Review: Fantastic Four, Vol. 1: The Fall of the Fantastic Four by James Robinson, Leonard Kirk (Illustrator)

Fantastic Four, Vol. 1: The Fall of the Fantastic Four by James Robinson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.5 stars

Warning: If you are NOT up to date, there may be SPOILERS

I recently finished up Volume 1 of The Amazing Spider-man The Parker Luck, and Johnny Storm showed up to give Pete some advice. Since Peter has only recently reemerged as the dominate personality in his body, he had no idea that Johnny was de-powered.
And, quite frankly, neither did I.
Now, I’d love to say I read this specifically to find out how it happened, but I actually just lucked into it. It was, however, the highlight of this book for me. Not that how he lost his powers was all that amazing, but it felt good to be in the loop for once!
So, if you were wondering where to find that story, it’s in this one.

Anyway, poor Johnny.
Flame off.

It appears as though someone is perhaps out to tarnish the Fantastic Four’s image, and break apart their family.
Monsters from other dimensions break out of the Baxter Building and wreak havoc on Manhattan causing loss of life and millions in damage.
And (for once) it seems like the idiot keeping the giant portals in his house is actually going to be held responsible for the damage. Go figure, right?

Jennifer/She-Hulk represents the FF in the courtroom drama, and I won’t spoil the ending, but there’s lots of
EMOTIONS!
flying around at the end. Decent stuff, all of it.

Hey, did you know that Dr. Doom is now Uncle Doom?
Personally, I was unaware of this. But apparently Valeria is living with him in Latveria, where she has some sort of deal going with him. He is going to try to ‘be good’, and she gets some space from her parents who did something to let her down.
I need to go back and read some of the older titles to see what happened.
I still say she’s a creepy little thing, but I’m also insanely curious as to what her father lied to her about!

I can see the DEVIL in her eyes!

All in all, this was one of the more interesting installments of the FF that I’ve read. But I’ll admit I haven’t finished out Hickman’s run, and I know that he’s a fan favorite for this title. I’ll get to it eventually, though.

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Review: Sinestro Vol. 1: The Demon Within by Cullen Bunn , Dale Eaglesham (Illustrator)

 

 

Sinestro Vol. 1: The Demon Within by Cullen Bunn

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I kind of thought now that Sinestro was getting his own title he’d be…nicer? I mean, he wasn’t totally evil in The End, so I assumed that they were maybe trying to pull him into anti-hero territory.

Nope. He’s still pretty awful.
Lyssa Drak (the evil chick who was chained to the Book of Paralax, for anyone who cares) is the narrator for the first bit of the story. She tells the origin of the rise and fall that led Sinestro to this point in his story.
The (sort of) neat thing is that since she’s wacky/evil herself, she tells it like he’s a misunderstood hero.
Except he’s not.
And anyone who isn’t possessed by the crazy bug can see him for the control freak that he is/was…is.
At any rate, Lyssa worships Sinestro like he’s some nefarious boy band.

There’s a few interesting things that happen once Lyssa tracks Sinestro down, but mostly it’s jsut rock-em-sock-em stuff, as he takes the reigns of the Yellow Lanterns back.
Every now and then you get a peek at a decentish character, but he’s mostly too assy to get behind at this point.
However, he does sort of declare an uneasy truce with Hal and his daughter, Soranik. She agrees to (sort of) team up with him to find the remaining Kougarians who had fled the planet before it was destroyed, by…shit. I can’t even remember who blew it up?
Anyone? Anyone?
You know what? Doesn’t matter. Nobody is going to read this. You know why?
It’s A Sinestro Comic Book!
It’s me and one other nerd out there, that are even reading anything remotely related to the Green Lanterns!

*sigh*

The end had a twist to it that I really didn’t see coming. I mean, it’s foreshadowed in the blurb.
He’s so much more…
But I just thought it was more yammering overblown blurbyness.
It’s a word if I say so!

The last issue was a weird Future-thing.
Blech. No. I don’t like those, and DC needs to stop it.

Read it, don’t read it. I don’t care.

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Review: Harley Quinn, Vol. 1: Hot in the City by Amanda Conner

Harley Quinn, Vol. 1: Hot in the City by Amanda Conner

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Ok guys, here is my rather late contribution to Sidekicks week.

As one may reasonably deduce from the rating, I disliked this book with every fiber of my being. It is a well known fact that in order to be a good comics fan, you must: 

Review: Nightwing Vol. 1: Bludhaven

Nightwing Vol. 1: Blüdhaven by Dennis O’Neil

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another buddy-read with my shallow comic readin’ pals!

DC’s latest re-release of old the old Nightwing series starts here. This one collects the 4 issue Nightwing miniseries by Denny O’Neil and Greg Land and the first 8 issues of the original Nightwing ongoing series by Chuck Dixon, Scott McDaniel, and Karl Story.

Review: The Punisher Max: Born

The Punisher MAX: Born by Garth Ennis

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Punisher: Born is Garth Ennis’s prequel to his legendary run on The Punisher Max. Ennis combines his love for Frank Castle, his thirst for demented violence, and his passion for military history into one terrific origin story.

Review: Chew, Vol. 1: Taster’s Choice by John Layman

Chew, Vol. 1: Taster’s Choice by John Layman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 stars

 

Hmmmm.
After the first few pages I thought I was going to have to reach out and cyber-smack Mike, Gavin, and ‘kris for suggesting I read this…but it sort of grew on me.

Disclaimer:
I don’t mind violence or gore in the books I read, but I also have this thing about putting gross stuff in my mouth. Call it a phobia if you want, but just the thought of anything icky coming near my mouth makes me gag and heave.
Take food, for example.
I constantly sniff any food that I think might be even a little bit iffy. Then I make my husband sniff it. And usually even if he says it smells fine, I end up throwing it out. Because…who cares what he thinks? Once I think it it may be tainted, it’s got to go.
It’s Mentally Tainted Food, therefore, I can’t eat it.
Also, I thought Chew was just a clever title. I ordered it from my library on the above mentioned recommendations of FRIENDS, and didn’t bother reading the blurb. My bad.

So.
Bird Flu has made chicken into the new moonshine. Which, once I realized what was going on, was pretty darn funny.
I mean, bootleg poultry? That’s hilarious!
And the new FDA is like the FBI, CIA, and NSA all rolled into one. Forget Homeland Security, if you want to be where the action is, you join the Food and Drug Administration.
Bad-ass health inspectors? Bwahahahha!
And Tony Chu (get it, Chew? Har!) is one of the guys who puts his life on the line everyday to keep the world safe from contraband chicken.
His partner ends up getting hit in the head with a meat cleaver in the first few pages, and to catch the bad guy…Tony eats a portion of one of his minions.
Don’t worry, it makes more sense in the book.
When he’s found at the scene cannibalizing the guy who split his partner’s skull open, he gets fired and institutionalized.
Because that’s NASTY!
The End.

Ok, no.
That’s not what happened. That’s just how my gag reflex rationalized the scene.
What actually happened was that it put Tony on the radar of another government group that utilizes people with his skill.
His skill is to be able to get a clairvoyant reading off of anything he ingests.
Even veggies.
And if he had only eaten vegetables throughout the book, I and my stomach would have been much happier…thank you very much.
But he didn’t.
He ended up (reluctantly) eating all kinds of horrifying things in order to solve his cases.
That vacuum-sealed dog almost did me in…

*GAK GAK GAK*

Again. Thank you for that, guys.

Here the thing, I honestly got interested in what was happening to the entire cast of wacky characters. I was so nauseated, but I couldn’t stop reading!
And then they left me with a cliffhanger!
So. When I recuperate, I’ll read the next volume.

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Review: Absolute Batman: Haunted Knight

Absolute Batman: Haunted Knight by Jeph Loeb

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I can’t friggin stand that some of this stuff is over 20 years old. Hard to believe I picked up these stories as they were released back in the day. Having already added the Absolute Batman: The Long Halloween and Absolute Batman: Dark Victory to my collection, I grabbed this latest Absolute edition, pulled up my adult diaper, and strapped in for a trip down memory lane. Surprisingly, I still found myself enjoying this re-read. A lot more than I expected anyway. Loeb hasn’t aged that well for me and while I was a huge fan at one point, his stuff isn’t quite as solid now as I remembered it. Still have a soft spot though.

Justice League United, Vol. 1: Justice League Canada

Justice League United, Vol. 1: Justice League Canada by Jeff Lemire
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

(Received from Netgalley for review.)

I’ve got some serious mixed feelings about this. I honestly had no idea what to expect out of this book. I didn’t read the New 52 JLA, the series this seems to be a sequel to, so I wasn’t sure what kind of tone this might be going for, or how most of these characters have been handled since Flashpoint. I was intrigued by the JLC thing, though.

Unfortunately, not enough of this book actually takes place in Canada. This is more of a new origin for Adam Strange. I sort of vaguely knew about the previous version of Adam, and he was not exactly a favorite of mine. To be honest, I’ve never been all that enamored of any of DC’s cosmic stories. And for me, the cosmic parts of this book were kind of a drag, with one exception. I absolutely love how Alanna has been revised. I love seeing her as an intellectual equal and hero in her own right to Adam. She’s a very cool character, and if we had to go through cosmicy stuff to get her, so be it. But absolutely nothing else about that story was engaging to me.

The Canada stuff, on the other hand, that was good. This is actually were Alanna does much of her hero stuff, which was very cool. Even cooler is entirely new hero Equinox. I’d like her in any event, because I like her personality and I love her costume design. Best of all, she’s Cree. There are very, very few First Nations characters in comics, and most of them have costume designs with stereotypical elements. Think of X-Men’s Thunderbird, either version. I can tell that her heritage is going to be important to her character, and that’s as it should be, but I think we’ve gone well past the point where a First Nations character has to have feathers somewhere or, God help us all, a tomahawk.

The entire book is effortlessly diverse, in fact. There are female characters, and non-white characters, and non-human characters, and it isn’t a thing. This makes me happy. In comic books, we don’t have to limit our imaginations, so why should we limit what our protagonists look like? New 52 hasn’t been as diverse as it could have been, but they’re making strides over at DC lately.

Will I read more? Actually, yes. I do like the cast overall, and I’m actually quite interested in seeing how Equinox works out.

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Review: Justice League United, Vol. 1: Justice League Canada by Jeff Lemire

Justice League United, Vol. 1: Justice League Canada by Jeff Lemire

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

First off, I love my Canuck comic book buddies.
There are a lot of you, and thankfully you each seem to have an excellent sense of humor.
Especially when it comes to how poorly you guys get treated on the panels!

I was actually hoping that this would be your big BREAKOUT (and breakaway from Alpha Flight), but so far…not so much.
The good news is, JLU isn’t the worst thing I’ve ever read!
And there are is one spectacular moment in this that (honest to God) made the whole thing worth reading for me.

*WARNING: There are all kinds of spoilers below!*
Seriously. You’ve been warned. No bitching…

All of this takes place after the whole Forever Evil stuff in JLA Survivors of Evil , and now the team of B-Listers formerly known as the Justice League of America is sort of in limbo.
The only one anyone cares about real powerhouse is Martian Manhunter, but Animal Man, Stargirl, and Green Arrow are all still bopping around in the background.
Hey! What happened to Hawkman?!
I’m just assuming you asked that.
Well, now. Don’t you worry…he shows up. *insert evil cackling here*
PS – I’m fucking serious about that spoiler warning.

Get ready, because the big news is that Adam Strange and his girlfriend fiancee wife, Alanna, join the team in this one!
Yeah! Whoo-Hoo! Yeah! Yeah!

Oh. You’re not as excited as I thought you’d be.*cough* Well, that’s ok. That’s ok.
Equinox is also another new member! And when I say new, I mean it.
She’s a Native American…or is she a Native Canadian?
No, I think she’s still a Native American, because…it’s the continent not the country. Right? Am I right? I don’t want to take anything away from my Maple-SyrupLeafed friends, but I’m pretty sure it’s still Native American.
You know what…doesn’t matter.
Anyway, back to Equinox!

She’s actually pretty cool, and I’m hoping they keep this character around after they cancel this title! And it will get cancelled.
She get her powers from ‘seven elders’, and each one basically represents something good…I just can’t remember exactly what ‘good stuff’ right now.
All she has to do is say her magic word, and she controls the powers of the elements. But (I think) she can only access the element that she’s currently around.
Like, if it’s snowing she has the power of…snow.

Moving on!
There was a lot of bickering between Animal Man and Green Arrow, with each picking on the other for being The Lamest Superhero.
I liked this, because it was an attempt on Lemire’s part to address what everyone is already thinking about these guys.
Some of their interactions were funny, and some of them felt forced and hokey, but at least he tried.

Alright, alright! If you’re still reading this, it’s because you probably want to know what the hell I was talking about in the beginning that made this entire volume worthwhile.
*Ahem*
Drum roll, please…

He’s dead.

Says Supergirl…all sad n’ stuff.
Bwahahahaha! Hahahahahahaha! Ha! Hahaha! Hahahaha!
I can’t *wheeze* I can’t stop…I can’t stop laughing!
OhGod!IPeedMyself! They killed that hairy-shouldered fucker!
I should give this shit 5 stars just for this one panel alone!

Yeah, yeah. I’m sure that fucking Nth Metal will heal him.
But for one brief moment the sun shone down on me, angels sang, and little woodland creatures gently nuzzled my face…

Highly recommended if you want see Hawkman bite it!

I received a digital arc from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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Review: Guardians Of The Galaxy, Vol. 3: War Of Kings Book 2 by Dan Abnett

Guardians Of The Galaxy, Vol. 3: War Of Kings Book 2 by Dan Abnett

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

4.5 stars

Oh. My. God!
Shit gets real in this volume!

In the last volume, Phyla made a deal with the Devil…or, more accurately, the Dragon of the Moon..in order to restore Heather to life. Since then, she’s taken up a new name, Martyr.
And, to go along with the new name, she also seems to have a bit of a new personality. A evil crazy one.
But Phyla isn’t the only one who makes some iffy deals…

There is just so much cool packed into this volume, I don’t even know where to start! The Guardians are split into groups and sent in different directions in an attempt to stop the Shi’ar and Inhumans (now leading the Kree) from ripping the fabric of time with their War.
Star-Lord tries to talk sense into Medusa and Balck Bolt, while Adam Warlock takes on Emperor Vulcan.
*lots of crazy shit happens*
Time and space are coming apart, and half of the Guardians are sent into the future to figure out where it all started, and the other half are left to figure out how to stop it now that it’s begun.
*insert MORE crazy shit happening*

THAT ENDING!
Oh my God! I’d love to finish this review, but I need to find out what happened!

PS –
Since I read this as digital issues, I didn’t get to read Marvel Spotlight: War of Kings. So sad I missed out on it!

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