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Review Date: Friday, January 28,
2011
Good King Leonardo has decreed that we review this
week two new Marvel limited edition titles, followed
for a change of pace by a review of an offbeat new independent
comic book: |
![](../../review_images/2011/20110128_thumbnail_002.jpg) |
Wolverine
And Jubilee #1
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Kathryn Immonen: Writer
Phil Noto: Art |
Marvel Comics has just published issue
#1 of a new 4-issue mini-series starring the duo of
older X-Man Wolverine and younger X-Teen Jubilee. The
series is scripted by Kathryn Immonen with art by Phil
Noto. A page one narrative very helpfully sets the background
for this new series, explaining two key points to readers
such as myself who don't regularly follow the current
X-Men universe story events. The first point explains
that Jubilation "Jubilee" Lee is a teen mutant who wields
energy-blast power and has served as Wolverine's young
sidekick. Due to recent M-Day events, she's lost her
powers. The second point tells us that as part of recent
"vampire invasion" events in other X-Men titles, Jubilee
has been bitten and turned into a vampire, herself.
Issue #1 is entitled "Curse," and centers on various
issues of the vampire problem storyline. The story begins
with Jubilee detained by the X-Men, after being treated
to control her vampire bloodlust while still being stuck
as a nighttime-living vampire. This plot thread focuses
on the emotional side of Jubilee's vampire status, as
she struggles with the counseling of Wolverine, Emma
Frost and a few of the teen X-Men to come to terms with
her new and terrifying status. A second plotline introduces
a mysterious local female adult vampire, who befriends
Jubilee in downtown San Franscisco and mysteriously
starts to mentor her. Jubilee disappears, only to be
found by Wolverine when she's set-up by her new vampire
mentor for a mass murder for which she's innocent. The
issue concludes with Wolverine planning a major shift
in both strategy and geographical location in order
to clear his friend's name and protect her from the
vampire bad guys.
This is an interesting and very entertaining new mini-series,
for a few reasons. For non-regular X-Men readers like
me, its a very fresh approach to pair the old-school
X-Men led by Wolverine and Emma Frost with the newcomers,
such as Jubilee and her friend Pixie. The vampire premise
sounded cheesey at first, but in the skilled writing
hands of Kathryn Immonen, the plot is very plausible
and connects the seemingly disparate worlds of X-Men
and vampires seamlessly together. There's a workable
balance here between teen angst via Jubilee's situation
and standard superhero mystery and action, which heats-up
every time Wolverine and Emma Frost take charge of the
situation. Finally, its always a treat to read another
series with art by the popular Phil Noto. As I mentioned
in last week's review column, Noto's art is one of my
favorites both in style and emphasis on pleasing pastel
coloring. Hats-off to Noto also for his particular rendering
of Wolverine, which captures a strong resemblance to
Hugh Jackman of movie Wolverine fame.
So a well-deserved review recommendation for you to
get on-board for the first issue of this four-part mini-series.
It should be fun to see where the mystery and action
leads all of our characters as this limited series moves
forward. |
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Captain
America & The Korvac Saga #2
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Ben McCool: Writer
Craig Rousseau: Art
Rachelle Rosenberg: Colors |
Our second limited edition title for this
week's reviews is issue #2 of Captain America And The
Korvac Saga, part of a four-issue mini-series from Marvel
Comics. The title is written by Ben McCool, with art
by Craig Rousseau and colors by Rachelle Rosenberg.
For the uninitiated, Korvac is a 1970's Marvel character
who briefly appeared in a handful of issues, as a bad
guy from an alternate universe who became a cyborg and
tried to conquer the universe.
The issue #2 story segment is entitled "Souljacker."
The issue begins with Captain America having jailed
Korvac for whatever shenanigans he was up to in last
month's issue #1. The futuristic Guardians Of The Galaxy
team of interstellar superheros arrives on the scene
to take Korvac away for their own captive purposes.
Captain America resists, and in the melee Korvac escapes
through a time portal to the 31st century. The second
half of the issue is all action, as Captain America
and two of the Guardians fight Korvac in the 31st century.
As Korvac gains in unstoppable power, our heroes figure-out
that Galactus, of all characters, holds the only technology
able to contain the cyborg villain. The issue concludes
as the trio of heroes prepare to visit Galactus's enormous
spaceship to try and obtain the weapon needed to stop
the villain.
Bringing-back a fairly obscure bad guy from the 1970's
can be a risky undertaking, but the creative team does
a very good job here of combining Marvel universe footnote
Korvac with Captain America and The Guardians Of The
Universe. There's a nice science fiction edge to the
plot storyline and atmosphere, which one doesn't see
very often in a Captain America feature. It's fun to
see Captain America's reaction to the situation, as
he's thrown into a very alien 31st century environment.
The premise here is that Cap has never crossed paths
with Korvac, The Guardians or even Galactus, so its
interesting to observe as bit-by-bit these players are
explained to him and he has to struggle to absorb the
future shock of the situation while maintaining his
focus on getting the bad guy.
So similar to the Wolverine/X-Men situation in the review
above, its very worthwhile to add this unique take on
the adventures of Captain America to your current issues
reading pile. |
![](../../review_images/2011/20110128_thumbnail.jpg) |
The
Guild: Vork
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Felicia Day & Jeff Lewis: Writers
Darick Robertson & Richard Clark: Art
Dave Stewart: Colors |
Dark Horse Comics has just published a
one-shot comic entitled The Guild: Vork. The comic is
based on the internet comedy webshow The Guild, created
and written by Felicia Day. This comic book-edition
of the series is written by Felicia Day and Jeff Lewis,
with art by Darick Robertson and Richard Clark, and
colors by Dave Stewart. Similar to the webshow, the
comic tells the story of the players who make-up an
online game guild, similar to one of the band of players
in the World Of Warcraft online game.
This particular one-shot story focuses mainly on Herman,
a middle-aged member of the guild whose character in
the game is known as Sir Vork. The story alternates
between and interconnects Herman's real and online lives.
In the real world, Herman lives with his 90-plus-year-old
grandfather, a good-hearted but wacky old-timer who
gets the two of them into trouble everywhere they go.
On-line, the meek Herman lets his frustrations vent
as the bossy Sir Vork, to the point where his fellow
guilders boot him from the guild to teach him a lesson.
Without spoiling any details, by issue's end Herman/Sir
Vork faces his problems in both worlds and things come
to a fair resolution in both realms.
The story here is dominated by non-stop, wacky humor
that works consistently well. The creative team does
a very credible job of developing the plot of an everyday
mensch who let's his tough guy fantasies emerge within
the game, getting burned in both realms but accepting
some valuable lessons and happily working things out
in the end for himself, his grandfather and his online
friends. Besides the comedy, there's a very worthwhile
life lesson going on here amidst the well-deserved laughs,
regarding being decent to your friends and family, as
well as learning to compromise in life's situations
to the fair benefit of all involved.
While I had never heard of The Guild web series before
reading this comic book, the high quality of this one-shot
makes me want to definitely check-out this web sensation,
as well as check-out four planned future The Guild one-shots
that Felicia Day is spearheading at Dark Horse Comics.
So cleanse your palate of your ordinary superhero reading,
oh web guild warriors, and join us in reading The Guild:Vork
now! |
Contest
Winner Announcement!!!
Surprisingly, we didn't have any entries to
our current contest challenging you to pitch us your favorite
animated, comic-related television series. However, we did
receive a solid entry from Greogory Goding pitching his
favorite t.v. comic-related series, which happened to be
non-animated. Gregory makes a good case for nominating Human
Target as his favorite comic book genre-related television
show. The Fox series is based on the comic book featuring
Christopher Chance as a mercenary-for-hire who takes the
place of his clients to protect them against whatever danger
they're facing.
Gregory likes the show because it has plenty of action and
provides decent entertainment. While he hasn't read the
DC comic book, the show will motivate him to check it out
at some point. So the Bongo Congo panel of contest judges
congratulates Gregory for an excellent entry and awards
him the $10.00 first prize gift certificate to That's Entertainment!
New
Contest Announcement!!!
Good King Leonardo just can't wait for Major
League Baseball spring training to start, only about 4 or
5 weeks away, now. So to get us through the "hot stove"
winter league of baseball rumors, what-ifs and just plain
anticipation for our Boston Red Sox, the King has decreed
that we offer you a mid-winter baseball trivia question.
Your challenge this week is to e-mail us at Gordon_A@msn.com
with the correct answer to the following trivia question:
Who is the only person in Major League Baseball history
to have worn the uniform of all four of the New York-area
major league clubs-the Yankees, Giants, Brooklyn Dodgers
and the Mets? As always, in the event of more than one correct
entry, the winner of the $10.00 prize gift certificate to
That's Entertainment will be chosen from among the correct
answers via a roll of the dice.
That's all for now, so have a great comic
book reading and mid-winter sports-watching week, and see
you again next week Here In Bongo Congo!
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