BATMAN: ARKHAM KNIGHT #1

Writer: Peter J. Tomasi
Art: Viktor Bogdanovic (pencils), Art Thibert (inks)
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewer: Optimous Douche

While I may have a cross-medium malaise towards comic book based TV shows and movies, my ADHD was built “ready player one” for what video games have finally evolved into. Meh, I’m lying, I’ve played even the most marginal of efforts: I’m the one idiot who got E.T out of the crater, and the stoner that giggled with delight as I navigated Kal-El through stupid green rings on my N64. An RPG dork to the core, I will stray from time-to-time into the stealthy and platform side of the camp, especially when it is rife with design and in-game talent straight from the creative source. Any of the “Batman: Arkham” games are as immersive to the DC experience as one can get, made with reverence for history and solid game mechanics.

The comics for video games have devolved for the most part. However, shining stars can emerge, and I will put Mr. Tomasi’s work on fleshing out the middle time between “Arkham: City” and the upcoming “Knight” that is only a shade behind my all time favorite game themed book, INJUSTICE. To be fair to Peter though, Taylor’s playground is much bigger in the INJUSTICE universe and that is because the game is so much more shallow.

Fine, I’m not a fighter guy, but I really couldn’t get the thrill of INJUSTICE outside of, “K now I saw that new character, guess I just wait for updates.” The story of how these heroes got brawlin’ though has become the stuff of legend and established Taylor as my quintessential scribe of the post-CRISIS end days (yes, no matter what some silly almanac says). The game’s short shelf life has allowed Taylor to run free. Tomasi has struck a similar chord with ARKHAM KNIGHT 1, but the nature of the game has constrained his sandbox. It’s an end…ish play that we know is closing out a series almost as revered in video game terms as Nolan’s run was to the movies. Whatever comes next for Batman will surely be skinned Batben and ring more New 52 that an end of days play from my childhood comics. Tomasi is given the opportunity to breathe a whisper of creativity to the end of a video game era, and is must be soft reverence compared to Taylor’s barbaric yawp because the source material deserves merely the gentlest of pushes forward.

When I use such soft terms for this tale, I of course speak metaphorically. With the Joker dead from the close of the last game, he provides one last posthumous performance with a USB drive that falls out of his body. What it contains? Well…riddle me this; what can be written by a dead man, but never read?

This reveal and the quiet moments of the book between Bruce with Alfred, and then a talk with Lucius Fox are where comic fans can feast. Tomasi dleivers the same heaping mounds of heart here that he brought to the life and times of Damian Wayne. As a former editor pacing is expected as a skill, Peter always nailing the dialog though is the sign of someone who can straddle the line between flourish and function. It’s a rare talent to show into someone else’s story, well…as rare as editors who have flipped back to the bullpen.

There’s not much to ruin or spoil here, I apologize. This is a solid book, a fine Bat yarn if you will…it has nothing to do though with the threads Snyder is weaving with the main Bat book and then BATMAN & ROBIN, so don’t expect synergy. It’s almost another title defiant of the New 52 to be frank, Penguin is no longer legitimized and nary a Bat Brat can be seen. It’s a sensible point since the first game came out before high collars were even a glimmer in Lee’s eyes. Minimal investment for a decent tale where the Penguin is no longer legit and the henchmen are aplenty. I can’t wait to Bat bitch slap every last one of them in the game coming up, but until then I will pour through the coming issues for lexicons on the new game’s geography, power sets and new villains and their powers.

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

DESCENDER #1

Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Dustin Nguyen
Publisher: Image Comics
Reviewer: Humphrey Lee

I’ve always enjoyed my science fiction with a little bit of innocence. Mostly I just enjoy my sci fi when it’s, y’know, good and pushing itself in the high concept arena, but I also feel that some really great stuff comes from having a wide-eyed perspective that somewhat mimics the reason why we all enjoy the genre. The main draw for a majority these futuristic or zombie-filled or dimensional/time-hopping endeavors, for me, is that sense of wonder that gets instilled in you as you imagine a world that could actually be, depending on how our real science advances in our time. Or the enjoyment can stem from seeing what some broad-thinking storytelling minds can come up with when their imagination plays with what we have already learned. Okay, maybe not so much the zombie example, but you know what I’m getting at here. Taking that all a bit further, I find that sometimes you just get a little more of that pit of your stomach sense of wonder when the story at hand is distilled through the eyes (or ocular nodes, depending) of a character within the story experiencing what you are and relating that same, pure deluge of awe, whether it be a Johnny Number Five or David from Spielberg’s “A.I.” and “E.T.” Yes, sometimes this perspective leads to a bit of a saccharine sweetness that can overwhelm the other flavors we come to such stories for – and I’m sure the “A.I.” reference set off some of that for some of you (fuck it, I like the flick) – but, done right, with the proper adult sensibilities and just enough of the childlike to revert us all back to those days where we dreamed the biggest, a science fiction saga that combines these elements just right can yield some powerful, powerful stuff.

And that brings us to DESCENDER…

DESCENDER starts right off with a large helping of that wonder and awe, but in this case it is more in the vein of pants crapping “oh my god what the fuck is that and what is it going to do?!?” awe as an enormous, metallic-looking celestial being descends on the Planet of Niyrata, our introduction locale. Within not even ten pages we are taken from a pristine-looking futuristic society that seems to have to eliminated most of society’s ills, sans some every day inconveniences, to watching the majority of it being wiped out in the flash of a skyscraper-sized eye while Dr. Quon – robotics scientist extraordinaire – watches on with shock and a little bit of admiration. Ten years on from this purge at a relatively (for space travel purposes) nearby mining colony, a surrogate child bot called Tim-21 awakens and finds the entire habitat he resides in shut down, except for his companion “Dog” robot, Bandit. While Tim was in sleep mode some bad happenstance of its own went down as the giant mechanical being that orbited Niyrata and multiple others – now called “Harvesters” – unexplainably decided to raze several planets in the galaxy, and it left Tim-21 now as the only organism left on his little moon, hoping to find his “parents.” Obviously, his adventure is about to get a little bit grander than this minute (in the broad scheme of things) endeavor, as something about his programming (created by the aforementioned Dr. Quon) is interrelated with the Harvesters’ Codex.

All of that material, exponentially better produced in this comics’ pages than that verbose paragraph of mine, is exactly that “big ideas presented via a little package” that I spent the opener trying to extrapolate upon. The first third of this debut is spent filling you with a sense of complete insignificance as these enormous, godlike beings of metal lower themselves from the heavens and wipe out centuries of galactic progress. Then it is all slammed against the simplest of plots--a little lost boy and his robo dog want to find his family--and the vastness of scope between these two extremes instantly gives a lot of that grounded wonderment I was talking about. There are these unwavering monstrosities wiping out entire settlements for unknown reasons that alone have so many possibilities to unfold as to why, and yet it is this little bot that could hold all the answers and all he wants is the to fulfill a base, human desire. The implications for grand adventure each of these polar opposite themes holds is enticing enough to keep high interest in this book, let alone the piqued curiosity in seeing how Lemire and Nguyen will entwine these matters together.

Speaking of Nguyen (since this has so far been a plot unraveling), DESCENDER looks as gorgeous as the plot is provoking. His linework was already a very unique and expressive style that I always thought was underrated when he was bringing to life Paul Dini-scripted Batman adventures in the original 52 era, but now that he’s fully into this watercolor style that was emblazoned on the LI’L GOTHAM covers, it is just on a totally different level. Everything is just that much more vibrant, and what really brings this entire book together is the dreamlike quality that coloring style envelops the pages within. Going to that well of childlike innocence, it really hearkens back to all sorts of illustrated childrens’ fantasy works and provokes the same emotions. It doesn’t do this to the point that it undermines the grown up aspects of the book – the large, fiery robot eyes of death are not any less terrifying because I’m ten years old again as I watch them unleash their quiet fury – but overall it just wraps you in such familiar airs you cannot help but be transported to more imaginative and youthful times.

DESCENDER has already shown itself rife with potential and we have barely explored the section of the cosmos in which it plays. There’s untold amounts space out there in this particular universe containing it to meet alien species, or find out how the politics in this expanse works – especially in a post-Harvester era, as it is pointed out robot paranoia is at a high – and what futuristic creations have been made as imagined through the script of Lemire and Nguyen’s artistic hand. We’ve already seen what Lemire can do when he plays with an expanded world of his own design ala SWEET TOOTH, and it was one of the best comics we’ve had so far this century, so imagine what he can produce now that he’s set his sights on a playground exponentially bigger, and imagine what visuals we have in store for us given what Nguyen has shown already with the sleekness of his futuristic shots, the majesty of the Harvesters, and the scant but freakishly intriguing alien designs he showed in this premiere. Imagination (and $2.99 US) is the only cover charge to this grand adventure, and it’s another fitting success for the big “I” of Image Comics.

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

AVENGERS #42

Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Artist: Stefano Caselli<br< Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: Masked Man

As the cover says, we are just two months away from time running out, so I thought I'd check in with “I'll start two new plotlines before I finish an older one” Jonathan Hickman's AVENGERS. And is it just me, or is Hickman jealous of Grant Morrison and the Monitors in the DCU, so he is using the Beyonders (what was once singular is now plural as well) in almost the same way, creating Crisis- er Wars and all?

To be fair, I've popped in and out of the AVENGERS since Hickman started his run, so it's quite possible that I'm missing something--feel free to point it out in the talkbacks. But in a nutshell, it seems like something very, very, very bad is going to happen to the Universe (the cover did say we only have two months left). What it is is not really explained in this issue, although the recap box mentions something about Beyonders destroying universes (hence my Monitors comment). Anything else about the who, what, where, when and why of this really, really, really bad event doesn't make it into the issue. The bulk of the book is characters, who apparently have been doing this for a while now, going OMG, what are we gonna do?!? For the Shi'ar, what to do comes down to destroying the Earth, although no reason is given why--just that they feel really bad about it after the Avengers saved them from the Builders and all in Hickman's crossover event, INFINITY.

Now, for a story about scared people working hard on what do to in the face of impending doom, it's a well-written book. Add to that Caselli’s excellent drawing skills and it's darn awesome to flip through. There are nice character moments throughout the book that both Hickman and Caselli do a great job with. For old timers like myself, they even throw in a nod to the original SECRET WAR by having the 'life raft' Mr. Fantastic and the Black Panther build look like the spaceships that brought the heroes and villains to Battle World in the original limited series.

On the bad side, aside from the threat being poorly described, the overall story goes almost nowhere. We have six scenes in which the only forward moment I can tell that happens is the Shi'ar lead alien armada shows up to attack the Earth and the Guardians of the Galaxy try to warn The Avengers. It's really a classic example of mood over plot and the decompressed comic book storytelling that we all hate. Oh, and the cover makes no sense as only one guy on the cover is actually in the book.

If not for some interest in the SECRET WARS itself, I can't see coming back to this. It's just more of the same--a lot going on with nothing happening. As with other big name writers, like Morrison and Bendis, fans will eat it up with a spoon and other will scream the emperor has no clothes.

In stores this week!

THE DRESDEN FILES: DOWN TOWN #2

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

Much of what I said for the first issue of THE DRESDEN FILES: DOWN TOWN remains true here. The comic continues to deftly steer away from major book series spoilers. Harry Dresden still looks too well kempt, more like he walked out of a cologne ad rather than waking up late after a night of fighting off the Fay. And now we have the arrival of my favorite character, Dresden’s Jiminy Cricket if that grasshopper had no filter, the know-it-all skull Bob.

But even Bob and his bony head jam-packed with the ways of the occult and horn-dogging may not be enough to stop Chicago’s newest magical threat. For those who haven’t played D&D, a slime monster may not seem that dangerous, but this murderous lump of mud has Dresden searching high and low, mainly low, for answers. Speaking of low, Baron Johnny Marcone is busy weighing his options about whether or not this gelatinous glob is a threat or a solution to his problems.

Reviewing DOWN TOWN isn’t about the writing or art. Both are near flawless. I’m not saying that either are @$$ie worthy, but the low points are few and far between. If I were to be more critic than reviewer, then I’d say the issue featured a dearth of character dynamic. No one important ever interacts with anyone else of importance. You’ve got Marcone and his henchmen. Sgt. Karrin Murphy and her partner. Molly Carpenter and Mouse. Three separate storylines, leaving Dresden to go off and do his own thing. Did this bother me? Not really. But it proves my point that DOWN TOWN, while having its missteps, has enough going for it that nitpicks like this don’t really matter.

No, a review for this series is all about how well the comic works for fans of Jim Butcher’s works and those that have no clue who Susan Rodriguez or Bianca St. Claire are.

For non-fans: besides the arrival of Bob, no new characters are added. There is no cause for FOMO here. Any additional magical mythos or backstory from the book series is explained on the spot. Even more so than with the previous issue, readers can focus on what is on the page and judge the panels for what they are: well-paced and tonally well-balanced writing, lacking in gore but not in action.

For fans: the only new element to judge…criticize…whatever the politically correct term for when a fan analyzes an adaptation in the (not really) hopes of finding something wrong…is Bob. Bob is the key character I use as a way of measuring adaptations of the book series. In the TV show, Bob was fun to watch personified and had plenty of sharp one-liners, but lacked maliciousness. Other comic series have underutilized the cranium. How an adaptation uses Bob usually showcases how well they are adapting the source. Syfy got the tone wrong, unable to balance the humor and darkness. Previous comics have struggled with focus, figuring out exactly who and what from the plethora of storylines and characters are worth covering in such a different literary medium. DOWN TOWN nails it, as Bob and Dresden are the only meaningful character interaction in this issue. Bob’s voice is captured, as is his role.

Catering to an audience of readers with vastly different sets of expectations isn’t easy, but that’s the merit of DOWN TOWN being an original story by Butcher and Mark Powers. Even if you know these characters, understand the rules of the world they live in, fans and non- alike, still won’t be able to guess what comes next.

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."

BATMAN ETERNAL #48

Writers: Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Kyle Higgins, Ray Fawkes, and Tim Seeley
Art: Fernando Blanco
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewer: DrSumac

I've been reading BATMAN ETERNAL since issue #21 because it finally marked the return of Hush, who is one of my all time favorite Batman villains. Honestly, it started out pretty well for him, but as the series progressed it became clear that this wasn't the same Hush that I loved from his original story and “Heart of Hush”. They retooled his origin as a pale reflection of the complexity that he originally had, but hey I was still happy that he was a big villain again that had manipulated everything that had happened in the series. Until, well, he wasn't.

See I think the weekly series format itself has a lot of problems, particularly when it has to end at the magic number of 52. It doesn't seem like a bad strategy in certain ways; after all, the readers only have to wait a week to get the next part of the story rather than a month or more, and if they go to their comic shop every week they are bound to pick up other books as well. However, it's clear to me that a series such as BATMAN ETERNAL or FUTURES END just don't have enough story for 52 issues.

While I liked seeing Hush in action again and he kicked ass for a while there, his ultimate showdown with Batman was anticlimactic at best and revealed the twist that he wasn't really the bad guy behind everything. Alright, that's fine, but it wasn't immediately addressed. In fact, it still hasn't been addressed some fifteen issues later and there are only four issues left to the series. A major clue was given several issues ago now, but no one has bothered to tell Batman yet. And why not? Because they had to do filler stories where Batman beat up Dr. Milo and picked a fight with Ra's al Ghul for no reason whatsoever.

Now, past weekly series like 52 have been successful because each week was actually a different story with a different creative team that was interconnected under the same title. However, BATMAN ETERNAL tries to be one story that drags on with lots of filler stories, many of which have repeated within the series itself. How many times is there going to be a riot in Blackgate or are the same group of classic villains going to team up only to be easily defeated before everyone realizes that it's completely uninteresting and adds nothing to the actual story? BATMAN ETERNAL actually seems to be a microcosm for many of the problems from the history of Batman. It's a repetitive mess of the same handful of characters over and again with a few brief interesting parts that remind the reader that Batman can be more than what we often see.

Yet despite all of this I kept reading as much out of habit as interest for what was happening. However, the more I read the more infuriated I am that they seem to refuse to get to the actual story. Then again, at this point it is so close to the end that I feel like something has to happen soon.

Issue #48 is titled “Level Up” in reference to the fact that the usual gang of rogues (Scarecrow, Joker's Daughter, Clayface, Mr Freeze, and Bane) were given Wayne Industries technology for their latest rampage on Gotham. Unfortunately, the ways in which they leveled up were mostly made instantly inconsequential. Scarecrow got a bunch of attack drones, which is fine although he could have probably done it on his own. Bane got a big mecha suit, but honestly it seems a bit out of character that he would even want that and all he did was bring it to an underground fight club. Meanwhile, Joker's Daughter just got cupie dolls and random junk, Clayface got a full Batman suit that he only used to film himself beating up an actor he got to play The Joker before he ditched it, and Mr. Freeze didn't seem to get anything at all. Let's also keep in mind that this has been set up for three full issues now and yet there hasn't been anything particularly interesting done with them. It all just seems kind of random to me.

The good news is that Hush broke out of his Hannibal Lecter-style prison in the Batcave and has used the Batcomputer to mess with the Batfamily's costumes to help the villains win, although he apparently hasn't thought to do the same to Batman himself for some reason and the mysterious stranger that freed him vanished without any follow-up. That means that the next issue will feature Batman coming back to beat Hush up again and save his friends, which will buy them at least half an issue where they don't have to do anything that actually matters.

Meanwhile, original character to BATMAN ETERNAL Jason Bard has continued to be a train wreck. He started out as a cop that stepped up when things went poorly for Gordon, only to be revealed to be a villain once her was promoted to Commissioner. Honestly, this was an interesting story for me at first since I thought it might be fun to see the Commissioner and Batman's other allies turn against the Dark Knight. However, as soon as he failed to kill Batman and made an ass of himself he suddenly became a pathetic wash up that wanted to undo the damage he did. This seemed inconsistent to me at best.

On a positive note, while the quality of the art in BATMAN ETERNAL has varied greatly, it seems to be much better now than it has been in the past. Last time we saw the rogues Clayface looked like a rotten potato, but now he actually looks like a clay monster again. Also while Hush seems to be a challenge for anyone to draw other than Jim Lee or Dustin Nguyen, he looks a lot better in this issue than in the past.

When it comes to BATMAN ETERNAL, consider the fact that it has had almost ten more issues than the regular Batman title and yet far less has happened. It's also clearly not connected to the BATMAN comic as well as BATGIRL and RED HOOD & THE OUTSIDERS at the very least, but was used to set up series like CATWOMAN and ARKHAM MANOR. I find it ironic that the common excuse given for universe reboots like the New 52 is to fix continuity problems, and yet they throw out continuity way too easily to put out more Batman books to profit on.

So yeah, I'm going to finish BATMAN ETERNAL, but I don't feel good about it. Take that as you will.

RAT QUEENS #9

Writer: Kurtis J. Wiebe
Artist: Stjepan Sejic
Publisher: Image Comics
Reviewer: Morbidlyobesefleshdevouringcat

I’ll be honest in saying that I’ve never been the biggest fan of Kurtis Wiebe’s writing; his style just doesn’t particularly suit my palette. I’ve checked out previous work by Wiebe like GREEN WAKE and PETER PANZERFAUST and honestly adored the concepts, but once again, his style didn’t sit well with me. The same goes for RAT QUEENS. I absolutely adore the concept of RAT QUEENS, the ideologies of why it exists and why it’s such a powerful comic, especially on a larger sociological and political spectrum, but the humour and dialogue of the first issue never attracted me--that is, until now.

Not sure if you noticed, but RAT QUEENS has some great marketing going on. With shirts and tote bags being only a few of the things seen on the con floor, this comic really blew up, and for good reason: four kickass women with varying ethnic backgrounds and even more varying body types; even moreso, women who don’t display traditional female mannerisms or language that is usually seen in medieval type settings--the queens are no damsels in distress--and let’s not leave out that it doesn’t adhere to the standard heteronormative relationships. All of this meaning: why would you not be on board with this comic? But just because a great concept is thrust out doesn’t necessarily mean that the execution is going to be the same.

So what makes issue nine the game changer for RAT QUEENS? It’s not the art (that comes later), but Wiebe’s dialogue showing growth and expanding to more than a single style without altering the characters drastically, or at all. Much of the quirkiness of the queens comes from their in your face, completely random dialogue. Just a lot of ‘cunt’ and ‘fuck’ and ‘candy’. There are times when this works really well. Too much of it and you just get bored, which for me was the first couple of issues, but as the series progresses Wiebe pulls out tearjerker sentences about the hardships of growing up and religious beliefs paralleling that with family expectations. I sure did not think that by this issue I would have read life lessons pertaining to confusion about religious beliefs or the desire to steer away from family expectations. It’s great. RAT QUEENS is definitely a series that came in all on its own, guns a-blazing. Now it’s no longer just that comic with girls, but can confidently say that it’s that comic that holds a strong narrative pertaining to the human condition, and of course with girls.

Leaving off from what appears to be the end of the world with large floating squid-like creatures rampaging on Palisade, the creatures, more accurately known as Abyssal Shibagu, lure the queens into a state of slumber where they dream for what seems like forever. What’s unique about the dreams the girls are having is that they flashback to a time before the Rat Queens had even united, and for us that means a really interesting method and execution for some character exposition. This issue brings in Hannah’s past and her relationship with her mother as well as her relationship with Sawyer.

Now, the art. It looks as though the queens have finally found their regular artist: Stjepan Sejic. Honestly, I really can’t say that I’m the biggest fan of it. Some of the art is incredibly detailed, then other bits seem like they were forgotten then drawn in last minute prior to a final print. Again, this is due to personal taste, because Sejic’s layouts, panel, and character compositions are absolutely fantastic, and add that extra bit to the writing.

I think that Wiebe and Sejic have got a great thing going on in terms of how this comic is moving the industry forward from the typical boys club, adhering to the internet youth, and still maintaining slice-of-life lessons wrapped up in a far too enjoyable plot. I’m stoked to see that Rat Queens is so big, and with the way that it’s going, they’ve just created a new fan.

In stores today!

ALTERED STATES: RED SONJA #1

Writer: Brandon Jerwa
Artist: Juanan Ramirez
Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment
Reviewer: Masked Man

Usually I praise Dynamite for not going into gimmicks to sell comics. It's one of the reasons I selected them as Publishers of the Year for 2014. Well, they finally stepped up to the gimmick plate with ALTERED STATES, which takes their stable of licensed characters and puts them into unfamiliar settings, like 30s pulp hero Doc Savage going caveman. To be fair, gimmicks can be fine and fun, provided the content behind it is worthwhile. How does Red Sonja stack up? Keep readin’.

One interesting thing about ALTERED STATES is Dynamite isn't going whole hog with 'em. More like they are testing the waters, as these are unconnected one-shots, as opposed to a miniseries or a crossover, and there are no real rules to setting up a character in a different setting as the how and why is different in each book. Even still, with RED SONJA, I feel Brandon Jerwa kind of cheated the concept as Sonja doesn't really go anyplace different; you can see by the cover this story kinda merges modern day with Sonja's typical time period. The same is true for Sonja herself—sorry, I won't get more specific as the book comes today and I'll try not to spoil everything! But with the basic concept of ALERED STATES, I would have liked to have seen something more crazy like Red Sonja in Space, Red Sonja in WWII, or steampunk Red Sonja—well, I guess Dynamite is already doing that, but ya get my meaning (for an unfair comparison, check out Marvel's classic WHAT IF #13, “What if Conan the Barbarian Walked the Earth Today?”, or at least 1978).

For the most part Jerwa writes a fun, light and breezy tale, although there are moments where I felt the dialogue was clunky, like when a characters says “Don't leave me...” when there was nothing to indicate they would. The same pretty much goes for Ramirez's artwork. The figure work is great, and the storytelling is decent, but based on the premise, a merging of modern and ancient times, he does little to bring that concept/world to life. There's just no creativity to the designs, nor is there any space for him to really showcase it if he did.

If you enjoy mishmash stories, I think you will get a kick out of it. For the rest of us, it falls a bit short of being more than just a gimmick.

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