snap judgments no, really, there are some comics you really should read

Alone at Last – Preview Reviews for 8/1

Hoo boy, is Comic Con over!  Now I sit, alone at Metro, waiting for a ride back home.... and reading preview books.  Pardon my spelling, but without further ado...

(the new) Fantastic Four #548

This is actually a pretty fantastic issue (thank you folks, I'll be here all week). The Wizard has a grudge against Mr. Fantastic being the better man and so now he's devised this plan to prove him wrong, which included getting a new Frightful Four back together (the Trapster, Hydro-Man and Titania, since she's got red hair), taking the Invisible Woman hostage and blowing up the FF's rescue ship. Not a shabby plan... but Black Panther's here to save the day with quick thinking. They rally, show up to save Sue and it's on like Donkey Kong. Action! Adventure! Humidity (take that, Hydro-Man)! And, with some quick thinking on the Wizard's part on how to take care of that pesky know-it-all Black Panther, THE RETURN OF THE KLAW!

Sure, it's a heavy on the Black Panther side, but you know... I'll forgive that for showing some fun villain and hero action in a day where most mainstream Marvel heroes are threatening to choke fools and/or making situations worse.

Ms. Marvel #18

Now, I haven't been a fan of Ms. Marvel since her series started adn she just seemed to fall into mistake after mistake. Her last storyline left her with tons of "whoops" and very little to show for it. So that's why they brought in the big guns. At Comic Con, Brian Reed said that Machine Man would be joining the cast in all his Nextwave glory and he was not kidding. Not many can be Warren Ellis, but he does a fine job of giving some humor and anti-BS to a book that really seemed to cater to the whims of a woman not really cut out for the jobs they keep giving her. Sleepwalker also joins as a wet behind the ears recruit who will be our audience's viewpont on this wacky situation which is... the Puppet Master! Giving up evil villainy (so he says), he's gone into the slave trade, kidnapping chicks and selling them as living dolls. Apparently, he's getting a super-heroine collection for the utra-kinky, and we end with underage Araña showing up as the latest part of his collection.

Hey, Machine Man's in it! Yay!

New Warriors #3

Night Thrasher may be Bill Foster's nephew (last seen in Incredible Hulk #107 ready to watch the Hulk beat up the guy who had a hand in his uncle's death); in any case, this New Night Thrasher can grow really big and that's our clue. Also, Wolverine shows up to confront "Wondra", Jubilee's new alter-ego and to make sure that she knows what she's doing here. All signs point to "Not really" as people are starting to question this dude who's funding all this New Warriors business. Thanks to some loving starting shots of the last New Warriors are gross and dead and unpleasant, it might just be that Dwanye Taylor just got really small during the blast as nothing remained of him but the tattered remnants of his uniform. Starting to show some meat on this story, but I'm just not getting that the New Warriors are doing anything but just existing. Where is all this vigilante crime stuff they're doing? Where's the good that can come from being a rebellious teen? Besies the anti-Stark and SHIELD graffiti they apparently put up on Stark Tower with no one noticing? Still not entirely sold here, though showing Tony in a SHIELD uniform since he's the FRIKKIN' DIRECTOR is a great idea.

Shanna the She-Devil: Survival of the Fittest #1 (of 4)

Sorry. This is going to be short since I just can't get past this artwork. Something about it just peels my eyes and I can read the story without wondering if we can get the inker a thicker pens so the action doesn't look so transparent. Because boy, there's a lot of action here. The book barely stops between a bunch of pirates hijacking a boat that gets attacked by a giantsquid who's pirranha friends crash the pirate boat that lands them on Shanna's island where they're chased by dinosaurs until they are chased by beees and ... *phew* I'm tired just typing all of this. And I know I'd like the story if my brain could just get past this art...

Spider-Man/Red Sonja #1 (of 5)

That's weird. Second story page in is a two page spread of Spider-Man kicking crooks in the face while talking to MJ on his cell phone. That's surprisingly awesome for a simple, barely understandable crossover book. I mean, Red Sonja? Really?? No, really, this is actually a pretty fun little book. Hyborean villain, Kulan Gath, takes over some poor fool through an amulet, turns New York into something more his style and then- best part- puts Red Sonja in the body of Mary Jane to make sure that Spider-Man is far too busy chainsg around his wife, mind controlled to try and stop the Spider-Man, to bother with his evil plans. Continuity be damned! They harken back to the old Red Sonja/Spider-Man crossover, but nothing else touches this funny little adventure book. I had my doubts but this is some good stuff.

Thor #2

Thrill as Thor, God of Thunder, BUYS REAL ESTATE! He buys the land after he brings Asgard back by shouting really loudly and doing a lot of weather effects, and so now Asgard looks like a weirdly medieval castle. He pays off the local yoakles with armloads of gold to keep the land then decides to go and find the Warriors Three. According to the teaser for the next issue, he finds Iron Man instead. Despite Iron Man being in World War Hulk right now. *sigh*

Uncanny X-Men #489

On one hand, we have Kurt and Professor X on the hunt for Magneto, knowing that he's confortable enough to wander about after being blown up in a hellicopter after that whole ridiculous New Avengers issue to be walking around, visiting gravesites. Oh, and geting called out on YouTube. Masque is getting braver and braver with these random mutant-ing attacks and Storm is assembling some X-Men at the FF's place, much to Johnny and Ben's chagrin. They go into the tunnels and find the leftovers of a confrontation with Sentinel Squad O.N.E. That's of course when a Sentinel is going to show up on the scene instead of... I guess Sentinel Squad O.N.E's ground troops... and think that Storm, Queen of Wakanda and public member of the Fantastic Four, totally just killed some guys. A fight ensues, Skids of the Morlocks comes to just in time to show some SHIELD creds and tells the Sentinel to stand down.
Meanwhile, in the Endangered Species back up, Beast encounters Dark Beast for a good talk about what he's destined to become without morals and Dark Beast gives his goody two shoes counterpart the keys to the old Neverland project from the old Weapon X series, effectively gving him an eeeeevil laboratory. Not a bad piece of the back up, but still a little odd to find within all this.