BATGIRL: ENDGAME #1

Writer: Cameron Stewart & Brendan Fletcher
Art: Bengal
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewer: Optimous Douche

BATGIRL ENDGAME is like the lighter side backstory to DARK KNIGHT RETURNS. Well, to me at least. As Babs silently (nary a talky bubble in this issue, nor or are they needed), moves her way through the Joker Virus infected Gotham to herd her Grinners as Rick Grimes does Walkers, my mind couldn’t let go of a Mutant overrun Gotham from my youth that was protected and cherished by another young woman also of indomitable spirit, Carrie Kelly.

The lack of words in this issue leaves this artistic troglodyte at a loss for a lengthy review. The plot, as with most comics, is straightforward. Joker virus extras bleeding off of Snyder and Cappulo’s soundstage in BATMAN are making their way off the little island that Satan built towards the wilds of Kane County and beyond. Thankfully, Babs is ready to use her New 52 giddy-up sticks to make the bridge go boom before Joker and Amazo viruses collide (drops the continuity mike).

Where you get your per minute entertainment value in ENDGAME (outside of giving a deep naval gaze into the penultimate pages of Snyder’s ending omnibus Batrun) is basking in Bengal’s ability to articulate grander and granular in a deft dance between panels. Also, as I mentioned earlier, fangeezers can see what Miller’s work would have looked like with clean lines.

I don’t know which of the three family bridges blew up (as identified in GATES OF GOTHAM) and I don’t care. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the other side glance offerings yet to come in ENDGAME. I don’t care about any of the things we usually bitch about because I am already so blinded by the incoming flares of CONVERGENCE’s continuity supernova that I am eminently satisfied with a solitary and seamless sub-universe …hmmm…lets say geling.

Batman, Superman, Justice League, Dark, Young and Didio: The myriad of nation states that make up the DC super power have kept tight storytelling even if they were always slightly one step ahead of their respective partners over the past three year dance. Number ones appeared and appeared again, but they were merely accounting exercises more than story catalysts. Except for Batgirl.

Babs’ recent reset to a Twitter tastic younger teen is honestly a bit more offensive than the truncating of the Wheelchair time after the New 52 accordion scrunch. We didn’t get a number one, nor an explanation on Babs’ sudden selfie obsession when her Dad is the little spoon with Bane in the bowels of Blackgate. Change is good, but change is hard. I was fine walking away from this title with Ms. Simone, but I feel deeply for those Batgirl zealots who may have thought they were picking up the next issue of the media devolved Just from MULTIVERSITY. New art and new tone, should have been anointed a new number one without question and at least a drop of Omega Beam to explain why she started to age like Benjamin Button. Change, but for God’s sake DC, show us how you came to the conclusion. You did it a bit in this issue; Batgirl finally used Twitter for a purpose to communicate with a school bus full of kids. She used social media to not only contain a plague, but also be a hero in the purest sense of the word.

When Optimous isn't reviewing comics he is making the IT words chortle and groan with marketing for MaaS360, enterprise mobility management www.maas360.com. He also has a comic coming out sometime soon, for updates head to robpatey.com.

HOWARD THE DUCK #1

Writer: Chip Zdarsky
Art: Joe Quinones
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: DrSumac

Marvel has been taking chances on offbeat titles lately, and it seems to be paying off. I've recently reviewed their other new series ANT-MAN and SQUIRREL GIRL, which have both been very strong so far. In each of those reviews I've said how refreshing it is to see something different, and interestingly the more of these comics I read the more I appreciate having a variety of them. The market is saturated with enough beefy guys punching supervillains in the face, and that makes most other things with any quality stand out. Not only that, but having a variety of comics like these builds the market and fan base for fun and goofy comics while ensuring that there is one for just about anyone.

Even still, I was hesitant to pick up HOWARD THE DUCK. Like many, my only real knowledge of the character comes from the movies. Funny how the fact that he appeared as a joke at the tail end of “Guardians of the Galaxy” earned the character enough interest to probably get this comic green lit. That's not a lot to go on, though, and he is still just a duck in a world of superheroes. At least Rocket Raccoon has guns! Most readers are going to go into this series with no idea what to expect, and that can be scary to invest time and money in.

With all of that in mind, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked Howard the Duck. For those of you that have been reading Ant-Man, this comic follows a similar format in that it takes advantage of the inherent obscurity of the character. Is HOWARD THE DUCK going to be about a duck that is a private eye, will it deal with The Collector to try to tie it into “Guardians of the Galaxy”, or something else entirely? After reading the first issue I'm still not sure I know the answer, and personally I find that to be a good thing. It's that sort of mystery that keeps readers like myself hooked for the first couple of issues to give the writer a chance to win us over.

Art-wise, I had no complaints with this issue. If anything, I appreciated the way Howard himself was handled. It' would be easy, even tempting, to make a walking and talking duck look like something out of Looney Toons or Donald Duck, but somehow he seems to fit in with the rest of the Marvel Universe nicely. In fact, his expressions lead to much of the humor in the comic without quite being over the top, for me at least.

Even though I compare HOWARD THE DUCK to other offbeat, funny books like ANT-MAN and SQUIRREL GIRL, I have to say that so far HOWARD THE DUCK is the funniest of the bunch. Part of the fun for me was that a lot of the jokes were at the expense of the industry or Marvel themselves. Yes, while DC has pushed their comics to be dark and gritty, Marvel seems to actually be able to laugh at themselves. I'm not sure if that is due to confidence or daring, but I feel it speaks highly for their brand.

If you're one of those people, like myself, that might be afraid to pick up a comic about Howard the Duck I would encourage you to give it a shot. Of course, if you're a jerk that just wants to ogle whatever busty psychic Cyclops is currently banging, this isn't going to be the book for you. So don't be a jerk and check out HOWARD THE DUCK. If issue #1 is at all indicative of how the series will go it's bound to be one of the funniest comics of the year.

NINJAK #1

Writer: Matt Kindt
Artist: Clay Mann
Publisher: Valiant Entertainment
Reviewer: Masked Man

(start the beat) Guess who's back, …Ninjak's back. (everybody go, oui!) Anyway, Joe Quesada (yup, that Joe Quesada)'s secret agent ninja has returned to his own comic in the new Valiant Universe. Ninjak had been popping up in other series, but now Valiant has given him his own series. While I don't think this issue has sold a million copies (like the original in 1994), reports do say it has sold out, which is nice.

One thing nice about this issue is, it's not much of a set-up issue. Kindt deftly explains Colin King (aka Ninjak), his world, his place in it and kicks off an adventure at the same time. Nothing is dull or boring in this issue, which is good, though it's the weakness of the book too. It feels like Kindt is trying too hard to make everything bad@$$. The naked ninja girl Ninjak fights in the opening scene is not only a ninja, but has low level physic powers, a tech savant, and her hair is not only strong enough to slice steel, it can be used as an incendiary device. Wow, really? Reminds me of an old Dungeons and Dragons saying: make monsters, not monstrosities. Next, Ninjak in his civvies goes through an initiation to in order to work with a criminal organization (undercover), The Weaponeer (shades of the original series). Again, the initiation is ridiculously extreme. I think you would have a hard time finding customers if they all had to get naked and let you beat the crap out of them first, proving they aren't a threat, before you sell them some weapons. But that's the world Kindt is building--extreme and to the max, which I suppose is fitting for the return of a product of the 90s, though it doesn't feel as cheesy as the 'extreme' stuff of the 90s, which, depending on how you feel about cheesy action/adventure, is a good or bad thing.

Artist Clay Mann, on the other hand, doesn't draw this as a 'maxed out' adventure. It comes across as a typical modern comic feel, reminding me a bit of Mark Pajarillo's comic work. With his brother Seth Mann inking, it also has a touch of Olivier Coipel to it as well. Everything is well drawn, and action scenes are inventive enough yet clear enough to still be understood, although he did lose me on page 21. I really have no idea what happened here. I'm guessing the kid got whipped, but yeah, it's just really unfocused. The rest of the pages are all really nice, so maybe the script was confusing.

Matt Kindt also teamed up with comics veteran Butch Guice (who looks nothing like the Butch Guice I remember) for a back-up story featuring Colin King before he was Ninjak, starting off as a less than perfect secret agent--a departure from the original comics (where he was an assassin in training). It's a nice enough story, giving us a better look into the character, and Guice's very heavy, photograph-like inks give it a very different feel than the main story, which is good.

So despite its heavy-handed feel to be oh-so-dangerous, this first issue is solid work. I'm curious if Kindt will be able to make this overworked feel work, or be forced to scale back to give the series a bit more believability.

BIRTHRIGHT V.1: HOMECOMING

Writer: Joshua Williamson
Artist: Andrei Bressan
Publisher: Image Comics
Reviewer: Humphrey Lee

Obviously it is an understatement to make mention of how entertainment-heavy a people we are these days, but it makes for a good opening pitch so I’ll say it anyway, with the sheer volume of stories being told either through our large and small motion picture devices, good old books or brand new video games, and of course our comic books. And in that wonderfully time-consuming clutter these tales and adventures and dramas need to differentiate themselves, which can be done in many ways. Yes, something truly unique would be nice, but with the mass inundation of material going on, what does that that word even mean or represent anymore? Which is why quality execution on characters and setting and plot becomes so important with a new story for the masses. Your saga does not need to be some sort of one in a million pitch to stand out, as long as you are presenting something that is an appealing world worth exploring and you execute it right (and a twist or two that no one sees coming is always a plus). In a sea of myriad tales of high adventure and fantasy and mythical beasts and on and on, BIRTHRIGHT from Image presents itself as a familiar yet refreshing lake to dive into.

I’m assuming it’s a fair bet that the majority of you reading this have read a story or two or three that involves a young child (or two or three) that wanders into a quiet forest or a place meant for coats to be hanged and OH MY GOD I’M IN A MAGICAL REALM WITH FAIRY PEOPLE AND TALKING ANIMALS, OH MY!, or something similar at the least has crossed your path before. BIRTHRIGHT begins much the same way as that fantasy trope, with a birthday game of catch that leads to young Mikey chasing an innocent baseball into a not-so-innocent realm of Terrenos. Except things do not go that way right off the bat. Mikey steps into a fantastical realm, but instead of immediately being confronted with mythical beasts and a grand adventure, we the reader are met with nothing but the terror of a four piece family that suddenly finds themselves down one member. Terror becomes depression, which becomes infighting, which becomes blame, and in the span of about twelve pages instead of cutting right to pint-sized swords and sorcery we instead see BIRTHRIGHT tear a loving family asunder (dick move, BIRTHRIGHT!). Mikey gets his grand adventure as the “chosen one,” of course, but we don’t even get a glimpse of what became of it until a year later, when the local cops run into a Jason Mamoa Aquaman-looking drifter claiming to be the missing boy.

That twist is interesting enough, more in that BIRTHRIGHT didn’t immediately take us on the youthful and grand adventure that every tale that starts off such as this does and showed us some real dramatic depth to that old setup. Usually in such stories the kids are off to magic fun time land and are back by dinner the next day, months more emotionally mature than such a minute span. Instead, Williamson and Bressan show us real consequences to this disappearing act just to show you how different things will be this time around. And different things are to be, as there’s a little more twisting and turning going on with the now returned manboy warrior, because he didn’t finally initiate his titular Homecoming after realizing his destiny in releasing the land of Terranos from the tyrannical rule of King Lore, he actually failed and is now errand boy to the bloodthirsty god with some cleaning up to do on Earth so he can dominate it as well.

While these unexpected plotlines are definitely a welcome route change from the normal path such stories typically lead us down, BIRTHRIGHT is not the highly enjoyable read it is just for those developments. And it’s not just because it plays with a normally adolescent, nostalgia filled story archetype in an adult manner, because that type of material is also all over these days (such as Lev Grossman’s “The Magicians” or Mike Carey’s UNWRITTEN series that just ended and so on). BIRTHRIGHT succeeds because it is a well-crafted world with interesting characters and concepts and plays on an emotional spectrum that is the hallmark of any good tale, regardless of genre or medium. What Williamson and Bressan achieve here is a modern fantasy book that revels in both ends of that pairing and is filled with all sorts of loss and wonder and terror and excitement and betrayal. It is a total package from start to finish, and it looks like we’ve seen just a fraction of the scope of this piece of fiction.

That storytelling balance is met and bolstered even further by the eye-popping visuals. I was not familiar at all with Andrei Bressan’s artistic skills before this collection, and they are pretty damn epic. For every properly pained expression in the faces of Mikey’s family there’s a breathtaking action shot involving some mythical beast, or Conan Mikey taking his extensive collection of sharp objects to some creature or object. Basically it is the perfect companion to all the highs and lows, both emotionally and aesthetically, that Williamson’s scripts are calling upon, and it beckons for a lot. But it is for the high benefit for us, the end user, as BIRTHRIGHT makes a very big, mega-cannonball splash into that aforementioned deep lake full of fantasy works across the entertainment and comic book industries. I highly advise you to spend your own $9.99 for some swim trunks (i.e. this first volume) and jump right in with the same childlike abandon.

Humphrey Lee has been an avid comic book reader going on fifteen years now and a contributor to Ain't It Cool comics for quite a few as well. In fact, reading comics is about all he does in his free time and where all the money from his day job wages goes to - funding his comic book habit so he can talk about them to you, our loyal readers (lucky you). He's a bit of a social networking whore, so you can find him all over the Interwebs on sites like Twitter, Facebookand a blog where he also mostly talks about comics with his free time because he hasn't the slightest semblance of a life. Sad but true, and he gladly encourages you to add, read, and comment as you will.

ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK #4

Writer: Christopher Sebela
Artist: Diego Barreto
Pubisher: BOOM! Studios
Reviewer: Morbidlyobesefleshdevouringcat

What happens when you place the humorously inane work of John Carpenter into the hands of an equally neurotic comic book team? You get the sequel to Carpenter’s ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK. BOOM! Studios is at it again: previously having brought Carpenter’s BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA to comic book format, the publisher has brought together writer Christopher Sebela, artist Deigo Barreto, and colourist Marissa Lousie to hash out Snake Plissken’s latest adventure.

The comic sequel has driven Snake Plissken to Florida. Currently free of the stereotypes that the Twentieth Century bound it with--copious amounts of oranges and high rises brimming with old people--Florida is now a metropolis of safety and freedom. But this is an homage to Carpenter, and so we all that that isn't the case here. Run by prepubescent twin boys Remus and Romulus, Florida is another dictatorship held together by outside rumours of a better life and by iron-fisted Meemaw, the overtly masculine adoptive mother of the twins.

The final issue to the first arc, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK #4 plays out a battle of Snake versus Meemaw, watches as Florida is annexed from the rest of the states via a buttload of nuclear bombs kindly lent to the twins from Cuba, and forms friendships between opposite sides of the battlefield--of course, all in a hyper -urreal, no bullshit yet this whole thing is bullshit and ridiculous John Carpenter sort of way.

Sebela, for me, has become a go-to since the release of his creator-owned comic HIGH CRIMES, and a follow of any of his social media outlets gives you a good insight into his slightly sadistic humorous nature, so of course the smart thing to do was give him the writing reigns to a comic that is just as ridiculous and over the top as his own personality. Sebela embodies Snake’s personality all too well, exuding a very Snake-like personality on the interwebs.

With a Carpenter piece you need a creative team that is just as crazy and imaginative, and having once actually conversed with Louise on twitter about Carpenter’s work, there is, in my opinion, no other person eccentric enough to color this comic. If you’re at all familiar with Louise, you know that she’s a crazy, inventive lady of sorts with a buttload of talent. Having coloured comics from GO GETTERS to ROBOCOP to SOVEREIGN, Louise knows how to engage her audience with art, as she does here in EFNY. She uses a fairly standard color palette that bodes well with Diego’s modern art style, using flat colours to accentuate the linework while still holding a crisp and vibrant shine.

Diego’s art, especially his action sequences, add to Sebela’s snarky dialogue. The movements, especially the showdown between Snake and Meemaw, are grounded in reality while still maintaining the humour of hand-to-hand combat between a gym junkie and a much larger, far more muscular lady in a skin-tight leopard print dress and heels.

ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK #4 is entertaining and wild, and regardless of whether you’re a lover of Carpenter or he is someone you love to hate, at the very least check it out to watch Florida get nuked.

MILES MORALES: THE ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #11

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: David Marquez
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: The Kid Marvel

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #11 is probably one of the best issues as of late from the series. This is not to say the others have been bad; it’s just this one felt special and you could feel more from it. I’d also like to mention this is probably the only good series left in the Ultimate universe, so hopefully after SECRET WARS, Marvel can find some way to keep the series around. That said, let me get to the review.

The issue begins with the two Spider-Twins(?), not really sure what to call them, continuing their attacks on various SHIELD warehouses. In the process, however, they are subsequently surprise attacked by Jessica Drew, who is ultimately defeated and captured. Switch over to Miles, who’s been captured by HYDRA and is being told why he’s been kidnapped. Turns out it was because his ex-girlfriend Katie happens to be a part of HYDRA--family business legacy thing. While Katie never meant for Miles to be affected by this, the emotional outburst she made to her sister previously about Miles’ secret identity eventually made it to her father, the guy responsible for his current situation. Katie and Miles have an awkward conversation, to say the least--Miles is super-pissed and Katie is displaying full-on HYDRA indoctrination, trying to persuade Miles that HYDRA is just like him and wants to help people. This goes the obvious and clichéd way, with the hero not buying any of that shit, also getting instantly confirmed why they are a group of terrorists when Katie’s father informs Miles he has no choice but to do what they ask, because HYDRA has captured his father and Ganke. Miles then makes an attempted escape to save his loved ones, but is shot down when the book concludes with an appearance from Doctor Doom himself, setting up for what looks to be a three way battle next issue.

The reason I really liked this particular book is because I felt like it has some real heart to it. Miles is finally getting some clarity on why Katie reacted the way she did when he revealed his identity as Spider-Man. Bendis writes Katie as someone who genuinely wants to believe what her family does is for the greater good, and seems to be truly conflicted by putting Miles in his current predicament. The dialogue between these two really carries the book, along with the added dynamic of Katie’s father, a serious HYDRA member, trying to force Miles to agree to become a guinea pig for the organization. Some of the other elements of the book aren’t as crucial--not that they’re filler pieces, but more of plot points to push the other conflicts and story elements of ULITMATE SPIDER-MAN #11. This was genuinely a fun book and look at Miles’ growth as a hero and character, plus a great way to add turmoil for him in future arcs.

With the art, Marquez does a solid job. His facial expressions are spot-on for all of the emotions being shown for the characters and don’t look insincere or fake. He does an excellent job of bringing the characters to life and giving them personality. The action sequences are good and focus solely on the characters, rather than background noise. I’d say his art style for ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN is a more mature version of the animated “Ultimate Spiderman” TV series.

I feel like I’ve covered basically everything needed for the book and hope it swayed anyone unsure of picking it up, revisiting the series or agreeing with the opinions of those already following it. ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN is, in my opinion, some of Bendis’ best work at the moment. He’s doing a phenomenal job with Miles and the property in general. I really, really hope there is some way Miles sticks around after SECRET WARS in some fashion or another.

In stores this week!

GRIMM FAIRY TALES PRESENTS: THE LITTLE MERMAID #2

Writer: Meredith Finch
Artist: Miguel Mendonca
Publisher: Zenescope Entertainment
Reviewer: Lyzard

Homage can take many forms. You can have reverent references, parody, satire, or just plain rip-offs. Zenescope’s THE LITTLE MERMAID swims in between numerous styles of homage. At times it seems hell-bent on twisting the tale into its own, and at other moments is heavily dependent on readers getting the jokes. Tonally, this second issue is rather inconsistent; whether it be by way of complex storytelling or a lack of focus is up to the reader.

Last we left off, Erica was trapped by a mad scientists whose diabolical plans remain for the most part ambiguous. Her mother, Elizabeth, has in desperation contacted the Sea Witch to find her lost daughter. This issue reveals to us why the sorceress would be even tempted to help…which essentially is the same plot as that of The Little Mermaid (Christensen and Disney), so let’s not beat a dead seahorse.

Just as writer Meredith Finch credited the Disney feature film as inspiration in the last issue, this time ‘round artist Miguel Mendonca admits that “for the Little Mermaid [his] first contact was with the cartoon series, watching it every Saturday morning as a kid.” So if the underwater kingdom of Atlantis looks a little bit familiar, now you know why. It is in the artwork that THE LITTLE MERMAID best balances between clear influence and originality. The set pieces are recognizable, but it is with his characters that Mendonca gets to change things up. Last time I praised Mendonca for layouts, but for this issue it is his facial expressions that have won me over. Much of Zenescope’s re-telling revolves around the gender-bender dynamic of having the merman Issoro be the one that wants to trade in his fins for feet. A goofy teenage boy plays quite differently than a love-struck teenage girl, and the scene between Issoro and his father is a highlight of familiar storytelling with a twist. Then there is Issoro’s encounter with Elizabeth on the beach, for which I’ll just say that Mendonca turns male objectification into a guilt-free experience for me.

As for the tonal issue I mentioned, I’m gonna give Zenescope the benefit of the doubt and say that it is the complex storyline that is the cause for the sometimes awkward transitions from cheesy to creepy. One could look at the comic’s tendency to rely more on humor for the flashbacks and the dramatic in the present plot as a purposeful decision, and for now that’s the way I choose to see it.

The next issue will be the true test for THE LITTLE MERMAID, as much of the story we are all familiar with has now been covered. From here on the plot will be more dependent on innovative ideas rather than re-envisioning. One can only hope that Finch knows how to write a better continuation than Disney.

Lyzard is Lyz Reblin, a graduate student at the University of Texas pursuing a master's degree in Media Studies... which is just a fancy way of saying she plays a lot video games, watches far too many horror films, and then tries to pass it all off as "research."

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