Cyblade #1 – Review

By Joshua Hale Fialkov (Writer), Rick Mays (Pencils), Sal Regla (Inks), and Guru eFX (Colors)

The Story: Cyblade is a company-controlled assassin with mutant powers that is fighting to gain control of her will. She has been programmed to kill her latest target, the one man doing everything in his power to save her.

What’s Good: That the story holds some potential. Also, considering that it has been so long since the Top Cow: Pilot Season 0 issue, this book does a nice job getting the reader up to speed on what was missed or, possibly, forgotten.

What’s Not So Good: That everything about this book is average at best. The “conflicted assassin” plot is fairly generic at this point, but it can be made to be quite compelling if the storytelling or visuals make up for it. Unfortunately, that is not the case here.

Simply put, this book tries to be smarter than it actually is. The constant scene changes and simultaneous events taking place frustrate more than entertain. Had the visuals looked a bit more interesting I may have forgiven the lack of storytelling rhythm, but artistically I found everything extremely underwhelming and surprisingly inconsistent.

Conclusion: I could go on with a longer list of complaints, but it really isn’t worth my time. Cyblade #1 is easily one of the most disappointing and boring things I’ve read all year. That said, this one may be worth checking out in the future once it establishes itself a bit better (and gets a new artist). As it stands now though, it is utterly forgettable.

Grade: D-

-Kyle Posluszny

Secret Invasion: X-Men #2 – Capsule Review

By Mike Carey (Writer), Carey Nord (Art), and Dave McCaig (Colors)

I had planned on doing a full review of this one since I am quite an X-Men fan, but it just simply isn’t worth the time it takes to write or read a full review. The writing is underwhelming, the artwork looks rushed, the storyline mostly revolves around the standard Secret Invasion fighting, and it ultimately made me realize how there are much better X-Men and Secret Invasion books out there. I honestly like everyone on the creative team (Mike Carey is doing phenomenal work with the Legacy series), so it absolutely baffles me as to how this book could be so utterly boring.

With all the tie-ins associated with the Secret Invasion I knew that there was bound to be a few duds. I’m just shocked and disappointed that the biggest dud involves some of my favorite characters. Skip this one. (Grade: D-)

-Kyle Posluszny

Uncanny X-Men #496 – Review

By Ed Brubaker (writer), Mike Choi (art), Sonia Oback (colors)

What is it with good writers failing on mutant books? Once again, Ed Brubaker delivers a below average story that’s nothing short of being a complete yawn fest. Picking up where last issue left off, we’re given a vague hint of what’s taking place in San Francisco – someone’s turning the city back in time. Emma and Cyclops arrive on the scene to investigate but we’re given nothing more than that. At least Hepzibah finally turns up.

Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and Colossus, now in Russia, go to visit the graves of Peter’s parents. Afterwards, they hit up a local bar and exchange useless dialog. The biggest offense to this conversation is that it gives a glaring spoiler as to what’s going to happen in the delayed Giant-Sized Astonishing X-Men #1 (who knows when that book’s due out). If you’re enjoying Joss Whedon’s run, you shouldn’t read this book until he wraps things up. I was already bored with this story as it was, but reading this spoiler completely ruined it for me. Throw in another obligatory and meaningless bar scene brawl and you can see that Brubaker is just going through the motions.

Mike Choi and Sonia Oback continue to dazzle my eyes with their art. But it’s not perfect: Logan looks too youthful and too much of a pretty boy, while the fight scene in the bar is completely uninspired from an action standpoint. The nod to Neil Gaiman’s Eternals mini-series was probably the only thing I really liked. (Grade: D)

– J. Montes