New Comix! - Week of 10/19/11

I read 4 important issues this week, but half of them were let-downs.



Fear Itself #7 of 7
As I've mentioned before, this Marvel crossover event just hasn't held the weight that previous stories have carried. It should be a big deal that Odin's big brother has come back to take what's his with the Earth being their boxing ring, but it somehow rings hollow to me.

In this issue: The Serpent and his forces converge on Asgard in Oklahoma (if you don't know about this by now it's your own darn fault) as Captain America attempts to hold them back long enough for help to arrive. Help does arrive in the form of Thor and Iron Man, the latter bringing with him Asgardian-made weapons to amp-up the Avengers. There are a bunch of cool fight scenes, the main one being between The Serpent, who becomes a dragon, and Thor. Thor was destined to fall in battle with his evil uncle and sure enough, that's what happens. Thor seems to slice and dice the Serpent for most of the fight and at the end they both fall and Thor crawls to his friends with his last strength only to collapse having sacrificed himself for mankind. WHAT?!? Thor's DEAD? Because of THIS story?!? Bah. That's just dumb.

My take: This story was just a bunch of cool fight scenes tacked on top of a meh-level story and they end it with Thor dying even though he never seemed to take any mortal wounds in the fight. Why is he dead? It's all so vague! I wanted to like this series. I LOVED the art. I liked some of the imagery and there were some cool moments. Overall feeling about it...LAME. There's no way Thor's really dead because of this joke of a story. I don't believe it.

- Great art. Meh story.





Justice League #2
Here's another disappointment. In the "New 52" relaunch the Justice League is DC's flagship title, starring all of their biggest characters. The 2 biggest names in DC (Geoff Johns & Jim Lee) and working together so what could go wrong? How about taking all of your most iconic characters and taking away all the aspects of their personality that made them likable? That might do it.

In this issue: In the first story Green Lantern and Batman teamed up for the first time and went looking for Superman. They found him and, of course, they all started trying to punch each other. Here that fight continues until the obvious misunderstandings are finally explained. The Flash is brought in to this story via Green Lantern calling for backup. They all bicker at each other and each character gets to be a bit of a d-bag in their own way. In the end the artifact that Batman and GL took from their attacker in issue 1 starts beeping and a bunch of Parademons from Apokolips jump out. The same thing happens at S.T.A.R. labs and the hero who will be Cyborg gets half his body burned up by the event. At the end it is promised that Wonder Woman will be joining the book in issue 3.

My take: I pretty much said it all in the intro. This story and it's characters have no heart. The art looks great. Some of the subtle changes to the characters are very nicely done, such as Superman clearly not having an alter ego yet. I just feel like they traded in decades of wonder character building for a bunch of shallow, crabby losers. I'll keep reading for a while to see how the team comes together and to see if they can get their heads out of their...well, you know.

- Great art. Meh story.





Superior #6 of...6?
This issue was supposed to be the last of the story. Every promotion I've seen for this comic has said it was a 6-issue mini series. Now that we get the 6th issue, it ends without a conclusion and the last page shows the cover of the next issue, which looks to be the final fight we all thought we were getting in this issue. Weird.

Quick synopsis: Superior is the story of a middle-school aged boy named Simon with Multiple Sclerosis. One night a space monkey comes to visit him and tells him he will give Simon unlimited power for 7 days. Suddenly, Simon has become Superior, a Superman-type character straight out of Simon's comic books. Simon takes a few days learning his new powers then flies into action right all of the world's wrongs in the span of a week. For a detailed retelling of these events, see my reviews for issues 4 and 5. In the last issue the monkey comes back and tells Simon that his 7 days are up, and he becomes a crippled boy once more. The monkey goes on to tell Simon that unless he ever wants to feel the power of Superior again he must sign over his soul! Yup, the monkey is a demon from Hell! It was all an elaborate ploy to win over a little boy's soul!

In this issue: This whole issue revolves around Simon grappling with his decision. He's on the verge of making the deal, but the Lois Lane-type reporter that has been trying to get Superior's story talk him out of it. In a surprisingly touching turn, the seemingly selfish reporter tells Simon how she used to have Leukemia and had to live in a recovery center for a few years as a child. She takes Simon to that same center to meet with the kids currently living there and helps him to see that he really is blessed to have what health he does have and to have a family that loves him. In the end, she drops him off at his worried parents' house (a scene right out of BIG) and the family is reunited. Unfortunately the space monkey isn't giving up that easily. He comes to the school bully who Simon taught a lesson to once he had Superior's powers, and he offers to make the bully into Superior's arch nemesis, Abraxsis...a killer robot monster! As Simon sits at home watching tv with his parents, Abraxsis comes on the news as he knocks over a skyscraper with an oil tanker. He's calling Simon out and now our little hero has to rethink his options.

My take: This was not the battle royale that I had hoped for when I picked it up, but that battle is still coming and this was a really good setup issue. I appreciate the Millar took to the time to write this issue, giving appropriate weight to the scenario of a character pondering selling their soul. I also appreciate him stretching the book past the planned # of issues to tell the story right...assuming that is why it didn't end with issue 6.

Fun Fact: I just read that there is a Superior movie in the works. Sweet! I'd totally go see that!

5 Stars - Solid story-telling and fantastic artwork from Lenil Yu.





Wonder Woman #2
This revamped WW story finds Diana (Wonder Woman) in the midst of god drama. Zeus has been going around sewing his wild oats, and his wife, Hera, has been going around behind him cursing his offspring. Now Wonder Woman is stuck in the middle trying to protect the human woman.

In the last issue: Hera sent some vicious centaur warriors to kill Zues's latest pregnant conquest. The woman would have been destroyed, but Hermes (the god of speed) shows up and teleports her to Diana's apartment, just as he takes an arrow to the gut. Diana gets the scoop from the woman, then uses the teleportation key to appear back at the woman's farm and proceeds to kick some centaur tail Xena style. After chasing off the attackers, WW gathers the woman and Hermes, and goes for help.

This issue: Diana takes Hermes and the pregnant woman to her Amazon home of Paradise Island. The women there despise men, but Diana protects the injured god from them and gets him the aid he needs. Afterwards we get to see some of WW's home as she watches, and eventually participates, in the Amazon gladiator-style training matches. As she discusses the pregnant woman's situation with her mother, Queen Hippolyta, Hera's daughter Strife appears on the island, causing confusion among the Amazon's and tricking them into attacking each other. Diana sees through the ploy and takes the fight directly to the goddess. The scene ends with Strife saying she just wanted to come talk to her sister...Diana. Whoa! Zeus is Wonder Woman's dad too! Dang, he gets around!

My take: This comic book is SO cool and SO not what we have come to expect from Wonder Woman. For years she has basically been a star-spangled, girl-version of Superman. This book takes her in a totally different direction. This is much more of a fantasy/mythic story than a superhero story. When Diana fights she if vicious and brutal. Like a patriotically-dressed Xena on crack. On top of the fun storytelling, the artwork is super cool and fits this character perfectly. I have never cared much for this character and only picked up this book for the cool artwork. I have a feeling Wonder Woman is going up a few notches in my book with this series.

I had a hard time deciding which was the better book of the week between this and Superior, but I'm going to give a slight edge to WW, just because the whole take on book is so fun.

- Book of the week!

New Comix! - Week of 10/12/11

It was an Ultimate week in comics for ol' Trav. Not that the comics were that stellar...I just bought all Ultimate Marvel comics this week.


Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #3
Look at that cover! It's the Amazing Spider-Butt!

The story of how Miles Morales becomes the new Spider-Man continues. In the last issue, Miles texts his lego-enthusiast/fellow nerd, Ganke, and tells him about his newly discovered spider-powers. Ganke is sure that his buddy is destined to be the next Spider-Man and is totally geeking out. Miles isn't so excited. They go for a walk to discuss the situation and come across an apartment fire where people are screaming for help out of the upper windows. With Ganke pushing him on, Miles walks up to help. The firefighters tell him to get lost, so in the coolest scene of the issue, he takes off his shoes and leaps over the firefighters and sticks to the wall. He crawls up to the screaming lady and pulls her out the window. She freaks out and pushes away and ends up falling, but luckily the firefighters have a giant air pillow/trampoline thing waiting below. Then Miles jumps into the building and emerges with a little girl in his arms. The firefighters start congratulating him, but he quickly runs away to throw up in a nearby alley. One of the firefighters says, "I told you Spider-Man was black!" Ganke follows Miles into the alley and Miles is adamant that he does NOT want these powers and he does NOT want to be a hero!

Next we see the boys settling into their new charter school. It's a dorm-type live-in school and Ganke is Miles' roommate. Things are going well when they get called into the gym for an emergency situation. There's a superhero war going on nearby, so they are taking precautions. When asked for details one of the teachers says she heard that Spider-Man has been shot! (This is all happening to Miles before Peter Parker died.)

My Take: This was another really strong character-building issue. It wasn't terribly exciting, but I think they're doing this right getting us to care about these kids before introducing the costume or the villains or any of the extra stuff. I want to give this book 5 stars, but it just wasn't exciting enough. It was good, but not exciting. I'm about ready for Miles to bust out the suit!

- Book of the Week!





Ultimate Comics X-Men #2
In the first issue of this relaunch we saw the remnants of the X-Men scrounging around in hiding as the US government hunts down mutants in the aftermath of a devastating attack on mankind by Magneto. In this issue, Kitty, Iceman, and the Human Torch (who now insists he's kind of a mutant as well) leap into action to save Rogue from 3 Nimrod-class (stupid name, i know) sentinels. They can't seem to hurt these robots, but they do manage to save Rogue and get away. On a nearby rooftop Rogue tells them that God told her to come out in the open like that so she would get attacked and that Kitty would come save her.

Jean Grey is going around gather young mutants for the cause, but is only referenced in this issue by William Stryker's son, who is hunting down mutants for the government. It is strongly hinted that God or someone he is sending, is going to show up and shake things up very soon.

My take: This was not a very compelling issue for me. The coolest moments involved the fight seen between the Torch and the Nimrods. I keep hanging on to this title to see how the new X-men team will shape up and what direction it will go in, but without my favorite characters, I'm losing interest fast. I have high hopes for Wolverine's son, James, but he has done jack squat so far. I may go ahead and drop this book and just read about what happens online. Comics are too expensive to buy books that don't WOW me.

New Comix! - Week of 10/5/11

Had a light week this week, so I ended up picking up a book for the awesome cover art alone. Let's start with that one.



X-Men Schism #5 of 5
I haven't been keeping up with the X-men lately, but here's the gyst of what's going on. Mutant kind was wiped out almost to extinction. Cyclops took up leadership of the species and with Magneto's help raised his old meteor base from the depths of the ocean and created an island safe-haven for mutants off the California cost, and named it Utopia. Utopia has had it's share of troubles, but in this series the X-Men go up against a new Hellfire Club. During the story, apparently some new Sentinels were created that are created by forming out of whatever metal is around when it is activated. Basically a big magnetic junk robot. There's a big junk Sentinel heading for Utopia, intent on wiping out the residents while at the same time Wolverine and Cyclops come to blows over differing philosophies. Cyclops believes that all mutants are needed in the fight to defend the species, including children. Wolverine believes that children deserve the right to be children and not be made to put their lives on the line as well as take lives. Apparently their shared/deceased love interest, Jean Grey, got brought up in the last issue and they tore into each other.

In this issue: The giant sentinel is literally attaching them while they fight each other. Cyclops blows wolverine's face off his skull. Wolverine stabs Cyclops through the arm and hand. Just when it looks like they'll both be crushed by a giant fist, the X-men kids (who are the only other mutants on the island at the time) jump into the fray and defeat the robot. In the aftermath, Wolverine comes to Cyclops and says that he wants no part of what he has going on at Utopia, that he's leaving, and anyone who wants to come with him is welcome. Cyke tries to talk him out of it, but it's too late. The blackbird gets loaded up with a bunch of mutants I don't know and they fly off. Going by the promo art for the upcoming issues, it looks like Iceman, Kitty Pryde, Beast, and Nightcrawler go with Wolverine, but that's not conclusive. As the issue ends you see Wolverine's team of X-men arriving at their new/old home, the now-destroyed Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.

My take: While i haven't been following this series for a while, I was interested in how this split would come about, and it was pretty interesting to read the reasoning behind each side's beliefs and to see who fell where when it was all over. The art was fantastic. Like I mentioned, I mostly bought this issue for it's amazing cover.






Superior #5 of 6
Superior is a book that I have been following since issue #1. I like reading different takes on Superman-type characters (see Sentry). In this case, a boy named Simon is dealing with a rapid onset of multiple sclerosis that has quickly taken him from being healthy and athletic to being practically wheelchair bound. One night he is visited by a well-spoken space monkey. It says it can give him his whatever his heart desires. When he wakes up, he's Superior, his favorite superhero. He immediately wigs out and runs away from home, trusting only his best-friend Chris to help him. Think of it like the movie "Big", but instead of turning into Tom Hanks, he turned into the most powerful being on the planet.

In this issue: After he and Chris discover and master each of his powers, he meets with the President and gets ready to help mankind. In one day he single-handedly creates peace in the Middle East without any casualties. Then he feeds Africa, stops an earthquake in China, averts a tidal wave in Australia, and falls in love with intrepid reporter, Maddie Knox. Just when she's about to use her womanly whiles to discover his secret origin the space monkey returns!

Whisked away with the monkey to an undisclosed location, the monkey congratulates our hero on becoming the most beloved man on earth and asks him if he enjoys his new life. Superior answers that of course he loves his new life. He replies, "I used to dread waking up in the mornings, but now everything's perfect. I love my life like this. I wouldn't give it up for the world!" The monkey replies, "good" and turns him back in to a crippled little boy. When Simon (the boy) asks why he's doing this, the monkey mocks him and says, "haven't you guessed what I am? Sell me your soul and I'll make you Superior again. Turn me down and it's back in the wheelchair!" YIKES!!!

My take: This book is tons of fun coupled with fantastic art by Lenil Yu. It's been a blast to see a superman-level character interacting with real current hot spots like, Afganistan, Iraq, & China as well as speaking with President Obama, playing basketball with LeBron and Batting for the Mets (these are the rewards he accepted from Obama for all his help :). Mark Millar has really crafted what would be a young boy's dream life. The crazy twist of having it all be a devious plot to take his soul was a nice touch as well. I didn't trust that monkey from the get-go. Cool story. Great art. This one would be a good buy when it comes out in collected paperback.

- Book of the Week!

New Comix! - Week of 9/28/11

Tonight I read one of the most repulsive comic books I have ever read. Luckily I was able to follow that up with 4 really great comics. I'll start with the worst one and get it over with.


Kick Ass 2 #4
The whole idea behind the Kick Ass book is to see what the life of a real-life vigilante might be like. It's dirty. It's painful. It's often times pretty funny. This story arc has focused first on a team of like-minded vigilantes, and then on a new team of villains. In the last issue the villains found the leader of the vigilantes and brutally murdered him. In this issue, they upped their game to a disgusting level. The villains, lead by a guy calling himself Mother%&#$er goes after Kick-Ass's crush from the first story arch. The things that hey do once they get to her neighborhood are so horrendous that I won't be going into details. It was truly disturbing.

Not only will I not buy a Kick-Ass book again, but I will probably be throwing the last 2 issue straight in the garbage. To quote the movie, Billy Madison, "I award you no points and may God have mercy on your soul."

- WORST BOOK EVER!


Now to cheer it up a bit.




Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #2
This issue continues the story of how young Miles Morales gets his spider-powers and how he reacts to them. So far he can run fast, jump high, stick to walls, turn invisible, and zap people with his "venom blast". While he has a long heart-to-heart with his dad in this issue, it's his dorky friend who he tells everything to and the dorky friend does some research online. Miles assumes that he is a mutant, but his buddy looks up how Peter Parker got HIS spider-powers and puts 2 and 2 together and suggest to Miles that he just might be Spider-Man 2!

There is a lot of talking in this issue, and hardly any action, but they are setting up this new character and the dialogue is good enough that I didn't mind all the word bubbles. Bendis is doing a great job with the story and character building and I was really sucked into this book. I sincerely like this Miles kid and am excited to see him take on the mantle of my favorite comic book hero.

- Close 2nd to Book of the Week





The Mighty Thor #6
This issue wraps up a pretty cool story arch, so I'm going to try to put the pieces together for you, even though it's likely to be confusing.

The Summary: The "World Tree" that holds the 9 Realms was split apart during a war in the last story arch. Odin sends Thor in to fetch the "World Seed" from the tree's heart (Yeah this is all very abstract stuff). The seed has immense power and Odin hopes to use it to break the cycle of Ragnarok (i think that was his point). Galactus and the Silver Surfer show up because they believe that eating it would sate Galactus' hunger forever. The Asgardians won't part with it, so an awesome war breaks out between the 2 forces. In the meantime, citizens from nearby Broxton, Ok have approached the Asgardians to tell them that they have to leave because the Oklahomans are tired of all the danger around their town. They are led by a preacher named "Mike". Suddenly Galactus and Odin fall to Earth, both wounded from their battle.

In this issue: Galactus stands up ready to destroy both the Asgardians and the Oklahomans. Preacher Mike tries to beg for mercy, but Galactus says "No!" Just then Thor's hammer flies from his hand and into the hand of the Destroyer armor that has emerged from Asgard. Galactus grimaces and decides not to challenge the power of the Destroyer weilding Mjolnir and powered by the seemingly unconscious Odin. A this moment it is known that the World Seed has vanished. Loki (who is now a boy of about 10 years old or so...I'm not getting into that right now) was working behind the scenes during this whole series and hid the seed away were not even HE knows where to find it. This stops the conflict and saves Asgard, since the item Galactus wants is not longer present. The Surfer, though, was touched profoundly by Preacher Mike's quest for peace and wants to stay on Earth longer to be reconnected with that human spirit. He asks Galactus if he can remain on Earth to make sure the Asgardians never re-aquire the World Seed, until after they have all passed away, in which case Galactus can then come consume the seed with no conflict. In his stead, the Surfer recommends Preacher Mike to be the new Herald...and the big guy agrees! Since the Surfer likes humans so much, Galactus turns him into flesh, like a human, instead of his silvery form, and tells him that he is tethered to Earth. The further he ventures from it, the weaker he becomes. Preacher Mike then goes with Galactus to become "The Praetor".

My take: This was a very fun storyline with a lot of twists, turns, and sweet cosmic action! The turn of events with Preacher Mike going with Galactus was just great and seeing the Surfer argue against wearing clothes, even though he's not silver anymore was hilarious! A lot of cool character moments happened in this issue and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

- Book of the Week!





Batman The Dark Knight #1
The only Batman-related book I bought from the "New 52", The Dark Knight proved to be a good choice. The series continues with the always-awesome David Finch drawing and co-writing and the fun just keeps rolling. We open up to see some cool action shots of Batman, who quickly changes to Bruce Wayne and makes a public appearance (very Tony Stark-like) at some gala event. Things are going smooth until a new hothead at the GCPD accuses Bruce of funding the Batman's activities. He's going to be a problem. Then news comes out that there is a breakout at Arkham Asylum and Batman is on the scene. There are several fan favorite villains in the breakout, but Batman is most concerned with Two-Face. By the time he finds him, something has happened to Two-Face and he comes out of the door looking like the friggin' Hulk! He then says something stupid which makes for the only lame thing in the whole book, "Call me One-Face".

Finch's art continues to amaze me. He's the perfect Batman artist. Story was nothing special, but then it was a solid Batman story, so that's not a problem. Good book.







Green Lantern New Guardians #1
This is the book were my favorite GL Kyle Rayner landed after the new #1 shakeup and I really wanted to like it. Luckily it turned out to be a lot better than the GL Corps I read last week.

First off, let me explain why I like Kyle so much. First off, he's a cartoonist/graphic designer just like me. He also designs his own unique GL uniforms and they are always crazy cool. His mask is probably the coolest in comics. More than that though, he's a very optimistic person, who has fun being a superhero and it shows. He's also been called a dreamer (not in a good way) by other Green Lanterns, but that's just why he's my favorite. He keeps things fun and awesome.

The story starts off re-telling Kyle's origin story about how/when/why he got the last Green Lantern ring after Hal Jordan went nuts and killed off the Corps in Emerald Twilight. Then the scene changes to multiple ring wielders losing their rings across the universe. A yellow lantern loses his ring and gets killed by the victims he was threatening. A red lantern loses his ring and dies (because the red lantern's ring is his heart). A Star Saphire (pink ring) loses her ring and would have suffocated in space if another SS hadn't come along. The rings all converge in one place, right in front of Kyle on Earth. All the rings say that he has been chosen and he has NO idea what's going on. Just then representatives from each of the other Lantern Corps show up furious with Kyle for stealing one of their rings! I've got a feeling a big fight is coming up next!

Okay, I'm partial to this comic because i think Kyle is so dang cool, but I really enjoyed this issue. It was just plain fun. The story is a little vague so far, but I think it will make a lot more sense as subsequent issues come out. The art is very fun and pretty high quality, for the most part. There are a few places that the artist has some weaknesses, but overall I really like his style.

New Comix - Week of 9/21/11

This week was full of great comic-y goodness! Let's get to it!



Ultimate Comics X-men #1
Marvel's Ultimate Universe has gone through some huge changes as Marvel tries to re-invent the line as something other than standard Marvel 2.0. In "Ultimatum", Magneto attacked mankind with a savagery the regular Marvel Magneto has never shown. He caused a tidal wave that flooded Manhattan, killing many Marvel heroes right off the bat. Many more died in the mission to take him down, not least of whom was Wolverine. Most of the X-men died in the event as well. Since then it has been revealed in the Ultimate universe that Mutants are not the next step in human evolution. They are, in fact, a result of a US military experiment that leaked out and spread. Humans across the globe reacted poorly and the government started rounding up mutants and putting them in camps. If they didn't come peacefully, they are killed.

This issue sets up the new status-quo for the X-men. Jean Grey has gone around using the name Karen Page, and is trying to round up mutant children before they get incarcerated or killed. In the first part of the story she visits a family and the mother is acting very weird. She says her daughter is a mutant is upstairs asleep. She then says that her husband is up there as well. Then there's a gunshot! The dad walks downstairs crying, spattered with blood and says, "She's gone, Mother. It's okay, she was asleep and didn't feel a thing." YIKES! Jean has a look of utter horror on her face.

In the meantime, Wolverine's son, James (who was raised by some of Wolverine's friends and didn't know his father) has developed identical mutant powers as his father and is traveling with Jean Grey and a couple of other mutants that I did not recognize. While Jean is out trying to recruit that poor girl, James and the others see the announcement about mutants being created, about how the US government created the first mutant, Wolverine, in a Canadian lab. Furious, James leaves the group to visit the lab where his father was genetically manipulated.

Then the story switches to a mob and a small sentinel-type robot hunting down Rogue. Kitty Pryde, the Human Torch, and Iceman had been living down in the Morlock tunnels, vowing to stay hidden and safe, but when they see Rogue in trouble, they get ready to intervene.

It looks like Kitty's group and Jeans group and Wolverine's son will meet up soon and form the new X-Men and it should be a pretty cool ride. The art is well done. The story is well-paced and interesting. Though this was basically a set-up issue, I'm interested to see what happens next.







Wonder Woman #1
Another in the "New 52" relaunched series from DC, I picked up Wonder Woman for the artwork alone. I mean, that cover art is just cool! I'm glad the inside pages matched the awesomeness of the cover. Here's what happens.

The story opens with a creepy looking guy talking to, and then apparently possessing 3 women as he tells them the story of his womanizing father and his rival siblings. The creepy guy is Apollo, god of the Sun, BTW. The scene cuts to a farmhouse where a woman is greeted by the god Hermes, and then is attacked by 2 centaurs. Hermes transports the woman directly to Diana (Wonder Woman) who assesses the situation, transports back to the farm with the woman, and proceeds to kick centaur tail (literally). She saves the woman and then tries to help a wounded Hermes. Hermes then explains to the woman that she is in terrible danger because she is pregnant with Zeus's son. The story ends back with Apollo killing the 3 women as he talks about an upcoming conflict with the unborn baby.

Wow. Really WOW! This is not a superhero book at ALL! It's more mythology/horror! There were some very gruesome scenes, fast-paced action, and Diana comes across much more as a warrior than some star-spangled do-gooder. At one point she headbutts one centaur, then throws her sword and cuts the arm off the other! This is one BAD chick! By far the coolest take on Wonder Woman I have ever seen. I've gotta have more!

- Book of the Week!!!





Green Lantern Corps #1
This is the only other DC #1 I bought this week. The Green Lantern Corps focuses on the Corps as a whole, but mostly on Earth Lanterns John Stewart (not the Comedy Central guy) and Guy Gardner. They try to juggle a normal life on earth, but neither of them have conceiled their true identity like Hal Jordan did, so everyone knows they are Green Lanterns and thus, it is pretty difficult to convince an employer than you can really keep a full-time job. They then fly to OA, hear about a string of GL murders and proceed to investigate. The rest isn't really worth getting into.

If you've been reading my earlier posts, you know I've been on a big Green Lantern kick this year. I thought I would want to keep up with this book for the supporting characters, if nothing else, but I just don't enjoy reading about John and Guy that much. I don't care that much where the story is going and I don't like the main characters. If they had made the series focus on Kilowog and Arisia, or Sallak and Soranik, or Stel and Isamot...that'd be fine. These two guys, eh, no thanks. My favorite Lantern, Kyle Rayner, has moved over to the book, Green Lantern: New Guardians, and I will be picking that up next week. This book is dropped.






Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #2
The second issue of the new TMNT series deals a little with quest of the 3 turtles and Splinter who have been searching for Raphael in New York for over a year without any success. We get more of their updated back story which is pretty fun, and involves April O'Neil as an intern at a genetics lab instead of being a reporter. The turtles and splinter were involved in some research to try to grow exoskeleton-type shells on humans for military purposes using DNA from turtles. Some ninjas break in, some vials get dropped, some turtles roll around in it...you see where this is going. Lastly, we get to see a great scene where Raphael (who has been wondering the streets as a hobo with amnesia for the past year) confronts a drunken, abusive father in a nearby apartment and tosses the guy out of his own house. The man's son, Casey Jones, thanks him and offers to go find him some food. Then he puts on his hockey mask! Fans of TMNT and Casey Jones will understand how awesome that is.

What can I say? I love some Ninja Turtles, and the fun continues with this issue. The art isn't fantastic, but it works well with these indie comics heroes. I don't mind it at all. A very fun read.

New Comix - 9/14/11

There were no comics in DC's "New 52" #1's that I just had to have, but luckily Marvel had a few big books come out this week and I picked up 2 fun quasi-indie books from IDW as well.



Fear Itself #6
Marvel's Summer Crossover event moves closer to it's 7th issue conclusion. Odin's evil brother, "The Serpent", has regained all his former power and is marching on Asgard. His chosen warriors have beaten down Earth's defenders at every turn (killing Captain America a.k.a. Bucky) including Thor, who almost killed Evil Possessed Thing and almost killed himself putting down Evil Possessed Hulk. The Avengers physically pick up and carry Thor to Asgard where classic Cap (Steve Rogers) verbally lashes into Odin for not fighting his own battles. Odin calles them apes and sends them away in a flash, then takes Thor inside to heal his wounds and give him an ancient suit of armor that Odin wore the last time he defeated The Serpent. The issue ends with Tony Stark presenting the weapons that he created for the Avengers using Asgardian tools. Odin prepares to bless the weapons, which are a mix of Stark tech and magic Uru steel, and all are dropped into a vat of molten Uru, including Tony inside his Iron Man suit. That's gonna leave a mark!

Like the previous issues in this series, there are a ton of cool scenes in this issue made all the better by incredible artwork by Stuart Immonen. I enjoyed reading this book. For some reason this series just hasn't grabbed me (or anyone I've heard about) like House of M, Civil War, or Secret Invasion. I don't know why. It seems kinda cool. It just doesn't seem to hold the same weight. That being said, it's a fun read with cool art, so I don't see why this story is getting so much bad publicity from fanboys.






Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1
This issue relaunches the always-excellent Ultimate Spider-man series. Peter Parker died on his front yard after defending his friends and family from the Sinister Six. Here we have the story of new Spidey, Miles Morales. The story opens with a laboratory scene at OzCorp where Norman Osborn is tasking a scientist with the job of recreating the experiment that genetically altered a spider that went on to bite Peter Parker and gave him his spider-like abilities. Norman tells the scientist that it was he who created Spider-Man, but that he has no data to recreate the effects. Then he threatens to kill the scientist if he ever tells anyone. As the scene ends a test spider escapes...again. That night a burgler breaks into OzCorp to nab some cash and hi-tech items. The burgler turns out to be the Ultimate Comics version of The Prowler. While he's filling his bag with stolen goods the spider crawls into the bag without him noticing. The scene then changes to a new charter school in downtown New York where we're introduced to Miles Morales and his mixed-racial parents. Miles is lucky enough to have his name drawn from the lottery of 700 children and gets to attend the new school. Afterwards he goes to visit his shady uncle, who likes to moonlight as a burgler in a purple mask. While his uncle goes to get popsickles, the spider crawls out of the bag beside Miles and puts the bite on him. Miles starts to seize on the ground as his uncle comes back in. When he wakes up his father is there and the two men are arguing about the uncles bad influence as Miles' dad accuses his brother of giving him drugs. Miles runs out upset and is followed out by his father. When his dad runs right by him shouting his name Miles looks down in surprise to see that he's blending in with the wall behind him!

Despite the complete lack of super-heroics, masks, fights, or web-slinging, this was a great read. Brian Bendis works his magic once more creating characters that are interesting and relateable. Miles is a good kid whose parents are caring and hard-working, but can't seem to catch a break to escape New York's low income neighborhoods. Norman Osborn desperately wants to recreate Spider-Man, so you know he'll be all over this kid. This story has a lot of potential and I'm excited to see where the story goes next.

- Book of the Week!




Danger Girl and the Army of Darkness #3
I'm a big fan of the Army of Darkness and the "Ash" character in general. There are a lot of comics starring Ash these days and I can't get them all, but this one looked fun to me, so I've been following it.

In previous issues the Danger Girl team has been alerted to impending supernatural dangers stemming from the book of the dead (a.k.a. Nekrinomicon). They aquire one page of the book on a mission and featured on that page is a drawing of Ash, so they are on a quest to find the man in the book and see what he has to do with the evil book. In the meantime, Ash is trying to live a normal life after coming back to the present from the year 1300 AD, but a series of visions are causing him to attack innocent people, because to him they look like deadites (possessed humans). This, as is no surprised, lands him in lockdown in a mental hospital.

Issue 3 picks up with Danger Girl, Sydney Savage, breaking into the hospital, commandeering the clothes/identity of a doctor and breaking Ash out. During the story there are multiple flashbacks showing Syndey's childhood, trainging, and all the reasons she decided to get into the spy business.

While the interactions between Syndey and Ash were pretty funny, most of the story was about her, and I don't have a whole lot of interest in the Danger Girl characters. It was kind of boring. The promising thing is that the book got a lot more fun after Ash finally started interacting with Syndey, and now that he's been found and broken out of the hospital, the fun level should just go up from here. The artwork was about average, but definately not bad. I'm looking forward to issue 4 when the action should really pick up!






The Legend of Drizzt #2
Issue 1 picked up right after the events of the novel, Gauntlegrym, which saw Drizzt's dwarven ally Pwent crawl from his grave as a vampire. As Drizzt and his new elven companion, ???, travel the area hunting for Goblins, the vampire dwarf beats them to a goblin tribe and dispatches them, sating his blood hunger for the first time. Drizzt finds the goblins the next day and is confused because they look like they were killed by both a dwarven battlerager AND a vampire.

In issue 2, we see that Pwent is haunted by the voice of the vampire who turned him and it is trying to get him to attack humans. Pwent refuses to give into the voice in his head and instead finds and attacks an owlbear (see cover image). He drinks it's blood, but is not very filling. The voice tells Pwent that eventually he will have to give in and drink the blood of thinking creatures, instead of beasts. Drizzt is hot on Pwent's trail and finds the body of the owlbear the next morning. It remains to be seen if he will find his friend in time to help him deal with his situation.

This story is not terribly exciting and aside from the images of Drizzt himself, the art is pretty sub-par. This artist can't seem to draw women much better than I can! If I were not a huge Drizzt fan, I would stop buying this book. If you're not a Drizzt fan, steer clear.

New Comix - 8/31/11

Hey comic fans. Sorry for the lapse of posting last week. I got my comics on the same day we left town for a 5-day road trip. I have 3 comics for you today. Technically today is comic book day once again, but nothing came out today that I had to have, so I'll just review last week's here and we'll pick up again on current books next week.


The Mighty Thor #5
Look back in last month's comic reviews and read about The Might Thor #4. Pretty much the same stuff happened in issue 5. The story barely moved. At. All. There are a few really cool panels of Thor vs Silver Surfer on Mars, but that is short lived and, of course, ends in a draw. While they duke it out a gigantic Odin continues a mind battle against Galactus until Odin has had enough and headbutts the big guy, shattering his weird forked helmet! Both fall to earth helpless, Galactus' head a big amorphous mass of energy from the eyes up. Thor arrives in time to watch Odin fall back into his Odin Sleep (always so inconvenient!) while Galactus stands back up, helmet magically back together as he approaches Broxton, Ok. There are some amusing panels of the Broxton townfolk trying to throw out Volstagg and he acts like they're some dangerous invading army that only he can repel. He calls the town's preacher "small friend of Jesus". Kinda funny.

The art is consistently good, as always, but the story really stalled for me here. Not a bad read, but not a blockbuster by any means.





Justice League #1
This is a big one. For those who don't know, DC Comics has just relaunched their entire lineup of comics with #1 issues that wipe clean decades of continuity and baggage. This is not an alternative comics universe. This is mainstream DC. Batman and Superman aren't friends. Superman isn't married to Lois Lane. Aquaman has a mean corn allergy (this one hasn't been verified). This is very exciting to some, devastating to others. I've only recently gotten back into some DC comics, so I'm not too upset, but it IS a little weird. What about all the big stuff that just happened in the Green Lantern comics I've been reading?!? What about Blackest Night? War of the Green Lanterns? The dramatic death of Mogo? I guess those didn't mean for much. On the bright side, this is a fresh start and a chance for new life in old characters. DC is releasing 52 new #1 issued comic series. I plan on picking up about 5 of them. We'll see what happens.

Also it's important to note that, with the launch of this comic, DC is releasing their comics in digital format on the same day the printed copy comes out, for a cheaper price tag! This is HUGE! In my opinion, not in a good way, but it is what it is. More people are reading comics digitally and this is, unfortunately, the future of the industry. I don't like reading comics on a computer screen or ipad. I like holding the book in my hand and turning the pages. I like the experience of going to the store and leaving with my weekly dose of happiness. I like being able to go back and thumb through my longboxes. I fear that is a dying experience. I will keep buying printed comics for as long as they release them. It may be 5 years, it may be 10 years, who knows. This news is roughest, I'm sure, on the local comic stores. Why would anyone besides hardcore fans drive to their store and pay more money for a product that will sit around collecting dust after the first day when they can just download it to their phone for $1.99. I don't like this move, but I've seen it coming for a long time. I'm going old school on this one.

Okay, down to the comic itself. This book is written by DC's creative director Geoff Johns and drawn by comic legend and DC co-editor, Jim Lee. The story pics up with Batman chasing a weird cyborg across the rooftops of Gotham while the GCPD helicopters try to shoot him down. The cyborg gets the best of Batman when Green Lantern shows up and crushes the bad guy with a green firetruck. In the new universe, Batman and GL have never met until now. GL comes across pretty full of himself and douchy. Batman is not impressed and this makes for some really funny dialog. They get a clue from the cyborg, before he blows himself up, that he heralds the coming of Darkseid. The heroes don't know what this means, but Batman recognizes it's technology as alien, so they head up to Metropolis to question the only alien they know of. They find Superman, but he isn't too keen on being interrogated.

The suits have been updated. The story has been streamlined. This comic feels a little shallow, without all the years of previous stories to back it up, but it was a fun story with great art and was well-paced. I'm interested to see where they go with this flagship DC book. Count me in...for the time being.

- Book of the Week!




The Legend of Drizzt #1
I am a big fan of fantasy novels. I'm almost always in the middle of one at any given time. One of my favorite characters is Drizzt, the drow (dark elf) from D&D's Forgotten Realms. There are, I think, 18 books about him now and I own all of them. They are super fun and read just like a comic book, to me. Drizzt and his friends are like the X-Men of the fantasy world. There have been comic book adaptations of Drizzt's stories before, but this series is his first all-new story for comic book format!

This story picks up right after the latest novel, Gauntlegrym, that I JUST finished reading. If you haven't read that book, this series might be pretty confusing to you, especially if you have read Drizzt in the past, but just aren't current. BIG SPOILERS AHEAD FOR FANTASY NOVEL READERS!!! Long story short, many years (80?) have passed since the Spellplague took Regis and Cattie Brie away from Drizzt. Wulfgar went off to live with his people in Icewind Dale and apparently died there after many years. That leaves long-living Drizzt and King Bruenor to find a reason to go on without their friends. Bruenor is determined to find the ancient home of the dwarves, Gauntlegrym. Well, they find it after some villains blew half of it up by releasing a powerful volcano/fire elemental that also destroys the nearby town of Neverwinter. They team up with Jarlaxle and Athrogate and manage to save the day and put down the elemental, though it costs Bruenor and his bodyguard, Pwent, their lives. Drizzt then decides to move forward with his life alongside his new mysterious elf friend, whose name I can't remember. She's basically a crazy elf assassin. Not Drizzt's normal kinda pal.

This series picks up there. First you see Pwent rise from his grave, having been "killed" by a vampire. A dwarf vampire is a pretty cool idea. He takes off to get revenge on the vampire who turned him, but on the way finds a camp full of goblins and has his first blood feast. Drizzt and elf lady come across the bloody scene the next morning and Drizzt is quick to recognize the marks of a battlerager, even though the neck bites are also obvious. That's where the issue ends.

This isn't terribly exciting, but I love the world and characters of Drizzt so I'll keep reading. The art wasn't anything to brag about, but the idea of Pwent the vampire has a lot of possibilities.

New Comix - Week of 8/24/11

I left the comic store with a whopping SEVEN comic books this week! What can I say? Lots of good stuff on the shelves this go 'round! Let's get to it!



Green Lantern RetroActive #1
This comic is part of a recent series that DC is putting out where every week they do a "retro" style comic for the major DC characters in the style and timeline of the different decades, such as "60's", "70's", ect... This is the first issue I have bought in the RetroActive line because I just didn't care about any of the comics so far. In my opinion comics are just getting better and better and it's hard to step back into a 70's style comic book and enjoy it as much. I did, however, have to buy this one because it's all about the 1990's Green Lantern (and my personal favorite GL), Kyle Rayner.

This was not a fantastic or compelling story with amazing art, but it did have a bunch of fun "Kyle" moments where they play up how he's just a regular guy with an awesome ring. This was created by the same creative team that worked on the book in the 90's so it had some fun nostalgia for me there as well. The whole issue was pretty much, GL vs Effigy, some fire-based villain I know nothing about. He was a whiny baby and Kyle had take him down and ended the fight by slingshotting him back into deep space where he came from.

Like I said, not all that compelling, but it was a fun ride. The art was fine, just nothing outstanding. Overall a nice reading experience.





Green Lantern Corps #63
This is the final issue before they relaunch the series without Kyle, but with a new #1 next month. Kyle will be moving on to a new titled, "Green Lantern: The New Guardians". I'll pick both the #1's up to check them out, but no promises on staying with this book without my favorite GL on board.

This issue delved more into the fractured relationships within the Corps. in the aftermath of the War of the Green Lanterns. Many lanterns are calling it quits. Others are an emotional wreck. There's a growing anti-human sentiment which Kyle learns about the hard way. In a very cool scene, Alpha Lantern Boodika, who was previously thought destroyed (she's a cyborg now), is repaired and comes back full-strength. I've always liked her.

I think at least 4 different artists handled art duties on this issue and some where better than others. Boodika's section was the best, artistically, and I wish that guy could have done it all. Not a bad issue, but not really a must-read. I'm glad I bought it though just so I could see Boodika being brought back.





Batman The Dark Knight #5
This is the Batman title that I am following almost exclusively because it's written and drawn by artist David Finch. That being said, I just realized that another artist, Jason Fabok, took over artist duties on this issue and I didn't even realize it. He does a great job of mimicking Finch's style. I can't believe I'm typing this, but not having David Finch do the pencils didn't seem to hurt the book! Now to the story...

This 5-issue storyline has been all about Batman rescuing his childhood friend, Dawn Golden, who had been kidnapped. After he rescued her in the last issue, it comes out that her wealthy socialite father was actually a demon worshiper and had raised her for the sole purpose of sacrificing her. Now a hoard of little blue demons and her creepy undead father come after her again and manage to overpower Batman. Batman then teams with the demon hero, Etrigan, to rescue her again. They show up in the sewer lair just in time to see undead daddy plunge a dagger into Dawn's chest! Etrigan uses his unexplained demon powers to destroy her father, but it's too late for Batman. 5 issues of story and HE LOSES?!? Yikes! Batman's not supposed to lose!!! I know the hero can't always win, but this ending seemed all wrong to me. I mean, what was the point?!?

Despite the weak ending, I enjoyed seeing the teamup between Batman and Etrigan and the art was killer as always. This was a pretty cool issue.





Kick-Ass 2 #3
WARNING: THIS TITLE IS FOR MATURE READERS!
Kick-Ass is a story about a regular high-school kid who loves comics and wants to be a real hero. His first venture into vigilantism results in him getting stabbed and run over by a car. After he heals, he tries again, eventually takes down a mob boss by the end of the first story arc. This is issue 3 in the 2nd storyline.

The whole point of this comic is to have a super-hero story that is as realistic as possible. It's gritty. It's bloody. There's LOTS of bad language. Because it is so realistic, it makes it very fun and unpredictable. When someone dies in this comic, they REALLY die. Brutally. If you don't mind seeing/hearing this kind of thing, you should check out the movie that came out last year. It's pretty true to the comic.

Back to issue 3...Kick-Ass has joined a whole group of super-heroes lead by a couple of former mob guys. These "heroes" immediately take down a prostitution/slave ring and do so very effectively. They then spend the rest of the comic doing regular stuff like feeding the homeless, patrolling the streets, helping drunk women get home from parties safe...good stuff. Then the bad guys show up. K.A.'s former partner-turned-villain The Red Mist brings a gang of killers into the good guy's hideout and catch the Colonel (good guy leader) alone. They destroy the place and brutally murder him. I mean, YIKES! It remains to be seen how K.A. and his group will respond to the very real threat. The book ends with K.A.'s former partner HitGirl (who's now retired) watching the news story from home and making a fist in anger. I think I know one 8-year-old girl ninja who's coming out of retirement!

I feel guilty liking this book because it's so graphic, but dang it if it isn't fun to read!





Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1
I had to get this book for old times sake. I can't really enjoy the 80's TMNT cartoons anymore (just too cheesy), but the classic comics were actually really good. This series looks to be of the same style.

Let me just say...this was GREAT! Dan Duncan does a great job illustrating the turtles in a fun, indy-style that in some cases reminds me a LITTLE bit of Hellboy's Mike Mignola. The story has been revamped, the origin updated, and I like what they did with it. April O'Neil is back, but as a lab intern, not as a mouthy reporter. We are introduced into this story right in the middle of a larger story where Splinter and 3 of the turtles are facing off in a vicious gang fight with a mutated cat named, Old Hob, and his human thugs. The turtles hand the thugs easily while Splinter himself puts down Old Hob. There are flashbacks to their time in a genetics lab run by Baxter Stockman, who takes orders from a General Krang! No mention of Shredder yet. The whole time Raphael is seen wondering the streets in a hoody, digging old pizza out of garbage bins, and looking pretty awful. We don't know much about the overall story here, but I'm gonna stick around and find out.

This was SO fun to read! Fun, simple artwork with an updated story = WINNER!

- BOOK OF THE WEEK!!!




The Ultimates #1
I think this is the 5th storyline in the Ultimates history, but i'm not positive about that. I do have them all, I just can't remember. I've liked the Ultimate Universe versions of the Avengers since they started, but there have been some sketchy stories since then. This one looks promising.

The issue shows a variety of world crisis through the eyes of S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury. He handles each situation like it's just another day at the office, dispatching teams of agents and superheroes very efficiently. Unfortunately Reed Richards is apparently a bad buy now and has a team of geniuses working with him in a mysterious dome in northern Germany. All of a sudden Fury loses contact with the various Ultimates teams around the globe and it's looking very bad.

I liked how the writer, Jonathan Hickman, handled this story. It felt like very real-world style crisis management. Esad Ribic did a great job on the art and I specifically liked how he drew Ultimate Thor and IronMan. If this book had not come out the same week as TMNT it would be book of the week, but I have to go with the more enjoyable of the two books here.