Amazing Spider-Girl #9 - So May got the parental okey-doke to web-swing again, which has got her feeling pretty good. Naturally, that can't last. Courtney found out her boyfriend Moose is coming to visit his dad in the hospital today, and plans to go see him and find out if they're still together, seeing as she hasn't heard from him since he moved away to live with his uncle. Teen agnst ensues. Gene Thompson is still a tool. But that's all background noise for the time being.The primary story deals with the group of ex-villains lead by Kaine (cripes, who ever thought I'd find the first Spidey Clone a tolerable character?) trying to safeguard some "Specimen 297", as it gets transported to a lab for study. Their convoy gets attacked while - in a lucky coincidence - May happens to be around, and wait a minute, why are you guys trying to steal it, you're the ones having it transported?!
What it all boils down to is this - a. . . certain. . . character is back in play. Oh, dear. I know DeFalco seems to think every character can be useful, but I think this one ran its course long ago. Plus, I can already see Peter hearing about this and trying to make May stay out of it, and damnit, we just got through with some of that! Too bad, I was enjoying it more up until the end. 3.3 out of 5.
Cable/Deadpool #41 - So, Cable got his telepathy and telekinesis back, but burned out the telepathy the next issue, but he still has the telekinesis? Is that about the size of it?This book works better when Cable and Deadpool can react to each other. They can be fine separately, but better together. That's what we get, and I'm glad to see it. The big fight that carried over from X-Men is done. Hurrah! Providence is falling apart, and is doomed. Booo! Cable is sad, but accepts it as just another setback to his plans. Me, I'd mope a little more if I sunk all the time he did into that place, but he's a pragamatist, I guess. Meantime, he's got to take steps to keep all the nifty future stuff on Providence out of people's hands. What people, we don't know. Bad people, or stupid, greedy ones, I presume.
Either way, Cable deals with that, Domino has a standoff with Sabretooth for awhile, then Deadpool shakes things up, as he usually does. Man, he had a lot of bullets in those guns. It took me thirty seconds to say all the dialogue he spit out before they went empty. Eventually, Creed gets taken care of (I suppose this concludes his time as a member of the X-Men). But that still leaves Providence for Cable to deal with, but it's no sweat, because Wade's back at his side! There's a nice panel on page 18, when Cable hears that 'Pool showed up. It's nice because Cable had a happy smile. That's seems such a rare occurence, it's pleasant to see. I had a good time with this. 4.4 out of 5.
Nova #3 - WARNING! For the second straight issue, Nova does not pummel Tony Stark. Physically. He does verbally diss him by consistently calling him "Tony" (No "Iron Man", no "Director Stark"), and pointing out once again, that compared to Annihilation, Civil War really was just a bunch of 'squabbles'. Tony can deny it all he wants, keep insisting it was important, and that they're unified (That's why War Machine tried to block Spidey's powers right? Unity?) but in terms of scale, there's no comparison.So yeah, Rich doesn't whomp Stark. He does take the best that 4 Thunderbolts can throw at him, and emerge unharmed, telling them to 'surrender or suffer immediate penalty'. The funny thing is, that prompts Moonstone to call him a 'sociopath', which doesn't seem to fit Nova. Given she was a psychiatrist, she ought to know that, right? Eh, whatever, she got her butt kicked, and hangs out with Not Venom and Penance (also known as the Worst Character Development Ever), so who cares what she thinks?
The issue did teach me something I didn't know, namely that the Thunderbolts, unlike the Initiative, isn't part of SHIELD. They work for the Commission on Superhuman Activites. Of course, those were the twerps that pushed Steve Rogers to the point he turned in the shield and costume once upon a time, foisting the twit that eventually became U.S. Agent upon us, so clearly they can't be trusted.
When it's all said and done, Rich realizes this Earth just isn't the place for him, and decides to go back to where things make more sense. Given the chaos out in the universe right now, that sounds kind of odd, but it is easier to understand why countless worlds are destabilized, or lacking in power supply, or under attack by giant bugs, than to figure out how Spidey is a wanted fugitive, and Not Venom is a sanctioned government agent. So hopefully Nova is done with Earth for awhile, say, for remaining length of this title? 4.3 out of 5, and the only reason it ranks below Cable/Deadpool is because it didn't make me laugh.
Oh, and I flipped through Exiles this week, and decided I just wasn't feeling it, so it's dropped.
5 comments:
I'm afraid Claremont couldn't hold my interest in Exiles either.
I thought this week's Nova and World War Hulk did a pretty good job of showing Iron Man as something more than a complete jerk.
I mean, he was still a jerk - just not a complete one.
One thing I really liked about NOVA was how it contrasted Annihilation and Civil War through the two New Warriors. The fun-loving Speedball is gone, replaced by Not-Robbie who is so fubar from the whole thing that he isn't even recognizable anymore, while Rich is now essentially the savior of the universe. At this point, I'm thinking something's wrong with the Earth-water: the only heroes who still seem to have their priorities straight are the X-Men (who haven't been drinking the same water as the rest of the heroes since the mid-80s), off-Earthers like Nova and Hulk, and those like Thor who were lucky enough to die before things started going all Bendis.
And props to Abnett and Lanning for remembering--amidst all Rich's family problems, strange New Warrior reuinions, and Initiative nuttiness--to let the Worldmind in on the fun. Most writers would have simply ignored the 'Mind in favor of Rich's own mind, but DnA treat this more like a NOVA AND WORLDMIND team-up book. A nice touch.
Didn't read the others, but on your advice, I've started picking up Nova, and it is pretty darned good. I'm so glad that Kyle...oops...Richard, is getting the heck out of Dodge.
Considering the whole idea that the battle between the heroes in Civil War was so terrible, because they did some massive property damage, why doesn't it bother Tony Stark that the Thunderbolts showed up and pretty much demolished a city block, trying to aprehend Nova? It's only bad when Captain America does it?
The whole "protect the innocent civilians" seems to have fallen by the wayside pretty darned quickly. Nova DID handle Stark pretty well, I thought, subtly sneering at his silly little civil war. And Tony is STILL a dick.
I guess the theory is that the Thunderbolts represent a "legitimate" use of force, so it's ok?
I'd still like to see more of the politics of the Marvel Universe right now (more than just anonymous crowd shots of dudes holding picket signs). Marvel's supposed to be going for "realism" here, but they've largely ignored the role of the actual political process here. There should be activists out there fighting the law, opponents of the current administration using stuff like the Thunderbolts' rampage to score political points, and doing all the things people already do when they want to change the system. I think you could get some really interesting plots (or at least some funny scenes) out of that, and it would introduce regular people back into the Marvel Universe. Which would be cool.
Nova looks awesome this week, I may have to finally pick up that book.
fortress keeper: Yeah, Good Tony shines through here and there. I was pleased to see he didn't try and dismiss the Hulk's assault as another mindless rampage, and even said he'd take the blame. It's just like Futurama.
'Kif, prepare to take the blame. . . Now!'
cove west: Based on that last page of New Avengers this week, I'm thinking it's a matter of what's in the milk, more than the water. I'm also a fan of the Worldmind/Rich interactions. It's like Riggs/Murtaugh in lethal Weapon, or maybe Michael Knight/KiTT.
sallyp: Well, Stark did call Moonstone on starting the brawl in a populated area, but she doesn't answer to him (which is good, because I don't want every registered costume under Iron Man's control, but bad, becaue I actually trust him to use that team of loons more than the Commission).
But if the property damage of Mighty Avengers has been any indication, that whole "unregistered superheroes put bystanders at risk" was a temporary political ploy.
It's like Iron-Fist-Pretending-To-Be-Daredevil said in Cable/Deadpool "how does knowing the Sentry is government controlled help people when Ultron punches him trhough a building?"
nothing stops the blob: With Jennifer Walters promising Stark she's gonna coma after him with her legal skills, and Danny Rand's attorney saying they're preparing to challenge the law, I'm hopeful we are going to see some of the politics here in the near future.
Post a Comment