Remender

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Doctor Voodoo 4

Posted by John Klein III on October 7, 2016
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Doctor Voodoo 4

Writer Rick Remender

Artists Jefte Palo & Alessandro Vitti

Colorist Jean-Francois Beaulieu

Letterer Dave Lanphear

Cover Dated March 2010

If you are like me, you may not know much about Doctor Voodoo.  Here is what the caption states :

He has many names.  Lord of the Loa.  He-Who-Has-Died-Twice.  Houngan Supreme.  Now the Eye of Agamotto has chosen Jericho Drumm to protect the Earth from the forces of darkness, and given him his greatest title : Sorcerer Supreme.  He is … Doctor Voodoo, Avenger of the Supernatural.

I own this issue and issue five is on my wishlist.  I was going to scan the Magik appearances in the issue, but she’s on nearly every other page and I want to keep scans to when I bought a comic just for one page or two pages.  I’m also not sure what the rule is about just pasting pages upon pages from a comic, so I try to limit myself to two to three, max.  As a typical rule.  Though I see Bendis over at his Tumblr, posting half of comics before – but he’s Bendis, so I imagine its okay when he does it.

Inside front cover is an ad for Ultimate X, I own the first issue, that was pretty good.

In the previous issues, Nightmare is slowly taking over Earth.  The last place on Earth that is safe is Latveria.  Doctor Doom and Doctor Voodoo are trying to correct that.

I still wish that Bendis in the New Avengers arc that determined who would be Doctor Strange’s replacement (as he was hurt and needed to recover) had chosen Magik but Bendis does love him some 70s heroes so it makes sense he would go with Brother Voodoo.  Shame that only four years later, Voodoo is missing again from monthly titles.  This was in New Avengers 51 through 54, Search for the Sorcerer Supreme.  I don’t own issue 52 but the other three, Magik does show up in.  We will get around to reviewing those eventually.

So Nightmare has taken over most of the magic based heroes, including Magik.  They are searching for Doctor Voodoo, actually they are searching for the Orb of Agamotto and the Book of Vishanti, but Voodoo knows where they are.  If they knew it was with Doom, they would probably just let it go.

We get a nice flashback to Voodoo’s origins, his family didn’t like how he was more modern than they were with their beliefs.  We learn that his brother is a spirit and is trying to help Voodoo save the day, as well.

The Hounfour – Nightmare’s base.  Magik is telling Nightmare about what they have learn, they know they have to go to Doom.  Heroes are living their worst nightmares.  Punisher is being haunted by his family.  Hulk’s father is berating him.  Cyclops is being tormented by both Jean and Emma.

Doctor Voodoo’s plan is to get Nightmare to come to Loa, where the gods of Voodoo live (from what I can tell).  Once Nightmare gets there, he will be a physical opponent and can be defeated.

Nightmare and his army of heroes get to Latveria and Doctors Doom and Voodoo (though Voodoo is not a doctor, as far as I can tell) are ready for them!

For this issue and the previous three, they have been publishing the origin of Doctor Voodoo, I checked comicbookdb but it doesn’t state what section of a comic this is.  I can confirm it isn’t his first appearance, Strange Tales 169 as the creative team is all wrong.

 

Uncanny Avengers Volume One Issue 2

Posted by John Klein III on May 20, 2015
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Uncanny Avengers 2

Writer Rick Remender

Artist John Cassaday

Colorist Laura Martin

Letterer Chris Eliopoulos

I like the idea of just lifting the creative team behind the hit Astonishing X-Men opening run and just switching out the writer.  One would think Marvel would be bringing the art team to more titles.

I own this for the Kitty Pryde page later in the issue.  Before that moment, this happened :

Wolverine is back from Tibet, where he tried to meditate.  It didn’t work.  He’s still missing Xavier.  Human / Mutant relations couldn’t be worst.

Last issue, Avalanche went insane and destroyed a portion of Manhattan.  Then he killed himself.  The Uncanny Avengers are helping police and fire crews with the survivors.  Spider-Man is there as he is everywhere.  Wolverine sniffs and he can’t find anymore people under the debris.

Wolverine tells Captain America that Avalanche was no longer a villain, this doesn’t add up.  Thor has decided he will no longer stand silent in regards to the human / mutant war.

Cap tells Wolverine that Havok will lead this, Unity Squad.  A man hugs Havok for saving his life.

There is a double page ad for Amazing Spider-Man 700.

There is a man giving a press conference.  Whoever watches it, sees their ideal type of leader.  All he wants the humans to do is kill mutants.  So they start doing it.  The man works for Red Skull, and his name is Honest John.

Rogue is being held prisoner.  She wonders where Wanda is.  I sort of like how Remender recalls their relationship.  Rouge knows Wanda is a complete nut job but she’s her boyfriend’s daughter, so she has to look out for her.  A mutant turtle (but not a ninja) and a lady made of water arrive to talk to Rogue.  The mutant turtle, Mzee, offers Rogue a sandwich made up of butter of peanuts and crushed fruit preserves.  I sort of adore this guy, already.  The water lady is Avalanche’s daughter.

Somehow, Rogue drinking from a glass and spitting it on someone is enough to count as ‘touching’ as this is what she does to the water lady, absorbing her powers.  Apparently Gambit and her play bondage drinking games.  Those two are kinky!

Rogue realizes that they don’t need her, they just want the Witch.

Red Skull wakes up Wanda, calling her – Jew, gypsy and a mutant, yet so beautiful.  It doesn’t get more back handed than that.  Red Skull has half of Xavier’s brain, thus he has telepathic powers – I’m not sure if that’s how mutant powers work but I guess it does as I just read that is how it works.  Red Skull refers to Rogue as Wanda’s father’s whore.  That’s pretty harsh!  Red Skull also mentions how he knew Magneto has a young boy but couldn’t do anything about it as he had to be the best Nazi that he could be.

Red Skull walks Wanda around his School for Gifted Humans – everyone had schools in 2013.  We get a nifty one page origin recap for Red Skull.  Pretty handy for newer fans as I believe Red Skull hadn’t been seen in a while.  Essentially, Red Skull wants Wanda to pick up where she left off before and be like Michael Phelps and finish a race off.

Poor Wanda, first she undoes the mutant race before Quicksilver told her to do it, now the Red Skull wants her to do it and later, the Apocalypse Twins will want her to do it as well.  Talk about destroying a character.

Avalanche’s daughter’s hero name is, Dancing Water.  Red Skull is informed that Rogue is on the run and he has to go deal with that.  Once he is gone, Rogue appears behind Wanda, ready to kill her.  She heard everything.  She has a little of Wanda’s powers now.

Wanda knocks a hole in the ground, Rogue falls down it.  Wanda follows.  Then they see it.

Uncanny Avengers 2 Kitty 1

Xavier’s dead body . . . minus one brain.  Rogue has a quick flashback to Xavier being kind to her, from Uncanny X-Men 171 (the non-Paul Smith drawn issue of the run).  Nice to see Kitty, drawn by Cassaday again.

Xavier never looked so young before!

Rogue decides to kill Red Skull as the issue ends with him entering the room.  Behind him is his S-Men!

I’ve looked into Mzee’s history.

http://comicbookdb.com/character_chron.php?ID=69449

He only has ten appearances, most of them in Uncanny Avengers – 1, 2, 3, 4, 23, 24 and 25 where he dies.  He also appears in Captain America (2013) 23 and Magneto 9 & 10.  I don’t recall him in issue four but that’s on me.

 

AXIS 4

Posted by John Klein III on February 26, 2015
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AXIS 4

Writer Rick Remender

Penciler Leinil Francis Yu

Inkers Gerry Alanguilan and Lienil Francis Yu

Colorist Edgar Delgado

Letterer Chris Eliopoulos

Book Two : Inversion – Chapter One

Kitty made the cast list, so we know we are in for a good time!

AXIS 4 Cast List

SHIELD Helicarrier Iliad.  Above the Atlantic.  Is it really a good idea to name the Helicarriers, with how often they crash?

FalCap and Hulk are meeting with Fury Jr. and Maria Hill.  Fury Jr. keeps saying things that implies that he’s been doing this for years or decades, instead of the year he really has been doing it.

The Stark Sentinels have been dismantled.  The Red Skull camps have been torn down.  Fury refers to the events of the previous three issues as – World War Hate.

Hill wants the Red Skull handed over to SHIELD, as they have a special containment facility built specially for him.  Which seems like a waste of expenses, as long as it is a SHIELD prison, Red Skull should be able to break out of it within a month.

FalCap is acting way crazier and more confident, just because he has the title of “Captain America” people are treating him differently and it is going to his head.  I know he is under the Inversion spell, so he has that excuse but he was acting like the top boss in the first issue and that was prior to the spell.  Honestly, just because he got a temporary promotion, I don’t get how or why the characters around him are tooting his horn so much.

Hill states that no one has seen Stark in days.

Hulk is a simpleton here, which seems odd as I know in his own title, he is suppose to be a genius, or at least, able to form proper sentences.  FalCap shuts down what he has to say and goes as far as to tell Hulk that he didn’t ask for his opinion.

As FalCap is leaving, he punches Fury Jr. to his silly face.  He calls Scarlet Witch so she can schedule an Avengers meeting but to leave Steve Rogers out of it.

Bushwick, Brooklyn.  A street level villain, the Squid, has a family hostage as outside, the police are not helping matters.  Just then, Carnage breaks through the window and subdues the criminal and his gang, the Tentacles.  Pretty clever.  Carnage leaves a note behind, calling himself Friendly Neighborhood Carnage.  Spider-Man isn’t thrilled to see that note but he is impressed that Carnage didn’t kill anyone nor take their money.

San Francisco, Giants Stadium.  Iron Man appears at a game.  Iron Man offers his Extremis App to those in attendance.  The app turns your inner beauty to your outer beauty, so you don’t have to live with any more imperfections.  He tells them that the app is free and it is already in their phones, so they only have to activate it.  Those who will use it will be more attractive and never age.  Matt Murdock is at the game.  This is essentially setting up the opening issues of Superior Iron Man, guest starring Daredevil.  Pretty cool to have two heroes calling San Francisco, their home.

This section ends with Tony drinking alcohol.

AXIS 4 Kitty small

Jean Grey School for Higher Learning.  Storm is presenting a speech.  Kitty is on the stage, second from the right.  We’ll see a better angle of her on the next page.  She is standing between Rogue and Colossus.  This wouldn’t be a bad roster – Sunspot / Jean Grey / Storm / Havok / Nightcrawler / Rogue / Shadowcat / Colossus.  It would be a pretty old school team but that’s an A-List roster!  I guess it would be Uncanny Avengers plus Excalibur with Storm and Jean thrown in there.

Storm is tired of all of the humans trying to kill them, this latest attempt will be their last.

Oya whispers that she thought Quire defeated Red Skull, as he clearly told her that.

Storm references how the humans created these camps and are responsible for other bad events that have effected mutant kind.  Xavier is gone and Wolverine is dead.  A mutant controlled by a cosmic being killed Xavier and Wolverine foolishly open up a vat of adamantium and allowed it to spill all over himself.  Sure a human pressed the button to start the adamantium pumping into the vat, but Wolverine could have diffused the situation a number of ways.

AXIS 4 Kitty 2 bigger

Why are Kitty’s hands as if she is being arrested?  Colossus appears to be doing the boy version of that.

Storm is going on about no more mutant on mutant fights.  I guess the Schism is officially over now.  It only took three years.

Not only that, but Storm is talking about out right attacking the humans.

Havok, whose face is messed up (when did that happened as it appears find in issue three) takes the mic.  Xavier’s dream is no longer the X-Men philosophy.

The new philosophy?  Apocalypse’s Survival of the Fittest.  Apocalypse is the new leader of the X-Men!  He stands with Storm, Havok and Cyclops, so this is for real.

FalCap is not happy that the X-Men are forming an army.  At the Avengers meeting is – Wasp, Hulk, Scarlet Witch, Medusa, Luke Cage and Boy Thor.

Wasp doesn’t want to fight the X-Men, she still remembers the time she and Havok were married and had a daughter.  Boy Thor wants a battle and they know the X-Men are coming for Red Skull who may be a shell for Xavier.  Luke Cage also doesn’t want a fight, he wasn’t on Genosha, so he isn’t affected by the Inversion spell.  Medusa was there, so she is glad to be free of Inhumans and feeling responsible for them as their Queen.

To prevent the X-Men getting Red Skull, FalCap suggests they just kill Red Skull.  All but Hulk doesn’t want to go through with it.  Their big plan is to present Red Skull to the X-Men and kill them while they are distracted – which I bet would work.

Jarvis is the only thing standing between the Avengers and Red Skull.  Scarlet Witch hits him with a force spell, knocking him to his feet.  Hulk is concern for Jarvis and helps him back up.  Now the Hulk is blocking the Avengers from the Red Skull.  Cage punches Hulk to the ground and Boy Thor threatens that Hulk will be buried next to Red Skull, which makes Hulk sad.

AXIS 4 Kluh

The Hulk is Bruce Banner’s Rage and Kluh is Hulk’s rage – which is a thing, apparently.  Kluh is hulK backwards, get it?  Pretty clever.

Kluh wants to fight and kill.  Kluh refers to Hulk as ‘Doc Green’ who is suppose to be a version of Hulk with Bruce’s mind.  Kluh charges out of a wall and into the general public.

Issue ends with the Avengers discovering that Red Skull has escaped.

There is an ad for Superior Iron Man, Tony gone bad.  Just like Superior Spider-Man, it is a whole new branding situation.

Other titles that came out around this time – AXIS Revolutions 2 / AXIS Hobgoblin 2 / AXIS Carnage 2 / Deadpool 37 / All New X-Factor 16 / Magneto 12 / Wolverine and the X-Men 12 / Nova 23 & 24 / Avengers World 15 / Captain America & The Mighty Avengers 1 & 2 / Superior Iron Man 1 & 2 / Loki : Agent of Asgard 8

None of which I bought.  The next issue of AXIS I own is issue seven.

 

AXIS 3

Posted by John Klein III on January 18, 2015
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AXIS 3

Writer Rick Remender

Penciler Leinil Francis Yu

Inker Gerry Alanguilan

Colorists Matt Milla, Laura Martin & Edgar Delgado

Letterer Chris Eliopoulus

Book One : Red Supremacy – Chapter Three

Okay, this one took a lot of work to figure out if I needed to keep this one.  Marvel Database stated Kitty was in this issue but comicbookdb stated she didn’t.  I looked and looked and couldn’t see her.  Then my pal, Kaiolino, pointed out where she was on the final page and now I see where she is on the page. Right between Havok and Apocalypse.

All this after I had my dear amigo, a0040pc, delete her off of the Marvel Database.  I readded her, as it was my fault and misunderstanding.  It was quite the day.

So before all of that happens, these events occurred :

So the heroes failed.  Leaving Magneto to create a new Brotherhood – Jack O’Lantern, Doctor Doom, Loki, Mystique, Deadpool, Sabretooth and Enchrantress.  Those made the cover but these folks are also in the group – Carnage, Hobgoblin and Absorbing Man.  Which is a bit awkward as Carnage and Hobgoblin got side miniseries.

Remender writes all the villains with bantering amongst each other, which I like.  I wouldn’t mind him having a go on a Super Villain Team-Up title.

The issue actually opens with Deadpool dragging Iron Man to safety.  I like Deadpool’s wartime narration, it only lasts the first page.  It reminded me of that Community episode – Pillows and Blankets.

Deadpool is explaining that he came with the villains but he is a hero.  Iron Man just wants to know where he is being dragged to.

The Hobgoblin is like the Green Goblin but more, Hob – great observation Deadpool / Remender.

Is Carnage from the South or a redneck?  I don’t believe I read him before in that voice.

Most of the villains want to go back to killing once they are done saving the world.

Enchantress makes a quip about fondue parties.  What happened to the Asgardians?  Too much time on Earth?  But that is where they are most interesting.

Off to the side, Doctor Doom and Loki watch.  Carnage ripped out one of Red Onslaught’s eyes, the left one.

Loki tells Magneto that he is a hugger now.

With Iron Man out of commission, Quentin Quire is blocking Red Onslaught’s telepathic powers.  Genesis is trying to encourage Quire.

Captain America appears and distracts Red Onslaught.  Turns out it is only Mystique in disguise.  She must be really mad  that Red Skull took half of her late husband’s brain.

Speaking of which, Quentin Quire and Genesis huddled together reminded me of when Nate Grey and Franklin Richards were inside Onslaught, in the original story.  Maybe its just me.

Enchantress makes Red Onslaught fall in love with her.  He is pure hate so now with love added to him, he’s all love now.

Meanwhile, Absorbing Man becomes adamantium (because of the Sentinels) and tears them apart.  Doing so releases Doctor Strange and Scarlet Witch.  Now they can recreate their spell to reverse who controls Red Onslaught and put Xavier back in charge.  As the last time he was in charge of an Onslaught, it worked out perfectly.  Not

For some reason, this undoes Enchantress’ spell and Red Onslaught is back to being pure rage.

Quire can’t take it anymore and passes out.  Now Red Onslaught has access to all of his powers.

Deadpool wonders, since he saved Iron Man, if he can be an Avenger.  Iron Man turns him down, which seems harsh.  He’s a very much alive Wolverine and he’s funny, why not add him?  Deadpool dragged Iron Man somewhere so he can recharge.  I like that Deadpool gets to call Iron Man a jerk.  That’s one word for him.

While Strange and Wanda are casting their Inversion spell, It leaves them defenseless but Genesis is there to protect them.  Or try too.  All of the united villains are now under Red Onslaught’s sway.  Sabretooth is about to kill Genesis when Deadpool saves him, just in time.  An awesome callback to Remender’s Uncanny X-Force arc, Final Execution.

Iron Man is now on the scene so he is able to go back to blocking Red Onslaught’s telepathic powers.

Doctor Strange gets knocked out, so it is up to Doom to assist with Wanda’s spell.  The spell is successful and minutes go by.  The villains are gone and the heroes are waking up.

Iron Man states it was five minutes of missing time.  He calls Deadpool an annoyance, even though he help save the day plus he is right behind Iron Man.  So ungrateful!

Havok is holding Red Skull’s human body.  The threat of Red Onslaught is gone.  Now the question is, is Xavier controlling the body.  The X-Men want to take him to their school.  The Avengers want to lock him up.  Havok sides with the X-Men.  Captain Falcon wants Red Skull to stand trial for his crimes, as if that has ever happened after one of these events.

Havok wants to wait until Steve Rogers shows up.  Rogers lost his Super Soldier Serum and now he is a very fit 80 year old man.  Rogers wants to take Red Skull to prison, surprising everyone that he took the Avengers’ side.  Not

Havok splits with the Avengers, Rogers can now find some other mutant figurehead.

Genesis is now Young Apocalypse.  He tells the gathered heroes that there is no sign of Xavier in the Red Skull’s body.  Somehow he knows this.  Deadpool hugs Apocalypse.  Evan tells him not to do it again.

Havok agrees to let the Avengers take Red Skull’s unconscious body.  Wasp doesn’t want Havok to leave.

AXIS 3 Kitty final page

See Kitty between Havok and Apocalypse?  I didn’t at first.

Harsh of Havok speaking to Wasp like that!

Looks like the X-Men and the Avengers are back at odds, again.

Poor Wasp and Havok though but I only really know them from their flirting days of Uncanny Avengers, their marriage and child are only plots I’ve read summaries of.

Next issue has Apocalypse teaming with the X-Men and Hulk being inverted to Kulh (get it?)

I’m not set to get any of these item in titles – Magneto 11, All New X-Factor 15, Loki Agent of Asgard 7, Deadpool 36, AXIS Hobgolbin and AXIS Carnage 1.

Hopefully Kitty keeps showing up in this crossover.

AXIS 1

Posted by John Klein III on December 22, 2014
Posted in: Review. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

AXIS 1

Writer Rick Remender

Artist Adam Kubert

Color Artists Laura Martin & Matt Milla

Letterer Chris Eliopoulus

Book One : Red Supremacy – Chapter One

So Glad Kitty Pryde showed up in this, felt so silly preordering these!  So rare for her to have a part in these mega crossovers.  Hopefully she keeps showing up!

I see people are referring to this as,  Avengers & X-Men : AXIS but that seems overly cumbersome and silly.

What I didn’t know that happened was that Red Skull took over Genosha, and made it a mutant concentration camp.  No one seemed to notice that the country went back to its old ways.  Magneto showed up and killed Red Skull.  Once he did that, there was an explosion of psychic energy and now we have . . . Red Onslaught.

 AXIS 1 cast page

Feel proud that I know all of these characters, but there are also no newer characters involved.

Kitty made it to the cast page, that’s pretty cool!  She made it to the cast page of Original Sin 3 but I couldn’t make out which character she was on those two pages but if Marvel says she was there, she must have been one of those unidentifiable bodies.

Onto the issue.  Right off the bat, these first few pages’ border has the AXIS logo repeated.  What is up with that?

Los Angeles.  There is an over growth of planet life.  Apparently Black Widow watches the Real Housewives reality series.  I don’t quite believe that but she said it, so it must be true.  I do like the idea of what shows heroes make a point to watch with their busy schedules.  Like when I read that President Obama watched True Detective.  At this point, Steve Rogers is super old (he lost the super soldier serum) and now Falcon is the new Captain America.  Not sure if this is the sole reason why he is leading the team, it doesn’t seem like a good enough reason.  Vision uses the word smidgen and Tony makes fun of him for it.  But then proceeds to use the term for the rest of the issue.

Turns out, X-Men old timey villain . . . Plantman, is causing all of the plant chaos!  CapFalcon orders Thor to hit things and Thor takes offense to being given orders.  Which makes perfect sense.  Who is Falcon to be giving orders?

We start seeing that Red Onslaught is tampering with people’s minds.  Mostly, he takes the smallest negative thought and makes the person only focus on that one thought.  Even Vision is affected.  Plant Man can’t believe the heroes are fighting each other, it isn’t like the only thing they have been doing since 2006.  Iron Man isn’t affected.

Unfortunately, Hulk is and he double stomps Iron Man.  Iron Man has built a telepathic inhibitor into his helmet.  I get the impression this is suppose to be new information but I know that it was revealed in Thunderbolts 12 when Baron Zemo / Citizen V used mind control to get all of the heroes to do what he wanted.  It didn’t work on Iron Man because of the telepathic inhibitor.  Iron Man is lucky enough to be able to increase the radius of his telepathic inhibitor, so the Avengers calm down.  He is able to do this as he was able to locate the negative frequency and he just reversed it.

Avengers Mansion.  Steve Rogers is leading the superhero community.  The whole world is breaking out into hate riots.  Elsewhere, Havok wakes up.  Wasp and their daughter, Katie, are in bed with him.  He sees an image of Xavier minus the top of his head, which wakes him up.  He isn’t lucky as he is in Genosha.

We get a double page spread of Red Onslaught, who looks like Onslaught but with Red Skull’s head and tentacles.  Not sure why he has tentacles, to be more evil, I suppose?  The AXIS border stops with this sequence, as well.  Red Onslaught wants to bring about, the Reich Eternal.  Magneto is trying to fight Red Onslaught.

Scarlet Witch and Rogue are also trying to fight the giant villain.  Red Onslaught takes over Wanda’s mind, so fast!  Havok shows up and attacks Magneto as he is still upset Magneto started this mess.  Which is odd, if everyone is trying to attack one threat, why would you attack one of your fellow temporary teammates?  Makes no sense but that’s Havok for you.

Magneto is knocked into a room and sees some prisoners.  Quentin Quire, Cyclops and Genesis are the prisoners.  Magneto calls Genesis, Child Apocalypse, which I sort of like.  Poor Cyclops has to bend his knees, as the shackles are built for younger people.  The camps are actually reeducation camps, which I guess sounds better?  Havok attacks Cyclops, as he is the worst.  The two are bickering over who is following Xavier’s dream.  Genesis hits both of them, as neither is living up to Xavier’s dreams.

Ahab stabs Genesis through the chest with a harpoon, get it?

Avengers Tower.  Steve Rogers is not happy with the state of the world.  He has various heroes out there, trying to calm things down.  Iron Man reveals it will take days to create a global frequency block.  Why Rogers doesn’t tell him to get started on this task, is beyond me.  Iron Man sees Wasp is sad.  Wasp tells Tony that over in Uncanny Avengers, when they were in the future, she and Havok had a daughter.  They gave her up to save all of the children in the world.  She is sad as the heroes always have to make the great sacrifices.

Wanda starts throwing chaos magic across Genosha.  Rogue absorbs a little of Red Onslaught’s powers.  Which gives her telepathic powers.  She is able to go into Red Onslaught’s mind and we see that Mental Xavier is trying to attack from within.  Xavier also gives Rogue a pep talk.

Rogue attacks Wanda, snapping her out of it.  Ahab loves hurting Summers peeps.  He throws a harpoon at Havok and Cyclops takes it to the arm.

Rogue tries to give Wanda a pep talk.

The Avengers finally get to Genosha.  They start attacking Red Onslaught.

The Jean Grey Staff shows up and helps the Summers Bros – Storm, Colossus and Nightcrawler.  They all say some odd things.  Kurt implies that the Summers family variety show is heartwarming.  Storm goes with it, stating that Cable does a spectacular mime routine and Rachel does face painting.   Colossus adds that Corsair does a fabulous spaceman spiff dance.  Kurt tells Cyclops that they showed up as they are family.  Cyclops and Havok shake hands,

AXIS 1 Kitty

Look, Kitty joined the fight!  That’s awesome!

Iron Man starts bragging for shutting down the negative frequency.  Red Onslaught knocks Tony off of that high chair of his.  He has been secretly manipulating him to create all types of weapons for him.  Red Onslaught was able to access Tony’s lost memories of all of the secrets he learn from Civil War.

Issue ends with Red Onslaught’s newest weapons – two adamantium Stark Sentinels.  Also, the AXIS border came back for one last moment.

I already know that Kitty nor Magik show up in issue two so maybe they will be in issue three.  Let’s hope!

AXIS 7

Posted by John Klein III on December 4, 2014
Posted in: Review. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

AXIS 7

Writer Rick Remender

Artist Adam Kubert

Colorists Edgar Delgado & Jessus Aburtov

Letterer Chris Eliopoulos

New World Disorder : Chapter One

AXIS 7 Cast List

Kitty made the cast list!  So we know we are in for a good time!  Except that she only shows up on the one page, but that’s enough for us here.

So we have the fourth issue and now we jump to this seventh issue, also this is the last issue of AXIS that I own as Kitty doesn’t appear in the final two installments.

Apparently since the last issue I read, the inverted Avengers have taken regular heroes hostage.  The X-Men have decided to create a Gene Bomb.  Scarlet Witch tries to be useful by attacking Doctor Doom but her father and brother stop her.  Once again, Polaris is not involved with her silly family affairs.

The first page still has that silly AXIS banner on the top and bottom of the pages.

Apocalypse Ship.  Wasp is a prisoner of the X-Men.  Havok recalls to his better and older brother, Cyclops, the time he was married to Wasp.  Havok would like to spare her from the Gene Bomb but all humans have to die.  Nightcrawler interrupts brother time and tells them to get outside.

AXIS 7 Kitty 0 AXIS 7 Kitty 1

So the Inverted Villains are going by, Astonishing Avengers – so add them to the long list of Avengers members.

I like Rogue wanting to beat up Avengers, good for her!  Maybe now she can appear in X-Titles again.

Shadowcat’s stomach must have been in slips, having to be held by Colossus.

Zenpool has some fun narration going on in these first few pages.  He and Evan, who is now full grown Apocalypse, have a history from Remender’s Uncanny X-Force days.  The funnest running gag is Zenpool calling Spider-Man his sidekick.  Spider-Man takes offense as his ego is the size of his decision to make a deal with the devil and rewrite time so that he was never married to his wife and so his elderly aunt can live for another 15 years, as an old woman.

Another fun aspect is that Zenpool makes comments and Apocalypse actually responds to a few of them, instead of just ignoring it.

The Zenpool / Spider-Man handicap match against Apocalypse breaks through a wall and is outside.  We see that Carnage is fighting Rogue.  Nightcrawler is fighting Kid Loki.  Nightcrawler moves on to start fighting Spider-Man.  Carnage switches opponents and starts fighting Nightcrawler, saving Spider-Man.  Spider-Man is not comfortable with Carnage’s new outlook on life.

Sabretooth, now dressed in Wolverine’s now classic brown and tan costume, is mad at Cyclops as that is simply what Wolverines do to Cyclops.  It is ridiculous.

Colossus is fighting Absorbing Man.  Shadowcat, is nowhere to be seen.

Latveria.  Doctor Doom is quasi-responsible for Scarlet Witch’s actions during House of M, including the whole genocide attempt of the mutant race.  So she is upset that Magneto and Quicksilver are preventing her from killing him.  She gets so mad that she casts a spell to bring down all of her bloodline.  Surprisingly, only Quicksilver goes down, Magneto is still standing.  So now we know that he is not the father of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, which we learned way back in Avengers 186 / Uncanny X-Men 125 and the twins learned in Vision and Scarlet Witch 4.  Which was in February 1983 for the twins and for us, October / September 1979.  Avengers 186 reveals their mother is Magda and in Uncanny X-Men 125, we see that Magneto fathered a daughter with Magda and possibly two more.

So this sort of blew up the Internet, as people now think the Avengers film forced Marvel to make the twins Inhumans instead of Mutants, or at least, not mutants.  Though, hasn’t there been 32 years of evidence that show that Magneto is clearly their father?

During all of this, Doctor Doom teleports away.

San Francisco.  Superior Iron Man has invited FalCap to a meeting that also has Thor, Kluh, Luke Cage and Medusa.  They want to kill both the X-Men and all of the heroes.

Apocalypse finally tires of Zenpool’s mouth and starts wailing on him.

There is an ad for Amazing Spider-Man 11 that has Amazing vs Superior, which is fun to see the logos used that way.

On the final page, Apocalypse is holding Zenpool’s head as his body lays on the ground.  He is surrounded by the X-Men, minus one.  Which, really, why even have Kitty Pryde in the issue – just to forget all about her?  But that’s Kitty’s history with these events.

Issue ends with the Gene Bomb counting down to zero.  Don’t worry, it doesn’t go off.

The other tie-ins to this issue are – Amazing X-Men 14, Avengers World 16, AXIS Revolutions 3 & 4 (we’ll be reviewing issue three in a few days), AXIS : Carnage 3, AXIS : Hobgoblin 3, Captain America & the Mighty Avengers 3, Deadpool 39, Loki : Agent of Asgard 9, Nova 25 and Superior Iron Man 3.

Uncanny Avengers 21

Posted by John Klein III on October 13, 2014
Posted in: Review. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Uncanny Avengers 21

Writer Rick Remender

Artist Daniel Acuna

Color Artist Dean White

Letterer VC’s Clayton Cowles

Avenge the Earth Part Four of Five

I haven’t really been paying attention to this title since issue fifteenth.  From what I can gather, the twins – Eimin and Uriel, seem to be winning.  To stop them, the Avengers have sent their consciousness back in time.  I can’t figure out which ones did this.  I know Scarlet Witch isn’t one of them, as they have to explain to her the new plan.

The Past, a.k.a. Now.  Wanda and that lousy jerk, Simon, are in bed together.  For me, it feels like I haven’t missed much as chronologically, this takes place right before 15.  In that issue, Wanda successfully teleported all the mutants to a different planet.  Next, Rogue killed her and was then killed by one of the horsemen.  That event may have happened in an issue around 15.

So Wolverine, Sunfire and Rogue come into their bedroom, not kill Wanda and start course correcting time.  Which is great as now the embargo on Rogue appearing in other titles should be lifted.  Though what the in-story reason is, is beyond me as she would have been alive during those events.  Maybe she was just outside the panel.

Uncanny Avengers 21 Wanda

Also, Wanda looks so strange without her silly headpiece thing in her hair and no red coloring to her hair.

Rogue reveals that it is Wolverine and Sunfire are the ones who moved their minds to the past.  They must have access to movie Days of Future Past Kitty, as that is something that character can do.

The look on Wanda’s face when Rogue tells her that Rogue killed her in the original timeline is pretty dead on.

Uncanny Avengers 21 Doom 2099

Meanwhile, the proper Avengers are forming a plan to stop the Celestial from destroying the Earth.  Iron Man is about to go into the entire plan when Doctor Doom not only sums it up with a mere sentence but also insults him.

Captain America shows up, tells Iron Man that the plan doesn’t work and offers a new plan.

The plan is for Rogue to absorb the powers of all the Avengers.

One change that also happened is that Thor didn’t kill Uriel.  The twins recognize that time has been changed and they try to figure out how that was even possible.

Another fun twist is that the Wasp was originally at the Tachyon Dam where the Grim Reaper is guarding it.  Wasp couldn’t kill him, so that mission failed.  Luckily, this time, they sent Wolverine.

Cut to the Jean Grey School.  Back when Kitty was still there, so we know this story takes prior to Battle of the Atom.  For those who track that sort of thing.

Thanks to my pal, SlickNickShady, for the scan!

Uncanny Avengers 21 Kitty Pryde

I like how Wanda is about to explain the why of the situation and Rogue shuts her up with a simple “these are my friends, they will just do it.”  Of course, the X-Men do just that and Rogue now has the abilities of both the Avengers and the X-Men.

Thor as taken back his axe that started this whole mess.  The axe was used originally by the twins to kill a Celestial and use its energy source to enable their entire plan.  It takes a lot of energy to teleport all of the mutants to a new planet.

Rogue is sent to stop the latest Celestial from stepping onto Earth.  She is able to hold up one leg.  Tony has no confidence in her, the jerk, and Captain America tells him that Rogue is only half of the solution.  Just then, Sentry (also one of the Horsemen) lifts the other leg.  Which I’m not sure if I buy that Sentry equals the strength of all of the X-Men and the Avengers but I suppose now that he is one of the Horsemen, he doesn’t lack confidence or any of his phobias so he has access to all of his strength.  But still, it took Rogue pages to establish her new (temporary) strength level and he just shows up out of nowhere.

Thor now cuts the Celestial’s head, as it is distracted now.

The heroes are about to win when (two words that should not be read aloud together! – go ahead and try.  It sounds awkward to my ears) Kang shows up.  The plan was to have this new energy go to a dying star when Kang intercepts it.

For some reason, I had thought this was the final part of the storyline (that has been going on for an impressive ten issues or something like that) and thought this was going to conclude when this new hiccup happened.

Thor is now missing and victory may not be at hand for the heroes.

Kang now has all of the Celestial energy and is truly now Kang the Conqueror!  Nothing should be able to stop him, especially not his adopted twins.  So I bet they work together with the Avengers to shut Kang down, as enemy of my enemy and all of that.

As Kitty (or Magik) 0nly appear every six issues or so, who knows if I will get the next issue but this one felt pretty epic.  So much happened!

. . .

This was the other comic that I should have reviewed last month.

Happy Columbus Day!  Glad he discovered Cuba, it lead to bigger discoveries.  I haven’t had Columbus Day off since the fourth grade.  The school system made it a non-holiday for the first time in years from what I gathered.  Going forward, up to juior high school, it was always iffy if other students will show up on this day.

Uncanny Avengers 15

Posted by John Klein III on January 8, 2014
Posted in: Review. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

291526_20131218101838_large

Writer Rick Remender

Penciler Steve McNiven

Inkers John Dell with Dexter Vines & Jay Leisten

Colorist Laura Martin

Letterer VC’s Clayton Cowles

Issue opens with Captain America wanting Havok to lead again, and then admitting that his hearing is coming back.  Havok makes a reference to wanting to call it a day, get some In an Out Burger and play sone Grand Theft Auto.  I wonder if in the Marvel Universe, they have East Coast In and Out Burgers?  I imagine with how easy it is for Avengers to travel the globe, he can get to California easily.  I also wonder, in a world with super powers, does the Marvel Universe have the same movies and games that we do?  I would imagine not.  Maybe it is just Watchmen’s influence on my thinking, as they lived in a world of superheroes, so why would people want to read or watch things with superheroes, you want something new that you can’t get on the news, such as pirates.  I imagine video games would have special levels too.  Such as Call of Duty : Ghosts, probably would have a Captain America or Iron Man level, and they can get away with it as it would be based on a public figure in-universe.

While Cap is talking to Havok, Alex disappears.  Turns out Wanda’s plan as a success.

Uncanny Avengers 15 Magik 1a Uncanny Avengers 15 Magik 1b

All mutants are being teleported to the Twins’ ark.  Including from The New Xavier School – Magneto, Magik and Cyclops.

We see Grim Reaper beating on Wolverine.  We get a shot of Rogue’s charred corpse.  I am not counting Rogue to be dead dead just yet.  I have this feeling we will be getting a bit of a reset button at one point.  Though Rogue is not appearing in any other titles, so maybe she really is dead.  Maybe this is why Anna Paquin has been cut out of X-Men : Days of Future Past.  Which must be very awkward, as she did all that press at the San Diego Comic Con.

We see Wasp holding her own against Sentry.  Then Thor shows up to help.  We get a gross moment when Jan shoots Sentry, and his response is to just rip his entire skull apart, leaving only his brain and eyes.  This starts his healing process.  That fight ends with Wasp summoning a sand worm from Beetlejuice.  We get a nice moment with Jan asking Thor if he knows of a god of thunder who wants to fight a set of twins.  I know Wasp and Thor are long time and founding members of the Avengers, I am not sure how much actual interaction the two characters have had.  I do enjoy seeing their friendship.

We see Captain America overhearing the twins talk about Wonder Man and Scarlet Witch, both being dead.  I also suspect both of these deaths to be reversed.  At least Wanda’s for sure.  Wonder Man has died so many times, what is one more?  Such a lousy character.

Cap feels in his gut, that his friends are dead.  Then he fights the Twins, and Eimin cuts him, revealing where his guts are.  Uriel states that Cap is known as a great Tactician, which is why that is his original class on Avengers Alliance on Facebook.

Then Eimin gets super creepy like quoting the Bible, the Noah story.  How come, whenever someone starts reciting scripture, outside of a regilous ceremony, it always comes off as that person being crazy and frightening?

During all that, Cap is getting a beating.  There is a reference / hint, that if you can separate the twins from each other, you might be able to defeat them.

Eimin tells Cap, that instead of “No more mutants” she is going to say “No more humans.”  She shows Cap a window, where we see a Celestial is hovering over Earth.

We cut to Thor and Wasp, as they make their way to the moon.  Thor speaks to Uatu the Watcher, so things are officially now on.  This Celestial is called, Exitar the Executioner.  He is there to destroy the planet.  All due to that time Thor made an axe that could kill a Celestial.  That axe is called Jarnbjorn.  Which the Twins found and used to create their massive plan.

Next issue, looks like we might get Thor versus Uriel.

Uncanny Avengers 1

Posted by John Klein III on November 27, 2013
Posted in: Review. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

Uncanny Avengers 1

Writer Rick Remender

Artist John Cassaday

Color Art Laura Martin

Letterer VC’s Chris Eliopoulos

Cover Dated December 2012

This is the first I’ve ever seen Chris Eliopoulos associated with VC.

Issue opens with Avalanche’s brain being operated on.

Uncanny Avengers V1 1 Kitty 1

We cut to Wolverine, he is going to give the eulogy at Professor Xavier’s funeral.  In attendance is Kitty Pryde, hence why I bought this issue.

We cut to Captain America, wanting to do more to fix the tension with humans and mutants.  We see him looking at Havok’s stats.  Poor Captain America, it looks like he must be looking at the mutant version of himself.  Blonde, 6′ foot, 175 lbs, with Blue Eyes.

Cyclops is still in prison at this point, surrendering at the end of AvX, he killed Xavier but while under the influence of Dark Phoenix.  We see that Magneto is sadden at the loss of his friend.

Havok visits Cyclops in prison.  He lets him know that they buried Xavier that day.  We get Cassaday drawing the Original Five for a panel.  Shame this is the first time we see the brothers together since poor Alex had to find his own way back to Earth after the Fall and Rise of the Shi’Ar Empire storyline.

Once Alex leaves Scott, we see Captain America approach Alex to lead his Unity Squad.  A team of Avengers with X-Men to show the populace that mutants are okay.  Never thinking the opposite will happen, instead of lifting mutants to the Avengers level, but this might bring the Avengers down to the mutant level.  He offers Alex to get coffee with he and Thor, Thor offers Alex can get a latter if he prefers.  The idea of Thor preferring a latte is interesting.  He’s been on Earth too long.

We get a scene of why Avalanche was having his brain operated on.  His powers have been increased and he has gone insane.  He starts tearing up down town New York City.  Thor shows up to save civilians.  Captain America confronts Avalanche and Avalanche jumps off his self made cliff and dies.  Havok destroys some debris to save some more folks.  First mission out, and already some dead along with a dead villain.

Also on this team,  Scarlet Witch and Rogue.  They have a complicated relationship, not even including the time Wanda decimated the mutant race.  What complicates their relationship is that Rogue has had two important relationships, Gambit and Magneto.  Magneto is Wanda’s father.  It isn’t cool.  Rogue’s other two important relationships are with Carol Danvers and her first boyfriend, Cory but they are not romantic relationships.

I don’t care too much for Captain America’s new uniform costume, suppose to be more realistic but that chin strap is a little too Ultimate for my taste, plus it is a chin strap.  Wanda’s outfit is pretty decent and simple, still has that weird M head piece.  I really like Rogue’s outfit, seems like a more realized outfit, like this is what she has been leading up too.  Also, it may have already been her established outfit, but now she actually wears the hood.  While Rogue is confronting Wanda, there is a giant explosion.  The S-Men confront these two, and they have shut down Rogue’s powers.  We find out that when Rogue goes to grip Wanda’s face, she doesn’t absorb her powers (or her craziness).

We find out that these new foes are called S-Men because their boss is … The Red Skull – now with Xavier’s brain!  It is completely bonkers!

Even more crazy, that they don’t protect Xavier’s body and Red Skull can just straight up walk up and snatch his body hours after the funeral.  Surprised this hadn’t happen more with that giant grave site the X-Men have at the mansion.  Like they didn’t learn anything from Fraction’s Sisterhood arc of Uncanny, when those dames went after Jean’s body.

. . .

With this, Thor Month comes to a close.  Thanks everybody!  This was S&FwM’s first theme month and hopefully the next one works out as well, if not better.  December, I am going to try to do some Christmas reviews.  We are expecting our first born hopefully on the 11th of December, so December might be a bit touch and go but bare with me and I will get back onto some sort of schedule.  I have a couple Plan Bs ready, as it should be a fun and exciting month.

Uncanny Avengers 13

Posted by John Klein III on October 29, 2013
Posted in: Review. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

287176_20131023120555_large

Writer Rick Remender

Artist Daniel Acuna

Letterer VC’s Clayton Cowles

I don’t care for how Havok’s caption boxes and Banshee’s word balloons are the same color.  I know one is square and the other is round but both are white text on black background.  Could be better.

Uncanny Avengers 13 Kitty mention

Havok narrates that some of the nicest people he knows have been corrupted.  Kitty, by Ogun.  Colossus, by the Phoenix Force.  Storm, not exactly sure, maybe when she was just about to go full Mohawk?

He also narrates that Cyclops killed Banshee, but did not tell him to jump out of a plane to stop the Blackbird, and fail miserably at that.  Banshee did that on his own terms.

Wasp goes down Banshee’s throat and rips back out through his vocal cords.  That is fighting dirty as it gets.

Captain America is now hard of hearing, due to taking a full blast from Banshee last issue.  Deaf Captain America is the new character find of the year, so funny.

Some fun moments like Havok stating the guards came from over there, then Cap screaming the same thing.

Wasp volunteers to split from the group, the budding relationship between her and Havok is nice to see.

Cap yells that Wasp likes Havok, Alex’s facial expression is classic.

Thor transports another planet’s ocean onto the current planet he is on, to stop the green lava.

Simon and Wanda are eating with the Twins.  Believe it or not, Wanda looks so weird without the M-piece headgear of hers.

Draken is beating Wolverine to death.

The Twins tell Logan that they plan on opening a school in Wanda’s honor, making it the fourth mutant school.  Nice to have some options.

In the continuing question of who is leading this team, Cap shouts “I don’t follow you” to Havok, based on misunderstanding something Havok said.

Wanda starts talking to Simon, he quickly tells her that the Twins can hear their every word.  Her solution?  To have sex with Simon, that will teach them!

Rogue and Sunfire catch up to Wolverine, and Acuna draws my favorite panel of the issue.  Rogue putting her hands up to her mouth, eyes so big.  It is beautifully drawn.

Logan does the classic close eyes move head to the side death scene, but we all know Logan isn’t dead.

He tells them they have to stop Wanda, Rogue absorbs his claws, they look metal to me, instead of bone.

The thing is, Wanda’s plan is to transport all of the mutants, not into tubes, but awake and well, and have this army attack the Twins en mass.  So Rogue is trying to stop Wanda from winning the day.  Those two have a very complicated relationship.