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 . . . . . . .
#169 - #172 PENTHOUSE COMICS #1 by various creators (Penthouse Global Licensing / Behemoth Entertainment LLC, Febrary/March 2024)
Has anyone noticed the absence of HEAVY METAL magazine? The last U.S. published issue was in April 2023. Whatnot?/Massive Publishing was supposedly reviving the magazine and it was listed in Previews for pre-orders. Later, it was reported that they ended their business agreement with Heavy Metal Publishing.
So, if you have a craving for that European art style, PENTHOUSE COMICS is your new source. To their credit, Behemoth are endeavoring to put out a magazine size entry with high production values. Ninety-six pages for $10 is not over-priced in today’s comics marketplace, and aside from some unnecessary text articles and a photo pictorial (really, in a comics magazine?) this is good quality with excellent art and intriguing stories. However, unlike HEAVY METAL, there aren’t any science-fiction or fantasy themes so far. Every story here is crime and adventure influenced with a healthy dose of eroticism and depiction.
This has a real overall European look (some are reprints from French sources) and the art in every story bears one similarity - - - it looks influenced by Gray Morrow (which is not a bad thing at all). Also, every story is serialized. There are no stand-alone tales.
My favorite, and the longest story this issue, is the crime/noir “Miss October (Playmate Serial Killer)” by Stephen Desberg and Alain Queireix.
Viktor (short for Victoria) Scott is a female cat burglar (wearing a black outfit that reminds me of Modesty Blaise) who in the opening scenes is surrounded by police as she attempts to steal an artifact on the UCLA campus museum. She’s troubled by a break-in and rape in her teen years that left her traumatized and took away her hearing. She’s apparently having an affair with Clegg, a married L.A. police detective.
Her story overlaps with that of Clegg, who been working for two years to solve a series of murders where the serial killer poses and photographs his female victims and labels their bodies Miss January, Miss February, etc. Good character development here. This is promising.
The other story I really enjoyed was “The Dream” written and illustrated by Guillem March. Jude, a sex club performer renowned for his physical anatomy (and size) is persuaded (kind of) to consider new employment from two different sources. One, the spoiled daughter of a rich crime ganglord wants a new playmate. Her bodyguards beat up Jude’s female stage partner in case he has second thoughts about returning to his old job. Second, a seductive talent agent recruits him for a new (and unspecified) film project. We’ll see where this goes. Meanwhile, this is some of the best art from March that I have seen. THREE AND ONE-HALF STARS.
#173 BENEATH THE TREES WHERE NOBODY SEES #4 written, illustrated and colored by Patrick Horvath (IDW Publishing, March 2024) Publisher’s synopsis:
"So now the stage is set, and Sam has ID'd her foe
But this town's not big enough for both, so one of them must go
But first, there's a meeting, where they'll come face-to-face
If they can't work it out, there will be a gruesome race
But it's not quite that simple, and for once, Sam is scared
This foe knows quite a bit about her, and the things of which she cares”
This was an exceptional issue in this mini-series. All this time, serial killer Samantha has been cautious: don’t kill the locals. When a new serial killer dares to kill locals and publicly display the bodies it sets off alarms in this small community. Now everyone is afraid, and won’t venture outdoors.
Sam figures out who the local killer is, and gets a meeting where she learns the surprising reasons for their motives. Now, Sam is in her own set of troubles and the climatic issue approaches.
I would love this series if it featured human characters, but the fact that everyone is a talking animal in a children’s picture-book setting just elevates this to awesome.
FOUR STARS.
#174 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #45 by Zeb Wells and Carmen Carnero (Marvel Worldwide Inc, May 2024) The Gang War is over, and this is a transition issue to set-
Mary Jane’s aunt, Anna Watson, was ill and benefited from Krakow medicine which unfortunately turned her into a raving madwoman with enhanced strength. She’s now an inmate in the Ravencroft Institute For The Criminally Insane and Peter Parker wants to cure her and get her released.
Dr. Curt Connor (formerly The Lizard) is messing around with a detached giant brain at Oscorp (foreshadowing) and Peter almost resigns his job there (but not because of Connor). Peter meets up with Mary Jane (Jackpot) and they ditch their costumes to visit Aunt Anna, where Pete meets a reformed Sandman who warns him of what’s brewing with a cluster of super-villains.
This isn’t bad. It’s just not really holding my attention. I’ll probably drop out once the Disney 100 variant covers are done. Also, at risk of blowback, I just have to say that Mary Jane’s superhero name (Jackpot) and costume are really dumb and do nothing for me.
THREE STARS.
#175 - #176 ULTIMATE X-MEN #1 written, illustrated and colored by Peach Momoko (Marvel Worldwide Inc, May 2024) This is the third of the new Ultimate Universe titles I’ve checked out, and it may be the one that I stick with for awhile. Why?
1) After deliberately staying away from X-Men titles (with a few short-lived exceptions) because of the complex continuity, this appears to be an X-Men book that won’t require any previous knowledge/reading, therefore a perfect jumping on point.
2) While I’m sure that ULTIMATE X-MEN will connect a little closer to the known X-Universe at some point (the intro text page name drops some familiar characters) this is as far removed from traditional X-Men fare as seems possible. For me, that’s a good thing.
3) Just as the DEMON DAYS series by Momoko put a fresh spin on X-Men iconic characters, this also appears to be a fresh start. Here, it’s a more interesting spin on Armor.
4) This doesn’t even look like a Marvel comic, more like an indie manga series adapted for U.S. audiences. The art is extremely expressive, and the color choices are spot-on.
5) It appears that Momoko is going to take her sweet time getting around to assembling a team, and instead will concentrate on slowly developing the backstory and characters. I’m feeling very patient. I want to see where this is going.
There we go. I didn’t spoil any of the storyline so you can make your own decision. If you’re still following the X-Men books, I strongly urge you to give this one a chance. FOUR STARS.
That’s not what’s happening here, and I’m hoping that no one picked this up expecting a brand-new Spider-Man series only to be disappointed.
That said, would you be willing to plunk down $7.99 in order to get an over-sized preview of what stories are upcoming in the Spider-Man universe in the rest of 2024 and into 2025? Some of the entries here are only 2 pages in length, but at least give you an indication of the story ahead. The art is consistently good throughout all the entries, of which there are nine featuring Peter Parker, Miles Morales, Spider-Gwen, Spider-Woman and others.
I remember when publishers used their Free Comic Book Day offerings in order to preview and solicit interest in future storylines. Other publishers have put out preview books like this, but discounted as low as $1.99. C’mon Marvel, did you really need loyal readers to kick in $7.99 for this?
On a positive note for Spider-fans this is better than buying all the issues with these debut storylines for $3.99 per entry in order to find out if you want to follow it. For me, this was a big savings in both my time and comics budget.
Now I know I don’t need to invest in any of this. I’m not saying any of these stories aren’t worth reading. It’s just that not a single one grabbed my attention and interest enough to continue. THREE STARS.
#180 - #181 NAPALM LULLABY #1 by Rick Remender and Bengal (Image Comics, March 2024) Jump on board if you’re interested in another dystopian epic set on a futuristic world that may or may not be Earth as we know it. Some favorable reviews (and the reviews are mixed, just so you know) have compared this to both Mad Max and The Matrix. I don’t see anything here that reminds of either of those comparisons. While I found the debut issue very interesting, especially the cool Euro/Manga art by Bengal that reminds me of another one-named illustrator (Santos, of Samurai Doggy fame), the story was confusing and frustrating.
1) In a homage to Superboy, a married and childless couple active in religious demonstrations that worship “Glo Kor” rescue an alien baby from a “mechawomb” after the armored warriors pursuing it were blasted into nothing by an outraged baby. Shades of Ma and Pa Kent, they instantly adopt it, the answer to their prayers. 2) Fifty years later, a brutal mercenary kills a temple of priests, steals their “halo ports”, and heads home, demanding that his wife immediately have sex with him. 3) His pleasure is interrupted by a brother/sister team (they are shown on the cover art), who steal the halo ports and escape so they can “prepare to kill a God.” (Do they mean Glo Kor?) Are Sarah and Sam the main characters? I guess so.
I had to read some reviews of Issue #1 and then read the text afterword by Remender to get a clearer picture of what this is intended to be about and what he’s aiming for. Now, if I have to do that in order to understand a book - - I consider that a scripting failure. And, instead of explaining the details and clarifying what this is about, Remender writes more about his inspiration and intentions for the story. He does hint that he wants to tease us in the first issue and won’t give out any specifics just yet. I admire most of his work, but NAPALM LULLABY has failed to hook me.
What this reminds me of is the debut issue of SAGA, but with some big differences. The similarity is that both are dystopian futuristic works that in their debut issue hint at so much more than is revealed. The difference is that I clearly understand enough of the details of SAGA to identify the main characters, who I immediately began to worry about. There’s the hook.
In NAPALM LULLABY I barely identified the main characters but don’t have any reason to care about them or anybody else that was introduced in Issue #1. THREE AND ONE-HALF STARS for art and ambition, but not an epic I want to participate in.
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