Ultimate Extinction #2 - Marvel (2006)

OK. Lousy Cover^*. I mean, seriously, The Thing as depicted above looks worse than Michael Chiklis's makeup in the FF movie:



Which, as you can see, is pretty hard to do.

Despite that cover the interior art (ostensibly by the same person) kicks ass. The writing's good, too. Warren Ellis has introduced Ultimate Moondragon, Ultimate Silver Surfer and Ultimate Misty Knight. Now, those of you who have been watching the show so far know that "Ultimate" before someting usually means that that person goes up a few notches on the badass scale. Ultimate Hawkeye, for example, is someone I'd actually be intimidated by. Regular continuity (or "Earth-616" to those of us with no lives) Hawkeye often came off as a goofball. Sure, he had his cool moments but for the most part he wasn't someone that, were I a criminal, I'd be too worried about.

HAWKEYE: "Stop or I'll plug you full of arrows!"

ARCH VILLAIN: "Big deal! I've got adamantium armor! What are you gonna do? Strap Ant Man to one of them?"

Anyway, Misty Knight is one of the coolest characters Marvel ever came up with. She's an ex-cop, bounty hunter cyborg! And she dates Iron Fist. Badass! Ultimate Misty Knight hasn't met Ultimate Danny Rand yet but she is even badass-er than her counterpart in the 616. Also, since she's being written by Warren Ellis, she gets much better lines. She goes toe to toe with Ulimate Silver Surfer (cosmic badass!) and survives. Day-um!

There's a good "Revenge of the Geeks" moment between Reed Richards and Nick Fury. Ellis is playing up the whole "smart guys rule" angle very well.

The story is moving along nicely with no slow spots or padding. Gah Lak Tus (who turns out to be some sort of hive mind) is moving inexorably towards Earth and everyone who is aware of it is freaking out. Good stuff.

As I mentioned above, the interior art is good. In fact, it's excellent! Brandon Peterson (inks and pencils) does a great job of conveying the action as well as the quieter moments. He's a good fit with Ellis's writing on this book. It turns out I forgot to put this in either of my local hold boxes. This will be corrected with all due haste.

*Speaking of covers have you seen the latest Vanity Fair cover? WARNING: NOT WORK SAFE!!

Now that's the way to do a cover right!

Young Avengers #10 - Marvel (2006)

I've mentioned many, many times before how much I'm enjoying Young Avengers but Heinberg continues to raise the bar. This is a good time to be a comics fan what with all the cool stuff being published and Young Avengers is my favorite thing on the shelves right now.

I won't blow the surprise at the end of the issue but I will say that it is the sort of thing that, in the hands of a lesser writer, could have been monumentally stupid. Heinberg makes it work.

The Young Avengers make a decision that seems a bit out of character for most of them but I have a feeling that it'll work itself out in the next couple of issues.

So, if you see an issue in the store flip through it and see if it's your cup of superpowers. A little knowledge of Marvel Universe history is helpful but not necessary for enjoying this book.

Issues 1 - 6 are available in a trade if you want to start at the very beginning. It is, after all, a very good place to start.

Adieu!

Shouting Into The Void

Hooray! New laptop! New post!

Comics-related content to follow Real Soon Now but I just wanted to say that Noetic Concordance is back and even though I haven't been posting I definitely haven't stopped reading comics. I'm really enjoying Nextwave and Young Avengers along with many other things that have come out in the past three months or so. Mr. Miracle and Frankenstein are continuing the fine Seven Soldiers tradition.

While you wait for the new stuff to show up, Noetic Concordance presents the following comparison as a public service:


Spiderman shooting a web:



Dr. Strange casting a spell:



The official Heavy Metal Sign:



It's easy to get these confused.

You're welcome.