Woodard – Nolan

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Uncanny X-Men Volume Four Issue 5

Posted by John Klein III on August 26, 2016
Posted in: Review. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Uncanny X-Men V4 5

Writer Cullen Bunn

Penciler Greg Land

Inker Jay Leisten

Color Artist Nolan Woodard

Letterer VC’s Joe Caramagna

So this is my first issue of the fourth volume, which will clearly be relaunched with whoever is going to write the series next.  Which is a shame, especially as Uncanny X-Men was the longest title Marvel had without a relaunch and now it has made up for that.  But that’s the old 34 year old comic book fan in me.

Uncanny X-Men V4 5 Recap Page

The Uncanny X-Men are – Magneto, Psylocke, Sabretooth, M and Archangel.  Apocalypse’s Dark Riders are behind a string of murders of mutant healers.  After Magneto and Psylocke saved Triage, Magneto sent the team to the Dark Riders’ home base.  Magneto and Triage are in Genosha.  Meanwhile, Mystique and Fanotmex are up to something.

Nice that triage hasn’t been forgotten and the Dark Riders’ subplot is clearly setting up the Apocalypse Wars.

Egypt.  M and Psylocke are breaking their way out of the Dark Riders’ page.

Genosha, Magneto is holding his own against the Dark Riders.  They offer to let Magneto flee, they only want to kill Triage.

One of the Dark Riders, Gauntlet, looks just like –

Doctor Doomsday Analagm Comics

Doctor Doomsday, of Amalgam Comics.

Uncanny X-Men V4 5 Gauntlet Triage Stabbed

While looking up Dark Riders Gauntlet, turns out he has always looked like that so maybe Doctor Doomsday looks like him.  Except that Doctor Doomsday is basically just Doomsday with a sweet green cloak.

Triage gets stabbed and is out of the action.

Magneto starts getting tired, from all of the attacks but still holds his own.  With perfect timing, his team arrives and start taking out the Dark Riders.  Triage heals himself, which I didn’t know he could do that.  Triage suspects that Magneto didn’t know that either.

Magneto sets off a bomb that sinks Genosha and kills the Dark Riders.  I can’t believe Genosha just got destroyed!

Archangel doesn’t fly in the Blackbird, so I guess the team has to update him on everything they talked about, when they land.

Sabretooth doesn’t like not being included in all of Magneto’s plans, but Magneto doesn’t have the time to explains things to the idiot.

Uncanny X-Men V4 5 Magik 1

X-Haven.  Triage thinks he is in hell but Magik jokes that he is in the same zip code.  Illyana, wanting to continue the fun, is about to say the famous “hope you survive the experience” but M (like the total bitch that she is) stops her.  M and the team have had some experiences that they didn’t survive.  I’m not sure who they lost and I’m really not sure why Magik doesn’t care for M, do they have they spent any time together?

Uncanny X-Men V4 5 Magik 2

Storm and Psylocke hug, these two have loads of panel time together, over the years.  Magik is going to show Triage around the place.  Magneto and Storm have panel time together, in the 80s as a team and during the Utopia era of Cyclops’ team. Storm gives Psylocke some advice about not following Magneto blindly.  M has no time for Storm’s kindness.

The Savage Land, Magneto’s War Room X.  Why he would have a base with an “X” in the title, I’m not sure.  Psylocke relays Storm’s advice.  I do like how Magneto laughs at the idea of this team being considered an X–Men team, as they are not really following Xavier’s dream.

Los Angeles.  Mystique and Fantomex are chatting about their powers as the issue ends with Magneto wanting to speak with them.

All New X-Men Volume Two Issue 1

Posted by John Klein III on June 22, 2016
Posted in: Review. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

All New X-Men V2 1

Writer Dennis Hopeless

Penciler Mark Bagley

Inker Andrew Hennessy

Color Nolan Woodard

Letterer VC’s Cory Petit

I got this, just for Magik being on the cover.

All New X-Men V2 1 Recap

We start All New X-Men’s second era.  Secret Wars 2015 fixed alternate universes (except for Spider-Gwen’s) but not the time travel nonsense – so the Original Five X-Men, are still with us.  The four boys, are in this title.  They upgraded from Jean to All New Wolverine, X23.  Idie and Kid Apocalypse are also on this team.  The team, at this moment, are separated, having their own fun.

Vail, Colorado.  Wolverine (I’m just going to call her that) and Angel are enjoying skiing.  A sport, living here in Helena, Montana – I have no interest in.  Angel keeps saving her, even though she can take care of herself.  She annoys her but he’s trying to be a good boyfriend.  Not a respectful boyfriend but a good one.

Eastpoint, Florida.  Beast calls Angel.  Hank is watching Genesis (I really don’t like calling him – Kid Apocalypse – it is clunky and such a long name) rassle with an alligator.  There is going to be an upcoming Apocalypse crossover, so Genesis (real name, Evan) is most likely going to be important and soon.  Hank and Genesis are on there way to Austen, to pick up Bobby – then they will be heading to Warren and X23 in Veil.  Neither group has heard what Scott has been up too.

Of course, in eight months – they haven’t heard from him but now that we have caught up with them, they are going to hear from him.  Funny how that works.

Hank has set up a Cerebro, so that it isn’t dependent on a telepath to operate.  Once Scott blasts a dude, they should be able to find him.

Chicago, Illinois.  Scott has become quite the researcher.  There is a group of punk teenagers, known as – Ghosts of Cyclops – that are running around, making fools of themselves.  They arrive on scene, distract people and steal whatever they can carry – while wearing Cyclops’ mask – the one with the big red X where eyes should be.  Scott has track their movements and they should be arriving to the cafe that Scott is eating lunch at.

A cute blonde gal, Marla, starts talking to Scott.  She needs a picture with him, as her mother will freak out that she is in the city, by herself.  Everyone at the cafe gets hit by a truckload of water.  The six ghosts are all teenage mutants.  They are sloppy and untrained, which makes it easy for Scott to toss a few of them around.  He is so used to working within a group, that he leaves his blind side open and they press an attack.  While Scott is down, they run off.  The Ghosts of Cyclops, don’t have much experience with anyone standing up to them.

Scott picks up one of their wallets.  Marla runs over, super impressed with him.  She makes the fatal mistake of besmirching Cyclops’ name – going as far as to say why anyone would want to have Cyclops’ face (she means his mask) but this offends Scott.  He walks away like a sad sack.

Austin Texas.  Hank has caught up to Bobby, who is making a giant ice sculpture of the Thing.   Bobby hasn’t been laying low, he met a guy the other day and made an armadillo statue – the city loves Bobby.  How long can an ice sculpture last in Texas?  Austin is super mutant friendly, which more cities should be.

Hank and crew have been driving around in a trailer but it is bigger on the inside.

Algar University, Outside Chicago.  The ghosts recognize Scott, one doesn’t forget the dude who elbowed you in the face!  They follow him to the library.  Scott googles the kid’s name and the Internet provides him with everything.  Scott still can’t believe how far the world has come from the 60s (or 90s – whenever).

Mark Bagley, I should type, is amazing and I’m glad I’m able to read another issue of his again.

The guy, Austin Deprez, has found Scott.  Could we not get the city of Austin and a new character named, Austin, in the same issue?  Come on, Hopeless!  Deprez has the power to eject water from his throat – so that’s disgusting.  Deprez’s mutant name is, Thirst – it isn’t horrible.  The Ghosts have Scott on the ropes.  This old librarian tries to hit one of them with a chair.  Thirst is about to wail on him when Scott takes off his sweet red sunglasses.  With that, Scott blasts him some dudes!

This sets off the alarm for Hank’s Cerebro.  Hank opens the mini-fridge and the rumors are true – Hopeless has introduced a bamf, named Pickles – the team’s teleporter.

All of this blasting, and tired Scott and he collapses on the ground.  Sadly, he didn’t take out any of the ghosts, so they pick him up and leave.

Before they can get out of the library, the All New X-Men arrive!  Including Wolverine and Angel – who still has his Black Vortex upgraded powers.

Not really sure if I’ll be getting additional issues but this one was pretty good.

Idie did nothing this issue and I barely recognized her when she did talk.

X-Tinction Agenda 2

Posted by John Klein III on February 16, 2016
Posted in: Review. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

X-tinction Agenda 2

Writer Marc Guggenheim

Artist Carmine Di Giandomenico

Colorist Nolan Woodard

Letterer VC’s Cory Petit

X-City.  Genosha Attack Minus Five Minutes.  Rachel and Beast talking about their new recruits.  Apparently, Beast has gone back in time and taken – Thunderbird, Wolverine and Banshee – all before their deaths in Giant Size X-Men, which is a weird place to state when they could have died.  Beast wanted to prove that it was possible, which really seems to lower the stakes, for this series.  If people die, then Beast can just bring them back.  I get that the ones with the extinction virus, that wouldn’t be an option for them, as they would just die again, from the virus.  It is an odd inclusion.  Why even bring it up, it must be important later but it is teased here.

X-tinction Agenda 2 Lockheed 1

The attack happens, like it did last issue.  We get Kitty and Lockheed(!) in the fight!  It was a pretty good week for Lockheed, appearing in this title and in Years of Future Past 2.

Rictor and Meltdown do end up confronting each other.

Rachel summons her X-Men to the baseball field.

X-tinction Agenda 2 Lockheed 2

Poor Kitty AND Lockheed take a direct hit of Havok’s cosmic blast – but no one mentions Lockheed again.  I hope the little guy is okay!  Rogue tells Nightcrawler to get Kitty to the Infirmary.

X-tinction Agenda 2 Kitty 1

X-City.  Scott Summers Memorial Hospital.  Kurt asks Dr. Reyes to heal Kitty.  Dr. Reyes does a scan and reveals that Kitty has a punctured lung, pneumothorax and a ton of internal bleeding.  Reyes needs Kurt to bring her, Triage.  Which makes sense.

Rogue fastballs Wolverine, which he isn’t familiar with the term.  If he’s been dead for the past twenty years of publication history, would the X-Men even have come up with the, fastball special?  Wolverine being gone from all of those storylines, is too big of a deal to just add to this title.  So many implications that will never be addressed – most likely.

Havok and his team have lost their quinjet and scramble to come up with a new plan.  Rachel tries to harass Havok and Rahne but they get Wicked to have ghosts from Rachel’s past haunt her.  Rachel freaks out from seeing the ghosts of her parents and grandparents.

Karma is on Havok’s side and starts taking control of peeps – first up, is Rogue.  Rogue absorbs Rachel’s powers.

Kurt arrives, and I can’t find Kitty anywhere on the page so I’m not including it.  Dr. Reyes confirms that Triage is who he says he is, which surprises him.  What really surprises both Triage and Nightcrawler, is that Dr. Reyes knocks both of them out.  Dr. Reyes is really . . . Mystique!  dun dun DUN!

Havok tells Mystique that she has to come to them.  Rogue starts taking out fools, and Karma also takes over Beast.  Mystique arrives on the baseball (battle) field and Tempus (who is also on Team Havok) teleports everyone back to Genosha.  Wolverine jumps into the portal energy so he is gone, as well.

Everyone who is back, feels pretty bad about having to attack their friends, but if they were real friends, they would have not forced their hands.

The Genengineer hooks Triage to the machines, to see how the best way to use his powers.  But what he really wants, is to use Triage’s power to cure a virus but not the extinction virus – but the virus called, mutants!!!  dun dun DUN!!!

Back at the X-City.  Rachel and Beast are regrouping.  Beast is worried as, if anyone was infected, they could have infected some of the mutants in the city.

X-tinction Agenda 2 Kitty Medical Update

Issue ends with Beast revealing there were no serious injuries.  Even Kitty only has a concussion, so I’m going to assume Lockheed is okay too.

Next issue should deal with the team of volunteers that Rachel is going to use to go to Genosha and get their friends back – Bombshell, Graymalkin and Wolveine  (also those Karma was controlling).  So now the story is going to repeat some of the original X-Tinction Agenda, with the X-Men having to go to Genosha and get their friends back.

Will Kitty be on this new away team?  Will we see Lockheed with a bandage on his wing?  Time will tell!

Hulk Volume Three Issue 9

Posted by John Klein III on March 30, 2015
Posted in: Review. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Hulk V3 9

Writer Dangerous Gerry Duggan

Penciler Maniacal Mark Bagley

Inks Dastardly Drew Hennessy

Colors Jabbin’ Jason Keith

Letters VC’s Crazy Cory Petit

Cover Art Maniacal Mark Bagley, Dastardly Drew Hennessy and Notorious Nolan Woodard

Assistant Editor Evil Emily Shaw

Editor Madman Mark Paniccia

Editor in Chief Axial Axel Alonso

Chief Creative Officer Jumpin’ Joe Quesada

Publisher Dan “The Man” Buckley

Executive Producer Alan It’s All Fine

Hulk created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

Omega Hulk, Chapter 5

The issue Gerry Duggan was cool enough to tell us about months ago on the Kitty Pryde appreciation thread over on the Comic Book Resources X-Board.

Good thing there is a Previously On page, as we’re nine issues in and I wasn’t exactly sure what made this Hulk “Doc Green.”  I was under the impression it was just another stab at the Professor Hulk that had Bruce’s mind and the Hulk’s body.  Doc Green is not that.

So this is what happened, prior to this – Betty Banner put out a hit on Bruce (or the Hulk).  Bruce was healed by Iron Man’s Extremis (and main plot point of the film – Iron Man 2).  This made the Hulk super smart but when he sleeps, Bruce comes out.  Previous other events are mentioned throughout the issue but we’ll get into those as they come up in the issue proper.

Hulk V3 9 Shadowcat Magik 1

The Canadian Wilderness . . . Home to the Weapon X Program . . . and Cyclops’ team of X-Men.  Doc Green, as he calls himself – so I will do the same, is knocking on the X-Men’s door.

I really like seeing Kitty and Illyana pal-ing around together.  Or surviving a Hulk experience, what have you.

I’m firmly in the camp, now, that Gerry Duggan should write a Shadowcat ongoing.

Hulk V3 9 Shadowcat Magik 2

Doc Green pokes his head through the door, just like Jack Nicholson did in The Shining.

Has Magik met Hulk before?  I know she stood on his back when the Secrets Bomb went off in Original Sin 3.

I do like how Magik already has a plan, teleport him to the Sun.

Doc Green is there to ask Shadowcat for some help.  Magik being shocked that Doc Green has a briefcase is pretty classic.  I’ll be great with Duggan writing a Magik ongoing, as well.  She could totally carry her own title for years to come.

 Hulk V3 9 Kitty 1

 Kitty wonders why Doc Green would come to her, of all the options he has.  Though, I’m not sure if his logic is right.  Also, does any code carry a by-line about brain surgery?

This procedure feels like it should be pretty intense but the explanation is pretty straight forward and we’ll see how easy it was for Kitty eventually.  But Doc Green’s artificial intelligence and Shadowcat’s know-how, make it completely understandable why this goes so fast.  Which really means, that Duggan got a chance to write the X-Men’s Shadowcat and Magik, and took the opportunity and ran with it.  Which I fully support.  obviously

The Extremis program caused Doc Green to have a brain tumor.  Do other people suffer from this?  It seems like something Tony Stark should have worked out, by now.  I bet the Hulk’s biology is the reason for it.

Doc Green really just needed a person who can turn intangible (but also has skills for it).  With a little magnetic goo, Kitty should be able to phase her fingers into his head, and the tumor should go straight to her fingers.  Seems pretty straight forward.

Doc Green reveals that it was Banner who was shot and became a vegetable.

Hulk V3 9 Kitty 2

I sort of adore Doc Green having no respect for Banner and keeps calling him, Puny Banner.  That’s pretty fun.  I also really miss Bagley, he’s been a constant in my comic book collecting life for decades and it has been some time since I last read a comic by him.  Since Ultimate Cataclysm, so its been a few months / half of a year.  I should have gotten Ultimate Spider-Man 200, but I added it to my Christmas list so I should be getting a copy of it soon.    I went with the Peter Parker cover as he my Ultimate Spider-Man.

Doc Green foreshadows that Stark is one day going to blow up the world, which probably will happened one day.  Him and his Illuminati friends sending the Hulk to that one planet caused it to explode.  Plus the Illuminati has been destroying Alternate Earths in the pages of New Avengers, so maybe that is what is being hinted at here.

Shadowcat asks about the connection between Puny Banner and Doc Green.  Which is pretty smart, she really has two patients’ lives to consider.

I like Doc Green calling her, Katherine Pryde.  Him stating that he is smarter than Banner is good to know, as well.  He is very confident in her abilities to perform the task.  Being a second choice behind Reed Richards isn’t too bad.  I wonder what Doc Green was hinting at with what else Kitty can transverse.  Like time?  Like space?  Like jello?  Like that death trap Deadpool puts her in in Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe 3?

 Hulk V3 9 Kitty 3

So we get the explanation and then one page of dialogue and now look, Shadowcat saved Doc Green.  I wonder if the tumor has been a long running plotline or did it get brought up this issue and solved this issue.

Do people snicker about Illyana’s head garb things, behind her back?  Look at those in the middle right panel?  The heck?!

Kitty removed the tumor and now Doc Green is hemorrhaging.  He references Abomination hitting him, which happened in the fourth issue of this series.  Which I had to look up, on my own.

Hulk V3 9 Kitty 4

Kitty has the natural concern about killing a Hulk.  Magik immediately comes up with a plan to get rid of the body.

I can’t imagine what it must be like to wake up to someone talking about how they killed you while their friend talks about how to get rid of your body.  That has to be unsettling.

Magik is concern about yet another Avengers v X-Men nonsense.

Doc Green compliments Kitty on her good job.

Hulk V3 9 Shadowcat Magik 3

Doc Green has a teleporting device, proving he really doesn’t need Magik at all.  She really was only Kitty’s friend in this issue.  Which is pretty cool.

Kitty gets to reprise her famous, . . . is a jerk, that everyone just loves.

Cyclops makes a cameo and we end the X-Men section of the issue.  The rest is okay but since we are not getting issue ten (unless they reference Kitty, which might happen, or at some point in this future), the rest moves rather quickly.

The Beehive, a place of secret science for Doc Green.  Doc Green interrupts a conversation Jessup and Damon are having.  I guess they are research assistants of Doc Green.

Before going to sleep, Doc Green turns on the security system.  Bruce wakes up, he has the same hair style Doc Green has, which I’m not sure has always been the case.

I do like seeing Bruce and Hulk having a conversation, that seems like a classic element.

Betty Banner is no longer Red She-Hulk, and Doc Green has set bombs all over her house.  If Bruce doesn’t change back into Doc Green, her house will explode.

Doc Green comes back and falls asleep.  He has a dream of becoming the Maestro from Future Imperfect.  He wakes up, wanting to grow a beard.  Issue ends with him taking a blade to his hair, so I’m not sure what that has to do with growing a beard.

Next issue promises to have Doc Green fighting Red Hulk.