Marvel Capsule Reviews Week 15 2008

Keeping it sleek and fast, almost done catching up!

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #556

(Zeb Wells / Chris Bachalo)

Spidey gets snowed in, JJJ takes a walk, a seriously bad-ass God makes his debut, the debut of the Winter-Warm Spider-Man suit (with extra Newspaper stuffing) and a devilishly good twist! Plus, it's Chris Bachalo, drawing Spidey, in an oversnowed NYC! Love!

7/10




FANTASTIC FOUR #556

(Mark Millar / Bryan Hitch)

'World's Greatest' part 3 (of 4). Wow, things sure escalated fast. After two issues of Bob Bablaw, Millar hits the 'action' switch, as the CAP robot (meant here as some form of snarky/catchy teaser misdirect on the cover) goes renegade in Alaska. By the time the FF show up it has already taken apart all of Earth's heroes, and make short work of the FF, who -like rank amateurs- dive in one at a time to get their asses handed to them. Not impressed. As much as I want to like this, the title is losing credibility by the page, as the awkward plot pacing destroys any momentum the story might have had. Certainly not the World's Greatest, simply average, and for once the massive sales drop from the debut seems to agree.

6/10




MARVEL ADVENTURES HULK #10

(Paul Benjamin / Steve Scott)

Hulk battle Juggernaut in a cave. Hulk win, cave fall.

Um, ok , that's it. This issue was too predictable even for Marvel Adventures and lacked any real fun dialogue, original action and slapstick moments to make up for that.

Hulk bored now.

4/10


NOVA #12

(Dan Abnett & Richard Lanning / Paul Pelletier)

WARLOCK's back! Why didn't anyone tell me this? Why wasn't there a press release?

And by Warlock, I don't mean Adam Warlock (who's also back in Annihilation, but did get a press release), but this fella:


the lovable Technarchy kid from the New Mutants who fell victim to the bloody late 80s, and was resurrected (several times) during the bland and stale late 90s, only to later vanish into obscurity. It's great to see him back, and as his original lovable self! Paul Pelletier handles Warlock's design jaw-droppingly well, giving real dimension to what a lot of artists in the past have wussed out and drawn as a flat crazy-ink doodle. Sienkiewicz should be proud ;)

7.5/10




LAST DEFENDERS #2

(Joe Casey / Jim Muniz)

Iron-Man's been a creep for the past two years (earning a truckload of Best Villain awards) but this seals it. He sends an untrained and unprepared team of strangers into battle, where they unexpectedly get attacked by a giant fire-breathing monster which tears up Las Vegas. His response? Disband the team and openly chastise and mock them. Huh? With this, the first team is out (poor Colossus, always getting the boot), and Nighthawk with Shulkie team-up to continue the Serpent Society sub-plots into exposition hell, but end up fighting each other over some uncalled for exchanges. Mr Casey, you're overplaying your hand.

5/10


WOLVERINE #64

(Jason Aaron / Ron Garney)

'Get Mystique' part 3.

Still the best damn Wolverine story in decades! (and probably the best cover of the year so far!). Last issue Logan got bitch-slapped by a nun, this time around he joins the 'terorists' as a suicide bomber, blows up a car with him inside, and ends up getting stabbed with a chair. Love hurts, bub. Each issue Jason Aaron ups his game by a notch, providing both an exciting cat&mouse chase plot, clever dialogue, twists, new bizarre deaths for Logan and exciting ways to reaffirm how cool and cruel both Logan and Mystique are. As for Ron Garney, I can't believe he had this potential unrealised all these years. Run. Read.

8/10