Heroes for Hire #8 - Well, Bully said this was a fun title, so I figured why not give it another chance. It makes up for my decision to drop Ultimate X-Men I suppose. I would say this issue can be basically described as "Shang-Chi wrecks the Headmen's faces". I really like the Headmen. I've only seen them one other time (Busiek/Larsen's Defenders series), but they just seem like such a goofy group of villains. Of course now, they're a goofy group with a Doombot, which probably explains why a member of Heroes for Hire kicks the bucket.
That in turn, leads to the aforementioned wrecking of everybody by Shang-Chi, which was pretty awesome to see. By the time the rest of the team shows up, all that's left is to pick up the pieces, and in some situations, reattach them properly. From there, it turns to the reemergence of what looks to be this title's version of Guy Garnder, Paladin! It's just fun to imagine this guy is gonna get pummeled by somebody soon, possibly eaten. The art didn't seem as gratuitously T & A as I recall, meaning that either Rio has tuned it down a bit, or it was just because the ladies didn't play as big a role this month. Also, there were a couple of times where facial expressions didn't match what was being said, such as with Tarantula on page 20. Her face displays anger, but her words seem more calm. It wasn't fantastic, but it was fun enough I'm going to stick around to see how this Savage Land storyarc starts out. 3.9 out of 5.
Ultimate Spider-Man #107 - Funny, I had heard this "Ultimate Knights" arc was only a three-parter. I don't see how that's possible, so my info must be off, because there's no way Bendis can wrap this up in one more issue, even if it was double-sized. Yeah, this is your standard Bendis talkfest. It picks up where last issue left off, Kitty Pryde showing up as a new student at Midtown High. Here we see the downside to having a public identity, as her new classmates act with about as much class, dignity, and respect of boundaries as you'd expect.This leads to Peter trying to talk things out (about time Petey-boy), and as he admits, being told just how much of a lousy guy he was. I mean Kitty really did want to help, she just got there too late. Even the whole "mindwipe Aunt May" thing was just her doing what she thought Peter would want, based on past conversations.
The part of the issue I found really entertaining was Spidey attending Daredevil's little get-together for the street-level heroes. The exchange with Moon Knight 'Put the moon toys away Casper, I'm just here for the chicken wings. There - there are no chicken wings.' made me laugh. So yeah, I'm down with the "heroes trying to bring down Kingpin" story, and MJ's ongoing issues. Not so sure about Shadowcat attending public high school. Butttt, on the strength of primarily the last ten or so pages, 3.6 out of 5.
I'm hoping to get a Ms. Marvel #13 on Friday, so we'll see if Adorable Baby Panda has something else to read this week.
5 comments:
I keep forgetting that USM exists. I've not read anything since May had a heart attack and Pete ran off with Spider-Girl. And Bendis goes and hits the reset button anyway, so it wouldn't have mattered if I was paying attention.
Poor Kitty.
However, the scene on the rooftop was pretty funny. Spidey is the only one even vaguely heroic though. And I must admit that I was genuinely startled by the cliffhanger. On the other hand, I am easily startled.
kelvingreen: Well, it probably not a good sign for USM that you keep forgetting it exists.
I would argue Bendis didn't reset everything, just that it wasn't as mind-boggolingly altering as it appeared it might be.
sallyp: I was pretty surprised by the end as well, and Peter really did impress me.
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