War of the Realms

War of the Realms 1-6

On the plus side, this is super epic in scale.  Russell Dauterman’s art is suitably excellent to match the ambition.  And there are some truly hell yeah moments.

That said, it falls victim to my biggest crossover pet peeve: It depends on its tie-in issues to tell the full story.  Tie-ins should serve to fill in little gaps, tell side stories that enhance the main plot.  They shouldn’t be required reading.  And there are far too many dependencies in this series.  Each of the threads are begun here and concluded elsewhere, with only the endings shown.  It’s wholly unsatisfying, and no amount of entertaining quips and character moments can overcome that.  

Dauterman is a phenomenal artist, but his Daredevil looks like a baby.

I love Jane Foster as All-Mother...

...but there's no way she survives against the Minotaur.

The result is a series that feels super rushed.  This is a montage, not a story.  The need to squeeze this into six issues was its downfall.  I would have preferred Jason Aaron take his time with this in the main title, give the final battle on Midgard the same care he took in setting it up over seven years.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

New Agents of Atlas 1

Original review.  Everything there still stands.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Fine

Banana Sunday, Unstoppable Wasp, New Agents of Atlas

New comics!  I didn’t buy the new Wonder Twins.  Each twin goes on a disastrous date, and the unfun was more than enough for me to drop it.  

War of the Realms: New Agents of Atlas 1

This tie-in miniseries covers the Asian response to Malekith’s invasion of Earth.  Jimmy Woo leads his Agents of Atlas into the fray against the forces of Muspelheim.  I bought this because I wanted to support an all-Asian Marvel team book. Unfortunately, the story itself is pretty generic.  Greg Pak introduces a bunch of new heroes, each with their own gimmick and not much else. The only one with a personality is the already established Amadeus Cho, and he’s idiotically headstrong for someone so intelligent.  It’s unlikely that I’ll by the rest of this series, but I’ll keep this issue around for a re-read.

I did like this conversation, though:

I've always called them Asian pears...

Unstoppable Wasp 7

Once again, Jeremy Whitley’s writing has put a massive smile on my face.  This issue’s bursting at the seams with positive energy without an ounce of artifice.  I don’t know how he keeps this from crossing over into insanely annoying, but I love every bit of Nadia’s unfiltered joy.  It rubs of on everyone around her and it rubs off on me. On to the moments that I particularly enjoyed:

Almost as good as the end of Avengers: Endgame.

Gotta love Marvel continuity.

Banana Sunday 1-4

This did not age well.  I didn’t remember much about this comic, only that it has a teenage girl and 3 mischievous monkeys, and that I enjoyed it the first time around.  Not so much the second. Kirby’s the new girl at school, but in addition to dealing with an annoying new best friend, an annoying new love interest, and an annoying mean girl, she has to manage three annoying, talking simians who can’t stay out of trouble.  

The wacky hijinks ticked me off, and I derived zero to little entertainment out of any of it.  It’s revealed at the end that these are the the actual See/Hear/Speak No Evil Monkeys of legend, and their former caretaker was just as fed up with them as I.  

I totally get you, pal.

The only thing I liked was Go-Go.  He’s cute, eats bananas, and falls asleep all the time.  I respect that. The only thing convincing me to keep this series is that my future kids might find it entertaining.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Didn’t suck