Week-In-Review: Fairest #1 / Hell Yeah #1 / Irredeemable #35 / The Avengers Prelude: Fury's Big Week #5

We have four awesome new titles for you here folks, with four more to follow tomorrow! (It's been a huge week!) So no wasting time - let's get to it!

Fairest #1 (Vertigo)

Story : Bill Willingham

Art : Phil Jiminez, Andy Lanning (Inks) and Andrew Dalhousie (colors)

(Reviewed by: Anubhav DasGupta)

Fables, in my opinion, is one of the best ongoing comic books at the moment. While I haven’t loved each and every issue, there hasn’t been one that I’ve hated even a little. Bill Willingham has created a universe too charming and wonderful and sexy to be disliked by anyone. Fairest is a spinoff of Fables, but I don’t think you need to be a regular reader of Fables to enjoy the issue that I’m reviewing. One issue in, Fairest has got nothing to do with the current story arc in Fables, and it’s amazingly enjoyable.

It is well written, rife with humour, there’s action, there’s romance and there’s a goddamn Manticore (albeit for a mere three panels). I don’t want to give away too much of the story, because it’s most effective when it grabs you by surprise, so all I’ll say is it’s not set in Fabletown. It’s a story based in a different part of the universe, so it’s quite different yet quite familiar for a Fables fan such as me.

The art is brilliant. It’s highly detailed work. Colours aren’t bad either. It’s not mind-blowing like the current Flash, but it’s good.

All in all, Fairest #1 is an amazingly enjoyable book that even non-followers of Fables should consider picking up.

SCORE : 8 / 10

Hell Yeah #1 (Image)

Story: Joe Keatinge

Art: Andre Szymanowicz

(Reviewed by: Rijul Raut)

Let me put this straight: If it wasn't for Prophet #21 being so good, I wouldn't be reading this.

That issue proved that even the most excessively grim 'n' gritty comics from the 90's have a chance at telling good stories. It got me interested in another Extreme Studios revival, Glory #23. That was written by the same Joe Keatinge who wrote this issue. Which brings me to Hell Yeah #1, one of a bunch of recent Image #1's. It debuts alongside hyped books like Fairest and Manhattan Projects. Even so, it manages to stand out among them as a strong debut.

There are plenty of ideas in this tale of a world dominated by super-humans. They appeared twenty years ago, saving a marine named Daniel Day and taking over the world. His son Ben, our protagonist, turns out to have the powers of enhanced strength and toughness, and a mysterious bar code on the back of his neck.

The world changed after the advent of the supers; they revolutionized technology and made Earth a near-paradise. It has its stingers, though: sport and cinema have dwindled away to almost nothing, as what are mere humans when powers are on the scene? There are unanswered questions, too, like the purpose of the supers taking control and the real identity of Ben's mom. (My guess: one of the supers). The issue ends on a solid cliffhanger, revealing which would be unsportsmanlike.

Szymanowicz's art is messy and somewhat angular, and you can sometimes see the similarities in unrelated characters' faces, but overall, it's a good look. It has some scope for improvement, though, but Szymanowicz's crowd scenes are well done, and I don't have any too many complaints against it.

SCORE : 8 / 10

Irredeemable #35 (Boom Studios)

Story: Mark Waid

Art: Diego Barreto

(Reviewed by: Akshay Dhar)

Quick intro: For those that have not been following this series (what's wrong with you?!), allow me to say that you're really missing something special that is being hailed across the industry by writers and artists – and for good reason. Plus, after a slow bit in between, the series seems to have picked up to adrenalin burning awesome once again with the last arc!

In Irredeemable and its sister series Incorruptible, Mark Waid has carved an amazing corner for himself in the superhero genre and the annals of comic history with this saga. One follows the world's greatest hero, the quintessential “Superman” archetype who can do no wrong and is powerful beyond measure and the other series follows the worlds greatest and toughest criminal. Think you know which is which? Guess again.

Irredeemable tells the story of The Plutonion, the greatest hero on Earth, as he finally snaps and the world has to pay the price. Everything changed, he devastated it all and those very few of his former comrades who still live as the scrambled to be rid of him amid further mystery and intrigue – and for a time they succeeded. Earth looked like it might be able to rebuild and survive. But then he came back and was even more p*ssed. All this while, his former arch-nemesis, super-scientist madman Modeus has been making our (former) heroes life miserable and it turned out (SPOILER) that he has been in love with him for ages and this was all out of love... no accounting for what passes for love I suppose.

So scared were the human governments that were left that in the most recent issues they unleashed a secret that they had kept buried for decades – a pair of alien entities more powerful than even Plutonian who were actually able to take him out. Except the process of doing so has caused radioactive fallout that will kill more than 1/3^rd of all life on the planet at least. So now Plutonians former ally (and world's smartest dork with weird hair!) Qbit finds Plutonian in his exiled prison along with guest star Max Damage (the aforementioned “villain” who stars in Incorruptible, nice how that works isn't it?) and offers Plutonian a chance to save the Earth. A chance at the maybe making the Irredeemable, well, redeemable!

Does he take it? Will they succeed? What is Modeus up to now that everyone thinks he's dead? Will Qbit get beaten to death for being such a smart-ass? Will be see Plutonian and Max Damage go at it again (they had a MAJOR fight in a recent Incorruptible 2-parter!)? All these are good questions and I'm sure you have more – my advice? Read it and find out!

SCORE : 9 / 10

The Avengers Prelude: Fury's Big Week #5(of 8) (Marvel)

Story: Christopher Yost & Eric Pearson

Art: Agustin Padilla & Don Ho

(Reviewed by: Anant Sagar)

It’s beautiful how the comic’s first page has The Hulk smashing a humvee and Fury going “$#*%”.

Now the story follows what S.H.I.E.L.D is doing behind the scenes of the Marvel movies that we've seen so far. This one follows parts of The Incredible Hulk and Thor. Between the chaos of Blonsky and the Hulks fight and the battle of Thor with the Destroyer armour the scenes cut to Fury and various agents and of course how the ever beautiful Natasha Romanov has been involved in some way, however small, in all these people’s lives. Now, to business.

The Good:

The story has been scripted well this issue, as with the others. It’s nice to know what Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D are doing in the shadows. The artwork is excellent. No complaints from me there.

Though small as an issue in itself, it’s a pretty good read. I liked it. The entire series ties together beautifully and doesn’t seem to lag in transition from issue to issue.

The Bad:

The issues are really small. At 13-pages per story they go by really, really fast and that annoys me a bit. Even though the stories all tie together perfectly it just seems silly to make them so small.

The Funny:

Regardless of how serious an issue is, I always seem to find something that amuses me. I’m not saying you’ll grab your stomach and double up with laughter, it’s just fun to see this.

Fury going “$#*%”

The hulk getting kicked in the face with a loud WHACK!

Agent Coulson’s understatement of the year.

Hawkeye staring at the fight between Thor and the Destroyer armour and saying “Thaaaaaaaat’s not normal.” And later asking Coulson if he want to try to pick up the armour like he tried with the hammer of Thor.

All in all, a good read. Quick.

SCORE : 8 / 10