Have a seat at the comics bar, I’ve got some review shots lined up for you. First one comes from ChipReece on the forums who reviews X-Factor #6:
So initially I bought this book because it is the 1st appearance of Apocalypse. In this issue Cyclops is upset because of the way the team handled a fight and the damage they caused in the process. The writer shows that “frustration” by having Cyclops shoot his eye-beams all over the place and even at times during heated conversation, yes conversation, with his teammates he is shooting at them. It was so ridiculous I could barely get through the issue. The writer portrayed him as a giant baby running around with eye lasers the entire issue. Too much reliance on visuals to prove how “frustrated” he was. Guess it was making up for the cruddy dialogue.
I was surprised to find the Apocalypse appearance to be a letdown. He was a push over in this issue. I always remembered him in the X-Men cartoon of the 90’s as being this indestructible warrior, but not so in this issue.
The artwork was fine. Nothing overly impressive, but the cover I think is pretty cool. Has that great classic look to it, and it looks to say “hey, there’s this new villain who is going to completely own these X-Pansies,” but the dull story does not deliver on that shiny promise.
Niko aka Avengersfan223 says of Uncanny X-Men #539:
Hope Summers, the Mutant Messiah, is kidnapped by a dying mutant who wants to live longer, after going
shopping with some other mutants. Her friends instantly go back to Utopia (the X-men Island) and find wolverine,
telling him what has happened. He then tracks down Hope and sneaks her out of her cell. But that is not the end. The dying mutant has his workers find Wolverine and Hope. When they do not surrender the worker in a helicopter shoots a ball of fire and it hits wolverine sending him away into a ditch. But he survives. Hope battles with the dying mutant and he slices her in the face with a knife. The rest is for you to find out. This story also shows that wolverine is caring inside, and demonstrates how his character is becoming kinder and more caring than he used to be.
The book was drawn by Ibraim Roberson, and Colored by Jim Charalampidis. It had a realistic effect that I found appealing.
Next round is on me:
Flashpoint #3 was the strongest issue of the series. The heros are galvanized into action by Barry’s desperate resolve to “fix” the time line. Cyborg helps Flash and Batman infiltrate an underground facility housing “project Superman”. Kal-El has been kept prisoner, away from the sun for what appears to be most of his life. He is effete, pale and weak. Of course as soon as he sees the sun, his power returns to him. But he is unable to understand what all that implies. Will Barry and co. be able to handle this weapon of mass destruction? Was this a mistake? We’ll find out. For now I’m happy to enjoy this truly original take on the Superman character. Flashpoint isn’t the most elegant and graceful story but it has fun moments and does basically what I expect from an event. Call it a functionally awkward story.
I decided to forego Flashpoint Aquaman due to issue #1 not being a particularly strong outing. I did pick up the Citizen Cold tie in and it reminded me of when I lost my virginity; Kind of awkward but I’m pretty certain I enjoyed it. But let’s not dwell on this subject.
The Deathstroke mini on the other hand is firing on all cylinders. It doesn’t have many cylinders to fire on but that has its simple charm. In this issue, Aquaman is still very angry at something for some reason. He and Ocean Master kill a bunch of Deathstroke’s crew with tridents so there’s that going on. We’re not exactly sure what this has to do with the story other than it just sort of happened. But it’s a bloody fun time and then it’s over. The rest of the story has more to offer in terms of subtlety. The art duties are relayed and that’s nominally distracting but once I settled in the new look I was able to enjoy the interesting dynamics within this ragtag crew of criminals. I’d like to see this developed in the future (oh yeah that’s right, never mind then). By issue’s end Deathstroke’s ship is ambushed. I’m not sure how several gigantic oil tankers in the middle of a flat ocean, manage to sneak up on Deathstroke and his crew which includes a meta human with the power of sonar. But hey, explosions!
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