The Weekly Stack 052908
Well there was a LOT of really good stuff in my pile this week. It may take me a few sittings to add reviews etc for all, so check back to see WHY things fell where they did on the list. BEWARE SPOILERS BELOW COVER INDEX!!!
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Reviews contain SPOILERS do NOT read until you finish your own weekly stack!
Uncanny X-Men 498: Well the word is out, we know who the “goddess” is. She was one of the names raised at my Comic Book Club after last issue. Martinique Jason, daughter of Mastermind (Jason Wyngarde) and half-sister to traitorous Regan (Lady Mastermind who recently joined and betrayed the X-Men). Looks like she popped up in San Francisco, traumatized after House of M, and has been slowly transforming it into a hippie wonderland ever since.
We also see Wolvie kicking some ass in his boxer shorts, the return of Omega Red and a team of X-Hippies (I have the hots for Frosty).
New Avengers 41: Ka-zar, Shanna, an explanation that dates back to and actually explains the New Avengers FIRST trip to the Savage Land! All that and 1 panel of Captain America! But what a panel it is.
I want Steve Rogers back!
Green Lantern 31: And STILL we learn new things about Green Lantern’s origin. I am not a longtime GL reader. I’ve followed this entire series, but previously just knew the character from various (Hal, John Stewart and Guy Gardner) appearances in multiple incarnations of the Justice League. So I’m not sure EXACTLY what is new. I’m guessing Hals’ time in the Oan boot camp as well as his “first” meeting with Kilowog and Tomar Re and his swearing in ceremony are new additions.
How long after Hal Jordan was introduced as GL did they introduce the Guardians and the rest of the GL Corps?
Young Avengers presents 5 – Stature: This was a quiet issue (for a girl who can grow to the size of building I mean). As revealed in the teasers, Cassie has a personal failure when she injures someone close to her while defeating the Growing Man. This probably wouldn’t rank so high on my list, but the family drama scenes felt very authentic as did the dialog between the Young Avengers.
Thor 9: Besides a very amusing scenes with William the Townie arriving at the walls of Asgard to court Lady Kelda (who I think has a mortal fetish or is a BIG tease), and later William the Townie attempts to teach the Asgardians some basketball.
There was some REALLY wonderful material here. Loki manipulates Balder into a fight with frost Giants in the Rocky Mountains (they seemed to know her but she killed one before it could say too much). Lady Loki feels more evil than the old male version for some reason. I never bought his evil grin, but hers? brrrrr that bitch is gonna be trouble. She’s hiding Sif in a dying cancer patient and trying to turn Balder the Brave against his liege, and talking quite a good game in the process.
1985 1 of 6: I read it described as “precious” and I guess I see where one could get that. Yeah, its a bit cheesy. We’ve all seen the “kid gets mixed up in something beyond is control and becomes the only one who can summon the powers needed to save the day, the city, the planet, the universe, all reality, etc” before. I don’t think that negates the chance that there is a solid story to be told here. And sure WE may have read it before, but I bet there are kids out there now who will read this and be swept away by it. The 80’s comic references really brought me back to my own days of early fandom, Tommy Lee Edwards’ realistic art style works very well with the subject matter while remaining appropriately epic.
Mark Millar and Tommy Lee Edwards talk to CBR about 1985
Final Crisis 1: I don’t know what to say. I wanted this to be my #1 choice, so maybe I’m just being hard on it. J.G. Jones’ artwork was indeed beautiful. I thought there was very little in the way of explanation. Last week we saw a single panel of Martian Manhunter boomtubing out of wherever he was as Libra recruits Human Flame. This week MM is a helpless captive of Libra before being murdered without the slightest hint of resistance.
And the Dark Side Club ripoff of Roulette’s routine? Not inspired. Also if the blond kid in the cutoff shorts is Kamandi, who is the kid with the dreads to which Metron gave “knowledge”? I hope this gets clearer. If not for phenomenal art, this would have been FAR farther down my list.
Huntress Year 1 #2: I was surprised how much I enjoyed this. Before reading it I thought she’d be at the bottom of a big release week, but this title more than holds it own against the summer epics. We see the next step in the birth of the Huntress. This series follows on the heels of the story of the semi-recent retelling of the Huntress mafia princess origin, filling in the gaps and giving us more insight into where she got her inner drive and the penchant for violence that so bothers the Batman.
X-Force 4: OK we thought it was odd for the mutant-slaughtering Purifiers to let Wolfsbane live, now we know why. They wanted Angel’s wings so they could use the technology of Apocalypse and mass produce an army of deadly razor winged killers. So now they have that, not to mention they infected some of the most prolific mutant mass murderers in Marvel history with a techno-organic virus extracted from the remains of the alien Magus. What they probably didn’t count on was the rebirth of Archangel. Lets hope he remains sane enough to help.
She Hulk 29: At least we know how Shulkie got disbarred. We also know that someone paid “Dark Art” to set her up. But is “Bran” working for or against whoever paid Mr Moore? Bran asked who Moore’s employers were but then poisoned him… so was he looking for a name or just seeing if “Dark Art” had loose lips?
Its late – reviews for remaining 8 titles and the reason why I put Batman last…. tomorrow! G’night fellas!
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