Weekly Comic Review for 7/11/12

I’ve caught up on my reading. I just need to get my posts up. This weekend is the last beta test for Guild Wars 2 which has kept me quite busy. I’ll post about that after I get the comic reviews up.

Avengers Assemble #5 – With a cover featuring a kiss between Hawkeye and Black Widow, I was expecting a little more than what actually happened. (It was just a brief kiss. Maybe there will be more later though.) The issue is mostly some back story as to where the Guardians were prior to appearing last issue and the two teams looking into what Thanatos was up to. A decent story but not overly exciting.

Bloodshot #1 – The third title from the new Valiant Comics makes it debut. I’m not familiar with the old title at all so I’m looking at this with fresh eyes. We start off with a soldier who heads off to do some recon despite being out of the business. He gets shot down but somehow comes back to life with white skin and a big red spot on his chest due to nanites. Sounds plausible (for comics, that is) but then we get the twist. This is only one of a number of lives that has been placed in his head and someone has captured him and is trying to pull something else out of his head. Yes, we came in in the middle of the story and didn’t even realize it. He does manage to escape but there is a lot going on that we have yet to figure out. Although I didn’t check out the character before, I want to take a look this time around. (I may even look up the old title to see if there is much similarity.)

Defenders #8 – I’ll start by saying that I’ve already removed this title from my pull list. It’s the Defenders vs. John Aman who seems to be just way too powerful. The Silver Surfer seems to get further and further from the character I knew before with each issue. Even the cute “bottom of the page” quips harkening back to the old days are boring. This storyline has gone on too long and I’ve totally lost interest despite a few characters who would normally interest me. I guess I’ll just have to reread the original Defenders title if I want anything good. I’ve always heard good things about Matt Fraction but this is disappointing.

Demon Knights #11 – It turns out that the warping of all the knights was actually just taking each to their extreme. Arthur saves them as well as himself and they all go off to attack the castle that’s triggering all of this. Meanwhile, the person behind this is revealed as Morgan Le Fey, who also seems to share the same mother with Xanadu and Arthur. Gotta love sibling rivalry.

Harbinger #2 – The government attacks Pete and he lets loose with his power. Too bad he can’t control it after that. Harada convinces him to leave his companions behind and come join him and his team. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for Pete when he gets wherever he’s going. I should probably pull my old books and read the original series again so I can compare any changes but I’m liking it so far.

Legion Lost #11 – Things could be going better for the Legion. Brin is in the hospital. Tyroc and Yera get their asses kicked by the Metamerican. And, to top things off, Dawnstar runs across Alastor with a new power set and things don’t go well for her. Sometimes I think the Legion of Substitute Heroes would fare better.

Ravagers #3 – It’s time to learn about the New 52’s Brother Blood. Beast Boy keeps having visions of him and we still don’t know why. (Maybe it’s an initials thing. 😉 ) Brother Blood does seem to have quite an effect on Caitlin’s team though. Let’s hope Terra and Beast Boy can help them.

Resurrection Man #11 – Mitch continues to track down the Transhuman who ends up living up to his claim of being a villain. To make things worse, the Body Doubles show up. There’s only a couple issues left so they better get wrapping this all up soon. So far, no real growth other than the betrayal by the Transhuman.

Scarlet Spider #7 – It’s a standard issue really for Kaine. Save a girl from an exploding building, sleep with said girl, get pulled into drama and guilted by Aracely into resolving it. Next issue should be interesting since he’s getting reminded that he’s now the only hero of the south. The Rangers make a guest appearance. Time for a hero fight. As far as members, it’s Texas Twister and Firebird as expected. There’s 2 others shown though. One looks like it might be Living Lightning but I have no clue who the other is and I don’t know if Shooting Star and Red Wolf will be appearing. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. They aren’t anyone special but I’ve always liked this team.

Shade #10 of 12 – We get a little more history on the gods who took down the Shade. It seems the Shade’s a little more powerful than expected though and the balance between keeping him under control and keeping the gods under control wasn’t as easy to keep as the bad guys thought. We have 2 more issues left for the Shade to deal with a couple of gods/alien beings as well as his renegade descendent. Should be interesting to see what Shade does about this mess.

Other than Defenders, it was a decent week overall. I wouldn’t say it was spectacular but 9 out of 10 books worth reading isn’t bad as of late. Picking a top 3 is a little harder though because there weren’t many that really stood out. I’d definitely recommend Bloodshot since it’s a good book and worth checking out to see how this new universe is going to shape up. After that, I’d probably go with Harbinger to see how that shapes up and Ravagers because the interactions there are still growing and interesting so far. I’ll try to get last week’s stuff done up tomorrow afternoon if I can get a chance. Everyone have a great week.

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