Rick's Monthly Reading Digest *multiple spoiler warning*

Ricky

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Jun 1, 2004
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Hi fans,

at long last, I'm back on Ultmate-Central, for a short review of everything I read this month. "Why review a whole month at once?", you might ask, oh heathens. Well, ask my faithful acolytes, and they will tell you that I live in the mystical land of Bavaria (home of the original Dr. Doom and the Nightcrawler), where the times still pass slower and where we get new comics only once a month.
So, behold my wisdom as I pass abolute judgement on the worthy and the wicked!

Ultimate Spiderman
I've long waited for this book to become good again. What the book really lacks recently are strong support characters. Every time a potential one is introduced, he seems to disappear immediately again. Also, nearly every arc starts out great recently, but then falls flat in the middle.
Carnage started out awesome, with a great Dr. Conners, and a strong plot about the ethics of cloning, but then Gwen died and the slugfeast started. Hobgoblin started out great. I loved to see the Parkers move, to see Peter react to it, and I loved to see Harry back. However, it doesn't take long for Harry to become the victim of the Hobgoblins machinations, and we end another arc with the question "so, what was the point?"
But, once again, I find myself greatly intrigued by the first two issues of Warriors. The Daily Bugle staff is back, as well as the Kingpin, and the interaction between him and Peter are pure gold. Let's just hope the arc breaks with the established pattern.

Ultimates 2
One word: Awesome! I love stories, that touch beyond the entertaining but shallow world of the action genre. Where elso can you find such a dense story about American foreign policy, morals, ethics, consequences and a traitor that might yet turn out the true hero. Oh, and for the records, I hereby make my official guess: Hawkeye is the traitor.

Ultimate X-Men
Magnetic North has begun, and I love it. Brian Vaughan is finally pulling the loose ends from over 2 years of stories together into what might still become the ingenious finale of his (first?) solo run on the title.
Sadly, the art ruins the book near completely, probably looking worse than anything else Immonem has done in the Ultimate Universe so far. So, yea, no matter how refreshing I found his first few issues of Ultimate FF, I can't wait for him to be gone.
My dream: Brian Vaughan and a decent Artist (Trevor Hairsine, Andy Kubert, Brian Hitch) on Ultimate X-Men for the next 4 years!

Ultimate FF
Can't really comment on this one, since I read over half of #21 already beforehand on the net, so I'm stuck with a few pages of enjoyable stuff. Definitely looking cool, though.

Amazing Spiderman #522
The REAL New Avengers book. The current issue seemed weaker to me than the previous ones, but I generally enjoy the build up more then the action.

New Avengers #7
Lousy cliffhanger, still failing to touch me beyond the mere sympathy for the characters. Nothing there that I can relate to. I'm finally getting fed up with waiting for the good stuff, so good-bye for good!

Young Avengers
Awesome book. Sadly, I didn't get an issue this month.

Astonishing X-Men #11
Actually quite cool, but I really urgently recommend everyone to wait for the trade, it'll probably read better in one go!

Wolverine #30
Horrible art, story's kind of saving it, although just like Astonishing, I'd recommend waiting for the trade.

House of M #2-4
The first issue was great (what's that about Bendis and the opening issues of new story arcs?), everything since might be, but I don't see this story work unless read all in one go. Too much confusing information, no clear plot-line, I don't think I'd have enjoyed these if I hadn't beenm able to read them all in one go!

Defenders #1
Fun issue, liked it, quite a lot.
I'd really love to see a different approach, though. Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Namor and the Hulk are among the most powerful heroes the Marvel Universe has, pretty classic, well-known and iconic, and none of them is generally associated with another super-team. I don't know about you, but I see the potential for them to become Marvel's Justice League, the guys that protect the whole planet, from threats the other teams can't handle. They could easily become the top dogs, matching Superman, Green Lantern and Wonderwoman in Power.

OMAC - Project #2-3
Great first issue, good second and third issue. I hate it, though, that's I'm suppossed to buy four more Issues from different series my comic store probably never ordered in order to understand what'll happen in issue #4. Bad marketing!

Justice League #116
The "Crisis of Consciousness" continues, but I've already lost my interest. Might have become a great arc, if it had put more focus on the tension between the heroes and less on obscure villains I don't care about (or ever heard from, outside Identity Crisis, that is).

All-Stars Batman and Robin #1
Bored me to death, the less said the better.

Villains United!
Dropped last month already. What could have been a great story about the struggle of Luther, Calculator, and a few other favorites of mine to unite the Villains of the world by force became a mediocre story about characters I don't care about fighing Luther and co. If this were really a story about Villains, why the heck do the main characters act like heroes, then?
 
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Wow, I love when people make fun-to-read review threads. If you keep doing these each month like this first one, I'll be there to read 'em! :D
 

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