If there was one comic I was looking forward to this month, it was ’68 Rule of War #2: A Man of Wealth and Taste. The second issue in this four-part series from Image Comics picks up right where #1 left off and continues in the positive direction of the fantastically frightening storyline with incredible art that steals the show.
When I heard that RoboChuck #2 had come out, I jumped at the opportunity to read it . . . and I was not let down. Chris Callahan packs in all the crafted artwork, zany, yet lovable, characters, and non-stop laughs of the first issue - and then some. RoboChuck is showing promise to be a series that will continue to maintain its quality and dare I say . . . like a fine wine, maybe even get better with each issue as you meet and fall in love with all of the characters.
“No favorite of mine!”
-- Avery Brooks on this episode
The most bracing thing about the Trek universe is how different the basic pitches for each show are. TOS is about one tiny ship exploring a huge and terrifying galaxy. TNG is about the flagship of a mighty utopia, juggling exploration and diplomacy with aplomb. DS9 was a highly serialized space opera, dealing with the dark side of utopia. Voyager was a lost vessel, a survival adventure against the backdrop of unexplored space. Yet, for the first season, every Star Trek show thinks it’s the one before it. Voyager featured a mutiny, some imported villains from DS9, and the kind of skullduggery that a lost ship really can’t afford. TNG had cheeseball sets, unconvincing bad guys, and scripts that seemed to date from the ‘60s. It’s not just that the first season thinks it’s the show previous, it’s that it thinks it’s only the bad parts of that show. This brings me to “Move Along Home,” this week’s episode of DS9, which really feels like a bad TNG episode.
Roadkill du Jour is a strange pun of a title for a series about a cursed biker who has lost his gang and been hexed to only eat what dies on the road for eternity. See, roadkill doesn’t just refer to animals killed on the road, and du jour doesn’t only mean the roadkill special of the day; our main character is named Dujour, and his former biker gang was named Roadkill. Alone and tormented by the loss of his wife Vanessa, Dujour rides the back roads of Louisiana eating dead critters and absorbing their abilities while he tries to rebuild his gang and find a way to take Mama Houdou, the magic user who hexed him, down for good; however, the magic queen has her eye on the wayward biker, and she plans to meet him halfway to keep Dujour from ever being able to leave the roads behind.
Telling the story of a new comic hero in a new world can be hard. How do you handle the necessary exposition and develop your characters while maintaining pace and capturing the attention of your audience? A lot of first issues struggle with this, and some just knock it right out of the park. Happily, I can say that Quixote by Deron Bennett is from the latter category. He manages to introduce his title character, Quixote, his sidekick, the villain, and the backstory that will support this new world all in the first issue, while leaving room for a wonderful fight sequence and a great cliffhanger. This book is everything you would want in a first issue. Exposition is delivered in bits of snappy dialogue between characters that not only sets the plot in motion, but gives you an insight into their motivation and background. Bennett manages to build a great, new fantasy setting with bits of sci-fi, introduces his cast of characters, and delivers on the action all at one time without sacrificing any one element for the others, and that is just the writing.
Years after the end of the world, a group of totally radical vigilantes called the Killjoys waged a war against the oppressive corporation, BLI. They sacrificed themselves to save the young Girl traveling with them. A decade later, she must face the impossible might of BLI.
Things are not looking good for John Connor and the human race with this sixth installment of Terminator Salvation: The Final Battle. This issue rocks with lots of action and more character development, as we see more sides to Dr. Kogan, John Connor, and serial killer Thomas Parnell.
I’m going to do something different with this review. I’ll write it using only quotes from Black Dynamite #2. This should give you all the reason in the world to buy it. (Anything in italics is from the comic.)
Zombies. Specters. Demons. Werewolf Druids. Dinosaurs.
Okay, seriously, the In the Dark Horror Anthology has everything that a horror junkie could possibly want from the genre. The anthology is comprised of twenty-four short stories that each put their own spin on their interpretation of horror and suspense. The creative teams featured in this collection range from comic veterans to fresh meat, but what’s truly amazing about In the Dark is that the differences in the experience levels of those involved aren’t even noticeable as readers jump from story to story.
Grab your doughnuts and high-powered weaponry, kiddies, because we’re going after the sixty billion double dollar man in the third omnibus collection of Trigun Maximum.
