Review: SPIDER-MAN: Life Story #1

SPIDER-MAN: LIFE STORY No. 1
MARVEL COMICS – @Marvel

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

STORY: Chip Zdarsky
PENCILS: Mark Bagley
INKS: John Dell
COLORS: Frank D'Armata
LETTERS: Travis Lanham
EDITOR: Tom Brevoort
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Akira Yoshida a.k.a. C.B. Cebulski
COVER: Chip Zdarsky
VARIANT COVER ARTISTS: Marcos Martin; Greg Smallwood; Skottie Young
36pp, Color, $4.99 U.S. (May 2019)

Rated  “T”

Spider-Man created by Steve Ditko and Stan Lee

Spider-Man is the classic Marvel Comics superhero that readers first met in Amazing Fantasy #15 (cover dated: August 1962).  The Amazing Spider-Man #1 (cover date: March 1963) was the beginning of the first Spider-Man title, as we followed his adventures and his secret life as a teenager and high school student named Peter Parker.  Over the years, a legion of Spider-Man writers depicted Peter Parker graduating from high school, going to college, becoming a college graduate student, a working stiff, a freelancer, an employee, etc.

Spider-Man: Life Story is a new comic book miniseries tells the story of Peter Parker and Spider-Man in real time, depicting his life from beginning to end.  Spider-Man: Life Story is written by Chip Zdarsky; drawn by Mark Bagley (pencils) and John Dell (inker); colored by Frank D'Armata; and letterer Travis Lanham.  “Life Story” is set against the events of the decades through which Spider-Man has lived.  The conceit of this series is as follows (as described by Marvel Comics:

In 1962, in Amazing Fantasy #15, 15-year-old Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider and became the Amazing Spider-Man! Fifty-seven years have passed in the real world since that event - so what would have happened if the same amount of time passed for Peter as well?

Spider-Man: Life Story #1 opens in 1966, four years after the events depicted in Amazing Fantasy #15.  Peter has one left year in college, but that is not all that is on his mind.  He has money woes, and as more young men his age are drafted to serve in the Vietnam War, Peter starts to wonder if Spider-Man should also serve in the conflict.  As his old rival, Flash Thompson, prepares to leave for Vietnam, Peter really starts to weigh the question of where his responsibility truly lies.  Meanwhile, a dangerous foe reappears, threatening Spider-Man's secrets.

Spider-Man: Life Story #1 is just the kind of first issue with which a prestige or “high-end” miniseries should open.  This is the kind of wonderful read that will make readers come back for the second issue.  Simply put, it is quite well written by Chip Zdarsky, who is proving to be a writer with classic storytelling chops.  What I mean by that is that Zdarsky focuses on spinning comic book yarns (1) that are true to the core of the characters, (2) that have successful superhero action scenes, and (3) that also have a modern sensibility.  In this way, Zdarsky's Spider-Man: Life Story #1 reminds me of Brian Michael Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man #1 (cover dated:  October 2000), a modern take on Spider-Man that had a classic Spider-Man sensibility.

Another reason that I am reminded of Ultimate Spider-Man is that the penciler of Spider-Man: Life Story #1 is Mark Bagley, who was the long-time artist on Ultimate Spider-Man, drawing just under 120 issues.  Bagley is a consummate superhero comic book artist, whose storytelling is straightforward.  His graphic style is not overly stylish, but, once again, his art looks like classic superhero comic book art from the 1960s and 1970s.

I thought I might like Spider-Man: Life Story #1, but I often only read the first issue of a miniseries even when I like it enough to be interested in future issues.  I plan to read more Spider-Man: Life Story, and I am eagerly awaiting that second issue.

8.5 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: ELVIRA Mistress of the Dark #1

ELVIRA MISTRESS OF THE DARK No. 1
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT – @dynamitecomics

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

STORY: David Avallone
ART: Dave Acosta
COLORS: Andrew Covalt
LETTERS: Taylor Esposito
EDITOR: Kevin Ketner
COVER: Joseph Michael Linsner
VARIANT COVER ARTISTS: J. Bone; Kyle Strahm with Greg Smallwood; Craig Cermak with Brittany Pezzillo; Robert Hack with Francesco Francavilla; Craig Cermak; Joseph Michael Linsner; Kyle Strahm
32pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (July 2018)

Rated Teen+

Elvira: Timescream – Chapter One: “Frankenstein is the Name of the Doctor”

“Horror hosts” present low-budget, low-grade, and cult films to television and radio audiences, with an emphasis on horror, science fiction, and/or B-movies.  Some horror hosts adopt an alternate identity, creating a character they play, such as when actress, Maila Nurmi, became the horror host character, “Vampira” in 1954 for KABC-TV in Los Angeles, California.

In 1981, actress and model Cassandra Peterson created the hostess character, “Elvira.”  Elvira gradually grew in popularity and eventually became a brand name.  As Elvira, Peterson endorsed many products and became a pitch-woman, appearing in numerous television commercials throughout the 1980s.

Elvira also appeared in comic books, beginning in 1986 with the short-lived series from DC Comics, Elvira's House of Mystery, which ran for eleven issues and one special issue (1987).  In 1993, Eclipse Comics and Claypool Comics began the long-running Elvira: Mistress of the Dark.  Eventually, Claypool would be sole publisher, and Elvira, Mistress of the Dark ran for 166 issues until 2007.

Elvira returns to comic books in Dynamite Entertainment's new four-issue, comic book miniseries, also entitled Elvira Mistress of the Dark.  It is written by David Avallone; drawn by Dave Acosta; colored by Andrew Covalt; and lettered by Taylor Esposito.

Elvira Mistress of the Dark #1 (“Frankenstein is the Name of the Doctor”) find Elvira on the set of her latest B-movie.  During a break in filming, she returns to her trailer to find a coffin in the middle of the floor, but it isn't just any old coffin.  It emits a time vortex, and Elvira soon finds herself pushed in and tumbling through time.  First stop, the summer of 1816 and a certain villa near Lake Geneva.

Writer David Avallone and artist Dave Acosta are the creative team behind Dynamite Entertainment's most excellent crossover comic book, the four-issue miniseries, Twilight Zone: The Shadow (2017).  A moody, stylish, atmospheric piece, the narrative focused on reckoning for The Shadow.

Avallone and Acosta deliver something quite different with Elvira Mistress of the Dark.  Avallone's story is campy, kind of like a rollicking romp of a horror movie that plays loose with the history of horror fiction.  Acosta's illustrations recall classic Warren Publications horror comics with humor that is bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and the storytelling is perfect for the mood.

Andrew Covalt's coloring of Acosta's  illustrations is visually and graphically striking.  It is a deft mixture of sparkling color effects and and something like the colorful and sometimes garish cinematography of Hammer Film Productions (the legendary British film studio that produced numerous horror films).  As usual, Taylor Esposito's lettering is solid and perfectly captures this first chapter's mood and also Elvira's snark, sarcasm, and wit.  Esposito even delivers comedy gold on the characters' screeching and yelling.  “Edgar Allan Freaking Poe!, indeed.

Elvira Mistress of the Dark is blessedly cursed with an excellent creative team.  I can't wait for the second issue.  Maybe, these guys could produce a readable Harley Quinn comic book.

9 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: STAR WARS: Vader - Dark Visions #1

STAR WARS: VADER – DARK VISIONS No. 1
MARVEL COMICS – @Marvel

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

STORY: Dennis “Hopeless” Hallum
ART: Paolo Villanelli
COLORS: Arif Prianto
LETTERS: VC's Joe Caramagna
EDITOR: Mark Paniccia
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Akira Yoshida a.k.a. C.B. Cebulski
COVER: Greg Smallwood
VARIANT COVER ARTISTS: Giuseppe Camuncoli & Elia Bonetti; Leinil Franics Yu with Romulo Fajardo, Jr.
36pp, Color, $4.99 U.S. (May 2019)

Rated T

“Part 1 of 5

Star Wars: Vader – Dark Visions is a new five-issue, Star Wars comic book miniseries from Marvel Comics.  The series presents characters who view the Star Wars universe's ultimate villain, Darth Vader, in ways that are different from how most familiar Star Wars characters view the Sith Lord.  Star Wars: Vader – Dark Visions is written by Dennis “Hopeless” Hallum.  The art team for the first issue is comprised of illustrator Paolo Villanelli; colorist Arif Prianto; and letterer Joe Caramagna.

Star Wars: Vader – Dark Visions #1 opens on a lush green, but devastated world where we meet a young native boy.  The boy, who also narrates this story, refers to his world as “Cianap.”  His people live underground, but enjoy a brief time above ground, a time called “the Slumber.”  While enjoying the current season of the Slumber, our narrator witnesses a fireball that explodes above Cianap's atmosphere.  This conflagration is the result of a fierce battle above the planet between forces of the Galactic Empire and of the Rebel Alliance.

One of the participants in the battle is Darth Vader, whose TIE fighter is damaged, forcing him to crash land on Cianap.  When Vader emerges from his fighter, to the boy, he looks like a “Black Knight.”  To the boy, this Black Knight may be the one to save his world from the god called “Ender.”

Fans of the Star Wars Expanded Universe, especially the Star Wars novels, remember the series of novels now known as the “Thrawn trilogy.”  In the second novel of the three, Dark Force Rising (1992), Princess Leia visits the planet, Honoghr, where the denizens of the world view Darth Vader as a savior (a matter which turns out to be a bit more complicated).  When I first read the novel, I became intrigued by the idea of people and sentient beings who viewed Vader as some kind of hero or savior, especially people that did not directly serve or work for the Empire.  In the years since, I have waited for someone to take that idea present in Dark Force Rising and expand on it.

In this standalone story that is Star Wars: Vader – Dark Visions #1, the writer Dennis Hallum (who previously wrote under the pen name, “Dennis Hopeless”) offers a nice tale that satisfies may craving for Vader-as-hero.  Hallum's story has a fairy tale quality, and it strips Darth Vader of the complexities that surround the character and focuses on his power and on the striking nature of his black costume-suit and physicality.  At thirty pages in length, this story, which is more like a campfire tale, is a nice Star Wars tale, a desert for readers who are used to the main Star Wars narratives, which often seem like the storytelling equivalent of a elaborate, dark, and heavy 12-course meal.

Artist Paolo Villanelli's illustrations for Star Wars: Vader – Dark Visions #1 have an eye-catching quality and remind me of the work of Bryan Hitch.  Villanelli's storytelling here is stirring and always seems to be striving forward, carrying the reader just as the boy-narrator is dragged along by the circumstances of an epic battle.  Colorist Arif Prianto offers a muted palette that still manages to make the story crackle, and, as usual, Joe Caramagna delivers lettering that makes the story bigger.

I hope the rest of Star Wars: Vader – Dark Visions is like this really nice first issue.  I heartily recommend it to Star Wars comic book readers.  And it gives me what I want – characters who have a view askew of Darth Vader.

8 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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Review: GENERATIONS: Hawkeye & Hawkeye #1

GENERATIONS: HAWKEYE & HAWKEYE No. 1
MARVEL COMICS – @Marvel

[This review was first published on Patreon.]

WRITER: Kelly Thompson
ARTIST: Stefano Raffaele
COLORS: Digikore
LETTERS: VC's Joe Sabino
COVER: Greg Smallwood
VARIANT COVERS: Alex Ross; Elizabeth Torque; Meghan Hetrick
36pp, Color, $4.99 U.S. (October 2017)

Rated T+

Thor created by Stan Lee and Don Heck

“The Archers”

Generations is a currently ongoing event miniseries from Marvel Comics.  It is a planned 10-issue anthology, published weekly.  Each issue is written and drawn by a different creative team, and each issue will feature a different team-up of a classic Marvel superhero with his or her modern-day counterpart.  The series is meant to unite the legacy of classic Marvel Comics characters with the next generation of heroes as both move into the future of Marvel Comics storytelling.

The fifth issue is Generations: Hawkeye & Hawkeye, which brings together two versions of a classic Marvel Comics character, Hawkeye.  The first is the classic Hawkeye, the former criminal turned Avenger who was first introduced in Tales of Suspense #57 (cover date:  September 1964).  He is also known as Clint Barton.  The second is the new Hawkeye, Kate Bishop, who now headlines the current ongoing Hawkeye comic book.  This issue of Generations is written by Kelly Thompson; drawn by Stefano Raffaele; colored by Digikore; and lettered by Joe Sabino.

Generations: Hawkeye & Hawkeye #1 (“The Archers”) opens on an unknown island.  This adventure, which Kate narrates, involves a mysterious game.  An unknown mastermind has gone through time and space to locate Earth's best marksmen and then spirited them to this island.  Kate Bishop-Hawkeye meets Clint Barton-Hawkeye, and Clint is immediately suspicious of Kate.  The two will have to work together if they want to discover the identity of the person behind this game.  First, however, they must survive the other players, killers like Boomerang, Taskmaster, and Bullseye!

The purpose of Generations: Banner Hulk & Totally Awesome Hulk #1 was for Bruce Banner to tell the Totally Awesome Hulk/Amadeus Cho that he would not be able to escape all the tragic aspects of the curse of the Hulk.  Generations: Phoenix & Jean Grey found two women reluctant and/or incapable of telling each other everything they knew about the curse of The Phoenix

Generations: Wolverine & All-New Wolverine #1 is mainly just a slice-and-dice Wolverine adventure featuring the classic Wolverine and the All-New Wolverine.  Generations: The Unworthy Thor & The Mighty Thor #1 is merely a Thor fight comic book featuring two Thors.

Generations: Hawkeye & Hawkeye #1 is an upgrade from the previous Thor edition.  This Hawkeye reunion does feature a Clint Barton who does not yet know Kate Bishop, but that manages to give some dramatic heft to writer Kelly Thompson's tale of mentors and role models.  Thompson juxtaposes two flawed men and how each can be a mentor, but each with a different goal in mind for the person he is mentoring.  Generations: Hawkeye & Hawkeye #1 is like a delightful annual from the days when comic book annuals offered exceptional or at least high-quality one-off stories.  Stefano Raffaele's art recalls the clean, slick styles of 1960s comic books, with a touch of Bryan Hitch, and Digikore's coloring is just right.  I was actually kinda sad that this comic book had to end.

In a previous review, I wrote that with Generations Marvel Comics runs the risk of publishing several issues of an event comic book that read like nothing more than, at best, mediocre, “Annuals,” published for the sake of being published, or, at worst, filler material.  For the most part, DC Comics avoided that last year with its introductory “Rebirth” one-shots; most of those had a point or a purpose – introducing the direction of a Rebirth-relaunched DC comic book.  So far, Marvel's Generations has not been as... utilitarian.

A
8 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2017 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Dark Horse Comics from Diamond Distributors for March 5 2014

DARK HORSE COMICS

NOV130064 AVATAR LAST AIRBENDER TP VOL 07 RIFT PART 1 $10.99
JAN140140 BAD BLOOD #3 $3.99
NOV130023 BTVS SEASON 9 TP VOL 05 THE CORE $17.99
NOV130068 CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT ARCHIVES HC VOL 02 SAVES THE WORLD $49.99
JAN140139 CATALYST COMIX #9 (MR) $2.99
NOV130062 DREAM THIEF TP VOL 01 $17.99
NOV130036 EVE SOURCE HC $39.99
NOV130067 GASOLINE ALLEY HC VOL 01 COMPLETE SUNDAYS 1920-1922 $75.00
SEP130089 GRIMM NICK BURKHARDT BUST $79.99
JAN140132 GRINDHOUSE DOORS OPEN AT MIDNIGHT #6 $3.99
JAN140151 JUICE SQUEEZERS #3 $3.99
JAN140130 LOBSTER JOHNSON GET LOBSTER #2 $3.99
JAN140148 MICHAEL AVON OEMINGS VICTORIES #10 (MR) $3.99
JAN140174 TERMINATOR SALVATION FINAL BATTLE #4 $3.99
JAN140091 VEIL #1 (MR) $3.50

Review: DREAM THIEF #2

DREAM THIEF #2 (OF 5)
DARK HORSE COMICS – @DarkHorseComics

STORY: Jai Nitz
ART/LETTERS: Greg Smallwood
COVER: Ryan Sook
MISC. ART: Kevin Nowlan, Rob Croonenborghs, Andrew MacLean, Ryan Browne, Jeremy Mohler
32pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (June 2013)

Dream Thief is a new five-issue limited series from Bram Stoker Award-winning writer Jai Nitz (“Best Illustrated Narrative,” 2004) and artist Greg Smallwood. The series focuses on John Lincoln, whose body and mind become possessed after he dons a strange mask.

Lincoln is an Atlanta-based carouser and pot-smoker/connoisseur. He tends to get drunk and wake up in strange places; often those places are the bedrooms of women who are not his girlfriend, Claire. After a visit to the Fernbank Museum of Natural History, John awakens, wearing an Aboriginal mask he stole from the museum. Now, John’s problems have been replaced by blood stains and an unsteady memory that suggests he’s been disposing of bodies. He’s even killed his girlfriend.

As Dream Thief #2 opens, John is still trying to deal with the spirits of the dead who possess his mind and body while he sleeps. Now, he has a head full of another dead man’s memories, a young man named Jimmy Oliver. Tossed out of the U.S. Army for being gay, Jim found love and a career in the grungy underworld of drugs and pornography. Now, the Dream Thief has to enter that world on a vengeful errand.

When Dark Horse Comics made a PDF of Dream Thief #1 available to reviewers, I read it on a lark because it was a first issue. That was a moment of fortune in my life as a comic book reader. Dream Thief is just a damn good comic book and a great read.

Jai Nitz has written a fine, creepy dark fantasy, and he has an engaging character in John Lincoln. Lincoln is even better as the “Dream Thief,” whom Nitz uses, in this issue, to tell a poignant story of a young man lost. Dream Thief is partly a lovely character story, one that recalls Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman.

The scope of the talent of artist Greg Smallwood expands, practically with each page of this series. He draws Dream Thief as if it were a crime comic book, but he also captures the supernatural-infused nature of the narrative. I don’t think anyone could do a better job with Dream Thief than Smallwood is doing.

Comic book readers looking for excellence have a dream lover in Dream Thief.

A+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

Review: DREAM THIEF #1

DREAM THIEF #1 (OF 5)
DARK HORSE COMICS – @DarkHorseComics

STORY: Jai Nitz
ART/LETTERS: Greg Smallwood
COVER: Alex Ross
28pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (May 2013)

Jai Nitz won the 2004 Bram Stoker Award for “Best Illustrated Narrative.” Dream Thief is a new five-issue limited series written by Nitz and drawn by Greg Smallwood. Published by Dark Horse Comics, the series focuses on a man whose body and mind become possessed after he dons a strange mask.

Dream Thief #1 introduces John Lincoln, an Atlanta-based lay-about, cad, and pot-smoker/connoisseur. John tends to get drunk and wake up in strange places; often those places are the bedrooms of women who are not his girlfriend, Claire.

John and his homeboy, Reggie Harrison (a former college football star), go on a double-date at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History. The two ladies are more interested in Reggie, but John is more interested in the Mumbai Kush he recently scored. The next morning, John wakes up in a strange place, wearing an Aboriginal mask he stole from the museum. Now, John’s problems have been replaced by blood stains and an unsteady memory that suggests he’s been disposing of bodies.

Honestly, when Dark Horse Comics made a PDF of Dream Thief #1 available to reviewers, I was only interested because it was a first issue. But the comic book demigods usually know what’s good for me to read. Often, it is a damn good comic book like Dream Thief #1.

Dream Thief can be described as “dark fantasy,” and “dark” means horror, because if this is not a horror comic book, it is doing one helluva impersonation. Dream Thief scares me; it makes me feel uncomfortable. Jai Nitz heightens the creepy-factor, practically with each page, and he has an engaging character in John Lincoln, lovable ass, esq.

Artist Greg Smallwood draws this as if it were a crime comic book. It’s like Eduardo Risso-100 Bullets gritty with the catchy graphic design of Francesco Francavilla. It melds to become Smallwood’s own unique visual language and graphical storytelling style. Some pages are the art of crime scene comics as eye candy. Will issue #2 be this good?

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux