Ultimate Origins

written by Brian Michael Bendis 

colored by Butch Guice 

Whenever I read Marvel Comics, I felt that the characters and stories are a little too constrained by the endless revival of heroes and villains, as well as the fact that no matter how bad the villain becomes, he always get away through jail time. Add on to that is the fact that most characters no longer has any surprises left in them, all of them explorer throughout decades of comic publishing and repeated revamps. 

Ultimate Comics related characters are another story entirely. Even though the familiar characters are present in this universe, they no longer share the same background. To add on to the suspense, certain familiar characters have been cast in different light, taking on the role of another character when you thought they couldn’t be related in any way. 

And to add more suspense onto even that, your familiarity with the Marvel universe will surprise you even more, when it was revealed that a certain famous person X is also the reason another certain famous person Y is born. The more you know, the more you will be surprised. You like it? Then read Ultimate Origins. 

Star Wars: X-Wing – Starfighters of Adumar (Book 9 of X-Wing series)

Starfighters of Adumar was the ninth and last of the novel in the popular X-Wing series before the long lull in the series. With the launch of Mercy Kill, I went back to reread the novel and to get myself back into the seat of Rogue Squadron before I go ahead to read the latest installation of the series. 

One-liner intro: An engaging read of how pilots practice diplomacy - through aggressive negotiations!

Best part: A fresh departure from usual space fights; intriguing read on Wedge's love life; hilarious dialogues to entertain readers in between fights.

Not-so-best part: Unimpressive enemies; unimpressive tactics and strategies.

The Power of Six (Book 2 of the Lorien Legacies series)

I was drawn to I Am Number Four initially because of the attention grabbing title and its mention of humble backwater Malaysia, but I returned to grab the sequel because of the drama it introduced in the former. 

This time Pittacus Lore blessedly shed most of the mushy romance that is part of an adolescence love story, and focused more on the struggle of a displaced alien from another planet. The plot is more captivating this round, with more to offer compared to the first book. Definitely a better read in my opinion. 

One-liner intro: A superb, intense and captivating teen read on @$-kicking aliens on the run, with more dramatic powers but less mushy romance. 

Best part: Less mushy, more fighting; good contrast between 2 protagonists that allows the reader to easily shift from one perspective to the other; tying up loose ends from the first title.

Not-so-best part: Not so bright protagonist; no clever use of the available powers.

Superman: Earth One

written by J. Michael Straczynski

pencils by Shane Davis

After Straczynski's bout in Marvel ended with the death of May Parker in The Amazing Spiderman and another death of a member of Fantastic Four, he was signed up by DC Comics to work on the character of Superman. The character of Superman was quite intriguing, with his history seldom changing and the character had always been Kal-El/Clark Kent. Having said that, modern readers are becoming more serious, demanding stories with more depth to it, stories which provoke thought and invoke emotions.

It seemed that Straczynski's work on the character was precisely to redefine the character's initial days as a superhero, rewriting on what we know of Superman. And his initial work of Superman: Earth One was quite an impressive work IMHO.

The Big Bad Wolf Book Sale 2012

If you are not aware, then be aware - THE Big Bad Wolf Book Sale is back! After announcing its presence back in October, Lieutenant Wolf is back once more with its 75 - 95% discounts on all 3 MILLION of its books. This is a bargain hunt which book lovers could not and should not miss out.

Today is only the 4th day of the sales and already throngs of crazed book  hunter poured into MIECC, grabbing whatever they can from being snatched by other equally crazed hunters. Enter the halls to hunt for your treasure before December 23rd (Sun).

Date:           7^th (Fri) -23rd Dec (Sun) 2012

Admission:  6.30 a.m. - 11 p.m. daily

Entry fee:    Free

Location:     Singapore Paragon Shopping Center, atrium

Website:      BBW Facebook page, BBW blog

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Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman, Vol 4 - Three

written by Jonathan Hickman
art by Steve Epting and Nick Dragotta

I had been hanging onto Fantastic Four issues on and off now, and none seemed to impress me as much as this "final" issue of Fantastic Four. With the foreboding title of "Three", it seems that one of the member will go off the pages permanently, although fans of Western comicdom knew how much that will stay, what with all those dead heroes and villains showing up again and again via illogical reasons.

Counting Down to "Three"

This volume is the fourth volume of Fantastic Four, collecting issues 583 - 588 as well as chronicling the supposed death of a certain permanent member of the team.

Marvel's First Family was no stranger to dangerous missions, nor were they unfamiliar with situations when they had to worked out problems without the full team present. Unfortunately super major problems arose, each one of them having an equal chance of turning catastrophic and harm the member that had to confront it, leaving as equal a chance that each of them could perish.

Final Crisis

written by Grant Morrison

One of the most shocking crossovers in DC Universe which changed familiar characters' background and storyline drastically was introduced in Crisis on Infinite Earth. After that Infinite Crisis was introduced and tried to market the same concept again, extending events from that first major crisis. But with hints being thrown around that this second crisis was but a "middle crisis", there was speculations in comicdom that a "final crisis" has yet to come. And so a few years back in 2008, Final Crisis was launched to put recent events around that time to an end, in another major crisis which once more see the death of major characters.

The Final Crisis?

The hardcover and paperback edition collect Issues 1 - 7 from titles of the same name, as well as 2 issues of Final Crisis: Superman Beyond and Final Crisis: Submit. Leading to the plot in these issues were stories surrounding different main characters in their own series, most notably Batman's in the foreboding Batman R.I.P. arch. Another year long series with weekly publications and high acclaim, Countdown to Final Crisis, also ran several plots which brought all events converging onto the plot.