Comic Book Of The Week - The Punisher Army Of One - Review

This trade collects issues 1-7 of The Punisher Vol. 2, written by Garth Ennis and drawn by Steve Dillon with inks by Jimmy Palmioti.

 

This is a follow on story to Welcome Back, Frank, and as such a lot of the elements from that book are still prevalent here, although the main story arc in this trade is only 5 issues long as apposed to the first's 12, which makes for a much tighter and better paced story, one of my criticisms of the first book, that there wasn't enough emotion or jeopardy to hold a readers attention for 12 issues. But Ennis's fun writing and Dillon's almost cartoony drawings just work a whole lot better in this shorter format.

 

The story has a few follow on points and some returning characters from the last book so I would recommend reading that first but it's not like a part 2 or anything so it's not absolutely essential. The story revolves around The Punisher taking on an island of the toughest most dangerous mercenaries on the planet lead by a money hungry, bloodthirsty general, and crazy Punisher violence ensues, it goes from a stealthy jungle attack very reminiscent of the classic Rambo scene to just all out war, and it's all a blast. The only problem I had with this story was the treatment Ennis gave Spider-Man in issue 2, with The Punisher essentially using him as a human shield. When it's The Punisher or any of the other regular characters in this book getting pounded, kicked around or shot I don't mind in the slightest, firstly cause I never really cared for The Punisher, and secondly Ennis has created a world where you don't have to care, he doesn't invoke any emotional attachment to any character and the over the top violence he creates is almost comical so you can't really take it seriously, maybe it's just me being a huge fan of the wall crawler but his sudden appearance then the pummelling he has to take, it just felt distasteful to the character, who doesn't belong in Ennis's world . We all know Spider-Man from his own books where he can and does get hurt and where the reader cares what actually happens to him, so I just found issue 2 made me dislike The Punisher, both the comic and the character for the first time on Ennis's run. But again that could just be me.

 

Also in this trade you get a one issue story about an ex-army buddy of The Punisher going postal and how The Punisher deals with him and a silent issue written and drawn by Dillon which admittedly was the weakest issue so far and ends out the trade on an usually quiet and sombre note. Overall another good fun Punisher book, again entertaining in small doses, just don't expect anything too thought provoking.

 

The next comic book of the week will be Superman Red Son.

Comic Book Of The Week - The Punisher Welcome Back, Frank - Review

This trade collects The Punisher Vol. 3 issues 1-12, written by Garth Ennis, drawn by Steve Dillon and inked by Jimmy Palmioti.

This was the beginning of Ennis's run on The Punisher and boy does it start with a bang, the first issue sets up The Punisher as an absolute bad ass returning to take down crime in New York City, and it really grabbed my attention and made me forget any preconceptions I had about the character I just thought this comic is gonna be fun as hell.

 

 

The story has similarities in dialogue, violence and the absurdity that were prevalent in Ennis and Dillon's Preacher series, which really suit the character of The Punisher. If you've seen The Punisher movie( the one with John Travolta) you can tell this is one of the books the writers got a lot of their ideas from. But this comic doesn't play up the emotion that drives the character like the film does instead this comic is really just about fun, Ennis says as much in the foreword of the trade, and Dillon's slightly simple artwork and bright colours by Chris Sotomeyer really add to the cartoony feel of the book. It's hyper violent but in a playful way, you never feel worried about Frank Castle getting his head smashed in with a fridge door or someone getting striped to the bone by piranhas, it's just funny. I don't know if Ennis is trying to make a comment on the desensitisation of violence or how comics have become to realistic especially in their portrayal of violence. Maybe neither, either way the violence in this comic is so exaggerated I couldn't take it seriously and it just added to the over the top fun of it all.

 

 

The issue covers are done by Tim Bradstreet, one of which is used as the cover for the trade, they portray a much darker,realistic Punisher in direct opposition to Dillon's panel work. The covers create an expectation in your mind of the usual serious, sombre Punisher story, which is instantly dispelled when you start reading, its like Ennis and Dillon are saying 'only joking!' every time you pick up an issue.

 

 

I did fell the story dipped a bit, its' 12 issues long,and without any real jeopardy or emotional drive I found my interest waining in parts. I just thought it would have worked better as a 6 issue series, give or take. 12 issues was a bit too long for what was a fairly straightforward story, and the fun over the top violence did become a little sickly sweet after a while. But all that being said this trade is great if your just looking for a fun break from more serious books.

 

The next comic book of the week will be The Punisher Army Of One.

Comic Book Of The Week - The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume 1 - Review

This trade collects The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen Issues 1-6 along with some supporting text and novelty material. Written by Alan Moore and drawn by Kevin O' Neill.

Again this comic book of the week comes in high regard, written by the now legendary Alan Moore which immediately projects certain expectations on the expectant reader, and Moore's lifting of characters from such iconic and well loved works of classic literature such as King Solomon's mines, the strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and twenty thousand leagues under the sea among others only heightens the expectation.

 

 

The story is mostly set in a London stylized by the industrial revolution, and plays out kind of like a Justice League or Avengers origin story but with characters from classic literature playing the roles of the team members. The story is pretty straightforward, it's only 6 issues long and many are taken up introducing the characters and forming this odd literary dream team. If your knowledgeable on the books the characters and story elements are drawn from there's a lot to find interesting here. But apart from being reasonably familiar with most of the main characters from other TV and film adaptations I had only read King Solomon's Mines and The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes(not even the right Holmes books for this comic) so I constantly felt I was missing out on things, and maybe that's why I thought the plot was a little simple. After a couple of issues I did want to read the source material but by the time I'd finished the book I'd found it hadn't made a big enough impression on me, and any urge I had to do some research for a second reading faded away.

 

 

The artwork by Kevin O' Neill adds a lot to creating the old Victorian look and feel which is prevalent throughout, everything in this trade even stuff outside of the story like creator biographies and credits are written as if the book was published at the time. O'Neills panels really suit the story and some of the drawings have a great illustrative look, and you get a real sense of the character of the world and all the people that inhabit it, but I found the style used here in combination with the muted colour palet, which for the most part is beneficial to the story, can get a bit boring after a while and sometimes it just lacked a dynamism especially in the larger splash pages.

 

 

Overall I'm glad I read The league even if I was a little disappointed, it's essentially a set up story for volume two, which is considered the better of the two and the one that's consistently sited on top 100 comics lists. I can only assume with all the characters introduced and the premise in place, the second story arc will be more focused on plot.

 

The next comic book of the week will be The Punisher Welcome Back, Frank.

Comic Book Of The Week - The Flash The Dastardly Death Of The Rogues - Review

This trade collects the first seven issues of The Flash along with The Flash Secret Files And Origins from 2010. Written by Geoff Johns with artwork by Francis Manapul and Scott Kolins with covers by Manapul and Brian Buccellato.

 

I picked this trade up for a number of reasons; it was cheap, it was the start of a new series, it was written by one of my favourite writers Geoff Johns and finally just flicking through the pages I could see the artwork was some of the nicest I'd ever seen. And that's where I'd like to start this review, the artwork in this book is stunning, a mixture of traditional clean comic book inking with computer added colours and effects over crisp, gorgeous water colours. It really helps highlight the difference in speed between The Flash and everything else, or how Barry Allen sees the world, where things go in and out of focus and blend together, it's top class. Even if the story had been poor I still would have been glad I bought this book.

 

 

But of course with Johns at the helm you know chances are the story's going to be good, and it is, it's really good. It's a murder mystery involving time travel,the 25th century,future versions of characters, there's mentions of Blackest Night and Brightest Day, the past, the present, the future, and it all could have ended up feeling very out there and intangible, but Johns grounds all this potentially confusing or elusive hugeness by giving a lot of play to 'normal' police forensic scientist Barry Allen, normal Central City and it's normal inhabitants, all made feel friendly and familiar by the bright endearing artwork, and this local and safe feel creates a tether between normality and the more fantastical elements of the story so the reader never feels lost.

 

The trade has a Brightest Day banner head on the cover but don't be put off if you aren't familiar with what been happening in The Green Lantern books, it doesn't have any major bearing on this story. This is really an initial set-up to a more recent event called Flashpoint, but again don't feel like your gonna need to buy the subsequent trades or that you need to know a lot about The Flash, I'm confident this story can be enjoyed in isolation. I really liked this trade, I read it all in one sitting, and that included a lot of time savouring the artwork, pick this up.

 

 

The next comic book of the week will be The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen volume one.

 

 

The Top 5 Avengers Stories

(all these stories will be reviewed in detail as future comic books of the week)

 

5. Avengers Dissembled

 

In essence the last Avengers story,(kind of) and this really initiated a lot of the subsequent big events that were to come at Marvel. Apart from the truly epic battles that build up to the necessary breaking up of The Avengers, it's the aftermath, the looking back at each members memories of great Avengers moments past, and the final few panels that really deliver the emotion.

 

 

 

4. Ultron Unlimited

 

Arguably the Avengers greatest Villain, Ultron, returns, and with a bang, killing an entire nation of people, and that's only the start of the death in this short epic ,a bunch of zombies and a whole heap of robots get killed before the end of the final issue, but there's also the potential for the creation of life, with a twist on how Hank Pym created Ultron. This story escalates all that history between Pym and Ultron and brings it to an emotional and satisfying conclusion and there's also one of The Avengers greatest battles.

 

 

 

3. Red Zone

 

This story got me back into reading The Avengers after Busiek left, it's not as fantastical or earth shattering as some of Busiek's work, instead Geoff Johns brings the Avengers back down to the level of real people and real world threats, which grounds and makes the emotion in this story all the more powerful.

 

 

 

 

2. Destiny War

Another tour de force from the now legendary Busiek run, originally published as a separate maxi series, Busiek utilises Kang, Immortus, and characters and stories from the entirety of The Avengers continuity like no other writer could. If your familiar with the issues referenced, this is Avengers fan service of the highest quality

 

1. The Kang Dynasty

Another candidate for the Avengers greatest ever villain, Kang the conquer, features in this epic about global conquest, betrayal and most importantly the idea of Kang's final battle. The now ageing Kang has prepared and built this up as his ultimate confrontation against the heroes of this times earth. For me the Kang Dynasty is like Kraven's Last Hunt but on an avengers scale.Truly epic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comic of the week - Squadron Supreme - Review

This is a review of the Squadron Supreme trade, containing issues 1-12 of the Squadron Supreme maxi-series and captain America #314, all written by Mark Gruenwald with the majority of the issues pencilled by Bob Hall and some by Paul Ryan, with one issue a piece pencilled by John Buscema and Paul Neary.

 

This book is almost always mentioned as one of the comic medium's most influential works, so naturally my expectations were quite high going in. But being reasonably unfamiliar with the Squadron, apart from one appearance in Avengers, and the story's somewhat slowish start, it did take me a couple of issues to really become engaged, and to learn enough about the characters to care what happened to them. But after 3 or 4 issues the characters begin to deal with more and more unconventional subject matter, in terms of super hero comics of that time and even now. The story starts to gather pace and real jeopardy, both of which continue to build and build right up to the exquisitely paced final issue and to a conclusion which is not only satisfying but powerfully highlights the unidealistic real world drama throughout .

 

 

 

The Squadron initially comes across as a cheap imitation of DC comics Justice League, Hyperion is a lot like superman, princess power is a lot like wonder woman, the whizzer is a lot like the flash and so on. They exist on earth but not the earth of other Marvel characters like The Avengers or The X-men, they exist in a parallel universe, I like to think of it like the intersection of a Venn diagram between the Marvel and the DC universe. And it's initially fun to pick out the often obvious similarities between the Squadron members and the Justice League. Which is an effective early lure which gradually hooks the reader into a story containing physical and moral implications to risky for a flagship series like the Justice League.

 

If you've read books, like The Authority,House of M, Kingdom Come, or Identity Crisis I'd strongly propose reading Squadron Supreme, this is where all those ideas originated. To many this is the birthplace of the post-modern comic. It was originally published in 1985 so some of the artwork and coloring looks dated and frankly the panels are hit and miss throughout the book, but for the most part it doesn't take away from the story, especially in the second half.

 

 

I'd be a strong advocate for this book especially if you want a little more from your super hero comics, and are willing to forgive and be patient with some dated dialogue and artwork you wont be disappointed. I know this book doesn't get the same amount of recognition as Alan Moore's highly acclaimed Watchmen which was released around the same time, and don't get me wrong Squadron simply isn't quite at the level of Watchmen but in many ways its not far off.

The next comic book of the week will be The Flash-The Dastardly Death Of The Rogues.

 

 

Comic Book Of The Week - Cerebus Vol.1 - Review

This book contains the first 25 issues Cerebus, created,written and illustrated by Dave Sim, which actually ran for 300 issues all written and drawn by Sim, and we can all agree that is a massive undertaking and achievement in the field of comics. I had prior knowledge that some of the later volumes were known to be considerably better than volume 1 but I just thought it was the logical place to start reading and to find out if it was worth investing time and money into this massive series.

 

Sim has said Cerebus began as a parody of Conan the barbarian and other wizards and warriors type stories, and for the first half of this book that is the prevailing theme, there's hard to pronounce races,manipulative wizards and scantily clad warrior women a la red Sonja,all of which are used as examples of Sim's perceived silliness and perhaps one dimensional nature of the characters and stories from books like Conan.

 

 

 

But even towards the second half of this volume you can see a genuine interest building in the odd world Sim has perhaps unintentionally created, his scope for satire broadens to include other comics, with characters like The Cockroach, Professor X Claremont and The Woman-Thing. The stories become more engaging, the protagonist Cerebus becomes more than just a finger to point out the flawed absurdity, more than just a vehicle for satire, he becomes an all to knowing (if not jaded) guide for the reader in this otherwise insane world. But there lies the problem, Cerebus shows only a persistent disinterest in the world he inhabits and the characters he meets, and as a reader I couldn't help feeling the same. Cerebus' occasional moments of Clint Eastwood-esque cool the only thing keeping me reading.

 

 

I know the next volume is supposed to be better and even though i kind of got a taste of that from the last couple of issues in this volume, I still wont be investing. If Cerebus couldn't win me over in 25 issues i doubt it ever will.

 

The next comic book of the week will be Squadron Supreme by Mark Gruenwald.

DC vs MARVEL - who would win in a fight between...

In these articles I imagine that the Marvel and DC characters both exist in the same universe and describe the scenarios that would pit characters from Marvel and DC against each other and the reasons why one would defeat another.

For this first DC vs Marvel battle I have chosen Superman vs Captain America. Some would argue why would captain America ever chose to fight superman he isn't strong enough it should be Thor facing off against the man of steel. Well I think it's too simple to pair characters up against each other because of their similar power levels, and it's not a viable reason why they would come into confrontation. If the Marvel and the DC universe merged into one I think more interesting similarities between characters would bring them into 'this town ain't big enough for the both of us' style conflicts.

 

Here's my reasoning for pairing Superman and Captain America off against each other.They are both the leader of their universe's main super hero team The Justice League and The Avengers respectively. Both have rich histories going back to the 40's where they both fought the Nazis and defeated Hitler and finally both represent truth justice and the American way like no other heroes in their respective universe. I think it would be only logical that there would be room for only one of these characters and they would naturally come into confrontation. And here's how i think it would play out...

 

                                                
                                                     -The True American Hero-

 

 

The sun glistens off the red white and blue that adorns both Captain America and Superman as they stand proudly at either side of the president on the white house lawn. Both nominated for the the true American hero award for the relentless defence of the American ideals of truth justice and freedom at home and abroad.

 

Surrounded by a panel of judges selected from the super hero community, celebrities, congressmen and members of the public all of whom are in the process of casting their vote to decide the winner of America's greatest award.

 

The president chuckles to break the awkward silence and suggests a friendly sparring match between the two statuesque heroes to help the panel make their decision. Superman is almost arrogant in his reluctance, Cap is only glad to oblige having missed training with The Avengers to be here. Captain America begins circling Superman, both now a little away from the podium and surrounded at a distance by the crowd of judges, media and spectators.Cap is poised and ready moving like the greatest boxers, gauging his imperious opponent, ready for battle and eager to test himself against the man of steel. Superman remains reluctant shying away from cap's advances.

 

 

"I've held my own against Thor, don't be afraid to hurt me superman, come on!" , commands Captain America.

 

Cap swings a punch, Superman decides to allow Cap to Hit him, maybe the pain of punching steel will convince him of the senselessness of this contest. Captain America hammers superman full on the chin with a right hook, Superman who had arrogantly unbraced for the punch finds his head violently jar to the side quickly followed by the rest of his body as it twists and rolls along the Whitehouse lawn tearing up chunks of grass and turf. Superman looks up, his face still showing his genuine shock, to see cap leaping on top of him completely confident in his ability and not surprised in the slightest that his attack has floored the man of steel. Cap smashes his shield into Superman's face drawing blood from his nose. Superman now shaken up and with no thought of hesitation tries to blast Cap with his heat vision but it won't work, neither can he create some distance between him and his opponent using his super speed. He just about manages to shove Cap off him in between attacks. During the brief pause in combat Superman receives a telepathic message from the Martian Manhunter,

" It appears this Captain America is a more powerful opponent than you initially evaluated, it seems his shield which is known to have been constructed from a mysterious combination of metal alloys and elements may contain trace amounts of kryptonite, not enough to cause you physical harm but enough to disable or decrease the potency of your powers, and although your strength and durability have been dramatically lowered you are still considerably stronger than your adversary and you should still be easily be able to win this, 'spar.' ",

 

Captain America is up and charging down superman before he can contemplate what j'onn j'onzz has told him. Cap ducks under a desperate haymaker thrown by Superman then rolls behind him ramming the edge of his shield into Superman's back. Superman even without his heat vision,flight,super speed, and freeze breath is still a lot stronger and more durable than Cap, but Cap never needed powers, his years of training and fighting experience makes him more than a match for the weakened superman. He out maneuvers his opponent punishing him with his mastery of hand to hand combat while evading or blocking his opponents comparatively inexperienced blows. Captain America is unyielding, he has never gone easy while sparring or training, Kang wouldn't go easy,the red skull wouldn't go easy.

 

Superman now feverish from the beating, the kryptonite and his own thoughts of humiliation, gathers up some reserve of strength and charges Cap to the ground, grabs his shield and mindlessly hurls it away, he stands over his opponent his power slowly returning ready to finish him, but then he hears something, the first sound his super hearing takes in and the first scene his super sight witnesses is cap's shield embedding itself in the side of the Washington monument. He notices for the first time during the fight the crowd are no longer cheering, in fact some are crying. Captain America is their true American hero, he's one of them, superman flies off in a blur.

 

 

2 weeks later

Cap lands a quinjet in the arctic, leaving his shield in the cockpit he exits the ship and walks towards The Fortress of Solitude.

"I was told I'd find you here", Cap's voice echoes towards the back of the icy cavern to where superman stands looking downwards.

 

"I'm truly sorry for what happened, I repaired the Washington monument and retrieved your shield."

 

"Thank you but you have nothing to apologize for, it was the kryptonite, I didn't know, and here I brought you this.",

Captain America holds The True American medal in his palm.

 

"Take it I bet you saved the world more times than me anyway."

 

"I can't accept that, I'm not American I'm not even from this planet."

 

"Maybe not but you stand for every value Americans hold dear and you represent the American dream more than anyone, you came here a stranger and instead of just looking to make a life for yourself you fight everyday to make the lives of others safer."

 

"Thank you Steve"

 

"No problem big guy, but next time, don't give me a free punch"

 

"Sure thing cap, I was wrong to underestimate you, your a lot tougher than you look"

 

"So are you boyscout."

"look who's talking, you and I shoud go...

                                                                 
                                                                        -END-

Spider-Man's Top 5 Villains

5. Morlun

In my opinion Morlun is Spider-man's greatest villain of the modern era, his first appearance in J. Michael's Straczynski's run on Amazing Spider-man is in my opinion one of the webhead's greatest fights and was only a prelude to what was to come.(spoilers if you haven't read 'Spider-man-the other-evolve or die')He kills Spider-man! he doesn't just beat him, and he does beat him, he beats him bad. MORLUN FRIGGIN KILLS SPIDER-MAN. nuff said.

 

 

4. The Lizard

 

What makes the lizard a great villain is that he's one of spider-man's most dangerous villains but he's also Kurt Connors one of spider-man's few friends, the complex relationship between the three parties makes most stories involving the lizard very tense and very unique.

 

3. Kraven The Hunter

 

Kraven became so wrapped up in defeating Spider-man, it defined him, kraven the hunter, he could hunt and kill any animal on earth but was repeatedly beaten by Spider-man, an insect. What kraven first saw as his weakest prey soon became his greatest. (spoiler if you haven't read 'kravens last hunt') He finally defeats Spider-man, he drugs him, buries him alive then dresses up in his costume and becomes him, the ultimate and total victory, and afterwards when it is all done and it is finally over, there are no more hunts worthy of Kraven, he can die at peace. He commits suicide guaranteeing him the last victory.

 

 

2. Venom

 

When venom first came on the scene no other spidey villain could touch him. Consisting of an alien symbiote suit brought back to earth by spider-man from the secret wars then rejected and left to fend for itself on a foreign planet, and Eddie Brock, fired from his job as a journalist and then divorced by his wife all because of an interview with a supposed serial killer he'd wrote, who turned out to be a chronic confessor when spider-man captured the real killer. Brock and the symbiote bonded to form a creature far stronger than their mutually hated enemy. Venom could blend into any background, has a much larger supply of organic webbing, doesn't set off peter's spidey sense and since the symbiote was once bonded to peter it and in turn venom, knows all spider-man's secrets. No villain is as dangerous in a one on one fight as Venom.

 

 

 

1. The Green Goblin

 

Easily spider-man's greatest villain, no one has come close to causing the same amount of anguish to the webslinger as the green goblin .(potential spoilers here) From the initial dynamic of being Peter's best friend Harry Osbourne's father , to finding out Peter's identity, dying then coming back from the dead, killing peters true love Gwen Stacy, corrupting and in one way or another causing the death of Harry, killing Ben Reilly, kidnapping aunt May, having kids by Gwen Stacy it just keeps on going, and all of this history is in play every time spider-man and the green goblin meet creating one of comics all time greatest conflicts.

 

 

Comic Book Of The Week – Fables Vol. 1 Legends In Exile – Review

 

Created and written by Bill Willingham, pencils by Leo Medina, inks by Steve Leialoha(except for issue 4 which is inked by Craig Hamilton, with little discernible difference) colours by Sherilyn Van Valkenburgh letterer Todd Klein with covers by James Jean (except for issue 1 which is by Alex Maleev,which in my opinion doesn’t carry the uncanny qualities the others possess.)And finally this comic is published by Vertigo.

 

 

Fables Vol. 1 is our first comic book of the week review and I’ve been hearing great things about the series for years but was put off reading it due to its non-superhero, fantasy based story, what if fairytale characters were forced to leave their fantasy kingdom and come and live in real world New York. And to be honest I was also a little repelled by the issue cover art, these strange mixed media paintings, which are quite moody and create a heady, mysterious and almost sinister atmosphere which alludes to the dark origins of fairy tales. I feared this art style would continue in the actual panels of the comic but on reading the first issue you realise the covers are completely unrepresentative of the tone of the story, which is in fact very light and consumable or the panel art which is in stark contrast to the covers, very clean,bright and detailed. The panel artwork in Fables wouldn’t feel amiss in any superhero comic, it’s normal, which I think works, these characters left their fantastical world and now are trying to live in our ‘normal’ world and have to blend in. It’s subtle but effective.

 

The story in this first volume revolves around a murder mystery with characters such as snow-white, the big bad wolf and prince charming playing out the usual roles of suspect, detective and so on. I’ve heard some people suggest the fairy tale characters add very little to the telling of the mystery and it would have played out just as well as a straight up crime story without the fantasy gimmick. I disagree, for one Willinghams take on these characters is very unique and interesting, they all seem very complex and well-rounded straight out the gate, they all have their inherent rich history and then there is Willingham’s interpretation on top of that. Not to mention the mysterious back story which is going on in the background. All of these intricate character and plot points couldn’t be dealt with in the first story arc without overwhelming the reader. I think the murder mystery provides an easy entry point into the series and a logical initial story arc. Showing characters from our ‘old’ world stories playing out a modern world story, the CSI murder mystery. The meeting of fairy tales and crime fiction, the meeting of childhood and adulthood, in many ways this first story arc sums up the concept of the entire series.

On another note Fables is a great comic for people who aren’t really into comics, apart from it existing in its own universe outside that of Marvel or Dc and their often intimidating continuity, most of the characters are known to everyone,so it makes new readers comfortable and feel knowledgeable of the world from the very beginning.

 

Upon finishing the volume I was intrigued to find out what must have happened to have changed these characters, the once pure snow-white now swears, the big bad wolf is now a detective.Beauty and the Beast are having marital issues and so on, apart from an average enough mystery it was the underlying back story and engaging characters that will bring me back for volume 2.

 

The next comic book of the week will be Cerebus Vol 1 by Dave Sim.

Issue(post) no.1

I thought for the first post I’d just copy and paste what I’ve written in the about section of the blog as a rough mission statement, along with a heads up on the first book/story of the week I plan to review in the coming days, it’s Fables Vol. 1 Legends In Exile, so if you’ve read that before or you need an incentive to read it, I’ll be reviewing it in the coming week and hopefully starting some discussion about the book. There will be other cool articles out this week the first top 5 list, and the first DC vs. Marvel ‘who would win in a fight between…’ article so drop by soon, anyway here’s a brief guide line of what to expect in the coming months.

A comic book blog analysing stories and characters from Marvel, DC , ‘the
independents’ and everything and anything in between or along the fringes of the sequential art medium. The usual elements like reviews, writer/artist spotlights, book of the week, top 5′s/10′s and what I’m calling ‘who would win in a fight between…’ will all be here along with a bunch of other cool comic goodness but obviously this is only my opinion and I welcome any discussion , comments or recommendations you wish to bring up. Thanks and enjoy.