July 2008; The Last Two Weeks.

The last two weeks has been pretty much a mixed bag. Especially yesterday. I don't remember being that disappointed with so many books. So, instead of reviewing everything, which is a lot of work, I thought I'd pick a couple that I thought were good and a couple that I thought were disappointing. So here we go.

THE BEST:

Incredible Hercules #119: Once again, this is a great book and I personally think it's one of the top four comics that Marvel has been putting out. It is taking a long time for them to get to the Skrull home world though, but in the next issue Herc and one of the Skrull Gods will finally throw down. One disappointing thing though; they've kind of stopped the flashbacks that were a main part of the storytelling device, and I really miss that. I think it's only been in the last two issues or so, so hopefully it's just because of this Secret Invasion madness that's going on. I hope they return my regular Hercules series back to me when they're done with all of this.

Moon Knight #20: This was a pretty fun little story and it contained some pretty cool reprints, including Mooney's first appearance in Werewolf by Night #32. The story itself didn't really advance the series too much, so it was kind of a throw-away story, but it was kind of a nice break from all of the grim and seriousness that's been going on in the last couple of issues. It was a pretty big book too, so it paying the extra dollar was actually worth it this time. I didn't read the reprints, I just flipped through them, but I plan on going back and reading them sometime soon. It looked like it was way more interesting than some of the other books that I've bought lately that contain reprints. Mooney had a much different costume when he first appeared, he kind of looks like an all-white Tusken Raider.

Thunderbolts #122: Every month I write about how awesome this book is. It's just really witty and well done. And it has a bunch of interesting characters. The end is very interesting because it sets up the next issue, which will finally get to a major plot point in this Secret Invasion cross-over that I'm pretty sure was brought up four months ago in Secret Invasion #1. There are several laugh-out-loud moments in this issue and some interesting twists to the group dynamic.

One side note: I've been reading the back-issues of the Thunderbolts series and I just finished the "Fight Club" part. I don't really understand that. They had a series, with an established team, and then after about seventy issues of that they basically suspend the entire series to tell an unrelated story about unrelated characters that lasts for about six issues? Who's idea was that? No wonder the title got canceled. I still have about 40 some-odd issues until I'm totally caught up, but I think it's been interesting to read where the series has been.

Wolverine: First Class #5: This was a fun little story. I was a little on the fence about this series after the previous "Knights of Wundagore" 2-issue story, but once I saw that Alpha Flight was involved, I knew I had to give the series another shot. It is interesting how they're going back and rewriting a lot of pieces of Wolverine's past. Like at the end of this story, right before Wolverine joined the X-Men, Shaman (from Alpha Flight) told him that his healing factor was keeping him alive because he was suffering from Adamantium poisoning and that could be a reason why his memory is messed up and that he goes into berserker rages. Um, I thought they didn't find that out until Magneto ripped the Adamantium out of his body in the '90s? And, I know Logan does a lot of stuff, but going back and adding even MORE adventures to his already illustrious past doesn't seem like it's a good idea, but somehow it works. I really like this series, he's always had an interesting relationship with Kitty Pryde and this is a throwback to the early days. Pick it up, you'll be surprised.

X-Force #5: Yeah, so, like the other comics in this "best" section, I love this series and look forward to reading it every month. And the addition of Archangel has been an enjoyment for me, because I really like the character. It will be interesting to see how this effects the other X-Men books, because from what I've seen, it hasn't. I mean, the Angel still has feathery wings in all of the other X-Books, but in this one, he's back to being Archangel. Anyways, this one was pretty cool because next issue Warren is going to go take things out on the Purifiers, and X-Force is going to follow him and probably help him out. I'm thinking that a lot of what has been revealed in regards to the Purifiers in the first couple of issues will come into play and it will be an epic fight.

THE DISAPPOINTING:

Avengers: The Initiative #15: I thought this one was going to pick up where the last one left off, and it did, but it wasn't nearly as awesome as the last issue. The ending was kind of cool, but again, compared to the last issue, it just didn't pack the same punch. It did focus on an interesting subject, and that is that one of the Skrulls that has infiltrated The Initiative actually likes being human and has turned against his brethren, which is kind of the opposite of what is happening with Captain Marvel. Interesting story, not the greatest execution, and the more interesting story involving 3D Man was kind of dropped half way through, I'm assuming that's what the next issue will be about.

One interesting note: Marvel seems to be putting all of the titles and credits on the bottom of the very last page. While this is kind of cool because it stashes that stuff in the back, I do like a well executed title page, especially an epic two-page title page. Every comic I read yesterday shoved that stuff onto the bottom of the last page. I thought it was just an interesting side note.

New Avengers #43: This issue was just a big pile of disappointment. It did reveal that the Captain America in the spaceship was not the real Captain America and a Skrull, but the rest of the story was about that Skrull's story, which was kind of boring because he's dead now. So I guess it's supposed to give us more information on how they're making these Skrulls into undetectable facsimiles of certain people, but again, I really didn't understand the need to tell this Skrull's story because he was dead. And it was pretty boring.

X-Men #500: Yeah, so, this issue was VERY disappointing. I was expecting the awesomeness because, you know, it's the 500th issue, the they should bring the awesomeness, but unfortunately, there was only mild awesomeness to be found. Somehow they worked in a Magneto attack despite the fact that he doesn't have his powers anymore (he has some suit provided by The High Evolutionary that mimics his powers. So, why can't he just make suits that do that for everyone who lost their powers? I don't get it.) This issue failed to spark an emotion while I was reading it. I was expecting to feel some kind of emotion, and I was prepared for anything; but this just seemed like a normal issue and by the standard set from the last couple of issues, I this this one was substandard. And that's saying a lot, because I think that all of the issues since The Messiah Complex have been filler. I guess we'll see where all of this goes, I have no clue where it's going.