13 titles (7 Marvel and 6 DC/Wildstorm) came home this week. Nine are reviewed for your pleasure today. It may have been more a twist of scheduling than actual planning, but following last week’s Siege-heavy take with a very Avengers (Heroic Age) loaded Marvel crop this week, created a very strong foundation for the post Dark Reign Marvel Universe. And surprisingly Brightest Day was better than expected. It's a great start to the week, with a few titles left to review there have been no bad reads. Check back this weekend for another update! And make sure to stop by the shop Saturday for the Rise of the Eldrazi Magic tournament!
The Score Card
AVENGERS #1 ★★★★☆
INVINCIBLE IRON MAN 26 ★★★★☆
ENTER THE HEROIC AGE #1 ★★★★☆
ULTIMATE COMICS: AVENGERS 2 #2 ★★★★☆
X-MEN LEGACY #236 ★★★★☆
X-FACTOR #205 ★★★☆☆
AGE OF HEROES #1 ★★★☆☆
BRIGHTEST DAY #2 ★★★☆☆
LEGION OF SUPERHEROES #1 ★★★☆☆
Reviews Coming Soon!!!
AMERICAN VAMPIRE # 3
BATMAN STREETS OF GOTHAM #12
DC UNIVERSE: LEGACIES #1
ZATANNA #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)
AVENGERS #1 ★★★★☆ (w: Brian Michael Bendis/a: John Romita Jr.) Dark Reign is over and not a moment too soon. Steve Rogers assembles Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Spidey, Wolverine and a whole cast of familiar faces to pick-up the pieces. From Nick Fury to Tony Stark to Norman Osborn to Steve Rogers, the mantle of “top superhero cop” in the United States is officially passed. Rogers gathers his finest team of Avengers and puts them under the guidance of a surprise leader. The one disappointment in Avengers #1 is the glossing over of Clint Barton resuming his role as Hawkeye. This isn’t the first time Bendis had used a quick Spidey-quip to transition or explain a plot point and it is getting a little tiresome. Barton being Ronin wasn’t a great idea, but he’d been Ronin long enough and after having watched Bullsye smear his good name it would have been nice to have a little bit more attention paid to this transition, and what about Kate Bishop (who was the latest hero to use the Hawkeye alias). The first story arc kicks off with a re-introduction of the Next Avengers, who you may recognize from their direct to video release. Aside from the myriad of once-and-future Avengers, there are more than enough time-or-reality twisted characters to actually put some meat on the bones of this initial story arc.
The Good
INVINCIBLE IRON MAN 26 ★★★★☆ (w: Matt Fraction/a: Salvador Larroca) Stark Resilient continues as Fraction & Larroca march on re-inventing Tony Stark and his little piece of the world. The issue kind of goes the way of Bendis, where there is a lot going on, but almost no action. We do get to see the new Iron Man armor, even its opponent is a wooden crate. If you need superhero action this book isn’t for you, but if you enjoy a well-written super hero story, this is a pretty good chapter of Stark Resilient.
ENTER THE HEROIC AGE #1 ★★★★☆ It has become tradition for Marvel to use a One-Shot to launch new titles following their big mega-event. This edition features introductions for the Avengers Academy, Atlas, Hawkeye & Mockingbird, Thunderbolts, and sneak at the already in-progress Black Widow. As an appetizer, Enter the Heroic Age entices four out of five of the titles nicely, even if the Widow story (Kelly Sue Deconnick/a: Jamie McKelvie) has nothing to do with the current story arc. The promise behind the Avengers Academy lies with its creators (w: Christos Gage/a: Mike McKone), who made the Avengers: Initiative better than it had any reason to be. Hawkeye & Mockingbird (w: Jim McCann/a: David Lopez) is without a question a throwback to the duo’s 80’s series. At first glance, Hawkeye and Mockingbird were Green Arrow and Black Canary knock-offs. But the Marvel versions tend to be lighter in nature and carry significantly less baggage (which is really hard to imagine given Hawkeye’s recent return from the dead and Mockingbird’s sojourn as a Skrull captive). The Atlas (w: Jeff Parker/a: Gabriel Harman)sneak is the least interesting of the lot. Atlas is an interesting enough concept and team to keep getting “another chance”, but keeps falling just a little short of being consistently a good read. In the end, Atlas may best be served with one-shots and occasional mini-series, like the Young Avengers. Finally, Luke Cage takes on a new role in the up-coming Thunderbolts (w: Jeff Parker/ a: Kevin Walker) re-launch. All of the vignettes tell a nice little, complete story and really do a good job of teasing these series.
ULTIMATE COMICS: AVENGERS 2 #2 ★★★★☆ (w: Mark Millar/a: Lenil Yu) War Machine is on an errand to recruit the new Hulk. Don’t worry, he isn’t red. UC: Avengers 2 is so much better than any other Ultimate book that has been on the shelves for the last year or so that it prompted a re-reading of the first UC: Avengers series. This is good stuff. Neither the first UC: Avengers series nor its sequel is on the level of the first two Ultimates series, but both are heading in the right direction. Okay, the teaser page at the end UC: Avengers 2 #2 may leave you scratching your head, but if Millar & Yu could pull off bringing the Punisher on board (they did), maybe they can make _________ work too!
X-MEN LEGACY #236 ★★★★☆ (w: Mike Carey/ a: Greg Land) Second Coming meets Stephen King as Bastion’s assault on Utopia continues. Second Coming is about half-way done and is still delivering wins. Keeping up the theme of the week, the Avengers are on hand for a surprise guest appearance.
X-FACTOR #205 ★★★☆☆ (w: Peter David/a: Valentine De Landro) Apparently, X-Factor isn’t as easy to trick as we had been lead to believe last issue. X-Factor #205 is a nice twist to the status quo of Second Coming, with the heroes successfully frustrating some of Bastion’s plans. It would be hard to top or really even recover from the events of last issue, so it isn’t really surprising that this issue doesn’t quite live-up to the expectations set last month. On the other hand, X-Factor #205 is still a good read and does add value to the Second Coming event.
AGE OF HEROES #1 ★★★☆☆ is the first of a four-issue mini-series featuring snapshots of life after Dark Reign. There are three stories and a filler-page in Age of Heroes #1. J. Jonah Jameson (w: Kurt Busiek/ a: Marko Djurdjevic) takes on the role of Lex Luthor: the lone human out to save the world from all these freaks in his vignette, which is the best of the bunch. The Doctor Voodoo story (w: Rick Remender/a: Chris Samnee) is a cute little story that throws out a bunch of Cajun clichés, but doesn’t really do make the good doctor any more interesting. The Captain Britain & MI: 13 chapter (w; Paul Cornell/a: Leonard Kirk) is two pages of wha? which will ultimately find Captain Britain in the Avengers. There is one last “story” in the issue, a Spider-man short, which looks more like a bad advertisement masquerading as a single-page story than an actual single-page story. Overall, the three stories in the book were entertaining if nothing else.
BRIGHTEST DAY #2 ★★★☆☆ (w: Geoff Johns & Peter J. Tomasi/ a: Ivan Reis, Patrick Gleason, Ardian Syaf, Scott Clark and Joe Prado) Surprisingly Brightest Day #2 is an improvement over the first issue but still struggles to be much more than a collage of second-tier super heroes, without a defining thread to unite the “Brightest Day” story (assuming there really is one). Three of the four vignettes are interesting enough to keep the pages turning without the requisite sigh that had accompanied most of the Blackest Night series. The Firestorm/Atom makes the most out of a bad situation with two knuckle-heads inhabiting the Firestorm body. The Hawks’ story draws a lot on stuff that has gone before and the Hawk-mythos, which on the surface would spell doom. However, in a dosage of three short pages, this chapter works and even leaves you wanting a little bit more. The Martian Manhunter story steals the show, even though it is mostly about people you don’t know or care about. The Alive Man (White Lantern) story is without question the least interesting offering in BD#2. Strangely, while the King of the Seas adorns the cover, Aquaman and Mera’s story barely makes a cameo appearance in the issue.
LEGION OF SUPERHEROES #1 ★★★☆☆ (w: Paul Levitz/a: Yildiray Cinar) No other team of heroes gets re-launched as frequently or as well as the Legion of Super-heroes (okay, maybe the Avengers...). That being said, Levitz’s much heralded return to the LSH is less re-launch and more like “just another issue” than a true first issue. Surprisingly, you don’t need to know a lot about the Legion of Levitz’s day as much as you need to have read the more recent Superman and the Legion and Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds to be caught up to date. Overall, this is a pretty solid effort, if you enjoyed those previous series. If you were an old fan, returning to the series you loved years (decades?) ago, there is enough of the good ol’ Legion to make you smile, but you’ll probably wish you’d been keeping up with those other series.
The Reading Order
BRIGHTEST DAY #2 ★★★☆☆
ENTER THE HEROIC AGE #1 ★★★★☆
AVENGERS #1 ★★★★☆
ULTIMATE COMICS: AVENGERS 2 #2 ★★★★☆
LEGION OF SUPERHEROES #1 ★★★☆☆
X-FACTOR #205 ★★★☆☆
X-MEN LEGACY #236 ★★★★☆
AGE OF HEROES #1 ★★★☆☆
INVINCIBLE IRON MAN 26 ★★★★☆
Reviews Coming Soon!!!
AMERICAN VAMPIRE # 3
BATMAN STREETS OF GOTHAM #12
DC UNIVERSE: LEGACIES #1
ZATANNA #1
