REVIEW: Ragnarok #8

Writer and artist: Walt Simonson
Colorist: Laura Martin
Letterer: John Workman

Caveat: I'm a fan of Walt Simonson, so this'll probably end up being a fairly biased piece.
He's been a part of some of my favorite comics, starting with Marvel's old school Star Wars book, through the classic 1980s X-Factor and latter day works like Judas Coin (which I say very nice things about right here). A fine resume to be certain, but arguably Simonson's finest work is his epic run on Marvel's Thor. In addition to gracing readership with creations like Malekith, Beta Ray Bill, Skurge with a machine gun, and Frog Thor, that particular stretch of comics spotlighted how adept a storyteller Walt Simonson is. 

IDW is doing The Allfather's work in bringing us Walt Simonson's Ragnarok, which spins the tale of undead Thor in the ruins of Asgard after the Norse apocalypse.
If that hook doesn't sell you on this book, you must hate fun because this comic is a nonstop action-packed thrill ride.

Lemmie run part of this by you again:

The main character is undead Thor.
And he looks like this:

Ragnarok's eighth issue is fairly well filled with pages of Thor and Regn,a dark elf, beset upon, and slaying with gratuitous violence, hordes of demons in the service of Surtr. Intermingled with gloriously illustrated pages of Thor and Regn destroying fire warriors the two have a discourse revolving around Thor murdering Regn's daughter and his subsequent vengeance. The two agree to an archetypal uneasy alliance in order to defeat the legions of Muspelheim with the promise of Regn getting a free shot at Thor after the fact with his god-slaying sword.Guys writing for Heavy Metal in the '80s woulda killed for this sort of material.  Although this issue is almost wholly dedicated to a phenomenal fight, there are a handful of great character moments between Thor and Regn that illustrates the relationship between the two.   Which I predict will turn into some sort of Viking buddy cop scenario . . .  This comic is phenomenal, ladies and gentlemen. The story is rock solid, the art is beautiful and the colors vibrant and brilliant. Issue 8 opens with a full-pager depicting Mjollnir bursting towards the reader, and that's a pretty decent analogy for the series so far. It came flyin' outta nowhere and smacks you in the jaw with a mix of mythological know-how and classic comic action. You can almost make this a spiritual successor to Simonson's Thor run at Marvel if you're inclined, but it stands tall enough on its own. Also, they ride around on horse creatures that kinda look like the one Ookla had on Thundarr the Barbarian. That in and of itself should be more than enough incentive to check it out.

REVIEW: Rough Riders #1

Creator & Writer: Adam Glass
Artist: Patrick Olliffe
Colorist: Gabe Eltaeb
Letterer: Sal Cipriano
Review: Art Bee

Once again my LCBS owner has talked me into purchasing and reviewing a comic book. Rough Riders #1 was featured and highly recommended by Shawn, owner of Comics Cubed in Kokomo, IN. After finishing this jewel, my eyes are opened. This story of historical fiction blended with some steampunk qualities is something very special.

This is the story of Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt before he was ever the President of the United States. If any readers are not familiar with history, allow me to briefly educate you. On February 15, 1898, the USS Maine, a US battleship, was attacked and sunk near Havana, Cuba. The ship had been sent to protect U.S. citizens and property after anti-Spanish rioting in Havana (www.history.com). During the war Teddy Roosevelt resigned his position as Assistant Secretary of the Navy to form his own voluntary cavalry group called the Rough Riders, which included a diverse group of cowboys, miners, law enforcement officials, and Native Americans (www.americaslibrary.gov).


With this in mind lets delve into this book. Adam Glass is a great writer, but I am not very keen on him calling himself the creator. He did not create the character of Theodore Roosevelt or several other characters referred to in this story.

With that said, the book is phenomenal! The way the story is structured allows the reader to get fully engrossed without feeling pulled along. When I started reading, I had not made the connection with the title and the historical group, so the opening scene made me feel like we were in Nazi Germany in one of the Concentration Camps furnaces. The reason for thinking this was the young lady in the first panel brandishing a Star of David. By the second page my thinking caught up with the book. The date 1898 and the rest of the scene set me right and engaged my intelligent small part of my brain.

Glass really engages us with some big words. On page two, panel four, he uses the word “surreptitious”. This needed to be looked up by myself for having never encountered it before. According to Google, this adjective means “kept secret, especially because it would not be approved of". When a comic book can increase the value of the intellect of the reader as well as entertain them, we have a very special comic.

This issue is titled “The Big Stick” because most every American should know that Teddy Roosevelt’s famous quote is “to speak softly and carry a big stick”. This issue starts with Roosevelt being commissioned to handle the situation with the sinking of the Maine and startling to recruit the Rough Riders. I will not say more for ruining the wonderful awesomeness of this story.

The artwork is just as good as the writing. Truthfully I can’t tell whether this is digitally done or done on paper and scanned. Either way it is gorgeous. The artists’ attention to detail, especially on faces, is amazing. It is hard to pick a favorite panel. They are all very good.

When I was talking to Shawn about it, his words were, “When I finished, I was wishing there was more.” My sentiments are exactly the same. It feels like you only read four pages, but it is twenty pages long. Still shorter than most other comics, it is quality work. There is a sneak peak at the end for another of Aftershock’s titles, B.E.K. (Black Eyed Kids), that is coming out on April 20th, and I am not sure how I feel about it based on the preview. There is also an interview between the Editor-in-Chief, Mike Marts and Adam Glass. I really don’t like staged interviews; you don’t get a good feel for the person being interviewed.

This comic is going to hang around for a while. It should only have a finite number of issues based on historical events, but we shall see. I have not seen any specific information yet saying the contrary.

REVIEW: Aliens: Defiance #1 ashcan

Written by: Brian Wood
Art by: Tristan Jones
Review: Will Dubbeld

Aside from Star Wars, the Alien franchise might be one of my favorite science fiction mythos, due in no small part to HR Giger's hellish conceptual designs. As such I've made a hobby of collecting books, bits of memorabilia, and of course comic books related to the franchise.

Except anything Prometheus related, because screw that piece of crap . . .

Aside from a Marvel adaptation of the first Alien film, Dark Horse Comics has been the sole license-holder for comics set in the Alien universe as far as I know. For over 20 years now DH has been printing Alien books and they are, with few exceptions, phenomenal books. A new series drops soon and the LCS was giving out free promo ashcans, prompting me to sidle up to the bar and check out the wares.

Aliens: Defiance takes place between the first and second Alien films and in true to form franchise setup involves some hapless fools exploring a derelict spaceship. The hapless fools in this case are a Colonial Marine named Zula Hendricks and an accompanying group of Wetland-Yutani security drones.

No mention of them preferring to be called Artificial Persons.

This time around the derelict in question is floating near Earth's Luna Base and is a Seegson hauler called the Europa, and it doesn't take long for Zula and her band of Synthetics to discover they are not alone aboard the Europa.
And by that I mean our familiar xenomorphs pop in and start eviscerating.
Chances are the Weyland-Yutani company is to blame . . .

I'm not sure if this is a standalone prelude for the series or a preview of the first issue, but I'm in either way. It's got the claustrophobic feel of an Alien movie and the art is reminiscent of Ron Cobb's concept work for the first movie.
We also get a fan-service appearance from Ripley's daughter Amanda, which makes me curious if they'll attempt to dovetail (or shoehorn, as you will) the series as connective tissue to the Alien: Isolation video game.

At this point in the history of our pop culture, I'll not attempt to convince anyone to buy this book. You either like the Alien franchise or you don't, and if you're unaware of it, I'm not entirely sure what to say other than "get on it."
Fans of the series are a sure sell if you've explored the Alien comicverse. The preview reminded me of the 1st Alien comic miniseries and a bit of the Aliens: Earth War comic, both high points in my opinion.
Bug hunt or not, I'll stick with this chickenshit outfit for the duration.

REVIEW: Spirit’s Destiny #1

Writer: Dorphise Jean

Pencilers: Zack Dolan, Edwin Galmon, Saint Yak, Richard Perotta

Review: Will Dubbeld

Writer/creator Dorphise Jean contacted me some time ago about a review for her indie book, Spirit’s Destiny, and I readily agreed. Always willing to lend a hand to the small press, I was pleased to recently receive a digital copy in my mailbox, and off we went. I hadn’t done any background research into the book and was therefore able to approach it with a fresh mind.

Was it a superhero book? A horror book? I plunged in and soon discovered it may be neither, or a little bit of both.

Spirit’s Destiny opens with teenage heroine, Destiny, awaking from a nightmare, or perhaps vision, depicting a costumed ne’er do well creeping into his infant daughter’s room.  He gets into a fracas with the child’s mother, but not before injecting the baby with some strange fluid.  I love that the book cold opened with a very well choreographed fight scene/dream sequence before snapping us into Destiny’s regular, everyday routine.

The book’s second act shows us a bit of teenage Destiny’s archetypical school life (best friend, hot guy, bitchy rival girl) and some interaction with her mother, who grounds her for treating Bitchy Girl to a right cross.

I didn’t see that coming, and it pinned down Destiny’s character in one panel. Well done.

The book closes with Destiny and her friends sneaking out (as teenagers are wont to do) and fiddling about in a science lab.

Again, as teenagers are wont to do.

The book closes with Destiny receiving a zap of energy from one of the lab’s devices and laying out cold as her friends run for aid.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed in the hopes she gets some superpowers out of this otherwise bum deal.

All in all I rather enjoyed Spirit’s Destiny.  There are a few editorial missteps and some small dialogue issues but the scripting and most of the dialogue reminded me of some grandiose book of yesteryear, namely the bombastic comics of the 1960s and perhaps even some nuances of 40s Golden Age books. The comic is a super-quick read, although this is mainly due to the grand layout of the book.  It’s composed largely of big, meaty, colorful panels and splashes giving the lion’s share of the comic to the art department.  The art is reminiscent a bit of the aforementioned comics of former times, as are the colors, although a bit muted in contrast to some of the more vibrant books about superfolks.

But again, we probably aren’t catering to the tights and capes crowd.

I’m eager to see where Spirit’s Destiny goes.  There’s some room for growth and improvement, but I very much look forward to future installments.  Issue 1 opened a lot of doors to the reader but didn’t let you walk all the way into the room.  I can see where things might be going, but I want to step in and find out for sure.

Spirit’s Destiny is available digitally and as a floppy from www.spiritsdestinycomics.com

Go getcha some.

REVIEW: Batman Beyond Unlimited #1

Batman Creators: Bob Kane & Bill Finger
Story: Adam Beechen/Derek Fridolfs & Dustin Nguyen
Art and Cover: Dustin Nguyen, Norm Breyfogle
Colors: Andrew Elder, Randy Mayor
Review: Daniel Simpson

When Batman Beyond first came out as a cartoon series it was met with, at least from my point of view, criticism. Here was this new Batman that had a suit that could fly, and all this tech that seemed it fit better on Iron Man than on Batman, but slowly it won me over. As a cartoon series it rewrote the Batman mythos and as a comic series it could do, the exact thing. Terry McGinnis is an awesome Batman and brings a level of snark to the Dark Knight that he has never had before. If you are unfamiliar with the Batman Beyond universe here is the skinny: The story takes place in 2019, Terry McGinnis is Batman, Bruce Wayne has basically taken Alfred’s role staying in the bat cave with Ace the Bathound, Barbara Gordon is the police commissioner. There are several different gangs that call themselves the Jokerz. All caught up? Good.

This comic just jumps right in the storyline starting out with Batman trying to stop one gang of Jokerz from robbing an antique magic shop. They are from Star City and are the second out of town group to try to vandalize Neo Gotham.
Terry and Bruce are trying to figure out why all these gangs are converging on Neo Gotham when Terry is attacked by yet another group of Clowns, taking a good beating before defeating that group as well and flying off. We’re left with a panel of yet another group putting on clown makeup. The second part of this book has to do with the Justice League Beyond and that story is basically an intro story in the larger arc. It introduces the characters to the reader and lays the plot for a much bigger story that mainly has to do with Cadmus. If you are unaware, the members of the Justice League Beyond are: Warhawk, Big Barda, Green Lantern Kai-Ro, Aquagirl, Superman, Batman (Terry McGinnis), and Micron.

The storytelling is very similar to an episode of the cartoon series which is not a bad thing and makes for a quick read. The writers do a great job following the series and keeping it going, and the artists also do a fantastic job transferring the series to a comic as well. In my opinion if you were to pick this comic up with no prior knowledge of what’s going on you’d be lost, but if you enjoyed the cartoon series then this book follows suit. There are lots of technical sci-fi storylines and perhaps some darker aspects, and the book is a new spin on the Dark Knight and delves into different aspects that Bruce Wayne Batman didn’t or couldn’t explore.