What I Got 5.16.07

Howdy! Holy crap, I actually got to the shop on a Wednesday. The same Wednesday that both Ultimates AND ASBAR came out, so, after this post I'm going home to prepare for the coming apocalypse. Here's what I got:

Ultimates 2 #13

(In lieu of the cover, I've posted the center spread, it's prettier. Click here to embiggen.)

Let's face it, my views of this book are incredibly skewed by its chronic lateness and the fact that the writer (Mark Millar) has become one of the biggest dicks in comics. It's good, but I don't think it's at the same level as the rest of the series. I think it tries to be two issues in one (the big end-fight & the epilogue) and in doing so, give short-shrift to both stories. The art is fantastic, but the center 8-page gatefold spread is a little too much. I'd much rather have seen Hitch do something like Immonen did in NextWave #11 where he told a fight over several two-page spreads, the one in this issue is just too much for the eye to follow, and from a pure physical sense, it requires a really big table to open it all up.

So overall, it's good, but I don't think it's up to snuff, this weekend, I'm going to re-read the whole darn thing to see how it all comes together, so maybe I'll up my rating on this one.

X-Men: The First Class: Special #1

I haven't been reading Marvel's all-ages X-Men: First Class, but I've really liked Jeff Parker's work on Marvel Adventures: Avengers, so I decided to give this special a shot based upon that and the roll of artists they had lined up. The special is made up of three short stories with the murderers row artistic line-up of Kevin Nowland, Mike Allred & Paul Smith. On top of that, they're all punctuated by comic strips drawn by Colleen Coover, a very nice package (even at $4). All of the stories are fun, if a little light. The best is the last one, place during the classic Claremont run on Uncanny X-Men featuring Cyclops telling a then-young Kitty Pryde a story about his then-lost love Jean Grey. It's a very sweet story and it hits a lot of the right notes for those of us who were reading the book in those days.



Ex Machina #28

Dear Ex Machina,

I'm sorry, but it's me, not you. I just don't seem to care anymore, so I'm dumping your single issues for trades. I really think it's the fact that you've been so good for so long, I really haven't had a chance to miss your goodness. Oh well, we'll always have issues 1-28!

Love,

Jay

X-Factor #19

Didn't get a chance to read this yet, will update tonight.














So that's it, I'll probably throw some music up tomorrow. See you then.