Invincible Ironman 508

Tony is covered in mud. He is of course being attacked by golem and there is no easy way out of it but TOny managed to break free and suit up in his iron suit. But the golem has the capability to mimic ironman and shapeshifted to Ironman. The golem started to suck the life out of TOny and depleted Tony's energy. The intervention of the dwarves saves the day as all of them band together to whack the golem. Tony woke up just in time and use his remaining energy reserves to blast the golem to smithereens.

Meanwhile Pepper Potts and the Hammer industries mech suits confronted the Grey Gargoyle. The Hammer mechs starts to panic and shoots everything there is. The pissed off Grey Gargoyle takes out a few mechs but Pepper does the crazy thing by neck locking the gargoyle. The gargoyle gets hold of Pepper and wrings the helmet off her suit exposing her to the deadly stare of Grey Gargyle. Theres nothing she can do but shut her eyes or else face death by turning to stone. The Hammer mechs being cowards escaped leaving Pepper to face the Gargyle alone. How will she escape from the clutches of death with Ironman no where near.

Meanwhile at asgard, Odin demands to see the newly forged weapons that is made by Stark and the dwarfs. Stark has nothing to show but he knows all along his destiny is in his own iron suit as he plunged into the cauldron of hot metal to forge the ultimate Ironman suit. How this will happen are not exactly known but I guess in the realm of the gods anything can happen if you have the will. Can't wait for the unveiling of the new iron suit.

Daredevil 4

Daredevil starts off in a zoo's lion cage. He is trying to retrieve something and he has a great strategy to do so. The multiple panes on the first two pages nicely illustrate this. Before long the lions sensed and pounced on him. Daredevil uses his acrobatic skills to evade two male lions and escaped with some minor cuts. The thing that Daredevil retrieved is a pen drive and why he did so is that it contains evidence in a criminal case involving a mob bos.


It seems that Matt has been secretly coaching helpless people to defend themselves against the mob and other injustice in the court. The pen drive Daredevil retrieved helped a storeowner in a case against a mob bos. Pretty sneaky way of helping the people. A new story arc is also underway as Daredevil accepts a new case from a man that is blind. The man named Arthur claims he has been fired unjustifiably from his job after overhearing some conversation of two Latverians. Arthur is a highly talented guy who is a translator of a lot of different languages. So Matt is trying to piece together as to why it is such a serious offence when overhearing is concerned. Unknowingly his conversation with Arthur and all his moves are being watched from a far. Looks like Daredevil has stepped on danger ground by helping this guy. This issue sees a new artist on board but there's not much difference compared to previous three issue as the style is quite the same.

Green Arrow 1

The first issue of Green Arrow leaps straight into action as Oliver Green travels to Paris. Green Arrow has been tracking down the villains named dynamix, doppelganger and supercharge to a party on a boat. The second rated villains is about to wreck havoc at the party but Green Arrow makes an unannounced entrance barging through a window on top of the boat. From then on its all action packed with Green Arrow taking on all the villains with all his gadgets and arrows. There is also a specialized arrow that can seize control of the boat. There are many new toys that is introduced here to subdue the villains. With the help of his backroom staff, Green Arrow managed to control and limit the damage.

The villains are put into custody in a maximum security facility, but not for long as a bunch of new villains broke them out of the facility for a possibly big confrontation with Green Arrow next.
The art is firm and consistent throughout the book especially the fight scene. With names like Jurgens and Perez this is certainly one of the best illustrated comic out there now. A straightforward story line simple enough for newcomer to the series. Hope their run will continue for some time in this title.

Captain America #3

The introduction has Bravo and the new hydra queen scheming on their evil plan. The origin of the hydra queen is still unknown yet but the main crux of the story is Captain America fending off a giant of a Captain America attack. The giant is called Ameridroid, an android built by a mad nazi scientist who has his own consciousness implanted in the android. Sharon Carter also has to face off against Baron Zemo and this new look zemo has a lot of tricks including electrocution. Captain America finally brings down the droid by smashing its face with the shield and Baron Zemo as if on cue makes a hasty exit and pushed Sharon off the building. But Cap was fast on his feet as always and saved her.

The ameridroid is brought to a research lab as Captain America, Sharon and Nick Fury deliberated on the droid's origin.  But nearby elsewhere Bravo and the hydra queen is reactivating the droid. A trap is set and the droid lunged at Captain America and both breaks through the building's barrier and fall down into a portal. The evil plan succeeded and surely enough the portal leads to the dream dimension as Bravo had planned all along. In the dimension, the droid appears as the mad scientist in flesh as everything is possible in a dream. But the scientist was killed off by Bravo making a short lived appearance. Captain America move to disable Bravo was futile as Bravo has total control of the dream dimension. Cap is handicapped in lots of ways fighting in the enemy's den. Mostly the book packs lots of action and it will be interesting to see how Cap will deal with old foes in an unknown landscape of a dream dimension.

Fear itself 6

Thor is down for the count after the fight with the Thing and Hulk in the previous issue. The avengers scrambled to revive Thor by bringing Thor back to asgard to seek help from Odin. A pissed of Captain America who witnessed the carnage brought upon by the god of fear unleash a tirade against Odin as he seek Odin's help to restore Thor. Odin annoyed by Cap's behavior effortlessly teleported the avengers back to earth and attends to Thor. Thor heals with the help of Odin and gains a Odin's powerful armor and the Ragnarok sword that can kill the Serpent. Meanwhile Ironman is in the final stages of forging superweapons capable of defeating the serpent.

The avengers by now are a helpless bunch unable to stop the Serpent. Captain America as always decide to do the honorable thing by being the last line of defense against the Serpent and its minions from getting to the world tree which would ultimately force Odin to raze the entire earth of its living beings. The story ends with both party facing a standoff that only one will survive. An epic battle is waiting to happen next to compensate the lack of action in this issue. Not much notable events here and this issue could be skipped and not miss the plot. It will be interesting to see Ironman's new weapons and how effective it is against the serpent.

Amazing Spiderman 699

Parker and Carlie invetigating the base of the villain the Jackal is confronted by three minor villains. The villains Chance, Scorcher and White Rabbit ambushed Parker and Carlie and Carlie takes a beating. But Parker make a stop to all the nonsense by using the karate moves taught by Shang Chi to disable the villains. Meanwhile the Jackal and Tarantula is watching all this quietly from another location and seems to be taking orders from some one.

The avengers have their hands full trying to contain the infected people on the island from leaving and others from entering. Mr Fantastic and the team at Horizon labs are successful in finding the cause of the infection which originates from bedbugs and before long the infected will be transformed into the spider species permanently. The Mayor Jameson got a shock of his life when finding out that he has already been infected. Elsewhere the anti venom is busy trying to cure the ones infected using his venom but was overwhelmed by too many of the infected ones.

The main penultimate of the story happens later on when both Spiderman and Carlie responds to a bank robbery in progress. The villain turns out to be an old foe of Spiderman, Shocker who appears to be infected also with extra limbs. Shocker starts blasting and Spiderman evaded easily. The fight stops when Spiderman learnt that the Shocker does not deliberately get infected to attain more power, but needed the money to cure himself from the infection that is already transforming him into a human spider. At the same Carlie is also transforming into human spider as Spiderman watches helplessly. There a lot happening involving multiple characters and its interesting to find where the other side characters ends up at the end of the spider island event.

Green Lantern 1

The new relaunch Green Lantern title starts off with a whopping bang. Sinestro is inducted as a Green Lantern ring bearer once again. All this biggest threat to Green Lantern corps is now a Green Lantern. Take that. Sinestro with his red face is pissed off with the guardians for doing. As always the the guardians has a purpose and that is for Sinestro to seek redemption. But it seems that not all the guardians are in agreement to this action. Sinestro travels back to his home planet Korugar to find his people enslaved by the Sinestro corps. A Sinestro corp pounced on Sinestro and was shocked to find Sinestro in the new green outfit. But the deceptive Sinestro made short work out of him.

On earth, Hal Jordan is a normal guy again after being relieved of his ring. Hal has been away from earth so long leaving a lot of bills to be paid and an empty credit. Hal even got himself in trouble when he witness a lady getting assaulted. Hal  barging into the lady's house by leaping across the opposite apartment only ended up disrupting a movie shooting and the lady is in a acting scene. Hal gets bailed out later from jail by his long time girlfriend Carol Ferris. A date between Hal and Carol ends up bad on some minor issues leaving Hal with a lot to think about. Finding an eviction notice on his door once he's back wasn't bad enough, Sinestro shows up offering Hal a sinister deal.

Overall a solid issue to new readers introducing the main villain and hero of the Green Lantern universe. The cool rendering of Sinestro by Doug Mahnke projected his sinister looks thus makes this character the ultimate focus of this and ongoing issues.

Wolverine 15

Wolverine is grappling with his guilt of unknowingly killing his children after being set up by the red right hand in the previous story arc. Wolverine resorts to climbing up a cliff and throwing himself down over and over again to punish himself. A very inhumane way of resolving one's guilt only Wolverine can manage. Up till a few days ago Wolverine has been going around and locating the relatives of the ones he killed in order to bury them.

He gets himself drunk by the way and in his drunken daze, his old foes of Daken, brother and father returns to torment him in his dream. After getting a walloping in his dream daze a few gangster even robbed and slit his throat which is a new low for Wolverine. There and then Wolverine decided that he is not coming back for good and that it is the end of the superhero Wolverine. Will Wolverine starts to wander as a hermit once again after quitting being a superhero. Most likely.

The penciling here reminds of the newspaper comic strips of yesteryear. The artist Goran Sudzuka previously illustrated some issues of Y: The last man has translated the retro style here brilliantly. A good enough standalone issue after the previous incident aftermath.

Hellblazer 283

To John Constantine, to loose his trenchcoat is a big deal. Bad things will happen and all this is the focus of this new story line concentrating on John's trenchcoat. Its amazing how the writer weaves the story as a major part of John's character and infusing it with life like its part of a limb. Gemma, John's niece is still angry at John for allowing his evil body double to rape her in the previous story. Gemma stole the trenchcoat and sold it online to some guy.

The trenchcoat has a consciousness as it narrates through the story, persuading the new owner Muzzie to put it on. The stench on the trenchcoat is unbearable even after going through the laundry. The stench is like a curse and infected the other laundry causing people to grow mad trying to remove the stench including cutting ones nose and setting oneself on fire.


John meanwhile is trying to locate his trenchcoat back as weird things starts happening to him in the absence of his trenchcoat like getting teleported to the river Thames while sleeping and blood oozing from his apartment. Got to see it to believe it. Muzzie meanwhile wearing the trenchcoat develops a whole new personality and confidence with the help of the consciousness of the trenchcoat and got himself a chick at a bar. After a wild night the girl wanted him to dump the coat. The trenchcoat tried to talk Muzzie out of dumping it but Muzzie is too scared of loosing the gorgeous girlfriend. What came as a shock is as Muzzie is taking the trenchcoat to the trash, he was killed after being hit by a motorcycle. What makes you think that this character is going to be a major part of the story suddenly is knocked off so that the trenchcoat journey of cursing another new owner begins.

Daredevil 3

Daredevil are all trapped in some contraption. The beings that put him there are sound waves and the villain behind is Klaw who was transformed into living sound and has fought with the Fantastic Four in the past. The villain is a bit weird from the way of its appearence, part humanoid part sound. A bad mix up I say.

As Daredevil tries to break out of the contraption, he distracted Klaw by asking lots of question of how Klaw ended up there in some shop basement. Klaw narrates that he was part of the sound shadows of the original Klaw. I guess they can be divided into different entities with different consciousness. This sound shadow managed to escape the avengers in a fight last time and seek refuge in the basement. It build up device with some help and managed to locate the original Klaw's signal to recreate itself.

Daredevil managed to break free finally by yelling out real loud stunning Klaw and the shadows. As Daredevil make a run for it the sound shadows chased after him. The battle between Daredevil and Klaw leads to a highway and Daredevil was lucky not to get hit by passing vehicles. Daredevil managed to gain upper hand as Klaw is getting weaker and disposed of Klaw mercilessly but before getting to know who actually helped Klaw to reassemble itself. Surely the one who helped Klaw will resurface to bug Daredevil later in the future.

Batman 1

New relaunch of batman title  sees batman in the thick of action immediately inside arkham asylum. Batman had to face off against a dozen villains in the asylum to investigate a case. Batman had to tangle with scarecrow, two face and killer croc so its a great introduction to those unfamiliar with batman's foes. Interesting part is batman got help from the joker to subdue the villains. Has joker turned to the good side? Apparently the joker is just Dick Grayson aka Nightwing impersonating as joker.

There's also introduction to Robin past and present and Alfred for those just starting out on Batman. Batman as Bruce Wayne also gave a great speech in a party as Bruce launched a massive project to re-modernize the city of Gotham. Later batman arrives at the scene of a horrific murder with a dead body with multiple stab wounds. Dna analysis on the knifes used in the murder turned out to be someone who is very close to batman. Overall a good enough reboot to batman title and enough of information to pull in the new readers. How the plot of trust between batman and Nightwing will be the focus in the next issue.

X-men Schism 4

The threat to mutant kind is not over as a new breed of mutant killing sentinel emerged. As the sentinel is assembling itself from metal scraps, Wolverine is busy trying to dismantle it with claws but does nothing to slow it down. The sentinel shows Wolverine who's the boss by blasting him to sea. The sentinel moves towards utopia the mutant island sanctuary. A crisis erupted as there are no more x-men to defend utopia as the rests are rendered disabled by the Hellfire club in the previous encounter.

Cyclop's blast alone are unable to stop the sentinel and he starts to rally the remaining x-men who are still kids to defend their sanctuary. Wolverine shows up from the sea and an argument with Cyclops ensues as Wolverine disagree in using kids to fight. Wolverine took a drastic action an strap the place with explosives which he will detonates when the sentinel gets close. The young x-men are thus ordered to evacuate by Wolverine. More argument between the two as the sentinel moves ever more closely to utopia. Finally the schism between the two iconic x-men are unleashed where the two thrash it out. At least five pages are dedicated to this incredible tussle as the sentinel closes in. The fight between Cyclops and Wolverine are the best in years and their fury is indescribable towards each other which explains why they are killing each other instead of killing the sentinel. Will they kill each other or save the island.

Punisher 3

Don't be fooled by the cover featuring Punisher and Vulture clashing in mid-air. Truth is the version of vulture in the book is much more sinister looking with fangs and mohawk head. Much of the story involves Punisher trying to stay alive after being ambushed by Vulture in a stake out. A lot of action fight scene  and not much conversation apart from those involving the two detectives investigating the case.


Punisher struggles to come to grips with the Vulture's claws. The Vulture has a habit of toying with its prey and he does so with Punisher clutching the Punisher and taking him out for an airborne ride. There are loads of action in mid-air as the Vulture has the upper hand over Punisher. But Punisher has other idea whipping out a knife and stabbing his opponent. Punisher jabs vulture repeatedly without fear in mid-air is a sight to behold.  Frank delivers the fatal stab and both are in free fall. Punisher as always escaped a death plunge grabbing and maneuvering himself to land on a garbage can. Punisher once again survives to fight another day.

Hellblazer 281

The vivid cover for this issue speaks a lot as John Constantine have to face off against a demon summoned by his nephew Gemma. John conjures a few spells and in the doing so also gets whack around for trying to trap the demon. Gemma feeling guilty of what she has done ran to get help from John's wife Epiphany. Gemma explained the whole story. Epiphany gets an idea and concocts a substance to help John subdue the demon.

On reaching John, John has managed to trap the demon but not for long as his spell doesn't have much affect. The demon was finally brought down using the substance that Epiphany has causing the demon to choke to death. John has a few funny one liners and some were down right sarcastic. That is the way to go if he's under pressure and in danger. But in the end the relationship between John and his nephew is irreparable no matter how John makes up for it. Overall a lot of action in this issue pitting John with the help of his wife against the bird like demon.

Wolverine 14

The whole plot of the Wolverine's revenge story arc comes down to this final issue. Wolverine is in the final confrontation to kill those responsible for sending him to hell. There's a brief flashback on a kid who lost his mother at the hands of Wolverine. Her mother works as a nurse in a Shield department and was stab to death by Wolverine who at the time is injured and bedridden. Later it reveals that Wolverine was dazed and under a spell when committing the murder. That was a minor character's story.

Presently after passing the final door, Wolverine found all the members of the red right hand had committed suicide by drinking poisoned wine. A video playback of the leader of the club justified it as not to give Wolverine the chance to exact revenge and killing them. The important plot is, all the previous villains that Wolverine has disposed of on his way to this final encounter were all related. They were the offspring of Wolverine and the red right hand had painstakingly gathered them from all around the world and trained them only to have them slaughtered by their own father unknowingly. A very creative way of revenge one ending that I wouldn't have thought off up till the final two pages. So the red right hand had showed Wolverine how its like to loose a loved one albeit unknowingly. Wolverine loose big time in this storyline.