Comic Review: Marvel Adventures Hulk #7

This kind of story is what made Marvel great. Bruce Banner, Rick Jones, and their sidekick, Monkey, have been attempting to fix Bruce's "little" Hulk problem. This time, they are confronted with some good old smackdown between the Silver Surfer and Terrax, and our man shiny-boy isn't doing too well. Bruce is obliged to turn into Hulk to help out. But wait! Surfer is unable to persue Terrax after he steals his board, so he must give his power cosmic to hulk! and rick! and Monkey! although with the power cosmic, Hulk is in control of his actions, and can switch back to Banner at will, he still gives the power back to the Surfer at the end, cause it's what's right.

Also, there's a lot of hilarity in between.
I wish i was at school with my scanner, but here's some choice quotes:

Silver Surfer: Hulk! If.. we fall... Earth... d... Devastated!
Hulk: World break?

Silver Hulk: You want a lesson, Terrax? With great power comes great smashability!


{I shall insert awesome scans here at a later date}



The storytelling in this series is concise and amusing and filled with some good old fashioned punchination. If you are not reading the Marvel Adventures Hulk series, I suggest you start now, or risk missing even more Monkeytastic awesomeness.


WHO POKE HULK?

Comic Review: Spiderman Family 6

Let us take a moment to talk about covers. Comic book covers are what grab the reader, and make someone who has not previously read the title pick it up. Unfortunately, the attention-grabbing and witty style of comic book covers has been replaced by "iconic" covers; Pinup images of the characters with absolutely no relevence or little relevence to the inside story. Furthermore they're not even that interesting, or standout. This week, however, there was something that did stand out.

What would I do if I only had one frog? Man, that question will plague me forever...

Anyway, I'd spend time telling you about the first story in the Spider-Man Family book, but there's really nothing that can't be deduced from the cover, such as a) Thor is turned into a frog, b) the story is hilarious, and c) Frog-Thor is SO CUTE.

The second story involves Spidy kitty-sitting for Ka-zar's sabertooth tiger, in a story that is also SO CUTE, and funny.

Then there's two totally awesome full-length reprinted stories, including the first Spider-man/Human Torch. Then the last story is a reprent of the Japanese manga version of Spider-man, Spider-man J, which is simple and silly, but i really cannot get enough of cute little manga-style Spidy. And lines like this:
"Spider-man J may think he won today... but he will soon learn the truth. Victory is nothing but an illusion..."
I love translations, also the fact that they kept rhyming "Spider-man J" every time they said it, for some odd reason.

All and all this book delivered exactly what it told me it would on the cover, which is awesomeness with Spidy and a frog, and then gave me a whole lot more. It's definately worth a look if you are a) a kid or b) feel like a kid.

This book isn't even going into my collection, I'm taking it over to my neighbor kid's house to give it to him, because everyone needs frog Thor in their lives. As for me, I'm going to do as the writer suggests and pick up the original Fror story in trade paper back.

That is what good covers sell.

Comic Review: Fantastic Four 548

I said earlier that I would write a post about why I'm loving the Black Panther & Fantastic Four issues coming out right now in which T'challa and Ororo have joined Marvel's first family.

I lied.

I'm going to write multiple posts.

Cause it's just that awesome.

This post is about FF#548, and more specifically, how awesome Paul Pelletier is. He's the one currently doing pencils on the FF book, and they are amazing! How amazing?

He makes Hydroman look badass:
HYDROMAN.
Of course, we also get this look at hydroman...
That expression is priceless.

Also, his Ororo is fierce:
Speaking of 'Roro, I love the way her & Black Panther's relationship is being written (by Dwayne McDuffie, who is also teh awesome.) It's obvious that they're newlyweds, and there's some very awww moments between them, but for the most part they're as confident and understated about their relationship as they are naturally. I love that, I'd hate to see the characters changed by their relationship, especially if they were all gooey and mushy all the time. Not that I don't like mushy relationships, otherwise I wouldn't love Wanda & Vizh as much as I do, but for Storm and Black Panther it would be wildly out of character, and would justify all the people who said that their marriage was a cheap ploy for publicity and/or exploitative. (PS. I don't care if it was or not, but it works, so I love it!)

Finally, here's the Wizard looking scary while Reed's face melts:
That is some disturbing stuff there...

Need another reason the book is awesome? This panel:
Thoom indeed.

Now go read FF!

Comic Review: Marvel Tarot (oneshot)

Truly this book is like a gift unto my very soul. The Marvel gods have smiled upon me, and they have created the Marvel Tarot Oneshot out of pure awesomeness.

The book is a tie-in to the wholly under-hyped Mystic Arcana mini, which features the sorcerer Ian McNee's attempt to save all the magic in the universe by collecting the four "cornerstones of creation": The Sword of Bone, the Ebon Rose, the Serpent Crown, and the Dark Mirror. Each of these magical artifacts has a hero of the Marvel U. attached to it, (Magik, Black Knight, Scarlet Witch, and Nico Minoru, in order) and so each issue of the mini is also a small backup story about said hero. When this was announced, I literally jumped for joy, as my love for the Scarlet Witch is boundless, and I also squee for Nico and Dane.

Dr. Strange uses the First Tarot

The Marvel Tarot is supposedly a log written by McNee about the First Tarot, a magic artifact in the Marvel U that is "Linked through enchantments to every living thing on earth, the First Tarot chooses from amongst all those possibilities the single best representative for each card's Archetype." However, now, the deck, like magic, is broken, and this comic is Ian's record of how and possible explanations as to why.

In actuality, it is a collection of such awesome that I can hardly put it down. The second two pages are a "Catalogue of Correspondences" which is a list of "objects, beings, or concepts" and how they relate to each other, based around the four items and heroes mentioned before

Sister Grimm is associated with the mirror, fire, the suit of spades, the tarot suit of wands, etc.

Not only are normal mystic concepts included, but tons of marvel quartets are associated with each other. It's hypnotizing for someone like me, who has multiple books of lists which do just this thing. I'm still stuck staring at it. There are some puzzling choices though, for instance Nico is associated with Chaos while Wanda gets Hate, but for the most part they're really intriguing.

There's also the choices of which Marvel heroes appear on each tarot card. I was pleased to see Cloak and Dagger cast as "The Lovers", as they really embody the whole yin-yang aspect of the card. I'll try to update with a scan of that card later, as well as a "poster"of the Traversable Planes Ian apparently found at a head shop. It glows under black light.

The thing i was most excited about was the Priestess card, which is shared equally by three women; Agatha Harkness, Wanda Maximoff, and Ororo Munroe. Ian is just as puzzled by Storm's appearance as we are: "[Ashake's] present-day descendant [is], Ororo Munroe. Ms. Munroe (or Mrs. T'challa) must have great mystic potential, but she has not tapped it. Has clearly not needed to... Nevertheless the cards are desperately seeking their archetype..."
He also makes some good points on Agatha: "Agatha Harkness was the Priestess for a loooong time. Now I think she is dead. But I thought she was dead and then she wasn't dead, but actually she was. Aunt Agatha is confused. I am confused. The deck appears to be confused about her as well."
And here's what he has to say on the subject of our lovely Witchie: "Agatha was grooming Wanda Maximoff to replace her as the Priestess, but the Scarlet Witch went Red Queen mad and started shouting, "Off with their heads!" Where did it all go wrong? She wore the serpent crown for a time. Was it the old wyrm whispering in her ear that set her off? I am more inclined to think that "The Other" one was the cause. From the beginning he has groomed her to be the end. She is strong. There is still hope for her. The cards think so anyway."
There damn well better be hope for her!