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.

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. 

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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:

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.

M’s Pull List: Weekly Ramblings

Welcome to the first edition of M's Pull list. This column provides some skewed views on the latest comics released in this week! Don't forget to drop us a line in the comment section below to let us know what you thought of them.

Aquaman meets Parallax'ite wannabe

 Aquaman #4 : I am sorry guys, but I seriously do not get all the praise Aquaman is getting. Yes he is a badass., we get it.. so just lay off and focus on the story. And please less compressed storyline. Four issues in and Aquaman has just saved a few people from the villain of the day ! Bah! I liked Peter David’s run, much better. 

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. 

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