Thor #8 review

The new Thor has been accepted by most of the people in the Thunder God’s life. Unfortunately, one of the ones who hasn’t accepted her is Odin. Odin has sent the Destroyer, animated by Cul, Odin’s crazed brother, to kill Thor and retrieve Mjolnir. In response, Thor Odinson and Freya have gathered an army of female warriors, mostly people Thor suspected of being his replacement (Spider Woman, Captain Marvel, Scarlet Witch among them), to come and help the Goddess of Thunder. It’s a huge fight, and the array of power is staggering. Eventually, Freya’s arguments (and contempt) penetrate Odin’s thick head, and he orders Cul to withdraw.

Daredevil episode 6: Condemned

One of the things they do so well on Daredevil is the gradually widening scope. Matt has been continuing his crusade, but he’s really only come up against random street crime and the Russians. He has no idea what he’s truly up against, and that keeps working against him.

Agents of SHIELD: SOS

Agents of SHIELD ends its second season with a two hour special. They clear the decks for next season pretty thoroughly. I’ve commented about Avengers: Age of Ultron being a clash of idealism, Tony Stark’s and Steve Rogers’. There’s a lesser version of that here, with Gonzales’ mistrust of supers running smack into Jai’s paranoia about SHIELD. A lot of what happens here comes from echoes or ripples from those two opposing mindsets. Too bad more of them weren’t listening to Coulson.

Comic Book Classics Revisited: The Avengers (vol. 3) #22

Welcome to Comic Book Classics Revisited, and our final chapter of my Ultron Handbook – The Avengers (1998) #22. Up to this point, the murderous Ultron has slaughtered and entire European country, kidnapped five Avengers (and the villainous Grim Reaper), and replicated himself a whole bunch of times. Simply based upon the cover, if you’re able to tear your eyes off of Scarlet Witch’s midriff, things don’t look so good. But the Avengers never give up and I’m willing to bet Ultron has another thing coming if he thinks he’s got this in the bag.

Moon Knight #14

This is another one-shot story, which is a nice change of pace and a dying art in modern comics. This one has Khonshu, Spector’s patron/deity, repaying a favor to another god. For such a divine case, the beginnings are mundane enough. Detective Flint, one of Moon Knight’s few allies in the police force, secretly asks for his help with a very strange case. Rich people are being mauled to death by packs of dogs. That’s strange enough in the modern world, but even weirder in New York City.

Princess Leia #3

Princess Leia is continuing her mission to get to the survivors of Alderaan before the Empire does. Unfortunately, word has gotten out that they’re being hunted, so paranoia and suspicion are growing rampant.

Daredevil Episode 5: “World On Fire”

Things take some ugly turns in “World on Fire,” the fifth episode of Netflix’ Daredevil series. It opens in the aftermath of Claire’s beating. She checks her bruises and wounds, and cleans herself up as best she can. She and Matt end up talking about his powers, how they work, how he sees the world with his gifts. His sort of almost vision is shown, and it really does kind of look like the title, “A World on Fire.” Claire makes a joke that, if that’s all she saw, she might want to punch things, too. They also talk about the strangeness of lawyer by day, vigilante by night. Claire makes a joke about not getting the “rich, playboy” type of hero she has heard about, which could be reference to Iron Man, a subtle joke about DC’s Batman, or just a general funny line. She passes along the name “Vladimir” that she heard while she was a prisoner.

Comic Book Classics Revisited: The Avengers (vol. 3) #21

Oh my are we really getting into some comic book, superhero goodness with today’s Comic Book Classics Revisited! What better way to enter into the last two comics in my Ultron Handbook than to have a reminder of how exciting these stories used to be? As The Avengers (1998) #21 starts, we are getting a recap of Ultron’s brutal invasion and decimation of Baltic nation Slorenia. The United Nations forces taking part in “Operation Metalstorm” are experiencing heavy resistance from the cybernetic/zombified former citizens of Slorenia. Just when the U.N. forces are sure they are about to be utterly wiped out…

Agents of SHIELD: The Dirty Half-Dozen

Agents of SHIELD has a very action packed episode with “The Dirty Half Dozen.” It starts with Raina getting more of her visions, none of which look really good. She wakes up find Jai watching her sleep, which is kinda creepy, really. They argue some about Raina’s powers, and how they will be used. Then Jai and Cal have an argument that turns into more of a discussion. It does appear that Cal is making some progress towards controlling himself. Gordon teleports back with bad news about Lincoln.

Comic Book Classics Revisited: The Avengers (vol. 3) #20

Ultron has returned and so has Comic Book Classics Revisited! Today, the Ultron Handbook will continue our last story arc as we feature The Avengers (1998) #20. In part one, Ultron got busy kidnapping some key people (including the Grim Reaper and Hank Pym) and then decided to level the small Baltic country of Slorenia. Now, the Avengers must fight back to finally put an end to this robotic monster!