Hey guys. So I've decided that, Inspired by other sites an such that I would dabble at blogging my thoughts on the Issues I've read this week. The format I'm sure is a similar one, It may only be a couple of lines or a paragraph on what I'm reading but it's my thoughts on the page (screen) for all y'all to see. So, without further adieu:

Invincible 31-35.

"HOLY TOLEDO YOU HAVEN'T BEEN READING INCINCIBLE!?!" You ask.

Well, let's recap. In about 2006 I stopped reading comics altogether, shortly after the close of my LCS. I still bought trades and kept up with the scene kinda, on the interwebs. Thus I never had a dude every week/month screaming at me how awesome Invincible is.

Flash forward to the New52,: I'd been looking for a way back into comics and this coincided with a new LCS opening up (all be it about a year before the launch of the New52) so I jumped on the New52 and subsequently Marvel NOW and every month I had a guy raving about certain comics to me. (Also, listening to Comicvine podcast helps!!) so I'm reading Invincible now. Happy?

So, Let's try again:

Invincible 31-35:

Oh, My love for this book is immeasurable. After coming off the blockbuster issue that was Issue 25 and the arc that followed it I couldn't wait to see what happened next. I love the B-plots stepping into the sunlight whilst the "other" sub-Plots continue to back burn. The complexity that is going into this entire story is godly, when one plot point wraps up another one branches off from it. So clever. Ever evolving.

The quiet moments and the flashy moments harmonize beautifully. The art, whilst some may not like it (my girlfriend shrugged and said it was "simple looking") Is friggin' awesome (what does she know huh, it's my blog!) so expressive and the colours are brilliant. I love this book.

So, We get a conclusion on the whole Robot acting weird thing, which I enjoyed and I am looking forward to see where that progresses. He's a bit of creep right? Mark's mother finding a new lease on life with Oliver is brilliant, but I have a sinking feeling it isn't all going to end well. Mark training and getting stronger is interesting and makes me look forward to a confrontation with a Viltrumite once again and we have Eve finally telling Mark how she feels, albeit a future version. It's nice to see Mark hashing it out and mulling it over. It's these moments that really make the book special. The final revelation about Marks dad's books, while I had kinda guessed already, was awesome. His dad is such a complex character also, I love it and you know that Allen the Alien's sub-plot is going to tie back up with this thread. So brilliant.

Ultimate Spider-Man 72-78

Until a couple of months ago I never read any of the Ultimate Universe. Ever. I decided that I would dabble in it as I'm a fan of what Bendis is doing on his other titles, and USM seemed like his Child.

So, Let it be known that I have read Ultimate X-Men 1-90something. This was the title I started on a couple of months ago. I skipped Ultimatum because aside from knowing "Everyone dies!?" I've heard pretty bad things about it, So hey, I know everyone dies, I don't need to know the bad story telling behind it right? My feelings on UXM are mixed. I didn't like Vaughan's stuff. Millar's stuff was okay, hated most of the art. I loved most of Kirkman's run (Cable = Wolverine was awesome.) however I didn't like the Apocalypse ending. All in all it was mostly positive and I'm looking forward to catching up with Ultimate Comics X-Men.

I digress. This is about Spiderman. I've just got done with the hobgoblin story. Eh, I'm not a fan of Green Goblin or Hobgoblin in the Ultimate Universe, I think the whole transformation thing whilst completely different from 616 Goblins (and I get thats the point.) feels very out of place in a street-level-superhero-story. I have the same feelings when I see Man-Bats or Killer Croc in a Batman story. I like Street level characters to be somewhat grounded in reality and a Monster isn't that. None the less, the emotional story beats were neat, It was nice to catch up with Harry . I found his desire to die interesting and coupled with Pete's emotional trauma over Gwen dying are massive emotional points that you know will reverberate through the title. Like most of the Ultimate stuff I am not the biggest fan of the art. It either feel zoomed in too close, or too "shiny". I don't know if that makes sense, but it does in my head. Ha.

I can't help but compare USM with Invincible and while USM does fantastic and despite pretty much being an anything goes type of book much like Invincible, I feel it suffers from what X-Men did. Pretty much just rehashing Villians and updating motives, tweaking and changing them a bit. The differences in the Ultimate universe so far are slight, but not bold enough to make me feel like it stands completely alone. Uncle Ben, dead. Captain Stacy, dead. Gewn, dead. Almost 80 issues in I am wait for a real kicker to set this completely apart from the 616 universe. This however, doesn't take away from Bendis at all. His writing is great and his Dialog whilst at times wordy, can be great and hilarious.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1

I was reading on the internet how some people love this. As a child I LOVED the turtles. At the age of two my mum made me a Ninja Turtle birthday cake. It was awesome. So, I downloaded the first chapter on Comixology (as it was free.) and decided to check it out. I liked it. The art and colouring was cool. The set up was cool and the flash back to the turtles and splinter being a part of a bio-weapons engineering type dealio was nice. Yes the issue was set up but it got me hooked enough to check it out further. I've heard great things and this issue hasn't dissuade me from reading further. It's solid and I would recommend that if you are a slight fan of the turtles to check this out, even if it's just to indulge nostalgia.