$oss' Pull-List Review 4-27-11

This is my first crack at Weekly Reviews. Hope you guys enjoy it.

In fourth place:
Fear Itself #1

This summer's event title features the forces of good and evil's struggle over the legendary Hammer of Skadi, a mighty weapon buried deep in the frozen wasteland of Antarctica. What, you've never heard of this weapon? Don't give a crap about it? This story sounds like a waste of a perfectly good summer's worth of comic reading? Yeah, I think so too.

A lot has changed in the Marvel Universe since I last regularly read weeklys, so you can imagine my confusion when the Red Skull's goons started calling him "Ma'am". When the hell did Johann Schmidt have a sex change? It also appears that Asgard has fallen out of the sky and landed somewhere in Oklahoma. What a subtle way to place Thor in the spotlight in time for his motion picture debut!

My main complaint is the focus of the story, that being Thor and his surrounding cast. Thor doesn't work well with the street level style of superheroes like Spider-Man and Captain America. These characters feel completely out of place when contrasted with the all-powerful beings of Asgard. Don't get me wrong, the upcoming movie looks great, but creating an entire event around a character for the sake of synergy feels forced.

In regards to the actual nuts and bots of the title, Stuart Immonen's art is a bright spot and looks to be something to look forward to. Matt Fraction moves the story along, but there's nothing special about this first issue.

Third:
Uncanny X-Men #536

I'm loving the return of the Breakworld storyline. These characters are refreshing while staying inline with the X-Men's tradition of aliens and space travel. It's interesting to watch Powerlord Kruun and the Breakworlders struggle with concepts like forgiveness and apologizing. Terry Dodson draws some of the most beautiful women in all of comics and his work is on full display in this issue. Kieron Gillen does a good job of invoking the overall feel of Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men. If the rest of Gillen's run is anything like these first two issues, my two year X-Men hiatus may be over. This book has tons of promise.

Second:
Avengers #12.1

Marvel, just when I thought you couldn't possibly produce quality books anymore, you go and do something like this... and totally redeem yourself! First, a great run by John Romita Jr. to launch this new title and now Bryan Hitch will take over the art duties. Marvel is putting top level talent on their main titles, just the way it should be. I'm a huge fan of Hitch's work. My favorite being his run on The Ultimates. Teamed with Brian Bendis I have little doubt the Avengers could be my #1 book each month. Oh... but I do have my doubts. Along with the breathtaking artwork of The Ultimates I ALSO remember the chronic lateness of the book. It took one whole year in between issues #12 and #13. These books look great as collected series, but it was painful to live through waiting for each issue to arrive in stores. With all the promise this book had it still was a bit underwhealming. The featured villains, The Intelligencia, never seemed like a match for the multiple teams of Avengers. The reintroduction of Ultron at the end of the book was a nice touch. I'm very excited about the prospects of this creative team's run on Avengers.

First:
FF#2
I like the direction this book is taking. Jonathan Hickman and Steve Epting are doing a wonderful job focusing on this collective of the most intelligent minds in a galaxy and distancing the story from the “First Family of Marvel”. You even get a sense that the characters feel the shift as Ben Grimm and Sue discuss their emotions about being outsiders in the new dynamic of The Future Foundation. 

My favorite part of this book is this panel regarding Spider-Man. Underneath the goofy, happy-go-lucky exterior is the mind of a scientist. Spider-Man is a part of the FF because he's smart, not because he can stick to walls. I find it amusing that even the other team members miss that until this moment. Now that I've talked about how bright everyone in the FF is for a paragraph, is it really a good idea to reverse the damage done to Doctor Doom's mind? Doesn't seem like they thought this one out. Plus, Stupid Doom is hilarious!