New Avengers #43 (***): I know this event! Everybody seems to love these. If you’ve followed my reviews at all you’ll know I’m not too hip to them. This one was pretty good though. It’s still all a bit too simple and predictable for an event that should be startling and intricate, oh well. The art is fairly average with a few moments of excellence. There are some well staged action sequences in the beginning half of the book. We get some Skrully information in the second half. It isn’t anything mind blowing or even incredible, but it certainly isn’t bad. It’s entertaining.
Uncanny X-Men #500 (*****): What the heck is Manifest Destiny? I’m not usually big on covers but man these are pretty! I apologize for posting all of these but I love them! Terry Dodson, Michael Turner, and a wraparound by Alex Ross and another one by Greg Land? WOW! My favorite (and Matt Fraction’s) is the Terry Dodson one. The art is astounding inside the book as well. Land and Dodson are both doing the art inside. I was a bit intrigued as to how that was going to work out, and the way it does is some pages are done by Land and some are done by Dodson. Hopefully this will keep the book monthly by having two artists on it. Both of these artists, as many great artists are, usually aren’t monthly (especially Dodson). Enough gushing about the art! How is the writing? The writing on Uncanny has been a bit lackluster on Brubaker’s run, but thanks to Fraction this is a well-written book now. It’s exactly what an issue 500 and a great comic in general should be. It’s an amalgam of old and new comics that takes ideas we’ve seen before and gives them a new fresh twist. There are a few things in here that really got me excited and did I mention the art rules?
Ultimate X-Men #96 (****): This is a long March On Ultimatum! I’m still really liking Aron Coleite on this book. He’s really giving me my money’s worth. He packs so much into each issue. He doesn’t excel at it like Morrison, but then who is on Morrison’s level? Mark Brooks isn’t on this issue which is sad, but the art is still decent enough. I’m thoroughly enjoying this rollercoaster of an arc and I encourage all of you to give Ultimate X-Men another chance if you bailed on it during a few of those shaky arcs.
Tags: Marvel Comics, Matt Fraction, Ed Brubaker, Avengers, Bendis, X-Men, Secret Invasion, Skrulls, Brian Michael Bendis, Ultimate X-Men, Mark Brooks, New Avengers, Uncanny X-Men, Greg Land, Terry Dodson
July 30, 2008 at 3:56 pm |
O.M.G. X-men 500 was SUCH a piece of sh-t. Yes, the art rocked (covers especially), but man…the dialog was killing me! I hope the storyline can pull it’s own weight, cuz the writing…ewww.
July 31, 2008 at 10:30 am |
Well, I wouldn’t call a book with such pretty art a piece of shit man. I’m glad you agree that the art and the covers kicked ass. It’s possible that I was blinded by gorgeous art so I forgave the dialogue, but I don’t remember any problems with it.
All I remember is cool new meets old concepts that I’m excited about, fighting an old-school villain that was thought to be harmless, and yes, really really really awesome art. All that plus the covers convinced me to give the book 5 stars. Oh and I just met Fraction at con, had him sign all four books and he was totally nice to me, so that’s another reason I gave it the rating I did.
Again, I’m not disagreeing with you because I can’t remember any “killing” dialogue, but hopefully you can understand my reasons for giving it such a rating.