I Reads You Review: THE TOWER CHRONICLES: GestHawk, Volume 1

THE TOWER CHRONICLES: GEISTHAWK, VOLUME 1
LEGENDARY COMICS

CREATORS: Thomas Tull and Matt Wagner
WRITER: Matt Wagner
PENCILS: Simon Bisley
INKS: Rodney Ramos
COLORS: Ryan Brown
LETTERS: Sean Konot
COVER: Jim Lee and Scott Williams with Alex Sinclair
ISBN: 978-1-937278-02-1; paperback (October 2012)
72pp, Color, $7.99 U.S., $9.99 CAN

Legendary Comics is a division of the American film production company, Legendary Pictures, Inc. Legendary Pictures has co-produced such hit films as 300 (based on the Frank Miller graphic novel) and Christopher Nolan’s three Batman films. Having dealt with movies based on comic books, Legendary Pictures founder and CEO, Thomas Tull, has decided to get directly into the creation and publication of comic books.

Tull joined American comic book legend, Matt Wagner (Grendel, Mage), to create a new series of graphic novels, The Tower Chronicles. A proposed trilogy, The Tower Chronicles will see each of its three books serialized in four parts (volumes or issues). The first book/trilogy is The Tower Chronicles: GeistHawk, written by Wagner and drawn by Simon Bisley, himself a legend for his work on Lobo for DC Comics.

The Tower Chronicles: GeistHawk, Volume 1 introduces John Tower, a supernatural bounty hunter. Tower will travel the world and go to its darkest recesses to find and destroy some of the most unfathomable monstrosities and creatures. But John doesn’t work for free. Prospective clients must go through Tower’s lawyer, Romulus Barnes, and they must be able to pay Tower’s considerable fees.

One of his newest clients is Agent Alicia Hardwicke of the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit. With nothing else working, Hardwicke turns to Tower to help her capture a serial killer called the “Piranha Killer.” However, this murderer is not a serial killer, and Agent Hardwicke does not believe in Tower’s world of supernatural creatures. Where do they go from there?

The Tower Chronicles and its lead character, John Tower, are like a blending of Marvel Comics’ character, Blade; the New Line Cinema film series starring Blade; and the character Harry Dresden from author Jim Butcher supernatural detective book series, The Dresden Files. And that’s not a bad thing, because this first volume of The Tower Chronicles is well produced with a well-executed story.

Matt Wagner’s story is expectedly secretive about John Tower’s past, but he tells a fast-paced story full of exciting action-fantasy violence that simply drags the reader along – if he or she likes this kind of genre. The characters are familiar types from various genres and mass entertainments: pulp crime, TV female law enforcement officers, vampire lit, etc., but Wagner punches them up with snappy banter and effective dialogue.

What really makes this stand out is Simon Bisley’s pencil art. As inked by Rodney Ramos and colored by Ryan Brown, Bisley’s compositions are offbeat, which makes the graphical storytelling here different from any other urban fantasy or monster hunter comic books. You can be forgiven for mistaking the Bisley-Ramos union for its resemblance to the work of Paul Gulacy, who would be good for the series should Bisley be unable to continue. For added measure, the team of Jim Lee, Scott Williams, and Alex Sinclair provide the cover for The Tower Chronicles: GeistHawk, Volume 1, and a good cover it is.

I enjoyed The Tower Chronicles: GeistHawk, Volume 1 enough to want to seek out the rest of the series, some of which has already been released. If you’re missing a good Blade comic book, certainly try this more-than-adequate substitute.

A-

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

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I Reads You Review: STATIC SHOCK SPECIAL 1

STATIC SHOCK SPECIAL 1
DC COMICS

WRITERS: Felicia D. Henderson; Matt Wayne
PENCILS: Denys Cowan; John Paul Leon
INKS: Rodney Ramos, Prentis Rollins, and John Stanisci; John Paul Leon
COLORIST: Lee Loughridge; Noelle Giddings
LETTERS: Dave Sharpe
PIN-UPS: Keron Grant, Jamal Igle with Guy Major, Eric Battle with John Kalisz, John Rozum, and Derec Donovan
TEXT: Michael Davis, Derek T. Dingle
COVER: J.H. Williams, III
44pp, Color, $2.99 U.S.

Released to comic book shops about two weeks ago, Static Shock Special 1 (cover dated August 2011) is more than just another comic book featuring the most popular Milestone Comics character, Static. Static Shock Special (hopefully the first of many Milestone specials) is also a memorial to Dwayne McDuffie.

McDuffie, a longtime comic book writer for DC Comics and Marvel Comics (where he was also an editor), died earlier this year in February. McDuffie’s death seems like a blow to diversity in comic books – meaning more African-American characters and creators, particularly writers. It was a heartrending loss to me, as I’d always hoped to one day work with McDuffie.

McDuffie, along with artist Denys Cowan, writers Michael Davis, and Derek T. Dingle, created Milestone Media and the Dakota Universe, a comics universe that included characters like Static, Hardware, Icon, and Blood Syndicate, among others. Milestone Media also created the Milestone comics imprint, which was published through DC Comics. Despite producing some good and, in some cases, brilliant comics, Milestone found the direct sales comics market hostile to it (for various reasons). Within four years, Milestone was no longer producing comic books. You can’t keep a great thing down, and Milestone Comics lives on with the Dakota Universe characters folded into the DC Universe proper.

Death and remembrance and legacy and legend are the prominent themes and ideas in Static Shock Special 1. The opening story is by Felicia D. Henderson (story) and Denys Cowan (pencil art). The issue begins with Virgil Ovid Hawkins AKA Static, waiting by the gates of River Green State Penitentiary. Virgil’s uncle, Teshomé Gabriel Hawkins (his father’s older brother), is being freed after spending a decade in prison for several murders that he did not commit.

As Teshomé tells his nephew, “A Black man’s never free,” so Static takes on an old prison rival who wants to kill Teshomé. His name is Blinder, a “bang baby” (someone who gained superpowers during the Big Bang event that gave Virgil his powers). It’s Static to the rescue, but even his powers can’t stop a tragic turn of events.

Also, Static and the young heroine, Rocket, join Dwayne McDuffie in a defiant memorial from writer Matt Wayne and artist John Paul Leon. It’s the best two-page comic I’ve read in a long time.

Felicia D. Henderson’s Static tale captures everything that made Static unique, fun to read, and socially relevant – from the social commentary (Teshomé’s plight and fate) to Static’s matchless superhero style. Denys Cowan remains a brilliant visual stylist and skillful comics storyteller. Here, Cowan captures the Kirbyesque energy of super-powered fights, the cool but simmering defiance of the hero, and the cold-bloodied injustice of the just-ice… I mean justice system. Henderson and Cowan left me wanting more.

You may find Michael Davis and Derek T. Dingle’s text pieces informative, and they are. They suggest, however, that the best parts of the stories of Milestone Media and Dwayne McDuffie are yet to be told.

A

[This comic book contains a bonus comic insert, a tie-in with the movie Super 8. It is written by Peter Tomasi, drawn and colored by Tommy Lee Edwards, and lettered by John Workman, with a cover by Alex Ross.]

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux