Welcome to Week Five of the
Official Evil Avatar Comic Book Reviews
Remember, these are
NOT spoiler-free reviews.
Evil Avatar’s Weekly Comic Book Reviews – Year 4 – Week 4
Iron Man #25
Reviewed By:
Michael Chauvet (Doctor Finger)
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Daniel & Charlie Knauf
Artist: Rob De La Torre
Colorist: Dean White
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Editor: Tom Brevoort
$3.99
Haunted
Marvel has been putting out one of the best espionage comics in the industry out month after month, all in the guise of a traditional superhero book. The main character is not one you’d ordinarily associate with that sub-genre, but in this case it works beautifully. Storylines that have been percolating for over a year are beginning to pull together in a beautifully intricate web. They’ve taken a character that, while always a core part of the Marvel U, has been a little neglected recently and brought a vitality and focus to him that many thought he’d never again achieve. If it sounds like I’m talking about Captain America, you’re right, but everything I’ve said applies equally well to his counterpart during Civil War: Iron Man. In fact Iron Man’s resurgence is all the more impressive when you consider the how negatively many fans now view Tony Stark and how often he’spunked out in other titles. In his own book Iron Man is not a punk, or a fascist, or the font of all evil as some other writers like to now portray him. In his own book he’s brilliant, complicated and most of all haunted. Tony Stark has the weight of the world resting on his shoulders
If you look back at Marvel’s history Tony Stark and Iron Man, and they’re not always one and the same, are the characters that they have tried to ‘fix’ the most. He’s a definite A-lister (I can’t see a day in which Marvel is not publishing, or planning to publish, an Iron Man book) but they’ve taken him out of the suit, put him back in, killed him, replaced him with an alternate teenaged version of himself, revealed his secret ID, reestablished that ID, made him Secretary of Defense, had him lead the pro-registration forces during Civil War and made him head of SHIELD.
For months now Tony has been haunted by visions of close friends that have recently died. Captain America, Happy Hogan, his mentor Sal and Gadget, the young member of Nebraska's Initiative team. These visions, and the stress levels they indicate, forced SHIELD to place an inhibitor on Tony's ankle that blocks his ability to communicate with machinery. But Tony can't let it rest. The death of Maya Hansen, the woman that helped create theExtremis virus that gave him that ability, hits him particularly hard. He believes all the the disparate threads he's been working on - Maya & Sal's murders, the deaths of the Initiative members and even the mass missing persons case they had been working on - but he just can't find the connection. At his wit's end, Tony, has a chat with superhero psychologist Len Samson, and suddenly realizes what hisExtremis -enhanced brain has been trying to tell him with these visions - Maya Hansen is still alive. He goes to confront the current Secretary of Defense, JackKooning, who spills the beans. He helped fake Maya's death so she could bring her expertise with Extremis to a biotech firm working on the next generation of Super Soldier. What Kooning didn't know, but Tony quickly realizes that Tem Borjigin, the head of the biotech firm is really Iron Man's old nemesis the Mandarin in disguise.
Like any good thriller this book manages to hide key plot points in plain sight. This issue is chock full of "oh, shit that makes perfect sense" moments. Most of all it's nice to see Tony Stark portrayed as something other than a complete and utter tool. At almost any other time this book would be earning a ton of buzz and critical acclaim, but it's somewhat overshadowed by the tremendous Captain America series at the moment. Which is a shame, because right now Iron Man is every bit the equal of Cap, but too many people just don't know about it.
Bottom Line:
It flies under the radar, but this book is every bit the equal of Captain America as the preeminent superhero thriller on the market.
Rating:
Worth your time and money (4 out of 5 EvilEyes)
Booster Gold #6
Reviewed By:
Michael Chauvet (Doctor Finger)
Publisher: DC Comics
Writers: Geoff Johns & Jeff Katz
Artists: Dan Jurgens & Norm Rapmund
Colorist: Hi-Fi
Letterer: Randy Gentile
Editor: Michael Siglain
$2.99
52 Pickup, Part 6 – The Beetles
In the immortal words of 80’s hair metal band Cinderella – “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.” That is the perfect way to describe Blue Beetle TedKord . When he was killed in the Countdown to Infinite Crisis special nigh on three years ago DC thought they were just making the best use of a past his prime character. But something odd happened; instead of just taking it as another comic death the fans began something of an uprising. Somehow that particular death struck a chord with readers. People that had never read a book with Ted in it were suddenly seeking them out. All of a sudden, after spending most of the last decade as a second thought, TedKord was hot. Unfortunately he was also still dead. But this is a comic book, and the ways in which you can bring back a dead character are myriad, ranging from cloning, to alternate reality twins, to magic (You GotMephistoed!), to good old-fashioned time travel.
From the start of the series Booster has had one overarching goal – to save the life of his best friend. All of this work cleaning up thetimestream is all in furtherance of that goal. And now, with Blue Beetles of the past, present and future, he’s making good on his pledge. The Beetles go back in time; to the minute that Max Lord is about to kill Beetle. They bust in, fight theOMAC and after one close call, they actually save Ted Kord . Back in the Time Bubble, the mysterious future Beetle explains that, to keep the timeline stable, no one can ever know that Ted did not die in that Swiss chalet. Booster is no longer the Greatest Hero the World Will Never Know, he and Ted are both the Greatest Heroes the World Will Never Know – the Blue and the Gold. There’s more: Rip Hunter doesn’t trust the whole thing, and presses Booster’s not-even-dating-yet ancestors into service of his goals, and the future Beetle is
very suspicious, but the fact remains, TedKord is Back!
Yeah, yeah. I know. The chances of Ted still hanging around this book at the end of the summer are very, very slim. From the moment I put the book down I was already lamenting how this one almost certainly ends with Ted heroically making the ultimate sacrifice (again) to save the world. It’ll be a five or six issue visit with an old friend and then back to the Necropolis with him. But part of me still holds out hope that, in the end, Ted sticks around. God knows there’s more popular outcry for this particularretcon than certain other ones from recent memory (Mephistoed Bitch!).
Bottom Line:
A book that just leaves a grin on your face every time you read it.
Rating:
Worth your time and money. (4 out of 5 EvilEyes)
X-Men 207 #
Reviewed By:
Michael Chauvet (Doctor Finger)
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Mike Carey
Penciller: Chris Bachalo
Inkers: Tim Townsend, Victor Olazaba, Jon Sibal & Al Vey
Colorist: Brian Reber & Edgar Delgado
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Nick Lowe
$2.99
Messiah CompleX, Part 13
There are three things an event comic needs to do to justify it's existence: tell a 'big' story, spotlight all of the characters whose books are involved in the crossover, and change the playing field for the characters moving forward. MessiahCompleX manages all three requirements beautifully.
To recap, the first new mutant birth since the Scarlet Witch uttered those three fateful words on M-Day ("No More Mutants") occurred in Alaska, and ever since everyone and their grandmother has been trying to get their hands on the baby for various reasons. Now, on Muir Island, the whole thing comes to a head. The X-Men, X-Force, the Marauders and Predator X all in one battle royale to control the fate of one baby girl. In addition to the big fight happening outside a smaller but just as important conflict happens inside of the lab. Mystique had used the baby to cure her daughter Rogue, but did so believing that it would kill the baby. Rogue pulls through, cured of the Strain 88 death touch and the mental overload from absorbing the Hecatomb, but is horrified that Mystique had risked the life of a child to do so. She touches her mother, absorbing her psyche, before walking off, telling Gambit not to follow. Back in the Scottish night the X-Men are fighting for their lives against the Marauders. In a nice moment the balance is shifted by the presence of the New X-Men, and the Marauders are taken down. X-Force faces off against Predator X, but after a tough fight, it's killed when Wolverine dives down it's gullet and slices it open from the inside. But the big moments occur with the baby. Cable and Bishop face off over the child - one believing she's a savior and one believing she's a monster. Their Mexican standoff is interrupted by Predator X, which tears off Bishop's arm, allowing Cable to escape. Cable then has to confront his father, Cyclops over the child. Professor X convinces Cable that Cyclops, as leader of the X-Men, should be the one to decide the baby's fate. Cable hands the child over and Cyclops realizes that maybe, maybe, this child is the reincarnation of his lost love Jean Grey. Scott hands the baby back to Cable and tells him to take her away to grow up as she sees fit. As Cable bodyslides away Bishop grabs a gun and tries to stop him, but shoots Xavier in the head instead. Xavier is left in a coma and the X-Men are no more as Cable emerges in the future with the baby as dawn breaks.
The story was big enough, encompassing multiple parallel storylines and themes. All of the different teams, if not every member of those teams, get their moment in the sun. And most of all you can see the interesting places the story can go from here, so Messiah Complex manages to meet all the criteria for a successful crossover. But more importantly it was just plain fun. Big fights, cool moments, character advancement and new directions for old characters and teams. And it never felt forced or stretched. I'm usually a fan of Bachalo's artwork, but this is not his best effort. Too many muddled panels, too much clutter and it's all a bit too dark. In the end Messiah Complex succeeds on almost every level - a rarity among modern crossovers.
Bottom Line:
A good end to a great story.
Rating:
Worth your time and money (4 out of 5 EvilEyes)
Quick Hits:
Blue Beetle #23 - Jamie Reyes is a badass. I can't sing the praises of this one enough.
GI Joe: America's Elite #30 - Another great thriller, this time a military one. A long way from the cheesy 80s cartoon.
Teen Titans #55 - What happened to this book? It went from one of the best DC put out to one of the most disappointing. And now were going to get
another team of super teens to fight? That's what 4 straight story arcs about that?
