Guardians of the Galaxy #1: Get ready for next year’s movie by getting to know the Guardians in their new, on going issue. The main cast that will be featured in the movie: Star Lord, Gamorra, Rocket, Groot and Drax are who you are introduced to in this book and are joined by the space hopping Tony Stark. The space action in the book is spectacular, culminating in a battle above Earth with the vicious Baddon aliens and there is potential for some serious threats in the future as Star Lord’s father reveals there was an agreement that Earth is to be left alone, but that could also leave it wide open for conquering. You get a good, general sense of the character of each of the Guardians as well. If you like Star Wars, Star Trek or any other space epics, definitely jump on the new Guardians.
Age of Ultron #3: The Ultronocalypse is still going strong as the surviving heroes come up with a plan to try and get own of their own inside Ultron’s operation. Learning from Spider-Man that there are low level criminals trading superheroes to Ultron, She-Hulk volunteers to be “sold” by Luke Cage so they can get inside. The final reveal of the villain is a nice twist. Meanwhile, in Chicago, Taskmaster, Black Panther and Red Hulk are trying to get the head of one of the Ultron drones for a, as yet unknown, purpose. 1 and maybe 2 of them do not survive the encounter. As far as the big Marvel events go, Age of Ultron is shaping up to be one of the best.
Fantastic Four #5AU: A tie-in issue to Age of Ultron, the Fantastic Four are called back to the present time by Black Panther during the initial attack by Ultron. Leaving Franklyn and Valeria behind, the team heads back and are promptly, brutally killed by Ultron drones. Sue is the only who survives so it’s definitely not the light hearted space romp of the previous issues. The book features vastly different art than then main storyline and it’s not bad, but I think it makes the Fantastic Four look way too young and like kids themselves.
Thunderbolts #7: Speaking of new artists, Thunderbolts and gets a new artist and it’s a vast improvement, in my opinion, over the art of the first six issues. The original art was a little to simple and cartoony for a book featuring the most violent characters in the Marvel universe and the new art style makes everything more detailed and realistic. Not too much happens in this isssue, the ‘Bolts are still after a mysterious villain who took some sort of gamma technology created by Madman. There’s some interesting character dynamics being set up, probably most notable is Punisher hooking up with Elektra, much to the dismay of Deadpool and the action is well done throughout.
Judge Dredd #5: Even though the new Judge Dredd has featured mostly stand alone stories, there has been an overarching thread of robots turning against their owners and that comes to the forefront in the latest issue, as a full scale technology revolt occurs in Mega City One. Even Dredd’s Lawgiver turns on him, forcing him to go one one with a bodyguard robot for a rich teenager who makes interactive experiences of the city’s worst slums. I haven’t read a ton of the classic Dredd comics but this new series seems to capture the spirit of those and is definitely worth checking out if you were a fan of those or Dredd the movie.
Deadpool Killustrated #3: The main Deadpool book just finished it’s insane “Deadpool vs the Presidents” arc but this miniseries even up the insanity over that. Basically, Deadpool, after killing the entire Marvel universe of heroes in a previous miniseries, learns that there will always be new heroes unless the genesis of the characters are destroyed. The genesis of the Marvel heroes is the characters of classic literature, so this book has found Deadpool jumping between classic stories and murdering everyone inside. His actions will most likely destroy the entire universe, so the villain The Thinker somehow manages to contact Sherlock Holmes, who assembles an all star team of heroes and is currently hunting Deadpoll down. Deadpool gets some help of his own from Frankenstein’s Monster and together they manage to kill the cast of The Jungle Book and Captains Ahab and Nemo. It’s absolutely insane but if you love Deadpool and love classic literature, it’s definitely worth a look.
