Comics of August 22, 2018

It seems like after this week, my life will finally start to slow down a bit and I’ll have more free time, at least for a bit anyway. NaNoWriMo is coming up in November. But for today, it’s time to talk about comics. This week, I picked up Mr. and Mrs. X 2, Avengers 6, X-Men Red 7, Witchblade 7 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 85. Here are my first impressions, and links to full reviews will be added when they’re posted.

Mr. and Mrs. X 2 is fun. As if they’re honeymoon being interrupted by a mission that pits Gambit and Rogue against a Shi’ar squad wasn’t bad enough, they’re forced to team up with Deadpool against a group of space mercenaries. Deadpool’s dialogue seems to be a bit toned down in this issue compared to a lot of his guest appearances, but that actually makes it funnier. The fight with the mercenaries is weird in an entertaining way. Last but not least, the story takes a weird and intriguing turn with the ending teaser. If you’re a fan of either Gambit or Rogue, this series looks like it’ll be well worth picking up.

Avengers 6 is mostly good, but it suffers from the same problems as the previous issues. First, there’s way too much exposition, which kind of makes this issue hard to follow at times. It also gets in the way of the big fight happening. Two, I’m not a fan of the way She-Hulk is being portrayed. She seemed to have recovered to her normal self at the end of the recent She-Hulk series, yet without explanation she’s basically just the Incredible Hulk with boobs here. And third, the ending feels kind of rushed. Jason Aaron can be a very good writer, but he’s inconsistent. Judging by how this series has gone so far, it’s too early to tell if this series will be good. I’m not sure if I’ll continue reading it or not, so there’s a chance I won’t find out. I’m also not sure whether to recommend this issue or this series up to this point or not.

X-Men Red 7 is good. It seems to conclude the opening story arc in X-Men Red with a couple big action scenes, one in an airplane that’s tumbling fast, and another in Atlantis between a couple very strong characters. The conclusion adds a touch of hope to this story, while also giving this series a clear direction moving forward. Cassandra Nova is turning out to be a formidable foe. Yet if anyone can handle her, it’s Jean Grey and her team. This is good series so far and it’s definitely worth checking out for X-Men fans in general, and definitely Jean Grey fans.

Witchblade 7 is good. This issue takes a bit of a break from the more complicated demonic enemies Alex Underwood’s been facing so far, to focus a bit on character work. That’s not to say there isn’t some action – there’s an assassin who seems to know how to deal with the Witchblade. And thankfully more of the action is shown this time, instead of being largely skipped over in previous issues. So far this series is doing a great job with character drama, and the storytelling is also good, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss the old Witchblade series. So far it’s not nearly as entertaining or delightfully weird as Sara Pezzini’s run at its peak.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 85 is good. An old “friend” of the turtles returns in this issue, the mutant crocodile. Without spoilers, their encounter is somewhere between friendly and hostile, with the crocodile clearly suffering mental issues. This is a bit of an in-between issue that doesn’t really kick off a new story arc, but it ends with a teaser for a major conflict in the next issue. Despite this series being 85+ issues long (if you also include all the minis and extra-large issues), it’s still a great series. There hasn’t been one truly weak issue yet. TMNT fans should be reading this series, whether they usually read comics or not.