The Dissector #164.

DISCLAIMER (angry creators, please read)

[[WARNING! THIS COLUMN MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS!]]

"Hmmm... if we have to offer (Earth-Man) a Legion ring, it doesn't have to be an ordinary one. What was that rhyme about 'one ring'..." Brainiac 5, Legion Of Super-Heroes V6 #1.

Welcome to the column for comics released on 05/19, on time this week! Yes, it's a self-imposed deadline, but I like to meet it. Lt. Cmdr. JohnnyDoe earns himself another badge by noticing that the Celestial, said to be ten times taller than Ship, is not one and half times taller... JD, three more badges, and you make Commander!

Now, let it not be said that I just leave ambiguous dissections be and decide for myself that they're wrong. I try to go to authoritative sources and clear up my doubts. As confirmed by Tom Brevoort, "Michele" is the official spelling of Peter Parker's roommate’s first name. I'm not going to modify the dissection counts or averages from previous columns, but I've removed the dissections from book, company, and creator counts (only four occurrences this year).

Now, The Dissector's Picks Of The Week... Best Book Of The Week is, obviously, Legion Of Super-Heroes V6 #1. While the issue is not jam-packed with action like say, an issue of War Of The Supermen, there's enough action to keep you interested, excellent characterization (expectable, since Levitz basically owns most of this characters, if he didn't create them, he breathed life into them), and good plot twists. It's perfect for Legion fans, and I believe it's a good jumping on point for casual Legion readers, or even completely new readers. About the art, well, ever since I saw the first sketches by Cinar, I was convinced he was an excellent choice for this. He handles the action, the character moments, the technology and ambience very well. The only weak spot I can find is that some of the faces in characters sitting or standing in the background (but not that far away from the main characters in that scene) either look too rushed, or make the character look too young. But that's a minor gripe, compared to the background characters drawn by many other artists, and it's offset by the quality of the rest of the art in the book.

Worst Book Of The Week? The Galacta: Daughter Of Galactus one-shot. Wow, this was cute for a few pages in an anthology book (where it comes originated), or for a digital short story (where parts of this book were originally published... but thirty-one pages of story? and seven pages of posts from Galacta's twitter account? Not to mention the ridiculous writing... I expected much better from writer Adam Warren. Visually, the book is cute, but that's not enough for an entire one-shot, no matter how much Hector Sevilla Lujan tries to mimic Warren's art style.

The Rundown: Age Of Heroes (Faiza Hussain's eyes should be brown, not blue), Amazing Spider-Man Presents: American Son (multiple eye color errors), Batman: Streets Of Gotham (accented letter), Battlefields (the rank should be "Obersturmbannführer", not "Obersturmbanfuhrer", two Ns, even if you don't use the "ü"), Enter The Heroic Age (accented letter), G.I. Joe (eye color error), Girl Comics V2 (eye colors), Justice League Of America V2 (Alan Scott's lantern and chest emblem are wrong, German language errors, including a made-up rank), Wizard Magazine ("Ozymandius", "bones" instead of "bonus", and Ethan Van "Skiver"), X-Factor V3 (eye colors and shapes), X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back (German language, accented letter, Nightcrawler's costume is drawn and colored incorrectly), X-Men Forever V2 (several eye colors and designs are wrong, costuming errors, accented letter), X-Men Legacy (Dr. Nemesis' hair is colored incorrectly), Zatanna V2 (accented letters, a weird space after an opening question mark... surprisingly, the Spanish is right, if a bit stilted).
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"TWO CANS AND A BIT OF STRING."

TITLE: Avengers V4 (Marvel).

ISSUE: 01.

CULPRIT: Brian Michael Bendis (writer).

DISSECTION: They either overshoot, or fall short... Avengers: The Origin has Rick Jones using computer equipment that's modern even for the Marvel Universe (12-15 years ago), and now, Bendis has him use CB Radio to unite the Avengers for the first time, and explain to people (it's text from a fictitious book) what CB radio was, compared to the internet...

DISSECT-O-METER: 7 Bazzars. There are also several eye color mistakes, plus Beast looking too much like his previous form.
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"THE ATOM, NOT DOLLMAN."

TITLE: DC Universe: Legacies (DC).

ISSUE: 01 of 10.

CULPRIT: Scott Kolins (penciller).

DISSECTION: The Atom, Al Pratt, was short, yes, at 5'1", but he was not a little person, and certainly not two heads shorter than Hourman (Rex Tyler, 5'10") and Sandman (Wesley Dodds, 5'11").

DISSECT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
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"WATCH YOUR FIGURE."

TITLE: Galacta: Daughter Of Galactus (Marvel).

ISSUE: One-shot.

CULPRIT: Adam Warren (writer).

DISSECTION: I should have caught this in the assistant editor special that came out some time ago, I think the same terms were used... but no matter how silly you're trying to be, and no matter how efficient Galacta's technology is, there is no way that a human being will yield between 16 and 18 GIGAcalories, a cat 4, and so on.

Warren, do you understand that GIGA means A BILLION? Ten to the power of nine?? 1.000.000.000??? Recommended daily energy intake values for human beings varies between 2000-3000 kilocalories per day... so how the hell could a person yield anywhere near a gigacalorie when converted to energy?!?!?!?

DISSECT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars. There is also an accented letter smaller than it should be.
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"PUSH."

TITLE: Legion Of Super-Heroes V6 (DC).

ISSUE: 01.

CULPRIT: Paul Levitz (writer).

DISSECTION: I've sung all the praise I could about this book... well, maybe not all I could, but enough for this column. There was an error, however, and I didn't notice it... though I'm not at all certain it's actually an error, you know?

Here's the thing, Roy (who gets a badge and a promotion to Lieutenant) asked me if I had noticed Saturn Girl using telekinesis (or "teke", if Chris Claremont was writing this). I hadn't read the book yet, and said I'd be on the outlook. So I read with extra attention (not that my spider sense is not always on)... and only noticed one panel, where she seems to be shoving people from under falling ruble from a distance.

I told Roy that to me, it looked like that, but it could be said that she's using telepathy to shove them out in "command" way, if you know what I mean. But that wasn't what Roy was referring to... he was actually referring to the scene where she breaks through a window:


I didn't want to believe that Paul Levitz, who knows these characters like they were his creations, had slipped, so I countered that she could be flying through the window, using her flight ring, which is made from Valorium, a derivate of Thanagarian Nth metal, and there's some sort of gravity pulse and... yeah, I know, a little far-fetched, but plausible.

But while the Legion fan in me wanted to leave it at that, the Dissector wouldn't allow him. So I asked Yildiray Cinar, the Legion's newest artist, who I have contact with through Facebook. Cinar confirmed it was TK, and said: "It was in the script so I'm not sure what's with S.G.'s telekinesis. I'm sure we'll all find out. :)".

What does this mean? That it could all be part of a plan on Levitz part, which I'd prefer, because I don't want to believe that he's slipping like Chris Claremont (although the quality of the writing in this issue, as mentioned before, assures me that he's not). Why am I considering this a dissection, then? Well, when she's introduced, her caption says only "telepathy"... yes, it could all be part of Levitz' plan, but still... if it turns out there's an actual reason behind this, I'll retract from this dissection (but Roy won't lose his badge).

DISSECT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars. Also, Brainiac 5's eyes are purple (wrong), then green (correct), and Sodam Yat's hair should be black, not brown.
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"DISSECT THIS TO HELL."

TITLE: X-Men: Hellbound (Marvel).

ISSUE: 01 of 03.

CULPRIT: Harvey Tolibao (penciller).

DISSECTION: See if you can spot this one:


DISSECT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars. Also, there are character design elements wrong, and some accented letters are smaller than they should be.
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This week's column gives us a 6.4 Bazzars average in fifty-four dissections, pretty standard. If you follow my posts on Facebook, you'll know that there's no doubt of which the Cover Of The Week is:


This delicacy by Yildiray Cinar (pencils), Wayne Faucher (inks), and Rod Reis (colors) is simply stunning, and if you don't know what's going on, you'll want to crack open the book just to see what the hell's up with this. Moments Of The Week? By all means. First, from War Of The Supermen, Jimmy Olsen's got friends:


A Legion of friends. :) (Matter of fact, he's got TWO Legions of friends, but who's counting...) The war between Earth and New Krypton rages on... in Argentina?


Obviously, Uruguay was small enough to be spared (and no, DC One Million doesn't count). What's interesting enough is that there are no Argentinian artists or writers involved in this book (Cafu is most likely Brazilian, and even if inker "Bit" or colorist "Blond" are Argentinian, they have no incidence on the actual content of the book), which makes me think one of the writers (James Robinson or Sterling Gates) is a Heinlein fan. That, or Robinson, being British, still can't forgive Argentina for the Falklands/Malvinas war (shya, right).

Now, one of those funny moments from Atomic Robo:


Looks familiar... Next, the new Avengers assemble:


Wait, Bucky Cap was chosen only for his symbolism? Gee, thank you, Steve! Next, the much anticipated...


... return of the Great Machine! More LSH, Brainy's a character after my own heart:


Hehehe... and who was that Green Lantern ring for?


Oh, sprock! In the X-Men camp, I didn't enjoy Pixie's mini, but the last issue was better, particularly this moment:


I should adapt Enid Blyton's novels to comic... More Marvel, the first Hulk of the Ultimate universe has an interesting choice of weaponry:


War Machine is a crybaby, it was just a one-man plane! And for the finale, Zatanna has to be paying millions of dollars in life insurance:


Because there can't be anything more stupid in the DCU than dressing up as the Joker, like she has one of her actors do... That's it for now, until next time, I'll be on the outlook for more dissections, because (almost) nothing escapes...

THE DISSECTOR!

The Dissector #152.

DISCLAIMER (angry creators, please read)

[[WARNING! THIS COLUMN MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS!]]

"Despite all appearances, I think Captain Rogers is trying very hard NOT to die." Admiral Dickins, about Buck Rockers' daredevil stunts, Buck Rogers #9.

"Ionic air propulsion. Electrostatic levitation. Electrogravitics. The Biefeld-Brown Effect and electro-fluid dynamics. Nothing here is invented. It simply appears to be uchronic, counterfactual, sitting in the break of a time out of joint. Everything I tell you is true. It's everyone else who's been lying to you. I am Captain Swing." Captain Swing, London, 1830, Captain Swing And The Electrical Pirates Of Cindery Island #1.

Welcome to the column for books released on 02/24, ending the month of February. Two quotes? Hell yeah, I wanted it to It's not exactly steampunk, more like electricpunk, since there's no actual steam involved, but Warren Ellis has done it again, and he brings Raúlo Cáceres, who already dazzled me in Crécy, as well as his variant covers for other Avatar books. Now, while Doktor Sleepless fizzled and is not as fun as it was originally (and when was the last time it was released?), but this book is only a four issues mini, so no dangers of that. It didn't make book of the week, but it almost did. The quote, in particular, is another incidence of Mage: The Ascension references in comics I've mentioned before, some of them by Ellis himself. And the Buck Rogers quote was just fun!

Still a few days to vote on the Autopsy Awards 2009, no idea when I'll get around to posting the winners, but until I do, your votes still count. Last column's DT! was guessed jointly by JohnnyDoe and Emerre. Emerre said that the bullet held up by Dick is not deformed, as if it never hit a target, and JohnnyDoe added that it looks unfired (with the casing and all). The artist was even kind enough to draw a rectangle around the dissection! :)

Now, The Dissector's Picks Of The Week. Best Book Of The Week was, and I'm easy to please sometimes, Superman #697. Plain and simple, the Legion Of Super-Heroes in action, and the return of my favorite legionnaire. See the Moments.. for more on that. The Worst Book Of The Week was Teen Titans #80, boring story, confusing dialogue, plain art. That simple.

The Rundown! The Amazing Spider-Man (accented letter), Black Lantern Green Arrow (Hal badge is wrong on the cover and inside the book, Barry's eyes are covered by his mask, and Connor's mother's eyes are blank in a flashback), Blackest Night (the badges for Hal, Kyle, Kilowog and Guy are wrong, and Ganthet's badge changes between panels), Blackest Night: JSA (Alan Scott's emblem is wrong, as well as Atom Smasher's... which looks more like a flower than anything else), God Complex (Raiders Of The Lost "Arc"?), Gotham City Sirens (Riddler's hair is wrong), Justice Society Of America (Alan's emblem is wrong, and Jay's hair is colored incorrectly), Madame Xanadu ("Caeser" was the leader of Rome?), Nation X (character heights are wrong, and eye colors too), Secret Warriors (Nick Fury's eyes are wrong), Star Trek: The Next Generation: Ghosts (Riker's eyes are colored brown instead of blue... and blue for a panel; and a crewmember is missing his rank insignia), Teen Titans V3 ("totake" instead of "to take"), The Marvels Project (Namor's ankle wings are huge), The Flash: Rebirth (Jay's emblem and Hal's badge are wrong), Thor V1 (Volstagg's eyes, which should be blue, are colored green first, then brown), Wizard Magazine ("forward" instead of "foreword", "oseven" instead of "seven", and "speicals" instead of "specials"), Wonder Woman V3 (Power Girl's shoulderpad cape clasp is missing on the cover, then inside the book the leather strap becomes a braided strap, then goes back to leather, gets too thick, and disappears for a panel), X-Force V3 (Selene's eyes). Dissections!
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"LOBE GLOBE."

TITLE: The Dissector (Studio Robota).

ISSUE: 151.

CULPRIT: MaGnUs (writer).

DISSECTION: In the DT!, I wrote "Batman's globes" instead of "Batman's gloves".

DISSECT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
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"AUNT MAY, TAKE YOUR MEDS."

TITLE: Spider-Man: The Clone Saga (Marvel).

ISSUE: 06 of 06.

CULPRIT: Tom De Falco (writer).

DISSECTION: When little May Parker (MJ and Peter's daughter) is kidnapped, Aunt May posits that it can't be for ransom, since Peter and MJ can't pay a lot of money. Right, it's not like MJ has been a famous actress and model.

DISSECT-O-METER: 5 Bazzars. Aunt May might be senile. Also, the Scarlet Spider's hoodie is colored incorrectly on the cover, as well as Harry and Norman Osborn's eyes.
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"BEAR MOUNTAIN."

TITLE: Thunderbolts (Marvel).

ISSUE: 141.

CULPRIT: Jeff Parker (writer).

DISSECTION: Grizzly, the newest member of the Thunderbolts, is called "Marko" by Paladin; but Grizzly's real name is Maxwell Markham. "Marko" would be Michael Marko, aka Man Mountain Marko, who Jeff Parker has also used in his Agents Of Atlas book, as an ATF agent sent by Norman Osborn after the Atlas Foundation.

DISSECT-O-METER: 7 Bazzars. Also, on the roster at the beginning of the book, Headsman's there when he was shot last week, and Grizzly's missing, when he's been on the team for a few issues now.
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"COX SUCKER."

TITLE: X-Factor V3 (Marvel).

ISSUE: 202.

CULPRIT: Jeromy Cox (colorist).

DISSECTION: Attention, rant coming...

Jeromy Cox: Monet St. Croix has brown eyes, not blue or green; Namor's should be grey, not whatever weird color you gave him; Layla Miller's eyes are green, not blue; Reed Richards has brown eyes, not blue ones; and Ben Grimm, usually called "Ever Lovin' Blue Eyed Thing"... yes, you guessed it, has BLUE EYES, NOT BROWN ONES!!!! ALSO, YOU MIGHT WANT TO AVOID COLORING LAYLA LIKE SHE'S MONET, SKIN, HAIR AND COSTUME!!!

Your job is to color these books, and I know it can be a hard, detailed job. But can you at least work with character references in front of you, FOR RAINBOW RAIDER'S SAKE?!?!?!?!

DISSECT-O-METER: I'm fucking giving 9 Bazzars to each of these, just because of Jeromy's complete inability to color ONE CHARACTER RIGHT. Also, the word "monologuing" is spelled "monologing".
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"FOREVER DISSECTION."

TITLE: X-Men Forever V2 (Marvel).

ISSUE: 18.

CULPRIT: Chris Claremont (writer).

DISSECTION: Surprisingly, the only two dissections in this issue were a character having blank eyes, and this one:


DISSECT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
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This column ended up with a 6.5 Bazzars in fifty four dissections. I thought it'd be higher. Now, Cover Of The Week comes from Captain Swing:


Nice shot of Captain Swing's ship, and a good cover design to look like a Victorian catalogue. Now, Moments Of The Week, first up, QUISLET RETURNS!!!


WHOOOOOOOOOOO BOOOOOOOY!!!! Yeah, my favorite legionnaire is back, HELL YEAH!!! And now, guess which member of the Flash family is not happy about the whole Barry return thing?


Yep, Jai. He's apparently lost his powers, and that face tells me we might that someday in the future, we might have a Rogue who's actually related to the Flashes... Then, more Legion goodness!!


Chameleon's facial expression is downright Kevinmaguiresque, don't you think? Still in DC, artist Cameron Stewart reminds us that Damian Wayne is not completely Caucasian:


Good work, Mr. Stewart. And finally, part of a Wizard article on Kick-Ass


Wow, it's a good thing Vaughn is DRAWING INSPIRATION FROM THE COMIC HE'S BASING HIS MOVIE ON!!! In the immortal words of Chris Rock "You're supposed to, you dumb motherfucker!" That's it for now, until next time, I'll be on the outlook for more dissections, because (almost) nothing escapes...

THE DISSECTOR!

RETRO NITPICKING:
The Nitpicker #03.

DISCLAIMER (angry creators, please read)

NOTE FROM THE PRESENT: You’ve read it above, this is a Retro Nitpicking, meaning that I’m treating you to one of my older columns, #3, this week because I won’t be able to write my usual column (but worry not, next week’s will be double). This here column is from the last week of November, 2005 (wow, the Nitpicker nears it’s second birthday!), and was originally published in the CBEM (where this column was born), in its 551st issue. Enjoy it, and never mind the looser standards I held myself in earlier days, and don’t bother pointing out my own spelling mistakes and such.

Hey readers, welcome to this week's Nitpicker! I've been catching up with some titles, for example, I started reading Black Panther (which is very good). So, incidentally, it's been mostly Marvel stuff... so this is a three quarters Marvel column... it'll happen from time to time that I read more from one company than another, or that I find more nits in one publisher's output than in the others.

It's not the wee hours of the morning this time, since I started writing my column yesterday, and now I'm just adding in this intro and the other stuff.. That's called getting the hang of writing on a deadline. Well then, I'll let you go on to the nits:
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"HOPEFULLY, THEY'LL NEVER NOTICE..."

TITLE: X-Men.

ISSUE: 177.

CULPRIT: Peter Milligan (writer)

NIT-TO-PICK: No flavor text here, just straight to the nit: on page 2 Polaris reveals (in her thought balloons) that she's hiding the fact that she's lost her powers, like most of the mutants on the regular Marvel U. Riiiight... and nobody noticed yet? They did not use Cerebra to check who still has powers and who does? As we saw in other X-titles, they did. Can she hide her thoughts from Emma Frost, one of the most powerful telepaths in the world? Failing all that, did they not do a bloodwork on each and every single mutant in the mansion to gather information about what's happening?

NIT-O-METER: 5 Bazzars, nothing that affects the story greatly, but a cheap plot trick.
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"HEY, I WAS JUST CAMPING NEARBY AND DECIDED TO SEE HOW THE SENTINELS ARE DOING..."

TITLE: X-Men.

ISSUE: 177.

CULPRIT: Peter Milligan (writer) or Salvador Larroca (penciller).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 22, Valerie Cooper is leading, or at least forming part of a military team that supports the sentinels that have invaded Xavier's. My problem? The team is in full assault gear, helmets, armor, etc... and Val is wearing sunglasses, a tanktop and a backpack... what is she, hiking?

NIT-O-METER: A measly 1 Bazzars, this is only strange, not an error per se. It just seems stupid, that is.
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"HEY SHIFT, IS THAT A MASK, OR YOUR REAL FACE?"

TITLE: Supergirl V5.

ISSUE: 03.

CULPRIT: Jeph Loeb (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: In page 10, Supergirl thinks about the Outsiders "... they won't take off their masks or tell me their real names?". Of all the Outsiders, only Nightwing hides his face behind a mask; and if you've had access to Superman's database in the Fortress of Solitude (as Kara most likely has), you know who he actually is. The rest of the Outsiders don't wear masks or take great efforts to hide their secrets identities, if they have one. Grace doesn't, Shift doesn't, Arsenal doesn't wear a mask, neither does Thunder and Supergirl knows who her father is, and Black Lightnings identity is public, as far as I remember.

NIT-O-METER: Just 2 Bazzars, it might be a figure of speech.
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"PARDON ME, MY UNIVERSAL TRANSLATOR IS BROKEN."

TITLE: Supergirl V5.

ISSUE: 03.

CULPRIT: Jeph Loeb (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: The dark side of Supergirl starts speaking kryptonese, and Lex can't understand it. Please, according to the current version of Superman's origin, Birthright, Lex invented a machine to spy on Kryptonian past, and reversed-engineered many of his scientific advances from there... but he doesn't know how to speak their language? Please.

NIT-O-METER: This is kinda hard not to have avoided with some thinking, so it gets 7 Bazzars.
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"YOU'RE NOT REALLY MY DAD!

TITLE: X-Men: Deadly Genesis.

ISSUE: 01 Of 06.

CULPRIT: Ed Brubaker (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: In page 9, Rachel Summers calls Cyclops "Scott", and on page 19, she calls Jean Grey "Jean"; she's always called them "mom" and "dad", even if she's their daughter from an alternate timeline.

NIT-O-METER: 3 Bazzars, not a big deal.
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"IF JIMAINE CAN BE AMANDA, I CAN CHANGE MY NAME TOO!"

TITLE: Nightcrawler V3.

ISSUE: 09.

CULPRIT: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 3, Margali Zsardos says her deceased son is called "Stephen", when his name is Stefan.

NIT-O-METER: 5 Bazzars, they keep repeating this mistake during the next issues, and his name has been said before in several other books, correctly.
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"WOLVERINE, ENGLISH TEACHER"

TITLE: Nightcrawler V3.

ISSUE: 09.

CULPRIT: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: Okay, Aguirre-Sacasa is _this_ close to winning the prize of worst writer of the moment. Not only his storylines are dull, and unimaginative (I'm reading this ONLY because of Nightcrawler), but his dialogues are horrible as well. On page 6 Wolverine utters this line "I called Cyke, who's coming in the Black Bird." Has this Aguirre-Sacasa ever read Wolverine's dialogues? In fact, has he ever heard someone speak?

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars... come on, a professional writer should know better than this. Also, not a nit, but a stupid retcon, what the hell is this crap about Kurt living in an American Circus? Only because it serves Aguirre-Sacasa's storyline, he invents that part of Nightcrawler's past? Lousy writing.
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"WHOSE EYE IS THIS?"

TITLE: Nightcrawler V3.

ISSUE: 09.

CULPRIT: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (writer) or Rus Wooton (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 20, Margali Zsardos mentions "the eye of AGOMOTTO", when it's "Agamotto", with an "a". Who's Agomotto, Agamotto's brother?

NIT-O-METER: 3 Bazzars, not a big deal, probably a typo, although I'm leaning towards the fact that Aguirre-Sacasa is just a bad writer. In fact, the nit-o-meter scale might soon be graded in Ragsacs....
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"DON'T MIND THE FLIES, I"VE JUST HAVEN'T BATHED IN TWO YEARS..."

TITLE: Nightcrawler V3.

ISSUE: 11.

CULPRIT: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (writer) and/or Darick Robertson (penciller).

NIT-TO-PICK: I already said it, I'm not fond of this rehashing of Kurt's past, so I'll be direct: what's up with his brother, Stefan, having red eyes and all the flies buzzing around him? Okay, I can buy into the fact that he was demon-possesed, but not one of the previous telling of that episode of Nightcrawler's life showed him like that, all "lord of the flies" like. It's official, Aguirre-Sacasa just made my black list of writers... I might keep reading on, just because a Nightcrawler junkie...

NIT-O-METER: 5 Bazzar's, I hate continuity patches like this, done only to serve a meaningless story arc. I mean, Nightcrawler's one of my favorite characters, but he doesn't merit a solo book. Not even Wolverine does, story-wise, no matter what sales may show.
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”I’M NIGHTCRAWLER, NOT MOONLIGHTER!”

TITLE: Black Panther V4.

ISSUE: 07.

CULPRIT: Reginald Hudlin (writer) and/or Trevor Hairsine (penciller).

NIT-TO-PICK: This issue is a House Of M tie-in, and in that reality, Kurt Wagner (aka Nightcrawler) is a member of the Red Guard, the elite shield team led by Wolverine. Then why is he here, attacking Africa, as one of Apocalypse's troops (maybe even a Horseman), wearing a different uniform than his Red Guard one (he wears a uniform almost like his regular 616 clothes), and with a different haircut (longer) than in his other House Of M appearances? Okay, that was a long sentence.

NIT-O-METER: 7 Bazzar's, this is something you could have avoided by asking the House Of M editor what mutants were available for use as Apocalypse troopers.
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"NO, NO, I'M DE COOL GUY OF DE TEAM, BUT I'M NOT THE ICEMAN!"

TITLE: Black Panther V4.

ISSUE: 09.

CULPRIT: Reginald Hudlin (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 3, Wolverine calls Gambit "Drake", which is of course, the last name of the Iceman.

NIT-O-METER: 7 Bazzars, Hudlin's Panther run has been nearly flawless, but this is just not paying attention.
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"ICE THIS THINGY FOR ME!"

TITLE: Black Panther V4.

ISSUE: 09.

CULPRIT: Reginald Hudlin (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 21, the Black Panther asks Iceman to put "this glove" on a block of ice until his medical team can arrive. Problem is, it's not a glove, it's a vial or container with a virus inside it... I've never seen that thing called a "glove".

NIT-O-METER: 7 Bazzars again, I guess this wasn't Hudlin's day...
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"NO HURRICANES, JUST A GALE"

TITLE: Wizard Magazine.

ISSUE: 169.

CULPRIT: Chris Ward (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: Yes, I know, this is not a comic book, it's about comic books. But this was funny, and I couldn´t let it pass... On page 61, in his article about Infinite Crisis, Chris Ward mentions Villains United writer, "Gale" Simone (her first name is "Gail").

NIT-O-METER: I'm giving this a 6, it's not big, but a long time member of Wizard's staff like Chris Ward should know the name of such prominent a writer as Simone is. Who's next, "Jeff" Loeb, "Gerry" Ordway and "Sean" Byrne?
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"THERE HASN'T BEEN ANY PREVIOUS ONES, AND THERE WILL BE A SECOND ONE!"

TITLE: DC Universe Golden Age Secret Files & Origins.

ISSUE: Single issue.

CULPRIT: John Ostrander (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 17, before WWII, Johnny Thunder refers to WWI as "The First War"... not only that wasn't the first war ever, but people referred to what we now call WWI as "The Great War".

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars, I expect more historic knowledge from a good writer as Mr. Ostrander.
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"MULTIPLE MAN-UFACTURER"

TITLE: Madrox.

ISSUE: 3.

CULPRIT: Peter A. David (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 13, Madrox is handcuffed, and doesn't want to make a duplicate of him, because it would appear handcuffed as well. WTF?!?! That has never been the case, as far as I can remember, with Madrox's power... if so, it would be easy to make money: just borrow a 50 karat diamond ring and start making dupes, you get several rings to sell, and return the original one.

Besides, PAD may be able to contradict his own writing, but it was himself who established in his X-Factor run that there's no "original" and "duplicate" Madroxes, they're all multiple bodies of the same person... and on this run of Madrox, he reverted to the original idea of the character. I must say, I like the fact that each Madrox has its own ideas and feelings, it makes for an interesting story, but I'd rather we stick to the "no original Jamie" thing.

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars, PAD should know better, he wrote this character for a long time, and this whole "handcuffed dupe" only served to show that Madrox had acquired escapist skills.
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This week we had a 5.1 average, lower than last week's 6.4. Am I reading more quality stuff? Or is it just that there's more nits, but lower ranking? I vote for option B. Until next week, I'll be on the outlook for more nits, because (almost) nothing escapes...

THE NITPICKER!