Captain America #45 Review

Creative Team
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Luke Ross and Butch Guice
Inkers: Rick Magyar, Mark Pennington, and Butch Guice
Colorist: Frank D'Armata

Story - Time's Arrow: Part 3 of 3

Review
There are many reasons why I find Bucky as Captain America much more interesting than Steve Rogers but the number 1 reason why I find Bucky more interesting is all the story possibilities Brubaker and future writers have with Bucky and his unknown past. Nothing against Steve but the problem with him as Captain America, like so many comic book characters, is that all the stories fall under the category of been there, done that. There isn't much more of Steve's history that can be explored since there isn't much their anymore.

This is were Brubaker gets a huge benefit with Bucky as Captain America and why the stories feel new and refreshing. There is about a sixty year gap in Bucky's history during his time as Cap's partner and as the Winter Soldier that is a big mystery to the reader which allows Brubaker and other future writers a bit more freedom with the stories they want to tell. But with characters like Steve Rogers, Batman, and Superman many writers are hindered due to all the history those characters have that writers can't take to many liberties, if any at all, with those characters and their history.

Brubaker does such a great job integrating the flashbacks to Bucky's past with his present adventures that it makes the reader realize their is still much we do not know about Bucky. It seems the more time Bucky is Captain America the more his past is going to come back to haunt him which is bad for him but good for us.

I loved the fight between Bucky, The Man with No Face, and Batroc. Throughout the fight Bucky is fighting with his instincts and past experience to get him through his fight that when he is throwing the shield is great. Towards the end Bucky was mainly fighting to survive and not win since for most, if not the whole fight he was against the wall never allowed to breath. I hope that we see more of The Man with No Face and Batroc again in the future since they prove to be a great challenge to Bucky who barely survived the fight with some timely help from Black Widow. The art from Ross and Guice was really well done in that fight, and the whole issue. I didn't even know that there were two artist working on this issue since both Ross and Guice artwork were very similar.

I love the great reveal that The Man with No Face and Batroc were after the body of the original Human Torch. It is going to be interesting to find out what they wanted with the original Human Torch's body and if the scientist Bucky was sent to assassinate when he was Winter Soldier is the one pulling the strings from behind the scenes.

Also I have to say that the Bucky and Natasha relationship has become my favorite couple in comics. Their relationship is really great and not the typical relationship since both of them are able to protect themselves and that they don't have to constantly worry that the other person may be in trouble. It will be interesting to see if Brubaker uses the fact that Bucky is part of the New Avengers to cause friction between the couple.

Issue Rating
Story: 9.4/10 - Again Brubaker proves he has a great handle for Bucky and all the characters in this title that I can't wait to see were he takes the plotline of the original Human Torch's body in the future.
Art: 8.3/10 - Ross and Guice provided some great artwork and it is not even noticeable that their were two artist working on this issue.
Overall: 8.85/10 - After such a huge epic story this three part arc gave this title a some breathing room to allow any new reader to catch up while also providing an exciting story that sets up future plotlines.

Anime Review: Bleach 95

Instead of grouping all my anime reviews together I will instead do individual reviews for each anime I review. With this I should be able to post my anime reviews a lot quicker. The format for the reviews will stay the same as before.

Bleach 95:"Byakuya Takes the Field! Dance of the Wind-Splitting Cherry Blossoms"

Review
Since arriving into the Soul Society Bleach has slowed down the pace a bit. This episode picks up the pace by giving us a fight between Kariya and Byakuya with Ichigo joining in later in the episode. Overall the fight served to show how strong Kariya is. Up until now we knew that Kariya was strong but he has only fought Ichigo twice and each time it Kariya seemed to only be testing testing our young hero. But now that Kariya is shown to be able to go toe to toe with a Captain of the Soul Society it makes Kariya out to be a bigger threat than before especially with his instant healing ability that he has due all the spirit particles in the Soul Society. As strong as Byakuya is he was barely able to dodge all of Kariya's attacks and it actually looked like Byakuya would have lost the fight if Ichigo didn't get involved. The only complaint I had with the fight between Byakuya, Ichigo, and Kariya is that the animation wasn't as strong in this episode as it has been with the other fights in Bleach.

Outside of the fight the comedy didn't work well in this episode and I am starting to get annoyed by Kukaku and his gang. Also the subplot with Koga and Ichinose convincing all of the thiefs in Kusajishi to fight along side them wasn't very interesting. But even with everything outside the fight not being very interesting the episode was a much better episode that we have seen since the Bounts arrived in the Soul Society

Episode Rating - 8.3/10

Pull List for 1/3/09

Avengers/Invaders #7 - This series continues to be floating under the radar of some readers. I expect we are going to get more answers to how the Invaders got to the present.

Batman #684 - While O'Neil's first issue was disappointing I still expect the second part of "Last Days of Gotham" to be a good read.

Captain America #45 - I can't wait to find out the identity of the man in trench coat and top hat.

Final Crisis: Secret Files - I hope that Morrison is able to answer some of the many questions he has left unanswered in the main series with this one-shot.

Green Lantern #36 - Finally after a long wait we have the second part of "Rage of the Red Lanterns." Right now I don't really care about the delays in this comic since I am loving anything that builds on "Blackest Night."

Guardians of the Galaxy #8 - The reveal of Blastaar being the ruler of the Negative Zone was awesome and I wonder how Star-Lord will get out of that situation.

Teen Titans #66 - I am really close to dropping this title so I hope McKeever can turn in an entertaining read.

Wolverine #70 - No matter the delay this is the book I am looking forward to the most this week. I can't wait to find out what really happened to Logan to become a pacifist.

Best of Comics 2008

It is officially 2009 so I thought I thought for my hundredth post on this blog I would take a look back in this past years worth of titles. So here is some noticeable things that happened in the world of comics in 2008.

Best Creative Teams

Brubaker/Eptings/Perkins - Brubaker along with artists Epting, Perkins, and other artist have made Captain America into one of the best, if not the best, comics on the market today. It is just incredible how Brubaker and his artist were able to kill and replace an icon as big as Steve Roger's as Captain America with Bucky Barnes without people complaining about the move. This team has definitely created something epic in Captain America.

Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning/Various Artist - DnA have done such a wonderful job reviving Marvel's Cosmic Universe along with their various artist that the Cosmic Universe may be even stronger that the Core Marvel Universe. It is incredible since Marvel's Cosmic Universe was dead for a long time and now all the Cosmic titles are just great reads. DnA's War of Kings is one of the books I am looking forward too this year and it is due to their work on Marvel's Cosmic Universe.

Grant Morrison/Frank Quitely - All-Star Superman was one of DC's best comic and the last issue of this series was definitely one of the best single issues of the year. For as much as I bash Morrison for his work this past year his work on All-Star Superman along with the great artwork from Frank Quitely made that title a must read.

Best Titles

Marvel:

Captain America - It is just incredible to think that Brubaker and his art crew just finished a long 40+ issue story arc that began with the very first issue of this series and it never lost any of its readers or made anyone complain about the pacing of the story. Also Bucky's transformation into becoming the new Captain America was done in such a natural way that there is no question Bucky deserves the mantle.

Guardians of the Galaxy - This was maybe the best new ongoing title of the year. This may also be the first team title were I liked each and every member of the team and I can't wait to see how DnA will continue building to War of Kings in this title.

Nova - This is the other DnA Cosmic title that has just been money all year long. DnA have done a great job making Nova into Marvel's answer to DC's Green Lantern. Richard Rider is definitely very similar to a young Hal Jordan and it is great that the Nova Corps was revived

Thor - The delays have not hurt this title at all. Straczynski and Coipel have Thor relevant again and is a title that is a must have whenever it comes out.

Ultimate Spider-Man - This is a title that doesn't seem to get much love just because of how it has been consistentely one of the best titles on the market since issue #1 that 128 issues later it is hard to come up with things to say about this title that have not been said before. USM is the best example why Bendis should go back to writing solo books instead of team books because he is just a great writer when he is writing about one main character and a big supporting cast.

DC:

Action Comics - Geoff Johns has done such a great job finally making Superman interesting to me. The 'Brainiac' story arc was one of the best Superman stories I have read and I can't wait to get 'New Krypton' in TPB.

All-Star Superman - This was just a wonderful read and the final issue was a great emotional read that is a must for any Superman fan.

Green Lantern - While this series slowed down a bit with the 'Secret Origins' arc Johns is still keeping this title a must read especially now that Johns is building to 'Blackest Night' with the introduction of the other Corps

Nightwing - Peter Tomasi has done such a great job, along with Morales and Kramer, making Nightwing a great read. Though I am sad that this title is being cancelled in March due to 'Battle for the Cowl.'

Teen Titans: Year One - This was just a fun series that is a must for any Titans fan.

Worst Titles

Marvel:

Hulk - Loeb's work on Marvel has just been horrible and while I only read the first issue of Hulk I could tell with that one issue this series is just bad.

Ultimates 3 - Another Loeb work that was horrible that it is unbelivable that Loeb was able to take a title that was a must read under Millar and Hitch into one of the worst reads ever.

Uncanny X-Men - As a long time X-Men fan this title has just been such a big disappointment that 2009 may be the first year were I will not be picking up any of the team X-titles.

DC:

Countdown to Final Crisis - In no way dealt with Final Crisis and was just a horrible series with no sense of direction and no pay off at the end.

Final Crisis: Superman Beyond - This is just Morrison to his most extreme and sometimes enough is enough with experimenting with storytelling and Superman Beyond is an example of that.

Titans - Winnick worked his magic again and this time on the classic team of the Teen Titans. It is unbelievable how Winnick could turn this title into an unreadable mess that I hope DC quickly takes Winnick off this title. And until then I am not reading this title with one of my favorite teams of all time.

Storyline of the Year

Marvel:

The Death of Captain America - Just an amazing epic that started with issue #1 of Captain America that did such a wonderful job replacing its title character and making it seem natural. If you haven't read Captain America yet I recommend reading this story from the first TPB to the last because it reads so well in TPB form. And if you do have all the issue go back and read the story again in one sitting it is just a all-time great story.

DC:

Batman RIP - Even though I fell in the middle with this storyline Morrison and Daniel did a great job creating a lot for Batfans to talk about, whether good or bad. In the end when a story is able to make so many people talk about the story and overload message board than it did its job. Morrison and Daniel's did just that with this storyline.

Overall 2008 was a good year in comics and the Big Two gave fans a lot to talk about. Hopefully 2009 will be an even better year, which I suspect it will be with a lot of big things happening this new year.

Daredevil #114 Review

Creative Team
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Michael Lark
Inker: Stefano Gaudiano
Colorist: Matt Hollingsworth

Story - Lady Bullseye: Part 4

Review
While Brubaker started this story arc in his typical slow and measured pace these past two issues have really kicked things in to gear. The last issue kicked things off and this issue continues getting the ball rolling and is even more intense than the previous installments of this "Lady Bullseye" storyline that is quickly going from a good to great storylines of this year that leads into something much more epic.

I liked the little jab Brubaker makes at Batman by having Matt contemplate living in a cave and only coming out at night. It is a funny little moment for Matt and that at the end of that thought Matt said he would be even more crazy if did do that. This was a nice way to inject humor into what is usually humorless series at the expense of one the other company's biggest name characters that Brubaker use to write.

I also liked how Brubaker is giving more of a personality to Lady Bullseye by not just having her be another member of The Hand. By giving Lady Bullseye a secret identity of Maki Matsumoto who is a lawyer just like Matt she is able to attack both of Matt's lives in different manners than just her Lady Bullseye costume. Also I am interested to see what Lady Bullseye is really after with her playing on her own side and how the leader of The Hand will take to be used by one of his members.

My favorite thing about this whole issue is the drama that continues to go on in Matt's life. Just when you think Matt's life can't get any worse Brubaker finds a way to do it. The whole scene in the deposition with Milla's parents was just so hard to read because of how bad you feel for Matt while also understanding why Milla's parents would take their daughter back and away from Matt. Everything is just piling up on Matt that his mental stability is suffering. And everything that Foggy told Matt is dead on and something Matt needed to hear. Matt takes so much time apologizing to people that he never accepts the truth because he feels all the burden should be on himself. It was all of this drama that made the final scene with the possessed Black Tarantula and White Tiger much more impactful. Unless Iron Fist and Master Izo are able to help Matt in time things only look to get worse for Matt. Which is what I am putting my money on

Michael Lark provided the proper dark and gritty artwork that goes along very well with Brubaker's style. His action scenes were really well done with a lot of energy. Lark did a nice job in the last scene of the issue capturing how unstable Matt is at the moment. Though at times Lark's artwork did look rushed at times especially in the deposition scene.

Issue Rating
Story: 8.8/10 - Brubaker continues the ball rolling storyline and continues to make Matt's life go from bad to worse.
Art: 7.3/10 - Lark gives Daredevil the proper dark and gritty look Brubaker is going for though his artwork did look rushed at times.
Overall: 8.1/10 - "Lady Bullseye" is a great return to the way this title was during Brubaker's first storyline on Daredevil. If your a Daredevil fan or a fan of martial art stories I recommend picking up this title.

HAPPY NEW YEARS!

Hope everyone had a fun and safe New Years. And if you do not remember the last 12 hours I am guessing you did. Here is to what should be a great 2009.

Cheers!