All New X-Men 6

Written by Dennis Hopeless
Penciled by Mark Bagley
Cover by Mark Bagley
Published Mar 16, 2016

   The issue opens with Idie, Icemen, Beast, and Cyclops still fighting the Blob, and with Iceman finally able to relax a little, he and Idie work up a shake-and-bake move that throws him hundreds of feet away. Cyclops stops for a second to pat the team on the back just in time to let his guard down and get hit by a drunk driver.
   Kid Apocalypse runs up to the car and realizes who the driver is - another former X-Nemesis, Toad. As he makes this realization Beast is being thoroughly beaten mercilessly by the Blob. Across town, Wolverine tries to shake off the breakup she just experienced from Angel, but just as she's thinking about it, he flies away into a fiery stream and explodes into Blob, saving Idie in the process who's again busy inner-rambling about God. And just as Blob stomps him, he slams a piece of rebar into Blob's eye and crashes back down onto him, finally incapacitating him for good..
   The issue wraps with Kid Apocalypse informing the team about Scott bring taken hostage by Toad. There's a peak of him tied to an alter inside the Parisian Catacombs underground and the Toad making some rather threatening conjecture. We're left to wait for what's coming in the next issue.
   Overall this was a pretty good issue. I think this is probably at the top of the list when it comes to X-books right now. If Uncanny is the flagship title (which is debatable) this title isn't far from it. Plus old villains and young X-Men makes it almost a classic set in modern times. I give it a 9/10.

For the video review of this issue, click HERE or watch below.

Until next time, thanks for reading!
 

Justice League #5

Written by Bryan Hitch

Penciled by Tony S Daniel

Cover by Tony S Daniel

Published Sep 21, 2016

   Aquaman is driven by instinct to bring some objects to a specific part of the sea. Something is singing to him and he doesn't know how or why, but it's just telling him what to do. Meanwhile at the Kent Farm, Cyborg realizes he's controlling the weird robot insects that swarmed all over him. He can communicate worldwide and realizes Flash is in trouble and can directly speak with the Green Lanterns as well. Flash tells him and Batman to meet him, that the Kindred took his powers and are somehow using them. Cyborg and Batman tell Lois and Jon that Superman, who's still busy fighting the energy sources at the earths core, will be ok and they teleport off.

   Wonder Woman explains to the Kindred that absorbed her that her friends are gathering, and retreats out of the gigantic being. Aquaman continues to instinctually prepare the ocean floor for stopping the quakes while the rest of the team realizes that since the Kindred are made of people, they can't destroy them. They just have to disrupt them. Flash takes his speed back, weakening them, and Cyborg calls upon the Lanterns to pump the purge beings back onto the Kindred. Aquaman stabs the artifacts into them, the Green Lantern's keep blasting them, and finally Superman pulls the last of the quake energies out of the Earth and it explodes, finally disrupting them for good.

   Justice League reminds me of those old Avengers comics that is way over my head. I don't know if I just require more simple stories or if these just reach so far without shoring up certain parts or whatever. I don't think it's necessarily a DC thing either because the Superman and Batman books work hard to explain a lot but Justice League just crams every hero in and creates these conflicts so broadly that they screw a little bit up. The artwork is good enough but the story didn't connect very well. 5/10.

If you liked this description, check out my video review HERE or click below.

Until next time, thanks for reading!

Extraordinary X-Men #8

Written by Jeff Lemire
Penciled by Humberto Ramos/Victor Ibanez
Cover by Humberto Ramos
Published Mar 16, 2016

   Storm sits in her study pondering the future of the X-Men when Logan walks in. They begin talking and mostly to me because of his age, begin to share a creepy romantic moment when Forge walks in and, thankfully interrupts them. He has news: Cerebra has discovered over 600 new mutants in Tokyo. She sends Colossus, Cerebra, and the young new mutants to investigate and as they enter the supposed location, they find 600 mutant embryos and Sugar Man, a freaky looking and shift-shaping mutant geneticist from an alternate reality.
   The fight between them all begins, and the globe Sugar Man was defending powers up, trapping the initial mutant team who arrived first and teleports them 1000 years into the future. The rest of Storm's X-men arrive to follow them down the wormhole, but leave Magik behind to protect the limbo state that the X-Mansion and pretty much all the rest of this team's reality seems to exist in.
   When they get there, they find the team though much older in the future. Only one member of the team is missing. When asked where he is, it's revealed just in time for us to discover Apocalypse Colossus and his new horsemen. Looks like the X-Men are in for a heck of a battle.
   I enjoyed this issue if for anything, it was cool to set up the return of Apocalypse. This issue ties in with the Apocalypse Wars storyline and was was first published back in March right at the time of the newest X-Men film opening around that time. It sets the story up well and has me looking forward to the next one. I give it a solid 7/10.

If you like this description, check out my accompanying video HERE or click below:

Until next time, thanks for reading!

Uncanny Avengers #7

Written by Gerry Duggan

Pencils by Ryan Stegman

Cover by Ryan Stegman

Published Mar 9, 2016

   We begin with both Quicksilver and Dr Voodoo reminiscing about their siblings, and in Voodoo's case, having to deal with them asking to rejoin the land of the living. While over New York, Cable and Rogue work to hone Synapse's psychic abilities in a helicopter on the way to Pleasant Hill, Connecticut. As they reach their target - an armored humvee speeding away from town, Deadpool leaps out of the chopper and discovers its the Wrecker driving... Surprising because he was allowed to avoid jail in the previous issue if he helped Deadpool chase down some leads on the Red Skull. Either way, they disable the vehicle and interrogate the Wrecker for answers.   

   He explains that he's been in Pleasant Hill in a secret Matrix-like jail SHIELD operates that makes the inmates forget who they are. After some back-and-forth banter, we find out that Maria Hill, the SHIELD director was the passenger in Wrecker's car. She tells them that she was falsely imprisoned there as well, and that if the Avengers return her there, they're all in a lot of trouble. Sadly some sentinel like soldiers are closing in on them and it all hinges on whether the Avengers believe her or not. They eventually go with her description of events and attack the imposing SHIELD forces. After the battle is over, they throw the Wrecker out of the chopper and call Quicksilver and Human Torch to join them - just in time for another Maria Hill to flyover in another helicopter and start blasting.

   I started reading this book because I was excited it caught me up with a few missing X-Men. Plus I've always been a fan of Cable. This book is part of the "Standoff: Assault On Pleasant Hill" and Stegman's pencils are interesting and abstract. Still, this seems like a C-level kind of book, aka not-exactly-ready-for-primetime, but I dig it. 6/10 for now but I see it creeping up and getting better...

If you liked this description, check out the accompanying video HERE or click to watch below...

Till next time, stay dirty - stay nerdy.

Amazing Spider-Man #9

Written by Dan Slott
Penciles by Giuseppe Camuncoli
Cover by Alex Ross
Published Mar 9, 2016

Scorpio Rising Part 1: One Way Trip

   Nick Fury storms into Parker Industries looking for Peter, but is met instead by Spider-Man, who explains that he's cracked Zodiac's leader Scorpio's code and has a way to finally track him down. They head to the SHIELD satellites in space to manually reactivate them. Meanwhile, the Gemini's explain it to Scorpio that Spider-Man figured out a way to find them. He remotely sends every SHIELD satellite in the area hurtling towards them, but Fury shoots each one out of the sky while Spider-Man works on hacking them.
   Since he uses their return Rocket as a last ditch effort to stop the largest satellite, Spidey realizes he'll have to send Fury to the International Space Station while he dives back towards Earth through the atmosphere. Knowing his suit, costume, and probably everything else he has will burn up on re-entry, he calls Anna Marconi for help. Probably the best part of the issue is when Anna is kissing her new romantic interest at Parker Industries, Aiden Blain, and the Brian Bot, whose brain Doc Ock controls, seethes with jealousy and interrupts them.
   Spider-Man uses his web foam to build a cocoon around himself, and fires up a siren he has on himself (for some reason) to warn the people of Paris that he's about to make a dangerous crash landing. He lands - hard - and sees a glowing light burning through the foam. It explodes and there stands Scorpio, with his Zodiac key in hand, who announces to Spidey that he doesn't make it to tomorrow.
   Another Dan Slott puff piece, the author shows more reasons as to why so many in the comic book world don't care for him., The story is banal and plain, but I still liked it. Extra points for the Doc Ock cameo, but points off for Marvel shoving more SHIELD down our throats. The Alex Ross painted cover delivers, and the art is decent. 6/10.

If you like this review, check out my VIDEO review of it HERE or click below.

Thanks for reading!

Superman #6

Written by Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason
Penciled by Patrick Gleason
Cover by Doug Mahnke and Wil Quintana
Published Sep 7, 2016

   The dramatic conclusion of "Son Of Superman" finds Clark beating the absolute shit out of the Eradicator on the moon. Lois seems startled about this near steroid-fueled rage but Jon points out it's the Kryptonians inside him that are powering him up. Banter and battle rages between the two, eventually resulting in a moonquake which gets NASA's attention and the fight goes viral. The battle nears an end, and Superman pulls Krypto through the Eradicator's chest. They fall back towards the moon slugging it out, and finally beat the Kryptonian force out of him, knocking over the lunar module on the moon's surface and forming a gigantic House of El logo in the sky.
   Superman tells his spirit ancestors to go in peace, and as the Eradicator dies, further humiliates him by having Krypto sit on his burned up corpse. He picks the module back up and makes sure the camera sees him - broadcasting his face back to Metropolis and after a 'key to the city' ceremony, lets the world know that Superman is officially back.
   Back at the farm, Clark comes into Jon's room and has a heart to heart, telling him about how somehow, a pair of glasses will forever mask his identity to the public. The issue wraps with the two of them flying up to the Justice League Watchtower in orbit, and Clark introduces his son to Batman and Wonder Woman officially as Superboy.
   While kind of devoid of story, the issue wrapped up everything from the previous issues and tied everything together. I'm not exactly sure that they needed 6 parts to do it in, but it's about what you'd expect from this series. The art was pretty vibrant - lots of bright yellows, blues, and reds filled the pages. Far from being complex, it delivered what was expected. 7/10.

If you liked this review, check out my accompanying video HERE!

Thanks for reading.

All-New Wolverine #6

Written by Tom Taylor
Pencils by David Lopez and David Vavarrot
Cover by Bengal
Published Mar 9, 2016

   After Zelda dies at the hands of the Alchemax guards, it's up to her sisters Gabby, Bellona, and Wolverine to take their revenge. They rough up Captain Mooney and follow him to the bunker, attacking Mooney and his forces and from the looks of it, suffering the loss of Bellona in the process. As her body is lying on the autopsy table, she springs to life, threatens the scientists and uploads all of the nanite information Alchemax has on her and her sisters to the SHIELD servers.
   Later Wolverine hear's Mooney coming and the girls agree for her to go and find Chandler while they deal with Mooney. Bellona kills him and explains to Gabby that she has to go, as part of the agreement the made with "her"to enact their revenge. Meanwhile Wolverine finds Dr. Chandler and roughs him up, later allowing Gabby to strike a claw inches from his face just to remind him just how close he came to dying that day.
   The issue ends with a cameo by none other than Kimura - X-23's most hated rival. explaining to Bellona that a deal's a deal, and in return for allowing the girls to kill everyone at the Alchemax lab, she's now the proud owner of the tech inside Bellona, no doubt setting up something sinister down the road.
   This comic was simple and no frills. It did what it promised to in finishing up the four sisters storyline, but left a few holes. For example, I'm not sure where they got the phone that would be used to send all the info to Maria Hill with SHIELD. Either way., everything was convenient and easy to do what they needed to do, and didn't really stray into any other errant territories which was nice for a change. The art was a little wack, almost like they were like "WE'RE UNDER A DEADLINE HERE! FINISH THAT WOLVERINE BOOK UP!" But I enjoyed the Powerpuff Girl-Power kind of vibe, and I like where Tom Taylor is going here. I give it a 6/10.

If you like this review, check out my accompanying video review HERE.

Thanks for reading.

Week In Review: Blogcast 1

So I got a chance to sit down and make a quick little video recapping everything I read this past week. Including but not limited to:

All New All Different Avengers #6
All New X-Men #5
Spider-Man #2
Superman #5
Invincible Iron Man #7
Old Man Logan #3
Deadpool #8
Batman #6

Check it out HERE!

Guardians Of The Galaxy #6

Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Penciled by Valerio Smith
Cover by Arthur Adams
Published Mar 9, 2016

   Peter Quill and Kitty Pryde find themselves on a Badoon Prison Planet looking for a "high risk political prisoner", while Star Lord is in the depths of depression over losing his recent kingship of Spartax. Kitty tries to cheer him up when they're interrupted by guards doing sweeps through the prison. As he boldly decides to engage the enemy instead of following the plan, he finds himself on the swift end of a badoon fist - twice.
   The two Guardians discover that the Badoon are actually running a concentration camp, and seeing as how Kitty's grandfather was in a concentration camp during WW2, she's clearly unnerved. She shoots the super high powered pistol through the guard tower, creating enough of a diversion for the prisoners to escape. It's unfortunately not enough to save Peter, who the issue hangs on staring down the badoon executioners for crimes committed during his Spartax presidency.
   This issue was pretty devoid of story, which unfortunately a lot of comics have to deal with while setting things up and moving things along. It's interesting seeing Kitty and Pete share tons of dialogue dealing with what they're all lost, but almost all of it was unnecessary and obviously just a tool to set up Quill being captured. Bendis loves to be wordy and hip, and you certainly get his knack for quippy banter like you've come to expect from all of his stories. The artwork was crisp, but they could have cut out 50% of what Kitty and Peter were going on and on about and worked in a few more personal strorylines but they can't all be winners. 7/10.

If you liked this review, check out the accompanying video review HERE!

Thanks for reading.

Batman #6

Written by Tom King
Penciled by Ivan Reis
Cover by David Finch
Published Sep 7, 2016

   By Monday, Gotham Girl has completely lost it. After the death of her brother Hank, aka Gotham, she's pretty much a walking basket case, talking to herself, shaving her head, etc. She breaks through the back window of Colonol Blimp's zeppelin as he's on his PA demanding 30 million dollars for the submarine he's apparently stolen, which is also interestingly, attached to the back of the blimp. She drops him off in front of a police station, and quickly breaks back into flight to fight more crime, with Batman in pursuit.
   On Wednesday, Duke calls Bruce over the intercom to let him know that once again, Claire has escaped the Batcave and is out fighting crime. Since it was deduced that the Gotham twins lose some of their life force everytime they use their powers, they figure out she's obviously trying to commit suicide. On a tear, and defeating random undervillains Captain Stingaree, Kite Man, and presumably several more before Batman is finally able to talk to her. He removes his mask, and reveals himself to her as Bruce Wayne, explaining that like her, he knows a few things about personal loss.
   The issue hangs upon what he's going to need to do to get a cure for her... The Psycho Pirate is in Santa Prisca with Bane, who worked with Hugo Strange just to exchange the pirate for the venom that created the fear in the Gotham's to begin with. Now it's up to Batman to work on some sort of plan to get the antidote from one of his most lethal villains of all time - and the tale continues in the Night Of The Monster Men, in the next issue.


Until next time, stay dirty, stay nerdy.

Thanks for reading!
 

Deadpool #8

Written by Gerry Duggan

Penciled by Matteo Loli

Cover by Mike and Laura Allred

Published Mar 2, 2016

   The mercs for money all seem to be enjoying their time away from Deadpool, and being well compensated by his new controller, Scott Adsit. As they all wrap up some solo hits and are back at headquarters, Adsit explains to the group that Deadpool is out on a personal matter. We catch up with him entering a shady and abandoned medical supply business, and as his hallucinations are still raging in full force, has to deal with his deranged alter ego Madcap's comments from the peanut gallery. He picks up a print and sets off on a mission to find out who it belongs to.

   After some persuasion with the bouncer, ala a sword through the shoulder, Wade enters a strip club looking for one man: Michael Logue. He orders everyone else out of the bar and as he's interrogating Logue, the guy falls down having an apparent heart attack. Deadpool calls an ambulance and explains to him on the way to the hospital he needs every detail, especially hits he performed in Canada. Logue mentions that there were two of them at the they'd previously met. A flashback points to him and Sabretooth working together some time in the past, and this is all the proof Deadpool obviously needs. He heads back to his HQ, gets Creed's whereabouts from Jarvis, and sets out on his way to kill the guy he thinks had something to do with his parents.
   Deadpool finds the X-Men doing some sort of mission and waits until the time is right. Seeing Magneto in the picture, he realizes that a bullet isn't going to go very far against the master of magnetism and a mutant with a legendary healing factor. So he instead opts to stretch a piano wire across the road and clotheslines Sabertooth as he's riding away on a motorcycle. As Creed lays lying and bleeding with his neck nearly completely severed, Deadpool pulls out his katana and tells Sabertooth he finally remembers - it was HIM who killed his family... What happens next? Guess we gotta wait till next issue. 

If you liked this description, check out my video review HERE.

Until next time, stay dirty, stay nerdy.

Old Man Logan #3

Written by Jeff Lemire

Penciled by Andrea Sorrentino

Cover by Andrea Sorrentino

Published Mar 2, 2016

   Logan wakes up in a Brooklyn apartment staring down the arrow from the "other" Hawkeye, Kate Bishop. She asks him why he looks so ancient now, and he explains he's from the future. She doesn't seem surprised and tells her for the X-Men, time traveling seemed to be old hat. She asks him about the "grocery list" on his arm. He explains he has to kill them before they kill everyone else. He gets up to leave, and collapses into a flashback.

   We then find him on a vacation of sorts with his family during the crazy Secret Wars timeline, when his daughter makes a discovery that scares her. He swims down into the surf and see's the skeletons of the dead X-Men. He promises she'll never be hurt by anyone, and sadly wakes up after a 36 hour passout session on Kate's floor. She agrees to help him find the next person on his list, Mysterio, and they're out the door.

   While on the way, Kate asks him if he can reveal some easter eggs from the future, but since Dr. Doom has completely mixed up everyone's bizzaro timelines, some of his stories don't seem to add up. She tries to get him to calm down and think it through, but Logan bursts through the door, yells "WHERE'S MYSTERIO?!" to which clearly these people have no answer for, and just starts hacking people's arms off.

   Obviously this is too much for Kate, who is completely convinced Logan's timeline is off and stalls him long enough for the apparently now amputee non-bad guys to run away. He tells her he'll just go it alone until he can do it his way, steps out into the alley and smells something. As he tries to jump out of the way of some impending and immediate danger, the unmistakeable shield of Captain America knocks him to the ground, and an old and grizzled Steve Rogers orders him to stand down....

If you like this description, please subscribe to my blog. This review is also accompanied by video which can be found HERE!

Thanks for reading.

Invincible Iron Man #7

Written by Brian Michael Bendis

Penciled by Mike Deodato

Cover by Mike Deodato

Published Mar 2, 2016

   After writing the always hilarious "memo" described on the title page about "NOT being late", the always unpunctual Tony Stark shows up 40 minutes late to interview his new, potential life organizer, Mary Jane Watson. Stark introduces her to his AI operations manager, Friday and between the banter between them, realizes Colonel Rhodes has not checked in from Tokyo. Tony asks who he can get to help look for him while he's on his way there, and Friday mentions Peter Parker's bodyguard, Spider-Man, but he doesn't seem to be answering the call. MJ calls Pete from her "emergency line" and next thing you know, our favorite international webslinger is scouring the streets of Tokyo looking for War Machine.

   After falling victim to some tech-ninjas in the previous issue, War Machine comes to, tied up in some warehouse looking spot. He tries to power up but the suit appears non-operational. After some minor questioning, the woman holding him hostage pulls all of his armor off, leaving him in a rather fragile state just as the mega tech beast Tomoe stands before him, ready to interrogate him for what appears to be a long, painful time. Iron Man appears to be on course to help save him, but only time will tell if he makes it there quick enough.

   The issue ends with a cameo of Riri Williams in her MIT apartment apparently banging away on a new experiment. Her older dorm mates are quick to object, trying to get her to quiet down. The final page reveals her tearing down an old Iron Man suit, but what her intentions are wait to be revealed in the next issue.

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Thanks for reading.

Superman #5

Written by Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason

Penciled by Doug Mahnke

Cover by Patrick Gleason

Published Aug 17, 2016

   Superman takes Jon and Lois to the moon in an attempt to bring the fight between himself and the Eradicator to a more secure location, and stashes them in one of Batman's secret bunkers. Unfortunately for them, and after an interesting quote mentioning the Disney owned, Star Wars property Obi Wan Kinobi, the Eradicator of course pops up out of nowhere and the fight is on.

   Eradicator is still on a mission to eliminate the human side of Jon-El, who stays out of the fight until it seems Superman is beginning to find himself on the losing end of the battle. Eradicator accuses him of holding back to avoid destroying the Kryptonian spirits that reside in him, and eventually absorbs Superman, leaving Jon to heat blast him in an attempt to save his father. 

   While a frightened Jon runs all over the lunar batcave trying to avoid being seen, Lois knows that she's going to have to do something to stop him without Superman there to intervene. She frantically knocks over a bunch of crates and luckily happens upon the Hellbat Suit; some sort of awesome tech that Bruce Wayne must have been saving for a rainy day, puts it on and of course immediately knows how to use it. She begins beating him mercilessly but the more the fight goes on, the more futile it seems she and Jon will be able to beat him without Superman.

   Inside the Eradicator's conscience, Superman talks to the souls of Krypton and explains that he needs their help to win this fight. He urges them to back off and stop powering the mystic supervillain, and instead power him so that good can prevail and evil can be vanquished... We're left to wait to see what happens in the next issue.

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Thanks for reading.

   

Spider-Man #2

Written by Brian Michael Bendis

Penciled by Sara Pichelli

Cover by Sara Picheli

Published Mar 2, 2016

   After the demon Blackheart shows up and pretty much soundly defeats the Avengers, the only real problem he seems to have is with the original Spider-Man, whom after he shows up, sends Blackheart running scared. The two Spider-Men chat and recap a conversation that took place in the Spider-verse, where Peter Parker tells Miles Morales he can be Spider-Man too. It's during this little recap that Blackheart gets his bearings and punches the original Spider-Man so hard, he pretty much completely incapacitates him.

   By initially using Captain America's shield, Miles soundly defeats Blackheart, and to the amazement of all of people filming it, not to mention the Avengers, creates a media firestorm. Peter assures the police that the new Spidey is cool, and Miles rushes back to his dorm room. There he relates his shock to his roomate Ganke that he touched a real, actual demon. Ganke shows him a Youtube video where a vlog writer shares her unfettered enthusiasm that thanks to a tear in his uniform, the video of his fight proves that this new Spider-Man is black. Miles is left irritated that his skin tone would actually be newsworthy, saying all he wants to be is just a normal Spider-Man and his race shouldn't be of any note, but that's obviously not the case.

   A cameo of Black Cat watching the news reveals what's in storm for Miles coming up, but the issue hangs on Miles' grandmother showing up at his parents' house, who appears ready to straighten him out. Will Miles live through it to fight any villains, or will his abeula take him out before he ever gets the chance. Guess we have to wait until issue #3 to find out.

If you liked this description, please check out my video review HERE!

Thanks for reading.

All New X-Men #5

Written by Dennis Hopeless
Pencils by Mark Bagley
Cover by Nolan Woodward
Published Feb 24, 2016

   While in France, Wolverine and Angel come upon an age old X-nemesis, the Blob, alone in a restaurant. Being as reckless as she can possibly be lately, Wolverine engages the Blob solo and he beats her into a lifeless, bloodied mess. He decides that she alone doesn't pose much of a challenge and boredly walks away, leaving a clearly rattled Angel looking at his mangled, but healing girlfriend in horror. Unfortunately his next unsuspecting punching bag is the young Beast, who happens upon him again alone, with expected results.
   Idie yells at a statue of Jesus for really no reason, while Cyclops decides to buy a soccer ball, both of which are just page wastes of time. Cyclops does somehow get sucked into Beast's battle with the Blob while we watch an again horrified Angel watch an unconscious Wolverine pop her bones back into their sockets. Kid Apocalypse comforts a young Iceman who's having some uncomfortable, coming of age inner struggles, and asks some guy out in a shoestore. They happen upon Cyclops and Beast still fighting the Blob and jump in the fray. Idie is still yelling at Jesus at Notre Dame when the fight comes spilling into the church and continues raging outside the Champs Elysee. The issue comes to a close as Angel tells a freaked out and now bewildered and conscious Wolverine that he wants to break up...

This description is accompanied by my video review HERE!.

For the Nerdiest Kid You Know, I'm Sam Terito. Thanks for reading!
 

All New, All Different Avengers #6

Written by Mark Waid
Penciled by Mahmud Asaaa
Cover by Alex Ross
Published Feb 24, 2016

     Mr Gryphon, the mysterious buyer of the former Avengers Tower, reveals himself as.. surprise! Kang the Conqueror. He attacks the new Avengers with an army of time displaced versions of the thermal villain Equinox. With Nova and Ms Marvel ousted from the group because of the Vision's secret machinations and Captain America and Thor shunted to the future without her enchanted hammer, Kang shows his biggest poker hand yet that could spell doom for our newest team of heroes: Using the Vision as his very own secret weapon.
   Nova and Ms Marvel head back to the fight after realizing Vision was not in his right mind and clearly being controlled. While fighting however, Kang explains that the real reason he's here is to siphon power from Thor's hammer to travel back to his time. Meanwhile in the near future, Captain America and the cancer stricken Doctor Jane Foster (who's actually also secretly Thor) also need the hammer to get Thor's power back. Only problem is that it seems she passes out before they get the opportunity.
   Spider-Man pretends to be one of the Equinox clones and pulls Nova and Ms Marvel away from danger just in time to distract the real present-day Equinox, whom he then punches out and takes all of the clones out of existence. They all disappear in the future allowing for Cap to reunite Jane with the hammer, giving her back her powers. Thor reboots Vision and the Avengers are all able to attack Kang at once. He however is able to hit them with some kind of energy beam that drags them through their own timelines. Vision zaps him from behind and distracts him and Thor hits both the present day hammer and the future hammer together, weaponizing a time paradox that sends him to some other dimension.
   The Avengers collect the unconscious Equinox to bring him to jail while Sam Wilson comforts Jane while she receives her cancer treatments. He promises to keep her secret safe but wonders aloud why she never told them about it in the first place...

This description is accompanied by my video review HERE!. If you like it, please give me a thumbs up and subscribe.

Thanks for reading. See you soon for Issue #8.

Justice League #4

Written by Bryan Hitch
Penciled by Jesus Merino
Cover by Fernando PAsarin
Published Sep 7 2016

   Green Lantern's Simon and Jess continue fighting the enemy creatures heading towards earth, while at the Kent farm, Batman tries to help Cyborg keep the swarming insect creatures from rewriting his code. The one word he keeps hearing repeated over and over again is "purged" and he slowly realizes how dire their situation could possibly be.
    As the gigantic kindred beings begin discussing the fact that the breaking of this world is near, they prepare to sing some kind of song to signal other universes. Aquaman seems to be the only one that hears it and orders his kingdom to seek shelter. Cyborg explains to Batman that he's still linked to the insects and he senses that there's some movement underway to covert the purged into something inhuman. He realizes that the quake things Superman went after (whom he is currently struggling with mightily) in the earths core was just a fail safe in case the kindred fail to break the world.
    Flash happens upon the four statuesque beings and is absorbed into the purge while Wonder Woman floats in the limbo world trying to reason with the voices she's hearing. An exhausted Superman destroys one of the quake machines in the core but realizes he has to destroy all of them or else it's all for nought. Meanwhile Flash is spotted by WonderWoman, who sees him in pain and screaming for help - which Cyborg hears over the network he's still connected to. He tries to combat them mentally somehow and is incapacitated. Finally we see the green lanterns at the planet's surface that had been generating the weird alien things and make a startling discovery... Millions of  collective beings that all look like a fragmented version of Cyborg. What's gonna happen? Guess there's only one way to find out.

If you like this description, please check out the accompanying video review of it HERE!

Extraordinary X-Men #7

Written by Jeff Lemire
Penciled by Victor Ibanez
Cover by Humberto Ramos and Edgar Delgado
Released Feb 17, 2016

Jean Grey and Storm decide to take a trip into Nightcrawler's head to find out why he's so withdrawn and tortured, and immediately find themselves in Winzeldorf, Germany - the land of Kurt Wagner called home when Professor X discovered him so long ago. He's being chased by a mob of people angry about mutants, and as he flees them, crumbles the mind facade and takes Jean and Storm down with it.. Meanwhile we see the team on Weirdworld dealing with a newly discovered Sunspot, who's been protecting a group of mutants with constant waves of fire. Magik leaps and tries to attack him for his one alliance to Cyclops, but is stopped by her brother Colossus. Their skirmish is interpreted however by millions of ghost like apparitions hurling towards them.
   Back in X-Haven, Storm and Jean find themselves disoriented and on a pirate ship in Nightcrawler's mind. It overturns and they fall towards a giant Cyclops. Jean grabs Storm and they hold on. Back in Weirdworld, Illyana senses the presence of an evil wizard who is responsible for the ghosts. She runs him through with her soulsword and the wizard ominously tells her of the falling kingdoms, and that not even the new mutant they found in India will be able to save them.

   Jean and Storm find themselves witnessing a scene in Nightcrawler's recent past. One where he helps some young mutants who are bring terrorized by some kind of local militia. He intervenes to save them, but they sadly reveal to him a giant pit of corpses... All seemingly mutants appearing to have been executed. 

   Back in the real world, they comfort a very sad Night crawler. And as they share a group embrace, their mournful expressions appear to show rise to a renewed resolve to rise above. 

If you liked this description, check out my accompanying video review HERE.

And as always, thanks for reading. 

Star Wars #16

Written by Jason Aaron

Penciled by Leinil Yu

Cover by Terry Dodson and Rachel Dodson

Released Feb 17, 2016

   Darth Vader's secret weapon specialist Dr. Aphra has been captured by Princess Leia and the rebellion. As the ship they're on comes under fire for failing to identify themselves, Dr. Aphra escapes her cuffs but is luckily recaptured thanks to the smuggler Sana Starros gaining the upper hand. The ship cruises towards the massive Sunspot Prison, where after attempts to debrief her continue to fail, Aphra tries to bribe Sana to help her escape which also proves unsuccessful. 

   Meanwhile Luke and Han Solo are supposed to be buying supplies with some rebellion money, but Han decides to gamble with it to try and double it. They of course lose everything and end up running for their lives. Han tells Luke they could just find something else that needs smuggling to get the money back and during the discussion, it comes out that the 60,000 credits on Luke's head is more than what Han's is going for. The book ends with the prison they're holding Dr Aphra being breached, and armed terrorists rushing in towards Leia and Starros to rescue her. Will their raid be successful? We'll apparently have to check out the next issue to find out.

If you liked this description, check out my accompanying video review of it HERE

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Thanks for reading.

Uncanny X-Men #11

Written by Cullen Bunn

Penciled by Greg Land

Cover by Greg Land and Nolan Woodward

Released Aug 3, 2016

   The issue begins at the Elk Run Research Facility in Utah where a team of terrorist mutants working to stamp out healers breaks in and murders scientists who have been using sentinental technology to build new "mutant murder machines". One of them has second thoughts and is killed by the team who obviously deem him expendable.  

   Next we find Monet in the war room in the savage land, having an argument with her brother Emplate whom she absorbed in the previous issue and has manifested himself as a talking mouth in her hand. Meanwhile Psylocke trains in the facilities' gym, which compared to their danger rooms of the past, seems a bit archaic. Magneto comes in to speak with her, but it's clear she's still miffed at him for working with Fantomex and Mystique behind the X-Men's backs. He walks out on her and she takes her frustrations out on a heavy bag when Monet walks in and tells Betsy that she can find out what else Magneto is hiding, if she'll just trust her.

   Sabertooth runs around in the jungle killing dinosaurs when he's confronted by the odd, newly merged Warren Worthington/Archangel persona who tells him hes needed elsewhere. That location turns out to be the Hellfire Club, where Psylocke and Sabertooth crash one of those strange masquerade parties all the weirdos over there always seem to be throwing. She explains to him that she thinks Magneto is involved with the club again and the final panel reveals a very dressed up Monet in the presence of what appears to be old wackos Sebastian Shaw, Donald Pierce, Trevor and Madeline Pryor all dressed up in their normal gauche attired selves. We're left thinking that the X-men are on the verge of solving this mystery, but obviously you'll have to wait until the next issue to see how far they get...

This blog accompanies my video review HERE

For the Nerdiest Kid You Know, I'm Sam Terito.

Thanks for reading!