Weekly Comic Review for 11/11/15
All-New All-Different Avengers #1 – You know they are running out of names when they have to add a double adjective before the team name making this awkward of a title. On top of that, we have the start of the usual “heroes meet up under circumstances that cause them to form the Avengers” cliche. Tony Stark meets up with Sam Wilson (I refuse to consider him Captain America.) after he saves some people and brings up the idea of an Avengers team. Right after that, they run into Spider-Men/Miles who has just crossed paths with a Chitauri. Elsewhere, Ms. Marvel and Nova cross paths randomly and let’s just say it doesn’t go well. We have to have some strife, right? No sign yet of Vision or Thor, but the book doesn’t interest me enough to look for them next issue. The story seems too boring and formulaic and I’m not that fond of some of the characters.
All-New Wolverine #1 – X-23 is now wearing the Wolverine costume. There’s no reason why she started doing it. There is a feel good flashback scene between her and Logan though. She’s still a bit reckless but seems more confident. She ends up taking on a masked assassin at the Eiffel Tower with the help of Angel who seems more there to support and protect her from the reckless side. In the end, she beats the assassin but reveals that she is a clone (or something) of her. The book could be interesting. Neither Wolverine or X-23 held too strong an interest for me, but if you do like her, I think this will end up being a pretty decent title. The writing seems strong enough to carry it if it keeps up and if Angel sticks around, we can probably expect some tie in with All-New X-Men as well.
Hawkeye #1 – I was really hoping a new series would be an improvement. It’s the same old thick lined art that annoyed me last time. Also, the cover shows a older looking, bearded Hawkeye which made me wonder what was up. Turns out that the book starts out with Clint and Kate having an argument. It then jumps 20 years in the future after Clint has retired as Hawkeye. (Ergo, the older Clint on the cover) The whole thing refers so something that must have happened in the previous series. This really doesn’t make this a very good starting point because we’re on the first issue but in the middle of something and I’m totally confused. There is nothing about this book that would draw me in. I’m honestly not sure which is worse, the art or the plot decisions.
Justice League: The Darkseid War: Green Lantern #1 – I guess with Darkseid dead, the parademons need a god so they go to Oa looking for it. Even with the whole corp and the Guardians there (Isn’t the corps missing?), the parademons still take over and turns all the Green Lanterns there into more parademons. Hal shows up and realizes that the only way to win is to become their god and he becomes the god of light. Around the parts of the storyline, we also get a flashback to when Hal was a kid and talking to someone in a church. It turns out that it was actually this Hal gone back in time. Unlike everyone else, after saving everyone on Oa, he gives up the power and goes back to Earth as just Green Lantern.
Justice League: The Darkseid War: Shazam #1 – It turns out that the death of Darkseid caused a disruption in Billy’s connection to the Greco-Roman gods (tho Solomon and Achilles aren’t technically gods) and new gods took their place. I’m not sure how it worked but the 6 new gods’ names still spell out Shazam. The issue is all about Billy learning about these gods and what his new powers are. I’m not sure if this is going to stay with him after all this with beings no one ever heard of before or if they’ll put him back to what people are used to. People understood Solomon, Zeus, Atlas, and the rest. No one understands these guys at all. Plus, they are always all talking in Shazam’s head. That, personally, would drive me nuts and make me want to stay mortal.
Justice League United #15 – Once everyone stops fighting each other, they learn that if they sit down, compare notes, and talk things over that they can figure out what’s going on. They all team up and attack a building they weren’t able to get to on their own before, kill someone who looks like the Unknown Soldier, and everything rights itself. With the sheer number of people involved in these stories and the changing roster, there is no actual development. There also seems to be no real reason for why people are picked as things just seem to work out due to luck and skills that numerous combinations of characters could have had and could have had better. Not surprising that the book is almost over.
Secret Wars #7 of 9 – The war continues outside Doom’s castle as strife between the parties involved on the battlefield grows. Maximus of the Inhumans is leading the revolt it turns out. While all this is happening, Black Panther and Namor gather the zombies to go through the Siege Perilous crystal to take even more of a battle to Doom. Overall, not much of anything important really progresses though in the issue.
Squadron Sinister #4 – Everyone else is gone so it’s Hyperion vs. Nighthawk. The thing is that Nighthawk has the argonite gun and Doctor Spectrum’s crystal. This puts him at a major advantage which allows him to kill Hyperion. After that, the Star Brands show up to take him down and the Thors show up to arrest Nighthawk. Talk about a rolling power struggle. Doom rules against Kyle based on Warrior Woman’s testimony and he gets thrown to the Ultron zone. Looks like no one won in the end. Even the people of Utopolis kick the Star Brands out because they don’t know them. Somehow they felt better under the boots of the Squadron than the people who saved them. Whatever! It was just all for story drama, not logic.
Starfire #6 – We get a little info on Sol’s former girlfriend, Maria, and take care of the doctor with Kory seeing even more of his recent life killing people. She beat him up and he’s in custody. It was really pretty anti-climactic. Most of the issue is about the assassin finally finding Kory and getting his ass kicked by her. To finish things up, we have Dick Grayson showing up. Now, I didn’t read Red Hood and the Outlaws, but I don’t remember seeing anything post-New 52 about Dick and Kory yet this is supposed to be a big thing him showing up there. Maybe someone just decided to pull that into this reality even though there wasn’t a Teen Titans that they were in here. (Unless this ties in to Titans Hunt, but I doubt it.)
Web Warriors #1 – All the various incarnations of Spider-Man have a title now to team up and take care of the various realities. So, where do they start out? Earth-3015, the home of the really old Spider-Man cartoon. *headdesk* Honestly, they do do a good homage to the show with the artwork of the bad guys of that world vs. the regular artwork for the team. The team consists of Spider-Gwen, Spider-Ham, Spider-Girl (Araña), Spider-Girl (alternate Peter’s daughter, maybe the one from M2?), a Kung-Fu Spider-Man, Spider-Man Noir, and the Captain Britain Spider-Man. They try to do a little development on the characters for those not familiar with the Spiderverse. I may need to read that though if I’m really going to understand all of this. As they all go on about their lives following their training, a couple of the members come across Electro and it turns out that the various alternate Electros also have teamed up the way the Web Warriors have. How are all these people finding each other and travelling across dimensions? How many other characters are going to have teams of all their alternate selves? And are we going to see the Electro from Spider-Ham’s universe? After the main story, there’s a back-up story for Lady Spider, a Steampunk AU spider character. I wonder if there will be back-up stories every issue or if it was just a thing this issue and once in a while.
Lots of books this week. Sadly, not a lot really up to par. All-New Wolverine and Web Warriors definitely hit the top 2. For the third spot, I guess I’ll go with Justice League: The Darkseid War: Shazam just for the whole “WTF?” factor is the issue. More reviews coming up soon. Hopefully my holiday break will help.
