monkey do

drive-by readings

Hit-Monkey #2 (Marvel) "Year of the Monkey, Part 2" Daniel Way Dalibor Talijic Jose Villarubia Joe Sabino

what we learned: Hit-Monkey crashes the wedding of General Kato's daughter, and manages to kill him, despite Bullseye hanging around. and being kicked by a horse.
oh shit moment:Bullseye kills a child just because. aren't you glad he's supposed to be dead by now?
what's next: Hit-Monkey vs Bullseye, Final Round!


if you think about it, Bullseye, he's actually your uncle.

forty idiots and a funeral

drive-by readings

Shadowland: Bullseye #1 (Marvel) "Bullseye: Dead On Arrival" John Layman Sean Chen Sandu Florea Guru eFX Joe Caramagna John Christopher Tyler (cover)

what we learned: Bullseye is dead. for now. some writer still has to figure out how to bring him back. actually, his death should resonate a lot more, being a pivotal figure in the Daredevil mythos, but i don't seem to feel the shock waves as a reader. maybe its because death has no meaning anymore in comicbookland.
oh shit moment: did Matt Murdock crack a hint of an honest smile? in his dark duds? when he found Ben Urich's bread crumbs? and while he's thinking of ways to control Hell's Kitchen all the more?
what's next: a one-shot with Shroud doing his Pig Pen thing ... just panels and panels of him walking around Manhattan with that dark dust billowing on his feet.


i hate crazy people, because they have a goddamn excuse.

closer

drive-by readings

Punisher MAX #9 (Marvel) "Bullseye Part Four" Jason Aaron Steve Dillon Matt Hollingsworth Cory Petit Dave Johnson (cover)

what we learned: after Frank guns down a corrupt cop, the NYPD guns after him, but Bullseye takes his sweet time and tries to get more into Frank's head, not to mention irritating the hell out of Kingpin. its 95% amusing, because we all want the mano-a-mano between the Punisher and Bullseye to commence, but somehow you feel it might not be worth it, because status quo reigns here - nobody friggin' dies.
oh shit moment: Bullseye brazenly walking into a Punisher safehouse, knowing he's there and he's going to wipe out everyone.
what's next: just get it on, dammit!!!


no, its black and white, you dumb ass.

Lester & Daken, sitting in a tree

isn't that a better prank than Topeka?

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Dark Wolverine #84

drive-by readings: Deadpool #11

Deadpool #11 (Marvel) "Bullseye, Part 2: Let The Healing Begin" Daniel Way Paco Medina Juan Vlasco Marte Garcia Cory Petit Jason Pearson (cover)

Deadpool is such a fun character he can work with almost any Marvel property (i mean they paired him with the dour Cable and even that lasted like 50 issues). they should probably do straight up Deadpool vs. ??? stories from now on. the only downside to that is that it might get monotonous as we know Deadpool never dies (hello, Wolverine) and there'd be no lasting resolution. shit, that wasn't a good idea after all. but anyway, 'Pool vs. Bullseye? that box office gold, right there. no need to pull any punches here. in fact, Bullseye holds the advantage for most of it until the last few pages. that's when our resident wacko mercenary skewers Bullseye with a hook for uh, beating his meat. seriously.

Bullseye says: "what recession?"

if you could do that with your nose bacon, you don't have to file for unemployment.



oh, Spider-Man just infiltrated (pardon the sort of pun) the Dark Avengers (which will more or less end up still status quo).

and oh, did they just slide one right by our noses? naughty, naughty Sue! just because her husband has no girth and length hangups eh?



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Spider-Man #596

point taken

this is why Dark Reign is a much more intriguing "series" (more like an umbrella theme) than say, House of M, or World War Hulk, or even Secret Invasion. they were semi-contained stories to resolve an issue. but then again, we have all of that to thank, to be able to get to this point. Tony Stark now a "domestic terrorist"? how the mighty have fallen. Steve Rogers must be spinning and laughing in his grave.

Dark Reign somehow allows Marvel to fully explore the belly of the underworld beast, with characters we already know and hate (here's looking at you, Osborn). and the ascension of the bad guys wasn't a forced thing, not like a revised reality or time travel anomaly which needed to be corrected. the circumstances seem a bit over the top, and i can't believe Ben Urich is the only civilian questioning the whole thing (its like Fox News took over and everyone is drinking from their Kool Aid).

with a massive campaign of spinoffs and one-shots, Marvel is telling us 'hey, you don't need to buy it if you don't want to' (as is their usual line). i would like them to tell great stories and try to hit it out of the ballpark everytime and not just roll out spinoffs just for the sake of striking while the iron is hot.

Dark Reign: Hawkeye follows the 2nd most interesting Dark Avenger (yes, admittedly, i'd like to see the Iron Effin' Patriot get his comeuppance, after scheming and manipulating his way to eternity) - Bullseye. as we can see, donning Hawkeye's duds is the only thing he has in common with Clint Barton.

Bullseye is the real badass of the Marvel Universe, because he doesn't need a moral compass. even 'savage Wolverine' or 'Hand assassin Wolverine' is still deep down, Wolverine with a sliver of humanity. if Bullseye can kill you by looking at you, he would.

there's something delicious about solo Bullseye stories in this vein, pretty much like The Punisher/Garth Ennis reboot. Daniel Way hit the nail in recent memory (with Ennis co-conspirator Steve Dillon, no less) with Bullseye's Greatest Hits. Andy Diggle has moved seamlessly from Green Arrow to (Dark) Hawkeye, doing a complete 180 degree shift character-wise and it is so much fun. i have high hopes for this limited series. and i think Bullseye is gonna mess the whole gig up for Osborn.

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Dark Reign: Hawkeye #1