Posts Tagged ‘ X-Force ’

…bitching about, of all things, trade paperback collections. Well, hardcover collections as well, but it’s the same thing. There’s also blatant linkage to my Amazon store, but you don’t have to click on anything, do you?

As you may have noted, I’ve been dropping books left, right and center recently. Some I’m done with completely, some I’ll be picking up in trades.

I’ve now dropped pretty much all the X-books – but there are some that I’m going to pick up in trades; X-Force and New Mutants being two of them. I dropped both these titles (and X-Men Legacy) just before Necrosha hit them, figuring that there’d be a nice big juicy hardcover at some point – and there is!

Look, here it is -

It contains the X-Necrosha one-shot, X-Force #21-25, New Mutants #6-8 and X-Men Legacy #231-233. Maybe the Gathering one-shot, but it isn’t listed on the website. Whatever, that’s what I was looking for – great!

Only…wait, no. Not so great.

Because as I also want to pick up X-Force and New Mutants in trades from now on, I’m going to have to do some double purchases.

Take New Mutants. The first arc and its epilogue issue – #1-5 – are collected in one handy volume:

The big X-Necrosha hc picks up #6-8, so that works. The thing is, the second volume of New Mutants picks up #6-11 plus the New Mutants story from the X-Necrosha one-shot:

Which means #6-8 are printed in two collections. Not the end of the world, but irritating.

But wait, it gets better. I also liked the idea of picking up the Siege: Dark Wolverine/New Mutants collection…

…mainly for the Daken story – but that book also contains New Mutants #11. Of course, I could pick up the Siege trade and the X-Necrosha trade and forget about the New Mutants trade – but then that leaves me missing #9-10 of the series. Aaaargh.

Then there’s X-Force. I’m sticking my issues on ebay and plunking for the nice big collection of the first eleven issues:

Nice. But now I’m thinking about the next few issues. It’s only a few issues until Messiah War – so maybe I’ll just pick up that trade and assume that the next big hardcover collection of the book will skip on by that, the way that the individual collections of the book did. That makes sense, right?

But…the collected X-Force Necrosha trade includes #20, a book conspicuously absent from that big X-Necrosha collection, so what if the next hardcover X-Force will skip that? You can drive yourself crazy with this!

See, Marvel, I want to buy your trades. I want to buy the nice big hardcover collections of storylines you put out – but you just don’t make it easy, do you?

…because, you know, Shatterstar’s not gay according to Rob.

Only he is.

And he’s staying that way at least until there’s another EiC at Marvel.

Posted via web from Comic By Comic’s Wonderous Posterous!

Last week was a huge week, so let’s get to it (some spoilers below) -

Detective Comics #854 – Beautiful artwork, solid story – and that’s on both Batwoman and The Question co-feature. I have to say that I like this version of Kate Kane more than the version we met in 52. Like the look, like the base, like her dad helping…good stuff all around.

Gotham City Sirens #1 – Store I went to was out. Maybe next week.

Green Lantern #42 – A bit of a let down, partly because I find Blue Lanterns of Hope stupid, partly because I find Larfleeze a daft villain, and partly because I’m sick of all the Lanterns just assuming that the Guardians are right, or at least being unwilling to question anything. This is on the endangered list post-Blackest Night.

Justice League of America #34 – Adequate wrap-up to the Starbreaker arc – although I still don’t really get why Cowboy Batman was there and the revelation about Sun Eaters being larvae Starbreakers is pretty much nonsensical. Let’s move on, already.

Superman #689 – A so-so ‘day in the life’ issue, with Valor touring the world and having splash page adventures in every country he visits, along with a one-panel inset where he sees something beautiful. Aw. Yes, it’s as cloying as it sounds.

Amazing Spider-Man #598 – Darker than usual, with Spidey getting a fistful of torture from Bullseye while Harry flounders and Norman proves he has a prediliction for blondes around his son’s age. Also, nodbody’s surprised that this guy seems to have been forgotten by everyone. Can it be? Did OMD delete Sins Past? Because if it did, I’m all for it!

Astonishing X-Men #30 – I asked last week if anyone still cared about this title. The answer is probably not. I’m kind of pissed off that Ellis killed Forge after turning him a little more crazy, though. I always liked him. Beautiful art, though.

Avengers The Initiative #25 – Good solid wrap-up issue as we get the new status quo of the Initiative. Lots to like here – dropping Gravity into the GLA is a genius idea (mini series, please!); I like the idea of the Avengers Resistance – especially with a newly-revitalized Tigra leading it; and Gauntlet sucker punching Ares out of the window of Avengers Tower. Good stuff.

Dark Avengers #6 – So. Norman’s still insane. Sentry’s still useless as a character. Mike Deodato still draws exceptionally well. And the cover doesn’t represent a single thing that happens in the issue. Still good fun.

Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia #1 – Okay set-up issue for the crossover, but I’m becoming less and less a fan of Fraction’s work on the X-Men, and that carries over here a little. Also, I’ve never been a fan of ‘torn from the headline’ stories, and Proposition X and Proposition 8 are a little too close for me to fully embrace the story yet. Oh, and the apparent treatment of Xavier seems a little pointless given the amount of time we just spent traipsing around the world with him getting him back. And, even though I’m told otherwise, I still think the Loki thing was a screw up.

Dark Reign Lethal Legion #1 – I picked this up because Tieri promised Crusher Creel. Well, he’s in it, barely, but I’ll forgive the false advertising. The majority of the issue focuses on Tiger Shark, in prison, telling how the current Lethal Legion – him, the Grim Reaper, Creel, Mr Hyde, Nekra (who also popped up in Utopia, oddly enough), the Grey Gargoyle and a final mystery member – got together and got set up. I’m not sold on the flashback-heavy structure of the story, but it’s got potential. Oh, and the art by Mateus Santoloco is very reminiscent of Darick Robertson.

Guardians Of The Galaxy #15 – The Guardians wrap up their War of Kings involvement in typical strong fashion; Moondragon’s not the woman she used to be; Warlock might be the man he will become and used to be (look, it makes sense); Crystal’s no helpless hostage; Lockjaw might be god (at least if you’re Cosmo) and Groot is Groot. Simply awesome. What comics should be.

Incredible Hercules #130 – Slight misstep this time out as Zeus gets put on trial, simply because he’s such a pompous ass that you really don’t want him to be saved. That said, there’s some good stuff with Cho and his parents (and Aegis, of all people), and Hercules’ speech in defence of his father is great. So even when this comic’s isn’t firing on all cylinders, it’s still better than 90% of the comics out there.

Nova #26 – A great book, but I’m not a fan of the reintroduced Corps. I don’t want a second rate Green Lantern Corps, I want Rich Rider. Let’s get this back on track and I won’t even mention that Robbie Rider’s supposed to be missing a finger, okay?

Secret Warriors #5 – Best issue so far, and the first one not to feature the team. What does that tell you? That nobody cares about the team because their characters haven’t been developed at all? Probably.

Skaar Son Of Hulk #12 – Some smashing and more than a few surprises. A light, fun read – and there’s more to Skaar than meets the eye. I’ll be picking up Incredible Hulk #600 to see where Skaar and his dad land next.

Thunderbolts #133 – Okay, well…if Black Widow isn’t who we think she is, who is she? Tasha? Mystique? This just got a lot more interesting between that, her real boss, Ghost’s connivingness and Eric O’Grady potentially stepping up in a big way. On top of that there were more examples of HAMMER’s gestapo-like tactics and the welcome return of Songbird. One of Marvel’s most unpredictable titles right now.

Uncanny X-Men #512 – So. Looks like it’s not just Greg Land’s static posing that makes Uncanny a bit of a mess right now, is it? Fraction is not on good form here. The whole X-Men science team thing seems like a good idea but plays like a second rate Planetary, to be honest.

X-Force #16 – The Messiah War concludes with not so much a bang as a whimper. A pity, because it had been pretty good fun up to hear – but at this point its difficult to see what, if any, changes to the status quo of either books this story has really made.

X-Men Forever #2- It feels a little wrong that I enjoyed this book as much as I did. From a page-long soliloquy from Nick Fury to hearing a sound in a corridor, to Wolverine apparently having adamantium hair, there’s so much wrong here that it’s difficult defend. And yet…and yet…it’s still strangely great.

Proof #21 – As much as I like the concept of this book, I think I’m about done. It’s well done, but over the last few arcs it feels like its lost its way – and that’s a damn shame because for a while there it was one of my most anticipated books. I’m out after the conclusion of this arc.

…because he continues to be a great artist (not darkly realistic, but with a great comic style) but he continues to be dragged into Jeph Loeb-penned messes like Hulk.

Why, Ed, why?

(Although the more I look at that cover the more I think it looks like Paul Pelletier, but my point still stands…)

Over at Comic Addiction, Paul Steven Brown has an interesting column about the X-Men, and how in his opinion Uncanny X-Men #211 marked the end of the All-New, All-Different X-Men that were introduced in Giant-Size X-Men #1.