All-New Bullet Reviews #1

Just kidding. This is Bullet Reviews #141, the first batch of 2014 books are here! I’m trying something different with the covers, click on them to see the full covers, let me know what you think. If you like it I’ll keep it, if not I’ll go back to the way I was doing it before.

ALL-NEW MARVEL NOW! POINT ONE #1 (Marvel)
The numbering seems redundant on this one but beyond that it was… alright. I give this issue points for being a better preview issue than the other Marvel NOW! Point One because the there is actually a main story here. Loki, now suddenly an adult and a lot less interesting, is searching out keys to unlock a box. He crosses over with some of the other upcoming All-New Marvel NOW! titles and, as I found out later, these lead-in stories are actually not part of the first issues of their respective titles, they are original and in one case explains some of the basics of that series.
The one I was most interested in was the Silver Surfer because he’s one of my favorite characters. Sadly, this preview wasn’t enough for me to decide if I just like it or really like it.
Probably the dumbest part is Thor and Loki hanging out in Loki’s apartment drinking beer. Beyond stupid.
Overall, though, this was not an impressive book. The cover price is $5.99 and, really, there was nothing special here. All-New Marvel NOW!, in my opinion, may be just as lackluster as Marvel NOW! -Skott Jimenez

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE #21 (Marvel)
This issue was a fun and pointless comic. I guess if you want to see Spider-Woman, Black Widow, and Spider-Girl going on adventures, then this is your book. The jokes were ok, but the story was fairly tired and reminded me a lot of the scene where we first meet Natasha Romanov in the Avenger’s movie. In this issue, in the fallout of the crash of Attillan and the release of Terrigen mists across the world, Spider’Girl’s favorite teacher is missing. She comes to the Avengers for help and they spend a solid four pages treating her like the child she is. Finally, someone deigns to listen to her when she saya something interesting, which she probably just should have led with. Turns out her teacher was in a cocoon, meaning he was of Inhuman descent. The Spider-Lady crew head for a secret AIM research facility and infiltrate it… I mean, get captured trying to infiltrate it. After the back and forth between the Spider-Fems, they escape and yay, the Avengers win. I am just not really impressed with this book, although if you want something light and funny instead of a serious story, read this. -Aaron Clutter

AVENGERS WORLD #1 (Marvel)
One of the first All-New Marvel NOW! titles leaps straight out of the Point One issue, reading that first will fully explain the arrangement Captain America made with S.H.I.E.L.D., this series focuses on the Avengers protecting the world. Yeah, not really an original idea because they’ve ALWAYS protected the world but this is going to be the first time they’ve had to protect the Earth against… the Earth! How does this actually start? Well, all you need are those nuts at A.I.M. and you don’t have to explain much more. But it is nice to see A.I.M. being treated more like a serious threat for a change.
Marvel promised this book would feel bigger than other Avengers books and it really does. Especially when you consider what Wolverine and company face off against. I don’t think I’ll be sticking with this book but it certainly was more entertaining than I expected it to be. I mean, at this point I’m a little tired of the Avengers because there are way too many books with that word in the title. -Skott Jimenez

BLACK WIDOW #1 (Marvel)
Part of the All-New Marvel NOW! gimmick and while I know a lot of other sites have been giving this heaps of praise, it just feels like a gimmick. The basics here are suddenly the Black Widow feels guilty over the things she’s done over the years. All at once. It’s a serious change of character for someone who hasn’t closely followed her, to the point where she seems like a totally different person.
The other problem is they repeat this idea. Over and over and over and over and over…. To the point that it’s annoying. I almost stopped reading it because she no longer feels like the awesome Black Widow I’m familiar with in the comics I’ve read with her. Of course I understand that Marvel wants to add layers to her because they want a female lead comic and she’s in a movie. Sadly this means the Black Widow has become nothing more than a gimmick. I won’t be recommending this series and won’t be getting any more in this series.
It does have a pretty sweet cover though. -Skott Jimenez

DEADPOOL #22 (Marvel)
Deadpool manages to smash the LMD sent to kill him, but then every assassin in town comes after him, and he’s on the run along with Preston in his head, and one of the good S.H.I.E.L.D agents. Coulsen swoops in for the assist, but Gorman’s been doing more than selling guns, he’s also full on defected to a terrorist organization that outguns this little group. They go for back up, but Deadpool gladly volunteers to keep the bad guys busy till they get back, by killing as many of them as possible. My highlight: when the good S.H.I.E.L.D agent calls Deadpool to inform him the LMD is going to double cross him, he kind of does one of those “play it off like the call is a wrong number or about something else things” but not really, “why sure I can tell you the serial number on my gun, just let me pull it out” that was too clever and too funny, and that was right at the start of the issue. That gave it great momentum for me right off the bat that carried it through. I think this might a perfect Deadpool comic. It’s cartoon violence but its violence, and it’s wise ass Deadpool. I used to kinda hate Deadpool because he was like a cartoon and everything he said was some kind of sarcastic, snarky quip, but now I love Deadpool because he’s cartoonish and everything is a snarky joke. I love that he can have his head in an oven and be like “omg – this pizza has anchovies!?” I guess the thing with humor is it’s often very subjective, I think it’s more subjective than even art or any other entertainment in general, I guess the thing with this issue though is it’s not just Deadpool, there’s a lot of back and forth, the interactions are all snappy, this is a great combination of cast right here with him and these three S.H.I.E.L.D agents. -Scorpio Moon

FAIREST #22 (Vertigo)
Cinderella is hot on the trail of FG (Fairy Godmother) who was one of the most wicked and twisted people she ever defeated. Sadly, she’s little more than a doting grandmother these days… not sure what happened but it adds to the story. Cinderella is finally able to locate her, in Amsterdam.. in a pot shop, but may have lost her again as they are under attack by someone Cindi knew way back when she was a girl scrubbing floors.
What happens at the end of this issue might make it more difficult for Cindi to figure out who made those rat creatures who attacked Snow White and what this means for Fabletown. But we do get to finally see… well, I was surprised but I’m not telling who appears at the end of this issue!
This story is probably going to be the last Cinderella story we get before Fables comes to an end next year (its strange writing about the end of this series) and it really is another highly entertaining story featuring one of my very favorite characters in the Fables Universe.
Also, naturally, awesome cover! -Skott Jimenez

REVOLUTIONARY WAR: ALPHA (Marvel)
Back in the 1990’s Marvel had more selection of titles, fewer with the word Avenger on the cover, and Marvel UK, the British branch of the Marvel Universe, had a solid hold with Death’s Head II, Motormouth and Killpower, Wild Thing, Warheads, Dark Angel and more. They exploded on the scene and, it seems, just as quickly faded from sight.
In recent months the original Death’s Head has been making appearances in various Marvel titles but now the entire Marvel UK 90’s pantheon comes back to face off against their biggest threat: Mys-TECH, the techno-wizards who nearly destroyed the world in their attempt to free themselves from the thrall of Mephisto. They were defeated and not heard from in decades but now they seem to be active again and it’s time to get the UK band back together to defeat them again and save the world one more time. Problem is… some of our UK heroes seem to have switched sides. One of them being a rather ill-tempered robot that suddenly talks like his predecessor.
The bulk of the story does feel like ‘getting the band back together’ and it’s interesting to see what happened to some of these characters after their runs had ended. I can’t wait to see what happens in this story and if any of these guys and gals get to stick around after it’s all over with. -Skott Jimenez

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