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Advance Review: BLOODLINES #1
DAREDEVIL #5
RAGNAROK #8
SAGA #35
STREET FIGHTER VS GI JOE #2
HERCULES #5
In stores today!BLOODLINES #1
Writer: JT KrulArtist: V. Ken Marion
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewer: Rob Patey (Optimous Douche if you're nasty)
To understand BLOODLINES #1, we really must traverse behind a veil I try to always shield my readers from - marketing and PR. I'm doomed to hell already for twenty years in the field, and I generally abhor the spoiler nature of successful viral marketing in this anemic age of comic book page count. But that doesn't negate the times it works and serves to truly explain the inexplicable upon first blush with the actual book.
The BLOODLINES PR subject line separated itself from the deluge I get each day with the mention of JT Krul. I’ve been a Krul fan since his XMEN UNLIMITED days, and brother made a valiant play at making my ol’ JLE favorite Captain Atom relevant way back at the onset of the New 52.
The item of interest that I gleaned from my inbox, but escaped me upon reading BLOODLINES #1, is that this is part of Multiversity Publications. Hear Ye, Hear Ye! The Morrison miniseries brainchild hath grown to a press. That's groovy in my opinion, but I read all things DC. For the average consumer that only wants to imbibe New 52verse (and I know many exist, despite what the Talkbacks might show later today), BLOODLINES might be an adventure you don't find palatable.
My tone may be snarky, but like all things Multiversity I'm sort of a fanboy. Alternate realities are my comic crack, and when a book so blatantly goes after a word the House of Mouse is trying to get back into its movie properties, the day job side of me cackles with glee at the brazen glove slap. BLOODLINES is going after the phrase mutants. As Marvel kills and replaces the freaks with more respectable terrigen mist-infused special folk called the Inhumans, I can't help but applaud DC’s hutzpah. The dirty mutant focal point of issue 1 is a typical high schooler with multiple scoliosis and depression that would bum out Edgar Allen Poe named Eddie.
Krul does a great job of making us cheer for Eddie's ultimate transformation into Blue Hulk in the almost last pages of the issue, because so many pages are dedicated to the shitshow that is Eddie's disease. I haven't felt this bad about MS since the movie “Pet Sematary”. It's a shit disease with debilitating effects that are exacerbated against the drinking, fucking and future planning we know Eddie can't or shouldn't bother having.
The story is like a sadder modern day “Dazed and Confused”. That's a compliment. Linklater's classic is a great exhibition of innocence lost in modern America. This story of a day in the life of Eddie and his cohorts is the same dawn to dusk arc, except more modern and more concise. Hard and heady character development is a hitch to pull off with Krul’s limited page count, but he does it in spades.
Krul bookends the fantastical elements around the story he wants to tell, with a meteor explosion in the beginning that nukes Bambi, and Eddie's transformation to a hulking mass at book's end when his Reggie Mantle is toasted by a centipede that also crawls out of the meteor.
Come to BLOODLINES for the character exploration of Eddie, which is a great read. His friends are authentic and interesting. Be wary of BLOODLINES’ cover lure that promises the introduction to three fantastic specimens of superhuman prowess this issue. You won't meet ‘em--Eddie and his ability to go from handicapped to handi-able is all you get. In this I will say a mistake was made. One upcoming character reveal looked like X-23. I would have led off with that Marvel money train, or at least done an introduction. BLOODLINES as a book is an elusive mystery wrapped in some gorgeous pencils by relative newcomer V. Ken Marion. I want to know more about the team and the world next issue, though, if the team expects to hook me for the long haul.
Rob works for IBM when he puts down comic books. IBM.com if you want to see his other world.
DAREDEVIL #5
Writer: Charles SouleArt: Ron Garney
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: Humphrey Lee
Bringing to a close the first arc of this relaunch for The Man Without Fear, an all-out fracas breaks out between long time DD nemesis The Hand, and the fragment of the group known as the Church of Tenfingers. Unfortunately for old Hornhead (and, to an extent, the reader) he’s caught right in the middle.
That sounds kind of harsh but, sadly, a lot of this issue falls pretty flat as it really kind of fails in its forced focus on the Blindspot character. The problem here is that despite the push this new volume has made for the character so far, he is literally such a blank slate still that having a familial conflict between him and his mother taking a major plot stake in the midst of this familiar just generates no heat. You feel kind of bad for the kid that things have come to this in his life, but considering we had no real inkling this was a dilemma for the fledgling superhero who has existed all of five issues in the Marvel Universe until just last issue, it’s kind of hard for it to have any real impact.
Otherwise, this reads just like more of the same in the world of Daredevil, as he has to shirk his lawyer day job responsibilities once again to go beat up some ninjas and protect his Kitchen. It’s a shame considering how rife with potential this “All-New” direction started its journey, but it feels like it lost its way wrapping up its first storyline.
Hopefully we get a solid rebound next time, as Elektra comes back into the picture.
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.
RAGNAROK #8
Writer / Artist: Walter SimonsonPublisher: IDW Publishing
Reviewer: Masked Man
Checking back in with the zombie called Thor, this is Walter Simonson’s post epic Ragnarok. After the death of all the gods, Thor finds himself only mostly dead as he tries to figure out what to do next with his so-called life. And there’s not a thing Disney can do about it.
So with everyone pretty much dead, Thor looks to clean up Asgard and give the bodies a more fitting burial when Surtr (oh frick’n please let him be in the next Thor movie) sends an army of fire demons down on him. In a word, this issue is all about carnage. Simonson even adds a postscript note that this issue is for Geof Darrow, whose SHAOLIN COWBOY series is nothing but massive amounts of carnage.
Now while there is a certain amount of fun to be had watching Thor and Mjolnir blowing away copious amounts of fire demons, Simonson’s graphically flat artwork kinda sucks the energy out of such a spectacle. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of Simonson’s art, but I think it works best with a certain amount of negative space, allowing his graphic images to really stand out. Filling up all the negative space with tons of graphic/flat tiny demons, well, it’s more like the characters are standing next to wallpaper.
Along with the carnage, Thor tries to convince Regn, the dark elf whose wife and child Thor killed, not to kill him. Thor argues it was self-defense and that he was really doing her a favor, as they were all being played by a god of death--though the end result appears to be predictable.
While I might not find this the strongest issue of the series, overall it’s cool seeing Thor wanders the wasteland as the ultimate bad@$$. The overall plot? Truth be told, there really isn’t much of one. The whole series, on some level, plays out like a Mad Max film. Thor’s interaction with the dark elf family is fairly interesting and prevents the stories from having no texture at all. But for this issue, I recommend putting on some headphones or earbuds at least and blasting you favorite heavy metal music as you read it.
SAGA #35
Writer: Brian K. VaughanArt: Fiona Staples
Publisher: Image Comics
Reviewer: Humphrey Lee
“Every time I think I’m out, they pull me right back in!” is a statement that kind of plays here with my relationship with BKV and Fiona Staples’ superbook, SAGA.,br>,br> This isn’t some sort of indictment of declining quality or anything like that – this is still hands down one of the top top top tier books on the market today – but three years into its life span there are now so many characters playing significant roles and plotlines being balanced, I occasionally find myself feeling lost. But it’s the little things that keep me afloat when I feel maybe like I’m drowning in plot, like a certain cat that calls people out on lying now wearing a crown and being the personal polygraph machine for a motion picture sleazemonger.
Or Prince Robot IV bitching about having to play to a “lower stature” as part of the central plan unfolding in this issue and talking about racism because of how offensive it is that everyone thinks his kind all look the same.
And then there’s a tiny seal wielding a big gold axe while mounted on top of a walrus and looking like he’s ready to lay down a beating.
I may be somewhat losing threads here as the months go on and I drastically need to schedule myself for a SAGA reread, but every issue the sheer supernova of creativity that Vaughan and Staples craft here keeps me awed.
STREET FIGHTER X G.I. JOE #2
Writer: Aubrey SittersonIllustrator: Emilio Laiso
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Reviewer: Mr. Pasty
At last we have a comic book crossover that I'm sure you'll agree is long overdue, as the soldiers of G.I. Joe make hay while the sun shines on the gang at Street Fighter. I guess the most obvious question is why an American military special forces unit would be competing in an international martial arts tournament. It seems Destro, who G.I. Joe fans will recognize as the world's most prolific arms dealer, has teamed up with M. Bison, who Street Fighter fans will recognize as the world's most prolific asshole. Seriously, what's with that guy? Anyway, when you mix guns with assholes you typically get a world in danger, and like the theme song promised: wherever there's trouble, G.I. Joe is there.
As expected, STREET FIGHTER X G.I. JOE #2 puts the Joes in the world of the Street Fighter video game, because it's easier to accept that trained soldiers – already well versed in hand-to-hand combat – would be fighting their way through a tournament as opposed to having fighters (perhaps with the exception of Guile and Cammy) taking up arms to fight on the battlefield. So, with the narrative of this book living and dying on the fights themselves as we plow through the elite eight, the decision of how to match participants becomes a make or break proposition. I'm happy to report that writer Aubrey Sitterson was very successful in that regard, and I admire his restraint in saving some of the top seeds for later in the series. Of particular note was a lopsided beatdown between two familiar combatants that I was sure I had all figured out – until a surprising and somewhat unexpected twist altered the direction of the entire storyline. Without giving too much away, I'm sure seasoned fans like myself will wonder how they never saw it coming in the first place.
I also think illustrator Emilio Laiso deserves a tip of the hat because his pencil doesn't sway too far in either direction--meaning Chun Li doesn't look like Scarlett in a cheap wig and qipao, just as Snake Eyes doesn't read like Ryu in a black wetsuit. It's a careful balance of both looks, and for me it worked. As for the story itself? Well …fans can be weird with this kind of material. If you have a certain fighter or soldier you fancy and they get blown out early in the tournament, STREET FIGHTER X G.I. JOE #2 might come off as lame or not consistent with existing canon. That was the one good thing about the arcade game back in the day: you were always one quarter away from shaping a new destiny – or succumbing to the destiny of your opponent. That said, this comic book series is already leaps and bounds ahead of the GI JOE and STREET FIGHTER movies that polluted the silver screen many moons ago.
Trying to capture the essence of a beloved franchise can be difficult, as we (painfully) learned in some of those wretched WWE comics. Sitterson somehow managed to capture two, probably because he didn't ask his characters to say or do anything that would feel out of place in a 1980s cartoon or a 1990s video game. That to me is much more important than who wins or loses the tournament or why. Nostalgia can be intoxicating, I get that, but I also know a great comic book when I read one. Issue No. 3 can't get here soon enough.
Web heads who can’t get enough of Mr. Pasty’s word vomit are encouraged to watch him operate as Nostradumbass over at MMaMania.com here. Love, hate and Mafia Wars requests should be directed here.
HERCULES #5
Writer: Dan AbnettArtist: Luke Ross
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: Masked Man
In the world of the (not )All-(that)New, (not)All-(that)Different Hercules, in the Marvel Universe, Dan Abnett (one part of THE GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY writing duo DNA) has created gods for the modern world. And as usual, when new gods move into town, they want to kill all the old ones.
So for the past few issues of fairly decompressed writing, Hercules has been warned of a storm coming--a storm of new gods, it turns out—and, well, now they are here. Getting into the spoilers, this whole issue is pretty much a slugfest between Herc and the latest god of war (no, not Wonder Woman): Catastrophobia. Along with having the typical superstrength and toughness of a god of war, Catastrophobia also has the ability to turn his finger into a first person shooting game. With some help from Hercules’ loser roommates, Gilgamesh and Ire, Hercules manages to chase off Catastrophobia. But his buddy Cryptomnesia has zapped Herc with a computer/god virus, whose affects have yet to be seen.
The bro-comedy of Hercules and Gilgamesh has been handled well by Abnett, and it’s nice to see Gil isn’t a complete loser when $h!t hits the fan, so the character work has been enjoyable enough here. Abnett’s real sizzle to his steak are these new gods (non-4th world) of his--gods for a modern technological society that is self-absorbed with itself. Who are they, what do they want, what can they do, etc, etc.? Overall, I’m not too interested in them as nothing says forgettable villains like ones based on current event buzzwords. But when it comes to a character like Hercules, I’m down for seeing any so-called ‘bad@$$ of the week’ mix it up with him.
This, of course, puts the burden on the artist to draw an awesome fight with our man Herc. Unfortunately, as nice as Ross’s figure work can be, it’s just a little boring too. Ross’ current style is like a poor man’s Steve Epting. The layouts, storytelling and even the posing are just kinda there. His pages aren’t inventive or interesting enough to sell this epic throwdown.
Unfortunately, Marvel’s HERCULES is just average fare. Nothing bad about the book; it’s adventuresome enough, but kinda forgettable as well.
Proofs, co-edits & common sense provided by Sleazy G
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