wktf and Sam Wilson's Comic Reviews, 1/11/06

Sam Wilson · 01-11-2006, 09:05 PM

Sam Wilson’ Reviews

A thin week this week, with an emphasis on quality rather than quantity. From Marvel we got the premiere of Daughters of the Dragon (one step away from that “Power Man and Iron Fist revival I’ve been hoping for), a new issue of She Hulk and my pick of the week, Ultimate Extinction. From DC there is the new Vertigo title DMZ, Warren Ellis’s Desolation Jones and my favorite guilty pleasure, Danger Girl: Back in Black; and with that, lets get on to the reviews…

FYI wktf's LCS was screwed once again by Diamond Distribution, so his comics won't be in until tomorrow, so his reviews will be posted later in the week. Boooo Diamond...

DMZ #3
DC/Vertigo Comics
Written by: Brian Wood
Drawn by: Riccardo Burchelli

To catch up those who haven’t checked out this book yet: our story opens five years into the second American Civil War. The conflict is between the United States of America and the “Free States”. According to the White House, these “Free States” Soldiers are “thugs and murderers”, and they are indiscriminate and uncivilized when it comes to warfare in civilian areas. As far as New York City goes, the “Free States” control New Jersey and the inland, and they are amassing at the banks of the Hudson River. The United States of America has Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island and is well dug in on the coastline, with Manhattan Island caught in-between in the “DMZ”. The thing is, there are still people living on Manhattan island, and even though there has been a formal ceasefire in effect from the last three days (when the story opens) the reality of life there consists of looters, gangs, local militias, insurgents and contract killers. All a day in the life in the DMZ.

Enter rich white-kid Matthew Rose, new intern to Nobel Prize winning journalist Viktor Ferguson. Rose gets a job as his intern on the day Ferguson is supposed to head into combat to do a story on the residents of the DMZ, a “day in the life” kind of thing. To say the least Matthew is caught a little off guard. He finds himself in charge of multi-million dollar equipment and placed in personal (unpaid mind you) servitude to a less than humble journalist who is about to make history with a story that takes them to the very heart of danger. Things soon go to sh$#, Ferguson and his military escort are taken out by enemy combatants, and Matthew finds himself alone, stranded in the DMZ with a crapload of news equipment he is technically responsible for. Soon he is befriended by Zee, a resident of the DMZ not affiliated with any side of the civil war. Apparently she is one of many former residents of Manhattan island who were caught up in things when bullets started flying, and all she (and the rest of them) want to do is live a life a peace, they are not the “thugs and murderers” the White House claims they are. In fact, Zee shows how Manhattan residents are coping: they are growing food, sustaining themselves and trying to live as normal of a life as one can in the middle of a war zone. Zee convinces Matthew he needs to pick up where Ferguson left off and tell the story of the DMZ’s residents so the rest of the world can see how they live. Matthew agrees reluctantly, and tries to place a call to the bosses at the news agency to see if they’ll run with it. They grudgingly agree, but on condition Matthew gets his a$# to the coast to cover an invasion by US forces (!), which leads us to issue three.

Issue three opens with Matthew squaring off with a team of US Soldiers who assume he is an enemy combatant. After a pants-pissing moment Matthew convinces them of his press status, and accompanies them as they make their way down a Manhattan street. Soon it is discovered a family was killed during the initial rocket fire of the invasion, and the soldiers order Matthew to report the invasion in the best light, ignoring the civilian casualties. Things soon go to hell, Zee shows up, one of the soldiers go crazy, and so it goes. Honestly, I’m undecided how I feel about this comic yet. While the story is fresh and different, at times the book comes off a little preachy, which is contrary to what I said in my first review, but after three issues it’s becoming more and more evident. The story isn’t bad, but it’s just not overwhelmingly great either, it’s kind of “blah”. Ultimate you are going to have to check this book out for yourself and make your own decision, personally, I’ll give it one more story arc. If it’s more of the same, I might have to stop buying this title.

Daughters of the Dragon #1 (of 6)
Marvel Comics
Written by: Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray
Drawn by: Khari Evans

For those of you unfamiliar with the characters, Misty Knight and Colleen Wing have been in the Marvel Universe since the 1970’s, with early appearances in Marvel Premiere and Deadly Hands of Kung Fu magazine. Colleen Wing is the descendant of Samurai; she was raised by her grandfather in the mountains of Japan and was trained in the Samurai ways. She met Misty Knight when she moved to New York City. Misty Knight was an NYPD officer and lost her arm in the line of duty; she managed to grab a bomb away from some terrorists but the bomb exploded while she held onto it, her arm was subsequently amputated. Stark Enterprises replaced it with a bionic arm. Rather than take desk duty she retired from the force. Misty met Colleen before the bomb incident, she rescued her from a gun battle and they have been best friends ever since. After Misty quit the NYPD Colleen convinced her to stay active, so they formed Nightwing Restorations, a detective agency of sorts. They were dubbed “daughters of the dragon” due to their martial arts prowess. They often had adventures with Power Man and Iron Fist; Misty Knight was Iron Fist’s lover for quite some time. Anyway, they haven’t showed up much in the Marvel U over the last decade or so, until now.

Daughters of The Dragon is kind of an update of the Misty Knight and Colleen Wing characters, but not really. Colleen still has her katanna, Misty still has the bionic arm, but instead of detectives they are now skip tracers (bail bondswomen, bounty hunters, whatever). Anyway, as far as a$# kicking, well, that is still their number one specialty. Issue one of their new series opens up with the ladies going after the Rhino, who has jumped bail. Colleen wrecks a car, Misty gets PO’d and goes all “uh-uh oh no you di’int” on Rhino, and the job is done. Cut to a robbery being committed by some really, really low tier marvel villains. Besides the Whirlwind, I never heard of any of them before (Eight Ball? Who the fu$# is Eight Ball?). Just so happens these villains all have warrants out on them. Enter Colleen and Misty. Oh yeah, it also just so happens these villains stole from the wrong person, and instead of calling the cops she calls her own “agent”. Yup. Wacky antics are about to ensue.

So I dig this book. Yeah, I’m a Misty and Colleen fan from back in the day (Jim Owsely’s (aka Christopher Priest’s) “Power Man and Iron Fist” RULED). I’m okay with the art, Colleen looks like a pouty anime chick and Misty looks like Pam Grier, but it’s all good. They are back, they are kicking a$#, and that is aiight. Old fans of the girls won’t be disappointed, and new fans, well, hopefully there will be some after they pick this book up.

Ultimate Extinction issue # (of 6
Marvel Comics
Written by: Warren Ellis
Drawn by: Brandon Peterson

Ultimate Extinction is the third part in Warren Ellis’s “Ultimate Trilogy”, which is all about the coming of Gha Lak Tus (that’s Galactus for you regular Marvel U folks). The first part, Ultimate Nightmare, was about the X-men and the Ultimates tracking down an alien distress signal from the dead of Siberia, they soon found out this beacon came from the “Ultimate Vision”, whose alien android body was being used by the Russians for all kinds of cold world nastiness. Sam Wilson (the “Ultimate Falcon”), who was on the recovery team is also a scientist, and Nick Fury charges him with figuring out what exactly this “Vision” was sent to Earth for. The second part, “Ultimate Secret”, I actually will review later in the tpb, so I guess you can just read that for a recap/review of that storyline. Then as a back up story in recent “Ultimate Marvel” books, the story of the Vision is told (who turns out to be a she). The Vision is on Earth to warn it’s populace of Gha Lak Tus, the world destroyer, she was created by one of the worlds he destroyed and then sent out into space to warn other worlds of his coming. Apparently there is nothing you can do to stop the coming of Gha Lak Tus, and she suggestions to Sam Wilson the populace of Earth get out while the gettings good, which brings us to the last part of the trilogy, Ultimate Extinction.

“Extinction” opens with Sam Wilson, Captain Marh-vell and Reed Richards briefing Nick Fury on how exactly Gha Lak Tus is going to destroy the Earth. Think Armageddon, but with rioting, poison gas and damn. It’s like Ellis just thought up of the nastiest ways to kill off the Earth’s population and put them to paper. Anyway, cut to something you wouldn’t expect. Misty Knight (yes, “ultimate Misty Knight, sigh) is a private detective with a bionic arm who was just hired to find a rich dude’s wife who was apparently skirted away by a charismatic leader of a money-hungry cult. Misty tracks down said wife, but finds a weird silvery naked dude has taken her (hmmm…). Then there is a gun battle and a bald chick. Yeah, I wasn’t expecting that either…

The “Ultimate Trilogy” kicks a$# in my humble opinion. It is the first big crossover of the Ultimate Universe, we got the Fantastic Four, the Ultimates, and the X-men. Captain Mahr-vell, Carol Danvers, Misty Knight, yeah, things are cooking in the Ultimate Marvel U. Yes, there are plenty of Ultimate haters out there, fine, hate away, but this is seriously some of the best stuff to come from the house of ideas in a long, long time, and if you don’t want to pick it up, well, that’s your prerogative, but I for one will be buying every issue, and the trades, and will enjoy every minute of it.

Sam Wilson · 01-11-2006, 09:06 PM

Tpb Reviews

Wktf’s Review

It’s Superman! A Novel
Written by: Tom De Haven
Chronicle Books

My wife surprised me with this novel as a gift last month. I’ve read a few comic book based novels, such as the novelized version of “Batman: No Man’s Land” or “Spider-Man: The Venom Factor,” both also gifts from my wife. They were okay but nothing entirely special. This book, though, is different as hinted by its cool cover: a ground-level view of a Superman at the apex of his leap over an illustrated city’s skyscrapers, the book’s title looping along the left of the cover and into the center in the trajectory of the Man of Steel’s flight. Inside is equally enjoyable coming-of-age Superman story. If you’ve read John Byrne’s “Man of Steel,” Loeb/Sales’ “Superman For All Seasons” and/or Mark Waid’s “Superman: Birthright” you may be wondering why you should bother with yet another coming-of-age Superman story, and one not even illustrated at that. Well, I’ve read all of those too and had the same thoughts. But, as I said, my wife bought me this book so I had to read it and, fortunately, was pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed it! It grabbed me from the beginning, kept my interest all the way through, sucked me right into the characters (many of them new to me), developed several disparate and intriguing plot lines which eventually all wove together perfectly and provided the requisite action and adventure every good Superman tale should have, even if the costumed Superman himself doesn’t appear for the first 250 or so pages. Despite its 425 pages, I finished it in just a couple of days.

This story could well be a parallel universe Superman tale. Certain elements remain true to the Superman canon but there’s plenty different about it, too. In fact, on the very last page, the narration even acknowledges this different take on Superman, stating, “And here, at last, is the point where our version of the story merges with all of the others…” To start, Superman does grows up as Clark Kent in Smallville, KS. He is the adopted son of Jonathan and Martha Kent and did, apparently, crash land on Earth from another planet (though the word “Krypton” is never mentioned) as a baby. Lex Luthor is the villain and becomes Clark’s adversary. Lois Lane is Clark’s rival and the eventual (but not the first) object of his affection. The Daily Planet is their paper and Perry White is the editor. However, this story takes place during the mid-to-late1930s, when Seigel and Shuster launched their ground breaking character. The plot lines involving Lois and Lex (and, eventually, Clark) take place in New York City, not Metropolis. Lex is a city Alderman and, hence, a politician as well as a career criminal mastermind. Clark starts out as a sullen Midwestern Depression-era hayseed teen, trying to find his way in life, much less eventually the big city. And Clark’s other supporting cast include a clutch of photographers, nurses, jazz singers, crooks, cops and others who’ve never made their way into any DC Comic I know. Much of this book centers on Clark’s trying to find his place in the world and how to make the best use of his fantastic abilities. He’s not the Boy Scout we know from the comics and his moral compass even seems imbalanced more than once. Lois works like a dog to be at the top of her game in a man’s world and goes from ditsy to tough. Lex Luthor, though, is one seriously scary sonofa*****. He is cool, calculating and a cold blooded killer. His goals include nothing less than world domination and manipulation of everyone he knows.

Some pleasant moments for me, in particular, were when the novel brought to mind other medias’ takes on Superman. For starters, with Lex’s every confident and calculating word I could hear Clancy Brown’s perfectly sonorous baritone from his take on the same character in the Superman Animated Series. When Clark dons his costume and he launches himself into his first battle with Lex’s robot “Lexbots” De Haven seems to give a nod to the Fleischer Studio’s “Mechanical Monster” cartoon from their 1940s animated Superman shorts. Plus, Superman’s red “S” chest emblem sits on a black background, as in the Fleischer cartoons. And, finally, as with many of the other early Superman stories I mentioned previously, all roads lead to Superman’s life long enmity with Luthor and of course to the relationship between Lois, Superman and Clark. After Clark’s father dies there is a moment between Clark and Lois that finally gives both him and the reader hope for the two of them.

To sum it up, I thought this book delivered the goods in a time, place and style that are very different than what I’ve read before in a Superman story. It won’t win any Pulitzers like “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay” (which, yeah, okay, my wife bought me), but if De Haven writes a sequel I’ll be sure to buy it…and on my own this time.

Sam Wilson’s Review

Ultimate Secret
Marvel Comics
Written by: Warren Ellis
Drawn by: Steve McNiven and Tom Raney

Ultimate Secret is the second book in the Warren Ellis “Ultimate Trilogy”. The first part, “Ultimate Nightmare”, featured members of the “Ultimates” and the “Ultimate X-men” tracking a psychic signature to Russia, where they find the “Ultimate Vision” (you know the synthesoid). It turns out he was an alien construction and was sent to Earth to warn us of the coming threat of Gha Lak Tus. Ultimate Secret thus far has taken place at a SHIELD aerospace development section in New Mexico where an experimental spacecraft (the Asis craft) meant to take mankind to the stars was being tested, and then subsequently attacked by an alien force. To save the ship, Dr. Phillip Lawson, a civilian member of the project, intervened and revealed to Nick Fury and the gang that he was really Captain Mahr Vel of the Kree Void Navy (yup, an alien) sent to Earth to monitor its eventual destruction by Gha Lak Tus. Of course Mahr Vel ended up liking it here, so he joined the Asis project in hopes of helping the humans advance quicker so they could deal with the Gha Lak Tus menace when it came to fruition. All this and we get the “ultimate” version of Carol Danvers, who is the air bases chief of security. To help make light of current development, Nick Fury has called in Iron Man, Thor, and the Fantastic Four. Fury breaks down the impeding world destruction for the team, and Mahr Vell adds that his people have information on how to deal with Gha Lak Tus, and soon a plan is hatched to gather this info and to save the world.

The rapid fire, witty science laden dialogue from Ellis is top notch as always, he seems even more on fire here than he has anywhere else recently. Reed Richards and Tony Stark are great together, and Ellis really makes both of them shine. In fact, all the characters interactions really stand out in this issue, Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm with Thor, Sue Storm and Tony Stark, Nick Fury and Mahr Vell, all of their dialogue is truly wonderful, and then Tom Raney as the new penciller, what really needs to be said about that? As always, we are delivered the top-notch quality and care we have come to expect from Mr. Raney and all his work since his first days on “Stormwatch”. So if you are an Ultimates fan, and haven’t checked out Ellis’ “Ultimate Trilogy” yet, pick up the Ultimate Nightmare tpb and grab the tpb of “Ultimate Secret”. It is readily in print and available for $12.99 (cheap!). You won’t be disappointed

Sam Wilson · 01-11-2006, 09:45 PM

any ultimate fans besides jdh and me?

Anyone else reading DMZ? Thoughts?

**wktf** · 01-12-2006, 01:47 AM

Fan of The Ultimates, here. But that's the only Ultimate title I buy now. I've dabbled in other like FF, Spidey, Team-Up, and others. Love Ultimates! Never miss it!

Justin · 01-12-2006, 02:30 AM

I'm really enjoying all of the current Ultimate titles I'm reading, X-Men, Ultimates & FF.. They all have really great storylines and spectaular art!

Sam Wilson · 01-12-2006, 08:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Justin

I'm really enjoying all of the current Ultimate titles I'm reading, X-Men, Ultimates & FF.. They all have really great storylines and spectaular art!

Have you been able to check out any of the Ultimate Trilogy?

Justin · 01-12-2006, 08:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam Wilson

Have you been able to check out any of the Ultimate Trilogy?

Not as yet mate but after reading your review I'm going to pick up the 2 TPD's, I've had a look on ebay with out any success so I'm going to make a few phone calls to some stores in the city tomorrow, fingers crossed!

JDH · 01-12-2006, 08:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wktf

Fan of The Ultimates, here. But that's the only Ultimate title I buy now. I've dabbled in other like FF, Spidey, Team-Up, and others. Love Ultimates! Never miss it!

In my humble opinion, wktf, you are missing out. For me, The Ultimates is consistently the weakest of the four Ultimate ongoings - it's the only one that lingers low down in my must-read list. It's also the only one weaker than its MU counterpart, for me. The best Spidey, X and FF stories these days happen with an Ultimate on the cover. Fingers crossed Loeb's run will be more to my liking without sacrificing any of your enjoyment.

Sam Wilson · 01-12-2006, 09:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdh.goodgrief

In my humble opinion, wktf, you are missing out. For me, The Ultimates is consistently the weakest of the four Ultimate ongoings - it's the only one that lingers low down in my must-read list. It's also the only one weaker than its MU counterpart, for me. The best Spidey, X and FF stories these days happen with an Ultimate on the cover. Fingers crossed Loeb's run will be more to my liking without sacrificing any of your enjoyment.

hmm, I wonder if U. X-men will show up in ultimate nightmare?

SPOILER WARNING

W/ the apperance of Ultimate Misty Knight, that series really is off with a bang...

JDH · 01-12-2006, 10:05 AM

In the remarkable success story that is Ultimate Marvel, one chink in the armour has been constant throughout - superb ongoing series supplemented by, at best, middling, and, at worst, wretchedly superfluous limited series. So, it was more out of habit than expectation that I kept my Ultimate complete run going with the Gah Lak Tus trilogy. Gladly, it's a remarkable improvement in form for all the reasons Sam cites. Captain Mahr Vel (I have to admit I don't care a Victor Van Damme for all these Ultimate name changes...) is one of the more engaging characters to appear in the Ultimate U, certainly better value than any individual put forward in the Ultimates series. I hope there are plans for him to stick around. I'm not a big fan of cosmic stories or outlandish science in my comic books, but Ellis makes it engaging even for me. If Marvel makes Annihilation in its main universe this enjoyable, it will be a triumph.