Take It Or Leave It – November 21, 2012

Welcome to Take It Or Leave It, where each week I pick out new comics and tell you if they’re worth the price and you should take them, or if you should just leave them on the shelf.

Finally, an early dismissal for the holiday means I actually have time to write one of these. Unfortunately, the holiday also means it’s a pretty light week. I only picked up three books (Star Trek Ongoing #15, Indestructible Hulk #1, and Captain America #1). I however have been enjoying the new Marvel NOW! far more than I ever expected to, even on characters whose books I’ve never read before.

	Star Trek Ongoing #15 So the new Star Trek movie comes out in only a couple of months, and publicity is starting to ramp up, what with the 9 minute preview showing with the new Hobbit movie. This series has been running since the last movie came out, and is set in the new JJ-Verse. This week’s issue shows us this universe’s take on the classic episode “Mirror Mirror”. There have been tons of Mirror Universe related stories throughout the expanded universe, but this one was still pretty unique, even though it has some similarities to the Enterprise two parter “Through a Mirror Darkly”. I had some qualms with it, like I don’t exactly get how the Narada exists in the alternate Mirror Universe, but I’ll let it slide for the cool visual of Kirk taking command of it. This is a good place to jump on if you aren’t as feverously a fan of Trek as I am, you’ll still get a kick out of it. Verdict: Take It

Indestructible Hulk #1 So I’ll make a confession. I’ve never been a fan of a Hulk of the non-Hogan variety. I actually fell asleep during the Ang Lee version of the film, but he was awesome in The Avengers. Frankly, I just bought this because I love the Skottie Young baby covers, but I’m glad I did. Mark Waid really works in this issue to make Hulk a total badass, and he makes a lot of good points. Bruce Banner never really gets any credit for being a super-scientist like Tony Stark or Reed Richards, and if he can get his shit together dealing with his green alter-ego, he could do a lot of good. Which is apparently what this series is gonna be about, Bruce is gonna start working with S.H.E.I.L.D now. I wasn’t initially interested in this, but now I might have to add this to my regular list, that sounds like a real intriguing premise. Verdict: Take It

Captain America #1 I was also never really a big fan of Captain America before the movies, so I’m not overly familiar with his goings on in the comics. Has it been mentioned before that his mom was a victim of domestic violence? I like what they tried to do, making his mom telling him to “Always get up” into a kind of mantra, but it just isn’t as good as “With great power comes great responsibility”. There wasn’t anything actively bad in the book, jut a lot of it went over my head. Steve Rogers now has a girlfriend who proposed to him? He’s being attacked by some Krang knockoff head in a robot body thing named Zola? Apparently Rick Rememder’s goal is to infuse some sci-fi into the Cap, much like Jonathan Hickman did to the Fantastic Four. It could be interesting, it’s just not my cup of tea, at least without more research into what Cap has been up to recently. But if you’re a Cap fan, you’ll probably like it. Verdict: Maybe Take it

JohnScott is the proud owner of a life size replica Captain Kirk Chair. He is a hoarder of Comic Books, Transformers, and Star Trek action figures. He attended Space Camp as an adult. He has taken vacations to the closing of the Star Trek Experience and the final night Shuttle launch. He has been known to yell at his television when the kids can't put together the damn statue in the Shrine of the Silver Monkey. When not writing for InsufficientScotty, he is a Software Engineer for a major healthcare communications company. You can Email or follow on Twitter @NotEnoughScotty or Facebook