Sigil 8 - 14

After the mildly disappointing first arc, I found this 7 issue run much more enjoyable. We learn a little more about all of the characters, which was something that was lacking in the first arc. All we knew then was that Sam had a sigil and was in the army. Roi was a living hologram. JeMerick was slightly superpowered but you didn't know exactly to what extent or why. Zanni was a runaway wife of a sultan. Loser was the enemy lizard foe. That was it. The story took center stage over any real character development. Each character, throughout this arc, however is given a little more depth.

Besides there being a further emphasis on characters, the plot also moves along nicely, setting the stage for a showdown between Sam & the human military and the Saurian forces. After returning to Delassia, Zanni's home planet, the sultan and the Saurians find out that the humans know of the sultan's dealings. Along with this, Sam with the help of Roi, crafts a new starship drive from the spaceship that Sam managed to secure from one of The First. These combined facts lead to a major skirmish above Delassia where Sam, using his sigil granted powers, staves off most of the attack. While taking the new drive back to Gaia, Sam is appointed as leader of the human earth forces as they prepare to assault the Saurians.

Now in the character development department, Kessel and later Waid, bring about a lot of growth. It turns out that Zanni wasn't just a wife of the sultan--she was planted there in order to spy on the sultan's underhanded dealings with the Saurians. She is also falling for Sam, who in turn has fallen for her. It's nice to see some romance in the middle of a galactic war, isn't it? Roi's body is destroyed so she is forced to be a living hologram for good... or so it seems. JeMerick's powers are explored a little further and it is hinted at that he might possibly be a sigil bearer himself. Sam's military history is explored and it is shown why he has such disdain for some members of the military and vice versa. Loser, in being disgraced by his defeat at Sam's hands, is removed from the royal family line. His mentor, at the same time, is give superpowers (possibly a sigil) that make him crazy. Loser, seeing his mentor kill his family line in front of his eyes, turns to Sam for help.

As you can see, a lot happens in this arc, and it all unfolds rather well and keep me engaged throughout. The trasition from Kessel writing to Waid writing was very transparent to the reader and I wouldn't have known there was a writing change if I hadn't read the credits. The art hasn't changed at all from the first arc. It's still a very manga inspired style with very bright colors that is appealing, but at the same time can be a little too much. All in all, this arc makes up for some of the disappointment of the first and I will hope that the upward trend of gaining quality continues into the next set of issues.

Ratings
Art: 3.25
Story: 3.75
Overall: 3.5

Losers 16-19

Let's get this out of the way now, Andy Diggle writes action like you'd see in an intelligent Jerry Bruckheimer movie. Not that there is such a thing as an intelligent Bruckheimer movie, but I think it makes my point. Throughout his run writing The Losers, Diggle has given us action scene after action scene and managed to tie them all nicely together with a plot that wasn't too dumb to make any cogent sense or too complicated to turn away readers. Up until this arc, however, the motivation behind the Losers actions were only slightly touched upon. We know that they were presumed killed in action and that there is some type of shadow organization within the US government that they want to take down, but beyond that there isn't a whole lot we know about the Losers motivations.

This arc finally reveals the motivation driving the Losers. All four issues are a flashback of the mission where the Losers were "killed" as it is being told to Aisha. It's interesting to see Roque back in the mix as a good guy instead of the betrayer he turned out to be in the Goliath arc. What you don't get, however, is any Aisha time since she was not a member of the Losers back then. Since she's one of the more interesting characters, I was a little disappointed by that fact, but it doesn't really hurt the story at all.

The Losers were sent on a top secret mission to laser designate a target in the Middle East where a terrorist was supposedly in hiding. In the process of completing this mission, the Losers recieve intell from Max (for those of you who have been reading this series from the beginning, this is an important fact) on where their target will be. After they find their target, and as they prepare to call in an air strike on the location, a group of child slaves are seen to be in the compound's vacinity. Showing that they possess a conscience, the Losers take it upon themselves to save the children before they have the compound destroyed.

While they are doing that, you are treated to Diggle's pre-requisite action scenes which are drawn decently enough by Jock. His style, however, doesn't excactly fit very well with the coloring scheme of these issues. Other than the odd coloring, Jock turns in another good run of low detail, yet expressive and angular work.

Not wanting to give anything away, let's just say the crap hits the fan after the Losers manage to rescue the slave children and you see how it is possible that they would be thought to have died on that mission. After the story is finished, there is also a big reveal from Aisha that involves the flashback mission, which could lead to some interesting interplay with the rest of the team in the future.

As a jumping on point, this arc works perfectly as it clearly defines the Losers' origin. For readers that have been with it from the beginning, these issues are a well deserved payoff. You simply can't find a better straight up action title out there right now, so do yourself a favor and drop one of the X-titles you're getting each month and start picking up The Losers.

Ratings
Art: 3
Story: 4.25
Overall: 4

Sigil 1 - 7

In Crossgen's heyday, you'd hear so much online talk and even talk in some of the comic shops about how awesome this new publisher was. They were tapping new genres. Each title was beautiful to look at. Their little interconnected universe was something to behold. Even after hearing all the positive talk, I never could bring myself to dive in, mainly because I didn't want to pick up a series right in the middle of a run (yeah, I'm one of THOSE people). After a while I finally gave in, though, and picked up a few issues here and there, but I never read them. I was waiting to finish their runs before I started. Then Crossgen collapsed and I found I could pick up the tpb's on Amazon for dirt cheap (like $2 a pop) and the actual comics at conventions for $1 a pop or less. Well, Sigil was the first series that I completed and I'm now making my first venture into the world of Crossgen.

I was actually pretty stoked to read Sigil since I'm a huge sci-fi nut and I really think that sci-fi is an overlooked genre in comics at the moment. After I got about halfway through this first arc (which I have in tpb form), I was wondering when I was going to start being impressed. Kessel was writing a decent story, but I wasn't drawn in and I had a hard time feeling a connection to the characters. One of the things that might have led to this feeling is the art.

As pretty as the art by the Lai brothers is, it's really hard to differentiate characters. Their style made both of the male leads look almost completely the same so I had a hard time figuring out which one was doing which and whatnot. It got a little easier to differentiate the two once Sam received his Sigil, but they were both still drawn somewhat similar. The renderings of the starships were also nothing special. They felt like very generic styles and I felt no attraction to them. Beyond these things, I found the art easy on the eyes and very manga influenced (so if you are not a fan of the manga look... well, you might want to pass over this arc).

Like I said before, the story was nothing too special. You're introduced to the characters, get a little glimpse into their personalities, and then watch a rescue mission unfold over the course of four issues. There's some great action scenes and plenty of sci-fi trappings to keep sci-fi nuts happy, but I was underwhelmed, especially after so much praise for the CG universe and this title itself. It's not terrible, no. It kept my interest and I'm still anxious to continue reading the series, but I don't think it lived up to its potential, or at least it hasn't yet.

Ratings
Art: 3
Story: 3
Overall: 3

Scratch

Sam Kieth, 99% of the time, can do no wrong by me. His truly unique artistic style and unusually odd storytelling can hardly be matched by any other artist/writer in the medium. Any time a new Kieth project is announced or comes out, I'm intrigued. When Scratch was first solicited, I couldn't wait for it to come out. Kieth writing and drawing a tale about a boy werewolf in a small village--cool. Appearance by Batman--not as cool, but still might be ok. Listed in the Batman section of Previews--really not cool. No matter, though, as it was a Kieth 5 issue mini, and I would be onboard even if they solicited it in the Johnny DC section. Side note, attaching Sam Kieth to a Johnny DC title would be pretty sweet. I can't even begin to imagine his take on the Powerpuff Girls!

So I wait until I have all five issues on hand before I dive in. It opens with a narrative from Batman, which is completely unneccesary, but a few pages later the reals story shows up. A boy develops the powers of a werewolf and fearing it will ruin his relationship with his family, he runs away. He is eventually found by a trio of other freaks and moves in with them.

As time passes, a plot about a missing girl takes center stage while subplots concerning Scratch's relationship with Sage and the discovery of an underground cave full of deformed children also develop. Eventually, the story reaches its climax in the closing of the fourth issue where it appears Scratch will have to fight a group of villagers intent upon killing him and the other freaks... that is until issue five opens and Batman suddenly reappears and tries to talk some sense into the villagers. When that doesn't work, Batman & Scratch are forced to fight the villagers while the other freaks run away. Scratch also runs away in the end and you're left with Batman pontificating over whether Scratch and the freaks will be heard from again.

The ending felt horrible contorted and the addition of Batman took away all of the steam the story had gathered in the first four issues. The resolution also felt forced and rushed. There were also some other things throughout the series that made the story seem like it was a rush job, or like there was very little oversight. In one scene the freaks find a pair of shoes that belong to a missing child. Zack comments something like, "Look--it's one of the girl's shoes, I wonder where the other one is?" There are obviously two shoes there, but the story needed to have one of the villagers hiding one of the two shoes later on, so this scene was laughable in how the art was completely different than what the dialogue said it was.

Anyhow, the story was very lackluster, felt very rushed, and didn't seem very well thought out. The art, on the other hand, is classic distorted Kieth and I loved every panel of every page. The art, even when it didn't match what the story called for, was a treat for my eyes and helped me to justify spending my hard earned money on this. Kieth fans, pick this up. Anyone else, just let it fade away into the realm of unneeded and unneccesary miniseries.

Ratings
Art: 4.75
Story: 2
Overall: 3.5

Tellos: Maiden Voyage

The more I read from Dezago's Tellos universe, the more I like it. The characters are all likeable, the tales are fun little fantasy romps, there's enough interconnectedness between stories to make fans happy yet it's not continuity laden, it's all ages and still fun (which is very hard to pull off), and you get to read about talking animals. How could anyone not love all that is Tellos? Well, I suppose a satanic, drug-dealing, reality tv watching, Marvel zombie might not enjoy it, but I don't think that there are too many of those types out there... or are there?

Anyways, this one-shot tells three different stories--2 of them in the traditional comics medium and the third is a short prose story with a couple of small illustrations. The first story deals with how Serra first came to be a pirate. Originally she was to be wed to a prince of a neighboring nation, but as the ship she was being transported on ran upon rough times, Serra won the hearts of the men and they wouldn't let her be wed away when she didn't wish to be. This tale is pretty much a retelling of the section of the Odyssey where Odysseus and his men encounter the Sirens, except in this here Tellos universe Serra saves the day by turning the Sirens against each other by asking to be executed by the prettiest one.

The second story is a cute, little one about Koj and Jarek's encounter with some forest fairies. Since they don't pay the toll for passing through the woods, the fairies steal Koj and Jarek's clothes. To get them back, Koj (the tiger-man) uses his tail to fool the fairies into thinking a snake was going to attack them. It was a fun, short tale that was drawn by a quadrapalegic who goes by the name "thor". He drew the entire thing with a paintbrush in his mouth. I was amazed! The art was on par with many current indie comics and way better than I could ever do with my hands!

The prose tale recounts Serra and Rik spending a day together after Serra's boyfriend (who was also Rik's thieving partner) had died. Eventually their day of mourning turns into a bar fight, which leads to a bonding between Serra and Rik--a first since before that time they had never much liked each other.

All in all, for the $6 this one-shot cost, it's worth the money. You'll enjoy it if you're a kid, if you're a teenager, if you're an adult, or even if you're retirement age. Somehow Dezago has the talent to create stories that can be appreciated and enjoyed by all age groups.

Ratings
Art: 3.75
Story: 4
Overall: 4

Watchmen

What can I possibly say about this title that hasn't already been said by someone else, or a hundred someone elses for that matter. If you're a comic book fan and you haven't heard of Watchmen by Gibbons and Moore, then you might want to go out and buy the trade paperback and read it asap before someone finds out you haven't. I know I went long enough without reading it. In the 15 or so years I've been reading and collecting comics I had neglected this classic, but over the past two weeks I rectified that oversight and thank God I did.

Arguably, this is one of the most influential and well known comics ever created. It is also arguably Moore's crowning achievement in the comics medium. I would have to agree with both of these statements. Before the creation of this 12 issue maxi-series from DC, superheroes were never written very seriously. For the most part, any comic containing a superhero would consist of characters in spandex beating up villains in spandex and then going about their merry way. Watchmen introduced the comic reading populace to gritty, realistic superheroes and a world on the brink of obliteration.

The lines between villain and hero were blurred. The great responsibility that supposedly comes with great power had it's limits tested. How far would you go with your superpowers to save the human race? Would you willingly sacrifice and kill so many people to save an even greater number? How much power is too much power? What happens to superheroes after they can no longer participate in their crime fighting. Is a hero necessarily a hero? Each human life is a small miracle of cosmic proportions, yet we rarely realize it.

There are so many other topics touched upon and explored throughout this very dense story that I can't possibly expound upon them all successfully. Besides touching upon so many deep topics, I was amazed at the depth of coverage they were given. This is truly a very dense story--not dense in that it is hard to get in to or relate to, but dense in that there is an unbelievable wealth of information and story contained within the twelve issues of this series (or the trade paperback). This is something you don't see in modern comics. If you open up an average issue of X-Men or Superman off of the racks today, you can finish it in 10 minutes tops. With Watchmen I found myself taking a half an hour to an hour with each issue so that I could properly digest all that was contained within it. So if you've been wondering why I haven't reviewed much lately, no you know--I've been dedicating myself to giving Watchmen the time it needs for a thorough understanding.

I don't really know what more to say other than go buy the trade as soon as you can if you haven't read it and even if you have read it in the past, give it another look. You might find something you missed the last time you read it.

Ratings
Art: 3.5
Story: 5
Overall: 5

X-Men 161 - 165

So why is it again that I waste my money on Austen written X-titles? Oh yeah, because I'm an X-whore. I wish I could somehow break myself of the attachment I have to the X-Men because it would save me a ton of money every month, but alas I just can't bring myself to quit buying them. I always figure that when a title starts it'll get better with time. I kept thinking that throughout the entire Austen tenure and it never got better... ever.

In this series of issues, the Brotherhood of Mutants returns to attempt to destroy the X-Men. Why? Well... Austen doesn't really give them any motivation. I guess we're supposed to assume that the Brotherhood just doesn't like the X-Men and always want to kill them for no other reason than that's their purpose. So the Brotherhood is back together with a couple new members. The first new member is Nocturne, on of the members of the Exiles who is now stuck in the normal Marvel U. Another new member is Mammomax, an elephant man. An elephant man? How unbelievably lame. There's also Exodus, one of Magneto's disciples and a revamped Black Tom Cassidy. Apparently, Black Tom doesn't just control wood anymore, he is wood, a tree in fact.

In the process of the Brotherhood's lame-ass assault on the mansion, Sammy the fish boy, is killed. Does anyone care? He was one of the dumbest characters that Austen created on his X-Men tenure. We are also supposed to believe that Juggernaut is giving back into his evil nature, but Austen telegraphs Juggie's fake allegience to the Brotherhood so it never creates any tension or ambiguity in Juggernaut's nature.

Issues 163 & 164 are almost completely gratuitous fighting while 165 is a special holiday issue written by Chris Claremont. The holiday issue would be completely unfulfilling for anyone not already reading all the other X-titles. He includes members from all of the X-titles including New X-Men: Academy X, which I don't think a lot of X-readers are getting right now. Claremont doesn't tell the reader who most of the unfamiliar faces are and just assumes everyone should know who they are.

In spite of the tremendously aweful stories written by Austen and Claremont, Larroca continues to draw some very appealing X-Men. I like Larroca's style for the most part--it's sleek, easy on the eyes, and isn't covered up too much by excessive inking. If not for the art, these issues would have no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Thank God that this arc makes up the end of Austen's run.

Ratings
Art: 3.5
Story: 1
Overall: 1.25

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Spectacular Spider-Man 21 & 22

For almost the entirety of this series run, I've been disappointed by the majority of the storytelling. The intial arcs where Spidey took on Venom and Doc Ock were readable, but really came down to being throwaway tales. Then there was the arc that was supposed to be tied into Avengers: Disassembled, but really didn't have much to do with it at all. In this arc Spidey turns into an actual spider and a bunch of completely illogical events happened. Frankly, it was one of the worst Spider-Man stories I had ever read. Coming off of that horrendous arc, I was happy to find two standalone stories, both much better than the arcs that preceded them.

Issue 21 consists of Spider-Man getting together with the Fantastic Four, Black Cat, and Doctor Strange for a game of poker. It was nice to see the heroes just hanging out and shooting the breeze. Unfortunately, it gets a little hokey towards the middle and end as the Kingpin shows up and wants to play. The likelihood of that actually happening is close to nil, but it was interesting to see him in the game. Of course it comes down to Spidey against Kingpin in the final hand and who wins? Spider-Man. You really think Jenkins would have written it so Spidey loses? Nah.

The tale told in issue 22 was one of the best issues of this series I had read since early on in the series run where Jenkins wrote a quick, self contained story about a handicapped child who got to meet Spider-Man. In this tale, Spider-Man runs into one of the low tier villains that he had put away a few times in the past. His power is to create illusions and moods in the people around him. After being arrested so many times, he finally threw in the towel and is living on the street begging for money to finance his next bottle of booze. His sour mood brings everyone in the vacinity down with him.

Peter contemplates if he should help him out or not. He wonders if it's fair to help him over other people that might need his help. He wonders if it's all his fault that he turned out the way he did. These are all very basic philosophical questions, and Peter's contemplation is the weakest link in this issue, but after he finally makes up his mind and decides to go lend a helping hand, he finds he's too late. Kids had mugged the super-powered homeless man and in one final release of anguish, Mindworm dies. Seeing what happens to a supervillain down the road after he's been foiled by the good guy is something you don't often see, so I was more than happy to see it explored here.

With Jenkin's run on this series, and the series itself coming to a close, it's good to see a couple of decent tales in what has so far been a completely unremarkable run. Grab these two issues for the heck of it. You'll enjoy 'em!

Ratings
Art: 3
Story: 3.5
Overall: 3.5

Lex Luthor

Lex Luthor--probably one of the most well know DC villains, if not the most well known (it's probably a toss up between Lex and The Joker). He's given Superman more grief than could be imagined. He's a diabolical mastermind that's bent on bringing the man of steel to his doom. He wasn't this evil when he was young, though, was he? Maybe something in his childhood turned him into the person he is today. It's this theory that this prestige format one shot from DC attempts to tackle.

Now I realize that this one shot came out long before the tv show Smallville, but I can't help making some comparisons. Smallville portrays the character of Lex so perfectly that I don't really want to imagine his younger years being any different. Here we are presented with a Lex who was born into a seemingly normal family only to have them murdered so he could collect the insurance money. He also paid thugs to beat up a kid who was causing him trouble at school. There were some other various things that he did in youth as well that are explored, but none of them really make a whole lot of difference.

The problem that this story has is that what Lex did as a child isn't really all that terrible. Yes, I realize having your parents killed is not exactly nice, but when I think about how diabolical and maniacal that the grown up Lex is, I thought for sure that he'd have some ever darker secrets in his past. If he does, they aren't explored here.

It also doesn't help that the end of the story doesn't feel like an ending and it brings the story to a close pretty abruptly. The actual story is of an author who was researching Lex. He dies and Clark Kent is blamed for the murder. Throughtout the interrogation, the story of the autobiography of Lex that the author was writing is conveyed. Since I didn't care about the story of Lex's youth very much, I was hoping that there would be some clever way that Clark would prove his innocence, but instead Lex simply pays to get him released with the condition that he won't explore any further. This wasn't a satisfying ending at all. Oh well, at least I can always go watch another episode of Smallville!

Ratings
Art: 3
Story: 2.5
Overall: 2.5

Mekanix

Claremont, why do you do this to me? After reading through your work on X-treme X-men, Uncanny X-men, and Excalibur over the last year or two, I've brought myself to the conclusion that you've completely lost all of your storytelling abilities and then I pick up Mekanix because it looked interesting (not knowing it was written by you), read it, and come away from it feeling satisfied. Why did you have to write a decent miniseries? Couldn't you have just written a really crappy one so I could totally write you off? It would have been so much easier that way.

Mekanix is a six issue miniseries that came out in 2002, right in the middle of Grant Morrison's run on New X-men, that focused on Kittie Pryde. The first four issue are basically a character study of how Pryde tries to adjust to a normal person's everyday life as opposed to living life as an X-man. She enrolls in college, works with a research group, makes a few friends, and works at a bar to pay the bills. That sound like a pretty normal college lifestyle, except for the fact that along with those things, her research group is targeted by an online group named Purity and slandered amongst the college populace.

In one run in with some Purity members, Kittie beat the living bejesus out of six guys so she's been forced to take on anger management counseling sessions in order to stay enrolled in college. The majority of the first four issues deal with Kittie and her talks with her counselor. You really get a good look into Kittie's tortured character. Her father died in Genosha when the Sentinels wiped out the island. She had to put one of her closest friends, Colossus, to rest. The X-men lifestyle had simply become too trying for her and the conversations she has with her counselor shed a lot of light onto the hurt and heartbreak she's been experiencing.

The last two issues, the two weakest issues in my mind, shift the focus to a sentinel attack on Kittie and her mutant friends. It's handled very well, and is very action packed, but I was enjoying the character study of Kittie more than some mutants beating up on robots. I've seen that many times before, but it's not often that you get to see the character of an X-man deeply explored.

One other thing that annoyed the hell out of me with this mini were the covers of each issue. They are terrible! They look like a little kid drew them with a thick pencil and then tossed some water colors over what he drew. They are easily some of the ugliest covers I've seen in a long time. The interior art is pretty standard fare, thank goodness, but the covers are atrocious. Don't let them scare you away, however, as this is actually a wonderful little miniseries that explores character instead of just having superheroes hit things.

Ratings
Art:2.5
Story: 4
Overall: 3.75

Tellos: The Last Heist

The 10 issue Tellos maxiseries was a very enjoyable all ages fantasy romp, so I figured I might as well give some of the one-shots that followed the series a chance. This is the first that I've gotten around to reading and it is planted firmly in the same vein as that of the original series.

This one-shot focuses on one of the lesser used characters from the actual series, Rik the fox. Rik was partners with his best friend, Jarek, but in the final battle of the mini Jarek was killed. The only way Rik seems to be able to deal with it is by taking on one last heist for Jarek (hence the name of the story). The story consists mostly of Rik's hijinx as he attempts to steal a magical artifact to give to Jarek's girlfriend.

Complicating things is another fox thief who impersonates Rik and causes him extra grief. This leads to some cute comic relief and gives the story a lighter feel, especially since the initial tone is somewhat somber.

This is cute, anthropomorphic, fantasy fun wrapped up in a consise, 50 page story so if you enjoy that type of thing (which I do), you can't really go wrong here. There's dragons, heists, fights, and plenty of uptempo events. Adults will enjoy the simplicity of the story while kids will be enthralled by all of the fantasy elements. Dezago sure hit the nail on the head with his Tellos stories!

Ratings
Art: 3.5
Story: 4
Overall: 4

Cicada

Many comics bloggers have spoken very highly of Top Shelf as one of the top tier independent comics publishers. I've never actually had a chance to read any of their output, but took a chance on buying a few of their books when they had their big Christmas sale a couple of weeks ago. Cicada has the pleasure of being my first sampling of what Top Shelf has to offer.

Cicada is a very dreary and depressing story of a man wishing to commit suicide looking back upon his failed life. As he goes through the motions of killing himself via overdose, the many things around him in his motel room spark various memories of his life. You get to look at his childhood, the meeting of his wife, the multitude of affairs he has, his wife leaving him, and the sad existence his life took on thereafter.

The jumping back and forth in the story is clearly defined and gives the story the feel of an autobiography of a man about to die. You see why he wants to die and you can sympathize with him. There have been altogether too many times I've talked with people about the topic of suicide only to hear the glib comment, "It's the easy way out and people that commit suicide are weak." It pains me whenever I hear that because suicide isn't the easy way out or the way out of a weak person--many times it appears to be the only way. Cicada makes it clear that suicide seems like the only choice.

In the end, when the final hour of life approaches, instead of drifting off into oblivion, our main character has a change of heart. I had a hard time seeing what the reasoning was for this change of heart and it gave the ending a feeling of being forced simply for the sake of having something uplifting to end the story on. For full effect, I believe it would have been best to let our lead end his life and show the finality of what suicide brings. I'm not the writer, however, so all I can say is that the ending didn't feel right.

The art definitely has an indie feel to it. It's in black & white, pretty simplistic, and follows a simple layout pattern on each page. The art gets the gist of the story across, but doesn't add anything more. Frankly, the reason I've often had a hard time getting into indie comics is that art is a big thing for me and with most indie productions art is what ends up being sacrificed. In the end this was a decent and quick read. Since it was so quick, it's a little hard to justify the $12.95 price tag, but if you can find it on the cheap you might as well give it a go.

Ratings
Art: 1.75
Story: 3.75
Overall: 3.25