In 2021 I’d like to cross over the 1,000 comics review barrier, meaning reviews that I (Mike Clarke a.k.a. pghhead) contribute to the blog. That’s what this odyssey is about, beginning January 01, 2021. Wish me luck. . . .
# GOAL FOR DECEMBER 20 . . . 972 comics documented
CURRENT COUNT . . . . . 956 comics documented
#934 LUNAR ROOM (Vault, December 2021) Never underestimate the power of a good art cover nestled among the offerings on comic shop new release shelves. They will usually prompt me to pick up the book, scan it, and if I like the art on the inside it becomes an impulse purchase. Also, I’m always down for a well-told werewolf story. There’s just not enough of them considering how many vampires and zombies populate comics.
My only quibble with this story set in an urban fantasy world is that while it’s heavy on characterization (and well done) it doesn’t provide enough details for readers to get totally familiar with the setting. I’m hopeful that will be provided in future issues.
Cynthia “Sin” Breaker walked away from a past life (why is not explained) as a mob enforcer for a powerful mage. She also used to be a werewolf.
Twin brothers Axton and Zac Zero are mages, and part of Knowledge University. Axton is a trusted tour guide and head of security while brother Zac is a bit of a renegade: “top of his class in lying, recently shifted to sneaking, and graduating into stealing.”
He steals a piece of a mystical blade exhibit and high-tails it out of the university, with his brother’s security and field teams in pursuit. He hides out inside an underground fight arena, where Sin has been manipulated into agreeing to battle against a tag team. Zac is looking to hire some protection and an agreement is reached after he restores some of her werewolf powers. But the magic fades, and Sin is not a patient person. THREE AND ONE-HALF STARS.
#935 RANGER STRANGER #1 (Scout, November 2021) Weird, quirky dark humor book revolving around a weird, quirky national park ranger and his two companions, a young girl in an out-dated dress and a cartoon talking otter. Every panel looks like a cut-and-paste job as if the images have been cut out of old magazine advertisements and often placed against photographic backgrounds.
Ranger Garland Woodburn (of Hackaneck National Park) is always looking and facing to the reader’s right, often with one arm half-raised. He never addresses his companions by name, except for “kiddies” and “little psychos”. She is always facing to our left. Only the otter is seen from different sides. Facial expressions rarely change, only subtly.
Credit artist Tyler Jensen for this weird style. It’s definitely different. The absurdity is hit or miss. I laughed at a lot of it.
The stories are very short, some only two pages, and very episodic. It’s a hoot, and I would come back for more. You can sample the quirkiness to see if it suits your mood at www.rangerstranger.com and watch video cartoons and read short goofy text pieces. FOUR STARS.
The storyline focuses mainly on three characters: Hawkeye, Captain America, and the Red Skull. What if Hawkeye was a gunslinger instead of an archer? What if Captain America went rogue? How hard would it be to take him down?
The Red Skull is on a mission to obtain the Cosmic Cube. During a helicopter battle, he whispers a shocking secret into Cap's ear, who goes rogue after learning it. I wondered if Captain America would really react in an extreme faction, and thought it was a bit of a stretch by Millar. By after re-reading this I realize that Cap's real intention is to stop the Skull from being corrupted by all that power, bending reality to his will. Cap realizes that S.H.I.E.L.D. will do anything to stop the Red Skull, including his death. After what he has learned, Cap won't let that happen.
The ending is a bit shocking, but understandable in this twisted alternate Ultimate universe that Millar has set up. I'd even read this again. FOUR STARS.
Colin King (Ninjak), spy and mercenary for hire, returns from a big mission to his castle which has been broken into and booby-trapped in his absence. He barely survives the complete demolition of his home as he’s buried under stones and rubble. That’s only the beginning of his troubles, as his bank accounts have been compromised.
Without any weapons, tech or money he heads to his handler at MI-6 looking for help. He hasn’t been keeping up with the news, where reports of dead bodies have been found at his castle making him a wanted man.
He finds one associate willing to help him, and as the story ends he may be zeroing in on an assassin who can tell him who is behind this.
The back-up story features British agents (who seem to be Colin King’s parents) on a mission to help Mossad track down and eliminate the killers of Olympic athletes.
The only downside is that this is the only issue I have, so I can’t follow the rest of the story. FOUR STARS.
I fished this one out of a bargain bin because I saw Mike Deodato Jr’s name on the cover credits. I’m a big fan of his style of art. This provided a chance to see some of his earlier work. He sure has come a long way since this.
This seems to be an effort to flesh out more of Tigra’s character and give Greer Sorenson more of a backstory.
While training to receive her degree from the police academy, Greer runs into a secret militant group within the police force, the Brethen Of the Blue Fist. She uncovers the leadership of the group, gets some clues about who murdered her former husband (also a policeman) and graduates from the Academy.
A lot was accomplished in this one issue, making me realize I can live with missing the other three.
THREE STARS.
Here’s another book with Deodato art that shows a marked improvement from his earlier work on TIGRA. Warren Ellis’ story here is so full of less-than-familiar characters that I had to keep referring to the opening text page recap.
Another Thunderbolts team has been assembled to hunt down unregistered superhuman. They don’t get along very well. Moonstone wants to kill Songbird and take over from director Norman Osborn.
Venom and Penance are on hand, along with Radioactive Man and Bullseye (under constraints). The team is after American Eagle in Arizona, only to learn that he has allied with Sepulchre and The Steel Spider.
Several battles ensue in an action-packed issue. The most notable event is Bullseye confronting American Eagle one-on-one and getting his ass handed to him. Bullseye is returned to Thunderbolts Mountain with severe head trauma, a snapped neck, suffering from paralysis and a brain injury.
I’m not sorry. THREE AND ONE-HALF STARS.
Seven years later, and an entirely new team led by General Thunderbolt Ross (Red Hulk). And, new creative team (Charles Soule and Paco Diaz).
Ross implements his own system - - the Thunderbolts help him accomplish a mission of his choice, and in return he helps each member of the team accomplish something that they could never do alone. (“One for me, one for you.”)
Ross takes this unlikely collection (Punisher, Elektra, Ghost Rider, Deadpool and The Red Leader) into Honduras to search for missing soldiers near a mysterious source of ancient power.
River Kraken ambush, criminal gangs on their trail, a temple with booby-traps right out of Indiana Jones. Suspenseful. Plus, deception and schemes. Blaze goes to pieces.
THREE AND ONE-HALF STARS.
Done in the style of those early 1960’s pre-superhero monster anthology series from Marvel (MC back then), this contains 3 original stories, a one-page gag and a reprint from TALES TO ASTONISH #10: “I Was Trapped By Titano, The Monster That Time Forgot! (A giantic crab.)
The three original stories are very different, although alien invaders play a role in each story.
Meet Bombu and Manoo plus a new story featuring Monstrollo. Lots of fun from Keith Giffen, Peter David and Jeff Parker.
THREE AND ONE-HALF STARS.
I’d forgotten how good this Rick Remender/Roland Boschi mini-series was.
The story occurs in 1966 with Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Ran Shen liberating two Alchemy Formula scientists from Hydra. The Soviets want the scientist as well, and send Winter Soldier to intercept them during a train trip.
If Hydra can’t keep them, then they want them dead and send out assassin The Drain, who kills one scientist and in battle with Winter Soldier he somehow awakens Bucky’s memories of who he truly was.
Bucky joins forces with agent Chan to rescue the remaining scientist, and things end here in a helicopter explosion with Winter Soldier presumed dead. However, he’s been recovered by the Soviets, who go right back to work at making sure he only remembers his duty to Russia.
Alive, but without memories of Bucky Barnes.
Yes, a bitter march. FOUR AND ONE HALF STARS.
In this alternate story, Laufey invades Asgard, kills all but Thor and his mother Freyja. He takes them back to Jotunheim, throws Freyja in prison, and raises Thor alongside his son Loki.
Thor and Loki become friends, although when Laufey devotes more of his attention to Thor, Loki becomes despondent and jealous. He finds a new friend in the imprisoned Freyja and schemes to escape with her to Asgard. A sad ending with Thor reuniting with his mother only after he has struck her down with the ice hammer. Loki gets banished from Jotunheim.
There’s really nothing wrong with the story. It had its moments but failed to resonate with me. It just seemed a little wooden in execution. THREE STARS.
This was the set-up/intro for a six-issue crossover between the TOTALLY AWESOME HULK and WEAPON X titles.
Greg Pak usually does a better job of holding my attention, but I found myself getting bored with this one. It felt very formulaic.
A band of undetectable adamantium cyborgs with mutant-like powers execute separate precision strikes on Wolverine, Sabertooth, Domino, Warpath, Lady Deathstroke, and the Hulk/Amadeus Cho.
This unlikely group bands together and discovers a secret lab conducting genetic experiments designed to eradicate all mutants.
This one-shot also marks the first appearance of Doctor Alba at Weapon X.
TWO AND ONE HALF STARS.
Meanwhile the Warheads are trying to make their way back to Earth from what remains of the destroyed planet (now an asteroid) and end up inside the dreams of Wolverine instead - where no one can be sure what happens there doesn’t become reality in the wake world. They jump around and inhabit a few other X-dreams before escaping into their wormhole and returning to real Earth.
Psylocke later reveals that they dropped into Wolverine’s dreams when she was there as well, trying to give him some psychic help with his past. When Logan woke up, they transferred to Psylocke’s mind.
When the Marvel UK books initially came out, I sampled many of them. Not a single one registered with me enough to keep going. I found them somewhat confusing, and now on re-reading I still do. TWO AND ONE-HALF STARS.
These Geoff Johns/Francis Manapul Superboy stories fit the bill perfectly. This Superboy is Conner Kent, cloned by combining Superman’s DNA and Lex Luthor’s DNA. He returns to Smallville, to live with Ma Kent and try to forge his own identity. He bonds quickly with Krypto the super-dog and does his best to emulate the Smallville accomplishments of Clark Kent and makes a to-do list: 1) Live With The Kents. 2) Attend Smallville High. 3) Join A Team Of Superheroes (Teen Titans). 4) Help Anyone Who Needs It.
Superman comes to visit Conner, and finds him hanging out within the abandoned former Smallville home of Lex Luthor (following the canon of the tv series, apparently).Conner tells Clark he’s trying to understand Lex, but Clark advises him to steer clear and gives him a prompt: “But you know you’re not him. And you’re not me. You’re your own person.”
But, as the final pages reveal, Connor is also trying to emulate Lex Luthor as well. He keeps a second secretive to-do list, titled “What Does Lex Luthor Do?” with the first item being 1) Lies To Superman.
Every issue come with a back-up feature about the Legion of Super-Heroes. Try as I might, I’ve yet to read a Legion of Super-Heroes series that really held my attention. This is good, but it’s not hooking me so I’m not going to say much about it.
In these issues Superboy/Connor meets up with his former girlfriend Wonder Girl and tries to rekindle the relationship, has an adventure with Red Robin (Tim Drake) in Paris, takes a one-issue absence so Johns can tell a tale about Superboy and Superman from Earth-Prime, and faces off against Lex Luthor who sends him on a time-traveling scavenger hunt. THREE AND ONE-HALF STARS.
Sometimes you can pick up a random issue of a limited series, catch up to things, and enjoy a short but engaging reading experience. Sometimes.
While I was able to figure out what was going on here, I wasn’t privy to the before events that might have included the emotional impact of what was happening and provided a reason to care. So I just read this one straight through and immediately forgot about it.
But, I can provide a quick recap. Grace learns the story of the Bana, Amazons who were forced out of Paradise and lived in the burning desert. Betrayed by mortal men as well as the Gods themselves, they vowed revenge on their so-called sisters, revenge that has taken centuries to achieve but is now here. They’ve got the tools, the warriors, and the tech. The Justice League have their hands full.
TWO STARS.
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