Battle of the Atom Part 7 (X-Men #6) Review
Under different circumstances I would feel elated at this sight…I’m not a Wolverine Fan.
Okay, so issue #7 of Battle of the Atom Review Time. Let’s get to it.
To begin with Jubilee wakes from her nap to her adoptive baby Shogo’s crying. You see, Young Iceman left him with Broo the Brood. Now, while Broo is one of the softest characters I have seen in an X-Men comic pre-bullet to the head, he’s going to terrify an infant. There’s no helping that.
Jubilee then receives a little present from Bling! and Armor for him, which will protect him from harm, since it is pointed out the X-Men don’t exactly inspire safety given they are attacked weekly by something. It’s keyed into Jubilee’s biometrics already and, when it is suggested someone else adds in, she offers Bling! the second spot since she came up with the idea. Bling! is flattered, but she’d rather have someone to talk to over Mercury. Teen romances aside, they then hear the alarm telling them that the others have returned.
Wolverine tells Rachel with telepathy to keep an eye on the future X-Men they’re with mentally. He claims something feels off. Good guess…only about six issues too late to matter. Eventually these X-Men drop the charade when they find out that Magik took Young Beast and Young Iceman to the future, causing Xavier to start acting like a douche bag attack Bling!, which gives Rachel an opening to look into his mind and declare Logan was Right.
Bullshit. Everyone with a brain cell knew better than to trust them. It shouldn’t have taken that damn long.
Xavier tells Future Kitty to ‘Do it’ and she shapeshifts into a male Mystique with Wolverine claws and shanks him, calling him Dad in the process. Given that Wolverine has a shitty track record with his own kids, this doesn’t surprise me. I’m still wondering how the child was conceived when Logan and Mystique have tried (and succeeded occasionally) to kill one another and she’s currently with Sabertooth. Xavier then has Xorn Jean take out the X-Men in Hank’s Lab, where she blasts Old Hank by accident and he decides to lock down the school while she goes to help the others up top.
Apparently Blue Wolverine didn’t kill his father since he’s still there, but Wolverine lost his healing factor recently and can barely breath. Jubilee decides to tear out Xavier’s throat with her claws (vampire, remember?) but inches from it Ice Hulk tosses her out of the way and through a solid steel wall. Rogue tries to take his power and mind, but there’s no mind in there so she gets knocked out when he backhands her. Good showing from the Avenger Unity squad member there.
Psylocke decides enough is enough and simply knocks the thing out with a ninety-pound psychic flail, one-handed while holding Shogo, and crack jokes about how being a mom was easy. While I don’t recommend the baby having seen such violence, the thing just knocked out his vampire mommy so I get the sense he felt it was justified. Xavier talks trash to Rachel and makes demands when she puts his ass in his place like the little bitch he is before getting knocked out from behind by Molly.
This is what pisses me off the most. Seriously, why the hell is Molly playing for their team instead of the other future team? Did X-23 gank Chase and Nico or something in Avengers Arena and she blames the others?
Anyway, Deadpool declares his love for Psylocke and wants to express it in battle, but seeing as she’s with child at the moment and Shogo does have a nifty little gift for moments like this, Jubilee tells him to ‘Push the Beep-Beep’. He does and Armor’s power forms around him in the shape of a hamster ball. The kid loves it, but is taken by Jubilee while Psylocke stays to take on Blue Wolverine and Deadpool…I’d give her 50/50 odds.
Old Hank and Xorn Jean in the meantime have locked down the school and taken control of the defenses to attack the other X-Men they know are coming, while Xavier has subdued Krakoa. Xorn Jean tries to play it up like this wasn’t their fault and they didn’t want it to come to this, but it rings hollow considering Wolverine’s about to kick it.
On the outskirts Cyclops’ team has arrived and Sentinel-X goes to assess the situation, where he runs into Jubilee, Bling!, and Shogo. Given that they’ve just had a bad few minutes, you can imagine they are on edge and a guy dressed like Iron Man with a sentinel paint job is asking for trouble. So he removes his helmet and shows he’s Adult Shogo.
This makes a lot of sense seeing as he’s a normal human (maybe) hanging around with the X-Men. He needs some damn protection and Iron Man is just a genius who hangs around with gods, so the suit is a good thing. Jubilee is happy since that meant they never took him away from her as a baby. You know, for being a vampire who hangs around mutants often labeled as terrorists or under attack by purifiers or nimrods. Psylocke then shows up and says that things have gone pear shape, ending the issue.
Now this issue drops the exposition and gets to the damn revelations and action, finally ending the drag fest. And Wolverine got stabbed. These are only good things in my eyes. Finally some damn progression that makes this issue worth picking up, but I can’t say I’m happy with the lead up.
Still it gets a 4 out of 5 and the next issue will hopefully have Cyclops’ saving Wolverine’s ass and making him swallow some humble pie.
Battle of the Atom Part 6 (All New X-Men #17) Review
Bobby Drake (Ice-Man), Quentin Quire (Phoenix), Kymera, Colossus (Piotr), Wolverine (Jubilee) and whoever else the other two are did not save this issue I’m afraid.
It is with some hesitation that I post this review of Battle of the Atom #6, because it does very little and I can safely say that the shortness of this issue could have covered the information in two or three pages and brought more of the story along.
It starts with a flashback of Dazzler becoming the first mutant president, for about thirty seconds. Then she promptly gets killed by, not sentinels, but what looks to be some of those dragon-like creatures from the first issue made by that mutant gone wild. I find it hard to believe that their security sucked so badly she managed to get close enough to cause that much destruction and they were relying on one guy who could duplicate himself. After all the shit they’ve gone through they should know better than that.
What, were they going soft?
Then, in the current future we see the Magik’s team meeting with the future X-Men, who do the whole ‘you need to leave routine’, but Colossus is happy to see his sister and has her sword (which is basically her soul). Meaning some real bad stuff went down. Given that present Colossus told her he would kill her the last time they met for manipulating him into becoming the Juggernaut, I would have rather the issue focused on that.
But, after the first round of the usual spiel, we flashback again with Beast stating that for every two steps forward they take seven back as he hangs over Dazzler’s corpse. At this point the future X-Men reveal they know about the team who went back to the past, but rather than stopping them from screwing up the time stream by dragging them back, they just tell the others to go to stop making it worse. Freaking Young Iceman points this out by the way.
So, after Quentin threatens to throw Young Beast into the sun in the same manner that Logan tried to kill young Cyclops, a few of them want to vote to help since they hold some blame. Kymera and Piotr are for, Wolverine against, In the end, Older Cyclops team makes it back to their school when Magik pops up with the real future X-Men.
This issue was really short and, again, most of the details were a rehashing of the last few issues with a backstory that could have been solved in 2-4 pages. I can’t give this more than a 2 out of 5 as it is in no way worth the cost of the comic and the event is dragging along. They should have just made a villain from the future come back to the past or something.
Hell, they could have brought the girl from the first issue as the main future villain.
Fanfic Recommendations 16
Fanfics I have wrote that have been updated:
Harry Potter and the Path of Indifference #6
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.
Fanfics that I have found interesting and have recently been updated:
Harry Potter and the Temporal Beacon
A Harry Potter Fanfic
Summary: At the end of 3rd year, Hermione asks Harry for some help with starting an interesting project. If a dark lord’s got a 50-year head start on you, maybe what you need is a little more time to even the playing field. AU, Timetravel, HHr, mild Ron bashing. Minimizing new powers, just making good use of existing ones.
A Harry Potter/FSN Fanfic
Summary: The series is a retelling of Harry Potter books with the titular character, alongside two other ones readers didn’t really care about, being replaced by three characters (Emiya Shirou, now known as Shirou von Einzbern; Aozaki Takara, with her name unchanged; Jester, with his name becoming Galen Salvatore) from one of his earlier works. With Neville Longbottom being the one of whom the prophecy speaks after Harry Potter’s death at the hands of Lord Voldemort, they are trying to fix what is left of the world they knew from books and movies, to have a place to live.
Poké Wars: The Defervescence 7
A Pokemon Fanfic
Summary: Humanity’s genocide is at hand, but the road to utopia won’t be an easy one. Unforeseen consequences have forced me to remove those unfit for my paradise. By the end of the day the world will never be the same, and those remaining exist because I will it. Sequel to Poké Wars: The Incipience.
A Naruto Fanfic
Summary: What if Naruto had been selected for a different team? What if he’d had a different mentor? Who would guess the consequences would be so large?
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 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.
A Fate Stay Night Fanfic
Summary: When the Einzberns summon a different Servant for the 5th War, Shirou Emiya winds up summoning the Red Saber from Fate/Extra. With this Servant by his side, Shirou’s in for a Grail War unlike any other. Done as a response to The Infamous Man’s challenge.
A Fate Stay Night Fanfic
Summary: Emiya Kiritsugu was happy living the rest of his short days. He had put his past behind him… until he began to dream of futures that had yet to be. Let it be known that the Magus Killer was not dangerous simply because he was dying and had no plans to fight.
Ultimate Comics All-New Spiderman #27 Review
It’ll be funny if the glass is reinforced…
It’s that time again folks, where I review a comic in depth so you don’t have to, so let’s jump right into it shall we?
Issue #27 opens with Cloak and Dagger realizing they are way over their heads and are still coming to terms with what they’ve become. Being a teenager is hard enough, but being one who gained superpowers without consent is another story entirely. See the Chronicle Movie for just how bad that can go. Then explosions happen in the distance and they leave to check it out.
About eight minutes prior we go back to Taskmaster manhandling the group using some illegal Hydra technology to paralyze them. When he tries to remove Miles’ mask like any decent villain should, despite the fact that he’s never met the guy and probably won’t be able to pick a single African-American teenage boy in New York out of the thousands there. However, Miles takes the Batman approach and, like a mook touching the cowl, the man gets tasered.
But it isn’t enough to take him out and he tosses Miles off the side of the bridge. This fortunately puts Miles outside the range of the device paralyzing him, so he can save himself and web-swings around to save Jessica before she gets a bullet to the head. She gets rid of the device and reads him his rights, telling him that he’s just tried to kill the equivalent of a super-cop (she’s an agent of SHIELD) while Bombshell runs away. She hammers him hard, but the Taskmaster no-sells the hits and gets ready to slit her throat.
Bombshell watches in the distance as Miles jumps on the man and Venom Blasts him, only for him to no-sell that too and reveal he’s a power-absorber of some kind. He then fries Jessica with Miles’ attack and throws her off the roof for him to catch while he preps a rocket launcher. Bombshell then decides to blast him, causing the explosion that we saw at the beginning, meaning this guy has been wailing on the good guys for like eight minutes.
Unfortunately for her, he absorbs her power and gets ready to nail her with it. Fortunately for her, that when the Spider-Pair webs his hands and makes him blow himself up. He comes out okay, but Cloak and Dagger show up and Cloak settles it by swallowing the man into his body, which tends to have the adverse effect of draining life-force if Dagger isn’t there with whoever else is, and then spits him out.
Jessica then finds his phone that conveniently has the fact that Roxxon took out a killing contract on them. Then she says screw it and decides to take him down vigilante style, rather than an agent of SHIELD or the Ultimates, and asks who’s in as the Police arrive. They all decide to join her.
Roxxon is going down!
The new team has been assembled and they had their first super-powered fight, which I enjoyed. The art is amazing as always too, and we are reaching the end of the Spider-Man No More Arc. Perfect score all around!
RWBY Episode 10: The Badge and the Burden Part 2
This episode continues from the last, which has Weiss going against some kind of boar Grimm. She handles it, but her intolerance of Ruby reaches its breaking point afterwards with her flat-out stating that Ruby wasn’t fit to be the leader when it should have been her. Note that at this point it has only been a day after the forest trials.
As Weiss leaves to sulk Ozpin appears from behind Ruby to give her some advice befitting the wise mentor role, while Weiss meets with the teacher who calls her out on her sense of entitlement and seemingly reaches her. When night falls and Weiss returns to the dorms she seems to have cooled her head a little while Ruby has been studying and gives her some coffee to continue, amending the earlier argument.
All-in-all, progress is made in both team dynamics and character development. I approve, so I give this episode a 4 out of 5.
Superior Spider-Man #18 Review
Despite the cover, there’s not a lot of fighting!
Now, remember how Otto erased Peter’s memories? This would be one instant where it bites him in the ass, because Miguel O’Hara has met Peter Parker before. If he kept those memories he would probably have been more inclined to listen to the time-traveler and not cause a scuffle that he loses and wounds his ego.
The battle begins with claws drawn after Otto tries to knock out O’Hara, but Otto’s can’t scratch his outfit because it’s future tech. Low-future tech at that, which insults Otto into trying to crush him with a car. At this point Tiberius uses a device he literally kept up his sleeve to make Otto’s spider-sense go bonkers and endanger a child, which O’Hara saves since he doesn’t have spider-sense. O’Hara notices with his enhanced senses that Tiberius was responsible and disappears with him as Otto claims he would never endanger a child to the child’s mother, which he normally wouldn’t, and then shifts the blame on her for trying to take over Horizon.
Smooth, Otto. Really smooth.
At this point they notice the pair are gone and Otto tells his men to start searching for O’Hara since future Spider-Man is far more dangerous with the knowledge of Parker’s identity. It’s then that his girlfriend calls, Anna Marie, and reminds him of his thesis. Since it’s using Horizon’s resources that means they’ll own it and he would be damned before they get his projects, so he decides to smuggle it out immediately.
O’Hara, in the meantime, is facing the hero’s dilemma. His father, the future Stone, is stabilizing, meaning he’s doing what he’s suppose to. But that means that the future evils Alchemax will commit will come to pass. He’s weighing his own existence against just ridding them from the time stream for the good of all, like a hero normally would, since he has the power to change things now.
Unfortunately Tiberius heard the words “Ancestor” slip from O’Hara’s mouth when talking to his father over his line. He puts together that whoever his descendant was he was someone important enough to send a future Spider-Man to save. He tests this theory by throwing himself over a building. He risks the timeline for this and naturally that pisses O’Hara off and leaves him webbing the guy to a wall and calling for some help from the future to give him an info dump on current events and the connect between everything.
In the meantime, one of Horizon’s employee’s goes to the past while cloaked and catches Tiberius stealing data, while the Otto’s boss catches him smuggling out his goods and states he’s not the man he brought into Horizon. Otto receives a call about the Hobgoblin (Green Goblin in disguise) and decides to leave to handle him, costing Peter his job. At the same time O’Hara learns that Tiberius sabotaged Horizon to literally explode, on that very day, and rushes back to stop it, with Otto spotting him as he hangs up on MJ calling him.
At the end O’Hara arrives to tell them he needs to change the future and that they’re about to blow up, when Otto cold-cocks him and possibly damages his time traveling device to prevent a paradox. In short, Otto has screwed Peter’s life over royally and endangered the people at Horizon at this very moment because of his ego.
The issue was beautiful as always but, to my sorrow, Otto is turning into an unlikeable character. If he put aside his ego for one second so many problems could have been solved. Then again he is a former super-villain. On the other hand, breaking the Status Quo does make things more interesting, but Karma tends to be a bitch about it and I have the feeling that Anna Marie is going to pay the price.
After all, she’s a love interest and the Green Goblin is running around. The fact that he went after a future hero rather than villain only worsens things. Her days and relationship are numbered.
The issue gets a 4 out of 5.
RWBY Episode 9: The Badge and the Burden
Not much to cover in this episode. Following the team’s formation Ruby has been made the team leader, which bothers Weiss to no end given that the youngest of the group is the one calling the shots when Weiss considers herself the smartest. The episode begins their schooling as well, with Weiss growing more and more aggravated as things continued until she volunteers to handle a monsters the professor brought it.
I found it a bit difficult to keep my attention with this episode, but the background information did provide insight into the world they lived in. I’ll give it a 3 out of 5.
Battle of the Atom Part #3 (X-Men #5) Review
Well, it’s Marvel Wednesday again so it’s time for a review. This time it’s the continuation of the 10-part Battle of the Atom story that started this month.
The issue begins with Older Jean explaining she can’t keep that Xorn helmet off for more than a few minutes because her powers have grown out of control without it. When Jubilee (now a vampire mother if you weren’t keeping up with her story) points out that the kids stole what was apparently their only Blackbird, Xavier and Old Beast point out that it was hardly the only one they had and end up forcing Modern Beast and Teen Beast to reveal they made a second one that they call Dove. Xavier then pops a pill called a Cerebro Spike and they take off after the two teens. That’s right, drugs are good for you in the future apparently.
Teen Scott and Teen Jean meanwhile steal some clothing and someone’s bike to continue their getaway as the future team secures the Blackbird. Xavier’s drug kicks in and creates a Cerebro-like projection allowing him to track the teens down with Older Jean’s help. At the school, however, Rachel and Kitty find themselves at an impasse because they don’t want to force the kids to go home.
Considering that Rachel (and her brother) both come from the future or alternate future and stay in the present, she feels like she doesn’t have the right to throw stones, while Kitty feels comfortable around them and hates the idea of sending them back to the past where they will be mind-wiped and suffer (Scott being possessed, Jean dying twice, Beast becoming Beast, Angel getting wiped after being Archangel), so they decide to be irrational and interfere. I could say that this is a case of putting their feelings ahead of the fabric of space and time, but at this point it doesn’t really matter. So many teams and heroes interfere with the space and time fabric that it happens all the time.
Anyway, the teenage runaways send out a call for help when they get spotted by the future team and thus begins a game of cat and mouse, involving Teen Scott finally blasting Beast for bringing them there and then trying to get them to go back. No matter how you look at it this is his fault in the first place (which Maria Hill will attest to in the next issue if you read the previews). Rachel and Kitty arrive and lays into the adults which gives the runaways time to steal their ride. How they managed to do that around people that have augmented senses and telepathy escapes me short of the fact that the plot demanded they do it.
The issue ends with them heading to Utopia and meeting who Teen Jean called for help, Older Cyclops and his team. Teen Scott is not pleased since they haven’t been seeing eye-to-eye. Personally, I’m looking forward to conversations between the teens and this team of newcomers and leaders.
This issue was more plot advancement but realistically speaking there is a major flaw in this whole storyline in general, in that it shouldn’t have happened in the first place. To begin with, Beast shouldn’t have brought them into the future knowing that they would learn several things that would entice them to stay. He was dying, but come on all his accusations at Older Scott about abusing his power ring hollow considering he’s responsible for this.
On top of that, while I respect they let the teens make their own decisions, common sense dictated that they really should have forced them back so they didn’t risk breaking the time-stream again. Short of undoing all of X-Men history we know they’re going to go back one way or another and get mind-wiped. Of course, what Professor Xavier does with the knowledge of how the future plays out will be the question I’m asking.
Either way I honestly don’t see this going ten issues without some kind of antagonist, meaning the future X-Men are either traitors or pawns. Considering that the adults were going to send them back in the first place before the future team pops up and Xavier creeps a good portion of the readers out, it’s another nail in the coffin. That or the enemy from the future shows up.
I give it a 4 out of 5 and await the Uncanny X-Men’s role in the story.
RWBY Episode 8: Players and Pieces
Best. Episode. Ever.
In this episode we see just how badass the crew that has been assembled could be. They have a Deathstalker (read: Giant Scorpion) and a huge crow that rains feathers of death and destruction down. They have their artifacts. They had ten minutes to dazzle me and they did so with concentrated effort.
For starters, Weiss drops the bitchy attitude she’s had for the last few episodes. It felt a little sudden, but given that it was work together or die, I can’t say it wasn’t a necessity.
Then there was Nora. She wields a Hammer/Grenade Launcher and acts like she’s on a sugar high. The fact that Ren can keep up with her is a testament to his abilities, but she can fight.
Next we have the battle. The teams all worked together, with Team Juniper killing the Deathstalker with its own stinger and Team Ruby dealing with the giant crow. They had some rough spots but it was a well choreographed boss battle befitting any RPG.
For the finale we saw Roman Torchwick up to no good, planning to do something massive in Vale. Nice foreshadowing and a perfect wind-up. Perfect episode so far with no bad qualities, so it’s a perfect 5 out of 5.
Battle of the Atom #1 and All New X-Men #16 Review
The following review is for the Battle of the Atom Crossover, chapters 1 & 2, which include the Battle of the Atom and All-New X-Men Ch.16.
We begin with Magik traveling into the future to see what they are fighting for (remember, her mutant power is teleporting stepping disks that can traverse time and space) and sees the future X-Men fighting hordes of Sentinels. That was a flashforward as currently the Original X-Men team at the Jean Grey School are enjoying school lunch, with Teen Bobby thinking of starting a food fight, when they receive an alert of a new mutant causing problems. She’s a career criminal who conjures up dragons and such and decides to lay waste to her city. Before they can subdue her, Sentinels decided to pop up and lay waste to the entire group.
Kitty protects them with her power, but Scott leaves to protect a civilian family and winds up getting blasted. That’s when his older self’s team shows up and the two teams decide to work together to eliminate the threat in general. The beauty of it is that they hold no real animosity with each other, despite the light banter, and work seamlessly to take out the Sentinels. That’s probably because Wolverine and Present Beast were there.
However, one of them gets in a lucky shot and critically injures Teen Scott. This causes Older Scott to literally vanish until Triage (Christopher Muse) manages to bring Teen Scott back to life. Once the police shows up, Cyclops’ team splits.
Back at the Jean Grey school they finally decide to send the kids back because, as it should have been obvious, having one of them die or get critically injured will completely screw up the time stream. That’s when the future X-men show up and volume one ends.
Volume two begins at the New Xavier School, where they are reviewing the battle and Triage is freaked out about his powers and Scott tells him that he’s grateful for the save. Triage then claims that the X-Men are so used to this sort of crazy thing that they have no idea how crazy it is, but Scott assures him he does.
At the Jean Grey school the future X-Men consist of Xavier (named after his Grandfather so Legion and Blindfold must’ve gotten busy), Future Kitty (who hugs Wolverine from missing him and worries present Kitty about her future appearance), Future Beast (who has mutated into a Chimera thing), Ice Hulk (who looks exactly like he sounds), Female Xorn, Molly Hayes, and Deadpool. They tell them they came to send the teenage X-Men back home only for Wolverine to attack.
It turns out that Jean Grey made him do it so she and Scott could get away so she didn’t get sent back to the past. She’s suspicious of them and ran for it, because Xavier shielded the future X-Mens thoughts. It doesn’t help that the last person wearing Xorn’s helmet killed Jean Grey in that school, as Rachel Grey points out. Female Xorn removes her mask to reveal she is in fact a future Jean Grey, who should not exist, indicating they did screw up the time stream.
It ends with the X-Men jet that the pair stole washed up on a beach and them running away.
Okay, so over the last year Marvel has been screwing with time in the Heroic Age (a fact lampshaded in Superior Spider-Man #17) more than usual. We’re not talking simple time-displacements like Rachel Grey and Cable, but have been royally manhandling it by damaging the past. In fact they have literally broken time, so you can imagine as a consequence we have these paradoxes piling up.
It doesn’t help that the original five were allowed to remain in the present when one of their deaths would essentially screw over the time stream even further. With all the Sentinel attacks that’s a given. So their stupidity in taking them into the field is finally rectified as they just seem to be getting the message now that they’ve had an example up front and there’s no doubt it probably made things worse.
Jean Grey is proving not to be the woman everyone looked up to. First she reads minds uninvited, then she manipulates Scott after doing so on Henry failed. They kissed in the last issue, because apparently she feels the need to botch time further as well as teenage hearts, and it is revealed that knowing about her death has led to these abundances of mistakes so she doesn’t want to go back.
Some of the interactions were interesting. Kitty was a bit shocked by her future appearance but notice how they mirrored each other when they discovered the two teenagers were missing, and the present and past Hanks were more fascinated by their appearance than anything. The past and present Bobby’s however, were utter stumped by what they became.
Now, in terms of art work there are certain moments between them that are less than stellar. The Stepford Sisters have identical hair styles in the first volume, which hasn’t been in effect since Irma decided to be a new her. Not to mention Ororo’s face when the reveal that Female Xorn is actually Future Jean Grey.
There are some continuity errors as well, such as the aforementioned hair styles and Christopher freaking out about his powers when at this point he has raised the dead twice. I want to give this a perfect score but, leaving aside the art, this shouldn’t have even taken place as it was stupid of the X-Men to risk their present in the first place.
It gets a 4 out of 5.
Superior Spider-Man #17 Review
Future Badass, Meet Present Badass
This review is for Superior Spider-Man #17, which has been long awaited since it brings forth Miguel O’ Hara, aka Spider-Man 2099.
For those of you who don’t know he’s a scientist who was pressured into messing around with human experimentation and decided enough was enough once it ended badly the first time. He intended to quit but his boss, Tyler Stone, had him drugged with a drug called Rapture that could only be gained by working for the company. Rather than remain an addict, he used the Human Experimentation process to give himself powers and took on a Day of the Dead costume to battle him.
Even when the 2099 line of series ended, this dude was so popular that he ended up in several crossovers and Spider-Men games recently and, when it was falsely dropped that he was going to be the Superior Spider-Man, people got mad at the lie. Hence why he’s here now.
Anyway, it starts with him recognizing the temporal distortions using his enhanced vision and dealing with bi-planes and dinosaurs. At the source of all evil, Alchemax, he discovers that for once it’s not their fault. That’s fairly rare.
Remember all of those events in Marvel screwing with the time stream in the heroic age? Yeah, like sending Galactus to the Ultimate Universe, it has royally screwed with the time stream and is removing Tyler Stone from existence piece-by-piece. Normally that would be a good thing, but he’s Miguel’s father (not that he knows it) and if he’s removed then no more Spider-Man 2099. So, in the interest of self-preservation, and because he has already gone and would create a paradox if he didn’t, Miguel is forced into the present.
In the mean time, we see the fallout of the events of the Run, Goblin, Run arc.
Former Horizon employee Tiberius Stone (note the last name) has blown the whistle on all of their dirty little secrets in order to get revenge, leading to the company being folded into another company that has employed him. He’s relishing the fact that he now has power over them and threatens Peter that he now even owns Spider-Man’s Web Fluid Formula. You don’t threaten the Superior Spider-Man and because his spider-sense was reacting around him, it’s all the justification he needs to beat the man to a pulp.
The Daily Bugle is getting the information from a source, but after the last screw-up they aren’t taking chances with it, since what happened in the last issue. In the Goblin Underground, Phil Urich is reprimanded harshly by the Goblin Kingpin of Crime since his actions could have led to the Goblin Protocol being discovered, but then the goblin gets an idea and lets up on it. At Horizon Labs, the gang apparently has a time machine lying around and decides to go back to the past to get dirt on Tiberius when the machine activates itself and out pops the future Spider-Man.
Otto catches up with Phil, who is still cocky since everything he’s doing at the moment is above the board. Otto, not really caring, decides to end him when Miguel appears and web-lines him since the douche is his Grandfather, meaning if Otto wastes him then no more Miguel O’ Hara.
So, now we have a reason for the two Spider-Men to duke it out. One’s ego and the other’s self-preservation. Considering Otto has so far fought with just about everyone Peter has teamed up with, I really didn’t expect much else but I’m dying to see it through to the end. Miguel has different abilities than most other Spider-Men as he doesn’t have Spider-Sense but enhanced reflexes, sight, natural webs, and can move so fast he leaves a decoy behind.
It’ll be an interesting match-up to say the least.
The art is beautiful as always and I really cant find anything wrong with the issue barring no Spider-Man beating down the other…yet. For this review I give it 5 out of 5 and worth picking up.
RWBY Episode 7: Emerald Forest Pt.2
The episode starts with Glenda Goodwitch observing the team pairings with her tablet that somehow remotely watches the students and makes various observations, including that Jaune is nowhere near ready to be in the big leagues. Yeah, I have to agree with her. Jaune’s not going to make it to the end of the series at this rate.
Ozpin, however, is focused on Ruby. She and her teammate are having their first fight and Weiss comes out looking far worse for it by claiming she seeks perfection and is miles ahead of Ruby, while Ruby comes out slightly more childish. Blake and Yang have arrived at the temple with little trouble and seem to be getting along for the most part. Jaune and Phyrra are at the entrance of a cave, which he fails to notice has the depictions of a giant scorpion on it.
Blake and Yang retrieve their relic in the shape of a knight chess piece when they hear a little girl screaming. It turns out to be Jaune, who has awoken a giant scorpion that tosses him deep into the forest and will probably go hunting in a bit for him. The end has Blake staring into the air, which his shortly filled by Ruby flying towards them somehow.
This episode established a few things:
- Glenda and Ozpin have a means of observing the students without them being aware. Privacy is non-existent.
- Weiss is a perfectionist and has more control issues than I thought, family issues I’m willing to bet.
- Jaune’s transcript was apparently better than what we’ve seen, hence how he got into Beacon and answering my question from last week. Ether he’s a savant or someone did some forgery on it.
- Blake seems to have enhanced hearing considering she looked towards the sky well before we knew Ruby was coming, indicating she may be a Faune. Then again her motif is supposedly Beauty and the Beast, so I shouldn’t be surprised.
Overall, the episode felt like a set-up for a fight against the giant scorpion that Jaune has let loose upon the world. Not much character development, so much as rehashing what we already know. I’m going to have to go for a 4 out of 5.
Ultimate Comics All-New Spider-man #26 Review
First day back in the mask and already captured.
Okay, this review follows the latest issue of Miles journey as Spider-Man and he’s back in the black outfit.
The issue starts with a flashback of Lana’s mother, which is Lori and somehow they mixed up the names, being taken from prison in exchange for being a lab rat for Roxxon. Lana herself has escaped from the two who captured her somehow and looks for her boyfriend (Poey, according to the phone) to take her in, but my guess is that she hasn’t been guarding her secret identity well since he knows about her power and essentially cuts her off. Time to update the facebook status.
Miles and Jessica come to offer her some help, but considering that Spider-Man and Spider-Woman put her and her mother in a jail cell, you can imagine her first instinct was to flee. Miles tries to web her, but he’s out of practice and gets teased by Jessica and later Lana. Back in the past we have the Roxxon Scientist insulting Lori’s intelligence at being a High-School dropout as they give her a superhuman drug, before we skip to Cloak and Dagger, who have no one they can turn to and believe that their parents sold them out. They have some kind of list that has the names of people Roxxon has screwed over and decide to make sure they can’t do it ever again.
At Roxxon, one guy is flipping out because he fears this can be traced back to him, while the scientists tell him that they did what he wanted and made super-humans that they really should retrieve. To that end, they hire a guy called the Taskmaster. We then flashback to when Lori found out about her powers and the fact that she was pregnant. How exactly that happened when she was in either prison or a lab leaves a lot of questions unanswered, unless Lana is a baby born from her power somehow…anyway, she promptly escapes like Cloak and Dagger did, proving that they needed better security back then and now.
In the present Lana is being questioned about being a mutant but denies it, saying she got her powers from her mother. Technically speaking, Lana is a mutant as she was born with altered DNA that allows her to use her powers. Even if her mother had been the one altered by an experiment, she’s a mutant. Anyway, their Spider-Sense goes off and rather than move they stand there and get taken out by a shock puck or something and Taskmaster got all three of them.
I like the issue and the art was gorgeous as always, but I feel that the ending was pathetic as we’ve seen all of them take far more damage than a little taser disk should have put out and react far more quickly when under fire. The flashbacks were okay, but Roxxon is shaping up to be behind everything. The next thing you know it’ll be them who created the mutants and not the U.S. Government.
Now, if you’ve followed the latest news on the series, you’ll know that Miles is scheduled for a trip to the 616 universe soon and that they may end the Ultimate Universe. I doubt it, since there is money to be made, but here’s hoping Marvel doesn’t do anything stupid.
This issue gets a 3.5 out of 5.
Uncanny X-Men #11 Review
Finally, a cover that’s accurate.
It’s Wednesday, meaning it’s comic day, and we’ll start with the Revolutionary Team and Cyclops.
Now, Sentinel attacks are nothing new in the X-Men universe. Chances are there will be one outside your window if any of the X-Men are nearby. So it comes as no surprise that they have one trying to kill them after mere minutes at a Pro-mutant rally, which is something that’s pretty rare considering he’s labeled a terrorist.
Cyclops monologues in his head about how there’s always a coward sending the Sentinels, when it tries to vaporize him. Luckily Magik is there to save his skin and the battle begins. Hijack quickly learns that his powers don’t work on the Sentinel, because heaven forbid the technopath ends the battle with a sentence, and then the Sentinel tries to blast him. Tempus steps in and time freezes the blast while Cyclops curses his powers.
The Stepford Sisters reach into what serves as its mind, or try, and discovers its not a biological or mechanical, something in-between like a cyborg I guess. Some civilians are injured and Triage comes to the rescue to heal them. Then Fabio steps up and the result is pure awesome.
Yeah, he said it.
Fabio accepts his mutant name as Goldballs, which is still stupid, but the badass moment makes up for it until he gets hit by his own balls. Magik follows up and cleaves the thing in half but, much like the Nimrods, the thing has adaptive technology and moves to kill the Eva. Cyclops says it nicely that they’re screwed.
Back on SHIELD’s Helicarrier, Maria Hill is swearing up a storm at the Sentinel attack and the fact that none of her agents are close enough to do something about it. We then cut to Mystique, who is checking on Madripoor after she tried to buy it in All-New X-Men. Hydra and the Hand get into a power struggle and start shooting at each other, which she is looking giddy about.
Back to Cyclops, he’s starting to have a breakdown and going back into the Martyr role, but Hijack makes up by his past failure by throwing a bus at it. And it still didn’t work. Then came Magneto, broken powers and all, and put it the fuck down before it’s called back by its master and the team helps the civilians.
Now, it was a great battle and the new team is coming along nicely. On top of that we came to learn something about who was sending the Sentinels and we’ve seen Mystique. All plot lines are progressing and my guess about it being a set-up seems to be wrong for once. I’m actually happy with everything before Battle of the Atom begins, so it gets a full 5 out of 5 even if the art still disturbs me.
RWBY Episode 6: Emerald Forest
The latest episode of RWBY establishes the pairings that have been advertised so far.
Yang, who relies on her gauntlets and seems to have no reservation when it comes to blowing ammo, is partnered with Blake, the ninja by any other name. The hotheaded and cool girls seem to be complete opposites and would cover one another well and without too many problems. It’s a good pairing.
Weiss, who is the series Red Mage, is partnered with Ruby. These two need a lot of work, but their pairing covers the weakness they both seem to have. Weiss actually took the time to try and get in position to kill a single Beowolf when she was surrounded, meaning enough of them would steamroll her. We’ve seen Ruby handle far more at once but lacks the teamwork to inform her partner where she was, leading to her nearly being hit by friendly fire.
On the other end, Jaune would have been screwed without Pyrrha since he doesn’t know how to activate his Ki (well, Aura) to survive. That catapult launch alone would have killed him and she’s the only one who seems to be willing to teach him without any complications or judgement. He’s a nice kid, but he really isn’t fit to survive and leaves me to wonder how the hell he got into Beacon.
Lie Ren was used as the visual aspect of Pyrrha’s speech in that he was actually less dangerous with his guns than without. He stoic and reserved with Nora to balance it out, a silent and deadly martial artist who has earned my respect in the way he approaches combat. The ass-whupping that he bestowed on that giant pair of snakes was downright awesome.
Overall it was a good episode that balanced the team pairings and explain why they have superhuman abilities without boring me. If I had to rate it, I would give it a 5 out of 5 more or less.
Superior Spider-Man #16 Review
Well, in a way this is exactly what happened…
The latest issue of Superior Spider-Man is the conclusion of the “Run, Goblin, Run” arc.
With his identity exposed, Phil Urich is screwed and he knows it. Naturally, like most people in a familiar situation, he snaps when Spider-Man arrives and takes his girlfriend, Nora Winters, hostage. At the same time this is going on, the writers used television shows to give insight into not only Phil Urich’s past attempts at being a heroic Green Goblin, but the public’s opinion on the current situation and stating whether or not publicly unmasking him like that was the right thing to do. Also, we have the police captain doing the vigilante thing and interrogating one of his men to trace the money back to an offshore account.
Anyway, back with Phil, the girl he takes hostage proves to be more than dead weight by knocking him away. Finally, a damsel who can get herself out of distress. Phil then uses a sonic attack, only to stop when he got his uncle caught up in the attack and Otto detonated those nanotracers under his skin. Fridge horror kicks in when you realize that if those things had gotten deeper or were slightly bigger, he would have essentially blown the man to pieces.
Phil realizes he’s beaten and surrenders, leaving Otto contemplating killing him (in public and in front of his uncle) when Captain America calls and reminds him he’s on probation, which I thought was settled in Superior Spider-Man Team-Up but apparently not. At this point you would think Captain America would have Tony or Pym go over those brain scans or realize that he doesn’t really care about being on probation. But he spares him and leaves Phil to the police and the Goblin sees the opportunity to do some recruiting and has one of his agents rescue him.
Now, because Phil had been turning in stories with Nora Winters, she has to be let go and his uncle has to take some time off since it is too public, which is a consequence of Otto’s taking over the airwaves. To rub salt into the wound, Otto goes on air about him escaping and calls him a minor threat after ruining his life and leaving him with nothing to lose and he vows to bring the Green Goblin his head as his new Goblin Knight.
Congratulations Otto, you have just created your own supervillain after having gained a new love-interest…I’m sad that I’ve gotten attached to her.
Now, the art here was fantastic and there’s nothing like watching Otto dig his own grave. On top of that we see that the plot is moving forward and the net is closing on our Superior Spider-Man. Not to mention that Spider-Man 2099’s Miguel O’Hara is coming next issue, which is something I am looking forward to. Overall, this issue gets a 5 out of 5.
B.O.P out!
Twilit Dreams Circle 