This Week in Marvel : 4/20/16

It was a really rough week for Marvel , books that started off good are now quickly going sour , the second issue of Power Man and Iron-fist being one of those. Uncanny Inhuman's pretty much wasted the issue on politics as if we are not getting enough of that on television these days. Loki spun a tall tale in Thor that is introducing some Hulk-viking, which sounds cool on paper until you realize we have too many Hulks already. The art was pretty terrible during his yarn, but at least Jane Foster was not in this issue. Captain Marvel's 4th issue was an improvement, the art doesn't do a lot for me, and it feels like an off shoot of Sar Trek the way its being written. The 5th issue of Guardians of Infinity is decent the art is great, so that makes up for a lot . The 6th issue of Nova is better than this series has been. the 7th issue of Silk was pretty good even with the inter dimensional mish mash and the alternate take on dr octopus. The third issue of Karnak was absolutely terrible. Sam Wilson's solo book which had as much Steve Rogers just proves Rogers is the dominate character and Sam is nothing more than a side kick when he is around Rogers, and that's how it should be. Do they really think college kids are going to relate to Starbrand and Night Mask? The 5th issue is alright for what it is, but I don't see this book lasting.

 I really couldn't make myself care about the 9th issue of Extraordinary X-men. This Apocalypse story line is boring me to tears at this point. Hyperion's 2nd issue didn't do much for me. Guardians of Infinity wasn't bad despite it was one villains monologue and not much else happening. The Totally Awesome Hulk saw the beginnings of  the air being let out of it's tires, the art was the best thing so the fact they are switching out artists for the current artist of Weird World doesn't feel right for that book. The Enchantress seemed to have too hard of a time enchanting Cho. Sure he might be smarter than Thor, but doesn't have the will power of a god. New Avengers which focuses on the Gamma Godzilla that chants USA when it fights giant robots was on of the better issues this week so that spells trouble.  Wow ! Nova might have been the best book this week. He fights his father or doppelganger or what ever the fuck is going on, which I suppose would be the one flaw in the writing there.

This Week In Marvel 3/13/16

The big news in Marvel this week is the trailer for Dr. Strange that was released on the Jimmy Kimmel show. When Kevin Fiege began initial talks about the movie, I remember him saying it was going to start with Strange as the Sorcerer Supreme it wasn't going to be an origin story and what do we get ...an origin story. Before the trailer was released Fiege backtracked and said his origin was too classic to not be told. So this dashes my hopes that Strange would be one film to escape the formulaic superhero blue print. The casting as been great so far and it looks well made. I'm find with Tilda Swinton as the Ancient one. A little worried about Mads' makeup. I have gone on record as saying Dr. Strange will be the last great comic book movie. I might still be right if the origin is kept to only a few minutes more than what they showed in the trailer. Ten minutes of origin at most told trough flash backs would be the most effective. The first Star Wars movie threw you into the world and told you to figure it out. If you don't know who Dr. Strange is , then you have to be smart enough to know it's a super hero who deals with magic. If you need too much more than that then you are too dumb and need to do some magic of your own and make yourself disappear. If you haven't seen the trailer it's below now lets get to comics.






The second issue of X-men 92 get's silly, though anytime Dracula shows up I'm a fan. But the more comedic tone takes away from the horror elements which is what I'm afraid will make the next issue have even less of an impact.Web Warriors continues to be a waste of time even in the 6th issue which finds the art improved. This time there are too many Venoms, which add to the bloat that makes this book feel like it was written by a D/C writer.  The art is on the slippery side, but as good of a cross-over with the Spider-women as this book ca be I still wouldn't say this is good as everything seems rushed or stalling, the flow of the story needs work. Of course the 5th issue of Weirdworld finds the book incapable of finding the fire that made the run so great during the Secret Wars the reason being no Akron, and this continues the prove the flaw of diversity, which is just have female leads, to have female leads doesn't mean it will work. If Valkyrie was the lead in this book it might work, but Akron  is what made the other book work, none of the these characters are shit, even Jennifer Kale is poorly written.While  it was entertaining watching the big Thing vs Surfer throw down in the books third issue, some of the more obtuse elements of the book keep it from being in the best pile. The Avengers show up and then Norin dies? For no reason? When I don't care about a book with She-hulk in it there is a problem an that is the problem with the fourth issue of A-Force. The art is meh, the story wraps up the arc they have been on, but does so in a very tangled way. Speaking of books with Hulks that are going down the drain the 7th issue of  Contest of Champions hears the gurgle of the sewer pipes come to life. The art has take a turn for the worst and this new story with the Ultimates just gets more contrived. The long drawn out battle against the Zodiac continues, though in the background more familiar Spider-man villains are assembling for promises to be the Sinister Six.In other poor Spider-man news aside from the waste of time that's Spidey,  His appearance in All- New  In-humans 6th issue was a waste, Crystal and Lockjaw were the only In-humans , I am not going to count Gorgon as long as he is in a wheel chair. I refused to read Gwen-pool because marrying Gwen Stacy to a character not even connected to her is beyond stupid. Agents of Shield told the same story we already read in New Avengers last week, but from a different perspective.

The 9th issue of Deadpool wasn't bad, but it wasn't all that great.The 7th issue of Guardians of the Galaxy was pretty decent with a Ben Grimm coming to save Rocket. The second time Grimm has really thrown down so he is getting a big push this week. The one thing that All -New  All-Different Avengers had going for it in the book's 8th issue was fun. They were escaping from  Wayward Pines, we had villains we had not seen in a minute squaring off against heroes that they had not really faced much before. I told myself this 5th issue of Red Wolf was going to be my last it it didn't improve and it improved, so I am stuck reading it. All- New X-men's 8th issue might be the week's best, it's a team up between Beast and Dr. Strange, they art is awesome and it fits well within the world of Dr. Strange currently being established.

This Week In Marvel 3/6/16

There will be those who will try to ride the hype and tell the first issue of Black Panther was a masterpiece , but the truth is much different. The truth is while the book is not as bad as I feared it would be, it fails in other ways. T'Challa gets pushed to the side lines as his sister takes a more pivotal role. I like the more Toney Stark approach to things like his suit, but I have a sinking feeling Coates is writing this larger story because he can't tell the smaller story of being able to write in T'Challa's voice. The art is fair some aspects better than others. But be prepared for this book to be put on a pedestal it doesn't deserve. The 9th issue of New Avengers sets it up for some cheese with a giant robot fighting S.H.I.E.L.D's version of Godzilla. The art work is pretty decent. Speaking of decent art work the third issue of Spider-man...the Miles version which is all build up no action.Not a bad read, but the beginning of the air coming out of the book's tires. The 6th issue of Scarlet Witch tried to be very stylistic and ended up a waste of time and she is one of my favorite Marvel characters. One of the hottest and she was drawn like a dumpy old lady, how did her hair color change is another question. The consensus is the art on the first issue of Spider-Women Alpha really does suck. The writing is ok, all three Spider-girls in the same book.



The 8th and "Stand-Off" issue of "Uncanny Avengers" was pretty decent in pushing the Wayward Pines Agenda forward as the heroes begin to wake up and look to for what could be Stark's team. I'm a little torn with the 6th issue of the Vision. It is the problem of him being written out of character based off who we have seem him as for the past 30 plus years. The scene with him working with the dead dog is a little creepy. Wouldn't logic over ride this? What would Harkness  see this leading the Vision of such a cliff. It's an issue that made me think and raises more questions than it answers but in the end it was well done.You don't have to do much in Invincible Iron Man to win me over when Deodato is handling the art. He is my favorite Marvel artists. While Rhodey might be a Navy Seal, I think he is a little out classed when fighting a room of ninjas. Not sure how this leads into Civil War but it's supposed to. Old Man Logan's 4th issue finally ties everything together with the X-titles. Nice every one has the right voice. Last and well actually least of the good pile was Spider-Man 2099, he goes back for seconds on Man Mountain Marko and has a run in with Tempest's mother. Good art  some of the story was more vanilla than others and he is supposed to be the Spider-man with more of an edge.