WARNING *SPOILER ALERT!!!* WARNINGI was laughing when I saw the comics that were shipping this week.
How ironic that just last week, all the comics that I collected weren't shipping that week, so my money breathed easy right then and there. Even joked about it with my best friend, with both of us quipping, "Wala ka this week, pero sigurado isang bagsakan lahat ng comics mo next week! Hahaha!"
Lesson learned: Never laugh at irony.
So back to me checking out the comics shipping this week, and sure enough, half of everything I collected was shipping on Thursday. All 7 of them. Apart from that breather last week, my comics have been shipping almost every week, and I was spending myself to starvation just to keep up.
But I digress. When I sat down to read what I bought, everything was awesome. So awesome I'll review the stuff I bought and maybe you can make an informed choice based on my review. Maybe I'll do this every week, how's that? :)
CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND MI 13 #3 (Secret Invasion Tie-in)
A comics event tie-in that's better than the main event? Judging from the quality of CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND THE MI 13, it's not so far fetched. Misleading cover aside, the awesomeness of this series continues to floor me, and it's starting to become top of my read pile. The Skrull invasion continues to wreck havoc both in the real world Britain and the magical world Britain, and the rest of the MI 13 make one last stand in Westminster Bridge. The sheer amount of awesome dialogue ("We are going to make them pay for this bridge. We are going to see if the @#$%&#% can swim.” Fuck yeah!) is worth the cover price alone, and in the end, Captain Britain is resurrected in a wave of flags and national symbolism that it made me swell with patriotic pride, even if I'm not even remotely British! The Skrulls don't know it yet, but they are officially fucked.
My Rating: 9/10 because Spitfire didn't do anything in the issue that's even remotely about the cover.
INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #3
The thrill ride that is INVINCIBLE IRON MAN comes to a head in this issue, as Ezekiel Stane (son of Obadiah Stane the Iron Monger) launches a personal terrorist attack in a party Tony Stark is in, and the aftermath isn't very pretty, as Pepper is seriously hurt in the blast. And we just know Stark's gonna jumpstart the Hurt Locker initiative on Stane, because you just don't mess with his girl, dawg!
All in all a good issue, and as I said in a couple of forums, a more action-packed alternative to his cerebral twin, IRON MAN: DIRECTOR OF SHIELD. Though I'm kind of confused that these two books I mentioned have not hitched a ride in the Secret Invasion wagon. It's like either I'm reading stand-alone series or Iron Man's own books are being left behind. Iron Man's techno-sick in the Savage Land in SI but he's catching terrorists in INVINCIBLE and DIRECTOR OF SHILED. So which one should I believe?
Only thing not giving this issue a higher grade is the god-awful coloring and inking of Salvador Larocca's pencils. Every character in this book has got either an awful tan or is blacker than James Rhodes* himself, which is disappointing considering that I loved his work in X-Treme X-Men.
My Rating: 7/10
NOVA #15
My favorite series continues to be kick ass and there's no sign of him stopping! Nova was seen last issue helping off refugees on a dying planet currently being fed upon by Galactus himself, and due to some gravimetric anomaly caused by said feeding, he is trapped and apparently doomed.
Of course, our resourceful hero finds a way out of this situation...but at a cost. Due to the stress of the daring escape, Worldmind has gone offline and Nova discovers that he now only has a user support system on his suit to use his powers manually like a voice-activated computer (causing Nova to exclaim, "My pants are talking to me?” Hilarious.). Worldmind could not have gone offline at a worst time, as Nova is now on Galactus' own ship, and he didn’t escape alone! Harrow, the evil space alien Nova fought the last two issues, has escaped with him, and he’s looking for payback. What’s a Centurion to do?
I really can’t say anything more than what this issue can deliver on its own. It’s got Galactus, Silver Surfer, and a battle between Nova and Harrow that ends with the Big G not taking kindly to people stepping on his yard. A solid read from top to bottom. If you haven’t been pulling this, do so NOW!
My Rating: 9/10
RED SONJA #35
Not much to see here. Frankly I'm just buying this series for the hot girl art, and seeing how well artist Walter Geovani draws women, I decided to give RED SONJA another shot (I was supposed to be dropping this due to financial constraints). Unfortunately for me, there were no hot girls here except for the standard Red Sonja love scene her reincarnated self has with her husband. Other than that, there’s nothing but a man who looks like Claw hacking and mauling people to death senseless, and an ending that simply said “Pirates!” that had me scratching my head. Granted I came into RED SONJA for all the wrong reasons, but I could see how fans of her could like this.
I guess I’m not really the person to turn to and ask if RED SONJA is a good read, so let me just break it down: if you like to see Red Sonja in her metal bikini killing d0ods (like her cover erroneously portrays), then you’re out of luck with this issue. If you like a little bit of drama and don’t care who doles out the action, then by all means try this issue out. If you’re a first time RED SONJA reader, this is the perfect jumping on point, as this is the start of the new storyline. Let’s just hope it picks up from here.
My Rating: 6/10
SECRET INVASION #4
What the hell is up with misleading covers this week? Anyway, the Young Avengers being prominently shown on the cover does nothing of the sort, and is only shown having their unconscious asses hauled out so Nick Fury and his new Howling Commandos can kick Skrull butt in peace. Before that, Queen Veranke (the Skrull Queen) is monologuing why the humans are fighting a useless battle since they’ve apparently won way before they’ve touched ground in Manhattan.
More of the paranoia and confusion erupts in this issue, as Nick blows Ms. Marvel away for apparently being a Skrull, and Black Widow pops caps into the returning heroes Phoenix and Beast (who turn out to really be Skrulls.) in the Savage Land. Tony freaks out at the Skrull Queen’s revelations, and a whole lot of other stuff happens that I can’t really fit into this single blog post. :) In the final pages, the Skrulls feel their sphincters tighten a little bit, as the cavalry finally comes…in the form of the God of Thunder and the new symbol of America!
Finally, lots of interesting stuff happens in this issue, far and away more satisfying than the last three issues of heroes punching each other to boredom in the Savage Land. A few more important revelations are shown, and with more Skrulls being revealed, one wonders just how far the infiltration goes. This issue brought back my faith in this event, being worth the P200 I spent on this.
My Rating: 8/10
WONDER WOMAN #22
Once again, a title I just buy to get my fix of hot girl art. Unfortunately I came into this series because of Terry Dodson, but now that Aaron Lopresti replaced him, my interest in Wondy has waned a bit. Couple that with the current lukewarm storyline, I felt a little shafted with this.
But thankfully for me, the story picked up with this issue, as Diana continues her journey through the mythological world to kill the Devil, with Stalker, Beowulf and Claw in tow. Lots of introspective here on Diana’s part, and Gail Simone has every single character’s voice down pat, from Claw and Beowulf’s barbaric tone to Diana’s regal badassery. In the final pages, a traitor is revealed, and while the Devil promises a gruesome death for Diana’s crew, she turns the tables and brings the battle back to the real world, where she promises that the Devil will “never see another dawn.”
Couple that with a sexy Donna Troy cameo, and we got ourselves a winner of an issue.
My Rating: 7/10 for too much beefcake, not enough cheese.
YOUNG X-MEN #4 (Divided We Stand)
The Young X-Men begin their assault on the Hellfire Club, but it looks like Cannonball and his Hellfire Club mate aren’t raring for a fight like they expected. Any explanation offered by Cannonball falls on deaf ears, making the Hellfire Club look more like the good guys being assaulted in this case! Greymalkin attacks Cyclops at the X-Mansion, screaming “Turncoat! Brigand!” and we finally get the reveal a lot of us saw a mile away!
Man, that revelation was so obvious I don’t even have to say it out loud here. But anyway, it’s another good-looking issue thanks to Yanick Paquette’s pencils. Frankly, Marvel’s X-books hold no interest for me, but Young X-Men personally is a great jumping on point to the X-Universe if you like honest to goodness action without all the emotional and continuity baggage the ‘main’ books (X-Men: Legacy and others) have. You’re seeing it through the eyes of youth, and a fresh outlook on all this madness is a good thing all around.
If you want to pick this up, it’s still on issue 4, and most comic shops still stock the first 3 issues. Get them while they’re hot.
My Rating: 7/10
All in all, a pretty solid week for me. Solid because it put a solid hurt on my comics fund for the month, and solid because there are a LOT of kick ass scenes and dialogue and art in this round of comics that I really felt it was worth it. But what the hell is it with all the misleading covers this week? Anyway, I hope this helps you in your comics buying, whoever you are!
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