Monday, 27 August 2012

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 50th

Saturday, 25 August 2012

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.

Tuesday, 21 August 2012

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.