The Week In Geek 11/19/14

My reviews for the week are up and available on Black Nerd Problems for your viewing pleasure. You know the drill. As always, feel free to love, hate, comment, like, share as you see fit. This week, I took a look at.....

Uncanny X-Men: Brian Bendis' work doesn't move as fast for some as they'd like but honestly, I think this particular story arc is probably the strongest structured of his tenure so far. I really do hope both X-titles delve more into the Fall of Hank McCoy. It's actually reminiscent of Doctor Strange's arc recently where he started channeling the Dark Arts to be more powerful which was awesome (would have been more awesome had Marvel not done that already during World War Hulk). This story has been powerful because we've seen certain characters (Cyclops, Iceman, Beast) at their most vulnerable and in a book where the principle characters are basically family, that's an important aspect to show, moreso than these grand, repetitive action beats every 9 pages.

Batman Eternal: You would think Batman would have learned his lesson with making heavy artillery for all these Defcon 1 scenarios just for someone to steal from under his nose. Alas, Gotham is under siege once again thanks to a Batman plan. And, of course, Wayne Enterprises is going to up to its nose in legal red tape because Bruce Wayne funds Batman Inc. And Batman wouldn't be Batman if he didn't leave Lucius Fox holding the bag.

Stuff I Read This Week 6/18/14

My reviews for the week are available for you internet adventuring/critiquing/trolling pleasure on Black Nerd Problems. Visit, comment, say hello, pass it around at your leisure. This week, I looked at....

Batman Eternal: I realized that my review for this book has basically become my weekly column for BNP. When you look closely enough, a weekly comic can be like a master class in everything that can go right AND wrong. As much as I love this book, it's been something of a balancing act. A lot of the reason what bring you to this book is Scott Snyder's basic plot. What's got to find some normality is the visuals. Don't get me wrong: Ian Bertram's artwork was fucking awesome and you can never go wrong when your primary influences are Frank Quitely and Robert Crumb. But last week's artwork was such a travesty, it's going to take at LEAST three weeks of strong visuals to make up for it. For the most part, the story/script is strong enough (even when it's cramming a lot of material into one issue) that it keeps things going. Even good television shows have episodes that aren't as strong as others, but don't take away from the overall quality of the series.

Uncanny X-Men: Okay, it's no secret that Brian Bendis is probably one of my favorite writers. His voice for a lot of characters is very distinct and entertaining. Having said that, he dropped the ball this week. The "big reveal" of the villain was an utter fail. First of all, it was as if they spun a game show wheel at the Marvel office and THAT'S what they came up with. Second of all, if that's who he came up with, there was so much potential for symbolism and dialog about the duality and Beast having to face the fact that he's the center of so much going awry in the X-family lately (being that he's the one who brought the Original X-Men from the past and now, for some reason, he doesn't know how to send them back). Instead, all this got swept under the rug in favor of a satisfying but rushed quick fix resolution.