Ultimate Fantastic Four #46 (Marvel – Carey / Ferry / Ponsor) – Talk about a marathon, this UFF story arc involving Psycho-man seemed like it would never end. The summary goes something like this… Reed accidentally contacts Silver Surfer, who has become a hypnotized henchman of Psych-man, who then comes to earth and rewires all 6 billion humans’ memories and minds to re-create Psycho-man’s home world. Reed figures it out and defeats him… This is some of the lamest writing to come to the FF in a while (this is on par with last year’s First Family mini)… UFF has got to turn around soon, I hope
Grade: D
Avengers: The Initiative #6 (Marvel – Slott / Yu) – I will continue to argue this is the best book to come out of Marvel in years. Dan Slott continues to show the readers how fantastic a storyteller he is. This one issue story tells of an attack on drill Sargent Gauntlet and who’s and why’s of the suspects behind the attack. This book is a phenomenal combination of drama, character development and action. Steve Yu’s art is a perfect canvas for Dan Slott telling us of the next generation of super-hero recruits in the Tony Stark’s new post-registration Marvel Universe. Whether you were a fan of Marvel or not, this book should be on your monthly list!
Grade: A
Marvel Comics Presents #1 (Marvel – Various) – This is the newest version of Marvel’s anthology mag. After reading through it, I think there are high hopes here. As often with anthologies there are highs and lows… but for the most part the stories were better than expected and the art was solid all the way throughout. There is a “Powers-ish” detective Nior story with Vanguard dealing with a murder and a highly unlikely suspect. The surreal Hellcat story was my least favorite, simply for the fact that we have no idea where this tale of an ex-Defender is going. The Spider-man story involving the Galactic Alliance of Spider-men written by Stuart Moore was a blast. Fans of the Omega Flight series can follow Weapon Omega through a tale written by the masterful Rich Koslowski. And the book ends on a throwaway origins-sort-of tale of the Thing. Overall well worth the cover price.
Grade: A-
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