July 2008 Reads Part IV.

Another pretty disappointing week.

Ms. Marvel #29: This one was a lot of fun. Not a whole lot of story involved, it was another slobber-knocker. Lots of pages of Carol kicking Skrull butt. It was a fun and fast read. BUT, the last couple of issues have been exactly like this one, without a whole lot of story to advance this whole Secret Invasion crossover. So I'm starting to think that this whole Secret Invasion thing is losing a lot of steam and I think they tried to do too much. It is also a pretty long cross-over, I think they could have compressed a lot of it into fewer issues. But since the limited series is eight issues, they've got stretch out all of the tie-in issues to fill that gap, which is pretty lame. I think this is a pretty cool idea, but I learned my lesson and I am going to be a lot more conservative when the next giant cross-over comes around. Unless it's X-Men related.

Skaar: Son of Hulk #2: Yeah, so, I think I'm dropping this. I didn't read the whole World War Hulk event last year, so I'm a little lost. Also, and this is just my opinion, but I don't think this book is very good. It's just full of a lot of stuff I don't get. Like, supposedly Skaar died, but he didn't? I really didn't understand that whole part. Did did have dragons involved which led to a part of the book where Skaar was jumping from dragon to dragon, killing both the riders and the dragons that were trying to kill him in return, so that was pretty freakin' cool. I might give this another issue or two, but if I don't like it after that, I'm pulling the plug.

Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four: You know, I'm glad this series is over. I've been saying for the last couple of months how I don't understand why this story couldn't have just been in the regular Fantastic Four series, and I stand by that. Why make us buy ANOTHER series, Marvel? I think they're just trying to drive sales with all of these tie-ins. Some of them are very good, but then this series is a good example of what looks like an opportunity to rob people of their money. Shame on you, Marvel. I mean, you guys aren't making enough money already? How about upping the quality? Personally, I think they're spread a little too thin and the bottom might fall out on them if they're not careful. Hopefully, they learned their lesson from the 90s. Like, knock it off with all of the variant covers already!

Wolverine #67: You know, the more I read this title, the more it seems like it's totally set up for the trades. Every story-arc lasts about about four to five issues, has a name and AT LEAST two of the issues are pointless and/or filler. This issue really did a whole lot of nothing. Once again, it's a cool idea and there were a couple of good pages, but I'm not paying $2.99 for a quarter of a book. I'm paying for the whole book, and if three-quarters of the book sucks and is filler, that doesn't make me happy. And EVERY SINGLE TIME, the last page has to be a full-pager with "The Cliff-Hanger Ending™". This series has just been so formulaic, boring and disappointing lately.

Wolverine: Orgins #27: This one gets the best of the week by default. It didn't blow me away, and it did seem like it was a filler issue for the trades, but it was decent enough. I mean, I didn't hate it. I guess that's not a ringing endorsement. So, one thing I don't really understand is when this series is supposed to take place. Wolvie wears his awesome Brown costume, so it's obviously supposed to be from the 70s/80s, but I've read elsewhere that it's supposed to run concurrent with the regular Wolverine title, and it's got characters in it like Winter Solider and Deadpool, which were introduced in the 90s. So, I really don't understand what time period this is supposed to be. Is it current or some time in the past? Speaking of Deadpool, Daniel Way is going to write that series, so I am expecting the awesomeness, because the Wolverine: Origins series has been pretty good. At least what I've read, which is the last couple of story arcs. I like Mr. Way's style, he always injects the funny in a story and it's never forced. So I'm really looking forward to seeing what he can do with a naturally funny character. I can't wait for that first issue of Deadpool.

X-Men: Odd Man Out: I tried to read this one, I really did. A little back story, this book had two stories drawn by Dave Cockrum right before he died. So I bought it because I'm a Dave Cockrum fan. WAY too many words. Like, after the second page I started skimming and then after ten pages I flipped to the second story and after about five pages of that, I put it in a bag and board. It was mainly a recap of the history of the X-Men, which I knew anyway, so it wasn't that exciting. I some of the profits go to charity, so I was being a good human.

Next week we've got Cable #6 (still hanging in there), Hulk #5 (Thor!), The Twelve #7 (Yes!), and Wolverine: Killing Made Simple (Really tired of these Wolvie One-Shots, but whaddya gonna do?).