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Archie vs. Predator #1 [Review]

Posted on April 20, 2015 by Walt

archievspredator001Script: Alex de Campi
Pencils: Fernando Ruiz
Inks: Rich Koslowski
Colors: Jason Millet
Letters: John Workman
Cover: Ruiz, Koslowski, Millet
Digital Production: Ryan Jorgensen
Design: Jimmy Presler
Assistant Editor: Ian Tucker
Editor: Brendan Wright
Publisher: Mike Richardson
Special Thanks to: Alex Segura, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Mike Pellerito, Archie
Comics Publications
Published by: Dark Horse Comics
Cover Date: April 2015
Cover Price: $3.99

The novelty of this title–that it even exists AT ALL–intrigued me. I mean, really…Archie and PREDATOR?!? That’s on a level like Archie Meets Punisher! It’s totally ridiculous…so of course I had to check it out for myself.

I’m aware of (and read the first couple issues of) the Afterlife With Archie series and such, that there’s been a lot of stuff lately to cast the Archie gang in an adult light beyond the classic pop culture iterations everyone “knows.” So sure, this definitely fits that as a concept. And aside from the sheer ridiculousness of the mashup, I’m a fan of the Aliens and Predator properties (more Aliens than Predator, admittedly) and have enjoyed plenty of Archie fare in my day, so this was certainly not an unreasonable issue for me to pick up and give a shot.

The visual style is quite familiar–rather than recast the Archie gang with a different look that would fit more with Predator, it was the Predator that’s slightly recast to fit into the classic style of the Archie characters. Of course, this is set off by the presence of on-panel blood and one particularly gruesome panel that is truly at home in a Predator comic.

We have the kids preparing for spring break…Jughead wins a cruise and takes the rest of the gang with him; we then shift to the kids on some island with a jungle. As everyone settles in, they realize Dilton’s rather distressed–he’s brought “work” (Yearbook stuff) on the vacation. The others agree to pitch in to help him get his work done so he can relax, too…which includes the Polls (Most Likely to Succeed, Cutest Couple, Most Popular, etc.). This leads to a huge fight that turns physical between Betty and Veronica over Archie (as always), and ends with Betty running off into the jungle. Meanwhile, Cheryl Blossom and her beau had seen a shooting star and investigated, though to a much worse immediate fate than the main gang. They cut the spring break vacation short and head home–back to “normal” little realizing how NOT-normal things are about to get for them.

For this issue at least, this really does feel like a mash-up. Aside from the blood and such, this could be just any other Archie comic. That we do get to see the predator itself, and some gore, and all that–and some panels of things from the predator’s point of view keeps this from being “just” some prologue, and is just enough to keep me from writing this off as some would-be thing or a pointless first issue AS a single issue. Take out the predator panels and this is an Archie comic; take those panels by themselves and it’s a Predator comic with a dig at familiar characters. Put together it’s a solid first issue of a limited series, a finite story.

We get a typical sort of Archie full-issue-length setup, we get to see the Predator, and we get setup for the rest of the series. I’d say this meets my expectation for existing as a single issue of a four-part serialized story, pretty much justifying itself in this format…just slightly more expensive than an Archie Comics-published comic (this is published by Dark Horse Comics).

The story itself feels a bit “off,” surely the presence of the Predator and blood and such, but as a non-Archie Archie comic it works.

I was anxious to check this out for myself, as said a couple times above…but I don’t think I’ll care to pick up the remaining single issues. As a fan of the Aliens and Predator stuff, I tend to prefer the collected volumes to single issues, and this definitely falls into that category–I’d MUCH prefer to simply have an Archie vs. Predator volume to put on the shelf amidst my other Predator books.

If you’re a fan of classic Archie and don’t care for darker, more serious stuff and have any active disinterest in the Predator franchise, you’ll definitely want to avoid this. If you’re a Predator purist you may not care for the lighter tone inherent with the Archie side of things (in this issue particularly) though it looks likely that that’s gonna go downhill in the later issues. But if you’re amused or curious at the concept of Archie of all properties crossing over with the Predator…this is well worth checking out. Despite that, as said–I’m leaning very much toward the collected-edition format myself.

Filed under: 2015 posts, 2015 Reviews, Archie (Archie Comics), Dark Horse, INDEPENDENT/SMALL-PRESS PUBLISHERS, Predator | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Past Aways #1 [Review]

Posted on March 27, 2015 by Walt

pastaways001Script: Matt Kindt
Art: Scott Kolins
Colors: Bill Crabtree
Letters: Rob Leigh
Cover: Scott Kolins
Digital Production: Jason Rickerd
Design: Jimmy Presler
Assistant Editor: Ian Tucker
Editor: Brendan Wright
Publisher: Mike Richardson
Published by: Dark Horse Comics
Cover Date: March 2015
Cover Price: $3.99

Perhaps the most dismaying (to me) thing of this issue came in the backmatter, after the core of the issue itself. In reading stuff from the editor (Wright), I learn that several months ago there was an 8-page prelude to this issue in Dark Horse Comics Presents. In other words, deciding to pick up the FIRST ISSUE of a NEW SERIES did NOT actually let me start “at the beginning.” I’m NOT getting the very start of these characters (real-life time), and now if I want what happened before this I need to track down some other comic–from MONTHS ago–as it wasn’t even reprinted in this issue. Or I should forego the single issues, as that prelude may well be reprinted in the first collected edition. (However, being Dark Horse and not Image I’m not hopeful of a $9.99 first volume).

PRIOR TO learning that I’d missed content relevant to this story, this was an ok issue. The concept is certainly more interesting to me than the execution, the actual story. People from the far-future trapped in 2015, present day and trying to get home. I personally often marvel at modern technology and wonder what people would think seeing it fifty years ago. I rarely consider how “primitive” it might seem to people fifty years from now, or more.

This issue gives us a quick glimpse at several of these individuals from the future, showing where they are now, having been trapped in 2015 for some time. Outside of the descriptions given on the cover, there’s really not enough yet in just this single issue to establish the characters with any real depth or much to interest me. I can’t imagine there won’t be more depth in further issues as each character gets more “page time,” but there’s honestly not enough within the pages of this single issue to truly grab my interest the way I’d like.

The art is actually better in my assessment of this issue–though I recall having mixed feelings on Kolins‘ art, here I do like it. Having no prior “experience” with these characters, I have no other designs to compare them to, so they simply “are” as they appear here. Not being much for studying and picking up a lot of detail from the visuals, I’d’ve skipped over a LOT if it wasn’t for “captions” calling attention to certain things.

I picked this issue up with the expectation of trying a new series, only to learn that there was already story-stuff out before that I had no clue about, which is a huge turn-off. While I “get” that something like this will inevitably need room and time to develop on-page, having far more conceptual stuff than can POSSIBLY be put out in 26 or so pages…I feel like this is just a small slice of a larger story, even as an opening arc–something I’d probably enjoy more as a whole in a collected volume than serialized across a number of single/monthly segments. Whether Dark Horse will omit backmatter for collected editions or not, I don’t truly know–primarily, there’s a single page from the point of view of one of the characters describing an excursion into the “primitive” city and how that experience went.

Prose pages and image cutaways of bases and such can add depth and immerse a reader in things…but I do find I am a lot more skeptical of these things in newer series as I feel like they’re “cheating”–rather than more story content through pagecount, after reading a few pages of actual comic-style pages, then I’m subjected to prose reading to flesh things out. I’m TOLD stuff instead of being SHOWN or getting to “experience” it unfold across the issue(s).

If you’re willing–at $3.99 an issue–to invest in a new concept, a new series, track down a several-months-old issue of Dark Horse Presents and give more time to immersing yourself in this, it’s probably worth checking out. Otherwise, this seems very much like something that will be a more enjoyable thing in a larger chunk–such as the collected volume.

While I WAS learning heavily toward keeping an eye out for the second issue, to see where this goes, I’m probably going to “let it go,” as I have no desire to track down a random issue of Dark Horse Comics Presents to get the prelude…nor to continue onward KNOWING I’ve MISSED that prelude. I MAY check out the collected volume, but as I suspect 4-5 $3.99 issues’ content will probably be a $16+ volume (rather than an introductory-priced $9.99), this might be it for me.

Filed under: 2015 posts, 2015 Reviews, Dark Horse, Past Aways | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Half-Price Books "Mini-Vacation" Haul

Posted on July 29, 2014 by Walt

While visiting with a friend at the start of a “mini vacation” last week, we wound up in a Half-Price Books. Her idea, but I’d already had some thoughts of going to one. And the fact that we both can enjoy browsing a book store is an added plus of the friendship. Of course, despite my pointing out a bunch of stuff in suggestion to her, I still wound up spending more than she did…though in my defense I went through about 3 “phases” as I put stuff back to hang onto other stuff, before finally settling on what I actually bought and walked out with.

half_price_books_01

The bulk of my purchase was Aliens Omnibus volume 4 and Aliens Omnibus volume 5…which add to my existing volumes 1-3. I’ll have to look ’em up but I’m thinking there may only be 6 of these, so it’d definitely be cool to have the run.

half_price_books_02

I also bought 3 $1 comics–a reprint of Star Wars #1 from Marvel; the still-sealed Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1 collector’s set (bought it for the posters). and a slightly beat-up copy of Prime #1/2 because hey…it’s Prime #1/2 and it’s definitely not nearly as common as #1, or even the majority of #s 1-15 or so.

I was quite amazed at the bulk of the $1 stock–it was all stuff I’d generally consider to be 25-cent stock, with very few exceptions (including what I deemed “worth” my $1/ea).

However, they had a bunch of 25-cent “clearance” stock…each individual issue tagged with a break-apart price sticker directly on the covers, meaning one’s either stuck with that sticker, or very likely would have to rip a hole in the cover trying to peel the thing off. Much of the 25-cent stock was NUMEROUS copies of VERY FEW issues. I pulled a stack of about 15 copies of an Image foil cover….Something #2. Saw at least a dozen copies of Rai and the Future Force #11. May have been a bunch of #9 as well. It was both disgusting yet morbidly fascinating at the same time.

I made a point of showing these to my friend, explaining that apparently they’d bought a collection from someone who finally realized these were near-worthless.

Of course, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter #1 was in the $1 stock, when I’ve heard stories of entire longboxes full of the thing being hoarded. Maybe a good thing I don’t work at HPB as I would NOT in good conscience be able to sell most of the issues for $1!

Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Weekly Haul | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

75 Cents Very Well Spent

Posted on February 27, 2014 by Walt

This week is definitely one of THE best I’ve had in the way of 25-cent books!

I scored a copy of Dark Horse Comics Presents #8–the first appearance of X–as well as one of the four A Death in the Family Batman issues (#429).

And the REALLY special treat of the week–X-O Manowar (original series) #1 that the comic shop owner tucked in with my weekly pulls, and sold to me for 25 cents as it’s not in mint condition (“just” a ‘reading copy’).

75centswellspent20140226

I also snagged a number of other 25-cent books…Predator/Magnus and Magnus/Nexus, a couple issues of Valiant’s Original Turok and Original Solar; the first seven issues of Robinson‘s Starman (#s 0-6), a couple bronze-age Lois Lane issues, and a handful of Detective Comics ones I’ve kept an eye out for.

And for a “mere” $4, I picked up the “RRP” variant of Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men #1…the greenish background with the whole TEAM shown, that has been a rather “iconic” image for the book, despite the STANDARD cover having been Wolverine’s claws. While I don’t much like buying recent back issues and certainly not for $1 above cover price…my logic on this is that it’s the cover I’d prefer, it’s the one I associate with the series, and $4 is the same as “just” any other Marvel these days, so might as well.

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Serenity: Leaves on the Wind #1 [Review]

Posted on February 3, 2014 by Walt

serenityleavesonthewind001Script: Zack Whedon
Pencils: Georges Jeanty
Inks: Karl Story
Colors: Laura Martin
Letters: Michael Heisler
Cover: Dan Dos Santos
Executive Producer: Joss Whedon
Published by: Dark Horse Comics
Cover Price: $3.50

I have to blame a friend for my getting this. Firstly, I’m pretty sure she was aware of this then-upcoming series before I was, and then more recently being my “excuse” to “upgrade” my Firefly/Serenity collection. I also recently re-watched the entire series and movie, wrapping up just a couple weeks ago.

Given that recency, I was impressed with the cover from the start. Dos Santos captures Mal’s face in such a way that there’s no doubt that’s as portrayed by Nathan Fillion. The cover in general looks like a scene straight off the screen.

The interior art threw me off a little bit…there’s something almost too “light” or “bright” about its coloring, and some of the panels’ shots seemed a little more “out there” to me than I’d expect after being used to the visuals of the tv show. Granted, this is a comic book, so that change in visual style needs to be afforded a certain level of “pass” allowing for the difference in medium.

In and of itself, the visuals are good. I wasn’t blown away by anything seeming particularly amazing, but everything fit for the most part. There were a couple panels I had trouble telling who was supposed to be who, but I’m not entirely convinced that wasn’t just my brain refusing to parse ’em out without audible voices to identify the characters.

The story works in general. We pick up some time after the events of the film Serenity, so as the issue progresses the status quo is gradually revealed while leaving some questions (or at least the specifics of how things went down) up in the air.

That this is a comic and not the tv show and yet it’s advancing the same story creates an interesting dynamic of sorts that I haven’t experienced all that often…particularly as the two media aren’t usually directly connected in this way.

I could “hear” the characters’ voices in the dialogue, and given context of the story, the characters themselves seemed authentic to me.

Unfortunately and fortunately at the same time, the comic is a different presentation of the material…lacking the movement and charm of the actors and actresses themselves, their voices, and other things tv and film can do that comics can’t. However, the comic can show things on a grander scale than a tv budget can allow, thus opening the scope of the story that much more.

Unfortunately, as only the first issue of six, this is just a chunk of story for now. Far too short to really be compared to a singular episode of the tv show, yet it seems like there’ll be enough content to this story that the better comparison of the eventual whole would be to that of the film rather than a single episode.

In the current marketplace of primarily $3.99 cover prices, this is “only” $3.50…not as much a bargain as $2.99, but a more reasonable step in pricing than the leap to $3.99.

While you may have plenty of questions of the backstory, this also isn’t a horrible place to jump in fresh…though picking up as it does after the events of the tv show/film you’ll encounter a fair number of “spoilers” should you opt to go back to the source material.

All in all, this is an issue I was looking forward to, made “top of the stack” for my reading priority (even ahead of as-yet unread issues from the past several weeks), and was enjoyable to read.

I’m definitely looking forward to the next issue, and seeing where the characters go!

Filed under: 2014, Dark Horse, Leaves on the Wind, Serenity | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Completing Two "Sets" in a Weekend Haul

Posted on July 29, 2013 by Walt

I snagged a few more bargain-bin issues last Thursday and Saturday, and finally completed not just one, but two “sets.”

Over the last several weeks I’ve been snagging the various Comics’ Greatest World issues:

comicsgreatestworld01

I’d “missed” Motorhead at JC‘s the last time, so went back to find that, and also came across a later Motorhead special. The CGW Motorhead issue completes my set of the Comics’ Greatest World issues this time around.

comicsgreatestworld02

Then, since I’d seen a number of these issues scattered throughout the bins, I decided to see what I could piece together of a second set. Found all 4 Arcadia issues.

comicsgreatestworld03

Also found all 4 Steel Harbor issues, including the 2nd copy of Motorhead.

comicsgreatestworld04

Found 3 of the 4 issues of Golden City…thankfully, I’d forgotten a duplicate I’d wound up with of Catalyst: Agents of Change, so this subset was completed as well.

comicsgreatestworld05

And I could only find 3 of the 4 issues of The Vortex…missing the final issue: Out of the Vortex itself.

comicsgreatestworld06

I was pretty sure I might have seen Out of the Vortex in the bargain bins at Comic Heaven–knew I’d seen several Comics’ Greatest World issues at the least. And sure enough…found Out of the Vortex there, completing a second set of the series.

misc01

Snagged several randomish issues at JC’s, including a Thor issue I saw an ad for when I paged through the final issue of Thunderstrike a few days earlier, so grabbed that. The GI Joe issue I don’t have, though I might have #1. The others were just sort of “hey, 25-cents…can’t beat that for this!”

valiantstuff

I’d actually meant to put the Timewalker issue back, but (obviously) forgot. The Secrets of the Valiant Universe I didn’t want to pass up despite being pretty sure I have that already. And nothing like pulling “rare” issues like Unity #0 and Darque Passages from a quarter-bin.

vanguard

I believe Vanguard is the character I recognized from a random Eternity comic I picked up earlier; found issues 1-3 here, so snagged ’em.

xbooksendofjuly

Grabbed several X-books from my list…

mercyogn

Near as I can tell, Mercy is a short prestige-format/”original graphic novel,” and definitely not bad for only 25 cents! (and early-ish Vertigo, at that).

slidersspecials

At Comic Heaven, I came across 3 Sliders comics. I only bought two of them as the other was a 2nd issue of two, and I didn’t want the temptation/frustration of trying to track down the first…and these two will be plenty (if not more than enough) to see if I even enjoy the property in comics. Six appeared to be another small “original graphic novel” and so well worth its bargain-bin pricing.

runevenomsilversurfer

It was quite cool to come across these Ultraverse issues. Two copies of the “newsstand edition” of Rune/Silver Surfer (a flip-book) and another copy of the Rune/Venom issue…signed by Chris Ulm and including a certificate of authenticity!

turtlesoupmini

I know I already have Turtle Soup in its entirety, but do recall at least one issue being in less than wonderful condition. Finding all 4 covers the bases, so to speak, on a replacement copy…and no sense leaving only 3 of 4 issues to frustrate someone else, anyway.

hypersonicmini

I have no idea what Hypersonic’s about, but it’s a 4-issue mini series of which all 4 were present…and I saw “Abnett” on the cover, so figure this oughtta be well worth a read.

misc02

The polybag on Divine Right caught my attention…but moreso is the “preview” issue for Stormwatch. Doom’s caught my attention as a mail-away. Overstreet looked interesting–rather than a price guide it’s got short creator profiles. And the Sojourn issue is Sojourn; an apparent one-shot or such. Originally $3.95 cover price…not a bad buy from the bargain bin.

misc2099stuff

Snagged the 2099 Unlimited issue to add to my growing 2099 collection. The Doom 2099 is the final issue, and I’m pretty sure these later issues are going to prove MUCH harder to track down than any of the early issues, so this was quite a welcome find. I grabbed the Iron Man issue as I’m filling out that run apparently; the Heroes issue is random Milestone.

miscdcstuff

I grabbed the Justice League issues as randomish ’90s stuff to read. Darkstars adds to my growing Zero Hour set. And Zen…well, I’m pretty sure this is a better-condition copy of one I already have…and hey, it’s Archie Zen for under 50 cents…can’t beat that!

Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Captain Midnight #0 [Review]

Posted on June 24, 2013 by Walt

captainmidnight000frontWritten by: Joshua Williamson
Art by: Victor Ibanez and Pere Perez
Colors by: Ego
Letters by: Nate Piekos of Blambot
Cover by: Raymond Swanland
Back Cover by: Steve Rude
Designer: David Nestelle
Editor: Jim Gibbons
Published by: Dark Horse Comics
Cover Price: $2.99

Captain Midnight #0 has a lot of things going for it.

First (and primarily, for me) it is only $2.99, but it’s a “full size” issue. Looks like a full issue, feels like a full issue, reads like a full issue.

Secondly, it has a really nice-looking cover that grabbed my attention in spite of myself. Often, the cover is not going to grab me–I’m solely looking for the TITLEs (which is how I often wind up with an UNwanted variant edition: I simply see a title logo and issue number, and it’s not til I’m home about to read that I realize it’s NOT the image I wanted.) Additionally, there’s ANOTHER full-cover image on the BACK of the issue: instead of being a whole separate EDITION to have too purchase to have, this cool image is included with the “standard” cover, but I still get to look at it, in-print, ON the issue I bought!

Thirdly, this is a #0, but not proclaimed on the cover to be “of ____” and so it more effectively stands alone–it’s not specifically saying that it’s the first issue of a mini-series. It may be a prologue, a foundation-stone, a beginning that sets up a mini-series or ongoing series, but in and of itself it’s just a single, one-shot stand-alone issue.

And this is all without even getting to the contents of the issue itself.

captainmidnight000backThis issue made it to the bottom of my (admittedly small 4-issue stack) of new issues for the week. Yet–much as I enjoy TMNT stuff from IDW these days–this wound up being my favorite issue of the week. I’d bought it on a whim–see paragraphs above–but had found myself with second thoughts, ready to write it off as a stupid extra purchase in an otherwise “small week.”

We open with a World War II-ear plane suddenly appearing…and present-day military is not at all thrilled at this out-of-the-blue Bermuda Triangle invader. They’re even less thrilled when the pilot does more than parachute out of the plane–he’s dressed in a unique uniform–with “wings”–allowing him extreme maneuverability beyond any expectation.

Complicating things further, their new “guest” refuses to give up information about what he is doing–his mission–claiming that to be “top secret” information. He is recognized as looking like a hero who disappeared during WWII, but most of those involved can’t believe him to be the same man, the “legend” or “fairy tale” they’ve heard about for years. A past associate of the man is brought into things, which opens the door to other revelations.

I’m not familiar with the artist for this issue–not consciously, anyway–and truthfully, I hardly even NOTICED the art as I read…which in this case means it did its job extremely well. It simply gets the story across, I’m not left wondering what’s going on or wasting extra time trying to piece together the action from what I see in any given panel. The art IS the visual of the story, it flows smoothly, and I have no problems with it whatsoever.

The story itself is engaging, well beyond any best-expectations I had for the issue. Though I mentioned earlier this made it to the bottom of my stack, that was words unread, visuals unseen but for the cover. When I started reading the issue, I immediately “assumed” this was going to be yet another WWII-era story somehow, and one way or the other resigned myself to something I wouldn’t particularly enjoy. Yet, I quickly found myself, page after page, hoping the next page was not a cliffhanger, not the end of the issue. And when I did reach the end of the issue, little as I even now know of the characters, even cliché as the situation is (think: Captain America via different ‘delivery’ to the Present), I’m interested.

Though this is largely prologue-type material, quasi-origin-issue and such, and doesn’t answer a whole lot or really have a particular ending (keeping it from being a fully self-contained issue), it’s well worth checking out; if it’s going to hook you, it will…else, it’s still something “new” “tried” for one issue at 25% less on the cover price of the umpteen double-shipping Marvel books.

Combined with the relative “bargain” pricing of $2.99 and being such an enjoying read without me feeling suckered, I have every intention of picking up #1 next month, regardless of whether Captain Midnight is “only” a mini-series or an actual ongoing series.

Filed under: Captain Midnight, Dark Horse | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Recent Acquisitions: Older Books

Posted on May 24, 2013 by Walt

Along with the various “free” comics I picked up on Free Comic Day, I also snagged a couple other bargains: a fresh copy of the Superman Tribute issue from Wizard that came out after The Death of Superman stuff; a hardcover The Trial of Captain America, and most surprising of all (to me) a $5 copy of Solar, Man of the Atom: Alpha and Omega still in the original bag with a poster! (originally cover-priced $10 on initial release back in 1994). The Captain America book was also $5, and the Wizard issue was a mere 25-cents.

FCBDnonfreebooksI’d also found myself that Saturday revisiting eBay, checking on the current pricing of the Ultimates 2 hardcover. I’d snagged the first hardcover in early May last year, paying a bit of an unwelcome “premium” for it including shipping, on the expectation that its price would skyrocket with the Avengers movie as “everyone” would want the darned thing. I wound up getting Ultimates 2 (also out of print like Ultimates) including shipping for well under cover price, giving me the two-volume set I’ve wanted to have for years.

ultimatesHaving managed to track down the Ultimates 2 volume, I turned my attention to tracking down the Ultimate Galactus Trilogy hardcover. I’d first seen it at a Books-A-Million a number of years ago while visiting with a friend, and I passed on a $17 copy several years ago at Kenmore. Managed to get this copy, including shipping for under $14.

ultimategalactusandvaliantmastersI also have meant to get the Valiant Masters hardcover edition of Bloodshot since about the time the book came out last year. I wound up finding both it and the Ninjak volume, and got both–including shipping–for little more than cover price of either of the single volumes.

ultimategalactusandvaliantmastersstacked Continue reading →

Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Another X Book

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Walt

x2013000I remember 1993 or so–Dark Horse launched their Comics’ Greatest World 16-week event. 16 weeks, 16 books, $16. At the time, many new comics were in the $1.50-$2 range, so even then $1 was a bargain of sorts.

This event introduced a bunch of (I presume) new characters to the company’s stable of titles; each had its own logo and a few actually went on to support ongoing books for a time; Barb Wire I believe even got a movie.

The year after, they did a 12-week single-title series Will to Power, following one character in particular–I believe the character was Titan (one of the characters from CGW).

Anyway, the one that most stood out to ME was X. This masked guy who would “warn” his “victims.” If I recall correctly, one slash across the face was a warning. But when you were marked with two–forming the letter X–you were marked for death. And it was criminals who were marked; X was a vigilante, an “anti-hero” of sorts.

comicsgreatestworldweek01xI recall getting a couple of promo issues with Hero Illustrated magazine, and having an issue or two of the ongoing series. Mostly I was familiar with its existence moreso than the book itself.

I noticed the X Omnibus last year or the year before, and was quite interested recently to hear the character had returned in Dark Horse Presents…and grabbed the single-issue X #0, collecting those DHP-serialized story segments. And then last week despite my usual avoidance of MINI-series and even telling myself to wait for the “graphic novel” edition, I bought X #1.

It took me a few days to get around to reading it, but Sunday night I read #0, then went on to #1, and then just because I had it handy from a recent bargain bin purchase, I read the original Comics’ Greatest World: X issue, and quite thoroughly enjoyed the thing.

x2013001While typing this post, I got curious–I don’t remember ever seeing Comics’ Greatest World itself nor Will to Power collected into single volume editions. While doing a bit of digging, I came across a Dark Horse Heroes Omnibus, that appears to collect both stories into a single volume. Including shipping, I paid about $14, which–when you think about it–is less than the cost of 4 contemporary $3.99 issues.

And there are two volumes in the X Omnibus series (the second seems recent-ish)–near as I can tell, those together collect the character’s ongoing series from the mid-1990s, including those Hero Illustrated promo issues. So I may eventually seek to acquire those. There seem to be several volumes of Omnibii for Ghost, which seems to have been THE most successful property of the 16 introduced in CGW.

Thinking on it the last couple days…X is a character I know next to nothing about, though; I couldn’t even tell you the character’s “real name” if he has a “secret identity” or such; nor anything about his “origin” and all that. Could be a good thing (i.e. this is the beginning of a journey-of-discovery regarding the character) or a bad thing (perhaps the character is actually really boring).

I suppose time will tell.

Filed under: QUASI-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

The Massive #s 1-3 [Review]

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Walt

A couple months ago, give or take a week or so, I was at a semi-local comic shop that I get to every now and then, but no great regularity. I don’t recall now what I was looking for at the time, but I wound up buying two issues apiece of The Massive and Mind the Gap, figuring I’d “try” a couple new series. But the way my luck goes–spend full price on something, and got distracted by other stuff.

So I only just a week or so back finally read The Massive. And, being labeled on the front cover as parts 1 and 2 of 3, I went ahead and bought the third issue this past weekend to finish out the first arc.

Written by: Brian Wood  /  Art by: Kristian Donaldson  /  Colors by: Dave Stewart  /  Letters by: Jared K. Fletcher  /  Covers by: Brian Wood, Kristian Donaldson, Rafael Grampa, Dave Stewart, J. P. Leon  /  Designer: Justin Couch  /  Assistant Editor: Jim Gibbons  /  Editor: Sierra Hahn  /  Published by: Dark Horse Comics  /  Cover Price: $3.50

The basic premise of the series as a whole seems to be that a series of huge environmental disasters happened that have screwed up most of the world’s governments and such, leaving the world in an everyone-for-themselves-or-their-power-base kind of state. Central to the story are several characters on the ship Kapital–one ship of a 2-ship fleet, as they seek out their sister ship (the larger of the two)–The Massive.

Mixed in with the ongoing events–evading pirates, restocking material resources for survival, etc.–we get flashbacks to see where the characters have come from, the stuff that makes up their relationships now.

The art isn’t bad–it’s got a nice style to it, conveying these “normal” humans going about their lives in this world. I use “normal” as opposed to the depiction of super-heroes and the flashier sort of thing you’d expect for that sort of comic. While the world they live in has changed drastically, these are just normal people getting by in somewhat extraordinary situations.

The story itself is a solid premise, and the characters seem like real people, with real lives, histories, and all that. Giving backstory as well as present story allows the exploration of two periods in characters’ lives, with plenty of depth for both periods and a lot of room to juxtapose things.

Unfortunately, for whatever reason, I just don’t find myself terribly engaged with anything in this first arc.

I find myself comparing this to the likes of a new tv show. If the Buffy season 8 & 9 comics can use each small arc as an “episode,” then this 3-parter is definitely a pilot episode. Yet, because it’s a comic series, it’s also already 3 issues in. I’m interested, yes, even though not really engaged…but like most tv shows these days, I’ll wait for word of mouth and reruns or the dvd (or in this case, collected volumes).

There’s something in general about The Massive that puts me in mind of stuff like Y: The Last Man or DMZ, where I have this feeling this is going to go somewhere, and have some strong character development, world-building, and generally be a great overall work. It’s just not working for me in the single-issue format; I’m not interested in (even though it’s less than my hated $3.99 point) paying $3.50/month to get tiny chapters of one greater whole. Assuming this goes on to be one of these longform finite stories, I’ll probably come back to it someday.

While it’s no $9.99 “bargain priced premiere volume” a la Vertigo or some of the Image stuff, I gave this just over $10, and while it’s not the greatest $10 I’ve ever spent, it’s a far cry from the worst.

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