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Warhammer 40,000: Damnation Crusade TPB |
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Comic Book Reviews
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Posted by Kris Bather
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08:57 AM Wednesday, 10 October 2007 |
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 Back in the 90s when I was but a glimpse of the powerful geek I would become, I was entrenched in the gaming culture. Every weekend my friends would gather at my parents house and we would play either Dungeons & Dragons, Shadowrun or Warhammer 40 000. And boy, did we have fun. We had all the handbooks and magazines, and would proudly display our freshly painted miniatures and home made terrain. However, it wasn't to last. We disbanded after high school, and comics replaced my collection of weird shaped die. But upon reading BOOM!'s latest WH collection, all the memories of Space Marines and bolters and the Emperor came flooding back.
I always thought WH would make an awesome film. Picture a Lord of the Rings style epic, but with guns in place of swords. But for now, the comics will more than suffice. BOOM! Studios grabbed the WH40K licence last year and this is a collection of their first mini-series. From the first few pages it's obvious an epic is brewing. It has lots of large bald men calling each other "brother" and seeking bloody vengeance upon sinners and heretics, all while espousing the virtues of honour and loyalty.
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Comic Book Reviews
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Posted by Chuck Pope
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05:14 AM Wednesday, 10 October 2007 |
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 It's a great time to be a comic book geek. Not only have comics become more popular in the mainstream media, but right now the industry is plagued with a variety of great creative talents itching to tell great stories. Comic book all stars Geoff Johns and Dan Jurgens are no exception on Booster Gold #1. The architect of one of DC Comics' most recent crises and one of the busiest writers in comics, Johns has experienced hit after hit on a number of books at DC. Teamed now with Johns to continue the momentum built around Booster Gold from last year's weekly 52 series, is writer Jeff Katz, artist Norm Rapmund, and one of the legendary talents behind the Death and Return of Superman (not to mention the creator of Booster Gold himself) Dan Jurgens. Together, this team has set out to make this selfish and unreliable hero the best he can be...and do a pretty good job considering this is just the first issue.
One of the lesser valued characters around the DCU, Booster Gold's origin begins several hundred years in the future when down and out of luck former football star Michael Jon Carter steals several mementos from a museum that allow him to travel to the past and become a superhero in order to make a name for himself somewhere other than his own time. Most recently, he, his personal super computer Skeets, his ancestor Michael Carter, and DC time traveler Rip Hunter helped to save the DC Multiverse from the reality eating insect known as Mr. Mind.
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Transformers Spotlight: Optimus Prime #1 |
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Comic Book Reviews
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Posted by Chuck Pope
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05:06 AM Wednesday, 10 October 2007 |
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 Of all the Transformer characters we've seen over the last twenty-five years, there is one that stands above them all. Without a doubt no other character can compare to the leader of the Autobots. Since the creation of the character, and for that matter the entire Transformers franchise, Optimus Prime has been the definitive Autobot whose name has become synonymous with the name of his people. In this special issue of Transformers Spotlight, perhaps the most definitive TF writer and TF artist, Simon Furman and Don Figueroa, take an introspective look at the Leader of the Autobots.
After a string of wildly escalating conflicts with the Deceptions, and a near death experience at the hands of Megatron, Prime turns to the one Autobot he can confide in and find counsel from: Omega Supreme. Traveling across the universe to speak with the one Autobot who can provide the leader with wise insight and commentary to his recent experiences, Optimus reveals that in his time spent off line, he sensed an unruly presence within infraspace whom he conflictingly recognized as Nova Prime, a bearer of the Matrix before Optimus. The elder Omega, who served alongside Nova Prime, begins to shed light on Nova's character and his beliefs to Optimus while mysterious beings track Omega down.
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Comic Book Reviews
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Posted by Kris Bather
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10:28 AM Wednesday, 03 October 2007 |
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 Dwayne McDuffie must love the Justice League more than I do. As a writer for the animated awesomeness that was Justice League Unlimited to his new arc on the print version, his love affair with these timeless characters shines through. Following from novelist Brad Meltzer's arc from this volume's first twelve issues was always going to be a tough ask of any writer. But whereas Meltzer focused on the heroes and re-instated previous members like Vixen and Red Tornado, McDuffie does the opposite. This arc will be all about the bad guys as the new Injustice League finally start working together and by the end of this ish, appear to be successful in their endeavours.
What was great about the JLU cartoon is what's great about this issue. The writers get the characters. Batman has always been the easiest to portray faithfully, but some writers can go out of their way to make him seem too cool, too good and almost too heroic. Here we have a great introduction as Batman struggles out of a straight jacket with painful focus. It's a great way to start a story and shows how the Dark Knight is able to stand side by side with super powered beings and not feel out of place. He never says die.
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Comic Book Reviews
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Posted by Sam Holland
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04:47 AM Wednesday, 03 October 2007 |
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 Picking up after the events of last issue, Thor begins his search for his fallen friends. His alter ego, Donald Blake, told him that the gods live on in hearts of men just waiting to be awakened. Thor is drawn to New Orleans where he runs into an old friend- Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Their confrontation goes something like this:
IRON MAN: Welcome back, buddy, good to see you!
THOR: Verily.
IRON MAN: Listen, I know you've been out of pocket, what with being dead and all, but we've got this thing called the Superhero Registration Act where you sign with and work for the government. Let me tell you, the dentals great and you get two weeks of paid vacation a year! So you want to sign now or later?
THOR: Nay.
IRON MAN: Neigh?
THOR: I am not a superhero, I am a god.
IRON MAN: Huh. Good point, I never thought of that. Okay, see you later!
Add half a dozen lightning strikes, repulsor blasts, and some nifty sound effects, stir, simmer and you've got the recipe for a classic confrontation. Thor is ticked at ol' iron pants and makes no bones about showing his displeasure in a big, bad and hurtful way. This issue re-established just how powerful Thor actually is and defines Asgard, Oklahoma as a diplomatic embassy, which may cause more trouble down the road for Stark than he yet realizes.
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Comic Book Reviews
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Posted by Anthony Willier
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04:26 AM Wednesday, 03 October 2007 |
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 "Motorcycle stuntman Johnny Blaze made a deal with the devil, cursing him into becoming the Ghost Rider, a spirit of vengeance who hunts down the guilty and dispenses bloody retribution."
This is the recurring line in the latest monthly series starring the famous leather-clad fiery biker. In this new series, brought to us by the team of writer Daniel Way, penciller Javier Saltares and inker Mark Texeira, the Ghost Rider was stuck in Hell continually running away from the Devil's minions. He finally escapes, but has a stowaway; the Devil himself. During their entrance into Earth the Ghost Rider was able to stay in one piece, but the Devil is shattered into, ironically enough, 666 pieces which in turn search out and posses bodies of the dead on earth. Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider is now exacting his vengeance to return every last one of the Devil's incarnations back to the depths of Hades while each one of them are trying their hardest to cause as much tragedy and mayhem as possible. To make matters worse, every time the Ghost Rider defeats an avatar each one of the others become that much more powerful.
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Comic Book Reviews
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Posted by Sam Holland
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11:16 AM Sunday, 30 September 2007 |
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 Aunt May is on her deathbead, but Peter refuses to accept it. He has no money to give the hospital to continue treatment, and if he doesn't come up with some quick, May will be moved to a charity ward to die. Our hero can't have that so he pays a visit to the only person he knows with a bottomless pocketbook. Only problem is, it's also a supercop who wants to put Peter in a prison that makes Alcatraz look like a spring break destination.
In and of itself, that plot could carry a pretty decent movie, but it's only the opening act of the four part "One More Day" story arc. Straczynski's ambitious final story is not only the culmination of all the plot threads he's laid out over the years but also the payoff to Peter's unmasking in Civil War. JMS has performed keyboard gymnastics before, but is this too much for even him to handle?
While I've been a fan of JMS for years and would not doubt his storytelling ability, this first issue gets a very enthusiastic "eh." That's not to say I didn't like it, because I did, it's just that I was expecting this to be more of a WHAM issue. Certainly there's the inevitable confrontation with Tony Stark which is oddly both satisfying and disappointing. It's not a knock down drag out winner take all, but more of an opening salvo. The money issue is handled in a plausible way that keeps Pete from robbing a bank, leaving Spidey the sole quest of finding a way to save his beloved aunt.
Pete's back in his red and blue costume with no explanation. He was in the black and whites last issue, and no explanation is given except that maybe Joe Quesada just wanted to draw the classic outfit. While we're on the subject, it's interesting that he chose to go away from the Ditko "whole lotta webbing" style on the costume (made popular again by Todd McFarlane back in the roarin' 90's) and went with the less webby "coloring book" look. I neither applaud nor decry this choice- Quesada's Spidey is great to look at. It's a good looking book, but there are times when he might be trying too hard.
There are extra pages in the back that recap Spidey's extensive history in a Reader's Digest format. I don't know if that's just for new readers or if they wanted to drop that in because they're going to play with his continuity so much they thought they needed a primer. If the former, bravo. If the latter, uh-oh. Retcon has its pitfalls. Just ask Ben Reily.
Overall it's a good issue, with the centerpiece being the meeting of Tony and Peter. I'm not quite sure it lived up to the hype, but it's unfair to judge the arc on one issue. A lot of this first chapter was chess, moving the players in the right spot so the final gambit can begin. I have a feeling that a WHAM issue in coming soon.
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Comic Book Reviews
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Posted by Sam Holland
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10:22 AM Sunday, 30 September 2007 |
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 Thor is in Oklahoma.
Yep, you read that right.
While the first issue brought Thor back, this issue begins the task of re-creating his world. And Dr. Donald Blake, Thor's alter ego, thought Oklahoma would be a good place to do it. A spin of his hammer and a week long thunderstorm later, Asgard once again forms from the mythological ether. It's a big place, and lonely without his fellow gods to keep him company. This set's up our hero's quest to find those whom he lost but still exist in the hearts and minds of the men who believe in gods.
The best part of this issue is not Asgard being rebuilt, nor Thor discovering his quest, It's the reaction of the residents of Nameless Small Town, Oklahoma to their new neighbor. They aren't in awe of this earthbound god, they expect him to follow the same rules as anyone else. Thor isn't a normal neighbor, but he is accommodating and non confrontational with creative solutions to the townspeople's concerns. It's amusing and well executed by JMS and Coipel.
In interviews, JMS has stated he cut back on his comics workload to devote more attention to Thor and it shows. While there were some issues of Amazing Spider-Man that seemed rushed, this issue is paced to perfection. Coipel's artwork is as impressive as it was in the first issue, and has shown he can handle the mundane and fantastic with equal aplomb.
This issue was just a joy to read.
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Comic Book Reviews
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Posted by Sam Holland
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01:14 PM Tuesday, 28 August 2007 |
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Things have not been going well for Spider-Man lately. He revealed his secret identity to the world to support the Superhero Registration act, but then switched sides during Civil War leaving he and his family unprotected. If being hunted and on the run wasn’t bad enough, his dear Aunt May was shot and is clinging on to life under an assumed name in the best hospital in New York. Through it all, Peter’s been able to toe the line and stay on the side of the good guys.
That can’t be said anymore.
In the final chapter of “Back in Black” we find Peter backed into a corner, and the only way out is to cross that line and become the very thing he swore to defend the world against- a criminal. Everything has been building to this, so it’s not gimmicky, the events are believable, plausible and leave no room for doubt. It is fascinating that this issue reads like the origin of one of the many super villains that Spidey faced over the years.
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When Thor died at the end of his last series, it was only a matter of time before Odin's son returned. No one in comics stays dead for long, much less one of the most powerful heroes in the Marvel Universe. Although the tone is very different from past presentations of the character, it is true to the original concept. This issue is surprisingly contemplative as it touches on the power of belief and the meaning of life.
