Superior Spider-Man Team-Up Special #1 – Review

by Mike Costa (Writer), Michael Dialynas (Artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (Colorist)

The Story: With Spider-Ock and the rest of the team figuring out the mystery behind the time-travelling Doctor Octopus and Abomination, it’s time to bring the fight to Dr. Jude.

The Review: With how capes comics are usually written nowadays, it’s hard not to perceive them as long-form storytelling, divided in arcs in order to reach their endgame near the end of their run. It was thus in runs like Green Lantern by Geoff Johns, Batman by Grant Morrison, Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis and countless other ongoing past and present. With such forms of storytelling, it’s rare to see simple stories being told and completed with a small number of issues, with the simple goal of bringing entertainment without caring too much about repercussions or continuity.

With the Arms of the Octopus, Mike Costa achieves this simple yet fun method of plot writing. With some twists, action and some clever characterization, Costa made this story rather enjoyable in the previous issues, putting Spider-Ock, the past X-Men and the Hulk in front as they collaborated to solve the mystery of the time-travelling Doctor Octopus. However, does Costa maintains the fun and give the readers a satisfactory conclusion in his very last chapter?

This issue does succeed with both terms, albeit in different ways. The more traditional approach to super hero stories work quite well as the heroes defeat the villain in a way that is on par with previous storytelling methods. They defeat the villain of the piece, Dr. Jude not with fisticuffs but with some clever thinking and cooperation on everyone’s part. It’s part throwback to tales from the 60’s and the 70’s with a modern twist that makes this quite enjoyable for those looking for something competent storytelling. It might not be the most ambitious, but it does its job fairly well.

Indestructible Hulk Special #1 – Review

by Mike Costa (Writer), Jacob Wyatt (Artist), Jordie Bellaire (Colorist)

The Story: Bruce Banner arrives on the scene to help solve the mystery around this seemingly time-travelling Doctor Octopus. Science and smashing ensues.

The Review: Some writers understand the very basic, yet fun approach that can work wonderfully with certain characters. Each specific title, along with their protagonist, have a certain strength that needs to be put front thanks to the flaws and unique angle that its cast possess. Mark Waid understand how Daredevil’s dashing attitude may lead itself to problem, as Matt Fraction can see the quirks of being one of the non-powered Avengers and how it might affect your perception of daily life in Hawkeye. Those may not be the most ambitious or the subtlest concepts for ongoing titles, yet both works thanks to the creative team sticking with this very vision of their heroes as well as the world that spin around them.

This is the kind of approach that Mike Costa seems to have in mind with this issue, as heroes cooperate together to not only solve a mystery, but kick a little butt as well in the process. This team-up, with special focus on Bruce Banner, seems like an issue from older times, which isn’t a disadvantage in the least.

All-New X-Men #17 – Review

by Brian Michael Bendis (Writer), Stuart Immonen, Wade Von Grawbadger (Artists), Marte Garcia (Colorist)

The Story: Another team of X-Men from the future comes to the past to warn the X-Men from the present. There seems to be a pattern here…

The Review: Battle of the Atom is a strange beast. Acting as both an event and line-wide crossover between some of the various X-Men titles, it tried to unite various threads together to do an immense story where some of those threads would close. It’s also a bit unevenly paced, as it suffers from what I may call the ”Bendis disease”, with close to every event comics written by Bendis suffering from it. The ”Bendis disease” has symptoms like excellent settings and ideas, interesting characters but poor pacing and a propensity toward rushing things along for the climax, however awkward it might turn out to be. While this event seems to show signs of this particularly dreadful malady , does this issue seal the deal on what many might fear for the future of this crossover event?

Surprisingly, it really doesn’t as Bendis delivers not only a neat twist on his story, but he also delves deeper into some of the more fascinating elements that were introduced previously. One of them being the actual future and the events that lead the previous team of X-Men, the very reason and concept that started this whole story to begin with. Bendis plays a bit with the current themes of Marvel Now! with the future he presents, presenting new characters along with the current X-Men readers are familiar with.

All-New X-Men #16 – Review

by Brian Michael Bendis (Writer), Stuart Immonen, Wave Von Grawbadger (Artists), Marte Garcia (Colorist)

The Story: In the second part of Battle of the Atom, the current X-Men from the Jean Grey school for higher learning interacts with the future X-Men.

The Review: Brian Michael Bendis is known for a great many things to the Marvel fans. His way of writing dialogue. his banter, his decompression, the way he seems to insert his own favourites in the titles he writes and so on. While he is, like many authors, always controversial in terms of appreciation by the fans, his events are in another category altogether. They always possess a strong basis, one that has potential for pretty good storytelling and action, yet never seems to properly fulfill it. While this isn’t exactly an event comic and more a huge crossover between the various X-Men titles, with two of them being written by him, does he succeed a bit more in telling a story that may satisfy the X-fans?

It’s a mixed reaction, as there are some very strong concepts at play here, with the future X-Men being the key to this issue’s fun. Bendis is never short of ideas, it seem, as he incorporate many elements from the Marvel universe and combine them together with the X-Men mythos to create a team that seems very interesting. The incorporation of characters like Molly Hayes from Runaways and Deadpool to classic characters like Iceman, Beast and Kitty Pride makes for a team that could easily fit into the X-Men continuity. The fact that they also come from the future to warn the present X-Men about the danger of the original five’s presence here also thematically fit into the story Bendis is telling and building up since the start. In term of ideas, this is a winner.

What’s also pretty strong is the characterization, as Bendis sure knows how to play teenage drama as he write the young Cyclops, Beast and Jean Grey being unsure about the whole deal and being generally rebellious. Many of the interactions manage to mesh together exposition with entertainment, making sure the readers aren’t being bombarded with information. The traditional Bendis dialogue is here, yet it does not lessen some of the impact between the interactions at all, which well done.