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MAGAZINES
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JAN122069 WHITE DWARF #387 PI
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Monday, April 9, 2012
I Reads You Review: AVENGERS VS. X-MEN #0
AVENGERS VS. X-MEN #0
MARVEL COMICS
WRITERS: Brian Michael Bendis, Jason Aaron
ARTIST: Frank Cho
COLORS: Jason Keith
LETTERS: Chris Eliopoulos
COVERS: Frank Cho with Jason Keith; Stephanie Hans (alternate cover)
40pp, Color, $3.99 U.S.
Rated: T+
Avengers vs. X-Men is Marvel Comics’ current giant, crossover, event series. I’ve read comments on the old Interweb that suggest Avengers vs. X-Men will be Marvel’s biggest publishing event in over a decade, at least from the point of view of sales.
I am sure that it will be a big thing. This planned 12-issue miniseries pits the Avengers and the X-Men against each other, apparently over The Phoenix. The X-Men are a sales and merchandising juggernaut for Marvel, and the franchise has produced five successful films for 20th Century Fox. The Avengers are a little less than a month away from their debut on the big screen, when the film, Marvel’s The Avengers, arrives. Two Iron Man movies have a combined gross of over one billion dollars in worldwide box office. In 2011, two other Avengers films, Thor and Captain America, each made more than 170 million dollars in domestic box office.
Avengers vs. X-Men #0 is a prologue to the main event and focuses on Avenger, Scarlet Witch, and X-Man, Hope Summers, and blends two separate stories starring each character. In the Scarlet Witch story (written by Brian Michael Bendis), the reality-warping mutant and long-time member of the Avengers hopes to get back into the superhero business. She takes on M.O.D.O.K., but ends up needing help from Spider-Woman and Ms. Marvel. This reunion leads to a bigger reunion, but perhaps, the Scarlet Witch can’t go home again.
In the Hope Summers story (written by Jason Aaron), the young woman called the “mutant messiah,” feels confined by others’ expectations of her. Hope spends her time ruthlessly punishing non-super-powered criminals, but now, she faces the Serpent Society.
For a prologue to a big, big event, Avengers vs. X-Men #0 is surprisingly blasé. The Avengers come across as stock figures in their appearance here, except for The Vision and the Scarlet Witch. This duo is where the fire is in this story, but the constraints forced upon the story smother the fire. The Hope Summers story is only a tad bit better – if it is actually appropriate for me to use the word “better” to describe this comic book. The other characters are wooden, and Hope is petulant, but in a totally boring king of way.
The art by Frank Cho is technically well-drawn, but looks like a mechanical exercise that at least 20 other robo-artists-for-hire could have done in the same drawing style and with the same lack of panache.
I hope issue #1 is better, and I’ll find out soon.
C+
Appearances:
HEROES: Scarlet Witch, Hope Summers; The Avengers: Beast, Iron Man, Ms. Marvel, Spider-Woman, Thor, The Vision, Wolverine; The X-Men: Cyclops, Emma Frost
VILLAINS: M.O.D.O.K.; The Serpent Society: Anaconda, Asp, Bushmaster, Cottonmouth, Puff Adder
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Bakuman: Visualization and Imagination
I read Bakuman., Vol. 10
I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin (which has FREE smart phone apps and comics).
I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin (which has FREE smart phone apps and comics).
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Bleach: El Verdugo
I read Bleach, Vol. 39 (Bleach (Graphic Novels))
I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin (which has free comics).
I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin (which has free comics).
Thursday, April 5, 2012
A Column On How Not to End Up Like Trayvon Martin
I wrote a piece that is part spoof of Geraldo Rivera and part satire for my Black Astronaut page at the Comic Book Bin. Please, go here and enjoy.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
I Reads You Review: THE STRANGE CASE OF MR. HYDE #4
DARK HORSE COMICS
WRITER: Cole Haddon
ART: M.S. Corley
COLORS: Jim Campbell
LETTERS: Richard Starkings & Comicraft
32pp, Color, $3.50 U.S.
The Victorian suspense thriller, The Strange Case of Mr. Hyde, unites the real-life Whitechapel Murders and this event’s most famous player, Jack the Ripper, with characters from the novella, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by author Robert Louis Stevenson. This comic book miniseries from writer Cole Haddon and artist M.S. Corley comes to an end with the fourth issue.
The narrator and central character of The Strange Case of Mr. Hyde is Inspector Thomas Adye of Scotland Yard. Assigned to discover the identity of the Whitechapel Murderer, Jack the Ripper, Adye seeks the help of Dr. Henry Jekyll, who is also Mr. Edward Hyde. Apparently, Jack the Ripper is using the same formula Jekyll created and subsequently used to turn himself into Hyde. The formula makes the Ripper a physical marvel and a nearly-unstoppable monster – perhaps stronger than even Hyde.
As The Strange Case of Mr. Hyde #4 begins, Adye and Jekyll race to Whitechapel to apprehend the man who has been revealed as Jack the Ripper, Dr. John Utterson, Jekyll’s old friend and confidant. Adye hopes they are in time to save ginger-haired prostitute, Mary Jane Kelly, from becoming the Ripper’s next victim and ghastly art piece. But to stop the Ripper, Adye may have to allow Jekyll to ingest his serum, and that would mean the return of Hyde. Soon, Adye will find himself caught in the middle of a battle between two horrible monsters, and he will have to be the most cunning if he is to survive.
The final issue of The Strange Case of Mr. Hyde gave me the slam-band ending I was expecting from what has been one of the best comic books I’ve read in the last year. Part Guy Ritchie/Robert Downey, Jr. Sherlock Holmes and part Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Strange Case of Mr. Hyde is a high concept Victorian thriller with a lively narrative.
Writer Cole Haddon is inventive in the way he executes this series because every scene offers a surprise. At least as I read it, Haddon usually does the opposite of what is expected, and the resolution is filled with surprises and promises of more good things to come. As far as I’m concerned, Hyde’s fate is a happy ending.
Artist M.S. Corley is Haddon’s equal. His woodcut-like drawing style offers quirky graphics and solid storytelling. This gives the story the visual appearance of being from the past, as if this comic once existed in a 19th century magazine. Style aside, however, the art brings to life this pop confection of murder investigation most foul and Victorian fiction and culture. Corley can take pride in the fact that his work stands out in a way that much comic book art does not.
A
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