What I want on Free Comic Book Day and What I Don’t Want

An original story by Matt Fraction featuring a team up of Thor and Iron Man with pencils by John Romita Jr. Count me in!  This looks much better than DC’s free book:

This book gets three strikes from me.

1) The cover is atrocious. The Supermen look like they are crapping themselves.

2) I’m not a big Superman fan. So an event book centering around his mythos doesn’t interest me at all.

3)  All I can think of when I see that cover is the old cinema proverb  “In space no one can hear you scream”

If you want to see what other books are being offered on Free Comic Book Day check out their website-

http://www.freecomicbookday.com/

Free Comic Book Day is May 1st at participating comic book shops.

Ultimate Comics Enemy #2 Review

Ultimate Comics Enemy Issue # 2 of 4

Writer Brian Michael Bendis continues the battle that was started in the first issue but he moves the overall story along  at a much slower pace.  To give you some background “Enemy” is going to be the first in a trilogy of mini- series that focus on some crazy as of yet unidentified threat or threats in Marvel’s Ultimate universe. In the first issue Nick Fury had his lunch rudely interrupted by some crazy alien looking dude and the Baxter building and a Roxxom Corporation buildings were attacked by a giant purple blob thing. This issue continues the action as Thing, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman,Nick Fury, The Human Torch and Sue tangle with the aforementioned threats. The most disturbing thing about this series so far is that  the Thing is losing “plates”. So he has this gross looking bald spot on his head. It makes me a little queasy whenever I see it. I hope they re-grow or that he decides to super glue them back on.

The art is great and the action scenes are fun and well choreographed. Nick Fury’s personal force field  adds a nice touch to the whole affair. My problem with this is that it seems like the overall story is moving along at a snail’s pace. We still don’t know much at all about what is really going on. I’m sure that in the future issues there will be a big payoff. This issue just left me feeling slightly curious but not intrigued enough to be looking forward to issue 3.   I’m sure things will pick up in the next issue. They have to right? It’s the 3rd issue in a four issue limited series so it better! Or I may not be around for the second part of the “trilogy”.

I give this a 5 out of 10.

Why DC Why?! Ok I know why But Still…Why?

I knew it was too good to last.  DC announced that the June issues of The Shield and The Web will be the final ones.  Sales have been dismal on the Red Circle relaunch so I’m not surprised by this announcement but I’m still disappointed. I truly loved these books and characters. Of course now I wonder what is going to become of them.  Are they going to vanish from the DCU? Are they going to appear in team books? Does DC even know the answer to this?

In a way I guess I should be glad. This frees up some of my comic book budget to try out some other titles. I hear Marvel has a lot of new books coming out…..

The Red Circle Return-Six issues in

About a year ago on this very blog I briefly detailed my excitement over the return of some obscure heroes that DC comics had gotten the rights for. The characters originally appeared in a line of comics put out by Archie comics in the 50s and 60s.  In the 70s Archie published these characters under an imprint called Red Circle comics which is why these characters are referred to as “The Red Circle Characters”. In the nineties DC launched a short lived imprint “Impact Comics” which is where I first read about and fell in love with several of these characters. Now the head honchos at DC comics have these characters again and instead of publishing them under a different imprint or in their own self contained universe they are integrating them into the main DC universe. Over the past couple of months they have had interactions with other DC characters. Most notably Inferno running into Green Arrow and Black Canary. DC comics is currently publishing two books that feature Red Circle characters: The Web which has a co-feature that stars The Hangman and the Shield which has a co feature that stars Inferno. Although DC recently announced that Inferno will go on hiatus for a while and the co feature in the Shield is going to star the Japanese themed super-hero The Fox. 

So How are these books going? Do they live up to my own fan expectations? I’m going to examine each book starting with The Web: 

The Web

 

The Web follows the adventures and misadventures of John Raymond. John is a rich womanizing socialite that after the murder of his brother decides to use this hi-tech “Web” suit to help people. Solving his brother’s murder is also one of his goals. John sets up a web site where people can submit a plea for the Web’s help. He decides to start a super-hero franchise and gives the suits out to 100 other people around the world that pass a stringent vetting process and have the cash to buy in. These people are called Web-Hosts. This way the Web-Hosts can deal with problems submitted from their areas and thereby being more productive and of course John Raymond makes a profit from this. This leads to all sorts of problems and frustrations for the main Web as well as the super-hero community in general. 

At first I thought that I wasn’t going to enjoy this one but I must confess that the rich characterizations and the intriguing use of technology and premise of this book has me hooked.  A super-hero franchise that uses the internet to fight crime.  This is the finest example of 21st century super heroics that i’ve been able to find. 

The  Co feature in this comic belongs to the Hangman: 

By day this character is a doctor working at a local hospital and by night he transforms into te mystical Hangman. When I say Transform I mean transform. When the sun goes down he becomes an avenging spirit seeking justice. This character has some odd powers not to mention the dramatic transformations. Still this co-feature has some gritty art and some interesting storylines as our immortal hero is currently cleaning up San Francisco.  As far as co-features go this is the best of the two. As i’ll discuss later Inferno is a confusing mess. This co-feature makes the price of $3.99 bearable. 

Now we move on to the other Red Circle book: The Shield 

The Shield

This comic centers around the adventures of a young Army man who was mortally wounded in Afghanastan. The army fused an experimental nanosuit to him which saved his life and allowed him to become the Shield. What I like about this character is that he doesn’t see himself as a super-hero. He just sees himself as a soldier with a job to do. He isn’t the idealistic patriotic hero like Captian America. That’s not to say he doesn’t love the states he just doesn’t give rousing speeches or try to embody “America”. What he does do well is kick butt. Of all of the Red Circle books this one has done the best job of integrating the character into the overall DC universe. He has faced down Gorilla Grod and the Chinese Super-team The Great Ten.  The Shield has been a great read and of the two RC books I recomend it the most. The only thing that drags down this book is the Co-feature which stars Inferno: 

Inferno

So after six issues all I can tell you about this is that there is this guy that is on the run from an evil corporation that experimented on him. When he “flames up” his appearence completely changes to look like the dude in the picture above. At other times he looks like a clean shaven white guy. Best of all he has no idea who is and honestly this co feature never made me care. I am so glad that they are dropping this co-feature next month and putting the Fox in its place. At least for a little while. I don’t know how much Inferno I can take. 

Overall i’d say that DC has done a good job with most of these characters. Both The Web and The Shield are enjoyable reads. The Shield main feature is better but the co-feature is horrendous while both the Web and its Hangman co-feature are entertaining. Next month the Shield Co feature changes to new character. So i’m hoping the Fox will turn out to be a cool character and not the confusing mess that Inferno is.

Justice League Of America #41 Review

A new era for the JLA begins here and I couldn’t be happier.  Through the course of this issue Donna Troy makes peace with her role as a hero and she goes out and begins gathering recruits for a new JLA team.  In my mind this new team reinforces the “legacy” aspect of the DCU as several Titans graduate into the JLA.   I am so pumped to be able to follow Cyborg, Starfire and Dick Grayson again.  The reason I don’t follow Grayson in the Bat books is because I hate his Robin with a passion.  The little twerp makes a brief appearance in this book which is about all I can stand of him.

While the team is getting organized something foul is afoot regarding some recently rediscovered alien technology that was last seen in 1777.  I have a feeling that this is going to be a great run. The story and art are great. My only complaint is that all of the female superheroes are drawn with there umm “cheeks” hanging out of their costumes.   I hate to break it to the artist but none of the females on this team wear thongs as part of their costumes. Other than the Robin appearance and the self indulgent butt cheek fetish art this is a great read.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

Sam Jackson Is Writing a Comic book! AWESOME!

In my mind the actor Samuel L. Jackson is one of the coolest people on the planet.  He is so cool that his presence alone made the movie “Snakes on a Plane” watchable and even enjoyable.  He also played my favorite jedi of the Star Wars Prequels: Mace Windu:

Multiple comic book news sites have been reporting that Samuel is writing a comic book for BOOM studios called “Cold Space” It’s going to be a four issue limited series that will begin in April. The main character is of course based off of Sam’s appearance. Check it out:

How freaking cool is that!  Yes I am a hopeless nerd and proud of it.

Captian America:Who Will Wield the Shield One Shot Review

Steve Rogers(the original Captain America) has returned.  A lot of Cap fans have been wondering what will happen to poor Bucky Barnes( the current Cap)? This “one shot” does tell the story it says it will. It lets you know who will be Cap.  I guess in that respect it is successful. The art is well done and the book has some heartfelt moments with Steve and Bucky.  There is also a cool action scene near the end of the book. My problem with this comic is that most of the issue felt like filler. I don’t see why this needed its own special issue or why it couldn’t have been handled in either the Captain America or the New Avengers book.   The only pages that seemed to matter to the overall narrative were the last 5 pages of the book.  The first half features a WW2 flashback that didn’t tell us anything that we didn’t already know.  We already know the back stories of Steve and Bucky and we have seen countless flashbacks that flesh out both characters in the Captain America ongoing.  It just wasn’t needed.

If you’re thinking about buying this book I’d recommend that you just read a spoiler online.  Save your money.

Rating: 4 out of 10

Yet Another Cool Announcement From the Folks At DC

DC comics announced on their blog that Marv Wolfman and George Perez are going to finish up a 120 page Titans graphic novel that they started working on over twenty years ago.  A good bit of the art was finished back then so this graphic novel will feature the Teen Titans as they looked back in the eighties!

The book will be called “Teen Titans: Games” and it is set to be released later this year.  This is the third original graphic novel that DC has announced they will be releasing this year. Could this mark a shift in how DC comics releases their product? Will they one day move away from the standard floppy and release full length graphic novels instead? Only time will tell.

Teen Titans Games-

Good News for DC Fans This Spring

I have to confess that until I came across the announcements i’m about to share I was beggining to think that Post Blackest Night DCU was going to be a snooze fest. (At Least for me!) I have no interest in the Superman centric “War” event that is coming up. I also have no interest in the “Return of Bruce Wayne”. In fact ever since Grayson stopped being Nightwing and Bruce stopped being Batman i’ve not cared about the bat-family. This is coming from a die hard Nightwing fan. I thought that making Grayson Batman was a step back for a character that had worked so hard to become his own man and not live in the shadow of the Bat.  Tim becoming Red Robin was enough for me to keep the Bat books at arms length.

So just when I started believing that my beloved DCU was no place for me DC announces that Birds of Prey and Legion of Superheroes will be returning this spring. I love the Legion of superheroes and seeing them back with their own book and not just languishing in second feature hell excited me to no end. Also the Birds of Prey are back! Written my master scribe Gail Simone! Awesomeness!I guess there will be some DC books I’ll want to read this year after all!

The Legion of Superheroes!-

Birds of Prey!-

The Difficulties of Loving Comics and Living in Forlornia

I love comic books. I have loved them as far back as I can remember.  The hobby really took off for me while I was in college. There was a comic book store not to far from my dorm and i’d go there weekly to pick up my books. Purchasing comics from an actual comic book store is always a lot of fun. There is a certain camaraderie that Comic geeks have. We may not always like the same books or characters but we all appreciate the euphoria that comes with walking out of the store with a nice stack of comics.

It’s also a lot of fun if the store has employees that are fun to talk with as was the case with the store I frequented during my college years.

Fast forward almost seven years and my career has brought me to a small town that I will refer to as Forlornia.  There is no comic book store here. The only comic I can buy in town is the Wolverine kids magazine. (Wal-Mart carries it)  The nearest comic book store is seventy miles away.  As the sole bread winner for a family of four I can’t afford the gas to drive up to said store.

So I get comic books mainly via the subscription services that Marvel and DC offer. My problem with them is that they don’t offer event books or the titles I want to read the most. Not to mention the indie books I would love to read. I am blessed with a single friend that is able to make the 70 mile trip once a month. Through his generosity I have been bale to read the important event books and review them for this  blog. He lets me borrow his books. God bless him!

I’m not sure what I am going to do about collecting comics this year.  For the time being I am not going to renew my subs. After all I don’t want to fall into the trap of just getting books for the sake of getting books. I know of the other subscription services online but those charge your credit card monthly and I’m not wanting to do that at all.

I suppose I could go to all trades for a while.

They look nice on a bookshelf and don’t take up as much space as floppies but I love the floppy. Sigh…There is no easy solution for me. As long as my career has me in Forlornia I will continue the debate with myself: Try and get floppies OR become a ‘trade waiter”? To read? Or to read months later? That is the question.