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.

Iron and the Maiden #2 - I first covered this book just this week in Worth Every Penny? One nice thing about Aspen I'm hooked on the series but I'm willing to give it another issue. #2 still felt like it was missing panels as well and the story really seemed disconnected and convenient. After like six months Iron's finally wakes up, he's got a beard and a new arm but no one including himself acts like anythings different from when he left. Literally the story picks back up right where it was six months ago and it didn't improve at all. The Maiden is just a little too bad ass for her own good and I stopped caring about the character when she turned out to be stripping at one of Big Daddy's clubs. I don't know why it's every male comic book readers dream to have the leading lady a stripper, but it doesn't do anything for me and really is a cop ou is that they pump books out quick... then leave you waiting for the fifth issue. Well I wouldn't say thatt on doing any actual story telling. Iron's has got 48hrs to make his debt to Big Daddy right or die, and the A-Hole in the purple that snuffed out the Maiden's family has 48hrs to kill Iron's to make his 1 million dollar debt to Big Daddy even. We'll see how issue three goes but the story had better be good, the art was still pretty good and had that strong 90's feel to it which really works with the story.

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!