If you thought last week was big, think again!! This week featured new issues of Secret Invasion, Avengers/Invaders and Ultimate Origins, just to name a few!

Also, we’ve been invited to a special screening of The Incredible Hulk, so we will have a full review, plus and interview with Sam Sarkar, author of the great new book Caliber from Radical Comics.

It’s The Watchtower, missing it is like missing the Ice Cream with your Apple Pie!

SECRET INVASION #3 ( OF 8 )
Secret Invasion barrels along in this action-packed issue. What can I say? I thought the Super-Skrull/Young Avengers fight was fantastic, the re-emergence of Nick Fury picked up exactly where we last left him. The “death” of The Vision was executed perfectly, and I’m left wondering if the Marvel U is ever going to be the same again after the reveal that Spider-Woman hit us with. That’s the sign of how great this book is, that in an era of “Event” comics that have continuity and universes almost changing with the seasons, I’m still drawn in as a reader. Great book, can’t wait for #4!

ULTIMATE ORIGINS #1 (OF 5)
From what I understand, this book will tell the Origin of the Ultimate Universe, and then Ultimatum will bring about it’s destruction. I’d like to say I cared either way. This book was really, really dry, and I was not excited by it at all. The story flowed exactly as I figured it would, with zero surprises. The reveal that Nick Fury is some kind of super-soldier himself just made me more bored with the character. This could have been a flashback story in another Ultimate title and been just as effective. That said, who know’s where we’ll be by the end of it all. I have a lot of faith in Bendis, so I’ll see it through to a hopefully more exciting conclusion.

AVENGERS INVADERS #2 (OF 12)
The second installment of Alex Ross and Jim Krueger’s epic tale was a little slower than the first, but still a great read. Iron Man’s team captures the Invaders, and Luke Cage’s New Avengers gear up to go rescue them. We see shades of the man Bucky will become as he tries to escape, and get a little more insight into The Human Torch, which is good because I don’t know if the average comic reader knows that much about him. This story is supposed to be taking place in-continuity, so it will be interesting to see what happens once the ramifications start crossing over into other books.

DARK TOWER LONG ROAD HOME #4 (OF 5)
The Penultimate chapter in this story started off with bangs, literally, as gunfights erupt, healers emerge, and Roland’s spirit comes face to face with the Crimson King. This book is doing a really great job of filling in the blanks left in King’s story. Now that we know some of Roland’s motivations are, I can’t wait until our Gunslingers set off to find the Dark Tower. I’m already gearing up for the next series, as well as the finale of this one. I love how the Dark Tower mythos is being handled by Marvel.

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #15
Drew Goddard’s “controversial” Buffy storyline ends with this issue, and it was an action-packed one. We had vampire battles, Mecha-Dawn’s, and in the end, a couple of pretty touching scenes. I know that sexuality played into this story a lot (and did so again on the last page) but for me, the sexual stuff was never an issue. Take all that out, and what you have is a great story with lots of action and typical Buffy-esque witty dialog, mixed with some very emotional moments. Next up, Whedon brings his future-slayer, Fray, into the mix. This is still one of the most solid books around, and I can’t wait to see how it plays out next!

TRINITY #1
So the newest weekly series from DC starts off with a crowd-pleasing, exciting and dynamic… breakfast meeting? About a dream? And Batman refers to Superman as “buddy?” Either Kurt Busiek is looking to completely redefine Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman or he has no idea who these people are. I didn’t see any reason for this less-than interesting exchange to take place in a highly public place (a lakeside coffee shop) under the guise of Secret Identities. Also, there was a page long discussion about the secret identities, and what it’s like to have them. You’d think that was something that these guys had probably talked about before, and we didn’t need to see them chatting about it as if they had just discovered them. And that’s just the first half of the book. The second half was so boring that I found myself skimming most of it. Maybe I’ll get to it in The Catch-Up. Y’know, if nothing else is going on.

SUPERGIRL #30
I’ve always rooted for the underdog that is Supergirl, even when the book was lagging. This month’s issue brings with it a new creative team, who tries hard to breathe new life into the book, but sadly they miss the mark. This book deals with issues that should have been dealt with 20 issues ago, and does nothing to develop who Kara Zor-El is, and what her place is on Earth. Supergirl needs to be the main character in her own series, not constantly looking for vindication and answers from other heroes. Let’s get her fighting some villains, establishing herself, and making an impact on the DCU, instead of moping around like an X-Man.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #561
I think that the cheesy “classic” Spidey feel of Brand New Day has hit it’s apex with me. This issue wasn’t a bad story, but to bring back Mary Jane, then have her walk right back out the very next issue was pretty silly. If you are going to make a move like that, at least make it last a couple of issues. The constant references to how she and Spider-Man were a great team in “another life” seemed almost like a deliberate stab at those who spoke out against the Brand New Day changes to Spidey’s world. I still love the Paperdoll villain, so hopefully we’ll see more of her. The rest of it though, I can take or leave.

INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #2
This surprisingly good series continues to pick up the pace. There are bigger explosions, more devious villains, and an inevitable turn in the Tony/Pepper relationship. Fraction continues to impress me with how he manages to make Pepper Potts such an intriguing character. The funny thing about this book is that Fraction seems to have a better handle on the “movie” versions of Iron Man and Co, than does Jon Favreau in his tiresome “Viva Las Vegas” series. Hopefully when the time comes for a sequel, they will look to “Invincible Iron Man” for the characterization. In the meantime, this book adequately fills the void left in my pullbox since The Order ended.

PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL #20
OK, so this title has been working it’s way lower and lower in my list over the past few issues, but it’s all turned around now. Jigsaw has enlisted The Hand to take down the Punisher, and in typical Hand fashion, they want to bring him back as well. That concept is pretty intriguing to me, and makes me want to give the book a 3-issue reprieve, so I can see how this all turns out!

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #16
After the events of last issue, Gog has come! And with him he brings… great joy? This story continues to be really intriguing as the newly arrived Gog sets off to make the world “good again.” Given what we know about Magog from Kingdom Come, something isn’t in line here, and I am very anxious to find out what. I still can’t figure out why we need to dip into the Kingdom Come universe so much for this story to work, but fortunately, my initial reservations have been met with solid writing, great art, and a mystery that I want to solve.

WOLVERINE: DANGEROUS GAMES
This one-shot features two Wolverine stories. One is set in a bayou where Logan becomes the hunted prey, and the other set in Thailand where Wolverine has to avenge the kidnapping of some monks. Both of these stories are predictable, and for the most part passable. There is also an Ultimate Origins preview that makes no sense, seeing how Ultimate Origins came out the same week as this book. If you REALLY like Wolverine, you’ll enjoy this, but for most of us, it’s a pass.

Related posts

• The Checklist - Week of June 2nd (0)
• The Starting Gun - Secret Invasion #1 (1)
• New Dark Reign Trailer From Marvel (0)
• The Watchtower Extras - Secret Invasion! (3)
• Future-Casting: Secret Invasion #1 (0)

Tags: Avengers, Batman, Buffy, Hulk, Marvel, Secret Invasion, The Watchtower

This entry was posted on Monday, June 9th, 2008 at 12:07 am and is filed under Reviews, The Checklist. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.