X-Force Special: Ain't No Dog

What's cool about X-Force Special: Aint No Dog?



A fly flying upwards?


It soon becomes apparent that this is a Wolverine story currently in progress, so to speak. A guy hanging from a chain with dead people around. Fairly normal for a Wolverine story...


I like how Logan is portrayed as quite, quite mad. The lengths he'll go to just to get his kicks... Cooler than the kids at school with their smoking.


The next cool bit is in the 'flashback' where Cyclops and Wolverine have a name-calling match. Despite Jean Grey being dead currently, they still dislike each other.


Next comes the sudden Mob, all baying for blood and quite possibly every other bodily fluid. Mobs are always cool.


Then, Wolverine is just hanging around quite unbothered by the masses of people below him. Because he's Wolverine.


And mobs are solved by doing something cool, for instance:


As so:


That's it for story one of the "Special", next up is a solo Warpath story. It's set-up nicely showing him having just mutilated a bunch of Purifiers, as seems to be X-Force's MO currently.


For some reason Warpath then goes hunting for a bear. He even states he can't be bothered to cook it and no mention is made of it causing anyone trouble. It's cool though, because he's fighting a BEAR!


But what is the coolest part of this comicbook?


The promise of more gory issues of X-Force, of course!

Though my main problem with this comic is the fact it actually did nothing more than give Warpath a tiny bit more character. And show that there are 5,000 Purifiers to every 3 Roman Catholics...

Giant Size Astonishing X-Men #1

What's cool - and not - about Giant Size Astonishing X-Men?



First let me bring everyone up to speed. Aliens brought Collossus back to life in the early issues of Astonishing X-Men. Ignoring a couple of story-arcs in-between, the X-Men found that these aliens, from the planet Breakworld, were trying to get rid of mutants as a whole and eventually the planet Earth. They were also told that Colossus was destined to destroy Breakworld. Taking the fight to the aliens, the X-Men and Agent of S.W.O.R.D Abigail Brand (and generic agents) arrived and managed to get into the delicate core of Breakworld with Colossus poised to be the destroyer or the saviour. Oh, and Shadowcat is inside a 10-mile bullet that's just been fired at Earth.

Let me start with the Not Cool... Get that out of the way for what is quite frankly a spectacular finish to Joss Whedon's run.



Emma Frost's powers. She's a high-level telepath with the secondary ability to turn her body into diamond. Useful, no? Only problem is, she can't use both at once. When in diamond "mode" she can't use her telepathy at all. It's been documented in a number of places. So whether this was an artist error, colourist error or editor error, it's still wrong.



Agent Brand is shown to have powers (later explained fully) but once again I dunno who's fault it was, but she uses her left ungloved hand before using her right hand because the left one has a glove on. But since she has fingernails visible, I'm guessing it was an artist error that wasn't caught by the colourist or editor.

Now, complaints are over. This issue has everything you'd want in it!

Passion!


Heroes punching heroes!


Humour!


Suspense!


There's not really much to explain that wouldn't be so much better if you read it. There's a few things I'd like to post about but I've told myself that this isn't a review blog nor a spoiler blog. If someone says to you "What's so cool about the X-Men?" I would like it if you went "Ahh, look at this blog and check out the X-Men tagged posts!"

So: What's the coolest thing about this comic? A Spider-Man panel.



See if you can connect the dots so I can still say I post no spoilers. 10-mile bullet travelling from another planet. Spider-Man's webs have the strength of steel. Hanging from buildings that are many decades old.

She-Hulk #29

What's cool about She-Hulk #29?



Name art!


I simply adore that sort of thing. I can just imagine people introducing themselves in a deep, resonating booming voice. "Hello, my name is TERRY SMITH!" for example, would result in laughter and derision, I would assume - so it only really works with made-up names...

What else is cool? Court room scenes.

Of course these are no longer a fixture in She-Hulk, after her disbarring back between new guy Peter David and old guy Dan Slott's runs. But it's nice to see Peter David referring back if only in flashback to explain why She-Hulk is a bounty hunter.

What else can She-Hulk offer that's cool? Internal monologue:

That leads on to outright violence.



And threats.



And the coolest thing about She-Hulk #29?

A very clear-cut picture of how Jennifer Walters wears a super-stretchy bra.


I've not known the artist to cheesecake-up his issues of She-Hulk, but let's be honest, there's no bra on Earth - or Marvel Earth - that can stretch to contain THAT much difference. In this case, he could have cheesecaked away!

Wolverine Origins #25

What's cool about Wolverine Origins #25?



Drowning Wolverine.


Of course that's not the only thing. But to kill Wolverine, as Deadpool has been heading towards since this arc started, it would make sense that you either drown him, or dump him in space. Without air, it doesn't matter how good your healing factor is, it can't create oxygen. Skin, bones and muscle - sure! But not a gases that requires plant-life.

For those who haven't read the other 4 parts, I'll bring you up to speed. Deadpool has been hired by someone to kill Wolverine. Deadpool went through a huge rigmarole of shooting, stabbing, blowing up and killing Wolverine, all in the hopes of getting Wolvy into this trap which would drown him. Which obviously succeeded.

Despite the violence starting a few pages later, it shows some nice close-ups of Daken's (Wolverine's son) claws along with some painful scenes. Only problem I have with Daken's claws is that they look like they were put in acid, or are made of rusted metal. Or he has a black skeleton...



I know I cut it off there by not posting the next page, but Deadpool loses his other hand. That leads up to the next cool part - Wolverine versus Daken - something that's been brewing since Wolverine Origin #10!



I'll let you read for yourselves what happens and how that ends - but the issue doesn't end there! It goes on to reprint Deadpool's first appearence! 17 years old!


I'm not going to comment on the quality of art from the artist for this particular reprint (there's enough Liefeld bashing out there to fill several sites), but I will touch on a subject that will be the topic of a future Pint Of Cool. Costumes.

Now you see swords:




Now (4 panels later) you don't!


That's something that's not cool about comics. But at the same time, if it's intentional, it IS cool. Like I said, future posting.

Now, the last thing that's cool about this issue of Wolverine Origins?



Deadpool on sale in September! Yeah! He's been stuck with Cable in the title of his book for the last 4 years, so he deserves a break. And I'm totally bias, but that one little graphic is the coolest thing about this comic.

Captain Britain and MI 13 #01

What's cool about Captain Britain and MI 13 issue 1? Captain Britain fighting Skrulls.
Just look at that splash page! I'm not going to go on and on about every artist I like, but just check out that image. Captain Britain's up in the air over London (always the capital cities with these aliens...) ON HIS OWN. Skrull ships, Super Skrulls... Despite the odds, he's kicking arse. Just like the old Captain America would have done - except with more magically-enhanced powers...

What else is cool about this issue?

John Lennon has been a Skrull. Always.

Yeah, not the best artists rendering, but it IS supposed to be Lennon. And it's also 'hinted' that the rest of The Beatles were Skrulls. What with them starting up in '63.

Black Knight, long forgotten by almost everyone, makes a great comeback. It's just very lucky that Skrull decided to arch his back upwards at that precise moment to get that angle...


Spitfire, a character I don't even remember much of, makes a very awesome contribution to the War effort.
Her back story is that she got her powers after a blood transfusion from the android called Human Torch. Yeah, blood from an android, I know...

But seems the side effects of spending 60 years with fake blood in your system kinda makes you a vampire... Maybe she should contact the Galactus-powered Zombies and compare notes on how Skrull blood tastes.

The final thing that makes this comic cool?



A Goodbye To Heads.