Matt's Mini Reviews

These books are weeks old now but I’m just catching up. As they are older ones, I’m sure I want be spoiling to much for you guys, so I’m just gonna do a quick ramble on what I though of each issue.


Batman and Robin #4

A real shift in art here as Philip Tan starts his arc. The panel lay outs are great, the coloring is dark and suits the mood of the book, Morrison picks up on various plot threads from his previous Batman work and I cant get enough of it. It’s like a long soap opera, he really is a complete master of the comic book form especially his work on Batman. Each issue needs to be studied like you would a text book, each phrase and action and re-action is there for a reason, nothing is included without lots of thought. Genius at work here, but that is just my opinion. The Red Hood & Scarlet were totally terrifying too, is the Red Hood Jason Todd? It certainly seemed like it at the end of this issue, but maybe there were some clues in there that it’s someone else?

4.5 Out of 5

Blackest Night #3

Wow, you got to feel for Firestorm after this issue, it was really messed up. That’s why Geoff Johns is so great. I love the use of other characters from the DCU, not just the GL’s. The Indigo Tribe make there presence known and it’s about time. A solid issue, good action and good character work, I’m sure all the goodness will continue to the next chapter.

3.5 Out of 5

Captain America Reborn #3

Some of the art feels really rushed on this issue. I am enjoying this series overall, but we need to be getting somewhere a bit quicker. There is a really cool action scene on the airplane where the Falcon stages a rescue of Bucky, probably one of the highlights of the mini-series so far. This series is good but I wanted the return of Steve Rogers to be great. 2 issues to go let’s hope it can get there.

3 out of 5

Dark Reign List Daredevil One Shot

This surprised me and I liked it much more than I thought I would. Daredevil really is the human punch bag of the Marvel U. Just when you think things cant get any worse for him, he decides to play cat and mouse with Bullseye and as a result, Bullseye is let loose and able to blow up a huge building full of innocent families, just to give a big two fingers up at Murdock. Man that Bullseye is evil! There was a great twist at the end also, with Master Izo being captured by Ninja clan the Hand, sure to face the death penalty as one of Daredevils tests to become leader of the Hand. I hadn’t planned on picking up Daredevil now Brubaker had left, but Diggle MIGHT have just pulled me back in.

3.5 Out of 5

Mini reviews of X-Factor #48, Blackest Night: Batman #2, X-Men Legacy Annual #1 & Sword #19 coming soon.

Mega Mini Reviews – Last weeks books

Captain America Reborn #2

Better issue than the first. Steve is trapped in re-living his past, jumping from moment to moment (kind of like Quantum Leap actually), but without being able to act for fear of changing the future. In the present, Bucky Cap & Black Widow are captured by the Dark Avengers and Osborn. Norman Osborn is a key player in this series, as it seems he wants Captain America back as much as our heroes (if only for his own twisted purposes) but has more resources to pull it off. I think this title will only continue to improve, just that I’m not that crazy about Hitch’s art work.

Superman World of New Krypton #6

Still don’t like this series. I sort of had to pick this up to get the first part of Codename Patriot that runs through the other Superman books that I pick up. The writing was fine but I’m not a fan of the art at all, the inks and coloring are far too strong, and the pencils on smaller panels look really rushed. The story is okay, but this was mostly a set up issue and the action should be picking up in the next chapters. Nice last page though, (SPOLIERS!) “This is a job for…Superman!” Very cool.

Justice League: Cry for Justice #2

More talking of Justice! (We get he point)! This has pretty art, but not much of the story line has really grabbed me yet. But I am liking the dialogue between characters and I know this is controversial on the net but I actually really liked the joke about Hal’s threesome (come on, he’s an air pilot/ superhero cop with a magic ring, of course he’s gonna get laid!) Nice to see some Atom action too. I’ll keep buying this.

Whoah! That's a lot of previews!

Cover to Deadpool #13, gotta be a contender for cover of the week

Over at CBR we have the following Marvel previews for comics on sale 12 August.
Click the links below to be taken to the preview of your choice.

Cable #13
Captain America Theater Of War: To Soldier On One Shot
Deadpool #13
Dominic Fortune #1
Incredible Hercules #132
Lockjaw and The Pet Avengers #4
Marvel Adventures Super Heroes #14
Marvel Divas #2
Ms. Marvel #43
Pride & Prejudice #5
The Marvels Project #1
Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1
Uncanny X-Men #514
Uncanny X-Men: First Class #2
X-Men Forever #5

Ultimate Avengers #1 preview can be found over at IGN here.

I’m looking forward to this. I haven’t liked any of the previous Ultimate titles that much but the art looks great and I’m a fan of Millar’s writing, most of the time. Plus the story sounds good (spoilers on!). From what I know Cap goes AWOL after finding out the Red Skull is his son! The rest of the Avengers then have to hunt him down. Sounds really cool to me, and I love the Red Skull twist.

IGN also has a nice 8 page preview of Daredevil #500. Including a back up story with art by David Aja, as seen above! That makes me very happy. Check out the full preview here.


Over at Newsarama they have a preview (art only) for the upcoming mini-series NOMAD: GIRL WITHOUT A WORLD #1 here. I know Flips the Page will be dying to see that if he hasn’t already.

Finally over at DC’s The Source you get a preview of Batman #689 here. Great cover by Andy Kubert as always. It’s a shame he’s not doing the pencils instead of Mark Bagley.

You also get a preview of Red Robin #3 here.

I’m not a fan of the artwork on this title so I was please to also find out at the Source that “Starting in November with RED ROBIN #6, Marcus To (Aspen’s Soulfire) will step in as the new ongoing artist on RED ROBIN, taking over for Ramon Bachs, who steps over to launch AZRAEL with writer Fabian Nicieza.”

So the good news is that Red Robin gets a new artist, the bad news is that Bachs steps over to Azrael, a series I’m looking forward to. Hopefully I’ll prefer his work on that title.

That’s wraps up previews day I think. Thanks for all your comments this week, they’ve been great. Seems I’m getting around 300 hits a week on my site and that is fantastic. I’m really glad people like to keep coming back to my little blog and I love chatting with you all and reading your comments.

Please also check out the other site I write for; A Comic Book Blog if you get a chance. There are lots of great writers and articles over there and is definitely worth a look.

Have a great weekend guys. What will you be up to? I’ll be reading loads. I've got the Ghost World tpb to read, I’ve also bought lots of old Detective Comics issues really cheap this week. Ones written by Alan Grant, who is one of my fav Batman writers, so I look forward to reading them and trying to catch up with my other huge stack of comics I haven’t got round to reading yet, all the while trying to avoid doing work in the garden that my girlfriend wants me to do!

-Hex

Captain America #601 - Review

Captain America #601
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Art: Gene Colan, Dean White (colors)

Hex’s score: 4 out of 5

First off this issue has nothing to do with the current Captain America Rebirth storyline. This was a self contained one-shot based during Civil-War where Winter Soldier (Bucky) tells a story to Nick Fury about an adventure Cap and himself had during the World War II. This was originally meant to be released around that time as an annual or something but for whatever reason that didn’t happen. All I can say was thank God it’s finally seen the light of day because this was a fantastic little tale.

Bucky’s story is a small horror tale set nearing the end of WWII about a vampire killing and turning Caps soldiers into the undead. It’s a straight forward horror tale but its great to have a done in one Captain America story from Brubaker after the previous 51 issues have pretty much been one epic continuing story. I like the idea of good one shots sometimes, the way comics used to be written. A new villain and plot for each issue, similar to some of the Wolverine one-shots that have been released from Marvel over the past couple of years.

Gene Colan illustrated this issue, and he is apparently a legend in the comic artist field, which to be honest with you, went over my head. I’m too young to remember any of his previous work and went into this issue with a total open mind wanting to make my own opinion of his work and it really made an impact on me. It is really unique and unlike any styles around today and I loved it. Big props to colorist Dean White too. The first thing you notice about this book is the beautifully dark painted colors that really set the mood for this horror tale. Its worth noting that there is a black and white version also available to highlight Colans’s pencils but I could not imagine this story without the wonderful dark colors to give it that chill factor.

Not essential if your following Captain America Rebirth but as I said before a great one and done horror yarn displayed beautifully.

First Look at Variant Covers for Captain America Reborn #2

Marvel has released images of two variant covers for Captain America Reborn #2, due in stores on August 5.

Shown above, the top one is by artist John Cassaday while the second is by Tim Sale.

Marvel's official solicitation for the issue: "The race for Steve Rogers is on! On one side - BUCKY and the BLACK WIDOW and members of the AVENGERS and FANTASTIC FOUR! On the other - NORMAN OSBORN and HAMMER, THE RED SKULL and his evil hordes, with DR. DOOM waiting in the wings! And where... oh where, is the real CAPTAIN AMERICA? Ed Brubaker, Bryan Hitch and Butch Guice bring you the biggest Marvel comic of the year!"

Captain America Reborn #2 is due in stores on August 5.

Captain America Reborn #1 - Review

Captain America Reborn # 1 

Written by: Ed Brubaker
Art by: Bryan Hitch & Butch Guice

Score: 2.5 out of 5

This book was without a doubt the most highly anticipated release from Marvel this week. ‘Captain America Reborn’ promises the return of Steve Rogers, and whilst this was generally a well executed read by the creative team, the circumstances around Steve’s return left me a little disappointed.

The main story for this issue follows on from Captain America # 600. Sharon Carter explains to various Avengers members past and present how she is beginning to remember pieces of her past under the mind control of the Red Skull, when she was used in the assassination of Steve Rogers and what happened in the events that followed. She recalls how after Steve’s death, the Red Skull and Zola used her as, what they refer to, as a ‘constant’ along with a variation of Dr Dooms Time Platform in order to pluck Steve Rogers body out of the time stream where somehow he has been locked away. Confusing I know! The experiment was unsuccessful however when Sharon fights against her restraints and causes the Time Platform to shatter which then causes Steve to become unstuck in time, making him relive moments from his past, which I have to say sounds very similar to a certain Bruce Wayne’s current predicament.

Why was I disappointed? Well time travel is used so much in modern comics and films and books etc. and to it seems to be an easy way out of a characters death. Just travel in the past, grab them before they die. Like that story hasn’t been tried a thousand times before! I was hoping for something more from a good writer like Brubaker, plus we are still not clear as to why the Red Skull would go to all the trouble of killing Cap, just to resurrect him from the time stream, it just does not make sense.

This series story is such a continuation of the main title, there really was no need to make this a $3.99 mini series, apart for Marvel to make some more money. If you haven’t been following the main title new readers will probably be lost. 

The art is generally good but some of the smaller action scenes with the H.A.M.M.E.R agents felt a bit rushed. I do feel though that Hitch is a good choice for this book as the art style is in the same vein as the work Epting and Ross have done in the main Cap series.

A high point for this book was Steve reliving D Day in Normandy, it was great to see him back in action and even though this wasn’t the most positive of reviews, I am looking forward to Steve’s eventual return, so I’ll be here for the whole ride.

Free Mondays @ Marvel Digital - 29/06/09

There is a nice mixture of free comics & previews from Marvel this week to feast your hungry eyes on. They are:

MARVEL ADVENTURES FANTASTIC FOUR (2005) #39
PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL #21
CIVIL WAR:FALLEN SON -THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN AMERICA #4
SPIDER-MAN LOVES MARY JANE #3
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (1999) #568

I’ve never read a Marvel Adventures comic as I got the impression they were aimed at a younger audience, but I have heard from a few fans that they are still fun reads, so I’ll have a look over Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #39. This week also features Amazing Spider-Man #598, which was the first part of the acclaimed ‘New Ways to Die’ story arc. I never read it, but seeing as I have been enjoying Amazing Spider-Man so much lately I will check this out.

Next weeks free comics will be:

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (1999) #130

CAPTAIN AMERICA (1968) #431

X-MEN vs. HULK (2009) #1

MARVEL 70th ANNIVERSARY (1994) #1

DOCTOR DOOM AND THE MASTERS OF EVIL #1

Link: http://marvel.com/news/comicstories.8567.Free_Mondays_~op~6~slash~29~slash~09~ep~

Full spoiler loaded review of Captain America # 600 @ Bleeding Cool.

You have been warned!

Review here - http://www.bleedingcool.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4878&postcount=1

After reading this review I don’t think I’ll bother with this issue. It’s a $4.99 book, for 40 pages of new story, which sounds like it’s just telling you to read Reborn. The rest is packed out with more reprints and ANOTHER origin story (WTF we just had one last issue!). What a load of shit from Marvel, as if the Cap 50 issue wasn’t boring enough, this sounds like another useless fill in anniversary issue just to get more money from us. I’ll wait for Reborn when the real story starts.

Brubaker speaks out about Captain America: Reborn

Captain America Reborn #1 - cover by Alex Ross

Brubaker talk s about ‘Captain America: Reborn’ over at Marvel with some preview pages to Captain America # 600 on sale today. http://marvel.com/news/comicstories.8368.Reborn_Revealed

Also Marvel have started an official ‘Reborn’ website with a short video and previews of the covers for Reborn issue 1 here: http://marvel.com/reborn

I'm really up for this.

Steve Rogers is Reborn!

Newsarama are today reporting that Captain America # 600 will in fact be the start of the return of Steve Rogers, that I assume will continue into the 'Reborn' mini series .

I got to say I am excited about this. For me the Captain America title has lost something since Bucky has taken over as Cap, so hopefully Brubaker can put some excitement back into the series. Read the full story here:
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/060915-Cap-Reborn.html

A new Cap? Matt Brady Speculates over at Newsarama

A new cap to replace the new cap already?!?!?!? Does this image have to do with issue 600 or the Reborn mini series or something totally different!??!! So many questions! Damn you Marvel!!!

Read the full article and get the low down on the above image here - http://www.newsarama.com/comics/060905-KyleBaker.html

Will the real Cap please stand up!

Interesting article over at Newsarama about the weird release date of Captain America 600 and more of the Reborn 5 issue mini series that will follow.

Check it here - http://www.newsarama.com/comics/060902-Cap600.html

I say bring back Steve as Cap. The book has gone down hill since he died and Bucky was cool as the Winter Soldier. What do you guys think is gonna happen?

Review - Captain America 50

Wow, what another let down of a Cap story, I mean last months issue 49 was excellent, focusing on Sharon Carter and the emotions she has being going though since the whole wrap up of the ‘Death of Captain America’ arc, but really the past 10 issues or so have been a serious drop in standards for this book. Why? Well I think since Bucky has taken over as Cap this book has become the boring Nightwing book of the Marvel U. All the story seems to be is whiney internal monologue, ‘Oh I’m not good enough to fill Steve’s boots!’ ‘Oh yes I can! Blah, blah, blah! The other problem I have with this book is the art of Luke Ross, I mean sure it looks pretty but Cap is always flying about doing overhead flips and things like he is an acrobat (DICK GRAYSON AGAIN) I mean come on! He is a trained soldier and killing machine. He was trained up as a teenager during World War 2 and since his ‘death’ and resurrection as Winter Soldier, the assassin and Russian spy, where amongst that time was he trained as a ballerina?

The basic story of the book is that its Bucks birthday and he is being attacked by a group of original Cap lovers who think they are super patriots and who are angry that there is a new Cap in town. As this attempt on Bucky’s life is spoiling his birthday he revisits older birthdays that went wrong too. But there is nothing really added to the character with these stories. Nothing I think we didn’t know before. Also you could read this book in seriously under a minute. That internal monologue I mentioned earlier has as little as 1 - 3 captions on some pages and no other text! And this is $3.99 50th anniversary book!

There is another back up story but this is not even worth a mention really, it’s another retelling of Caps origin (like we need to hear it again.)

I know this was a sort of stepping stone for the next big 600th issue, but I’m not really looking forward to that. I’ve seen the previews and I’m not that excited. (I will post a link to these later).

I may try next months 600th issue as a last chance, I mean the first 25 issues of this book were a must read and fantastic, I really want that quality back. If 600 does not deliver this will be a dropped.

Please let me know your thoughts on the book.

Score: 1 Star (out of 5) as it has a nice cover.