[Me saying whatever I feel like about some recent comics I got and didn't review for CBR. Not reviews. I do reviews elsewhere where I have to be coherent and nice and civil. Here, I just talk.
Not a whole lot of non-CBR-reviewed books from the past two weeks, but I figured I'd at least give some thoughts.
Dark Avengers #1
Okay, this comic raises the idea of: does having enough of a brain to figure out the contents ahead of time make this a poor read? Because, let's be honest, the contents were pretty easy to figure out. The only question was if Norman Osborn would be the guy inside the Iron Patriot armour, which he is. I kind of dug this comic. It wasn't very good in that literate sense, but it's stupid fun. Absurd and retarded. But in good ways. Like a lot of other people, I wonder where this book really goes and what makes it different from Thunderbolts except now the world is kind of paying attention. Is that all?
But, it's got Noh-Varr, the alternate reality Kree spaceman who was never actually called Marvel Boy, but is now Captain Marvel--which we all knew would happen, except we all figured he would have just done it, not that Osborn would suggest it.
Not sure if I'll pick up the next issue. Probably will, because I've got that weird Noh-Varr obsession going on, but... I do honestly wonder how this book will compare to Warren Ellis's Thunderbolts since does anybody think that Bendis can match Ellis's twisted vision? Sure, these are all characters half a step away from killing tons of people, but... I'm just unsure about Bendis's ability to capture that well. Who knows.
Ghost Rider #31
You know what, fuck shark-riding Ghost Rider. It's a one picture joke. I miss the way this book began. I miss Roland Boschi, who draws five pages here to remind us all that, yeah, the art was better then. I miss the grindhouse insanity. I keep threatening to drop this book and I think next issue, which "concludes" this storyarc, will be the deciding issue. This isn't bad, but it's not good enough. We've yet to see anything about any of the members the League of International Ghost Riders involving personality or character, something that isn't "Hey! Look! CHINESE GHOST RIDER!" Who cares? "Angel trying to take over Heaven!" Again? This run began in a very unique and energetic manner, but has just become a mish-mash of stories I've read before--and didn't care too much then.
Punisher: War Zone #6
This ended pretty much like I'd expect. I'm still thrilled that my idea for each of the CBR reviewers to do an issue actually worked and the series averaged just over 3.5 stars per issue, which considering the variety of tastes and interests between the six of us says "YEAH, READ THIS FUCKING COMIC!" Is it brilliant and life-changing? No, but it's a lot of fun and done with skill. It's Ennis and Dillon, for fuck's sake. If you didn't buy it (nearly) weekly, get the trade.
And that's it. I told you it wasn't much.
Exceptional X-Men #3 annotations
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