Annihilation: Ronan #2 - Um, I'm not really following what's going on. There are too many characters running around, and it's only been tangentially connected to Annihilation thus far. But anyway, Ronan uses his considerable power to beat down Stellaris and Nebula. This quite impressed me given that Stellaris has gone toe-to-toe with Thor. On the positive, at least they remembered Stellaris is a woman; given the state of Marvel today I wouldn't have been surprised if someone forgot.So Ronan finds out from his buddy Korath, what's up with all these crazy ladies. A Skrull fights with Devos, who I vaugely remember from some Fantastic Four comics around the time Sue went to the slut costume (what the hell were they thinking with that?). Some gold dude is manipulating people. I figured it was Adam Warlock, but it's not. I have no idea who he is. Oh, and the Annihilation Wave has finally made an appearence. I'm just not sure what this series is driving at, so I'm gonna have to give it a 2.5 out of 5.
Exiles #81 - So, Proteus arrives on Heroes Reborn Earth. Once again, he befriends the heroes of this planet, so as to use them against the Exiles. You know, given that he's in a body that apparently will never wear down, given that he can alter reality, it's seems like Kevin McTaggert is kind of a pansy, given he always tries to hide behind heroes.Blink reassumes command of the team. Spider-Man 2099 (no relation to Hobgoblin of 2211) and Power Princess make a brief stop back at her home, while the rest of the squad pursues Proteus. Cue yet another fight between the Exiles and duped heroes, before Proteus takes advantage. Only it seems this time that Proteus' arrival has kicked off a chain reaction with some pair of Order and Chaos beings, and that means it's about to hit the fan. I'm glad this is going to wrap up next month. The barrage of Misunderstanding Battles are getting a little tiring. 3.2 out of 5.
Warbird #3 - That cover is pretty misleading, given the Brood never appear in the issue. Good thing to know for future reference: Cavorite crystals doesn't always explode with sufficient force to destroy a planet. Sometimes, they just explode enough to launch into space. Warbird tries slugging it out with Cru, but she's not equipped for space combat, and returning to Earth for some air, costs her some pain. But in true hero fashion, she sucks it up and tries harder. I got to say, energy absorption seems like a pretty handy power to have.The battle concludes, and Carol survives. . . barely. And now it's time to appear on television while your arm in a sling! Next month could be horribly embarassing for her. 3.7 out of 5.
New Avengers #19 - Well, this cover is better than last month's, but damn, it's till not very good. I mean, Cage looks demonic. Today Spidey makes the mistake of mentioning "House of M" around SHIELD. Oops. Of course SHIELD decides this phrase is much more important than the incredibly powerful being Iron Man and, sigh, The Sentry are trying unssuccessfully to stop. At least Sentry didn't go crying back to his wife after he got smacked around last issue. Still, the battle rages, until finally SHIELD gets the bright idea to stop fighting "Michael", and just let him go where he wants. Because, sure, nothing could possibly go wrong with that idea! Clearly Bendis, just couldn't figure how else to advance the plot. To this I say, lame.Ugh. Other than Iron Man and, sigh, The Snetry, no one did anything in this issue but talk. We can't get Captain America throwing his shield at the bad guy even once? 1.5 out of 5.
New Excalibur #7 - See this how battles in team books can be done and not suck. If neccessary, scatter the team allover, and have them dealing with different people in small groups. Then you can gradually have them join up for the big finale. Are you taking notes Bendis? You ought to be, this is how pretty much every battle has gone in this title thus far, and it's worked.So Black Tom is back to being human courtesy of House of M. So where's the energy he's firing through that staff coming from? That was his mutant power, channeled through a walking stick! And Dazzler comes back to life. . . again. I can't figure how Sage did what she did, but I have concluded she and Pete Wisdom are definitely getting it on. There's more to his "You're worth more to me than my need to blow thing up" comment than merely her value to the team.
I'm not not sure I buy the end scene, with Juggernaut talking Black Tom into giving himself up. I suppose you could argue that having being changed back from being a hideous tree creature, Tom values this life to the point it's made him a coward. 3.9 out of 5.
Teen Titans #36 - At least Johns is trying to catch up, after having fallen behind during Infinite Crisis. I got to tell you, after rereading #35, this team is starting to grow on me. What's not growing on me is Niles Caulder. In the battle of "Character in a book I bought this week, I most want to see die", he's neck and neck with Commander Hill from New Avengers. What an ass. So full of himself with the "I'm older than you, I know better, so do what I say" crap.This issue tells us why Beast Boy rejoined the Doom Patrol, how Caulder seems to keep his crew in line, what happened to Herald and Bumblebee, not that I knew there was anything wrong with Bumblebee. I assumed she could always change size. So while Caulder's attitude pisses off the Titans, they actually seem united for the first time - by their mutual dislike of Sir Caulder. Meanwhile, the Brotherhood has got their shit together. Although, judging by the last page, maybe not. They couldn't clone him any hair for the guy? 4.3 out of 5.
X-Factor #7 - Two running plots in this issue. One, Madrox meets with the head of Singularity. Two, Siryn finds out about her father's death in X-Men: Deadly Genesis. Madrox meeting with the people who seem to be his enemies for the series, goes about as well as you'd expect. They try to bribe him and the team off, Madrox declines, negotiations fall apart at that point. On the plus side, Madrox learns something new about the Elder Tryp. That's a sopposed to tryp the Younger, who beat up Siryn with a pipe.Siryn meets the news of her father's death with about the correct amount of respect any death in the X-Family should be met with - none. She knows he'll be back, the X-Men always are. She's not wrong. I do wish Scott had told her the truth. Instead of the explanation he gave, he needed to say "He died because we needed to establish this kewl new character that's been retconned into the X-History as being X-Evil, so we X-Killed an X-Man nobody's X-Used since Casey's 'X-Corps' story in Uncanny." The team reacts with sadness, even Monet, though I guess that makes sense. Wasn't Banshee the headmaster of the school when she was in Generation X? Whatever, Cyclops' reaction to seeing Layla Miller was worth the money by itself. Probably scared Cyke, because what if she told them? 4.5 out of 5.
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