Category Archives: avengers

July 1, 2009 · 8:34 pm

Avengers: Dark, New & The Initiative

My commitment to writing once a day renews again this month and I will begin this July with a comic review concerning my favorite super team – The Avengers – in three of it’s multiple forms. As a complete sidetrack, have you noticed that there are as many Avengers titles now as X-books? I always wondered how someone could follow so many variations of the same title, but now here I am reading five different titles all with the name”Avengers” in them. Anyway, here’s my review.

Dark Avengers #5: Even though the cover suggests that we’ll see a fight between Noh-Var and Venom that does not in this issue. Brian Michael Bendis does write us what I feel is a filler issue, with art from Mike Deodato & Will Conrad, with some nice insights into The Sentry and the Dark Avengers team dynamic. We see a meeting of the Cabal again, although they stay mute for the most part as Osborn and Namor fight about how to handle the Atlantian attack on Los Angeles. By the way, apparently Melrose in the Marvel Universe is still the same as it was back in 1999 and the ocean got about 20 miles closer. Did anyone else notice that the Golden Apple was in it’s old location or was that just me? The power struggle between Namor and Osborn just goes to show why bad guys can’t work together. It’s especially fun to see how the rest of the Cabal observe their interaction. The art, although not my favorite, does a good job of showing the intricacies of the characters faces. The “acting” in this book is right on. In addition to the Cabal, the Dark Avenger’s team interactions are getting deeper and more interesting as well. The motivations are getting clearer and I really feel the clock ticking on how long this team will actually stay together. Bullseye is ready to kill everybody, Ares is around because there is good to be done, Noh-Var just found out he’s teamed with criminals and murderers so he took off, but it’s what’s happening with The Sentry that I find most compelling. The Sentry has been a controversial figure in the Marvel Universe ever since he was brought into the 616 universe. Originally presented to be “the Marvel Superman” BMB always wrote him flawed and broken more than anyone else has. Even in his own limited series where his alternate personality The Void was front and center I didn’t feel like the character was crafted as well as when he is written by Bendis. Since his return to life after the battle with Mogana LeFey The Sentry has been distant, confused and scary. Osborn’s manipulations of him are wonderfully in character and when the Sentry goes all “dark side” and kills the Atlantian terrorists it makes you wonder just which side he’ll be on when all is said and done. The cliffhanger is Stark’s vault makes me wonder if Norman will even make it the whole year before he turns back into the Green Goblin, but I’ll definitely be around next month to find out!

The New Avengers #54: Brian Michael Bendis again this time with Billy Tan on pencil duties. Brother Voodoo is the new sorcerer supreme! And he has more character to him than he has ever had before! Between Brother Voodoo, Dr. Strange and Hellstrom it’s enough to make you want a whole magic line of Marvel books to come out. The combined strength of the Avengers and the magic users versus Dormammuu made for one hell of a 16 page fight scene! Hellstrom is still my favorite character out of this whole arc. He’s irreverent flippant and funny! I would really like to see more of him. Of course I was also one of about six people who bougth his last series back in 93 so maybe I’m a little biased. Seeing The Hood get his powers taken makes me wonder how the rest of the books he’s in will be effected – although the appearance of Loki at the end of this issue makes me think that he won’t be powerless for long. Clint Barton has another really good video moment making sure that The Hood and Madame Masque are held accountable and the final page makes you remember why Clint has always been a bit of a loose cannon. Good issue! You should be reading this!

Avengers: The Initiative #25: I wish I could say that this was a good issue, but it is really just setting up the new status quo for this book. Here are the basics: Gauntlet and Tigra have joined the New Warriors and now go by the name Avengers Resistance, Norman has opened Camp Hammer to “train” super-villains to be “super-heroes” (yeah right), and now we know that Trauma is the son of the demon Nightmare. Oh and who here forgot that Tigra is pregnant with a Skrull baby? Yeah, me too. That’s been brought back to the forefront. Gage, Ramos and Delgado have had me wavering back and forth on this book. I’m really hoping that the story will pick up speed next month. If not it just means I’ll have one less Avengers book to pick up.

See you tomorrow!

3 Comments

Filed under avengers, comic books, reviews, the initiative

June 26, 2009 · 12:42 am

MASSIVE COMIC REVIEW CATCH-UP!!!!!!!!

Here we go, quite a bit to catch up on so I’m getting right down to it. Also, different style of reviews this week, I will only be spending as much time on them as I was interested in them. Some will be short. Very short.

New Avengers: The Reunion #4: $16 down the tube. Four issues to tell a 3 panel story. Hawkeye and Mockingbird get back together. Sorry, spoiler. I hate that I bought this.


The Mighty Avengers #25 & #26: Two issue arc. Mighty Avengers fight Fantastic Four for a spacial thingamajig. Two issues to tell a one issue story. Story telling and art were no different for me this issue than the last, I’m totally losing interest in this title the more Iron Man isn’t in it. Maybe one more issue.


War Machine #6 & #7: I’m not a huge fan of the cartoonish art that is happening now from Allan Jefferson & Mahmud Asrar. Rhodes versus the US government. More back story. The armor is back, so the cliff hanger at the end with him armorless in #5 came to nothing and somewhere along the line they picked up another War Machine armor for one of Rhody’s associates. Also issue #7 shows how Rhodes got bionic. Oh and Ultimo is back and in a weird continuity twist Tony Stark shows up at the end(?!?!?!?!?!) That managed to keep me around for another issue.

Avengers the Initiative #24: Christos Gage writing, Humberto Ramos on art. This story actually keeps the entertainment coming in spite of cliche. The Initiative is getting shut down, the Shadow Initiative is stuck in Madripoor and Hardball is a traitor?!?!!?!? Of course he isn’t, but neither is Lady Hydra. Besides that little bit of cliche it is nice to see all of these story elements finally sewing themselves up and FINALLY getting this book caught up with current continuity. I really liked seeing Roughhouse and Bloodscream again. I always liked these villains since they first appeared in the Wolverine solo series way back in the early 90’s. I still don’t know what kind of vampire Bloodscream is, and I’m sure he’s been “killed” a few times, but here we see how undead he really is. And I remember John Byrne turning Roughhouse into a gentle giant about a decade ago, but I guess he’s back to being bad. Good fight scenes kept the pages turning. Ant-Man commits a great kill and the Shadow Initiative becomes the Dark Initiative. I’m excited about the new status quo.

Dark Reign: Young Avengers #2 of 5: Cornell. Brooks. Morales. Great! Great! Great! This creative team is awesome! This book is a LOT of fun! Twists, turns, and action galore! Just read it and get as much Paul Cornell as you can since Captain Britain & MI13 is canceled.

Dark Avengers #5: Now we’re getting to the good stuff. Brian Michael Bendis continues his exploration into the mind of Norman Osborn as he continues his Reign over the Marvel Universe. After their first big fight to help Doom they come home to find that things are not well at home. The Sentry floats above Avengers Tower seemingly brought back to life, Clint Barton (Hawkeye/Ronin/Goliath) has called out Norman Osborn as the Green Goblin and half of his team is ready to kill each other. This issue spends most of it’s time with Osborn going on television to answer the Barton accusations (with hints that he might be cracking under the pressure) with surprisingly good points – scary – and seeing the team “debrief” after returning from Latveria. Highlights include Ares addressing all of the Avengers and telling them it is their duty to be heroes, Moonstone and Noh-Var getting close and Bullseye adding people to his hit list. Also, who is leading all of those sea creatures in an attack on the city??!?!

The New Avengers #53: Another Bendis bit and we finally see who the new Sorcerer Supreme is – but not before there’s a huge fight in New Orleans!! Hasn’t that city suffered enough? Madame Masque shows how lethal she can be and fights hand to hand with Spider Woman – under the veil of smoke grenades – and the Hood fights the Son of Satan. I miss the Son of Satan. I always thought he was a cool character that never really got a fair shake and Bendis does him very well. BMB writes him as a flippant, cavalier almost Doctor Who-like in his casualness to extreme situations. When Dormamuu actually makes his appearance SoS attacks him as if he were a common street thug, it’s funny and clever and I love characters like that. I hope we get to see more of him. Maybe he can replace Ms. Marvel – SINCE SHE’S SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD! But apparently she isn’t – or this book just needs to catch -up? Who can tell anymore, especially when a book like The Initiative is almost a year behind, any of these books could be anytime in between. I think Spider-Man may be leaving this team soon, he’s having lots of moral/ethical dilemmas that seem to be very hard for him to live with (stealing the quinjet, Bucky Cap shooting Madame Masque even though she doesn’t die) but I like seeing him struggle. And it’s totally worth the reveal of the new Sorcerer Supreme at the end! Also, I really like Billy Tan art.


Agents of Atlas #5 & #6: If you do nothing else you need to pick up these books just to read the re-cap page at the front. Each issue is clever and does a great job of getting you caught up on story. Issue #5 written by Jeff Parker and penciled by Carlo Pagulayan shows the confrontation between Atlas and The New Avengers. It’s nice to have this this kind of cross-over because sometimes when I read this book it feels like it’s happening in a different universe than the main Marvel one. There was a nice twist on what could have been just a simple, boring “we don’t know you, let’s fight!” situation when Spider-Man steps in a points out that maybe the Agents of Atlas aren’t bad guys at all. Would have made for a very awkward confession – which Jimmy Woo was starting – until M-11 recognized Logan’s voice from an old operation and blasted Wolverine’s arm off! Then there’s a fight that makes sense! Two-page spread! M-11 vs Cage! Namora vs Ms. Marvel (still should be dead)! Gorilla Man vs Spider-Man! And Wolverine missing an arm! And the BEST part is that Venus finishes the fight by using her powers to over stimulate everybody! Hysterical and awesome all at the same time! Issue #6, also by Parker but this time with art by Gabriel Hardman, is not as action packed instead, using info gained from Osborn’s mind, the Agents go to visit with Namor to see if he will get them access into Osborn’s inner circle, or at least behind the scenes of H.A.M.M.E.R.’s operations. We are welcomed into the new utopia city that Namor is building for the Atlantians and learn that Namor and Namora are more than just cousins. I’ll let you learn the extent of that on your own. It ends on a cliffhanger: will Namora stay with Namor and the Atlantians? Are they going to turn on the surface world completely? I guess we’ll see in issue #7.


Captain Britain and MI13 Annual & #14: It’s so sad to see a good book fall. When this is collected into a massive trade paperback I hope you all buy a dozen copies and maybe, just maybe, they’ll let Paul Cornell come back and tell the rest of his story. As it is these two book are tied in together. The Annual shows us how Meggan gets back (thanks Doctor Doom) and issue #14 gets us set-up for next issue – the last issue – #15. I actually don’t want to give any of this book away. Paul Cornell and Leonard Kirk do such a GREAT job on this title that you should go out and buy every issue that you can! Safe to say that Pete Wisdom and MI13 have the situation well in hand, even after last month’s cliffhanger, and the final issue looks like it’s going to be a doozy!

BUY THIS BOOK!

Invincible Iron Man #14: Classic armor! Classic Crimson Dynamo! Rockets! Missiles! Pepper Potts going underground! Maria Hill on the run looking for Captain America! Armor swaps! The Black Widow! Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca are telling great Iron Man stories just like they were told in the 70’s & 80’s when ol’ Shellhead’s book was in it’s prime. International intrigue, foreign locals, and a strong resurgence of old Russian allies/enemies. Fraction is doing a great thing where he is not only deconstructing the Tony Stark character, but also revisiting the character’s past in a really contemporary way, reminding us of how many characters have actualy crossed Stark’s past. I knew that this story was going in the right direction issues ago, but there was a moment in this issue, when the Russians turn down Norman Osborn, that make you feel like the stakes are both high and realistic. Maria Hill seems a bit broken and when she tracks down the Black Widow you aren’t sure if she’s there to talk or there to kill and the Pepper Potts story just keeps being interesting as she does her best to find Tony so she can help him. Madame Masque makes an appearance here too – and the cliffhanger makes me want issue #15 so bad!

That’s the massive catch-up! See you tomorrow!

1 Comment

Filed under avengers, comic books, iron man, mi13, reviews, war machine, young avengers

May 20, 2009 · 5:30 pm

Secret Warriors #4, Dark Reign: Young Avengers 1 of 5 & Captain Britain and MI13 #13

Three books this review, with some bummer news about the canceling of a good book and my dropping another.

I’m going to start by droppin’ bombs. Secret Warriors #4 is the last issue that I will buy. I like the idea behind this book, and Jonathan Hickman is the perfect writer for it, but it’s really slow and I’ve lost any momentum that I had for this book. Fury catches up with Dum Dum Dugan, Jasper Sitwell, and Gabe Jones – all loyal SHIELD guys who are now the operators of Howling Commandos Private Military Contractors. They share war stories and Gabe makes a frowny face the whole time. Guess what happens? Fury and the Howling Commandos are back together – it’s like Ross and Rachel – you always knew it would happen it was just a matter of how.

Other highlights:

– New team member recruited in Australia.
– Yo-Yo isn’t dead, but she’s still missing her arms.
– Hydra votes to go on the offensive.
– Fury convinces the Howling Commandos to attack a HAMMER base staffed with ex-SHIELD guys.

Here’s a thing about that last bullet point, Fury is straight up blood thirsty. When asked what he’ll feel when he has to shoot men that he used to command, men that he trained and lead into battle before he went underground, his reply is…

***SPOILER***

“Recoil.”

The other interesting thing that we discovered this issue, the one thing that I’d like to see the answer to, was Fury’s room of LMD’s (Life Model Decoys – Stark invented robots that simulate a person when assassination is expected). Phobos and Hellfire (I’m pretty sure it’s Hellfire at least) are rummaging through Fury’s office and find the LMD’s. One of them was opened up and inside the chest was a little seat and monitor screens. This is really odd since LMD’s are supposed to be robots and not a vehicle. The ramifications of whether or not the Fury walking around is actually Fury or if he’s suddenly been shrunk down very small size and runs around in normal Fury sized robots could be staggering or this could have just been a red herring by artist Stefano Caselli. I guess we’ll see – I’ll I’ll just have to check it out in the store.

Dark Reign: Young Avengers 1 of 5

Here’s a fun book from Paul Cornell and artist Mark Brooks. The cover hits you right away with six totally new characters you’ve never seen before and a cover blast that says, “They’re EXACTLY What You Think!” Then the recap page is presented as a blog talking about the Young Avengers (the ones we recognize) and their relationships and ends wondering where they have gone since the battle against the Skrulls in Central Park.

Paul Cornell does a great job of dropping you right in the middle of the action and giving you a flavor for what you are going to get from a team without giving up all of their secrets. We get a great splash page of this new team, their names aren’t put on display so you have to pay attention to the dialogue and we hear some familiar names. There’s a girl who grows to giant size called Big Zero. She’s also a racist. There’s a teenage girl calling herself Enchatress complete with Asgardian garb and speech, although she has a bit of a lisp. Their leader is named Melter and he can make things melt. Executioner is like the Punisher but wears a skull-like mask. Coat of Arms has six arms and seems an awful lot like Spiral – down to video taping their exploits as if they will be broadcast. And then there’s a robot called Egghead who looks really familiar, although I can’t place where I might have seen him before, and damaged.

Immediately, the first time we see them, the robbers they are trying to stop get killed. It’s a great opening act. We see that these kids are not well balanced and are the poster children for why Tony was right about super-hero registration. The relationships are well defined and you feel like you get a LOT for your dollar. I was really impressed with this book and can’t wait to see how well this struggle goes as Melter tries to make his team heroes or if they are just going to be another team of misguided youths.

Oh, and the real Young Avengers so up at the end. It’s was a fantastic first issue making me excited about the next one!

Captain Britain and MI13 #13

Paul Cornell again with Leonard Kirk on art duties picks up right where we left off last issue, right in the thick of a full scale vampire invasion of England! It is just as bad a thing as it sounds. The threat of Dracula continues to be impressive. There is a conceit among comics that you make the situation as bad as possible before you have the heroes come back from behind and win the day. That is all well and good but for the MI13 team things are looking really dire with very little chance of reprieve.

England has been magically sealed off from the rest of the world keeping the rest of the Marvel heroes from coming to the rescue, Norman Osborn calls Wisdom personally to tell him that he can’t help due to agreements that are in place (remember Doctor Doom from way back at the start of this arc?), and Dracula pushes his full mental influence on Spitfire making her a full on baddie now too!

Spitfire calls the team out to a field where, expecting a trap, the team heads to. Captain Britain fears that Dracula knows too much about how Merlin created him and, since Cap’s powers are now dependent on how confident he is, this makes for some trouble. It is, in fact, a trap and a lot of things happen at once:

– Cap Britain discovers that he can leave the magic shell, but then can’t get back in if he does.
– Thousands of vampires appear to fight.
– The vampire assault is using magic and technology to cover all bases.

The MI13 team attacks, but not as a unit which leads to deaths, lots of deaths, unexpected deaths. Paul Cornell has said over and again that not everyone will survive this invasion so you really are left hanging as to who’s left. I really don’t want to spoil anything else, but I can say that Dracula wins.

Seriously.

I can’t wait for next issue!!!!!

Now here’s the bad news, this series ends at issue 15. TWO MORE ISSUES!!!!! Sales have not been good, which really sucks because this has been one of the best books of the year. I can only hope that fan outcry will mean at least a few one-shots or specials after it’s over. It’s a shame to see something this good have to end.

That’s all for today. See you tomorrow!

Leave a Comment

Filed under avengers, comic books, mi13, reviews, young avengers

May 1, 2009 · 11:28 pm

Avengers: New, Mighty, and The Initiative

All avengers books today! The Dark Reign continues and the bad guys keep winning… kinda’.

Let’s start with New Avengers 52

Last issue we saw that Dr. Strange is trying to find out who the new Sorcerer Supreme is and ended up being attacked by The Hood. Our story picks up there. There are half a dozen artists on this book: Billy Tan, Matt Banning and Justin Ponsor & Chris Bachalo, Tim Townsend and Antonio Fabela. That is how they are listed in the credits. Not sure how the separations are intended, although I think it’s pencils/inks/colors/pencils/inks/colors. The different artists are used for different parts of the story, and that’s a good way to use them, but I actually found myself a little distracted near the middle as the battle between Strange, Wiccan and The Hood was recounted. I didn’t find it confusing, just a bit distracting.

Brian Michael Bendis continues to have the team sit around a table talking to each other. He is very good at this, but we’re on issue three of talking heads and I’m really looking forward to seeing some action. The sections involving The Hood were a nice way to break up all the talking. There was one little thing that I felt was a little out of place, there is a point where Spider-Man gets upset about flying in a stolen Quinjet as the Avengers go to find The Hood. He keeps griping about it too. I understand that his new status quo requires him to be more innocent, but, really? Gonna’ be upset that Ms. Marvel took a Quinjet? After the first mention of it I felt it was a bit much.
Also, it is nice to see Madame Masque back in the criminal forefront. Back in the day, she was one of my favorite Iron Man villains – up until the late 80’s when there seemed to be no editor to make sure that the story lines got wrapped up and there were, like, 20 of her running around. Now her involvement with The Hood puts her back up there with the other crime bosses where she belongs. Here’s hoping there’s a really big fight next issue. I’d also like to know who the new Sorcerer Supreme is!
Oh yeah, I almost forgot, The Son of Satan is in this issue too! He and The Hood are gonna’ fight. Good stuff.

The Mighty Avengers 24
Or as I like to call it Pym’s Marry Band of B-Level All-Stars. Dan Slott continues to build an Avenger team in the mighty Marvel manner, but I feel like this book is occurring just a few degrees off of normal continuity. While New Avengers and Dark Avengers directly relate to one another and reference each other freely, this book makes some references but doesn’t seem to affect or be affected by the continuity of the other two books. I know that there are folks out that would argue that continuity is unnecessary, but I think that the fact that there is a Dark Reign banner at the top of this title, and that fact that this is an Avengers book, I really do expect there to be more impact both ways.
All things being equal I do like this new team. I like the fact that they were brought together by Loki, just like the original team. I like that Jarvis is with them. I am a little concerned that Pym has a bit of “utility belt” syndrome. He seems to have all the gadgets he could ever need at his beck and call. It makes you wonder why he didn’t just save everyone on the Skrull planet and get them all home on his own. I know that Dan Slott is trying to re-characterize the oft maligned Dr. Pym, but I don’t know if I’m a fan of how this is going. I feel like I’m not being clear, but I’m still really on the fence about this book. Originally I wasn’t even going to pick it up – but it looked like Iron Man was going to be a regular cast member. That certainly didn’t happen, but they did get my attention enough for me to at least see the next arc through.
Art by Rafa Sandoval is great. I loved the opening with the Cabal all meeting in the mental plane. I think my favorite parts of this book are Loki and the Cabal appearances, which makes me wish that it had more impact on the other books. I also like the fact that they are handling problems all over the world and not really concerning themselves with the drama of Norman Osborn. I’m sticking around to see where it goes.
Avengers: The Initiative 23
I feel like I missed an issue, but I know I didn’t. This was a messy issue designed to close all the remaining Dan Slott plot lines, which were really good, so that the new direction and status quo could be established. Camp Hammond is destroyed, public outcry is high, and we’re six months past the end of Secret Invasion and this book is JUST NOW getting to Norman Osborn being in charge! I’m not even sure if this book can get back into continuity.
The story lines are a mess. Here are the points I remember:
– MVP clone saga is revealed.
– All but one of the clones is dead.
– Baron Von Blitzschlag cries.
– Camp Hammond shuts down.
– Gauntlet leads the remaining recruits to clean up the mess.
My favorite part of this is the Shadow Initiative storyline. They were hunting the rogue Hardball. Here’s the thing that gets me, Hardball is suddenly a bad guy. Like straight up evil bad guy. Back when he was introduced he was working with Hydra, but was really conflicted about it. Then, as his relationship with Komoto developed, he started to really get his act together. Somewhere his story took a dramatic left and I don’t even know when it happened, but now he’s a full-on Hydra agent and even uses a SPIN (Super Power Inhibiting Nanobots) dart to take away her powers. Gripe for this little detail: Tony Stark, one of the biggest brains in the Marvel Universe, created this technology with Reed Richards, the LARGEST brain in the Marvel Universe. These guys needed DNA from the intended target for this tech to work. Suddenly Hydra has darts that work on anyone – no matter what. The explanation: a two line statement, “But here at Hydra, we don’t just make weapons. We make them better.” That doesn’t make sense to me. Hydra has never been that good. And this sudden change in characterization for Hardball seems too fast.
I was disappointed in most of this book. I could read a whole book about the Shadow Initiative, and now that they are stuck in Madripoor I hope there are a lot of those stories, but I’m really only giving this one more issue to pick up before I drop it.
I know it sounds like a harsh week this week, but times are tough and if I’m gonna’ spend my money on it I want it to be worth it.
See you tomorrow!

Leave a Comment

Filed under avengers, comic books, reviews