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Transformers 2010 Hailstorm Review

shervin — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 16:50:28 +0000

By Loran New characters, new characters, new characters! Once again Hasbro adds a new character to the Decepticon ranks. Instead of going with a 100% new character, this time Hasbro has gone with sort of an homage to something very unexpected-a reference to a comic-only character from Generation 2! While a later incarnation of the mold actually shared that character’s name, he’s… nothing really like that guy, in terms of backstory or personality. So forget all that

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Transformers 2010 Hailstorm Review

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The Weekly Crisis Down Under Reviews for 01/26/2011

shervin — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 01:50:00 +0000

Hi all, just your friendly neighbourhood Aussie here to drop some quick reviews for you all. I’ve got a smattering of publishers to represent here with looks at Secret Avengers, Fantastic Four, Conan: Road of Kings, Detective Comics, and Thunderbolts. No bad comics here, though nothing a superb masterpiece either. See what falls between and how.

Conan: Road of Kings #2

Written by Roy Thomas
Art by Mike Hawthorne

This book continues the tradition of being just a damn fine Conan book. It’s got the look and the feel, though sometimes the writing feels more like the old Marvel Conan comics but it’s written by Roy Thomas so you kind of have to expect that.

This issue sees Conan resting up in a town called Shadizar the Wicked. You know there’s plenty of mischief to get into in a town like this and Conan certainly gets into the thick of it. Krimsar, the only surviving pirate from the previous issues cataclysmic boating accident, prods Conan into some thievery, not that Conan usually needs much pushing to engage in a bit of taking what he wants. I don’t really like how easily this weak fool is able to push Conan’s buttons, he should be above that sort of play, but it gets Conan to enter the bejewelled tower so I guess it works for the narrative even if it feels a little forced on the character.

Once in the tower, a typical Conan/Howard moment occurs as a tentacle guardian of the riches emerges and battles these two shadows of the night. Of course, the sentry is first activated when Krimsar grabs the one jewel you know you shouldn’t grab. Note to self – if I’m ever robbing a temple or tower or throne room, make sure to leave the ruby in the eye of whatever statue it is in. It never works out well. Basically, the entire scene is kind of a barbarian mash up of what would happen if Scrooge McDuck kept a dianoga in his money pit. If that sounds like fun for you then, yeah, this comic is going to deliver.

Verdict – Check It. Perhaps I’ve been spoiled for Conan comics, but I usually set the bar high for his four colour adaptation. This one is good but it lacks that great feeling. Conan is his usual assertive self, with the men and the women, and the art from Hawthorne is very fine but overall I get a thin feeling from this tale. It’s getting there, sure, but it’s not blowing my socks completely off. I’ll stick with it but there’s better Conan books out there.

Detective Comics #873

Written by Scott Snyder
Art by Jock

I was a massive fan of the last two issues, and the start of Snyder/Jock’s run on the title. The first issue was good and in my opinion the second issue topped it. The stage was set with Dick Grayson infiltrating an auction of gruesome Gotham accoutrements, and of course the main selection was a Robin themed item – probably the worst weapon you could associate with a ward of Batman.

The first two issues set up a vibe, this felt like some gritty 70s flick. It had a Polanski tone that made me think we were back on the streets. This was a detective putting his feet on the trail and his body on the line, and by the end of the last issue we could see that Dick had certainly put his body on the line. The cliffhanger left him attacked by this Auctioneer’s gas and threatened with the violence of a mob of Gothamites high on the horror of life in their fair town. The stage was set and the stage was dark indeed.

This issue opens with a great sequence of Dick beating his way through the people and through the toxin in his system. His internal monologue is strong, especially as he fights the gas, which is making him hallucinate and picture the crowd as monsters, by remaining true to the facts. He reminds himself who these people are and where he is. It’s a great calming technique to keep his head in this dangerous situation.

My first gripe comes with Dick’s escape. Once we see he is out it’s all just assumed he gets away. I want to know completely how he got away from these people. They didn’t seem like the kind of crowd to just stop because he gets more than two metres away, these were blood thirsty people and they’d track him mercilessly just to feel the thrill of the kill but we don’t see what happens and so I don’t really know how Dick does it. This is all too easily glossed over and makes the escape, and the threat, feel weaker because of it.

Though, it must be said, my favourite moment of this year comes when Dick wakes up after the attack. The toxin is still working in his system and he imagines that he has lost his legs. It all turns out to be a gas induced hallucination, natch, but there was a moment where I really wondered if it might be real. I’m sure they could hook him up with some cybernetic legs, or something, and I was a little worried. It also seemed more plausible because I didn’t know if he had truly escaped, or how, so that was effective. The imagery of Dick with bandaged stumps is my pick for moment of the year, so far.

From here, the resolution comes too quickly and easily. Snyder races Dick back to the Auctioneer and has him stage an in-flight attack at 30,000 feet. There doesn’t seem to be any challenge for Dick to track the bad guy down and then tackle him, it’s again glossed over and feels weaker because of it. It doesn’t really take much skill, just one hell of a Batplane manoeuvre.

There is a creepiness to Guiborg as he uses some Venom and Man-Bat juice to freak out and become a literal monster. I thought this was a shame because the creep with the mask and the cane seemed like such a classy and insipid criminal that I didn’t ever imagine him being the sort of villain to take himself onto the front line. I had almost hoped to see him scurry away and live to creep out another day. This guy’s introduction had me feeling the same vibe I got when Jason Aaron introduced his villain, Dr Rot,

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Indepentent Comic Publishers With Amazing Stuff

shervin — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 09:00:38 +0000

By Unkiedev Oh good grief, here we go again. One thing I LIKE about independent comic book publishers is they have to have better ideas to stay afloat. If the small presses can’t tell stories the big three (or four) haven’t touched then they may as well pack it up and go home

Go here to read the rest:
Indepentent Comic Publishers With Amazing Stuff

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Interview: Brian Wood on The New York Five from Vertigo

shervin — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 01:00:00 +0000

In 2008, Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly ‘s The New York Four was published through Minx , an imprint of DC Comics aimed at younger readers. The plan was for four books but unfortunately, the Minx line was canceled in late 2008. Now thanks to Vertigo , the long-awaited sequel, The New York Five , will be released this Wednesday, January 26.

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shervin — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 00:32:00 +0000

Alright, people, I got a lot of problems and now you’re going to hear about them. Well, they’re not exactly problems, or airings of grievances, but they’re discussion points I felt too lazy about to write complete and full articles. I’m hijacking the Soapbox feature for now. Plus, some people wanted this feature back, and I was one of them, so here it is. I discuss Fear Itself, favourite creators, internet chatter, Ratfist, and more. Hit the jump to get your rant on.

Fear Itself – A Sales Saviour?

Marvel said they’d be taking some time away from big events comics (and yet still pumped out the likes of Shadowland, Doomwar, and The Thanos Imperative) and it only took a few months before the next big thing came down the pipeline. Fear Itself will be the mega-crossover event that Marvel has loved doing so well in the past. House of M to Civil War onto Secret Invasion, through the Dark Reign (which didn’t actually have an event comic, it was a banner, people) and then the more stripped down and contained Siege. All of these events sold well but then the vocal minority whined about event fatigue, even though they knew all about the event, and obviously bought the comics, and so fuelled Marvel’s desire to provide events for the paying masses.

It’s funny that we hold the power with our wallets and yet so rarely use that power. Fanlads will not be denied.

Anyway, after Siege, Marvel decided to step into the Heroic Age and just chill for a while. An interesting banner age because not only was the banner hideously lame but it obviously did nothing for sales, not like having an Initiative banner did for your book a few years back. I think buyers have finally figured out that having the banner means pretty much next to nothing. But being part of an event, hell, that’s like printing money, right?

Historically speaking, yeah, events sell well. Civil War broke ceilings, Secret Invasion stayed strong for the whole run. Even Siege ended with over 100,000 units, but that was way back when the top five comics were all over 100,000 units. You know, back in May of last year. Now we can’t get a comic to stay over 100,000 units, even if it launches well over that figure. But event comics, works like Siege and Blackest Night, bring out the best in people’s commercial sides and they all buy up big. It’s pretty much fact, it’s been a while since an event (a true, line-wide, event) sold under 100,000.

With that sort of math, I commend Marvel for doing another event. If it’s good for sales then that has to be good for the industry right? I think so, so long as the product is of a high quality. There’s no point in pumping up a big piece of trash. You have to bring you’re a game and the fact Matt Fraction and Stuart Immonen are the creative team on this event makes me smile. It has the pedigree of being something pretty darn good, and it also has Fraction a man who used to regularly rail against crossover-orgy-secret-crisis comics and now gets the chance to do his own. It’ll be interesting to see if he does it his own way or sticks to the company formula.

Can Fear Itself save the comics industry, or at least bolster the sales figures of it? Maybe, but it’s no long term solution. What is that solution, I don’t know, but I’m happy to chip in a few bucks a month to read Fear Itself and do my bit. I’m also happy to chip in plenty of other dollars each month on a variety of titles.

Event fatigue or not, Fear Itself looks and sounds like fun. Count me in. So, what of you, fair reader? Will you be buying Fear Itself, let me know that, and your other thoughts, well below in the comments.

Favourite Creators – Do You Buy Them?

I’ve been thinking a lot about favourites lately. I have my favourites, for sure. If the Coen Brothers make a movie, I’ll be there. If Damon Lindelof ever makes another show, I’ll be there. And if Brian K Vaughan were ever to write another comic, I would damn sure be there. He is easily my favourite comic writer and I don’t care if he writes a gay road trip period romance, I’d be there in a heartbeat. Damn, I’ve tracked down most of his previous work, even to the point I want to sample his Ultimate X-Men run (which I’m sure I won’t like but I still just have to know). That’s what it means, to me, to have a favourite.

But I don’t see that kind of fervour in many others.

Recently, Alan Moore was voted the greatest writer of all time on a CBR countdown. The best there ever is or was. I’m not here to argue that point or not but I am interested in the fact he currently ships two titles and neither seem to be doing so well in the sales department. Why is that?

If I loved Alan Moore, I’d want to know what he was up to now. If he wrote some of my favourite stuff 20 years ago and did a bunch of middle ground work since then I’d still be waiting for him to win me back and he’s have every chance whenever he work shipped. The moment I didn’t want to take that chance on him is the moment he stops being my favourite.

And this comes from a guy who watched Cop Out purely because Chasing Amy is my favourite flick of all time. Once you earn credits with me, they stick around for a lot of projects to come. I have faith and love undying.

Grant Morrison earned second place on this list of writers and yet while his Batman work sells really well his creator owned Joe the Barbarian didn’t fare as well. I don’t get it. Is it Morrison you love or Batman? Or is Morrison only good on Batman, and if so does that make him an overall great writer?

Matt Fraction is a writer who has written some of my favourite comics, and I think some of the best single issues of all time, but there is so much of his work that doesn’t resonate with me that makes him a writer I like but not my number one guy. He’s certainly not buy on sight, that’s for sure.

What, for you, makes a writer your absolute favourite? And once you have a favourite, do you buy everything they write?

Can Creators Use The Internet?

I know I’m well off the buzz of this topic, but I was recently thinking about the Dan Slott incident and I wondered what the future holds for creators and the internet. Most comic writers are on Twitter, and Facebook and the like, but I mostly see them on Twitter. And they’re all usually pretty candid. And I completely dig that. It’s interesting to know what someone is currently writing, drawing, research, etc. It’s not like you know that person but it’s like seeing behind the curtain. I love extras on DVDs and this sort of internet interaction is akin to that sort of behind the scenes material.

Yet sometimes it all goes horribly wrong, and I do blame the trolls.

You can see it in message boards and comments threads all over the internet. Some people are not very nice. The rule is to ignore it. Any level of discourse only breeds more garbage with them so ignore, ignore, ignore. But sometimes a creator doesn’t, and you have to wonder who is to blame.

In all likelihood, this grown adult creator is probably just arguing with a teen or severely maladjusted man-child and if you saw that in person it just would not be cool. The adult, the professional, should know better. But the internet, and the anonymous nature of so much of it, gives comments and entities no context to be ignored many times. Instead, you get one person who works hard at their job and then going up against them is some arrogant fool (or misunderstood jokester) who is willing to take a few seconds out of their life to undermine that hard work.

It’s painful, but it needs to be ignored.

Which makes me wonder, will these creators eventually forego using the internet? Will it just be easier to walk away from it all and concentrate on their work in a vacuum? A shame because so much positive interaction can be had but will it wear them down? I’m not sure, but I hope not. Most creators seem mature enough to only focus on the things they like on the ‘net. More power to them.

Big Two Webcomics

Webcomics do alright business. More and more creators seem to be doing little webcomic side projects, and the Eisner’s even honour in this category now. Webcomics are a real alternative to paper issues, and even more relevant with the digital distribution of comics from the Big Two.

Which makes me wonder, why don’t Marvel or DC run webcomics, for free, with characters from their universes in them?

I know, many will say this won’t make money, and it surely isn’t something to transition the entire publishing house into, but if Beta Ray Bill or Deadman can’t sustain their own titles then why not put out a page a week online for the fans. I’m almost certain there would be creators, good creators, who would be willing to work for cheap, or even donate their time, just to get to work with a niche favourite character in such a slow form. It wouldn’t interfere with their time too much because the obligation isn’t for too many pages and so they can still work on other projects that actually pay the bills.

Not only do I think the fans would go for this, but it would give some of these characters an outlet to be appreciated. It would give creators a chance to try something completely different, and it would be a step towards this millennium we’ve been living in for quite some time now.

Imagine using your iPad to check out the weekly page of Doctor Phosphorous: Into The Darkness by Brian Wood and Yanick Paquette or Spider-Woman: Agent of HYDRA by Kieron Gillen and David Aja – or even Frank Kafka by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips.

Surely the Big Two would know how to still make money off this, right?

Ratfist – You Checked It Out Yet?

How many of you are reading Ratfist, the new webcomic from Doug TenNapel? It’s about a superhero who dresses like a rat, and has a pet rat, but whose true love hates rats. Compelling stuff, right? Well, in case you didn’t recognise the name, it’s by the guy who created Earthworm Jim. You need more of an excuse than that? He’s also one hell of a comic book artist.

TenNapel has contributed to a wide variety of weird and wonderful independent comics over the years and so it’s nice to support him in this web endeavour. Ratfist only just started, last week, and it aims to ship a page every weekday. So far, it’s been interesting. The story is alright but the artwork is a real draw. This is well worth an investment of time so go check it out, here’s a handy link to help you, RATFIST!

Uncanny Gillen

I don’t think anyone is truly surprised. Not only is this how Uncanny X-Men gets parcelled and handed across now, it is also how Fraction leaves his titles. He brings them in, keeps them warm under his wing, then he departs swiftly. Well, he did on Punisher: War Journal, anyway.

I don’t know what to make of this news. It seems that Uncanny X-Men keeps getting solid creative teams (at least for the writers, why they put Greg Land on anything anymore makes no sense to me), and the title sells pretty well, and yet I rarely hear positive reviews, and never rave reviews. Most pundits seem happy when the issue they just read didn’t suck. That’s no way to judge a comic.

I won’t be picking up Uncanny X-Men, no matter how strong my Gillen love (and to fit with the rant above, Gillen is a writer I like but he’s not my number 1 and he’s not buy on sight), and I support him in Generation Hope, for now, so that should be enough. I just have no interest in reading Uncanny, though I am pleased to see Gillen’s first order of business will be actually using Kitty Pryde. Who knows, maybe this title will become the continuation that S.W.O.R.D. never had. I doubt it, it’ll just be Uncanny forevermore, but I suppose it gives Gillen’s name some good sales, which he can parlay into better comics later, right?

On a side note, there is a high chance I will follow Gillen onto Journey Into Mystery. A Thor comic he describes as being more Secret Avengers to Fraction’s Thor as the Avengers of the Thor franchise. Why Thor has a franchise is beyond me but I’ll go with it. I don’t even mind the numbering starting at #622 – I’m beyond caring about the number anymore (especially at Marvel) I just want a solid tale to read and enjoy.

Conclusion

They’re just a number of things in the comics world that have dis/interested me of late. Let me know what you think about these topics, or if you have your own little rants you’d like to soapbox about go nuts in the comments below.

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