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Review Date: Friday, May 20, 2011
Good King Leonardo has decreed that its once again
Women In Comic Books Week here in Bongo Congo. So let's
see how the following three comic books starring strong
female characters stack-up against each other: |
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The
New York Five
Publisher: D.C. Vertigo Comics
Brian Wood: Writer
Ryan Kelly: Art
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DC's Vertigo imprint of comic books
has just completed publishing a 4-issue limited
mini-series entitled "The New York Five." The series
is a sequel to "The New York Four" mini-series,
which followed the first semester experiences of
four female college freshmen attending New York
University. Both series are the creation of writer
Brian Wood and artist Ryan Kelly. Wood is renowned
for writing very character-driven comic book and
graphic novel tales that have a strong short story
fiction feel, in collaboration with Kelly, who produces
the tales in a striking and effective back-and-white
format. As all four issues are still available on
the That's Entertainmnent new issues shelves, I
decided to review issue #1 in the just completed
limited series, in order to get a feel for the storyline
from the very beginning.
The issue #1 storyline is entitled
"Mistaken For Strangers" and reintroduces the four
freshmen roommates (Riley, Lona, Merissa and Ren)
as they reassemble in their apartment at the start
of their freshman year second semester. The plot
proceeds by introducing each of the four's current
personal dilemmas, in two storythreads. In one plotline,
each girl participates in a college therapy session,
unloading their current personal dramas on the therapist.
In a lengthier storythread, the actual events that
they explain in therapy are portrayed. Without being
a story spoiler, the issues range from Riley having
drama with her estranged sister and her sister's
sleazy boyfriend, Merissa having family issues,
Ren dating guys too old for her and Lona behaving
as a complete psychotic nutball by planning some
unknown scary revenge against a professor for daring
to give her a B instead of an A for a course grade.
I'm giving this comic book a qualified
mixed-bag review. I think the plotline is very well-written,
but its a very specialized type of story that I
think is only of interest to a limited reader demographic,
namely, high school and college age women, for two
reasons. First, its extremely soap opera in plot
style and secondly, there are no main or support
characters present in this series outside of the
college girl age range. As an aging fanboy, I felt
like an outsider reading this plotline, a feeling
that outweighed any sense of entertainment and which
I suspect any reader outside of the high-school/college
female readership pool would also experience. But
as a reviewer, its always fun to check-out the latest
comic title produced by Wood and Kelly, just to
see what this extremely talented creative team are
currently up to. So again, I'm giving a well-deserved
thumbs-up recommendation for the high school/college
age fangirl base to check-out this title, combined
with a recommendation for the rest of the good comic
book readership pool to pass on this very specialized
story theme.
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The
Spirit #13
Publisher: D.C. Comics
David Hine: Writer
Moritat: Art
Gabe Bautista: Colors
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The current title run
of Will Eisner's The Spirit is up to issue #13.
This particular Spirit series is published by DC
Comics as part of its First Wave series, a group
of interconnected titles featuring pulp heroes such
as Doc Savage along with several golden age comic
book figures, such as Denny Colt a.k.a. Central
City's favorite masked noir detective The Spirit.
The series is currently scripted by David Hine with
art by Moritat and colors by Gabe Bautista.
Issue #13 is the third
and final installment of a multi-issue story arc
entitled "The Clockwork Killer." A page one narrative
updates the reader on the story to-date, in which
a New York gangster named Shonder Zeev is trying
to muscle-in on the established Central City crime
families. In the issue #13 story segment, Zeev hires
a weird elderly hitman named The Professor to kill
Police Commissioner Dolan. Instead, The Professor
falls for Dolan's daughter Ellen (also The Spirit's
girlfriend), building an Ellen look-alike robot
and kidnapping Ellen in a bizarre scheme to help
him program the robot to be like her. Hijinks ensue
as the kidnapping and the out-of-town crime boss
invasion come together by issue's end in a mutual
conclusion.
While I'm a fanatical
follower of The Spirit and have a soft place in
my comic book reading heart for all things Spirit,
even a more objective reader would conclude that
this is a high quality and very entertaining Spirit
tale. The story itself is fresh and fun, with lots
of unexpected twists and turns. Writer David Hine
pitches just the right balance of noir detective
thriller and light humor that Spirit creator Will
Eisner originally mixed into this comic book franchise,
resulting in acclaim for this classic golden age
comic book figure.
But in line with our
"Women In Comic Books" theme of this week's review
column, the best feature of issue #13 is the central
and starring role of Ellen Dolan in this storyline.
Always portrayed as a strong personality with an
independent streak of resourcefulness, writer Hine
adds just the right dash of humor and glamour girl
glitz to the 1940's retro Ellen, updating her into
a very entertaining character who starts as kidnap
victim and evolves into saving both herself and
the overall story situation in a very entertaining
manner. And a special hats-off is due to the art
team for giving us a great visual interpretation
of Ellen with a fantastic range of comedic facial
expressions.
So add Ellen Dolan
and her sidekick's in this story, including The
Spirit, to your ever-growing new comics reading
pile!
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Warlord
Of Mars: Dejah Thoris #1
Publisher: Dynamite Comics
Arvid Nelson: Writer
Carlos Rafael: Art
Carlos Lopez: Colors
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Dynamite Comics is
currently publishing a few comics exploring the
science fiction world of Edgar Rice Burroughs's
classic novel "John Carter, Warlord Of Mars." In
honor of this week's Women In Comics Books review
theme, I decided to review issue #1 of the title
that stars Dejah Thoris, Carter's Martian Princess
girlfriend from the series of novels. The comic
book is scripted by Arvid Nelson with art by Carlos
Rafael and colors by Carlos Lopez. That's Entertainment
actually has copies of the first three issues in
this new title on the new issues shelves in the
store.
An inside-the-front-cover
narrative informs the reader that the setting of
this tale is 437 years before Carter's adventures
on Mars, or "Barsoom" as the natives call it. The
never-aging Princess Thoris is smack in the middle
of a civil war between the cities of Lesser and
Greater Helium. Without spoiling interesting plot
details, in general terms this is a tale of political
intrigue between warring parties. In the midst of
the war, a higher Martian royal official mandates
a truce and orders that Princess Thoris marry his
son. By issue's end, all parties figure-out that
the shotgun wedding idea is a trick by which the
greater royal powers on Mars hope to conquer both
feudal cities for their own purposes. The issue
ends in a double dramatic bridge to issue #2, as
fighting breaks-out against the royal schemers and
an alien surprise is discovered buried deep beneath
Helium.
I was prepared for
this comic to be light on plot and heavy on action,
and as such was pleased to discover that it provides
a decent mix of both story elements. In between
the royal warring, writer Arvid Nelson loads the
script with detailed and intriguing dialogue, as
the royal leaders of the two warring cities and
the higher royal powers of Barsoom maneuver around
and against each other for control and power. Similar
to the Ellen Dolan figure in The Spirit comic book
reviewed above, we're provided here with a very
smart and savvy version of Princess Dejah Thoris,
who steps-out from John Carter's shadow and solos
on her own as both a story star and a strong political
leader of both her royal family and the Martian
people.
So a very positive
thumbs-up recommendation for this new comic book
addition to the wide-ranging Warlord Of Mars science
fiction franchise. I plan on continuing to read
this series, starting with issues #2 and #3 available
right now at That's Entertainment and continuing
on with future monthly issues of this comic book
title.
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Current Contest Results!!!
Surprisingly, the Bongo Congo
panel of contest judges did not receive any entries to our
current contest, which challenged you to tell us what your
favorite three Free Comic Book Day comics were and why you
liked them so much. So we'll move-on with our new contest
below.
New
Contest Announcement!!!
As all good fanboys and fangirls
know, the newest Marvel Comics cross-over mega-event series
is the "Fear Itself" series, featuring the God Of Fear,
a supervillain who uses superheroes's worst fears against
them. We gave a positive review a few weeks ago to the Prologue
one-shot issue that kicked-off this new crossover event.
By now, readers have had a
chance to start reading some of the many comics in this
series. As such, your contest challenge this week is to
e-mail us at Gordon_A@msn.com
and give us your opinion as to why you either like or dislike
this series. The selected winning entry will receive the
first prize $10.00 gift certificate to That's Entertainment.
That's all for now,
so try to dry-off from all of this past week's rain
by having a great comic book reading week and see
you again next week Here In Bongo Congo!
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