Marvel Comics Presents #16

The American heartland set Colossus saga comes to an end. Thankfully.

The Black Panther saga gets interesting with the edition of a South African miner named Zanti Chikane. Zanti is reluctant to help an injured T'Challa due to the repercussions of harboring a fugitive from the South African government. But he also knows that to do nothing, an good man could die. A good man who happens to also be an Avenger.

We then travel to Australia where the X-Men are in hiding with the world thinking they're all dead. While most of the team is ready to go out for a night of fun, the mutant Longshot is hoping to practice some meditation techniques his learned from the local Aborigines. Only this trip through the dreamscape will have terrifying consequences for Longshot. Life and death consequences.

Lastly, tour the savage land with Ka-Zar and his loyal sabretooth tiger, Zabu. It's probably the weakest story of the bunch. It literally was a forgettable tale.

A Marvelite's passport that just doesn't thrill at every tour stop.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Marvel Comics Presents #15

The Colossus saga 'God's Country' comes is just about to come to an end. This is a story that I've read several times. And it's like a roller coaster. First time I read it, I hated it. Time #2 was great. This go round, it was just meh...

The Black Panther story seems to be dragging on. This is only chapter 3 of a 25-parter! It's gonna be a long trip in South Africa is things don't pick up soon.

Jean Grey, The Morlocks and the Native American hero Red Wolf star in the other two stories in this issue. Both are forgettable. Meh, again...

Rating: 5 out of 10 stars.

Marvel Comics Presents #14

Darn You Marvel Comics! You broke my #1 rule! YOU KILLED THE DOG!

In the first chapter of Panther's Quest, a random pooch saved Black Panther from attacking mercenaries. In round #2, those same mercs killed the doggie and for a Comics Code authorized issue, the death was rather gruesome.

Thankfully, the Steve Ditko crafted Speedball one-shot and the Fabian Nicieza penned Nomad short were light-hearted and enjoyable. As with the next-to-last chapter of the Colossus story, it was about as good as I remembered it. 

So once again 3 out of 4 ain't so bad. Just try to be a little more PETA friendly Marvel!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Marvel Comics Presents #13

This issue signifies the beginning of a 25-part epic starring Black Panther. 25 issues! That means that this story won't end until issue #38! 

Holy Cow! Most stories have been 6 or 7 parts in length. Yeah, that Man-Thing story was 12 parts long. But if you were composing a plot point graph, this story would surely be your outlier!

In the aptly titled 'Panther's Quest', T'Challa violates about a dozen UN treaties as he illegally enters South Africa. Only the King of Wakanda isn't in the nation to end apartheid. He's in town to investigate claims that his mother might still be alive and held captive in one of the countries' capital cities of Cape Town. If T'Challa can stay under the radar, this should be an easy mission. However, there's 24 more parts to this story. So of course, nothing is going to go easy on the Avenger.

Along side the Black Panther story, there's a fun one-shot starring Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman. This adventure takes place during a time when the Richards have decided to go on sabbatical from the Fantastic Four. Living under aliases, the two heroes hope to raise their children in suburbia away from the likes of the Big Apple and the threats of Doctor Doom and The Mad Thinker. 

Feeling a little bored, Reed decides to work on the gutters of his new house. Things are going great. That is until the ladder falls, stranding him! With neighbors all around, Reed can't risk  using his powers; lest the Richards peaceful time in the outskirts will be over quick. 

You won't believe how Mr. Fantastic gets out of this pickle. And he sure as heck won't be living it down any time soon!

A great pair of stories. The latest chapter of Colossus' 'God's Country' was good. But the mom in the story seems to be having some sort of breakdown or something due to her past and it's just not being properly explored. The Shanna The She Devil one-and-done was forgettable. I keep getting her confused with Sheena... and Nyoka the Jungle Girl and countless other deepest darkest African queens of the jungle.

3 out of 4 ain't bad.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Marvel Comics Presents #12

The Man-Thing story ends in gory fashion. 11 chapters with a total of maybe 11 images of the Man-Thing is culminated in 8 pages of Man-Thing rampage. Ironically, this was the worst chapter of the entire storyline. 

With the Colossus story- Peter Rasputin learns that he's got an ally in the group that wants to kill him and a small Midwestern family. 

The two stand alone stories star Hercules and Namorita. Once again, the son of Zeus finds himself being tested by Big Daddy. As for the cousin of Prince Namor, she's about to return to visit her people when she's drawn into a dispute between the police and a villain whom might not be as villainous as they seem.

A pretty weak offering. But that retro-looking cover by Ron Franz (The Amazing Spider-Man) and Joe Sinnott (Apache Kid) was fantastic!

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

Marvel Comics Presents #11

Colossus takes over the temporary starring role of this title which pits the X-Man with an American family who accidentally saw the wrong thing at the wrong time. It will take more than the mutant's metal skin and incalculable strength to prevent a Midwestern version of The Punisher from occurring.

In the one-and-done segments of this title, we get a fun story starring the Scott Lang Ant-Man and a gritty story starring one of the Wolfpack, Slag. The Scott Lang story was beautifully illustrated by Iron Man's Bob Layton. It has Lang shrinking down to retrieve a family heirloom that daughter Cassie dropped down the bathroom drain. You never knew the sewers were so dangerous! And I wished this fun tale wouldn't have ended.

As for Slag- I'm not really familiar with him. I've got a few Wolfpack issues. But since I don't have the complete mini, I've not read it yet. Can't really say that what I read has made me go out and find those missing chapters compared to other recent readings of things. 

Then we've got that Man-Thing story that doesn't have the Man-Thing in it. Well, it's chapter 11 (out of 12) and Man-Thing finally shows up for more than one or two panels. Things get really odd and while a little bit of the Drugs-Devil Worship-Iran Contra connection isn't clear; it still makes for a great read. 

Overall 3 out of 4 stories were really well done. #4 was forgettable. Literally. Still, this was an enjoyable read!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Marvel Comics Presents #10

I love the Fastball Special coming my way from Mike Harris (Marvel Team-Up). It signifies the end of the Wolverine/Tyger Tiger epic, which ran about 2 chapters too long and the beginning of Colossus' solo epic, 'God's Country"; a story that I've reread at least twice so far and I like it more each time.

The Man-Thing story that isn't a Man-Thing story is hitting the home stretch and it's getting weird. Good weird. 

Then we've got a one-and-done starring Machine Man. According to the title, M.M. will meet the F.F. Only it's not the Fantastic Four. Nor is it the the First Family of Marvel's rotating line-up of arch foes, The Fearsome Four. No, this is a bunch of odd balls called the Failure Five. If it wasn't for the fact that the creative team behind this story consists of greats Steve Ditko and Dave Cockrum, it would have sucked major rocks. 

An uneven issue. But when you've got 4 chapters of 4 different stories going into completely off-the-wall directions, I guess this is the best you can ask for. 

Rating: 5 out of 10 stars.

Deadpool (2016 Film)

 Wade Wilson is a mercenary with a heart, that's trying to do some good in the world while making a little dough. He's got a super hot girlfriend and he just earned enough tickets to win that Voltron Defender ring he's been wanting for so long. Things are just starting to look up for the guy when he's diagnosed with really, really bad cancer.

    Hoping to spare his girl with the effects of the disease, Wade accepts an offer to enter a program that will cure his cancer along with blessing him with super powers and finally become the hero he's always dreamed of being. But he's actually being trapped into a medical program that seeks to turn him into the ultimate killing machine through enslavement, torture, and disfigurement. 

   When his lab jail is destroyed, Wade Wilson dies and the merc with a mouth, Deadpool arises like a phoenix from the ashes. Now cancer-free, nearly immortal, and just as indestructible,  the assassin seeks to find the man who turned him into a real-life Frankenstein- first to restore his 'good looks' and then kick his ass. But when the villain kidnaps his former girlfriend, Mrs. Wilson's baby boy is going to have to call in the big guns of X-Man Colossus to save the day.

    Deadpool is the superhero movie fans have been promised for so long and finally deserved. But it's not for kids. The film is rated R and it's a hard R at that. There's tons of sex, lots of nudity, decapitations and other general dismemberments galore, and more language than legally allowed by Captain America. But the film's also funny as hell.

    Ryan Reynolds is perfect as the Merc With a Mouth. And Gotham's Morena Baccarin is the perfect romantic foil to the leading man's smart-assed look at life. The villains of Ajax and Angel Dust played respectively by Game of Thrones' Ed Skrein and MMA superstar Gina Carino are excellent baddies that deserve what's coming to them. But the characters that steal the movie are of Colossus and his mutant apprentice, Negasonic Teenage Warhead played by newcomer Brianna Hildebrand.

   But while Colossus's fractured mastery of the English language was one of the highlights of the film, his appearance was a major detractor. The character, one of my all-time favorite X-Men behind only Nightcrawler, is voice by German actor Stefan Kapicic. But on screen, the mutant big man is 100% CGI. Sadly, the metal on the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz looked more realistic than the chrome on Colossus. 

    One thing this film got right was how they set up the story. First of all, it doesn't start off as an origin film. Most superhero movies begin with a build up that takes a good 45-minutes before the superhero main character finally appears. Not so here. You first glimpse Deadpool opening a can of whoop-ass on some baddies and then the film flip-flops from the past to the present, giving the viewer a good origin story but not without some outstanding action scenes in between. 

    Another thing one must understand is that this film is in no way a reboot of X-Men Origins: Wolverine. That Deadpool is as true as the one in this film. Events that occurred in X-Men: Days of Future Past created a tangent universe and this Deadpool is very cognizant of the change in continuity. 

   In the comics, Deadpool breaks the fourth wall and is very aware that he exists inside a comic book. That's the same case here as Reynolds' character makes allusions to his Wolverine movie existence as well as once being a certain Emerald Guardian in the DC Universe. But many of these jokes are subtle easter eggs and if you trek to the bathroom during the film, you'll miss tons...

   This is the beginning of a Deadpool movie franchise and with Reynolds as the star, I don't think it can fail. But as I said earlier, this is not a movie for kids. Last night, a single mom brought her son who couldn't have been older than 7 and she stormed out a half hour into the movie. It's a nearly NC-17 rated film folks, don't take your kids to see this, folks! 

   But for you, the dedicated mature super-hero fan, don't you go skipping this movie to go see Zootopia! This is the movie you've been asking for for decades. Enjoy it (and shower afterward...) Disney didn't get their hands on this character and for once, I am glad they didn't. But your favorite mutants, while often screwed over by Marvel in the comics now, thanks to mean ol' Mickey Mouse, can only truly be themselves under the leadership of FOX. So don't let them slip back into the fold of the House of Mouse! Go see this movie!!!

   Support Your Local Mutants! Wade Wilson might personally thank you- I know I will!!!

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Uncanny X-Men: First Class, Volume 1: Hated and Feared

 In 2006, Marvel crafted a series of untold tales about the original X-Men titled 'First Class.' The series only lasted 8-issues but it was such a hit, it spawned at least two further sequels as well as a few one-shots. Marvel naturally saw dollar signs and continued to produce more X-titles under the 'First Class' moniker. Wolverine starred in two solo titles that produced over 20 issues. After those successes, Marvel decided to explore its historically most successful line-up of mutants- the original Uncanny X-Men.

   This title stars Cyclops, Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Banshee, and Storm. It reveals some of that team's never-before-revealed adventures that take place after X-Men #101 when Jean Grey becomes the Phoenix. Here, the team is having trouble jelling. Cyclops longs for the day to lead his original teammates again. Professor X and Moira McTaggart are attempting to gauge Jean's new physic potential. And the other members of the team are trying to adjust to their lives as superheroes that face more scorn than admiration.

     During these episodes of growing pains, the team will travel to the Inhuman refuge of Attilan to defend Nightcrawler, whose being tried for blasphemy, a charge that if found guilty brings a penalty of death. Then Banshee's past comes back to haunt him when he spies what may be the ghost of his late wife. Lastly, Storm and Jean Grey have a ladies night out that results in the girls being held hostage AND forced to break into Nick Fury's helicarrier! Along with a mysterious trio spied dancing on the surface of the sun and a Giant-Sized special that explores the individual origins of the Uncanny X-Men, this volume was pure fun and excitement.
 
   Why this series didn't take off like the other 'First Class' titles is beyond me! The art was eclectic but each artist's style was classic. The writing was just as good and with scores of cameos of several key secondary players of the X-Men series during the late 70s was the icing on the cake. The only reason this series lasted just 8-issues is that it seems to focus more on Banshee, Colossus, and Nightcrawler instead of proven fan favorites Wolverine and Storm.

   But if I had to choose my top 10 favorite mutants that trio would all rank on that list. In other words, I liked it. Maybe the only thing this series needed was the masterful pen of Chris Claremont, who without him, the X-Men might have been a footnote in comic book history.

Like the Vulcans say "only Nixon can go to China."

   Worth Consuming.

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.