Welcome to, by my count, the 10th edition of Let’s Get Comical! Why I’m pointing out this milestone, I’m not exactly sure, but I’ve been doing this for about 10 weeks now, so go me!
As usual, I’ve fallen behind, choosing to drink on weekends rather than go home and read comics. So let’s get to reviewing!
Star Wars: Crimson Empire III #2
I know, I know, I said I wasn’t going to review this one after the last issue. Oh well. This issue was pretty boring, however. Starts off with an interesting raid on a power plant to steal a rare mineral. Then there’s lots of TALKING! Boba Fett delivers Kir Kanos to some dude! Admiral Pellaeon talks to some chick who wants the Imperial Remnant to make a truce with the New Republic! A disguised Nom Anor starts a riot and then takes the mineral that was stolen at the beginning! Then there’s an assault on the Senate building on Coruscant, and Leia’s children are endangered by an unknown threat. The assault team is stopped by Senate security and everyone is safe after a bunch of talking that goes nowhere, except for us learning that Leia’s assistant’s husband was murdered by Darth Vader, and even though she hates Leia she still respects her or something. Finally, the issue ends with a weird dinner where Kir Kanos makes an appearance in his old Royal Guard outfit as a bunch of dudes yell “HAIL PALPATINE!” Meh. This didn’t suck, but like I said originally, Star Wars comics are much better when read as Trade Paperbacks. I’ll finish the series off, however, since I’m already one third of the way through it.
Action Comics #4
First off, my local comics store pulled me a variant cover (see photo) instead of the “regular” cover for no extra charge, which I thought was pretty cool. Now I love variants and junk, especially at the low price of free, so Capstone Comics, you have passed my test, and you can be my friend. Anyway, this one continues from where we left off last time, with most of Earth’s heavy machinery transforming into evil alien-controlled robots hell-bent on finding and destroying Superman. And they’ll hurt humans to get him! But Superman fights a bunch of them off and is taken to Steel by the police. Steel is the guy John Corben from a few issues ago who is in love with Lois Lane who straps himself into a robot suit so he can kill Superman and win Lois’ heart back. But after beating the crud out of Supes, Steel is attacked by John Henry in a robot suit. Apparently John Henry invented the suit to fight off aliens, and is able to upload a virus to stop Steel. This is where things get weird though. As soon as Henry starts fighting Steel, the fight gets cut off to show the Collector Aliens “preserving” Earth’s most precious artifacts. And suddenly we see Superman standing with the army guys asking what his plan is, and we end. But then the “bonus feature” of the issue is the fight between Henry and Steel. Buh? Were the writers suddenly inhabited by the same people who think West Virginia is a great addition to the Big 12? And then we find out that this storyline will be revisited in Action Comics #7... so TWO MONTHS from now? We’re getting a TWO MONTH break from the main story? What the hell are they going to do in January and February? I guess we’ll see, but this was a great issue other than the ridiculous placement of the Steel/Henry fight. And whoever decided to discontinue this storyline for three months needs to be fired.
Detective Comics #4
This one was up and down for me. We start off where the last issue ended, Batman tied up by magnetic cables and being used as a puppet by the Dollmaker. So the Dollmaker is planning on killing and skinning Batman or something, but cronies representing the Penguin arrive and offer Dollmaker a hefty sum of cash in order for Batman. Dollmaker agrees, but only on the condition that Batman be returned to him. Batman realizes the cables are Wayne Corporation cables, and uses his Batsuit to free himself, then pounds a bunch of baddies. Meanwhile, the weird little girl Olivia has a change of heart and helps Commissioner Gordon escape Dollmaker’s lair, and he calls in Gotham Police assistance. Dollmaker escapes in a car but it blows up when Batman catches up to it, and there were mannequins inside, so I guess Dollmaker escapes? It was never really made clear. So we learn that Gordon had a kidney taken from him, and some weird doctor is fighting to get Olivia placed in Arkham Asylum. And the GCPD has possession of Joker’s face. Weird issue, mainly because of the incoherence towards the end. The first half of the comic was pretty fun though. I might drop this one in the future, but I’m not sure yet. I’ll give it another issue or two to see how things progress.
As always, we finish things up with Marvel.
History of the Marvel Universe
I picked this one up I believe the week of Thanksgiving because nothing came out that week and it looked interesting. Nothing much here, but it’s 40 pages that details damn near EVERY storyline in every major Marvel publication. It starts at the very beginning and ends with the recent Spider Island storyline. You get one “famous” picture and a small paragraph explaining the storyline. Pretty interesting, and worth picking up if you want the Cliffs Notes on Marvel’s history and storylines.
Avenging Spider-Man #2
This was a surprising hit for me. I thought the first issue was just okay, but this one was a lot better. Starts off with Spider-Man explaining how he and Red Hulk escaped from the giant earthworm’s stomach that swallowed them at the end of the first issue (“There are only two ways out, so let’s assume it happened this way!”) while J. Jonah Jameson accidentally challenges the King of the Mole People to a battle for control of the entire Underworld. Red Hulk and Spidey wake up and are flanked by mole children, one of which has a picture of Jameson. Rulk and Spidey find Jameson just as he is about to battle the Mole King R-Ra’ktar. We’ll call him Mole King for short because who wants to type that out? Anyway, Mole King has a special sword but Red Hulk decides to go to battle. But Mole King’s sword proves to be too much for Red Hulk, as he gets cut up and goes down, and then gets stabbed in the heart to boot. Things look dim for humanity as we fade out. LOVE the artwork, and the issue just kinda flew by, meaning it was pretty darn good. I’m definitely going to keep reading. Only negative about the issue? Too many damned X-Men ads. How many storylines DO they need, I ask you? HOW MANY?
Amazing Spider-Man #675
Kind of a mediocre issue here, although it did set up the storyline. Long story short, Vulture is back and he’s using thuggish teens to do his dirty work. And when they betray him, he uses the power of MAGNETS to drop them from the sky. How do magnets work? Well, Vulture knows, and I bet the Insane Clown Posse is jealous. Peter and Carlie Cooper, meanwhile, team up to find out Vulture’s hideout and link all the deaths. Spider-Man goes to fight Vulture, but when Carlie shows up, Vulture is able to make his escape. Carlie is still confused with how to deal with her knowledge that Peter is Spider-Man, so she turns to the one person who knows what she is going through – Mary Jane Watson. The two have coffee and begin to open up their vaults, causing Peter’s “Peter Sense” to tingle at his two ex-girlfriends getting together to talk about him. Like I said, mediocre “set the story up” issue, although there were some humorous lines, as usual.
Overall, some good stuff this week! Action is good, although it sounds like the future is not. Avenging Spidey is awesome too! Another short week this week too, as I might be dropping more from my weekly pull.
Coming eventually: A review of Fantastic Four #600! 100 pages is a lot to read, get off me!
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