Review: Young Avengers #8

Young Avengers #8

This young and hip (lol) series never ceases to entertain. It has that fresh, different, feel enhanced by the clean art of Jaime McKelvie and Mike Norton. And this title has become one of my must reads because it always keeps me interested.

RECAP

It kicks off with the team, with their new addition, Prodigy, dimension hopping as they are both on the run from Hulkling’s extra-dimensional putty tentacle mom as well as on the tail of evil Patriot doppelganger who’s somehow managed to capture Billy’s brother Tommy.

It seems several of the dimensions they visit are dystopic or apocalyptic. One (or several) of which was an earth taken over by Noh-Varr to be the new Kree capital and another with cute little furball creatures that see Wiccan in their starry night constellation (something that Loki didn't want him to see for some reason).

Their trail for doppelganger patriot leads them to the home universe of tentacle mom, where she seems to have been awaiting them (*screams in terror*). Miss America is able to bust a dimensional door to get most of the youngins out in time, except for Prodigy and Hulkling. The ones that get out end up in a dimension where they come upon Leah (Loki’s old friend?).

While Hulkling and Patriot are stuck in tentacle mom’s dimension, Prodigy is able to stave her off by bluffing a spell he picked up from Dr. Strange to buy them some time as they run off into the creepy white dimension. It’s then that Hulkling and Prodigy make a pact to fight to the end. [Big Spoiler] “No regrets” Hulkling says. Prodigy tells him he can't say the same and its then that he kisses Hulkling!! (*gay gasps*)

REVIEW

The things of note in this issue :

+ Loki trying NOT to let Wiccan see his face in the stars of that furby dimension - I don't know why and I suppose we’ll find out later.

+Loki’s reunion with Leah - Guess I’ll find out about that soon enough too.

+The kiss - When I jumped to that page I was so caught off guard I literally JUMPED in my seat! After thinking about it and wondering “WHY would the writer’s do that?” (apart from the obvious excitement it would create) and “why did Prodigy do that?”, my immediate thought was maybe this is some weird part of Prodigy’s plan to get out of the situation (hey geniuses always have weird ways of solving things that never very obvious to the rest of us). But then i thought, “naaah”. At that moment I realized a few things. This could finally be how Hulkling gets to answer the question of whether or not Wiccan unintentionally (or intentionally) magiced him into falling unconditionally in love with him. If Hulkling was to,say, develop feelings for Prodigy or even become attracted to him as a result of this, this might clue him off to knowing that it wasn't magic that made him so in love with Wiccan in the first place. After all, if it was, then maybe he wouldn't be able to like or be attracted to anyone else. Personally, I’ve always thought their relationship had become too perfect. They’re teenagers for Pete’s sake. As for Prodigy? For some reason, he seems believably gay (or bi?). I don't know why. He’s the kind of gay I see in cyclops lol.

WHAT I LIKED ?

Almost everything, as you can probably tell by now. The writing style freely gives all those little fun things that reminds us that its a book about YOUNG Avengers. All those little tidbits , like Noh-Varr growing his beard out as homage to his newfound love of country music and Gram Parsons, references to social media, the overall language and the little quips remind me that this book is about teenagers (albeit superpowered) living in my this age. I cannot emphasize how much fun this title can be to read.

The art has really grown on me!

That KISS!! It has set the stage for more drama to come. And if there’s one thing I love as much as action, its DRAMA (of course provided it all actually moves the storyline and character development a step forward instead of an inch -___-)

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE ?

There’s nothing that I disliked about this book.

This issue gets an 8.5

Review: Wolverine and The X-men #33

Wolverine and The X-men #33

Another enjoyable installment of Wolverine and the X-men. Of course I’m a bit annoyed by the hyperbolic treatment of the exposition, though, in this case it made a little more sense that they did that in the narration than in previous cases. Yes we KNOW and you actually CAN overemphasize that the Hellfire Academy teaches very very cruel things. We get the point! But besides that it was a usual fun read that lead to the end of a search and takes another step in Idie’s (somewhat depressing) character development. There’s a lot of action in this book. I love me some action.

RECAP

We kick off with fighting everywhere.Wolverine is at it with Deathstrike. Toad and Quentin are smacking on Hellfire Staff (Toad has seen the light and has defected from the evil ways of the school). A bunch of students are beating up on masked Hellfire henchmen as part of class (yeah, they can’t overemphasize how utterly evil the curriculum is).

Meanwhile, Kade offers Idie the position of Black Queen in the Hellfire club (offering the expected skimpy black leather outfit.). She accepts under one condition [spoiler] that Kade kills Broo, after which (Kade not seeing the obvious trap) Kade runs his mouth about how it wouldn’t be hard for him, he already shot him in the head before.

Quentin and Toad then have their hands full as they encounter Husk and the other evil students who they end up in battle with. Idie is watching the battle on the screen as she proceeds to take out Kade, now that she finally KNOWS he’s the one who shot Broo. Before she can kill Kade she sees as Toad refuses to fight Husk, professing that its because he loves her. So she decides to change her mind (i assume). She and Quentin bust out of the school, she with the resolve to experience love before she dies.

While all of this was happening the Jean Grey staff was still in search of the Hellfire school when Krakoa tells them (through Rachel, psychically) that he knows where to find the school... blah blah blah

REVIEW

Really, its a comic book you’d be glad to pick up if you’ve been following.. Sooo much took place on the panels I didn't know WHAT to get into in this review or how much to include in the recap. So i’ll just tell you to go ahead and pick it up.

WHAT I LIKE ?

It was action packed and the various plots and stories all moved forward satisfactorily in this one Issue. We jump in at a point (as far as i can recall) which is a bit further from where we left off last issue. But it was okay because what didn't see (the off panel decision of Toad to rescue Quentin and the actual beginning of that rescue wasn't necessary). All the action told the story quite well.

The narrative by Idie was also pretty good. I was pleased with how they brought her to her resolve and happy she got her revenge hehe. She went to extreme lengths to uncover Kade’s actions. Both her and Quentin’s self appointed missions prove (well for her mostly, we always knew what Quentin is capable of) that she is waaay more than just the troubled mutant girl from Africa and she is capable of much more than feeling sorry for herself. She went into the Hellfire Academy, it now seems, with the purpose of exposing Kade as Broo’s shooter before carrying out ting her revenge.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE ?

Apart from overemphasizing how bad the HELLFIRE Academy is... Nothing much.

I’m also not sure I like Idie donning the Black Queen garb. I’m by no means conservative. But at times it is confusing how they depict these youngsters in comics. I think, for her age (which from what i recall is about 13) that’s a little bit much (or too little?) for her to be wearing. But Marvel’s depiction of youngsters (both visually and characteristically) have always been confusing and seem to vary based on how they fit them into a story. At times 12 year old’s will look and act and relate to others as though they were 16 (or even 18 or 20). So am not sure how to hold these characters in my mind. The Black Queen costume is undoubtedly hypersexualized by nature and seeing Idie in it just made be a little uncomfortable.

There’s a lot more to the story than is even mentioned here.. So if you havent already, go pick it up.

I give an 8.

Review Ultimate Comics : X-men #29

Ultimate Comics : X-men #29

Most people who pick up this comic seem to really like it. I feel alone in the world when i think about how much it sucks to me. I think its possible that one day I might read these last couple arcs over, back to back and actually like; just not right now. If I’m honest, I’m just about over this title and I have a few theories as to why I don’t like it . Won’t get into that here, so I’m just going to review this.

RECAP

The comic kicks off in the results of the last arc NATURAL RESOURCES. Utopia has grown and expanded, under the leadership of Kitty Pryde. However, she and Jimmy don’t really seem eye to eye so he leaves her in favour of joining Rachel on Tian.

Storm is still in a relationship with Lockheathe, Colossus returns (seemingly with some stranger who is his new man?) and Nomi is writing in her diary out in the sentient seed forest. Of course peace doesn’t reign for very long before Jean, of Tian, sends a self adapting bio-weapon to take out the sentient seed, and herein is the beginning of a next conflict (that, considering the trends these days, is likely to get this story nowhere but back to status quo... but let me not get into that). The sentient seed is still holding on to life, barely, and (jungle girl/coo coo) Rogue is not pleased, naturally. Nomi fulls Farbird out of the sky and sentient seed ties him down (and Kitty is somewhat surprised at the range of her powers ? really Kitty ? as if almost killing you,among other feats, wasn't proof enough?).

Jean Grey seems to be off the wall, she believes for mutants to continue to thrive on the planet they MUST be unified under Tian and she isn’t a fan of Kitty’s pacifist ways and leadership. We get to see fire girl and winged boy again (yay! :) ) who don’t seem to quite understand or agree with Jean grey attacking Utopia, but it seems they do little to stop her. Jean sends in her drones to attack.

Colossus and storm are first to encounter the drones (love the art). Kitty is meditating when she hears of the attack. Then we see Jimmy kneeling before phoenixy coo coo Jean

REVIEW

First off... what I hated about coming out of the last arc was that nothing (much) changed at the end. Which feels like a waste of paper. We got answers to several questions and apparent inconsistencies seemed to be tied up and fixed. i.e. Psyloche being alive again turned out to just be some mystery person (entity? mutant?) posing as Psyloche and it turns out she’s manipulated MOST of the events and relations on Utopia psychically from the beginning. So in the end the mutants were not captured by the Government, Nomi returned and mended (for the most part?) her relationship with Kitty and all of Utopia is back together again where it started. I just felt that the story went through so much to develop this rift on Utopia and to make this sentient seed only to resolve it to being mostly a result of pseudo Psylocke’s manipulation (just when i was getting to LIKE the fact that Psylocke was resurrected *sigh*)

So basically this whole issue for me has been one where I’m wondering, when are we gonna get out of this Utopia drab and go somewhere with the story that I actually like (possibly soo? Tian maybe? Out in the real world again maybe?). But as I said, a lot of readers seem to appreciate where the book is now and where its going. They seem to like the slow narrative that to me just seems to lead nowhere..... nowhere.... exciting for me... Even if my dream of some semblance of the classical x-men doesn't return to the Ultimate Universe pages. I’m just really not feeling this incarnation of the mutant groups/population.

And its not JUST the slow blooming storytelling, but the characters themselves don't thrill me. They all feel so lackluster, when it is they don't feel crazy. I mean really, ANYONE would be different after everything that happened in Ultimatum and its aftermath. But they all seem so remarkably changed I don't feel like I’m even familiar with the characters or their situation anymore. But maybe that's how it’s supposed to be. Things ARE supposed to be different after all. But It’s not in a way I like. Too different I guess.

Everyone thinks Jean is nuts... me too... she’s always had a few loose screws. But I also feel like Kitty is a little coo coo... and Rogue and her swinging through trees bit … Only Storm would feel like she hasn't changed that much or unbelievably, and that's only because she’s a supporting role in these stories mostly... good for flying around and making rain and lightning. Jean and Storm were two of the first characters I’d gotten gotten to know and love from the initiation of the the Ultimate Universe’s X-men. Today most of the characters I’ve followed over the years just feel so unfamiliar. I feel like I’m that dead guy who can see everything that's going on and just keep screaming “snap out of it my beloved friends! What is up with you?! Go fight some bad guys for old time’s sake :’( ” but no one hears because the world is not what it was like before I died. Haha.

I don't know. Maybe this book IS good and it’s the taste of nostalgia that i can't get out of my mouth.

WHAT I LIKED ?

The art! - love the smooth as opposed to plated depiction of colossus that was for the most part how they’ve been doing it in the Ultimate U (with a few exceptions). Plus on a whole this is the kind of art I like for these comics :)

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE ?

The pacing of the story and character development. I just want them to get off that piece of land. Its miserable and the drama ain't moving me and the action just comes and passes the time. Didn't need another book full of exposition and then empty panels with beautiful art. I needed to laugh, I needed to cry, I needed to “gay gasp” and squeal in excitement. I needed to be MOVED. And if cameos (Colossus? ha!) and action sequences with Storm (the “empty” panels i mentioned before) ain’t doing it for me then I can't help but feel like something is just really wrong with the book or with me. (I LOVE me some Storm and Colossus btw).

I give it a 6.5 .