IT WON'T! DON'T LEAVE!
Welcome to another edition of Thursday's Comics, courtesy of Welcome to the Mast.
Due to time constraints, I will have to get right into this, unfortunately. Nevertheless, for a week of three comics, it was a pretty decent one. A bad one for the wallet, though!
Prelude to Deadpool Corps #5 of 5.
I wondered what this issue would be about, considering there are four members of the Deadpool Corps and their issues have all passed. This was just a set-up issue that went a bit of the way to explaining just what they have been formed for, and by who.
The Contemplator and Grandmaster; two major, MAJOR cosmic entities, each have their own ideas as to what group of individuals is best suited to combat this coming threat to the universe. The Contemplator feels his chosen group (Deadpool Corps) are best suited, whilst Grandmaster feels his group would be best. His group happens to be a collective of intergalactic, teddy bear pirates. Don't ask.
The Contemplator challenges Grandmaster to a test; if his team wins, they get to save the universe and vice versa. This test turns out to be capture the flag, only revealed as such toward the end of the comic. It's a pretty amusing issue, but it is what it is.
I would say that it's not necessary as a buy, even when the trades come out. It's been kinda fun though. I would say two of the five have ben very good, one has been ok and the other two have been mediocre.
The art is computer generated, however. I must say, this was disgraceful. The art was utterly terrible and I hope that it never graces another comic. Be ashamed of yourself, Baker!
Realm of Kings: Inhumans #5 of 5.
With the revelation that Queen Medusa was behind Maximus' betrayal this whole time, the issue begins with Ronan and Crystal lambasting her, asking for justification.
As a means of uniting the nation and re-affirming faith in the Inhumans, Queen Medusa decided that she would instigate the attacks and then, when successfully defended, the people will have firmly re-established faith in the Kree Empire.
The really interesting part comes just as it looks like this mini-series' was fixing to be an enjoyable, though useless piece of work. Triton's (Remember? He was analysing The Fault?) ship returns and crash lands into their city. As they all arrive on the scene and crack the ship open to help the assumed survivors, a gigantic creature from The Fault bursts out. It swiftly begins choking Crystal with one of its tentacles as Ronan hammers away at it.
These things really are grotesque and horrifying. I really cannot fault the design. They aimed for The Fault to appear nightmarish and boy, did they ever nail it.
Triton emerges and tells Gorgon that the remainder of his crew were infected and began to merge into this creature. After a struggling battle, Queen Medusa shows up with an epic army of chorus sentries, swiftly ordering them to destroy the creature, which they do with great efficiency.
The issue rounds off with an emergency message from Gladiator, calling the galactic council to order in wake of this threat he has experienced. I'm guessing this ties nicely into the end of Realm of Kings: Imperial Guard, which actually shows Gladiator at that meeting.
The issue ends and it prepares us for the next arc, The Thanos Imperative. I am fucking HAPPY that one of my favourite villains of all time is back, and presumably will be written by Dan Abnett. It all, I believe, kicks off in June and I am way more optimistic about it. Realm of Kings wasn't great, but if this coming arc really does turn out to be an epic one, I'll forgive it. It DOES involve The Fault and more to the point, THE SILVER FUCKING SURFER is involved. One third of my Marvel trinity is coming back into play.
I do recommend getting hold of the trades of Realm of Kings: Inhumans AND Imperial Guard, just because. If you haven't done so, get War of Kings too! It came before Realm of Kings and it's really, really good. They won't be out yet, but when they are, expect a heads up on this blog.
X-Men: Second Coming #1 (Second Coming: Chapter 1).
A one-shot that begins the far-reaching and long-lasting Second Coming story arc.
I was not sure at ALL whether or not I wanted to buy this, but it's always so tempting. You don't want to give yourself MORE comics to buy, only to find out that the story ended up sucking, but you don't want to miss out on it early. If it DOES turn out good, you've then got to re-trace every back issue, and that can be tiresome.
So, I caved and bought the starting issue.
The build-up to this arc was mainly prominent in Cable's latest series. Hope Summers was the first mutant born after Scarlet Witch went cuckoo in House of M, so she's pretty special. This story was told in X-Men: Messiah Complex, an arc whereby everyone was after this prodigal newborn, culminating in Cyclops telling Cable to take her to the future as a means of protecting her.
Bishop, Cable's sworn enemy, saw her as a mega threat and said that she needed to be killed before she becomes what he "knows" she'll become. This lead into Messiah War, a story in which Cable and Hope time hopped whilst trying to avoid Bishop and Stryfe while under the protection of X-Force.
Eventually, they beat Bishop somehow (I don't read Cable), and Hope decided she wanted to return to her home timeline, the main timeline.
Thus, Second Coming begins.
Cable and Hope return and are immediately accosted by robotic hunters, they defend themselves to the best of their ability while Cable figures a plan out.
Meanwhile, on Utopia, Cyclops is giving a speech about how there were 181 mutants left after M-Day and that number drops every day. They face the crisis of admitting that unless more mutants are born, they'll become extinct eventually. Coincidentally enough, or fatalistically enough, Cerebra picks up Cable's signal. Cyclops knows he brought Hope back with him and promptly organises various teams of X-people to bring her in safely, knowing that bad guys are after her too.
Hope is being heralded as the mutant messiah, and Cyclops goes so far as to say that nothing and no-one is as important as Hope right now.
So begins a rather exciting and violent cat and mouse chase as various organisations attempt to apprehend Cable and Hope, with the X-Men and company on their tail too.
I generally do enjoy the writings of Craig Kyle and Chris Yost, so I'm not surprised they seem to have a grasp on where to go with this. It's a MASSIVE story arc, though, and it clocks in at about 14 chapters, including a couple of one-shots and a three-parter. I hope that if I invest in this series, I do not get let down. I am not exhibiting a great amount of faith here, but I'm definitely not going to be completist. If the series isn't still giving me enjoyment by the half-way mark, I'm bailing.
I would NOT recommend this to any of you looking to get into comics, simply because it's too much work. This sort of thing is more for comic devotees. Still, if it's any good, I'll let you know my final thoughts in July when it all wraps up. That's IF I stick with it.
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That's all I've got for you guys today! I'm on mini-vacation from tomorrow until Tuesday, so Daredevil Month may not get underway until then. Additionally, next week's edition of Thursday's Comics may be split into two parts and finished on Friday. Why? Because there are SIX comics coming out that have Deadpool in ALONE. Due to the fact that my faith in Deadpool has been slightly re-affirmed, I will be getting these. If they're all worth reviewing, I will. If not, I shall not.
The point is, if there are lots of other comics coming out that week, I will not be able to fit them all in on one sitting without going insane. I just thought I'd give you a heads up.
Anyway, thanks very much for reading, comment if you like, tell your friends and I'll catch you people next time!
Until then, peace.
-The Mast
