Here In Bongo Congo
Good King Leonardo has found lots of good new comic books this week on the new issues shelves, so let's get right to it and see how these titles stack-up against each other:
Good King Leonardo has found lots of good new comic books this week on the new issues shelves, so let's get right to it and see how these titles stack-up against each other:
She-Hulk #1
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Charles Soule: Writer
Javier Pulido: Art
Muntsa Vicente: Colors
After a hiatus of a few years, Marvel Comics has once again revived its
well-known She-Hulk title. For the few folk who aren't aware of the Green
Goddess's background, she's Jennifer Walters, cousin to the original Hulk, Dr.
Bruce Banner. She gained her ability to transform into the Hulk through a
blood transfusion from her cousin and unlike her cousin, she doesn't lose her
normal personality when she physically transforms. Jen actually practices as an
attorney, both in her human and Hulk-like roles. The previous She-Hulk
run of a few years ago was an acclaimed series scripted by Dan
Slott. The new title is written by Charles Soule with art by Javier
Pulido and colors by Muntsa Vicente.
In
the last series, Jen worked for a large Manhattan law firm which
specialized in providing legal services to superheroes and supervillains.
The plot of issue #1 is entitled "Motion," and literally finds Jen in
motion in two ways. First, she quickly quits the law firm when she finds
that the senior partners are manipulating her presence merely to bag major superhero
clients. The bulk of the plot is pure comedy; nursing her new
unemployment in a bar, Jen meets the widow of a deceased supervillain, who
actually has proof that Tony Stark/Iron Man had stolen her husband's patented
supertechnology.
Slapstick comedy ensues as Jen moves into legal motion, both in a courtroom
lawsuit and in trying to wind her way through the endless bureaucracy of Stark
Enterprises in order to connect with Tony and negoatiate a fair settlement to
the lawsuit. i really don't want to spoil any of the funny details,
suffice to say that Tony Stark is not a bad guy in this case and that in the
end, Stark himself, the widowed client and Jen all come-out winners. The
issue concludes with Jen deciding to open by herself a one-woman law firm to
continue her unique combination of lawyering and she-hulking in next month's
issue #2 and beyond.
I was a huge fan of the most recent previous She-Hulk title, particularly for
its strong element of comedy in the storyline. So I'm pleased to report
that the latest creative team continues that tradition with strong positive
results. The comedy is now blended with the tongue-in-cheek narrative
style of Marvel's acclaimed current Hawkeye comic book title, resulting in a
wry storytone that while funny, also allows for some valuable dramatic emotion
to weave into the tale. Similar to Hawkeye, humor is used here to
explore and promote some valuable life lessons. In issue #1, that life
lesson focuses on Tony Stark/Iron Man, and presents a worthwhile lesson on
personal responsibility when Tony discovers how unbenownst to him, his
company was financially mistreating the villain's widow and orphans.
Two other story elements also contribute to making this new title a
winner. The first is the artwork, which very effectively visually
duplicates Marvel's Hawkeye title in its t.v. animation cartoony-style.
Secondly, I liked very much the Hawkeye-like plot approach in which folks in
this storyverse aren't clearly characterized as either good guys or
baddies. The deceased villain's innocent wife and kids are clearly good
people; Jen knows that and when she comes through for them, they both treat and
reward her accordingly. Tony Stark's company is clearly a bad guy early
in the storyline, but by issue's end, good guy Tony makes things right, taking
responsibility and literally cleaning his own house.
I could continue writing about all of the good and interesting
elements of this comic book. But I've given you enough of a picture,
already. So in sum, a very positive review recommendation is
well-deserved, for all of the above reasons, for this latest She-Hulk
title. So thank you, Marvel Comics, for bringing back Jen Walters, for
another hopefully lengthy run as everyone's favorite green-skinned crusading
lawyer!
Winter Soldier: The Bitter March #1
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Rick Remender: Writer
Roland Boschi: Art
Chris Chuckry: Colors
Marvel Comics has just released issue #1 of a new title featuring its
well-known Winter Soldier character. For the uninitiated, The Winter
Soldier is Bucky Barnes, Captain America's original youthful sidekick and
partner. The Winter Soldier concept was created several years
ago by Marvel and proposes that similarly to Captain America's frozen history,
Barnes's frozen body was found post-World War II by the Soviets, whereupon he
was revived and brainwashed into functioning as a seemingly unstoppable,
international Soviet assassin codenamed The Winter Soldier. This new
comic book series is scripted by Rick Remender with art by Roland Boschi and
colors by Chris Chuckry.
Issue #1 kicks-off "The Bitter March," a multi-issue story arc.
Set in 1966, the initial story segment is a SHIELD action-adventure thriller
starring Nick Fury and his 1960's SHIELD partner Agent Ran Shen. When the
evil organization HYDRA kidnaps two former husband-and-wife Nazi scientists to
exploit their secret weaponry knowledge, its up to Fury and Ran Shen to
grab the evil spouses for U.S. control of their invention. In a
lengthy James Bond-style undercover sequence, Agent Ran infiltrates the
mountaintop castle HYDRA headquarters. Without being a key detail spoiler, the
tide turns against our duo as a sexy HYDRA operative turns-out to have creepy
evil superpowers.
The plot dramatically introduces The Winter Soldier in the final third of the
issue #1 storyline; when our SHIELD guys manage to escape with the evil
scientist duo, Bucky arrives on the scene and in a very dramatic mountaintop
action sequence, attempts to kidnap the evil scientist duo for Soviet
purposes. The issue #1 story segment ends in a cliffhanger as The Winter
Soldier is gearing himself into unstoppable mode in hot pursuit of the fleeing
escapees.
This new Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier title is very entertaining,
incorporating four strong production elements. The first is writer
Rick Remender's plotting style, which effectively cribs the story atmosphere
and tone of 1960's James Bond spy movies. Agent Ran Shen is cast in the
Sean Connery/James Bond role and does a wonderful job, gliding
his tuxedoed way through the upscale HYDRA castle reception with the
sexy evil hydra supervillain on his arm. There's also a nice balance
between humor and drama in the plot; on the humor side, Fury and Shen engage in
a constant and effective witty competitive banter, while the drama explodes at
every key turn in the plot progression. Third, it was a brilliant idea to
introduce the partnership of Fury and Shen as the featured stars of the issue #1
story segment. Via both the story action and the narration, we see The
Winter Soldier from the outside perspective of these other key players, thereby
reinforcing the fear factor of his image as an unstoppable machine-cold
killer. It will be interesting to see if and how the creative team
chooses to add some humanity to Bucky Barnes as the multi-issue story arc
unfolds.
Fourth and finally, while the overall artwork is pleasing, colorist Chris
Chuckry does an exceptional job is choosing the perfect color palette for
conveying the outdoor mountaintop action-adventure elements of this thriller
storyline. So an obvious positive review recommendation is well-deserved
for issue #1 of Winter Soldier: The Bitter March, which rightfully takes
its place as a fresh and unique addition to Marvel's ever-growing Bucky
Barnes/Winter Soldier story inventory.
Miracleman #1
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Various Artists and Writers
Marvel Comics recently began publishing a reprint title of Miracleman.
For the uninitiated (and that includes me before I spotted this issue on the
That's Entertainment new issues shelves), Miracleman is a 1950's Golden Age
British knock-off of the well-known Captain Marvel storyverse from American
comic book publishing. Created by writer-artist Mick Anglo, the character
was actually called Marvelman in its native British run and renamed to
Miracleman for its U.S. editions. Following its 1954-1963
original publishing run, the series was revived in 1982 by famed writer Alan
Moore, with a run of 1990's tales scripted by Neil Gaiman. This
over-sized new issue #1 comic book presents six (6) reprint stories
created by various artists and writers.
The first tale is a Mick Anglo-scripted story from 1985 entitled "Prologue
1956-The Invaders From The Future." Its a detailed time travel story, in
which Buck Rodgers-like bad guys from the far future of 1981 (!!!) invade
1956. The story is a good vehicle to introduce today's readers to both
Miracleman and his two Marvel Family-style sidekicks, Kid Miracleman and Young
Miracleman. The second and third tales are interconnected stories from
our hero's 1982 run. While creator credits aren't listed, these are
clearly Alan Moore-scripted stories; there's more of a dark, sophisticated
Watchman-like tone to the plot, which centers upon an amnesia-ridden Miracleman
regaining his identity after several years and having to cope with a civilian
wife who had no idea of his true background. The second half of this
extra-large comic book reprints three of the earliest black-and-white
1950's-era stories as created by Mick Anglo, including the very first
Miracleman story from 1954.
I was pleasantly blown-away by stumbling-upon this almost "alternate
universe" British version of Captain Marvel. If you're a Captain Marvel
and/or Golden Age comics fan, its incredibly entertaining and absorbing to dive
into this knock-off of the well-known Captain's storyverse. And a true
knock-off it is. To me, its a miracle that Fawcett Comics never
sued Mick Anglo back in the day, in the famous manner that DC Comics
sued Fawcett over alleged copyright infringement regarding
Captain Marvel vs. Superman (DC lost that case and Fawcett continued to
publish the famed Captain Marvel series). Even the little
details of characterization are duplicated. My favorite is how paperboy Micky
Moran transforms into his superhero identity by shouting "Kimota!", a
backwards version of atomic, similar to the famed "Shazam!" shout of
Billy Batson/Captain Marvel.
My guess is that Fawcett probably sympathized with Mick Anglo's
efforts after experiencing their own lawsuit from DC. They might have
also seen this overseas franchise as a well-constructed homage to their
own series, one which could only boost the popularity of both. The three
1950's-era tales are decent-enough for comic tales of that era, while the
1980's tales in the front of issue #1 frankly shine. "Prologue 1956"
is very entertaining, both as an at-times complex time travel paradox tale
and as a tongue-in-cheek riff on Buck Rodgers-style futurism. I loved the
way this 1985-published tale portrays the year 1981 as a 25th century
jetpack-style world of tomorrow. Alternately, "A Dream Of
Flying" actually brings the reader dramatically down-to-earth with Alan
Moore's realistic two stories of Miracleman literally waking-up in a very
realistic version of a civilian life and having to cope on-the-fly with
his lifetime as a married civilian. There's a connection here to Moore's
parallel efforts at the time in writing Watchman, which alone makes these two
tales combine as a precious and important piece of comic book history to
read.
In addition to the six reprint tales, equally enjoyable in this oversized issue
are page-after-page of extras, including reprints of key Miracleman covers,
background articles on this storyverse and most enjoyably, an excellent
reprinted interview conducted in 2010 by Marvels' Joe Quesada with Marvelman creator
Mick Anglo, who passed away in 2011 at the age of 95. So a positive
thumbs-up review recommendation is well-deserved for this kick-off issue #1 of
Miracleman. Here's hoping that future issues include some reprints of the
1990's-era tales scripted by Neil Gaiman. Irregardless, this is a reprint
series worthy of providing enjoyment to old and new fans alike of this
intriguing iconic superhero from "across the pond" in Britain.
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter #1
Publisher: Dynamite Comics
Greg Pak: Writer
Mirko Colak: Art
Lauren Affe: Colors
Dynamite Comics is in the process of reviving several Silver Age comic book
titles published by Gold Key, including a new interpretation of Turok: Son Of
Stone. The original series ran off-and-on from 1954 to 1982 through
publishers Dell, Gold Key and finally Whitman Comics. It featured the
aforementioned Turok and his brother Andar as two pre-Columbian Native
Americans who stumble-into and become trapped within an unknown North
American "Land Of The Lost" full of dinosaurs. This latest
Turok series is scripted by Greg Pak with art by Mirko Colak and colors by
Lauren Affe.
The kick-off segment of this multi-issue story arc is entitled
"Sanctuary" and introduces us to a significantly revised version of
the Turok origin tale. In this new version, Turok is a young adult loner,
living an isolated life as an in-touch-with-nature shaman, barely connecting
with his nearby tribe as he goes about a solitary existence honoring his
deceased parents. Constant bullying by fellow tribesmen led by the
lead bully Andar comes to a head in a very violent confrontation among all of
these players. Without spoiling the details, the situation becomes a
life-or-death struggle for Turok. Suddenly, the entire situation grinds to a
halt when the tribe is attacked by vicious dinosaurs, throwing Turok and Andar
into an unexpected alliance to try and live through the assault. The
issue #1 story segment ends in a dramatic bridge to next month's issue as its
revealed that the time and place of the setting is the year 1210 in
pre-Columbian rural Manhattan and invading English Crusaders have brought with
them and unleashed the dinosaurs on the tribe.
This is a disappointing failure of a comic book that deserves a thumbs-down negative
review recommendation for three reasons. First and foremost is the
atmosphere of the storyverse. In my last column's review of the
re-booted Ms. Marvel comic book, I wrote that there's a danger when
rebooting a previous popular series in drifting too far afield from the
elements that made the previous series great. While it worked in Ms.
Marvel, here writer Greg Pak steps on that landmine, in two respects. First, he
adds a very jaded and harsh atmosphere to this entire storyverse, replacing the
very popular heritage of television series-style action-adventuring with
some nasty 2014 storytelling elements. He lost me as soon as Andar's bullying
included slaughtering all of Turok's pet animals.
Secondly, the big reveal of the story setting of Crusaders-as-antagonists
flopped. Shifting the setting from a Land Of The Lost to the real world
takes away from the fantasy heritage of this acclaimed series, while the
introduction of dinosaur-toting Crusaders is both jarring and logically dumb,
even for the flexible bounds of the funny book storytelling genre. And third,
some basic editing is needed regarding the tribal conflict portions of the
plot. I still can't figure-out who's smacking who around in the various
tribal conflict panels, nor is it easy to discern between the present-day
and seemingly flashback scenes pertaining to Turok's earlier years.
In short, we have a muddled and unenjoyable mess of an attempted revival of an
iconic comic book series that deserves so much better treatment from a
publisher. Valiant Comics did a pretty good job of reviving Turok in the
1990's, even adding-in some storyverse changes that didn't overwhelm the good
elements that are at the very heart of the Turok series. So we know
it can be done. Dynamite Comics is usually top notch at reviving Pulp-era comic
titles, so why can't they treat this Silver Age storyverse re-boot with the
same respect and quality that its rich storytelling heritage deserves?
They can and they should, but until then, my advice is to avoid this harsh,
confusing and poor quality Turok re-boot and instead check-out the better
previous runs of Turok, all available in the back issue bins and among the
reprint compilation inventory of That's Entertainment.
Contest
Winner Announcement!!!
Our latest contest challenged you to tell us the actual name of the well-known
robot from the 1960's science fiction television show "Lost In
Space," given that he was usually just called "robot" in the
show's episodes. And our contest winner is (drumroll, please)...Keith
Martin, who provided one of actually two possible correct answers. While
the robot was referred to briefly as "B-9," in addition in a
time-travel episode, viewers learned that the robot was originally named
'GUNTER," an acronym that stands for "General Utility Non-Theorizing
Environmental Robot." Congratulations to Keith, who wins our first
prize $10.00 gift certificate to That's Entertainment!
New Contest
Challenge!!!
The Bongo Congo Panel of Contest Judges enjoyed watching The Oscars on
television earlier this week, but they yawned a lot during many of the
overly-long acceptance speeches. As such, we challenge you this week to
e-mail us at Gordon_A@msn.com no later
than Wednesday, March 19 with the correct answer to the following
question: What was the shortest acceptance speech in televised Oscar
history? One hint: it wasn't on this week's 2014 broadcast, for
sure! So tell us what was said and who said it! As always, in the
event of multiple correct answers, the winner of our first prize $10.00
gift certificate to That's Entertainment will be selected via a roll of the
dice. Please note that our $10.00 first prize gift certificate to That's
Entertainment is redeemable for regular retail merchandise or in-store, ongoing
specials, only.
That's all for now, so have another two great Red Sox Spring Training (Go Red
Sox!) and comic book reading weeks and see you again on Friday, March 21 Here
In Bongo Congo!
