Nerdopolis

“M-Day cut the mutant population down from millions to just under two hundred. Since that day, mutants had suffered deaths but not a single birth. But hope returned…in the form of an infant girl.”

Reverend Mathew Risman, leader of The Purifiers, orchestrates a cunning takeover of a S.H.I.E.L.D. installation in North Dakota in pursuit of “…something so important, he risked everything to get it…” and now it’s only a matter of time before The Purifiers use it against mutantkind. These events lead to the reformation of X-Force under the sanction of Cyclops and Emma Frost—despite Wolverine’s reluctance to endanger more lives, after the death of Caliban.

Cyclops recruits Warpath, who continues to mourn Caliban’s death; Wolfsbane, who volunteers for reasons unknown; X-23, a female clone of Wolverine wielding adamantium claws and without a dominant will of her own; and Wolverine as the squadron leader. Their mission is to track down and destroy Risman and his flock in order to retrieve and secure the stolen threat to the dwindling population of mutants, at all costs. Meanwhile, the severed head of Bastion is used in an attempt to reactivate Nimrod, the ultimate Sentinel from an alternate future where mutants have been hunted into extinction. This all culminates in an all out conflict with the Purifiers and Risman is forced to prove his deadly resolve.

Craig Kyle and Christ Yost handle the writing chores exceptionally, while artist Crayton Crain illustrates the story with his detailed paintings. It’s a visually pleasing title with smart and edgy plot work. I will be following this one for at least the duration of the Angels and Demons story-arc, the span of six issues.

“…The End League walks the Earth.”

Brian Terrence is the miraculous Astonishman. Once upon a time, he was known as the defender of truth, justice and the American way of life. In May of 1962, he destroyed the world. After being misinformed about the intent of a mysterious alien humanoid race living under the sea, Astonishman detonated a nuclear warhead that set off a chain reaction in the alien vessel’s engines, causing The Green Event. Three billion would perish in the Event and, of the survivors, one in ten thousand would mutate from exposure to the alien radiation. The Magnificents would inherit the Earth.

The End League is a post-apocalyptic superhero series that deals with guilt, remorse and what happens when individuals with amazing, superhuman abilities are left to rule over a wasted Earth. Astonishman has kept the true origin of The Green Event a secret from his teammates; a rag-tag assembly of Magnificents, remnants of the Squadron of Righteousness. Thor the God of Thunder (no relation to Marvel’s or Rob Liefeld’s characters of the same name) has disappeared without a trace and the remaining heroes affiliated with Astonishman, a handful of survivors of the Day of Annihilation, futilely seek out the lost hammer, Mjolnir.

The End League is comprised of a melting pot of misfit mutants that resemble amalgams of some of the more popular heroes of the Marvel and DC universes. Astonishman is an obvious nod to characters derived from the Man of Steel, complete with cape. Arachnakid is a monstrous spider mutation reminiscent of the Doppelganger Spiderman. Brother Occult is a combination of Doctor Strange and every other sorcery based hero from the annals of comic history.

In this issue, The End League are tasked to secure a substantial and desperately needed food supply from a warehouse controlled by Scarecrow Sinister and Dead Lexington, the arch-villain responsible for leading Astonishman on the path that caused the Green Event. There is an encounter with Scarecrow Sinister’s forces that leads up to an unexpected betrayal and a surprise appearance by someone the heroes thought long dead.

This title, written by Rick Remender, scribe on Dark Horse’s Fear Agent, is highly story driven, with a plot that shows promise as Astonishman comes to terms with his folly and learns how to trust those around him enough to reveal his involvement in the Green Event, all while handling the threat of superior might from Dead Lexington and his syndicate of super-villains. With art by Mat Broome, inks by Sean Parsons and colors by Wendy Broome, this is a title worth your attention if you like your super-hero mythology to be dark and brooding, with not a glimmer of hope for the good guys.

“Dungeons and Dragons” starts off right where the last episode left us, with John’s uncle, Derrick Reese, in critical condition and Sarah’s ex-fiance, Charley Dixon, coming to save the day. The show splits into two different stories, one of which is Reese’s flashback to… well… the future, and the other is “present day” with Charley, Sarah, John and Cameron coping with the situation.

The present day storyline of Charley reuniting with Sarah and learning the truth about the terminators is easily the most enjoyable thing about this episode. Charley is a very likable character, which is unfortunate, because I don’t think they’re going to make him a regular. His conversation with Cameron after he learns the truth is very weird. He tells her a couple times that she is “scary” and the show tries to back him up by showing Cameron pocket the defunct terminator’s brain chip. This is where our two stories intersect, because we find out that Derrick already knew Cameron, or at least a Terminator of her model. Given the uniqueness of the other terminators in the series, we’ll assume it’s the same machine.

So Derrick’s flashback has a couple cool things going for it, namely that it reminds us of the original terminator movie. They follow cannon very well, by including Kyle with his photo of Sarah, and even used a similar hallway as the rebel base we saw the attack in Terminator the movie. If you’re up to snuff on your trivia, you’ll notice that Kyle’s flashback in the original movie and Derrick’s flashback here overlap with the attack on the rebel base. We see a lot of references here to Terminator reprogramming and specifically, the fact that it doesn’t always stick. Add in some Cameron taking the robot brain stuff for spice, and instantly we no longer trust her. Cameron has said a couple times that the terminators only carry out the mission they were sent for, which is very interesting, because we don’t really know what her mission was. It is presumably to protect John Connor, but I seriously doubt that’s the extent of it.

The pacing of the episode wasn’t done very well. The storyline split between the flashback and present day was completely backwards. At the beginning of the episode, you want to see the present day storyline because of the Charley Dixon drama, but they keep switching to the flashback. By the time the flashback becomes interesting, you’re already too bored with it to care. The flashback brings up a lot of really weird questions (what the hell was the musical torture thing about?), which we may or may not get answers too, and I think they introduced too much at once.

Still enjoyed it, but it pretty much played out exactly as you’d expect and we didn’t see much character growth.

3 stars out of 5

Part three of “The Long Way Home” arc drops us smack dab in the middle of Buffy’s dreamspace with an unlikely tour guide that’s done more harm than good in the past. Meanwhile, Willow and Amy battle it out high above Command Central as the undead army continues its slaughter below. The two witches put on one helluva light show that ends with Willow incapacitating the undead, showing off a little of the Dark Willow we all know and fear in the process, and Dawn actually serving a purpose as she literally stomps Amy into the ground.

With Amy now being held by an army of Slayers and one powerful witch, we turn back to Buffy’s dreamspace where things really couldn’t be much more cryptic. I’m sure the clues she picked up in the dreamspace are going to help in the future, but the whole dreamspace plot line in this issue really did nothing for me. As I read the pages, I really couldn’t help but wish they were used to show more of the battle between the Slayers and the undead. Thankfully, halfway through the issue, Buffy is awoken by a kiss of true love (By whom we’re not told.), and the gang finally reunites.

The final stretch of the issue brings Giles back, which is always a plus, as he chats with a demon about the slaying of his brood in issue 1. The dialog between Giles and the demon is great, but regrettably only lasts one page. I know this is only the first arc, but I crave me some Giles. I only hope the writers are smart enough to have a Giles-centric arc in the future, because this one page shows off how great it could be.

Next we jump back to Scotland where Xander checks in with a bored Andrew in Italy, then goes to visit his Slayer love interest, Renee, who was wounded in the battle against the undead. There’s some nice Xander dialog here, but Renee’s dialog continues to show no real character. Maybe it’s because we’re only three issues in and have no back story for Renee yet, but every time she has dialog with Xander, he’s great, and she’s just boring. It really just makes me miss Anya. She was quirky, funny, and differed from a generic Slayer. Sadly, Renee does not.

The issue comes to a close with Buffy, Willow and Xander beginning their magical interrogation of Amy. Things quickly go wrong, as they always seems to do, which results in Amy teleporting away with Willow, and readers finally learning who Amy’s boyfriend is with a last page reveal. It’s definitely cool to see this character making a reappearance because he played a big part in the television series, and the situation this puts Willow in really makes me excited for the next issue.

Overall, a lot happened in this issue, and that’s a good thing! There was some bad stuff, but I think that the good definitely outweighed it. The dreamspace stuff was boring for me, but I’m sure it’ll pay off in the long run. The major draw of this issue was the dialog of the main characters, which was top notch, especially the stuff with Giles and Xander.

The next issue is the 4th and final part of “The Long Way Home” arc, and if it’s anything like that past 3 issues, it’s going to be a great read.

Rating: 4 out of 5

In a word i could describe what this whole issue is, and i will. It’s Filler

It add very little to the story, and what it does add is very “WTF” worthy.

Ill quickly explain what happens.

Starlord is being tortured by Ultron, but does not give away any secrets.
Quasar and Adam Warlock are betreyed by the High Evolutionary.
Ronan somehow has a reserve 15,000 strong army of Sentries. And gets Wraith and Praxagoria to make them Phalenax proof.

Its all very… Mediocre really, I dont have any real reason to slag it off, yet no reason to praise it.

Had i known of its “Quality” prior to buying it, i would have left it on the shelf and you would have been reading a review for a Spawn comic right now.

But that didnt happen

The story probably is going to get better. I would suggest to the writers to kill off Quasar. As she is the worst charecter ive seen in ages. Get Ronan back to his cool levels. Include Super Skrull more.

But the best thing they could do, is make a quick return of Nova into this story… it really needs him.

Overall: 2/5

“When Titans clash, the results–apart from justice done–are often considerable property damage. Not to worry…when their buildings get trashed, New Yorkers know who to call: the engineering and construction firm that specializes in the repair of property destroyed in superhuman conflicts…Damage Control.”

This latest entry in the Damage Control saga takes place during World War Hulk: After Smash! as the crew is commissioned by S.H.I.E.L.D. in conjunction with Stark Enterprises to repair the war-zone that was once the island of New York, all thanks to an enraged Hulk. This issue involves a one hundred sixty four billion dollar contract as negotiated by Anne-Marie Hoag C.E.O. and Albert Cleary, the return of John Porter and Robin Chapel and the rest of the Damage Control regulars, including ex-convict Eugene Strausser.

The heroes of New York unite in the ensuing search and rescue operation, featuring cameo appearances by Goliath, The Heroes for Hire, Yellow Jacket, Doctor Strange and the Fantastic Four, just to name a few.

Damage Control has always been less about your typical super hero affairs and more about what it takes to put civilization back together once the smoke clears from those epic struggles we always read about. So, unless you are looking for an intriguing, well-written, sitcom-style read, (with the occasional sprinkling of super-powered conflict) every one need not apply.

Dwayne McDuffie, as expected, does an excellent job of including the reader in the corporate manipulations and back office dealings in a unique and fresh fashion. Artist Salva Espin, does an adequate job of depicting the heroes, executives and their demolished surroundings in a professional and clean manner, with dazzling colors contributed by GURU eFX. Overall, a good read and I would recommend this to fans of clever dialog and anybody who wants to know what it takes to pick up the pieces of the Marvel Universe when nobody else can or will- but I may be biased, I have always been a fan of Damage Control.