What the hell, might as well start with the big to-do. Spoilers, curse words, and reviews ahead.
Siege #3
First off, Oliver Coipel's art is so good that I'm thinking about getting a sex change so I can bear his children (reality be damned). A bit of an exaggeration but damn can he draw pretty. Bendis has been slowly building The Sentry into a villain but Coipel's art really helps sell it with some amazing panels of The Sentry looking all kinds of evil and badass.
That is a great line Bendis. In general it seems Bendis has really learned from his last two attempts at telling a big crossover, Siege has been action packed with plenty of big moments. That's not to say it hasn't had some problems. The whole set up was a tough pill to swallow and you could argue that Bendis is compressing the story a bit to much but the last two issues of been a lot of fun. It seems that often with these big events everyone is excited going in but that excitement quickly fades away whereas Siege has gotten progressively better with each issue and I find myself psyched for the finale.
For those of you not reading it a quick recap: Norman Osborn (The Green Goblin) has been in charge of national security for the last year (Marvel taking a bit of a shot at The Patriot Act, Guantanamo, and The Bush Administration in general), he's been progressively losing control of the situation, in issue 1 he lays Siege to Asgard, home of Thor and the Norse gods (it's now in Oklahoma long story), this is basically the final straw as Norman losses his government backing and the true heroes of earth, lead by the newly returned Captain America, unite to take him down. In this issue Thor and The Sentry mix it up and Cap, with an assist from Iron Man, takes Norman down. It's then revealed that Norman has completely lost it having painted(?) his face to look like the Green Goblin and that the real problem is The seemingly unstoppable Sentry who destroys Asgard and looks poised to do the same to The Avengers and company. It's been good old fashion superhero fun. I look for Phobos, son of the Sentry slain Ares, to join the fight in issue 4 and play a pivotal role in The Avengers victory. Phobos is the god of fear after all and Sentry knows much fear, plus he still has the Grasscutter sword that was made to kill gods. If you've been sleeping on Siege because you didn't like House of M or Secret Invasion pick it up, it's much better then either of those series even at half the size.
Speaking of dead gods...
Hercules: Fall of an Avenger #1
I talked a bunch about Herc last month and about how much I enjoyed the character and the book so no surprise that I liked this. This is a simple 2 part mini about the funeral of Herc which will then lead into the new Prince of Power staring Amadeus. It's really good. Like the entire Herc run it balances humor and drama masterfully. There are some really funny scenes like Amedeus poring a beer out for Herc, or like the women Herc has been with telling stories of his...exploits (the reaction shot of the guys is priceless), or Northstar running off so as to not to share his Herc stories. There's also some touching moments of people dealing with loss. The back up by Tobin and Brown was the best Agents of Atlas backup yet so you really get your moneys worth.
X-Men Legacy 234
I'm a sucker for these one shot character pieces and this one's pretty good. It's a nice break from Necrosha and continues to build Rouge, Gambit, Magneto, and several of the New X-Men who have been left without a book to call their own. And yeah, Rouge and Magneto make out and I find that pair kind of fascinating, they even tease the Rouge/Iceman connection which was another interesting almost in the annuls of X-Relationships. Basically Rouge gets telepathy for a day and causes a bit of havoc with her personal life as well as here new role as camp councilor to the young mutants. This is a book that's great for fans of the 90s soap opera X-Men done much better, with more depth and reality.
Choker #2
I can't help but think about Fell when I read this but that's not necessarily a bad thing as Fell was a fantastic comic. Similarities not withstanding this is an enjoyable as well. Templesmith's art is great as always though it's not for everyone and McCool's (is that really your name?) script is tightly plotted with solid dialog. It's a classic sci-fi, ex-cop, noir story set in a city that makes Gotham look nice. Not the most original thing but well done. If that's the kind of story you dig you could do a lot worse.
Joe the Barbarian #3
I talked about the first two issues before, brief recap: it's good. This issue continues that goodness. It's a pretty and simple story but it's so well executed. Murphay's art continues to shine and Morrison, whether doing big concept wackiness or straight forward adventure, is the best writer in comics. Boys and girls of all ages can enjoy this fun romp where sewer pirates driving submarines catch giant sea-monsters for breakfast.
Amazing Spider-Man #625
Joe Kelly is killing it. I mentioned before that I'd finally read I Kill Giants and I will be reviewing it in full soon and I promise I will. It seems as though IKG started a streak in Joe Kelly's career where he can do no wrong, everything he's written since has been fantastic. Kelly's proven in previous issues that he can definitely do the classic Spider-Man humor and with this issue and his last he tears out your heart with powerful drama. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Fiumara on art because, damn, this book looked good, really good. ASM is one of the top three superhero books on the market right now and it's issues like this that prove it.
S.W.O.R.D. #5
Note, this actually came out last week but I didn't read it until now. Wow, this got really good. I enjoyed the first issue all right but each issue just got better and better to the point where now I'm officially joining the small group of people who actually read the series in lamenting it's loss. Not that I really expected a series staring Abigail Brand, Beast, and Lockheed to last for long but I will miss it. If anything this, the Ares mini, and his short run on Thor has proven to me that Kieron Gillen is a name to look for, this cat can straight up write comics. I'll even say that while I initially found his odd looking Beast distracting Sanders steeped up his art in a big way and drew some fantastically fun panels:
So while I'll miss S.W.O.R.D. the real question is: what are these guys doing next? Cause we're all going to be wanting to buy that.
That's all for now, sorry for the delay. Please comment below, it will validate my existence.
-egs
Insert joke here.
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