Category: Written Reviews

(2025 Update: I’m using the banner from the Marvel Zombies series review that was written later down the road for the sake of convenience.)

“It started with a flash in the sky and a ripple in the clouds. The hunger is what brought it here – and feed it did, until the Marvel Heroes were no more. They were replaced with soulless monsters, driven only with an insatiable hunger for human flesh. This is no world of Marvel Heroes. This is the world of Marvel Zombies!”

And with that begins a miniseries that spun off from a Ultimate Fantastic Four storyline called Crossover, which teased the crossover between the Ultimate universe and the Marvel universe but gave us a world of zombies instead. One has to wonder why no such Earth existed in DC’s own Multiverse (before the whole Crisis thing came about… uh, forget it), but after one whiff of this, it’s pretty easy to see why.

In this world of Marvel Zombies, the zombified heroes have pretty much ate up most (if not all) of the human population, leaving behind only the super-powered zombies who either search for food or contemplate their means. Unlike the traditional idiot zombies of the past who scream “braaaaaaaaains”, these zombies maintain their intelligence, though their virtues have been replaced with a hunger for flesh.

Unfortunately, this potentially exciting set of consequences and series of events is marred by a fairly slow pace. The first issue opened up with a living Magneto holding his own against the zombies in a fairly good fight before becoming food, but from there, the series slows to a crawl as heroes contemplate how to cure or kill themselves, or where to find more food. Nothing particularly exciting, but the Silver Surfer showing up and the zombies about to go after would have led to a decent fight to open up the next issue. Instead, we get more of the same inactivity that plagued the second half of the first issue. Somewhere, this seems more than fine to some people, but this isn’t doing much for me. Yeah, the subtle lightness added (if you want to call it that) helps a bit, but not by much.

The book is visually adequate; the choice of dark tones and colors, as well as the grotesque appearances of the undead heroes really suit the subject matter at; much more so than those depicted in UFF. The amount of gore presented in this issue is plentiful despite the T+ rating the book’s been slapped with. You’d often wonder how much of this stuff got published, but really, stuff like this has happened before. Some people might be turned off by it, but considering I sat through the first two issues without so much a squeal, I’m sure there are those who find the gore tolerable or even hilarious.

Marvel Zombies, as a whole, is a mixed bag. On the one hand, it’s differs from all the other zombie-centric stuff in that the undead aren’t mindless, stupid creatures craving brains and so it offers something different. On the other hand, the undead are just intelligent, super-powered creatures craving brains and yet doesn’t make the storyline any different enough from your typical zombie storyline. If you’re a fan of horror stories or zombie stories in particular, then this is a good addition to your collection. If the Ultimate Fantastic Four: Crossover storyarc had somehow piqued your interest enough to see where the zombie angle goes from there, you can’t really go wrong. But for anyone else looking for something different or for an engaging storyline, you won’t find it here.

This is it. The final chapter of Avengers Disassembled. The end of an era in the storied saga of the Avengers… or at least, the end of this volume. We still have Avengers Finale to close the chapter proper, but this is where we end our Avengers journey and… well… for what it’s worth, the ending hits all the right notes.

The revelation of Wanda as the cause of all this mayhem, the debate on whether she would actually be capable of such a thing, and that one bit of exposition – paired up with a wonderful montage of various past comic book covers and panels depicting Wanda’s darker side over the years – fits in so perfectly that it makes absolute sense. And then when the Avengers confront Wanda and we get another battle… which ends as it does and features a cameo appearance that makes sense within the context of this particular story, but not so much in the wider universe considering the stuff happening in the New X-Men book… but whatever, I don’t care. The story is over. It ended on what I feel is a strong note. There’s a finale that serves more as an epilogue to this current version of the Avengers so that we can make way for the new version of the Avengers, which I’m actually looking forward to.

Congratulations, Bendis. You actually made me care about the Avengers for the first time… ever. Here’s a cookie.

(2025 Update: It  just occurred to me that, in redoing banners for this thing, I misspelled Bendis’ name in all four banners… I’d go back and change it, but I’m far too lazy.)

I’ve been a bit late on these reviews as of late, so before posting my thoughts on the final issue of this arc, we should probably cover Part 3.

In our previous issue, a bunch of reserve Avengers show in time for a massive alien spaceship to start dropping alien troops to fight off every Avengers. The whole issue is nothing but one big action setpiece with some highlights here and there. There’s even room for a couple Spider-Man quips here and there.

But then the big heroic sacrifice happens and while I roll my eyes at the tease of another major character death – these things almost NEVER last long with VERY few exceptions – the way this death is treated is done rather well. We know it’s coming, we know it’s teased, and unlike some of the other deaths featured in this arc so far, this death feels dignified and worthwhile… whether it sticks is another story.

And then there’s the Dr. Strange cameo that teases the potential identity of who is truly behind all this gruesome demise. As soon as as there was mention of the [REDACTED] being abused and the reaction to that statement followed… well, I’d be lying if I said that I was surprised because whoever it is has had turns in the dark side in the past, but it kinda, sorta makes sense and I’m amazed that they’re actually going in this direction.

I was a bit iffy on Disassembled at first, but now, headed towards its final issue, I’m actually looking forward to seeing how it ends.

In our last issue of Avengers… the mansion blew up, Iron Man was in a supposed drunken state, and a whole bunch of Avengers died. In this issue… we try to make sense of what’s been going on, but it’s just the calm before the next big storm to hit next issue, which promises another Avenger death. Oh goodie.

Once we get past the initial She-Hulk battle, things start to pick up as the team begin to question whether all of this stuff happening is just a coincidence or part of a larger part to strike at their lowest point. The team discussing what’s going on while licking their wounds is the thing that keeps me interested in this whole thing. And once you get to the final spread of all the reserve Avengers to provide assistance, it’s just setting the stage for the show’s grand finale.

Once again, David Finch provides some truly superb art and the final spread is a wonderful piece of business. After the first part’s endless barrage of offing Avengers, Part 2 is a nice piece of calm. Sadly, it’s probably not going to last, is it?

Avengers hit its 500th issue – or rather, it’s the 85th issue of the third volume, but we’re reverting to the old numbering because all of a sudden we care about our issue numbers until we eventually don’t – so how do we celebrate this milestone? How about we blow up Avengers Mansion and kill off a couple staple characters for good measure?

The first of four issues comprising the Avengers Dissambled storyarc that is supposed to bring the current Avengers run to a close in order to make way for a new Avengers series by BENDIS’ own hand. Unfortunately, the story starts off in such gruesome fashion that it seems like an excuse for Bendis to kill off a few name characters just to tickle his fancy… and the sad thing is that it isn’t going to end here because this is less about putting together a compelling Avengers story that might please older fans and possibly new fans to jump in… and more about shock value. Kill the Ant Man. Have She-Hulk go berserk and rip Vision apart! Why don’t we kill Cap off while we’re at it?

I’ll admit that I liked some of Bendis’ stuff; his Daredevil run was solid and ballsy, his work on Ultimate Spider-Man is pretty top-notch, and on occasion, he’s managed some stroke of brilliance in the oddball title or two. David Finch does some great artwork that manages to compliment the chaos depicted in the written word, with a talent to make abject horroric scenes seem even more so with some fine detail.

A rather underwhelming start to the final chapter of this Avengers era to make way for the new one, I’m holding out hope that things will look up… unfortunately, I have a feeling that it’s a false hope at best.

You all know that Robin’s being replaced. That’s common knowledge. If you don’t, one only needs to go here and find out.

At the risk of “spoiling” everything, I’m going to tell you that no, Robin doesn’t die. He quits. There you go; no need to buy this comic…

In all seriousness, however, the means of forcing Tim Drake to retire the Robin mantle is rather interesting, but the fact that no one has made an effort to hide what is to come doesn’t help the stock of this issue. I’m guessing the “retirement” of Tim Drake was the big consequence of last issue’s “unveiling”… and even though I haven’t read that last issue, I did read this issue. It peaked my interest even though I knew what was going to happen in a sense, so it worked on that level. The cover is rather bland and doesn’t really relate much to what’s in the issue, but it’s a good thing. The art in this issue is okay, but it really doesn’t do much for me. It’s not that it’s bad, but on the other hand, it’s really uninteresting and it doesn’t try to suck me into the story. Then again, that’s just me.

On the up side however, we’re getting a new Robin… again. And it’s a girl… again. This is the history of the Robin persona, a position that had been filled in by a young kid raised in a circus who had the nasty tendency of saying “Holy-this” and “Holy-that”, a snot-nosed kid whose rebellious nature got him killed by readers, and a “bland, whitebread kid” (thanks, Brian)… Whoever this new kid is (I know who, but I’m not going to “spoil” it for you) has some pretty small shoes to fill, but she should glad that she isn’t going to be wearing those god-awful pixie boots from the early days of the Robin legacy.

Under a different time, the 125th issue of Robin would have been a good book because it has the title character, through circumstances out of his control, forcibly step down from his career as a superhero. That alone would have been an unexpected move. But today, with DC’s own website and Previews basically spoiling the surprise by posting images of future issue covers, this comes off as nothing more than an average book with nothing to sell it on. Whether it’s worth the asking price is up to the customer (as with… everything), but I’d skip this one and wait for the next issue… which has the girl Robin debuting.