Lets start off this week with 'Doctor Voodoo', the dude that replaced one of my favs as Sorcerer Supreme in the MU.

Was Jericho ever a 'doctor'? I know he's a shaman, or priest, something like that, and while I'm not totally familiar with the character, calling him 'doctor' is kind of stretching it. I'm not totally averse to changing things up, but I can't get behind a wannabe doctor. Keeping the name 'Brother Voodoo' would've been cool, no need to rip off another characters name (or parts thereof). Who knows, maybe the next title to come out will be 'Brother Strange'... Stephen can sport some gold chains since he doesn't have The Eye of Agamotto anymore. Word.

Haven't felt the need to pick up Astonishing X-men since collecting again, but the latest story looks to be promising... and who can pass up The Brood? Yep, another title added to my pull-list. (Who knows, maybe Frost can get impaled and Wolverine can put her out of her and my misery. The one character that shouldn't be an X-Man as far as I'm concerned.)

Hulk has been a decent read, but getting tired of waiting to see who the 'Rulk' really is... GET ON WITH IT ALREADY!! And now we have a 'She-Rulk'... who didn't see that coming? (Answer: Me. I honestly didn't think about it, despite Marvel's penchant for making 'Lady This' and 'Lady That' lately. THANK GOD 'Lady Rulk' is too stupid to use.) (Message to Brubaker: Oh King of Offing Characters, make yourself useful and off Lady Bullseye. And Lady Mastermind. And Lady Sinister [or whatever the hell shes called]. Matter of fact, have Lady Deathstrike do it, she can get tired of all the 'Ladies' running around and show everyone that originality counts for something. )

Thats it for now, stop by next week for more ranting, raving, mind-bending diatribes...

Word.

-tom

PS: And 'No' I'm not falling for this 'Daredevil is just giving up all his morals and sacrificing some people to save an unknown majority'... good try, wonder how that story will pan out.

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Herc has been a good read, like it much better when my favorite Greek demigod is the focus of the comic (like he should be). (I often think of him as 'Herc-a-jerk'... because, lets face it, Herc is probably the biggest jerk in the MU 8 days a week. And we love him for it! ) Anyway, liked the HercuThor/Thorcules story, nothing like a good slugfest, even if it is only mock battle. And though the art isn't my favorite, the style rather fits the story so its cool, too.

I, also, am a master of the 'Elvish tickler'.

Onto XvAoA, good story and art, but theres that old "Wolverine knows everybody" part of the story that could have been left out... Wolvie and M-11. Also have a bit of a problem with the Agents going around stealing stuff... I don't really know the idea behind AoA, from what I gather they're pretending to be bad-guys while doing the good-guy bit. This is just silly though, I mean why not go after a supervillian who has mutant detecting capabilities and whoop their butts, and take their tech/whathaveyou? Not like their aren't plenty of them still running around. Of course it makes even less sense since there ain't a whole lot of mutants running around anymore!

And last, but only 'cause I always leave the best for last, is UXM 516. Decent artwork, decent story, but some things just ain't kosher to me these days. Mags coming back as a mutant is somewhat expected, and for all the right reasons. But for Professor X to go apetit on Mags is way out of character, not to mention Cyke being Mr. Understanding. P-X was and always should be the understanding, helping, forgiving great-granddaddy of mutantkind. Cyke was and always should be the warrior that doesn't buy the bull super dudes are trying to shovel Chuck's way, and is more than ready to show bad guys the door before they can pull the trigger on the X-Men. (Thank you, Ed Brubaker, for turning 35 years of UXM into a clown show that most people wouldn't understand if they just happened to be gone for a decade.)(Jerk.) I'm also kind of annoyed at other things like the X-men being a team of... well, everybody thats a mutant. Used to be, to be an X-man, you had to get accepted. Now its whoever the flavor of the month is. Someone needs to get a handle on that gaggle and start keeping it in line. UXM, Astonishing, Legacy... make blue, gold, and mauve teams, something... and stick the Wolvster on one of them and out of the others. I know, I know, Marvel's gonna milk Logan/James/Barney/whatever for all he's worth, but DAMN I wish it would stop! Back to Mags, I'm wondering what he's got to do with the newest mutant, the little girl with Cable. My guess is Mags decides to pull a Brutus and conspires against Caesar Cyclops and goes after the baby. Yep, hail Caesar.

Hope a good lot comes in next week, won't have Blackest Night to supplement my weekly reading forever.

-tom

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(**Sorry, no foil, holograms, variants, or sketches involved.)

Been reading back issues of 'Captain America' and The Falcon, didn't know it was going to be good for some gut wrenching laughs. Almost fell off my bed the first time Falc called some chick 'Mama', but the grand-bull-moose-winner was when The X-Men teamed up with CA&F and Falc calls Marvel Girl...

"...Marvel Mama!"

Man, Sam sure has changed since the days of the 70's.

-tom

"Marvel Mama!"

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Good to hear that some other long time hulkophiles  agree with me.

Plenty of pickups this week, going to start with X-Men: Legacy #228. WTH is up with that 'art'? It might be cool as a cover job every decade, but come on, its a far cry from Jim Lee or Adam (Andy?) Kubert. Steal Ivan Reis from GL or something, but please stop hiring the guy that did this last issue. The story is moving along nice, but I don't know the 'villain' Emplate very well... and the hand-thing is kinda silly for a mutant, gotta find out what this dudes story is. (I love Wikipedia )

Next up is Mighty Avengers #30, which has been a good and steady read, good artwork.

Somebody, anybody, please kill Wiccan. Lamest character since Superpro. (Speedball was cool, Penance was gay.)

Back to MA#30, Slott and Gage have been doing good stuff, but this Hank Pym is 'Scientist Supreme' according to Eternity... wow, someone pinch me. This is almost as bad as Wiccans power (and costume) or 'Doctor' Voodoo. And someone needs to put a lock on just how 'smart' these characters get, because the things they do nowadays damn near makes them gods. (I'll get to Banner in a minute.) On the good side, Quicksilver is back to being on the side of the angels. Never liked the idea of him being a villian, Pietro and Wanda have been good-guys since they quit Magneto back in the day. Stop f'in with the dude.

Hulk #603 was a weird read, all the moreso since Banner is suddenly the 'Geek Supreme'. Lets see, Bruce Banner, Gamma Radiation expert... also killer computer geek who just happens to make guns. Whatever happened to specializing in a field and not being Mr. Know-It-All? Next up Tony Stark will come out with an armor that has gamma powered repulsors.

Speaking of Tony, in Invincible Iron Man #19 Stark gets bashed and trashed by everyones favorite psycho Osborn. Apparently Tony is also the worlds smartest vegetable. But this is only temporary, since he's one of the Mr. Know-It-Alls in the MU, and will undoubtedly grow himself a new brain from an eggplant and some copper. (Don't ask me how, I'm not one of the geniuses who thinks this stuff up... but I can see the future on occasion. ) And Potts as the interim 'Iron Man' is cool, so long as they don't call her 'Lady Iron' or anything of the sort.

*As we all know Richards is the smartest geek on the planet, but at least he was 'groomed' to be the smartest geek on the planet. I'm sure he has his specializations in science somewhere, even if I can't remember them, but he has always been shooting off into other branches of science, seemed like every issue he was into something new. Now, all of a sudden, we've got this "I'm the seventh smartest dweeb on the planet, don't mess with me!" thing going on... and they all know EVERYTHING. I'm not sure, but Einstein was a smart cookie, yet he didn't go making a telephone and clones while trying to figure out the Unified Field Theory. My favorite genius, Tesla, covered a few didn't areas but they were still under one umbrella... electricity, radio waves, taking a stab at the UFT... but he didn't go and make clones. Or even dissect frogs. You know what I'm saying?

-tom

**I still want to know if the myth of Tesla making an engine that was powered by 'the ether' existed. Worlds smartest dude. EVER.

***Edison was a jerk and a tard. For those of you that don't know, Tesla's AC motor is on display at the Smithsonian next to Edison's bust. Yes, there is still injustice in the world.

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