Another Comic Week and a year older I am. Yep True Believers even the great and mighty blogger in the box ages! But what a week of comics to have on your Birthday.
This week’s Marvel Gravy train continued with all things NOW! This was also a week I had been looking forward to with the release of “All New X-Men”, even if Michael Bendis had taken over the House of X, I was determined to find the happy at the end of this rainbow! Also this week: Thor:God of Thunder #1, Fantastic Four #1 and X-Men Legacy #1 dropped along with the limited series 6 Guns on the Marvel Digital.
All New X-Men #1
The concept behind All New X-Men was intriguing to me. In some ways it reinvents the wheel and forces a fresh perspective on to the tired average Mutant storyline. The end of AvX left me with the feeling that X-men would go back to the “new mutant a week” story line, like a poorly written early “Smallville” episode. “All New X-Men” surprised me though, with younger versions of the Fab Five being brought back from the past to a future none of them prepared for.
Our favorite Blue Furry Kitten is going through a mid-life Mutant crisis and has the hope that a younger Scott can bring “Dictator” Cyclops back from the brinks. This brainchild of Bendis would actually bring Jean Grey back too. I mean how many times can someone resurrect a fiery redhead and still have a plausibly storyline!
Bendis’s X idea allows a fresh story line through the younger eyes of characters we’ve come to love without any of the recycled cliches usually used by the Comic industry. I give ANX a four and a half on the bible scale for ingenuity. I look forward to what this series has in store for the original five and the more weather wearied (now bad) Extinction team.
Thor: God of Thunder #1 and Fantastic Four #1
If you have been following this words smith for the past couple months, you know I focus more on the “X and A” world of Marvel. Like my Digital Coverage of “6 Guns”, I figured my readers need and want more. Lets be honest the whole Comic World doesn’t focus just on what I enjoy reading, oh if it did though.
This week had the drop of a new limited series “Thor: God of Thunder” which follows three eras of Thor as he hunts down the Butcher of Gods and “Fantastic Four” which gets a new redo for MarvelNOW with the first family plus kids going on a year journey.
“Thor: God of Thunder” is a good first issue, with some great art and a compelling storyline. I have always been a fan of this art style, focusing more on coloring outside of Liquid and more with a colored pencil feel. I like the creation of the new baddie “Butcher of Gods” and the chance to see a future “I’m more grizzled then Odin” Thor! This first issue gets a three and a half on the bible scale, not a must buy but definitely a must read.
I’ll be honest I have never been the biggest follower of the “Fantastic Four.” I have always felt like they were a part of Marvel’s past that should of stayed in the past. This new start for them is compelling though and I hope it does open up new stories for Marvel’s first Family. If your a FF fan this is something you will enjoy. Mr. Fantastic is worried that the molecular structure of there powers is breaking down and nothing in his known universe can help them. So they take a one year trip to explore other universes for a cure. Leaving behind a new Fantastic Four to keep our world safe.
Couple concerns I have always had with the FF though. Why does there children never age? I know time is relative in the Marvel universe but time does pass! There children have been the same age for decades! Also what the hell happened to Spider-man? I actually liked them better with the Future Foundation and Spider-man in all white. This reader gives FF#1 a two on the bible scale!
X-Men Legacy #1
This brings us to our last MarvelNOW new release for the week. “X-Men Legacy” follows the journey of David Haller the son of Xavier as he goes off in the world finally on his own. In my opinion this is a great idea with a god awful team working on it! Both the storyline and art is left needing more. I give this book a 12 issue run max, what a way to end a great series that started all the way back in the 90’s with X-Men #1. Unless something changes and they actually do something new with the son of Xavier I feel this will have a short life span. If any of you readers remember the run a couple years back during the “Age of X” storyline, you know David’s character has so much potential. I just hope Marvel also sees this and lets a new team take this series over before Simon Spurrier ends it. X-Men Legacy #1 gets the worst ranking I have given out yet, negative one bibles!
6 Guns #1-5
Going to do something a little different this week. While looking through Marvel’s Digital Comics I came upon a great series that passed me by when it was on shelves. “6 Guns” came out at the end of last year probably during the whole beginning of AvsX, hence why I missed it, but was just re-released on Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited. It’s a re-imagining of some classic “old west” Marvel characters set in modern times. The series follows former hero-for-hire Tarantula, Texas Ranger “Tex” Dawson, outlaw Biker “Black Rider”, Matt Slade and the always missed Two-Gun Kid. With a great page turning story by Andy Diggle and pencils that match the run and fun-feel of the book by Butch Guice and Jason Keith. This modern-day old west makeover deserves four bibles in my opinion and is worth a reread on the site!
Alright readers it’s my birthday and I wanna enjoy it and not write all day! Hope you enjoyed Marvel’s releases this week as much as I did! Also get ready next week drops more MarvelNOW #1’s: The Indestructible Hulk #1, Captain America #1 The end of Bendis’s run on Avengers (thank God), and the end of Luke Cage’s leadership of Dark Avengers. Also Deadpoo kills more dead presidents and Kid Apocalypse finds out whats at the end of his road less traveled!