Posted By on December 14, 2012 at 2:35 pm in Take It Or Leave It

Take It Or Leave It – December 12, 2012

Take It Or Leave It December 12, 2012

Welcome to Take It Or Leave It, where each week we pick out some of that week’s newest comics and give you our opinion on whether it was worth the price and you should take it, or if it was better left sitting on the shelf.

We’re back, and a little late, after some website troubles and a whole lot of business going on otherwise. This week there were a lot of books to look forward to, and below you’ll find a few of them!

Chris
We had some great comics come out this week, I can’t get over how good Death of the Family is going. And Scarlet Spider is back to Houston and being awesome. It’s a shame all the books couldn’t be this good. . . I’m looking at you Iron Man.
Batman 15 Batman #15
Every issue of Death of the Family seems to get better, Court of Owls really showed us how awesome new ideas can be in a comic when done correctly. Death of the Family is showing us that even old ideas can be re-imagined into something fantastic. The issue picks up right where issue 14 left off, with Batman confronting Joker on a bridge. We get some great exchanges between the two. We also get a great scene between Batman and the rest of the family where he shares a Joker story and we see just how on edge the others are with the Jokers revelation from last issue.

If you haven’t read the last few issues than this definitely isn’t the right place to jump on. But that doesn’t mean you should skip it, go find issues 13 and 14 it shouldn’t be hard they’re not that old. You won’t be disappointed.

Verdict: Take It

Score: 9 of 10
Batgirl 15 Batgirl #15
So Batgirl has had a bit of news lately with current writer Gail Simone being fired and what not. Hopefully her last issues are as good as the first 15. So if you read last issue you know that Barbra is in a bad spot, she’s just been proposed to by The Joker. Without ruining last issue, in case you missed issue 14 this isn’t exactly something she can turn down. Granted being a clever girl she at least tried to take care of the situation, and gave the Joker a could couple of punches. In the end though, there wasn’t much she could do and she’s on her way to do Joker’s bidding or whatever you’d like to call it. Two things that really stood out about this issue didn’t actually involve Babs at all, it was the flashbacks showing how the Joker had planned this ‘wedding’ for quite some time. The other was the inclusion of James Gordon Jr, possibly the only person in Gotham that can go toe-to-toe with the Joker’s sociopath-ness.

This is well worth buying, but like the other Bat-Family books right now, you’ve got to at least buy the previous issue or you won’t know what’s going on.

Verdict: Take It

Score: 7 of 10
Artifacts 23 cover Artifacts #23
I’ve never read Artifacts before this week, I decided to give it a shot though. While I have no clue what was going on, the recap at least gave me an idea of the story. I’ve got to say this was a really interesting concept, really unexpected too. It reminded me of like a Devil May Cry where you have this sort of outcasted guy who has some crazy abilities. It had some fun action, and I enjoyed the interaction of the characters. There was a lot of ‘downtime’ in this book though. It’s that downtime that may make this a not for everyone kind of book. A good portion of the issue was an exorcism and not the cool kind in the movies, literally a guy reading a bible telling a demon to go away. For as interested as I am in it, I don’t think this is the right issue to pick up, go back and read some trades see how it fits you. I’ll be keeping an eye on it for the time being.

Verdict: Leave It for Trades

Score: 6 of 10
Amazing Spider-Man #699.1
I’ve been scoffing at the idea of a Morbius book since I heard about it. Really who’s going to pick up a book about a boring Spider-Man villain? Well I’ve got to say, after reading this my thinking is definitely a little different. Personally I’m still not interested in Morbius, maybe I’ll pick up a trade though. Spider-Man 699.1 did a great job of making me interested enough though. I didn’t know much about Morbius before this, everything I knew I learned from the 90’s cartoon. The issue picks up where 699 left off, at the Raft with everyone escaping. There’s some interesting exchanges between Morbius and the Lizard followed by the flash back to how Morbius became the living vampire he is today. This was as good of a setup as the 654.1 that setup Venom, but at least we got a feel for what Morbius will be like. Whether this book is worth buying is a little harder to decide. The writing and art aren’t awesome, but it’s hard to be awesome with a retelling of a characters backstory. It’s a passable issue, so if you’re interested in Morbius go for it, this will either solidify if you’re buying that book or not.

Verdict: Leave It unless you want Morbius

Score: 6 of 10
Fantastic Four #2
JohnScott is the big Fantastic Four fan around One-Quest, I’ve always been a little unimpressed with the Worlds Greatest Comic Magazine. I’ve mentioned before that I followed the end of Hickman’s run just because I’d heard such good things. And Then when Matt Fraction and Mark Bagley were announced as the next team to tackle the book I knew I’d be picking up the first few issues at least. Well two issues in and I’m not in love, but I’m also not totally disappointed. Nothing has really happened yet, these first two issues just setup what the run is going to be. And it’s promising at the very least. If you read issue one, and don’t care about reading FF you can probably skip this one and not miss anything in issue 3. That’s where the story should really get pumping. The Richards have just taken off to explore space and time for a year, and hopefully find a cure for Reed’s problem. While the setup was a little boring I’ve got pretty high hopes for what’s to come so I’ll be sticking around for at least a little while longer.

Verdict: Leave It

Score: 7 of 10
Iron Man #4
I’m starting to get annoyed with Iron Man, it only restarted a month ago and we’re already up to issue 4. That is a little ridiculous, I wish Marvel would cut back with all these multiple shippings it’s to expensive to follow. It doesn’t help that while the dialogue and characterization are good, the story is kinda lacking. I know Kieron Gillen said he wanted to do single issue stories for the first arc with an overall goal. And so far he’s stuck to that, Tony is on a mission and he’s wrapping each segment up in a single issue. I wouldn’t suggest buying this book, especially if you’re on a budget.

Verdict: Leave It

Score: 4 of 10
Scarlet Spider #12
I was disappointed with the last few issues of Scarlet Spider, Minimum Carnage just wasn’t everything I hoped it would be. Luckily we’re back in Houston and Kaine is back to kicking ass. There isn’t a lot of actual ass kicking in this issue, it’s a good reintroduction to Kaine’s supporting cast. He’s getting ready to leave, and they’re trying to stop him. He then gets drunk off like two drinks and passes out. Meanwhile things are going down, and Scarlet Spider is the only one who can stop them. It was a fun ride, and I can’t wait for the next issue to come out. Hopefully we’ll get to see more of Kaine interacting with these people who have becomes his first real friends.

Verdict: Take It

Score: 8 of 10
Ultimate Comics X-Men #20
Brian Wood has been doing a great job with this book. This book is so different than any other X-Men book in any universe. There’s only a few mutants left and they’re split on who they want to follow. They’re stuck in pretty much the least habitable place in America, but they’re making the best of it. It’s a survivors tale, these mutants are survivors and that’s not something you get a lot of in comics. Over in 616 Utopia was a cool island off the coast of San Francisco. In the Ultimate Universe it’s a god damn desert that use to have all kinds of terrible military testings done on it. If I had to drop all the other Ultimate Books just to keep reading this one I’d do it in an instant. While not a lot happened in this issue, it continued the plot, and setup a lot of interesting situations for future issues. Even if you’re not an X-Men fan I would recommend giving this book a shot.

Verdict: Take It

Score: 7 of 10
Winter Soldier #13
This current story arc has been dragging on for a while. It’s enjoyable, but I’d like them to just come to a solution already. There’s also just to many characters finding out Bucky is still alive, it was cool when it was just a handful of people and SHIELD agents. Now we’ve got Hawkeye, Wolverine, and Daredevil all know he’s alive and well. I did enjoy how Cap took part in this issue, and the fight between Winter Soldier and Daredevil was actually pretty cool though. I wouldn’t really recommend this issue as nothing really happened to help conclude the story, but I’m still looking forward to what comes next.

Verdict: Leave It

Score: 6 of 10
Grimm Fairy Tales Presents: Bad Girls #5
Bad Girls is over, my biggest problem with the early issues was the lack of bad girls. Luckily by the end they were more prominent and there was a pretty cool final showdown. The problem though, this book didn’t feel all that different from this weeks other Grimm Fairy Tales release. . .Myths & Legends 24. A group of female villains are trying to control the realms, a group of heroes try to stop them. Granted that’s incredibly lacking in any detail but you get the idea. Even though the book was similar to Myths & Legends it was an enjoyable ending and if you’ve been reading the series it’s definitely worth finishing it up.

Verdict: Take It

Score: 7 of 10


talks a bunch on PodQuest each week. He's also been known to write about stuff from time to time.

You can Email Chris or follow Chris on Twitter @Just_Cobb or Facebook

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