A weird opening sentence, but true nonetheless. It's a little joke for those of you who appreciate temporal contemplation.
I'm giving Thor reviews a rest until the mop-up after Siege is done. They story is good, and so is Thor #611, but I just feel like it's a stop gap between Siege and Fraction's run. Gillen's Thor is DEFINITELY something you should grab trades of, though. Following J.M.S. couldn't have been easy, but he's doing splendid. He's also a man after mine own heart in that he's very articulate.
Anyway, as a result, I only have two comics to review this week. I was GOING to review The Invincible Iron Man Annual, but as good as I think it is, it's essentially just a flashback story of The Mandarin.
Secret Avengers #2.
I predicted this would be my favourite series of the new Avengers material, and it is. Granted, it's very early, but it's really pleasing me.
Ed Brubaker's experience in crime/thriller comics really does allow him to add a degree of taut expressiveness to his stories, and that really grabs you with meathooks when it needs to. Mike Deodato has a style so deliciously suited to what this is meant to be; a blockbuster comic. Though it does feel like what it is, that being a black-ops version of The Avengers, it feels like it is definitely not anything less than a main title.
I was amped for him to be working with Brubaker and the characters in these pages.
So, we left off with Nova getting himself into a spot of bother on Mars, the Secret Avengers being formed and sent on individual missions and Nick Fury revealing that he now leads something called the Shadow Empire. He revealed this to Sharon Carter after he knocked her out, of course! Genius.
So, Sharon goes off to track down the people who stole the Serpent Crown and realises that they used S.H.I.E.L.D. stealth suits. Gasp! The rest of the guys and girls are on Mars when they discover that the Roxxon dig sites have been visited recently, despite them being unused or shut down for a few months. After being unsuccessfully ambushed by the Shadow Empire fodder, they split up to find Nova. Each team successfully, or unsuccessfully, finds themselves encountering something that explodes or generally isn't very safe.
War Machine and Ant-Man, who I really love the tense interactions of, discover some kind of weird window/portal thing (To my memory), where as everyone else ends up finding Nova. The bad news is that Nova is now wearing the crowd he was apparantly sent to receive, so can you guess what happens? Nova has gone all brain-washy and decides to attack the team he had only just become a member of.
I really like the way the story progresses and I think the choice of characters is something pretty fresh. It's ANOTHER new team, but it IS a NEW team. You know? It feels legitimately as though Cap. Rogers looked over a file, decided who would work well as a team that wasn't already IN one, and put it together.
The art is gorgeous, as expected, and you'd do well to pick this series up.
Deadpool: Wade Wilson's War #2 of 4.
Why...the fuck...is Duane Swierczynski NOT writing the main Deadpool series?
Look, Daniel Way had a good first 12 issues. He did. Since then, Deadpool had been saturating the market and, let's be honest, NONE has been acceptable. There's been an odd issue here that's been good, but otherwise, no. It's causing MASSIVE Anti-Deadpool backlash and my boy deserves better.
This guy? The best Deadpool writer since Gail Simone and they give him a non-canon MINI-SERIES?! JUSTICE! RABBLE! RABBLE, RABBLE, RABBLE!
As you can guess, I am so pleased with this. After what has felt like eons of disgustingly poor Deadpool material, we get this. No head-voices, here! Just corrosively funny wit, pop culture references and fourth wall-breaking. Deadpool remains in court where we last saw him remove his mask, from behind, as he tells the Senate of his military exploits.
Under his mask? Another mask. A Michael Jackson mask. He then starts singing Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'. What more do you want? The story progresses well, with typical Deadpool past-altering tales and mockery of everyone but himself. It ends with an investigative reporter telling his boss that Deadpool eventually lost his mind and thought him and his team were comic book heroes. Thus resulting in the deaths of many, many civilians somehow.
The story is told perfectly and it's truly hilarious. Moments like when Deadpool takes a tank shell to the chest and then acts proud because now they have one less bullet are exactly what's been missing. The violence isn't shy, either. Deadpool kills people in the first issue. Hopefully it continues.
I really fucking love this. I love the art, I love the feel. It's making me very happy. As someone who spent roughly a grand collecting all of Deadpool's appearances EVER, to be rewarded with something this good is pleasing.
It's just a shame it's out of continuity and only a four-parter.
When this comes out as a trade, BUY THE FUCKER. If the sales of this go through the roof, Marvel might put Swierczynski on the main title. So please, buy it. Better yet, go buy the single issues!
Fantastic.
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That's all I got today, you scumshits. Before I go, I want to give a shout-out to Iyare and Aleks over at Direct Edition. They create and host a quickfire comic book reviews and news show over at YouTube, also called Direct Edition. I've watched it for a while, and they film it in Comicana Comics! So, if you've ever wanted a visual companion to the spectacular service I give you here, go watch it!
This is the link you'd click to do that thing I just said then: Direct Edition on YouTube.
Subscribe and pass the word on!
If all goes well, you MAY be seeing none other than THE MAST HIMSELF on the show. Ever wanted to know my real name? MAYBE YOU'LL FIND OUT IF THEY DON'T LET ME INTRODUCE MYSELF AS THE MAST! I hope they do, I've had issues with stalkers!
Exciting and crazy times to be a comic book fan.
Go check that badness, or Iyare will punch your face off. He's Luke Cage, I'm certain.
Thanks for reading, guys and girls.
Until next time, peace.
-The Mast
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