|
|
|
|
Review Date: Thursday, January 19,
2012
Here in Bongo Congo
Good King Leonardo offers-up for your reading enjoyment
this week the following four reviews featuring
a wide variety of new-issue comic book titles: |
|
Publisher:
D.C. Comics
Tony Bedard:
Writer
Ig Guara:
Pencils
Ruy Jose:
Inks
Pete Pantazis:
Colors
|
DC Comics has recently
revived and re-booted its popular Blue Beetle
title as part of "The New 52" restructuring
of the DC comic book universe. For the uninitiated,
the latest fictional version of this superhero
is Hispanic teenager Jaime Reyes, who lives in El
Paso, Texas and lives a life similar to Marvel's
original Spider-Man, trying to juggle the personal
life of a high-schooler with his superhero duties. Although
the new Blue Beetle title is up to monthly issue
#4, its early enough in the series that I decided
to jump back to issue #1in order to get a clearer
reviewer's feel for this effort to re-structure
the previous series. The new title is scripted
by Tony Bedard with pencils by Ig Guara, inks by
Ruy Jose and colors by Pete Pantazis.
Issue #1 is a revised origin tale of how Jaime
became the Blue Beetle. The origin plot is
essentially a three-act storyline. Act One
is a science fiction flashback, as we learn that
the high tech scarab that will eventually give Jaime
his superpowers originated ages ago as an alien
weapon wielded by a very nasty alien race called
The Reach, whose goal is to conquer and destroy
all intergalactic races. Act Two unfolds
Jaime's pre-scarab high school life, reintroducing
Blue Beetle readers to his best friends/sidekicks
Brenda and Paco along with Jaime's parents, his
little sister and Brenda's mysterious Aunt Dona
Cardenas, who in previous editions of the Blue Beetle
title is revealed to be a very evil player in the
supervillainess world. Act Three is a fast-action
story segment, in which Jaime and Paco stumble-into
an ongoing theft of the Blue Beetle scarab orchestrated
by Dona Cardenas, which concludes with the scarab
burrowing into Jaime's spine and transforming him
into the new teenaged version of the Blue
Beetle.
I was a huge fan of the previous edition of
this title, in which veteran writers John Rogers
and Keith Giffen produced about three dozen issues
between 2006 and 2009. Last week, I re-read
the very high quality "Road Trip" story arc
from issues #7 through #12 to compare to this title
re-boot. While in my reviewer's opinion the
previous Rogers-Giffen edition is a better-crafted
all-around story series, there are many positive
points to make about issue #1 of this new edition.
The creative team sticks with presenting the
basic structure and character personalities of Jaime's civilian
life, which is a wise move given the entertaining
story possibilities that can be explored with Jaime,
his family and friends. What we really have
here is just a new creative team picking-up a new
story arc within an existing title that's been revived
with re-numbering of the monthly issues, which overall
is not such a bad thing. In a published interview,
writer Tony Bedard states that he wants to emphasize
more action and adventure in the new series.
As such, the main revision to the new series is
the addition of a more intense element of action
and fighting not seen in the previous series edition.
The end result in the premier new Blue Beetle issue
is a balanced blend of old-Jaime story universe
with new-Jaime action and adventure. So a
definite positive thumbs-up recommendation to check-out
issue #1 of this new title, which succeeds by preserving
a lot of the good stuff from the previous edition
while introducing a new, higher level
of superhero action and adventure. And when
you're finished reading issue #1, there are still
copies of issues #2 through #4 available on the
new issues shelves at That's Entertainment.
|
|
Publisher: Image
Comics
Ron Marz:
Writer
Lee Moder:
Art
Matthew
Waite: Inks
Michael
Atiyeh: Colors
|
Image Comics recently
published issue #4 of its Shinku title.
An inside-the-front-cover narrative helpfully updates
the onging story arc entitled "Throne Of Blood" from
the first three issues, informing us that Shinku
is a young female modern-day samurai who as the
last survivor of the Tadaka samurai clan fights
the Yagyu clan of vampires. Previously, Shinku
recruited American immunologist Davis Quinn to her
cause in the hope of developing a vampire-killing
virus. By the end of issue #3, Shinku was
attacked and badly wounded by the vampire ronin
Sakura. The series is written by Ron Marz
with art by Lee Moder, inks by Matthew Waite and
colors by Michael Atiyeh.
The issue #4 story segment advances the Shinku-versus-vampires
bloodfest from the previous issue. The first
third of this story segment is action-oriented,
as both Shinku's ally Oshima and Davis Quinn come
to our hero's rescue, killing a bunch of vampires
and retreating to safety so Oshima can treat the
badly-wounded warrior. The mid-section of
this story segment is more introspective, as Davis
Quinn conducts an extended philosophical monologue
over the unconscious samurai, examining their predicament
and hoping that all will work out o.k. Our
final story section refocuses on the vampire world.
When the vampire ronin Sakura reports failure back
to his clan head vampire Lord Asano, the
big guy decides to take matters into his own extremely-clawed
hands. The issue ends in a dramatic cliffhanger
as Lord Asano attacks our trio of good guys, continuing
the warfare into next month's issue #5.
I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed this comic
book as much as I did, moreso than I initially expected
to. Given the "Mature Audience" warning inside
the front cover, I expected a completed gore-fest
that would no doubt be short on decent plot and
heavy on blood 'n guts. While the bloodiness
is front and center, its not presented at a gross-out
level. A-list writer Ron Marz is also at
the top of his writing game in delivering a script
that nicely mixes quality dialogue, interesting
plot and fast action. I particularly enjoyed
the varied personalities of the story characters,
particularly the threesome of sharp-tongued Shinku,
her stoic friend Oshima and the American Davis Quinn,
who ironically works all day with blood as an immunologist
but is squeamish when the blood flies as the
samurai swords and vampire fangs are wielded.
My only constructive criticism is that given the
amount of sexual story content mixed-in with the
buckets of blood, the "Mature Audience" warning
should be posted on the front cover rather than
too discretely tucked-inside the jacket. But
that one item aside, the three elements of interesting
samurai/vampire genres mix, strong writing and quality
artwork all combine to earn this comic book a well-deserved
thumbs-up positive review recommendation.
And as one last review comment, there's an interesting
back-of-the-book mix of post-story stuff to read
here, including two nice sketchbook pin-ups,
an impressive one-page gallery presenting this month's
covers of all 36 Image Comics titles and an interesting
brief interview with comics writer Ed Brubaker.
|
|
Publisher:
Boundless Comics/Avatar Press
Writer:
Mike Wolfer
Pow Rodrix:
Art
|
The Boundless Comics imprint of Avatar Press is
currently publishing a new sword and sorcery-themed
comic book entitled War Goddess. At first
glance, the comic looks like a knock-off of DC's
Wonder Woman, particularly due to the premier issue's
front cover, but the comic actually focuses on the
modern-day adventures of the Greek mythological
figure Pandora, of "opening Pandora's box" fable
fame. Apparently, Pandora has been the main
comic book character published by Avatar Press since
the mid-1990's and as such this is just the latest
of many series starring this heroine.
The kick-off issue #0 is written by Mike Wolfer
with art by Pow Rodrix.
The premier issue plot interweaves two storythreads.
The first sub-plot lays-out the basic premise
of Pandora functioning in today's world. Here,
she's a billionaire adventuress who is so wealthy
that she isn't even aware of the extent of her world-wide
corporate holdings. We're also introduced
to a few of Pandora's human sidekicks who are unaware
of her true background, along with Emma Harrow,
who's also an immortal mythological figure whose
identity I won't reveal in this interview as
a spoiler. The second sub-plot introduces
the action-adventure; while excavating an archeological
dig in Bolivia, Pandora is contacted by Emma regarding
a disaster unfolding as a physics lab experiment
within Pandora's company goes awry in Bermuda.
The result is an opening into "dark matter" and
other dimensions, thereby reopening in a scientific
manner the "Pandora's Box" dimensional rift which
our heroine supposedly spent centuries fixing.
By issue's end, both Pandora and Emma are poised
to address the disaster, as one of their human female
sidekicks has already been converted by the box
re-opening into a super-powered villain.
This new title gives us a fresh and entertaining
remix of the often-presented comic book theme of
ancient Greek story figures functioning in today's
world. The art is high quality and the story
is very detailed and engrossing in explaining to
the reader both the back concept of Pandora's history
and establishing her current reality of world-wide
adventure. I got a particular kick out of
the strong blending of modern-day science with concepts
of Greek mythology. Writer Mike Wolfer is
very creative in establishing the mainstream
scientific activities of particle accelerator
research having the Greek mythological consequence
of re-opening Pandora's box. The result is
a successful melding of hard science and fantasy similar
in style to some scripts in the Atomic
Robo comic book, a strategy that works very well
for both titles.
My only review criticisms are two-fold. First,
its kind of ridiculous that all of the women in
this comic book are supermodel gorgeous and end-up
running around with hardly a stitch of clothing
on; while its visually pleasing for fanboy
reading and apparently a tradition in the long history
of Pandora comics, the over-the-top dumbness of
it takes something away from the quality of the
storytelling. Secondly, the "War Goddess"
title is ill-fitting for this comic book, which
could lead to a dismissal by potential readers unfamiliar
with the publishing history of Pandora who might mistake the
title as a Wonder Woman comic knock-off. A much
better and accurate title would be to stick
with "Pandora." But both of those comments
aside, the good story stuff here makes it all the
worthwhile not to miss-out getting on the bandwagon
of this new title and seeing how the new modern-day
adventures of Pandora unfold in each monthly issue.
|
|
Publisher:
Dark Horse Comics
Mike Mignola
& John Arcudi: Writers
Tonci Zonjic:
Art
Dave Stewart:
Colors
|
Dark Horse Comics has
just premiered issue #1 in a five-issue mini-series
starring Lobster Johnson. For the uninitiated,
Lobster Johnson is a 1930's crimefighting detective-noir
character from Mike Mignola's Hellboy comic book
universe, who operates outside the law as a vigilante,
killing criminals and burning his trademark
lobster claw insignia as a calling card on his victim's
foreheads. This latest Lobster Johnson mini-series
is co-scripted by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola and
John Arcudi with art by Tonci Zonjic and colors
by Dave Stewart.
The multi-issue story in this series is entitled
"The Burning Hand." The issue #1 story segment
centers on Herald Tribune reporter Cindy Tynan,
who's investigating a murder mystery on the Lower
East Side of 1930's-era New York. While at
first it seems as if there's a ghostly paranormal
element to the murder, Cindy quickly discovers that
the entire episode is an organized crime scheme
to lower real estate values and scam property owners
in the neighborhood. As Cindy follows a step-by-step
trail of mystery, readers are introduced to several
supporting story characters, including black businessman
Harry McTell, crime boss Arnie Wald and a mysterious
Nazi figure who will most likely become more active
in upcoming installments of this mini-series.
By issue's end, Cindy's sleuthing lands her in mortal
danger from the crime syndicate, just as Lobster
Johnson arrives on scene for a rescue.
This is one of those infrequent comics (at
least in my opinion) in which the script is
significantly elevated to a higher level of storytelling
quality by the unique quality of the artwork.
Croatian artist Tonci Zonjic has produced wonderful
work on such varied titles as Divas, Planet Of The
Apes and Who Is Jake Ellis?; here, he brings the
perfect visual style for portraying the 1930's Art
Deco/Detective Noir world of New York crimefighting
and murder mystery. His mix of visuals and
facial expressions in combination with colorist
Dave Stewart's perfect choice of color tones combines
with the co-writer's script for a well-paced kick-off
to a multi-issue old-school crimefighting adventure.
While Lobster Johnson himself only makes two very
brief appearances in this issue, that story structure
actually succeeds in establishing the detailed cast
of characters on a solid storytelling footing for
our vigilante hero to come center stage for the
next four issues of the series.
As a final review heads-up, just a note that
its also worth checking-out in the back of this
issue a four-page exclusive preview of a new
Conan The Barbarian series adapting Conan creator
Robert E. Howard's "Queen Of The Black Coast" story
series. This interesting-looking new title
is scripted by well-known writer Brian Wood with
art by Becky Cloonan and colors by Dave Stewart,
and is scheduled for an issue #1 release on February
8. So definitely add Dark Horse's latest Lobster
Johnson title to your ever-growing new comics reading
pile and also keep an eye out in February for
this new Conan series!
|
Contest Winners Announcement!!!
Our
latest contest challenge was our annual call for
submissions for "The Year's Best" comics for the 2011 calendar
year. Since we didn't have a winner of our previous
column's trivia contest, the Bongo Congo panel of contest
judges was able to roll-over that contest prize and thus
award two prizes for this contest (yay!). So our co-winners
for their entries for year's best comic or comics of 2011
are (drumroll, please)...Mike Dooley and Gregory Goding.
Mike
submitted three comics for his year's best, telling us in
his own words "Marvel's mini-series Mystery Men capitalizing
on the resurgence of pulp heroes is very well done.
The ongoing Star Trek book by IDW is a great idea and a "fascinating"
(to steal a phrase from Mr. Spock) series. But the
#1 book remains The Stand, Marvel's masterful retelling
of the Stephen King novel." Gregory tells us that
"my favorite comic of the past year is (Marvel's) Red Skull
Incarnate series...I particularly like the way they treated
the fall of Johann Schmidt into the evil Nazi Red Skull
as it is believable and really brings out what makes the
Red Skull ultimately tick...the covers are amazingly done...overall,
it's a very well done series even if it is quite short."
Congratulations
to both of our winners, who each receive $10.00 first
prize gift certificates to That's Entertainment, for each
nominating worthwhile comics and making worthy explanations
for why these comics are at the top of their reading piles
for 2011!
New Contest Announcement!!!
Let's cleanse our comic book reading palates with a simple
trivia contest this week. Your challenge is to e-mail
us at Gordon_A@msn.com
no later than noontime on Wednesday, February 1 with the correct
answer to the following trivia question: Which is the
only state among the 50 states in America where coffee
is grown as a commercial crop? As always, in the
event of multiple correct entries, the winner of our first
prize $10.00 gift certificate to That's Entertainment
will be selected via a roll of the dice from among the
correct entries. Please note that the gift
certificate is redeemable for regular retail
merchandise or in-store ongoing specials, only.
That's
all for now, so have two great mid-winter comic book reading
weeks and see you again on Friday, February 3 Here In Bongo
Congo!!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|