Weekly Comic Review for 2/1/12
Again, the horror of wrapped comics caused me some issues getting to read all the comics I purchased. I finally got to read the Magic the Gathering comic today so here are my reviews.
Avengers Academy #25 – The battle royal with Hybrid continues as those not enthralled by the half-alien try to stop their friends and take down the bad guy. In the future, Reptil gets out of his prison and gets a look at where the future may lie. He ends up getting back to the past just in time to see the group pull together and send Hybrid back to Limbo. On top of that, Jocasta returns to lay judgement on Hank. Things are taking some interesting twists here and I’m thinking it will keep getting better if it stays on this track.
Defenders #3 – Th Defenders fight Null and savior ends up being some catatonic guy sitting in a chair with omega marks on his hands. (Is that supposed to be Omega?) Energy from the device Null was after changes the look of the Defenders (Doc in his old costume with the mask, Namor in his old green tights, Iron Fist shirtless in his green tights) thought I don’t think it’ll last as the “Next Issue” page shows Dr. Strange in the costume he’s been wearing. I’m really not impressed with the story or art style so far. I want to be as I was a always a big fan of the Defenders but the last couple incarnations just haven’t measured up.
Green Arrow #6 – It’s Green Arrow vs Blood Rose (who turns out to be a robot) and Midas one more time. As Ollie rests from his battle, he’s watched by an unknown person or people who have their own plans for him. While this isn’t the worst of the New 52, it’s not great either. I’ll still stick with it for now.
Hawk and Dove #6 – Batman and Robin team up with Hawk and Dove as they follow Blockbuster to the source of a number of thefts of arcane objects. They save the day and go their own ways. There’s only a couple issues left of this title so it’s hard to get too into it especially with Liefeld’s art. I’ll follow it to the end though.
Magic the Gathering #1 – IDW takes us on the trail of Handsome and scruffy thief/planeswalker Dack Fayden. He’s stolen an artifact that he “reads” (one of his abilities) which leads him back to an incident in his hometown. The art is decent and the story seems good so far. The book comes boarded and wrapped (not bagged) in a tight clear wrap so you can see the Magic card included with the book. The image on the card (“Treasure Hunt”) comes from the comic’s cover and had “IDW” in place of the expansion logo. The card costs 1 blue and 1 colorless and allows you to reveal and draw cards until you hit a non-land. Nothing special.
Red Lanterns #6 – While there’s a few pages back on Ysmault, this issue mostly centers around Earth’s first human Red Lantern. Though he’s only referred to as Jack Moore in the comic, the cover calls him Rankorr and he’s trying to find out what’s become of him. The first person he runs into that would have a clue is Guy Gardner. We’ll find out next issue what comes of that encounter. There’s still a lot of character development going on here. Once we get past this part, hopefully the story will really pick up. It’s decent so far.
Stormwatch #5 & 6 – When issue #6 came out, I realized I had missed an issue so I’ve got both of them here. The Shadow Cabinet decided Adam is not a good enough leader and gets rid of him. Harry turns on the team, battles Midnighter, and takes out their ship before escaping. Luckily, the ship is considered a city and Jack is able to reach the AI of the ship and make a deal with it to allow for recovery but not before some people on Earth see it pop out of Hyperspace. The best part of it all is the flirting between Apollo and Midnighter. I’m glad they kept that the same following the reboot. This may help to draw in the gay readers to at least one of the books. This has been added to my pull list so I won’t be missing any upcoming issues.
Winter Soldier #1 – James “Bucky” Barnes is back again. I remember seeing he died in Fear Itself but I guess I missed something. He’s got his own series now (guest starring the Black Widow for now) as they investigate the locations of other cold war agents and find that some of them are missing. It turns out that the Red Ghost is among the people behind it. It was an interesting story but not good enough for me to add it to my list.
This was quite a variety of comics this week. For my top 3, I’ll recommend Magic the Gathering, Red Lanterns, and Stormwatch. Avengers Academy came close but was beaten out.
