Uncanny X-Men #9 Review
Cyclops was right.
No matter what anyone says, I believe that as long as he doesn’t flip his shit and do something immensely stupid. Thus I follow him in Uncanny X-Men, where his revolution is underway…well, more like training right now, but the point remains. Cyclops wants equality for mutants, yet every one of his old allies is labeling him a terrorist when so far he’s only helped those who needed it.
Tempus manifested her powers by accident and created a time bubble that lasted for 20 hours, but no one was hurt, and the moment Emma helped her dropped it the military had guns trained on her. Triage’s friend fell over dead and he laid hands on her and brought her back, discovering he was a healer, only to get arrested for it. Goldballs (well, Fabio since he never officially took it) was working as a fast food vendor when his powers manifested and the cops tazed his ass. Hijack was simply experimenting with his powers, hurting no one in the process, and his girlfriend sold him out to some security guards who promptly shot him and then threatened to do the same to her.
I’m not seeing a terrorist here, but apparently everyone else is. While Wolverine is keeping the ones he finds inside the school walls where they don’t face the cruelty of the world, Cyclops is doing as he promised at the end of X-Men: Consequences and keeping them alive. I respect both of them and see the merit in both of their ways, but there is no doubt that Cyclops is doing what’s necessary.
Now, setting aside my rant, we are going into issue 9, which is after Fabio was returned home by Cyclops after he asked to because he got sent to Hell. Like Cyclops said, it’s not for everyone and the X-Men get sent there all the time for one reason or another. Pixie lost a part of her soul there and Magik lost even more.
Anyway, Dazzler appears and is working for SHIELD to try and get answers out of him. She’s being reasonable until Fabio’s Dad tried to shoot her and she went off like a flashbang. Not a good outing for her first assignment.
Cyclops is training the newbies as David Wong (calling him Hijack if he’s Mexican is going to cause some issues I’m sure) demonstrates his power by lifting their plane. Yes, as Benjamin discovered, they do have a plane. Where they got it I have no idea.
Irma Cuckoo decided to be her own woman and difference herself from her identical sisters by dyeing her hair black after cutting it. Emma (their mother…sort of, science was involved) supports the vie for individuality while Celeste, who seems to be the new leader of the Hive Mind, sees it as an affront. Given how they lost two of their sisters because one tried to be different I see her reasons for panic, but they should be individuals in the end. Christopher Muse (Triage) also likes it, which earns him some points in her book.
Then comes the news Fabio has been caught. As Emma points out he doesn’t know where they are so they could leave him. But does Cyclops do that to an innocent mutant who has done no wrong…Hell no.
Alison Blair (Dazzler) is being patient in doing her job and questioning him about Cyclops’ base, but she did have him arrested so it was natural that he kind of went mad and lost control of his power. Unlike everyone else though she doesn’t get Poinked, but Fabio won’t give the man who saved him and his team up, even if he doesn’t know anything.
At this point his faith is reward when Cyclops popped up and owned SHIELD with his team. Magneto, Cyclops, Emma, and Magik are somewhat amicable to Alison since they all know each other and ask her to join, but she remains their enemy although she doesn’t try to stop them. To screw with SHIELD a final time, he has David test his power on the carrier they’re on.
A few hours later we have Alison being drugged by Mystique, who I will admit I am surprised by given she was more likely to screw with Wolverine after he screwed up her plans in All New X-Men, her teaching career in Wolverine and the X-Men, and killed her once. She’s says its part of a bigger plan after drugging Alison and taking her appearance.
Now Cyclops has a damn good team assembled so far in the students alone:
- Tempus: Creates time bubbles that can take out the AVENGERS.
- Triage: Healer that can bring back the dead. Always a bonus.
- Hijack: Technopath, useful as shown here. Sentinels are machines.
- Stepford Sisters: Telepaths and Diamond Form, you need a telepath given how the Avengers Unity Squad don’t have one and keep getting their asses kicked.
- Benjamin Deeds: Mystique in training, he just needs some practice.
- Fabio: …yeah, I got nothing. Not everyone hits the jackpot, but he lasted for some time against the forces of Hell, so…
- Angel: 05 X-Men and air superiority. As long as he doesn’t get killed and screw up the time stream its good.
But they are mostly inexperienced and there lies the problem if Mystique is playing a long game. What that game is remains to be seen, but for now my score for this issue is a 3.5 out of 5 for moving the plot along. I’m not really a fan of the artwork, so that was a point, and the synopsis lied once again as we didn’t discover a traitor within his current team working for SHIELD.
B.O.P OUT!!
Fanfic Recommendations 14
Fanfics that I have found interesting and have recently been updated:
A FSN Fanfic
Summary: “With swords that aren’t yours, with skills that aren’t yours, for dreams that aren’t yours. Your entire existence is a lie!” – “Then I’ll show you that even fake dreams can become reality.” A different choice, a different path, a different FATE. Shirou/Multi
A Naruto Fanfic
Summary: What do you get when you cross several interdimensional god like beings, raw boredom, a world of Naruto that went wrong, several years worth of off screen training, common sense, insanity, humor, sarcasm, the Log, explosions, plot, and overall chaos? Apparently a lot of headache medicine for Tsunade. May the Games Begin. Sequel to Yet Again With A Little Extra Help.
A Naruto Fanfic
Summary: “Zest to over-achieve” marks Team 7’s entry into the Ninja world. Kakashi teaches lessons better than he imagines.
A FSN Fanfic
Summary: Sometimes, the tiniest of changes can have the greatest impact on the world. One chance encounter goes in a new direction, and the course of the Holy Grail War is irrevocably changed…
A Naruto Fanfic
Summary: Being ignored and gazed at with hatred can lead someone to become a boisterous and loud orange-wearing shinobi, but it can also drive him to become a silent and invisible introvert. Of the two, Naruto takes the logical choice for a future in the Ninja World. Team Sai-Naruto-Sakura. No pairings. Future of bloodshed and grittiness assured.
A FSN x Sekirei Fanfic
Summary: Honestly, Shirou was beginning to think that he should be used to this; being unwittingly selected to take part in brutal tournament that he had no idea existed until he found himself in the middle of it. Then again, second times the charm, right?
A SAO Fanfic
Summary: What if Akihiko Kayaba had created the Death Game of Alfheim Online rather than the floating castle of Aincrad—a world in which the nine player races are in competition to escape the game, and player killing was not a crime but rather a predictable product of human nature and tribalism in the face of mutually exclusive goals? AU reboot of the SAO universe.
Superior Spider-Man #14 Review
Okay, this is a bit late, but here we go.
Now, for those of you who read this but don’t know what Superior Spider-Man is about, it follows the life of Otto Octavius a.k.a Doctor Octopus after he accomplished his greatest victory yet by swapping bodies with Peter Parker after his old one was beaten too many times and left Peter for dead. As in Peter Parker is dead.
Yes, many fans have flipped their shit over it and called in death threats, but considering the comic is the highest selling one at Marvel right now we know its not going to change anytime soon.
Before Peter died he transferred the memories into Otto and instilled in him a sense of guilt. Add in the fact that he wants to leave a legacy behind, he’s determined to be the SUPERIOR Spider-Man. The differences are obvious, but somehow everyone is an idiot and doesn’t notice the brain swap and just think he’s being an asshole. Even after Otto has executed two villains on-screen in Peter’s body, everyone is just now figuring out he’s not the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man that they are familiar with.
Now, while I knew about Spider-Man before this year I never read any of the comics, but this one caught my interest and led to reading Ultimate Spider-Man and Scarlet Spider, getting me into it and leaving me partial to Otto and this issue takes place after blackmailing Mayor James Jameson to gain The Raft (a prison for villains that they always seem to escape from) and turn it into Spider-Island II.
Unlike most other heroes, he’s approaching the hero business like he would a crime, namely planning it out. He’s got a bunch of Spider-Bots running around to catch crimes on camera, Arachnaught droids, and freaking MINIONS. He’s got a small army on him and tonight he’s decided he’s going to completely screw over the Kingpin.
Kingpin knows he means business, especially after hearing the man forcing Jameson to condone the attack and going into details that he’s going to kill the Hobgoblin and Wisk, and cuts his losses and flee while leaving behind a body double. In the end the battle is won, Jameson is screwed further, and we catch sight of the Green Goblin, who is making Otto look like an idiot by taking in all the remaining men from every crime family Otto has taking down to become the new Kingpin.
Now, Otto’s proactive and I respect that, but his arrogance at believing he’s Superior to most other heroes has left him a little blind to the fact that his Spider-Bots have been hacked and he’s alienating a lot of the hero community lately, which was one of Peter’s strongest ties. Karma dictates that this will bite him in the ass, but until it does I’m enjoying everything so far and give this comic a full 5 out of 5 for beautiful artwork, fight scenes, and foreshadowing the looming threat.
Ultimate Comics All-New Spider-man #25 Review
This issue is mostly Identity Crisises in a Nutshell
Hello all,
Now, I’ve only recently gotten into American Comics this year due to…well, I don’t remember. I think it was learning that Doc Ock stole Peter’s body in Superior Spider-man. But the important thing is I decided to give this reviewing thing a shot and I’ll start with the one from the series I’ve fallen in love with in the Ultimate Marvel Universe and based this fanfic off of.
In this quick review of Ultimate Comics All-New Spider-Man, which will simply be Ultimate Spider-Man from here on to save time, we cover Issue #25.
In this issue we have the aftermath of Cloak, Dagger, and Bombshell’s little tussle that ended up wrecking Gwen Stacy’s workplace. Now, this is New York post-ultimatum so that sort of thing is nothing new, but the issue that presents itself here is that there are conflicting opinions amongst the majority.
Gwen Stacy feels that Miles needs to take on the mantle of Spider-Man once more. She feels betrayed since she and May Parker opened their hearts to him and passed the mantle of Spider-Man to Miles personally. She knows a bit of what he’s going through since her father, and her technically, both died because of Spider-Man’s enemies.
May feels differently in the fact that he should decide for himself the path he takes. In addition, she has always been vocal about not letting little children (which Miles counts as in her eyes) fight against the types of enemies heroes do. She witnessed her nephew die in front of her eyes facing off against six superpowered enemies with a bullet in his gut. It’s natural that she wouldn’t want the cycle to repeat.
Katie Bishop, Mile’s girlfriend, knows something is off since he’s broody. There’s a bit of humor in the issue in that she thinks Miles and Ganke had a fight about Ganke having a crush on him. The fact that this is the second time it has been brought up and by his girlfriend this tiime only serves to amuse me as so far Ganke has only showed extreme interest in Legos and getting Miles in the black and red spandex…okay, that’s too easy. I’m not going to crack a joke about that.
Ganke points out that he’s saved so many people because he acted, but Miles doesn’t want to be pushed by everyone to get into the role of the webslinger again. The issue Miles has is that he’s lost his mother. It’s understandable as his greatest fear was that being Spider-Man would endanger his loved ones.
He was completely right.
His father was crippled when Venom came to his door based on a lousy reporter making a guess that labeled his father as Spider-Man. His doting uncle became an abusive asshole who tried to push him into crime and threatened to out him to his parents. His mother was shot because Venom went after his father again (and she plugged the symbiote with several rounds to save her son), and the police have a hard-on for trying to shoot at anyone in a costume or with powers post-ultimatum, despite he was a 13-year old runt at the time.
He feels the weight of a mantle that wasn’t originally his and the deaths of his loved ones on his shoulders.
We then skip back to Dagger and Cloak’s transformation and how they escaped. Naturally, they don’t exactly feel comfortable about what they’ve become, the literal physical manifestations of light and darkness. Given that in the earlier volumes Tandy had issues with mutants, its rather karmic but they still didn’t deserve to be turned into human guinea pigs and had their deaths faked.
Eventually the one who drives Miles to act is Jessica Drew, Spider-Woman, and clone of Peter Parker.
She admits she’s got some identity issues that come from cloning, but she’s doing what she can to be her own woman. She and Miles are the result of people fucking with the natural order in an attempt to recreate Captain America and got it right to an extent. She points out that SHIELD won’t do a damn thing since they’re in deep and it’s for reasons like that Spider-Man is needed, so that what happens to them doesn’t happen to others.
So that innocent people don’t suffer at the hands of Roxxon’s tampering.
Jessica doesn’t force him to do anything, not after she brought up his mother the first time they met after the time skip. She doesn’t try to force him into the mask like the others do, not by slapping him like Gwen or calling him a coward like Ganke. Out of everyone else, she comes off as the most sincere.
The result?
He’s Back
Overall this issue was…drama-heavy. I’m an action junkie, I need action, but this tugged at my heartstrings and the angst was understandable. The art was lovely and without a doubt that last page is beautiful.
My Rating is a 4/5.
July 2013 Bleedman Update: Grim Tales and Sugar Bits
Read the rest of the comics at Snafu-Comics
Read the rest of the comics at Snafu-Comics
Fanfic Recommendations 13
Fanfics that I have found interesting and have recently been updated:
Ultimate Vanguards Chronicles 1-2
An Ultimate Spider-Man Fanfic
Summary: Being Spider-Man cost him his uncle, mother, and crippled his father, leaving Miles a broken young man still putting together the pieces. But the city needs him, so he reluctantly dons the mask for a second time, and join hands with a few others to become what the city needed, but not without a price as they would learn in their journey to be heroes. An AU Ultimate Spider-Man story.
A Harry Potter Fanfic
Summary: Harry Potter may be the brother of the Boy-Who-Lived and his parents may still be alive, but that doesn’t mean everything is perfect. While he may not want anything to do with the upcoming war between Light and Dark, he’ll end up walking between them. An AU fanfic involving Harry Potter as a Ravenclaw and based off Neither Light nor Dark: Steelclaws & Gray Coats.
A Naruto Fanfic
Summary:What do you get when you cross several interdimensional god like beings, raw boredom, a world of Naruto that went wrong, several years worth of off screen training, common sense, insanity, humor, sarcasm, the Log, explosions, plot, and overall chaos? Apparently a lot of headache medicine for Tsunade. May the Games Begin. Sequel to Yet Again With A Little Extra Help.
A Bleach Fanfic
Summary: The aftermath of a successful attempt at time-travel. Aizen is dead, but there are still plenty of upcoming challenges that Ichigo and his companions must face. Sequel to Hogyoku ex Machina; does not fully comply with Bleach canon after the Deicide arc.
A Naruto Fanfic
Summary: Being ignored and gazed at with hatred can lead someone to become a boisterous and loud orange-wearing shinobi, but it can also drive him to become a silent and invisible introvert. Of the two, Naruto takes the logical choice for a future in the Ninja World. Team Sai-Naruto-Sakura. No pairings. Future of bloodshed and grittiness assured.
A FSN Fanfic
Summary: How does the Grail choose a Master or a Servant? Fact of the matter is, it knows the difference between want and need. Masters of the Fourth Holy Grail War know they want a strong Servant, but the Grail knows the Servants they need.
A Nanoha Fanfic
Summary: There’s no such thing as happily ever after. Life goes on – even dearly bought. All Precia’s plans may come to nought as shadowy actors take to the stage. But nothing unmasks a man like his use of power.
Twilit Dreams Circle 