The List #24

Gotham City Sirens #9
Writer: Paul Dini
Artist: Guillem March
A lot of this issue focuses on the Riddler, it's his thought bubbles that are central this issue. And I have to say I find this irritating. The series is called Gotham City Sirens, not Gotham City Reformed Villains. If Dini is dying to write a series on The Riddler then go do it, but stop subjecting this series to constant detours to The Riddler when it's supposed to be about the women. It's especially insulting because it seems The Riddler appears every time something needs to be taken seriously, as if the girls are incapable of carrying a serious plot on their own. I'd say it goes so far as to suggest that female villains aren't to be taken as serious.

Another thing that gets me is since when is Ivy a reformed villain? I know Catwoman and Harley are, but Ivy just seems to have slipped into it without any real explanation. More importantly, who are the villains these days? With Ivy, Harley, Catwoman, and The Riddler all reformed it feels like all the best ones besides the Joker are gone.

This issue focuses around a body being dropped into the girls' home and Eddie trying to figure out what they were all doing before then. Harley's day is riddled with 'cutesy' crap and just details of her eccentric nature. Yet again, a mistake is made in writing Harley. The appeal of Harley is that her personality is such a contrast from her line of work. Her cuteness is odd in such a dark setting, and that's her appeal. Instead, Dini has focused in on her too much during this series and humanized her way too much. It's hard to believe she's ever been sick and twisted.

As for Ivy, it appears she was out at a job interview. Which I adore because I've already said I adore the fact that she's written to not need a man and has strong devotion to her cause. Making her a career woman just makes things even better.

As for Catwoman, apparently she was out sparring with Catman. And as a sidenote, I know I've stated before that Catwoman is the Gotham Girl I care about the least, but I've been looking into her recent appearances this past week and I have to say I find myself liking her now. I think it's up to Dini to spotlight her right now considering she's the least worked on Gotham Girl.

Anyway, the girls wrap up their stories and The Riddler goes to their home to check out the body. He makes a note of how the villain neglected to us the specific weapons and materials the girls would have which sort of brings the idea of villainy being an art (especially in such a villain focused universe as the Batman universe).

In the end it turns out the villain trying to frame the girls was none other than... Dr. Aesop!! Yeah, I have no idea who he is, but that's what I get for only reading Batman issues with Ivy in them. Conclusion: I'd say that this issue is worth the buy so long as you don't mind The Riddler.

X-Factor #202
Writer: Peter David
Artist: Bing Cansino
Here's the basic idea of this issue: Layla's working with Dr. Doom and apparently there's an impostor Doom or something from an alt. universe. I think. Whatever, anyway it turns out Invisible Woman is being kept in Castle Doom and it hooked up to a machine where she's exploring trashed fantasies with Namor. And we also finally get to know what Imperius Rex means, an explanation I certainly wouldn't deny.

In the end Monet interrupts and gets Sue out of the machine, everyone on the offensive team runs to go confront Doom. And they come upon a most unexpected scene as they come upon Doom...painting Layla's portrait. Which I kind of love because I have to say Doom humor, or as it should be called 'Dumor,' is a guilty pleasure of mine.

What a diva.

During the closing of the issue, Doom claims to just have been trying to protect Sue and reiterates that he's no longer after the FF4. As everyone is departing it seems an artist mistake was made. It seems Layla was colored to look like Monet (possibly drawn as well?), and the mistake was only fixed by having the 'M' tattoo put on the mis-drawn Layla.

Anyway, the team leaves except Layla makes Shatterstar behind with her and Doom for reasons currently unknown. Oh and back at home the evil Reed Richards is defeated. Conclusion: This issue crossed over the limbo between ok and good that David regularly visits and went into the more positive limbo of between good and great. I would say consider buying it.

X-Men Legacy #233
Writer: Mike Carey
Artist: Clay Mann
This issue is basically made up of two parts. The first is Rogue discovering that Betsy's psi-knife can de-possess and subsequently psi-knifing everyone. You can imagine how tense that was. And the second was Proteus and Magneto's fight which was filled with, "Bah, old man, you're weak, you'll die!.......BAH! Old man, you're weak..." and Magneto in the end 'surprisingly' winning.
A couple things of interests included recreating a scene from the old days of Kurt teleporting around Rogue (this time possessed and trying to possess her, not tickle her) and Rogue eventually predicting his next move. Also, since when can Paige use her bodies of different substances to make powers? Like in this issue she became a fire form while possessed and managed to shoot flames at Rogue. Proteus' reality-bending or is Paige getting an upgrade?

Anyway, possessed Husk is most resistant to Rogue and almost ends up defeating Rogue when Betsy steps in with her psi-knife. And Magneto screws around with Proteus' electromagnetic thingy to make it go away. Afterwards, Rogue and Destiny have a really cute mother/daughter scene. I've always found the Mystique/Rogue mother/daughter relationship sort of unconvincing, but when Destiny's added to the mix I have to say the dynamics make a lot more sense. And it's a tragedy that Destiny couldn't be developed more because I do enjoy her character.

Destiny eventually goes to see Blindfold and we find out that two pre-cogs cancel each other out. And I just realized almost all of the X-Men characters who've been precog at one point or another have also been blind at one point or another. (Destiny, Blindfold, Psylocke, and Gambit. Preview is the only seeing one I can think of.) Destiny tells Ruth she's not her ma and tells her what she knows. Apparently there's an evil brother in the mix, which I can imagine is going to be the subject of a future arc.

And that's it for X-Men Legacy's part in the Necrosha crossover. Probably the one with the least amount of impact yet the best one out of the three. I would definitely recommend buying this arc if you're interested a simple but good superhero arc.

X-Force #24
Writers: Craig Kyle and Chris Yost
Artist: Clayton Crain
In terms of last issue's body count, apparently it's Onyxx, Diamond Lil, and Meld, who I thought was Leech.

This issue starts with Warpath being taken to see Selene, Wither and Eli Bard get into a fight where Wither reveals he's also part-vampire or whatever Eli is. Then Selene kills Eli for his bullshit, and hopefully she'll get killed for her soon since she's just a boring villain in goth lingerie who's into S+M. Not exactly the height of originality.

Warpath is taken into the dungeons so that he can be forced to fight his resurrected brother. He resists, and Johnny can't stop himself but apparently tells James how to kill Selene.

X-Force arrives on Genosha and right as they arrive a few discoveries are made. The first being that Elixir changed Rahne's powerset a bit when he was healing her because of her pregnancy. That and apparently Vanisher's tumor is no more, but he's definitely got some sort of STD that causes spitting up blood. Vanisher ends up deciding to stay with the team though and goes to save James. And Blink, being the bitch she is, blows up Telford's arm as he's in the process of saving because no good deed goes unpunished.

X-Force's presence is discovered and there begins epic fight scene which is mixed in with Selene's ritual prep. The ritual eventually happens, can't tell if all the resurrected people die in the process, but I suppose it's to be assumed. And so now Selene's a god. The God of Boring Cliche's I'd wager.

Conclusion: This issue is only somewhat more interesting and intense than past issues, but it still ends up being pretty mediocre and not all that intense.

The List #23 part 2

Uncanny X-Men #521
Writer: Matt Fraction
Artist: Greg Land
This issue begins with Magneto meditating on the mountain and Scott and Emma coming up to check up on him and just be nosy. Also, it's not like they having anything better to do like say run Dystopia. A really weird thing happens when Emma realizes she's shut out of Magneto's mind: she gets a really unnecessarily angry face courtesy of Land.

Back at the fight scene between the X-Men and the predictably defeatable team we see some really idiotic crap. Like Psylocke being surprised that the invisible enemy also is invisible to her telepathy. Uh, Betsy, she's still got her gloves on, it's not that hard to figure out. And in a 'shocking' turn of events, Fantomex comes to save the day. I will be even MORE 'shocked' if he joins the X-Men (which was hinted at the end of this issue). Ugh, Fraction's attempt at making his wet dream of a team is really on my last nerve. Carey will you please replace him? Also during the fight scene and the entire issue really is awkward panels/dialogue:

The reason why I show these two panels is that they would have looked better this way or something like it. Instead the first one was at the bottom of the first page and the other one at the top of the second, causing a wtf pause in between. And awkward things like this run rampant throughout the issue.

Land definitely did not help the confusion, although he did laughably try to draw an outstretched hand. Which looked more like a nub with long sausages on it.

In the end, the predictably losing team loses. But not before Brain Child (or whoever the leader is) releases HX-N1, a new strand of influenza for mutants that sounds nothing like copying and pasting the swine flu story into X-terms! Someone deprive Fraction of the Internet please. Before he turns Dazzler into Lady DazDaz and the next big storyline is whether or not Diva has a peen or a vag.

In reaction to the virus being released, EVA goes into Squid Mode and swallows the X-Men in order to protect them. Yeah, I loved it for all the wrong reasons too. Anddd just in case you didn't think Fraction was trying to be Morrison already, apparently the source of the defeatable team and the disease is none other than John Sublime. Bets on when Cassie Nova's going to make a comeback? Logan's response was worse than the revelation actually:

Isn't that the case for half of the X-Villains?? Anyway, in the end it turns out the now perpetually weak Magneto, who you may recall as being severely weakened by the Predator attack (which Fraction seems to have forgot in his explanation on CBR's X-Position) is bringing Kitty back from the depths of space. Yeah, rather than bitch up a storm about how none of this makes sense, I'm just going to take the stoner way and accept it for what it is: A campy take on the X-Men.

Whatever, I hate Kitty, next issue is all about her comeback, andddd my conclusion is don't buy this issue.

Joe the Barbarian #2
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Sean Murphy
A big reason why I'm including this series is it just so happens to take place (well, when Joe's taken his insulin) in Portland, Maine which is about where I live and a place I enjoy greatly. Also because I love Morrison, the man could take a turn for the worst and start Claremont-ing it up and I would still have supreme respect for him for making Emma what she was in New X-Men.

But honestly, this series really isn't about Morrison. His writing is really more background. For this mini-series, the artist Sean Murphy is the star and rightly so because he is astonishingly talented. Also, do acquaint yourself with his Deviant Art blog. In there is probably one of the most dead-on posts I have ever read in the world and it includes this:

I’ve always struggled with drawing women because I refuse to draw the normal “big tits/small-waist/cookie-cutter” types that you see in some mainstream comics. And if I have to draw one, I’ll struggle to make it look more like an actual life drawing of a REAL female body rather than a rip-off of a million poorly drawn women in comics. I'm not always successful, to I feel like I do try. In my opinion, drawing cookie-cutter bodies of anatomically impossible proportions does three things:
1. It makes our industry look juvenile—like a bunch of giggly kids doodling big tits in our notebooks during 3rd period.
2. It’s an insult to the female reader. Which is probably one of many reasons why they usually don’t read mainstream books.
3. It makes the artist look like an uncreative dumb-fuck who doesn’t take pride in noticing how different female bodies types are. Usually because he doesn’t know or understand women (nor does he care to try). And he’ll usually get away with it because most of the women he meets are at cons where he doesn’t have to make any effort.

For this, I'm pretty sure Sean Murphy could draw Emma Frost as a complete man and I would forgive him. Seriously, one of the best comments ever, go read the rest of the post here.

Moving on, last issue was about setting things up, and it was appropriately priced at $1 since it was a bit slower paced. The series so far basically revolves around a diabetic boy who's hallucinating because he hasn't taken his insulin in awhile. I know I just made it sound lame, but there's more to it, the hallucinations make an interesting story about his toys and rat being under attack and what not.

Murphy's landscapes look amazing in this issue, the one featuring the toy town thing Jack was being held in looked very reminiscent of one of the towns in Midgar from Final Fantasy 7 and his grassy settings on the side of the mountain remind me quite a bit of Digimon World 1. Both things I played around Joe's age (assuming he's 12) so Murphy makes things age appropriate. Rather than anyone who's written Molly Hayes from Runaways since Vaughan who seems to think being five years old and thirteen are the same thing.

Basically the plot this issue is Joe rescuing his pet rat, Jack, and escaping from the villain team (deathcoats I think?) and Joe also having a vision from "Lord Arc" who looks like a sun, telling him he'd better not f#@$ it up or Lord Death will be on him. Like I said, the storie's really not so much the focus as Murphy's art is, and yes it is worth the buy.

Conclusion, go out and buy both issues 1 and 2 this instant. They only cost $3.99 together which is like what you've been paying for a subpar Marvel book these days, so get out some cash for two issues that would be worth pricing $2.99 each.

Oh and before I go, I have to make one last complaint, it concerns the Women of Marvel variants:

Exactly why did they have to use the mohawk Storm variant (my FAVORITE version of Storm) on something as forgettable and insignificant as Doomwar?

The List #23 part 1

Before I begin, I have to apologize for being a full week late with all these reviews, but I've been ill since last Tuesday and still am a little.

Dark Avengers #14
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Mike Deodato
Those of you who hate the Sentry with all your heart will probably be disappointed by this issue because yet again it is dominated by He-who-won't-die. Luckily there are some other developments this issue that are absolutely Bendis Awesome (which is a top-tier level of awesome). And Deodato continues to be top-f#@%ing-notch.

This issue opens with Victoria Hand confronting Osborn, demanding he get psychiatric help or she will leave. She also alerts him to Moonstone and Bullseye f@%$ing in the conference room. In front of H.A.M.M.E.R. agents.






Here's an awesome Bendis moment because anyone can claim a villain is crazy. People have claimed Emma Frost was crazy, but her 'crazy' was tame enough, she was still civilized and mostly obeying social norms when she wasn't being villainous. Moonstone and Bullseye are screwing in public. Thank you Bendis for showing rather than saying.

Also, Hand notes that Moonstone is working her way through the team. Do know that this isn't a new development, in Ellis' Thunderbolts Moonstone's ultimate plan was to run the Thunderbolts (and again, in there she had been Osborn's right hand). And I can only imagine what her plan will be in Luke Cage's Thunderbolts considering she's the only female team member and will likely be submitted to sexist crap.

Anyway, Hand decides to go break up the party. And when Moonstone gets in her face she pulls out a gun and zaps her. Pretty hxc of Hand.

But then everything is cut short by The Sentry. Who's tantruming, destroying New York as villains do. At least it's done by the Void this time, who is loads more entertaining and just a more likable character. And he's also aware of Osborn's manipulations. Apparently the Void wants to create a world where Robert Reynolds and Lindy can't live in, but can't actually kill Lindy himself. Osborn and him finally come to an agreement which later is specified to be Osborn ordering Bullseye to kill Lindy. Which is wonderful because I feel like Bullseye has lost a lot of his 'cool' factor that he had in Ellis' Thunderbolts. Conclusion: I'd seriously consider buying this issue unless you absolutely cannot stand The Sentry.

Spider-Woman #6
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Alex Maleev
This issue starts and ends with two awkward double spread pages. The first is awkward because a large part of the double spread is Spider-Woman's ass. Basically this issue is about Spider-Woman fighting off Osborn's new Thunderbolts. So yes, it's basically an extended fight scene, but it's not like a Fraction fight scene (with a beginning, a conclusion but no meat). It's actually probably one of the better issues of this series.

I have to say I found Maleev a little off this issue, especially when it came to when Jessica sent a venom blast that exploded near the Thunderbolts. It was just very static seeming and Black Widow in particular, who's in the center, looked more like she was just taking a lazy jump rather than trying to jump out of the way of an explosion. The rest of them generally just look similarly unphased by the explosion, static, or paralyzed.

Jessica ends up beating up half of them with her cleverness. And at one point she hides in a dumpster. Which I found to be the perfect opportunity to make what is hopefully the world's first LOLSpider-Woman.

In the end of the issue, Jessica just blows up the Thunderbolts' ship and calls it a day. And here's where the awkward ending double-spread comes in. It's just Jessica flying in the air with her fists out. No real transition to this. No panels on the page. Just her. Her fists. And a city background. Conclusion: Despite the awkward sandwich, I'd definitely recommend buying this issue.

Psylocke #4
Writer: Chris Yost
Artist: Harvey Tolibao
Welcome to the last issue review for Yost's angst-ridden Psylocke mini-series. Unfortunately we're ending off this series with Wolverine overexposure in the form of an 'epic' fight scene spanning most of the issue.

The issue begins with Wolverine and Psylocke exchanging the traditional "You don't have to do this, back away now!" and many other cliched comic book phrases. But Psylocke predictably does not back down, and her hair and sashes find themselves in agreement on this as they all take the poised form of the letter s!

Anyway, they fight and it's predictably not that dangerous because both of them are popular characters so no damage is going to stick to either of them. Psylocke ends up jamming the totality of her telekinesis/telepathy/Phoenix Force powers into Wolverine's noggin and causes him to release THE INNER BEAST!! OH NOES!!! Luckily, Rage Man (I honestly can't even remember his real name now) interrupts by throwing Logan out of the way. And he does this...naked. Don't remember why he's naked either:

Oh and he forgives Betsy now apparently and they cool. Which...I never saw coming! Yes! This is completely new to me! In order to end the fighting, Betsy pulls the ultimate angsty move of this series and decides to end the fight by offering to Logan to kill her. He refuses, but says they're going to talk about her death wish. Which makes her sounds a lot like Jessica Drew. Again, Psylocke is the X-Man's version of Spider-Woman.

In the end, Psylocke mercy kills Matsu'o. Then comes the best scene of this entire series:

I cannot believe she just told one of the students she killed someone. Seriously, Xavier's School for Child Abuse! Starts off with Colossus beating up half the student body, followed by a chunk of the team constantly covered in blood, and ending with even the sane-ish mentor figures going around being like, "I killed a man today, do your fucking homework or you'll be the next!" I'm just waiting for the day that Emma comes out of the bathroom, just glances down at Trance and is like, "I just did three lines of blow in the bathroom. Know where I can score some hallucinogenic Pixie dust?"

Conclusion: This issue is mostly mediocre and honestly, most of the series isn't all that amazing. But I would recommend buying issue one to all Psylocke fans.

New Mutants #10 Review + News

Writer: Zeb Wells
Artist for Japan scenes: Paul Davidson
Artist for Utopia scenes: David Lopez and Alvaro Lopez
Before I begin, what the hell is with all the Deadpool variants this month? I'm sorry, but is a comedy-driven character really meant to have this much exposure? Seriously, a lot of what I've read of him is just cheap humor. Quality over quantity, people. But what Deadpool says is interesting enough because indeed Scott does have his hand over Emma's piece. Which is sort of symbolic considering how much he's been silencing her lately due to her pesky logical suggestions.

This issue begins with Sauron and the other Savage Land mutates attacking a ship in Japan in order to go to Utopia because they think Magneto is in control of Utopia. New Mutants go in to diffuse the situation which means time for an action scene! Something interesting about the Savage Land Mutates though:

They have Conan the Barbarian on their team?

Anway, Wells has some pretty good moments with Dani being a badass and Sunspot's humor this issue. For instance, Dani turning the X-Jet too harshly at one point, causing Sam to fall out, and when Karma tells her of this she's just responds oh whatev, he can fly. I also enjoyed how Sunspot referred to Cypher and Warlock:

Back on Utopia, Scott and Emma are watching how the New Mutants take care of the situation. Emma badgers Scott asking what he's up to and she ends up having to figure it out on her own:

Indeed, Scott is looking for a leader amongst the New Mutants and apparently he's not focusing in on Sam as one would assume. Which thrills me, even the idea of Cyclops not running the X-Men anymore just makes me salivate. Also, the art for the Utopia scenes is done by two artists. Which is a joke. A significant amount of the panels were Emma or Scott with a blue background. It's worse than when Land does it because it's just a fucking shade of blue. The only positive to this art was that Emma's costume was put back into pre-Bianchi edit besides the X in the center of her cleavage and the bodice is split down the middle. Also, something Cyclops mentioned this issue definitely caught my eye--->

Yeah, because it fucking happens so often. Kate Pryde, Rachel Summers/Grey, Cable, Bishop, Layla Miller, and now this version of Magik. It's been the focus of the past two years with the Messiah Complex and X-Factor and Cable have barely left any of that crap yet. Someone coming from the future to tell the present that it's doomed is as overused as possession on Charmed. Or actually, the same idea fits for Charmed too.

Back in Japan, it turns out Worm is controlling most of the other mutates, and now half the New Mutants, in order to drag them all to Utopia. Dani and Karma take him on with Karma shining by entering Worm's mind to correct him. Essentially the gal's saved the day which I always enjoy. In the end, Worm and the mutates just go back to the Savage Land because they're too dangerous for Utopia and Japan's like, "Whatever, I'm getting cheese fries."

Conclusion: Wells is strong yet again, but the artists sort of fail the story this time around. Davidson was sort of a flop with the battle scenes, but otherwise enjoyable. And the Lopez's were very middle school comic book making. Buy it if you've bought the other issues.

Oh and also, I've got some news:

• Strap on your roller skates and get out your Lady Gaga face paint, this May Diva Dazzler is getting her own one shot and I will definitely be covering this campy event. Source: [CBR].
  

• Apparently Emma was in last week's Wolverine Weapon X #10 where she acted exactly like she always should: Creepy, cold, and kind of psychotic. Find the scans here and here.

• In this week's X-Position with the editors, my favorite question was this: "How do you guys see Cyclops, Xavier, and Magneto right now? Many people feel like Xavier and Magneto have regressed from "X-Men: Legacy" to their appearances in "Uncanny X-Men" and that they're acting "out of character."" It received a bullshit answer, but I love open criticism of Fraction's crap writing. There was also an X-Men Origins: Emma Frost one-shot mentioned which irritates me because the idea of Fraction writing it just boils my blood.

• Along with many other spoiler-full teasers, we got the announcement of Luke Cage leading the new Thunderbolts, which has a roster that includes my beloved Moonstone. Guess that's yet another person we know is not dying in Siege. Which is almost a good spoiler considering I'm still mourning Ares. [Newsarama]

• And that's all for this week, next week I'm going over Dark Avengers #14, Psylocke #4 (the conclusion issue!), Spider-Woman #6, and Uncanny X-Men #521.
  

The List #22

X-Factor #201
Writer: Peter David
Artist: Bing Cansino
Before I begin, my apologies for taking so long to make this post; it's been a shit week. This post is not going to be a lengthy one because I didn't find much to comment on this time around, my notes on Works didn't exceed a page which doesn't happen when I've got four books to discuss. Also, there will be no post for the Wednesday that just passed's comics since I don't read any of them.

This month's X-Factor just went to further proving that the Fantastic Four are a horrible team. The Thing doing his manly, unnecessary aggression really just did nothing but irritate me. I mean it's great that X-Factor still has action because sometimes it's too focused on the drama, but when it's totally unnecessary it's just... flat and irritating.

But some good news is Peter David is finally using his characters more evenly without having to have a double issue to make it work. Monet is getting a sub-story which I think works because she's a wonderful character and this story looks like it has nothing to do with Jamie.

Back at the main story it's all FF and The Thing is an add-on to the X-Factor team for the moment and he has THIS to say when they conclude that Doctor Doom probably has something to do with the Invisible Woman's disappearance:

Seriously, how is FF selling if this is their mentality??
Like how fucking dumb do you have to be to consider Doom giving up on you for a second?

Maybe David is just critiquing the FF like he did Utopia last month. I would love it if critiquing Marvel's teams became his ''thing' because he's just the guy to do it. And if that's the case I'm %100 behind him.

Overall: This arc just proves that the FF are a boring team that should just stick to one book. In obscurity. Written by Chris Claremont. But aside from that, this arc is really just forgettable and it falls into the between the ok and good area that I find David ends up in a lot.

X-Force #23
Writer: Craig Kyle and Chris Yost
Artist: Clayton Crain
This issue someone finally fucking dies. Unfortunately, it's characters of no consequence. Here's the death list, which means spoilers in case you're dense: Diamond Lil, maybe Leech?, and Onyxx. Onyxx just being cleanup by Yost and Kyle because he's redundant with Santo around. Why he was ever one of the remaining students always boggled my mind.

In other death news, MASSIVE SPOILER: Apparently She-Hulk and Ares died this week. What. The. Fuck. Two characters I enjoy greatly! Ares being killed by The Sentry which makes no sense because Ares could have a future after DA and without Bendis. The Sentry, not so much, his death is pretty much in high demand. And She-Hulk was killed by Red She-Hulk. Which is vicious disrespect.

This issue is pretty much the same amount of mediocrity and lack of progression that we've come to expect from this crossover. The end of the issue, they decide to invade Genosha to go destory Selene. They actuall had to come to that conclusion. At least Emma was the one to say Kill Selene considering she's been such a pansy in her emotionless diamond form. It seems writers believe her coldness is paper thin and can be ripped away so easily to make the plot seem that much more severe by having her, 'the heartless bitch', getting upset.

Overall, mediocre issue, only buy if you're collecting the crossover. OR if you happen to be a fan of Crain because he's had a couple spectacular moments during this issue and just seems to be on task at making things seem scary.

Gotham City Sirens #8
Plot and Art: Guillem March
Dialogue: Marc Andreyko
This issue revolves around my favorite Gotham Girl, Ivy, and luckily it's done right. But before we get to that, can someone tell me why she's drawn to look like a total tranny on the cover?

Also, I have to say something that occurred to me recently: Don't the Gotham Girls come off as that typical trio of sisters deal? Ivy, the serious older sister, Catwoman, the awkward middle sister, and Harley, the carefree younger sister. Or in Charmed terms, Ivy is Prue, Catwoman is Piper, and Harley is Phoebe.

Anyway, the issue is concerned with a copycat mimicking Ivy and her trying to get to the bottom of it, almost dying, and taking care of the situation. There's also flashbacks and I have to say I enjoy Ivy in Arkham because it better emphasizes her unique nature (but not in the Widening Gyre because I'm hate her being treated like some slut). And pre-Harley Quinn, Harleen the Shrink definitely interests me.

I also happened to love these panels--> Ivy presented as a 'weird' figure is always a joy especially considering the alternative is slutty Ivy.

An interesting discovery we found out this issue was that apparently Ivy can be revived from two weeks of starvation of sunlight, water, and nutrients by just throwing her in water. And it's not like she's pretty when she comes out of this starvation.

The issue concludes with Ivy finding her copycat, some guy who used to work at Arkham and she let's us in on her thoughts of love, men, and how she views herself:

I adore that she has no interest in love and just views it as a burden. Because otherwise she'd be paired up with the DC's version of Cyclops and subsequently defanged. Not only that, but a woman that's unconcerned with her love life is always refreshing considering how it's too often portrayed as the center of their universe. Also, she's sort of sexist and I'm all over it.

Conclusion: Wonderful Ivy issue, done-in-one story that's just a good read, so go out and buy it.

X-Men Legacy #232
Writer: Mike Carey
Artist: Clay Mann
Before I begin reviewing the issue, I have to let you all know I did my homework and got to the bottom of a very serious need-to-know issue. The results are that, yes, the easy access hole in Colossus' costume is part of Bianchi's original designs.

This issue begins with seeing the results of the battle that ensued after Blindfold was possessed by Proteus. The remaining team included a weakened Magneto, Husk, Rogue, Trance, and Psylocke, so it was all very Girl Power. And good news for Psylocke lovers, she ended up functioning as she always should: as the second-in-command and they eyes and ears of the team. She definitely got a big spotlight this issue and I'm glad to see Carey take an interest in her. And Magneto proved he's too old for this shit and a really useless addition to the team. Until he's evil again, of course. Then he'll find himself totally rejuvenated for no real reason except that he just went from good to bad.

Concerning Proteus, I have to say that after 8 seasons of Charmed and 7 of Buffy, possession is an overused plot thing and should be used sparingly because the story's usually the same.

After the first 8 pages of showing the results of the fight, we get to see the flashback to the fight with possessed Blindfold. Something did catch my eye, yet again the character involved is Colossus. Seriously, look at this panel with no context in mind. What is this guy's deal?? Did he sign on for teaching duties in the hopes that he could slam a few kids whenever they'd get out of line? Colossus is most definitely the headmaster of Xavier's School of Child Abuse. He just lives for the days when he has to punch out a few kids. Or even Jean when she's possessed.

Conclusion: Despite Proteus being a horrible villain in the most boring way possible, the issue was pretty good and I would definitely recommend buying this, the best part of the Necrosha crossover.