Invincible#80 REVIEW (Dinosaurus Preaches and Invincible Goes to a Comic Book Store)

DINOSAURUS SMASH! Cover drawn by Ryan Ottley

 

 

Invincible#80

 

Written by: Robert Kirkman

 

Drawn by: Ryan Ottley

 

Inked by: Cliff Rathburn

 

Colored by: Nikos Koutsis

 

Published by: Image Comics

 

Price: $2.99

 

After a near two month wait we finally have the latest issue of Invincible, the BEST SUPERHERO COMIC BOOK ON THE SHELVES THESE DAYS. Was it worth the wait? DEFINITELY. In fact, this is one of THE BEST issues of Invincible that I have read in a long time. Don’t get me wrong, I did like the Viltrumite War story arc overall (I even had one of my letters published in an issue of the Viltrumite War issues), but it took too long for each issue to come out and most of the issues were “CRAPPER COMICS”, meaning that you could finish the comic in one sitting ON THE CAN.

 

Well, to my joy this issue was NOT a “crapper comic” because it took me a good 10-15 minutes to read (about 5 of those minutes were spent joyfully STARING at Ryan Ottley’s GORGEOUS art). There is a lot of dialogue in this issue, but all of it is GOOD dialogue that FLOWS VERY NICELY. A lot of it is even witty banter between Mark Grayson (Invincible) and his girlfriend, parents, and friends. There is even a scene in a COMIC BOOK STORE where Mark comments on some of the  BUSINESS PRACTICES of the COMIC INDUSTRY which threw me into a fit of laughter. That scene once again proves to me that Robert Kirkman is a writer with A PAIR OF B***s.

 

There was A LOT that happens in this issue and after that comic book store scene I thought that it would be hard to top that, but the VERY NEXT SCENE proved me wrong. I won’t spoil it, but all I will say is that it was a very touching moment that is a UNIQUE and INTERESTING spin on the whole aspect of the ‘superhero catching the bad guy who robbed a bank’. It yet ANOTHER example of Kirkman really making this book his own spin on a superhero story. It really is something truly spectacular.

 

The end of the book is spent featuring the LONG-AWAITED RETURN (at least, for me anyway) of DINOSAURUS! I swear, sometimes half the fun of reading Invincible is reading all of the NEW and FUN names that Kirkman has created for the heroes and villains that he has created. Right away we figure out very clearly WHO Dinosaurus is and what his MOTIVES are and it really does make his character special and unlike your average super villain. The results of his plan are… well, BIZZARE to say the least and make for a pretty good CLIFFHANGER. Now I know I was complaining about Kirkman’s occasional misuse of Splash Pages (pages that have no panels in them) and there IS a DOUBLE Splash page in this issue, but it was done CORRECTLY and added the effect of what happened and showed readers the scale and magnitude of what Dinosaurus had done.

 

It seems that with each issue of Invincible Ryan Ottley’s art keeps getting BETTER and BETTER. No complaints at all for his art. It’s gorgeous.

 

My only complaint would be that there was an element of the story that happened in the previous issue that I was hoping Kirkman would address right away, but didn’t. Slightly disappointed, but Kirkman isn’t the type of writer who drops a story element or plot and then leaves it hanging for long periods of time, so HOPEFULLY Kirkman will explore it in the next coming issues because I’m looking forward to see how he handles it.

 

Overall, A VERY SOLID COMIC AND SERIES. If you guys are interested in reading Invincible I HIGHLY ENCOURAGE you to read it. Don’t know where to start well you can start with the FIRST VOLUME of Invincible and work your way through each volume if you are enjoying it. There are a total of 14 volumes of Invincible out so far. You can find them at your LOCAL COMIC BOOK STORE, BOOK STORE, or USED BOOK STORE.

 

FEEL FREE TO COMMENT AND SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS! The water is FRESH, so please feel free to join in on the discussion!

 

I would rate Invincible#80:

 

9 out of 10 DINOSAURS

 

 

OUT OF

 

Marvel Announces AVENGING SPIDER-MAN by Zeb Wells and Joe Madureira

Look at that beautiful artwork. I almost passed out due to its sheer beauty. Art by Joe Madureira.

 

Yes, you DID read that correctly… THE one and ONLY JOE MADUREIRA will be doing the art for an upcoming Spider-Man montly comic book debuting in November.

 

Zeb Wells will be responsible for the writing chores. Remember, he’s the guy behind that God awful Lizard story that came out last year where the Lizard fricken ATE HIS OWN SON. So, Zeb Wells has written some of the WORST Spider-Man stories that I’ve ever read, and… JUST LOOK at that art! IT’S SO GORGEOUS!!!

 

So I guess the premise of this comic is going to be stories of Spider-Man teaming up with the Avengers because apparently we don’t get enough of it in Avengers and New Avengers. Why can’t we call it Marvel Team-Up?

 

For those who know me well will know that I’m a HUGE fan of Joe Mad’s art. Anything he draws I feel the need to buy just to ABSORB THE AMAZING ART. I’ve even met him at a convention once. (btw Battle Chasers isn’t in his near future unfortunately).

 

I WILL buy the first issue, price point and not very good writer be darned. If it’s as bad as that Lizard story and each issue is priced at $3.99 for 22 pages of art I WILL drop it even if the art is probably going to be great. Marvel Comics has said that this will be a MONTHLY comic. Now for those who may not know, Joe Mad is a REALLY SLOOOOOOW artist and his books are always late. Unless, he’s gotten a HUGE HEAD START on this project by now or is going to be CHAINED TO A DESK, DRAWING 24/7 I can’t see HOW this is going to be a monthly comic, but we’ll see.

 

So YES I will buy the first issue and will probably REVIEW it here as well!

 

Let me know what you guys think of this in the comments section and take care!

DC Comics to Relaunch 52 of their Monthly Titles

The word has gone out. DC Comics is scheduled to RELAUNCH 52 of their monthly comics with BRAND, SPANKING NEW #1’s IN SEPTEMBER. This is a BOLD move on DC’s part. They are obviously trying to grab new readers and are trying hard to boost sales. Desperate times call for desperate measures. To me this has the potential to be a GOOD or  BAD thing. I see many things I’m excited for and many things that I’m NOT so excited for. After looking at a list of THE NEW TITLES (via Bleeding Cool) it has only fed my excitement for some comics and non-excitement for others.

Following is a dissection of comics I’m excited, neutral to, or am not looking forward to at all.

GREEN means that I am excited.

BLUE means that I am neutral.

RED means that I am not excited.

HERE WE GO:

1.  Justice League#1  by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee

• The Johns-Lee creative team-up has been RUMORED and TEASED for the longest time and I’m excited to see something come of it. Whether or not Lee can actually keep up with the monthly task of doing the art we’ll have to wait and see. Also, I’m a bit nervous whenever I read a Geoff Johns comic nowadays. He delivered the goods with Blackest Night, but recently has been doing a mediocre job with Green Lantern and has done a TERRIBLE job with Brightest Day, so I don’t know which Geoff Johns we’ll be getting, but nevertheless, I’m still excited to see how this book will turn out.

 

2. Justice League International by Dan Jurgens and Aaron Lopresti

3. Teen Titans by Scott Lobdell, Brett Booth and Norm Rapmund

Nobody should have sit through an entire issue of awful Brett Booth art.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Suicide Squad by Adam Glass and Marco Rudy

 

 

5. Action Comics by Grant Morrison and Rags Morales

 

 

6. Superman#1 by George Pérez and Jesus Merino

 

 

7. Superboy#1 by Scott Lobdell, R.B. Silva and Rob Lean

 

 

8. Supergirl#1 by Micheal Green, Mike Johnson, and Mahmad A. Asrar

 

 

• I thought Brian Wood was supposed to be writing Supergirl… guess not. I’ve never even heard of these creators before…

 

 

9. Batman#1 by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo

 

• YAY! Snyder is still going to be writing a Batman comic!

 

10.  Detective Comics#1 by Tony Daniel

 

• And here I thought DC actually HAD some respect for their classic titles. Guess not. Tony Daniel is one of my least favorite artists in comics today. He’s an even worse writer too. Can’t believe DC is letting him do this…

Looks like T.D. didn't feel like drawing Batman's chest symbol... Art by Tony Daniel.

 

 

11.  Batman: The Dark Knight#1 by David Finch

 

• I honestly have NO IDEA WHY they decided to relaunch this comic, since currently only two issues of it have been released since Finch can’t draw a monthly comic to save his life anymore.

 

 

12.  Batgirl#1 by Gail Simone, Ardian Syaf and Vicente Cifuentes

 

 

• SWEET! Simone writing Batgirl should be cool! Looking forward to it!

 

13.  Batwoman#1 by J.H. Williams III, Haden Blackman, and Amy Reeder

 

• FINALLY!!!!! Fans have been waiting FOR-EV-ER for this comic way back when it was announced. Read J.H. Williams’ LEGENDARY and CLASSIC run of Detective Comics if you haven’t already. Your eyes will THANK YOU. I PROMISE. The softcover collection of his run was released THIS WEEK!

 

 

14.  Catwoman#1 by Judd Winick and Guillem March

 

If this cover doesn't scream "BUY ME!", then I don't know what does. Art by Guillem March.

 

• YES. Winick and March as the creative team should be awesome. Winick did a WONDERFUL run on Power Girl with Sami Basri, so hopefully he can channel what made his Power Girl run so awesome into this new Catwoman series.

 

 

15. Red Hood and The Outlaws#1 by Scott Lobdell and Kenneth Rocafort

 

 

• Scott Lobdell sure has his work cut out for him this coming September…

 

16.  Batwing#1 by Judd Winick and Ben Oliver

 

 

• I don’t know who this Batwing character is, but so far I have little to no interest in the character. Yes, Winick is writing it, but I’m not a huge fan of Ben Oliver’s art, so I’m going to have to pass on this one. 

 

17.  Nightwing #1 by Kyle Higgins and Eddy Barrows

 

18. Batman And Robin #1 by Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason

• Ah, so THIS is what Patrick Gleason was referring to when I talked to him at a convention in May. Tomasi and Gleason did a so-so run on Batman and Robin earlier this year that left me disappointed, but we’ll see if they’ve improved with this one.

 

19. Birds Of Prey #1 by Duane Swierczynski and Jesus Saiz

 

20. Green Lantern #1 by Geoff Johns, Doug Mahnke and Christian Alamy

 

21. Green Lantern Corps #1 by Peter J. Tomasi, Fernando Pasarin and Scott Hanna

• Awesome! Tomasi is returning to the GLC comic! I LOVED his run of Green Lantern Corps, so this has me excited. However, his recent Batman and Robin story arc was kind of bad. I’m still willing to give this comic a go.

 

22. Green Lanterns: New Guardians #1 by Tony Bedard, Tyler Kirkham and Batt

 

23. Red Lanterns #1 by Peter Milligan, Ed Benes and Rob Hunter

 

24. Aquaman #1 by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis

• If Johns writes Aquaman like he did in Brightest Day then I will be VERY disappointed. I disliked how he handled Aquaman in Brightest Day. At least it was SLIGHTLY more tolerable than the Hawkman and Hawkgril scenes… my God, those scenes were AWFUL. The only reason this remains neutral is because of Ivan Reis on art chores.

 

25. Wonder Woman #1 by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang

 

• THANK GOD DC is FINALLY curing us fans from that mediocre J. Michael Straczynski story!!! I am looking forward to this IMMENSLY. I do LOVE Wonder Woman.

That's a cool WW cover. Art by Cliff Chiang.

 

26. Flash #1 by Brian Buccellato and Francis Manapul

 

27. Green Arrow #1 by J.T. Krul and Dan Jurgens

 

28. DC Universe Presents #1 by Paul Jenkins and Bernard Chang

 

29. Savage Hawkman #1 by Tony Daniel and Philip Tan

 

• Tony Daniel. Phillip Tan. Two artists who I CANNOT STAND. Their art is SO BAD I can’t even decipher what’s happening in one of their panels that they’ve drawn. I’m assuming Daniel will be writting and in case you’re wondering, his writting is just as bad as his art.

 

30. Blue Beetle #1 by Tony Bedard and Ig Guara

 

• Tony Bedard has, in my opinion, never written ANYTHING that wasn’t enjoyable. His run on R.E.B.E.L.S. was AWESOME. Plus, Ig Guara, who draws very well in the Pet Avengers series so that’s cool. The reason I’m neutral about this is because I buy enough comics already and if I’m going to buy this it HAS to be great. And it has every potential to be great.

 

31. Fury Of Firestorm #1 by Gail Simone, Ethan Van Sciver and Yildiray Cinar.

 

• MEH. I love Gail Simone, but Van Sciver’s art is so hit-or-miss for me (usually a miss).

 

32. Mr Terrific #1 by Eric Wallace and Roger Robinson

 

33. Captain Atom #1 by J.T. Krul and Freddie Williams II

 

• I enjoy Captain Atom’s character, but Krul is a terrible writer. A nice guy, I’m sure, but I’ve never enjoyed anything that I’ve read with his name on it. If someone can reccomend a good Krul comic I would greatly appreciate that (if you say Rise of Arsenal I will punch you in the face).

34. OMAC #1 by Dan DiDio, Keith Giffen and Scott Koblish

• Why would ANYONE in their right mind want to read a monthly comic about the OMAC’s??? How about we focus on worthy titles like T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents? (which hasn’t been announced for the relaunch yet) I don’t think this will last long at all. Read ALL ABOUT the OMACs HERE.

 

35. Static Shock #1 by Felicia Henderson, John Rozum, Scott McDaniel and Jonathan Glapion.

 

36. Hawk And Dove #1 by Sterling Gates and Rob Liefeld

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…

• Sorry, my eyes were bleeding due to the terrible Liefeld art and I had to clean up the mess. Poor Sterling Gates… 😦

I am so terribly sorry to show you guys this... attrocity. Art by Rob Liefeld.

 

37. Deathstroke #1 by Kyle Higgins, Joe Bennett and Art Thibert

 

38. Legion of Superheroes by Paul Levitz and Francis Portela

 

39. Legion Lost #1 by Fabian Nicieza and Pete Woods

 

40. Grifter #1 by Nathan Edmondson, CAFU and BIT

 

41. Voodoo #1 by Ron Marz and Sami Basri

 

42. Stormwatch #1 by Paul Cornell and Miguel Sepulveda

 

43. Animal Man #1 by Jeff Lemire, Travel Foreman and Dan Green

 

44. Swamp Thing #1 by Scott Snyder and Yanick Paquette

• Scott Snyder has been kicking butt in American Vampire and Detective Comics recently so this should be an interesting comic. Paquette is one of my favorite artists and has done a REMARKABLE job in Ultimate X-Men and Batman, Inc.

45. Justice League Dark #1 by Peter Milligan and Mikel Janin

 

46. Demon Knights #1 by Paul Cornell, Diogenes Neves and Oclair Albert

 

47. Frankenstein: Agent Of SHADE #1 by Jeff Lemire and Alberto Ponticelli

 

48. Resurrection Man #1 by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Fernando Dagnino

 

49. I, Vampire #1 by Josh Fialkov and Andrea Sorrentino

 

50. Blackhawks #1 by Mike Costa and Ken Lashley

 

51. Sgt Rock And The Men Of War #1 by Ivan Brandon and Tom Derenick

 

52. All-Star Western #1 by Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Grey and Meridat.

SO OVERALL:

9 YES, 23 NEUTRAL, and 20 NO

We’ll see how this move goes. Expect a lot of reviews of these books when they come out HERE ON MY BLOG! I’m very worried for the future of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents because that is my FAVORITE DC comic book currently. It not be affected by the relaunch or it may be cancelled. I hope to see this comic continue.

Also, there were rumors that they were going to relaunch Batman Beyond AND launch Superman Beyond and JLA Beyond, but it appears those won’t be part of the September relaunch. I certainly hope that these comics get made because I’d rather see these than ALMOST HALF of the books appearing in September.

To conclude I would like to wish DC the best of luck during this relaunch and hope many new readers take this opportunity to check out the WONDROUS WORLD that is DC Comics.

NOTE: I will update this list if it continues to update! 

 

FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER! (@comicbookdude89)

You can also find me trolling* the comment section of the INVETERATE MEDIA JUNKIES blog!

 

*By trolling I mean having a great time!

Fantastic Four#587 REVIEW (A Farewell To A Good Friend)

Cover by Alan Davis

Fantastic Four#587

Written by: Jonathan Hickman

Drawn by: Steve Epting

Inks by: Rick Magyar, Mike Perkins, and Steve Epting

Colors by: Paul Mounts

Page Count: 28

Price: $3.99

Publisher: Marvel Comics

SPOILERS ARE PRESENT IN THIS REVIEW! IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THIS ISSUE YET AND DON’T WANT TO KNOW WHO DIES THEN SKIP THIS REVIEW AND COME BACK LATER.

So here we have it. The Fantastic Four ‘death’ issue Marvel has been hyping for about six months now. I only read the first part of this story arc, “Three” and then I dropped it since I wanted to save money. After reading this issue I really wish I had kept reading FF because I was LOST. Reed Richards was in Nu-World fighting Galactus, Sue Richards was with Namor, etc. Basically the FF and Reed and Sue’s kids are scattered across the universe and I have no clue what’s going on. I think I would’ve enjoyed this more had I read the issues that came out beforehand.

All that aside I actually enjoyed this issue. It keep things moving and everything led up to the final scene. I am a big fan of Jonathan Hickman’s work and while this isn’t as deep or mature as some of his other works have been it still keeps the entertainment quality that is present in his previous work. It’s fairly evident in this issue and the issues I bought when Hickman first started his run on Fantastic Four that he understands the family PERFECTLY. There is not one moment in his run where I’ve questioned the character’s motives or if they would have done that. I LOVE how Hickman portrays Franklin and Valeria, Reed and Sue Richards’ kids. Their little rascals who get bored easy and cause a bunch of trouble, but also are a big help when need be. Again the story was confusing to me, probably due to the fact that I haven’t read a few of the issues before this one. Also there were a lot of splash pages in this story which I think is a lazy way of reaching your deadline on time. Splash pages are used for EFFECT and NOT for REACHING YOUR DEADLINE ON TIME.

There also were a lot of pages with little to no dialogue, but towards the end Hickman uses these types of pages EFFECTIVELY. HERE’S WHERE THE SPOILERS COME IN. The page I’m talking about is the pages where The Thing watches as Annihulus’ army surrounds Johnny Storm as the door closes on him as The Thing sheds a tear. The last page is The Thing holding Franklin and Valeria in his arms. Those kinds of pages with little to no dialogue are what they should be used for. I also love how Sue Storm puts Namor in his place during this issue 🙂

I’m not a huge fan of Steve Epting, I liked his art on Captain America, but for all intents and purposes the art didn’t really enhance nor let down this issue. It didn’t help that there were THREE INKERS on the book, one of them being Epting himself. The art does look inconsistent in certain places of the book, again because of the different inkers.

So with this issue we say good-bye to Johnny Storm AKA the Human Torch. He has always been my favorite member of the FF. I loved his coolness he had about him and the light-heartedness he brought to the team and I ALWAYS enjoyed it when he and the Thing would argue and fight, see Marvel Fanfare#15 for a GREAT example of this 🙂 I even remember my dad handing me his Human Torch action figure for me to play with and I remember my uncle pretending that the action figure was actually on fire and was burning him, as he doused the toy with water.

So good-bye Human Torch… we’ll see you in about six months to a year 🙂

RATING: B

A Quick Update (Jeez, When Am I Gonna Upload My Next Podcast?)

So as many of you guys may know I haven’t been updating my blog very often. I also have been giving promises of my next podcast being uploaded soon for a few weeks now. I hate giving excuses but school has been keeping me VERY busy because I had finals and am still recovering from them as I type. However the 2nd episode of my podcast WILL BE UPLOADED NEXT WEEKEND.

I have been considering doing the podcast monthly and doing more writing for my blog since I seem to enjoy writing more. Doesn’t mean I will drop the podcast altogether, it just means it won’t be coming out as frequently as I thought it would be and to give me more breathing room as far as my schedule goes. I was also planning to make a comic of my own but that won’t be happening soon again due to my crazy schedule. When I say ‘soon’ I mean it won’t be happening for a couple months or so. Maybe it’ll be out sooner, who knows? Only time will tell 🙂

I will also be doing more blog posts since you folks seem to dig that. I’ll be doing posts for new comic fans, casual comic fans, and die hard fans. I want to spread my love of the comic industry to as many people as possible and I want to have people realize that comics aren’t as “nerdy” as people seem to think they are. And if you guys know anyone who thinks comics are dumb give them a copy of Maus, Pride of Baghdad, and/or Blankets and tell them to SHUT UP. Seriously.

So… yeah. That’s that. Expect more posts and crap like that. Leave a comment below and give suggestions about what I should do to make this blog a better place for everyone to discuss comics and all things pop culture. Everyone is welcome 🙂

IT’S HERE! ComicBookDude’s Comic Talk Podcast- Episode ONE

AT LONG LAST!

The first episode of my podcast is here! Sorry for the brief delay of time when I said this was supposed to come out, but I ran into some technical setbacks. Regardless of that I mananged to get through those obstacles and here we have it:

http://www.archive.org/details/ComicbookdudesComicTalkPodcast-EpisodeOne

Click that link if you want to download it!

For the time being you guys will have to check out the podcast through that link. Eventually I’ll have it so that you folks can listen to it through the blog. Be sure to live feedback and let people know about this podcast! I will try to get this out on a weekly/bi-weekly schedule. It depends on how my schedule looks like and how much there is to talk about. Thanks for taking your time to listen in!

In this podcast I introduce myself and explain what this podcast is about. I discuss my two cents on Marvel’s new event book coming out in April 2010 called Fear Itself by Matt Fraction and Stuart Immonen. I also review Chew#16, Invincible#76, Superior#3, The Guild- Vork#1, and American Vampire#10.

A Special Announcement!!!

For those of you wondering what my SECRET PROJECT is that I’ve been talking about on twitter (follow me @comicbookdude89) your wait is FINALLY OVER! I’ve been wanting to talk to you guys about this for about a month now and only got the chance to do that about a week ago. So… my secret project IS:

*drumroll*

MY VERY OWN PODCAST!

That’s right! I’m making my own podcast about comics/pop culture/anything that comes to mind! I will be mostly reviewing comics and talking about big news that has happened in the comic book industry. But I also wanted to include YOU GUYS in on the podcast so I am also doing a part of the podcast called:

ANSWERING TWITTER QUESTIONS™

This part of the podcast is where you guys ask ME questions about anything really like: Comics, personal questions, pop culture, etc. Ask me those questions that are on your mind (stupid questions ARE accepted 🙂 ) and I will most likely answer them on the podcast unless I get 100 questions in one day, which will probably never happen. Ask those questions at my twitter account: @comicbookdude89

I’m doing this podcast to spread my love and knowledge of comics THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. I’m sure that there are MANY PEOPLE who are interested in getting into comics but just have no clue where to start. That’s why I’m here. If you’re NEW to comics I will do my best to try to help you through all the good and bad, ins and outs of the comic book industry.

THE FIRST EPISODE OF MY PODCAST WILL BE UPLOADED TOMORROW!!!

I hope you guys enjoy my podcast and support what I will be doing here. My podcast will be weekly or bi-weekly. It all depends on how much stuff there is to talk about and how my schedule looks. I will try my hardest to keep the podcast on schedule. I hope you guys will check out my podcast tomorrow and ASK SOME TWITTER QUESTIONS!

Take care guys!

A ‘Kick-Ass’ (get it?) REVIEW of TWO Mark Millar Comics: Kick-Ass 2#1 AND Superior#1

Kick-Ass 2#1

Written by: Mark Millar

Breakdowns by: John Romita, Jr. with finishes and ink washes by Tom Palmer

Colors by: Dean White

Price: $2.99

Publisher: Marvel/Icon

As many of my faithful followers know I was not impressed by the first volume of Kick-Ass. But I decided to go against my better judgment and bought this anyway to see if Millar has improved his writing since The Ultimates 2 (waaaaay back in 2006-2007). It appears that NO his writing HAS NOT improved since then BUT, much to my surprise, nothing in the book insulted my intelligence or offended me. It seems that in the last few years of Millar’s comics at the very least ONE THING in his books would ALWAYS offend me or irritate me. Instead Millar managed to bore me to death because this comic was ÜBER BORING. All this book was is a bunch of talking and frequent appearances of some ‘four-letter words’ that pop up frequently in Millar’s books.

The start of the book is a bunch of flash-forwards of what will happen later on in this story (which is done in a very UNCLEVER and PLAYED OUT way). You get a glimpse of Red Mist, who is apparently going to be called ‘The MotherF****r’.

MINI-RANT: Are you KIDDING me Mark Millar?!? Is that the BEST name for a “super villain” you can COME UP WITH? A second-grader could’ve come up with a better name than that! (I should do that as an experiment…) Surely not ALL of the POSSIBLE names for characters have been taken have they? MINI-RANT OVER.

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Feel free to grab a drink or something right now. I’m just decompressing the review in hopes of dragging this ON and ON. It’s a technique I learned in Kick-Ass 2#1.

Also Kick-Ass joins a super team that looks a bit like the Justice League of America. What’s the superteam’s name you ask? Why it’s: JUSTICE FOREVER. (No joke).

The only good thing I can say about this book is that I liked that Romita, Jr. art a lot and nothing in the story angered me (as I expected would happen). Beyond that there isn’t much else to this book.

RATING: 2/5

 

One magic wish? I've got one: I wish Mark Millar could write better comics!

Superior#1

Written by: Mark Millar

Drawn by: Leinil Francis Yu

Inks by: Gerry Alanguilan

Colors by: Dave McCaig

Price: $2.99

Publisher: Marvel/Icon

Again I went against my better judgment and bought another recent Mark Millar book. I read the preview of this book and it actually got me interested in checking this book out. The GORGEOUS Leinil Yu art helped my interest in the book. I ended up buying this book. I disliked Kick-Ass. Don’t even GET ME STARTED on Nemesis. Out of my curiosity I picked up this book. Curiosity killed the cat, right? Well not in this case it didn’t. I actually somewhat enjoyed this book.

It had relatable characters and had some heart. In a nutshell, Superior is about a kid with MS who is granted the powers of a superhero named Superior. As far as originallity this book doesn’t score much points because as I’m reading it I’m thinking, “Man, this comic reminds me of the movie Big.” And wouldn’t you know it a week after this comic is released Millar HIMSELF admits that Superior is basically a “superhero version of Big…” That aside this book is boring in some points, but not as boring as Kick-Ass 2#1. The energetic art by Leinil Yu keeps at least some interest in what is going on. The action scenes are better in terms of excitement.

And, again, much to my surprise NOTHING in the book that irked me or caused me to throw the comic on the ground (I have done that to a couple Mark Millar books). This book DOES have heart in some moments and has me interested in what’s going to happen next. Oh, also more ‘four-lettered words’ show up. In case no one knows what I’m talking about, ‘four-lettered words’ = SWEAR WORDS. The only thing that I felt was missing from this book is:

A). Originallity

B). A lot of excitement

C). A lot of heart

I know I said there was excitement and heart in the book, but if Millar could enhance those elements in the story I think Superior would be a well-packed story with great art. I’m trying REALLY hard not to use the title of this book into what I feel about this book. All of that said I will buy the next issue to see if Millar stays at this quality or improves (knowing Millar he’ll probably screw everything up 🙂 )

RATING: 3/5

Thanks for reading! Leave a comment down below and FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER!

 

@comicbookdude89

Pre-Marital Sex, Extreme Violence, and Over-Misogyny is OK, But Smoking is BAD

"I need to prove I'm a tough guy villain by holding a gun to this baby's head! It's not like I have an evil look on my face all the time..."

Another day, another Marvel rant. Surprised? Before I start I just want to say that this post is not for the closed-minded and the Marvel Zombies. You’ve been warned.

So I’m sure most of us comic fans know about the initiative where Joe Quesada (Editor-In-Chief of Marvel Comics) wouldn’t allow characters to smoke in Marvel Comics because someone he knew died of lung cancer. While that’s nice and all, I’m here to tell you all that there are many far, far worse things than smoking within the comic books at Marvel. Those things are:

• Pre-Marital Sex
• Extreme Violence
• Over-Misogyny

You know what all of these things have in common? They’ve been appearing throughout many of Marvel’s comics. Don’t believe me? Please bear with me as I provide this list of evidence (this is going to be a long one, folks):

I will be providing where the evidence comes from and who wrote the book.

Extreme violence AND over-misogyny:

I find it funny how smoking is a no-no, but extreme violence and misogyny is A-OK. It’s quite ridiculous. The evidence for misogyny will be bolded.

– Ultimate Red Skull holding a GUN to a BABY’S HEAD, then later THROWING said baby OUT OF A WINDOW, with a nice little blood splat on the next page (Ultimate Avengers#5- Mark Millar)

– A nurse REPEATEDLY STABS her husband to death with a pair of SCISSORS, with blood flying in the panel (Ultimate Avengers#5- Mark Millar)

– A ticked off S.H.E.I.L.D. agent shoots a skrull lady in the head, killing her (New Avengers#48- Brian Michael Bendis)

– The tip of a plane going STRAIGHT THROUGH Ultimate Red Skull’s chest, again, with blood flying (Ultimate Avengers#6- Mark Millar)

– 8 pages, count ’em, of Ultimate Punisher SHOOTING people left and right with little to no dialogue (Ultimate Avengers 2#1- Mark Millar)

– Nick Fury shoots a Skrull lady in the head (Mighty Avengers#12)

– Venom eats somebody/something/anything (WAY TOO MANY INSTANCES TO COUNT)

– The Sentry RIPS OFF Morganna Le Fay’s HEAD OFF (Dark Avengers#2- Brian Michael Bendis)

Words can't express the disgust I feel while looking at this panel... and people thought that this was a good and fun book?!? Give me a break...

– Bullseye shoots numerous arrows into Morganna Le Fay, with his team congratulating him (Dark Avengers#3- Brian Michael Bendis)

– The Hood beats/rapes Tigra TWO TIMES while Jigsaw films the first time (New Avengers#35 and New Avengers Annual#2)

From New Avengers#35. Can you believe that crap like this sells? Unbelieveable.

– Wolverine chops up a guy in half, rips another guy apart, Hulk gang member eats half of an arm, Wolverine sticks his claws THROUGH a Hulk Gang member’s face/head, a few Hulk Gang members have sex with a bunch of girls INTO UNCONSCIOUSNESS (not joking, sadly), explosion kills and decapitates several Hulk Gang members, Wolverine slices his way through several Hulk Gang members, Wolverine slices off evil She-Hulk’s head off, Wolverine disembowels a cow, Wolverine stabs through old, evil Bruce Banner then Banner turns into Hulk and eats Wolverine, then Wolverine CUTS OPEN Bruce and escapes. (Giant-Size Wolverine: Old Man Logan- Mark Millar)

– WARNING! WARNING! CAN’T COMPUTE THE VIOLENT SCENCES IN OLD MAN LOGAN! TOO MUCH DATA! GOING TO EXPLODE! WARNING! PLEASE EVACUATE THE BUILDING! (spx: BOOM!) Ok, it’s all over. Nothing to see here folks! Please go about your daily lives.

– Ultimate Blob eats Ultimate Wasp, then Ultimate Yellowjacket bites off Ultimate Blob’s head and spits it out (Ultimatum#2 and Ultimatum#3- Jeph Loeb)

– Hawkeye, oops sorry, RONIN shoots an arrow through the Skrull Queen’s mouth. Then Norman Osborn shoots the Skrull Queen’s head off (Secret Invasion#7 and Secret Invasion#8- Brian Michael Bendis)

– The Lizard eats his own son (some terrible issue of Amazing Spider-Man- Zeb Wells)

– Spider-Man RIPS OFF half of Sasha Kravinoff’s face (some terrible issue of Amazing Spider-Man- Joe Kelly)

– The Sentry rips open Ares with Ares’ entrails spilling out (Siege#2- Brian Michael Bendis)

– The Wasp mysteriously turns into a bunch of purple dots and disappears, assumed dead (Secret Invasion#8- Brian Michael Bendis)

Bendis LOVES The Wasp! Can't you tell?

 – Bullseye chokes the life out of the Sentry’s wife (Dark Avengers#15- Brian Michael Bendis)

This is one of the MOST SICKENING panels I've ever seen in my entire life.

– WARNING! WARNING! CAN’T COMPUTE VIOLENCE IN ULTIMATE AVENGERS#2! OH NO, I THINK I’M GOING TO BLOW UP AGAIN! I CAN’T HOLD IT MUCH LONGER!!! (spx: KA-BOOM!!!) *sigh* It’s all right guys… I’ll make sure this never happens again- oh who am I kidding? As long as Mark Millar lives this will keep happening! Sorry about the mess…

Pre-Marital Sex:

This is the one that gets me. As a Christian I believe that pre-marital sex is wrong. So when I see characters, especially the ones I love, running around with their pants down it angers me to a point where words can’t describe how angry I get. Plus it just fuels the fanboy power-fantasy where women are simply there to be objectified, which pisses me off even more.

– Peter Parker gets drunk and has a one-night stand with his ex-roomates sister (Amazing Spider-Man#601- Mark Waid)

– Moonstone persuades Marvel Boy, whoops, Captain Marvel- oh I’m sorry, he’s called Protector now isn’t he? Anyway Moonstone persuades Protector into her room where they bang each other (Dark Avengers#5- Brian Micheal Bendis)

– Moonstone takes off her shirt in front of Bullseye, in which it is hinted at that Bullseye quickly followed suit and banged each other (Dark Avengers#10- Brian Michael Bendis)

– Ultimate Nick Fury is shown to have slept with a numerous amount of the new Ultimate Black Widow’s friends in a flashback (Ultimate Avengers 2#4- Mark Millar)

– Sins Past. ‘Nuff Said (Amazing Spider-Man#514- J. Michael Straczynski with a huge amount of Joe Quesada’s stink mixed in)

– Ultimate Valkyrie sleeps with Ultimate Hank Pym (The Ultimates 2#6- Mark Millar)

– Ultimate Iron Man sleeps with Ultimate Black Widow on a videotape (The Ultimates 3#1- Jeph Loeb)

– Ultimate Valkyrie sleeps with Ultimate Thor (The Ultimates 3#2- Jeph Loeb)

– Ultimate Wolverine sleeps with Magneto’s wife (The Ultimates 3#3- Jeph Loeb)

– Ultimate Pyro and Mastermind are tempted to rape an unconscious Ultimate Valkyrie (The Ultimates 3#4- Jeph Loeb)

I could've gone without that, but ok... that's just... yuck...

– Ultimate Hulk Annual#1 (don’t even want to go into what happened in this…- Jeph Loeb)

– Spider-Man/Peter Parker sleeps with Black Cat (Amazing Spider-Man#607 and Amazing Spider-Man#622- Joe Kelly and Fred Van Lente)- I almost had an aneurysm reading these issues, in fact I remember throwing #622 on the floor…

 I don’t know about you, but these problems are worse than smoking. Whatever Joe Quesada wants he gets, right? He thought there were too many mutants, so what happens? No more mutants, except the popular ones. He hated the Peter Parker/MJ marriage and what happens? No more marriage. *Insert fanboy voice here* “But Jim Shooter wanted to have Peter marry MJ and wanted Jean Grey face the consequences of her actions and die in Dark Phoenix Saga!” *Throw away fanboy voice here* That’s true, but he felt those story decisions would strengthen the stories. He didn’t do those decsions just because of personal preferences and look, Dark Phoenix Saga is considered (and is my personal favorite X-Men story) to be the best X-Men story.

If Joe Quesada makes his editorial descions based on his on his personal life that’s fine, but he should be more concerned about what would be beneficial to the story, not just about how he personally feels. What do the fans want? That’s another thing that needs to be considered. I hope Marvel starts to get their stuff together soon. They’re slipping from me very fast. I’ve said my two cents about the current Spider-Man status quo, so I’m not going to re-visit that. I know I’m picking on Marvel here. DC is guilty of a lot of violence in their comics, but they’ve kept pre-marital sex and misogyny to a minimum.

So ends my rant about the ridiculousness that is the fact that pre-marital sex, extreme violence, and over-misogyny is not as bad as smoking. Apparently you can have Ultimate Red Skull pretty much kill everyone he sees, but you can’t have him smoke! Let me know what you guys think about this topic by leaving a comment below! Thanks in advance!

You just can’t polish a turd (GOOD comic book writers gone BAD)

A Polished Turd, apparently…

 You know that time when your favorite writer, musician, performer, actor, etc. isn’t as good as they used to be? Well, that’s how I feel about a few comic book writers today. As an aspiring comic book writer myself one of the most painful things is seeing your creative heroes let you down. This post is about those writers:

Jeph Loeb:

My first exposure to Mr. Loeb’s comics was The Ultimates 3, then soon afterward Ultimatum. Those had to be some of the worst comic books I’ve ever read. I thought to myself, “Has this guy written ANYTHING good?” After searching around on the interwebs I found out that people liked his stories where he worked with Tim Sale. Soon afterward my dad had mentioned a story he had read called Spider-Man: Blue and he recommended that I read it. Little did I know that it was written by none other than Jeph Loeb. I ended up reading it based on my dad’s recommendation and I liked it. The ending was very heartbreaking and well thought of. Then several months I read Batman: Hush by Loeb and Jim Lee. I was blown away by it. In a good way. To me it was very engaging and it had some of the best comic book art I’ve ever seen. Then, come February this year I read Batman: The Long Halloween by Loeb and Sale. That became my favorite Jeph Loeb story very quickly and it was then that I realized that Loeb is/was capable of some really good storytelling. I want that Jeph Loeb back soon.

Frank Miller:

This is perhaps the most tragic downfall of a comic book writer in the industry. This man has written and drawn some of the best comic books in the world. In my Top 5 favorite comic book stories list, Miller has written two of those stories. Those are Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Daredevil: Born Again. Other wonderful work Miller has done is as following: Batman: Year One, Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot, Daredevil: Man Without Fear, and his run on Daredevil. So why do I dislike his writing now? Dark Knight Strikes Again is THE WORST Batman story I’ve EVER read. So childish and pointless. You couldn’t have a man talking about a woman without them commenting on her butt. Then comes along All-Star Batman and Robin. The dialogue in this so-called “comic book” is HORRIBLE. I’m a big fan of Miller’s dialogue he used in his older work, but this dialogue in All-Star is just utter garbage. There was nothing attractive about it. But the final straw for me was the movie Miller made called The Spirit based on the wonderful comic by Will Eisner. While, some of the visuals were nice, the rest of the movie is sickening. The dialogue is on par with All-Star Batman and Robin. Evidently Miller and Eisner were best friends, and I can’t believe Miller just pissed all over Eisner’s creation. I honestly don’t know how he can live with himself after that movie. I just like to pretend that none of that crap exists and I enjoy Miller’s good work.

James Robinson:

This one will be short because this isn’t as painful as all the others. I’m a big fan of his Starman stories. That was one of the best books to come out of the 90s. But recently his JLA stories have been AWFUL. You’d think that he could write superheroes after seeing what he could do in Starman, but apparently not. In JLA not only is it just not a fun read, you have the heroes killing each other and ripping body parts of each other and it’s just… ugh. What is this? The Teen Titans?

Geoff Johns:

What? How come Geoff Johns is on this list? I’ll tell you why. Brightest Day SUCKS. You’d think with a title like that it would be a happy story and FINALLY we’d have a light-hearted story in the DCU… right? Nope. Brightest Day has to be one of the most depressing and boring comic book I’ve ever read in my 10 years of reading comics. Don’t get me wrong I have LOVED some of Geoff’s earlier stuff like the stuff he does with Gary Frank, his Green Lantern stories are good (not anymore, too much same old same old for me), his Avengers stories were good, and Blackest Night was great up until the end. The truth and my honest opinion is that Johns is just not doing his best work right now. I hope something changes soon.

Brian Michael Bendis:

Anyone who knows me well knows that I love Ultimate Spider-Man and his indy comic book Goldfish. So imagine my disappointment when I read his Avenger stories. New Avengers was boring, Dark Avengers was a joke, and his current Avenger books aren’t good. His current disregard for continuity is astounding. His lack of respect for female characters (for the most part, he doesn’t that as much recently) was/is disgusting. For months and months I have begged and prayed for the Bendis I know and love to come back. Well, thankfully my prayers have been answered with Scarlet done by Bendis and Alex Maleev. Sadly that is only going to be a mini-series. His work in the mainstream comic books outweighs his great work on Scarlet. To me, Bendis is more of an independent writer than a mainstream writer.

Mark Millar:

To me, this is the most painful and tragic downfall of a comic book writer. Millar was one of my early influences as a comic book writer. I liked his work on Ultimate X-Men, The Ultimates 1+2, Wanted, Chosen, and Superman: Red Son. Then he started letting me down with Civil War, Fantastic Four, Kick-Ass, Nemesis, War Heroes, Ultimate Avengers 1+2, Marvel 1985, and Old Man Logan. I remember the day I first read Old Man Logan. It was not a good weekend for me. I had suffered a lot of emotional pain the week before and all I wanted to do was read a good comic book story. So I picked up some issues of OML because most people said they liked it. I read it and never before have I felt so dirty about buying and reading a comic book in my entire life. The story had way too many continuity gaps in it and it just wasn’t an enjoyable read for me. In fact, I got really mad at the part where Wolverine finds out he accidently kills all of the X-Men due to Mysterio (which would never, NEVER happen). I had gotten so mad that I threw the issue into the air and yelled, “That’s bulls***!” (Don’t worry fanboys, I didn’t damage the book too much. You can breathe now).

Two weeks later my dad bought for me the trade paperback of Superman: Red Son. To this day Red Son is my favorite Superman story and my favorite Mark Millar story. In fact, towards the end I started crying because I just could not believe that the man who wrote this awesome story, had written OML. To see what Millar has become now just breaks my heart. It seems all he does not is steal from movies and doesn’t try as hard as he used to. Have any of you noticed that his new upcoming comic, Superior, sounds just like Dancing with Wolves and Avatar? It’s true.

Those are the comic book writers whose work I’ve enjoyed, but lately I haven’t been enjoying their work. I know I bash Bendis, Johns, Millar, Loeb, and Marvel a lot. Not because I dis-respect them, but because I know they’ve done better work and are capable of so much more.

Thanks for bearing with me and please leave a comment to let me know what you all think! Thanks!