"BOCEPHEUS" |
"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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 DC
ROUND UP…
Hellblazer #223 is a rest issue between arcs that is drawn by Christiano Cucina
to a decent effect. The single issue involves ghosts, people annoyed with John
(which would be folks who are on the dead sides of life) and him getting out of
situations that most people would pause at…Rokkin #2 has more of the same but
doesn’t introduce a sexy wench until the last page. We are still in semi-setup
mode here and learning all the players before getting into the actual game.
Between this and Claw this sword and sorcery book has a better chance of
survival…Ion #5 (of 12) has the reunion between Hal and Kyle as well as a lot of
space fighting as Hal is wondering if Kyle is okay. The two work together very
well and the interaction between the two is well written by Ron Marz. The Greg
Tocchini art continues to improve…Catwoman #58 has Selina, Holly and Zatanna all
hang out and have some fun. We are still dealing with the fact that before One
Year Later started Selina killed the Black Mask and at this point its time to
wrap that angle up. The sins of Zatanna’s past are mentioned here in an
encounter with a villain and Holly’s love life seems to be going thru a turn
even though she looks to be the one blamed for murder. We also get a dead guy
walking to solve a crime…Deadman #1 doesn’t involve Boston Brand or the circus
so I wonder just who the audience for this book is. Bruce Jones and John Watkiss
team up here to tell the story of two brothers who die in a plane crash but
somehow aren’t totally dead. The Deadman in question is Brandon Cayce (named
after the author Cayce I presume) and here he tries to process all this as his
brother takes him along memory lane before he gets up and starts walking around.
There is an attempt here to make this more realistic and use actual science but
sometimes you need to just leave things alone. Watkiss last worked on the
underappreciated Trigger and while he is damn good the total disconnect between
what we are used to with Deadman and what we see here suggests the book is not
long for this Earth.
MARVEL ROUND UP…
Sensational Spider-Man #29 starts a new arc that will bring back a number of
villains who are salivating at the fact that they know who Peter Parker is. We
start with the retired Molten Man at a ball game being threatened by Chameleon
and from there the threat increases. I found the story cool but the Angel Medina
art is becoming a major negative for me since it is so inconsistent…MA: The
Avengers #4 has the team take on the Masters of Evil during a week where Marvel
announced they were working on a live action Avengers movie…Mighty Marvel
Western: Strange Westerns carries a great story by Steve Engelhart and Marshall
Rogers about the Black Rider that has our hero return home to danger. We get a
history lesson here on the Rider and the story just flows nicely. Our second
tale involves the man called Gunhawk in a casual tale involving him going into a
town and getting into a fight as was his custom. There are also two Jack Kirby
tales included as well…Ghost Rider #2 shows Johnny Blaze on his first day out of
Hell and seeing that he wasn’t the only thing that escaped. We see him on the
road and being picked up by a fan that takes him to a diner where he sees his
unintended traveling companion before a certain Master of the Mystic Arts shows
up to see what is going on…Runaways #19 follows the death of Gert and the
reactions of each member to that while showing that death has no change on their
legal status. There is something destroying all the Starbuck’s in LA and the
kids go on a joy ride…Nextwave #7 has the team not reveling in the fact that
General Anger has been defeated (we see how he is reacting to that here and its
not pretty, just strange) as they move on to their next adventure which involves
the Mindless Ones. We find out how many names the Captain had before just
calling himself that, learn just how many members hit on Monica when he was an
Avenger and spend a lot of time giggling at the jokes…Iron Man #11 answers a
whole lot of questions and show us what would happen if Tony and the Sentry had
a fight. We learn here just who is behind the whole thing and why in a series of
tense sequences before being left at a moment that is going to involve a lot of
Iron Man outfits being destroyed next issue with the end of this arc. There are
a fair amount of Avengers here as well.
IMAGE ROUND UP…
Phonogram #1 (of 6) is a black and white book that Image is launching this week
in an attempt to create a book that few will buy. The main characters are on the
cover and the story involves our hero, David Kohl and the women of his life,
some of which are human. The book reminds me a lot of Paradigm, another well
written Image book that was complicated as hell and entertaining at the same
time. The problem here is that the book is black and white but carries a price
tag of $3.50 which will scare a lot of people off even though this is a sort of
small week…Girls #16 deals with the aftermath of the lack of affect the
government’s bombs had on the domed area the cast is in. Big decisions are made
here and the violence level increases as does the understanding that there may
be no escape from where they are…Casanova #3 is another great issue with sex and
family bonding done in an unusual way. We are still handling the new life our
hero finds himself in and as he copes he seems to still get lucky even as more
of his family members come to the forefront and back to life…Ant #8 ends with
what you see on the cover but before we get there we go to a strip club and see
as much skin as comics will allow. The art is the selling point here because
Mario Gully is a dam good artist but the story still does nothing for me…Retro
Rocket #3 is more of the same but slightly more entertaining due to the fact
that most of the issue makes the alien threat more understandable…Shadowhawk #14
has Eddie in his new costume and meeting another super powered person who
wonders if he is cute under that helmet. |
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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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