Gashapon Reviews: March 10, 2010

Arnab tells me that March 17 is a big day for comics, so I figured I'd better focus on getting these reviews out of the way sooner rather than later. Final Fantasy XIII has been slowing me down.

Marvel:

Cable #24 (****)

I give this issue four stars not because it was great, but because I would tell my fellow comic book readers to read this issue and no others, as it sums up in one issue all the ridiculous water-treading of the last four or five months of Cable. Some think Hope is the savior of Mutantkind so Cable takes her into the future to keep her safe. Bishop disagrees so he tries to kill her. Wrap up the chase with a four page montage and we're set. Everything after Messiah War could quite frankly have been a one-shot if you ask me, and if it were, it would look like Cable 24. I'm very glad this ended, as I've been waiting for Second Coming for months now. Is Hope really what they've been, err, hoping she would be? Now we get to find out.

Gashapon Reviews: February 10, 2010

It's a miracle this got up at all. At least it was a short week.

Marvel:

Dark X-Men #4 (***1/2)
I love anything with Nate Grey. Which I say every month. But watching him manipulate Osborn is tremendous fun. Osborn is clearly off his rocker, and it's nice to see someone call him on that shit. And can I just say "Finally!" as regards Green Goblin showing up. He's been around in the background once or twice, but once that door gets opened there's no going back. And does it seem to anyone else that we have a lot of ends to wrap up between now and the end of the next issue, which is when I thought this whole thing ended? Now if only I could figure out how this whole arc fits into the Siege storyline I'd be a lot happier. Though not as happy as I will be if X-Man sticks around for a bit.

Gashapon Reviews: January 13, 2010

Hmm, light week. Next week looks similarly quiet.

Marvel:

Dark X-Men #3 (***1/2)

I just love Nate Grey. That's really all that needs saying here. He rips open Avengers Tower and kicks the crap out of the Dark Avengers. I'm not entirely sure what happened with the whole "in between time" thing; X-Man is a Time Lord? But the fact that he now controls Osborn seems very significant. I just hope he stays around after all this Dark X-Men shit is over.

Gashapon Reviews: December 9, 2009

Yes, Yes. I'm aware this is over a week late. It's Christmas and my boyfriend is town and I'm starting a new job and a new play and trying not to get fired from my old job. Times are tough.

Marvel:

Dark X-Men #2 (****)

Given that Jean Grey could just sit and stare at the reader for a whole book and I'd be titillated, it should be no surprise that I also love her super-powerful genetic offspring Nate Grey. In fact when I (frequently) think of what character I would most want to be, his name is always top of the list. His name also appears rather high on the list of characters I would sleep with, but that's a different post. So the fact that he's back makes me happier than words. And the fact that he's running about in the collective unconscious of humanity is cool on so many levels. That he took out this giant conglomeration of psychics to do it is just icing on the cake. His response at the end, "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" is very similar to mine when I came (back) to the Marvel universe. If you think about it a lot of random shit has happened the last few years, and hopefully Nate Grey can go about setting things straight. With increasing frequency though I'm wondering what Mystique is doing with Osborn. Or perhaps more to the point, with increasing frequency I'm wondering if Mystique is working against Osborn.

Nation X #1 (**1/2)

These anthology stories can be so...boring. Obviously they provide short bursts of character development with ideas that clearly couldn't sustain themselves through a whole book, but because the stories are so short, and because these characters have been around for decades and are thus pretty well developed, I'm always kinda bored after reading them. I have a hard time picking any one story that really grabbed me. There are parts I enjoyed (The cover, Anole saying "Fuck That", Bobby teasing Namor, "Psylocke or Domino?" "British or Japanese Psylocke?", the giant X memorial) and parts I didn't (The art for wolvie and kurt, Magick being a bitch). I don't expect the next volumes will be much different, but I guess it's good to check in on characters from time to time, especially if we get to see Northstar actually be gay for once.

X Necrosha: The Gathering (***1/2)

Seriously, my first thought upon reading this is "Why doesn't Selene wear some real fucking clothes?" My second thought is how I continually get annoyed when the artist is not the same throughout a work. Each section changing style throws me off, especially when I don't like the art of some of the sections. But after I got over those two thoughts, I kind of enjoyed this. In the overall scheme of things I don't think it's vital plot information, but it supports why Selene's Merry band of Murderers came together, which is kinda interesting. I think it would mean more to me, especially Wither and Blink and Mortis, if I had read their original appearances so long ago, but I think this was a better book than Nation X.

Books I Follow

I should throw in an "As of November 19th, 2009" since this changes on a regular basis. But it will help me to set-up the tags from the beginning, which speaking from experience is a pain in the ass to set up later. I'm including the current events in each list, even though they won't last forever.

So, divided among publishers:

Marvel
Astonishing X-Men
X-Men Legacy
Uncanny X-Men
New Mutants
X-Force
Cable
X-Factor
Deadpool (just started this one)
Necrosha
Nation X
Dark Avengers
Dark X-Men
The List (various titles here. I've read X-Men, Avengers, and Wolverine, and will read Punisher and Spiderman)
Anything remotely relating to Jean Grey or Phoenix in any way, shape, or form.

DC
Green Lantern
Green Lantern Corps
Blackest Night (including the tie-ins for the major other characters, namely JLA members)

Dark Horse
Buffy Season 8

On my 'to-catch-up-on' list is Wonder Woman, and Arnab has been pushing me to read Batman forever. I'm a little sketchy on books that don't fit into the canon easily, but I've always loved Batman. I'm also contemplating getting into another Marvel book, either Avengers or Spiderman, although my hearts not really in either endeavor. I'm thinking especially about Young Avengers purely because there's a gay storyline there.

I'm fairly up-to-date on all of these titles, although there is a chunk of the X-Universe that I skipped over (Manifest Destiny and Divided We Stand, and all the Emperor Vulcan stuff after Rise and Fall). I will catch up on that, but right now my goal is just to stay current.