BUY IT NOW!
Dark Avengers #6 – After Ms. Marvel slept with Captain Marvel last issue, she informs him matter-of-factly, that they are all the bad guys and that Osborn used to be the Green Goblin – Cap’n M is now AWOL and Osborn is pissed. A rogue group of Atlanteans have begun terrorist attacks on the West Coast and Osborn calls the Cabal together to have Namor deal with it. After a pissing contest and Osborn yelling louder than Namor, Norman sends The Sentry to deal with the problem. Only it’s not really The Sentry – it’s The Void. Osborn has splintered The Sentry’s psyche even more and tells Bob to kill the entire cell of Atlanteans but one. Osborn is continuing to break down as his stress levels have skyrocketed. He is now arguing with himself/The Goblin more and more. This will end badly for everyone…
New Avengers #54 – OK. So we know that Brudda Voodoo is the new SS in this dimension and the first few pages in this issue show how the Eye of Agamotto came to him. The Ancient One (Dr. Strange’s mentor for those who don’t remember…) tells Voodoo that Strange has chosen to let go of the role because he no longer feels worthy (I was right!). The Avengers coordinate with Strange, Voodoo and Daimon Hellstrom to contain a Dormammu-possessed Hood. As the Avengers beat on him, the mystics perform an exorcism and banish Dormammu. Madam Masque is arrested and a now powerless Parker Robbins/The Hood is taken under guard to the hospital. Loki then approaches Parker with a promise of renewed power if he promises to assist him in disposing Osborn when the time comes. The Avengers are even filmed stopping The Hood’s rampage in New Orleans and Osborn still manages to spin it so he come out looking like the hero and the victim -as Clint Barton decides that Osborn will have to be killed to end this nightmare.
Green Lantern #42 – Blackest Night is ramping up to full speed now! As Hal and Agent Orange fight for control of Hal’s Blue ring of Hope, Hal find a way to activate the ring’s true power (not just to recharge his green ring…). Hal then grabs the orange lantern and almost succumbs to its power before it’s reclaimed by Agent Orange. The fight with Hal forces Agents Orange to reclaim all of his power, “turning off” the constructs of absorbed beings he was using to fight the Corps and Guardians. In the end, Agent Orange and the Guardians once again make a deal and give him the location of the Blue Corps home planet. Then we see orange light over the planet and Agent Orange screaming, “MINE!” The last two pages are the big reveal – two Green Lanterns find the corpse of the Anti-Monitor and accidentally awaken the forces within. The Anti-Monitor corpse is the battery/lantern for the Black Corps and the dead are beginning to rise. So far in DC’s house ads, we’ve seen an alternate Superman, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter and the first Firestorm. Those four alone can cause mega damage and those are just the teasers. Hal and Sinestro will once again be forced to work together with them being to only two able to access all the rings of the different Corps. I know Ivan Reis will be handling the art chores on Blackest Night, I just hope that the current team of Philip Tan and Eddy Barrows get moved over to the Green Lantern Corps title. GL Corps always has a good story, but the art doesn’t fit a cosmic adventure title and would be better suited in the ‘90’s or a Vertigo book.
Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia #1 – OMG! Marc Silvestri is darwing the X-Men again and it looks amazing! His stuff has continued to get better as Jim Lee has just stagnated. I’m not going to tell you anything about this issue except: 1. Osborn is coming for the X-Men. 2. Emma reveals her true colors. 3. Prof. X is back. 4. BUY IT! BUY IT! BUY IT! BUY IT! BUY IT! BUY IT! BUY IT! BUY IT! BUY IT! BUY IT! BUY IT! BUY IT! BUY IT! BUY IT! BUY IT! BUY IT! BUY IT! BUY IT! BUY IT! BUY IT! BUY IT! BUY IT! The X-Men are redefined here!
Thunderbolts #133 – A title that’s still kinda under the radar, but worth your money every month. As Norman Osborn continues to fill the roster with people he thinks he can control, the members of the team begin to form alliances to keep themselves alive when Osborn finally snaps. Ghost reveals to the Black Widow II that he plans to take down Osborn, who he views as the ultimate symbol of corporate greed and abuse, from the inside. He tells her this and then let’s her know that he’s already hacked the security systems and the computers and knows that Osborn isn’t her real boss. She’s been reporting to Nick Fury the whole time and now wants to use the Ghost to accomplish her real mission. Once again, the Thunderbolts title is not only relevant in the Marvel U, but the dialogue and art alone are worth the price of admission.
Dark Wolverine #75 - Daken takes over the title starting with this month. This issue is really on the fence as to buy it or not. The story is great – we see Daken making snide comments and manipulating the Dark Avengers into his plans. He proves how far he is willing to go when he sleeps with a male employee to get his security card to access top secret personnel files and then with a female member of H.A.M.M.E.R. just for fun. All the while, manipulating Venom, Bullseye and Ms. Marvel into do what he wants. I imagine that Daken is going to use his position in Osborn’s pocket to get to Romulus and the rest is just for fun. The problem I had with this book is the art. It’s not horrible, just doesn’t seem to fit what a book like this should be in my mind. This should be a book for Ron Garney or Simone Bianchi. I’m along just to see Daken f with the Dark Avengers…
SAVE YOUR MONEY!!!
Dark Reign: Lethal Legion #1 – We’ve just hit the Secret Invasion level of saturation from Marvel. It’s too much to even think about buying in this economy and c’mon… The Lethal Legion?!? These mooks haven’t been relevant since the West Coast Avengers disbanded. And even then they got their butts handed to them by B-list heroes! It is fine to see these C-list villains in the Hood’s crew (hey, it’s that dork guy with a fishbowl on his head that shoots flames! Hey it’s that dude that got beat by the Great Lakes Avengers!), but this will not be the hit that Secret Six is for DC. And guess what… it’s the same d@mn story! A small group of villains who don’t want to play by the rules the big villain conglomerate is laying down and do their own thing. Just tell a good story with good art – you don’t have to try to get every frickin’ cent in our wallet. And don’t tell me that it’s just to make sure that every angle of the story is told or that is for the fans who don’t like to read about mainstream characters. It’s only for the fans with money that are addicted to Dark Reign. Yeah, I like to see just how evil Norman Osborn can be in every corner of the Marvel U – but d@mn, this is getting to be too much…
Predator #1 – I know that people are starting to get excited about the Predator property again because of Robert Rodriguez’s involvement in a new movie. I was looking forward to this series because of the preview issue from Free Comic Book Day. I actually recommended it to a few people. Javier Saltares’s art had never looked so refined. Then this hit the stands. You can actually see when Saltares had a “good art day” and when he didn’t. John Acrudi is writing a decent story about the Predators coming to the Middle East, but I’m having a hard time getting past the art. Now I know why Salteres and Mark Texeira were teamed together on Ghost Rider in the ‘90’s… now I have to go apologize to some people…
Astonishing X-Men #30 – Do we really need another out of continuity X-Men title? I could almost accept it when Joss Whedon was writing the title, but Warren Ellis needs to stick to titles like anything from Avatar and The Boys – just you and Grant Morrisson leave the X-Men alone. Simone Bianchi stuff is really good; I just don’t think it fits a team book. When he did the death of Sabretooth arc in Wolverine, I was raving about him; he needs a book like Wolverine, the Punisher or another dark hero/villain book. His stuff would look amazing on Thor. The current Ghost Boxes storyline is lame and the fact that they have turned Forge into the villain of the story is dumb. Why isn’t he at the X-Men’s San Fran HQ working on stuff in the background? He’s a background character that can be pulled out from time to time for a good story. Bah…
Wolverine: Weapon X #3 – Hey, déjà vu! Do we really need another out of continuity Wolverine title? Does Wolverine really have to have to be the focus of two books a month? Jason Aaron writes a good story and great dialogue and Ron Garney is doing his best stuff in years – I’m just not a fan of the plot or Marvel’s 100th attempt of the month to get more money out of my pocket. If you can’t get enough of Wolverine, buy it. If you like good art, buy it. Otherwise, stay away…
Milo Ventimiglia Presents Berserker #1 – I guess that Milo is using comics as a jumping off point for movies/TV ideas. Created/written by Rick Loverd and drawn by Jeremy Haun (though I was hoping that Dale Keown would do the interiors, but it’s just the cover). Apparently there are two opposing factions that can access their anger to give them superhuman strength. Both can access it at will, but one side uses the anger; while the other lets it use them. The story is intriguing, but the art is a little graphic at times. The biggest turn off for me was the color artist. Everything seems flat and looks like comics did when they moved in the digital age of printing. Lots of textures for no reason and not a lot of color blending. Someone buy this colorist a copy of Photoshop CS4 and Digital Coloring for Dummies…
Dark Reign: Sinister Spider-Man #1 – Oversaturation level at critical! This Dark Reign tie-in is a little easier to swallow because Venom is a member of Osborn’s Dark Avengers. But, Mac Gargan doesn’t have enough personality for a solo mini-series. The only reason I even cracked this comic was the Chris Bachalo art. It’s amazing as always, just the choice of projects is a little lame…
X-Force #16: Messiah War Chapter 7 – WTF is going on in this story?!? It started out really good and quickly descended into crap. Deadpool changes sides two or three times, Apocalypse whines some more, Stryfe wipes the floor with everybody, Bishop shoots at 
whoever is between him and Hope and then Apocalypse gets a boost from Archangel and swoops in to kick butt and take Hope for his own… just stop. Get X-Force back to their own time and stick with the storyline they were on in this book. The Messiah CompleX/War just turned to garbage…
