Especially reading this in the shadow of the X-O Bloodshot crossover, this seems like warm garbage against it. And as the iconic - or most iconic - hero in the bunch, it should be a LOT better. And it isn't. Start with the fact that the hero is held by Amok - nearly defeated - and then, while holding his neck, he stops to tell the entire flashback story of his life against him. Really? This is like the worst James Bond cliche ever. Even Goldfinger figured this out in the Sixties, man. No. I expect you to die! The story is necessary, I guess - to get to the next one - the giant smiling alien gold thing. But man, this sticks out SO much as SUCH a bad story - I can't even coninue to develop my critique against it - at least until next issue. So bad. And we are HALFWAY THERE!
It's better than THAT, at least.
I have been fighting through these issues - and they have been painful. Whatever happened to those old Tales comics that were interesting - even if a bit dated in their perspective. These ones are so whitewashed that I can't run away from the boredom. I've been fighting to stay on track with these - and these ones are particularly dull and well... BORING! The character isn't terrible - but will never really hold much onto the whole of the line. It's sort of like a knight with plates. And the whole escapade with the whole girl being a maggia - ugh. And STILL it's better than X-O.