All New X-Men #9 – Review

By: Brian Michael Bendis (Writer), Stuart Immonen (Penciler), Wade Von Grawbadger (Inker), Marte Gracia & Rain Beredo (Color Artists), VC’s Cory Petit (Letterer)

Review: My review of last month’s All New X-Men #8 was pretty awful; too many overly-long sentences and contrived compliments. Still, I blame it all on Bendis. After all, it gets difficult finding new ways to lavish praise on a book that’s still failed to put a foot wrong 8 issues in. Therefore it’s a little bit of a Godsend that #9 offers something of a hiccup. It’s not much of one, granted, but it’ll do.

So let’s get that criticism out of the way first: this issue does feel like something of a placeholder. The only characters whose story sees any concrete progression this month is the villains’, and even then they only appear on 4 of the book’s 20 pages (that’s 20%, stat fans). Irksome, yes, but a minor sin in the grand scheme of comics. I mean, I seem to remember 2009’s Cable series achieve the impressive feat of running for 25 issues without anything of note happening at all.

A+X #4 – Review

By: Kaare Andrews, Jason Latour (Writers), Kaare Andrews, David López (Artists), Lee Loughridge, Jim Charalampiois (Colorists), Alvard López (Inker), Clayton Cowles (Letterer) 

The Review: I think it’s safe to say that nobody expected A+X to be quite this good. A quick look at the reviews for the last three issues show that nearly every major comic review website (ours included) has been mighty impressed with the consistently high levels of quality and effort found in each episode. In an era of ‘event fatigue’ and dubious reboots, this series’ amiable modus operandi is refreshing: one X-Man teamed with one Avenger. Them’s the rules, and aside from that anything goes.

This issue could be said to embody that freewheeling spirit more than any other so far; it’s leaking crazy like a broken faucet in Arkham Asylum. Ready the sedatives and wheel out the gurney, this patient ain’t going down without a fight:

Shadowland #4 – Review

by Andy Diggle (writer), Billy Tan (pencils & inks), Victor Olazaba (inks), Guru eFx (colors), Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: Izo’s band of heroes race to stop Daredevil as Elektra makes her move.

What’s Good: One of the big problems that the main Shadowland series has had has been finding its identity.  It seems divided on whether to approach this as a standard Marvel event or as a Daredevil comic.   The result has been that as an event, it feels strange and off-kilter while, as a Daredevil comic, it’s a failure.

The good news is that with this issue, I feel like I finally have a clear picture of what Shadowland wants to be, as the book finally settles into being just another Marvel event.  It seems the comic has given up on any loftier aspirations and has more or less given up pretending to be a Daredevil comic.  While this does make for a mediocre comic, at least it means that the book is far less confused and messy than it has been, even if it is a little straightforward.  Certainly, I feel that reader expectations can properly adjust as well.  Shadowland, with this issue, gives up on even attempting to be like the Daredevil comics of old; it’s a Marvel event comic that’s dedicated to getting the character, and the universe, to a particular point.  At least, now, we can know what we’re getting.

If you like action, there’s a lot of action this month and all of it is done fairly well.  Action scenes are fluid, dynamic, and exciting.  A lot of this is due to Billy Tan, who continues to do surprisingly solid work on this comic.

Daredevil #510 – Review

by Andy Diggle & Antony Johnston (writers), Marco Checchetto (art), Matt Hollingsworth (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: Foggy and Dakota find themselves hunted by the Hand while Iron Fist and Luke Cage find themselves swayed by the Kingpin.

What’s Good: One of the things that’s made the last couple of issues of Shadowland, or the last couple of issues of Daredevil for that matter, somewhat underwhelming has been that they’ve tried to focus on too many things at once, winding up feeling insubstantial and mediocre throughout.  Daredevil #510 goes against this trend and is a significant improvement throughout.

Instead of even attempting any half-assed gestures towards focusing on Matt and his shift in character and internal struggles, Daredevil becomes a book focusing on Daredevil’s friends, particularly Dakota and Foggy, a wise choice given that these two are integral to the Daredevil franchise who we don’t get to see in any other book.  This makes this issue feel more meaningful and more necessary.  While I would, of course, rather that Daredevil be devoted to shedding light on Matt’s character, Diggle and Johnston’s decision to focus on Dakota and Foggy at least gives the book a strong direction and a unique one.

It’s ultimately a good choice if only because Dakota and Foggy are naturally sympathetic characters.  Not possessing any superpowers or martial arts prowess, it’s easy to root for them amidst the madness of Shadowland.  When they’re assaulted by a horde of ninjas, the threat feels a lot more real and the danger much more substantial; this isn’t a case of Luke Cage busting the faces of a horde of faceless goons, but rather, this is two people fighting for their lives in a dingy apartment hideout.  Honestly, Dakota and Foggy felt more heroic this month than any other characters have in the entirety of Shadowland.