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What’s up ComicAttack.net faithful? I’ve got the last round of Reviews ready to roll from the week of March 17th. Four more books and it’s on to the next weeks pile. Let’s get it on!
***Spoilers ahead***
First up is…Guardians of the Galaxy #24 (Realm of Kings).
Publisher: Marvel
Writer(s): Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Artist: Wes Craig (cover by Alex Garner)
Well, if you’ve been living in a cave or don’t read my reviews or columns, you’ll soon realize that missing out on this book is a big mistake. Right now you have the once assumed dead team members of Phyla-Vell, Major Victory, Gamora, Cosmo, and Mantis, fighting their way out of The Magus’ stronghold inside the Universal Church of Truth’s fortress. All is going well and they are cutting a path right through the security forces that are impeding their escape. Just as Phyla takes a minutes rest, she is tapped on the shoulder by Maelstrom. He tells her that she is making a mockery of her title of the Avatar of Death (the title was given to her a while back when she and Drax were trapped in Limbo). At that very moment, The Matriarch of the Church comes swooping in to whoop the Guardians. We then switch back to Star-Lord’s team. They have been attacked while trying to police a meeting of intergalactic importance between leaders from around the cosmos. Star-Lord then goes to the infirmary to check on Moondragon and she finally tells the team that The Magus is still alive. Finally, as the team dispatches all the security forces plus the Matriarch herself, we see Phyla-Vell tricked by Maelstrom into slicing open a cocoon that resembles the ones that Adam Warlock used to use back in the day. If you’ve seen a preview for issue #25, it’s no secret who’s really inside there.  4.5/5
Next we have more cosmic delight with…Realm of Kings Imperial Guard #5 (of 5).
Publisher: Marvel
Writer(s): Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Artist: Kevin Walker (cover by Brian Haberlin)
One thing I will say about this series is that it did a lot better than I anticipated from issues one and two. This was the finale and it didn’t disappoint. We see Gladiator, who is now the leader of the Shi’Ar, go into battle to save his former teammates, The Imperial Guard. He shows up and immediately starts to tear apart the zombie-esque versions of the X-Men and other heroes. After quite a fierce battle though, the giant beast that seems to be producing these zombie copies starts to try and eat the ship. Gladiator then goes into the ship to see what Mentor can do to analyze and then stop the beast. The only option they have is to let the Raptor, Razor, give crystals to Mentor and Plutonia to change them into Raptors as well for added firepower. The team heads back outside to confront the menace but then Blacklight and Neutron are killed by the alien beast. The beast also starts to use some kind of telepathy on the team and has them ready to be devoured, but then Raza of the Starjammers throws the Symbiote (which infected Raza in X-Men: Kingbreaker) onto the beast and it goes crazy long enough for them to escape. Great finish to a series that started off really slow.  4/5
Next on the list is…Wolverine Origins #45.
Publisher: Marvel
Writer: Daniel Way
Artist: Doug Braithwaite (cover by Ben Oliver)
First off, I’d like to say I’m a big Wolverine fan. That being said, I think I’m going to be glad when this series comes to a close this summer. This entire storyline about Romulus is really spinning its tires at this point. Last issue we saw Ruby Thursday end up running into Romulus and in this issue we find out that she betrayed Logan and his plan to him. After Logan and his associates beat the crap out of her, they throw her back in The Raft. After visiting someone Wolverine calls “The Answer”, we see him meeting with his newest pawn in this weird plot, Deadpool. Overall it was an OK issue but I guess I just must have set the bar too high for this one.  3/5
Lastly I have…Nation X #4 (of 4)
Publisher: Marvel
Writer(s): Peter Milligan, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Ivan Brandon, Joe Caramagna
Artist(s): Michael Allred, Harvey Tolibao, Rael Lyra, Niko Henrichon (cover by Phil Jimenez)
The first story titled “Dooptopia”, is about how Doop has a dream about being hired by Cyclops to be head of investigations on Utopia. Really funny bits in this one like Doop making Magneto dance for him, or Cannonball and Gambit attacking Doop with a knife because he won’t stop grilling the residents about “French New Wave Cinema”. The second story is called “The Bad Seeds”. It shows the growing pains of Emma, and the Cuckoos especially. Emma confronts the girls about how they’ve been bullying some of the other students on Utopia. The third story, “Ice Cream Alamo”,  was rather amusing as well. It showed some of the younger mutants on the island trying to break into the food storage to get their hands on some ice cream. The only problem is that Warpath is the guy watching that no one breaks in. Lastly, we have “The King and Queen of Utopia”. This was my least favorite story by far. It basically just showed Namor throwing a temper tantrum about being away from his people. Storm interjected and told him of a higher responsibility to protect the mutants on Utopia. This was probably the best of the four issues in this limited series.  3.5/5
Well, that’s it for now, but I’ll be back very soon to start my March 24th reviews. See you then and have a Happy Easter!
Billy Dunleavy
billy@comicattack.net