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[S.F. Jude Terror]

Ultimate Comics X #1
by Jeph Loeb and Art Adams

It's kind of funny how much shit Jeph Loeb gets within this community. If you asked people here what creator they hated more and made them pick between Loeb and Liefeld a fair chunk of them would probably need some time to think about it.

This makes me like Jeph Loeb.

A lot.

Nevermind the fact that his work with Tim Sale is some of the best comic booking of the last 20 years, in general I find that his super-hero work is just plain old fashioned fun. Isn't that kind of the point to all these floppy pamphlets we've grown up reading? Now I'm not saying Loeb comics are always good, I'm just saying they're not worthy of the vitrol that gets thrown his way... except for Ultimatum. That was one giant turd of a book. (Except for the Blob eating people, of course.)

Coming straight out of Ultimatum we have Ultimate Comics X. I read a decent chunk of Ultimate X-Men and I have to say as far as books that need a total relaunch go, it was a pretty good candidate. Some of the biggest names in the industry (Millar, Bendis, Kirkman, BKV) worked on that book and none of them were able to do much beyond making it readable.

As far as wiping the slate clean and starting over with UCX, this seems to do that. No Cyclops or Jean or Beast or Colossus or Ice-Man or any of those characters you probably like and want to read about. Kitty Pryde is here though, so I'm good. Maybe somewhere down the line those done to death X-Men characters can come back in Mark Millar's Ultimate X-Men Forever or something.

So we've got Kitty Pryde, right? Why? Well, someone had to tell yet another one of Wolverine's kids who their daddy was. It's kind of a played out story and UCX definitely needs a little Ultimate Hulk to spice it up. This was just your standard introduction issue to a character you don't really care about yet. Maybe a Wolverine fan would get all excited about a younger version of the character, but it didn't do anything for me.

Art Adams is a freaking legend. I hope he gets to draw some cool stuff in this book eventually. A talking heads book like this issue isn't exactly making the most of his talents. Still, what's there looks great.

Story: 6
Art: 8
Overall: 7

So what are your thoughts on Liefeld?

[Victorian Squid]

Mi havas LOLtron traduki por mi dum plezuro mi voĉe. Malkiel la Apple iPad, LOLtron povas multitask.

Ĉu senkulpigas mi kiu, por mia fluparoleco, estas magra, sed vi diris nur *LOLtron plezurojn vi, dum vi *multitask?

[******]

So what are your thoughts on Liefeld?

I like that he seems to have a pretty good sense of humor about being the ICC's #1 source of evil in the world. He's created/co-created some characters that I like, even though I mostly only like those characters when he's not working on them. The comics he does himself are generally okay, but I don't often read them.

[S.F. Jude Terror]

Ĉu senkulpigas mi kiu, por mia fluparoleco, estas magra, sed vi diris nur *LOLtron plezurojn vi, dum vi *multitask?

LOLtron estas programadita kun la potenco reprodukti mil pudelo lingvoj rapide turnad ĉirkaŭ mia membro dum samtempe traduk mia freneza marŝado en 19 diversaj lingvoj, interalie pig latin, kaj eksplodig Frenezan Klaŭnon Posse muzikon de liaj internaj parolantoj.

[guitarsmashley]

This sucks. I'm going to be offline friday-monday so I'll have to see what I can get done tomorrow and tuesday.

[48THRiLLS]

Siege #2 (of 4)
I really really liked the first issue of Siege but I absolutely loved issue 2.There are so many awesome moments in this book but they will all get over shadowed by the death of Ares and for good reason. Sometimes death in comics is used just to have someone die for shock value (ie: Wasp and Bill Foster) but I felt this helps move the story, you see just how crazy powerful The Sentry is and this is definitely a threat that all the Avengers will need to band together for... and it was a damn shocking visual. I don't want to turn this review into a recap of the book but moments like Bucky giving Steve the shield, Steve rallying the troops, Nic Fury telling Phobos nothing he hasn't seen that can scare him, and that last page with the reflection of Cap's shield on Normie's armor were all reasons why this maybe one of the best single issues I have read that came during a cross over (IMO!). I think Bendis nailed the voices of all the character (his Thor was fine, I have seen a lot of complaining about his Thor dialogue and I feel that it is just Bendis hate, it is all bad renaissance play speak no matter who writes it, hell he had 4 lines in the whole issue!) From when I left my shop to my bike ride home I was pretty excited to read this and I was not disappointed, in fact I am now even more anxious for issue 3 to come out. On the art side of things, I thought this was also an upgrade form the first issue. The first thing that really stood out to me was how Coipel drew Phobos, here he actually looked like a 10 year old especially after he is put in his place by Fury. The Sentry comes off looking god-like yet creepy as hell, the coloring of the yellow glow around him was perfectly done and I cannot not mention Ares being torn in half... it jumps off the page and weather you saw it coming or not it was definitely a great OH SHIT! moment.
STORY - 9.5
ART - 9
OVERALL - 9.2333333333

[Kerny]

Siege 2 (spoiler-ific)

Holy fuck! about sums it up. Bendis, to my delight, really isn't letting up on the pace. There's plenty to like here. Cap rallying the troops, the interaction between Phobos and Nick Fury, Thor making quick of Daken, and to that nicely done last page.

Of course what everyone wants to talk about is that OMG SENTRY TOTALLY RIPPED ARES IN HALF. Ares rocks, but I have no problem with this whatsoever. He's been making deals with Fury, and this was foreshadowed pretty easily in issue 1. I sorta like the Sentry. This is certainly a way to make me like him even better. The next What If? should be What If The Sentry Rips everyone in The Marvel Universe In Half? Id read it.

Coipel does another kick-ass job. Ares entrails are cool to look at (wut) and he captures the widespread reaction shots well. It's slightly confusing storytelling with the Maria Hill/Moonstone/ Thor stuff.

Also, Thor needs to cut that m'lady shit out.

Story 9
Art 9

Shaping up to be my favorite of the recent marvel events easily

[Kerny]

Wolverine Weapon X 10

The gist: much like Kyle Rayner or Matt Murdock, whoever fucks Wolverine, dies.

It's a pretty fun story with a slight hint of things to come. Logan has fun interactions with a lot of familiar faces: Storm, Jubilee, Luke Cage and Jessica, and there's probably another one I missed. And through it all he realizes, yep I've got a girlfriend now. I like Melita, she hasn't done or said anything that has pissed me off yet, and her encounter with Emma Frost was funny, and so Emma.

Also, the issue doesn't really cover all the ladies on the cover like I thought it would. Basically, it talks about Mariko. It always comes back to her it seems.

Now, I like Smith's art generally, but I'm not sure I would have went with him to draw a issue about the ladies in Logan's life. He does the action scenes quite well, but some of the women's faces are funny, and his depiction of Jubilee is downright hilarious. (Yes Twig, Jubilee!)

Story 8
Art 6.5

Overall 7.25

[Kerny]

Sweet Tooth 6

I always have a hard time reviewing this book, because even though its one of my favorites, it's just hard to talk about in detail for me for whatever reason

Gus meets some other animal hybrids like himself, only one of them being intelligent. Jeppard gets some character analysis, and shows why he did what he did last ish. It's pretty touching, and Lemire's art was pretty cool how he transitioned from the present to a flashback in two panels.

Story 8
Art 8

Overall 8

[Kerny]

And with that, I am out of ammo this week.

[Victorian Squid]

Check out the blurb for one of CBR's reviewers take on Siege:

Timothy Callahan gives Brian Michael Bendis and Olivier Coipel a 3.5 star rating for "Siege" #2, comparing it to "the original 'Secret Wars' with less word balloons."

[fieldy snuts]

The thread I couldnt wait for when i jumped the gun on my thoughts on the issue.
as I did here (spoiler tagged as to not take away from the focus of my review0:
http://www.theouthousers.com/forum/view ... ?p=1619271

[spoiler]
OK first of all I'm not really the type to give a shit about character deaths that much. Hawkeye bummed me but I didnt give it that much thought, ditto with Vision in Disassembled....cant say Scott Lang moved me much though. OMD.......I really didnt give a shit about a divorce as long as the payoff was worth it. BND had is hiccups but overall i liked it. Batman RIP, I just mentally blocked off everything that went into Final Crisis cus it was stupid but it didnt piss me off per se like it did a hell of a lot of internet peeps.

Start part is kinda padding for spoiler tags and to explain my feelings on past big changes and deaths.

The big death teased in this issue = Ares. He turns on Osborn after finding out he was lied to and is ready to beat the shit out of him till the tide turns suddenly leading to the moment It's fucking brutal, he was literally torn in half (not by the waist, the other vertical way...name escapes me right now) by the Sentry with blood and guts everywhere after getting the shit kicked out of him despite putting up a strong but futile fight. This was easily moment of the week material, Coipel's 2-page spread of his death was gory as fuck and the reactions of everyone priceless.

Why this affected me where so much other stuff failed to over the years? Because I was big on Greek mythology and mythology in general back in the day? Bendis's building of the character to arguably the strongest characterisation he's written in his Avengers run....point out any other character and I'll respectfully disagree no matter who it is. he set all facets of his life from the family man, God of War, his personality...the works. No other character he's written in 616 was as richly developed as Ares. Combined with the fact the character was just awesome all-round I was hoping he'd be around as a long-term character for many more years to come. Throughout his run Ares was slowly evolving into one of the major players of the MU.

The devious fucker made me genuinely care about a character for the first time ever so much and took it all away in a few panels Sad

But....you never know, mythical gods are full of resurrections and such so there might be a grander plan down the line. But thats just speculation and mostly wishful thinking so far.

Oh, as for the rest of the issue? Besides the preview there's not much more to add other than Thor recovering enough to help Maria Hill's getaway, Cap rallying the Avengers and a last page of Osborn turning around us seeing the reflection of a certain shield of the Iron Patriot's faceplate Razz

But it was those handful of pages talked about prior that defined the book for me. it set the bar really high for the other half of this event.

The Sentry must die >:O
[/spoiler]

Siege #2 delivered. One particular scene stood out and for good reason: the death of Ares. Not just another shock death like the ones in Disassembled or the Wasp's death in prior Bendis stories but one that was woven into the story so well. Ares realising Osborn's big lie coming to a head and finally bringing in that big plot device hardly anyone ever uses for events: the Sentry. It also raises the question off how the fuck can Osborn be toppled if he's being watched over by someone that can tear apart a god with little effort?

It just raised the stakes big time as Osborn's army of registered supervillains was a B-List who's who at best. but seeing a seemingly confident and determined Sentry finally cutting loose instead of running away like a bitch again sells the severity off the situation.

Then there's all the other small awesome stuff like Thor frying Daken, maria Hill firing rockets @ Osborn while saving Thor, Steve Rogers rallying a team into battle, Nick Fury and the Secret Warriors being part of this, the convo with Phobos and that final page of seeing Cap's shield reflected off Osborns faceplate coming in fast just further sealed the deal. Bendis clearly is pulling all the stops in order to make his Avengers endgame as big as he possibly can...and its working.

Coipels art is awesome...no doubt. In every moment listed above, he drew his ass off on it no matter how small it may have been from the scene layout to the facial expressions of the characters (Bullseye looking like he shit himself when Sentry tore apart Ares spoke volumes, it even FELT natural for someone as psychotic as him to be that shocked which you'd never expect from Bullseye). Everything was standout stuff. Its like Michael Bay with a brain in terms of visuals.

My one worry is that the bar may be getting set too high with all this buildup. Bendis's stories always read better when reading them all @ once to get the full picture so right now for one more month I have no idea what to expect. Thats a good and bad thing to me since its just as easy to fail to live up to the hype of a stellar previous issue.

Overall: 9.5

If the Siege story overall is this good though I really have no qualms of rating the whole thing with a 10.

[Old Man]

Siege #2


I love it. Only things I am confused about... one who the fuck was the old man that tells Ares about Asgard not being there by some mistake and what does he mean that Thor's dad is alive?

Hey, don't ask me!

I'd guess it's Old Man Woden himself.

[******]

Marvel Heartbreakers One-Shot

There are two reasons I bought this.

1) It had Nextwave characters and I loves me some kicksploding Nextwave action even if it's not really a Nextwave comic.

2) It was solicited with CB Cebulski as one of the writers. Cebulski doesn't write much, but when he does I usually like it. Sadly he doesn't actually have a story in this so booooooo Marvel.com!

Okay, so there's really a third reason. Sometimes I dig reading comics that are generally intended for teenage girls. Bring back Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane dammit!

A Chemical Romance by Kathryn Immonen and Elena Casagrande
This got Heartbreakers off to a pretty good start. It's a Spider-Man story with both Gwen and Mary Jane and it totally made me miss SMLMJ even though there really wasn't much MJ. The art was cool, I actually liked it more than the art in a lot of Marvel's ongoing series. Story 8, Art 8

Super Boys! by Rick Spears and James Callahan
This story features Elsa Bloodstone and Tabitha Smith from Nextwave and makes this comic worth it all by itself. Why doesn't Rick Spears get more work?! This guy is awesome. Every panel brought the funny and stayed true to the character's Nextwave characterizations. This was super fun and the art was a great match. Story 10, Art 8

Beauty and the Beast: An Epilogue by Jim McCann and David Lopez
This is clearly referencing something I'm not at all familiar with and I've never been much of a Dazzler fan, but McCann writes a great Beast. Story 8, Art 7

Animalia by Karl Bollers and Harvey Tolibao
So, generally I'm usually pretty well versed in the Marvel Universe but I have no idea who in the hell this Snowbird person is. I'm guessing Alpha Flight but Alpha Flight is filled with those silly Canadians so I've never read it. The art in this was hard to follow and the coloring by Emily Warren wasn't doing anyone any favors, but maybe that's just Marvel's ultra dark printing problem popping up again. The story itself was really blah and I had to read it twice just to figure out what was going on. Story 3, Art 2

Heartbreakers isn't going to appeal to a wider audience, but overall I enjoyed it. Rick Spears is a star waiting to happen, give him his own book already Marvel!

Overall: 8

[Victorian Squid]

Sometimes I dig reading comics that are generally intended for teenage girls.

Big surprise coming from a Twilight fan like you!