Hartley talks… written by Hartley Holmberg is more than just another comic book blog with a hint of comic love from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

In part 1 we cover X-Men stuff! Uncanny X-Men, X-Men Legacy, Wolverine:Old Man Logan, X-Force, and Wolverine: Manifest Destiny!

In part 2 Hartley reviews Wolverine: Switchback, Wolverine: Chop Shop, X-Men Manifest Destiny, Spider-Man/X-Men, War of Kings Saga, Guardians of the Galaxy, War of Kings, and Nova!

In part 3 I yak about Marvel Zombies 3, Thor, Incredible Hercules, the Walking Dead vol 9, the Joker Hardcover, and What If? Classic Vol.5!

The Incredible Hercules #125

Another great issue of this fantastic series, and a great conclusion to the Love and War storyline.

I was really very surprised at how much story Pak and Van Lente were able to jam into this ish, and this newcomer Salva Espin’s pencils blew my mind.

Theres just about nothing I can say about this comic that won’t ruin the great moments contained within, but I will say this:

I think Reid Fleming:world’s toughest Milkman is in this ish!

Jam packed with awesome the Incredible Herc just continues to deliver!

Wildcats #7

Writer Christos Gage has been real hit and miss with me, but he does deliver an okay ish here. There are some original and fun moments with Voodoo, Maul and Warblade, but there’s also an extremely predictable moment with an innocent bystander .

The conclusion of the battle with Defile was just  unfortunately weak, and didn’t make much sense despite its attempt at being portrayed as they only sensible solution. Which was really too bad as I was enjoying the conflict quite a bit. It was a fun and original clash with some great character/action moments.

But the actual ending of the story was interesting enough that I’m still on board for next ish, that and Neil Googes excellent art-work.

The back up tale By Gage and drawn by John Paul Leon was very curious and piqued my interest, but I fear that it will end up concluding in Gen 13 a comic I have no interest in picking up, especially not just for a 4 page back-up.

Ms Marvel #35

Man did this book recover well from the shit story arc that was Secret Invasion!

Carol Danver’s appears to have either lost her powers or has been severely downgraded somehow, and is working plain clothes now that Norman Osborn has stolen her Ms Marvel Identity. Danver’s is working with “the Agent” Rick Mason, and a character by the name of Micheal Rossi in conjunction with the national Security agency.

In this ish she goes to investigate an incident involving the worshipers of the Dead Captain Mar-Vell, and bumps into a certain relevant somebody along the way.  All that and the nasty Machination of Norman Osborn on foreign soil are brought to light.

A fun read, and I hope that Penciller Patrick Oliffe sticks around as he delivers great story telling here!

X-Force #11

This comic truely has just gotten better with each issue as the writing team of Kyle and Yost keep on building on what they’ve started.

This issue brings to us the origin of the main antagonist of the series thus far Eli Bard

, and his story is iconic and fucking awesome.

His plan which is fully revealed at the end is great classic bad-guy stuff, and this book fucking blew my mind with its shear awesome-ness.

I was expecting it to be solid, and I got solid all right.

Solid poopies shooting out my ass as I shit myself over how awesome this book is!

Alina Urusov does a great job working in concert with Clayton Crain, and speaking of Crain: the last page of this comic is fucking great!

X-Force gave me what I wanted when I had no idea that’s what I wanted!

Although I wonder how long it will take fans to compare this idea of the dead rising via the Technovirus and the upcoming Black Lantern Saga?

Avengers: the Initiative #21

Holy sweet mamajamma was this a great fun fucking ish!

Sure I’m not thrilled about the idea of Gargoyle retiring again, but it was more than believable, as was the rest of the veteran Heroes reaction to Norman Osborn being the new man in charge. We have a new status quo and its glorious!

I would never have thought that Clor could be so damned cool, but it is! Christos Gage delivers the best issue I’ve seen him produce thus far, and I really loved everything about it from Baron Von Blitzschlag’s  insane plan to the Shadow Initiative sequence, to the Cadet Barracks, to Ultra Girls legal problem and Clor  going berserk and starting a big fantastic scrap this issue has it all!

This issue exemplifies everything I love about Marvel comics; gritty realism, excellent (and funny) character interaction and wicked awesome action between characters you just want to see challenge each other! Fantastic fun with an extremely exciting ending!

Woot!

That’s it for now I’ll get to the rest of what I read (yup theres WAY more! And even some crap for me to shit on!) later!