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Post by The Cheat on Sept 7, 2014 16:15:15 GMT -5
Finally got around to starting on the X-Statix omnibus I picked for cheap a couple of years ago. Read the first 5 issues and, apart from some nice Allred art, nothing at all really grabbed me and I found the writing/characters incredibly dull. Does it take a while to find it's feet, or are the early issues indicative of what to expect for the rest of the run?
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Post by The Cheat on Aug 24, 2014 15:53:40 GMT -5
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Annual 2014 Very disappointing. Loved Eastman's annual from a couple of years ago, so had high hopes for this. Art was great, but the plot was just tedious. Meh. 2/5
B.P.R.D, Hell On Earth - The Broken Equation #1 Satisfying read, as always. Hopefully this marks the beginning of some progression of the overarching plot, it feels like the current status quo has been in place for a while now and it'd be nice to see something big happen. Very Abe looking monster at the end there. 4/5
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Post by The Cheat on Aug 23, 2014 15:26:40 GMT -5
Daredevil #7Good stuff from Waid (as always) and Rodriguez, who's proved an excellent and perfectly suited fill in for Samnee. Waid deftly weaves in his usual little plot twists and manages to avoid all the clichés and pitfalls a lesser writer might have fallen into. Nice. 4/5 I was unaware Black Panthers sister was a villain... Who says she is? She's the ruler of a country who often has to make tough decisions for the good of said country.
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Post by The Cheat on Aug 22, 2014 16:12:41 GMT -5
Daredevil #7 Good stuff from Waid (as always) and Rodriguez, who's proved an excellent and perfectly suited fill in for Samnee. Waid deftly weaves in his usual little plot twists and manages to avoid all the clichés and pitfalls a lesser writer might have fallen into. Nice. 4/5
Batman Eternal #20 Most of the current plots seem to be resolved in this issue. Not sure if the series was designed to be told in two halves with a few overlapping threads, or if this was something to do with the writer switch that was forced upon them. Felt a bit clunky though. Seeley's scripts are proving to be my favourite of the bunch, and really enjoyed the art, glad they're starting to allow a bit more variation to the usual sterile DC mandated New52 house style. 3/5
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Post by The Cheat on Aug 21, 2014 16:59:34 GMT -5
Robots In Disguise #32 Great issue. A good dose of plot progression, Prowl being his usual machiavellian self, and the return of Susan Journeyer and Josh Boyfriend! The resolution to the cliffhanger from last issue was a huge cop out, but the last page reveal more than compensated if we average out the bookends. Great stuff. 5/5
The Multiversity #1 Not going to comment on this too much until it's finished (was tempted to wait and read it in trade), but I thoroughly enjoyed this and it's reassured me that this series is going to live up to my high expectations. Okay, one comment: Chubby da Choona...in Monkey form! 5/5
New Guardians #34 Nothing special but a decent enough space romp. These New Guardians seem a bit brittle. 3/5
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Post by The Cheat on Aug 20, 2014 16:05:44 GMT -5
New Avengers #23 It's all kicking off now! Loved Reed's visit to Latveria, Hickman writes a great Doom. Bruce's scene was nice as well, driving out to face the end of his life the same way he's had to live it, alone. 4/5
Supergirl #34 Another by the numbers issue. Pretty much just a recap of the events of Doomed so far, with a clichéd rescue thrown in (hey, everyone's dead except for the exact two people I'm looking for who are in the first place I look). Dull. 2/5
Batman & Robin #34 Solid enough issue, there's always something satisfying about this book. Couple of plot points I'm not liking. a) The stupid mega-techno-godslayer armour. An attempt to allow Bruce to mix it up with the big power players, rather than take the hint that if you have use such silly plot devices, you're probably writing the character wrong. b) Any uses of Apokolips these days inevitably end up with me groaning at how badly it and the New Gods are handled. I anticipate similar from this storyline. Lovely last page splash though. 3/5
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Post by The Cheat on Aug 16, 2014 16:00:48 GMT -5
Green Lantern Corps #34 Solid issue, with a nice twist on the John/Fatality relationship. John's tantrum at the end was a little bit over dramatic though. Liked the 'dead man's switch' tactic of sealing the hole in the hull. A clever use of the ring. 3/5
Amazing Spider-Man #5 Completely unrecognisable character pretending to be the Black Cat, check. Completely new character shoe horned clumsily into the book, check. A bit of a mess to be honest. 2/5
Spider-Man 2099 #2 Peter David doing what Peter David does. Bit light on action, but the characterisation more than makes up for it. Perspective on some of the panels was a bit weird, but art was otherwise solid. 4/5
Abe Sapien - Lost Lives Decent enough flashback issue, always nice to see Roger again. Getting a bit bored of this series though to be honest. It's never bad, but it all feels a bit repetitive after a while. 3/5
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Post by The Cheat on Aug 14, 2014 17:12:08 GMT -5
Batman #34 Not a bad, fairly self-contained story. Didn't like Batman having access to super-science hologram projection tech. What's wrong with old fashioned latex masks? Bit confused about what the big deal about the Joker's cell was, as well as whether the last page was a plot point or just the artist being creative? Enjoyed the art on the whole, but the story telling was bit hard to follow at times. 3/5
Batman Eternal #19 Another good episode, lots happening. Love me some weekly serialised fiction. Only downside was little Ms. Perfect, Harper Row, who annoys me. 4/5
Fantastic Four #8 Found myself breezing through this one. Not much happened, and what did wasn't particularly engaging. Whole premise is a bit hard to swallow to be honest. 2/5
Transformers - Primacy #1 Wow. What a great start. Ramondelli's art, while always gorgeous to look at, sometimes lacks clarity in the storytelling department, but there's none of those problems here. A lot of plot hooks being dangled, nearly all of which hooked me. The only minor quibble was the clichéd 'hero climbing the un-climbable mountain to relax' introduction for Optimus, but other than that, pretty much perfect. 5/5
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #37 A villain centric issue. Some good banter, and plenty of action, as we pick up on plot points from the Foot mini, as well as advancing the main series plot. Extremely solid, as always. 4/5
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Post by The Cheat on Aug 13, 2014 14:54:02 GMT -5
Original Sin #7 Snore. Decent art gets this a 2, but the whole event is just falling flat for me. The fallout in various character's own books is far more interesting to me than Nick Fury, Agent of Awesome! Aaron's favourite 3rd tier villains now seem to be incredible powerhouses. And the Watcher fighting and throwing energy blasts around is just wrong. 2/5
Superman & Wonder Woman #11 A decent chapter in this seemingly never-ending crossover. Mongul and Non tucking their tails and slinking back into the negative zone once they realised Brainiac was around was great. Horny Doomsday at the end sure does look stupid though. 3/5
Hulk #5 Interesting new direction, and I like that we're hopefully going to pare down all the Hulks that have accumulated over the years. Getting back to the Hulk being somewhat unique gets the thumbs up from me. The whole script felt very clunky though. Some of the dialogue didn't scan well to me, and the ending struck me as very abrupt. 3/5
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Post by The Cheat on Aug 12, 2014 17:02:18 GMT -5
Oi, are you a Brit? Grew up with Beano too, here's my childhood sweetheart. Thing is, UK weeklies were spare change...a US comic is $2.99-$3.99...buying a US series that comes out weekly needs a bit more change. (Not withstanding I get books I choose at cost price, not cover, unless extras are factored in....) True, but given the same budget I'd rather have 1 weekly book than 4 monthlies. Or a weekly anthology with 4 * 5 page stories rather than 4 * 20 page monthlies.
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Post by The Cheat on Aug 11, 2014 15:57:14 GMT -5
Having been brought up on 2000AD and the Beano/Dandy, weekly comics just seem normal. Monthly publishing has always been the weird one for me, still feels odd even after nearly 20 years of buying US mags.
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Post by The Cheat on Aug 8, 2014 15:12:43 GMT -5
New Avengers #22 Poor art (check out how static the full page spread of Panther hitting Namor is), and lack of plot movement really killed this one for me. The events of this issue could have been told in 2 pages. 2/5
Superman & Wonder Woman Annual 2014 Not a bad chapter. Advances the plot. The panel of Wonder Woman checking her swing just in time could have been done better though, kind of killed what should have been a dramatic moment. 3/5
Action Comics Annual 2014 Definite downgrade after reading S&WW. A pretty tedious read, even if I'm enjoying the Steel & Lana stuff. 2/5
Action Comics #34 I really don't care about any of these new characters. Ghost guy. Raise the dead woman. Bleh. I've always hated the switch from Superman having heat vision to him having Cyclops-esque optic blasts, so him now having manga style super-ultimate-mega-optic blasts really isn't impressing me. 2/5
Original Sin - Thor & Loki #3 Good old scheming Odin. Tricked a bit too easily for my liking though. Not a fan of Angela, but Loki makes up for that. I do like Bianchi's art in the right setting, which this is, but it always comes across a bit 'samey' to me. I've seen it all before. 3/5
Original Sin - Hulk vs Iron Man #4 Nice ending, I liked the smart Hulk not being Banner. As suspected, Tony wasn't responsible after all, but as usual these days, there's always a little twist. An enjoyable little mini over all. And no Bagley this week, yay. 4/5
Batman Eternal #18 The Arkham plot is probably my least favourite, so showcasing pretty much everything but this week worked out great for me. 4/5
Tiny Titans - Return To The Treehouse #3 Not much to say about this. Very good, as usual. 4/5
Green Lantern #34 Not a bad issue until the last page. Highfather is just a white Darkseid clone now? Urghh. Why can't people just leave the New Gods alone? 2/5
She-Hulk #7 Pulido returns, immediately catapulting this back to one of my favourite books. Another incredibly fun issue, with an Eric O'Grady name check thrown in as the icing on the cake. Wish Pulido wouldn't do the repeated panels thing, but if it means he can keep a better schedule I can live with it. Overall, top notch. 5/5
Superior Spider-Man #32 Never read 2099, so found the first half pretty boring (I'm sure there were plenty of easter eggs I was missing), but picked up in the second half and really piqued my interest for the Spiderverse event. Loved Otto immediately figuring out it was an alternate reality and just accepting it and changing his plans accordingly. The Anna Maria thing was a bit creepy though. 4/5
Superior Foes Of Spider-Man #14 Hilarious, as always. From Silvermane peeking at Beetle on the loo, to the two page chase scene, Lieber's range and storytelling is simply perfect. 5/5
Moon Knight #6 Great issue, loving the done-in-one format. Intriguing little tale, and beautiful art. I had to stop reading and just stare at that panel of the illuminated New York skyline for a good few seconds, simply glorious. THe only negative is it's the last issue. Not sticking around for Wood. 5/5
Detective Comics #34 Very pretty, but I really can't remember what the plot is. I get the feeling I'd enjoy the plot if I could remember more about what's happened, but there's something about the previous issues that make them totally forgettable. Need to go back and re-read the arc I think. Groaned at Bullock saving Batman, but the scene redeemed itself with the handcuffing immediately after. Isn't Bullock supposed to be thin though in the Nu52? 3/5
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Post by The Cheat on Aug 2, 2014 16:01:13 GMT -5
Avengers #33 Kind of losing interest in this now. Doesn't help that the focus is on Cap, who I find pretty hard to side with. 3/5
Avengers World #10 Lovely art, but too many plot threads. A bit too SHIELD-centric for me, I prefer my Avengers more super-hero and less super-spy. Dropped. 3/5
Batman Eternal #17 The mystical plotline is probably my least favourite at the minute, but it's serviceable. Joker's Daughter is still a ridiculous character. 3/5
Detective Comics Annual 2014 Pretty standard Batman story, probably could have been squeezed into a normal sized issue without losing anything. Not a fan of the multiple artist per book thing. 3/5
New Avengers #21 In contrast to adjective less Avengers, really enjoying this. Pretty epic stuff. Nice to see Namor take the initiative. 4/5
Original Sin - Hulk vs Iron Man #3 Silly retcons aside, fairly readable. Nice reminder that Bruce is pretty clever too, but done without making Tony look like an idiot. Hoping for a twist in the final issue with regards to historic events, pretty sick of the whole 'everything must be connected' schtick. 3/5
Robots In Disguise #31 Strong issue. The title's always going to suffer in comparison to the excellent 'More Than Meets the Eye', but this issue sparked some hope in me that there might be some potential in the 'back to Earth' premise. Some top quality banter from Galvatron. 4/5
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