Just a couple quick bits this time around: the Youngest came with me to the Comic Book Shop and got the new issue of Adventure Time then talked me into getting him an issue of Bravest Warriors. He was pretty enthusiastic about it, probably moreso than I was about my batch of books.
I did like B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth #105. (Some of these books aren't in the GCD yet!) It's a book that plays the long game: plot threads can lie seemingly forgotten for some time, but they rarely are. This month: The comatose Abe Sapien wakes up and wanders off! Someone covers for him! The grotesque Director Iosif of the Russian Occult Bureau airlifts into a monster-infested warzone, but isn't there for the evacuation...B.P.R.D. is rarely a bad read, but is often more satisfying with a few issues at once than one at a time. But I would miss the cliffhangers if I trade-waited!
I haven't written up the last couple of Dark Horse Presents for 80-Page Thursdays--partially because I didn't want several in a row, but also the last couple were a little meh for me. This issue does have a Shannon (Too Much Coffee Man) Wheeler story, an odd alternate history of Custer from Howard Chaykin, and a kinda interesting interview with Geof Darrow...that isn't as interesting as new work from Darrow. And Mike Richardson asks him about "his dream car" and a ride with Frank Miller and Darrow doesn't elaborate! Patrick Alexander's "Villainman" is funny; but I wouldn't have scheduled it and Wheeler's "Villain House" the same month...No Finder either this month. I was considering dropping DHP, so of course next month has Nexus and I'm back on board.
Lastly, we have X-Termination #1: to get home to the Age of Apocalypse, the AoA Nightcrawler forces the Dark Beast to try and get them back. Wolverine, pissed over Nightcrawler's betrayal of X-Force, is on his tail (so to speak) with a team of X-Men. There are a few things wrong here already...even if the AoA Nightcrawler doesn't think of the 616 Marvel Universe as anything but a shadow, the Age of Apocalypse would be a dismal suckhole to live in. Yet he's willing to work with Dark Beast--who, if he isn't basically Hitler to him, is at least Mengele--to get back there. He's in the Marvel Universe: if anyone in the story stopped being a jerk for five minutes, there's other ways to get from one universe to another, right? And Wolverine is hunting down Nightcrawler because he might be dangerous...hey, Wolvie? You know who else is dangerous? Sabretooth, the guy that killed about a gazillion other people you knew? Maybe you could hunt him down instead? No? So, Wolvie is either after Nightcrawler because of narrative convenience, or because his feelings are hurt like a big baby...
There's a ponderous opening (that reminded me of Crisis on Infinite Earths) to set up the extra-dimensional big bads, who I don't think have ever been seen before. When Dark Beast and Nightcrawler teleport into the Dreaming Celestial, they "see" a control room, "the mind making sense of the cosmic energies." Because that's way more entertaining to see than crazy Kirby-style stuff...that bit reminded me of Contact, or South Park making fun of Contact. I liked the McGuinness cover, but there's no scene like that inside, and the cover stock is crappy...
I'm being a little harsh on this book, because of those holes; but also because it already seems obvious this crossover is (at least partially) about AoA Nightcrawler having to pay for his deeds, and probably killed off or written out. He came to the 616 to get revenge, got it, and was not all that sorry about it in Uncanny X-Force. But we can't have that: it'd be just fine for Wolverine to gut someone for payback (although he so rarely kills off anyone important) but not anyone else. I'm not a fan of Gambit, but he does call Wolvie on his double standard regarding side projects; but that's another problem with this series: I really don't much care about a lot of the characters thrown in this crossover pot. I'm only buying this stupid comic because it's got a version of my favorite character, a copy.
A lot of Marvel and DC comics feel that way for me lately, honestly.
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