NEW COMICS: Zero-day bullet reviews - Avengers X-Sanction/The Ray/The Strain

Welcome Addicts to the inaugural week-in-review from ComicAddicts.com - a space we are planning to bring you a selection of the comics released that week in short, quick and easy reviews to help you see keep track of whats good and bad with each Wednesdays releases!

This week we kick-off our reviewing with review by Anubhav and Akshay, our comic obsessed work-horses who brought you the blow-by-blow every week for the DC Comics "New 52" releases. 

First out of the gate, the hotly anticipated Avengers: X-Sanction by superstar creative duo, Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinessas reviewed by Anubhav Sharma

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Avengers X-Sanction

Ah Loeb, you make me sad.

Avengers: X-Sanction reunites the Jeph Loeb – Ed McGuiness creative duo that first brought us the Red Hulk (a.k.a "Rulk"). And its Déjà vu all over again. It’s all back: mindless smashing, every character who is not the protagonist is dumbed down, people acting out of character all over the place. This certainly does not fit well with Loeb’s earlier amazing work. Continuity errors aside (I thought Radioactive Man was a good guy now?!), and despite some unexpectedly good character work in the future sequence, this series does look like something you can miss, even if you’re looking forward to Avengers vs. X-Men. There is some extremely horrible dialogue involved, which, along with out and out bad pacing, gives the reader the feeling of nothing really happening throughout the issue. I’ve never been a very big fan of Ed McGuiness’ art, but in some ways, it is the almost-saving grace of the book with some big screen action and things blowing up.

As a book I was really hoping to like, a big disappointment.

Verdict: 5.2/10

Next up we have a double review (in keeping with the New 52 reviews) of DC's reinvention of The Ray:

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The Ray

Anubhav:
I really wasn’t expecting this to be good. So far into the DC relaunch, most of the titles involving C-list or D-list characters have failed to grab my attention. The Ray, on the other hand is a completely different story.

Over 20 pages, Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti have crafted a superhero origin that is formulaic and innovative at the same time. We get action straight up, against a threat that doesn’t really need or take up that much face time, to make way for the back story in flashbacks. The protagonist is set up to be a very smart and likeable Korean American lifeguard, with hippie parents and (bollywood loving) girlfriend, who gets his powers from your stereotypical science experiment gone wrong. As a reader unfamiliar with previous incarnations of the Ray, the experience is definitely excellent. Jamal Igle’s skills as a storyteller are further set in stone with this book, with very fluid motion coupled with excellent character portrayals. For a book I really didn’t think I was going to like, this is definitely the surprise of the week. Someone get me Issue 2, please.

Verdict: 8.9/10

Akshay
This is hands down one of the most surprising of DC's line-wide reboot. I was expecting to dislike the title at first and with a new character and design that looked like a rip-off of Lightray (on the left here), one of King Kirby's New Gods. But As always, Gray and Palmiotti have pulled off the unexpected.
Known mostly for their work on the recent Jonah Hex, Power Girl and Freedom Fighters titles nowadays, they are a great and very consistent creative team - The Ray however is a fairly boring character and has never interested me, even in the otherwise enjoyable Freedom Fighters book. In this new incarnation though, the creative team not only showcases the new characters look and style very pleasingly, but they we are actually given a unique kind of story.
Taking conventional super-hero tropes like secret identities, origins, etc, Gray and Palmiotti inject a good dose of humour and energy into what would be an otherwise banal story and make it feel like its own animal - something that makes this first issue highly enjoyable. We get to meet Lucien Gates, the new Ray, and his hippie parents, best friend and his girlfriend and even learn that Lucien is a huge SRK fan. Great character work mixed with well crafted and emotive dialogue really makes this a quick and enjoyable read with enough action to match the human-aspect.
The only thing that made me pause was the finale however, we get to meet our new villain who I felt was not only very odd and hard to fathom but also not all that interesting. Perhaps issue #2 will bring more interesting dimensions to him, but failing that this is still a surprisingly good title.
Verdict: 7.5/10


Lastly, we have a review of Dark Horse's adaptation of "The Strain", the first novel by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan in their vampire trilogy, reviewed by Akshay.

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The Strain

Written by the Eisner award-winning David Lapham (Stray Bullets, Sparta USA, Crossed) and drawn by Mike Huddleston (Butcher Baker the Righteous Maker, Gen13 v4), this adaptation is something that horror and old-school vampire fans can rejoice about.
I haven't read the books yet but have heard great things, so the source material is clearly a worthy entry into the genre - more so after the flood of emo-vamps and sparkliness on the market right now. Raw and very real, this first issue does very little except set up the story that is to come, introducing us to the characters we will be living (and dying) with down the road and very nicely introduces us to the villain in a really creepy way, without actually giving us too much detail and keeping the mystery and terror high.
Supposedly following a vampire take-over of the world (or at least an attempted one), this comic taps into the modern fear of contagion and disease - much like older vampire stories tended to often tap into the middle and lower-class fear of the rich and powerful aristocrats who would suck them dry. Its a trend we've already seen in some more modern vampire stories, but this promises to take that up to another level.
A little slow as far as first issues go, the art style Mike uses coupled with the pacing and the edge-of-your-seat finale by Lapham does a good job of slowly building up the tension and making you want to read #2 - for me thats a sign of a well crafted book!
Verdict: 7/10

Well, we hope you enjoyed that folks - be back next Friday for more of whats new as it releases next week. And if there's any titles you would like to see reviewed, as always, just give us a shout!