Phillip Kelly (186)
Those that loved getting their heads twisted around in their youth by the likes of Stephen King should be running to the shelves to find Colder: Toss the Bones. Every month, I wait for the opportunity to open the first page of the newest issue by Paul Tobin and Juan Ferreyra just to see where they take me.
Based on the highly popular video game, Dragon Age: Magekiller (and it hurts me to say this) feels like your typical Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying adventure. There’s some fighting and then the cooler-than-cool characters are brought into an adventure that they may or may not want to take.
After reading James Tynion IV and Eryk Donovan’s first issue of Cognetic, I went back and read (and highly favorably reviewed) the first arc in this thematically related series of stories, Memetic, and it really got under my skin.
I only have an inkling of what occurred before this issue, what seems to be a continuing story beginning its next chapter. I will say it takes a certain dedication to want to bring someone back from Hell to make sure they are punished by your hands.
The title of the book doesn’t lie. Postal Dossier #1 is really just that, a few pages of exposition introducing a reason for a dossier to exist, and then there’s about fourteen pages of classified files. I realized the further I got into it that this is one of those things creators will publish so that people starting fresh with their book several issues in will get a clear picture of what’s happening. I have never read an issue of Postal by Matt Hawkins, but now I know what it’s about.
Sons of the Devil is one of my favorite series being published currently, and after having read the collection of the first five issues (and some interesting bonus stories), I feel bad. Going along, there were details I mis-remembered. Incorrect details written into reviews about previous issues. First, let me apologize to the creators for those mistakes. Secondly, let me say that the way those details were written were far better than the way I remembered.
The premise alone of Last Sons of America is promising and smartly rolled out on the very first page. In recent American history, a terrorist attack occurred using “Agent Pink” (chemical and biological warfare). This dropped the birthrate to practically zero among US households. The “Mother’s Plague” it’s called. We learn this from brothers, one cannily resembling Peter Dinklage, who are in Mexico making a monetary offer to a family for one of their children. A young girl who could make a lot of money on the new and booming adoption market. This is legal. They are a new brand of adoption agents. In fact, the parents sign documents making it completely official; however, a lot of children have been taken illegally, resulting in missing children cases and a wary eye being directed at not only America but men like our two heroes just trying to make an honest buck.
I’ve found Cullen Bunn to be a very interesting writer in the comic book world. He pops up everywhere, at any company he can get on board with. His books seem to keep an emphasis on horror and monsters, but not your typical blood-soaked slasher junk. He seems to focus on the myths and what actually makes these stories frightening – which has opened the path from writing Deadpool to Moon Knight over at Marvel. With his recent Deadpool’s Secret Secret Wars, he managed to inject a welcome dosage of pathos into a character that often produces laughs from me.
The most disappointing moment in the third issue of Kevin Panetta and Paulina Ganucheau’s Zodiac Starforce comes on the very last panel, when they declare “To be concluded!” . . . next issue.
I got really excited reading the first issue of Citizen Jack, because I love satire. Not just satire. Good satire. Satire that has a strong point of view, is relevant, and with characters that not only jump but tumble off the page in all their awkward glory.
