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"These reviews are based on the Sneak Peek
titles sent out by Marvel & DC. It's not everything that's shipping for
the week, but it is a real good cross-section of this weeks releases. Check the
bottom of the page (after you read my reviews) for a link to some SNEAKY PEEKIES
of future titles" |
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 BOOK
OF THE WEEK:
ANNIHILATION PROLOGUE
Comic Review by:
Larry "Bocepheus" Evans
Writer: Keith Giffen, Artist: Scott Kolins/Ariel
Olivetti
Marvel’s attempt to revamp and bring their cosmic characters
back into the mainstream begins this week with the double
sized prologue to the Annihilation event. Giffen has been
dealing with cosmic folks since his return to Marvel as a
replacement to Jim Starlin on the short-lived Thanos book
and the recent Drax the Destroyer limited series that made
the character back into what he was intended to be when
Starlin created him. The book starts as these things always
do with Thanos watching and waiting for the wave to begin
that will do really bad things. We are seven days out from
the beginning of the end and Giffen takes us to a prison
complex where the Annihilation wave begins its onslaught and
wipes everything out. Naturally, the rest of the galaxy is
unaware and we join Nova as he returns to the home planet of
the Corp. As he did sometimes on Earth he is getting no
respect from his fellow members while at the same time Drax
has arrived to be locked up only to see some complications.
Giffen has been playing with us up to this point because the
wave finally reaches the planet and a whole bunch of stuff
gets blown up on an impressive level. When everything is
said and done Nova is quite alone and Drax is trying to stay
alive so being the sadist that he is Giffen leaves them and
introduces us to the Kree/Skrull territory where Ronan the
Accuser learns that his status has changed somewhat and then
he leaves there and we are screaming for him to stop doing
this. But he has to introduce us to the rest of the cast so
we get a page of the Silver Surfer then the Super Skrull
before we meet the thing behind all this and if you haven’t
realized who that is then you aren’t paying much attention
to the title. The remainder of the issue consists of text
pages introducing us to the players we will see in the
limited series that follow this. This is supposed to change
a lot and from this first issue we see that they are
serious. I have no idea what the death count is at when the
issue ends but you can tell that Giffen has learned well
from Starlin, the former master of death. The art is
impressive with double page spreads of constant destruction.
MSRP: $3.99,
1st DAY SALE Price: $2.39 (That's 40% OFF,
Wednesday Only!)
Alternate Reality Price: $3.39 (That's 15% OFF, All
This Week!) |
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 BIRDS
OF PREY #92
Comic Review by:
Larry "Bocepheus" Evans
Writer:
Gail Simone, Artist:
Paulo Siqueira
The first BoP during OYL brings along a new artist but Gail Simone sticks around
to make us comfortable. We start with the Crime Doctor engaged in conversation
with Oracle and he is a bit in a bad way (and I am not talking about his stupid
glasses). He’s bleeding and has Killer Croc, Clayface and the Ventriloquist
right behind him as he tries to stay alive long enough to get to the end of the
issue. We aren’t made aware right away that things are different but when
Huntress asks about the Canary we read something that makes it semi clear then a
few pages in we really see that things are different. Not that the Canary isn’t
around but she is a little busy at the moment somewhere in Asia. It seems that
the newest member is paying off a debt and the assets that the Crime Doctor has
would be incredibly valuable to Oracle and her team. So that leads us to the
hospital and there we get a hint of another member who can become invisible so
we have to wait to the next issue to se who else has been added to the team. As
that mystery resonates we go back to Asia to take a look at Canary and Simone
leaves us with another one to chew on until next month. It’s a pretty nice story
and Siqueira shows promise as the latest artist to join Simone on a book she has
lots of fun with. He does action sequences as well as he does the quiet moments
in the issue.
MSRP: $2.99
Alternate Reality Price:
$2.54 (That's 15% OFF, All This Week!) |
|
 RED
SONJA/CLAW #1 (of 4)
Comic Review by:
Larry "Bocepheus" Evans
Writer: John Layman, Artist:
Andy Smith
For those of you that don’t remember DC had a character called Claw the
Unconquered during an expansive time at the company and the fact that there was
this guy named Conan that people were talking about. He was a barbarian who was
saddled with a hand from a demonic thing that slowly drove him crazy and told
him to do things like eat fatty foods and watch American Idol. The character
started out fine but got pretty convoluted and the powers that were at DC
cancelled the book. Well the fine folks at Wildstorm decided to create a sword
and sorcery line and he was the first character that was chosen to be revamped
and returned to the racks. The wonderful people at Dynamite were riding high
with the relaunched Red Sonja so heads were put together and it was decided to
have them meet to get more people to invest in a story about a character few
remembered. (And for you continuity buffs this book takes place before RS #1)
Layman starts us off with the two in battle with each other before stepping back
and showing us what is inevitable before going back and getting them together in
the first place. Here we get lots of swinging swords and hacked off limbs but
not much else. Its not that the issue is bad but unless you are really geeked up
over stuff like this it comes off as a bunch of pretty pictures. Smith has been
doing ‘muscle and sweat’ comics for a while and if you squint a bit then you can
see he is trying to channel Neal Adams. The book ships with a very amazing cover
that will draw you in but once inside things are just okay. There is a regular
Claw book planned after this but to me sales could be kind of light.
MSRP: $2.99,
1st DAY SALE Price: $1.79 (That's 40% OFF,
Wednesday Only!)
Alternate Reality Price: $2.54 (That's 15% OFF, All
This Week!) |
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 BO's
ACADEMY AWARDS SCORE CARD
For the first time in years I only watched part of the show because I had a
chance to see Capote so I went to that and heard some of it while eating Chinese
food but all in all I did pretty good as far as picks go. There wasn’t a great
deal of drama save for the ‘upset’ win for Crash as Best Picture (more on that
in a bit) and a rap group winning in a small category for Best Song. On that
note the Dolly Parton song was incredibly weak even though even at her age those
breasts are still impressive. The song from Crash was okay but I remembered the
Stereophonics song at the end before that one so we got Pimp and that was all
right. On Hoffman he does give a marvelous performance to the point that he is
walking and carrying himself in a manner he has never done. Thankfully there are
no bio-pic's on the horizon for the year so maybe next year we will get a crew
of actors playing parts and not people we have seen on TV. To the controversy
about Crash: there really wasn’t one. The film was intense and for audiences a
lot easier to relate to than Brokeback Mountain which has somehow annoyed
certain critics because they have attached an anti-homosexual rant to it while
not realizing that race relations is an issue that has plagued this and many
countries for years. As George Clooney said after winning the Supporting Award
it’s hard to compare films and performances but the reaction to some folks for
the Crash win go to a new level of sour grapes. As for Jon Stewart as host he
did a pretty good job and deserves another chance at it. The common complaint
was that he wasn’t Billy Crystal and guess what-he isn’t. The two have a
completely different comedy style and every host has so lets pick one and stick
with him/her as long as is isn’t Whoopi Goldberg. She just isn’t funny to me and
never has been. |
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"See, I told you I'd be
down here. We've got a bunch of SNEAKY PEEKIES of future
MARVEL, DC and IMAGE titles right
HERE" |
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All
Books/Characters pictured herein are © Copyright 2006
by their respective owners. No rights given or implied
by Alternate Reality, Incorporated.
Reviews © 2006 Alternate Reality, Inc. |
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