Flash Review - 2/29/12

Angel & Faith #7 – Call me crazy but I’m just not that into Faith’s father showing up.  And not just that I don’t trust him (that much is pretty much a given) but that I am just not that intrigued by him even showing up.  I always got the impression that he was a big douche but that he was out of the picture for whatever reason.  Now a still-sane Druscilla on the other hand…THAT I can read ALL DAY.  It’s almost even creepier seeing her with all her scruples because now there’s no rational excuse for her strange behavior (or in this case her strange lack of strange behavior I guess).  In both cases I am at least curious enough that I can’t wait for next issue.

Avengers #23 – Eh…once again another lackluster installment of this over reaching story arc.  I am getting so sick of Norman Osborn at this point, I don’t care what powers or whatever that he has acquired, Viper is a much more interesting adversary during this entire scenario.  The Hulk-like creatures they’ve created are already getting overused and boring, and once again we spent an entire issue without seeing Storm take any sort of feature role.  What was even the point of bringing her on if they were just going to lock her up?  I get that they are focusing one by one on the different members (with Red Hulk, Quake and now Vision all getting some feature time) but when may I ask is Ororo’s turn?

Astonishing X-men #47 – YAY! It’s over!  This is quite honestly the dumbest storyline that I have seen in an X-book in quite some time.  What was even the purpose of it?  They made a big deal over Scott and Storm kissing a few issues ago and then it turned into this entire weird ass other dimension nonsense (like we don’t already have enough of that).  And it really just seemed like they were trying too hard to make the whole thing so damn deep, with Scott wearing Magneto’s helmet, the evil Xavier named Savior, and Scott cracking a beer to Logan’s honor at the end.  It was just all too forced and reeked of “they don’t know what to do with this book” in my opinion.

FF #15 – I am so over this title.  I gave it more than a fair chance I think and I was even excited to see the whole Power Pack reunite.  But to be honest, it just seems like a continuation of the Fantastic Four title I dropped months ago and promises to be even more closely tied in the coming months.  I think I’ll give it a few more issues (I’ll have some spare cash since a few of my other titles are getting cancelled) but I don’t really have a lot of high hopes for this one.

Venom #13.4 – OK they may have jumped the shark on this one folks.  I’ve really been enjoying this storyline so far.  Red Hulk has really grown on me, I’m always a Ghost Rider fan (no matter how ridiculous the writer’s choice of host is), and I even like the Flash Thompson version of Venom, but I feel like they went a little overboard with that last page monstrosity that melded the 3 together in a fashion.  I wonder what sort of condition Alejandra will be in at the end of this whole ordeal since her own title has but one issue left before cancellation.

Hand of Deception - Review New Avengers #22

Wow, I know they’re heroes and all but unlike their slightly uppity Avengers counterpart, the New Avengers are definitely a group you DON’T want to screw with.  Between Wonder Man’s ambush and Osborn’s two-pronged attack, this team of superheroes has gotten completely fed up with the villains attacking them in their own house!  Following an embarrassing beating by the new Dark Avengers, Cage & co. are confronted by American military forces right on their own front lawn, and let’s just say it went down poorly.  I still think that this entire Osborn scenario is getting to be too much between both books but at least this half of the story is keeping things interesting.  I just wish that Luke (and Jessica) could learn to stop storming off by themselves every time there’s trouble.

Now the real star of this entire story, however, is Victoria Hand.  Major kudos to the writers for the way they have delicately plotted her course since the very beginning of this series.  We all naturally assumed that she was working for Osborn in some way, but to be honest even I didn’t see her double status working for Captain America coming.  Her confrontation scene with the New Avengers showed a new level of ruthlessness from them, as they walked her through her own faux death by falling from a window, as well as a new level of depth for Victoria herself.  Thank goodness for the living lie detector team, Daredevil and Wolverine, or who knows what might have come of Miss Hand.  Following this entire debacle I am looking forward to seeing how her relationships within the team change and grow from this latest information.

Additionally, it was nice to see some crossover between the two parts of the storyline finally.  Osborn’s grand design has been playing out in both main Avengers books but until this very issue we haven’t seen any connection between them, as though they were two completely separate stories.  Here we finally saw the leaders of the Hand and Hydra, Gorgon and Viper respectively, sowing the first seeds of their deceiving Osborn (which I think we can all agree was just a matter of time).  Then to see them both lording over the captive body of Captain America, brought a measure of continuity that I think the entire story was lacking.

And last but certainly not least, perhaps my favorite part of the entire issue, was the Avengers OTHER secret agent in Osborn’s midst: Skaar, Son of Hulk.  Personally, I was excited when I saws him join Osborn’s Dark Avengers, something of an homage to his father, the original Hulk, being a founding member of the Avengers.  Its funny because we see Skaar cause so much havoc (even if it sometimes isn’t on purpose) that we can easily forget that, when he’s not all green and Hulk-y, he’s just a little boy underneath.  Seeing him scream “Avengers Assemble!” and betray his Dark Avenger teammates was not only shocking, but also a great cliffhanger to lead us into next issue’s finale.