Witchblade Annual #1

Witchblade Annual #1
Top Cow Productions/Image Comics
Writer: Jay Faerber
Pencils: Eric Basaluda
$3.99



It seems funny to me that a comic that's been running for over 10 years is just having its first Annual issue, but I suppose that's a product of Annuals falling out of favor in the late 90s and early 2000s.

So, I've always had a passing interest in Witchblade, and I've read the first dozen or so issues, but that's about it. I know the basics - super-hot Sara Pezzini is this generation's chosen bearer of the mystical artifact known as the Witchblade (and when the Withblade activates, Sara goes from being super-hot to almost super-naked). The New York Detective uses the Witchblade to help her solve supernatural cases, and gets her into trouble because there are other people who want to wield the Witchblade for themselves.

I also know that Witchblade is the only superhero comic series with a female lead to run for over 100 issues, with the exception of Wonder Woman and She-Hulk (and I think Catwoman has had about 100 issues total, over various series), which is both impressive and sad. Sad, because that says something about the mindsets of comic readers, and impressive because its one of very few series in 70 years of Superhero comics to have that distinction.

So, without a clearly-defined jumping on point in the series, I thought I'd check out the annual. And, really, it wasn't bad. Armed with just the knowledge that I've given in this review, the lead story totally makes sense, and is easy to follow. Beautiful young women are having short-term amnesiac attacks, and during those periods are committing crimes and murders. Sara Pezzini and her partner do some detective work (imagine that!) and relate all the women to the same plastic surgeon. They question him, and he claims innocence. But after some incongruities in the doctor's story, the detectives realize he's not exactly what he claims, and visit his house. And what they find isn't, well, typical...

Jay Faerber tells a basic, straightforward, one-shot superhero story, told outside the confines of the regular Witchblade title. The artwork from Eric Basaluda has solid storytelling, and his beautiful women are actually beautiful.

I dig it. It's not ground-breaking by any means, but if this is the quality that Witchblade has been experiencing over the last 10 years, then I totally understand why it's lasted as long as it has. I might just need to start checking out the regular series, after this...

X-Men: Forever Alpha

X-Men Forever Alpha
Writers: Chris Claremont & Jim Lee
Pencils: Jim Lee
Inks: Scott Williams
Marvel Comics
$4.99



So, for the uninitiated, X-Men: Forever will be a mini-series from Marvel, with the premise of "If Chris Claremont didn't get booted off the X-Books in 1991, leaving Jim Lee to take over as writer for the next year starting with issue #4, these are the stories that would have been told." It's an interesting concept, although it's been 18 years since Lee took over for Claremont. I suppose it's better to do it almost two decades later than it would've been to have split realities for the X-Men at any point at time.

I question the intelligence of this, though. Essentially, this is a "What if Earth was different?" story, where Marvel aren't just telling new stories in their universe, they're essentially playing with real reality. If this is an isolated incident, then that's fine. But I'm a bit fearful of where the X-Franchise goes after this experiment, and I wonder where the line is drawn for these alternate universe stories? For example, let's suppose Stan Lee decided he was going to do Fantastic Four: Forever, and just tell FF stories from when he and Jack Kirby stopped working on the book, at issue #104? FF is at issue 566, this month. That means 462 issues of Fantastic Four just didn't happen in this split world. And then the fanboys get to argue over which reality is better; Is the regular Marvel Earth-616 the way that things should've gone? Or should we go with the Forever realities?

On top of that, I wonder what Marvel are thinking by doing a story that didn't happen? The majority of people this will appeal to are people who were reading X-Men back in 1991, which, again, was 18 years ago. There's an entire generation of readers that wasn't even alive when that happened, and now we get a big reboot from back then? They won't have read the stories that this is supposed to be continuing, will they have?

Ah, enter X-Men: Forever Alpha. In case you haven't read X-Men #1 (which is hard to believe, considering it sold 11 million copies or whatever), #2, or #3 from 1991, XMFA reprints those three issues! It also includes a back-up story that apparently bridges the gap between X-Men #3 and XMF #1. So, for five bucks, you get reprints of comics from 18 years ago, plus 8 or so pages of new material.

I suppose that's not a bad deal, all things considered. It's kind of like a mini TPB, really.

X-Men: Forever seems like it's going to be for completists, or for X-Men fans who stopped reading (Ex-X-Fans?) when Jim Lee took over. But if you're going to check it out, this is definitely a good item to pick up and get yourself re-acquainted with the late 80s/early 90s team. Or just dig through your back issue bins and read these again. 'Cause those eight pages in the back aren't really that important.

Or you could buy both covers, to re-create the poster found inside the fold-out cover of X-Men #1.

Secret Invasion: Front Line TPB

Secret Invasion: Front Line TPB
Writer: Brian Reed
Pencils: Marco Castiello
$14.99



Starting with Civil War, Marvel started including a Front Line tie-in book with their major crossovers (so, Civil War, World War Hulk, and now Secret Invasion). While the main crossover title deals with the major events, and the other tie-in issues deal with individual characters' reactions to the events (i.e., Secret Invasion: Ms. Marvel is about Ms. Marvel's story during the Invasion), the Front Line books have a unique take:

They deal with regular people in a Super world.

Secret Invasion: Front Line follows the stories of Marvel Universe citizens during the few days of Skrulls invading Earth. Ben Urich, from the newspaper Front Line narrates the story, through recordings he's made as the events unfold.

I've really enjoyed the Front Line comics so far, and Secret Invasion's version doesn't disappoint. In just five issues, we're invited to see the worlds of a police officer who's been burned in the leg, a young nurse trying to do her job, a cab driver whose day went from crap to worse, and a teenage girl whose parents are separating. And we witness all of these characters coming together, and how they survive (or not) the Skrull Invasion.

It's good times. Reading these tales, writer Brian Reed really brought more weight to the insanity of the Skrull Invasion - Rather than just seeing how Iron Man dealt with losing his StarkTech, or how Ms. Marvel was destroying monsters from another world, or how other heroes dealt with it, we get to see what would happen to you or I. Because, let's face it; in the threat of an shape-changing alien invasion, I bet a lot more folks would run away than stand up and fight for the safety of the planet.

It's also great to see Ben Urich's reaction to people's reactions to Norman Osborn taking control, and the beginning of the Dark Reign. Urich, as you may remember, wrote a book that ousted Norman as the psychopathic Green Goblin, and Mr. Osborn's dealing with the situation is rather impressive.

So, if you want a complete picture of the Marvel Universe's dealing with the Skrull invasion, I'd highly recommend checking this TPB out. But it's mostly for completists and Marvel Universe uber-nerds, like me.

It seems as though I've only reviewed things I've enjoyed, so far... Maybe next time, I'll review something that I think sucks...

New Mutants #1

New Mutants #1
Marvel Comics
Zeb Wells (writer)
Diogenes Neves (pencils)
Klaus Janson (inks)
Christina Strain (colors)

I missed New Mutants, the first time around. By the time I got into comics, New Mutants #100 was the latest issue, and, as X-buffs undoubtedly know, there was no New Mutants #101 - Rob Liefeld had transformed the book into X-Force.

I also missed New Mutants the second time around, in 2003 or whatever, because that was during my return to comics, and the series had just been canceled to be turned into New X-Men (which is not to be confused with Grant Morrison's New X-Men, which ended that same year.)

So, I figured, "Hey, a new number one. That's a good jumping-on point, right?" So I read it.


Essentially, the story is that all the original New Mutants who are still alive (Cannonball, Sunspot, Magma, Karma, and the returning Magik, hot on the heels of X-Infernus) are headed out to investigate a possible mutant power manifestation from a 7-year-old girl. And, as is the case in all X-books, trouble follows. And then Legion shows up (which isn't really a spoiler, because all of the ads leading up to NM#1 say that the team is back to combat Legion).

Diogenes Neves' artwork is solid. Everybody is easily-distinguishable from everybody else, even when they're all suited up in their funky new X-costumes. And, y'know, Christina Strain is totally my favorite colorist in comics today, so having her on board certainly doesn't hurt.

And, it's a solid first issue. It made me want to read issue two, and I'm very much contemplating buying the wraparound cover (pictured above) to add to my collection. And I just might, if we have any left by the end of the day, today.

After reading both #1 issues today, I'm more excited for New Mutants #2 than I am for Power Girl #2, even though I was more excited to read PG#1 than NM#1. I'm not sure if that's because I've been an X-Family fan for over 15 years, or if it's because Zeb Wells wrote a more intriguing story than Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti did. But, whatever the reason, I'll be back to check out both of these comics, next month.

Also, Marvel totally has the first few pages of New Mutants #1 up on their website, if you want to take a look, yourself. Head on over to http://www.marvel.com/news/comicstories.7845.Preview~colon~_New_Mutants_%231 and check it out!

Power Girl #1

Power Girl #1
DC Comics
Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray (writing)
Amanda Connor (pencils & inks)
Paul Mounts (color)




So, let me get this out of the way: I am not a huge DC Comics fan. I never have been, as it seems the only IPs they ever bother to license out are Batman and Superman, despite their having so many more characters that, at least to me, seem far more interesting. The Green Lantern is one of those characters, and I'm very excited for the Blackest Night event, this summer. I'm also currently enjoying Green Arrow/Black Canary.

So today, with Power Girl #1 coming out, I thought I'd give it a shot. From what I understand (before reading Wikipedia's entry on the character), Power Girl is the Earth-2 version of Super Girl, somehow trapped on Earth Prime. She was shuttled away off of Krypton-2 before it exploded, much like her cousin, Kal-El (Superman). Or something like that. What's nice about this issue is that there's a one-page recap of her origin, which essentially says, "Yo, my origin isn't very important. It happened, but that's not why you should care about me. You should care about me because I'm kind of a badass trying to make the world a better place."

And, really, that makes me care about the character more than trying to explain her origin story. As X-Men Origins: Wolverine (both the movie and last week's comic) have proven, delving too far into any one character's back story can just leave you confused and give you a headache. In fact, one of the biggest mistakes I've seen creators make is try to explain the origins of characters whose origins REALLY aren't very important; Wolverine isn't cool because of what happened to him before, he's cool because of how he acts NOW. Same with Gambit. Same with Cable.

And the same with Power Girl. Her origin is unimportant. She's here, and she's fighting monsters. As far as the issue itself goes, it's okay. Amanda Connor's art is gorgeous, but I feel like the story is just decent. Although that might be because I'd read half the comic in all the other DC comics that've come out in the last couple months... But it was interesting enough to keep me intrigued for issue two.

So, I'm not buying Power Girl #1 today, but I certainly wouldn't fault anybody else for doing so. And there's a pretty good chance I might go back and pick up the trade, after the first several issues have come out. It's a strong start. We'll see where it goes from here.

Transformers: All Hail Megatron

Transformers: All Hail Megatron #s 1-4, 6-10
IDW Publishing
Written by Shane McCarthy
Pencils by Guido Guidi and Robert Deas (issue 9)

"What a quizzical selection of issues," you might be thinking to yourself.

Well, what had happened was, between shopping at my previous regular shop and opening my own store, I sort of missed a few comics, and apparently TFs: All Hail Megatron #5 was one of them. So I totally didn't get to read it. But IDW released a 5-page teaser of that issue, and tfwiki.net is pretty much the ultimate Transformers resource, so I read their synopsis.

Anyways.

THIS is the Transformers comic I have been waiting for IDW to produce. Don't get me wrong; the Infiltration, Stormbringer, Escalation, Devastation, and Revelation mini serieses, and the Spotlight one-shots are cool. Really cool. Some of them are amongst the best Transformers comics I've ever read. But, All Hail Megatron is the epitome of making this silly little child's franchise a piece of mature entertainment.

Here's the basic premise: The Autobots have been exiled to Cybertron, and Optimus Prime has been severely damaged. The Decepticons, meanwhile, have decided to take over the Earth and use its natural resources to create Energon (the Transformers equivalent of food), and use it as a central base of operations in their quest for Universal conquest. The Autobots on Cybertorn are embittered, having petty arguments amongst themselves, and accusing each other of being traitors. Also, they're trying to remain a cohesive team and stand united in the face of adversity. Clearly, that part isn't going very well. Also, Starscream is up to his usual undermining tactics. Except, this time, he actually manages to convince some Decepticons that he's right. And, hoo-boy, does he seemingly convince the right Decepticons to convince!

But the best part about All Hail Megatron is that THINGS HAPPEN. One of the problems with most children's cartoons (especially the ones designed to sell toys, like Transformers), is that the main characters mostly always stay alive. But in AHM, nobody is safe. Especially not the humans. In issue 6, the evil Decepticon Skywarp claims to have killed the population of Beijing, China. That's over eight million people. Okay, even if he's exaggerating? That's a lot of people. The death toll is likely still in the millions.

Or, one of my favorite scenes is when some scared New Yorkers are hiding in the subway, and they hear a train. They're thinking that this is their way out of there. But when the train arrives, it's clearly Astrotrain, who transforms into his robot mode and KILLS EVERYTHING.

While you can totally see Starscream's betrayal coming a mile away (because, you know, it's Starscream), WHAT he manages to do, and the revelation of how the other Decepticons see him is somethingt that we never really got a chance to see, before this. And because IDW is allowed to kind of re-write TF history for this series, you may be surprised at who feels which way about the Decepticon Air Commander.

And when the Autobots find the OTHER faction trying to survive on Cybertron? Oh man, it's quite a treat.

The only downside to this story is that you need to know what happened to Sunstreaker during the Escalation and Devastation series, and it sort of requires that you have a working knowledge of who the Transformers are, and why the Matrix of Leadership is important. So full-on TransNewbies may be a bit confused at first. But if you, like me, watched the original Transformers when you were a kid in the early 80s, this is the comic that you want to read. It's literally as cool as you remember Transformers being, without too much stuff being changed.

I highly recommend this series if you have even a passing interest in the Transformers.

FCBD 2009, upcoming events

Hey, thanks to everybody who came out yesterday, for Free Comic Book Day. Here are some photos from the day:

We've got more events scheduled in the future, including The Dead Gear's CD release party on May 16th at 5pm. The Enigmatic D and the Lovely Ms. Jenn X will be in attendance to perform live, as well as sell copies of the album and t-shirts. Be sure to stop by for that, as it promises to be a great night!

Also, May 25th is the anniversary of Star Wars being released in theatres, waaaaaay back in 1977, and Comic Zone will be celebrating! Stay tuned for further details!

Word around the office is that we may have some sort of self-publishing event in June, as well. Oooo!

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Movie Review

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

First off, let me make this clear: I did NOT watch the bootleg work print that's been all over the Internet for the last few weeks. I actually went to the theatre, paid in full for the movie, and that is the version I am reviewing. And how was it?

Well. I expected a very different movie.

See, I expected the movie to be based on Origin by Bill Jemas, Joe Quesada, and Paul Jenkins; and Weapon X by Barry Windsor-Smith. But, other than a few scenes with some elements from those comics, it's not.

Barry Windsor-Smith not included.

There's no crazy Weapon X helmet. There're no false memory implants. This is a toned-down, less sci-fi, and more human origin to Wolverine. But, as a result, I feel that it's also a lot less tragic. In the comics, Logan was captured and treated like a lab animal. In the movie, his personality traits were manipulated and played for the benefit of Colonel William Stryker.

But let's not talk about what the movie ISN'T. Let's talk about what the movie IS.

It IS an hour and a half of Hugh Jackman kicking ass and blowing things up. It IS a very Wolverine-feeling story. And it IS a good abridged telling of Wolverine's history for people who've only seen the three X-Men films.

Hugh Jackman is giving us the People's Eyebrow through about half the movie.

There ARE a bunch of Weapon X program mutants involved - Logan, Sabretooth, Deadpool, Silverfox, Agent Zero, Kestrel (John Wraith), and a couple others who didn't get named. Gambit, Cyclops, Emma Frost, and The Blob all make extended cameos, and these cameos all work, without destroying established movie continuity.

Yes, there are flaws, and there are things I would've liked to have seen done differently, but, overall? It's not a total waste of time. Or money. And it's easily as good as any of the other three X-Men movies. So I'm not going to tell anybody to NOT see it.

It's by no means a bad movie. In fact, it's a pretty good one. But it's not for the established Wolverine/X-Men fanbase. It's for movie fans. And it may not be the best at what it does, but it is pretty damn good at it.