Archive for the ‘The Initiative’ Category
Or – “I Decided To Trick Or Treat With My Kid Instead… Sorry.”
The MUSIC MEEEISSSSTERRRR! Sing the song that the world wants to heeeear! Man, I’ve had that stuck in my head for WEEKS, now. This particular RFR was meant to go up last week, just in time for the annual festival of half-price chocolate, but various things conspired to keep me from completing it until today. For those of you who can’t get enough comic review goodness, I’ve got the cowbell to slake your fever, and it’s time to ask ourselves, baby, what’s the word? In the words of the great philosopher Aloysius Bundy: “Let’s ROCK.”
8 Comments »
Or – “Hey, Vent! You Ready To Move Out?”
When you read monthly comic books the way that I do, often times you get to the point where you feel like you know what’s coming, when every title feels like you’ve read it before. On the other hand, you have the odd experience where you read a title or issues that you KNOW you’ve read before, but you cannot for the life of you remember how it’s supposed to end. With over a hundred monthly titles coming out, sometimes you need to play catchup, you need to go where everybody knows your name to the land of the Rapid Fire Revieeeeewwww!
12 Comments »
Or – “Most People Don’t Know That His Full Name Is Manuel Labór.”
So, I have completed my daily labors, overseeing the dozen fellers and gals what make up the current workgroup to call themselves Team RamRod (”See, you’re Arkot Ramathorn… Ram. And I’m Rodney Farva… Rod. Team RamRod!”) and I am preparing to have some spaghetti and hang out with friends, but first I wanted to catch up with some of the many titles that I’ve neglected over the busy last days of August…
RAPID-FIRE REVIEW TIME!
6 Comments »
Or – “Sir, I Protest! I Am NOT A Merry Man!!!”
Once again, we’ve come to the situation where Stately Spoilers Manor contains far more comics than there are days to review ‘em, leading once again unto the Final Frontier… NUQNEH – NOOKNEHH! Phasers on summarize!
11 Comments »
Or – “Cut Me Some Slack, I Been Working For A Promotion…”
My day gig is a study in many things… Management theories. Inappropriate dress. The mating habits of the Bisexuals Of The Plains. But one thing that it is not, and has never been, is uncomplicated. Thus, I have come to you, our Faithful Spoilerites, with another batch of mini-reviews, just like a Chili’s mini-burger entree only less likely to make your @$$ look like a truck. (Also, be aware that I just barely decided not to do this one in limerick form, in honor o’ th’ wearin’ o’ the green…)
3 Comments »
Or – “The Answer To The Question We’ve All Been Asking…”
Since the return of the heroes duplicated by Skrulls, my particular corner of comics fandom has been asking the question: Could this be Marvel’s way of writing the spousal abuse out of the backstory of one of their founding Avengers? The answer comes this issue, along with some other surprises, and at least one moment of pure shock, and a wonderful moment for an old supporting character that pushes her towards top-tier status… Whattaya waiting for? Click and let’s get goin’!
Or – “The Avengers Title That Actually Features An Avenger.”
I guess one of the biggest surprises about Secret Invasion is how well Marvel has held to their crossover guns, making sure that the story in the main title is (essentially) self-contained, and the crossover issues are designed to heighten that story, and add depth and background. This is all well and good, but it has had the effect of turning New and Mighty Avengers into “Skrullapalooza Flashback Theatre.” Since the first few issues of the mini (released over a period of several months) have taken place in the space of half a day, we’re stalling for time across the M.U. as the characters catch up to themselves and where they were at the beginning of Secret Invasion #1 at last summer… But, lo and behold, here comes Avengers: The Initiative with not only a story set in the more or less current time, but a story with forward momentum and some nice character bits, and one that actually shows us what’s going on at home while Spider-Man and company cavort about the Savage Land…
Or – “THE 3-D MAAAAAN!”
The Marvel Universe has a lot of dark corners, filled with characters that somebody thought were awesome at one time, but have become somewhat embarassing in retrospect. The Texas Twister. The Collective Man. Hammer and Anvil. Deathlok Mark II. But my favorite heroes are the ones with no chance of being considered mainstream cool, guys like The Mimic, It the Living Colossus, and the breakout star of the Initiative. With a costume so ugly that Crazy Quilt isn’t sure about it, The 3-D Man’s only real moment of glory came against the alien Skrulls back in the ’50s. With the You-Know-Whos invading secretly, this may be the 3-D Man’s chance to prove himself once again relevant and awesome. If you’re smirking to yourself right now, you may want to remember this: until a couple of years ago, my list of lovable, unsalable losers included both Nova and Star-Lord…
Or – “Ballistic: Stark Vs. Rhodes.
One of the mysteries of Avengers: The Initiative so far is how a hero like War Machine, with a history of fighting AGAINST human rights violations and disliking Tony Stark’s manipulative side, ever got involved with a para-military superhuman strike force in the first place. An answer or two is forthcoming in this issue, which also features a graduation, a resignation, and Iron Man not being the world’s biggest tool. But the bigger question is: WHO IS THE NEW 3-D MAN???
Or – “It’s Too Bad That The New Warriors Don’t Have Their Own Book… Wait, What?”
With all things Skrullapalooza breaking loose in the Marvel Universe, it’s sometimes hard to remember that OTHER storylines are in media res. The threads of disaster that were set up in the very first issue of this book have finally woven together into an indian couch blanket of lies, deceit, death, and payback, and like most couch blankets, it’s rough, unattractive, and something stinks. Get your scorecards ready and prepare to check off characters who get squished, stabbed, and lit on fire, folks, because this battle is gonna get bowling-shoe ugly.
Or – “Here’s The Story… Of A Man Named Hardball!”
With Ann B. Davis as Cloud 9! Of the eleven characters on this cover nonyptic (I don’t think that’s really a word, but I couldn’t think of another way to describe a tryptic with 9 squares) one is about to buy the farm, to shuffle off this mortal coil, to ring down the curtain and join the bleedin’ choir invisibule… I’m not necessarily taking bets or anything, but three of these guys have a healing factor, two have whiskers on their masks, and one is an angry clown. Place your bets, spins the wheel and takes ya chances!
Or – “Let The Merciless Beatings Commence…”
It’s no secret that I haven’t been the biggest fan of Gauntlet thus far. He’s been, frankly, a cartoon, a parody of every ‘tough D.I.’ we’ve seen in every form of media thus far, borrowing liberally from Lou Gossett in ‘An Officer And A Gentleman’ and R. Lee Ermey’s prototypical Gunnery Sgt. Hartman in ‘Full Metal Jacket.’ He’s utilized the deaths of innocents (and I count Namorita, Microbe, and Thrash in that number) to manipulate his charges, and has played lip service to caring about his recruits while allowing half a dozen of them to get beaten nearly to death by the frickin’ Hulk. It’s obvious that the beating was pre-ordained to get us to see his side of the story, to get past the facade of soldier cliches and show the man inside the big metal hand. Let’s see how it works out…
Or – “So, We’ve Had This Program For All Of Ten Minutes And It’s Already Being Abused.”
It’s fascinating to me that no one in Tony Stark’s SHIELD has apparently the slightest inkling of what’s going on in Stamford with this supposedly military outfit. With all the time and energy that Iron Man has expended in trying to control every single aspect of superhuman life, I can’t believe that he wouldn’t AT LEAST debrief his ‘best friend’ Jim Rhodes on the things that happen in this camp. Of course, the presence of a freakin’ Nazi doesn’t do me much in the way of giving them the benefit of the doubt, and of course, there’s also the Nazi’s pet scientist Baron Von Blitzschlag. (See what I did there?) Henry Peter Gyrich has a long history of not trusting the capes as well as general asshattery, and both traditions are in full-force this issue… Read the rest of this entry »
Or – “Would It Be Unprofessional To Announce That This Issue Is My Last?”
I often worry about the fine line between criticism and opinion, between “I don’t like it” and “I don’t get it.” Certainly, there’s no 100% reliable way to remove the subjectivity from my recaps, and I’ll always have my preferences and peccadilloes, but when a book comes out that obviously SOMEBODY thinks was a great idea, I wonder if it’s just me. The first issue of The Order left me cold, focusing on a character who is supposed to be a hero, but frankly comes across as a guy who got lucky because Tony Stark owed him a favor. Same goes for field leader Pepper Potts, and the whole “seven strangers who find out what happens when people stop being polite and start juggling tanks” conceit was more compelling several years ago when Image did it in “Wildguard.” The second issue is here, and for the first time in a while, my response to a comic was so virulent that I’m about THIS CLOSE to ignoring my usual “six months to get good” rule of thumb…
Or – “I’m Not Sure How I Feel About The Overall Effect Of This Series…”
Alpha Flight, as an entity, has had a difficult run. The original series wasn’t really effective when they were doing standard-issue superheroics, but didn’t quite gel when they went another direction. The second run was marred (in my opinion) by trying to turn it into an X-Men riff, and the third series’ tongue-in-cheek tone didn’t seem to go over with the readers, leading to the team being fed to a villain to up the ante for the New Avengers. Given the fact that most of their members were eviscerated in that story, I expected a return to drama this time around. What I DIDN’T expect, given the solicitations, was the experimental nature of the plot and characters…
Loading ...