(Click title to go directly to the review)
Advance Review: CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR PRELUDE #1
TWILIGHT CHILDREN #3
SCARLET WITCH #1
THE PRIVATE EYE Hardcover Graphic Novel
SECRET WARS #8
CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR PRELUDE #1
Writer: Will Corona PilgrimArtist: Szymon Kudranski
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: Johnny Destructo
Boy o Boy! It’s the comic book prelude to the upcoming Civil War movie!! It’s a 4 issue mini series! I wonder what secrets this book holWAIT. Hold up a minute. What the &$%?
THIS IS JUST A *&$ING REPRINT OF THE COMIC ADAPTATION OF IRON MAN 3???!?!
WAY TO GO, MARVEL for publishing the comic equivalent of click-bait.
Seriously. What the $%&.
JD can be found running his own comic shop in Manayunk, PA called Johnny Destructo's HERO COMPLEX, hosting the PopTards Podcast, discussing movies, comics and other flimflam over here, graphically designing/illustrating/inking, and Booking his Face off herehere. Follow his twitter @poptardsgo. His talkback name is JohnnyDestructo
THE TWILIGHT CHILDREN #3
Writer: Gilbert HernandezArtist: Darwyn Cooke
Publisher: DC Vertigo
Reviewer: Masked Man
Seems like it was only yesterday when DC was trying to kill off their award winning Vertigo line. Is it just me, or does DC really seem bipolar these past few years? Now as awesome as Vertigo admittedly is, I'm pretty simple minded and never read much of it. I'm just a straight up action and adventure man. And even though I'm a big fan of Darwyn Cooke, I still didn't jump on the first issue of THE TWILIGHT CHILDREN. But when our very own Johnny Destructo gave it a big thumbs up, I gave it a shot the following week. Not disappointed.
Quite honestly these first three issues, of just a four issue mini-series, are so good it has me worried. Because there's no way Hernandez (you know the LOVE AND ROCKETS guy), can wrap this up in a single issue, and make it all worth while, right? Oddly enough though, he has said it is a four and done story- although he'd be open to buckets of money for more.
So what's it all about, first off it's too short for me to get into spoilers. I'm just going to tell you how the story is. So far THE TWILIGHT CHILDREN has been an awesome episode of the X-FILES or TWILGHT ZONE or even a good early episode of LOST. (Ok, minor spoiler) Hernandez has this quiet little Latin American fishing village, where giant white glowing, floating orbs keep showing up. As he populates this village with some great characters, the what the fu(k is going on, keeps getting bigger and bigger. While reading issue #2 I even audibled, “Holy $hit”, as if I was watching a movie. And to review issue #3 itself, sh!t just gets crazier. If Hernandez actually has a good ending to this (opposed to LOST and other wtf stories), this has got Eisner winner written all over it. To pull back, it's not like this is the next WE3, but it is really good.
As for Darwyn (THE NEW FRONTIER) Cooke, his work is as great as always. On some level he remains me of the painter Shag (look him up, you'll be glad you did), not is style or anything. But in his amazing ability to be good, over and over and over again. They are incapable of making bad art. For all I know, Darwyn could be phoning this series in, but it still looks amazing. He has nailed his style so well, it looks like it takes no effort. Storytelling and beautiful imagery are just engrained him some how (tons of hard work helps I assume).
As we wait for the final issue to drop, and the final pay off, any sci-fi mystery lover out there not picking it up is crazy! I'm willing to look stupid, if the last issue sucks, and say buy this damn series, seriously buy it. Even Mrs. Masked Man, who has no time for comics, lies in wait for the final issue, by these two master craftsmen.
SCARLET WITCH #1
Writer: James RobinsonArtist: Vanesa Del Rey
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: Johnny Destructo
An immediate confession: I’ve never really cared all that much about Wanda Maximoff, aka The Scarlet Witch. But then I was never really an “Avengers Guy. Not until Brian Michael Bendis came along with Avengers Disassembled. Tell me, dear reader, was Wanda always so damn confusing? I thought she was a mutant, but she’s also a witch? Is she was witch because of her mutant abilities, or visa versa? At any rate, in this issue Wanda is back to just being a Witch, with nary a mention of her mutant status, (a status that Marvel made unmentionable due to some Merry Marvel Movie Mutant Mandates).
In this first issue, which reads more like Warren Ellis’ Moon Knight series than I expected, Wanda suffers a prophetic nightmare, uses her hexy-mojo to solve a supernatural murder case, and chills with her ghosty ladypal: the late, great Agatha who hangs out like a spooky BFF, despite the fact that Wander killed her. And this brings up another aspect of The Witch’s story that I feel Marvel may have mishandled. Wanda went nuts and inadvertently MURDERED a huge portion of mutants during House of M before disappearing from the Marvel U. All of a sudden, she shows up, says “whups, my bad, y’all” and is welcomed back into the fold. This all felt way too rushed for me. She really could have used her own series back then, dealing with her guilt and the steps she must take to regain the trust of her friends and work her way back into the hearts of the readers. I don’t mind characters like Scarlet Witch, Magneto and the like swapping sides, so long as they endure the trials of such a shift. But hey, I guess better late than never?
This is a quiet book, not a lot of action, and it seems to suite the Scarlet Witch well. I dig the writing style that James Robinson is employing here, especially after his Earth Two run, which just felt overly-written and long in the tooth. This type of tale is far from her Avengers-style super-heroine stories and more in the creepy supernatural realm of Constantine: The Hellblazer, or Steve Niles’ Cal McDonald detective series. If those types of stories are your bag, baby, then give this one a shot.
THE PRIVATE EYE Hardcover Graphic Novel Vol.1
Writer: Brian K. VaughanArtist: Marcos Martin
Publisher: Image Comics
Reviewer: Humphrey Lee
Sometimes a gamble pays off, in this case my “gamble” was actually being patient for once in my life when it came to comics and being adherent to self-imposed (and somewhat dumbassed) “code of honor.” When this series, THE PRIVATE EYE by Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin, first hit the web I was one of the first in digital line to go donate a couple bucks to the “pay as you go” endeavor and see what the two had in store. One issue in and I was hooked but, chalk it up to a case of “the old,” I’m still very much about the tactile sense when it comes to comics and I was convinced eventually this “online only” experiment would make its way onto wonderful, senselessly murdered tree. I know how terribly irrational all of this sounds, not wanting to read a technically free thing without paying for it but not wanting to pay for the digital thing because I expected a physical thing I would prefer at some point but, well, shut up. That’s my weird “twitch” to air out here, which I’m not ashamed to do, unlike the citizenry of THE PRIVATE EYE in the post-social media world BKV and Marcos Martin have created.
That future involves a populace essentially paranoid of everything and that tries to hide itself from each other. Y’know, sort of like right now but with more luchadore masks and whatnot. The gist is that a few decades into this Americas’ past – a past where everything you needed to know about a person was just a few keystrokes away if you had the skills – the Cloud was torn asunder and everyone’s secrets were horrifyingly, terrifyingly exposed to the world. Search histories, stored photos, likes, cam vids, and so on, all out in the open for anyone to see, whether they be your child’s principle to the Pope to judge your dirty, dirty sins. It’s a fun backdrop to work with, though, from several aspects, but at the forefront is the thought of the cultural impact of such an event and how BKV and Martin pay that forward. It’s several decades removed from the incident and yet people are so flat terrified of the world knowing their secrets that they have shunned one of the most fundamental and important tools of modern times. Also, the vast majority of the populace more or less refuses to show their natural faces in public, so there’s more costumed persona acts going on than your standard Furry convention.
At its heart, though, THE PRIVATE EYE is obviously a detective story but with all the twists and turns traveling the road of this informationless highway. It’s a perfect storm for that story type; now that everyone is a closed book again, someone has to dig through the pages. That someone is a man known as Patrick Immelmann. Donned in his signature Dreamcoat (basically a stealth cloak) he’s usually more of the scout a mark for someone, snag a few snapshots, return the goods kind of Private Investigator – more Paparazzi than Private Dick – but in true, classic PI story style he becomes involved in a relatively routine case that ends up being a murky, violent affair with significant stakes. What starts with a case involving a young girl who presents the twist of wanting herself investigated as part of an airtight “background” check for a super-secretive job leads to murder, French assassins, megalomaniacal CEOs, rocket ships, and a mission to alter life for the world as they know it to be. Just another day at the offices, of course.
It’s an understatement to say that THE PRIVATE EYE excels in the story it tells because of how and where BKV and Martin unfold it for us to enjoy. The case here has plenty of adrenaline pumping confrontations and chases and just the right amount of twists and deadly turns but it’s the social commentary at play where the fun comes to the forefront. In a world that isn’t always wired into the Internet “strange” things happen, like print not only coming back alive but news sources having an unbelievable amount of power given how they’re the primary information givers, to the point that reporters are basically the police detectives. They’re the first on the crime scenes and they the legwork to solve the story, sometimes getting their hands dirty in the process. Libraries are basically locked down like Fort Knox given the depths of knowledge they contain. It’s both a nightmarish vision given how tired and isolated a socialscape it has become and also kind of a tranquil sensation given its lack of constant distraction and the almost base narcissism our glut of social media has propagated.
THE PRIVATE EYE is really just a book that feels alive, even if it’s rife with people in its pages that seem too afraid to live. From the get go it just jumps right into a hectic pace with Immelmann getting caught doing his Paparazzo deal and only ever really slows down for the interesting world-building bits. It doesn’t go head over heals with trying to deliver “world-shattering” plot twists but does love to throw a wrench into the works from time to time or present an angle you would not have considered given how different the societal makeup of this future has become. Mainly, though, THE PRIVATE EYE likes to have fun with itself. There’s never a quip it doesn’t jump on or an excuse to have a chase sequence to keep you on your toes. Immelmann is a smooth operator when working in his normal circumstances but he’s never encountered such a high-stakes situation before and, honestly, kind of spazzes out a bit under the pressure. And his grandfather, a heavily tattooed Millennial who still remembers our world makes for some great comedic relief in referential fashion but also presents a heart for the book as he gives us insight into Immelmann’s orphaned upbringing and why he ends up being the only person out there who doesn’t hide his face but works in the dark.
Lastly, one of the biggest contributors to the entertainment and fun factor of this book is that it is just an awesomely composed work of art. Everything Marcos Martin does to bring the script to life crackles with energy and style. The designs are wonderful, the panel flow keeps everything nice and kinetic, and it’s got the perfect amount of exaggeration to make the book appropriately over-the-top when the petal is put down and also a little bit sad when things quiet down and you soak up more of what this culture has become. THE PRIVATE EYE is, ostensibly, the stylish amusement park right all good Private Eye stories strive to be as well as being a bit of a reflecting glass on our current pop culture, for better and for worse. And it has just that little bit of added depth if you know its background and how it went from a “if you build it, people will pay for it” that flies in the face of the current convention if people can grab it any way they can for free they will. And here it is in a fantastic hardcover treatment, for needlessly late adopters like myself to finally enjoy if you waited to smell the pulp while you read the pulp and I cannot implore enough that you wait no longer.
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.
SECRET WARS #8
Writer: Jonathan HickmanArtist: Esad Ribic
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: Masked Man
And Marvel's SECRET WARS finally comes to a conclusion- wait, there's another issue!? Dammit. Well to be honest I don't mind another issue, I've been enjoying this crazy hiccup in the Marvel U history. But when comes to wrapping up an event on time, so it matches up with the rest of the publishing schedule, they botched it. But this happens so often, I can't really think of a time when someone got it right. I'm sure it's happened, we all just enjoy remembering the screw-ups. Mind you, the original MARVEL SUPERHEROES SECRET WARS back in the 80's, didn't even try. Saying the event took place between months. So you had nearly a year (suck it fool) until you learned why Colossus and Kitty Pride were no longer an item, or why the Thing quit the Fantastic Four, and why Spider-Man was wearing black. So, point for Jim Shooter?
Ok, first let me go over the lingering bad of this series, as sh!t is finally hitting the fan. Seriously, what is with the lack of build up here!? Breaking the issues down, the first issue was about the incursion (that Hickman was babbling about for years in the AVENGERS finally) destroying the universes. Issues #2 & 3 showed us the brand new world created by Doom, Strange and Molecule. Issues #4 was ground zero when the two surviving teams (good and bad) refused to submit to Doom's new world. Issues #5 & 6 showed Doom's Elite losing faith in him and the survivors making plans to stop Doom. Issues #7 & 8 (and presumably 9) is the climax of those plans against Doom. Unfortunately, those plans were barely sketched out (and he had two whole issues!). So when we see them happen, they aren't as satisfying as they should have could been. Hickman seems more enamored with the world he built, than selling the drama of it all. Heck, he doesn't even twist the knife of Doom stealing Mr. Fantastic's family. If you don't know the characters, you might even miss the fact Doom did this, because it's barely mentioned. This should have been the focal point of the whole story, making the epic story personal. So Hickman robs us of emotional impact and the enjoyment of watch a good plan come together, yeah not good.
Ok, forgiving what Hickman should have been doing and going with what he's giving us, it's still pretty epic. He's got some bad@$$ scenes here of giant Ben Grimm going all kaiju, and Dr. Doom facing off against Thanos. I really like the out come of that one, though part of me thinks Thanos wouldn't be that dumb. Another sour note was everything with Star Lord. It was a bit clever, but cliche's couldn't stop falling out of his mouth (can we been done with “Wait for it” as a society, please). Back to the plot, Doom has become soft. He's so powerful and he can't even conceive of anything threatening him. So he's slow to move, flicking off threats and delegating counter attacks that he doesn't see the knock out blow coming. Which (has to be) what the Reed Richards are up too. So we are all in wait for the final issue, where Doom's house of cards finally falls apart.
As for the artwork, because I always like to judge, the first page is rather underwhelming. There's too much dead space for what's supposed to be an awesome conflagration page. But aside from that, this book is as awesome looking as the rest of them. Esad Ribic with colorist Ive Svorcina do epic better than anyone, and that's what this book is about. Skipping AXIS, recent Marvel event books have had awesome artwork: that being ORIGIN SIN and this.
On some level, I'm sure we are all looking forward to the final (and delayed again) issue. Despite my crabbiness, I've enjoyed this ride. I got no idea how this will all manage to hit reset on the Marvel U, but my fingers are seriously crossed for Hickman to stick the landing. If he does, all his haters have to shut it for at least a week.
Proofs, co-edits & common sense provided by Sleazy G
Want more in all things Geek?Check out our friends at PoptardsGo for podcasts, reviews, and more!
And if you still need more geek in your life, check out Part-Time Fanboy for more geeky goodness on comics, movies, and more!Finally, check out AICN COMICS on Facebook and Comixpedia!
