Comic Reviews 11.16.2020

 

Hey y’all. Welcome back. We once again have mostly Marvel comics on tap, but there is a new Power Rangers series that I’m excited to share with you. I really am lamenting the lack of DC comics that I’m reading currently. There was a new issue of The Flash this week, but I don’t have much to say about it. It’s good, not great. Future State cannot get here fast enough. I need some exciting DC comics in my life.

Anyway, let’s check out what we have in the here and now.

Had to find somewhere to share this gem

Spoilers for: Marauders #15, Excalibur #14, Wolverine #7, Amazing Spider-Man #52, Power Rangers #1

Marauders #15

 

Writer: Gerry Duggan and Benjamin Percy

Artist: Stefano Caselli

Colors: Edgar Delgado

Letters: VC’s Cory Petit

Design: Tom Muller

Cover: Russell Dauterman and Matthew Wilson

 

Throughout the first years of Dawn of X, pages would sometimes be conserved by doing a prose recap. Never before has it been used to skip an entire event’s worth of plot like the opening recap does here. It is revealed that after Wolverine murdered Saturnyne in the previous issue, Arakko invaded Earth and completely devastated everything. We pick up with a page showing the world in ruin and Arrakii generals surveying the wreckage. From there, it cuts to Wolverine crucified (on an X, of course) as he cannot be killed when someone walks up to him, cloaked in shadows. They stab him with his own. It is revealed to be. She is showing Wolverine a vision of what happens if he stabs her.

Death always looks so dissatisfied.

Turns out, Wolverine never did. The end of the previous issue was a ruse. The opening pages of this one provides an all-time great fake out. Beyond that, this issue is good, but not great. Its focus is on delivering greater characterization to the various Arrakii warriors and exploring how they interact with the Krakoans. It is all pretty good but does not have much in the way of truly standout moments.

Stefano Caselli’s art remains very good on this series. Everything is told in beautiful detail. The art is really the key to selling the opening. A whole devastated environment was created and painstakingly rendered to make it seem as though there was actually a massive time skip in this issue. It turned out excellently.

 

Excalibur #14

 

Writer: Tini Howard

Artist: Phil Noto

Letters: VC’s Ariana Maher

Designer: Tom Muller

Cover: Mahmud Asrar and Matthew Wilson

 

This story has now officially gone off the rails. In a good way. The opening half of this issue is dedicated to Betsy’s duel with Isca. It goes… poorly for Betsy. She gets shattered like a window. I do not think she is dead, just…gone. Isca is declared the winner. It was all very quick and unexpected. Also, it appears this tournament is operating on a point system and the nation with the most at the end wins. Isca winning gives Arakko their first point.

This intro cracks me up.

The rest of this issue sees Cypher and Bei the Blood Moon whisked away by Saturnyne’s servants for makeovers. That is right, They are making Cypher look good then throwing a toga over his New Mutants uniform. Why? He is about to get married! There is not so much as a hint as to why, but Bei and Cypher have been united in matrimony. Both teams get a point.

There is something going on with Bei though. She is the only being Cypher has ever not been able to understand. Obviously, this will be an important plot point eventually, but for now it remains a curiosity and another mysterious part of Saturnyne’s plan.

Phil Noto is here for this issue of Excalibur and he predictably knocks it out of the park. Everything looks amazing in his watercolor style. My one complaint is how he draws Magik. She does not look poorly drawn, just something is off and I cannot put my finger on it. Otherwise, this was a stunning comic.

 

Wolverine #7

 

Writer: Benjamin Percy and Gerry Duggan

Artist: Joshua Cassara

Colors: GURU-eFX

Designer: Tom Muller

Letters: VC’s Cory Petit

Cover: Adam Kubert and Frank Martin

 

There are four important things to take from this issue:

1. There is a lot of pay off for the setup in the opening issues of this crossover. For example, Wolverine takes Solem’s place in a fight, which was apparently the deal they struck for Logan could get his Muramasa.

2.Saturnyne is just toying everyone. Wolverine loses a fight to the death because he is not the one that died. Wolverine and Storm are forced into a drinking contest. Immediately, Wolverine is pulled into the Solem-War fight to replace Solem. Wolverine wins but Arakko gets the point. Pogg Ur-Pogg and Magik arm wrestle for their challenge.

3. We need a Pogg Ur-Pogg miniseries ASAP. He is such a delightful lizard man with a number of truly incredible lines in his brief screen time. Also, he is hanging around because he beat Magik. At least she is not dead though.

LOOK AT THIS

4. Joshua Cassara needs to be on one of the X-books fulltime. This comic looks magnificent. The little details, the panel layouts, the weird borders. The highlight of this is the opening Blightspoke fight between Wolverine and Summoner, as you can see above. It is absolutely exquisite and something I need to see more of.

Also, Krakoa is losing 5-2. That seems bad.

 

Amazing Spider-Man #52

 

Writer: Nick Spencer

Artist: Patrick Gleason

Colors: Edgar Delgado

Letters: VC’s Joe Carmagna

Cover: Gleason and Delgado

 

I am here once again to inform you that Last Remains is an incredibly underwhelming event. It is not bad. It just is not interesting. Nothing has happened in three issues and that does not even count the three tie-in issue where even more nothing has happened. It appears to be one of those stories where things just happen until it is time for the big reveal and then the authors do whatever they actually want to do. That is unfortunate as this has been built to for two years.

This issue ends with Peter making a deal with proverbial devil: Kindred stops hurting people and he can kill Peter. Given that this all seems to stem from Peter’s deal with a literal devil, I do wonder where this is going. Kindred says he has something to show Peter. I can only imagine that it is the pre-One More Day status quo and stories. Maybe they will acknowledge he and MJ have a child. We will see.

The art on this series remains top notch. Gleason renders everything here immaculately. In particular, the early fight between Kindred and Spider-Man is fantastic. It also falls into one of my favorite tropes: every step of an action being rendered in the same panel. It is always exciting and that does not change this time. Hopefully, the upcoming issues will be able to take full advantage of the incredible art team on the book. Again, we will see.

 

Power Rangers #1

 

Writer: Ryan Parrott

Artist: Francisco Mortarino

Colors: Raul Angulo

Letters: Ed Dukeshire

Cover: Matteo Scalera and Moreno Dinisio

 

Now this is how you start a new series. Like Mighty Morphin’ #1, this is a direct continuation of the previous series, but this comic takes that in a much more character-focused approach. Most the issue is spent on the Omega Rangers and Power Rangers hanging out as the Omegas make a short return to Earth to ask for Zordon’s help. This is basically a montage of moments like Jason training with Rocky and telling him how proud Jason is of him as the Red Ranger and Trini, Aisha, and Kim getting shakes together. It is great that we get to see the characters interact and deal with some of the emotional issues they face, even if they are not the stars of this series.

Of course, Zordon has never heard of the Empyreals (there is more than one, I guess). Drakkon, however, was running from something when he landed on Earth and it turns out to indeed be the Empyreals. He has some information but refuses to share. The Omegas try to convince Zordon and the Rangers to let them take Drakkon.

Of course.

They refuse because the risk Drakkon poses is the greatest Zordon has ever seen in his very long life. Of course, the Omegas have seen the destruction one Empyreal is capable of, so they decide to break out Drakkon in one of the funniest pages I have read in some time. The art and dialogue work in perfect harmony to create a truly great moment. So, they break Drakkon out and now there is a fourth Omega Ranger (again). It is all very exciting and presented in a much more interesting way than Mighty Morphin’.

A big part of that is Mortarino’s return to Power Rangers. He is a phenomenal artist, probably the best these comics have had. He excels in shot composition, allowing for complex scenes that are always entertaining to the eye. It is a welcome return and hopefully he stays awhile.

 

As always, feel free to give your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter at @alexraysnyder. And if you like what you read here, consider throwing a couple bucks my way on Patreon to help cover costs.