Take It Or Leave It – February 12, 2014

Batgirl #28

I really feel like Batgirl has had a bit of a hard time lately. There’s been one main focus since Death of the Family, but it’s been broken up by things like Villains Month, Zero Year, and Gothtopia. It made it hard to follow the main storyline of Barbara dealing with ‘killing’ her brother and having her father hunting down Batgirl. It looks like all of that has finally wrapped up though and we’re off onto a new story about vampires. And believe me it’s nothing like you expect. The problem is that not necessarily a good thing, this new villain just feel crazy so far and doesn’t really have a motive other than being crazy. And I know that works great for a character like the Joker, but that kind of thing doesn’t happen often. Hopefully the character can get fleshed out a bit more in the next issue and make me care, otherwise this felt like another wasted issue.

Verdict: Leave It

Score: 6/10

Reviewed By: Chris

Batman #28

This month, as many of us knew, we got a little break from Zero Year and jumped forward in time to a point in Gotham and Batman’s near future. I saw quite a few people not thrilled with this issue, but I thought it was a nice little break from the otherwise year long story. It’s also nice to see our first glimpse of what the DCU will be like after Forever Evil wraps up. We find out who the blue haired gun wielding Nightwing lookalike is, even though most already knew. And we get a few hints of what will be going down in the final issues of Forever Evil. All in all I’d say this was another great issue of a book that’s got a winning streak of 28 at this point. If you haven’t been reading Batman, this might not be the greatest jumping on point, but you’d still enjoy yourself. And I really have to say, this has me very exactly for what’s to come in the DCU. Both with Batman post Zero Year, Batman Eternal, and the fallout of Forever Evil everything is just looking to be exciting. Oh, and there is one hell of a reveal at the end of this book, something that long time DC fans should be very excited about!

Verdict: Take It

Score: 8/10

Reviewed By: Chris

Nightwing #28

I really like Nightwing, it’s a great book, I do however have one huge problem. And this is a normal super hero comic problem. Dick Grayson leaves Gotham for Chicago to track down his parents killer. At the same time Gotham’s masked vigilante Nightwing comes to Chicago and just so happens to have a hand in bringing down Dick’s parents killer? I mean come on people put two and two together. Sonia even shows up and talks to Dick after speaking with her father in prison and she doesn’t put anything together. Now I know this isn’t the first or the last time something like this will happen in comics, but it is happening now so I wanted to talk about it. I guess soon enough everyone will know who Dick Grayson is as the monthly titles start to catch up with Forever Evil.

Now aside from all that the issue was pretty good, and really unexpected, right up to the final page. I thought I knew where the book was going at the beginning, and then it quickly veered away from that, and then just when I thought I knew how it was going to wrap up it changed everything up on me again. It was just really solid storytelling, and well worth picking up.

Verdict: Take It

Score: 8/10

Reviewed By: Chris

All-New X-Men #23

The bizarre crossover between All-New X-Men and Guardians of the Galaxy is fully underway as the Guardians and X-Men sans Jean head off to rescue Jean from a whole group of aliens who hate her for things she hasn’t done yet. Yep it’s that kind of story, and by that I mean a normal X-Men story where nothing makes any sense, but it all actually makes perfect sense. One of the best parts about the story are the dialogue, which as you’d expect coming from Bendis is fantastic. Particularly the young X-Men dealing with these people from space picking them up. Iceman just wanting to talk to Rocket because he was a talking R-r R-Word was great. So far though 3 issues into a 5 issue story and we don’t have much in the way of story. It’s all just been character moments which while amusing aren’t great for progressing the story. The few scenes we get of Jean show she is certainly not in a good place, which makes me feel like the others should probably be trying a little harder. On the other positive side, there is bound to be some interesting confrontations in the next issues as young Cyclops meets up with the last person in the universe he’d ever expect to. Even with the lack of story progression, in my opinion, this was still a pretty solid book and well worth reading.

Verdict: Take It

Score: 7/10

Reviewed By: Chris

Superior Spider-Man 27.NOW

Goblin Nation is offically 100% underway, and thankfully it wasn’t a slow cook. Well I guess technically everything since we first started learning about the Goblin Army way back in the Amazing Spider-Man 600’s was a buildup. That’s all doesn’t matter though, what I’m getting at is the story jumps a head in time from the last issue. We don’t have to see the Green Goblin (Whomever it may be) slowly bring down the city and Spidey. We open up the first page right to it, and it’s glorious. Otto has really done a number on his life (well Pete’s life), and the whole city is basically controlled by the Goblins. There’s a lot going on in this book, between Otto trying to figure out how his Spider-bots haven’t picked up on any of the damage, ghost Pete is still trying to figure out how to survive, and the Green Goblin has a little secret up his sleeve that Otto certainly doesn’t see coming. Goblin Nation is really looking to be one hell of a Spider-Man event, even if all the moving parts don’t always make sense. And it’s going to be a great final chapter for the Superior Spider-Man.

Verdict: Take It

Score: 7/10

Reviewed By: Chris

Wolverine and the X-Men #41

There is just one issue left until Jason Aaron wraps up his time with Wolverine and the X-men. While it hasn’t always been the best X-Book on the stands, it’s always been good, and filled a wonderful hole for a slightly more lighthearted book. Even with that tone, there were plenty of emotional and near heartbreaking moments that made this such a fantastic run. I believe right now it’s the highest numbered Marvel book out there, which will soon be changing as it goes back to #1 after issue #42. But we’re not hear to talk about that, we’re here to talk about this amazing penultimate issue. Very few people care about Toad, I’ve read all of Wolverine and the X-Men, and while he’s always been around, and played a part in plenty of issues, nothing ever really focused on him. That changes here, and it changes in a pretty depressing way. After letting his heart lead the way, Toad ended up betraying the X-Men and guided students to the Hellfire Club, all to make Husk happy. Unfortunately, having been a villain so long doesn’t lead to many chances, so the teacher decided he had to go, while being completely alright with what Husk did. This issue has a huge focus on Toad, as he tries to put his life on a path he can live with, and there are a few points where you really think things will work out. Maybe he’ll get hired back because everything goes to hell without him, maybe he’ll prove he’s a real hero, unfortunately the issue doesn’t lead to any of that and you’ll just have to read it to see how Toad’s life goes from here.

Verdict: Take It

Score: 8/10

Reviewed By: Chris