Messiah Complex - Week 5 Rundown

SPOILER ALERT!!!

THE GIST
Storm's team (Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Archangel) ambush the Marauders with mental assistance from Emma Frost, but her connection to the team is broken when Pixie screws up teleporting the New X-Men out of the Purifier's base and sends out a massive cry of pain. With the advantage theirs again, the Marauders wipe the floor with the X-Men, but not before Gambit reveals to Wolverine just who has the baby. The Sentinels are overrun and attack the mansion just as the X-Men start planning what do about the very-much-alive Cable, who is on the run with the mutant baby.

THE CASUALTY LIST (new casualties italicized)
Pixie (New X-Men) - Injured
Nightcrawler (X-Men) - Shot
Hellion (New X-Men) - Injured
Madrox (X-Factor) - Comatose
Blockbuster (Marauders) - Killed
Prism (Marauders) - Killed

Messiah Complex - Week 4 Rundown

It's been a couple weeks since we took a look at Messiah Complex, so let's take a look at what's gone down. SPOILER ALERT - this will be covering New X-Men #44, which just came out yesterday. You have been warned.

THE GIST
Wolfsbane fakes an attack on the Purifiers, allowing Rictor to infiltrate the group. Madrox and Layla Miller go to Dallas to meet Forge, who tells them that after the new mutant was born, two alternate futures appeared in his sensors. He has Madrox create two dupes and sends them into the future, but Layla jumps on to accompany the second, with apparently no way back. The prime Madrox loses conciousness. Wolverine's squad confronts Amelia Voght, who leads them to the Marauders' Antarctic base, which they attack.

80 years into a possible future, Layla and the Madrox duplicate find a world seemingly without mutants, but quickly learn that all have been herded into "relocation" camps.

The New X-Men confront Cyclops on wanting to assist, but he tells them not to jump the gun. When they discover that the Purifiers are involved, Surge decides to attack, joined by her team, save Prodigy, Dust and Elixir. Armor also accompanies. Both Rictor and the New X-Men discover that the Purifiers do not have the baby, but learn that Lady Deathstrike has joined them - and skewers Hellion through the chest.

THE CASUALTY LIST (new casualties italicized)
Hellion (New X-Men) - Injured, possibly killed
Madrox (X-Factor) - Comatose
Blockbuster (Marauders) - Killed
Prism (Marauders) - Killed

The Weekly Pile (Jacob)

Top of the Pile: Green Arrow/Black Canary #2

The rest of this week's titles may feel cheated, and they have every right to feel so. For some reason, my comic shop did not get this issue when it was due out last week, so I had to wait a week to get it. Long story short, I finally got it and it takes top honors this week. If you're looking for a Messiah CompleX story, perhaps you should try my main blog, Graymalkin Lane. (Cheap plug)

I'm very happy that Judd Winick decided not stretch out the mystery of Ollie's "death" and went head first into the crazy action of the rescue. This is the kind of ridiculous action/adventure that you'd see in a Pirates of the Caribbean movie - and it works perfectly here. The four main GA characters (Ollie, Connor, Dinah and Mia) all get plenty of face time here, and their roles are all done perfectly to not feel that they were shoved in for no reason. The book is hilarious, action packed, and very, very good. This is what I wanted when I decided to buy this book.

The Rest of the Pile

New X-Men #44 - Part four of Messiah CompleX. Check Graymalkin Lane for my thoughts on it.

The Walking Dead #44 - The Governor's attack begins, with casualties on both sides.

X-Men: Emperor Vulcan #3 (of 5) - An uneasy truce is made between Vulcan and Havok - but the threat is a lot bigger than either think.

Powers #27 - As the victims rise, an unexpected former ally returns with a personal stake in the investigation. Also, Deena makes her own move to assist.

Messiah Complex - Week 2 Rundown

Since Messiah Complex will be holding up the X-Books for the next few months, that's what we'll be looking at heavily. With New Excalibur and Exiles gone (not that I read them anyway) and Astonishing X-Men coming out once in a blue moon, the big story is the crossover. So each week, we'll take a look at what's gone down. This week, we'll be looking at both Messiah Complex (One Shot) and Uncanny X-Men #492.

THE GIST
Cerebra detects a new mutant birth, and the effect is so powerful it overloads the system. Cyclops takes Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Angel and Emma Frost to Cooperstown, Alaska to find the child, but find the town in flames. The Purifiers and Marauders both beat them to the town and caused a bloodbath of the town's children. The X-Men find little more than bodies, though they discover that the new mutant, a baby born at a local hospital, is not amongst the slain. As they leave, Predator X arrives on the scene.

As officials try to sort out the mess, the X-Men head out after rogue Acolytes, who they hope will lead them to Exodus, who has teamed with Sinister and the Marauders. Cyclops calls in X-Factor's Madrox and Rictor, using the former to go after Forge and the latter to infiltrate the Purifiers. Professor X is getting upset that Cyclops is leaving him out of the loop.

THE CASUALTY LIST
Blockbuster (Marauders) - Killed
Prism (Marauders) - Killed

The Weekly Pile

Top of the Pile: New Avengers: Illuminati #5 (of 5)

The two sweetest words in the English language: de-fault! The only book in the pile this week was the fifth and final issue of New Avengers: Illuminati by Brian Michael Bendis, Brian Reed, and Jim Cheung. The whole series was an interesting retcon to show how the "illuminati" (Iron Man, Black Bolt, Dr. Strange, Reed Richards, and Namor) have secretly had a hand in some of the major events in Marvel history. But this wasn't just a quaint little history lesson. This series, primarily the first and last issues, set the stage for Secret Invasion, which is Marvel's big to-do for next year. Skrulls, disguised as humans, have infiltrated Earth. Who are they? How long have they been here? What do they control? What's their objective? Who can be trusted? The drama's been building for years and comes to a head when the mini-series kicks off next spring.

I, for one, am excited about it. House of M, Civil War, World War Hulk, and the coming Secret Invasion have flowed together very well for the most part. All the Marvel books I'm reading have told their own good stories in between these events while still tying into the overall universe. It might not all fit together absolutely perfectly but it makes sense and it all flows right into Secret Invasion. And it doesn't seem like too much, too fast like DC's Final Crisis.

Tune in next week when the pickins will be much slim. A lot of books I'm looking forward to such as Booster Gold, Green Arrow and Black Canary, Avengers: The Initiative, and New Avengers.

The Countdown Countdown

No Weeks Left...

Well kids, the time has finally arrived. DC's second weekly series, Countdown has reached the halfway point. I'd been frustrated with this book's lack of any kind of coherent story or forward momentum for quite some time. One month ago I decided that I'd give Countdown until issue #26, the exact midpoint of the series, to pick the story up and convince me to keep reading. To use one of my favorite colloquialisms, Countdown needed to shit or get off the pot.

Issue #26 has "The Turning Point" emblazoned right on the front cover. The end of issue #27 had slightly piqued my curiosity. Surely, I thought, this would be the issue where things took off as Countdown headed for the home stretch. I could not have been more wrong. This was a recap issue. A recap issue!!! Nothing has happened in this book for the last few months. There's nothing to recap! Jimmy Olsen still has powers and we still don't know how he got them. Mary Marvel is still a bitch and we still don't know why. People are still looking for Ray Palmer and we still don't know why. If you've been reading the book at all, you know these things. You don't need a recap issue to to tell you what's going on with everyone! The worst part is, it didn't even recap the things that have happened outside of Countdown that have influenced the book's story. It just told you what's been happening in the book. If you were scratching your head about something before reading issue #26's recap you still will be afterward. And to make matters even worse, a new mystery gets introduced (the black suited Superman) on top of all the other mysteries in Countdown that haven't been explored in the least.

And the last thing, the final nail in the coffin: Jason Todd's betrayal wasn't real. The one thing to come along in this book and make me think that it might be worth sticking around to see how it turns out was a sham. A ruse. A trick. A bit of tomfoolery on the part of Bob the Monitor. Turns out Jason Todd only pretended to shoot Donna Troy in the face and only pretended to join up with Monarch so the "Challengers" could get away. So they could run off to another universe and continue their search for Ray Palmer. The same search that's been fruitless and boring for weeks on end. Huzzah.

So, that's it. I'm done. I'm out. Goodbye. Farewell. Amen. The story may eventually pick up at some point in the second half but I won't be around to see it. There have just been too many weeks of the same crap, killing time, and leaving out important elements of the story. I'm definitely not buying every book DC puts out, I'm not going to go do research on the internet every week to find out what's going on, and I can't just accept it.

DC will no longer get my $2.99 a week for this book.