Reviews of Blackest Night #5, Uncanny X-Men #517, Thor Giant-Sized, Secret Warriors #10, Black Knight, New Avengers #59

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.

UNCANNY X-MEN #517 – You will all bow before the best writer at Marvel: Matt Fraction. Sure, I’m a tad biased towards anything with an X on it, but the way Fraction is crafting this new era of the X-Men; I’m beginning to think he’s secretly Chris Claremont’s child. Fraction is dealing with an island of mutants, most of which are on some X-Team or another and still manages to bring different members together as a team with teamwork that flows like water. At the end of last issue, some secret organization had “recruited” the mutant Scalphunter to fly a stolen plane filled with five Predator-X beasts to Utopia. Magneto strips one of its metal hide, Namor and his warriors take care of another and while Rogue and Emma are guarding some of the mutant kids – Rogue has all the kids touch her and then obliterates one all by her lonesome. After she’s done, one of the kids asks, “We can… we can do that?!?” To which Rogue replies, “Teamwork’s a hell of a thing kids…” And that wasn’t even the coolest part of the issue: the Cuckoos were housing a portion of the Phoenix Force that decided in the middle of the battle to take off for parts unknown. That plus the portion that left Rachel during the Realm of Kings storyline equals the surefire return of Jean Grey at some point next year. Or something waaay worse. All that and we get some pretty pictures from Greg Land that actually show some energy of the battle. This issue makes up for the crap that was X-Men Legacy #229.

Undercover Fanboy Rating:  

SECRET WARRIORS #10 - Another insanely good Jonathan Hickman title that is flying under the radar. This issue strictly deals with the relationship between Ares and his son Alexander/Phobos. Alex wasn’t born a god, but when he drank the blood of another god, his own godhood was awoken within him – making him kind of insane for a while. And after the events of the previous few issues, the time has come for Alexander to stand and be judged worthy of being a god before the collected god of Earth’s pantheons. As he stands before Hera, Balder and Quetzalcoatl, he is asked, “And who is this?” and he answers rather meekly, “I’m Alexander.” Hera then rattles off the events that he had previously set into motion and then she asks, “Who are you again that dared to be the cause of it?” “I am the god of fear.” “…and so you are.” The entire congregation then rises as he is pronounced a god before all, followed by a huge party in his honor. During the party, Ares tells him that he won’t achieve full godhead until he dies. Holy Highlander, Batman! Consistently one of the best comics I read every month.

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BLACKEST NIGHT #5 - Oh my Lord. Hal’s “Rainbow Rodeo” (the foremost members of each of the corps…) may not be enough to halt Blackest Night. Now that the main Black Lantern battery has fully charged, Nekron has risen and now the black rings don’t just go after the dead – once an emotional tether is established with a living being, they can wear a ring and die. Black Hand has been carrying the skull of Bruce Wayne for our issues now and we see why in this issue. The Flashes have gathered Earth’s heroes in Coast City to make a stand against the Black Lanterns, who have raised all of the millions dead in Coast City. Even the gathering of some of the DCU’s biggest guns (incuding Superman, Wonder Woman, the JLA and the Titans…) aren’t able to do much against the power of Nekron. Just as Hal’s Color-Coded Calvary arrives on Earth and starts turning the tide, Black Hand manifests Batman as a Black Lantern, creating emotional links to Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Superboy, Bart Allen, Superman, Animal Man and Donna Troy… who all then become Black Lanterns! The issue ends with black rings headed to both Hal and Barry Allen. This issue is my pick of the week. Hands down. Geoff Johns continues to impress with each issue and artist Ivan Reis needs to become the regular penciller of Green Lantern after all this is said and done. Wow. And we still have three more issues before it wraps.

Undercover Fanboy Rating:  

NEW AVENGERS #59 – After giving himself up to Osborn so the rest of the team could escape, Luke Cage is operated on by some of Osborn’s best surgeons to stop his heart problems. Cage’s wife, Jessica Jones, isn’t taking the news well and has gathered some of Luke’s closest friends to get him back. Iron Fist, Doctor Strange, Doctor Voodoo, Misty Knight, Thing, Daredevil, Hellcat and Valkyrie plan on breaking Luke out from Osborn’s main helicarrier as the Avengers themselves attack the secret location of Camp Hammer to create a diversion. Everything goes off without a hitch with minimum injuries on both sides. The only problem being that Osborn tends to cover all of his bases. We’re shown that Luke has a small electronic device attached to his heart – whether it’s a tracking device, a pacemaker or both, we don’t know. I’m still not sold on Wade von Grawbadger’s inks over Stuart Immonen pencils, but Immonen’s cover featuring Spider-Woman and Spider-Man was absolutely gorgeous this month. Brian Michael Bendis is still writing a great book here, but the action is still lacking a little for me. When you have this many heroes together, we wanna see some @$$-kickin’ goin’ on. Like I said in the Mighty Avengers #31 review, New Avengers is more dialogue and intrigue. Maybe when all of the Dark Reign stuff shakes out, we’ll have a “black-ops” team of Avengers that Bendis will continue to write and Dan Slott and Christos N. Gage can get the main, public team of Avengers. Kinda what they are doing over in the Ultimate Universe with those Avengers teams. If you’re buying Dark Avengers, make sure you’re getting its antithesis as well in New Avengers…

Undercover Fanboy Rating:  

BLACK KNIGHT ONE-SHOT – This was originally made for Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited. I don’t care what you guys think of me, I like Ron Frenz’s artwork and I know Griz and I gave Tom Defalco a lot of crap, but this was a great story. Recounting the full origin of Black Knight and his sword, this actually had a really cool premise: when the Witches of Avalon created Excalibur by drawing all of the evil from it, they encased it with in another sword named Chaos the Doombringer. Anyone who wields it runs the risk of becoming corrupted by the evil within. Modred wants the sword as it is the only thing that can defeat the power of Excalibur. Pretty much a straight forward story of the later years of Camelot and King Arthur and his best knights. I think I liked this because it’s just an old school comic done by to old school guys.

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THOR GIANT-SIZED FINALE – Doom and Loki have managed to created Asgardian-powered Doombots and were found out by Bill – the human that stayed with the Asgardians out of his love of the goddess Kelda. As he tries to make his way to warn Balder, he’s attacked by some Asgardians working for Loki. Fatally wounded, Bill manages to make enough noise to get Balder’s attention. Balder enters the fray slaying two of the attackers, but is almost killed by the third until Bill uses the last of his strength to save Balder. When Kelda hears the news, she rushes off to confront Doom who is more than prepared for the goddess. Meanwhile, three of the super-powered Doombots confront Sif, Donald Blake and the Warriors Three. Artist Marko Djurdjevic has found his inker in Danny Miki. This is the best I’ve seen his stuff look. This has also been rumored to be the last J. Michael Straczynski Thor comic as Brian Michael Bendis’s The Siege kicks into high gear. I imagine that the Thor series will continue after the fireworks die down, but I just hope they get a decent writer. Thor deserves that after the past five years.

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