Sorry for the delay Comic Attackers; here are the reviews of last week’s X-books! Check back this weekend for the latest edition of The Uncanny X-Piles!
Daken: Dark Wolverine #2
Writers: Daniel Way & Marjorie Liu
Artist: Giuseppe Camuncoli
This was the best issue starring Daken I’ve read in a long time. Too often he’s just floating around, causing trouble, being a voyuer, and doing nothing of significance. Well, he still does most of that stuff here, but there are some great scenes that show how Daken is always spinning the wheels to his own tune. Plus, Mystique shows up! The issue begins with Daken at an opera, conducting business with a mystery figure, whom we can later assume is… someone not nice. This scene was a cool reference to Dark Reign when he and Norman Osborn attended an opera; Norman made his case for Daken to join his ranks there. This mystery demon wants Mystique dead, so Daken must “get Mystique” for reasons that aren’t entirely clear. Naturally, when these two are put into a small room together, sexual innuendo pops up everywhere. Which was awesome. As usual, Daken never makes his true intentions clear, but the issue ends on a crazy note: with Wolverine showing up from Hell! The last page was pretty crazy too; obviously it can’t be permanent, but it was still cool nonetheless. -AL
The Incredible Hulks #614
Writer: Grek Pak
Artist: Barry Kitson
Everyone, I’d like you to meet Greg Pak, the man responsible for getting me into anything Hulk-related. It’s the Secret Avengers vs. The Hulk family in a battle royal, but the reason why this issue is being reviewed here is because of our good pal, Beast! Hank is still part of the Secret Avengers, and he gets featured a few times in this issue. For instance, he shoots Hulk in the back of the head with some gun gizmo that disrupts his neurons or something. I dunno, but it was cool! He also jumps around like the Beast of old, and then he later zeroes in on the Hulk’s head with a laser gun. A laser gun that sends its target haplessly into the Negative Zone. That was enough to get Banner to power down, but not after a staring match of wills with Steve Rogers. After a few beats, Banner backs down. It is damn cool that Pak showed how The Hulk respects Steve Rogers. Because Steve Rogers is the man. Anyway, it’s funny seeing Beast training a gun on someone, even if it’s a non-lethal gun, considering how he wet his blue Grover diapers when he found out about X-Force. -AL
X-Men #4
Writer: Victor Gischler
Artist: Paco Medina
Part 4 of the Curse of the Mutants makes me wonder…was this issue really needed? It’s usually not a good idea if all the characters are standing around wondering if their plan is going to work. I felt very much like an X-Man in reading this issue. Basically, Cyclops doesn’t seem to know what to do, so he sends out more X-Men, this time in pairs, to fight a bunch of vampires. The whole thing seemed extremely aimless. Now I realize that certainly Cyclops has a real plan here that he hasn’t let the X-Men (or us) in on. I can’t believe that Wolverine just went to the side of the vampires without being undercover. So if we all kinda know that, then why are they dragging this out? I have loved every bit of this story thus far, but this issue was disappointing. The only thing that I thought was even remotely cool was the Blade & Angel team-up. Gischler does a good job with the dialogue and timing of that scene, and I thought it was pretty cool. And of course Paco Medina continues to kill it on this series. I hope they keep him on this book. But overall, issue #3 ended with Wolverine “turning” and at the beginning of #5 we will be in exactly the same place. So was this issue needed? No. But thanks to Medina, it was sure nice to look at. -JJ
X-Men Forever 2 #9
Writer: Chris Claremont
Artist: Mike Grell
This week for X-Men Forever, we’re doing something a little different in celebration!
-AL
Most X-Cellent Pick of the Week:
Andy: I gotta go with Daken Dark Wolverine #2 this week. It was one of the few times I’ve thought his character was really interesting.
Jeff: I only picked up X-Men #4, and while the story was disappointing, the art was not, so pick it up anyway.
Jeff Jackson
jeff@comicattack.net
Andy Liegl
andy@comicattack.net
I agree with you guys on both Daken #2 and X-Men #4. Also the X-Men Forever poll is genius!! lol
Andy, did you see the January solicitations? Your favorite X-book above is finally getting the axe. Dry those tears, man!
I can actually clear up the Kitty thinking in Japanese part. Back in the 80s there was an issue of Uncanny X-Men where Prof X taught his students Japanese and this technique was also used a couple of times for other languages as well. It could have happened during the late 70s run of the title as well.
Hooray for it getting the axe though. Claremont should be remembered for his classic great stuff not the lackluster stories that don’t even matter in current continuity.
@Nick What did you vote for?
@Jeff NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
@Speech http://i.imgur.com/qVMEp.gif
Lmao! Don’t mock late 70s/80s Claremont. He was as powerful as Chuck Norris back then lol
Hey, I agree with you!
@Andy they are all super ridiculous but i voted for Gambit’s real name being “Remy Picard”. lol That just seems too randomly absurd.
Argh, there’s no “All of the above (except the I love XMF)” option on the poll
Great work guys. I think Daken does actually sound good for once in a long time. And Steve Rogers is THE MAN!
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@InfiniteSpeech Damn good call on the Kitty Pryde thinking in Japanese thing. I just picked up the Kitty Pryde & Wolverine mini-series and she does it there too.
Shame on me, and good call!