March is coming to a close, and soon it's gonna be summer...the time of vacations, the time of beaches and bikinis, and the perfect weather for readin' some comics! But I digress. It's time for the most verbose comic reviews around! What did I get myself into this week? Read on to find out!
Rick Remender concludes his Otherworld arc in Uncanny X-Force #23, and it's messy. The Goat Monk's at the cusp of power, Fantomex is missing a face, X-Force is in shambles, and Captain Britain will have to make the hardest decision of his life!
Granted, the only depiction of Captain Britain I'm familiar with was from Paul Cornell's Captain Britain and the MI:13, so I'm coming into this with that image in mind. Still, I'm kinda bummed to see Remender paint the guy as this stiff, vengeful bugger for most of this arc, instead of the laid-back superhero I've grown to like. There's just something alien about the Captain Britain I'm reading in X-Force, and while the entire arc is serviceable, it's definitely a case of previous canon coloring my view of the present...which surprisingly might be the first time it's happened to me.
And the art...oh, where do I start? Sure Greg Tocchini's surreal rendering lent an otherworldly air to the story, but man is it raw as hell. Most of the book looks like they couldn't meet the deadline so they decided to just let him and Dean White color over Tocchini's roughs. Just sloppy work that took even more points from an already meh story arc. It seems that today is not the day we see The Dark Angel Saga get topped. This gets a 3.5 out of 5.
Brian Bendis and Jason Aaron team up for Avengers vs. X-Men #0, the zero issue before the big issue 1 of Marvel's next big event, Avengers vs. X-Men. The two stories inside feature Scarlet Witch and Hope, the former facing the ramifications of her past, and the latter her future. All the while the Phoenix Force is on a collision course towards Earth!
The book's meaty enough, and there are a few fun moments like MODOK's battle with Scarlet Witch, Ms. Marvel and Spider-Woman, and Hope's badass turn as a one-woman-army against the Serpent Society. Bendis tones himself down long enough to take us straight to the point of Scarlet Witch's story, while Aaron's side shuffles its feet a bit, making me neither care for Hope nor care if the Phoenix Force is after her or not.
But the one thing I got out of this is that Ithe stories inside could have been in any book, or in AvX #1 even, if you can wait that long, certainly not worth making a special issue out of it, and for that matter, asking 4 dollars for it. Hardly deserving of a bookend status to Marvel's event. Buy if you're a Frank Cho fan (honestly, his art's the only thing you're paying to see), and think long and hard before deciding to get this. This is an easy 2 out of 5.
Another anthology out this week, Atomic Robo Presents Real Science Adventures #1, and it's great! I've always wanted to get into Brian Clevinger's signature series about the heroic Nazi-fighting, dinosaur-punching robot called Atomic Robo, and this book might just do the trick!
Touted as "a collection of stories from the little corners of Robo’s world", Atomic Robo Presents... is a chance for Clevinger to tell stories both big and small about Atomic Robo's adventures through time and space! The stories are nice, some of it leading to a punchline of some sort (see Dr. Dinosaur take his deadliest revenge against Robo!), and the artists chosen to draw here are great. Surprised to see Yuko from Johnny Wander draw for this book, and I'm not surprised that her part in this issue is my favorite out of the lot. The rest are more world-building tales, and I admit I'm too much of an Atomic Robo neophyte that I just get lost in them.
Atomic Robo Presents Real Science Adventures #1 is light and fluffy reading, and I hope we get some meatier tales from Clevinger down the road. This gets a 4 out of 5.
You see that cover? Gorgeously Gustave Doré-ish. But I digress. Daredevil #10 is a creepy good read, provided you aren't squeemish, because seeing Mole Man caress and look into the eyes of an embalmed corpse might be enough to set off panic attacks.
But try hard to look past that, because what Mark Waid actually wrote is an elaborate character moment for Daredevil. In-between the Mole Man vs Daredevil throwdown and the borderline necrophilia, Waid explores the themes of loss and holding on to a past that's clearly dead, leading to a powerful, moving moment of catharsis for Matt. Wonderful work, especially with Paul and Joe Rivera's wonderful artwork. Action-packed where it needs to be, but able to handle sensitive scenes with ease.
It's difficult to love Daredevil #10, I admit. But it's a story you don't often see in superhero books, at least, not this well-done. This deserves a 4 out of 5.
A variety of stuff this week, which is nice! What did you think of the comics this week? How creeped out were you with Daredevil? Why is Atomic Robo so awesome? Leave a comment below and let's talk about it! Thanks for reading!
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