Transformers v2 #2

So far the renumbering /soft reboot of the Transformers franchise has been pretty good letting new readers to jump in without know a whole lot of knowledge accept the american military isn't so sure they trust the Autobots anymore than the Decepticons at this point and Megatron is seemingly dead and most of the Decpticons seem to have fled the earth.

All of those idea's are intriguing and new to the franchise (as far as i know anyways)

The one problem tho is they came out with a one shot Bumblebee after the first issue that spoiled the entire set up of issue number 2 ! was this some sort of error in publishing? either way it doesn't make a lot of sense because the drama in the second issue was supposed to be who was gonna carry on after Optimus after he surrendered to Skywatch.


the rest of it ? well i like the more military feel of the book even from the Autobots perspective which makes sense given that Matt Costa previously worked on I.D.W's G.I. Joe Series.


And I also really keen on Don Figueroa's pencil work which is highly detailed on the robots and having the sense of scope needed to tell a story with giant robots.


So hopefully there wont be any mistakes like the last one so i can finally jump on to a transformers comic just like i did with there G.I. Joe Series last year.

Victorian Undead #2

Hmm well this was a bit of a let down from the previous issue especially since not much of anything happens and Sherlock Holmes and Watson get saved (right on time no less) by his portly brother(?) who happens to have a crack team of zombie fighting soldiers with advanced weaponry that even we probably don't have right now (Machine guns that look like they belong on top of a tank for instance)and they don't look anything victorian in there uniform.

The writing does seem to capture the language pretty well and the main characters seem to be written in character and the art is decent but doesn't really set the mood of the time period and is starting to seem more endowed to something more slightly more cartoon like or animated looking like Walking Dead which i don't think really fits well with this time period.

I'm hoping the next issue sort of picks up the pace a bit more and gives us some twists and turns.

Powers #1 v3.

I have tried to jump on board with this comic a bunch of times just cause a lot of people tell me how much better Bendis's street level comics are and since this book is mainly about cops and detectives trying to take down super villains i figured this would be a natural and with the new series afoot i figured it would be a good place to start.

Apparently i thought wrong since i am mostly confused and mostly irritated with this comic.

A lot of it has to do with the art by Micheal Avon Oeming which is similar in style to Amanda Conner and other slight retro cartoon like artists while Amanda is a good story teller and great at facial expressions Mr.Oeming doesn't seem to have any of those skills and frankly this style does not work on a gritty comic like this anywyas.

a lot of the story makes absolutely no sense to me at all and a lot of it feels rushed which is ironic considering how long it's been since the last issue came out and also there's some confusing things like i'm not sure what a "powers virus" is and what it does.

Frankly there's a lot of mistakes and plot holes in this like when officer Sunrise says "stop or i'll shoot" even tho she is already shooting.
I'm also curious how the two officers wound up in bed together first they check out a murder and then we get some weird random flashback that parodies the rat pack for no real reason and the next thing the two officers hop in bed together even tho they weren't even getting along before.

Maybe this will all make sense to someone who has read the previous issues but i'm completely left out in the cold and the obvious rushed mistakes and the crappy art doesn't make me wanna stick around and figure things out.

Honestly this feels like an inferior version of Criminal by Ed Brubaker and i would stick with that one unless your a hardcore Bendis fan or a big fan of this series.

The Sword #1

I came across this issue recently by the Luna Brothers after reading there Spider-woman Origins mini series.
and i really like this comic, the premise is simple basically a paraplegic girl in a wheelchair finds a magic sword beneath her house after her family was murdered and her house burned down by a pair of evil mages.
thereby giving her the exact means for her revenge which may seem a little too convenient but the mages where looking for that sword in the first place.

The pacing is so great that it only takes them 2 pages to shockingly reveal Dara is handicapped.

The art is very simple and clean too with soft pastel colors in some area's and a great sense of normalcy in everything from the backgrounds to the anatomy.

I have rarely seen such a collaborative effort where there lines of artistic deviation aren't divided up by Writer and Penciller.

I feel like i don't read enough indie comics for various reasons but this one feels very classic even tho it started in 2007 this could have been made at any time.
I really can't say enough about this book so please give it a try.

Black Widow - Deadly Origin #1

Black Widow- Deadly Origin #01 (by Paul Cornell, Tom Raney, and John Paul Leon)

I'm not sure who this book is meant for really and I can't say I am interested in this at all.

The story takes several jumps through places and times including her origin and while the book starts off with Black Widow in a Mini Space Shuttle playing a game of spy one upmanship unfortunately we then get five pages of wordless grunting and pointless fighting.

Then we get to the main plot where a man who is apparently like a father to her named Ivan is on the run because of something called the “icepick protocol” and from there we get somewhat random flashbacks about Natasha's early childhood and for some reason Wolverine makes a cameo appearance (boy that guy sure did get around) and then back to the present.

To be perfectly honest this story bored the hell out of me maybe if you are a big fan of spy type stuff this would interest you and we also have no clue what the icepick protocol is or what it's about and the flashbacks are kind of dull and don't tell us much except Natasha was a killer at an early age.


The art in the present by Tom Raney doesn't really work well especially since all his females have chubby faces it doesn't really fit how Widow is supposed to look which I think should be strong and fierce and determined with high cheekbones, his storytelling isn't all that great either.

The Flashbacks by John Paul Leon are nice and atmospheric and has some interesting layouts that look Steranko-esque.


I can't say if I will continue reading this but right now I can say I don't have much interest, I would advise most people to read something else unless youre a hardcore fan of the original Black Widow or you love Spy books no matter

Valkyrie

I was really looking forward to seeing this movie the other night but ultimately i was very disappointed in it.

The actors don't seem quite passionate enough for something as life and death as this(overthrowing Hitler)
Not to mention that noone even attempts a German accent and most of the actors besides Tom have British accents which is really jarring.

There is no mention of the atrocities that the SS and Hitler are performing on Jews or exactly what exactly they plan to do once they get rid of Hitler.

If this was supposed to be some sort of comeback vehicle for Tom Cruise..... well then i'm curious why he and his people didn't invest more effort into making this movie more authentic and passionate?
since after all this would have been a great oscar bait if it was more successfull.

Deathlok the Demolisher #1 (1of a seven issue limited series)

Apparently this book is reviving the Marvel Knights imprint (which has seemingly been dead for quite a while,)although from the writing here with it's glorious use of violence and long string of obnoxiously edited curse words they might as well put it out in the Max imprint. of course one even wonders why Marvel and DC are always trying to revive long dormant characters but I guess they should be rewarded for at least trying even if most of the time the results are null and void, which is pretty much what we seem to be getting here.

Granted I know next to nothing about Deathlok except he was a african american half cyborg and possible soldier of some sorts and his book was considered edgy for it's time and that's just going from memory..

Anyways all those idea's have been apparently thrown out the window for some reason at least for the time being what we get is a mix and match of sci fi tropes all thrown into together in something that doesn't seem anything at all original so basically what we have here is Starship troopers meets Rollerball meets Running Man which basically amounts to a parody of extreme sports commentators over a a bunch of hard ass military goons pretending to be jocks.

The first big mistake is the pacing which doesn't even get to the action until page 15 where the book is already half-way over and the second is the extremely obnoxious extreme sports commentators who don't offer any real insight into the players or what's going on in the book at all just check out this exact quote from one of the commentators “that can only mean one thing the house of pain is open for business” “ amateurs need not apply” “we got the big dogs in the ring tonight and one of them ain't going home with a bone” And then they insult one of the former players turned commentators who was handicapped from a field explosion .
Apparently all this is supposed to be some sort of dark comedy but the dialogue is way too in your face to ever be funny so i'm not sure who exactly this book is supposed to be marketed towards.

Lan Medina's art is really lovely in the beginning and has lots of nice detail and a level of almost painterly realism, but then when the action starts the action seems stiff and the blood red colors blur a lot of the energy and detail out of the pencils. Sadly Deathlok himself doesn't even appear in this issue at all so maybe the next issue will pick up on the action and leave the commentators behind.