BB Review Group week 123 - Army @ Love #1 (spoilers)

**Thudpucker** · 03-21-2007, 05:50 AM

* fine print at the bottom of post

This week we are reading: Army @ Love #1 (Vertigo) by Rick Veitch

The voting for next weeks book will begin Friday

Our reviewers this week are:

Ray Goldfield - 4
Adam Witt - 5
SteveZegers - 3
Generic Poster - 7
Adrian B AWESOME - 8
Cap's Corpse - 9.1
Pat McDonnell - 6.5
Erroneous Monk - 7
elry - 5
Your dorky Snob - 6
The Jack Rabbitt - 7.5
dEnny - 6

Our Previous 16 weeks of reviews (scores lost during the Image Board crash)

Week 01 - 11/17/04 � Captain America #1
Week 02 - 11/24/04 � Flash #216
Week 03 - 12/01/04 � Darkness Vol. 2 #17 (av grade 3.7)
Week 04 - 12/08/04 � Demo #12
Week 05 - 12/15/04 - Plastic Man #13
Week 06 - 12/22/04 � Goon #10
Week 07 - 12/29/04 - Legion of Super Heroes #1
Week 08 - 01/05/05 � Flaming Carrot #1
Week 09 - 01/12/05 � Majestic #1
Week 10 - 01/19/05 � Human Target #18
Week 11 - 01/26/05 � Conan #12 (av grade 8.3)
Week 12 - 02/02/05 � Black Panther #1
Week 13 - 02/09/05 � Young Avengers #1
Week 14 - 02/16/05 � Ex Machina #8 (av grade 8.4)
Week 15 - 02/23/05 � X-Men #167
Week 16 - 03/02/05 � Ultimate Iron Man #1

Week 17 pick - Shining Knight #1 (Morrison & Bianchi) av grade - 7.8
Week 18 pick - Invincible #21 (Kirkman and Ottley) av grade - 6.3
Week 19 pick - Expatriate #1 (Moore and Latour) av grade - 5.4
Week 20 pick - Temporary #2 (Hurd & Smith) av grade - 7.4
Week 21 pick - GLA #1 (Slott and Pelletier) av grade - 6.8
Week 22 pick - Nightwing #107 (Grayson and Hester) av grade - 5.8
Week 23 pick - Iron Ghost #1 (Dixon and Cariello) av grade - 4.9
Week 24 pick - City Of Tomorrow (Howard Chaykin) av grade - 6.2
Week 25 pick - Villains United #1 (Simone and Eaglesham) av grade - 5.7
Week 26 pick - Desolation Jones #1 (Ellis and Williams III) av grade - 8.9
Week 27 pick - Guardian #2 (Morrison and Stewart) av grade - 6.1
Week 28 pick - Adv. Of Superman #640 (Rucka and Kerschl) av - 6.1
Week 29 pick - Son Of Vulcan #1 (Beatty and Grant) av grade - 3.7
Week 30 pick - JLA #115 (Johns, Heinberg, Batista) av grade - 6.9
Week 31 pick - Wildsiderz #0 (Campbell and Hartnell) av grade - 2.9
Week 32 pick - Astro City: The Dark Age #1 av grade - 7.3
Week 33 pick - Albion #1 (Moore and Oakley) av grade - 5.0
Week 34 pick - Gotham Central #33 (Rucka, Brubaker, Kano) av - 8.5
Week 35 pick - Mutopia X (Hine and Medina) av grade - 5.2
Week 36 pick - Athiest #2 (Hester and McCrea) av grade - 6.9
Week 37 pick - JLA: Classified #10 (Ellis and Guise) av grade - 6.9
Week 38 pick - Justice #1 (Ross, Krueger & Braithwaite) av grade 7.9
Week 39 pick - The Winter Men #1 (Lewis and Leon) av grade 5.3
Week 40 pick - Batman: Journey into Knight #1 (Helfer & Huat) av - 4.4
Week 41 pick - Jack Cross #1 (Ellis and Erskine) av grade 6.1
Week 42 pick - Runaways #7 (Vaughan & Miyazawa) av grade 7.8
Week 43 pick - Ghost Rider #1 (Ennis and Crain) av grade 6.4
Week 44 pick - Thor: Blood Oath #1 (Oeming and Kolins) av grade 7.1
Week 45 pick - Wolverine #32 (Millar and Andrews) av grade 8.2
Week 46 pick - Losers #28 (Diggle and Wilson) av grade 7.4
Week 47 pick - FF/I M : Big In Japan #1 (Wells & Fisher) av grade 5.6
Week 48 pick - F N Spider-Man #1 (David and Wieringo) av grade 7.3
Week 49 pick - Fin Fang Four #1 (Langridge & Grey) av grade 8.8
Week 50 pick - Book Of Lost Souls #1 (JMS & Doran) av grade 5.6
Week 51 pick - Hero At Large #2 (Hogan and Treece) av grade 6.3
Week 52 pick - DMZ #1 (Brain Wood) av grade 7.7
Week 53 pick - The Thing #1 (Slott and DiVito) av grade 7.5
Week 54 pick - Walking Dead #24 (Kirkman & Adlard) av grade 8.4
Week 55 pick - Generation M #1 (Jenkins and Bachs) av grade 7.3
Week 56 pick - Marvel Team-Up #15 (Kirkman & Medina) av grade 6.0
Week 57 pick - Amazing Joy Buzzards 2 #3 (Smith and Hipp) av grade 5.1
Week 58 pick - Testament #1 (Rushkoff and Sharp) av grade 7.4
Week 59 pick - New Avengers #14 (Bendis and Cho) av grade 7.6
Week 60 pick - Sable & Fortune #1 (Cahill and Burns) av grade 4.4
Week 61 pick - Ares #1 (Oeming and Foreman) av grade 8.2
Week 62 pick - Sgt. Rock: Prophecy #1 (Joe Kubert) - av grade 7.7
Week 63 pick - Nextwave #1 (Ellis and Immonen) av grade 9.1
Week 64 pick - Betty and Veronica Digest #163 av grade 4.2
Week 65 pick - Fables #46 (Willingham and Fern) av grade 7.5
Week 66 pick - Daredevil #82 (Brubaker and Lark) av grade 9.6
Week 67 pick - Ast. X-Men #13 (Whedon & Cassaday) av grade 8.5
Week 68 pick - Ms. Marvel #1 (Reed and de la Torre) av grade 7.3
Week 69 pick - American Virgin #1 (Seagle & Cloonan) av grade 7.1
Week 70 pick - Annihilation Prologue (Giffen & Kolins) av grade 6.3
Week 71 pick - Hawkgirl #50 (Simonson and Chaykin) av grade 5.0
Week 72 pick - Savage Dragon # 124 (Erik Larson) av grade 7.2
Week 73 pick - Moon Knight #1 (Huston & Finch) av grade 7.5
Week 74 pick - Firestorm #24 (Moore and Igle) av grade 4.6
Week 75 pick - Squadron Supreme #2 (JMS & Frank) av grade 6.4
Week 76 pick - Incredible Hulk #94 (Pak and Pagulayan) av grade 8.9
Week 77 pick - Civil War #1 (Millar and McNiven) av grade 7.4
Week 78 pick - She-Hulk #7 (Slott and Round) av grade 6.6
Week 79 pick - 100 Bullets #72 (Azzarello and Risso) av grade 8.0
Week 80 pick - Secret Six #1 (Simone and Walker) av grade 6.8
Week 81 pick - My Inner Bimbo #1 (Sam Kieth) av grade 8.8
Week 82 pick - Wonder Woman #1 (Heinberg and Dodson's) av grade 7.2
Week 83 pick - Ms Marvel #4 (Reed and De La Torre) av grade 5.8
Week 84 pick - Eternals #1 (Gaiman and JR JR) av grade 7.5
Week 85 pick - DC: Brave New World (various) av grade 4.8
Week 86 pick - The Beyond #1 (McDuffie & Kolins) av grade 5.5
Week 87 pick - The Escapists #1 (BKV, Bond & Barreto) av grade 8.6
Week 88 pick - JLA #0 (Meltzer and various) av grade 6.3
Week 89 pick - Batman #655 (Morrison & Kubert) av grade 7.1
Week 90 pick - Moon Knight #4 (Huston and Finch) av grade 7.0
Week 91 pick - Martian Manhunter #1 (Lieberman & Barrionuevo) A.G. 5.3
Week 92 pick - The Boys #1 (Ennis and Robertson) av grade 8.5
Week 93 pick - Ultimates Annual #2 (Huston & Deodato) av grade 6.0
Week 94 pick - A.S.S. #5 (Morrison and Quitely) av grade 9.0
Week 95 pick - Cross Bronx #1 (Brandon and Oeming) av grade 8.3
Week 96 pick - Pride Of Baghdad (BKV and Henrichon) av grade 9.7
Week 97 pick - Union Jack #1 (Gage and Perkins) av grade 7.3
Week 98 pick - True Story Swear To God #1 (Tom Beland) av grade 8.9
Week 99 pick - Criminal #1 (Brubaker and Phillips) av grade 8.6
Week 100 pick - Gen 13 #1 (Simone & Caldwell) av grade 4.7
Week 101 pick - The Damned #1 (Bunn and Hurtt) av grade 8.4
Week 102 pick - Act. Comics #844 (Donner, Johns, Kubert) av grade 7.2
Week 103 pick - Superman: Confidential #1 (Cooke and Sale) av grade 7.7
Week 104 pick - Wisdom #1 (Cornell and Hairsine) av grade 6.7
Week 105 pick - White Tiger #1 (Pierce, Liebe, Briones) av grade 6.4
Week 105 pick - Iron Man #13 (Knauf and Zircher) av grade 6.8
Week 106 pick - X-Factor #13 (David and Raimondi) av grade 8.9
Week 107 pick - Batman/Spirit (Cooke & Loeb) av grade 8.0
Week 108 pick - newuniversal #1 (Ellis and Larroca ) av grade 7.7
Week 109 pick - X-23: T X #1 (Kyle, Yost, Choi & Oback) av grade 8.1
Week 110 pick - New Avengers #26 (Bendis and Maleev) av grade 8.2
Week 111 pick - Winter Soldier: Winter Kills (Brubaker & Weeks) av grade 9.0
Week 112 pick - Scalped #1 (Aaron and Gu�ra) av grade 7.2
Week 113 pick - Thunderbolts #110 (Ellis and Deodato) av grade 8.2
Week 114 pick - Helmet Of Fate: Detective Chimp #1 (Willingham & McManus) av grade 8.0
Week 115 pick - Silent War #1 (Hine and Martinez) av grade 7.2
Week 116 pick - Teen Titans 43 (Johns and Daniel) av grade 7.9
Week 117 pick - The Dark Tower #1 (Furth, David, Lee and Isanovel) av grade 8.6
Week 118 pick - Batman #663 (Morrison and Fleet) av grade 5.3
Week 119 pick - Brave and the Bold #1 (Waid and Perez) av grade 8.2
Week 119 pick - Wasteland #7 (Johnston & McNeil) av grade 8.9
Week 120 pick - Crossing Midnight #4 (Carey and Fern) av grade 7.4
Week 121 pick - Captain America #25 (Brubaker and Epting) av grade 9.2
Week 122 pick - Buffy Season 8 #1 (Whedon and Jeanty) av grade 7.3

Our higest average grade so far was for Pride of Baghdad with 9.7
Our lowest average grade so for is Wildsiderz #0 with 2.9

Our Sponsors:

Isotope Comics (SF Bay area)

(If any other retailers would like to sponsor our reviewers in your area, I'd be happy to promote your store in the thread too )

What we do: This is a fanbased review group, open to everybody.

As people post the reviews, I will add your name and score to a list in the main post and at the end of the week average the scores for an overall grade on the book. We grade on a scale of 0-10.

THERE IS NO OBLIGATION TO PARTICIPATE EVERY WEEK. Please join in as little or as much as you like week to week. If you are uncomfortable giving a grade then just join in the discussions and ask questions.

**TIP** · 03-21-2007, 06:29 AM

Niiice pick!

Love Rick's stuff and I'm really looking forward to this 'un.

**Ray G.** · 03-21-2007, 10:13 AM

Oog. And I was so excited about this too.

The art was decent, but it was a little hard to tell between characters sometimes. There was some good satire about army marketing, but the writing didn't seem to be on a very high level. It seemed more like a parody than a satire. I doubt I'll be back.

4/10

**artimoff** · 03-21-2007, 10:30 AM

My store didn't have this. Not that I was going to buy it, but I do expect to pick up the first trade when it comes out.

**Adam Witt** · 03-21-2007, 10:48 PM

This wasn't bad at all. I liked it quite a bit more than I do some of Veitch's other work. Really slick, clean art, and a pretty interesting story. However, the story's interesting level ends up hurt by just how goddamn farfetched what goes on is. And toward the end, it's pretty hard to figure out what the fuck's going on from character to character.

There's a lot of potential here though. I'll check out the second issue, most likely.

5/10

**SteveZegers** · 03-22-2007, 04:40 AM

Didn't like the art. Looked ugly to me. The story didn't really hook me in at all.

Not buying the reat of this.

3

**Generic Poster** · 03-22-2007, 12:16 PM

I liked it. I thought the idea of the army marketing itself as an "extreme sport" (w/orgies!) was a pretty clever satirical idea. Loved Vietch's art. I'm in for the first arc, anyway.

7/10

**Adrian B AWESOME** · 03-22-2007, 01:15 PM

Really enjoyed it. The satire is actually pretty funny, the art's solid, and the concept really isn't that far off.

I'm in, for a while at least.

8/10

**Blake Sims** · 03-22-2007, 05:47 PM

I was on the edge about picked this up, I think I might now. Adrian's taste is kinda close to mine. So Ill pick it up next week and share my thoughts.

**RebootedCorpse** · 03-23-2007, 04:58 AM

You gotta love Veitch's committment. when he gets a concept he grabs it between his fangs and just shakes it until its head pops off. He did it with The One, Bratpack and even with Swamp Thing meets Jesus where he was so committed he got his ass tossed from DC.
He's at it again with Army @ Love where he takes the idea of a modern, volunteer, semi-mercenary army to its absurd extreme.
His art has never looked better and he's clearly firing on all eight cylinders with this one.
My score 9.1