Like Sticking Your Head In a Blender..
I swear each time I get my hopes up that this comic book will somehow improve, it really proves me wrong. Ever since Charles Soule took over, I had hope that maybe these characters would improve, and so would the story. I've seen Charles write, and it's pretty damn good, but due to the series being a disaster already, there is not much possibility of salvaging anything good from it any longer. It's supposed to be fun, but that doesn't mean that It can't have a decent story and characterization.
Before going any on why I immensely disliked this issue, lets Talk about the art. Jefte Palos art is yet again a major disappointment, I don't know if it's supposed to be fun or cheerful, but I dislike it immensely. The structures and the character proportions are all screwed up, in fact they look like boxes, and I'm not even kidding. I've never been a fan of Palos art and I still believe that it is unfitting choice for this title. The characters only have a solid out-line during the close up scenes, which quite frankly isn't enough.
Moving on, I'm not even going to stall and make an introduction to this any further , because this was not a good story. While I do give Charles credit for trying to write a fun story with these characters, the Characterization, aside from Punisher and Deadpool, is absolutely terrible. I know I've written 3 reviews stating how I don't like what had happened to leader, but this issue just made me all the more mad. I was hoping, that with soule, leader would start to show his true colors( which By the way, it green and Not red) and become the threatening intellectual Villain he use to be. Hell, I'm not even against the idea of Leader reforming, but at least let him BE THE LEADER by letting him keep his arrogance and strategic abilities. I simply do not understand what is the point of bringing back well-known characters, only to destroy them and write them with completely different personalities. I haven't been reading Way's Thunderbolts completely, I dropped it after I realized how terrible it was, and I wasn't aware that Leaders secondary brain was actually the internet, or that the Leader even had a secondary brain to begin with. Let Me make this very clear, leader isn't a whiny whelp, he can think perfectly fine, and also, he does.not.need.a.secondary.BRAIN! This is actually the stupidest things I've ever heard, because it not only limits sterns as a character, but it's actually an insult to him as well. Moreover, I have the exact same complaint with Mercy. Peter David Wrote her as an Alien who wanted to understand human beings, here though, she's written as a bloodthirsty monster who craves death more than anything. Again, I don't understand the point to using already established characters and completely changing them.
Furthermore, what made me even angrier is the fact that Ross was acting like an Idiot . He's supposed to be an army general, and he needs leaders help to come up with a way to contain mercy? why can't he just attack her to create a distraction so he could temporarily protect the Humans? That's an easy plan, so why not Go with it? or at least give it a try, it would have at least saved some lives while sterns( I'm not calling him the Leader, He doesn't deserve that mane anymore) was coming up with a plan to destroy the alien ship. It comes off as a very cowardly act for someone who has as much power as Red Hulk does. Also, I didn't buy the fact that the Nobili family would be so chill upon becoming Alien type creatures, especially after the fact that the father proves to be a coward. Any normal human would have at least shown some form of surprise but the Nobili family just says " to Hell With It " and Ignores thei transformation.
On the other hand, I did enjoy the deadpool bit as I found It both humorous and interesting. I liked the way deadpool was written here, it's him being more of an anti-hero than a goofy merc, which is much closer to his current ongoing title. So yeah, there is that.
I think I'm going to drop this until ghost rider comes along issue 20, that'll be the last straw. I've come to terms with mercys change I guess, considering that she wasn't that big of a character, so her reboot was not really that unexpected. Plus soules writing is fun, it's just that the series doesn't have a founding ground to establish itself on. I hope leader really improves and goes back to his former glory, because Seeing him like this is gut wrenching. This series was doomed to fail from the beginning, even now I really want to enjoy it, bit I just can't.
