Weekly Comic Review for 11/13/13
OK. Finally getting to put up the post.
All-New X-Men #18 – It seems that even Magic can’t take the X-Men back to their own time even though she can apparently take them other places in time. So, Kitty and the original team settle in with Cyclops’ team. This issue is all about acclimating to the new situation. Kitty and Illyana reconnect. Jean fights with Celeste while other telepaths watch. Also, Kitty gets the original 5 new costumes after saying they needed a cosmetic change even though hers is based after theirs. The new ones look cool though. It should be interesting where the team goes from here even though they have to get back in time somehow or their present day selves won’t be there since they weren’t in the past to grow up.
Archer & Armstrong #15 – Sect Civil War – Aram and Ivar jump through time and hang out together. It’s cool to see them reconnect over lots of period alcohol. Before leaving, Ivar leaves a note to get Archer to come back and help Armstrong. Not as much progress on the war this month, but I’m fine with that.
Avengers Arena #17 – The contest is coming to a close. While Chris, Death Locket, and Apex deal with Arcade, the other young heroes continue to battle. Cammi takes the Darkhawk gem from Chase and goes after Nico, trying to be the voice of reason. Meanwhile, Arcade turns to blackmail, using the filming of Apex to turn her against all the others (instead of saving them) by saying he’ll make her the hero of the film instead of the major villain she had become. Finally, Hazmat’s power’s start going out of control. It should be interesting to see how the series ends next issue and where it goes in the next series that’s supposed to spin out of this. I hope the new one will continue to have Darkhawk (Chris Powell), Bloodstone, Anachronism, and Reptil. Some other the others would be nice but those are the 4 I want to see more of. And why were the other bodies all preserved in Arcade’s lab? Is there more to see of that?
Green Lantern Corps #25 – Batman Zero Year – What? Really?? The issue is about a story of John Stewart when he was a soldier which parallels a story his mother told him when he was a kid. It introduces Anarky into the New 52 universe. Somehow, showing Batman in the background of 2 panels doing nothing but looking on somehow makes this a Zero Year tie-in. You’ve got to be kidding me. If that’s how DC is trying to sell books, they must be really desperate. “Batman appears in 2 panels. He doesn’t do anything but you need to buy this comic to make the main storyline complete!!!” LAME!
Harbinger #18 – Even Harada seems to have limits. He’s running Peter’s new reality while others control the rest of the Renegades. He’s also trying to run his business too and all on no sleep. Harada finally reaches… I mean, surpasses… this limits and that doesn’t mean good news for anyone in the building.
Justice League of America #9 – Forever Evil tie-in – J’onn keeps working his way through the minds of the other Leaguers until he reaches his own problem — himself. Thankfully, Stargirl is on the way and is the one person seemingly immune to all the negativity sue to her youth and innocence. She shows up and drags J’onn out of the traps. The real question is if she grabbed the right one. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.
Unity #1 – Multiple covers as usual. The one I got was the Phantom variant which had a “kid” cover like the Marvel stuff but a different artist and style. It also has one of those white covers for art to be done on. (This one is actually made to do your own art and submit for a contest but I’m not ruining mine.) Now, as for the story… X-O Manowar is pissing people off. I didn’t like him for the first few issues of his title that I read and I like his warmongering, murderous self even less now. Harada has Ninjak sneak in to his ship to sabotage it. He also bring in Gilad, who is nothing like either of the versions we’ve seen so far in Archer & Armstrong or Eternal Warrior. (Continuity be damned!) Unity turns out to be the name of a team Harada sends in to take down Aric but get killed within seconds of landing. (Well, for those who actually make it to the ground alive that is.) It looks like Harada, Gilad, and Ninjak will be joined by the exiled former Harada employee Livewire as the new Unity. So far, the concept of this seems pretty boring.
Despite a couple bad apples (Green Lantern Corps and Unity), there are some good books this week. It’s actually making me think to pick a top 3. I think I’ll stick with the A’s this week tho: All-New X-Men, Archer & Armstrong, and Avengers Academy. (Can we make them the A-Men instead of the X-Men? It would make my A list really complete. 😉 )
