Flash Review - 11/16/11

Avengers Academy #22 – The best part of this issue was the intersecting of the two big stories going on right now: ReGenesis and Shattered Heroes.  It also brought us something we don’t get to see enough of, Quicksilver and Magneto.  Whenever these two hotheads get together, you just always know that it’s going to be explosive.  Other highlights: the return of Wizkid! Finesse has feelings!  And Hazmat makes inappropriate lesbians jokes at Lightspeed!  And in all this excitement, Cyclops still managed to find time to be a douche and push his newly acquired war mongering attitude.

Fear Itself #7.3: Iron Man – Just like most the the Fear Itself epilogues, this one was boring.  Yeah Iron Man fought Odin and we saw the Grey Gargoyle repent for what he had done, but who cares?  They’ve just officially dragged out Fear Itself so far that I just don’t care anymore.  It was an alright issue but it was a story that could have just been told in Iron Man’s own book.

Generation Hope #13 – Finally this title is kicking into high gear.  I’ve been reading Hope’s little adventures for months, wishing I had just burned my $3.99 instead, but now I actually find myself getting excited about what’s happening in them.  I love Pixie joining a team for real and I’m very intrigued by Velocidad’s aging problem.  The more I get to know him, the more he seems like he would belong more over in Avengers Academy with all of their power induced problems.  So excited about seeing Sebastian Shaw next issue, and I can’t wait to see how he handles Emma dumping him on an island and Namor finding out he’s alive.

Fear Itself: The Fearless #3 – BORED!  I don’t even care about these damn hammers anymore.  This honestly should have been a story that popped up next year or longer, when people had just started to forget about the hammers and then they come back.  All I see when I see #3 is “oh god there’s 9 more issues to this!”  And to make it worse, they threw the Secret Avengers in there (the worst Avengers team around) just to makes it more angsty and boring.  EPIC FAIL.

New Mutants #34 – Woo Hoo!  Blink is back and not evil!  Thank god!  I was never a fan of how they killed her during the Phalanx Covenant and never brought her back, other than her AOA version, (and I was even more against her being brought back as evil during Necrosha) so I am so excited to see her being tracked down by the New Mutants and even helping people.  Maybe she will follow X-man’s example and join the New Mutants when this is all over.  Although let’s not forget that there’s this weird “Diskhord” group doing god knows what…..I just really hope she doesn’t die.

X-Factor #227 – I’ve never had such negative feelings about an issue that I truly enjoyed before.  We were told in all the promos that this issue a cast member would die.  Since they already pulled the “kill Madrox’s dupe” thing years ago (you know, in Fallen Angels and X-Factor #100) I really didn’t think that they would even go for that…but they did!  And the only twist they bothered to throw in was that TWO dupes were killed and the first dupe killed the second dupe!  SHOCKER!  I have to be honest, I almost hope that someone else dies next issue because that was a huge disappointment.  Now on the other hand, we’ve suspected for several issues that there might be some issues with Guido because of Layla reviving him, but according to Bloodbath’s powers he really doesn’t have a soul!  Very interesting development!

X-men #21 – This book is going to be awesome any day now!  They’ve added some new and better cast members like Psylocke, Domino and Warpath, now all we need is cooler and more interesting stories.  Ever since this book started, they just haven’t been turning out the interesting stories that a core X-titles should be expected to.  First we had that crappy vampire storyline, then the Spider-man/Lizard stupidness, moving onto the the Evolutionaries (which wasn’t that bad but took too long), and let’s not forget that less than epic FF arc that we had to endure.  I am sure that with Storm finally taking a more leadership-like role (or at least it seems that way) things will brighten up in this book but so far the progress has been slow…

My Weekly Pull List - 11/23/11

Wow, talk about a week where I can breathe1 I've been enjoying the slower weeks since Fear Itself wound down, but only 6 regular books (plus Fantastic Four which I'm only getting for an issues or two) is unheard for the better part of the last year!  Really lets me enjoy the issues I DO get :)

Alpha Flight #6

Annihilators: Earthfall #3

Astonishing X-Men #44

Avengers: Solo #2

Fantastic Four #600

Secret Avengers #19 SH

Wolverine & the X-Men #2 RG

RG = ReGenesis

SH = Shattered Heroes

Marvel Comics On-sale - 11/23/11

 Alright!  No Fear Itself epilogue nonsense this week! 
Alpha Flight #6

Annihilators: Earthfall #3

Astonishing X-Men #44

Avengers Origins: Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver #1

Avengers: Solo #2

Avengers: Solo #2 (Movie Variant)

Brilliant #2

Brilliant #2 (Oeming Variant)

Brilliant #2 (Mack Variant)

Captain America & Bucky #624

Daken: Dark Wolverine #17

Fantastic Four #600

Invincible Iron Man #510

Invincible Iron Man #510 (MC 50th Anniversary Variant)

Iron Man 2.0 #10

Kapow! Guinness World Record Special #1

Kick-Ass 2 #5

Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #20

The Mighty Thor #8

Secret Avengers #19 SH

Secret Avengers #19 (MC 50th Anniversary Variant) SH

Ultimate Comics Hawkeye #4

Vengeance #5

Wolverine & the X-Men #2 RG

Wolverine & the X-men #2 (MC 50th Anniversary Variant) RG

RG = ReGenesis
SH = Shattered Heroes

Shattered Roster! - Review Avengers #19

I have some definite mixed feeling about this one folks!  Some really awesome developments happened this issue, but then again some really questionable (if not downright douchey) decisions were also made.  They stretched this roster change out for 2 full issues, and all I can say is I was definitely thrown by some of the people that did and did not make the cut.  

For one thing, I am intrigued by the U.S.Agent scene at the very beginning.  They haven’t really been showing John Walker very much lately and its interesting to see a scene with him being berated by Maria Hill since he’s never really been one to take scolding very well.  I almost wouldn’t be surprised if he showed up on Wonder Man’s Revengers team.  I also appreciated that Tony and Steve both agreed to leave the New Avengers alone.  It’s bad enough that they gave Luke’s team the mansion and then came and crashed there right after the first big crisis, I don’t think it would go very well if they tried to rearrange his team too.  

Onto the new roster…Welcome to the Avengers Daisy Johnson and…Storm?!  OK I like seeing Daisy (aka Quake) move up in the superhero world and joining the Avengers (it’s like when Cannonball finally got to join the X-men), she’s definitely earned it after all her time with Nick Fury and his Secret Warriors.  Storm as an Avenger, I have to be honest, I am a little less sold on.  I don’t mean to sound separatist but there was a time when there was the Avengers, the Fantastic Four and the X-men.  Cut and dry.  There was there occasional mixing of members (like when Beast joined the Avengers or She-Hulk joined the Fantastic Four) but for the most part they all stayed in their respective teams.  Now we have Wolverine and Thing with the Avengers, Spider-man on the Fantastic Four, Namor with the X-men, and it’s all a huge mess!  With the conclusion of Schism and the division of the X-men, Storm just planted herself firmly on the West Coast with Cyclops’ team and now what?  She’s going to be bi-coastal like Wolverine was for so long?  Also, how will she have time for regular missions with the Avengers if she is going to be leading her own team of X-men over in X-men (Vol. 3)? I know many people will point towards Wolverine and say, “Well it works when he does it”… No it doesn’t!  That doesn’t mean I don’t think she would be a great Avenger, because I think she’s perfect, but I would prefer her to be just leading over in X-men.  I also somewhat question Red Hulk’s fast acceptance into the ranks of the team without question since they don’t know who he really is and they have always been completely distrustful of the original Hulk despite his being a founding member.  Last but not least, the Vision is back!  Now I am a little confused because I thought that the Vision that pals around with the Young Avengers was made from the remains of the destroyed Vision but apparently the remains were just laying around waiting to be fixed...so he’s back.  I’m a bit “whatever” about him though, without Wanda back on the team to make it exciting with him, he’s not really that interesting.

                And what the hell happened with Spider-man and Wolverine?  Spidey is completely right, he and Wolverine should be completely pissed off and offended that they were not only dismissed from the team, but they weren’t even told about it!  They went not even aware that they were being dismissed from the team until they watched the new roster walk out without them.  Now granted they are both still on the New Avengers (although I could have sworn that Spider-man quit before Fear Itself started because of Victoria Hand), and I don’t entirely think the two of them should be Avengers anyway, I would think after everything they have both been through for the Avengers that they both deserved at least a sit down chat with Steve Rogers letting them know that they Avengers contract was not renewed, especially Wolverine since he was replaced by one of his best friends.

                Overall, I hugely approve of the new roster.  It wasn’t a complete overhaul, we kept many of the characters that have been with us since this volume’s beginning, and we added some fun powerful new members with Quake and Storm.  Even with my reservations about Storm and my griping about Spider-man and Wolverine’s release from the team I still think this is going to be a great line-up to follow.  It goes without mentioning that Steve Rogers is back leading the Avengers as Captain America!  Obviously the beginning of a bold new era for this ever-evolving team.