Week-in-Review: Avengers - Childrens Crusade #8 / Kick-Ass v2 #6 / Teen Titans #4 / Extinction Seed #1

Welcome back folks to another round of picks from the releases in the week starting 29^th December, from us here at Comic Addicts! We're sure you're all excited to see whats on the menu so lets just dig right in!

Avengers : Children's Crusade #8 (of 9) (Marvel Comics)

Story: Allan Heinberg

Art: Jim Cheung, Mark Morales

Hold no doubt, this is probably the most important book in the Marvel Universe right now. Leading into Avengers vs. X-Men, and more importantly, dealing with three or four different ongoing plot points in Universe-616 (the main Marvel-U). It also contains Allan Heinberg’s and Jim Cheung’s much awaited return to the fan-favourite Young Avengers and this series has so far failed to disappoint. With this issue, we see the collective power of the Avengers, X-Men, X-Factor and the Young Avengers take on an omnipresent Doctor Doom. The individual motivations and agendas of every character who gets even a line in the book are well explored. Particularly well written is the Scarlet Witch, with the pain and guilt of her earlier actions (Disassembled, House of M, Decimation, etc...) reflected well in pretty much everything she says. Jim Cheung’s work is excellent as usual, with some big, bold widescreen action working in tandem with some beautiful visuals. There is also the possible death of one character, which is handled beautifully and will leave you surprised.

SCORE : 8.8/10

Kick-Ass v2 #6 (of 6) (Icon Comics)

Story: Mark Millar

Art: John Romita Jr.

I’m going to talk about art first. It seems rushed. For an issue that was supposed to be the one bloodbath issue that marks the return of Hit-Girl, the issue fails to shock, the one factor any Mark Millar book this side of the Ultimates is supposed to have. The colouring especially looks dull and out-and-out bad in the beginning of the issue, though it thankfully gets better as we read on. The issue sets up the final confrontation at Times Square, which was teased early on in the volume, but aside from the last 2 or 3 pages of book, the build-up seems underwhelming. Millar’s recent work, despite not having the sheer brilliance of, say, Ultimates v2, has still been entertaining. This issue, however, has none of that, and I would call it the weakest issue of Kick-Ass so far.

SCORE : 4.7/10

Teen Titans #4 (DC Comics)

Story: Scott Lobdell

Art: Brett Booth

Superboy and Wonder Girl slugging it out over Times Square? Check. Red Robin and the rest of the team finally coming together? Check. Smooth story-telling? Check again! This was one of the least likely to succeed series out of DC's New 52, with character changes and costumes that had many fans in an uproar – but this book came out fairly strong and has been getting better ever since. In this latest issue we are given a little more character time with Red Robin and the newly created Bunker and Skitter along with a group dynamic sampling when they are joined by Kid Flash and Solstice before they see the news. A potential problem point is we still have no further info on N.O.W.H.E.R.E and their evil motives and plans with super-powered teens/youths, and what this is and how long they take to reveal it will be a big part of how long readers stick with the series. But now they've sent in Superboy to bring in the hard on cases and so after an action packed encounter with the Amazon teen that lasts the whole issue, we end with a showdown for #5 that promises some Titans on Superboy brawling. I have to admit however, Booth's artwork is pretty good and I enjoy his layouts, but there is something in his faces from time to time, something in the details that takes away from his otherwise good work, I hope he is able to maintain more consistent in future issues.

SCORE : 7.5/10

Extinction Seed #1 (GG StudioComics)

Story: Davide Aicardi

Art: Livia Pastore

For some time no GG Studio's has been on my radar with some very interesting new titles and so I had to try out this new end-of-the-world book simply titled “Extinction Seed”, leaving very little room for doubt what the base-line is for the story. On the whole it appears to be fairly well-written and there is clearly a thought out plot to be developed here – if it's well thought-out or not, that only future issues will tell. We follow three young women in separate story-lines that run parallel, weaving a tale in 1963 and the present day, stories that will (one assumes) come together in an issue to follow. I enjoyed the high-octane pace that kept time for some character development and universe building, but with so much happening and just one issue, it felt a little rushed in the middle, by the end though it seemed to have reached a better place – hopefully #2 will have a better flow. The art was not mind-boggling, but overall Pastore has done a good job, his art has a dynamic and playful feel to it that makes an otherwise serious comic feel much faster and more enjoyable. A good first issue!

SCORE : 6.6/10

And so ends another week of comics, we hope you enjoyed this and will join us next week for more bullet-reviews! Same ComicAddicted-time! Same ComicAddicted-site!