Comic Round up for 8/27/2014 Ghostbusting edition!

It’s round up day and we here at a day late and a dollar short have a bit of a problem,  a rather pesky ghost problem to be more precise.

 But I assure you that we ain't afraid of no ghosts so who did we call?  We enlisted the help of professionals, doctors Stantz, Spengler, Venkman And their colleague Winston Zeddemore.  As the boys in grey rid our blog of pesky poltergeists 

were going to go bust some comics so look out for disgruntled cowboys, angry Canadians with metal claws, the occasional giant monster brawl and brotherly squabbles of an Asgardian  nature.  It’s all here on the latest Roundup!

A friendly reminder that all the comics you see today can be bought at comixology.com or your local comic shop.  For are first time visitors the rating system is based on a 1-5 scale of 1 being the worst and 5 being the best, this rating system was forged by illuminate mystics so don’t question it.  The NF symbol you see pop after the initial review stand for newcomer friendliness, which gauges how well an issue accommodates a reader who has just jumped in the series with this issue, it’s a 0-3 scale 0 being the worst and 3 being the best, you can see a more detailed description here. Now let’s get on with because comic busting makes me feel good.

All Star Western #34

5/5

NF: 1

Jonah Hex rides into a town with the intent of killing an outlaw who is impersonating him.  I’m sad to see this title go, and with it the best D.C has to offer.  It’s a surprisingly quite finale offering a more reflective and thoughtful commentary on fate and destiny rather than a big shoot out with lots of explosions, making it a rather fitting sum up of the series in general.  Here’s hoping we haven’t seen the last of Jonah Hex and maybe he will return with his awesome scar back.

Aquaman #34

3/5

NF: 2

Aquaman battles the Chimera, a monster made up of ocean life.   Well, it’s an Aquaman issue. The entire issue is just Aquaman and The Chimera wailing on each other, so it’s fine for just random fisticuffs but rather skimpy on story. I've been noticing that a lot lately with Aquaman, it seems that the writers aren't sure what they want to do with him. At the moment they are just making these crazy monster villains for him to beat-up for two or three issues.  The Chimera himself looks really cool and has really cool powers but such a dull and lame personality, well more like no personality, which really offsets the neat stuff.

Superman #34

4/5

NF:2

Superman brings Ulysses to meet his birth parents then the two team up to fight a new villain called the Machinist.  Grrr still a little bit of new 52 poison to ruin my fun with this book as it’s been reveled to me that the Kent’s have been dead, from a car crash no less, since the beginning of new 52.  So essentially superman has had to learn how to be superman without their guidance, which probably explains why he’s been kind of a jerk lately.  But aside from that little nugget of information the story is solid and Ulysses makes an interesting character even though the entire issue is just begging for him to fight superman.  The comic was a little bit darker then I tend to care for when dealing with Superman but its written efficiently and is light years better then what has been happening in the comics so  I still support it for that.

Red Lanterns #34

3/5

NF: 1

Guy Gardner and his Red Lanterns make a final stand against the hordes of Atrocious.  It was a big finale that’s to be sure, and certainly fun to read, but I have to take issue with a lot of plot points.  I mean I’m sorry but there is no way in this reality that you can convince me that Guy Gardner is an angrier person then Atrocitus.  I mean come on, Gardner may be a bit grumpy and not play well with others but Atrocitus watched as the Guardians Manhunters burned his world and his family, I’d say that has Gardner beat.  I also can’t just let go of the fact that Gardner wouldn't tell Stewart where the fight was going down especially since he practically begged him just three issues ago to get the Green Lanterns involved.

Sinestro #05       

3/5

NF:2

Hal Jordan appears to challenge Sinestro’s motivations and capabilities in helping the Korugarians.  The story’s it’s self is average but Sinestro is pretty awesome in it and that makes up for some weaker storytelling.  The art is interesting as everyone seems to look so shiny not to mention giving parallax yet another face lift.  Though I am confused as I thought the emotional entities were all destroyed by the first lantern but I guess not, though it’s not like I really understood half of what happened in Wrath of the First Lantern anyway.

Original sin Thor & Loki #04

5/5

NF:1

Loki brings the Angle forces to an abandoned Asgard while Thor plans his escape. YES and double YES! I am so mad that we are replacing Thor with a new hip female version.  I feel like we’re just scratching the surface of both Thor and Loki as characters and now we’re going to cast them aside, lame.   But this issue is fantastic, lots of great comic action and heroism as well as entertaining an believable dialogue form all the characters.  Plus identity of the pale king chess player is revealed, which was surprising since I was expecting the Pale and Dark King to either be new characters or abstract figures like death and destiny.  So now I’m wondering if the Dark King is the Serpent from Fear Itself.

Avengers #34

5/5

NF: 0

Captain America reaches the end of the line in his time traveling exodus and must make a difficult choice.   Wow this went from being the worst arc in original sin to one the best ones.  I like this focus on choice and Old vs. New morality.  Loved Cap’s speech about how he won’t just sit by and accept inevitability but will go down fighting it.  However anyone just jumping in at this point is going to have no clue what’s going on so I highly suggest at least catching up with the whole encroaching universe stuff. Most of the avengers comics have a little “previously on ”  page that fills you in on the bare bones of the problem.

Guardians of the Galaxy #18

5/5

NF: 1

At long last Gamora confronts Peter Quill about the final fate of Nova.  FINALLY!! Oh my expletive I cant believe it’s taken this long to get answers and I still have wait another issue to find out what happened to my favorite marvel space hero.  So far I’m on the fence about the answer there giving me. it’s close to what I was expecting to hear, but I don’t know if I liked the idea of Quill making a Devils Pact and Richard being opposed to it better or what were going with an that’s d Starlord kind of being manipulated into using the  cosmic cube. I also need to point out that I’m very happy that it’s Gamora that’s putting the screws to peter for answers.  Nova was the only man she could truly say she loved and that we haven’t forgotten that makes me smile.

Silver Surfer #05

5/5

NF: 2

Nightmare is asleep and threatens to envelope the world in a waking nightmare and only the silver surfer and dawn Greenwood can wake him up.   This continues be a promising fun lighthearted adventure series and I like that. With all the doom and gloom in most of the major titles it’s nice to see something a little less dark and just fun for a change. If you can get past the different art style the book is certainly worth a pick up.

Cyclops #04

4/5

NF: 1

Scott and Corsair attempt to make the best of being stranded on an alien world.   I really like that were finally getting into some real father son bonding time between young Scott and his dad.  I appreciate that although were taking a short break from big space battles and interstellar threats were not just wasting time sitting on this planet but instead encouraging some really strong character development and offering some hope for Future Cyclopes.

All New Invaders #09

4/5

NF:1

Cap and crew break into a secret facility to rescue their friend but first they have to face a deathloke army.   There’s nothing essentially special about the issue, heroes break into a secret base and fight bad guys while the mastermind villain waxes eloquent. The twist is though how much this keeps your attention and how much I find that I actually enjoy what I’m reading especially all the twist and turns. I’m still confused however if Martian is a legit alien race in marvel or something new we made up for this comic.

Fantastic Four #09

5/5

NF: 1

Jim Hammond organizes the rescues of Dragon Man while the rest of the Fantastic Four adjust to their new living conditions.   Why is it every time Jim Hammond pops up he’s giving a mission briefing flashback of some big event he was smack dab in the middle of?  Still the issue was a very good reflection on the FF’s current crisis and I really like this conspiracy were setting up that someone within the government is trying to destroy the FF.

Avengers undercover #09

4/5

NF: 1

The kids finally turn the tables on Zemo’s plans but Zemo still has some tricks up his sleeve.  I don’t know why I can’t stop reading this.  I mean I know like only two characters on this team, well maybe team isn’t the right word it’s more of a group,   but I can’t seem to stop reading this book I actually do want to know what happens in the next issue.  I also can’t believe that I miss a whole issue and all this stuff goes down, well whatever I’ll just roll with it!

Wolverine and the X-men #08

2/5

NF:2

Wolverine and Storm spend some quality time together inside a microscopic world where time slows to a crawl.  STOP IT! No more of this Wolverine X Storm garbage.  Neither of these characters are capable of being faithful to anyone so why even waste time with this.   Plus it really hard to be sympathetic to Storm after she left the Panther because he chose to side with the Avengers during AVX,   Avengers turned out to be the right side FYI, so considering she can’t even commit to a man who obviously still loves her, as is shown in New Avengers, I certainly don’t see this Wolverine Storm shipping Marvel is doing lasting very long.   Ok, maybe I’m taking comic book relations a little too seriously but when the entire issue is revolved around their romantic escapades it’s hard not to talk about it. If this keeps up they might as well re-title the comic wolverine and storm with some of those other x people.

All New –X-men #31

5/5

NF: 2

The original X-men sneak out on a secret mission to help a new mutant deal with her powers.  So now marvels all jealous of D.C's Multiverse stuff so their pushing their own dimensional Multiverse, Funny.  Good issue characters were all believable and  we got  closer to the  X-23 I am more familiar with thought I still think its weird they have her with the original Angel.

Wolverine #12

4/5

NF:1

Wolverine confronts Sabertooth as he and his crew attempt to stop him from remaking the world in his image.  That was actually pretty fantastic and the most heroic I’ve seen wolverine in a long time.  Wolverine delivers some great hero speeches and the fight between him and Sabertooth is as intense as I would want it to be.  Though *spoiler* Wolverine still alive and kicking, like any of you really expected him to die.  I do suppose one could argue that the wolverine did die and James Howlett the man is finally able to live, or some flowery garbage like that, of course he could just die next issue as well.  The two additional stories on the book were weird and kind of pointless the story about the bar was better then the lonely vampire but they were all kind of out of place.

Transformers vs. GI Joe #02

3/5

NF: 0

After a daring attack on an ancient transformer city the Joes and the Autobots both capture prisoners of war.   Ok, I have no idea what’s going on, like, at all.  But you know what? That’s ok.  If you can just put aside…well everything and just enjoy the awesome moments of G.I Joe and The Transformers doing crazy awesome stuff then this book is fantastic.  I mean when you see Scarlet take a motorcycle and ride up Devastators arm everything else just seems to fade into the background.  However it still doesn't excuse the lack of coherence and plot and though it may be a wonderful compilation of actions shots that’s all it is really, heck I don’t even know why there fighting in the first place.

Ghostbusters #19

5/5

NF: 1

Titmat and Gozer battle for dominance inside rays head while the rest of the Ghostbusters try to find a way to banish both Sumerian deities.   Have I said how much I love this comic?  Well I do, because this book is absolutely fantastic.  I loved seeing Gozer and Tiamat shift into various different and creative beasties as they duked it out and Winston being more then the 4^th guy on the team continues to be awesome.  I still love how much the comic reflects the movies these are exactly what I would expect to see if they had gone on for more than two films. So if you’re a Ghostbusters fan you need to be reading this series you’ll thank yourself for it.

Godzilla Rulers of the Earth #15

4/5

Nf:1

Godzilla faces an army of Mechagodzillas as there puppeteer is revealed.  Lol I was trying to think of who on earth was left in the Toho library that they haven’t used yet well now I have my answer as a surprise monster shows up.  The book pure fan fuel so if you’re not into Godzilla stay away, but if you’re even a little bit a fan of the king of the monsters pick it up and watch the big guy put the hurt on 8 Showa Mechagodzillas.

Woah we got ourselves quite the visitor but it seems the boys have it under control 

at least long enough for us to end the blog with our Pic of the Week!


In honer of Ghostbusters day, In case your scratching your head about this weeks theme,  we have a clip from the Ghostbuster issue reviewed this week featuring Ray Stantz.