the mighty daken

drive-by readings

Daken - Dark Wolverine #1 (Marvel) "Empire Part 1" Daniel Way/Marjorie Liu Giuseppe Camuncoli Onofrio Catacchio Frank D'Armata Cory Petit Camuncoli/Marte Gracia (cover) Gabrielle Dell'Otto/Marko Djurdjevic (variant covers)

what we learned: nothing much. we know Daken hates his dad Wolverine with a passion second to none, although is he going to make a move and simply kill him, when he's been bested in their last chickenfight and his ass was saved with that business with FrankenCastle. so if its his time, its his time to do what?
oh shit moment: he's friggin' doing Bruno in Milan, but with claws. and who's the leader of the Red Right Hand? ("Nick Cave!" someone yells)
what's next: there better be a great payoff with Liu jumping off Black Widow and rejoining Way to chronicle more of our androgynous anti-hero/villain, now that Logan's in hell.


you really should be wary of "free wine tastings".

Peter and the Chicken, Marvel style

drive-by readings

Dark Wolverine #89 (Marvel) "Punishment Chapter 3" Daniel Way/Marjorie Liu Stephen Segovia/Paco Diaz Craig Yeung/Guillermo Ortega Antonio Fabela Cory Petit Simone Bianchi/Simone Peruzzi (cover)

what we learned: continuing the battle between the Wolverine brood versus Franken-Castle, Logan protects Daken due to a warped sense of honor and fatherhood for a jackass who wants his head on a stake anyway.
oh shit moment: you can feel the palpable glee of each character as they individually one up the other. but it feels like a parody because no one will really die. i mean, there shouldn't even be a Franken-Castle.
what's next: Daken gets the Bloodstone, Frank probably dies and gets reborn (yet again) and Logan wins Father of The Year.


Wolverine's the best at what he does - slicing fingers off.

pulped fiction

drive-by readings

Franken-Castle #19 (Marvel) "Punishment Chapter 2" Rick Remender Tony Moore Dan Brown Joe Caramagna Simone Bianchi/Simone Peruzzi (cover)

what we learned: Frank Castle and Daken - the rematch! Remender goes full circle after having Daken make sushi out of Frank, and this time, Wolverine's badass kid gets the short end of the stick ... until Papa shows up.
oh shit moment: i think Frank took a lot more punishment back in the The List, but there's still a bunch of cringe-inducing moments here that runs like a "Can You Top This?" contest and fanboys going "whoooaaaaa!" on every turn.
what's next: father and son versus a Frankencastle monstaaaa!!


aw, Logan, you spoilsport. booooooooo.

snikts: Dark Wolverine #86 & Wolverine: Origins #48

... where we're kinda sick of all the posturing, ADD-addled, obsessive-compulsive behavior being exhibited by Logan and his extended family. i mean, fine, you all hate each other, just kill the guy next to you and be done with it!!! geez.



y'all have claws. y'all don't know what to do with them.


man, this thing is so gay its not happy anymore.


oh, look, who's upset because Crystal Bowersox didn't win this season's American Idol:


and he has more spit than the winner!!!


and when he asks his father why the most talented people don't win:



now back to Logan; it took you this long to do this???


oh, wait, that was just what Logan wanted to do! what he actually does is imprison Romulus in the Darkforce Dimension inside Cloak. ooooooo-kay. but it took you this long to do that too??

by the way, if its dark in there, how come there's light?


oh, look we got a cutter!!



huh. look, Tyrone's the voice of reason. by the way, dude? you're responsible for the X-Men being trapped in Utopia. if you didn't leave, THEY. STILL. WOULD. HAVE. A. GODDAMNED. TELEPORTER. selfish prick.

things i liked this week

X-Men: Legacy #235 (Marvel)
Mike Carey/Greg Land/Jay Leisten/Justin Ponsor/Cory Petit (cover: Adi Granov)
you know things are really grave (pun intended) when goody-two-shoes Doug Ramsey makes BFF Warlock suck the life-force out of Hodge and the Right soldiers. in other words, the New Mutants should really no longer be called such, becaused they've been bloodied to hell and back already. our intrepid mutants sustain two more blows, and one's a Fallen Angel (if any of you still remember). i don't care if Greg Land is drawing this (and in one panel, Cable's mouth is not symmetrical to his face), this is shaping up to be an exciting X-crossover.


Ultimate Avengers #6 (Marvel)
Mark Millar/Carlos Pacheco/Dexter Vines/Cory Petit/Justin Ponsor/Laura Martin
an ending worthy of past Millar Ultimates books. father and son finally gets the their final 5-minute faceoff, and guess who loses. Carlos Pacheco turns in overall, his best work in recent years (except for random details, like two missing jet needles in one panel, certainly an important element to the eventual conclusion).


Doomwar #3 (Marvel)
Jonathan Maberry/Scot Eaton/Andy Lanning/Robert Campanella/Jean-Francois Beaulieu/Cory Petit (cover: John Romita Jr./Klaus Janson/Dean White)
Doom has Vibranium
the Panther God lets him pass
T'Challa is pissed.


Batman: Streets of Gotham #11 (DC)
Paul Dini/Dustin Nguyen/Derek Fridolfs/John Kalisz/Steve Wands

finally someone takes down Zsasz. Damian's character is getting fleshed out, and DC is doing right with him. i think now he's much more interesting than Tim Drake. thank the God of Comics.

Power Girl #11 (DC)
Justin Gray/Jimmy Palmiotti/Amanda Conner/Paul Mounts/John J. Hill
i wouldn't say its a cop out, but having a cloning tank takes the thrill out of beating the bad guys. but listen, a monthly Power Girl book is always a must. so, please don't cancel this.


Guardians of the Galaxy #25 (Marvel)
Dan Abnett/Andy Lanning/Brad Walker/Andrew Hennessy/Wil Quintana/Joe Caramagna (cover: Alex Garner)

the team is back together again, and i couldn't be happier. hey, wait, according to the future iterations of the Guardians, this 2010 version of them are the only ones standing in the way of annihilation caused by the chronal error of a resurrected Thanos. let The Thanos Imperative begin.

Green Lantern #53 (DC)
Geoff Johns/Doug Mahnke/Christian Alamy/Keith Champagne/Mark Irwin/Randy Mayor/Nick Napolitano (variant cover: Ryan Sook)
Johns allows us a bit of a moment to catch our breath before Brightest Day, and what best way to spend it except to witness playful flirting between Highball (heh - he only has one ball and he's high) and Carol. turns out Sinestro wants to join in. in other news, who's this character who seems to be the sole protector of the Universe back when it was young? could it be ... G.O.D.?


Siege: Spider-Man #1 (Marvel)
Brian Reed/Marco Santucci/Chris Sotomayor/Joe Caramagna (cover: Marko Djurdjevic)
this one-shot is both a treat and a letdown, as Brian Reed follows up on the Peter-Carol angle (which makes sense as he's made his peace with Michelle and the MJ option has slim odds). and we get them beating up on TIKAMG (The Idiot Known as Mac Gargan). but that has no complete closure as it all occurs during Siege. duh.


Dark Wolverine #85 (Marvel)
Daniel Way/Marjorie Liu/Stephen Segovia/Cam Smith/Marte Gracia/Cory Petit/Rain Beredo
not sure why i like this. it has the annoying Romulus. and also the most gay-ass scenes between Logan and Daken, it borders on creepy. maybe its because we finally see the punk get stabbed with the Muramasa blade.


Captain America: Who Won't Wield the Shield (Marvel)
Jason Aaron/Mirco Pierfederici/Todd Klein/Matt Fraction/Brendan McCarthy/Howard Hallis/Stuart Moore/Joe Quinones/Javier Rodriguez
why can't they do these more often? and tone down the Deadpool stuff. is there a law against Assistant Editor's Month? (pssst. its not Assistant Editor's Month. whatever.)

Lo-gone.

Wolverine gets sent to Hell, Daken takes over. awesome!! [via @jasonaaron]

Lester & Daken, sitting in a tree

isn't that a better prank than Topeka?

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Dark Wolverine #84

why the hell do i bother to hope?!

of course, Osborn is NOT going to be killed by Daken. there's Siege! and who knows if Osborn is going to be killed at all!

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Dark Wolverine #83

and what the hell is this about???

and just like when Osborn took down the Skrull queen, denying our heroes the chance to get some payback, it looks like history's repeating itself.

the odds are this is just a reality-bending segment woven by those magical knitting bitches witches who like bringing down Ragnarok on our favorite Asgardians.

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Dark Wolverine #82

chopped

drive-by readings

Dark Reign - The List: Punisher one shot (Marvel) "A Good Lie" Rick Remender John Romita Jr Klaus Janson Dean White Joe Caramagna

just when we thought Norman Osborn couldn't make good with anything with his list, he comes roaring back with a big win. yes, i know, the Internet is abuzz with this issue, and for good measure.

after failing to get the Punisher (yeah, its the insistent itch in your ass that gets you) via The Hood, Osborn takes command to hunt Frank down with all the might of H.A.M.M.E.R. behind him, and taking along Daken for good measure. we know among all the Marvel heroes, the Punisher was the most vulnerable, as he really doesn't have any powers. he's not Batman-class, but he's been smart enough to survive all these years. he even offed the whole Marvel Universe, if certain tomes are to be believed.

and for all his bravado and smarts, eventually the Reaper comes to collect and Frank has to pay. i guess i wasn't expecting it - or maybe i wasn't just reading the advance buzz. that's ok, i like it that way. surprise me, comics. once in a while.

and though i can find faults in the great JRJr's work, roping him and Janson in for this piece was genius. i thought i was reading a Kick-Ass issue! you know, with all that blood and gore. i've also been slowly taking into Rick Remender's work - not sure if he feels like Howard Chaykin at times but with more immediacy. and no, am not dissing Chaykin.

so where do we go from here? apparently, the next story arc involves something with the words "Franken-Castle". Halloween gimmick or no? by the way, how does the Man Thing (one of Marvel's best horror characters) get involved in this when he was divided in two by Ares recently? in what issue did he "volt back in"?

it's a time-honored tradition to break down heroes before building them up again. over the past few years, we've seen this happen to Captain America, Thor, Hawkeye (though just don't ask me how he got resurrected. just ... don't.), Scarlet Witch (no, don't ask me about her either), Iron Man (ongoing) and now Frank Castle, our beloved ass-kicking street vigilante playing way above his league. i just hope it doesn't turn out like last time, when he got deployed to fight demons. hoooooo boy.

drive-by readings: Dark Wolverine #75

Dark Wolverine #75 (Marvel) "The Prince, Part 1" Daniel Way Marjorie Liu Giuseppe Camuncoli Onofre Catacchio Marte Gracia Cory Petit Leinil Francis Yu/Laura Martin (cover) Marko Djurdjevic (variant cover)

the darkest part of this Wolverine knockoff getting the Dark Reign treatment has to be, without any doubt, the coming aboard of romance novelist Marjorie Liu to script Daken's adventures along with Wolverine: Origins scribe Daniel Way, the gleeful chronicler of Marvel's nastier characters. is this why we get a sex scene straight out of Zane's playbook? not that i read Zane, mind you. honest!

maybe we should keep this Dark Reign ball rolling for awhile, as we never had this kind of tension in an Avengers headquarters, probably since Hank Pym built a robot to "rescue" the Avengers from. or when Wonder Man started banging the Scarlet Witch, right under the nose of a reconfigured Vision. or when Clint started banging Jan. you get the idea. Daken + Bullseye (Hawkeye) + Venom + Ares + Norman Osborn = it boggles the mind that they haven't killed each other yet.

this is a terrific jumping on point for new readers, who should have at least a passing familiarity with Wolverine (who technically has been pushed aside in his own book for awhile). Daken is a deliciously nasty piece of work, who has his own agenda (don't they all) not exactly running parallel with Osborn's. but then again, what's his goal? it's not just to supplant Osborn, or kill his dad ... there has to be something else.

hey, Marvel - when you decide to kick these bad guys out of the house ... you better make it count. i want blood. i want teeth kicked in. i want skulls caved in. you hear me, Joe Quesada? and no copping out either. i don't want the Beyonder suddenly appearing and waving them all off out of existence. or Uatu tripping on his own two feet and crushing Venom with his big head. i want real heroes drawing blood! blood i say!

dude looks like a lady

would you do the Lady Sinister? even if you knew she "could be" Mister Sinister?



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X-Men: Legacy #217