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Sorry... I needed to get a fresh start again...

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Uncanny X-Men#522 REVIEW (Kitty Pryde FINALLY RETURNS!!!)

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS SO READ AHEAD WITH CAUTION IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THIS ISSUE YET!

Uncanny X-Men#522

Written by: Matt Fraction

Art by: Whilce Portacio

Inks by: Ed Tadeo

Colors by: Justin Ponsor

Price: $3.99

Publisher: Marvel Comics

When I first heard that Kitty Pryde was coming back I was absolutely stoked. I could hardly wait! Kitty Pryde is my all time favorite female comic book character and when I read the story where she was shot into space I cried like a little baby, so you can imagine what hearing the news that she was coming back felt like for me. I was excited. I spent the rest of that day digging up news articles about it, interviews, etc. I came across an interview with Matt Fraction saying that Joss Whedon (the man who wrote the story that sent Ms. Pryde into space, which you ALL should go read) approved and liked the story of return and that made me even more excited and gave me hope because for the most part I haven't been enjoying Fraction's X-Men stories.

Now I haven't been reading Uncanny for a while so I didn't exactly know what was going on but thankfully Fraction gives the readers who haven't been reading Uncanny recently enough information about recent events so the readers, like me who are going to pick up this issue solely because Kitty is coming back, to enjoy it. The book is basically just the X-Men gathering based on the news that Kitty is coming back to earth and Cyclops and so scientists working on how to get her back safely and not destroying the earth. What this story illustrates well is how much the X-Men care about Kitty and how badly they want her back. Portacio does a nice job illustrating the facial expressions of, for example, that scene towards the end where the X-Men have gathered while they wait for the space bullet which contains Kitty to come down to earth. Fraction does a great job on writing the thoughts of Kitty and clearly explores how she is feeling.

The basic concept of how Kitty is able to come home is Magneto was able to do something that allowed him to reach far into space and reverse the path of the bullet back to earth, which I thought was kind of cool, but like I said I haven't been reading Uncanny for awhile so I had no clue as to how this story was going to start or what exactly was going to happen. One of my complaints about this story is I wish they would've thought of something a bit more interesting and exciting on how to bring her back and I thought that they would've drawn out the story a bit longer. Although I am glad that they condensed the story and didn't pull a Captain America: Reborn on you.

Here is my favorite part of this issue. When Kitty returns she and Colossus run up to each other, but Kitty phases right through him, revealing that something is wrong with Kitty and it needs to be fixed. I thought this was great because usually when lazy writers write return stories they bring the hero back and every thing's great and nothing is wrong with the returned character and everybody celebrates and it's just not any good. This part of the book took me by surprise because I expected her to jump right back into her X-men position, give everyone hugs, etc. because I'm so accustomed to that in comic books nowadays. The ending was sad yet happy and leads me to wonder what's going to happen next to Kitty Pryde. Very well played Mr. Fraction.

Rating: B

Nemesis#1 REVIEW (Not intended for the Mark Millar fans)

Nemesis#1

Written by: a room full of monkeys Mark Millar

Art by: Steve McNiven

Colors by: Dave McCaig

Publisher: Icon/Marvel Comics

Price: $2.99 and a bit of your soul

Mark Millar's new book is finally here! After reading Old Man Logan and Kick-Ass Millar left me feeling insulted as a comic book fan. I decided that Nemesis would be his last chance to restore any hope I had left in him. But enough of that for now. The main concept of this book is what if Batman were like the Joker. So it's neither an original concept nor a hard to write concept and it shows throughout the book. I can sum this book up in one word: Cliche.

I would like to point out that there is a character in Uncanny X-Men named Nemesis who wears an all-white costume. Interesting, huh? The book starts out in Tokyo were Nemesis is talking to a hostage who is tied to a chair. Nemesis reveals that the he lured the (police? FBI? S.W.A.T.? We don't know... Millar never explains who they were) to the wrong building. That building blows up and lands on a train track, killing God knows how many people. Then you find out that the chair that the hostage is tied to is on a train track. Then a train runs over the hostage and we are treated to blood splattering everywhere, a leg flying off, a head being squashed, and other crap like that. Then the train mentioned earlier flys off the rails because the track got destroyed killing, again, God knows how many. Nemesis reveals his next target: Washington D.C.

Seen enough violence yet? Oh well maybe the book will tone down a bit and... what's this? Oh a guy just shot in the head with blood flying everywhere? Another guy gets shot in the stomach with a wave of blood spilling out? Two more guys get shot in the neck? One more guy gets shot in the neck/upper body? All in one page? Yeah, all of that did happen in a single page. It turns out that some form of authority (we don't know what organization it is because Millar is too lazy to tell us) shot the thugs. Then they talk to the chief of whatever organization they're from for a few pages and all that really tells us is that they should prepare for Nemesis since they got a warning from Nemesis himself.

Next we see Nemesis landing on an airplane and, somehow, walking across the wings of the plane without the wind blowing him off the plane. I realize that this is a comic book and they're not supposed to be realistic, but if you're going to write something like that please explain how he is able to remain perfectly balanced on the plane. Then he shoots the pilots (more death! Yay!) and hijacks the plane. Then Nemesis side-swipes a building with one of the plane's wings killing more people (alright! Give me some more Millar!). He then purposely crash lands the plane killing thousands and thousands of people (enjoying yourselves fanboys?)

Here is the kick in the nads for me in this book. The crash landing scene is a rip-off of the scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where Indy and his Dad are in the car and that airplane is coming right after them, and then the car goes into a tunnel and the airplane goes in the tunnel with them, but loses its two wings and explodes at the end of the tunnel. Well guess what? That happens in this book. The plane goes into the tunnel and loses its two wings and lands into a truck full of petrol (and into a mother and her innocent kid) and explodes. Also the book never shows Nemesis or the President leaving the plane, so apparently they're indestructible. I love the fact that the authority of Washington knows for a fact that this mass murderer is coming to their city but it seems like they've done NOTHING to protect the citizens. Shouldn't the state be in a lock down or something??? This whole book has lazy writing written all over it. The "cliffhanger" is that Nemesis kidnaps the President of the U.S. It's not like I saw that one coming...

The art is exactly (sort of) what I expected from McNiven: boring, stale, and stiff. Although this time he inked it instead of having someone else ink it. I know I'm not the only one who has said this, but it seemed like he was trying really, really hard to be Leinil Francis Yu. At certain parts of the book it didn't even look like McNiven drew the art. The art truly was boring and just not exciting at all.

This book consisted of 23 pages of story/art, 3 of which were splash-pages, and 13 of which were 3 or 4 panel pages with little to no dialogue in it. To me that just reeks of laziness. Also at the end of the book you get 5 pages of ads featuring the recent stories Mark Millar has written for Marvel. Hey Millar: How about advertising for stuff done by someone other than yourself, huh?

After reading Nemesis#1 and Ultimate Avengers#5 (which I read a while ago) I have come to the conclusion that the Mark Millar that I used to admire as an aspiring comic book writer is gone. He's gone. If you all want to read an awesome Millar story read Superman: Red Son. That story is utterly incredible. So will I keep buying the series? Yeah, just so I can review/rant on them! :)

At least no one's baby got thrown out of a window (that we know of).

Rating: D

Deadpool#19 REVIEW (It's about time this came out)

Deadpool#19

Written by: Daniel Way

Art by: Carlo Barberi

Inks by: Juan Vlasco and Sandu Florea

Price: $2.99

Publisher: Marvel Comics

So here we finally have the 19th issue of Deadpool! Was it worth the two month wait? Hey, why aren't you reviewing the new Loeb Hulk book, dood? I personally like to not be offended when I read comics. Me too. Have you no good taste in comics? Wait... why are you guys ALWAYS here when I try to do a Deadpool review? It's in da contract, man. What? He's actually telling the truth for once. Fine, whatever. Why so frustrated bro? Don't you remember how much fun we had in our review of Deadpool#17? Unfortunately. Let's just get on with the review... people have probably already stopped reading this because I'm talking to myself. Hey! We never did that review of Amazing Spider-Man#611 you promised we'd do!

Just like every issue of Deadpool before this one it is packed with a lot of fun and humor, which makes this a good book to read if you're stressed or depressed. Dood... you just rhymed... So in this issue Deadpool seeks Spider-Man and I love the part when Deadpool says, "Spidey! What up, baby boy? Haven't seen you since Amazing Spider-Man#611!" We were supposed to review that book... *sniff*. I'm sorry if I'm busy and don't have a lot of free time to review stuff on the blog... anyway Deadpool also eats a lot of hot dogs and burps and farts throughout his first incounter with Spider-Man in this book which is also pretty hilarious. Didja see the New Ultimates ad in dis book??? Can't wait!!! XDXDXDXDXDXDXD!!! What is the matter with you? We shoulda left him at the Grand Canyon. I agree. Anyway the whole dynamic of this book is great. It is very light-hearted and silly and is a great way of cheering up. Although I did miss Paco Medina's art Barberi did a nice job with the art chores. Ah screw dem! Get Liefeld on the book!!! No. No way. Although the Hit Monkey character is a bit stupid and silly I'm interested in seeing where they take his character in the upcoming issues. I am a bit worried about the quality of this book suffering a bit from the over-exposure of Deadpool. Seeing him everywhere at once gets really annoying really fast and I think that's starting to factor in to the quality of this book and not in a good way. Overall this issue was enjoyable and I hope the clever silliness and hilariousness of this book stay for a long time.

Rating: B

Stay fresh everybody!!! Whatever that means.

The WORST Comic Book Stories EVER

Ok so a few weeks ago I did a post about some of the best comic book stories I've ever read. Now I'm going to do a post about some of the WORST comic book stories I've ever read and stories that you must stay away from. Here we go...

- One More Day (By J. Michael Straczynski and Joe Quesada)

- Ultimatum (By Jeph Loeb and David Finch)

- Old Man Logan (By Mark Millar and Steve McNiven)

- Almost every New, Dark, Mighty Avengers issue written by Brian Michael Bendis (By Bendis and various)

- Battle for the Cowl (By Tony Daniel)

- Countdown to Final Crisis (By various)

- James Robinson's current JLA run (By James Robinson and Mark Bagley)

- Ultimate Fantastic Four#19-20 (By Mike Carey and Jae Lee)

- Ultimate Fantastic Four#21-32 (By Mark Millar and Greg Land)

- The Ultimates 3 (By Jeph Loeb and Joe Madureira)

- Ultimate War (By Mark Millar and Chris Bachalo)

- Batman R.I.P. (By Grant Morrison and Tony Daniel)

- Ultimate Power (By Brian Bendis, J. Michael Straczynski, Jeph Loeb, and Greg Land)

- Civil War (By Mark Millar and Steve McNiven)

- Every Amazing Spider-Man from the 90s (by various)

- Dark Reign: The List (By various)

- Tony Daniel's current Batman run (By Horse and Crap)

- Jeph Loeb's Hulk series (By Loeb and an array of excellent artists, unfortunately)

- Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch's Fantastic Four run

- Kick-Ass (By Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr.)

- Return of the Black Cat (By Joe Kelly and Mike McKone)

- Bob Gale's Amazing Spider-Man issues

- Zeb Wells' Amazing Spider-Man issues

- Fred Van Lente's Amazing Spider-Man issues

- Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth (By Victor Gischler and Bong Dazo) Only thing funny about this series is that it actually got published.

- Deadpool Team-Up (by various people who can't tell a good Deadpool story)

- Anything written and/or drawn by Rob Liefeld (your eyes will bleed)

- Absolute Power (By Aron E. Coleite and Mark Brooks)

- Captain America: Reborn (By Ed Brubaker, Bryan Hitch, and Butch Guice)

That's about all I can think of right now. Jeez. Look at this list! Look at all the pain comic books have given me! Poor Mark Millar :( All of these stories have been published in the past 15 years or so... I wonder why that is?

What is this bullcrap?: Political Jokes in Comic Books

By now most comic book fans have heard about the 'tea bag' joke in Captain America#602. While I have read that issue yet I have read numerous articles about the joke. If you have seen the joke yet here it is:

A lot of people are getting upset about this including Fox News. But here is my question: Did anyone get upset about this anti-George Bush joke in Amazing Spider-Man#595? Here it it:

The answer is no. In fact people LOVED this joke. I did not. I thought it was downright disrespectful. Now understand that the tea bag joke was not intended. Writer Ed Brubaker even said, " I don't know who did it, probably someone who thought it was funny. I didn't think think so, personally". Oh, I'm sure you had a laugh riot when you read the joke ASM#595 Mr.Brubaker.

If I was an editor at Marvel Comics I would say to leave any political jokes out of comic books, regardless if you're Republican or Democratic, because you're going to offend someone and it makes reading comic books less fun.

To read more about the tea bag joke click here.

R.E.B.E.L.S.#13 REVIEW (The Agents of Atlas of the DCU)

Wow its been a long time since I did a review, so hopefully with this review I can get back on track. Here we go:

R.E.B.E.L.S.#13

Written by: Tony Bedard

Art by: Claude St. Aubin

Inks by: Scott Hanna

Cover by: Kalman Andrasofszky

Price: $2.99

Publisher: DC Comics

This has to be one of DC's most under appreciated books ever. I found out about this book through the Blackest Night ring promotion and through a couple review on the comic culture warrior youtube channel. I had doubts about whether I would like this book or not since I knew absolutely nothing about the characters in the book, but when I did read the book Bedard did a nice job summarizing what has happened with these characters and who they are (see R.E.B.E.L.S.#1 and 10).

Bedard does a really nice job making this an incredibly fun book to read and does a great job on making these characters enjoyable, easy to relate to and easy to care for. Bedard got me quickly emotionally invested into the characters which I found similar results in Green Lantern Corps and Invincible Iron Man, which I absolutely love. I love it when stories get you into the characters and make them easy to care for and when they're not just paper cut-out characters. Another great thing about this book is it is full of exciting and fun-filled space adventures. At times it feels a lot like a Star Wars, Star Trek, and/or Battlestar Galatica type of adventure and it is amazing. The level of imagination that goes into this book is incredible and it clearly shows throughout the book. The humor that is snuck into the book is also very interesting and funny. It always comes at the least expected times which shows that Bedard has great comedic timing.

The art really goes nicely with Bedard's script. It flows and adds a level of enjoyment to the book. The spaceship, character and costume designs are all very interesting and a treat for the eyes and again gives the book a nice space adventure feel to it. In just 2-3 months this book has quickly shot up to the list of comic books that I have to read every month. If you aren't reading this you should be. If you don't like it, that's fine. If you do like it, great! This is a book that needs more attention and more people buying the book. Like I said in the title: it's the Agents of Atlas of the DCU. I would hate to have this book meet the same fate as a few of my other favorite books such as, Agents of Atlas and Captain Britain and MI13, have meet.

Rating: A

ItsJustSomeRandomGeek's recommended comic book reading list

Do you think comics are dumb? Have you ever considered getting into reading comic books? Well I have a handy-dandy list of stories you should read. I guarantee that each story will change you're perception on comic books. I promise. So without further blah blah here's the list:

- If this be my destiny... (Amazing Spider-Man#31-33 by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko)

- Dark Phoenix Saga (Uncanny X-Men#129-137 by Chris Claremont and John Bryne)

- Hobgoblin Saga (Amazing Spider-Man#238-239, 244-245, 249-251 by Roger Stern, John Romita, Jr., and John Romita, Sr.)

- Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (Batman: The Dark Knight Returns#1-4 by Frank Miller)

- Daredevil: Born Again (Daredevil#227-233 by Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli)

- Batman: Year One (Batman#404-407 by Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli)

- Batgirl: Year One (Batgirl: Year One#1-9 by Scott Beatty, Chuck Dixon, and Marcos Martin)

- The Night Gwen Stacy Died (Amazing Spider-Man#121-122 by Gerry Conway and Gil Kane)

- Power and Responsibility (Ultimate Spider-Man#1-7 by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley)

- Ultimate Clone Saga (Ultimate Spider-Man#97-105 by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley)

- World's Most Wanted (Invincible Iron Man, current volume#8-19 by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca)

- Batman: The Killing Joke (Batman: The Killing Joke One-Shot by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland)

- Batman: Hush (Batman#608-619 by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee)

- Green Lantern: Rebirth (Green Lantern: Rebirth#1-6 by Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver)

- Superman: Man of Steel (Man of Steel#1-6 by John Byrne)

- Wanted (Wanted#1-6 by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones)

- The Tomorrow People (Ultimate X-Men#1-6 by Mark Millar, Adam and Andy Kubert)

- The Death of Captain Stacy (Amazing Spider-Man#88-90 by Stan Lee, Gil Kane and John Romita, Sr.)

- Batman: A Death in the Family (Batman#426-429 by Jim Starlin and Jim Aparo)

- Batman: The Man Who Laughs (Batman: The Man Who Laughs One-Shot by Ed Brubaker and Doug Mahnke)

- Warren Ellis' run on Thunderbolts (Thunderbolts#110-121)

- Judd Winick's Batman issues (Batman#626-630, 634-641, 645-650, 687-691)

- Geoff Johns' ENTIRE run on Green Lantern (Green Lantern, current volume#1-current)

- Magnum Opus (Deadpool, current volume#8-9, Thunderbolts#130-131 by Daniel Way, Andy Diggle, Paco Medina, and Bong Dazo)

- Death of a Goblin (Ultimate Spider-Man#112-117 by Brian Michael Bendis and Stuart Immonen)

- Daredevil: The Man Without Fear (Daredevil: Man Without Fear#1-5 by Frank Miller and John Romita, Jr.)

That's all I think of right now. Any stories that YOU guys out there suggest that I read? I'm currently reading JLA/Avengers, Crisis on Infinite Earths, and other random back issues. I'm on the look out for Superman: Red Son, Birth of Venom, Pax Romana, and Blankets. I'll probably add more if any good stories come to mind.

My rebuttal to Tom Brevoort

As many of you are aware Marvel has announced that they will give out a Siege#3 Deadpool variant cover for every 50 covers of the DC titles that came with the lantern rings in November. In short I don't like this at all. It is a low blow and I'm amazed that DC hasn't striked back, but then again DC has more respect than Marvel. That's not what I'm ranting about now. What I'm about to talk about is how Tom Brevoort, the Executive Editor at Marvel, is responding to complaints. I am going to dissect this interview bit by bit. I will be pulling quotes and statements from the article. A link to the article can be found at the bottom of this post.

"We heard from a number of retailers who got stuck with books chasing rings and decided to do something. We're not making any money on the deal, but we are helping our retailer partners during a tough economic time. Making sure that our retailers can keep the doors open if they tied up a lot of cash on inventory they can't move. We're doing this because we're in the business of selling content rather than Cracker Jack prizes. And we need retailers to be able to keep the lights on and afford to order next month's books. [Marvel won't be accepting trade-ins for unsold Dark Reign and The List books] because there, what we were selling and what the retailers were buying were the books. But DC can if they want to!"

Ok so I have several things that I'm having a problem with in this statement:

1. If you're a retailer and your stuck with certain books that you don't want anymore then put them in a sale bin or sell them for a buck a piece instead of following along with Marvel's dumb move.


2. Calling the lantern rings "Cracker Jack prizes" is stupid. Want to know what a cracker jack prize is Marvel? Paper Avengers ID cards and 2010 calenders. Personally I'd rather have a lantern ring instead of a stupid variant cover that won't be worth ANYTHING in the future.


3. Instead of being sent your competitors books why not have sent back the worthless mini-series that Marvel has shoved down people's throats? Need examples? Oh how about all those Dark Reign mini-series'? That's about 10 or 15 different books right there. Are you scared Marvel? Are you scared that DC might actually surpass you? Is that why you're demanding their books? Cause it sure seems like it.


4. Also DC won't do a stupid move like this. They actually have respect for their competition.

Originally Marvel was going to make brown Deadpool Corps rings to give away, but then they said that it would be too expensive. Are you kidding me Marvel? You have over half the market share, you have about 15 movies in development, you have thousands of other products such as clothes and toys and you're saying that making the rings will be too expensive? DC was able to make 8 different kinds of rings! And they don't have all the money that Marvel has.

Marvel what happened to you? Every day it seems like more and more of my love and respect for Marvel is being whittled away because of dumb decisions like this. Hey Marvel, if your goal was to force me to buy less of your books and buy more DC books then congratulations... Mission Accomplished. I've decided to only buy a few books from Marvel since they clearly don't need my money or care too much for the fans:

1. -Invincible Iron Man


2. -Fantastic Four


3. -Amazing Spider-Man (only when Dan Slott writes)


4. -Agents of Atl- oh yeah... they cancelled that book... I may buy Atlas vs. Avengers... it all depends on how much money I have.

Cool! I could use the extra money. I would totally boycott Marvel completely but then I'd be punishing the awesome creators at Marvel (i.e. Matt Fraction, Jonathan Hickman, Jeff Parker, etc.) Marvel is shoo-ing me away... while DC has welcomed me with open arms.

Oh and Marvel... get your heads out of your wallets and start being more like what DC is like right now... you might learn a thing or two.

Click here for the full article!

Let me know what you think of this by leaving a comment! Thanks!

Siege#1 REVIEW (The Marvel Event of 2010 is here!!!)

Written by: Brian Michael Bendis

Drawn by: Olivier Coipel w/ inks by Mark Morales

Price: $3.99 ("Cheap"!)

Publisher: Marvel Comics


Um just really quick nit-pick here put on the Marvel website it said that the cover was going to be cardstock, but the actual cover feels like a glossy cover (like the kind of cover Blackest Night is). I like cardstock covers a lot, so where is my cardstock cover Marvel?!?!? I haven't even started talking about the book and I'm already driving myself crazy!!! It doesn't really matter what the cover is. I like normal comic covers better instead of fancy cover crap (i.e. cardstock and glossy). Oh but then you'd be "degrading" the comic book if it doesn't have its fancy- schmancy cover... my bad...

So the book starts out with Volstagg coming to Midgard. He then tries to stop a robbery by slicing the van with the robber(s) in it which kills(?) them? The van is on fire so... yeah... I'm don't know much about Thor, but does Volstagg kill? That seems like a dumb question... anyway three super powered beings show up and take the fight to a football stadium thus causing a HUGE explosion killing thousands of people thus giving Norman Osborn and his Avengers/ friends to take siege (hah) of Asgard. Gee doesn't that concept seem familiar guys? *cough civalwar cough* So then Osborn assembles his Avengers, Ares gives a battle cry, blah blah blah blah blah. Some neat action sequences... some talking... some very nice Olivier Coipel art... Ares stands PERFECTLY balanced on a jet in mid-air... when Don Blake turns into Thor I thought that was cool with the jets flying overhead... more fighting... the Dark Avengers and the U-Foes (of all people) beat the crap out of Thor. So Thor can beat Sentry (basically Marvel's Superman) but he can't beat the U-Foes???... weird...

This is why Blackest Night is a hundred times better than Siege: Blackest Night has you emotionally connected to the characters immediately. Here in Siege...? Nope. None. I felt nothing when Thor was being pummeled and beat. I felt barely any emotional connection to any of the characters in this story. I know that sounds bad, but it's the truth. Plus Blackest Night is waaaaaaaaay more exciting than Siege. Man, I really wanted to like this comic book, but the truth is I didn't really care. One thing I did enjoy was that there was none of the usual Bendis decompression and this issue moves along nicely.

Here is the problem I'm having with this book. So after the 23-page story there is a script consisting only of dialogue called 'Ares War Plan Transcript'. It is a five page script, BUT in the transcript one page of dialogue was accidentally (most likely) printed, so that means that there is one page of the transcript missing. Marvel later released the missing page and the whole transcript as a free digital comic. But here's the thing... why not just release it as a digital comic INSTEAD OF printing it in this comic and charging people EXTRA for it, or even better: put the transcript in the book and DON'T charge extra for it. You also get a 3-page Cup O' Joe where Joe Quesada tries to convince people that this story is seven years in the making and to tell you about all this other previous stories you have to read to catch up on (We're talking 7 YEARS of story folks). Gee, isn't Marvel nice? You also get a Siege checklist. WOW! We haven't seen that before!!! It's not like we saw it in Marvel previews or on a postcard like thing that comic books shops were giving out for free or in Origins of Seige or in the new Marvel 2010 calender or on the internet or inside recent comic books! You also get a 5-page preview of Hulk#19 (which has nothing to do with Siege, btw). Who cares?!?

All in all this issue was rather disappointing. Was definitely not worth $3.99. It was like inflating a balloon y'know? You get excited and then some jerk comes along and pops the balloon thus deflating it. This event was rushed and is not seven years in the making (more like 7 days in the making) and it clearly shows. Well at least Bendis didn't do anything to piss me off like his occasional misogyny... his serious decompression... him writing my favorite characters not like themselves...

Rating: C+

I apologize for the lack of reviews/ posts on this blog. I've been kinda busy... Feel free to comment! I would greatly appreciate it! Take care everyone!

Army of Darkness: Ash Saves Obama#4 REVIEW (Who saves the day? Does Ash? Does Obama? Does Anyone?)

Army of Darkness: Ash Saves Obama#4

Writer: Elliott Serrano

Artist: Ariel Padilla

Price: $3.50

Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment (See, I don't read just DC and Marvel!)

It's finally here! The thrilling conclusion to Ash Saves Obama! The deadites are trying to take over the world by trying to turn Obama into one of their own. Overall this story is clever and well executed. The deadites are smarter than we think! They're not just brain-eating undead beings, ya know! What I think is one of the best parts of this mini-series is that a female character is the main hero that gets everyone out of the mess. I like this because most comic books treat women as inferior to men (coughbrianmichaelbendiscough) and I believe that is the main reason why not a lot of girls read comic books which is unfortunate. So kudos Elliott for giving me a little bit of hope I had once lost in the comic book industry. Also the bit where Obama burns the necronomicon comic was pretty cool, Another thing that impressed me in this book... I never thought I be buying a comic with Obama in it, but this mini-series is better than I thought it would be and I believe people who love comedy and fun team-ups should give this book a try. Humor is pretty frequent in this book as well, but it's clever and well thought out humor, so if you love potty humor stay away from this book. So I really enjoyed the writing.

Padilla's art is also nice as well. It adds to the feel of the story, but at times it looked a little different or inconsistant, but otherwise it was good. I... don't know what else to say about the art and the writing other than overall I really enjoyed this series and it should have more attention than it's getting. Well done Elliott and Ariel!

Rating: B+

Also Elliott Serrano is part of comicculturewarrior so if you want to have great comic book discussions and see and read some of the greatest opinions, if not the GREATEST, opinions about comic books and comic culture check out their Youtube channel and their blog!

Click here to visit their blog!

Click here to visit their Youtube channel!


What are you waiting for?!?!?!? Click those links already!!!

DC declares war on the Supermen!!!

That's right! Another comic book event heads our way! Yay or nay? I'm neither going to say 'yay' nor 'nay' because I'm not a big fan of Superman. He never really has been a personal favorite of mine. Although I did like John Bryne's Man of Steel and I'm liking Superman: Secret Origin right now, but other than that I haven't really cared much for Superman. I haven't read Superman: Red Son or the Geoff Johns/Gary Frank run of Action Comics, but I am on the lookout for those 'cause I've heard those stories are great.

So as you can probably guess that I have no idea where the Superman stories are right now... well... you're right, but DC editor Matt Idelson was asked if fans who aren't up to speed on the current Superman continuity will still enjoy the story and responded:

"Absolutely," Idelson says. "A big part of our jobs (editors and writers both) is to make sure we remember that any given issue of any book could be someone's first. With a big, loud story like this, we have to be doubly diligent to make sure this thing is accessible, from the Free Comic Book Day zero issue right through to the finale."

That's good news for me. This is probably going to be similar to my first exposure to Green Lantern, which was Blackest Night. When I first read BN I had no clue about any of the continuity, but I still enjoyed it immensely. But that caused me to go to book stores and buy all the back issues of stories to catch up and enjoy the story even more, which I may do ahead of time to enjoy War of the Supermen.

Here's the big question: Do we really need another comic book event? Personally I am evented out (Blackest Night is a exception because it's so darn awesome). With the Marvel events such as Fall of the Hulks, Seige, Doomwar, X-Men: Second Coming, etc. coming out it's starting to become a bit too much with all the events, but you know darn well all the event books are going to be top sellers, so the companies will just keep bogging us down with events... We'll see how this all plays out because it's too early to critisize because at first I wasn't looking forward to Blackest Night, but now I love it. You just never know...

Click here to find out more!

Character of the Week: Larfleeze

Don't worry... I'm still sane and all the turkey I had last night hasn't altered my frame of mind. This week marks the return of the post: Character of the Week and the character of the week this week is... Larfleeze. I never thought I would EVER care for Larfleeze because I hated him in the Agent Orange storyline in Green Lantern, but this week Geoff Johns changed all that. In Green Lantern#48 Larfleeze is one of the highlights and in my opinion there is no better way to quickly get a reader emotionally invested in a character than have an issue or two devoted to a particular character. A lot of cool stuff happened with Larfleeze's character in GL#48 and some humorous stuff happens as well. With that I have a new favorite character! :)

Blackest Night#5 REVIEW (Most of the DC Universe... DIE!)

SOME SERIOUSLY MAJOR MAJOR AND I MEAN MAJOR SPOILERS ARE IN THIS REVIEW SO IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THIS ISSUE YET DO NOT READ THIS REVIEW.

Blackest Night#5

Writer: Geoff Johns

Artist: Ivan Reis w/ inks by Oclair Albert and Joe Prado

Price: $3.99

Publisher: DC Comics

A month ago after reading Issue#4 I asked myself, "How can this get any worse???" Well after reading this... Geoff Johns has easily shown us that it has gotten much, much worse. At the beginning Johns gets your hopes up by having all the Lantern Corps leaders in one place and you think, "Alright! Something good is going to happen!" So for a while you have a happy feeling but then Johns takes that away from you and plunges you back into the bad news. Not complaining... that's the sign of a good writer. So Nekron, the lord of the dead basically, has been risen by Black Hand. Nekron has risen all of Coast City, which is about 7 million people, and things don't look very good. So then a bunch of heroes and all of the Lantern Corps leaders come together and it looks like things are going to be fixed and well. But then... Bruce Wayne is risen from the grave. Then Nekron says that he has connections to everyone who has died and came back. Then commands those who have died and come back to life... (SPOILER!!!)... to die. So we're talking a huge amount of the heroes have just been killed and turned into black lanterns. Superman, Wonder Woman, Kid Flash, Green Arrow, Superboy, Animal Man, and others have died and Hal Jordan and Barry Allen are next...

I. Love. This. Series. I'm gonna come out and say it... this could possibly be the BEST event comic book EVER. Blackest Night is better than Secret Invasion, Civil War, and House of M combined... times five. Seriously if you aren't reading this series you need to go to your local comic book store and buy the issues that have come out so far. Now. You may be asking yourself, "Why does this guy love Blackest Night so much?" I love Blackest Night because it has you emotionally invested in all of the characters involved with the event. You care for them and wonder what's going to happen to them. Plus the heroes act like heroes. They don't bite people's heads off, or kill people, or rape anybody, etc. Geoff Johns knows how to torture the characters he writes and his fans, which is the sign of a good writer.

Ivan Reis' art is great. I would be remiss if I didn't praise his art. For what he does on this book he does really well. His art is spooky, creepy, etc. His art works nicely with the whole story of Blackest Night. The only complaint I have is that there are two inkers working on Reis' art. I understand that they have two inkers working on the art to get it out on the deadline. That's fine and I understand that, but a times the art looked different and a little inconsistant because both Oclair Albert and Joe Prado have different take on Reis' art, but that's just a minor complaint. Otherwise Blackest Night is my favorite book now and I can't wait to see the outcome of this story. DC has yet to disappoint me with this series, so DC: keep up the good work!

Rating: A

Amazing Spider-Man#612 REVIEW (The Gauntlet Begins!!!)

Amazing Spider-Man#612

Writer: Mark Waid

Artist: Paul Azaceta

Price: $3.99

Publisher: Marvel Comics

The Gauntlet has begun! All of Spidey's classic and most deadly villains are coming back and I am totally on board! ...This is about the when Marvel gets me pumped up for something and they fail to live up to the hype. Example: Mary Jane's return, I was sooooo happy, but Marvel was only teasing me and did little to nothing with her return. Chameleon came back! Cool! That could be a cool story, but it turned out to be one of the worst Spider-Man stories I've ever read. Ooh! Steve Rogers is coming back!!! Awesome!!! I stopped buying Reborn at #2 because it was boring me to tears, wasn't worth $4, and quite frankly... there was MUCH better stuff out there. I could go on but it's time to talk about ASM#612. When I first heard about The Gauntlet I thought, "Finally! The old but good villains are returning!" Because I spent a majority of my childhood living off of ASM reprints that my dad gave me and having loved the old villains I was stoked for this new storyline. It was even better when I heard that Mark Waid would kick off the first few issues of this story. After the sucky Black Cat arc and the extremely tedious Guggenheim arc I was desperate for a good Spider-Man story (I even started reading the older Ultimate Spider-Man issues and those classic ASM reprints). I did enjoy last week's issue by the way. Did Waid give me what I longed for? For the most part, yes.

In this issue Electro returns and Waid does a really nice job writing the character of Electro. The inner monologue of Electro was really cool and I gave you a good feel of the character and how he thinks and what his life is like. One of the coolest part of the book is when Electro takes a stand against The DB! and Dexter Bennett on T.V. and this results in people following his beliefs. I was surprised by how much humor was in the book. Waid does a nice job writing Spider-Man's/Peter Parker's inner thoughts and doesn't take it too far.

Azaceta's Spider-Man drawings reminded me of how artist-extraordinaire Ross Andru would draw Spider-Man and since I grew up on reprints of ASM this was pretty cool to see. His new Electro design is cool, but I personally liked the old-school costume he had. The art is nice, but nothing to get crazy about.

The only problem with this book that I had was that it didn't really generate the exciting feeling I was expecting. That could just be because the story just started and hasn't really gotten anywhere yet, so hopefully that will change and this story will be more interesting and more heart-pounding. I can't wait to see where this story goes and what it for our favorite web-slinger.

Rating: B+

Deadpool#17 REVIEW (Deadpool... an X-Man?!?!?)

Deadpool#17

Writer: Daniel Way

Artist: Paco Medina w/ inks by Juan Vlasco

Price: $2.99

Publisher: Marvel Comics

So here we have... Woah woah woah! What? You're actually doing more than one review a week?!?!? Uh... yeah... Is this the same blog??? I believe it is. Uh... guys? Can I just do this review? Oh fine... Wait! Why aren't you reviewing the greatest effin book of the week: Batman#693? I totally dug the Tony Daniel art! XDXDXDXD!!! Sorry... I didn't like Battle for the Cowl... YOU DIDN'T?!?!?!? I didn't either... What's wrong with u guyz??? Do you guys have an off-switch? I'm trying to review a book I liked here. Well we HAD one... Hey! Don't pin that on me bro! Guys! Can you both shut up?!? Naw dood! We're gonna help u do da review! Yeah! You never let us help with your reviews! There's a reason for that... What did you say? Uh, nothing. So do we get to help you? Fine. Just as long as you don't bug me too much. Yay! YAY!

So in the previous issue Deadpool decided to become an X-man, so Cyclops offers him a position until they figure out what to do with him. So then later Deadpool tells them that he's going to assassinate Ellis Kincaid... and then the x-doods are all, like, "Oh Snap! We gotta stop him!" So then at the beginning of the issue Deadpool attempts to kill him and Domino (meow)... That was... unnecessary... Hey I wuz just tellin' u guyz what I thought of her. ... So moving on Domino shoots some lights down from a far away thwarting Deadpool's plans of assassination. What does thwart mean? That's too big a word for my vocabulary. Oh and 'vocabulary' isn't? Guys! Seriously! I'm trying to get this done! Oh, sorry dood. Keep going... Thanks. So then Domino and Deadpool meet up later and then she invites him to her motel room lucky son of a- would you STOP interrupting me?!? Seriously. I think we've already found out how you feel about Domino by now. Then at the motel room Deadpool and Domino talk and Deadpool keeps telling himself, "Please don't be a hallucination... please don't be a hallucination...", which I thought was pretty funny.

What I thought was interesting was- Page 19, panel 2. Um... what was that? Just tellin' you what my favorite part of the book was... I was also trying a different color scheme... well what I was going to say was that I liked how some of the humor was not just heavily put on Deadpool. We also find out that Deadpool is scared of cows and chickens. Then Wolverine says that the X-Men won't find him at a farm. I enjoyed that too. zzzzzzzzzzzzz. Throughout the whole issue a lot of humor appears and is truely a fun ride. Both the story and art is great. This book is one of the more consistantly good Marvel books out there right now.

Rating: B

... huh? Wha---? The review's over already...? Yup. Do you think he'll let us help him with his review of Amazing Spider-Man#611? Maybe... guess we'll have to wait and see...

Green Lantern Corps#42 REVIEW (Another one bites the dust...)

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS! READ AHEAD WITH CAUTION IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THIS ISSUE YET! FOR THOSE WHO READ THIS ISSUE... I HOPE YOU ENJOY THE REVIEW!
Green Lantern Corps#42

Writer: Peter J. Tomasi

Artist: Patrick Gleason w/ inks by Rebecca Buchman and Tom Nguyen

Price: $2.99

Publisher: DC Comics

Peter J. Tomasi sure knows how to torture the characters and the fans doesn't he? Tomasi gets you quickly emotionally invested in the characters and then he breaks your heart when bad things happen to your favorite characters, which is the sign of a good writer. Throughout the whole issue the Green Lanterns keep getting pummeled with bad news after bad news after bad news. First the Black Lanterns all gather to destroy the green lantern power battery. When I saw that double splash-page of all the Black Lanterns heading towards the power battery I said, "Holy $#%^! How are the good guys gonna get out of this?" The remaining good guys fight off the black lanterns and it's pretty cool. Then... Tomasi does something I didn't see coming at all... I'll talk about that later on.

Patrick Gleason continues to show that he is one of the best artists out there. All of the splash-pages and battle scenes are drawn beautifully. I hope Gleason stays on GLC for a looooooong time because he's in my Top 5 current artists right now. I can't say anything about the art other than what I've already said.

Now for the part that EVERYONE will be talking about. So towards the end of the book Kyle Rayner takes the alpha lantern battery and this attracts a lot of the black lanterns. Then the detonation of the power battery is activated, killing Rayner and thousands (hopefully) of black lanterns. This scene broke my heart because Kyle Rayner was just starting to be one of my favorite characters. I even cried a little... We're only halfway through Blackest Night guys... it's only gonna get worse from here unfortunately. That aside... Rayner's death is one of the better deaths I've seen in comic books in a long time. He didn't die in vain at all and was a true hero. I can hardly wait for the next issue to come and see the reactions of especially Gardner and Soranik. We all know Gardners reaction is going to have some anger in it...

Rating: A

X-Men vs. Agents of Atlas#2 (Why is Agents of Atlas my favorite Marvel book?)

X-Men vs. Agents of Atlas#2

Writer: Jeff Parker

Artists: Carlo Pagulayan, Gabriel Hardman, Chris Samnee, and Carlos Rodrieguez w/ inks by Jason Paz, Hardman, Samnee, and Terry Pallot

Price: $3.99

Publisher: Marvel Comics

So here we have the second and last part of the X-Men vs Agents of Atlas mini-series. This has to be the best Marvel mini-series I've read in a loooooong time. Jeff Parker yet again shows us just how well he can write superhero teams: pretty darn well. In fact in my opinion Parker is the best at writing superhero teams currently. When certain writers write teams poorly *coughbrianmichaelbendiscough* Parker comes along and shows everyone how it's done. He has the teams working together, helping each other, planning ahead, etc. With each issue of Agents of Atlas I read I slowly become more emotionally attached to each member of the team. When I first read AoA I thought, "Who the heck are Namora and Venus?" Now Venus and Namora are some of my favorite comic book characters. I think the reason why not many people are buying this book is because most people probably don't buy this book is because they don't recognize the characters. At first people didn't care about Wolverine until the Claremont/Bryne run on Uncanny X-Men and look at him now. He's in just about every Marvel book! The characters in AoA are awesome and should be more recognized.

In the previous issue there was a back-up story which I assume most people thought that it wasn't part of the main story. But in this issue Parker does something I didn't see coming at all. He made the back-up story part of the main story which I thought was pretty clever. At the end of the story it sets up something that I'm looking forward to and since I am not a fan of spoilers I will rarely provide any in my reviews. I'll put a warning at the beginning if there are any. This book is definetly worth 4 dollars. It's double the size of a standard comic book and contains an awesome story and awesome art. And you know what the best part is? It's only two issues. So you don't feel like you're wasting money. This book is great and an excellent spot to jump in on Agents of Atlas. So, if you're not reading AoA... READ IT! If you don't want to buy it, that's fine, then just read it in a comic book store. Trust me, it's that awesome of a book! :)

Rating: A-

Reasons to Love Comic Books: Strong Portrayal of Female Characters

Heh heh… I love that picture. For those of you who have been following this blog since the very beginning or know me personally really well will know that I hate it when women comic book characters are treated inferior by men comic book characters. I know I keep talking about this but it really is a topic that must be made more aware of in the comic book community and as much as I love Brian Michael Bendis’ work he has recently been letting me down because of his unfair portrayal of women characters. I’m not saying this problem should be completly erased in comics, although that would be nice, but it needs to happen way less often. This problem wasn’t brought to my attention until I watched an episode of Comic Culture Warrior on Youtube. They complained about how Bendis and other comic book writers as well were not respecting women as well as they should be. They brought up New Avengers#35. The issue were Tigra is beaten/raped by the Hood, while being filmed live to a secret lair of guy super villains. I immeadiatly grabbed my copy of New Avengers#35 and re-read that part and thought, “Oh. My. God. I have been completely blind to this whole problem”. So I continued to re-read some of Bendis’ stuff and it was horrifying to see what he was doing. Again I really have a lot of respect for Bendis (not so much after what he said about Wonder Woman) and he is one of my many inspirations (I want to be a comic book writer when I grow up).

Don’t get me wrong there are plenty of writers out there who write female comic book characters really well. For example:
-Matt Fraction when he writes Emma Frost, Pepper Potts, and Maria Hill. Heck, even Black Widow.
-Greg Rucka when he writes ANY female character.
-Chris Claremont also writes female characters as well
-Gail Simone when she writes Wonder Woman

There are many others that I’m forgetting, but still these three writers are amazing. Don’t get me wrong I like guy comic book characters as well. I like female and male characters equally. I still don’t understand why some of the Top-Selling books are the books that commonly cruel towards women characters. What if a girl tried reading a comic book for the first time in her life and then sees the Sentry ripping Morganna Le Fay’s head off? I would love to see more girls reading comic books (I’d be thrilled), but because of the junk that some writers do that may not happen. If you guys have no respect for Wonder Woman or Batwoman do yourself a favor and buy Gail Simone’s run on Wonder Woman and Greg Rucka’s current run on Detective Comics and his run on Wonder Woman he did a while back.

Again this is just my opinion and others as well. If you disagree with me I will respect that. Thanks for bearing with me and listening to me with an open mind (hopefully).

Cover of the Day: Fantastic Four#82

With a new month comes a new kind of post and that's: Cover of the Day!!!! Not of the month, but OF. THE. DAY!!! This cover is brought to us by the genius Jack Kirby. This is without a doubt my favorite comic book cover of all time. I love this cover because it's exciting and is just plain awesome. I wish more covers nowadays were this cool.