Unreachable Star Reviews April 30th, 2008 (SPOILERS)

This is our 257th edition. Four books this week, which is a pretty
big week as of late, and as I'm running a little late, they're
going to be short. I will warn there will be significant spoilers
for the ending of Ultimate X-Men.

This week we have...

Avengers: The Initiative #12 - 3 Stars
DC Universe Zero - 2.75 Stars
New Warriors #11 - 3 Stars
Ultimate X-Men #93 - 2.75 Stars

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Avengers: The Initiative #12 - "Changing of the Guard" (Writers: Dan
Slott & Christos N. Gage, Artist: Steve
Uy)

Henry Peter Gyrich attends a hearing to determine what went wrong in
the KIA debacle, and we catch up with what's happened to many of the
characters since.

The storyline is okay, for what it is, but I was annoyed at the lack
of any indication of real change in the management of the
Initiative.
It looks like it'll just be more of the same, albeit with a new
scapegoat. Some of the characters involved look to be making a
significant change, but I'm not too interested in where they're going.

The book officially reveals the deaths of the last arc, and it seems
the only casualties were one of the MVP clones, Dragon Lord, and
Trauma. One of those is reversed within the issue. I'll give you
three guesses which. It was, of course, the only one of those who
fans of the book are likely to care about. When they confirmed his
death I was a little annoyed at the cheap waste in an attempt to add
weight to a story, but when they brought him back it was even worse.

The book also graduates many of the old recruits, and although it
doesn't introduces the new, I've seen a preview of them online, and
there's not a one among them I feel attached to. The book already
has far too big a cast to get enough spotlight on the characters I
like, and even if they're not leaving the book entirely, their slice
of the pie is apparently shrinking a lot. So I have to make this my
last issue of this title, and it feels fitting that this happens in
the issue they graduate.

Review: 3 stars

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DC Universe Zero (Writers: Grant Morrison & Jeoff Johns, Art: Various)

I haven't bought a DC Universe book in months, but this is a 50 cent
book so I thought I'd try it out and give them a chance to tempt me
for any of the stuff coming up in Final Crisis.

That's pretty much what this is. There's a brief teaser for many
of the storylines or miniseries that feed into Final Crisis. Yet,
from the perspective of someone who's not been reading any DC books
recently (or was ever too into them), none of them are terribly
exciting. They either rely too much on familiarity with where
the stories are now to even make sense, or they just don't excite.
The best of them is probably the Wonder Woman, which manages a
clear tease that even someone who'd only heard of Wonder Woman
wouldn't feel too lost (except with some of the minor characters),
but isn't enough to sell me personally on picking up a DC book
again.

The story does a neat trick with the narration bubbles gradually
becoming more clear (and if you haven't already heard the spoiler
I'm not going to say it), but all in all this doesn't feel like a
story, merely an ad I've been tricked into paying 50 cents for. Were
it any more, I'd feel ripped off.

Review: 2.75 stars

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New Warriors #11 - "Thrashed, Part Three" (Writer: Kevin Grevioux,
Penciler: Paco Medina, Inker: Juan Vlasco,
Colorist:
Marte Gracia)

Jubilee decides to come back to the team, and Night Thrasher sends
them out on another mission. Also, the former New Warriors face some
uncomfortable questions about the new group.

It's not a great issue, but it's at least mildly exciting and there's
some nice tension built up with Night Thrasher's true motives and the
mess the New Warriors have gotten into as a result. I suppose that's
enough to make it my Pick of the Week, solely because there was
nothing in it that truly annoyed me, but the book is still on the
edge of me dropping it for good.

The New Warriors scenes take place before Avengers: The Initiative,
and sort of serves as a foreshadowing for what happens there. I'm
left to wonder if they'll be moving here or still participating in
both books. If they are moving here, it hopefully won't be for too
long, as the book's cast is large enough as it is.

Review: 3 stars

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Ultimate X-Men #93 - "Apocalypse Conclusion" (Writer: Robert Kirkman,
Artist: Harvey Tolibao, Colors: Jay David Ramos)

The Phoenix battles Apocalypse.

Robert Kirkman ends his run on the title, and, in retrospect, it was
not a terribly good run. It started fairly well but quickly got
bogged down in mediocrity and lost any of the energy the other writers
had built up. I said I was going to drop the book after him, but that
was because I thought Jeph Loeb was following immediately after. As
it turns out, there's a short period where another Heroes writer takes
over. I suppose I'll check out his first issue at least.

As for this one? Well, it's almost the defining example of a Deus
Ex Machina ending. Phoenix arrives, solves everything, and then
pushes a big reset button, undoing many of the deaths in the arc
and the damage to the city and any of the sense that things may
have changed in the arc. In fact, with a few exceptions, it
effectively resets the status quo to what it was several arcs back.
Which undoes even the good things about those last few arcs, and
makes them even more of a waste. It's not even exciting because
once Phoenix arrives, there's pretty well no doubt she'll defeat
Apocalypse, and yet the fight drags on for 12 tiresome (but still
rather pretty) pages.

A waste.

Review: 2.75 stars

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Well, that's it for this week folks. Next week, according to the
shipping list, there's just Young X-Men #2.

See you next time...

Peter Dimitriadis
http://www.unreachablestar.net
The Unreachable Star - Comics & SF News/Reviews/Opinion