The Punisher #15 Review

Punisher #15 Review

Written by Greg Rucka

Art by Marco Checchetto

Colours by Matt Hollinsworth

Story

After watching the Punisher and Cole-Alves kill the woman he loves – Ex A.I.M. Scientist Stephanie Gerard – Christian Poulson goes a batshit, calls 911 and goes on a killing spree. Meanwhile, Detectives Ozzy Clemons and Walter Bolt are sharing hot dogs on the street when the call comes in and they head to the scene. Coulson sends out the sole survivor of his killing spree to the cops and blows him up with a grenade. The cops throw in some tear gas and he in. In the ensuing fire-fight, Coulson is killed and the Punisher and Cole-Alves escape.

Review

Wow – action packed issue. I'm really enjoying the mentor/mentee relationship between Frank and Cole-Alves and the exchange between Clemons and Bolt outside the building makes the end even more powerful.

For me, though, it's the art that really stands out in this issue. Checchetto's depiction of Poulson's killing spree is both shocking and powerful in it's delivery and the tear gas scenes in the last 5 pages are brilliant. I also loved the way he drew the reaction in Rachel's eyes when she pulls off the gas mask and finds that she's either shot the wrong guy, or the just who she shot in general – I haven't decided which.

Conclusion

With the series ending next issue, I'll be sad to see it go. I loved Greg Rucka's writing and especially the relationship between Rachel and Frank. I'll definitely be checking out the War Zone mini-series when that is released. Definitely check this series out.

Read this issue? Let me know! I'd love to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment or hit me up on Twitter. Cant wait to hear from you. 

Nick

Amazing Spider-Man #693 Review

Amazing Spider-Man #693

Written by Dan Slott

Pencils by Humberto Ramos

Inks by Victor Olazaba

Colours by Edgar Delgado

Story

Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four clean up the mess left by Alpha in #692. Peter drops by MJ's for some advice on how to deal with Alpha. Alpha gets caught cheating on Chrissy with a cheerleader and the Jackal and his 'daughter' appear and capture Alpha and his family. Peter goes to Horizon to build an 'Alpha locator' with the help of Max Modell. Tracking down Alpha, Spidey is attacked by Jackal's spiderqueens. Spidey plays possum and discovers that Jackal is a clone. Another Jackal clone tells of his plan to clone Alpha to create a race of Alpha-males. The clones are a failure, Alpha breaks loose and Jackal pushes the big red button that dissolves his clones. Peter goes back to Horizon to find a way to remove Alpha's power.

Review

I'm going to come out with it: I hate Alpha! I really do. But maybe that's the point of the character – a character that's so damn hateable that it distracts you just enough so that you don't notice how bad the story actually is.

Slott is dealing with some pretty heavy themes here: nature versus nurture, playing God, and the ever present 'with great power comes great responsibility. The problem is it doesn't quite take.

Nature versus nurture is dealt with, in a way, with the cloning aspect of the story. However, such a theme needs more than two stand-out pages – the reveal of the Alpha clones not having the alpha energy powers, and the way Alpha kills them all, declaring: 'Without [my powers] I'm a nobody! No better than these stupid, worthless things!'

Peter playing God is very clumsily dealt with on the final page where MJ comes to Horizon Labs with some tapas for Peter because she hasn't seen him in days and finds him working hard at some fancy looking machines. Peter tells how he has tricked Alpha by telling him that is he sticks with the sidekicking and shows up for regular tests, there'll be a spot for him in the Avengers. What Peter is really doing is trying to find a way to take Alpha's powers away without killing him. I say this is clumsily done because of the role Mary Jane plays. Anyone who has seen Doctor Who will know that the purpose of the companion is to be the audience, to ask the Doctor the questions they themselves can't ask – 'What's that Doctor?', 'Why are you doing that Doctor?', and that is basically what MJ is doing and what Peter basically says is that he has every say in Alpha having his powers – he made him, so he can unmake him.

I'm sure as a Spider-Man reader you are more than aware of the phrase 'with great power comes great responsibility' and it's a lesson Peter had to learn the hard way with the death of his Uncle Ben, and what we have here is a superhero with all the power in the universe but absolutely no sense of responsibility. He's rude, he's selfish, he's arrogant; basically, he's a douchebag. To be quite honest, though, that's exactly what everyone at Alpha's age would be like. In fact, I think that's his only relateable characteristic.

It's not all bad, though – the artwork is superb. The action scenes are amazingly dynamic, 'Princess' and the spider queens are imaginative (and a little scary), and more that a couple of the Jackel's facial expressions had me in fits of giggles. There's more than enough great stuff to ignore Mary Jane's occasionally mannish features.

Conclusion

This issue has me a little torn. On the one hand there are a few swings-and-misses with regard to the plot, and Alpha being a hateable douche, but on the other hand there are a few things that could potentially be breadcrumbs leading us along the road to the landmark issue 700 that will 'change everything'. We'll just have to wait and see.

Read this issue? Let me know! I'd love to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment or hit me up on Twitter. Cant wait to hear from you.

Nick

Venom #24 Review

Venom #24 Review

Written by Cullen Bunn

Pencils by Thony Silas

Inks by Nelson Decastro

Colours by Chris Sotomayor

Story

Flash has lost control of the symbiote and it's hungry. After eating a cultist, Flash reasserts control and flees Hellstrom into the woods where he promptly throw up. Flash hunts down Katy Kiernan and asks her for help to get the demon out of him. Luckily, Katy knows a former priest that could help. Turns out that the demon wants out of Flash as much as Flash wants it gone. Problem is that the symbiote isn't letting it go. Flash heads to the Bronx zoo where he disguises himself as a robed monk in Hellstrom's party and goes on the offensive. He is then introduced to The Monsters Of Evil – a huge bull with a scorpion tail, a three-headed sphinx beast, a fire breating King Kong-esque beast, a lizard beast, and a giant pygmy with little pygmies jumping out of his head.

Review

A winged, horned, hungry, toothy symbiote – what could go wrong? Well, not a lot really. In my opinion, there should have been more than three-and-a-half pages of Venom being more than his badass former self, as opposed to the lobotomised symbiote we have been getting recently. That said, though, this title isn't about the symbiote; it's about Flash and his struggles with his past, his daddy issues, and his alcoholism, and, in that respect, it succeeds. However, there wasn't much of the Flash's inner voice in this issue than we have become used to.

The exorcism scene was fun, and a nice break from the heavy occult themes that the current story is exploring and the idea of the demon wanting to leave Flash as much as Flash wants him gone is interesting to me. My only complaint with the scene, though, is the art. On the whole it's fantastic, but I'm not too keen on the out of proportion-ness when the head goes all toothy and attacks Reggie the former priest.

My complaints about the art are quickly evaporated in the next section of the issue when Agent Venom hunts down Hellstrom at the zoo. The reveal of the Flash being one of the monks really impressed me and I loved the panel where Flash has Hellstrom and two monks subdued with his tendrils and is walking forward with his guns by his sides. It reminds me of a movie but I can't think of which one right now.

Now my major issue with this...um...issue: The Monsters themselves. Don't get me wrong, I like the way they were drawn and, indeed, the concept of them as a whole, but I didn't like the way they were introduced. It was a bit cheesey. When I turned the page and saw them with the huge speech bubble, and the red writing that says “...THE MONSTERS OF EVIL!” reminded me of a Judge Dredd comic from the 80s that I read when I had swine flu a couple years ago. In that story there was a scene with two criminals in a building discussing their plans, when they suddenly hear a crashing from outside. One says to the other “Oh no! It can't be! It's...” move to the next panel, Dredd's standing in the doorway, hands on his hips: “JUDGE DREDD!!!”.

Despite the cheesiness, I enjoyed this issue, and this story arc as a whole. I loved the Circle of Four arc from earlier this year, and the ties to that story are really promising. I've enjoyed everything else that Bunn has written that I've read, so I'm really hoping he won't let me down.

Deadpool #60 Review

Deadpool #60 Review

Written by Daniel Way

Art by Salva Espin

Colours by Guru Efx

Story

Deadpool becomes 'The Human Flamethrower' and defeats Black Tom Cassidy and Black Box and reluctantly enters into a partnership with Black Swan.

Review

The issue kicks off with a flashback with Deadpool's dad in the principals office where he is informed that young Wade was caught in the boys' room playing with matches and 'attempting to light himself on fire'. Sergeant Wilson tells tale of Wade's fantasies of being a superhero called The Human Flamethrower. He is told that Wade has mental issues but is assured that he may grow out of it when he matures. Cut to present day – and a splash page that nearly made me choke on my Weetabix – and Deadpool is bent over with a flaming petrol hose between his legs proclaiming, 'I AM THE HUMAN FLAMETHROWER! WOOOOOOO!'. This knocks out Black Tom and he uses the very same method to take out the helicopter being flown by Black Box. His inner voices tell him to stop with the flames, which he ignores and turns himself into the scarred monstrosity he once was. Black Swan arrives and makes Deadpool realise that he's a bad guy. Deadpool wakes up in hospital and winds up in a partnership with Black Swan.

The thing I love about Deadpool is his utter stupidity. However, although I say that, I don't believe that he's stupid; he has a plan. He just doesn't know he has a plan. The way I see it, it's just like he closes his eye, balls up his fists, windmills his arms and hopes it all works out – which it usually does. Deadpool's seriousness at the end of the issue has me thinking though: with this being the end of Way's run, are we going to see a more unbalanced, and ultimately more dangerous, Deadpool? I'm not sure about this. Sure, the killing machine that we saw in last months Deadpool Kills The Marvel Universe was great and all, but if they go in that direction I'm really going to miss the fart jokes.

Conclusion

If you're like me and love fart jokes, buy this comic!

Captain Marvel #3

Captain Marvel #3 Review

Written by Kelly Sue DeConnick

Art by Dexter Soy; (pg 17-18) Rich Elson &Will Quintana,; (pg 19) Karl Kessel & Javier Rodriguez

Story

Captain marvel (still stuck in the past) and the Banshee squad take down a Prowler and discover it's Japanese pilot. Captain Marvel tells the pilot to go back to his base and put together the best squad he can, and to come back for round two. Carol tells the story of how she got her powers and reveals to the squad that the Prowler is Kree technology. The next morning, more prowlers come. Marvel and their commandeered Prowler attack the enemies with ground reinforcements from the other two remaining squad members. They take them down, but only temporarily.

Review

Well...Captain Marvel is really heating up now! Carol's story in the cave to the Banshee's was a nice way of giving readers some history and for giving us some breathing space between the 2 action scenes. The interlude on pages 17-18 really interested me. It features a real battle-axe of a woman in NASA headquarters in 1961 demanding that women be allowed to be part of the space programme, backed up by two other women, one of which is Helen Cobb – whose plane Carol was flying in issue 2. Mr. NASA won't budge on the rules and the woman leaves. Helen stays and gives him a rock, and, judging by his face, he knows what it is. Helen says she has another one and, if he wants the other one, she's be willing to make a deal. DeConnick said in an interview with IGN that: 'There is nothing in what you are seeing here that is extra. It's important. ' so I can't wait for find out the significance. The last page is a retro looking comic page from 1970 'found among the papers of Delores “Daisy” Diddle (one of the Banshees). Nice little tie-in to the main story.

Conclusion

Can't wait for issue 4!

Avenging Spider-Man #11 Review

Avenging Spider-Man #11

Written by Zeb Wells

Art by Steve Dillon

Colours by Frank Martin Jr

The Story

Peter and Aunt May meet at Uncle Ben's grave and discuss the past

The Review

The story is superb. We get an insightful look at the relationship between May and Peter following Uncle Ben's death. I also particularly like the way Uncle Ben is described by Aunt May. Rather than the philosophical and high-moral Uncle Ben that we are used to, we are given a more human look at Ben. In the story, Peter tells Aunt May that he has started a science scholarship in Uncle Ben's name. This causes Aunt May to crumple in laughter because all the science and education encouragement that Ben gave to Peter was due to May's insistence. As she says: 'If I hadn't thrown a fit he would have brought home another baseball mitt “just to see if it'd take”'. The flashbacks in the story are very powerful and almost had me in tears. I loved the writing. However, I didn't like the art. In my mind it didn't fit. I don't know what it is. Maybe I'm just too used to the way Peter is drawn in Amazing Spider-Man by the likes of Humberto Ramos and Guiseppe Camuncoli or maybe it's the way Aunt May looks scarily like Madonna (complete with gap in the teeth), but something didn't sit right with me.

Conclusion

Great story. Not so great art. When I say not so great, sure the art is good but I just don't think it fit with story. I'd say pick it up and let me know what you think.

Gambit #2 Review

Gambit #2 Review

Written by – James Asmus

Pencils by - Clay Mann

Inked by – Seth Mann

Coloured by – Rachelle Rosenberg

Story

The shiny gold thing that Gambit stole last issue turns out to be an alien parasite that has attached itself to his chest. Fence tries to get it out but fails. After some research, the pair find that there has been some research into the alien parasite by the Museum of the Americas. Gambit breaks in but has been beaten to it by the mysterious woman he was chatting up at the party he attended last issue. Gambit chases her to the roof where she pushes him off the roof, through the skylight, where he is arrested. He steals the police car and hits the mysterious woman (who refuses to tell him her name). They come to an understanding and the two head off to Guatemala.

Review

I enjoyed this issue. The story is shaping up to be a good'un and I love the art. On a side note: is it weird that when I read Gambit's lines that I hear a mix between Foghorn Leghorn and Bill Compton from True Blood in my head? Also, Fence's t-shirt troubled me a little. I know 'swag' is an 'in' word right now in America right now, but I'm already hearing it in almost every podcast I listen to so why does it have to creep into my comics too? Never mind. I'd say pick up this issue along with the first and let me know what you think.

Invincible Iron Man #523 Review

Invincible Iron Man #523 Review

Story by Matt Fraction

Art by Salvador Larroca

Colours by Frank D'Armata

Story: Stark Resilient launches The Swarm. Pepper chases the new Iron Man through Seattle. Mandarin readies his Titanomechs. Tony tries to make some friends. Jarvis goes nuts.

Review: I haven't been reading this title for long and, to be honest, I've found it a little hard to get into but that could be the movies colouring my judgement (I love the movies). Fraction's writing is excellent as ever and Larroca's art is top-notch as ever – especially the titanomechs. I just have one tiny niggle: Pepper's immediate conclusion that the new Iron Man is Rhodey because his foot is black. As Wyche rightly points out “What, there's only one African-American man qualified to pilot the Iron Man so it's got to be Rhodey, who you saw die? Yeah, that's not racist at all.”

Conclusion: A solid issue. Worth a read but it's probably best if you start from #521.

Amazing Spider-Man #692 Review

Amazing Spider-Man #692 Review

Alpha Part 1: Point Of Origin

Written by Dan Slott

Pencils by Humberto Ramos

Inks by Victor Olazaba

Colours by Edgar Delgado

Spider-Man For A Night

Story and Art by Dean Haspiel

Colours by Giulia Brusco

Just Right

Written by Joshua Hale Fialkov

Art by Nuno Plati

Point of Origin

Story: Peter holds a demonstration of his newly discovered “Parker Particles” but there's a problem and he accidentally creates a new superhero

Review: This story introduces a Midtown high school students named Andy Maguire who is just your regular, everyday kid. He doesn't put himself out there or take any risks, he's ignored by his parents, and is hopelessly in love with a nerdy Asian girl named Chrissy Chen but she doesn't notice him. He forges his parents signature on a release form to go to Horizon Labs to see a demonstration by Peter Parker, where a disgruntled employee turns off the safety on Peter's experiment which unleashes his “Parker Particles”. While saving Chrissy Chen, Andy gets his by the particles, turning him into a superhero. A team of experts consisting of Reed Richards, Beast, Giant-man, and Tony Stark are called in to examine the boy. It is found that he has all the usual superhero powers of strength, speed, energy projection beams (accompanied by Andy saying “Pyoo! Pyoo! Pyoo!” when he fires them), a force-field, and flight, but he can only use one at a time. It's also found that his powers are tied to the universe and will grow with time. Reed Richards tells Parker that, since he created him, he's his problem and has to train him. He also has the idea to make Andy (Alpha) a sort of “Spokes-superhero” for Horizon. Alpha starts getting cocky with his power and Spidey intervenes, telling him that he's been enlisted in the “Sidekick program” for the Avengers. Spidey get called away and tells Alpha to stay put. Alpha sees this as a test and intervenes in a fight between the Fantastic Four, Spider-man, and Giganto, knocking the beast out and saying how great it is that the Avengers gave him Spider-Man as his sidekick. I'm not sure what to think of this story. To be honest, it sounds a bit standard but I have every confidence that Dan Slott can turn this into something great. Time will tell.

Spider-Man For A Night

Story: A burglar finds Spider-Man's uniform in a trash can (presumably during the “Spider-Man No More” storyline), and decides to use the suit to his advantage to steal money for his sick granddaughter

Review: Again, a pretty standard story where a thief tries to be spider-man to get money to save his sick granddaughter but discovers that it takes more than looking like a superhero to be a superhero. However, although I said it's a pretty standard story, I was nearly in tears at the end by the exchange between the thief (in the spider-man outfit) hugging his sick granddaughter. Heart-warming to say the least.

Just Right

Story: Peter sleeps in for his new position as a guest lecturer and despite all attempts to get to his job, he gets sidetracked by missing the bus, taxis being claimed by others, getting the wrong end of the stick in an alley brawl, and helping a kid that is getting bullied.

Review: I wasn't sure what to think of this story at first, but that was mainly due to the art style of Nuno Plati. It reminded me a little of anime and I wasn't too keen on how spindley Peter/Spidey were drawn. I soon grew on me, however. The story is funny and cracks on at a good pace. Peter getting confused for the Scarlet Spider was particularly funny in my view. A guest appearance by The Thing also had me laughing. The bullied kid provides a good moral of not lying and the lucky little sod even gets a kiss from She-hulk and Spider Woman.

Conclusion: I really liked this issue. It'll be interesting to see where this Alpha story goes, and the two support stories were just the icing on an already great cake. A nice tribute for Spider-Man's 50^th

Venom #23: Monsters Of Evil Part 1

Written by Cullen Bunn

Pencils by Thony Silas

Inks by Nelson Decastro

Colours by Chris Sotomayor

The Story

Cullen Bunn's run on Venom kicks off with an introspective Flash Thompson swinging through the city towards an underground car park and thinking about all the events that lead him to this point. He meets up with Daily Inquisitor reporter, Katy Kiernan, who has some information that Flash's “connections” failed to come up with. It is revealed that Flash is tracking the Department of Occult Armaments – a group of Nazi demon-worshippers gathering magical artifacts. Ignoring Hawkeye's orders not to engage the enemy, Flash goes in all guns blazing, taking down “the robe-and-hood gang”, as flash calls them, and finds people in pods attatched to the wall. Flash frees one who goes on to attack him, but suddenly stops, begs Flash for forgiveness and asks him to command him. Flash commands him to “get the @#&% out of here!” and the man is surrounded by a green haze that “leaves him”. There is an explosion and Flash and the man, now incinerated, are blown clear, revealing Damon Hellstrom. Damon and Flash fight with Damon having the upper hand. Damon tells Flash he is marked with Mephisto's brand and says to Flash that we're all monsters. Flash then goes through a bit of a transformation.

The Writing

I heard of Cullen Bunn's upcoming solo run on Venom last week and I've been enjoying his writing on Deadpool Kills The Marvel Universe and his recent team-up wit Rick Remender on the recent “Savage Six” storyline, so I got a little excited – I wasn't disappointed. The story is well-paced from the introspection at the start right through to the fight with Hellstrom. I'll certainly be looking forward to part 2 of this story.

The Art

I really liked Thony Silas's pencils on the Spider-Man: Ends of The Earth one-shot and Venom #23 is no different. The panels are easy to follow (always a plus) and even the huge and potentially confusing double-page is laid out in such a way that confusion is easily avoided. I particularly like the last page, but I won't spoil it.

My Verdict

I'm a Venom fan so it would be very difficult for anyone to do an issue that I didn't like. I liked this, though, and can't wait for part 2.

Captain Marvel #2 Review

Captain Marvel #2

Writer: Kelly Sue Deconnick
Art: Dexter Soy

This issue starts off with Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel) taking her friend, Tracy, to her hero (Helen Cobb's) private hanger to see the plane she (Helen Cobb) flew to 37k feet in whilst escaping from a Peruvian general. The record was never proven, so Carol decides that she will repeat the feat in the same plane. However, Carol pushes it a little too far, all the instruments freeze and she starts to plummet. Refusing to use her powers and do it “the old-fashioned way”, Carol blacks out and wakes up in 1943. Following some communication difficulties with some Japanese soldiers, Carol throws back a grenade that was thrown at them, and meets an American, all-female, task force who warn her to keep quiet in case the Prowlers hear them. They are then attacked by a huge, flying pyramid.

This issue was good in my opinion. Issue one didn't really do anything for me but I wasn't expecting much from it being a first issue. Writer Kelly Sue Deconnick is doing a great job bringing life to a character that I didn't really care about (other than to look at), and Dextor Soy''s art, though a little dark, is beautiful to look at.

Definitely pick this up if you want a light read that looks to be heating up next issue.