LADY KILLER VOL 2 #1

Artist/Writer: Joelle Jones
Publisher: Dark Horse
Reviewer: Rob Patey (Pre Rebirth Optimous Douche)

What’s more empowering: shunning who you are to climb into a social group, or rising to the top without compromise? I say the latter. I believe Joelle Jones does as well. Or at the very least, her femme fatale sixties house wife turned hit woman, Josephine, embodies this belief. LADY KILLER Vol 1. received my nod for 2015 book of the year not only because it is an engaging story with “killer” art, but it also provides a much needed voice of sanity amidst the cacophony of noise about women in comics on and behind the page. Raw talent alone accelerated the first volume, and this first issue of the second volume, not some bullshit PR or internet rage.

I see LADY KILLER as the first feminist before nary a bra was ever burned (which I never understood, if I had something that lifted my sagging parts I wouldn’t burn it). Josie is elegant and deadly, never sacrificing her feminine style while disposing her latest contract. In volume 1 of the tale, Josie gracefully handled the trappings of suburban imprisonment without ever letting her husband Durwood or her twin girls ever see a drop of blood on her apron after 5:00 PM. Then when the story turned to a tale of male brutishness possibly subjugating her liberated…ish status, she deftly handled her corrupted handler. In another score for superiority of the fairer sex, female intuition is the only thing that susses out Josie’s secret life. In another Bewitched pastiche (like my dated Durwood debacle above), her housecoat wearing Mother-in-law is the only one to piece together that most people don’t have late night rendezvous with handsome men and need 25 gallons of bleach a week without owning a pool. Samantha had the nosy neighbor always home, Josie’s Moriarty is always in the home.

Volume 2 kicks off a year after the Josie turns against the organization that trained her. Now she lives la vida suburban in Florida. From Tupperware party to a booze happy boss coming over for a BBQ, not an ounce of authenticity was lost since volume one. I could practically here the freshness seal burps, and “Papa loves mambo” with every come-to-life page turn. Josie is still killing in her same deadly yet demure way. Except she is now sans a handler, fixer and clean-up crew to dispose of her dirty deeds. It’s the problem every small business owner faces really, you’re the CEO but also the janitor at the end of the day. This simple disposal fact alone means we’re in for a darker journey this time. But that in my opinion is just fine, we want out comics to embody what was, but never repeat themselves. Joelle accomplished this in spades. She gets extra accolades because this in volume she’s doing the writing without an assist as she had in volume one.

Being the type that believes merit and not bitching nets the greatest results, Joelle is the template for the female rise in comics. Too many books rely on PR or the parlor trick of ostracizing the other side to make their books fly off the shelf (cough, BITCH PLANET, cough).

So instead LADY KILLER relied on quality writing and art to speak to the hearts and minds of both sides of the argument to see where all of our fallacies lie. That’s how stories have made their mark folks and separated the true classics from the shelf fodder fed by the fervor of the now.

Rob works for IBM when he puts down comic books. IBM.com if you want to see his other world.

THE FLASH #3

Writer: Joshua Williamson
Artist: Carmine Di Giandomenico
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewer: Humphrey Lee

You know, you should come to expect about a comic book featuring a titular character whose moniker is “The Fastest Man Alive,” but our creative team of Joshua Williamson and Carmine Di Giandomenico have really got this book on hyper drive since the relaunch.

Things were already starting to heat up when the Scarlet Speedster’s day job partner, August, also was struck by some Speed Force lightning and became the Flash’s newest sidekick, but now we have multiple speed force tappers going on due to the lightning, the science terrorist group called “The Black Hole,” running about, and a brand new super speedy baddie debuting at the end of this issue. All-the-while this creative team has been tackling a lot of sidekick themes by giving the role-players in Barry Allen’s life their own screen time in between bright red blurs, as well as introducing some newbies.

And it’s actually all coming together really well, honestly. Sometimes it does seem just a little too spastic with the jumping it is doing, yes, but as we were more or less told upfront with the DC UNIVERSE REBIRTH issues a couple months back, we were going to focus on those interpersonal connections Barry has, especially with his sidekicks, and we are getting a healthy dosage of just what it means to a man who works rather isolated from the world as it slows down around him to do what he does to have someone at his side who shovels the same lonely workload. There’s a lot of power crackling in a Flash’s hands and you can really tell how much of a joy it is for him to actually have people to share that responsibility with, as much as he likes to take that burden on his shoulders.

Williamson and Di Giandomenico, in their own regard, are also nailing their partnership in bring these escapades to life, to the point where I’m willing to say that I think FLASH has moved to the top of the heap of all the Rebirth titles I’ve indulged in to this point.

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.

BLACK PANTHER #4

Writer: Ta-Nehisi Coates
Artist: Brian Stelfreeze
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: Masked Man

Coates’ turn at Marvel’s top African hero rolls along as we try to keep up with it. Coates is writing a tale more about Wakanda than the Black Panther. Weaving in the countries history and political history, with the need for change smashing up against tradition and the status quo. Caught in the middle of it all is our hero, the bad @$$ king of Wakanda, the Black Panther.

If all that sounds like a lot, it is and Coates has yet to blend it all together elegantly. Jumping around a lot, tossing in a seemingly random fight scene, and plus a bunch of mysticism and dream states- yikes! The main thrust of the story is the budding revolution, which is being started by several different characters, for different reasons. Overall the revolution hinges on people believing the Wakandan monarchy has neglected much of the country. So far the Monarchy’s responses has been to bust heads (so much for the hearts and minds). I assume this is Coates point though, that these problems are complex, with lots of different ideas, mistakes and moving parts. Now is the Black Panther the best series to tell such a story? The jury is still out I’d say, but if the narrative is as complex as the real life analogy, that is not a good thing.

As for spoilers, recapping this issue would take just as long as reading the issue. Suffice to say revolutionaries are coming together and the Black Panther is still lost on how to deal with it all. A super villain has appeared with Zeke Stane, the son of Iron Monger (exciting choice no? No). Then a terrorist attack has wounded the Queen Mother, Black Panther’s mum, so now he has an even bigger reason to make bad choices. On the plus side, Coates is doing a good job by not having an out right villain. Everyone has a point and this can’t end with Black Panther just tossing everyone in jail. Coates also give us a very interesting critique of the Black Panther this issue, courtesy of his mother. As he is a man of responsibility and action, but has no heart in all of his actions. All the hard work and sacrifice he does is bore out of a sense of reasonability to his people and country, not love for them. An interesting take on the character, leaving some nice room for growth.

Stelfreeze continues to do a great job with this. Even though there are little things that bug me, the overall package is pretty great looking. Every panel gets his full attention as each is well sculpted. To a degree I’d almost say he’s trying too hard- which is probably what Coats is doing as well. BLACK PANTHER has a long way to go before it becomes a must buy book. And it might be because they are trying so hard to make it a ‘must buy book’. If they scale back and let the story breath, it might improve. Until then BLACK PANTHER is just nice, some what over bearing, technically sound book.

AMERICAN MONSTER #4

Writer: Brian Azzarello
Artist: Juan Doe
Publisher: Aftershock Comics
Reviewer: Humphrey Lee

Here’s what happens when you have a very deliberate, decompressed writing style – as Brian Azzarello does - and your book comes sporadically every couple of months:

I’ve now spent most of my summer 2016 not knowing what this book is doing, even with a fresh issue in hand. Nearly three months since the previous issue and this latest installment of the AFTERSHOCK series is very much a “here’s a bunch of small moving pieces that will eventually create an avalanche of event later” type issue, which is fine, if it isn’t essentially three months since your previous issue and you’re kind of struggling to remember what the character relationships are and being reminded, oh yeah, that happened, I guess that’s another shitbomb brewin’ to go off.

I mean, really, you could boil this issue down to three plot points of the local Dylan Bundy of this book making some gun-grabbing, good ol’ boy videos, the small town, druggie/slackers that have been in and out of the book’s pages so far act like druggie/slackers (with some unforeseen consequences to come), and there’s fallout over the dog that died in the previous issue, that you forgot died. And, of course, I have no doubt that these supposedly breezy bullet points will eventually lead to a category ten shit hurricane as this opening arc starts to really ramp things up; that’s how Brian Azzarello books work.

But given the slow crawl of the overall arc in this issue and of the book in general to hit the shelves, if you hadn’t already learned your lesson about not just trade waiting on a book like this by now (like I apparently hadn’t, though I honestly just wanted to see what AFTERSHOCK as a company was peddling) then take this down as a cautionary exercise in your comic book purchasing.

4001 AD #3

Writer: Matt Kindt
Artist: Clayton Crain
Publisher: Valiant Entertainment
Reviewer: Masked Man

In the midst of Rebirths and Civil Wars, Valaint has their own comicbook events going on, one being 4001 AD, aka the Father of New Japan’s chickens are coming home to roost. As it is, Rai, Valiant’s hero of the far future really can’t join in on any of the companies other crossovers because everyone else is dead by his time and he wasn’t born that their time. But Rai scribe Matt Kindt is doing the best he can here, by having the Eternal Warrior still walking around in 4001 and helping New Japan’s guardian out.

What’s New Japan you ask? Well at some point in the future, Japan decided living on the Earth was a pain in the butt, so they built a mega orbital space craft and everyone moved there. This New Japan is a utopia (kinda- of course), run by the computer A.I., Father (original Rai readers will note the system was called Grandmother in the 90’s). As you may expect, Father is more interest in the status quo than governing well and boom, revolution. Our hero Rai, is suppose to be Father’s enforcer, who can travel through New Japan’s internet as energy and created weapons out of thin air with his mind. In Rai’s regular series, he has started to become disillusioned with Father. Which bring us to 4001 AD, a full revolution led by Rai against Father over control of New Japan.

This issue (spoiler time), kicks off the final battle, as the exiled Rai returns to New Japan, Eternal Warrior in tow, to kick some @$$. As the battle builds to a climax, there are some deaths and, cliffhanger time: New Japan starts to fall from the sky (something that happened back in the 90’s run as well).

Overall, I’d say there’s not a lot of original thought going into this series as it’s just the final punch out between Rai and Father. Though the punch out should be useless, right? I mean, Father is a computer program and he’ll just copy and hide himself everywhere, ala Brainiac. Still the fighting and conflict is well done and exciting enough.

With Crain’s artwork, the regular artist on RAI as well, it comes down to personal tastes I’d say, as he digitally paints every page. So the rush and small panel size of comicbook production can play havoc with his work. I find his pin-ups and large panels just awesome, but then everything else looks muddy and slap dash. The first page of the book is amazing, but page 10 barely looks finished. He even silhouetted the main characters because they would have been totally lost in the jumble of over saturated colors there. Therefore, anyone who loves this high gloss, video game concept like art Crain creates will love each page. Anyone else will be less enthralled. The same can be said about the series as well. 4001 AD is a nice conclusion to the RAI storyline, but I can’t really say it does any more than that.

WONDER WOMAN #3

Writer: Greg Rucka
Artist: Liam Sharp
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewer: Humphrey Lee

Just a couple issues into the second run of writer Greg Rucka at comic books’ First Lady, Wonder Woman, and I am immediately struck in reminder of why he was such a good writer for the character in the first place.

The absolute sense of majesty and stateliness (with just a hint of naïveté in these modern day issues, more so in the alternating “origin” story in the even numbered ones) that a Rucka-written Princess Diana carries her with is perfect. The main thrust of this issue is a Wonder Woman unable to find her way home and in need of nemesis/ally the Cheetah to aid in her quest, only to find a Cheetah at the brink of feralness. And it’s the way in which that the Amazonian goes through amazingly patient levels to console, calm, and comfort her former friend, who is literally trying to rip her to shreds while coming to grips with her raging emotions, is exactly why the character has worked as such a graceful symbol for decades.

Rucka absolutely gets that essence of the character and it is fully on the stage with this issue. Unfortunately, that big story point and an alternating tale that kind of boils down to “Steve Trevor gets himself in some shit” are pretty much the bulk of this issue, which combined with the origin retelling going on in the even-numbered issues of this Rebirth run, means we haven’t seen a lot of overall progress going on a few issues into this relaunch.

But, the themes are there, the groundwork to what Rucka wants to do with this particular run does seem to be rounding out, and both ends of the artistic team working with him are really spot on and Liam Sharp in particular really killed it with this issue. Given all the buzz generated with the Wonder Woman live-action material from Comic Con, it’s looking like it’s a great time coming for fans of the comic book industry’s top female icon.

THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT #1

Writer: Mike Wolfer
Artist: Giancarlo Caracuzzo
Publisher: American Mythology
Reviewer: Masked Man

Nothing like another tale of people fighting dinosaurs out of time. But this is a take on the granddaddy of them all, Edgar (I created Tarzan and John Carter) Rice Burroughs’ THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT. Much like the writer Wolfer mentions in the editorial, I’m a sucker for these stories. So they will always get me to buy a few issues. Though it has to be good for me to stay with it and / or finish it.

So how does this one stack-up? Well it starts with a really nice cover by Mike Wolfer. Wolfer is writer / artist who has worked on various horror and monster titles. As it moves into the pages, artist Giancarlo Caracuzzo takes over. Caracuzzo has done a little work for just about everyone and unfortunately this is the worst I’ve seen from him. He’s either phoning it in or rushed or sick or something. It’s just unappealing overall. His finished pages look as detailed and ‘finished’ as the sketchbook pages at the back of the book. His overall story telling it fine, but that’s about all I can say. I’m assuming colorist Flavia Caracuzzo is his wife, and she too puts in about as much effort in as he does- not enough. The pink lips on the main character really stick out like, what the hell?!

It’s a real shame because the story is pretty darn interesting. Wolfer has added a concept to Burroughs’ dino island that helps the concept stand-up, even in today’s tech world. Think of it like this: You do more than just travel the world to get this hidden island. With this trick in play Wolfer is managing an adaption and a sequel all at the same time. So while the art left me cold, the writing warmed me.

How about some spoilers? So the original story is about a German U-boat from WWI getting lost with British and American prisoners. They all end up stuck on “the land that time forgot” battling cavemen and dinosaurs. Wolfer’s tale starts in the present, with the descendants of the main characters from the original story. These descendants have hopes of finding the island of dinosaurs, even though it’s suppose to be destroyed. Luck is on their side as they find the island, intact and with their relatives (!?!) still running around.

So that’s pretty cute and I hope Wolfer can do something interesting with it. I also hope Caracuzzo will increases his game because; Quote Will Smith, “Damn”. So yeah, I’m down for a few issues, and I hope they can build something to keep me too.

BLACK HAMMER #1

Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Dean Ormston
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Reviewer: Humphrey Lee

As someone who has been in a bit of a fist-punching-the-wall-until-your-hand-turns-to-pink-pulp “life rut” as they call it, I tend to find it ultra comforting to see people absolutely killing it at what they do when those are the things I turn to for my enjoyment. And not to be reductive of his previous output, but Jeff Lemire has very much been killing it as of late with his comic book crafting, BLACK HAMMER here being another bullet point to that “Seriously, Just How Much Has Jeff Lemire Been Killing It?” list. There’s a therapeutic aspect to watching a man of his skill level operate that just kind of alleviates the frustrations of the daily grind, trying to put your brain in a bit of a zen-like state you could only imagine it takes for a creator at the top of his game to be in to have this kind of output. Or you stock up on enough bourbon to kill a thousand cowboy stereotypes because maybe that’s how folks like Lemire pull it off, I dunno. Regardless, the output level is impressive no matter how it is done and his latest effort, BLACK HAMMER from Dark Horse with the also always impressive Dean Ormston, continues the trend.

The immediate success of BLACK HAMMER is in its atmospherics, which is absolutely a testament to both ends of the creative team, even though I started this review on a Lemire high. As soon as you flip back the cover what greets you inside is this serene eeriness that sets the standard for the books events as they start to play out, and Ormston’s artwork does a bunch of the heavy lifting, supplemented by some very calm and collected musing by former crime fighter Abraham Slam as he does some farmhand work. Everything seems serene and typical as Abraham goes through his daily motions, until he goes into the farmhouse where there’s a robot making breakfast, a Martian reading a newspaper, and the immaterial floating head of Interstellar adventurer Colonel Weird and then you know this book is up to some shit. And it’s all pitch perfect because of the nonchalant execution of those first couple pages; that atmosphere channeled by Ormston’s pencil work and how Lemire’s script has everything go from “typical day on the farm” to “nothing is going to ever be sane again, is it” in the span of three pages.

That blending of the every day grind that Abraham Slam is actually taking solace in smashed against the uncanny circumstance of the book is the star of the show. It’s a weird space that Ormston and Lemire do exceptional work in. All Abraham Slam wants to do is go about his chores and live a simple life while hoping the rest of his mysterious crew learn to settle into it as well, or at least don’t get their asses caught while they indulge in or outright long for their previous lives. It’s those former roles that really drive the book here though, plot wise of course, but also in the page-by-page thrills this book contains with each character and their own little bits. Watching tinkering automaton Talky-Walky interact with incorporeal, possibly now insane dimensional hero Col. Weird is no end of amusing. As is watching Abraham Slam having to play essentially the distraught father role while trying to rein in Golden Gail, one-time bombshell vigilante now confined to the body of a preteen and lashing out in frustration over her circumstances as well as the rest of the groups’ exile to their little farm for reasons that remain a mystery, for now. When you add up all those eccentricities and then hang the intrigue of a fallen comrade – the titular Black Hammer – and the mysterious circumstances on why this forcibly retired super group keep themselves confined to their little homestead for ten years now, you can’t help but be enthralled by this book.

And, again, a lot of why BLACK HAMMER is such an impressive debut comes down to pure execution and collaborative effort. Dean Ormston is absolutely the perfect choice in visuals to bring this story to life. I don’t know how he does it but his style just oozes abnormal while looking just the opposite. It’s a very expressive and detailed art style that always makes you feel like there’s something odd boiling up right under its surface, and in this case (as in most of the projects he’s brought onto) there most definitely is. And of course there’s the world-building that Lemire scripts for him and how it paces out giving you literally a drop in a potential ocean of stories that could be told with these characters, how they got there, why they are there, what kind of adventures and lives they led getting to where they are but still making you feel like you have a grip on a picture that will probably turn out to be vaster and yet more personal that you would expect. It’s just what the man does and has honed and excelled at for the past decade or so as his career really started to take off, and he’s definitely become a master of it as you look around at what he’s crafting today. These gentlemen (and the always amazing Dave Stewart and Todd Klein rounding out the “holy fuck, how good can you be at what you do?” team) deserve each other and BLACK HAMMER is the book you deserve if you and your ragged brain need something amazingly crafted to help right your days.

AVATAREX #1

Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Jeevan J. Kang
Publisher: Graphic India
Reviewer: Masked Man

Grant Morrison launches his second series with Graphic India, the first being 18-DAYS, which is a direct adaption of the Hindu epic myth The Mahabharata. AVATAREX appears to be a more original concept, though it also appears to be based on a Hindu myth, the final incarnation of Vishnu. The god Vishnu is the sustainer of creation (Brahma’s dream), before Shiva destroys it all. In times of great need, Vishnu comes down to Earth in an avatar (some sort of superhuman mortal form). This is prophesized to happen ten times and the first nine have already happened. When he makes his final appearance it pretty much signifies the end of the world (a bit like the second coming of Jesus, if you will). Now, I just over simplify a lot of different religious views of Vishnu, so forgive me and look it up for yourself. Anyway AVATAREX appears to be that tenth time.

As a mythology lover, this book is just awesome. Even if it has a great plot hole in it. Mind you, there’s not much of a plot to start, but here are the spoilers anyway (and the plot hole). A celestial starship is in orbit around the Earth, which is the headquarters for (reading between the lines) Vishnu’s avatars. The tenth one, just hatches from it’s containment tube, Avatarex. Taking up the mantle of Earth’s final champion, Avatarex, for the benefit of his computer A.I., brags and shows off his unlimited power. Then a badguy shows up and completely schools him, knocking the starship to Earth. The plot hole? Avatarex showed off a power that could have easily prevented the starship from crashing, but he didn’t do it- huh. In the heat of battle, Avatarex meets up with a human who is suppose to help guide him, but the human is quickly killed and his less than perfect brother is now apparently going to get the job.

Artist Jeevan J. Kang, who worked on 18 DAYS with Morrison, is back helping him out with AVATAREX and holy cr@p does it look good. Kang had a kind of cartoony feel in 18 DAYS, but not so in AVATAREX. AVATAREX has a standard comicbook style that is awesome. Just about every page and panel looks great- except for the fight panels. Kang never did this on 18 DAYS, but for some reason he’s doing that close up action shot of the good guy and the bad guy. I suppose one is hitting the other, but I got no idea what’s really happening in those panels. It’s a real shame, because everything else is amazing looking!

Story wise, well not much here, but it’s all pretty awesome. Doing what he does best, Morrison is playing with characters who are beyond powerful. The grandiose of it all and Kang’s kick @$$ art makes me forgive the “plot hole” (shrug, maybe it was character pride). And as they say, I’m ‘super-excited’ for the next issue. This looks to be a great cosmic clash by Morrison and Kang- sold.

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