Sorry about the delays, but I’m still trying to get caught up on reviews for the last few months…
Daken – Dark Wolverine #6 (Marvel) – This is a consistently well-made comic. Daken isn’t my favorite character, but he is always interesting and there is a lot of room for good writers to explore him. Daniel Way and Marjorie Liu tell a good tale here.
Story: 9 Art: 8 Overall: 8.5
Daken – Dark Wolverine #7 (Marvel) – I’m not a big fan of Madripoor stories and have never really liked them, but if a character more fits into the setting than Daken, I’m not sure who it is.
Story: 8 Art: 7 Overall: 7.5
Daken – Dark Wolverine #8 (Marvel) – For me the jury is still out on whether or not X-23 is a good character, but I definitely do not like Gambit. It makes sense to have Daken and X-23 interact, though, so this storyline isn’t without merit.
Story: 7 Art: 8.5 Overall: 7.75
Daken – Dark Wolverine #9 (Marvel) – Not sure I’m fully on board with this Daken-X-23 crossover, but there is a lot of great art in this issue from Marco Checchetto.
Story: 7 Art: 9 Overall: 8
Daken – Dark Wolverine #9.1 (Marvel) – There is still a lot of room to explore the relationship between Daken and Wolverine and this is a good entry into the ongoing story.
Story: 9 Art: 8.5 Overall: 8.75
Daken – Dark Wolverine #10 (Marvel) – The execution here isn’t perfect, but there are a lot of things to like in this issue. Rob Williams introduces Daken to a drug addiction that is brilliantly shown by artists Matteo Buffagni and Riley Rossmo. The issue also introduces a great new female character, Donna Kiel, an FBI agent on Daken’s trail. I’d like to see her used a lot more.
Story: 8 Art: 8 Overall: 8
Daken – Dark Wolverine #11 (Marvel) – Basically following up on all the elements of the previous issue, this one executes them a bit better and adds Taskmaster, one of my favorite Marvel characters of late, to the mix. I’m a fan.
Story: 8.5 Art: 8 Overall: 8.25
Daken – Dark Wolverine #12 (Marvel) – Buffagni and Rossmo’s art is adequate during the regular story, but stellar during the scenes where Daken is on heat. Williams story continues to get even better, with Daken setting up a complex heist plan that is very original and then has Donna Kiel figure it out.
Story: 9 Art: 8 Overall: 8.5
Daken – Dark Wolverine #13 (Marvel) – Adding Moon Night and the questionable portrayal of his mental illness to the mix doesn’t really help, but it doesn’t really hurt, either.
Story: 8.5 Art: 8 Overall: 8.25
Daken – Dark Wolverine #14 (Marvel) – This is a complex and entertaining story and I can’t wait until the next issue comes out so I can figure out what the hell is happening.
Story: 9 Art: 8 Overall: 8.5
Wolverine – Deadpool: The Decoy #1 (Marvel) – I’m trying to figure out a reason this story was published and I’m drawing a blank. The main story, meant, I guess, to reinforce all the same qualities of Wolverine and Deadpool we’ve seen a million times. The back-up story with the Great Lakes Initiative is designed, I think, to make you feel less crappy about wasting money on this comic. It doesn’t work.
Story: 6 Art: 6.5 Overall: 6.25
Wolverine: Debt of Death #1 (Marvel) – This isn’t a bad story, but it doesn’t really add anything new to the long tale of Wolverine and it seems overly familiar, as if we’ve read this story before. David Aja’s art is very nice, though, and it’s worth a look.
Story: 7 Art: 9 Overall: 8
Wolverine: The Best There Is # (Marvel) – I’m not sure why they don’t just call this Wolverine MAX, since that’s what it is. Which means pointless and excessive violence, sexual references and bad jokes. Juan Jose Ryp’s art is way too busy and cartoonish for me and it seems out of sync with the story.
Story: 6 Art: 5 Overall: 5.5
Wolverine: The Best There Is #5 (Marvel) – This one is a little better than the previous Contagion chapters, but not by much.
Story: 7 Art: 5 Overall: 6
Wolverine: The Best There Is #6 (Marvel) – If this series didn’t star Wolverine, one of my all-time favorite characters, I would’ve stopped reading it long ago, since the quality is poor and the intent behind that low quality isn’t that great in the first place.
Story: 6 Art: 5 Overall: 5.5
Wolverine: The Best There Is #7 (Marvel) – This is probably Ryp’s best art in the series to date and now that the story is moving away from Contagion, it’s much better. Wolverine’s recovery from his full range of diseases is the best the series has been to date.
Story: 9 Art: 7 Overall: 8
Wolverine: The Best There Is #8 (Marvel) – Ryp’s art continues to improve and there are a lot of good panels in this comic, despite much of it still being too cluttered and busy. The story isn’t bad, but I’m not sure it’s holding my interest.
Story: 6 Art: 7.5 Overall: 6.75
Wolverine: The Best There Is #9 (Marvel) – Whatever momentum the series had been gaining in recent issues, this is a setback for it. It looks bad and the story is dull and offensive
Story: 5 Art: 6 Overall: 5.5
Wolverine #5.1 (Marvel) – Pretty creative tale here, as you have all of Wolverine’s friends getting together for a suprise birthday party that Logan, of course, can’t make it to because he’s caught up in a Wrong Turn-style story. Very entertaining tale from Jason Aaron.
Story: 9 Art: 8 Overall: 17
Wolverine #6 (Marvel) – The aftermath of the “Logan Goes to Hell” story is interesting, particularly with the look into Scott Summers’ brain and the heavy load he carries in terms of having to plan to take out all of the members of his race if they were to get too powerful and go down the wrong track. The “Wolverine Protocols” is an idea that is traceable back to the Dark Phoenix saga and is good writing again from Aaron.
Story: 9 Art: 7.5 Overall: 8.75
Wolverine #7 (Marvel) – Daniel Acuna’s art is at its best here and Aaron continues to show he’s a name that should be quickly rising up the ranks of comic book writers. Logan’s internal battle here is as well-done as the external combat against his teammates.
Story: 9.5 Art: 9 Overall: 9.25
Wolverine #8 (Marvel) – Another great issue, this one has some of the funniest moments in Wolverine history and it’s great to see characters like Nightcrawler and Phoenix back, even if they are only in Logan’s head. The ending is also a pretty chilling moment.
Story: 10 Art: 9 Overall: 9.5
Wolverine #9 (Marvel) – Wolverine vs. Mystique seems a story we’ve seen enough times already that we don’t need to really see it again. That being said, the creative team on this comic is good enough to make any tale, even one retold this often, fresh enough.
Story: 8.5 Art: 8.5 Overall: 8.5
Wolverine #10 (Marvel) – The art isn’t as good this time around, but this is an intriguing opening chapter to a good Wolverine story.
Story: 8.75 Art: 7.75 Overall: 8.25
Wolverine #11 (Marvel) – Some of the characters here are not my favorites, but the story structure is good and gets you a lot of information that will pay off later.
Story: 8.75 Art: 7.75 Overall: 8.25
Wolverine #12 (Marvel) – This series is very consistent at this point, with great writing, art that is good enough and beautiful covers by Jae Lee et al.
Story: 8.75 Art: 7.75 Overall: 8.25
Wolverine #13 (Marvel) – This story keeps getting better and better. It’s a revenge tale aimed at Wolverine for his past sins. The mystery is that there is something bigger going on here than what we know at this point and the cliffhanger ending here leaves you very intrigued.
Story: 9.5 Art: 7.5 Overall: 8.5
Wolverine #14 (Marvel) – If the art was a bit better here, I’d consider this a perfect comic. That being said it’s still one of the most shocking endings to a Wolverine story ever, and that’s saying a lot. No one could’ve predicted where this tale was headed.
Story: 10 Art: 7.5 Overall: 8.75
Wolverine #15 (Marvel) – It’s hard to follow up a shocking story like the previous issue and not have a let down, but Aaron manages to pull it off. The art doesn’t measure up, though. Kevin Smith and John Romita Jr.’s 9/11 back-up story is amazing.
Story: 9.5 Art: 7.5 Overall: 8.5
X-23 #6 (Marvel) – X-23, Gambit, Mr./Miss Sinister, art that is pretty good, story that isn’t groundbreaking. Meh.
Story: 7 Art: 7 Overall: 7
X-23 #7 (Marvel) – The art here is a bit better, even if it is too anime for my tastes. The story has Gambit and pirates, so, in other words, not much going for it.
Story: 6 Art: 7.5 Overall: 6.75
X-23 #8 (Marvel) – This one looks a lot better and bringing in Daken is a good idea, but it still seems like the series isn’t really exploring the character the way it should and could.
Story: 7 Art: 8 Overall: 7.5
X-23 #9 (Marvel) – Marjorie Liu’s best writing in this series to date is matched up with continually improving art. Now if they’d just get rid of Gambit.
Story: 8 Art: 8.5 Overall: 8.25
X-23 #10 (Marvel) – Back to Sana Takeda’s anime-style art and an appearance by Wolverine and vampire Jubilee make this issue passable, but not great.
Story: 7 Art: 7.5 Overall: 7.25
X-23 #11 (Marvel) – Takeda’s art is a bit better here and the vampire-themed tale is mildly interesting.
Story: 7.5 Art: 8 Overall: 7.75
X-23 #12 (Marvel) – This is Takeda’s best art on the series and the vampire story really kicks it up a notch here. This is the best issue of the series to date.
Story: 9 Art: 8.5 Overall: 8.75
X-23 #13 (Marvel) – Phil Noto brings a pretty different style to the issue’s look and Liu brings in more guest stars, this time Spider-Man and the FF. I’d like to see some of these issues get rid of the crossovers and focus on developing X-23 on her own.
Story: 8 Art: 7.5 Overall: 7.75
X-23 #14 (Marvel) – This really much more of an FF issue than an X-23 issue and taken that way, it’s not bad. The final panel is awe-inspiring. I’m still disappointed that we aren’t getting enough X-23 in her own comic.
Story: 8 Art: 8 Overall: 8
5. Beak: Beak is an ugly, mostly powerless mutant bird-guy thingy. He’s mostly a liability up until the point when he is depowered and he might actually look even stupider. His name is Barnell Bohusk. Seriously. He recently got a makeover into Blackwing and it’s a major improvement.
4. Gambit: I’ll probably catch the most flak for this one, but I’ve always thought Gambit was a bad character. He has a horrible stereotypical accent, he throws playing cards as his weapon and he’s had some of the most cliched and dull stories written about him over the years. He’s been written into a corner, such that later writers have little chance but continue him down the same dull path. X-Men comics always get worse when Gambit is around.
3. Slapstick: Do I really have to explain this one? Look at the picture. He’s a cartoonish clown who has the powers of a Looney Toons character. Really.
2. Nanny: Nanny is a giant egg-shaped “woman” who steals adults and makes them her children. Literally. Plus she’s a giant egg.
1. M.O.D.O.K.: M.O.D.O.K. is a giant head with useless little arms and legs. His name is an acronym for “Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing.” That name alone is enough to get him on the list, but he makes it to the top of the list because he’s a giant head with useless little arms and legs.
One of the cool finds at this year’s Gen Con was the company Cool Mini or Not. They’ve got some great figures but what really stood out was their premium miniature line called Knight Models. The figures so far fall into two categories, Star Wars and Marvel. They are beautiful to look at but run a decent price of $64.99 to $119.99 for the Marvel ones.