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Post by Dizzy D on Jun 3, 2018 2:48:26 GMT -5
The Wildstorm #11 by Warren Ellis (writer) and Jon Davis-Hunt (artist), Steve Buccellato (Colourist) and Simon Bowland (letterer).
The Cover: The CAT teleporting into an IO facility, including Grifter, Savant, John Colt and Adrianna.
Page 1-2: Jenny and the Doctor have been sleeping together. Jenny's bedsheets have the Wonder Woman logo on them. Jenny concludes that the Doctor and herself are anomalies that neither Skywatch nor I.O. know about and she knows about more of them. Her theory is that these anomalies are necessary to protect regular humanity once I.O. and Skywatch go to war.
Page 3-5: Zealot is tracking and bugging Mitchell Canon (the tracking program is called Ambush Bug, a reference to the DC character). Also Uber is called Overshare in this world, but that's less relevant. Mitch gives the rough outline of their attack on Skywatch, masking their attack with a fake attack of North Korean bugs invading Satellite Communications.
Page 6-7: Bendix explains to Lauren why the treaty exists: neither side can affort the mass destruction an outright war would cause, but more importantly, I.O.'s control over Earth is not complete and a lot of governments exist outside their influence, unaware of either I.O. and Skywatch. In case of war those groups will retaliate and they outnumber both Skywatch and I.O.
Page 8-14: A flashback as Bendix tells Lauren about Science City Zero in the 70s. Science City Zero were introduced in the old Wildstorm Universe in Plantary as a place where either the government or the forces behind the screens (The Four) were performing experiments on human subjects to create superhumans. This time it was a Soviet/I.O. cooperation. Skywatch uses their flying saucer type spaceships to attack the facility as it included spacelaunch facilities, breaking the treaty, but the facility was well-armed and more of a threat than expected. In the end the battle ends with one saucer surviving (with Bendix on it) and 35 I.O. personnel in Science City Zero surviving, among them John Lynch. Bendix tells Lauren that this attack was what caused John Lynch's eye to go blank. In the old universe, Lynch also lost an eye.
Page 15: Miles Craven gives Jackie King the go ahead to dataraid Skywatch.
Page 16-19: Angie has worked on her nanobots and is experimenting with the upgraded version. She changes again and this time her base form looks a lot more like the old universe Engineer. The changes also cause her far less pain and no bleeding.When she manifestsd the outer armour this time she does notice a lack of blood pressure (which always was an interesting part: if she uses her blood to manifest armour, what happens to the blood inside her body?)
Page 20: Kenesha and Cash are talking about their plans to attack I.O. During the conversation Cole gets a message.
Page 21-22: The message came from Zealot. It's obvious the two are still close like in the old universe (she warns him when he touches her, but she does smile at him later, so their relationship might have been romantic like it was in the old books). She warns him that IO knows he's alive and that they believe he's working for Skywatch now. She also taught Cole much about fighting like in the original universe. When she leaves she tells him to remind Marlowe (she does not like him) and give her regards to Kenesha. (unclear if they are still sisters, but the two of them obviously have a relationship).
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Post by Dizzy D on Jun 3, 2018 2:07:18 GMT -5
I think for now I'll leave the Michael Cray series out of this thread, I'm still buying the series, but it's not very good and the old Wildstorm connections are sparse. Now back to a whole lot of catching up:
The Wildstorm #10 by Warren Ellis (writer) and Jon Davis-Hunt (artist), Steve Buccellato (Colourist) and Simon Bowland (letterer).
The Cover: Zealot standing on a roof, surrounded by flying crows.
Page 1-6: Like I noticed before, Kenesha is a lot more violent/murderous in this world, this time she's obsessed with explosions. Grifter notes that she has "Mad Savant" episodes (but in the end his plan does include bombs to Kenesha's joy). They convince Angie to assist them by using her nanotech to deliver the bomb. A potential old Wildstorm reference/link: Kenesha is searching the I.O. database for the keyphrase "Machine Telepathy". An old Wildstorm character that had those powers was the Drummer from Planetary, another Warren Ellis' creation. We might be seeing him.(But it can also just be research into Angie's powers).
Page 7-11: Bendix recaps the first issue of Michael Cray for us. He also thinks that Space Reptilians are the source of Michael's powers. Lauren is sceptical, but knowing the Daemonites are still around and who knows what the Kherans are below their human disguises, Bendix may very well have a point. Also Bendix orders the death of an IO Analysis agent.
Page 12-17: Jenny Sparks and the Doctor discuss Jenny's backstory. Jenny is older than a 100 years this time, so "Century Babies" is no longer a good description for her. Looking at Jenny's map, the Doctor does not think any of it is true, so she is not aware of I.O. or Skywatch. Jenny tells her that she was once part of it (presumably Skywatch, knowing old Jenny's links to Stormwatch, but characters have been moved around her; Jackie King for instance). In return Jenny does not seem to know about the Daemonites (apart from some rumours). The Doctor tells Jenny that she was created by the Daemonites in a device that looks like a large mechanical heart.
Page 18-21: We are introduced to the Mayor. People around him think that he's a crazy homeless guy, but the Mayor is this world's version of Jack Hawksmoor, another Ellis creation. Hawksmoor got his powers from alien experimentation (though one issue by another writer had the idea that the aliens were actual future humans). He has a link to human cities and can teleport between them, talk to them and influence them. The Mayor pretty much has the same powers so far in his short scene, including the rubber souls grown on his bare feet.
Page 22: Priscilla Kitaen witnesses the Mayor teleporting out and confirms that she has been having visions. She just thought they were weird ideas and used them in her music and art, but now realizes that they are real. (We also get a reference to another DJ called Beast Boy, an obvious reference to the DC character from Doom Patrol and Titans).
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Post by Dizzy D on May 28, 2018 5:30:45 GMT -5
Work has been crazy lately, so I have not been posting a lot, but I've been reading a lot. So short impressions of a bunch of titles (there were more, but I don't have them lying around here):
Zorglub #1: Munuera returns to Spirou. I was not a fan of his previous run on the main title, though I've liked some of his other work. This time it's a spin-off starring Spirou's megalomanic,but still sympathetic adversary, the great Zorglub. This title works for me though: we see Zorglub in a new role: the overprotective father who has to deal with his teenage daughter discovering boys. There are some hints of Despicable Me here with a super-villain having to deal with a family, but it's different enough for me to enjoy. The twist I saw coming, but overall it's a nice enough comic and I will be buying #2.
Hel #2: Franka's artist/writer Henk Kuijpers after about 40 years, finally created another title (only writing this time), the adventures of Hel (short for Helen), but he has left the title as fast as he came and the new writer, Frank Jonker takes over in issue #2. Immediately there are some changes noticeable, Hel's friend, roommate (and perhaps potential love interest?) Angelo, leaves the title for a temp job far, far away and is replaced by his cousin Julia. For a title that promised a lot of travelling (premise of the series is Hel, a young thief finds a suitcase from an old professor filled with answers to the world's greatest mysteries and treasures), Hel and Julia stay the whole issue within the Netherlands. Julia is a good addition to the series, complementing Hel in many ways. The art-style is inspired by Kuijpers, though I do think that Kuijpers is far better. Overall a resounding, well, it's all right I guess. I'll keep following the series, but I don't anticipate it like I do new issues of Franka.
Dark Souls: the Breath of Andolus: Not really an European comic, but it was published by Titan and the UK is still in Europe for now. I really enjoy the games, but I appreciate that the comic is not adapting the stories of the games, but creates a new story. For those not into videogames, Dark Souls are video games developed by Japanese developer From Software. All games take place in a medieval fantasy world that is in decline; the Age of Fire that brought prosperity is slowly fading and the Age of Dark begins. The main characters are cursed with Undead: every time they die they come back alive, but less than they were before, doomed to slowly decay until they remember nothing. A few undead keep their humanity by focussing on a goal or quest and they do better for a time. The things that make Dark Souls interesting are threefold in my mind: 1. the gameplay is a large part and a comic book will not be able to capture that. 2. There is only very limited exposition, many players will move through the worlds of the games, not knowing what is going on and will need to piece the scraps of information gained from conversations and items together themselves. 3. Despite what the name implies, the Age of Dark might not be worse than the Age of Fire. The characters each have to decide whether they want to extend the Age of Fire (an unnatural interference in the natural order that has caused for many problems) or welcome the Age of Dark. It's implied that there is a neverending cycle of Ages of Fire and Darkness. Back to the book: The story in the book follows Fira, an Undead knight who has lost her family and hopes that by reigniting the flame she can reclaim all that she has lost. She is assisted by the seer Aldrich, who may have his own agenda and is manipulating Fira, using her ailing memory against her. The end result is bad though, maybe it's the difference in medium, but the story as presented on page does not work. There are also various references to the stories in the game, but they are all handled in a weird way: Aldrich for isntance, is a character from the third game, but as he's portrayed he's little in common with that character (both looks and personality) and the references to the games for these characters just end up more confusing. The artwork also is really uneven. All in all: not recommended, play the games instead. Aldo: A oneshot by Yannick Pelegrin. Aldo is a regular person. Aldo is also immortal. Aldo is also very very lonely. His immortality has isolated him from the world around him. Unlike many other immortals in stories, Aldo is not a great warrior battling other immortals, a wise wizard preparing humanity against a great evil or anything, he's just a regular guy (not very bright even). The story is Aldo going through his days in a melancholic state. Not a story for everybody, but I quite enjoyed it.
Lord of Burger: Arleston (of Lanfeust of Troy fame) creates a story about a brother and sister taking over their father's expensive restaurant after his death. Their father was one of the greatest chefs of France, but also a very controlling and a perfectionist so he pushed both of his children away from his path. Daughter Ambre still works for her father as a waitress, but her passion lies with swords and knives, creating ice sculptures with great skill. Son Arthur is also a very talented cook, but his act of rebellion is to work for a cheap fastfood chain. Their father has left his mark on them though: Arthur creates burgers with great skill and is as much a perfectionist as his father (much to the annoyance of his boss, because he's not following the instructions given). He has a small dedicated clientele though, who appreciate his burgers. There is also a mystery subplot: the death of their father was not an accident, but little is done with it in the first issue. The focus mostly is on Ambre and Arthur trying to keep the restaurant running despite the massive debt and most of the staff resigning. I really enjoyed the mixture of cartoony art and events with a basis of realistic situations. Highly recommended.
Tango: the Gringo lives in a small town in the middle of the Andes. Nobody knows his name and it's clear that he's laying low. He helps the people around him with odd jobs, has a relationship with the young widow who runs the local bar and seems to be satisfied with his lot in life. This ends when a couple of criminals attack Anselmo, a local man and his son Diego. The Gringo interferes and disarms the three criminals, but Anselmo kills them. The news reports that Anselmo has taken out the criminals by himself, but in other parts of the world, people have their doubts and an investigative team is sent. The story reminds me a lot of History of Violence, though the main character in this story is obviously hiding from something. The interesting twist I like is that all other main characters also have their own secrets. The artwork is well researched and looks great (think style XIII or Largo Winch.. which fits cause artist/co-writer Xavier has worked on XII as well). Recommended.
Sangre: Another Arleston, set in the usual tech-fantasy worlds that Arleston usually creates (Lord of Burger above excepted), Sangre is a young girl, the sole survivor of an attack by sky bandits on her family's airship. Sangre swears revenge, but is too young to take action yet. The monastery that takes her in, is far more than a religious facility it pretends to be though and Sangre discovers that she has special abilities, but using those abilities turns her temporarily blind. There were 8 bandits and Sangre takes revenge on the first one this issue, so the series will probably be 8 issues long, but Arleston does tend to get sidetracked from time to time with his other series, so who knows.
La Petite souriante: A dark comedy/drama/maybe even horror story? by Zidrou and Benoit Springer. Pepino, an ostrich farmer, kills his wife to be with his mistress, but as he returns home, his wife is alive and well and remembers nothing. It feels a bit like Tales of the Unexpected or the Twilight Zone. It's a oneshot story and the scenes of murder and plotting are interspersed with scenes about ostrich farming. The artwork is great, I especially love the cover. Recommended.
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Post by Dizzy D on Mar 24, 2018 12:53:10 GMT -5
Shirtless Bear Fighter is a classic for the ages! Royal City was boring and needed more explosions! Pop Gun War is brilliant and has some of my favorite comic covers ever! The wildly unlikeable protagonist of Snotgirl made the book nigh-unreadable! Also I Kill Giants is bad... for... some... reason and not because I really, really liked it but refuse to agree with Dizzy on anything! Ha, I said that Pop Gun War had brilliant art and you liked the covers, so I can't be the Anti-Cheeks anymore. I'll be now Bizarro_Bradley.
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Post by Dizzy D on Mar 23, 2018 4:23:59 GMT -5
But I am already the Anti-Cheeks.
More seriously, maybe if I reread Rock Candy Mountains I find it more interesting this time. It was also only the first issue, maybe if read in trade it would appeal more. Shirtless Bear Fighter will remain terrible though.
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Post by Dizzy D on Mar 22, 2018 9:33:27 GMT -5
I think themes might have been the wrong word. Both God Country and Aaron's Thor feature a mortal who is suffering from a fatal and debilitating disease. Both are chosen by a divine weapon that gives them power and temporarily negates the effects of the disease on their mortal body, but the weapon can not cure them and brings with it its own dangers. Both deal with gods who take umbrage with the divine weapon choosing a mortal over a god. What do do you think that scenario means to him, since he keeps going back to it? I'm just curious because so many people seem to rate his Thor run so highly. God Country is not by Aaron, I just mentioned Aaron's Thor because the similarities between both stories.
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Post by Dizzy D on Mar 20, 2018 2:21:55 GMT -5
- God Country: Emmett Quinn is dying from advanced Alzheimer's, but is cured of its effects when he is sought out by a magic sword (but only as long as he holds it). The gods that created the sword come to Earth to get it back, but Emmett is not willing to give up his last chance to be with his family. It's a short series, the first volume is the complete story. It's very good story and I love the art and designs. It kinda fits together with Aaron's run on Thor that deals with similar themes. Highly recommended. What were those themes, would you say (in Aaron's Thor, that is)? I think themes might have been the wrong word. Both God Country and Aaron's Thor feature a mortal who is suffering from a fatal and debilitating disease. Both are chosen by a divine weapon that gives them power and temporarily negates the effects of the disease on their mortal body, but the weapon can not cure them and brings with it its own dangers. Both deal with gods who take umbrage with the divine weapon chosing a mortal over a god.
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Post by Dizzy D on Mar 18, 2018 6:31:08 GMT -5
New Mutants #1 of 6: The New Mutants are back as a team of paranormal investigators (I don't think they are called the New Mutants in the issue itself and much of the team is straight out of X-Factor investigations). The first issue was pretty good, the team investigates a rising of the undead in a small town and the characters (Magik, Guido, Rictor, Boom-Boom and Wolfsbane) work well together. Continuity-wise a big thing from X-Factor is not addressed in this issue (apart from one small sentence in a description) and it's too big to gloss over, so I hope we see it addressed later on. The reveal of the team's new employer I enjoyed as well; a new direction for the character that I think fits well.
Overall recommended if you are a fan of the New Mutants/X-Men/X-Factor.
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Post by Dizzy D on Mar 17, 2018 17:12:55 GMT -5
Image Humble Bundle, final part.
Redneck: A small family of vampires live in a town in the south of the US, having decided to no longer feed on humans, but only on their own cattle. Their peace is disturbed when old rivalries with the town's preacher flame up again. Pretty good title, not my favourite of this bundle, but I might pick up more of this series.
Rock Candy Mountain: Two hobo's search for the legendary Rock Candy Mountain. Cartoonish art, but the story was not doing a lot for me.
Royal City: Written and drawn by Lemire. A family in Royal City has fallen apart after the death of the youngest son of the family. Each of the members still see the spirit of their dead child/brother but at different stages of his life. Not a fan of Lemire's artwork, but the writing is excellent, just not sure where they will be going in part 2, it feels like a title that could be told in 1 trade.
Scales and Scroundles: First issue and pretty promising at that. Light and fun fantasy story about a female thief who is also a dragon looking to start her hoard. Despite the legendary greed of a dragon, she is still sympathetic (as she parts with her last coin to give to a begging child). Enjoyed this a lot.
Shirtless Bear Fighter: This on the other hand, might be the worst comic I ever read. Don't know why I hated it so much, but bad comedy is worse to me than bad drama or superhero fiction and the whole comic feels like the creative team had 1 joke (and not a good joke at that). Artwork is not bad, but it does nothing to save this trainwreck of a title.
Snotgirl: I was not as big a fan of Scott Pilgrim as many other comic book lovers, but I finally got around to reading this title thanks to the humble bundle. Despite the offputting title, I found this title far better than I expected. Lottie is fashion blogger, living by her well-manufactured image (and desperatedly hiding her allergies from the outside world that would make her look less than perfect). Like Scott Pilgrim, the main character is an unreliable narrator so we never know what is real and what is her imagination/misinterpretation of events.
The Fuse: A sci-fi buddy cop story. The sci-fi elements could actually be removed from the story and little would change. The murder mystery is pretty straightforward with expected twists, but the characters and setting is well defined. Bonus points for the series though to have the main character being an elderly female detective. It's a decent title , just not enough to put it above the many other Image titles that are as good or better.
The Gravedigger's Union: This one was right up my alley though, probably my favourite of this batch (as in the comics that I talked about in this post. Not sure where it ranks in the complete Humble Bundle). The Union of gravediggers deal with monsters and keep them buried, the main characters are blue collar workers and this is just another job to them. The prologue would fit in a Mike Mignola comic. This is just the first issue, but I'll be picking up this trade.
The Realm: A post-apocalyptic story with some fantasy elements. Comparisons to Hinterkind come to my mind. Another first issue only. Writing and artwork are certainly not bad, but I think I'm getting tired of post-apocalyptic stories.
Void Trip: Another first issue only, two small criminals/drifters travel the stars, stealing fuel and doing drugs, not knowing they are pursued by a deadly hunter. I like the artwork and both of the main characters, but the first issue was not selling me on the story/concept.
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Post by Dizzy D on Mar 17, 2018 12:54:46 GMT -5
Pleasantly surprised to see Monstress charting that high (top 10). Had hoped to see Coates Black Panther charting higher, but it's still in the Top 100 more than once, so I can't complain.
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Post by Dizzy D on Mar 16, 2018 17:18:26 GMT -5
19/20 and amused that they mixed up Jon Stewart (who definitely is neither a Green Lantern nor African-American) with John Stewart. Only missed James Rhodes alias. I knew Blade was British due to him being part of Paul Cornell's MI13.
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Post by Dizzy D on Mar 12, 2018 3:03:44 GMT -5
I think we've done the first one before though with a different number of coins. Also odd that the fake coin weighs more than the rest (usually fake coins weigh less).
Amount of times you need to weigh: Round one: 16 coins left, 16 coins right, 18 coins held apart. If they balance, your coin is in the 18. Round two: 6 coins left, 6 coins right, 4 or 6 coins held apart. Round three: 2 coins left, 2 coins right, 2 held apart. Round four: 1 coin left, 1 coin right.
Can move the numbers around a little, but I think 4 is the minimum for this number.
Number 2: Don't know anything about Rochester, but I know a little about trains and usually the length is determined by a) how much passengers/cargo needs to be moved. b) the length of the platforms at each station it needs to stop. c) single-track or double track? (There are some places over here where there is still single track, so you need to have passage points for trains that go in different directions. That limits the amount of trains you can run at the same time, so usually you put in a longer train to compensate for that.
I don't think it's any of those though. More likely: d) We're dealing with a steam engine and those need a lot of fuel, heavy fuel. Still 20 cars of coal seems excessive.
Is the landscape particularly hilly around Rochester?
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Post by Dizzy D on Mar 9, 2018 5:00:51 GMT -5
Image Humble Bundle part 2 of ..some
Motorcrush: Batgirl's creative team does a series about illegal motorraces in the near future, centered around the illegal substance crush. First issue packs quite a bit of story in a first story. Art is good and lively. Not a series I would go out of my way to get, but it's a good read.
Mythic: I got this one in singles for a bit, but it just wasn't doing enough for me to continue (there were a lot of series out at that time and it just didn't make the cut). Basically Men in Black but for magic instead of aliens. Mythic is a group of historical heroes and supernatural beings that deal with supernatural problems. The big draw is John McCrea's art and designs. It's also a done-in-one and has some interesting twists. Recommended.
No 1 With A Bullet: Nash Huang is assistent on a major TV talkshow, whose life is shook up in one day. Just the one issue in this bundle, but we get a good idea of Nash's personality and regular life during this single issue plus the two events that mess up that life. Good pacing, not a big fan of the artstyle.
Outcast volume 2: Outcast volume 1 was the first thing of Robert Kirkman that I actually liked. Volume 2 continues that, but the pacing is hurting it a lot. Still like the concept, but I think another writer would do it better. But as I said, not a Kirkman fan.
Pop Gun War vol 1 and 2: I read this. I don't get what it is about. It's very surreal, but it is a continuing story that seems to be very stream of consciousness. The art is great, but it's definitely not for me.
Port of Earth: Earth has become a port for alien spaceships that need its water, in return humanity get some of the various aliens technology. As a intergalactic port-planet, humanity has trouble dealing with the often agressive aliens so a special port police is assigned to protect both humanity and the visiting aliens, but the deals favour the aliens far more than humanity. It's an interesting concept, especially for a sci-fi fan as me and like all good sci-fi, it's actually about our current world. Recommended.
Redlands: Starts in media res with a police station under siege by "monsters" known as the Ladies. The police has locked up the population of the town in their cells so they are not the heroes either. I did not like this, because nothing in this first issue is really selling you on a concept for the series. What's going to happen in issue 2? I guess now the Ladies have taken over the town of Redlands, it will be about the new community that is set there, but it's a lot of cryptic comments by the three Ladies.
More to follow once I get around to reading it.
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Post by Dizzy D on Mar 9, 2018 3:17:27 GMT -5
If it's a live-action series, it would sidestep the worst thing about Liefeld's work and he had the good sense to hire some good writers in the past years.
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Post by Dizzy D on Mar 7, 2018 4:36:43 GMT -5
When I pick up monthly/weekly batch of new comics, I usually start reading with the ones I like the least first and building up to the ones I want to read the most, occassionally skipping ones depending on time/mood (some titles are not easy to read late at night).
Humble Bundles I read alphabetically.
If I'm in the mood to read backissues, I usually pick a run I haven't read in a long time.
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