WEEK IN REVIEW : American Vampire-Lord of Nightmares #1 + Avengers #27 + AvX Versus #3 + Deadpool #56 + Knight Errant - Escape #1

Welcome back to more new-release reviews! Today is dominated by Marvel titles because this week there were a bunch of new AvX related tie-ins that we knew folks would want to read.

But despair not if you have little interest in the Marvel Summer Event, there are a couple of less fighty-spandex titles on the list as well, starting with this Vertigo wonder that kicks the list off!

American Vampire: Lord of Nightmares #1 (Vertigo)

Story : Scott Snyder

Art : Dustin Nguyen

(Reviewed by Anirudh Singh)

Another Felicia Book story, and this one steeped heavily in Vassals of Morning Star lore. Needless to say you should not be picking this book up unless you are an American Vampire fan. And in case you are an American Vampire fan, then congratulations... you just found another American Vampire comic book. An awesome continuation of an awesome series. With only slightly less awesome characters.

What? I'm a Skinner Sweet fan okay. And Felicia just never did it for me.

But that doesn't mean she didn't do it for anyone. And even though I begrudge her slow yet inevitable takeover of the limelight in the American Vampire saga, I do respect her prowess and recognize her necessity. She is the perfect heroine for this saga. And it seems that the vassals of the Morning Star have let loose the perfect villain for the saga as well.

Review: Avengers vs. X-Men #5

A quick disclaimer before we start : It’s a little difficult to talk about this issue without dealing with the big elephant in the room spoiler regarding the identity of the new host of The Phoenix. He/she/they/it/I won’t be named here, but it’s safe to call this one a total game changer and a twist worthy of the first act of this massive story.

Special Review : Avengers vs X-Men #4

Marvel’s latest summer crossover event has gotten into high gear this week, with the launch of fan favourite writer Jonathan Hickman and industry legend John Romita Jr.’s Avengers vs X-Men #4, an issue that attempts to put all the cards on the table and setting up the conflict for the next issue, which is set to serve as the conclusion of "Act I" of the event.

CA EXCLUSIVE : Level 10 Comics' 1st Ever Crossover Teasers!

Exclusive : The Good People from Level 10 have News. 

We have Details.

(Click for eye-ball feeding super-sized goodness!)

The other day, Level 10 put up the above Devmalya Pramanik penciled image on their facebook page, teasing what appears to be the first instance of characters crossing over from different titles, and defining the common shared universe inhabited by the casts of Daksh, Shaurya and Northern Song, immediately putting plenty of fanboys in knee-deep intrigue territory.

Week In Review : Avengers #25 / B.P.R.D: The Long Death #3 / Batman #8 / Nighwing #8 / Ragemoor #2 / The Shadow #1

 Avengers #25 (Marvel)

Story : Brian Michael Bendis

Art : Walter Simonson

(Reviewed by Anubhav Sharma)

As I’ve said last week, I’m a big fan of Bendis penned event tie-ins, mainly because he gets the level of characterisation and depth stories as big as the events we’ve been seeing for the last half decade which may not fit in well with all the big action in the main books. At face value, one may not see how relevant this issue is to AvX as a whole, but deep down it gives much needed buildup on the Avengers side of the conflict at the core of the event, and serves as a bridge between the recent Osborn storyline and AvX. Captain America and the Protector, in particular, get their motivations fleshed out, which explains some of the former’s decisions in AvX so far and the latter’s solicited actions.

Of course, one can’t talk about this issue without talking about the return of legendary artist Walt Simonson to Marvel. With modern colouring techniques showing is art in a new light, it’s safe to say it as the same level of dynamism he was known for at his best. Also, is Thor particularly looks as majestic as ever.

SCORE : 8.2 / 10

Special Review: Avengers vs X-Men #2

 

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Story : Jason Aaron (script); Jason Aaron, Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Jonathan Hickman & Matt Fraction (story)

Art : John Romita Jr. (pencils), Scott Hanna (inks) and Laura Martin (colours)

After Brian Bendis set the stage for this epic conflict between two of Marvel’s biggest franchises a mere fortnight ago, this week sees the launch of Avengers vs. X-Men #2, with John Romita Jr. continuing on artwork.

The issue mainly features an out and out brawl between the two teams on the shores of Utopia as the Phoenix Force draws nearer to the Earth.

Week In Review: '68 Scars #1 / New Avengers #24 / Rich Johnston's Iron Muslim #1 / Saga #2 / Secret #1

'68 Scars #1 (Image Comics)

Story : Mark Kidwell

Art : Nat Jones

(Reviewed by Anubhav DasGupta)

I didn’t know what the hell ’68 Scars was before I read the comic. Turns out it’s about Zombies in the year 1968, at the height of the Vietnam war.

It starts out horribly with an unfunny, politically incorrect gag. It somewhat improves afterwards.

There are three stories in this comic. Two take place in Vietnam during the height of the war, and one concerning two Chinese immigrants takes place in Chinatown, New York. All of these aren’t very good, merely passable, and one of them is absolutely awful.

Each panel is cluttered with a lot of dialogue, none of which is particularly good, with most of them falling into the category of “it gets the job done”. The art is just okay. It surely would have benefited from a better inking and colouring job. While the inking is somewhat passable, the colouring is just horrendous. Everything looks dull and bland. It tries to be gritty by borrowing the colour palette of every Vietnam movie ever, but fails miserably in that aspect. In my opinion, it would have fared better if it were a black and white comic.

REVIEW: Avengers vs. X-Men #1

It’s that time of the year, folks!

After the more character focussed issue #0, all the AvX action begins this week with the launch of the much awaited Avengers vs X-Men #1 – and legions of fanboys could not be more excited!

Also, before I get going, you are hereby warned of some Spoilers ahead.

John Romita Jr. handling art might be part of the reason, but the opening of the issue does seem to feel a lot like the opening of your generic Bendis-penned Avengers arc, which makes me wish the build-up on the Avengers camp had been more at par with the that of the X-Men.

While the dialogue is expectedly well done, Nova’s arrival serves the purpose of giving us some action before the main conflict is set to begin in later issues. 

Click image to enlarge

Week In Review: Atomic Robo – Real Science Adventures #1 / Avengers vs. X-Men #0 / Avenging Spider-Man #5 / Deadpool MAX II #6 / Ferals #1 / The Avengers #24.1

We're back folks! Here's Round 2 of this week's reviewing for your reading pleasure. 


Atomic Robo – Real Science Adventures #1 (Red5)

Story : Brian Clevenger

Art : Ryan Cody, Yuko Oda, Chris Houghton John Broglia Joshua Ross

(Reviewed by Akshay Dhar)

More Atomic Robo!! Whoohoo!! If there's a book/comic/character that I love as shamelessly and undoubtedly as fellow reviewer Anant loves Deadpool, it's Robo – Atomic Robo. Period.

From the first issue of the first series this has been one of the most amazing and unique series with some of the most original, creative and clever writing and this latest outing raises the bar yet again. Clevenger ups his game by changing tactics AGAIN. Previously Robo has started in a series of mini-series with no regard to chronological order (that I've personally noted anyhow) and reads like an old school just-having-a-blast comics. This time around however, we have a series of five short stories here – three are done-in-one style simple adventures while two are the first part of (unconnected except through Robo) multi-part stories that will presumably carry on through the remainder of this series of “Real Science Adventures”. I'll tackle them in order for you:

The Definitive Collection of Pre-release Avengers Footage

In the past, there have been moments in Geek Culture that saw the world take notice and stand in awe. In terms of pure excitement, the release of The Phantom Menace was one. So was The Death of Superman, which got unprecedented media coverage. The inclusion of Watchmen into Time’s list of 100 best novels still makes us proud. More recently, the Christopher Nolan Batman movies have revolutionized the way Hollywood looks at Superheroes.

Come April, it appears we have potentially another such moment in our hands.

Unless you’ve been off-planet for the last half decade or so, you are aware of the upcoming The Avengers film, which hits Indian Theatres on the 27^th of April, as a culmination of the four movies Marvel Studios has released so far.

Listed here is most of the pre-release footage from and related to the film currently available, for your nerdgasmic viewing pleasure.

AvX in Waiting : 10 X-Men To Watch

Welcome back everyone!
We hope you're all looking forward to some happy weekend relaxing and revitalising after an enjoyable Holi holiday!

To give you some food for thought and some more insight as the week comes to a close, we bring you this second installment of our series of articles to lay some groundwork before AvX (a.k.a. Avengers versus X-Men) kicks off in a few weeks - we figured you don't have to do any needless homework on all this if we do it for you!

With that in mind, we did a rundown on The Avengers last week and this week that's continued with everyone's favourite Mutants:

10) Magneto

If you haven’t been following the X-Men books over the past few years, what you need to know is that not only is the allegedly former mutant terrorist a part of the X-Men, but a very important factor in the merry mutants’ leadership equation. Expect Magneto to take the offensive against the Avengers in a big way.

9) Angel

After his fall during The Dark Angel Saga in the pages of Uncanny X-Force, Warren Worthington III is now a clean slate with no memories of his past. Also, he appears to have gained the ability to bring people (and puppies!) back to life. Does that remind you of a cosmic force famous for corrupting a founding X-(Wo)man? Cause it should.

AvX in Waiting : Ten Avengers to Watch out for

With some time yet to pass for Marvel’s latest much-awaited summer event – Avengers vs. X-Men – we here at Comic Addicts realised that now would be a good time to start off with our speculations and expectations from the event in the form of a series of articles.

Today, we’re gonna talk about those in the ranks of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes who, in this writer’s humble opinion, should play some pretty big roles.

10) Beast

As of right now, Beast seems pretty likely to stay on team Avengers, especially considering all his disagreements with Scott Summers over the last few years over the direction of the latter’s leadership of the mutants. However, what makes his position in AvX interesting is the likelihood of at least some fraction of the Jean Grey Institute faculty siding with their fellow mutants, as well as his recent interaction with the now anti-Avengers Wonder Man.

Comic Con Special Review : Daksh 1-4

Courtesy the fine people at Level 10 comics, the Indian comic book geek finally has something to hand the irritating buggers who follow the retarded notion of comic books being for kids. After the success of the first issue in the independent creator-owned edition of the Comic Jump anthology, and the subsequent excellent fan reception of the second issue, we now have our hands on the first four issues, thanks to the launch of the Daksh Graphic Novel at this year’s Comic Con India.

Week-in-Review: Battle Scars #4 + Conan the Barbarian (2012) #1 + Fantastic Four Season One GN + The Ninjettes #1 + Scarlet Spider #2

Another week, another set of comics for you to read! Well as we've endeavored to do every single week (and plan to keep doing) my fellow Addicts, we bring you another round of selective bullet reviews of what's what among this week's releases. So without wasting any more time, lets get to it!

Battle Scars #4 (of 6) – Marvel Comics

Story: Chris Yost (with Cullen Bunn & Matt Fraction on plots)

Art: Scott Eaton

(Review By: Anubhav Sharma)

*SPOILER ALERT*

The “biggest secret in the Marvel Universe” gets revealed in the new issue of Battle Scars, and it’s something that pretty much everyone already knew, courtesy the internet. So yes, Marcus Johnson is actually Nick Fury’s son, and he’s poised to lose an eye in the next issue and fill up the reservation for a one eyed African American director of SHIELD just in time for the Avengers. The issue reads a little too fast, with too little happening in too much time. Here’s a summary : He meets Deadpool, Taskmaster, the Serpent Squad and ultimately his father. Scott Eaton’s art has messed up anatomy in plenty of places and generally fails to add any excitement to the fight sequences.

SCORE : 4.2/10

Conan the Barbarian #1 – Dark Horse Comics

Story: Brian Wood

Art: Becky Cloonan (drawings), and Dave Stewart (colours)

(Review By: Rijul Partha)

It has been so long since I last read a Conan comic (nearly 1½ years) and even longer since I read a Conan novel, that I have nearly forgotten the specifics of the Cimmerian's adventures. This, then, marks the return of a lapsed reader. The quality of the Conan comics has always been high (as with other Robert Howard properties - Kull: The Cat and the Skull being a recent example) and for this title, expectations were high, with Wood 

being known for quality storytelling in Demo, Northlanders and DMZ. I am pleased to report that he does not falter, and delivers a cracking first issue to the series.

10 WAYS TO GET YOUR MIND OFF THE AVENGERS MOVIE

 -A list by Anubhav Sharma

1) Watch every Marvel Studios movie. Repeatedly.

Shiny!!

Wishing Well : Indian Comics in 2012

 In a lot of ways, the future will remember 2011 as the year the Indian comic-book geek came out of the closet. The success of the first ever comic-book conventions in the country being held in Delhi and Mumbai went a long way in illuminating fanboys in regard to the presence of their fellow comic addicts.

It’s a year that saw Ravan’s side of the story, the beginning of an indigenous Martial Arts epic, Shiva finding his way back into comic books, the conclusion of India’s first home-grown Zombie comic book series and an arguably ballsy move from print to digital (and free), among many other exciting prospects.

Keeping in mind all these developments, It’s difficult not to imagine what this oh-so-beautiful monster, currently in its infancy, is going to grow into tomorrow. Bear in mind, however, that this is all just speculation and wishful thinking, but its fulfillment would make this little geek very happy:

A Shared Universe

In my mind, this is the one thing from a creative point of view that needs to happen soon. We are already seeing the seeds being sowed for this, with Yumi coming to a computer screen near you soon, as a Shaurya spinoff, but there is still quite a long way to go. The reason a shared universe is important is that it opens a whole world (literally) of literary possibilities, and helps give multi-dimensional looks at a character and settings. If the upcoming Avengers movie can’t convince you it’s awesome, I don’t know what will. Picture the cast of Shaurya stuck in a zombified Bangalore or a Daksh-spinoff Ravana escaping from hell into the modern day, keen for redemption.

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

NEW COMICS: Zero-day bullet reviews - Avengers X-Sanction/The Ray/The Strain

Welcome Addicts to the inaugural week-in-review from ComicAddicts.com - a space we are planning to bring you a selection of the comics released that week in short, quick and easy reviews to help you see keep track of whats good and bad with each Wednesdays releases!

This week we kick-off our reviewing with review by Anubhav and Akshay, our comic obsessed work-horses who brought you the blow-by-blow every week for the DC Comics "New 52" releases. 

First out of the gate, the hotly anticipated Avengers: X-Sanction by superstar creative duo, Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinessas reviewed by Anubhav Sharma

(Click to enlarge)

Avengers X-Sanction

Ah Loeb, you make me sad.

Avengers: X-Sanction reunites the Jeph Loeb – Ed McGuiness creative duo that first brought us the Red Hulk (a.k.a "Rulk"). And its Déjà vu all over again. It’s all back: mindless smashing, every character who is not the protagonist is dumbed down, people acting out of character all over the place. This certainly does not fit well with Loeb’s earlier amazing work. Continuity errors aside (I thought Radioactive Man was a good guy now?!), and despite some unexpectedly good character work in the future sequence, this series does look like something you can miss, even if you’re looking forward to Avengers vs. X-Men. There is some extremely horrible dialogue involved, which, along with out and out bad pacing, gives the reader the feeling of nothing really happening throughout the issue. I’ve never been a very big fan of Ed McGuiness’ art, but in some ways, it is the almost-saving grace of the book with some big screen action and things blowing up.

As a book I was really hoping to like, a big disappointment.

Verdict: 5.2/10

Next up we have a double review (in keeping with the New 52 reviews) of DC's reinvention of The Ray:

Marvel New Galore : The Phoenix Returns as Bendis quits Avengers

This week Marvel announced their next big summer event in the form of ‘Avengers vs. X-Men’ a 12-part crossover being written by the Marvel Architects (Bendis, Hickman, Brubaker, Aaron and Fraction) with Art duties being handled by John Romita jr., Oliver Coipel and Adam Kubert. 

Click to enlarge!

What You should Be Reading : Jason Aaron’s Wolverine

Wolverine is arguably the most famous comic book character created this side of the 70’s. However, regardless of your view on that debate, he certainly is the most overused and burnt out character in contemporary comics books. As a member of the Avengers, leader of half the X-Men, Principal of The Jean Gray Academy, Protector of China Town and struggling father - it’s safe to assume he has a pretty busy life. So much so that, with all his appearances, readers were all pretty much getting more of the same week after week.
That was of course, before Jason Aaron (Scalped, PunisherMAX) began his work on the character.

Wolverine : Weapon X

(click to enlarge)

This is where all the madness of the current run started. After the main Wolverine title was handed over to Logan’s son Daken, Marvel announced the new ongoing Wolverine: Weapon-X by rising star Jason Aaron. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Aaron’s work, this guy has a very twisted mind and is a very mind-blowing storyteller. With Weapon-X, Aaron gave us Wolverine as he was always supposed to be written: Badass, yet intellectual and sophisticated. In Weapon X, without too many details, we have one excellent arc after one another, some delving deep into his mind while others unleash the animal. Oh yeah, he gets a girlfriend too. Bet you wanna read this book now, dontcha.

... and Emma Frost is amused

Wolverine : The Red Right Hand Saga

With the relaunch of the Wolverine family of titles in 2010, Jason Aaron got the well deserved title of the de-facto Wolverine writer. With an initial run of arcs lasting seventeen issues, Aaron scripted a tale of Wolverine answering for past crimes from a mysterious organization called The Red Right Hand. I’m not gonna give away too much, but you can guess these are essentially people who are pretty miffed with Logan, and have something worse than death in store for him.