x-man75 Comic Reviews

My first thought here was that this comic was WAAAAY too short to be a $3.99 comic! It went by SO fast! Besides that, the first story was way superior to the second, although neither one is what I'd call a must read. This comic really didn't leave any kind of impact on me actually, because I can't even think of anything else to add!

Speaking of bad ideas, this comic... See what I did there? Anyway, yeah, this comic was all around terrible. I should have just reviewed Thor and FF instead of this one, but what's done is done. The Black Widow/Rogue story had Widow acting oddly out of character, while the Kitty/Iron Man one just wasn't funny, which is shocking since it was written by Peter David, who is probably the best comic writer of all time when it comes to stirring humor into a comic. In other words, I would highly recommend skipping this one.

That second story made this comic SO worth it!! Everything about it was genius! The reason for the "team-up", if you can call it that, the actions of everybody involved, the outcome, it was all perfect! Even the set-up, with Doom wanting to outdo Reed! Genius!! And Loki deciding, correctly, that Sinister was the lesser of two evils was great! Plus I loved Sinister's thoughts on Doom... It just seemed like the kind of snobbery Sinister would think. Seriously, I loved that story! Unfortunately, there were two stories in this comic, and the first one was horrendous...

Once again, Greg Rucka did a very good job producing an enjoyable comic here. It wasn't world-shattering or anything, but it was a good, fast-paced read. I like the characters of Nightwing and Flamebird, and to be perfectly honest, I really don't miss Supes at all in this series.

Once again, this was a solid issue of Action Comics, nothing spectacular, just good, decent stuff.

Meh, this comic really wasn't anything to write home about. The only good to come out of this book was the fact that Nightwing was finally cured of his rapid aging problem. The stuff with Lois and the Daily Planet really didn't move me, nor did the stuff with Pillings and Flamebird

Meh, this issue just didn't really do anything for me. We find out there are Kryptonian sleeper agents in STAR Labs and the SP, but I kind of don't care anymore... NW and FB had been ignoring their mission to capture the sleeper agents for so long, that now that they are after them again, I've just lost all interest. This comic probably wasn't as bad as I'm making it out to be(the artwork was nice), but it's just the same old, same old in the Superman family of books. To be honest, I think I finally miss Big Blue. He really needs to come back to earth from New Krypton... It's time.

After reading this, all I want is for Geoff Johns to write one issue of this series returning Chris to a seven year old kid, while getting rid of everything that's happened here recently.

Compared to last issue, this comic wasn't all that bad. Then again, I don't know how this comic COULD have been as bad as last issue was! This comic was more or less about Nightwing and Flamebird attempting to halt the rampage of fake Rao, which was WAY better then last issues unwanted Kryptonian Mythology lesson. Sure some of the dialogue was hokey, and the story wasn't terribly original, but at least this comic was readable, and that makes it a huge improvement in my book!

I wasn't exactly sure what to expect from Paul Cornell with the end of his Lex Luthor story here in Action... I mean I liked most of his Lex work, but there were some parts that didn't do it for me, and with the idiotic direction DC has taken Superman in as of late, I'll admit, I wasn't expecting all that much from this series. Boy was I wrong though! This issue was WAY better than I expected it to be! Supes and company retreating from a multitude of Doomsdays, a huge threat to the planet, a new badass Supes villain, very good stuff here. Hell, maybe I'll drop the main Superman title and just stick with this series, because the quality difference between those two books is staggering!

I really don't have much to say about this one... It was perfectly acceptable. The story moved along well, Supes entered the Doomslayer's ship, setting up what I'm sure will be the final confrontation between Supes and the Doomslayer, and Supes appeared to deduce the Doomslayer's identity. Now if I read into this issue correctly, the Doomslayer would be a Doomsday clone who got lost on that massive alien ship for a few million years, meaning the lost Doomsday would have had a few million years to evolve, which would explain the Doomslayer's intelligence compared to the other Doomsdays. If that's the identity of the Doomslayer I have no qualms with it, as it makes sense. I'm a bit confused by the ending with the Doomslayer firing up the engines, since I thought he wanted to do that after his ship burrowed into the earth's core, but whatever. All in all, this was a good, fast, action-packed read.

Eh. Once the spaceship began talking to Supes and telling him how to defeat the Doomslayer/save the world, my eyes began to roll and I stopped paying full attention to this story... It was just all too pat. Supes gets blown up or something by the Doomslayer last issue, but here we find out that he was actually pulled inside the spaceship's informational engines(which Supes helpfully tells us as soon as it happened! Does this sort of thing happen to Supes SO often that he's completely unaffected by it?), so he could learn the secret to beating the Doomslayer and sending the ship back to it's own dimension/blowing it up(I'm still kind of foggy on that...). I liked Lois's speech to Supes to end this issue(why the hell didn't she just tell him that before he went on his asinine trek across America?!), but the story just wrapped up TOO neatly for my liking. I guess this is another storyline that got shortchanged thanks to the DC reboot...

This was an odd issue... There were parts I REALLY enjoyed, and others I didn't really get, which is par for the course when talking about a Grant Morrison written comic book... At it's heart, and in simplest terms, this comic was basically an edgier Superman trying to save the people of Metropolis while Lex Luthor tried to eradicate what he saw as an alien menace sent from the stars to destroy humanity.

Oh, this issue was WAY better than the last one! I mean I was ready to drop this series after that last issue, but now I'm more willing to see how things play out here. Granted, I'm still quite pissed about the pricing of this issue(defend that DC fanboys, I DARE you!), especially after how hard DC pushed their whole, "Holding the line at $2.99" program... Stuff like this simply makes them look like hypocrites. Sorry, a bunch of random sketches and Morrison-babble does not make up for a 20 page story. At least Marvel is more open with the fact that they're trying to fleece as much money out of their fans as they can... Rant over. Going back to the story, Morrison seems to be setting up some good things(Lex, Brainiac, Metallo), he just needs to write Supes less like Batman and more like the virtuous Superman that we all know and love.

I definitely liked this issue more than the last one, the main story, as well as the Legion back-up were both way better than last month's installment of "Adventure".

Umm, I really didn't like this comic. I thought the Prime feature was too cutesy, and the SB feature was too short. So yeah, this definitely won't go on my Geoff Johns highlight reel.

If anything, Geoff should have introduced a new character with the duel Superman/Lex Luthor DNA instead of forcing it on SB. That's probably why I haven't enjoyed this series as much as I figure I should have. I hated that stupid Lex/Supes journal SB was always writing in. I never really understood the purpose of it... He's Superboy, not Boy Luthor, or Conflicted-boy... Anyway, thanks for bringing SB back from the dead Geoff, but please, stay away from him now!

Needless to say this comic did absolutely NOTHING for me. Don't like the Old Legion, don't care about them or their problems, and I didn't appreciate that every story ended by telling me, "To be continued in Last Stand of New Krypton #1!"... Yeah yeah, I got that the first time! If you're a fan of the Golden Age Legion/the Old Legion, or are Geoff Johns, you'll probably enjoy this comic. If not, then I'd recommending avoiding this one.

I was pretty pleasantly surprised by this comic, especially in light of how much I disliked the last issue. Storywise, nothing really happened to advance the New Krypton/Brainiac storyline, but the little stories that were here were pretty good, especially the last one about the infiltrator. In the end, if you didn't read this comic, you wouldn't be missing much in the Last Stand x-over, but for those of us following the Last Stand x-over, this comic was a worthy addition.

Very good stuff here! The first story was pretty good, but the second story was great! The infiltrator story had been very strong from the first part, and it definitely ended on a high note.

I actually liked both stories. The first story had Vril Dox in it, and as far as I'm concerned, a Dox appearance can make ANY comic better! The second story felt somewhat rushed, but was a satisfying end to Mon-El's story.

This was an okay start to this series, but I can't help but want better...

This issue went by FAST!  I mean it took me like a minute or two to breeze through it!  And to be honest, I liked it better than the first two issues.  That's not to say that I loved it, as there were some things I didn't get, but it was, for me, a step in the right direction.  Would I have sent both Luke and Shulkie, my two remaining powerhouses, into the jaws of Ultron?  Probably not.  Do I believe for a second that Vision is the true leader of the Ultron droids?  Nope.  But I am looking forward to the next issue, and am hoping my enjoyment of this series continues to grow.

Wow, this was pretty bad! For me, this was a HUGE step back from the last issue.

Eh.  This series is rapidly losing me...  It really doesn't feel like an event, it feels like one of Bendis's many lackluster Avengers tales.  I don't feel the same sense of importance or dread that something like, say, Fear Itself, gave me.  Fear Itself seemed more important.  This?  With the heroes parading through time to undo mistakes?  It feels like a forgone conclusion that Ultron is going to lose(we STILL haven't seen Ultron Prime yet!), and the heroes will simply retcon everything at the end of this series.  I know Marvel keeps promising a huge shock at the end of this event, but I'm not even psyched for that.  The wheels sure fell off of this one quicker than I anticipated.

UGH!!!! This series is so damn stupid!!! It makes my head hurt!

Meh.  Honestly, I think I'm past done with this whole "event" by now.  Seriously, I'm just completely uninterested.  I'm not going to bother pointing out all of the faults and stuff that made no sense, I'm not gonna put on a fake smile and act like this was a good comic.  It wasn't.  It was your typical Bendis event.  And if you've read one of those, you've read them all.  It was boring, nonsensical and splashy.  And this will be it for me.  I'm gonna see if I can hand the Age of Ultron reviewing duties to my compadre, JT.  Maybe he'll have some fun(negative or positive) with the rest of this story.  Me?  I just don't care.

Hey, this issue was leaps and bounds better than the last two!  That's not saying I'm actually enjoying this storyline, I'm not.  That ship has already sailed.  But I did like the fact that Iron Man pointed out so many other options to Wolverine's plan to simply kill Pym.  Why not go to a Reed Richards, or a Prof. Xavier, or someone along those lines to deal with Pym?  I know, sense in a Bendis comic?  Madness.  The reveal of Morgan Le Fey as the chief villain with Pym gone was way more Bendis-like, because it made no sense...  Then again, Bendis did use Le Fey in one of his storylines, and we know how he hates Avengers stories that he didn't write, so I guess Le Fey's inclusion actually makes perfect sense...  Bottom line, this issue was better, but everything is still in a holding pattern, and I have no clue how Bendis fixes his mess.

This issue was okay...  I guess...  I loved Alpha's inner monologue, where he was completely conflicted about giving up his powers.  I mean, who wouldn't be conflicted?  If anything, it shows growth as a character that he was even considering giving up his powers.  Other than that though, nothing really happened...  Alpha fought a big energy monster.  And went to a coffee house.  And was grabbed by a mugger.  So yes, I enjoyed this one because I'm about the biggest Alpha fan you'll find, but honestly?  This comic was kind of skippable...

So yeah, great character, great issue, great mini-series, all means I'll be pulling out all my Alpha comics to give 'em all a reread once the next issue drops.

Um, I really don't have any complaints here at all... The story was VERY sound(as I'd expect from anything written by the severely underrated Dan Slott), the art was good, and the dialogue read like a Spidey comic. I guess if I was forced to complain about something, I'd complain about the weird Mary Jane portions of this story, where she was longing for Peter, even though she was the one who dissolved their marriage with the help of Mephisto(or whatever the hell that story is now). I personally don't get why MJ is even in this series anymore. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE MJ as a character, but seriously, Marvel erased Peter and MJ's marriage. Why is she still here? Besides that though, this was a great first issue to this storyline, and I'll be looking forward to the second part.

I can't remember the least time I laughed this much while reading a comic. And I don't mean those times when you think to yourself, "This is funny." I mean literally laughing out loud at some of the stuff I was reading. The scenes with Spidey trying(quite unsuccessfully I might add) to teach the kids were totally hilarious. And the story itself was extremely solid, with the hints of the Psycho-Man's involvement being dropped early on with the monkey(I missed it), making his reveal surprising, but completely within reason. What more can I say, this is comic easily gets the 12th perfect score for 2011.

Okay, first things first, I apologize for that review, because it was a real mess... As I was doing it I was also on my Playstation 3, since for the first time in over a month, the PSN Store was up and running, and I wanted to check out what was in stock. Obviously I'm REALLY bad at multitasking, and this review proves that point... Anyway, this was a pretty good comic that had some really interesting moments(Jean DeWolff?!), as well as Eddie Brock, who I've always been a fan of. There's really not much more to say here... It was Amazing Spider-Man and it was written by Dan Slott... Of course it was good!

As usual, this was an extremely good issue of this series. No surprise there. There's really nothing here I can point to and say I didn't enjoy... Well expect for Carlie, but that's the Mary Jane fan in me talking. Nope, all in all, this was a very good comic, so I might as well post the score and move on.

The Queen? Really? If that's who I think it is, that's a pretty obscure character who only appeared in like 6 issues of the old Spectacular Spider-Man series. Then again, I guess if you use a character with like NO prior appearances, you can do just about anything you want with them without having to worry about fan backlash. Looking past the Queen thing, this was a pretty enjoyable comic, as usual. Now, it wasn't great, but it did set up three pretty important plot points, the first is the Queen reveal, the second is Carlie becoming increasingly suspicious of Peter and the third is Jameson finding out that he had the spider-plague. So for me this felt more or less like a set-up issue. As the next few issues delve deeper into these plot points, I'm sure my score for this series will continue to climb.

Okay, first let me get the positive out of the way. I really enjoyed this storyline, and LOVE the fact that it gave us Kaine back in what I'm hoping will be a prominent role moving forward(Scarlet Spider anybody?). BUT(you had to see that coming!), this issue felt really rushed for whatever reason... It starts with the Queen turning enormous, she rampages off page for most of this issue, and then gets killed... I mean we really didn't get a Peter/Queen showdown. Sure she bitch-slapped him, but that doesn't constitute a real battle to me. So overall this was a good storyline, but for me, the ending was a bit anticlimactic.

First off, sorry for how sucky that review turned out, but as I said, I am dead tired and barely keeping my eyes open at this point! Um, as for this issue, it was okay. I enjoyed the story, liked the fight, and really had no major complaints. Sure, this wasn't the best Dan Slott/Spidey story I've ever read, but it was a fine way to waste some time.

This comic was okay. I mean I liked the premise and all, but didn't enjoy the way it ended. For me, the wrong team won, and that can go a long way in souring the way you feel about a comic. A fan of Octopus and the Six would have enjoyed this comic because they won, but the Six utterly humbling the Intelligencia? I just don't think so...

Eh, this was a pretty good story. I've always enjoyed time travel, alternate dimensions and the like, so this was a nice little two-part story taking Spidey away from his normal, "Beating up super-villains" deal. So while I did enjoy this story, I have to admit, it was a bitch to review!

There we go, that was a nice, quick review! This was another comic that I didn't really have a problem with. The story was logical(Spidey's friend is in trouble in space. Spidey needs to get to space. The FF have spaceships... etc), while unspectacular. I mean this was a good read and all, but it wasn't something I'd go out of my way recommending...

This was a pretty solid issue... However, there was one thing that bugged me... If you guess it was the Avengers losing, AGAIN, you win the no-prize! Seriously, what is it with Spidey's enemies beating up on the Avengers?! First Osborn, now this! Besides the constant Avengers bashing, I did enjoy this comic, and am still extremely interested to see where Ock is going with this plan of his...

What can I really say here? As usual, this issue was really good. This storyline is really good. I can't wait to see how it ends, and the fallout from it going forward.

Come on, it was Alpha AND Jackal... In the same comic! How couldn't I love it?! Alpha continued being self-absorbed and an all-around jerk, while Jackal was his regular crazy, funny self. I will admit that I was a tiny bit let down by the end of this one when Alpha blew Spidey off and didn't take Spidey up on his offer of more training, but to be honest, that kind of fit Alpha's whole deal.

Okay, I don't think for a second that Hobby believes that Peter is Spider-Man.  So let me just put that out there right off the bat.  Instead, I figure he kidnapped Peter due to that report that said he was Spidey's tech guy.  What better way to get into Spidey's head than to kidnap Spidey's tech guy.  Not only that, but Hobby can take Peter to Kingpin, who can then force Peter to perfect the Spider-Sense dampening device Kingpin had Stone working on.  It all makes so damn much sense!  There was also some stuff with the presumed to be dead former Hobgoblin, Roderick Kingsley, returning to Manhattan to take back his mantle from Phil.  All in all, great stuff here, as usual.  I can't wait to see what Dan Slott has in store for Spidey(and us!) as the march to #700 continues.

Thank you, Dan Slott!  Norman Osborn belongs in a Spider-Man comic, hassling Spider-Man!  Not going toe-to-toe with the freaking Avengers(Bendis!!)!!!  If Norman IS indeed up and about(which would make sense as we roll towards #700), I'm glad it looks like he'll be back where he belongs.  As for this issue, it was good.  It wasn't great, probably because I'm so amped up for the next few issues leading into Spidey #700, that I just wanted this storyline to conclude.  But yeah, with this story out of the way, all roads now lead to issue #700, and it should be a hell of a great trip!

For a comic that cost as much as this one did, I'd have hoped for a bit more... Or hell, at least one good to great back-up story!

This issue was kind of confusing... I didn't know who Abilena was, I didn't know who Gene was, and I didn't know who the vampire(if it WAS a vampire ) in the basement was... But that's the problem with this series, I guess. It bounces around in time so much, and since I usually read like 60 comics between issues of this series, I tend forget most of what happened previously.

Ah, this was a VERY promising start to this mini-series! The portrayals of the major characters here(Felicia Book and Cash McCogan) were VERY well done, as is par for the course when it comes to Scott Snyder. On top of that, the story itself looks really strong, although there's really no doubt in my mind as to how this one will end(you KNOW there's either no cure or the two will come tantalizingly close to getting the cure before something tragic occurs)... Still, I AM interested in seeing where this mini goes, and will probably happily polish the next four issues off by the end of the night.

Well this issue sure was predictable! Seriously, would it have hurt for Quasar to tell the Avengers what he and the Annihilators were doing on Earth?

I really, really enjoyed this issue. Sure, some of it has been series has been comic book writing 101(the Avengers and Annihilators early interactions) but the twist with the Magus splitting his essence further to stymie the heroes was very well done, as was the arrival of the Kree Sentries at the end of this issue. While nobody really wanted to come right out and say it, as distasteful as it may seem, Ronan's solution of destroying the US mainland to stop the UCT from recovering the Magus IS the best solution. Besides the strong story and good artwork, I also liked some of the interactions between certain characters, especially Ronan and Captain America, seeing as they were both soldiers, but saw different solutions to the problem at hand. I have to say, this mini-series has been building nicely, and the final issue should be explosive.

So this re-re-re-reboot of the Avengers was a bit of a mixed bag for me; good art, a good story but horrid dialogue. Here's hoping next issue is more action packed, with less verbiage.

I've got to say, I'm STILL loving this storyline! Lots of Classic Avengers action, problems in time, Apocalypse, I mean it's like Marvel is specifically trying to cater to me! I don't have a single thing to complain about here... Even Bendis's usually painful dialogue was kept to a minimum! I can't wait for issue #4!

Weird... Just weird... I don't even know what else to say about this comic. It was apparently a part of some sort of initiative between Mayor Bloomberg and Marvel to help residents of New York City learn about Workforce1, some free career counseling service. Now that's all fine and good for people living in one of the five boroughs, but I moved out of NYC 4 years ago! So yeah, this comic was, as I believe I mentioned, weird. So if you're an out of work resident of the Big Apple, google Workforce1. If you're like me and you no longer(or never did) live in NYC, well then you're plumb out of luck!

If you want to see the Red Hulk eating raw eggs or Spider-Man randomly drinking a bottle of soda with a straw, THIS is the comic book you've been dreaming of! But if you're looking for a cohesive story or action, avoid this comic at ALL costs! You'll thank me later.

See, Bendis doesn't NEED to fill page after page of every comic with rambling dialogue! This comic was WAY better than the last issue, mainly because Bendis reined himself in and let the action in the story do the talking. I mean if you have John Romita Jr. doing art for you, let HIM tell the story with his art! This issue actually tied into the main Fear Itself books nicely(unlike last issue...), and basically showed us what happened to the Thing after he got his magical hammer. Now unfortunately, I'm not a huge fan of either the Thing or the Red Hulk, but I was still able to enjoy this story. I'd imagine a fan of either of those characters would like this one even more. Here's hoping THIS Bendis sticks around for a while, and not that other gabby Bendis...

What the hell was THAT?! Seriously, the cover to this issue REALLY misled me big time! Frigging Bendis... Leave it to Brian Bendis to take something as simple as picking a new set of heroes to be on the Avengers and not even be able to do THAT in one issue!!! This comic was most definitely an example of Bad Bendis. Here's hoping we get Good Bendis next issue. Oh, and why the HELL is Luke Cage the owner of AVENGERS MANSION?!? I know Bendis loves him and all, but Avengers Mansion has been in the Stark family for YEARS! *sigh* Let me just end this post now before I go insane...

The good here definitely outweighed the bad, so huzzah for that. This issue turned out to be a very pleasant surprise, as I was expecting a comic so bad I'd be using negative numbers to score it. Was it perfect? No, of course not, but it was WAY better than what we've been getting from this series for the past 8 months or so. So for that, I have to say I am happy. Hopefully Bendis will wrap up this Osborn story and get back to the relatively good stories we were getting back when this series relaunched.

There's not much for me to say here. It went down exactly as I expected. Quake, the most inexperienced Avenger(yes, she has experience, but not Avengers experience), ended up saving the more senior members of the team... It doesn't get much more clichd than that. Besides that, Osborn is still being portrayed as a flawless god. So yeah, the Avenger fan in me didn't enjoy this comic much at all. On the plus side, it wasn't as bad as the last issue, so there's that... I guess...

That's about as much time as I plan on spending on this one. If I never see Norman Osborn again, it'll be too soon. That's how terribly Bendis has written both Osborn AND this story. To end this review on a positive, I'm going to say that I'm happy this storyline is over.

Bottom line, this wasn't a very good comic, but it wasn't a horrible comic, and sadly, that's about as good as it can get for this series.

 Well, this was what I feared...  Hickman seems like he wants to be Grant Morrison, but he actually makes LESS sense than Morrison!!!  It's awful.  After reading this issue, I'll be dropping new Avengers from my pull list(before it even releases!) and will put the series on a VERY short leash.  I have a terrible feeling within a few months the unthinkable will happen and I'll be longing for the simpler days of Bendis as the Avengers writer...  Naturally, if you were a fan of Hickman's work on Fantastic Four and FF, I have no doubt you'll enjoy this, because he's moving in the same direction here.  If not?  Good luck...

This was a difficult issue to review. It wasn't very action heavy, it was more a look into the mind/actions of Reptil. Before I picked up this comic I could easily be placed in the, "Not a fan of Reptil" category. With that said, after reading this issue my mind was definitely changed. Christos Gage(writer)really did a masterful job of giving Reptil a personality, as well as making him into a sympathetic type character. Besides that, this was a great jumping on point for this series, as we see the Academy students and teachers through the eyes of Reptil.

This issue was 80-pages long, and was WAY better than the JLA 80-page giant I read a few weeks back. So that's the good. The bad? This comic was $8!!! I was thisclose to not picking this one up, but my obsessive collecting got the better of me, and I did(obviously) decide to give this comic a shot. I wasn't expecting anything from this comic(especially when I realized Arcade was the main villain!), but it told a good little one and done story. Will I remember it a month from now? No, probably not, but it was a fine way to spend a couple of minutes.

Woooo, Christos Gage is easily one of the best writers in comics today! Seriously, if you see his name on a comic, pick it up, because it WON'T disappoint! The work he's doing in this series during the Fear Itself issues is truly remarkable. Yes, we're getting appearances by the Worthy, which is something I feel all Fear Itself tie-ins SHOULD have, but he's also taking the opportunity of the war itself to further develop the Academy kids... I hate to beat a dead horse, but that's the difference between this comic and Generation Hope, which features lead characters of around the same age... Comparing this series to Gen Hope is like comparing Shakespeare to a coloring book... Anyway, I know I'll be looking forward to the next issue of what is, in my humble opinion, the best Fear Itself tie-in besides Invincible Iron Man that Marvel is producing.

This was a good issue of this series, as usual. It continued advancing the Fear Itself story, with Absorbing Man and Titania attacking the students at their home base, while further developing the characters. I didn't mention in the review the scenes where all of the kids were trying to cope with the stuff they saw in DC, but that just added to what makes this series so great. I actually care about these characters, all of them, which is a VERY rare thing for me. If I had a complaint, it would be that this issue was pretty much setting up the events of next issue. Titania and Absorbing Man only arrived at Infinite Avengers Mansion towards the end of this comic, which is when the action picked up. But the character development prior to that made up for the late action, and has me eagerly anticipating what happens next issue(which comes out in two short weeks!)

Scratch what I said in the introductory paragraph, not only is this the best Avengers comic book, this is probably one of the top three ongoing series I read monthly, and anybody who frequents this blog with any regularity knows that I read A LOT of comic books monthly! I tip my proverbial hat to Christos Gage, Tom Raney, Scott Hanna and the rest of the creative team behind this series, because they deserve it. Seriously, this was a great issue from a great series. I don't often say this, but I'd STRONGLY recommend this series to ANY comic book fan. And as I said, I hardly ever come right out and recommend something here on the blog. But I am openly recommending people to check this series out. There's nothing more for me to do here expect give this comic it's well deserved perfect score and move to the next review.

Whew, that was A LOT to take in! Let's see, for starters, this series is awesome. The addition of Hawkeye and the new students? If there was a word past awesome, that would be what this series is now. Seriously, there is no flaw in this series... The characterizations are perfect, the art is great, the writing is topnotch, this has to be the most complete series I read. So going forward we have the "murder" investigation surrounding Jocasta, the real Reptil being trapped in the future while his evil future self tries to take advantage of the confusion surrounding Jocasta's "death", new students AND Hawkeye!!! In other words, the future looks GREAT. This is a fantastic jumping on point for any comic fans who haven't yet given this series a chance... It's only $2.99 and it's worth every single penny.

Well, this was a pretty good issue, but for whatever reason, I didn't enjoy it as much as I did some of the earlier issues of the series. The battle with Hybrid was well done, as he was a force to be reckoned with, and nearly single-handedly defeated the entire Academy, trainers and students both! The stuff with Reptil, both present and future was okay, but never really came together for me. And the Jocasta reveal, while dramatic, didn't really impact me either. Oh well, if nothing else, the return of Jocasta and Veil should liven things up come the next issue, as we get away from the mindless fighting and get back to the inter-character relationships that made this series so great to begin with.

You know, I laughed out loud no less than FOUR times during this issue... It was hysterical! Not only that, but the story was fun and made sense, the art was pretty good, and ALL of the characterizations here were spot on. Seriously, Gage wrote Victor so well(my favorite Runaway, fyi) I'm hoping he stays with the Academy after this storyline. The conversations between Victor and Pym were EVERYTHING I had been hoping for coming into this storyline. The ONE thing I was REALLY hoping we'd get to see was Pym and Victor interacting because of their obvious connection, and as usual, Gage did not disappoint. I really don't have any bad things to say about this issue... Wait, does that mean what I think it does?!?

Well, this issue wasn't perfect, but it was damn good. I liked it, but the way everything wrapped up so neatly kind of bugged me... This story seemed the type that SHOULDN'T wrap up all that neatly, and yet it did.

I hate to say it, but this was a pretty underwhelming comic...  I mean I had been enjoying this storyline up to this issue, but for whatever reason this issue just didn't do it for me.  The final battle never really felt in doubt, and the ending wrapped up too neatly for my tastes.  Plus I didn't like Briggs dying...  He seemed to be a character who could have become something...  On top of that, who dies in a comic book by slowly bleeding to death?!  I did like the fact that Finesse let Briggs die, simply because it was in character for her.  I can't help but wonder if Christos Gage had to rush things along here due to the impending end of this series, because this storyline easily could have used another two issues.  Eh, they can't all be gold, I guess.

 Naturally my thoughts here were pretty bittersweet...  Yes, this was yet another good to great issue of this series, but it WAS the final issue.  From here, many of the characters from this series(although not my two favorites...) are heading into Avengers Arena.  I've already added Avengers Arena to my pull list, but seriously, how long can a comic series with THAT premise possibly last?  Even with the Avengers name on it...  Oh well.  In the end, kudos to Christos Gage for finishing this series off as wonderfully as he did.  As I said in the intro, I can guarantee you I'll be reading this series again, from the first issue to the last, and loving every second of it.  Again.

I'll keep reading this series, mainly out of loyalty to some of the characters. But as the deaths mount, my interest will wane and I can easily see this as a book that gets dropped down the road(if it lasts that long).

Eh, same Bendis, different title. While I am grateful that Norman Osborn didn't pop up here, the dialogue was still the same dialogue Bendis has been using for years now... The stuttering, the repeating, the inane conversations, they were all still here. Now, the story has some potential, as Bendis is at least giving us a threat from the Avengers past(for a change), but with a twist. I'm interested in seeing where this series is going to go, but I must admit, I am a bit disappointed in what we got here as well. Oh, and I love how Hulk and Thor were here even though things haven't been straightened out for them in their own series's...

Yeah, the ending totally saved this one for me! The Thanos revelation was excellent, and actually makes sense story-wise, so props to Bendis for that. The Ultimate Nullifier not only destroys whatever it's aimed at, it also destroys the user, so it makes perfect sense that Thanos would want it(through the Zodiac as his minions), as it could, possibly, end his life, as well as several others. Sure, this one dragged in the middle, and the dialogue did get a bit crazy at times, but or a Bendis comic? This one was pretty good, with a damn good ending.

No complaints here.  The best thing about the Avengers fighting in space for most of this issue is that Bendis couldn't go dialogue crazy due to nobody being able to hear anything in space.  Besides that, the story was strong and simple, the Badoon teamed with Thanos and are therefore bad.  The Avengers and Guardians fought the Badoon.  They destroyed a Badoon ship, something which could lead to repercussions down the road.  Plus you had Thanos taunting and supposedly killing the Elders, although that action seems to have been what trapped Thanos in the state he was in at the end of this issue.  Honestly, I'm looking forward to the next issue which wraps up this storyline.  I'll be curious to see hos Bendis wraps it all up.

The Wanda story was WAY better than the Hope story, but then I hate Our Lord and Savior with a white hot passion, so that probably colored my opinion just a tad. The Wanda story basically proved what I had guessed after reading Avengers Disassembled all those years ago, as well as Avengers #24.1... Bendis really, REALLY hates Wanda.

Bottom line, this issue was a set-up issue. Now the next issue? That should be FULL of fireworks!

Even though I didn't love this issue, I'm still looking forward to the next issue in two weeks.

The bottom line is this... There was ONE thing and ONE thing only I wanted out of this series. And that would be the reversal of that idiotic, "No More Mutants" garbage. That one line handcuffed so many X-Men writers since they had no way to add new members to the team, nor any way to give them new mutant enemies. So, as a long time X-fan, I am overjoyed to see new mutants popping up, hopefully leading to some great new characters and storylines(not involving an endless supply of Sentinels and William Stryker!).

I could easily go on for another several paragraphs detailing just how much I loved this comic, but I won't. Instead I'll post the score(which shouldn't be a HUGE surprise!)as well as several scans from the comic. That's right, SEVERAL scans! I liked this comic so much I couldn't decide on just one page to post. I CAN'T wait for the next issue!!!

So THIS issue was fantastic, there are storylines aplenty going on here, and it goes without saying that going forward things should only get better! Needless to say, THIS is my favorite mini-series of 2010, period, the end.

Sheesh, how many superlatives can I use to describe this series? Once again, it showed why it was my mini-series of the year last year, and why it WILL be my mini-series of the year THIS year as well. The story is insanely strong, the art is magnificent, the dialogue is spot on, and all of the characterizations are absolutely perfect.

You know, this comic was so unbelievably good that I had a hard time typing up this review... I literally couldn't type fast enough, and that's NEVER happened to me before. This comic was a masterpiece in every single aspect. The story was perfect. Simply perfect.

The Hawkeye story was a bit on the confusing side, but it starred Hawkeye and much like those old Avengers Solo comics, had him facing off against uber-lame villains like the Trapster(Pot Paste Pete!!!) and Chance. So while the story wasn't fantastic, the Hawkeye fan in me was pleased. The second story, while shorter, was much better. I love the Avengers Academy characters, and the story here made sense. So for a back-up tale, I couldn't ask for much more. For a score, I'll give the Hawkeye story a 7 1/2, and add an extra 1 for the great Academy story, bringing this issue's final score to a...

You know, I wish they'd just drop the Hawkeye feature and give the next issue fully over to the Avengers Academy back-up story... And I say that as just about the biggest Hawkeye fan you'll ever find! The Hawkeye story was nearly incomprehensible. Plain and simple. The Avengers Academy back-up was good, but since it was only 5 pages(actually four because one page was a splash), it really couldn't save this comic for me. Ah well. Hopefully the next issue will magically make sense or something. I don't know...

For me personally, this comic book was mostly just a refresher, but I realize that the writers(Dan Slott and Christos Gage)wrote this comic to explain exactly who Crusader was to the majority of fans who probably had no clue.

Not only that, but it's also the small touches that really make this comic book work for me. There was a scene with Komodo and Hardball, where the two embrace and Komodo says something along the lines of "I know who I can trust.", obviously referencing Hardball. Well, if you read the Avengers: The Initiative Special #1, you know that Komodo shouldn't trust Hardball, but for a whole different reason!

As long as either Dan Slott and/or Christos Gage are involved in the writing duties of this comic, no matter what Marvel decides to do with this comic book, I will definitely be along for the ride.

I was really into this comic until the unfortunate shooting/death(?) of Crusader. I liked him dammit! Even though Crusader was shot, this was another example of why Dan Slott is such a marvelous writer, and is heads and shoulders better than Marvel's golden boy, Brian Bendis. Dan managed to involve so many characters in this comic, who were all but forgotten in the Marvel Universe, including one of my all-time favorite groups, the Great Lake Avengers. Yep, I've loved those losers since they first showed up in the West Coast Avengers series, and it's always great to see them show up. Their interaction with Gravity(another forgotten favorite)had me laughing out loud.

If you want to read a good Avengers title and are tired of the BENDIS-ization of the Avengers books, I'd highly recommend giving this series a shot before it's too late.

Wow, there was a lot of good stuff packed into this comic. The stuff with Johnny Guitar was extremely well done, by the time he died, you couldn't help but feel badly for him, which is a credit to how good a writer Christos is. The battle at the Negative Zone prison ended a lot quicker then I thought it would(just one issue?), but I have my fingers crossed that this leads to Hardball returning to the Initiative, or better yet, the New Warriors.

You know, I don't know what's going to become of the Avengers titles after Siege, but whatever happens, I REALLY hope Christos gets one of, if not THE main Avengers book, because he's been incredibly solid on this series since he took it over. He did a wonderful job of blending his story into the main Siege storyline, while continuing to move the storylines from this series forward. We're definitely starting these reviews out on the right foot, with this one.

There was nothing technically wrong with this comic book. The art was bright and vibrant, and the story was easy to understand(for a story that involved time travel, people not being dead when they were supposed to be and techno-organic viruses). The first couple of pages weren't that bad actually. It all made sense. And then we got the fight between Cable and Cap.

The art was good, and the story moved along at a brisk pace. So oddly enough, while I hated the main points here, I liked this issue as a whole. One thing is for certain though, come the next issue I will be rooting HARD for the Red Hulk for the first time in my life!

This was a nice little one and done story.  The story was simple and easy to understand, and the team-up between Spidey and Thor didn't feel forced or anything.  If I had a complaint it would have been that Thor came across as really arrogant,(He is arrogant... it's part of his charm!) and was kind of out of line by calling Spidey disrespectful after the battle...  I can't really recall Spidey doing anything that could have been considered disrespectful. (He told Thor to get his hands off him when Thor touches his shoulder and said he wasn't worried about Electro. BOOM!) Thor was the one who was disrespecting Spidey!  Besides that very minor quibble though, no complaints here.

Again, much like the last issue, I really love this concept. No stories, no real thought, just a full-on fight. So this issue puts the Avengers up 3-1, as well as making my guesses 3-1 as well(damn Namor/Thing fight...). I liked the way the Cap/Gambit fight went, because, let's face it, the only way Gambit had a chance was if Cap was distracted, and once Cap wasn't distracted? Game over. Now, I WAS a bit surprised that Spidey took the loss to Colo-naut... Spidey is probably the most popular Marvel character(if not the most popular character in all of comics), so while logic dictated that he should lose to Colo-naut, I wasn't sure if he'd find a way to emerge victorious. Honestly, I'd have been fine if he did win, but with that said? The more powerful character definitely won. Much like after reading issue #1, I'm eagerly anticipating the next issue.

This comic was awful, and doesn't compliment the main AVX book in the least. My best advice is to save your $4 and skip this one.

This was a very good comic, from the story, to the artwork, to the dialogue. Not only that, but once again, I thoroughly enjoyed Damian in this comic! I don't know how Bryan does it, but he seems to be accomplishing the impossible, making Damian tolerable. You put Damian in any other comic, and I'm spitting blood like a Red Lantern, but whenever he's in Batgirl, I like him... Weird. Anyway, this was a very good comic that I'd be willing to recommend to anybody.

This comic was flat-out, full-on awesome. Everything about it was perfectly done.

How I've missed reading this series! If I were to rank my favorite DC comics, this series would probably be in the top 3. This issue did everything right. It built a good story, had great dialogue, introduced a strong villain, and gave his motivation. So we had a great story, great dialogue and extremely good art... What more could I ask for?

It was a Batgirl comic, of course I enjoyed it! This was a really good little one off story, that gave us some insight into Det. Gage, who has become a regular in this series. What more can I say? It was what it was, a really good self-contained story. No complaints here whatsoever.

You know, I REALLY needed to read this comic after reading that abysmal Brightest Day #13. This comic and that one were like complete opposites to each other. Where as BD #13 sucked the big one, this comic was great! It was nice to have Oracle back in the fold again after a few issues absence, Steph's explanation of the Bat-Family to Proxy was awesomely done and the story was fast moving and fun. What's there for me to complain about here?

I literally laughed pretty damn hard four different times over the course of reading this comic book. Sure, the story was kind of weird, but anytime I laugh THAT many times over the course of a comic usually indicates the comic was VERY good. Bryan Q. Miller really is a hell of a writer, as this comic once again showed. It was just a good, dumb, fun, one and done comic. One of those comic books where you could turn off your brain, sit back and unwind with. I can guarantee this will be the best Valentine's tale about a Witch Boy and a were-cat you will EVER read!

Meh. I don't know what it was about this issue, but it just didn't do much for me. I mean technically it was fine, we learned about the villains, Steph set up the electro-magnetic-gooperangs earlier in the issue, the story moved smoothly, and the end saw the villain arrested, with the next threat already being prepped. However, I'm just not all that fond of these Order of the Scythe guys... They just don't really impress me much. Maybe when their secretive leader is revealed I'll change my tune, but for now? I wish they'd just go away.

Well, a lot of stuff certainly happened here, no? Proxy has decided to head to Nanda Parbat, leaving Batgirl without an advisor since Barbara Gordon/Oracle has been busy with the Birds of Prey and her other Batman Inc. related duties. The Grey Ghost revealed his true colors by handing the leader of the Order of the Scythe the DNA collector that Harmony lost during her battle with Batgirl, and Batgirl is still trying to get to the bottom of just who's behind the Order, as well as what their plans are. I have to say, most of DC Comics may have gone to hell in a hand basket, but at least the majority of the Bat-books are still delivering top-notch stories.

This was a great comic and a strong, if VERY bittersweet, ending to one of my favorite monthly DC titles... Good-bye Steph. And good luck with the reboot...

I guess this comic will have huge ramifications throughout the DC Universe, but I think I missed way too much to fully grasp what was going on here... My loss I guess.

The bottom line is that I am really hoping that DC resists the urge to kill off the Dark Knight, because in the long run, I think this move will be looked at as a grave mistake.

The whole comic was just so surreal, I couldn't help but to like it, even though I really didn't have a clue as to what was going on. This was one strange comic book...

I'd happily recommend this comic book to anyone.

I think this series is better than Grant Morrison's "Batman and Robin"! Yep, I said it! The first two issues of Judd's run have been(to me anyway)more straightforward, easier to read and just plain better than Grant's first two issues of Batman and Robin. Plus I think Two-Face is a WAAAAY better foe than Pyg. OK, I've thrown down the gauntlet, "Batman and Robin" fanboys, return fire!

Eh, I didn't really care for this comic one way or the other. Maybe my apathy is due to the Penguin appearing in these pages(I do HATE the Penguin!), or maybe it's the whole disjointed feel this series has going for it right now... Nothing really clicked for me. Black Mask is talking to himself(sort of like the Red Skull did while he was in possession of Aleksander Lukin's body), Dr. Death is killing mobsters, Penguin is annoying Mask, some girl is working against her mobster family and working for Penguin, it was all just a convoluted mess.

Being a fan of Dick Grayson, I have to say, this storyline has been very lackluster.

I actually liked this comic! I picked it up having heard some terrible things about it(JT!), but surprisingly it wasn't NEARLY as bad as I thought it was going to be. Sure, it wasn't an instant classic or anything like that, but it was a pretty good comic with a decent enough story.

This was a pretty good story, even if the ending is really obvious... I'd be willing to bet almost any amount of money that Blackspell is actually the Riddler, who is returning to his criminal ways. I definitely hope that isn't the case, because I like the Riddler a lot more as a pseudo-good guy then a go nowhere villain, but let's just say I won't be surprised when/if Riddler turns back to the darkside. Other then that, this was definitely a good read, with a fun(if seemingly obvious)mystery, so how can I really complain?

Maybe Tony Daniel should stick to what he does best, art, because he just can't seem to tell a logical story.

If you took out the middle 8-10 pages of this comic, it wasn't that bad. But I just never got into Bruce's flashback tale. I'm sure a lot of people enjoyed it, but for me it was just kind of time-wasting... But your opinion of this issue will definitely be decided on that flashback, so for me, this issue was a letdown.

Um, what the hell just happened here? Seriously, I wasn't sure what was real and what wasn't in this issue... The first Court of Owls had to be fake since they, you know, literally looked like owls. I have no idea why Batman suddenly looked like a demon, especially since it was Batman who had been drugged... I guess he saw himself as a giant demonic bat? For some reason? I don't know... For as much as I liked the originality of the last issue, I disliked the insanity of this one.

See, now this was a comic with a fantastic cliffhanger. The ending here saved this one for me, as most of this comic was Bats explaining to Dick(or more accurately, the readers) the events of the past few issues, dating all the way back to Dick being insinuated in that murder in the first issue(Grayson DNA was present due to Talon being his great grandfather). Basically, Batman told us how everything we've seen these past few issues happened. If that was all we would have gotten here, I'd have been mildly annoyed. As it is though, we got a great ending, which apparently heralds the start of the Night of the Owls storyline. So yeah, ending good, beginning not so good.

This was a very strong comic. Sure, the Hulkbuster armor was a bit much(when did Bruce Wayne become Tony Stark?!), and I have no clue why Damian wasn't in the Manor but was in Gotham, alone, in his Robin attire... Besides those two very minor points though? No complaints here. Oh, and this comic had 30 pages, so it DID have a few more than usual, thus explaining the cover price, so kudos to DC for giving us some extra bang for our extra buck... Unlike a certain OTHER comic book company...

So yeah, there were a few things here that definitely did bug me. But then, on the other hand, this comic was a blast to read. The pacing was great. Batman's plan of turning the tables on Joker at the end was inspired. There WAS a lot of good here. But still, there was just something missing...

The stuff that made sense I enjoyed. Unfortunately, there was little here that made sense!

I'd like to go higher, but I just can't get past my overwhelming hatred for Damian... His very presence brings down my enjoyment of this comic book.

I thought this issue was definitely a step in the right direction. There were still some things that bugged me, like Damien's attitude(must Damien ALWAYS be so obnoxious?)and the Penguin appearing in this issue(I HATE the Penguin!!!), but I thought this issue was a much easier/logical read.

If you like Grant's Batman work, then I'd guess you'd probably like this issue. If you're like me, and can't decipher Morrisonese, then you're probably glad this issue ended when it did!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm sure all of you Grant Morrison apologists will try to tell me that Grant is a genius, and that this comic was brilliant, but to me this was just a bunch of random scenes that made little sense. Add that to the atrocious dialogue, and yeah, this was one BAD comic.

Now that Bruce has come out and connected himself to Batman, a lot of doors open up. Some villains are bound to go after Bruce Wayne to get at Batman, and some of the smarter villains/citizens of Gotham might be able to connect Bruce and Batman. So while it should make things in the Bat-books more interesting, it hurts some of the long established Bat-mythos. But I'm more than willing to see how this current direction plays out. As I said earlier, if nothing else, it should at the very least make things interesting.

Maybe it was the red hair, maybe it was the talking animals, I don't know, but for some reason, this issue didn't draw me into the story like I expected it to. It was still better than most of the Batman titles, but it just didn't provide the greatness I was hoping for.

Yes, the dialogue was good-to-great, something Winick is a master at, but the story, and even the look of Jason was the Morrison version! And anybody who knows me knows I hate the red-headed, acne-riddled Morrison version of Jason Todd... Now if Winick would have written HIS version of Jason, I'm SURE this storyline would have been eight different shades of awesome. But he didn't, and so it wasn't.

After I read a comic book, if I'm not near my laptop, I'll usually jot down the title of the comic, the score, and a few words about the comic for when I do the review. For this comic, I put down the title, the score, and one word, "Rubbish"... That, in a nutshell, was exactly what this comic was. Garbage. Seriously, it was one of the worst one-and-done stories I've read in quite some time. The worst thing was the fact that I was kind of looking forward to this issue because I saw that David Hine was writing it. I'm not even going to bother wasting any more time on this comic. If you enjoyed this issue, kudos. Me? I absolutely hated it.

There's definitely some promise here, but I really hate the Damian/Bruce dynamic. I don't want to read Batman & Batman... That's like having a peanut butter and peanut butter sandwich... You need some jelly too! I won't be dropping this series, but I do hope that Damian either lightens up a bit(and no, I'm not saying he should become Grayson-esque, but just a bit less angry) or Bruce fires him and takes on a new Robin. Give Damian a solo series instead. I know I'd buy it.

Scorewise, this comic was an easy 7 1/2, with a shot at an 8 before the cliffhanger scene... It was that horrible. I honestly don't get why I'd want to pick up the next issue after that last page. So I can read about Batman and Robin watching a film put together by Nobody? Um yeah, no. Overlooking the last scene(which is hard to do since it's what leaves the lingering taste in my mouth), this was a really good comic book. The characterizations between Robin, Alfred and Batman were all nicely done. But that last scene...

Don't you just love misleading covers? Misleading cover aside, this was a damn good comic book. It was a bit bogged down in the middle, what with the Nobody origin story, but the stuff set in the present was really good. I liked Damian's reason for joining up with Nobody, as it fits with his whole MO of trying to gain his father's approval. I also liked that Nobody beat Damian up WHILE making sure Bruce could hear the whole thing, as it gives us a reason to really despise Nobody, and want to see Bruce catch up to and beat the hell out of him. I have to say, I'm definitely looking forward to the next issue of this series.

I have to give kudos to Tomasi, he got me invested in this story big time last issue and he delivered another great issue here. Most of this issue was a fight scene, and it was well put together by Patrick Gleason.

This was a pretty good read. The art was strong(as usual) and the story was solid. Yeah, I was a bit bugged by how easily Bruce pushed aside Damian murdering Nobody right in front of him(can you IMAGINE what he'd have done to Jason Todd had he pulled a stunt like that?!), but I guess I'll chalk that up to Bruce finally looking at Damian as more than another expendable soldier in his war on crime and more like a family member. So yeah, this was a good issue, but it's probably not something I'll remember two months from now.

Oddly enough, and nearly inexplicably, I liked this issue. I think I've FINALLY figured out the secret of reading a Grant Morrison comic book... The secret is to read the comic REALLY slow... I mean exceptionally slow! Like literally study the frigging page, the language used, the pictures, EVERYTHING before turning the page. And then repeat the process. I did just that, and I'd say that I understood like 85% of this comic, which is better than the 25% I normally understand!

Meh. For a change, I understood practically every page of this one, but the story never really caught on for me. I mean it was okay, but I don't know, I expect better than okay from Grant Morrison. I expect epic... And by epic, I mean epically good, OR epically bad! This was just meh. Oh well. Maybe next month's offering will be better, although with a title like "Nightmares in Numberland", I'm not holding my breath...

I'm at a complete loss here. If you understood this comic, and realized that Jezebel was somehow behind this, then I tip my hat to you, you're a much smarter person than I am. This comic book read like Grant Morrison slammed his head into his keyboard a bunch of times and sent the results of that to DC... It was... I... I honestly don't even have words for it. I mean it didn't offend me or anything, it just made NO sense! Why the hell was a dog saying, and I quote, "5H898EH23346!"!!! I'm not going to spend any more time on this comic. Like I said, if you enjoyed this issue, more power to you. Me? I just want to forget I ever made the mistake of reading this mess.

All in all, I really and truly enjoyed this comic book and for a score, I'm going to give it a 10 out of 10. I was really on the fence concerning what I should score this comic, and was torn between 9 and 10, but since I really had no major complaints about this comic book, a 10 it is. I can't wait until the next issue!

Meh. This comic wasn't bad, as it set up a pretty interesting mystery, but it also didn't wow me. It seems that the three families from the beginning, the Waynes, the Elliots and the Cobblepots may have wronged somebody back in the day, and their offspring is looking for revenge in the present day. I could be wrong, but that's what I got out of this one so far. Anyway, while I wasn't blown away here, my interest was piqued enough to make me want to read the rest of the mini-series, so hey, that's good, right?

I enjoyed reading this one. We got a mess of Bat family characters here, with nobody seeming out of place or forced into the story. We also learn(from Hush of all people) that the Gates of Gotham weren't a what, but a who, giving us our villain(s) of the story. So either the Gates of Gotham are REALLY old, or whoever is trying to blow up all Wayne/Elliot/Cobblepot named things in Gotham are the disgruntled offspring of the original Gates, who are probably pissed that their names didn't carry on the same legacy as the other three families. Whoever the villain of this piece is, I'll be interested in learning moire next issue.

I enjoyed this issue, probably more than any other issue of this mini-series. The pacing was quite good, the story was solid, everything moved along at a nice, brisk speed. Yes, the Robins getting beaten up by a no-name new villain was kind of wrong, but it didn't bug me as much as it probably should have... I guess I was in a good mood when I read this one. I'll admit that I was glad that the flashbacks wrapped up this issue, while I get why they were there and all, they did hurt the flow of this mini for me, especially early on. Um, that's about all I've got to say about this one... Let's move on.

Eh. This was a perfectly acceptable comic book. Nothing more, nothing less. The ending/reveal of who the Architect was wasn't a surprise at all, I called it about two issues back, and when I can see the swerve coming, you KNOW it's obvious! This was an okay mini-series, that had a few ups and downs, but was pretty forgettable overall. If I had to do it all over again, I probably wouldn't have bothered picking it up, because it just never turned into the great story I was hoping it would. Oh well.

Eh. I was enjoying the Zsasz storyline, so I've got to say I'm a tad bit disappointed that nothing occurred in this issue to further that story. This issue was OK, but it's obviously a stock, filler issue to be used when the regular writer of a series is unavailable. I'll be looking forward to issue #10 when we get back to the Zsasz storyline. As for this comic, it was perfectly acceptable, nothing more, nothing less.

Hey, once this story got rolling, I actually began to enjoy it. I enjoy a good murder-mystery as much as the next guy, and this comic kept me guessing the identity of the murderer until the very end, so good job. While I can't wait for this series to get back to the Zsasz storyline, these last two issues served as a very nice little filler story.

I like Hush a lot. Always have. He's such a nice change of pace from Batman's normal rogues gallery. So I had no problems with the Hush parts, I liked his interactions with Zatanna, Katana and Alfred, and I enjoyed his attempts at freeing Jane Doe(I also enjoyed Jane's utter confusion at why billionaire Bruce Wayne was interested in her). What I didn't enjoy was this boring backstory with the old mobster

This comic was the very definition of a forgettable comic. Here's what I mean by that... I actually read this issue last night before going to sleep. Upon sitting down to do this review today, I couldn't remember what happened in this issue for the life of me! Seriously, until I turned to the last page and saw mega-sized Two-Face, I couldn't recall a thing about this issue. It's gonna be fun next month when the second issue arrives and I'm like, "Batman: Dark Knight?! Is this the comic with Joker or is this the one with evil Dick Grayson in it?!?"

At least Grant Morrison is trying new stuff. And for that reason alone, from this moment forward, I will not score ANYTHING Grant Morrison does for DC lower than a 6. No matter how confusing/bizarre/insane his work is, at least he's trying NEW ideas. That's more than GEOFF is doing... Huh, that rant came out of left field... Um, yeah, as for this comic, it wasn't really worth the $5 cover price, but it might be worth grabbing if you want to see where Morrison plans on taking DC's Dark Knight.

If you could combine certain aspects of this movie(Jason's return from the dead, the building exploding to end the movie) with the comic story(the Jason/Bats battle, the way Bats learned Red Hood was Jason) this would be the perfect story! As it is, I preferred the story in the comics to the story in the movie. The movie never really gave us the same emotional punch that the comic did, with the exception of Bats screaming about how he'd failed Jason every now and then. I would have liked some kind of definitive ending between Bats and Jason here, I mean I understand why that didn't happen in the comic, but there was no reason we could have some sort of closure in this movie. Once the movie ends, the story is over, and as it was, the story here was just left dangling, which always bothers me with movies... In the end, there was more good than bad here, so this was a good way to spend 75 minutes.

This was a pretty good, fast, read. We are getting tantalizing tidbits of information regarding Johnson, which is fine since we're at about the halfway point of this mini. I'd expect a few more pieces of the puzzle to drop next issue, with the majority of the mystery of Johnson's life being revealed by issue #5. From what we learn from Taskmaster, Johnson's father, who Johnson had always thought was dead, has an enemy, who has apparently put the massive price on Johnson's head. Who is Johnson's dad? Or for that matter, who's Johnson's father's old enemy? We don't know yet, but my interest is definitely piqued. Here's hoping the eventual payoff is worth the ride.

Seriously, if you would have told me 6 months ago that Marvel was going to swap out the 616 Nick Fury for the Ultimate/movie version, I'd have told you I hated the idea. But as it is, I not only like the idea, I'm extremely interested to see where Marcus pops up next and look forward to seeing him rise through the ranks of SHIELD to claim his rightful position as director.

This comic was OK, but the pacing was all out of whack. Well, the only thing left to say is that I'll be looking forward to picking up the "Oracle: The Cure" mini come March, which hopefully WILL NOT have Misfit appearing within it... I REALLY hate her!

Ah how I missed my Birds of Prey!!! As always, Gail had an amazing grasp of these characters. She is probably the ONLY writer who should EVER write this series. Seriously. As for the story, I can't say I'm overly pleased to see Hawk and Dove joining the team(I mean come on, they scream their names to change into their costumes!!!), but I trust Gail's judgment, so I'm willing to see what comes of them joining up.

Oh, with all of the talk about this storyline, I forgot to mention, this comic was great! I really enjoyed it, and I CAN'T wait to find out how it ends next issue.

You know, I was as confused as hell for some of this comic, but once I figured out what Catman was doing with his triple-cross, I realized that I REALLY enjoyed this issue! A lot! Like more than any issue of BoP since it's relaunch! So what did I like? Well, the fact that this issue spotlighted Huntress sure did help, plus there was NO Hawk or Dove in this comic... I think THAT'S what bugs me the most about this series, the fact that those two are a part of things. For me, they just haven't fit in yet. In my opinion, all you really need in this series are Oracle, Black Canary and Huntress. Jettison the dead weight, Gail Simone!

I'm not sure I could have hated a comic written by Gail Simone any more than I hated this one... I mean I usually enjoy Gail's work and all, but this was just horrible. Okay, let me clarify what I'm saying here... In MY opinion, this comic was horrible. The story was ALLL over the place, AND it made me think about Ragdoll, a character who is reaching Mad Hatter levels of annoyance from me. I have NO idea what the point of the first few pages of this comic few, nor do I know why Huntress and Question were in the sewers halting dirty cops. This was bad... It was really bad...

Meh. It's not that this comic was bad per se, I just hate Useless #2(that would be Dove) and Junior. I mean if you'd have replaced Useless #2 and Junior with any number of characters, I'd have enjoyed this one WAY more, because it was a good, fast moving story. But alas, instead we get Useless #2 and Junior... If you don't have a problem with those characters, you'd probably enjoy this one more than I did.

Yeah, this comic was a bit confusing, especially since we never actually find out what happened in Argentina in 1950, but I found myself enjoying the pacing of the story. It moved along briskly, and I'm sure everything will come together next issue. Plus there was no Hawk or Dove, making this the best issue of BoP since the series relaunched! Huzzah!! The bottom line here is that this was a slightly confusing, but otherwise perfectly acceptable comic book.

WOW!!!!!!! This was possibly THE perfect comic book! I can't use enough positive adjectives to describe the out and out awesomeness that was this comic book! In-frigging-credible.

What did I think? I thought this issue was flat out, completely and totally AWESOME!!! There's not one single area of this comic I can find a single fault.

The art was brilliant(as usual)and the story was good, but to me, this issue was missing any really special moments to make it truly memorable.

This issue felt like a placeholder for the climatic battle yet to come between the combined Corps and Nekron, and I for one expected better here. Oh well, here's hoping the final two issues of Blackest Night make up for this one.

All in all, this comic was really good, although the Earth/Entity stuff did take something away from it for me.

I liked this issue a lot, although the ending left a bit to be desired.

Oh yeah, I most definitely enjoyed this issue! Besides the main story, you also had the JSA coming face to face with their recently deceased teammate BL Damage, as well as Earth-2's BL Lois Lane going after Ma Hunkel, who is saved by the timely arrival of Power Girl, who is originally from Earth-2 and was like a daughter to BL Lois, plus we also get Liberty Belle running into her dead father, Johnny Quick.

his was a perfectly acceptable comic, no more, no less.

It turns out I didn't like this comic at all... I didn't like Saint Barry magically curing Bart, I didn't like the Rogues killing Captain Boomerang Jr, and I ESPECIALLY didn't like the apparent revelation that the Reverse Flash is somehow connected to the White Lanterns... Boy, I'm usually one of Geoff John's most stringent supporters, but lately, his work has been leaving me flat... The sooner Blackest Night is over, the better.

Umm, why did I just read this? I don't get what the purpose was... I don't really get what the purpose of this entire mini-series was actually... It was kind of all over the place. Instead of getting something simple like WW vs. Maxwell Lord for three issues, we instead get one issue of WW, one issue of Black Lantern WW, and an issue of Star Sapphire WW. I don't see any reason to spend more time talking about this comic actually, since it never really went anywhere.

I've got to hand it to Dan, he did a great job with the story and his pencils were also pretty sweet to boot. He faithfully recreated the events from New Teen Titans #2, even managing to keep some of the original dialogue.

I actually have some mixed emotions about this comic... I thoroughly enjoyed the stuff in the future with Black Beetle, Trigon and Lex Luthor. I loved the fact that Beetle was just biding his time, waiting for the right moment to steal the Red Scarab from Trigon. That part of the story was good... The part of the story when Booster an co. headed back to the past bothered me a lot though.

Not bad, not bad at all. First off, props to me for working "macabre" into this review. That's one of my favorite words. Anyway, as a fan of Cyborg Superman(yeah, that's right, I like him!)I liked that this issue focused on him in two separate time periods.

Oh yeah, I really enjoyed this story. As a matter of fact, the past couple of issues of this series(especially the last two issues)have been really strong. In particular, I'm loving this story and the moral choices it is forcing Booster to make.

I was debating whether or not to give this comic a perfect score, but after thinking about it, and recalling the great dialogue and story, the decision became pretty easy.

This was the first time in a while Booster looked like that character I'd become a fan of again, and for that I'm extremely pleased. Here's hoping the next few issues keep up the great work.

This was a weird comic for me. There were parts that were just horrid, like D'Kay's lame origin(she made herself forget she was ever a Martian, but remembered she was a Martian when J'onn came back? Zuh??), but there were other parts that were... I wouldn't say good, so I'll say less horrid.

Okay, now for the fun part! That first scene with Cold and Boomerang earns -5 points because it made me think of Saint Barry... I had no qualms about Deadman's initial scene, so I'll give it a pity +1. The stuff on Zamaron was actually pretty good AND served a purpose, getting rid of Hawkgirl's evil mother and FINALLY getting rid of that curse on the Hawks, so I'll give the whole mess a +5. However, -1 point for the Hawk's deciding the most romantic place they could go was a museum... Another -1 for Deadman freaking out about his ring reaching 100% charge... I mean come on, he HAD to have seen that coming! +2 for Deadman acting like a creepy voyeur, and -3 for DC killing off the Hawks AFTER fixing their damned confusing history! Seriously, what the hell is THAT all about! Finally, +3 points for me repeatedly abusing the phrase, "Naked Twister." So after some addition and subtraction, this issue of Brightest Day ends up with a......

I don't know about anyone else, but I'd rather read one linear story as opposed to 31 different stories in the same comic.

You know what the worst thing about this comic book was? It WASN'T that bad! I mean come on, I read this comic because I KNOW it's gonna suck, so the fact that it was pretty good kind of bummed me out.

Like the other Road Home comics, this one was really good. It was definitely on par with the Road Home books that came out last week.

This comic was... okay, I guess.  It never really did anything for me.  I'm not a big fan of any of the characters(sure, I thought Cable was cool as a kid, but then I grew up), and I downright hate Hope.  Why couldn't SHE be getting killed off in Avengers Arena?!  Hope is such an empty, uninteresting character...  She was brought around for ONE reason(the idiotic Mutant Messiah!!!! thing) but that's over now, so can't she crawl under a rock and die now?  Other than that, this comic just was.  It wasn't awful, it wasn't great, it didn't leave me psyched for the next issue, it was just a way to spend 5 minutes or so.  Eh, hopefully we ditch Hope, add Colossus and get a good story going here.

Last issue was a little slow for my taste, but Ed Brubaker is back in his usual great form again. I know I'll be eagerly looking forward to the next issue.

I wouldn't complain at all about Marvel jacking up their prices if all of their comics had this amount of great content in them. Very nice job here Marvel, I'm definitely impressed.

This was a pretty good comic. The story is moving along at a brisk pace, and we now know what Bad Cap's plan is(creating a mega-powerful Vibranium bomb). This was definitely a set-up issue, but it does a good job of making Bad Cap and his Watchdogs look very strong, setting up for what should be an explosive confrontation between Bad Cap and Bucky down the road.

While this isn't going to go down as one of my favorite Captain America storyarcs, it's STILL better then like 85% of the other comics on the market today.

As usual(or maybe I shpuld say as always)this was an excellent comic book. The pacing here was just great, and the battle between Bucky and Bad Cap was extremely well done. Granted this wasn't one of my favorite Brubaker/Cap stories, but it was still better then more then 90% of the stuff I read monthly. I'm not exactly sure what next month will bring, or how Ed is going to use Bucky and Steve Rogers in this series, but needless to say, for as long as Ed is writing this series, I'll be eagerly anticipating the next issue.

What's not to like here? I mean come on, it's Captain America and it's written by Ed Brubaker. Seriously. This was a great set-up story for the upcoming "Trail of Captain America" storyline, which should really put Bucky through the wringer. I'm sure this will be a fantastic storyline, all I'm hoping is that it doesn't end with Bucky giving up the uniform of Captain America...

Ah... So THAT'S why Baron Zemo visited Sin in her cell all those issues back! To tell her Bucky was Captain America and to lie in her psych tapes that she had always known that Bucky was a sleeper agent of the Red Skull's... Ed Brubaker, you are a GENIUS! This comic was absolutely perfect. Literally perfect. I can't think of a single thing that seemed wrong, or that I didn't like(and believe me, I tried!). Bucky's parts were small, but powerful, Steve trying to do everything in his power to help Bucky out was great, I STILL love seeing Bernie again, and Sin's parts in this were perfect. Her dream was especially wonderful, as in two pages, Brubaker basically laid out every stitch of motivation Sin has ever had in her life; to prove to her father that she was better than any son the Red Skull could have had. Having just given out a perfect score earlier this week, I really didn't want to give out another one, but if this isn't a perfect comic, I don't know what is!

There wasn't a single part of this comic I didn't love. Not like, LOVE. The trial itself was awesome, especially the way Bucky's defense attorney battered several of the prosecution's witnesses(especially the way she handled Norman Osborn!). But not only was the trial wonderfully done, so was everything else, from Faustus's role both at the trial and then in the van, to Bucky making the(Faustus assisted)decision to head to Liberty Island to deal with Sin even though doing so would turn him into a fugitive. Ed Brubaker wrote the best Dr. Faustus I have EVER read here! And I've read TONS of Captain America stories! I have literally ZERO complaints about this comic. The only complaint I could possibly have is that this issue was so good waiting for the next issue is going to be utterly torturous! From the first page of the story to the last, I was hooked and couldn't wait to turn the page. If a comic like THAT doesn't deserve a perfect score, I don't know what does!

Gah, what was this all about?! Usually I absolutely love this series, but this issue was just... All over the place... Sure, there were parts of this issue that bugged me on the heels of reading Fear Itself #3(which I won't get into in case you've yet to check it out), but still, I expected to enjoy(and understand!) this issue a lot more than I did. Normally I'd say the sooner this storyline was over the better, but in light of recent events, maybe I should be cherishing a certain character in this series while I still can...

Goddammit... You know, this issue was the perfect segue from Bucky being Captain America to a new identity... It was all set up PERFECTLY! I mean Ed Brubaker set the stage for Steve Rogers returning to the Captain America mantle, with Bucky becoming something else... And then Fear Itself #3 happened... I mean, in light of THIS issue, the events of Fear Itself #3 don't even make sense! Why was Bucky even Captain America in FI #3?! Dumb. Well, if this was truly the end of Bucky, he went out on a high, and I'll always remember him leaving with his longtime love, the Black Widow, on a helicopter, planning the next chapter of his life. Dammit... What a waste.

This issue made me miss Bucky even MORE than I already did, which sucks, since he seems to be gone... Again. I'll definitely be picking up each and every issue of this series, but I must admit, I'll be reading it with a bit of a heavy heart.

Eh, this was one of those perfectly acceptable comic books I yammer on about from time to time. I mean there was nothing wrong with it, but it also didn't get me excited for the next issue. It was okay, plain and simple.

Eh. This storyline has been really paint-by-numbers for me thus far. The Naslund reveal was no shock because it was pretty much established last issue that he had no real past, which, coupled by Davis's suspicion, made it pretty clear he was more than meets the eye. I will say this, I wouldn't mind Adam III sticking around past this storyline, because he has some potential. Will he though? That's something I am unsure about...

Eh. I just never got into this story... Sorry. It just didn't do it for me. The story, the art(which I think is more fitting for a flashback tale, not a story set in the present), nothing clicked for me. I mean it wasn't a horrible comic or anything, and I wouldn't begrudge anybody who did enjoy this issue/story, but unfortunately, I wasn't one of those people.

Huh, this comic was pretty much perfect... By the time I got to the end I was desperately looking for something, anything, that I could point at and say, "Nope, I didn't like this." However, I never found that thing. Great dialogue? Check. An inviting story? Check. Good art? Check. And the biggie for me since I'm such a huge fan of both, Cap and Hawkeye portrayed properly? Yep, that gets a check too. Not only that, but this comic actually felt more like a team-up book between two equals. It didn't feel like Hawkeye guest starring in Cap's book. Both characters have their strengths and weaknesses, and Cullen Bunn did a great job displaying those here. Seriously, I don't have a bad thing to say about this issue... Which means, for the SECOND time in ONE night...

I rarely say this about anything written by Ed Brubaker, especially a Captain America comic, but here it is... Meh. This was a very sub-par comic for me, as the lack of ANY mention of Bucky is actively beginning to piss me off now.

Ah, now this was WAY more like it! The story focused heavily on Cap's strange power losses, but it also featured Beast, Hawkeye and Falcon. If Bucky would have been here it would have been a who's who of some of my favorite Cap/Avengers characters! It seems more and more likely that Machinesmith may be the one behind Cap's power-losses, because his name is being mentioned a lot these past two issues. I'd like to think it's Machinesmith and the Squad working together, but I'm sure this will all come back as some sort of master plan for that Hydra Queen and Bravo. Speaking of which, the lack of Hydra Queen, Suddenly Evil Baron Zemo, as well as Bravo only appearing on three pages is probably another reason I enjoyed this one.

For me, the Sharon/Machinesmith battle stole the show here, plain and simple. The other stuff(with Cap and Iron Man, and with Falcon) was good, but I've always been a big fan of Machinesmith, and like Sharon, so their battle made this issue for me.

Well, I hate to say it but I saw that coming... I recall typing somewhere that I was hoping the Scourge didn't turn out to be somebody like D-Man, and sure enough, that's who it is... I've NEVER liked D-Man as a character. He does nothing for me. And now he has a kick-ass look and name. Eh, no sense harping on it I guess, it's already happened. I'll be honest, this issue was extremely good. To the point where I was actually pondering if it was perfect score material as I approached the end. And then the Scourge unmasked and REALLY hurt my enjoyment of this one. In the end, this was a great comic, but one that I think missed a golden opportunity to be a perfect comic...

Blah. That's my thoughts on this one. It's sad that Ed Brubaker's epic Cap run is ending with such a whimper, but that's what we're getting. But considering the fact that Brubaker's Cap run is my favorite run, by any writer, on any comic, from any company, ever, he definitely gets a pass from me on this one.

Awesome!!  That's really all I could think after putting this issue down.  It ticked all of the boxes I was hoping Remender would tick.  It gave us some development between Cap and Sharon, it brought back one of Cap's old foes(the HUGELY underused and under-appreciated Zola), gave us a great story, great art(sorry, I'm a huge JRJR mark), and a sweet cliffhanger.  So yeah, I loved this issue and am SO looking forward to seeing where Remender goes with this storyline.  Personally, I'm really hoping the baby Cap rescued grows into the new Bucky, because, why not?  Um yeah, I could keep heaping praise on this issue, but instead I'll just give it the inevitable perfect score and move on.

As usual, this was a strong comic.  Rick Remender can almost do no wrong here!  I love Cap's plight, I love Ian, and I love the whole setting of this comic.  My only complaint was the rather long flashback sequence, which was good and all, but I'd have preferred to remain in the present with Ian and Cap.  Anyway, this issue seems to be slowly bringing us to the end of this storyline, and I for one am REALLY intrigued to see how things shake out...  Will Ian become the next Bucky?  Will Ian even leave Dimension Z with Cap at all?  And what will happen when Cap comes face to face with Ian's twisted reflection, Jet Black?  Good stuff here, with more good stuff to come!

Damn is this comic good... Seriously, it's fantastic! This issue was no different. I couldn't wait to turn each page, hoping that Cap would manage to reach Ian before Zola's brainwashing took effect. Besides the story here, the characters are SO well thought out!

I enjoyed this comic, as usual.  However, it's been so long since I read issue #6, I didn't quite enjoy this story as much as I could have...  I didn't really remember everything that happened last issue...  That's what happens when you read like 200 comics a month!  Honestly, I probably should have read my review of issue #6 before I read this one, but that ship has sailed.  Still, I enjoyed this comic, and can't wait to see what happens when Cap realizes just who shot him.

So about those conflicted feelings... You see, I STILL profess that this mini-series should have had the Red Skull as the main villain... I mean Superia is okay and all, but it was a Captain America story bridging 5 different generations of Cap. How COULDN'T the Skull be the mastermind here!? Now with that said, Roger Stern did a great job with Superia as the main threat here. Granted, she is no Red Skull, but she played the villain's role well. Most importantly, this mini-series gave me what will probably be the final Bucky-as-Cap appearance we'll ever be graced with... That's really pretty sad... I mean even if Bucky were to come back(fingers crossed), it wouldn't be as Captain America, so this was it for him as Cap(except in flashbacks)... Taking everything into account, I did enjoy this issue and this mini, and so I'll give it a score of...

I have to say, I wasn't really enjoying this issue until the end, with the FDR reveal. That was VERY well done, and played into Cap's already established mythos where he was a huge backer of Pres. Roosevelt. Some of the stuff that happened earlier in this issue was kind of funny(Cap being surprised to see a female doctor, and his puzzlement at some of the terms he heard), but the story with the alien was just okay. All in all, I enjoyed this comic, and can't imagine those feelings will change as this mini rolls along.

As a total American history nut, this issue did an great job blending comic book history with Marvel history, a testament to Waid's awesome abilities as a writer. To say that I liked this comic was an understatement and a half.

This was a very strong first issue to this series, and I'll be waiting anxiously to find out what issue #2 has in store for us.

This was an exceptionally good issue, which really isn't much of a surprise considering who the writer is. Not only was story great, the dialogue was fantastic, especially Steve's inner monologue, and Bryan's art was beautiful.

All I have to say about this comic is bravo. It was well worth the wait. Ed hit all of the right notes here, the battles were fantastic and his mastery over all of the inter-personal relationships here was a thing of beauty. I really can't find fault with anything that was in this comic... Even as it wrapped up the Reborn storyline, it planted seeds for the future with whatever those weird visions Steve was having were all about. After reading this, even without reading the final issue of Flash Rebirth, I declare this mini-series the winner of the Cap Reborn/Flash Rebirth mini-series contest... Hands down. I think you know what score I'm going to give this one.

And the above average comic reading streak comes to an end at 8... This wasn't a horrible comic or anything, it just didn't hold my attention. It was just a bunch of loosely connected stuff. Oh look, CW's apartment blew up. Oh look, CW's in disguise beating some guy up for some reason. Oh look, CW's on top of Bats. Speaking of Bats, I could have done without a Batman appearance here. Having him show up this early in the series takes something away from Catwoman and her story. That's what I liked so much about the Nightwing series, it focused ONLY on Nightwing, not Bats or the other Bat-family members. I'll stick with this series for one more issue, but the clock has begun ticking...

This issue was really good. As a matter of fact, it was Daniel Way good! And that's about as high a compliment I can possibly give Williams.

Okay, I'll just come right out and say it. Taskmaster MADE this issue!! Absolutely, positively, 100% made it. He was hilarious, awesome, homicidal, everything Taskmaster SHOULD be. After reading this issue, I'd be all for a Rob Williams penned Taskmaster series, because Williams obviously knows that character well.

This issue was fast paced and pretty good. Naturally, I loved seeing the Runaways pop up here, as I was always a fan of that series and those characters. Roston possibly being an extended family member of one of the Pride is interesting, although it still doesn't explain his powers(which include invisibility, intangibility, shapeshifting, telepathy, and probably more)... I guess he could be related to Nico in some way, because a powerful sorcerer could probably manifest all of those powers, but other than that, I'm stymied as to who/what Roston is... However, for the first time in several issues, I'm actually looking forward to the next issue of this series, so that's definitely a huge positive.

So while I'm sad that I won't be reading about Daken one to two times a month anymore, I do think the character needed a bit of a break, and look forward to seeing Daken come back strong sometime soon.

here's still to many loose ends dangling for me to go higher then that, but I'm confident Brubaker is going to do his usual awesome job wrapping this story up.

I liked the story, but there were just too many plot holes to bump the score up any higher.

If you don't already read Ed's work on this comic, or have really never cared about Daredevil, believe me, you should give this comic a try! I was once a Daredevil hater too, but Ed has totally made me a fan of the character.

This comic is getting better with every issue as we roll towards the end of this storyline.

What an inspired storyline twist, one that I didn't see coming at all.

I kind of liked this comic... It wasn't great or anything, but I enjoyed the fact that all of the Daimyos are far from heroic(as it should be!), and that they all have copious amounts of blood on their hands. So DD is forced to defend Bakuto, who is a scumbag from an assassination attempt from the other three Daimyos, who are also scumbags! Oh what a tangled web DD is weaving... Next issue should have lots of ninja action, while DD tries to unravel who wants Bakuto dead, as well as figuring out what the other three Daimyos are after.

Eh. For whatever reason this comic just didn't do it for me. The Klaw story bored me and Matt's ultra-happy personality STILL disturbs me(he's more Peter Parker than Matt Murdock now). The law consultation plan actually seems like a good idea considering that Matt really can't work a case in court without the opposing lawyer constantly accusing him of being Daredevil. Besides that, I guess we'll learn down the road who the mystery person assisting Klaw was, so there's that to look forward to at least. Overall though, at least to me, this issue was a massive step back from the first two issues.

This was a pretty weird comic... Moloids robbing graves, Mole Man dancing with a corpse... Hell, I don't even NEED to list anything else! Just read that again... Mole Man was dancing with the corpse of a woman!!! That is BEYOND creepy!

I swear, this comic did not seem like a regular sized, $3 Marvel book... It almost seemed like two different stories, the Matt Murdock one in jail, and the DD one, with the criminal organizations. This is what a point one issue should be! A story heavy comic that basically fills newer readers in on who the main character is(Matt Murdock), what he does(fights crime as a lawyer and costumed hero), and what the main storyline is(the Omegadrive stuff). So while we didn't really cover any new ground for somebody like me, who has been following this series since the first issue, I'd think this was a great comic for newer fans to the series/character, and really, isn't that what these point one issue SHOULD be about.

This was a good comic. It wasn't great, and there was a warped part of me that was kind of disappointed that Mole Man actually had a reason for stealing that poor woman's corpse, but it was good. I still think the way to go with Mole Man was to just make him as creepy as possible, and have him pillaging graves and swiping bodies like a really sick freak. I mean hell, it's not like the 4 Mole Man fans out there will be that outraged about the change in Mole Man's character, plus it would actually give us(and the various heroes) a reason to really despise him. Eh, again, this was a good read, but not something I'll be talking about for weeks to come.

Okay, I have to admit, I liked this comic. It was mainly a story about Matt and Foggy in college, but it worked. I can honestly say I haven't read very many(if any...) "DD in college" stories, so this issue was a treat. Add the ending and you have a good comic here. That's not to say this issue was without flaws, because it wasn't. For example, why would DD decide to go out on a date when he has several crime organizations gunning for him due to his holding the Omega Drive? Why not just paint a nice big target on Kristen's back? They're villains! Of course they're going to go after DD's friends to get what they want! Besides that, DD asked Spidey to keep an eye on things during his date and yet Spidey just sort of vanished when that Spectre taunted Matt, claiming Spidey had been, "diverted"... Nice work there, Web-Head... Overall though, I did enjoy this issue and look forward to seeing how the DD/Omega-Drive story ends up.

Well that ending sure hits close to home...  This issue was extremely good, of which I'd expect no less.  Waid captured Spidey/Ock's dialogue SO well here, and actually made me laugh out loud a few times, especially when Spidey and Stilt-Man were using the same dialogue.  I'm glad somebody, in this case, Daredevil, called Spidey on his super-villain-ish dialogue!  Everybody in Superior Spidey seems oblivious to Peter's recent dialogue.  The dialogue was great, the story was good, this was a very solid issue with a strong cliffhanger.  What more could a DD fan like myself ask for?

This was a very strong comic.  As usual.  I really don't have any complaints here...  I guess I was a bit confused by the scene at the beginning of this one, since it turned out that the mystery man DID succeed in creating his own Daredevils(kind of).  But the stuff with Matt and Foggy?  The fight between DD and the DD-lites?  DD's thoughts throughout this issue?  All really good stuff.

Before I get into this issue, first a quick question... Why isn't this mini-series taking place in the Daredevil series as opposed to Black Panther taking over the Daredevil series? Answer: Who the hell knows?! This was a very entertaining comic book, and a great start to this mini-series. It shows us that the real Matt Murdock is back, not the crazed, Hand leading one. Matt simply wants to be left alone, and not deal with the whole super-hero deal anymore, but as is his life, the insanity seems to follow him wherever he goes. Can a depressed Daredevil take care of a bunch of dumb hicks who have taken over a New Mexico town? Um yeah, probably, but I'll enjoy seeing how things turn out regardless.

'm still optimistic here Brian, keep up the good work! As long as Brian can keep from f###ing up Noh-Varr too much, I think I might really enjoy this series.

Wow, I just gave a Brian Michael Bendis written comic book a 9 out of 10! I feel kind weird... I think I should lay down or something...

I can honestly state with no hesitation that this was my favorite BENDIS penned comic in at least three years. I'd say keep up the good work, but let's be serious, lightning isn't going to strike twice, and I'm positive that next month the DREAD LORD will have me tearing my hair out again.

If you like dozens of panels of Norman Osborn giving an interview, then this is the comic for you!

This x-over continues to entertain as well as leaving me eagerly anticipating the next part.

There really wasn't NEARLY enough new content in this comic to justify the $3.99 cover price, since most of this comic dealt with events that I've already seen play out in the Siege: The Cabal comic... Not only that, but man was BENDIS in one of his bad dialogue moods.

Okay, first things first, I am a HUGE sucker for dystopian alternate dimensional stories, so this storyline is right up my alley.  With that said, I'm not sure how many other comic fans this kind of book would appeal to...  I mean, there aren't any big name characters, and the characters who are here aren't even in the 616 Marvel U...  So yeah, while I liked this issue, and am enjoying this storyline, I worry that I may be alone there.  Anyway, I liked Strange's plan, setting Iron Man and Thing against each other, I like US Agent getting the use of his limbs back, hell, I liked most everything here.  This was a perfectly acceptable comic book, nothing more, nothing less.

Hot damn, that was frigging AWESOME!!! Just Noh-Varr being in this comic would have been enough to leave me very happy, but the addition of Fantomex was like a pleasure overload! Although I have to admit that I haven't really enjoyed any of Grant Morrison's DC work, his Marvel work is mind-blowingly good, so for this comic to feature two of Grant's Marvel creations(Fantomex and Noh-Varr), and for Jason Aaron to have done a splendid job with said characters, I couldn't be happier. This is one of those cases where I was expecting nothing before I read this one, and I turned out being VERY pleasantly surprised.

After saying all of that, I will state that I'll be picking up the next issue in order to find out what happens next. If this group had some minor tweaking done(change the team name and get rid of the big racist girl!!!)this could definitely be an interesting team.

Even though the story is still a bit all over the place, Paul is doing a great job with the character development. Almost all of the New Young Avengers have interesting little back stories developing.

There was a lot to like about this comic, but in particular, I was glad Daniel began to expand on Daken's "other" power. His phenomenal abilities. Since Daken's debut, the phenomenal abilities were always there, but they were kind of under-defined. This issue went a long way in establishing the extent of those abilities.

This is such a good comic! I love what Daniel and Marjorie are doing here. Daken with a few simple words and actions is managing to turn everybody against one another.

As usual I enjoyed this comic. I've never made a secret about my feelings towards Daken, and so far this series has been consistently good since Daken took over as the title character. So this issue, Daken leaks the footage of himself going on a rampage in an effort to further infuriate/discredit Osborn, he also sends Moonstone a book along with a flower as he continues to draw her closer to him and further from Osborn, all while continuing to push Osborn's buttons... That's what I like the most about this series, while Osborn may fancy himself in complete control of things, Daken seems to be the one playing the role of the puppeteer.

There were no real action scenes in this one, just a lot of talking between two of the more cerebral Marvel characters. It was kind of like a good chess match, some people probably won't get what was going on, while others will absolutely love what they read. For the record, I'm a member of the latter group.

I can honestly say that this was one of those rare comic books that I read with a huge smile on my face from start to finish. It was that good.

As always this was a good comic.

Considering this is only the second part of this mini, I'm VERY happy with the way things have gone thus far. Thank you Paul, keep up the good work!

So far, so good! One of my greatest fears upon hearing that Nate was getting brought back to life in this series was that the writer would completely butcher his character and that the Nate Grey I loved reading about a few years ago would be totally and irreparably different. Three issues in, I've got to say, Paul's portrayal of Nate has been right on the money!

There were only two ways this mini could have ended, considering how INSANELY powerful Nate is, Nate either gets captured by Osborn and put in the Omega Machine, or he "dies" again and returns to the astral plane as discorporated energy, because with Nate's power level, he wasn't going to be allowed to roam around the Marvel U. For me, being THE biggest Nate Grey fan anywhere, I'm OK with this ending.

If you are a fan of Deathstroke or even if you hate his guts, this comic is WELL worth a read.

I really enjoyed this one... Like a lot. Granted, my review for it was crap, but don't let that fool you, this was a great comic. I'm actually enjoying this entire storyline. It concludes in the Invincible Hulks Annual next month, and you can be SURE I'll be picking up a copy!

Eh, I guess this was a pretty good story... I'm just glad the Hit-Monkey story is over. I won't go into one of my anti-monkey rants, but yeah, at least this story is over... With that said, I'm looking forward to the next issue, which hopefully will be monkey-free!

God help me, but I LOVED this issue! Daniel Way(writer)was ON in this issue! DP's lines had me laughing out loud at times, and his refusal to call the vampires, "vampires" was hilarious. I could go on and on gushing about some of my favorite moments from this issue("Draculas dressed like mummies?"), but instead I'm just going to end this review by saying this: If you only read one vampire infested Deadpool comic this year, make it this one! You WON'T be disappointed!

Um, what the hell happened here?! I LOVED the first part of this storyline(I gave it a perfect score for crying out loud!), but this issue just didn't do it for me. At all... I was fine with DP staking the vampires, and I was even fine with DP having a priest bless the hospital reservoir, but seriously, when the hell did DP turn into Reed Richards?! DP defeating the remaining vampires with an MRI machine and a rigged x-ray machine? Really?! I mean come on, I love Pool as much as the next guy, but gimme a break! I'd be surprised if he could use a microwave, let alone transform an x-ray machine into a vampire-killing device... Oh well, I guess not every issue of Deadpool, can be perfect...

Meh. This was an okay comic, but it didn't really leave me feeling anything... It was kind of like chewing a piece of gum. Fine while the flavor was still there, but not something you'd remember once you spit it out, or in the case of this comic, finished it... Wow, what a weird comparison... Anyway, Deadpool's adventures in space were okay for the most part, but I'm definitely glad Pool is heading back to Earth, where he belongs.

What can I say? I liked this one. It was funny, the action scenes were well done, and the story is moving along logically(or at least logically for a Deadpool comic). So Pool has his dream in sight, being murdered by the Hulk, but with Hulk in full berserker mode, in the process of killing Pool, he'd probably kill several innocent children as well... So much for Wade's best laid plans! Next issue should have a VERY injured Pool now trying to calm down the Hulk to save the kids, even though doing so will ruin his best chance at dying and meeting the woman of his dreams, Death.

Meh. This comic was okay, but we didn't get any Deadpool on Evil Deadpool action, thus hurting my enjoyment of this one. Sure, Evil Deadpool and Deadpool are fun on their own, but together they are pure comic book gold! But sadly they were never together here. The story was solid, but the hilarity that had marked the previous few issues wasn't here, and as I've stated before, one of the main things I expect from a Deadpool comic is a few good laughs, which, to me at least, is the most important thing about an issue of Deadpool. Oh well, here's hoping we get the mammoth Evil Deadpool/Deadpool showdown next issue.

See, THIS is what I thought these Point One issues were supposed to do! Fill you in on what's been going on in a series if you happened to be a new reader. And this issue did a good job of that... Well, I personally could have done without the musical aspect of it, but I'm sure some people probably enjoyed this one way more than I did. Plus there was a Dr. Bong and Daken cameo, so that helped bump up my enjoyment of this one. As it was, there were a few parts here that got a chuckle out of, but for somebody like me, who knew all of the storylines Pool sang about, this comic was kind of unnecessary for me to read.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this comic book, but I can't help but think I should have enjoyed it more than I did... Something was just a bit off here... Oh well, I enjoyed the hell out of the first few parts of this issue, and am thoroughly looking forward to the next Deadpool storyline, so no real complaints from me.

Oh, and yes, I was kind of bummed that we didn't get the Deadpool/Daken battle I was anticipating here...

This issue was a blast to read... From Deadpool's lame attempt at shaving, to his hilarious zinger about the Hulk(and then wishing the Leader was there since it would have had a bigger impact), to just about everything here. This was a great issue. It was funny, there was a strong story, it had everything a great comic needs. After the ending of this one, I'll be interested to see what Pool does with himself after that humiliating defeat...

Okay, I kind of/sort of expect Taskmaster and Pool to be working together here, and that Pool asked Taskmaster to tell Kemp that he was leaving in order to draw Kemp and her cronies out in the open. However, I REALLY hope that Taskmaster has betrayed Pool again, because that would just be awesome on so many levels, especially since Taskmaster had just apologized for selling Pool out a few seconds earlier! Um, besides that, nothing really happened here... T-Ray and Slayback trained, and Deadpoollearnedthe art of forgiveness... This wasn't a terrible comic, and the last page(which I'll scan) gave me a legit laugh, but other than that, that was it.

 Yep, this was about as bad as I was fearing...  I means seriously, Deadpool vs the former presidents?  Who the hell thought THAT was a good idea?!  Basically this comic was terrible.  It didn't have a good story, but it was also missing the humor that a Deadpool comic so desperately needs, especially for when the story is lacking.  Comedy IS subjective, so hopefully there are some people out there who did enjoy this series.  I just wasn't one of them.  I really don't have anything good to say about this comic, so I think I should end this review here.  Before signing off though, I will say that this series looks to be the first Marvel Now! casualty from my pull list...  I'll give this title one more issue and then wait for a new writer(s) to take over the book.

I liked this comic, but didn't love it... There wasn't enough meat here for me. Sure, it's always fun when Slade goes on one of his patented killing sprees, but I can't say the story was advanced in any significant manner. So while this was a fun way to kill like 3 minutes, that's about all it was.

This comic was okay. It was a fun, brainless little romp, but that's kind of the problem... The first three issues were ALL fun, brainless little romps... Like I said, it's fun to see Deathstroke chopping idiots to pieces, but by the midpoint of the issue, you KNEW what fate was going to befall Legacy #2. Here's hoping things change up just a bit come the next issue, because I really don't know how I'll feel sitting through a FORTH issue of this series nearly identical to the first three issues.

I really liked this issue. It seems that I can simply turn my brain off when I read an issue of this series and just drift through all of the senseless violence without having to really think too hard about stuff. Every now and then, it's good to have a comic like that to just veg out on. Add finally finding out what was in the suitcase, and the fact that the contents actually could lead to something interesting, and I'm a happy camper. See, I don't ask for too much!

I'm still holding out hope for this series, because like I said, the story here could be great, but for me, this issue didn't start off on the right foot.

Well, this issue sure made my decision to drop this series easy! Sorry, but I'm not going to pay $4 for a series that I have zero interest in. Plus the next issue brings us Fat Cobra and the Immortal Weapons?! The only thing missing would have been an appearance by Our Lord and Savior Hope to really up the suck quotient! So yeah, this is officially the final issue of this series I'll be buying. But then, with the way this series has been falling down the sales charts, it may not be around much longer anyway.

Well, you can't say I didn't give this series a fair shot. Unfortunately, it just isn't the type of comic book I'd want to pay money to read. I know there's an audience for this sort of story/setting, but I'm not a member of that audience. I've always preferred stories set in the present or the future. The past? Not so much. With that said, I definitely won't be picking up the second issue of this series.

I LOVED the artwork during the flashback story! It looked exactly how you'd expect a flashback story to look, bright and cartoony. Granted the artwork for the main story was extremely well done too, but I'm a sucker for that old cartoonish style. The story was good, nothing groundbreaking or anything, but a solid read. Will I remember it a month from now? Probably not, but it was a completely inoffensive way to spend a few minutes.

I actually liked this story. Much like Batman: Dark Knight #1, it wasn't simply a smash-'em-up comic, it was a slightly more cerebral issue. It didn't contain a single super-villain, instead it dealt with Dick trying to infiltrate Mirror House, succeeding and then getting stuck in a trap. The Dealer seems like an interesting character, the story was solid, and I really had no complaints.

Okay, this comic was awesome seven ways to next Sunday. That summary I did for it up above? It doesn't even BEGIN to do this issue justice. This comic was a tough one to actually review because a) the story kept jumping back and forth from the present to the past. b) I'm REALLY tired right now, and c) I suck! But yeah, that crappy "review" notwithstanding, this comic was really, REALLY good. So my hat is off to Scott Snyder, who has written the best Commissioner Gordon since... well, since Ed Brubaker. And a comparison to Brubaker is just about the highest praise I can possibly give a writer.

Come on, how am I supposed to take a villain named The Dollmaker serious!? That right there handicaps the poor guy, because that name sucks! "Call me the Dollmaker!!!" It just doesn't work. Besides the unfortunately named villain, the story fell flat for me. We get Bruce talking business, sleeping with a reporter, going to Arkham, talking to Gordon and then losing to a parade of freaks. The fight with the freaks was okay, but the rest was kind of boring. As for Gordon, I'm going to guess that the guy we saw at the end of this one wasn't Gordon, but was some poor sap dressed in Gordon's clothes, because really, the Dollmaker would have had to move at super-speed to have done all that work to Gordon in such short order.

If you follow the Black Panther series, then I'd guess this is a must read, if not, then I'd recommend skipping it entirely, which is exactly what I'll be doing.

What the HELL was THAT?! Seriously, I have NO idea what I just read! I thought this was an AvX tie-in, but after reading it, it obviously isn't... So does that mean the New Mutants won't be taking part in the AvX festivities? Because that kind of sucks... As for the story here, I've got nothin'. I think/guess Sigurd was attacked by the Desir back in the day, and he's taking his revenge on them... But yeah, this story was a) all over the place and b) not very good. This was a huge disappointment...

I was half hoping that this would have been a jumping on point for new(or in my case, returning)fans, but this was most definitely NOT a jumping on point. It was more like a "jumping into the deep end of the pool and trying to learn how to swim" point. I just didn't understand a good 75% of what was happening here. Hopefully before the next issue I can get my hands on some back issues or trades, because I was just in over my head here, which led to me just not enjoying this comic as much as I think I could have. Oh well, maybe next issue will make a bit more sense then this one did.

Whew! This was the embodiment of a set-up issue, ladies and gentlemen! Jonathan Hickman is lining up all of his pieces in preparation for next issue's climatic(double-size!)issue.

I've got to admit, I was a bit misty-eyed after finishing this issue, which is a sure sign of a VERY well-written comic.

Not bad.  This was an interesting start to this series, with a story(the FF could be dying due to molecular decay) that should hold my attention.  And as a plus, it was clearly written and not at all confusing, which is what caused me to drop the FF books when Jonathan Hickman was the writer.  So kudos to Matt Fraction for a strong start.  Honestly, with Reed holding this HUGE secret from the team, Sue knowing something was off and Franklin having a bad premonition, the next few issues should be a blast, especially when Reed's secret inevitably comes to light.

Meh.  That, in a word, sums up my feelings for this issue.  Much like Ultimate X-Men before it, this is a series that just isn't doing it for me...  It's okay and all, but there's no one character here that I'm a fan of...  I can't stand the two kids, and the other four are just plain boring.  There's nobody for them to interact with, its just the Four, and nobody else.  And that is already starting to get tiresome for me.

Nothing really memorable happened here, and for a huge event issue, I kind of expected to read something that would have me frothing at the mouth anticipating the next issue. While I'm excited to see where things go next issue, I have to admit, my excitement for this event has diminished slightly after reading this one.

Woooooo, THIS is how you do an event comic!

Bottom line, this was a great comic that fell apart towards the end and turned into a really good comic instead.

The first 4/5's of this comic was quite good. The mood was perfect for the situation(somber) and all of the characters acted in the manner I'd expect them to. I liked Odin leaving to play brother's keeper for the rest of eternity, and I'm intrigued to see how things turn out in Asgard with Freyja and the other goddesses serving as the leaders. So everything is moving along smoothly, and then the Tanarus thing happens...

So wait, the hammer Deadpool gave to the Walrus really WAS magic?! Huh... This was what you'd call a perfectly acceptable comic. It wasn't great, it wasn't horrible, it just was. It had a few funny moments, but it wasn't as funny as the main Deadpool comic, so for a score, I'll go with a nice, average number...

I'm not exactly sure what to say about this comic... Dracula came across as a real moron... How the hell did he survive for so many years? Seriously, how could he possibly think confronting THE HULK and dropping a net on him was a wise strategy? Raizo had the right idea. I mean hell, EVERYBODY knew that you couldn't defeat the Hulk with brute force, so he tried a different tactic, attacking the Hulk's emotions. I have to admit though, the Hulk being free of the Serpent's influence should make Fear Itself #7 that much more interesting when it comes out. All in all this was an okay little mini-series, but it's not something I'd go out of my way to recommend or anything.

Well, if this comic would have ended after like the first 6 pages, I'd have given it a perfect score, because the beginning, with Attuma battering a... dare I say, frightened Namor was fantastic. Unfortunately, this issue didn't end after that battle... Now, I don't have anything against Dr. Strange, but Loa annoys the hell out of me, and I can't really stand anybody in the Hulk family, which is why Lyra's appearance really hurt my enjoyment of this one. Honestly, if there were two characters I enjoyed more in Loa and Lyra's places, this comic would probably be around the 9 range score-wise. Unfortunately that's not the case, which means the score looks more like this...

Meh. I have to say, not all that much happened in this issue... I mean the issue began with the Defenders battling demonic sea creatures and ended the exact same way... I guess we learned that the Undying Ones were somehow involved, but I can't really say that I care all that much. There wasn't anything wrong or actively offensive going on in this issue, but in the grand scheme of things, it seemed like a wasted issue. If I skipped this issue and went right to issue #3, I doubt I'd even realize I missed anything.

You can probably tell from that review that this wasn't my favorite comic... In all fairness though, this wasn't a bad comic. It just veered a bit off-road with the whole, "Undying Ones making an alliance with Attuma's goons" storyline. Attuma has been kicking everybody's ass, from Speedball(okay, bad example), to Alpha Flight(um, another bad example I guess...), why does he need "lieutenants", and why the hell did those lieutenants need demonic powers? For me it was the lack of Attuma that bugged me the most here. Next issue should be an all-out battle between the kind of/sort of Defenders and Attuma, and if it turns out to be that straightforward, I'll be a very happy camper!

Well, I wasn't fond of the first three issues of this mini(they were okay I guess...), but this issue was a fun little romp. I really don't have anything bad to say... I mean this issue wasn't a masterpiece or anything, but it was a satisfying read, and really, what more can I ask for?

You know, much like everything I've read thus far today, I really enjoyed this comic book... That doesn't happen very often! The story here is simple. On one side you have Valkyrie, who doesn't want to see Asgardian weapons lead to anymore widespread destruction on Earth. On the other side you have Cap, who is still hurting over the death of his best friend/protg Bucky, unwilling to trust the "gods" to watch over these weapons. And then of course you have that damned Sin who is looking to regain her lost powers by gathering the Serpent's hammers. So you have an easy to follow story, good artwork and solid dialogue. There's not much more I could ask for here... The next issue comes out in two weeks and it should go without saying that I'm already looking forward to it.

This was probably my favorite issue of this "mini"-series. Although, to be honest, this "mini"(sorry, but I hate the term maxi-series) has been surprisingly good from the start. Sure, the last issue was a bit lackluster, but the first two were pretty strong. Considering this series is little more than an obvious money grab by Marvel as they try to squeeze every last penny out of the Fear Itself event, I have to say, I've been very happy with the quality here. Here's hoping that continues for the next 8(!) issues.

I can't say I liked this one much at all... The issues prior to this one were actually pretty good, but this particular issue just didn't do it for me. Between the stupid battle strategies, Valeria popping up to save the day(as usual...), and Sin powering up a giant robot, this one failed for me... Hopefully next issue we get back on track again.

This was a middling comic book that was saved by it's fantastic ending. I mean before that last scene, this issue was probably around a 5 1/2 or a 6 for a score. But Daimon and that cliffhanger definitely pulled this comic up to a more respectable score. So could this issue have been better? Yeah, the Valkyrie parts, while giving us insight as to her motivation and why she's so hellbent on collecting the hammers were necessary, but they just bored me... I will say this, Wolverine vs Crossbones, in a small room for one of the Serpent's hammers is worth the price of the next issue right there, anything else will simply be icing on the cake.

Okay... Why the HELL is Daimon Hellstrom STILL evil?!? See, that right there? That fact? That ruined this comic for me. As I was reading thorough this one I kept thinking to myself, "When is Daimon going to reveal his REAL plan? When is he going to betray Sin to the heroes?" And you know what? He never DID betray Sin to the heroes! So in Journey Into Mystery, he's uber-good. Here? He'd STILL teaming up with Crossbones and Sin, two of the scuzziest scumbags in the Marvel Universe. In that regard, this was a very disappointing end to a series that started out with some real promise. See, I can't even talk about anything else that happened here because of the Daimon thing... That really sucks.

God help me, I LOVED the GLA story! It was legitimately funny! I literally had a smile on my face for the entire story. Everything else in the comic was crap to me, but THAT story single handedly saved this issue from what would have almost definitely been a 1 or less for a score. Since I only read two stories here(and no, I don't consider a one page feature to be a story), I'll base my score on the average of those two stories... I'll give the Speedball story a 1, and the GLA story a 10(I TOLD you I liked it!), bringing the overall score of this issue to a...

The two stories that I read were very, VERY sugary... But that's not necessarily a bad thing, is it? Call me a sentimental sap if you will, but seeing Miriam Sharpe and Speedball make peace and seeing that bald dude leave the safety of the school shelter to head back out to stand by Cap's side put a smile on my face... Yeah, yeah, I know, both stories were uber-sappy, but what do ya want, I brought it hook line and sinker. Anyway, I'd rather sappy to sucky any day, so this issue was a major improvement over last issue's debacle, and really, what more could I ask for?

Okay, so there really wasn't a STRONG Fear Itself connection in this issue, but Rob Williams did use the Fear events to advance this story, which is a good thing. Sure, we didn't get X-Force vs any of the Serpent's Worthy, but at least the events in this issue occurred BECAUSE of the events of Fear Itself. As for this issue, it was good. I have to admit, I enjoyed it. You had crazy bigots, X-Force killing said bigots, and the head bigot acting like a loony religious fanatic! All in all, good stuff!

I was really enjoying this comic right up until the ending, which I obviously didn't get.

To say that I regret spending money on these three issues is an understatement...

All in all, Hardball being alive, as well as a good story make for a very happy X.

Well, this was WAY better than the other crap I've read tonight!  This was a good little issue.  There was nothing overly fancy about it, we learned about older Johnny, we get Darla back on the team, and Scott decides to end Doom.  That last part, Scott deciding to go after Doom, is the main reason I picked this series up.  After Doom killed Scott's daughter, Stature, in Children's Crusade, I've been eagerly anticipating Scott's eventual meeting with Doom.  This issue brought us a step closer to said meeting.  So while nothing huge happened here, we did lay the foundation for future stories(get it? "foundation" "future"??), and got solid writing and good art.  And really?  That's good enough for me.

I'm ever so slowly starting to see the story come together, but I'm still kind of foggy on the finer points of this story. I am confident that by the next issue and surely by the 7th issue, I'll have a full understanding of Final Crisis as a whole... Maybe!

In time, depending on what happens to Batman, the score for this comic may wind up being higher, or much lower. But as it is right now, not knowing what the future holds, this comic was nearly perfect.

This comic book was a horrible ending to a mediocre at best crossover. While Final Crisis had it's high points and it's good moments, I'll remember it as being as bad, if not worse than Secret Invasion, and that's saying something. I kind of get the feeling that Grant was writing this comic for a group of maybe 10 people, while the rest of us are just left shrugging our shoulders saying, "What the hell did I just read?".

This story was pretty good, if a bit confusing to a novice Green Lantern reader. I am interested in picking up the next issue of Green Lantern to see what happens next, so if that was the purpose of putting the misleading Final Crisis banner on this comic, then they tricked me good!

It was a tad slow at times, but it really caused me to care about the Martian Manhunter, who I'd never given much thought to before.

Don't promote a series as containing the last of something, and then have a million of the last something show up soon there after. The other thing that disturbed me, was since when did Snapper Carr become a teleporter? I guess I missed something somewhere, because when he was with Young Justice, all he could do was annoy people by snapping his fingers incessantly. These weird gaps in logic really hurt this comic for me.

Like I said, this issue just didn't dazzle me like the previous ones did. I'll always hold this mini in very high regard(it brought back Kid Flash and Superboy!)though.

Anyway, this comic was completely inoffensive and told an alright story, so I don't have any major gripes about it.

This was a pretty sad comic... After reading this comic, I'm now beginning to wonder exactly what direction DC and series writer Alan Burnett are going.

I really enjoyed this issue... I mean like a lot. A good story, good art, strong dialogue and a major threat makes for a happy X. Sure, the ending could have been better(it ends with Wally exclaiming in his head, "His finger!"), but 21 good pages and 1 strange one is a damn fine ratio in my eyes. I'll definitely be looking forward to reading issue #4 to see how Wally ends up stopping something electronic based like Kilg%re.

Overall, this was a good comic. Wally was, as usual, great, and the addition of Cyborg was logical for the story and was enjoyable. You know Wally fooling around with the married woman(who happens to be like 12 years older than he is) is going to lead to some trouble down the road, possibly as soon as the next issue, as the woman tells Wally at the end of this issue that she needed to settle things with her estranged hubby. So while I was disappointed by how easily Kilg%re was dispatched, I am looking forward to the next couple of issues.

What can I say? I'm enjoying this series. Yes, the ending was insanely over the top, what with the fuel depot exploding(!), but I'm still enjoying watching Wally act relatively irresponsible for a superhero.

This was a pretty good comic. It wasn't as much fun as the prior issue was, but it was a pretty good read nonetheless. Sure, the next issue should be odd, what with Wally heading to Siberia to kidnap(?) a Soviet scientist so he could save Jerry, who IS a rival for the attentions of the woman he loves, but that's Wally for you. Anyway, this was another good, solid issue of this series and the ending has me mildly interested in the next issue.

To be honest, I'm eagerly anticipating the end of this mini-series and the beginning of the new Flash comic book, which I'm hoping will be a little bit better then this mini has been.

I can't say I didn't like this story, but I really didn't enjoy it either. It was just sort of there.

This review may have been rushed and a tad sarcastic(just a tad), but don't let that fool you, I actually enjoyed this issue! Not only was the physical battle between Sam and Jester enjoyable, the war of words they were having made the fight that much better. It's weird, the first 5 or 6 issues of this series didn't impress me in the least(and had the Ray not been a part of the team, I probably would have dropped the series early on), but these last 2 or 3 issues have been really good! The pacing has been brisk the past two issues(I guess due to the impending cancellation), but for this series, a quick pace really seems to work. Although the speed at which the Jester lost was a bit annoying...

Well that was an odd way to end a series... It didn't really wrap anything up... Sure, the Freedom Fighters themselves have been officially disbanded, but with Bomb being basically abducted by Trumont, this seemed more like a continuation of a story then a definitive ending. As it was, I really had no complaints with this issue, although like I said, the ending was a bit odd. I guess I'll be waiting until DC inevitably launches yet another Freedom Fighters series to see what happens next...

Gah, this sucked. And hard. Well, it would be bad form to drop a series that I JUST put back on my pull list, so I'll give this series at least one more issue(probably two knowing myself), but good god was this awful. Granted, it wasn't Avengers #19 terrible, but it was close. Now, while I detest almost every character in this one, I will say that Zero and Transonic have some potential. Hey, check me out, I just said something kind of nice about this series! I think I'll end this post there, since I'm sure everything else I type will be very negative.

What do you want me to say? I despise the idea of a female Ghost Rider. We already had TWO perfectly fine Ghost Riders in Johnny Blaze, or the WAY superior Danny Ketch. Was this a bad comic book? No, not at all. As a matter of fact, I enjoyed the main story a lot, although I didn't get the origin story in the least... But seriously, what is Marvel's obsession with taking established male characters and turning them female?

This comic wasn't that bad. Rob Williams did a good job of laying out the story, as well as giving us the motivations of the two major players(Mephisto and Adam). Johnny wasn't written as some sort of brain-dead hick this time around(thank god...), and the art was solid. However, I'm still not sold on the new Ghost Rider.

Um, was this the last issue or something? Weird... I mean by the end of this issue, there was only one Siren left standing, Catwoman... I mean I like CW and all, but I liked the dynamic of Cats, Harley and Ivy together... Ah well. As usual, this was an above average read. My only complaint would be how swift the Joker/Harley-Batman/Catwoman showdown was. I mean we were building up to this big tag team main event, and it's all over over the course of a few short pages. I personally could have went for an entire issue of Bats and Cats battling the demented duo all throughout Arkham, but alas, it was not to be. If this was the last issue of this series, I'll definitely miss it, if not, then cool, I'll be reading issue #25 next month!

This was another comic where I have no serious complaints. The story was logical, the pacing was good, the art was good, everything came together nicely. I mean it wasn't perfect or anything, but it does have me looking forward to the next issue, which means it did it's job well.

If anyone is on the fence about picking this comic up, save your money, it had NOTHING to do with the upcoming "Battle for the Cowl" storyline.

I'm pretty much in shock here after reading this one... I mean what the HELL was JT Krul thinking?!? This was ALL kinds of bad. I don't even know where to begin. I KNOW Krul can write better stuff than THIS, so I'm gonna say that his hands were tied by editorial, which is what led to this... Man, it seems like anything even remotely connected to Brightest Day somehow manages to gain some of Brightest Day's sucktitude... I'll end this review by simply saying this: this was the last Green Arrow comic on my subscription, and after this issue, there's NO way in hell I'll be putting this on my pull list... So long, Ollie. It's been fun.

This was the last issue of this series written by Judd Winick. I can honestly say that I am going to miss Judd's steady hand in this comic book. Judd is a great writer, and I hope whoever takes up the writing duties for this book can keep up Judd's great work.

For the first time in a while, I'm actually looking forward to the next issue of this series. Good job Andrew!

Honestly, with the exception of the characters acting in ways they shouldn't, this wasn't a terrible comic book. Personally though, I can't ignore the weak way Dinah is being written... That really annoys me.

Anyway, back to this comic book. For a score, I'll go with an 8 1/2 out of 10, which is by far the best score I've given any comic in this series for quite some time. Hopefully Andrew can keep up the good work over the next couple of issues.

What the hell was this??? This comic was pretty terrible, from cover to cover. The dialogue was awful, the story was nonsensical(why was Dinah running from the cops with Cupid?

What can I really say? I guess I can respect the fact that Andrew is at least trying to explain Cupid's actions, fighting ability, etc, but it's like every issue we discover yet another far-fetched thing about Cupid's past. Last issue we find out she was a black ops soldier. This issue she's a crazed super-soldier. What's next, we discover she's the long lost love child of an alternate version of Superman and Wonder Woman? Eh, that's going to have to do it for my anti-Cupid rant this month, I still have a few other comics to get through.

I have to say, I'm enjoying Hal's interaction with that annoying Blue ring. Hal wishing for world peace and the ring scolding him for being insincere was pretty funny. My one problem with the Hal/Blue ring story is that I find it very hard to believe Hal doesn't hope for anything. There must be something Hal hopes for... The return of dead teammates, the love of Carol, safety for his brother's family, there HAS to be something, doesn't there?

As for this issue, it was exactly what I'd expect from a Geoff Johns penned comic, a very good read. I personally would have preferred a little less flashback stuff and more current events, but besides that, I really have no complaints. So now Hal seems to have lost his arm... I can't wait to see how he remedies this situation!

I'm going to have a tough time waiting for Blackest Night #1 to arrive after reading this comic... I want to read Blackest Night #1 now!!!

The fact that I find myself caring about these other Corps tells me that Geoff Johns has done a splendid job on this series for the past 4 years now. Not only do I have an emotional investment in Hal and Sinestro and their respective Corps, but more and more I find myself truly caring about the rest of the Corps running around in the DCU. As usual, this was a great comic that I'd highly recommend.

I liked the Sinestro/Hal/Carol parts and was intrigued by the Ganthet/Atrocitus/Guy Gardner parts, so I guess I'd say there was more good then bad in this one, although I can see that things are going to be a big mess until Brightest Day is over.

GL Corps might not be as flat out awesome as GL is, but it is a consistently well written comic book, and that's really all I ask for as a comic book fan.

After reading this comic book, I'm practically salivating with anticipation for the next issue, which should be a direct lead-in to the upcoming DC mega-event "Blackest Night". If you're a fan of DC Comics and have ANY interest at all in Blackest Night, you HAVE to give this comic a shot.

Don't get me wrong, this was a very good comic. Probably better than like 85% of the stuff I'll wind up reading all month. However this issue was a bit of a step back from the 10's I've been giving this series in recent months. With all that said though, I'd still recommend this issue highly.

That comic was simply amazing. I'm going to start off by giving MAJOR props to Patrick Gleason and the entire art team, because this was one of the best art jobs I can recall seeing in a comic book in quite some time. The pencils, the inkwork and the colors were completely flawless.

I liked it. Tony seems to have a definitive idea of where he's going with this series, and I for one am glad to see Guy Gardner replaced for John Stewart.

Anyway, this comic was all right, although I was a bit bummed by Cyborg Superman's defeat. It seemed a bit too easy for my tastes. So far as I know, he can effortlessly dominate any form of robotic life, so I was a bit perplexed as to how Boodikka was able to fight him off when he attempted to enslave her body. Besides Cyborg Superman's loss though, this comic was a prime example of a perfectly acceptable comic book. It wasn't great, but it wasn't awful either. It was a fine way to kill a few minutes.

Besides Ganthet's projectile vomiting, I really didn't have any problems with this issue. The story is moving along nicely, the Weaponer is being built up as a huge menace(he beat the GL Honor Guard PLUS a Guardian!), and the cliffhanger has me interested in checking out the next issue. Granted, there were a few little things that bugged me here(what exactly was the Weaponer planning on doing with the Lanterns he defeated? Why not just kill them?), but all in all, good stuff, as usual with this series.

Before Sinestro's no-selling antics, this was a pretty good comic. But after that? My enjoyment of this story whittled away to almost nothing. Please let Sinestro get just a little beat up by somebody other than Hal "The only Green Lantern that matters" Jordan next issue... That's all I ask. If Sinestro at least gets knocked down next issue I'll bump the score up an extra 1/2 no matter what I thought of the rest of it.

This was a good comic all the way through, but the last page revelation that Guy intends on killing Sodam definitely added to its final score for me. That was a very interesting little touch, which should make next issue's events on Daxam VERY interesting. Besides that, no real complaints here. Although things are a bit slow right now I'm expecting the story to really pick up first on Daxam, and especially in the Unknown Sectors.

As a fan of both Tony Bedard's writing and Kyle Rayner, this comic was a bit of a treat for me. Yes, I am a bit pissed that the color corps still exists in the new DCU, but I've come to terms with the fact that in the eyes of DC, Chairman Johns can do no wrong, and as such all of his ideas, even the terrible ones, are golden. Negativity aside, this was a good comic, one that I don't intend on dropping anytime soon.

This wasn't a very bad comic... In all honesty, it doesn't deserve to be scored with Brightest Day Rules, but a promise is a promise, so onward we go. Right off the bat +5 for a good story, +5 for good art and +10 for no Larfleeze! So we're rolling right off the bat!

I liked this issue. It was a good, strong, solid start. There was some mystery, like who/what those creatures were and why Grifter seemed to get powers from them, and the eventual confrontation between Grifter and his brother should be heated(you'd think). I definitely won't be dropping this one yet.

Woo, this comic was ALL over the place!! I don't blame the writer, Nathan Edmondson, at all though. He was forced to wrap up ALL of his stories in this one issue, which made for a VERY jarring experience.

I LOVE this comic book. All I can do is implore anybody who reads this post to go out and buy issues of this series. By far, this is one of the superior titles Marvel is publishing monthly. PLEASE, yes I'm willing to beg, PLEASE buy this comic book.

Everyone is entitled to a bad issue here and there, and this was definitely not the best work I've read from Dan and Andy. But, once again, let me temper that criticism by saying that I LOVE the way Dan and Andy continue to implement obscure characters/events from the 1990's. I grew up reading Marvel comics in the 90's, and I'm particularly fond of the lesser known characters of the 90's. Darkhawk, Quasar, Jack Flag, even Nova, Adam Warlock and Gamora, I loved reading about those characters growing up then, and I love that Dan and Andy are keeping these characters alive and flourishing today.

As far as x-over issues go, this was a good one, but once again, my problem here was that I'm ready for the x-over stuff to end so the Guardians can get on with their own stories.

Wow, this new Bendis?  I love him!!  I really can't find much to fault about this comic...  It flowed beautifully, we met Peter's folks, got a taste of what kind of a kid he was, and learned why he hated the Badoon, all while setting up this series.  I mean yeah, this was nearly perfect!  If I was to nitpick, I'd complain about how wordy Meredith was with J'Son, but that's Bendis's style of writing, and to be honest, he wasn't nearly as wordy as he usually is.  Yeah, good story, dialogue, set-up, art, I have nothing bad to say here!

Um, this comic just didn't do it for me... I mean it was okay, but it wasn't great. But it WAS a Hawkeye comic, so that makes anything better. Sure, I don't know why the likes ofKingpinand Hammerhead would be dumb enough to go to a show being put on by the Circus of CRIME, nor do I get why the Circus would want to make enemies with KINGPIN, of all people, but whatever I guess. I was definitely happy to see Kate pop up here and become Clint's partner, because I AM a huge Young Avengers fan, but this issue was strangely lacking for me. I can't really put my finger on it, but there was something missing here for me... But hey, it IS Hawkeye, so that's still a huge boost, regardless of the story.

First things first, the art in this issue was way better than the art from the first three issues, which is a GREAT thing.

 Yep, I loved this issue.  Hell, I loved this entire storyline!  Add the fact that Hawkeye DIDN'T actually kill the terrorist(which would have gone counter to his character), but dangled himself out there as bait to protect the identities of the Navy Seals who did, and you have the recipe for a wonderful comic.  I'm not sure what else to say...  I have nothing bad to say about this comic...  Only good...  Um, buy and read Hawkeye!  There, that should do it for this post!