In this my inaugural review post I am going to be giving reviews on a smattering
of comics that I read while on vacation in OCNJ. These comics are a week to two weeks
old. If any of them strike your fancy please check them out at 1up Collectibles.
LET THE GAMES BEGIN!
Avenging Spider-Man #9 - $3.99 - Includes Digital Copy - T+
This series has been a bit of fun. For anyone who hasn’t
picked it up this is a series where Spider-Man individually teams up with
members of the Avengers. In this one he teams up with the new Captain Marvel,
Carol Danvers (f.k.a. Ms. Marvel.) Written by Kelly Sue DeConnick (the new
Captain Marvel writer), the story is full of decent banter you expect from a
Spider-Man story, but nothing ground breaking. It is the first part of an arch
that sets up Spider-Man and Capt. Marvel vs. Robyn Hood vs. The Police and
Hired Security team. Everything in this story is decent except for this new
character Robyn Hood, which is weak. The name tells you her story, but she also absorbs then uses the damage dealt to her. It should be interesting to see where this little tiff goes.
Read it for the banter and the great artwork from Terry and
Rachel Dodson. If you haven’t seen much of their work, look them up, it’s a
unique comic book style. Terry who does the pencils does a great job of
storytelling with great figures andgestures, while Rachel inks his work perfectly. Edgar Delgado does a great
job of coloring this work and makes it all seem to come together just right.
Story – 2/5
Art – 4/5
This series has been well written and the art at times has been disturbing. Jeff Lamire, known for his writing on Sweet Tooth, has written a long interwoven interesting story so far. This issue is no disappointment. It starts off where Buddy Baker is meeting Totems of the Hire Flesh to form a new body for him. Since it has been taken over by a hunter of the Rot. There is a great sequence that is really well written and illustrated, it is where Buddy forms his way from a speck of consciousness to a nanobe and from there he reaches out to different animals until he finds his body and can go find his son.
Buddy finds his son who was being protected by Sox from the hunter with Buddy's body. After a warning that the Rot is coming, the
hunter looses his head in a gruesome fight with Buddy. To see what I mean go
pick it up, this is a great couple of pages. After that there is also a pretty awesome visual nod to John Carpenter's The Thing. Finally Cliff passes out while spouting on about the
avatar of the Rot, Anton Arcane. Leading to a cross over with Swamp Thing. The art in
this book is great the style fits the tone and mood of the story perfectly.
There are a few visual miscues that do hinder some of the story telling but
Alberto Ponticelli does a great job, and I can’t wait to see this crossover.
Story – 4/5
Art – 3/5
Lets pick up where the Animal Man #11 led us to, Swamp
Thing. This has been written by current Batman writer Scott Snyder (got to meet him at my past job and is a good guy
btw.) This issue picks up right
where the last one left off. Arcane, the avatar of the Rot is here to get his
daughter Abigail. In a kinda hokey and cheesy way the Green has saved Alec
because he saved them and supplanted them. Just thinking aloud, I am wondering
if this was an intentional parallel between this and Animal Man. So after that Arcane
tries to take Abigail with him into the Rot, but Swamp Thing comes out of
nowhere and punches Arcane straight in the jaw. In a decent fight they learn
things have changed with one another and Abigail intervenes sending Arcane back
into the Rot portal by himself. Abigail then tries to get him to run away, but Animal Man shows up with his family. Animal Man informs Swamp Thing that they both need to team
up to take down the Rot.
This was a good back story building issue that was
illustrated by Marco Rudy. Marco’s art is hit and miss in this issue. Certain
panels are beautifully illustrated then they get bland and not detailed like
when the Arcane is shown. The panels and story telling of the art is great
where the action and other visual elements break up the normal panel structure.
The color is something to be desired by Val Staples. It’s the same five colors
used again and the colors are muted nothing is overly bright and bold just a
little better contrast would be nice. Overall a good build up to an interesting
team up.
Story – 3/5
Art – 3/5
Avengers Vs. X-Men #7 - $3.99 - Includes Digital Copy - T+
On this weeks AVX….More of the same. Okay sorry for being
facetious. Seriously though the series is boring and lack lust for me. Hope
flinches and doesn’t get the Phoenix Force instead some of the more agitating
X-Men do. The only things that change in this issue is that Vision is gone,
Hawkeye is burnt badly, Avengers go to Wakanda , Cyclops gets more aggressive,
and Emma Frost tells Namor (behind Cyclops’s back) where they are and he shows
up. Boom end of issue. I would have been more interested if they explained more
about Iron Fist’s role in all this and if Scarlet Witch hurt Magik more for
presumably killing Vision. Instead Cyclops becomes a hypocrite wanting to end
the Avengers and the Avengers have to get Hope to K’un Lun to learn how to
fight the Phoenix force.
The art by Oliver Coipel is great. I am glad to see they put
him on this book. It made this story bearable enough to finish. Well I am not
saying it wasn’t bad just boring, nothing big happens so when this happens I
tend to focus on the art of the figures, gestures, and the artists ability to move the story along.
Coipel does this wonderfully. Some of his actual characters don’t look right
like after the Blank Panther smacks the crazy out of Stark, Starks face doesn’t
appear even. I wish this issue was better, maybe I missed something somewhere.
What do you guys think?
Story – 2/5
Art – 4/5
The Avengers VS The X-Men #4 of 6 - $3.99 - Includes Digital Copy T+
This is a guilty pleasure of mine. For those who don’t know
this is a book where one member from each side wallops on one another created
by two different creative teams.
This issue is Daredevil vs. Psylocke and Thor vs. Phoenix’ed out Emma
Frost. The Daredevil vs. Psylocke
was the better of the two fights. The story was written by Rick Remender who
seemed to get the characters right. In this fight both characters had a moment in the fight that played to their strengths.
The art by Brandon Peterson was well done it made the action and their powers
work. The best part of the first
fight was when Daredevil reminded Psylocke that with all their power now the
Avengers will soon be on their own island, leaving Psylocke speechless.
In the next fight, which seems more odd, Thor takes on Emma
Frost in a knock down drag-out fight. The story was written and illustrated
by Kaare Andrews, who while wearing both hats manages to make this work. Thor and Emma go shot for shot. One of
the best scenes is when Thor upper cuts Emma with Mjolnir while she is in her
diamond form and shatters her in to tiny pieces. Shutting her smug face up, but
of course that’s not the end of her. I won’t spoil how it ends but it was a
disappointment to me, but given the situation I guess that’s how these things
go. Check it out and let me know what you guys think.
Story – 3/5
Art – 3/5
Punisher #13 - $2.99 - Parental Advisory
This issue of the Punisher by Greg Rucka is one of the
better issues I have read this week. It is written in such way that it feels
like a spy thriller. The Punisher and Marine Sergeant Rachel Cole – Alves are
sneaking onto a black market weapons auction on a yacht. Frank gets caught
which was his plan, and Alves seduces the boats owner. This gets her into the
engine room, where she plants charges and stops the yacht. While all the guests
are trying to leave Alves tries to exact revenge on the Exchange’s leader
Stefanie Gerard, but Frank stops her to keep her on task.
This story reads and feels like an secret agent film. It was
highly entertaining and was done right. Granted, this type of story has been
done before but it is done so well that it works. The pacing of the story helps
it move along and makes me want to find out what piece of tech they took that
belong to Doc Ock. The art by Mico Suayan works for the tone of the story. It
looks a little rough at times, but it adds to the Pulp-ishness of the story and
the storytelling ability of the art helps solidify this as a solid issue.
Story – 4/5
Art – 3/5
BONUS ROUND
Have you seen this? Thoughts?
!!! WARNING MATURE AUDIENCE ONLY!!!
You have been warned
That’s it for now. I wanna hear your thoughts on any of these issues and video so please feel free to comment. If you anyone wants to talk shop please stop by 1up Collectibles on Wednesday for new releases I’ll more than likely be there!
If you love 1up Collectibles let everyone know!!!
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