Tuesday, December 6, 2011

My Weekly Pull List - 12/7/11


I wasn't sure I was going to grab it, but its looks just too interesting to pass up and this was a small week so I've decided to pick up Defenders #1 and see how I feel about it in the coming months.  ::sigh:: Back to Fear Itself stories...yay...  X-Factor and X-Force wrap up their pre-ReGenesis storylines with both a BloodBath and Death.  ReGenesis keeps on going in spectacular fashion with X-Club #1 and X-men #22!  And can I say how nice it is to have X-heavy weeks again??

Defenders #1
Fear Itself: The Fearless #4 FI
Uncanny X-Force #18
X-Club #1 RG
X-Factor #228
X-Men #22 RG

FI = Fear Itself
RG = ReGenesis

Monday, December 5, 2011

Flash Review - 11/30/11


Angel & Faith #4 – Weeeeeeeeeird!  The best part of the Season 9 titles is that they really brought each character’s tone back to where it was at the BEST point in their shows.  Buffy is back to being very tongue in cheek, quirky and fun while Angel is back the more macabre, dark tone from its earlier seasons on television.  I kinda thought that the villains of the arc were stupid, but the story, the purpose behind the story was very clear and well received.  It wasn’t about bringing Giles back entirely, and it definitely wasn’t about two bitter ex-minions from Angel’s Twilight days.  It was about reestablishing the relationship between Angel and Faith, the slayer has can trust to always watch out for him.  I can’t wait to see where this dynamic duo goes next.

Fantastic Four #600 – I wasn’t going to buy this when it came out last week but this week was such a small pull that I decided to grab it.  Well as far as landmark, company-wide, anniversary 600th issues go, it wasn’t half bad.  This multi-story 100 page spectacular offered up everything that a Fantastic Four fan would crave…up to and including the return of beloved Johnny Storm.  I’m not really that big of a Fantastic Four fan and to me the return came too soon and too easy.  A little over a year ago they made a huge deal over a member dying, the Fantastic Four being cancelled and a new Future Foundation rising from its ashes.  Instead we got an 11 month spin off before they take back everything they did and now we’re left with both titles to collect.  Well I say thee nay!  While I know I swore I was stopping both after this month, I have decided that I like the quirky gang of miscreants in the Future Foundation.  So as long as it’s the story is about the kids I will continue to collect FF, but I will not be further collecting Fantastic Four.  I know Johnny’s back, I read how it happened, they told me everything I need to know regarding the matter and now I’m good. 

FF #12 – Expanding upon what I wrote above.  I love this group of random creatures and oddities so much more than their Fantastic adult counterparts, and lead by Valeria I can only imagine where they can go!  I am a huge fan of the original run of X-Factor so I’ve loved Artie and Leech for years, got really into Alex Powers during his time with the New Warriors (as well as recently getting into the original Power Pack series), and always had a fondness for Franklin Richards so this series has turned into a bit of a guilty pleasure for me.  I’ve even grown to like some of the unfamiliar faces like Dragon Man, the moloids, and that rascal Bentley.  I’m even a fan of Doom being such a large part of the team, something I was never really comfortable with, but one person I am not a fan of is this new Nathanial Richards character.  Now I may not regularly read Fantastic Four, but I did back in the 90’s when everyone thought Reed Richards was dead and I was a fan of the version of Nathanial Richards with the cybernetic eye from that era.  I’m not entirely clear on where this guy came from and how he’s different from the old version of Nate, but I hope he mostly keeps to the Fantastic Four title and not so much this one.

Ghost Rider #6 – See now we’re gonna have a problem.  Because I’ve been complaining about this title and its lack of interesting stories and how I don’t like Alejandra as Ghost Rider.  Now this issue rolls around and the storytelling is great!  I love the cursed village of murders and the one man who wanted to change everything.  And in the midst of loving this story, I was still so bored to tears by Alejandra.  So that just means SHE’S the problem.  I couldn’t be more disappointed by this, and I mean that.  This miserable depressing girl is just too boring to read, and I almost don’t want to be bothered.  The only reason I am continuing to collect this title is so I don’t miss it if they HAPPEN to do some story with Johnny Blaze or (god forbid) Zarathos.  But that will only last for so long Marvel, so TICK TOCK TICK TOCK, get it together on this one!

X-men: Legacy #259 – Definitely one of the better ReGenesis issues so far!  We see Ororo, Psylocke, and Emma testing both sides of the Schism a bit but only Rogue has the unique ability to literally see it from everyone perspective and make the most informed decision possible…and that’s just one choice she has to make!  I suspect that by the time next issue is over she will feel that the choice over which side to pick pales over choosing between Gambit and Magneto.  Funny enough that’s kinda the part I care the least about, especially since we already  know she picks Wolverine from the promos (sorry if you don’t read promos, but I suspect if you found this blog then you do).  More important to me is how do Havok, Polaris and Rachel come to decide to leave Scott.  I mean, Havok is his brother and Rachel calls Scott “Dad” at this point.  I realize that Alex and Lorna are going to their other “family” X-Factor but even still, what could make them leave Alex’s brother during a time like this and what could convince Rachel to leave her father.  On a lighter note, I love that Ariel is the big mystery presence! A great way to lighten up an otherwise dark and heavy issue.

Marvel Comics On-sale - 12/7/11


Amazing Spider-Man #675
Avenging Spider-Man #2
Defenders #1
Deadpool #47
Deadpool Max X-mas Special #1
Fear Itself: The Fearless #4
Hulk #45
Moon Knight #8
The Punisher #6
Thor: The Deviants Saga #2
Ultimate Comics Spider-man #5
Uncanny X-Force #18
Venom #10
Villains For Hire #1
X-23 #18
X-Club #1
X-Factor #228
X-Men #22

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Something Sinister This Way Comes - Review Uncanny X-men #2


     And the fun keep coming!  This new volume is already becoming everything that the mutant superhero team should be!  For too long I watched this book decline, odd stories, pointless team-ups and then the final straw was when they took the "flagship" status away from this book and gave it to Astonishing X-men.  From there it was a slow decline into Dark X-men nonesense, silly mutant "plagues" (that don't hold a candle to the Legacy Virus), just pointless story after pointless story as they tried to be the "mutants in the global view" book.  Well that's over with!  I don't really know what the plan is for Astonishing but this Uncanny X-men 2.0 seems to be where the mutant action is and is going to stay.  With Cyclops' new mission of proactive action to make the X-men more of a peacekeeping force, like the mutant Avengers, I think we can expect to see more of the mainstream stories occurring here (such as the teased Phoenix story) rather then getting limited and one-shot to handle major events and changes.

     So on to the new Extinction team.  WOW.  That all I can say is WOW.  First of all I am shocked that Namor is actually staying on the team.  When his book got cancelled and then I heard about Schism, I assumed his tenure with the X-men was done and I wasn't too broken up about it either.  But the longer he is there the more he feels like he belongs with the team.  His connection to Emma Frost seemed really out of left field at first but the writers have really taken the time to develop this relationship into something that might really happen and I am sure there are already people that would prefer Emma with him instead of Scott.  It's also really interesting to see Scott and Ororo on the same squad again after so long.  I went back into my old back issues and realized that Scott and Ororo haven't been on the same squad since Uncanny X-men #201.  After that he left to form X-Factor with the other originals, and when he came back they split the team into Blue and Gold squads, and from there they jsut never really made it back onto the same regular squad again.  So it will be nice to see her playing Jiminy Cricket to his Pinocchio.  And it comes as no surprise to me at all that having Hope and Magik on a regualr X-men team is amazing!  Illyana has always been such an amazing (and favorite of mine0 character but I almost felt that they always had her too bogged down in her demonic fate to explore her truly.  And in New Mutants most recent volume, she was soulless for much of that time so it was more Darkchild then Magik.  Now we get to see her really come into her own and for once we get to see her watching out for her big brother instead of the other way around.  Oh and where the hell is Emma's arm??? Has anyone been watching it??

     And how about Sinister?  This megalomaniac has come a long way since being Mr. Sinister leader of the Marauders and ordering the death of the Morlocks.  This issue explained to us exactly what he was doing in the closing chapter of the previous Uncanny X-men volume.  This new 'Sinister System" is leaps and bounds more creative and innovative then that Miss Sinister debacle.  It is also worth mentioning that Scott thinks nothing of killing these Sinisters (even when he thought that there was one lead one).  Back during Inferno, Cyclops was heartbroken when he thought he destroyed Essex with his optic blasts and he readiness to do it as many times as needed in this case is a sure showing of how far he has fallen in his moral standing.  Uh, and did everyone else see how Jugger-lossus just squeezed his head like a grape?!  YIKES!

     As I've stated in previous blogs and reviews, I wasn't really sold on splitting the X-men into two separate camps at first but after two months of this new title and the new Wolverine & the X-men I think that this new status quo could be an even better set up then the legendary Gold/Blue split.  I am still curious as to where Professor X is going to end up because he was clear that he's not staying at the school but he also hasn't been shown any sort of role yet in the new Uncanny situation either so only time will tell.  I look more and more forward to these main book every single month, thank god they are finally pulling X-men out of the rut they've been in these last few years.  I can't wait to see what the creative team has in store for us in the coming issues...is that a Celestial thumb I see baring down on Cyclops in the "Next Issue" spot...?