A few quick comic reviews

Sorry for the lack of content, but I was "away from the office" so to speak..... Since, I'm a little backed up on my comic this week, here are some quick thoughts:

Avengers: The Children's Crusade #1 - (Allan Heinberg & Jim Cheung) - I liked this a LOT, but I've also been eating up everything from this newest Avengers relaunch. This series is focusing on the Young Avengers and their search for the Scarlet Witch who may or may not be Wiccan's and Speed's mother. Should be fun and have impact over on the X-Men too. Nice art! 8.4/10

Shadowland #1 - (Andy Diggle, Billy Tan) - After getting back into the Daredevil stories for the last 6 months or so, I was really looking forward to this: an actual Daredevil comics event. I'm not sure if Marvel has ever done one of these before. I like the idea for the story: Daredevil is potentially crossing some hero/villain lines in becoming the leader of The Hand (band of assassins) and although he wants to use the Hand for good to protect his beloved Hell's Kitchen, his activities are freaking out a lot of other people such as The Avengers and old buddies like Luke Cage and Iron Fist. The big shocker in this issue is that it looks like Daredevil has killed Bullseye. I'm sorry......I just can't get that worked up about a hero killing a villain. That might have been shocking in 1975, but I think we're past that now. Overall, I liked (but didn't love) this story and Billy Tan's art was very weak in a few places. 7.0/10

X-Force #28 - (Craig Kyle, Chris Yost & Mike Choi) - This was the 13th and penultimate chapter of the X-Men's Second Coming event. I really liked this issue a lot and although this probably could have been a 7-8 issue event (versus 14) it has been really strong. The cool thing in this issue is that we get to FINALLY see Hope's powers begin to manifest. Marvel has done a nice job of holding this back for the last ~3 years, but it looks like she's got a little bit of Cyclops' eye-beams and some sort of telekinesis too. However, the coolest part of this issue was seeing that it was Wolverine who got to kill Bastion. I was also happy to see that the Avengers and Fantastic Four are back in the picture as the "red ball of death" has evaporated. It should be a LOT of fun to wrap this event up with Second Coming #2 on Wednesday this week. My only complaint with this issue was some slightly dodgy art in places. 8.6/10

X-Men #1 - (Victor Gischler & Paco Medina) - I really enjoyed this first issue of a new X-Men ongoing series. Pretty sure this takes place just after Second Coming, but the X-Men are going to have their hands full with vampires. I've heard some people bitching about vampires showing up in the X-Men, but I'd rather read this sort of story with fresh villains than watch the X-Men get betrayed by Magneto for the umpteenth time. I also really enjoyed the art. 8.4/10