REVIEW: The Comet #2

Plot/pencils: Tom Lyle
Script: Mark Waid
Review: Will Dubbeld

Damn right, Impact Comics.
Laugh it up if you’d like, but I’ve many fond memories of Impact Comics.  I’ve never looked into whose vanity project Impact was at DC, but I’m glad they were indulged.
In the early ‘90s, during my larval stage of comic nerdery, I bought the even lovin’ bejeezus out of these Impact books.
Why?
Initially because of price point. These bad dads could be bought fresh off the spinner for one American dollar, which was .25, .50, .75 cents cheaper than their peers.

And the stories weren’t terrible either.
The whole line was a reboot of Golden Age superheroes first appearing in books published by Archie Comics and featured the adventures of what have evolved into archetypical hero tropes. The Fly was a Spider-Mannish teen, The Web was a superspy organization akin to SHIELD or Checkmate, The Shield was a patriotic hero similar to Captain America.  These characters predated my examples, of course, but my young nerd-brain placed connective tissue where I pleased.

REVIEW: Marvel Team-Up #133: Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four

Writer: J.M. De Matteis
Artists: Sal Buscema and Mike Esposito
Colorist: Bob Sharen
Letterer: Diana Albers
Review: Art Bee

Here we are within the pages of a tale of comicdom from yesteryear. Since Madman delved into the pages of a Marvel Team-Up book last week, I figured I would copy from his test. This brought me to Marvel Team-Up #133, and it had me all over the place. It reminded me of a young lady, who had no opinions or preferences, I dated in my high school days. That date was long and awkward.

This issue was not bad per se, but the way the story is told makes it hard to follow the first time through. It starts with Reed Richards (a.k.a. Mr. Fantastic) in a bit of a rage over his family and friends being missing. Luckily, our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is there to lend a hand. The duo sets out to find Reed’s family and team all the while Spider-Man is throwing some wicked curveballs. He is not using his web shooters, being clumsy, and not using his spider-sense correctly. That’s right; it’s not Spider-Man.

So is this really a Team-Up? My answer is no.

REVIEW: Marvel Team-Up #37 Featuring: Spider-Man and Man-Wolf

Writer: Gerry Conway
Pencils: Sal Buscema
Inks: Vince Colletta
Colors: Phil Rache
Review: Cody "Madman" Miller

I just caught myself up on the current run of the Carnage book (which has been decent) and Man-wolf is involved in the hunt for Cletus Kasady. Eddie Brock has taken up as host for the Anti-Venom symbiote (which is neat) and Brock, Man-Wolf, and some S.H.I.E.L.D agents have teamed up to foil good old Cletus’ plan and ruin Carnage’s day.

 I, until recently, always considered Man-Wolf as a sort of throw-away, “who cares?”, kind of character. For a Spider-Man nut that was probably blasphemy on some level. I mean, John Jameson was there for The Amazing Spider-Man #1, and he’s Spidey’s archenemy JJJ’s astronaut son.

That’s how the JJJ III transformation into Man-Wolf happened...in space…
Specifically, on the Moon where John found some gemstone, took it home and made it into a necklace. The moon gem reacts with the lunar luminescence during a full moon and BLAM! Man-Wolf. The modern version of Man-Wolf is a badass, and I’m really digging him now.

REVIEW: Uncanny X-Men #201

Writer: Chris Claremont
Guest Penciler: Rick Leonardi
Guest Inker: Whilce Portacio
Review: Will Dubbeld

Gather ‘round, all, and harken back to the days of yore. Days comprised of kinetic adventure, flowing prose, and orgies of teamwork.
Back when Chris Claremont reigned supreme in all things X-Men. Back when the X-Men comics weren’t altogether sucky.
I’m not speaking purely as a jaded old nerd who’s knocking on the door of middle age.  I’m speaking based on empirical evidence gathered by my tightly-knit circle of fellow jaded old nerds.
Granted, Claremont slipped off the rails at some point during his X-treme X-Men run, but I’ll take the worst bit of Vargas killing Psylocke over the X-Men getting bested by the Hellfire After-School Club. Or AVX (with The Phoenix Five!). Or present day Beast going back in time to abduct the past X-Men as teenagers to convince Cyclops to not be a dick…
Wait…
What now?
Anyway, eff all that garbage. Gimmie the 1980s garbage any day.
So, speaking of Cyclops being a dick…

REVIEW: X-Force #2

Writers: Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld
Penciler: Rob Liefeld
Inker: Rob Liefeld
Colorist: Brad Vancata
Cover: Rob Liefeld
Review: Madman

I’m not an X-Force fan. I have at maximum no more then two issues of anything X-Force related. I just don’t care. I knew when I bought this issue there would be a 99% chance I would hate this comic; there’s just that much meh oozing from out.

If you couldn’t spy his handiwork from a mile away or you didn’t see his name a half-million times in the credits, Rob Liefeld is all over this thing, and it reeks of 90’s glam rockers with disproportionate biceps and no feet. I can’t stand this guys work…zero, none, I’d rather eat 100 of his panels then read a comic this guy drew during the 90’s. AND…it gets much, much worse when it comes to the eye candy as Brad Vancata’s colors make Liefeld’s crap pencils much, much worse. At points the colors become almost blinding neon. No one wants blinding neon comics…except maybe Evil Ernie fans but they’re definitely not right in the head. I bet after Liefeld handed Vancata the pages, he looked at them and probably realized he couldn’t actually make them look any worse, spent 15 minutes on them with his Bedazzler set on rabbit rabbit, and handed that shit right back. I’m not kidding. I’d almost rather look at Death Moth than this issue again.

REVIEW: Avengers #315

Writer: John Byrne
Artists: Paul Ryan & Tom Palmer
Review: Will Dubbeld

Dropping somewhere in between "Acts of Vengeance" and "Operation: Galactic Storm" fell Avengers #315. I'm moderately and admittedly sparse on stretches of Avengers lore, and this issue is no exception. We can rap about the "Pacific Overlords" arc of West Coast Avengers all day long, or the oft-maligned (but one of my personal favorites) leather jacket era, but not so much the early '90s stories.

Which may be a bit of a blessing...

Let's go ahead and, in this instance I think it's okay, judge a book by its cover.

Pros:

1)Guest starring the Amazing Spider-Man! Nice, a good Spidey guest spot never hurts.

2)Captain America, Thor, and Sersi. Cap's one of my favorites, I've always gotten a kick out of Thor, and Sersi is a crazy-powerful, underrated Avenger. So far, so good.

Cons:

1)Hoo boy. Per the cover, "The enemy revealed--while a universe trembles!"
And by revealed, we mean That Gratuitous Ass Shot. Seriously. I love some cheesecake but I'm not entirely sure an Avengers cover is the right venue.

2)Pirate Jarvis?        

REVIEW: Green Arrow #16 (vol 3)

Writer: Brad Meltzer
Pencils: Phil Hester
Inker: Ande Parks
Colorist: James Sinclair
Letterer: Sean Konot
Review: Art Bee

As I have said before DC has never really been my cup of tea (the exception would be the villains of Batman, for they have always been just the best villains of all time). Earlier this year I started watching Arrow on Netflix and have recently gotten caught up with the series, which I find phenomenal. So for this weeks’ Dollar Box pull I thumbed through the back issue box of Green Arrow at my LCS for one to review and came up with Green Arrow #16.

The cover of the comic was not spectacular looking, but the headstone featured has a very intriguing epitaph: “Oliver Queen – Always Made the Right Enemies”.  Having not read a single
Green Arrow issue in my life, this cover told me a lot about the book right away. Apparently Oliver Queen either died or had something happen leading everyone to believe he was dead.