I’ve been reading comics for ages, so what the hell, might as well start reviewing them so people can know what’s decent and what’s not. Eventually I’m thinking of making a chronological listing. I’ve never been able to get good lists from people of what’s worth reading, so that’s the way I’ll go about these. Not huge literary work of art reviews, just quickies to give you a little sample of whether it’s worthwhile.
War of Kings Trade Paperback for $16.49 currently at Amazon
War of Kings review time, Marvel’s latest cosmic event that ended a little bit ago. Here’s a link to the wiki if you want to see the checklist of titles.
I liked Annihilation. It was a lot of fun, had great characters, and made plenty of lasting changes to the Marvel universe. It helped get me into the more cosmic characters of Marvel, and sure, there were some weak sideplots, but that’s been every major comic event ever.
War of Kings was a cool idea with an awesome title, but I just wasn’t impressed. I wasn’t all up on the history, but there’s another Summers’ brother? And he’s leading the Shi’ar? Also, he’s a total asshole and decided to attack everyone else in the universe? As if the Summers family history wasn’t convoluted enough.
After checking out wiki just to catch up on the absurd history of the newest brother, I read the rest of the issues and some of the side stories. The Inhumans/Kree business was written well enough, and it was great seeing the weapons they developed and how the Kree were reacting to their new Inhuman leaders. But then the coolest parts of the Shi’ar storyline were pretty much all Gladiator related. When you’ve got a WAR OF KINGS, and one king is a lame character that popped out of nowhere with mega super powers and he’s acting like a douchebag that doesn’t appear to have any particular plan or strategy beyond attacking everyone in the universe, it doesn’t usually make for compelling storytelling.
As long as you’re reading the issues that focus on Nova, Gladiator, and some of the Inhumans/Kree business, you should have a good time.
3/5. Just wait until it’s in trade paperback form and buy it for $10 on sale, it’s worth that much for the action and some of the characters. Plus, I’m sure what happened at the end of the last comic will have ~major consequences~ for the Marvel universe, which is code speak for it’ll change a few things and start off the next major cosmic event.
