Week-In-Review: G.I Joe: Annual #1 / Lord of the Jungle #2 / No More Heroes #1 / Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Donatello

Welcome folks, to another new week and another load of new comics!! Today we have something special for you - turns out this week we are covering some seriously old school favourites, all in ONE POST! Is this a great week or what?!
And in addition, we have a new addict who is trying his hand at this - Anant Sagar - who is joining us for this weeks 0-day reviewing! Now, without any further drama, lets get to work shall we?
 

G.I Joe: A real American hero - Annual #1 (IDW Publishing)

Story: Larry Hama

Art: Ron Frenz, Ron Wagner, Herb Trimpe, Sal Buscema

(Review by Anant Sagar) 
So, I just finished reading this and I’ve got to say I was quite happy with it. Granted it has its ups and downs, but for the most of it, it was fun. So let’s get down to it shall we?

The Good:

It had the same feel as the old animated TV show that I know, which was a good thing for me, because I really loved that show. The character art has the classic feel to it which kept me happy and I got to see some of my favourite characters like Gung-Ho, Scarlett, Zartan and the Dreadnoks!!

The Bad:

I didn’t really enjoy the plot. It’s not like it was terrible, but it wasn’t all that amazing. I mean a cobra sleeper agent who went off the grid, decides to come back and blow stuff up because he got fired and thinks immigrants in the United States are a curse and they should all be killed. Sorry, but that doesn’t really do much for me.

So the basic plot was disappointing but its saving grace was the dialogue.

Now my favourite part of this issue, THE FUNNY:

Cobra Commander, on a rickshaw. Yes you read that right a rickshaw. And telling the rickshaw guy (also a cobra soldier) “Wait for me. I won’t be long.” Plus! It seems agents of Cobra have credit cards and the commander tells his flunky to cancel the sleeper agent’s card.

The Dreadnoks. Their conversations. How they’re grounded by Zartan, and how they’re low on little chocolate covered doughnuts and grape soda!

So summing it all up. So-so story line. Funny dialogues. Good art. I honestly expected more. Worth at least a read. Yo Joe!!!

SCORE : 5.5 / 10

Lord of the Jungle #2 (Dynamite Entertainment)

Story: Arvid Nelson

Art: Roberto Castro

(Review by Akshay Dhar)

I'm a bit torn about this new series by Dynamite. Essentially it attempts to reboot the long-lived and much-loved franchise of Tarzan of the Apes that we all know so well. The fact that it was being written by Nelson who has done a pretty good job helming the renewed Warlord of Mars series' by the same publisher and that Dynamite has been doing some excellent work with franchises all worked in the favour of this new series – plus some excellent art by Castro helped greatly and a pretty well put together first issue gave me some relief at this not being screwed up.

However it's a difficult sell for today's market, as was Warlord of Mars, but here the pacing is deliberately slowed and the story progression in both the first and this second issue is really lazily moving along. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad thing and in fact it hearkens back to more classic serial story-telling where you had some short and intense stuff happening and it slowly built over successive chapters. Partly I guess, with the over-load of faster paced and more action intense and dense story-telling styles that are common today, this book is among the anomalies.

The plus side is that at no point is it boring. In fact quite the opposite. In the first issue we had the set-up showing the backstory of his parents, the island, the stranding, the apes and how the newborn son of Greystoke was adopted by a female gorilla. This second issue very fluidly introduces a young man who is related to our hero, the lady Jane and her father and bad guys and jungle dangers all around.

This book is almost aggravating in that Nelson and Castro have a clearly nice chemistry that shows in beautiful pages and layouts and flow that works really well with the story being told – so much so that you start it, finish it and before you know it you are done and sitting there wondering, “What the hell?!? I want more now!!!” Of course the lovely jungle scenery that Castro renders on each and every page as well as the raw, almost brutally real story-telling that you can feel in your gut being put forth here helps to draw you in a great deal.

I don't know about you, but as annoying as that might be, to me it's the mark of a well made story that you at the end of each chapter you can barely wait to get to the next one.

Not everyone’s cup of tea I daresay, but if you like Tarzan and non-superhero adventure stories, then you would do well to at least give this a shot.

SCORE : 7 / 10

No More Heroes #1 (Gordon Mclean)

Story: Gordon Mclean

Art: Caio Oliveira

(Review by Akshay Dhar)

Sid Millar has accidentally killed the world's greatest hero. Now he needs to find out why.

This is the basis and punchline of this hilarious and b*lls-to-the-walls comic from another sassy new publisher trying to make its way in the cut-throat world of comics!

Ok so its not all that cut-throat and all that but being a new comic creator and a new label in a market as nuts as ours, kudos to Mclean for not only writing a great new title but also publishing it himself. To quote Ali-G, “Respect for keepin' it real.”

Now, the bottom line for this comic is simple: a guy, just like you and me, is chilling and drinking and all that with a few friends when he gets a strange message from an unknown phone asking, “Should I kill myself?” and after much goading and drunken peer pressure, he responds “Yes.” - well the next day the new is over-loaded with the suicide of Dark Justice, the greatest hero Earth has... er.. had, and Sid is seriously wetting himself that its all his fault.

Of course that wetting is just the first flood in his pants as it turns out he was not wrong entirely that he was involved in this, this becoming clear for starters when Dark Justice's angry sidekick tracks him down and makes him an upside-down hood ornament (among other things...) to find out who he REALLY is and how he killed the big man.

Filled with swearing, healthy doses of violence and a very raw feel that made me recall early Mark Millar and Garth Ennis at moments – if you are a fan of that kind of off-the-wall superheroic stories and want to support new talent and independent comics of this calibre, you have my full recommendation. Spread the word and go read this book.

I'll be hanging around waiting for issue 2 now.

SCORE : 6 / 10

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Donatello (IDW Publishing)

Story: Brian Lynch and Tom Waltz

Art: Valerio Schiti

(Review by Anant Sagar)

Now here’s a name everyone’s heard at some point or the other. Whether it’s the original in black and white comics or the cartoon or even the movies, we've all loved them at some point in our lives.

The newest issue in the mini-series is the story of one of the turtles (clearly!). This is young Donatello’s story of love, life, fear, hate and self discovery...... I’m just playing with you!!

The Good:

The story. Nice to see a story focus on just Don. Exploring one character at a time gives us a chance to associate more with them. The story revolves around how Don feels living with his brothers and how he wants to get out. Going topside and meeting a mad scientist (so to speak) thinking he’s awesome, realising they are online arch-enemies, fighting each other, becoming friends and so on... oh and it also features Baxter Stockman who, oddly enough, reminds me of coach Clayton from Archie comics with a moustache!

The Bad:

Not much really. Tried desperately to find something I hated in it but it didn’t work. Maybe its just me.

The Funny:

Conversations between the Turtles. Always a funny aspect of the franchise as they've evolved over the years. The witty banter among the brothers has always entertained me.

The part where Donatello realises who the mad scientist is.

For me, seeing an African American Baxter Stockman, who I last remember as a scrawny white guy with bad hair.

My verdict is that, this series is definitely one to catch. Well written and well drawn, its gripping, it’s fun. If you’ve ever been a fan, find a copy, open it, read it, and run through the halls screaming COWABUNGA!!!!

SCORE : 7.5 / 10