Comic Reviews-06/25/08

Conan The Cimmerian #0 (Dark Horse)

He’s back. The new Conan series will explore Conan’s life as a mercenary, and his return home. On the way home, Conan encounters some raiders. Things don’t go well for the raiders. Recognizing the benefits of notoriety, Conan allows the group’s bard to live and tell of what happened. Artist Tomas Giorello and colorist Jose Villarrubia turn in superb work. There is even a fantastic splash page that shows the people and situations that Conan encountered in the previous series. This series should be as entertaining, if not more so, than the last one.

Hercules: The Thracian Wars 3 of 5 ( Radical Comics)
More bloody action for Hercules and his band of mercenaries, or should I say military contractors, as they fight against rebel forces. The group loses a member, and Hercules takes messy revenge. Hercules and company live in a world were life is, as Hobbes said, nasty, brutish and short. The painted art is very good.

Captain America 39 (Marvel)
One of the great recent mainstream comic runs continues to fire on all cylinders. Sharon makes an escape attempt, the 1950s Cap makes an appearance, and the stage is set for another Bucky vs. Cap showdown. I can’t add more expect to say if you are new, than get the trades or even better the excellently produced Omnibus, which reprints the first 25 issues as well as extras.

Iron Fist 16 (Marvel)


Danny discovers an unsettling fact about aging and the life span of the previous Iron Fists. He also seems determined, like Warren Buffet, to use his vast fortune to aid his fellow man. There’s a search for the lost eighth mystical city, while Fat Cobra looks rather scholarly. I also enjoy the cover, I wonder if that’s based on an album cover? Give this book a try. It features a billionaire kung-fu expert, what more do you need?

The New Avengers 42, and The Mighty Avengers 15 (Marvel)
Since both series are focusing on the background of the Skrull invasion, I am going to review them together. First up is New Avengers 42. This issue details how the Skrull queen replaced Jessica Drew. The ceremony looks like a religious ritual. Which is appropriate given the religious nature of this queen and her followers. We also get a new catch phrase which is,” For The Glory.”
In Mighty Avengers, Hank Pym can’t catch a break. Things are on the rocks with his wife, who hangs out with Tom Ford, and so he hooks up with a pretty young lady, who is a Skrull agent, he meets in England. In a rather comical sequence we the see the Skrull agent get all kinds of background info from Pym. In the end, Pym gets taken out literally with his shorts down..er off. We then see the same religious ceremony, which seems to involve the blood of the person they are impersonating.
All in all I am enjoying the Secret Invasion. With a lot of these crossovers, the companion books seem tacked on just to raise extra revenue, but the Avengers titles are an essential and well-written part of the story. My only complaint is that some of the Skrull language parts aren’t translated. But I am sure eager and talented Marvel fan will have an entire translation up within a day or two.

Comic Reviews-06/11/08

Captain Britain and MI13 #2 (Marvel)

This issue continues with the Skrull Invasion of Britain. The Skrulls strategic goal is to capture and/or eliminate magic, and in the Marvel Universe magic is centered in England. Faiza has developed a rather interesting power. She can control the physical structure of a body. She accidentally makes the Black Knight look like an exploded diagram. It is a creepy but well drawn image. The rest of the team gathers with the fairy folk to take on the Skrulls. The end of the book contains the address of Paul Cornell's blog. A good issue and I intend to stay with the book at least until the end of this first arc.

Invincible #50 (Image)
The long delayed issue is here. The art is great, the story is really good, and the origin of Cecil Stedman is at long last revealed. The stage is set for Mark to become independent from the government, and he finally declares his true feelings for Eve. This is a consistently excellent book, a bit late at times, but worth your effort to get caught up using the released trades.

Angel: After the fall #8 (IDW)
I am going to drop this book. I am a fan of the Buffy and Angel. The set up for this book is the aftermath of the end of Season 5 of the television show. The premise is great, however the artwork is murky and the narrative structure is a bit too confusing. I can deal with a convoluted story line, but murky art is a deal breaker.

Comic Reviews-06/04/08

Buffy the Vampire Slayer 15 (Dark Horse Comics)
This current arc ends on a sad note. Xander deals with personal loss, and Dracula shows why he was a bad ass even before becoming a vampire. With all the heavy stuff going on, there’s a funny bit with Dawn dealing with a robot doppelganger.

Criminal 3 (Icon)
Once again Ed Brubaker, and Sean Phillips bring us a depressing, but excellent noir tale. When I say depressing, I don’t mean that as a knock on the story, it’s the just the nature of noir tales. Not a lot of happy people to be found. If you dig Double Indemnity, Out of the Past, or other classic or modern noir tales you should check out this book. This month’s back-up feature is a review of the classic Robert Mitchum film The Yakuza.


Secret Invasion 3 (Marvel)
I am enjoying this series and the accompanying tie-ins. Unlike other mega crossovers, the series and its crossovers seem to fit together rather well. For example, in the two Avengers titles we have seen Nicky Fury gather a new commando squad, and Skrull Queen assume the appearance and powers of Spiderwoman. Both plot threads are introduced at pivotal moments in the story. As for Tony Stark, all I will say is that he appeared to be green-eyed and I don’t think it was because of jealousy. The artwork of Leinil Yu (pencils), Mark Morales (inker), and Laura Martin (colorist) is really good.

Comic Reviews-5/21/08

Mighty Avengers 14
Bendis continues to expand upon his Secret Invasion mini. He has used both Avengers titles to supplement and fill in the back-story of the Skrull invasion. I believe this is an excellent idea, which has been well executed.
In this issue, we are shown flashbacks in which the Skrulls gain information and plan for the upcoming invasion. The Jarvis imposter is given complete access to the Avenger’s files. Later he meets with others to discuss how to deal with the Sentry. Their plan, which was featured in Secret Invasion 2, was to convince Sentry that his Void personality had taken over. The plan works, because the Sentry retreats from battle. Only now, the Void persona has taken over and saves his wife from a Super Skrull.

Checkmate 26
This is the first issue of a new creative team. We witness the origin of the Chimera. The man is called Adam Sharp. He is a soldier in Iraq and suffers severe wounds and is left for dead. Checkmate is apparently running a medical program in which nearly, but not entirely dead soldiers are used in an all weather soldier program. I have two problems with this scenario. There doesn’t appear to be any consent given for this program, and the Sharp’s friends and family are allowed to believe he is dead. This whole program seems to be in direct violation of what the new Checkmate is supposed to be about. Perhaps this is a rogue program, if not than I won’t be reading Checkmate for much longer. Overall, I found this to be an interesting, yet disturbing first chapter. The artwork was really murky, but was not to distracting from the story.