Comic Movie Review–Batman: Under the Red Hood

I first read the story of Jason Todd (the 2nd Robin) years ago.  I found a Batman issue at my local pharmacy in the small town I grew up in.  On it, depicted the bloody face of the Boy Wonder with apparent rubble behind his head.  I knew that issue had to be a monumental issue given the name “A Death in the Family”.  What happened there rocked the comic world.

Fast forward about 15-20 years later and DC decided to unleash a story about someone named the Red Hood.  The first time it ended with a red herring. Then they did a second story about the Red Hood and it turned into what people had wanted from the first go at it.  Now DC is bringing that story and part of the Death in the Family story to life in an all new animated movie on DVD and Blu-Ray.
So what did I think of the new movie based on these events?
Well, the story is simply about Batman trying to find out who the Red Hood is and then, ultimately, stop him.  The Red Hood styles himself a good guy who is willing to go to extremes to get the job done, including bankrolling himself through criminals and collecting from them.  He’s like the mafia of the mafia, but just one man.  The Red Hood also tries to draw the attention of Batman and the reasons (if you haven’t read the comics) is going to surprise you.
This is the epitome of a great story brought to life via animation.  This story would never have gotten told in live action, but here we see everything take form.  The animation style is excellent and it helps you forget that you’re watching animation at times.  The voice acting isn’t bad at all, some if down right excellent.  Bruce Greenwood does his usual spot-on Dark Knight approach.  Jensen Ackles does an effective Red Hood.  My favorite though is Neil Patrick Harris as Nightwing.  So the voice acting is very good here.
The story is very closely told to the comics with some minor modifications.  The time of year and place that Robin died at was different and the way he was brought back was altered.  But the changes made sense and made it more effective for the format it was presented in.  In fact, condensing the story down to make it accessible really brought home some key points.
Some of my favorite scenes are the flashback sequences.  The way those were done were amazing.  And the final one was something a good movie can only hope to have as it’s final “lump-in-the-throat” moment.  But there were plenty of other things that made this great.
The sheer brutality of this makes this movie not for young kids.  Probably more like teens on up.  It is very grim and dark in most of the tone. 
What we had was a lot of storytelling and plenty of action to keep you entertained as well.  The story had a lot of exciting fight scenes that were also well done and the animation very smooth.  Judd Winick wrote this and did an excellent job of lovingly taking the material and transferring it to a different medium.  So hats off to DC and everyone involved.

A five star excellent adaptation.  A must for any comic book fan!  One of the best animated films I’ve seen yet and I hope for more just like this!

Technorati Tags: batman,under the red hood,jason todd,a death in the family,movie,reviews,blu-ray,dvd,neil patrick harris,bruce greenwood,jensen ackles,nightwing,dc comics

Comic Movie Review–Batman: Under the Red Hood

Quick Comic Book Reviews–September 6th, 2010

Wow, I’m even more behind than usual with my supposedly quick reviews.  But we just had a new baby born and leading up that I didn’t have as much free time as I normally do.  I’ll keep working on updating everything, but I’m lagging behind.

Shadowland: Moon Knight #1 – Written by Gregg Hurwitz and Penciled by Bong Dazo.  First of all, wow, what a name.  Bong?  The artist is named Bong?  If that’s a real name, poor choice.  If that’s a nickname, once again, poor choice.  I would legally be changing that if I had that name.  But anyway, he does a very good job here.  His artwork is different, it has a certain feel to it where everything is very rounded and has a fluid-like feel to it.  Kind of like everything is melted a little bit.  The story is pretty decent and does a good job of reacquainting readers with Moon Knight.  His story is a bit confusing at times, so it isn’t a bad idea to do this.  The story isn’t super interesting, but it gets there towards the end.  It wraps in very well to what is going on in Shadowland and makes sense.  Really a lot of stuff going on, but this is a bigger issue than normal.  I thought it made me want to see what happens next.  I really think they want to make Moon Knight relevant again and they’re doing a pretty decent job.  This is an issue worth checking out if you want to get back on the Moon Knight train!

X-Men: Curse of the Mutants – Blade #1 – Written by Duane Swierczynski and Penciled by Tim Green.  Ah yes, the epic saga of the “Curse of the Mutant” continues on!  First of all, how the hell does Blade carry his sword with him in an airport and not get stopped?  I mean, he’s a vampire yeah, so pretty crazy anyway, but let’s take all realism away.  Another one of those pointless cross-over issues that made me yawn.  So this just explains some background story.  But really, it isn’t all that important as background story anyway.  They assume we want the story of how Blade knows it when they could have summed it up in a 5 panel exposition in one of the already awful X-Men issues.  Anybody want to hold a turd in there hand?  If you do, pick this up, if you don’t, buy War Bonds.

Fantastic Four #582 – Written by Jonathan Hickman and Penciled by Neil Edwards.  I have a feeling something big is happening here, but this issue left me wanting to figure out what the heck was going on.  The best part of a story is if at the end, you want to keep reading and finding out what’s going on.  Jonathan Hickman does a wonderful job of setting up what may very well be an epic story.  This has been the summer of Hickman as he has stepped up his game with some wonderful storytelling.  Here we wrap-up the battle of the Nathaniel Richards’ battling it out.  We get a wonderful look at another timeline’s Doctor Doom.  Don’t know why I like that so much.  But we have a big set-up going on to see how the lives of the Fantastic Four are about to radically change.  I’ve got a feeling this is going to be a good one, so pick this issue up so you can’t say you were left out!

Justice League: Generation Lost #7 – Written by Judd Winick and Penciled by Joe Bennett.  The main question in this issue… where the hell did they find the extra Rocket Red outfits?  Ok, so this issue is about infiltrating Checkmate HQ to get to Max Lord.  Wait, what’s that?  Who’s Max Lord?  You’ve never heard of him either?  NO!!!!!!  Um… anyway, sorry about that.  For an infiltration mission, this ends up about like I would suspect.  But the story is fun and entertaining the entire time.  And guess what?  Going after Max Lord might just be a very bad idea in more ways than one.  Hilarious lines with Rocket Red and everyone trying to emulate him.  Just good stuff.  The artwork is solid throughout and helped hold my attention, so a good job there.  There are a few spots where I couldn’t quite figure out how they all joined up at the end, but that might be because the writer didn’t leave a way for the artist to really visualize it well.  Plus, with everyone wearing the same outfit, there’s bound to be a little confusion.  Other than that, I’m a big fan!  Must buy this issue, this is what good comics are all about!

Adventure Comics #517 – Written by Paul Levitz and Penciled by Kevin Sharpe and Marlo Alquiza.  The artwork in this issue is erratic.  Some spots it looks pretty good and then in other spots it looks very awkward.  I wonder if the reason there are two artists is to clean-up the work of the other one.  The story, however, is based on the Legion during it’s founding day when there were only 3 Legionnaires.  The story itself is just ok, with some moments that seem a bit out of place.  It’s like Paul Levitz is putting his best stuff in the new Legion of Superhoes comic, but not the Adventure Comics.  I think he’s trying to keep it simple, but the stories so far haven’t been that entertaining.  Weird how one writer can be night and day different with the same team.  I think we all know which series he’s putting his heart into right now.  The back-up story has the Atom!  Written by Jeff Lemire and Penciled by Mahmud Asrar.  I’m liking Mahmud’s work here!  The story does what it can with a limited amount of pages.  The problem is, it goes by a bit too quick and felt like it wasn’t very worthwhile.  Jeff tries to explain things about the Atom’s power that he probably just shouldn’t bother trying to do.  So it doesn’t add much value to this issue.  Overall, Adventure Comics is once again another miss for me!

Action Comics #892 – Written by Paul Cornell and Penciled by Pete Woods with Pere Perez.  I’ve liked a lot of Paul Cornell’s writing, but boy was this story disjointed.  What if… I wrote every… sentence like this?  Well, that’s how this story reads.  A lot of people stammering around thoughts and that just doesn’t make for good reading.  So Lex is out after the Black Ring energy.  That’s about the story in general and it doesn’t evolve too much from there.  The artwork is the best part and we’ll leave it at that.  Blech!  We get an extra story with Superboy.  Written by Jeff Lemire and Penciled by Pier Gallo.  This is just a weird set-up for Superboy #1 and frankly it doesn’t impress me, nor does it make me want to checkout that issue when it does come out.  Smallville has some dirt golems come to life and attack, but I have no idea why, nor did I really care at that point.  For being a second feature, it was more like a long advertisement.  Didn’t add much value, but at least it was better than the main story this issue.  Not saying much though.  This one is a turd folks, skip it.

Technorati Tags: Shadowland,moon knight,gregg hurwitz,bong dazo,x-men,curse of the mutants,blade,duane swierczynski,tim green,fantastic four,jonathan hickman,neil edwards,justice league,generation lost,judd winick,joe bennett,adventure comics,paul levitz,kevin sharpe,marlo alquiza,action comics,paul cornell,pete woods,pere perez

Quick Comic Book Reviews–September 6th, 2010

Quick Comic Book Reviews–August 30th, 2010

Boy, am I running far behind!  I’m trying to catch-up on issues, so stick with me as I try to do just that.  More quick comic reviews will be coming up shortly! 

Secret Avengers #4 – Written by Ed Brukbaker and Penciled by Mike Deodato Jr.  Well, we journey into the final part of the current saga involving one of these crazy crowns that makes you possessed by some ancient celestial baddy.  And then we have Steve Rogers using the Nova Force, which evoked some pretty cool scenes and a neat costume in my book.  Can’t wait for an action figure of that one either.  But the storyline wrapped up a lot of what it needed to without an overly complicated explanation.  At the same time, the whole issue is just “meh” to me.  Nothing too terrible, nothing too fantastic.  I wish the Ant-Man that Robert Kirkman created was utilized in his sheer brilliance, but they don’t seem to really know how to handle him most of the time.  Moon Knight barely does anything, nor the Beast, we just get characters kind of hanging out in the background.  I like a bit more of the under utilized characters in these team series, not the over-utilized Steve Rogers being utilized even more.  I’m reminded of when the Justice League of America first started and they didn’t want to oversaturate their main stars too much, while still realizing the importance of their draw and need.  So what they did was they would always send Batman and Superman off while the “lesser lights” got their chance to shine.  I would still prefer that.  Overall, a “meh” issue with lots of cool artwork, but you can probably just skip it.

The Amazing Spider-Man #640 – Written by Joe Quesada and Penciled mainly by Paolo Rivera.  Once more down the crapfest that is “One Moment in Time”!  Excelsior!  They need to fix this slopfest quick, because this is getting awful.  Ok, so Wilson Fisk hires someone to go after relatives of Peter and MJ because Aunt May lived.  Doctor Strange gets put to the task of making everyone forget the secret identity of Spider-man.  Hey wait a minute.  Didn’t everyone just assume that when Mephisto changed things, he made it so Peter’s identity was never revealed?  Damn, one important take-away I must have missed somewhere.  So ever the revisionist we just scribble out things and change them.  And from reading this dreck, it looks like everything is being done on the fly.  Paolo Rivera’s artwork is the only bright spot in this mess.  You cannot produce Spider-Man EVERY stinking week or two an expect quality writing.  Why Marvel doesn’t just split this up and bring back the Spectacular Spider-Man or something and make it relevant, I have no idea.  It used to be you could get three good to average Spidey titles a month.  Now you’re stuck with 3-4 issues of a below average comic.  Way to go Joe!  Skip this and bury it in poop.

Shadowland – Power Man #1 – Written by Fred Van Lente and Penciled by Mahmud Asrar.  So we’re introduced to the “NEW” Power Man in this issue and learn a little bit about his background.  Danny Rand and Luke Cage also learn about this guy using the Power Man name.  So we’ve got the new Power Man fighting off the Hand and them in a snit fit about it as they try to expand their territory.  We also learn that this new Power Man likes to profit off his work by using Craigslist.  So we have quite a set-up for this one.  The art work and the writing start off limping badly, but they do pick up some momentum as the issue goes on.  But boy there are several pages where they’re fighting in “Purgatory” where you can’t tell what’s going on and everything looks like a 10 year old drew it.  But it does get better towards the end.  I found the issue interesting, but this whole Craigslist type thing we saw with The Web from DC last year.  However, they definitely have me interested in what happens in the future.  An ok debut, starts weak, finishes strong.  Not a must buy unless you want the first issue this kid appears in.

Hulk #24 – Written by Jeph Loeb and Penciled by Ed McGuinness.  Did I ever mention how much Jeph Loeb’s Hulk is crap?  Oh, btw, it is terrible and continues to be terrible.  The original Red Hulk storyline wasn’t cool and to be honest, not a huge fan of Ed McGuinness either.  But I figured this was a culmination of a lot of storylines so it was worth checking out.  So the final battle occurs between Red Hulk and Green Hulk and the world rejoices.  We have to bare the pain of constantly going back and forth between Red and Green thought bubbles to see what each is thinking.  So it doesn’t read fluidly at all.  The artwork just seems like anime on steroids and I could care less for it.  Never has there been a more overrated duo than Ed and Jeph.  The last few pages were almost interesting, but not enough to make up for everything else.  And another thing that hasn’t been covered before.  How big of a dump would the Hulk take?  I now know the answer.  The size of the number of copies of this issue.  Wipe your butt with them folks, they aren’t worth it.

S.H.I.E.L.D. #3 – Written by Jonathan Hickman and Penciled by Dustin Weaver.  This is the first issue I’ve checked out about S.H.I.E.L.D. but it seemed Marvel has re-written the backstory and made SHIELD a giant conspiracy type group.  They go way back in history and it just doesn’t make a ton of sense yet, but the writing isn’t bad.  There’s just a lot going on to wrap your mind around.  So I’m withholding judgment until I can see a bit more.  In this issue we find out who the current head of this group is and who they are.  Guess what?  It’s somebody historically famous!  There’s a whole re-working of history in general which is kind of fun to see, I just hope it’s going somewhere.  It kind of reminds me of the set-up of the old Eternal Warriors by Acclaim Comics.  Close, but not quite.  So this issue is interesting, but not a must.

Technorati Tags: SHIELD,s.h.i.e.l.d.,Jonathan Hickman,Dustin Weaver,Eternal Warriors,Hulk,Ed McGuinness,Jeph Loeb,Shadowland,Power Man,Fred Van Lente,Mahmud Asrar,Luke Cage,Daredevil,amazing spider-man,spider-man,spiderman,joe quesada,paolo rivera,secret avengers,ed brubaker,mike deodato jr,robert kirkman,ant-man,moon knight,steve rogers,nova

Quick Comic Book Reviews–August 30th, 2010

Quick Comic Book Reviews–August 28th, 2010

Uncanny X-Men #526 – Written by Matt Fraction and Pencilled by Whilce Portacio.  So the main plot is that 5 new mutants showed up and their powers haven’t manifested yet, so it’s time to find them before the bad guys get in the way.  But, why is it that the back-up story involving Magneto and his “grandsons” is the more interesting story in this issue.  Matt Fraction gives a valiant effort, but he doesn’t seem to have the whole dynamics of the group down yet.  Plus I think Whilce Portacio phoned it in on him.  Whilce seems to be just drawing to draw and must have needed some extra bucks, because I just don’t feel him being at his best.  When Hope finds out her parents died she and was talking about it at first, the facially expression couldn’t have matched what she was feeling.  The artwork just felt a little soulless and maybe that how Whilce feels drawing the X-Men, but he isn’t doing his writer any favors.  I’m interested in finding out what Hope can do and how the next breed of X-Men will turn out.  But the sub-plots in this one are weak and contrived, except for the Kitty Pryde part.  I don’t feel they’re following up on the fall-out from Second Coming very well.  We should be feeling heavier repercussions than any mutant series is really dealing with and that’s too bad, because I thought Second Coming was a good X-Men crossover.  This stuff is ok, but nothing spectacular.

Daredevil #509 – Written by Andy Diggle and Penciled by Roberto De La Torre.  Ever get a case of déjà vu?  That’s what this felt like.  Andy Diggle has had some hits and misses in this Shadowland event, but I felt like I knew about the same at the end of this issue as I did at the beginning.  There are a few new bits of information, but nothing too interesting that skipping it doesn’t seem to be a big deal.  The artwork is good, but not in a classic comic book approach.  Everything is very washed out and dark and forboding, which I guess suits it well enough.  The way this one is going, next issue they’ll cover it again anyway.  So if you read last issue, just read Shadowland #2 and skip this one.

Brightest Day #8 – Written by Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi and Pencilled by Ardian Syaf, Ivan Reis, and Patrick Gleason.  I thought LOST was over, but this comic book keeps me about as frustrated as when I was watching LOST.  This issue is largely Martian Manhunter and Hawkworld centric, and boy is it bad.  In fact, they pretty much rip off an entire scene from LOST, but oh well.  A boring issue with nothing really important seeming to happen.  Any surprises fall flat on their collective faces.  Just a walking crap fest.  The artwork is uninspired except for the nicely pencilled first few pages.  I can’t figure out what the hell their doing with this storyline, if maybe they’re trying to do a reinvent of “52”, but it’s a poor attempt at that.  If you avoid buying one issue out of my list, avoid buying this turd.

Green Lantern Corps #51 – Written by Tony Bedard and Pencilled by Ardian Syaf.  The story improved from last issue and the artwork is decent, supported well by the brilliant colors in this issue.  So our fair Lanterns are still trying to survive the nefarious Cyborg-Superman who has taken over the Alpha Lanterns.  Cyborg-Supe has Ganthet and Stel pretty much held hostage and there are some interesting moments involving that in this issue.  Bedard does a good job at making sure that despite the human side we sometimes see from Hank Henshaw (aka Cyborg-Superman), he’s still a right evil bastard that deserves contempt.  We also have a surprise return of a Lantern which is completely ruined by the front cover, but Hannu returns and that is also interesting considering how he’s feeling about the Corps right now.  Nothing really wrong with this issue, it just kind of flies by though and you don’t feel like you got a whole lot of story out of it.  Just an average, decent sort of issue, no need to rush yourself out to buy it or anything.

Avengers Academy #3 – Written by Christos Gage and Pencilled by Mike McKone.  Well, McKone’s artwork is much better this issue, if still a tad inconsistent at times, but it is getting there.  In this issue our cadets get a scared-straight trip to the Raft.  Also we get to know Hazmat much better and see her origin as well.  Valkyrie’s guest teaching are humorous to say the least.  I kind of wish we would see more out of Speedball, and I’m sure we will, as he continues to cope with the past in his own way.  To me, that’s really interesting stuff.  There’s a lot of characters to juggle here and some of them are bound to get overlooked in some issues.  The story is solid and fun and we get a crossover with the Thunderbolts that continues there.  The characters continue to grow and are very interesting.  There are a few hokey moments with the Thunderbolts, but nothing too bad. So this issue is a definite must, especially if you’ve been following to this point.

Zatanna #4 – Written by Paul Dini and Pencilled by Chard Hardin.  Well Viva Las Vegas!  Zatanna is set to open up a new show in Vegas and has to contend with the Royal Flush Gang (who are constantly changing anymore, but I still like them) and then prepare for her big night.  Things just don’t turn out as planned.  Need I say more?  Paul Dini continues to keep Zatanna surprisingly fresh, funny, and bold.  This issue is no different.  A lot of sub-plot being worked in and it will be interesting to see where this new story arc will go.  Suffice it to say, this is going to be one fun ride.  I still can’t believe how boring Zatanna used to be, but she’s gone a complete 360 under the right team.  Chad Hardin does a very good job of visuals and those visuals help complete the story.  The subtle things some artists would miss, he really doesn’t.  He uses the medium to help the writer in the telling of the story, and I love that.  Pick this book up and pick it up NOW!

Thunderbolts #147 – Written by Jeff Parker and Pencilled by Kev Walker.  We pick up, not only, from last issue, but also from Avenger’s Academy #3 (and #4 which isn’t released yet).  There’s a power outage we saw on the Raft and the questions as to why it happened.  We also see the Thunderbolts dealing with the actual power outage, which leads to many interesting moments.  Moonstone does pretty much exactly what is always expected of her.  Juggernaut showcased some interesting things as well.  I’m curious to see where they go with the terrigen mutation incident and if there’s anything more to it that we’ll see in future issues.  Next issue we get another detour into Shadowland, but hopefully it’ll be pain free for us readers.  Parker really does another great job of scripting what could have been a very boring story and making it interesting.  I have a feeling he has some surprises waiting for us, just wish I could tell what.  The artwork has a grim stylization to it that fits the stories being told.  A fun read, but I’m borderline about calling it a buy.

Technorati Tags: uncanny x-men,matt fraction,whilce portacio,daredevil,andy diggle,roberto de la torre,brightest day,geoff johns,peter tomasi,ardian syaf,ivan reis,patrick gleason,green lantern corps,tony bedard,avengers academy,christos gage,mike mckone,zatanna,paul dini,chad hardin,thunderbolts,jeff parker,kev walker

Quick Comic Book Reviews–August 28th, 2010

Quick Comic Book Reviews – August 15th, 2010

Brightest Day #7 – Well, it only took 7 issues before they got to the main plot.  We saw bits of mysteries going on and we now have a few answers that make sense.  But boy, did it take way too long!  It will be interesting to see how what was revealed in this issue will affect the other titles.  Could make things very interesting in some of those series.  I have some doubts, but we’ll see.  The art was fine in this issue considering all the different artists.  The issue zoomed right along as you actually wanted to figure out some of this stuff.  The big reveals are alright, the artwork changes every other page, but nothing too bad.  This is the only issue of Brightest Day you need to bother with buying so far.

Shadowland: Bullseye #1 – Wow, just wow. So here we have a story about a funeral for Bullseye held at the behest of a bunch of thugs.  Of course, they want Mr. Crossover himself, Ben Urich to cover it under much duress.  Any time you see an issue with Ben Urich, you’re about guaranteed it’s a tie-in to some major crossover to help make more money off it.  However, sometimes those tie-ins aren’t too bad.  This is one of those pointless issues in comic books that makes you say “why”.  It isn’t like you would miss anything if you skipped this issue entirely!  Not much makes any sense and the story is limp.  I hope John Layman doesn’t a habit of this type of writing.  It rather feels, though, like they dropped the assignment on him and he had to fill the pages with something.  If you’re a writer, that’s not always a good thing.  Sean Chen did an admirable job as the artist, but most people will look past his art because the story is poop.  This issue would only be good for kindling, but it’s too expensive to be kindling, so you’re kind of stuck with it.  Buyer beware of massive suckage!
Superman #702 – J. Michael Strazynski brings us to his second full issue of Superman and it continues just as the last one left off.  Superman is wandering across America, this time Detroit is the place and Superman ends up encountering some aliens living there in secret.  So Superman works out a deal with them that seems to occur way to suddenly and they basically build something over night.  So besides that stretch of imagination, this is still better than anything Superman put out last year.  It is a good enough story that continues to focus on the human side of Superman and that’s still a good thing to me.  But where is all of this going?  It would be un-JMS like to not have some grand plan.  I’m hoping to see where this goes.  The artwork is nothing that special, by Eddy Barrows, but I think the inker may have just gone overzealous in spots.  So hard to tell without seeing the originals.  So a pretty enjoyable issue here, despite gaps in logic, but not a must buy.
R.E.B.E.L.S. #19 – Ah, a tale of 3 Brainiacs.  The first three in fact.  Despite it all, Vril Dox (aka Brainiac 2) maintains himself as the cold, calculating and charismatic bastard of the bunch.  The original Brainiac (or as I call him, Papa Brain) is set free during an attack on their home world of Colu by Lyrl Dox (Brainiac 3), who just happens to hate his father Vril.  Lyrl has recently given a pulsar sentience and that thing is pissed and pretty flipping destructive.  Chaos ensures and Vril has to find a way out of this mess.  Tony Bedard continues to write one of the best and most consistent comics out there.  The artwork of Claude St. Aubin is very strong here and fits the style we come to expect here.  Yet another excellent read.  Bedard continues to make this a must buy!
Red Robin #15 -  So far, the 2nd year of Red Robin is off to a very fun and exciting start, with the credit going to Fabian Nicieza.  The storyline has a pretty traditional comic feel with plenty of twists, reveals and characterization.  The interaction between Tim Drake and Damian is great stuff and fun to read.  The story revolves around two crooked cops who hire an assassin to go after Tim Drake because they know he has dirt on them.  We see Tim continue his dark journey that has him acting more and more like Bruce Wayne, which has to be of great concern somewhere down the road.  It is an interesting evolution of a character and I’m sure there is plenty more good stuff to come.  If you like a good Batman type of story that seems like it is going somewhere and is always interesting, this is a good bet.  The artwork by Marcus To is good stuff and the colors are vibrant.  It feels like a comic should.  Check it out!
Secret Six #24 – We join up with our Secret Six in the old west.  Wait a minute, come again?  Ok, so the cast and crew of the Secret Six is in the wild west and boy are there problems.  A crazed outlaw is coming to town to take it over.  Always good news for our anti-heroes.  The story by Gail Simone is pretty gruesome and vulgar and not for the feint of heart.  The artwork by J. Califiore is solid as well and captures some pretty intimate details well.  The issue really throws a wrench in the work and boy, am I confused.  Not sure if this is a veritable joyride, but it might have appeal to some.  Me?  I’m mostly “meh” from the whole ordeal.  Buy if you think a spaghetti western Secret six appeals to you, if not, probably not worth forking out the bucks for.
Fantastic Four #581 – A delightfully warped Fantastic Four story.  Recently I haven’t been too impressed with Fantastic Four and the past few years have had no sense of purpose.  It just seemed like a comic book lost in limbo.  I think Jonathan Hickman may have this ship turning in the right direction.  However, at times I feel we’re getting wrapped up in all of these alternative timelines and that gets real confusing real quick.  This story seems to be making a logical way to tie some of those together and create what seems to be an interesting story so far.  It involves Reed Richards’ dad and an incident that draws them all together.  There is an fairly interesting secret about what’s going on with all of this and why Reed’s dad visits him before he has any powers.  In fact, in this reality, Reed’s power and Ben Grimm’s seem contrived by inventions.  And what a wonderful play on this characters that we now know and love.  We see a way to make them interesting in an alternative timeline and some sense of bittersweet irony in the way Ben Grimm approaches the invention they made for him.  It all works well together.  Neil Edwards’ pencil are alright, there are some rough spots, but hey, that’s the Fantastic Four in a nutshell.  This one is worth checking out.

Technorati Tags: R.E.B.E.L.S.,Vril Dox,Brainiac,Lyrl Dox,Tony Bedard,Claude St. Aubin,Red Robin,Fabian Nicieza,Secret Six,Gail Simone,J. Califiore,Brightest Day,Geoff Johns,Shadowland: Bullseye,Ben Urich,John Layman,Sean Chen,Superman,J. Michael Strazynski,Eddy Barrows,Fantastic Four,Jonatham Hickman,Neil Edwards

Quick Comic Book Reviews – August 15th, 2010

Quick Comic Book Reviews – August 8th, 2010

 

Brightest Day #6 – Wow, I really wish I knew where the heck any of this was going.  We keep getting weird little revelations from the past of characters and trying to piece it all together is making me feel like there’s no connection.  This is a largely Martian Manhunter centric issue with Hawkgirl and Hawkman nowhere to be seen, but I don’t exactly find myself caring what the hell happened to them.  The only part of the story that really interests me is the one going on with Hawk & Dove and Deadman.  Now that’s the storyline I’m enjoying as it unfolds, but boy, it is slow going.  This issue is decent and seems to balance things out a tad better than other issues.  None of the artwork is really terrible, but with so many artists it is hard to judge.  I hope we hit some pay-offs soon because this is looking like a bust of Ryan Leaf proportions.  This issue is decent though, not enough to be a buy.

Amazing Spider-Man #638 – Hey, Jim Shooter gets some work reprinted in this one.  Makes it worth buying right?  Let’s see!  So Joe Quesada finally decided that this erased history with M.J. and Peter Parker should finally come to a close.  The experiment, to me, failed.  The issues just felt weird the whole time, so yeah, I’m interested in seeing how they piece this one back together.  We get a cobbled together story using the old artwork and story and adding in some new stuff to create a whole new “time-line” for what happened to cause MJ and Peter to NOT be married.  Kind of an interesting concept, not sure how well it was executed.  That being said, the artwork is all over the place and the best is really the artwork from the Spiderman annual where he marries MJ.  I thought some of Quesada’s artwork in One More Day was bullocks, here he can hide it by blending it in with other artists.  Quesada’s art has never thrilled me and his art seems to get worse the more time he has off from drawing.  This issue I wanted to be good, but it all feels damned disjointed and a tad confusing.  Skip this issue and hope the next one is worth it.

Zatanna #3 – What’s this?  Zatanna is actually FUN to read?  Yes, amazing things do happen and Paul Dini has managed to turn another boring character into something interesting.  For the first few issues we’ve been dealing with Brother Night and tracking him down.  In fact, issue #2 was an absolute blast and if you haven’t bought it yet, you really should.  This brings to conclusion the 3 issue story arc.  I’m hoping we’ll get to see plenty more where this came from too.  I thought Stephane Roux’s artwork was quite good and everything in the issues just seems to work.  While this isn’t quite as strong as the other two issues, it was still very enjoyable.  This issue really seemed to zoom by and the climatic battle was a tad anti-climatic.  It felt like this issue could have been extended out into two and given us a better send-off to the story.  But given what it is, a good and entertaining issue, just not what the last two were.  Buy if you’re looking to give something new a try.

Vengeance of the Moon Knight #10 – This series is really getting better as of late.  In this one we are treated to the mind of Moon Knight as he takes on a mission with the new assembled Secret Avengers.  We get a decent yarn being spun and a look at what Moon Knight is thinking.  Makes for an interesting story and it is all over in one-shot.  No big two-parter or anything.  The story is very well written by Gregg Hurwitz, but the artwork is phenomenal.  I’m not sure how to best describe it besides it has a bit of a style you’ve seen out of Robert Crumb, but with a more realistic flavor thrown in at the same time.  And guess what?  It works.  The thing I like about Juan Jose Ryp’s artwork is that there is not much room for taking shortcuts.  With that style, you’re almost guaranteed that every panel is going to have an amazing amount of detail to it.  It is really fun to see and I can’t wait to see him on other projects.  Thoroughly impressed.  This issue isn’t a must buy, but it is worth picking up if you’re looking at picking up an extra title this month.

Shadowland #2 – So in this issue Daredevil finally decides if the heroes aren’t with him, they’re against him.  Haven’t we seen that somewhere before?  This seems to be building towards Daredevil’s downfall.  But once again, haven’t we seen something just like that recently?  Maybe Marvel will surprise me.  I do still like the fact that the Hand is corrupting him and he’s taking more extreme measures.  Despite everything else, this issue is pretty good.  We got a major surprise in it that would be ruined if you look at some of the upcoming titles in the Shadowland crossover.  Thankfully I really didn’t pay attention to that, so I was actually surprised and happy about it.  Spiderman does seemingly randomly shows up in this issue and Marc Spector joins the fray, but we knew he would all along.  The artwork is fine, no real complaints in this issue and things continue to unfold as Matt Murdock continues to lose his grip on things.  Andy Diggle is super busy with this series and it seems like it is coming together now and that’s a good sign.  Worth picking up!

X-Men #1 – Ok, seriously.  Who thought Mutants vs. Vampires was a good idea?  Sounds like an attempt to jump on the vampire craze that’s going on.  Marvel has single-handedly decided to kill any momentum the vampire craze has by bringing it back to comic form.  Congratulations Marvel!  Seriously, this whole concept does nothing for me.  We have an exploding vampire and a former X-Man get infected so she’s going to become a vampire.  The only good thing out of this series might be the fact that Blade returns next issue.  The storyline just seems hokey and the writing by Victor Gischler is even worse.  The artwork by Paco Medina is fair enough though and that’s about the only bright spot I could find.  This entire storyline is unfortunate because we’re coming out of an event “Second Coming” that I thought was quite good in classic X-Men major event tradition.  But in this, it’s like they’re almost ignoring most of what happened.  They should be patching things up, Storm should still be pissed at Scott, lots of things just don’t work in this issue.  This issue bites in more ways than one.

Technorati Tags: comic books,reviews,X-men,curse of the mutants,shadowland,andy diggle,paco medina,daredevil,matt murdock,brightest day,geoff johns,vengeance of the moon knight,paul dini,zatanna,jim shooter,joe quesada,amazing spider-man,one moment in time,stephane roux

Quick Comic Book Reviews – August 8th, 2010

Quick Comic Book Reviews – August 3rd, 2010

Once again, just a quick series of reviews.  I’m finding it easier to do these quick reviews due to lack of time to breakdown each issue separately.  Plus this way I get more read, so kind of a win-win.  This should help you figure out if an issue might be worth picking up.  But then again, my opinion is just that, and my opinion might just be lousy.  Utilize at your own risk.  :-)

New Avengers #2 – Here is a series that continues on with the same New Avengers we had gotten to know.  Spiderman, Wolverine, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Thing, Ms. Marvel, Hawkeye and Mockingbird.  So we’ve seen this team-up, not much NEW about it really besides The Thing.  However, in the second issue of the New New series, we start figuring out some things that are happening with Damien Hellstrom, Doctor Strange and Brother Voodoo.  We’re still figuring out who wants the Eye of Aga-what’s-his-face.  We still get the great banter from Wolverine and Spiderman that we come to expect, including Spidey getting a baby monitor to take into battle so he doesn’t miss anything.  Lots of good little things, solid artwork, make this a good comic.  If you liked em before, you’ll like em again, even with the mystical hocus pocus stuff.  Brian Michael Bendis and Stuart Immonen cook up a good one.  Solid buy!

Legion of Superheroes #3 – Paul Levitz is back with a vengeance and boy is it a fun ride so far!  I’m going to give Levitz huge praise, because he is one of the few writers who can efficiently handle a ton of heroes and keep them all interesting and make them feel important.  Geoff Johns should take notes for Brightest Day.  Paul keeps giving us more and more questions and surprises.  Making Earth Boy a Green Lantern seems to be a red herring, but more importantly, the way Earth Boy is in an uncomfortable alliance with the Legion is excellent.  There is more storyline packed in these pages than you could hope for in most comics now days and the artwork backs it all up.  Terrific storytelling in all aspects and makes this a MUST BUY!  I simply do not want to miss an issue and boy, the end of this one really has me excited!  Gotta run and get it!

Justice League: Generation Lost #5 – The title seems to be hitting its stride now.  The new Blue Beetle is utilized well, Rocket Red is a bit of a hypocrite, but at least they explain it.  The artwork is decent enough stuff, nothing bad nor terrible.  In this issue Max Lord makes a proposition to everyone that they can take or leave.  But what will it be?  Captain Atom has to make a big decision and Aaron Lopresti’s pencils do a tremendous job of capturing a superb moment of drama.  The interplay of the team is solid as they try and figure out what to do.  I’m intrigued to see where it is all going as Max Lord is a downright bastard.  Well paced issue, the team is starting to gel more and the story is starting to unfold well.  Buy if you love the characters, might be a near miss otherwise.

Superman #701 – JMS brings his take to Superman and so far so good.  We don’t have him battle big bad monster of the week.  This is Superman’s effort to step back into his role with Earth as the protector of it.  But he finds himself looking to help the common people a bit more.  I like it, it has a good feel with Superman getting more touch with his human side and right now with the way things are in the world, this is a good thing.  To see him interacting with normal people and realizing their struggles reconnects Superman with his own human side, I think that’s important.  Superheroes sometime have to reflect what’s going on in their world and right now there are lots of people out there in need, people who have problems that are fairly ordinary.  It is fun to think, what if Superman could help you?  I like it so far.  Buy if you’re looking for a different kind of Superman story.

Green Arrow #2 – First off, did I waste my time reading that or what?  I actually thought the first issue was alright, but the follow-up seemed to have little purpose and was quite short.  It didn’t feel right all around.  The artwork was weak, especially considering the guy couldn’t even draw the Green Lantern symbol correctly, and the story was worse.  And btw, if your Green Lantern ring loses its power in the forest, wouldn’t that mean that the costume disappears too?  Ugh, just ugh.  We’re no closer to solving the mystery of the forest and the “shocker” at the end seems just out of the blue.  So much so that I don’t even care what next issue brings to Oliver Queen.  Really just plain awful.  Don’t waste your money!

Green Lantern #56 – Does Hal Jordan always wear a shiny outfit?  I didn’t think so, but Doug Mahnke sure thinks so and I don’t care for his rendition.  Usually I like his artwork, it just never seemed to feel in place during this issue.  Geoff John’s writing even seemed particularly hokey in this one.  I had been a little curious about this storyline, but less so after this issue.  First I have to sit through a joke about a Pink Flamingo.  Did that joke survive the 80’s?  We have Hector Hammond rumbling on about some mystery we don’t really no much about.  There is an overlying story about the entities in the lanterns and that just didn’t grab me.  The only decent part was with The Question being put back to rest.  Other than that, a veritable ick-fest.  I love a good Green Lantern story and this is not it.  Skip it!

Green Lantern Corps #50 – Wow, 50th issues are usually monumental type issues, this one, not so much.  Tony Bedard is one of my favorite writers and the stories he has been writing have been moving along fairly well.  This issue however is a near miss. Ardian Syaf does a fine job with the artwork in this issue and his Hank Henshaw, Cyborg Superman whatever you want to call him is spot-on.  The issue flies by and you’re really mostly left with a flashback/where Cyborg Superman has been issue.  The amount of things that actually happened could have probably been done in about 2-4 pages.  That’s disappointing when you’re spending money on it.  So you’re basically learning what happened to Cyborg Superman when everyone thought he was dead.  Really nothing too interesting when it boils down to it.  Can’t recommend this one.

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Quick Comic Book Reviews – August 3rd, 2010

Comic Review – Avengers Academy #2

I really liked the first issues of Avengers Academy, it started off well and the second issue continues to point in that direction as well.  We see how our young future Avengers react to the news that they are on the team simply because they are the biggest threat of the candidates to turn into super villains.  So our premise is set-up there.

The main negative of this issue is the artwork.  Some of it just seems sloppy and some of the facials and actions seem out of place or you just can’t even figure out what the hell they’re even doing.  I generally thought the artwork McKone did in Issue #1 was pretty good.  This issue he must have been rushed to finish things up or something because it wasn’t nearly as good as the first issue.  The first issue didn’t really have much in terms of fight sequences either and that’s where he really seems to struggle.

I really thought Christos Gage continued to bring solid writing into this.  He always seems to write good stories with a decent amount of action and character development.  This issue really focuses on Finesse and her thoughts.  We really see an interesting window open and a future subplot of Taskmaster possibly being her father.  But that’s not confirmed nor hinted at.

As with most issues of Avengers: The Initiative, the newer characters are the key with the older, experienced Avengers taking mostly a backseat.  Gage does a good job of using them to enhance our new recruits.  Mettle is a very interesting character that I’m really starting to like.  No Speedball this issue though, I expected him to be a very pivotal character. 

Gage doesn’t do super complicated stories or anything groundbreaking.  He just provides us with good solid comics and I think that’s why I like him so much.  The only thing in this story that I didn’t care for was going back over Quicksilver’s background, but for new readers I do think it is important so I can’t really take anything away from that.  In fact, I hope that garners it new readers because they find it easy enough to jump right into when so many of the comics now days make it hard for you to jump in the middle of. 

Overall, a very solid 2nd issue.  Nothing amazing, but a good read nonetheless.  A deduction for the poor artwork in this issue though.

3 out of 5 stars. 

Technorati Tags: Avengers Academy,Christos Gage,McKone,Avengers: The Initiative,review,comic book,Finesse,Quicksilver

Comic Review – Avengers Academy #2

Comic Book Review – Doctor Solar: Man of the Atom #1 (Dark Horse)

I need to preface this by saying that one of my favorite writer/creators I’ve ever read is Jim Shooter.  Jim Shooter is the current writer for Doctor Solar: Man of the Atom, Magnus Robot Fighter, and Turok Son of Stone.  These are all old Gold Key Comics titles that are being revived once again.  The last time we saw these three titles together were in the dying days of Acclaim Comics which had bought out Valiant Comics.  Jim Shooter made Valiant successful before he was ousted in a bit of controversy.  It was never quite the same after he left because they lost his vision and focus.  He founded a few other comic companies each with great storylines and feel but as the comic industry went spiraling into decline, they too, vanished.

When Dark Horse announced they were bringing back these Gold Key characters back under the supervision of Jim Shooter, I was somewhat excited.  The only thing I didn’t like was that there was no “shared universe” for these characters like we saw in Valiant.  Jim Shooter is at his best when he can tie things together into one universe.  So, while I was happy to see these characters revived, I still have reservations.  However, with Shooter’s writing, I know the stories will at least be solid.

So here we are, diving into the first issue of the rebirth and hopefully being of a wonderful new era for this character.  So how does it pan out?  It has a bit of action to jump into things before we start getting some explanations.  So that’s typical fare now days to kind of jump start into things.  I don’t always like that though as it seems to pull us away from the character and their motivations.  But I see it for what it is.

The issue gets stronger as it goes along.  We find out Doctor Solar was exposed to a nuclear incident involving a black hole as well.  Not very many major twists on his origins, which is fine.  We don’t have to relearn much about him and no sense in reinventing the wheel.  But we found out that he himself has create a quantum event that is creating abnormalities in our reality.  So we have the premise set and we see some of those abnormalities introducing themselves.

My gripe with the comic is the art.  I did not enjoy Dennis Calero’s artwork at all.  His characters are very stiff and not at all fluid.  The action sequences are abysmal at best and I can’t figure out exactly what’s going on in half of them.  Jim Shooter has a way of getting artists to become better storytellers, but I don’t think he had a lot of time here.  From an interview I read, some of the early pages were rushed and Jim never saw them so they could get those pages out early for previews.  I could tell from those interviews that he wasn’t quite pleased with them.  There are some decent pages, but nothing great.  I hope Jim Shooter can bring him around to being a better storyteller, but I don’t know if he can improve Calero’s style much.  His characters, especially the character Vanguard, aren’t drawn very realistically at all.  The only thing people seem to like about his artwork is his “shading”, so that’s all I need to know there.  I hope they either switch artists or he improves quickly because he’s dragging this issue down.

Oh, and this is a 48 page spectacular!  What does that mean?  Well we get a reprint of the original Doctor Solar published by Gold Key.  I had read this recently and is a decent enough story.  A bit outdated, but fun stuff anyway.  For $3.50 you’re getting two stories, so that definitely makes it worthwhile, especially if you never read the original series.

Overall, a good buy for the price.  The story is a little disjointed but builds up well towards the end.  The artwork isn’t very good though and draws away from the storytelling that SHOULD be going on. 

3 out of 5 stars (the bonus feature helps it out)! 

Technorati Tags: jim shooter,dennis calero,doctor solar: man of the atom,turok son of stone,valiant,comic books,review,magnus robot fighter,acclaim

Comic Book Review – Doctor Solar: Man of the Atom #1 (Dark Horse)