Full post at FantasyRantz.wordpress.com.
A 2012 look at Acclaim/Armada‘s 2-issue mini-series from 1995 that detailed events during the Fallen Empires setting of Magic: The Gathering.
Filed under: The '90s Revisited | Tagged: Acclaim, Armada, Dominaria, Fallen Empires, Magic, magic: the gathering, MTG, On The World of Magic | 1 Comment »
The Rest of the Stack is my general mini-review coverage of new comics for any given week. It’s in addition to (or in place of) full-size individual reviews. It’s far less formal, and more off-the-top-of-my head thoughts on the given comics than it is detailed reviews.
THE HYPERNATURALS #3
I’m continuing to get drawn in, and the odd vocabulary elements are feeling a bit more normal. I’m liking the flashbacks that are fleshing out the present, and beginning to get a sense of the continuity that’s been built from the start of this series. You know something’s being done right when I’m interested in going back to re-read the issues so far just to appreciate the world that’s been built in such a short span of time. The story is engaging and the characters are easy enough to identify with. The art continues on a high note as well. Though I saw this issue’s end coming a couple pages early that ramped up the tension which made the cliffhanger both that much more appreciable and a bit anticlimactic, as if it ended a panel or two too soon.
BLOODSHOT #3
Three issues in, and I’m quite enjoying this series. Having figured out the art style for the flashbacks vs. the present, I quite enjoy the shifts, as we follow Bloodshot on his quest to find out the truth about his past. While he seeks his past, Project Rising Spirit is determined to remove him from the field permanently. The story kinda sucked me in on this issue; as said, recognizing flashbacks made this a much more enjoyable read and didn’t seem disruptive at all. I like both visual styles as presented here. As I keep saying, I’m enjoying this new take on a “classic” character; even knowing this isn’t the original “version” doesn’t bother me. Sort of a cross between Marvel’s Ultimate Comics line and DC‘s New 52, with the best of both worlds. Definitely looking forward to the next issue.
ARCHER AND ARMSTRONG #2
The cover to this issue puts me in mind of a cover from the early issues of the Wolverine relaunch back in ’03 or so, where we see grumpy Wolverine on the ground, a line of bullet-holes across the wall–and him; and just looking at it, you know someone’s in for a world o’ hurt. Here, we get a look at the two title characters and a scene that kinda plays on the state of things, and (at least to me) comes off as rather amusing. Archer with a crossbow, pondering the Armstrong, who he’s shot umpteen times but calmly (cheerfully, even!) drinking a beer. With his parents’ reality revealed, Archer breaks from them and decides to join Armstrong, and the two begin their quest for the parts of The Boon that are scattered throughout the world. Of course, it wouldn’t be a quest if it was easy, and things sure don’t start easy for the pair. I really like this new take on the characters–it’s fresher and somehow seems a bit more realistic than the classic. I also like that the title characters don’t spend the entire first arc or two against each other–I’m far more interested in how they handle things as a “team,” with such drastically different backgrounds, personality, and abilities. The story keeps me interested, and I like the art–and the character designs. This Armstrong looks younger–and more presentable–than the classic, and somehow, that brings more of a sense of “fun” to the title, amidst the darker, more serious elements.
TMNT MICRO-SERIES #8: FUGITOID
This issue introduces us to the Fugitoid–an alien scientist in a robot body. This issue as a whole is “the origin issue” for the Fugitoid, detailing the robot as well as Dr. Honeycutt, and the motivations that led to the Fugitoid’s situation. While the essense of the original origin is present, details have obviously been changed–and it works really well for me. The art’s pretty solid, and pulls off the “alien, yet similar to Earth” vibe. The story itself is good, though I found out after reading this that the issue spoils something from the next issue of the main TMNT title–though I didn’t feel like there was anything particularly revelatory, and actually thought this played off stuff we’ve already seen. We get a glimpse of an entire culture that works far better for me than their use in the classic cartoon–taking a campy, goofy concept and making it a valid, reasonable element for the current continuity. The issue ends with no ad for a next issue, and I’m unsure if there will be any more–the first collected volume was 4 issues, and this is the 8th–making another complete 4-issue volume. I hope these continue; as I’ve indicated before–I’d gladly keep buying this companion series to the main title, with different creative teams and spotlight characters.
TMNT COLOR CLASSICS #4
While the turtles are out searching for Splinter, they are ambushed by the Foot, who want revenge for the death of Shredder. While battling the ninjas, the turtles come across a strange building marked with the letters “TCRI”–which they recognize as the same as what was on the canister of goo that mutated them. When they investigate the building further, they find plenty of oddities, including the inhabitants of the building, and an alien device they’ve built that spells major issue for the turtles’ future. The story is fairly simple, and things kinda scoot along quickly. This is still early in the existence of the TMNT, so for me it’s more the ideas that were put forth than actual grace in execution of the story. The art’s solid, and quite a contrast to contemporary takes on the characters. Still, I like it, and it’s really cool to see this colorized in a single-issue format; if I didn’t know it started out black-and-white and had no attention called to it, I’d have a hard time believing this wasn’t a color comic to begin with. Despite the various collected volumes already out, I hope this Color Classics series lasts long enough to re-present the entire Mirage vol. 1 TMNT series…though I wouldn’t entirely mind if it skips a bunch of the middle stuff and just re-presents the “core” Eastman/Laird stuff of the first 11 issues, Micro-Series, Return to New York, and City at War arcs.
Filed under: Archer & Armstrong, Bloodshot, Hypernaturals (Boom! Studios), IDW Publishing, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (IDW), The Rest of the Stack, Valiant | Tagged: Archer, Armstrong, Bloodshot, Boom!, color classics, Fugitoid, Hypernaturals, IDW, Micro Series, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, TMNT, Valiant | Leave a comment »
I didn’t think anything would beat the playable Pac Man Google Doodle awhile back, but this sure came darned close!
I was amused enough simply at seeing the letters dressed as Star Trek characters…but I was enthralled when I realized you could PLAY.
If you clicked on ‘o’ it zoomed in to spotlight her:
And if you clicked on the computer it lit up and made familiar Star Trek-y-computer sounds. Then click the doors to the right and you go into the Transporter Room:
And when you clicked on the bin in the upper left…Tribbles come pouring out!
Since that made things a little bit crowded, click on the Transporter computer at the right:
…and e and o are transported to fight a Gorn:
You could bean the Gorn with the rock, the branch, and the classic weapon of last resort. With the Gorn defeated, you’d return to the bridge, and then see the view of Space to the sound of the classic theme:
And thus an episode ended, with the Enterprise continuing on her journey.
…and then it would pull up a search results page on Star Trek The Original Series. Someday, I’ll watch the series in full, perhaps. Someday.
Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: Doodle, Enterprise, Google, Google Doodle, Original Series, September 2012, Star Trek | Leave a comment »
…For What I Have Done
Writer: Scott Lobdell
Pencilers: John Romita Jr., Jae Lee, Chris Sprouse, Brandon Peterson, Paul Smith
Inkers: Dan Green, Dan Panosian, Terry Austin, Tom Palmer, Keith Williams
Colorist: Mike Thomas
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
Cover: John Romita Jr., Dan Panosian
Assistant Editor: Lisa Patrick
Editor: Bob Harras
Published by: Marvel Comics
Cover Dated: September, 1993
After a couple of the X-Books that were not the actual X-Men themselves, this issue finally pulls the X-Men I was familiar with into this story. Granted, I wasn’t extremely familiar with them–but I knew who most of them were thanks to the cartoon series. Wolverine, Bishop, Cyclops, Storm, Jean Grey, Beast, Professor Xavier, even Colossus…and of course, Magneto.
I recall reading the death of Illyana–Colossus’ sister–in the previous issue (sucked in by the image of Jean Grey and Jubilee with the blurb “If you read only ONE X-title this month–this issue MUST be it!”). This issue has the funeral as we see the various characters reacting to the death of the young girl. We also get some backstory on Magneto and the losses he’s suffered, which have been driving factors in his methods of trying to “save” the “mutant race.” There are some quieter moments between various characters; I especially like the Kitty Pryde/Storm and Banshee/Bishop scenes. I’m still amazed in retrospect at how very new some of these characters were in the summer of 1993 (particularly Bishop), and how much more all the characters have grown, changed, or otherwise [been] developed in the decades since this story.
As Illyana’s funeral draws to a close, Magneto crashes the party, which is almost immediately further crashed by Exodus and the rest of the Acolytes, who have come to grips with the revelation of Cortez’ part in Magneto’s near-death. The X-Men and Magneto and his Acolytes clash, as the ship Avalon is brought into Earth’s atmosphere above them, causing world-wide issues and fear. The battle quickly becomes one with catastrophic consequences should the X-Men fail, but ultimately it falls to Xavier to pull a new trick out of his figurative hat to save the day, using his power in a way I don’t recall seeing him do prior to this (though it wouldn’t seem all that out of place nowadays).
This issue felt a bit more like being dropped into the middle of a story, the way it opened–the Acolytes already trying to tear Cortez apart for his deception. I honestly don’t recall if this continues directly from Uncanny X-Men #303 or from some other issue of the X-books. While I vaguely remembered that it was shortly after Illyana’s funeral that Colossus left the X-Men, I’d forgotten that the funeral itself was in this issue, and the way Magneto and Co. crashed the funeral. I’d also completely forgotten the way Xavier ended this particular battle, which seemed both absurd and epic at the same time, to me.
The issue’s art is a bit fractured–there are five pencilers on the issue, and I noticed it while reading–particularly with Magneto’s flashback. Fortunately, other than Jae Lee‘s art, the rest fits relatively well together and isn’t glaring. Of course, that’s something I notice now but if I noticed back in ’93, I don’t recall it being a conscious thing of recognizing different artists’ work, or knowing about “fill in artists” or any such stuff. All that said…this is another issue that I don’t mind the art on the whole, and which seems to fit the story.
Including a few ads, this issue has 62 pages for only a $3.95 cover price. I like the cover–most of the characters shown on the front are the ones I would have been most familiar with, though in this sense are rather generic. But once opened up, we see that there are a lot more characters involved in the image, all angrily looking toward a huge foreground closeup of Magneto. And yet again, I like the hologram on this cover. While the hologram itself is pretty cool, its image strikes me as rather iconic for the time–I’m sure I’ve seen that several image of Magneto with the swirl of debris outside the context of this story. I wouldn’t be surprised if I’ve snagged a copy of this from a bargain bin since buying my original copy at full cover price in 1993, but the copy I have onhand right now for this rereading and such was part of a 3/$10 deal, which while not as satisfying on principle as getting the issue for under or around $1, is still quite worthwhile for being less than cover price.
This issue seems to set the stage for the next couple chapters, which to me are the heart of this story, and what I MOST think of with the title Fatal Attractions.
Filed under: The '90s Revisited | Tagged: 30th Anniversary, Acolytes, Bob Harras, Brandon Peterson, cable, Chris Eliopoulos, Chris Sprouse, Dan Green, Dan Panosian, Fatal Attractions, Jae Lee, John Romita Jr., Keith Williams, Lisa Patrick, magneto, MARVEL, Marvel Comics, Mike Thomas, Paul SMith, Scott Lobdell, Terry Austin, Tom Palmer, Uncanny X-Men, X-Factor, x-force, x-men | 1 Comment »
I had two particularly great “finds” tonight going back through my collection. First, I actually managed to find the two-issue Elder Dragons mini-series that in large part prompted this week’s digging. I knew the covers looked familiar, seeing images online, as something I had physically handled at some point.
And sure enough, in the middle of one of the longboxes, I found ’em.
I also found a set (minus #12) of Solar: Man of the Atom #s 1-25 that I’d bought a couple years ago for about $6. Track down a handful of issues, and that pretty much gives me 20+ issues of X-O Manowar, Archer & Armstrong, and Solar. Plus a few other issues here ‘n there.
I also found some more Ultraverse issues, which between last night and tonight fills in 3-4 issues of what I’ve been missing.
Time-wise, I’m left with a couple other longboxes to dig out that I somehow managed to REALLY bury and neglect as I moved these others–so they’ll be a weekend or next-week project.
Next up will be sorting through what amounts to 4 1/2 longboxes of X-books to officially determine what my X-collection looks like, and purge duplicates.
Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: collections, comics, elder dragons, magic: the gathering, Solar, solar man of the atom, valian | Leave a comment »
After years of intentions, this year I’ve finally started to–at least in small steps–do some maintenance on my comics collection.
I’ve been getting comics for 23+ years now, and aside from giving away some duplicates and occasionally buying comics intended for friends, my collection’s simply grown. Compound that with having the oldest chunk of my collection at my parents’ house while I’ve lugged the last decade’s worth of comics around with me 
(and some absolutely incredible sales at the local comic shop and a full longbox purchase at a Free Comic Day sale a few years ago) and my collection is nothing remotely approaching ordered.
Last year I sped through several of my boxes to pull what Ultraverse comics I could find, and pretty much assembled a “what’s missing” list that I’ve sorely neglected for about a year now.
The last several months I’ve been gathering my X-Men comics together, with thoughts toward a major reading project. Having scoured the old boxes at my parents’, and weeks later transporting the boxes of X-Men stuff to my apartment, I’ve finally begun going through the most recent of my longboxes, and found a great many of the X-Men comics I knew I had–including sizeable runs of X-Force, Cable, and Wolverine.
But I also found that–like I discovered when I pulled Ultraverse comics last year–that I’d been snapping up lots of Valiant comics from various bargain-bins.
I’ve been referencing all these “classic” Valiant series that I’ve never read as I’ve reviewed the “New” Valiant stuff this summer…and come to discover (and I still have more than a dozen longboxes to sort through) that I have a pretty good stack of Valiant stuff–primarily Archer & Armstrong and X-O Manowar, as well as a couple early runs of Turok and H.A.R.D. Corps.
And…there’s X-O Manowar #0. Turns out the thing’s apparently been one of my favorite bargain-bin pulls, as I know of a couple other copies I’ve snagged this year, and I found 2-3 other copies going through stuff tonight–though apparently I neglected to pull them, not realizing I was going to find so many other Valiant comics to justify pulling those together.
It’s amazing the way time flies when one takes such a trip down memory lane…and how hard it is to flip through a longbox of comics without stopping to page through the odd issue here or there, and wish there was more time in the days, to just sit and read everything.
Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: Archer and Armstrong, collecting, comics, HARD Corps, Valiant, Valiant Comics, XO Manowar | Leave a comment »
Full post at FantasyRantz.wordpress.com.
A 2012 look at Acclaim/Armada‘s 4-issue mini-series from 1995 that detailed the world and history of the Ice Age setting of Magic: The Gathering.
Filed under: Fantasy Rantz, The '90s Revisited | Tagged: Acclaim, Armada, Dominaria, Freyalise, Ice Age, Magic, magic: the gathering, The Gathering | 1 Comment »
Full review posted to cxPulp.com.
Story: 4/5
Art: 4/5
Overall: 4/5
Filed under: cxPulp.com, Higher Earth (Boom! Studios), INDEPENDENT/SMALL-PRESS PUBLISHERS | Tagged: Andrew Crossley, Boom!, Boom! Studios, Bryce Carlson, Comic Reviews, cxPulp, Dafna Pleban, Ed Dukeshire, Francesco Biagini, Frazer Irving, Heidi, Higher Earth, Rex, Sam Humphries | Leave a comment »
Back to Front
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Greg Capullo
Inkers: Wiacek, Green, Ryan, Palmiotti, Hanna, Conrad, Milgrom
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
Colorist: George Roussos
Editors: Bob Harras, Tom DeFalco
Published by: Marvel Comics
Cover Dated: August, 1993
Twenty-five issues…big number, huh? Well…maybe not. I’ve seen this title repurposed for awhile, then renamed X-Statix and that ran for a couple years. Then post-Messiah-CompleX another X-Force ran for a couple years, and the current Uncanny X-Force has run about 30 issues. But y’know, back in the day, this was a common anniversary–a whopping 25 issues.
As with X-Factor #92, I re-read this and much of it was like I was reading it for the first time…certainly the first time with much comprehension of who these characters were. This was even before Cable first got his own series, which ran for over 100 issues (followed by Cable & Deadpool that ran about 50 and the more recent Cable series with Hope than ran about 25).
This issue seems to be the introduction of Exodus. A sticker on the bag this copy of the issue was in when I bought it stated “Exodus 1st App.” Back in the day, I didn’t pick up on that, and just thought he was another one of these “Acolytes” and didn’t dig or think any deeper. It’s also the “return” of Cable, apparently the first he’d shown up since the X-Cutioner’s Song crossover few months earlier.
The new mutants–the X-Force–return home from a mission. However, someone else is there–and the battle is quickly joined…though it turns out their mentor–Cable–has returned. Some are glad to see the man, others not so happy–but all listen as Cable explains a bit of where he’s been and what he’s learned since the events that seperated him from his pupils. Exodus arrives, inviting Cannonball and Sunspot to Heaven, but pre-emptively attacks the group for thinking of attacking him. Cannonball eventually agrees, but the team follows, and all find themselves aboard what apparently used to be Cable’s base, known as Graymalkin, with a sentient computer program called “The Professor.” After more fighting, Cable gets his young charges off the ship, and seeks to “rescue” the computer program that’s apparently been a father figure to him–and finds himself confronting an enemy all thought dead. This fight is much shorter, all but disassembling Cable before he escapes (nearly as a corpse) to rejoin X-Force.
As said above, I didn’t really “get” this issue when I first read it, when it came out. I recall (with a bit of deja vu) the ending with Cable, but not much else. I certainly lacked the context of Cannonball and Sunspot being part of the New Mutants prior to Cable’s 1st appearance and that title ending to be replaced with this one. I had not yet read X-Cutioner’s Song–or at least, not more than maybe a couple chapters (it was only about 6 or 7 years ago that I finally tracked the story down and read it all the way through) so I didn’t even have that context of what had happened to Cable, though from what trading card or another or Marvel Handbook/profile special (Stryfe’s Strike Files?) or Wizard or some such, I knew of Stryfe as being Cable’s clone from the future.
I hadn’t realized either, at the time, that Magneto had “died,” though from in-story context I picked up on the characters having thought him dead…but his death/etc was more of a “meta” thing than I was aware of as a 12-year old at the time.
This issue’s story is another that stands alone well enough, though it continues to build foundation for what I consider the “heart” of Fatal Attractions in X-Men #25 and Wolverine #75. The art is good, and somehow extremely familiar to me. This visual rendition of X-Force just is what it is, and I like it.
I’m a bit less impressed with the overall cover of this issue than I was with the X-Factor issue; but in a way the fairly close-up image of Cable with one of those HUUUUGE guns he carried is rather iconic, which makes this a more full cover from the front for me than the X-Factor issue. Of course, this cover (and the hologram) also totally gives away from the get-go that Cable is back, but especially near 20 years later, I’m not bothered by that at all.
I’ve snagged this issue from bargain bins–turns out I actually wound up with 2 copies of this issue for roughly $.75 total in the past month. Well worth getting, if only for the hologram, particularly if you can snag it from a bargain bin. Cover price was $3.50, which again is 50 cents cheaper than cover price of a standard Marvel comic nowadays, and this has a cardstock cover, hologram, and 48-ish pages (some of them ads).
Filed under: The '90s Revisited | Tagged: 30th Anniversary, Acolytes, Bob Harras, cable, Chris Eliopoulos, Conrad, Fabian Nicieza, Fatal Attractions, George Roussos, Green, Greg Capullo, Hanna, magneto, MARVEL, Marvel Comics, Milgrom, Palmiotti, Ryan, Tom DeFalco, Uncanny X-Men, Wiacek, X-Factor, x-force, x-men | 1 Comment »
Full review posted to cxPulp.com.
Story: 4/5
Art: 3.5/5
Overall: 3.5/5
Filed under: cxPulp.com, Valiant, X-O Manowar | Tagged: Aric, Cary Nord, Comic Reviews, cxPulp, Dave Lanphear, Don Kramer, Doug Braithwaite, Josh Johns, Moose Baumann, Robert Venditti, Stefano Gaudiano, The Vine, Valiant, Valiant Entertainment, Warren Simons, X-O, X-O Manowar | Leave a comment »
Comic Reviews by Walt 