Weekly Comic Review for 11/2/11
And now we’re on to the most recent comic release.
Avengers Academy #21 – “1st Issue of a New Era” It’s the start of a new direction… On top of the characters shown in the prior issue, we get to see Spider-Girl, Ricochet, Penance, possibly Turbo) some kid with stretching legs, another in a rocket wheelchair, a Rocket Racer take-off and more. Lightspeed and White Tiger are presented as 2 characters that will be full time and will be taking larger roles from the start. The old academy kids wonder where their place is (if there is a place) at the academy and take it out on the Avengers who are present. The academy picks up one new teacher in Hawkeye but may be losing one as Jacosta’s body was killed by someone with internal access. That person is Reptyl… inhabited by his future self. (And Veil is among the future selves too.) Should have known that would come back to haunt them.
Green Arrow #3 – It’s Green Arrow vs. the ego driven bad guys online with all the followers (just regular people) rooting for the bad guys. With the assist of his crew, Oliver is able to barely pull it off but his personal life is suffering. He’s going to really have to work to keep his business life going.
Green Hornet #19 – With a surprise appearance by Kato’s nephew, the team finally takes down Red Hand. The way Kato finally deals with him, allowing him the option of jail or killing himself, was quite interesting.
Hawk and Dove #3 – It’s Hawk and Dove vs Condor and Swan. Swan lets it spill that there’s more to their powers than Hawk and Dove knew. I’m not sure if they are still taking into account the time that Hawk and Dove were in the land of the lords of chaos and order and they were in full avatar form back in their original series. They were pretty powerful there but Condor and Swan seem pretty powerful. Swan calls Hawk and Dove the “joke of the circle” so I wonder how many of these bird avatars there are. (Is Kestrel still around in this reality and if so, does he have a Dove/Swan-like counterpart?) It also seems that Condor and Swan are collecting power. How many levels of power do they have and what will happen to them all later? I want to see where this is all going.
Moon Knight #7 – Marc (now with a van dyke) confronts Buck about telling on him to the Avengers and convinced him to help discover who the west coast Kingpin is. With the Help of Buck and Echo, Moon Knight gets Count Nefaria to reveal himself though they aren’t able to capture him. They are able to catch Snapdragon though and did learn who was behind everything so it’s a victory of sorts.
Red Lantern2 #3 – Atrocitus throws Bleez into a lake of blood to shock her back into intelligence. (I wonder when this will be reflected in Green Lantern: New Guardians.) It looks like he’s chosen her to be his second in command (no surprise) but she’s a lot more tactical and maybe insidious than he is which will make them an interesting pair. At least Dex-Star makes a brief cameo. Yeah, I know. I’d be happy if he got his own title.
Stormwatch #3 – I’m still trying to figure out what it is that keeps dragging me back to this book. I don’t know most of the characters well but the dynamic is interesting. Harry gets rescued from the moon in time to head down with the rest of the crew and try to defeat the alien entity who just ends up absorbing all of Stormwatch. That leaves the two potential members free but Apollo is in space trying to destroy the meteors coming to destroy the Earth. So, Midnighter is all by himself on this on. Uh oh!
Uncanny X-Men #1 – Cyclops start setting up his teams to handle everything. Meanwhile, Mister Sinister commandeers the Celestial in San Fransisco. S.W.O.R.D. gives him warning about this but Sinister still manages to escape inside the Celestial’s head, which he has transformed to look like himself. Now only that, but he he uses it to transform the people of the area to look like him too. This sounds way too much like something the Joker would do. Scott’s a pretty boring leader though nowadays so it’s not too exciting. Maybe they should switch creative teams with Wolverine’s X-Men. His book serious might be interesting and maybe making Scott’s funny might be better.
There are definitely enough X-titles around lately. In the Marvel books this week, there are a couple 2 page ads and a single page one advertising Wolverne and the X-Men, X-Men Legacy, Uncanny X-Force, Uncanny X-Men, Generation Hope, X-Men, and X-Club. This doesn’t even take into account all the titles Wolverine and Deadpool have and any other related titles. On top of those, there’s also ads for Carnage U.S.A. (a new Spider-Man spin-off) and Villains for Hire (using the same logo style as the just recently defunct Heroes for Hire and including Killgrave and that fear demon both left over from the end of that book).
The only thing I’m actually looking forward to is a new Defenders title. The ad shows Dr. Strange, Namor, Silver Surfer, Iron Fist, and who I can only guess are a red She-Hulk (?), and maybe the Hulk. I’ve always been a fan of the old team. Other former members I hope show up are Hellcat, Hellstrom, Nighthawk, and Gargoyle. Maybe even toss in the new Devilslayer (currently in Wonder Man’s Revengers) and Valkyrie (and just cancel Secret Avengers) for good measure too. I’ve always been a Dr. Strange fan though I don’t think he ever really fit in with the Avengers.
That out of the way, I’ll get on with my Top three books this week. There’s a number of decent books out there this week but nothing exceptionally stellar. That being said, I’ll go with Green Hornet, Hawk and Dove, and Moon Knight. Each has a little something extra which made them stick out a little more to me.
