comics
First Born #3: First of all: Stjepan Sejic draws an awesome Darkness, and awesome Witchblade(BOTH ARMORS!) and a REALLY AWESOME Magdalena, and actually manages to make that outfit almost look like a practical armor(if only it weren’t for that exposed belly button…) I wish, though, that he hadn’t drawn Angelus’s underlings as so grotesque. Then again, they’re creations of Celestine’s mind, so I guess it makes sense. Then there was Jackie, who was awesome. And Magdalena, who was awesome. And somehow they managed to work well together. Then the woman who just gave birth saved everyone’s butts. And then was saved by the (female) newborn. Dani, sadly, didn’t get to do much beyond serving as midwife. I’ll tell myself she did some clinging to Jackie when he helped her up after the fight. (What? She would!) For a bit, I was wondering why something with the same writer and several of the same characters as Witchblade was 10 times better than most issues of that…and then I remembered that everyone has to lose half their awesome in Witchblade to comvince us that Gleason could last two seconds in this world, much less be a worthy love interest for Sara. But, in case I wasn’t clear: Stjepan Sejik draws REALLY REALLY AWESOME armor.
Angelus #1: again: Sejik draws awesome armor. Not to mention the Angelus force. So…hrm…Celestine is the product of some sort of mad scientist’s experiment? And has "freak" relatives? I dunno…I think I like the idea of her just being an extremely unbalanced woman who thinks "good" acts always have to be balanced with "bad" acts. Still, I’m more than willing to see where this goes. (I also have no interest in the other "pilot season" options…) But…who wrote this? Marz? Someone else? It says nowhere in the issue…
What If…Annihilation: "YOU’RE SQUABBLING OVER YOUR SECRET IDENTITIES?" Thank you, Nova. Please turn back time and chew them out in the regular reality. Also? Please tell Cap he doesn’t suck just because he doesn’t watch videos on youtube while you’re at it. "If this is all true…" "There’s an alien space ship sticking out of that building." "Agreed." Yes, boys, very observant. Why couldn’t you be that observant while trapped in the atrocious storyline the first time? Anyway, pretty decent "What If…?" Though somehow, I think it’s Marvel’s response to all the theories that Annihilation will eventually reach Earth and make everyone quit squabbling and band together and such.
Starlord #4: Uhm…Starlord and the Dirty (Half) Dozen in space continues. Or concludes. It was awesome and kinda dry and snarky and had lots of laser guns and Mantis rocks. That is all I have to say.
Nova #8: Telepathic dog with a Russian accent who lives in the decapitated head of a celestial. And zombie alien Avengers wannabes. Do I need to say anything else? Well, and Nova and Worldmind snark, of course. It isn’t Nova without that.
Annihilation: Conquest #1: Moondragon and Quasar give the audience a recap of all the leadins with the excuse of having to explain everything to Adam Warlock. Adam is younger and prettier and a lot more golden than he used to be. He also has an Unfortunate Something on his chin that I don’t remember from before. He is apparently wallowing in angst from having a billion or so dead souls in his head. A good reason for aggst. He also does a lot of this newly-young angsting with carefully-obscured nekkidness. Things like "I’m Quasar. I use my quantum bands to protect the universe" weren’t really helpong his frame of mind. Thankfully, many phalanx goons came along, so he got dressed and worked out his angst with a good old brawl, before whisking the three of them away to a safehouse in the core of a sun, where he and the High Evolutionary have been cloning Kree. Or something.. Meanwhile, Ronan, Super-Skrull and Wraith are flying around space. Ronan and SS are having alpha clashes. I think Wraith is sulking because with Adam Warlock’s new act, he doesn’t have the most impressive angst in the series anymore. Aaaaaaand…ULTRON!