Marvel says:

KICK ASS 2 Is Back!

Get your first look at Kick Ass 2 #3, right here from the chart topping creative team of Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.! This time, the beatings won’t slow down, as Kick Ass 2 resumes a regular printing schedule of every six weeks, right until the final issue! Escalation is the name of the game, as feeble high-school geek Dave Lizewski embraces his role as a real-life, ass-kicking superhero! But wait, it gets crazier as he joins Justice Forever! But what’s the price for having an entourage of costumed nut jobs? Dave’s nemesis The Red Mist has the answers, along with a few other bloody surprises, this August in Kick Ass 2 #3!

“I couldn’t be more excited that the scheduling problems have all been taken care off because this is most I’ve enjoyed working in the medium since I started” said Millar. “I’m thrilled that fans have kept on supporting the book, our sales have been incredible, and everyone has been appreciated. I can’t tell you how amazing it feels to feels to know this is out every six weeks like clockwork now! The ride only gets wilder from here!”

And THAT’S NOT ALL! Reserve your hospital bed because the first two heart-stopping issues of Kick Ass 2 are bludgeoning their way back to comic shop shelves everywhere! With the Kick Ass 2 #1 going to an unprecedented FIFTH printing, and Kick Ass 2 #2 bloodying up the competition with a second printing, this book is unstoppable! Catch up on the action with Kick Ass 2 #1 Fifth Printing Variant & Kick Ass 2 #2 Second Printing Variant, and prepare yourself for the latest and craziest issue of Kick Ass yet!

What gut-wrenching scheme is The Red Mist forming and can Justice Forever put an end to it? And where the heck is Hit-Girl? Find out this August!

KICK ASS 2 #3 (of 7)
Written by MARK MILLAR
Art and Cover by JOHN ROMITA JR.
ON SALE—24/08/11

Ultimate Avengers vs. New Ultimates #6

After one wild ride it seems a shame to end my coverage of the Death of Spider-Man on a low point. But here it is all the same. After much confusion the Ultimate Avengers and New Ultimates finally team up to take on Gregory Stark and save the world but what should be a bombastic climax completely underwhelms.

I can best compare this series to the bus from Speed. While racing along it can deliver all the thrills and laughs the audience want but if the pace slows down for whatever reason, the weaknesses of the writing becomes so obvious that the whole thing blows up. Or in this case just looks stupid. So once again the attempts to pull drama from characters that haven’t been fleshed out enough, such as the new Black Widow, fall limp. What seemed like an amoral satire tries to grow a conscience at the last minute. I understand that it needed to get in line with the other Ultimate titles in time for the reboot but the way it happens here feels too forced. I wish I didn’t have to resort to clichés but I can’t help that ‘too little, too late’ sums up this issue perfectly.

Bring us the next Superior. Bring us the next Kick-Ass 2. We need to be reminded that Mark Millar is a writer who can push boundaries and still take the time to develop his characters and stories. Otherwise I’ll go and pull out my back issues of Superman: Red Son.

Joe Read.

This series has been the definition of hit-and-miss for me. But I’m happy to write that this issue is a fantastic return to form…because it’s absolutely ridiculous. It’s downright ludicrous and that has to mean something when you read comics about men dressed as bats or silver surfers from space on a weekly basis.

I know I can’t judge this as a normal comic book anymore. I can’t relate to any of the characters or sympathize with their problems or feel that strongly about the ‘issues’ that this storyline is dealing with. When it really flies it’s an action packed satirical cartoon, cracking jokes and skulls with equal aplomb. My problem is that Mark Millar’s first two volumes of the Ultimates did this with heart and brains that made the reader care a little more when the fists weren’t flying. Was it Bryan Hitch’s epic artwork? Was it the 13-issue format that took time to develop characters and story? It’s a mystery.

Now that the secret villain of the series has been laid bare the fights come thick and fast and they are loaded with some startling surprises. Hulk pills! Korean Spiderman! Ultimate Ultimate Team-Up! I was grinning from ear to ear reading this wondering how it could any more absurd. I just hope that the conclusion is big and noisy enough to distract me from its shortcomings.

Joe Read.

Ultimate Avengers vs. New Ultimates #4

Let me make it clear: I do not enjoy writing bad reviews. This site is dedicated to good comic books and if we can’t find anything nice to say, we won’t say anything at all. However I have committed to covering the Death of Spiderman and I mean to stick it out until the bitter end.

So previously the Ultimate Avengers were having a big fight with the New Ultimates when Spiderman jumped out of nowhere and took a bullet for Captain America. The timing of that moment was brilliant and the possibilities for where the story could go were numerous and tantalizing. That is why I had to read this installment twice in a row and then pinch myself, because that potential has been completely squandered.

The real-time technique that’s being used to dramatic effect in Ultimate Spiderman right now is abandoned half way through this issue and makes the tie-in of these two titles seem pointless. Something like this might not even matter if the heroes weren’t even more unlikeable than usual. A badly wounded Spidey disappears in the middle of the fighting and none of the Ultimates seem to care? No, they’re all sitting around back at Tony Stark’s penthouse (cue Seinfeld theme) and he barely gets a mention.

By the end its clear that Mark Millar is once again going through the motions. The reveal of the villain in the last few pages felt too familiar to be surprising and any impact intended for the shocking last minute ‘death’ is spoilt if you’re able to turn the page and see the cover for the next issue.

The best thing I can say is that this chapter reveals how everyone’s favorite wall-crawler gets from Ultimate Spiderman #157 to #158. Otherwise I recommend that you skip it and read them instead.

Joe Read.

Ultimate Avengers vs. New Ultimates #3

The injection of humour in this chapter makes it a big improvement on the last. Millar’s ‘Balls to the Wall’ style works best when satirizing the kind of Michael Bay blockbusters it appears to imitate. If he forgets to put that tongue in cheek then we get what happened in issue 2. The ridiculously rapid pace of the action here completely disregards any cloak and dagger subtlety that could be explored in the mystery of who the traitor is. However rather than being a hindrance this element helps drive the story towards a brilliant twist, which I will not spoil here.

My gripes with this one are not huge. The jokes about Tony Stark’s alcoholism had worn thin after the first six issues of the Ultimates but Millar insists on flogging that dead horse. It’s a shame to see it after writers like Warren Ellis have proven the character can be developed in interesting ways and not just sidelined for comic relief. While we’re on the subject, why does the Iron Man armour now look just like it does in the movies? It should be the other way around! Then again how can I expect common sense in a comic where Captain Britain and the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. are gushing over David Cameron?

For more on the shocking ending of this issue, stay tuned for my review of Ultimate Spiderman #157, coming soon!

Joe Read.

I have always had a huge fondness for the Ultimate Spiderman series. The idea of taking the character back to his roots as a teenager made him the best possible candidate for a ‘reboot’ and Brian Michael Bendis has done great things with it. His writing has remained funny and fresh for over one hundred issues. In that time he has found new and exciting approaches to old characters and storylines while maintaining snappy banter and believable drama. He even withstood the onslaught of the infamous ULTIMATUM (The convenient ‘event’ that killed off half of the Ultimate universe) and guess what? He used it to make the series even better!

So why on earth did this issue disappoint me so much? It isn’t that the issue is poorly written or drawn. It’s more that after such a sustained run of greatness Bendis turns in such a tired, average chapter. The problem I have with it is the Zodiac key. It’s basically a magic artifact that grants wishes. Objects like this have been seen a million times in comic books and for that reason I found it hard to take most of the issue seriously. Now I’m willing to go along with mostly any far-fetched concept you can imagine providing someone makes an effort with it. However Bendis expects the reader to automatically accept the mysterious power of the key because we know it’s from Egypt and the villain wants it. I’m not sure if I can call it a deus ex machina because I have no idea how big a part it will play in The Death of Spiderman. All I do know is that it looks and sounds like a lazy idea from a Tomb Raider film.

But the issue wasn’t entirely about the prop. I love that Spiderman has been made to undergo super hero training because he’s been considered a public hazard. It’s a clever development for a character of that age to be put through and the insecurity he exhibits with Iron Man here is very convincing. The artwork is light when it needs to be but helps to create an appropriately ominous atmosphere for the coming storyline.

I really hope that Bendis has some tricks up his sleeve and he’s saving them for when The Death of Spiderman takes off. I accept that this is a prelude and only providing a setup for events so I’m holding back my judgment for now.

Joe Read.

Will it be bigger than Jesus? Falling victim to the hype, I have elected myself to cover this event in all its glory. I will be purchasing every issue on the checklist and delivering my humble opinion on them.

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Ultimate Avengers Vs New Ultimates #1

And the award for Most Misleading Comic Book Cover of 2011 goes to… This issue stands as further proof of the other Joe’s theory. If you see it on the cover, you won’t see it in the comic. That means no Ultimate Avengers, no gunfights and absolutely no mention of Spider-Man. Fortunately this does nothing to ruin the story itself. The first chapter delivers in an entirely different way than I was expecting and was all the more enjoyable for it.

As an opening issue, it feels tonally different to the previous volumes of Ultimate Avengers that dove head first into the action. This one slows its pace enough to build a solid foundation for that action. We see characters still dealing with the events of the last volume, which allows for some quiet (if slightly clichéd) moments of vulnerability. I was also pleased to see a return to the subject of the superhuman arms race that fueled Millar’s initial run on The Ultimates. The reveal on the last page was far from surprising considering the amount of betrayal we’ve seen in the series so far but it did set up the next issue nicely. I’m genuinely intrigued as to what effect this coming conflict will have on the Ultimate community. You have my attention Mr. Millar.

Joe Read.

This does not seem the case with his latest effort, Superior. In essence it’s Big meets Shazam. However Millar has run with this and what we get is a genuinely moving tale of a boy turned superhero. The dedication Simon shows to this new calling after the first disaster is great. Millar really conveys the innocent joy of a character using their full potential.

I also love how Simon seems to favor his super strength over his many other powers and uses it for every emergency. It reminded me of Superman Returns, where we saw the Man of Steel solve nearly all of his problems with lifting. Except in that film Superman wasn’t a child, he was Jesus. But I digress…

Prude that I am, my only complaint with this comic is that Leinil Yu (on solid form as always) feels the need to fit in some overtly sexual images. It seemed a little inappropriate for this kind of story and didn’t suit the tone. Did he feel that the script was too clean and a Mark Millar story like this deserved spicing up?

This aside, Millar appears to be investing a level of maturity and restraint here that was missing from comics like Nemesis or Kick-Ass. Will this one prove to be their…Superior? You’re right, that was lame.

Joe Read.

Well, all that looks ready to change. Mark Millar has announced his own London comic convention, it’s called KAPOW! and it looks ace. It’s on the 9th and 10th of April 2011, and I’ve already got a ticket.

In this video, Millar will tell you everyone who’ll be there, including Frank Quitely, Dave Gibbons and Frankie Boyle. He seems genuinely excited about it, which is nice…

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