Special Review Tommorrow!

Considering the controversy over whether Donald Glover should have an audition for the new Spider-Man movie, I figured I'd throw my hat into the ring. Tommorrow I'll be reviewing an older book that, I think, shows exactly why Spider-Man is a character that needs no racial connatations! WOOOOO. Look forward to it! In the meantime, here's a picture of Spider-Man punching out the Green Goblin!

Avengers Academy #1 (And Shed)

I'm going to be honest; this wasn't what I originally wanted to write about. I wanted to tackle the "Shed" storyline in ASM, but thanks to the incredible depth of writing and fitting artwork by Zeb Wells and Chris Bachalo respectively, the internet has already tackled it in depth. So... I'm gonna say my piece anyway and get into a new title at Marvel afterwards. Basically, the reason this arc resonated with so many people is that it is taking a villain (The Lizard) that has been routine and boring for years and taking him to the logical progression of his original character arc. For those of you unaware, The Lizard is another tragic Spidey foe (is there any other?) who is both friends with Peter Parker and enemies with Spider-Man. Need any more info, wiki him or something. Anyhoo, he has a son, who has usually calmed him and reverted him into human form. Now, with the intervention of Kraven's daughter (long story) he ends up killing his son in lizard form. This leads him to "shed" (see what they did there?) his human self. Now, this arc is great because it... well what else can I say that no one else has said already? The writing, the art, even the lettering work in perfect tandem to deliver a breathtaking story. Bachalo redisigns the Lizard to show exactly how much of a physical threat even as Wells shows him as a mental threat. The letterer shows the divide between Curt Conners and The Lizard perfectly. It's a perfect combination. Even with the death of a child, the book doesn't descend into a "gritty hardboiled noir" story. Instead, we're treated to a story that, rather than become a "What If" type story, is actually handled with a real amount of depth. Anyway. I liked it is what I'm saying. Now. Onto Avengers Academy. I came into this book fully prepared to hate it. I wanted to hate it. I didn't like Christos Gage on Avengers: The Initiative, although to be fair that did have Humberto Ramos on art, and I just hate his style. Not to mention one of the characters was going to be Reptil. Motherf**king Reptil. Who came up with him? An eleven year-old? This is literally a nine year-old's wet dream and while I can't fault them for making him and putting him in their kid's show, he really does not need to be on a real team. Moving past my hatred for Reptil. I was so ready to hate this book. And then something weird happened. I started to like the characters. I started to like the direction. By the time, Gage had dropped the twist in the final pages, I was on board. Basically this book is about a bunch of kids who got tortured back when Norman Osborn was running the world. And they have powers earlier than they would have? That part wasn't quite clear. Anyway, their powers are all f**king them up, so they need some heroes to show them how to move past torture and all that. So, who do they get to teach? Hank Pym, Speedball, Tigra, Justice, and Quicksilver. Yeah. So, good luck with that. But, the idea of f**kups teaching f**kups is interesting. Plus, the powers are inventive. Some (like Veil who turns into gases) are more inventive than others (Hazmat, who has radioactive... everything?). But, the writing is good, the art grew on me, and the concept is clever. My one complaint is Justice. Just don't like him. Anyway. That's it. Two for one to make up for my lateness! WOOOOOO!

I'M BACK BITCHES!!!!

I'm back!!!! Woooo! The world's laziest blogger is back to write comic book reviews. Yeah! Anyway, for anyone who cares, I'm making it a daily review. A new comic a day and a TPB review special on friday. So.... Yeah. You can stop reading now. That's it.

Thunderbolts#138:After the completely awful last issue, new writer Jeff Parker starts his new run on the Thunderbolts by... doing absolutely nothing new with the team and letting his first issue become nothing but filler. This issue was completely disappointing and nothing Parker did with the team seemed to matter. The few interesting parts of the issue were of Ghost manipulating the team to his own ends, but I already knew that Ghost was awesome and manipulative. The issue has Ghost goading Mr. X into going on a killing spree along the Venezuelan border. The other Thunderbolts go after him, fighting ensues, blah blah blah. The art is fine, but the writing is just mediocre and uninteresting. I suggest staying away from the Thunderbolts until they finally begin their inevitable Civil War against each other.

Grade: 5.5( out of 10)

Amazing Spider-Man#612: It's here! The Gauntlet arc that has been hyped for months is finally here! And... it's good. Surprisingly good. The first part of the storyline is a small arc called Power to the People which sees Electro, long time villain, becoming... champion of the people? Apparently, after years of using his electrical powers, Max Dillon can no longer control them; alternating between powerful bursts and periods of no power, he has run out of options and aims his anger at Dexter Bennet, newspaper fat cat. Anyway, the writing is good; I'll read just about anything Mark Waid writes and his characterization of Electro is interesting. The art is similar to Steve Ditko's style which definitely helps the current arc. However, sometimes the panels looked odd and out of place compared with the rest of the issue. Also, the people accept Electro's new idealogy very quickly and it made me feel as if I'd skipped a few pages. Overall, a good, unfortunately not great start to The Gauntlet storyline.

Grade: 8.6 (out of 10)

Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth#6: The weakest Deadpool series currrently running once again brings in another sub-par issue. This month continues the (far too long already) 6-issue arc that has seen Deadpool meet with his zombie counterpart "Headpool". While the idea seems solid and the art is a good match for a Deadpool book, the main problem continues to be the pacing of events. I think that the arc could have been reduced to a 4-issue arc instead of dragging out events that can be described in one sentence. Example: Deadpool runs from HYDRA and A.I.M in space. Done. That is literally the entire issue. While the humor hits a high note in a hilarious sequence that has Deadpool threatening "Bill, agent of A.I.M", (cousin of Bob, agent of HYDRA), the pacing is constantly distracting. It's really not worth $2.99, and it is definitely a series that could benefit from a more hands-on editor. It's truly unfortunate that the series hasn't resolved its pacing issues; hopefully, later issues will benefit from less of a constricted storyline.

Score: 4.5 (out of 10)

Amazing Spider-Man#611: Joe Kelly returns to the character he made great in this week's Amazing Spider-Man. Deadpool vs. Spider-Man! Let me go on record to say that BND didn't bother me in the slightest. Ok, that's a lie, I admit I absolutely hated Freak; but, underneath all the controversy, it has been a surprisingly good set of books beginning with New Ways to Die and culminating in the American Son arc. Other than the first 6 months of books, the decision to break up Peter's marriage seems to have only made Amazing into a book that I actually look forward to every week. This issue was no different: a prelude to The Gauntlet storyline that really wasn't necessary, the issue is really hilarious. From Lady Stilt-Man to an apocalyptic bout of Yo Momma jokes, this issue was absolutely bizarre. However, there are some really annoying boxes every few panels that are really unnecessary and try to hard to be funny. I don't know if Kelly was involved in these or if these were strictly the Editors' ideas. Either way they took away the issue's comedic edge. Also, the art. While it was energetic, something which is required for any comic Deadpool appears in, it was also kind of hard to tell what was going on at times. Overall, a good interlude and The Gauntlet arc looks incredibly good.

Grade: 8.5 (out of 10)