Weird
War Tales #1 (One-Shot)
Publisher: D.C. Comics
Various Artists and Writers
DC Comics is in the process
of publishing a series of
one-shot comics honoring their
well-known Silver Age line-up
of war comics. Last week,
I reviewed the Our Army At
War one-shot, starring Sargent
Rock. This week, I'm reviewing
the one-shot of Weird War
Tales, DC's well-known title
that presented war-themed
stories with science fiction,
fantasy or horror themes,
mixed with mainstream war
stories that often featured
surprising and unexpected
twists in the plot. This commemorative
issue includes three new tales,
each presented by a different
creative team.
The first story is entitled
"Armistice Night" and is from
the well-known creative team
of Darwyn Cooke and Dave Stewart.
It's a humorous and brief
four-page horror story in
which once a year the uniform-clad
skeletons of famous figures
from military history gather
both to party and fight each
other in tribute to their
varied military pasts. The
second tale is entitled "The
Hell Above Us." Scripted by
Ivan Brandon with art by Nic
Klein, its a horror tale of
a World War II American submarine
crew trapped in their disabled
sub at the ocean's bottom.
Without giving away any spoiler
details, the story has a mix
of Stephen King-style horror
and a surprise science fiction
twist ending. The seven-page
third story is entitled "Private
Parker Sees Thunder Lizards"
and is written by Jan Strnad
with art by Gabriel Hardman
and colors by Daniel Vozzo.
Again, without revealing any
important spoiler details,
the plot centers on two U.S.
soldiers in World War II Europe
who were childhood friends,
awaiting an expected overwhelming
defeat at the hands of the
advancing German Army.
DC's Silver Age war comics
were renowned for delivering
high quality stories that
mixed entertaining military
plots with often touching
and always socially relevant
life lessons that the everyday
reader could identify with.
As with last week's Our Army
At War one-shot, this latest
Weird War Tales one-shot delivers
that old-school magic formula
once again. Both the lead-off
Darwyn Cooke-Dave Stewart
tale and Ivan Brandon's submarine
thriller effectively mix horror
and military action storylines
with a clear "Make War No
More" message. The third story
by Jan Strnad is the clear
stand-out from the trio of
tales. The creative team presents
a touching tale in which the
two Amercian GI's, trapped
and awaiting certain death,
react to their situation by
reaching back to their childhood
to reminisce about their childhood
days playing with imaginary
dinosaurs. The story is equal
to any by fantasy grandmaster
Ray Bradbury in evoking childhood
Americana as a means for the
adult story characters to
cope with the horrors of war.
While this comic is a one-shot
production, the success of
reviving the high quality
of the Weird War Tales title
in this issue supports the
suggestion that DC consider
at the least a mini-series
or limited multi-issue run
of this iconic Silver Age
comic title. Both aging fans
and newcomers alike will get
their money's worth of comic
book entertainment in this
commemorative issue of weird
but wonderful war tales presented
in a mix of science fiction,
fantasy and horror storytelling
styles.
Batgirl
#14
Publisher: D.C. Comics
Bryan Q. Miller: Writer
Lee Garbett: Penciller
Trevor Scott: Inker
Guy Major: Colorist
The current Batgirl series
is up to issue #14, presenting
a pre-Halloween tale co-starring
Batgirl, Supergirl and (surprise!)
Dracula. The ongoing series
is scripted by Bryan Q. Miller
with pencils by Lee Garbett,
inks by Trevor Scott and colors
by Guy Major. For newcomers
to this series, the current
Batgirl is Stephanie Brown,
a college student at Gotham
University who is mentored
and guided in her Batgirl
adventures via electronic
communication with The Oracle,
the wheelchair-bound Barbara
Gordon, daughter of Gotham
Police Commissioner Gordon
and herself the former and
very first Batgirl.
The issue #14 story is entitled
"Terror In The Third Dimension!"
The plot is a flat-out comedy,
in which Supergirl in her
secret identity comes to Gotham
to visit Stephanie. When the
two take-in a campy Dracula
movie being shown on-campus,
a nearby college physics lab
experiment goes awry, leading
to 24 frames of the film being
transformed into 24 3-D, real-world
Draculas. Its up to the girls
to don their costumes and
disperse of the two dozen
Draculas via the driving of
physics lab light sticks as
stakes through each of the
vampire's hearts. Each of
the very cheesey, B-movie
Draculas is caught in an endless
loop of repeatedly acting-out
the terribly-acted scene from
which they emerged out of
the movie, wandering about
Gotham and stumbling into
everyday city situations while
performing the grating scene
in public. By tales end, our
heroic duo have completed
the task of dispensing with
the two dozen vampires, with
Stephanie's mom none-the-wiser
that the pair were either
superheros or did anything
out-of-the-ordinary on their
Friday night out and about
the campus.
Writer Bryan Q. Miller has
been scripting this title
for a long time now, and has
skillfully included a sharp,
edgy and very funny dialogue
into every plot of the series.
In this single-issue, stand-alone
Halloween story, he ratchets-up
the humor into full-blown
comedy in this plot. The dialogue
between Batgirl/Stephanie
and Supergirl/Kara is superb,
as the girls seamlessly complete
each other's comedic observations
and zingers. The destroying
of the 24 Draculas is also
kept on the light side (no
pun intended), as they're
literally constructed as 3-D
light manifestations from
the film and thus not really
creatures being killed. The
result is light-hearted and
extremely entertaining, completely
lacking in the pretentiousness
or snarkiness that unfortunately
can sometimes result in many
humor-themed comics these
days. It also succeeds very
well in cementing a strong
and obvious bond of friendship
between the two young superheroines,
one that is very believable
and hopefully will be repeated
in a future repeat visit by
Supergirl to her Gotham counterpart
in this Batgirl comic book
title.
So for an early, pre-Halloween
treat, give a well-deserved
read to this funny and very
entertaining comic book. It
will serve as a nice balance
to the heavier, more blood-and-gore
styled comics that are sure
to be published in the next
month as we get closer to
Halloween.
Batman
#703
Publisher: D.C. Comics
Fabian Nicieza: Writer
Cliff Richards: Art
Ian Hannin: Colors
This month's issue #703 of
the main Batman title is scripted
by Fabian Nicieza with art
by Cliff Richards and colors
by Ian Hannin. The title currently
stars Dick Grayson as Batman
in place of the missing Bruce
Wayne, with Damien, the young
son of Bruce Wayne and Ras
Al Ghul's daughter, featured
as the current version of
Robin. This issue is sub-titled
on the front cover as "A Prelude
To Bruce Wayne: The Road Home,"
and as such lays some preliminary
story groundwork for D.C.'s
upcoming and long-expected
return of the original Batman,
Bruce Wayne.
Entitled "The Great Escape,"
this tale features two interweaving
sub-plots. The first is a
traditional "hunt down the
supervillain" storyline, as
Batman and Robin struggle
to try and capture a high
tech-costumed and powered
thief. Tim Drake/Red Robin
joins the effort, as clues
seem to identify the foe as
an old nemesis of Bruce Wayne.
The plot is further complicated
with the involvement of investigative
newspaper reporter Vicki Vale.
Without being a spoiler, the
group eventually captures
said high tech crook and reveals
the villain as having a surprise
identity. Our second storyline
is more introspective, as
throughout the adventure Dick
Grayson and Damien pause at
times and reflect on how they
miss Bruce Wayne and what
he means to them. Each helps
the other come to grips with
problems in their respective
relationships with the missing
Batman, thus laying the groundwork
for both heroes to work things
out with Wayne upon his upcoming
return to Gotham.
I enjoyed this Batman issue
for two basic reasons. Regarding
the first storyline, the catch-the-villain
sub-plot was well-constructed
and interesting. It was very
enjoyable following the team-up
of the three Batman family
members in both pursuing their
skilled opponent and ultimately
learning the crook's secret
identity and motivation for
the crimes committed. Even
more effective was the second
plotline. I've been waiting
for a few years now for someone
at DC to finally present a
story that gives the little
psychopath Damien/Robin a
shred of humanity within his
warped personality. Writer
Fabian Nicieza finally takes
a decent first step into humanizing
the kid, via a very realistic
and well-written scene in
which Damien finally expresses
some human feelings to Dick
Grayson about his hopes and
fears regarding the fate of
Bruce Wayne. The behavior
is just at the right level
of emotion to provide some
crediblity that the current
Robin has a long way to go,
but has a speck of human empathy
in him that could flourish
with the return of his father,
Bruce Wayne.
So a positive thumbs-up recommendation
for this Batman issue, which
succeeds both as a stand-alone,
well-presented Batman Family
tale and as an excellent and
entertaining preview step
into the upcoming world of
The Return Of Bruce Wayne.
Welcome
To Tranquility #3
Publisher: Wildstorm
Gail Simone: Writer
Horacio Domingues: Art
Jonny Rench: Colors
DC's Wildstorm imprint has
a new comic entitled "Welcome
To Tranquility" that is up
to a current issue #3. The
comic book is written by veteran
writer Gail Simone, known
among other titles for her
work on Birds Of Prey and
Wonder Woman, with art by
Horacio Domingues amd colors
by Jonny Rench. Simone created
this series in an earlier
numbered sequence started
in 2006, establishing a retired
set of Wildstorm Universe
heroes and villains living
in the fictional California
town of (you guessed it) Tranquility.
Issue #3 is part 3 of a multi-issue
story arc entitled "Homecoming-An
Armor Of History". The story
begins with a brief flashback
to twenty years earlier, in
which a hero who resembles
The Spirit and his wife are
forced to commit their violently
dangerous son to a mental
institution. Flash-forward
to the present-day, and the
kid is all grown-up and has
returned to Town to exact
a violent revenge on his family
and their friends. The tension
builds thriller-style throughout
this issue as certain town
heroes search for the son,
while on a parallel track
he makes his way about Town
laying the groundwork for
his revenge. The issue ends
in a cliffhanger, as the son
commits his first act of bloody
violence leading to more action
in next month's issue.
The creative team does a credible
job on two counts here, first
in giving us a fresh and interesting
world of new superheros and
villains in an interesting
small town setting, and secondly
in presenting a thriller-style
story that steadily builds
page-by-page to the climax
of the issue-ending violent
act and cliffhanger. The main
problem here is for the brand-new
reader, such as myself, to
this series. There's no page
one-narrative either briefly
explaining the concept of
this comic title or highlights
of the plot to-date. The lack
of this information really
leaves the new reader hanging
as to who these characters
are, the concept of Tranquility
and what exactly is going-on
in this issue, to the point
where in many important ways,
this isn't an understandable
story as a stand-alone, single
issue read.
So a mixed review for this
alternative superhero universe
concept. The quality of this
title is solid, but as presented
in issue #3, I wouldn't recommend
reading this issue first.
Instead, check-out the back
issue inventory at That's
Entertainment for some copies
of the first, 2006 run of
this title, or at least first
read issue #1 and #2 of the
current title run, before
jumping-into this month's
current issue #3.
Contest Winner Announcement!!!
Our
latest contest challenge
was for you to tell
us who your favorite
writer or writers
are on today's comic
scene, and what
qualities make him/her/them
such stand-outs
for your comic book
reading enjoyment.
And our winner is
(drumroll, please)...David
Ruiz, who tells
us that his current
favorite writer
is Claudio Sanchez
of the band Coheed
and Cambria and
the comic "The Amory
Wars." David adds
that "buying his
books to see how
the story unfolds
as related to the
music is really
what has got me
into comics. While
The Amory Wars and
Kill Audio still
make up most of
my comic collection,
I am slowly branching
out into other sci-fi,
hero and other comics
because of it."
Congrats to David
for his entry for
a very creative
writer and explanation
of both why he enjoys
his writing and
how its expanding
his comic book reading
interests into other
aspects of our favorite
hobby. David receives
a $10.00 gift certificate
to That's Entertainmnet
for his first prize
contest entry.
New Contest Announcement!!!
As we head for the home stretch of our current baseball season, the Bongo Congo panel of contest judges just can't resist announcing at least one more baseball trivia contest. Your challenge for this week is to e-mail us at Gordon_A@msn.com with the answer to the following trivia challenge: What two current Major League Baseball teams are the current versions of the old, historic Saint Louis Browns and Washington Senators changing their respective team names and moving to new cities? Our first prize winner will receive a $10.00 gift certificate to That's Entertainment. As always, in the event of multiple correct contest entries, the winner will be chosen from among the correct entries by a roll of the dice.
That's all for this week, so have a great comic book reading (and baseball watching!) week and see you again next week Here In Bongo Congo!