Legacy Shorts: Comic Book Reviews for 4/8/09

Green Lantern #39

Creative Team
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Philip Tan
Inker: Jonathan Glapion
Colorists: Randy Mayor & Gabe Eltaeb

Story - Agent Orange: Part One

Review
We finally get the introduction of the Orange Lanterns and from the looks of it the Orange Corps will probably be the smallest in terms of members. It would make sense that the Lantern Corp powered by greed would be the one with the least amount of members as the leader of the Corps, named Larfleeze, showed his unwillingness to share his power. And I got to say Tan's artwork perfectly fit the dark tone that this "Agent Orange" arc is heading towards. I really loved the creepy look Tan gave to the Orange Corp and the Controllers.

Also continuing to be Johns continues to build the strength of the Green Lantern titles is the darker path that the Guardians have been using to cut all emotions from the universe. As they showed with the very direct way that they tried to strip Hal of the Blue Lantern power. It should be interesting how Hal is finally able to tap into the power hope and if he will decide to lead the Blue Lanterns after what the Guardians did to him.

Now the one thing I am starting to worry about as we head closer to "Blackest Night" is if Johns will be able to handle the huge cast that the event will have. Because not only will he have to all the various Lantern Corp members but also a lot of the major DCU characters. Also Johns still has the whole Sinestro's child thread and also John Stewart being hunted by Fatality to deal with before the event. It just seems that with those two threads as well as building up the Orange Lanterns and the yet seen Indigo Lanterns that there will be to much for Johns to handle heading into the huge War of Lights.

Issue Rating
Story: 7.6/10 - Even though Johns did a great job introducing the Orange Lanterns and continuing the dark path the Guardians are heading towards it is starting to feel that Johns may be overwhelmed by the amount of characters he has to handle.
Art: 9/10 - I really dug the creepy look Tan gave this book.
Overall: 8.3/10 - "Agent Orange" is off to a nice start though it seems that this story will take a back seat to the John Stewart vs. Fatality story in the next issue which may take away some of the momentum from this story.

Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk #4

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

Story - Part 4

Review
With the "surprise" appearance of Ultimate She-Hulk at the end of the last issue this issue is almost completely dedicated to telling her origin, as well as a surprise appearance by Ultimate Rulk in a different form. I was actually a bit surprised that Lindelof had Betty turn into She-Hulk as in her Ultimates 2 appearance, which takes place after this story, Betty shows no sign of having powers.

Still even though with this swerve in the story this was still a kind of dull read as Lindelof kind of over did it with the dialogue. It kind of felt that I was reading a Bendis New Avengers issue as there was dialogue in every single panel. This issue might have been better if Lindelof allowed Yu to tell a bit of story with just the artwork alone which I will say that was better than the his previous work.

Issue Rating
Story: 5.7/10 - Though Lindelof did not have his characters be to self-aware of being a comic this issue was littered with a lot of Bendis-talk which I don't know if it was intentional on Lindelof's part or not.
Art: 6.6/10 - Yu did a better job with the art as this issue was a more dynamic especially in the Rulk and She-Hulk transformations.
Overall: 6.15/10 - While this issue was an improvement over the last issue the overuse of dialogue hurt this issue.

War of Kings: Ascension #1

Creative Team
Writer: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Artist: Wellinton Alves
Inker: Scott Hanna
Colorist: Guau EFX

Story - Dark Matters: The Secret of The Darkhawks

Review
Picking up were the Darkhawk mini-series left off DnA continue Darkhawk and Talon's adventures as they fight there way through the Negative Zone. DnA continue to have a great handeling of all things cosmic in the Marvel Universe and as the writers of War of Kings this mini-series feels like it is heading towards something that will involve the main event.

The one thing against this issue is that this was more of an action pacted issue than developing Darkhawk and Talon's characters as it was predictable from reading the Darkhawk mini that Talon would become a villain. Though the aspect of The Fraternity of Raptors being villains could play as an interesting foil to the Nova Corps and DnA may be building towards a Sinestro Corp Wars-type event over in Nova once War of Kings is over.

The real star of this issue is Alves artwork. Since this issue was filled with cosmic action Alves was given a lot to work with, and since Alves is no stranger to Marvel cosmic as he did some work on Nova. With the nice clean look that Alves gives Darkhawk and Talon's armor, as well as Darkhawk's power-up armor, I kind of hope that he would be given a crack at drawing Invincible Iron Man comic as his artwork would be a perfect fit for Iron Man.

Issue Rating
Story: 7.5/10 - DnA continue to do a great job building Marvel cosmic characters as they give Darkhawk and Talon some nice chemistry in this issue.
Art: 8.4/10 - Alves does a great job with the art as DnA give him plenty of action to illustrate in this issue.
Overall: 7.95/10 - This was a nice start to this mini-series and it will be interesting to see how this adventure in the Negative Zone will tie into War of Kings.

Wolverine: Weapon X #1

Creative Team
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Ron Garney
Colorist: Jason Keith

Story - The Adamantium Men: Part 1

Review
Just like how The Invincible Iron Man started at the same time as the Iron Man film Wolverine gets a new reader friendly title just a few weeks before the release of the X-Men Origins: Wolverine film. But since Wolverine already appears in half of Marvel's comics why does he need another ongoing series? Easy, because the Wolverine title will be changing its name to Dark Wolverine with Logan's son Dakken as the star so of course Wolverine needs his own solo book.

But joking aside I actually enjoyed this first issue by the "Get Mystique" team of Aaron and Garney. Just as he did with the "Get Mystique" arc Aaron really nails Logan's character and makes this "The Adamantium Men" arc feel like one of the old school Wolverine stories we use to get back when he only had one solo series in the 80s and 90s. After the "Old Man Logan" arc is over Wolverine: Weapon X will most likely be the only Wolverine title that I will be getting as I find Dakken character to be extremely annoying. The only problem I had with this book is that I wish that Garney would have used the old orange and brown Wolverine suit instead of the X-Force black and grey suit as it would have made this issue truly feel like the old school Wolverine stories.

Issue Rating
Story: 8/10 - Aaron has a great handle of Wolverine's character as his version of Wolverine is one of the only non-PC versions of Wolverine that we currently get, as shown in the subway scene.
Art: 7.4/10 - Garney does a good enough job with the artwork as he gives Logan the proper mountain man look he should have. Though I would have preferred that he would have used one of Wolverine's old school costume and not his current X-Force costume.
Overall: 7.7/10 - This was a nice start to what looks to be a return to the old school Wolverine stories. And I strongly recommend this title for any new reader that is looking to get into Wolverine as it is not hampered by all of Wolverine's history that is hurting his other books.

Dark Reign: Hawkeye #1

Creative Team
Writer: Andy Diggle
Artist: Tom Raney
Inker: Scott Hanna
Colorist: Guru E-FX

Story- Hawkeye

Review
Even though I have largely stayed away from the onslaught of Dark Reign titles, save for the ones I was already collecting before Secret Invasion, I couldn't help but be intrigued by a mini-series starring my favorite Daredevil villain Bullseye masquerading as a the hero name Hawkeye. After reading Dark Reign: Hawkeye #1 it is clear that Diggle, like Warren Ellis, he is able to tap into that psycho manic part of his mind that allows him to write some badass villain characters. I guess I shouldn't be surprised as I was highly impressed with Diggle's work on Thunderbolts.

For anyone that read Ellis and Diggle's Thunderbolts you know that Norman Osborn and Bullseye have some great chemistry. It just feels that anytime these two have a conversation you know that either one could snap at any second as both have been shown to be completely psychotic characters. But what makes their conversations in this issue, and when they were starring in Thunderbolts, special is that their is an added interest that Norman is taking meds in order to control his psycho Green Goblin persona to maintain a professional appearance but Bullseye is completely unapologetic and he could easily kill Norman if he wanted to, which is what he tells Norman in this issue. It is this part of this series that may be the most interesting part of this series as we know that Norman will not be happy about all the crazy villainous acts Bullseye committed at the end of this issue and most likely in future issues.

Speaking of the ending I have to say that the ending of this issue was just awesome and an act that will come to no surprise to anyone that is familiar with Bullseyes character. Now I do not want to spoil anything as it is a scene you should read for yourself but simply put that last scene makes the $3.99 price tag worth the buy. Diggle did a great job writing that final scene as we see what a danger Norman is really in for having a team of supervillains masquerading as superheroes is to the power he now controls.

The one thing were this issue does go wrong though, and it is not Diggle fault, is that I continue not to buy Norman's rise to power. I don't know how Norman as Iron Patriot has been portrayed over in Dark Avengers but in the opening scene with the Dark Avengers trying to stop the "rogue" Hulk-Buster armor Norman came of as an incompetent leader as all he did was get in the way of his teammates just because he wanted the glory of being responsable for taking the Hulk-Buster unit down. And also I don't get why Ben Ulrich seems to be the only one to question Norman about his rise to power as it seems that during these first few months of Dark Reign questions like the one Ulrich asked should have been ask by the media before.

On the art side of things I found Tom Raney's artwork to be a mixed bag for me. Raney has a great dynamic style that could perfectly fit a team title like the Avengers or the X-Men but for a title like Dark Reign: Hawkeye I don't see his art fit the dark tone of this book. For a mini-series centered around Bullseye I kind of expect more of a Aja or Lark type artwork were they can carry the dark tone that Diggle is aiming for with this title. Still I like Raney's artwork but feel that he is an odd fit for a title like this one

Issue Rating
Story: 8.2/10 - Diggle continues to impress with how well he is able to write villain characters.
Art: 7.7/10 - Raney's art is impressive though his artwork does not fit the dark tone of this book.
Overall: 7.95/10 - Overall Dark Reign: Hawkeye was a great start for what should be a fun mini-series. If you have been enjoying Diggle's work on Thunderbolts so far I definitely recommend getting this mini-series.

Battle for the Cowl #2 Review

Creative Team
Writer & Artist: Tony Daniel
Inker: Sandu Florea
Colorist: Ian Hannin

Story - Army of One

Review
Battle for the Cowl #2 was just what I was expecting it to be: Great artwork combined with one of those mindless summer blockbuster movies storytelling. Tony Daniel continues to be a much better storyteller with his artwork than his actual dialogue. In truth his artwork as has never looked better as his work in this mini-series is better than his previous Batman artwork. Though there were some odd moments in the art such as when in one second we see Nightwing confront the two-gunned Batman and in the next second we see Nightwing get hit by three batarangs with no sign of them going to be thrown in the previous panels. Also I cannot see how Tim is not dead since the way Daniel drew the batarang that is on his chest was the size of a football.

The problem Daniel has is that his story is completely predictable. At no point in this story was I surprised about what was happening. All of the dialogue was fine for showing Dick, Tim, Alfred, and the two-gunned Batman's personalities but also felt so generic that the dialogue was dull.

The only actual conversation I enjoyed, even for its predictability, was the Dick and Alfred scene in the Batcave. Even though it is a scene that we have all read before it was still a conversation that felt natural and actually does belong in this event in order to give Dick that final push to take his rightful place and become the one true Batman as Bruce would have wanted all along. It is to bad that we aren't treated with any other scenes like this as the rest of the issue was just a pure waste of characters from Daniel's part.

Just like with the first issue this issue felt that Daniel was just setting up characters for there tie-in mini-series to Battle for the Cowl. For example we get a quick one of appearance of Birds of Prey members Black Canary and Huntress and instead of making them play an important part to the story by having them follow the rogue Batman they are stopped by Nightwing in order to take care of Damien and then we don't see those characters again the whole issue. While I understand that the main Battle for the Cowl series is only for Dick, Tim and Jason it just does not seem that Dick would just stop Black Canary and Huntress from giving chase to the rogue Batman but on the contrary he would have them chase him as he could have easily taken care of Damien.

Also, this may just be me but I did not like the fact that Catwoman was so easily taken out by the rogue Batman so easily. Even though I am not a big Catwoman fan I would think that she would have fought back and that it would take more than one kick to knock her out. And also I just can't see how the rogue Batman could actually seek up on Catwoman as she has always been able to tell when Bruce or any of the other character was behind her.

Another poor interpretation of a character was Damien. I just don't get how someone who was able to beat Tim in a fight was shown to be such a chump in this, and the last, issue. Throughout these two issues Damien has really come across as a novice with very little training before hand and only does so in order to conveniently transform him into a rookie Robin for Dick to train.

But even though these are all cases of poor character work the worst case of just poor character development is the gun-totting Batman who is clearly Jason Todd. Throughout this issue Jason was treated as nothing more than DC's version of the Punisher. Daniel has done his absolute best to give Jason no redeeming qualities as in this version he is willing to shot anyone even little kids in order to get what he wants. But I guess I should not be surprised as Jason has been poorly used since Under the Hood storyline. Jason just like with Bucky over in Marvel had a lot of potential when he returned from the dead. But unlike Bucky who has actually been developed well enough that he has actually taken over for his mentor and become the new Captain America that is just as, if not more, interesting as his predecessor Jason has been so underdeveloped that all that potential the character did have has gone away and has only just become another typical Batman villain. At this point Jason cannot play another role than just Red Hood as even before Battle for the Cowl he was rarely used in any of the Bat-titles that any involvement he does get after this event will feel forced and not a natural progression of his character like Dick becoming the new Batman, Damien becoming the new Robin, and Tim becoming Red Robin.

And again just like the last issue were Daniel overused Tim's inner monologue we yet again get some more overused inner monologue but this time by Jason. While the opening inner monologue when Jason was escaping from Nightwing and Damien was interesting enough the rest of the inner monologue became very tedious to read as it was similar to Tim's inner monologue from the last issue. Also when the hell did Jason or anyone ever call Bruce "Brucie" in any comic. That whole "Brucie" line by Jason was so lame that made me wonder if this was actually a professional writers words or the words from some sort of fanfiction.

Finally I will say that after reading Batman comics for as long as I have this whole gang war going as the back drop to this mini-series is nothing new and very uninteresting. The problem I have is that again it is a gang war with Black Mask as the main villain behind it as I have been getting annoyed by the character over the past few years. The only thing I may find interesting about the character is that if it is Hush disguised as Black Mask, as Kirk Warren points out in his review for this issue (read here), since it could be interesting to see why Hush choose to become Black Mask and not just continue to masquerade as Bruce Wayne. Though I will admit though that Daniel doesn't write a half bad Two Face.

Issue Rating
Story: 3.3/10 - Daniel's writing was very generic that lacks any creativity.
Art: 8.6/10 - Again Daniel's artwork shines over his writing as he is a much better storyteller with his artwork than his writing though there were a few odd moments with the artwork.
Overall: 5.95/10 - While I'll admit that Battle for the Cowl is a nice jumping on point for new readers this series does not help long time Batman readers be excited about this "new" direction for the Batman franchise. So if your expecting a great read with good character work than you may be disappointed as Battle for the Cowl reads more like a summer blockbuster movie that looks great in the trailer but when you actually see the movie you are disappointed by the story and the characters.

Cartoon Review: The Spectacular Spider-Man Ep. 3

"Natural Selection"

Review
Rebounding from the average second episode the third episode of The Spectacular Spider-Man does a great job introducing Spider-Man villain The Lizard. I am actually surprised that three episodes in the crew of this show decided to introduce The Lizard so quickly. But I guess since the Spider-Man movies have dragged out The Lizard's appearance it is better that this character's appearance is not dragged out like his film version.

While Spider-Man's previous fights with the Enforcers, Vulture, and Electro having mainly focused on Spider-Man's speed and agility this fight with The Lizard was a pure physical fight. The fight was pretty brutal that it is surprising that for a kids oriented show the animators got away with such a violent fight. The only thing missing from the fight between Spider-Man and The Lizard was some blood being spilled but I guess that is were the line is drawn for a kids show. Still each punch that The Lizard connected with against Spider-Man really sounded bone-crushing. And even though Spider-Man's fighting style still relies on his speed and agility I am glad the animators are giving a hint of how strong he is as he took some brutal punches.

What was cool about the fight was how instrumental Mrs. Connor's, Gwen, and Eddie were to Spider-Man not being killed in his fight. Having Mrs. Connor's and Gwen come up with the antidote was a nice way to show us that these two women are just as smart as their male counterparts.

Even though I enjoyed the fight between Spider-Man and The Lizard my favorite part of this episode was the ending were Peter finally is able to get a picture of him as Spider-Man to sell to the Bugle but unlucky for him it is a picture of him fighting the Lizard. Peter has always been a character that whenever he gets a personal victory it is always followed up by a personal loss and in this case he gets the money to help his Aunt May but looses his internship and friends in the process. It should be interesting to see how Peter will apologize to Gwen and Eddie as he continues to take pictures for the Bugle may affect how long it takes for them to forgive Peter for abandoning them to make a profit.

Episode Rating - 8.8/10

Anime Review: Bleach 108

"The Wailing Bount! The Last Clash"

Review
Finally after this 40+ episode worth of filler called The Bount arc it is finally over. I have to admit that I am one of those people that will either watch the anime or read the manga of a series and not do both at the same time. The reason I do this is because whenever I do one or the other I am usually disappointed by what happens with the form I do second.

The only series I have made an exception for were I actually read the manga and then watched the anime is Deathnote and Bleach. It is because I feel that for both these series they have done a great job transitioning from the manga to the anime. So because I know what is going with the current manga arc I have actually been greatly anticipating the Arrancar arc as it all the fight sequences should look even better animated than they are in the manga, and they look good already in the manga.

As for this arc I will say for a filler arc it was not half bad. Most of the time these filler don't add anything for what is going on in the overall story of the series (ex. Dragonball Z and Naruto) and the villains never feel like a credible threat. Now was this Bount arc slow? Yes. Were the fights as good as the Soul Society arc? No. But what this arc did do was give a mystery and villains that felt like they could have been part of the manga to keep me watching this arc and not just waiting until Bleach gets back to the manga story.

And even though the fight in this episode was not close to being as good as the fights we got in the Soul Society arc the Ichigo vs. Kariya fight was entertaining enough. What I liked about this fight was that those behind the anime did a nice job having Rantoa, Uryu, and Ichinose play a role in helping Ichigo get his victory over Kariya by what they did in the past few episodes. Also I liked the short appearance of Shirosaki, the name fans have given Ichigo's Inner Hollow, and how he was able to again weaken Ichigo's enemy that saves Ichigo in the end.

Overall this wasn't a bad episode as it was mainly focused on only the fight between Ichigo and Kariya though we should have gotten to this point sooner than we did.

Episode Rating - 7.8/10

Legen--wait for it---dary Comic Book Highlight for 4/1/09

Cover of the Week: Amazing Spider-Man 590 (Alternate Cover)

Though I wasn't to sure about this Wolverine appreciation month thing Marvel has going I have to admit that I have enjoyed the various cover paying homage to different works of art. Out of all of them this cover of the different versions of Wolverine playing poker by Paolo Rivera in the place of the dogs is my favorite. I hope that they release this cover in poster form as I wouldn't mind having this in my house.

Amazing Spider-Man #590 Highlights

I just surprised Spider-Man, or other heroes, doesn't do this more often as all he fights is people in tights.

Spider-Man and Reed get lost in there own world as they talk about how they will get to the Microverse. At least Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four aren't Trekies right?

Who says superheroes aren't appreciated anymore?

Well believe it Johnny! Spider-Man is..........

Flash: Rebirth #1 Highlights

Well that's one way to get powers.

Well write this "Barry got me back into the hero business" by Jay and the JSA as just another case of Barry worship that we got the whole issue.

So why aren't Tim and Cassie asking Bart questions about his return? This is his first appearance back in the regular DC timeline. Gotta love the delays for Legion of 3 Worlds.

I get the feeling that Iris is also being affected by whatever is happening to the Speed Force as something is off about the look in Iris's eyes.

I just wonder how the Black Flash's body ended up in a corn field .

Yet again DC and Geoff Johns are not satisfied having at least one hero have a positive origin and they have to "Marvel-fy" all their characters origins.

The popular theory going around is that Barry is going to become the Black Flash and I can't say I disagree.

Invincible Iron Man #12 Highlights

While Tony made sure that Pepper's armor was powerful maybe he should have also spent more time on his armor as well.

I wonder how this Controller/Maria Hill storyline will mix in with the Tony on the run angle.

Are we seriously suppose to believe that Tony in his old school armor can beat Namor in a one on one fight.

If Namor a clear A-list character couldn't beat Tony what chance does a D-list character like The Hood to beat Tony?

Teen Titans #69 Highlights

If Wonder Girl was smart she would have taped the fight instead of stopping it and selling it on pay-per-view to make some money.

You do not mess with Aquagirl.

Take Eddie, Bombshell, and Kid Eternity and replace them with Tim, Bart, and Rose that this would be a much more badass team.

Teen Titans Annual #1 Highlights

I am going to call it right now and say that Eddie is going to be the Titan that dies in the "Deathtrap" crossover.

Now time for a crossover. To bad I wont be picking it up. Call me once that story is over with.

War of Kings #2 Highlights

No love for the new Kree rulers.

Is this the birth of the Crystal era in the Kree world?

Got to love these new megazord looking Black Bolt robots. They caused some serious damage to the Shi'ar armada.

I have been really loving all the different technology Maximus has created to fight this war against the Shi'ar and this Zero-G Combat tech is just awesome.

So I'm guessing someone is going to die.