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Ultimate Spider-Man #160 [Review]

Posted on June 23, 2011 by Walt

Death of Spider-Man: Part 5 of 5

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciler: Mark Bagley
Inker: Andy Lanning with Andrew Hennessy
Colorist: Justin Ponsor
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
Cover Art: Bagley & Ponsor
Assistant Editor: Sana Amant
Senior Editor: Mark Paniccia
Published by: Marvel Comics

So, this issue is mostly one big fight scene. Seems the Green Goblin’s been busy, and it’s all come back down to Norman Osborn vs. Peter Parker. But unlike that first time the Goblin came back–when it was Mary Jane who was thrown off a bridge, playing on readers’ knowledge of what happened to Gwen in the regular Marvel Universe–this time, it just feels like little more than a ripoff of a two-decades-old Superman story. Yet, it works.

The villain apparently rose…many have fallen, and it’s down to the titular hero to save those around him from said villain.

Face it…the title of the story, the branding of the last few issues of this title and the Ultimate Avengers thing–it gives it all away. Much like knowing weeks before the story even began that Doomsday! was a tale that would end with the death of Superman. It was the journey to get there, watching the hero gradually take more and more of a beating, attempting to dish it back, and ultimately making a final sacrifice to save those he loves from a monster’s rampage.

The story itself–pretty simplistic. I haven’t read the first four chapters of it in this title, and bought (but wound up only skimming) the issue where Peter takes the bullet for Cap….yet, the recap page at the beginning of this issue sum things up pretty succinctly–I don’t need those chapters to “get” this.

The art–maybe not fantastic, but after recently reading the first tpb of the post-Ultimatum Ultimate Comics Spider-Man…Bagley‘s art–which I’ve always enjoyed and associated with Ultimate Spider-Man–is SUCH a thing of beauty. The characters actually look like I’d expect, as I got used to. The way they looked over the course of all those practically biweekly issues in college and all those TPBs after that when I went back to the series last year and caught up on over 60 issues of story.

As a whole…not truly worth the $3.99 cover price. Not even with that black plastic bag with the hero’s logo in red on it. But y’know? I missed out on Ultimate Spider-Man #1; I wasn’t able to acquire any issues til #4 or so, and was only able to get back to #3. But by and large (I got the first hardcover with those first 13 fantastic issues) I got in at the beginning. So I couldn’t bring myself to entirely “pass” on this ending.

If you’re already buying this title, sticking with the singles after the Ultimatum stuff and the renumbering and the re-renumbering, the changes in art and all that…if you read the earlier chapters of this story…again, face it: you were already going to or have bought this issue already. If you’ve sat things out, wondering at simply waiting for the collected volume: keep to that route. You’ll get a full story. If you’ve avoided this story on principle…hold to it.

This isn’t going to be for everyone. In many ways, I should be appalled at this. To see the character I so enjoyed reading about–and the supporting cast–put in this (albeit fictitious) situation, to see things come to this…it’s horrible. Heart-wrenching. But when you come down to it…this issue makes this version of Peter Parker, Spider-Man, much more real, at least in the moment. We saw his origin. His beginnings. His career. And now, his end.

If you can find this issue, without being taken for a marked-up price…I recommend it. If you’re a lapsed fan of the series, it might be worth getting to be there for the end. If nothing else–consider the collected volume.

Story: 4/10
Art: 9/10
Overall: 7/10

Filed under: MARVEL, Spider-Man, Ultimate Comics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

X-Men: Legacy #250 [Review]

Posted on June 13, 2011 by Walt


Full review posted to cxPulp.com.

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

Filed under: cxPulp.com, MARVEL, Marvel Universe, X-Men: Legacy | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

X-Men: Schism [Checklist]

Posted on June 11, 2011 by Walt

The line has been drawn in the sands of Utopia. Prepare for a conflict between former teammates, brothers-in-arms, and friends as Cyclops & Wolverine go to war with one another! From superstar writer Jason Aaron and a ground-shaking ensemble of the industry’s best artists coms X-Men: Schism, the series that will split the X-Men down the middle! United No More!

JULY

  • X-Men: Schism #1 (Art by Carlos Pacheco)
  • X-Men: Schism #2 (Art by Frank Cho)

AUGUST

  • X-Men: Schism #3 (Art by Daniel Acuna)
  • Generation Hope #10

SEPTEMBER

  • X-Men: Schism #4 (Art by Alan Davis)
  • Generation Hope #11

OCTOBER

  • X-Men: Schism #5 (Art by Adam Kubert)

Filed under: Checklists, NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Criminal: The Last of the Innocent #1 [Review]

Posted on June 4, 2011 by Walt

The Last of the Innocent part 1

By: Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
With: Val Staples
Published by: Icon/Marvel

I’d pretty much forgotten the existence of this title. It seems to be a series of mini-series, each serving as a particular character or story arc. I’ve never disliked an issue I’ve read, but one of the best things about Criminal is the same thing that’s kept me from getting invested: the stories are full. Read just one issue, and there’s a full enough story there that it’s almost hard to believe the thing continues.

This issue follows Riley as he journeys back to his hometown to see his father before a risky surgery, and reconnecting with old friends and old memories. Of course, the trip nicely coincides with an itch to get away from debt he owes to some legbreakers and provides a chance to grab some quick cash to pay them off.

The story itself is very down to earth and realistic. No superpowers, no superheroics, no supervillains, no world-conquering invading armies, no wars or proclaimed crises of any kind. The characters are all believable if not stereotypical, and there’s some great allusion that serves to add even more depth to these characters and at one point left me actually laughing at picturing the alluded-to character acting in this way.

The art is simple yet detailed. It doesn’t try to be photorealistic, and simply depicts the characters. And the flashbacks being done in an even simpler style of old comic strips (in the vein of Archie, most recognizably to me) adds to the sense of layering and allusion.

The end of the issue is both ending–stopped here, it leaves plenty to the imagination. But it also–since it DOES promise more–piques the curiosity and leaves me wondering what comes next, especially for a book called Criminal, from Brubaker.

There may be some stuff here that I’m simply not getting, references or characters from some previous story. But if there is, I don’t see it, and I’d say it’s non-essential. I picked this up cold, and enjoyed it for itself. This is a brand new story, a brand new #1, and a great jumping-on point. All you need to know, I’d say, is that this is a creator-owned property from Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips, about very realistic people in a realistic world, if a bit noir-ish, and that the title Criminal fits the content.

Highly recommended.

Story: 8/10
Art: 8/10
Whole: 8/10

Filed under: Criminal, Icon, MARVEL | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Uncanny X-Force #11 [Review]

Posted on June 3, 2011 by Walt

Full review posted to cxPulp.com.

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

Filed under: cxPulp.com, MARVEL, Marvel Universe, Uncanny X-Force | 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 »

X-Men Legacy #249 [Review]

Posted on May 30, 2011 by Walt


Full review posted to cxPulp.com.

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

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

Avengers: Warriors of Plasm?

Posted on May 17, 2011 by Walt

avengerskreeskrullwarcardscoverI remember back in 1993 or so, a comic publisher (Defiant) teamed up with a trading card publisher and put out a set of trading cards. When assembled in 9-pocket pages, these cards became a quasi comic book, a zero issue.

Now, 18 years later, Marvel‘s hopping on-board with Upper Deck to do an Avengers: Kree-Skrull War “issue” that same way.

(see an official article at Marvel‘s site –  Kree-Skrull War: Upper Deck-ades in the Making | Marvel.com.)

plasmzero001What I don’t get is if something like this will actually sell. Granted, I’m absolutely NOT the target audience…but it seems that straight up “trading cards” fell out of favor with the advent of Trading Card Games/Collectible Card Games. I know I myself haven’t had any interest at all in buying cards that can’t even potentially be part of a playable game.

Then I spotted this gem:

The comic-card hybrid revolution is further celebrated with additional insert cards, richly presenting the set’s magnificent “cover” art by Harvey Tolibao–in full color as well as black and white–and even variant cover art by Paul Renaud.

avengerskreeskrullwarcardscover2“Love” the buzzwords here. Even in CARDS, can’t escape the “variant” cover for Marvel’s comics (DC, Dynamite, IDW, etc are guilty of the variants craze, but they’re not partaking in this card thing).

So even assembling a full set of the “basic” cards, one still has to track down the “insert” (aka “chase”) cards to have a TRUE “full set” by way of a so-called “variant” cover/art.

The cards come 9 to a pack, and I’m going to guess the packs individually will cost at LEAST $2. But let’s be generous and pretend they’d be $.99 per pack of 9 cards. And let’s assume that — just for the STORY — you get a complete set in the smallest number of packs necessary to physically acquire that set. plasmzero003190 cards, 9 to a pack…that’s a minimum of 22 packs. For just the story itself–supposedly “over 40 pages”–let’s assume 40 even. The cards’ll be double-sided, so a pack of 9 would make 2 pages (1 page on the fronts, 1 on the backs?)…so you’d need 10 packs BARE MINIMUM to assemble the story. $9.90 if there’s no tax. But probably double that as the cards would almost have to be $2/pack. Add another few dollars to account for inserts and variants.

And already this becomes at best a double-length “comic” for a minimum of $20, and probably closer to $30 or $40 on the cheap side when you account for the random assortment causing you to wind up with lots of duplicates to assemble just one actual unique set.

plasmzero002And then what? Are they going to sell a special binder for the set? Charge for the uniqueness of the card binder, maybe extra for special cover art?

And will card COLLECTORS really want to do all that JUST for “a comic?” Will “comic fans/comic collectors” really want to go to such trouble “just” for a complete set of cards to “read” the “issue”?

Me? I’d much rather take and spend that sort of money–if I had it–on a quality oversized hardcover or small omnibus, with 18-30+ ISSUES’ content or a couple/several TPBs or such.

Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Stephen King’s The Dark Tower graphic novels [Checklist]

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Walt

1. Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born

2. Dark Tower: Long Road Home

3. Dark Tower: Treachery

4. Dark Tower: Fall of Gilead

5. Dark Tower: The Battle of Jericho Hill

6. Dark Tower: The Gunslinger – The Journey Begins

Filed under: Checklists, NON-REVIEW CONTENT | 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 »

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