New Comix - Week of 8/22/12

None of my regular comics came in this week, so I just bought the new Lobster Johnson one-shot story.  It's hard to go wrong with anything by Mignola!

Lobster Johnson - The Prayer of Neferu

For those who don't know who this weird-named character is, he's  side character from the Hellboy Universe.  To my knowledge, Hellboy has only interacted with his ghost, as the Lobster was active in the 20's & 30's, decades before Hellboy was brought to our world by the Nazis.  Lobster Johnson is a Noir-style Batman-type vigilante who fights against terrorists, gangsters, paranormal threats, ect...  He is at least as ruthless as Batman and also relies on an array of cool gadgets to fight the good fight.  He's a very grim character and always shouts "Feel the Claw!" when he attacks.  One of his signatures is to burn a lobster claw into the forehead of his victims.

All that backstory explained, here's what happened in this issue.... We see a nefarious group of characters meeting at a club to see the unveiling of a recently "found" mummy.  It's understood that this group is some kind of a secretive, cultish, high-society organization.  A woman introduced as "Princess Nefertu" greets the crowd and presents the ancient corpse to the audience.  Suddenly Lobster Johnson announces that the mummy was stolen that same night from a museum and he swings into action yelling "Feel the Claw!"  The Lobster attacks, guns blazing, and drops numerous gangster types and cleared out the room by the time he addresses "Princess Nefertu", who he reveals is nothing more than a local criminal in Egyptian garb.  A hulking man with a sledge hammer attacks LJ from behind and eventually lands a solid blow, knocking out the vigilante.  When he awakes, he is chained to a wall in a basement as Nefertu and her big friend are beginning some kind of ritual involving the mummy and 3 of his ancient companions in a fiery cauldren.  Nefertu explains that she will harness the spirits of the 4 priests of Annubis who she has gathered and she will be granted ancient powers of the Priestess of Annubis and all they lack is the living blood of a "volunteer".  As they move forward to begin the bleeding process, Lobster Johnson makes them sorry for not chaining up his feet and kicks his surprised attackers, destroying their ceremonial knife and freeing the souls of the 4 dead priests.  The ghosts pull Nefertu into the fire where she dies, and then posses the corpse of the big man, who LJ killed in his escape.  When a spear through the head doesn't slow him down, Johnson's sprints upstairs where his weapons belt is waiting.  Apparently a possessed monster zombie is not match for a good, old-fashioned grenade.  The book ends with a view of the dead mobsters and closeup of the Lobster Claw burned into a piece of paper at the scene.

This was a short story, but it was full of pulp heroes, zombies, gangsters, and explosions.  All the things that make Hellboy books so great.  I wish Mignola handled the art duties here as well as writing the story, but Wilfredo Torres does a good job matching the art with the story.  I really dig this Lobster Johnson guy.  This issue makes me want to pick up his graphic novel that I passed on a few years back.  I'm pretty sure I would buy an ongoing Lobster Johnson comic, if one were available.  Fun fun stuff!

 - Default Pic of the Week, but worthy nonetheless.

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!!!