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I am going on vacation this week and I thought I was going to be able to write up my review on Loose Cannon before I leave for Savannah Wednesday morning. Life works in crazy ways and I was sandwiched between two Vacations. So, I wasn’t able to write my review. I wasn’t sick or anything but I was just too busy to write about Loose Cannon #1. That said I have come down to three options for what to do about this week’s XTREME Holofoil Edition.
First option was to not run anything and just move things around some. I didn’t want to do this because I hate not running anything. Second option was to do another revisit of a comic covered in The Field Guide to The Comic Book Bargain Bin. This is my usual option whenever I know I won’t be able to get a review out on time. Decided not do to this because I want to save those for sick weeks. Third option is to do a set of commentary on the past XTREME Holofoil Editions, offer a proper introduction, and field some questions from readers. This is what I’ve decided to do.
I’ve been planning on doing a formal introduction to XTREME Holofoil Edition for some time. Considering I’ve been writing them for 3 months, going on 4, I think it’s overdue. Stuff like the background to XHE, the process that goes into an XHE, and the basic rules I follow.
The commentary was something I came up with recently. When I write an XHE, I leave some thoughts out in favor of helping the flow of the review. Then there are the moments when after I posted the review I re-read the comic and have had more to add. The commentaries will allow to me to explain the reviews in greater detail.
The questions are just something that allows me to bring the readers into the reviews more often. I want reader input and enjoy aswering any random questions. So feel free to post a question in the comments. I have a few lined up, but more would be great.
That’s all I have to say today, I’ll have the article up Thursday on the Revolution. As for Loose Cannon #1, the review will go up on the first Thursday of July.
Here it is folks, the finale of Heroes Reborn Month. Is Iron Man #1 another Captain America #1 or something more? Find out by clicking through and reading the review.
Edit: The link now works.
With Heroes Reborn Month wrapping up next week with Iron Man #1, it’s time for me to post the XHE schedule of June 2011. There is no real theme this month other than all the titles are DC. So read the solicits after the jump
One of the single worst comics in the history of comics has been reviewed for XTREME Holofoil Edition. You can read it over at the Comic Book Revolution.
Click to go on to the review
I take a look at Jim Lee’s take on Fantastic Four here at the Revolution:
Click to go on to the review
Fear Itself vs Flashpoint, the Summer Event Debate
With two issues of Fear Itself and the first issue of Flashpoint released, I’m now able to compared the two events to each other. Now you might be saying that I comparing things too soon. Well to me, the first issue or so of a mini-series sets up the direction that the series will be on and we can tell what the mini-series will be like.
At this point, Fear Itself is remaining rather ambiguous. Outside of a few spoilers ran by Bleeding Cool and other sites, not much is known about Fear Itself and its direction. We only know Steve Rogers will assume the mantle of Captain America, again, and the Asgardians will be likely doing battle. Marvel has done a surprisingly good job on keeping their mouths shut and leaving the direction of the mini up in the air. Even after the first two issues, I am left wondering where they are going with this and how it will all be done. This uncertainty attracts me to the story. After every issue I am finding myself wanting to read the next. The comic satisfies my desire to read something different from the Big Two.
Fear Itself feels very fresh, but it is not without its flaws. It is a decompressed event (though not as bad as other Marvel Events) and it is possible that by the end of the seven-issue run that the actual amount of story might not warrant the full seven issues. This is troublesome. I hate when Marvel overextends their event comics, but depending on issue three the comic is moving at a decent pace in getting exposition out and finishing the set ups. The fluff of issue two was necessary fluff and couldn’t fully fit into the tie-ins because even if they did, everyone would be complaining about the lack of the explanation behind who was chosen. I am also wary of Fear Itself because of Matt Fraction and how poorly he handled his last “event”: Utopia. Utopia started strong, but fell apart by the end of the seven issue crossover.
Still remains that Fear Itself is more original than your average event fare and that’s what I am looking for in comics at this time.
I wish I could say the same for Flashpoint. Don’t get me wrong, Flashpoint #1 is excellent. It is well done and beautiful to look at. The slight changes in continuity were brilliant and in this issue a lot is set up. It moves fast and has a twist early on in the event. With that said though, I feel Flashpoint is unoriginal. If you ever read a single Altered Universe story (Age of Apocalypse and House of M being the biggest of them all. Maybe The Nail.) you will find Flashpoint following the paint by the numbers formula. I am not certain what Altered Universe story it follows the closest as it is too early to tell what the tone will be, but it has certain tropes.
The tropes:
1) A main character is out of time and knows something is wrong (Bishop in AoA, Wolverine in HoM, and Barry Allen in Flashpoint).
2) The man seeks a team to fix what’s wrong with the universe (Wolverine and Layla Miller in HoM, Barry Allen and Batman in Flashpoint).
3) There is a great War/Overlord and a resistance is forming to fight it all (Everyone not a part of Apocalypse’s system in AoA, Everyone that’s not in Europe sans Batman in Flashpoint).
4) There’s something wrong with Europe (AoA and Flashpoint both have screwed up Europes).
5) The biggest one a jerk character changed the universe (Legion in AoA, Quicksilver’s influence over Wanda in HoM, and possibly Zoom in Flashpoint)
While predictable, Flashpoint is still a great read, do not think I am hating on it. Now, Geoff Johns is known for his twists in events this means things are likely to not be fully predictable. It comes down tp this though, if I know where the book is going and where all the beats are likely going to be, it hurts my desire to read the event. I usually don’t mind knowing where an event is likely to end up. I am often about the journey and not destination but when it comes to Flashpoint: I know the destination, the journey, the rest stops, and the tourist traps in between. I just feel like I’ve been down this road before.
The great debate between Fear Itself and Flashpoint, for me, is originality but with some weakness or strong but predictable. I am a large supporter of anything new and that’s where Fear Itself has me hooked. It’s new, it might have some form of a lasting effect on the characters, and it leaves me guessing. Flashpoint is a lot stronger in terms of writing, but the predictable content leaves me disinterested in the story. The tie-ins are far more interesting than the main Flashpoint series. The European war just strikes me as a more compelling story than Barry and Batman go fight crime.
I will give both events more time develop which will allow me to form a fair opinion on them, but as of now, Fear Itself has my attention. I have to say that if I only had money to purchase only one event, I would pick Fear Itself.
The main purpose behind this blog is to state that for the time being XHE will be posting on Thursdays for the rest of the summer to accommodate for the larger reviews that I’ve been doing. I know it might not make any sense on how this would give more time, but you got to understand the scheduling I do. I start writing and reading on Thursdays and post on Wednesdays. I will be giving myself an extra day to get stuff together. Expect Heroes Reborn Fantastic Four #1 to go up Thursday sometime.
In other news, still hammering out a schedule for June. I am trying to get some Archie Adventures/Red Circle/Impact comics but having difficulty finding them. I can say that I will be doing at least one Green Lantern review for XHE for the week that the movie comes out. Same goes for Captain America for July. I will be putting together a Final Schedule either this week or next as I need to know in order to buffer up for Vacations. I am also hammering out an exact time to unveil my next big themed event (Like Heroes Reborn month). It will deal with the Image Founders, but not sure on what date to start them. What I have planned right now is a massive undertaking and one I have no clue if I could even manage such a feat.
Still looking for a name for a letters column, which I think would be a nice add on to the reviews at the end.
In other news I am going to continue to redesign the website: Fix the categories, tags, etc. I will be doing a set of quickie reviews for the Free Comic book day books I got starting, most likely, next week. 15 books to cover and that’s a lot of content to edit. I am also planning to do some proper reviews for Fear Itself (which I am enjoying more than I should) and other titles that have been covered by the Revolution already. There are plans to do something related to the massive stack of unread comics from last summer/fall/winter. It might be a video recap or something. Should be interesting.
Going to try to do more videos this summer and will be working on some secret projects.
Like always, Thanks for reading.
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Heroes Reborn month is finally here! I will be tackling the #1 issue from each of the four Heroes Reborn titles. You can read the first one right now over at The Comic Book Revolution.
In place of my usual text preview here is a preview of the art and that alone should speak about the comic
and
There’s more where that came from in the full review
You can read the review here:
