Bullet Reviews #139

We near the end of 2013 with Bullet Reviews #139: Amazing Spider-Man #700.4 and .5, Krampus! #1, Rex, Zombie Killer #2, and Superior Spider-Man Team-Up #8
*No, you didn’t miss a day, because comics are out on Tuesday this week I’ve decided to post Bullets a day early as well!

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #700.4 (Marvel)
Spidey’s time in The Black Lodge comes to an insane end as the Surgeon General begins to make plans to take him out once and for all. But while that sounds like the jerk thing to do, he doesn’t try to kill Spidey directly because he’s a healer and he takes that very serious. That doesn’t mean he’s not above trying to get the other villains in the clinic to band together to kill the Web-Slinger.
While the Black Lodge does burn down and the villains scatter I can’t help but hope that the Surgeon General and his staff will show up at some point in Superior Spider-Man. I would love to know any history between these people and Otto and how Otto’s opinion of him may or may not have changed. This is certainly a fun story and I do want to see more.
We got another back-up featuring a kid being bullied and how he set fire to a building to get Spidey’s attention to help him out. Not really groundbreaking stuff here but it’s quaint at least.
The main story is what you want to check out here though. And the cover I’m featuring here is the variant cover that I was able to get from my local comic shop. I liked it more than the standard cover. -Skott Jimenez

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #700.5 (Marvel)
And the journey down memory lane concludes as the Fantastic Four show up and turn Spidey’s day upside down. After a long night Peter just wants to sleep but the appearance of Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, throws all that out the window. It seems the Torch was visited by the future version of Ben Grimm, the Thing, warning him that Reed Richards has a device, the Calvin Device, that will destroy the universe once Reed activates it. He goes to Spidey for help but soon the rest o the Four show up and we end up at Mary Jane’s place. From here we get the origin of such an insidious device and it isn’t what you’d expect. What’s good about this story is how they are able to have some traditional light-hearted Spider-Man fun while trying to prevent the destruction of the universe.
The back-up in this story is one of those tear jerkers. I wouldn’t recommend reading it in mixed company because it’s really difficult to explain why you’re teary-eyed from reading a Spider-Man comic. Certainly one that needs to be read though, it’s something else.
I can’t say the covers were too impressive though. -Skott Jimenez

KRAMPUS! #1 (Image)
Image Comics and Brian Joines take us to a world where Santa Clause is real, in fact all versions of Santa Clause are real. So, what is it that keeps all the magic flowing? As the story begins, we are told that the Krampus, a creature that punished the naughty children and left them coal, was “decommissioned” since punishment went out of style and so he was locked away at the North Pole.
Meanwhile, in Italy at the tomb of Saint Nicholas, the Sugar Plum Fairies beat the crap out of Belnickel, another one of the naughty-punishing anti-Santa figures from history, and steal Nicholas’ bones. This causes all sorts of ruckus as we find that the bones are where the magic comes from to give all the Clauses their powers and even keep the reindeer aloft.
The Secret Society of Santa Clauses has no choice to make a deal with Krampus and allow him to find the bones. He agrees to do this in exchange for his freedom. Of course the Clauses have a secret weapon, the Naughty Bomb strapped to Krampus’ chest which will blow him up if he deviates from the mission to punish naughty children. Then he leaps to his sleigh pulled by a wolf named Stutgaard, and heads South. As Krampus heads to Italy to hunt down Belsnickel, a shadowy figure at the North Pole reveals darker plans are afoot. Hints lead to clues and clues lead to a graffiti covered storage unit that makes Belsnickel look like some conspiracy theorist. What can it mean? And will the Krampus survive the giant toy soldier about to hack him into little pieces? I want to know! -Aaron Clutter

REX, ZOMBIE KILLER #2 (Big Dog Ink)
Rex and his crew continue their quest to find Rex’s human in hopes that they will finally be safe. While we get some very entertaining confrontations between zombies, zombie animals and living animals the most interesting part are dreams. Yeah, while they are resting Rex has some dreams about his time with his human. This is interesting because it seems the glimmer of perfection is starting dull. We’re getting more and more information that leads us to believe that Rex’s stories were more selective memory and wishful thinking that reality. It’s going to be very interesting to see how things happen when Rex and company finally reach their destination. Problem is.. they have to go through Las Vegas first and that place has something of a zombie infestation.
This is what I was hoping to get with this miniseries: we’re getting more of who these characters really are. Rex seemed like a dog who had everything under control but it seems now that he has been deluding himself. But that only makes this continuation even more interesting. -Skott Jimenez

SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN TEAM-UP #8 (Marvel)
This is the one meeting that I’ve been waiting for: Superior Spider-Man and Namor. Two of the biggest egos in the Marvel Universe meeting up. At first it seems as if Spider-Man is going to give up the mask and turn himself in to the Avengers, he plans to tell them everything and, in his mind, stop messing up and endangering the people of New York City. On his way he see Namor fighting what appear to be warriors from Wakanda. Apparently they is a war between Wakanda and Atlantis. Since this fight is between Spider-Man and the Avengers he decides to get involved.
There are some interesting moments here but what’s most entertaining is the ending conversation between Namor and Spider-Man. While fighting Namor’s attackers they come to the conclusion that Spider-Man may not have to give up web-slinging. But this also means he lays down the law and tells Namor to keep his war out of his city. The fact he says this after punching the Sea King makes it all the more interesting.
A long-awaited meet up and it did not disappoint! -Skott Jimenez

These are some books that might fill the vast empty space that will be our comic shelves this week. Comics and Christmas, what more can you want!