EXCLUSIVE! Chad Nevett's Comic Book Mini-Reviews and Star Ratings for the Week of October 3, 2012

Action Comics #13: A solid superhero comic. Nothing too special. [***1/4]

Age of Apocalypse #8: An interesting issue up until the end where it punked out in the same way that mainstream superhero comics always seem to punk out. "They're not just fighting for humanity, they're fighting for their humanity." Shit. I'm rooting for the mutants. [**1/2]

The Boys #71: The minute Butcher started talking about Hughie's family, you could tell what he was doing and that was the point: we could, but Hughie couldn't. That's part of what Butcher was talking about the rest of the issue. That trusting, emotional nature of Hughie -- how he should know better, but never does. And that's fine, because he's a good guy and you'd rather he was like that than be a right bastard. There's a sense that he never really got Butcher and that's sad. If Hughie has a flaw that needs correcting, it's his absolutist thinking at times. Butcher was always more nuanced than Hughie gave him credit for -- and more simple than he appeared to us. This wasn't Jesse/Cassidy, but it was pretty fucking good. I don't know where we go from here for next month's finale, but I can't wait. [****1/2]

Daredevil: End of Days #1: "You don't understand... I tried everything else." Line of the year. [***1/2]

The Defenders #11: Wow, that's a big crock of shit. Here it is: the reason why so many superheroes are in the Marvel Universe aka the explanation that no one needed or wanted. At all. Why the fuck would anyone waste their fucking time thinking up that shit? What is this obsession with everything requiring an explanation no matter how unnecessary or downright fucking awful? Maybe the final issue will redeem things... probably not. Issues like this lead to my weird, complicated feelings on the work of Fraction. He's so incredibly hit or miss it seems. [BIG FUCKING MISS]

Fatale #8: Okay, this book only really works when read in big chunks it seems. I enjoyed the first arc more when I read a bunch of issues and any sort of delay nearly kills whatever interest I have in this series -- which I'll admit is on the lower end of the scale. [***1/2]

Later