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Comic Book Reviews
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Posted by Sam Holland
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06:15 AM Wednesday, 16 January 2008 |
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 It's a Brand New Day for Spidey, and everything old is new again. But despite what you may have heard, that's not all a bad thing.
I came into this "new era" of Spider-Man with more than a little trepidation. In fact, I really didn't want to like it. After the events of One More Day undid Peter and Mary Jane's marriage (and who knows what else) and created some Crisis on Infinite Earths type of continuity problems, I planned on reading this issue and then dropping the title from my pull list. But I resolved to at least give it a chance and see if it held up on its own merits.
For the most part, it does. Peter's living with Aunt May due to financial problems and his much lamented "Parker Luck." Since the Initiative has assigned "official" heroes to look over the Big Apple, unregistered Spider-Man is laying low, giving Peter time to be a normal person. Problem is, being a normal person has never been easy for Peter. He can't get a job and the money he's due from the Daily Bugle has been frozen. Seems that after Spider-Man disappeared, the Bugle's sales have been in the toilet and J. Johan Jameson is trying to ward off a takeover. As for the rest, Harry Osborn is still his best friend and a multi bazilionaire, Peter's got a new love interest (even though he doesn't know it yet) and a quasi new villain is put into play.
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Comic Book Reviews
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Posted by Kris Bather
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09:39 AM Wednesday, 09 January 2008 |
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 Forgive me Lord! He proved me wrong, and I'm thankful. When I first saw this series - (superheroes, Christian publisher) I had my doubts for some reason, I must say. But these two books, Advent and Resurrection are good. Very good in fact.
Launching from Zondervan, one of the biggest Christian publishers, and their new graphic novels imprint, Hand of the Morningstar is one of a barrage of all ages titles. Zondervan haven't skimped on the details in producing these two books. Of course, the two most important details of any comic are the writer and artist. Both Mike Miller (Marvel's The Hedge Knight, Alias' Lullaby) and Brett Burner worked on the story, while Miller goes it alone on the art duties. Both men have been in the industry long enough to know what makes a good story, which involves a band of archetypal superheroes doing good deeds led by someone known only as Morningstar. These five heroes, including Titan the leader, Avatar, Kwan Yin, Kami and Shango see themselves as individual fingers, thus the title, Hand of the Morningstar. It begins with the US President unveiling his new machines in the war on terror - ED209-like constructs, which then go haywire before Titan can bust in and save the day (if not the machines.)
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Some New Kind Of Slaughter #1 |
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Comic Book Reviews
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Posted by Mladen Luketin
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07:28 AM Wednesday, 09 January 2008 |
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 The story of Noah and the flood is not the only occurrence of a flood story in the history of human civilisation. Dozens of societies separated by centuries of divergent cultural evolution share similar stories, some older than the biblical story as in the case of the Epic of Gilgamesh, others are much newer, and spread out as diversely as the Middle East, Australia, India, China, Africa and the Americas.
The four-part Some New Kind of Slaughter from Archaia Studios Press is an exercise in parallels, driven more by character stories and human interaction than it is by direct linear story telling. Writer A. David Lewis and artist mpMann together attempt to map the shared and recurring legend of the world flood, comparing the details but with its real focus on the human story of each. The multiple story threads and time periods weave and interact, thematically rather than physically, presenting an overall vision of mankind's struggle with faith and personal tragedy in the face of awe-inspiring natural disaster.
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The Amazing Spider-Man #545 |
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Comic Book Reviews
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Posted by Kris Bather
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05:41 AM Wednesday, 09 January 2008 |
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 Man, this was a hard review. Not because it was a bad comic necessarily. There's just so much baggage. For those of you who have been staying away from the net and the vocal fans on message boards (are there any of you left?) this issue is infamous for 2 major reasons. 1: it is famed writer JMS' swansong to the Web Slinger; 2: it is the culmination of the worst kept secret in comics - Spider-Man is getting divorced. For the story behind the story, Joe Quesada, Marvel's EIC does his best to explain this decision here, without exactly saying, "It looked good on paper." I have yet to read anyone outside of Marvel who thinks this is a grand concept for their flagship hero, and even inside those hallowed halls many have been conflicted about it. Surprisingly even the writer of this One More Day arc, J. Michael Straczynski has been uncharacteriscally forthright against this plan, but he takes orders from the man at the top. In a nutshell, after the events of the awesome mini-series Civil War which saw lots of superheroes taking opposing sides, Spidey unmasked and revealed his identity to the world. His beloved Aunt May was then shot instead of him. May goes to the place where she spends most of her time - her death bed. Spidey gets back in his black costume and goes 'dark.' And then he makes a deal with the devil to get her back.
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Comic Book Reviews
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Posted by Kris Bather
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04:47 AM Wednesday, 09 January 2008 |
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 Sure, there's a great history in the cinema of buddy action/comedies, but not in comics. You know the ‘genre' - a mismatched pair of do-gooders are forced together and besides dispensing justice they must also learn to get along despite their wildly different approaches to life, and shooting people. Cover Girl is just that, in comics form. And it's not bad. More akin to the fluff of Rush Hour than the more gritty Lethal Weapon, this adventure is full of attractive people running, shooting, jumping and screaming. There's a few jokes and no real blood and gore. Nor is there any foul language. Trust me, this is worth noting in today's comics market. Cover Girl would be an ideal entry level book for someone who is just starting to get in to sequential art. Sure, you could throw them something with an X, a Super or a Spider in it, but Cover Girl is 130 pages of complete story. It's an easy read, with no cast of hundreds to follow, with confusing names and even more confusing origins. There's no issues with continuity or making sure you grab every issue of a x-over here. More...mature fans may expect more from their comics, but BOOM!'s Cover Girl is a nice change of pace from the sometimes brain straining tales of the spandex set.
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Comic Book Reviews
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Posted by Kris Bather
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09:30 AM Wednesday, 02 January 2008 |
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 This is the kind of high concept story that comics have the potential to do so well, and that Hollywood craves (and are, with this title) Originally a four issue mini-series from BOOM! Studios, Talent concerns a lone survivor of a plane explosion- Nicholas Dane, a 34 year old English literature professor. He's in no great shape but manages to survive the initial destruction plus hours in the freezing ocean without drowning. The world is of course surprised at his survival, not the least Nicholas himself, while others declare it a miracle. While he's recovering in a hospital bed scratching his head as to the mystery he's found himself in an ‘orderly' attempts top kill him, but Dane escapes with crazy boxing skills that aren't his. He runs and temporarily hides out with a couple of friends of his. Dane eventually learns, via an angelic blonde woman who speaks to him in various guises (a flight attendant, a voice on his hospital room TV) that Dane has now been lent new gifts from the dead passengers on Flight 654. What they could do, he can now do. When Dane finally meets his guide face to ethereal face she explains that Dane is now an agent for The Balance, a spiritual scale that keeps good and evil forces in check. Yes, I thought of the Force too. Dane now serves his dead gift givers and The Balance as he attempts to fulfil the now unrealised hopes and plans of his fellow passengers and survive the evil that caused the deaths.
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Comic Book Reviews
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Posted by Mladen Luketin
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09:11 AM Wednesday, 02 January 2008 |
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 With a look at web comics, the unusually named Perry Bible Fellowship (found at pbfcomics.com ) is the creation of talented writer/artist Nicholas Gurewitch and takes the form of the one-off three to four panel gag-strip with no (or very few) repeating characters. Often likened to Gary Larson's The Far Side for its somewhat cynical and absurd humour, Gurewitch takes the concept a step further by using different illustrations styles and rendering technique for each strip to best suit its content, while the artwork itself is much more sophisticated than most of its internet and print contemporaries. The content is often a strange combination of children's cartoon with cynical absurdist adult humour, covering a range of topics between strips including love, life, death, white-lies, miscommunication, childhood, delusion, murder, adultery, sex, war, violence, and a heavy dose of irony and wit. And its actually funny.
Originally a newspaper strip, the comic is now a weekly updated webcomic. Besides winning numerous awards, the Perry Bible Fellowship is currently published in some twenty one newspapers (including the Chicago Reader, New York Press, Metro Times, the Guardian, the Portland Mercury and the Philadelphia City Paper), five magazines (Maxim and ION among them) and five school papers. The comic's recent print edition "The Trial of Colonel Sweeto and Other Stories" published through Dark Horse became one of the fastest selling pre-order books through Amazon.com, and broke records for demand in the UK for Dark Horse books.
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Comic Book Reviews
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Posted by Mladen Luketin
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09:07 AM Wednesday, 02 January 2008 |
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 Since my buy-pile was mysteriously low this week, I decided its time to look at some webcomics as part of my weekly reviews. Webcomics are an interesting challenge to the budding cartoonist, since they require both an engagement with the one-joke gag strip concept as well as re-assessing the transition from print to web (which among other things, requires an entirely different page layout from portrait to landscape).
Dinosaur Comics (mysteriously addressed at qwantz.com ) is the result of a formal experiment taken to its extreme, and yes, its actually funny without resorting to insider video-game humour. The concept is deceptively simple, repeating the same six ms-paint panels in every single comic since February 1st, 2003. For pretty much every day since, artist/writer Ryan North has changed only the dialogue and narration for each gag. The comic is recipient of numerous awards including one of the best web comics by the Webcomics Examiner in 2004 and 2005 and Outstanding Athropomorphic Comic in 2005 by the Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards.
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Comic Book Reviews
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Posted by Kris Bather
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09:16 PM Wednesday, 26 December 2007 |
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 Judging by the title of this review you'd reason that the Greek god Hercules has had a rather lengthy series thus far. Well, you'd be wrong. This is Hulk's book. Herc's just visiting. After the events of World War Hulk which led to Bruce Banner's sacrificial death, his brother-in-arms is taking over where he left off. So instead of getting Hercules #1, we get The Incredible Herc #112 , as Hulk's numbering system continues without him. Marvel has also done the same with Captain America. He died almost a year ago in #25 of his own series, but his book continues without him. Props to Marvel for doing this. We have far too many #1s and series relaunches for no other reason than to get collectors buying copies. It's encouraging to see the legacy of a title continue, rather than attempt to start a new one, plus it reminds readers of the strength of the supporting cast when the deceased heroes friends and enemies can continue in their book. There will be a new Hulk series by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuiness starting in January with a new (red) Hulk. Skaar: Son of Hulk also launches in March by Greg Pak and an artist yet to be announced. This book will focus on Banner's son with Caiera who struggles for survival on what's left of his home planet.
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Comic Book Reviews
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Posted by Mladen Luketin
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07:59 AM Wednesday, 26 December 2007 |
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 I'm usually a ‘wait for the trade' kind of guy. My current comic budget limits me to roughly six trades a month if I can help it, so when I see a new series starting up I tend to just calm myself down and put aside the cash and decide to wait the four months for the trade. Except this is Brian Wood. Writing about Vikings. Hold on while I wipe the drool off my keyboard. For those who are a bit confused, Brian Wood is currently one of the hottest alternative writers working in mainstream comics today. His ongoing series DMZ (Vertigo) carries the torch for his other low-down stories like Local, Demo, and Channel Zero, infused with strong political and wartime themes and always relevant to modern questions of cultural identity and the right of the individual within the social fabric, while remaining personal, action-packed and honest. He straddles the line between independent content and mainstream crowds, and among the company of other writers and artists is bringing excitement and polish to one, and maturity and respectability to the other.
Northlanders is set in 980 AD. Sven is an expatriate Varangian (Often referred to as Viking. In Sven's words, "They're Norsemen, We're Varangian. We're better.") who has spent the last decade or so patrolling the seas around Constantinople and generally living the highlife in the world's most advanced and educated civilisation. When he gets word of his father's untimely death and his uncle Gorm's illegal possession of the lands and wealth due to him, Sven heads home to collect what is his. His quest isn't at all virtuous, Sven just wants his money and he'll be on his way. Of course, Uncle Gorm and his flunkies aren't so willing to part with what they've stolen, especially to a man they consider to be a spoilt, weak outsider. In return, Sven just sees a primitive and stubborn society which the march of civilisation has left behind.
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