Take It Or Leave It – June 19, 2013

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.

By this point you know what’s up, you’re here to see what books were good this week! Some big issues dropped this week, Age of Ultron 10 finished up the event, and Ultimate Spider-Man fully introduced Ultimate Cloak and Dagger, and that’s only some of the stuff that went down! Now get ready to see what else happened in the world of comics, and what books you should be picking up this weekend.

Alphabetical by Publisher
Boom! Studios | DC Comics | Image Comics | Marvel Comics | Zenescope Entertainment

Fanboys Vs. Zomies #15 Fanboys Vs. Zombies is just such a fun book, each issue has humor, geeky references, and plenty of zombie killing action! And now it’s in SPAAAAAAAAAACE! All that aside though, it’s a nice refreshing take on Zombies in a market where frankly there is a bit of an over exposure. It’s like a couple years ago when Twilight was big, if you walked into a Barnes and Noble all you saw were teenage vampire ‘love stories’ all over the place. Fanboys Vs. Zombies tends to poke fun at that and the classic ‘horror tropes’, which while having been done before is still an effect way to make an entertaining book. If you’ve been missing out on this book, I highly recommend picking it up, especially for Zombie fans that want a little humor with their flesh eating monsters. Verdict: Take It Score: 7/10 Reviewed By: Chris

Batman And Batgirl #21 It made me nervious when I found out that Batman and Robin was becoming Batman and . . . When Captain America did that after Fear Itself the book went downhill pretty quickly after Captain America and Bucky, but they also were teaming Cap up with just other Avengers, who he usually teamed up with in The Avengers. Thankfully this has been a much better book, while Batman And Red Robin wasn’t the greatest, it was stll entertaining. I thought last months Red Hood issue was a great way to show these two characters together and the problems they still have, and led to consequences in Red Hood and the Outlaws. Now this month we have Batgirl, who is also going through some pretty painful family stuff, plus dealing with the Joker attack and the death of Damien. If anyone in the Bat-family can empathize with Bruce it’s probably her. For the most part the book was pretty standard, but those last few pages with the big confrontation were just amazing. Each character was really raw and emotional and I really hope we get to see more of this duo play out after the book has cycled through the rest of the characters. Verdict: Take It Score: 8/10 Reviewed By: Chris

Red Hood And The Outlaws #21 I really liked the early Red Hood and the Outlaws stuff, it was actiony with plenty of humor and character drama. It’s how you want a book to be, and I liked even more seeing Jason slowly step back from the darkside and embrace his legacy. Now that’s all gone to hell and the book is worse for it. While I’m interested in where everything is leading it’s just not compelling enough, not yet anyway. Give it a couple of issue and I may be changing my tune about it, but for now this book just isn’t what it should be, and definitely not ‘new reader friendly’. Verdict: Leave It Score: 6/10 Reviewed By: Chris

Mara #5 Mara is such a strange book, when it started I thought it was going to be much more about sports, which I was fine with. But it’s gone so far away from that, and not towards any one genre I don’t even know where to categorize it. Sure there are super powers and things, but no battles or big villains to fight, unless you count the armies. And with one issue left there’s a lot of explaining to do, what’s up with Mara, where did she get the powers being the primary one. If you’re into like sci-fi mystery stuff this is a book you should have been picking up for the past 5 issues, it’s different, and intriguing and well worth checking out. Verdict: 7/10 Score: Take It Reviewed By: Chris

Witchblade #167 Witchblade is an interesting book, while I enjoyed the Progeny story as a whole, I think that it pulled this book particularly away from itself and caused it to lose some pacing. I’m new to the series, and really just started getting use to the characters when BAM! Sara is off fighting with the other Artifact holders and stuff. At least now it’s back on track and getting all kinds of weird and fun. I’m looking forward to seeing where this story goes, and if you’re not familiar with witchblade #167 wouldn’t be the worst starting point, nothing major happened last issue so you can definitely feel your way through this one. Also the weird girl from underground and here fairy(?) friend with the glowy butt are strange but entertaining. Verdict: Take It Score: 8/10 Reviewed By: Chris

Age Of Ultron #10 John more or less said everything that needed to be said here. I just needed to add my own feelings about this issue. Age of Ultron was such an anticipated event, and it started out with a lot of promise. Unfortunately it just went in too many directions at the midway point and never really found itself back in a satisfying way. And like John said after the Ultron plot was finished, which was quick and anticlimactic. **SPOILERS AHEAD**The two biggest problems though are the fact that half the book is a reprint of a 2 year old issue of Avengers, that was already reprinted once before. AND the ‘big secret ending’ that only a few people knew and Joe Quesada drew himself to keep a secret was revealed months ago! It wasn’t even a damn secret anymore, nor is it a big deal for anyone who didn’t read Spawn to know what the hell was going on. Verdict:Leave It Score: 4/10 Reviewed By: Chris

Avengers #14 I have to give Hickman some credit, the guy really knows how to plant seeds for what could potentially be a fantastic story. The problem is, I personally don’t want to wait a year just to find out what something meant from issue 2, it’s even worse with a twice monthly book. So far I’ve been bored and uninterested in Avengers, and I don’t see that getting better any time soon. Issue 14 is being called a prelude to Infinity, which is the next Marvel event, and I just don’t see what anything that happened in this issue has to do with Thanos who I believe is the major villain of Infinity. To top it off, after 14 issues I still don’t know who some of these Avengers are or why they’re around, I’m all for a big team, but it’s suppose to be Earth’s Mightest Heroes, not a group of random people with powers. Verdict: Leave It Score: 3/10 Reviewed By: Chris

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #24 Ultimate Comics Spider-Man is finally the book I want it to be! Even in a book where there was absolutely no Spider-Man it was good. The history for Ultimate Cloak and Dagger is great, and pretty tragic at the same time. And while it’s not a new thing to do I am a fan when they introduce normal Marvel 616 characters in to the Ultimate Universe but have them different. Like Layla Miller, who I believe was in Ultimate Mystery is in this issue, but she’s completely different from her 616 counterpart. This “No More Spider-Man” arc has hit all the right notes so far, and I look forward to seeing what finally pushes Miles back to the webs. It still surprises me that after not really enjoying this book for the first 15-20 issues I now this is one of the books I look forward to most each month. Verdict: Take It Score: 8/10 Reviewed By:

Ultimate Comics The Ultimates #26 This is one of the best issues The Ultimates I’ve read in months, I guess Fialkov needed a month to get all his stuff together from the situation the book was left in. Even though everyone was doing something different the book felt like a team book again, and the pairings just made sense. Including the long awaited return of an Ultimate Comics character. And let us not forget that Thor is once again the most badass person in the Ultimate Universe, and he’s not even a god anymore! If you’re wondering what I mean, well you’re going to have to check this issue out to see! Verdict: Take It Score: 7/10 Reviewed By: Chris

Chris 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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