Review CYBORG #1

CYBORG #1
DC COMICS – @DCComics

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

WRITER: David F. Walker
PENCILS: Ivan Reis
INKS: Joe Prado
COLORS: Adriano Lucas
LETTERS: Rob Leigh
COVER: Ivan Reis and Joe Prado with Adriano Lucas
VARIANT COVER: Tony Harris
32pp, Color, $2.99 U.S. (September 2015)

Rated “T” for “Teen”

“Unplugged”

Cyborg created by Marv Wolfman and George Perez

Cyborg a.k.a. Victor Stone is a DC Comics superhero, part-man and part-machine. The character was created by writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Pérez, and first appeared in a special insert in DC Comics Presents #26 (cover dated:  October 1980). Cyborg is best known as a member of the young superhero team, the Teen Titans.  However, in September 2011, DC Comics re-launched the DC Universe, rebooting its continuity.  Cyborg was reestablished as a founding member of the superhero team, the Justice League.

Although he was featured in a few Teen Titans spin offs, Cyborg never had his own comic book title.  With the launch of the “DCYou” initiative, he has one, aptly titled, Cyborg.  It is written by David F. Walker; drawn by Ivan Reis (pencils) and Joe Prado (inks); colored by Adriano Lucas; and lettered by Rob Leigh.

Cyborg #1 (“Unplugged”) opens “somewhere in another galaxy.”  This is the scene of a battle between the bestial “Technosapien” and the armor-wearing “Tekbreakers.”  The scene switches back to Earth, specifically S.T.A.R. Labs in Detroit, Michigan.  Outside, it is a scene of protests; inside, Victor Stone has returned to meet his father, Silas Stone, who is a noted scientist.

Victor hopes that his father can help him understand why the machine that gives him his Cyborg powers is evolving.  The problem is that this machine is also his body, and he needs to know what is causing these changes.

Cyborg #1 is intriguing.  Writer David F. Walker isn't offering anything groundbreaking here.  I expect that Walker will occasionally delve into the toxic relationship of the Family Stone.  There is also Sarah, a woman obviously in love with Victor, and she has spent too much time on the sidelines.  Of course, an alien threat looms on the horizon.

I'm reading Cyborg for a number of reasons.  First, I have been a fan of the character since I started reading New Teen Titans back in the day.  Secondly, he is one of the coolest African-American characters in comics, and one of the few who is both original and very powerful.  Thirdly, this new Cyborg comic book is thus far the only “DCYou” title written by an African-American writer.  In fact, it is the only DC Comics title currently written by a Black man.  So I got to support – good or bad, I want to support this comic book, although I think it will be good.  By the way, so much for the diversity of the “DCYou.”

Also, the art team of Ivan Reis and Joe Prado has once again delivered stellar work.  I think I would buy this comic book just for their art.

B+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

Review: NARUTO Volume 72

NARUTO, VOL. 72
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

CARTOONIST: Masashi Kishimoto
TRANSLATION: Mari Morimoto
LETTERS: John Hunt
ISBN: 978-1-4215-8284-9; paperback (October 2015); Rated “T” for “Teen”
216pp, B&W, $9.99 U.S., $12.99 CAN, £6.99 U.K.

Created by Masashi Kishimoto, Naruto began as a one-shot manga that was published in the August 1997 issue of Akamaru Jump.  Naruto the series began its serialization in Weekly Shōnen Jump on September 21, 1999 and ended on November 10, 2014.  The final 10 chapters of Naruto arrive in North America, collected in the graphic novel, Naruto Volume 72.

Naruto focuses on Uzumaki Naruto.  As a young shinobi (ninja), Naruto had an incorrigible knack for mischief and was also the biggest troublemaker at the Ninja Academy in the shinobi Village of Konohagakure.  He was an outcast because there was something special about him.  When he was a baby, Naruto's parents (father Minato and mother Kushina) imprisoned a nine-tailed fox spirit (Kurama) inside his infant body.  In time, he became a ninja with his classmates Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke.  Now, 16-years-old and incorrigible as ever, Naruto has to save the world.

As Naruto, Vol. 72 (entitled Uzumaki Naruto – Chapters 691 to 700) opens, the Fourth Great Ninja War has ended, and its instigators, the Akatsuki, have been vanquished.  Naruto and Sasuke sealed away the rogue Rabbit Goddess Kaguya.  Now, the reunited classmates, fueled by opposing ideals, will fight each other in one final battle in order to determine the future of the world.

I have made no secret that I think Naruto has been one of best comics published in North America over the last decade.  In fact, there were a few years, when I thought that Naruto was the best comic book of the year.  So I'm sad that it has ended.  I didn't see it coming.  I simply believed that the Fourth Great Ninja War would end and that the series would move on to the next world beaters.

Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto has a note at the beginning of Vol. 72 in which he says (basically) that he'd be honored if, in the future, we occasionally recall that there was once a character named Naruto.  Kishimoto-san, because of your work, Naruto will never be a “was.”  There will always be a character named Uzumaki Naruto.

Readers, old and new, looking for the best in shonen battle manga will have 72 volumes of the Shonen Jump title, Naruto (the king of ninja manga), to enjoy.

A+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

Book Review: CONSOLE WARS by Blake J. Harris

CONSOLE WARS
HARPCOLLINS/William Morrow/Dey St. – @HarperCollins; @WmMorrowBks

AUTHOR: Blake J. Harris
ISBN: 978-0-06-227670-4; paperback (June 2, 2015)
576pp, B&W, $15.99 U.S., $19.99 CAN

Foreword by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg

Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle That Defined a Generation is a 2014 non-fiction book by tech writer and filmmaker, Blake J. Harris.  Console Wars was originally published in hardcover by It Books, and in June of this year, Dey St. (an imprint of William Morrow) published a trade paperback edition of the book.

Console Wars is a real-life David-and-Goliath tale that recounts how Sega, a scrappy upstart, took on Nintendo, the market leader, for domination of the videogame industry.  In 1990, Sega was merely a faltering arcade company.  Nintendo of America (NOA) was the unmatched industry leader, controlling 90 percent of the videogame market in America.

Enter Tom Kalinske.  He was once the guiding hand of Barbie at Mattel.  In the summer of 1990, Hayao Nakayama, boss of Sega of Japan (SOJ), hired Kalinske to be President and CEO of Sega of America (SOA).  Using bold ideas and out-of-the-box strategies, along with strategic and imaginative hiring practices, Kalinske took SOA from having 5 percent of the American videogame market to 55 percent in less than four years.

However, Kalinske's success created a vicious and bitter rivalry with Nintendo and also an industry war that spread from corporate boardrooms to trade shows; from the airwaves to the living rooms and schoolyards of America; and finally from Congressional chambers to overseas.  However, Kalinske's fiercest battlefront was surprisingly closer to home.

The total time that I have spent playing video games probably amounts to less than two weeks.  However, there is some truth to the notion that the most compelling fiction is non-fiction (although I have read plenty of non-fiction that was non-compelling).  You don't have to play videogames to fall under the spell of the true story that is Blake Harris' Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle That Defined a Generation.

This is the kind of little-engine-that-could slash underdog slash David vs. Goliath story that has a quality that is both timeless and universal.  I found myself rooting for Sega, even knowing how the story of Tom Kalinske's time at Sega resolves itself.  There is something about the way Nintendo dominated and bullied the videogame market from the mid-1980s to early 1990s that seems so un-American.  On the other hand, there is something about Sega of America's quest to get a fair shot and to perform on a level playing field that is inimitably American.  Kalinske's can-do spirit and his ability to gather of team of true believers slash merry band of idiots around him appeals to the small businessman in all of us.

Console Wars is one of the best non-fiction books that I have ever read, partly because it reads like a summer potboiler.  It is a must-read for people who remember Sega vs. Nintendo, yet it is accessible to people who don't remember, who didn't pay attention, or who weren't around.  This book also has a clever foreword by the Hollywood film-making team of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who are producing (with Scott Rudin) a documentary film based on this book.

Fans of video games and lovers of great non-fiction books will want to read Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle That Defined a Generation.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

Review: QQ SWEEPER Volume 1

QQ SWEEPER, VOL. 1
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

MANGAKA: Kyousuke Motomi
TRANSLATION: JN Productions
ENGLISH ADAPTATION: Bryant Turnage
LETTERS: Eric Erbes
ISBN: 978-1-4215-8214-6; paperback (April 2015); Rated “T” for “Teen”
200pp, B&W, $9.99 US, $12.99 CAN, £6.99 U.K.

Kyousuke Motomi is a mangaka (creator) known for her two manga series that were published in North America, Dengeki Daisy and Beast Master.  Her latest manga is the supernatural high school drama and romance, QQ Sweeper.

The series focuses on two characters.  First is the tall, dark, and handsome, Kyutaro Horikita, the cleaning expert of Kurokado Private High School.  One day, he finds a maiden sleeping in an old room on campus.  She is the second character, transfer student Fumi Nishioka, and like Kyutaro, she has a talent for cleaning.

Early in QQ Sweeper, Vol. 1 (Chapters 1 to 5), Kyutaro discovers Fumi sleeping in the “Old School Building.”  To her, the place is dirty... but alluring and mysterious.  Kyutaro, considered a weirdo by the other students, keeps the building clean, but he is a cleaner both in the physical world and in the spiritual realm.  When fellow student, Junya Sakaguchi, gets dirty and infested, Kyutaro will discover that Fumi may have a surprising talent for getting rid of dirty things.

The QQ Sweeper manga is unusual simply because so much of it focuses on cleaning services and janitorial duties.  Creator Kyousuke Motomi depicts the cleaning as more than just drudgery.  There is a technique to getting it right and to taking a dirty room or object and cleaning it down to the tiny details.

QQ Sweeper Volume 1 introduces quite a bit about the series' magic and its internal mythology, but not so much that the series loses its sense of mystery.  The unknown will be important to this series, as nearly all the main characters are incomplete, especially when it comes to their pasts.  QQ Sweeper is different, especially when compared to Motomi's previous series, Dengeki Daisy, but like this earlier manga, QQ Sweeper is filled with thrills.

B+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

Review: MARTIAN MANHUNTER #1

MARTIAN MANHUNTER #1
DC COMICS – @DCComics

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

WRITER: Rob Williams
PENCILS: Eddy Barrows
INKS: Eber Ferreira
COLORS: Gabe Eltaeb
LETTERS: Tom Napolitano
COVER: Dan Panosian
VARIANT COVER: Eric Canete
32pp, Color, $2.99 U.S. (August 2015)

Rated “T+” for “Teen Plus”

“Weapon!”

The Martian Manhunter a.k.a. J'onn J'onzz is a DC Comics superhero.  This sci-fi hero was created by writer Joseph Samachson and artist Joe Certa and first appeared in Detective Comics #225 (cover dated: November 1955).  J'onn, a native of Mars, is also one of the seven original members of the Justice League of America.

Now, with the advent of the “DCYou” publishing event, J'onn J'onzz has a new ongoing comic book series.  Martian Manhunter is written by Rob Williams, drawn by Eddy Barrows (pencils) and Eber Ferreira (inks), colored by Gabe Eltaeb, and lettered by Tom Napolitano.

Martian Manhunter #1 (“Weapon!”) opens with a prologue wherein a group of children visit a strange man named Mr. Biscuits.  Meanwhile, the Martian Manhunter is trying to save an airliner from crashing, all the while unleashing a psychic call for help.  At the Justice League Watchtower, Superman, Flash, and Cyborg are having a little difficulty believing what they are witnessing, while war zones erupt and terrorists unleash multiple attacks.  An alien invasion begins.

Martian Manhunter #1 is another of those DCYou launches that I avoided reading even though it was in my reading slush pile.  I regret that now, as the second issue has already arrived in comic book shops, and I might not be able to get a copy.  Obviously, I enjoyed reading this first issue, and it could be the start of a tremendously good title.

I might be wrong.  Perhaps, I should wait to read another issue, but it seems to me, after only one reading, that series writer Rob Williams has unleashed something big.  If the rest of this story arc is as good as the opening chapter, it will be the kind of big, event story that should launch something.  You know:  the way Flashpoint launched The New 52.

I love, and I do mean love, the art by the team of Eddy Barrows and Eber Ferreira.  It is old-fashioned and textured, not relying on the colorist to provide texture, such as “feathering.”  Still, colorist Gabe Eltaeb manages to shine anyway, with a color palette that establishes a dark mood, the sense of a world under siege by things not of this world.

Wow!  I want more Martian Manhunter.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

DC Comics from Diamond Distributors for October 7, 2015

DC COMICS

AUG150215     ACTION COMICS #45     $3.99
JUL150337     ASTRO CITY PRIVATE LIVES TP     $16.99
AUG150154     BATMAN AND ROBIN ETERNAL #1     $3.99
AUG150234     BATMAN ARKHAM KNIGHT #9     $3.99
AUG150228     BATMAN BEYOND #5     $2.99
AUG150261     BATMAN ETERNAL TP VOL 03     $39.99
JUL150303     BATMAN THE ROAD TO NO MANS LAND TP VOL 01     $29.99
JUL150293     CONVERGENCE HC     $29.99
JUL150294     CONVERGENCE ZERO HOUR TP BOOK 01     $19.99
JUL150296     CONVERGENCE ZERO HOUR TP BOOK 02     $19.99
JUN150303     CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS DLX ED HC     $49.99
JUL150210     CYBORG #3     $2.99
AUG150236     DETECTIVE COMICS #45     $3.99
AUG150192     GREEN ARROW #45     $2.99
JUL150225     GREEN ARROW ANNUAL #1     $4.99
AUG150248     GREEN LANTERN #45     $3.99
JUL150314     HE MAN THE ETERNITY WAR TP VOL 01     $14.99
AUG150194     INJUSTICE GODS AMONG US YEAR FOUR #11     $2.99
AUG150197     LOBO #11     $2.99
AUG150255     LOONEY TUNES #227     $2.99
AUG150199     MIDNIGHTER #5     $2.99
AUG150254     MORTAL KOMBAT X #11 (MR)     $3.99
AUG150202     OMEGA MEN #5     $2.99
JUL150332     SANDMAN OVERTURE #6 COMBO PACK (MR)     $4.99
JUL150321     SECRET SIX TP VOL 03 CATS CRADLE     $19.99
AUG150211     SENSATION COMICS FEATURING WONDER WOMAN #15     $3.99
AUG150283     SURVIVORS CLUB #1 (MR)     $3.99
AUG150162     TELOS #1     $2.99

Marvel Comics from Diamond Distributors for October 7, 2015

MARVEL COMICS

AUG150681     1602 WITCH HUNTER ANGELA #4 SWA     $3.99
AUG150692     ALL NEW ALL DIFFERENT POINT ONE #1     $5.99
AUG150700     AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1     $5.99
AUG150696     AVENGERS #0     $5.99
JUL150834     AVENGERS NO MORE BULLYING TP     $14.99
JUL150835     COLOR YOUR OWN AGE OF ULTRON TP     $9.99
AUG150731     CONTEST OF CHAMPIONS #1     $4.99
AUG150849     DARK TOWER DRAWING OF THREE LADY OF SHADOWS #2 (MR)     $3.99
JUN150798     DARTH VADER #10     $3.99
APR150917     DEADPOOL BY POSEHN AND DUGGAN HC VOL 03     $34.99
AUG150741     DOCTOR STRANGE #1     $4.99
MAY150830     DOCTOR STRANGE TP DONT PAY FERRYMAN     $24.99
AUG150686     GROOT #5     $3.99
JUL150696     INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #1     $3.99
JUL150772     JOURNEY STAR WARS FASE #2     $3.99
APR150904     MARVEL LEGACY OF JACK KIRBY SLIPCASE HC     $49.99
AUG150846     MARVEL SUPER HERO CONTEST OF CHAMPIONS TP VOL 01     $7.99
AUG150850     MARVEL SUPER HERO SPECTACULAR #1     $3.99
AUG150853     MARVEL UNIVERSE GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #1     $3.99
JUN150814     MAX RIDE FIRST FLIGHT HC     $24.99
AUG150842     MIRACLEMAN BY GAIMAN AND BUCKINGHAM #3 (MR)     $4.99
JUL150757     OLD MAN LOGAN #5 SWA     $3.99
FEB150838     POWERS #5 (MR)     $3.99
JUN150680     SECRET WARS #6 SWA     $3.99
APR150913     SHIELD COMPLETE COLLECTION OMNIBUS HC ROSS CVR     $99.99
AUG150665     SIEGE #4 SWA     $3.99
AUG150679     SPIDER-ISLAND #5 SWA     $3.99
JUL150764     STAR WARS #10     $3.99
JUL150827     STAR WARS DARTH VADER TP VOL 01 VADER     $19.99
JUL150775     STAR WARS LANDO #5     $3.99
APR150892     STAR WARS MARVEL COVERS HC VOL 01 ROSS CVR     $34.99
APR150895     STAR WARS MARVEL YRS OMNIBUS HC VOL 03     $125.00
MAY150811     STAR WARS TP VOL 01 SKYWALKER STRIKES     $19.99
APR150923     WEREWOLF BY NIGHT OMNIBUS HC     $125.00
AUG150772     WHAT IF INFINITY INHUMANS #1     $3.99
AUG150770     WHAT IF INFINITY THANOS #1     $3.99