For the last three years I have embarked on a Comics Odyssey, reading and writing reviews of comics towards an ambitious goal which I only attained on one of three attempts. This year, I still want to read more comics and write reviews, but I’m not setting a specific goal. I’ll just document them and number them. We’ll see how far I can go . . . . . . .
#110 - #115 GEIGER graphic novel by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank (Image Comics, November 2021)
Despite the fiction landscape being littered with numerous iterations of the post-apocalyptic dystopian survival tales, I seldom grow tired of them as long as I put some time between readings. I never expected to like GEIGER as much as I did. It's a fine example of the format with some incredible visualization.
The art of Gary Frank is simply amazing, from landscapes to action scenes to closeups of facial expressions and various emotions. Aided by the brilliant color work of Brad Anderson, this book is a joy to view. The inclusion of many of the variant covers is a nice bonus.
Geoff Johns crafts a tight tale of one survivor of a nuclear war in 2030, Tariq Geiger, who was trapped outside while getting his family to safety in a homemade fallout shelter. A skilled doctor was able to keep him alive by inserting boron rods (which he often uses as weapons) into his back. Those keep him from internally exploding, and when the rods are removed he becomes a radioactive menace with incredible strength known as "The Glowing Man", a futuristic boogey-man to frighten children in story circles.
The main part of the story takes place 20 years later in 2050 as Geiger is still alive and keeping watch over the bunker, hoping for the day when his family can safely come back to the surface. Mutated insects. Cannabalistic survivors in the Nevada desert. A Las Vegas divided into areas controlled by various warlords. Nuclear Knights serving a crazed prince from the Camelot area, looking to gain revenge on Gieger for his damaged face. A government hoping to access codes to the remaining missile silos in the state. Geiger just wants to be left alone, but has a soft spot for children in distress. I was entertained. FOUR STARS.
#116 - #120 CHEW, VOLUME FOUR: FLAMBE by John Layman and Rob Guillory (Image Comics, September 2011)
I'm enjoying both the comedic situations and quirky art so much that I keep reading the CHEW series, even though one or two volumes should be sufficient. I"m getting addicted to the wackiness and randomness of this title, where secondary characters keep plopping up in new scenarios. Volume 4 is the most episodic of the collections so far, and most of the individual components serve well as stand-alone stories.
What's in store this volume? . . . . .Less importance assigned to the global avian flu and the chicken prohibition, although the laws are still in effect but law enforcement efforts are being pooled elsewhere - - - now that there is some flaming calligraphy in the sky that no one can decipher. A message from aliens? Isn't Mother Cluckers a great name for a fast-food chicken franchise? . . now on the wane because of prohibition.
Before, chief inspector Applebee was assigning Tony Chu to cases where he would have to use his special abilities and consume the worst foodstuffs imaginable. Now, he's just trying to assign Chu and partner Colby to missions that might kill them. FOUR STARS.
#121 - #122 PUNISHER #1 by David Pepose and Dave Wachter (Marvel Worldwide Inc, January 2024) “The Bullet That Follows”. There’s just enough difference here from the Frank Castle Punisher origin story to keep fans from protesting “cheap imitation!” Still, I’m sure you can find some backlash on internet comics sites.
I was a bit wary of this title, and decided to just give Issue #1 a tryout before plunging in head first. I actually liked this more than I expected to. Pepose scripts a tight, compelling story and Wachter’s art is fluid and action-packed. They deserve a chance to win over readers, at least through the first story arc.
So, what’s similar? Main character Joe Garrison (appropriate last name) loses his family when his home blows up and decides to get revenge vigilante-fashion. He’s adept at weaponry from his time as a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and has access to abandoned S.H.I.E.L.D. bunkers and left-behind armories. He even has a tech-savvy assistant to equip and monitor his actions. His outfit isn’t a duplicate of the Punisher uniform but looks close enough for the media to ask if Frank Castle has returned to the role.
So, what’s new or different? Garrison says he only wants to find out who was behind his family’s murder and isn’t interested in returning as a S,H.I.E.L.D. agent or the new Punisher. We’ll see about that. His suit is more fortified than the Castle outfit, and has ballistic chest plates that look like the familiar skull face of the original Punisher. His huge assault weapon doubles as a rail gun, is more high-tech and even uses tracker bullets, which help him to later locate the escaped assassin suspected in the home explosion. He gets around on a motorcycle.
This felt like a Punisher story, with plenty of action and firearms. If you still crave new Punisher stories, this is your only option until Frank Castle returns (I’d take that bet!) While I enjoyed the story, I don’t feel like I have to have this in my monthly pulls or even wait for the trade paperback collections. THREE AND ONE-HALF STARS.
#123 - #126 NICK FURY VS. S.H.I.E.L.D. #1, #2 of 6. Written by Bob Harras. Pencils by Paul Neary. Inks by Kim DeMulder. Cover #1 by Jim Steranko. Cover #2 by Bill Sienkiewicz (Marvel Comics, June-July 1988) Bob Harras scripts a complex story with incredible depth and mystery. There’s a lot of content here, even after acknowledging the extra page count of each issue (48 pages), something you don’t see in modern comics. If published today, Marvel editors would instruct the creators to stretch this out across 16-24 issues and probably ask them to dumb it down a bit and add more fight scenes. Neary has to make his art fit within multiple-paneled pages and includes an incredible amount of detail in every scene. (A magnifying glass can attest to this).
A S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier goes down, and Nick Fury risks his life to descend into the partially submerged wreck and retrieve the nuclear power core (and its secrets). He is thwarted by a combination of A.I.M. and Hydra forces. Fury investigates further and uncovers both a corrupt S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and the added involvement of the Roxxon Corporation.
He gets called to a special meeting with S.H.I.E.L.D. administration, who only communicate via video and cloak their features in shadows. The turncoat agent has framed him, and Fury is smart enough to flee before he is imprisoned.
He retreats to the numerous abandoned tunnels underneath the New York subway system, and barely survives a fight with a
new S.H.I.E.L.D. agent with incredible stamina. Meanwhile S.H.I.EL.D. puts all his long-time associates under scrutiny, and calls them in one by one for interviews to ask the hard question: would they bring in Nick Fury, and kill him if necessary? Jasper Sitwell is the only one who backs up S.H.I.E.L.D.’s intentions, so they make him the new director and he immediately starts forming teams to get Fury. FOUR STARS.
#127 - #128 NICK FURY VS. S.H.I.E.L.D. #3 of 6 Written by Bob Harras. Pencils by Paul Neary. Inks by Kim DeMulder. Cover 3 by M. D. Bright.(Marvel Comics, August 1988) Countess Valentine de Allegro agrees to a waterfront meeting with Nick Fury and unknowingly leads him into an ambush. However, S.H.I.E.L.D. divers are unable to locate and recover his body.
Meanwhile, back at S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ an ESPERS program initiated by Fury is coming apart and elder retired agents recruited to subconsciously scan S.H.I.E.L.D. for any evidence of psychic attacks or massive brainwashing is breaking apart and the recruits are mysteriously passing away. Back in NY, Nick recruits a retired agent, Alexander Goodwin Pierce, to assist with smash-and-grab break ins at remote S.H.I.E.L.D. posts to steal armaments. Agent Jimmy Woo is prematurely aging for unspecified reasons. A Fury LMD fails to convince Tony Stark that something is up, and results in Stark trying to locate the real Fury.
Madame Hydra has a meeting with some S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to discuss “The Plan” and Fury interrogates a captured Jimmy Woo (the older version) who spontaneously combusts. Is S.H.I.E.L.D. admin being mind-controlled? Things just keep getting deeper. FOUR STARS.
#129 - #130 NICK FURY VS. S.H.I.E.L.D. #4 of 6. Written by Bob Harras. Pencils by Paul Neary. Inks by Kim DeMulder. Cover 4 by Joe Jusko. (Marvel Comics, September 1988)
“Aww, yer gettin’ paranoid, Fury . . . there ain’t nothing to worry about — ‘cept gettin’ killed.”
All across the globe, multi-national corporations are being approached by Roxxon Corporation to invest in their joint venture, a project called DELTA (coincidentally also the name of a secretive endeavor at S.H.I.E.L.D.) Back at S.H.I.E.L.D. director Jasper Sitwell and aide Jack Rollins talk about the project, but writer Harras keeps things deliberately vague, only name dropping “genetic proteins”, “regeneration” (Jimmy Woo is revived, for the fifth time),and a required “infinity formula” that Nick Fury is crucial to obtaining.
Now a band of four, Fury and his helpers are enroute to Hong Kong on a false trail that leads them into a clash with Madame Hydra (#6 in the ranks, but bucking to become Madame Hydra #1). The plan was to lure Fury onto a missile about to launch. That doesn’t happen, but the missile kills those nearby in the underground bunker as well as those on the surface. Plots and counter-plots. Harras keeps it interesting and mysterious. THREE AND ONE-HALF STARS.
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