Marvel Adventures: Free Comic Book Day 2008

Kiddo picked this one out for me to read from the stack of random unread comics. It's another 2008 FCBD book, this time from Marvel.

Title: Marvel Adventures: Free Comic Book Day 2008
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: May, 2008
Writer: Jeff Parker, Paul Tobin
Penciler: Alvin Lee
Inker: Terry Pallot
Colorist:Wilfredo Quintana
Letterer: Nate Piekos
Editor: Nathan Cosby, Mark Paniccia

This is from Marvel's all-ages line, and features Spider-Man, Iron Man, Hulk, and Ant-Man battling the Mandarin in Peru. The fight eventually ends up in Machu Pichu (of course!), and there is an encounter with a sentient giant ant. Oddly, Ant-Man has been somewhat awkwardly dropped from the story at this point, possibly because he might have been just a bit too useful in giant-ant-based scenarios.

Mandarin shows up, and in one of the most unexpected moments I've experienced in a comic in a while, Spider-Man demands that everyone "take the fight outside" so as not to damage the precious archaeological site... And Mandarin is totally cool with that idea! Ha! I love it!

When the battle does resume, it's actually a pretty good fight. Mandarin is set up as a very even match, even against three Avengers, and the battle is fun with a good logical flow.

All of the giant ant stuff felt silly, and there were random ancient magical artifacts that were only marginally important to the story, but this was still an entertaining book.

Rating: 6.5/10

Captain Universe / X-23 #1

Title: Captain Universe / X-23
Issue: #1
Date: January, 2006
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Jay Faerber
Penciler: Francis Portelle
Inker: Raul Fernandez
Colorist: Impact Studios
Letterer: VC's Rus Wooton
Editor: Nathan Crosby, Mark Paniccia

Okay, so there's this cosmic power, the "Uni-Power" that grants superpowers to those in need. It's the power that made Spider-Man cosmic-powered back in the '90s. Anyway, when it possesses a person, they become (no, I'm not making this up)... CAPTAIN UNIVERSE!

("Universe Man, Universe Man/Size of the entire universe, man/He's got a watch with a minute hand/A millenium hand, and an eon hand/And when they meet it's a happy land/Powerful man, Universe Man" -TMBG. Sorry. Okay, I'll stop now.)

Anyway, the Uni-Power has malfunctioned, and it's wandering the Marvel Universe in its own crossover series. All of this is explained in a text introduction.

And then, a villain proceeds to give the exact same introduction in a dialogue infodump prompted by the lame excuse that another villain didn't pay attention to the briefing (this gal is the Scorpion, but not the Scorpion from Spider-Man; this is some green-haired chick who basically seems to be Madame Hydra/Viper, except with a shorter attention span).

But this book isn't about that. It's about X-23, who's basically Wolverine, except that she's prettier, wears less, and has less personality. So she starts fighting with some invisible commando-types, and seems to be doing just fine, but gets Uni-Powered anyway.

She ends up teamed up with Scorpion, who explains that she's the GOOD Scorpion and not the Spider-Man villain. In order to make the point that X-23 is the strong silent type, writer Jay Faerber has Scorpion chatter incessantly while saying pretty much nothing.

Eventually they find themselves in a house that is set to self-destruct in 3 minutes. They know this because a random bad guy tells them that the house is set to self-destruct in 3 minutes.

Scorpion has a hard decision to make and ends up showing some heart, and the ending is actually considerably better than all of the silliness that led up to it. A text feature on the history of the Captain Universe character is more interesting than most of the story was, and we get a last-page teaser showing the next "exciting" guest star (Gladiator? Really? THAT is supposed to sell comics?).

You know how some comics are harmless fun? This was harmless and really bad.

Rating: 3/10

The Avengers: Halloween Ashcan 2006

Title: The Avengers: Halloween Ashcan 2006
Date: 2006
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Jeff Parker
Penciler: Manuel Garcia
Inker: Scott Koblish
Colorist: Val Staples
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Cover Art: Aaron Lopresti and Guru eFX
Editor: Mark Paniccia
Assistant Editor: Nathan Cosby

Giant Girl? Really? The rest of the team is pretty familiar: Cap, Storm, Hulk, Spidey, Iron Man, and Wolverine. This is an alternate (and all-ages friendly) origin story for Ultron, and it's played mostly for laughs. The military decides to fire the Avengers in favor of its new Ultron artificial intelligence, which turns heel within seconds of being activated. This would normally be pretty lame, but at least they have Spidey breaking the fourth wall and commenting on how Ultron has just set some kind of everything-went-wrong speed record. The silly continues from there. Banner: "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry." Logan: "I don't like you that much now." Ha! None of the danger ever feels all that threatening, but the jokes keep coming and the action is fast-paced, harmless fun. Not really sure what any of this had to do with Halloween, but it's a decent little freebie (26-page full-color ashcan-sized). I still have no idea who the heck Giant Girl is, but I suppose that the concept, at least, is fairly obvious.

Rating: 7/10