I figured since this week was all about beginnings and endings that it would be fitting to wait until today to drop my blog.
Happy Easter!
I hope everyone stuffs their faces and eats enough chocolate bunnies today.
So this past week was amazing. If you didn't get a chance to make it down to the store on Wednesday, you missed two of the coolest dudes on the planet that contribute to our favorite art form. Raven Gregory and Eric "EBAS" Basaldua came out all the way from the West Coast and hung out for the day.
If you missed them shame on you! CBJ has a bunch of writers and artists coming to the store in the near future, so make sure you make it a point to come down and hang out.
So like I said, this week is all about beginnings and endings. "Blackest Night" and "Necrosha" came to their final story points this week but "Second Coming" and "Eternal Descent" made their debuts. I got something to say and here we go!
BLACKEST NIGHT #8 (OF 8)
I've been ranting and raving over this storyline since it first dropped almost nine months ago. I've given Geoff Johns and his Green Lantern cohorts nothing but the highest forms of respect and adoration about everything they've been doing to this story and the DC universe as a whole. This issue was nothing short of spectacular. The White Lantern Corps is finally revealed, not what I'd thought it was going to be like at all but none the less it was pretty stellar. Nekron is defeated, not as big and blockbuster as I'd hoped he would be destroyed. Everything seemed to go back to normal and of course with any storyline, Johns left a door for himself or future writers to come back and reference this last issue and take some point of it and continue on in some way or another.
I was very happy about this issue up until the ending, then I felt the string I'd happily pranced on like a kitten playing with it's prey, get pulled out from under me and waved in my face as if someone said "come on, follow me".
The fact that now I have to follow "Brightest Day" is the perfect marketing scheme by DC. Now you've spent almost a year following a storyline to be pulled right into another one until that's done and so on and so on and so on..
I really enjoy the continuation of story lines, plots and characters but what I don't enjoy is that we as readers don't get a break for just a minute. It's just wham, bam, thank you ma'am on to the next story.
I really do hope that with "Brightest Day", DC takes this into consideration and actually slows down the Armageddon for just a second so everyone can take a collective breath.
Overall "Blackest Night" has been a great roller coaster ride of a comic and nothing short of fun. It's made people have reactions about story lines and characters as opposed to just reading the book and passing judgment on writers, artists and someone's idea of a direction (Grant Morrison, Final Crapsis!)
5 out of 5 "YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO SEE ME"
X-FORCE #25
From the get-go, I thought this storyline was a pathetic excuse to repopulate the Mutant species and bring back so many long dead and missed characters. I was wrong, it was just a way to bring back a handful of characters and make them significant to the next story line in the X-Titles; "Second Coming". In my personal opinion, as far as X-Men stories go, this has been one of the weakest and quite honestly pointless stories ever to grace an X-Men book.
In short, Selene ascends into Godhood only to be smote down by Warpath and his dagger. that's the long and short of it. There really was no other excitement or intrigue into this lack luster story line. In a time now that the Mutant population is at such a low and things are steam rolling to some definitive future, a story such as this really holds no weight.
It's over now so I'm not going to beat it into the ground. I'm just glad it is and "Second Coming" has finally arrived.
3 out of 5
X-MEN SECOND COMING ONE SHOT
Finally after months and months of waiting for Cable and Hope to either kill or lose Bishop somewhere in time, they finally come home. The second coming of the "supposed" mutant messiah has finally arrived. This issue was nothing short of AWESOME! David Finch doing some of his last Marvel interiors along with Craig Kyle and Chris Yost making up for "Necrosha" knock this first chapter out of the park.
Everything that was set up before "Necrosha" is finally comes to fruition. All of the re-programmed, returned villains with power in politics are making their play at Cable and Hope as well as Cyclops and The X-Men, everyone has eagerly awaited their return. There is so much to say about this comic but alas, I'll hold my tongue because it's just so awesome I cannot spoil it for anyone. If you're looking for a good jumping on point for The X-Men, this is your book.
5 out of 5
DARK WOLVERINE #84
Sadly this tie-in to "SIEGE" went from being really cool and having some sweet potential into the greater story to becoming something that you really don't need to read and something you really wouldn't want to read unless you collect "DARK WOLVERINE".
Daken was being used by the fates to bring about Ragnarok. They've shown him that his choices have bearing on different outcomes and some paths lead to Asgards ultimate demise. Since Thor brought back Asgard and The Asgardians to Midgard, things have been out of whack and the cycle of Ragnarok has stopped which is wrong. They are supposed to die and be reborn, it's just their fates.
This issue and the last have been a back and forth between what could happen and what does happen as far as Daken's decisions affecting Asgard. If this was touched upon in the actual story itself, it would've made for a bigger and better story but alas, it didn't and it isn't.
Sadly, this wasn't worth the "SIEGE" banner.
2 out of 5
NEW MUTANTS #11
Any fan of the older New Mutants such as myself loved this issue. The depowered Dani Moonstar, a once and former Valkyrie, once again rode Brightwind into battle.
After asking Hela for her Valkyrie powers to stop Ares during the recent "X-Men / Dark Avengers Crossover", Hela was owned a favor and it was time for her to collect. She needed a person to guide the dead to Hel and Dani was going to be her Valkyrie. This issue was very fun and like I said for anyone who was a fan of the older New Mutants, this throwback to the time these same kids spent in Asgard was nothing short of cool.
As far as this having weight in the overall story of "SIEGE" it doesn't even register on the radar.
As far as I'm concerned many of the books carrying the "SIEGE BANNER" don't even make a dent in the grand scheme of things. I truly hope though, that this isn't the last time we seen Dani sport her Valkyrie garb and that this leads to more New Mutants and Asgardian stories.
5 out of 5 "Hel needs a Valkyrie."
Lastly this week a new book out from ESP, Marshall and IDW.
ETERNAL DESCENT #1
From the first look through of this book, it's very reminiscent of The Crow and Avenglyne. I almost thought it was an Extreme Studios or Top Cow book and I'd somehow gone back in time. Jason Metcalf's artwork is very much in the vein of Rob Liefeld, Marc Silvestri or John Stinsman. With that said, many of you will scowl and make bad Liefeld jokes but the exceptional thing about this book is that ESP and Marshall (guitar and amp companies respectively) both had a hand in shaping this book along with writer Llexi Leon.
The premise of the story is very basic, Angels and Demons with a twist, they wield guitars and the book promises guest stars galore from some of the more known Heavy Metal Guitarists of today and yesterday.
Reading through the book, in an interview Llexi Leon states that this whole concept will have more of a multimedia angle to it, not only will this comic continue (based on sales) but it will be accompanied by toys, t-shirts, digital comics, soundtracks and a whole bunch of collectible guitars and such. This is the way to really market yourself in this medium today. Unless you're doing a major character at Marvel or DC, the only real way to get yourself noticed aside from doing a great job at what your doing is to really market yourself and make your story and it's characters accessable to a larger market.
All business aside this comic was really good and if you skipped it on your way to something you know then you need to take a step back and check it out. I've got a feeling about this one.
5 out of 5 "HEAVY METAL!!"
and that as they say IS ALL FOLKS!
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