Happy Saturday, everyone. Once again, we here at Comixtreme.com are here to help you get through a dreary weekend with the help of the
Done-In-One review thread. What have we got for you this week? Some genius kids, some FBI agents, the odd superhero and alien, a visit with the undead, a monstrous devil bent on bringing about the apocalypse and a few guys that, frankly, probably aren’t all that different from you. Let’s take a look, shall we?
3 Geeks: Slab Madness #3 (3 Finger Prints)
By Rich Koslowski
Allen has been found by the members of the CGC, who believe him to be their "Chosen One," he who can grade a comic flawlessly. But Sky Branovan arrives at his coronation to put a damper on things. As much as they hate it, Jim and Keith find themselves on the side of their greatest enemy in order to save their best friend. This is a really funny conclusion to the Geeks' return miniseries. It's a targeted, yet loving, parody of a part of comic book culture that you definitely don't see getting a lot of discussion in the pages of the comics themselves. Koslowski's story reminds me of why I've loved these characters in their infrequent appearances over the years, and hopefully, he's put together a story that will also appeal to those who didn't get into them earlier. This was a fine re-introduction into the world of the Three Geeks, and I certainly hope we don't have to wait that long to see them again.
Rating: 4/5 --Blake M. Petit
DMZ #41 (DC Comics/Vertigo)
By Brian Wood & Nikki Cook
Zee is not happy with the state of the world. Even though she’s lived in the DMZ since the war started, the current situation with Parco and Matty has left a bad taste. She needs space to think and so she sets out back into the wilds of Manhattan. While things have changes politically, for those so close to the ground like Zee, there remains the overall motivation for living there: Survival. And now there is a new cell of people trying to do that; the Trustwell mercenaries have been abandoned by their company and left to fend for themselves, and for all of their training, they just don’t have the skills of day to day living in the belly of hell. They are being picked off one by one by the locals as well. It’s in this new dynamic that Zee suddenly finds herself in a moral quandary. Does she dare give aid and comfort to these people? Does she dare open her heart in that madness? I must say with all that's been happening I wondered what happened to Zee and I’m glad the Brian Wood is focusing on her, as she was always an intriguing character. This title continues to push my buttons even after all this time, and I can’t recommend it enough.
Rating: 4/5 --Terry Verticchio
Ender's Shadow: Battle School #4 (Marvel Universe)
By Orson Scott Card, Mike Carey, Sebastian Fiumara, Giulia Brusco
Bean's exploration of the Battle School leads him to discover more about the legendary "Ender Wiggin," the prodigy to whom he finds himself constantly compared. As he begins to unearth things about the school and the war that Ender himself isn't privy to, back on Earth Sister Carlotta continues her own exploration into Bean's origins. Already here, we're starting to see hints of how Bean's intellect is actually superior to Ender's, about how he unlocks puzzles Ender didn't even realize were there. But as the adults continue their observation, it becomes clear that Ender has some qualities that Bean lacks. Of the two series, this one works so much better as a layer of Ender's Game, as something that really needs to be explored after you've already made the journey with Ender on his own at least once. For that reason, I'm a little wary of the fact that Marvel is putting out both series simultaneously. People who haven't read Ender's Game will find themselves opening up doors in the wrong order and it will lessen the impact of the climax of Ender's story. But taken on its own, as a story in its own right, this really has proven to be a marvelous adaptation of a great novel.
Rating: 4.5/5 --Blake M. Petit
Eureka #4 (Boom! Studios)
By Andrew Cosby, Brendan Hay, Diego Barreto, & Digikore Studios
Jo explains her seeming betrayal to everyone, finally revealing the truth about her and Brogan, while Carter attempts to track him down. Unbeknownst to everyone, Brogan and Allison are inside Global, where he reveals his plan to her. But Jo thinks she knows what Brogan really wants, and everyone eventually converges to try and fix the problem, which sort of fixes itself. (And sort of doesn't.) This zips along just fine, with snappy dialog and a touch of schmaltz, but also some violence to balance the seemingly happy ending. (There's a hint at the very end that suggests this isn't the last we've heard of the story.) The artwork is pretty good, it flows well, it just had a problem with occasional stiffness, and some really heavy inking. Overall, not bad. I'm not a fan of the show, but I liked this miniseries, which seemed like a more streamlined, action packed episode. I wouldn't mind if there was a sequel to this either.
Rating: 3.5/5 --Andrea Speed
Farscape: Strange Detractors #1 (Boom! Studios)
By Rockne S. O'Bannon, Keith R.A. Decandido, Will Sliney, & Zac Atkinson
You're probably saying “Didn't the first Farscape miniseries just end?” Yes it did! But it was well received and sold superbly, so here we have the next one ready to go. And it isn't bad. John's wondering if settling down on a planet with Aeryn and Deke is the right thing to do or even plausible (I'm going to say no), while the group stop at a commerce planet to buy stuff. But it seems something's going wrong, and along with a mysterious cough passing from being to being, there's a sense of stroppiness, and suddenly everyone is at each other's throats. What's going on? Is Jothee fed up with Chiana for real? (As they were fighting long before they went to the planet.) The artwork is a little more brightly cartoonish this time out, but in a way that's an improvement over the artwork in the first miniseries, which, while not bad, wasn't as good as it could have been. Story gets points off for a certain predictability, but the '50's sitcom start was a nice touch.
Rating: 3.5/5 --Andrea Speed
Ignition City #1 (Avatar Press)
By Warren Ellis, Gianluca Pagliarani, Chris Drier, & Digikore Studios
Mary Raven is an adventurer who lives in a steampunk sort of world. It's an alternate history '50's, where everyone's already been to space, and since the aliens up there are so nasty and hard to deal with, few people are bothering to go to space anymore. Mary longs to go back, though, and when her astronaut father dies she travels to the eponymous Ignition City, and artificial spaceport island that is now going to seed, bereft and abandoned by everyone but the former astronauts (and others) who live there. It's not a real happy place, and things are just getting worse. This is an intriguing idea that builds slowly, and I'm not sure I care all that much about Mary or her father either, which hampers some investment in the story. But the basic premise is pretty much gold. The art benefits from many well detailed backgrounds and panels that are astonishing in the scope, but sometimes the people come off as stiff and perhaps just a tad off model. Not quite the home run at the start that Black Summer was, but this is still a decent start to a series. Let's see where it goes from here.
Rating: 3.5/5 --Andrea Speed
The Living Corpse Annual #1 (Zenescope Entertainment)
By Ken Haeser & Buz Hasson
I've read The Living Corpse before, but I'm not a regular reader. I had to pick up this annual, though, to see his interaction with our old pals from Hack/Slash, Cassie and Vlad. As our favorite slayer-killers make their way to the northeast to seek out the brutal beast called the Jersey Devil, the encounter the sentient zombie who has been sharing their mission to send the brutal dead back to the grave. We get the typical "heroes misunderstand each other then fight" scene, only to be followed up by a pretty surprising revelation about Cassie and the Corpse having a shared past. I rather wish Haeser had dealt more with that idea, as the main story from there is kind of run-of-the-mill. Misunderstanding ends, heroes team-up, fight the monster, repeat. The artwork is a little iffy as well. It works for the Corpse, and even to Vlad when he's got his mask on, but Cassie doesn't really look right in this style. It's not bad, but I wouldn't say it's a must-read for Hack/Slash fans.
Rating: 3.5/5 --Blake M. Petit
The Stand: American Nightmares #2 (Marvel Comics)
By Stephen King, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Mike Perkins & Laura Martin
The Superflu's last few victims struggle with the disease, leading to an uncomfortable confrontation for Nick Andros. Trapped in a prison of the dead, Lloyd looks for a way to stay alive. Frannie and Harold hatch a plan, and the insidious Randall Flagg begins his own campaign. the highlight of this issue, though, is Trashcan Man's stories. One of the most bizarre characters (human characters, at least) in Stephen King's table, Aguirre-Sacasa does a good job of delving into his past. In fact, it's one of the few instances where his overreliance on expository captions works, fleshing out the extended flashback scenes in a much more effective fashion than they do the "present-day" sequences where they're used too often. Perkins and Martin's artwork is still particularly remarkable. As a visual adaptation, the book really is flawless. The look is great, and the characters' emotions play across their faces in a way that tell the story even more effectively than the words. Aquirre-Sacasa has two main drawbacks -- he doesn't trust the art enough to allow it to tell the story, and he doesn't know how to craft the dialogue to do the job. He's improving, but the crutch of the captions is still kind of tiresome.
Rating: 4/5 --Blake M. Petit
Tiny Titans #15 (DC Comics/Johnny DC)
By Art Baltazar & Franco
It's Pet Club time again for the tiny Titans, and Supergirl has an entire legion of pets with her (if you'll excuse the pun). Zatara joins up this month as well, along with his bunny Abby -- which is fine until she stirs up a couple of Supergirl's pets, leading to the usual chaos. We also see Rose babysitting the Tiny Terror Titans, only to discover they aren't the easiest kids to feed. It seems like this is a quicker issue than usual, perhaps because there are only the two stories, but the epilogue sequence is a nice little treat for longtime fans of one of DC's top families. The issue, as usual, is very funny, and the artwork is top-notch. It's really no wonder this book actually cracked the New York Times graphic novel bestseller list.
Rating: 4/5 --Blake M. Petit
The X-Files #6 (DC Comics/Wildstorm)
By Doug Moench & Brian Denham
Once again, Fox Mulder enters into a dangerous situation blindly and quickly finds himself in mortal danger. He’s stuck deep inside a cave, surrounded by albino CHUDS. In the meantime, Scully gains the assistance of local law enforcement to go out in search of her idiot partner. In the meanertime, the man at the centre of all this madness, a supposed serial killer named Dante, appears and makes a startling declaration. This is a good X-Files story, it crosses all the ‘t’s and dots all the ‘i’s concerning overall themes, but in the end everything left me a little cold. I guess this concept works better as a TV show, than a bi-monthly comic. The art has the necessary murky nature that The X-Files requires. If you’re a fan I feel you will take away some consolation at seeing your favourite characters, but if your not, well, I don’t think you’ll come away with much of anything.
Rating: 3/5 —Terry Verticchio
Zorro #12 (Dynamite Entertainment)
By Matt Wagner, Cezar Razek
Major Pasquale comes up with a new offensive against Zorro -- find an imposter to discredit him. And in his ranks, he finds the perfect candidate, a man with an axe of his own to grind against the Fox. Don Diego, meanwhile, makes a rather unexpected play for Lolita's affections. Again, Matt Wagner is doing a great job of showing the dichotomy between the adventurous nature of Zorro and the impotent disguise of Don Diego. The character really is the prototype of the whole superhero genre, and Wagner is doing a fine job of balancing those elements of the character with the western aspects. The last page sets things up nicely for next issue, and hopefully, for quite a battle to come.
Rating: 4/5 --Blake M. Petit
April 18th 2009, 04:50 PM
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