Rushed Reviews

Okay, so I've been lazy about the blogs, but I have been busy on the reading here are some rushed reviews, without pictures because managing them is just a pain.



Irredemable Ant-Man: #1-12



Hilarious, terrible, and giving you shadows of real human character in between those aspects. There is something here for everyone as the powers and "super-hero" aspects are not very prominent in these series.



Rating. 9.5



Wolverine: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.



This story just didn't click for me, I know it is the follow up to the popular Enemy of the State storyline, but I don't have that, which I'm sure contributes to my lack of enjoyment of the story as it sets up this entire story. I don't know why Wolverine is trying to avenge this kids death or why it's significant. Also it seems a little strange to me that a pissed off Wolverine is stoked to "try out the new S.H.I.E.L.D. tech." I also have no idea what Gorgons powers are, they are never described and I just guessed on one of them based on it causing his death.



Rating 4.5



Exiles: #64-88



These issues don't hold any real distinctive importance in the 100 issue run of Exiles. They just stuck in my minds as my favorites, featuing stories with Hyperion and Proteus as the main villians. These stories are great because the book is meant to jump dimensions on a whim. This is great because they can do whatever they want with any character and not mess with continuity. We see evil Tony Stark, good Magneto, and earth saving Krakoa. The book also has no problem killing off their teamates, two die off in this run. Nothing here is groundbreaking or epic, but everything is fun and well-written, books that are simply just good comic books for comic fans.



Rating 8.5



Sentry vol. 1 and all associated one-shots.



This is a great concept for a character, a well structured story, and boring as hell. The idea is great, but then eight issues are taken to draw out exactly what it means before all the fighting and action concludes in the final issue. The dialouge is stale and repetative, the art is so-so. Overall it would be a good read if it wasn't one of those books that packs so in so much dialouge that evey issue feels like a story arc. But it is. Too long, too dull.



Rating 3.5 but wait I'm not done with Sentry yet........



New Avengers #7-10: Sentry



This book decides to reintroduce Sentry then decides to make you second guess every single thing we learned in the aforementioned miniseries. It suceeds but implys that everything is different and comes to the same completely illogical conclusion anyways.



Rating 4....... but wait, not done with Sentry yet.



The Sentry vol. 2.



This miniseries, which came out immediately after the New Avengers arc just mentioned, decides to change everything again, but while also telling you everything that you knew before the New Avengers stry was true. It was just as boring, and even more infuriating because of how inconsistent everything with character always seems to be. I didn't even finish it before I got bored and just put it back in my box.



Rating 1



Review: the Sentry as a character.



Everytime a story is written with him as a central character they change everything about his stories and powers, while continuing to write him the same way anyways. This is particularly irritating because only two authors have ever really written him and just don'tt seem to know what they want to do with him. Dark Avengers changes him again later, but I haven;t read that. In summation, Sentry is a great concept but is always poorly managed.



Rating: less than zero.



Thunderbolts: The Warren Ellis run.

These books characterize modern comics and were everything I think Marvel was looking for when they started their Dark Reign story a year later. These books are dark, sick look at characters that are heroes only for their own betterment, combined with true heroes who are forced to work with them. A power struggle takes place everyone tries to screw everyone but have to survive at the same time. Pure evil and chaotic brilliance.

Rating 10


Maximum Carnage

This is the story that got me into comics way back in the day, it has all my favorite spidey villians: Carnage, Demogoblin, and Carrion. Along with Venom in a hero capacity. The story is fine but part thirteen is a little hokey. It also suffers from inconsistant art as do most crossovers, most of the art is good but I didn't care for the work in Unlimited Spider-Man. While I won't count any points against the story for this, it upset me because of the philosophy of the story. Ashley and I recently argued the merits of Mencius vs. Hsun-Tse (for those who aren't aware, this is the debate of human nature being good versus evil), I take Hsun-Tse strongly, and Maximum Carnage takes Mencius. Stupid, but not changing the rating for it.

Rating 7.5


Ultimate Spider-Man: Hobgoblin

Sometimes Bendis irritates me because of his total control of all things crossover and Avengers at Marvel, however, I always love his work on a solo character despite my irritation on his team books. Bendis gets Spider-Man, it's why Ulitmate Spider-Man has been such a big hit. This story is probably my favorite Ulti-Spidey story, you get a great battle that is nothing more than a backdrop for the personal drama between three people who love each other. It is beautifully drawn and perfectly written. Hammer for this one.

Rating 10


Ultimates 2: 1-13

This is my favorite story of all time, after a re-read, it is still my favorite story of all time. Art is beautiful, the story is epic and perfectly written. At some point you understand and feel for every major character on the team. Bendis should take notes.

Rating: eleventy billion


Stormbreaker: The Saga of Beta Ray Bill

This story tries way too hard, the art is great, but overall the story jumps around too much and the ending just sucks. This one let me down.

Rating 3

Thats it for now. Because of big shake ups in the college football world today a new blog is assured soon.