Drunken Comics Rage

Well, I got caught up on a little of my reading this week, which was a little disappointing actually. Even Secret Invasion was kind of a let down this week, and I'll have to get something up about it this weekend, or for Monday at least.

On to the comics.

 

The Last Defenders #6

This series did one of the few things that I completely hate about a mini series, it left you hanging. This issue does wrap up the whole idea of putting a Defenders team together, and I actually like the team for the most part. It's both a cool mix of characters, and somewhat of a homage to the original team. That part of the sotry wrapped up pretty well, and I guess since that was the main focus, the series did it's job.

The part that I didn't like is everything with Yandroth. During the whole series, he talks a lot about the Last Defenders, and how he's been manipulating everything to bring them about. In the end though, you don't find out anything. There's no even minor reveal of his plans. You end up with really no idea why in the hell he was in the book in the first place. This means that they're either going to have another mini-series that's going to pop up soon, or maybe an ongoing series I would guess, as long as this mini did well. There's a big downside though, if nothing else ever gets printed, we'll never find out what the hell Yandroth was really up to, which will drive me crazy.

Rating: 3 stars.

I would have liked to have seen a wrap up of all of the story lines. If they already have something on tap, I guess it's not so bad. It just felt like part of the story was left hanging, rather than leaving the door open for a sequel.

 

Skaar Son Of Hulk #2

I was actually looking forward to this one a little bit. The first issue had a Conan vibe going for it, which I dug, and was done pretty well for an origin story. This second issue though, leaves a lot to be desired.

It's pretty much non-stop action, and normally I like that sort of thing. The action here seems disjointed though. Characters seem to jump from place to place, things happen that I have no idea where they came from, and so on. It's almost like it's missing a few panels here and there. It's not that you can't follow it, it's just that it flows badly.

Plus, Skaar is only in the first maybe 2/3 of the comic. The last 9 pages are reserved for "Shadow Tales" which seems to discuss some of the stuff that happened during Hulk's time on the planet, the Planet Hulk storyline. It's told from the point of view of a slave currently under the current bad guys rule. It's not a bad story, but the general idea seems to be that when beings with great power fight, it's the little guy that really gets hurt. I just don't really see how it fits with the Skaar story at all. Maybe in time that will make sense, but for now, I think the space could have been used better.

Rating: 2 stars

The action just wasn't done that well in my opinion, and the second story seems out of place.

 

Fantastic Four #559

Why the hell do I continue to buy this? I'm like some sort of glutton for punishment or something. You would think that the Anti-Galactus suit would have cracked me, or the stuff with CAP. But no, here I am at issue 559.

In my defense, I will admit that there were a few things in the last couple of issues that caught my interest, and got me to stick around. There was a New Defenders team of some sort, Dr. Doom popped up, and (minor spoiler from here on out if you haven't been reading these) they were calling The Hulk Dr.Banner, and the big shock last issue that he was running the New Defenders.

Ok, so a Defenders team of some sort, The Hulk with Banners intelligence, what plans do they have for Doom? There were a couple of good hooks in there.

Well, at the end of this issue, they threw all of that right out the freaking window, and made me want to shred this issue. There's so many giant plot holes that you could drive an Olympic stadium through that it'd take forever to list them all. I'll try not to spoil the big ending for you, but it takes first place over from the billion-dollar-a-second Anti-Galactus suit as the most absurd idea I've seen. Even if it's just a big hoax of some type, and there going to use it for some nefarious plan, it's still way too over the top.

Rating: 1 star

Is there a chance I'll even buy the next issue? Doubtful. I really want Fantastic Four to get back to being good, but I'm not sure how much longer I can suffer through this crap. They need to finish this story line pretty damn fast, and get someone else to write something. Anyone else, writing anything else, would probably be better at this point. Unless the next issue is light years better than this one, or that's the end of this run, it's probably going right back on the shelf.

 

Incredible Hercules #120

At least Hercules was still it's good self, and the only real bright spot this week.

If you haven't been reading Hercules (which is downright foolish) the last few issues have been dealing with the Secret Invasion stuff, although on a god level.

All the gods of Earth got together, and decided to put together a group of gods to go and kill the Skrull gods. Since the Secret Invasion stuff has a base in religion, the Earth gods figured that if they destroy the Skrull gods, it'll be a good thing. So Hercules, and several others set out to find Sl'gur't and kill him. I've liked this story line for several reasons. 

First, it's written well, with good humor, like this run has been since it became Hercules' book. It also fits in with the SI stuff, but can totally stand on it's own. You don't even need to know what's happening in SI to enjoy it.

Second, it very much had an old school Geek myth feel to it. Like a version of Jason and the Argonauts, just with, you know, lots of gods, alien gods, a really smart kid with a puppy, and set in space. It really did fit the bill though, with them pilling into a boat, having a few adventures on the way, and finally reaching their goal.

Third, the fights are good (hey Skaar writers, take some notes), fits well with the story, and everything is done smartly. Plus, there's a good hook at the end of this issue, so I'm interested to see where that goes.

Rating: 4 stars

This title has been consistently good, and this issue is no exception.  Even if you haven't been reading it so far  (again with the foolishness)  you could pick this one up, and still enjoy it, and hooked on the series.

 

That's all for now.  

Filed under: DC Comics, Ghostshark's Rants, Marvel Comics