The conclusion of Siege across four titles led the way for a huge week. 21 titles (14 Marvel, 6 DC/Wildstorm and 1 indie) made it home. Overall, there were way more really good titles (11 ★★★★☆ or better) than there were bad books, but unfortunate the bad books went from Hey, that was bad all the way to Wow! What was that smell!?!
The Score Card
FLASH #2 ★★★★★
IRON MAN: NOIR #2 ★★★★★
DARK AVENGERS #16 ★★★★★
NEW AVENGERS: FINALE ★★★★☆
ASTONISHING X-MEN: XENOGENESIS #1 ★★★★☆
SIEGE #4 ★★★★☆
AMAZING SPIDERMAN #631 ★★★★☆
FIRST WAVE #2 ★★★★☆
PUNISHERMAX #7 ★★★★☆
BLACK WIDOW #2 ★★★★☆
NEW MUTANTS #13 ★★★★☆
THE NEW AVENGERS: LUKE CAGE #2 ★★★☆☆
AVENGERS INITIATIVE #35 ★★☆☆☆
BATGIRL #10 ★★☆☆☆
BATMAN: RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE #1 ★☆☆☆☆
JUSTICE LEAGUE: GENERATION LOST #1 ★☆☆☆☆
SENTRY: FALLEN SUN (SIEGE EPILOGUE) ☢
BATMAN #699 ☢
IRON MAN: LEGACY #2 ☢
GREEN HORNET STRIKES #1 ☢
DAREDEVIL: CAGE MATCH #1 ☢☢
LEGEND
★★★★★ = Really, really good.
★★★★☆ = Better than average.
★★★☆☆ = Average.
★★☆☆☆ = Below average.
★☆☆☆☆ = Not good.
☢ = Unreadable.
Breaking it Down
The Top Dog (Greg’s Top Pick of the Week)
FLASH #2 ★★★★★ (w: Geoff Johns/a: Francis Manupal). The first issue of the new (Barry Allen) Flash series was better than it has any business being. A life-long comic fan, who actually remembers reading Barry’s trial and cherishes the original Crisis series it is almost impossible to embrace the cockeyed return of the Silver Age speedster. Add to that, almost nothing (ESPECIALLY Blackest Night) that Geoff Johns has done in the last few years has been worthy of this talent. Okay, with the exception of his work in Adventure. And then there’s the Flash… which is a really good, really fun comic. The characters are great, the plots are compelling and Manupal’s art gives the book its own retro-modern flair. Last month it was a surprise to wind up enjoying Flash #1, skeptically even. The best part about Flash #2 is it leaves you looking forward to Flash #3 and (hopefully) a lot more Flashes to come.
The Good
IRON MAN: NOIR #2 ★★★★★ (w: Scott Snyder/a: Manuel Garcia). Despite having absolutely no appearances of anyone in an Iron Man armor or anything remotely like one, Iron Man Noir continues to be an exciting ride. Iron Man: Noir #2 is the pulp-adventure, Indiana Jones meets Disney Adventure ride (think Pirates of the Caribbean) with familiar Marvel characters bursting out all over the place. Iron Man: Noir is smartly written and drawn with a theme of the period, another fantastic chapter in this all-too short mini-series.
DARK AVENGERS #16 ★★★★★ (w: Brian Michael Bendis/a: Mike Deodato). Everything else aside, Dedato’s artwork in Dark Avengers #16 is phenomenal. The New Avengers: Finale wrapped up their part of the Siege/Civil War story arc and Dark Avengers wraps up everything else. It is, if nothing else the first time we get to see Captain Steve Rogers in his new role and he is… the iconic soldier, leader and living symbol you would hope that he would become. The Anti-Norman Osborn if you will. Speaking of Osborn, this is where he gets his due. For better or worse, Captain Rogers has a place for you Normie. Until we meet again (see you in a Spidey book in a few years…). While this has been the week of “wrapping up” and “moving on”, Dark Avengers steps up and finishes with style.
NEW AVENGERS: FINALE ★★★★☆ (w: Brian Michael Bendis/a: Brian Hitch & Stuart Immomen) is the finale that Siege deserved. There was more action that you might expect and lots and lots of talking. Overall this was a very nice conclusion to the New Avengers story arc that Bendis started oh-so-long ago. Hitch’s art is always a nice compliment to Bendis (or Millar for that matter), but when Immomen’s pages pop-up occasionally it’s like finding a bite of Oscar Meyer ham in the middle of your filet mignon, and that would be bad. The Count Nefaria/Hood/Madame Masque story is good and the wrap-up and lead-in to Heroic Age is well executed. Though, truth be told you won’t miss anything if you skip all the word boxes on the last few pages and just enjoy the art. Sorry Bendis, a little too Hallmark greeting card there.
ASTONISHING X-MEN: XENOGENESIS #1 ★★★★☆ (w: Warren Ellis/a: Kaare Andrews). There is a lot of grown-up stuff in this here funny book. The story itself is very well told. Much of the story is done in the dialogue, which not only advances the plot but also establishes the characters for this little X-drama. I am an unabashed fan of Andrews’ artwork, Xenogenesis is no different. Andrews renders all of the characters true to form, with his own unique spin: all well done, with the possible exception of Emma Frost, whose visage is just disturbing. Like Helena Bonham Carter in Burton’s Alice, disturbing.
SIEGE #4 ★★★★☆ (w: Brian Michael Bendis/a: Oliver Coipel) wraps up Siege and Dark Reign and corrects a mistake that has gone on way too long. There are some bad stories in comics that just keep getting worse. DC has Jason Todd and Marvel has the Sentry. Marvel went a long way to solving their problem with Siege #4. Siege #4 is a very satisfactory conclusion to years of storytelling and wastes no time launching into the Heroic Age. All the heroes you would expect, take center stage. All (most) of the villains get their comeuppance. There are two deaths and Normie gets pushed around a lot. Except that the whole “Siege” thing took so long to wrap up and wound up being (kind of) anti-climatic, this was an overall decent event.
AMAZING SPIDERMAN #631 ★★★★☆ (w: Zeb Wells/a: Emma Rios & Chris Bachalo). In case you were wondering, we are still in “the Gauntlet”. Special thanks to lil’ Kravenette and company for pointing that out. The framing sequence is drawn by new-comer Emma Rios, which is pleasant enough on its own, even after you realize that it isn’t Bachalo (which is actually pretty obvious). The Lizard-Curt Conners story is awesome. A proverbial Jekyll versus Hyde played out in thought boxes. Throw in Spider-man for good measure and away you go. There’s murder and mayhem and the Kravens take a much more direct hand as we draw closer to the Grim Hunt. One really amazing tid-bit, this may be the first and only really useful appearance of Kaine.
FIRST WAVE #2 ★★★★☆ (w: Brian Azzarello/a: Rags Morales). First Wave is considerably better than either the Spirit or Doc Savage stand-alone titles. That being said, Spirit #1 was pretty good. Azzarello and Morales do a great job setting the stage for all of the characters in the new First Wave Universe, including the Blackhawks (who have never been more interesting) and this guy in a Bat-suit. The story is solid even as it introduces tons of characters. Morales’ artwork captures this “pulp”/retro world beautifully.
PUNISHER: MAX # 7 ★★★★☆ (w: Jason Aaron/a: Steve Dillon). Bullseye is one bad SOB, and that was the nicest, most PC description I could come up with. Aaron is quickly becoming one of those writers whose work you should give a try, every time you see his name. While this second-Max Punisher story arc is a re-imagining of the Kingpin and Bullseye, it has also been a very cool exploration of the Punisher. Punisher: Max #7 paints the gruesome modus operandi of the new Bullseye as he continues his dogged pursuit of the Punisher. P:Max is without question of the Top Ten reads every month.
BLACK WIDOW #2 ★★★★☆ (w: Marjorie Liu/ a: Daniel Acuna). Black Widow #1 was good. Black Widow #2 was fantastic. The story amps up, kicks into high gear and Acuna’s artwork keeps pace beautifully. Tony Stark, New-Cap, Wolverine and even Clint Barton (in his old Hawkeye garb!) are all on-hand as Natasha’s story continues to unfold. And if one badass femme fatale isn’t enough, two others are lurking in this story. Despite being a fairly well written story, it is very drama-laden and not-so-much action packed. It is definitely one of those stories that is benefitting from the accompanying artwork.
NEW MUTANTS #13 ★★★★☆ (w: Zeb Wells/ a: Ibraim Roberson with Lan Medina). The Second Coming Epic event continues strong, although New Mutants #13 is more of a “filler story”, with seemingly less occurring than the previous six chapters. On the other hand with the frenetic pace that the last few chapters have had, you would have to expect to take the foot off the gas at least a little at some point. That being said, stuff happens. The evil Bastion’s plans keep chugging along unabated. There is some cool character development work with Hope and Cable and Cyclops. Second Coming is still the Event to watch, even with the Heroic Age fast upon us.
THE NEW AVENGERS: LUKE CAGE #2 ★★★☆☆ (w: John Arcudi/a: Pepe Laraz & Eric Canete) is a better way to re-establish Luke Cage as a bad-ass, urban hero to get him ready for his participation in the upcoming event, Shadowland, than say the “Daredevil/Luke Cage: Cage Match”one-shot that also came out this week. Luke Cage is a slice of NYPD Blue meets Welcome Back Kotter, meets... well, an “old school” Luke Cage, Power Man comic. This story isn’t great, in fact it is unfortunately more run-of-the-mill than not. On the other hand Luke Cage #2 isn’t bad either, like many of the issues this week, Cage also benefits from having an art team that really compliments the theme of the series.
The Bad
AVENGERS INITIATIVE # 35 ★★☆☆☆ (w: Christos Gage/a: Jorge Molina) This could have been a very bad comic. Almost nothing of any value takes place within these 22 pages. It is without question the “wrap-up” comic for the Avengers Initiative series and it covers all the bases you’d want covered and more. It’s interesting to reflect, on the three years (or so) that have passed in the Marvel Universe since Civil War spawned the Avengers Initiative. Overall it was a series that was better than it had any reason to be and widely because of Gage. If you’ve been with the title from the beginning or at least awhile, you won’t mind the aimlessness of the issue. C’est la vie Avengers Initiative, it was a good run.
BATGIRL # 10 ★★☆☆☆ (w: Bryan Q. Miller/ a: Lee Garbett & Pere Perez) Batgirl has been a pretty good series for the past five or six months. Last issue was disappointing; Batgirl #10 is just not good. There are good parts, much of the same chemistry between the characters is still there and the artwork is mostly rewarding. However, the actual story is pretty bad. Frankly there are enough zombies ambling about the comic world today. Undead zombies, magic zombies, alternate reality zombies... the last thing we needed was more zombies. And “techno-zombies” to boot. Sadly, it appears that many of the Bat-books are going into babble-comic mode with no huge crisis to contend with, while they are waiting for the Return of Bruce Wayne. What makes that even sadder was the notion that some of these books (like Batgirl) were actually worth reading the last few months.
BATMAN: RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE #1 ★☆☆☆☆ (w: Grant Morrison/a: Chris Sprouse). Morrison has watched too many episodes of Lost, on the other hand it is good to know that he doesn’t get it either. Wow. All this time since Final Crisis and this was the best first issue the DCU could come up with? This is not a good sign. Okay, where to start. First off the “caveman dialogue” couldn’t have been worse as they switched between being completely ignorant and being able to describe the sky as different colors blue (which for the record is NEVER blue in this issue). It’s kind of cool that Vandal Savage (presumably) makes an appearance. The “sky cart” and cape is way too Lost for any sensibility. Now, you would think that when cavemen say, “nail him down” they would… you know, nail him to the ground, not tie his hands to stakes. Rope huh? Okay. Moving right along, you might think that the “Robin” kid, leading to the inevitable bat-cloaking of Cave Bruce was pretty much the last straw… until the JLA shows up proclaiming that if Bruce makes it back to the 21st century it will doom them all!!! And of course somewhere along the way he made like Sam Beckett and Quantum Leaped into the next time period and issue. There were many things wrong with Tim Drake “knowing” Bruce was alive (I’m sure they’ll explain that) and it is only compounded by the first issue of this mini-series. On the other hand, Sprouse’s artwork was pleasant and made the book barely readable.
JUSTICE LEAGUE: GENERATION LOST #1 ★☆☆☆☆ (w: Keith Giffen & Judd Winnick/a: Aaron Lopresti). Almost 25 years ago Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire caught lightning in a bottle, brought life and humor to an otherwise uninteresting cast of characters... and Batman. That was of course “Justice League”, which became “Justice League International” and essentially carved out the modern personalities for the Martian Manhunter, Guy Gardner, Shazam, Captain Atom (in JLI), Booster Gold and the Blue Beetle. The stories, which were really, really good for about two years and in two books (JL and JLI) and then the magic was gone. Since then the powers that be, unfortunately too often with Giffen’s help, have tried marching this line-up (or versions of it) out to see if they can re-capture the lightning. What made JLI awesome was it’s quirkyness on top of a good comic story. It wasn’t like Morrison’s Doom Patrol, which was a quirky comic story. It wasn’t a straight-out, super hero comic story. It was a character driven (mostly through humorous situations or dialogue) title with a completely uncomplicated plot. There was some seriousness, it wasn’t like it was all fun and games and Oreo cookies. Along the way (I blame Dan Didio) the characters became all seriousness: somewhere after “Formerly Known as the Justice League” and right before Maxwell Lord went all psycho. The clever storytelling with an underlying sense of humor that defined the Justice League was gone. Justice League: Generation Lost just doesn’t get it. It isn’t a “generation” that is lost, it is the thematic bend of the story. No one cares if these guys get together to solve a mystery or save the universe. Sure, we all might be surprised. But without the unique USE of the characters, this is just another below average story (which is regrettably going to come out every week) with a bunch of b-rate characters who were brilliant together, once upon a time. Lightning in a bottle.
The Unreadable
SENTRY: FALLEN SUN (SIEGE EPILOGUE) ☢ (w: Paul Jenkins/a: Tom Raney). There had to be one last issue, one last monumentally stupid Sentry comic. The problem with Sentry has always been that he was a pathetic ret-con that introduced a remarkably unimaginative and overly powerful figure into the Marvel Universe. It was bad enough that the original retcon lasted a decade, in and out of the shadow of the Marvel Universe. To compound matters, every time Sentry reared his plagiaristic head, he wallowed into a poor-man’s psycho Shazam! knock-off and was never able to hold a decent storyline together on his own. Or for that matter contribute much to a team book. You could see the writing on the wall for Sentry, with the impending introduction of Marvel Man into the Marvel Universe. Let’s face it, Sentry/Bob What’shisName is only slightly less (or maybe more) derivative of Marvel Man. And why mess with a third-string wannabe, when you can have the real thing. On the other hand, if you’re looking for some closure to Siege or even a sentimental wrap-up for the Sentry, you aren’t going to get it here. Jenkins’ story is ridiculous, including Tony Stark providing a round of beers and the Thing proclaiming that What’shisname was “the better man”. Can someone please Blackest Night this whole issue so we can pretend it didn’t happen. Even Raney’s artwork, was curiously Tim Vigil-esque for Fallen Sun was even more schizophrenic than normal. Raney has his moments, but drifts too frequently (like within the same book) from style to style.
One good thing: There really are some comics that strain the notion that there is one good thing about every comic. Fallen Sun comes very close to having absolutely no redeeming value. On the other hand, farewell Bob What’shisname, please go the way of Captain Marvel and never comeback. This is not the DCU, we do not expect to see you wandering the halls next month.
IRON MAN: LEGACY #2 ☢ (w: Fred Van Lente/a: Steve Kurth) Okay I really, really like the work Van Lente has been turning in on Amazing Spider-man. The first issue of Iron Man: Legacy was not good. The second issue was not an improvement. A page into the issue the reader is left wondering just what the heck is going on here? Since when (and in what universe) does the government not know that Tony Stark is Iron Man? Not in the classic Marvel Universe. Not in the Iron Man movie universe. Apparently only here in Iron Man legacy. And it doesn’t get any better from there. For example, last thing this world needs is another Iron Man versus armored guys fight. Just say no.
One good thing: Kurth’s artwork isn’t bad. At least the comic (especially some of the pages with lots of armored guys) is nice to look at. Even if you don’t really want to see a page with lots of armored guys.
BATMAN #699 ☢ (w: Tony Daniel/a: Guillem March) wraps up the Sebastian Blackspell/Riddler story arc, which on the surface is a good thing – since it wasn’t very good to start with. March’s artwork has its moments, but tends to be inconsistent and is sometimes “blocky” – leaving the Riddler look more like Blockbuster than the familiar scrawny Edward Nigma. Daniels’ Batman stories of late have been over-complicated and under-written, this one is no exception.
One good thing: Only once in a very rare occasion is there nothing good about a comic. Remarkably that happens twice this week. Batman #699 is one of those books which has absolutely no redeeming qualities.
GREEN HORNET STRIKES #1 ☢ (w: Brett Matthews/a: Ariel Padilla). Green Hornet Strikes could have been the best of the three Green Hornet titles, but it isn’t. Matt Wagner’s Green Hornet: Year One follows the “golden age” adventures of the original GH (Britt Reid) and Kevin Smith’s Green Hornet follows the modern Green Hornet (Britt’s son), Matthew’s Hornet is set in the “near future” where corruption is at an all time high. Obviously the draw to GH Strikes is a harkening to the Dark Knight Returns or Kingdom Come or any other future of your hero story that might tickle your fancy. Strikes #1 falls short on all levels, the future doesn’t seem so different than the modern day and aside from being a Hornet and maybe having some family relation to the Reids, none of the characters are at all interesting. If you like watching two stranger sit and banter in an office while another masked stranger creeps along the building… all of which leads to an almost inexplicable burst of action, then this book is for you. Or you could watch the blades of a fan spin, where there is probably about the same amount of useful content.
A good thing: The art isn’t bad, but isn’t far from average either.
DAREDEVIL: CAGE MATCH #1 ☢☢ (w: Anthony Jonston/a: Sean Chen). “The story you’re about to read is a heretofore-untold tale of the early days of the Marvel Universe…” is on the splash page. In other words, because we couldn’t come up with a clever way to build a relationship in modern time between two classic heroes, you should believe this happened years and years ago. Say it with me, “ret-con” is the comic world’s version of Lost’s flash-whatevers: cheap shortcuts to telling a story, which usually ends up wrecking the story anyway.
A few pages in, Daredevil steals a page from Batman as he tells Superman, “I had that covered, I didn’t need you to save me from not being bulletproof.” Wow. Because Superman/Batman wasn’t bad enough, we need Daredevil: Cage Match. But don’t worry Jonston isn’t done, DD doesn’t have to worry about bullets point-blank he was trained as a ninja (which doesn’t work out as well for other ninjas…).
It gets worse from there. Okay, this happened “in the early days of the Marvel Universe” but Turk is carrying a digital camera. So, the “early days” were apparently yesterday. And Turk… really dude (Jonston) just because you snake a character from the classic Miller DD run of the 80’s, that neither sets your story in the past nor adds any validity to your weak plot.
This is a horrible comic. If this is a prelude to the up-coming Daredevil/New York heroes Shadowland event, wait for the trade paperback or the Ben Affleck movie version. Yes, it’s that bad. Hopefully, Shadowland doesn’t wind up this bad. There’s a new Powerman coming (in Shadowland) and that looks kind of interesting. There is absolutely nothing to set that up here in Cage match. Go figure.
One last quick explanation, this comic is so bad it got ☢☢, which heretofore was unheard of. But this comic is that bad. It’s so bad it’s not only unreadable, if you did read it you’d probably wish you hadn’t.
One good thing: With many apologies, this comic stands a rare exception. The art isn’t good. The story is really bad. It’s a one-shot that is going to lead into a Marvel Epic and it ends like the end of Rocky III. The ads are better than the comic. Can ads count as a good thing? It’s that bad.
The Reading Order
SIEGE #4 ★★★★☆
SENTRY: FALLEN SUN (SIEGE EPILOGUE) ☢
AVENGERS INITIATIVE #35 ★★☆☆☆
NEW AVENGERS: FINALE ★★★★☆
DARK AVENGERS #16 ★★★★★
IRON MAN: LEGACY #2 ☢
DAREDEVIL: CAGE MATCH #1 ☢☢
BATMAN: RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE #1 ★☆☆☆☆
FLASH #2 ★★★★★
BATGIRL #10 ★★☆☆☆
FIRST WAVE #2 ★★★★☆
PUNISHERMAX #7 ★★★★☆
BATMAN #699 ☢
NEW MUTANTS #13 ★★★★☆
ASTONISHING X-MEN: XENOGENESIS #1 ★★★★☆
AMAZING SPIDERMAN #631 ★★★★☆
IRON MAN: NOIR #2 ★★★★★
BLACK WIDOW #2 ★★★★☆
THE NEW AVENGERS: LUKE CAGE #2 ★★★☆☆
JUSTICE LEAGUE: GENERATION LOST #1 ★☆☆☆☆
GREEN HORNET STRIKES #1 ☢
wow its like you're a robot designed to think the opposite of everyone else.
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