The Mighty Avengers Vol. 1: Assemble

This is the first volume of Brian Michael Bendis's second Avengers title The Mighty Avengers.  Tony Stark won the Civil War & has been made the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. now he is putting together United States sanctioned Avengers team.  Stark brings in Ms. Marvel as team leader but instead he is the one really running the show.  Other Marvel characters to debut in this collection as part of the Mighty Avengers are Wasp, Sentry, Wonder Man, Black Widow & Ares.  Unlike Luke Cage & company in New Avengers this team is all over the place the only characters that have any real chemistry are former Avengers.  There are two main story-arcs in this collection The Initiative story is first showing the team take on their first threat in the form of Ultron taking over Tony Stark's new Extremis suit.  The second story-arcshows the Avengers taking on a Symbiote attack on New York City.  This attack leads the Avengers to Latveria to take on Doctor Doom.  Overall the second story is really great with twist & turns & it ties in with what has been happening in New Avengers & how they found out that Elektra was a Skrull.  Now Iron Man has been informed by Jessica Drew aka Spider-Woman that Elektra was a Skrull & shares the fears of Luke Cage's team that this is the start of an impending invasion.  The first story in this book sucked to high heaven Ultron in a female body that resembles Janet Van Dyne is just a horrible premise.  There are two major complaints I have about this book other than the Ultron story.  First I really hate the change of writing style were the inner monologue is connected with the spoken dialog this created confusion all through the first half of the book.  The second problem I have with this collection is the art work.  Frank Cho just does not seem to bring his A game to this book I have seen great Cho work before & this just doesn't work.  Bendis is setting up Secret Invasion quite nicely in this book & setting up Tony Stark for the biggest fall of his life since the Demon in a Bottle story.

Little Nemo: Return to Slumberland

Winsor McCay was ahead of his time in comics & his creation of Little Nemo's Adventures in Slumberland is a timeless classic.  I was first introduced to Nemo & friends as a child through the cartoon made in the 1980s  Like the original work by McCay the art is the highlight of this book Gabriel Rodriguez is a master at recreating & updating the world McCay imagined.  The story starts off kind of slow but it continues to draw you in & by issue two you can't put it down.  The tessellated tower & the lava lake are the highlights of this book I would love to see a book that explores dreams the way this does.  This is Nemo for a new generation; it is a great way for parents to introduce their kids to this character & the legacy that was created.  There are some gripes about this but they are minor the major one for me though is Flip.  He is just as out of control as ever but they have made him less rough around the edges.  This is definitely a more politically correct version of Nemo but other than that I would love to see an ongoing series spiral out of this.

The New Avengers Vol. 3

This third volume of New Avengers is best read along with Civil War because there is a lot of stuff that happens in that event that pertains to this volume.  This collection covers what happens to the New Avengers team during Civil War & the The Initiative.  This is really where Luke Cage comes into his own he is the leader & everyone else is there to follow.  Everybody in this book has sided with Captain America in Civil War.  There is some back story to Tony's motivations for his side of Civil War while he is talking to Captain America but really this is about Luke Cage's team.  This book also shows how Tony Stark becomes the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. after Maria Hill's short reign.  I don't know how much time they are saying went past between Civil War & Avengers Disassembled but it doesn't seem all that long.  I would think that the public or at least the U.N. would be wary of Stark after he had a drunk meltdown in front of them.  It just seems out of left field that he would be given the reigns of their peace keeping force.  Back to Maria Hill she was created by Brian Michael Bendis & she has been a bad-ass every time she appears on panel I really loved how she infiltrated Avengers Tower; it really is to bad that the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of her is not this awesome.  The other thing that this volume brings to the forefront is the return of Clint Barton & how he took up the mantel of Ronin.  One thing that I have noticed is that Bendis has really been seeding the paranoia & mistrust throughout his Avengers run up to this point.  I know this preparing the way for Secret Invasion & I would recommend that if you are going to catch up on Marvel events from Avengers Disassembled forward to Avengers vs. X-Men you need to be reading Bendis's Avengers run alongside it will make so much more sense.

Wolverines Vol. 4: Destiny

The final volume of Wolverines turns up the intensity which isn't saying much for this series.  Mr. Sinister has ambushed Mystique's team to get revenge for what they did to him in the first volume.  Characters die in this volume which helps to clear the board a little of all of the Paradise characters with the exception of Shogun.  They were never fully fleshed out & their deaths seem trivial compared to some others.   Mystique's plan is finally revealed when she turns on everybody to bring it to fruition only to be fooled by the very person who set her on this path.  Destiny who Mystique was trying to resurrect was really moving Mystique to resurrect Logan.  Most of the characters have lost their healing factor by the end of this story & Mystique has chosen to walk away instead of bringing Wolverine back.  Destiny knew even when she had this vision that the world needed a Wolverine but it was doing fine without her.  It was nice to see Man-Thing show up in this final volume I hope Marvel is going to give him a big push the way DC gave Swamp Thing a number of years ago.  In the end this is really a Mystique & enemies story but it ends to quickly.  I would have enjoyed seeing another issue to show some repercussions of the actions taken by the different characters on the team.  then have a splash page cliffhanger to show the looming threat of Secret Wars.  I am excited for All-New Wolverine though but that wasn't brought on by this series.

Wolverines Vol. 3: The Living & The Dead

The third volume of the Wolverines finishes off the Fang story arc.  Ogun & Lady Deathstrike are conspiring to take control of Shogun's body.  Mystique is playing everybody to her own ends.  This series has still not wowed me the way other Marvel series have, I am now three quarters through & still feel like its going nowhere.  Blade appears in this story as well taking one some vampires but there is a comment made that he takes out monsters.  I really hope that alluding to this upcoming Blade series.  Fantomelle meets her client that is having her steal all of this Wolverine paraphernalia.  Turns out Deadpool is one of Wolverines greatest fans & tries to fill the void left by Wolverine's death.  The high point for this volume is Fantomelle sneaking back aboard the Changeling to deliver a Wolverine uniform to Laura.

Wolverines Vol. 2: Claw, Blade & Fang

This second volume of the Wolverines picks up the the pace a little but it is still wandering all over the place plot wise.  After the events of the first volume the X-Men are in possession of Wolverines remains.  Fantomelle is off on another adventure retrieving a series of items for the Collector.  Shogun's team of misfits is scattered with some siding with Sinister after the dust had cleared.  Mystique has taken control of the band now while Lady Deathstrike has her eyes set on Shogun.  This really starts to shine when Fang shows up & starts playing devils advocate with the team by taking different members on a little side trip.  That part of the story alone makes this worth the read.

Wolverines Vol. 1: Dancing with the Devil

This first volume of Wolverines sees the partnership of the experiments from Paradise teaming up with former experiments of the Weapon X program.  All of these individuals are working to retrieve Logan's body, half so they can find a medical miracle & the other half to learn their trigger words.  Overall this isn't a great read & the art is only OK there are a few character moments that are really nice like Sabertooth having moral outlook on life is just hilarious.  Mystique really shines in her limited screen time but it looks like she could be a double agent.  The big bad is revealed rather early on as Mr. Sinister.  I'm not sure what Sinister's power set is but damn can he dish out the punishment.  Why hasn't he been put in a movie yet.  Other than Mr. Sinister this volume also gave us the first appearance of Fantomelle.  She is kind of a mystery like Fantomex but she is pretty cool it would be nice to see are in an upcoming New Mutants or Young X-Men book.  So far everything that has been happening on the Wolverine front since Logans Death has been mediocre.

Static Shock: Supercharged

I loved this character growing up Static was essentially DC Comics version of Peter Parker.  So I was super excited to see that when DC rebooted back in 2011 that Static was getting a push however DC didn't push hard enough.  While this was an OK read it wasn't great, the story started off with action but a lot of the dialog feels forced throughout the book like the writer doesn't have a grasp on the character.  The art is also only OK there are some panels throughout the book that I had to look at multiple times to try an figure out what is going on. The whole story of Static's sister being kidnapped is never fully explained it would be nice to have more backstory here with this character instead of DC taking for granted that the general public knows the same amount about Static that they know about Superman.  This is really an example of how DC killed the momentum of a character they had been building up in Teen Titans prior to the New 52.  If you love the character pick up the title give it try,  otherwise you can pass on this collection.