Ah, Comic Book Day! Welcome again to another Comic Book Day review, no doubling up this week so look for Worth Every Penny later today or tomorrow. Another two Marvel books but I promise that next week will be a Marvel Free Comic Book Day. Today though, we have Captain America #30 and Penance: Relentless #1. Two great writers and potentially two great books.
Captain America #30 - What a huge issue this is, I'll try to only ruin half of it since it'll be pretty hard not to ruin anything by talking about it. The Winter Soldier faces Crossbones and Sin... and hands them their asses! Bucks got a great line where he asks Sin if she's ever gone up against anyone will real training or that wasn't an innocent bystander, great line! Tony reads Steve's letter that was personally addressed to him and frankly makes me miss the old Steve and Tony. In fact the only time I've like Iron Man as of late was in Cap's book, he's annoying and pretty much just sucks in every title that he's in. Also he's in every title which is very annoying. Nobody liked it when Nick Fury did that shit either, keep that in mind Marvel. Sharron has TWO big moments in this book and I can't tell you either but after the break there will be one of the two revealed in the preview pages so be warned! So how do you have a book that doesn't even have it's main character? Well you give it to Ed Brubaker and let him work his magic. I have to say I'm very glad that he left DC, because I don't think they'd ever let him do what he's doing at Marvel.
Penance: Relentless #1 - If you read Civil War: Frontlines you probably ended up more impressed with it, then the actual Civil War. From the pages of Frontline we received Speedball reborn as Penance. Paul Jenkins took one of the worst characters in comics and made him a character first of all, but also interesting. I'm behind on reading Thunderbolts, but I decided to read this first any ways. The story follow Penance as he is rebuilding his personality after Stamford (See Civil War) and how his brain is dealing with the events. He's under constant supervision and knows it, he also keeps a journal filled with numbers. At this point it's anybodies guess as to what they mean, but Norman Osborn tries to give us some insight as to what he thinks they mean. The Thunderbolts get deployed to stop a Latverian terrorist cell from giving launch codes for missiles pointed at Latverian. The missiles were suppose to be disarmed of course and Doom and Latverian don't know that they aren't so the Bolts are deployed to keep the secrets not the piece. Penance takes down the whole terrorist cell single handed, and let's one of them escape to deliver a message to Doom. Needless to say, any message delivered to Doom demanding something from him is going to result in a not so friendly encounter with Doom at some point in the book. I was rather impressed with this issue, the art was great and the story hooked me, Jenkins and Gulacy are a fine team together and definitely have a hit here.
Here's a SPOILER WARNING for Captain America, so read at your own risk. Also I've included the first few pages of Penance for you to get hooked on.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Comic Book Day - Marvel Duo (Now with Previews)
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Quick Hits - Attack of the One's
Well there have been several first issues over the last 2 weeks, mostly last week so here's another addition of Quick Hits that features all 1st issues!
Drafted #1 - DDP - It's true you can't stop Mark Powers, and this issue is no exception. The book starts a little slow, but I think that's good in a war story. You don't want to have guns blazing the whole time, you need to give the world character. In this issue we get to know the President and I get the feeling that he's soon to become the World's President during the looming War. We also get to know a few of our characters better, other wise who would care if anything happened to them through out the course of the story. The main event of the issue is that an Alien species broadcasts itself to the entire planet and speaks to everyone in their own language. The UN decides (with the help of the Prez) to tell the Aliens to face them in person or basically go to hell. It does do one thing for the World though, they start working together as another tragedy strikes. Quick Hits - Runner Up!
Friday the 13th: How I Spent My Summer Vacation #1 - Wildstorm - So this book was interesting. Jason goes hacking on a summer camp, nothing new but the art was good, finds a kid being picked on because let's face it he kinda looks like Jason. So our Slasher kidnaps the kid... and kills a bunch of people on the way out. There's a Sheriff that talks to himself and does a lot of Meth, he accidentally kills two of the counselors and makes it look like Jason did it... I don't think that's going to pan out for him but whatever. Now he's on the hunt for the kid too because the kid is his only witness and let's face it he's on Meth so whatever he decides to do will just have to be good enough for us right? The FBI is in the story as well, I'm sure a bunch of them will get murdered too... did I mention the art was really good? Yup, it is.
Justice For Hire #1 - Creative Impulse Publishing - This issue is actually a few months old but I just finally got it in the mail so it's new to me. I was actually very disappointed with this book. Did you notice how good the art on the cover is? Well don't get attached because it looks like every other half assed amateur company that tries to bite off more than they can chew. The story is very obviously a rip off of Marvel's Heroes for Hire, but that didn't bother me because I was hoping it would take that formula to the next level. It did but it didn't work. The story is sporadic, the characters all sound the same, even the women, the art is horrid! There were panels so bad I couldn't tell if it was the Luke Cage rip off or the Iron Fist rip off I was looking at... maybe you didn't catch that; I couldn't tell if it was a black guy or a white guy that's how bad it was. I could give several more examples on how bad the art was but this is Quick Hits, so I won't. I hope in issue two they make the cover artist do the interiors... I know it won't happen though. Quick Hits - Save Your Money!
Potter's Field #1 - Boom! Studios - I like Mark Waid... some times, but I really had my doubts about this book. Until I read the first few pages where a character narrates the main characters story. The concept is this: There are hundreds upon hundreds of unmarked graves in New York, and John Doe is on a mission to give each of those graves a name so that they can rest in peace. Pretty cool huh? What's cooler is that he has an entire underground team that helps him with pieces of the puzzle, only they don't know each other. There's no hand shake, there's no names written down, only John Doe knows who they are and what they can help him with. In the first issue he is tracking down the murder of a little girl that was ruled a suicide and in doing so takes on another operative. He black mail's them sure, but he black mail's them so they have the oppurtunity to redeem themselves. This is a book that you just have to read to fully understand and I have not read anything as good as it since Boom!'s Talent. That's why it's getting the Quick Hits - Pick of the Week! 
Parade (With Fireworks) #1 of 2 - Image - This has to be one of the most depressing comics I've ever read! It's basically about how WWII screwed up Italy and ruined a family that had be simple farmers making and selling olive oil. Forgive me because the main character's names didn't stand out enough for me to remember them, just know that it's about two brothers and one of them has just returned from America because he was tired of everyone killing each other over Olive Oil. The art is fantastic and I love the style, I just wish the story fit the style better. Not to say that the story was bad, it just wasn't for me. The prologue had me scratching my head wondering what to expect from this book. I'm also baffled by the title, I mean yes there is a Parade, no there isn't fireworks, but what the hell to either have to do with Olive Oil? Since there's only 2 issue I'll probably get the second issue just to see how it ends, but it's still a depressing book.
Suicide Squad #1 - DC Comics - I think that the Suicide Squad is probably one of the coolest ideas in comics. I also think that DC doesn't have the balls to use the Squad to it's full potential. This mini-series takes place in the DCU's past before all the crisis business when you could read just about anything and not worry about what other book you needed to read in order to understand the whole story. Since I don't know a lot about the DCU and the Squad this flash back issue wasn't that interesting to me. I only like Deadshot and he didn't have much face time so I wasn't blown away by the book. The Squad is a bunch of Super-Villains that do black ops jobs to get there record expunged, then they go back to being villains forcing them to do more jobs but the jobs are super dangerous and there's a strong guarantee that someone will die on one of the missions. This issue starts off with someone dying and then the team gets their asses kicked by some lame ass Russian team that all wears fruity costumes. If you're a long time fan of the series or character check it out otherwise you might want to pass.
The Zombie Project #1 - Jam Packed Productions - I'm a sucker for a Zombie story so I had to pick this one. For starters the art did not blow me away, it also felt very amateur like Justice For Hire which sucks because I ordered them at the same time, there wasn't enough detail in the panels to make it feel like any of it was happening in the world. It just looked like a bunch of action poses put together and someone scribbling in the background. The story was nothing new but that's no surprise since apparently Zombie comics are like the hardest thing in the world to do I've read a lot of Zombie comics and only like 3 of them. The gimmick of this book is that it starts at a Catholic School, which would be cool but what the hell is really going to happen at a Catholic School? Is one of the Priest's going to pull out a shot-gun and bless it and start blowing Zombie's away? I doubt that since it follows so punk ass kids that of course think there hot shit and blah blah blah, whatever. I'm not really sure what the project is since there was no mention of it in the book so I guess it was to see if they could project me into reading the next issue but that project failed. It scores only a smudge higher than JFH where I wouldn't ask for my money back out right but I would definitely think about so it get is own Quick Hits: Why'd I Rush To Read This?
Wonder Girl #1 - DC Comics - I hope this book isn't an ongoing title, I think it's just 6 issue which might be good. Let me say that Wonder Girl is not a strong enough character to have her own title yet. When every other page has to mention Wonder Woman or Donna Troy and the first issue guest stars Robin (There still trying to deal with there F'ing kiss from over a year ago which would have been resolved if Countdown, Amazon's Attack and everything happening in Batman, Wonder Woman and Titans wasn't going on I mean hey I'm interested and think they would make a cool couple so just do it already or stop bring it up!) and Hercules which made no sense. I can't remember what happened to Herc in WW but something did which would make it impossible for him to be helping WG and if he was he'd still pretty much be a bad guy. Wonder Girl is "playing Atlas" as the book tells us, cleaning up after the Amazon war even though she's despised by the World... well America any ways but they say World in the book because that's the way it is so with closed minded people. The reason I'm glad this book is possibly a mini is due to the fact that it wasn't very good. DC just threw some artist on the book so it just looked kiddish. Maybe I'll get issue two but if Robin shows up again I'm done.
X-Men: Emperor Vulcan #1 - Marvel Comics - It always a great story when some editor over at Marvel wants to finish a writers idea and decides to throw one of their most over used and over rated writers on a book... no, no it's not never mind that. Yost has the potential to be really good but Marvel is inflating his ego and giving him to much control over it's Might Mutants. You know rather than bashing this book I'm just going to say that I enjoyed the art, the inker and colorist must be the same as the team that work on Uncanny or did a very good job of keeping the book consistent. I really like the idea behind the book, leaving some of the X-Men in space to take up the role of the Starjammers. I just wish they would do it either the same way as any other X-title or how they always did it before with the Jammers... sparingly. Also I don't see how this space book fits in with the rest of what's happening in space which is just annoying because they should reflect each other instead of having huge events and not matching up, but whatever I'm not an editor for Marvel so what do I know right?
JLA: Wedding Special #1 - DC Comics - You know why DC has so many mini-series and first issues? Because they have a hard time keeping anything afloat for very long, most of the time you lose interest by issue 8 so that's why they do SOOOO many mini-series and specials and one-shots. So who knew that this book which looks like a follow up to Black Canary Wedding Planner, would actually have relevance to the next story arc in Justice League. The Injustice League is back and they're forming a new roster and hey wouldn't you know they had the same idea that Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Brad Meltzer had to look at photos of everyone and decide who's going to make the cut. I mean come on I barely believed it when the JSA did it why the hell would I buy the same cow now for the bad guys? Also the writer should never be allow to write for the Joker or Luthor again it was horrible and convinced me that if the series was going to be the same that I would not be buying it. In the same regard please don't write for Batman, Hal Jordon or Superman it was just as shameful. Superman only said one sentence and he came off like a drunk retard with chips in him mouth it sucked. The worst part is that I didn't know that it was going to be a serious issue, I thought it was a joke until some poorly drawn fighting happened, especially when Firestorm made an appearance. Maybe it reads better the second time I don't know but I was pretty disappointed with it and probably came off like a fan boy but I hate it when someone tries to add new twists to characters that are pre-defined and have their own books. In teams books you define the teams character not the character's character. If you try to do both the book will suck and all the character will feel out of place and fan-boys will come for your blood far worse then what I have said today.
That wraps it up thanks to anyone reading this and google for giving me so many bogus hits, that's really annoying, any ways maybe I'll do some movie Quick Hits next time or have some better books to read at least... hopefully... please?
Friday, September 14, 2007
Indie Friday - Quick Hits
Well it's a little late but it's still an Indie Friday, I've been mixing the articles up a bit so that you get a taste of each one and what it's about so today we have a bunch of Quick Hits on Indie Comics that have come out in the last few weeks... or months in some cases, so enjoy! Also I bought all of these at Comic Factory in Pasadena, CA if live in California and have access to the shop then check it out they have a huge selection of independent comics including stuff that's printed in non comic size and limited to about 100 prints some times. It's a cool place so check it out.
Multiple Warheads #1 - It's not often that I find an Oni Press book that I don't like... but I found one. This book is 1/2 Tank Girl, 1/2 Heavy Metal and 1/2 Manga and yeah I know my math is wrong but I was always better at decimals. It's basically about this girl that hunts for organs off of the dead out in the dead world... then a space ship from the space were-wolf war crashes because they were all on auto return... and frankly I didn't care. I wanted to like the book but it really didn't do anything worth reading. The art was interesting but the character was sexier when she had her clothes on. Yeah... that's all I have to say about it... next book.
Bonds #1 - I missed this Image books release. Even though it's Image not every store will stock it so some times these rare gems get missed or under bought. Bonds is an interesting story, basically the girl on the front, her dad gets killed by someone using a medical company to make a biological weapon that would of course would wreck havoc on the world. The main character goes somewhere else when she's asleep and during one of her visits to the forest her guide which is either her mother or mother nature I'm not sure, tells her that anything she does there will have affects on the real world. If she strikes a spider then something bad will happen to a real person, and if she's the chosen one then she will not be mark with a "Bond." Well she does and she awakens to find a spider "tattoo" growing darker and darker on her skin. There's more to this complicated story that I care not to explain to you just know that even though it starts slow it finishes strong. Quick Pick: Runner Up!
Bushi Tales #1 of 3 - What happens when you mix Japanese and Greek mythology? You get a mess of a story and a main character that cries more times then she speaks. The underlining plot of this comic was lost on me, perhaps I'm just not a "big picture" type when it comes to the structure of this story. The issues plot was this, wolves attack the guards of a fortress (why the guards are on the outside is beyond me) the leaders daughter goes after the wolves because they mauled her lover or boyfriend or hey they didn't really say; she finds a Titan of Greek Mythology cooking the other missing guard and then they get ambushed. The main chick wounds the Titan and he vows they'll meet again while the retreat to the fortress that he could easily break into... but doesn't. But hey the art was okay! Quick Picks: Save You're Money!
White Picket Fences #3 of 3 - This is more of a series review since I read the first two issues as well. Let me first say that I loved the art, and it reminded my of Herobear and the Kid. It has that classic 40's and 50's motif to it and that's when the story also takes place. Basically the Martian's are ready to wage war on us because we didn't disarm or give back all the technology they gave us to defeat... another planet's people I'm sorry I don't remember which one I think it was Venus so Verusians or whatever. These kids that are obsessed with one of those classic space adventurers decide they want to help the army that's in the town protecting the secret weapon that's hidden there. Well as kids often do they end up getting into trouble and they nearly cause the end of the planet. The concept is cool, because they refer to the Martin's as "Reds" which is something we're all familiar with but it adds that extra twist to it. The problem with this story is the dialog, the parents are funny and they work but the government people talk to much, the Martin's are boring and the kids sound stupid. They don't really talk like kids, they talk more like uneducated adults and that's not interesting to read. Stay for the art but skip most of the story and you'll be fine with this book from Ape Entertainment.
Johnny Hiro #1 - I have been trying to get my hands on this book for some time now and so the hype I had given the book myself made me nervous to read it. But let's just say it shall we... Quick Picks: Pick of the Week! Yeah it was that good. Godazilla (Godzilla knock off) comes to New York to extract revenge on the daughter of a Japanese Voltron type group that kicked his ass years ago. That daughter just so happens to be Johnny Hiro's girlfriend. With a book like this you can't really say anything that's not going to ruin the book for you, all I can say is that I loved how it was written. I love the style of jumping into a short tale about something that doesn't really matter to the story but it's fun to read and makes the book more enjoyable. This story is all over the map and the ending is freaking hilarious. The art was tight and the composition put together nicely and reminded me of Jim Mahfood but without some of the BS that comes with his art. I really hope that there's another issue of Johnny Hiro in the works because I just want to read more of it, it doesn't matter what happens or if they even do anything exciting I just want more of the characters and to me that's what any comic should be about but with Indie's I love it when they step out of the box and tell a story in a way that's not common, so again Quick Picks: Pick of the Week!
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Shoot'em Up - Bang, Bang! We've got a hit!
Oh it has been a long time since I saw a good action flick that didn't try to be bigger and better than itself. Clive Owen came to America too late, he could have been a movie superstar by now if he had just crossed the ocean a little sooner. I don't really feel the need to tell you the gimmick of Shoot'em Up although I'm sure many sites have already done so, I will tell you the plot though which is something I'm sure others have not done. Basically Owen's character (Mr. Smith) can't help but stop a fleeing pregnant woman's would be attacker. Stopping this attack lands him with a dead mother and a newly delivered baby. Now the same people that were trying to kill the mother are trying to kill the baby. That's it! That simple, no big surprises, yes theres a bit more to the plot but they practically give it to you before they spell it out. None of that matters because this movie is just a vessel for great gun fights and witty dialog. Clive basically is Buggs Bunny with a gun and frankly it's hilarious. Giamatti plays Fudd to our Clive's Buggs, and does a brilliant job (as always) playing a character that he's really has no business playing.
Really there's nothing more to say about this movie. I'm sure there will be nah sayers on how there's too much action or that the story wasn't believable and I would say that they are wrong because this movie knows what it is... a simple action flick that delivers the action. I can't stress enough the great dialog between Clive and Paul. They basically finish each other's sentences, which yes I know isn't possible but damn isn't it funny! While I was watching the movie I couldn't help but think of Crank and how
disappointing it turned out to be and wondered just how someone could screw up such a simple formula... but thankfully Shoot'em Up came out and I think it was a breath of fresh air and a good step towards revitalizing the action genre. Yeah there's a lot of good movies out right now (thankfully) but if you've got the chance and you're feeling like a laugh and some action then check it out, you won't be disappointed.
Halloween 2007 - Halloween will never be the same!
Halloween 2007 - So perhaps I'm not the one that should review this having never watched the original, although some would say that's why I should because I have a fresh take on it and can just watch it for what it is a Horror Movie. I'm a fan of Zombie's last two movies and since this isn't IMDB I'm not going to list them just to prove I know them, anyways I was interested in what he would do with this film and was happy when he kept it during the same time line as the original. I think that's why the movie worked so well and why all his movies work is because he doesn't modernize them, he keeps them in the era that invented horror as we know it today. At Comic Con Zombie said his film would be different because it was about Michael Myers and not about the people he was killing, and he was not lying, this movie is 100% about Myers.
Tyler Mane was the perfect choice and frankly I would like to see him in more roles like this, I mean he's already pretty scary looking in real life but give him a knife and a mask and he's scary as hell! Even though he didn't talk, his body language spoke loud and clear and that takes a talented actor but also a talented director to be able to show it the way he did. Young Myers was actually quite impressive for a child actor, he was able to flip the switch between psycho killer and playful child very easily. I wonder if he'll grow up demented because of this movie? He did some pretty intense things during the course of the film. Since I'm on actors,
I want to say that whoever casted this film did a great job. I actually believed that the girls were friends and could picture them hanging out in real life, I doubt that's the case but hey I believed it could happen while watching the movie. Most impressive was Scout Taylor-Compton as Laurie, even though I knew bad stuff was going to happen all around her I felt bad for her as they did. She really was just a likable character and it sucked to see her going through all that shit. The two baby-sat kids did a heck of a job and it was hard to tell if they were acting or if they just threw them in a room and said be yourself and turned on a camera, they were both very natural and could turn out to have quite the careers ahead of them.
Something that I don't think a lot of people will catch, or if they do they'll view it in a negative light, was all the cussing. I'm not talking about the, "Oh shit there's a killer outside my door" cussing, I'm talking about when the Dad was like, "Oh shit, my car keys." Totally un-needed right? I stood out to me, and then a couple more character did it, then a couple more, and I realized something... this isn't any different then how I talk all the time, at work or with my family. It's just not something that is brought to light in movies, that real aspect of how we talk in everyday conversations and I just thought that was brilliant. Especially at the begin when the Meyer's family is way dysfunctional they cuss a lot and instead of it feeling force or getting tired of it, you accept it because you just turned to your friend and said, "Damn they cuss a lot." If anyone watches it again or for the first time, pay attention, and then pay attention to how much you swear every day. I liked this movie, I liked Myers and what Zombie and Mane did with it.
Heck I really liked Mrs. Zombie and loved it when she really switched gears and actually looked like a Mom! I'm not a fan of remakes but like I said before the movie came out, "If you're going to remake a horror movie... wouldn't you rather have Zombie, a total horror fan, do it rather than someone else?" The answer to that question is, "Yes!"
The Film Crew - Hollywood After Dark
The Film Crew as I've previously stated, is the latest creation from three of the guys that worked on and brought you MST3000. You could go as far as to say that The Film Crew is MST3000 Lite, since it tries to copy several of the formulas from MST but with little success. One of the things that could make or break a good episode of MST were the bits in-between, the invention exchanges and the Mad Scientist and the later inventions of the same character in female form. They could make you laugh, but for the most part then weren't really needed. But after watching MST on DVD I discovered that they were needed, because it made you relate and care about these guys that sit and watch these awful movies, they gave them a more human face and you realized that they had the best job in the world... and they were just some guys from Minnesota.
The Film Crew tries this same formula of giving the guys a boss and giving them the job of creating a commentary track for every movie without out a commentary track (public domain movies) but depending on how long TFC lasts will really determine if these bits that aren't really working right off the bat, are really going to matter. As the saying goes, time will tell. The actual movie itself is horrible, and didn't have enough footage shot to make any sense. Also the Old chick from Golden Girls, the one that slept with everyone, she plays a stripper who wants to be an actress... and she sleeps with everyone... go figure huh? The Crew does a good job of over looking the a lot of the easy jokes and ops for the road less traveled, and let me tell you they have some killer jokes. I was watching this with my Girlfriend (Who doesn't get this style of humor) and she didn't laugh at all, so I was pretty much laughing by myself which anyone who's ever watch a comedy by themselves knows that you don't laugh as much when you're the only one laughing. Long story short, I laughed quite a bit. I'm getting the next installment in this project and will update fans on whether the "bits" pan out or if they're just a waste of time in trying to reconnect to the magic that is MST3000.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Worth Every Penny and Comic Book Day Double Header
Since it's Comic Book Day we've got a review, but I also thought it would be cool if I did a double article and make it a Worth Every Penny as well. Today we've got two Marvel books, since Marvel released the most books this week let's see which one is worth your 3 bucks plus tax shall we.
Ghost Rider #15 - Daniel Way has managed to make the Ghost Rider the new Peter Parker, where life just dumps on him constantly. If you haven't been reading Ghost Rider I'll recap briefly for you. The Devil has escaped Hell, but has been shattered into... you guessed it 666 pieces, and these pieces have taken over recently dead's bodies. Ghost Rider is tracking down and killing each body which makes the remaining bodies that much stronger. In this issue two angel's are born over night from a teenage girl, her Mom who was ripping the shit out of her in the last issue all the sudden wants to take care of her and when the girl has to leave on a mission with the angel babies the mom gives her, her muscle car that's probably worth more than the house they're living in. Devil set's GR up with two problems: Stop a stadium of people from blowing up (which he doesn't actually know about yet) or save a little league group of kids that are being held some where. It's a quick read but frankly that's due to the fact that it's not very interesting and Way's strong point isn't dialog and never will be. I've decided to stop reading Ghost Rider with this issue since it's become the same thing over and over each issue. Whereas the initial idea was cleaver, tracking down a new piece of Satan each issue gets rather boring when they all end the same way. Also I get the fact that GR doesn't care if the innocent get hurt because he'll just have more avenging to do, and the Johnny Blaze aspect of it just isn't interesting enough to keep me caring. All it takes to stop Johnny's control of GR is a bonk on the head and GR pops back in. We'll see how long this latest series lasts, but for me the road to vengeance stops here!
Punisher War Journal #11 - For starters don't let the cover fool you Olivetti is not doing the interiors of the book which is a shame because he really makes up for a lot of story telling aspects that Fraction isn't able to write and or director the artist to do. This is one of those issue where the main character isn't even in half the book. I don't know who started this trend, I remember when I first read an issue and the character wasn't in it I was like wow that's a good writer to be able to do it. Let's just say Fraction isn't there yet. The book spends most of it's time with G.W. Bridge and Ian the fake cop from some issues back. Iron Man is trying to talk Bridge out of retirement and Ian is being brainwashed into possibly being the next Punisher. Both stories where pretty boring and I've really have found myself not caring about Bridge, I don't like his character and whatever Fraction is trying to do with him just isn't interesting. Every time he shows up I let out a big sigh and wait for it to be over. As far as Ian the fake cop is concerned, I don't even know his character to care about what he's going through. The Punisher and Winter Soldier do not square off in this book, they barely have a tussle if you can call it that so don't expect the few pages they spend together to be action packed or the battle you've waiting for because it's not. Overall this was a disappointing issue for me since I've just read the last six issue of the series all in a row, when I got to this one it was kind of a road block and I'm left wondering if I should pass it.
The Winner: And not by much is Punisher War Journal #11, at least the few pages of dialog between the Punisher and WS were more interesting then the whole of Ghost Rider, and Punisher's "shock ending" might lead to a better storyline in the next issue so spend your 3 bucks on Pun rather than the Rider.
Preview Pages after the break.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Countdown to the Final Crisis... of a new crossover!
Another 6 issues of Countdown have come out so it's time to talk about another 6 issues of Countdown. I'll be short this time, I'm not going through each issue and for the most part I'm going to pretend you know what I'm talking about rather than boring you with the details of each book. Pretty much all I have are issues with this book, no they're not typical Fanboy issues of this character shouldn't do that or whatever typical Fanboy's grip about. My first issue with this book is that it's horribly rushed at times, which I could easily fix for them... stop recapping each character in every issue. Seriously I'm beginning to wonder if Dini and company or even the rest of DC even read 52? If they did, they would have noticed how issues would feature certain characters and sometimes the whole gang, but not ever issue. It gets really boring reading two pages about Jimmy Olsen and not knowing the what's, why's and how's of the situation that he's in simply because there isn't enough time. And they're parts that I've frankly just stopped caring about, for instance the group searching for Ray Palmer, don't care, they don't do anything interesting or say anything that isn't forced or frankly just dumb. Another storyline I don't care about is the Rouges. I started off iffy about them, then I really stopped giving a damn, and now I'm just tired of them being the only story we're following 100%.
Piper and Trickster are the only two that we follow every where, if they take a shit, we're there, and I don't care anymore. They killed the Flash, yet in Countdown they say they didn't. They have no redeeming character qualities to care about and yet the book asks you to root for them, but I can't they are murderers plain and simple. I'm also very much so done reading about Catwoman's buddy and Harley Quinn who just can't seem to find a home outside the animated cartoon. They just hang around and now they're becoming Amazon warriors big deal, they haven't done anything for almost two months now. My last grip for this book that's really sinking fast, is that fact that for the last six issues at least (possibly more but I can't remember) is that someone will be saying something like, "We wouldn't want to walk into a..." and it'll cut off, then on the next page a different character will finish the sentence, "Trap!" This has been happening with EVERY, SINGLE, TRANSITION! I find it very far fetched that every character is A) always talking about the same thing and B) Using the same dialog to do so. So Dini and company are you saying that none of these character's have an original voice, that they all talk the same? Because that's how this book reads. None of the characters read any differently from the others, and since the art's not that good we have to be thankful that they're wearing costumes otherwise I wouldn't know who's talking. I'll probably continue reading this book for another couple issues, I'd like to at least buy it till the name changes to Countdown to Final Crisis, but I'm not sure I can last that long. I knew the gimmick of having a weekly book would fade, but I didn't think it would fade in the middle of that book. PS the covers are starting to bore me too!
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Quick Hits - Third Strike
Another week, another installment of Quick Hits. Up this week is Eva - Daughter of the Dragon from Dynamite Entertainment, Iron and the Maiden #2 from Aspen Comics, Doktor Sleepless - Tesla Boy Gangster #2 from Avatar Press, 30 Days of Night - Red Snow from IDW, Madame Mirage #2 from Top Cow Entertainment, and Infinity Inc. #1 for DC Comics.
Eva - Daughter of the Dragon #1 - I was not impressed by this book, sure I didn't know anything about it before I read it, but it turned out to be Van Hellsing with a chick basically. Eva's Dracula's daughter born from the un-dead. Dracula and Dr. Frankenstein are after some lame ass stone, Frank's monster turns on him and begins protecting the stone. Eva and Frank become a team, then get transported into the future... did I mention the actual villain of the story is narrating the story to a TV production crew that want to turn it into the next Buffy? Must have slipped my mind, much like this book will slip my mind when Dynamite surely makes it an ongoing series. The art was good, there was little to no dialog, and you didn't get the chance to know Eva enough to care about her at all. In fact she kinda comes off like a total asshole that's willing to do anything as long as it results in the death of Dracula. Jo Chen's cover was the best part of the book, I love Jo Chen's art she's great, maybe if she had done the book I would have liked it more but the story was still really bad, so probably not.
Doktor Sleepless #2 - Another book I've covered before, feel free to check it out first. There's more of the mystery revealed in this issue, and more mystery added to the mystery. You'll notice that this issue isn't called Future Science Jesus, but Tesla Boy Gangster. I'm sure this is a theme that will continue as the book goes on. It's hard to say what this confusing piece of work is about. Apparently Doktor Sleepless can't look in mirrors for long without the mirror talking back and his real persona John Reinhardt is locked up for some reason. The introduction of the Shrieking Girls was intresting. They are all linked together so whatever one experiences they all experience. There was more societal commentary, and make believe tech talk that would be interesting if people were actually trying this sort of thing. Again I'm not 100 percent sure what the book is truly about but that's the point in reading it, to figure out the story.
30 Days of Night - Red Snow #1 - Let me just say that I hate, hate, hate it when people take their characters and put them in a World War II setting. It's lazy and annoying and even though I love Templesmith's art, he struggles as a story teller. The dialog was rough, the pacing was annoying and I swear he was jumping around telling the same story from different perspectives and was telling the reader. Anyways if you couldn't tell I didn't really care for this book, I was hoping that since it was Templesmith that it wouldn't just be a cash in on the soon to be released movie based off the first series... but that's what it felt like, a cash in. The great thing about the first series was that no one had ever thought of it before, so when this book comes along and says well the Vampires did the same thing in World War II, it's pretty hard to swallow. Unfortunately IDW will never let the series rest and will always be trying to pump something out under the name, and most of them will continue to be junk not worth reading.
Madame Mirage #2 - Paul Dini and Kenneth Rocafort are a dream team together! This book is so simple yet so effective that I can't wait till the third issue. It was a happy coincidence that it came out this week because on Tuesday I thought to myself, "Hey where the hell is Madame Mirage #2?" that's right I think in numbers, and then there it was! Mirage does seem a little like Hunter Killer, but that's okay because unlike Hunter Killer the art hopefully won't change by the seventh issue and won't be plagued by delays. Rocafort really is the break out talent of this book and if TopCow is smart they'll start pumping out posters and T-Shirts because I've already got money waiting for both. Mirage is targeting another Mobster to take out, the word is that he's trying to kill a celebrity so Mirage is there to stop him. The Dude (Big Lebowski rip off) is there to lighten the humor some more and is really becoming a likable character. The story is action packed and fast paced so I'm not going to tell you much more because it's a quick read and should only take about ten minutes. Mirage gives fanboys a tease changing into different outfits and Rocafort is probably already deciding between Marvel and DC, because I'm sure one of them is offering him an exclusive contract although he may have an exclusive with TopCow for now too. This book is definitely my Quick Hits: Pick of the week.
Lastly we have Infinity Inc. #1 - Let's just call this book what it is, another cash in on the success of 52. I like Peter Milligan but sometimes he's just not the right fit for a book... mostly DC books. Not only is the story pretty uninteresting, it's not very revealing to what the book is going to continue to be about. It relies on the first couple of pages and then the last two pages to hook you and bring you back for issue two. Sadly this book has six issue written all over it before it either gets canceled or re-vamped which means it'll get canceled any ways. If you pick this book up expecting anything that resembled the old Infinity Inc., then don't bother. It only deals with the new Infinity there biological and mental problems after the fallout of Luthor's Everyman Project. The Everyman Project was a genetic experiment that gave everyone super powers that laid dormant within themselves, but Luthor put an on off switch in everyone and then killed a bunch of them because he was mad. I'll be unable to tell you what happens in issue two because I won't be buying it, in fact the art alone was enough to make me not want to buy it ever again. This definitely gets the Quick Pick: Save Your Money choice of the week.Well it wasn't really a good week for Quick Hits, but then they can't all be winners right? As always their will be more next week and hopefully the new books won't let me and everyone else reading them down like they did this week. Thanks for reading! Read More......