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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 12, 2019 1:55:21 GMT -5
New Mutants #1"The Sextant"Cover Date: Jan, 2019 Writer: Ed Brisson & Jonathan Hickman Artist: Rod Reis Featured Character(s): New Mutants (Magik, Wolfbane, Karma, Mondo, Cypher, Mirage, Sunspot & Chamber) Villain/s: The Shi'ar Empire Guest Stars: Starjammers (Corsair, Hepzibah, Raza Longknife, & Ch'od), Krakoa, Storm, & Charles Xaiver Official Plot:THE NEW GENERATION CLAIMS THE DAWN! The classic New Mutants (Sunspot, Wolfsbane, Mirage, Karma, Magik, and Cypher) get together with a few new friends (Chamber, Mondo) to seek out their missing member and share the good news… a mission that takes them into space alongside the Starjammers! Brodie's View:And just like that, Excalibur #1 is knocked off of its perch by this issue, definitely the best first issue of this new run of X-Books. This is a lot to say for me, because I'll be honest with you, I never was that big of a fan of the New Mutants as a team. Oh, I liked Magik and Wolfsbane, and some of the other characters grew to be decent characters, but the original book, once one got past the initial Chris Claremont written part, kind of sucked. Louise Simonson was not a very good writer; passable at best, looking back on her stuff with NM and X-Factor. However, with this new writing team of Jonathan Hickman (who I'm assuming came up with the overall plot) and Ed Brisson (who I assume wrote the actual story), we get this team (who are looking to have been reborn as teens for the most part) being the most entertaining possible versions of themselves, while remaining true to what came before. Plus, we get a couple of nods to the later "New Mutants" book, Generation X, as two of the former members of that group (Chamber and Mondo) are now part of this group. The first story arc concerns the one name that any long time X-Fan would see was missing from the line up, on the New Mutant side of things, and that's Cannonball, who we reveal is off doing whatever in the Shi'ar controlled part of the galaxy. Being teens, the group just kind of decides to go after him, which is how the main part of this story gets going (I'll get to the stuff before that in a second), as they end up hitching a ride with the Starjammers. This being the New Mutants, though, this doesn't go as planned. Other than Sunspot, the rest of the team follows the Starjammers on their apparent mission, which is revealed to just be the pirate group stealing shit from the Shi'ar....lol. Being the pirates that they are, Corsair and the group ditch the teens, and then give Sunspot the boot when he brings up winning a bet against Corsair (via a great little sword duel between Magik and Raza). This leaves the entire group at the mercy of the Shi'ar....ulp! This books was so much fun. The characterization is solid, the dialogue is pretty damn snappy, the plot, while being simple, had plenty of great little breadcrumbs dropped that one knows will become eventual storylines. Going back to the first part of the story, we get Wolfsbane's resurrection (and find out that some of the others are returning as well....I guess I missed a New Mutant massacre in recent years), as well as Cypher using Mondo to be able to communicate directly with Krakoa, which Mondo is not happy with the process of. In short, we get a lot of great character stuff before the actual plot kicks in. Before I go, I do want to mention the art by Rod Reis, which very much looks like the early work of Bill Sienkiewicz (who had a great little run on NM), which very much adds to the nostalgia feels, as all the kids say. In short, if you're going to pick up any of the new X-Books, I would say this, the main X-Men book, and Excalibur are the ones I would take the chance on so far. Next up... ? GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 13, 2019 2:34:23 GMT -5
The New Teen Titans: Games "Games"Cover Date: 2011 Writer: Marv Wolfman & George Perez Artist: George Perez Featured Character(s): The New Teen Titans (Nightwing, Starfire, Cyborg, Raven, Starfire, Changeling/Beast Boy, Troia, Jericho, & Danny Chase) Villain/s: Gamesmaster & Minions (Asteroid, Dungeon, Holox, Ishiro Daikaiju, Knight, Mekkan, Spywar, Squire, & Strategist---all die) Guest Stars: Central Bureau of Intelligence (King Faraday), Adeline Kane, Alfred Pennyworth, Aqualad, Arella, Arnold Cardy, Batman, Carl Woods, Cindy Evans, Diane, Fay Evans, Flash/Wally West, Hank Evans, Jazz, Jerry Evans, Jillian Jackson, Joe Richani, Maude Stone, Omen, Robin, Sarah Charles, Speedy, Steve Dayton, Terry Long, Tucker Stone, Vernon Questor, Vicki, Wintergreen, Zach, & Sarah Simms (dies) Official Plot:In this epic story, a mysterious villain plays a deadly game with New York City as the gameboard – and the Teen Titans as the pieces! Brodie's View:While we're waiting for the newest X-books to come out for me to read/review, I decided to put that waiting period to good use and review some One Shot's and Trade paperbacks. This is one I sat on for a little bit, after picking it up at discount prices a year or so ago. However, it's kind of perfect timing, as we were just dealing with Marvel's group of young heroes that sprung out of the early 80's, The New Mutants. Now we're dealing with The New Teen Titans, an equally popular book during that period, but on the opposite end of the comic company spectrum (or DC). This was a one shot story that NTT co-creators Marv Wolfman and George Perez wanted to do in the late 80's, as it was meant to be their re-teaming on the characters for the first time since Perez left the book to do other things in the mid 80's. Work on the book was halted at a certain point, and then resurrected and finished just in time for the 30th anniversary of the launching of the New Teen Titans title. I will say that despite the slight updates to keep current with what had happened between the late 80's and 2010/11, the book very much has the feel of the mid/late 80's, although, that's probably due to the team, which is pretty much frozen in place, continuity wise, as they would have been during the late 80's. This is the Post Terra Titans, as Robin had become Nightwing, Donna Troy had become Troia, and....ugh...Jericho is on the team (sorry, never liked his Curly Fro having ass), along with some dude named Danny Chase, who is a computer wiz (and government agent) with telekinesis. Other than that, it's pretty much the Titans most of today's audience would know. Since there was no Synopsis given, I will say that this story concerns a mysterious person known only as The Gamesmaster (and hey, beating Marvel to the punch with a similar character that appeared in the early 90's, if we're counting the concept of this book as appearing before that character did), who ends up creating a convoluted scenario in order to prove how unsafe the United States was in a Post Cold War world. This involves remotely blowing up certain targets, while keeping the Titans hopping long enough to keep them from discovering the truth behind all of this (and I will say this is one flaw of this story, as the big "swerve" is too easy to guess). This involves having them fight various threats that were custom designed for each specific member. Of course, the Titans are able to come through and save the day, but not without some cost; Cyborg's girlfriend is blown up, as is, by the end of things, Titan Island/Tower. However, the plot really isn't the star here; it's George Perez's art work, and the over sized pages (as this was presented in Marvel's 80's graphic novel format) really shows off how amazing his stuff is. I would say that, along with getting to see the classic Teen Titans together again, are the reasons to give this one a read, but then again, if you're a fan of Perez/The Teen Titans....that's enough. ( ) For the next review....well, I'm not entirely sure what I'll be reviewing, but I promise it'll be good shit, Pal. GRADE: B+
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,401
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Nov 13, 2019 13:51:05 GMT -5
Ahh Games I read about it in the 80s in Amazing Heroes. Then by the time it finally came out I had given up on ever seeing it.
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 13, 2019 14:03:43 GMT -5
Ahh Games I read about it in the 80s in Amazing Heroes. Then by the time it finally came out I had given up on ever seeing it. It's good...more of a pure nostalgia piece than it would have been had it came out when it was supposed to.
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 14, 2019 1:08:22 GMT -5
The Mighty Avengers #255"The Legacy of Thanos"Cover Date: May, 1985 Writer: Roger Stern Artist: John Buscema Featured Character(s): The (East Coast) Avengers (Captain America, Captain Marvel II, Hercules, Starfox, The Wasp, The Scarlet Witch, & The Vision (the last two leave the team) Villain/s: Skunge, Levan, Kehl, & Gunthar (1st appearance of all) Guest Stars: The Black Knight, Wonder Man, I.S.A.A.C., Raymond Sikorsky, & General Peabody Official Plot:Back from her vacation, the Wasp is shocked to learn of the Vision's aborted world takeover plan. Accepting full responsibility, the Vision resigns the chairmanship and, accompanied by the Scarlet Witch, leaves for Washington and a scheduled debriefing session. Meanwhile, aboard Sanctuary II, Thanos's former starship, Captain Marvel encounters the newly arrived four-man crew of another ship, comprising four different alien races. After helping them repair their craft, she is startled when Sanctuary ll's hyperdrive is suddenly activated, transporting the ship to another galaxy. Her four shipmates then reveal that they are mercenaries and entreat her to join their band or risk never again finding her way back to Earth. Brodie's View:Since it'll probably be a week before I'm able to review any more new X-Books, I decided to keep my brain frosty by reviewing one of the many random trade paperbacks I have in my collection. This is from the "Avengers Legacy of Thanos" trade I picked up at an Ollie's last summer, and will go through several issues of The Mighty Avengers, as well as an Annual from both the Avengers and Fantastic Four titles to wrap this story up. Speaking of the story, this takes the fall out of The Vision (who had been corrupted by a both a crystal he had been implanted with by Ultron, and the I.S.A.A.C. computer he had been hooked up to after being messed up by said murderous robot) trying to take control of all of Earth's computers to create peace on that planet. Needless to say, that didn't go well, but The Vision was able to come to his senses in the end. That all happened previous to this issue, but we get many call backs to it, so, it does have to be mentioned. Anyways, this causes The Vision and his wife (and fellow Avengers), The Scarlet Witch, to leave the team, leaving The Mighty Avengers very much in flux. We also see the reaction to all of this from Washington, which...isn't a good one. This will eventually lead to the Vision being taken by the U.S. Government, and having his entire persona kind of wiped out and reset, but that won't happen for a few years after this, during John Byrne's run on the West Coast Avengers book. However, while the main part of the Avengers team deal with the fall out of two of their most powerful members leaving the group, the main part of this story (and the one that will go on to become the main story for the rest of this trade) deals with the second Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau) realizing she's been sent on a wild goose chase galaxies away by the Vision, happens upon a ship that is revealed to be one that was used by the Mad Titan, Thanos. It's there, however, that she encounters a group of random aliens that at first seem benign, but by the end of the story are revealed to be mercenaries, who steal Thanos' ship (with the good Captain coming along with it), and hyperdrive it into yet another galaxy. (Ulp! ) Of course, this will eventually lead the rest of the Mighty Avengers into the frey, but like any good story (and the classic team of Roger Stern and John Buscema definitely can deliver on those), the pay off needs to be built to, and in the next issue, we will see that build starting, which will take the Earth bound team....into The Savage Land!!! GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 15, 2019 1:47:13 GMT -5
The Mighty Avengers #256"This Power Unleashed"Cover Date: June, 1985 Writer: Roger Stern Artist: John Buscema Featured Character(s): The (East Coast) Avengers (Captain America, Captain Marvel II, Hercules, Starfox, The Wasp, & The Black Knight (the last officially joins the team) Villain/s: Skunge, Levan, & Terminus Guest Stars: Apollo, Edwin Jarvis, Ka-Zar, Zabu, Dr. Smythe, Dr. Hopper, Agent Colby, & Sid Ward Official Plot:The Olympian Apollo visits Avengers Mansion, bringing Hercules a new costume to replace his previous garb, shredded in battle. Then, at the team's regular meeting, the Wasp is reinstated as chairman and the Black Knight officially rejoins the roster. The team is then summoned to the site of a South Atlantic shipwreck, where they learn of a monstrous extraterrestrial menace called Terminus. Following the mystery being's trail, they rescue the staff of a wrecked Antarctic research station and deduce that their quarry has entered the hidden primeval jungle known as the Savage Land, where, at that very moment, the giant alien menaces a party of researchers and their guide, Ka-Zar. Brodie's View:First off, I will say that the cover is kind of deceiving, as while it's revealed at the end of the issue that The Avengers will be going to the Savage Land, they don't actually arrive there in this issue. In fact, the only part of the book that directly deals with the Savage Land happens in the last few pages. Of course, that little sneak preview pretty much instantly lets one know the story is going to be taking place in the Savage Land, as one of the two major characters that one would expect from a Savage Land story (the other would be Sauron) shows up in those last few pages, and that's the lame Tarzan rip off, Ka-Zar (never was a fan). Before all that, however, we get a slowly revealed mystery menace that is intercut with the Avengers moving on into what the new status quo will be for the team, now that The Vision is no longer in charge. For one, we get the reinstatement of the character who had been Avengers chairman before The Vision used his abilities to manipulate the team into putting him in charge, The Wasp, and once that happens, the team gets down to business that had been put on the back burner due to the events of Secret Wars and the whole Vision thing. That is, of course, until they're alerted to the presence of our mystery menace, who is revealed to be the recently (at that time) introduced new threat (introduced during John Byrne's Fantastic Four run), Terminus, who seems to be making his way towards the Savage Land. This brings us full circle, as of course the team will be headed off to team with Lame-Zar to fight off Terminus in the next issue. However, we a few other things happen that are worth noting. One is Hercules getting his nifty metallic costume that he'll have for a good while (delivered by fellow god, Apollo). The bigger news, however, happens on the Captain Marvel side of things, as Monica (who had been depowered and captured by space mercenaries last issue) finds her powers returning, and with that happening, tries to make her escape from said mercenaries. We'll see this continue in the next issue, as eventually her side of the story will lead to a re-unification with the rest of the Mighty Avengers. I will say that this was a pretty good issue, that while doesn't have as many BIG THINGS happening as the last issue, but once again, one can tell that the build towards a major conflict is moving along quite nicely. In the next review, the Avengers will finally reach....The Savage Land!!! GRADE: B
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 16, 2019 2:11:03 GMT -5
The Mighty Avengers #257"Holocaust in a Hidden Land"Cover Date: July, 1985 Writer: Roger Stern Artist: John Buscema Featured Character(s): The (East Coast) Avengers (Captain America, Captain Marvel II, Hercules, Starfox, The Wasp, & The Black Knight Villain/s: Skunge, Kehl, Gunthar, Levan, Terminus (seemingly dies), & Nebula (1st appearance of the last) Guest Stars: Ka-Zar, Zabu, Shanna The She Devil, Lemurans, & Aerians (Lord Typ) Official Plot:In deep space, Captain Marvel is introduced to Nebula, the merciless mistress of her abductors. Back on Earth, meanwhile, the Avengers follow Terminus into the Savage Land, where they meet Ka-Zar and Zabu, the only survivors of the research group's deadly encounter with the alien. Ka-Zar's wife Shanna is rescued by Starfox, as Terminus, blasting through a plateau, enters the larger jungle region of Pangea and commences to devastate it. The Avengers pursue their quarry, but he easily sweeps their quinjet from the skies, even as the jungle, its artificial environment wrecked, begins to revert to the normal Antarctic climate. When the Black Knight severs the creature's hand with his sword, Terminus is revealed as a robot exoskeleton. Starfox then hurls Hercules at their foe, and the Olympian rips through Terminus's armor, exposing the helpless, hopelessly obese creature within. Brodie's View:Business starts to pick up with our story in this issue, as The Avengers do battle with the giant space destroyer, Terminus, who is working his way across the Savage Land, messing up everything in sight. Hell, he straight kills an entire race of bird like humanoids without batting an eye. Eventually, the Avengers are able to take him down (and surprisingly easy), and expose him for the blobby alien he really is inside that giant robot body. They then leave him to freeze to death in the blizzard his actions caused, which....I'm not sure Captain America would be too happy with. I guess we'll see if there's any fall out with that in the next issue. It's too bad Terminus' path always seems to follow the same routine; bring him in as a bad ass, who then gets beaten pretty quickly and solidly. It happened in his first/previous appearance in the Fantastic Four's book, and it happens a couple of years after this, when a Garrok controlled Terminus gets beaten by the X-Men. Of course, this pretty nicely explains how Terminus got to the Savage Land (where he does battle with the mutant team) in the first place. Once again, though, it's too bad Terminus always got chumped out so quickly. He was a cool looking villain. And hey, there's pretty minimal Ka-Zar action in this one, as he mostly plays Exposition Guy for the recently arriving Avengers. Shanna (the She Devil) makes an appearance as well, and it's teased that while she's recently become pregnant with Lame Tarzan guy's kid, things are not all roses between "Tarzan and Jane." Not sure if any of this will be followed up on in the next issue, but I won't be sad if it doesn't. Finally, the BIG thing that happens in this issue takes up only a few pages, but it will lead to our major conflict happening in a couple of issues, and that's the introduction of Thanos' daughter, Nebula (who is revealed to be the leader of the space mercenaries that captured Captain Marvel II at the beginning of the trade I'm reviewing). Like the mercenaries, however, she offers Monica to join her, as she plans to gather enough forces to take out....the Skrull Empire (or what's left of it, after Galactus ate their home world in the pages of the FF's book). Needless to say, this is all building up to some big stuff that will end up drawing in not only the Mighty Avengers, but another superhero team I mentioned earlier (a couple times) as well. But first things first, as in the next issue, the Avengers will encounter Spider-Man....and the Fury of FIRELORD!!! GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 17, 2019 2:12:46 GMT -5
The Mighty Avengers #258"Pyrrhic Victory!"Cover Date: Aug, 1985 Writer: Roger Stern Artist: John Buscema Featured Character(s): The (East Coast) Avengers (Captain America, Captain Marvel II, Hercules, Starfox, The Wasp, & The Black Knight Villain/s: Gunthar, Levan, & Nebula Guest Stars: Ka-Zar, Spider-Man, Firelord, Edwin Jarvis, Raymond Sikorsky, Agent Ward, Agent Colby, Skrulls, Arnie, & Fletcher (1st appearance of the last two) Official Plot:
Greatly chagrined at the destruction of the Savage Land, the Avengers return home to find that National Security Council agents have invaded their headquarters. According to Raymond Sikorsky, in light of information from the Vision's debriefing, the Avengers' priority clearance has been suspended. Before the heroes can protest, they are called into action against a rampaging Firelord, only to find the former herald of Galactus already defeated by Spider-Man. Fortunately, when Firelord regains his senses, his past ally Hercules is able to restrain him from further destruction. Meanwhile, Nebula plots to use Captain Marvel in her quest to conquer the remains of the Skrull Empire. When she has her reluctant ally scout a Skrull base, however, Captain Marvel manages to beam a message to Earth, but seconds later, the base is seemingly obliterated by Nebula's anti-matter torpedo. Brodie's View:We do get some fall out over the death that happens at the end of last issue, but it's not Terminus' death everyone is upset about. See, Terminus' rampage ended up destabilizing the climate of the Savage Land, turning it as frozen as the rest of Antarctica, and killing most of the indigenous people of that land (although, we'll find out in UNCANNY X-MEN ANNUAL #12 that not only is the Savage Land's destruction reversible, but that a nice chunk of the Savage Land's human populace ended up escaping into an alternate dimension until all the danger had passed). Of course, it'll be a couple of years before that happens, so, the Avengers head back to New York, smack dab into more fall out (this from the Vision debacle), as the U.S. Government is trying to take any technology that The Vision might have altered when he was linked into the world's computer network (well, what would have been there in 1984/5). To make things worse, they end up getting their security clearance stripped from them because of what happened with The Vision. It's shortly after this that they discover that former herald of Galactus, Firelord, is currently involved in a pretty one sided fight with the Amazing Spider-Man (depicted in ASM #269-70). However, that one sided fight isn't going how one would expect, as Spider-Man, fueled by rage, has unleashed his full potential on old Firelord, straight up whooping his ass. It's from here that the now unconscious Firelord is brought back to Avengers Mansion, where upon waking up, he tries to start attacking again, only to be put down (and calmed down) by Hercules. Even though Firelord kind of gets chumped out twice this issue, it's a good thing the Avengers have gathered him, as big things are happening out in space. See, Nebula (who we were introduced to last issue) sends Captain Marvel II out to try and test the defense system of the remains of the Skrull empire, and thanks to Monica, she ends up getting the break in those defenses that she wanted. Her ship ends up attacking the Skrull system Monica ends up sneaking aboard, seemingly killing both her and the Skrulls that were on that ship, but not before Cap (Marvel) ends up sending out a rescue message to the Avengers. A lot of stuff ended up happening in this issue, and as we move into the next issue, we'll see our main story start to take shape. I will say that this will end up drawing in some interesting folks; one of them being Marvel's oldest superhero team, and the other being the Godlike being known as The Beyonder. That's right, we're getting some SECRET WARS II cross over issues before all of this is said and done. Yay??? GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 18, 2019 2:20:06 GMT -5
The Mighty Avengers #259"Duty Over All!"Cover Date: Sept, 1985 Writer: Roger Stern Artist: John Buscema Featured Character(s): The (East Coast) Avengers (Captain America, Captain Marvel II, Hercules, Starfox, The Wasp, & The Black Knight Villain/s: Gunthar, Levan, & Nebula Guest Stars: Firelord, Edwin Jarvis, She Hulk, Wyatt Wingfoot, Marge (First Appearance), Skrulls (Zedaro, Deviant Skrulls, Various Skrull Warriors, & Governor Gorth--death of the last character) Official Plot:Receiving Captain Marvel's message, the Avengers, accompanied by Firelord, rocket to the Andromeda Galaxy in a Titanian starship piloted by Starfox. Once reunited with her teammates, Captain Marvel presents them to the Skrulls' leader. General Zedrao, who tells them how, after Galactus's destruction of their throneworld, the ruthless Nebula and her mercenaries had taken over world after world of the shattered Skrull Empire. Although Captain Marvel had engineered a ruse making it seem that Nebula had destroyed Zedrao's base, Nebula is still at large and in command of Thanos's immensely powerful ship. Thus, although neither side truly trusts the other, the Avengers and the Skrulls become allies against their mutual foe. Brodie's View:Story B finally becomes Story A, and the Avengers are reunited, as the rest of the team finally ends up making it to the Andromeda Galaxy to reunite with their lost (since #255) fellow member, Captain Marvel II. This also means that the Avengers are now kind of forced into helping out the race of aliens that they've mostly dealt with as enemies, The Skrulls. Of course, The Skrulls are equally displeased with this arrangement, but as we discover via an exposition backstory, Nebula (especially with controlling one of Thanos' war ships) is a big enough threat for both sides to put their mutual animosity aside long enough to stand against. Speaking of Nebula, we see that she has secretly cut a deal with a wannabe emperor of the Skrulls, Governor Gorth, who she ends up killing anyways at the end of the issue. We see that she plans to use the Governor's death as fuel to turn the various warring tribes of the Skrull empire (who all basically turned on each other after Galactus destroyed their Throneworld) against each other...and the Avengers. That is the main story this issue, but we also get some little character moments before the team rockets into space to rescue Captain Marvel. Captain America ends up having a brief run in with former Avenger, She Hulk, who is currently a member of the Fantastic Four during this period, and dating FF supporting character, Wyatt Wingfoot. This is mostly just to fill readers who might not read the FF's book in on what She Hulk has been doing since jumping teams, while also kind of setting things up for her eventual return. This wouldn't happen for another year or so after this, though, so, consider it long term planning. We also see Firelord working with Hercules to try and atone for the damage he caused when initially coming to Earth (and getting his ass kicked by Spider-Man in the process). Not that this leads to Firelord joining the Avengers or anything, but he is an ally to them in this fight, so, at least his helping Hercules kind of sets up his being a hero for at least the remains of this particular storyline. Speaking of that, in the next issue we've moved full into this conflict between Nebula and her war ships and the small part of the Skrull army that stands against her, Firelord, and The Avengers. However, as I said, we will start drawing other characters into this conflict. Who? Well, I will go ahead and tell you that this is the first of a few SECRET WARS II crossover issues, so, that should basically tell you who our big guest star is for next ish. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 19, 2019 1:57:06 GMT -5
The Mighty Avengers #260"Assault on Sanctuary II"Cover Date: Oct, 1985 Writer: Roger Stern Artist: John Buscema Featured Character(s): The (East Coast) Avengers (Captain America, Captain Marvel II, Hercules, Starfox, The Wasp, & The Black Knight Villain/s: Skunge, Kehl, Gunthar, Levan, & Nebula Guest Stars: Firelord, Queen Adora (dies), The Beyonder, Deviant Skrulls (Zedaro & The Imperial Skrull Starfleet) Official Plot:Secret Wars II continues from Incredible Hulk #312 This story takes place during the events of Secret Wars II #3 and continues from last issue ... Following the Avenger's decision to side with the Skrulls in order to stop Nebula's bid to take over the universe, Firelord refuses to ally himself with a race that has shown so much aggression toward his Xandarian people. He returns to his home-world of Xandar to find it in ruins, tracking down its ruler Queen Adora, Firelord learns that it was attacked by Nebula's forces. Elsewhere in space, the Avengers and Skrull commander Zedrao begin planning a strategy to stop Nebula's forces who now have full control of Thanos's old ship, Sanctuary II. They decide to try diplomacy first and teleport a communications tube in the general area of Sanctuary II and it is promptly brought to Nebula. She views it and finds a message from Zedrao and Captain Marvel asking for Nebula and her minions to surrender. Nebula angrily blasts the communications device and orders her warriors to prepare for immediate battle. Sure enough, the Skrull battalion arrives with the Avengers aid begins giving Nebula's forces a good pounding. Nebula is hard pressed to use Sanctuary II's devastating weapons as she would need to drop the ships shields, leaving it vulnerable to penetration by Captain Marvel's energy form. As the battle rages on, Firelord returns to lend his aid, giving the Skrull/Avengers alliance a much-needed boost. One of Nebula's warships, however, hits him with one of their weapons at full power, sending him crashing into a nearby moon. Not seriously harmed, Firelord digs himself out of the rubble to find that he is not alone, a lone figure stands before him asking him if he is one of the Avengers. As the Avengers fight on, Captain Marvel tries to penetrate the shields of Sanctuary II in her energy form, she decides to change her tactic instead and manages to overload it before returning to the main Skrull ship, however, she nearly passes out when she returns to human form. This gives the invaders an opening, and Captain America leads Zedrao and a group of Skrulls (disguised as Thanos and other Avengers) to storm the ship, gaining access with relative ease due to the fear the crew has for Thanos. While on the moon nearby, Firelord is helped out by the Beyonder who tells him that he is looking for the Avengers. When Firelord explains that they are busy battling Nebula, the Beyonder decides to help out. Using his powers to transform his clothing into a suit of armor, he teleports away to lend them a hand in their battle. Back aboard the Sanctuary II, the Avengers have stormed the ship and are easily trouncing Nebula's forces. While elsewhere Nebula and her minions Gunthar and Kehl are loading up and escape ship to make their retreat from battle. They are attacked by Starfox who removes Nebula's blasters and demands that she turn over Sanctuary II because he has a right to it as Thanos was his brother. Nebula reveals that she is Thanos's granddaughter a revelation that shocks Starfox long enough for Gunthar to down him with a mental blast. Just then the Beyonder appears and upon confirming who Nebula is, blasts them with a teleportation ray. When Starfox recovers he demands to know who the stranger is and what he had done. The Beyonder introduces himself and explains that he did what Firelord had told him: removed Nebula from the galaxy -- literally. When the other Avengers arrive, Starfox angrily explains to the Avengers what the Beyonder had done. When Captain Marvel explains what they really meant, the Beyonder feels terrible as he did not realize the context in which Firelord explained things to him. He remorsefully teleports away vowing to get more experience before he acts in the affairs of other again. With the Beyonder gone, the Avengers (except for Captain America who has met him previously[1]) wonder who the being that "helped" them was, while Starfox vows to learn if Nebula is truly his grandniece or not... This story is continued in Avengers Annual #14... Secret Wars II continues in Secret Wars II #4.... Brodie's View:Nice! We get a synopsis that's more than a small paragraph. That makes things a lot easier, as I don't have to go into great detail trying to do my own synopsis (although, I'm sure I'll be doing that anyways). Well, in addition to our story kicking fully in, as we get a VERY nice space battle between The Avengers/Deviant Skrulls/Firelord vs. Nebula and her army, this is also one of many crossovers to SECRET WARS II, Marvel's company wise crossover going at the time. Now, to make a long story short on that one, I will say that in the follow up to the first SECRET WARS, the godlike being known as The Beyonder (who was responsible for the whole SW thing in the first place) comes to Earth, hoping to learn about and then emulate the beings he observed during that conflict. His major role in this story is trying to act the part of a superhero, however, as often happens during his attempts to "help," he ends up kind of making things worse by basically erasing Nebula and her gang from the universe...permanently (well, ok...not permanently, but I'm sure everyone involved at the time thought that). Starfox, in particular, is not happy about this, as he had just found out that he is related to Nebula (who is slowly being revealed to be the daughter of Thanos), and wanted to find out more. But let's toss The Beyonder's useless ass aside for a moment to discuss the other cool things that happen in this issue. The issue begins with Firelord trying to dip rather than ally himself with the Skrulls, but like many wannabe heroes, he soon sees that he'll need to put his hatred of the Skrulls aside and work with them and the Avengers, as Nebula is a FAR greater danger than even them (as we see she and her army had destroyed Firelord's home planet of Xandar, pretty much just because it was in her way). He ends up rejoining the battle at a pivotal moment to wreck one of Nebula's ship. We get to see a LOT of Avengers messing alien ships up in this, which is always pretty awesome, and awesomely depicted by classic Marvel artist, John Buscema. Anyways, even though the threat of Nebula has been temporarily negated, we still have a few more issues to go in the overall story. In the next issue, we get one of two kick ass Annuals that will cross over The Avengers and The Fantastic Four, as both teams must deal with the various Skrull factions that have sprung up in the wake of Galactus destroying their homeworld. Oh, and we get some kick ass John Byrne art work to boot. Awesome! GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 20, 2019 1:00:43 GMT -5
Avengers Annual #14"Fifth Column"Cover Date: Nov, 1985 Writer: Roger Stern Artist: John Byrne Featured Character(s): The (East Coast) Avengers (Captain America, Captain Marvel II, Hercules, Starfox, The Wasp, & The Black Knight Villain/s: Zabyk, Mym, and various other Skrulls Guest Stars: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Human Torch, The Invisible Woman, & She Hulk), Firelord, Skrulls (Skrull Imperial Starfleet, Prince Dezan / "Dutch," Major Syrro, Raksor, Floyd Donahue, Zedrao, Rocco, Louie, Eddie, & Baryn (dies)) Official Plot:In search of Nebula, the Avengers and the Skrulls visit the planet Kral, on which Skrulls have taken the form of 1930s American gangsters, where they encounter Prince Dezan, the late Skrull emperor's brother, until recently an imprisoned exile. He has been freed for his knowledge of those who now menace the Skrulls, his one-time fellow rebels, Zabyk and Myrn, who intend to unleash a powerful secret weapon, the hyperwave bomb. The Avengers ultimately join forces with the Fantastic Four, also on Kral on a separate mission, but neither group can prevent Zabyk from firing the dreaded weapon. To everyone's surprise, however, the bomb affects only the Skrulls, robbing them all of their shapechanging powers. Brodie's View:This is the first half of a two part story told from two different perspectives, and with two different teams playing protagonists. This is the first half, which continues with storylines that had been going through the main Avengers book. The second half will concern the team that plays Guest Star(s) in this issue, The Fantastic Four. Of course, both stories end up in the same place; ground zero for a major change where it concerns the Skrull race. Left scrambling after Galactus ate their homeworld, the Skrulls have devolved into warring factions, each trying to take command over what remains of the Skrull race. Of course, as we see in this issue, not all of the Skrulls wish for endless battle, though. The Avengers, accompanied by the Skrulls they were allied with during the conflict with Nebula, end up visiting a planet that had been transformed into an intergalactic version of the night club from Casablanca, complete with one of the Skrulls playing the part of Rick from that movie (or basically Humphrey Bogart from that movie....Awesome!). In fact, all of the Skrulls on that world have changes their appearances to look like gangsters, molls, and anything else from that era. Not a major part of the plot, but awesome none the less. No, the main plot is kind of a play on The Man In The Iron Mask, or The Skrull in the Iron Mask, as a former price has been locked away for years, living in exile from the Skrull empire. However, this prince is the key to a plot undertaken by former friends, who have developed a bomb that will "permanently alter" the rest of the Skrulls. The Prince ends up aiding the Avengers, who are eventually joined by The Fantastic Four (after both teams are convinced that the other aren't Skrulls) in trying to stop one of the now insane Skrulls from detonating that bomb. However, they are too late, and the end result of the bomb's detonation is that all the Skrulls are stuck in the forms there were in when the bomb went off (for example, all the Casablanca Skrulls are now stuck in those forms), which essentially negates their shape changing abilities. Of course, that process somehow wears off, as by the 90's, the Skrulls are back and badder than ever....well, except for the ones that were good before that, such as the Prince (which is why he was exiled in the first place). All in all, a pretty fun Annual, with some KICK ASS art work from the great John Byrne. That will continue in the next review, as Byrne, who was the writer/artist of the Fantastic Four at the time, pretty much tells the same story from the FF's perspective. Hell, even the covers of both of these Annuals are shown from the perspectives of each respective team. Important? Not really, but pretty damn cool none the less. GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 21, 2019 1:39:09 GMT -5
Fantastic Four Annual #19"Summons From the Stars"Cover Date: Nov, 1985 Writer: John Byrne Artist: John Byrne Featured Character(s): The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Human Torch, The Invisible Woman, & She Hulk) Villain/s: Zabyk, Mym, and various other Skrulls Guest Stars: The (East Coast) Avengers (Captain America, Captain Marvel II, Hercules, Starfox, The Wasp, & The Black Knight), Edwin Jarvis, "Alicia Masters" (Secretly a Skrull), Prince Dezan, "Infant Terrible" (Secretly a Skrull), Louie, and the NYPD (Officer Riddley) Official Plot:An alien ship crash lands into the waters outside of New York City, its sole occupant emerges on the New York City docks and approaches a homeless man. The man is frightened by the alien's space-suit and he flees. When a car almost runs over the alien, a force field protects it, damaging the car and sending the occupant fleeing for help. Suddenly the police arrive and when they order the alien to stand down, it uses its powers to uproot the ground and then create a massive green robot. When one of the officers shoots at the robot, it multiplies every time a bullet hits it. One of the officers on the scene recognizes the way the robot looks and orders the other officers to stand down while he places a call to the only people who cal help... The phone call reaches Avengers Mansion where the Fantastic Four have been staying since the destruction of their headquarters. When the call is answered by Jarvis, the Fantasti-Flare is shot into the night sky. Not far away, Johnny Storm is on his date with Alicia Masters and he is trying to muster up the courage to ask her to marry him when suddenly he is informed of the flare by one of the staff. With no other choice, Johnny flames on and flies toward Avengers Mansion. On the way he runs into the rest of the team and he is filled in on what's going on along the way to the docks. When the Fantastic Four arrives, Reed approaches the alien along, gently talking to it. When the alien being calls up an image of Reed in his old costume, it confirms Reed's suspicions. The alien unmasks revealing itself as the creature the FF once called the Infant Terrible. When they ask the alien what it is doing back on Earth, it calls up images that show the Skrulls coming to their world to try and exploit the reality altering powers of his race. Unfamiliar with war, the aliens use their powers to amuse themselves, angering the Skrulls. The Skrulls then began to lay waste to the planet. The Infant Terrible's family then spirited him away in a ship to Earth to get the help of the Fantastic Four. Reed tells the group that the Infant Terrible's homeworld is located in the Andromeda galaxy home of the once great Skrull empire. Reed explains that the Skrulls have been in a state of civil war ever since Galactus consumed the Skrull throne world. Agreeing to help, the Fantastic Four recover the alien's ship to go into space. Light years away, an obese Skrull woman with aspirations to rule the empire asks her minions what is taking so long to finish he plan to destroy the Fantastic Four. When they detect the alien ship approaching she orders her men to get into place. They rush outside using their shapeshifting powers to disguise themselves as members of the Infant Terrible's race. When the ship lands, the "parents" of the Infant Terrible inform the Fantastic Four that they are to meet with the council elders. When Reed suddenly disagrees and tries to rush the aliens, they blow their cover and blast "Reed", who turns out to be a Skrull as well. As the Fantastic Four battle the Skrulls outside, the real Reed Richards -- inside the phony Infant Terrible's armor -- gets the drop on the Skrulls corpulent leader. Reed explains that he easily deduced the ruse and then hypnotized the Skrull leading them into the trap to assume his form so they could spring a trap of their own. Defeated, the female Skrull tells Reed that their race is doomed as well. Investigating this, the Fantastic Four take their Skrull attackers prisoner and commander a ship. They take it out to a long abandoned Skrull satellite that was once used to power the Super-Skrull. Forcing their way inside the satellite the find a dying Skrull named Myrn who tells them his colleage Zabyk intends to detonate a Hyper-Wave Bomb to decimate the Skrull empire. Needing to stop this weapon, the Fantastic Four rip their way into the next room where they cross paths with the Avengers. Almost coming to blows out of suspicion of a Skrull trick, the two groups confirm their identities and a fight is avoided. Suddenly, Zabyk contacts them, telling them that they are too late to stop him from activating the Hyper-Wave Bomb. Zabyk explains that the bomb will strip the Skrulls of their ability to shape-shift, only he will retain that ability thanks to the protective suit of armor he is wearing. When Captain Marvel tries to intervene by passing through the computers electronically, she is called back by Captain America. With no opposition to stop him Zabyk activates the Hyper-Wave Bomb goes off, it causes all the Skrulls gathered to begin to glow and revert to human form. To his horror Zabyk realizes his armor was not enough to keep out the energies of the bomb, trapping him inside his specially constructed suit. With the conflict over, the Skrulls gathered are left to wonder where their society will go next. Soon the Fantastic Four are flying back home, where Reed expresses his hopes can finally become a race of peace. Brodie's View:One of my "Dream Runs," as far as comic reviewing goes, is the John Byrne run on Fantastic Four, as it's my second favorite 80's run for Marvel (the Chris Claremont X-Men is first). So, I'm pretty thrilled to at least be reviewing a small part of it here, as it's the second half of interconnecting stories concerning the remains of the Skrull empire. However, this story takes a different route getting there than the Avengers did, but the end result is the same. In short, a Skrull who has changed his appearance to resemble an alien the FF encountered earlier in their superhero careers shows up on Earth, trying to find the Fantastic Four. However, as we soon see, it's a trick, as this alien was meant to lure the FF to Skrull space, thinking they were helping the alien's race out from a Skrull invasion, only to be captured themselves by another wannabe ruler of the warring factions left in the wake of Galactus destroying the Skrull's homeworld. This all doesn't come to pass, though, as Reed Richards, being the brilliant dude he is, figures out the scam, and out scams the scammers by hypnotizing the Skrull posing as the alien to trade places with him. The Fantastic Four make quick work of the Skrulls who were meant to capture/kill them, and they end up boarding a nearby Skrull ship, where they end up encountering the Avengers, who as we saw in the last issue, were in the midst of trying to stop a Skrull that had gone insane from detonating a bomb that would end up basically nullifying the rest of the Skrull race. Of course, as we saw in that last issue, this all backfires, and it causes all the Skrulls to be caught in whatever form they were in when the bomb went off. However, we end on kind of a hopeful note, as the (seemingly) peace loving Prince Dezan, who had been exiled from his people due to his pacifist beliefs, ends up trying to take charge of his people, hopefully leading them into an era of peace. Needless to say, that doesn't really happen, as it isn't too long before the Skrulls regain their shape shifting abilities, and turn their attention back to Earth, wanting revenge for all the slights they feel they've suffered at the hands of the superhero populace. This would all lead to the SECRET INVASION crossover, which would take place in the late 2000's. Going back to 1985, though, we would see the Fantastic Four undergo some changes themselves in the coming years, as She Hulk would eventually return to the Mighty Avengers, and The Thing (who had essentially left the team at the end of the first SECRET WARS crossover) would return to take his spot back. As for the Avengers, well, we have one more issue to deal with in this trade, and it'll be trying to tie up all the loose ends left over from the various things that happened throughout this storyline. In the next review, we will see that take place, and, oh yeah, we get yet another SECRET WARS II crossover, as The Beyonder tries to answer for what he did to Nebula and her gang back in #260. GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 22, 2019 1:00:53 GMT -5
The Mighty Avengers #261"Earth and Beyond"Cover Date: Nov, 1985 Writer: Roger Stern Artist: John Buscema Featured Character(s): The (East Coast) Avengers (Captain America, Captain Marvel II, Hercules, Starfox (Leaves the team), The Wasp, & The Black Knight Villain/s: The Beyonder Guest Stars: Firelord, Edwin Jarvis, Deviant Skrulls (Zedaro & The Imperial Skrull Starfleet), Frank/Martha Rambeau, Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. (Dr. Slevin Clark), & Mr. Fenton (FAA administrator) Official Plot:In the aftermath of their battle against Nebula, the Skrulls come to terms with the fact that they have lost their shape changing abilities. While discussing how to deal with Sanctuary II with the Avengers, Starfox exercises his right of ownership over his late brother's warship by activating it's gravity stabilizers to cause the massive ship to collapse in on itself causing it to implode, destroying it. Although the Skrull warriors are upset at this, their commander General Zedrao decides not to punish the Avengers for this action but suggests they make a hasty departure from his ship, promising that the Skrulls will not menace the Earth again. Firelord is quit to question this, however, the Wasp convinces him to leave peacefully as well, pointing out that Zadrao saved him from the moon that he was trapped on during their battle with Nebula. As the Avengers depart aboard Starfox's ship and travel through sub-space to return to Earth, the Avengers spend the time relaxing while Captain America secretly wonders if the Beyonder's arrival on Earth[1] could pose a threat to their homeworld. As they near Earth space, Starfox informs the team that he is leaving them so that he can continue his search for Nebula and learn if her claims of being Thanos's granddaughter are true. Firelord offers to accompany Starfox, wanting to avenge his native Xandar from Nebula's previous attack. The Avengers agree to this and the bid their comrades farewell, before departing back to Earth aboard their Quinjet. As they fly back toward New York, Captain Marvel decides to pay her family a visit after spending so much time in space and departs in her energy form arriving at her parents New Orleans home where her family had been left to assume the worse about their daughters fate. The reunion is a happy one and the Rambeau family sits down to have a meal together. Meanwhile, the other Avengers arrive at Avengers Mansion where Jarvis informs them of his encounter with the Beyonder and how he told the powerful being that the Avengers were off-world[2] allowing the Avengers to figure out how the One From Beyond got involved in their battle against Nebula. Captain America decides that finding the Beyonder be their top priority when he is handed a letter by Jarvis from the FAA asking the Avengers to remove their Quinjets from the heart of the city within 30 days. Captain America and the Wasp meet with Mr. Fenton with the FAA to try and appeal the ruling. However, Fenton doesn't budge as since the Avengers have lost their government clearance, it has been decided that subsonic jets and powerful jet fuel being stored in Manhattan is too dangerous. When Captain America points out that the Avengers need their Quinjets to handle a dangerous menace, Fenton asks who it could be. On cue, the Beyonder appears before them suggesting that he is the threat Captain America was speaking of. The Beyonder puts Captain America and the Wasp on a merry chase, but when the two senior Avengers manage to trip him up, the Beyonder realizes he was defeated much to easily and teleports away. He appears before the Black Knight and Hercules who have traveled to Project Pegasus to have them analyze the Beyonders energy signature so that they may find a means to track them. There he pits his strength against Hercules and easily punches the demigod out of the Project facility. He then attempts to sword fight with the Black Knight. However when the Black Knight is forced to land a fatal stab with his sword, the Beyonder teleports away once again. Shortly, the Avengers all reunite at the Mansion and relate their encounters with the Beyonder and how best to deal with him. When the One From Beyond reappears before them, Hercules punches him through the ceiling sending the powerful being into the Quinjet hanger room. The damage causes some of the potent jet fuel to ignite, however, the flames are put out by the automated systems. Hercules is the first to make it up there but is stopped from fighting the Beyonder further by Captain America who believes the Beyonder seeks only to talk. When they learned that the Beyonder felt bad after inadvertently allowing Nebula to escape because he did not understand what the Avengers true goal was, he wanted to make up for it by providing them with a sporting challenge. The Wasp then decides to offer the Beyonder a position as an Avengers-in-Training. This shocks the group, mostly Hercules, however they realize that there isn't any way they could contain the Beyonder and that perhaps it's best to guide him on a responsible use of his powers so that he uses them only for good. The Beyonder likes the offer, however after he uses his powers to repair the damage done to the Mansion, tells the group that he has a whole world to experience and teleports away to experience it. With the Beyonder gone, the Avengers wonder what to do next, with Cap punctuating the hope that the Beyonder remains on the side of good, otherwise the entire world may be threatened with destruction. Secret Wars II continues in Secret Wars II #5... Brodie's View:Yup, this story, at least the SECRET WARS part of it continues in SECRET WARS #5, but we won't be reviewing that (or AVENGERS #262, for that matter), as we've come to the end of the road on this little run. However, being that is the last story in this trade, we spend quite a bit of it wrapping up some loose ends from the overall story, while dealing with a major elephant in the room that kind of got thrust into the background during our two stories of Skrull in fighting, The (Punk Ass) Beyonder, who in AVENGERS #261 ended the battle between the Avengers/Firelord/the Deviant Skrull armada abruptly by making Nebula (the Big Bad of this story up to this point) and the group of alien mercenaries that were helping her go bye bye. This whole Nebula deal causes Starfox to leave the team, taking Firelord with him, to go and try to find out the truth about what happened to what very well may be his Grand Niece. I would say he won't be missed, as I never really liked Starfox, but some of the replacements the team brings in to replace him aren't really that great either (Dr. Druid ). Anyways, the team heads back to Earth, where they are soon pestered by The Beyonder, who wishes to learn more about the Avengers and why they're so interested in trying to stop him. This leads to a lot of pointless, yet destructive fights, as the team soon finds out that their strength, skill, and power are no match for a guy that could just wipe out a universe for the heck of it. Needless to say, this eventually causes The Wasp (who was Avengers Chairperson at this point) to try and make a deal with the omnipotent being, offering him a place on the team as a trainee. The Beyonder ends up passing, but it would be interesting to speculate what would happen had he taken the offer. Perhaps it would have ended up worse, as The Beyonder tended to go for BIG ACTIONS rather than trying to understand why BIG ACTIONS can often be more dangerous than doing nothing at all. Anyways, this is exactly the half way point of the SECRET WARS II story, as the Beyonder would grow more to resent and even kind of hate Earth's heroes. Look, for example, how he ends up messing with Rachel Summers during his last two appearances in the main X-MEN book, or wiping out the New Mutants entirely. Regardless, this story is over, as the Avengers book will move on to another story arc after this. For those who would be interested in reading this story in its entirety, I would suggest picking up the "LEGACY OF THANOS' trade paperback (I will show the cover of it below), as it was a pretty solid story, with the John Byrne stuff, of course, being the highlight. We'll be heading back to the new X-MEN stuff for our next two reviews, as we'll be dealing with the second issue of the main book, and then the first issue of another spin off, FALLEN ANGELS. Here is the cover of the Trade Paperback I just covered.... GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 23, 2019 2:31:21 GMT -5
Fallen Angels #1"Bushido"Cover Date: Jan, 2019 Writer: Bryan Edward Hill Artist: Szymon Kudranski Featured Character(s): Psylocke/Kwannon, X-23, Kid Cable Villain/s: Apoth, Motoko, & Motoko's henchmen (1st Appearance of all) Guest Stars: Magneto, Mister Sinister, Betsy Braddock, Scout, and Kwannon's Daughter (1st appearance/death of) Official Plot:THE DAWN DOES NOT BREAK FOR ALL! Psylocke finds herself in this new world of Mutantkind unsure of her place in it… but when a face from her past returns only to be killed, she seeks help from others who feel similar to get vengeance. Cable and X-23 join Kwannon for a personal mission that could jeopardize all Mutantkind! Brodie's View:We're back to 2019 comics, as well as the next #1 issue from the re-launched X-Line, FALLEN ANGELS, which is kind of more a darker, violent story compared with any of the other books we've covered so far. The basic plot concerns Kwannon, who is now fully back in the body we came to know as Psylocke after she and Betsy Braddock (who is now the lead character in EXCALIBUR, as well as being the new Captain Britain) had their minds switched. She is one of the mutants that were brought to Krakoa, although, she, and we find out later, X-23, are not happy in the peaceful setting that Charles Xaiver and Magneto have created, so, the two take off to Japan to get vengeance over messed up things that have happened in Kwannon's past (including the apparent death of her daughter). Along the way, they also encounter Kid Cable, who I'm assuming will join them in some sort of permanent position with the team. Can I pause this to say how much I HATE Kid Cable? What a watered down, lame version of an awesome character. I thought X-Man was bad. I hope someone finally smartens up enough to age Cable back to being at least an adult, because this kind of stupid, younger version of the character is ANNOYING. Anyways, Psylocke and X-23 kick some mucho ninja ass in this, as I will say one positive about this book is the fact that there is a lot of action. I will also give credit to the writing (which is decent) and the art (which is probably the best thing about this book), but I will say that this would probably be the second book out of the line that I would drop. Not that it's bad. It isn't, but it's also not good enough to really warrant paying $4-5 an issue for. I know I sound cheap as hell saying it, but it's true. Of course, it probably doesn't help that other than maybe X-23, none of the other lead characters really do anything for me. Kwannon is OK, but I definitely prefer Betsy being in that body, and I believe I've expressed my views on Lil' Cable. It's a decent book, but nothing that one is going to hate themselves for missing, other than some solid art. Speaking of which, we finally start to enter our #2's in our look at the new X-books (as I missed out on getting X-Force #1, so, we might be waiting a bit on a second printing of that one for me to review), and where better to start than the second issue of the main X-Book? GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 24, 2019 1:00:28 GMT -5
X-Men #2"Summoner"Cover Date: Jan, 2020 Writer: Jonathan Hickman Artist: Leinil Francis Yu Featured Character(s): X-Men (Cyclops, (Young) Cable, & Prestige/Rachel Grey Summers) Villain/s: High Summoner of Arakko, Uhr'Oggloth, Hool-go-Dir, & Dur (1st Appearance of all) Guest Stars: Krakoa & Apocalypse Official Plot:When an island full of unspeakable horrors appears on the horizon, the X-Men have their work cut out for themselves keeping Krakoa safe! Brodie's View:The mystery of Apocalypse, whether he is truly being genuine, or whether this all is going to lead to some sort of massive power play is the underlying story of this issue (and to be fair, EXCALIBUR as well), as another island, seemingly populated by beings known as Summoners, attaches itself to Krakoa. These Summoners are apparently the children of Apocalypse's original Four Horsemen, however, the X-Men are kind of clueless to this. Well, as of now this is the case, but I'm sure the longer this goes on, the more things will be revealed. That's kind of Johnathan Hickman's whole deal, and I do enjoy it, as it's kind of like seeing only pieces of the puzzle at a time until the bigger picture is eventually revealed. I will say that it very much seems like Cyclops is one of Hickman's favorite character, as he and his family...or "family" in some cases...has also been the main focus of these first two issues. Take the main part of this issue, for instance, as Cyclops, Rachel Summers (his daughter from an alternate future) and Lil' Cable (I'll try to keep my bashing of this character to a minimum, but damn, is it hard not to; he really is a terrible character) are the team that goes out to investigate what ends up being Krakoa joining with the land it had originally been joined with, Arakko. However, before this, the three are confronted by one of the Summoners, who seemingly comes in peace (but can't understand what any of the X-Men are saying). However, this peace doesn't last long, as Lil' Cable ends up giving him a thermal grenade as a present ( ), and the mutants are forced to fight the creatures this Summoner can summon until he is communicated with telepathically. Eventually, the three leave the Summoner in peace, but we see a meeting between this "child' and kind of his Grandparent, Apocalypse himself, who finds out that he is speaking to one of the children of his Horsemen. He vows to protect the children of both islands, which kind of seems noble on the surface, and who knows, Apocalypse being the "Big Bad" in all this, while it's being obviously pointed to in both this book and EXCALIBUR, seems to be too obvious swerve to pull. Who knows? I guess we'll find out eventually, as with all of Hickman's story. I will say that I liked this issue, other than Lil' Cable, who I hope doesn't stick around too long. It did open up a lot of intriguing possibilities for the future. In the next review, we'll be dealing with another trade paperback. I'm not sure which one yet, but it'll be a good one....promise. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 25, 2019 1:29:58 GMT -5
Superman Annual #11"For the Man Who Has Everything..."Cover Date: Sept, 1985 Writer: Alan Moore Artist: Dave Gibbons Featured Character(s): Superman Villain/s: Mongul Guest Stars: Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman (In Fantasy: House of El (Zor-El, Jor-El, Orna-Kal-El, Van-El, & Kara Zor-El), Kryptonian Science Council, & Various Kryptonians---The Wayne Family (Thomas, Martha, and young Bruce Wayne), Joe Chill, & The Gotham Police Force---Various Heroes and Villains that Mongul kills) Official Plot:Batman, Robin, and Wonder Woman pay Superman a visit at his Fortress of Solitude, with Batman and Wonder Woman bearing gifts for the Man of Steel's birthday. However, upon their initial entry, they see Superman standing rather still with a strange alien plant attached to his chest and wrapping its tendrils around him. They call out to him, but Superman doesn't respond. His mind is entranced by a vision he sees... ...a vision of him being on a Krypton that never exploded, living out the normal life of an average Kryptonian, being married and having a son and a daughter. He comes home from work and is greeted by a surprise firstday party which most of his family, except for his father Jor-El, attends. His father has become angry and bitter over being the laughingstock of the Science Council for predicting the end of Krypton which never happened, and is now joining with an extreme political sect called the Sword of Rao in the hopes of restoring Krypton to the way it used to be. As the three heroes try to determine where the plant came from and what it's doing to Superman, a gigantic yellow-skinned muscular humanoid male named Mongul shows up, telling them that the plant is a Black Mercy, which gives its victims the desire of their hearts, trapping them in a dreamworld that they cannot escape from. He challenges the three heroes to take him on one-on-one to find one among the Earth beings worthy enough to kill. Wonder Woman steps up to the challenge, nearly breaking her hand when she gave Mongul a punch. Mongul throws her through a wall, where she enters the weapons room of the Fortress, and uses one of the more powerful energy blasters to take on Mongul. Meanwhile, Batman tries to reach out to Superman to get him to snap out of his dream world as he attempts to unwrap Black Mercy's tendrils from the Man of Steel. On Krypton, Kal-El meets his aunt Allura in the hospital to comfort her when his cousin Kara fell victim to a violent protester demanding the release of the Phantom Zone criminals. He calls his wife and tells her to go someplace safe with their daughter and that he and their son will meet her there. Along the way Kal-El finds a gathering of Sword of Rao loyalists hearing Jor-El's charged speech about the current state of affairs on Krypton. Finally he takes his son to the site where the city Kandor used to be, and tells him that he has a feeling that nothing he has experienced is even real. Soon he starts to see his son and all Krypton vanish before his eyes... Batman succeeds in pulling Black Mercy off Superman's body, only for it to now latch onto him and give him a fantasy based on the desires of his heart. In Batman's fantasy, he sees that his father, on the night that his parents were murdered by a low-life criminal on the street, succeeds in overpowering the criminal and thus preventing the murder from ever happening. Bruce grows up happily, marries Kathy Kane, and they have a teenaged daughter. Superman, now freed from the Black Mercy's thrall, attacks Mongul in a rage, angry that he had been pulled from his fantasy of being on a Krypton that was never destroyed and losing everything that was so dear in the process. During this fight, Robin uses the gauntlets that Mongul pulled off his hands and grabs Black Mercy, pulling it off Batman and carrying it to where he would hope to dump it on Mongul. The fight between Superman and Mongul, with neither side prevailing, carries over into a room where the Kryptonian is distracted by the statue of his parents holding up a globe representing the lost world of Krypton, and Mongul uses it to pummel Superman. However, Mongul is distracted by Robin calling to him and sees him through a hole in the ceiling one floor up. Robin then drops Black Mercy right on Mongul, and instantly it wraps itself around Mongul, giving him a fantasy of his own heart's desire. In that fantasy, he kills Robin as well as Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman and then takes over as the leader of a new Warworld. In reality, Mongul simply drops to the ground, with the heroes now relieved that the fight is over. Batman and Wonder Woman finally present their birthday gifts to Superman. Wonder Woman shows him a perfect replica of the Bottle City of Kandor made by the Paradise Island Gemsmiths, while Batman shows him a new species of a plant blossom called the Krypton -- a blossom that ended up being crushed during the fight. Superman nonetheless is pleased that his friends and allies have even thought of bringing him gifts and then offers them coffee. Brodie's View:
From Good, we go to GREAT, as this is probably one of the best stories from the Pre Crisis era of Superman. Of course, that's not fair to say, as this was really the transitional period that led up to the CRISIS OF INFINITE EARTHS storyline and the soft reboot of the DC Universe that happened a year or so later, at least in tone. I guess you can really say that the start of this change happened in the 1970's, when the stories got darker than the whimsical classic comic book stories than they had been even a few years earlier, and then accelerated once Alan Moore came aboard and started to darken things in THE SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING book he had been writing for a couple of years before this Annual came out. However, even through that darkening, one can tell that Moore had a love of the classic Superman mythos, as he's revisited it several times after this, both in DC and other companies. Heck, we're reviewing the DC UNIVERSE: ALAN MOORE trade, so, we'll be seeing his take on Superman a couple more times before this trade is done, including his big send off for the Classic era of the Man of Steel. In short, for his birthday, Superman is given an alien plant creature by long time enemy, Mongul; one that basically paralyzes its victims by offering them a super realistic fantasy offering them (what they think is) their heart's desire. In Superman's case, this is a depiction of what would have happened had Krypton not exploded, and he had stayed and lived a normal life on that planet. However, and perhaps this is due to Superman's extreme mental strength, things aren't as peachy keen for him as one would imagine. His father, who predicted Krypton's doom, had been proven wrong, and he and the rest of his family had kind of been ostracized for his fear mongering. This turned him bitter, and he would end up engaging in a highly dangerous scheme to "Make Krypton Great Again" in a highly volatile time. We see a side result of this mid way through the story, as Kal-El's (Superman) cousin, Kara Zor-El (Supergirl) is brutally attacked by counter protestors to Jor-El's (his father) movement. This all leads to Kal finally starting to reject this fantasy. Meanwhile, Batman, Robin, and Wonder Woman, who originally had come to the Fortress of Solitude to celebrate Superman's birthday, fight for their lives against Mongul, who plans on using Superman's inactivity as a free pass to conquer Earth. Batman is finally able to pry the alien plant off of Superman (but gets it on him, and we see his heart's desire, which is, of course, his parents surviving their encounter in Crime Alley), which sets an enraged (and I do mean ENRAGED) Superman after Mongul. The battle goes back and forth until Robin is able to toss the alien plant onto Mongul, ending everything. We end the story with the depiction of Mongul getting his heart's desire; death, destruction, and his ultimate conquering of Earth. MAN! This was a fantastic story. One of the richest experiences one will ever get reading an Annual, and there have admittingly been some great ones. Alan Moore, even though he has kind of become a bitter old man later in life, is arguably one of the medium's greatest writers, and this story is one of the one's I would offer up as proof of that statement, but we're not done yet. In our next review, we'll see Moore take on the Emerald Archer, Green Arrow, in a two part story called "Night Olympics." GRADE: A+
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,401
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Nov 25, 2019 11:02:12 GMT -5
That's one of the few Superman comics I have enjoyed.
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 26, 2019 2:10:40 GMT -5
Detective Comics #549"Night Olympics (Part One)"Cover Date: April, 1985 Writer: Alan Moore Artist: Klaus Janson Featured Character(s): Green Arrow Villain/s: Pete Lomax Guest Stars: Black Canary & Joey (random criminal) Official Plot:While Green Arrow and Black Canary are on patrol and catching thugs, Pete Lomax, an “ordinary guy”, gets a bow and arrows from an underworld armorer formerly in partnership with Pete Gambi, tailor to super-villains, and kills him with an arrow. Then he seeks out the two heroes, and wounds Black Canary with another arrow. Brodie's View:Detective Comics used to, during certain periods of time during its run, run a short back up story along side the main Batman centered story. It's one of those side stories (done over two parts) that we'll be looking at over the next couple of days. This story will feature Green Arrow and his partner/lover, Black Canary, who are in the midst of taking down various criminals running loose in the city they protect, Star City. As we see in pretty humorous fashion, neither have any problems taking down the common crooks that seem to be the ones mainly causing all the problems. In fact, Green Arrow's criminal literally ends up going into a fit upon seeing Green Arrow (the cop that GA hands the criminal to says that he's been like that after a bad run in with Metamorpho). Black Canary's two criminals ends up just giving up, after mistaking the female hero for Wonder Woman. ( ) However, there is danger lurking, as a thug named Pete Lomax steals a pimped out bow and arrow set, and as the two heroes are enjoying some post crime fighting banter, Pete takes aim and fires at Black Canary. ( ) Needless to say, this isn't going to end well for somebody. Before I tease the next review, I will say that the "Night Olympics" is Alan Moore's clever equating the events of these two parts to an Olympic event. In the next review, we will the "Main Games" taking place, where either Pete will take out Green Arrow and Black Canary....or he's about to be in for a WORLD of hurt. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 27, 2019 0:46:20 GMT -5
Detective Comics #550"Night Olympics (Part Two)"Cover Date: May, 1985 Writer: Alan Moore Artist: Klaus Janson Featured Character(s): Green Arrow Villain/s: Pete Lomax Guest Stars: Black Canary Official Plot:Green Arrow gets an ambulance for the Black Canary, then answers the challenge of Pete Lomax and easily defeats him in a duel of arrows. Brodie's View:It's Green Arrow battling wannabe major villain, Pete Lomax, in this, the second half of a two part short story that ran as a back up story in the Batman driven Detective Comics. It starts with a shock, as Green Arrow's lover/partner, Black Canary, is shot in the shoulder by Lomax, who got the drop on the two while they were in the middle of romantic banter. Once he is assured that Canary is going to be okay until he returns with Two Ambulances (one for her, and one for what's left of Lomax....lol), GA takes off after Lomax, and the two have a shoot out on top of a building. This was a great one page shot of action (that was almost Frank Miller-esque) that shows Lomax taking his shots and missing, and Ollie....well, not. Not that Arrow kills the guy, but he definitely f***s him up after hurting his girl. We get a bit of a wrap up with Ollie visiting Dinah in the hospital (and running into the criminal from the first part again, and sending that criminal into his screaming fit again), and that's really about it. These were two short stories that if put together would only make up half an issue of an actual comic, but I will say that Moore and Janson did the absolute best with what they had. The bit where Green Arrow punks Lomax out completely is worth reading the story for alone. I will say it wasn't up to the standards of the best stories in this trade, but it was definitely entertaining. Next up will be Moore taking on a DC hero I really don't know too much about, so, I'll pretty much be going entirely off of what is shown in the two issues we get, and that is DC's Vigilante. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 28, 2019 2:05:35 GMT -5
Green Lantern #188"Mogo Doesn't Socialize"Cover Date: May, 1985 Writer: Alan Moore Artist: Dave Gibbons Featured Character(s): Mogo (of the Green Lantern Corps)(1st Appearance of) Villain/s: Bolphunga the Unrelenting (1st Appearance of) Guest Stars: Green Lantern Corps (Tomar-Re, Arisia, Leezle Pon, & Dkrtzy Rrr---1st appearance of the last two) Official Plot:While Arisia is reading from the Book of Oa, she marvels at the sheer magnitude of the Corps, and asks Tomar-Re about some Green Lanterns she's never heard of before. Tomar-Re tells her that the names in question are all Green Lanterns unable to attend meetings. "Leezle Pon," is a sentient smallpox virus, who would infect the rest of the corps if he came to meetings, and Dkrtzy Rrr is an abstract mathematical progression, who attends meetings, but is only noticed by the Guardians. But the most fascinating of all is Mogo. The story begins with "Bolphunga the Unrelenting," an evil and dedicated creature, nearly without match for his love of destruction, who decides to crown his reputation by challenging the most mysterious and feared Green Lantern of all, "Mogo." Bolphunga travels to the planet where he has been told Mogo can be found, and calls through his bullhorn challenging Mogo to a fight. He receives no response, and decides to search for Mogo, but ends up finding nothing but the mysterious thick patches of jungle, and wide, decisive clearings spanning the planet. Weeks turn into months, and Bolphunga sets up camps, and draws extensive maps and charts to help him methodically search the planet for Mogo. He investigates the plants to see if they carry Green Lantern rings, and even the insects, he picks up and closely inspects, looking for some trace. Finally, Bolphunga realizes the significance of the planet's mysterious green foliage. He shakes in terror, abandons all of his equipment, climbs into his ship, and flees from the planet as fast as he can. For Mogo, was the planet itself. And that is why Mogo doesn't socialize. If he were ever to attend a Green Lantern meeting, his gravitational field would destroy both of the two planets. Brodie's View:OK, I was wrong about which story I would be covering for today's review, as I didn't realize there was another short story stuck in between the Green Arrow two parter and the two issue run of VIGILANTE that we'll be covering over the next two reviews after this one. This, like the Green Arrow story, was a back up story, although, unlike the Green Arrow story, this one does actually go along with the main hero/es of the book, GREEN LANTERN. This is kind of an 'untold story of the Green Lantern Corps, as Arisia, new to the Corps at this time, is studying the history of the Corps, when she asks long time member, Tomar-Re, about certain other members that she's never seen at any of the meetings. This leads Tomar to begin to tell her about Mogo, and why he doesn't come to the meetings. The story involves a vicious alien known as Bolphunga the Unrelenting, who goes to the planet he has heard the elusive Mogo is on, and lies in wait for him. Along the way, he notices that the planet's foliage is cut a certain way, but for all that, there is no sign of Mogo, so, Bolphunga sits and waits. He waits for years, and then finally one night, when trying to figure things out, he realizes where Mogo is, and takes off from the ship in a panic. Looking back, he has his fears confirmed, as Mogo, the Green Lantern, is the planet itself(!!!). This is why Mogo doesn't come to the meetings of the Green Lantern Corps....his gravitational pull would destroy Oa. Once again, a pretty cool short story that I actually wish would have been a full length story, as that pay off would have worked a lot better with more of a build. Still, a nice pay off it was, and Mogo would go on to be a regular member of the Corps after this. Leave it to Alan Moore to think outside the box when it comes to the possibilities of what kinds of beings could be Green Lanterns. All right, so, in the NEXT review....we promise...it'll be the time of the Vigilante! GRADE: A-
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