Here we go with this week’s comic reviews…

BUY ‘EM!

Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Exodus – The closing chapter of Utopia, Exodus is the final throwdown between Osborn’s Dark Avengers & Dark X-Men and Cyclops’ X-Men. Check out our review of the book on ComicCenter.

Blackest Night #3 – The $h!t has officially hit in the fan in the DCU. With the dead rising throughout the galaxy and the living yet to get themselves together to formulate a plan – things are looking pretty grim. More people die in this ish to power the rings (the Black Lanterns use “memories” of their host’s life to elicit emotional responses out of the living before they try to harvest their hearts…) and the Indigo Lantern Corps makes its grand entrance. After saving Flash, Hal and a few other stragglers, the Indigo Lantern tells the tale of the Black Lanterns and how they can be stopped. I hope I’m not giving too much away when I say that the GL Corps is the balance between all other corps and must unite all to stop the BL Corps. I say it every time and I’ll say it again: Geoff Johns is doing a great job on this story and if you aren’t picking up this event yet because of the crap from Infinite or Final Crisis – give this one a try. You won’t be disappointed.

Kick-Ass #7 – This series is so late that its arrival is one of the seven signs of the apocalypse foretold in the Bible. This series is so late that the clothes that John Romita, Jr. drew are already out of style. Ok, enough. While incredibly late, this was the best issue of the series so far. Kick-Ass finally becomes the hero he was destined to be and gets a whole new outlook on life. I’m not going to give anything else away since the movie is due out next year, but I will say make sure that this one gets into your collection. (JRJ, PLEASE GET THE NEXT ISSUE DONE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. PLEASE?)

Captain America: Reborn #3 – Cap is still reliving moments of his life and pulls a Star Trek: The Next Generation stunt and leaves himself a message in Vision’s memory banks (the episode where they get stuck in the time loop and relive the same day over and over until Picard leaves a message in Data’s subconscious…). In the real world, Cap-Bucky escapes (with a little help from Ant-Man…) and throws the Thunderbolts escorting him out of the airborne transport and Sharon Carter (still feeling guilty…) decides to give herself up to Osborn to save Cap-Bucky. It also seems that Osborn has enlisted Sin and Crossbones to recruit the Red Skull to go to Latveria in order to use Dr. Doom’s time machine to bring Cap back into real-time. Great art and dialogue, the story’s not bad – but the bottom-line is that Captain America better be back to his old self by the end of this limited series and not beholden unto Osborn!

Fall Out Toy Works #1 - I didn’t know what to expect with this one, but the artwork intrigued me. And once I read it, the story wasn’t too bad either. The guys from Fall Out Boy are credited with the creation of the book, but writer Brett Lewis’ dialogue was perfect. Artist Sam Basri pages flow with the speed of a cartoon and actually look like stills from an animated movie. The story is about a toy maker who is hired by the owner of a big toy company to create a “robot woman” with full emotions. Basically, he wants it to act like a real woman, but be happy and loyal to him all the time. So far, it’s great and I’m looking forward to the next issue.

Dark Reign – The List: Avengers & Dark Reign -The List: Daredevil – Osborn’s got a list and he’s not as cute as Olivia Munn. Now that the mutant “problem” has been solved, he plans on taking out the rest of the people/ groups that could threaten his power base. Ronin is seething that the New Avengers haven’t done anything to prove to the rest of the world that Osborn is a villain and decides to storm Avengers Tower on his own. He manages to take out Venom, Bullseye and Daken before he’s “confronted” by old flame Moonstone. She only fires a blast at him because she knows that cameras are watching them, but the lock-down initiated by Osborn saves Ronin with a force field. Clint actually gets the drop on Osborn and gets a few shots off before he realizes that he’s wearing a personal force-field and then bum rushed by Ares. Over in DRtL:Daredevil, Matt Murdock is adjusting to becoming the leader of The Hand (Daredevil #500. Where’ve you been?) while Osborn believes that Matt has accumulated too much power in his new position and sends Bullseye to kill him. Happy to comply, ol’ target -face raids The Hand’s NY HQ with a H.A.M.M.E.R. squad and lure DD to the rooftops to fights one-on-one. Bullseye then detonates an apartment building full of people that they were standing on. Managing to survive, but racked with guilt, Matt decides to fully give in to The Hand in order to try to use the evil cult for good (hasn’t he read Dark Empire? If Luke couldn’t do it, what makes him think he can?). Marvel has rounded up a lot of great artists to do this series of one-shots (you know, the ones who can barely hit a monthly deadline, but we can’t get enough of…?) and the story continues in Dark Reign – The List: X-Men, Dark Reign – The List: Secret Warriors, Dark Reign – The List: Punisher, Dark Reign – The List: Hulk, Dark Reign – The List: Wolverine and Dark Reign – The List: Amazing Spider-Man. Hopefully, Dark Reign is starting to wind down and once Cap is back, we can get back to a semblance of normalcy in the Marvel U.

Batman & Robin #4 – Dick and Damian have made up and the first story arc is over (thank God! a pig villain? really?). The one survivor of the last arc, has been recruited to be the sidekick of the new Red Hood. More than likely Jason Todd sticking it to Dick, the Hood has adopted a Punisher-style (complete with skull on chest…) approach to crime in Gotham and plans to turn the citizens and media against Batman for not being hard enough on crime. This issue seems like it’s going to get back on track from being a little too Vertigo for a Batman book and Philip Tan’s art is better suited to portray Batman than Frank Quitely’s. I think I’m still picking this up just for the Damian/Dick interaction – but if you’re a Grant Morrison fan, you’ll love it.

Ultimate Comics Avengers #2 – Wow. The bomb that dropped last ish (the Red Skull is Cap’s son!) was insane and Millar has decided to keep dropping bombs on us in this one. Millar and artist Carols Pacheco detail how Cap’s son (conceived out of wedlock just before the mission he was frozen on…) was taken and raised by the U.S. government to be their next “Cap.” Better, stronger and faster than Cap, his son bided his time until he knew he was strong enough to kill his “captors” and escape. Once free, he took a kitchen knife and peeled the skin off of his own face. Dude. I guess being raised in seclusion like that will turn you a little nuts. As Nick Fury is recounting this story to Danvers and Hawkeye, Cap manages to escape from S.H.I.E.L.D. and begins to dig up the truth on his own. Millar’s story is great as usual, but what really impresses me is Pacheco’s art. His style has really been fine-tuned and could easily be some of the best stuff in the industry right now. Definitely make sure this one is in your sub box…

Ghostbusters: Displaced Aggression #1 – Honestly, the only reason I picked up this book was the cover. The one I bought had Peter Venkman dressed a la Clint Eastwood’s The Man with No Name holding a heavily modified proton pack. Then I saw the writer: Scott “I should have never been allowed to write X-Men” Lobdell. I figured that it had been ten years since I picked up a book that he had written and decided if Geoff Johns could grow into a decent writer I should give ol’ Scotty a shot. This series picks up where the last limited series from IDW left off, Koza’ Rai (Gozer’s father), failing to ensure that the Ghostbusters stay dead and out of his way, has sent them to four different points in time. Venkman has modified his proton pack to work in the Old West and is busy fighting the ghosts that have been sent to kill him. In the present, Koza’ Rai has returned to the earthly plane and taken over the world. One of Egon’s students has modified Ecto 1 to travel through time and souped-up the proton packs and decides that Peter is the first one to find. Ray’s next and is living in the Middle Ages as a ghost-busting knight. It’s not bad. The dialogue is dead-on to the movie characters and the art by Ilias Kyriazis isn’t bad. If you like the Ghostbusters or are a fan of Vertigo-weirdness in your comics, give IDW’s Ghostbusters a try.

Dark Avengers #9 – Phobos/Alexander, Greek God of Fear and Ares’ son has been hanging out with Nick Fury’s Secret Warriors since Secret Invasion, only without daddy’s permission. Ares’ whole reason for joining Osborn’s Dark Avengers, was to keep some semblance of a normal life for his son in New York, but Nick Fury came knocking and recruited Alexander to join his team and train him in his powers. Ares has been suspicious for some time and decides to secretly follow Alex to “school.” After kicking in the door to one of Fury’s many hideouts, he confronts both Alexander and Fury about his son being involved in Fury’s war. Ares reveals to Fury that he does not know how to train or even talk to his son and Alexander tells his father that this is the path he has chosen and wishes to stay with Fury to make the world better. Ares agrees to let him stay, but tells Fury that if something happens to his son under his watch – they would have words. The big kicker in this story was the few pages at the end. Now that the Sentry is back along with the Void (due to Cyclop’s plans to get Osborn to back off mutants in Exodus…), the Sentry’s wife, Lindy decides she can’t deal with the way they have been living (especially since he’s back to being looney toons…) and shoots him in the face with “a gun from another planet” – leaving only hamburger for his head. Honestly, I hope he stays dead this time. Lame character that doesn’t belong in the Marvel U.

Batgirl #2 – I’m giving this title one more issue before I decide to drop it. It’s not bad, but it’s not good enough for me to continue to spend my money on. Stephanie Brown (formally The Spoiler…) has decided to don the Batgirl costume now that Cassie Cain has quit and Stephanie is doing it without approval from the acting Batman or Barbara Gordon. This could really turn into a great series for female and male readers if Barbara becomes her mentor and not a detractor. Right now, the best thing about this comic is Phil Noto’s cover art. I’m not too fond of the sneak-peeks of the new costume she’s getting though. Blegh. Uno mas.

RECYCLE ‘EM!

Thor Annual #1 – After months of filler one-shots and other assorted stories about Thor (of which very few actually hit on the story in the “ongoing” comic…), we are treated to Thor Annual #1. Guess what? More filler! This was a total crap story recycling the Egyptian gods that last made a splash in Thor comics in the ‘90’s. The characters sucked then and they suck now (and I liked the Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz Thor…). Where’s J. Michael Straczynski? Is there a contract dispute between him and Marvel or is this a case of “Kevin Smith-itus” that causes a writer to want to do comics only when there isn’t a TV/Movie gig in front of them. Yes, JMS is a great writer (Kevin Smith too…), but dammit Quesada – get your people to hit some deadlines! Pass.

Dark Wolverine #78 – This would be in the “BUY ‘EM” list if it wasn’t for artist Stephen Segovia. Hack. Copier. Cheater. Whatever. If Marvel wanted to have the art style of Leniel Francis Yu, they should have got him, not a hack. Comic fans went through this in the ‘90’s with Roger Cruz (copying both Jim Lee & Joe Maderiera) and Travis Charest (copying Jim Lee). Both have gone on to find their own style art styles and have decent careers, but not as big as if they had their own style to begin with. And I wouldn’t be calling Segovia names – because more than likely, someone at Marvel asked him to do this – but there are panels in this issue that looked like they are directly traced from older Yu comics and then changed slightly to fit today’s story. Crap. Dude, everybody needs a job and a foot in the door of their dream job, but don’t do it by stealing somebody else’s kool-aid…

Nomad: Girl Without a World #1 – The title of this book should be “Nomad: Girl Without Her Own Comic.” Who had to F who in order to get this book approved?!? Are you kidding me?!? (Sorry. Been hanging out with Griz too much…). This leftover from the colossally crappy Heroes Reborn Universe (the Rob Liefeld corner no less!!!) should have died with the rest of them. While I will say that she is the best original character from that universe, it doesn’t mean that she should slide into the mainstream Marvel U. It didn’t work for Nate Grey from the Age of Apocalypse and it won’t work for Nomad. DC does sidekicks, not Marvel. That’s not to say that the dialogue (the actual story is a little shaky…) and the art are good enough to be on a mainstream title, like Runaways. Writer Sean McKeever and artist David Baldeon seem to have a good grip on teenage stories, but not enough to get me to buy issue #2…