Stuff I Read This Week Episode 11 or May I Carry Bendis and Mack's Books to School?

Age of Ultron #6: I've intentionally stayed away from reviewing Age of Ultron issues for a while because, honestly, I was only going to have the same things to say about it as the last time I reviewed it. Before I get into this, let me say I've decided that Marvel has been pushing biweekly books more often because they're going to make more money from 1). selling more books in a month and 2). charging more money when the big crossover events go to print as hardback graphic novels. Yes, I'm looking at you, $75 Avengers Vs. X-Men (sorry, but there are hookers that don't cost that much). I can already see the mainly one-shot tie-ins to Age of Ultron occupying a mammoth hardcover that takes up more space on a shelf than a Robert Jordan novel. Because rain or shine, Marvel would make a pinata of Ray Bradbury's corpse if they thought someone hid a bag of nickels in it.

Anyway, this book is starting to pick up speed. The first half of this event was more of a survival drama asking "Where Were You When the Evil Robot Finally Evolved Past Windows Vista?" while portraying its distraught characters more like the superhero version of The Walking Dead. Now, the players seem to be mostly assembled with purpose and a bad guy to go punch though there seems to be some debate on who that actually is. Captain America has taken a team of big guns to go for a last ditch, head-on conflict with Ultron while Wolverine is elsewhere being Wolverine to the shock of noone. By splitting up the team to fight the good fight (using that term loosely) on two fronts, Bendis' characterizations and conversations have gotten noticably stronger. There are some characters he just has down better than most and Wolverine is definitely one of them.

The most obvious change is Carlos Pacheco and Brandon Peterson tagging Bryan Hitch out on the artwork. Just as our heroes have split up, so have the artists. Pacheco draws the events taking place in the past while Peterson handles the fight in the future...which becomes more of a sidenote than I would have assumed. Peterson's digital renderings tend to result in subjects slightly more lifeless and rigid than Pacheco, whose intimate scenes don't have much difficulty bringing you into moments that have a great deal more gravitas this issue.

Bottom Line: A strong change of pace and plot that will surely put the "it's moving too slow" whiners to rest. 8 out of 10.




Daredevil End of Days #7: The problem with a comic title this good is that if you review it's hard to review more than once because it's so goddamned incredible, you're almost afraid you're going to run out of good things to say about it. There's one more issue left and I'm almost sad to see it go. This is less of a series and more of a master class into how mini-series are supposed to be done. Dare I say...this is the Breaking Bad of Marvel's existing titles with Matt Fraction's Hawkeye running a very close second. If your comic can't be this good, you shouldn't be doing it. With the grade-A artwork Klaus Janson did during Frank Miller's legendary run on DD, it's more than appropriate that he be the one to draw what is essentially the Man Without Fear's eulogy.

Brian Michael Bendis and David Mack have become like two halves of the same DNA strands that make the tension that drives each page. They have a very unique understanding of what makes the world of Daredevil turn as well as what fans of ol' Hornhead want to see from a book that, until recently, we see very little of the titular hero in. I mean....the Punisher versus ninjas. I'm just going to leave that little tidbit there. Also, I am convinced that Bendis and Mack should be teaming up to write a Punisher series. There, I said it. Make it so, Marvel. That little piece of advice is on the house.

P.S.- I'm not very good at the internet, so I don't know what proper writer/blogger/Twitter fan protocol is, but I have to give extra special appreciation to David Mack (@davidmackkabuki) for actually interacting with his fans with all the respect and humility I would expect from someone of his caliber. Thanks for all of the replies, retweets and favorites and all that internet stuff.

Bottom Line: There will come a day not too far from now when this title is required reading for any serious comic reader. What Dark Knight Returns did for Batman....End of Days is doing for Daredevil. 9.5 out of 10.

Danger Girl Trinity #1: Remember that Pamela Anderson show, VIP, where a bunch of kick-ass women kicked ass and Pamela Anderson was Pamela Anderson? No, I didn't think you would and this book is a stark reminder of why. You know, I was a fan of the Danger Girl series back in the day. Then again, "back in the day," I was 13 years old so VIP was awesome to me, too. Besides, J. Scott Campbell was working on it back then. Without him, Andy Hartnell's thin story seems to come across as Dwight Howard without Kobe Bryant: he can only fake it on his own for so long before everyone realizes this patchwork won't make it out of the playoffs. I can't tell you much about the story because there isn't much of one aside from a small ripoff of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade that didn't hit any of the right notes.

Bottom Line: Big boobs, big guns, tight clothes, thin plot, sloppy artwork....and here, I'd almost forgotten what the 90's was like. Oh, well. I'll keep trying. 3 out of 10.