What I Bought 5/9/07

Big week in terms of numbers, not so big in terms of knock your socks off comics. Lot of books that just felt average. Maybe it's me.

Amazing Spider-Man - This is the Free Comic Book Day offering, because Ken was nice enough to hold a copy for me. So what did I think? It was OK. Slott did a good job laying out the basics of the Spider-Man character: loves his aunt, but has a hard time being there because of Spider-Man, disliked by the public and cops, tells jokes, saves the day. The villain (a Spidey fan himself) is there to give us the opportunity to see these character traits in action, and that's pretty much it. So that's pretty much it. I didn't laugh (did chuckle at the Spidey dashboard ornaments), but get real charged up by it, but it wasn't bad or anything. So let's give it a safe 3.0 out of 5.

Amazing Spider-Girl #8 - Man, MJ's pupils are really big in that cover. Reminds me of Jericho, when he does body-possessing thing. The issue is told from Mary Jane's perspective, and it's essentially how troubles for a classmate of May's force MJ to deal with her own problems with the whole Spider-Girl thing.

Seems a student (Sara Hingle) has just manifested their mutant powers right in the middle of class. This leads to considerable student panic, though May stayed calm and tried to help her. MJ ends up doing the same for Sara's parents, though the father is very angry at his daughter for being a freak. His lack of the unconditional support MJ feels a child deserves from their parents, makes MJ question her own decisions to try and block May from being Spider-Girl. Anyway, May promises to help Sara through her problems (after showing Sara she's not alone in the super-powers departmen), and Mary Jane tries to talk some sense into Sara' dad. It'll be interesting to see whether this gets revisited down the line. I'd like to know whether MJ's words had an effect, and if Sara comes back to Midtown High, whether she faces difficulties fitting in. 3.4 out of 5.

Amazing Spider-Man #540 - I really shouldn't have bought this. It was delayed (six weeks since #539), and I ought to be smart enough to stay away from Dark and Angry Spidey. Yet, here I am. Is this issue bad? Not really. Aunt May is in a coma, and since Peter can't do anything on that end (call Dr. Strange?), he'll deal with the person who caused the whole thing (which techincally, should be him, for being dumb enough to publically unmask in the first place, but I really wouldn't enjoy Peter beating the tar out of himself for 22 pages).

He's very methodical about it. Last issue, he got a list of potential gun dealers. This issue, he goes through them until he finds the one he wants, going so far as to use the Batman "drop the guy from a building then catch him to scare him" tactic. That gives him the killer's name. By the end of issue, the killer's received a form of justice, and Peter knows who sent him in the first place. I don't really know how to grade this. If I go low score, it may be because I don't like Arm-Breaking Spider-Man, and I'm not judging the book by its own merits. If I go high, I may be compensating for that same issue. I will say, I wish I wasn't enjoying watching Spidey be dark with these guys as much as I am. Let's say 3.0 out of 5 again.

The nicest thing was to see there's still a few people in the Marvel Universe that like Spidey, and don't have an immediate "It's an unregistered superhuman! Call SHIELD!" reaction. Gives me hope that maybe it wouldn't be best for all the average Joes in the 616 to bite the dust.

Immortal Iron Fist #5 - What to say about this issue? Well, we found out with Davos is after the Iron Fists. Not surpisingly, it's all Orson Randall's fault. He punched the wrong person with the Iron Fist, then took a magic book and ran away. This means that six other 'immortal weapons' will be coming after Danny soon, because of what Orson did, or because they have to fight some tournament, I'm not sure. Either way, it looks like Davos gets the first crack at him. Well, better the devil you know, right? Hey, they used that phrase in the comic! Wow, freaky.

In other news, Hogarth has gotten Luke, Misty and Colleen to try and get his mother back from the HYDRA folks forcing him to to build the railway through China. You know, I still can't figure out what HYDRA is gaining from working with Davos. I don't suppose it matters, as HYDRA will certainly screw up whatever it is they receive. Not great, not bad, I'm thinking next month is going to kick some pretty serious ass (and result in Orson Randall's death), so 3.7 out of 5.

Nova #2 - Let's settle this first: If you were planning to pick this up 'cause you thought Nova would pummel Iron Man, forget it. They have a generally pleasant talk, certainly nicer than any interactions Richard had with his dad this issue. Man, that guy is a complete prick. Is he happy to see his son's alive? Noooooo, he just want to rip on the New Warriors for the whole Stamford thing, and rag on his own son for being off 'playing hero' in space.

Back to the Nova/Stark meeting. No, they don't fight, but when Stark says they heard vague reports from Shi'ar (read: Uncanny X-Men) about it, and interpreted it as a 'Kree border skirmish', Richard sets him straight on which one of them has been dealing with real trouble. The Rich's best line is in response to Tony's question about what happened to Annihilus: 'I pulled him inside out and saved the universe. What have you done lately, Tony?' I loved that. Stark then decides to ask Rich to register and join the Initiative. I would support this only on the grounds that Rich kill Gauntlet the first time he bad-mouths the New Warriors in Nova's presence.

From there, Rich talks with good friend turned Intiative shill Justice, has a less than Hallmark moment with his dad, and gets attacked by an old enemy, who Rich deals with in about three seconds. Cue Thunderbolts arrival. Less, Iron Man punching than I'd have liked, but the digs at Stark were nice. 3.8 out of 5.

Oh, and I bought the Agents of Atlas hardcover today, too. Just haven't set down to read through it yet.