comics « data stream effect

Archive for the 'comics' Category

Aug

comic book day

By jeremeyes 0 Comments

Categories: comic books and comics

It’s been nearly a week without posts as I adjusted to a new job, so sorry about that to anyone who’s reading regularly. You should feel free to say hello. But now I’ll be picking up comics on every Wednesday when they come out and this blog should be a bit more regular. This past week I went down to my local comic shop and picked up the following.

Astonishing X-Men #22 - Joss Whedon(w), John Cassaday(a)

Batman #668 - Grant Morrison(w), J.H. Williams III(a)

Batman/Lobo: Deadly Serious #1 of 2 - Sam Kieth(w & a)

Black Summer #2 of 7 - Warren Ellis(w), Juan Jose Ryp(a)

Cat Woman #70 - Will Pfeifer(w), Lopez, Lopez & Hughes(a)

Supernatural Law #3 - Batton Lash(a & w)

Tales From the Crypt #2 - Neil Kleid, Fred Van Lente(w), Steve Mannion, Mr. Exes(a)

Walking Dead #40 - Robert Kirkman(w), Charlie Adlard, Rathburn(a)

World War Hulk: Gamma Corps #2 of 4 - Tieri(w), Ferreira, Florea & Quintana(a)

World War Hulk: Gamma Files - way too many to list

X-Men #202 - Mike Carey(w), Humberto Ramos, Cuevas(a)

Aug

Wetworks #11

By jeremeyes 0 Comments

Categories: comic books, comics, fantasy, superheroes, vampires, werewolves and worldstorm

Written by J.M. Dematteis

Art by Joel Gomez and Trevor Scott

Wildstorm $2.99

Around issue nine I started to hear that this issue was going to be the first canceled from the wroldstorm event. That issue was the last of the original creative team for this relaunch. Issue ten began the new team of Dematteis and Gomez, and two issues later, I still don’t like the work as much as the first nine issues, but it’s not bad.

The differentiation in stories is incredible though, jarring at some points because they’re almost unrelated outside of sharing the same characters. The first nine issues played out this great complex story of a vampire prison on an alternate version of Earth, it detailed a rebellion, a prison escape and a plot of dominate the planet. The writer went pretty far back and explored the history of vampires and werewolves on this alternate earth and made the characters, even the obvious villains, interesting and easily likable. Then issue ten jumps straight into a story where Mother One, the cyborg of the team, has somehow lost a piece of her soul in a region called the deadworld, where only Ab Death can go to save it. This isn’t explained very well, but she needs that piece of her soul or she’ll die. That piece of soul is the one that really works and apparently the rest doesn’t run without it. It’s like an episode of Lost on Wednesday or Bob Barker without Plinko; you can’t have one without the other.

So Ab Death goes off and gets her soul back, bringing Mother One back from Deadworld. I would say that Ab Death has been one of the most examined characters of the entire series thus far, and I’m happy with that, but they aren’t going in the right direction. Often issues will focus on an inner dialog he tends to have between himself and the reader, where his generic philosophies about life and afterlife are explored and he tends to ponder about himself and his place in all of it. Souls and heaven and hell and all that lot that he’s not too sure about. What would really work well and actually develop a great conversation from the character would be to explore how it feels to be a character with no past. He has no memories of his life beyond the past few years, he was created, not born. It may be foolish wishful thinking, but the exploration of what it is like to be a character with no past, who doesn’t know what he believes, perhaps because he hasn’t been around along enough to develop complex ideas and opinions on such complicated matters as death and souls, what it’s like to not have a clue who you are. It’s as if someone became an amnesiac at 40 and never recovered, never having someone as a reference point to piece together who you are. It would be terrifying, looking in the mirror and seeing a stranger, living in a stranger’s body, standing on a stranger’s feet. But that goes undeveloped. Wildstorm should give me a job.

I haven’t decided if I want to keep reading this or not. The characters are interesting enough, but it doesn’t feel like the creative teams are pushing for any real character development at this point. Either work this guy’s problems or move on to another character, there are so many in this book who haven’t been explored at all and in a universe with cyborgs, life-conscious vampires, werewolves and the like, that’s a real shame.

Aug

Black Panther #29

By jeremeyes 1 Comment

Categories: classic superheroes, comic books, comics, fantastic four, marvel, marvel zombies and zombies

Written by Reginald Hudlin

Art by Francis Portela

Cover art by Arthur Suydam

Marvel Comics $2.99

Hell of a Mess Part 02 of 03

Utterly failing at working with the Skrulls to stop the Galactus-empowered zombies, the Fantastic Four and a helpful faux-Super Skrull manage to make it back to the ship and hide out in the sky while they try to assemble a plan. They bomb the base that the zombies are in, feeding on Skrull workers, but I think we all know how successful that will prove to be. While all of this happens, people say amusing variations on old taglines, such as “it’s slobberin’ time!” and what not, and hundreds of Skrulls get eaten. What becomes a major problem for the universe is that the zombies figure that the Fantastic Four have come from another galaxy and, because they are always hungry and running out of people to feed on, they need to hijack the dimension-jumping device the FF have and take it, turning Earth into a massive meal.

Hudlin does a pretty good job balancing a bit of humor, trying not to force it on the reader, and trying to move the story ahead at a pace that is neither trudging along nor so fast that the group doesn’t seem to be in real danger. That has always been a staple of the horror genre - the suspense of waiting to see who’s going to die. Of course, because this is Marvel and Black Panther is subject to continuity, they aren’t going to kill any of these four characters. The Skrulls, however, are totally fucked.

I’ve actually always hated the Marvel Zombies design, because it looks more like Marvel Skeletons With Costumes, not like actual zombies. Other than disliking the zombie design, which is not Portela fault, as how he had nothing to do with the original design, I really like his art. His work on the live Fantastic Four and the Skrulls, including the Super Skrull, is great. Clean and crisp lines exist in stark contrast to the dark, messy zombie design. The colors of Val Staples keep the pages bright, entertaining and generally interesting among the slightly tired zombie design.

Aug

The Walking Dead #39

By jeremeyes 0 Comments

Categories: awesome, comic books, comics, fantasy, horror, image comics, robert kirkman, the walking dead, violence and zombies

Written by Robert Kirkman

Art by Charlie Adlard and Cliff Rathburn

Image Comics $2.99

Picking up my comics late this afternoon, I rushed home and quickly flew through this issue first. At one point I even peeked at the first page when I was at a stoplight. I’m absolutely STILL in love with this comic 100%. This series is so satisfying, so well written, drawn, inked, plotted, Christ, it’s the perfect serialized story. I hope it never ends and, according to the notes in the letters column in the end of this issue, it’s sales are higher than they’ve ever been at a time when the comics market is busier than it’s been in a while, which means good things for geeks like me.

I think this issue should make the zombie nerds feel more reassured, as there’s an attack while trying to get gas for the generator. There’s also a moderate level of violence. I say moderate because with this series it ebbs and flows, but the bar is set really high as far as freak out crazy violence goes. The issue opens by closing off the conflict that happened at the end of issue 38, facing the people who were probably from Woodbury in the Wal-Mart where Glenn, Maggie, Andrea, Tyrese, Michonne and I swear Axel was with them, but he’s nowhere to be seen in this issue. It’s verified that they’re from Woodbury, one of them recognizes Glenn. And shoots him, unexpectedly. I really didn’t expect that at all, it was random, like most of the other horrible shit that happens in this comic. Just like life. Andrea keeps getting more and more interesting as the series stretches out. She manages to kill half of the hostile men and Michonne dismembers the other two. I like how strong and able the main female characters are in this book, they’re in stark comparison with Lori, who is so incredibly annoying and essentially useless. Glenn, shot, though he was in riot gear, lays on the ground with Maggie quietly mumbling, “no. no. no. no. no.” It’s done incredibly well. And he turns out to be perhaps okay.

I have really grown to love Adlard and Rathburn’s combined art using black, white and grays in all of their various shades.. The realism of the art style helps to ground the series in reality. Often times I forget that this is a zombie book at all, because there are large chunks of time without zombie attacks, where it’s just a human drama steeped in tragedy. This is my favorite thing about this book, it is about human suffering and companionship, which makes it one of the most realistic comic books I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading, despite it being set in a universe overpopulated with zombies.

In the meantime, useless Lori has her baby and Billy and Dale run into some zombies while looking for gas to help run the generator to keep the lights on during the delivery. Despite the ominous cover, there was no zombie baby, which I thought was going to happen, or something equally horrible, until the last page when a normal baby girl is shown.

Another great issue by Kirkman, Adlard and Rathburn, more development on these great characters, putting them through odds that seem insane and realistic at the same time.

Aug

World War Hulk #2 of 5

By jeremeyes 0 Comments

Categories: awesome, classic superheroes, comic books, comics, fantastic four, hulk, limited series, marvel, miniseries, superheroes and world war hulk

Written By Greg Pak

Art by John Romita Jr, Klaus Janson and Christina Strain

Marvel Comics $3.99

The fantastic four rush to the scene to try to stop the hulk, but are stopped pretty quickly. The Human Torch can’t burn hot enough, Storm has no effect on him and Reed and T’Challa are pretty much useless. The Thing tries to trade blows with him, but is pummeled so quickly, it’s barely a fight. When he’s through, he beats Reed’s body to hell and back, which was an absolute delight. He ends up a flat, stretched out mess, laying at Hulk’s feet with Stark, just like the Hulk wanted. I like that before the fight begins, we see Reed and Sue fighting, as they still aren’t back on good terms after Reed’s insane douche baggery during Civil War.

This issue is everything you’d want in a Hulk story. All the build up has worked towards this smash fest of anger, resentment and hate. Even the Hulk’s best friends get their asses handed to them on the drop of a dime. Pak manages to get through a lot of story in Incredible Hulk and deliver the action in World War Hulk, combining the stories from both to make some pretty efficient comic book plotting. He’s in perfect form as the event he must have planned at least two years ago comes into play.

I was glad to see Pak include all the moronic Americans in the book, as they would certainly come out parading with signs both claiming the end was near and the beginning had already started, saying Hulk was a messiah and the anti-christ all wrapped up into one package.

As a reader who generally thinks most of Marvel’s superheroes are egotistical jerks who essentially serve others to serve themselves, this series is proving to be a lot of fun. It’s like going to court and watching the lawyers get beat up.

As the city crumbles and virtually everyone he’s ever known struggles to survive, Dr. Strange seems to believe there’s only one “hero” that can save them, but he doesn’t say who. He seems to be spending the issue trying to summon someone. I think it’s going to be either Thor or Banner. Probably Banner. Dr. Strange will likely be one of the most interesting characters in the series, obviously. Marvel has a fortuitous goldmine on their hands, but they don’t really seem to know what to do with him, but I think Pak knows.

Aug

World War Hulk: Gamma Corps #1 of 4

By jeremeyes 0 Comments

Categories: classic superheroes, comic books, comics, hulk, limited series, miniseries, science fiction, superheroes and world war hulk

Written by Frank Tieri

Art by Carlos Ferreira, Stephane Roux, Sandu Florea and Will Quintana

Marvel Comics $2.99

Well, this makes perfect sense. In an attempt to stop the Hulk, five gamma-induced humans are given similar powers(or so it seems in this issue) as the Hulk and will be recruited to stop him. It makes perfect sense that Stark would want these guys to go up against him, if he ever manages to crawl back out of the massive hole the Hulk buried him in, as their powers are similar. This plan doesn’t have a chance of working, but it should be fun to see a half dozen hulk-powered people battle it out.

I was actually really surprised by this issue. By the looks of the cover, which looks awful, though the inside art is actually quite nice and fitting for the style that the story is told in, I thought that it was the Hulk with a bunch of fighters, like he’d made more friends to go against Stark and Richards. Instead, a team has been bred to fight him. Okay then. It’s written decently enough, not that anything real besides an introduction to these characters happens and some chatter about Nick Fury being gone from S.H.I.E.L.D., as the issue ends with the team being informed they’re finally going to be given the chance to take down the Hulk. I assume next issue they will fail miserably.

Now I’m thinking that Nick Fury might come back and save the day in October, once nearly everyone has had their ass handed to them. That would be really fucking cool.

Aug

Martha Washington DIES

By jeremeyes 1 Comment

Categories: Dark Horse, comic books, comics, frank miller, one-shot, sci-fi and science fiction

Written by Frank Miller

Art by Dave Gibbons

Dark Horse Comics $3.50

She dies in all caps, what a way to go. I’d never read Give Me Liberty, in fact, I’d never even heard of it. This one-shot serves as an end to the life of the lead character of that series and an advertisement for the collection Dark Horse is printing next year. In this issue, Miller kills off his wise old character, spreads some rumors about her so that the reader doesn’t really know who she is unless they read the old series and he makes a pretty intriguing character sketch of a wise old revolutionary who only appears on 9 pages of her own death comic.

It worked. There’s some thoughtful narration on freedom. liberty and the like, and how we fight for it, how we always fight for it and how after we die, people will still fight for it. Everything appears to take place in the future, in a dystopic ruined version of America. It worked, Miller has me willing to buy some huge collection with this commercial that I paid for. That is essentially what he’s done with this book, he’s convinced people to pay almost four dollars to buy an advertisement for a product that isn’t even for sale yet. That’s talent.

Aug

Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: The First Death #1 of 2

By jeremeyes 0 Comments

Categories: comic books, comics, fantasy, horror, limited series, marvel, miniseries, sexualized comics, vampires and violence

Written by Laurell K. Hamilton and Jonathan Green

Art by Wellinton Alves and Color Dojo

Marvel Comics/Dabel Brothers Productions $3.99

Apparently the Guilty Pleasures adaptation of the novels have been pretty successful. I even saw that the people at Borders had posted up a comic book rack with the comics in the horror section where Hamilton’s novels are. That made me pretty happy, because there seems to be this hard separation between a large amount of comics and traditional literature readers. Being avid fans of both, I like to see everybody conveign and have a good time with a good story. Hamilton must have been happy with all of the sales, because, to my knowledge, she has no real history writing comic scripts, yet she designated this story, with 100% new material, for a comic book and helped write it herself.

The First Death is a two-parter that promises never before seen story and appears to occur before Guilty Pleasures, as Anita says she’s never been in the all male, all vampire strip club that she spends so much time in in the miniseries. It took me awhile to get into the miniseries, something like five or six issues, but I finally liked it. I think it was the dense amount of narration and long speech bubbles that made it hard to get through. Until this year I’d been mostly reading superhero comics, which have little important dialog, and sitting down with a comic book and spending a half an hour reading it felt strange and entirely out of place. But now I’ve rather enjoyed it. The writers manage to get a huge amount of story into an individual issue by using tactile, relevant dialog only and using the hell out of narrative boxes. It achieves a much more complex and detailed story than one is used to seeing in most comic books, especially one with a Marvel logo on it. Personally, it’s a welcome change.

Though Brett Booth did the cover and was the art supervisor of this issue, he doesn’t actually do the inside art. This was kind of disappointing for me, I’ve become a fan of his pretty quickly. At first I found his art to be kind of weird, disjointed in a way that made perfect sense, but it looked different. His sharp, detailed designs just stood out from the pages of Guilty Pleasures. Then I bought the first volume of Magician’s Apprentice and got to see six more issues of his work, by the end of the second issue, I really liked his stuff. Instead, in this issue Alves uses a softer, more gentile approach to character designs and uses a more generalized, less detailed attention to the little things. This, accompanied by less colors, results in paler characters and dull backgrounds.

The story focuses on a series of child murders, which is proven to be done by vampires. Anita is called in to help the police with their investigation and, as part of finding suspects, she attends Guilty Pleasures, a male vampire strip club, for the first time. This also serves as her introduction to Jean-Claude, the vampire who runs the club, with his victorian style clothes and hyper-sexualized masculinity that makes Anita incredibly uncomfortable. This book isn’t bogged down by the unnecessary inner-dialog of odd, out of place sexual thoughts that Anita has that plagued the Guilty Pleasures series, which makes for a much better read. Along with a generally more focused plot line and a faster pace, The First Death looks to be a pretty good read, better, I should say, than the first mini-series.

Aug

Stormwatch P.H.D. #9

By jeremeyes 0 Comments

Categories: DC Comics, awesome, comic books, comics, sci-fi, superheroes and worldstorm

Written by Christos Gage

Art by Andy Smith, David Baron, cover art by Mike McKone and David Baron

Wildstorm $2.99

Stormwatch has been absolutely one of my favorite comics of the worldstorm launch that hasn’t been written by Gail Simone. Since the worldstorm relaunch, Christos Gage has continually proved himself as a fantastic storyteller and a writer quite capable of crafting character-driven fiction that is as enjoyable without being meaningless.

Gage has spent these nine issues showing his abilities of characterization and plot, when he puts them together, they are incredibly fun to see unfold. The characters in Stormwatch are so refined, so well-developed, some of them are downright loveable, like the Machinist and Black Betty, and some are so much fun to hate, but they’re all fun to read. This issue takes hold of these well-defined characters and puts them in a murder/mystery story, but I never thought of it as a genre story until I began to write this post. Jackson is shot in the head with a laser, but only high level people from the department would have access to him and it would be incredibly difficult to sneak up on a psychic. A newer twist on an old idea, but it’s done without the old routines, instead taking time to focus on individual characters, all of whom are suspects, and letting the reader come to their own conclusions until the final panel where the mystery is wrapped up.

On the other side of the coin, I pretty much hate the art. I think Andy Smith is all wrong for this book, he’d be better suited on a darker, more moody piece, not this character driven exploration book that Gage has created. Really, I wish the art was closer to the first four issues, that stuff was great and so well suited for this comic book.

This is a self-contained story that is done rather well, you wouldn’t absolutely need to read any other issues to enjoy this because Christos Gage makes everything simple for the reader who isn’t looking for much other than a fun story, but if you’ve taken the time and gotten the rest of the information, you can delight as you see everyone stress each other out and act out as you question whether they’re guilty or not. Either way, it’s great fun and definitely worth the three dollars. But seriously, this is one of the best superhero comics going right now, run out and grab it!