REVIEW: X-Men: Manifest Destiny Trade

Writers: Jason Aaron, James Asmos, Mike Carey, Frank Tieri
Artists: Stephen Segovia, Paco Diaz Luque, Noah Salonga, Jorge Molina, Adrian Syaf, Victor Olazaba, John Rauch, Michael Ryan, Chris Burnham, Nathan Fairbairn, Takeshi Miyazawa, Christina Strain, Ben Oliver
Review: Art Bee

A couple of years ago at Kokomo Con, an amazing deal resulted in this trade following me home. Since then my eyes have been blessed with its contents a few times. The price point along with X-Men plastered across the cover made the book too tempting . Even though I truly enjoy this book, I have a few qualms.

This volume collects ten issues and three shorts all branded with the title “Manifest Destiny”, which is defined as a policy of imperialism rationalized as inevitable. The title really does not make sense given the content included in this collection. The Manifest Destiny story arc is just entailing the move of the X-Men headquarters from Westchester, New York to San Francisco, California. The title is a bad choice for the story, since it implies the X-Men taking over the nation moving westward.

The book opens with Wolverine: Manifest Destiny #1-4. This mini-series is very exciting and full of action. Does anyone out there not like Wolverine tearing through ranks of enemies?
Anyone . . . I thought not.        

REVIEW: Nomad vol2 #1

Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Penciler: S. Clarke Hawbaker
Inker: Mark McKenna
Colorist: Joe Rosas
Review: Madman

Jack Monroe. A failed super soldier. A fallen superhero. A reluctant “father.” Wandering the highways and byways of this vast land, Monroe tries to discover himself by discovering America. Stan Lee presents…a steaming pile of early ‘90s horseshit sandwiched between a classic ‘90’s gimmick fold-out wanted poster for Nomad and an advertisement for Galoob’s Game Genie. I’ve witnessed countless issues of Nomad dying a slow death in various dollar boxes, and now I totally understand why.

Even for a comic book the writing up in this trash heap is absolutely absurd, stiff, and lumbering. Not to mention boring as Hell. I kept asking myself if I was reading it in my early teens, if I would have even liked this book and/or character way back, and I can say with certainty that I would not. I find it hard to believe anyone actually did. Now, I’m not a Fabian Nicieza super-fan by any means. Thank you for your run on New Warriors. Thank you for being a part of the birth of Deadpool. Other than that I judge Mr. Nicieza on this book alone and, well…    

REVIEW: Blackmoon #1

Created, written, & illustrated by: James C. Hallett
Review: Will Dubbeld

The 1980s were a hotbed of small-press publishers making a grab for that four-color pie in the sky.  I'm not sure what their numbers were, dozens, hundreds, perhaps, but I do know they have always been a cheap purchase. Perhaps not necessarily on the newsstand, as indie books are often more expensive in order to recoup cost, but certainly in back-issue bins. Few were the issues that appreciated in value, leaving a glut of comics that dealers (presumably) had difficulty turning over.
For every Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles there were several Cold Blooded Chameleon Commandos.
You've never heard of Cold Blooded Chameleon Commandos?
Look 'em up. It's a thing.
They were almost on par with Geriatric Gangrene Jujitsu Gerbils, but nowhere near as amazing as Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters.

Also both real comic books I may or may not own.

I do...      

REVIEW: Undertaker #1 & #2

Writer: Beau Smith
Illustrator: Manny Clark
Inker: SanduFloria
Colorist: Jason Jensen
Review: Art Bee

Since I reviewed WWE #1 a couple of weeks ago, I thought I would evaluate an older comic book inspired by the same corporation. The professional wrestling arena has inspired many floppy-books and other media over the years. Some are worthwhile, while others...not so much. So where does this one fall? That is not an easy question to answer, but I will try.

Within the realm of the professional wrestling circuits each wrestler portrays a certain persona based on a combination of real personality, backstory, and created character traits. Sometimes these personas are well crafted and deeply designed; other times they are shallow and fickle.
The reason Chaos! Comics chose the Undertaker as the central character was because he had the fastest growing popularity, deepest backstory, and most solid character traits.      

REVIEW: Iron Man vol 1 #207

Writer: Denny O’Neil
Penciler: Mark Bright
Inker: Akin & Garvey
Colorist: Bob Sharen
Letterer: Rick Parker
Review: Madman

I can count on one hand the number of Iron Man comics I’ve purchased. I never really jumped on the Iron Man train until after his first movie came out as my youthful self was way more interested in web slinging, pumpkin bombs, and waiting for Ben Riley to die…not some jackass drunk in a fancy shiny red and silver suit of armor. I never really gave him a second thought until after the first movie, no matter how bad the last two were…
Sorry, no offence, Mr. Rourke.
Anyway, yeah, after seeing that movie I started to care…a little.

I had a friend growing up that always tagged along with me to the LCS, and it didn’t take long for him to dip his big toe into the house that Kirby and Lee built. I remember he bought a decent sized stack of Ghost Rider books and all was right in the world until his preacher father saw said Ghost Rider books, no doubt covered in flaming skulls and all kinds of cool stuff…
Clearly his son had been possessed by Satan himself, and I was taking him on a road straight to Hell. The next weekend my buddy’s father drove us back to the comic shop and made him take them back. I can still picture him explaining to the store owner that he needed to return this stack of comics, because his dad said, “They were of the Devil”. Reluctantly the shop owner gave him store credit, much to the displeasure of the preacher. On the way back home we tried reasoning with this man about how comics can’t literally damn you to Hell, why it wasn’t fair, etc, etc.