The comics I picked up this week are The Fearless Defenders 1, Superior Spider-Man 3, Avengers 5, New Avengers 3, All New X-Men 7, Red She Hulk 62, X-Factor 251 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 18. These are my unscripted first impressions – I’ll add links to my full text reviews as I post them.
The Fearless Defenders 1 review
In case you’d rather read my impressions, here they are in two sentences each or less.
Superior Spider-Man 3 is good. The comic is dark and weird, as Dan Slott has described this series in several interviews. It’s mostly the Superior Spider-Man vs. Vulture, and the spider gives the vulture a well-deserved beating after he hired, well … I won’t spoil it. Easy recommendation for Spider-Man fans, as long as Dr. Octopus becoming Spider-Man didn’t anger you.
New Avengers 3 is better than Avengers 5. It continues the storyline involving the Illuminati while showing us how Beast was introduced to the group. There’s also a strong focus on Captain America’s issues with the illuminati group, and there’s a fair amount of story development. So far, New Avengers has been very good, and it’s well worth reading for even casual fans of the franchise.
Red She Hulk 62 is great. Betty Ross (Red She Hulk) continues to fight the government project that is creating armies of superhumans, which will eventually overtake humanity unless they’re stopped. In this issue, she’s pitted against a superhuman specifically designed to stop her, and must rely on her intelligence to escape. This series has a great story, great action, and it’s well worth reading for anyone interested in classic style hulk stories (except that this hulk is intelligent, and just happens to be a woman).
X-Factor 251 is probably my favourite comic of the week. Basically, all the various lords of the different iterations of Hell in the Marvel universe are at war with each other, and X-Factor is caught right in the middle. It’s epic, it’s fun, the humour is great and it’s self-contained – what more could you ask for?
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 18 was fun. The turtles are trapped in Dimension X, in the middle of a war involving General Krang. As fun as it is though, and as much as I’ve enjoyed this series, I’m not really a Ninja Turtles fan. After this current storyline, I might not be reading this too much anymore – I’m just enjoying Marvel Now more. Still, this is worth checking out if you’re a Ninja Turtles fan.
Fearless Defenders was a lot of fun. Looks like it’ll be an enjoyable series. Also, lesbians. Always good.
All-New X-Men was great. This series is going really well.
Avengers was good. And Dan Dare is now apparently canon in the Marvel Universe.
Red She-Hulk was awesome. Love it.
Superior Spider-Man was excellent.
New Avengers was pretty good. But the series just doesn’t feel complete without a more emotion-based character.
X-Factor is always awesome.