Comic Reviews for October 30, 2002

Happy Halloween you bastards. It's not like I'm out there anymore. Some of the comics sure felt like it anyway. It was a tale of two buyers this week. The four comics I bought were generally bad, with the best being the Punisher, which wasn't real good at all. The books Core got were a different story. Pretty good books with what she bought (two of which I haven't paid her back for yet :\ ). On to comics now, shall we?


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30 Days of Night 3
By Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith; published by IDW Publishing

The first of two mini-series to wrap up this week, and one of the weeks best books. The horror element is lost with the action sequences, but it is all still effective. The story took a strange twist, one that I wasn't expecting until it was done. Very nice. I won't mention it here, so ask me if you want to know. Great book, and an excellent mini-series all told.

Score: 9/10

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Agent X 4
Dead Man's Switch Part Four: Invisible - By Gail Simone, Alvin Lee and UDON; published by Marvel Comics

The plot moves conviently along, as the villain, Higashi, leaves a trap for Hayden at his park and also asks out Sandi. A strange twist indeed. The ending was nice, with Mary Zero in desperation (it must suck to have her power now). Of course, it wouldn't be Agent X without the humor, and by god, that restaurant scene was one of glory. It makes you wish you were part of that scene and joined Hayden in the mayhem. UDON is really doing a top notch job with the book. Major kudos to them. Great all told.

Score: 8/10

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Apache Skies 4
Chapter Four: Straight to Hell - By John Ostrander and Leonardo Manco; published by Marvel Comics/MAX imprint

Less than solid ending to the mini. The story is mostly an action romp, and we see who ends up narrating the story in the end. Really isn't that important though. The art suffers slightly throughout the whole thing. There was one splash page that was excellent though. Other than that, less than steller conclusion.

Score: 6/10

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Call of Duty: The Brotherhood 5
By Chuck Austen, David Finch and Art Thibert; published by Marvel Comics

More of the same. It's slightly better than the last two outings, but it all remains the same. Just more ho-hum-ness and the like. Someone really should have done something different with this damn series instead of turning it into an mind numbing crossover.

Score: 5/10

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Neon Genesis Evangelion 7:6
Stage 47: The Awakening Part Two, Stage 48: Eradication - By Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Created by GAINAX, English translation by Fred Burke; published by Viz Comminucations

Conclusion to Part 7 of the book, as Shinji defeats Zeruel, albeit in 400% synch. For people who haven't seen the anime, it essentially means the the EVA is awake. In Ritsuko's words. It's vague, sorry. However, Shinji, because of this happening, is lost inside the EVA as the LCL fluid, the "primodial" soup. A major change from the anime now, as Tabris, the last angel, is introduced now. I still haven't seen the rest of the series, but I'm sure that he doesn't turn up for a little while later. Just have to wait and see. Despite all that, come on...you think I would really hate something like this?

Score: 7/10

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Punisher 17
Aim Low - By Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson; published by Marvel Comics/Marvel Knights imprint

Now that this issue is out, this arc really isn't all too good. It's basically still the Tommy Casino arc, but it's his younger...smaller brother, Tony, at the reigns now. The joke effectively got wasted as soon as the last page of the last issue was shown, so we're left with a real bloody battle. Punisher and that ol' Canuckelhead, the Wolverine, take care of business, just blowing everyone up. The Wolverine thing gets real tiring, by the way. It's humorous, but it is really just overdone. I'm really starting to like Robertson's art. Nice and gritty, the way it's supposed to be done. Still, that won't help matters at all.

Score: 6/10

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Tundercats: Reclaiming Thundera 3
By Ford Lytle Gilmore, Francisco Herrera and Carlos Lobo Cuevas; published by DC Comics/Wildstorm imprint

Holy christ was this bad. It wasn't so much as the writing that made it bad...okay, so it was. It was the typical Thundercats story (I'll get to that in a moment). Why a mini-series needs a new artist is beyond me. It's just bad. Overly exaggerated, and at times, awfully confusing. As for the story, the Lunatacs capture Evil Chaser Mandora and use her ship to go to New Thundera. Action ensues. Jeez, I wish the pain would end someday.

Score: 2/10

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Ultimates 7 *Pick of the Week*
By Mark Millar, Bryan Hitch and Andrew Currie; published by Marvel Comics/Ultimate imprint

Now that that's out of my system, we will conclude this week with the long delayed Ultimates, the first part to the second arc. Though there really isn't that much forward movement, a lot of stuff does happen, all done in the typical Millar way. The most immediate points are Captain America beginning to track down the rogue Giant Man and the fallout from the Hulk attack, and what is happening to Banner. All very good stuff, and greatly complimented by Hitch's excellent art.

Score: 9/10


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I tend to complain a bit about stuff, but I really don't like to put it up on a public forum like this. I was just at X-Fan before finishing these reviews...and I don't understand why they think bad books are 'Great' and 'Excellent', and excellent books are just merely 'Above Average' or 'Good'. Beats the hell out of me.

Next week, Eden's Trail starts, something that I'll be picking up. And Ghost in the Shell 2 doesn't start till Novemeber 20th now. Grr. Until next week, peace.