CBT Iron Man #3, All New X Men #3, Spider-Man #699, Thunderbolts #1, X Factor 248, Avengers #1

Lots of wicked comics this week, its a good day to be a marvelite!

Iron Man #3

Another great issue of the new volume of Iron Man hit the shelves this week, continuing the escaped extremis storyline Tony ditches his modifiable liquid suit for a more tailor made armour, specifically focused on stealth! Using this new suit he infiltrates the home of a big drug boss who has the extremis, SPOILER Finding a girl infected he believes it is against her will and becomes all visible again.... unfortunately she is there of her own will and after the ensuing battle Tony confronts the big drugs overlord and discovers all he is trying to do is save his cancer ridden daughter. With Tony's help the girl survives END OF SPOILER! This issue kept up the good run from issues 1 and 2, the light humour is well balanced with deep sentiments and unique techno jargon. Page 13, the splash page beginning the battle of the comic is awesome, probably one of my favourite of the comic so far, it seems Land's art is at its best when it is in action. The panneling in this issue is simpler but the images themselves are superb, the three exoskeleton nobody's that battle Tony give Land a good chance to have fun with his art (something Gillen and Spencer talk about in Decompressed in Gillens site, check it out!) and it looks great! The three best things about the comic were the sandwich, black widow and the last line, Awesome!
8.5/10

All New X Men #3

All New X Men this week was another pretty basic book full of exposition, at least this time however it was with characters that matter, not out of time character that will hopefully leave... soon! Cyclops' team begin the issue by setting up the base of their revolution, the old weapon x facility, and they plan to fill it. However the phoenix force doesn't make it that easy, Cyclops' teams powers are faulty and failing, which is proven as Magneto fails to stop a truck and Cyclops' blast overpower his visor and appear more concussive than ever before, this leads to them breaking Emma out in a more destructive way than they had planned. An Emma who cannot use her telepathy and is pretty pissed with Scott about it. Its clear from this issue and from Bendis' interviews these two are over but that doesn't mean she is off the team as they teleport to a new emergence of a mutant. The comic is pretty simple, well written of course and it is nice to see a little more phoenix fall out, the best parts are the slightly soppy but weighty argument between Mags and Cyke, and the final splash page which is one of the best pictures of the series for sure!
8/10

Amazing Spider-Man #699

Firstly Dan Slott gets too much shit on twitter! Readers need to have a little trust! That being said I expected more from 699, I have only read up to spider island then 697,698 and 699 but I was left wanting. As its the end of an era and a big change for the book I expected a more epic feeling to the book, its not that the storyline isn't impressive or well thought out I just feel like its just another spidey story, not the spidey story to end all peter parker spidey stories. People are going on about him getting blood on his hands and being put through the ringer but I dont think its been all that bad, not yet anyway. As you may know I'm not a big fan of Ramos' art but this is one of his better issues for sure. The book is well written, its nice to see a whole comic from inside peters head, looking back on doc ock's life but it feel a little rushed, like that one comic could have easily been two or three. Maybe its my current lack of Spidey fandom but 699 didnt get me all that excited, it just didn't feel epic...

7.5/10

Thunderbolts #1

The new Thunderbolts team is a big switch up, with only one member of the cast being a returning character (venom, although it was a different venom), the team is to be led by Red Hulk/ Thaddeus Ross, I'm afraid I have no idea where he stands in the universe but his recruiting tactic was pretty cool. I am quite a big fan of Way's run on Wolverine Origins so this book caught my eye and it seems to be written just as well. Not too wordy but long enough that you dont feel robbed, it is a shame however that Dillon has reunited with Way as I am not a fan, I dislike the basic pastel like drawings and have never liked a single nose he has drawn. I like the red and black look of the team and am looking forward to seeing them interact as this was more of a recruiting issue, and a simple one at that.
7.5/10

X Factor #248

This weeks X Factor is a nice relaxing laugh, full of ridiculous circumstances to solve a hell of a cliff hanger Pipp's death amounts to nothing important, well not a death anyway. The story however introduces the Hell on Earth story that is to be the big thing for issue 250 which looks sweet. The callback to previous actions of the characters within this comic is commendable but as Peter David has written all 98 issues of Xf I am not surprised with the continuity. The art is still a little off, I dislike the pencils in general, everything seems a little too twisty but it is readable. It was cool to see Lyla using her force field offensively and I am looking forward to an action packed next issue. I am a little disheartened by the lack of Madrox's classic internal monologues and wish they would feature more heavily again along with the series returning to its noir routes although I think its a little past that now.
7.5/10

PICK OF THE WEEK!

Avengers #1

Wow... just wow. I am not a big Avengers fan I generally collect X Men but I thought hey its MarvelNow what better time to start, and what a brilliant start. I will start with the negatives, Opena's art... I am undecided on whether I like it or not, there is a horrid looking hulk, but some wicked stuff too but the whole style in general worked a lot better for avengers than I expected. I have read Uncanny X Force which he worked on for a long time and the style of art works really well for that series so I wasn't sure if it would work, it definitely gave the avengers less of a star spangled feeling and a much more of a dark pessimistic comic. The new logo or at least style of the previously and next symbols are awesome fresh and interesting! Now... onto the writing, perfectly placed and paced action to keep the book interesting, bad ass looking villains(although they look like they should be in Uncanny X force), an intriguing conversation by two of the "big three" avengers and a wicked voice over narration throughout that climbs to an awesome ending that has me truly excited for more! An Epic comic and an Epic start to MarvelNow's Avengers!
9/10