Here In Bongo Congo
Good King Leonardo has informed us that there's a nice variety of different genres of fresh comics on the new issues shelves lately, so let's review a sampling of this variety and see how they stack-up against each other:
Good King Leonardo has informed us that there's a nice variety of different genres of fresh comics on the new issues shelves lately, so let's review a sampling of this variety and see how they stack-up against each other:
Alabaster: Wolves #1
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Caitlin R. Kiernan: Writer
Steve Lieber: Art
Rachelle Rosenberg: Colors
Dark Horse Comics has just published issue #1 of a
five-issue mini-series entitled "Alabaster: Wolves." The comic book is the
graphic adaptation of a series of short stories written by dark fantasy/science
fiction writer Caitlin R. Kiernan that star teenaged heroine Darcy Flammarion.
Darcy is an albino girl and monster killer whose stories are set in
backwoods locations in the Gothic Southeast, as she hunts monsters while guided
by a being that may or may not be an angel. This comic book adaptation of the
Darcy stories is scripted by Kiernan with art by Steve Lieber and colors by
Rachelle Rosenberg.
The issue #1 story segment introduces readers to the
basic features of Darcy's fictional story universe. While waiting alone for a
bus in a desolate South Carolina abandoned town, Darcy is joined by a killer
werewolf in teenaged girl form. Sent to slay Darcy, the overconfident hunter
plays-out an elaborate mindgame challenge, offering a multiple-riddle contest
with Darcy's life riding on the contest outcome. Without being a detail
spoiler, the mental jousting between the pair elevates panel-by-panel, leading
to the inevitable physical battle between the pair in the final panels of the
issue. While Darcy obviously survives the encounter (she is our story heroine,
after all!), there are unexpected plot twists and turns both thoughout the
episode and in the story segment conclusion.
I'm very impressed with this adaptation of the popular
Darcy Flammarion body of work penned by Caitlin R. Kiernan. Its tough in
today's fiction and graphic publishing worlds to carve-out a fresh teen horror
niche amongst the many horror titles that include the Twilight series, Buffy The
Vampire Slayer titles/spinoffs and so many wannabe horror franchises all
jostling for finite reader attention. Regarding story concept and plot, Kiernan
has done an exceptional job in giving us a hero and accompanying story concept
that effectively blends traditional horror concepts with fresh and entertaining
story elements. The creative team moves quickly in the early pages of issue #1,
clearly establishing Darcy's monster hunter background for unfamiliar readers
such as myself, then plunging Darcy into the mental joust with the wereteen.
The combination of script and skilled artwork produces a confrontation that's
just as tense, engrossing and ultimately satisfying as any fast-action battle
scene. Artist Steve Lieber's visual portrayal of this cocky, unnamed wereteen
as a confident, toying killer is almost beyond description in depth of facial
emotions and cinematic-like presentation.
Two particular story elements deserve particular
notice and praise. The first is Kiernan's inventive creation of the "angel
advisor" to Darcy, a spirit guide about whom Darcy and readers will share a
worthwhile doubt as to whether this creature is good, evil or a mix of both.
Secondly, the rural Southern atmosphere of this comic book tale, ripe with the
feel of small town/rural blight, humidity and dankness, is so well-constructed
that it holds its own in comparison to the fictional settings of many classic
William Faulkner tales. That's saying a lot about the literary quality of the
basic story presentation in this comic book format.
It isn't every day that we have the chance to read a
new comic book title that succeeds in both adding a new take on well-known
horror themes and hits the mark so well in literary quality and presentation.
So whether you're a horror genre fan and or just looking for some quality basic
comic book entertainment, don't miss-out on reading this instant classic from
the beginning of its limited series comic book run.
Secret #1
Publisher: Image Comics, Inc.
Jonathan Hickman: Writer
Ryan Bodenheim: Art
Michael Garland: Colors
Image Comics has just released issue #1 of a new
comic book entitled Secret. The corporate espionage title is scripted by
well-known writer Jonathan Hickman with art by Ryan Bodenheim and colors by
Michael Garland. The issue #1 kick-off segment of the premier multi-issue story
arc is subtitled "Chapter One: Teeth With Which To Eat." This is the second
recent debut of an Image Comics title scripted by Hickman, acclaimed for his
work on Marvel's Fantastic Four title, the other Image comic book being the
Manhattan Project title that I recently reviewed in a previous column.
The thriller plotline begins with a nighttime home
invasion at the residence of wealthy executive Roger Dunn. After extensive
torture at the hands of the masked assailant, Dunn gives-up the access code to
his corporation's computer network. The bulk of the plot shifts to the law firm
setting of Dunn's legal advisor, William Gerry, who both advises Dunn to utilize
his law firm's private security company to deal with the threat and himself
deals with the security firm as it tries to upgrade the law firm's security
system by proving its flaws. A third story segment plays-out an extended
discussion between Dunn and Grant Miller of the security firm. After hiring
Miller to help him defend against the home invasion situation, its revealed in a
bridge to next month's issue that Miller and his supposed security firm are
scamming everyone involved and actually carried-out the home invasion.
If the above plot summary sounds dull and
bureaucratic as a story summary, imagine slogging your way through reading this
thing. At first I was going to give this comic book a mediocre thumbs-up
recommendation, but it didn't take long to reconsider and switch to
a disappointed thumbs-down, for a combination of reasons. While the plot idea
itself is worthy of a comic story, that of a corporate security firm that seems
to be playing both sides of the game of crime versus protection, the dialogue
and story lay-out is slow, dry and ultimately just plain boring. Colorist
Michael Garland's creepy monotone color choices accentuate the slowness and
drabness of the entire effort. Most disappointing is the fact that this
below-par tale issues from the pen of Jonathan Hickman, who also scripted the
aforementioned godawful new Manhattan Project title from Image. Hickman doesn't
seem to have either the good fortune and/or the writing chops to maintain the
stellar scripting quality of his Fantastic Four run. This pattern reminds me of
the writing trough that Warren Ellis has tripped face-down into from
time-to-time in between producing his better comic book writing efforts.
There's so much good stuff out there among the new
issues titles that I can't recommend expending the energy effort to crawl
through the gooey, oozing slowness of this boring comic book with the creepy
teeth photo on its cover. So skip this yawning effort and instead get yourself
a power energy jolt of good reading entertainment from among the many other
espionage genre titles available throughout the new issues shelves at That's
Entertainment.
Batman #7
Publisher: D.C. Comics
Scott Snyder: Writer
Greg Capullo: Pencils
Jonathan Glapion: Inks
The re-numbering of the main Batman title within DC's
"The New 52" storyverse is up to issue #7 this month. The multi-issue story arc
continues "The Court Of Owls" plot, in which Batman/Bruce Wayne discovers a
secret evil society that has been operating in Gotham since the days of his
ancestor Alan Wayne. Prior to issue #7, Batman apparently fought a masked
owl-costumed villain known as The Talon, barely surviving the encounter while
The Talon died. The storyline is scripted by A-list writer Scott Snyder with
pencils by Greg Capullo and inks by Jonathan Glapion.
The issue #7 story segment is entitled "The Talons
Strike!" After being revived from near death by Harper, a teenage girl wannabe
sidekick, the severely-wounded Batman returns to the safety of the Batcave,
where he discovers that Alfred has secured the body of his deceased foe The
Talon. The mid-point of the tale alternates between two connected
storythreads. In the first, Wayne conducts a forensic analysis of the body,
while in a parallel dialogue/subplot he has a running argument with Robin/Dick
Grayson, who observes the forensic analysis while expounding on Wayne's lack of
trusting him on the details of his findings. The story builds to a double
climax; first, Wayne finally opens-up and reveals a shocking previously unknown
connection between The Talon and Dick Grayson, one that traces back to Grayson's
family roots and alters their understanding of his origins as Robin. The issue
ends on the second dramatic reveal, as we learn that the The Court Of Owls has
just unleased dozens of additional owl-costumed Talon baddies to create havoc
throughout Gotham in next month's issue #8.
While we're running a contest right now requesting
suggestions for our 500th comic book review, technically this review is our
actual 500th, with the winner of the contest receiving an "honorary 500th
review." As such, I was hoping that this issue of Batman was worthy in quality
and entertainment of our 500th listing and I wasn't disappointed. Writer Scott
Snyder excelled during his stint last year scripting Detective Comics in
blending new, exciting story reveals to the well-known historical details of
Batman's personal legacy, and he continues to hit it out of the storytelling
park employing that scripting style to "The Court Of Owls" storyverse. The big
reveal, of course, is the new spin on Robin's family background and origin, none
of which I will spoil here beyond commenting that it manages to maintain the
well-known history of Robin but add new, entertaining angles to the well-known
story, thereby connecting it into the present-day Batman vs. The Owls conflict.
There's also a wonderful three-page intro to this comic book, in which Snyder
actually takes a fun spin at altering the well-known "Father, I shall become a
bat..." origin moment of Batman himself, following the iconic bat talisman out
of the Wayne Manor study window for its own metaphorical encounter with an owl
foe!
So enough with the details, already, for fear of
revealing any more of the surprise details of Snyder and the art team's
excellent new contribution to the world of our favorite hero of the Gotham
night. Suffice to say that the creative team delivers a high quality and
entertaining comic book series that mixes some stuff old and much stuff new into
an entertaining product that is well-deserved of selection for our milestone
500th Here In Bongo Congo comic book review.
Supergirl #7
Publisher: D.C. Comics
Michael Green & Mike Johnson: Writers
Mahmud Asrar: Art
Dave McCaig: Colors
DC's revamped "The New 52" version of its Supergirl
title is currently up to issue #7 this month. The comic book is co-written by
the team of Michael Green and Mike Johnson with art by Mahmud Asrar and colors
by Dave McCaig.
The issue #7 story is a one-shot stand-alone
tale entitled "Graduation Day." A quick page one backstory lays-out the concept
that an abandoned former Kryptonian research space station hatched four
bioengineered representatives of various alien races, who were genetically
programmed to be world killers. The foursome have made their way to Earth, home
of the last few Kryptonians including our hero Supergirl/Kara Zor-El, in order
to avenge themselves by destroying their mysterious creator's adopted planet.
The bulk of the storyline consists of a detailed and very action-oriented battle
on the busy streets of Metropolis between the bad guy alien foursome and our
heroine. The battle presents a double challenge to Kara; while she's stretched
to her power limits in dealing with these extremely powerful supervillains, at
the same time she has to meet the intellectual challenge of analyzing how to use
her foe's complex mix of alien powers against them. Without being a spoiler, by
issue's end our heroine comes-up with a very creative strategy to help win the
day for the city of Metropolis and the planet Earth against these mega-foes.
I enjoyed this comic book very much for a few
reasons. First, as I've mentioned in a few previous reviews, its rare these
days to find a major comic book title that offers a decent single-issue,
standalone story as opposed to the usual multi-issue story arcs. As such, it
was fun to read a decent story from start-to-finish in one single read. And a
decent story it certainly is, as secondly the writing duo of Green and Johnson
give us a tale that successfully blends aliens and action into one entertaining
adventure. Thirdly, the writers keep-up the traditional Supergirl title
fictional theme of the teenaged heroine trying to find herself both as a typical
teenager and as an emerging superbeing. Hence the "Graduation Day" story title,
which accurately refers to Kara's successful dual accomplishments of defeating
on her own an overwhelming team of foes while also reaching a new emotional
level of personal confidence and maturity. And last but hardly least, a
tip-of-the-review-hat is due to the art team of Mahmud Asrar and Dave McCaig for
giving us a top notch visual depiction of our heroine that's a worthy addition
to the many excellent Supergirl visual representations that precede this current
issue.
So all in all, the current Supergirl title is
certainly deserved to be ranked among the better quality and entertaining DC
comics produced within The New 52 publishing event and is well-worth the
reading attention of all good DC readers.
Contest Winner Announcement!!!
As we mentioned above, while Batman #7 is our offical
500th review, our latest contest challenge called for entries for a designated
honorary 500th comic as suggested by our readers. And our contest winner is
(drumroll, please)...Christain Mock, who suggests reviewing a current issue of
Fables for the honor. Christian makes his case by stating that Fables is worthy
because its a quality fantasy comic title that connects well with such popular
television series of the fantasy genre such as Grimm and Once Upon A Time. He
adds that "Fables is a great gateway comic for those who (like myself) have
always primarily been "capes & tights" readers... Willingham's writing is
strong, the covers have ALWAYS been gorgeous and the levels and twists of the
story is unparalleled." Excellent points in support of the worthiness of the
nomination. Congrats to Christian for winning our first prize $10.00 gift
certificate to That's Entertainment and we'll review a current issue of Fables
in our next column.
New Contest Announcement!!!
The Bongo Congo panel of contest judges challenge
you this week with another geography trivia contest. Your challenge is to
e-mail us at Gordon_A@msn.com no later than Wednesday,
May 9 with the correct answer to the following question: which one state among
the 50 U.S. states is named after an individual who was actually the governor of
another state? As always, in the event of multiple correct entries, our winner
of the first prize $10.00 gift certificate to That's Entertainment will be
selected via a roll of the dice. Please note that our first prize $10.00 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 two great Celtics
play-off watching and comic book reading weeks and see you again on Friday, May
11 Here In Bongo Congo!
