Comic releases of 6/15/11
Hey all, time for another fun round of comic reviews. This is a much bigger week, 3 non DC/Marvel titles are in this week, a new Godzilla Mini-series, and Kirby Genesis kicks off. Also this week I have looked through the 52 new issues announced from DC and I have made my picks for NEW issues, not counting the titles I already read and they are just slapping on a fresh new #1. I will post those new issues right after the DC reviews. Let’s begin the reviews
Comics: Avengers Academy #15, Avengers #14, Deadman and the Flying Grayson’s #1, Godzilla: Gangsters and Goliaths #1, Grodd of War #1, Invincible Iron Man #505, Kirby Genesis #1, Legion of Doom starring Fire Wave #1, Power Girl #25, Teen Titans #96, Wonder Woman and the Female Furies #1
DC comics
Top Pick of the week: Deadman and the Flying Graysons #1
Abridged Story: Set in the alternate world of Flashpoint, Boston Brand is the main attraction along with the Grayson Family in a traveling circus along with other familiar faces. They are trapped in Europe after the events of the earthquake. Boston sees himself as the star attraction and doesn’t want to help others while Dick Grayson and his family are more connected and friendly to the others. Boston tries to help Dr. Fate but gets strange visions of the old reality and the future death of someone he knows. As they begin to perform a group of Amazon’s come to seek an item of great importance.
Review: One of my favorite characters when reading Brightest Day was Boston Brands story, his story of redemption and his ultimate reward was both beautiful and tragic, here in this new story line and world, Boston is a bit of a dick, but that’s what makes it so much better. Here in this story he is about the ego, that he is the better daredevil in his mind, that he’s the main reason why people go to the circus at all. The big turn of him seeing visions from Dr. Fate was pretty interesting, so we can connect that mystical based heroes and villains know of the old world, yet it’s still vague to them since this world is so overpowering and dangerous. The weirdest part was the Amazon scouts after a certain item, there’s not much mention as to why they need it or not even a mention of them in the area looking for something. Overall there is not that much action yet the moments with Deadman and the Graysons doing their acrobatics is really cool. One thing I would have love to have seen was a fortune teller machine with Zatanna, like the one in Big…just would have been funny in my opinion.
Artwork: The cover of this is fantastic; it’s done in a style similar to the circus promotional posters, much like the ones you see of Houdini. The interior artwork is done really well also. The look and designs of the costumes for Boston and Dick are the same as their old world counterparts with a bit of redesign. Boston’s mask is clearly redesigned and it looks more like a skull that just a pale faced man. Dick Grayson is back in the classic Nightwing outfit with the mask having more of a redesign, along with his family sharing the look with different colors.
Grade: A-
Quick Reviews
Grodd of War #1: Grodd fights Con-gorilla, owns all of Africa, goes to Cape Town and stops a group of kids from killing him. A strange and very quick one-shot, a lot happens but nothing really concludes. It has a cliffhanger ending but just a one-shot. Very brutal and bloody though, it’s more gruesome than the others. Artwork is nice. C+
Legion of Doom Starring Heatwave #1: A villain named Heatwave is defeated by Cyborg and is taken to a place called the Legion of Doom, where here it’s a prison for criminals. Didn’t find this story that engaging, the villain isn’t a fun one, he’s a maniac. Artwork is not that bad. C-
Power Girl #25: Power Girl and Batman continue to battle the weather powered Arab man. This is a very touching, sad, and uplifting. The artwork looks gorgeous. A-
Teen Titans #96: Beast boy and Solstice battle the ten headed demon dude. Great action moments throughout the issue, and is one of the better team books still. Artwork continues to be impressive. B+
Wonder Woman and the Female Furies #1: We find out how the war started a wedding gone wrong. This piece was necessary but the cover is totally misleading. Good artwork and the story were engaging. B+
Now for the new #1’s that will be coming this September: Blue Beetle, Catwoman, Swamp Thing, Justice League, Justice League Dark, Justice League International, Supergirl, Aquaman, Captain Atom, The Flash, Action Comics and DC Presents
Marvel Comics
Top Pick of the Week: Invincible Iron Man #505
Abridged Story: Tony continues to do battle with the god powered Gray Gargoyle in France, and he isn’t even putting a dent into him. Just as al hopes seems lost, he gets rescued by Detroit Steel and War Machine but there heavy handed attacks don’t put a dent in him either. Tony manages to cut Gray Gargoyle’s head but it doesn’t kill, just heavily damaged both of them. Tony flies back to meet up with Pepper and a new character and heads out for repairs, carrying with him an old demon.
Review: Out of all the titles that have FEAR ITSELF attached to them, this one feels the most with actual conflict and a true demonstration of a character who is finally taken down by something better than him, usually they overcome it and defeat the villain, but not here. FEAR ITSELF is the ultimate no holds bar, kick in the teeth deconstruction of the Marvel Characters, especially with Tony Stark. Matt Fraction has finally given us this powerful and dark story line where Tony Stark loses not just in body but in mind and ego. The use of Detroit Steel was a nice distraction and we do see a downer of his ending and War Machine is in one panel and that’s it. The ending of Tony going back to an vice was the big twist I’m very interested to see how it will affect his future in this battle.
Artwork: The art in this series continues to be impressive. The cover features god power infused Gray Gargoyle hitting down Iron Man, a very fitting metaphor. The action scenes in this story is some of the best, we get to see fun new features of Tony’s new power suit, which was here and there before this but we see a very cool new one.
Grade: A+
Quick Reviews
Avengers Academy #15: The kids are brought into FEAR ITSELF and do battle with the mechs, Giant Man comes in to help but gets stopped by an old foe. This issue is very great, full of action and great scenes. The dialogue is impressive. A-
Avengers #14: Red Hulk battles the god power infused Thing and gets his red ass handed to him. A very fun action packed issue, just pure battle and small exposition but the scale of this battle is great. A
Other Comics
Godzilla: Gangsters and Goliaths #1
Abridged Story: An innocent Japanese police officer is about to be killed on a boat, he flees his captors and heads to MONSTER ISLAND. He runs around trying to avoid the giant familiar monster faces. He gets saved by a group of peaceful people on the island and takes two tiny familiar girls with him back to Japan to prove his innocence.
Review: Much like my fellow Godzilla aficionado Destroyer14 this was mini-series we weren’t expecting this right away since the mainstream continuity is just getting started. Yet I can agree with him that this new mini-series is much nicer and well done. The world in this separate continuity establishes that there is a Monster Island and they are common amongst the world. The story about a man out to prove his innocence is a nice inclusion because they make the character have sympathy and believable unlike in Kingdom of Monsters where the world was full of satires and parodies from our own world, like the Lady Gaga or the black President. Here this issue and world make the characters very believable and full of depth and emotion. The moments with Godzilla, despite how brief it is for just this issue was great, with the battle between Mothra. The best way to describe this mini-series is that it’s a mixture between the Heisei and Showa movies and to me that is a nice blend.
Artwork: This is has some great artwork. The cover of the issue is beautiful, one of the best covers I have seen. The cover features Godzilla, Mothra, Angirius, King Ghidorah, Kumonga, and small pterodactyls flying around them. You can also see the size differentials between the people and the Giant monsters. The interior artwork is a bit mixed. I like the brighter colors and the classical desgins of the monsters; they put in a lot of detail with Monster Island, full of bright colors and scenery, the small touches with some of the monsters in the background or the foreground. However the human characters have a slight cartoonish design to them, they look very over the top with some of the choices they have made with the villains.
Grade: A-
Kirby Genesis #1
Abridged Story: We are introduced to Kirby a nerdy guy and Bobbi his happy go lucky platonic female friend as they are about to go to a party until two giant people hover about the city, a giant flash happens and they begin to see the world changing rapidly. The world is suddenly being visited by various aliens all making camp and preparing for something. Bobbi becomes a casualty in this as her body is possessed by a heroine (?) named Midnight Swan.
Review: The big draw to this new series is that these heroes and villains were all designed by the late, great Jack Kirby and the way this story establishes them in this world feels good but of course has some issues. I do love the idea of the world suddenly being quickly populated by super powered beings and the world trying to keep up with it all, yet at the same time we still don’t know much about them other than that they might have been on Earth before, obviously a nice subtle touch of Jack Kirby influence since it was known that Jack Kirby believed in the Ancient Astronaut theory. I like this is establishing a new world of heroes and villains that could rival Marvel and DC, so let’s hope to see this new title develop and blossom.
Artwork: The artwork is pretty nice. The cover that I got, there was quite an amount of them, I got one that features various Jack Kirby characters in cool poses. The inner artwork has some nice moments of fandom, there is a flash back with very cartoon, almost Bruce Timm like. The one thing that makes this series very interesting in terms of the character designs is that they feel like Jack Kirby characters brought to life in the comics world, they have the look and feel of his artwork just with some better styling under the artist.
Grade: B-
So that’s all for this week friends, hope you enjoyed reading my reviews. I will catch you all later, ComicCritic87 OUT!!!!