. Okay, if you haven’t figured it out yet I’ll spell it out for you: These guys are Bebop and Rocksteady! Then someone tells them to shut up and that they’ll be changed “when the Master wills it.” Turn the page and it’s…a generic ninja in a hoodie! With a silhouette of Shredder! Okay, obviously it’s Oroku Saki, his first appearance in the modern-day of the series. And then it’s over.

Plot-wise this is a very good issue—it’s a little thin on ‘actual’ content in that not a whole lot happens, just a lot of fighting, but we get introduced to several new characters right off the bat—the guys who will become Bebop and Rocksteady, new character Aloplex, and we see modern-day Oroku Saki’s first appearance. The subplot with Casey Jones, though, doesn’t get enough development. Casey is subtly telling Raph that he wants a real family as well and Raph is just all “Man Casey is a big whiner,” but then at the end of the issue he just goes and invites Casey to be part of his family. There *should* be a character development node here but Raph just kind of flips a switch and suddenly is accepting of Casey to his family. It’s…I dunno, abrupt?

I haven’t been mentioning the covers for TMNT so far because they’ve all been pretty good so I haven’t needed to comment, but I have to here: I don’t like the cover for this one. It looks too…modern, and smooth and airbrushed. (Apparently I got Cover B; Cover A looks much more in line with what I expect from this series.) In fact, the art in this issue isn’t the best either. Dan Duncan has been doing the art for the main series (with colours by Atomic Robo’s Ronda Pattison, who always does an amazing job!) but this issue sees art done by a Franco Urru, who apparently also did the cover I didn’t like. Explains a bit!
Anyway, the art is just…I don’t know, it doesn’t feel quite the same. I don’t like how he draws the Turtles’ mouths (he exaggerates their mouth lines a bit and it looks like their jaws are a separate body part, like they’re ducks or something) and I kind of get the feeling he’s trying to ape Dan Duncan’s look without fully doing it well. I do like how he draws Casey Jones though.

Overall this is a decent issue, and it’s good to know that Bebop and Rocksteady are going to be in the series, and Aloplex (while she has a kind of dumb name) is obviously going to have some other motive, which is going to make things interesting down the line.

Red 5’s Atomic Robo and The Ghosts of Station X #4: It’s Atomic Robo! If you aren’t reading it what the fuck is wrong with you?
I’m not going to go too in-depth with this one, just say that it’s good and you should buy it. I’m still occasionally frustrated with Wegener’s lack of background elements (many panels are literally dudes standing in front of blank walls) but it never hinders the real purpose of the book, which is insane amounts of technobabble dialogue that has a serious reality basis, wonderful characters, hilarious bits, and Robo punching things. Buy it!

Archie’s Mega Man #8: I didn’t read #7 before I read #8 and I won’t be reviewing #7. Just won’t, sorry.
Issue opens up with Mega Man and the detective lady surrounded by all the Robot Masters from Mega Man 1, plus Oil Man and Time Man. Roll is tied up. Mega Man tells Detective Lady that the only way to save her is for him to use all his powers that he’s accumulated and try to hold them off while she saves Roll. Mega Man is about to go through with this when the first six Robot Masters turn on Oil Man and Time Man. Surprise! They weren’t really re-re-reprogrammed by Wily, they were faking it. Light made them reprogram-proof!
The Robot Masters and Mega Man corner Time Man and Oil Man (and lots of puns happen!) while Mega Man goes to attack Wily only to find out—he’s a hologram! He got away before this issue even started! Damn it!
But there’s enough evidence to clear Dr. Light, so yay! Oil Man and Time Man are going to get reprogrammed to be good guys! Roll is safe! But that damn Dr. Wily is still on the loose out there, somewhere. And he’ll learn from this disaster. He’ll build eight Robot Masters.

It’s Archie’s Mega Man, what are you expecting? Though I think it’s lost its status as my favourite monthly book to TMNT, it’s right up there. It looks great every month, and it’s consistently written with the exact right tone—there are goofy moments and serious moments all throughout. I’m hoping, however, that Mega Man 2 will take a slightly darker turn as Wily sees Mega Man destroy what are ostensibly his children. (I SEE HIS HANDS, COVERED IN MY CHILDREN’S BLOOD!) Even if it doesn’t, though, I’ll be happy! (Although, also, I see that Quick Man is in the center of the Robot Masters shot—I’m hoping he isn’t made out to be the ‘leader’ of the MM2 Robot Masters. I’d rather see Quick Man or Metal Man in that position.) This book rules and you should be getting it. I don’t know if I can recommend not waiting for the trades, though, because the trades are dirt cheap. The first trade is already available and full retail price is only $12; Amazon has it for $10. The second comes out in March of next year and is already only $8. $8 won’t get you all of the issues individually! (Although, at $3 apiece, $12 would.)

DC’s Animal Man #4: I’ve been way behind on Animal Man. I was behind before it even started, waiting until a month in to get the first issue. (I decided to wait on the DCnU to see what books people considered the best. Animal Man still gets consistent praise and everyone seems to be liking it; Swamp Thing is another one that I’m not currently reading. I’ll get it in trades eventually.)

Backstory: Buddy used to be Animal Man but then he went home and was a Family Man but now he wants to be Animal Man again so he is. His body started having a bunch of weird red shit on it! (Part of a new status quo?) His daughter dug up a bunch of animal corpses that were animate, and is saying all kinds of weird shit about the red shit on Animal Man, like “they need to go to the tree and if the tree dies, everything dies.” The daughter starts exhibiting weirdass powers that Animal Man doesn’t have. She says they need to “go to the red place.” What ends up happening is Animal Man starts seeing the pathway—it’s an actual thing, somehow. He starts thinking that the Life Web (what connects him to all the animals of the world) is an actual place. Some dudes get overtaken by some weird animals that burst out of pregnant hippos. They know what The Red is and they want to stop Animal Man from getting there. Animal Man and his daughter get to the source of The Red and meet, apparently, all the old Animal Men from before! Was there an Animal Man before Buddy? I don’t know! They say that he was never supposed to be The Animal Man, like, the big-time dude with all the powers. That was his daughter. She’s next in line. And apparently she’s only four years old? (Jesus Christ, DC’s staff needs to spend more time around children, or have some, or something. This whole time I’ve thought she was at least eight. For that matter, how fucking old is her son? He says “badass” in one issue without any reprimand but says “Holy crap!” in another and his mother says, “Watch your mouth, young man!” In 2011. Yeah, whoever’s writing this…needs kids.) The monster dudes catch up and start fighting Animal Man. The wife and son, back in the rest of the world, ran away after being chased by a third dude who takes over a detective that Animal Man knows.

So, issue 4! Animal Man is getting eated by the monster dudes. The daughter yells! They go away! Animal Man talks to the elder Animal Men and wants some fucking answers—frankly, I’m with him. Turns out, those dudes are all previous Animal Men—avatars of the Life Web. When they die, they united with it, but a dark power started calling out to them called The Rot, and that’s what happened to them. I guess they’ll be our villains! Animal Man is basically told that he’s supposed to protect his daughter because she’s going to be very important and needs to learn how to control her powers. A previous avatar is going with him and says that a guy named Alec Holland (well I guess I HAVE to read Swamp Thing now) can help, and also he’s going with them. Also, turns out this avatar was a cat and not a man. Animal Man, his daughter and the cat fly back to Animal Man’s house to find it empty, because his wife and son went to his in-law’s ranch to hide out, but the third monster dude was following them disguised as the detective. He eats the detective (who is still alive) and the mom shows up with a shotgun and…cliffhanger ending!

Overall, Animal Man’s alright. It’s not as good as it was at the beginning, unfortunately—I don’t know why, maybe it’s just turning me off with this whole “The Red” thing I don’t understand. Obviously this arc is all about setting up a new status quo for the future of the book, which will be about Animal Man and the cat helping his daughter learn to cope with her new-found powers while also dealing with bad guys from the Rot, and I guess Swamp Thing is going to show up! (The dudes in The Red also mention “The Green” at one point so I guess they’re related.) Tying Animal Man and Swamp Thing together will probably be a great move. Honestly, I’m going to stick out Animal Man until the end of the second arc and if it hasn’t kept me grabbed by then, I’ll drop it.

[Sparky Prime]

Green Lantern #4
The Yellow Central Battery realizes Hal isn't Sinestro and aborts the teleportation process to the Anti-Matter universe, spitting him back out. Sinestro is over powered and both of the Green Lanterns are captured. Hal is sent to a power draining cell which quickly drains his ring, the last construct he makes with its power is an image of Carol. The Sinestro Corps attempts to remove his Green ring, but nothing works. They send him to the cells to drain its power, in a cell with many from the planet who want to kill Sinestro to force him to drain it faster. Hal in the next cell over suggests making rings for all of them, like the ring Sinestro gave Hal. Sinestro believes dividing the ring's energy like that will only give them 5 or 10 minutes of power, but with no other options, he does it. Only the inhabitants of Korugar turn their rings on Sinestro.

The ending would have more suspense to it if we didn't already know the ring Sinestro created for Hal has a fail safe to prevent it from harming Sinestro, which these rings likely have as well. Course the Korugarians don't know that. Don't really have much to say about this issue. Just doesn't feel like that much happened and is mostly setting up for the next issue as now there is a small group of Green Lanterns on the planet.

Green Lantern: New Guardians #4
Larfleeze's attack on the Guardians gives time for the other Lanterns to recover and fight back. Sayd suggests they leave immediately, when Ganthet attacks her. Kyle confronts him, while Ganthet tries to reason for Kyle to stay so they can study why the other rings chose him like that. Kyle decides Sayd is right and has Munk teleport them all away. On Okaar - Larfleeze's planet - Saint Walker restores Arkillo's tongue that Mongul had ripped out with a construct of Sinestro to calm him down. He's about to restore Bleez's sanity and presumably free her of her ring, but she flies off instead. Larfleeze explains he felt a force try to take his ring, but as his is the only Orange ring, and with Sayd's help, he was able to prevent it. Sayd discovered the source of the disturbance on the rings came from a White Hole in space, spewing out ships from another universe, until a ship the size of a solar system emerges, and inside she senses something of great power. Whatever stole the rings causing them to choose Kyle is inside of it.

So I guess Kyle is officially a fugitive now that he's rebelled against the Guardians and sided with the members of the other Corps. Bleez leaving I assume ties into events of the Red Lanterns where she gets her intellect back. I find it a little odd that the Guardians don't attempt to force Sayd back into their ranks like they did with Ganthet, instead Ganthet condemns her for having emotions. Looking forward to some more answers in the next issue.

Red Lanterns #4
Aware Bleez is plotting against him, Atrocitus tries to get information from other Red Lanterns, but finds them too unintelligible to get any definite answers, so he throws them into the blood ocean. They begin to remember themselves, and the trauma they experienced. While he waits for them to emerge, if they emerge, Atrocitus avenges Rage he feels elsewhere in the universe. There is so much, he knows he cannot see to all of it personally, he knows he will need to recruit more Red Lanterns... Elsewhere, we see the two brothers who lost their Grandfather to a mugger arguing. The police have shown up because one of them tried to firebomb the muggers house. Thinking the Red Lanterns have failed to survive the blood ocean, Atrocitus goes to confide in the corpse of Krona, only to find the body missing.

So we get some development on 3 more Red Lanterns in this issue, seeing a little of who they were before they became Red Lanterns. Atrocitus deciding he needs to recruit more Red Lanterns is setting up for a human to become a Red Lantern. And of course we have the mystery of who would take Krona's lifeless body.

Avengers The Children's Crusade #8
Dr. Doom asks Wanda to marry him and together with his new found powers from the Life Force itself, they will make Earth a paradise. As it's rulers of course. Wanda knows this power will corrupt him sooner or later and asks him to give it up. Not the answer he wanted, Doom teleports them back to New York, where Emma Frost puts Wanda to sleep. Wiccan explains what happened. With out the reality altering powers, Scott says at least they can bring Wanda to justice, but Speed argues many of the X-Men and Avengers have been evil or gone off the deep end at one point and yet are still part of the team, Wanda deserves the same chance. Doom appears and offers everything if they just accept him, which of course they don't. A battle starts and Wanda and Wiccan decide to open the portal to send Doom's new found powers back where they came from. It works and Doom is restored to normal, but in the aftermath of the battle it appears Cassie may have been killed.

The next issue is the last of the mini-series, so I expect it to mostly be wrap up given the battles seems to be over now. Supposedly this series will heavily lead up to the next Marvel event of X-Men vs. Avengers. Which makes sense given the two groups want to handle what to do about Wanda.

[Dominic]

Random reviews (because I did not go to the comic store last week and have no plans this week):

-Secret Avengers #1:
Not bad. Apparently, when the regular Avengers are not enough, Steve Rogers uses his presumably impressive rolodex to call in a really impressive team of Avengers. Well paced, and well focused. But, nothing about this issue makes me want to run out and buy the rest of the series. Grade: C

-Doomwar #6:
Oi. This thing read like a bad political parable, with vibranium as oil and comments about illegal wars. Oh, clever clever. And, then the heroes get stupid at the end and do not even consider whacking Doom, despite having every reason and opportunity to do so. Grade: F

52 (and Then Some): This is a compilation of the first year's worth of the "New Comic Day" web comic. This is definitely a work in progress. Even allowing for the disruptions made evident by creator comments and the (multiple) changes in artists, this is definitely rougher than many other web comics. 10 years ago, it would have been fine. But, now, it seems sub-par. It was not all bad, and there were a few chuckle worth moments. But, I am not going to be reading it every week. (Check it out at www.comicsrelated.com) Grade: C


Dom
-oh, I know what a few people *really* want me to post about.

[Dominic]

Okay, this week...

-More than Meets the Eye #1: see relevant thread.

-Cobra Annual: Going to read it later.

-New Avengers #20:
Obligatory fight issue. This is probably the last arc that I am in for, and may well be the last one before the inevitable reset. Unless this book blows my mind before summer though, I am likely to drop it. Grade: C

-Avengers Annual:
I do not recall what number annual this is. For that matter, it is also about 2 months late. (I am not even sure if I have the "New Avengers" annual that started the story concluded here. And, honestly, I do not much care.) There are some thematic similarities between this and "New Avengers" #20, with the team taking pretty serious PR hits. The end is pretty clear set-up for "Avengers v/s X-Men", which I plan to skip. Grade: C

-The List (Woverine):
Structured like an old style annual, with a main story, a back-up and an MU entry for one of the characters that shows up in this story. Over-all, a better read than I thought it would be, but nothing special. GradeL C

-Dark Avengers #7:
I skipped this issue as it was not written by Bendis and was part of a cross-over with the X-books. Fraction does a suprisingly good job writing Osborn and Daken. I might actually pick up the compilation of this arc at some point. Grade: B/C


Dom
-has more to read this week.

[Dominic]

To answer O6's question in the G1 comics section:


I am not reading Archie's "Mega Man" comic because the Archie house style of writing is bad.

For what I am sure are perfectly acceptable reasons, their house style is stuck in the damned 70s or low grade 80s. And, I just cannot read that sort of book in 2012.

I do not care that Archie has a fantastic distribution system that shames the big two and (especially IDW). I do not care that they are socially responsible and progressive at the same time. I just cannot get behind their product.


Dom
-it had to be said.

[138 Scourge]

Also, Archie's stories are instantly accessible. You can pick up an issue and read that and know what's going on. Every issue seems to have at least two complete stories and some gag strips. Furthermore, they're a smaller company, no big corporate master like Disney or Time-Warner. If you work at Archie and have an idea, you've only got to run it by one dude, giving them greater creative freedom than a lot of other companies. Put that way, I don't know why I don't read more Archie stuff myself.

[Dominic]

Well, how good are they really?

To use superhero comics as an analogy, how many times can you read about an established hero foiling a bank robbery, even if the bank robbery was orchestrated as part of a scheme by an established adversary?

I had the same problem with "Power Rangers" to the point that I gave up on the show very early in the run, despite *really* wanting to like it. (Even the hot as hell female rangers were not enough to hold my teen-age interests.) The episodes were as formulaic and redundant as the stock footage of the Zords and Rangers. (At least the monster footage changed every episode. But, even then, the monsters only had 2 or 3 patterns that were repeated over the course of many episodes, with occassional multi-parters.)


And, being accessible does not deal with the fact that the house style is damn near unreadable.


Dom
-fully admits that accessibility is vital.