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"These reviews are based on the Sneak Peek
titles sent out by Marvel, DC & Image. 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:
CASANOVA #1 (of 4)
Comic Review by:
Larry "Bocepheus" Evans
Writer: Matt Fraction, Artist: Gabriel Ba
Image launches another title this week and keeps the price
low so you don’t feel guilty picking it up but when you read
this you will be glad you did. Casanova is a weird pastiche
of spy adventure/science fiction/sex romp and internal
narration that involves Casanova Quinn, son of the head of a
secret spy organization and the twin of a sister who works
for an agency that keeps the space/time continuum straight.
We meet him via narration as he is breaking into a mansion
so as to abduct a female and it is here there we get a
subtle clue that this isn’t going to be an ordinary book but
that thread doesn’t come to pass until the end. Writer Matt
Fraction keeps things moving in an accelerated pace, moving
so fast that Gabriel Ba packs each page with distinctive but
small art just because he needs to keep up as well. We move
from place to place and enjoy the act of keeping up as the
creative team lays out the world we are visiting. The action
is crisp and the characterization tight. We of course get
enough sexual contact and see the suggested wink behind each
encounter. Things get bizarre here from time to time but the
story isn’t extremely complicated even though there are many
themes seen here. The art by Ba is distinct and colored in a
green tone. Will readers take to this mix of genres? I think
some will especially since the issue isn’t expensive.
MSRP: $1.99
Alternate Reality Price: $1.69 (That's 15% OFF, All
Week Long!) |
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MARVEL ROUND UP…
X-Men: Fairy Tales #2 (of 4) contains some of the cleanest Kyle Baker art seen
for a while in a tale that deals with the friendship between a turtle and an
eagle…New Excalibur #8 has the team hanging in a club watching Dazzler sing
before dealing with the evil copy of Charles Xavier. We see here the return of
an old villain who has been hiding up to this time and leave at a crisis point
that fill in writer Chris Yost will solve in a month…Marvel Adventures: Avengers
#2 flows nicely and is enjoyable to young and old…I would tell you more about
Last Planet Standing #4 (of 5) but that would be hard to do since I haven’t read
the other issues…Uncanny X-Men #474 is the last Claremont plotted issue before
the new team of Ed Brubaker and Billy Tan take over and leads into the Uncanny
Annual that is also shipping….Uncanny X-Men Annual #1 has some of the best
Clayton Henry art I have ever seen and shows us what Storm has been doing while
the wedding has been approaching. This is a great story and has the most unique
ending that turns most of what we have read on its head…Iron Man #9 continues
Execute Program and leaves us at a point that has us salivating for the next
issue because of what we see…Captain America #19 is another amazing issue and
shows us that the Winter Soldier is an incredibly dangerous man but does it so
subtly that we are left slack jawed…Annihilation: Nova #3 (of 4) has arch
dialogue, lots of action and the appearance of the creature behind all this. The
creative team even makes Quasar interesting and there are moments that even Drax
is funny.
DC ROUND UP…
Claw, the Unconquered #1 ships the week after the limited series with him and
Red Sonja ended and since it is by the same team there isn’t anything here we
haven’t seen before. His demon hand has re-grown and a buxom vision (two terms
that are bonded often in sword and sorcery books) appears to him after a battle
to tell him his future. We learn something new about the hand that we did not
know before and get enough action to distract us of the fact that we have seen
this all before. The over/under on this book is still 12 issues…Testament #7
continues the guest appearance of Peter Gross on art. This is the last part of
the West of Eden arc and while intriguing the book isn’t doing that much for me.
I just have a hard time figuring out what the fine folks at Vertigo thought the
market was for this title. The religious aspects have been used with great
effect with Preacher and the science fiction aspects worked when they became a
part of Transmetropolitan but here they just seen flat. Even the honest sexual
content of the book is more clinical than erotic…Ex Machina #21 begins a new arc
that mixes pot laws, new staffers and a woman who was supposedly resting her
feet but did much more than that. The costume part of Mayor Hundred is seen at
the start and the rest of the issue is arch dialogue, policy chats and threads
that will build into mighty nice coats when everything is said and
done…Hellblazer #221 is the penultimate issue of Denise Mina’s tenure on the
book (hey DC, is she staying or not?) and has John learning more about what is
really going on while Leo Manco ramps up the murk factor of his art. We should
be turned off by the mass of dialogue and no action here but we aren’t because
the story is so interesting…Bite Club: VCU #3 (of 4) starts out with a naked
jail fight and just gets better with the turn of each page. The dialogue is
sharp enough to cut yourself on, the art is very clean and colored to perfection
and I am going to hate when this limited series is over…Justice #6 begins with
Superman being thrown into the sun so you can tell that this is going to be a
great issue. We get some massively effective battles here and get little time to
relax but since the art is so dam pretty we don’t care a bit. The fate of the
Red Tornado is revealed here but as we see from the last page the Flash is still
having some problems.
IMAGE ROUND UP…
The Luna Brothers give us another issue of Girls with #14. Tension in the town
is rising and it all has to do with the discovery of some more eggs. We don’t
know who let the girls loose and see that things are getting worse and no way
close to getting better…Noble Causes #21 continues its path of being one of the
best books out there but not having the fan following to keep up being
published. The book’s lateness problem has been solved but the gaps have surely
hurt this well written and nicely drawn title. Here we deal with the criminal
nature of one of the Blackthorne family members and Rusty finding out things
that just make him annoyed…Shadowhawk #12 arrives this week and for some reason
I don’t care…Paul Jenkins Sidekick #1 ships this week but the folks at Image
didn’t want me to read it so I will wait like everyone else. If you read his
column on Newsarama you know he is a funny guy so this book should be a laugh
riot |
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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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