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Anxy

Name: Christopher Barton

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I am a sucker for oversized anniversary issues, so there wasn’t a whole lot they could do to muck this…

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Anxy's Recent Comments
April 9, 2012 5:04 pm The "shock reveal" of this issue needs to go up there with Fonzie jumping the shark as an enduring meme for ridiculousness. I'm still not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
April 9, 2012 4:57 pm Pretty fluffy and ridiculous, and an obvious swipe at the soon-to-be-defunct Desperate Housewives and GCB television series. But as fluffy, ridiculous and obvious goes, this first issue was a whole lot of indulgent, guilty pleasure fun. This comic is as camp as a weekend at Jellystone Park, but I kinda feel like I want to support a title that goes against the grain of the grim'n'gritty boys club, serving a sordid soap opera with masks and capes. So maybe on one hand, this may be one of the more banal and superficial comics you may read, but on the other hand, I kinda see it as a superhero comic for the rest of us.
April 9, 2012 4:50 pm Ugh, this cover. It looks like a Marvel vs. Capcom ad. I almost rated this issue two stars because of that cover. And will there ever be an issue of Avengers Academy that doesn't have some kind of event dress on the cover? Marvel should have a little more faith in the original concept of this series, because the first year of AA was incredible. This isn't a series that should have to survive as event tie-in fodder, at least not to the extent that it's been for the past year. This book needs to find its groove, though I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy some of the meandering of the past year. It's not the worst meandering in the history of comics. So there's that, I guess.
April 9, 2012 4:43 pm Since her big rollout in Detective Comics and the Batwoman limited series, I've been singing the praises of this character and all the fantastic things J.H. Williams III was doing with her. And, you know, I'm holding on as best I can with her ongoing series, and I'm still loving it when it's great. But I've got to be honest, and I know there are shake-ups in the creative team, but I'm kinda starting to lose the awe I was getting from every new installment of Williams' Batwoman. I'm still crazy about the character design. I love the costume, love the pale white skin, love the character beneath the mask - he is nothing if not consistent with who Batwoman is - but the (relatively) esoteric villains, the murky, watery stories, the kind of muted reality of this series...I appreciate it, but without the psychedelic one-two punch of Williams and Amy Reeder's combined visuals, I'm finding it takes more and more patience for me to stay with this book. Not saying I didn't enjoy the latest issue...but it wasn't near the top of my "to read" stack.
April 9, 2012 4:33 pm I had a case of Love At First Issue with this new series, but I'm starting to feel the honeymoon phase wear off. Not that I think it's turning into a rotten series, but I'm starting to lose the irreverent tone of the first couple of issues. The weird fun is still there, and the cluttery, kitchen-sink artwork fits the stories like a glove, but where I felt like this series was at first trying to be a hybrid of glory-days Uncanny X-Men and the TV show "Community", now I feel like it's getting a bit mired in conventional comic book biff-bam-pow. It's still better biff-bam-pow that most comics are serving, but I hope it keeps its quirk in the long run. The zany irreverence of this series is the best thing to happen to the X-Men in years.
April 9, 2012 4:23 pm So much love for this comic. I'm a sucker for touchy-feely, talkie-weepie, character development-heavy superhero stories. Uncanny X-Men 180, with the uber-bonding session between Ororo and Kitty Pryde, is one of my favorite single issues of a comic, if that says anything. I know a lot of people don't have patience for the "My Dinner With Andre" approach to comic writing, but Avengers 24.1 indulged my inner coffee talk streak and then some. Not to say that there wasn't action or suspense or any other good stuff. There was! But seeing a whole issue devoted to The Vision (one of my favorite Marvel characters) finding his place in the world again, and seeing it handled with such delicacy, was enormously gratifying. The rooftop interaction between Vision and She-Hulk was worth the price of admission. Cap's chat with Hawkeye and his newest conquest was pretty great as well. Issues like this are the glue that keep me invested month after month. Welcome back, Vision.
April 9, 2012 4:09 pm With two issues under its belt so far, this so far hasn't been as much of a chore to slog through as Siege or Fear Itself, both of which felt like events phoned in by Marvel for the sake of events. I'm enjoying the care being given to characters and interactions in what I've read so far, just as much as I'm enjoying the obligatory Big Things Going Boom action bits. I think the turning point which spawns the titular conflict was a bit rushed and not entirely plausible, but that's comics! In these big splashy blockbuster events, story is just a clotheline on which big bashy battles are hung, so like duh. With these low expectations, I'm having a fun ride with these books so far. As for the Infinite Marvel AV content, it's interesting. It's like DVD extras for your comic book. A fun gimmick, but not exactly "the next evolutionary step of comic books". At best, it's a fun trick to show your non-comic geek friends. Mine were agog.
November 6, 2011 9:47 am I didn't expect much from this, but holy crap I had a great time reading every single page of this comic. An X-Men comic with Wolverine that I not only really liked, but found witty and charming and edgy? Is such a thing possible? I might even be back for #2! Way to go, Marvel.
November 6, 2011 9:45 am Not the most dynamic issue but it maintained the grim feel of the series as a whole. This miniseries is going to make an incredible collected trade paperback.
November 6, 2011 9:44 am ...zzzzzzzz....wake me when it's over....