Blog

Welcome back to the final installment of this week’s reviews. I’ll finally be caught up so when this week’s come out I won’t be behind the eight-ball with reviews! Here we go!
First on the list is…Guardians of the Galaxy #21 (Realm of Kings tie-in)
Publisher: Marvel
Writer(s): Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Artist: Brad Walker (cover by Dave Wilkins)
In this issue we see tons of action with Moondragon and the rest of the team trying to fight off the beast that came from The Fault. The Universal Church of Truth starts to interrupt things by claiming that they need to worship it because it is calling out to them telepathically. Moondragon and the rest of the team try to stop it, but it shrugs off their repeated attacks and goes for Cynosure (one of the leaders of another race living on Nowhere). Moondragon realizes that it will kill everyone until it finds a suitable “host.” At this time, she also realizes that the reason it came after her first is because she is the only person on Nowhere that is capable of being a host for this alien being. She saves the life of Cynosure by letting the creature crawl up through her nasal passage and into her body! Things go from bad to worse as some of the other inhabitants of Nowhere decide that the beast should be tossed off of the station, even if it’s still inside of Moondragon. The issue winds down with The Universal Church kidnapping Moonie and taking her aboard their ship. The Matriarch says “we have our new god, he is ready to be born.” I personally can’t even express how jacked up I am about the next issue! 4.5/5
Secondly, I bring you…Thor #605.
Publisher: Marvel
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Billy Tan
I’ll be honest here, I haven’t been buying Thor on a regular basis but I am going to rectify that immediately. This story was amazing and the ending left me saying, “Uh oh, Thor is in deep trouble.” So apparently, Doom has been abducting Asgardians and experimenting on them for his own personal reasons. Doom also recently sent an army of Doombots to Broxton to attack Donald Blake. Well, it doesn’t take Thor long to go face to face with good old Victor Von Doom. These two heavy-hitters face off and battle throughout the entire issue while his fellow Asgardians do battle with Doom’s army of experimental Asgardians. As the issue comes to a close, we see Doom’s reason for his butchery. He wanted to find a way to animate “The Destroyer.” Long time Thor fans know all about this, but if you don’t know I’ll tell you about it. It’s armor that Odin built and needs to be controlled by the essence of an Asgardian or otherwise it’s lifeless. It’s also virtually indestructible, even against Thor’s power. Doom figured out that if he removed the heart of an Asgardian and placed it into the armor, he could step inside and control it. The issue ends with Doom starting to lay a beat-down on Thor, and it doesn’t look good for the Odinson! 4/5
Thirdly we have…Spider-Woman #4.
Publisher: Marvel
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Alex Maleev
After a sluggish issue last time around, this one proved to be a little more fast paced. We got to see Jessica confront the Skrull that was captured by Viper. He still thinks that Jessica is the Skrull impostor, but she soon lets him know he’s dead wrong. Although, she quickly finds out that he’s not powerless or afraid to throw down either. After a back and forth fight, Jessica manages to subdue the alien and Viper congratulates her. Jessica shoves her out of the way and starts to make her way out of the complex, dodging Hydra agents and trying to figure out why Viper set this whole thing up. Those thoughts are enough to distract her to the point that she jumps off of the side of the building. I’m guessing they’re about 40 stories up…and Jessica can’t fly. Good issue, and it seems like Bendis is building a solid plot behind the scenes and a big surprise might be forthcoming. I’m expecting some guest appearances coming up soon too, since they were promised initially when the book was still in development. Mallev’s art is growing on me by the issue too. It’s dark and fits the “mood” of this book perfectly. 3.5/5
Next up is…Captain America: Who Will Wield the Shield? (one-shot)
Publisher: Marvel
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist(s): Butch Guice & Luke Ross (cover by Gerald Parel)
Ok, so, without going into a hissy fit I’ll just say that a book that reads on the cover, “The Stunning aftermath of Captain America Reborn” coming out before the last issue of Captain America Reborn is just ludicrous. Now onto the review. This was actually a good read and the art wasn’t half bad either. We see Cap’s thoughts of his and Bucky’s days in WWII and how he is remembered, or better yet, defined. We next see Bucky talking to Black Widow about a costume change because he thinks the stars and stripes belong to Steve. She tries to convince him otherwise and that the world is big enough for two Captain America’s, but again he disagrees with her. We then see in the next room that Steve and Sharon (Carter) are basically having the same conversation with the same results. After some prodding by the Widow, Bucky decides to join her on one last mission to apprehend some escapees from the Raft. Steve, who also can’t sleep, heads out to see what he can do and to also clear his head. Next we see Bucky and Black Widow try and stop Mister Hyde from escaping, all the while Steve is watching from a nearby rooftop. Bucky spots him and tosses his shield to him so he can use it on Hyde. Immediately Steve tries to return the shield, but Bucky refuses and they go somewhere quiet to have a talk about who will carry on with the shield. Steve seemingly convinces Bucky, but we then find out that Steve has seen some glimpses into the future, and thinks that if Bucky doesn’t keep being “Captain America” he’ll die. We don’t get to see what Bucky thinks about all this, but we do see Steve talking to President Obama about some other ways to serve his country. 3.5/5
Lastly I present to you…Doctor Voodoo: The Origin of Jericho Drumm (one-shot).
Publisher: Marvel
Writer(s): Roy Thomas, Len Wein, Doug Moench
Artist(s): Gene Colan & Alex Massacci (cover by Billy Tan & Matt Banning)
This book showed a quick intro of new material, then three reprints of classic Brother Voodoo stories including his origin. The intro was only six pages long, but it was pretty cool. It showed Jericho whooping some dudes in New Orleans that were robbing a chick and her kids. Then after he saves the woman she asks, “Who are you?”, and as he ponders that question along with his brother, we begin to see the reprints. There is also a really good prologue from Roy Thomas about the character of Brother Voodoo and his beginnings. The reprints include, Strange Tales #169, Strange Tales #170, and Tales of the Zombie #6. If you said “Brother who?” when you read New Avengers‘ “Search for the Sorcerer Supreme,” then I’d advise you pick this up to learn more about this hidden gem of a character. 4/5
That’s all for now, but I’ll be back in no time flat with another batch of Marvel’s best! See you next time.
Billy Dunleavy
billy@comicattack.net