Review Date: Saturday, January 01, 2011
| For our end-of-the-year review column, Good King Leonardo
has decreed that we ring-out 2010 with an eclectic mix
of comics to review, one DC comic, one Marvel comic
and two independent publisher comic books: |
Adventure
Comics #521
Publisher: D.C. Comics
Paul Levitz: Writer
Geraldo Borges & Marlo Alquiza: Art
DC's long-running flagship title Adventure
Comics is up to issue #521 this month, with a lead story
starring The Legion Of Super-Heroes and a second story starring
The Atom. The main Legion story is scripted by Paul Levitz
with art by Geralso Borges and Marlo Alquiza. The Atom tale
is written by Jeff Lemire with pencils by Mahmud Asrar,
inks by John Dell and colors by Pete Pantazis.
The Legion story is entitled "The Summons Of The Ring" and
is part one of a new multi-issue story arc. The plot kicks-off
with the arrival at 31st century Legion headquarters of
Dyogene, an alien creature from Oa, the homeworld of the
Guardians of the Green Lantern Corps. Dyogenes announces
that he will anoint a new Earth Green Lantern from amongst
the ranks of the Legion members. The bulk of this story
segment unfolds with the various Legion members going about
their various Legion duties as they mull over the pending
selection. I won't spoil the selection surprise beyond noting
that by stories end, Dyogenes selects a Legion member, who
immediately accepts the role as Earth's 31st centruy Green
Guardian. As a brief mention of the back-up Atom tale, the
plot focuses on The Atom teaming-up with his civilian scientist
uncle to combat bad guys wielding nano-technology, with
the story segment ending in a cliffhanger as the bad guys
hold The Atom's dad hostage.
I enjoyed both stories very much. Veteran
DC writer/editor Paul Levitz by now certainly knows his
way around the details of the 31st century Legion of Super-Heroes
universe. Levitz seamlessly blends three story elements
together very well: smoothly introducing the many, many
members of the Legion into the brief, half-issue story segment,
incorporating a few sub-plots of Legion action events and
progressing the main storythread of a new Earth Green Lantern
selection process. I loved the actual selection of the new
Lantern, who is an excellent choice and should provide some
fun plot details as this multi-issue story moves forward.
A positive review thumbs-up is also deserved for the second
Atom tale in this issue. Nothing earth-shaking with this
story, just an entertaining little Atom script (pun intended)
in which our small hero does his best to battle bad guys
alongside his uncle and rescue his kidnapped dad.
So a definite thumbs-up review recommendation to get your
traditional, old-school DC universe entertainment fill for
this week with this fun two-story issue of Adventure Comics.
Fantastic
Four #583
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Jonathan Hickman: Writer
Steve Epting: Art
Paul Mounts: Colors
Marvel Comics kicks-off in the current issue #583 of the
Fantastic Four its well-publicized supposed death of one
of the Fab Four. The story arc is entitled "Three" and is
written by Jonathan Hickman with art by Steve Epting and
colors by Paul Mounts. For the uninitiated, this creative
team has received much acclaim in the past year or so for
revitalizing this long-lasting Marvel comic book title with
exciting storylines featuring science fiction plots on a
grand adventure scale, in balance with excellent plot details
regarding the personal lives and issues of the Fantastic
Four family members.
This Part One of the "Three" storyline is subtitled "In
Latveria, The Flowers Bloom In Winter," and unfolds with
two interweaving storythreads. The briefer storyline is
a high action plotthread, as the FF fight a battle at the
edge of the forever city of The High Evolutionary. This
is a follow-up to previous FF issues in which several science
fictional cities emerge at various locations around Earth.
But this action-adventure is overshadowed by the main storyline,
in which Reed and Sue's genius daughter Valeria teleports
to Latveria to try and enlist Victor Von Doom to assist
her father in an unexplained ciritical effort. Genius Valeria
quickly realizes that Doom has lost his genius intellect
(apparently detailed in previous issues) and deftly strikes
a bargain with the evil dictator, in which he agrees to
assist the girl-genius in exchange for her restoring him
to his previous intellectual brilliance.
The creative team continues its iconic run
in this title with the kick-off to another exciting major
multi-issue story arc. Writer Jonathan Hickman once again
proves his skill in delivering a comic book superhero-themed
tale on a grand scale of science-fiction adventure. Hickman's
style is to progress a story far and fast in each issue's
story segment, and he does so again here, progressing the
tale with lots of action but maintaining the sense of mystery
and anticipation that hooks the reader into wanting to stick
with the adventure through each monthly issue. I particularly
got a kick out of a dramatic issue-ending, two-page bridge
to next month's issue, which pulls The Silver Surfer into
the story situation in a very clever and dramatic way.
My only constructive review criticism of the issue is to
suggest that Hickman and team tone-down a bit the precociousness
of genius FF daughter Valeria. She comes off a bit too smug
and know-it-all at times, to the point where I wanted her
to trip-up in her efforts just to wipe the self-satisfied
smugness off of her face. But that minor peeve aside, there
isn't a comic book title out there these days doing a better
job of providing grand-scale science fiction in a traditional
super-hero story-setting, so a strong recommendation here
not to miss this interesting and enjoyable adventure as
it plays-out toward the big "death of an FF member" finale.
The
One #2
Publisher: GG Studio
Giuliano Monni & Davide Rigamonti :
Writers
Pasquale Qualano: Pencils
Alessia Nocera & Andrea Errico: Colors
Issue #2 of a comic book entitled "The One"
caught my eye this past week as I wandered the new issues
shelves at That's Entertainment. The comic is an English
translation of an Italian comic book published by GG Studio.
The series is written by Guiliano Monni and Davide Rigamonti
with art by Pasquale Qualano, Alessia Nocera and Andrea
Errico.
The setting of this title mirrors the fictional
universe of Tolkien's well-known Lord Of The Rings trilogy.
The story begins with Sadhel and Erara,two female representatives
of tribes of enchanted forest people, arguing over whether
or not to ally with the mistrusting human tribes, in anticipation
of some sort of upcoming epic war. The plot next shifts
to a personal love story between a human man, Masdhin, and
his enchanted girlfirend, Faras. We learn detailes of their
relationship history via flashback, then in the present
we follow Masdin's attempt to rescue Faras who's been captured
by some bad enchanted folk. The issue ends wirth the duo,
aided by a troll sidekick, on the run from the bad guys.
In many ways, this title is a warmed-over
version of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, i.e., enchanted
and human tribes and individuals jockeying for position
and gain in the shadow of an upcoming huge military confrontation.
But it is entertaining in its own right. The art is exquisite,
with loads of gorgeous warrior women drawn in the style
of the late great Michael Turner. The dialogue is a bit
detailed and complex, to the point where I did have to double-back
and check a few previous pages to understand the story progression.
But more importantly, the plot is interesting and the characters
are very credible. So if you're a fan of high fantasy, I
think that you'll enjoy this particular Italian-imported
interpretation of the type of fantasy world that Tolkien
is so well-known for creating.
The
Cape #1
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Jason Ciaramella: Writer
Zach Howard: Art
Nelson Daniel: Colors
The Cape is a new comic book title just
published by IDW Publishing. The series is written by Jason
Ciaramella with art by Zach Howard and colors by Nelson
Daniel. The credits explain that Ciaramella's script is
the adaptation of a short story entitled "The Cape," written
by Joe Hill.
The main character of The Cape is Eric, whom the first half
of the issue follows from childhood to his 20-something
years. Playing superhero as a kid and wearing the aforementioned
Cape, Eric has a brutal injury falling from a tree. It's
all downhill from there, as the plot follows Eric through
years of injury pain and general behavior negativity. His
relationship with loving girlfriend Angie can't stop him
from spiraling down to the very bottom rung of the loser
ladder. After being dumped by Angie and crashing in his
mother's basement, Eric finds his old childhood cape and
discovers that it gives him the power to fly. In this case,
I'll gladly provide the dramatic ending spoiler: our boy
Eric is a rotten-to-the core loser who uses the cape to
take ex-girlfriend Angie for a Lois Lane-Superman type flight
and thus slaughter her with a bloody drop from high altitude.
Next issue's theme: how a rotten guy uses a found power
for further rottenness.
I'll get to the heart of this review recommendation fast-this
is the worst comic book that I've reviewed among the hundreds
I've reviewed over the past few years. The plot twister
could have been creative, in that one assumes until the
last few pages that the cape will offer Eric the chance
to turn his life around for good instead of being a tool
for Eric to go the evil route. But all of the details of
the story just plain radiate grossness and disgust, from
Eric's needlessly rotten attitude to every decent person
in his life to the culmination of this issue, when he disgustingly
slaughters his girlfriend and is proud of it. A story can
be dark and gross but of high quality if there's some redeeming
value in the tale. None of that element is even hinted of
here, so its not worth sticking around for even one issue's
worth of viewing this disgusting creep's life. So don't
waste a dime on this failure of a story presentation.
One final important review comment. This waste of paper
has nothing to do with the upcoming new superhero television
series "The Cape," premiering on January 9 on NBC. So give
the television show a try and read some other comic book.
Contest
Winner Announcement!!!
Our latest contest challenge posed the following
question: what is the one sport in which the defense controls
the ball? We had several correct entries, so by a roll of
the dice our winner is (drumroll, please)...Stan Hosmer,
who correctly identified baseball as the sport in which
the defense controls the ball. Congrats to Stan on winning
the $10.00 first prize gift certificate to That's Entertainment.
New
Contest Challenge!!!
It's time to ring-out 2010 and ring-in 2011,
so let's have an appropriate end-of-the year contest.
The Bongo Congo panel of contest judges challenge you
to e-mail us at Gordon_A@msn.com
and submit to us your entries for Most Favorite and Least
Favorite comic books of 2010. Feel free to nominate in
these categories either your most or least favorite individual
issues or a comic book title in general, and tell us a
little bit about why you like and/or dislike your entries
so much. As always, our first prize contest winner will
receive a $10.00 gift certificate to 2010 and 2011's favorite
pop culture emporium, That's Entertainment!!!
That's all for now, so have a very Happy New Year and a
great comic book reading week and see you again next week
Here In Bongo Congo!
