Least Disappointing of the Week:
Lockjaw and The Pet Avengers Unleashed # 4
Writer: Chris Eliopoulos
Artist: Ig Guara
Why Pet Avengers? I love you so much, why do you have to do this to me? I'm trying to sing your praises to anyone who will listen and this is how you repay me: with a sub-par finale to a sub-par mini series.
I really, REALLY want this to be good, but it just isn't; it's lacking the magic of that first book. The fun character interplay is gone, the gender-confused Ms. Lion gets way too much panel time, and Throg went from being the emotional center of the team to generic leader type (not to mention that they changed his name from the awesome THROG to the significantly less awesome Frog Thor). I don't know what to say.
The theme of the series was finding one's place in the world, which is great, but they don't set it up at all, aside from Throg. Throg, who's journey we should be focused on, is tossed to the side as we are introduced to the last-minute villain (a little girl) and a hastily tacked on love plot between a Yeti and a Unicorn. While each plotline is about finding oneself and their place in the world, we never feel that moment of realization from anyone because no one is given the time to make that decision on panel.
It was all just kinda... underwhelming.
Most Disappointing of the Week:
Age of Heroes # 2
Writer: Various
Artist: Various
Ugh. Where to start with this thing? So much potential; So much unfulfilled promise.
The book's divided into four stories, two long and two very very short. We get long ones on Gravity (one of my favs) and American Son (ugh), while two short ones on the Young Masters (From the latest Young Avengers mini) and Gauntlet (from Avengers: Initiative). Of the four of them, I was greatly interested in three of them. I'll let you guess which one I didn't care about.
So what sucked about it?
First off the Gravity story, which was supposed to fill in the gap between Avengers: Initiative and Young Allies, was a whole lot of nothing. Here's a guy that has been a victim of circumstance.
His first miniseries is VASTLY under-rated and totally awesome, setting him up to be the Spier-Man for the 2000s in the 616. His next big appearance in the Beyond miniseries, had him showcase what made him so awesome; also it killed him. He came back from the dead during Dwayne McDuffie's Fantastic Four run, and then promptly joined an Initiative team in Nevada when he returned to Earth. The last we saw him, he had been transfered back to his home state of Wisconsin to serve with the Great Lake Avengers, much to his chagrin.
Alright, so background aside, what I wanted from this story is HOW he re-integrated himself back into New York and his life there. People knew he died. People knew he came back. Somehow his identity and all that was erased magically.
What? When? How? Why?
Instead of these answers, we get a story of Gravity deciding he should still be Gravity after he accidentally gets two kids killed during a villain fight. It was just... so not what I wanted to read about.
The Gauntlet and Young Masters stories were even worse. Here are some characters that were introduced and are in great big danger of falling into to limbo. I wanted a great send off for them. Where are they? What're they doing? What's their status quo? Instead we see Gauntlet in Afghanistan congratulating the soliders there for being real heroes (nothing wrong with that sentiment, just not the right place for it), while the Young Masters sit around wondering if they're good or evil. I.. what?!?!
If you can't tell, it was all very frustrating.
And that's all I got this week. All I got that was new anyway. I picked up The List: Wolverine for a dollar and it was AMAZING. Thank god for Jason Aaron and his crazy ideas, otherwise I'd be really upset this week.
Give me a glimmer of hope, how was your week?
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