Archive for May, 2008
May 5, 2008 | Comics
DC Universe #0
Grant Morrison, Geoff Johns, George Perez, Doug Mahnke, Tony Daniel, Ivan Reis, Aaron Lopresti, Philip Tan, Ed Benes, Carlos Pacheco, J.G. Jones
DC Comics
$.50 CAN/US
**** (out of five)
Something big and probably bad is about to happen in the DC Comics universe.
How can you tell?
There’s a really inexpensive and compelling new teaser issue written and drawn by some of the company’s best on the stands and it looks like the (Barry Allen) Flash is back.
Every DC Comics fan knows the much-anticipated summer blockbuster miniseries, Final Crisis, begins in just a few weeks, but there’s so very much more to get excited about — as we learn by reading DC Universe #0.
In addition to FC, we’re going to see writer Geoff Johns (Infinite Crisis) and artist George Perez (Crisis On Infinite Earths) team up for Final Crisis: Legion Of Three Worlds; Grant Morrison (JLA), in addition to penning FC, will team with artist Tony Daniel (Teen Titans) on Batman: R.I.P.; Wonder Woman will find herself with some man trouble thanks to writer Gail Simone (Birds Of Prey) and artist Aaron Lopresti (Incredible Hulk) in Whom The Gods Forsake; Johns and Ivan Reis (Superman) continue to build Green Lantern’s momentum towards the Blackest Night; and Greg Rucka (Checkmate) and Philip Tan (Spawn: Godslayer) tackle the Spectre in Final Crisis: Revelations.
But what was that about the Flash, you ask?
While Barry’s never actually depicted in DCU #0, the story concludes with a trademark lightning bolt across a white moon (the Flash’s logo) and it appears the Silver Age Flash — who died saving the universe in the 1986 classic Crisis On Infinite Earths — will have a key role to play in the Final Crisis.
All in all it looks to be one hot summer for DC Comics.
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May 5, 2008 | Comics
Noble Causes #32
Jay Faerber, Yildiray Cinar
Image Comics
$3.50 CAN/US
**** (out of five)
The Noble family was the world’s best and brightest: True heroes.
Then it all came crashing down.
It’s been five years since Gaia Noble, the family matriarch, confessed to committing crimes to help her celebrity family remain popular and in the public eye. Now a new Noble family defends the world against the forces of evil — one still led by super-scientist Doc Noble, but with his new wife Olympia and step-kids, Surge and Minutiae, along with Doc’s kids Rusty, Zephyr and Frost and Zeph’s husband, Slate Blackthorn.
But this new-look team still faces the same old problems and the first one they face could just be their last as a nasty new foe infiltrates the family.
Creator Jay Faerber reboots comics’ best soap-opera/action title, alongside new artist Yildiray Cinar, and sets the stage for an exciting new era for the Nobles.
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May 5, 2008 | Comics
Screamland #1,2 (of 5)
Harold Sipe, Héctor Casanova
Image Comics
$2.99 CAN/US
**** (out of five)
Ever get tired of the good guys always getting the best of the monsters?
So does Frank.
Of course, he’s not going to let that stand in the way of the fat paycheque he’s been promised to appear in Hollywood’s latest monster-slayer epic alongside all his old friends: the Count, the Mummy and the Wolfman.
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, Frank is short for Frankenstein’s Monster, long past his terrifying beast days and now just trying to make ends meet.
Screamland, from the minds of writer Harold Sipe and artist Héctor Casanova, is a wonderfully biting satire along with a melancholy remembrance of a lost era all in one great package.
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May 5, 2008 | Comics
Pigeons From Hell #1 (of 4)
Joe R. Lansdale, Nathan Fox, Dave Stewart
Dark Horse Comics
$2.99 CAN/US
*** ½ (out of five)
The title alone makes you want to pick it up and read it: Pigeons From Hell.
Master storyteller Robert E. Howard (Conan) posthumously first brought the world the idea of these evil rats with wings way back in 1938 as a short story in Weird Tales magazine.
Now, modern horror master Joe R. Lansdale (The Bottoms, Conan And The Songs Of The Dead) and artist Nathan Fox have brought this nasty tale — about a group of teens and their unfortunate adventures in a decrepit old southern plantation house full of evil — to comics.
Five teens will enter, but how many will survive?
Pigeons From Hell!
Hard to resist, isn’t it?
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May 5, 2008 | Comics
All We Ever Do Is Talk About Wood
Tom Horacek
Drawn & Quarterly
$9.95 CAN/US
*** ½ (out of five)
Two beavers leaning against a stand of trees and a caption that reads: “All We Ever Do Is Talk About Wood.”
Such is the simple genius of the one-panel cartoons of Canadian Tom Horacek.
With a wonderfully black sense of humour, Horacek, a former Toronto resident now living in B.C., makes light of death, dating and day-to-day life in this quick-but-compelling little tome that will have you in stitches.
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