Tag Archives: Comic Review

FCBD 2016 DC Superhero Girls Review

Posted on by
Reply

DCSHG-FCBD_resized1
I admit that the concept behind this series isn’t too bad. Considering that a lot of DC’s comics are a little too violent and intense for kids to read, it makes sense that there should be one aimed at kids. The character designs are all on point and this series could be a blast as long as the stories are interesting. It would also help a lot if the series is allowed to have some action now and again like with My Little Pony. That can ultimately decide if this is a good comic or a great one. It’s off to a solid start although the art should be a little better. The issue has that “Every character is constantly blushing” look that I’ve never liked. It’s completely unnecessary and really just looks out of place as well.

The plot is that Supergirl is afraid to go on stage and present due to a tragic backstory were bullies made fun of her back on Krypton. No worries though, Ma Kent only needs a single panel to get Supergirl from not going no matter what to saying “Nothing can stop me from going!” It’s a little rushed if you ask me, but that’s fine because the issue was nearly out of time. It ends with a big cliffhanger as someone takes Supergirl down with a Kryptonite arrow and we learn that he is after the rest of the heroines. I certainly wasn’t expecting a big action plot at the end here so I was pleasantly surprised. Depending on where the series goes with this, it could end up being quite good by the end.

Upgrading the art would also be very helpful to the series as well. There’s also the big chance that this whole cliffhanger is just going to be one big cliffhanger so I would advise you not to get your hopes too high yet either. It’s best to approach these things with leveled expectations. The whole “expect the worst and prepare for the best” sort of thing. That way, nothing can hope to faze you since this series may end up being unpredictable aside from the obvious life lessons and cliches sprinkled around. Hopefully no more bullies arrive to pick on our heroes though. This comic is a sure fire winner though which is good since it helps to make up for DC’s other free comic this year.

Overall 7/10

FCBD 2016 Captain America Review

Posted on by
4

Free_Comic_Book_Day_Vol_2016_Captain_America
It’s time for the next Marvel issue. It’s always interesting to see the current state of things because everything changes so rapidly in the Marvel universe. The main story is about Captain America and his costume has changed yet again. I’m not a huge fan of this one though because it looks a little too comfortable. It’s hard to picture it as battle gear and it looks like a cheaper version of Cap’s ultimate costume. The new energy/hardened shield isn’t all that great either and he definitely needs the original one back. He needs Falcon to surrender it back to him ASAP.

There’s not much of a plot here. Cap, Falcon (The New Captain America), and “Falcon” (Falcon’s sidekick) attack an enemy base, but there are casualties due to different attacks at once. The government acts very similarly to its counterpart in the Civil War movie and immediately says that Cap and the others need limitations and such. Sharon Carter (Who has aged quite a lot apparently. She’s significantly older than Cap here so at least no forced romance can occur anymore) defends the team though and reminds the government that lives were saved. Cap also walks in and reminds the council that they were suspended (Or on leave..something like that) while this was all going on so they could have done better. The issue ends with a big speech and Cap deciding that the country must declare war on Hydra. Red Skull accepts of course. It was a decent comic and the art was good. I won’t be pleased if we get some drama between Falcon and Cap on who should keep the title of Captain America though. Falcon should quietly step down and at least so far he’s not getting ruffled, but “Falcon” keeps giving him bad advice. I’m worried as to where this is all headed at the moment, but it should be a good comic series.

The backup issue gives us a sneak peak at Dead No More, the infamous Spider-Man event that is finally bringing back Captain Stacy, Gwen Stacy, Uncle Ben, and everyone else who has ever died in a Spider-Man comic. There will probably be a plot twist about all this, but Marvel has successfully ruffled quite a lot of feathers at the moment. Is this a wise move or has Marvel finally made a mistake? Well, they’ve made a lot of mistakes with Spider-Man so it’s to be expected. The art isn’t very good I’m afraid and one of the first panels has Spiderman’s lower mouth wide open, but his top half closed which makes for a very weird visual. The character designs are also a little odd. Spider-Man’s a lot more stiff now that he wears full body armor and the Rhino’s design was a little slimmer than usual. We got some good fight scenes though and the atmosphere is very light and happy like a Spider-Man comic should be. Against my better judgment, I’m actually a little hyped for the event and it certainly has a lot of potential. This story was certainly more interesting than the Captain America one and if the writing is on point, we could certainly have a winner on our hands folks!

Overall 7/10

FCBD 2016 Civil War II Review

Posted on by
5

FCBD-Civil-War-II-Cover
It’s time to jump ahead a little with the FCBD reviews to the big Marvel one. Civil War II is getting a lot of buzz from Marvel as Bendis is trying to help the event become one of the biggest of all time. It’s going to be tough, but I don’t mind the concept. Seeing the heroes be forced to choose sides once more should be entertaining even if the whole thing is a little forced. We’ve definitely had characters who could see the future in the past, but the moral debate should still be pretty interesting.

In the main story, a heavily nerfed Thanos arrives and fights the Avengers. War Machine and Captain Marvel put up a fight, but they’re a little outgunned here and War Machine is critically injured…as always. The dialogue is fairly bad, but it tries to be epic. The Avengers thank the Inhumans since it is due to one of their members that the team knew about the upcoming threat. (Thanos) The issue essentially ends with Captain Marvel in hysterics over what happened to War Machine.

The art was very good and I was glad to see a good fight involved, but Thanos is severely downgraded here. Most of the attacks that were being fired at him should not have done any damage and he didn’t seem to have any strategy in the fight as he just tried to throw a lot of punches or blasts. I dunno, he felt off here. The other thing that felt very off was Captain Marvel’s reaction. She’s a seasoned veteran, but you’d think that she was a cadet straight out of training by how she reacted to War Machine’s injury. If you get that hysterical over an injury, then you’d best keep the romance off the team. The whole scene with her telling Black Panther to turn around so he could ignore them being together was very bad as well. The team was on a mission before War Machine had to show up so let’s keep it professional! Captain Marvel and War Machine looked terrible in that scene. Not the greatest way to start hyping up Civil War II.

In the backup story, we got a glimpse of the new Wasp. She learns that Henry Pym is dead so that means she can now pilfer through his life’s work without permission. She steals the Wasp/Ant-Man suit designs and alters it a bit to make hers. Then she steals the rest of Pym’s stuff so that she can start her crime fighting career. She plans to start it off with a bang by taking down the Avengers so that she can prove her stuff. Vision’s her first victim and that’s the cliffhanger. The art is pretty good like with the main story, but Wasp doesn’t come across as a very likable character. Quite the opposite in fact, she is certainly no hero since she is acting like a thief and taking down the Avengers is a fairly nonsensical plan. I don’t mind having a new Wasp though, but she is going to have to work hard to end up being a likable character.

Still, Civil War II should be fairly good in theory. Hopefully it is a fairly long event though because with so many heroes in the universe now, I want to see as many of them as possible take part in the debate. The series has to introduce the debate a little more as well though so there is plenty of time. I doubt this event will end up defeating Civil War to be honest, but I like to think that it will still be great and that the comparison can be made without being a blowout. The writing will have to improve a little bit though or else the characters are all just going to come off as amateurs who don’t comprehend the situation.

Overall 7/10

FCBD 2016 Archie Review

Posted on by
Reply

ARCHIEFCBD2016-web
Looks like it is time to enter the world of Archie. Unfortunately, I can’t say that the series shows a whole lot of promise since it will be heavily romance centered and the setting is high school. What can’t go wrong with this premise? It’s a new take on the classic Archie universe though so hopefully it is able to power through and surprise me in the end. This isn’t even a bad start to the series, I just don’t see it going over well in the end.

Archie broke up with someone over a debacle which is currently the main mystery of the series. Archie tries to convince everyone that he’s over the whole thing, but keeps on proving otherwise. Jughead tricks Archie into performing in front of the whole school which helps Archie start to deal with his new single life. It’s easy to see that most of the series is going to be about the drama between the characters and Archie will keep finding himself in tricky situations. As for how long this premise can go on without getting repetitive…it won’t be very long at all. None of the characters are even all that likable at the moment.

The backup story is a quick one about Jughead. He doesn’t believe in defying authority because he believes that it is ultimately pointless. This changes when his principal is fired and replaced with someone who got rid of the school cafeteria menu and replaced all of the items with green mush. He quickly runs to his friends and demands that a war is started, but they ignore him and hurl the insults right away since he didn’t help them the first time. Will Jughead be able to do anything or is it already too late?

I can’t say that this story has a lot of potential either to be honest. The side characters are actually right for a chance. He wasn’t bothered about anything else before so why would that change as soon as his lunch was taken away. Is lunch really that important? Jughead’s easily still the best character, but I’m afraid that it is not saying a whole lot. I also think that he may have a difficult time holding his own series for even just a few issues. The art was quite bad as well and Archie looked nothing like himself here.

I didn’t expect much else out of a romance drama story though. There’s only so many ways that you can tell this kind of adventure before it starts to plummet down the ranks. I miss the Archie vs Predator series that came out a while ago. That one was certainly new and different even if it was a little too extreme in the end. This Archie comic certainly is not a winner.

Overall 5/10

FCBD 2016 Grump Cat and Pokey! Review

Posted on by
Reply

GrumpyCat-FCBD2016-Cov-Haeser-600x900
It’s time to check out a short issue for Grumpy Cat. This is the first comic that I’ve ever read about this character and I’m not familiar with the memes either so it’s a new experience. It makes for a fun read and out of the three stories, two of them are good. That’s not bad considering that stories can wildly range when it comes to quality. They can be good or terrible. The middle one is the weak link as you may have expected. After all, basic marketing says that you should end on a high note and you also have to start with an engaging story as well.

The first one has a parody of Batman V Superman at the beginning which was great. Pokey wants to be a superhero so he forces Grumpy Cat into joining along as well. The two of them defeat a pair of house thieves and decide to call it a day. Not bad for a day’s work right? Grumpy Cat lives up to his name and he spends the whole issue complaining, but at least he always helps out in the end. His costume was cool as well so he should be happy about that…even if his code name was pretty bad and being a sidekick is no fun. The art was fairly solid as well.

The second story had the worst art of the bunch. It simply wasn’t very good and the story wasn’t engaging either. Grumpy wants to be an artist, but he doesn’t want to be popular. He wants a small cult following and that’s tough to intentionally grab. Still, it simply wasn’t very interesting. Finally, we saw Grumpy and Pokey decide to try their hand at detective work. Grumpy showed why he is known as the smart one in the group here as he quickly realized who the culprit was and acted accordingly. Pokey wasn’t really any help this time though so Grumpy had to give him a distraction while he handled the real threat. The dialogue was fairly good and the artwork was back to looking good so it was a nice way to end things.

Grumpy Cat seems like a fairly promising series. It’s not a series that I can picture myself reading anytime soon, but it’s not bad. Grumpy makes for a good lead at any rate and sometimes a solid lead can go a long way in an adventure like this. No crude humor or things like that to hold this comedy back which is great as well. So far so good with these Free Comic Book Day issues.

Overall 7/10

FCBD 2016 Strawberry Shortcake Review

Posted on by
Reply

tumblr_o6s0kuTVfu1rojbapo2_1280
It’s time for the wave of Free Comic Book Day reviews to start. There aren’t a huge amount of them this time around, but it should still take 2-3 days to finish them all. Strawberry Shortcake was the first issue that I read and it starts the event off on a good note. Strawberry’s bakery is having its 1 year anniversary soon so she decides to bake a cake. Unfortunately, her friends do not agree with this plan as they want the day to be a huge celebration. They order Strawberry to leave everything up to them and one of the friends gives our main character a new hairstyle during the wait. Unfortunately, Strawberry’s friends are always lose without her and this is no exception as they find a way to wreck the party preparations. Can Strawberry save the day before the whole town sees the mess or is it time to move to Equestria?

It’s a fun enough comic. The characters are all good although none of them have any real personality at the moment. They’re all nice friends who try their best to help out, but to learn about them as individuals you would need to take a peak at the character bios or watch the show I suppose. The art is decently good although one scene was a little iffy. Strawberry sees her new “bad” haircut and is dismayed, but it actually looks fairly good so you have to wonder why she is so sad. Personally I’d say that the design is rather busy so I wouldn’t want it to replace her current look, but it’s just about as good. It’s certainly not bad like the story was trying to suggest. Aside from that, the colors were nice and vibrant.

Strawberry Shortcake has always reminded me of My Little Pony. The only real difference being that this series is a little lighter on action and they’re all human for the most part. If you’re looking for a happy little adventure, then this is the stop for you. There are a lot of berry puns and you all know how much I enjoy a good one liner. Buy the full series to keep up with these characters and hopefully the supporting figures learn how to be a little more self reliant as the series goes on. They don’t have to be natural experts like Strawberry, but they made so many mistakes in the span of an hour that one can see how much room for improvement there is. Who knows, maybe Strawberry can personally teach them how to get good at setting up parties. Let’s see if the next few comics can match this one.

Overall 6/10

Star Wars Omnibus Volume 1 A Long Time Ago Review

Posted on by
3

SWOmnibusALongTimeAgoV1
Looks like it is time to read the start of one of the biggest franchises of all time. Obviously Star Wars didn’t originate with this comic, but it was still the start of an era and as this is an Omnibus it is quite the start. This collection brings over 20 issues so it is able to cover quite a few different arcs. It’s cool to see Marvel take a whirl at the series and now that Disney owns Star Wars and Marvel, it is definitely feasible that they could have some kind of crossover someday. It’s great to see Luke and the others as the main characters once more. Without further ado, let’s start this review.

The series starts off with an adaption of movie IV. That definitely makes sense you wouldn’t want to simply ignore the events of the film that started the whole franchise and simply skipping it altogether likely wouldn’t go over very well with the fans. It is pretty faithful to the film and we get some good action scenes as Luke Skywalker goes from being your average kid to a galactic hero. He certainly gets a lot of respect after he helps destroy the starship even if he has yet to become a Jedi. Saving a few star systems from imminent destruction will easily give you that kind of fame.

After the initial arc, Luke vanishes for quite a while along with Darth Vader. No worries though since we have Han Solo on deck to give us some arcs. The plots from Han’s mini arc and Luke’s solo adventure eventually meet up and it is fun to have the character all together once more, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Han is still on the run from just about everyone so he lands on what he thinks is a peaceful planet. Unfortunately this is far from the truth as there are some pretty mean bounty hunters on this planet. He enlists the aid of several inhabitants/visitors on the planet.

They consist of a Rabbit, An old man who may have been a Jedi once upon a time, A bounty hunter heroine who is good with a gun, and a kid who wants to make a difference. It’s not exactly a group of trained professionals, but Han has to work with what he’s got and he can whip these guys into shape. The auditions for who would join his team was certainly a blast and it is easy to feel bad for some of the guys who didn’t make it. Of course, if everyone joined the cut, things would just get crazy right? The group was fairly likable in the end and this arc was actually pretty fun even without Luke.

The Rabbit guy was very similar to the guest star from the 2003 TMNT series. He is a good shot and has a lot of confidence even if he can’t always back up his tough talk. He can fight, which automatically makes him decent here and the banter is always good. The little kid who barely earned his way onto the team thanks to his robot is the only member of the group who is totally not likable. I get that he has no fancy powers or equipment, but surely he could have found some way to be useful. Instead he really just holds the group back. His android is pretty neat though. Picture C3PO, but if the robot was always hurling insults and didn’t mind resorting to violence. That guy could definitely become a fan favorite if he ever appeared in the movies.

The bounty hunter lady knew Han from the old days so she certainly didn’t follow his commands like the others, but she’s good in a fight. There was no drama between her and Han which was certainly good considering that we already have another romance plot in the background. The best member by far was the Old Jedi. The characters think that he may have been delusional, but I think he was the real deal. He did a fairly good job of holding off the monster with his Lightsaber and he did know how to summon the thing. The guy went down as a hero and it was a pretty emotional way to go. He helped out when it counted and I always love to see more Jedi warriors so it was fun to have this guy around. It’s just too bad that the role was so brief.

Back to Luke’s plot. He was looking for a new base for the Resistance, but one thing led to another and he was captured. He landed on an Aqua planet where two factions were vying for power. There was the resistance who teamed up with the monsters of the area to take on the high tech pirate villains. Unfortunately for the heroes, these villains had a sonic weapon that really dealt heavy damage to the monsters and if they weren’t stopped quickly, they could completely sink the resistance base. Luke naturally decides to help, but doesn’t fare too well. Luckily, Han Solo shows up…although not in the most ideal of circumstances.

He was kidnapped by a pirate group as well and they forced him to go here. Luckily the two villain groups begin to fight which buys Han enough time to make it to the surface where he has several disagreements with Luke on what to do. Naturally, Luke wants to make the heroic move here and help out the resistance while Han just wants to get away as far as possible. Meanwhile, one of the pirates who was chasing Han begins to realize that avoiding feelings of infatuation for so long as weakened her resolve. Unfortunately, she went from being a pretty cool villain to a rather sad one due to this plot development. It was unneeded if you ask me.

While it was naturally great to see the two groups (Luke/Leia and Han) meet up, it also brought back the subplot about how both guys like Leia. They trade passive aggressive burns a lot and both try to impress her all the time. It actually plays out like a very old version of the classic trope where the heroine has to decide between the nice guy or the tough/rebellious one. Han and her are always bickering while she gets along with Luke quite well. That’s always a bad sign for the nice guy even if that may seem iffy when you think about it. It’s not a huge factor here and doesn’t hurt the comic at all, but I could have done without it. Luckily, since this is a retro comic the romance never gets too wince worthy. It’s mostly just mild flirting at the most.

The heroes eventually make it to the Wheel where they are all imprisoned/defeated before they even know it. It’s all done very subtlety though since the Wheel is essentially a giant casino and the owner doesn’t want the customers to suspect that Darth Vader and the Order are here. It would be bad for business after all since the villains are supposed to not be welcome here. He arranges for Han to fight in the Gladiatorial arena where he makes it to the final round only to be face to face with Chewy. Chewy naturally has the edge here, but they are able to defeat all of the other fighters and escape. It was a fun arc because seeing Han fight several aliens mano a mano is always exciting.

There were certainly quite a few story arcs here and other stories that I barely touched upon. The aliens that are after Han appear several times and so many bounty hunters/pirates as well that you’ll lose count after a while. It is fun to see how different Jabba The Hut was here though. Rather than the blob that you saw in the movie, he actually looks like a very normal humanoid villain here. Picture an android or Martian Manhunter from DC comics. I wish they had ultimately stayed with this design since it is certainly a lot more menacing.

From the main characters, Han is certainly the most interesting. Naturally, the flirting part of his personality is pretty irritating, but besides that he has all of the necessary qualities that a good main character needs. He has boundless confidence at his disposal and he gets all of the witty one liners. He’s always ready for a fight and he is defiant to the last no matter who he is facing. It’s hard not to root for the guy and he can easily hold his own issue. Something that Luke and Leia can’t really pull off to be honest.

Chewy also excels here as he constantly proves why he is the strongest fighter in the series. He defeats everyone from gladiators to other monsters. His hype never leaves and he basically goes undefeated for the whole series. He’s also a really good shot when he’s got a gun so Chewy’s always a lethal fighter. Unfortunately, I can’t say that Princess Leia is really a good character here. For starters she needs to decide between Han or Luke ASAP instead of having her cake and eating it too. Messing around with both of them is always the dicey move. This was also before heroines became great fighters and had super cool roles like nowadays so she is mainly around just to get kidnapped or to provide some commentary. She rarely actually helps out even though she does have a gun. I’ve never cared for Leia in any part of the franchise all that much though so it’s not really a surprise.

This was also before Luke became a cooler character like in Episode VI so he’s not terrific either. His petty rivalry with Han can be a little dicey. Besides that he’s typically the heroic main character that you would expect to see. His powers may not have fully developed yet, but he’s still not somebody that you want to underestimate in a fight. He’s a fairly reasonable character so I’m not going to say that he’s bad, but he’s not very interesting either. Whenever there was a comic about him, I would be waiting for the issue to switch to Han’s subplot.

Darth Vader’s screen time is limited, but he still manages to be a very imposing villain. The fact that he can use the Force automatically makes him the most deadly opponent here. The heroes simply cannot defeat him in an actual fight and would be hopelessly crushed if they were to even attempt such a feat. The best they can do for now is to bide their time and let the Resistance continue to grow. Another fun villain is the Hunter. He is part Android even though he can’t stand them and he aims to destroy all Robots and those who like them. It’s an impossible goal considering how many of them there are, but I suppose it is a concrete goal at the very least. He only got to appear once really, but he’s after Luke Skywalker and the title for the first issue of the second collection implies that he’ll be a main villain once more. Along with Darth Vader he is easily the best villain so I’m definitely up to seeing more of him. He has an arm cannon at his disposal so that’ll definitely be useful in a fight.

As you may expect, the art here is very clear and pleasant. They really don’t draw panels the way that they used too. The hand drawn style just works really well and I’d especially say that this is true for the character designs. You can tell that this is an old Marvel comic right from the get go and that means that you can expect consistent quality. It may not be super flashy, but it gets the job done and all of the scenes hold up well.

Overall, This Star Wars Omnibus is a good start to the Marvel era of the classic franchise. It’s quite large so this collection should last you quite a while. I’m assuming that we’ll be seeing an adaption of the second film at some point since there are over 100 issues in the series and the next installment should definitely have been out by that time. The series went on for quite a while after all. If you’re a big Star Wars fan then you should definitely enjoy this one. If not, I’d say that it is pretty accessible to all comic readers. It is a good action story with sci-fi elements that holds up well as most classic comics do. The writing is good and the action scenes are fun as well. I’m sure that future volumes will be just as fun.

Overall 7/10

Green Lantern Volume 6 The Life Equation Review

Posted on by
Reply

A1vI9AOrmsL
Alright, we’re back with more Green Lantern comics! In this one, the New Gods step in so we take a little break from the main plot that’s been going on. It’s just how it goes with Tie ins, but as long as the event is really good this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I think Green Lantern is a little underpowered here and it shouldn’t be so easy to develop a counter weapon to the Power Ring imo. This volume has a lot of action and is setting things up for the Darkseid War so it is a must read.

The New Gods hack into the Green Lantern database to find out more about the rings and they also want to take Kyle Rayner since he may be helpful for the Anti-Life Equation. The Green Lanterns decide to retaliate which leads to a full scale war with the New Gods. They will need some backup though and this quickly results in the Sinestro corps, Black Lantern Corps, Star Sapphires, Blue Lanterns, and all of the others to emerge. Can they get along long enough to deal with these guys though?

We really see just how strong Orion and the other New Gods are in this comic. It is good to see them look so powerful because they honestly should be. If they were lightweights it just wouldn’t make that much sense. There is still a lot of plot hax in how they are able to bust through the Green Lantern constructs so easily with their anti ring weapons though. It is consistently said to be the greatest weapon in the universe so there shouldn’t be any kind of counter to it.

At least it helps to strengthen my opinion that Hal is easily the best Green Lantern. He reminds the others that their constructs can always come out on top as long as their Will Power is on point and he never backs down. He does lose to Orion in their initial meetup, but it was hardly a fair fight. I’d like to say that he would have won in round 2, but then the Black Lantern had to wreck it. It was a bit of a low blow although Hal didn’t seem to mind, which was a little iffy. Hal’s done a great job of leading the GL Corps while the Guardians have stepped down and attacking the New Gods immediately was certainly the right move. Getting some backup was also wise since they would have been completely overwhelmed with sheer numbers otherwise.

It was a really awesome scene when Black Hand (Leader of the Black Lanterns) was able to animate the Source Wall and reawaken all of the people there. That included the big villains from the previous GL arcs and a lot of legendary monsters who were known as the strongest of the strongest. Even the New Gods really paled in comparison to these guys and they were soundly defeated. Naturally Black Hand couldn’t keep control of them for very long and he started to perish due to the Source Wall effect, but even for just being temporarily it was impressive and the best visual in the collection.

I focused on the New Gods part a lot, but the final 3 issues do go back to the main plot. Hal decides to take a little vacation to relax from the galaxy threatening situations of late, but soon realizes that it is hard to get away from it all. The Flash and Guy Gardner effectively remind him that his job as a Green Lantern is something that he can’t get away from. After having a talk with Star Sapphire as well, Hal makes a bold decision. He’s going to quit the Green Lantern corps. The universe is still very upset at the group for the Power Ring controversies so Hal decides to pose as the villain to clean the rep of the group.

He stages a betrayal with Kilowog and flees with one of the Power Batteries. Only Kilowog knows the truth so now he is on the hunt from every single star system and galactic group across the universe. For all we know, even the Justice League will be against him. It is going to be very hard for Hal to survive for long on his own, but he’s a survivor so he can take care of himself. I’ll admit that I’m not super thrilled about this decision. Hal was just coming into his own as a leader and we could have certainly had many great stories that could have come from that. Well, the idea of Hal being a loner as a while can be cool too.

As for the other characters, Sinestro had a good role in this collection. He aided the Green Lanterns when it counted even if he proved that he still can’t be trusted to stick with the mission in the end. His main goal is still to protect his own interests, but he did make a difference. He’s a fun rival to have for Hal. Kilowog’s also a pretty nice mentor and at least Hal can always count on him. Star Sapphire’s decision to part ways with Hal, but still leave him with some hope seems a little dicey, but hopefully that drama is essentially over now.

Orion was surprisingly likable in this issue. He knew that the All Father was being very unreasonable and corrupt. He didn’t mind mentioning this to the guy’s face either and it’s why rebellious characters can be good to have at times. He can also back up his tough talk and there’s no unnecessary romance with Wonder Woman to keep him down here. Mogo is cool as always and the rest of the Green Lanterns are fairly useful. The comic has a good cast and even the All Father may have learned his lesson. He claims that he will go back to his original mission of protecting people from Darkseid rather than becoming another villain so we’ll see if he is true to his word.

As always, the artwork for the Green Lantern collection is nothing short of excellent. All of the fights are really fun to look at. No other title does space fights quite as well as the Green Lantern series and that’s good since this series needs a lot of space action scenes. Adding in the New Gods also helped to connect this to the rest of the DCU and while that’s not necessary for a good GL comic as the previous graphic novels have shown, it is always fun to see. I’m definitely ready for the Justice League to show up as guest stars, that would be a blast! There is not a single panel where the artwork looks off.

Overall, Green Lantern continues its run of quality issues with this collection. The stakes may not have literally been as high as some of the older ones since the Galaxy was on the brink, but nonetheless they felt just as high. The war between the New Gods and Darkseid will surely have universal ramifications and the fact that both sides seem fairly corrupt is a sign that the Green Lanterns are going to have to work overtime to stop them all. As long as Hal is the leader of the Green Lantern corps, I’m sure that they are going to go far. Of course, with Hal no longer being the leader, the status quo is certainly going to be shaken up. I wonder how long the series can possibly go without Hal going back to his role. It’s an ambitious decision, but this series can pull it off. Hopefully by the time Hal joins up with the Corps again they will have beefed up their tranks a little. I want the Corps to be a universal threat like the good ole days. Right now they are really light on manpower so I’m thinking that some new recruits are in order. Maybe bringing in Supergirl and Cyborg for starters. Even better….another Hal Jordan from a different universe!

Overall 8/10

Godzilla in Hell Review

Posted on by
5

61QstObKzvL._SX328_BO1,204,203,200_
This comic review is a pretty big landmark for me because it is the first Godzilla comic book that I have ever read. That is probably a little surprising to hear since I’m such a big Godzilla fan, but my library simply doesn’t order the comics very often. I’m a comic reader, but not necessarily a collector. It’s the opposite with video games. When I saw that the library had picked this trade paperback up, I grabbed it instantly. I heard that this comic was quite different from the average Godzilla adventure and that is certainly true, but I suppose that it’s as good a way to enter the Godzilla comic part of the franchise as any other. It is a good comic although I feel like it could have gone a lot farther with this ambitious concept.

On the back of the book they have a quote from legendary comic reviewer Daniel Alvarez of Unleash The Fanboy about how this is the most unique Godzilla tale of them all. It is a little…sketchy how they completely took the quote out of context although I certainly agree with it and would argue that the reviewer would as well. This is the most unique Godzilla tale of them all and there will likely never be another one quite like it. That doesn’t mean that it is the best Godzilla tale of all time. Certainly not, but it’s a good one and that’s why I feel this mini series should have ran for a little longer. Another 5-6 issues would have given it time to really explore Godzilla’s time in hell. Who knows, if this sells well enough then maybe we will get a sequel.

As the title outright states, this series is about Godzilla being in Hell. (Or is he really there?) It works as a bit of an anthology as each issue has a different team behind it and Godzilla faces a new threat each time. The stories are still held together by the loose plot of Godzilla trying to get out and most anthologies have some kind of string holding the plot together, but for all intents and purposes, the comics are all separate. As such, I’ll review this in the style of an anthology with a paragraph for each individual issue rather than talking about it as a whole until the end.

The first issue sees Godzilla literally fall into Hell where he fights off a Dark version of himself who turns into a very deformed version of Biollante and threatens to eat him whole. Godzilla fends off his attack and makes his way into the next layer of Hell. It is a solid start to the collection and I dare say that it is the most compelling issue of the bunch. It doesn’t have as much action as some of the issues coming up, but it handled the concept better than the others. The big sign saying to abandon hope is something that you would expect to find in Hell, at least conceptually. Once you are in Hell, there is no hope at all. Simply put, the race is over and you made the wrong choice. Of course, Godzilla is not dead yet so he is not truly out of time. Plus, let’s face it, Godzilla doesn’t feel fear. The art for this issue was solid. It did a good job of showing the facial expressions for Godzilla and the fight was well done. This is really what a comic version of Godzilla should strive to look like and I definitely liked the design of the made up villain.

Following that strong start was the worst comic in the collection. The series tried to go for a live action look and it didn’t work. As far as I’m concerned, if DC’s Kingdom Come event couldn’t pull it off, nothing ever will. The fight scenes are very choppy and it’s a shame since this issue could have had the most action. This level of hell has demons transform into lookalikes from Godzilla’s past. Fake Rodan, Anguirus, Varan, and Ghidorah all attack the hero. Godzilla fends them all off and it should have been a really good issue. The art just takes you out of the adventure. I do like the use of the word bubbles here as they add more context and hint at what is actually going on here. Godzilla passes this trial with flying colors as he proves that he is more than a match for any demon. Of course, the trials will get stronger from here.

The third issue was the most colorful and went for more of a cartoony feel than the other two. This made for a great fight between Godzilla and Space Godzilla, but the facial expressions could be a little odd at times. It was uncharacteristic for Godzilla, but the fight scenes were worth it. Space Godzilla is definitely a worthy opponent for the King of the Monsters. This was also the strangest issue in the collection. So, this trial is essentially that Godzilla must defeat Space Godzilla without resorting to the temptations from both sides. Half of Hell wants him to become their god and rule while the others want him to work for Hell. You are led to believe at first that half of them worship God and want Godzilla to join, but they quickly switch to believers of Godzilla and also don’t seem trust worthy. Regardless, Godzilla eats them all and crushes the rest, but neither side seemed to have a clue as to what they were doing.

They were yelling about submitting to peace the entire time. Godzilla just kept on blasting them which is probably a safe bet. Why would angels be in Hell anyway unless they were fallen ones? I guess some Earthlings tried to come here as well since we saw that Moguera was toasted. It was an odd comic, but it also helps support the argument that this is all real and not simply a dream the most in my opinion. I don’t have a lot of concrete arguments to support that, but this issue felt like it could be real. More on that at the end.

Issue 4 also had some pretty nice art. It was a little more realistic, but still pretty vibrant which is good because the whole issue is a big fight with King Ghidorah and Destoroyah. Godzilla has to use his wits to defeat these two since their combined might is far greater than his. It is cool to see him actually using strategy like dividing the opponents and taking them out on at a time. He loses though and the second half of the issue sees him die over and over again. The problem is that since he is in Hell, he cannot die for good. He has been cursed with immortality and it is a somber thought. At the end he breaks out of this part of hell and makes his way to the final challenges. This was my favorite story. As a big action fan, it was fun to see some fights here and Godzilla being portrayed as more than a mindless monster is always good.

Finally, the collection ended with Godzilla facing off against the elements and the actual demons from Hell. In their true forms, they were finally playing for keeps here. Unfortunately, they got a little too overconfident and after destroying Godzilla, they reanimated him with fire, which was enough to jump start his body and allow him to regenerate. They should have quit while they were ahead. It ends with Godzilla rising out of the water and you have to ask, did this all really happen or was it in his head? The answer will come in a moment. Meanwhile, the art here was not as good as the last few issues. The final shot with Godzilla rising it great and it’s better than the live action issue, but it is too gray-scale for me. Comics don’t always have to be vibrant, but it just didn’t look that good and everything was just too faded. Still a good issue, but it’s always sad to see Godzilla lose due to sheer numbers. It is part of why I don’t like the Megaguirus film.

In the end, my answer is that this was all a dream. The final issue does state that winning against yourself is greater than a thousand victories. It said that such a win can never be taken away and those lines of dialogue really support the fact that this was in Godzilla’s head. It is still a little iffy as Godzilla is not the type to ever doubt himself and I don’t think he would need to conquer his inner demons. Still, I suppose that even Kaiju have things that they need to think about so it is not totally unreasonable to believe that Godzilla has to come to terms with himself now and again. I’ve never been all that opposed to reading a series that ended with the plot twist of it all being a dream so it is not all that bad. It is open to interpretation so feel free to choose another theory to follow, but this is definitely the one that I follow.

Overall, I think this series definitely could have benefited from being longer. Of course, it could have had the opposite effect as it really depends on an issue to issue basis. If the writers started to run out of ideas, then it is always best to quit while you are ahead. I definitely recommend this to any Godzilla fan. The concept is simply too priceless to pass up. I think the average comic reader should be able to enjoy it as well. There is very little dialogue here so it is more of a visual experience than anything else. That’s something that everyone can ultimately appreciate in a comic as long as there is some kind of interesting plot/good characters to go alongside it. I’ve finally entered the world of Godzilla comics, hopefully I am able to read another one someday!

Overall 7/10

The Essential Calvin and Hobbes Review

Posted on by
2

The_Essential_Calvin_and_Hobbes
Any of you remember Calvin and Hobbes from the good ole days? I’d say that they were pretty popular when I was a kid and the name still rings a bell even if I did forget the actual characters entirely. Well, that’s what an essential collection is good for at any rate, now I can say that I definitely know each character and most of the running gags. It’s a pretty fun comic with the parents actually being the most interesting characters. They certainly keep Calvin in line. Each story ranged from 1 panel strip to a full 2 page event so the gags have to come in quickly and get right to the point. There is quite a bit of continuity though as supporting characters continue to show up and grudges are always held. Especially when the Babysitter comes into play.

The basic premise of the series is that Calvin is essentially your average kid. He has an imaginary friend named Hobbes who is actually his stuffed tiger. Calvin claims that he is real though and the story does force you to decide whether he is real or fake. I personally say that he’s fake since the Mom has actually sewn him back together a few times and he always turns back into a stuffed animal when other people are around. It’s possible that he is a magical tiger who can shift from being alive or a stuffed animal, but that seems a little far fetched so I may as well stick with my original theory. Calvin and Hobbes have a lot of adventures while they try to defy authority and have a good time. There are definitely a lot of similarities that can be drawn between this series and Peanuts.

Of course, Calvin is nothing like Charlie Brown. Charlie’s a model student who always does the right thing. Calvin aims to be the exact opposite and one subplot is that he’s always insulting one of his classmates. As a result, she doesn’t really get along with him although Calvin thinks that insulting her is a way to flirt. The logic is quite sad. Beyond that, he’s mostly a likable character although that’s a big “beyond that” I suppose. He’s always letting the Dad know how he can become more popular. The Dad doesn’t listen since he is the smartest character in the whole series. Calvin loves to try dangerous stunts so he will often race his way down a mountain or shoot himself through a few trees. He’s nothing if not brave.

As mentioned earlier, the parents are the most intense characters. The Dad always takes Calvin’s ideas in stride. When Calvin transformed into a Tiger (in his imagination) he asked the Dad what was different about him today. The Dad asked if he had a new haircut so Calvin quickly yelled that he was now a tiger. The Dad recovered by saying that he thought Calvin meant any differences besides being a tiger. Calvin’s trick questions just don’t fool the guy. He also reminds Calvin that he doesn’t need to worry about the opinions of the voters since being a Dad is a dictatorship. He doesn’t answer to Congress. The Dad consistently gets all of the best lines throughout the collection and his subtle sarcasm can always do wonders for the story. The ones without him present just aren’t quite as fun.

The Mom also likes to remind Calvin who’s in charge by slamming all of his ideas back down to Earth. She doesn’t use sarcasm as much as the Dad unfortunately, but sometimes the direct way is the best way. She did get the bully to stop picking on Calvin by calling his parents so that saved Calvin a lot of grief even if our noble main character would never admit to this. Naturally, the baby sitter is also pretty intense. Since the parents are never around at this point, she basically just threatens Calvin into following her orders all the time. She even gets extra money for it. You’ll feel bad for Calvin during the first round though because he is basically locked int he garage for the entire day. That’s definitely the saddest part for him in the whole collection when you really think about it. Seriously, the whole day in the garage with only his stuffed tiger as company….yikes!

We can’t forget about Hobbes either. He’s not quite as good as Calvin which means that he’s not really a great character. He’s essentially a broken compass to try and help Calvin make the wrong moves with his bad advice. He definitely fights with Calvin a lot as both of them threaten each other with the Baseball bat. Needless to say, both of them are always on their guard. They do team up to fight ghosts and help each other with boredom though so they’re still friends…they just have to always watch their backs.

The artwork is simple and effective. All of the pages and panels are clear which makes for an easy to read story. It holds up very well to this day and certainly beats some of the artwork that you see in today’s comics, which is an impressive feat for a comic this old. (Or a put down to the current ones. Depends on how you look at it of course) I’d like to see how the artwork would hold up for a fight scene, but that’s not in the cards at the moment.

As this series was always a rival to the Peanuts, I can’t finish this review without comparing the two of them a little now can I? I’d actually say that the Calvin and Hobbes comics may be a little more fun to read than Peanuts. Snoopy may be much better than any character in the Calvin series, but beyond that I’d say that the Calvin and Hobbes cast is still a lot better overall. They simply have better dialogue to work with and more personality as well. Purely as far as comics are concerned, I’d say that Calvin wins this rivalry. Granted, I haven’t read a great deal of comics from either side so this could always change.

Overall, Calvin and Hodge is a pretty fun batch of comics. I could see why they would be pretty popular in the Newspaper strips. The stories are engaging and the small cast allows for each character to have a lot of personality. There aren’t a whole lot of collections available at the moment so if you see this one then I’d definitely recommend it. It’s a fun little way to spend a few hours. There’s no action or a deep plot to speak of so it’ll bring you back to the simple days of old. Where you just read comics for a few laughs and the good dialogue that was brought along with it.

Overall 7/10