Its another Wednesday and another show. This time, we take a break from the games and look at a movie, a new title from DC and we follow up on our conversation a few weeks ago about Dollhouse to see how its progressed after a few episodes.

This week we look at:

• the Punisher Warzone DVD
• a follow up on Dollhouse
• Flash Rebirth # 1

As always leave any feedback in the comments section or drop us an email at podcast at verbal brew dot com.

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The New Avengers #50: Dark Reign

Published by Marvel

Written by: Brian Bendis

Art: Billy Tan, Matt Banning and Justin Ponsor with a shit load of guest artists.

I was meaning to do this review I little while ago, but I’ve been busy and didn’t have the time to really sit down and give this the read it needed. But as it is, I’m done with it and this is what I thought.

Like I had stated before, the whole Dark Avengers thing was a bit confusing to me since I hadn’t had the chance to read #1 of that title. Well, this issue of the New Avengers guest stars the Dark Avengers and there was  a lot of  explaining concerning the things I didn’t get earlier. For that reason alone I enjoyed reading this comic.

Things I know now; Tony Stark took the blame for the skrull invasion (why I don’t know yet), the Venom of the Dark Avengers is actually Scorpion with the venom symbiote (which I knew he had before but I thought didn’t anymore, it’s still a dumb idea that Venom/ Scorpion wants to eat people), Spider-Woman has ginormous breasts and is very self conscious about how her team views her (rightfully so. Apparently during the Skrull invasion one of the main antagonists was a Skrull done up to look like her), and Hawkeye, for whatever reason, dress’ in Black and yellow with a full mask and goes by the name Ronin. Don’t ask me why.

What I do know is that this was an enjoyable read. It’s a thick book with a special sneak peek into a Fantastic Four story at the end of it (I could have done with out this because personally I think the fantastic four are as exciting as watching the shopping channel).

Right off the bat there is a lot of humor involved as the New Avengers watch a video of the Dark Avengers and try to make heads or tails of whats going on. Bendis is a really good writer who for the most part keeps me entertained while reading his books. The banter between the characters, especially in the first half of the book was very enjoyable.

Things did slow down for me around the middle of the book though. The story changed a bit and it didn’t work for me. It’s here where for eight pages we are treated to single shots of different members of the New Avengers as they have a little bit of alone time with their inner thoughts… while beating the crap out of the bad guys. For each of the eight pages one is dedicated to a certain character such as Captain America or Spider-Woman, and there is a different artist for each of the eight pages.  Art really is a personal thing, so you may like one of the pages more so then the other, and they are all very distinct styles within the eight pages.

So, with a few exceptions, the art is pretty solid  through out the entire book, but its really Bendis’ writing style that makes this book fun.

This book is also a Marvel title and is written by Mark Miller and penciled by Steve McNiven. I have been waiting for this one for some time now. Unlike the Dark Avengers I have been buying this run of Wolverine titled “Old Man Logan”. I’m not sure why, but there was a long wait from the last issue to this one and I was very excited to get it.

The concept of “Old Man Logan” is that it’s fifty years in the future. At one point all of the villains unite to take over America (yes, the rest of the world is shit and the villains only want America). They defeat the heroes and then divide America up into their own territories. Logan’s a poor farmer who, because of some untold reason, has not “popped his claws” in fifty years. He has a wife and two children, I might be wrong about the kids. There might be more or less, but who cares?

Now, after fifty years, Hawkeye seeks out Logans help to cross America. Logan agrees to this for a price because as I said before he’s a poor farmer now and needs the cash to pay off his land lords the evil Hulk Clan. In this issue Logan explains the reason why he hasn’t “popped his claws” in fifty years.

There, I think that more or less gets you up to speed.

So, lets get the good out of the way. Steve McNivens art is great. Its original and very pretty. Matter of fact, his art may be the only reason I waited so long for the latest issue of this series.

Now, I get to rip this issue a new one. The whole thing starts out with X-Mansion  being attacked by a rouges gallery of who’s who in the Marvel world of villains. At this point one gets the feeling that something corny is going to happen to explain his herolessness for fifty years because there’s a bunch of children running for cover and I thought “for Christ sake, is killing one kid going to explain this?”  But fear not no children where harmed in the making of this comic.

Instead, it turns out that the villains where not in fact villains but Logans team mates. Huh? you might ask well, an unexpected villain has clouded Logans mind and forced him to kill all his friends who then gloats  “Did you really think you could do this alone? Take down forty super- villains? Talk about delusions of grandeur. But your friends. People who would hesitate.That’s a different matter entirely”.

This is where my first problem with this issue comes in, why would they hesitate? yeah the first couple might not know what to do but this is the mother f’n X-men we’re talking about. Someone would have tried to stop him. At the end of the day all Iceman had to do was freeze him. It just seemed to easy.It made me think that he should have killed the children instead. At least then it would seem plausible.

Next, why did it take so long to come out? Maybe there’s a reason, but this was an art driven story. The dialog is none existent. It’s not until the last quarter of the book that we actually get panel by panel dialogue. Really, the whole thing only took about five minutes to read!

This issue  seems a little anticlimactic to me. I have been enjoying this run of Wolverine and I’m sure that I’ll get the next issue, but I was disappointed in this one.

Dark Avengers #2. This title is put out by Marvel, is written by Bendis, with art by Deodato. Unfortunately for me I have to review this as a single issue because I missed out on issue 1. It was my fault, but the good people at my local comic store are trying to find me a copy or at the very least get me a re-print.

The concept is pretty simple as far as I can tell. Aliens (Skrulls) attacked earth, things are all upside down, Stark is guilty of… well I’m not really sure what he’s guilty of but it is alluded to in this issue that he had something to do with or didn’t do enough to stop the attack. Because of this S.H.E.I.L.D. is disbanded and a new super security group H.A.M.M.E.R. is started up headed by Osborn, of Green Goblin fame, and now has a costume that is a cross between Iron Man and Captain America and is calling himself…….(there’s not enough dots for this)….. The Iron Patriot, I kid you not.

In this issue Iron Pat is assembling his new group of Avengers, made up of super-villains who look like pre-existing heroes, to go and help out Dr. Doom. Now, maybe its just because I missed all of Secret Invasion and issue 1 of this title, but most of this didn’t make much sense to me. It wasn’t a bad read though. It was entertaining enough to keep the me turning the pages, which I guess makes it readable.

I had the same feeling reading this that I get when I turn on WWE for the first time in a long time, who’s that? Should I care what they are doing? and I’m hungry, what should I snack on?

Again, the whole thing is written very well with Osborn carrying the book and doing a great job at keeping his Avengers in line. I was at times confused about what the true intentions are of this new group. Everyone talks with that stereo typical bad guy bravado but Osborn seems to rein them in because he wants the public to see them in a positive light. I’m only to assume that this is for greater plan of his (theirs) because near the end of the book he allows Sentry Bob to rip the head off of their foe, Morgana. I’m not sure how the general public would react to that.

The art i s exceptional, I’m in awe of Mike Deodato’s use of shadows. The first two pages are probably 60% shadow and it looks great.

Matter of fact, everything about this book is good except for the supporting cast. I look at other titles that are group orientated and someone or someones usually stands out. Not this time baby. Everyone with the exception of Osborn is just blah and uninviting. At some point Venom can change his size from Peter Parkerish to Tyrannosaurus Rex size and he eats a guy. Have I been out of the comic world that long that Venom now eats people, next you’ll be telling me the Hulk is red!!!

At the end of the day, I think if you’re fan of comic book art and story telling you’ll enjoy this one. But if you’re just getting into comics as a whole, this one might confuse you.

what did you think?

Andrew