CrazyforRAMU's Profile

The plot that gives this issue its shape is another little one-and-done adventure, a novel, intriguing problem solved with ingenuity by both the characters and the author.

What pushes it into greatness is the seamless integration of premises developed over the whole course of the volume, from Nick Scratch stalking the family to Sue and Reed's secret Morse code from #17. I love it when c reators step back and make use of the full range of narrative tools they've created in a long enough run.

It's all brought to life with great art. The sheer volume of content is a challenge, requiring some cramped panels to fit everything in. But the artist does it well, maintaining clarity and polish all the way through.
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Yes, there are big, stupid superpower zappies. More importantly, there are truly weighty philosophical questions, posed and answered in artful, unique language. Even the visuals are on an uptick, combining imaginative blocking with top-notch polish.

What more do you need in a great big "back from the dead" story?

This finale is a great fusion of stupid cinematic action, mind-blowing art, and surprise guest stars. The dialogue flirts constantly with cliché, as do the mechanics of the climactic fight. But the engine that ACTUALLY drives the plot is an incredibly thoughtful, nuanced take on the theme of the whole volume, a dramatic assertion that relationships, memories, and communities make us who we are.

Plus, that art truly is something special. The style is a little retro, but the blocking is wildly imaginative, the action is dynamic, and the amount of detail invested in the design of…everything is virtually insane.
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This issue has all the style we've come to expect in words and art. Soldier's hard-boiled voice gives the dialogue a nice edge. The actual plot developments are a bit open-ended, but I see a HUGE compensating factor in the new light this installment throws on Dr. Sterman. She's NOT giving Soldier therapy here; she's stiffening his resolve to keep fighting the Mission's fight. I think Sterman not b eing impartial might be the biggest development in the series so far.
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The A and B strips are drawing closer together, which is a net positive. The two art teams are both doing good work, and their styles align pretty well. This particular issue shows off how important coloring is in creating kid-friendly art.

This issue isn't as comical as some that have come before, but it's much more dramatic and consequential. I particularly like how the key plot devel opment here is inextricably linked to Bailey's heroic choices; that folds plot and character work together in a talented way.

The guest star in the B-strip is a welcome sight. The connection was obvious from Madame Monstrosity's very first scene; this flashback clarifies the relationship logically and humorously.
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This is an incremental improvement over #1, sharpened by its focus on plot progression, its willingness to answer an adequate number of questions without spoiling all mysteries, and its introduction of fantastic guest stars. The art is clearer while retaining exquisite polish and inventive blocking, and the prose (both dialogue and narration) has a terse, dry wit that suits my taste exactly.

Kieron Gillen's bet that I want to know more about Destiny and Mystique in the Fall era pays off. His winnings are more modest when the question is whether or not I want more Mother Righteous or deep background for Rise of the Powers of X.

It's a solid read, well polished in its words and its art, but it's quite dense. It's not insightful enough to enhance the other X-Books, but it's no t novel enough to stand fully apart from them. While I think it's a good book overall, in the bigger picture, it makes getting through the whole event that much more of a slog.
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This high-concept fight comic deserves credit for swinging big and scoring. It's far from flawless, but it's sculpted by laser-like focus into a digression-free chunk of conflict. The art is mecha-magnificent, and the words are trimmed back strictly to conveying ideas that expand on the action.

It is good; it is not great. The art is pretty much there, and the words are close. But the c oncept itself is a double-edged sword. This is a very good giant robot fight. But it's not a ground-breaking one, and it leaves no space to aim at any other goal.

Nitpick: Tony calls the Mark 73 Sentinel Buster his biggest armor ever. That feels patently false.
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This issue doesn't mean much in terms of long-term plot progression, but it's a satisfying little adventure by itself. Spider-Boy is a surprisingly organic team-up, considering he and Jess both got hurt by the last round of Spider-Verse nonsense. The script balances basic villain-whomping action against simple, honest exploration of Jessica's feelings. The art tells the story with clarity and dyna mism, though the anatomical proportions are occasionally dubious.
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My take on this volume has always been that it puts style over substance, and it does the style well enough to make that okay.

Until suddenly it doesn't. This issue is as sparse on content as any that's come before. For me, at least, the stylish smoke and mirrors don't conceal the flimsiness of the structure this time. Most importantly, I can't see any reason offered for the plot to dev elop the way it does here except for the fact that this is act three and we need to head toward a resolution.
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I still think that Luna does too much and Carol does too little, but at least they're both doing SOMETHING. Plus, the addition of solid guest stars makes this feel more like an ensemble story than a "hero & sidekick" comic where the roles are reversed.

The script struggles to convey quite a lot of exposition and action without losing clarity, and there's not much room left over for real ly memorable dialogue. Still, it's a laudable chunk of action.

The art is just fine. It makes me snicker that both of this title's regular artists have distinctive ways of messing up faces, though.
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The creators and the story profit from this issue's tighter focus on an active conflict without the messy continuity connections that weighed down #1. The art gets its chance to shine on the dynamic action pages, though the quieter moments are still a little too melodramatic. The prose stumbles occasionally and never gets too memorable, but the short, tight scenes produce a good pace.

The art gets stiffer, the plot develops arbitrarily, the accents get stupider, and this issue thoroughly dashes my hopes that I would have fun reading this series. I'll admit that the problem is mainly on my end, but better storytelling (even in a retro style) could have overcome my subjective distaste.

Surely I'm neither the first nor the last to say, "$8 for a FCBD preview anthology? This sum bullshit."

So we have 10 teasers here. Two of them leave me neutral. Five of them are quietly disappointing. And three of them actually make me angry (The MCU TVA, Druig, and Evil Gwen).

I could go into greater detail, but Psycamorean has already done that as well as it can be done.
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This issue picks up on the heady "elder gods" mythology from #5, and this time, there's no climactic battle to up the action quotient. Things veer dangerously toward the obscure; in my opinion, too many gods get name-dropped.

But in place of a slam-bang fight, we get a complicated, passionate, and adversarial mother-son relationship, and that's more than enough. (Some spectacular guest art helps, too.)

I also worry that this title is edging into territory that the author has amply covered in Immortal Hulk. But I still have confidence in his talents; I expect there will be plenty to distinguish Agger's upcoming comic book shenanigans from the Xemnu mind-control nonsense he pulled against the Hulk.
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Somehow, this one really seems to fire on all cylinders for me. The pace is brisk, but there's no shortage of content. It has plenty of action and plenty of ideas, too. The social commentary is a little sharper in this issue.

My ratings might still be below the average, but that's mainly because I'm just not gonna get over calling up the same old villains.

It's a simple espionage tale, bordering on simplistic. But it's elevated by stylish storytelling. The art is dynamic in action and expressive in conversation, and it has plenty of polish. The script has a formidable structure, folding every plot twist into in medias res flashbacks to make them surprising without ever losing clarity. And the character relationships feel sincere and appropriate.

I do worry that this might veer into corny melodrama if the writing shifts to an easier structure, though.

A big boo to the solicit for spoiling almost all the plot twists.
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This retread of Venom #31 is enhanced by superb art. The script also delivers some nuggets of insight into Cletus and Carnage's thinking along the way. However, the writing is hampered by the lack of tension (provided you've read Venom #31) and some struggles with keeping all the points of view straight.

At the beginning of this volume, I thought Zeb Wells might be better at writing Spider-Man than Peter Parker. But a nice "soap opera" issue like this, compared to the "passive Spidey" we saw so much of in Gang War, makes me think I had it backwards. Maybe Mr. Wells does better when Pete isn't behind the mask. A guest artist with a talent for bringing detail and emotion to ordinary, non-costumed ch aracters sure helps.
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Okay, I like the big-picture plot that's developing to tie these scenarios together. And this issue's scenario is enjoyable in itself, with splashy art and action movie dialogue. The flip side is that all of the narrative logic has that shallow "don't think about this too hard" fragility you get in most action movies.

It also occurs to me that the big-picture plot is entirely too subtle if your personal fund of Marvel lore doesn't recognize Jake Lockley and Steven Grant. No, wait, I forgot: Jake explicitly mentioned Moon Knight in #1. All good!
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