New Comic Wednesday March 7th

As promised, here's the books I bought for Wednesday.


Civil War: Initiative #1

Cover: Iron Man with Cap's swiss cheese shield holding the U.S. flag- Hmm, his side won I take it? A clean cover but with so many Civil War books going on I just don't care anymore. Feh.

Story: A bunch of post Civil War tales crammed in one hefty issue- the recruitment (by Sasquatch) of the killer of Alpha Flight to lead the newly created Omega Flight (as Vindicator). Tony guiding his team of evil (yet controlled) Thunderbolts to track down an unregistered mutant. Ms. Marvel requesting Spider-Woman's return to the Avengers, and some snippets of other issues including Cap's assasination. We'll miss ya Cap.

Art: Silvestri to me, is a future version of Michael Turner. Turner's women always end up looking the same. It's also a grittier step down from Steve McNiven's art. Possibly to show the aftermath/damage from Civil War? Who knows? I enjoyed the art regardless. A nice intro to the new storylines to come. Pick this up.



Fantastic Four #543

Cover: Ugh. Why does Thing have so many teeth? When has he ever smiled that much?! Crop Thing out and you have a nice cover- although if you didn't know it was the FF's 45 anniversary- you'd think it was Johnny's 45th birthday. Not the best positioning of the characters to convey the message- but oh well.

Story: Reed and Sue telling Ben and Johnny that they're taking some time off to fix their martial problems since Civil War and have picked Storm and Black Panther as their replacements. Two additional stories- one with Stan Lee helping the FF fight Mole Man. Lee promises Mole Man a cameo in the next FF movie if he stops fighting. Lame. The second story- I didn't bother to read due to the artwork being terrible- something with Johnny at the race track with Spider-man. Eh.

Art: Mike McKone's is a perfect match for the FF. Being a family team with various emotions, his characters speak even before the speech bubbles do. Fantastic. Yeah, that's right.



Fantastic Four: The End #6

Cover: A terrified FF looking upon an unseen terror! BORING...

Story: This was the final sixth issue of the mini-series. It was six issues too many. 'The End' consisted of Sue re-uniting the FF and with the aid of Doctor Strange- then, travel back in time to save Franklin and Valeria from being killed by Doctor Doom. Only to have Doctor Doom escape into the negative zone, kill Annihulus and reign supreme there. That's it. BORING!

Art: I can appreciate Alan Davis's artwork- but the story ruined it for me. Which is odd, since it's usually the other way around for me. Truly not 'THE END' FF story I would've hoped for.



Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man #18

Cover: Black costumed Spidey leaps to save what looks to be Uncle Ben from a PO'ed Sandman. I'm partial to this cover only because of the Spider-man 3 characters. Two more months!!

Story: Flash is on a date with Betty Brandt who share great 'date' dialouge and then she's attacked by thousands of spiders in the bathroom. Sandman and Spidey share some great banter as well. Funny stuff. Pick this up purely for the writing- Wieringo is an added bonus.

Art: Mike Wieringo does it again. 'Nuff said.



Mighty Avengers #1

Cover: Just another random shot of a super team flying towards you action shot. The speed lines are nice. Cho rarely disappoints. A better composition would've made me like this more. Does Black Widow's gun really need to be that huge? I don't see her running around the battlefield lugging that thing.

Story: The new-New (now called Mighty) Avengers assemble! Flashbacks/forwards of a battle with the new team and Tony and Carol Danvers discussing who and why each member is a great fit for the team. Bendis brings back the thought bubble to this issue and it doesn't work 90% of the time. Like Tony reading off a lock combo, and Carol sounding like a teenager with constant "yes, no, and man!" responses. Nice to see them back, but ease up before you kill it again. Overall, I really enjoyed this issue. I don't like the line-up of characters yet- but I said the same thing about the previous avengers- and it turned out to be one of my favorite books for NCW.

Art: Cho's work is amazing. Can pull off both facial expressions and action heavy scenes without skipping a beat. Ms. Marvel's nice to look at too- then again, all of Cho's women are.



Ultimate Spider-man #106

Cover: Not good. A skewed Spidey looks upward to an angry Daredevil in this splash page turned cover. What happened to the close up covers Bagley used to draw way back for the original issues? You can tell he's ready to leave- he's had a looong run on this book.

Story: Daredevil confronts Spidey to assist him in killing Kingpin. Oh, and Peter gets back with Mary Jane- doesn't break up with Kitty, and then Kitty shows up as a new classmate at the high school. Ultimate Saved by the Bell.

Art: Bagley is still going strong- but he's tired of it and it shows in his work.


Uncanny X-Men #484

Cover: X-Men fighting in space.

Story: X-Men fighting in space. Xavier is scheduled to be executed after the wedding of Vulcan and Deathbird.

Art: Billy Tan's art is rough (although that's probably the inker), but it does the trick. Seems like everyone is trying to copy McNiven's style. Expect Bagley, he was around waaay before him.



JLA #6

Cover: This isn't the cover I bought. Mine was a battle damaged Amazo/Red Tornado 'bot grimacing with Green Lantern's ring. Creepy and zombie like. I love comics and I love zombies. Brilliant!

Story: The entire JLA struggles to take down Amazo while Red Tornado is savagely beaten by Solmon Grundy. Tornado barely manages to win the fight unleashing a F4 tornado, only to end up back in his robot body.

Art: Ed Benes and Sandra Hope follow in the Jim Lee fashion of cross hatching, big splash pages, and page after page of good old fashioned superheroics.


Robin #156

Cover: I wasn't fast enough/too lazy to grab the cover image. It's Robin's hand reaching out towards a sneaker as the two silhouettes speed down the side of a building. Instantly caught my eye.

Story: Robin consoles the family of a boy in a coma for which he feels devasted. Following up his nightly patrol he comes across a potenial suicide victim on a rooftop. Robin convinces him not to jump and that he only need to talk things out with others. Heeding his own advice Robin calls Nightwing to chat.

Art: Cartoony but not over the top. Almost like a streamlined version of Bagely in both art and story. Minus the annoying teen chatter. Like y'know?


Good gravy, that was a long post- maybe this wasn't such a great idea. I'll have to revise this for next time. My fingers are nubs.