Aquaman is cool you guys, I swear!

Damn right he's cool. He's king of Atlantis and has his own team of adventuring heroes! They're called the Others, and I'm quite a fan of them and this issue. We continue with Atlantean weapons being spread across the globe thanks to Scavenger and other people selling them to land-dwellers and ocean poachers. While Aquaman is only in the first few pages the rest of the book does well without him and is more of a "let's get to reacquaint ourselves with the Others" issue. I assume they will play a part in the upcoming story arc which is being called the Death of a King. Which could allude to Arthur or his brother Orm. Probably Orm since he's sitting on death-row after what he did to the eastern seaboard.

Anyway the real fun stems from these characters called the Others, and there possible new member. She's a young girl who is half in the world of the living and half in the waking world of ghosts. A shaman by her Native American ancestry. I really liked how quickly they integrated her into the team to help take down the baddie with the item that Aquaman wanted to retrieve(It's in Arizona which is dry as all get out). It felt natural the way she slid in and worked well with them, especially Prisoner of War who can control a few ghostly soldiers. Even the villain Skinwalker's motive and characterization felt right. All in all a good book I recommend it, and it's a great jumping on point.

he didn't come back

Also this passing week we saw the release of Superior Spider-man, and his love for midgets and the rise of Jareth the Goblin King(Green Goblin is calling himself the Goblin King now). Also, don't leave a midget on a counter-top it could be trouble for them to get down, stupid Spidey-Ock... Avengers was good, even had some moral lessons all kids should know, like how to ride a stegosaurus. It also taught us a little bit more about this particular Hyperion. I liked the reveal at the end, and Iron Man phoning it in, literally. Other then that Daredevil continues with where it left off the last time I talked about him. Ikari is one hell of a villain, and when you find out who he's working for it only gets better.

That's it for this week in reviews. And yes the Age of Ultron 5-8 is coming soon. Have a great Memorial Day!

X-Factor, what the Hell

HUR, NOT THAT X-FACTOR

So, I've recently caught up with X-Factor. The Hell on Earth War just ended this week. It's one of their story-arcs where the multiple lords of Hell in the Marvel Universe clash in an attempt to kill Rhaine Sinclaire's(Wolfsbane) son, Tier. He was the 7 billionth child born in the world, and essentially was the trophy for whoever wanted to rule Hell. Of course he's quite over-powered against the Hell Lords, and slays Pluto quite handedly early on. This sets the tone for what he can do. By the way, yeah he ages pretty fast, and is nearly a "teenager" when this story starts. I guess being half demon dog has some benefits?

Some background about X-Factor; It's a cadre of mutants not dissimilar from the X-men. The original X-Factor was actually the original X-men team of Cyclops, Marvel Girl(Jean Grey), Beast, Angel, and Ice Man. They were government sanctioned and then of course replaced by Cyclop's brother, Havok's team; Strong Guy, Polaris, Multiple Man, Wolfsbane, and Quicksilver...You know what screw it, Here is the Wikipedia entry. X-factor's history is hard. I don't want to really spoil anything for the issue either.

Spoilers...

Also, this week FF came out. I liked it very much so. My love for Matt Fraction's Marvel work currently does not waiver. Bentley 23 was a class act, and of course good old Scott Lang's face from this issue now takes the place of Clint Barton(Hawkeye) on my Blog. Why do I like this series? The art is fun, the stories are fun, and I've always had a sweet spot for the Fantastic Four. Albeit the Fantastic Four book is not really doing it for me. Fraction also writes that book, but it's just not up there like this book. I really suggest getting into his FF though. A new Dr. Doom story is about to start! Also, Blackbolt was in this issue, I love me some Inhumans.

God I hope that's Parker

Ontop of all of this, I think the new Nova finally has moved from a guilty pleasure, to a great read. I hope Jeph Loeb (who is still one of my favorite writers on Batman) continues with his good work on the series. Yeah, I'm singing a new tune, I loved Richard Rider, but Sam Alexander is slowly becoming a favorite. He still has the option of joining the Avengers in the future, as was hinted by Ed McGuinesses' Cover for issue 7.

Suggested listening. LOLOLOL SEE WHAT I DID THERE?!

Don't hate me...

Battle Royale Rip-offs and Neil Gaiman

Yeah so I read Avengers Arena. I like to think of it as one of my guilty pleasure books. That and the new Nova, god I miss Rich. Hey it wouldn't be my blog if I didn't mention Nova, right? This week's issue of Avengers Arena, also known as the comic that ripped off Battle Royale/Hunger Games, starts in semi-high gear and then spins down to first. After that it shoves down the accelerator like a pile of Scrooge McDuck's money. Sentinel Kid Juston is a character in this series, so is Chase from Runaways. Chase grabbed the power of Darkhawk from Chris Powell. Okay, all of this is going over your head, why should I bother? 

Basic point of why I like this book and I've continued to read it for nine issues is pretty basic. Why do old ladies like to watch soap operas? No, I'm not trying to be mean saying only older women watch soaps. I know a few people who watch them and they're around my age or younger. The point is simple, I like to watch people be conniving jerks, I also like to see people try to be nice and mediate situations with said jerks. It like watching Thomas the tank-engine drive(rail?) into a tornado. "I think I can, I think I can!" Doesn't usually work out, sorry Thomas. I really enjoyed the British show Skins, mostly for this fact as well. Yeah it's essentially a soap opera or one of those reality TV shows like survivor. Big thing about this book though is people die. Some very beloved characters by certain groups of Avengers Academy, or more recently, oh wait that's a spoiler. I'm trying to not do those anymore.

Bottom line, if you like just stupid mindless dribble where kids punch and yell at each other and get decapitated, but with super-powers. Read this book. Get out of your, "Oh, it's just a rip-off of 'X' thing", and  try something new. You might end up liking it. I'm not trying to tell you want to do... please don't stop reading.

I like the big belt

In other news Angela's re-design for the Age of Ultron issue written by Neil Gaiman is looking nice. Doctor Strange movie is a go. Daredevil and Ghost Rider are back in the hands of Marvel Studios, but nothing is currently planned(Poor DD). I'm getting really hyped for the Man of Steel movie. I haven't seen Iron Man 3, but from what I know of it I believe I'll enjoy it. The Walking Dead comic that came out this week was fantastic, and I'm hoping things start to speed-up. Uh, yeah that's pretty much all I wanted to talk about.

As always, Thanks for reading. Here's your Suggested Listening. I couldn't remember that Danzig song, you know the one, about Angels falling... Crap.

Free Comic Book Day

So this Saturday was Free Comic Book Day. It was good. I haven't gotten around to reading what I got, but I figured I'd post pictures of what I grabbed. Really happy about the New Avengers poster I got from Realms. All in all, like Ice Cube said; today was a good day.

Don't tell me to make my bed