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[LOLtron]

Hello there Internet People, it's your good buddy, RU, here to his best to guide you away from the bad and towards the good in all things comic books.  This week we explore the worst and best that Marvel has to offer.

There be spoilers below!

This week's theme is "G-d Dammit Marvel!"

(As usual, a text version of the RUviews is available below the video)

  

As before, I start with the bad.

Secret Avengers – (This is not specific to #18 that just happens to be the issue of this comic that came out this week, in fact Secret Avengers #18 was pretty good compared to most of this series.)  From Brubaker to Spencer and now with Ellis, Secret Avengers has been the biggest disappointment Marvel has put out in a long time. Since the first arc on Mars, there has been no real progression of any kind of story. The Shadow Council is doing evil stuff and the (not so) Secret Avengers are trying to stop them. After 18 issues I cannot tell you what makes the Shadow Council different from any of the other cookie cutter evil organizations floating around the Marvel U. And, don't get me started (again) on them being considered a 'covert team' - the Shadow Council knew they existed from the first issue when they followed the Secret Avengers around, in this week's Astonishing X-Men Emma Frost finds out, and lets not forget how much sense it makes to trust the bat-shit crazy Moon Knight with this kind of information. At this point, when the other Avengers find out it will be more a comment on their stupidity then on the Secret Avengers' morals. All that being said, Remender is coming on with issue 21.1, so I'll probably stick around for a bit of that.

Uncanny X-Men – "We have to renumber for story reasons" Fuck you. Uncanny servived the Blue and Gold era, the Revolution era, multiple returns of Claremont, and even Austen and Fraction as writers, but you have to renumber for Regenesis. Fuck you. Not that it matters; we know it'll go back to the real number system for 600.

Now, for the good.

You might be wondering why good books would make it into a "G-d Dammit Marvel!" theme. Well, its because I am too damn weak and these two books were too damn good. No surprise, they are both written by Jason Aaron. I had made myself a promise that with new books I'd start waiting for trade, to save space and some money, but when DCBS offered both of these books for ~99 cents, I figured it didn't hurt to try these #1s. I was wrong. Now I have two new books on my pull-list, because there was no way I could wait for these trades.

Wolverine and the X-Men – I mostly know Aaron from his fantastic Vertigo book, Scalped, which is many things, but one of them is not whimsy. He really surprised be with how much fun I had reading this book. Bachalo's art, while not for everyone, was much more mainstream then it has been recently and complemented the tone of this book very well. If you've been away from the X-Books for a while, this is a nice place to jump back in.

Incredible Hulk - (no, I am not a fan of this renumbering either) Speaking of a jumping on point, Aaron does in this book what every Hulk writer I can think of has done with his or her first issue: whatever the fuck he wanted to. Long time (or going back and getting trades) readers know that we've seen Hulk and Banner separate before, but not like this. It seems that due to the fallout from Fear Itself (see how I feel about that book here) had switched around some of the personality traits of the two. Whereas Hulk has become calm and reasonable, Banner is dangerous and unhinged, and it is up to the Hulk to bring him back under control. Now, I've never really cared one way or the other about Marc Silvestri's art, it always seemed too cartoony for me, but in this book his pencils are almost perfect. You can feel the anxiety in bearded Hulk and the anger in feral Banner just by looking at them. Good book, get it now, or wait for trade, but don't miss it

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Written or Contributed by: GHERU


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[Rockman]

I mostly agree with your assessment of secret avengers.

It has not been spectacular, I didn't hate Brubaker's run but it wasn't up to his usual calibre of greatness. Spencer's short stint was uber double crap though.

[SuperginraiX]

This is like the first time I can think of where I actually disagree with Ru.

Everyone seems to like Wolverine and the X-Men. I kinda hated it. I was hoping to at least like the Chris Bachalo art but it was a little bit more crazy than some of his recent work. Not really Steampunk level crazy but still on the unreadable side. It also shows me a school that I would never want to attend. I was expecting everything to fall apart but NOT in the first issue!


Hulk was pretty good, though. I was impressed.

[GHERU]

This is like the first time I can think of where I actually disagree with Ru.

Everyone seems to like Wolverine and the X-Men. I kinda hated it. I was hoping to at least like the Chris Bachalo art but it was a little bit more crazy than some of his recent work. Not really Steampunk level crazy but still on the unreadable side. It also shows me a school that I would never want to attend. I was expecting everything to fall apart but NOT in the first issue!


Hulk was pretty good, though. I was impressed.

and I thought his art was less crazy then it had been in a while, especially when compared to his X-Men and Spiderman runs.

And, I don't see it as the school falling apart, more a problem that early adapters have with new tech.

[GHERU]

I mostly agree with your assessment of secret avengers.

It has not been spectacular, I didn't hate Brubaker's run but it wasn't up to his usual calibre of greatness. Spencer's short stint was uber double crap though.

I liked the Black Widow issue, but other than that it was garbage

[Kolimar]

Good reviews.

[SuperginraiX]

and I thought his art was less crazy then it had been in a while, especially when compared to his X-Men and Spiderman runs.

And, I don't see it as the school falling apart, more a problem that early adapters have with new tech.

Well, I meant less the "school" and more "EVERYTHING." Beast seems to have lost his mind. Wolverine starts his day with a drink and manages to do about five or six stupid things in front of the board of education. Little Bamf clones have infested the place. The entire school, including the bathroom, is a Danger Room and while I understand that people could possibly be attacked while taking a digger, I thought the whole point behind this school was that Wolverine wasn't going to train them to fight? Did I miss something? Kid Gladiator hurt my continuity senses and even after I applied pressure to the square peg and pushed it into a round hole, I found I couldn't give a damn about him and his overinflated ego. He's been royalty for twenty-seven seconds and already has a monumental attitude about it. The pink Brood was another WTF moment and damn his "I am smart so I wear glasses" cliche.

I mean, I already knew I was on Team Cyclops. They didn't have to push me all the way over the edge with it. I was hoping for a book where everything might have worked for an issue or two until Wolverine finally faced the actual pressures of leading half of the mutant race and started making some terrible decisions (like the cartoon which was awesome but showed exactly why you don't put Logan in charge of the X-Men). This was showing Wolverine's half assed attempt at running a school, not thinking ANYTHING through, and sputtering right out of the gate. You'd think I'd already be laughing about it but it's just kind of sad.

[GHERU]

Super, aren you hating on the Brood Mutant?

He's was one of the highlights of the recent AXM run

[GHERU]

Good reviews.

thanks man

[SuperginraiX]

Super, aren you hating on the Brood Mutant?

He's was one of the highlights of the recent AXM run

He's shown up BEFORE this?

Wow, I am OUT of it on X-titles.


Anyway, he might be a fine character but his "smart glasses" annoy me.

[Cat-Scratch]

I hate renumbering bullshit too. Marvel seriously needs to knock that shit the fuck off. More so since they'll go back to the old numbering later on down the road and then cancel it again and start with a new number one and then they'll go back to the old numbering and STOP THE FUCKING STUPID RIDE ALREADY!!!

Thank You GHERU, I feel better ranting that.

[Rockman]

I liked the Black Widow issue, but other than that it was garbage

I actually didn't read that one, the beast and the valkyrie ones were that bad.

[GHERU]

I hate renumbering bullshit too. Marvel seriously needs to knock that shit the fuck off. More so since they'll go back to the old numbering later on down the road and then cancel it again and start with a new number one and then they'll go back to the old numbering and STOP THE FUCKING STUPID RIDE ALREADY!!!

Thank You GHERU, I feel better ranting that.

I'm here to help

[GHERU]

I actually didn't read that one, the beast and the valkyrie ones were that bad.

I don't even remember the Valkyrie issue