The Good , the Bad and the Ugly [11-28-12]

[SUPERECWFAN1]

#88

Its been close to a year since I did a Good , Bad and Ugly. But here its closing in on December. So why not. Why not dust off the latest , greatest reads and tell you the stuff that is worth getting. And what is utter crap to avoid. So here we go.

The Good


Indestructible Hulk #1 : The Hulk has had some weird situations the past few years. He's been exiled on an alien planet , he's came back and had a ton of other Hulk's happen and now the latest move is to make him join S.H.I.E.L.D . In this latest launch as part of Marvel Now , the company has the Hulk as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. The idea isn't as crazy as it sounds as S.H.I.E.L.D director Maria Hill is in a diner , waiting minutes it seems before an official action of the unit. Then in walks Bruce Banner.

Hill is alarmed but Banner tells her he's there for a reason. You see Banner has finally came to the conclusion as he worked on a cure alone for months , that he can't be cured of the Hulk. Its just a sad fact of live but he's gonna have to deal with being the Hulk forever and he finally has came to accept it. Banner also claims that when it came time to save the Universe from the Pheonix Force (read Avengers vs X-Men folks) that no one seemed to give the Hulk any credit. That everyone thanked the genius of Tony Stark and Reed Richard's . Banner wants to show he can be a genius himself and ranks right there with them.

So he offers a tradeoff to help humanity . He will come to work for S.H.I.E.L.D and as himself he will work on inventions and things to help. He offers something he created to Hill to help clean purified water for the Earth. As the Hulk , he will get pointed at a target and go to work destroying it. Because the Hulk can "SMASH" good . Hill is relunctant to take the deal but Banner claims he learned they are moving on the Mad Thinker's base in the small town in minutes. He tells her the Thinker is working on a massive weapon and there could be a lot of lives lost , but the Hulk can go in and save the day with no loss of lives.

Hill debates it and outside she hits Banner with a piece of wood to turn him. Once inside the Mad Thinker's HQ , the Hulk makes quick work of it all. Destroying the weapon . At the end in the rubble Banner lies there after changing back. Hill helps him out and tells him they have a deal.

The comic is very good. Leinil Yu has always been a very good artist and the art here isn't bad. Plus the story is so easy you don't have to read anything of the past. I credit Mark Waid for taking a silly concept ...The Hulk working for S.H.I.E.L.D ....and making it work. If ya get a chance check this one out.


Judge Dredd #1 : Dredd makes his way back to an American comics publisher. Years after the character was in the 80's and 90's Fleetway Comics , and the short lived DC 90's run ; Judge Dredd is now at IDW. The story is basically easy to follow...as we get narration that describes Mega City One. A city of the future that stretches for thousands of miles and has so many levels . The higher the level , the better the living arrangments. Only those poor live below .

The story begins as robots are slowly malfuctioning from doing their tasks. The biggest malfuction is the robotic fruit tree. Which is genetically created to grow fruit countless times. Well suddenly the tree starts exploding with fruit and it starts covering people with it. This shocks them as a group arrive and try to steal. The Judges arrive as Dredd arrests and gives out punishment. Giving one man 20 years for trying to bribe a judge after a sentence. Them as he goes after some punks who have stolen goods , the tree explodes with fruit again.

This helps the punks make their escape as Dredd finally decides that tree needs to go and blows it up. While his fellow judges tend to a fallen one who was shocked by a malfuctioning robot. As Judge gets to a lower level , he finds 3 of the punks have been savagely beheaded. He thinks the 4th one did it as he begs it was a robot. That one gets his head cut off as Dredd vows he's gonna discontinue the entire robot line !

The backup story is more funny as a shop owner has his story being robbed. The female robot he has as security doesn't seem to care to stop anyone and taunts the owner. This leads to her getting to his mind as his friend is trying to steal speaker wires. The owner chokes his friend to death as Dredd arrives and the robot claims she tried to stop the owner. Dredd gives him 20 years in the ice cube for it.

The main story is interesting to read. I wanna see how Dredd handles the malfuctioning robots and who is behind that. I also thought the backup was pretty funny. Its a dark funny story. IDW getting Dredd is pretty cool. The company now has licenses to Dredd , Dr. Who , Star Trek and more.


All-New X-Men #1 : This is a unique comic for the fact ...its the 1st X-Men by Brian Bendis (who has done wonders with Avengers and more) so now he's working on the X-Universe. In this story , it picks right up after the events of Avengers vs X-Men as the X-Men are fractured beyond belief. A house divided the group watches as Scott Summers leads his version of the team : Emma Frost , Magneto and Illyana Rasputin . This team is more like a milita and are saving those who are new mutants with force. A very revolution type talk as well.

After saving another young mutant and telling the world they will save whatever mutants they can , with force if needed ...the other group of Kitty Pryde , Storm , Iceman and Beast realize just how far Summers has went. That Summers is gonna expect them to clash with him and likely is preparing for it. But its what Iceman says to Beast that makes him stop and think. Why not have the past meet the future . So he travels back in time and meets the X-Men from an early age.

"Scott , we have to stop your future self from committing mutant geniocide..." - Beast.

Bendis leaves off on an exciting part. You really wanna see how these young X-Men meet their future selves and see what has changed. Bendis could shock me here. Because he usually struggles writing team books. This could be a very good story and he's also gonna be on the future Uncanny X-Men launching this spring.


Hellblazer #297 : Only 4 more issues to go before sadly the end happens. In this finale to the arc involving his recently found , long lost nephew ...John Constantine has to save him from being trapped in hell. He learns that his nephew has an evil step brother who is practicing magic. The brother as Constantine learns is pretty crazy. Declan has been so angry with jealousy over the years at his brother he's now used some spells to put him there for now.

Constantine goes to his place and is taken by surprise. He at 1st tries to pitch Declan on how he can teach him more magic and be better than he is. But the guy claims he would have done it years ago. He reveals that he's kept his mothers skeleton and her soul trapped in it. The spirit realizing more innocents could be harmed rips into Declan claiming she loved Finn (John's nephew) more and stabs him in the throat. Where she claims that she will never forgive herself for killing her son. That she loved both boys.

John tells her its ok and uses a spell to put her soul at peace. That she's been long over due to head to where her loved ones are and she's no longer trapped by Declan's magic. At the end Finn ends back home he has a nice reunion with his uncle. Who basically tells him its best they don't stay in touch. Later John gets with his departed sister and tells her , Finn is a doctor and successful. He tells Epiphany (his wife) that even Cheryl told him to not go around Finn and fuck his life up. Because with a Constantine that happens.

Its a good end to the story and one where it finished the arc where John Constantine went to hell for his sister. That her wish to find out what happened to her son and the twist he maybe a serial killer was a nice swerve there. I will miss this title a lot.


Batman #14 : "Death of the Family" . The Joker is back....and he's more twisted than ever. In this he's trapped Batman in acid that gave birth to him. Harley Quinn lured him there and finally Bruce manages to escape the acid. At home he learns to his horror , Joker has abducted Alfred ! He shows up at Gordan's home as Gordan goes over how Joker killed 20 of his men so easy . Suddenly Jim gets a papercut and starts bleeding massively . With luck Bruce gets him to a hospital in team as Joker used a chemical to make him bleed.

Nightwing (Dick Grayson) joins him on the roof as he details him about the case. Dick finally makes him stop talking in code as Bruce admits he loves Alfred like a father. But he has to stay calm and think. That he has to get his mind concentrated on what the Joker will do. Bruce believes he's redoing his entire past in a twisted way . He believes the Joker will try and posion the water supply next. Since it fits the pattern. Dick wants to go with him , but Bruce tells him he needs him on what he's doing there.

end of part 1 ...2nd part coming.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

At the bridge Joker and Batman have a show down as the Joker has wrote down everything about Batman in a book and knows he has a cave and friends. So he's gonna kill them all and its all gonna be Batman's fault. He has Bruce trapped with the laughing teeth as the bride explodes as well !

In the backup story we get the Penquin and Joker having a face to face meeting ...also the Joker has killed a lot of top Gotham criminals in families. The Penquin is stressed as he knows its gonna cause a mob war. But the Joker claims he will take credit for it , plus wipe out the Penquin's competition , if the Penquin does him a favor. The Penquin realizing he doesn't have much of a choice...does.

Scott Snyder's run is really hitting its best part with the Joker arc. I really love seeing the Joker screw with Batman's mind and drive him insane. Plus having the Joker and Penquin interact was a nice cool touch. Hopefully at some point the Joker gets his face back and worked on.


Amazing Spider-Man #697 : In this Spider-Man arc , the 2 Hobgoblin's are at war and its the final part of "Danger Zone". In the story so far , Roderick Kingsley (original Hobgoblin) has returned after being in South America. Angry that someone killed his brother and is using the Hobgoblin name. So he's came to New York to confront him.

Peter Parker and Max Modell are on the run as the 2 Hobgoblin's chase and fire pumpkin bombs at them for the Goblin key they have. A key which can be used to open a storage area of Norman Osborn's full of weapons he had. The Kingpin wants it . Finally Peter and Max get there and inside shield themselves from the 2 Hobgoblins outside. Peter's brain is on fire due to a fellow scientist who is working for the Kingpin making Spider-Jammers which send a pulse to kill his Spider-Sense.

As they work , Peter remembers lessons from Shang-Chi he learned about meditation during some karate lessons. He blocks out the horrible pain and is able to shut off his Spider-Sense to basically combat the Hobgoblins and give Max time to save Norah Winters who has a bomb following her. As Max saves Norah at the end the 2 Hobgoblins have a brief fight and Kingsley doesn't kill Urich. Instead he likes the kid and believes he can put his skills to use. He lets Urich stay as the Hobgoblin with a piece of the take going to him.

Its revealed that Kingsley has a franchise going as a villain (think Batman Inc in reverse) where he gets a percentage of what villains he creates in each country. He tells his servant a new Unicorn is gonna pop up in Russia after revealing that he liked the kid and let him stay the Hobgoblin.

I liked this storyline and wish Spider-Man wasn't rebooting after 700. I really enjoyed the whole Hobgoblin arc here. I know that the big last story is gonna feature Dock Ock as the end page shows us. I trust it will be good too.


Suicide Squad #14 : The Squad has lost one of its key members... Deadshot. To save the world , Floyd Lawton killed himself to kill Regulas . They are having him a Marine corps style funeral as much as Waller hates that. Waller explains that Lawton was a fool to kill himself. Captain Boomerang tells her that he did his job and did it to save everyone. Waller still doesn't agree as Harley Quinn is sad Lawton died and dressed like a grieving widow.

Its there that people suddenly pass out once it rains. It seems that the rain is part of a Joker toxin as he appears. Only due to exposure , Harley is immune to it. The Joker teases he will kill Waller or Digger (Boomerang). Or maybe he will dig up Lawton's body and just do bad things to it unless Harley does what he wants , and follows him. Harley agrees and later is seen post Batman 14 wanting to leave. Claiming she did what she agreed...

Later with the Squad , Waller and company awake . The one asks if they will alert the authorities about the Joker taking Harley Quinn or if they will contact Gotham to let Batman know. But Waller claims its a top secret project and they can't. Not now with it all. So they have to let her go. An experiment meanwhile is being done to regrow decomposed flesh by one scientist they freed. Elsewhere Yo-Yo visits King Shark and taunts him in his cell , claiming he knows why King Shark is there. Elsewhere El Diablo claims he's ready to let the dark side of himself free as the fire erupts in his cell...the sprinklers and flame gear knocks the flames out.

Waller visits Black Spider who turned against the Squad and tried to kill her last issue. The Spider claims that a war is coming with the heros. That they will one day decide to take over and only people like them know better. Waller leaves him hanging in his cell as he yells how right they are.

It will be interesting to see who Waller recruits for the Squad in #15. I also hope Lawton's not dead. We never saw the body so the 1st rule of comics is , no body...no death.


Walking Dead #104 : Rick and company watch as Negan has came for his part of the goods. As part of the group giving him loyalty now. The rest can't understand why Rick is allowing this to happen. But he is ...for now. Carl meanwhile gets so angry he sneaks and grabs a big gun. Then stows away in the truck...intent on dealing with this asshole himself.

Meanwhile Jesus is busy on a mission for Rick , trying to spy on where the location of Negan's group is. Jesus gets knocked out as they claim they are taking him in. Of course once they pull up to the walls , Jesus has left . It seems he faked being knocked out and just had them take him to where it was. The one claims to not say a word about this.

Inside the group finds Carl who comes out , gun firing. He wants to kill Negan but the gun is so big for him , it really falls outta his hands. Negan won't let anyone beat up a little kid. As he claims its a guest now. (Cue suspense music)

I suspect this is what will make Rick act. That he will go and kill Negan for keeping Carl. Of course I'm sure Negan will not expect them to find him as the 2 guys swore not to say a word for losing Jesus. So I suspect that will be what plays out. Walking Dead continues to roll on folks.


The Bad

Nothing was on the bad list.

The Ugly


Cyberforce #1 : Ok this one features everyones favorite 1990's Image team. Now redone for the 20th Anniversary of Image. The year is 2047 . And the Cyberforce are spread out and you...really don't recognize anyone from it. In fact the only one who's name I knew was Ripclaw...but he looks so radically different you wouldn't know him. In fact the story is a mess and jarbled. You don't know if the main character is in a flashback , waking from one ...or was it being detailed by someone else ?

The most sense I got from this was the one characters mother is trying to do a plan to do something with future Pitssburgh. We never learn the evil plan. Maybe she plans to destroy the Steelers football team. Maybe that is the evil plan. Some characters die , but they die off panel and I don't think anyone gave a shit for em.

All I can say is...thankfully this was free. If I paid $2.99 I'd be pissed. Because it sucks that bad. Even with some nice Marc Silvestre art.