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Tonight, the first theatrical trailer for The Incredible Hulk, debuting in a couple of months, was released.
It is about time! Iron Man has had plenty of coverage, but Hulk comes out only about a month later. They've left it a bit late!
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It looks pretty good, and the Hulk's size is pretty consistent with his comic appearances, but it still feels like he should be bigger. Hmmmm. Definitely looking forward to the film!
Not a good week. Again. Is it just me, or are comics getting worse?
ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST #5 (Marvel) - 5/10
This series has such awesome potential as far as establishing a new status quo for many aspects of the Marvel Universe. Unfortunately, it has been hindered by the first ANNIHILATION series and the astonishing awful first six issues of MIGHTY AVENGERS. However, they tried to deal with that nonsense in this issue... but they didn't really succeed. The IDEA is there - a really GOOD idea - but the team has simply not executed with the degree of skill they could have. There are too many inconsistencies, too great an ignorance of continuity, for me to really think highly of the book.
FANTASTIC FOUR #555 (Marvel) - 1/10
Nope. Look at the cover - the book's title should be key to the cover, except in special circumstances. Its relegation to a 'mastfoot' at the bottom of the page suggests the creators want to rely more on the crap and hyperbole of 'Buy this issue to see mankind's new home!' 'Plus: an exclusive look at Johnny's new super-villain girlfriend!' or whatever crap was spouted in the upper-right of the cover. The whole thing looks and feels like it would be all style over substance - but you know what? There isn't even any STYLE there. Bryan Hitch is an amazing artist, but his representation of the FF is just plain awful: Reed looks like an old man, and Johnny looks like Alfred E. Neuman. As for the writing, they're re-treading ground that has been covered an unbelievable number of times already. I'm simply NOT interested anymore. BRING BACK MARK WAID! OR KARL KESEL!
THE LAST DEFENDERS (Marvel) - 3/10
Could have been really awesome - but then, four pages in, one of the Brothers Grimm says "But we got a job to do up in here." OMG. Seriously. Later, Kyle Richmond and Tony Stark discuss the new Defenders team, and establish Kyle has been chosen as team leader because of his history with the team. But... his history is with the "Defenders" NAME, not Colossus and the Blazing Skull! Geez! Come on, already! The characters are OUT OF themselves ( ), and the artist seems to be confused between muscles and fat.
NOVA #11 (Marvel) - 2/10
Um... what about Warlock becoming Douglock, etc? Steer clear, folks - my comments on ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST #5 apply here, too.
RASL #1 (Cartoon Books) - 0/10
I just don't get it. At all. Don't go near it, because it is just... yeah.
THUNDERBOLTS #119 (Marvel) - 2/10
Terrible art, terrible writing. Ellis has no idea who these characters are, really.
X-FACTOR #29 (Marvel) - 10/10 - pick of the week
Perfect. Absolutely frickin' perfect. Perfect art. Perfect writing. And the last page? THAT is why God invented the phrase 'Yeah buh wha..?' BUY THIS BOOK!
Two 0/10s this week, but some really high scores as well…
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #552 (Marvel) - 6/10
Was actually okay. Peter Parker came across as somewhat endearing, and the story relatively interesting. And then, a junkie stole drugs from Curt Connors’ lab - as if, given the “Feral” arc in Sensational Spider-Man last year, seriously. Worse, though, was a slightly misleading description of The Bar With No Name… and the fact that Speed Demon was in the bar! My pal Jim Sanders doesn’t REALLY run in those circles anymore (I know, his status is a bit wonky, and yes, the pun was intended - but his character is certainly questionable enough that he would not be trusted by most other super-villains). *sigh* I really do not like Brand New Day.
CABLE #1 (Marvel) - 0/10
What the heck was that? Oh, I see - it is some guy’s parody, showing how utterly crap a Cable book can be. What? It’s the REAL DEAL? Ewwwwwwwww. Here, Cable is portrayed as a simple man (which is odd, since for the last two decades his main characteristic has been that he is SO complicated we can’t even hope to understand him), an old man (despite his white hair, Cable isn’t old) and clumsy. The storyline makes the Nomad series read like an absolute masterpiece (Nomad was good, but not great)… but the art… I couldn’t tell what was going on for several pages. Was there a bridge? I just don’t know. (Oh, story, what was that whole “I want to go to New York?” “Yeah, me too.” crap about? It’s flooded… but does that mean he isn’t going there? Meh.)
CLANDESTINE #2 (Marvel) - 10/10 - pick of the week
Perfect. The perfect comic. I can’t elaborate without spoiling the amazingly unique storyline of the series, but this book simply could not be any better. It is such a pity that it is only a five-issue limited series!
LOGAN #1 (Marvel) - 4/10
REALLY don’t like the art. Dirty, scratchy and unclear. The storyline is typical meh-able Wolverine garbaggio. Simply not interested, and don’t see the need for a second book exploring Wolvie’s memories, when Origins is doing such a crap job of it.
MOON KNIGHT #16 (Marvel) - 0/10
Oh, how laughable. Look at how MK runs on page 14. He’s sooooooo gay.  Meh. The book remains grim and gritty for the sake of being grim and gritty. There is nothing to further the character at all, and Mark Texeira’s usually stunning artwork is horrendous this issue. Go away, Moon Knight. Just get cancelled and leave me alone already.
NIGHTWING #142 (DC) - 9/10
There is always so much symbolism in Nightwing; it is clear Tomasi puts a lot of thought into both plot and script. The artwork can sometimes be a little blurry and inconsistent (for example, Dick looks bulkier in civvies than he does in-costume), but is largely clear and effective. I am really enjoying the idea of Nightwing, after the… interesting… character development he has had over the years, taking on more and more of a mentoring role with
Robin. As a matter of fact, I’d love it if he stole Tim away from Batman, to show how far he truly has come since being ol’ Wingpits’ sidekick.
UNCANNY X-MEN #496 (Marvel) - 8/10
Yay! Mike Choi’s artwork is simply beautiful and while I can’t quite put my finger on exactly why, I feel it is precisely how X-book art should look. The actual plot is becoming increasingly involving; one problem I have had with the X-books over the years is that while they go through brief periods of change, they never last more than a year without going back to “Poor mutants! Woe is us! There are Sentinels somewhere that might maybe possibly want to attack us, and our friends keep dying and coming back from the dead, but we’re still so dense that we don’t realise they will inevitably come back, so we moan all the time.” The only drawback so far is that no explanation has been given about what has become of Rhodes and Co. since Messiah Complex.
X-FORCE #2 (Marvel) - 5/10
This sucks. There are things I love about the book (the art, wow!) and things I hate. The creators seem to be going for a whole “Look, we so bad, we dun’ be killin’ them bad guys!” vibe, and that is a massive drawback. Replacing the team with something more closely resembling the setup of the original X-Force, while maintaining an otherwise-identical storyline, would make this book perfect.
Overall score for the week: 5/10
When the pick of the week only gets a score of 6/10, you know something’s wrong. Once again, I wasn’t able to get my hands on a few books I was looking forward to; but I did read a few by Dynamite and Avatar which, despite much hype, were far below par and not reviewed.
CAPTAIN AMERICA #35 (Marvel) - 6/10 - pick of the week
[ Click here to read more ]
A bad week. That said, there are comics I know I would love that I was, for one reason or another, unable to pick up. Even so, that doesn’t change the fact that certain books - like Mighty Avengers and Iron Man - are horrendous.
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #551 (Marvel) - 2/10
[ Click here to read more ]
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Comments (5)
Comment by Adrian J. Watts
on Comics Commentary for February 27th, 2008
I buy everything Marvel except for the Ultimate books; I only buy a handful of DC titles, and the only IDW titles I pick up are those related to Transformers.
Even Fabian Nicieza thinks I am insane for spending so much money on comics.