Rating System: 0 to 1.5 stars = save your money unless you are just mindlessly collecting the title. 2 to 3.5 = worth a shot if you are up to trying something new or wanting to get back into a title. 4 to 5 = a must buy for any comic reader.
DEADPOOL #17 – Whoo-hooo! More Deadpool. And a real Deadpool with a story that isn’t just a filler to boot. Now that Wade has “joined” the X-Men, he’s decided to kill that father of one of mutants on Nation X who’s working with Osborn to throw some bad PR Cyclops’ way. We learn quite a few personal things about Domino this issue as well (when are we going to get a full origin?!?). Number one: Domino truly does have a soft-spot for ol’ Deadpool. Number two: She’s scared of chickens. Yes, chickens. Writer Daniel Way and artist Paco Medina are creating the only Deadpool comic that fans should worry about. Comedy, violence, mutants, chickens… everything you need in a comic.
Undercover Fanboy Rating: 
RED ROBIN #6 – It seems I owe an apology to the writer of 
Batman: Arkham Asylum – I knew that Thomas Elliot aka: Hush, has had plastic surgery done to look just like Bruce Wayne. Last seen in South America, “Bruce” has returned to the United States and resumed “his” life as a millionaire playboy. What this will mean for the Bat-Family, I’m sure will be answered soon. And now… back to Red Robin. Tim continues to make compromises as he leads Ra’s Al Ghul’s League of Assassins against another organization that is hunting them down. I hope the series doesn’t lose the focus of Tim obsessing over the fact that he believes that Bruce is still alive because, so far, X-Force AND Red Robin writer, Chris Yost is doing a pretty good job on this series and new/guest artist Marcus To is a much better fit on this book than Ramon Bachs. All-in-all: great Bat-Book.
Undercover Fanboy Rating: 
DARK X-MEN #1 – After refusing to admit defeat during the Utopia storyline, Norman Osborn has kept his team of X-Men together – at least with who is left after the defection of Emma, Namor and Cloak and Dagger: Dark Beast (genius serial killer), Mimic (manic-depressive), Weapon Omega (just off – really off…) and Mystique (no intro needed…). Mystique also decides to use Jean Grey’s face as her own in public since no one can prove she’s dead and tells Norman that even though he’s playing like they are colleagues, that won’t stop her when the time comes to leave. She then takes the team to interview a teenager who was part of a group that tried to walk over a cliff as they all repeated, “I’m an X-Man.” over and over. Once in the hospital room, Mimic tells them that the boy is not a mutant, but then both he and Omega start absorbing a mutant power that’s too much for either of them to handle. The energy in the teen begins to form in a humanoid shape and then completely reforms into Nate Grey aka: X-Man (the cloned mutant son of Scott and Jean from the Age of Apocalypse that is waaaay powerful…). What this means for Osborn and his Dark X-Men can’t be good. Check out the preview of the series here. Writer Paul Cornell and artist Leonard Kirk had the ball rolling in a decent direction until the Nate Grey reveal. Why are all of these alternate reality characters escaping into the mainstream storylines? I loved the Age of Apocalypse storyline when it hit, but thought it was a little self-serving of Marvel to bring over some characters just hoping to keep sales up. Then Nate Grey was turned into a mystic mutant shaman savior of mankind… RIGHT BEFORE HIS SERIES WAS CANCELLED! HELLO? Just write a good story without bringing back crappy characters that had already been eliminated. Wanna bring someone back, shoulda had Osborn try to bring back Jean Grey under his control…
Undercover Fanboy Rating:
DAREDEVIL #502 - Matt Murdock is playing a dangerous game. Newly christened leader of The Hand, Matt has made it appear that he’s killed his current mentor/sensi, Master Izo (who simply put his body in a “coma-like state and then escaped from The Hand’s underground HQ with Matt’s help…) and decided to use the army of ninjas at his command to push Norman Osborn’s influence out of Hell’s Kitchen. Osborn has plans for Hell’s Kitchen redevelopment/urban renewal and has rehired many former police officers accused of brutality to help his cause along. And I still can’t decide if it’s cool or creepy that The Hand ninjas have adopted a new uniform (gi) to show their allegiance to their new leader. Andy Diggle got a solid story foundation passed on from Ed Brubaker and in just two issues, hooked me on another monthly book. Robert De La Torre art brings a very noir style to the title and colorist extraordinaire Matt Hollingsworth is doing some of his best work. If you’ve dropped The Punisher series because of the “Franken-Castle” story – replace it with Daredevil.
Undercover Fanboy Rating:
WALL-E #0 – Yet another comic for kids from the folks at BOOM Studios. Just a simple, pre-movie story of WALL-E when he still had “brothers” to help him the clean-up of Earth. For the last decade or so, because of the “darker” comics from the ‘90’s, comics haven’t been thought of as reading for kids. BOOM Studios! Has thankfully decided to do something about that by putting out a huge variety of comics directed at kids. From Pixar titles like, The Incredibles, Cars, Toy Story, and Finding Nemo to classic Disney characters like Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse to a variety of Muppet titles – BOOM has made monthly comics that kids are spending their lunch money on again (by the way, WALL-E comics artist Morgan Luthi did a great job on this issue…).
Undercover Fanboy Rating:
CABLE #20 – Bishop has been turned into a puppet of The 
Brood as they both hunt Hope as Cable desperately fights his way through the ship to Hope. The boy that led Bishop to hope in the first place plans on getting himself and Hope off the ship and back to Earth via two escape pods. Cable and Hope manage to escape aboard the pods and look like they will make it back to Earth after a two-year sleep. It gets kinda soap opera-ry from there, but the bottom-line is that this has been one of the better Cable issues in the last 10 that have hit the shelves. Dialogue by Duane Swierczynski is good, the art by Gabriel Guzman is adequate and the story actually looks to have a direction again now that “Second Coming” is about to begin. By the way – is it foreshadowing that the late-teen Hope looks like Jean Grey/Maddie Pryor/Rachel Summers or do the X-Editors just have a thing for redheads?
Undercover Fanboy Rating:
STAR WARS: PURGE ONE-SHOT – I honestly thought this would be a reprint of the previous Purge one-shot that bridge the gap between the SW: Clone Wars and SW: Dark Times titles; but surprisingly – it was a brand new story from writer John Ostrander and artist Jim Hall. Taking place sometime after Order 66 and the hunting down of most other Jedi, one lone Jedi survivor (Sha Koon, niece of Plo Koon…) has decided the only way to stop the dark side from controlling the galaxy is to kill Darth Vader and take his place at the side of the Emperor. Thinking this will be the only way for the light side to endure, she tells the Emperor that she wants Vader’s place and Palpatine eagerly agrees to send Vader into her trap. Nowhere near a match for the power of Vader, Sha is easily dispatched by Vader but is given both peace and a vision of the future showing the return of the Jedi and the fall of the Sith. Ostrander managed to bring the feeling of every Star Wars title into one issue to get new readers hooked.
Undercover Fanboy Rating: 
S.W.O.R.D. #1 - Another X-Men spin-off. At least this one is based on concepts by Joss Whedon’s run on Astonishing X-Men. Sister agency to S.H.I.E.L.D., S.W.O.R.D. is the M.i.B. of the Marvel U. Abigail Brand is now co-director after the events of Secret Invasion were laid at her feet. Bureaucratic p.o.s., Henry Peter Gyrich, has been made co-director and plans on using his position to push Brand out and then forcible deport all aliens off of the planet. Meanwhile, Beast (Brand’s boyfriend – brings a whole new meaning to “Beastiality…”), Lockheed and another alien member of S.W.O.R.D. and Brand must confront the intergalactic mercenary Death’s Head to reclaim a S.W.O.R.D. prisoner. This series has some potential, sort of X-Men in space mixed with Fringe. I can’t tell if Beast will be a permanent member of the team (who will be Cyclops’ conscience and brains?), but the addition of Lockheed, who only wants them to help Kitty (we get a translation of what he says… think Wolvie as a small purple dragon…), is a great addition to the team. We also find out the Brand has had teams trying to find a way to free Kitty; nothing has worked yet, but they have determined the she is still alive. The “planet-bullet” passed through another inhabited planet with no ill effect. Kieron Gillen is writing a solid story so far, but Steven Sanders’ art is a little too “Vertigo” for my tastes. That said, it’s still worth the read…
Undercover Fanboy Rating:
PUNISHERMAX #1 – I’m guessing that this series is for REAL fans of the Punisher and not that piece of crap “Franken-Castle” story that they have going in the mainstream series. This series starts and you realize that the Punisher has been operating against the mafia for 30 years. Fed up with him, the dons unite to bring in the mythical “Kingpin” in to kill the Punisher. The thing is, the kingpin IS a myth and they are going to create a “boss of bosses” to bait the Punisher into a trap. The don with the idea has chosen his bodyguard, Wilson Fisk to portray the Kingpin (who actually came up with idea…). THIS is the Punisher we know. THIS is the type of Punisher story we should be getting every month. Sprinkle a superhero guest star or two every once and a while, but don’t give us “Franken-Castle.” Jason Aaron in one issue has shown that HE should be the writer on the main Punisher title and artist Steve Dillon is just so in tuned with the character and his environment that it’s scary. The icing on the cake was the incredible cover by the very underrated Dave Johnson.
Undercover Fanboy Rating:
X-MEN FOREVER #11 – Yaaayy! Artist Tom Grummet is back! After the funeral for Wolverine – Gambit, ‘ro and Kitty travel to Russia to find out why Colossus didn’t attend the ceremony. In this reality, Colossus has quit the X-Men to become The Protector of Russia (kinda like Captain America…) and the Black Widow has joined him as mission coordinator. When the three X-Men arrive, Kitty discovers that the onetime love of her life is in a relationship with the Black Widow. Back in America, Nick Fury tells Charles to quit pouting and get over the recent hardships, Jean has become team leader and Sabretooth and Rogue let off a little steam by beating the crap out of each other. But, the best part of this issue was the reveal that the grade school Illyana is whisked away by a mysterious someone in a black limo that tells her, “The time has come for the rebirth of… MAGIK!” I was pretty skeptical about this series (I won’t buy it if the art is by Paul Smith anymore though…), but as someone who remembers buying Chris Claremont X-Men comics off the shelves, I’m really enjoying this alternate reality romp. I’m getting the felling that Claremont is telling the stories that he wanted to tell originally but wasn’t allowed by the editors. He’s stated in the past that he really wasn’t that fond of Wolverine and he created Sabretooth, so this is more than likely old plots that he’s dusted off. If he HAD done this story in the main series, there would have been an uproar and a drop in sales… so it’s probably better off done like this…
Undercover Fanboy Rating:
BATMAN/DOC SAVAGE SPECIAL ONE-SHOT – This has a lot of potential. Set before the Silver Age of Heroes (no Superman or other gaudy costumes…) and focusing on a very young Bruce Wayne that has just set out as Batman. He’s not the Batman we’ve come to know yet; he’s still enjoying life, shooting from the hip and still establishing himself as a hero. Enter Doc Savage, Man of Bronze. Savage is a pre-Silver Age hero that is smart, strong and invulnerable and has already gathered other like-minded adventures to help him fight crime. Writer Brain Azzarello has created this one-shot issue to lead into the First Wave series debuting in March 2010 and plans to feature this team of heroes led by Savage and plans to show a true character evolution of Batman into the hero we know today. Phil Noto’s art lends itself well to the noir style story. They’ve taken a page from Batman: The Animated Series – we think we know what time period it takes place in and then we see someone with a cell phone or some such anomaly. Other members include The Blackhawks, The Spirit, The Avenger, Black Canary and Rima the Jungle Girl. The one thing that REALLY bugged me about this issue was this one thing: BATMAN DOES NOT USE GUNS!!! EVER! FRICKIN’ EVER! That’s part of the character that is ingrained and CANNOT be changed. I realize that this will more than likely be an “Elseworlds” story, but it tick me off to see him use a gun (yes all you comic historians, I know that Bob Kane had him with a gun…) – guns have been a no-no for him since the death of his parents. It set him in the path of the Batman and being anti-guns. It makes sense. It’s established. Don’t change it, use it and move on…
Undercover Fanboy Rating:
STRANGE #1 - So Stephen Strange has been stripped of the Sorcerer Supreme mantle, his hands are useless again and he is unable to perform anything but the simplest of spells because of it. Mark Waid seems to be having fun with the character, but Emma “I really wanted to be a manga artist” Rios needs to be “reassigned” to another book like Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane or something. Strange has become a kind of wanderer, doing good when and where he can. The one redeeming part of this issue other than the dialogue is the possibility of the Doc getting a new apprentice – other than that, I could barely look at this. Even with a story about a possessed baseball team playing against normal people, the art just isn’t appropriate or even adequate for this title. Cover artist Tom Coker really got me excited for a Dr. Strange comic again and then I opened it and was immediately disappointed.
Undercover Fanboy Rating:
TRACKER #1 – Hey! A Top Cow book that isn’t Witchblade or Darkness. A totally new series from writer Johnathan Lincoln and artist Francis Tsai, Tracker is the story of police detective Alex O’Roark who becomes a victim of the same serial killer he was trying to track down. The only survivor of an attack that killed everyone on a city bus but him, Alex begins to notice that his sense of smell it stronger and he can hear much better than before. This is pretty much the standard “I got bit by a werewolf, but I refuse to give up my humanity” story, but the police detective angle is a good one and Tsai’s art has some real potential (Top Cow is good at finding new artistic talent…).Given the advanced art for future covers that I’ve seen, Alex uses his new abilities to track down the killer and uncover a world he didn’t know existed. I am getting tired of werewolves, vampires and zombies though… what is this – the 1970’s era of comics all over again?
Undercover Fanboy Rating:
X-BABIES #2 – Ugh. I really liked the first issue of this series. 6-7 year old versions of the X-Men running around and having adventures against adult-sized threats. This issue has them being shunted into the old Star Comics universe of comics that Marvel produced back in the ‘80’s (Planet Terry, Amazing Spider-Ham and that cutesy crap that didn’t sell back then…). The X-Babies art by Jacob Chabot is great; seeing big-head versions of Wolverine, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Rogue, Kitty, Colossus and Storm is great and the dialogue by Gregg Schigiel that takes place between characters is hilarious. I do hate all of this Star Comics cross-over crap though. Kids reading this book won’t get the reference and the people who do remember the comics don’t want to.
Undercover Fanboy Rating:
BATMAN & ROBIN #6 – Last ish, Batman and Robin had been captured by the Red Hood and his sidekick who then simply walked outside of their HQ only to be beat down by syndicate uber-hit-man, The Flamingo. Yeah, both his name and look are pretty feminine, but I wouldn’t want to face him down. Batman and Robin manage to get free just in time to keep Hood alive. During the fight, Robin is shot and hit in the back to the point he lands face first and can’t feel anything below the neck. Hood’s sidekick Scarlett, saves Robin just as Flamingo is about to give him the coup de gras and then vanishes into the night in the rest of the commotion. Hoods takes the opportunity to scoop Flamingo up in a construction excavator with few tons of debris and dump him off a building. As Hood/Jason Todd is being hauled off by Gordon and his men, he tells Dick that the only reason he hasn’t tried to bring Bruce back yet via a Lazarus Pit is that he was tired of living in Bruce’s shadow. I get it, he’s just lashing out, but then we see Dick in the “new” Bat-Cave opening a vault containing the remains of Bruce… bum-bum-buuummm! Grant Morrison has wow-ed me with this second story arc and artist Philip Tan is quirky enough to work with Morrison and dark enough to draw Batman. My only question is this: Why isn’t this taking place in the main Batman book or Detective Comics? Why did we need another Bat-title when those two are suffering? Clearly the best Batman title being made right now.
Undercover Fanboy Rating:
X-FORCE #21 – Where’s artist Mike Choi?!? Bring him back! Move Clayton Crain over to Moon Knight or a Wolverine title. Now that the Blackest Night rip-off, X-Necrosha, is in full swing – the X-Men are fighting dead enemies and teammates all over the place. Selene and her inner circle has travelled to the burnt-out husk of Genosha to raise all of the dead mutants there… all under her control. Unlike Blackest Night, where the animated dead have the memories but not the emotions of the dead, the mutants that Selene is bringing back know what they are doing but can’t help but to obey her. In Blackest Night, there’s very little chance of the reanimated dead staying around after the storyline is over. In X-Necrosha however, this seems like a set up for an editorial staff that has allowed themselves to be written into a corner. I had a writer friend that never accepted what was written before was gospel. If he wanted to use a character that had been killed, he would just come up with a time-travel story or some other kind of sudden resurrection that fit his story. HIS story took precedent over all others that had come before. My answer was always to just write a good story with what’s available, not change everything to the way YOU should have thought it should be written. That’s just a cop-out and so it anybody that stays alive after this story is over…
Undercover Fanboy Rating:
PICKS OF THE WEEK
GREEN LANTERN CORPS #42 – Normally, I wouldn’t rate this title as a pick of the week, artist Patrick Gleason makes most of his people look too similar. Great drawing aliens and space “stuff” – just a little weak on the humanoids. Another Blackest Night crossover tie-in that finds GL Honor Guard members Kyle Rayner and Guy Gardner leading a counter-attack on OA. The black rings has brought back all of the fallen GL corps members throughout history and they are trying to absorb and forcibly remove the main battery on OA. Desperate to try anything, they release a Red Lantern that was being held in the science cells to help turn the tide. Though it buys them some time, they are still losing and Kyle takes a fallen Alpha Lantern’s battery, creates and field around the main battery and detonates the Alpha Lantern’s battery – sacrificing his life to do so. If this had been five to ten years ago I would have applauded. But Geoff Johns has done a great job of transforming Kyle from the d-bag that took Hal’s place to an extremely well rounded character that is able to carry a story on his own. Sure, Earth has four Green Lanterns, but this is almost as hard hitting as the death of Martian Manhunter or Hawkman. I have a feeling that Kyle won’t be that last to fall before Blackest Night ends as this crossover is shaping up to being as big as Crisis on Infinite Earths…
Undercover Fanboy Rating:
Visit Things From Another World for a massive selection of these comics and more.
