Short comic reviews based on initial, lizard-brain opinions. Arranged from BEST to WORST.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 8 #15 gets an A from AHR
Oh noes! Here endeth the Buffy/Satsu storyline, aka the ship that launched a thousand fics. I'll certainly miss the lesbian jokes, but this issue wraps up with excellent action sequences, heartwarming and heartwrenching drama, and a satisfying resolution that still opens up a few doors. Also lots of lesbian jokes.
Detective Comics #845 gets an A from AHR
Too much fun. Batman and Detective Chimp sitting at their computers IMing each other may top out some people's tolerance for silliness, but i found it delightful.
Reviews for H.P. Lovecraft's Haunt of Horrors #1, Omega: The Unknown #9, Secret Invasion #3, Trinity #1, Ultimate Origins #1 and House of Mystery #2 after the jump...
H.P. Lovecraft's Haunt of Horrors #1 gets an A from Albo
Kind of a weird idea. Celebrated underground artist Richard Corben does graphic adaptations (and expansions) of H.P. Lovecraft short stories and poems, and includes the original source text after each story. This works really well when the source is a vague poem that he has built an interesting narrative around, but when the source is a short story with more evocative imagery than the adaptation, things become a little less satisfying. He did the same thing with Poe, but I haven't gotten the chance to read those. All told, a cool experiment and a welcome serving of Corben's unique art.
Omega: The Unknown #9 gets a B from Albo
This book is so consistently good that for some reason it hardly excites me anymore. That sounds cynical, right? But I'm sitting here flipping through it and thinking "that's great, that's great, that's good too" but I know that when I was reading it I was a little bored. What's the deal? Well, in my heart I know this is a classic story that I'll be re-reading for years to come. The end is near!
Secret Invasion #3 gets a B from Albo
Ho hum. Very skeletal storytelling. Feels like an outline for tie-in issues to elaborate on, a very Marvel storytelling method I strongly disapprove of. Yu's art is still amazing, though, and the confrontation between Skrullica Drew and Tony Stark is pretty exciting though I'm pretty sure it's just some Skrullian mind games.
Trinity #1 gets an A+F=C+ from AHR
Wow. The first half of this book, in which Bruce, Diana, and Clark meet up for lunch and talk about a spooky dream they had, is awesome. I love any time attention is drawn to how insane Batman's "Bruce Wayne" persona is, and here Wondy actually calls him on it. But the second part of this book is a droning mish-mash of expository detritus featuring characters and situations that I have zero interest in, and after spending a fun lunch with my oldest DC pals I have no desire to jump into a red and green space land full of proselytizing god/alien creatures. Perhaps the writers are trying to set up two bands of alien/god creatures, since that description extends to the titular trinity, with the intention of showing us how much more interesting the group who act like humans are. These two very segmented stories are perfect examples of what I love and hate about DC.
Ultimate Origins #1 gets a C from Albo
There's nothing outright bad about the first issue of this major Ultimate event, but it just doesn't make enough of a statement right off the bat to justify its existence. You can hardly blame Bendis, though. I mean, how many universes can he be expected to turn upside down at once?
House of Mystery #2 gets a C- from AHR
Bleh. Reads like second rate Neil Gaiman, with really self-conscious and over-stated fantastical dialogue. It's brightened up by some fun touches (lady pirate bouncer) and a few pages of Jill Thompson's moody cartoon art, but what a let down after such a gripping and disturbing first issue.
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Have you noticed all these ads around NYC for TV Networks, a'cept they're not asking you to watch their network, they're telling you that you should advertise with them? This is because it's time for UPFRONTS, when all the advertising suits come to town and get wined and dined by network suits who show them splashy presentations of their amazing new post-strike fall seasons. And while it's hard to get too excited about anything TV-related because the cultural relevance of network/cable boxed television died with the last really good HBO show, one interesting leak did make it online; the very rough looking teaser for Joss Whedon's return to network TV, Dollhouse.
Why you should not expect this trailer to be very good, after the jump...
Keep in mind this is a teaser designed to appeal to advertisers, not audiences. It's very BASE, is what I'm saying. Not FANbase, just base. As in, lots of clumsy exposition, skin, cheesy aftereffects and bad font choices. And it's not like they have a ton of footage to pull from, they've been in production for a month. A month! This is probably why they don't want this kind of thing leaking on the internet. But as a fan of many people involved on this particular project (faithfaithfaith), I can't NOT watch and post it.
Extra points to anyone who can spot the clip from Buffy Season 3, presumably thrown in because they simply haven't shot enough action sequences to fill a two minutes trailer (again, one month of production). Also note that actor Harry Lennix makes an appearance (the skeptical black guy about 1:45 in), who you might remember from one of those awful Matrix sequels, but who you SHOULD remember from Titus, in which he gave a supervillianous performance for the ages.
Anyway, if you Wheadies out there are looking for more of a reason to have (ahem) confidence in this show (see how I avoided a potential pun there?), check out this New York Magazine article in which Joss says he created Dollhouse to save Eliza Dushku from B-Horror Movie Starlet Hell and that she guilt tripped him into not sheving the writing duties off on someone else. How can a series so steeped in personal drama fail!? The stakes are simply too high.
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Every week we at Geekanerd rip panels from our comics and put them on display here, recognizing the best, worst, and weirdest moments of the week. Beware some HUGE SPOILERS, including character-death related panels for a few of these issues!
Click the pics for high res goodness!
Emotion Without a Face - Iron Man: Viva Las Vegas #1
It's always been a problem showing emotion with fully masked characters. Spider-Man bends reality by having his eye shapes change around, Dr. Doom often has metal eyebrows that furrow with anger. But artist Adi Granov goes old school with good ole SURPRISE LINES!!! - Albo
Death scenes, a return to mid-90s fanboy hell, X-Factor jailbait and more, after the jump...
Making Light of a Bad Situation - Secret Invasion #2
Amid all the double hero scuffling going on in this issue, these two Spider-Men find some common ground. -Albo
Best Death - The Ventriloquist II, Batman #844
No sooner do we discover the second Ventriloquist's tragic origin story then do we see her meet an untimely end, mourned only by Scarface himself...
Chilling. No one can make fractured personalities seem quite as poignant as Paul Dini. Of course no villain has really ever died from a falling/drowning death, so here's hoping we see Sugar/Peyton again. -AHR
Worst Skrull Invader Design - Secret Invasion #2
Oh man, Wolvercyclopollus here is swimming in a sea of 90s cheese. I used to design guys that looked just like this all the time... When I was nine. -Albo
Visual Foreshadowing Alert - Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season Eight #14
Oh these two lovebirds are so adorable, but my goodness Xander is certainly doing a lot of gesticulating with those knives. I mean I know they're getting ready for battle here, but it's like knives a-go-go up in this joint, and specifically pointed at Renee. Could this be...visual foreshadowing?
...that's a yep. But Is She Dead? As mentioned earlier, it's premature to characterize a comic character as dead unless you see them with their head cut off or have a panel in which someone cradles the victim in their arms and says "....she's dead....". But there is a lot of precedent in the Buffy cannon for killing off characters, particularly love interests, in abrupt and shocking ways. Renee is (THEORETICAL SPOILER ALERT) on the next issue's variant cover, though Tara had her first appearance in the show's opening credits in the episode she died in (HAHA, Joss, hilarious), so that doesn't necessarily prove anything. I'd give it about 3 to 1 odds she's actually dead. Anyone think otherwise? -AHR
Jailbait! - Mighty Avengers #13
Isn't Layla Miller supposed to be like... 12? At most 16? This is some risque attire for a young lady to run around X-Factor HQ in. I don't trust that Strong Guy guy. -Albo
I saw that panel and I thought, "Who's the hottie in boyshorts? Layla Miller...why does that sound familiar...AHH! Unclean!" I don't think her age has been stated in the books, but I feel like it was always implied that she was like, EARLY teens. Pretty sketchy, Marvel. -AHR
Greatest Supporting Character - Omega: The Unknown #8
Nowhere Man really steals the show in this issue of Omega. He's only there for a couple pages, but the surreal awesomeness of his scenes is so so so great. -Albo
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Every week Geekanerd brings you the best, worst and weirdest panels from our week in comics. If you didn't read your books, there will be giant SPOILERS. Click the images for high res action!
Best Moves - Detective Comics #843
AHR: Zatanna kicks ass in this issue. So she's hanging out with Bruce at a party, and someone asks if they're an item, and he's all, "NO WAI!" And she's like, "O RLY?"
Man, how are you going to be that cavalier about asking out Batman? Do the words severe dissociative disorder mean anything to her? But seriously, Dini's run on Detective has featured a lot of great work on recovering relationship between these two, so I buy it. And there's a nice visual touch in the first panel - instead of asking Bruce to hand her a glass of water, she levitates it over to herself. Pretty cool customer.
More Zatanna, plus a racist vampire, an awesome comic cover and more after the jump!
Best Comeback - Zatanna, Detective Comics #843
AHR: This is just a good line any time someone tries to stick you with a label. I'm gonna remember it. Although it probably doesn't pack as much of a punch if one of the other things you are isn't a magician who can zap people's brains if she feels like it.
Coolest Development - Secret Invasion #1
Albo: The only interesting thing that really happened in the first issue of Marvel's newest big event was this panel--a Skrull ship crash lands on Earth, and when Luke Cage pries it open a bunch of throwback heroes flow out saying things like "At last we're back!" Are they Skrulls? Are they the real deal and their counterparts the Skrulls? Or are they time-displaced heroes destined to team up with their current time counterparts against a massive Skrullian menace? Who the heck knows, but I can't wait to find out. (Ooh, I hope they're the real deal)
Best Acting - Xander and Renee, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8: #10
AHR: When Xander and his slayer GF Renee go to visit Dracula, it quickly devolves into a melange of awkwardness. Dracula calls Renee a "moor", which is what they're reacting to in this first panel. Wonderful facial expressions here, also great nervous hand gesture from Xander.
Before long Xander is back under Dracula's ledgendary thrall, as Renee facepalms...
This next panel is the height of comedy as far as I'm concerned...
Xander's blithe expression and Renee's goggle-eyed take are absolutely perfect.
And much later, as Dracula learns of some Japanese vamps stealing his powers...
Facepalm again! I love when artists use dot-eyes for really silly gags. Let's hear it for Georges Jeanty!
Worst Dialogue - Countdown #4
AHR: "Like, totally ohmygosh you guys! I'm so sweet and innocent I can't even take the Lord's name in vain when the world is ending! Even though I get my powers from a number of Greek gods!" Where are the editors on this book? Honestly, who's minding the store?
Albo: Could it also be some writer self-commentary on the reviled series?
Sweetest Cover - Omega: The Unknown #7
Albo: Gary Panter really comes through in his artist guest spot, not only contributing a sweet ass comic within a comic but also the best cover of the series... Or any series in recent memory, for that matter.
Most Horrific Plot Development - The Walking Dead #48
AHR: For all the hemming and hawing over at Marvel about how Secret Invasion "CHANGES EVERYTHING", the developments of Walking Dead #48 make all the stuff at Marvel seem like small potatoes. For the last several years, The Walking Dead has been a story about a band of families, lovers and strangers, forced together by the need to survive. After this issue, in which about half of the cast dies including the hero's wife and new baby, I have to believe much of the rest of this book is going to be about grief.
Most Effective Small Talk Killer - American Splendor #1
Albo: Can't say the guy's off base. If anyone needs a little perspective it's Harvey Pekar.
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Short comic reviews based on initial, lizard-brain opinions. There are probably some spoilers herein. Arranged from BEST to WORST.
American Splendor #1: B
New home at Vertigo, same old book. This ish has eight stories, some better than others (the David Lapham-illustrated lead story about a visiting "fan" stands out) and featured without ads. Yay! - Albo
Buffy the Vampire Slayer #13: B
High on situational comedy, low on plot progression, lol racism. -AHR
Omega: The Unknown #7: B from Albo, B- from AHR
While perhaps not quite as tight as last issue, in general this book just keeps getting better. The intro comic "drawn" by the titular hero is extremely cool and I really wish I didn't have to wait for the last three issues because I'm really pumped to see what happens next. -Albo
Issue includes a beautiful comic-within-a-comic sequence by Gary Panter, a very funny scene about movie theater etiquette, and some unsatisfyingly rapid plot development in the last few pages. It lacks the hypnotically smooth story progression of past installments, and feels like an issue without a theme. -AHR
Reviews for The Walking Dead #48, Secret Invasion #1 and Kick-Ass #2 after the jump!
The Walking Dead #48: B-
We finally get to the action Kirkman has been promising for months, and though the events certainly shake up the long stabilized status quo, the extremity of what happens left me more stupefied than upset. Probably wouldn't be an issue if I was reading this in a trade, but as it is this issue feels like an story experiment and not a chapter of a larger whole. -AHR
Secret Invasion #1: C
Ho hum beginning to this year's Mega Marvel Event. There's a good twist near the end that I really hope turns out to be legit, because it would make the oncoming story much more interesting than the big fistfight I fear it's going to become. -Albo
Kick-Ass #2: D from AHR, D from Albo
I wish the main character actually had died in the first issue. That would have been some realistic (and nihilistic) shit. Instead, mere months after being stabbed, beaten and hit by a car, not only is this skinny nerd eating non-tube-based meals, he is trashing four gigantic gang members and winning over the criminally depraved inhabitants of the ghetto (lol racism). You can ultra-violent it up as much as you want, it's not hardcore unless there are consequences. -AHR
I told a lot of people about this book after thoroughly enjoying the first issue, and now I have egg on my face and it makes me angry. This issue was boring as all hell: the first half is all about our hero sitting in a hospital bed and the second half ditches the "realism" that I so enjoyed about the first issue and has our hero kicking the crap out of a group of beefy hoodlums. This is a skinny kid that's never had any fight training, mind you. But even without the realism problem, this book has already jumped the shark in terms of writing quality. There wasn't a single satisfying moment to be found within these pages. -Albo
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Every week (and usually on Monday, sorry) we at Geekanerd rip panels from our comics and put them on display here, recognizing the best, worst, and weirdest moments of the week. Click the pics for high res goodness, and if you didn't read your books last week, beware some major SPOILERS.
Slickest Move - Logan #1
This series has Logan in a former life (metaphorically, I think) being a solider in WWII era Japan. As he fights his way out of a prison camp with another POW, he appears to use one of those amazing, black-ops technique touch-of-death move on one of his captors....but we know what's really going on, don't we? Ehh?! Kudos to the always inventive Brian K. Vaugn for giving Wolvie a clever way to use his powers without making Eduardo Risso draw one of those cheesy Claws-Out poses this early in the game (just ignore the cover).
CG art gone good, Amazons gone bad, and a distinct lack of privacy after the jump...
Adventures in Computer Coloring - Cable #1
Albo recently picked on Amazing Spider-Man #549 for some seriously dubious decisions in using real world textures for comic pages. Here, however, using what looks like photographic reference and some sort of 3-D modeling, this splash page by Ariel Olivetti looks positively awe-inspiring. Okay, the water is still looking a little photoshoppy, but Cable himself and that strip of road...gorgeous. And I certainly never thought I'd be referring to Cable as gorgeous.
Most Awkward Moment - Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight #12
The great achievement in this issue was having Buffy's highly publized sexual experimentation "morning after" scene go from angst to high comedy in about two panels flat, the high point of which is this extremely awkward, Jurassic Parkesque moment between Buffy and MegaDawn.
Biggest Anti-Climax - Zombies vs Robots vs Amazons #3
You know, I really liked the first few issues of this series. It walked a very fine line between sexy and exploitative, characterization and stereotype. But boy, they really blow it with this groaner of an ending....having to swiftly depose of their Amazon plotline now that the story is over, they have the survivors simply trip and fall down a bottomless pit. I understand there's been a high degree of silliness in this series (ref: the title) but these amazons deserved better than this lame and disappointing send-off.
The Magic of Comics - Zombies vs Robots vs Amazons #3
Okay, so maybe issue #3 had it's moments. Here at Geekanerd we're a big fan of panels that achieve this "moment in time" effect without the use of sound effects or action lines. This page is a quick lesson in balance and composition, beautifully "executed".
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FRIDAY, JULY 13
This weekly midnight screening of Buffy's classic Musical Episode features gift bags, karaoke, a Rocky Horroresque live cast performing along with the show, and the other sorts of crazy crap that you expect from Whedon fans. $15 bucks at the door.
SATURDAY, JULY 14The
official site of this event describes it as "
a collision of movies, music, gaming, and theatrics". And the website is decked out with great looking comic book style graphics, so this may just be the perfect Weekanerd event. Filmmaker Lance Wieler does Q & A after the show. Tickets are $18 bucks for non-members.SUNDAY, JULY 15
This is the 1 Year Anniversary celebration of Michael Showalter and Eugene Mirman's live comedy show. There will be music downstairs and comedy upstairs, courtesy of guests such as
Janeane Garofalo and
David Cross - it's only $10, so are you there, or what?
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Short comic reviews based on initial, lizard-brain opinions. Arranged from BEST to WORST.
