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.

New Comix - Week of 8/17/11

Just 2 books this week, but they were both worth reading. Check 'em out!



Ultimate Fallout #4
This issue came out 2 weeks ago and I missed it. The comic store had one back in stock today, so I nabbed it. In this issue of Ultimate Fallout, we see snippets of 3 different stories. The first includes the appearance of the new Ultimate Spider-Man, Miles Morales. We get to see Miles stop a potential robbery by a lame Australian villain called, The Kangaroo. Miles seems to have the standard spider-powers and eventually defeats the lame villain, and says several funny 1-lines along the way, just like Peter used to. We don't find out anything about him in this issue though. Guess they're saving that for Ultimate Spider-man #1, due out next month. I'll be picking that up, for sure. The other 2 stories in this issue were confusing and boring, centering on Ultimate Mr. Fantastic (who is now a villain apparently?!?) and government agent, Val Cooper. Booooring....

I have not been a fan of this series, but I did actually enjoy the new Spidey story. The art was fun as well. I like what I'm seeing so far and am looking forward to learning more about Miles. Ultimate Spider-man was my favorite book over the past year or so, and the same creative team will be working on it, so there's no reason to think that the fun won't continue with this new character. That being said, I will NOT be buying the remaining 2 issues of Ultimate Fallout. Aside from this short Spider-story, it has been Ultimately Boring.

for Spidey!




Captain America #2
The first issue of this new Cap series blew me away last month. This issue was a little bit wackier, but still a very fun read with superb artwork.

In issue 2 we learn more about the mission that went wrong during WW2 that has come back to haunt Cap & friends. They had a kid, Jimmy Janckowitz, with the ability to walk into a crazy imaginary world that he could control, and then back out into reality. While Cap & Co. attacked a Nazi base, Jimmy made a portal into his world for Cap's ally, Codename Bravo, and a few other soldiers. Jimmy had linked into the dreams of a few nazi soliders inside the base, which would allow them to pop right into that base and help take it over. While the soldiers were in the dream world, a nazi spy hits Jimmy in the head with a typewriter, knocking him into a coma, and the portal in and out of the dream world closed with Bravo's team stuck inside. Fast-forward to today and Codename Bravo had gotten out of the dream world, is aiding Hydra with advanced technology he must have gotten from the dreamworld, and he has kidnapped the geriatric, still-catatonic Jimmy and is planning the downfall of Cap along with Hydra and Baron Zemo. Wow! Crazy story!!!

It's a wild ride, but one worth taking, if not for the story, then for Steve McNiven's artwork. He draws Cap like it's nobody's business! If you're a comic buyer and you're not buying this one...shame on you.

- Book of the Week!

New Comix - Week of 8/10/11

Welcome back! After a week of no-comics, I was happy to leave the store with 3 issues this week and they were all good! Let's get to the reviews!


Hellboy: The Fury #3 of 3
I don't usually buy individual Hellboy comics, as I think his stories read much better in graphic novel form, but I heard he was dying in this issue and I had to see it for myself.

I can't comment on the story, as I came in on the last issue and I had no idea what was going on, but the visuals were fun and the art was quite good, even though Mignola didn't draw it himself. Who else but Hellboy punches a dragon in the jaw?!? I won't spoil how he goes out, but let's just say that the next Hellboy story comes out next year and is titled, "Hellboy in Hell".





Green Lantern Aftermath #2 of 2
This issue continues the story of how the Guardians and the Green Lanterns cope with the recent events of the War of the Green Lanterns. There is a lot of mistrust and infighting going on with the GL's who are all gathered on OA, while the Guardians are all freaked out and have shut themselves away inside their citadel with the newly reinstated GL Sinestro. A group of GL's go to assassinate him and are stopped by my favorite GL, Kyle Rayner. The Guardians come out of their citadel at that point and give all the GLs a good scolding. They send them all back to their respective sectors and reassign Honor Guard Kyle Rayner back to Earth itself. Hal Jordan was decommissioned in the last issue and is also back on Earth, though not as a Green Lantern.

The story was pretty good in this book, considering that it was just setting up the upcoming renumbered GL #1, GL Corps #1, and GL New Guardians #1 in September. I thought it did a good job of getting the story where it needed to be. The art was not very good, but it was also not bad enough that it hurt the book too badly. I still had a good time reading it. I'm looking forward to seeing what will happen to Kyle as he transfers to being one of the main characters in New Guardians.






Fear Itself #5 of 7
First off, a summary; A powerful villain has been released from his prison. He is called "The Serpent" and his released has caused Odin himself to be afraid and to pull all of his people from the Earth and replace Asgard back in it's proper place in the realms (it has been hovering over the plains of Oklahoma for a few years now). The Serpent caused 7 (or was it 8?) hammers to fall from the sky and they chose their weilders, much like a Green Lantern ring does. The weilder takes the hammer and has no choice but to obey The Serpent. Among the wielders are the Red Skull's daughter, Sin, The Hulk, The Thing, Juggernaut, and some other losers you don't care about. Earlier in the series, Sin killed the current Captain America (Cap's old sidekick, Bucky) by punching a whole through his chest. Now she has her sites on Steve Rogers. In Asgard, Thor's defiance against his father's plans to burn the Earth before the Serpent can take it has him ejected from his realm and he returns to Earth to fight with his friends. Iron Man then takes it upon himself to visit Odin. Why? Keep reading.

This issue starts off with heavy action and doesn't let up! Thor faces down the mind-controlled Hulk and Thing, both weilding hammers much like his own. During the battle, Thor's hammer makes it's way THROUGH the Thing's chest! Then Thor powers up on lightning and hits Hulk so hard that he almost goes out of orbit, and lands somewhere on the other side of the planet. Cap leads a team of Avengers against Sin and The Serpent only to have his Avengers easily defeated and his shield shattered like it was made of old crackers! Back in Oklahoma, Iron Man calls for Odin and is answered by a hologram of the All-Father. Odin tells him he won't help him, but Tony tells Odin to shove it because he doesn't need help, he needs to use his workshop! Tony's making some god-killing weapons!!!

I'm usually all about these big Marvel Crossover events, but this story really isn't grabbing me. That being said, the individual pieces of the story are freakin' GREAT! I'm having fun reading it and the art by Stuart Immonen is fantastic. I don't care that much about this villain or his beef with Asgard, but I'm digging these action scenes!

- Pick of the Week!!!

New Comix - Week of 8/3/11

For the first time in a LONG time there were no new comics released this week that I felt were worth buying. Ultimate Fallout #4 came out and introduced the kid who will become the new Ultimate Spider-Man, but it was sold out by the time I got to the store, and from what I heard, it wasn't a very good issue anyway. I'll buy Ultimate Spider-Man #1 when it releases next month and fill you in on the new guy.

Thanks for checking in. I know I'll have new comics to review next week.