Nova # 12 - Nova's self is great!

When I started collecting comics, one of the first issue I read was Uncanny X-Men 312 and 313 which dealt with the Phalanx. Frankly the concept freaked me out. So when the Phalanx merged with Ultron, the idea made me metaphorically pee myself. I thought it was quite possibly the coolest thing I had heard. Now Annihilation Conquest has wrapped up and although I don't think it was as good as Annihilation itself was, I did like several things that it did and the characters that it effected.

Nova was one of those characters. When he caught the virus, I thought, "Well shit, he's dead!" Then after the annual which gave a look at his future and that he was going to have to fight the virus everyday for the rest of his life and he wouldn't always be able to be the bad ass that he currently is, bummed me the fuck out. I love to hate the Phalanx because they destroy everything in their path with no cure. It also made me realize just how much I liked this character and what's being done with him. I honestly don't think I could find five characters in comics that I care about right now, but I think Nova would be at the top or at least second on the list.

Thankfully issue Twelve came out (And yeah I stole the picture I already put my issue away and it gives Midtown some free press, so what!) With number Twelve, Nova was cured of the virus by the sacrifice of Warlock. Then Tylo (Warlock's protégé) kicks the crap out of his Dad or something and has a bunch of life spark to share. I gave out a rewarding sigh as Drax and Gamora (it's either Gamora or Gomora I can't remember and I'm lazy) are cured of their virus as well. Gamora didn't take it too well and that made me really, really love the book. Each week I buy about 30 comics and each week their might be one or two that I've got to read first. Thankfully Nova always comes out on time, because I've got to read it first. Guardians of the Galaxy is coming out soon and frankly I just can't wait.

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Marvel Knights - Logan, By: Brian K. Vaughan

Issue two you say? Well yes that's correct this is issue two that I'm reviewing because more than likely you didn't get to read issue one because it was under ordered and quite popular, or hey screw you I didn't feel like writing anything for issue one because I for one felt like nothing happened in the issue to warrant a review.

As for issue two though? Let's say the story takes a mighty leap forward from the first issue which was fine because the first issue was just laying the foundation that the next two issues would take place in. Vaughn also adds history to Logan's character (Even if Marvel can't make up their mind about whether or not Wolvie was in Germany, Russia or Japan during WWII) that adds a great deal of depth to the story. Even though the third issue is sure to be mostly fighting a seemingly unstoppable character, the issue should tie up the mini nicely and add yet another successful check mark on Marvel's Knight Line which has become mini series telling the stories in-between the events that made them the people they are. The art is also very fitting and the colorist does a great job of bringing the book to life. My comic shop guy said it best when he called the artist Frank Miller junior. I would definitely say that he's doing his best to homage Miller and Claremont's six issue series from the 80's. All in all it's a very good book but it would probably be easier to read and find in trade paper back form.

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Young X-Men - How the mutant population seems to grow when you start a new book!

Young X-Men... where to begin? I'd definitely say it's the best thing written by Guggenheim that I've read... is that saying much? Probably not. Also it was better than the last few issues of New X-Men (Before Messiah Complex) which were really crappy. The art is very good and if sales sink or the book gets enough support just because of the X-Men in the title, Marvel will probably pull him off the book and put some "up and comer" on it and pretty much make it unreadable.

I don't like Guggenheim writing "core" X-Character's like Cyclops and Wolverine. His Wolverine run sucked and was frankly just ridiculous, you should never have to rip-off your rip-off and no I'm not going to explain. Why after Messiah Complex does Cyclops have to be a shady mother fucker? Their making him worse then Professor X was and it wasn't until recently that they made PX a piece of shit. Even though I like what Brubaker is doing on Uncanny I still think that his PX is completly out of character. My original point is that Cyclops has not one, but two secret teams. There's X-Force (Not very good either, but again great art!) and now Young X's.

The first story line is already very lazy since it flashes between the past and the present narriated by Blindfold (Shitty name, shitty power!) and one of the youngin's is going to die... I hope it's Wolf Boy or whatever his dumb name is. Aside from fighting old X-Men villains which means that were once again going to be reading recycled story lines from a better writer, there's the fact that two of the members were in the process of killing someone when Cyclops showed up in the middle of the room offering, "Another way," but hey there's only 203 mutants to choose from, and with their rate of causality it'll be like 190 by the end of the year... wait how many died in Messiah? Like twelve? Well pretty soon Jubilee will have her own book again... huh? She's on the New Warriors team? Sigh... Marvel what are you doing some times...

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Secret Invasion - Because I Just Had To!

The Invasion is upon us and finally we can stop seeing "Who do you trust in the corner of every Marvel book, and can move on to seeing large head shots of Iron Man instead. So what is Secret Invasion? Well do you read comic books? Yes? Okay then I'm not going to explain it to you because you should already know and if you don't read Marvel... then you don't care any ways. If you by chance answered "No" to the above questions then I'll say that this book isn't for you and that really you should start reading a book two to three years in the making unless you just want to read a good story that will again change the face of the Marvel U yet again.

Since no one that's going to read this is here to hear what the story is about and that pretty much everyone is doing exactly what I did and asked someone who already read it if it was any good, I'll just get on with it and tell you!

It was a good start... it had some interesting reveals, but since all the cards were on the table I can't say I'm really going to be shocked or pissed off like some people may end up being. If anything the last few pages are what got my attention the most but I see Bendis following in Loeb's foot step's and ending the book with a cliffhanger that makes you want to read the very next page and then instantly stop caring about the nine that follow. I hope this isn't the case and the Loeb isn't ruining the few good writers that Marvel has. We'll have to see how this book plays out, it should be interesting to see if there are anymore Skrull reveals and if the Skrull Kill Krew will show up (I hope, I hope!) If anything after this book I'll be a little sad if we no longer have characters around that were once there. Like I said though, the books off to a good start but it's too early to tell if it's really that good. I'll say Four out of Five :)

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Quick Hits - Worth the read... For the most part

Let's get right into it shall we?
Potter's Field #2 - So it's only a mini-series huh? That sucks because this is one of the best books I've ever read! Issue two was no let down as John is inadvertently set up by one of his operatives over a woman... kinda of. Really I don't want to say to much other than Paul Azaceta is just really good at drawing action and having it make sense! If you've ever read a comic that wasn't superhero action you know that sometimes you have to really study the page to figure out what the hell the characters are talking about because the Artists' skills where inadequate in expressing the Writer's story. I'm really hoping that there's either more mini-series or they just turn it into an on-going series because I really can't wait till issue three and I'll be sad once I read it since that will be it for the mini. Seriously can't stop thinking about how good the book is, I really think Azaceta has a spell over me or he just works story book magic with this and Talent. I can't wait to see what he does next.

Black Panther #31 - Dear Mr. Hudlin, please get Black Panther and Storm away from the FF because you're story lines with them are very boring and it is not what I like about this book. Thank you. Seriously I couldn't even remember what issue 30 was about and I didn't read it that long ago. This book needs to get Panther back to earth and doing things other than fighting B list FF villains. Issue 32 seems like it's going to suck even more than this issue and I hope the Thing does kill the frogs... or something cool happens I don't care at this point I just want to like the book again.

Crime Bible #1 - I'd say my only grip with this book are the ridiculously long titles and the fact that DC can't seem to pick a cover and stick with it. Otherwise I'd say that Rucka does a great job with the new Question in making her a character and not an annoying character. The Crime Bible itself is an interesting concept and the fact that the Question knows so much about it is interesting. It's almost helping her know the future or something, or I'm reading to far into it. The art was fitting and unlike other DC mini's it was actually good! Not one of there random assholes who draws everyone the same and has shitty inker that can't cover up their rough penciling. There were some art issues on the sub-characters but overall much better than other mini's by DC. But the Question didn't ask any questions? Kinda the point of the character no?


Fantastic Four #550 - I love the fact the McDuffie loves the character Gravity, because so do I! Finally Black Panther and Storm depart the book. What a cool concept ruined by the fact that Reed and Sue were still in the book the entire time. If it hadn't been for that fact it would have been a pretty cool run of the book. I remember when the FF would have different team members like all the time it seems but now... well they could barely go an issue without the old team which is sad really since the book has a lot of potential. But the family is back together and now we can stop having really shitty Black Panther and Thing dialog which was never funny and really it seemed like the Thing hated Black Panther. Also Johnny hasn't said shit in the book for like four issues. Where's the wise cracks?

Lord Havok and the Extremists - So I haven't read the Countdown issue that ties into this book, and I know nothing about Lord Havok but I guess it was kind of a big deal that he was back. To me he seems like a DC's Red Skull and that dude with the shield seems like a poor man's version of Awesome Comic's poor man version of Captain America, and if you check out DC's original cover posted on their site you'll probably see the same thing I did. Otherwise it was just another Super-Villain organizing more villains. Seems to be a trend in Comics right now. I guess the publishers realized that if the Villains just show up and get their asses beat that it's not a very interesting story. Frankly this issue was a snooze fest and it took the whole book to finally get to... well something! Any thing! I'll probably get issue two just to figure out what the hell the book is about before I give it the axe.


Black Summer #3 - Does this book get any cooler? Yes it does. I just wish everyone would stop talking about how the book is going to change the future of comics and how it blows this book or that book out of the water. Frankly let the book be what it is and the readers will decide what it does to the future of comics not the media and news zines. Surprise, surprise, Tom's powers still work and man he has some bad ass powers. He suits up and goes out to prove to the other's that surrendering is not an option and gets blown up by a tank... yeah right! I'm sure he'll show up in the next issue alive and well but that's how the issue leaves you. Fantastic story and the art is just getting better and better some how. No flashbacks in this issue though, I missed that.

What If?... Planet Hulk - There's two stories in this book and only one of them is worth reading. The first story is the cover, they recap everything for the 50th time about Planet Hulk and this time his Queen lives and wants revenge. They don't show the Hulk's son because I'm sure it's going to come into play one day in the future and I'm also sure it will suck. As for the other story it's about what would have happened if the Hulk had landed on the right planet. It's a fun story as the Hulk and Banner take turns screwing the other over, leaving themselves in a more and more secluded area and having to find a way out of it. But while there the Hulk and Banner end up protecting a species from purple snake creatures. In the end Banner and Hulk merge into one perfect being. Only part that bothered me was the fact that Banner killed one of the things to and was eating it but hey whatever.

Action Comics #858 - Does it seem like Action Comics comes out a lot to you too? I mean I just bought 3 issue of this book and I had only stopped buying comics for a month! Gary Frank is far to good and be working at DC but for some reason everyone and their mother wants to work on Superman, not that theres anything really groundbreaking or interesting to happen to Superman since his death, but everyone still has this dream of working on the book. Finally DC starts answering some questions about all the Legions running around and the Lightning Saga questions get answered as well. Supes goes to the future and is powerless! Why? Red Sun! But wait a red sun doesn't instantly drain him of powers but slowly right? Not true I guess because Supes gets shot through the hand! But its okay because he doesn't respond with a painful cry or anything just a lot of talking from the Legionaries... Hopefully he'll find Supergirl and bring her out of Legions book that way DC can cancel the book yet again. The art was amazing even if once again I feel I've missed what the hell happened with General Zod? Can someone tell me what book to read that explains it?

New Avengers #35 - Once again a Super-villain is organizing other villains, but I actually really like it. I liked it so much I'd rather read a book about the Hood and the villains than another Superhero book since the whole initiative thing is getting a little old. I didn't like the fact that Tigra had to be beaten down and made an example of. She was already in character dumps-ville thanks to shitty writing. Also I thought Jigsaw was in Punisher? I could be wrong but I think Marvel messed up again and maybe I read to many books! Yu's art is amazing and anyone that thinks otherwise can stop reading one of the best comics out there. No other book has been as consistently good as New Avengers and it actually comes out on time! As for the story... well read it yourself! It's really cool and finally gives you some insight as to what Bendis has been sitting on for over a year.


Doktor Sleepless #3 Bastard of Tomorrow - And now the book makes sense! The Nurse's past is partially revealed and one heck of a real world concept is dropped on our lap. Digging through the website I found the Warren Ellis has some really dedicated fans that already have tattoo's from this book even though it's not even finished! Basically John tells his captors that he's created a phantom of himself and that the phantom is carrying on his work for him. Or is the phantom the one locked away? We also meet the man who raised John... and he's probably going to try and kill him.

Thunderbolts #117 - Another Ellis book that's also Really good! Yeah I guess that's not saying much. What is saying much is the fact that Ellis gave Doc Samson a haircut and made him less of an annoying jackass that constantly betrays other heroes for the Government. Oh and Penance is really fucked up! I had my doubts about how Ellis was handling the character but wow he really knocked it out of the park with this issue! Green Goblin finds his mask in his desk freaking him out which should be really cool with how crazy the team's getting. I think that's Ellis' ultimate goal to tear the team apart and rebuild it differently and new, you just have to wait for this one to erupt which should also be cool to watch.

Ah! It feels good to pump out some Quick Hits, yeah I know I complained some but I needed to get it out of my system. Pick up the books that sound interesting for you and feel free to share some opinions on the same books or others! Thanks!

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Comic Book Day - Marvel Duo (Now with Previews)

Ah, Comic Book Day! Welcome again to another Comic Book Day review, no doubling up this week so look for Worth Every Penny later today or tomorrow. Another two Marvel books but I promise that next week will be a Marvel Free Comic Book Day. Today though, we have Captain America #30 and Penance: Relentless #1. Two great writers and potentially two great books.

Captain America #30 - What a huge issue this is, I'll try to only ruin half of it since it'll be pretty hard not to ruin anything by talking about it. The Winter Soldier faces Crossbones and Sin... and hands them their asses! Bucks got a great line where he asks Sin if she's ever gone up against anyone will real training or that wasn't an innocent bystander, great line! Tony reads Steve's letter that was personally addressed to him and frankly makes me miss the old Steve and Tony. In fact the only time I've like Iron Man as of late was in Cap's book, he's annoying and pretty much just sucks in every title that he's in. Also he's in every title which is very annoying. Nobody liked it when Nick Fury did that shit either, keep that in mind Marvel. Sharron has TWO big moments in this book and I can't tell you either but after the break there will be one of the two revealed in the preview pages so be warned! So how do you have a book that doesn't even have it's main character? Well you give it to Ed Brubaker and let him work his magic. I have to say I'm very glad that he left DC, because I don't think they'd ever let him do what he's doing at Marvel.

Penance: Relentless #1 - If you read Civil War: Frontlines you probably ended up more impressed with it, then the actual Civil War. From the pages of Frontline we received Speedball reborn as Penance. Paul Jenkins took one of the worst characters in comics and made him a character first of all, but also interesting. I'm behind on reading Thunderbolts, but I decided to read this first any ways. The story follow Penance as he is rebuilding his personality after Stamford (See Civil War) and how his brain is dealing with the events. He's under constant supervision and knows it, he also keeps a journal filled with numbers. At this point it's anybodies guess as to what they mean, but Norman Osborn tries to give us some insight as to what he thinks they mean. The Thunderbolts get deployed to stop a Latverian terrorist cell from giving launch codes for missiles pointed at Latverian. The missiles were suppose to be disarmed of course and Doom and Latverian don't know that they aren't so the Bolts are deployed to keep the secrets not the piece. Penance takes down the whole terrorist cell single handed, and let's one of them escape to deliver a message to Doom. Needless to say, any message delivered to Doom demanding something from him is going to result in a not so friendly encounter with Doom at some point in the book. I was rather impressed with this issue, the art was great and the story hooked me, Jenkins and Gulacy are a fine team together and definitely have a hit here.

Here's a SPOILER WARNING for Captain America, so read at your own risk. Also I've included the first few pages of Penance for you to get hooked on.

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Worth Every Penny and Comic Book Day Double Header

Since it's Comic Book Day we've got a review, but I also thought it would be cool if I did a double article and make it a Worth Every Penny as well. Today we've got two Marvel books, since Marvel released the most books this week let's see which one is worth your 3 bucks plus tax shall we.

Ghost Rider #15 - Daniel Way has managed to make the Ghost Rider the new Peter Parker, where life just dumps on him constantly. If you haven't been reading Ghost Rider I'll recap briefly for you. The Devil has escaped Hell, but has been shattered into... you guessed it 666 pieces, and these pieces have taken over recently dead's bodies. Ghost Rider is tracking down and killing each body which makes the remaining bodies that much stronger. In this issue two angel's are born over night from a teenage girl, her Mom who was ripping the shit out of her in the last issue all the sudden wants to take care of her and when the girl has to leave on a mission with the angel babies the mom gives her, her muscle car that's probably worth more than the house they're living in. Devil set's GR up with two problems: Stop a stadium of people from blowing up (which he doesn't actually know about yet) or save a little league group of kids that are being held some where. It's a quick read but frankly that's due to the fact that it's not very interesting and Way's strong point isn't dialog and never will be. I've decided to stop reading Ghost Rider with this issue since it's become the same thing over and over each issue. Whereas the initial idea was cleaver, tracking down a new piece of Satan each issue gets rather boring when they all end the same way. Also I get the fact that GR doesn't care if the innocent get hurt because he'll just have more avenging to do, and the Johnny Blaze aspect of it just isn't interesting enough to keep me caring. All it takes to stop Johnny's control of GR is a bonk on the head and GR pops back in. We'll see how long this latest series lasts, but for me the road to vengeance stops here!

Punisher War Journal #11 - For starters don't let the cover fool you Olivetti is not doing the interiors of the book which is a shame because he really makes up for a lot of story telling aspects that Fraction isn't able to write and or director the artist to do. This is one of those issue where the main character isn't even in half the book. I don't know who started this trend, I remember when I first read an issue and the character wasn't in it I was like wow that's a good writer to be able to do it. Let's just say Fraction isn't there yet. The book spends most of it's time with G.W. Bridge and Ian the fake cop from some issues back. Iron Man is trying to talk Bridge out of retirement and Ian is being brainwashed into possibly being the next Punisher. Both stories where pretty boring and I've really have found myself not caring about Bridge, I don't like his character and whatever Fraction is trying to do with him just isn't interesting. Every time he shows up I let out a big sigh and wait for it to be over. As far as Ian the fake cop is concerned, I don't even know his character to care about what he's going through. The Punisher and Winter Soldier do not square off in this book, they barely have a tussle if you can call it that so don't expect the few pages they spend together to be action packed or the battle you've waiting for because it's not. Overall this was a disappointing issue for me since I've just read the last six issue of the series all in a row, when I got to this one it was kind of a road block and I'm left wondering if I should pass it.

The Winner: And not by much is Punisher War Journal #11, at least the few pages of dialog between the Punisher and WS were more interesting then the whole of Ghost Rider, and Punisher's "shock ending" might lead to a better storyline in the next issue so spend your 3 bucks on Pun rather than the Rider.
Preview Pages after the break.

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Comic Book Day - Incredible Hulk 110

We're coming at you with a second helping of Comic Book Day reviews and yes it's another Marvel book because I haven't reviewed anything Marvel for a while and I just got caught up on my Incredible Hulk/World War Hulk reading. For starters I don't think this issue should have come out before WWH #4, but it did so oh well. Also WWH really hasn't been that cool as of late because so many books aren't dealing with it (Like Spider-Man, the X-Men in their own titles, etc.) so it doesn't feel like it's really happening.

This issue takes the oppurtunity to remind us yet again that Tony, Reed, Strange and Bolt rocket the Hulk into space and inadvertently killed the Hulk's planet, wife and unborn child. Frankly speaking if they remind me of this one more time it's really going to make me not care about the event which would suck because it was a good storyline and a touching Hulk moment. After all what was the prologue for it not to tell us what they keep reminding us of. At any rate Amadeus Cho has infiltrated Madison Square Garden which has been turned into a Gladiator Arena. After a feel misunderstandings Cho presents an idea to the Hulk, he's apparently stolen 1.2 Billion dollars from Archangel (Who I don't think is that rich and if he is that would still hurt him bad!) and bought the original testing site that made the Hulk and a bunch of land around it. With his device anything that's not Gamma made, like the Hulk, would go numb upon entering the field and anything electronic would shut down upon entering the field. So no one could bother the Hulk or bomb the Hulk.

Except that's not what the Hulk wants. Cho then goes on to tell the Hulk he's not a killer and goes through his past and debunks everyones beliefs on who he's actually killed and what not. The body count is surprisingly low in Cho's favor (who's arguing the Hulk isn't a killer to the Hulk who's arguing that he is a killer). Cho drops a bombshell on us though... the Hulk sees in numbers like he does. Meaning he can see all the risks of his every move, and where civilians are and how to destroy tanks and helicopters without killing anyone. It really rings true, even throughout WWH he still hasn't killed anyone. Hulk still tells him to eat shit and Scorpion blasts him with a new concoction that messes with him bad, and while he's down for the count Amadeus tells the Hulk that every thing, is his own fault and that he is a monster. It's pretty a great line, and Cho uses it to push the Hulk in to a fury of rage. The Hulk's response of course is to smash, and he buries Cho alive but uninjured as we find out when he's freed by Herc.

There's a lot of good stuff happening in this book, even if Amadeus Cho has taken over the title for the most part. I just wish the Hulk wasn't a broken record in each issue and it always kinda seems like something has to attack him in each issue of WWH and IH. I'm still looking forward to the ending of WWH and seeing the new ramifications it has on the Marvel U, but I don't think this is a storyline is one for the history books.

Preview pages enjoy!

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Comic Reviews! - Ultimate Powers 6

So it's Comic Time and up today Marvel Comics! (I'm trying to get them to send me preview issues, wink, wink, and if they do I'll review them!) On with the review!

Ultimate Power #6 (of 9)

Straczynski
Land
Leisten
Ponsor

This is Stracynski's (Amazing Spider-Man, Thor) last issue on the Mini and Mark Millar will be taking over for the final three of the series. So the Power's team and Ultimates go head to head with each other and find that... guess what? There evenly matched! It's still pretty cool to see two speedsters go up against each other and actually fight! I know! They actually fought! Also it was cool because it showed the perspective of outside the speedsters fight and inside the fight as well. The story didn't really move to much except at the end. The Power's Team's Evil Doctor gases Reed making pretty much everyone hate him that much more; and Fury reveals even more so that he's an evil fuck. And Doom's back... again... he's the new Magneto of dying a thousands times and coming back. Although it was pretty cool that he's a threat to Hyperion and company. Otherwise it was a pretty good issue in the declining Ultimate Universe, hopefully Marvel will put some effort back into the line instead of leaving well enough alone. Here's some pages revealing Doom's big come back after the break! I give it a solid 9.0.

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