Wow. I really, really hate this. Let's count the reasons why!
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=preview&id=3604&disp=table

1) Well, Whitney is now bald, so that explains where Pepper's black hair came from. Which, you know, I figured a few issues ago that that would be the easiest explanation. Her scarring is extensive, so of course her hair isn't real. TOO BAD SHE WAS DRAWN WITH HAIR LAST ISSUE.
2) Maria points out that Pepper is Tony's secretary, as though she can not fathom where these brand new powers of ass-kicking came from. Rather than explain ANYTHING, Pepper tells her to STFU. Hey--maybe the readers want to know how the fuck you broke Madame Masque's bones, too, desk jockey!
3) How does Pepper know about the drive? When did ANYONE mention it to her? Retrevial of the drive was Maria's job. Pepper was never around when it was being discussed. And and and, it sounds like she knows what's on it! Which no one else does! There was like..half an issue devoted to Natasha trying to see what was on it! Can we add psychic to her list of powers now?
4) Where did the virus come from? That one is really bugging me. If Tony included the virus in the Rescue armor from the beginning, why didn't they upload it the first time Pepper was in HAMMER HQ? Its not like she knew she'd be coming back. Hell, she didn't even know she had to save Maria and Natasha until she was already there, dressed as Madame Masque and saw them. What was she waiting for? If it wasn't there from the beginning, who wrote it? Tony is too brain-fried to do it now and no one else would be able to pull something like that out of their ass. (Wait, I'll bet Pepper wrote it.)

This month's haul is freaking huge. I got 17 issues. I have no idea if I'll actually comment on them all because I usually read and type out my thoughts on everything in one sitting and 17 comics is way too many for one sitting. And its not the only time I'll go in September anyway, because Marvel Masterworks Invincible Iron Man vol. 6 comes out the 16th, and I reserved that and with all luck, will get it that day. (Sometimes, like yesterday, I have to work on Wednesdays and don't have the time to sit in traffic.)

Setting aside back issues, I got IIM vol. 1, #137 and #138, so that should do me for the whole Return of Whitney story. A picspam on that one later seems likely.

Invincible Iron Man #17
While I was intially pleased that it appeared that Whitney won the fight, I am becoming increasingly convinced that Pepper defeated her and is masquerading as Madame Masque to get close to Osborn. That was a thought I had right from the start, but then I figured--where would Pepper get long black hair from? And why would she drag the Rescue suit around when there is no one around to see her wear it?

Given the extreme of Whitney's scarring, I could see her hair being a wig that Pepper could steal when she took the rest of her clothes. Dragging the suit around--well, she could just be really dedicated to her story. But what REALLY gets me is Whitney has blue eyes. Pepper has green eyes. And everytime Madame Masque interacts with someone in this issue, her eyes are closed. That is the one thing that would give her away. Obviously, I'd vastly prefer something more believable than "The Secretary defeats the highly trained, highly experienced super-villain and then reasonably impersonates her for a long stretch of time," but that seems the most likely course.

More acceptable outcomes would be:
1) Since the building they were fighting in is wrough with explosions and fires, Whitney assumes Pepper died after a blast, but doesn't confirm it because people in comics are stupid like that. She steals the suit.
2) Whitney kills Pepper, but her implants--which are proven to have amazingly healing abilities--revive her.
3) Pepper convinces Whitney to team up with her against Norman in the pro-Tony camp. This would actually be the best option because Tony and Whitney made up in 2000. For her to revert to trying to kill him is actually disregarding characterization from a few years ago. I don't really blame Bendis and Fraction for returning Whitney to type because no one had used her for anything since her reform, but I would prefer the fact that she forgave Tony and that she decided to leave her life of crime behind her to be addressed.

I love Tony's misery beard. I was so hoping he'd grown one in this arc and it is FINALLY in. Still don't like his DRAMADRAMADRAMA, though. Don't like Hill's, either. Has anyone EVER had this kind of insane reaction to the Controller before? Even Janice Cord, who might as well have been a cardboard cut out of a woman that Tony hauled around with him, took this guy better than the gifted SHIELD agent!

I'm really ticked that Norman got Dmitri to betray Tony. Theirs is a minor, but still sweet, friendship that just got screwed over for no reason.

I feel sorry for the agents that miss SHIELD. Dum Dum Dugan's Home for Wayward Fury Sons should come and get them. ;_; Osborn wanted to get rid of any agents that were loyal to Fury and Stark, but the problem with those guys is that pretty much everyone that ever worked under them will be loyal to them as all hell, even if they don't say it.

And then James abandons Natalia. Stand up boy you got there.

That is so not Whitney. Feh.

Though this dialouge is awesome:
HAMMER Grunt #1: (about Pep's suit) Stupid broad's heavy, yeah?
HAMMER Grunt #2: What makes ya thing it's a broad?
HAMMER Grunt #1: S'got bazooms, don't it?
(Yes. Yes it does.)
HAMMER Grunt #2: Yeah, but it got that creepy bug face too.
(Yeah. It's got that, too. I hate them both.)

Iron Man & The Armor Wars #2
The fact that they are involving Doom in this, but no time travel or King Arthur-esque stuff annoys me. That is their THING.

First fight: LAME.
Second fight: 3 vs. 1 and still lame.

You'd think epic robosuit battles would be easy to write, or at least, easy to not make really freaking boring and pathetic.

This series should not exist.

Batgirl #1
I FIIIIINALLLLYYYYYYY got it! I was really hoping that I would find it in a bookstore or magazine store and not have to wait until today, but alas, I did.

This book is pure fun. I love Steph. I love her narration. I love her quips. I love how even though she acknowledges that she is breaking promises by putting on a costume, they are promises she should not have made. I love how even though she keeps seeing her fights in only the view of the failures, in both of the fights she went into as Batgirl, she made her objective. I love how she just doodles Bat symbols in class and how proud she is of that symbol on her chest.

I hope this book continues for a long time. It would absolutely break my heart if Steph didn't get the series she deserves.

Runaways #13
Last issue before what just might be the final issue. At least, for a while.

Okay, so we start out with Nico being a ho. And then we cut to Nico doing a bunch of magic. Unfortunately, all of her spells are either stupid or incomprehensible. We are off to a good start.

Okay. So..you made a spell to dissovle Klara's prison of plants and it also dissovled the house and the dead dinosaur. And then...you decide to NOT TELL CHASE that you dissovled his dinosaur.

DO YOU SERIOUSLY FUCKING THING HE WON'T NOTICE THAT OLD LACE IS GONE??

I do continue to like how much emphasis the friendship between Chase and Victor is getting.

I also like how Hunter Stein is determined to present himself as a trustworthy adult.
I like the new Leap Frogs, all quite spiffy designs.
I like a good bit of the dialouge.
IIIII don't know why Chase Ghost Busted his uncle, but okay...

Til next time, I guess...

The Mighty Avengers #28
The adorable Tibetan child won me over on page one. "I'll be richer than--what's his name--Toby Stark! I'll have fast Italian cars and an American supermodel for a wife. You'll see." Poor adorable child. You are ACTUALLY going to get killed.

Over all, this issue was fantastic.

The Unspoken is sort of a strange villian in that he is both sympathetic and unsympathetic at the same time. He was a terrible king who was disposed and banished and wants nothing more than to admit that he was wrong and go home. But home up and left, so now he's dropping heroes left and right.

Cassie's portion of the story just feels so throwback oldschool fun. She knows that "the Scarlet Witch" is evil and trying to get US Agent and Quicksilver killed off, so Loki cursed her to be unable to say anything about what she saw. So, she's trying to get beyond this handicap to communicate it to the Young Avengers.

There was also lots of humor, so its everything you could ask for.

The New Avengers #56
The idea of a device that could nullify all powers is so stupid. Mutant? DOWN. Technology? DOWN. Radioactive? DOWN. Altered DNA? DOWN. Everyone else, regardless of origin? DOWN.

Mockingbird stands alone. Even though she shouldn't, because she is not the only non-powered member of this team, RONIN.

Damn, the thing even takes out the Sentry. When depowered, he looses his heroically flowing locks. LOL.

So. The Hood's former gang beat up the New Avengers as a trial run to beating up the Dark Avengers. I wish I could say that there is some suspense here, but there isn't. Because, frankly, I don't care about the New Avengers.

I buy this book primarily because Madame Masque, like Wolverine, can be in two places at once.

Dark Avengers #8
This is part of the Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men crossover. Being as I do not read Uncanny X-Men, this doesn't mean much of anything to me.

You know, I pretty much understood #7, but this one, I am not getting AT ALL.

I like a good fight. But I don't need to see X-23 stab someone in the gut while Archangel cuts his head in half.

I would be SO much more inclined to care about the X-Men if they didn't have a gigantic cast of people I don't care about or if they laid off the "Emma is evil! J/k, she's actually good!" plots for just half a second. Also, the ~cure for the mutant gene~ is freaking old, too.

Dark Reign: Young Avengers #1, 2 & 3
This is a mini-series that I have been interested in, but I figured I would just wait for the trades because it looked like LCS just didn't carry it. It was with other Avengers books. It wasn't with other books that started with Y. But then today, lo and behold, lined up with all the other Avengers books was the first three issues! Yaaay!

Anyway, the first issue introduces us to a new team of Young Avengers, but since his is Dark Reign, they are more like Young Masters of Evil. They kill bad guys, they cause gross property damage and then they use their powers to get beer for free.

I like Coat of Arms and Melter. Enchantress is cute, but stupid. I have no real opinion on the Executionor but Big Zero and Egghead need to not exist anymore.

And then they FIIIIGHT!

Oh, how I have missed the Young Avengers.

Patriot: Okay, so, this "Hey, attack them" order I didn't give--
Hawkeye: He pulled a gun. My fingers: tiny brains of their own. Like an archery dinosaur. It's a failed metaphor. Can we move on?

Btw, I totally ship Speed/Coat.

Coat squee'd. Okay, she squeed for Norman Osborn, but she is really just the cutest super-powered being of ambigious morality ever.

"He was trying to manipulate me. The Green Goblin was trying to manipulate me! What an honor! Okay, I should have left it there. My dream of what we'd do if we met was that we'd dance together to George Micheal's 'Shoot the Dog.' But that wasn't going to happen, obviously, so--"

Anyway, so the Young Avengers hear the story of how the New Young Avengers came together and gave them an ultimatum: they can prove themselves and join the original team, or they can get a new name. The Newbies think this is a load of crap, but Enchantress enchants them into agreeing. Meanwhile, Coat draws sketches of her team beating up Osborn. Melter, the one who REALLY wants to be a hero and REALLY wants to do it right is haunted by the fact that he has melted, you know, PEOPLE.

Issue three has the newbies take the test and the old guard grade them. Coat and Enchantress are in, the rest, for various reasons, are not. Oh, but is it really that easy?

I'm gonna go with "Hell, no! Do they even care what you think?"

Marvel Divas #2
Okay. Here is my major problem with this series: the writer acts like he expects that we will forget these characters are female or something, because we are repeatedly reminded of gender in ways that actually feel a little awkward.

My other problem is in the waiting room scene where Monica bitches about Brother Voodoo, Angelica is there. When just a page ago, she was in the examining room. Her "Lie or tell the truth?" panel is basically amazing, though.

And then Angelica walks in, announcing that it is official that she has cancer, as if we didn't know that from the last issue. And its breast cancer. Because she is a woman. And she wants to be an example for other women. And Patsy is going to write of her journey and if she doesn't do a good job, all the female superheroes will be pissed at her. Because they are women. WOMEN!

In addition to Monica's adventure's with Voodoo, Felicia is having money trouble, but doesn't want her rich boyfriend to bail her out. Though she might not be opposed to stealing what she needs. Patsy's ex, who's the son of Satan, has offered to cure Angelica in exchange for Patsy's soul. Patsy says no, but he seems confidant that she will change her mind once Angelica starts wasting away.

While I dislike the Clingy Man! plot with Monica and the I Won't Let No Man Take Care of Me! plot from Felicia, the Patsy complication to Angelica's cancer plot might be interesting. Hope returns.

New Mutants #4
"You believe yourselves immune to death? I bring you a gospel of oblivion. I bring you the Soulsword. Taste it and cease to be." You are so cool, 'Yana!

Okay, my thing with Legion is that I don't really understand his power. He has a legion of people inside of him, each with a different power. When fighting, he just switches people until he finds someone at the greatest advantage. I used to think that all of those seperate personalities came from within him, but in this story, he trapped several characters inside of himself. I'm not sure how they got in there and I am not sure how they got out. In the end, he was defeated because while he was fighting most of the team, Illyana went inside of him and killed personalities until she became the dominant one. Don't know how she went in, don't know how she got out, don't know how she got Shan and Marcie out. Or if they even did.

I really enjoy the book, I just wish I had a better handle on the villian of this arc.

Also, I was under the impression that the Soulsword only affected spells and magical creatures. Why is it even hurting the personalities?

Secret Warriors #7
The artist changed. There goes my heart.

Damn. I thought that Ares would FINALLY confront Alex in this issue. No such luck. But it was the first time I've seen Songbird since...way back in the beginning of Dark Reign. I don't know what book she regularly appears in, maybe Thunderbolts? But I figured that she would be a major player in taking down Osborn after the first time I saw her. And then nine months passed.

X-Men Forever #5 & 6
I just noticed---Where is Jubilee? She was part of the team in 1991. This book is so enjoyable because they are all X-Men that I like and its not flogged down with a million new characters that I don't care about. And I was thinking what would make it perfect is if Jubilee was there.

I guess she's not there because Kitty is filling the Teen Girl quota?

I don't know how long Sabretooth will be there, but I really like having him.

I need to get a new box. Right now, I've got a long box and a short box and they are both nearly full. Really not sure what the best way to reorganize is.

And this took me nearly 4 hours.

Iron Man #63-65
So, once upon Kristen was knocking around Marvel.com and they had a series of articles about the history of her boy Iron Man, decade by decade. And she read a synopsis of a story she was interested and they were kind enough to give her the issue number, #64. So, she ordered it. And then she realised it was part 2 in a 4 part story. So she ordered parts 1 and 3, too, but not 4 because it was too damn expensive and she'll look into a cheaper site later.

So. I was supremely mislead on this. Marvel.com tells the story as though Tony is the instigator of a kiss between himself and Pepper Hogan and that he and Happy get into a fistfight over her. There is also a quote that I have often read from this story that T/P fans like to parade around where Tony tells Happy that he loves Pepper just the same as Happy does and in the same way.

ACTUAL story:
Happy left Pepper. Early on in their marriage, he worked nights and she went to school in the day and then would make dinner for them at midnight and everything was fab. But Pepper began to want more out of life than being a housewife for a husband who was never home and got herself a job. This bothered Happy, who thought that Pepper's place was in the home. (For those who are counting, this was published in the early or mid-70's. I didn't check the exact year.) Since Pepper refused, he left her. Pepper starts spending more time with Tony and they go on a business trip to Detroit. I'm not clear on if becoming Tony's personal secretary again was the job that caused the rift, or if she took that job after Happy left. Anywho, while in Detroit, Tony tries to comfort Pepper, who is of course very upset that her husband left her because she wanted more out of life. She kisses him. He kisses back. Happy has decided that he wants to reconcile and walks in at that very moment.

So, Happy decides that he is through with Pepper, but not really, because he also decides he is going to pound Tony. Happy demands that Tony admit he loves Pepper. And here is where the often misquoted line comes in. Tony replies that he does love Pepper, he loves her in the same way he loves Happy. Pepper finds them fighting and she and Happy go off to talk about their relationship like civilized people. Happy informs Pepper that Tony is Iron Man. And I don't have the last issue of the storyline, but I think its safe to say they work it out. Meanwhile, Tony realizes that he really IS over Pepper, because when the Villian of the Day starts spouting about killing the person Iron Man loves, he thinks of this other girl.

Said other girl is Roxie and while I never heard of her prior to my interest in this storyline, I like her quite a bit. She's sort of a hippie--eats organic food, dedicated to nonviolent solutions and of course is entirely uninterested in everyone's favorite former war profiteer. She is the sort of character I would normally find kind of annoying, but she doesn't ever come off as preachy. She must not have lasted very long, though, because I've never seen a mention of her anywhere but Marvel.com's Iron Man by the Decade thing.

Iron Man #139
This issue has the Beth vs. Whitney show down, which I really wanted, but because I buy things without thinking about it, I did not realize this is part 3 of a larger storyline.

Now to turn to more recent fare:
School started today and I was at the brand new just-opened Student Union buying a parking pass (obscenely expensive) and...our Student Union has a freaking Barnes & Noble in it. We have a Barnes & Noble on campus. How awesome is THAT? Answer: Way.

So, after class I peak in, hoping they have some comics because I would really like to get my hands on Batgirl #1 and its going to be about a week and a half before I hit the comic shop. Most bookstores I go to don't sell comics and the one that does only has stuff that is several months old. This one does have comics, but the selection is itty bitty. They had the first 4 issues of X-Men Forever, Iron Man & The Armor Wars and one other book that I never heard of. Because I had tossed around the idea of getting X-Men Forever and IM&AW, I decided to pick them both.

Iron Man & The Armor Wars #1
You know, I'm pretty passionate on the subject of how this mini-series should not exist, and yet, I paid $3.99 for it. The cover art is nice, though. Doesn't save the rest of it from being stupid, though. It's a vaguely movie-verse all ages version of Armor Wars that doesn't really remotely resemble the original story and I think that says it all.

X-Men Forever #1-4
Once upon a 1991, Chris Claremont, sole writer of X-Men for about 16 years left the franchise. He returned to Marvel in 2000, but it was just never the same. After a few lackluster runs on X-Men and a franchise killing run on Exiles and this totally awesome series called X-Men: The End in which everyone dies, he's got this new book where the premise is "Remember 1991? Let's pretend Claremont never left and pick up exactly where he left off, only since he used most of the plots he left hanging in X-Treme X-Men a few years ago, it's actually not what he would have done had he never left, but we're going to pretend that it is." And X-Men fans of the '90's rejoice, because FINALLY, here are some characters we care about. (Yeah, Pixie. I'm talking to you.)

--Ew, Logan/Jean.
--I'm not sure if I like having Shadowcat and Nightcrawler on the team. I like both of the characters, but this was their Excalibur era. I loved Excalibur and seeing them all, ~X-Men Rules, Excalibur Drools~ makes me sad.
--Yay, Rogue with her Ms. Marvel powers! Rogue with Ms. Marvel's powers is a far more interesting character than Ms. Marvel.
--Phoooooenix!
--Rogue and Gambit are so cute. I've forgotten what its like to have them sans baggage. They aren't a couple (yet?) in this series, back to pre-hook-up cuteness and fussing.
--And then everyone was unconscious and Wolverine was dead and I have a hard time minding.
--I love the puns in the editor's notes. Marvel doesn't do editor notes very much anymore. I miss them.
--Random Sabretooth attack! I LOVED that they brought back Sabretooth picking a fight with Wolverine on his birthday every year and the aborted plot that Sabs was actually Wolverine's father. And..the X-Men apparently knew that. Okay.
--So, Storm is evil and while fighting her, Kitty sprouts a Wolvie claw..the very claw that was missing from his body. And while you know when this happened, you don't know why. It is pretty freaking weird.
--I fail to see how possessing a single one of Wolverine's claws would make Kitty among the
most dangerous of the X-Men. Shouldn't her combo of Genius and Ninja be doing that?
--Jean gets a costume change. I love it. For when you are almost Phoenix, but not quite.
--Oh, I love how Sabretooth does homage to a really famous Wolvie panel.
--Is it wrong of me to want Sabretooth and Kitty to develop a father-daughter relationship to replace what she had with the dead Wolvie? Because I do. And I think he wants it, too.
--Lil' Storm! I am looking forward to more stories with Lil' Storm. As I have read none. Evil Adult Storm is a fake, Cute Child Storm is the real one. Fun times.

While scanning images, it occured to me that this is really more of a Whitney picspam because I scan every page Whitney is on and only scan the pages Tony is on if he is doing something that relates to Whitney. But, that's the 70's for you, because Whitney is always thinking about how ~in love they are~ and Tony is fighting space monsters. Can you guess which is shippier?

( Yeah, I thought you could. )

I'm going to talk about (one of) my OTP(s) for a minute here. Stuff rolls around in my head and I like to write it down.

( I am some sort of insane conspiracy theorist. )

The following picspam covers The Invincible Iron Man vol. 1 #98-103 and is essentially the story of how those two crazy kids, Tony and Whitney, managed to finally let all the unresolved things between them get resolved.



( Meet Krissy Longfellow... )

What good is this auto-saving the drafts business if when you accidentally delete everything you wrote, you can't go back to the saved draft? Guh. I wrote about five paragraphs on this month's Iron Man and then accidentally deleted it all. Delightfully annoying. I can see the auto-saved thing in the corner, but I can't get my saved draft. Damn thing probably overwrote everything exactly when I deleted it all and then my saved draft was nothing.

ANYWAY.

COMICS.

On Thursday, because I had stuff to do on Wednesday.

The Invincible Iron Man #16
Today, let's go by characters:

Whitney:
-_- They showed her face. You're not supposed to show her face to the reader! It was a really shitty drawing, too. Larroca's art in this series started out HORRIBLE and has only recently taken a turn for the acceptible, so this Anatomy Doesn't Go There face shot of Whitney was really awful. Seriously. One of her eyes was just..like on the edge of her forehead or something. WTF. I get kind of annoyed with how she goes on and on about how Tony broke her heart because she dumped him, but I don't think she's ever exactly been the queen of acknowledging that, so. This bit of the story has been loads of fun and I am glad she's here in all her psycho glory.

Pepper:
Pep was pretty awesome, but I'm still kinda disappointed in her. First off, I thought initially that she had been controlling her armor in the preview pages. Remote control of her armor should not be beyond her abilities, but in fact, the armor's Operating System had taken it upon itself to save her. And an OS that smart has traditionally not been a good idea AT ALL and I'm kind of wondering why on earth Tony made one that was. Second, she and Whitney engaged in unarmed hand-to-hand combat and are about to do some more and..what? I cannot suspend my disbelief that Pepper can handle a fistfight with a supervillian. She comments that Tony has been "training her for a long time" and he has been--certainly as long as Fraction has been in control of the characters, maybe before that--but not in physical combat. Unless there is a revelation in the next issue that Happy taught Pepper to box, I just can't buy this. And I still can't buy the idea that Pepper would WANT to know how to fight with her fists.

I seriously wish Larroca would learn to get consistant on the lenght of Pepper's hair. Two issues ago, it was chin-lenght and now she has a fairly long ponytail. Last issue, she had a very short ponytail. He's also not at all consistant on whether it is a high ponytail or a low ponytail. Oh, and as I flip through looking for hair examples, I notice a gratutious buttshot. Congrats, Pep. You're a real superheroine now.

Maria:
I don't really care for this whole PTSD thing of Maria's. I just can't see the Controller as that big a deal, especially after he actually had control of her for all of two seconds. I can't get over the feeling that this is Maria being "punished" for all the things readers don't like about her so that they can come to like her in the future.

Natasha:
Helping Maria through the stress and trying to get the job done is Ye Ol' Black Widow. She and Maria really seem like they ought to be friends and there was a little bit in this issue that made me feel like they were, nickname usage, for example. (Not the shower thing so much, because anyone who doesn't do what Natasha did there is not a decent human being.) Natasha is also trying to find out what the hell is on that drive and its about damn time someone did.

Tony:
Did a fat lot of nothing in this issue. He was basically just Hero!Pepper's love interest. They were well aware of the reversal. Larocca also sucks at drawing kissing. He's been on this book for 16 issues and there's been only one decent looking kiss, way back in number 10. Tony kisses people too much for the artist of his book to be lousy at depicting it.

Runaways #12
I really enjoy the art and characterization in this book, but I can't help but feel that its not really going anywhere. Even the villians, or at least, the people I assume are the villains, don't give me any sense of tension. I know from reading interviews what the author is going for, I just don't care. But apathy is better than outright hating it, like the last guy's run.

The Mighty Avengers #27 and The New Avengers #55

In the time that Slott has taken over on this book, the following has happened:
A) The team has assembled.
B) They saved the world in Wundagore.
C) They had several adventures that gave them a fair bit of media coverage.
D) Their hideout was attacked by HAMMER and made unlivable.
E) They joined an agency called GRAMPA, and on a mission thereof, encountered the Unspoken.
F) They fought the Fantastic Four
G) They aquired a new, better hideout.

Or comparision's sake, in the same amount of time, The New Avengers have:
A) Saved Baby Cage
B) Fought the Hood
C) Been ambushed by the Hood's gang
D) Ate Chinese food
E) Fought the Hood a few more times.

Hmm...I wonder...which is the more exciting book?

Dark Avengers #7
This is the third part of some crossover with the Uncanny X-Men and I don't even care. I have it so there is not a hole in my collection and for absolutely no other reason.

War Machine #8
I was looking forward to this issue because it guest stars the West Coast Avengers and it is pretty much the worst thing I have ever read.

The former WCA reunite to stop their buddy Rhodey from being fucking insane, only Clint kind of agrees with what he's doing, which is so out of character that I wanted Bobbi to throw him out of the plane. Simon quit having anything to do with the Avengers at all, so I don't even know why he's here. Tigra had like, one cute line and other than that served no purpose.

Pak fails to pay attention to anything even remotely relating to continuity because for some reason Stark Solutions/Stark Enterprises is existing, even though Tony's current company is Stark International and he gutted and liquidated the whole thing in his own book. Meanwhile, everyone actually thinks that Tony is running the company, even though other books have acknowledged that Norman Osbourne is hunting him down like a dog. And they seem to find it reasonable that Tony would drink Ultimo and turn into some giant metal monster. Kristen only stops screaming, "What the shit IS this crap?" when we find out that it is not Tony, but his cousin Morgan who despite never looking exactly like Tony before looks exactly like him now. But that does not excuse the existance of a company that doesn't and the fact that everyone thought that this could be Tony, when they should know he dropped off the grid entirely.

Secret Warriors #6
Fury to HAMMER agents: "Son, you've got about five seconds before I take that gun away from you and beat you to death with it. That goes for the rest of you as well. That's what I thought. Now, just so happens Dum Dum's starting a school for Fury's wayward sons... Any of you boys wanna come home?"

And then 3,000 HAMMER agencts deflect back to Fury.

And that is why he is awesome.

New Mutants #3
I heart Illyana.

So, the comics I ordered the other week arrived today! 17 of them! XD I was a little nervous about the condition because I cheaped out on mostly got comics rated 6.0, but honestly I can't tell the different between a 6.0 and 10.00 '70's comic, so. They are old. They are a little brown around the edges and the coloring doesn't always line up well.

I am thinking I ought to add some new stuff to my Tony/Whitney retrospective. They were only together for a total of 13 issues and spend very little of that time together, which saddens me, because they are so great together. I seriously only think they broke up because the writer changed, right in the middle of a story. I laughed forever when they actually got together. Tony was very caveman about it and it was pretty funny.

I'm also noticing Tony drinking, which is interesting. He rarely drank in the 60's, so when I didn't have any stuff from the 70's but the Demon in a Bottle collection, his drinking seemed to come out of no where and Tony even talks about how he usually doesn't drink in said collection. Up until this point, I'd thought all stories that acted like Tony drank before that era were sloppy retcons, but once you have him drinking bourbon through a straw while wearing armor....not so much. (I mean, I'd seen that in fanart a lot, but no. He actually does that. LOL)

I really dislike Beth's intro. Like, a lot. Tony knew he was being spied on, so he just sort of grabbed the first woman he saw and started romancing her just to look like he didn't know anything was going on. Way to use an innocent civilian, man!

In addition to the old stuff, I also got some more issues that corrolate to Pepper's baby story. Pepper's behavior is fully explained (It was Happy's child and she fears that he won't want to be with her if he realises that he will never be a father while they are together, so she's hiding the miscarriage and basically using Tony as a coping mechanism.). Tony's behavior is pretty much the exact opposite of explained, because he was completely unaware of any UST between him and Pep, so..like...why is their the fantasy sequence of a Tony!baby and him launching into a rage when Ayisha calls the child his? And all the Ty Stone hallucinations about them?

Probably won't get to the comic shop for the newest issue until Thursday, phoo.

I can't stand the thought of waiting another week for Invincible Iron Man #16! I was really nervous over how Fraction was going to handle Tony's response to Whitney, but it was basically exactly what I hoped for. She's crazy-go-nuts, but he sincerely loved her. Upon my first reading, I squee'd when Tony switched from past to present tense with his "I love you"s , but the more I think about it, the more those are probably directed at Pepper. Which still makes me squee, especially because she seems to think they are directed at Whit. Or maybe Whitney is the one saying it present tense. The word balloon doesn't actually lead to a person, just off-panel. Hard to say whose saying it, but given that Whitney starts going off about her and Tony running off into the sunset together, its probably her. And then Pepper gets annoyed at seeing someone throw themself at Tony. That makes sense. And Pepper is going to have to replusor ray a bitch. I knew the idea of a suit without weapons was absurd. On the Maria front, it looks like her stupidity of late can be traced to PTSD or something, because she's apparently having a really hard time dealing with what the Controller did to her a few issues back.

Bask in the glory!

I never should have doubted you, Eisner-winning Matt Fraction!

I had such fun with my Tony and Whitney Retrospective that I decided to make another picspam post.

The story I'm posting is a subplot that ran for a while in Iron Man vol. 3, in 2001-ish and was written by Mike Grell and most of the art was done by Michael Ryan. Like I said, its a side plot, so for the purposes of telling this story, there is a ton of irrelevant stuff going on. Basically...the MAIN plots that were going on at the same time.

I've got issues 53-63. Judging from what I've read online, things about wrap up around issue 67, so expect no actual resolution.

( This is the most confusing baby EVER. )

So, Forbidden Planet was a total bust. From what I hear, comic book shops make their profits by selling back issues, so you always expect a few long boxes of old stuff wherever you go. Me, having completed both of my previous back issue projects, am currently into Iron Man circa 1977 and Iron Man circa 2001.

Forbidden Planet in NYC seems to do their trade mostly in TBPs, collectibles and indy comics. In fact, all of their back issues were "recent." It was a tremendous disappointment. I've got 20 Iron Man book collections. Coming across a TBP or hardcover I don't already have is rare.

They had two things I didn't already have: Crash, what brags to be the first computer generated comic book and Heroes Reborn: Iron Man. I looked over Crash, but all of their copies were in terrible condition and frankly, it looked pretty hokey and irrelevant. So, I went with Heroes Reborn, which to be frank, I didn't even want, but I wasn't about to leave empty handed.

It's so 90's. I started reading comics in the 90's. I have good memories of the '90s. This was bad 90's. This was "About the time I quit reading comic books" '90's.

The collection is 12 issues and I did get into it after a bit, but it had a week opening and frankly, the entire way they went about the Heroes Reborn label is pretty aggravating. People complain about the crossovers and events that are being put out now, but compared to what was put out in the '90's, we have nothing to complain about. Because a storyline that starts in Iron Man #8 is going to continue in Iron Man #9. Sometimes you'll be fuzzy on the details if you don't read other books, but the important stuff stays in its own book. In the '90's, Part 1 of the story is in Avengers, Part 2 is in Iron Man, Part 3 is in the Fantastic Four, Par 4 is in Captain America. Thank you, Marvel. You are a dick. I buy this collection book and I can't even begin to follow several of the storylines because I don't have every collection and I have absolutely no intention of getting the others. And back in the 90's, when I was reading on a monthly basis, yeah, I didn't do the Jump Around to Get the Entire Story then, either. In fact, I quit during one of those. (But to be fair, it had less to do with the jumping and more to do with the subject matter.)

As for the story itself, the Heroes Reborn label was an alternate universe deal that lasted for about a year in late '96-early '97. Marvel killed off all their human heroes, introduced the alternate versions and after a year, combined the alternates with the originals in the mainstream MU in a move that accomplished basically nothing. There were lots of new #1 issues which are always good for sales and some clearly out of decades worth of back story which is always good for the brains of your new readers.

NuTony is a dick for undisclosed reasons. He also seems to have no real understanding or memory of his life at all, because every time someone talks about him, he always seems shocked about it. He flat out never seems to be aware of anything he is doing, until he becomes Iron Man. The origin story is severely lacking.

NuTony is assisted by NuPepper and if I wasn't already a Pepper fan, I doubt I would have been able to stand her. She is not even remotely interesting and offers basically nothing to the book but exposition. The writers seemed to have realized this because after issue, what, 7? she stops being a major player. (Though there's one part near the end where NuTony starts talking about her and all the NuAvengers are like, "What?" because it was the most awkward and unnecessary name-drop known to mankind.)

The cast is huge and I don't like it because tons of these characters are either A) Horrible or B) Not Really People Who Should Be Main Cast of an Iron Man book. Bruce Banner and Betty Ross (who is called Liz in this world) are on NuTony's payroll, as are NuDoc Samson, Nu She-Hulk. Isn't there a separate Hulk book for you people? We've also got a NuHappy and NuJasper. NuJasper really, really bothers me. He's all evil and not geeky or motormouthed. NuHappy only exists for about three pages worth of drama.

The first few issues are the usual Iron Man fare of Tony Dresses Up as a Super-Hero to Fix His Own Messes or Defend People Close to Him and it starts out shaky, but gets better as it goes on. But then they start the crossovers and I just had to give up on even trying to follow the story and just live for snappy bits of dialogue. There were a few bits that I particularly liked.

This one is for completists only and even then it gets a resounding, "Meh."

Stupid back issue-less store.

IIM vol. 1 #162
Because...why not?

IIM vol. 4 #19-20
Because...they are the only issues of the Invincible Iron Man turned Iron Man: Director of SHIELD that I was missing. Part of the World War Hulk cross-over that I could not be less interested in. It ends on a cliffhanger, with directions to the crossover series and I don't even care.

The Mask in the Iron Man
Because...it is one of those rare Iron Man book collections that I don't have. I was actually really shocked to find it, because I've never been able to find it for sale online. I didn't even consider it part of my checklist of books to get, it's so hard to find.

I'm currently in New Jersey visiting my grandparents and while driving to take my little cousins to a park, we passed a comic book shop. One thing that has driven me nuts about this town for years is that I have never once seen a comic book shop, so I wanted to hit this place. We went past it again with an intention of going in, but it was dark and looked closed. And frankly? Seedy looking. We decided not to go there, but my aunt knew of another place and I ducked in there instead. None of these books were things I was particularly looking for, but since the store's Iron Man selection was tiny, I went for this.

Tomorrow, I am going to NYC and hope to go to Forbidden Planet. I'll bet their back issue selection is fantastic.

This issue made my life.

Happy July 1st! You know what that means! The new issue of Iron Man! And all the other stuff I bought when I went to to comic book shop.

The Invincible Iron Man #15
Oh, this issue is good. I am not sure if it would be emotionally possible for me to love Whitney more. She is just so mind-bloggingly awesome. If Tony does not tell her that he really did love her next issue, I will be seriously ticked. She meant the world to him and if you change that now..grah. No. Two weeks ago, I bought back issue from 1977 with them cuddling after defeating a bad guy and captions about happiness and do not ruin that for me, Matt Fraction. Do not. I am afraid that he will because he always seems to follow issues that I love with issues that make me go, "..."

Anywho, on the Not Whiteny front, this issue had some fantastic conversations between Tony and Pepper.

"It's like... Okay, it's like guys--guys in my line of work--the Iron Man line of work, I mean, not the Stark stuff-- There always guys "losing their powers." There's a ray, or a spell, or an accident...it's a thing that happens, okay? And I'd think--me, just being the guy in the suit he made in a cave somewhere--I'd always think--Oh no. Now you're just a normal old person and isn't that the worst thing in the world. You're just like the rest of us now. I'm just like everybody else now, Pepper. I'm just...normal. And I hate being normal. I'm sorry--I bet that sounded really awful and mean and condescending."
"We're all kind of used to it by now. It's okay."

That was..one page of a really fantastic four page conversation that ended on a supremely horrible note. But was awesome. And Pepper was naked for the whole thing (which was awkward and hilarious on Tony's end. He's just like, "I thought it was best to--to...uh..yeah.") but you can't see her Magnet. It usually glows through her skin. Don't know what that's all about.

Between the Whitney and the Not Whitney, this issue was made of pure awesome.

Runaways #11
Thank you, Kathryn Immonen for:

--The epic boy friendship of Victor and Chase. The two of them together have never once made an impact on me--in fact, I can only remember one conversation they have ever had. But you have written them as BFF and as the only boys in a house full of girls, it makes sense and is delightful.
--Nico and Karolina's discussion about Xavin, specifically, giving Nico a criticism of K's and Xavin's relationship that is not rooted in any kind of jealousy. Nico and Karolina actually feel like friends and their conversation is actually coming off as sincere. So often, they just have this forced, fabricated UST. There is no writing Nico as into Karolina romantically that comes off as sincere or organic. NONE.
--Victor maybe being into Nico, please? Stupid Whedon.
--I am all right with the Runaway that died, because it was someone that I had absolutely no interest or attachment to.
--Are you actually going to make Klara a passibly interesting character? Best of luck!


That you, Sarah Pichelli for:

--Nico's epically huge hair. I miss the spikes, but as long as its not the straight, sleek hair she had in Moore's run, I can get behind it.

Marvel Divas #1
Like most people in the universe, when I heard about this book, saw the cover and read the solicit, my reaction was, "You have to be fucking kidding me." And then I saw a few pages of interior art and an interview with the writer and was all, "Huh. That is not really what the cover implies or the solicit promises. At all." Now, it is a well-known fact that covers lie and solicits mislead, but they are usually somewhat related to the actual contents.

The art is fantastic. It is unlike anything I've seen from any other artist, but something I would love to see more off.

I'm not even six pages in as I write this entry, and I am already in love with the writing. It is so spectacularly self-aware.

I have never read a book with ANY of these four girls before and I already love them.

But then I liked the rest of the book significantly less than the beginning.

Secret Warriors #5
This book is so made of pretty. If they ever change the artist, I will probably lose interest. I always have trouble remembering what happened from one issue to the next. I don't think it comes out every month, which is bad for my memory.

But then I loved the first sequence. But I seriously need to go do some research on HYDRA, because I have no clue who these guys are, beyond "Bad Guys."

FUCK! JASPER!

Okay, number one: Jasper better be all right. He's probably going to be fine. But he's Jasper and I love him, so he BETTER BE ALL RIGHT.

Number two, it is about damn time the Caterpillars got involved with what Nick is doing.

New Avengers #54
#1: I wonder why I still read this book because I do not find it even remotely interesting. I guess for Clint and Bobbi.
#2: I wonder where this takes place in relation to IIM, because both books have Whitney running around. I am somewhat inclined to say that she went after Tony after what went down in New Orleans, but that Norman first started talking to her about it before NO. But I do understand that it is actually impossible to get this stuff to synch up. That's like asking why is Carol alive in New Avengers, but dead in her solo book?
#3: I am honestly surprised at the amount of character overlap in this book and Marvel Divas.

Dark Avengers #6
Meh. It's got a few amusing moments. It's weird...when I first started reading Avengers, I totally loved Bendis. And now, maybe a year later, I find everything he touches to be the height of boring.

In OOOOOOOOOther News, I finished my second back issue project today. I now have everything from Stane through Armor Wars, too. Which means I have IIM vol. 1 #163 straight through to #232. How rad is that? I was originally thinking when I had all of this, I'd go further back and fill in the 150's and remaining 160's, too, but now I am thinking I ought to stop for now. So, I'll wait and see in what manner my self-control fails next month.

what pure and undiluted happiness looks like, it looks like this.

Oh, Matt Fraction, I did not love you last month, but I love you this month. And the only way I could love you more is if you gave me a Tony/Pepper/Whitney threesome. But seriously, Tony and Pepper macking while Whitney watches through the sight of a gun is pretty damn amazing, so.

So..this year, I FINALLY went to the Heroes Convention. I have lived in a city with its own comic convention for 14 years and this is the first year I have actually gone. It's open today, tomorrow and Sunday, but being as I have to work both days of the weekend and it at 6, I could only go today.

My haul is as follows:
--An Iron Man glass.
--Mini Marvels: Rock, Paper, Scissors, signed by Chris Giarrusso. I went with the intention of having Matt Fraction sign something and to get a commission from Giarrusso, but I had nothing for Fraction TO sign, since I thought bringing comics to the convention would be weird and didn't want to buy something that I already had just for that purpose, and I wound up chickening out of trying to get a commission. The other artist that I wanted a commission from wasn't there. But, signed book. I had such a brain fart, too, that it never would have even occured to me to ask him to sign it. He asked me if I would like it signed and I was like, "Okay."
--Back issues: Iron Man # 104-109, 116, 118, 178, 214-215. This means my Tony vs. Stane checklist is DONE. WOOT. And I got a bunch of issues with Madame Masque. I didn't pay the advertised price for most of them, which is pretty cool. One booth, the total of my purchases was $37 and they charged me $25 instead.

Other than buying things, conventions aren't really all that interesting. There were panels, but I didn't go to any. I like the writers and all, but I don't really have any interest in listening to them talk. When I read interviews, I skip to the parts about books I'm interested in.

I expected to see more costumes than I did. There were some Klingons trying to drum up donations for Hospice, two Jokers (one of which had minions and a crowbar), a Wonder Woman and Isaiah Bradley.

The artist tables were fun, but I wasn't familiar with most of the people there, so I didn't want to buy their art.

I was a liiiiittle nervous about going because I've heard lots of stories about women being harrassed at comic conventions, but the only comments I got were people joking about my t-shirt, which features an entire crowd of Iron Men.

In the end, worth going once, but I probably won't go again.

ARGH.

One of the back issues I bought today has about half a page worth of story CUT OUT because on the other side was a subscription order form.

I wonder if I should return it..?

Stupid 1983. We don't have this problem anymore! Now, you just sign up for a subscription online.

Let's start with the checklist. I am currently missing one issue of the Stark vs. Stane epic. ONE. #178, where are you?

Moving on to recent stuff:

The Invincible Iron Man #14
I really enjoyed the preview, but the issue as a whole was rather boring and I am starting to wish that Fraction had done this storyline differently. I know he wants it to be epic and redefine the post-CW Iron Man into someone actually likeable, but maybe something like 8 issues would have served better. And maybe written in a way in which people aren't so freaking stupid. Look, Pepper went after Tony which is dumb for two reasons. First, it proves that Tony can be tracked. Sooo...yeah, people are going to be tracking him and its as easy as finding evidence of replusor use. Second, even if they bad guys aren't tracking him themselves, they can still just follow Pepper. Actually going after Tony seems to me to be the absolute dumbest choice Pepper could have made. Unless she later on does something MAJOR that proves she ABSOLUTELY NEEDED to have followed him less the entire world is destroyed, she's an idiot.

Also, Iron Tits officially has a superhero name: Rescue.
Points for not being 'Iron Woman' or 'Iron Girl' (which I had heard were the top contenders after Fraction learned he could not use 'Iron Maiden' like he wanted to) but still kind of a dumb name. Sure, it is what she does, but there is no panache. But since I still think Rescue will last only as long as this arc and then Pepper will hang up her iron boots forever, I'm not going to let it bother me.

Something that does bug me is the art. Pepper and Natasha look so similiar that when Natasha was first shown I was REALLY confused. It wasn't until after she was refered to by name that I realised who it was. And it wasn't until after that that I realised that her longer hair and absense of a glowing repulsor in her chest should have clued me in that this was not Pep. Also...Maria Hill doing somethng big and flashy to get Natasha's attention? Also stupid.

About the only person in this entire issue who wasn't an idiot was Col. Bukharin, who told Normie that he was going to go out of his way to screw HAMMER over. Russians are awesome like that.

New Avengers: The Reunion
"This isn't a catfight. This is me kicking your ass."
Bobbi is awesome because she knows that when a female superhero fights another female IT. IS. NOT. A. CATFIGHT.

I love her coat. I hope to see the costume changed reflected in New Avengers soon, if she stays in NA. I suppose she has to, unless they make a WCA book for Birdie, Ronin and Twitchy. (Please do that?)

I didn't understand a word of the incrediably phoney comic science, but all in all, its a statisfying ending.

The Mighty Avengers #25
The flashback this one opens up with makes me so sad. And while I overall love the art, I don't care for the way Jan was drawn in her one panel.

I love how Quicksilver is such a dick and I love how utterly porny Jocasta is. I don't know why I feel like that suits her, I just do. Possibly because she's practically Hank's Jan blow-up doll.

"Actually, Reed, after Bill was--after Bill died, the device was left to me. But I wasn't on Earth at the time because you-- Because I'd been replaced by a Skrull. It went to Ben by default." Well, there's an argument that makes no sense if I've ever heard one. Shouldn't it have gone to Skrull!Pym, if it was willed to Hank?

Ban-luck is adorable.

If they Salvation Two can only exist in Pym Pocket space, doesn't that make it useless?

The Mighty Avengers #26
Cassie is awesome.
Hank needs to not kiss robots.
Jarvis needs to stop walking in on them.
Sue needs to not run away to Wakanda with the kiddies when the Baxter Building is attacked.
I'm not sure if I am proud of Cassie or not. On the hand, telling Sue was the right thing to do. Hank is being insane with this. On the other, she betrayed her team.
Of course, Reed is being pretty insane, too. Everyone being unreasonable is really NOT the way to go.
Also, I thought Val was HIDING how smart she is. "Their movements are too orchestrated. See? They're only going after vital systems." She's like...two and this is how she talks.
Though,

EPIC FAIL!
xoxo
valeria.richards@fan4.com

is cute...
Thank you, Jarvis, for pointing out how freaking creepy she and Hank are to Jocasta.
And now...things are even weirder. Yaaaay.

War Machine #7
...huh?

Pros:
--I like the art in this storyline A LOT better than the art in the first. It's not so gritty.
--The flashbacks actually have Rhodey acting like I am used to seeing him acting from all the back issues I read. Which is to say...not so gritty. Making jokes, being heroic. The battle going on in the present, too, he's more heroic than last time. First storyline, he was just all *kills people who deserve it* and I don't like that so much. Now he's just trying to contain Ultimo without hurting any people. Much more superhero-y.
--Beth actually got to do something! (But if Fraction can't use Iron Maiden for Pep, Pak can't use it for Beth, Jakey.)

Cons:
--I am so confused. When did this become about the robot?
--Is it just me or does this issue's ending make no sense at all? Does that company even still EXIST? And who the hell would actually believe that Stark has ANYTHING to do with this? He's kiiiiinda busy killing himself.

Dark Avengers #5
~Oooooh, if I didn't like the Sentry and Ares so much, I would stop reading this book! And that is the Stop Reading this Book Soooooong~
--I cannot begin to buy that Norman as Green Goblin is public knowledge and that everybody is just okay with that. I don't care if he's ~healed,~ (which he is so not), but a murky past should STILL be killing his career.
--Thank you, Ares, for finally realising your son is gone.
--Poor Noh-Var. Oooouch.

New Mutants #2
It is SO nice to see the parent of a mutant being protective of her child and refusing, refusing, refusing to give up or give her to strangers. Not the right thing to do...but still nice... And then they died. Nice book.

Nice little touches...Roberto's eyes tear up when he goes flying with Sam. Given Sam's speed...that seems like the correct response.

Needs moar Illyana.

Tony vs. Stane Checklist:
Ordered: --
Have: #163-169, #182-200
Still Needed: #170-181

Eleven issues to go. Might finish the project this Wednesday, depending on what the LCS has. If not, there's a convention next weekend...

And once I have them all, I really ought to read them in order.