Blood Lad in 5 panels.

I'm a bloodsucking monster from hell!

(just like any other otaku)

Hello, I'm Yanagi Fuyumi. I'm a cross between Casper The Friendly Ghost and Shinobu from Love Hina.

I make Hit-Girl look like a little girl.

I dont know why, but I have this weird feeling that it's inappropriate to wear my shirt in front of her...

Yanagi's (after)life in a nutshell.

Despite there being a vampire, werewolf and a close to useless girl in this manga... its awesome.

Huh...

Secret Invasion: New Warriors TPB review

Hello and welcome to my blog number 100!

I want to make something special out of it, so I have decided to review a series that I have long wanted to read; New Warriors volume 4.
If you have followed my resent activity, you probably have figured out by now that I'm a New Warriors fan. And I was of course pissed when Mark Millar decided to blow them up for his craptastic event-comic Civil War. That would normally be the moment the team disappeared, as it is tradition in Marvel Comics. But no, a new NW series was published during the Initiative event after Civil War with an interesting premise: a bunch of former mutants who lost their powers on M-Day are gathered together by the apparently not so dead Night Thrasher to become the next generation of New Warriors. They fight crime, makes Initiative teams look bad, and they're not shy about what they think of Tony Stark and the Registration Act. Lot of potential here. I wanted to read it for a long time, but because of my economy, it had to wait. Now I have found a TPB "Secret Invasion: New Warriors" on sale witch collects the last 7 issues of the 20 issue long series.
And I am not impressed.

I know it hardly seems fair that I judge the series on the end of it, instead of it as a whole, but after reading this much of the series, I doubt that I would enjoy any of the other issues, and reviews of the other TPB doesn't convince me. Then again, it could be that "Secret Invasion" is to the NW what the "Black Adam And Isis" story-line is to the Justice Society of America, so I will buy it, IF I happen to find it. But only if its cheep.
Now, lets take a look at it, shall we?
The first two issues aren't really that bad, to be fair. I haven't read Secret Invasion yet, but I have read some of the tie-ins and understand the concept: Who do you trust?
Well, your old friend, who return from the dead and form a new incarnation of your team without contacting you at all wont be one of them.
Justice and Rage (old NW members) believes that Night Thrasher is a Skrull, witch results in a fight between the Warriors and Justice and Rage's new team; Counter Force. They later team up, once Thrash reveals that his true identity is:

Donyell!!!
...
You don't know who that is, do you?
Donyell is the half brother of the original Night Thrasher. He was once known as Bandit, a enemy of his brother, due to jealousy of Dwayne having the family and money he didn't.
And now he's the new Thrasher, because they reconciled. Of-screen. Yes, seriously.
What is there to reconcile? They first met when they were both adults, its not like they were raised together. Beside the fact that they have fought each other, they are complete strangers. It would be like... I don't know, like, if Magneto had a father-like relationship to Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch.

... Wait, for realsies?
Beside that little bullcrap moment, its a decent story. Sure, the art could have been better, but all in all enjoyable.
And then comes the time travel...
One of the things I love about the Warriors is the fact that even though they a few times fight villains like the Sphinx and High Evolutionary, they are still pretty street-level. So its kind of a kick in the nuts when Thrash builds... a time machine. Out of scratch.
You know who has a time machine? Doctor Doom! Because HE is so insanely smart that he can actually do that. How the hell did Thrash build a time machine? Its just ridicules!
Anyway, the Warriors travel through time, so they can stop the Stanford explosion, but they make a mistake and ends up in the future.
I hate when that happens to me.
The future has gone all 1984 with Iron Man in control of everything and no superheroes left, except for Night Thrasher fight back. But Night Thrasher is really:

... Tony Stark... What? Does that mean that... No... NO! You cant be serious! Iron Man is really...

Dwayne Taylor, the first Night Thrasher? What the fuck?!?! What the actual fucking fuck!?!?
Like a) WHY is Dwayne Iron Man and Tony Night Thrasher? I get that Dwayne kicked Tony of the throne and took his power, but why change identity?
And b) HOW is Dwayne alive? Oh wait, that's right, they give us the answer: Science. Just science! No explanation except for that! No "he is a clone" or "a cure for death was found" or anything like that, just "science."
And c) ... you know what? FUCK C! FUCK D, E AND F TOO! FUCK THE ENTIRE ALPHABET!!!
I'm sorry, I normally don't swear this much, but this... THIS!!! THIS IS A PIECE OF CRAP FROM A DANISH POLITICIAN!!!
So as you may have guessed, the Warriors fight evil-Dwayne, release all the heroes so they can fight back, and return to their own time. And then they break up the team because... I don't know, and I honestly don't care anymore.
So that was "Secret Invasion: New Warriors." Thank god its over.
I'm confused as hell, since I have read another series written by Grevioux named "Adam: Legend Of The Blue Marvel" witch I truly enjoyed and recommend to anyone. But as a NW fan and a guy who loves comics, I do not approve of this... abomination.
That's all for now. I'm Waezi2, and thanks for wasting time with me.
It sure as hell was a waist of time for me.

New Warriors retrospective issue 32-34 and annual 3.

Seriously, WHY would anyone in the Marvel Universe live in NYC anymore? Its pretty much a war-zone for supers!

On the site arousinggrammar.com it has been calculated that a more popular hero, like Spider-Man, probably has a twenty super-villains in their main rogue gallery. That’s not counting the hundreds of minor villains they have fought. Counting crossover baddies, let’s say fifteen super-villains for every superhero. And by the amount of superheroes operating in USA alone, it’s probably at least a hundred or so.  That is 1500 bad guys running around at one time, minus those in prison or alternative dimensions. That's an awful lot of super-crime!

Besides the daily super-villain crime-activity and alien-invasions that somehow always just happens to take place in the big apple we also have events like Infinity War and Civil War. Not to mention today's subject; Forces Of Darkness, Forces Of Light.

The issue begins in a drug-rehabilitation clinic, where we see a young man named Manny, who is scared out of his mind. He screams that "the Dankness" is trying to take him, but no one takes him serious, thinking that he is "just a punk who doesn't want to get better". That was a mistake. 

You see, the Darkness IS “talking” to him. The poor Manny is a mutant with the ability to control and manipulate the Darkforce (an energy-source from the Darkforce Dimension that has the ability to assume the properties of both matter and energy depending on the needs of the user). In his cell, the Darkforce takes a humanlike form and asks Manny to accept him. Manny does so, and all hell breaks lose.

Darkforce spreads around in NY like a black ocean and infects everything it touches. All the people in the town starts to run amok, and only a handful of heroes are there to try to keep the situation under control, which is easier said than done. Even some of the heroes are infected too, so its not just powerless bystanders.

Meanwhile Doctor Strange allows himself to be captured by the Darkforce, in the hope that he can discover its source and a way to defeat it from within. Using the Eye of Agamotto, he peeks into the Darkforce dimension where he finds super-powered individual who are all empowered by the Darkforce, like Cloak and the New Warrior known as Silhouette. But they are prisoners, not the cause of the disaster in NY.

When Strange finds Manny in his sell at the clinic, he tries to remove the Darkforce from Manny, but discovers that Manuel’s survival depends on the Darkforce, but at the same time is screwing u is already fragile mind. The good doctor instead tries to reason with the boy, explaining that he is tearing the city apart, so Manny can pull himself together… and it has the exact opposite effect. Manny now fells some sort of power for the first time in his life, and decides to be an actual part of the havoc in NY, taking the name Darkling.

Taking on the Avengers, the Fantastic Four(more likely the Dynamic Duo, since Reed and Sue are out of town at the moment), and the New Warriors, Darkling proves that he is not a pushover, as he toy with them as they were nothing. The only one of them who is actually capable of hurting him is Firestar, but the amount of the microwaves needed to doing so would also irradiate everyone across the city.

It’s Firestar who finally takes to the skies and cuts loose on her power; the blinding light frees all of those ensnared by the Darkforce’s influence; rendering Enrique momentarily stunned.

At that moment, Dagger and Nova arrive, sending one of Dagger’s “light blades” into Henrique’s eye. He buckles over, explaining that he needs the Darkforce, because it is the only thing that has ever “cared” for him and the only thing that made him feel he mattered.

Doctor Strange then arrives and uses the Eye of Agamotto to show Henrique what people aren’t as bad as he want them to be. That even in this crisis was there compassion and hope. Manny realize that even though he has never experienced it, there IS hope and love to be found, and he feels the soft touch of hope.

But he doesn’t believe that it is for him, and that he long ago lost the means to love and be loved. Still, it doesn’t means that anyone else should share his fate, so he consumes all of the the Darkforce back into himself. He decides that he is too dangerous to live in this plane with his sort of power, and travels to the Darkforce Dimension, so he can learn how to control it and might even learn how to use it for good.

In the annual is also two sub stories. The first is about Speedball dealing with a school bully in his identity as Robbie Baldwin, and the second is about how Mikey and Mike, the two teenagers who shares the identity of the superhero Turbo, saves Fabian Nicieza (the writer of New Warriors) during a comic-con.

This is my favorite NW story-line. It’s the classic tale about heroes fighting evil, and those never gets old. The ending where Manny goes to the Darkforce Dimension is bittersweet, and its what makes the story complete. But it may not really be a NW story, but more like a crossover with the Warriors in focus.

That's all for now. I'm Waezi2, and thanks for wasting time with me.

The quest for lost comics: A handful of issues 3

Once again, I have brought a bunch of comics for pretty much nothing, in the hope that lost classics are to be found.
This is the first time for as long as I remember where I brought a bunch of random issues, and found myself disappointed. But lets start with the one of them I actually liked.

This comic is about Nightcrawler.
Seriously, what more do I have to say than the superhero who made being blue a thing is in this story?
Excalibur -1 is about Nightcrawler's last day at the Circus he was raised at, and the tragedy that made sure that he couldn't take he and his beloved Jimaine with him.
The art is great, the story is not bad either. Nice little read. If you by chance find this little pearl at your comic-shop, and you love Nightcrawler(and of coarse you do) you should defiantly buy it.
Here are two titles you SHOULDN'T buy.

How the crab do you screw up something as awesome as the ever so classic New Gods? Bad art, THAT'S what!
The story is generic as hell and fells abridged too. "1st explosive issue" my ass!
I really don't have more to say. New Gods issue 1 sucks, end of story.
NEXT!

Fantastic Force was an attempt to be to Fantastic Four what Excalibur was to X-Men. After Mr. Fantastics death, the Fantastic Four disbanded. Now four heroes who each has a (very meek) connection to the FF makes a team of their own to keep the legacy alive.
Boy, did they fail. The series didn't even last more than 20 issues.
Other than Franklin Richards, who is a future/alternative thingy, everyone else is complete unknown to me, and the comic does nothing to make me pay interest to these characters who seems generic as heck. Each character has messy back-stories, so most of the issue is spent explaining who's who, and failing at it too.
And why do these guys band together? Because Black Panther told them to. He even name them! What kind of origin is that?
If a thing like Fantastic Force should have a chance to actually work, it would first of all need characters who has a clear connection to the FF, like She-Hulk, Plack Panther or someone like that. And YES, a book with a completely new set of heroes, or relatively unknown anyway, CAN work, but the writing has to be a hell lot better than Fantastic Force.

That's all for now. I'm Waezi2, and thanks for wasting time with me.

Dangan Ronpa - Academy of Hope and High School of Despair Manga in 5 panels.

THIS is what happens when you dont take the entertainment industry serious!

 THIS is what happens when you share your deepest secret with the leader of a biker gang!

 THIS is what happens when you are a plot-point character!

It's a miracle that I actually survive...

...Well... At least the blood isn't purple.

Old Vs. New: New Warriors Issue 1.

I finally got it! New Warriors issue 1! The comic that I have been waiting for since Justice and Speedball went on a road-trip three years ago. Now its just a question about if it is a worthy successor to the series from the 90's. Only time can tell us if that is so, but that doesn't mean that we cant try to compare the first issue with the one from the original series.

Welcome to Old Vs. New!

Best cover.

Well, no debate here. It's definitely the old cover that wins. Posing is fine, but its nowhere close to being as epic as our heroes bursting through famous first issues of elder series to demonstrate how new they are!

Best art.

Mark Bargley's art is AWESOME! Witch makes it hard to say that Marcus To's art is a tiny bit better for this series. I dont really know why. Maybe because his style is more youthful, witch is what you would want in a story about young superheroes. And to tell the truth, I think To draws better faces than Bargley. Bargley sometimes makes some... odd faces. Not often, but when he does, mostly when someone smiles, it kinda looks like they have been told a dirty joke.

Best heroes.

Its may not be fair to judge this, since we still are one hero short in the new series. But I like the cast to both, so lets call it a tie, shall we?

Maybe with the exception with each teams Nova.

I know what you're going to say: You dont give the new Nova a chance because you like the old one, poopy head!

But I DID give him a chance. I brought five of the issues from the new Nova series (I actually got them for free, because I brought something else) and I just dont find him that compelling. He is actually a little dry, to be honest. But who knows, New Warriors might make him grow on me, so I shall let Sam get the benefit of the doubt. I actually consider picking up his series again, after hearing that Beta Ray Bill is going to be a sort of mentor to him.

Best villains.

Both Terrax and High Evolutionary are powerful and interesting villains. One is a rebelling herald of Galactus who wants to rule, the other a godlike being who wants what he thinks is the greater good.

But I thin that Higher Evolutionary is the villain who promise the most for a longer story-line, while Terrax is more of a "smash it, then rule it" type. And even though I'm a sucker for smashing, I have to give point to Evolutionary, since he seams more interesting.

Best story.

Honestly, both stories are really good. But I prefer the old version, since I'm a fan of the more simpler origin stories that you can read in one issue instead of five. But the new one IS good. We get the characters presented, and its really not required that you read about them before you dig into the new series. All you need to now is about the Warriors role in Civil (FUCKING!!!) War. The first issue from the old series is about the start of a legacy, the new one is about redeeming it.

Oh, and I probably have to mention the thing about Speedball, now I'm at it.

The thing about Speedball.

I would like to ad that Yost IS aware of Robbie's history. In a interview with CBR, Yost said:

"Speedball has indeed had a rough time, and while on the surface it does look like he's moved on, there's a lot going on with Robbie, which we'll explore in this iteration of New Warriors. It's extremely importantto Speedball to be doing this."

You see? And its really not that weird for Speedball to act as his former personality from before Stanford, since he wants things back to the way it used to be. Its part of his way to handle his grief, and it is to be expected.

So please, STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT SPEEDBALL, AND JUST ENJOY THE STORY, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!

But enough of that. Lets find a winner.

And the winner is:

But that's just the first issue. Who knows? In the hands of Yost, the new series could be the superior one. Only time can tell.

I'm Waezi2, and thanks for wasting time with me.

My top 9 favorite 5-panel jokes

After 50 5-panels, I think its time to all it a day. I'm still going to make blogs (you know, those nobody read) but you wont see many 5-panels. Its just that its hard to get new material, and honestly; I think I have made the 5-panel I wanted to make. So what now.

Well, I can make a top 9, that usually makes me feel important.

My big problem with many of my 5-panel parodies is that I feel I'm not telling a story, but just making one-liners. Not that making a one-liner is wrong, as long as it works for the 5-panel. And I do have some personal favorites among my parodies, that works out of contest. Here hey are:

Nbr. 9: Why is this not a internet meme?

Taste the rainbow, motherfuckers!!!

Nbr. 8: 

Bonds are forever broken! ... Again... This is REALLY getting old.

Nbr. 7: What Geoff Johns is to me.

Good. Good. Everything is going as I have foreseen.

Nbr. 6:

Remember kids, when the police starts to ask questions, dont tell them about the boring stuff like being left on a island without food for two days. Just tell them that you had a fun weekend with uncle Pegasus.

Nbr. 5:

Have anyone seen my nibbles? I've been looked for them everywhere.

Nbr. 4:

You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!

Nbr. 3:

I am the sole survivor of the Nova Corps... Again... Blue blazes, this is getting old...

Nbr. 2:

 Put down the dead cat and nobody gets hurt.

Nbr. 1:

My "Identity Crisis" costume... Can I go home now, Mr. Officer?