Archive for September, 2007
September 17, 2007 | Comics
Wonder Girl #1 (of 6)
J. Torres, Sanford Greene, Nathan Massengill
DC Comics
$3.65/$2.99 US
*** 1/2 (out of five)
The Amazon attack on the U.S. is over and now Wonder Girl is left to pay the price.
Cassie Sandsmark has been on a never-ending roller-coaster ride for the past few years.
First, her boyfriend Conner Kent, A.K.A. Superboy, was killed during Infinite Crisis; second, she quit the Teen Titans (only to rejoin later); and finally she sided with the Amazons in their misguided attack.
Oh, and to further complicate matters, she’s kissed Titans’ leader Robin, Conner’s best friend, a few times.
Now in the wake of the attack, Cassie has a lot of work to do clean up her image, starting with helping round up all the creatures left wandering the States that could be potentially deadly.
But can even that help her mend her weary soul?
It’s about time Wonder Girl got her own miniseries and I can think of nobody finer to tell it than Toronto’s J. Torres, aided by the art team of Sanford Greene and Nathan Massengill.
Whether or not this adventure is befitting this hot young hero remains to be seen.
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September 17, 2007 | Comics
Steve Niles’ Strange Cases #1
Steve Niles, Dan Wickline, David Hartman
Image Comics
$2.65/$2.50 US
*** 1/2 (out of five)
Chapel City is a cesspool of supernatural phenomena and someone’s got to do something about it.
Actually, make it four someones.
Phillip Neville, Greg Watson, Ivy Carpenter and Charles Sloan are the best monster hunters in the business and they’ve all been called to Holcomb Manor to receive the offer of a lifetime: Millions of dollars in exchange for ridding Chapel City of its boogedys.
The only catch is that the forces of evil are on to the plan and they’ll have to survive the night in the manor if they expect to take up the offer.
Strange Cases #1 is the launching point for an interesting new concept that will see new digital comics being released by D2C Games for the Sony PSP.
Given how good this first issue is and the names of those involved, including horror master Steve Niles (30 Days Of Night), it should be worth following onto the different platform.
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September 17, 2007 | Comics
Countdown Presents The Search For Ray Palmer: Wildstorm #1
Ron Marz, Angel Unzueta, Oliver Nome, Richard Friend, Saleem Crawford, Trevor Scott
DC Comics
$3.65/$2.99 US
*** 1/2 (out of five)
Ray Palmer sure plays a mean game of hide-and-seek.
Palmer, A.K.A. The Atom, has been missing since he discovered his ex-wife Jean was a murderer in 2005’s Identity Crisis, but the Challengers From Beyond — Kyle Rayner, Donna Troy, Jason Todd and Bob (a member of the enigmatic race of Monitors) — are hot on his trail, believing he’s somehow the key to saving the multiverse from destruction.
The trail leads the Challengers from their adventures in the microverse in the pages of the must-read weekly series, Countdown, to the gritty world of Wildstorm, home to take-no-prisoners heroes such as The Authority, WildCats and Wetworks.
Can Palmer be hiding in this dark world or will the trail continue (in next month’s Countdown Presents The Search For Ray Palmer: Crime Society #1)?
Duh.
Still, it is always pretty cool to put the squeaky-clean heroes from the DCU into conflict with the grim champions of Wildstorm.
And the search for Ray Palmer continues…
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September 17, 2007 | Comics
Black Canary Wedding Planner #1
J. Torres, Lee Ferguson, Karl Story, Christine Norrie
DC Comics
$3.65/$2.99 US
*** (out of five)
The wedding of the year is coming up fast and it’s almost time for the bride to panic.
Three, two, one… NOW!
As Black Canary and Green Arrow count down to their impending nuptials, there’s much to be done, including some little details like finding a location, picking the food and, oh, what to wear?
There’s not a ton of plot development here and anyone planning on picking up the Green Arrow/Black Canary Wedding Special #1 can easily live without reading this book, but it does add some flavour — especially the lingerie shopping trip with Wonder Woman and Vixen — and fans of the characters ought to enjoy it.
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September 4, 2007 | Trades
Gødland Celestial Edition One
Joe Casey, Tom Scioli
Image Comics
$34.99 US (Hardcover)
**** (out of five)
A common theme to exceptional literature is the ability to make its reader more thoughtful and pensive— forcing them to ask deep questions like: Why do we exist? What is the nature of the universe? And why is that dude’s head floating sideways in a tank attached to his body?
OK, so maybe the last one is unique to Gødland, however it does also tackle the headier stuff before that, too.
Part homage to the industry-altering work of legendary artist Jack Kirby, part cutting-edge satire, Gødland follows the unusual adventures of Adam Archer, the lone survivor of humankind’s first mission to Mars who was granted strange and amazing powers by a group of aliens in an effort to help give human evolution a leap forward.
As he travels around the globe stopping threats from villains like the perfect-high-seeking Basil Cronus (the aforementioned head in a jar); the robotic fiend, Friedrich Nickelhead; and the mistress of pain, Discordia; Archer must also face the reality of what he’s become and how he fits into the grand scheme of the universe.
Pretty heady stuff, eh?
With Gødland, writer Joe Casey (Adventures Of Superman, Uncanny X-Men) and artist Tom Scioi (Myth Of The 8-Opus) have not only created a comic full of action, drama and humour — they’ve made something that might just blow your mind.
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September 4, 2007 | Trades
24: Nightfall
J.C. Vaughn, Mark Haynes, Jean Diaz
IDW Publishing
$19.99 US (Paperback)
*** 1/2 (out of five)
It seems like a lifetime ago that viewers of Fox’s smoking-hot show 24 discovered why the villainous Victor Drazen wanted CTU agent Jack Bauer to kill Sen. David Palmer.
Bauer, it seems, had killed Drazen’s family along with a body double instead of him during a special-ops mission in Eastern Europe two years before the events of Season 1 of the show.
This pivotal event in the history of the show had only been mentioned and never fully explored — until now.
This new collection of the miniseries 24: Nightfall, written by J.C. Vaughn and Mark Haynes and illustrated by Jean Diaz, details Bauer’s entire failed mission into Kosovo from a costly landing mistake to a bloody betrayal and the typical politicking of Washington that costs Jack and his team dearly.
Fans of the show won’t want to miss this key piece the puzzle of Jack’s history.
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September 4, 2007 | Trades
Green Lantern — Wanted: Hal Jordan
Geoff Johns, Ivan Reis, Daniel Acuña
DC Comics
$23.99/$19.99 US (Hardcover)
**** (out of five)
It sounds like some strange new sitcom: Everybody Hates Hal.
Air Force pilot Hal Jordan, A.K.A. Earth’s Green Lantern, finds himself in a world of trouble when he violates Russian airspace in search of a comrade’s downed jet.
Not only does he run afoul of the terrorist group that shot his friend down, but also the armoured Rocket Red Brigade is hot on his heels, as are the UN-backed super-team, the Global Guardians.
Making matters worse are a procession of alien bounty hunters who appear looking to collect a rather substantial price on his head.
When his fellow Justice League members arrive amidst all this chaos and carnage Hal thinks he’s got it made. But are his friends there to help him or aid in his arrest?
And, as usual with any book written by the talented Geoff Johns, there are subplots galore, including a huge one brewing with one simple question: What is the Sinestro Corps?
Johns and artists Ivan Reis and Daniel Acuña deliver another instant classic.
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September 4, 2007 | Trades
Clive Barker’s The Great And Secret Show Vol. 2
Chris Ryall, Gabriel Rodriguez
IDW Publishing
$19.99 US (Paperback)
**** (out of five)
In the battle of good vs. evil the score is currently: Evil 1, Good 0.
The first half of this visual interpretation of horror master Clive Barker’s 1989 novel revealed “the great and secret show” going on behind the perceptions of the general public — a battle to possess something called “the Art” that would allow its possessor vast power and influence.
Two figures at the centre of this battle were Randolph Jaffe and Richard Fletcher, each of who had a brief experience with the Art and whose fight to control it ended in their “deaths” in the small town of Palomo Grove, Calif.
The two spirits each possessed a pair of local girls and made them get pregnant so that they’d have live agents to continue their work. The result is Fletcher’s son Howie and Jaffe’s twins Jo-Beth and Tommy-Ray.
The teen-aged Howie’s return to Palomo Grove, and subsequent love-at-first-sight experience with Jo-Beth, awakens the nefarious Jaffe and the overmatched Fletcher, each of who call out for their children to learn the truth behind their existence.
When the battle between the two sides finally hits, Tommy-Ray embraces his dark side and Fletcher is killed, but not before changing the lives of the people of Palomo Grove forever.
Now the role of saviour falls to the beautiful and brave Tesla as she goes in search of Fletcher’s legacy and finds herself face to face with an evil even greater than Jaffe.
Howie and Jo-Beth try to make peace (and love) in Palomo Grove as an army of beautiful dreams begins to amass and look to the teen boy as their general and Jaffe makes his move towards using the Art.
Barker’s epic tale isn’t for the meek and writer (and IDW publisher and editor-in-chief) Chris Ryall and artist Gabriel Rodriguez to an impressive job of realizing this tale in comic form.
Here’s hoping they’ll have the stones to tackle its complex sequel, Everville, and that Barker will get off his butt and finish the nearly 20-year-old trilogy so we can see a comic book version of that one, too.
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September 4, 2007 | Trades
Human Diastrophism: A Love And Rockets Book
Gilbert Hernandez
Fantagraphics Books
$14.95 US (Paperback)
**** (out of five)
Palomar certainly isn’t paradise, but it’s a pretty nice place until a snake threatens to tear the town to pieces.
This fictional Central American settlement, filled with a plethora of colorful characters, has served as the backdrop for many exquisite tales by its legendary creator Gilbert Hernandez. But no one Palomar story has been as ambitious or as stirring as Human Diastrophism, Hernandez’s only full-length Palomar graphic novel, now included along with scores of other stories in this bargain-priced edition, released to coincide with the 25th anniversary of Love And Rockets.
In a town where change happens slowly, things begin moving quickly as a serial killer grips Palomar in fear. As the body count rises, fingers are pointed in a dozen different directions and this normally peaceful place threatens to tear itself apart.
Filled with Hernandez trademark wit, vivid characters and superlative artwork, Human Diastrophism is a true essential for new comic readers and longtime collectors alike.
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September 4, 2007 | Comics
Silverfish
David Lapham
Vertigo/DC Comics
$29.99/$24.99 US (Hardcover)
*** 1/2 (out of five)
Mia thinks her step-mom is a bitch, but could she be a murderer, too?
When her dad and his new wife, Suzanne, take off for the weekend, leaving Mia, her younger sister Stacey and best friend Vonnie, alone in their New Jersey home, the three of them decide to see what kind of dirt they can dig up on the new woman in their lives.
The trio, now joined by three friends, searches the house and makes a shocking discovery: A suitcase full of money and a bloody knife!
They also discover Suzanne’s phone book and start calling old acquaintances looking for more clues, when they contact a man named Daniel, who is very interested in learning the whereabouts of a woman who fits Suzanne’s description.
Now the race is on as Daniel tries to hunt down the teens and make them lead him to Suzanne as they try to figure out what the mysterious crime they’re involved in is and turn them both into the cops.
Acclaimed creator David Lapham (Stray Bullets, Detective Comics) crafts one of the creepier slasher flicks you’ll ever read in comics.
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