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Secret Avengers #27 [Review]

Posted on May 28, 2012 by Walt


Full review posted to cxPulp.com.

Story: 4/5
Art: 3/5
Overall: 4/5

Filed under: Avengers vs. X-Men (event), cxPulp.com, MARVEL, Marvel Universe, Secret Avengers | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Avengers vs. X-Men #3 [Review]

Posted on May 5, 2012 by Walt


Full review posted to cxPulp.com.

Story: 3.5/5
Art: 3.5/5
Overall: 3.5/5

Filed under: Avengers vs. X-Men, Avengers vs. X-Men (event), cxPulp.com, MARVEL, Marvel Universe | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Avengers vs. X-Men #2 [Review]

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Walt

Round 2

Story: Jason Aaron, Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Jonathan Hickman, Matt Fraction
Pencils: John Romita Jr.
Inks: Scott Hanna
Colors: Laura Martin
Letters: Chris Eliopoulos
Cover Art: Jim Cheung and Laura Martin
Assistant Editor: John Denning
Associate Editor: Lauren Sankovitch
Consulting Editor: Nick Lowe
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Published by: Marvel Comics

The battle breaks out here, as the Avengers attempt to take the beach while the X-Men seek to shove ’em back out to sea. The issue is primarily a big brawl, a long fight-scene, with snippets of stuff sure to be expanded on in the Vs. mini-series and/or tie-in issues. While the two groups duke it out, Cyclops is focused on seeing Hope to safety, while she wants to be in the thick of things, fighting rather than being fought over. By issue’s end, we see the toll the fighting’s already extracted from everyone–and possibly what’s to come as it’s pushed Hope to new levels, and Cap’s “away team” in space finds shock and awe in the approaching Phoenix force.

Story-wise…I’m not too impressed here. There’s more fighting than anything else (at least when taken for face value–there’s more depth than there looks, despite my summary above). It’s definitely interesting seeing some of the match-ups…and the Captain America/Cyclops slugfest made me think perhaps the cover of Avengers #25 is the REAL tie-in of that issue, as I’d swear that cover was yanked right out of this issue. Definitely liked the Iron Man/Magneto match-up…the narrative boxes surrounding that initial fight worked extremely well for me in summing up both characters’ strengths and natural bents.

Visually, little to complain about. The issue was action-packed enough that I honestly did not notice any of the AR logos except on the cover, so I’m even LESS impressed here than I was with ’em on the first issue. Romita‘s art isn’t my favorite, but a darned sight better in my eyes than a number of other artists, and I liked the work in this issue in general.

On the whole, this is another solid issue that moves things in the overall story forward–the battle is joined (not teased and put off til mid-arc), we see further development of things with Hope and the role she seems to be destined to play, and there’s enough to the individual fights that while they can clearly be expanded, it’s not just a panel here, panel there, go read another issue for the actual battle.

And as with the first issue, this issue does leave me looking forward to the next issue. Though I may not feel this way in the end or if I think too hard about the price tag…on the whole I kinda like that this is biweekly. 12 is a large number of “core event title” issues, but biweekly this should be over by early Fall…quite a bit crammed into half a year.

Recommended.

Story: 7.5/10
Art: 8.5/10
Whole: 8/10

Filed under: Avengers vs. X-Men, Avengers vs. X-Men (event), MARVEL, Marvel Universe | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Avengers vs. X-Men #1 [Review]

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Walt


Full review posted to cxPulp.com.

Story: 4/5
Art: 3.5/5
Overall: 4/5

Filed under: Avengers vs. X-Men, Avengers vs. X-Men (event), cxPulp.com, MARVEL, Marvel Universe | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Thor #1 [Review]

Posted on November 16, 2011 by Walt

Quick Rating: Average, but there’s still potential.
Story Title: Untitled

Thor returns.

thor001Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Pencils: Olivier Coipel
Inks: Mark Morales
Colors: Laura Martin
Letters: Chris Eliopoulos
Asst. Editor: Alejandro Arbona
Editor: Warren Simons
Editor-In-Chief: Joe Quesada
Cover Art: Olivier Coipel, variants by others.
Publisher: Marvel Comics

This issue–and by extension, the series–holds a lot of potential, and seems to have some good ideas to give us, as readers. The execution seems a bit off, though, and despite some good conceptual ideas, just doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense.

I’ll be one of the first to stand up and complain about “decompression” and generally dragging stories out unnecessarily across multiple issues…but this issue felt like it actually should be at least 2, if not 3 or 4 issues in length.

The issue’s story–boiled down–is fairly simple: we as readers are introduced to Thor, his alter ego, shown how he returns, and follow his alter ego into a “new neighborhood,” so to speak.

The way the title character is first encountered seems to go against his last appearance, from what I recall (given 2 1/2 years’ separation from my last reading of that story). The way he returns has the potential of some epic, legendary thing that could bring a lot to the character…but is over so quickly that one may wonder why it’s taken so long (both in real time and comic-time) for this to happen. There’s some good setup that leads me to assume we’re meeting some new supporting cast, and we’re introduced to what solicitations lead me to believe will be the new regular locale for the book, which will nicely separate it (I hope) from being “just” another super-powered entity operating in New York City.

The art is good…I have no real complaints with it. I like the look of the characters, and can follow what’s going on visually. I also really, really like Thor’s new get-up. It has a much more realistic look, more practical for a “warrior” and somehow evokes more of a feel that Thor has Norse ties (if only through popular cultural depictions of Norse stuff). To me, it also makes the “classic” costume look fairly hokey.

This issue moves quickly along, going from lack of a title character to his return to setup of a new status quo, all in one issue–something that almost seems a feat in itself, in an age when title characters sometimes don’t show up until the final page (if even at all) of their own debut issues.

This is far from a perfect issue…and taken alone, I’m not entirely enamored with it. However, there’s still a lot of potential that I can see…and so I’ll give a couple more issues for Straczynski to kick his magic into gear and really hook me before I bail on this title.

Ratings:

Story: 2/5
Art: 4/5
Overall: 3/5

Filed under: Classic Reviews | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Fear Itself #3 [Review]

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Walt

Full review posted to cxPulp.com.

Story: 3.5/5
Art: 4/5
Overall: 3.5/5

Filed under: cxPulp.com, Fear Itself, Fear Itself (event), MARVEL, Marvel Universe | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Ruse #1 [Review]

Posted on March 18, 2011 by Walt


Full review posted to cxPulp.com.

Story: 4/5
Art: 4/5
Overall: 4.5/5

Filed under: Crossgen, cxPulp.com, MARVEL, Ruse | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Siege #2 [Review]

Posted on February 7, 2010 by Walt

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciler: Olivier Coipel
Inker: Mark Morales
Colorist: Laura Martin
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
Cover: Coipel, Morales & Martin
Associate Editor: Lauren Sankovitch
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Published by: Marvel Comics

This issue is largely a lengthy fight-scene. Ares vs. Balder. Ares vs. The Sentry. Dark Avengers vs. Thor. And while these battles are going on, Steve Rogers rallies the Avengers, with Nick Fury providing transportation. And the issue ends on a ridiculously annoying note.

While I like the visuals overall, something about the Sentry comes across like some totally ticked-off child, if not some sort of demon-possessed child. The other characters all look pretty good–and are quite recognizable. The only part where I really had any trouble following the action in the visuals was the most gruesome image of the issue–you’ll know it when you see it. Though the gore makes it clear the character has been killed, it seems to come out of nowhere. If the final page of actual comic store didn’t have “To Be Continued” I’d be asking why a page was left out–what seems to be done for cinematic/dramatic effect feels extremely anticlimactic, and does nothing to make me want to get the next issue. The sequence–in my eyes–should have been played out.

The story itself seems very simplistic…we see things going awry and Norman losing control of the situation as he’s closer to being exposed publicly. Characters fight, someone dies, etc. The fight sequences make the issue read far too quickly–there’s too much quick action and too little dialogue. I’d almost prefer to see a tie-in mini to flesh out the action, and let the main series involve more dialogue and interaction as the event goes down.

In and of itself, there’s not much of anything here to recommend this issue. Marvel only makes it worthwhile as it’s part of the story that ends the Dark Reign, and we’re almost–almost–to the point where Osborne’s gonna start to get some of what’s coming to him. This is an “event book,” and the “core mini” at that–this seems the bare minimum one should get if specifically following Siege. While there’s loads of other stuff surely going on, this has been doing a decent job–for what I’ve read–of having the main stuff unfolding here rather than in the tie-in/crossover issues.

Not wonderful, but there’s plenty worse out there to be read…plenty that doesn’t at least have as its end result a brighter tone to come for the Marvel Universe.

The text piece at the end held no interest to me–it may have some stuff for context, but I couldn’t even get through it.

Story: 3.5/10
Art: 8/10
Overall: 5/10

Filed under: Comic Reviews 2010, MARVEL, Marvel Universe, Siege, Siege (Event) | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Secret Invasion #8 [Review]

Posted on December 7, 2008 by Walt

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciller: Leinil Francis Yu
Inker: Mark Morales
Colorist: Laura Martin
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
Production: Irene Lee
Assoc. Editor: Jeanine Schaefer
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Cover: Gabrielle Dell’Otto
Publisher: Marvel Comics

That’s it?!?

This issue presumably picks up from where the last issue left off–but I’m not 100%, because I have only gotten certain beats of this story, being a reader who took ’em at their word that one would be able to just buy the main series and get a full story.

The Wasp apparently was turned into some sort of biological weapon (wha? when?), and rather than see the action moving forward, we’re treated to an opening sequence that seems to be more of a time-jump, going from a current in-your-face event to “well, now that we’re DONE, what exactly HAPPENED out there, Guys?!?” retrospective. Though The Wasp (insert arbitrary long-standing character here) died, the Skrulls were defeated, and now that the Skrull Plot has been brought to light, let’s see those who can take the fall do so, to shake things up for yet. another. “new.” “status quo.

The art on this issue isn’t horrible, but there’s something to it that doesn’t quite seem what I’d expect from Yu. While his style worked very well for me when he was on Wolverine a number of years ago, his style here isn’t really to my liking–many of the characters look odd to me…something much different from the “gritty” style I liked. Still, the art mostly shows what’s going on, and characters are recognizeable, so no huge fault there. (You can flip through the issue and determine if you like the visual style or not, as it maintains a consistent style throughout).

The story…

Well, I’m not satisfied. I bought the first issue of the series to check it out, and despite knowing better, I was hooked and bought the second issue. At that point, I’d bought a quarter of the series, so figured I’d grudgingly give it a shot for a few more issues, just to see if I could be proven wrong…and with this “8th” and “final” issue (I use quotes there because frankly, it is absurd to believe you can read a “core mini-series” for a Marvel event and not have to buy the umpteen specials, mini-series and tie-in issues as the event went on, and there are even epilogue/follow-up Secret Invasion issues BEFORE we even launch into the new “event” hot on the heels of this year-long monstrosity.

This issue was choppy, and tried to cram way too much in–we had at least three issues that did virtually nothing and now we have an issue with everything but the kitchen sink crammed in almost more to set up the next story than to truly provide an ending to this story. We hit a cliffhanger, then get a couple pages of resolution (tack those pages into the previous issue, and call this an epilogue/transition).

If you’ve been following the series, sure….pick this issue up. If you’re looking for surprises…well, avoid anything Marvel-related until you read this in one format or another. I’m not interested in where things are going, and maybe am not the target audience.

Story: 3/10
Art: 5/10
Whole: 4/10

Filed under: Comic Reviews 2008, MARVEL, Marvel Universe, Secret Invasion, Secret Invasion (Event) | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

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