Tag Archives: FCBD 2016

FCBD 2016 ROM Review

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I’m not really familiar with ROM, but he definitely seems like a promising character. The ROM adventure is one of the most engaging stories in this year’s FCBD batch. My one big question with the series though will be if power level plot hax will come into play soon. This is only the first issue and ROM is already starting to have some trouble with the villains here. I don’t see him being able to win for very long without a power up or some allies at the ready. Still, that’s something for future issues to worry about, not this one. ROM’s design is quite good and the art is solid> As for the plot, aliens have infiltrated the human race and live among us. They all want to destroy ROM and ROM wants to destroy them so it evens out. He has intervened in this alien war on our behalf and aims to save the Earth. It’ll be tricky, but he is doing a pretty good job of it so far.

If the rest of the series is basically ROM trying to stop the aliens then this could have a lot of potential. I’m sure that the humans will step in at some point as well and hopefully they are helpful and not just a liability the whole time. ROM needs allies, not anything that will make him weaker in the end. The short backup story is about Action Man and it is just about as good which is fairly impressive. Action Man is sort of like Duke from GI Joe. He’s the ultimate agent and never backs down from a mission. He’s saved the world many times over, but unfortunately this last mission was too tricky and he died while saving the world. His inexperienced sidekick will now have to pick up the mantle of “Action Man” The art was very good and the comic was interesting as well. Unfortunately, I feel like the series may have made a big mistake here.

Destroying the main character in the first issue is not wise. Not only is Action Man far more likable than his sidekick, he could have easily held his own series. A whole series about him would have been awesome since Action Man is evidently very skilled and likable. He was the ultimate hero. An Action Man series about a fake Action Man just isn’t a good idea. It will limit the potential of this title even if still ends up being good. I have confidence that it will at the very least still be engaging though so this combo pack of ROM and Action Man was certainly a winner.

Overall 7/10

FCBD 2016 Suicide Squad Review

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As you all may be aware, I am definitely not a Suicide Squad fan. I’ve always thought that the whole franchise was fairly terrible and the new movie looks to be quite bad as well. Thus, I was not surprised to see that this comic was terrible as well. The cover is horrible and that makes for a bad first impression as well. This comic really couldn’t do anything right and if it wanted to get me hyped for the main series…it didn’t really work. The entirety of the comic is basically about the Suicide Squad being tortured and then they are sent on their first mission.

I suppose you are supposed to be impressed with these guys and how tough they are. They’re being beaten quite a bit, but they are still able to pull off one liners and hardcore sounding talk. They aren’t intimidated and give the interrogators a tough time as they all relive their origin stories. It was fun to see cameos from Black Canary and Batman, but it doesn’t really add a whole lot to the story. None of the origin stories are all that good either although they aren’t quite as gruesome as the main story so I’ll give it some props for that I suppose.

The art is a little busy, but it’s not all that bad I suppose. The comic just needs to work on making the colors more distinctive and sharp like the rest of the DC titles. This also doesn’t make Waller and the shady part of the government look any better. Not only are the Suicide Squad members being forced to take on their missions, but they’re also being beaten up as part of a test. You really can’t trust anyone in the DC universe.

The whole comic was very bad so let’s spend this last paragraph just discussing how it could be better. For starters, the violence needs to be toned down quite a bit. That can easily be done by having different camera angles, less blood, and simply using different situations. Instead of using these contraptions, the villains could have just been talking tough the whole time or maybe using a smoke bomb that will eventually start choking the heroes. The art needs to be more colorful and the Squad should also try to have at least one likable member as opposed to all of them being impossible to root for. Of course, it’ll be tough to do that without becoming a full blown comedy action or something like that, but a good writer can pull it off. It will lose part of its audience though so the writers will have to weigh the pros and cons here. Well, that wraps up the Marvel and DC adventures from FCBD so time to move on to the others.

Overall 3/10

FCBD 2016 DC Superhero Girls Review

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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