MORE COMICS!!!
We've got a bunch of new titles for you this week and we start today with a couple of big ones and whole lot of new Image #1's!! Be sure to come back tomorrow for more of this week's releases!
Batman Inc. #1
(DC)
Story : Grant Morrison
Art : Chris Burnham
(Reviewed by Anant Sagar)
So much blood!!
The issue gets going from a couple of
pages in with a whole bunch of action and blood and
beating-the-living-hell out of a bunch of guys in weird masks. Yes, weirder than Batman’s. They look like goat heads. Goat heads trump
bat ears in weirdness. This issue also marks the introduction of
Bat-Cow, and Damian stating he is now vegetarian.
Damian has a price on his head.
Apparently set by his mom to get Batman’s attention. At the same
time a bunch of villains known as Leviathan are taking over the
Gotham underworld. Meanwhile we see various Bat based superheroes
(part of Batman Inc.) who are hiding out in Batcave West. And you
wonder ‘What in god’s name is going on?!’ I’m not
going further for fear of spoilers.
Ok so the story is interesting.
Gripping and full of action, violence and blood.
SCORE : 7.5 / 10
Story : Nathan Edmonson
Art : Nick Klein
(Reviewed by Anubhav Dasgupta)
Dancer starts out pretty ordinarily
(for a comic about an assassin). People are killed at a party at some
nondescript exotic location. There’s blood everywhere. Everything
is darkly coloured and every panel is oozing with black ink. And a
hit-man, with a somewhat cold and sad look on his face, puts his
sniper-rifle back in its case.
So far, it’s ordinary. But well done
ordinary. It looks amazing. The colors, the linework, the use of ink…
perfect. And the writing isn’t bad at all. But the only problem is
that it feels ordinary. Characters are written just well enough to
make us not hate them to death.
It still reads how you expected it to
read. It feels… generic, because so far it’s giving you
everything that you expected, on a level that you expected.
But when you reach the final pages, it
kicks you in the gut and kicks you hard and gives you a twist that
just elevates it to a whole higher level.
It’s not the kind of thing you’d
expect from a comic like this, and it’s so quick, so sudden that
you feel its impact. It feels like a slap on your face. A welcome
slap, though. And the generic writing makes sense. The entire issue
gets elevated to another level just because of that twist near the
end.
That’s my two cents about the
writing. And I’ve already talked about the art. It’s beautiful.
At times, absolutely breathtaking. The muted colours, the inks…
they just work wonderfully with the line-work. The art keeps you
going till the twist, and when the twist hits, the writing grabs you
and that’s when you realize how awesome this comic is.
Read this. Read the living hell out of
this.
SCORE : 8 / 10
Deadpool #55
(Marvel)
Story : Daniel Way
Art : Shawn Crystal (art), John
Rauch (colours)
(Reviewed by Anant Sagar)
So deviating from the good the bad and
the funny, I have decided that to stick to a regular format this
week.
This is the first issue of Wade going
on an adventure COMPLETELY MORTAL!! (physically anyway...)
Yea that is strange DP fans. Good ol’
Wade is now healing-factor-less. And now his usual shenanigans CAN
kill him. Logically enough, this is called Deadpool:Reborn,
and you see him adjusting to a certain level of normalcy. Which is
weird for Wade. Who even with his old decent face back, would still
rather wear the mask, can’t shave, and can’t heal from shaving
cuts.
On the other side of town M.O.D.O.K
along with a whole bunch of baddies, including the Wizard,
Trapster, Red Ghost etc. is making a plan for world domination.
(Possibly the stupidest yet smartest plan I’ve heard in a while)
DP bursts in to save the world, by
blowing up the meeting area, which just happens to be a submarine.
The issue is full of some thinking for
the illogical Deadpool fan. Some good art, which you will notice has
changed from the last issue. A noticeable difference in DP’s
thought process. It’s somewhat smarter.
Lots of laughs, face cuts, 2nd rate
super-villains and little yellow boxes.
A must read for every Deadpool fan,
because we must know where this goes. What will happen to Wade? Will
he continue to be a reckless maniac? Will he get his healing factor
back? Why does he look normal? Can’t wait for the next issue.
SCORE : 8 / 10
Hardcore #1
(Image)
Story : Robert Kirkman
Art : Brian Stelfreeze (art), Sunny
Gho (colour)
(Reviewed by Anubhav Dasgupta)
Hardcore #1 is a brilliant comic with a
really cool concept at its core. And it’s the concept that keeps
the comic going.
I tried explaining it to a few friends
of mine, but they got as confused as a deer in headlights. So, I’ll
just let the comic do the explaining for you. Or you could click at
the embiggenable thumbnail of the cover here and see for yourself,
because the cover kind of explains everything. The only thing you
need to know is that the meched-out guy is controlling that kid’s
mind. Just look at it and then come back.
That’s the concept. And (in this
issue at least) it is brilliantly executed. It’s very smartly
written, and a concept that could have been too muddled is deftly
handled by Kirkman and explained in a very simple, focused manner.
It also helps that the art works in
perfect unison with the writing. Selfreeze’s art is just perfect
for this kind of story. Very cool looking, very slick, and with
perfect angles. The colors are decent too.
What keeps this comic from being
magnificent in my book is the ending.
Sure, the ending is great and really
well handled, but I don’t like the path it seems to be setting out
upon.
The ending causes some…
repercussions, on the plot. What could have been a truly different
and groundbreaking tale is reduced to something more generic…
something that has been done a few times. And that is disappointing.
When I read this comic, I was on the
edge of my seat. I was energized. I was loving the living f**k out of
it. Then the ending came, and it bogged me down a little.
You’ll love reading it. And most
probably you’ll like the ending more than I did. And I so hope it
doesn’t devolve into what I think it’s going to devolve into.
SCORE : 8 / 10
Youngblood #71
(Image)
Story : John McLaughlin
Art : Jon Malin and Rob Liefeld
(Reviewed by Akshay Dhar)
I suppose it was bound to happen... and
with that in mind I suppose I'm happy it was this title out of all of
them... but finally the huge and endless wave of awesome new Image
series' and relaunches of the old mindless-90s action comics that
have been making ripples with their awesomeness comes to an end.
Thanks to who else but the original crap-tastic comic legend himself:
Rob Liefeld, fittingly while working on his favourite title.
What can I say about the story? Not
much really, I don't know McLaughlin (that I can recall) but he's
clearly trying here – we've got a new character in the form of a
reporter/PR agent who's our eyes, the new reader so to speak, in this
bold and “all-new, all-different” Youngblood that isn't all that
new or different. She is hired to help revamp the image of the team
who in her own words are “considered a long-running joke by
legitimate super-heroes like Supreme.”
And she's right. They are and they
should be, seriously. The creative team is clearly trying to show us
an immature group of heroes who need to learn how to be a better team
and to do it right and I suppose that is the direction this will
take. But all that happens is that I want every single member of
their team to die. Horribly. Except the new guy who spends the entire
issue being equally frustrated as me (or so it seemed) at having been
saddled with these lunatics and utter morons who would fit right in
with the reality-TV brigade.
And to top it all off, my eyes felt
like they were being stabbed with burning needles dipped in
Greek-Fire as we were treated to samples of traditional Youngblood
art. This improved a couple of pages in as we moved to the present
and the new style – which did not help. Not much anyway. Clearly
Rob had a major part in the art departement because everything from
body proportions to angles, perspectives, dimensions of random
objects, flat-staple-gun barrels and faces (to name a few) were all
carrying the signature Liefeld pain in them... and I'm not even going
to get into how after all these years it amazes the hell out of me
that this book still can't draw feet properly!! Squiggly lines and
scratching done badly, everything rushed and therefore showing a lack
of quality in the finishing and detail-work and overall it's painful
art to read.
No doubt the truly mindless comic fans,
the ones who still think the man is a genius (for some reason I can't
fathom), will find something to love in the over-the-top nonsense
that is Youngblood.
Personally, I will never read anymore
of this series. Ever. Even if they revamp it Alan Moore writing and
Geoff Darrow on art. I'd be tempted but I now hate these characters
enough not to read it.
Whatever score I give this issue, the
points are all for writing that is struggling with the stupidity of
what it is writing about and being vaguely amusing in the most “duh”
fashion and not even good fun really. The art just kills the score
and makes it even lower.
Don't read this book unless you love
Rob. Seriously. It will make your eyes bleed... oh great, now I can't
see anymore...
SCORE : 2 / 10
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