Anime Review: Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 15

"C's World"

Review
The first half of R2 has been one great episode after another. With the minor exception of the School Festival episode each episode of R2 has been able to stand out on its with each episode giving us at least one "Oh Shit!" moment. But for some reason I did not get that same feeling from watching this episode.

The episode started off strong with Lelouch coming up with a brilliant plan in order to "kill" his dad without having to look eye to eye. The plan in a nut shell was that Lelouch used a bunch of mirrors that were shot out of his Shikiro in and quickly used his Geass that bounced off one mirror to the next to reach the Emperor and ordered to kill himself. Now even though I knew the Emperor was not dead since he is one of the end bosses for this series it was still a cool move by Lelouch and it was as close to an "Oh Shit!" moment we would have in this episode.

After that first 5 minutes I couldn't help but be disappointed with the rest of the episode. This is not to say this was a bad episode but more like the whole story structure felt a bit to predictable with telling of CC's origin story and what her wish is. It might be because I have read to many books, comics, and manga that have some sort of immortal character but it is predictable that CC's wish(es) was to die. From what I can tell CC has been around for at least sometime before the American Revolution since I could not tell if were she was living during her time with only her Love Geass was somewhere in Great Britain or in one of the 13 colonies. So it was predictable that since the start of her contract with Lelouch that she wanted to be killed.

And you know what I would have been fine if that was her only wish since her origin story and the Love Geass she had before becoming immortal gives reason why CC is such a cold and detached person that she would want to die after living so long. But now that CC has lost her memory and turned back into being the slave girl she used to be before she got her Geass it feels like they regressed her character in order to just keep one of the most popular characters on the show. More than any other character death CC's death would have been the most shocking to see at the half way point and could have made this show even more unpredictable than it already was. But now I kind of feel like I can predict how this story is going with this move and that this adds nothing but filler for the story.

Now the most interesting part of this episode other than the first five minutes was the sub-plot involving Prince Schneizel and what looks to be some sort of Atomic Bomb-like weapon Nina created. Even though we only got about two minutes dedicated to this sub-plot it was cool to see since I have thought that Schneizel has his own endgame in mind that no one, not even the Emperor, knows about. I have found it weird that after the China arc Schneizel had disappeared and not been given any lines since the arc but hopefully with this new development we will see more of what Schneizel has planned and how it will ruin the Emperor's and Lelouch's plans.

For the other two sub-plots that went on during this episode I found them to not be very interesting. If there has been one character I could care less about it is Ohgi. Nothing against the character but the writers have not really developed his character enough for me to care about or hate. So I kind of hope he is dead since that will trim some of the cast down a bit since it is getting ridiculous how large the cast of characters, both main and supporting, they have that have played a much larger role than Ohgi has at this point.

Also the whole scene with Suzaku tempted to use Refrain on Kallen and later him lying to Nunnally to be a bit forced into this episode that does not develop his character any further. It wasn't hard to tell Suzaku would not use Refrain on Kallen since that would be to extreme for his character. And though I found him lying to Nunnally to be forced I do wonder how long he can keep up lying to Nunnally since she is like a sister to him

Overall while I did not hate this episode I did not like it and felt disappointed about how predictable this episode's story was. For how strong R2 has been this is probably my least favorite episode so far of the series and I hope this show gets back on track and we find out more about the endgame of various characters in the show since not much was revealed in this episode and we go back to the war aspect of this show.

Episode Rating - 6.2/10

Legen--wait for it---dary Comic Book Highlight for 3/4/09

Cover of the Week: The New Avengers: The Reunion #1

In a week were there wasn't really a stand out cover this cover for New Avengers: The Reunion #1 was the best out of the week. While I do not like Clint in the Ronin costume and would rather see him return to his Hawkeye costume I do like Mockingbird's new costume much better than her old one.

Daredevil #116 Highlights

This was just an amazing image by David Aja.

With all the evil stuff Wilson has done as Kingpin he is just one big softy that just wants to be happy with his own family. But........

just like what has happened to Matt over the past few storylines Wilson's past as Kingpin always comes back to haunt him and steal away the any shred of happiness he finds.

It will be a lot of fun to see how Wilson gets his revenge on Lady Bullseye and The Hand as he teams up with Matt to do it.

Gotham Gazette: Batman Dead? Highlights

Even though Guillem March's artwork was awesome in the Vicki Vale segment of this issue this whole segment felt more like I was following someone working at the Daily Planet than the Gotham Gazette.

Terror Titans #6 Highlights

While nothing of note from this issue, other than it being the end of this average mini-series, it was cool seeing Static in action to show that when he joins the Teen Titans they will have some serious fire power.

Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk Highlights

All you need to know about the first two issues that came out 3 years ago.

While pandas look cute they are some vicious animals as Wolverine learns in this panel.

1...2....3....4....5....6.....7.....8....9....10. KO! The Hulk wins?

And this is what we've all been waiting for: Ultimate She-Hulk.

War of Kings #1 Highlights

I never thought I would say this, but I feel bad for Ronin.

Black Bolt definetly knows how to pick a location of a wedding.

Coming this summer Wedding Crashers 2 starring Gladiator and the Guardsman.

Ronin shows how tough he is as it takes three Guardsman to bring him down.

The Shi'ar draw first blood in the war but now they have a pissed off Black Bolt and Medusa to deal with. Vulcan is not to smart.

X-Men and Spider-Man #4 Highlights

Who knew that Wolverine and Spider-Man and Wolverine were dating?

Ah the good old days.

Gotta love it whenever Nightcrawler uses his powers to fight the bad guy.

Just like any good hunter knows Xraven escapes the battle by combining Cyclops and Iceman's powers to make his escape as he fights a losing battle.

Just some great artwork by Mario Alberti as he did through the whole series.

Just as Spider-Man says something cool Wolverine has to ruin his moment.

Legacy Shorts: Comic Book Reviews for 3/4/09

Gotham Gazette: Batman Dead?

Creative Team
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Artists: Dustin Nguyen (The Veil), Guillem March (Vicki Vale), ChrisCross (Stephanie Brown), Jamie McKelvie (Leslie Thompkins), and Alex Konat and Mark McKenna (Harvey Bullock)

Story - Gotham Gazette: Batman Dead?

Review
With this issue we officially kick off Battle for the Cowl. And all I can say is that I was a bit underwhelmed. Nothing against this story but this one-shot would have been much better served if it came out the same week as or after Battle for the Cowl #1. The only thing that we get out of this issue is that Gotham City has gone to hell without Batman around. But this is something that is not new since the past few issues of Batman, Detective Comics, Nightwing, and Robin have all explored this aspect of Gotham without Batman. At this point I am already set for Battle for the Cowl to begin since we already had type of story told. Also after the Batman and Detective Comics two-part issue that involved The Veil I still don't find the character anymore interesting than she was in that story.

Still I'll give Fabian Nicieza credit for giving a sense of were Vicky Vale, Stephenie Brown, Leslie Thompkins, and Harvey Bullock some of the spotlight as they will probably only be playing minor to no role in Battle for the Cowl. Nicieza has a nice grasp of how each character feels after all the events they been individually involved in and how each character seems to have hit crossroad in each of their careers. The only thing I found annoying is that I would have like to see Leslie Thompkins reapperance happen in another story that happened after Battle for the Cowl instead of a short appearance in this comic.

On the art side we had one artist doing one characters story each and as always a artist by committee never works and this issue is no different. While each artist did a nice job with their part of the story they were given to draw once it is all put together the art styles of each artist does not blend well for a single issue. Though I'll say each artist was able to convey the dark and chaotic setting of Gotham without Batman. The only exception being Guilliem March who drew the Vicky Vale story was a bit to bright and colorful for the type of story being told here that the beginnning of the issue felt more like a scene from the Daily Planet than a Gotham City newspaper company.

Issue Rating
Story: 6/10 - Nicieza did an good job showing how Gotham looks without Batman but the timing of this issue keeps it from being as good as it should be.
Art: 6.7/10 - Each artist did a fine job illustrating their segment of the story but when put together the different art style do not mix well with each other.
Overall: 6.35/10 - Timing aside this issue might have work better if we also had some more cameos from other major players for Battle for the Cowl since this was the first title that is a part of the event.

Terror Titans #6

Creative Team
Writer: Sean McKeever
Artist: Joe Bennett
Inker: Jack Jadson
Colorist: JD Smith

Story - One Second to Midnight

Review
It may be because I have lowered my expectations of getting anything great from most team books, outside of Guardians of Galaxy, especially when it comes to the recent portrayal of the Titans franchise but I actually enjoyed this issue for what it is: one big battle sequence with little substance. Most of my enjoyment from this issue, and this whole series, has been Ravager as she continues to be the most interesting Titan, even if she is not officially on the team, right now. It was good to see her finally take down the Clock King and get her revenge for being used. Though I don't know how I feel about the Terror Titans still being around since I find all the members to be one-note villains and would have like to see Ravager cut loose and killed each one of them.

From the looks of the final pages of this issue and the cover for the next issue of Teen Titans it looks like Miss Martian, Aquagirl, and Static are going to be on the team. Maybe with the addition of those characters we will get some interesting character interactions which is something Teen Titans has been missing for a while.

Issue Rating
Story: 6.8/10 - McKeever did nothing special but it got the job done as this series is now over.
Art: 7.8/10 - Bennett did a good job with his artwork and was the only highlight of this mini-series as he provided plenty of nice action sequences
Overall: 7.2/10 - I can only recommend this series for long time Titan fans who have been reading the current titles. Just don't come in expecting much from this story or else you'll be disappointed.

X-Men and Spider-Man #4

Creative Team
Writer: Christos Gage
Artist: Mario Alberti

Story - The Mutant Hunter

Review
Even though the last issue was the weakest issue in this mini-series this still has been a well told story that has explored various periods of the X-Men and Spider-Man's history. Christos Gage has done a great job capturing Spider-Man and the X-Men through the various eras and the changes each character has gone through since the start of their superhero careers.

I found myself smiling as Cyclops and the rest of the X-Men joked about how Wolverine has spent a lot of time with Spider-Man since they are both part of the New Avengers. It's just funny seeing how Wolverine gets defensive about it since it is known that he usually appears in about half of Marvel's titles right now.

The plot of Mr. Sinester creating his own mutant hunting clone using the DNA of Kraven and combining it with the original X-Men is nothing we haven't seen before in comics but like any good comic writer Gage was able to take this story and pack it with some great dialogue and action. Gage keep this issue on a nice flow as Spider-Man and the X-Men realized that they were not just fighting a Kraven clone called Xraven but also themselves as the Xraven used all of the original X-Men's powers with great proficiency.

Even though Gage did a great job with all of the dialogue it was Mario Alberti's artwork that is the real star of this mini-series. Alberti, like Marcos Martin, has done an excellent job with his artwork having a Jack Kriby feel to it. All of the artwork in this issue has a lot of energy with plenty of detail that at times while reading the issue I would just look at Alberti's artwork as the X-Men and Spider-Man try and fight off Xraven.

Issue Rating
Story: 8.3/10 - Gage does a great job packing mixing this issue with plenty of good dialogue and action.
Art: 9/10 -Alberti provides this issue with plenty of great artwork that I hope we get to see him get a run on Amazing Spider-Man, X-Men, or any other Marvel title.
Overall: 8.65/10 - If your a Spider-Man or X-Men fan I highly recommend you get this mini-series when it comes out in trade paperback as you will enjoy all the reference to the various stories in both franchises history.

Daredevil #116 Review

Creative Team
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: David Aja
Inker: Stefano Gaudiano
Colorist: Jose Villarrubia

Story - Return of the King: Prologue - On the Costa Da Morte

Review
I have to admit that after War of Kings and Blackest Night events "Return of the King" was the story I have been looking forward to the most this year. Ever since the beginning of Dark Reign I have felt that if it started a few years ago it would have been Kingpin in the place of Norman Osborn as the Director of H.A.M.M.E.R. While Norman was mostly a threat to Spider-Man, until recently, Kingpin has always been one of the biggest villains in the Marvel Universe that posed a threat to every hero not just to one.

Between this issue and War of Kings #1 I don't know which comic was the book of the week for me. Both were excellent reads. But if I had to pick one Daredevil #116 would be my choice. Ed Brubaker did a great with this prologue issue that focused completely on Kingpin and the new life he built for himself with the family that let him in.

For all the irredeemable qualities Kingpin has at his core he is a family man who has always looked for a happy life with a wife and kids. But just like Matt the thing that has keep Kingpin from having that happy ending life he seeks is the line of work he had chosen for himself as the Kingpin of Crime. I actually felt a bit happy for Kingpin as he found a family that was able to accept him and calm the wild beast inside of him which is what made the final scene even more sad as he lost the family he always wanted to his past at the Hands revenge.

My favorite aspect of this issue was how Brubaker used this issue to show that even though Matt and Kingpin have been enemies for a long time, having tortured one another throughout their history, that they are mirror images of one another. As I mentioned earlier, just like Matt the thing keeping Kingpin from being happy is the line of work he chose to be in in his past. For both characters their worst enemy are themselves. No matter how hard each one of them tries to not get in their own way they find a way, whether it is consciously or unconsciously, to do something that cause them to never be happy for to long. And with the awesome cover of Daredevil and Kingpin shaking hands in the next issue it will be interesting to see what happens if both former enemies team up to take down a similar enemy.

Though Michael Lark has the right type of art style for this books dark and street-level feel I loved David Aja's artowork in this issue. His artwork did a great job conveying the new life Kingpin built for himself and the utter sadness he felt once that life is taken away from him. My favorite part of the whole issue from Aja's artwork was the single page that had a silhouette of Kingpin's face as we see it filled with images of Spider-Man, Daredevil, and Bullseye. That was just a great image that helps to illustrate how tired of his previous life Kingpin is.

Issue Rating
Story: 9.5/10 - Brubaker did a perfect job showing us what happened to Kingpin as he has moved on to a new life that is quickly taken away from him in front of his eyes.
Art: 8.6/10 - Aja does a wonderful job packing this issue with tons of emotion especially as Kingpin see his new family dead when he gets home.
Overall: 9.1/10 - For anyone that has been upset over how Kingpin has been portrayed these past few storylines you will want to read this issue. And if you have either dropped this title in the past or are looking to get into Daredevil this is a great issue to come back to or jumping on point.

Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk #3 Review

Creative Team
Writer: Damon Lindelof
Artist: Leinil Francis Yu
Colorist: Dave McCaig

Story - Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk Part 3 of 6

Review
After about a three and a half year wait we finally get the third part of the Ultimate Universe version of the battle between Wolverine and Hulk and I can't help to think to myself "that's it." The whole issue felt like it was going through the motions with Lindelof forcing most of the dialogue by having Wolverine drop the F word in about every other panel.

After watching the Hulk vs. DVD, which is a highly enjoyable DVD, I was reminded of other Wolverine and Hulk confrontations and this story doesn't hold up well with those other stories. The biggest problem with this issue is that it was to self aware of the long delay between the second and third issue. In the first couple pages were Lindelof first used it I thought it was funny and I had a grin on my face when I first read it since it was a cool reference to the joke it had become with the long delay. After the third page when this joke continued it got old and made worse due to the fact it continued for about ten pages. While at times it is funny when a comic breaks the fourth wall it rarely is successful due to the writer using for to much of the issue which is what Lindelof did in this issue.

Also while it may work over in Lost the whole thing with the flashback/flashfowards we got in this just felt awkward and was unnecessary. Lindelof would have been better off starting the issue with Hulk and Wolverine being surrounded by the harem of women and then moving on to the fight. The whole issue just didn't flow well as the conversation between Hulk and Wolverine about which one of Wolverine's legs the Hulk to eat just dragged on.

Also while I felt that Leinil Yu did a much better job with the artwork in this issue than in his run on New Avengers it was nothing special. I guess it is because I am not a big fan of his artwork but he just overuses shadowing too much. I think if he toned it down with all the shadowing and allowed his colorist do his job his artwork would improve.

Now this is not to say this issue had no redeeming qualities because it did. One thing is that I liked the opening page used a splash page of various scenes from the first two issues since it helped me remember what happened in those two issues. Lindelof would have been much better off using that one page and letting himself tell the story he meant to tell before the long delay.

I will also say that if you are a new reader and are able to get the first two issues, which were reprinted, than this mini-series may be a nice start since it does a good job being a big action flick you normally see from the 80s and 90s. Especially if you are a fan of the Hulk and X-Men films this is a nice jumping on point I think many new readers will enjoy.

Issue Rating
Story: 5/10 - Lindelof ran with Wolverine become to self aware about the long delay between issues so long that I got bored of the dialogue 1/3 of the way through the issue.
Art: 6/10 - Yu did an okay job with his best work being in the short fight scenes between Wolverine and Hulk.
Overall: 5.5/10 - If you come into this issue with high expectations you will be disappointed but if you come in with not expecting much from this issue than you may find this issue entertaining.

War of Kings #1 Review

Creative Team
Writer: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning
Artist: Paul Pelletier
Inker: Rick Magyar
Colorist: Wil Quintana

Story - Asunder

Review
War of Kings #1 is exactly how every big event should start their story. This issue gives us all the action and drama you would expect from a big event and when you add in the fact that this war between two galactic powers will span the whole universe, not just one planet, War of Kings is set up to deliver everything that Secret Invasion and Final Crisis weren't able to: intrigue and execution.

What is incredible about this event is that DnA, along with Keith Giffen who wrote the original Annihilation, have almost single (double) handily built up all of these cosmic characters Marvel has long been ignored and tap into the great potential each one of them had. It's funny that with all the iconic characters Marvel and DC have it has been their cosmic titles that I have become their most interesting aspect of both companies. What makes it even more funny is that when you start thinking about it, it was two mini-series, one for each company, that started the rise of both cosmic universes: Green Lantern: Rebirth (DC) and Annihilation (Marvel). Before those two mini-series all of their cosmic characters were just another part of each of their larger universe. But now these two cosmic corners are thought of as their own seperate universes.

DnA did a great job having all of the dialogue in this issue have a nice pleasent flow and never having any of the dialogue of all the various characters feel forced. While DnA made it look easy they both had their work cut out for them due to all the stories that have lead to this event that they did not have a hand in writing. This event builds of X-Men Deadly Genesis, Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire, X-Men: Emperor Vulcan and Kingbreaker, Silent War, Secret Invasion, and Secret Invasion: Inhumans. That is a tall list of events and somehow DnA were still able to make War of Kings still have a new reader friendly feel to it.

The whole sequence of when Vulcan is having Gladiator run down the list of his Guardsman had a sort of Arthurian feel to it with the Guardsman playing a similar role to Arthur's Knights of the Roundtable. Even though the Shi'ar Empire are suppose to be the bad guys of this series DnA provide enough character work on the Shi'ar warriors that has a part of you rooting for this group to win or at least get out of Vulcan's rule. This is all done by having most of the Shi'ar scenes being told through the eyes of Gladiator to show that these are warriors who are not necessarily loyal to whoever is their Emperor/Empress but to the sense of honor of being a Guardsman of the Shi'ar Empire holds. The only character that does not follow this is Vulcan who is the villain every story needs that has no redeemable quality to him other than being someone who you hope gets his ass kicked at the end of the story.

On the other side of the spectrum we have the Inhuman lead Kree Emipire who have an Ancient Rome feel. Everything leading up to the weeding of Ronan and Crystal screamed politics that you see in those old Roman stories. I liked how Crystal, who was opposed to the Inhumans becoming proactive, has come around and support what the Inhumans are doing. Though it does seem that there is some truth behind what Polaris told Crystal about her words sounding like she was scripted to say that by Medusa or someone else.

I felt bad for Ronan when he heard Crystal's words about the marriage being not about love but politics. Seeing him hold some roses and then drop them as he heard those words come out of Crystal's mouth was a great visual. After being one of the heroes of the two Annihilation events, and countless other battles the Kree have been involved with, and leading his people when they needed him most makes Ronan a very sympathetic character. It was very cool to see that it took three Guardsman to take down the powerhouse that is Ronan during the Shi'ar/Kree meele and I hope that he is not actually dead but just out of commission for a few issues.

Speaking of the battle, Pelletier did an awesome job with the whole issue and the huge battle had a lot of weight to it. Pelletier gave this whole issue a nice clean look with plenty of eye candy for the reader as each panel was packed with characters and some great backgrounds. The image of Gladiator leading the Guardsman and the rest of the Shi'ar warriors was just a great spread page that gave the scene a powerful start to the invasion.

The only thing that I did not like about this issue is the fact that Black Bolt was quickly taken down by a convenient deus ex mechina that block his powers long enough for him to be knocked out by the Gladiator. But since this is the first issue we can't really have the two big powerhouses of each side, Black Bolt and Vulcan, flex their muscles to much since they are such powerful characters that the war would be over quickly. I can't wait to see a Black Bolt vs Gladiator rematch since even though Black Bolt was knocked out all that accomplished was ripping a part of his costume as we see him without a scratch.

Issue Rating
Story: 8.6/10 - DnA did a great job with giving plenty of dialogue that makes the reader become instantly familiar with each character without having to read previous interations of the characters.
Art: 9/10 - Pelletier art was a joy to see and more than makes up for his absence from Guardians of the Galaxy. He is able to give this story about to empires in a war plenty of weight through his artwork.
Overall: 8.8/10 - This was a great start to the war between the Shi'ar and the Inhuman lead Kree Empires. Throw in the Starjammers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and the Nova Corps and this event has all the potential to be an epic story.