WE HAVE ISSUES! Comic Reviews 07/08/12 POTENTIAL SPOILERS

[rychehitman]

NEW GUARDIANS #10

Well, like many of you I was pulled into reading Green Lantern when Hal went nuts and Kyle was given a ring. I always enjoyed Kyle as a Green Lantern and felt he was “my” GL as opposed to Hal. When Geoff Johns took Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps to all new heights I went along for the ride with the Sinestro War and Blackest Night/ Brightest Day….but I was not drawn to continuing reading GL once all the other colors of rings started popping up. It simply didn’t interest me.

When DC re-launched their universe I hopped on board giving all the GL related titles in the new 52 a try. The first to fall off my pull list was GL Corps….followed shortly by Red Lanterns. Hal’s book has been entertaining thanks mostly to Sinestro…and topping my list of GL related books is the New Guardians.

The opening story arc has not been bogged down with origins of any of the ring bearers and I for one am thankful for that. Although I knew next to nothing about many of the rings and their bearers going into this; I feel the presentation of these characters is being done in a way that is explaining just enough in the right doses to give me enough to understand the motivations of the individual characters.

While the concept of all the different coloured ring bearers being brought together into a somewhat reluctant team was not a groundbreaking one, it was done in an enjoyable enough way that is didn’t come across as forced or overly conventional. The interaction between the characters have been well written and seeing the personalities interact naturally is refreshing….from the formation of unlikely friendships to the interesting interaction between the Blue Lanterns and the Green Lanterns.

Kyle takes center stage in this book as he represents the green (will) power in the lantern spectrum. His right hand man is the Blue Lantern known as Saint Walker. The third rational member is former GL femme fatale now sporting a Star Saphire, Fatality. The rest of the team is made up of Red Lantern Bleez, Indigo Lantern Munk, Arkillo the Yellow Lantern, and an orange lantern construct that Larfleeze created called Glomulus. ( I had no idea that there was only ONE orange ring or that the constructs created by the orange ring can be actual sentient beings! I find those concepts to be very interesting.)



The team basically gathers to try to figure out who manipulated all of the different colored rings to leave their handlers to die and suddenly bring th emselves to Kyle…who can actually wear all the different rings and communicate with all the different rings. After fighting among themselves and tracking down Larfleeze, all the members of the team go to their individual homes to recharge their battaries before confronting the main antagonist.

Issue #10 is part two of a story that sees an alien species known as “the Reach” attacking the secret location of the homeworld of the Blue Lanterns in an attempt to get their Central Battery. “The Reach” is an army of different species all wearing and apparently being controlled by the same armor that the current Blue Beetle wears on Earth. Turns out his armor is battle damaged thus allowing the human host some level of control over it….but Blue Beetle does not appear in this issue so I wont get into that. You know what DOES appear in this issue? A big Blue Lantern Elephant!



The rest of the team arrives in an effort to help assist the Blue Lanterns in defending their home…..



…but alas, it is too little too late once the Reach brings an entire space armada into the battle. The Blue Lanterns are convinced to retreat so that they might live to fight another day…and sets Saint Walker on the road to revenge.



The writer of this issue was Tony Bedard. I have to admit to being unfamiliar with any of his previous work, but I am enjoying his writing style on the New Guardians book quite a bit. Though some of the situations are cliché…they are done in a way that doesn’t FEEL cliché. Even though I assumed that the story was going to be pushed forward by a Reach victory…when Arkillo arrived I actually thought for a moment that the team was going to win the day. It was a subtle moment, but the “All will be well / All will be Hell” line touched the fanboy in me! The way that the different Lanterns powers are being explained is being done in a natural way that a newbie like me can be brought up to speed…but it’s NOT being done in an insulting origin sequence type of way for readers wh o are already in the know. I realize that is a razor thing line to be walking and I think Bedard is doing an excellent job.

The artwork on the series has been fairly good with some slight blunders along the way. A friend of mine told me that if you look closely sometimes Saint Walker has a fifth finger, which his species is not supposed to have. Luckily I do not examine every panel of artwork that closely so I was content with what I did see opposed to being fixated over what I should not be seeing. I can respect the fact the long time readers may be up in arms…and a finger…over this obvious error, but in this era of comics editors really don’t do much of anything so these things will happen. Funny how the artist (in this case Tomas Giorello) drew the extra finger…but it got past the inker and the colorist as well as the editors…..so can you really blame the guy at the beginning of the process? That’s a debate for greater minds. I like the artwork well enough to continue with the book, but it’s the story and characterizations that lands this book on my “Buy” list every month.

I’m going to give this book 7 out of 10 Oa’s!

[rychehitman]

Wolverine #310

The creative team of Jeph Loeb (W) and Simone Bianchi (A) return to the Wolverine title to bring us the follow up to the craptacular “Evolution” storyline that led to the death of one of my personal favorite characters….Sabretooth.

Now for those of you who might think the term “Craptacular” is too harsh…let me refresh your memory of Creed’s death. The story involved a sword that can negate the effects of any and all healing factors. Wolverine slices off Sabretooths arm with said sword…and Creed picks up his limb and puts it back in place expecting the limb to reattach so that he can continue fighting and is shocked to discover that the limb won’t connect. Now when the hell has the healing factor of Creed…or Logan....or Deadpool EVER worked that way??? Maybe I have missed some classic Marvel moments…but I personally have never seen any of these healing factors work that instantly. Crusher Creel while on the Beyonder’s planet after Wolverine sliced his arm off? Yes..I have seen that. Characters simply putting body parts back on…? Sure I’ve seen that with the likes of Morph and Madcap…but never the wild and wooly feral mutants!

Returning to point here….so once Sabretooth realizes this sword can detach limbs on a permanent level, he falls to his knees crying and tells Logan to “do it”…and Wolverine chops his head clean off.



So under Leob…Wolverine thinks of all the women Sabretooth has killed and thinks he has done the right thing? Really? I think that Sabretooth killing his first love is more than enough justification for Logan...but better to champion violence against women to justify killing and not revenge…after all, Wolverine is a family friendly hero these days, right? (Smell the sarcasm? Remember all the flack Loeb received for the Red Hulk beating up women all too frequently in his early appearances???)

To continue with one last point….Creed had an adamantium laced skeleton when this blade cut into the flesh of his neck. Marvel tried to explain this by claiming that Sabretooth did not have adamantium connective tissue in his joints and wrists, only adamantium bones, therefore his limbs could be severed. Yeah……that’s the ticket! There simply is no way to slice through a neck without hitting bone…so the blade would either be stopped or slice through the adamantium. Am I being too geeky? Perhaps…but it just irks me that Creed was killed in such an undignified manner.

When asked in an interview if there will be another antagonist to step into Creeds place as the Yang to Logan’s Yin Loeb stated:

"That’s a trick question. I’m not sure [Sabretooth’s] out of the picture. I think that’s still to come. There are other X-Men villains he’s gone up against that are pretty terrific. My job as a storyteller was to bring something new to the table, in the same sort of way I loved doing Hush because I wanted to leave a toy in the toy box that everyone else could play with. I hope we’re just seeing the beginning of a major character for Wolverine in Romulus. And I think Wildchild will confound Wolverine as he doesn’t know if he’s a good or bad guy."

(Full interview here: http://www.brokenfrontier.com/lowdow...with-jeph-loeb)

More on Romulus in a minute….but basically Leob just said that as a storyteller, his job is to bring something new… okay, that sounds great, right?

Now I feel I can begin discussing Wolverine #310.
So, “Sabretooth” kidnaps Dagger to bring Cloak into the story. Cloak and Dagger? Yep….Cloak and Dagger. Seems that Cloak has been holding (the ultimate Wolverine villain) Romulus prisoner in the Dark Force Dimension for quite some time now…and time works differently in the Dark Dimension..so he’s been in there awhile! Who is Romulus? Well, here is why the story was titled “Evolution”. It turns out that instead of there being one evolutionary path between humans and monkeys, that there may also have been one that developed from lupines. It is believed at this point that Romulus is the first of this race. He looks like an older version of Logan that is damn near immortal and he has been the guy pulling the strings behind just about everything James Howlett has been going through since his birth to forge him into the Logan that we know and love as Wolverine today.

Before heading off to rescue Dagger, Logan has Cloak make a quick stop to the place where he buried Sabretooth’s body….the reasoning and location of this burial are given and really fall flat. Logan digs up Creed’s coffin and his body and decapitated head are STILL in there….so, who is this person that kidnapped Dagger?

Suddenly Logan is attacked by an unknown person that whispers to him during their altercation that the answers Logan seeks can be found at…..the WEAPON X Facility! (Insert ominous “dun, dun, DUN” sound effect!)

Cut to Logan going back to the Weapon X facility and suddenly discovering there are liquid filled tubes of Sabretooths in various stages of development. This can mean only one thing! SABRECLONES! Just as Wolverine makes this realization….guess who jumps out from behind a tube and attacks him? C’mon guess! Loeb said his job is to bring something new…so who do you think it is? If you guessed Sabretooth you win a goldfish! Logan didn’t even hear, or smell him coming! Is this original stuff or what?

Yeah, like I said….Craptacular!

If you are into quality lettering and coloring….this book is for you! If you like a quality story with nice artwork then avoid this book at all costs!

Your comic buying dollar is better spent on back issues. Track down the X-Men issues pre-AoA that have Sabretooth being held prisoner in the X-Mansion. Go buy the Phalanx Covenant back issues for some great Sabretooh characterization. This “return of Sabretooth” story arc has nowhere to go but down at this point….please don’t get caught in its wake!

Review Ranking: 2/10 “Bub’s”…….

[TK-421]

Great reviews Rob!
Favorite line...

Originally Posted by rychehitman

If you are into quality lettering and coloring….this book is for you!

[bat_collector]

Originally Posted by rychehitman

NEW GUARDIANS #10
Kyle takes center stage in this book as he represents the green (will) power in the lantern spectrum. His right hand man is the Blue Lantern known as Saint Walker. The third rational member is former GL femme fatale now sporting a Star Saphire, Fatality. The rest of the team is made up of Red Lantern Bleez, Indigo Lantern Munk, Arkillo the Yellow Lantern, and an orange lantern construct that Larfleeze created called Glomulus. ( I had no idea that there was only ONE orange ring or that the constructs created by the orange ring can be actual sentient beings! I find those concepts to be very interesting!

Read Green lantern #39 - 42, or the Agent Orange trade, for more on Larfleeze.

[bat_collector]

Originally Posted by rychehitman

Your comic buying dollar is better spent on back issues. Track down the X-Men issues pre-AoA that have Sabretooth being held prisoner in the X-Mansion. Go buy the Phalanx Covenant back issues for some great Sabretooh characterization. This “return of Sabretooth” story arc has nowhere to go but down at this point….please don’t get caught in its wake!

Review Ranking: 2/10 “Bub’s”…….[/CENTER]

I loved those!

[THECLOWN KNIGHT]

Reviews?!....Reviews!!!

Thank you guys for picking up the mantle.

Re: AVX 7
I will try to not sound/be so negative but the highlight of this Event so far has been the art of Olivier Coipel.

In this particular Issue you see Cyclops comfortable/in control with the Phoenix Force while Emma, Magik and Namor are getting out of control because of it. This will lead to the end of the X-Men literally.

Fraction put(I suspect) the last nail in the coffin of the relationship of Scott and Emma(which grown in me since the Whedon & Cassaday AXM). To me THIS and the last two years are the straw that broke the camel's back so for me there will be "no more X-Men".


Re: Before Watchmen
My favorite title from this new wave is without doubt Minutemen, the others I feel them just 'okay'.

Curious thing is that thanks to the movie I got very used to the idea that the Comedian was the shooter in the JFK event, that was a terrific idea/scene that the movie brought to the table. So the BW:Comedian # 1 was kinda weird.

And about BW:Nite Owl # 1 I'm surprised how Stracynski reflected his 'father issues' in the origin of Daniel, in regard to the relationship with his father about Daniel 'hobby'. I hope to see more of Nite-Rorschach team up in the next chapters.

Again thank you all guys.