Comic Book Reviews! Avengers/Invaders #2, Secret Invasion #3 and more!

June 10, 2008

The past couple weeks have been a somewhat disappointing run in comics. Good thing I don’t buy so many since I can’t afford it and my life generally sucks.

We’re reviewing Invincible Iron Man #2, Avengers/Invaders #2, Daredevil #107 and Secret Invasion #3. 

Perfect score for this review would be five out of five Punisher skulls, because I’m feeling kinda lazy and they’re easy to manipulate.

 

 

Avengers/Invaders #2

 

Written by Alex Ross and Jim Kreuger/ Art by Steve Sadowski

Alright, this title is slowly leaving a bad taste in my mouth. Not only is it non-canon, it’s also set way back away from the timeline, so reading this would just be generally a waste of time as it has no lasting effects whatsoever. Besides that, yeah, I’ve always known Cap to throw his shield first before listening or even asking anything or making sense of anything.

Characterization seems so thin for everyone. So Namor’s the tough guy son of Atlantis, Bucky’s the sneaky kid, Iron Man is the emo Iron Man from post-Civil War, and so on and so forth. The only interesting parts here would be the ones with the soldier-out-of-time, and I don’t mean Cap. Buy the first issue and this one to find out who.

 Art is good though, each character is distinguishable even without the costumes, so that’s a good thing, at least.

 

This issue gets 1 a half out of 5! I don’t recommend it.

The Invincible Iron Man #2

 

Written by Matt Fraction/ Art by Salvador Larroca

I have great bias when it comes to this issue- for one thing, Matt Fraction wrote it, and another, he mentioned Filipinos. Yeah, I wrote an article about his Filipino superheroes who died in the same issue as their first apperance issue.

I like how Tony keeps thinking about new ways to improve his tech, and what’s wrong with it currently. That’s how I always pictured Stark’s brain to work, so I think Fraction did a good job in that regard. What I didn’t like is how Iron Man took MODOG and hurled him into orbit, not caring if he’ll land again. Tony was never this cold and indifferent about the lives of sentient beings, of which MODOG is one.

So, the story didn’t move too fast, it focused mainly on characterization of Tony, but it was a good read. The story picks up at the end it leaves us with a cliffhanger.  Oh, and a certain god is in there, so that always ups the value of a book, right?

I’ve heard complaints about the art on this book, but I seriously like it. Filipinos really do look like that. Pepper still looks like Nicole Kidman, though.

 

Invincibe Iron Man gets a 4 out of 5! Buy it, especially if you’re a Mexican-looking-Asian, Filipino.

Secret Invasion #3

 

Written by Brian Michael Bendis/ Art by Leinil Yu

Marvel’s big event of 2008 continues with a pretty good issue. There were a lot of revelations to the characters, SHEILD is getting fucked over, the troops are being called together, an iconic character gets his face blown in from behind, and the guy we’ve been waiting to show up shows up with is cavalry. That’s a lot.

And on top of that, there’s a lot of mindfucking that could potentially be super disastrous for a certain character. Well, until someone retcons it in the future. So I’m hooked, at least, until next issue because I wanna know what happens. This issue did its job.

Leinil’s art is still great here, much cleaner than his regular style but still gritty enough to give us the proper feel.

 

Secret Invasion #3 gets a 3.5 skulls out of 5! Good so far.

Daredevil #107

 

Written by Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka/ Art by Michael Lark

Coming off the heels of the somewhat forgettable but immensely interesting arc, Without Fear, and the one shot, Sympathy for the Devil, Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark, along with Greg Rucka, start off what seems to be a very good formula for Matt Murdock.

It seems that the best stories of Daredevil are always the ones wherein he’s been pushed over the edge and when his life’s a mess. Well, he’s back there and he’s losing his mind and he’s fell so far from grace that not even his friends seem to be able to bring him back.

Now, mix that with the mystery that Greg Rucka can bring and the noir stylings of Lark and Brubaker, and you’ve got a winner. I’m very excited for this arc, mainly because I love it when Matt’s all violent and when he’s involved in a legal mystery. This is a very good first issue in the arc.

Art, as usualy, is fantastic. Michael Lark, have my children. To eat.

 

Daredevil #107 gets 4 out of 5 Punisher skulls. I highly recommend it!

The reviews for tomorrow will be New Avengers 41, Amazing Spider-Man #561, Thor: Search for Odin, and Immortal Iron Fist #15!