Ink of Blood

(This review may contain spoilers).

Having seen Pietro (and Wanda) in Avengers: Age of Ultron and also the first set of comics from this series, I was quite happy to have the opportunity to learn a bit more about him.

I really liked seeing Pietro interacting with and protecting his sister. While it would have been nice to see more of him interacting with other members of the Avengers and X-Men in the first comic, I did like seeing how he viewed Magneto at the start. And I did have a lot of sympathy for both Pietro and Wanda, even without knowing all of the details of their past.

I’ve seen a few different comics dealing with the aftermath of Wanda’s new reality by now, but it was interesting to see it from Pietro’s perspective and how he had to cope with no longer having his mutant ability.

While I could see that Pietro was struggling in the second set of comics and clearly couldn’t cope with being at the same speed as everyone else, I couldn’t see much in the way of his apparent arrogance. And although it was interesting to see him interacting with Crystal, when I learned about their history together, I found myself feeling even more sympathy towards Pietro.

I really liked being able to see more of the Inhumans and also being able to see a bit more of Black Bolt’s personality, although I did think he was somewhat cruel. It was nice to see the artwork in the second set of comics change with the different settings, giving each place a different atmosphere.

There were some darker aspects in the second storyline and I’m not sure I completely understood how Pietro’s abilities had been changed by the mists… at least not at first. I didn’t really know how his time travel worked, though. It would have been good to see it fit better together.

It was awful to see how many of the mutants were affected by the loss of their powers and I did feel a lot of sympathy for them. I could understand their desperation to have their powers back.

I liked seeing Luna and Pietro together, but I felt that Pietro did eventually do right by his daughter, even though he put her in danger in the first place.

Wanda’s is the next comic on my Marvel’s Mightiest Heroes list to read… but in the future, I would definitely be interested in reading more about Pietro and his sister.

(This review may contain spoilers).

So… if I’m completely honest, my original interest in Marvel, or at least the X-Men, probably stems from Hugh Jackman’s portrayal of Wolverine.

I liked the opportunity to see Logan’s first appearance. I did, however, feel that he was unnecessarily cruel to the Hulk. While the first comic did a good job of showcasing Logan’s abilities and how determined/stubborn he is, I also thought that the comic showed a slightly different aspect to the Hulk. In many ways, he does strike me as a child who has an innocent way of looking at the world.

I thought the second set of comics were particularly intriguing. While there wasn’t much shown of the new world generally Wanda had created, I liked the fact that I could see the after-effects on Logan. Learning about his past with Mystique added an extra dimension to his character… though I was disappointed to see that he could technically be classed as a villain. While the crowd he ran with were criminals, my opinion of him went down several notches by the end of the flashback sequences.

I liked the different styles of artwork in the two different comics. It was good to see how the atmosphere changed from a more lighthearted feel to something a whole lot darker.

Even for a villain, I’ve felt that Mystique is a lot more than that. I felt the second set of comics showcased her grey nature especially well. I wouldn’t root for her to win against the heroes, but I’m interested in learning more about her and perhaps seeing a redemption-style arc for her character, especially in light of her connection to Nightcrawler, one of my favourite X-Men.

It was really good to see Logan interacting with Scott and I would have liked to see him with more of the others, heroes and villains. Even though these two sets of comics didn’t show much in the way of Logan struggling against his nature, I could see hints of that.

I liked being able to learn more about Logan’s past and I did have a lot of sympathy for him the more I discovered. I’m sure I’d like to read more of his comics in the future.

(This review may contain spoilers).

Although it was interesting to read two different versions of the X-Men origin story, I have to say, I didn’t really like this comic book as much as some of the others. Out of the two different sets of comics, I actually preferred the origin story in the first one.

It was good to have the opportunity to see some of the background of the original five X-Men. I had a lot of sympathy for Scott in the first set of comics. I thought he looked far too thin… like he’d been starved by the man who had taken him.

I really liked Bobby’s character in this… but I think I preferred Hank’s a lot more. There wasn’t really much evidence of how intelligent he was until he was picked up by Xavier, though. It would have been nice to see something of that as well as how athletic he is.

I did think interspersing the story with details of the newscasts was an interesting effect. I did also find myself getting really annoyed with the people in the first set of comics especially. There wasn’t much evidence of anyone being accepting… though it was good to see that some of the parents tried hard to support their children.

I thought it was interesting to see that the first set of comics were in a different kind of style entirely to the slightly more juvenile version of the second set. What I also thought was interesting was how young Charles and Magneto seemed in the first set of comics. And I liked seeing the mutual understanding between Charles and the FBI agent… and I did like the FBI agent’s character. I did dislike most of the other police shown, though.

There was one mutant character I felt a lot of sympathy for in the first set of comics. It was a bit disappointing that the second comic meant that the first one was no longer valid, though.

I liked Warner’s character, even though he was technically a vigilante. I would have liked to know more about him… though he did remind me a bit of Tony’s character.

I liked seeing some of the artwork at the end of the book and I do think it was worth reading these comics… I just didn’t enjoy them as much as some of the others.

(This review may contain spoilers).

I hadn’t really registered much about the Inhumans, even though I had seen glimpses of some of them (like Crystal) in previous comics.

I thought it was interesting to get a glimpse of the origins of the Inhumans. While there were some similarities with the Fantastic Four, I thought it was good to see that they were also bound by the people they were leading. I would have liked the opportunity to see more of Black Bolt’s past with Medusa… but what I did learn about him made me have a lot of sympathy. I did get somewhat confused by the fact that he apparently couldn’t talk… but things did make sense by the end of the comics.

I felt quite a lot of sympathy for Crystal by the end of this comic. Although I could understand Medusa’s desperation to save her husband, I did think that she acted quite selfishly in that her only priority seemed to be Black Bolt… and not the rest of her people. While it was implied that Black Bolt’s brother was a villain, he at least seemed to care about the rest of the Inhumans, even if he was responsible for enslaving them in the past.

Once again, I noticed that there were some very clear differences between the first comic and the second set. The second was a lot different in the artwork and style… but, although there was a lot of action and fighting, I didn’t notice a lot of gore even in the second set of comics.

It was interesting to see the relationship between Crystal and Medusa, but I would have liked to see more of the relationships between the rest of the characters as well.

I liked seeing the different ways the Inhumans had evolved, though I would have liked to see a bit more explanation about how they all developed vastly different appearances and abilities. And it also would have been good to see more detail about how Medusa related to her namesake.

I liked reading about the history of the Inhumans as well… but I really didn’t like the Kree. Not in the first comic and definitely not in the second set.

This has triggered an interest in reading more about the Inhumans… and it was also cool to see Tony Stark make a brief appearance.