Millennium Fever

Going into this 4 issue mini from DC's Vertigo imprint, I figured from the title it would be about the changing of the millennium that so many people were dreading back in the late 90's. In actuality, it really doesn't have anything to do with the changing of the millennium. Really, I don't know what the title has to do with the content of the series at all, but whatever.

This odd title written by Nick Abadzis starts off as a coming of age story. Boys in high school want to appear to have a large sexual prowess with the ladies, yet most actually don't. Here we have a young man, still a virgin, desperately looking to find a girlfriend... and he does! In answering a personal ad he meets the woman of his dreams and they hit it off wonderfully.

So at this point in the story, I'm pretty much bored to tears, but then something weird happened. When the couple goes into the bedroom for the first time to, you know, "do it" you see the lovely ladies fingers... grow... and then it flashes to the next day. This little thing managed to pull my attention back to the story, and as the story unfolded even further you see that this is a story of a cosmic scale. Apparently humans need to evolve or be left behind when our world merges with some uber multiverse.

That's quite a bit of a jump in focus and to be completely honest, it made the first part of the story seem completely inconsequential. It really only matters because the mysterious woman is actually the manifestation of a being from another realm of the multiverse. The whole multiverse thing and humans evolving in order to survive all just seemed wonky to me. I love cosmic storytelling, but this just didn't have the impact on me that it took for me to care.

The message behind the story is also pretty heavy handed. The real moral of the story is that we have to get beyond our pettiness, fears, and insecurities so that we can move beyond what we are and become "evolved" human beings. I didn't need this mini to tell me that we'll be better people if we move beyond our weaknesses.

If you're a Vertigo completist or have a hankering to read a subpar cosmic story, well, here's the perfect mini for you! If you're like me, you'll pass it over unless you can find it in a quarter bin somewhere. At that price, it might be worth a look simply because it's better than 90% of the other crap that'll be with it in that same bin.

Ratings
Art: 3
Story: 2
Overall: 2.5

Deadpool: The Circle Chase

Deadpool is one of those cult Marvel characters that every Marvel comic nerd loves, but is pretty much unknown to the mass market reader. Being a big X-title fanatic, you'd figure I'd know a ton about this character, but besides the occasional appearance in X-Force when I was reading it in the early 90's and the current Cable/Deadpool series, I haven't had any exposure to the character.

Since this was Deadpool's first solo title, I assumed it might be a nice introduction to the character and work as a springboard to understand why this character is as popular as he is with the underground crowd. After reading this mini I'm assuming the reason everyone loves him is because he's so stymied with Marvel 90's continuity.

Honestly, I felt like I was dropped into the middle of an ongoing series there was so much continuity referenced and used as plot points that I felt left out at almost every turn. Characters would appear and it would be expected that a reader should know who he or she is and why he or she is doing what he or she is doing. I never knew what anyone's motivation was outside of a supposed hate for Deadpool and wanting to get at the contents of a Mr. Tolliver's will.

The story basically revolves around that one premise. A Mr. Tolliver has died and a bunch of mercenaries want to get what was in his will. This leads to lots of fighting and plenty of quips from Deadpool, many of them feeling very dated. There's also plenty of stilted dialogue between the rogues gallery that is on display here, and it got very annoying, if not boring, at times.

For wanting to learn about Deadpool and possibly his origins, I obviously should not have chosen this mini. If you're not versed in mid-90's Marvel continuity, particularly of the X-Men and X-Force, then I wouldn't expect to get a lot of out of this. If you do want to read it, I'd probably just scan it for the Deadpool comments and then move on to something not tied so tightly to other complementing titles.

Ratings
Art: 3
Story: 2.25
Overall: 2.5

Adventures of Superman 627 - 632

Superman has been a character that, for the most part, I've been able to enjoy over time. There are times that I don't like the character or at times he'll bring up bad memories, but for the most part I find a well written story involving the Man of Steel and his supporting cast is usually fun to read. Rucka, in this six issue run, takes the focus away from the fun aspect of Superman and instead looks more realistically at the character and it turns out to work just fine.

Now this isn't a mind-blowing awesome story or anything, but it's reasonably entertaining. Superman is fighting some guy who thinks that Superman is going to be the end of us all. To take down Supes, he uses Replikon and his son to attack Superman so that he can use a device he created to suck Superman's power out of him. Far fetched and very cliched superhero storytelling, I know, but the second plot of the story and the subplot involving the Metropolis Police Department make up for it.

Lois is going to the middle east to cover some of the fighting that's going on. While she's over there, she learns what it's like being an embedded reporter. She watches men die, watches men kill, bonds with another embedded reporter, and gets shot. Seeing how Superman and the JLA react to Lois getting shot shows just how much sway Superman holds in the DC universe.

The arc closes on a very downbeat note as you see Superman next to Lois' hospital bed. She lies there unconscious and he promises never to leave her side. A touching moment, while at the same time a very sad way to end the arc.

Oh, as for the art, it's really good. 'Nuff said.

Ratings
Art:4
Story: 3.75
Overall: 3.75

The League of Extrordinary Gentlemen vol. I

Before I got around to reading this wonderful title, I was tainted by having watched the movie adaptation. The movie was only a so-so action picture so I wasn't too keen on reading the material it was based upon... that is until I found out it was written by Alan Moore. More than 90% of the time, Moore's stuff turns out to be wonderful. The other 10% of the time it turns out to only be ok. No matter which category his stuff falls into, I have yet to read anything by him that has turned out to suck.

The first volume of LXG straddles the line between being simply ok and being wonderful. It was a lot of fun to see these classic characters put into a superhero team sent out to save England, but at the same time I didn't find the characters as interesting here as I did in their original works. I expected it to be the other way around with Moore writing it, but somehow he took each character, created one overwhelming personal trait, and then used that singular trait to showcase how the character would handle each situation.

The invisible man has no conscience. Quartermain is an adventurer. Mina is a very naive, yet resourceful woman. Jeckyl/Hyde is reserved & nervous as Jeckyl and a murdering beast as Hyde. Nemo is the smart, noble warrior. Other than those traits, each character's personality and personal history was left pretty much untouched in favor of the plot, which usually wouldn't be a terrible thing, but I would have enjoyed more exploration of how the characters interact and how they have developed since their adventures in their respective classic novels as opposed to having them introduced and then focusing on the plot.

The plot was pretty transparent as well, which is surprising considering it was written by Moore. There's a betrayal of the team, which is heavily foreshadowed. There's the obligatory grand scale battle scene that takes an entire issue. There's the passage where the villain contemplates his evilness and justifies it to himself, yet the audience knows he's simply just a bad guy. Everything seemed quite formulaic and by the numbers, except it had these classic literature figures saving the day.

The art was ok. It wasn't all that spectacular, but it did its job. It could have been much, much worse and I actually preferred the liney, somewhat scrawled art on display here than most of the quasi-manga-cartoonish art that populates most of the current crop of titles from the big four.

Ratings
Art: 3
Story: 3.5
Overall: 3.25

G.I. Joe vol. I (Dark Horse)

Who the hell lets stuff like this get published? I can say with tons of confidence that this four issue mini series is one of the worst that I've read in a long time, and by long time I mean years. I couldn't even bring myself to do more than skim the final two issues it was so bad. *Sigh* Where do I start in describing the suckiness?

First off, this isn't the G.I.Joe that most of us know. No, this mini is based on some obscure G.I.Joe Extreme cartoon that was around for all of like 2 days. I never heard of it and being the big G.I.Joe fan I've always been that means it had to be relatively obscure. Anyhow, so all of the characters are new. There's no Hawk, Duke, Lady Jaye, or Snake-Eyes. Instead there are a bunch of generic military typecast characters.

The bad guys also aren't Cobra. In here it is the Skar. Yeah, woot woot. I totally urinated through all of my clothes I was so scared by their name. Their leader is some guy that looks kind of like Destro except he has metal claws and his metal faceplate is more angular. He also doesn't answer to Cobra Commander. Instead it's some chick that is a descendant of an ancient royal bloodline. She formed Cobr... err, Skar in order to overthrow democracy because it doesn't work. Only royalty should be able to lead a country. Voting became such a pox upon society that the Skar had to be formed in order to right the sinking ship that was America.

Ok, so now that you know the setup, the rest of the series consisted of dialogue written by three drunken sixth grade dropouts while the art was handled by a washed up ex-cartoonist on crack. Really, this series was painful to read and look at. It took all of my constitution to keep from projectile vomitting every last ounce of juice in my stomach all across my reading room whenever I turned the page.

If anything these four comics will make good kittie litter once they are shredded properly. Make sure to remove the staples before shredding, however, or you might break your shredder. Once you have done that, only feed a four or five page bunch through the shredder at once in order to get a nice, fluffy mix. Fill your kittie litter box with the shredded comics and let your cats shit all over them because that's the only way this series could possibly get any worse than it already is.

Ratings
Art: 1
Story: 1
Overall: 1

Children of the Voyager

It's refreshing to go back and read something put out by Marvel and not dealing with superheroes. It's just too bad that you have to look to Marvel's UK division to find the majority of the non-superhero titles. This four issue miniseries was one of four Frontier titles that were put out by Marvel UK. I haven't read the other three, but after looking at the ads for them and reading this one, it seems like Marvel UK was trying to create an alternative to DC's Vertigo line but, unfortuantely, it didn't work out so well.

In Children of the Voyager, Nick Abadzis creates a dark, if somewhat illogical, tale about a horror author haunted by bad dreams. He dreams become so real and threatening that he consults a witch to see if she can somehow exorcise the demon in him or find a way to relieve his dreaming.

By forcing him into a trance she finds out that he is not a real person and doesn't possess a soul. He is actually a small seed of an ethereal being called the Voyager. Apparently the Voyager plants seeds of himself throughout humanity in an attempt to understand what it means to be human. He is forced to do this in order to return to the next plane (loosely referred to at one point as heaven). With all of that known, the witch attempts to save our haunted author by getting into a magical war with the Voyager while the author tires him out by talking about juvenile existentialistic ramblings about what constitutes a soul.

This story would have been a lot better if we weren't expected to believe so many things without explanations. The Voyager is some mystical being whose purpose isn't really explained other than he is trying to return to the next plane of existence. It is also unexplained why the author differed from many of the other children of the Voyager (almost all of the children are robot like automata that possess only a modicum of intelligence). Why the witch's magic works against the Voyager is also left unexplained. Does the Voyager have some connection to earthly magic? I guess it could be assumed so, but I hate having to assume details to be true in order for a story to make sense.

The bright side of all of this is that the art is pretty good. It has a very angular and harsh tone to it, which suits this story perfectly. It reminded me a little bit of Jae Lee if he was rushing his work. The art definitely fit the story and helped make it easier to let some of the missing elements of the story slide.

If you want to read a miniseries that is similar in tone and content to the movie In the Mouth of Madness, then give this a whirl. I picked it up for $2.00 and I think it was worth the money. I might have even paid up to $4.00 for it!

Ratings
Art: 3.75
Story: 3
Overall: 3

Astonishing X-Men 1 - 6

Anyone who even remotely likes the X-Men at all have pretty much been going ape over this new series written by Joss Whedon and illustrated by John Cassiday. As for me, well, it's not nearly as interesting as Morrison's New X-Men run, but it sure as hell beats the crap out of Austen's X-Men and Claremont's Uncanny X-Men & Excalibur.

The one thing that I don't understand about this series is the obsession with Cassiday's art. Sure, it's pretty realistic and whatnot, but I really don't think he's all that great. In fact, I think the way he draws Beat and Cyclops is really ugly and half the time he draws Emma with big, billowing 80's hair. The new uniforms are also pretty lame, except for Kitty's, which is nothing more than a slight variation on their movie-era leather suits.

As much as I love Whedon's ability to create dialogue that snaps, I couldn't really form a relationship with any of the characters outside of the core X-Men group. The villain did nothing for me. He's some uber alien that made a pact with some government organization, blah, blah, blah. I really don't care. The fact that Nick Fury and SHIELD just waltz on in in the 6th issue and lay everything out doesn't flow very well with me either. The doctor working with the "cure" for the mutant condition is also hard to relate to.

If Whedon would have worked a little harder on creating characters that could be related to instead of focusing on the X-Men and their bickering, I would have really liked this arc. As it stands, however, it's only an above average X-Men tale. It is one that will definitely be remembered, though, simply because it features the return of fan favorite Colossus. His return from the dead has stirred up a lot of positive and negative feelings about this arc. Frankly, I don't really care so much. Colossus is back. Big deal. You know no one ever stays dead in the Marvel universe so why fret over it. I'm looking forward to some more good stories focusing on Colossus because I found him one of the few X-Men that has an interesting personality and history.

For a start to a new, high profile series, this arc succeeds in creating a lot to talk about and generates a good amount of interest because of a key continuity issue, but story-wise it was only so-so. The dialogue is superb, yes, but dialogue alone doesn't make a compelling story.

Ratings
Art: 3.5
Story: 3
Overall: 3.5

Punisher: Born

Huh, and to think that I always thought Frank Castle went on his crazy revenge-fest because some mafia members killed his family. I suppose that is part of the reason, but in Born Garth Ennis explores Frank's days in Vietnam and the dirty pact he agrees to with some enigmatic dark being.

This 4 issue mini starts off by letting you get to know Frank and the men he commands. Most of the people at the base he is in charge of are complete goof-ups that really don't give a crap about the war. Frank, on the other hand, takes it very seriously and has managed to find a group of fellow soldiers in the midst of the glut of cowardly and lazy residents of his base. This group scours the area looking for Charlie and wiping them out if they're found. Frank's little band of marauders, in making as many runs into the jungle as they have, have never actually had a fatality. Frank makes sure of that.

From all of this, you'd think that Frank is simply a very good soldier. Well, that he is, but he also feeds off of war. When a general comes to the base to inspect it and tell Frank that they're heading home he is conveniently led up the slope of a sniper firing range and, uhh, "taken care of". On another mission you see Frank kill yet another fellow soldier. This time he does it because the soldier raped a Vietnamese woman. He justifies to himself that the killing was done to serve justice. At this moment you can start to see the seeds of the Punisher at work inside of Frank.

Before this series is over, Frank blossoms into the killing machine that we all know and love, but only by agreeing to be the tool of some ethereal being that only asks for one small thing in return. Frank doesn't know exactly what that one small thing is until he arrives home from the war--his family.

Ennis does a great job of not retooling the Punisher's origin, yet also putting a new spin on how he came to be. In doing so, he also gives the Punisher's origin a somewhat mystical beginning as well. I thoroughly enjoyed this version as opposed to the standard version where he is motivated purely by revenge.

Ratings
Art: 3.5
Story: 4.25
Overall: 4

Superman / Batman 8 - 13

I want to believe that this arc was more than just a vehicle for Mike Turner to draw a teenage girl in a bunch of different outfits, but I'm having a hard time doing it. Every issue it seemed that Turner made it a point to showcase Supergirl in some new type of attire for the teen boy crowd to drool over (I don't understand why anyone would drool over a drawing, but I've had conversations with boys who go nuts of some of Turner's stuff). You have Supergirl in no clothes, in casual clothes, in her Supergirl uniform, in her amazonian princess outfit, in her Darkseid's apprentice suit, in more casual clothes, and different permutations on the already pre-defined wardrobe of Kara.

Outside of this story's focus on the new Supergirl, you also get plenty of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman hitting people and fighting between Darkseid's minions and the amazonian women. Having said all of that, as much as I wanted to dislike this arc, I found I actually had a fun time reading it. I don't know how he does it, but Loeb manages to write an engaging story, even if it isn't the most intelligent.

What has really been a shining star in this series are the inner monologues of Batman and Superman. Seeing the different interpretations of the same situations and people is really intriguing and Loeb manages to capture the essence of each character in how he writes the thoughts of both of the characters. Batman is the untrusting and calculating sleuth while Superman is the boy scout who takes everything at face value.

This key difference in personalities leads to Batman and Superman confronting the arrival of Supergirl in different ways. Remarkably, for a visual medium, it was the written word that kept me coming back for more. I'm not trying to knock Turner because he does some very good work, which at times I enjoy depending upon what he's drawing, but his art was simply overshadowed by Loeb's writing. Personally, I couldn't think of a better way to have a new Supergirl introduced into DC's continuity than this arc of Superman/Batman.

Ratings
Art: 3.75
Story: 4
Overall: 4

Madara vol. I

I'm coming to the party a little late as this is my first experience with manga. Just about everyone and their mother have been reading manga the last few years, but I've never jumped into it, mainly because I have plenty of traditional, American styled comics to read in my collection. When DC decided it was going to start a manga imprint, however, I thought I might as well give this format a look so I preordered one of CMX manga's debut titles--Madara.

After reading this, my first manga, I am sorely unimpressed. I don't know if something was lost in the translation, if this was just a bad title, or if I just don't "get" manga, but once I got done reading all 200+ pages of this thing, I wanted to request my $10 (well, $6 since I preordered it) and 1.5 hours of my life back.

So here's the story in this first volume of five: Some kid has a body made up of artificial parts. He's this way because his dad is some evil emperor that didn't want to kill him so he just ripped up his body into 8 parts and gave them to 8 different guardians. Madara doesn't know this until his village is attacked by some wolf things. His mentor gives him a sword that he has him hold up to his head which causes him to turn into some beserker fighting machine.

Now that Madara knows that he needs to find his real body parts (why, though, no one knows) he rushes off on a quest to find them. With him comes a girl from his village who also happens to have a crush on him. He later finds out that his superpowers don't just come from the sword being held up to his head. No, she also has to be in the vacinity (why, though, no one knows). So Madara travels around and fights some bad guys and ears two of his body parts back. Yippee.

Yeah, that's the gist of the story. Does it seem really lame and hopelessly convoluted and pointless to you? Well, it sure does to me. I really couldn't enjoy this book at all simply because of the contrivances of the plot. The only thing that kept me even moderately involved was the art. It was actually pretty decent and some of the fight choreography was neatly illustrated. Beyond that one small redeeming factor, my first foray into manga was a total failure. I might try out another manga series or two in the future, but it's moved much lower on my list of things to read and spend money on.

Ratings
Art: 3.5
Story: 1.5
Overall: 1.5

G.I.Joe Reloaded 1 - 9

There are two things that I really, really like about this series and neither of them really have too much to do with the actual story... well, they do, but they play minor roles. These two things are the lack of "arcs" and the use of reference boxes. Do you remember reference boxes? It seems like so long since I've seen a new comic come out that uses them. They're those neat little boxes that refer to an asterisked portion of dialogue or exposition and tell you when what is being talked about happened so that way if you're a new reader you can go back and find that issue to catch yourself up. Yeah, they're amazing and I don't know why they're so seldomly used now... oh wait, no, I do know why they aren't used--it interferes with making trade paperbacks because the tpb will reference another comic and *cough* Marvel *cough* want all of their tpb's to feel self-contained. Well poop on you Marvel because I like continuity, and this series from Devil's Due embraces the continuity it is setting up. There are no self-contained story arcs. This is an ongoing series in all senses of the word.

Ok, now that I got that out of my system, I can settle down a little bit. G.I.Joe Reloaded is Devil's Due's attempt at updating the G.I.Joe mythos to align more with current day events instead of the convoluted and somewhat lame mythos set up in the 80's. If you want to live in that realm of G.I.Joe, then go pick up the straight up G.I.Joe title, but if you want something a little more mature (but not so mature the kiddies can't buy it) and cohesive to the workings of today's world, go with Reloaded.

In these first 9 issues, we are reintroduced to the team (both sides were initially introduced in their respective one-shots that came out before this series) and thrown right into Cobra's first terrorist activity--stealing chemical weapons. Failing to keep them from doing that, the Joes redouble their efforts to squash Cobra's next move--stealing the Declaration of Independence. After defeating Cobra's sleeper agents and protecting that precious document, the Joes are given a break from all the military action to do some training. Well, things just don't let up as Cobra takes over a missle launch facility that they want to use to launch the chemical weapons they stole way back at the beginning of this series into a populated US city. The Joes manage to foil the launch, but Cobra still has control of the missle facility, and that's where this run of issues ends.

As you can probably guess, this series would be hard to pick up right in the middle and it would be best if you started from the beginning because of the strong use of continuity. Also, what I described are only the overarching plots. I didn't even touch upon all of the subplots going on in each issue. Really, when you think about it, there's a third thing I really like about this series--things happen! There's no decompression here. There's no padding. There's no filler issues. Every issue has a ton of things happening and because of that, it's worth every dollar.

For those of you wondering about the art, well, it's pretty indistiguishable from the rest of the G.I.Joe titles. No matter what artist is drawing an issue, each feels like it is following a strict art style that was defined when the first G.I.Joe series from Devil's Due came out a couple of years ago. I'm not saying that's a bad thing because the art is clean and feels appropriate, but it would be nice to have some different styles every now and then.

Ratings
Art: 3.25
Story: 4
Overall: 3.75

Trencher

Kieth Giffen's art is definitely a unique style. I liked how he used it in the Lobo: Infanticide mini, so I went out and found this 4 issue mini series he did for Image in 1993. The same style of art can be found here, but it feels a little less focused. As much fun as his art is, sometimes it is extremely hard to figure out exactly what is going on in a scene or what a progression of panels is trying to show. I found there were more than a couple of times that I sat and stared at a page trying to discern exactly what was happening and what Giffen was trying to tell the reader.

One of the reasons I think that his art can come off this way is that for all of its detail, it's not really that detailed. Ok, yeah, I know that sounds weird, but it's the best way to describe it. For example, there is a sequence of panels where I think Trencher is getting kocked down a street and into the wall of a building, but I'm not sure because for all of the detail that Giffen puts into the Trencher character and his surroundings, he doesn't communicate very well what is actually happening to the character and his surroundings.

On the positive side, though, there are some really awesome one page spreads of the main character and some of his foes (one of them being Supreme). There are also a lot of little things that can be found in many of the panels that'll make you chuckle, although some won't.

As for the story... well, that's a little muddled. Basically you have some guy that is working for some organization that has some duty to kill people who have misplaced souls. It's very, very ambiguous. The character of Trencher is very much a rip off of Lobo, which makes this story feel like some writing fan fiction about Lobo, but since it's actually being published the name had to get changed. Each issue consists mostly of Lobo... err, Trencher going up against some type of cyborg or superhuman, with the final issue culminating in Trencher battling some robot/human mish mash Elvis impersonator. I think it was intended to be funny, but it just didn't work too well for me.

You can usually find this series in quarter bins all over and if you want to check out some interesting and unique art, give it a shot. If you're expecting a fleshed out and cohesive story, well, go read something else because you won't find it here.

Ratings
Art: 3.75
Story: 2.25
Overall: 3

The Milkman Murders

Ummm..... holy shit was this one dark tale. I felt dirty just reading it, yet I couldn't stop myself from reading more and more of it. This is definitely a tale of horror, but not such horrors as werewolves, zombies, or vampires. No, this is a horror story because it is very possible that there are people actually like this in our world.

This is the story of a mother and her family. She is overweight, has low self-esteem, and covets a normal life like that of the family on her favorite tv show. Her husband verbally and physically abuses her and blames his crappy life on her. Their son is a morbid little bastard who kills the neighborhood residents' pets and disects them for fun. Their daughter is a slut, plain and simple. All in all this is one ugly, disfunctional family, yet I can see how there are families like this out there today, possibly even one of my neighbors.

As the story progresses, you see each family member's lifestyle and how it leaves them feeling incomplete. This incompleteness only adds fuel to their self-destructive fire. The father snorts coke just to feel normal. The son becomes more visceral in his animal mutilation. The daughter starts sleeping with her gym teacher. All the while the mother watches and loathes her life. The pointlessness and hopelessness of thier lives hits you like a ton of bricks. I felt myself awash in emotions of hopelessness myself as I turned each page, wondering how far it could go.

It only gets worse as time goes on until the mother snaps. All of the time she's spent living in her own personal hell, she's built up a rage that is almost palatable and as she acts out upon it, instead of feeling sorry for what she does to her family, you'll feel that justice is being served.

Accompanying such a dark story is an art style that I initially thought wouldn't fit. It's very cartoony and non-proportionate, but the coloring style really helps to keep the story feeling dark instead of cartoony.

Really, anyone who wants as close to a first hand experience as possible to being a part of a horribly disfunctional family without actually having to be in one should read this. If you're also looking for a good, non-traditional horror tale, this comes with my highest recommendation!

Ratings
Art: 3.5
Story: 4
Overall: 4

Witchfinder

Towards the end of the 90's Image was finally starting to find their own niche after their intial line of superhero and titilation titles bottomed out. They started to open up to many new projects that were off of the beaten path in the hopes that they'd hit some new markets. Witchfinder was a 3 issue miniseries from 1999 that probably went unnoticed by most of the comic readers of the time, which is really a shame because it's a thoroughly enjoyable, if not formulaic, read.

The story starts with our main character, the Witchfinder, hunting down a witch. We also learn that he's a witchfinder because his brother was killed by witches and when they killed him, they also left the Witchfinder with mystical scars which play a role in the story later on.

As he's hunting down the witches for the head witchfinder of the town, he sees that what they are doing is wrong. They were killing innocents along with witches just to exercise their power. Not being able to continue letting innocents die, he saves one of the suspected witches and in the process his scars are revealed which, of course, leads to him being branded a witch himself.

As the story progresses we find that the Witchfinder has magical powers himself that he is afraid to use. The remainder of the story deals with his struggling to accept that witches might not all be evil and his quest to make right the wrongdoings of the head witchfinder of the town. It's at this point that the story becomes somewhat formulaic as the Witchfinder is simply on a revenge quest, but it is written quite competently.

The art in this series is very good as well. I was impressed by the detail in many of the splash pages, but unfortunately this detail doesn't carry over to all of the panels. Some felt like they were rough drafts or left partially unfinished, but those splash pages... man, they sure were pretty! It looked a lot like most Top Cow comics would look, which could be good or bad. Personally, I like the art in most Top Cow comics, but some people detest it.

So, anyhow, if you can find this series anywhere it would be a sound purchase and read. I managed to grab all three issues from a $0.50 box, so it was definitely worth my money!

Ratings
Art: 4
Story: 3.75
Overall: 3.75

Conan 1 - 7

With all the hype surrounding this series after the $.25 #0 issue I decided I should pick this series up. Besides, I wanted to branch out a little beyond the usual Marvel and DC titles that I regularly pick up. So, is this iteration of Conan worth the hype? Hell's yeah!

Interestingly enough, I usually talk mostly about a series' story most and touch on the art just a little bit, but this time I'm going to gush to you my love for the art in this book. Nord makes this series a wonder to look at. The pencils are done very crisply, but what really makes each panel stand out is the coloring. The color palette suits this dark and bloody tale perfectly. When I'm reading a story about a noble barbarian who is lopping the heads off of the people who attack him in a berserker rage, I don't want a bunch of pastels, I want muted and dark color tones with rough, angular pencils, which is exactly what you'll find, and in great detail I might add.

Now after gawking at the art every issue, I found I also enjoyed the story written by Kurt Busiek, but it wasn't anything spectacular. Busiek doesn't seem to write bad stories any more, which is a good thing because I know that whenever I see something with his name on it, I'll probably enjoy it.

The gist of the story is about Conan teaming up with a band of warriors as he is traveling throughout the lands. He, along with those he is traveling with, are captured by a group of immortals and forced to be slaves. With Conan's leadership and help from one of the female slaves, they manage to escape the city of immortals, although Conan is the only one to escape and remain alive.

I like that Busiek is writing Conan as a warrior who also possesses a modicum of intelligence and honor. He's more than simply a big brute with a sword and Busiek acknowledges that in how he writes Conan. I'm very interested to see where Busiek takes Conan next as he has shown with this first arc that he has managed to write the character intelligently. I'm also interested to keep reading simply to continue enjoying Nord's artwork! Dark Horse has a very good series with Conan that has the potential to be a long running, high selling title. Let's hope that the quality of the series doesn't decline as time goes on.

Ratings
Art: 4.75
Story: 4
Overall: 4.5

Marvel: The Lost Generation 12 - 7

I have yet to read anything by John Byrne that has impressed me. It seems like everything he writes (and draws) is simply average. It's never totally bad, but it's never very good either. Before I even delved into this series, I was guessing that the combination of this being a John Byrne project AND it being a high concept project, I was probably in for a whole lot of sucktacular reading. Damn you instincts for being right!

First, here's the concept of this 12 issue maxi-series from Marvel circa 1999: Before the days of the Avengers or the Fantastic Four there was a lost age of Marvel heroes and this series is here to tell their story. It's also told from issue 12 counting down to issue 1 so you get the end of the story first and then work your way back in time. Sound like it could be really, really lame? Well, after the first six issues I can say that so far, yes, it is totally lame.

Apparently all of the heroes and villains from this "lost" age were killed by a Skrull invasion that they managed to stop. They had to sacrifice themselves to save the earth. Frankly, I could care less if they all died choking on popcorn while watching Star Wars. Byrne throws a ton of brand spanking new characters at you and in doing so doesn't have time to give you much information on any of them. After the first few issues I could only remember the name of one character and the powers of a few. All I did really remember is that there were tons of lame superheroes (some being blatant rip-offs of other characters) that formed The First Line (their team name) to protect the US and the world.

Throw into this mix a time traveling woman from the future come back to examine all of this as it happens (the reason for this series to exist, I'm guessing) and you have one big clusterf*ck of a mess. Each issue attempts to be a self-contained story, yet at the same time relate to the overarching plot, but most of the stories just come off as lame and showing little relevance to the big picture.

After six issues I really don't want to keep reading because I honestly have no personal investment into the plot, the characters, or the ugly Byrne pencilled art. This series is a gigantic mistake and waste of time. Thankfully, I picked it up on ebay for less than 10 bucks.

Ratings
Art: 2
Story: 1
Overall: 1.5

District X 1 - 6

Who would have thought that a series about a mutant cop in a town of mutants would be as interesting as this? I didn't. I figured that this would be yet another subpar title that Marvel simply churned out to get X-title completists to shell out more cash. Oddly enough, the first couple of issues really hooked me in that this story was just as much about mutants as it was about forming relationships and being on the beat as an everyday cop.

Bishop may be billed as the main character of this series, but the supporting cast plays just as important of a role. If it wasn't for the interaction between Bishop, Ortega, and Ortega's family, this would not be a title I would stick with. The conversations that you read between the different officers in the precint and between the criminals in the mutant gangs give this title a very grounded feel. As opposed to being all about superheroes slugging it out with each other like most Marvel titles are, this title focused on characters.

The story started off with a bang as you are introduced to the different mutant factions in Mutant Town as well as the different officers of the precinct. Part of the story revolves around Ortega's family, another deals with an internal police coverup, another deals with a mutant whose sweat is an addictive drug, and yet another deals with a mysterious mutant who pops up every now and again.

With all of this going on, the action built up quickly and frantically, but then it peters out in the end. Sadly, this arc ends on a whimper as the conclusion to all that was built up is taken care of in a very weak manner that feels like it was a cop out. Other than that, however, this was a very captivating series that shows a lot of promise.

Ratings:
Art: 3.5
Story: 3.75
Overall: 3.75

Batman: Fortunate Son

Let's get this out of the way now: this is easily one of the worst Batman stories I have ever read (it ranks up there in suckdom right alongside the City of Light mini). I cringed as I read almost every page because it wallowed in so much crap.

Gerard Jones attempts to tell a story of a rock star that has captivated the world over and use it as a critique on how rock music is bad. Rock music breeds violence. Rock music makes people unhappy. Rock music is for stupid people. Rock music will drive you crazy. Jones hammers the reader over the head so hard with his heavy-handed treatment of rock music that I've got a lump the size of a guitar.

So apparently a rock star who is close to becoming washed up goes crazy, blows up a music video showing, and then treks across America while hallucinating about his musical heroes. While this is happening Batman and Robin bicker about music. Batman thinks rock is bad and Robin thinks it is good. They fight and whine and eventually Robin teams up with the rock star's bassist thinking he can save Isaac (the rock star). He eventually learns that it's all just a plan by a bigwig record label executive to make Isaac immortal in musical circles. Robin realizes he's wrong and helps Batman bring down the exec.

Now not only is the story pretty lame and heavy-handed, but the dialogue is atrocious and the lyrics to Isaac's songs feel like they were written by a 7th grade music student slapping together an assignment a couple of minutes before class. One of the songs revolves around Isaac not getting what he ordered at a fast food joint. Really, I'm not making this up.

The only bright spot in this graphic novel is the above average art of Gene Ha. If it wasn't for the pretty depictions of the characters, this would have been a complete and utter failure. One thing that I didn't like about Ha's art, however, is how he drew the Batmobile and the Batplane. They both looked like they were from the 23rd century and made by aliens.

If you want to read what a Batman story should not be like, then throw away $15 on this. Fortunately I got it at a convention for only $4.

Ratings
Art: 3.5
Story: 1
Overall: 1.25

Dark Wolf

Ugghh... there's a reason why some comics never make it to the big publishers and are published by independents instead, and that's because they suck. This 4 issue mini is a perfect example of a horribly generic indie title.

So there's this priest who turns into a generic "dark wolf" superhero and fights a league of devil worshipers. The only way to kill the devil worshipers is to rip out their hearts, so that's what Dark Wolf does. These devil worshipers fight back by hiring some mercenaries that have superpowers (but you don't know exactly what they are or why they have them). Dark Wolf obviously kicks their collective asses.

In the middle of the story we find out Dark Wolf's origin. Apparently he's the reincarnated spirit of a werewolf from 1000 years ago that sacrificed his life for a girl he loved. The spirit has swore revenge on those who killed her, the satan worshipers.

Ok, in the end it turns out that the satan worshipers have superpowers too (well, they shoot "beams" out of their hands, and again it's not explained at all) so Dark Wolf has to fight them and then take on their leader. The climactic battle between Abraxis, the head devil worshiper and Dark Wolf takes all of two pages and is as anti-climactic as you can imagine. It ends with an explosion that kills everything in area... except Dark Wolf. Why? Who knows.

All in all, a terrible black and white indie title put out by Malibu from 1987. The art was passable, however, so it isn't completely a waste... I suppose.

Ratings
Art: 3
Story: 1.5
Overall: 1.75

Empire

If you're at all like me, you've probably wondered what it would be like if, for once, the bad guys actually came out on top. With Empire you get the chance to see what that might be like. Instead of heroes protecting the world, you'll be treated to Golgoth and his merry band of mercenaries ruling the world with an iron grip. Come on, you know you've always sympathized with the villains. Why can't they win once? This series shows you why.

After hearing all of the good things that people have had to say about this series, I thought it would grab me right away, but it didn't. In fact, I found the first couple of issues to be rather... blah. They laid the groundwork for the rest of the series, but I just wasn't impressed. So there's some evil badasses that rule the world. Whoop-dee-do. I wasn't impressed...... until I got a little ways into the story.

Once you know the cast of characters, however, Waid dove into the interweavings of what it would be like to have to be ruled by a despot. Golgoth keeps people loyal through addiction. He feeds them a drug that enhances their skills and is horribly addictive. When someone stumbles upon the secret of where this drug comes from, however, the subterfuge begins.

The constant back-stabbing, misdirection, and cut-throat dealings are what makes this miniseries as interesting as it is. Well, that and that art is pretty darn good too. I think it might be a little too colorful for this series, but it still was plenty graphic and conveyed the sheer evil of some of the characters very well.

So, if you want to read about bad guys beating up on everyone that is good, while constantly infighting with themselves, then this is definitely a title for you.

Ratings:
Art: 3.75
Story: 4
Overall: 4

Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury DVD

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know it's not a comic book, but to me anime is pretty much a comic book put into motion. It's in the same ballpark so I thought I'd write about it here anyways (besides, most of the people I know who read comics also watch anime).

I've seen both Pitch Black and Chronicles of Riddick, so I'm versed in the world of Riddick, but even for anyone not familiar with the character, this short 35 minute anime feature could still be enjoyable. I found the story to be interesting, the animation to be superb, and the voicing to be wonderful.

The story picks up a little while after Pitch Black ended. Riddick's ship has been captured by a gigantic merc ship. After being captured, Riddick is attacked by mercs and captured. The battle scene is pretty well choreographed with some visceral action. The middle part of this story is somewhat bland as Riddick is simply talked to by the lead merc. There is then a very interesting battle between Riddick and a couple of alien baddies. Then there's some hallway running followed by the final showdown between Riddick and the head merc's right hand man.

Well, on second thought, maybe the story wasn't all that good, but damn if it didn't have some wonderful action scenes. The animation was fluid and eye-catching, packing quite the visual punch. This isn't your average Saturday morning caliber animation, this is they type of animation you'd see in a full length, big budget anime film.

The voices were actually done by the cast members. Vin Diesel reprises his role as Riddick, doing a wonderful job growling and simply sounding bad-ass. It gave this little feature the feel of the two movies and helped make it feel like it really did tie into the universe created by the movies.

The only drawback is that the feature is only a little over a half hour long. It's good, but that isn't a whole lot of content. It's easily worth a rental, though!

Ratings:
Animation: 4.5
Story: 2.5
Overall: 4

New X-Men 1 - 6

Picking up where the second volume of New Mutants left off, these first issues of New X-Men detail the adventures of two new teams of mutants, the New Mutants and the Hellions. The thing that most obviously stands out to me after reading this arc is that there's a whole crapload of characters to keep track of.

In these six issues you're introduced to the six members of the New Mutants, the six members of the Hellions, along with the four faculty that watch over the students. Six issues in and I'm still unclear about keeping all of the characters straight.

Barring the sheer amount of characters presented here, this arc is a pretty good superheroes in school series geared towards the teen crowd. I think that this title could resonate very well with many teenage comic book readers as it deals a lot with the relationships of the students. Some of the situations you can tell are pretty blatantly set up to get a point across (like having two completely dissimilar students room together so they can learn tolerance).

As for the plot of this arc, there seems to be a lot of different things going on all at once. It starts off by the students getting acclimated to their surroundings and knowing each other, then it meanders into a team vs. team competition, then the FBI is added and a murder case takes center stage before the story reverts back to a team vs. team battle, etc. I guess it just felt like these issues lacked an overall focus, but in doing so it felt less like one of Marvel's standard six issue arcs and more free flowing. Still, I'd have liked to have seen a little more focus in this title.

Ratings:
Art: 3
Story: 3
Overall: 3

The Establishment 8 - 13

This is the second half of the Wildstorm series from 2001. After reading the first 7 issues, I was hoping that they'd actually touch on the origin of some of the characters, and of the organization as a whole, in these issues. Fortunately, they do, and it helps to flesh out the team a little bit, but as I feared it is simply a case of "too little, too late".

Even though the first couple of issues of this arc went over the origins of some of the team members, none of their stories really were that engaging. The only one that I found moderately amusing was for the Pharmacist. He was a super genius, got a brain tumor, died, and then was brought back to life as some super being controlled by some god-type thing (yeah, it gets pretty muddled, but I'm guessing regular Wildstorm readers would know what was going on).

I just felt like I was missing something as I was reading each issue, like I was that guy who walks up to a group of people having a conversation and thinking I can pick it up right in the middle. Sure, I might understand what they're talking about for the most part, but whenever they reference something I'd missed, I feel left out. That's exactly how this series felt all the way through.

I'm torn about how to rate this series because I'm sure it would be a lot better if I had more contextual information, but as it stands, I was pretty uninterested in whatever super-demon or whatnot that the Establishment was fighting from issue to issue. Oh, yeah, one last thing. In one of the later issues there's some nun with guns introduced and you're not really told why she's there or what her deal is, but all of the sudden a gun toting nun takes center stage. I think it was at that point I just threw my hands up and said "Whatever, I'm obviously out of the loop."

Ratings:
Art: 3.5
Story: 2.5
Overall: 2.5

Bad Mojo

I thought it was appropriate that I read something such as Bad Mojo on Halloween. Since I didn't go out, I wanted to read something scary, but not from IDW :-) For some reason IDW's horror titles have been ok, but not spectacular. Anyhow, William Harms brings us a story of 3 men dealing with a witch's curse that was put on one of them.

The curse makes it so that one of the men dies during daylight but comes back to life at night. It's an interesting premise, but the whole tale doesn't really go anywhere. The story constantly switches back and forth between the present time and one week past, which doesn't detract from the story, per se, but only the scenes from a week past gel together into a cohesive section of plot. The present day narrative leaves a lot of stuff open and many different things feel thrown in just for the heck of it.

The other thing that didn't work for me was the ending--there isn't much of one. You're left thinking "that's it?" I didn't feel any closure whatsoever when I turned the last page over and no matter how good a story you have, if the ending sucks, then it really hurts the story as a whole.

The art, on the other hand, is quite good. It takes on a very realistic style and there is plenty of detail given with the gray shaded black and white art. If it wasn't for the wonderful art of this graphic novel, I feel it would have been a real waste.

Ratings:
Art: 3.75
Story: 3
Overall: 3

The Establishment 1 - 7

These seven issues make up the first half of this Wildstorm series from 2001. It wasn't a direct spin-off from the Authority, but it definitely feels weighed down by a shared continuity with other titles. Since I'd never read the Authority, or many other Wildstorm titles for that matter, I felt like I was missing out on all this series had to offer. There seemed to be many references to other things going on in Wildstorm continuity, none of them playing a central role, but enough that it detracted from the story as a whole.

Another problem that I had with these seven issues is that I never really felt like I knew any of the characters or that I could really connect with them. The majority of the two story arcs in these issues focused on bringing the members of the Establishment into play and then sending them off against a horde of Deamonites and then a group of aliens from Venus. The members of the group each had their own special powers, but it wasn't ever really explained why they had the powers they did, what their reasons for being on the team were, how they got to know each other, or why they were operating in the way they were. The reader was just expected to take for granted that there were answers to all of those questions, but they simply weren't explained yet.

Even though the characters were hard to relate to, the stories were very action packed and kept me turning the pages to see what was next. The dialogue was written in a very realistic tone, so this didn't feel like one of the standard Marvle or DC superhero books, but from what I've heard from people most of the Wildstorm universe is written in this grounded tone.

As it stands, these two story arcs feel unfulfilling and leaves a reader not versed in the Wildstorm universe somewhat lost. Hopefully many of the questions I raised above will be touched on in the second half of the series, but even if they are it seems like it might be a case of "too little, too late". Wildstorm fans, you might enjoy this one more than I did, so take what I wrote with a grain of salt.

Ratings:
Art: 3.75
Story: 2.75
Overall: 3

Superman: Secret Identity

Superman is one of those characters that you'd think has had every possible story about him told in 10 different ways simply because he's been around so long and been written about so heavily. Superman is also one of those characters that I never really thought about much until I met my girlfriend. It turned out that she was a big fan, even having a Superman tatoo (she was more of a fan of the movies than the comics, but that's beside the point). Because of her, Superman has taken to the forefront of my collection, along with Batman and the plethora of X-titles I have. It is also because of her that this story seems so... special.

Secret Identity, written by Kurt Busiek, tells the tale of a boy named Clark Kent. He is an outcast, made fun of, and constantly hating his name. You see, he's just a normal kid who was unluckily named after a comic book superhero by his parents. The first issue deals with this topic very well. I empathized and related a lot to the constant abuse Clark took in his high school, being something of a social pariah for most of my high school career. Something happens one day, though, that changes Clark's life, changes it in a way he had only dreamed about--he's developed the powers of Superman to become the world's first superhero.

The next chapter deals with his struggle to keep his secret, yet exercise his powers to do good. Of course the government would want someone like him for their own use. Clark's constant battle is complicated by meeting, oddly enough, a woman named Lois. On their initial date, she storms off knowing it was set up in jest, but Clark's subtle charm wins her over. It made me think back to when I first met Kristin and how she almost didn't give me a chance. The way Busiek writes his characters, I can't help but feel a connection with them. They're not just one-sided stereotypes, but instead they have so many little quirks that if you can't relate to them, something is definitely wrong.

As Lois and Clark fall hopelessly in love, Clark divulges his secret hoping that Lois will be accepting. The love shown between the two characters throughout the story is almost palatable. It's such a full, wholesome, and unbelievably trusting relationship that will ring true with anyone who's fallen in love.

As time goes on, Clark and Lois grown older, have children, and experience life just like all of us will over the course of our very own lives. In the way that it's written, it feels like you're reading about your parents or your neighbors or maybe even what you hope your future will be like... except for that small bit about superpowers. Sure, that leads to some interesting plot developments, but for the most part this is a story simply about living life and experiencing love. We only get one shot at this and this wonderfully uplifting tale will fill even the most callous heart with a little joy. I didn't think I'd say it, but the final reflective scenes showing Clark reflecting on his life, his family, and his experiences brought a few tears to my eyes. I never though I'd ever read a comic book of all things that could elicit such an emotional response, but Busiek pulls it of with ease. Read this story. I know you won't regret it.

Ratings:
Art: 4
Story: 5
Overall: 5

Abel

I'm beginning to find that just about anything from Ait/PlanetLar is going to be a good read and Abel is no exception. This story is one of lies and how they guide our lives (and as much is said in the afterward by Rachel Pollack). It's also a story of two boys, their family, and the town they live in. It's also a story of misdirection. It's also really, really good.

The story starts off with a very attention grabbing scene--the two brothers are in a ditch, the older holding a rifle, and a dog is in the opposite ditch. The older brother, who has the rifle shoots the dog while the younger brother watches wide-eyed. The dog, not being quite dead yet, lies helplessly in the ditch as the older brother, Phillip, beats the remaining life out of it before shooting it in the head. The younger brother, John, looks on in horror only to be knocked back to reality by his brother's fist hitting his face.

With my attention fully focused on this story I was glued to to each sequential page as the rest of the story developed. The violent and hate-filled relationships of the brothers is complicated by the fact that the older brother covers up his beating of his brother by claiming his little brother was a hero and beat up a bully.

John doesn't have it all bad as he develops a friendship with an Asian worker, but when his brother finds out about it, he uses this friend of John's as a scapegoat for his own evil deeds. John is caught in the middle, surrounded by lies spun by everyone around him.

I can't recall the last time I read something so ugly, yet so captivating. William Harms has truly created a spectacular tale of a rough childhood of a boy during the time of World War II. This graphic novel comes with the highest recommendation!

Ratings:
Art: 4
Story: 4.5
Overall: 4.25

Batman: War Drums

This trade paperback, War Drums, from DC collects Detective Comics #790-796 and Robin #126-128 and also serves as the prelude to 2004's Bat-title uber crossover, War Games. Whenever a gigantic crossover comes along in any of the big comic families (X-Men, Superman, Avengers, Batman, etc.) I always wait for the trade. I just never liked the concept of buying a bunch of comics I don't usually buy just to get all the parts of a story in one of the titles I read (in this case, Batman). True, this tpb doesn't actually have anything from the Batman core title collected in it, but it acts as a lead-in to War Games, which does use cross into the main Batman title so I picked it up to give it a read.

After reading it, I'm a little torn. I liked some of what was in here, and some of it I didn't. On the good side is Batman and his interactions with the new, female Robin, Spoiler. She has taken up the mantle after Tim decided to quit (I guess it had something to do with his dad not wanting him to, but it's not really explained). Seeing Batman train in a new Robin, especially one so dedicated and containing so much wit, was a real treat.

Another treat was seeing Batman working with a new character named Orpheus to set up a fake criminal organization to fill in where another gang had previously held sway. It's an interesting way to attempt to take care of the crime rate--install a leader that would answer to the Bat directly.

On the bad side is a story about a pop star and her sister's baby and another about some disease monster infecting workers at a waste treatment plant. Neither really held my interest too much. The monster story was only slightly more readable since it contained a nice guest appearance by the Tarantula. The resolution to the monster story was very obvious and just felt kind of lame.

The pop star story seemed very interesting to start, but it just couldn't hold my interest. Besides it not holding my interest, it, along with the rest of the stories, didn't seem to fit together as well as I had hoped. It was quite obvious that these stories only held a cursory connection to each other and DC simply slapped them together to make a tpb that they could sell with all the War Games hype. All in all it wasn't a bad read, but it wasn't that great of one either.

Ratings:
Art: 3.5
Story: 3
Overall: 3

Please Vote (For Comics, Of Course!)

Well, since no one has left a comment on this site yet (you can do so by clicking that little link at the bottom of a post that says "Please Comment"), I thought I'd put up something to vote on over the weekend. Maybe this will get some discussion started in the commments! Anyhow, below is a list of comic series that I have sitting around waiting to read. Let me know which you'd like for me to read next and then review. Now, here are your choices:

• Phantom Jack (Image - 5 issues)
• Marvel: The Lost Generation (Marvel - 12 issues)
• Batman: Fortunate Son (DC - graphic novel)
• Lobo: Unamerican Gladiators (DC - 4 issues)
• The Establishment (DC/Wildstorm - 13 issues)
• Will to Power (Dark Horse - 12 issues)
• Toyboy (Continuity - 7 issue)

Now, vote away!

[Update: Looks like there were only two votes and both were for The Establishment so that looks like the next series to go under my microscope. I've got two other reviews to post on already read stuff and then it's on to The Establishment!]

Magneto Rex

Is it just a rule that when you write the X-men, you have to do it in such a heavy-handed way that it makes readers want to cry? In this little three issue mini, Joe Pruett managed to cram more text in than Claremont does in six issues. I know, that's quite a feat, but he pulls it off wonderfully, which means that in reading this mini I was horribly bored.

This is the story of how Magneto came to be the ruler of Genosha. Turns out it involved lots and lots of dialogue between Magneto, Rogue, Quicksilver, and a couple of Genoshans. I'm not just talking a little more than an average amount of dialogue, I'm talking every pane filled to the brim with dialogue balloons. There's also plenty of caption boxes restating what the art clearly shows and recapping what happened just a few pages previous. I don't know why the captions were so redundant, but they sure as heck drove me crazy.

So, what is the actual plot? Well, the UN turned over Genosha to Magneto, but there's som mutates there that don't want him to take over so they fight against him. Throw in lots of dialogue and a couple of fight scenes and that's basically it. There's some reactions show from news agencies around the world and the occasional page of government officials talking about the UN's move, but most of the story revolves around Magneto fighting off the mutates. Rogue's role in the whole thing is pretty extraneous and totally unnecessary. Quicksilver played a moderately large role, but it was all just set up for the position he takes up at the end of the story.

The art was pretty good. I've enjoyed what Brandon Peterson has done and this is a decent offering from him. I just wish that I got to see more of his art and less dialogue balloons. One drawback to his style, though, is that in this instance Magneto and Quicksilver looked almost identical when it was simply face shots. He needs to work on differentiating facial features.

Well, if you wondered how Magneto became the leader of Genosha, don't waste your time reading this, just know that the UN handed it over to him and he fought off some mutates to solidify his position as ruler. The end.

Ratings:
Art: 3
Story: 2
Overall: 2.25

Weapon X 23-28

These issues make up the end of 2002-2004's iteration of the Weapon X series. Oddly enough, over the last few years this has actually been my favorite of the myriad of X-Men comic book series that are out there (outside of Morrison's New X-Men run). For starters, this series has always been about the bad guys, many of them second tier villains that are not seen very often. Adding to that is the fact that this series was very intelligently written by Frank Tieri and actually payed attention to the continuity of the other X-titles out there (unlike just about every current X-title).

In this six issue run there are two distinct arcs, the first focusing on Wolverine, Fantomex, and Agent Zero. The second is about Sabertooth tracking down Sinister. In the first arc, Wolvie, Fatomex, and Agent Zero are all brought together for some unknown purpose. In coming together, a very important nugget of Wolverine's history is revealed. This information was hinted at in Morrison's New X-Men run, but never revealed. It is here in issue 24 that you find out, so for Wolverine fans, this is an essential issue to have.

The rest of this arc is good, but is left unresolved. No doubt Tieri was going to come back to visit this arc later on, but couldn't as Marvel axed the series. The Tom Mandrake art in this arc, as well as in the second arc, is good, but I really hate how the colors were put down right over his pencils. The lack of inking made it feel like an unfinished comic. Don't get me wrong, Mandrake is a superb penciler, but I would rather see his stuff inked before it is colored.

The second arc was just as enjoyable as the first, but also just as unfinished as the first. Sabertooth is hired by some shady big name company to track down Sinister. In doing so, he throws down on some of Sinister's henchmen and finally confronts the man himself. At this point the leader of the company that hired Sabertooth calls him off in order to talk to Sinister himself. The head of the company, in a surprise reveal, turns out to be another character from Morrison's run (but I'll let you read to find out who). Since the series is over now I can only hope this plotline is picked up and explored in one of the other X-titles as it has a lot of promise.

All in all this was a decent enough close to a wonderful series. Buy the entire series if you can. On their own, though, these issues are good, yet unfulfilling, reads.

Ratings:
Art: 3.5
Story: 3.25
Overall: 3.25

Tellos vol II: Kindred Spirits

Since there was such a cliffhanger in volume I, I had to go pull out volume II of my Tellos collection and see how the story ended. With Kindred Spirits, I was again transported to a magical world with talking animals, magic, and a couple of unlikely heroes who have set out to save the entire realm.

I'm not going to reveal too much about the plot because if you're anything like me, a story like this one with as many different, and sometimes subtle, plot shifts as it has, I wouldn't want any of them revealed to me unless I was reading it myself.

What I can say is that this volume is a lot more of the same in terms of content in comparison to the first volume. Just for clarity's sake, this volume collects the second half of the Tellos comic book series from Image, issues 6-10. In this volume there are less outside adversaries and more intrapersonal relationships fleshed out. Don't worry, there's still plenty of fantasy action, cluminating in the standard "representative of everything good vs. representative of everything bad" battle to end the series.

I found that I didn't enjoy this volume quite as much as the first simply because a few things are left unexplained, probably to be explored elsewhere in some of the Tellos one-shot's that are out there. What really annoyed me most was what happened to the character of Hawke. It's never really explained and just let go. This happens with a couple of other small plot points as well. If it wasn't for these few unresolved threads, I again would have thoroughly enjoyed this volume, but as it is, it was still good reading and would seem appropriate for all ages of readers.

Ratings:
Art: 3.5
Story: 3.25
Overall: 3.5

Tellos vol. I: Reluctant Heroes

Reluctant Heroes collects the first five issues of the Tellos comic book series from Image comics along with the Prelude and Prologue. I originally bought this trade paperback, along with a few other Tellos books for my girlfriend. She really enjoys fantasy styled comics (which there aren't a ton of at the moment since CrossGen folded) and this one looked to be one she could really enjoy because it contained one thing--anthropomorphic animals.

This story is a basic fantasy, hero coming of age story. The main character, Jarek, is a thief who has been living on the run with his friend Koj, a tiger-man. They later meet up with Serra, a pirate ship captain, and two other thieves, Rikk and Hawke (Rikk being a fox-man and Hawke an "ulf" (this realm's version of an elf)). In their quest to find another hero to help in the great battle of good versus evil (like any good fantasy story), they take on water serpents, frog-warriors, and a band of assassins.

As cliched and hokey as the story might sound, Todd Dezago does a good job of writing this tale so that it remains compelling. The art from Mike Wieringo also helps. His style is very cartoony and the bright, pastel colors washed over his pencils gives this story a laid back, fun feel.

The only small drawback to this trade paperback is it doesn't contain the complete story. The end of the book leaves you with a cliffhanger that holds the fate of one of the members in the balance. I know I can't wait to read the next book, so it's a successful application of a cliffhanger, but I didn't like having to go buy another book to get the entire story.

As it is, this is a perfect book for anyone who enjoys light-hearted fantasy. I think it would even work very well for kids too, as none of the themes are too adult and the art style should be appealing to the little ones.

Ratings:
Art: 3.5
Story: 3.75
Overall: 3.75

Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?

With Christopher Reeve's passing, I found that I had a sudden urge to start reading some Superman titles again. Appropriately for the moment, I finally read Alan Moore's Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? This story is supposedly the last Superman story, but in actuality it was simply a filler story to fill the last couple of issues of Superman's titles before John Byrne revamped him. Because of this, I viewed the story as an Elseworlds style of story and with that mindset, I truly enjoyed Moore's story immensely.

It should be pointed out that this story is written in the style of most silver age comic stories, but with a much darker tone. Many of the main Superman staple characters die in this story and it can come off as depressing for anyone who loves Superman and all of the mythos attached to the character, but it was very well suited for a "last" style story.

Appearances are made by almost any big name character from the silver age of Superman including Bizzarro, Luthor, Brainiac, The Legion of Superheroes, Lana Lang, Lois, Jimmy, and even Krypto, among others. If you're unfamiliar with Superman comics, some of these characters might appear foreign to you (the Legion was for me as I've never read anything with the Legion in it) as they aren't fleshed out too greatly beyond their stereotypical features.

What I found that I enjoyed most about this story is the strain that is apparent upon Superman as he tries to protect all of his friends and loved ones from the wrath of the combined power of many of his past enemies. You can feel the stress that he's under as well as the care that he exudes for those around him. Moore writes him perfectly as a man under pressure but determined not to fail.

Legendary artist Curt Swan contributes the art for this story and he captures the mood of Moore's story perfectly while still maintaining a silver age feel. Personally, I have never been too big of a fan of the silver age style of art, but in this case I found that I really appreciated it simply because it made me remember that Superman has a much longer history that I usually remember.

For anyone that is a Superman fan in the least, this story should be required reading. Moore demonstrates perfectly how to write a character that is often very hard to tell a story about because of his immense history and very narrowly defined characteristics.

Ratings:
Art: 3.5
Story: 5
Overall: 4.5

I Miss You, Christopher Reeve

Oddly enough, after attending a comic book convention on Saturday (at which I bought many a Superman comic), the man who will embody the character of Superman in most people's minds, Christopher Reeve, passed away on Sunday. Most of the time I wouldn't pay attention to a celebrity death, but this time it's different. Mr. Reeve wasn't your stereotypical celebrity. Ever since the horse riding accident that paralyzed him, he's been a wonderful example of someone who wouldn't give up.

For me Reeve was a wonderful person. Unlike many, I haven't attached "Superman" to him, but instead thought he was a good actor that portrayed Superman well. What I have always thought of Reeve as is a wonderful, positive human being that has shown many of us how to fight past adversity. I can't imagine how I would react to being paralyzed. Much like he initially did, I probably would have thought about ending it all. A life where only my head could function would be such a hard life, yet he managed to turn his into an inspiration for those like him, as well as many fully functional people who were motivationally paralyzed.

I had such a great admiration for this man, even though I've probably never made a point of expressing it to many people, but just the fact that he's persevered for 9 years, and done so much while being in the condition he was in is simply amazing. For him to be as selfless and positive as he was while enduring such a tragic joke of fate has been a compelling example for me of how I would like to live my life. Whatever the cards that are dealt, make the most of them.

I think about how often I whine or complain when things don't go my way. I have to stay a little longer at work one day. I don't get a run in at night. I have to help clean our basement. I don't like driving to and from work every day. All of these things, and many of the other things I complain about, are all so small in comparison and yet Reeve never seemed to be unhappy, lazy, or whiney. He was always the opposite.

It almost feels like losing a loved one, losing someone who has been an inspiration to you. I've never met him and I don't know him personally, but through his actions he had become some I looked up to. Now in his passing I'm left with an empty feeling. I've never mourned for a celebrity, but somehow I feel like it is appropriate now. If anything is a testament to what a great role model he was, it's knowing that I'll actually miss him.

Werewolf by Night vol. II

I've been a huge Paul Jenkins fan for a while now. He has yet to disappoint me and his work on Sentry and Inhumans are some of my favorite stories of the last few years. Instead of taking superheroes in the more traditional direction, he has always given them a more grounded feel. Werewolf by Night isn't really a superhero tale, but Jenkins still keeps his grounded storytelling tone and also adds a little of the occult.

The story starts off by presenting us with Jack Russell, a man who turns into a werewolf during every full moon. He has hit rock bottom and is living his life simply out of obligation, that is until he is presented with a way to confront the curse of the wolf and possibly control it. With this newfound knowledge, he has a new purpose to living his life.

The first four issues of this six issue series are devoted to his quest to gain control over the curse of the wolf. I was really drawn in to this story as Jack confronts many demons (some person and some actual) on his quest for control. Once he reaches the point where he has wrestled control of his werewolf nature from the demon, it appears that his life is in order. In fact, the entire fifth issue is dedicated solely to him dealing with his newly found "normal" life. This issue was by far my favorite of the series as it explores Jack's friends and why it is they've stuck by him through the thick and thin. It was truly refreshing to see what actually happens after a climactic battle, such as Jack's with the demon that controlled him.

But then there's the sixth issue. I get the feeling, after reading it, that this series was meant to run longer but Marvel pulled the plug on it quite quickly. In the first half of the issue, a new story arc seems to be being set up. There's been gruesome murders in Jack's home city and he's been asked to find the culprit. As he starts his investigation, he goes to a club for the undead where he meets Ghost Rider. It would appear that this was the start of his quest for the killer, but in the last few pages a hackneyed ending is tacked on. Jack, on his way home, sees the full moon and is again turned into a werewolf and kills someone. It turns out he is the killer and the status quo is reset, possibly for future use of the character. It was really a terrible, terrible end to such a strong series start.

If you're going to grab this series, get all of the issues except the sixth. Pretend it ends at issue five and you'll be happy.

As for the art, I was very impressed by Leonardo Manco's heavily inked linework and the muted colors used on top of them. The art was very rough and gritty while remaining very detailed, which suited the story perfectly. I couldn't have really imagined a better artist for this story.

Ratings:
Art: 4
Story: 3.5
Overall: 3.5

Squalor

This little four issue mini is the first batch of comics I've ever read from now defunct publisher First Comics. My first impression after reading through the beautiful 100+ pages of trippy storytelling is that this really felt like a Vertigo title. It could have just as easily been written by Moore, Morrison, or Gaiman. Instead, I was surprised to see it was written by a freelance technical writer by the name of Stefan Petrucha. This gives me hope that someday I can break into the comics writing business as I have now seen someone from my profession jump into the comics writing world (even if said world is from 1989).

Squalor is the tale of a man who has supposedly discovered "A-time". A-time is is our reality minus linear time. Basically it's a neat way of saying that he can jump into the fourth dimension. In the first couple of issues you're left wondering if he is really someone capable of something superhuman or if he's simply crazy. There's notions that lead you to believe both such as the facts that he was previously institutionalized and often talks in rants that have no bearing on reality, yet he can at times know exactly what you are thinking and can predict the immediate future.

The art helps lend to the questioning of Squalor's sanity or superpowers. The best way to describe many of the images would be to simply say that this might have been how Salvador Dali would have made comics if given the chance... and a little more sanity.

There are truly some wonderful images and metaphors to be found throughout this series. One such moment is a series of panels where a gigantic clown, while conversing with Squalor, detaches his head and dives into his neck and upon completely engulfing himself inside of Squalor, the disembodied head reattaches itself and Squalor returns to reality.

The only drawback to the story is the ending. The last issue doesn't contain as many of the odd, crazy moments as the first three and as the pieces start to fall together, the conclusion of the story doesn't seem as creative as the interesting world of "A-time" and Squalor's adventures in craziness in the beginning of the series. However, this series still trumps most current comics in terms of creativity and mental stimulation. In fact, it's series such as this that helps reinforce my belief that there are good comics to be found in all those back issue bins out there. Do yourself a favor and dig this one up and give it a read.

Ratings:
Art: 4
Story: 4
Overall: 4

Spider-Man & X-Factor: Shadowgames

Marvel put out a lot of unneccesary crap in the 90's and this 3 issue mini-series is a prime example of some of that crap. There really is no reason for this series to exist, but I picked it up anyhow because it was written by Kurt Busiek. Yeah, the same Kurt Busiek that's known for NOT writing crap.

The premise of this series is treading on "already done this a thousand times over" territory. A clandestine government organization is trying to make superheroes. To do this, however, they need to kidnap superheroes to sample their DNA (but they can't do it to mutants because their powers are natural). So who do they go for? Spider-Man, of course. They send a group of throwaway mind-controlled prisoners with temporary superpowers after him.

Eventually Spider-Man gets captured, but X-Factor tracks him down and saves him. One of the supervillains, however, decided he should go kill Flash Thompson so Spider-Man runs off after him while X-Factor fights the baddies. There's a bunch of fighting and bad one-liners, but eventually the baddies are knocked out and everything is good again.

The only decent part of this series was the occasional splash page with some decent art by Pat Broderick. Other than these splash pages, however, this titled looked like the majority of Marvel's titles from the 90's.

Ratings:
Art: 2
Story: 2
Overall: 2

X-Men: Lost Tales

I got this little two issue series from 1997 in an ebay lot of an assortment of X-Men issues. I figured that since it was a small two-issue miniseries that there wouldn't be a ton of continuity and whatnot that I'd have to know to read it so I picked them out of my back issue "to read" box and dived in.

It turns out that these two issues collect 8 of the back up stories that were in early issues of the series Classic X-Men (you know, the X-Men series that reprinted older X-Men tales for the next generation to read). Most of these little tales are throwaway short tales, much like what are in the current X-Men Unlimited series. There were a few gems, but there were also a few that didn't work out so well.

The main reason that some of the tales didn't work? Chris Claremont. He wrote all of these little stories and a couple happened to be steeped in the continuity of the stories that were being told in the Classic X-Men issue that it was originally printed in. One such tale deals with the ramifications of Thunderbird's death and another deals with Nightcrawler saving some girl I'd never heard of before, but obviously meant something to him.

There are a few tales that actually are fun, however, one of them being a little ditty about Mesmero using the power of the Phoenix (via Jean Grey) to control the X-Men. He then has the X-Men fight Wolverine, but no one kills each other so Mesmero gets bored and decides to just let them go back to being uncontrolled...... but first, however, he makes them acts in a circus. I really enjoyed that.

There are actually two tales that involve Colossus. In one he falls in love until his love finds out he is a mutant. Nothing new here as Claremont has used this plot over and over again. The second tale, which is somewhat related to the first, is much more interesting. In this one, Colossus is still moping around because his love left him, but in the middle of his moping he saves some women from a tyranasaurus rex (oh yeah, this is taking place in the Savage Land). One of them dies, however, and to celebrate her passing on two of the other women in the tribe want to get pregnant, to start new life after their loss of life. Let's just say that it's pretty obvious from the implications at the end of the story that Colossus has a threesome with two Savage Land chicks. That a boy!

All in all, I was entertained by about half the stories and the other half were retreads of previous plotlines or were just kind of boring. It might be worth it to find these, however, just to read the two tales I described above.

Ratings:
Art: 2.5
Story: 3.5
Overall: 3

Firearm 12-18

This set of seven issues consist of the final arc of the Firearm series. These final seven issues are also one long story arc (which actually spans into some issues of Prime, Freex, and Nightman as well) as opposed to most of the rest of the series which were usually "done in one" or low issue count stories.

Simply put, this arc has been one of the better arcs I've read in quite a while. It hasn't been since, well, the last group of Firearm issues that I've been so impressed. In this arc, Alec Swan (Firearm) is hired to find the killer of a rich woman's son. It turns out that this child was an ultra. Along with this child, many other ultras have recently been killed. They have been killed by a man named Rafferty. Spanning these seven issues, you'll see the story presented not only from Alec's usual first person perspective, but you'll also have one complete issue along with sections of other issues being told from Rafferty's perspective. This leads to a very engrossing storyline.

This entire arc reminded me very strongly of the anime Cowboy Bebop's final couple of episodes where it was strictly antagonist vs. protagonist and there was nothing gray about it. Rafferty is an evil ultra killer and Alec is the man who has set out to stop him. The climactic showdown between the two, taking place in a church, has a very epic feel to it in that these two characters have developed so much story between them in the preceding issues and it was all coming to a head. Amazing stuff.

The only real drawback is that it crossed over into issues of other Malibu series so you had to fill in a few of the blanks yourself if you didn't read those issues. Other than that, you simply can't go wrong by picking up this story arc.

Ratings:
Art: 3.5
Story: 4.5
Overall: 4.25