Comic Reviews for January 8, 2003

Welcome to the second week of the new year. How exciting. I haven't done much so far.

Then again, it's only been a week since the new year started. My birthday's at the end of next week though. Woohoo! Enough talk now though. Time to get on with this weeks reviews.


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Defiance 5
The Scabbard Part 1 of 4 - By Kanno Kang, Zack Suh and Douglass D. Barre; published by Image Comics

Well, it finally came out. What's it been, three months or something? Eh, at least it's the beginning to a new arc. Lemme see...Ivan gets this sword, and the message that he was supposed to receive. He meets up with this devil chick who is supposed to receive the sword. What else...oh yeah, the devil's son is popped out of the Mayor's body. Got some evil looking nails too. So pretty much a setup issue for the new arc, with more incredibly impressive art. Man do I love this art team.

Score: B

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Elektra 19
Everything Old is New Again Part 2 of 4 - By Greg Rucka and Carlos Meglia; published by Marvel Comics/Marvel Knights imprint

The Hand ends up getting to Locke's house, while Drake gives a monologue about how she ended up with the Hand and the Chaste. It's a very interesting history for her...a very extended history. Another excellent issue, although Meglia's art is not my cup of tea. It's a bit too exaggerated for my tastes, especially for a story like this.

Score: A-

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Green Arrow 20
The Archer's Quest Chapter Five: Kryptonite - By Brad Meltzer, Phil Hester and Ande Parks; published by DC Comics

More object searching, more of why I seriously don't understand the point of this arc. Hopefully it'll conclude nicely. I really want it to. This has to have a point to the whole thing. Right now, I can't seem to bother with one.

Score: C+

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Transformers: The War Within 4
By Simon Furman, Don Figueroa and Elaine To; published by Dreamwave Productions

Optimus Prime and Megatron fight beneath the surface of Cybertron, and through some type of explosion, end up in a rather sunny place. Elsewhere, the Autobots prepare a rescue operation and Starscream is planning something rather evil. Same as before: rather geeky and looks nice. Just the way I like it.

Score: B

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Ultimate Daredevil and Elektra 4
By Greg Rucka, Salvador Larroca and Danny Miki; published by Marvel Comics/Ultimate imprint

Elektra and Matt confront Trey for a final fight, where they end up clashing over the law system, one which Matt defends and Elektra objects too because of it letting Trey walk constantly. Nicely done conclusion for an excellent mini-series, back by some impressive art from Larroca.

Score: A

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Ultimate X-Men 27
Return of the King: Part 1 of 7 - By Mark Millar, David Finch and Art Thibert; published by Marvel Comics/Ultimates imprint

Hmm...Magneto is stealing paintings. How peculiar. Well, he doesn't want to kill humans. He just wants to make them slaves. At least he's a bastard, but he still doesn't have a clear motivation for his actions. He's disgruntled about the human world, yet why is he? We're in this one for the long haul though. Seven issues? At least there are a couple bi-weekly months along the way. Essential things this issue, um...Magneto destroys the mutant detector satelite, the White House has a bunch of plastic human-sized Sentinels blocking it, and Nightcrawler has learned English by watching TV. Last time I checked, there really isn't any English speaking channels on German TV. I could be wrong though. Their education system is better than ours, but oh well. Back to the review. It's a good issue with some nice fill-in art from David Finch. Nothing too much to complain about here.

Score: B+

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X-Treme X-Men 20
Schism Part One - By Chris Claremont, Salvador Larroca and Liquid!; published by Marvel Comics

Ah, the book I've been dreading to read for two months. Surprisingly, it's half decent. Claremont has set a new direction for the team, although he really isn't following it right now. He's setting up more of a division between the main group and his splinter group of X-Men, now reduced to three (Rogue and Gambit are out on a tour, and Wolverine is on loan). The focus is on a mass homicide of seven people done by a mutant. Call in Bishop and Sage, who makes this detective stuff look ridiculously easy. They end up tracking the mutant, a teleporter, to Xavier's, where Emma messes with their heads for a while. I have no idea why this is done, except for possibly Emma's amusement. Then again, she does have beef with Sage. Of course, this will all lead to conflict with Xavier's group, which is a step in the right direction for this book (much better than the other arcs so far). Some of it doesn't work entirely well, most of it coming from Bishop's and Sage's investigations, and the sequence with Emma's students. But it's getting somewhere, which is much better than before.

Score: B


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Hmm...is it me, or am I being half generous on X-Treme X-Men for once? Oh well. Until next week, peace.