2008 Comics In Review - Part 3

Deadpool: [So where's our furry clump of cute?]

CalvinPitt: Under house arrest. Intimidating Mama Panda was not pleased that ABP was ignoring chores to hop over here for these posts.

Deadpool: [I'll pull off a daring rescue for half a million.]

CalvinPitt; Thanks, but no. Even if I had that money, I'm not getting you or myself on her bad side. I've been there before. There was growling, and unfriendly teeth very close to my throat.

Immortal Iron Fist #12-21, Orson Randall and the Death Queen of California, Orson Randall and the Green Mist of Death: Art difficulties are the story here. David Aja was largely absent from the last few issues of the Brubaker/Fraction (and eventually just Fraction) run, due to either some health problems, or because his wife was pregnant, I can't remember which. Either way, there were other things which demanded his attention, so the art was not quite where it was. Then Travel Foreman became primary artist to go with new writer Duane Swierczynski, and for some reason, his work doesn't seem as nice as it did when he was drawing flashbacks sequences in the earlier issues. Not sure what the deal was there.

High Point: I think the 22-year punch delivered in #21 by Wah Sing-Rand, plus his subsequent saving of the believers of K'un-Lun has to go here. Don't get me wrong, Danny Rand punching a train and making it explode was plenty cool, but it was already loaded with explosives, so it really wasn't going to take much to make it go boom. [He punched the train? Just throw a bunch of mines on the track.] I don't think Danny had any mines. [Then drive your car into it at high speed, but the only people that should be in front of trains are the people you throw from them. Like Billy Crystal.]

Low Point: The Mortal Iron Fist wasn't a bad idea for a story, but the art wasn't helping as much as I'd like, and I had some issues with how Danny won the battle. [Getting crazy always works in a fight! It's what made Wolverine into the big, multi-title appearing success he is today!]

Moon Knight #20-25: I started buying it for the Mike Deodato drawn battle with Werewolf by Night, and I've stuck around for the running battle with the Thunderbolts. Of course, now he's going to run into the Punisher, and that may test my tolerance for the Punisher outside the MAX bubble. Say Wade, maybe you should hunt down Jack Russell. I bet there are a lot of people who would pay big money for a werewolf. [Sure, I love dogs. Like Air Bud, how does the dog shoot a basketball? How does it pass the ball? Is it the Stephon Marbury of sports movie animals?] Are you going to keep referencing old movies all day (and I don't believe Marbury is a good example anymore)? [Yes.] What about my suggestion? [Not until someone hires me for it. What good is it to have a werewolf in a cage, waiting for someone who wants to buy it?] You could teach it tricks, or poke it with a stick. [Hmm. . .]

High Point: I really liked #20. The battle with the werewolf, what it helped Spector realize about himself. Although, he seemed more stable in that flashback than he does in the present, maybe because of Marlene. The way he tricked Bullseye was pretty good too. The sort of reconciliation with Frenchie and Ray was nice too, since he had been kind of an ass to them.

Low Point: Still, the covers had been hyping the Bullseye/Moon Knight fight for two months beforehand, and Spector spends the entire fight running. I know that's what he'd been doing against the rest of the Thunderbolts, but that was 5-on-1, all of them with some superpowers. This is just Bullseye. I know, he's super nutso, kill-you-with-anything, but is the threat level elevated that much? I'm just not buying it, but I haven't bought Bullseye as a threat since I read Daredevil #200, where DD kicked the crap out of him with one arm in a sling. Kind of hard to take him seriously after that.

Ms. Marvel #23, 24: I just gave up. Secret Invasion was coming, and I couldn't figure out where Mr. Reed was going with it. Carol wants fame, then she just wants to be a good hero. She wants everyone to follow the law, except when she doesn't. She wants to be hardcore, but doesn't want to accept responsibility for it (though I think later she admitted she let Puppet Master blow himself up, when she hadn't mentioned that before). The Aaron Lopresti art was swell, but he was leaving the book, so that was one less thing holding me there. [But you still have to like how that sash sits on her hips.] Yes Wade, you're absolutely correct. [Why will she team up with Spider-Man and not me? She's a former secret agent, so am I. She's pretty, I'm disfigured. We're like Emilio Estevez and Ally Sheedy.] She will Wade, she's just waiting for the right mission, I'm sure of it. Everybody wants to team up with Deadpool. [I'm not an idiot you know.] I just wanted to cheer you up.

Nova #10-20, Annual #1: Rich found Warlock, stopped the Phalanx, ran afoul of the Silver Surfer, fought Skrulls with Darkhawk, and is watching the Worlmind make poor decisions. I'm looking forward to War of Kings getting Rich back out in space.

High Point: Rich deciding to save everyone on Obrucen was nice, his heart-to-heart with Gamora was kind of sweet. I think I'll tap his brief team-up with Super-Skrull, where they trounce some Skrulls, then Rich destroys a Skrull warship. For non-Nova coolness, the part where Rich is explaining to the surfer why he needs Galactus to wait, and the Surfer closes his eyes, and just like that, he's shielded all the escape shuttles from the electromagnetic distortion, and they can leave. Excellent demonstration of how powerful the Surfer is now.

Low Point: I wasn't a big fan of the Annual. A little of Nova's past, some hallucinated future, some weird fight with the transmode virus making some construct out of the ground around them. Not really that great. Though he did remember Ko-Rel, the first new Nova recruited since Rich became Nova Prime. Be nice to see her get a mention during the current recruitment drive. [I could be a Nova. I look great with a bucket on my head.] I don't think you're an average member of the species, Wade. And I'm not going to ask where you learned how you look with a bucket on your head.

Patsy Walker: Hellcat #1-4: Oh what to say? I love this mini-series. It's beautifully drawn, it alternates between silly and serious, and it doesn't just hand everything to you on a silver platter. On the downside, it's driving me insane trying to figure out what deeper meaning Immonen is driving at. i keep seeing different little things that make me think this or that, and I just can't put it all together. [It makes perfect sense. Just listen *Wade begins gesturing, but not making any sound*] Wade, what are you doing, you didn't say a word. [The white caption box was talking, weren't you paying attention?] Deadpool, that's a visual gag! We're doing a text piece! It's like trying to do Keystone Kops on the radio! [Good morning Vietnam! *throws a grenade over his shoulder* KABOOM!]

High Point: #1, How Patsy deals with rude people in a bar. Her exchange with herself in #3 when the forest is catching on fire (Great! I can see the headlines now. Hellcat burns down Alaska. Iron Man says, "It's not my fault." "Is too," says Hellcat.) How she deals with a naughty giant wolf that knocks over her vehicle. Her devious and manipulative nature.

Low Point: That three-month wait between #3 and #4. Sure, it gave us Cornelius Potfiller, but that's really not going to balance the scales. [Not with your writing skills.] Gee, thanks Wade. My self-esteem needed that punch to the kidneys. [I could give your body a punch to the kidneys, make a matched set.] No.