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Punisher War Journal #18-23 (2008): Fraction run ends; Remender run starts - Earth's Mightiest Blog
heroes in prison Matt Fraction has been playing in the Punisher sandbox for a year-and-a-half now, mostly telling small stories about D-list villains. Now, it's time to get real. Jigsaw is back, and as crazy as ever. Fraction and artist Howard Chaykin show the depth of his delusion by portraying…
Nova #13-15 (2008) - Earth's Mightiest Blog
cover What do you do after being tied into the best cosmic event in the history of Marvel, saving the universe, and helping launch several new books--including the Guardians of the Galaxy, which will turn into the greatest supermovie of all time? Why, you spend three issues with Galactus and…
Amazing Spider-Man #555-557 (2008) - Earth's Mightiest Blog
The cover to #555 is probably the one that sells this arc. But the cover and content of issue #556 are what is extraordinary. Spider-Man and Wolverine fight some ninjas in a blizzard of unknown mystical origin. They save a doctor who was targeted by the assassins, and then Spider-Man…
Avengers: The Initiative #12 (2008) - Earth's Mightiest Blog
The last story arc for this team went deep. It exposed government corruption, corrupted cloning by a former Nazi, and unsanctioned use of alien technology that killed several heroes and even more civilians. SHIELD Director Tony Stark leads a hearing, swearing in and interrogating Initiative liaison Henry Peter Gyrich. That's…
Captain America #37-42 (2008): The Man Who Bought America - Earth's Mightiest Blog
I remember when I was reading the '90s X-books. I was constantly confused. There were dozens of storylines and I just couldn't keep track of it all. Of course, there were also at least a half-dozen team- and solo-series per month, plus one-shots and minis. But also, the interconnected storylines…
Moon Knight #20 (2008) - Earth's Mightiest Blog
MIke Benson, Deodato Last issue, Moon Knight killed Black Spectre on national television. This led to SHIELD confiscating all his stuff and issuing a warrant for his arrest. He's in hiding now, living in the sewers with Crowley. But at least he's got Mike Deodato drawing him! Deodato is just…
Spider-Man: With Great Power #1-5 (2008) - Earth's Mightiest Blog
TAG: NOT CANON I'm pretty sure everyone who reads this hates it. It's a gap-filling miniseries that explores what happened after Peter Parker got bit by the spider but before Uncle Ben died. I've read different theories on whether it is "in continuity," but the dominant idea is that it…
X-Factor #29-31 (2008) - Earth's Mightiest Blog
In recent issues, Layla and Rahne have left the team. Guido was also offered the job of Mutant Town sheriff by Valerie Cooper. Madrox starts to get abandonment issues, so Guido tells him he turned Cooper down but... Madrox can tell he's lying. Also early in this story, Rictor quits…
Amazing Spider-Man #552-554 (2008): 1st Freak - Earth's Mightiest Blog
The Daily Bugle has been sold out from under a hospitalized J. Jonah Jameson, and the new editor in chief, Dexter Bennett, is even more of an anti-Spider-Man guy than JJJ. Spider-Man has been framed in recent issues as a serial killer, and these issues have a lot of fallout…
Young Avengers Presents: Stature #5 (2008) - Earth's Mightiest Blog
I like that these "Young Avengers Presents" issues aren't just origin stories or character introductions. Each issue has tried to move the characters forward. This issue finds Stature having a mental breakdown after a battle with Growing Man nearly killed her stepfather, who was caught in the crossfire. Her…
Wolverine First Class #3-4 (2008) - Earth's Mightiest Blog
Wolverine and Kitty go to Wundagore to see if they can find Magneto, who they suspect is hiding there. Once there, they're hailed as prophesized heroes and have some adventures with the New Men (evolved from animals by High Evolutionary). Bova and others have been in hiding as some…
X-Men: Divided We Stand #1 (2008) - Earth's Mightiest Blog
Marvel released two anthology issues to mark "Divided We Stand," the next phase of X-Men comics after the "death" of Professor X and the "disbanding" of the X-Men by Cyclops. Each issue had multiple stories. This post is just on issue #1. Story #1, by Mike Carey and Brandon Peterson,…
Spider-Man Family #8 (2008) - Earth's Mightiest Blog
The first non-reprint story in this anthology has two kids accidentally remote-activating the old Arsenal robot. Thinking it's a video game, they direct it to smash New York City until Spider-Man and Iron Man can stop it. Kind of a dopey and pointless story with serviceable art. It felt like…
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NEIL HAMILTON! - Earth's Mightiest Blog
He was the grave and serious Commissioner Gordon on the 1960s Batman show--the straight man to the campy and wonderful Adam West's wink-and-a-nod performance. Here's the obit from The Comics Journal, a terrific fanzine from the days when there was actual reporting--not just twitter blurbs and items.
New Warriors #9-13 (2008): Thrashed - Earth's Mightiest Blog
I'm not going to focus on the subplots across these issues because...It's really hard to care about them. The main idea is: Night Thrasher keeps doing weird and suspicious things like disappearing during battles. Jubilee is the first to suspect something sinister. Plus, the original New Warriors are back as…
Cable #1-5 (2008): War Child - Earth's Mightiest Blog
Cable gets his a solo book again. This first arc is both very important and also very well done. It picks up right from where we last saw Cable, at the end of the Messiah Complex with a baby strapped to his chest. With Cyclops' help, he has traveled to…
Wolverine First Class #1-2 (2008) - Earth's Mightiest Blog
Last year, Marvel launched "X-Men First Class.". I think many agree it was a non-continuity book--although it's not unanimous. I didn't cover much of it here, despite the high quality, and I kinda regret that. I may go back. Wolverine First Class was launched because XMFC was a big success…
THOR: AGES OF THUNDER, REIGN OF BLOOD, MAN OF WAR (2008) - Earth's Mightiest Blog
These three one-shots are great. They are less like one-shots and more like chapters in the story of the pre-Earth life of adult Thor, while making some adjustments to match the first Thor movie that came out around the same time. The stories read like a modern version of…
Punisher War Journal #17 (2008) - Earth's Mightiest Blog
Last issue focused on Gibbon. This one gives the history of Rampage and tells how he came to be Punisher's (unwilling) partner and tech guy. I am a big fan of how Garth Ennis reinvented Punisher. Often, his Punisher MAX stories put Frank Castle as a "menace in the background,"…
WOLVERINE: LOGAN #1-3 (2008) - Earth's Mightiest Blog
Logan was a glossy, card-stock miniseries featuring rock-star creatives. It told the story of where Logan was when the A-Bomb got dropped on Hiroshima at the end of World War II. So, yeah, the content is definitely a reach. The bomb turned a P.O.W. named Ethan Warren, who had…
New Avengers #39 (2008) - Earth's Mightiest Blog
David Mack illustrating an issue of New Avengers? Yes, please! Mack played a prominent role in the creation and early development of Echo--both with Brian Michael Bendis and in a story arc that featured Mack's own script--so it makes sense that he'd come aboard for an Echo-focused issue. I…
X-Men First Class #1 (2006) - Earth's Mightiest Blog
X-Men First Class is probably canon, although you might read others who disagree. But what everyone agrees on is that it's excellent. In this first issue, we're taken through an early X-Men adventure through a letter from Bobby to his mother. The team takes on a plantlike creature in the…
Ghost Rider #20-23 (2008) - Earth's Mightiest Blog
A new creative team takes over and delivers one of those rarest of Marvel creatures: An excellent Ghost Rider story. What makes it great? Well, the characterizations and art are fantastic but it's the willingness of the team to wrestle with the ideas of God and Satan, which are at…
PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL #16 (2008) - Earth's Mightiest Blog
Gibbon attends a meeting of anonymous criminals who survived an assault by Punisher. He's dating Princess Python now (good for Gibbon!) but he burns for revenge. After getting a gun and confronting Punisher on the street, he decides not to go through with it after he gives Gibbon a new…
Silver Surfer: In Thy Name #1-4 (2008) - Earth's Mightiest Blog
In his travels, Silver Surfer comes across a group of planetary governments that suppress religious freedom within their federation. Surfer just so happens to have been prophesized as their savior. He tries to reason with the oppressors, he fights their warriors, and he even makes them believe that if they…
Punisher Max #55-60 VALLEY FORGE, VALLEY FORGE (2008) - Earth's Mightiest Blog
This is the last Punisher story Ennis wrote (but not the last one chronologically). It wraps up just about everything, from the Generals who sent him to Russia to a videotape of a character who was tortured several arcs back. The problem with this arc, though, is that it is…
Iron Man: Director of SHIELD #29-32 (2008) - Earth's Mightiest Blog
This title was all kinds of low-key amazing under the last creative team. Stuart Moore has big shoes to feel. Let's see how he does. Iron Man leads his SHIELD team into the foreign (made-up) country of Kirikhstan to find and neutralized a nuclear terrorist threat. It turns out…
New Avengers #38 (2008) - Earth's Mightiest Blog
Titled, "The Breakup," this is one of those issues you really have to read. There's some "check-in" stuff, but it's not really that important. Like they get a new hideout that used to be The Leader's place. Then Jessica Jones shows up with some words for Luke Cage. Jessica Jones…
X-Men Legacy #208-210 (2008): From Genesis to Revelation - Earth's Mightiest Blog
Well, this didn't take long. In the last arc, Professor X was killed. This led Cyclops to disband the X-Men. There are a few scenes with the X-Men, like a little fight between Frenzy and Omega Sentinel, but this mostly about the Professor. In this arc, which immediately follows that…
X-Factor #28 (2008) - Earth's Mightiest Blog
Tribute cover! Titled, "Aftermath," this issue deals with the fallout from all the recent events and tumult in this book. Rahne quits in an effort to avoid a vision of the future, shown to her by Tryp, that had her killing Layla and Madrox (right after the two got married!). …
Amazing Spider-Man #549-551 (2008) - Earth's Mightiest Blog
Last story, some of Peter's Spider-Man gear had fallen into the wrong hands, and now someone is leaving spider-tracers at homicide crime scenes. That's still going on, but now the staff at the Daily Bugle have also been hearing about a new goblin-style villain on the streets, but nobody has…
Cable and Deadpool #49-50 (2008): Series Ends - Earth's Mightiest Blog
This series has had pretty wide swings in terms of quality. These final issues are among the better ones--but not the best. Deadpool has a Savage Land adventure with Ka-Zar. While there, he accidentally causes a teleported invasion of Manhattan by dinosaurs who symbiote-infected dinosaurs. When they start to infect…