This Week in Marvel : 2/17/16

Ok, this week the Avengers Stand Off Welcome to Pleasant Hill  started off which is leading to Civil War 2. This is basically a massive rip off of  Wayward Pines. Shield designs a fake town with brain washed re-programmed villains, Numbered among them is Bruce Banner. So we know he is not dead. Meaning Cho-Hulk's days as the sole hulk are numbered. Today artwork was laid out with some working pages for an Avengers issue that looks to have the current team of All - New Avengers  minus Jane Foster Thor about to throw down with a horde of heroes that dramatically out numbers them. So far that makes the teams Iron-man, Sam Wilson, Vision, Miles Morales,  and Nova vs
Capt Marvel, Spider-man, War-machine, Foster-Thor, Wasp, Black Panther, Hawkeye, the New Avengers, Deadpool,  the X-men and the In-humans. So the deck is loaded against them unless Steve Rogers, Hercules,  Dr.Strange, Punisher, the Guardians of the Galaxy ( Star Lord was shown on Stark's side ) and Ghost Rider who all appear to not yet be spoken for jump in.



 I read it in the comic book store then I had to read it again online to see if the fourth issue of the Mighty Thor would make any more sense. Odin could have de-powered and cast out Jane Foster with a wave of his hand. It's one thing to be creative , it's another to have no regard for the mythology preceding your story, terrible writing, though the art is improved. The fifth issue of Uncanny Inhumans is a tour of the Quiet Room. Black Bolt's new head quarters, which is a variation of where he hung out during Secret Wars. They build some tension with mis-behavior that Black Bolt will need to lay the smack down on, but it's not the most compelling story. The art is better than most these days.Star Lord has great art , but the story now drags and nothing really happens in this issue, he runs into old friends and gets punched by a girl, what a wuss. The second issue of Sliver Surfer also wastes a little time in it's soap opera and limits his fight with the Thing to two pages and he knocks out Ben with one punch. This really depends upon the circumstances as to how believable that is. I know the Surfer is strong, but that strong? Web Warriors has a few moments like Spider-Ham telling some version of Black Cat that pigs can run faster than humans the book is still a tangled mess, if hundreds of alternate Electros were not enough now add on that many Dr. Ocks. I would prefer to see that many Black Cats, Kravens or Rhinos. It's a tangled mess. Can we kill them all off except for Spider-Man noir, Spider-Ham and Spider- Gwen?

It's good to see Luke and Danny back together. Their first issue back is heavy on the bromance. The art could be better , but overall the book does justice to what these characters are about. Another bromance book that is getting better is Starbrand and Night Mask. Even with the ending of this week's issue still not finding me in a position  of caring if they live or die the book is growing on me. The fourth issue of Squadron Supreme is a vast move in the right direction. Dr. Druid is back up in this bitch, he is more of a bad guy now. Weirdworld seems to click in place here , better than it does in its own book.The 7th issue of Extraordinary X-men is pretty damn good and moves the book in a better direction. They get Night Crawler back and of course justin time for the movie the Apocalypse Wars are about to kick off though I am willing to bet its a slow burn until we get full throttle into that one.

This Week In Marvel 2/10/16

The big even this week isn't on the shelves , but in theaters as Deadpool comes out. I am not going to see it opening weekend. In fact Dr. Strange might be the last Marvel movie I go to opening weekend. I'm not sure about Civil War, I think it's going to take the Avengers side of the coin into a bad direction. Super hero fatigue is going to be setting in soon after that one when those characters begin to be re-cast. The second issue of Shield, keeps with the tone of the show while setting things up for the Civil War 2 story that is coming. Overall it's a little on the luke warm side. The art doesn't help matters. Weird World has some wacky art, but a story I just can't care about, I will only keep reading it in hopes some one more interesting shows up, like Man-thing or Crystar. Another book with great art wasted on a boring story is the Ultimates.  Not a big fan of the Blue Marvel or the America girl, but you would think the others would do more than just support a Blue Marvel story, which is what the book is turning into. Black Knight loses some of it's charm in the 4th issue, there is only one left and the book is getting the plug pulled on it. I think it would have done better without some much of the Uncanny Avengers, as Dane becomes more of a supporting character.The 3rd issue of Red Wolf finds the book getting dull, they just need to bring in the Texas Rangers, since he was only good as a part of that team. Spider -Gwen has really gone down the toilet. I stopped reading the 5th issue mid way into it. The art is terrible and the story which is trying to be a Netflix drama already is overly dramatic and loses the voice of the main character. Ms Marvel really continues to be a waste of time, its a super hero comic book for people who don't like super hero comic books. Meaning poseurs...


The 4th issue of the All- New Hawkeye, finds the book going in a decent direction, though weighed down with too much back story on Kate Bishop, who really just needs to get put on New Avengers in Clint's place and let him have a solo book rather than trying to balance between two Hawkeyes as we get into the too many versions of the same archetype.
The 5th issue of All New Wolverine, is pretty decent even with the art working against it. Sure Wasp/ Ant-Man shrink down to go inside someone's body and save them is kind of played out concept, they pretty much make it work. One of the clones dies , which is fine by me as why do you need more X-23s running around , that is the problem we already have with too many version of the same hero running around. In All- New X-men X-23 was also the focus as the issue looked at her relationship with the new Angel and in the span of one issue trouble arose in paradise as he began to question her masochistic need to take her healing factor to the limit. Then a beat down from Blob, who I don't remember seeing for some time goes down.This is some of the weeks best art.  What All-New Avengers's fifth issue had going for might not have been what was intended. my take away is that Vision wised up and got the kids kicked off the team. The whole Equinox thing was on the dumber side of things since he is really a Marvel Team Up level of heel. I am glad Foster turned human, the perfect time to kill her off.  She also shows up in Illuminati's 4th issue another comic marred by flawed art, it's a heist plot that is losing a little of the steam.

So things were looking up a little  on the Hulk end. We saw more of Banner's fate in the 3rd issue of Totally Awesome.One of the few books with good comic book art these days. Fing Fang Foom, no longer talks for some reason. Then in this weeks issue of Old Man Logan, Cho-Hulk gets mistaken for the real deal, which you think Logan's nose would have picked up on, so that was a slight fail, but there fight is good and end like most Hulk vs Wolverines , with Logan getting his butt kicked in, despite his healing factor.