Silk #9 Review *SPOILERS*

Written By: Robbie Tompson

Art By: Stacey Lee

Publisher: Marvel

Rating: T

Price: $3.99 

Release Date: June, 29, 2016

Fresh off the Spider-Women cross over event we have Silk dealing with the ramifications of an evil version of herself wrecking havoc on our Spider-Women. She is working with Black Cat hoping to find out what she is after. The two are obviously not on the same page and trigger the security system of Parker Industries and get stuck together for 45 minutes while they wait for the elevator doors reopen so they can get out.  

So since they need to wait they decide to talk about getting on the same page, and Cindy tells her about her past (big mistake Cindy!). As they leave Parker Industries, Black cat gives Cindy the item she stole from the safe and tells her that she trusts her, and wants her to bring it to her place. We see Mockingbird in the building as she witnesses them together.  

Cindy is talking to her psychiatrist and decides to pay a visit to her ex, hoping to at least have a friendship with him, but in typical Cindy Moon luck he moved. She feels odd thinking that the only person to tell her that she trusts her is Black Cat. 

Feeling down, she goes to the one place that she feels comfortable and at home, the bunker she was locked in. This part of the book made me feel really bad for Cindy. She has been through so much in her short Marvel lifespan and for her to feel better going there really gives you a glimpse into her overall character development. For me, in a perfect world Robbie Thompson would be the only writer for the Spider-Women books. 

Mockingbird goes to the bunker and the two talk. Cindy asks to talk outside of the bunker since that is the place where she talks to herself and the two head up to a rooftop. Mockingbird tells her that she can't trust Black Cat and that they need to bring her in. Cindy shows her what was stolen and agrees. The only problem is that Black Cat heard the whole thing. She bugged Cindy and looks really pissed! So this set us up for an action packed issue #10 for sure.  

This was a really good issue coming out of a cross-over, and set up this new arc pretty well. The book delivered on story and art, and as usual I highly recommend all Spider-Women books! So until next time DatBeardedBastard is out!

8/10

Spider-Gwen Annual #1 Review *SPOILERS*

Written By: Jason Latour

Art By: Veronica Fish, Chris Visions, Michael Walsh, Chris Brunner

Publisher: Marvel

Rating: T+

Price: $4.99 

Release Date: June, 29, 2016

I am not a fan of annuals, The last time I really cared was around 1993 when marvel announced all new characters in the annuals and they all came with character cards. Some were good, some were terrible, and some were pretty interesting. But let me get back on track here. The only time I buy annuals are when they are from titles that I must complete or if they have a writer or artist that I am a huge fan of. 

So lets bust this annual open and see if it is worth buying or just skipping all together. It starts off with a story that will remind most Spider-Man fans of his origin story. We have Gwen in the locker room at a wrestling event that gets robbed. The robber gets confronted by a guy who almost gets shot, but Gwen saved him. She calls him uncle and stops before saying his name. The guy worries that he should not have done that and was thinking of Peter and May. So in this world Uncle Ben is saved. My problem here is that he mentions Peter, who should be "Dead" by this time. I am not sure if this was written before that occurred withing the continuity of this story, or if they just don't care. 

Next story had Cap and Gwen reading a comic with a guy that looks like Prince. I dug the art, but the story was just okay. I actually wanted to skip it but decided to stick it out. It was not very good. We move on to Cap visiting Steve Rogers at the James Barnes V.A. Medical Center. I really enjoyed this story, and I really liked the art. This version of Cap always intrigued me, and I wish she had her own book. It just focuses on the dialog between the two of them and it was too short! I was hoping for more, but it made up for the previous stories for sure.  

Next is a MODAAK story. It is basically a MODOK/TRUMP amalgam and it was lame. Thank god it had Cap in the final panel, but it was not interesting in the least. 

Now speaking of interesting, we get a Watcher story that was pretty good. It was cooky as hell for sure, but it was actually fun. He mentions that he is not allowed to interfere, but that's all he is really doing. Each time he tries something happens to him or it backfires. The end result is the Watcher getting pepper sprayed and wondering if he will relieved of his one mission since he can't see. 

 We then see what a typical week is for Gwen and it is awesome. She fights Stilt Man, Ninjas, teams with Spider-Ham, hangs out with the Spider-Women, teams with a symbiotic Spider-Ham, and over sleeps on a Sunday.

This story was better than the first few and was driven mostly by the art. It was fast paced, well drawn, the panel layouts were awesome, and more importantly it had that feel of a Spider-Women book. Too bad the whole book was not done like this. 

In all I would say that this was a rather weak annual as I expected it would be, but I need to have it since I collect all the Spider-Women issues. At the $4.99 cover price, I would advise casual readers and non Spider Gwen fans to skip it all together. Thankfully we will be back to the regular issues next month! So until next time DatBeardedBastard is out!

6/10

Black Panther #3 Review *SPOILERS*

Written By: Ta-Nehisi Coates

Art By: Brian Stelfreeze

Publisher: Marvel

Rating: T+

Price: $3.99 

Release Date: June, 29, 2016

I mentioned in my previous reviews that Black Panther is on of my favorite Marvel characters, yet I am more interested in the supporting characters. When a series is starting a new arc, usually we get bogged down with a ton of info crammed in the first two issues. That does two things, it makes long time readers mad that they have to wait for the action to pick up and it bogs down the new readers with too much info too quickly.

I find it very interesting that we have a writer who never penned a comic book script in his life deliver on so many levels on his first book. Okay back to the issue, I've rambled enough...

A Nation Under Our Feet part 3 picks up with Tetu explaining that, "When he was tree". I read that a few times since it was 1:00 AM and my mind keeping reading it as "When I was three". Needless to say I should not be reading books when I am tired, but I was eagerly anticipating this book more than any other Marvel title. I ordered the digital book because I did not want to wait for the comic shop to open. As we get his inner dialog explaining what he has witnessed over his lifetime we are put into his shoes to see just how certain events in the Marvel universe actually affected him and the people of Wakanda. Coates did a freat job shedding light on him. He no longer comes off as a guy in the back with a staff manipulating events. 

We are back to Black Panther, and he is still grieving over the loss of his sister and doubting himself. This is where I feel that Coates is falling into the trap most writers fall into. That is making the hero doubt himself and then over coming the self doubt to ____ (fill in the blank). It does not bother me since the rest of the series is moving at a great pace and it is really just a small complaint on my part. 

Now we go to my favorite characters of this series so far, the Midnight Angels. These women are actually trying to do something instead of self loathing and questioning themselves. They do a good job of keeping each other in check as well. They actually love each other, and that is why they are doing this together. They each feel as if they should have died, and they are living each day as if they are dead, so they are going to do as much as they can for the people before they actually die. 

The next part took me out of the story a bit. It was It has Romanda speaking with Shuri in some other plane. Basically it was Romanda telling her about the power of memory, and that reminds the reader of Tetu and what he was saying about the past and what the people do not remember.  

Speaking of Tetu, we are back to him now and the T'Challa drop in and beat up his soldiers. There is an explosion and he is overtaken by Tetu's guards. T'Challa fights them back and calls in reinforcements. It is his Dogs of War, and they seem to be taking care of everyone but then Then things get interesting. Tetu takes out a gourd and douses himself in what looks like some type of magical powder and marks his face like warpaint. 

He claims that he is with T'Challa as well, but subdues him and his men with tree vines a and roots. He lays it all out for T'Challa as well. He tells him that he was off doing other things while his people suffered and his sister died. This was my favorite part of the issue. It is like a wake up call more than a warning, but effective none the less. 

 Now we see a woman running from soldiers and she gets shot in the leg. We see in pursuit by Mandla of the White Gorilla Army. The woman enters a cave and Mandla tells her he is not without mercy.Then we see that Mandla is surrounded and then it cuts away?! I want to see what happened right now! I don't want to wait!!

It ends with a father and daughter in the spot where they met Tetu earlier and rejoicing in the rain. It was a great ending, even though I wanted to see some fighting with the Midnight Angels and the White Gorilla Army. But I am sure it will be worth the wait. I highly recommend this book. I feel this issues was not as strong as the previous two, but even with that said it is better than most books out right now. So until next time DatBeardedBastard is out!

8.5/10

Astonishing Ant-Man #9 Review *SPOILERS*

Astonishing Ant-Man #9 Review *SPOILERS*

Story by: Nick Spencer

Art by: Ramon Rosanas

Publisher: Marvel

Release date: June 15, 2016

Rating: T

Price: $3.99

This was one of the main books that I was reading before the Marvel relaunch. I loved the writing, the characters, and the art. When Marvel announced it was continuing with the new Marvel Universe books it was on the top of my list. But for some unknown reason, each week I passed it up for other books that I wasn't even looking forward to and it got off my radar. So when I started reviewing Marvel books my top five were Power-Man and Iron Fist, Black Panther, Spider-Gwen,  Thunderbolts, and Spider-Woman. I forgot all about this book, and it's a shame. I picked up this issue, and it was perfect timing. It recaps pretty much everything from the end of the last volume and makes it a perfect spot to pick it up. The recap is done in a way that it just flows with the story. 

I was glad to see that they kept all the same 
characters too. I was interested in seeing the new giant man after he was introduced as a villain. 

The dialog was just as good as last volume as well. What's better than a man in a giant bear suit consoling another man wearing spandex?! 

I enjoyed the dialog between all these former villains crossing the line between right and wrong, for all the right reasons. 

And what's not to love about a young woman calling the bad guys jerkwads? This book was a blast to read and it brought me back over from now on. My favorite part of the book where the plan is being executed and it involved 22 steps! Screw you Oceans Eleven! This is how you execute a plan! 

Even though this was a book to get people caught up, it never got in the way of the story and it had a good flow to the whole book. I can't wait to read the next issue! So until next time DatBeardedBastard is out!

8/10

Rocket Raccoon and Groot #6 Review *SPOILERS*

Story by: Skottie Young

Art by: Brett Bean

Publisher: Marvel

Ratng: T

Price: $3.99

This is a series that Jim's local comic shop owner tried pushing on him back in the day, and it pissed him off!! Is it sad that the my favorite stories involve Jim getting pissed off? Maybe it's the fact that he may be my Quakertown Doppleganger and we have the same crazy experiences. I think I need to make a comic about that but that's for another time! 

The book starts off with our duo doing what they enjoy best drinkin' and challenging each other at EVERYTHING! Rocket can't catch a break, he loses at every game he challenges Groot to. And His reactions are awesome, he comes up with lame excuses and acts just like a spoiled brat. Groot beats Rocket at pool, darts, ping pong, video games, poker, space monopoly, and beer pong. 

After Rocket wakes up from boozin' he challenges Groot to a race for their pink slips, and after the race starts Rocket gets a communication from someone cashing in on a favor that Rocket owes him. The favor is to help them in a war that was going on for a thousand years and they are about to be defeated. Rocket changes up the finish line for their planet and off they go, and Groot wins again.  

Rocket is complaining about losing to Groot again as the general goes over their strategies so they decide to have a game of one upping each other on the battlefield. The battle is pretty awesome and I had to stop and think that these two are playing a game and actually kicking more ass than most super hero teams do as a collective unit! It was awesome seeing Rocket blast the hell out of everything as Groot smashes them into pulp, literally!

So it turns out that they are tied up at 132 each and there is only one bad guy left. Who will get the final kill? Neither! The dude is so scared that he has a heart attack on the spot and drops dead, leading to an argument over who caused the heart attack. The next day they get medals for ending the thousand year war. We even have a member of the army ask why they never sent them in a long time ago! After they get the medals Rocket tries telling Groot he won and they are back to arguing all over again and decide to have a final battle of THUMB WAR! I can see a full trade of these two just challenging each other to crazy games and getting into trouble along the way. I would even buy that book just for the fun factor alone. 

My son and I are huge Skottie Young fans, and if you are not familiar with him I would highly recommend this and "I Hate Fairyland" over at Image Comics. He is capable of delivering on the story and art, but on this book we have the awesome Brett Bean doing the art. This is a perfect book for those burnt out on traditional superheroes or if you just want a change of pace. Maybe we can even get Jim to read this book! When you read this title you know it will never be a ground breaking comic or have some story that will knock you off your feet, but that is not what this book is designed to do. It is a book that is intended to make you enjoy reading comics and take them at face value. So with all that in mind I will have to rate this book a...

8/10

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Spider-Woman #8 Review *SPOILERS*

Written By: Dennis Hopless

Art By: Javier Rodriguez

Publisher: Marvel

Rating: T+

Price: $3.99

The first thing that I need to say is that I am a huge Spider-Women fan. I enjoy all the titles and look forward to them most of all. I was a little bummed about the Aplha/Omega cross-over, but it was not bad, I just think I was expecting more. I am glad we are moving on from there however and back on track with the regular issues. So on to Spider-Woman #8. The book picks up with Jessica Drew talking about what she likes to do on her own time and busts out her motorcycle. She gets news that Tiger Shark, a baddie that she already subdued got away and left a trail of destruction! 

You know how these type of books turn out, they need our hero to go back and get them because they are bumbling idiots who cant't even handle transporting them to freakin' jail. So Jess gets the location of his lair and heads off after him. It turns out to be a whole floor of an apartment building with a huge ass aquarium with a giant freakin" octopus. Tiger Shark tries to sucker punch Jess, but we know he can't do that! She of course ducks and superkicks him as he punches the aquarium, putting some serious cracks in it. Jess then tosses him into it destroying it and setting free the before mentioned octopus! We then see the faily downstairs enjoying their family dinner, when they get an unexpected dinner guest, of course it's the giant octopus. He then busts out of the window and he falls to the streets along with Jess and Tiger Shark. 

This is where the fun for me begins as she gets a call from her baby sitter, the Porcupine! I am still hoping that Marvel makes a babysitting club type book with Squirrel Girl and Porcupine! Maybe I am the only one, but I think that would be an amazing book. Anyways back to the book. We get some awesome dialog between Jess and Roger(Porcupine) as she is dealing with tiger shark. She is whooping on him, saving civilians, and talking to her sitter at the same time, now that's multitasking. Then out of nowhere some jackass thinks its a good idea to text and drive during this ordeal, and oh yeah he is driving a freaking ambulance! Really bro, texting and driving an ambulance?! Needless to say he crashes, but it is square into Jess and Tiger Shark and it looks like the driver may be dead. 

Tiger Shark grabs Jess and yanks her into the sewers, the only place she never really wanted to go in the first place. The battle is intense as they are taking down into the sewer stream(Ew...) and out of nowhere Tiger Shark gets picked up by the giant octopus and slammed all over the place as Jess avoids it by flipping back to the wall behind her. It seems as if the octopus is uninterested in her and just takes off after whooping Tiger Sharks ass. Jess tosses the unconscious Tiger Shark up to the street and the cops say, "Thanks for the assist.". REALLY?! You jackasses can't even transport him to jail and you tell her thanks for the assist! But Jess is too nice of a gal to tell them to kiss her ass and says she is glad to help. 

She gets in the door and it is already morning and Roger is whipping up some pancakes. We get some mandatory inner dialogue as the issue comes to an end about her havi ng a lot on her plate being a mother and a hero and how she wouldn't have it any other way. The last panel shows her eating pancakes with Roger and breast feeding her baby. I like how Dennis Hopeless and Javier Rodriguez do a good job both writing and drawing that scene and making it subtle and not just a Hey look at us over at Marvel being progressive! moment. 

I didn't want to post too many pics, but I wanted to give you guys an idea of how the action was going down as Jess was talking to Roger. 

 

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Just like Spider-Gwen, this is a good jumping on point. You can also get the previous issues in trade or on the Marvel Unlimited app, I always recommend the app since it is such a great deal. It is about 5-6 months behind current issues, but that is not really bad. It is faster than DC putting out trades that's for sure. The issue never had a dull moment for me and the pacing was great. It was like watching a movie, the way we go from action to comedy and the panel layout was never distracting over over done. This was another solid issue and I recommend it to anyone looking for a good balance of action, comedy, and character development. 

9.5/10

Thunderbolts #2 Review *SPOILERS*

Written By: Jim Zub

Art By: Jon Malin and Matt Yackey

Publisher: Marvel

Rating: T

Price: $3.99

Last moth I rushed to my local comic shop to get Punisher #1. It was the book I was looking forward to the most, and the book I was most disappointed in. That book just pissed me off, it was like reading a reprint from a 90's Punisher book. Lucky for me I got two other books that day. Oddly enough they were written by the same guy, Jim Zub! Those books were Dungeons and Dragons and Thunderbolts. And I loved both books! D&D had humor and action and Thunderbolts had a good combo of character introductions with a great cliffhanger right off the bat. I gave both books a 9.5 and was waiting for both issue #2's. 

We pick up right were the last book left off, with Moonstone dying and her chest ripped open. In the previous issue she was trying to take control of the team and said that if anyone thought they can lead that they are welcomed to try to take the stone from her heart. The problem is that they have a kid made out of the cosmic cube pieces named Kobik who takes everything literally and she did just that. SHE RIPPED IT OUT OF HER HEART!

Kobik is not aware of what she did and wants to get yogurt and play video games as Moonstone lays dying. Bucky tells her to put the stone back to keep Moonstone from dying. He tells her that Moonstone was wrong and she needs it back right away. The rest of the team is getting hostile and Kobik still has not put the stone back, so bucky tells her that she will be kicked off the team unless she puts it back so she does it and it starts to stabilize her. Now the team is back to the dozens of Inhuman type cocoons that they were investigating last issue. Just like last issue, Moonstone says they should burn them all but Bucky is not having that at all. At that moment one cracks open and a creature comes out attacking. More cocoons break open and they are under attack by about 8 creatures and the Thunderbolts are taking care of them pretty easily, until the rest of the cocoons open and they are seriously outnumbered,   

My favorite Thunderbolt Atlas grows to the size of a building and starts splatting and squishing the poor bastards! Kobik wants to help, but Bucky won't let her. In theory Kobik can stop all of them easily, but she can also hurt the Thunderbolts as well. You can tell that Bucky is in a tough spot trying to help her fit in and be able to help the team without killing them!

The Thunderbolts get all the creatures in the warehouse and Bucky decides to torch the place.Moonstone has an "I told ya so" look on her face and wished she had marshmallows. Then a ship comes down and it is similar to SHIELD technology, but it is not SHIELD. It is the Inhumans and they are pissed! Were those creatures Inhumans?! Were they experiments of the Inhumans?! This book seemed to be a faster read, but that could be because last issue set the tone and showed the structure of the team and laid down the ground work. With that being said, the book did a great job with the pacing. The art is really good, the only issue with the art is that some backgrounds are just filled in with reds and blues lacking a feel of depth. It is not to distracting and does not hurt the book at all, it was just something I remember noticing right away. 

The writing was well done again, but I felt that too may characters were displaying a negative or combative attitude as opposed to last issue where it was just Moonstone. It just seemed too soon for the internal conflict or tension to turn it's ugly head. With all that aside, the book did a good job resolving last issues cliffhanger and set the tone of how the arc will play out. It will be interesting having a teammate that can kill the whole team without even realizing it. It is similar to that episode of the Twilight Zone where that kid with powers can wish people into the cornfields, except Kobik is not evil. 

Issue one set the bar pretty high and I was worried that issue two would not be able to deliver. Zub did a great job following it up, and has me wanting to stick around to see where it goes. 

8/10

Spider-Gwen #9 Review *SPOILERS*

Story by: Jason Latour

Art by: Robbi Rodriguez

Publisher: Marvel

Price: $3.99

Rating: T

I am a huge fan of all the Spider-Women books! They each have a unique point of view, but have a common thread that usually brings them all together from time to time. 

Sometimes it is a fluid transition into each title, and at other times it seems forced. So when Spider-Women Alpha and Omega came out, I was on board. 

It was a bit rocky in my opinion, and I feel that the drastic differences in the art teams played a big part. I thought that each book looked good individually, but overall it

threw the vibe and feel of the book off. 

So now that we have that out of the way we start new with Spider-Gwen #9. The book starts off with a quick recap in the form of a newspaper, something that keeps our characters from repeating themselves. As you will read in my other reviews that is my number one pet peeve, but let's get back to the book. We have Gwen on a train heading home and we have dialog boxes throughout the page talking about her, and it ends with the line, "Spider-Woman doesn't exist Frank". and we see that it is Frank Castle and he is watching her from the rooftop across from her apartment like a peep freak!

This issue also has a lot of inner monologue from Gwen as she tries to sort out her feelings of guilt about those that got hurt and died during her battles as Spider-Gwen. Her friends convince her to go out and she caves in and goes out. She is able to take her mind off of her problems and was just starting to feel at ease, but it doesn't last long. She almost caves in a hobo's face who creeped up on her for some change. 

She meets up with her friends at the Dollar Dog. Regular readers will know this place for sure, and she goes to talk to her old boss. He tells her he is now just a manager, since he had to sell the place after it got destroyed in a battle with the "Spider-Woman", and that she ruined his life. The artist did a great job with the expression on Gwen's face even though we only see her eyes. She heads to the restroom and tosses her equipment in the sink and is ready to give up being Spider-Gwen and we see two characters from the Spider-Woman Alpha and Omega book talking about Gwen's powers. I don't want to spoil too much by telling you who they are, especially the woman, but depending on how big a role they will have in the arc I may have to spoil more in the next review.

The place gets robbed by some jabroni, and before Gwen can take action, the robber gets his ass kicked by Frank Castle! Just as I was excited to see some Punisher action he grabs Gwen's arm and tells her that he knows the truth. That bastard Frank won't let go and Gwen's friend tries to push him back as Gwen is pulling her arm causing her to slam back into a table. Needless to say this pisses her off and she punches the hell out of Frank sending him out of the window! This panel was awesome! Just seeing her standing there telling him she is not afraid of him and the shadow over her face really made her come off badass. The only problem was that her friends just saw her lay the smack down, so she bolts out of there. 

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How will she explain this to her friends? What is Frank Castle going to do about getting his ass kicked? Who are those two discussing Gwen's powers? Who's going to fix the window at the Dollar Dog? We need to wait til issue #10 for the answers to these questions and more! This would be a good jumping on point for new readers. It gives you insight into her state of mind and you do not need to know the back story of the two characters from the Alpha/Omega series right away. I hold this series in high regard, it is always well written and drawn. The previous volume is great and I recommend it as a trade, or if you have Marvel Unlimited you can catch up on it there. 

So finally, on to the score. This was not the best Spider-Gwen book that I've read so far. It did have some slow parts and a lot of inner dialog, but that being said it is still one of the better Marvel titles to read today. It was a good start to a new arc, but I expect better from this team and this book, and I am sure I will get that with the next issue.  

7.5/10