Jono's Books:

Teen Titans: Year One #3

Four minutes. That's how long it took me to read through Teen Titans: Year One #3. I definitely won't knock its art style (which is actually pretty neat), the story was a brief, completely predictable disappointment. The adults are acting strange and it's up the kids to find out what's wrong. Ripped fresh from an episode of Scooby Doo, the newly teamed up Teen Titans *sarcastic spoiler alert* take on their adult counterparts who are under the control of some alien thing. At least we'll always have the stellar art, kids.

Browse It (if only for the artwork)

Logan #1

One word, the final word uttered in the debut issue of the Logan mini-series redeems the entire issue...but only somewhat. Everything before that seems to be familiar, generic Wolverine material, and as I have said before, I was interested in seeing what Brian K. Vaughan would bring to the table. Now that Wolverine has all of his memories back, you would think his history would be ripe for something special. The setting is certainly interesting, albeit generic for Wolverine: it's World War II and he's a POW in Japan. But the getting into random fights, escaping from prison, and hooking up with a mysterious lady tread the waters of mediocrity. Hopefully issue #2 (of 3) will explore the mature themes evoked with that final word uttered.

Browse It (I'm banking on potential for this one)

Penance: Relentless #5

I have to admit, I didn't catch the first four issues of this mini-series, but I think I got the issue with the big pay off. Penance continues to drivel on with incredibly clichéd lines: a scene in which Penance names all 612 Stamford victims along with their ages and occupations as he beats down on Nitro is just ridiculously unbelievable. Once that is out of the way, however, the story begins to get interesting as Penance doles out his own version of revenge (which involves a lot of bleeding and torturing). A cameo by Wolverine is much appreciated, but not the vague ending in which the reader is unsure of Penance's future.

Read It

Dead Space #1

My problem with first issues is that it's usually all setup, which is very much the case here. We get bits and pieces about the history and locale of this particular universe (which is actually surprisingly religious, considering that this is basically a prequel for the Halloween release of the EA video game). And I just realized something with this comic: Ben Templesmith's art is kind of dull when not dealing with gore and he only gets to that in one scene here. It's not that it's bad, it's just...without the gore, his characters kind of fall flat. All in all, a very slow beginning with some decent artwork.

Browse It

Goblin's Books:

Cable #1

Wait, let me check the calendar. X-Force, Cable, Wolfsbane, and Warpath. Funny. I don't remember going back in time to 1992. Go figure.

Anyway, as to this particular iteration of Cable, the book picks up right after Nathan snags the new mutant child and jumps into the timestream (just as Bishop pops Xavier in the head). The book opens up with Nathan and the child in West Orange, New Jersey of 2043. New York has been flooded and is cut off from the rest of the world. The bulk of the issue is Nathan protecting the infant from a squad of random marauders (not the ones sent by Sinister) and killing them all in short order. The rest of the issue is a clever slight of hand - pun intended there once you read the book. I suppose we'll have to wait until next issue to find out how Cable's would-be assassin managed to follow him forty years into the future, but it was a good enough first issue to warrant finding out next month. Here's hoping Olivetti can figure out how to draw in proportion by then as it looks like Nathan is carrying a small doll rather than a child.

Also, as the resident Jersey-ite, let me be the first to tell you that even in forty years, West Orange will not look like that. That's more a Newark thing.

Buy It (for now)

X-Force #2

The landscape post-Messiah Complex (I refuse to call it "Messiah CompleX" because there's just no need to capitalize the X) is an interesting one. The only problem is that not all of the pieces make sense. Take X-Force. Cyclops forms a team for the sole purpose of more black ops missions. Okay, fine. But when did Cyclops condone outright murder? And why would he choose Wolfsbane for that? She's always been a diehard Catholic girl. Somewhat using that background, Wolfsbane is kidnapped and brought to the nutjob priest who called her demon as a child. Mildly interesting? You betcha. Logical? Not in the slightest when you take into account she's brought there by Rev. Stryker's right hand man who is then told to kill her by the newly returned Bastion. Yes, you heard that right. Bastion. Because there's nothing more realistic than a transplanted robot head from the future bent on the extermination of all mutants. The book gets points for the last page reveal of the upcoming villain, someone we haven't seen in a few years and is always a fun read. All in all, the book isn't terrible, but it stumbles over a giant pot hole of "What's the point?"

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Secret Invasion Saga One Shot

Ever want to read five decades of Marvel Comics but end up finding you just don't have the time? Well, not to worry - now you can! Secret Invasion Saga is a primer to the forthcoming Secret Invasion storyline that will feature the Skrulls having supplanted themselves amongst Earth's heroes. It's an interesting storyline with a lot of possibility, but it's also got 50 years of baggage to deal with. This nifty one-shot clears a lot of that away by letting Iron Man discuss the status quo and history of Skrulls dating back to the original Fantastic Four run. The issue goes as far as the Skrull's presence in Annihilation and both Elektra and Black Bolt being outed as Skrull impostors. Art is by dozens of Marvel artists over the last half century capped off by a sleek Leneil Yu cover (seriously, Howard the Skrull Duck is pure genius).

Best part of the whole issue? It's free! There's no excuse not to grab a copy and test the waters. See if you'd be interested in Secret Invasion as it won't be as omni-present as Civil War was.

"Buy" It (Hey it's free!)

Oraclechele's Books:

Buffy #12

Check out her earlier review.

Buy It (New Release Pick of the Week)

Sgt. Sausagepant's Books

The Boys #16

This month's issue of The Boys is actually a bit of a departure from the blood, gore, and raunch that normally pervades its pages, with most of the issue devoted to internal conflicts for Hughie and Annie (Starlight). We do get one nice bit of naughty humor right at the end though. Also, check out an interesting conversation held by a teenage supergroup on whether to re-admit a former member who has come out of the closet.

Buy It

Raven #1

If I didn't know any better I would have swore I was reading Spider-Man. Raven spends the first issue of her own series mostly being a bit emo about her powers and worrying about hurting people around her. On top of this, she is now trying to live some kind of normal life in a high school I guess, which is never really explained (I suppose this may have been revealed in recent issues of Teen Titans, but for a first issue there is literally no backstory). There is only one scene of her in her traditional 'Raven Suit' and it was obviously stuck in to please the fans because it comes out of nowhere and really doesn't make much sense to me. All in all the book seems disjointed, not sure where it's going.

Browse It

New Frontier Special

As a tie in with the DVD release, we get several short stories from the rest of the New Frontier world. The first meeting of sidekicks Robin and Kid Flash, the first fight between Superman and Batman, and Wonder Woman and Black Canary having a night on the town in support of women's rights and dignity - burning bra and everything.

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