Long(er) Boxes

It’s called Wizard Cops and it was made in just forty-eight hours. It’s the unholy lovechild of Miami Vice (right down to the synth music!) and Dungeons & Dragons styled fantasy that is more fun than not.

McStack

Uncanny Avengers #8AU - 9/10

The Good: Adam Kubert blows this issue out of the water. His character work is strong and his action is amazing. I want this guy working on a monthly right now. This issue gives readers a lot more to go on with the Apocalypse twins and their personalities than previously seen before. It was wise of Remender to take this alternate universe and use it better than Bendis currently is by focusing so strongly on character. Readers may become more invested in this universe now than they did reading Age of Ultron.

The Not-So-Good: There’s some expository dialogue that felt unnatural. Mostly a lot of characters saying out loud how they all relate to each other.

The Flash #20 - 8/10

The Good: The art is as beautiful as ever with the coloring to match. As a surprise, we get a pretty interesting emotional hook with Barry moving in with Patty and both of them becoming ready to take their relationship more seriously. The superheroics are spectacular and they actually lead to Flash displaying the qualities that we love about him. He’s the fastest man alive but what’s it worth if he can’t take the time to smile for the people who love him to take a picture?

The Not-So-Good: All of the Reverse Flash’s dialogue is terrible. Every last thing he says wreaks of cliche. Barry has a point early on where he sounds less like he’s talking about himself and more like he’s reading his Wikipedia article.

Young Avengers #5 - 8.5/10

The Good: When the book isn’t so busy planting tongue firmly in cheek (Kate shouting “Metaphor!” at the top of her lungs stands out) it actually gets into some heavy shit. Billy’s decision in this issue is a sign of where the character has been emotionally and mentally since Children’s Crusade and it was brave of Gillen to commit to that. It’s not all unpleasant surprises though since Gillen throws a serious bone to all us JiM fans.

The Not-So-Good: Gillen probably should have made all the curse stuff more clear. The redesign of Billy’s costume certainly is interesting but feels altogether unnecessary considering that the character already had one of the better costumes of the modern era.

Justice League #20 - 6/10

The Good: The back-up improves a bit in this issue with Black Adam revealing himself to be an even bigger sonuvabitch than Billy thought. In the main story we get to see some rookie Leaguers mixing it up with Despero and at least two of the characters have a promising future ahead of themselves in the title.

The Not-So-Good: Gene Ha’s art is just too rough in this book and his sense of scale and anatomy is just totally off in plenty of panels. There’s too much reference to events readers haven’t seen. John’s has made a career out of referencing past continuity but it’s just unbelievable that he would try doing the same with referencing continuity no one has seen before. The intrigue with the Atom and the JLA is more been there done that. Everything just feels recycled.

Avengers #12 - 7.5/10

The Good: There’s something about the idea of Avengers as teachers that just works. What better way to save the world then to teach its future? The exploration of the Savage Land and it’s new inhabitants has a lot of promise that is already being harvested by Hickman. And the introduction of the Higher Evolutionary into the story throws another little wrinkle into things that makes total sense. It’s a story all about life evolving, the issue is called “Evolve”, you’ve got to have the Higher Evolutionary in this book.

The Not-So-Good: Spider-Man is acting like a goddamn creep and the Avengers should be noticing. Also, Clint and Jess are totally out of character in this issue. Some of Deodato’s art falls flat.

McStack

- excerpt from Amazing Spider-Man #600 by Dan Slott and John Romita, Jr.

It’s really Blindside’s own fault for not already knowing that Matt Murdock is blind when it’s been all in the papers for years.

McStack

Summary

Who has been behind Matt Murdock’s recent string of misfortune? And can he avoid death long enough to learn the truth?

What’s good?

Mark Waid writes a good book and Chris Samnee draws a good book. Together they make magic. This issue is crazy tense with Matt trying to avoid detection from Ikari after his brutal beatdown while facing some serious paranoia that might not be entirely unjustified. The way Matt’s mental state is played with is very rewarding because it takes something we’ve seen before - especially under Brubaker - and does it so different that it’s new again. Matt actually gets to win in his mental struggle. There are several tense “chase” scenes that build up the tension bit by bit with the only break coming in a great, character reaffirming scene between Foggy and Matt.

The identity of the mastermind between Matt’s misfortune might now work for some people but it’s something that’s actually been building in the book and makes sense with the history between the two characters. In fact, it demonstrates Waid’s masterful control of continuity. The guy’s a pro, he knows how to bring in the vital information from a notoriously miserable story and not get bogged down in it.

Inbetween the main story and the back-up are excerpts from the Mark Waid’s script and Samnee’s WIP pages for this issue with a couple editors notes. It’s totally badass to see how these people work together with the simplest description being turned into a very clearly defined panel. I would pay good money for a writer/artist edition from these two that shows script pages alongside final pages.

The back-up is the literal bang for our extra buck spent on this issue. It’s all about one of Foggy’s days in the hospital while waiting to be treated and he’s tasked with watching a ward of children with cancer. There was a real chance for Waid to accidentally write something saccharine or even crass if he wasn’t careful. I’m glad to report that he found the way to write a story about a group of kids with cancer in just the right way. It’s a really strong celebration of children’s imagination and the power of stories. What I’m saying is, Mark Waid - the fucker that he is - made me cry.

What’s not-so-good?

Lady Bullseye, a very capable figure goes out like a chump in this issue. It’s a shame to see a character that made such a strong impression, once again back in the Brubaker issues, get beaten down to show that the hero means business. I’d say it was problematic having her, as a woman, be taken down so easily if I didn’t know the sort of person Mark Waid is. The guy clearly didn’t intend anything by it.

Rate that shit!

This is a great issue, a strong denouement after such great build-up. This is definitely my Pick of the Week and a deserving 9.5/10. A note, you should all check out Mark Waid’s recent appearance on the War Rocket Ajax podcast.

McStack

I saw the new Star Trek movie with my dad on Saturday and we’re both lifelong fans of the franchise. We went and saw the ‘09 movie together and there wasn’t a doubt in our minds that we would be seeing this one together. Walking out of the theater, we both really enjoyed it. It’s a fun movie that plays with some fun ideas and shows that the franchise still has legs after the reboot. But, I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t have some thoughts and opinions about the movie that kept myself from falling in love with it.

It should be stated that this is all my opinion and y’all are totally entitled to disagree with me. If you’d like to, I’d be more than willing to engage in a discussion with any of you about this.

Expect full spoilers after the cut.

Read more

Card Captor Sakura is one of the anime I grew up with, and it’s the one that led me to buy my first manga volume, so it will always be special for me, even when some things creep me out a bit.

If you’ve only seen the anime, you might remember that Sakura had three friends that were there to prove that the main character had a life, and to make the problems a bit more interesting. One of those friends was Rika.

In the anime, Rika had a very obvious crush on their teacher, Mr. Terada (for example, there’s an episode when she’s being controlled by a card and she’s attacking everyone, so they use an illusion to make her see something with the power to make her surrender, and what she sees is the teacher).

[From Card Captor Sakura episode 9. Screencap from the CCS wiki. Thank goodness everything has a wiki, otherwise I don’t know how I’d get the images I need.]

A girl with a crush on her teacher, no big deal, it’s a common plot. Now let’s talk about the manga, where those two are dating. Teacher/Student relationship? Oh, that’s a common plot too, enough for it to have a page on TV Tropes. Wait, did I mention she’s 10 years old? 11 at most?

The authors try to take away some of the creepiness by showing that they’re not doing anything beyond going out together, and having the teacher buy an engagement ring for Rika:

[From Card Captor Sakura chapter 9; art and writing by CLAMP. Scan taken from mangareader.net (I tried to find the translator, but the link was dead, which is a pity because they get all my respect for the note they added).]

No matter what they do, it still makes most people feel uncomfortable (I know, I’ve made the experiment of finding people who remember the cartoon but don’t know about this and telling them).

veto-power-over-clocks

Summary

How can you really summarize the Young Avengers saga? The answer is not easily. The Young Avengers was a team of young heroes, some with more obvious ties to the Avengers than others, that were brought together by the boy that would be Kang in a time that the Avengers were inactive. Two members of the team were Billy and Tommy, nearly identical looking boys with powers similar to the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver respectively. In time, a theory gained traction with Billy that he and Tommy might be the children of the Vision and the Scarlet Witch that were thought to be lost (it’s a long story).

The Children’s Crusade follows the team’s journey to finally track down the Scarlet Witch, discovering the truth of her breakdown and the origins of Billy and Tommy, as Billy’s powers start to push their limits and create a level of fear in the Avengers that remember the events of Disassembled all too well. Drag in Doctor Doom, some amnesia, and a whole host of problems with time travel and you’ve got an epic on your hands.

Why It’s Awesome

Creators of the Young Avengers Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung are behind this story and they demonstrate their masterful control of continuity. The Young Avengers has always been about taking leftovers from other writers and other eras and making them work now. Cassie Lang was going to be forgotten after her father’s death and the Scarlet Witch’s children were going to be shoved aside because no one wanted to untangle that mess but Heinberg saw a chance to take what was there and make a story out of it.

And it’s a pretty good story too. It has this epic scope that comes from a nearing war between an all powerful Doctor Doom and the Avengers with the Young Avengers caught in the middle. Yet, it keeps it’s intimacy with the focus on Billy’s search for the family he was born into along with the one he chose. Heck, every character gets some strong emotional throughline to guide them through the story with perhaps the strongest going to Cassie Lang and her relationship with her father. I swear, I cried at just about everything with Scott and Cassie.

The art is fanfuckingtastic too in case you’re not familiar with Jim Cheung’s work. The guy just absolutely kills it on this book. His work is beautiful, it has energy, and it makes certain moments feel instantly iconic. This book was a blockbuster event that snuck under the radar thanks to delays and the continuity creating a barrier to entry but now it’s all collected and ready to be enjoyed by those that are willing and able to hit it.

Buy This If

Are you ready to get knee deep in continuity? That’s really all you need to know before jumping into this well-crafted book.

McStack

Clear out half an hour, you’ve gotta watch Judge Minty.

McStack

Nova #4 - 7/10

The Good: Good art and cool action certainly make up for an emotional lacking encounter issue between two forces.

The Not-So-Good: Ugh. So much exposition and so much lame, “cool kid” speech. Loeb’s been pretty good on this book when hitting the more emotional beats but he’s been floundering on the “fun.” Also, the presence of an Ultimate Nullifier here is just… weird.

Kinski #1 - 8/10

The Good: The art in this is really good and it looks great in black and white. Hell, Kinski himself looks great with the way he’s inked. It’s easy to see why main character Joe would instantly love this little dog but there’s a lot of humor coming from how intense he gets about it to the point where he’s willing to take some pretty sever steps to secure this pooch. It’s a really intriguing idea.

The Not-So-Good: As a reader, I’m just left wondering why? I’ve read this book a couple times and I feel no closer to understanding what’s up with things. This may be an unusual complaint for a first issue but I could have used some more set-up.

Age of Ultron #8 - 5/10

The Good: The art is mostly clear and easy to follow even if it doesn’t carry a “wow” factor.

The Not-So-Good: It’s just another alternate universe story with no real stakes. What does this actually have to do with Ultron and the cool idea that started this event. Actually, here’s a better question: who even cares anymore?

High Crimes #3 - 7/10

The Good: The art is as great as ever with an added brutality in certain scenes. Zan’s becoming a more and more interesting character as we find out about her past as an Olympian. I’d like to read that book. There are plenty of twists and turns as Zan tries to figure out what to do with her final choice being the right mix of insane and sadly logical. It’s Everest baby.

The Not-So-Good: This issue is told out of sequence and  there is not nearly enough to differentiate the order of events and its damn near disorienting. There’s no real reason to tell a story out of sequence while including flashbacks unless you hate your readers.

Arrow Season Finale - 9/10

The Good: The show’s firing on all cylinders here with each actor giving their best. Amell is great but it’s Barrowman that steals the show with his increasingly unhinged performance that turns into full-on supervillain by the end. I’ve really got to hand it to the show for the gradual shift from street vigilante to bonafide superhero story. The action is great in the flashbacks and the present with the most satisfying moments being when Oliver makes a personal sacrifice. The climax to the island material is particularly strong and presents more and more reasons for the show to devote more episodes to it. Emotion is high too with the Roy/Thea subplot finally doing something interesting that highlights the man that would be Speedy. This is really the best way the show could have gone out, a darkened triumph that is sure to have a strong push into the next season.

The Not-So-Good: There are the few moments that veer a little too forward into hamminess due to the show’s commitment to being taken seriously.

McStack

- excerpt from Iceman and Angel #1 by Brian Clevinger and Juan Doe

Namor would have far less problems if he would just put on some damn pants once in a while.

McStack