OH, KILLSTRIKE #1

Writer: Max Bemis
Artist: Logan Faerber
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Reviewer: Lyzard

Meta abounds in OH, KILLSTRIKE. This book is an equal-opportunity ridiculer, taking aim not only at the ridiculousness of 80s and early 90s action comics, but at the comic book readers that mock them as well.

Jared finds the cure for his newly accrued parental financial woes when an eJay posting prices the comic KILLSTRIKE #1 at $100,000. This issue is an ironic collector’s item, as Killstrike is actually regarded as the worst comic book ever made--so bad that those that bought it quickly discarded it, and fifteen years later it is the rarest comic in existence. Jared just happens to have such an issue…which is a rather odd possession for a man who refuses to read any superhero comic past the year 1963. You see, Jared is that guy we all know: the comic fan who bemoans the state of the industry nowadays just because he “grew up” and broke free of the tyranny of the mediocre mainstream. He finds Killstrike and all he stood for to be abhorrent, yet for some reason, after all these years, never tossed out the comic.

He probably would have been better off truly shunning his past, because when Jared goes to find his golden ticket, Killstrike comes to life. Bursting from the pages of this ridiculously terrible comic spawns “a mindless, anatomically impossible, steroid-laden freak show” with only one task in mind: VENGEANCE!!! Vengeance against who? Doesn’t really matter. Killstrike just needs to stab somebody. To Killstrike’s disappointment, Jared is lacking in the mortal enemy department.

What works best about OH, KILLSTRIKE is how all of its craziness is glossed over. Jared will mutter under his breath about how this can’t be happening, his wife will question why a “gigantic, well-muscled clown” has appeared in her house, but these qualms are quickly moved past and forgotten. What else you gonna do when Killstrike is licking his knife, salivating at the thought of eviscerating someone, anyone?

OH, KILLSTRIKE reminds us that a guilty pleasure is only guilty when you let others decide what is worthy of your time and money. Is, in this comic’s universe, KILLSTRIKE the worst comic of all time? Hard to say. Does having ludicrous artwork and dialogue seemingly out of THE EXPENDABLES make a comic bad, or just fun to read and laugh at?

This is part of the reason why the comic breezes through the absurdity of its plot. Yes, what is happening to Jared is preposterous, but it’s happening and he better get used to it because he is going on a road trip with Killstrike whether he likes it or not. So what if your favorite comic has cheesy writing and an illogical story? If it’s fun for you to read, then read it. And read OH, KILLSTRIKE #1 while you’re at it, too.

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."

SECRET WARS #1

Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Artist: Esad Ribic
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: Humphrey Lee

A week ago I used this space to air some grievances against sketchy Marvel policy in regards to how it (to strike a pun) prematurely Doomed James Robinson’s FANTASTIC FOUR run, and I’m going to do some more airing in this space to because, quite frankly, I feel like a significant portion of Marvel’s publishing policy has become a blend of “fuck it, they’ll buy it anyway because we’re us” combined with a nihilistic streak of storytelling that is opposite of the free-wheeling and fun approach of their movie adaptations, which are such box office juggernauts. Over the past several years our annual events from the House of Ideas have culminated in such fallout as fiercely pragmatic leader and loyal soldier Cyclops becoming militant and a murderer of his mentor in AVENGERS VS. X-MEN, or godly-powered infused super-Nazis tearing major cities apart in FEAR ITSELF, and whatever dark secrets were unleashed to rend loyalties asunder in ORIGINAL SIN. And I like dark, edgy material, but it seems that the Marvel Universe has decided it’s best to be almost completely dominated by it for six to eight months at a time each year in order to live out its own version of “Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money.” It’s no wonder that we have finally reached this next step, a new SECRET WARS, the aim of which looks to be to somewhat erase a lot of the steps that came before. REBOOT, people, REBOOT!

I have not completely come just to bury the Marvel Universe (though there will be plenty of that, though) but to judge this, the literal event to end (and then relaunch) them all, on its own merits. I will acknowledge this to start: despite the company’s insistence in dressing in its Goth finest at every side occasion, it seems that this grand ball has been the accepted plan for a while now. While the world has burned in a variety of ways the past few years, Jonathan Hickman was planning its grand demise and rebirth throughout all his tenure on the AVENGERS titles, and that is to Marvel’s credit. Hickman has shown quite a few times now in his remarkably not as long-lived as you’d think comics career (seriously, THE NIGHTLY NEWS is ONLY eight years old now) that he is a Big Idea, Bold Tone kind of guy and that’s where SECRET WARS shines is its atmospherics. You want someone to write a super-slick and stylish book about the goddamn death of everything and its phoenix-like rise from the ashes, you get the Hickmeister. The way SECRET WARS presents itself is in no way the issue with SECRET WARS, it’s the call back to some of the shenanigans that have led to and made this reboot necessary that ends up sucking some of the life out of the work, as I’ll get into further here. Hickman, though, he’s just the warden reclaiming the asylum back from the inmates, he and his trusty nightstick Esad Ribic.

All it takes is three pages to show that Hickman and Ribic were the professionals who needed calling in to do the dirty work on the icing of the Marvel Universe. In those pages we’re shown the trio of Dr. Strange, Dr. Doom, and Molecule Man for some fucking reason (but it’s cool because it’s fucking Molecule Man) standing on a platform before crackling energy and the disembodied voices of, well, gods. “We are Beyond”, they say, “Dreamers. Destroyers. All of reality our Whim. Who dares stand before us?” And because Hickman lives for this shit and because Dr. Doom is the best villain comic books have ever seen for a reason, he retorts with a simple, calm “I. Doom.” and Hickman has already won. The universe is ending, war is about to be fought, characters will be changed or killed or both in either that order or vice versa, cats and dogs are living together, mass hysteria, etc. and the guy who SHOULD be writing it is writing it alongside a guy who definitely has earned the right to illustrate it all.

There is a lot to appreciate in the cacophony created within these pages. The scale is huge, but the personalities and small moments/victories are not lost. As the Ultimate universe and the main Marvel 616 universe – the two remaining universes of this comicsverse for those reading this thus far who don’t know exactly what is going on because I’m a terrible host – collide and every page is literally the world falling down around them, characters large and small in the grand scale are given their time. There’s Heroes for Hire helping to minimize the collateral damage in a battle they do not really have the power levels to really contribute to, The Punisher gets an early Christmas gift as he crashes an End of the World party of the Marvel U’s street level criminals, and Cyclops the pariah makes his play toward becoming Cyclops the possible savior? Even Ultimate Universe Tony Stark gets in some smarminess as Carol Danvers attempts to rip his armored head off; levity is not left in the dust as the world turns to it is all I’m saying, and it’s much appreciated considering the dour tone this book does rightfully have but that could easily get overbearing in the wrong hands.

But, as I have jabbed at before, every time I turned a page and saw a moment well-handled by Hickman either in its simplicity or its long-planned nature as it culminated something he has been setting up for years with his FANTASTIC FOUR and AVENGERS runs, there was another instance that had me shaking my head at what these places had become, especially since I have lapsed in my reading of the larger Marvel and Ultimate universes the past several years. When did Ultimate Reed Richards become a 1000-year old genocidal maniac again? Cyclops triggers the Phoenix Egg just in time to remind everyone of the great lengths that went into warping the most incorruptible character Marvel had next to Captain America into his own form of megalomaniac. SECRET WARS is a somewhat soulful and soul-searching book for some of its pillar characters in order to offset the grand chaos, but it also shows just how soulless the core of the Marvel universe has become recently for the sake of boosting sales every six months with a sprawling “event.” This latest universe-shaker is simultaneously everything I’ve come to enjoy about a Jonathan Hickman comic the past eight years of his career while being an indictment of what I’ve come to loathe about the brunt of Marvel’s publishing line in about the same span.

The Marvel Universe is dying and has probably needed to be put down in this manner for a while now – “this manner” being what you’d expect it to be in true Marvel style--a blitzkrieg of pomp and circumstance. But it’s Hickman and Ribic’s blitzkrieg bop, and it is pretty glorious. It’s a gorgeous-looking culmination of literally six years’ worth of stories all the way back to FANTASTIC FOUR: DARK REIGN when Reed Richard’s first created The Bridge and universal walls started falling. I don’t know what the Marvel U will look like once this clash is done – for one it’ll probably be a VERY movie-friendly universe considering a lot of recent movement – but the clash itself is looking like it will be a blast, at least in its own pages, which should benefit from its own streamlined eight issues. Hickman’s last big event outing, INFINITY, had the same epic feel that this SECRET WARS opener has but was bloated over the span of nearly two-dozen parts. I already feel that mistakes have been learned from and we’re in for a lightning-focused eight-issue maxi that may actually live up to its billing and hype. War has come yet again to the Marvel Universe and, lord help me, it may finally be one worth fighting and reading.

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, The MySpaces, 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.

THE MULTIVERSITY #2

Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Ivan Reis
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewer: Masked Man

We forgot to bid a fond farewell to Grant Morrison's years in the making THE MULTIVERSITY. Unlike most things being published these days by DC, the whole series was a love song to everything cool about the DCU except the big three (if you ever thought that was possible). On some level I feel this is what the DCU would look like if Grant was a Chief Creative Officer, but he's not, so we get the New 52 and CONVERGENCE. Meanwhile everything Grant has set up here will probably remain unused until Grant and DC decided to play together again.

My biggest fear about this series, pretty much up until the final issue, was that it wasn't a series but a collection of one-shots. Well Grant just barely, barely, managed to pull it all together, so reading all nine issues actually does lead somewhere--kinda. I do wish it tied together more in the finale, but at least it did. Along with the main plot of The Gentry attacking the Multiverse, Grant uses this series to give the big picture of the DC Multiverse, how they are all connected, and how each universe can affect each other. And (spoiler here) he even leaves it with a 'Justice League' of the Multiverse—again, I wish more characters from the one-shot filled out the ranks of this team (giving us more of a reason to read every issue).

The one area I feel Grant earns a big fat fail is the end villain. It's almost like he didn't learn his lesson from FINAL CRISIS, pulling a villain out of (seemingly) nowhere in the last issue, making all the readers go “huh?!?” Well, Grant at least alluded to something controlling The Gentry, but he failed to bring it to any conclusion, as nothing is done with said villain. Overall the story started with heroes being called together to help fight The Gentry who just destroyed Earth-7. In the end, The Gentry and their 'Empty is the Hand' master still rule over destroyed Earth-7, and prepare to attack more Earths, so we pretty much paid $50 to read a nine issue long prologue- oy! Now, of course one could argue the building of the Multiverse is more important than the plot itself. Ok, sure, if this was actually the DCU being built here, but CONVERGENCE and the Darkseid War seem to be ignoring everything built in MULTIVERSITY, so sadly, for all this work (ink and paper) not much happened.

Now, because we never get tired of telling DC they are screwing up (them appearing to not care about our (readers or merchants) opinions helps fan this flame): this is how DC should have launched the New 52--a finite piece of imagination which would help explain the new grand vision of the DCU based on some really good story ideas, instead of doing what they did: “We have no idea what we are doing, but just trust us and buy all 52 series, it might make sense…I mean, it has to, right? People are losing their jobs over this.”

At the end of the day, though, this was a fine collection of one shots loaded with enough excitement that it comes pretty close to matching DC's golden reboot days of the mid-80s, with possibilities being created, favorite characters getting energized, and nothing really being destroyed in the process (unless you were a huge fan of Beppo the Super-Monkey). There are wtf moments (ULTRA COMICS #1 comes to mind), where Grant tried to reinvent the art of comic book storytelling (stuff that I think only he really enjoys), but it's not too hard to roll with those and just enjoy this amazing look at the DCU.

THE UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL #5

Writer: Ryan North
Art: Erica Henderson
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: DrSumac

Over the past few months I've done several reviews for comics that were less dark and gritty and more fun and lighthearted. This to me is a great trend that Marvel has been really successful with based on the popularity of titles like HOWARD THE DUCK and MS. MARVEL. It seems like DC is also trying to get into this niche audience with their current takes on Batgirl and Harley Quinn as well as some of the new titles they have planned for June. However, in my opinion the absolute king (queen?) of this sub-genre is THE UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL.

I reviewed SQUIRREL GIRL #1 back when it came out and I liked it, but I'm glad to say that it's only gotten better since then. Issue #4 ended the first story arc of the series, in which our hero proved just how unbeatable she really is by taking down none other than Galactus, Devourer of Worlds himself! This was done mostly through the power of friendship after they both agreed that Thanos is a tool. The story got a little ridiculous for even me at times, but it all paid off in the end; moreso I found both the writing and Squirrel Girl herself to be very clever, which really made the book work for me.

On something of a side note, I didn't realize it when I read the first issue, but nearly every page has commentary by the author on the bottom, which is always worth reading. It's kind of like having a commentary track for a comic, and that in itself adds to the value for me. I suspect there may be some that have read the series and didn't notice this, so that's a great excuse to go back and check them out! For non-readers, the issues have also opened by recapping the previous one in the form of Twitter comments between Doreen and the characters involved. This is not only funny, but rather brilliant in the way that it both catches up the new reader and provides new content for those that are up to date with the series.

Issue #5 is appropriately titled “Tails (get it?) of the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl”, the plot of which involves a group of civilians held hostage in the top of the Statue of Liberty waiting to be rescued while various superheroes fought robot dinosaurs. One of the hostages was none other than Doreen's friend and roommate Nancy Whitehead, who told the group that they would be rescued by Squirrel Girl herself. As you may imagine, the crowd was underwhelmed and confused by the comment and spent the rest of their time making up stories about Squirrel Girl, whom they clearly know little to nothing about. My favorite bit may be when one guy just gets her completely confused with Spider-Man from the 80s, since this gives us a Venom version of Squirrel Girl while pointing out just how silly that story was.

This is honestly the funniest comic I've read in a while, particularly if you're a comics fan. Even if you're new to comics, though, I have to imagine this one would be pretty easy to get into since it pokes fun at comics in a way that most people would get. It's also a great jumping on point for the series if you haven't been reading since the start. Just trust me and give it a shot.

However, maybe my description doesn't accurately express the fun of this series? In that case, let me present you with a song that I have recently been embarrassingly addicted to...

In stores this week!

THE DRESDEN FILES: DOWN TOWN #4

Writers: Jim Butcher & Mark Powers
Artist: Carlos Gomez
Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment
Reviewer: Lyzard

THE DRESDEN FILES: DOWN TOWN #4 was the first issue that made me feel like I was reading a Butcher novel rather than a comic book. It was a trudge through pages and pages of excessive dialogue and narration. There is plenty of action and the visuals can be impactful, but with the addition of a couple sentences denoting a scene change, DOWN TOWN #4 could remain coherent by simply reading the text and eliminating the drawings.

Imagine picking up an issue of SUPERMAN where in the middle of a city-flattening brawl Superman gives you a rundown of the scenario, describing what has brought him and his enemy to this point, how he feels about the destruction he is currently causing, and giving a play-by-play of his opponent’s attack. That is essentially what the entirety of DOWN TOWN #4 is.

But I didn’t dislike it. Remember, this DRESDEN FILES run is written by the series creator, Jim Butcher. Not only does that mean that the comic will sound authentic, but more than likely also read more literary/book-like than some other fast-paced, sparsely written comics that depend more on one-liners interjected into their fight scenes rather than descriptive narration.

The fact that the issue covers very little ground compared to issues 1-3 only exacerbated the problem. The events in DOWN TOWN #4 occur in the span of minutes, maybe an hour. Gentleman Marcone, Molly, Dresden, and Mouse are stuck together in Undertown trying to find the Golem’s master before he finds them. That’s it. Nothing else happens, and I’m sure you can guess how the issue ends.

As I said before, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The content that was there worked and, despite being seemingly never-ending, the dialogue and narration was well-written. It wasn’t a terrible experience per se reading a comic that didn’t seem to take advantage of medium specificity. If I see a room full of spiders on the page, I don’t need narration to explain to me how creepy a room full of spiders is.

My lack of criticism towards the slower pacing is probably because I’m a fan of Butcher’s work. I enjoy his writings and thus won’t complain about reading pages after pages of his text alone. But for non-fans, DOWN TOWN #4 could be read as redundant and sluggish. Frankly, the issue adds very little to the plot at hand and provides no insight into character motivation or backstory. For that reason alone, even if you have been following the series closely, if you needed to save a few bucks this month, skipping this issue wouldn’t be a problem.

AFTER LIFE WITH ARCHIE #8

Writer: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Artist: Francesco Francavilla
Publisher: Archie Comics
Reviewer: Morbidlyobesefleshdevouringcat

The latest release from AFTER LIFE WITH ARCHIE pays homage to classic and modern narratives that explore the realm of hauntings. Referencing typical pieces such as A CHRISTMAS CAROL and stretching as far as to current popular television like PRETTY LITTLE LIARS, issue #8 parallels these tributes to examine specific political and sociological roles when a group is suddenly placed in a societal vacuum.

The previous issue had left off with Cheryl Blossom emerging from the woods, machete in hand, wearing what the group has assumed was her brother Jason Blossom’s blood, and not the blood of the zombies who she claimed to have killed Jason, whom in turn she had slaughtered. A month later, the remnants of Riverdale find refuge away from the zombie-filled city in Vermont at the Bradbury Hotel, where on a snowy Christmas Eve Archie Andrews sits alone in a dimly lit bar, sipping alcoholic root beer floats, relaying to the bartender the rest of Cheryl’s fate, the only exception to this romantic evening of solace and comfort being the bartender is a dead Jughead Jones and that this interaction is all going on in Archie’s head. It’s just as Jeff Winger said: “it’s the living who choose to be haunted.”

LORD OF THE FLIES-style, the group, as politically and humanly as possible, decide what to do with Cheryl through a vote of transparency, ending with her being allowed to stay. The reactions and responses to whether or not Cheryl is believed run alongside stories of victims of abuse. It is not fully accepted by everyone, even by those who supported her within the group, that she didn’t kill her brother; perhaps as the ghost of Jughead explains to Archie, Cheryl may have gone “I Spit on Your Grave” on Jason, a reference to a horror film that circles around the assault on a woman who is left for dead, but enacts a gruesome revenge. Throughout the series it has been continuously insinuated that a sexual relationship may have been occurring between the Blossom twins, and furthermore that this relationship was not likely consensual on Cheryl’s behalf. But of course, this for the group is merely hearsay, and at this point it’s difficult to determine whether Cheryl is a hero, a murderer, or a victim.

Finally brought back to reality, Archie’s mom intrudes and divulges a story that was told to her by her grandmother, giving a bit of hindsight as to why Riverdale seemed to be magically cocooned from the rest of the world. During the wars, as a means to protect the slowly growing town, three founders of Riverdale--Agnes Cooper, Franklin Andrews, and Forsythe Jones The First--promised the witches of Greendale a child sacrifice from each of them for three generations. Although seen simply as part of the town’s folklore, the story held some strange truth to it--Archie’s would-be uncle died at the age of 13 the following year; after that was Betty’s also would-be aunt, leaving Jughead Jones as the last generation.

If I haven’t said it enough already, I’ll say it again: AFTER LIFE WITH ARCHIE is a series must-read. Not only is it unabashedly and without any shame or remorse taking you out of the comfort zone that was originally built around these characters, but it’s pushing these characters to grow in fairly sadistic way. The empathy created and the amount of personal reflection is astounding, as the kids of Riverdale High slowly become adults by way of a zombie apocalypse. It makes you feel. It really, really makes you feel.

ANT-MAN #5

Writer: Nick Spencer
Art: Ramon Rosanas
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: DrSumac

“Avengers: Age of Ultron” was a good movie, but certainly not amongst the best of the Marvel films. Despite that it's naturally a huge record-breaking film just by the nature of it, which is kind of a bad thing for us as consumers. See, Hollywood has a knack for emulating the wrong aspects of successful movies when they do knockoffs, and Avengers-style films are already in the works, such as with Warner Brothers and their questionable “Batman V Superman” and “Justice League plans. The problem is that when even The Avengers seem to fall short of their potential while still being a hit, it's only going to make the knock-offs worse as well since they won't have to try so hard. As long as they don't pull an “Amazing Spiderman 2 : The Death of a Franchise” we'll begin to see even more team up movies pumped out just for the sake of greed.

Fortunately, the solution is a simple one. Ask nearly anyone that has watched a handful of Marvel films and they will probably tell you that the best ones aren't team ups like either Avengers movie. Instead they will likely tell you that Iron Man 1, Winter Soldier, or “Guardians of the Galaxy” are the best and those people are right. These movies still exist in a shared universe, but that universe doesn't have a stranglehold on the story in those films. “Guardians” specifically demonstrated that the characters didn’t even need to be well-known by anyone to make money if the film stands on its own. It was a gamble that the studio and fans alike placed a bet on, and somehow everyone won.

As much as they like to give us news about who will or won't be in the Civil War movie, I can almost guarantee that a silly-sounding film like “Ant-Man” will be much better. Like “Guardians”, “Ant-Man” gets to play in the Marvel sandbox while still being fun, charming, and unique.

I can also say this with relative certainty because of this very comic I'm supposed to be talking about. During my review of ANT-MAN #1 I said that if this comic remained as good as that one was and the movie was anything like that it would make me very happy, and so far so good. This issue ends an arc that deals with the villain who will actually be in the film (although he will be very different there), Darren Cross. He's the first real supervillain that Scott Lang has taken on and defeated in this series, but there was an emotional core to the story that rightfully over shadowed it. Plus Scott compared his “Fantastic Voyage”-like adventure with Battletoads, so once again this series proved that it's aiming for my demographic and succeeding.

My first review also said that I had no idea what would happen next, but I was pretty sure I'd like it. True to form, I still find myself surprised with every new issue, more so than ever with the ending of this one. It really is quite a feat for a comic to reinvent itself so frequently. Sadly, it seems like this particular take on Ant-Man is being canceled just when it was just getting started. It kind of makes me bitter enough to avoid the next series that will start post-SECRET WARS as some kind of boycott. Either way, it's depressing to say the least.

All I ask is that if you have any interest in the movie or seeing what Marvel does with him after SECRET WARS then please check out an issue of this series first. That way you can compare them and decide for yourself.

WONDER WOMAN '77 SPECIAL #1

Writer: Marc Andreyko
Artists: Drew Johnson, Matt Haley, Jason Badower & Richard Ortiz
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewer: Masked Man

After some success with BATMAN '66, DC is going back to the “past TV show” well for WONDER WOMAN '77, a comic book series based on the 1977 television series starring Lynda Carter--the show that really put Wonder Woman on the map in pop culture. One wonders if SUPERMAN '55 isn't far behind (as THE FLASH '90 or LOIS AND CLARK '95 don't seem to have the same ring).

At $8, it does seem bit high priced, but DC did try to make it worth it, with an Afterwards by Andy Mangels (explaining the old show for newbies), and some nice sketch pages by the artists. And you do get two stories, each one broken up into chapters, to showcase a different artist, which added up to 60 pages, so there is a lot between the covers here.

The best thing about this issue is the artwork (for the most part, more later). Each artist managed to get Lynda Carter's likeness very well, which is the number one thing people like to see in comic books based on TV and movies, so very good job there, boys and lady (Nicola Scott drew the cover). The coloring job by Romulo Fajardo Jr. is quite excellent as well. Flipping through this book, it all looks pretty awesome. Reading it, well, that’s when things get a bit messy. The visual storytelling is pretty damn awful at times. I spent a lot of time looking at pages trying to figure out what was going on (aside from the basic: WW jumps up). There's one panel where Steve Trevor is holding a gun saying “Gotcha!” No idea what this is about. In the panel before it, he is gunless karate chopping bad guys (none who have guns), so maybe he was supposed to knock a gun out of someone's hands and catch it, but that is not what's drawn, so no idea--just a random panel. Oh, Lyle Waggoner (the actor who played Steve Trevor) looks pretty good here too. Not as good as Lynda, but in the ballpark like a typical TV-based comic.

As for the actually stories, they are good. Marc Andreyko (the guy who created DC's critically acclaimed female MANHUNTER series) wrote both tales. While neither of them are particularly special, both are good action yarns. Andreyko does kick up the fun by introducing real supervillains, which were never in the show (the bane of comic book fans--why no supervillains in the TV show? “Batman” '66 was the only one to have 'em until “The Flash” '90, and even that was pretty weak). Andreyko really goes for it, too, by sticking in the original TV Wonder Woman (a 1974 TV movie), played by blond actress Cathy Lee Crosby in a red, white and blue jumpsuit (that's incredible! (ya get it, ya get it?)). For some reason they didn't use her actual jumpsuit (legal, I'm sure) but it's close enough. Andreyko also used Silver Swan busting up a 'Studio 54' disco, Dr. Psycho and more.

One thing I would have liked to have seen (being a child of the 70s) is more actors from the 70s appearing in the book (as if it were a TV show from the 70s). Not sure if this would be a legal problem, as everyone would be uncredited and not on the cover, but the blond Wonder Woman should have looked like Crosby, and it would have been cool to 'cast' Farrah Fawcett as Silver Swan and Billy Barty as Dr. Psycho.

So any Wonder Woman fan should enjoy this, though I'm not sure anyone else would. The story telling needs to improve, and scripts can't be so breezy before I recommend this to the casual fan. But yeah, being a Wonder Woman fan I'm pretty happy and would like to see more (it's nice seeing Wonder Woman not trying to stab everyone).

PSYCHO BONKERS #1

Writer: Vince Hernandez
Artist: Adam Archer
Publisher: Aspen Comics
Reviewer: Lyzard

My first thought upon seeing the cover of PSYCHO BONKERS was “what the hell is this?!?” I assumed that any comic with that sort of title would have something along the lines of the Psychos from BORDERLANDS. Instead, I got a cartoony robot ala RATCHET AND CLANK along with a futuristic adolescent racer.

Despite my initial shock, I wasn’t disappointed with what PSYCHO BONKERS turned out to be about. It’s easy to compare the comic to television shows like SPEED RACER, WACKY RACES, and OBAN STAR RACERS. The minutiae of the actual racing reminded me greatly of the pod racing from one of the best STAR WARS arcade games ever made. And while these shows and such are fun and enjoyable like the comic, their influence all too often permeates PSYCHO BONKERS storyline. The comic rides the fine line between rip-off and homage about as erratically as its main character.

PSYCHO BONKERS follows Shine, a young girl part of a Bonk racing legacy. Bonk racing takes place on crazy tracks (this site time set in a desert wasteland) with cars featuring a J.A.R.V.I.S.-like system and a helpful little robot for maintenance akin to R2D2.

Could I have given that summary without the references to other pop culture material? Perhaps. But the comparisons are hard to ignore the longer you read PSYCHO BONKERS. Shine lost her grandpa in a racing accident blamed on the Dark Traveler’s bonk racer, Fuel. The mysterious driver, a cross between a Racer X and Dick Dastardly lookalike, happened to be Shine’s father and was too mysteriously killed by his own car, Fuel. Move away from the backstory that is interspersed throughout the first issue and the comparison to prior works become less blatant, but are still there to some degree.

The same goes for the artwork. Besides the character design of Paps, the rest of the book features looks that are more archetypal rather than directly influenced by a specific pop culture character. Shine’s techno-companion Gabbo is a mish-mash of so many adorable robots that it becomes impossible to tell where one begins and the other ends. Simply put, everything feels familiar and the name of another image like it appears on the tip of your tongue, but there is just enough there for PSYCHO BONKERS to call its aesthetic its own.

PSYCHO BONKERS is what it’s meant to be: fun, cute, with plenty of action and humor. What it isn’t is original. There isn’t a specific conceit that I can grasp on to recommend PSYCHO BONKERS above the ilk of material it reminds me of. What it does have going for it is that I cannot think of any comics currently on the market like it, so if you’ve got kids and don’t want them to suffer through the Wachowskis’ abysmal SPEED RACER or the pod racing scene in THE PHANTOM MENACE, then PSYCHO BONKERS is a worthy replacement for sci fi racing fun.

Editing, compiling, imaging, coding, logos & cat-wrangling by Ambush Bug
Proofs, co-edits & common sense provided by Sleazy G
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