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Tpull's Weekly Marvel Comics Review – Part Two

The Amazing Spider-Man 598

by Joe Kelly, Paulo Siqueira and Marco Checchetto

We learn here that Reed designed some special materials for Spidey’s undercover Venom mask, and that helps explain why he survives the headshot from Norman Osborn last issue. Norah is working her charms undercover in the company, and her character is refreshing, almost like Lois Lane, but without additional bravado.

The scene changes between the green tinge for the American Son project and the red setting for Spider-Man in captivity. The layouts are nice, and some of the choices for panels and representations are good. The sick part is Lily and the bombshell she drops on Harry: it’s Norman’s baby! Ewww! (When did they have the time? Hopefully, that’s one flashback we won’t get to see…)

Harry wakes up and puts on the imitation Iron/Cap uniform to come save Spider-Man. Conclusion next issue! The series maintains a nice solid path that keeps you interested, and the rapid publishing schedule gives us a nice story that doesn’t feel rushed, but lets us see the whole story arc sooner, so we don’t feel like the story is dragging.

Dark Wolverine 75

by Daniel Way, Marjorie Liu, and Giuseppe Camuncoli

Hey, remember that funny time when one issue of Wolverine came out before the other, and Marvel actually said they did it to reduce confusion? The laugh-riot continues, as they have thrown out Logan, and the series now concentrates on Daken. Daniel Way from Wolverine: Origins is writing this series now, and they changed the indicia from Wolverine to Dark Wolverine. Aren’t you happy that Marvel is going to such lengths to keep you from being confused?

Osborn has already called Bullseye into his office to make him act more like a hero in public, and now it’s Daken’s turn. Daken thinks his pheromone-manipulating abilities have gone unnoticed, and perhaps they have. His influence may also be a factor in Bullseye’s current mental problems in Dark Reign: Hawkeye.

Despite Osborn’s warnings, Daken continues to provoke. Granted, considering the head-cases he has to team with, he doesn’t have to do much, but it does allow him to use one of Bullseye’s weapons in a frame job against the Fantastic Four. For extra material, they give some reprints of former covers and put captions all over them to give us Daken’s history up to this point. Hey, they do it in eight pages; the last time they tried to do that with Wolverine, it took a four-issue mini-series!

So how does everyone feel about paying $3.99 for a Wolverine comic that doesn’t have the real Wolverine in it? They have me buying it, at least. For now.

Ms. Marvel 40

by Brian Reed and Sana Takeda

Oaky, stay with me here, because Karla Sofen is Ms. Marvel, but they haven’t changed the indicia to Dark Marvel. Yet. Maybe I shouldn’t give them ideas. Deadpool is brought in by A.I.M., and he is silly enough to stay in character, while not so over the top as to ruin the normal feel of the comic. What follows is a bunch of fight scene, page after page of Ms. Marvel and the Dark Avengers fighting this new energy being.

The writing drops quickly, with Sentry telling Osborn he won’t drop the babies in a volcano, which is torn right from the Crimson Dynamo asking Tony Stark why he doesn’t just walk into a volcano in the last issue of Iron Man. Either these guys are watching the same TV shows and stealing lines, or they aren’t letting each other see their stuff when they should, so as to avoid this sort of thing. You know it’s bad when you’re reading the same jokes in two issues from the same company.

The other-colored energy beings appear to various members of the New Avengers, trying to draw them into this conflict, which all centers around the bottled babies, and energy beings that are fooled by the fact that Karla is wearing Ms. Marvel’s uniform. Yeah, it’s about as lame as it sounds.

Secret Warriors 5

by Brian Bendis, Jonathan Hickman, and Stefano Caselli

Eric Koenig gets a nice spotlight, and makes the most of the first six pages, setting the stage for a raid on a H.A.M.M.E.R. base to steal some helicarriers. The Hydra bad guys are on to the plan, and also crash the party. Caselli’s art is growing on me, and even though I sometimes question the constant paleness of the color choices, it looks like he’s getting better at inking his own work. Not enough yet for my tastes, but he’s moving in the right direction from what I can tell.

Fitting Nick Fury’s famous mind, he has planned for the contingency of Hydra being there, and the super-powered part of his team comes in on the very end to turn the tide. It’s a quick read, but a good one, as good as any other issue so far. I am hoping we see much more of the heroes Fury has recruited, but the story seems to be flowing well as is.

Thunderbolts 133

by Andy Diggle and Miguel Sepulveda

And yet again, an artist doing his own inks, and why has this become such a big fad lately? Can they not afford a separate inker anymore? The backgrounds are crude sketches, with overall lighting effects making up the whole coloring for entire pages. That’s when they bother to give you anything in the background at all.

The intrigue is fun, with Black Widow II forming an alliance with the Ghost, who knows what the average reader should have figured out by page five, which is the person that the widow is working for. I won’t spoil it here, but it’s a fun final page even if you’ve figured it out.

Songbird decides to get back in the game after some of Osborn’s goons act irredeemably evil towards her group of homeless friends. Osborn gives us a new Scourge, and Ant-Man opens up to Paladin, with mixed results for Ant-Man, but great reading for us.

I would enjoy this more if the art was better, but the intrigue is fun, and the atmosphere is set up to feel like a pot about to explode from the contained heat. It adds to the feel of Dark Reign overall, in that Osborn is overextended, and will not be able to contain everything.

Uncanny X Men 512

by Matt Fraction and Yanick Paquette

Fraction tries to be clever by having Beast request Psylocke’s assistance when they travel back in time, so she can use her powers to disguise his looks. They are defeated by someone spotting them while outside the range of Psylocke’s powers. Why Hank didn’t just bring along an image inducer is beyond me. Beast’s team is trying to get some early genetic mutant material, from Dr. Nemesis’ parents, who happen to be working unwittingly for the original Hellfire Club.

For all of the alleged concern about disrupting the past, the group causes quite a ruckus as Fraction introduces a 1906 version of a Sentinel. The story doesn’t quite work for me, and the material they want was planted directly underneath the Celestial currently occupying golden State Park, because despite the X-Men being able to go back in time and take all of their clothing with them, along with a couple vials, the time warp device couldn’t bring back the “foreign” genetic materials. Think I figured out why I didn’t like the story, it’s because they design everything to fit their plot, regardless of whether it makes sense or not. Does anyone really think a time device is going to be able to distinguish between the genetic material of the Beast and some other mutant?

Paquette’s art is improving at least.

X-Factor 45

by Peter David, Marco Santucci and Valentine de Landro

The person who might have the answers involving time travel is Doctor Doom, but they have confused me with the way they depict him. In one panel, he is seated at his throne, in another, he is a decrepit old man in a wheelchair, and his butler is an obviously decayed robot. The scene alternates between the two visions, but if Doom’s mind’s-eye has himself pictured the regular way, why does the enemy’s video-feed of him also show him that way? Either these guys messed up, or Doom knows he’s being bugged, and has altered the video signal so he appears his regal self to outside observers.

Oh, and despite Rictor having feelings for Rahne, he also kisses Shatterstar, making him definitively bi-sexual. Or at least as confused as we are about him. Cortex is a person. The only problem I have with all this is Peter David keeps introducing these mastermind characters that seem to hold all the cards, but when we finally get to their motive, they want something small or predictable. He needs to break this pattern and give us something bigger.

X-Force 16

by Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, and Clayton Crain

Oh, thank heaven, it’s over. The time travel aspect has come and gone, and it’s supposed to be killing all of them, but you know what? It certainly doesn’t work very fast! Domino ends up being the one to kill Laura’s friend. Apocalypse carries off Stryfe to be his “vessel,” Bishop gets to ‘port away, and they all manage to go back to their own time without dying after all, which makes the warning about death from time-travel limits entirely useless. Thanks for cheating the readers, guys.

Oh well, since Laura didn’t reach Tabby, maybe she died.

In the end, nothing else changed. Apocalypse is still around, the child is still around, Bishop is still around, etc. I call shenanigans on Messiah War, it was the most non-event of comic events this year. All mutant hype and no substance.

Tpull is Travis Pullen. He started reading comics at 5 years old, and he can't seem to stop.

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Posted by Travis on June 28, 2009 8:24 PM
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