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Buy this comic or I shoot this planet! Way better than anything I could have come up with and downright awesome! Yes. I am still talking about the cover to SPACE PUNISHER #4 (OF 4). Which immediately becomes one of my all-time favorite covers. First off all, it’s Space Punisher, which is ridiculous enough. Then you got a giant Frank Castle. He’s got the whole world in his hand! And chalk up another worthy addition to the most insane “Bullet to the Head” copy-cat competition. “Bullet to the Planet” has to rank right up there! Comics. Gotta love ‘em!
Nominees! An even 10 this week.
AVX CONSEQUENCES #1 (OF 5) – Was not the best book of the week but I did appreciate and enjoy and I want to talk about it. Very matter of factly told us exactly what was going on with the former members of the Phoenix Five. Plus Wakanda, Namor and Magneto. Which was nice cause AVX is totally to be continued. And this is a spoiler. (Not really. It’s just the new status quo in the Marvel Universe. Saw it in multiple books this week. Sure you did, too). Cyclops has killed Professor X. He is in prison. Everyone is mad at him, especially Wolverine. Now, I understand being mad at Cyclops for his awful plan to contain the Phoenix and it was his agenda that got pushed from day one. But. But. They are not mad at him for that. They are mad at him for killing Professor X. Cyclops was being "controlled" by the Phoenix force when that happened. Totally willing to hear arguments that it was his own dumb decisions that got him to that point in the first place. But. But. They are not arguing that. He killed Prof X. Period. End of story. Anyone heard of the Winter Soldier? Mind control. Demonic possession. The Purple Man. Etc. Etc. Superhero 101, baby! If you’re not in control of your actions, it’s not your fault! FREE CYCLOPS!!! FREE CYCLOPS!!! FREE CYCLOPS!!!
BATMAN #13 – Was the best book of the week. Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo start off the Death of the Family cross-over with an excellent first issue. Liked everything about it. Except for the die-cut cover. That really makes it a pain to read. But read it you should!
BEFORE WATCHMEN DR MANHATTAN #2 (OF 4) – I really liked. Really two stories in one. If this decision is made, this happens. If this decision is made, that happens. And Dr. Manhattan, who supposedly knows everything that has happened, is happening and will happen already, was quite confused!
CONAN THE BARBARIAN #9 – End of the Border Fury arc. Excellent once again. Belit killed some wolves. Conan killed his impersonator. Can we go back to the ship now? It’s really cold in Cimmeria.
GREEN LANTERN CORPS #13 – Rise of the Third Army rolls on! The guardians elevate Guy Gardner to the title of Sentinel. And to show his appreciation, Guy quickly breaks the Guardians orders! Which was fortunate for Guy because the Guardians’ orders were: Kill Guy Gardner! Love that Mogo may be back. Jon Stewart is gonna fix it. As he should. He really did blow up a planet! And I’m diggin’ the Guardian army. What do we call those guys? Grey space zombie aliens? And Vandor is gone! Not sure who Vandor was but I’m sure he will be missed.
MASSIVE #5 – Called issue #4 the best issue of the series. Wrong! Issue #5 now pulls into the lead. Basically a stand-alone issue. Really only featured two members of the crew. They go to Antarctica in search of a source of clean water. Conflict arises. It was real good.
PUNK ROCK JESUS #4 (OF 6) – Was the best book of the week. Oops. Already said that. Hmmm. Okay. It comes in second to Batman #13. We’ll see how the poll shakes out. Both have had some dominating performances in the past. Good luck! Did actually get a full on Punk Rock Jesus this issue. Time sure flies when you’re reading Punk Rock Jesus. Sad to see Mom go, but did you have to kill the Polar Bear?
STUMPTOWN V2 #2 – We have found the guitar! Repeat. We have found the guitar! Wow. Dex is a really good detective. Solved the case in two issues! Nah. The guitar may have shown up but we’re just getting started with this one.
UNCANNY AVENGERS #1 – You want a new status quo. You got a new status quo. Picked up where AVX #12 left off. Opened with Professor X’s funeral. The Cyclops hatred mentioned above continued. Things I liked? John Cassady. Rogue. The Scarlet Witch. And the overall issue. Things I didn’t like? The crazy bird man shape shifter. Leave Wanda alone! And give Havok a little more credit. He’s got plenty of experience under his belt. Plus I was under the assumption that the “new” mutants would be "new" mutants. So Avalanche getting his powers back was surprising to me. Either way is fine. Clarification please. Thing I loved? The last page!!!! That’s why Chuck had to die. So they could do that. Awesome!
X-MEN #37 – The last Brian Wood issue? It might have been. Can’t tell if he’s just taking a break next issue or if he’s done. Lots of changes going on at Marvel right now. Gonna take a bit to get it all shook out. The aforementioned Uncanny Avengers #1 is the first Marvel Now title to come out. Plenty more headed our way in the weeks and months ahead. Gonna be interesting!
See ya!
Rusty
No love for Broo?
Plenty of love for Broo! In fact, I thought Kade Kilgore killing Broo (bullet to the head)was far more of a shock, surprise, and frankly caused more sadness, then Cyclops killing Prof X! – Rusty
Read Uncanny Avengers and Batman.
Uncanny is all set up and I don’t have a feel for the book at all yet. Not sure about the main bad guy either.
Batman was great, I don’t see how anyone beats out this book. The Joker is truly creepy and death is on a massive scale. Snyder’s work on this book is top notch and the art is getting better and better. Still a little wonky on the whole history and timing of things, but a great book.
One last note as goes Brian Wood off the X-Men book, so I will have to leave also, if he comes back, so will I.
Read AvX Consequences and the “I hate Cyclops” is total crap. I mean Jean Grey was the Phoenix and killed a planet and no one hated her when she came back. I think every member of the FF has been mind controlled. It is more like Marvel wanted to make Cyclops a bad guy, so this just allows them to do it. But Wolverine is about the worse friend ever in these books. Of course we all know Wolverine has never been mind controlled and killed anyone so how could he relate (where is the sarcasm font??). One final note, Cyclops in this book looked like Slim Summers again, what happened to the heroic physique he had?
Ah, screw Cyclops. Never liked him that much. Really hoped he would have been killed in AvX but no! We instead get an anti hero/future possible villian/war criminal/possible messiah still.
I don’t like Cyclops either. Never have. And while I love that Marvel is re-setting their Universe and that things that happen matter and that things that happen in one title are reflected in other titles and just the overall way they are moving to make the current Marvel universe a little more consistent and, to use those dreaded words, in continuity…once again they have decreed that this is going to happen with these characters with no regard to how these characters have acted in the past or to what has transpired before. I’m still totally enjoying, and I’m sure new readers do not have the same complaints that we may have, but it’s really lazy writing and/or editorial direction on Marvel’s behalf. FREE CYCLOPS!!! – Rusty
Agreed, if well written and done well, we can over look almost everything.
Cyclops is an unfortunate victim of Speedball Syndrome. He’s the last guy standing so he gets the blame.
I’ve been thinking more than I care to admit, and certainly more than the writers did. I think you can make the argument that the difference between Jean Grey and Cyclops, is that Cyclops knew what the Phoneix was and everyone told him what was likely to happen, and he went and did it anyway. In other words, he willingly put himself in the situation that ended with him as Dark Phoenix whereas the others (Jean Grey, Wolvie, Bucky) did not willingly seek out what happened to them. Granted that no one at Marvel has apparently put any thought into this, but there may be a qualitative difference.
Did anyone read Amecomix?
AME COMI GIRLS #1 FEATURING WONDER WOMAN? Of course! Little cartoony. But Amanda Connor is great. Little young. But it read well. And it was an origin/introduction story which I have read many times. But way better than I expected and well worth checking out. – Rusty
And my question to you, and any other interested party, as Batman #13 crushes the poll this week and Detective Comics #13 crushed the poll last week, which Batman book was better? Andy needs to know for the Best Book of the Month! – Rusty
Batman is better. Detective has had one very good issue. Maybe if we check back, in say three issues, it may be different.
Matt, it also seems that Cyclops doesn’t care what happened. All that matters to him is that the mutant population is growing. He’s more of a savior for mutant kind than any before him…at least in his mind. I think others like Magneto, Namor, and Frost would agree.
He’ll be back. Look at what Magneto has done and he’s still mixing it up.
Batman was great, but I’d go with Detective. I just think the degree of difficulty was higher. How many good stories with the Joker have we read vs. the Penguin? I also liked the characterizations of everyone, especially since it was basically a first issue.
In other words, Detective was the better single-issue but Batman is still the better series.
Batman – the Joker is at times the hardest character to get right because Englehart, Morrison, O’Neil, Heath Ledger, have made the bar very high and Snyder and Capullo exceeded high expectations. Layman did a great job, but following Tony Daniel is a lower bar to beat.
Hell of a month so far and the battle for the top book will be interesting as PRJ has to be in the mix also, especially in the series category.
As for Cyclops, he never wanted the Phoenix power, Iron Man messed it up and caused the creation of the Phoenix five. Based on how Hope handled the power at the end, looks like Iron Man was wrong and Scott was right. The counter is Hope was trained to be able to handle it by the Avengers. The whole thing is these characters are out of character, but Marvel uses the illusion of change to make things different. Making Cyclops a villain is that false change that like death in comics can be reset at anytime.
Ahh… the Snyder boys have gone with Mr. Snyder. I’m leaning towards Detective. But then again I don’t really like the Joker. – Rusty