And that movie with Raul Julia, which I recently revisited and found MUCH more entertaining and self-aware than folks give it credit for...
There's some common threads between the two and a comic pairing seems like a fine fit.
Honestly, for all I know, Street Fighter V could be wrestling-themed and this is a more blatant marketing tie-in, but I hope it's just a fun one-off.
There's not a lot of substance here but, damn, it is one dynamic looking book. I didn't recognize but one character in the whole book, and although I was looking forward to Blanka off the top rope, the book delivered with other fighters. The whole shebang revolves around archetypal manga/anime heel character, Dan Hibiki, and his epic match with a whole stable of lady wrestlers.
I'm guessing the whole cast is comprised of playable characters from Street Fighter V, from Hibiki to memorable characters like Rainbow Mika, Yoko Harmageddon, and Canadian-themed Maple Storm.
F'real.
Udon Entertainment is responsible for this joint, and that's all that I need to say about the art. I've loved Udon's style since the Taskmaster miniseries they did for Marvel awhile back.
Top notch work, all around.
Oh, and there's a backup story that pits Zangief and Premiere Mikhail Gorbachev against Mike Haggar and Ronald Reagan.
Weird stuff.
Valiant: X-O Manowar FCBD Special
As much as I loved Magnus, Robot Fighter and his silly miniskirt, my favorite Valiant comic of all time was hands down X-O Manowar.
I stand by my running description:
It's Conan the Barbarian in power armor.
If you don't like the sound of that, you don't like fun.
Valiant's resurrection saw the return of Aric, slightly tweaked in origin but remaining a time-displaced barbarian fighting alien invaders.
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to keep myself abreast of Aric's adventures nearly to the degree I'd like and I was a bit lost reading this book.
Aric appears to be stranded on an alien planet, bereft of his Manowar armor and living as a vagrant in a frontier town.
And he's missing a hand...
Representatives of the alien empire ride into town, demanding tribute and intent on razing the settlement but Aric gets his grove back and slays the baddies with bladed ferocity.
This is a Western, ladies and gentlemen. It's a Man With No Name -Magnificent Seven - Have Gun Will Travel scenario if I've ever seen one and I love it.
The only problem is the Valiant: X-O Manowar FCBD Special has very little X-O Manowar content. The first 11 pages are it, folks. The rest of the book plugs a Harbinger book and Bloodshot of all damn characters.
I'm tangentially interested in Harbinger but have never cared and probably never will care about Bloodshot.
I honestly thought he was an Image character for years as he fits that '90s crappy character formula. He seems like he could run around with Deathblow or Chapel and fit right in.
The art in this book is amazing, but I could have done without the periphery and done with more X-O
2000 AD Free Comic Book Day prog 2017
Hell, even early Marvel UK books are scarcely discussed.
Thankfully, Rebellion gives it what for every FCBD with a sampler intent on luring readers to 2000 AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine.
The cover this year is another in a long line of swipes/homages to Uncanny X-Men #141 and I'm not sure if I'm sick to death of seeing them or not.
Inside lies 3 tales from the Judge Dredd universe, an ABC Warriors story and a final tale taking place in an alternate, magical 1940s.
The highlights are, for me, the Dredd stories. Dredd tracks a serial killer bent on revenge, Judge Anderson faces her greatest fear, and Judge Death and the rest of the Dark Judges haunt the third tale.
All in all it's a good bit of storytelling all around and certainly should garner interest from some new readers.
The other two stories were, in my opinion, less interesting.
The ABC Warriors never really appealed to me, partially due to the silly-ass name, but mostly because what I've read has been several times more obtuse than a series about war droids should be.
This particular tale was a bit more straightforward and gave me plenty of robot-fighting action and dry Brit humor.
Or humour, if you'd rather.
Full disclosure: I utterly phoned it in on the other story.
Utterly disinterested, but perhaps I'll have my curiosity piqued when I catch up on my backlog of 2000 AD.
World's Greatest Cartoonists
Admittedly, their lineup has gotten a bit more...avant gard, I suppose, than I'd like. That being said, they're still putting out great indie content.
Furthermore, I mainly picked up this book because Pepe the Frog gets killed off. For those not in the loop, Pepe was an internet meme sensation that had been co-opted by white nationals and declared a hate symbol, much to the chagrin of his creator and anyone with half a brain.
Richard Spencer was decked in his doughy nazi-face, mid-explanation, about Pepe in a popular (and hilarious) video.
Because yes, it's alright to deck nazis.
That's probably irresponsible to say, but nazi hatemongers getting punched in the face has been a national pastime since the '40s.
Their ideology has long since been declared un-fucking-acceptable.
It's unfortunate that someone's creation was hijacked by alt-right keyboard warriors but I'm impressed creator Matt Furie snuffed his frog.
It ain't easy being green.
Also, there's a great Ed Piskor piece in this book...
Well, on that note, another FCBD has come and gone.
Parting in such sweet sorrow and I'll that rot. We'll make a date for next year, same time?
Great, we'll see you then.
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