Welcome to my weekly first impressions for all the comics I picked up this week. It’s mostly Marvel as usual. X-Men 3, Guardians of the Galaxy 5, Fearless Defenders 7, Uncanny X-Men 9, FF 10, Indestructible Hulk 11, Captain Marvel 14 and X-Men Legacy 14.
The non-Marvel books are Batman Incorporated 14, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 24 and the Batman Annual (haven’t read yet). For the most part it’s been a good week, not to mention I actually had time to search the barging bins in both local shops and found a bunch of older comics I’ve been looking for.
Anyway, here are my first impressions, and I won’t have a sentence limit as I usually do. Links to full reviews will be added as they’re posted.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 24 review
Guardians of the Galaxy 5 was good, but it felt like it could have been a bit better. The issue is divided between re-introducing Angela into the Marvel Universe, while the rest is dealing with the aftermath of Age of Ultron from the Galaxy’s perspective. The Angela scenes are alright, but I would have liked to learn more about her deal. The scenes talking about the screwed up time stream were interesting. As someone who’s relatively new to the team and has never read a comic with Angela before, I can’t comment on how long-time fans will enjoy this, but I thought it was worth reading. That said, I’m undecided on whether I’ll stick with this series or not. With Marvel Now wave 2 on the way, I need to make room somewhere.
Fearless Defenders 7 was good. After the chaos that was the last few issues, this one takes its time to deal with the aftermath. Without spoiling anything, let’s just say that it does a good job exploring the two primary characters in this issue. Also, the art is brilliant. This is worth reading if you like Valkyrie, or have been enjoying this series so far.
Uncanny X-Men 9 was awesome. The opening scene with the spazzy family was hilarious, partly because I know people who are like that. There’s also some great dialogue with Cyclops’ X-Men team, especially with the new recruits and the triplets. Another book that’s worth reading if you’re an X-Men fan, especially if you want to read something without Wolverine in it for a change.
FF 10 was weird, but fun. It has the kind of fourth wall breaking that was fairly common during John Byrne’s Sensational She Hulk (but to a lesser extent), while still feeling line a Fantastic Four family book. I’m not completely sure how I feel about the Maximus the Mad scenes, but they were enjoyable.
Indestructible Hulk 10 was great. It spends the entire issue exploring the aftermath of Age of Ultron’s time problems. Mark Waid is clearly having fun with this, and yet despite all the craziness, this comic is always easy to follow. Beyond that, the Bruce Banner/SHIELD dialogue is great. Definitely worth reading, whether you like The Hulk or enjoyed AU. Even if you didn’t like AU, this is still worth reading.
X-Men Legacy 14 was a bit confusing in the middle, but everything makes sense in the end. Also, it’s very entertaining. It’s told through Peter Wisdom’s perspective as he tries to stop Legion from doing what he thinks will be something disastrous. Watching everything unfold is very entertaining, and the board game cover perfectly illustrates what’s going on within. This book continues to be a delightfully weird X-Men comic, and it’s so worth reading.
Batman Incorporated 13 was disappointing. I liked this mini-series up until issue 10 or so, where it started to go downhill for my tastes. Even though it’s mostly just one scene, it feels as though it’s jumping around a bit too much. It also feels anti-climactic and to risk spoilers, the villain is defeated by a character who hasn’t shown up until now, and isn’t introduced in any way to help new readers to know who he/she is. I wanted to like this, but now I just don’t care enough to give it another read.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 24 was great. The turtles have to fight not only the foot clan, but the newly brainwashed Leonardo. That’s all there is to say really – definitely a book Ninja Turtles fans will want to pick up.
healed1337 
X-Men was awesome. I love Wood’s use of Bling, and I love Jubilee and Shogo – Wood and Coipel just do amazing stuff with that. We start getting the first bit of tension within the team, as well, which is nice.
GotG just didn’t really do it for me this week. Honestly, I think I just hate Angela. She has such a hideous costume design.
Fearless Defenders was gorgeous. Just unbelievable. I loved the story, too – glad to see Clea brought back, because she’s a great character – but man. Stephanie Hans just killed it. Absolutely stunning stuff.
UXM was great. I loved it. The scene with Alison dealing with Fabio’s family is probably my favourite scene of the whole week. And the later confrontation with Scott’s team was really nice in how civil it was while remaining tense. Also, I love what Bendis is doing with the Cuckoos.
FF is ridiculously fun. I love Matt, Mike and Tom being included. What a great throwback to the days when writers and artists would pop up regularly. And of course, the kids.
Indestructible Hulk was really good. We FINALLY get an explanation of why the Hulk’s dumb again. Took long enough. I suspect Waid pulled that out of his ass to satisfy whine-asses like me who kept bitching about him not explaining why Hulk was stupid again. It’s a really neat story he’s setting up. Zarrko popping up is cool, too.
Captain Marvel was great. Really powerful finale. I’m excited to see where she goes from here. #17, after the Infinity tie-in, looks like it’ll be one of the top stories of the year.
XML was really cool. I always love Pete Wisdom, and David’s machinations were really fun to watch. It was great seeing how his plan came together.
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