Review: Deadpool & Wolverine: WWIII

Besides DC’s Poison Ivy the only other issue I currently have pulled is Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine: WWIII. With the new animated season of X-Men ‘97 on Disney+ and the Deadpool & Wolverine movie coming out, this title is a hot one to pick up. From what I read on ComicGeeks, there are 15 cover variants for this issue! I picked up the regular print as well as a $5 variant, I chose this one because the illustration style looks like it was done with colored pencil. Not entirely sure but I love the texture it has.

I picked this up because I’m a big Wolverine fan, in fact one of the first comics I’ve collected is the Weapon X series that ran from 2009-2010. As well as the Wolverine Patch run in 2022. Both of these give very similar vibes to the same Wolverine portrayal in this issue. So as a reminder I will be reviewing the following:

• Cover Art

• Story

• Overall Rating 5 star rating system from Comic Geeks App

Cover

The regular cover is almost a bit of a summary of what the entire comic is about. Wolverine and Deadpool against what seems like the world. To be honest, of the available variant copies at my local comic shop, I like the regular print the most. You can clearly see Wolverine’s claws and Deadpool’s swords dripping with blood and both of them covered in bullet wounds. It’s really fucking sweet, pardon my French. As I mentioned earlier regarding the variant cover, it has a certain styling that is a mix of watercolor and color pencil, I just wish the colors were a bit more vibrant.

It starts off giving us a few panels in a horizontal view, so you have to rotate the comic book to view. 

Story

So I already planned on getting this issue, but after hearing on the Comic Book club podcast how great this issue was I rushed to pick it up before Free Comic book day on the weekend. I didn’t realize how much I’d enjoy this issue. 

We see a dope ass progression of what we’re told is Wolverine's bloodline? I’m not really sure because it’s interrupted with a message of a flight getting ready to touch down in Vancouver. Wolverine talks about taking on some job that involves him eliminating the threat, that he is called only when it’s a scum of the earth type that can’t be helped. Wolverine suits up, in his old school yellow and brown and goes to meet this “threat.” 

Upon arriving he encounters Deadpool and who I can only assume is named “Summer?” I’m not entirely sure as it seems like he’s having a conversation with Wolverine and Deadpool but isn’t making any sense. But we get to see some sick ass fight scenes, Wolverine and Deadpool take turns trying to eliminate the threat. It’s really funny when Wolverine enters the scene and Deadpool says, “I’d recognize the sound of that sextuple puncture wound anywhere! There’s also a funny panel where Deadpool is riding the shoulders of Wolverine. Classic banter and badass fighting, just what I need.

The yellow and brown suit is starting to grow on me, I think I just don’t like the illustration style from the 90’s animated show.

They take care of the threat, Deadpool invites Wolverine to hang out but Wolverine brushes it off. After a night of drinking at the bar, Wolverine heads to where Deadpool told him he was staying. We’re then taken to a new part of the story as Wolverine is now searching for Deadpool after being left a burner phone. Wolverine ends up in Russia, of course, to some building and it’s full of people in nice attire celebrating his arrival. What? Deadpool got an upgrade and fights Wolverine?! Holy shit. Pretty dope ass illustrations and gets me excited to pick up the next issue.

Overall 5 / 5

Going into this I already sorta knew what to expect but was still happily surprised with the funny banter between Deadpool and Wolverine. Paired with the awesome fight scenes and blood splatters, this comic just had everything you’d expect from this duo. The plot and writing seemed a little jumpy but I understand having to explain so much with little real estate. Can’t wait for the next issue.

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Review: Transformers Primacy

Another TPB but this one of Transformers, a great cartoon and comic since before I was born. I can still remember the Hasbro Transformer of Rhinox as a kid. Quite possibly my favorite toy growing up and still hold a grudge with my sibling for breaking it. There have been some new movies that are trying to find the magic from the first movie, but can’t seem to hit the mark. The most recent Beast Wars was a bit of a miss. As a huge fan of that arc, I wish they focused more on the Transformers than the human characters.

Which is what I’m excited about for the new movie called Transformers One in which we are getting origin stories of Optimus Prime and Megatron. So because of this recent trailer release, I thought it would be a good time to revisit Transformers Primacy. My first TPB given to me from my friend, the first purchase I made was Saga Vol 1. A reminder I will be reviewing the following:

• Cover Art

• Story

• Overall Rating 5 star rating system from Comic Geeks App

Cover

Anytime you feature Optimus Prime on the cover of a comic I’m going to pick it up and read it. The artist of this book is Livio Ramondelli, who has a great portfolio of amazing Transformers illustrations. Check out an interview with him and Canvas Rebel in 2023 here. There are two other Autobots on the cover along with a third Transformer but no visible badge. We also get a glimpse of what I'm assuming is Cybertron. Their home planet and the one they are always trying to save from the civil war.

Here is an example of the action sequences and how the artwork is great but sometimes a bit hard to “see”

Story

I have collected some Transformers comics before, here and there some off issues as well as trying to collect the 2021 release of Beast Wars. With that being said, I have not read a full Transformers story from the first issue to the end. Which is really the entire reason why Trade Paperback books are the best because you get the entire release in one book and don’t need to go searching for individual issues. 

The story starts off with some indication that Cyberton was no longer going to be peaceful and an evil entity was going to emerge. I really like the opening scenes in which we see rival Autobots and Decepticons talking to each other and eventually arguing over who is being brainwashed by their leaders. 

We then are shown Optimus Prime and Ironhide on a wintery “vacation.” We see them climbing a mountain and upon getting to the top they spot some sort of figure in the distance, just standing still. After some careful reconnaissance, Optimus and Ironhide get closer and realize it’s an Omega Sentinel. 

This is my first time encountering something called an Omega Sentinel in the Transformers universe

Our story then takes us to Harmonex where we see Megatron trying to strike a deal with Trypticon to destroy the Autobots once and for all. I don’t want to give it all away but it’s a bit like good guys vs bad guys with a curveball here and there. Still a very good short and concise story. Now throughout the book the action scenes and fighting sequences are great, but the art itself is a bit “muddy.” In the sense that some things are hard to distinguish and find yourself squinting to really understand what you’re looking at.

One thing I REALLY liked about this trade paperback is that it included the variant covers that must have been released when the title was released by issue. It features the more clean type of illustrations and really gets you hyped up. 

This illustration by Sarah Stone is absolutely killer!

Overall 4 / 5

Now the main reason for the 4 out of 5 rating on this is simply because of the artwork. I really like the styling but for a comic it just made it a little hard to follow along. As I was reading I had to stop more often and for a longer time to digest what I’m looking at. But as I mentioned before, I like that it was short, concise and didn't leave me wondering what is what or if I need to read previous stories to understand the plot.

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Review: Power Rangers Soul of the Dragon

My first trade paperback(TPB)! Throwing it back to a cartoon I used to watch as a kid. Though I must say, even though I watched it as a kid, I don’t remember much of it. The most recent movie from 2017 is the last piece of Power Rangers material I’ve consumed. Which I’m still salty about that they didn’t continue. 

I got this TPB from a friend of mine as a birthday present. To be honest, of the 3 trade paperback books I own, I’ve received two of them as gifts from my buddy. One being Transformers Primacy and this one, Soul of the Dragon which is what this review is about. A reminder I will be reviewing the following:

• Cover Art

• Story

• Overall Rating 5 star rating system from Comic Geeks App

Cover

When I first saw the cover, I just thought that it was a cool progression of the Power Ranger suits. I figured the guy on the cover was Tommy since the 2 of the 5 suits that were shown were ones that I knew he wore. Now the other three suits pertained to storylines I hadn’t seen and/or read. But they each looked pretty unique, especially the last one which was a black and gold suit.

I thought this was pretty funny and also answered my first question when reading which was if the public knew they were Power Rangers.

Story

Since this was the first Power Rangers comic I’ve read, I really didn’t know what to expect. I was anticipating something similar to the show but this is definitely a level up. It seems as if the show is geared towards children and the comics are teens and up. 

Jumping right in, our lead character Tommy is alerted that something is going on with his son. Upon mentioning that his son, JJ, quit the SPD(Space Patrol Delta) Tommy starts to question if something is really going on. He had just spoken to his son a few days earlier and this wasn’t mentioned to him but we(the reader) see that JJ was jumped by some guys.

This was a great story that featured a special “reason” as to why we got to see Tommy in multiple suits. One thing I really liked about this was I didn’t feel lost while reading it. There were enough context clues to get what is going on if something is referenced that’s not directly in the book. We get to see the variety of suits in action too, so that was a cool feat too. 

The art style was really clean with pages often following a monochromatic color scheme that was nice to see. By “clean” I mean the panels, action and especially fight scenes were all distinguishable. Very smooth coloring and separation of objects to clearly indicate what you’re looking at. 

Here is an example of the action sequences and how the artwork is very clear in what’s being depicted.

Overall 4.5 / 5

For being my first Power Rangers comic, I thought this ticked all the boxes for what I needed in a story. We had great action scenes, beautiful artwork and colors, a concise story and a decent enough plot that holds water. Honestly, I thought it was really clever how they got the different suits in there and has given me Dragon Ball Z vibes where I just want to see all the suits of every ranger now.

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Review: Ms. Marvel Beyond the Limit #1

Our issue today? Ms. Marvel, Beyond the Limit! I picked this up at the same time I got Poison Ivy mainly because of the new Ms. Marvel show on Disney+. Click the link If you want to check out Poison Ivy’s review. A reminder I will be reviewing the following:

• Cover Art

• Story

• Overall Rating 5 star rating system from Comic Geeks App

This was my choice for picking up some women led comics, plus I wanted to get a bit of head start in understanding who Ms. Marvel is before getting into the show. For instance I would have loved if I read a series of Moon Knight before watching the series just so I could get a better understanding beforehand. Now this is a mini series of only 5 issues but I felt that because it’s so short I would be able to get a quick overview of who she is, but that didn’t seem to be the case especially with this first issue, but more on that later. Let’s start with the cover.

Cover So this issue is slightly different than the other ones I have chosen because all the others were on the new issue rack and drew me in with their covers. This issue was in the back of my comic book store in the cardboard file cabinets. Also for some reason the M’s aren’t marked so it took me a couple minutes just to find what box started with Ms. Marvel. As for the actual cover design I’m a big fan. Ms. Marvel is featured front and center but also surrounded with 5 other poses/versions of herself. In some of the poses her limbs are extended so it’s cool to see a bit of her abilities before getting into the book. It doesn’t hurt that the cover is yellow which happens to be one of my favorite colors to use, especially in cover design.

There are panels like this that I don’t understand, did she already do all these things?

Story The comic starts with Kamala visiting her cousin Razia’s place for a little vacation that her parents had suggested. During their little breakfast meal together it’s apparent that Kamala’s cousin is a brilliant physicist. They discuss some a wormhole possibility that could travel to other dimensions and something called the Polchinski Box, which I’m not sure if this is some foreshadowing or not. Bruno is mentioned but we find out that Kamala and Bruno have kissed which led to some awkward consequences. Going back to talking about other dimensions and universes, Kamala mentions that there is some sort of closed system that exists and that’s how she is able to borrow matter from her future self and able to return it to her regular present self. It’s a bit confusing but it seems as thought she is trying to further understand where her powers come from and if other versions of herself exist. Razia tells Kamala to check out the bean in downtown Chicago, which leads us to the image above. While looking up at the bean, we find out that Kamala’s powers were activated by an ancient alient mist and morphed into Captain Marvel.

The story telling seems a bit spotty and skips certain aspects

While gazing at the bean and thinking about her powers, she bumps into some random dude and remembers she had to meet her cousin for lunch. She rushes to the campus, as she arrives she hears a crash and someone yelling, “Noooo.” Kamala finds Razia knocked unconscious but catches a glimpse of someone in a trench coat trying to get into a big wall safe. We finally see her abilities as she extends her arm and apprehends the burglar. As this happens, he drops some type of cube and screams, “What have you done?!” He darts off as Kamala puts the object he was trying to steal back in its spot.

This was pretty cool and I hope we do get to see more versions in this series.

But while Kamala is holding onto the object to place it back in its spot, she sees a bunch of different versions of herself. The object then gets extremely bright but Kamala is able to place it back. This next part is what kind of irked me a bit. Kamala goes and checks on Razia, somehow she is able to determine that Razia will be ok and nothing major happened to her. She then just leaves! She calls 911 and then goes to catch her airplane?? Like what??

Your cousin was just assaulted and then her lab was almost robbed. How do you just leave that? She gets in taxi cab and just sends a text to Razia to let her know she’s headed to the airport and that she had a good time. Kamala arrives home in Jersey City, then the narration mentions everything is ok with Razia? Again, I’m just not sure why all of that was just glossed over. While home, Kamala notices her parents acting a bit out of place as well as she hears a rustle outside of the window. She seriously cannot understand what is going on, her parents are dancing? She even thinks their bodes have been hijacked by aliens. All of sudden Kamala is in different clothing, her parents dancing, petals everywhere and loads of people outside singing and dancing.

She’s not sure what is going on and decides to change into her suit, except her suit is completely different. But before she can even wonder why, she gets knocked to the ground and is on the verge of being trampled by an elephant. Then we get a full page of Loki atop an elephant. Ok, things just started getting interesting.

Loki? Did not expect them to show up!

Overall Rating I give this a 3 out of 5 rating. I’m a little lost in terms of what is going on and maybe that’s the point. But I would have liked just a bit more information at the beginning. I just picked up issue #2 so hopefully we find some things out soon.

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Review: Poison Ivy #1

We are back with another comic book review. This time with something a little bit different, Poison Ivy issue #1. Totally was not ready for this but what a pick up. Click the link If you want to check out last week’s review of Batman: Fortress #1. A reminder I will be reviewing the following:

• Cover Art

• Story

• Overall Rating 5 star rating system from Comic Geeks App

All right so why did I pick this one up? Well for one I had the intention of picking up some women led comics and as I walked into my local comic book shop I saw a whole row taken up by Poison Ivy variant covers, though I think that mainly had to do in part with it being PRIDE month. I took a little walk through the rest of the shop and checked out the comics available then ultimately came back to Poison Ivy’s shelf and picked this issue up.

Cover Little bit of a creepy vibe from this cover but I think that’s what really drew me into it. Up until now, the comics I have been getting are all of superheroes, not villains. To see Poison Ivy front and center with a plate of meat that she is eating made me think Oh, she means business! The tag, “Humanity Had Its Chance” also gave me some thoughts that this could be a look at a villain unleashing all hell on everyone. But it’s nice to see the full character on the issue and then to have her surrounded in a bunch of plants and flowers is a nice touch. As if she were making death look pretty.

This is where we see Poison Ivy use her parasitic mushrooms to just brutally murder these guys. Epic.

Story In the opening pages we get a sense of how ruthless and evil Poison Ivy is along with a bit of overview about her. We learn she is now back in a physical body and that this story is not about revenge but instead about love. Interesting. The setting is Wyoming with two farmer guys driving around in their truck and coming upon a group of dead cows. They are trying to make sense of how it happened and what is covering the cows mutilated bodies. In comes Poison Ivy saying that it’s a class of parasitic mushrooms and gives them a taste. What follows is a couple badass panels showing one of the men enduring a horrific death and transformation into mushrooms.

She then gets back in her truck that she borrowed from a couple, but really she killed them and has their decomposing corpses in the back. All throughout the book we have Poison Ivy narrating what is going on and giving us a bit of background info. For instance we learn of her having a falling out with Harley and things ending over something, not sure what.

For a second I wasn’t sure who this was and then I figured it had to be Harley.

From what I gather, Poison Ivy is just mad at the world/humanity and is determined to destroy everything in her path. We get another notion of this when some dirty old sleaze balls harass her after leaving the bar and end up paying the ultimate price for it. I thought these panels were also really awesome not only because of the action but i really liked the colors used in this spread as well as the last the panel in particular that shows her blowing some type of smoke or dust.

Love this panel because of the purplish/pink evening tones paired with another brutal killing.

Towards the end of the issue we get a better sense of what or why Poison Ivy hates humans so much. Instead she explains that she doesn’t hate humans, but hates humans as a whole collective species. She goes on to say that they are an invasive species and so that’s why she hates them so much. She accuses the humans of using up all the resources on the planet and suggest extinction is the best scenario moving forward because the earth deserves to live and not be destroyed by the human species. As you can see in the image below there is a full page dedicated to an awesome Poison Ivy covered in plants and her hair being magnificent. I’m not sure if that’s like an actual form in which she can take or if it’s how she envisions herself.

Now this part I was a little confused at, not sure if this was something that actually happened or this is something she envisions her body as.

Overall Rating I give this a 4/5. Pretty hyped for this series and hope to learn more about this other form she can take. Had there been a little bit more info on her relationship with Harley ending and her form I would of given this 5 out of 5. Hopefully we learn more in the next issues.

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