Comics Reviews 3-06-2013

Another week of wonderful comic books!  This week I'm reviewing All-New X-Men, One Piece and The Superior Spider-Man.

Cover of the week:

All-New X-Men issue 8

An awesome cover with a sexy Black Window that steals away the attention.  Anyway, let's start away with the reviews.

All- New X-Men issue 8

All-New X-Men has the honor of both being cover of the week, and reviewed.  However, that doesn't mean the review is going to good.  In fact, this issue might be the weakest of the series yet.

First of all, the cover is misleading.  The Avengers show up briefly, but it's nothing like the cover shows- The Avengers and X-Men are not going to fight.  And here I am hoping for a all-out brawl.  Silly me.

The issue focuses on the two Angels and their adventure.  While the young Angel wants to figure out what happened to him, the older Angel is just trying to have a good time.  Young Angel freaks out because he doesn't know what's going to happen to him, and he wants to go back to the past and have his memory erased.  This is when I learn that out of the original five X-Men, I don't give a damn about Angel.  I think many feel the same way I do too, and that's why Angel was written out for the longest time.  And when he finally returns, they have to basically make Angel a brand-new character.

The final moment when Jean Grey erases Angel's memory is chilling.  What does this mean?  Does it mean that having Jean Grey learning her powers prematurely is going to have dark effects on her?  Is she going to be the X-Men that joins Mystique?  Only time will tell, and that was an ending that has me craving for more.

As you can see, for an weak issue, this issue is still better than most of the comics out there.  And that's how strong a series All-New X-Men is.

Funny moment: the scene where Kitty and Ice Man are mimicking what they think Captain America and Beast are talking about.  And it turns out that they're not too far off.

8/10

One Piece Chapter 701

I always like it when Eiichiro Oda introduces us to a new island.  Every islands we see always have unique culture and characters that makes you wonder what's going on.  Dressrosa turns out to be one of those unique island as well.  Not only it has good food and sexy women, Dressrosa is also inhabited by living toys.

Let's go a deeper with these toy people thingy before we move on to the rest of the review.  The toy people seems to be control by strings as shown that one of them got tangled by its strings.  Is it possible that these toy people are controlled by Dolflamingo's power somehow?  Only time will tell.

I also like how they split up the group in this episode.  I still remember last time when they split up the group three-way voluntarily was in Shabody Archipelago, and we all know that didn't end up too well.  So we have Law, Robin and Usopp in the group returning Caesar Clown to Doflamingo.  Nami, Brook, Chopper and Momonosuke in the group guarding the ship.  Last, we have Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, Franky and Kin'emon in the group to destroy the Smile factory and rescue Kanjuro.  It's interesting that Oda has all the Monster Trio all in the same group- he usually has them split evenly just in case a group runs into strong enemy.  2 things for sure because of the way Oda splits the groups out- 1, Luffy's group is going to run into strong enemies that require all the Monster Trio to fight off.  2, One of the other two groups are going to face a strong enemies that they cannot defeat.  Most likely Law's group as he gave Nami a Vivre Card to Zo in case something goes wrong.  Something is going to go wrong, and Usopp and Robin are going to suffer as well.

I think the biggest thing in this issue is that Blind Swordsman.  Not only he is blind and mysterious, but he also has the ability to create a gravitational-pull-like-black hole.  So who the hell is this guy?  I have some theory that this guy might be Fujitora that Sakazuki mentioned earlier.  In fact, I'm going to blog about this for today's Daily Geek Rant. 

Anyway, this is a very strong chapter for One Piece.  Hopefully next week's chapter we learn more about who this mysterious character is.  

9.5/10               

The Superior Spider-Man issue 5

I really have to apologize to this series.  This really is one of the best series in the current Marvel lines.  While DC comics are talking themselves too serious these days, Marvel know that there can always be fun moments in series comics.  They are comics, after all.

It is scary to see that Doc Ock has taken the Spider-Man name to a new level.  While he might successfully comes up with new ways for Spider-Man to be a more efficient hero, he's also ruining the Spider-Man reputation by killing a villain with a gun in front of civilians.  We all know that it's only a matter of time when Peter Parker returns to his body, but is he going to be the same when that happens?  How much left-over problems is Peter going to face because of this?

I like the scenes where Doc Ock needs a tutor for his class.  The "little lady" tutor is the coolest.  I remember when I was in middle school, I need a tutor as well and his wife always prepare me food like how this tutor did.  So that bring back a lot of memories.  

However, this issue is still a little weak compare to its past issues.  It's only a matter of time now that the Avengers are going to learn Spider-Man ruthless execution on villains, and he's going to get fired from them.

7/10

***

After thoughts: This week is the first one after Damian's death, and all the Batman related titles are going to have "Requiem" on them to mourn the lost.  However, for Detective Comic, the mention of Damian's death feels forced.  A page out of the entire issue of adventure is not enough.  Also, I really like Earth 2 but they have to end the current storyline already cause I'm bored beyond believe when reading it.