Avengers vs X-Men: Consequences #3 – 4

By: Kieron Gillen (writer), Jim Charalampidis (colors), Andrew Hennessy (inks), Scott Eaton (pencils-3),  Mark Brooks (pencils/inks-4)

The Story: Cyclops is still in prison, the rest of the Extinction team are still at large, the Avengers won and the X-men lost. In case you didn’t get that before. The Avengers–Captain America said in Civil War half a dozen years ago, “won everything–except the argument.”

Issue #3 Review: Stuff happened. Kind of.

Issue #4 Review: Well, there are great things about this miniseries and very frustrating things. One of the most frustrating things is that Gillen is such a talented writer, but the shackles on the story are so strong, it’s sad. The Cyclops here doesn’t even match the one we saw at the end of 2 and 3, or the final issues of Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 2). Gillen’s development of Scott Summers post AvX was not only going well, but swift. It’s only been a month and we’ve seen incredible lengths of pathos in Cyclops–all at Gillen’s hands. Everyone else writing about Cyclops right now just paint him as a dick (or the the Cyclops of the 90’s animated series). Gillen was showing us a different side to the argument. He does this not just through Scott himself, but how he interacts with others. He tells a newly formed student how wonderful Wolverine’s school is, and that as soon as he finishes his sentence, he should go there. He agrees to help Tony Stark (more on him later) with some tests after Tony tells him he knew that Wanda and Hope would reignite the mutant race. Cyclops has been showing humility, fear, wisdom, and yes,  more than a little narcissism, but Gillen was writing him as a character going through a profound change. Keyword: was. Sadly, there is a very abrupt halt to this development, and the heavy handedness of editorial glares on the page. This is especially apparent after a wonderful scene where Wolverine–calmed down since their last encounter–has a heart-to-heart with Scott that could have rebuilt their friendship. After what Wolverine tells him, and the progress Scott has made, it makes absolutely no sense to do what he does.

Quick Hit Reviews – Week of February 23, 2011

Sometimes there are soooo many comics published in a given week (ahem….I’m looking at you Marvel) that despite the heroic efforts of the WCBR writing staff, we simply can’t give every comic a complete review.  Thus, the Quick Hit Reviews…

New York Five #2 – Wow is Ryan Kelly a great artist!  The story here is solid, slice of life stuff as we follow our four college freshmen as they adapt to life in NYC, but the star of this issue is Kelly’s art.  His character work is really strong as young ladies are all cute and express appropriate emotion, but his attention to the city around them in just incredible.  The city just feels alive. I really need to track down New York Four and I encourage everyone to check out this Vertigo series.  Kelly and Tommy Lee Edwards (on Turf) made a LOT of artist’s backgrounds look like dog food this week.  Grade: A-  — Dean Stell

X-Men: To Serve and Protect #4 – All I ask of an anthology series is to give me one really memorable story.  I almost don’t care if 3/4 of the issue is crap as long as I get that one stellar tale.  This issue has a BIG mission accomplished for Jed MacKay and Sheldon Vella’s story of Dazzler, Misty Knight & Colleen Wing engaged in roller derby death match involved a really wacky version of MODOK (Mental Organism Designed Only for Roller Derby!!).  Vella’s art and colors are just amazing.  Toss in a good finale to the Rockslide/Anole story that has woven through this anthology series and you’ve got a winner.  I love the X-office continues to publish these anthologies.  Grade: B+  — Dean Stell

Quick Hit Reviews – Week of Jan 5, 2011

Here at WCBR we all have pretty extensive pull lists.  Every week, despite our best efforts, there are a few comics that get read, but don’t get the full review treatment.  Without further ado…

Avengers: The Childrens Crusade #4 – I’m enjoying this series as much as anything with an Avenger’s tag on it.  The big news is that the Scarlet Witch is back…. kinda.  The story is lots of fun as we have Wiccan trying to save his mother and the rest of the Young Avengers trying to save Wiccan, while Wolverine tries to kill Wanda, etc.  Just really good stuff.  Cheung’s art is also just top shelf material.  He draws a great Wolverine.  The only thing that has me a little concerned is that this is issue 4 out of 9.  With a bimonthly schedule, it’ll be done around November-ish.  So far, this title has been fun enough that the continuity alarm isn’t going off, but I wonder if they’ll be able to sustain that feeling once Marvel cycles through their next FEAR ITSELF event.  Grade: A- — Dean Stell

Thanos Imperative: Devastation #1 – I had mixed feelings going into this issue.  For all the bitching and moaning from fanboys over Marvel scaling down their cosmic franchise, I kinda felt it was time.  I enjoyed the cosmic stuff, but didn’t think the Thanos Imperative was setting the world on fire.  It was a fine miniseries, but nothing that screamed: You must continue to tell cosmic stories!!!!!  So, I figured this one-shot would be a kind of death-rattle for the cosmic line-up.  WRONG!  It was really awesome!  The basic story is that Cosmo the dog is carrying out the last wishes of Starlord (Peter Quill who died at the end of Thanos Imperative).  Peter had urged Cosmo to continue the Guardians of the Galaxy, but with heavy hitters and not the cast offs that the Guardians were.  So Cosmo ropes in Gladiator, Silver Surfer, Beta Ray Bill and a few other A-listers to form a few team.  I’m excited.  The only thing holding this issue back from getting an A was the art.  I just don’t think this is what Sepulveda was born to draw.  Grade: A- —  Dean Stell

Choker #5 – I quite enjoy the Bens (McCool and Templesmith) miniseries from Image and think it’ll be a great read in trade.  We’re really close to the final resolution of this series and while I’m (honestly) a little confused by some of the machinations going on and who is who, I’m still enjoying it. Templesmith’s art is just one of a kind and is perfect for this type of dark noir infused tale of steroids gone overboard.  The corpse vacuum even makes a return!   The thing hurting this series is the release schedule.  It’s not realistic to say, “they should have all 6 issues in the can before they solicit the comic at all” because the creators kinda need that cash flow to finance the creation of the next issue.  I just wish that the single issue buyers who are at least partially funding the creation of the art got a less punctuated reading experience than the folks who kept their money in their pocket and waited for the trade.  We should get a better experience than the folks who sat on their wallet, but we don’t.  That just seems backwards to me.  Grade: B — Dean Stell

Iron Man – Thor #3 – This comic was pretty good as we see Tony Stark trying to resist the High Evolutionary’s grand plan to make Tony a new “God” and then Thor gets into the act.  I think this would be fun if you just absolutely need more Thor or Iron Man in your life and Eaton’s art is really nice to look at.  The biggest negative for me in this issue is how the heck Diablo got powered up to the point where he could hang with Iron Man, Thor and the High Evolutionary.  He is a a career B-lister who got taken out by Black Cat a few months ago in ASM.  There’s nothing wrong with this comic, but it is an average Big 2 superhero comic.  Grade: C  — Dean Stell

Dean’s Drive-by Reviews

My pull list is way too long (even after a fairly vigorous pruning recently), so just about every week I read a few comics that don’t get the full review treatment from us here at WCBR.  But, it still seems fair to give the comic a quick thumbs up/thumbs down…

Iron Man – Thor #2 – Sometimes I wonder why I have such a long pull list.  Rhetorically, why do I take so many chances on comic books when I know that most will be mediocre?  Well….comics like this one are the reason.  The #1 issue (of 4) was nothing special.  Not bad, but nothing good either.  But, this comic was just all kinds of kick ass.  It features Thor and Iron Man immediately after the events of Siege.  They get pulled into a scheme by the High Evolutionary (who I love) to create a “new god for the 21st century” on the premise that the current gods are old and archaic.  In his mind a new god must incorporate diving power AND technology and get this…..[SPOILER WARNING]…..he wants Tony Stark to be the new god.  Cool, huh?  It also features Volstagg loaning out a pet dragon to Thor to serve as bloodhound.  Scott Eaton’s art is great and Veronica Gandini’s color just pop.  My only complaint is that continuity….how does this happen right after Seige?  I thought that is what Avengers Prime was?  Oh well.  It is funny how a good comic makes continuity problems wash away.  Grade: A-

I, Zombie #8 – This title took ~5 issues to get its feet under it because Chris Roberson had a LOT of groundwork to lay for his world, but this comic is really working now.  His neat world has friendly zombies, vampire, ghosts, possessed animals and ancient monster hunters and there is a lot to like.  And of course Mike and Laura Allred’s art is really impressive.  I love how they can draw attractive women without having them look like skanks.  Grade: B

She-Hulks #2 – This is just a whacky fun comic.  It isn’t central to the Marvel universe, but if you’re a She-Hulk fan, it is not to be missed.  It’s also a good comic for those trying to find a good comic with heroic women (something in short supply in comics sometimes).  The basic story is that Jen She-Hulk and Lyra, the Savage She-Hulk, are fighting the Intelligencia.  That leads to enough shenanigans, but when you mix in that Lyra is also trying to deal with the rigors of high school, the fun just ratchets up a notch.  Ryan Stegman’s art is not to be missed.  Grade: B

Wolverine: The Best There Is #1 – I’m not sure if it is “the best there is”, but it does have some promise.  The main draw here (for me) is Juan Jose Ryp’s art.  I’m all about artists who “go for it” and Ryp does that in a few places in this comic.  The story is just okay.  It’s a little derivative since we’ve all seen stories where someone is trying to do kidnap or otherwise twist Wolverine to their own purposes.  And, the story was a little disjointed and didn’t really come together for me.  Charlie Huston (the writer) could also have fed Ryp a few more scantily clad women and blood/guts since that is where he excels (and not as much with talking heads).  Editorially, I wonder what is up with this title.  Really…another Wolverine title that seems to be only partially related to continuity in either the X-books or the other Wolverine books?  Why not just call it Wolverine-Max and just turn Ryp loose to do his thing?  THAT would be awesome.  Despite the story/editorial challenges, I’ll be sticking around for Ryp’s art.  Grade: C+

Batman 80-Page Giant 2010 #1 – This was okay and solid.  The problem is that it is 80-pages long and that is a LOT of “okay and solid” to read.  Nothing in this comic was remotely “bad”, but the overall comic commits the cardinal sin for an anthology of not having a single superlative story.  The best story is Peter Miriani and Szymon Kudranski’s harrowing Joker story, but it is first story of the issue.  Then you get your energy sapped by a few of the middle stories and have to limp to the finish.  I hate to say bad things about it, because no single story was dreadful, but I was glad when it was over.  I also generally want to see anthologies take more risks from a storytelling standpoint and these were all pretty standard short stories with Batman’s villains.  Hard to recommend at $5.99.  Grade: C-

Generation Hope #2 – I preorder my comics, so even if #1 is bad (which happened with Generation Hope) I am usually still stuck with issue #2.  Sometimes that gives the comic a chance to find its feet, but not in this case.  This was a confused mess.  I spent a lot of my time confused about what was going on in the story and I didn’t like how a lot of the action in this comic was handled by Cyclops and Wolverine.  There are ~20 comics to see Cyclops and Wolverine…..I wanted this comic to star Hope, but she spends most of this issue knocked out of action.  Not an auspicious start to her semi-solo title.  Espin’s art is fine.  But….  Grade: D

– Dean Stell