Comic Reviews for November 6, 2002
Howdy doody neighbor, and welcome to another week of my reviews. Nothing like a good week of books, so I won't delay you any longer.
No song to listen to this week. Instead, I'm watching He-Man while doing this. Both on Wednesday and Saturday. Speaking of which, why in the bloody hell does the Masters of the Universe comic have to debut at #1 on the Top 300 charts? Sigh. Let's get the show on the road. Oh, and no Ghost in the Shell 2 till the 27th now. Grumble.
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Alias 16
The Underneath 1 of 6 - By Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos; published by Marvel Comics/MAX imprint
Start of a new story...long story (what's with these six-issue arcs nowadays anyway?). There's a long list of stuff happening in the story, so I won't delve into it. I can only tell you it's Bendis, and obviously, it's all working. Good stuff.
Score: 8/10
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Amazing Spider-Man 46
Unnatural Enemies - By J. Michael Straczynski, John Romita Jr. and Scott Hanna; published by Marvel Comics
New arc, and with that, new villain. Not really liking the villain so far, though her setup was really nice. End of issue cliffhanger is a strange one to hang on. Romita's art is great, as always. Good package overall, though this might fail like the first arc that had Doc Strange in it, since it really doesn't work too well for our web crawler.
Score: 7/10
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Eden's Trail 1
A Trilands Story - By Steve Uy and Chuck Austen; published by Marvel Comics
Anime and Marvelscope. How could things not get any better. The story itself is kind of lacking at this point, as it shows no clear direction. The sheriff shows up at a bar, and mayhem ensues. It's co-authored by Austen (credits state he scripted and co-plotted), so it is bound to go somewhere. The art really picks up the story though. Highly excellent and energenic. The action sequences at the latter part of the story is simply great. The yellow and brown colors that Uy uses bring out the old western world nicely. Solid overall, with the pick-me-up solely on the art.
Score: 7/10
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Elektra 16
Standing Outside the Temple in the Rain Part One - By Greg Rucka, Joe Bennett, Danny Miki and Crime Lab Studios; published by Marvel Comics/Marvel Knights imprint
The book that you should be getting starts a brand new arc as Locke takes Elektra to this person named Drake (man or woman? getting to that momentarily), and proceeds to get her Hand trained ass taken to her. Now that is a first. It isn't just an ass whooping in the physical sense. Drake goes on and says everyone Elektra's killed while fighting. It goes a bit overboard after a while, but I'm not complaining. It's all in an attempt to give Elektra some characterization. It's working so far. Art comes from Bennett (who I believe is doing the current arc), who does a real nice job with the action sequences, though it's really hard to decipher who Drake really is. The script says it's a 'guy', but it looks more like a woman than a man. Oh well. Besides that, I have nothing against this. Like I said, the book that you should be getting.
Score: 9/10
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Exiles 19
So Lame Part Two - By Judd Winick, Mike McKone and Jon Holdredge; published by Marvel Comics
More Mojoverse this month, as the Exiles escape with a convenient little intervention from Mr. Timebroker. In the ever present of needed explanations, the Mojoverse is a real multiverse (as explained last month) with it being the only one there (explained last month also). Therefore, killing Mojo would be a bad thing, especially since he purposely dragged them out of their little niche. So, a copout in a sense, but one that makes perfect sense. Really nothing much to complain about here: the jokes are funny, and the charactization is top notch as always.
Score: 7/10
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Green Arrow 18
The Archer's Quest Part Three: Grundy No Like Arrows in Face - By Brad Meltzer, Phil Hester and Ande Parks; published by DC Comics
Grundy fight Arrow Man. Grundy fight, and fight, and fight more. Grundy somehow lose to Arrow Man. Choke me out. Grundy no like. Grundy see no point of twenty-one page fight scene for only small frame with writing. Still, Grundy like fight. Grundy fight good, though lose fight. Grundy like pretty pictures too. Um...Grundy like?
Score: 7/10
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Transformers: The War Within 2
By Simon Furman, Don Figueroa and Elaine To; published by Dreamwave Productions
Geekville continues as Megatron attacks with underground plasma, and Optimus Prime, continuing his evacuation of the planet, gets into trouble as he is surrounded by five Decepticon warriors. Nothing too much to complain about. It's Transformers. They fight. They transform. It's simple. It looks great too, though some scenes are a bit "blocky", in a sense. Can't say much against it.
Score: 7/10
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Ultimate Spider-Man 30
Emergency - By Brian Michael Bendis, Brian Bagley and Art Thibert; published by Marvel Comics/Ultimate imprint
Spidey escapes the scene of the crime and has Mary Jane take him to the hospital. Another quick moving issue, although this time, nothing in the way of central plot movements. There is some pretty dramatic moments though. Bagley continues to rock the pencil with some of the best art on the Ultimate line. Solid all told.
Score: 7/10
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Uncanny X-Men 415
Secrets - By Chuck Austen and Sean Phillips; published by Marvel Comics
Hmm...I am still waiting for the direction Austen's taking this book. Supposedly it comes next month or so. Still, on with this month, and what a bugger this book is. Austen continues his back-to-basics trip as a little whore makes the moves on Bobby, and her husband shows up. Sigh, I really don't know what to make of this. Since this is the majority of the book, it should have been handled a bit better. It's a bit peeving to see all of this. Other little spots include Nightcrawler (out of the blue, no less) going against the Christian faith, and Bobby developing a second mutation of his own (what's with all these second mutations nowadays anyway?). The latter of which is the better of the two, by the way. Phillips' art is a bit triffling this month. Not his best work. Average.
Score: 5/10
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X-Statix 4 *Pick of the Week*
Good Omens Part Four: Talking about Edie with Arnie - By Peter Milligan and Mike Allred; published by Marvel Comics
Great deal many things this issue, as the Arnie/Edie Sawyer plot ties up some in a rather unseen way. Well, most of it was there already, but some of it just came at you out of nowhere (O'Sullivan's assistant being a mutant and hating the X-Statix for a greater reason; Guy inviting Arnie to the team). Most of it works too, though with everything going around, it doesn't quite make up for a thorough resolution. Still, this continues to be the best X-book, no matter what happens. Great all told.
Score: 9/10
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Next week is incredibly short. I mean it. Four books right now (and that's without the X-Pose mini, Core doesn't feel like getting it). Oh well. Reviews might be early this week for that reason. Until then, peace.