Amazing Spider-Man #636 by Joe Kelly, Marco Checchetto and Michael Lark with a backup story by J.M. DeMatteis, Emma Rios and Max Fiumara and another backup by Stan Lee and Marcos Martin.
I was very interested in seeing how the writers would fix Spidey's death in the previous issue. I was happy that the explanation makes sense. Joe Kelly has really excelled in this series by making you think something is happening and something else happens. There is quite a bit of mysticism involved with the return from the dead of Kraven, but besides that, the story stays true to other Spidey stories where we don't get much mysticism.
This issue is not drawn by Michael Lark, despite my love for Lark's artwork, I was impressed with Checchetto as I hadn't realized it wasn't Lark for a bit. I also didn't notice a change when it changes back to Lark near the end of the issue. Great job by both of them.
I am interested with Kraven's reaction. He is very unhappy to be alive again. He has always been a bit unpredictable and now he is even more. I wonder what will happen. I am not thrilled at seeing him back, given that DeMatteis "Kraven't Last Hunt" was such a great comic, however, this story arc has been outstanding this far and I won't judge the resurrection yet.
The backup story was quite emotional. I was very saddened with Kaine's actions. It is interesting to see Kaine act heroically in the main story but act like a villain in the back up. An interesting reversal of roles. This is the best of the back ups between DeMatteis and Fiumara. Can't wait to see the ending of their mini arc.
The Spidey Sundays strip by Stan Lee and Marcos Martin was great. The page design by Martin is fantastic. I really liked it. Hard to know what will happen with the story since we only get two pages, but the art was really good. It seems like a nice memorable project.
Web of Spider-Man #10 by Fred Van Lente and Nick Dragotta with a backup by Marc Guggenhein and Sana Takeda.
The final part of the Extremist trilogy occurs in this issue. I have to say that I liked it a lot. The Extremist is an interesting new villain and I really liked how Spider-Man handled the situation. He used his intelligence and his humor to defeat the Extremist. This is a quintessential Spider-man issue. Fantastic.
The back up story was not bad. The art by Takeda is quite good. I don't really care for Jackpot, I thought she had died before so I am a bit confused. I also mostly forgot what happened in last month's issue, so I don't really understand Jackpot's urgency. However, this particular issue had an interesting ending and I liked the art, so overall I liked it. The main story was much better though.
Showing posts with label max fiumara. Show all posts
Showing posts with label max fiumara. Show all posts
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
Various Recent SuperHero Single Issues
Amazing Spider-Man #635 by Joe Kelly and Michael Lark with a backup by J.M. DeMatteis and Max Fiumara and another back up by Stan Lee and Marcos Martin.
I really liked this issue. In the last issue we get the cliffhanger of Ezekiel coming back from the dead so I was very interested in what would happen. In the end of the issue we find out that Ezekiel is actually the chameleon, which makes complete sense. I was surprised how well they fooled me. I like how Kelly has been playing with spiritual forces but at the same time doesn't go too far with them. Overall the issue was really good, with great artwork by Michael Lark and an issue full of action and intensity. I am looking forward to the rest of the series, specially considering the incredible cliffhanger at the end of the issue.
The first backup, which is written by J.M. DeMatteis is pretty good. This is the second issue in this storyline about Kraven. I liked Fiumara's artwork more here then in the previous issue, he seems to have gotten a better hold on how to draw Kraven and Kaine. The issue was pretty good, I really like the interaction between Kraven and Kaine.
The last backup, the two pages by Stan Lee and Marcos Martin are interesting. Not as good as in the previous issue, but it seems to be setting a funny series. These two pages don't work as well in isolation, but hopefully it will work well once we have all the package together.
Superman #701 by J.M. Straczynski and Eddy Barrows.
After a lackluster prologue in #700, Straczynski finally starts his Superman story called "Grounded" in which Superman walks across America to find his roots and why he is a hero. This issue has a few flaws, places where Superman says strange things (such as saying the world is unfair by mentioning that John Lennon is dead) and seems a bit pretentious at times (quoting Thoreau near the end), however I liked it in whole. I liked that Superman is not nice to reporters, given that I hate reporters that just follow celebrities. I liked that Superman cares about saving one life. The scene where he cares about a girl about to kill herself is pretty good, although one has to wonder about this scene, given that Morrison had just done this in an "All Star Superman" issue.
The artwork in the issue is not great, but it is not bad either. I think in terms of storytelling it is okay, he just sometimes doesn't draw Superman's face as perfect as I imagine Superman. Sometimes he nails it, sometimes he doesn't.
I am looking forward to the rest of the series. It was a much better issue than the prologue and I think that once Straczynski goes into rhythm we'll get better issues.
Irredeemable #15 by Mark Waid and Diego Barreto.
Issue #14 ended with the Plutonian coming at the Paradigm in full force, so this issue starts with a lot of action. The heroes have a secret weapon that can destroy the Plutonian, a bullet that has a special wax inside that is known to make the Plutonian vulnerable. One of the Paradigm's leaders, Qubit, doesn't trust the Orion, an evil alien that is helping the Paradigm destroy the Plutonian. There is a bit of a struggle between the Paradigm deciding whether to kill the Plutonian, in which case they would be vulnerable to Orion and not destroying the Plutonian now in hopes of finding a way later on. Besides all these problems, the Paradigm doesn't know that who they think is their resurrected friend Samsara, is actually the villain Modeus. In other words, all sorts of chaos is going on in this series and I love it. Anything can happen. The end of this issue was incredible, making a victory seem like a loss.
While I miss Peter Krause's artwork a bit, Diego Barreto does a fantastic job of covering him. The action scenes are well drawn and he is able to clearly show complex situations in the book. I like his artwork quite a bit.
Overall this series continues to impress. I am glad I gave it a chance last year and I will continue to read it for a while.
Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine #2 by Jason Aaron and Adam Kubert.
I had already forgotten the end of the first issue, so I was confused with how this issue started. However, I shouldn't worry about being confused anyways, because later on I realized that the writer just skipped months in time between the end of last issue and the beginning of this issue. Last issue was based in prehistoric times where Wolverine leads a tribe while Spider-man tries to figure out how to get back in time. At the end of the issue, Spider-man and Wolverine are thrown in time to the future, a future where humanity ended and instead of humans, ape-people rule the world. Ape-people are pretty friendly and in fact Spidey has been teaching them science these months.
The issue is quite good. Once the threat arrives, planet Doom, the issue becomes incredible. I can't believe how much detail Kubert is able to put in his art and I can't believe how outrageous this comic has been. Really fun, unpredictable and exciting. An excellent combination. I am looking forward to the rest of the series, I am very happy I am reading this series.
I really liked this issue. In the last issue we get the cliffhanger of Ezekiel coming back from the dead so I was very interested in what would happen. In the end of the issue we find out that Ezekiel is actually the chameleon, which makes complete sense. I was surprised how well they fooled me. I like how Kelly has been playing with spiritual forces but at the same time doesn't go too far with them. Overall the issue was really good, with great artwork by Michael Lark and an issue full of action and intensity. I am looking forward to the rest of the series, specially considering the incredible cliffhanger at the end of the issue.
The first backup, which is written by J.M. DeMatteis is pretty good. This is the second issue in this storyline about Kraven. I liked Fiumara's artwork more here then in the previous issue, he seems to have gotten a better hold on how to draw Kraven and Kaine. The issue was pretty good, I really like the interaction between Kraven and Kaine.
The last backup, the two pages by Stan Lee and Marcos Martin are interesting. Not as good as in the previous issue, but it seems to be setting a funny series. These two pages don't work as well in isolation, but hopefully it will work well once we have all the package together.
Superman #701 by J.M. Straczynski and Eddy Barrows.
After a lackluster prologue in #700, Straczynski finally starts his Superman story called "Grounded" in which Superman walks across America to find his roots and why he is a hero. This issue has a few flaws, places where Superman says strange things (such as saying the world is unfair by mentioning that John Lennon is dead) and seems a bit pretentious at times (quoting Thoreau near the end), however I liked it in whole. I liked that Superman is not nice to reporters, given that I hate reporters that just follow celebrities. I liked that Superman cares about saving one life. The scene where he cares about a girl about to kill herself is pretty good, although one has to wonder about this scene, given that Morrison had just done this in an "All Star Superman" issue.
The artwork in the issue is not great, but it is not bad either. I think in terms of storytelling it is okay, he just sometimes doesn't draw Superman's face as perfect as I imagine Superman. Sometimes he nails it, sometimes he doesn't.
I am looking forward to the rest of the series. It was a much better issue than the prologue and I think that once Straczynski goes into rhythm we'll get better issues.
Irredeemable #15 by Mark Waid and Diego Barreto.
Issue #14 ended with the Plutonian coming at the Paradigm in full force, so this issue starts with a lot of action. The heroes have a secret weapon that can destroy the Plutonian, a bullet that has a special wax inside that is known to make the Plutonian vulnerable. One of the Paradigm's leaders, Qubit, doesn't trust the Orion, an evil alien that is helping the Paradigm destroy the Plutonian. There is a bit of a struggle between the Paradigm deciding whether to kill the Plutonian, in which case they would be vulnerable to Orion and not destroying the Plutonian now in hopes of finding a way later on. Besides all these problems, the Paradigm doesn't know that who they think is their resurrected friend Samsara, is actually the villain Modeus. In other words, all sorts of chaos is going on in this series and I love it. Anything can happen. The end of this issue was incredible, making a victory seem like a loss.
While I miss Peter Krause's artwork a bit, Diego Barreto does a fantastic job of covering him. The action scenes are well drawn and he is able to clearly show complex situations in the book. I like his artwork quite a bit.
Overall this series continues to impress. I am glad I gave it a chance last year and I will continue to read it for a while.
Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine #2 by Jason Aaron and Adam Kubert.
I had already forgotten the end of the first issue, so I was confused with how this issue started. However, I shouldn't worry about being confused anyways, because later on I realized that the writer just skipped months in time between the end of last issue and the beginning of this issue. Last issue was based in prehistoric times where Wolverine leads a tribe while Spider-man tries to figure out how to get back in time. At the end of the issue, Spider-man and Wolverine are thrown in time to the future, a future where humanity ended and instead of humans, ape-people rule the world. Ape-people are pretty friendly and in fact Spidey has been teaching them science these months.
The issue is quite good. Once the threat arrives, planet Doom, the issue becomes incredible. I can't believe how much detail Kubert is able to put in his art and I can't believe how outrageous this comic has been. Really fun, unpredictable and exciting. An excellent combination. I am looking forward to the rest of the series, I am very happy I am reading this series.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Amazing Spider-Man
Amazing Spider-Man #631 by Zeb Wells and Chris Bachalo.
This is the second issue in the "Shed" story arc. The issue is very dark. Maybe the darkest issue I've ever read on Spider-Man. After the Lizard killed several scientists in the first issue, now he's heading towards his son. Spider-Man tries to stop him and he kind of those, except that the kid has been kidnapped by ana Kravinoff. Spidey doesn't know where the kid is and Spidey has to save the life of the foster mother, in the meantime the Lizard can track his kid through smell.
The art in this issue is interesting. The panels are often much thinner than normal and they create a sense of chaos. The story is not as easy to read from panel to panel because of it, but I think it works in the sense that it gives the book a chaotic feel.
Amazing Spider-Man #632 by Zeb Wells and Chris Bachalo.
After the intense ending to the previous issue, Spidey arrives to the scene to realize that Connors has Shed his skin. The Lizard is no longer Curt Connors. The Lizard has taken control and therefore is no longer human, it is completely reptilian. Not only that, but he has to power to tap into the primitive parts of other people's brains and make them act on instinct. This allows him to easily beat Spider-Man as Spidey's primitive brain tells him to flee (since the Lizard is a much bigger foe).
The ending on this issue is incredible. After reading this issue I really wanted to read the next one, specially knowing that the next issue would finish the storyline.
Amazing Spider-Man #633 by Zeb Wells and Chris Bachalo.
This is the last issue in the "Shed" storyline and it is fantastic. A block of New York City is in complete chaos due to the Lizard. Spidey has an antidote to prevent his primitive brain from taking control of him, but it does nothing on the Lizard, since the Lizard is all primitive brain now. However, during the fight, the Lizard seems to understand the good side of having a monkey brain, by noticing how men have created airplanes, buildings and other things. It was interesting. But the best part was that the issue was fun and exciting. The art really works with these fight scenes and I also like how the last third of the issue is drawn by Emma Rios, bringing a very different style for a different environment, helping the story too by showing the less chaotic side of things. It was also nice to see Aunt May come back to normal, although I wish there were a better explanation of why she was able to go back to normal.
Great issue and overall a fantastic Spider-Man storyline. The best I've read in a long time, at least 20 issues.
Amazing Spider-Man #634 by Joe Kelly and Michael Lark with a backup from J.M DeMatteis and Max Fiumara and another back up by Stan Lee and Marcos Martin.
This issue starts the long awaited "Grim Hunt". The Kravinoff family has been creating havoc on Peter's life for a while now and they are finally attacking him straight. The issue is very good. We get to see Spidey fighting alongside Arachne against Alyosha and Ana Kravinoff. We get to see a beaten up Kaine warn Peter. We get to see Ezequiel again (one of my favorite Spidey characters) and we get to see a little bit more of the Kravinoffs, finally understanding what they are trying to do (although without understanding why their plan will work). A solid issue, hopefully it will be even better than "Shed". Joe Kelly is a great writer and I have high hopes for the rest of this series.
The back up issue by J.M. DeMatteis wasn't that great. The art was interesting and the story was okay, but we don't get much out of the issue. I think overall the story will be okay, it seems to be leading up to a Kraven versus Kaine confrontation, which should be cool.
The other back up is only two pages. The art by Martin is pretty cool and the series seems to lead up to a funny storyline. The story seems to be a bit inspired by Pinky and the Brain. We'll see what Stan Lee can do with it. I am hopeful.
This is the second issue in the "Shed" story arc. The issue is very dark. Maybe the darkest issue I've ever read on Spider-Man. After the Lizard killed several scientists in the first issue, now he's heading towards his son. Spider-Man tries to stop him and he kind of those, except that the kid has been kidnapped by ana Kravinoff. Spidey doesn't know where the kid is and Spidey has to save the life of the foster mother, in the meantime the Lizard can track his kid through smell.
The art in this issue is interesting. The panels are often much thinner than normal and they create a sense of chaos. The story is not as easy to read from panel to panel because of it, but I think it works in the sense that it gives the book a chaotic feel.
Amazing Spider-Man #632 by Zeb Wells and Chris Bachalo.
After the intense ending to the previous issue, Spidey arrives to the scene to realize that Connors has Shed his skin. The Lizard is no longer Curt Connors. The Lizard has taken control and therefore is no longer human, it is completely reptilian. Not only that, but he has to power to tap into the primitive parts of other people's brains and make them act on instinct. This allows him to easily beat Spider-Man as Spidey's primitive brain tells him to flee (since the Lizard is a much bigger foe).
The ending on this issue is incredible. After reading this issue I really wanted to read the next one, specially knowing that the next issue would finish the storyline.
Amazing Spider-Man #633 by Zeb Wells and Chris Bachalo.
This is the last issue in the "Shed" storyline and it is fantastic. A block of New York City is in complete chaos due to the Lizard. Spidey has an antidote to prevent his primitive brain from taking control of him, but it does nothing on the Lizard, since the Lizard is all primitive brain now. However, during the fight, the Lizard seems to understand the good side of having a monkey brain, by noticing how men have created airplanes, buildings and other things. It was interesting. But the best part was that the issue was fun and exciting. The art really works with these fight scenes and I also like how the last third of the issue is drawn by Emma Rios, bringing a very different style for a different environment, helping the story too by showing the less chaotic side of things. It was also nice to see Aunt May come back to normal, although I wish there were a better explanation of why she was able to go back to normal.
Great issue and overall a fantastic Spider-Man storyline. The best I've read in a long time, at least 20 issues.
Amazing Spider-Man #634 by Joe Kelly and Michael Lark with a backup from J.M DeMatteis and Max Fiumara and another back up by Stan Lee and Marcos Martin.
This issue starts the long awaited "Grim Hunt". The Kravinoff family has been creating havoc on Peter's life for a while now and they are finally attacking him straight. The issue is very good. We get to see Spidey fighting alongside Arachne against Alyosha and Ana Kravinoff. We get to see a beaten up Kaine warn Peter. We get to see Ezequiel again (one of my favorite Spidey characters) and we get to see a little bit more of the Kravinoffs, finally understanding what they are trying to do (although without understanding why their plan will work). A solid issue, hopefully it will be even better than "Shed". Joe Kelly is a great writer and I have high hopes for the rest of this series.
The back up issue by J.M. DeMatteis wasn't that great. The art was interesting and the story was okay, but we don't get much out of the issue. I think overall the story will be okay, it seems to be leading up to a Kraven versus Kaine confrontation, which should be cool.
The other back up is only two pages. The art by Martin is pretty cool and the series seems to lead up to a funny storyline. The story seems to be a bit inspired by Pinky and the Brain. We'll see what Stan Lee can do with it. I am hopeful.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Amazing Spider-Man
I fell behind on Spider-Man reading and I've done most of it this week, today I'll post about Amazing Spider-man and this week I'll write two other posts, one on Web of Spider-man and another one on miscellaneous Spidey titles I've read recently.
Amazing Spider-man #525 by Joe Kelly and Max Fiumara.
This issue is sad, but Kelly does some great job with Spidey's dialogue throughout, making the story a little lighter, which I think is the way to do Spider-man.
Amazing Spider-man #526 by Fred Van Lente and Michael Gaydos.
The issue is good but not great. I liked seeing Spidey in trouble by temporarily losing his powers and I was interested in seeing the lady Scorpion as a character. The art worked better than I thought it would. I remember Gaydos from his work on Alias and I thought his style served better in noir stories than in Spider-man, but as Michael Lark has shown, noir style pencillers work great on Spider-man.
Amazing Spider-man #527 by Roger Stern and Lee Weeks.
This is the first part of a trilogy called "Something Can Stop the Juggernaut" that kind of serves as a sequel to the famous "Nobody can stop the Juggernaut". I was very interested in finding out who stopped the Juggernaut and I was glad that it was revealed in this issue.
Amazing Spider-man #528 by Roger Stern and Lee Weeks with a backup feature by Mark Waid and Todd Nauck.
The second part of the trilogy, this raises some good questions about who is Captain Universe, since he doesn't seem to understand his role as a superhero. We have a fun fight between Spidey and Captain Universe and Juggernaut joins in to create an interesting set up.
The backup feature was great. I really like how Todd Nauck draws Spidey and the supporting characters and the story itself was a fun quintessential Spidey story. Spider-Man has a job interview. The interviewer gets stopped in traffic due to a villain popping out on the street and so he interviews Spidey on the phone. Of course this becomes problematic once Spidey has to fight the villain in front of the car of the interviewer. Fun stuff.
Amazing Spider-man #529 by Roger Stern and Lee Weeks with a backup feature by Zeb Wells and Chris Bachalo.
The conclusion of the "Something Can Stop the Juggernaut" story is the best of the bunch, by far. First, we learn who Captain Universe is. Second, we learn how this connects to the "Nothing can Stop the Juggernaut" story. Third, we get a nice life lesson, another great take on "With Great Power comes Great Responsibility". This is a perfect story for Spider-man. Nothing very original, something a bit bizarre by having a cosmic power in the story, but a story that tells us what Spidey is all about.
The back up was pretty cool too. It is a prologue to the next storyline by Zeb Wells, called "Shed". It looks like it will be a much darker storyline, but it looks exciting.
Amazing Spider-man #530 by Zeb Wells and Chris Bachalo.
This is the first part of "Shed". We had a prologue in the previous issue and we also had a related story in a recent Web of Spider-man. The story will center on Dr. Connors.
The issue is very good. We get to see Connors having a bad life and slowly losing control to his reptilian side. We also see Spidey have some romantic problems as the Black Cat makes it very clear that she's not interested in a relationship, she just wants to have fun.
A really good issue that has me very excited about the next two parts in the story. I haven't been as excited about a Spidey story in many issues, not since Van Lente's chameleon story in the early 600s.
Amazing Spider-man #525 by Joe Kelly and Max Fiumara.
This issue is sad, but Kelly does some great job with Spidey's dialogue throughout, making the story a little lighter, which I think is the way to do Spider-man.
Amazing Spider-man #526 by Fred Van Lente and Michael Gaydos.
The issue is good but not great. I liked seeing Spidey in trouble by temporarily losing his powers and I was interested in seeing the lady Scorpion as a character. The art worked better than I thought it would. I remember Gaydos from his work on Alias and I thought his style served better in noir stories than in Spider-man, but as Michael Lark has shown, noir style pencillers work great on Spider-man.
Amazing Spider-man #527 by Roger Stern and Lee Weeks.
This is the first part of a trilogy called "Something Can Stop the Juggernaut" that kind of serves as a sequel to the famous "Nobody can stop the Juggernaut". I was very interested in finding out who stopped the Juggernaut and I was glad that it was revealed in this issue.
Amazing Spider-man #528 by Roger Stern and Lee Weeks with a backup feature by Mark Waid and Todd Nauck.
The second part of the trilogy, this raises some good questions about who is Captain Universe, since he doesn't seem to understand his role as a superhero. We have a fun fight between Spidey and Captain Universe and Juggernaut joins in to create an interesting set up.
The backup feature was great. I really like how Todd Nauck draws Spidey and the supporting characters and the story itself was a fun quintessential Spidey story. Spider-Man has a job interview. The interviewer gets stopped in traffic due to a villain popping out on the street and so he interviews Spidey on the phone. Of course this becomes problematic once Spidey has to fight the villain in front of the car of the interviewer. Fun stuff.
Amazing Spider-man #529 by Roger Stern and Lee Weeks with a backup feature by Zeb Wells and Chris Bachalo.
The conclusion of the "Something Can Stop the Juggernaut" story is the best of the bunch, by far. First, we learn who Captain Universe is. Second, we learn how this connects to the "Nothing can Stop the Juggernaut" story. Third, we get a nice life lesson, another great take on "With Great Power comes Great Responsibility". This is a perfect story for Spider-man. Nothing very original, something a bit bizarre by having a cosmic power in the story, but a story that tells us what Spidey is all about.
The back up was pretty cool too. It is a prologue to the next storyline by Zeb Wells, called "Shed". It looks like it will be a much darker storyline, but it looks exciting.
Amazing Spider-man #530 by Zeb Wells and Chris Bachalo.
This is the first part of "Shed". We had a prologue in the previous issue and we also had a related story in a recent Web of Spider-man. The story will center on Dr. Connors.
The issue is very good. We get to see Connors having a bad life and slowly losing control to his reptilian side. We also see Spidey have some romantic problems as the Black Cat makes it very clear that she's not interested in a relationship, she just wants to have fun.
A really good issue that has me very excited about the next two parts in the story. I haven't been as excited about a Spidey story in many issues, not since Van Lente's chameleon story in the early 600s.
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