Me being the Kirkman-loving fiend that I am, I picked this series up as soon as I could and read it every week as soon as I can (unless there’s a good X-title that comes out that week…), and the thing I simply love about Destroyer is it’s ability to just kick ass non-stop from page one to page 22.

If you don’t know what Destroyer is, know this: Robert Kirkman and Cory Walker have teamed up again (previous team-ups: Invincible #1-7), but this time it’s for Marvel’s MAX label and boy oh boy they take advantage of that “For Mature Readers Only” warning. Basing the story of this comic off of an old Timely Comics character, this story follows the last adventures of the character and it’s just amazing. For the sake of all that is awesome and spoilerrific, I’ll give a brief summary of the previous 3 issues after the break because this series is so good, I don’t even want to spoil basic plot points for you guys.

*spoilers and love after the break*

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Oracle: Search for the Cure #1-3

Written: Kevin VanHook
Art: Don Kramer and Jay Leisten(1,2); Julian Lopez and Bit(3)

Issue 1

Cover: Guillem March

I’m not sure this is so much of a review as it is a rant.  The last issue of Birds of Prey saw Barbara Gordon leaving the team to take care of some personal business.  This personal business leads her to Gotham City and, conveniently, her part in The Battle for the Cowl.  Needless to say it seems that DC is also intent on taking a once brilliantly written character down a few notches, both in quality and characterization.  Only time will tell if the character will spiral further into cliche or once again rise to the status she once held.

If you are like me you’ve likely picked up a series or two not because they were great, but because you felt the need to have a complete collection.  I slogged through these issues because of that obsessive compulsive need and I’m here to try and talk you out of doing the same.  If you are curious about the story and want to pick it up: don’t.  If I can’t convince you to do that, at least try the following:

1.  Wait until the trade paperback.
2.  Let someone else buy it, read it, and then immediately take it back to sell used, probably swearing all the way.
3.  Pick up the copied used, after it has been reduced to a ridiculously low price and consigned to the ultra-bargain bin.

All told that if there is any justice in the world you should only have to wait a week for all of that to happen.

Slightly spoilerific review below

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Review Secret Six #7

Secret Six 7 Cover

Writer:  Gail Simone
Pencilers: Nicola Scott
Inkers:  Doug Hazelwood

Issue #7 concludes the first arc in the Secret Six series.  Once again the writing is spot-on with liberal doses of humor and drama intermixed.  The issue draws you in from start to finish and leaves you wanting more.  In my opinion this is what comic books should strive to be.  Too often we are stuck between entertaining and thought provoking or deconstructing a long running character.  We are confronted with drawn out arcs with a quick single issue filler sandwiched in-between.  Ms. Simone has gone a long way in perfecting a balance in her story writing between giving us a complete story each month and adding to the overall narrative.  Furthermore Ms. Scott’s pencils are as beautiful as ever and her attention to detail is excellent.

Beyond here be spoilers.

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I don’t know how it happened, but Marvel has managed to put their four main X-Men books in one week: X-Men: Legacy, X-Factor, X-Force, and Uncanny X-Men. This last week, we, the readers, were given these three books and, as you would assume, each have their own style and feeling and each make me feel completely different about the X-Men. With writers Peter David (X-Factor), Mike Carey (Legacy), Christopher Yost and Craig Kyle (X-Force) and Matt Fraction (Uncanny) each book I read leaves me feeling excited, okay, blood-thirsty and strange–respectively.

I read all four of these books and have been for the last eight years or so (or however long they have been out–X-Factor, X-Force) and I’ve seen some changes, both good and bad and I think I’m going to make it my goal to comment on these four books every month from here on with a post like this–assuming they’ll keep coming out on the same week.  This month we were handed Uncanny X-Men #507, X-Force #13, X-Factor #41, and X-Men: Legacy #222…

Continue on after the break (spoilers).

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In December 2008, Marvel released a new series written by Fred Van Lente and illustrated by Dennis Calero entitled X-Men Noir. Now I haven’t read Marvel in quite some time, but this concept provoked me to pick up the first issue. Needless to say I wasn’t dissappointed. The art by Calero was sharp. He captured the black and white tones of the 1940’s film noir in full color, only highlighting pieces of the panel to stand alone. You can practically see it come to life. Van Lente’s story was a little hard to follow at first, moving quickly from scene to scene, but the artwork made it enjoyable for the second read. Together they create a wonderfully “dynamic-duo.”

*Spoilers after the break*

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This comic is old school. Writer Len Wein wrote his first issue of JLA back in 1972 (Vol. 1, Issue 100). Earlier that year, Starbreaker, the “cosmic vampire,”  made his debut in JLA. Both the writer and the villain make their returns to the pages of JLA in a Bronze-colored story that will make some feel warm and nostalgic and make others simply roll their eyes.

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G.I. Joe #1 Cover B

G.I. Joe #1 (IDW )
Writer:  Chuck Dixon
Artist:  Robert Atkins

G.I.Joe is the comic that started me down the long road to being a comic book geek.  It along with a few other 80’s properties are near and dear to my childhood.  The comic book that Marvel put out ruled over all that was produced in the name of G.I. Joe toys in the 1980’s.  The cartoons were great to watch, but ultimately they were cheesy and nobody ever died.  Between the lack of mortality in the G.I. Joe and Transformers cartoons I was woefully unprepared for Roy Fokker’s exit from Robotech.  On the other hand the comic books brought action, humor, character development, and even death.  To my 10 year old mind the stories they told drew me in deeper and had more of a lasting impact on my imagination than any 30 minute cartoon could.

I have the full run of the Marvel G.I. Joe, some more beat up than others, and I still find entertainment in their pages.  When Devils Due publishing announced they were bringing G.I. Joe back to comic books continuing the saga Marvel started, the 10 year old inside the 20-something year old me did a little jig.  I collected all of them as well, including the short run of FrontLine AND the even shorter run of G.I. Joe Reloaded.  The stories weren’t quite as satisfying at first, but they hit their stride and I was a huge fan by the end of their run.  Hasbro put the licensing back up for negotiations and IDW won the bid.  Last fall they put out a special Issue 0 that highlighted the three series they would be producing on a regular basis.  Issue 1 of the core series came out on 1/14/2009 and after reading #0, I picked it up with some trepidation.

Review and opinion forthcoming. (more…)

So here we go. The reason I have not written anything since my first review way back when is because of my utter frustration with DC comics. Until about six months ago I had not read a comic in awhile. In fact it had been a long while and that is why I chose to cover for my first review an old personal favorite, Batman: Year One. When I decided that I wanted to re-visit my passion for comics I headed to the comic book store and  the first comics that caught my eye was from the Batman R.I.P. series, Batman Detective Comics #846. I was stoked.  My re-entry into the comic book world was at a pivotal point for the DC universe, the death of Batman! I realized that it was obviously a series, I mean you can’t kill Batman in just one issue, but at the time I didn’t realize the extent of the series. DC had decided to crossover titles covering Batman, Batman Detective Comics, Robin, Nightwing, and Batman and the Outsiders. I thought it was a great idea. I mean the death of Batman is going to affect everyone so why not cover it over a plethora of titles. Boy was I wrong.

Spoilers and more after the break.

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"Allow me to re-introduce myself..."

In this one-shot, writer Sterling Gates answers the question: Whatever happened to Prometheus?

Just over a decade ago, Prometheus was introduced in his own one shot by writer Grant Morrison as the anti-Batman, and nearly defeated the JLA by himself in their first meeting. The idea of an “evil Batman” has been done before and since, but Prometheus was the first one to be billed as a threat to the world at large, rather than just Gotham City.  Morrison used him again in his final JLA story arc, in which Batman defeated him soundly. Since then, other writers have depicted him as a henchman and a joke character rather than the holy terror he was originally meant to be. So how did Gates repair this character’s reputation? Read on…

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I went and saw The Spirit on Saturday. Yes, I saw it despite the terrible reviews and horrendous score on Rotten Tomatoes (because I trust the collective movie reviewers over individual reviewers and it was at 17% when I left to see the movie).

It is now about 23 hours after seeing that movie (as I write this) and my views of the film have not changed.

I knew before going into the movie that it was going to be outrageous, we all knew that. I knew there’d be a huge Sin City feel to it that we all wanted but still didn’t want to see. I knew that this was Frank Miller’s first solo movie as a writer and director. I knew that Miller’s previous movies written for the screen were Robocop 2 and 3–both I didn’t see but have heard were terrible.

So I went into this movie with pretty low expectations, I’m not going to lie. But despite all of the badness The Spirit had from everyone else I saw the film and, well, I kind of liked it.

**spoilers abound**

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