Sam Wilson’s Reviews
Not a bad week this week, from DC we have
Birds of Prey,
Catwoman, and
Checkmate, books which feature the baddest ass women in the DCU. Then from Marvel we FINNALY have
Civil War #4 (yay), Howard Chaykin penciling
Blade,
Iron Man, the new
Union Jack limited series and everyone’s favorites agents of HATE,
Nextwave.
My pick of the week this week is
Civil War #4 , and that being said, on to the reviews…
Union Jack #1 (of 4)
Marvel
Written by: Christios Gage
Penciler: Mike Perkins
Cover by: Mike Perkins
Marvel Comic’s current Union Jack is the third person to carry that mantle (the first two belonging to the Montgomery family), a working class son of a shipbuilder who goes by the name of Joseph Chapman. Like the other Union Jacks, Brian Montgomery dons a bullet-resistant costume and carries a silver-edged dagger to deal with the supernatural, and a Welby .455 pistol. Union Jack is a member of the Knights of Pendragon and the moder day incarnation of the Invaders, and recently has been seen in pages of Captain America, working for MI 5 helping cap prevent terrorist attacks in Britain. He is also partnering with Spitfire, one of his teammates from the New Invaders and his former girlfriend. Today Union Jack is still fighting terrorist who wish Britain ill will, and leads a ragtag group of international heroes/secret agents in his battle against tyranny. Siding with Jack against evil are Sabra, the Israeli super-agent remade for 2006, a new Arabian Knight and one of my favorite (and one of the hottest) Marvel C list characters, Nick Fury’s old girl friend the Countess Valentina Allegro DeFontaine, aka Val (representing SHIELD). Their first mission: stop RAID (the new AIM) from wrecking havoc on London. Oh yeah, it’s on…
Issue one starts out typically, the team is assembled, some members don’t really get along (Zarba and the Arabian Knight, shocking I know) but then jumps right into it. First on the teams list of RAID agents to take out, Zaran and Machete, who are sometime buddies of Bartoc the Leaper (and all of them are sometime D list foes of Captain America). Even though Marvel is parading around a gaggle of C and D list characters, this book really clicks. The action from the get go is clichéd but fairly cool. It’s great to see some classic characters kicking ass (Val gets to do her Chow Yun Fat impersonation). My one complaint, Christios Gage doesn’t real hit the British Dialect that well, but it’s aiight. He only slipped a couple of times (I doubt Brits say “aint” very often). This book is definitely remaining on my pull listed for the duration of the series, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone, especially those with some old school love in their hearts.
Birds of Prey #98
DC Comics
Written by: Gail Simone
Drawn by: James Raiz
Cover by: Jerry Ordway
For those of you who haven’t been paying attention, let me fill you in on what’s been happening recently in “Birds of Prey”. Our team currently consists of Black Canary (Dinah Lance), Huntress (Helena Bertanelli), Lady Black Hawk (Zinda Blake) and Oracle (Barbara Gordon). Once based out of Gotham, now the ladies are based out of Metropolis, but are mostly mobile in a spiffy Jumbo Jet/Headquarters. Black Canary just got finished with some weird exchange program with Lady Shiva, which she opted out of early and Lady Shiva is now in cahoots with the bad guys again, Barbara Gordon is showing some side effects from being infected by Brainiac but is pretty much her old self. The Huntress and Zinda Blake are still both hot and like to hurt people, all is pretty much well in the world of the Birds. No, the whole Nightwing proposing to Barbara during “Infinite Crisis” hasn’t been dealt with yet, and I don’t know if it ever will be but who cares really, “Birds of Prey”, even though currently lacking in the art department is still one of the best books out there that not enough people are reading, and issue #98 kicks off a brand new storyline…
Issue #98 opens up with an old enemy of the Huntress getting out of jail and looking for revenge (in a most nasty “Kill Bill” kind of way). Meanwhile, the Huntress, Black Canary and Oracle debate the pros and cons of adopting Sin, the little girl Canary rescued from Lady Shiva’s village. All this and a new Batgirl is prowling Gotham (no, not the lesbian Batwoman who recently showed up in “52”) and Oracle sends the team out to figure out who she is. Yes, the birds are back and better than ever, Gail Simone is on the ball as usual, even though the art is fairly “blah” (I miss Ed Benes, you would think they would have a top tier penciller on this book. Oh well…). So pick this book up, the I’m sure will improve and like I’ve said before, BOP is probably the best Bat-title no one is reading.
Wktf’s Reviews
The big event this week, of course, is
Civil War #4 with the promise of Thor’s return, a death, a funeral, and some changing of side. The fan boards lit up pretty fast after this issue hit the stands and opinions are strong as well as divided. As a result, I’ll probably take heat from some for making this
my pick of the week, but I am, it is, and I’m sticking with it. Great issue! Another issue of note is the
Marvel Spotlight issue focusing on Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, containing full-length interviews with Stan and Lisa Kirby.
Civil War #4
Marvel Comics
Written by: Mark Millar
Drawn by: Steve McNiven
This series is everything House of M should have been. Everything about it seems ground shaking and real. Not to mention extremely well thought out and crafted. Like I said. I won’t go into the background on this series as I sometimes do. As I noted above, people’s feelings seem pretty divided, mostly because of Thor and the death in this issue which some felt was pointless. But I thought the whole thing was incredibly solid and exciting. Here’s why.
Was I disappointed in the reveal on Thor? Big time. But the whole thing makes complete sense in the context of what Iron Man and his crew are trying to do. And the lengths that they went to where Thor is concerned, coupled with the lengths to which they are about to go with Reed’s new Thunderbolts team show a level of desperation and sheer stupidity (the same stupidity that caused Reed to lose touch with his family in his nose dive into Iron Man’s cause) that makes choosing a side in this conflict that much easier. I mean, can anyone possibly think this new Thunderbolts team has anything but extreme disaster spelled all over it? But, back to Thor, I was pleasantly surprised to read Yellow Jacket’s questioning why Thor would kill a man, and his reference to Donald Blake and Jake Olson. This tells me that Millar is a student of Dan Jurgens’ “Lord Thor” and how, as we learned then, the earthbound element is so important to Thor’s soul and sanity.
On to the other heroes, there were some great moments on both sides all the way around. Members of Cap’s team lose faith in what they perceive as his antiquated values, mistaking them for fear, while Iron Man’s side faces desertion as well resulting from Thor’s behavior and the ensuing shocking result. Spider-Man no longer needs to further question Stark’s plan and it seems Yellow Jacket is moving that way, too. Hercules and The Falcon pulled Cap’s team’s fat out of the fire. But the big hero this issue is The Invisible Woman. Sue, you always were the most powerful member of the FF and, this issue, you proved it in more ways than one. Her shock over the carnage at first and the brutal killing that follows, her act of defiance on the field of battle against her team mates, and her wonderfully conflicted message to Reed, makes her the real hero of this story. What a great but sad issue for Sue. And cool touch, by the way, on McNiven’s part, putting a flame and invisible umbrella over Johnny and Sue, respectively, as they’re exiting the Baxter Building.
Thinking back to Thor one last time, Marvel has already announced that JMS and Olivier Copiel will take the reigns of the character’s relaunch and have referenced JMS’ FF Mjolnir story in the announcement. What is that story’s relation to this one? Don’t know. And who was the masked, blue eyed stranger on the fire escape outside Cap’s secret HQ? Don’t know that either. But I’m dying to find out the answer to both.
Blade #1
Marvel Comics
Written by: Marc Guggenheim
Drawn by: Howard Chaykin
I was a huge Tomb of Dracula fan back in high school and a huge fan of Blade, the most flamboyant and dramatic vampire hunter in the series. He teamed up with Quincy Harker’s band, with his arsenal of wooden daggers, but never was part of them, often preferring to work alone but offering assistance to anyone fighting for his cause. The Wesley Snipes films brought Blade to prominent public attention and, in the comics, the character became patterned off of Snipe’s sword wielding loner image. I never much went for this take on the character and am happy to see, with this new series, he’s as least part way back to his old ways.
Clearly this book seeks to integrate the vampire slayer into the Marvel Universe. Recently, Blade joined forces with The Black Panther, Luke Cage and Brother Voodoo to battle an army of vampires in flood stricken New Orleans. But now Blade’s fighting not only Dracula, himself, but also a newly inflicted Spider-Man and teaming up with SHIELD. His encounters with Dracula and Spider-Man are all-too brief. Dracula was never so easy a target for Blade before and no explanation is given for Peter’s new undead state and we’re just to trust that his radioactive blood will cure him of his new condition. His relationship with SHIELD brings him into contact with hundreds of vampires where you’d almost least expect to find them and, sure enough, in addition to his wooden knives he’s got plenty of silver bullets and other nifty gadgets to keep more modern Blade fans happy. Also, we get another (well, another for those of us who know already) look at his ghastly origin at the hands of Deacon Frost, the white haired vampire from Tomb of Dracula who looks much younger in this flashback.
Guggenheim gives us a fast paced story with plenty of twists and a confusing surprise at the end. Chaykin is no stranger to vampire comics, currently working on DC’s Bite Club and being the author of the controversial Black Kiss. This series is off to a fun and solid start and I, for one, am glad to see this daywalking vampire slayer back in comics full-time, for now at least.
Astonishing X-Men #17
Marvel Comics
Written by: Joss Whedon
Drawn by: John Cassaday
The last couple of issues the Astonishing X-Men have had their heads handed to them. The Hellfire Club returned with a vengeance with Cassandra Nova, Prof. X’s twin sister, hell-bent in search of …well…something. The principal catalyst for their downfall, though, was Emma who seemingly under pressure from Shaw left Cyclops comatose while Cassandra and crew left Colossus unconscious, Beast a monster preying on deer, and Wolverine acting like a little child. Kitty Pryde took it to Emma last issue, trapping her deep underground, only to return and face…The White Queen? Her reaction, having left Emma buried, was an understandable “YeahbuhWhat?!”
I can’t explain the dual Emma’s but I think that explanation’s coming. But Kitty, caught in the White Queen’s brain trap, delivered Cassandra just what she wanted. Now, I may not be too up on my X-lore because I don’t have a clue what this disgusting thing was that she so dearly coveted and claimed to be trapped in. But just when it seems things can’t get any worse for the X-Men we have a few incidents of resurgent hope. Wolverine’s return is hilariously staged but it’s Cyclops who has the Sue Richard’s moment from Civil War. Go get ‘em, Cyke! You da man! If Danger and Ord don’t take out the newly unconscious Cyclops first, that is. And who’d have thought Lockheed would be in league with…well, I don’t mean to spoil anything.
One thing’s for sure, the next issue looks like major, screaming retribution for the X-Men. I keep talking about how great Ed Brubaker’s Daredevil and Captain America are but I don’t mean to leave out Whedon and Cassaday’s Astonishing X-Men. This is a book that knows how to laugh at itself (check out this issue’s cover) while delivering some of the best stories, art and action of nearly any book on the market.
Guest Review! Kdawg59
Wolverine # 46
Marvel Comics
Written by: Marc Guggenheim
Drawn by: Humberto Ramos
This issue continues Wolverines journey into his own little corner of the civil war around the marvel universe and without question this is the best issue in this entire run for Guggenheim and Ramos.
When last we left off, Wolverine had handed the super villian Nitro (the bastard who started the whole civil war event) to Namor and the kingdom of Atlantis for crimes against the royal family. In case someone doesn't know, part of Nitro blowing up and killing over 600 people in Stamford Connecticut, was taking Namor's cousin Namorita's life.
Wolverine tracked down Nitro and found out Namor was tracking him too. Battle ensues, eventual team up, and reconciliation. During this mess Wolverine discovers that Nitro was using MGH (mutant growth hormone) which amps up the powers of those already powered and actual gives powers to those who have none. At the end of last issue he learns who the MGH supplier is and that brings us to this issue...
Wolverine is the best at what he does. For years unfortunately we HAVE NOT seen Wolvie being the best at anything. In my opinion as of this issue that is over. Wolverine used to be a spy and a damn good one who was involved in black ops and covert stealth missions. We hardly ever see this side of Wolvie anymore and in this issue, we really see the man getting back to that as he takes down all aspects of those responsible for supplying the MGH to villians so that super-powered battle can increase capital flow to the company cleaning up the damage.
Yep that's right, Damage Control is making a killing off supers fighting and demolishing property. Wolverine isn't happy and wants to end it all and kill Damage Control's capitalization on war profiteering.
Wolverine is "up to his neck" in well executed action and dialogue in this issue including a great exchange between himself, Emma, and Scott and a guest appearance by Forge. He single-handedly becomes a very real threat to the very existence of Damage Control by doing what he does best... being sneaky and kicking ass.
I cannot wait to see what happens next as we are left with a "cliffhanger" that makes me "lose my head" with anticipation
This is great Wolverine right here folks... you should be reading.
My two cents on pride of bahdad
I gotta swing by the LCS tonight!!!! I haven't been in over two months............I don't want to see what I have to pay for...............
