Kdawg59
11-09-2006, 10:17 AM
Sam Wilson’s Reviews
DC’s “Worldstorm” event continues this week with Stormwatch, PHD and issue two of Gen 13. DC also gives us more of Batman’s Bat-tyke in the Morrison penned and Kubert drawn Batman title, and we also get a new issue of one of my favorite books of all time (at least the Perez/Wolfman era) Teen Titans. From Marvel we get the 2nd part to last months cliffhanger in Ultimate X-men, some “What If” type fare in Bullet Points and everyone’s favorite berserker making right a life once wrought asunder in Wolverine: Origins. My pick of the week is Stormwatch, PHD (good to see you back Battalion) and with that being said, on to the reviews…
Stormwatch PHD #1
DC/Wildstorm
Written by: Christos N. Gage
Drawn by: Doug Mahnke
In the old Wildstorm U, Stormwatch was the equivalent of the JLA and the Avengers. The team operated under a UN charter and was made up of superhumans from around the world. The team was lead by Jackson King, whose father lead the original Stormwatch, and its members included Fuji (Japan), Hellstrike (Ireland), Winter (Russia) and Fahrenheit (USA). Each character had a cool trait that made them more than just a blank slate, Winter was former Spetznaz, Fuji was a Sumo, Hellstrike worked for Interpol. The book almost lost its way and then was saved in 1996 but a couple of guys by the name of Warren Ellis and Tom Raney. Ellis bought his trademark realism and Sci-Crazy writing style, and Raney brought a level of detail that just made the book explode artistically. Unfortunately all good things come to an end and Ellis killed off most of the team in “Stormwatch vs. Aliens”, and what was left of the team (Stormwatch Black) became “The Authority”. There were attempts to resurrect the book, but all unsuccessful, but with this “reinvention” of the Wildstorm U, does Stormwatch PHD (Post Human Division) have a chance? We shall see…
Issue one opens up with Jackson King, aka Battalion interviewing Officer Doran of the NYPD, the only cop who survived a supervillan melee. In that same fight Fahrenheit (no, she isn’t dead I guess this is the “new” Wildstorm U”, kinda post-Crisis like) received a head injury which depowered her. Anyway, Officer Doran survived because of his keen tactical sense, he even ended up killing a couple of super-villains. As the issue progresses we find out that Stormwatch no longer has an infinite budget and Battalion is going to have to figure out how to fight supervillany on the cheap. As the issue progresses Jackson continues his obvious recruiting mission by talking to a supervillan girlfriend, an assistant to a sorcerer and a former Super-villain. Eventually the team comes together in what Jackson hopes will be the start of a smarter, cheaper national anti super-villain initiative.
I’m liking this book, really liking this book. It’s a grittier, trimmed down version of the original team and the characters have unique personalities and will mix together well. The scripting is tight and the art is unique and pretty damn cool. This book is definitely worth checking out, for old fans of Stormwatch, new fans, or people just looking for a good read.
Bullet Points #1
Marvel Comics
Written by: J. Michael Straczynski
Drawn by: Tommy Lee Edwards
J. Michael Stracynski is best known for his science fiction series “Babylon 5”, which was the anti-Star Trek episodic sci-fi geeks were looking for. It was dark, gritty and relatively free of form-fitting spandex. More than likely we would never have seen “Firefly” or “Battlestar Gallactica” if “Babylon 5” wasn’t so popular. JMS’s first foray into the comic world was “Rising Stars”, a series he did for Top Cow that started off with a bang, but ended with barely a fizzle. The reason being shortly after that series and “Midnight Nation” (my favorite unsung JMS book, get the trade which is still in print by Top Cow comics) JMS moved to Marvel Comics and took over Spider-Man with mixed results. Yes, his 9-11 issue was essentially perfect, but what he did to Gwen Stacey? Oy Vey. Then there was his take on Dr. Strange (which I liked but many hated), Spider-Man “the Other” (meh) and currently the book which I think became everything he wanted “Rising Stars” to be: “Supreme Power”, a send up to the original “Squadron Supreme” but with much of the trademark JMS darkness to it. Damn if it isn’t one of my favorite books right now. His new book, “Bullet Points” is more or less a version of “What if’. It’s about how a single bullet can alter the course of Marvel history; in this case a bullet kills Dr. Erskine and his bodyguard, M.P. Ben Parker, and the butterfly wings flap and what we get is something totally different…
“Bullet Points” starts with Dr. Erskine and Ben Parker dying before Steve Rogers is made into Captain America. Since there is no super-soldier program to speak of the Army goes with plan “B”, an “Iron Man” suit developed with many hindrances, which include it only being able to house a very skinny man and the user must have the machine directly plugged into his heart in case it falls into enemy hands the army can self-destruct it. Convenient the military has a patriotic fellow like Steve Rogers around, who is skinny and desperate to help. Peter Parker grows up to be a little miscreant nerd since he has no male influence in his life, and one day accidentally wanders off into the test site of a gamma bomb. Yeah, I said it. Seriously.
In all fairness this book is well written. Stylistically, strictly speaking from an academic standpoint the dialogue and story flow well, but as to plot. Man. Damn. CORNY. Way to corny for me. Wow, Peter is a combination of Rick Jones and Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers becomes Iron Man. I don’t care and I don’t want to care. Save your money, don’t by the trade; it’s just another useless Marvel limited series that in the greater scheme of things will mean nothing to anyone.
Wolverine: Origins #8
Marvel Comics
Written by: Daniel Way
Drawn by: Steve Dillon
For those of you who haven’t been keeping up with “Wolverine: Origins” I’ll give a quick recap. At the end of the “House of M” fiasco Wolverine, who is the best at what he does and what he does ain’t pretty, was granted access to his memories. All of them. Yup. Most of them are nasty and are the types of things no one wants to come to light. SHIELD is alerted and so it begins. Wolverine decides he is going to use his newfound knowledge to exact bloody revenge on all those who have ever wronged him, so he whups Silver Samurai’s ass and takes his Muramasa Blade (a katanna that has a bloodlust and is said to be able to contain evil spirits) and embarks on a quest. First up, he has some words with the Secretary of State, then he visits a guy named Nuke (who we last saw in the now classic Daredevil storyline “Born Again”). It turns out Wolverine more or less helped create Nuke, and after setting that little flub straight he mixes it up with Captain America and a few of the X-men. Wolverine almost goes berserk on all of them, but Emma Frost stops him and drops a huge bombshell on ol’ Logan. He has a son. In a moment of clarity Logan hands over his Muramasa Blade to Cyclops, requesting that if he goes to far in his current revenge bender that Cyclops end it with the sword, the only thing that can permanently put Wolverine down. Anyway, things for Wolverine haven’t slowed down a bit since issue six, and issues seven and eight, well…
Wolverine has hopped a freighter in search of his son, but the cut he received from the Muramasa blade isn’t healing as it should. He remembers there is a mineral that has helped him before his healing factor was on the fritz, but it isn’t synthesized naturally. Wolverine needs to pay a visit to one of his old buddies from Team X (see Wolverine, the first ongoing series, issue #50), Maverick to get his hands on this mineral so he can resume his quest. He tracks Maverick to Queens, and runs into an old friend along the way, an old friend and an old enemy (Omega Red). Issue seven opens up with Wolvie and Omega Red going at it, and a depowered Jubilee and Maverick sitting on the sidelines trying to stay alive. We also get a nifty “flashback” to Wolvies past as a mercenary who got his brain wiped after each mission. Wicked. Issue eight, well, damn. I have nothing to say except look at the last page, that final, beautiful splash page. Word, indeed, word. Don’t take my word for it though, why don’t we ask my bro kdawg how he feels…
A word from the Dawg on Origins…
Final beautiful splash page indeed… Riddle me this comic fans… what is black, red, and white all over… is hotter than the sun… and say’s “Little Uncle?”
This was a great book this week. Way and Dillon deliver consistently told tales of Wolverine on a mission to atone for the sins of his past. All the while he seems to commit a few new ones along the way. Issue 8, had a pretty nostalgic feeling to it. We got to replay the scene where Maverick, Sabertooth, and Wolvie were back in team X and first going up against Omega Red and rescuing their mole at the time…(as seen in the classic Jim Lee run on the adjective less X-Men)
And then there is the surrogate fatherly feelings that Logan has toward Jubilee…. That brings me back to when Jubilee first sprang on to the scene and followed the X-Men home to Australia and latched on to Wolvie when he was being crucified on the X by Donald Pierce and the Reavers (from the also classic run of 3+ years by uber talented and underrated Marc Silvestri)
What else brings back the nostalgia??? Oh yeah that last splash page that Sammy was talking about. Uncanny X-Men #268… one of the best pre-Wolverine origin origin tales I’ve even laid eyes on…
What all of these factors boil down to is that Wolverine is cool again. He’s finally getting some fresh material to work with other than his struggle against the beast within. Dillon and Way are carefully spinning the tales of what we’ve always wanted to know about the “Best there is at what he does” mutant… If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then it’s the best series you aren’t reading yo…
DC’s “Worldstorm” event continues this week with Stormwatch, PHD and issue two of Gen 13. DC also gives us more of Batman’s Bat-tyke in the Morrison penned and Kubert drawn Batman title, and we also get a new issue of one of my favorite books of all time (at least the Perez/Wolfman era) Teen Titans. From Marvel we get the 2nd part to last months cliffhanger in Ultimate X-men, some “What If” type fare in Bullet Points and everyone’s favorite berserker making right a life once wrought asunder in Wolverine: Origins. My pick of the week is Stormwatch, PHD (good to see you back Battalion) and with that being said, on to the reviews…
Stormwatch PHD #1
DC/Wildstorm
Written by: Christos N. Gage
Drawn by: Doug Mahnke
In the old Wildstorm U, Stormwatch was the equivalent of the JLA and the Avengers. The team operated under a UN charter and was made up of superhumans from around the world. The team was lead by Jackson King, whose father lead the original Stormwatch, and its members included Fuji (Japan), Hellstrike (Ireland), Winter (Russia) and Fahrenheit (USA). Each character had a cool trait that made them more than just a blank slate, Winter was former Spetznaz, Fuji was a Sumo, Hellstrike worked for Interpol. The book almost lost its way and then was saved in 1996 but a couple of guys by the name of Warren Ellis and Tom Raney. Ellis bought his trademark realism and Sci-Crazy writing style, and Raney brought a level of detail that just made the book explode artistically. Unfortunately all good things come to an end and Ellis killed off most of the team in “Stormwatch vs. Aliens”, and what was left of the team (Stormwatch Black) became “The Authority”. There were attempts to resurrect the book, but all unsuccessful, but with this “reinvention” of the Wildstorm U, does Stormwatch PHD (Post Human Division) have a chance? We shall see…
Issue one opens up with Jackson King, aka Battalion interviewing Officer Doran of the NYPD, the only cop who survived a supervillan melee. In that same fight Fahrenheit (no, she isn’t dead I guess this is the “new” Wildstorm U”, kinda post-Crisis like) received a head injury which depowered her. Anyway, Officer Doran survived because of his keen tactical sense, he even ended up killing a couple of super-villains. As the issue progresses we find out that Stormwatch no longer has an infinite budget and Battalion is going to have to figure out how to fight supervillany on the cheap. As the issue progresses Jackson continues his obvious recruiting mission by talking to a supervillan girlfriend, an assistant to a sorcerer and a former Super-villain. Eventually the team comes together in what Jackson hopes will be the start of a smarter, cheaper national anti super-villain initiative.
I’m liking this book, really liking this book. It’s a grittier, trimmed down version of the original team and the characters have unique personalities and will mix together well. The scripting is tight and the art is unique and pretty damn cool. This book is definitely worth checking out, for old fans of Stormwatch, new fans, or people just looking for a good read.
Bullet Points #1
Marvel Comics
Written by: J. Michael Straczynski
Drawn by: Tommy Lee Edwards
J. Michael Stracynski is best known for his science fiction series “Babylon 5”, which was the anti-Star Trek episodic sci-fi geeks were looking for. It was dark, gritty and relatively free of form-fitting spandex. More than likely we would never have seen “Firefly” or “Battlestar Gallactica” if “Babylon 5” wasn’t so popular. JMS’s first foray into the comic world was “Rising Stars”, a series he did for Top Cow that started off with a bang, but ended with barely a fizzle. The reason being shortly after that series and “Midnight Nation” (my favorite unsung JMS book, get the trade which is still in print by Top Cow comics) JMS moved to Marvel Comics and took over Spider-Man with mixed results. Yes, his 9-11 issue was essentially perfect, but what he did to Gwen Stacey? Oy Vey. Then there was his take on Dr. Strange (which I liked but many hated), Spider-Man “the Other” (meh) and currently the book which I think became everything he wanted “Rising Stars” to be: “Supreme Power”, a send up to the original “Squadron Supreme” but with much of the trademark JMS darkness to it. Damn if it isn’t one of my favorite books right now. His new book, “Bullet Points” is more or less a version of “What if’. It’s about how a single bullet can alter the course of Marvel history; in this case a bullet kills Dr. Erskine and his bodyguard, M.P. Ben Parker, and the butterfly wings flap and what we get is something totally different…
“Bullet Points” starts with Dr. Erskine and Ben Parker dying before Steve Rogers is made into Captain America. Since there is no super-soldier program to speak of the Army goes with plan “B”, an “Iron Man” suit developed with many hindrances, which include it only being able to house a very skinny man and the user must have the machine directly plugged into his heart in case it falls into enemy hands the army can self-destruct it. Convenient the military has a patriotic fellow like Steve Rogers around, who is skinny and desperate to help. Peter Parker grows up to be a little miscreant nerd since he has no male influence in his life, and one day accidentally wanders off into the test site of a gamma bomb. Yeah, I said it. Seriously.
In all fairness this book is well written. Stylistically, strictly speaking from an academic standpoint the dialogue and story flow well, but as to plot. Man. Damn. CORNY. Way to corny for me. Wow, Peter is a combination of Rick Jones and Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers becomes Iron Man. I don’t care and I don’t want to care. Save your money, don’t by the trade; it’s just another useless Marvel limited series that in the greater scheme of things will mean nothing to anyone.
Wolverine: Origins #8
Marvel Comics
Written by: Daniel Way
Drawn by: Steve Dillon
For those of you who haven’t been keeping up with “Wolverine: Origins” I’ll give a quick recap. At the end of the “House of M” fiasco Wolverine, who is the best at what he does and what he does ain’t pretty, was granted access to his memories. All of them. Yup. Most of them are nasty and are the types of things no one wants to come to light. SHIELD is alerted and so it begins. Wolverine decides he is going to use his newfound knowledge to exact bloody revenge on all those who have ever wronged him, so he whups Silver Samurai’s ass and takes his Muramasa Blade (a katanna that has a bloodlust and is said to be able to contain evil spirits) and embarks on a quest. First up, he has some words with the Secretary of State, then he visits a guy named Nuke (who we last saw in the now classic Daredevil storyline “Born Again”). It turns out Wolverine more or less helped create Nuke, and after setting that little flub straight he mixes it up with Captain America and a few of the X-men. Wolverine almost goes berserk on all of them, but Emma Frost stops him and drops a huge bombshell on ol’ Logan. He has a son. In a moment of clarity Logan hands over his Muramasa Blade to Cyclops, requesting that if he goes to far in his current revenge bender that Cyclops end it with the sword, the only thing that can permanently put Wolverine down. Anyway, things for Wolverine haven’t slowed down a bit since issue six, and issues seven and eight, well…
Wolverine has hopped a freighter in search of his son, but the cut he received from the Muramasa blade isn’t healing as it should. He remembers there is a mineral that has helped him before his healing factor was on the fritz, but it isn’t synthesized naturally. Wolverine needs to pay a visit to one of his old buddies from Team X (see Wolverine, the first ongoing series, issue #50), Maverick to get his hands on this mineral so he can resume his quest. He tracks Maverick to Queens, and runs into an old friend along the way, an old friend and an old enemy (Omega Red). Issue seven opens up with Wolvie and Omega Red going at it, and a depowered Jubilee and Maverick sitting on the sidelines trying to stay alive. We also get a nifty “flashback” to Wolvies past as a mercenary who got his brain wiped after each mission. Wicked. Issue eight, well, damn. I have nothing to say except look at the last page, that final, beautiful splash page. Word, indeed, word. Don’t take my word for it though, why don’t we ask my bro kdawg how he feels…
A word from the Dawg on Origins…
Final beautiful splash page indeed… Riddle me this comic fans… what is black, red, and white all over… is hotter than the sun… and say’s “Little Uncle?”
This was a great book this week. Way and Dillon deliver consistently told tales of Wolverine on a mission to atone for the sins of his past. All the while he seems to commit a few new ones along the way. Issue 8, had a pretty nostalgic feeling to it. We got to replay the scene where Maverick, Sabertooth, and Wolvie were back in team X and first going up against Omega Red and rescuing their mole at the time…(as seen in the classic Jim Lee run on the adjective less X-Men)
And then there is the surrogate fatherly feelings that Logan has toward Jubilee…. That brings me back to when Jubilee first sprang on to the scene and followed the X-Men home to Australia and latched on to Wolvie when he was being crucified on the X by Donald Pierce and the Reavers (from the also classic run of 3+ years by uber talented and underrated Marc Silvestri)
What else brings back the nostalgia??? Oh yeah that last splash page that Sammy was talking about. Uncanny X-Men #268… one of the best pre-Wolverine origin origin tales I’ve even laid eyes on…
What all of these factors boil down to is that Wolverine is cool again. He’s finally getting some fresh material to work with other than his struggle against the beast within. Dillon and Way are carefully spinning the tales of what we’ve always wanted to know about the “Best there is at what he does” mutant… If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then it’s the best series you aren’t reading yo…