The Avengers: Free Comic Book Day 2009

From the random stack of unread comics by way of Free Comic Book Day 2009.

Title: The Avengers: Free Comic Book Day 2009
Issue: 1
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: May, 2009
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciller: Jim Cheung
Inker: Mark Morales
Colorist: John Rauch
Letterer: VC's Cory Petit
Editor: Tom Brevoort, Jeanine Schaefer
Cover: Jim Cheung, Laura Martin

The frost giant Ymir has invaded New York, and it's going to take two teams of Avengers to stop him. In this rather crowded book, narrated by Spider-Man, we've got the post-Civil-War Avengers, currently outlaws, and the government-sanctioned Dark Avengers, led by Norman Osborne wearing the Iron Patriot armor.

As mentioned, you need a scorecard to keep track of everyone here, and it doesn't help matters that you've got two Spider-Men (one is actually Venom), two Wolverines (one is the original's son... X-24, I guess? Or is X-24 some other dude?), and two Captain Marvels (neither of which is Mar-Vell OR Shazam; both are women).

While I realize that having all of these duplicates is part of the point, it does not make for a good story. Most of this book was the various team members trudging through the snow to find some super-powered sword, which they didn't even really need to use on anyone. Just breaking the thing out of its display case was all that was needed to save the day.

Oh, and then the two teams almost-fight.

This was a lot of buildup to a massive fizzle of an ending. The only think holding this together was Peter Parker's snarky narration, and even that felt forced at times.

Rating: 3/10

 

Deathstroke #3

We just got back from an amazing three days in Singapore. Among the awesomeness of Gardens by the Bay, hawker centers in Chinatown and Little India, the Night Safari, and the Botanic Gardens, one of the places I happened upon was the massive Kinokuniya bookstore on Orchard Road. I stopped in to buy some Singaporean literature, but they also had a small selection of American comics (plus a very extensive collection of graphic novels and manga; definitely paying them another visit if I get back to Singapore any time soon!). Since they had some of the DC Rebirth titles that I didn't have a chance to pick up over the summer, I went ahead and picked out one, somewhat at random.


Title: Deathstroke
Issue: #3
Date: November, 2016
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Christopher Priest
Penciler: Joe Bennett
Inker: Belardino Braho, Mark Morales
Colorist: Jeromy Cox
Letterer: Willie Schubert
Editor: Alex Antone, Brittany Holzherr
Cover: Romulo Fajardo Jr., ACO

The basic story here is that someone has put a hit out on Rose, and Slade Deathstroke is make sure that problem gets fixed.

This took a bit to get going, and silly plot devices involving Rose's precognitive (incorrectly described as "clairvoyant") abilities made the action sequence toward the middle of the book unnecessarily confusing.

Slade talks to his daughter with the attitude that baby-boomers are often accused of taking toward millenials, and the whole relationship comes off as a bit awkward (at least partially intentionally).

The ending contrived its way into a road trip to Gotham City, which could be interesting. But this issue was almost entirely setup, and it was shaky setup at best.

Rating: 4/10

X-Men #1

Back for the summer and hopefully beyond!

I had to drop this review blog for a few months when things got a bit too busy at the day job. Now that school is out (I'm a high school teacher), I've got the time. And I am certainly not lacking in unread comics.

For my big return to reviewing, however, I stopped by my local Newbury Comics to check out the recent releases. This seemed like a good one to start with.

Title: X-Men #1
Date: July, 2013
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Brian Wood
Artist: Olivier Coipel, Mark Morales
Colorist: Laura Martin
Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna
Cover: Olivier Coipel, Laura Martin
Editor: Jennifer M. Smith, Jeanine Schaefer


I picked up the "sketch-cover" version of this. The blank cover (that is available for drawing on) is made of a cardstock that helps the book hold together better, and the regular cover is underneath. Nice. I'll probably be buying more of these versions when looking at new comics.


This is the (upteenth) relaunch of X-Men, and it got a fair amount of attention in the press due to the fact that it features an all-female cast. Specifically, the team lineup is Storm, Rogue, Jubilee, Kitty Pryde, Psylocke, and whatever Rachel Summers is calling herself these days.


It's set at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning (for those not up on your X-Men lore, that's the current incarnation of Xavier's School), so there is a huge potential supporting cast. In a sense, this is not precisely an all-female X-Men team, but rather a comic about the X-Men as a whole that heavily focuses on the six female starring characters.


The story here concerns John Sublime, who is actually a telepathic microorganism who has the ability to possess human bodies. It seems Sublime has an even worse sister who has similar abilities with technology, and she's back on Earth and looking to make trouble.


There's a train-imperilment sequence that showcases the current X-Men working as a team, which they do quite well so far, and a lot of set-up for future plot, but the whole thing moves along with a reasonable mix of character development, suspense, and enough action to keep it from dragging.


Nothing shocking or groundbreaking, but a good solid X-Men story that does a great job of focusing on the new lineup without it ever failing to feel like the X-Men.


Rating: 7.5/10