Friday, January 8, 2010

New Avengers #60, Uncanny X-Men #519 & Wolverine Origins #43

OK, it's time for some quick reviews again, this time from the Marvel side of the fence. Well, let's get this show on the road I guess...

New Avengers #60: Why look, it's ANOTHER spotlight on Luke Cage! The various heroes who helped Luke escape Norman Osborn last issue learn that Osborn planted some kind of device in Luke's heart. The heroes all bicker(as usual)about what to do, and about what the device might be, until Hank Pym arrives. Pym and Dr. Strange venture into Luke's body in order to find out exactly what the device is, and whether or not it would be safe to remove it. In the meantime, Osborn and his Dark Avengers have locked on to Luke's position and are rapidly approaching. Pym and Strange get the device out of Luke's body, and it winds up exploding, just after the New Avengers make their getaway. The Dark Avengers arrive at the scene of the explosion and Osborn realizes that the New Avengers were using one of his houses as their base, which mean Osborn blew up his own home. This issue ends with Luke reconsidering whether he should remain a hero in light of everything that's happened, as well as the Hood retaking control of his gang from Dr. Harrow.

Do I even have to say it? Of course I hated this issue. I really miss the days when I could open an Avengers comic book and read about actual Avengers characters! You know, Captain America(Steve Rogers), Iron Man, Thor, Scarlet Witch, Hank Pym, Black Panther, etc. What a novel idea, Avengers in an Avengers comic! No, instead month after month after month, BENDIS flushes the Avengers proud legacy down the drain as he continues to run roughshod over the Marvel Universe... Very disappointing.

Score: 3 1/2 out of 10.So on this page we have a grand total of ONE character who isn't a BENDIS Avenger... That's both sad and infuriating at the same time.

Uncanny X-Men #519: This issue opens up with some guy describing an attack on his girlfriend to Fantomex(!). Unfortunately though, that's all we get to see of Fantomex this issue(BOO!!!). From there, Emma and Scott continue their battle against a sliver of the Void, which has taken residence in Scott's psyche. While that is going down, The X-Club(minus Beast)are trying to figure out a way to prevent the X-Men's island home from sinking. Magneto asks Namor to help prop the island up with Atlantian labor, and the two come to some sort of an agreement. Iceman and Beast have a heart to heart, which leads to Beast admitting that he feels out of place on the X-Men's island, while also showing signs that he is still suffering from the torture he underwent at the hands of his evil doppelganger, Dark Beast, a few issues back. Scott manages to defeat the Void and imprison it in his mind, and this issue concludes with Beast approaching Scott and seemingly announcing that he is leaving the X-Men.

I enjoyed all of the non-Cyclops parts of this comic immensely. What can I say, I've gone from being a huge fan of Scott to hating his guts(kind of like Tony Stark...). I can only hope Jean Grey returns soon, because I'm REALLY not feeling the Scott/Emma relationship anymore. Fantomex appearing was great, the stuff with Beast(who has been written fantastically by Matt Fraction during his X-run)was extremely well done, and the scene with Magneto and Namor left a smile on my face. All in all, the positives slightly outweighed the negatives in this one.

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.I can totally relate to Beast's frustrations with the current direction the x-comics have gone in.

Wolverine Origins #43: We begin with the Silver Samurai teaching Wolverine how to better wield the deadly Muramasa blade as per their agreement from last issue. After Wolvie's training is complete, he receives word from Cloak that Dagger has been kidnapped by Romulus's right hand man, Victor Hudson. Hudson tries to discover what Wolvie's plans are concerning Romulus, but Dagger has no clue as to what's going on between Wolvie and Romulus. Wolvie and Cloak arrive on the scene and Wolvie slays Hudson with the Muramasa blade, ending his threat. Dagger gets pissed off at Wolvie's murderous actions and attacks him. In the end, Wolvie, Cloak and Dagger all make nice, and this issue finishes up with Wolvie about to break Ruby Thursday(!?!?!)out of prison.

Ruby Thursday?!? Wow, where the hell did Daniel Way pull her out of! I've been very high on this series since its inception many moons ago, but this issue left me feeling a little bit flat. While I'm glad Daniel explained why Wolvie was training with Samurai, it still kind of irked me. Wolvie is as good, if not a better swordsman then Samurai, but at least that part of the story is over and done. I was really let down by how easily Wolvie disposed of Victor Hudson... The guy has been Romulus's right hand for who knows how many years, and Wolvie put an end to him within one page? That seemed extremely anti-climatic to me. You'd have thought Hudson's final battle against Wolvie would have lasted a little bit longer then that, but I'm sure Daniel knows what he's doing, he's done an excellent job with what should have been a terrible storyline(sorry, I still hate the entire Romulus concept), so I definitely trust his judgement in offing Hudson in such an offhanded way.

Score: 7 out of 10.I don't have anything left to say except that this is a pretty cool picture!

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