| Posted: 08 Apr 2007 20:27 |
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Good review. I think our troops are today's superheroes. It's like you said they took the fight to the bad guys instead of waiting for them to come to us when we least expect it. It might not be a perfect war, but nothing ever is in this world.
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| Posted: 12 Apr 2007 21:29 |
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so true
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| Posted: 15 Apr 2007 18:25 |
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Week #13
Wonder Woman: Land of the Dead
This was WEAK. I checked it out from the library (I'd never buy Wonder Woman) because it was relatively recent. First off, it had those cheap papery pages that only D.C. is cheap enough to use any more. Secondly, just look at the cover art, it makes her look lop-sided! Anyways, it's called "Land of the Dead" but half of it is a Flash and Wonder Woman team up to fill in the rest of the graphic novel. One Flash issue combined with one Wonder Woman one to make a short story about them fighting the Cheetah (or whatever that one female villain's called) and Reverse Flash. They spend two issues trying to catch them and when they finally get the Cheetah subdued and Reverse Flash in WW(Wonder Woman)'s rope, Cheetah bites Wonder Woman and they escape. "They Won." "For now." The end? What a waste of an crossover, and what a klutz WW is in it (despite being blind). Oh, and I forgot to mention the page and a half long "So far in Wonder Woman" entry that gives you all the little details of the past however long in Wonder Woman. This was small font too so by the time I read it I was just relieved to get to the comic. The team-up was between two of the characters in D.C. (Flash&WW) that I think just shouldn't have their own series'. I mean, WW might, but how many ways can Flash run and save someone? They're good in Justice League but there's a reson Batman and Superman have like 5 movies each and all Flash and WW've got is some old TV shows. Ayways, the Land of the Dead was just a three issue arc after the team-up that was lame in my eyes. They had WW and Wonder Girl, along with some guy with a bull's head descend into the underworld by order of Athena in exchange for WW's sight (rmemeber she's currently blind)back. They beat the gods using some power thingy Athena gave them, and Wonder Girl finds out that Ares (god of war) is her father, and in Hade's demise he takes the throne of the underworld. It was lame reading, for me anyways. It just wasn't entertaining and The whole gods thing is just boring to me. It's like Greek Lit. with a slight WW twist. And then it ends and you ask yourself, why did I read that?!? Oh, and the art was OK, nothin special, nothin horrible. Maybe if I took my time with this and was in the mood it would've been bearable.
I was originally lenaing towards a 2, but looking back it was same old smae old weak WW story and a poorly assembled Graphic Novel as a whole, without a theme even, disrupted by two totally irrelevent WW stories except for that they were the issues next to each other. The team-up was better than the supposed main story "Land of the Dead." 1 out of 5
The writing wasn't so bad, but it was just a boring plot and execution of plot overall...for me. 
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| Posted: 30 Apr 2007 19:13 |
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Week #14
B.P.R.D.: The Black Flame
This is the spinoff series form Hellboy, who's left the team. However, this opens a spotlight on the side characters in a team where each person has their part. I especially like Abe Sapien (the fish guy from the movie) and Roger, a Homunculus who's becoming a great leader in the war against the giant frogs. It also has Liz (fire girl form the movie) and Captain Daimio who led a platoon in Iraq and died. They don't know how he came back. Anyways, with this set of unique and entertaining characters, a traditional Mike Mignola story is crafted involving a Nazi wannabe (Black Flame) leading the plague of giant frogs and ressurecting a giant deformed monster thing that destroys cities in its steps. So, overall I found it to be a lot of fun and a great team book. The downside, many would say is the simple and stylized art, not quite as detailed as Mignola's, I still found Jon Arcudi's (artist and co-writer) art fitting for the book. On a normal title, like Spider-man it would look horrible, but in this monster book of guns and explosions, it does its job in depicting the mood of the book. This book is also one of only about 6 B.P.R.D. graphic novels, which, unlike titles like Spider-man, gives them a realistic timeline where one can relate events from each book, there's only one set of continuinity. It gives casualties and character intrigue a bit of a developed over a realistic timeline feel. So I thought this was a fun, entertaining book, and would buy a B.P.R.D. set if it had all of their stuff in one big book, or volumes in a case or something.
4 out of 5
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| Posted: 09 May 2007 20:12 |
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Week #15
Hellboy Vol.6: Strange Places
I bought this one because I wanted some more Mignola stuff, preferably B.P.R.D. but this was what they had. It also had a one issue B.P.R.D. story as a two pack deal. But anyway, this was interesting and a new look on the Hellboy character. It's a later volume and thanks to the movie I know the basic Hellboy story. The first story in here was "The Third Wish." Hellboy travels to Africa and ends up under the sea with a nail in his head that is allowing him to breathe. This was put in by some mermaids who were granted one wish by a big evil mermaid women thing in return for the deed. She has Hellboy captured, and has given the mermaid's their wishes. The evil mermaid wants to kill Hellboy to destroy and seperate him into a million pieces because his right hand of doom will cause the end of the world. The wishes of the mermaids caused 2 of their demises as the evil mermaid twisted their wishes to do so. (As in, I wish I was with my loved one, but he turns out to be dead, so to be with him the evil mermaid kills the mermaid.) The third mermaid however, wishes for her father's war sword to place on his grave. She does so but her father's spirit is mad that she captured Hellboy for an old memorial and tells her to free Hellboy with the sword. The evil mermaid gets her powers from souls in jars that can't go to heaven or hell while under her control. So, the third mermaid frees Hellboy and he kills the evil mermaid, which busts open the jars. Now the good mermaid must take over the position that the evil mermaid held and be alone for eternity since she has no power because of the busting of the jars. Hellboy goes, and her father's spirit which told her to free Hellboy says, I'll stay with you. What really made it sentimental and great was that the freed souls from the jars come out as doves, soaring to the Heavens. The result of it all is a mystical yet errie and stylized story as only a Hellboy comic can bring.
The next story was the most recent Hellboy comic, from back in 2006 (or maybe 2005) "The Island." It was weird in the boring way for a while and takes place after Hellboy washes up on shore in a strange island. He was down there for apparently 2 years! Anyway, in the end, Hellboy gets stabbed by some weird creature, nearly dies, and finds out some story about the beginning of the world and how his hand is evil. He kills them I guess, it was kind of weird, butt these guys too were like "Your hand is evil!!!" And he was like "Screw You." I'd say that's really the best way to describe this book.
The art was unique in that Hellboy way but fun to look at with good environments and a cool looking Hellboy. The fact that Mignola is artist and writer gives him true hold of his creativity and in one of the two forewords he tells how he started the story after getting inspired by seeing an island with old boats on it. I've always liked the idea of stories being formulated from an artists' single inspirational vision they may see, or even think up randomly.
Anyways, despite the Island's somewhat bland story and lame version of the world's origin, the third wish was good and the art on both was unique and fun to look at. Add a couple of unprinted bonus pages, skecthes, and forewords with Hellboy's timely one-liners and you've got a book with underlying themes, great mood setting, occasional action, and a style seen nowhwere else.
I actually give it a 4 out of 5 thanks to its originality in a comic industry of remakes, and the doves flying out of the water to their souls freedom really topped it off.
And I bought it, so it gets a 4.
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| Posted: 14 May 2007 19:44 Last Edited By: SuperDude |
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Week #16
Ex Machina Vol. 4: March To War
This was pretty lame. It was set a couple years back after the attack of the twin towers, and this guy who can talk to electronics stopped one plane. This book might be kind of cool if it just focused on this vigilante part, but it's really about the actual guy, new mayor of New York. It deals with his political struggles as a group of democrats goes down New York protesting the war. One is a former staff member who he loves apparentl (the girl on the cover). Gases are deployed in the streets by an unknown terrorist and there are a couple casualties. She's hurt and eventually dies in the hospital. He, meanwhile has gone and found the terrorist (before she actually dies) and it turns out to be some immigrant American. Last panel=the doctor pronouncing the girl in the hospital dead. Then it goes on to a new story arc. It spent about 4 issues on that lame story building up for the guy easily catching the random bad guy. What a waste, and a boring plot about "real life situations with a weird, retired super hero spin", I guess. Oh, and this is one of those books where they cuss and stuff without bleeping it out, so I guess I should've expected a bland story that all the critics would love but I would hate. Anyway, the next two issue arc was just him remembering himself fighting some dude who could talk to animals like he could talk to electronics. he kills this guy by recording his voice and playing it backwards, setting a bunch of hungry dogs on the bad guy, rather than visa versa. It was alright, but this guys super suit is made to look realistic and looks to me like an air force pilot turned mosquito. It was still a bit odd,and ended with the guy in present time (new york mayor) leaving some radio host who had a bad question. Apparently this was a flashnack. So, yeah, definitely not my type of book. The art wasn't that bad, but again, to give this book that realistic look, it had very normal, boring looking people. That's not why I read comics, I could just watch TV dramas for that stuff.
I didn't like it, I guess it's a selective taste for those who read comics for realism and boring stories. I was in question to some of Vaughans stuff and actually gave Pride of Baghdad a decent grade for its thought provacativeness, but this lacked even that in my opinion. It was like a comic for politics who want a hint of superheroness. Not my thing, I read comcis for entertainment. 1 out of 5
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| Posted: 16 Jun 2007 16:07 |
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i penned the cover to hellboy strange places (above), just posting it here for a comparison. peace out.
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| Posted: 16 Jun 2007 16:07 |
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[img] [/img]
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| Posted: 16 Jun 2007 16:15 |
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Cool!
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| Posted: 14 Jul 2007 00:29 |
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Week #17
Incredible Hulk (2nd series) Return of the Monster
This looks like a promising Hulk read, but it was definitely nothing special in my eyes. Bruce Banner, on the run as is typical for destroying more city and such, is hiding in a hotel getting info on those tracking him through an unknown (to the reader) computer buddy. This is how the plot wonders as two, "I work alone," bounty hunters track him. Along the way Banner gets out of a few situations using his Hulk alias and quickly moves cross country where he even encounters Doc Samson, who apparently wants to help Bruce out of this situation. Anyway, it all ends up with him still being tracked into a warehouse when the female bounty hunter meets up with him and tells him a bunch of secret stuff and the plot starts to thicken when all of a sudden (drum roll) IT ENDS!
So basically we're looking at a slower-paced story that doesnt really stand alone at all and spoon feeds us more of that, "Hulk's a ticking time bomb that only destroys and wreaks havoc!" crap that I for one am getting sick of. I prefer the "Hulk's a good-intentions scientist who occasionally loses control ON THE BAD GUYS!" Hulk. It's like preferring Godzilla as a hero in the cartoon, rather than the enemy in the movie.
The art was John Romita Jr., whose style I've never really liked. It seems boxey and boring to me, but unfortunately he's considered one of the best by marvel and is being used for the World War Hulk storyline. I, for one would have preferred they stuck with the Planet Hulk artist, he has Hulk down in my opinion.
2 out of 5, because it wasn't a bad story, just an unfinished and a bit unoriginal one.
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| Posted: 14 Jul 2007 01:17 |
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I've got that one. That's like back when the Hulk showed up for like 2 pages every book if that, wasn't it?
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| Posted: 15 Jul 2007 14:59 |
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exactly!
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