Comic Reviews for week of 12/17/07

What If? Civil War : Most of us know the outcome of Marvel's Super Hero Civil War. If you don't, the pro-registration side won. What we get in this issue is two possible scenerios of what could have happened. It's pretty much by the numbers and boring. In my opinion Marvel took the best route with Civil War. I was hoping for something a little more exciting. There were two covers available, I got the cooler one with Iron Man in red, white and blue armor. We find that it's really Captain America. Word to the wise, skip this one. *



Justice League of America #16: I honestly have no idea what this issue was about. I think it's a fill in before the next story arc. I think it sets elements for a story in the future. The art was good. JLA has been dissapointing. When the new writer, Dwayne McDuffie, took over the series showed some promise but after the first story arc went out with a wimper I've lost hope again. There's a back-up story in here which is always a nice treat. It's a Christmas tale featuring Red Arrow. It was just ok. I would have like to have seen a Christmas story featuring the entire team. **1/2



Countdown #19: This series overall is mediocre. Hopefully, it will have counted down to something worthwile. This series also has it's ups and downs. This issue was actually good. Even though it focused some of the more boring stories it was still good. All of the scenes with Jimmy Olsen were great, even the ending with him making out with the hot bug alien girl. A bonus is the two page villain origin stories. This week's was the Scarecrow. ***

Metamorpho Year One #6 of 6: After 6 issues we finally have the conclusion to the origin of Metamorpho the element man. I was hoping for a little more from this. Basically we get our hero accepting who he is reluctantly. He also rejects an offer to join the Justice League. Which was interesting. What this did was make me want some more Metamorpho adventures. This series did a good job exploring the character. Next time I would like to see something like Metamorpho on a long adventure instead of run ins with different 2nd rate villains and trying to find a cure for his condition. ***

Marvel Holiday Special: This Marvel Holiday Special featured 3 Christmas themed stories. The feature story was the best. In all honesty it was silly but still fun. It starred Wolverine and Spider-man fighting a disgruntled mall santa who found a Sentinel. The banter between Wolverine and Spider-man was hilarious and the ending was excellent. The other two stories featured much lesser known Marvel characters and were forgetable. However, there was a scene in the last story about the meaning of Christmas featuring the Silver Surfer I found pretty funny. ***1/2

Book of the Week

New X-men 45: This is chapter 8 of the Messiah CompleX cross over. This X-men crossover has yet to dissapoint me. Each part moves a decent pace and is easy to follow. This week features a battle between The new X-force team and Lady Deathstrike and her minions. The battle is pretty brutal. There's some good character moments here. The X-men regroup after the attack on the mansion and prepare to go into battle. Cyclops is emerging as the main character here. He hasn't seen much action yet but by the end of this I'm sure he will. *****

Well that's it. It was kind of a lack luster week for me. Next week we'll have the conclusion to the Spider-man event "One More Day" and my favorite Avengers the Initiative.