Giant Size Astonishing X-Men
Whedon and Cassaday’s epic is finally concluded. The bad news? It’s waaay late, the art isn’t up to Cassaday’s usual par, and we all pretty much knew what was going to happen, more or less. The good news? It’s a solid story, with interesting possibilities for new stories coming out of it, and we get to see Whedon writing Spider-Man.
Worth it to finish off the series, but could’ve been much better if it were on time and if certain events hadn’t been given away in other books.
Batman #677 RIP
This issue is better that the first (or at least easier to understand). My complaints about the first issue still stand (I don’t like Jez Jet and feel she’s a plot device waiting to happen, among other things), but it’s a more enjoyable read.
I’m sure the Morrisonites will proclaim it more manna from Heaven, but as a more casual devotee of his, this book actually feels rushed and more than a little heavy on the buy-in. There are a few aspects of the Black Hand’s plan which I feel like they’re just asking us to accept. For example, when Batman did his sensory-deprivation experiment, the doctor that oversaw it did something in preparation for this grand plot.
Will my suspension of disbelief pay off? I suppose we shall see.
Final Crisis #1
Right off the bat, let me say this: This feels like a Marvel story. In fact, in some ways, it feels like bits of Marvel stories that’ve already happened. For instance, we have Libra essentially doing the Hood thing from New Avengers, the Monitors feel like a combination of the Watchers and the Marvel Asgardians, and the whole thing’s wrapped up in a package that puts me in the mind of Galactus meets the Celestials.
Does that mean it’s bad? No. It’s quite good. It’s got a nice pace and there’s enough there to make me want the next issue, even if I’m having trouble placing the events. An example of that: we just wrapped up Death of the New Gods, with Orion battling Darkseid and ol’ grey face getting burned into nothing. Final Crisis opens with a Lanter report of a 1011 on the galactic space police radio. For those not up on their space police codes, that’s a Deicide. The victim? Orion. Meanwhile, a dark and familiar figure from Morrison’s Seven Soldiers series shows up, and we also see a pretty major character get the shaft.
lol puns.
New Avengers #41 SI
I have to admit that I’m really liking these Avengers SI tie-ins. Despite the fact that the story doesn’t progress at all, and the whole thing is basically Bendis showing us all the breadcrumbs that he placed building up to this event, I’m still entertained.
Really: Spider-Man gets bucked by a T-rex, and gets into an argument with SheenaShanna over her name, and it has Ka-Zar and Zabu fighting Skrulls. How can that not be entertaining?
The art’s nice, like Cho-lite. The story’s got action in the jungle, and ends with a confrontation that I’m pretty sure will play out in the main SI book, so really you should be reading all of these books to get the full scoop.
Iron Fist #15
This is the first Brubaker-less Iron Fist book and it seems he wasn’t kidding when he said Fraction didn’t need him anymore to write these. SO WHY AREN’T YOU, FRACTION!? Oh well. Let’s not my trepidation for next month’s new Iron Fist creative team ruin this great issue.
This issue is another of the stand-alone Tales of the Iron Fist one-shot fairy tales. This one has to do with Iron Fist Bei Bang-Wen (1827-1860), who fought in the Second Opium War.
I’m a big fan of these, as they really serve to give depth and history to the entire Iron Fist legacy, and more than that, they’re just really cool little stories. I could see an entire series being written of “Iron Fist Mysteries”, Planetary-style. I could see myself buying it.
Anyway, great issue as usual, and I cross my fingers for next time.
