Review Date: 08/27/2010
We have an eclectic mix of comics
to review this week, including one D.C. comic, one Marvel
title
and two science fiction-themed issues, so let's see how
they all stack-up against each other:
Brightest
Day #8
Publisher: D.C. Comics
Geoff Johns & Peter J. Tomasi: Writers
Patrick Gleason, Ivan Reis & Ardian Syaf: Art
Multiple Inkers and Colorists
On the heels of last week's reviews of two spin-off titles
in DC 's ongoing "Brightest Day" event, let's tackle the
current issue #8 of the main Brightest Day title. The issue
is co-written by veteran Geoff Johns and Peter J. Tomasi,
with art by a very large teams of artists. In follow-up
to last year's Darkest Night series, Brightest Day focuses
on the mystery of 12 DC heroes and villains who have been
brought back to life by the power of the White Lantern,
to be given a second chance. Issue #8 is entitled "Defiance,"
but begins with a wonderful oil painting-like cover of Hawkgirl
with the title "Hawkgirl Unleashed!"
The issue #8 installment opens with a two-page focus on
Hawk, Dove and Deadman, in which Boston Brand/Deadman explains
to his two colleagues how the White Lantern ring that he
wears gives him clues to the mystery. The remainder of the
issue alternates back-and-forth between two sub-plots. In
the first storyline, the Martian Manhunter accesses the
memories of a female Martian, M'Gann, and learns of her
deadly battle with a violent Green Martian, thereby proving
that there is at least one additional Martian on Earth.
The second plotline is more detailed and focuses on Hawkman
and Hawkgirl following a mystery on Hawkworld. Hawkman allies
with a group of humanoid lion people and learns the history
of human and multi-species interactions on the planet, while
Hawkgirl accesses a floating city, where she is captured
and comes face-to-face with a very unexpected ruler of the
city.
The purpose of this issue is to move forward a few storythreads
of the scattered heroes as they follow their respective
paths toward solving the mysteries posed by the Brightest
Day series. As the acclaimed writer of the landmark Justice
Society of America (JSA) series, writer Geoff Johns is the
consumatte veteran in weaving a tale of multiple heroes
functioning in multiple storylines. Johns and writing partner
Peter J. Tomasi do an admirable job in providing an entertaining
issue of the ongoing story arc while moving several pieces
of the overall puzzle forward. Including the short introductory
segment, we basically have three segments of the tale advance
forward in this issue with some interesting and satisfying
progress.
While the art for the first two story segments is of decent
quality, the particular art team assigned to the Hawkman-Hawkgirl
story section excels in producing an extremely high quality
artistic style and panel lay-out. The segments focusing
on Hawkman and his lion-people allies in the Hawkworld forest
are lush and beautiful, and include a stunning full-page
panel of the group approaching two ancient and huge statues
that reminded me of certain similar grand scenes from the
Lord Of The Rings movie trilogy. So a well-deserved thumbs-up
for this issue, which works well as both an installment
of the Brightest Day series and as an entertaining stand-alone
read. And if you're a fan (as I am) of the not-too-often-featured
Hawkman and Hawkgirl, then you have three good reasons to
read this high quality and interesting new comic book.
Avengers
& The Infinity Gauntlet #1
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Brian Clevinger and Lee Black: Writers
Brian Churilla: Art
Michelle Madsen: Colors
On the scale of DC's Brightest Day mega-event, as many readers
know, Marvel's latest large-scale effort is a major multi-title
focus exploring many elements of The Avengers comic book
universe. As part of this effort, Marvel has just released
issue #1 of a planned four-issue mini-series entitled "Avengers
And The Infinity Gauntlet." The series is written by Brian
Clevinger and Lee Black, with art by Brian Churilla and
colors by Michelle Madsen.
Issue #1 is entitled "For Thanos," and begins by portraying
the instellar villain Thanos possessing the infinity gems
and thus completing his control over the mega-powerful infinity
gauntlet. Very quickly the plot shifts to Earth, where Thanos's
newfound ability to affect time and space results in approximately
half of all humanity, normal humans, heroes and villains
alike, to vanish. So its up to the remaining heroes to make
an attempt to set reality straight. Under the leadership
of Sue Storm, a small but effective team is assembled to
travel to the center of the galaxy and give it a try. A
good portion of the plot focuses on both choosing the special
team and deliberating the issue of allying with Doctor Doom
in this effort. By issues end, both issues are dealt with
and the team is readying to travel via a vehicle called
"The Star Rig" to undertake the mission.
This is a well-constructed light entertainment series. The
art is of a Saturday morning cartoon style, as are some
of the plot details, such as the introduction of a good
ol' boy truck driver named Ulysses Solomon Ace to drive
the interstellar truck Star Rig for the team. Both the plot
and visual presentation are an interesting mix of comic
book elements that work for both kids and adults. Usually
this type of comic book effort over-skews in one direction,
either too childish for adults or too adult for kids. But
in this case, the creative team strikes a very equal balance
between these two elements, giving us the rare comic that
works, at least in my opinion, for readers of varied ages.
Hats-off also to the creative team for giving us a lot of
details regarding who among the superhero world vanished
versus who remains to try and sort-out the problem. It's
a very interesting mix of partial teams and individual survivors,
which should provide a lot of entertainment as the details
of this mini-series unfold.
Doctor
Who #14
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Tony Lee: Writer
Matthew Dow Smith: Art
Charlie Kirchoff: Colors
IDW Publishing is up to issue #14 in its Doctor Who comic
book title. The series is based on the well-known BBC-produced
Doctor Who television series, which has been an historic
science fiction syndicated t.v. franchise for decades. The
comic book is scripted by Tony Lee with art by Matthew Dow
Smith and colors by Charlie Kirchoff. Issue #14 is part
two of a four-issue story arc entitled "Final Sacrifice,"
and is the final story arc starring the Tenth Doctor. Apparently,
the comic book duplicates the television series practice
of recasting actors who portray The Good Doctor from time-to-time.
Issue #14 begins with a brief but useful narrative summary
of the story arc so far. Without going into heavy detail,
the story is a bit of a complicated plot in which the Doctor
and his friends/allies have traveled to an alien world in
the far future, where they get involved in political intrigue
and conflict between two groups of human settlers on the
planet. Major characters in this conflict include a brutal
alien queen of the planet and a human enemy of the Doctor,
a time-traveling British professor who allies himself with
the alien Queen. By the end of this second story arc installment,
the historical Earth origins of the two warring groups of
settlers have been detailed and a bridge to next month's
issue is established with the arrival of powerful aliens
who appear to be allying themselves with the evil queen.
If you're a Doctor Who fan, you won't be disappointed with
this issue. The creative team is very adept at recreating
the atmosphere, dialogue and style of the beloved cult television
series. There's an interesting science fiction plot here
that reminded me of those Star Trek episodes in which the
show's stars get involved in political intrigue among factions
in an alien society. It is a much more detailed plot in
this story than your standard comic book, requiring the
reader to really focus on all of the intrigue and maneuvering
amongst the players in the story. But the heavier narrative
stuff is also nicely balanced with traditional Doctor Who
gadgets, such as Tardis, the Doctor's time portal disguised
as a British phone booth. So a positive recommendation for
this interesting and entertaining comic book, well worth
the read whether you're already a Doctor Who fan or just
looking for a good non-superhero comic book to enjoy.
On a final review note, the main story in this issue is
followed by a four-page preview of Dungeons And Dragons
#0, a new IDW Publishing title obviously based on the role-playing
game. I've never played D & D nor read anything related
to it before and thoroughly enjoyed this brief but very
interesting preview of the upcoming comic book. So we'll
plan to write a review of the upcoming new comic book title
as soon as possible in a future edition of this column.
Harlan
Ellison's Phoenix Without Ashes #1
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Harlan Ellison: Writer
Alan Robinson: Art
Kote Carvajal: Colors
A second IDW Publishing science fiction-themed comic book
for review this week is Harlan Ellison's Phoenix Without
Ashes #1. The title is scripted by the well-known science
fiction author Harlan Ellison, with art by Alan Robinson
and colors by Kote Carvajal. Unlike many previous efforts
that adapt well-known science fiction stories to comic book
format, the back cover blurb seems to indicate that this
is an original, new story written by Ellison as a four-part
mini-series.
The setting is the year 2785, and the plot centers on Devon,
a young, Amish-like farmer living in the "world-village"
of Cypress Corners. Although not stated outright, its clear
that the Town is situated within an interstellar starship,
with the simple-living villagers clueless about their more
advanced origins. An authoritative council of village elders
forbids Devon from marrying his true love, Rachel. Devon
discovers that the elders have been manipulating computer
equipment to support their iron-fisted rule. When he goes
public, the scared villagers side with the elders and pursue
Devon out of Town. This first issue ends with Devon discovering
a mysterious metal portal in the ground to further his escape
from his pursuers.
It's a common science fiction theme to plot a story about
simple-living humans who don't realize they're heirs to
a more advanced human civilization. Coincidentally, the
Doctor Who story reviewed above also included this theme.
Since its not a fresh concept, the key to any new story
is to present the story details in a way that avoids staleness
and provides some worthwhile entertainment. Its a no-brainer
that a science fiction giant such as Harlan Ellison has
the ability to avoid the potential pitfalls in revisiting
this theme. And Ellison doesn't disappoint, giving us as
well-constructed, interesting and entertaining a spin on
this well-known science fiction story idea as you'll ever
read. This first issue gets the general villagers-in-space
concept firmly established, hooking the reader into looking
forward to the next three issues, in which Devon will most
likely learn the truth about the giant spaceship and somehow
try to rescue his true love.
If you're a certified science fiction fanatic like me, you
won't feel bored at all with this latest take on a well-known
sci-fi theme as presented by one of the grand masters of
the genre. And if you're brand new to this type of story,
get on-board and enjoy the telling as presented by Harlan
Ellison and the artistic team. As with the Doctor Who issue
reviewed above, its a nice change of pace from reading the
standard superhero-themed comic book.
Contest
Winner Announcement!!!
Our latest contest posed
the trivia question of challenging you to tell us how many
baseballs are used annually in Major League Baseball (MBL)
games. We didn't receive a correct answer, but our rules
were to declare as winner the entry closest to the correct
number. The correct answer is 22,000 baseballs used annually.
Most folks guessed way above that number, with the closest
answer coming from Kevin Browne, who guessed that the number
was 72,900. Congratulations to Kevin for winning the $10.00
gift certificate to That's Entertainment.
New
Contest Announcement!!!
Let's try to rally our
Red Sox in their quest to land a wild card spot in the playoffs
with one more baseball trivia contest. E-mail us at Gordon_A@msn.com
with the answer to this question: which player has the longest
last name among all of the players in Major league Baseball?
As always, in the event that we receive multiple correct
answers, our contest winner will be selected from among
those correct answers by a roll of the dice. The winner
of the contest will receive a $10.00 gift certificate to
That's Entertainment, so enter right now!
That's all for now,
so have a great comic book reading week and see you again
next week Here In Bongo Congo!