Comic Aficionado

Recent Spider-Man Issues

2010-07-22T16:09:00.003-04:00

Amazing Spider-Man #636 by Joe Kelly, Marco Checchetto and Michael Lark with a backup story by J.M. DeMatteis, Emma Rios and Max Fiumara and another backup by Stan Lee and Marcos Martin.

I was very interested in seeing how the writers would fix Spidey's death in the previous issue. I was happy that the explanation makes sense. Joe Kelly has really excelled in this series by making you think something is happening and something else happens. There is quite a bit of mysticism involved with the return from the dead of Kraven, but besides that, the story stays true to other Spidey stories where we don't get much mysticism.

This issue is not drawn by Michael Lark, despite my love for Lark's artwork, I was impressed with Checchetto as I hadn't realized it wasn't Lark for a bit. I also didn't notice a change when it changes back to Lark near the end of the issue. Great job by both of them.

I am interested with Kraven's reaction. He is very unhappy to be alive again. He has always been a bit unpredictable and now he is even more. I wonder what will happen. I am not thrilled at seeing him back, given that DeMatteis "Kraven't Last Hunt" was such a great comic, however, this story arc has been outstanding this far and I won't judge the resurrection yet.

The backup story was quite emotional. I was very saddened with Kaine's actions. It is interesting to see Kaine act heroically in the main story but act like a villain in the back up. An interesting reversal of roles. This is the best of the back ups between DeMatteis and Fiumara. Can't wait to see the ending of their mini arc.

The Spidey Sundays strip by Stan Lee and Marcos Martin was great. The page design by Martin is fantastic. I really liked it. Hard to know what will happen with the story since we only get two pages, but the art was really good. It seems like a nice memorable project.

Web of Spider-Man #10 by Fred Van Lente and Nick Dragotta with a backup by Marc Guggenhein and Sana Takeda.

The final part of the Extremist trilogy occurs in this issue. I have to say that I liked it a lot. The Extremist is an interesting new villain and I really liked how Spider-Man handled the situation. He used his intelligence and his humor to defeat the Extremist. This is a quintessential Spider-man issue. Fantastic.

The back up story was not bad. The art by Takeda is quite good. I don't really care for Jackpot, I thought she had died before so I am a bit confused. I also mostly forgot what happened in last month's issue, so I don't really understand Jackpot's urgency. However, this particular issue had an interesting ending and I liked the art, so overall I liked it. The main story was much better though.

Various Recent Single Issues by Small Companies

2010-07-19T17:29:00.002-04:00

Comic Book Guy The Comic Book #1 by Ian Boothby and John Delaney. Bongo comics.

This comic is about the comic book guy in the Simpsons. He makes a funny video of himself acting out famous death scenes but is beaten out by another geek who made an even better video (although we don't get to see that video).
While the issue was funny at times, I didn't like the comic too much. I will read two more issues because I already ordered them, but unless they are fantastic, this will be it for me.

Shrapnel: Hubris #1 by Nick Sagan and Clinnette Minnis. Radical Comics.

The miniseries Shrapnel: Aristeia Rising was pretty good. It wasn't great but it was good enough to make me interested in getting this issue. This issue was actually very good. The issue builds up for another confrontation between Venus and the Solar alliance and I am looking forward to how it goes down.

I like how Radical Comics sells issues that are much longer than usual (over 60 pages instead of 22) and charges just $1 more than usual (they charge $4.99). One thing I don't like that much is the art. It looks too static. Some scenes are hard to understand and others just seem very unnatural. Overall, the art works fine enough, it doesn't detract too much from the story. I am looking forward to the next two issues.

Royal Historian of Oz #1 by Tommy Kovac and Andy Hirsch.

This issue started weakly with a not too interesting premise, however by the end I was hooked. The idea is that Oz really exists and a fan of the series discovers it. Since he really wants to tell a good Oz story he steals stuff from Oz and brings it into the real world. This creates issues with Oz as they don't like to mingle with the real world. It should create some fun issues in the future.

Mindfield #1 by J.T. Krul and Alex Konat.

Mindfield is a comic about four psychics that work for the CIA. They use their psychic powers to stop terrorists. The art in the early pages was really good, creating really dynamic scenes where we can see the psychic powers in action. I enjoyed it very much. The second half of the issue is a bit more calm, where we find out a bit more about the protagonists. I liked it as there are clear differences between the four members of the group.

There a couple of pages that don't relate yet to the main group. It seems to be setting up a difficult challenge for the protagonists. I am looking forward to finding out what happens. Solid first issue.

Various Recent Single Issues by Image Comics

2010-07-19T17:26:00.005-04:00

Sweets #1 by Kody Chamberlain.

Chamberlain did everything in this issue. Pencil, ink, color, letter and write. It shows how much he cares about this project. His artwork is quite good and the story is also shaping up nicely. I am a little thrown off by the pacing as sometimes the panel transitions seemed weird, but overall I am happy with this issue and I'll stick with the miniseries.

The story is about a serial killer in New Orleans. A serial killer who has just killed a high profile priest. The best detective has been having marital and drinking problems (going through a divorce). A solid first issue.

Codebreakers #4 by Ross Richie, Carey Malloy and Scott Godlewski.

This is the last issue in the miniseries. I was confused at first because I didn't remember how the last issue ended, but once I got into the rhythm I enjoyed the issue. It has a nice ending and overall it was an okay series. I can't recommend it because I don't think it was that great. The title led me to believe that codebreaking would have a bigger impact in the story and that the characters would use their intelligence to solve crimes. This wasn't exactly the case and if I had known in advance that this wouldn't be the focus of the comic, I wouldn't have bought it.

Despite my disappointment with the series, I should point out that I thought the artwork by Godlewski was very good. He did a great job.

Turf #2 by Jonathan Ross and Tommy Lee Edwards.

This series is quite interesting. The creators have managed to make a fun, compelling story with vampires, aliens and 1920s gangsters. I liked this issue a lot. The artwork is fantastic and I like that the comic is not afraid of throwing caution to the wind with a fun unusual story.

In this issue, a mobster fights with vampires, an alien allies himself with a mobster, there is a vote of no confidence for the vampire leader and a crooked cop betrays the cops to the vampires. Lots of cool things happen and I can't wait to read what will happen next.

Chew #12 by John Layman and Rob Guillory.

Chew is possibly my favorite ongoing series right now. It is full of creativity, humor and just plain old fun. Layman is not afraid to do strange things, such as placing the 18th page at the beginning and joking about it with the audience and the art has maintained itself as a true gem in comic books. Guillory is a master of drawing action with humor.

In this issue, Tony Chu teams up with a chicken dealer to catch a bad guy that killed another man to get Poyo, the ultimate rooster. Guillory does a great job of drawing Poyo, showing us why Poyo is so awesome. Overall, the issue is great and this series keeps making it worth to buy the issues instead of waiting for the trade. Each issue has its own story and we still get an overall arc. Great job by Layman and Guillory.

Various Recent SuperHero Single Issues

2010-07-19T17:18:00.008-04:00

Amazing Spider-Man #635 by Joe Kelly and Michael Lark with a backup by J.M. DeMatteis and Max Fiumara and another back up by Stan Lee and Marcos Martin.

I really liked this issue. In the last issue we get the cliffhanger of Ezekiel coming back from the dead so I was very interested in what would happen. In the end of the issue we find out that Ezekiel is actually the chameleon, which makes complete sense. I was surprised how well they fooled me. I like how Kelly has been playing with spiritual forces but at the same time doesn't go too far with them. Overall the issue was really good, with great artwork by Michael Lark and an issue full of action and intensity. I am looking forward to the rest of the series, specially considering the incredible cliffhanger at the end of the issue.

The first backup, which is written by J.M. DeMatteis is pretty good. This is the second issue in this storyline about Kraven. I liked Fiumara's artwork more here then in the previous issue, he seems to have gotten a better hold on how to draw Kraven and Kaine. The issue was pretty good, I really like the interaction between Kraven and Kaine.

The last backup, the two pages by Stan Lee and Marcos Martin are interesting. Not as good as in the previous issue, but it seems to be setting a funny series. These two pages don't work as well in isolation, but hopefully it will work well once we have all the package together.

Superman #701 by J.M. Straczynski and Eddy Barrows.

After a lackluster prologue in #700, Straczynski finally starts his Superman story called "Grounded" in which Superman walks across America to find his roots and why he is a hero. This issue has a few flaws, places where Superman says strange things (such as saying the world is unfair by mentioning that John Lennon is dead) and seems a bit pretentious at times (quoting Thoreau near the end), however I liked it in whole. I liked that Superman is not nice to reporters, given that I hate reporters that just follow celebrities. I liked that Superman cares about saving one life. The scene where he cares about a girl about to kill herself is pretty good, although one has to wonder about this scene, given that Morrison had just done this in an "All Star Superman" issue.

The artwork in the issue is not great, but it is not bad either. I think in terms of storytelling it is okay, he just sometimes doesn't draw Superman's face as perfect as I imagine Superman. Sometimes he nails it, sometimes he doesn't.

I am looking forward to the rest of the series. It was a much better issue than the prologue and I think that once Straczynski goes into rhythm we'll get better issues.

Irredeemable #15 by Mark Waid and Diego Barreto.

Issue #14 ended with the Plutonian coming at the Paradigm in full force, so this issue starts with a lot of action. The heroes have a secret weapon that can destroy the Plutonian, a bullet that has a special wax inside that is known to make the Plutonian vulnerable. One of the Paradigm's leaders, Qubit, doesn't trust the Orion, an evil alien that is helping the Paradigm destroy the Plutonian. There is a bit of a struggle between the Paradigm deciding whether to kill the Plutonian, in which case they would be vulnerable to Orion and not destroying the Plutonian now in hopes of finding a way later on. Besides all these problems, the Paradigm doesn't know that who they think is their resurrected friend Samsara, is actually the villain Modeus. In other words, all sorts of chaos is going on in this series and I love it. Anything can happen. The end of this issue was incredible, making a victory seem like a loss.

While I miss Peter Krause's artwork a bit, Diego Barreto does a fantastic job of covering him. The action scenes are well drawn and he is able to clearly show complex situations in the book. I like his artwork quite a bit.

Overall this series continues to impress. I am glad I gave it a chance last year and I will continue to read it for a while.

Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine #2 by Jason Aaron and Adam Kubert.

I had already forgotten the end of the first issue, so I was confused with how this issue started. However, I shouldn't worry about being confused anyways, because later on I realized that the writer just skipped months in time between the end of last issue and the beginning of this issue. Last issue was based in prehistoric times where Wolverine leads a tribe while Spider-man tries to figure out how to get back in time. At the end of the issue, Spider-man and Wolverine are thrown in time to the future, a future where humanity ended and instead of humans, ape-people rule the world. Ape-people are pretty friendly and in fact Spidey has been teaching them science these months.

The issue is quite good. Once the threat arrives, planet Doom, the issue becomes incredible. I can't believe how much detail Kubert is able to put in his art and I can't believe how outrageous this comic has been. Really fun, unpredictable and exciting. An excellent combination. I am looking forward to the rest of the series, I am very happy I am reading this series.

Underground

2010-07-19T16:54:00.004-04:00

Underground by Jeff Parker and Steve Lieber is a miniseries consisting of issues 1-5 of Underground.

I had heard good things of this comic while it was being released in the monthly issues and decided to give it a try once it came out collected in trade paperback. I am very glad I did. The comic book is great. The comic is about a cave in Kentucky. A rich man in the region wants the cave to be open to the public, something that would help the economy in the region by creating jobs and bringing tourists. Some people (very few) are against it because it would hurt the cave. Some formations in the cave are millions of years old and too many tourists would be very bad for the cave. The rich man has a plan to convince the state and this plan consists of blasting off an opening to make it easy to see that it would be easy to make it into a tourist attraction. Things don't go well and two rangers end up in the cave thinking people want to kill them. This is the set up and the writer and artist make a great job of using this set up and giving us the best possible story. Let me mention the things I love about this comic:

I love that there aren't any clear villains. While one side does some wrong things, they don't have bad intentions. A lot of the danger comes from misunderstanding. No one is truly evil.

The art throughout is excellent. The artist does a great job of creating the feeling of claustrophobia that some parts of the cave would create. He also excels at showing the wonder in the cave, such as in his beautiful 2-page spread of the "ballroom" in the cave. The comic needed a very good handle of space and dark colors and the artist and colorist did as good a job as one could imagine.

The book also has plenty of action scenes and all of them seem plausible. I love that the heroes aren't sure of themselves. I think the comic was fantastic in portraying how people would react in this circumstances.

If Parker and Lieber team up again I will definitely read what they come up with. They did a fantastic job with this. I highly recommend this book.

A God Somewhere

2010-07-19T16:09:00.003-04:00

A God Somewhere by John Arcudi and Peter Snejbjerg is an original graphic novel.

A God Somewhere is an interesting graphic novel. It is about a man who one day becomes super powerful. Little by little he starts thinking of himself as a new God. The book in a way is a study of what could happen with a superhero on the real world. Comics have dealt with this question many times. While this is a topic that has been covered many times, I think this book was worth reading for several reasons. First of all, the book builds up slowly and has plenty of characterization. The first ten or so pages are about the normal lives of the main characters and there are some flashbacks throughout to give more depth to the characters. The wonderful art helps a lot in this, because a lot of the characterization comes through subtle drawings (such as facial expressions depicting disappointment when the dialogue doesn't make it evident, just as it would happen in real life). Another reason this is very good is that it follows the surroundings of the "hero" more than the hero. We get to see how his actions affect his family and his best friend. Finally, another great reason why this comic is very good is the conflict that the best friend has. It is interesting to see how a man reacts to seeing his best friend, a great man, become a monster. Very interesting.

The art in this comic is superb and the story is very good. Without too many pages (about 130) the comic changes a lot, from a superhero tale to a monster tale. The main drawback for me was how the transformation wasn't truly explained. The main character is very vague and his transformation is quite drastic. I think this makes the book very interesting but at the same time it feels like it could have used a few more pages. One could argue that all the information that is not in words is in the art.

A very interesting book. Worth reading and one that probably feels different if read multiple times since a lot of it is vague.

Jack of Fables Vol. 5: Turning Pages

2010-07-13T20:10:00.001-04:00

Jack of Fables Vol. 5: Turning Pages by Bill Willingham, Matthew Sturges and Russ Braun consists of issues 22-27 of Jack of Fables.

This volume consists of two three isssue stories. Surprisingly, after leaving us with a big cliffhanger on the end of the Americana storyline and then telling us a single issue story that didn't have any relevance to the cliffhanger situation, we start the book with another irrelevant story. Not the best timing to have this story. However, the story, about Jack's misadventures in the wild West in 1883 is quite good. In the story, Fabletown becomes worried that Jack's exploits are too public and incredible, creating a possible problem for the Fables that want magic to be secret. Fabletown hence sends Bigby (the big bad wolf) to track Jack down. Bigby is one of my favorite characters from Fables, so it was a fun little story. The story did not seem like a Jack of Fables because it didn't have as much humor (although it did have a joke in an extra page at the end of each issue). It felt more like a Fables story than a Jack of Fables story.

The second story finally addresses the cliffhanger at hand at the end of the Americana story. However, it does so in a kind of roundabout way, moving the story slowly and building it up for the next volume. Despite the slowness, I enjoyed it, because we finally get to know more about the Page sisters. Characters that are supposed to be important, but of which we know very little. In this story, "Turning Pages", we get to see a bit of the past of the characters, changing Priscilla quite a bit in my mind, showing the nice side of Robin and showing why Hillary wanted to meet her father so much. Overall it was well done, however I wish we had these issues before the 1883 story. I guess it happened this way to sync up the Fables Crossover later on.

A good volume, but so far the worst of the five. It seems like the sixth one will be a fun one though. I am looking forward to it.

Jack of Fables Vol. 4: Americana

2010-07-13T20:09:00.004-04:00

Jack of Fables Vol. 4: Americana by Bill Willingham, Matthew Sturges and Russ Braun consists of issues 17-21 of Jack of Fables.

This volume consists of a four issue story (continuing the main thread in the comic) and a short one issue story. The main story is called "Americana" and it is about the Fables from America. Fables such as Paul Bunyan. The reason Jack wants to go there is to find a treasure and in the way he meets up with Hillary Page. She is going there secretly to try to find something. I won't spoil what she tries to find as it is an important part of the story.

The journey in Americana is quite fun and it almost seems rushed as Jack goes through a lot of adventures in a few pages (specially in the third issue, where they go to different American parts such as Western stories, idyllic stories, among others). The writing keeps being humorous and fun. I really like this story. One of the best so far.

The single issue at the end is not that good. The Americana storyline ends on a kind of cliffhanger and having a story where Jack doesn't feature doesn't help out. Usually I welcome the single issue stories that Willingham and Sturges bring our way, and on paper it sounds great to have an issue focus on Gary (the pathetic fallacy), however this issue wasn't as great as other Jack of Fables issues.

Overall a good volume, as good as the previous one, but not as good as the second one.

Jack of Fables Vol. 3: The Bad Prince

2010-07-08T20:02:00.003-04:00

Jack of Fables Vol. 3 The Bad Prince by Bill Willingham, Matthew Sturges and Tony Akins consists of issues 12-16 of Jack of Fables.

This volume has two stories. The first one consists of four issues and it is hard to describe. It does a lot in terms of giving the series more depth. It gives us more background on Revise, it shows us a lot of Jack's past by having him cross paths with Wicked John (a very similar guy to Jack in personality and in looks, the only difference seems to be the color of their hair). It introduces the notion of "Literals" which will have repercussions later and it gives a big spotlight on Gary, the pathethic fallacy. Even though this story seemed to not be very plot driven, I think it was very good, mainly because it has a ton of humor. Almost every page has a funny scene in it. In the volume, there are three pages that focus on Paul Bunyan's pet, and this pet is hilarious. Each one of those pages consists of the pet having delusions, such as being the inventor of graham crackers or a kind pirate.

The second story is one issue long. Another fairy tale kind of story. Doesn't have a huge impact on the overall story arc, but it is a nice short story involving Jack. This time it is about his time as Jack O'Lantern. Jack makes a deal with the devil and ends up being in our world without being alive. It is hilarious to see how reckless Jack is. This story is much weaker than the Jack Frost story in my opinion, but it is still worth telling. I really like the side stories that Willinghma gives us. It's been a great joy reading stories from his FABLES universe.

Jack of Fables Vol.2 : Jack of Hearts

2010-07-08T20:00:00.003-04:00

Jack of Fables Vol. 2: Jack of Hearts by Bill Willingham, Matthew Sturges and Tony Akins consists of issues 6-11 of Jack of Fables.

This book has two stories. First it tells us about how Jack became Jack Frost. One thing that Willigham is great at, is in creating fairy tale stories for adults. In Fables, besides having the main story arcs, he always dedicates an issue or two between story arcs to give us a new fairy tale. He does this in Jack of Fables too and that is why we have the story of Jack Frost. Jack fools a goddess (winter) to give him her powers. He is excited about it, but then realizes the problems behind being a god that brings cold weather. It is really funny to see Jack realize the disadvantages and then the confrontation with the other season's goddesses is also hilarious. Great job with this story.

The second story is about Jack going to Vegas. He decides to go to Vegas to take advantage of Gary's powers (Gary is able to bring inanimate objects into life and make them do what he wants, for example, making a slot machine give him some quarters to pay for Jack's drinks). What ends up happening in Vegas is a really cool story. The story has as its main villain, Lady Luck. The character is a very attractive woman that eats brains to suck the luck of other people. She and Jack cross paths and a lot of cool things happen. A really good story arc, I specially like the little side story involving Aubrey, a nerd that has a lucky horseshoe. The comic gives us snippets of his blog here and there, and every entry is hilarious.

Overall, this is a great volume in Jack of Fables. It has a very different feel to Fables, being not so serious and very funny. I like it a lot.

Various Single Issues

2010-07-04T14:18:00.005-04:00

Batman: Return of Bruce Wayne #3 by Grant Morrison and Yanick Paquette.

This issue is great. It has a nice stand alone story while moving along the overall story arc of Bruce Wayne moving in time. I still have no idea how this is happening, but Morrison is doing some cool things with the time travel part of it. Specially as the whole issue focuses on one particular time. It is interesting that Bruce is getting his memories back little by little, it should create interesting stories as the series goes on.

Overall, a great issue, I am looking forward to the rest of the series.

Superman #700 by James Robinson, Benard Chang, Dan Jurgens, J. Michael Straczynski and Eddy Barrows.

There are three stories on this issue. The first one is by James Robinson and it serves as an epilogue to the last two years of Superman he had written. It was a romantic story about Superman and Lois being back together. I haven't read anything by James Robinson before, but I didn't like this story. Essentially nothing interesting happens. I guess for those following the story it might be nice to see clark and Lois together but I didn't are.

The second story is by Dan Jurgens and I liked it quite a bit. It was fun. It was kid of ordinary in that it had Robin getting in trouble after not following Batman's orders and it was obvious Superman would come in to save the day. However, the last two pages have one twist after another that made the story a bit different, fun and funny. I enjoyed it.

The third story is by J. Michael Straczynski. Straczynski had a great run in Spider-Man and he wrote one of my favorite comic books, Midnight Nation. He also wrote the TV series Babylon 5. A series I like a lot. He is a high profile writer and he is planning a thirteen issue story of Superman walking across America to get back into his roots. I like the idea, I think JMS is very good with this kind of story (he had an episode in Babylon 5 about it, also, Midnight Nation involves walking across America to finding oneself). It is the kind of story that JMS does over and over and I think he will do a good job with it. However, this prologue to that story was very weak. It gives a completely dumb reason for Superman to do that. I really can't see how a woman can blame Superman for her husband's death and how Superman can react to it that way. Superman must know better. JMS should have been able to find a better reason for Superman to want to understand his roots in America.

Spider-Man: Marvel Adventures #2 by Paul Tobin and Matteo Lolli.

This is one of the issues that I have liked the least of this comic book series. It is not bad, but it is not that fun or interesting. The main thing I like is Carter Torino. A son of a mobster, but who doesn't want to be a criminal and who likes Spider-Man. It seems like good stories will come from playing with this.

Spider-Man: Marvel Adventures #3 by Paul Tobin and Matteo Lolli.

The issue is pretty fun and at the end it gets interesting with Bullseye finally doing something. I really enjoy how this series is simple fun without trying to be grim and gritty. Peter acts like a teenager and there are cool supporting characters.
I am happy I am reading this series.

One complaint about the art in this issue is that there's a character whose jacket looks different colors in different panels. It seems like the colorist made a mistake.

Amazing Spider-Man

2010-07-04T14:05:00.004-04:00

Amazing Spider-Man #631 by Zeb Wells and Chris Bachalo.

This is the second issue in the "Shed" story arc. The issue is very dark. Maybe the darkest issue I've ever read on Spider-Man. After the Lizard killed several scientists in the first issue, now he's heading towards his son. Spider-Man tries to stop him and he kind of those, except that the kid has been kidnapped by ana Kravinoff. Spidey doesn't know where the kid is and Spidey has to save the life of the foster mother, in the meantime the Lizard can track his kid through smell.

The art in this issue is interesting. The panels are often much thinner than normal and they create a sense of chaos. The story is not as easy to read from panel to panel because of it, but I think it works in the sense that it gives the book a chaotic feel.

Amazing Spider-Man #632 by Zeb Wells and Chris Bachalo.

After the intense ending to the previous issue, Spidey arrives to the scene to realize that Connors has Shed his skin. The Lizard is no longer Curt Connors. The Lizard has taken control and therefore is no longer human, it is completely reptilian. Not only that, but he has to power to tap into the primitive parts of other people's brains and make them act on instinct. This allows him to easily beat Spider-Man as Spidey's primitive brain tells him to flee (since the Lizard is a much bigger foe).

The ending on this issue is incredible. After reading this issue I really wanted to read the next one, specially knowing that the next issue would finish the storyline.

Amazing Spider-Man #633 by Zeb Wells and Chris Bachalo.

This is the last issue in the "Shed" storyline and it is fantastic. A block of New York City is in complete chaos due to the Lizard. Spidey has an antidote to prevent his primitive brain from taking control of him, but it does nothing on the Lizard, since the Lizard is all primitive brain now. However, during the fight, the Lizard seems to understand the good side of having a monkey brain, by noticing how men have created airplanes, buildings and other things. It was interesting. But the best part was that the issue was fun and exciting. The art really works with these fight scenes and I also like how the last third of the issue is drawn by Emma Rios, bringing a very different style for a different environment, helping the story too by showing the less chaotic side of things. It was also nice to see Aunt May come back to normal, although I wish there were a better explanation of why she was able to go back to normal.

Great issue and overall a fantastic Spider-Man storyline. The best I've read in a long time, at least 20 issues.

Amazing Spider-Man #634 by Joe Kelly and Michael Lark with a backup from J.M DeMatteis and Max Fiumara and another back up by Stan Lee and Marcos Martin.

This issue starts the long awaited "Grim Hunt". The Kravinoff family has been creating havoc on Peter's life for a while now and they are finally attacking him straight. The issue is very good. We get to see Spidey fighting alongside Arachne against Alyosha and Ana Kravinoff. We get to see a beaten up Kaine warn Peter. We get to see Ezequiel again (one of my favorite Spidey characters) and we get to see a little bit more of the Kravinoffs, finally understanding what they are trying to do (although without understanding why their plan will work). A solid issue, hopefully it will be even better than "Shed". Joe Kelly is a great writer and I have high hopes for the rest of this series.

The back up issue by J.M. DeMatteis wasn't that great. The art was interesting and the story was okay, but we don't get much out of the issue. I think overall the story will be okay, it seems to be leading up to a Kraven versus Kaine confrontation, which should be cool.

The other back up is only two pages. The art by Martin is pretty cool and the series seems to lead up to a funny storyline. The story seems to be a bit inspired by Pinky and the Brain. We'll see what Stan Lee can do with it. I am hopeful.

Web of Spider-Man

2010-07-01T12:00:00.005-04:00

Web of Spider-man #4 consists of three short stories:

Gauntlet Origins: Mysterio by Fred Van Lente and Barry Kitson.
This story was pretty good. It is set right before Mysterio becomes a criminal, showing us what inspired him and in the meantime giving us an unexpected Dr. Strange story. I liked this one quite a bit.

The Spectacular Spider-Girl in They First Make Mad by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz.
This story ends the "goblin" arc. It is not great.

Hammerhead in Western Promises by Frank Tieri and Eric Canete.
This is a really good short issue. It gives Hammerhead a bit more depth and I also like that the title is a little homage to the great movie "Eastern Promises".

Web of Spider-man #5 consists of three short stories:

Gauntlet Origins: Vulture by Fred Van Lente and Francis Portela.
Another solid story. Van Lente does a great job of making his villains be much more than their caricatures. Adrian Toomes (the vulture) really seems like a very intelligent guy in this story. Quite good and at the same time quite dark. I liked it.

The Spectacular Spider-Girl in Choosing Sides by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz.
The more I read Spider-Girl, the more I wish I was able to skip the story and read the next. For some reason, even if I don't like something, I have a tough time not reading it, if it is inside a book I care about. Something I should fix if I want to read more anthologies.

Ben Reilly in Nobody by J.M. DeMatteis and Chad Hardin.
A pretty good story. It must be tough being a clone, feeling like you are nobody. This short story explores that as well as you can in 10 pages. I want more Ben Reilly stories.

Web of Spider-man #8 by Fred Van Lente and Javier Rodriguez with a back up story called "Un Nuovo Inizio" by J.M. DeMatteis and Val Semeiks.

In this issue, Web of Spider-man changed its format. In a way losing its anthology status and just giving Van Lente a comic where he can tell Spider-man stories. This issue starts the first part of "The Extremist". The Extremist is a villain that believes that the world is black and white, either you are good or your bad. He hates gray areas and wants to eliminate them. In this issue he attacks a pundit who bashes superheroes. He believes superheroes have made the right choices and that it is wrong to humanize them and make them seem less good, in other words, he hates people putting in gray areas when they should be all white.
I liked the story a lot, looking forward to the rest of the arc.

The backup story was another Ben Reilly story. It was really good. It is nice to have a Peter Parker character which is not as balanced morally as the normal Peter Parker. Ben Reilly is very happy with a new beginning, shaping his life in nice ways, living in Rome. However, his lack of past creates troubles when he starts "dating" a daughter of a powerful man. It is interesting how Ben reacts to this. I really want to read more about Ben Reilly, I hope they put more back up stories about him in the series.

Web of Spider-man #9 by Fred Van Lente, Javier Rodriguez, Patrick Olliffe and Nick Dragotta with a back up story called "Jackpot Reflections" by Marc Guggenheim and Sana Takeda.

The main issue is the second part of "The Extremist". The issue explains a bit about the past about The Extremist. It is a really good villain. He is powerful and interestingly, his motives, while crazy, aren't specially evil. What he does is evil, but he really thinks he is doing the right thing. His motivations are not greed or power, they are quite different. This might be the best new Spider-man villain in over 10 years. Spidey had amazing villains in its early run, but it seems that most Spidey villains were created back then, whenever a new one would come, it wouldn't be a very good villain.
I have to talk about the art too, as I liked it a lot. The last third of the issue is drawn by Nick Dragotta and I thought he is excellent at drawing Spider-man. Javier Rodriguez did a great job with the last issue and with half of this issue, but I liked Dragotta more (of course, I am not sure how well he draws Peter, but he is excellent at drawing Spidey.

The back up tale was pretty good, even though it was about a character I care almost nothing about (Jackpot). I thought Jackpot had died in a Spidey Annual a couple of years ago and I don't even remember who she was. I just know that it teased us for a while making us think she was Mary Jane. Even with my indifference for the character, the cool drawings and the self contained story entertained me quite a bit. It ends in a "To be continued" and I want to know what happens (although, I prefer having a Ben Reilly story in the next issue).

Overall, I am glad I have been reading this series. The new format is excellent as now I get to read Fred Van Lente writing Spidey stories instead of just little origin stories about villains. Looking forward to more from this series.

Dingo

2010-06-27T19:06:00.002-04:00

Dingo by Michael Alan Nelson and Francesco Biagini consists of issues 1-4 of Dingo.

Dingo is hard to describe without giving spoilers away. The main character in this story is Dingo, a guy with a mysterious past. He has to recover an item his rockstar brother lost. On his way, he meets a huge, scary looking dog. The adventure begins. The story follows Dingo in his interesting adventure full of action. The story is quite good and the writer made sure to give closure to the story while giving us little details on the past of the characters, something that could be exploited in subsequent series if they do more.

I liked this book quite a bit. The art is very good and the story is quite entertaining. I really like how the book has some dark humor in it and I liked the conclusion to the story. The scary dog is a very good character too, it must have been difficult to draw, but the artist did a great job with him.

If they do another Dingo series I'll be sure to check it out.

Doom Patrol Book 3: Down Paradise Way

2010-06-27T19:05:00.002-04:00

Doom Patrol Book 3: Down Paradise Way by Grant Morrison and Richard Case consists of issues 35-41 of Doom Patrol.

This comic starts with a story of a transvestite street. A conscious street that can move from one city to another. It was a fun story.

The next story was not that fun for me. It was full of interesting ideas, such as an abstract world called "kaleidoscope" and wars without words, etc. However, the story was a bit boring for me. Most of the story wasn't that funny and it wasn't that interesting. In fact, the most interesting part for me in this story arc was the prologue at the beginning of each issue, a prologue which had nothing to do with this story but was probably setting up the next story.

The art in this series is okay. I don't think it is that great, but it gets the job done and the job is quite difficult when you have to draw things that seem impossible to draw . So much imagination is flowing in this title, hard to keep up for the artist.

Overall, the series is quite interesting and it has plenty of funny moments, but I think it too often gets bog down by having so many concepts floating around at the same time. I'll read the next volume because I was intrigued with the prologues in the issues here, but if the next story is not great, I am going to stop reading this series.

Sleeper Season 2

2010-06-25T14:15:00.002-04:00

Sleeper Season 2 by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips consists of issues 1 through 12 of Sleeper Season Two.

I just recently reread the whole Sleeper series and it was a very entertaining read. I usually don't like rereading books I've read before, but Sleeper is a complex story that can be enjoyed in multiple readings. In this particular book, we find Carver in an interesting situation as he seems to have decided to be a villain. However, his undercover handler, Lynch, is out of a coma, so he wants to use him to get him out. The story just gets better and better.

Brubaker does a great job of giving us cool stories here. Besides the main plot being very exciting and interesting, there are little gems here and there, such as a hilarious origin story for a villain that parodies Spider-man's origin story.

One thing I really like about this volume, is that we get to know a lot more about Tao. Tao is one of the most interesting villains I have seen. I always enjoy villains that are very intelligent, and Tao really seems like the most intelligent man on Earth. I enjoyed reading any time he was on a panel. Brubaker did a great job of writing intelligent dialogue for Tao. I am always amazed by how some writers can do a great job of doing this, while other writers fail at it.

The book gives an ending to the Sleeper series, and what an ending it is. I highly recommend this comic, comics like this are why I read comic books. Fantastic book.

Sleeper Season 1

2010-06-25T13:44:00.004-04:00

Sleeper Season 1 by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips consists of issues 1 through 12 of Sleeper.

Sleeper is one of my favorite series. In this comic, we follow a sleeper agent, Holden Carver, who is undercover in a super powered criminal organization. The leader of this organization is a genius man called Tao. Tao creates random acts of violence around the world and Carver is supposed to find out why Tao acts like that and hopefully get intelligence for the government. The problem is that the only government agent that knows that Carver is undercover is in a coma after being shot a few months ago.

Holden Carver is in the dilemma that nobody can take him out of his undercover job and that escaping the organization would be extremely difficult. This is why the first story arc is called "Out in the Cold", a title that reflects what our protagonist is going through.

The first story arc is fantastic in getting us into this world. Making us feel what Carver is going through and see the contradictions he lives, as his best friends are super villains and the woman he once loved is trying to capture him (thinking he went rogue).

The second story arc really elevates the story to a whole new level. One spy finds out that Carver is an undercover agent and he tries to get him out. The three part story is fantastic, leading to one of the best issues I've ever read in comics, Sleeper #8, the story is superb, and the art is really incredible. Sean Phillips draws noir better than anyone and he really makes one feel for Carver in this book.

The season has a good ending while showing us a cliffhanger moment to set up the next season. This is a truly fantastic series. I highly recommend it.

Jack of Fables Vol. 1: The (Nearly) Great Escape

2010-06-25T01:35:00.003-04:00

Jack of Fables Vol. 1: The (Nearly) Great Escape by Bill Willingham, Matthew Sturges and Tony Akins consists of issues 1 through 5 of Jack of Fables.

After I read the Great Fables Crossover (a story that I loved in Fables), I became a little more interested in the Jack of Fables series. I decided to read the series and I am not disappointed, the first volume is quite good. It has a very different feel to Fables as Jack of Fables is more humorous and incorporates meta fiction much more (something that happened in the Crossover).

Jack is an annoying guy, but his personality creates a lot of humor. Jack is an arrogant, egotistical character, but he actually is quite powerful, so he can back up a lot of that arrogance.

I think it is worth checking out, specially for those that enjoyed the Fables Crossover. The book is different enough that it could appeal to people that don't like Fables, but I guess the fact that it is a spinoff makes that unlikely.

More Single Issues

2010-06-25T00:38:00.003-04:00

Shield #2 by Jonathan Hickman and Dustin Weaver.

I love this comic. The first issue was awesome, but this might be even better. The story is just so interesting. This comic has made me interested in reading other stuff by Hickman. I have read the first two issues of Secret Warriors because of this and I am planning on getting his first Fantastic Four trade paperback soon. This series is the reason I try out new series. Every once in a while you discover a series that makes you realize why comics are so good.

The art is incredible, I have become a fan of Dustin Weaver with this series. There is outstanding detail in the pencils, there are creative panels and the storytelling is great. I can't ask for more from Dustin Weaver.

Codebreakers #3 by Ross Richie, Carey Malloy and Scott Godlewski.

I am starting to lose interest in this series. However, the series ends next issue, so it comes at the right time. The issue ends with a big cliffhanger making me want to see what happens in the final issue of the series, but I have to say that I am not that impressed with the story so far. I was expecting more mathematics in a series about codebreaking. I guess I was spoiled with the terrific book "Cryptonomicon" by Neal Stephenson.

Irredeemable #14 by Mark Waid and Diego Barreto.

This series is very good and this issue is great. I really like the direction the series is taking and how Waid has made me feel like I know these characters. The last panel makes for a great cliffhanger for the next issue. I can't wait to find out what Modeus is up to.

The comic book started being about a hero gone wrong, but it keeps getting deeper and deeper as the series goes on. I really like this series.

Chew #11 by John Layman and Rob Guillory.

I love Chew. I think Shield was better this month, but Chew was a close second. The series is just hilarious while at the same time having an interesting plot behind it. I love it.

This issue has Tony Chu have his first date. The date goes exactly like one would expect in this comic. The date has danger, gore and jokes. I get excited every time I get a new issue in this series.

Chip #2 by Richard Moore.

The 2-issue miniseries ends in this issue. The story is quite simple, but it is humorous and it has a nice feel. I like it. The art is very good. It is a nice comic book for kids.

Various Recent Single Issues

2010-06-25T00:24:00.006-04:00

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #37 by Karl Kessel, Paulo Siqueira, Kurt Busiek and Pat Olliffe.

The annual consists of two stories. The first one by Kessel and Siqueira and the next one by Busiek and Olliffe. The first story is about the first meeting between Captain America and Spider-Man. It was a fun issue. I like how Kessel treated Cap. The art was also quite good. I liked the second story more though. I thought it was a fun story, it made me want to read the other issues that Busiek wrote about Spidey's first year. It was worth buying.

Batman: Return of Bruce Wayne #2 by Grant Morrison and Frazer Irving.

This issue is about Puritan Batman. The issue is not as good as the first one, but it was quite good. I liked how Bruce would use his power to save people from superstition. We are starting to learn a little bit more of why it is dangerous for Bruce to go back to the present, but it is still mysterious.

The next issue is Pirate Batman. I am looking forward to that, I have the issue right next to me, I will read it tomorrow. The cover is great.

Astonishing Spider-Man/Wolverine #1 by Jason Aaron and Adam Kubert.

I loved this issue. I was very surprised by it. I was not expecting an issue set in the past starting Spider-Man and Wolverine. The issue slowly explains how Peter and Logan ended up in prehistoric times, which I think works great. Jason Aaron really knows how to write and it doesn't hurt to have a superstar artist like Adam Kubert to help. Kubert has very detailed pencils. The images are very sharp and clean, I really like the feel of the story. I also like that Kubert is not afraid to put more things into the panels by putting the camera farther back. Really good stuff.

I am looking forward to the rest of this miniseries, it is shaping up to be a fantastic one.

Spider-Man: Marvel Adventures #1 by Paul Tobin and Matteo Lolli.

Marvel Adventures Spider-Man was rebooted into Spider-Man: Marvel Adventures and it starts with a solid first issue. I really like this series. It is full of joy and fun adventures with Spider-Man. Paul Tobin does a really good job with a teenage Spidey and I really like Chat, she is a nice supporting character.

Nemesis: The Impostors #4 by Ivan Brandon and Cliff Richards.

I am a little disappointed with this series. The art is really good (the best I've seen from Cliff Richards), but I think they should have put some kind of recap at the beginning of the first issue or something. Maybe I misunderstood the story, but it seems to me like the series depends on a previous series. I just didn't get the significance of anything that happened in this issue and I kind of didn't care about what happened.
I think it was a mistake to read this miniseries. I recommend reading another nemesis story first before trying to get into this one.

Local

2010-06-25T00:14:00.002-04:00

Local by Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly consists of issues 1 through 12 of Local.

Local is a comic book that was conceived to be about different cities. It would consist of 12 standalone stories set in different cities around North America. However, as the series progressed and the creators started liking their protagonist more and more, the book became more than just its premise and it was about the life of Megan.

For me, the overall story about Megan wasn't as good as the standalone stories. To me, the impact of the book came through the great short stories. My favorite is the one based in Richmond. It is about a band that just separated and the comic tells the story by using an interview in the background. I think the creators did a fantastic job of making me feel like I knew these people and their music in only 24 pages.

There are other great stories in the book, in fact most issues are great (there was only one short story that I didn't like). One problem that some readers may have is that most stories are a bit depressing. The stories are slice of life stories, hence there is not really a plot and they depend on the great character development that the creators do. Therefore, since one is very attached to Megan and the city she lives in, it is a bit sad to see her have to leave yet another city.

I was really happy when I would recognize the city that Megan was in, such as when she was in Burlington. Even though I have been to most cities covered in the book, the only one I could recognize was Burlington, as the image is from downtown, unlike other issues where the action doesn't necessarily happen downtown.

A really good book with great extras too. I recommend it.

Justice League International Vol. 1

2010-06-24T23:53:00.003-04:00

Justice League International Vol. 1 by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis and Kevin MaGuire consists of issues 1-6 of Justice League and issue 7 of Justice League International.

I had to start reading this acclaimed series at some point. I've heard so many good things and J.M. DeMatteis was hilarious in a series of issues in Spectacular Spider-Man (the Legion of Losers storyline). I finally bought this book and after reading it, I have to say that while it is very good, it is not as good as I expected. However, it seems like it would get better in the next volume as this volume was more about setting things up.

In this comic, we have the Justice League, which at this time consists of Batman, Guy Gardner (a Green Lantern), Dr. Fate, Martian Manhunter and others. Gardner wants to be in charge, but Batman quickly takes the lead as it is in his personality. The dynamic between Gardner and Batman is a gem for comedy pieces. The writers take full advantage of this and they also use the penciller wisely, as he is excellent at facial expressions, something very important in comedy.

I am not sure I would recommend this book, I would have to read the next one before knowing, but it is a very funny book and the story is not bad.

Silverfin: A Young James Bond Adventure

2010-06-24T23:48:00.002-04:00

Silverfin: A Young James Bond Adventure by Charles Higson and Kev Walker.

Silverfin is an adaptation of a book of the same name about a young James Bond. In the story, James Bond is the orphaned nephew of a great spy. He goes to vacation to the hills and discovers something weird going on in a nearby castle. He teams up with a cool kid to figure out the mystery behind the castle.

I think the art in the comic is very well done. The story is easy to follow without needing much dialogue and it services the story exceptionally. The story is quite simple and not that interesting, however it is entertaining and definitely good for young readers.

A good but not great comic book.

A Tale of One Bad Rat

2010-06-24T23:37:00.002-04:00

A Tale of One Bad Rat by Bryan Talbot.

A Tale of One Bad Rat is a story about a teenage girl, Helen, who runs away from her
house because of sexual abuse. She has a pet rat and she loves to draw. Being a fan of
Beatrix Potter, a woman that was opressed in her house in a different way, she was
inspired to go to the beautiful places where Potter drew (and wrote) her nice children's books. Helen little by little gains confidence and starts fighting the inner demons that come from sexual abuse.

The book is fantastic. The drawings are beautiful, yet simple to understand. The story is very emotional. It is clear that the writer put his soul into this project.

A fantastic comic book.

Daredevil: Return of the King

2010-05-28T01:48:00.002-04:00

Daredevil: Return of the King by Ed Brubaker, Michael Lark and David Aja consists of issues 116 to 119 and issue 500 (renumbered) of Daredevil.

Ed Brubaker is one of my favorite writers. His run on Captain America has been excellent, I love Sleeper, Incognito, Criminal and essentially anything I read by him. Daredevil is no exception. He started Daredevil in issue #82 with a fantastic storyline and while the middle of his run wasn't stellar, his last two story arcs have been fantastic. From the beginning of Brubaker's arc, Kingpin has been a main character. This story arc starts with a Kingpin centered issue that is absolutely heart breaking. It leads to the Kingpin coming back to New York and making a deal with Daredevil to do something about crime in New York City.

The art in Daredevil is fantastic. Michael Lark is really good at drawing things in the night. David Aja came on board for a bit too and he was also excellent, being a very good artist for movement.

The conclusion to the story was amazing and it got me interested enough to continue reading the title even though Brubaker is no longer at the helm.

Daredevil Volume 3

2010-05-27T18:34:00.003-04:00

Daredevil Volume 3 by Frank Miller, Klaus Janson and Bill Sienkiewicz.

Frank Miller's run on Daredevil is quite famous. Marvel recently reprinted all of it in three volumes. Volume 1 has issues 158-172, but the early issues were drawn by him but not written. The good stuff starts in #168 where he introduces Elektra. Volume 2 takes us from issue 173 to 184. It really makes Kingpin into the main villain for Daredevil, making Kingpin the quintessential Daredevil villain (instead of a Spider-Man villain). Volume 3, this volume contains issues 185 through 191, issue 219 and a graphic novel he did with Bill Sienkiewicz.

The volume is fantastic. One of the best Daredevil issues is the last issue in Frank Miller's run, issue 191. The issue could be read at anytime, it doesn't really depend on previous issues. It is an issue where Daredevil talks to a comatose Bullseye while debating whether he should be fighting crime. I have had doubts about myself all the time and it is nice to see Daredevil be so open about his doubts and give an interesting point of view with respect to violence. A fantastic issue to end a fantastic run by Frank Miller.

The issues before 191 were really good. Since issue 168, Miller has changed the landscape of Daredevil by introducing Elektra and giving depth to The Hand, an organization that is really important in current Daredevil issues. He also introduced Stick, Daredevil's mentor and in this volume we get to see the past of Stick. It was all wonderful.

Issue 219 was a bit strange and I wasn't in love with it, but the graphic novel with Bill Sienkiewicz was great. Sienkiewicz brings a very different style to Daredevil and it worked great in this story.

Overall a great volume. I would suggest reading all of Miller's run, starting with issue 168 all the way up to 191 and then reading Born Again. Born Again is by far the best Daredevil story I've ever read.

Bone

2010-05-27T18:25:00.003-04:00

Bone: The Complete Cartoon Epic in One Volume by Jeff Smith includes all Bone issues, it has 1300 pages.

Bone is a fantastic series. It started in 1990 and ended in 2004. Jeff Smith draws every single panel and tells us an epic story that has plenty of humor, fantasy and drama.

I love many things about this comic. It has very cute moments, by having Phone Bone fall in love. It has very dramatic moments, such as a 20 page chapter that has essentially no dialogue and has one in suspense as to what will happen to our heroes. It has plenty of comedy, coming mainly from Phoney Bone, a trickster. It has a complicated storyline that spans for many pages. It is just a wonderful story. I am not surprised this story has been so popular.

Another thing I love about this book is that it is kind of universal. Kids, teenagers, young adults, old adults, anybody can enjoy this tale.

I highly recommend it.

Models Inc.

2010-05-27T13:35:00.002-04:00

Models Inc. by Paul Tobin and Vicenc Villagrassa consists of issues 1 through 4 of Models Inc.

Being a fan of the Project Runway show and seeing Tim Gunn on the cover, I had to give this comic book a shot, specially since it is written by Paul Tobin, a writer I like on Marvel Adventures Spider-man. I mean how can you say no to "Tim Gunn in the Iron Man suit". Well, the Tim Gunn story is just a back up for the first issue, and it is actually the best story out of the 4 issues. It was funny to see Tim Gunn talk about fashion in comic books and it was awesome seeing him take on the Iron Man suit to take the day. A fun story.

The four issues themselves are not that great. It is fashion week and several models are doing photo shoots. One photographer is murdered and Millie the model is the main suspect. There is an annoying cop looking for headlines, a model that is a superhero (don't remember her name), a model dating the Human Torch and a few models trying to learn how to fight. The story is fine, but it was not worth reading. I would have been glad just reading the Tim Gunn back up.

City of Dust

2010-05-27T13:21:00.002-04:00

City of Dust by Steve Niles and Zid.

I was introduced to Steve Niles by his series Simon Dark. A series which I enjoyed a lot, at least the first 12 issues (the last 6 weren't as good). I decided to read this book because I liked Simon Dark and because I like the publisher. Radical Comics is a new publishing house (well, almost 2 years old now) and they put a lot of effort in putting out quality books for affordable prices. I haven't liked one of their books (Freedom Formula), but I have liked the other two I've read (Shrapnel and City of Dust).

This comic is a futuristic tale. It follows a cop, Phillipe Krome, whose job is to burn books, it reminds me of Fahrenheit 451. However, in this book, we have some monsters attacking people. It becomes a sort of detective story mixed with horror in a future world. I think the story does a good job and it is helped by the astonishing visuals of Zid. However, I think the last chapter in the story was weak. I think there was more potential in this book.

A good but not great book.

Amazing Spider-Man

2010-05-27T12:55:00.005-04:00

I fell behind on Spider-Man reading and I've done most of it this week, today I'll post about Amazing Spider-man and this week I'll write two other posts, one on Web of Spider-man and another one on miscellaneous Spidey titles I've read recently.

Amazing Spider-man #525 by Joe Kelly and Max Fiumara.

This issue is sad, but Kelly does some great job with Spidey's dialogue throughout, making the story a little lighter, which I think is the way to do Spider-man.

Amazing Spider-man #526 by Fred Van Lente and Michael Gaydos.

The issue is good but not great. I liked seeing Spidey in trouble by temporarily losing his powers and I was interested in seeing the lady Scorpion as a character. The art worked better than I thought it would. I remember Gaydos from his work on Alias and I thought his style served better in noir stories than in Spider-man, but as Michael Lark has shown, noir style pencillers work great on Spider-man.

Amazing Spider-man #527 by Roger Stern and Lee Weeks.

This is the first part of a trilogy called "Something Can Stop the Juggernaut" that kind of serves as a sequel to the famous "Nobody can stop the Juggernaut". I was very interested in finding out who stopped the Juggernaut and I was glad that it was revealed in this issue.

Amazing Spider-man #528 by Roger Stern and Lee Weeks with a backup feature by Mark Waid and Todd Nauck.

The second part of the trilogy, this raises some good questions about who is Captain Universe, since he doesn't seem to understand his role as a superhero. We have a fun fight between Spidey and Captain Universe and Juggernaut joins in to create an interesting set up.

The backup feature was great. I really like how Todd Nauck draws Spidey and the supporting characters and the story itself was a fun quintessential Spidey story. Spider-Man has a job interview. The interviewer gets stopped in traffic due to a villain popping out on the street and so he interviews Spidey on the phone. Of course this becomes problematic once Spidey has to fight the villain in front of the car of the interviewer. Fun stuff.

Amazing Spider-man #529 by Roger Stern and Lee Weeks with a backup feature by Zeb Wells and Chris Bachalo.

The conclusion of the "Something Can Stop the Juggernaut" story is the best of the bunch, by far. First, we learn who Captain Universe is. Second, we learn how this connects to the "Nothing can Stop the Juggernaut" story. Third, we get a nice life lesson, another great take on "With Great Power comes Great Responsibility". This is a perfect story for Spider-man. Nothing very original, something a bit bizarre by having a cosmic power in the story, but a story that tells us what Spidey is all about.

The back up was pretty cool too. It is a prologue to the next storyline by Zeb Wells, called "Shed". It looks like it will be a much darker storyline, but it looks exciting.

Amazing Spider-man #530 by Zeb Wells and Chris Bachalo.

This is the first part of "Shed". We had a prologue in the previous issue and we also had a related story in a recent Web of Spider-man. The story will center on Dr. Connors.
The issue is very good. We get to see Connors having a bad life and slowly losing control to his reptilian side. We also see Spidey have some romantic problems as the Black Cat makes it very clear that she's not interested in a relationship, she just wants to have fun.

A really good issue that has me very excited about the next two parts in the story. I haven't been as excited about a Spidey story in many issues, not since Van Lente's chameleon story in the early 600s.

Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane: Sophomore Jinx

2010-05-27T12:47:00.002-04:00

Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane: Sophomore Jinx by Terry Moore and Craig Rousseau

I am a longtime Spider-Man fan. I heard great things about author Terry Moore and I decided to check this book out because the covers looked cool. I was happy to try this book out. It is very different to the normal Spider-Man series, as this focuses on Mary Jane's life in high school. Hence there are no supervillains and it is mostly about a young girl going through her first years in high school.

I think the story was pretty good, not many interesting things happen, but the writer and artist do a good job of making us care for Mary Jane. She goes through some trivial issues (not trivial for a teenager though) and she does it with grace.

I think this is a pretty good comic for teenagers. I am glad I read it.

Doom Patrol Book 2: The Painting that Ate Paris

2010-05-24T20:49:00.002-04:00

Doom Patrol Book 2: The Painting that Ate Paris by Grant Morrison and Richard Case consists of issues 26 through 34 of Doom Patrol.

This comic is amazing. The creativity and inventiveness that come out of the book are very enjoyable. In this comic, the Doom Patrol faces a dadaist enemy. An enemy that makes the absurd real. As the title suggest, there is a painting that eats Paris. The Justice League can't do anything about it, but the Doom Patrol is perfect for this sort of case.

Throughout the issues we travel inside the painting to different art styles such as impressionism and surrealism. The intellectual playfulness is incredible. I don't know how the artist was able to pull off these crazy ideas, but he manages to do it and do it well.

The book contains a few more stories besides the one in the title. It has a really good one-shot story in the mind of Crazy Jane, a woman that has 64 personalities. It is an interesting issue where Robotman tries to get Crazy Jane out of a self-imposed coma by going into her mind. Great stuff.

Overall, this comic is fantastic. I am glad I didn't put it down after the lackluster Book 1. I am looking forward to reading the rest of Morrison's run.

Doom Patrol Book 1: Crawling From the Wreckage

2010-05-24T20:34:00.003-04:00

Doom Patrol Book 1: Crawling From the Wreckage by Grant Morrison and Richard Case consists of issues 19 through 25 of Doom Patrol.

The Doom Patrol consists of a group of superheroes that solve creepy cases. In this volume, we are introduced to a few new members to the team as the team faces strange villains.

I don't love this volume, but it introduced the characters to set up amazing stories later on. Worth reading to be able to read the next volume which is amazing.

Invincible Iron Man: Most Wanted Book 2 (Vol. 3)

2010-05-23T16:13:00.002-04:00

Invincible Iron Man: Most Wanted Book 2 (Vol. 3) by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca consists of issues 14 through 19 of Invincible Iron Man.

I like this volume more than the previous one. First of all, we have more excitement, since Iron Man is becoming less intelligent.

One thing I like about this comic is that you get unexpected heroes. I like to see people stand up to authority whenever the authority is clearly wrong (in this case, the authority being Norman Osborn).

The comic has a lot of funny moments, good action and suspense, as I didn't know what would happen to Iron Man, Pepper or Maria Hill.

A good series, I'll keep on reading it.

Invincible Iron Man: Most Wanted Vol. 1

2010-05-23T16:01:00.002-04:00

Invincible Iron Man: Most Wanted Vol. 1 by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca consists of issues 8 through 13 of Invincible Iron Man.

After the events of Secret Invasion, Tony Stark gets fired as the head of S.H.I.E.L.D and furthermore, since he refuses to give some secret documents to the new head of security, Norman Osborn (aka Green Goblin), he becomes a fugitive of the law.

In this comic, Iron Man starts erasing his brain little by little. He needs the help of Pepper Potts and Maria Hill. The adventure of Maria Hill becomes an interesting side story in the comic book.

After Civil War, it has been tough to like Iron Man, however the great movies and Fraction's stellar writing have made this book a great read.

Unauthorized Puffed Movie Adaptation

2010-05-23T00:53:00.002-04:00

Unauthorized Puffed Movie Adaptation by John Layman and Dave Crosland.

I love John Layman's Chew, therefore I decided to give a try to this comic book. While the name makes it seem like a movie called Puffed exists, imdb does not list any such movie, which makes me think the title is a joke.

Puffed is the story of a young guy who works at a theme park as a mascot. He has to wear a suit that needs the assistance of another person to put on (and to get out off). He gets kidnapped and thrown into the inner city in his suit and he can't get out of it. Therefore, downtown now has a guy in a dinosaur costume walking around.

The comic has a few funny scenes and overall is pretty good. I don't think the comic was great, so I wouldn't recommend it.

Invincible Ultimate Collection Vol. 5

2010-05-23T00:42:00.002-04:00

Invincible Ultimate Collection Vol. 5 by Robert Kirkman and Ryan Ottley consists of issues 48 through 59 plus Astounding Wolf Man #11.

Invincible is a comic about a very powerful teenage superhero. Robert Kirkman does a great job of humanizing the character while at the same time giving us tons of fun adventures. One thing I love about Kirkman is that he keeps developing subplots in issues while finishing previous subplots. This way, every issue seems important while at the same time it creates moments where a bunch of subplots come into the forefront creating a big mess for our hero. I love this. You never know where Invincible will be in the next issue. There are countless villains making up their own plans and who knows when they will attack.

I read this volume in one sitting and it made me eager to get more issues of Invincible. This series is so good that it seems like waiting a year for the next collected hardcover is too long a wait.

I love this series. I read a lot of comics and this might be my favorite series. I highly recommend it.

All Star Superman (Vol. 2)

2010-05-23T00:22:00.002-04:00

All Star Superman (Vol. 2) by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely consists of issues 7 through 12 of All Star Superman.

I read the first volume two years ago and I read the eleventh issue about half a year ago. I wasn't in love with the book, but it has so much praise that I had to give it a read. I like the comic, but I don't love it. I think it has a lot of cool ideas, great artwork and that it does a great job of making every issue have its own story while still developing an overarching arc to the whole series. However, I just didn't find myself caring that much for what would happen. Superman is dying, but I had a hard time thinking he would die.

I can see why a lot of people love this book, but it just didn't astound me.

Famous Players: Mysterious Death Of William Desmond Taylor

2010-05-22T23:29:00.002-04:00

Famous Players: Mysterious Death Of William Desmond Taylor by Rick Geary.

Rick Geary has written many comics about famous murders. This one is about the death of William Desmond Taylor, a popular movie director in the 1920's. Geary does a great job of setting the mood with his precise drawings. I really liked how Hollywood changes throughout time. The story shows us Hollywood before becoming the film mecca.

After reading this, I think I'll read more of Geary's books. I liked this one a lot.

Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth

2010-05-22T23:13:00.003-04:00

Logicomix by Apostolos Doxiadis, Christos H. Papadimitriou, Alecos Papadatos and Annie Di Donna.

Logicomix is a comic about the history of Logic. It focuses on Bertrand Russell's life, but the main theme of the book is Logic. It gives good reasons to care about the topic and it gives very good ways of explaining different difficult mathematical concepts.

The comic also breaks the fourth wall a bit by showing us how the creators were having difficulty in terms of how much mathematics to show and how to move the story along. I really liked this breaks in the story.

One scene I loved in the book is a scene where Bertrand Russell explains the different kinds of infinity to his girlfriend by using the notion of an infinite hotel (Hilbert's hotel). It reminded me of many times when I have excitedly explained interesting mathematics to my wife. It made me laugh, as Bertrand's girlfriend seemed as interested in the story as my wife (which is, not much).

I highly recommend this book.

Random Acts of Violence

2010-05-22T22:42:00.004-04:00

Random Acts of Violence by Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and Giancarlo Caracuzzo.

This comic, initially solicited as "Splatterman", starts with two young comic artists that have just finished writing a horror comic book. The comic they write becomes a hit and it leads to serial killer copycats.

The comic is much better than I thought it would be. The story is very good and it made me very interested in its resolution. Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed with the end. While the last 2 pages are very good, the climax that came a little bit before was disappointing to me. I guess I was mainly bothered by one page, but I won't spoil the story to other readers.

Since the comic was a great read overall, I would still recommend checking it out. I had a lot of fun reading it.

Various Recent Single Issues

2010-05-21T19:58:00.005-04:00

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #1 by Grant Morrison, Chris Sprouse and Karl Story.

About a year and a half ago, Batman was sent back in time by Darkseid during Final Crisis. I haven't read comics from the DC Universe since Final Crisis (except for series on the sidelines, such as Secret Six and Nemesis: The Impostors), so I don't know much of what is going on in Gotham (I do know that Dick Grayson is Batman now and Damian Wayne is Robin). I am attracted to this series because it looks like it is going to be fun and because Grant Morrison is very good at writing weird stuff, so I am curious how he will return Bruce Wayne.

The first issue has an amnesiac Bruce Wayne in caveman times. He doesn't speak, as caveman don't understand him. He gets into trouble in the middle of a fight between two tribes and he has to flee. Overall, not much happens in the comic, but the comic is great. Several questions arise during the issue setting up interesting things for following issues, but at the same time, the issue has a self contained story that doesn't depend on the past or the future to be fun.

Overall, a great read, I am looking forward to the rest of the series.

The Last Days of American Crime #2 by Rick Remender and Greg Tocchini.

I might be misremembering the first issue, but the coloring here seemed very different than what I remember from the first issue. Greg Tocchini is really good at drawing action scenes and his style is distinctive. However, I am not a fan of his close ups. The faces are too blurry for me.

With respect to the story. I like it. There are a lot of cool action scenes and there is one very funny moment. It is strange that the series is supposed to be about a heist, but the story hasn't really focused on much about the heist, there are too many things going around for the heist to get center focus.

I am liking the series. It seems like the third issue will come out late as the third issue was canceled, meaning that it will probably take 4 or 5 more months before it arrives. That is a bummer, but since the issues are almost triple sized, I can forgive them.

Haunt #7 by Robert Kirkman, Greg Capullo and Todd McFarlane.

This is the last of the issues I have ordered for this series. I am not in love with the series, so this issue would have had to be fantastic for me to keep going with the series. The last issue was great, but this issue wasn't great. The very first scene was ridiculous, I just don't buy gangsters acting so recklessly over someone they could just beat up. I don't hear of too many murders in the US, so I don't think gangsters just kill whenever someone insults them a little bit.

Robert Kirkman has two great series: The Walking Dead and Invincible, so I have been giving this comic a try for a while. If I hear great reviews in the future, I might give this comic another try, but for now, I am done with this series.

Marvel Origins by Fred Van Lente and many others.

Fred Van Lente is my favorite among the writers in charge of Spider-Man right now, so when I saw his name in the solicits, I decided to give this one-shot a try. I probably misunderstood what this comic was about. If I had known it was just one page stories retelling the origins of several Marvel heroes and villains, I would not have ordered this comic. Van Lente does a good job of telling us enough about each character, but for most characters I already knew their origin and for the ones I didn't, I didn't really care (except maybe for Dr. Strange). A few of the pages are not written by Van Lente, but by Jim McCann.

For a while I couldn't understand how Marvel could charge $3.99 for this. But I guess the answer is that, you are not really buying a story but art. Each page is done by a different artist and a lot of them are fantastic. My favorite was the page for Bucky Barnes (the new Captain America). The art consists of 4 vertical panels in the upper half and one triangular panel in the bottom half. The first and third panel are light colored, while the second and fourth have a lot of red in them. The bottom half is tainted blue. Overall, it gives the effect of the American flag, as we have red, white and blue with stars (as Captain America has a star on his chest and on his shield). It looks awesome.

Overall, not an issue I would recommend.

Without trying, the issues are ordered from the one I like the most to the one I liked the least.

Various Single Issues

2010-05-15T21:45:00.004-04:00

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 #35 by Brad Meltzer and Georges Jeanty.

This issue is the final issue in the Twilight arc. The arc started very strong, but I wasn't so impressed with the last two issues. I am very excited about the finale coming up, as it is written by Joss Whedon himself.
The art in this issue is pretty good. Georges Jeanty does a good job of conveying Buffy's feelings.

Codebreakers #2 by Carey Malloy and Scott Godlewski.

The first issue was good but not great. This issue made me more interested in the story. We now know a little bit more of the villain and the hero. I am looking forward to the next issue.

Irredeemable #13 by Mark Waid and Diego Barreto.

Irredeemable is a series I've been enjoying quite a bit. This issue is very good. It focuses on Bette Noir, showing us how she could have prevented deaths with her knowledge of the Plutonian's weakness. The reaction of her dad was very surprising to me. I really liked how this series is shaping up.

The issue was another relaxed issue that takes us away from the action, but I think it was a good issue right now, as we needed to get to know Bette Noir better.

Hellboy in Mexico by Mike Mignola and Richard Corben.

I had to read this issue since it is a One-shot and it is set in Mexico. The story is not great, but it is fun and entertaining. I am not a big fan of Hellboy, but I like the way the comic deals with the supernatural.

The art is great. Corben does a very good job of making all the supernatural characters look cool. I also liked how he drew the Mexican fighters. Really cool artwork.

A solid comic, worth the price and it was worth it, even though I know little of the Hellboy story.

Nemesis: The Impostors #3 by Ivan Brandon and Cliff Richards.

The series has been hard to follow for me as I know nothing about this character. Despite that, the issue was interesting.

I have to mention that the art by Cliff Richards has been phenomenal in this series. I had only seen his work on Buffy and it wasn't very good there. The way he draws Batman is perfect and overall the action has been really well drawn. I love it.

Tales Designed to Thrizzle #1 by Michael Kupperman.

I have heard many people rave about this comic, so I was expecting something fantastic. The comic consists of many surrealistic jokes. A lot of the jokes are very funny, but some aren't funny. Even with the very funny ones, I wouldn't crack up, I would just smile. I think this kind of humor is just not my cup of tea. It is intelligent, but not that funny.

Secret Warriors #1 by Jonathan Hickman, Brian Michael Bendis and Stefano Caselli.

After loving the Shield comic last month and since I have a subscription to Marvel digital, I decided to read other things Jonathan Hickman has done. Marvel Digital has the first two issues of Secret Warriors, so I decided to read them. The first one is pretty good. The issue itself doesn't tell us much of what is going on, showing us a few spy missions and ending with a confusing cliffhanger. However, it was good enough to get me to read the second issue.

Secret Warriors #2 by Jonathan Hickman and Stefano Caselli.

This issue explains the confusing ending to last issue. The premise is actually very interesting, the premise is that Hydra has been successfully spying and manipulating S.H.I.E.L.D for many years. I am very interested in seeing what Nick Fury we'll do with this development.
This series looks very cool, I will keep reading it.

Ex Machina: Ring Out the Old (Vol. 9)

2010-05-13T23:52:00.002-04:00

Ex Machina: Ring Out the Old (Vol. 9) by Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris consists of issues 40 through 44 of Ex Machina plus the Green Special.

When I started reading Ex Machina, 6 trades had come out and I read through them quickly. I loved it. Since then, I have had to wait about half a year for each trade and because of that, I often forget what has been going on and have a hard time loving the series as much as I did the first time. With this trade, I didn't have that problem. The comic starts with a fun "meta" issue with Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris written into the story. Then it has another one shot issue about paper. The next four issues (41-44) are the heart of it, the issues that give the book its name. They are fantastic. We get to know more back story about Mitchell, we get teased about how he got his powers, we get a cool villain and the politics heat up as Mitchell is continuing his pragmatic style of governing.

This comic got me very excited about the conclusion that comes up in November in trade format (the final issue comes out in June or July). The comic has shown us three years of government and the last six issues will focus on the last year (2005). With the introduction of new villains, the political pressure and the mysterious outside forces, I am eagerly awaiting the final chapter.

Kafka

2010-04-17T23:11:00.002-04:00

Kafka by David Zane Marowitz and Robert Crumb.

This book is a biography of Franz Kafka. Throughout the book we get summaries of Kafka's important works and we get to see Crumb's visual interpretation of these stories. That is the best part of the book for me. The biographical side is also very good, explaining a bit of why Kafka wrote like that.

While reading the book, I felt like it is hard to call most of it a comic book, because it has a lot of prose. The parts of the book where we get to see Crumb interpret Kafka's stories definitely feel like a comic book, but the biography section doesn't. However, I thinks this works very well in the book, it makes the stories more alive when the images tell more than just being a drawing.

I enjoyed the book, it is worth reading.

Godland: Hello Cosmic (Vol. 1)

2010-04-17T23:03:00.003-04:00

Godland: Hello Cosmic (Vol. 1) by Joe Casey and Tom Scioli consists of issues 1 through 6 of Godland.

I had heard great things about this comic, how fun it is, how outrageous, etcetera. But when I was reading it, I wasn't into it. While the art is very good and the story is okay, I just thought that not much was going on.

Adam Archer is a nice hero, he has a sister that is jealous of his powers. There is a junkie villain which brings some nice comedy into the story and there are subplots which make it clear that there are plans for future issues. This is what makes me think of getting the second trade, but while reading the book, I just didn't feel the excitement I feel when reading other comic books.

I think the comic is well made, but it just isn't my kind of comic. Worth checking out.

Birdhouse

2010-04-17T22:56:00.002-04:00

Birdhouse by Vernon White.

Birdhouse is a comic about a princess that wants to leave her castle and leave near the ocean. The king is a tyrant and he doesn't let her do much. He also is not well liked in his country.

Not much happens in the comic and the story is not very interesting. However, I liked that the comic was able to move along with few words, making this a very visual experience. I think Vernon White does a great job with the artwork. I particularly liked how a scene from the same angle looked different when it was a memory and when it was real. In the memory, the scene looks more beautiful. The scene was subtle, but when I finished the book it made me look at the images again.

I think the comic is meant for a younger audience, and I think it is a good book for children or young teenagers. I don't think the comic was very good for older readers.

Thunderbolts: Caged Angels

2010-04-17T22:46:00.004-04:00

Thunderbolts: Caged Angels by Warren Ellis and Mike Deodato Jr. consists of issues 116 through 121 of Thunderbolts.

Since Warren Ellis gets a lot of praise, I've been trying to read more of his comics. I recently read Nextwave and another Thunderbolts storyline. I haven't loved them, but I have enjoyed them. This is another solid story. I think it is much better than the first storyline Ellis wrote for the Thunderbolts. Here we get to see a lot of interesting things. We get to witness the heroics of Songbird, the return of the Green Goblin, a lot of cool fights (Swordsman versus Venom, Swordsman versus Green Goblin, Moonstone versus Penance) and we get to see mind-controlling rogues almost destroy the Thunderbolts.

A lot of things happen in this comic and it was a fun ride. It got me interested in knowing more about Songbird and Penance. I think Ellis did a very good job of making this title more interesting. The art by Deodato Jr. is excellent, with a lot of detail and amazing fight scenes.

This comic is not only worth reading, but it made "Thunderbolts: Faith in Monsters" worth reading too.

Flight Vol. 1

2010-04-17T22:34:00.002-04:00

Flight is an anthology published by Image comics. The idea is to have young creators make short stories about flight. There are six volumes out there and this is the first one. I enjoyed reading it. The nice thing about anthologies is that if you don't like one story, the story is short enough to not matter and if you like one story, you can look for more things from that author online. This anthology has several good stories, I liked both stories written by Kibuishi, the editor of the comic. Both of them were funny. Near the end of the book there's another story I liked a lot, it is called "The Bowl". It is a nice story told without words, the art is very strong and the author, Clio Chang, was able to express complex things through her art. Other stories I liked include "Hugo Earhart" by Jake Parker, "Tug McTaggart, Circus Detective" by Phil Cravenand "The Maiden and the River Spirit" by Derek Kirk Kim.

A good comic, worth checking out.

Dark Knight Returns

2010-04-17T22:24:00.002-04:00

Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller.

This is one of the first graphic novels I read. I read it in High School, about ten years ago. Today I read it for the first time since then. It was interesting seeing how much denser it is than most comics nowadays. It took me over three hours, which is about double what it would take to read the same number of Walking Dead pages. A lot of the pages are full of panels, there are very few splash pages, no double splashes and almost every panel has writing in it. I love to see narration during fighting sequences (something not done much since) and this book has great narration from Batman whenever he is fighting. It is so cool to see what he thinks and I also enjoy that the narration is sometimes repetitive, such as "Lucky old man". Being repetitive makes sense, because that is how we talk and think.

The first time I read this book I really enjoyed the fight between Batman and Superman. This time, I feel like I enjoyed many other things. I like how it uses news channels to give us the information about what shape the world is in. I like how crazy the Joker is, I like how each issue has a different menace, but it all seems natural, as part of a bigger story. I like how there is constant debate over whether Batman is a good thing.

The beginning of this comic is very strange, as the mutants are weird villains, however, by the second issue I got into the comic, once the new Robin was introduced and the subplots were starting to form.

This is a great comic, worthy of the praise it gets.

Various Single Issues

2010-04-16T21:06:00.004-04:00

Shield #1 by Jonathan Hickman and Dustin Weaver.
The best single issue I've read in a long time. For almost a month, I hadn't read anything that made me excited about comics, but then I read this issue and my faith in comicdom was back. The comic is just a blast of fun. We get to meet Imhotep 2000 years ago defending us from aliens, we get to see a Chinese warrior fight an eternal, we get to see Galileo saving us from Galactus, Leonardo Da Vinci in a jetpack.

The premise is that S.H.I.E.L.D is an organization that has existed for a long time and it has protected the planet from danger and this leads us to all sorts of fun snippets from the past. The story is set in 1953 where Leonid is brought to the Immortal city (a city under Rome). Not much is revealed about him, but I am sure more will come in future issues.
I highly recommend this issue and I am looking forward to more from this series.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 #34 by Brad Meltzer and Georges Jeanty.
After a series of great Buffy issues we get this one which is above average. The issue is very sexualized and while Jeanty does a great job depicting sex and making the story flow nicely from panel to panel, the premise of this issue is not something I like too much. The story is becoming more and more magical, which has been a trend since Season 4 of Buffy, but what made Buffy great at first was the interpersonal relationships between the characters and I fear we are going to far away from that. In any case, I can't complain too much, because I love having Buffy and Angel together.

Solid issue. I think the issue will be controversial, given that Buffy is a popular brand and this issue is definitely in the border between pornographic and artistic. I think Jeanty did a fantastic job, but I could see parents complaining about their kids reading this.

Nemesis: The Impostors #2 by Ivan Brandon and Cliff Richards.
I really liked the first issue and all the questions it brought up, but I wasn't into this issue that much because I had forgot what questions were brought up earlier. I am starting to feel lost because I hadn't read the previous miniseries and it seems like I am losing out on the fun by not knowing much of the backstory.

Despite my lack of knowledge of this character, this particular issue works pretty great as a single issue. It has a cool fight against Batman, it has a nice escape and it makes one think about identities. Batman, is not Bruce Wayne anymore, he is Dick Grayson, so when Nemesis tells him "You're not Batman", he is actually right. I thought the artwork was great. I still don't know how this artist is the same artist that drew mediocre Buffy issues. Maybe this explains why inkers are important.

Chip #1 by Richard Moore.
This is a cute little story about a tiny gargoyle that wants to be scary. This is the first of two issues and I am looking forward to the next issue. A good read.

Recent Spider-Man Issues

2010-04-16T20:36:00.003-04:00

Amazing Spider-Man #622 by Greg Weisman, Luke Ross, Fred Van Lente and Joe Quinones.
I love the TV cartoon "Spectacular Spider-Man" written by Greg Weisman, I was happy to find that his TV writing translated well into a great story about Flash Thompson. In the last couple of years, there have been a couple of very good Flash stories in the Spider-Man comic and I am happy to have them. We get Spidey three times a month, so I don't mind this issue not having the presence of Spidey be important. However, for those that would get bothered by this, there is a nice back up issue written by Van Lente, a writer I love when it comes to Spider-Man.
I should also point out that the art by Luke Ross was very good. Luke Ross was a great penciller for Spider-Man in the early 90s and while his style has changed, he still draws a great Spidey.

Amazing Spider-Man #623 by Mark Waid and Paul Azaceta with a great Michael Lark cover.
The cover for this issue is wonderful. It is my favorite Spider-Man cover. The issue itself is pretty good. I don't like how Azaceta draws Spidey, but he draws good sequences and he does a great job drawing the Vulture. This issue is the first of a two-parter.

Amazing Spider-Man #624 by Mark Waid and Paul Azaceta.
This issue is the second part. We get to see how Spidey defeats the Vulture (mostly by convincing him to stop attacking him and J Jonah). The second half of the issue has Peter losing his job and his reputation after J Jonah denounces him for fraud in a picture that Peter PhotoShopped to save J Jonah's political situation. It was interesting to see an honest side to J Jonah, including how bad he felt over the aid that lost his life to protect him. However it was very sad to see Peter go down so low, over a small mistake.
I am looking forward to the next issue, however I didn't renew my subscription in time, so the next issue I will receive is supposed to be #627, I already got my comic book store to order #626, but #625 is out of print, so I'll have to find it somewhere.

Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #61 by Paul Tobin and Christian Nauck.
I have been enjoying this series very much up to the last couple of issues. This issue explains why Chat has been acting so weird and in doing so makes the rpevious issues a bit better. The comic is going from being $2.99 to $3.99 and for the jump they are going to renumber, which makes this the last issue of this series. The issue was pretty good, but it wasn't what one would expect of a final issue (the numbering is also weird in that respect). The next issue, which will be labeled #1, is meant to follow the story developing here, but they did manage to make it more accessible to new readers by having Peter no longer in a relationship.
I like how this comic dealt with Emma Frost and I really like the character of Chat. I am looking forward to more issues of this comic.

Web of Spider-Man #6 by Fred Van Lente, Jefte Palo, Ron Frenz, Tom DeFalco, Zeb Wells and Xurxo Penalta.
The first story is about the origin of the Lizard. I thought the story was pretty good, not great, but not bad. The art was very good and that made it worthwhile. The Spider-Girl story was average. I want to know more about Black Tarantula, he is an interesting guy. The third story was a prelude to a Lizard story to come in Amazing Spider-Man. The issue was average. Maybe I made a mistake by coming back to buying this series after I left it for two issues (I skipped issues 4 and 5).

Web of Spider-Man #7 by Fred Van Lente, Phillipe Briones, Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz, Joe Casey and Jim Mahfood.
The first story is pretty good. I have high expectations for stories written by Van Lente as he has written some of my favorite Spidey stories this year and he wrote a cool origin story for Rhino. This Kraven story wasn't great.
The Spider-Girl story is actually good, with an interesting villain called "Wild Card". Wild Card seems like a cool guy and somehow I think it is Peter Parker trying to get his daughter out of the gang war. This issue really makes me consider buying Spider-Girl #1. In fact, I think I will.
I was excited to see that the last story would be about PaperDoll. While the paparazzi arc in the #560s of Amazing Spider-Man wasn't critically acclaimed, I really liked it. I loved the art, I thought the villain was interesting, and I loved seeing the ethical issues for Peter in working as a paparazzi. With all that in mind, I was looking forward to reading this story by Joe Casey. While the story wasn't bad, the art threw me out of the story often, as the art is very strange. One thing I liked about the art was the sound effects, specially the "Twip" for when Spidey is throwing webbing.
Overall, the issue wasn't great. I won't stop buying this comic, mainly because it is changing its style from #8 forward, by no longer telling origin stories and going more for new stories.

Recent Single Issues from Image Comics

2010-04-16T19:40:00.003-04:00

Haunt #6 by Robert Kirkman, Greg Capullo and Todd McFarlane.
I liked this issue. It takes a detour from the main story, by giving us background information on the woman introduced in the last issue. She was Kurt's lover. The issue is pretty good.

Turf #1 by Jonathan Ross and Tommy Lee Edwards.
This issue came out in a very strong week for new comics with Shield and Codebreakers coming out. I liked this more than Codebreakers but Shield was my favorite by far. This issue has a lot of potential, because I really liked Eddie and since it seems that Eddie will be the main character, it seems like I will enjoy this comic. I am not enthused about aliens, but I am digging the beautiful artwork, the noir feel and the vampires. It seems like aliens, detectives, vampires and 1930s won't mix that well, but since the first issue was so good, I have high expectations for the rest of the series. This is one of those stories that have to be told in comic book form.

Chew #10 by John Layman and Rob Guillory.
Chew is a hilarious comic book and I have been loving it. This issue wraps up the second story arc and the issue is strong, however it isn't as funny as usual. I have high hopes for the next arc because now we know more about the main villain.
It was interesting for me to find that the tiny governor had good intentions and wasn't bad as I thought he was. He was just trying to make his island wealthier.
Once more, I should point out that the artist is fantastic. Guillory is the perfect fit for this comic.

Recent Single Issues from BOOM Studios

2010-04-16T19:11:00.004-04:00

Irredeemable #12 by Mark Waid and Peter Krause.
This issue was quite good. Every time I have hope that Plutonian will be good again, I get to see him do something terrible. However, the comic is more about the Paradigm, then Plutonian and the Paradigm gets in deep trouble now that the US military is going against them. We find out there is a way to defeat the Plutonian (even though, Survivor already thinks he can do it himself) and that Bette knew all along. She feels guilty about not saying it before, having the weight of millions of deaths on her shoulders must be tough to overcome.
The comic continues to be great. I love it.

Codebreakers #1 by Carey Malloy and Scott Godlewski.
The issue is a strong first issue. There's good dialogue and the art is very good. The issue is about a group of FBI agents whose job is to crack codes. One of them killed himself in the middle of the issue and the boss doesn't think that makes sense, so he goes out to look for him, believing he was kidnapped. It was a very good first issue, but it came out in the same week as Turf and Shield, two comics that were even better.

Irredeemable: Special #1 by Mark Waid, Howard Chaykin, Paul Azaceta and Emma Rios.
This special issue contains three stories involving characters in the "Irredeemable Universe". The first story is about Hornet, which is kind of a Batman analogue in this world. In the first issue of Irredeemable he gets killed and we finally find out a little bit more about this character here. It was nice to get to know the character if only for eight pages.
The second story is about Kaidan. It was not great. It had the standard idea of self sacrifice being the key to defeat a villain. The third story was about Max Damage, the main character in the spinoff series "Incorruptible". Here we get to find out how Max and Jailbait got to meet each other. It was an okay story, but since I don't read Incorruptible it wasn't that important to me.
The issue is not worth checking out, in my opinion. The only story that enhances the story in the Irredeemable comic is the Hornet story, but I imagine that the key point in the story will be revealed in the main series anyway.

Anthology Single Issues

2010-04-16T18:44:00.002-04:00

These are single issue anthologies I read recently:

The Mystic Hands of Doctor Strange
These comic contains four stories. The first one is written by Kieron Gillen and Frazer Irving, it is called "The Cure" and it is pretty good. Doctor Strange has a difficult dilemma and his solution is interesting. The story is 22 pages long and works well as an issue. The second story, "Melancholia" is written by Peter Milligan and Frank Brunner. The story is a nice short story about helping oneself forgive past sins. The third story, "So this is how it feels..." by Ted McKeever was strange. I didn't get it. The fourth story was not a comic, but prose with a couple of illustrations. The prose was done by Mike Carey and it was a great story. The few illustrations were made by Marcos Martin and he did a great job.
Overall, a good comic. It contains four stories and 48 pages for the price of one story. I even like the black and white, I think it works well with Dr. Strange.

Breaking into Marvel Comics Parts I and II.
The idea of these comics was to showcase the talent that C.B. Cebulski found around the world. Each issue contains six stories and then in the back of the issue we get a few comments by Cebulski about what he looks for in artists and we also get very short interviews with some of the artists. These extras were good but not great, however since we got 12 stories I was happy with the price of the comic books.
Most of the stories were average, but there was one I liked a lot. That one was written by Bendis with art by Christian Nauck. It is called "Modern Love" and it is about a romance that Iron Fist had with Spider-Woman. It was funny and well done. Very good short story. I was surprised to find out that of all the stories in the first issue, I had read issues of the heroes (or villains) in them, Spider-Man, Bullseye, X-Men, Iron Fist, Runaways and Iron Man. I would like to say that I really liked the art by Damion Hendricks on the Spider-Man story. His art suits Spider-Man perfectly. The second issue had no memorable story for me, but at the time I enjoyed reading it.
The issues were worth reading but they didn't achieve greatness.

Exit Wounds

2010-04-16T18:35:00.002-04:00

Exit Wounds by Rutu Modan.

Exit Wounds is the story of a young man who is just told by a young woman that his father might have died in a recent terrorist attack. The man and the woman try to find out whether the man died or not and in the process they start having feelings for each other.

The book is very good. I found it very interesting to see how the characters react to tragedy in the book. It was surprising to see how easy everyone talks about terrorist attacks, since it is part of everyday life in Israel, people don't seem scared or angry when they talk about the violence.

The comic focuses on these two characters and I feel like we get to know them very well. I thought Modan did a great job with the artwork and with the writing in this comic.

Asterios Polyp

2010-04-16T18:23:00.002-04:00

Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli.

This book is considered by many to be the best of 2009. Mazzucchelli does a fantastic job with all aspects of the artwork, making the story follow perfectly from panel to panel, making use of color to tell us different things and he also uses the lettering to give each character their own voice. The comic is full of wonderful parts where words aren't needed, showing why this comic had to be done as a comic and not prose. I particularly love a chapter near the beginning about how we perceive things in our own unique way and how we influence the perceptions of those around us. This is done brilliantly by drawing different characters in very different styles, having Asterios drawn in a clean geometric form (arms being cylinders), while having Hana (his wife)drawn with lots of red lines. The comic also has a great chapter, where it gives us another take of the Orpheus myth. It works great during the story and it is beautifully illustrated.

This book gets a lot of attention for its fantastic visual storytelling, but the writing is also very good. I thought the story was very strong (and memorable) and I enjoyed the dialogue. It had funny moments and it had interesting discussions about different things in life.

Asterios Polyp, the character, changes gradually during the course of the book and we get to see his path. I really enjoyed the journey of reading this book. I highly recommend this comic.

Thunderbolts: Faith in Monsters (Vol. 1)

2010-03-06T13:31:00.002-05:00

Thunderbolts: Faith in Monsters (Vol.1) by Warren Ellis and Mike Deodato Jr. collects issues 110-115 of Thunderbolts.

The Thunderbolts are a group of super-villains that are trying to redeem themselves by being superheroes. They work for the government and with the Civil War going on in the Marvel Universe, the government has chosen a new leader, Norman Osborn, for the group and new teammates, Bullseye, Venom and Moonstone, all of which are evil. However the government really needs talented people to arrest the superheroes that don't to register.

I've heard great things about this comic and the author Warren Ellis, an author that wrote the series of Nextwave which I recently read, and liked a lot. The book is pretty good, but it is not great. It has some fun moments and it is interesting to see a crazy person in charge of something so dangerous, however, besides Norman Osborn, I care little about the rest of the characters.

The art is pretty good, there is a really cool sequence where American Eagle fights Swordsman and that fight sequence is amazing. The artist plays with the panels and really enhances the scene by making it feel dynamic without sacrificing great detail in the scene. I like how Deodato plays with the panels, creating different transitions. I know that sometimes it is the writer who instructs such decisions with panels, but I've seen Deodato do this with other writers, so I am inclined to think that it was his idea.

The comic is good, showing us different Marvel characters and creating interesting situations. The art is great. However I am not convinced that this comic is a must read, it is a good comic that is forgettable. Good but not great. Almost reaches 4 stars, but it doesn't make it.

Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E

2010-03-06T13:16:00.002-05:00

Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E by Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen collects issues 1 through 12 of Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E.

Nextwave is a group of C-list superheroes that worked for H.A.T.E (Highest Anti-Terrorism Effort), but broke off when they found out that H.A.T.E was sponsored by the Beyond Corporation, a front for a terrorist organization called S.I.L.E.N.C.E. Nextwave then looks for the weapons of mass destruction developed by the Beyond Corporation and tries to destroy them, in the way they accidentally destroy cities and run into all sorts of trouble. The group gets to fight a giant dragon, a corrupt Transformers-like cop, mindless lava beasts, a dinosaur, snakes on a plane, hamburger-shooting-Elvis-clones, among many other crazy over the top villains.

One thing I like about the comic, is that its story arcs are two issues long. While there is an overall story arc for the 12 issues, each adventure takes two issues. It is nice to read a comic that doesn't stretch (decompress) its stories. The comic also plays a lot with its medium, there is a sequence where we get six double-splashes in a row, not only displaying the great artwork by Immonen showcasing hundreds of funny villains, but also making fun of the overuse of double splashes in some comics. I like how it makes fun of titles, by sometimes having the tile of the comic multiple times throughout the issues. The issue with the 6 double-splashes has the tile at least 8 times (one for every double-splash, one at the beginning and one at the end), while other issues also have it 3 or 4 times.

The art is really good. I like that Immonen has a loose style but is still able to show a lot of detail. The scenes are very clean and they have a very nice cartoon look. A great artist was needed to make all the goofy villains work. I really like the designs for the villains.

Overall, this is a very funny comic that makes a lot of jokes about the medium and tells good stories. A great comic.

More Single Issues

2010-03-06T13:04:00.002-05:00

Casanova #1 and #2 by Matt Fraction and Gabriel Bá.

I had heard great things about this comic, so I had to try it out. The comic is all over the place and hard to understand at times. It took me a while to get into the style. I like the art and I like how the characters break the fourth wall to give us some jokes, however I didn't get interested in the characters.
While I can see why some people would love this series, it is not my cup of tea. I won't read the next issues, I just didn't get excited about what was going on.

Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #60 by Paul Tobin and Christian Nauck.

I have been loving the Marvel Adventures Spider-man, however, this issue is not very good. While it was cool seeing Spidey with a badge and I am still wondering how Chat lost her memory, I just wasn't into this issue as much as before. Spidey was very funny and it was very Peter Parker-y for Spider-Man to mess up this new found opportunity, however I am not a big fan of my hero messing up an opportunity so quickly.
The next issue is the last of the series, deciding to renumber after it, going back to #1. I noticed that #1 will be $3.99 instead of $2.99, so maybe that's the reason for the renumbering, that's unfortunate, but maybe this will inspire them to make an extra good last issue and then an extra good first issue.

Recent Single Issues

2010-03-04T01:51:00.003-05:00

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 #32 by Brad Meltzer and Georges Jeanty.

After a year long of mediocre stories, Buffy got back on track last month with issue #31 and this issue is also great. I liked this issue even more, mainly because I am emotionally invested on the characters. Issue #31 made me laugh a lot and it was great, but this issue was so good, I flew past it and then read it again to see if I missed anything. Angel is my favorite characters in the Buffy Verse, so having him back was awesome.
A very good issue, I am looking forward to getting more Buffy comics.

Chew #9 by John Layman and Rob Guillory.

This series is just great. Each issue is fun, works as a solo issue and works as a part for a bigger story. I love that Layman and Guillory do that. I also like how they play with form. Every issue has a prologue, but issue 8 had more than one (it had three if I remember correctly), and not this issue has more than one cliffhanger, in fact it has three. The issue is packed with jokes. I can't say enough about how much I like Guillory's art, without his art I don't think I would love this book. The art makes the jokes funnier. It is nice to see a comic not go for ultra realistic, but use the comic form to enhance the stories with good visual storytelling.
Chew is a fantastic ongoing series. I highly recommend it.

Obamouse by Joe Dunn and Ben Dunn.

When I read the solicits for Obamouse, solicits which talked about Hen Beck, Sarah Penguin, Joe Bison, John McCrane, Steven Colbear, etc. I decided I had to buy the comic. The comic is an independent, it is in black and white and has simple lettering, however the art is pretty good. The issue contains three stories. One is Obamouse as a spy trying to stop Owl Caida and the Fat Cat. He succeeds somehow, I think this was poorly written. The second story is where all the funny animal versions of famous political figures come into play. It has Obamouse watching the jokes about him on TV, then has him talk to John McCrane about the economy among other things. It wasn't great, but it has some funny moments and it was closer to what I imagined the comic would be. This was the longest story. The third story has Obamouse in another planet. Asrah Naplin (note that it is an anagram of Sarah Palin) explains to him how the culture in the planet was destroyed by the partisands. It was interesting reading how polarization can hurt the country, but overall there wasn't much weight behind the words. A simple story that led nowhere.
The issue wasn't good, but the penciling was well done and it had some funny moments.

Nemesis: The Impostors #1 by Ivan Brandon and Cliff Richards.

I think the issue was great. I think it is a great first issue because it generated a lot of questions and it makes me want to read more to find out what is going on. The narrative structure is weird as at times it is unclear whether what is on the panel is what is happening now or someone telling a story. Also, it seems that the issue begins midway through the story and later one we find out how we got to where the issue starts. It is confusing, however, it intrigued me.
The art in this comic was very good. I am surprised because I wasn't in love with Cliff Richards when he drew in the Buffy comic, but here I think he does a great job. Maybe he just does better with darker tones in the colors, but I liked his artwork.
A great first issue, we'll have to wait to see how good the miniseries is.

Amazing Spider-Man #621 by Dan Slott and Michael Lark.

I liked this issue. The issue was a good one shot, with a fun adventure. It is always good to see Black Cat and I am interested on seeing when Aunt May will go back to being nice. The art was great. Michael Lark, one of my favorite artists for noir stories, worked before on Daredevil, a great run with Ed Brubaker. His style translated well for Spider-Man, although it is good that is only for one issue, as his style is not optimistic enough for a long run with Spidey. I here he will be back for a four issue story by Joe Kelly around issue #634. It should be cool, I love his art.

Various Single Issues

2010-03-03T01:17:00.006-05:00

Marvels: Eye of the Camera #6 by Kurt Busiek, Roger Stern and Jay Anacleto.

This is the final issue in a six part miniseries. I read the first five issues about 6 months ago and I kept waiting for this issue to come out. The issue was quite good, giving us the back story on Maggie (from the mutant issue on the original Marvels) and giving a nice ending to the series. I think this series was worth it. It is not as good as the original, but it is a nice comic analyzing superheroes. I enjoyed it a lot. The artwork was great and while the issue itself is not fantastic, overall, the miniseries was very good.

Irredeemable #11 by Mark Waid and Peter Krause.

Now that the Plutonian is vulnerable, the comic is getting better and better. We found out about the past between Bette Noir and Plutonian and we found out some of the bad things Plutonian did as a child. The story is great and the art is very good (although, I think Krause is not that good on close ups as he is on the rest). A great series that I recommend people to check out.

Daredevil #226 by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli.

The last issue of the Frank Miller run that I hadn't read (his last issue was 233). Although I have not read Daredevil: Man of Fear, I'd say that is outside the run. This issue is a pretty good one-shot. It sets up the attraction that Foggy has for Matt's girlfriend, it has the Gladiator (a character who shouldn't be interesting but Miller and Brubaker have made interesting) and it has great art by Mazzucchelli.
It was worth reading. A nice one shot before the masterpiece that is Daredevil: Born Again.

Amazing Spider-Man #620 by Dan Slott, Marcos Martin and Javier Pulido.

The third issue in the three part story on Mysterio. I think the issue was pretty good. It was nice to see Mysterio be a competent villain and I liked the jokes. The art was great, I was surprised the art was consistent even though there were two artists. I think Marcos Martin is great when it comes to drawing Spider-Man.

Haunt #5 by Robert Kirkman, Ryan Ottley and Todd McFarlane.

The issue is good. An important character dies, changing the scene quite a bit and we find out a bit more about the past of the ghost. It is a bit surprising to me that there is almost no back story to the main character, but a lot of back story to the ghost character. Hopefully we'll find out more to get to be interested in the characters more.
I am starting to have second doubts about continuing with these series. It is not that it is bad, but I think that it is the weakest of the series I get monthly. I will give it a few more issues.
Not a recommended series, but not bad.

Walking Dead: What We Become (Vol. 10)

2010-02-21T20:10:00.002-05:00

Walking Dead: What We Become (Vol. 10) consists of issues 55 through 60 of Walking Dead.

As I mentioned before in review for Volume 11:
"Walking Dead is a really good ongoing series about the consequences of a zombie outbreak. Instead of focusing on a zombie outbreak and seeing how the protagonists survive, in this comic we get to see what happens over a long period of time. The greatest aspect of Walking Dead is that anything can happen to the characters, the status quo changes all the time."

Now, let's talk about this volume in particular. We get to see a character we hadn't seen since Volume 1. The bad news is that now this character is depressed as his son became a zombie. In this volume we learn more about the consequences of using guns to kill zombies, by seeing a huge group of zombies become attracted to our heroes and we get to see more tension between the humans, in this case seeing Rick and Abraham square it off.

The comic continues to be good and while it moves slowly, it reads quickly and it is always a pleasure for me to read.
Great series.

Love and Rockets: Death of Speedy (Vol. 7)

2010-02-21T19:53:00.005-05:00

Love and Rockets: Death of Speedy (Vol. 7) by Jaime Hernandez.

Love and Rockets is a famous independent comic created by "Los Bros" Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez. Jaime's stories revolve around Maggie, a teenager in a California town, while Gilbert's stories revolve around Luba, a woman in Mexico.

Death of Speedy collects the three comics relating to Speedy's death and a few other issues involving Maggie, Hopey and other characters.

There are many things I really like about this comic. One thing I love is the dialogue. It sounds very real to me. I grew up in Mexico and I loved seeing the characters use Mexican phrases here and there. I love how real the characters act and how it shows that people can make mistakes. The scene right after Speedy's death is a progression of panels that are unforgettable. Visually stunning and powerful.

I love the art. It is clean and very expressive. It makes use of the medium to tell us things with the art that we wouldn't have noted with just reading and quick glimpses of the drawings.

Reading this book made want to read "Locas" which compiles all the Maggie stories from Jaime (there are two big volumes now). I am planning on reading that soon. I am looking forward to it.

This is fantastic comic, I highly recommend it.

Villains United

2010-02-21T19:41:00.002-05:00

Villains United by Gail Simone and Dale Eaglesham.

Villains United was a miniseries leading up to the big DC event "Infinite Crisis". The book is also a precursor to Secret Six, as the main characters here are the main characters in the ongoing series "Secret Six".

There are many things I like about this book. It has a great cast of characters, it has humor and it has great art. However, I don't like that the story seems to be just build up for another story and not a stand alone book.

The story is that Luthor wants to create a society of villains. Six C-list villains refuse to be on the society and they form an alliance. From then on, the fun begins with adventures involving these six characters. Since they are villains, anything can happen.

I like this book, but I think DC fans that know about Infinite Crisis would like it more.

X-Men: Magneto Testament

2010-02-21T19:27:00.003-05:00

X-Men: Magneto Testament by Greg Pak and Carmine Di Giandomenico consists of issues 1 through 5 of X-Men: Magneto Testament.

This miniseries tells the story of a young Magneto and his holocaust experience as a teenager. The comic doesn't really show any superpowers, hence the X-Men in the title can be deceiving. The story could very well be about any Jewish teenager growing up in World War II Germany.

The book is very sad, showing uncountable injustice and how a young men overcomes adversity. The art is great, transporting us to another time and making the surroundings seem real. The artist is great at showing facial expressions. He is also great at drawing very rich backgrounds.

This is a fantastic comic. I hope the X-Men in the title attracts more readers than it dissuades (unfortunately, I think having X-Men in the title would make many people not take this book seriously).

I highly recommend this comic.

Five Fists of Science

2010-02-21T19:20:00.003-05:00

Five Fists of Science by Matt Fraction and Steven Sanders.

I was pretty excited about this comic when I saw Tesla and Twain on the cover. The comic is supposed to be funny by having Twain make wisecracks and have Tesla use his scientific prowess to make cool robots, or make cool weapons to stop criminals.

The comic is funny at times, specially with Tesla's quirks. However, the story is not very interesting and overall I was underwhelmed with this tale.

I did like the art and there are many cool panels in this book. It is just not a book I would recommend.

Dark Avengers: Assemble (Vol. 1)

2010-02-20T15:14:00.003-05:00

Dark Avengers: Assemble (Vol. 1) by Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Deodato Jr. consists of isses 1-6 of Dark Avengers.

At the end of the big event Secret Invasion, Iron Man was fired from his position and the job was given to Norman Osborn. Norman Osborn got this job because he became famous as the killer of the Skrull Queen and became a world hero even though he was previously a super villain (Green Goblin). This comic book series tells the story of how Osborn changes S.H.I.E.L.D to H.A.M.M.E.R, takes control of Avengers tower (previously owned by Tony Stark, Iron Man) and forms a new team of Avengers. The new team consists of villains such as Bullseye and Venom. It also consists of some heroes which are duped to believing Osborn is good.

The main reason I found this comic fun was that we get to follow Osborn around. He is arrogant, manipulative and very intelligent. I like reading about an intelligent villain. I've always considered Osborn to be the main villain in the Spider-Man universe, so seeing him in complete control makes for fun reading, specially since the writer, Bendis, likes to write a lot of dialogue.

I like the unstable element of having a psycopath in charge and having an extremely powerful character as a member of the Dark Avengers (The Sentry). I also like to see Doom in a couple of the issues.

A pretty good series. I didn't like Secret Invasion, but this comic is a good consequence of that bad story.

Human Target: Chance Meetings

2010-02-20T14:58:00.003-05:00

Human Target: Chance Meetings by Peter Milligan, Edvin Biukovic and Javier Pulido consists of issues 1-4 of Human Target and the graphic novel Human Target: Final Cut.

I got this comic as a present, since my wife and I enjoy the TV show. I had heard that in the comic, Christopher Chance (the main character) protects his employers by disguising himself as his employers, making himself a human target. I thought this was a ridiculous idea, however, as I started reading this comic, I quickly became interested in the main character and thought the premise was brilliant.

The movie Mission Impossible uses this idea of perfect masks to disguise someone, but in the comic, Chance not only wears a mask, but he acts like his character. He changes his voice, changes what he eats, he really becomes the person he's trying to become. After months of playing that role, he even has trouble coming back to being Christopher Chance. This is what made me very interested in the story as it became an study on one's identity.

This collection consists of two stories. The first one is a complicated story involving a black priest that tries to save a community from drugs, a house wife/ assassin that is trying to kill Chance and identity issues both in Chance and in his understudy Tom. I really liked this story. The plot kept me interested in what would happen next, while the identity issues made the story be more than just a mystery.

The second story involves actors hiring Chance to find a kidnapped kid. The kid is a child star. This story plays around with how many people in the acting world have identity issues and it is also an interesting whodunit. I liked it a lot.

With respect to the art, the art in the first story was better than the second one. I really liked the way the book looks. Biukovic was a great artist. It is sad that he died so young (he died in 1999, at the age of 30).

A great comic, I highly recommend it.

Batman: The Killing Joke

2010-02-15T22:47:00.002-05:00

Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland is a one-shot prestige format comic book.

The Killing Joke is a very famous comic. It gives us a glimpse into the Joker's origin and therefore humanizes the character a bit. In a way it also humanizes Batman, by seeing his reaction to the Joker's joke (the joke, by the way, is very funny).

I was underwhelmed with this comic, as it is very famous and Tim Burton listed it as a big influence for the Batman movie. I think Alan Moore is the best comic book writer, so I was expecting this book to be out of this world. It isn't.

This comic is very good and it is worth reading, but it is not worth buying for more than $5. I would suggest getting it in the trade paperback with Alan Moore's DC stories, which includes "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?".

Secret Six: Unhinged (Vol. 1)

2010-02-15T21:39:00.004-05:00

Secret Six: Unhinged (Vol. 1) by Gail Simone and Nicola Scott consists of issues 1 thorugh 7 of Secret Six.

The Secret Six is a comic about six villains that got together to work as a team of mercenaries. They do good things and bad things, but the bottom line is money. This makes for a set of interesting characters that give us some laughs and sometimes make us love the characters and sometimes makes us hate them. This is something I like about the group a lot.

The group of characters were introduced in a miniseries called "Villains United", a series I didn't like, but even though I didn't like it, I enjoyed the character interactions and since Secret Six was getting stellar reviews, I had to read Secret Six.

This particular story, "Unhinged", has an interesting plot. It introduces a mysterious villain in the first issue and a mystery quest for our "heroes". The comic consists of 7 issues, all of which are about this mystery quest and this mystery villain (which I won't spoil). I'll mention that the quest and the villain are great and the character interactions are unexpected and enjoyable. However, I think the ending wasn't very strong. Surprisingly, even though it was 7 issues long, the end felt rushed. I had to reread the pages a few times to figure out what went on, but what happens is a bit nonsensical and unlikely.

One very positive thing about this book, is that the characters are much more interesting that I would imagine they would be. Bane is honorable and I find almost everything he says funny (although he doesn't realize it), Catman strives for redemption, Deadshot is very laid back but still cares a lot for his group, Ragdoll always has a funny thing to say. It is a fun bunch to read about.

I should point out that Nicola Scott, the artist, does a really good job with this story. The art is full of details, many pages with multiple villains and even when pages have characters seen from very far it still looks good (I am often disappointed with how a character looks overly cartoony when seen from afar). Great art.

I was disappointed with the conclusion to the story arc, but overall the comic was very good.

Walk In

2010-02-13T15:26:00.003-05:00

Walk In by Jeff Parker, Dave Stewart and Ashish Padlekar consists of the first six issues of Dave Stewart's Walk In.

I bought this book because I got it for $2 since Virgin Comics went out of business. I was also confused by thinking the celebrity writer was Ray Parker (Darth Maul), however, the celebrity writer is Dave Stewart and Jeff Parker is the actual writer. I now know Jeff Parker is well known among comic fans (he writes Agents of Atlas, Underground), so I got a little more excited about having this book and overcame knowing the book is from a publishing company that no longer exists.

The comic is very good. We have a fun protagonist that works in a strip club "reading minds". Just reading about this character in the strip club and the funny things that occur was good enough for me, but the comic does have a deeper plot and an interesting story to tell. I won't spoil it, but I enjoyed it a lot.

The art was quite good. I was surprised to see that for the last issue, the writer does the art and he does a very good job. I thought the first five issues are strong enough for a story and at first I was skeptical of a sixth issue making the end too long, but the sixth issue made the series better. Let's just say that you can never go wrong with talking bears.

I was pleasantly surprised with this comic. I am very happy I read it. Good read to start the day.

John Woo's Seven Brothers: The Blood that Runs (Vol. 2)

2010-02-13T02:04:00.004-05:00

John Woo's Seven Brothers: The Blood That Runs (Vol. 2) by Ben Raab, Deric Hughes and Edison George.

The first 7 Brothers miniseries was pretty good and it showed the origin of these characters. While the characters don't seem to have any connection, they all have a common ancestor, an ancestor who was a wizard. They each have a different power, one can become a dragon, another one is fast, etcetera. In this collection, we find out a little back story involving Rachel (the sister that got them together), which leads to the back story of the villain.

I like how each issue begins with a flashback and I thought the art was good. However, I thought the story wasn't that good and the comic felt to make me care about what would happen. While they trimmed the characters down (they had three brothers not be able to join on the adventure for personal reasons), they still didn't get to give us a better sense of the characters except for Rachel and the Chief.

With respect to the art, I thought it was very good. The art is very effective in showing us how the powers work. I didn't love how one dragon was drawn, but overall the art was very good.

Not a bad read, but not a great one either.

Dark Avengers: Ares

2010-02-13T01:49:00.002-05:00

Dark Avengers: Ares by Kieron Gillen and Manuel Garcia. Dark Avengers: Ares issues 1-3.

The God of War Ares is asked to select a few soldiers from H.A.M.M.E.R.'s military to train. Osborn reasons that Ares being the God of War would have a lot to teach. The first issue is a very good one that show us what kind of character Ares is, specially his speech where he talks about how his view of war is so different from Athena's version. The second and third issue involve the specific mission that Ares has to accomplish, which I won't spoil.

I liked the comic quite a bit. There is plenty of humor and it made Ares interesting to me. I had seen the character before in other titles, but he was never that interesting until know. The main thing for me was to see that he is honorable, I particularly like the following quote:
"I am the God of War...The God of Slaughter...Even the God of Murder.
But I am not the God of Sadism."

I think the story was very good. This comic was a pleasant surprise.

Fables: The Great Fables Crossover (Vol. 13)

2010-02-13T01:21:00.003-05:00

Fables: The Great Fables Crossover (Vol. 13) by Bill Willingham, Matthew Sturges, Mark Buckingham and others. The trade consists of issues 83-85 of Fables, 33-35 of Jack of Fables and 1-3 of The Literals.

I love the Fables series, however I hadn't been into the latest collections. I didn't think Vol. 12 was very good and while I thought Vol. 11 was very good, the series hadn't been great in a long time. This book is great. I highly recommend it.

The comic is a crossover between Fables and Jack of Fables. It focuses on supernatural characters called "Literals" which embody different literary ideas "Mr. Revise" is the editor, there is a storyteller, there is a fallacy, there are genres (fantasy, science fiction, ...), there is Dex (deus ex machina) and many other ideas used in the magical world of fiction. The storyteller, not happy with how the world has evolved since he created it, wants to end in and start anew. Obviously, this is a big threat which must be taken care of.

I was a little worried that I would get lost because of it being a crossover with a book I don't read (Jack of Fables), however, I found myself immersed in the story and not feeling confused.

I liked how each title moved the plot in certain directions. Fables had the aspects involving the Fable Farm, Jack had the aspects involving Bigby's and Snow White's quest, while Literals had the story from the point of view of the story teller. It worked great.

My favorite part of the book was the humor. The comic is full of jokes about writing, fiction and genres. I had a blast reading the dialogue between the genres. The comic was hilarious and very interesting. I like how it makes fun of itself, while at the same time analyzing itself.

The art in the book was quite good. I think the best of the three artists is Buckingham, but the other two did a great job and there wasn't a problem for me to read issues from different artists. They had a similar style and it suited the story.

Great book, so great, I must say it again, I highly recommend it.

Ultimo Vol. 1

2010-02-13T01:14:00.002-05:00

Ultimo Vol. 1 by Takei Hiroyuki and Stan Lee consists of the first four issues of Ultimo (Shonen Jump 79-83).

Ultimo is a manga created by Stan Lee. I decided to read this manga because I was interested in checking out a new Stan Lee concept. The idea behind this manga is that there is a scientist that creates two robots Ultimo and Vice which are meant to represent poor good and poor evil. His purpose is to figure out if good is more powerful than evil.

The manga moves very quickly and with a lot of exclamation points. I notice that the art doesn't have much detail on most panels, but it gets very detailed in some special panels. I think this works to great effect to create an easy to read experience. However, I don't think there's many interesting things going on in this book. We don't really get to know much about Ultimo or Vice even though the book consists of 200 pages and it turns out that Ultimo does not exactly embody "good" as he has to find a master to teach him what is good and what is evil.

I think the manga works great for younger readers, but it is not great for adult audiences. Not a book I would recommend.

The Order

2010-02-09T12:09:00.002-05:00

The Order by Matt Fraction and Barry Kitson consists of ten issues.

The Order is a comic set in the aftermath of Civil War, the big Marvel event of 2007. The situation is that SHIELD has decided that every state gets its own set of superheroes to defend it. They have the technology to give people superpowers for a year, this way they can build teams of superheroes for each state, heroes that they train for several months before letting out on the street. The Order is about the heroes selected for the state of California. Because California has many celebrities, the team has celebrities: an ex-alcoholic actor who played Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.?), a charitable sexy actress (Angelina Jolie?), a teen pop superstar singer (Britney Spears?) and a few other non celebrity characters.

Each issue centers around a character, having about 4 pages of interviews to give us a back story on them. Besides the four pages, the issues do involve all characters and the series has plenty of subplots that all reach a conclusion by the tenth issue.

I liked the comic a lot, specially how it highlighted a character in each issue and how it shows a little of how hard it can be to lead a superhero team, as often Henry (the team leader) feels frustrated and tries to get help from Stark, who himself is in charge of 50 such teams, a much harder task.

The comic has a lot of fun over the top action to complement the nice character moments. I recommend checking this book out.

Shrapnel: Aristeia Rising

2010-02-08T22:45:00.003-05:00

Shrapnel: Aristeia Rising by Zachary Sherman and Bagus Hutomo collects issues 1 through 5 of Shrapnel: Aristeia Rising.

Shrapnel is a science fiction comic in a dystopian future created by Mark Long and Nick Sagan. The story is in a future where humans have colonized the Solar System. The Solar Alliance, a powerful government is trying to conquest the different colonies (Mars, Jupiter, Venus) and in this story we get to see what happens when the Alliance goes against Venus.

The story is entertaining. I like it but I don't love it. The story doesn't have a strong ending which is probably because they are planning three stories.

The art, while very beautiful, doesn't do a very good job of telling us what's going on. The main problem with the art, might not be the artists fault as the people fight in some high technology suits and it is very hard to tell which character is which due to this. The painted art many times gets in the way of the story with images that look blurry. I usually love painted art, but in a book where there's a lot of war scenes, I would have preferred sleeker, cleaner art.

The thing I liked about this book was the price. It says 5 issues, but two of them are double sized, so you get 7 issues for the price of 5 which is a pretty good deal.

Recent Single Issues

2010-02-05T11:58:00.003-05:00

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season 8 #32 by Brad Meltzer and Georges Jeanty.

After a really good issue #31 we get an even better #32, the best since #15. Meltzer does a fantastic job in his first Buffy comic, making great use of his superhero writing experience. Buffy, who has just found out, has superpowers and Xander wants to test to see which superpowers she has. There's a really funny exchange about phasing, which is extra funny given that Joss Whedon loves the character Kitty Pride (her power is phasing). I love a panel where Warren, after finding out Buffy has superpowers, asks "think she can phase?".
While I am still not in love with Jeanty's art, he does a great job with backgrounds and with scenes that are close to the characters, I don't like how when characters are a bit far or move fast, the face has no detail and looks cartoony. I don't mind cartoony that much if it can express a little more than what it does in his art.
Fantastic issue that leaves me wishing I had the next one already to be able to read it right away.

God Complex #3 by Dan Berman, Michael Avon Oeming and John Broglia.

This is the final issue I ordered for God Complex, as I wanted to give it a three issue trial run. While the issue itself is good and left me curious to what would happen next, overall the series hasn't been what I was hoping it would be about. I was hoping the comic would be introspective, analyzing what makes mortality interesting to a God, what makes people so important and interesting, by looking at our world through the eyes of a God who shuns his immortality. The comic is a lot more about action and the issues seem to be an extended battle with nothing to make me think about. The battles are fun, but I was just hoping for a deeper book than this. For a fun romp about Gods fighting, I would rather read Incredible Hercules (which I'll start reading soon).
I liked this issue, but I am not continuing with the series, not my cup of tea.

Amazing Spider-Man #619 by Dan Slott and Marcos Martin.

This issue is the second part of the Mysterio arc. Mysterio looks really powerful and clever in this issue, although he seems to have gone too far with his illusions as Spider-Man figured out who is behind it. The scene where Spider-Man finds out reminded me of Matt Murdock finding out Kingpin is behind his fall in Daredevil #227 (first issue in the "Born Again" storyline). Since I have just read Born Again, the moment in Spider-Man felt cliché and was nowhere as powerful as Murdock's moment in DD #227.
The issue has a great cliffhanger and I am happy to see Carlie Cooper have more screen time. I was also happy to see a cop who likes Spidey and the reference to Jean DeWolffe. The issue also has fantastic art courtesy of Marcos Martin and the I am eager to read the next issue in the series. Spider-Man's comic is as good as I can remember, since they hit issue #600, the comic has been fantastic. A joy to be a Spidey fan nowadays.

Unknown Soldier: Haunted House (Vol. 1)

2010-01-30T15:27:00.003-05:00

Unknown Soldier: Haunted House (Vol. 1) written by Joshua Dysart and Alberto Ponticelli consists of issues 1 through 6 of Unknown Soldier.

I came into this book with high expectations as I've read great reviews and I am very interested in stories about Africa. The comic does not disappoint. It is sad, scary, exciting and different.

The story starts with an idealist, practical Ugandan doctor trying to help people in Northern Uganda. He is a pacifist and he is loved by the people he helps. Tragedy changes him into a soldier. This sounds like a ridiculous comic book cliché, a tragedy transforms a person into a vigilante, however the comic uses it in a new way. At almost every issue we get the notion that violence might be making things worse. The villains are monsters, but it is not clear whether violence is the way to stop them or if there's a peaceful solution. I really like that the comic keeps questioning whether violence is the way (something which comics usually take as the default answer).

The art is very well done. Ponticelli does a fantastic job of making the world feel real. It is the part of the book that makes things scary, as the visceral images bring in an extra layer of terror.

A very interesting story that makes you think of tough questions about life. I can't wait to read the next volume.

Various Single Issues

2010-01-30T01:07:00.003-05:00

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 #31 by Joss Whedon and Georges Jeanty.

The latest issue of Buffy gives hope about the future of the series. 2009 was a bad year for the comic as the quality of the stories went way down from the first two years. This issue was very good, the art was good for the most part and the dialogue was funny and interesting. An issue that gives me hope about the future of this series.

Dingo #1 by Michael Alan Nelson and Francesco Biagini.

The comic book owner at the place I buy comics convinced me to read this comic. The comic is great. The comic creates some suspense about the characters, making me want to know about their backstory. This is something that comics I love have in common. They make me want to know something that they don't reveal right away, but at the same time, it feels natural not to reveal it. In other words, I like stories that start in the middle, that is, you start reading as if you knew the characters already and then things start making sense little by little the more you read.
I should point out that I liked the art in the comic and that the issue has an awesome dog as a character. We need more awesome dogs in comic books.

Amazing Spider-Man #617 by Joe Kelly and Max Fiumara.

I liked this issue a lot. The Spider-Man comic keeps delivering great stuff. I like how Joe Kelly treats the Rhino. The Rhino had already had a really good origin story recently in Web of Spider-Man, and now we get a very good "ending" story for the Rhino.
The comic also has a back up story drawn by Javier Pulido. In the back up, we get to see a little bit more of Rhino, explaining how he fell in love. I liked the back story a lot. Well done.
Spider-Man is my favorite superhero and the issues haven't disappointed me in a long time.

Chew #8 by John Layman and Rob Guillory.

Chew is one of my favorite comics now and I get excited every time I get a new issue. It is the first issue I read whenever I get it. Issue 7 wasn't great so I was hoping this would be better. The issue is much better. We have an interesting adventure following Chu on his quest to find Poyo (a cockfighter) and we get a lot of laughs a long the way. The comic has started every issue with a short prologue and in this issue we don't get one but three prologues, another funny bit that gives the comic a world of its own. I like how the comic has a very clear identity, by having this sort of form play and by having unique art, by the hands of Rob Guillory. Guillory draws perfectly for this offbeat, funny comic. His art is instantly recognizable, I love that.
Chew is fantastic.

Irredeemable #10 by Mark Waid and Peter Krause.

I like this series a lot. This issue wasn't as interesting as others, mainly because it departs a lot from understanding Plutonian, however I can see that some things are developing. First we get to see a villain that was hinted at in the last issue and we get to see how powerful and menacing he is. Secondly, we get to see how much the Plutonian cares for Samsara, which is interesting because it seems that the comic might be shifting into going from hate to Plutonian into pity. The key thing about making Plutonian pitiable is how he was defeated recently in such a convincing manner. I don't understand why weakness can make someone more likeable, but I know it has that effect on us and I am glad that the comic seems to explore that.
I am excited about the next issue.

Amazing Spider-Man #618 by Dan Slott and Marcos Martin.

I like this issue a lot. I am always happy to be surprised in an issue and to have the surprise seem plausible (obviously in a superhero comic book, I have to stretch my imagination when considering something plausible). I like that the comic has a very Spidey feel to it and that it can be read without needing previous issues to enjoy. I also love the art. Martin makes the comic very dynamic.
This issue also got me more interested in reading Web of Spider-Man #4, as it will have the origin story for Mysterio who plays a role in this issue.
Amazing Spider-Man is a really good comic and I am glad that I get to enjoy it three times a week.

The Unwritten: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity (Vol. 1)

2010-01-23T22:23:00.003-05:00

The Unwritten: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity (Vol. 1) written by Mike Carey and Peter Gross consists of issues 1 through 5 of The Unwritten.

The Unwritten is a new series published by Vertigo. Vertigo is my favorite comic publisher*. Mike Carey has also written a comic book I liked a lot (Hellblazer: All His Engines), so between that and that issue 1 was $1, I had to give this series a try. I read the first issue a long time ago (about six months ago) and liked enough to decide to buy the trade paperback when it would come out (I usually prefer trades over issues). After reading the trade, I have to say, I love it and I can't wait to read more.

The Unwritten starts with Tommy Taylor, the son of a famous writer who wrote a series of books about a kid magician called Tommy Taylor. The author named the character of his books after his son. The books are a huge hit in the world, much like Harry Potter and after the thirteenth book the author went missing. Nobody knows where he is.

The first issue introduces the characters smoothly and it leads us to question whether fiction became reality (is Tommy Taylor, the Tommy Taylor from the books?) Throughout the story we get more questions. The comic is fun, interesting and full of questions I want answered. Exactly the kind of comic I love.

The art in this comic is terrific. Most panels have a very detailed background and Peter Gross is able to make the comic feel very different when drawing excerpts from the Tommy Taylor books compared to when drawing "real life". I love the style, he makes a world feel real and it works in an intuitive level. Without explanation, it is very clear from the beginning that what is happening is supposed to happen in a book and not in real life.

The fifth issue is interesting in that it leaves the main story on the side and tells us the story of Kipling (the writer) and how he is related to the villains. The villains in this book seem to believe in the power of the written word so they try to use writers. A very good issue that builds the atmosphere of the comic, while straying from the main story a lot. This is something that comics can do quite well that movies can't. TV shows could do this too if they wanted.

I highly recommend this series. It is fantastic.

*Technically Vertigo is not a publisher but an imprint of the publisher DC Comics

Walking Dead: Fear the Hunters (Vol. 11)

2010-01-23T17:51:00.003-05:00

Walking Dead: Fear the Hunters (Vol. 11) written by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard consists of issues 61 through 66 of Walking Dead.

Walking Dead is a really good ongoing series about the consequences of a zombie outbreak. Instead of focusing on a zombie outbreak and seeing how the protagonists survive, in this comic we get to see what happens over a long period of time. The greatest aspect of Walking Dead is that anything can happen to the characters, the status quo changes all the time.

This collection of issues introduces a group of people that eat others to survive. While what they do is horrible and it threatens the protagonists, what the protagonists do is horrific. This comic really explores how survivors of a zombie outbreak would lose their humanity little by little. The greatest enemy stops being the zombie, but becomes the lack of trust between different people and the search for survival at any cost.

I think this series is great and I should also point out that the art is fantastic. Charlie Adlard does a great job of giving each character life and of making the world feel real.

My one complaint on this collection is in the final chapter (issue 66). I find the resolution a little over the top and I also have some issues with too many splash pages (including two double splashes). I think splashes and double splashes are great and that one strength of the series is the ease of reading, using the art to tell a big part of the story, but this issue went a little too far with that, without the story demanding it.

I recommend this series, a good place to start is the big Compendium which has the first 48 issues.

Daredevil: Born Again

2010-01-11T19:31:00.002-05:00

Daredevil: Born Again by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli consists of issues 227 through 233 of Daredevil.

Frank Miller had a great run on Daredevil writing issues 165-191 (he co-wrote 165-167). He not only wrote those issues but drew most of them too (he actually starting drawing Daredevil with issue 158). His first solo issue was Daredevil #168 which is a great one, introducing us to Elektra and changing the tone of the book. Miller made the Kingpin into Daredevil's nemesis, while also making Ben Urich a more important character. This run on Daredevil has been very influential since, with Urich, Kingpin and even Turk being important side characters in recent comics. Miller wrote fantastic stories and ended on a high note with a very powerful self-examining last issue.

With all that great work behind on Daredevil, one would be surprised to find that he wrote a much better story for Daredevil a little later when he teamed up with Mazzucchelli with whom he would team up again the following year to write another classic, Batman: Year One.

Daredevil: Born Again is arguably the best comic book story I have ever read. It has a hero defeated and then reborn. It has a great villain who manages to control everything from his tower, a villain that doesn't need to get his hands dirty to hurt you. It has a sad story involving a junkie. It has a love story in the making, with Foggy and Glori. It has moments of great tension, that build up in a way only comics can do. There is a scene where Ben Urich witnesses a murder through a telephone, the art and the story work together perfectly. There are so many things this comic does that make one think about.

I like how the early pages of the first issues always have Murdock sleeping. It is as if we can see that he is on his way down. From a nice bed, to a horrible bed in a cheap hotel, to the streets, to a basement in a church. The destruction of Murdock happens steadily throughout the first issues, not only exemplified in the story itself, but even through a subset of images throughout the story.

I highly recommend this book. It is because of comics like this that I read comics.

More Reviews of Single Issues

2010-01-07T21:23:00.006-05:00

Amazing Spider-Man #616 by Fred Van Lente and Javier Pulido.

The issue continues on the Sandman story introduced in the previous issue. The issue continues with the great artwork and great writing. I particularly liked the artwork on a two page spread where the panel snakes up as Sandman is snaking up. The panel is creative and it makes the action look much better than if the panel were just a rectangle.

The ending in the issue is sad. It made me think about the government taking children away from parents because of negligence. Movies, comics and books many times put this in a bad light, but then again, abusive parents must be held accountable somehow. It is a tough subject. I think child's services is better for society than not having it, but some situations are just sad.

A very good issue.

What If Aunt May had Died instead of Uncle Ben? by Ed Brubaker and Andrea Di Vito.

The story is told as if the narrator was a comic book store owner talking to another comic book fan. It is nice that the owner has a T-shirt with The Watcher in it, as The Watcher is usually the narrator in the What If? storylines.

The story is a fun read. It makes it clear how important Aunt May is in the Spider-Man universe. Without someone to ground him, Spider-Man would lose control and go through more experiences before becoming a good superhero.

It was a good story and I really liked the way it was handled with the two superhero fans discussing this.

Star Wars: Purge Seconds to Die by John Ostrander and Jim Hall

The comic is about a Jedi that tries to take down the Emperor after Order 666. She acts as if she wants to be Sith. The Emperor tells her that he'll take her as a student as long as she defeats Darth Vader. Therefore we get a pretty good fight scene between them.

The issue was good. It established a character I didn't know in one issue and it made me care about what would happen to her.

A solid issue.

Marvel Adventures #57 by Paul Tobin and Matteo Lolli

This issue was great. It had humor, romance, action, Peter having moral dilemmas. Essentially it had everything that a Spider-Man comic needs.

The humor came in the guise of Emma Frost as the Silencer. She became a "villain" essentially to see Spider-Man in action, as her best friend Chat is Spidey's girlfriend. In the issue we get a lot of good dialogue between Chat and Emma, between Spidey and Chat and between Peter and Chat. This is the issue where Spidey and Chat have a fight, as Chat confesses that she knows he is Spider-Man and this fight is what generated the funny line I posted about yesterday "...we're sending messages through pigeons now..."

The series is fantastic.

Web of Spider-Man #1,#2,#3 by J.M. DeMatteis, Fred Van Lente, among others.

The first issue is not very good. It has a good but not great story about Kaine written by J.M. DeMatteis. It has a story about Spider-Girl, which I don't care much about, and it has a story about Frog-Man, which was funny but not much. I felt like the first issue wasn't worth buying.

The second issue has the origin of Electro, which was a good story. It had a better Spider-Girl story (now I start to care a bit more) and it has a pretty good final story involving Jameson. This issue is almost worth the price of admission, but it is not there yet.

The third issue has the origin of Rhino, which is a great story. I have a little more respect for Rhino after reading this. Then it has a good Spider-Girl story, which made me want to get the next issue to find out the conclusion to the Spider-Girl current arc. Finally, it has another J.M. DeMatteis story. This time he writes a nice short about May and JJJ Sr.'s honeymoon. It is a moving piece and very funny too. It is nice how he manages to make it touching and funny.

The third issue is very good and that is the reason I'l; get the next couple of issues.

Haunt #1,#2,#3 by Robert Kirkman, Ryan Ottley, Greg Capullo and Todd McFarlane.

This title generated a lot of news as it brings back Todd McFarlane into creating a character. McFarlane created this character with Kirkman and now inks the series. The comic is about a priest Daniel Kilgore, whose brother is a secret agent, Kurt Kilgore. Kurt dies and somehow his ghost can still talk to Daniel and if he gets inside Daniel's body, they become a powerful being called Haunt. This is the set up.

The first issue is a good start. The story moves fast and we are introduced to the two main characters, Daniel and Kurt,effectively. I like the first issue.

The second issue is even better than the first. We know more about Daniel and we find out that he has a thing for Kurt's wife. It is also fun to see how Daniel reacts to his newfound powers. The interaction between Daniel and Kurt is quite fun.

The third issue reveals to us a lot more. A creepy Bolivian woman calls him Haunt, somehow she's able to sense the ghost of Kurt. We also learn more about where Kurt worked before, as Daniel is there in their jail (while they try to find out how he was able to get into the secret facility). It is a very good issue. The series keeps getting better and better.

As mentioned yesterday, the fourth issue wasn't so great. The series however has great potential.

That wraps up all the issues I have read in the last two months, so I won't be reviewing any more single issues until next Wednesday when a new batch comes in. However I'll be reviewing a lot more trade paperbacks in the coming days.

What I Read Today (Wednesday Jan. 6)

2010-01-06T23:21:00.006-05:00

Today was a good day for me in terms of receiving comics. I got five single issues and three trade paperbacks. I haven't read the trades yet, those reviews will appear sometime this week. However I read the five issues and the reviews follow:

Murderer #1 by Robert Kirkman, Marc Silvestri and Nelson Blake II.

This one-shot is part of the Pilot Season program in Top Cow Productions. The idea is that five one-shots written by Robert Kirkman and Marc Silvestri will come out. Then readers vote on which one they like more. The winner becomes an ongoing series in Top Cow Productions (note that Top Cow is part of Image Comics).

I decided to buy Murderer because the premise looked interesting. Jason is a man who can hear people's thoughts. He has no control over it, so it doesn't feel very good. I won't spoil the particular story of this issue, but I will say that it was very well done. It made me want to read more of this series. The art was very simple and has a lot to improve. However, the writing very well done and makes for a great read.

Now, I am planning on reading the other one-shots. If any of the others is this good, it will be worth buying all four. If none of the others is as good as this one, then I'll happily vote for this one to be an ongoing, I wish it were an ongoing already.

Haunt #4 by Robert Kirkman, Ryan Ottley, Greg Capullo and Todd McFarlane

The first three issues of Haunt were good. Each issue getting better. The third issue made me want to continue buying the series. Today I got the fourth issue and I was looking forward to reading it. I like the issue. The art is very good, which is not surprising as Ottley is a fantastic penciller.

The story is getting more interesting as more questions arise and we get to know the main character more. However, I was bothered by several unbelievable things that happen in this issue. There is one scene were a sports car is driven through a brick wall. In fact there are two scenes where this happens. I don't think this is possible, unless you have a very special car (tank). It did create a cool scene to watch, but it took me out of the story as it was too unbelievable.

Another problem I had was with the reaction Amanda has to the extreme violence. She witnesses a monster-looking thing brutally murder several people and then hugs him. That seemed very strange to me.

I am looking forward to next issue, but I have to say I didn't like this issue that much.

God Complex #2 by Michael Avon Oeming, Dan Berman and John Broglia

Another Image Comics book. The first issue of this comic was good, but not great. The second issue again is good but not great. The first issue made it seem like Paul (Apollo) would have a difficult challenge in this issue. It did take Paul 6 pages to get rid of the monsters threatening him, however, he was never really in trouble. It seems weird for a witch to summon powers of great Gods to create such lame adversaries.

After the initial six pages, the book actually gets good. We are introduced to a new character, Jimmy Wu, who has a lot of potential. I am interested in finding more about Jimmy as he seems to be more powerful than Paul, yet way calmer. It reminds me of a Jedi. The interactions between Jimmy and Paul are great.
I have to say that while I am not loving the series as much as I thought I would, I think the series will get better.

Amazing Spider-Man #615 by Fred Van Lente and Javier Pulido

Amazing Spider-Man has been a joy to read for the last 5 months. Every issue has been great, which must be hard to do if you have to publish three times a month as the title does. They rotate writers and all of them are great, but my favorite is Fred Van Lente. Van Lente did a wonderful one-shot about The Spot in Amazing Spider-Man #589 and then he wrote a great three issue arc #603-605 about the Chameleon. Van Lente is funny and his stories are very fun to read. This issue is no exception.

The issue is very funny and a lot of it comes from the great art work. Pulido has Spider-Man wearing a scarf and socks for winter and does a very good job of having Spidey look like Spider-Man. I don't exactly picture Peter Parker and Jameson the way he draws their faces, but the expressions he draws on them work quite well.

There was one scene that had me laughing a lot, so I'll share it:
Spider-Man comes to Betty to ask for some information on some guy. After Betty talks for a while, she turns left and sees the window open while she says "Spider-Man?". This is the last panel of one page. As we turn the page we see a looming Spider-Man on her right saying "I'm over here." It was such a funny scene, making a little fun of the often used stealthy superhero. This was a scene where the writing and the art were pitch perfect, this is the sort of scene that you can only do in comic books.

Excellent issue.

Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #58 by Paul Tobin and Matteo Lolli

Marvel Adventures Spider-Man is a title for all ages. It is a fantastic comic book. The art is playful, the writing is funny and exciting. It is just a really good comic book. I don't know why, but a lot of "for all ages" products are better than the specific ones. If we look at Pixar, their movies are usually much better than the average movie. That is just one particular example, but this comic happens to be excellent and for all ages.

Let's talk about this issue in particular. We are introduced to a new character, the Blond Phantom, a superhero that makes money out of saving people's lives. She wants to recruit Spider-Man. The issue moves with a conversation between Spider-Man and Blond Phantom while we get some flashbacks to Spidey's day. I like the way the story is told and I love the new character. This issue is also great in that you don't need to read any other issue to get it. It works great as just one issue.

Again, there was one scene that deserves to be mentioned:
Spider-Man gets hit in the head by a pigeon. Spider-Man then talks to the pigeons about a girl. Blond Phantom is confused to which Spider-Man says "My Girlfriend, the girl I'm dating, can talk to animals. We had a fight. We're working through it, but for now we're too mad at each other to talk, so we're sending messages through pigeons. And yes, I know it's weird". Brilliant.

Incognito

2010-01-05T18:24:00.002-05:00

Incognito by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips collects issues 1 through 6 of Incognito. 176 pages.

I am a big fan of Ed Brubaker. I love Sleeper, I love his Captain America, his Daredevil and the issues of Criminal I have read. Therefore, I had to buy this the instant it came out. Incognito has a similar feel to Criminal and Sleeper, which it is not surprising as all three are crime fiction and all three have the same duo writing and illustrating.

Incognito is the story of a super villain that is now in protective custody because he testified in court against a bigger fish. His powers are controlled by medicine. He realizes he can counter the effects of the medicine by getting high. He gets his powers back, but not wanting anybody to figure it out, he now uses his powers to stop thieves instead of for crime, as the only reason he does that is for the thrill. For three years he had lost his motivation to live and now it was all back.

As usual with Brubaker, the story gets better as it goes along. The twists keep coming and the story just flows perfectly, thanks to the great art provided by Phillips. I had always known that Phillips was the perfect noir artist, but since I hadn't seen his covers before, I didn't know he was capable of making such beautiful covers. The covers of the Incognito series are mesmerizing, I want one of those as a poster.

I like that the book incorporates ideas from pulp fiction (not the movie, but actual pulp fiction from the 30s), being inspired by those heroes and thrusting them into a great noir story.

Brubaker and Phillips are a perfect team and anything they will write, I will read. Check this book out.

Alias: Ultimate Collection Book 1

2010-01-05T18:04:00.002-05:00

Alias: Ultimate Collection Book 1 by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos collects issues 1 through 15 of Alias. 360 pages.

Alias is about an ex-superhero, Jessica Jones, working as a private detective. The first story is interesting because someone essentially tricks Jessica into finding out Captain America's identity by having her investigate a woman who ends up being Captain America's girlfriend and who gets killed that night. Jessica is then in trouble with the police and the only way out is to out Captain America which would be a big political hit on the President of the United States. As you can imagine this puts Jessica in a difficult situation.

During the series we get to know Jessica. Her good decisions, her bad decisions and we get to know a strong, flawed female character. The series is very good in that it mixes detective stories with superhero stories with ease, while also making us care for the main character. It develops a character and it tells stories about superheroes that we don't normally here. We get to see a young girl who is inspired by Daredevil to be her self. We see an ex-superhero sidekick go through issues. We get to follow interesting mysteries. A lot of cool stuff goes around in this comic.

I think the best thing about the art is that it does a very good job of making conversations seem real, which is important to do in a book where you have a writer like Bendis that writes a lot of dialogue. The art works great here.

However my favorite piece of art comes in the painted tenth issue. An issue that is not really involved into longer arcs. In the tenth issue we have Jameson trying to hire Jessica to find out who Spider-Man is. The whole issue revolves around this and a lot of funny things happen which I won't spoil. I highly recommend this issue.

The series is a very good book. I would recommend it to anyone interested in detectives in the superhero universe.

Jinx: The Definitive Collection

2010-01-05T17:51:00.003-05:00

Jinx: The Definitive Collection by Brian Michael Bendis. Collects al Jinx comics. 480 pages.

Before being the main writer at Marvel, Bendis was an indie comic book writer. Writing Torso, Goldfish, Fortune and Glory. Jinx was one of the things that brought him mainstream as Joe Quesada, the editor in chief of Marvel Comics, offered Bendis to write Daredevil and Ultimate Spider-Man based on his writing in Jinx. Quesada didn't like the art, but he loved the writing.

I can understand Quesada not liking the art for Marvel comics, but it works perfectly for this noir tale. The art is photo realistic at times and full of shadows. It makes us focus much more on the dialogue, which is Bendis strength.

Bendis is very inspired by David Mamet when writing dialogue and I think it works great in this comic. The conversations seem real and it is nice to see unfinished sentences and realistic flirting around in the comic book. The book deals with mainly three characters and all of them are well developed, specially Gold and Jinx. Columbia, the third character, is not as intelligent as the other two, but his mistakes make for a lot of funny moments to happen and also for a lot of the tension to happen, because while not being very bright, he is a very dangerous fellow.

Jinx is a good noir story.

Noble Causes Archives Vol. 1

2010-01-04T23:58:00.003-05:00

Noble Causes Archives Vol. 1 by Jay Faerber and various artists. The volume consists of Noble Causes: First Impressions, Noble Causes #1-4, Noble Causes: Family Secrets #1-4, Noble Causes: Distant Relatives #1-4, and the Noble Causes ongoing series #1-12. Reprinted in black and white (originally the series came out in color). 598 pages.

For $19.99, this collection is very cheap given that it has 598 pages. The catch is that it is printed in black and white instead of color. However, I like the idea of having the series reprinted in two huge volumes instead of needing to get many trades.

Given that I never read this series in color, I don't know what I am missing, but what I can say is that Noble Causes as it is, is fantastic. The comic follows the Noble family, a family of superheroes. This superhero comic book differs from most in that the essence of the story does not boil down to fights with supervillains. The story is driven by characters. We get to meet very interesting superheroes in scenarios that we normally don't see in superhero comic books. A teenage heroine that gets pregnant. Marital problems between two superheroes. The whole series moves more like a soap opera than an action series, but it does in a very entertaining way. I can't help but care about these characters.

One character I like a lot is "Rusty". Rusty was a very powerful superhero that almost died in a battle. His father, being a scientific genius, transferred his mind to a robot (reminding me of Doom Patrol's Metal Man). Rusty has marital problems because of this and after the divorce he finds true happiness with a heroine that has the power of manipulating metal. All of a sudden, Rusty is able to feel again because of his new girlfriend. Rusty goes from being an annoying, mean character to being a very nice, kind character. The isolation he had because of being unable to feel had changed him, but love brought him back to the kind man he once was. This is the sort of thing I enjoyed a lot about Noble Causes, the characters change right in front of our eyes, little by little.

Another character I love is Gaia. She seems to be a really cold, calculating woman. She gives great one-liners that shut up everybody and she is cold when it relates to spinning the stories to the media about the family. However, Gaia has a bastard child, Frost, and when we see in flashbacks how Gaia was tender when seeing Frost and how Gaia loves Doc, we see another side of her. We see the personality that she wants to hide from the outside world, the vulnerability that only her husband and Frost have seen. She was hurt by her husband before, so now she shields that from everyone else with extra zeal. This is the sort of thing that the author conveys to us through images and dialogue. A fantastic job.

The series has very clean pencils, which I think help the story move smoothly. This story is not about exploring with beautiful images, but about understanding characters. I liked the art and I love the writing. This is a great series to check out and for a very good price.

Amazing Spider-Man: If This Be My Destiny

2010-01-04T23:46:00.003-05:00

Amazing Spider-Man: If This Be My Destiny by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko comprises issues #31 through #33 of Amazing Spider-Man.

"If This Be My Destiny" is more commonly remembered by Master Planner. The story has a mysterious villain, who we only know as Master Planner, robbing any radioactive materials he can get his hands on. The Master Planner wants to take over the world and he needs radioactive materials for his plan (unknown to us). Spider-Man as usual has a lot on his slate, as he just started college and most importantly, his aunt, Aunt May, is in the hospital very ill. As the story progresses we find that Spider-Man needs a radioactive serum to cure his aunt, but the serum is stolen by the Master Planner. An encounter occurs and then we are led to a famous scene where Spidey has to move a roof to get the serum.

The story has everything a great Spider-Man story should have: Peter Parker having day to day problems, Spider-Man facing a talented villain, Spider-Man using his brain to solve something, Spider-Man using his will to keep going. The latter is what has always attracted me to Spider-Man. He never gives up. No matter the odds, no matter how tired, Spider-Man will give his all. This attitude has always been an inspiration to me and issue #33 was certainly very inspiring to the many Spidey writers that have followed since Stan Lee.

If you are a Spider-Man fan, this is a must-read. I still highly recommend it to anyone.

Star Wars: Dark Empire

2010-01-04T23:31:00.003-05:00

Star Wars: Dark Empire by Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy. 152 pages.

Dark Empire is one of the first Star Wars stories outside of the movies. It came out after the first non-Lucas Star Wars book, but before the sequels (the first book was part of a trilogy called "Thrawn Trilogy" written by Timothy Zahn). Dark Empire was a big hit and it had positive reviews. However, I didn't like it. I think the most important aspect of Luke Skywalker is that he rejected the dark side of the Force. To have a book where that part of the character is taken away just doesn't make sense. However, even if we allow that nonsense, the book is full of completely illogical sequences, such as the Emperor (who is alive because of cloning) making Skywalker a commander. It seems like someone as bright as the Emperor, wouldn't do something so foolish, specially without making Skywalker do some kind of test. He should have also put limits to the power he gave Skywalker over his forces. I understand that Emperor Palpatine is a very arrogant person, so arrogant that it led to his downfall in the movies, but to also have to accept that he is stupid is too much for me.

I also had some problems with the artwork. The characters are not close to how they looked in the movie, and while I understand that in comics one has to give the artist a chance to bring his style into the mix, I had an issue with how different Leia would look between panels.

One thing I would rescue out of the comic is the interesting information regarding the other Jedi who have tried to learn about the dark side. It made me want to learn more. I liked those bits with the Jedi cube.

Overall, I would recommend avoiding this comic book. There are a lot of better Star Wars stories to read (such as the Thrawn Trilogy).

Preacher: Ancient History (Vol. 4)

2010-01-04T03:53:00.003-05:00

Preacher: Ancient History (Vol. 4) by Garth Ennis and various artists. This volume contains Preacher: Saint of Killers (art by Steve Pugh and Carlos Ezquerra), Preacher Special: The Story of You-Know-Who (art by Richard Case) and Preacher Special: The Good Old Boys (art by Carlos Ezquerra). 224 pages.

This volume is a little detour out of the Preacher story. It gives us the origin of Saint of Killers, the origin of Arseface and a funny little story starring Jody and T.C.

The Saint of Killers story was pretty good in my opinion. I think the first two issues are better than the last two, but it was interesting seeing a Western story be imbued with a Heaven and Hell story. Westerns are a kind of mythology, so it was interesting seeing a story being so direct about the connection. The Saint of Killers is a man who was born to kill, was shown that he didn't have to kill (with the love of a beautiful woman) and then was shown that killing was his true path as he looked for revenge after the death of his family. A powerful mythology/Western story.

The Story of You-Know Who was pretty good. It is interesting how bad a life Arseface had, but yet after his accident he loved his dad even more. His dad would beat him up, talk him down and never show any respect to him. Yet, after all he went through he still loved his father. I thought this sentiment was very nice. Arseface went through a lot of terrible things but was still capable of love and kindness in the end. In a way, his story is inspiring.

The Good Old Boys is a parody. It is clearly not a serious story. It makes fun of the clichéd hero and of the damsel in distress. It was a fun read. A lot of people acted illogically, but this was the funny part as it was clear that the author was making fun of some action movies.

This volume is very good. The only detractor is that it doesn't really continue the Preacher story. It has three great self-contained stories.

Preacher: Proud Americans (Vol. 3)

2010-01-03T23:39:00.002-05:00

Preacher: Proud Americans (Vol. 3) by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. The volume consists of issues 18 through 26. 232 pages.

The whole volume consists of one story, in fact it could be considered the same story arc going back to "Hunters" in the second volume. The Grail has kidnapped Cassidy thinking it was Jesse and they take him to a fortress in France called "Masada". In this volume we get to know more about "The Grail", we get to know more about the angel that fathered Genesis and we get to meet the latest heir of Jesus.

The volume is packed with great action, hilarious moments and even moments of happy love (Tulip and Jesse). We get a little worried about Cassidy and we get to see how powerful Jesse is.

One thing I liked a lot about this volume was the interaction between Tulip and Jesse. It is just really nice. It also brought to my mind the power of friendship, since Cassidy made a big sacrifice for Tulip and now they are doing a big sacrifice for Cassidy. It shows us how important friendship is to these characters.

Another thing I liked a lot in this volume was how ridiculous The Grail is. I was laughing a lot when the leader of The Grail, Allfather D'aronique, appeared for the first time. Being such a fat man that an airplane couldn't land correctly. It was very funny how Ennis was making fun of powerful men.

Besides the great story involving Masada and the rescue of Cassidy, we get a nice break from the action with the last 2 issues, where Cassidy narrates to Jesse how he became a vampire and how his life was when he got to America. It was a very nice break from the action we were getting in the other issues.

A great story continues.

Preacher: Until the End of the World (Vol. 2)

2010-01-03T23:35:00.001-05:00

Preacher: Until the End of the World (Vol. 2) was written by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. The volume consists of issues 8 through 17. 264 pages.

In the second volume we get two stories: "Until the End of the World" and "Hunters".

Until the End of the World gives us a backstory to Jesse. We find out why he left Tulip five years ago and why he became a priest. We also find that his voice powers have a limit, as they don't work on his family. The story made me feel very bad for Jesse as his childhood was terrible. The writing is great because in a way, I felt like I could understand the villains in this tale. It seems like the driving force was family. A bizarre, evil family, but it was what drove the two main villains in this story. The whole tale is perfectly illustrated by Steve Dillon, who makes all the gory scenes come out great and who is able to illustrate really good moments between Jesse and his family and Jesse and Tulip. The art intensifies some scenes. Some of the panels in this story are unforgettable.
While the whole story seems to be about Jesse, the thing that makes the story work is Jesse's love for Tulip. Without the passages about their love and seeing the interaction between the two characters, this story would be worth little. Both Ennis and Dillon do a great job of making a great story about love, family, tragedy and change.

In "Hunters" we are introduced to some disturbing people, people that have crazy orgies and try all sorts of extreme things for pleasure. A lot of the things they do are illegal, but somehow all of this has to do with Jesse and Tulip as they are led there through a series of events that happen throughout. This tale reminds me a little of the show Seinfeld since we have three stories that meet in the middle. We have Jesus de Sade, the organizer of all the debauchery. We have The Grail, a group of people that keep the heirs of Christ safe and who want to find Jesse Custer to protect God. We have the trio of Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy. Somehow they all end up in the same place for different reasons and a lot of violence, sex and swearing happens in the middle. The story has a big cliffhanger that makes one want to read the next volume right away.

This volume is fantastic. It deepens the characters and it moves the plot forward while giving us a lot of funny moments, a lot of sad moments and a lot of happy moments.

Preacher: Gone to Texas (Vol. 1)

2010-01-03T23:31:00.003-05:00

Preacher: Gone to Texas (Vol. 1) is written by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. Vol. 1 collects issues 1 through 7. 200 pages.

I had read the first issue of the series years ago and decided that it wasn't good enough to keep reading the series. However, after I kept hearing from source after source that this comic was great, I had to give it another try, specially since my brother-in-law lent me all volumes of Preacher.

With all volumes in hand, I decided to give it another try. As I was reading the first issue again (which is a double sized issue), I realized it was better than what I had thought before, it almost seemed like I hadn't understood the story at my first try. The conception of Genesis made sense this time. Genesis is a creature born to an angel and a demon. Genesis is very powerful and takes the body of a priest Jesse Custer. After this Jesse decides that his mission is to find God and confront him.

The first 4 issues introduce us to the main characters: Jesse Custer, an rural preacher, Cassidy, a vampire and Tulip, an ex-girlfriend of Jesse who has a past involving guns. These issues also introduce us to a larger than life character called "Saint of Killers", a seemingly indestructible killer that comes out straight out of a Western movie. Besides introducing us with all these great characters, this volume gives us a reason to care for what will happen with Jesse and his search for God. It also brings in a lot of gore and a lot of funny moments.

The last three issues of the volume are kind of outside the mission of finding God. It involves a nasty detective story. I actually liked these issues more than the first four, mainly because the story had an ending and because it is full of shockingly funny moments. It is a great story that shows us how the characters introduced in the first story could come together in funny, exciting ways.

The first volume is very good, but not quite excellent.

Various Recent Single Issues

2010-01-02T16:55:00.009-05:00

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Willow by Joss Whedon and Karl Moline.

This one-shot tells us a little bit of what happened to Willow between the end of the TV show and the beginning of the comic book series Season 8. Joss is as always perfect with dialog bringing in a lot of funny moments with his word play and his perfectly timed delivery. The story itself is not that great, but since it is a joy to read with the nice art and the great lines I would have to rank this comic highly. It is the best Buffy comic of the year (not that hard given the bad run on the comic book series).

Incorruptible #1 by Mark Waid and Jean Diaz.

Incorruptible is about a supervillain that decides to be a superhero. This first issue doesn't really tell us much. It shows how the villains employed by the supervillain are surprised at him helping cops and it shows how the supervillain tries to make a deal with a cop. Not much happens, but the series itself looks like it would be a fun ride, specially if you're reading Irredeemable as it is a companion series (Irredeemable is about a Superman like superhero who becomes a bad guy).

Chew #6 by John Layman and Rob Guillory.

The most recent Chew issue is #7, but Chew #6 is so good it deserves a nice post about it. The issue starts the second arc in the series. It starts great right off the bat with a funny moment at the detective office and it gets better with the bank robbery where Agent Cho thinks he has to eat poop to figure the case (Agent Cho has the power to eat something and get all of its history). Getting Cho's partner back from issue 1 is nice because he seemed to be a funny guy and we are confirmed of that in this issue. Great issue on a fantastic series.

Chew #7 by John Layman and Rob Guillory.

This issue is good but not as good as the series has been. The arc itself seems like its going to be a good one and a cool character was introduced but the issue wasn't as funny as others have been.
The art is top notch as usual. Guillory has been a great breakout in comics. I love his work on Chew. It is a crucial reason of why this series works so well. A fun cartoony style that can show the gore and the gross without making it seem ridiculous or out of place.

Amazing Spider-Man #611 by Joe Kelly and Eric Canete.

Just like Chew #6 is so good it deserves a post even if it is not the most recent issue, Amazing Spider-Man #611 deserves one too because of how funny it is. Joe Kelly manages to make joke after joke work perfectly in this hilarious issue. I highly recommend reading it to anyone.
With respect to the art, the art is almost distracting at first because it is so unusual, but after a while one gets used to it and then one gets to enjoy it because it is so full of energy (just like the jokes).
Fantastic issue. One of the best of the Spidey issues of the year, although for the best of the year I might have to pick something from Fred Van Lente who always knocks it out of the park when writing Spider-Man.

Irredeemable #9 by Mark Waid and Peter Krause.

This series has been one of my favorites of the year. This particular issue is not that great, but it is very interesting. Now that Plutonian is shown to be vulnerable, it is interesting to see how this affects the psyche of Charybdis, as his ego might be growing a bit too much.

The Last Days of American Crime #1 by Rick Remender and Greg Tocchini.

Radical Comics has been a really cool new publisher that tries different things and this is an issue where that is exemplified. The issue is 64 pages instead of the standard 22 pages and it is only $4.99 (the standard is $2.99 but some even charge $3.99 for 22 pages).
Forgetting about the good price, I'd like to point out that the art is really beautiful and that the story is interesting. I am looking forward to the next two issues.

Daytripper #1 by Fábio Moon and Gabriel Ba (they co-wrote story and art).

This might be my favorite single issue of the year. The cover is great, the art is great and the story is great.
The story concerns an obituary writer on his 32nd birthday. On the day of his birthday, his father gets an award. But the story tells you a lot of information in very subtle ways, either through the art or by indirect dialog. You can only guess it is his birthday, it is never said out loud. You can only guess it is his 32nd birthday (32 is the title of the story). I like how a lot of the story is told by the images and I like how it begins with snippets from obituaries that the main character is writing.
Great issue, I am definitely going to read the series. The question will be to whether read it as the issues come out or wait for the trade.

God Complex #1 by Michael Avon Oeming and John Broglia.

I like the idea of a God living among people. The story has been told before but I wanted to read this comic to see what new idea can be brought to the table. This first issue is not great, but it is good enough to get me to read more of the series. The main character seems to be a bit too powerful to have given up godhood but maybe the powers will fade with time, or maybe the powers won't fade, I'll have to keep reading to find that out. I wouldn't recommend reading this issue.

Deadlocke by Arvid Nelson and Nick Stakal.

This is a one shot comic book. I was surprised that it didn't have any closure in my opinion. I thought there was good potential in the story but that there was not a good ending. Not a comic book I would recommend.

Sugarshock by Joss Whedon and Fábio Moon.

The one-shot is not great because it didn't include the last part of the story, however the whole story is fantastic. It made me laugh a lot. Joss really knows how to deliver the funny stuff and Fábio Moon is able to make the perfect images for this story. I highly recommend reading it. It is possible to read this for free online on MySpace Dark Horse

Ex Machina: Dirty Tricks

2010-01-02T16:36:00.004-05:00

Ex Machina: Dirty Tricks (Vol. 8) written by Brian K. Vaughan with art by Tony Harris. Contains issues 35-39 plus the Masquerade Special Illustrated by John Paul Lennon.

Ex Machina is a series I have enjoyed a lot. It is a little hard to have to wait six or more months to get the next trade paperback, but every trade I read is fun and exciting. This volume is no exception.

A little background on Ex Machina is worth mentioning. Mitchell Hundred is the only superhero in the world, but after an unsuccessful time as a crime fighter he decided to try his hand at politics where he thought he would make a bigger impact. After saving one of the towers on the September 11 attack, Hundred easily won the election for mayor of New York City. The series has followed Mitchell through his tenure as Mayor of New York City.

In this series, there is usually something from the past of Mitchell as a crime fighter that makes an impact in the current day. For this volume, the thing in the past is a woman tour guide that fell in love with Mitchell when he was the crime fighter and saved her life. She makes an impact in the current day as she is a security threat for the Republican Convention which will be held in New York (the story is set in late 2004 just before the election between Bush and Kerry). The series goes through the question of whether Mitchell should give a speech at the convention or not. Mitchell has no political party (he is an independent) so one advisor is worried that he would look Republican if he does, while the other main advisor encourages him because he would make a national political spotlight making it possible for him to run for president in the future.

The whole political angle is interesting and the security threat of the biker girl brings in the fun in terms of funny pranks she does and making people nervous about what she will do next.

Brian K. Vaughan as usual, has some very funny lines and is able to move the story along at a fast pace without making it feel too rushed. This is one of the things I love about reading his work, he makes you want to read the next page right away and it all flows smoothly. Of course, all of this is made possible by the fantastic art by Tony Harris. Harris is one of my favorite artists because he draws beautifully and he makes it easy for the reader to go from panel to panel. I also like how he portrays many different facial expressions in his characters, he is able to do great close ups and also able to do great action scenes. Great artist.

The one thing against it is that I wish the next book were already out so that I could read what will happen next.

Simon Dark: The Game of Life (Vol. 3)

2010-01-02T16:21:00.005-05:00

Simon Dark: The Game of Life (Vol. 3) is written by Steve Niles with art by Scott Hampton. Vol. 3 contains issues 13 through 18.

I had been eagerly awaiting this book for 8 months since I read the first two trades. However, 8 months is a long time if you have been reading many comic books as I have, so when I started reading this book I had some trouble remembering everything I needed to know about the story. The good thing is that I quickly figured out the main things I needed to remember to enjoy this book.

The main reason the first two trades are great, is that there are many questions that keep arising while reading it. Simon Dark is a very mysterious character with a lot of power and then one finds out there is a detective with similar powers. There aren't really any big villains in the first two trades as the series was building up for the main villain to show up near the end (Vol. 3 is the end of the miniseries).

The villain, is very similar to Simon Dark but instead of being noble and good, he is sinister. The artist does a very good job of creating a villain that makes you think of Simon, yet you can tell he's not Simon once you look at the face. The lettering (by legendary Todd Klein) also does a good job of making it clear which is which, I can imagine the voice of the villain (I keep calling him villain because he has no name).

The art in the whole book is quite dark, realistic and very beautiful. I enjoyed it very much. The writing was also quite fun, although I don't think the end of the series is as good as I expected it to be. Once the mystery was revealed there was little to care about, but I did like to get to know the character of Simon Dark.

I recommend reading the series, but I have to say that I was expecting more out of the ending.

The Life and Times of Savior 28

2010-01-01T22:41:00.001-05:00

The Life and Times of Savior 28 was written by J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Cavallaro.

The Life and Times of Savior 28 is a great story that tries to analyze whether violence is the answer to our problems. Comic book superheroes always solve problems with violence and our world also solves problems with violence. We often think that war is necessary (Obama even mentioned this while receiving the Nobel Peace prize), but why do we have to think this? I think the comic does a very good job of making the reader argue this in his head, while also reading a very good story on paper and illustrated magnificently by the artist.

My favorite line in the book, comes close to the start, it is as follows:

"It's funny, y'know? and kind of Sad.
Never once...in all the decades I spent solving every problem with my fists-
did anyone ever accuse me of preaching violence.
But now...when I talk about finding another way...a better way...for us to live...
...they're always accusing me of ramming my views down people's throats..."

I think this speech is at the heart of what the book is about. But before this sounds too preachy, I must add that there is another very good character in the book that exemplifies realism, a character that believes that war is sometimes necessary. The book has two great characters Savior 28, the idealist and Dennis the realist (reminds me of Quixote and Sancho Panza). The story makes one think and reason to find what is the best approach. The author doesn't claim to know the answer, his just showing a side that we never see in comics, a critique on the level of violence in comics.

With respect to the art, I think the art was very good. Sometimes the art is able to tell the story without words and when many words are necessary the art is able to give a great picture that reflects the idea behind the words.

It was interesting to me, to find out that J.M. DeMatteis had planned this story at first for his Captain America run in the 80s. His plan was to have Captain America become a peace activist, then the other heroes would oppose him and eventually he would be killed. They didn't allow him to write that, but 25 years later we get this fantastic story where he can make his own universe as a background to his hero and story. It seems that the political climate is even better now than in the 80s for this story. As a Captain America story it would have been much wider recognized among comic book fans, but I am glad that he was able to tell a self contained story where his work can be changed later by other authors (as an example, DeMatteis has a great issue of Spider-man where Aunt May dies. The issue is excellent, but later on, Aunt May came back to life with another writer).

This is a great book and it deserves to be read by more people. Check it out.