Hello true believers, slight announcement here so read up. For pragmatic reasons I’ve decided to change this column markedly from what I’ve been doing before. My plan from now on is to do a very quick summary of the things I liked about most comics and the things that I didn’t with an overall verdict. There will be comics that I feel like discussing more fully and I’ll put those at the top with the summaries below them.

I’m forced to change this for the simple reason of just not having time to extensively review every comic I read. I really would love to but I have other columns to write, a full time job and at times a social life to maintain, I hope you can all understand that it’s taking a lot of time to put these together and I still want to give you loyal few a rundown of my reaction to what I’ve been reading. If this works for you then let me know and if it doesn’t then let me know and I can try to rethink things. Anyway, to the comics.

All New Ultimates (2014) #2

What I Liked

The team’s reaction to a massive loss was well done and they all seemed hugely overwhelmed by something they all thought they’d be good at. The situation quickly went out of control for them and they lack the experience as well as the training to deal with it. I like the way they interact, they behave like a group of confused children which is what they are.

What I Didn’t Like

The overarching story isn’t particularly engaging and it’s a little hard to follow with the various factions and the police. The cliffhanger ending is a little confusing too but hopefully it’ll lead to something interesting.

Verdict

Overall, this title shows a lot of promise. A team that is dysfunctional because they lack experience and they’re young is a great prospect, DC have done it well in the past with The Teen Titans so there’s no reason this team can’t match that. I like the characters and once the stories start to get a bit stronger then this could be something really special.

All New X-Men #28

What I Liked

Seeing the return of the temporally displaced “Brotherhood of Evil X-Men from the Future” as the comic puts it was something I enjoyed, it’s been some time since Battle of the Atom so they were due for a return. The conflicts between the various generations of X-Men were pretty well done as well. The Brotherhood characters are given a nice amount of personality here.

What I Didn’t Like

The plot was hugely confusing, jumping all over the place between different times to show us what happened in the past and what happened/will happen several years later. Also, this comic had too many characters in it, making many of the panels and pages look massively cluttered.

Verdict

Not the strongest issue I’ve ever read of this series but seeing The Brotherhood coming back and learning a bit more about who they are and what happened to them in the past -our future- for them to become the people they are now was good. The story was confusing which brings it down a fair bit.

Avengers Vol 5 #28

What I Liked

Pretty much everything, Original Sin seems to be doing what Civil War did best all over again, that being pitting hero against hero. It’s very much a Captain America story here and I liked how they played it through him remembering events that have been ripped from his memory via a spell from Doctor Strange. Obviously there’s more going on here with realities at stake and as a result the recently reformed Illuminati are committing acts of self preservation that some might see as evil but Tony Stark et al see as necessary. Using The Infinity Gauntlet only reinforces how serious this situation is and throwing Tony and Cap into opposite sides of the issue is only going to make for great reading.

What I Didn’t Like

Only that the comic seemed to throw me into this dream sequence where Cap wields the gauntlet and shatters The Infinity Gems without much in the way of context, I found myself asking when that might have happened.

Verdict

What I didn’t like was only a minor niggle in the grand scheme of it all. This issue was tightly focused on characters and really furthers the idea of past sins coming back to haunt every major player in the Marvel universe. This is a great example of this idea with very strong storytelling.

Captain Marvel (2014) #3

What I Liked

Lots of good stuff going on here. Carol working with The Guardians of the Galaxy is great to see and there’s a lot of fun to be had with this concept. The situation is serious yet funny, the comedy mostly coming from her wanting to get back aboard her ship because her cat is still on board. I also really liked the compassion that Carol showed on her excursion to an alien planet where she finds out what a terrible situation they are in.

What I Didn’t Like

Nothing really, it was all really good and well written stuff, the only fault that I can pick out is that the story seemed to be stretched out a bit, there was a lot of repetition going on in these pages.

Verdict

Loved this comic, lots of fun with a nice ethical message towards the end. Carol Danvers is a fantastic character and perfectly suited to this cosmic story. She also riffs off The Guardians of the Galaxy really well.

Fantastic Four (2014) #4

What I Liked

This issue was basically non stop action and well executed action at that, the powered up Wrecking Crew/Frightful Four give our heroes quite the run for their money and the team do show that they’re working harder without Johnny backing them up. I also really liked that Johnny shows that he doesn’t need his powers to be a hero when he’s helping people throughout the commotion. It was great to see the back up FF team inclusive of Scott Lang’s Ant Man and She Hulk. The ending of the issue might prove to be an interesting development.

What I Didn’t Like

Only major criticism I have is that I’m getting fed up of Johnny’s back and forth with how he feels about his missing powers. He flips from being fine with it to be hugely depressed, I get that this will be a major adjustment for him but the execution is somewhat tiresome so far, maybe when the next phase of the story kicks in it’ll seem less important in the context of whatever else is happening.

Verdict

Overall a good issue with some exciting action, seeing the two Fantastic Four teams working together was really cool and the villains seemed like a credible threat. I also liked that the issue made fun of the fact that the new Frightful Four is basically a renamed Wrecking Crew.

Nightcrawler (2014) #2

What I Liked

Revisiting Nightcrawler’s past is something that’s always really interesting, I really liked getting such an intimate look at his days in the circus and his developing relationship with Amanda. We also get to see the event that provoked his first teleportation. In true Nightcrawler tradition it was to save another human being.

What I Didn’t Like

It seemed that the fight in this issue was just for the sake of having one, I’m sure the misunderstanding could have been cleared up without an unprovoked attack, particularly one that seemed so potentially lethal.

Verdict

Great stuff, Chris Claremont hasn’t lost his touch when writing for these characters, drilling down into what makes them tick in a way that hasn’t been seen before. I really like the character of Nightcrawler and I love the way he is represented here.

Wolverine (2014) #6

What I Liked

Wolverine returning to Madripoor is always something worth reading, lots of the best Wolverine stories have happened here. His Patch identity is well known around there and has a long established history with the people there so there’s lots to mine here. I loved the discussions that he had with some old friends and how at home Logan seems in this setting.

What I Didn’t Like

The story seems to move a little slowly with too much emphasis on the customary brawls that Logan is all too known for, there’s just not enough character progression from Logan who is still facing his mortality as well as keeping up the charade of having switched sides

Verdict

Slightly above average, it doesn’t take full advantage of Logan being back in Madripoor and doesn’t take enough advantage of what it means to have Logan here. This comic is quickly losing momentum

Batman Eternal #6

What I Liked

Batwing fighting Gentleman Ghost was pretty cool and I really liked his redesign, it was an interesting update for the character and worked well. There’s a lot being set up here but it never feels bogged down in establishing elements that are to become important. I can see how things are beginning to feed into the future set opening in issue 1.

What I Didn’t Like

I had to look up who Batwing is, I had no idea who that guy is. I’m conscious of the fact that this doesn’t necessarily count as something the book did wrong but I think there could have been some kind of signposting in the story to point out who he is and give me some information about him. The stacking of different plot lines with no real resolution is getting a bit much to keep track of, I feel that I may forget some elements before they come up again.

Verdict

On the whole I liked it, Gentleman Ghost was really cool and the way that Batwing dealt with him was nicely done, I also particularly enjoyed how creepy the Arkham segment was.

Superman: Doomed #1

What I Liked

Superman’s characterisation was spot on here, I really liked how guilty he felt about all of the raw destruction being caused by Doomsday and how responsible he felt for not being able to prevent the deaths of all those people. The part where he was painfully aware of all the people he had failed was particularly haunting. Lex Luthor, Batman and Wonder Woman were all used really well here. Wonder Woman’s recent status  upgrade as the God of War brings an interesting side to her character and from what I can tell her relationship with Superman makes sense, they work well together as a team and as a couple. Also, the fight between Superman and Doomsday was awesome.

What I Didn’t Like

The conflict between Superman and Doomsday was built up to be something that might last longer than the couple of pages it did. What we got was great but I feel like there could be a lot more in there. It’s quite a minor quibble though.

Verdict

Absolutely loved this, Doomsday seemed like this unstoppable force that even Superman was afraid of and I thought the way he was dealt with was brutal. The comic never forgot to underpin how difficult a decision this was for Superman to knowingly kill a potentially sentient being.

Action Comics (2011) #31

What I Liked

Some great consequences to Superman killing Doomsday, it seems that inhaling Doomsday’s essence has caused him to exhibit some uncomfortable urges, namely the urge to kill and destroy. It gets really bad very quickly in that he’s not sure when he’s hallucinating or actually doing something. The issue sets him up as increasingly unstable which actually comes across as really tense. I really like that Batman and Wonder Woman seem to trust him but hopefully they’ll be keeping close tabs on the situation.

What I Didn’t Like

It seems odd to me that Superman would be feeling this way and not tell anyone about it, it’s clear that he has enough self control not to kill for the moment so I would think he’d at least tell Wonder Woman or Batman how he’s feeling so they can get to work on sorting it out. It’s maybe a symptom of his transformation but for me it is a gap in the story.

Verdict

This seems to be something that hasn’t been done with Superman before, I really want to see him go murderously insane and have the Justice League have to bring him down before he causes too much damage. It’s likely there will be a quick fix somewhere but no reason that they can’t have some fun with this idea before that inevitably happens.