Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's: Yusei Fudo, Turbo Duelist!!

I read Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, Vol. 1 (Yu-Gi-Oh! (Graphic Novels))

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin (which has FREE smart phone apps).

I Reads You Review: WOLVERINE and BLACK CAT: CLAWS 2 #1

WOLVERINE & BLACK CAT: CLAWS 2 #1 (OF 3)
MARVEL COMICS

WRITER: Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray
ART: Joseph Michael Linsner
COLORS: Dan Brown and Nick Filardi with Ian Hannin
LETTERS: Jeff Eckleberry
COVER: Joseph Michael Linsner
32pp, Color, $3.99

Chapter 1: “Back and Forth”

I have to be honest. I only bought the first issue of Wolverine & Black Cat: Claws 2 for the art by Joseph Michael Linsner. I’m not a big fan of Lisner’s work, but I like it enough to look at it when I get a chance. Apparently, there was a first Wolverine & Black Cat: Claws miniseries (3 issues, 2006) that I ignored.

Wolverine (A.K.A. Logan) is practically everyone’s favorite member of the X-Men (though mine is Storm). Black Cat (A.K.A. Felicia Hardy) is a cat burglar extraordinaire and Spider-Man femme fatale. Wolverine & Black Cat: Claws 2 #1 takes place after the events of the first series and finds Wolverine and Black Cat back in New York City. They’re enjoying an evening of food and romance at a swanky eatery. Meanwhile, their adversaries from the first miniseries, Arcade and his partner White Rabbit, have also found their way back to NYC to give Logan and Felicia a dose of revenge.

The prolific writing team of Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray can deliver on an action premise (see Radical Publishing’s Time Bomb). Claws 2 is a simple superhero fight comic book with no pretensions to be a character drama or landmark miniseries. There’s violence, humor, and the threat of Wolverine engaging in sexual intercourse. Claws 2 proves that even the team that delivered on the nail-biting Time Bomb can deliver a tepid, mildly humorous, X-Men product.

The art and graphical storytelling by Joseph Michael Linsner look as if they belong in a Marvel comic book from the 1970s or 1980s. Linsner’s drawing style is like a new version of Dave Cockrum’s drawing style with touches of Wally Wood and Eric Stanton. Marvel’s EiC-turned-CCO once referred to a comic book artist friend of mine’s drawing style as passé. Considering that statement, I’m surprised that Linsner’s “old school” graphical approach has anyplace at Marvel, especially in the industrial part of this publisher/trademark maintenance firm that cranks out Wolverine comic books every hour on the hour.

Still, there is an innate charm to Linsner’s work, and his compositions and page designs yield results that really do look like genuine comic book graphics and visuals instead of looking like paintings trying to be comics. His storytelling has a sense of humor and imagination.

I would say that readers looking for something different in Wolverine should give Wolverine & Black Cat: Claws 2 a try. That difference is Linsner.

B

[This comic book features a five-page preview of The Punisher #1, a new series from writer Greg Rucka, artist Marco Checchetto, and colorist Matt Hollingsworth with covers by Bryan Hitch.]

Leroy Douresseaux on ROCKETEER ADVENTURES #2

ROCKETEER ADVENTURES #2
IDW PUBLISHING

WRITERS: Mark Waid, Darwyn Cooke, Lowell Francis
ARTISTS: Chris Weston, Darwyn Cooke, Gene Ha
COLORS: Dave Stewart
LETTERS: Chris Mowry, Darwyn Cooke
PIN-UP: Geof Darrow with Dave Stewart
COVER: Alex Ross (alternate cover by Dave Stevens with Laura Martin)
32pp, Color, $3.99

Long live The Rocketeer!

The Rocketeer is a superhero created by the late writer/illustrator Dave Stevens that first appeared in 1982. The character’s style and the mode of his adventures are also an homage to the Saturday matinee heroes of the 1930s and 1940s and to adventure movie serials like Republic Picture’s King of the Rocket Men. The Rocketeer’s exploits are mainly set in Los Angeles in and after the year 1938. The Rocketeer made it onto the big screen in a 1991 film from Walt Disney Pictures.

The Rocketeer is Cliff Secord, a stunt pilot who discovers a mysterious jet pack that allows him to fly. Secord’s girlfriend, Bettie Page, is based upon real life, 1950s pin-up and fetish model, Bettie Page.

The Rocketeer has made infrequent comic book appearances in several publications from several publishers. The Rocketeer’s first comic book appearances were in 1982, as backup features in Starslayer, a comic book series by Mike Grell from the now-defunct Pacific Comics. Two more installments of The Rocketeer appeared in Pacific's anthology comic book, Pacific Presents.

The character appeared at Eclipse Comics in Rocketeer Special Edition and in a single-volume graphic novel entitled, The Rocketeer, which concluded the story begun in Starslayer. The character appeared in Rocketeer Adventure Magazine from the now-defunct Comico Comics and also finally at Dark Horse Comics

The Rocketeer returns in Rocketeer Adventures, a new anthology series from IDW Publishing. Edited by Scott Dunbier, Rocketeer Adventures features Rocketeer short stories (about 7 or 8 pages in length) from some of the premiere creators in comic books. Rocketeer Adventures #2 has stories by the teams of Mark Waid and Chris Weston and also Lowell Francis and Gene Ha, with a short story by Darwyn Cooke and a centerfold pin-up from artist Geof Darrow and colorist supreme, Dave Stewart.

I must say that, at a cover price of $3.99, Rocketeer Adventures is a bargain. The art is exceptional, even if most of the stories are, for the most part, mere trifles, though entertaining. Anytime we get to see Dave Stewart’s magnificent comic book coloring, we are in for a treat.

Mark Waid and Chris Weston’s “It Ain’t the Fall that Kills Ya…” features some gorgeous Dave Stevens-inspired art from the talented Weston, a master of composition and a superb draftsman. For Waid’s part, the story is either ironic or is simply unintentionally hypocritical. Lowell Francis and Gene Ha’s “TKO” is clever-lite, a play of mixing an aerial battle with a boxing match. Ha’s execution in the graphical storytelling of “TKO” is skillful. As for the Geof Darrow pin-up – YAWN – been there, seen that.

Leave it to genius Darwyn Cooke to offer this issue’s best story, a slam-bang piece, entitled “Betty Saves the Day.” It is only seven-pages long, but it reads like a great stand-alone, 22-page comic book. An Eisner Award nomination (at least) for best short story is a must.

A-

Kurozakuro: Secret Pity

I read Kurozakuro, Vol. 5

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin (which has FREE smart phone apps).

Leroy Douresseaux on SOLOMON KANE: RED SHADOWS #4

SOLOMON KANE: RED SHADOWS #4 (OF 4)
DARK HORSE COMICS

WRITER: Bruce Jones
ART: Rahsan Ekedal
COLORS: Dan Jackson
LETTERS: Richard Starkings & Comicraft
PIN-UP: Jim and Ruth Keegan
COVER: Guy Davis with Dave Stewart (Variant cover by Gregory Manchess with Dave Stewart)
32pp, Color, $3.50

I’ve just read my first Solomon Kane comic book in quite awhile (well over decade, for sure). I’m looking forward to more.

Solomon Kane is a fictional character created by author and pulp fiction writer, Robert E. Howard, who also created Conan. Kane is a Puritan who operated in the late 16th and early 17th century as a destroyer of evil in all its forms – human, inhuman, and supernatural. Kane first appeared in the short story, “Red Shadows,” which was published in the legendary pulp magazine, Weird Tales (August 1928).

Solomon Kane also appeared in several comic books and comic magazines published by Marvel Comics, from 1973 to the mid-1980s. There was even a miniseries, The Sword of Solomon Kane, which reprinted earlier Marvel Solomon Kane comics with some new stories. Dark Horse Comics returned the character to comics a few years ago.

Solomon Kane: Red Shadows is a four-issue comic book miniseries which adapts the short story of the same name. Seeking to avenge the death of a young girl in France, Kane travels to Africa to find her killer, Le Loup, a feared swordsman. Kane discovers that Le Loup has fallen in with Songa, a powerful leader of an African village. Kane finds an ally in N’Longa, a frail, ancient magic man, whose authority Songa usurped.

As Solomon Kane: Red Shadows #4 opens, Le Loup makes his move to kill Kane, but the shaman N’Longa has a few surprises still in store. Soon, it’s just Kane and Le Loup, left to settle their dispute like gentlemen – sword to sword.

While a comic book miniseries is a good format in which to adapt a short story, some individual issues of a miniseries may seem less like a chapter from a story and more like a brief collection of a few scenes. The fourth issue of Solomon Kane: Red Shadows reads as if it were mere leftovers from the foregone conclusion that is the end of this story.

Luckily (for the readers), scripter Bruce Jones delivers a fistful of violence in this last issue that gives the story some pungency and potency. By the end of the Kane/Le Loup duel, many readers will feel a little twinge of regret that it is all over so soon. Jones captures the madness, violence, and crazy magic that infuse Robert E. Howard’s work. Artist Rahsan Ekedal and colorist Dan Jackson transform Jones’ active script into gripping visual and storytelling.

B+

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

-----------------------

Little Black Bird

I read Black Bird, Vol. 9

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin (which has FREE smart phone apps).

DC Comics from Diamond Distributors for July 6 2011

DC COMICS

MAY110220 ADVENTURE COMICS #528 $2.99

MAY110204 BATMAN AND ROBIN #25 $2.99

MAY110208 BATMAN BEYOND #7 $2.99

MAY110237 DC COMICS PRESENTS SUPERMAN #4 $7.99

MAY110184 DC UNIVERSE ONLINE LEGENDS #11 $2.99

APR118212 FLASHPOINT #2 2ND PTG $3.99

MAY110162 FLASHPOINT #3 $3.99

MAY110168 FLASHPOINT ABIN SUR THE GREEN LANTERN #2 $2.99

MAY110166 FLASHPOINT BATMAN KNIGHT OF VENGEANCE #2 $2.99

MAY110167 FLASHPOINT SECRET SEVEN #2 $2.99

MAY110169 FLASHPOINT THE WORLD OF FLASHPOINT #2 $2.99

APR110203 GOTHAM CENTRAL TP BOOK 02 JOKERS AND MADMEN $19.99

MAR110351 GREEN ARROW HC VOL 01 INTO THE WOODS $22.99

MAY110289 HOUSE OF MYSTERY #39 (MR) $2.99

FEB110201 INFINITY INC HC VOL 01 THE GENERATIONS SAGA $39.99

MAY110293 IZOMBIE #15 (MR) $2.99

MAY110226 JONAH HEX #69 $2.99

MAY110275 LOONEY TUNES #200 $2.99

APR110247 NORTHLANDERS TP VOL 05 METAL (MR) $17.99

APR110251 REVOLVER TP (MR) $19.99

FEB110266 SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING HC BOOK 05 (MR) $24.99

MAY110273 SCOOBY DOO WHERE ARE YOU #11 $2.99

MAY110227 SECRET SIX #35 $2.99

MAR110357 SHOWCASE PRESENTS DOC SAVAGE TP $19.99

MAY110215 SUPERBOY #9 $2.99

MAY110299 SWEET TOOTH #23 (MR) $2.99

MAY110232 TITANS ANNUAL 2011 #1 $4.99

APR110233 X-FILES 30 DAYS OF NIGHT TP (MR) $17.99

DC COMICS/DC DIRECT

SEP100331 BRIGHTEST DAY SER 2 FIRESTORM AF PI

SEP100328 BRIGHTEST DAY SER 2 HAWKMAN AF PI

SEP100329 BRIGHTEST DAY SER 2 MARTIAN MANHUNTER AF PI

SEP100330 BRIGHTEST DAY SER 2 MERA AF PI

OCT100355 JLA CLASSIC ICONS SER 1 SUPERMAN AF PI

OCT100356 JLA CLASSIC ICONS SER 1 WONDER WOMAN AF PI