Event Fatigue Comic Book Reviews - 1/20

Hello readers of Event Fatigue. Sorry that I haven’t had any reviews up in the last few weeks, but I’ve been away from the comic world since the beginning of the New Year. That said, I have three weeks worth of reviews coming your way. I am, however making a change to my reviews. My biggest gripe with the comic book industry is the $3.99 price tag for monthly books. My way of addressing this problem will be to get rid of my 1-10 scale of rating a book will from now on state the price of the book and whether or not the book was worth the money or not. Now then on to the reviews.


Siege #1 $3.99: The Siege event is the culmination of seven years of plotting by Brian Michael Bendis. Everything has been leading to this. Until the next event book comes out and we find out that the last eight years of plotting have finally led us to this moment. And then the next event book will come out and everything will have led to that. And on and on this cycle will continue. I remember reading Secret Invasion and all the hype leading up to that claiming that ‘All will be revealed’. Those statements of everything being revealed have to be false if everything was leading up to Siege.

The thing is, I like Siege. The art is beautiful and the battle really does feel epic. I’m just really tired of the event hype that goes with EVERY book that comes out. Three phrases I want eliminated from the comic book industry hype machine for at least a couple of years; This issue, someone dies!, Everything has been leading to this!, Character’s Universe will NEVER be the same!. Ares speech is great and his presence on Norman’s side leads to great moments. First, he rides to Asgard on the nose of a fighter jet. Also, his banter with the Warriors Three show that they have a shared mythology and that one page of interaction between them fleshes out the story. Unfortunately, this issue has some problems. Firstly, the U Foes and the Iron Patriot take down Thor? Did I miss something? When did Thor become the Sentry? Why is Cap wearing his uniform? He gave up the shield in that one shot that came out before the actual resurrection mini series wrapped up. And why does Don Blake’s turtleneck have the number one on it like it’s a sports jersey? I’m going to stick around and see how the rest of Siege goes, but this issued failed.

Verdict: Save your money.

A side note, if I may. How come the president in this issue is all of a sudden washed over in shadow? Every time the “Bush” president showed up in comics you could always make out that it was him either through the way he spoke or the likeness depicted in the books. Now all of a sudden “Obama” is defied by Osborn and you never get an actual glimpse of him. Come of comic book industry, don’t be biased. Am I alone in noticing this?

Ultimate Spider-Man #6 $3.99: This book stays to true to the mission of the Ultimate line. When the Ultimate books began, Marvel touted this new line as being true to the character but modernized with its own unique spin on the character. Both Spider-Man and Peter Parkers lives are exciting. I find myself wanting to know what’s going to happen in both of their lives. Spider-Man is battling a very determined Mysterio and Peter Parker is dealing with his home becoming a foster home for super powered youths. Included in this brood is the famous Johnny Storm a.k.a the Human Torch, the adolescent Bobby Drake a.k.a Iceman, ex girlfriend/team up partner Kitty Pride a.k.a Shadowcat, and current girlfriend clone Gwen Stacy. Add on top of that cast, Mary Jane, who is trying to get back in Peter’s good graces and the very strong interpretation of Aunt May. This is a great book.

Verdict: Worth ten times that!

Dark Wolverine #82 $2.99: Even though this series has become a tie in for the Siege event, this book stays true to its voice, which is make Daken the polar opposite of his father. Daken continues to play his mind games, effectively moving his teammates to do his biding. My only real problem in this issue was how easily some of the asgardians fell in battle. I thought they were gods. Why then are they getting massacred by bone claws and laser beams? I would have loved the last couple of pages of this book and the shocking events that occur, but the last page reminded me that the Fates of Asgard are watching these events unfold in a magic orb, which means what we’re seeing is not really happening. Too bad. Would have been interesting.

Verdict: Worth the cover price.

Green Lantern Corps #44 $2.99: Obviously this book is a Blackest Night tie in. Blackest Night has been hit or miss with me. Sometimes I find that what I’m reading is very silly, even for comic books and sometimes the DC event moves into a very emotional realm. Guy Gardner’s journey is one of the bright spots of this event. Guy, the macho green gunslinger, loses (for a total of three minutes) his best friend. Consumed with rage, he becomes a Red Lantern, while at the same time maintaining his Green Lantern ring. This development really builds a character that sometimes just becomes a jock/chauvinist with a couple of one-liners. However, the issue has a few faults. Once Guy is confronted with the newly resurrected Kyle, what does he do? He attacks him. That makes zero sense. I understand that Guy would want to keep being a Red Lantern, but the whole reason he is angry is because Kyle died. Now he is trying to kill him? Dumb. Also, Mogo kills a legion of Black Lanterns with, wait for it…soil. Lame. However, I like the art and this series has been doing a good job of giving other members of the corps time to shine.

Verdict: Worth the cover price.

Punisher Max #3 $3.99: Just call it Kingpin Max, because the Punisher is an afterthought. And that is a good thing. This is the origin story the Kingpin deserves. There is a reason the Kingpin is feared and this is the book that shows you why you don’t mess with the king of crime. If there ever was a book deserving of the explicit content label, this is the book. If you have a week stomach or believe comics are too violent, this is not the book for you. Aside from the violence, nudity, and crude language, this book has been doing an unbelievable job of creating deft character choices for the kingpin. How he earns his alliance with the Russians in particular is a brilliant bit of writing. The only thing about this book that stinks is that it doesn’t come out every week.

Verdict: Worth every penny.

Blackest Night The Flash #2 $2.99: I wish Johns and Kolins would come out with a Rogues book. Don’t get me wrong, I love when these two work on the Flash together. But when this creative duo gets a hold of the Rogues, everyone gets a chance to shine. The living Rogues come face to face with the Black Lantern Rogues. Meanwhile, Hope Lanterns Flash and Walker do battle with the speedster Black Lanterns. Now the creator of this web site loves the Blue Lanterns. I do not. I just don’t understand how they are effective in any way. That said, Johns somehow makes them work in this issue. All of the rogues get there little moments in battle, but Captain Cold steals this issue. He proves how cold he can be and earns another moniker: Captain Badass.

Verdict: If you like Blackest Night, buy this book!

Spider-Man Secret Wars #1 & 2 $2.99: I hardly ever buy the all ages books but I love the original Secret Wars. That story ranks in the top ten stories ever told in comics. The premise of this series is to look at Secret Wars with Spider-Man as the narrator. I was jazzed when I heard about this book. But then I read it. No longer am I jazzed. The book is not bad; it’s just not what I wanted. Instead of depicting moments that occurred in the actual Secret Wars, it’s more off panel happenings in Secret Wars. The art is good and the stories are not bad, I was just expecting something else.

Verdict: Save your money.

Uncanny X-Men #520 $2.99: Fraction has been a roll with this book. He is juggling multiple plot points as if each plot was the most important of the story. He is really giving unique voices to all the characters he writes. Most importantly, this book seems to be going somewhere and the journey to that destination has been a lot of fun. Not a whole lot of action, but a great task force has been assembled and Fantomex shows up. On top of all that goodness, Greg Land has hit his stride with the X-Men.

Verdict: Worth it.

Secret Six #17 $2.99: Though this book handled it’s Blackest Night tie in status pretty well, I was not my usual self after reading a Secret Six book. The reason this book wasn’t a homerun is because you enter this story in the middle and Simone does not do a good enough job catching up the reader. I was so lost, I went online to see if I’d missed an earlier issue and it turns out I hadn’t. The book just dropped you in the middle of a war zone. The character work is still great in this issue. Every member of the six gets a moment, even the newest member. I am a big fan of J.Calariore and hope he is on the book for a long run.

Verdict: Worth it, but just barely.

Cable #22 $2.99: Ok. I’m officially bored with this book. Because no matter what happens, every month this book is essentially the same thing. Hope and Cable wind up somewhere, Bishop arrives, Bishop is about to kill Hope, somehow he doesn’t, Hope and and Cable think they’ve gotten away from Bishop; Bishop is on the trail again. Every week. The setting changes. The weapons may change too. But the same thing keeps happening. The art recently has been sloppy. This used to be a must read for me and now I dread when its part of my pull list. Sad.

Verdict: Sadly, keep your money.

Invincible Iron Man #22 $2.99: I am enjoying this storyline. The art is great. The supporting cast is getting a chance to shine. And yet, this issue felt like a let down. I get tired of Stark’s fever dreams really quickly. And what happened to Ghost in this issue? He’s an incredibly formidable villain and he just runs away. Doesn’t make sense. I really enjoyed Dr. Strange in this issue. Glad to have the good doctor back. P.S what happened to Dr. Strange after he left in New Avengers? Did I miss something?

Verdict: Worth the price of admission.

Captain America # 602: Refuse to read it until Captain America Reborn finishes. Cover Price: $ 3.99.

Verdict: I don’t know yet.

Wolverine Weapon X #9 $3.99: They should really slap an explicit content on this cover. No surprise it’s written by Jason Aaron, the same man who is writing Punisher Max. Aaron has been doing great things with his take on Wolverine. The Insane in the Brain arc has proven that the way to still fight Wolverine is messing with his mind. I love that a new female love interest has been introduced to Logan’s life. Because we all know Wolverine+ girl= dead girl. And I like to see the emotionally spent Wolverine. Readers haven’t seen that Wolverine in a couple of years.

Verdict: Worth the money.

Transformers #3 $3.99: Before the New Year, I wrote that my favorite book of 2009 was All Hail Megatron because it was a great war comic book. After all that what the Transformers root is, civil war. This book however stinks. And that pains me to say that because I love anything transformers. This book is all talk. Strike one. Strike two is all the talk that comes from the Autobots is emo and monotonous. Strike three is the worst offence of all, a truce between autobots and decepticons. Complete with a decepticon giving an autobot a double thumbs up. Just an awful book from start to finish.

Verdict: Absolutely not worth your money.