New Comics: Week of May 7, 2008

Here's what I ended up bringing home:

Avengers/Invaders #1 - I know Spider-Man's thing is the nervous banter... but there was a little too much here. It became downright annoying. Other than that, this issue provided pretty much what I expected. I can see the writer trying to draw a parallel between Peter and Bucky with the dual internal narration, but given Brubaker's retcon of Bucky's character during wartime, it just seemed a little off. Also, like with all of Marvel's projects lately, I'm having trouble discerning when this all takes place. Post-Civil War, sure, but Pre-Secret Invasion? Who the hell knows. It's kind of frustrating, really. Wondering if Ross just gets to make up his own stuff on projects like this.

Invincible Iron Man #1 - Strong start. Fraction hits the ground runnning, bringing a lot of brains and (surprisingly) sex to Stark. Kind of a mix of the fast pace readers expect from Cassanova with a little world building from Immortal Iron Fist. For a second, I almost thought this was going to go the way of Armor Wars, but it quickly veered into something new. I loved the connection that's made between the advanced tech of the armor and the (formerly) advanced tech behind the camera phone. Very smart, very relateable.

Small note: I am wondering about the timeline here, just as with Avengers/Invaders, but care less. Doesn't seem as tied into current (what passes for) continuity, other than Stark is director of SHIELD now.

Secret Invasion #2 - Some of the shuttle escapees turned out to be red herrings, just as I suspected, though at least one appears to be the real deal. I actually liked that part of this issue, despite the rest.

The part that threw me out of the story might seem incidental, but kind of wraps up my problem with the writing in a nutshell: Emma Frost using the word "guys" indescribing the other group. She also using the term "brainwaves". This sounds like a) every other character and b) nothing like any incarnation of Frost that I've ever read. Sure you could write it off that she's a skrull, trying to blend in with the humans, using the vernacular. Just bugged me, and yanked me right out of the proceedings.

Also, am I not all that up to date on Jessica Jones. I know Bendis retconned her as an Avenger at some point, but never really named her alter-ego. If that's true, I thought it was interesting that she was missing from the roll call on the first page. Also, I'm wondering if she's the real thing, and Bendis is going to risk invalidating everything he did with Alias by making her a skrull. Also, it would give him an opportunity to reestablish her as a costumed superhero, building her up as a major player. It sure worked for Sentry!

I did kind of like that last shot of the issue, and all of the different hybrid skrulls. Interesting that some embody whole teams, and even adopt helpful design tweaks on their uniforms to inform us of such.

Young X-Men #2 - What? I feel old. What's going on? Still no real grasp of any of the characters. Think that Cyke is probably not the real deal, but other than that... I got nothin'. The only conceivable hook for me at this point is to find out what has happened to the former New Mutants. The last page reveal did not make me want to seek out the next issue. I love Paquette's work, but somehow he always ends up on projects I'm not all that interested in reading (Bulleteer excepted).

---

Passed:

DC Universe Special Justice League of America - Did not see this on the stands.

War That Time Forgot #1 - Looked good, until I saw Bruce Jones was writing it. I'll hang back on this one.

Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin TPB & JLA Presents: Aztek the Ultimate Man TPB - Saw both of these on the racks. May wait til this weekend to pick them up. I have a trade discount coming up, so this may be my last bit of leftover birthday splurge.

---

Tags: invincible iron man secret invasion avengers/invaders