A day late and a dollar short: Comic Book Round Up for 10/22/2014 * Halloween Edition*

Hey All! It’s comic Round Up day! But it’s not just Round Up week it’s also Halloween week!

So gather around all you ghouls and goblins and lets go take a walk and do the round up deep in the woods.

Hey look at this! It seems to be some sort of trail I wonder where it goes?

Well this doesn’t look foreboding at all. Lets go see if anyone is home.

Well the jack O lanterns are all set,

let’s just take a peek inside shall we?

Well aside from the creepy guy in the Dracula costume the place seems pretty deserted wait! Did something just run up the stairs?

Hold on I hear singing outsideWhat on earth!

Wait who are you

THAT’S IT! I’m getting out of here! While I try to find my way back enjoy this weeks roundup full off heroic Villains, desolate Asylums, bizarre crossovers, giant monsters and and alien or two. Remember if you what to pick up any of these frightastic titles you can find them all on comixology.com or at your local haunted comic shop. Also the round up will be on a temporary hiatus as I send my computer in to get fixed. Now on with the round up!

ARRGH get me out of here!

Avengers and X-men Axis #03

4/5

NF: 2

Magneto’s merry band of villains launches an all out war against the red onslaught. Watching all the villains fight red skull was hysterical making the issue worth a pick up just for that. I am a little confused as to what the rest of Axis is supposed to be about I thought it was all about the Red Skull but it seems not since they just beat him. Oh, and boy can the x-men whine, I mean really? You think that your little school that gets invaded and trampled every other day of the week is a more secured holding area then Avengers tower? I know they want Xavier back but they can just as easily get him from the avengers, it’s not like cap was saying that there just going to take Red Skull out back and shoot him regardless of who else may be swimming around in his head. But no, Havoc has to throw a temper tantrum and basically say I don’t want to play with you anymore.

Axis Hobgoblin #01

4/5

NF: 1

Hobgoblin starts over as a good guy and creates a marketing scam to acquire himself an insane amount of wealth. I love this ridicules idea of the Hobgoblin becoming a different kind of villain. Yes he’s out there saving lives but it’s all for publicity and he’s still a pretty terrible person. Being a Super villain infomercial is certainly one of the most creative ideas that marvels has thrown at me lately and I am open to more.

Avengers #37

2/5

NF: 0

Steve Rogers continues to hunt down the illuminate to make them answer for their secrets. Ok so this is 8 months in the future not an alternate reality. It’s still a dumb Idea and an even less interesting story. It just kind of keeps hiccupping the same material every issue, never really making any progress as a story. Should have just focused on the present day incursion issue, that at least was getting exciting.

All New Invaders #11

4/5

NF: 1

Jim Hammond I fighting a nanite virus left behind from his fight with the Deathloks. Ok, so Invaders is best with Jim Hammond as the primary focus of the story. His struggle as a synthetic man is very interesting and adds a nice humanity to the story. Oh and lookie lookie another flashback/mission briefing story telling me why were in the story were in, these things crack me up.

Deadpool #36

3/5

NF: 1

Deadpool goes to Genosha to fight red skull but something strange happens to him. This is weird I feel like this issue should have come out next week instead of this week because I feel like it adds things to axis that were not reveled in the latest issue. So are all the heroes and villains flipped in personality? I could use a clearer explanation of what just happened in Genosha.

She Hulk #09

4/5

NF: 2

She-Hulk takes Captain Americas case and must defend him against Daredevil in the courtroom. These Lawyering adventures of She Hulk are a really fresh take on the whole superhero world. I like the idea of the complications such a fantastic world would have on civil and criminal law. Besides I give credit to anyone who can make an interesting superhero comic where no body’s punching anything.

Cyclops #06

3/5

NF: 1

The starjammers get caught by a rival pirate and it’s up to Scott to save them. I feel kind of like a sucker for buying into the red herring opener of corsair punching his son in the face, but in my defense comics have made me so cynical that I really did believe that marvel would completely undo all the character building they just finished in order to create “more drama”. But they didn’t and corsair and Scott are just faking out the bad guys to which I’m not sure is more or less groan worthy then what I thought was happening.

Death of wolverine Logan Legacy #02

3/5

NF:1

X-23 leaves to go and process her emotions and figure out who she is without wolverine. Wasn't good wasn't bad it just was. It’s just more fallout of wolverines death and doesn't really need to be a whole separate comic. In fact, let’s just give x-23 her own comic again that would make me far more interested than some side comic of everyone boo hooing over wolverines “Death” . Oh and if you’re going to use real diseases you should really try to make sure you have all your facts straight.

Amazing x-men #12

4/5

NF: 3

The x-men have one final showdown with Tanaraq to free humanity of the Wendigo curse. This was a solid conclusion to a solid arc. Beginning middle and end, superheroes superheroing and some drama in the mix, while its nothing extra special it has that fun simple hero arc that we lack so often.

Amazing Spiderman #08

4/5

NF: 2

Spiderman and Miss Marvel continue their fight against a renegade Kree scientist meanwhile another totem eater appears to attack mayday parker and her family. Wow, the short spider verse story was way more interesting then the main one. Not that the main story was bad but it wasn’t terribly exciting either while on the other hand watching this new totem eater attack a well known character from the marvel multiverse was engagingly epic and makes me want to read Spiderverse now.

Arkham Manor #01

3/5

NF: 3

Wayne manor is turned into a temporary Arkham asylum but people are being murdered so batman must go undercover. So, wait. Is this canon? I mean what the heck happened to Arkham asylum that they need a new place to hold the prisoners? I know there was a panel showing it blow up but why did it blow up? What story was that? And why doesn’t Bruce live in his house? And who the heck thinks that a mansion would make a good temporary Asylum? I don’t have the answers to these questions but regardless of all that it was really the artwork and atmosphere that saved this issue from being a waste of time. The gray and black colors really create a creepy atmosphere for Gotham’s most notorious sanitarium.

Aquaman #35

3/4

NF: 2

Aquaman brings some old acquaintances to Atlantis to try and discover the true history of his people. Oh wow! It’s that scientist guy I remember him, yep, it’s what’s his name *quietly whispers to the person next to him* “who is that again?” Seriously though, I barely remember this wiry little man from when he kinda sorta tried to kill Aquaman kind of sort of against his will. Not much of consequence really happened in this issue other then consistently stating the obvious problems that have been plaguing Aquaman since issue one.

Superman #35

5/5

NF: 3

Superman and Ulysses confront the machinist but Ulysses finds more about earth then he expected and now wants to change things. I knew it we are so going to make them fight! This is so wonderfully obvious but in a good way. I like where this setup is going and I really like the idea of introducing some new villains for Supes to fight. So far Geoff Johns is doing a bang up job on the new superman book.

Red Lanterns #35

3/5

NF: 2

Guy Gardner finds himself in a death match with the new Gods with Simon Baz as the only backup. Ok I just throw my hands up in the air when it comes to the new gods. I just don’t believe in their motivation nor do I believe in their power levels. I mean there all cut from the same cloth as Darkseid and his minions yet the lanterns seem to be having so much trouble with them. shakavat? Why couldn’t he have been one of the things that got erased when new 52 happened I don’t understand why D.C wants to hang on so desperately to all its bad ideas, speaking of bad ideas Why is Baz even still here he never does anything and his personality is about as exciting as card bored.

The Flash #35

2/5

NF: 0

The flash from the future comes to kill the flash from the past in order to save all of time. Not going to even try and put all this together. I mean what a headache this is causing as far as time travel I can’t eve go into this but let’s just say that this book was not only confusing but kind of stupid as well. If new 52 hadn’t started writing Barry as this ridicules ding dong and let him be the forensic scientist he is we wouldn’t have this kind of nonsense. By the way if that is what Wally’s costume is going to look like when he finally takes the flash mantle then

Deathstroke #01

4/5

NF: 1

Deathstroke is hired to kill a man named Possum in Russia but is ambushed. This was actually kind of awesome. Just Deathstroke being Deathstroke murder, violence and plain old fashion butt kicking. Though I am trying to figure out if new52 eliminated Slades limited precognition. We have his healing ability but nothing has mentioned his limited ability to see the future, witch I always thought was a pretty awesome ability.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles –Ghostbusters #01

4/5

NF: 1

The Turtles build a time machine but it instead transports them to an alternate universe where they run into the Ghostbusters. This was hysterical if you love or are reading either series then this will be an enjoyable read as the comic focus on both groups equally. The whole first issue is mostly setup so we haven’t gotten to any of the real crossovering yet but it was so well put together that you would almost believe that his was the debut comic for both teams. The dialogue is well crafted and fits each character true to form in fact Peters comment in the last panel had me in stitches.

Transformers Primacy #03

4/5

NF: 0

The Autobots and Decepticons begin their final battle for Cybertron. If you want to read Primacy just pick it up, don’t worry about history or timelines or even who’s who and how they behave, just read the comic and enjoy the show because you will spend countless hours trying to figure out all those questions above when you could just be enjoying the book for what it is. It’s transformers and it does what transformers does best and that’s depicting epic robot wars. The biggest complaint I have is some of the battles have shots that are far to close up and the artwork, while good, can make it a bit difficult to identify what is actually happening.

Justice Inc #03

4/5

NF: 3

The Avenger is born and teams up with Doc Savage and the Shadow to find his missing family. Ok, the comic is corny no doubt about that, and half the time you would think your reading batman and superman when looking at the Shadow and Savage, but it is kind of fun if you like that old pulp hero kind of style. If you’re looking for serious cynical drama you won’t find it here this comic wears everything on its sleeves and makes no apologies for it.

Godzilla rulers of the earth #17

4/5

NF: 3

Space Godzilla arrives and decimates the remaining Devonians as her continues his trek toward earth. Again this is really a comic for Godzilla fans only. The space battle between Gigan and Spacegodzilla was tons of fun and exciting to see SG make is way to earth. The rest of the story is what it usually is just barely holding a story thread together.

Godzilla cataclysm #03

4/5

NF: 2

The boys smuggle a piece of Biollante back into the village which brings the monsters to their hometown. This is such a fun read Post Apocalyptic Godzilla is a great idea one that I always thought could make for an interesting story if given half a chance. I like this radical take on all the monsters and how there approached as both forces of nature and being of personality.

Predator- Fire and Stone #01

3/5

NF: 2

A predator stows away on a smuggler ship and picks off the crew one by one. The entire comic right until the end was standard monster of the week fair with the predator just killing off human character that no one cared about, not much of a story there but then we pull in the fact that it’s hunting an engineer and is willing to “team up” with a human to get to them. The art was actually pretty good really highlighting the predator more than anything.

Whew! Back home safe and sound, where I’m never leaving again, and can just throw candy at the relentless little monsters that keep crowding around my house.