things i liked this week

Siege #4 (Marvel)
Brian Michael Bendis/Olivier Coipel/Mark Morales/Laura Martin/Chris Eliopoulos (variant covers: Gabrielle Dell'Otto/Joe Quesada/Danny Miki/Richard Isanove)

and that's the fall of Norman Osborn in four tidy chapters. the world is right again, and don't you give too much credence to those who complain. i for one am glad the Blackest Night Dark Reign is over, and let's get back to our shiny happy heroes doing the one good thing for the first time in a long time: playing together again.

Dark Avengers #16 (Marvel)
Brian Michael Bendis/Mike Deodato/Rain Beredo/Cory Petit
a thrill-an-issue ride comes to a fitting end. in Hollywood, they might treat this as a franchise and churn out unworthy sequels. in Marvel, they ... whooops, don't give them any ideas! (wait, it is the House of Ideas after all ...)

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #1 (DC)
Grant Morrison/Chris Sprouse/Karl Story/Guy Major/Jared Fletcher
who doesn't want to see prehistoric Batman? crusader Batman? pirate Batman? revolutionary soldier Batman? Zulu Batman? WW2 infantryman Batman? disco roller Batman? wait, are they all available in action figures? count me in!!!

Birds of Prey #1 (DC)
Gail Simone/Ed Benes/Nei Ruffino/Steve Wands
aaaand they're back as well. this should be a consistent highly-touted title, and maybe Gail Simone can make this work again. not sure about Ed Benes who didn't exactly totally wow us in the Justice League reboot, but is actually returning to a book he did before. i want to enjoy this ride, and its with the usual suspects (Oracle, Huntress, Zinda and Black Canary) with a few new ones (Hawk & Dove). Hawkgirl should also be here from time to time. let's go, Birds! woooo-wooooo!


Black Widow #2 (Marvel)
Marjorie Liu/Daniel Acuña/Nate Piekos (variant cover: Stephanie Hans)
whu-? how the hell did i miss the first issue? after looking up images of Ms. Liu on the 'Net, man, am sold! i mean she's the reason why Daken's in touch with his feminine side. seriously, here's the premise: someone's gunning for 'Tasha, and she's suddenly like public enemy number one. we see Clint rocking the Hawkeye duds again, so its already the Heroic Age. hello, can't someone vouch for her? and will see that fake ass bitch Widow Yelena again? probably.


War of the Supermen #2 (DC)
Sterling Gates/James Robinson/Eduardo Pansica/Wayne Faucher/Blond/John J. Hill (cover: Eddy Barrows/J.P. Mayer/Rod Reis, variant cover: Aaron Lopresti/Matt Ryan/Brad Anderson)
hmmm. maybe it is fun to see arrogant Kryptonians and equally-douchebaggy Earthmen duke it out. i dont know, though, who's the most loathsome: Lex Luthor, General Lane or General Zod. whatever, i hope they all get sent to the Phantom Zone then play tag with Prometheus' ghost or something.


Justice League: Generation Lost #1 (DC)
Judd Winick/Keith Giffen/Aaron Lopresti/Matt Ryan/Hi-Fi/Sal Cipriano

right, your best friend-turned-evil Max Lord is back in town and he just gave everyone the shivers. even worse, he just made you forget he ever existed. JLI and FKATJL fans, don't expect the ha-ha-ha this time around, if only because Kevin Maguire isn't involved in the interiors.

Daytripper #6 (DC/Vertigo)
Fabio Moon/Gabriel Ba/Dave Stewart/Sean Konot
the melancholy daytripping continues. Moon and Ba find these stories that are tailor-made to pinch your heart. some people might say, if God existed, He works in mysterious ways, and we have no control over our destiny, because its been already set. so why bother living? should we not fear the unknown, but be always ready for the ride to come to a grinding halt?

Amazing Spider-Man #631 (Marvel)
Zeb Wells/Emma Rios/Chris Bachalo/Tim Townsend/Jaime Mendoza/Antonio Fabela/Joe Caramagna (variant cover: Doug Braithwaite)
let me just ask one question: how is it that Peter has not yet been driven insane with all the crap he has to deal with since Brand New Day? well, the answer might be it gets balanced because he gets to be in a happy place when he's with the Avengers ... (Chris Bachalo, your scaly lizards rock!!)


Avengers: The Initiative #35 (Marvel)
Christos Gage/Jorge Molina/Andrew Hennessy/Edgar Delgado/Joe Caramagna (cover: David Yardin)
and this is the end of the Initiative. though you're somewhat required to check out the other books for certain events in here, it doesn't detract much as a bookend to almost three years worth of stories of Avengers-in-training. some loose ends will still be loose ends (the Baron, the robbin' Hood) and some issues are open-ended (Diamondback and Constrictor). bonus: gratuitous T&A shots of suddenly-a-MILF Tigra. oh yeah.

doesn't he have the Skrull Hank's eyes?

Flash #2 (DC)
Geoff Johns/Francis Manapul/Brian Buccellato/Sal Cipriano (variant: Ryan Sook)
this merits a "like" because am a bit intrigued where Johns is going with this (with that, should i also say, "Wally West, we hardly knew ye"?). on the flipside, its just the second issue and Manapul's backgrounds have been barely there or completely disappeared. is it because 'everything's a blur' with this title?

denouement

drive-by readings

Dark Avengers #16 (Marvel) Brian Michael Bendis Mike Deodato Rain Beredo Cory Petit

with this, the long-awaited conclusion of the most well-received villain-as-heroes piece since the original Thunderbolts debuted in 1997, i am a little sad to say goodbye to these jerks and not have the monthly dose of their deliciously sleazy and nasty skulduggery. it does make sense with the end of Siege, there's no need for this dirty Avengers team anymore. Bendis and Deodato have created a masterpiece of their time, a reflection of the world in general and America in particular, set in superhero mythos. similar to Busiek and Bagley's Thunderbolts who stepped in with the disappearance of the major heroes, Dark Avengers came in with the ascension of Norman Osborn, the discrediting of the same beloved heroes, filling a void and had terrifying real-life prospects if it were, well ... real life. imagine if the US government was completely taken over by a bunch of ruthless trigger-happy conservatives, hawking their brand of patriotism and bent on remaking the world in their image. oh wait ...

and yet somehow, the end of the Dark Avengers doesn't seem to satisfy the bloodlust that built during their reign. by bloodlust, i mean the rage at these guys to bring them to justice. Frank Castle missed his chance to assassinate Osborn, and eventually got dismembered by Daken. the X-Men battled them to a standstill, but for pragmatic reasons, retreated to their own island. Clint Barton was just useless. i wanted blood.

apart from the one-two punch dealt by Tony and Luke to an escaping Moonstone and Bullseye, i guess we can expect nothing else but jail for these felons. we all know prisons never hold them (what else brought together the New Avengers?), so i'm almost expecting nobody will really get punished, despite Nick Fury's promise to Phobos, despite seeing Norman Osborn trapped in prison in his cell with his mocking Goblin persona.

nitpicking a bit, it would have been great to have consistent panels with all the related titles (see bad guy positions below). overall, the coordination of the sequences were good.


also, we saw the introduction of an increasingly-intriguing and possibly another long-term character in the Marvel Universe. somehow they managed to shove Val Cooper aside and position first Maria Hill, and now Victoria Hand, to be (action-oriented) liaisons to the superhuman community. and they're obviously much more than cookie-cutter characters. take Victoria for instance. most of the time she's hot, especially with her backstory in #11. although, well, look at Victoria here, she looks a little weird and a little bit exaggerated on the chesty side.



my hats off to Brian Bendis and Mike Deodato for a sterling run. see you in Secret Avengers.

after a third

not as rich as y'all, but somehow its just the end of April and i've gotten quite a few TPBs (and those are really semi-thought-out, semi-impulse buys). my brain hasn't processed the statues that i've ordered yet (which the wife may raise an eyebrow at). that's for a future post.

Dark Avengers, vol. 1: Assemble - no matter how much i hate Normie, his badass Avengers made for great reading, courtesy of Bendis and Deodato. taking roots from Ellis' great Thunderbolts run, this should have been a Max imprint. i mean, think of all the crazy and sleazy shit that happened. i know it would be viewed as a shameless moneymaker (hello, House of M spinoffs), but can't we have some kind of Dark Reign: The Dirty Files?

X-Force vol. 1: Angels & Demons - this is the real X-Force that Rob Liefeld and Cable only dreamed of: a mutant black ops unit, answerable only to the golden boy Cyclops. even Magneto didn't put one together, because they're all busy posturing. if Sabretooth were alive, he'd be in (after a lobotomy and a bomb implanted in his brain, of course).

X-Force vol. 2: Old Ghosts - seriously? i'd buy this even just for the cover alone. my all-time favorite Mike Choi/Sonia Oback work.

Uncanny X-Men: Sisterhood - a big slap in the face of the Greg Land haters. as Joel McHale says, Chicks, Man.

X-Infernus - despite the lingering misgivings as i loved the Inferno and the death of Illyana storylines, i just had to pick this up. i guess you can still tell stories with revived characters. you can even try a curveball once in a while (see above, cross-reference Jean Grey/Madelyne Pryor).

New X-Men vol. 4: Riot at Xavier's - i thought i had a copy of this way back, and for some reason, i can't find it. that put a big hole in my Grant Morrison X-Men collection (sadly, retconned in its critical parts). now, situation rectified.

Incognito vol. 1 - being a casual fan of Sleeper and Criminal, this should not be left off the list. i read this through a week and i hated putting it down. while reading it though, flashes of a blowhard Ed Brubaker in Who Won't Wield the Shield flickered through my mind (haven't seen @StephenWacker tweet in awhile - that probably means he's been whacked).

NextWave: Agents of H.A.T.E. Ultimate Collection - am sure i'd have gotten this at a cheaper price (true enough, $12 cheaper at Amazon), but this was an impulse grab for Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen goodness, in that moment at a Houston Books-A-Million. sue me. laughed all the way back to New York.

Thor vol. 2 - i've read the individual issues here and there, and i like Straczynski's take on Thor. plus Coipel and Djurdjevic (the Awesomeness)? a no brainer.

Superman: Birthright - i have not been much of a Supes fan in recent years, save Red Son and All-Star Superman. i have read much praise for this volume - although it replaced the John Byrne-penned post-Crisis origin (The Man of Steel), it was subsequently superseded by the current Secret Origins title. probably in 2016 after yet another huge crisis, Jason Aaron will be probably be rewriting history again.

snaps: Dark Avengers #13

... where there's somebody more effed in the head than Norman Osborn. yes, its your favorite blonde god with the power of a thousand exploding suns. or a milion. whatever. could we hazard a guess and say he's the last level boss in the next Marvel crossover game?

Mah Pusha. c'mon, that's a face you can trust.


well, don't ever say Robert Reynolds doesn't bring the CRAY-ZAAAYYYY!!


another Sentry power: he turns into the Ghost Rider!!


right after the consummation, i suppose.


oy! that's New York in reverse!!! check out this pic from @jimlee00.


that makes you his bitch, bitch.

fight fight fight

drive-by readings

Siege #1 (Marvel) Brian Michael Bendis Olivier Coipel Mark Morales Laura Martin Chris Eliopoulos Gabrielle Dell'Otto/Quesada/Miki/Isanove (variant covers)

okay, this one is for all the marbles. Norman Osborn has lost it (or has he really?), and plots with the eternal Asgardian trickster Loki to create another Stamford, and cement his power grab in the guise of protection. quite the sign of the times as the whole 00 decade was one big Republican power trip (with all due respect to 9/11), and fittingly, as the decade closes, the Marvel Universe reflects this as Osborn (representing all that's bad with the government) goes for the big play and his presumably, eventual downfall.

the stand-in for Stamford this time is Chicago's Soldier Field, and the choice may have been driven by the writer's disgust with the play of the Bears' assumed savior at quarterback, Jay Cutler. just kidding. and who's the patsy for this show? well, look no further than the Voluminous Volstagg who's not been the sharpest of tools in the workshop, but certainly the most innocent and loyal of all of Thor's compatriots. how Fandral and Hogun let him out of their sights, i don't know. certainly they should take responsibility for their wayward little big brother. tee- hee.

interestingly, its the longtime Hulk villains, the U-Foes (yes, Virginia, they were named that way. blame Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema.), who are sent to bait Volstagg into causing a big disaster. attacking Asgard (hello, Iraq) is Osborn's 'solution' and apparently Prez Obama and Congress are helpless in stopping him. no one learns from the lessons of history, especially if you have fear mongers among you. all you need is a big target and sell that. who needs the Hate Monger and Mr. Fear?

being a four-issue series, Bendis sort of fast forwards the scenes so we get to the invasion of Asgard right here and now. the corollary scenes would be in the related titles (that's why they provide you with checklists so you can prepare your wallet) but i expect scheduling conflicts to provide bumps to the reading pleasure (hello, Captain America Reborn). if you'd rather wait for the trade, that would be fine (as long as you stay off the internet in the next 6 to 8 months). but this thing is too good to miss. at least just to see how everything gets resolved, and what other event cards are Marvel holding up its sleeve once Osborn is gone and the world goes back to (relatively) normal.

snaps: Dark Avengers #12

... where it turns out that not only Owen Reece IS NOT the most powerful being in the Marvel Universe, he doesn't get any respect at all because of his schizo-ness - and they misspell his name too. ah drat, there goes my hoped-for wildcard. turns out all this time its been always Robert Reynolds (and why not? he's been there since Bendis "reassembled" the New Avengers).

1) the face of a geek who's seeing the nude female body for the very, very first time.


2) Victoria, reverting against type, and not being, uh ... Hands on.


3) hey, do you know this game that Greek gods play? stay in a posh living room, grab a couple of weapons, brandish them around, and yell ...


4) yo, Norman, Dr. Troy is accepting new patients.


5) and Victoria, you know better when boys don't wanna be disturbed.


6) would Norman say the same thing if Bob said "i'm gay"?


7) are you seriously telling me that after Molecule Man does this, it really doesn't matter because the Sentry is much more powerful and does the same thing and makes it more permanent?

i hate the fact that the Molecule Man apparently just gets swept under the rug (and dismissed like a petulant child), despite being a more established character with godlike powers. that's scary for the Marvel establishment, so they made the Sentry have the bigger gun. in both cases, absolute power resides in beings with less than stable minds, which gives an opening where they can be taken down when absolutely necessary.

that being said, of course am still anticipating Siege. how could i not?

snaps: Dark Avengers Annual #1

... where Noh-Varr is shown to be a lot more needy than we thought.

1) guess who looks like a penis!! a Space Ghost Penis!!!


2) apparently, he's not really seeing the illegal aliens surrounding him, right, Lou Dobbs?


3) wait, shouldn't Noh-Varr be talking to Medusa or Crystal, not this Cthulthu-inspired know-it-all whose answer for evolution is to nuke his own people??


4) yes, and the best way to do that is to hang around with a hip and trendy NYU student!



5) so, he got saved from the time trap then? did Reborn end already? did the printing schedule fuck up again? hey, wait, that's the RED SKULL!!!

welcome back, Mr. Reece.

drive-by readings

Dark Avengers #10 (Marvel) Brian Michael Bendis Mike Deodato Jr Rain Beredo Cory Petit

i asked a question, and Brian Michael Bendis answered. splendidoo. splendidooo!

first things first. lemme axe you summink: if you chop the Man Thing in two, will he eventually reintegrate himself? or will he do a Wolverine, grow his limbs back, and there'll be two Man Things at the end of the day? well, True Believer, you better find out, 'cause Mike Deodato just drew an awesome splash page of Ares doing just that. the Man Thing doesn't have any facial features that would show any emotion, but i swear to God even he was surprised at that development.

in as much as i loved the Thunderbolts in its early Busiek intended incarnation - bad guys pretending to be the good guys - i like the slant of the Dark Avengers much better in the sense that they're barely trying to project a clean image, they argue with and fight each other all the time, they're nasty, foul-mouthed and wouldn't hesitate abandoning their teammates - only Norman Osborn keeps them altogether. and barely apparently, as something is bothering him lately. yes, we anticipate the Goblin coming out (not that 'coming out') and melting down soon on national TV. oh heck, just search the Interwebz for the Siege and be done with it.

so back to Owen Reece, Molecule Man. he's been gone so long that the new generation of comic book readers don't even know who he is (that's what Wikipedia is for). and i can understand why Marvel put him in the freezer for a long time because he's practically God - the man went toe-to-toe against the freakin' Beyonder. even he was afraid of his own powers. it remains to be seen whether he's still that 'supervillain' with a tinge of ethical behavior, or he's finally lost it, and is now bent on taking over as well. do not let him be a joke, Bendis.

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?



-----
Spider-Man #596

drive-by readings 022109

Dark Avengers #2 (Marvel) "Long Live H.A.M.M.E.R." Brian Michael Bendis Mike Deodato Jr Rain Beredo Cory Petit

wow. i mean, WOW. two issues in, and i already have a perverse admiration for this loony "team". damn you, Bendis. as hyped weeks ago, the Dark Avengers first mission is to rescue Dr. Doom, who's in a lover's quarrel with Morgana Le Fay, who in turn gets "(un)headed" (heh.). Bendis' knack for people talking at the same time is in full display as always, though sometimes its like teenagers yakking (and posturing) all the time. i can't wait 'till the backstabbing begins. maybe it was a good thing they brought Osborn back (gaaaaaahhhh! schism!). who else can manage all these strong-willed assholes in the first place?

Invincible #59 (Image) "Powerplex" Robert Kirkman Ryan Ottley Cliff Rathburn FCO Plascencia Rus Wooton

and i thought i hated Superboy Prime. this Powerplex character made me want to beat him down a la Chris Brown (k-ching!). what a whiny jerk. he's a caricature of an '80s villain who has no other train of thought except "i will have my revenge, you will pay for your crimes!" serves you right for killing your own family, asshole. i think Kirkman got into a mood hating this kind of jerk and wrote a story out of it, gnashing his teeth all the way. if anything, he sets up a future - if annoying - villain to pester Invincible.

X-Factor #40 (Marvel) "Slings and Arrows" Peter David Valentine De Landro Pat Davidson Jeromy Cox Cory Petit

Peter David told me not to tell.

well, it involves guns, and priests, and nuns, and lies, and despair writ large.

not to mention the art has picked up a bit, and it should, considering David's writing.

but seriously, he told me not to tell.

Morgan le Fay loses her head!

apparently, Bob the Cuckoo-in-the-Head Sentry likes ... heads!



hey, don't blame me, i just saw this on an episode of My Cup O'Joe featuring the lovable Dan Slott.