Deadpool #9 – Review

By: Gerry Duggan, Brian Posehn (Writers), Mike Hawtorne (Artist), Val Staples (Colorist)

The Story: Deadpool tries his very best to help Michael as he has to deal with Vetis and the fact that he has to kill several people for him.

The Review: Color me surprised. I was not expecting so serious an issue of this title, one that had always managed to balance the funny and serious bits in a way that made sense with the titular character himself. We could always expect a good number of jokes during the more serious moments, which were not the most striking moment, to lower down some of the more dramatic tone of the story and the character itself.

New Avengers #5 – Review

by Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Stuart Immonen (pencils), Wade von Grawbadger (inks), Laura Martin (colors), and Chris Eliopoulos (letters)

The Story: The Avengers learn who is behind the mystic attacks and devise a plan to challenge him/it.

What’s Good: By this point, it should go without saying that I’m loving this as a Marvel mystic storyline.  It makes New Avengers feel distinct, it helps bring in some real power players from an arena that is largely ignored.

Focusing on the mystic corner of the Marvel Universe has also brought the best out of Stuart Immonen and Laura Martin, who are able to make the kind of bright, vibrant, Saturday-morning artwork on steroids that they clearly excel at.  New Avengers, even moreso now with all the mystic lights, spells, and blasts, is just downright fun to look at.

This issue’s plot had enough twists and turns to keep me interested.  There’s a constant sense of things getting increasingly large, both the story and the villain.  Things keep getting exponentially bigger and by the end of this issue, from a mystic perspective, the conflict is positively massive in scale despite its really only involving one team of Avengers.  Certainly, putting an identity on the bad guy (and it’s a huge one) helps a great deal with this.  Not only is the revelation both interesting and surprising in its gravity, but it also helps to make the story feel more important, something that has been lacking lately what with all the faceless, formless goons the Avengers have been fighting lately.

The Last Defenders #1 (of 6) – Review

By Joe Casey (co-plot, script), Keith Giffen (co-plot, breakdowns), Jim Muniz (pencils), Cam Smith (inks), Antonio Fabela (colors)

If you’ve read previous incarnations of The Defenders, I’d love to hear your take on this new series. If you’re not very familiar with Defenders canon (like me), you’re probably going to think this book is sub-par. Not only am I lost as to what’s going on, but the art isn’t very good either.

Nighthawk’s been cutting his teeth under The Initiative for months, trying to prove himself to the cause after being on the “wrong side” during Civil War. Finally, after months of service, Tony Stark gives a opportunity to Nighthawk – he’ll be leader of the new Defenders team. The crux is Nighthawk will have no decision on who makes the roster and the odd member choices Stark  imposes almost makes this team destined to fail. In fact, it’s outright implied by Nighthawk that failure is exactly what Tony is setting them up for.

Well, if you ask me, not only is Tony setting this team up for failure, but he’s also setting this book up for failure. Comprised of Colossus (yes, that Colosssus), Blazing Skull (a ghost rider wannabe who just sucks), She-Hulk (yay!), and Nighthawk (who is this guy?), well, you can see for yourself that this is not a very compelling roster. The issue is completely readable, but it just doesn’t make any sense to me. With flashbacks pointing to the Son of Satan, a two-bit HYDRA like organization who can decimate SHIELD black ops teams, some Atlantean subplot, and a weird demon that looks like a T-Rex, parrot, and cobra, I honestly had one of those “WTF” moments.

There’s definitely a lot to be desired with this book, but one of its worst shortcomings is the art. Jim Muniz’s pencils are complete with an assortment of odd and stiff poses by characters, and the biggest crime is how he manages to make She-Hulk look retarded. Even Colossus, at times, looks completely bloated. Sorry, but I won’t be back for issue #2. There’s nothing here that appeals to me. A resurrected series like this needs to cater to new readers, not just old ones. But, because the story is incomprehensible to the average comic reader, it fails. (Grade: F)

– J. Montes