Weekly Comic Book Reviews for October 15, 2008

Final Crisis: Rogues Revenge #3
Creative Team
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Scott Kollins
Colorist: Dave McCaig

Issue Rating
Story: 9/10
Art: 7.2/10
Overall: 8.1/10

Review: Even though I found the past two issues to be average reads Johns was able to make Final Crisis: Rogues Revenge #3 a great ending to this mini-series focusing on Flash's Rogue Gallery. This issue shows that Flash's Rogues aren't the some joke villains, except for the new Trickster who was just annoying, and are actual bad ass villains when written correctly. With all the villains in the DC Universe joining Darkseid and Libra it was great to see that the Rogues aren't buying Libra's crap. And after being hunted for the past year, DCU time, it was nice to see the Rogues finally get their revenge on the person that caused their misery Inertia/Kid Zoom.

What really made this issue great was the last page showing Barry Allen the original Flash's return. I just can't wait for Flash: Rebirth mini-series next year. The only problem I had with this series is Scott Kollins art. I just never been a big fan of Kollin's art but I will say that the fight between the Rogues and Inertia/Kid Zoom was some of Kollin's best work.

Titans #6
Creative Team
Writer: Judd Winnick
Artist: Julian Lopez
Inkers: Prentis Rollins and Bit
Colorist: Edgar Delgado

Issue Rating
Story: 3/10
Art: 6/10
Overall: 4.5/10

Review: If this was another writer I would be talking about how suprised I am that a writer can take one of the greatest teams in comics and write such a make the title feel so unreadable . But because this is Judd Winnick I am not suprised that he has taken the Wolfman/Perez Titans made the title so unberable to read. This issue was just the final nail in the coffin for this title. This whole Trigon son's story line was unoriginal and ill-concived from the very. Also Winnick's charatarization of each of the Titans is no were near how each member has been currently portrayed in other titles. What this issue and title shows is that as much as DC and fans want to relive the Wolfman/Perez era Titans that it is time to just admire how great that run was and allow these characters to move on from the Titans and take their perspective roles in the DCU. And since I don't have time or money to waste on a title this bad this is the last issue of Titans that I am picking up.

Ultimate Origins #5
Creative Team
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Butch Guice
Colorist: Justin Ponsor

Issue Rating
Story: 8/10
Art: 8/10
Overall: 8/10

Review: Outside of the issue were this mini-series focused on the origins of the Ultimate versions of Magneto and Professor X and their relationship Ultimate Origins has been mostly a disappointing mini-series. With Ultimate Origins #5 Bendis was able to not only write a good ending but actually build up my anticipation for Ultimatum, even if Loed is writing it. While a lot of people may be annoyed that Bendis has tied in almost every character in the Ultimate Universe origins together in some way I actually think that this is an interesting development. Even though Ultimate X-Men already showed the falling out of Magneto and Prof. X it was interesting to seethe real reason behind Magneto paralyzing Prof. X. Making the reason Magneto did that to his best friend out of defense because of Prof. X attempt to force Magneto to follow Prof X's belief system made the scene much more powerful. The only problem I had with this issue, and story, is that Bendis introduced the idea of humans being the actual creaters of the mutant gene and didn't really give much more of an explanation than that.

The other interesting thing about this issue was the "apperance" of the Watcher and what it told the Fantastic Four about the upcoming disaster that is to hit the Ultimate Universe. The mystery of how the Ultimate version of the Watcher actually looks like since the Watcher used Sue's boy, with her permision, to relay it's message is interesting since they can either have an organic body, be a collective conscious or something else. Also it seems that this version of the Watcher is much more hands on the the 616 version with it assigning its on herald that will either record or bring about the upcoming disaster. And credit to be Butch Guice for providing some nice artwork to go along with Bendis's story.

Uncanny X-Men #503
Creative Team
Writer: Matt Fraction and Ed Brubaker
Artist: Greg Land
Inker: Jay Leisten
Colorist: Justin Ponsor

Issue Rating
Story: 3/10
Art: 5/10
Overall: 4/10

Review: Just like with my comments with Titans it is hard to believe how bad Uncanny X-Men has become since Fraction has taken over the writing chores. It is clear that Fraction is the one that has been writing the past few issues and that Brubaker may only be helping with the plotting of the story. All the characters are acting like Messiah Complex never even happend. It is clear that Fraction is ignoring all of Emma Frost previous charactarization and has turned her into Jean Grey-lite. This is not the Emma that I have been reading and Emma is at her best when she masks her kindness with the bitchy side she shows to everyone. And the rest of the X-Men are no better and this issue was nothing but a dumb action filled issue. Also the appearance of Madeline Prior, in BSDM fetish outfit, did nothing but prove how stupid this issue and story is. It doesn't help that we also get some stiff artwork from Greg Land. All of the character's basically look like they are all pornstars. And just like with Titans I don't have either the time or money to waste money on this title and their are other titles that I have been looking to pick up that I can now get with dropping both this title and Titans.