11
Jun
2014
Take it Or Leave It – June 11, 2014
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.
I’m fairly certain this is my biggest Take It Or leave It yet. No really strong recommendations either way this week, but I did manage to get 6 books in, reviewing Superman/Wonder Woman #9, All New X-Men #28, Star Trek Ongoing #34, The Blood Queen #1, Figment #1, & WWE Superstars #5.
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Superman/Wonder Woman #9Because I am a completionist, and a glutton for punishment, I am still reading Doomed. So that kryptonite explosion last week in Action is a far bigger deal than it seemed. Apparently it’s spawned a massive kryptonite cloud that’s permeated through the atmosphere, just like at the end of V, making the planet unsafe for Kryptonians. I’m all about any homages to V, but I just can’t take any more internal dialogs between the good and bad parts of somebody’s psyche, not after the whole run of Superior Spider Man. Most of the issue that isn’t fight scenes is Superman talking to the “Doomsday Infection” inside of him. I really can’t wait till this story is over, as it’s getting kind of ridiculous. Now Supes has to literally run away from Earth, the most un-Superman like thing he could ever do. His fight against the Red Lanterns and Hessia were OK though, I suppose. I can’t help but think that this whole “poisonous atmosphere” thing has to have wider consequences in the DCU. Verdict: Probably Leave It |
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All New X-Men #28I’ve been reading All New X-Men since it started, and I love it. There’s just one problem. Time travel can be confusing as hell. This issue tries to explain some of that, by following the younger Xavier in the future that he and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants came from, which is supposed to be the result of the original five X-Men traveling forward in time to the present day. See? Very confusing. But in trying to fill in the blanks and answer some questions about what happens in the future and why the original X-Men can’t seem to travel back to their home time period, just as many were opened up confusing me even more. Each issue, Bendis hooks me just a little bit more, and I really wanna know what the time travel endgame is here. If you’ve been reading All New, by all means, keep doing it. This is actually a pretty decent spot to jump on as it’s full of exposition to catch you up. Verdict: Maybe Take It |
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Star Trek Ongoing #34So my guess last issue was right. Turns out there were some shady dealings going down in NASA in the Apollo days, which included building a nuclear powered test rocket on the dark side of the moon. Our astronaut friend here ended up being the pilot of said rocket. The specifics of how that all went unnoticed, or what happened to the rocket and how he landed on this far away planet are never really explained. The writing in this is pretty good, everyone sounds just like they would on an episode of the show, but I just don’t like it. Everything seems too underdeveloped and too neat by half. Kirk makes an insanely unlikely deduction, and it works out just like he thought it would. While it is obvious the big purple 5-eyed biped who attacked the away team last issue is actually our astronaut, what isn’t obvious is beaming him off planet will magically make him human again. At least until he starts dying, and the only way to save him is to beam him back to the planet to become a monster again. The whole ordeal happens so fast, and the ending is so bittersweet, I just can’t recommend it. The setup is good, but the ending just doesn’t feel right. Verdict: Probably Leave It |
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The Blood Queen #1I had no idea what this book was about, I just picked it up because I liked the cover. The postscript to the issue says the plot is based on the story of Elizabeth Bathory, the Blood Countess, of which I was unfamiliar. But after a quick look over at Wikipedia, I am now more intrigued than I was. Apparently Elizabeth Bathory was a ruthless murderess, who killed tons of girls back in the 1500’s and apparently bathed in their blood. I had thought this was a somewhat bland sword and sorcery fantasy tale, with some vampires thrown in, but it looks like this may be getting far more interesting. Overall, kind of standard for a issue one, with lots of setup, but it looks to be wide open with interesting possibilities. Verdict: Probably Take It |
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Figment #1There is simply no reason for this to exist as a comic book. I assume this has something to do with Marvel’s recent acquisition by Disney. It must be some bigwigs pet project, because I don’t know anyone who was clamouring for more backstory on a very trivial Disney character from 30 years ago. I only have very vague remembrances of having a puppet of him as a small child. If you’re of the right age range to remember Figment, this might be worth a trip down memory lane, but otherwise, I wouldn’t get too excited over it. There’s nothing wrong with it per say, but if you are already invested in the character, I can’t see a reason to get invested. Verdict: Maybe Take It |
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WWE SuperstarsThis is another “What The Hell?” one. I only picked this up because Mankind himself, Mick Foley writes this series. This is a very weird book, that I don’t think anyone but either extreme WWE fans, or children who are WWE fans would possibly like. This is another one where there’s nothing wrong, but the appeal is extremely limited. If you’re into WWE and Mick Foley, you’ll probably like it, if you can look past the long lead time to make the book leads to things like Curtis Axel still being a Paul Heyman Guy, Randy Orton still being champion, and AJ Lee and CM Punk being prominently featured. If you aren’t a fan of WWE already, this isn’t gonna sway you, you won’t get most of the jokes, and you should just leave it where it is. Verdict: Probably Leave It |
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 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 |
