Dorohedoro: Mushroom Dreams

I read Dorohedoro, Vol. 8

I posted a review at ComicBookBin (which has free smart phone apps and comics).

I Reads You Review: ALL-NEW X-MEN #6

ALL-NEW X-MEN #6
MARVEL COMICS

WRITER: Brian Michael Bendis
ARTIST: David Marquez
COLORS: Marte Gracia
LETTERS: VC’s Cory Petit
COVER: Stuart Immonen and Wade von Grawbadger with Marte Gracia
VARIANT COVER: Chris Bachalo and Tim Townsend
28pp, Colors, $3.99 U.S.

Rated T+

All-New X-Men, a Marvel NOW title, is set at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. Here, Storm, Wolverine, Beast, Iceman, and Kitty Pryde try to keep Professor Charles Xavier’s dream alive. Meanwhile, Cyclops/Scott Summers, one of the original X-Men, has become a highly controversial figure and is the public face of a new mutant revolution. He and his teammates: Magneto, the White Queen, and Majick, are gathering new mutants as fast as they appear.

In a desperate bid to stop Cyclops’ activities from triggering a mutant apocalypse, a dying Beast/Hank McCoy goes back in time. He brings the original X-Men: Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, Beast, and Angel, back with him. He wants young Cyclops see what he has become, so that he might change his ways and change his future.

All-New X-Men #6 opens after the original X-Men decide to stay in the present (their future) in order to save all our futures. Adjustment is difficult, however. Jean’s telepathic powers awakened for the first time. Angel is the only original X-Man who has not met his future-self. Cyclops has the most difficult time accepting what has happened, and that leads to a showdown with Wolverine.

With Brian Michael Bendis still writing, All-New X-Men is still good. His thoughtful, character-centric writing focuses on Marvel’s mutants both as people and as heroes. This makes All-New X-Men something like an evening teen soap opera / primetime drama.

David Marquez is now the artist on All-New X-Men. He replaces the team of Stuart Immonen and Wade von Grawbadger, who were the artists on the series’ first story arc. The results are mixed. Marquez storytelling is low-energy and his drawing style is bland. One of the problems with artists drawing from complete scripts is that they can become art robots, and Marquez’s art does lack a human touch. The robotic coloring doesn’t help.

Thank God for Bendis.

A-

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

Review: NUMBER 13 #3

NUMBER 13 #3
DARK HORSE COMICS – @DarkHorseComics

STORY: Robert Love and David Walker
PENCILS: Robert Love – @Robert33071
INKS: Dana Shukartsi
COLORS: Heather Breckel
LETTERS: David Walker
COVER: Robert Love with Christian Colbert
28pp, Color, $3.99 U.S.

The story of Number 13 that began in Dark Horse Comics Presents comes to an end. Will Number 13 be back?

Number 13 is a comic book series created by Robert Love. Love draws the series and co-writes it with David Walker. This post-apocalyptic tale is set in a world where a plague, Monstrum Morbus (the monster plague), turned most humans into mutated monsters, the Infected (“the fected”), or killed them. Only a few humans remained unchanged, the Immune (“the mune”), but, in a sense, they did become monsters, as they slaughtered the fected and effectively ended the world. The story centers on a bionic amnesiac known as Number 13 (or Number Thirteen), who is trying to recover his past.

Number 13 #3 continues the story of a war that began 60 years after the end of the world. This war between “the mune” and “the fected” rages with new battles. Number 13, the boy who was created to end it all, is caught in the middle of a battle between The Professor, who created him, and Mother Goose, the manipulative and cunning leader of a band of Infected.

The Professor and his Servators, cyborgs created to hunt and kill the Infected, threatens Mother Goose in order to regain 13 from her. Meanwhile, a Servator accidentally evolves, and 13 comes of age, so to speak.

Over the course of reviewing Number 13, I have noted that I think that this series shows the influence on creator/artist Robert Love of Jack Kirby and John Byrne (himself influenced by Kirby). While reading Number 13 #3, I wondered if this comic book is what a black exploitation science fiction movie would have looked like.

Imagine this union in the 1970s: someone willing to finance such a film, a European director, some Vaughn Bodé conceptual and design work, and a cast of the hottest “Afro-American” actors. I think the resulting movie would have looked something like Robert Love’s Number 13, and that’s a good thing.

Influences aside, I like this series. It’s big, an epic story squeezed into the tight space of a comic book page, but given range by the design and layout that grabs inches wherever they can find it. With the spirit of the Saturday morning cartoons of decades past, Number 13 is fun and imaginative beyond what is expected of it.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

Hayate the Combat Butler: The Stone of Bonding

I read Hayate the Combat Butler, Vol. 21

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin.

Review: THE SHADOW Year One #1

THE SHADOW: YEAR ONE #1
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT – @dynamitecomics

WRITER: Matt Wagner
ARTIST: Wilfredo Torres
COLORS: Brennan Wagner
LETTERS: Simon Bowland
COVER: Matt Wagner (A), Alex Ross (B), Chris Samnee (C), Howard Chaykin (D)
The Shadow created by Walter B. Gibson
28pp, Color, $3.99 U.S.

“Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows.”

He has influenced such characters as Batman, Green Arrow, the Green Hornet, and Alan Moore’s V from V for Vendetta, but The Shadow began as a sinister voice on the radio, the mysterious narrator of a radio series.

Then, pulp writer Walter B. Gibson fully developed the character into the one we know. The Shadow became the mysterious crime-fighting vigilante with psychic powers that appeared in novel-length stories published in pulp magazines. The Shadow became a pop culture icon. The character is no stranger to comics, having debuted in a daily newspaper comic strip in 1940 and having also starred in a comic book series entitled Shadow Comics that ran during the 1940s.

In 2012, Dynamite Entertainment returned The Shadow to comic books with a new regular series. Dynamite’s latest release is The Shadow: Year One, a new miniseries from writer Matt Wagner and artist Wilfredo Torres.

The Shadow: Year One #1 opens in Cambodia, 1929. Chanda, a young gang member, runs to his cousin for aid. It seems his boss, the fearsome warlord, Kai-Pang, has been killed by “a dark spirit… thirsting for vengeance.” Now, that spirit wants Chanda.

Later, on October 30, 1929, the wealthy, world traveler and adventurer, Lamont Cranston, arrives by ship in New York City. A young reporter’s interest is piqued by Cranston’s return to America. Meanwhile, Margo Lane, a kept woman, is having a disagreement with her keeper, New York-based criminal and hood, Guiseppe “Joe” Massaretti. Margo and Joe’s relationship is about to bring The Shadow out of the shadows.

For a time, I was a huge fan of The Shadow. I read Howard Chaykin’s four-issue miniseries, The Shadow (DC Comics), several times. Chaykin, who provides one of four covers for the first issue of The Shadow: Year One, created a very popular re-imagining (before that word was used) of The Shadow. Eventually collected as The Shadow: Blood and Judgment, Chaykin’s miniseries was also controversial.

Whereas Chaykin’s The Shadow was flashy, crazy, sexy, cool and maybe just a tad bit aggressive and in-your-face, The Shadow, as drawn by Wilfredo Torres, is quiet and smooth. Torres’ art is straight from the David Mazzuchelli school of comics-as-Film-Noir, but this is a low-budget Film-Noir, with straight-ahead camera work. It’s no frills, just meat-and-potatoes, as if the camera just stands still and shoots what is in front of it.

Matt Wagner’s script offers intriguing tidbits throughout, but he writes a first issue that is frustratingly and mostly set-up. This is barely a prologue. The way this story is presented seems to suggest that the actual story hasn’t really started. Will this series turn out to be good? I’ll put my money on Wagner to deliver quality, if not excellent, work. But for now, this first issue is so much cock-tease.

B+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

Albert Avilla Reviews: Batman #16

Batman #16
DC Comics

Reviewed by Albert Avilla

Writer: Scott Snyder
Pencils: Greg Capullo
Inks: Jonathan Glapion

“Castle of Cards” (Spoilers)

Snyder has taken us on a ride to the dark side that we won’t soon forget. Each month, for the short amount of time that we take to read this comic masterpiece, we should be thankful for every event that led to this story being produced. Runs like this don’t come very often.

Synder makes a comic story an emotional experience. Everything that makes Batman great comes exploding off these pages. The Joker is pushing Batman to the edge; Batman will have to dig deep to keep himself from jumping over. Synder has a unique talent; he is a maestro using every instrument in the orchestra to present to us a symphony of words and pictures. He burns our emotional skin off and leaves us hypersensitive to the emotions that run through his story. Snyder leaves us awe struck by his creativity. He strikes terror in our hearts with scenes like the flaming horse and the tapestry made from living human bodies.

The depraved humor of the Joker sends chills down your spine, leaving you questioning your sanity for laughing at the Joker’s antics. The Joker has Batman at his wits end, but we know Batman is at the top of his game. He easily dispatches some of his most vicious enemies, and yet the Joker outsmarts him at every turn. The Joker taxes Batman physically, mentally, and emotionally. It’s amazing how an insane mind is able to out-think and bluff some of the greatest minds. Action, horror, and sadistic humor: Synder gives it all to us. The Death of the Family crossover is showing us that Synder is out shining his fellow writers in the Batman family of comics. This is definitely a must-read comic. Batman is the best single hero comic that I read.

The art falls in line with the writing; it integrates itself into the greatness of the writing. It is dark and foreboding. It perfectly illustrates the evil.

I rate Batman #16 Recommend It to a Friend. #1 (of 5) on the Al-O-Meter

Albert Avilla Reviews: Captain America #3

Captain America #3
Marvel Comics

Reviewed by Albert Avilla

Writer: Rick Remender
Pencils: John Romita Jr.
Inks: Klaus Janson

(Spoilers!)
Rick Remender is reminding us of who Captain America is. Throughout this story, Cap’s nobility and courage are displayed.

He escapes from Zofjor, not because he wants to live, but because he wants to protect Ian. Cap is willing to sacrifice his own body to accomplish his goal. Cap’s bravery inspires one of the Phrox to come to his aid. Cap is spared. Cap, always the champion of liberty, begins to convince Ksul that the tribe should stand up to Zofjor. This leads to Ksul being killed by Zofjor. Cap is able to defeat Zofjor, giving the Phrox their freedom.

Remender also gives us a flashback to Cap as a young boy to illustrate that Cap was a hero before he got his powers. The powers didn’t make Cap a hero; they just made him a more powerful hero.

The counterpart to Cap is Arnim Zola. Zola is a vile, wicked (wait, let me get my thesaurus) base, immoral, depraved, and beastly villain. In Zola’s flashback we see the results of his despicable experiments. He has changed his housekeeper Hilda into a foul creature and expects her to be proud of his success. In the present, he leaves the child, Jet, to fight for her life against an army of mutates. If Zola’s villainy is a measuring stick for Cap’s heroism, then, Cap is truly the living legend. At the end of the story, we see why Cap has been suffering. This story arc is slowly earning the status of epic. This is the way that we kick off a new series. Wow! Marvel Now.

With such a good story we need to remember to take some time to enjoy the work of one of the masters of sequential art. John Romita Jr. shows that he can do his thing with any story setting.

I rate Captain America #3 Buy Your Own Copy. #2 (of 5) on the Al-O-Meter.