Jennifer Learns The Truth!

She-Hulk#18 was another great issue by Dan Slott and Rick Burchett. I can't believe how much Slott packs into one issue, but this issue had Shulkie learning what's happened to her cousin, the new Hulkbusters taking on the Leader, She-Hulk vs Iron man and a major change for Jennifer. She still gets the last word though and it looks as if Stark has lost yet another hero from his side.

Rating 8.5/10


Whilst not quite on the same level of greatness that She-Hulk sits on, FF# 546 was still a very good issue. The Black Panther goes up against the Surfer again after popping back to Earth to collect his tools for The Galactus Contingency Plan. Nice!

Ben and Johnny keep the humour mixed into what is a very action packed issue and everything gets resolved quite neatly. McDuffie even manages a few pages for a sub-plot with Reed and Sue and Paul Pelletier continues to grow into the title.

This title is also the current winner when it comes to weird titles. This issue was entitled "Aw, that's just crude' and doesn't really fit the story at all. It's just a line of dialogue. Ho hum.

Rating 7.5/10




Amazing Spider-man #540 by Straczynski and Garney was a well paced issue and if you put aside the fact that we've all been here before (Aunt May about to die - Pete mad as anything and threatening to kill those responsible but never following through with the threat) it's a good issue.

I like Ron Garney's artwork without being knocked-out by it but the cover to this issue stinks (I don't know if it's by Garney or not).

The issue ends with Pete threatening to kill the Kingpin - will he be true to his word? I seriously doubt it - just as I doubt that Aunt May will finally snuff it.

Rating 7/10

LOST Season 3 finale

A double episode to finish the season and like Battlestar Galactica not quite up to the shock or tension of the previous series. Sure the last scene had its surprise value but I sort of saw it coming.

One thing the episode showed : Jack is a loser.

SPOILER ALERT

One thing that seems constant on the island is that people come back form the dead quite regularly so I wouldn't be surprised to see Charlie back soon. (In fact that whole sequence didn't make much sense. Why didn't Charlie just leave the room and lock it from the outside? Couldn't he have swam out of the porthole? Did he want to die to ensure the helecopters came?)

I mean Locke came back after being shot - and it was Walter who helped him.

Of course I enjoyed the episode and will stay along for the ride but I'm starting to expect the unexpected. In fact they could really surprise and shock me if Ben told the truth for once.

So the main questions we need to know:

Who is Jacob?
What's with all the magic stuff on the island?
What's Ben reason d'etre?
Who was in the coffin?
Who is Kate with?
Who is coming for the survivors if they are nothing to do with Penny?

Probably loads more but that's the first 6 I thought of.

New Avengers vs Mighty Avengers

It's fun to compare the New Avengers against the Mighty Avengers now that a few issues of the new series have been published.

Both are by Brian M Bendis by "New" is drawn by Leinil Yu whereas "Mighty" is drawn by Frank Cho. The two styles are very different which Cho a superb "cheesecake" artist just getting into his stride as a superhero one but Yu is more realistic and stylised at the same time (if it is possible to be so?). Of the two Frank Cho is my personal favourite but that doesn't mean to say I dislike the other.

Bendis' dialogue is good - almost as good as "Powers" in places and I like the use of thought balloons in "Mighty"- but I wish he wouldn't use the flashback technique in both titles at the same time.

There are two stories in issues #29 and #30 of NA. The first is a trip by the team to help Echo who has been undercover. It's OK but not brilliant. I prefer the flashback story of the teams meeting the Mighty Avengers and slipping away. Did Doc Strange's spell to ascertain the pure of intention show Spider-woman to be untrustworthy - we shall she? The end of issue 30 ends on a bit of a cliffhanger.

The Mighty Avengers is a bit simpler but the storyin issues #2 and #3 brings back a classic villain in a new guise. Ultron in the form of Janet van Dyne. Nice - sep as drawn by Cho!

Ms Marvel is so much better here than in her own title. This is how she should be. BMB obviously likes her to as he uses the thought balloons mostly for her to show how difficult she is finding leading the new team especially with nutcases like Ares in it.

The story itself is very fast paced and Ultron seems so powerful that it seems impossible that the Avengers will find a way to stop her/him/it. Good stuff amd I'm looking forward to issue 4.

Ratings.

New Avengers 7.5/10
Mighty Avengers 8/10

Fallen Son

Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America #3

by Jeph Loeb and John Romita Jr.

This is a welcome concept from Marvel as this five issue mini-series tries to show some of the repercussions of Cap's assassination in the Marvel Universe. Each issue is written by Loeb but there's a different artist for each particular issue.

#1 was by Leinil Yu and concentrated on Wolverine and his efforts to ascertain if it really was Steve Rogers who was killed.

#2 which featured the Avengers, was drawn by Ed McGuiness .

#3 (cover above) and drwn by one of my favourites JRJR was entitled Captain America but actually highlighted Hawkeye and Stark's efforts to get Clint to take up the mantle. Fortunately Clint saw through this and decided against it. This was my favourite issue so far as more seemed to actually happen in it and it was also nice to see Clint again.

The girl on the front cover is also called Hawkeye by-the-way. She was asked to take up Haweye's role by Cap when he died at the end of the original Avengers run. I wonder when he did that?

Anyway, Hawkeye's return is just further proof that nobody stays dead in the MU.

But, again, I must say that I'm enjoying the new status quo and these "Fallen Son" issues help to add to the mood and show us that things have not changed for the better. Stark is fast becoming a major villain and I'm looking forward to seeing how all this is going to end.

Difficult to rate these - but #1 and #2 are about a 7/10 but #3 a solid 7.5/10.

New Stuff

I made a quick trip to Forbidden Planet today to pick up the latest comics.

Amazing Spider-man 540
Wolverine:Origins 14
Captain America (2005) 26
Mighty Avengers 3
New Avengers 30
Fantastic Four 546
She-Hulk 18
Fallen Son: Captain America 3
Batman And Robin 5

I've also got some new trades in the past week from either Amazon or today at FP

Runaways Vol 3
Captain America:Civil War
Captain Britain Vol 1
Daredevil: Inside and Out Vol 2

Plenty to be getting on with then!

Wolverine vs Sabretooth continues!

Wolverine # 53 by Jeph Loeb and Simone Bianchi

I've just read issues Wolverine issues 51-53 which continue the long battle between Wolvie and Sabretooth. Whilst the art is gorgeous the story is interesting too.

Wolvie's having recurring dreams/nightmares about an ancient race call the Lupines who seem to slaughter at will, live forever and bear uncanny resemblances to both Wolvie and Sabretooth. Hmmmmm. Is this a clue to Logan's origins?

Whilst this is all well and good, it seems the lure of Logan's past is too much to resist for most writers at Marvel, because as soon as anyone gets to write him - they go straight there. I also thought that "Wolverine: Origins" was going to be covering this aspect. Nevertheless, this story is intriguing. Storm and the Black Panther make welcome guest stars too. I hope things are clearer by the end.

Still a strong title in my opinion. Rating 8/10

The New Fantastic Four

The Fantastic Four #544 by Dwayne McDuffie and Paul Pelletier


McDuffie is now getting stuck into his run on the FF. Issues #544 and #545 take the new team in a suitably cosmic direction to keep the traditions of the series alive. Here, again they meet the watcher and the surfer shows up at the end of #544.


The team now consists of Ben and Johnny together with the Panther and Storm. At least one married couple has replaced another. I think it's an interesting group. T'Challa certainly has the scientific expertise to compensate for the loss of Reed and McDuffie makes the most of this. His battle with the Surfer in 545 was interesting but when Storm took over things got better.

I like the way the Thing and the Torch are reacting to the new team dynamics as well.

Finally, Paul Pelletier's art is a nice combination of Byrne and Alan Davis. Not quite as good as either but still good nevertheless.

A recommended read. Rating 8/10

A different kind of Dan Slott story

I'll be doing some new comic reviews over the next few days and I'd thought I'd start with two comics both written by Dan Slott.

Dan quickly became one of my favourite writers when I discovered his She-Hulk work as the new series was starting. Since then every issue has been consistantly good as his plots, humour and vast knowledge of the Marvel Universe make the comics very entertaining to read.

She-Hulk #17 by Slott and Rick Burchett is no exception. It continues the story of Shulkie keeping things in check whilst her cousin is missing. She doesn't know that he's been blasted off the planet. This issue had loads of good moments from the slimey Stark chat up lines to the Nick Fury droids right up to the accidental reveal at the end.

Great stuff. rating 8/10.


Avengers: The Initiative #1 and #2 by Slott and Stefano Caselli have a more serious tone. They are still a fine read but, to my mind, not quite as fun and enjoyable to read.

There is a new cast of characters and some old faces too - fortunately some of the less well used characters, or at least, some that I'm not too familar with so that makes them fresh in my eyes. This will stay on my pull list as it's started off well but I wish Dan had been allowed to write more in the vain of his She-Hulk stories.

Rating 7.5/10

More TV catch-up (LOST and Heroes)

Episode 20 of LOST was a cracker. So many things happened but of course, so many more questions were raised.

Big things happen to Locke, the origin of Ben and treachery in the camp made the episode move along quickly. I've no idea where this season is going to end up - which is nice.

Heroes has more of a structure to it as we know that we are heading for the big bomb in the centre of New York. However, there were some nice moments in Chapters 13 and 14 which I watched last night.

The truth about Claire's parents was surprising. Saylar showed how powerful and menacing he can be, Peter meets the invisible man who shows him how his powers really work and Hiro again entertains as he struggles to be a Hero and do the right thing.

Still not taken with Niki and Mohinder's character needs to be developed more but I'm still really enjoying this series. It's nice to know that season 2 has already been commissioned.

Battlestar Galactica Season 3 Finale

I've been so distracted with the model railway and busy with other things that my blooging is getting a bit out-of-date. It is a couple of weeks since I watched the end of season 3 of BSG so here's a few thoughts on what I remember.

The trial of Baltar was well done and I especaily linked Apollo's speech concerning the fact that they've all made mistakes. A good point well made.

The big reveal of 4 of the final five cylons was a little disappointing. I'm still not convinced that they are really cylons. Big questions still remain on this.

Starbuck died and then came back which implies she's also a cylon. However, nobody else saw her. My friend Dave has speculated that perhaps she's just in Apollo's head a la No. 6 and Baltar. This is very possible.

I didn't like the argument between Adama and Apollo. It didn't seem to make sense considering all that has gone on before and how well they should know each other. Perhaps it's a Father-son power struggle?

Overall, not quite as dramatic or exciting as the end of Season 2 but still good nevertheless.

Cool figures

Here's a pic of some cool Spidey heroclix villains which I got for my birthday.

Goblin, Mysterio, Lizard and The Vulture! Some of my favourites. Now I just need to be able to get some good dice rolls!!

Lost episode 19

The pace seems to be quickening as we approach the end of Season 3 in LOST. This episode, which featured the return of Locke after quite a long absence, was a good episode. Especially as the flashbacks were of Locke's time on the island with the others.

Two plot threads were tied up and another was thrown wide open at the end of the episode as Locke tells Sawyer that he knows that Juliette is a mole.

Jack will be gutted...

Thanos

I've read a 12 issue mini-series which I borrowed from a friend about one of Marvel's best villains, Thanos.

Issues 1-6 were by Jim Starlin, the creator of Thanos, and concerned the mad-Titan's quest to make-up for his past misdemeanors by making amends.

It was a fun comic, with Thanos having to go up against Galactus and with Warlock, Pip the troll etc also appearing it was a typical Starlin cosmic comic.

Issues 7-12 though were by Keith Giffen who went for a slightly different tack. It was actually interesting to read a story about Thanos that was by someone else but I didn't enjoy them quite as much as the first 6 issues. Perhaps it was a "good" Thanos is already wearing thin on me and I want to see him go back to doing what he does best.Being (very) bad. I did like the fact that he gets himself a herald at the end of the series though. After hanging with the Big G for a bit I suppose it was inevitable.


Overall, enjoyable but not essential. Rating 6.5/10

Spider-man 3

As a birthday treat last weekend I went to see Spider-man 3.

First impressions were good. I enjoyed it.

I especially liked the Sandman and I thought Gwen was nicely done too. The opening battle sequence against the Green Goblin and the Sandman's origin were the action sequences that I remember liking the most.

There was also more humour in this film than the previous two and that was welcome. However, I still feel Spidey needs to be bantering with his sparring partners a bit more. His crap jokes are an old and important part of his character. On the plus side, some of the jokes would never have worked in the comics so you can't appear to have everything!

On the negative side, it did seem that the film was a bit too long and more crucially I lost any sympathy for MJ. She seemed like a selfish bitch for most of the film and Kirsten Dunst wasn't particularly convincing.

Model Railways

It's been over a week since I last blogged which is the longest I've gone, including when I went away for my skiing holiday. So there's lots to catch-up on.

The main reason for my absence has been a little project called a model railway which I've been building on the pretense that it's for my little boy. I've been spending the evenings playing with trains. I've even bought a couple of new ones.

It's just a basic oval with a few sidings but the interesting bit is thinking about how I can expand it as well as browsing the online catalogue's to decide what to buy and run on the layout. I want to build something that's fairly accurate in terms of what runs on the tracks if I say that the pretend station is somewhere in Cheshire. I also want to be able to perform lots of different train movements to make the layout fun to play with.

I feel like a big kid again (and considering what I watch and read that's saying something!).

More time for TV

I'm on leave for a few days to distract myself from turning 40. Aaarghh.

Anyway, its given me some time to do more reading, watching etc. Yesterday, besides going to Forbidden Planet and a trip to the cinema (see below), I also found time to watch the most recent episode of Heroes and start watching the final 5 episodes of Battlestar Galactica Season 3.

Heroes Chapter 12 "Godsend" was another great episode. Hiro was in it a lot (Yay!) and his attempt to acquire a special sword from a museum was well done. In fact the only character that I've yet to warm to is Niki/Jessica. Somehow, I just don't care what what happens to her. Mr. Bennett, however, is making a fine good guy/bad guy and has some nice one-liners.

BSG was another filler episode featuring the trouble and strife of the common man working in the fleet. In my opinion it was the worst episode of the whole season and felt a bit contrived and forced. Hopefully, the conclusion to the season will be on a par to the conclusion of season 2.

300

My 100th post is a review of "300" which I went to see at the Showcase last night.

This is based on a 1998 comic by Frank Miller and a quick flick through the 5 issues this morning showed that the film adaptation was very faithful.

Now I love comics by big Frank but somehow things don't seem to translate well on to the big screen in my opinion. "Sin City" was a little cold and this suffers a little bit of that too. It was basically one big long fight, but since the various battles in "The Lord of the Rings" we've seen it all before.

When the Persians brought out some huge and savage man, I just felt like shouting "They've got a Cave Troll", and the resulting fight was very similar.

Oh well, certainly not a bad film, but not one that I would want to see again.

New Comics

A visit to forbidden planet yesterday resulted in the following purchases....

Powers Vol. 2 23
World War Hulk: Prologue 1
Fantastic Four 545
Wolverine (2003) 53
Fallen Son: Avengers 1
Hulk 106
Avengers: The Initiative 2
Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man 20
Astonishing X-Men 21

As I haven't read the new comics I bought on 20 April I've now got quite a pile to read.

Unfortunately, my Amazon order for Daredevil: The Devil Inside and Out Vol. 2 and Runaways Vol. 3 (hardcover) have been delayed. At least I've got some stuff to keep me occupied!

A Cool Jack O'Lantern story

Before Jack make an appearance in Peter Parker, issue #55 featured Spidey against Nitro.

Now Nitro is now famous for causing the explosion which started the Civil War and he does show a particular disregard to the consequences of his actions throughout this story by Roger Stern, Luke McDonnell and Jim Mooney so the signs were there.

It's not a great issue by any means and McDonnells art is patchy but I did like the way Spidey defeats Nitro. Another ingenious solution by Stern!

Rating 6/10

Issue #56 by Roger Stern, Jim Shooter and Jim Mooney, on the other hand, was really good. Lots of the regular cast made an appearance, the story was well plotted, Jack made for a suitable maniacal villain and I like the fact that he realised that he couldn't defeat Spidey and so tried to get away.

In a similar manner to issue #54 this again reminded me of the Lee & Ditko days with a great deal going on in 22 pages and Shooters layouts helped to contribute to this. The final scene where Aunt May is disappointed in Pete for not coming home when she asked was also very reminiscent of the old days - oh the curse of Spider-man!

Finally, a real nice cover by big Frank to boot.

Rating 8/10.

King Kong in Spidey?

Still trying to catch-up with my back issue reading. So here's a few more....

Amazing Spider-man #216 by the regular team of O'Neill, Romita Jr. and Mooney was another average issue. The story was a bit silly especially all those accidents that Spidey had to help out on whilst trying to prevent a murder. Nice to see Madame Web again.

Rating 6/10

Issue #217 picks up right at the end of #216. It's a better issue as it features both Hydro-man and The Sandman. It's a slightly unusual story as it features a love triangle between those two villains and a "lady". It's an original story and the motivation of the bad guys trying to impress the girlfriend is certainly different to "I'm going to take over the World".

Nice cover by JR Jr.

Rating 7.5/10

Unfortunately in issue #218 the story deteriorates into a King Kong homage as both Hydro-man and Sandman combine into a big mud monster. As the mud monster can't talk this takes away a good deal of the interest which was included in the previous issue. The Hydro-man is one of the better contributions to the Spider-man ethos by Denny O'Neill and it's a pity he didn't use him more effectively.

At least Spidey recognises the fact that the story had similarities to the movie King Kong.

I don't think Frank Miller thought too long about the cover though either. A poor(ish) effort all round.

Rating 5/10.

Single issue Spidey stories

Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-man # 52
by Roger Stern, Rick Leonardi and Jim Mooney

I've been cracking on (relatively for me) with my Spidey back issues so I'm going to to cover a few issues of Spectacular in this post.

Issue 52, as seen above in the Frank Miller cover, features the White Tiger and concludes the story started in the back-up strip in the last few issues. It's not a great conclusion as Gideon Mace doesn't make a very convincing bad guy especially one whose aim is to murder super-heroes. He never gives the impression of being powerful enough.

He doesn't even make a good job on the Tiger who is dumped out of the back of a car at the beginning of the issue. Stern's dialogue tries hard and there's a nice scene with JJJ and his views on heroes but on the whole it's an average issue.

Rating 6/10

Issue 53 was by the "Guest" team of Bill Mantlo, Jim Mooney and Frank Springer.

It features the Terrible Tinkerer. Mantlo crams a lot into 22 pages and it was interesting to see the Tinkerer as the main villain rather than the support guy. However, he was doing a good impression of the Toyman over at DC with all the deadly toys he was using. Springer is a good inker for Mooney so the art was passable too. Even so nothing to get too excited about!

Rating 6.5/10


Marie Severin plotted and drew issue 54 and helped by Stern and Mooney produces the best issue of the three issues of Spectacular reviewed here.

I was reminded of the old Stan Lee/ Steve Ditko issues with the small panels, loads of dialogue and a story which even manages to pack more plot elements into 22 pages than issue 53. I especially liked this as it showed what happened to the Smuggler (last seen in issue 50) and the impact of his arrest on his crime lord bosses proved to be an excellent plot device.

I'd not read this issue before (even though I must have owned it for around 15 years - there's patience for you) and really enjoyed it as a single issue story)

Another nice FM cover - he does like drawing those samurai!

Rating 8/10

A surprise ending in LOST

Episode 18 of LOST was not quite as good as some of the recent ones but there were two points in the episode which made it worth watching.

The first is the return of a character who we all thought was dead.

And the second was the revelation right at the end.

The main story about Sun's pregnancy was OK and this has added to the whole what's wrong with mothers and babies on the island question but what was going going with Desmond, Hurley and the rest was far more interesting.