Edgar
Allen Poe's The Conqueror Worm #1
(Dark Horse)
Story &
Art : Richard Corben
(Reviewed
by Anirudh Singh)
Ah, what
an intriguing concept. Turn one of Poe's acclaimed poems into a one
shot comic book. Edgar Allan Poe lies in that rare literary
hallowed ground where a writer/poet always yearns to tread but fears
immensely to do so. For to do so would be to walk in the shadows of
giants. Not everyone is ok with that. It invites comparison and
critique from the highest circles and rounds of amateur barbs as
piercing as they are uninvited. However you have to realize that most
of this criticism is with good cause. You don't just touch a Poe poem
and be done with it. You best be prepared to bleed a part of your
soul into that work and make it shine real good. Cause if you don't.
Then one of these nights you might just meet the master himself. And
then you will bleed.
The
Conqueror Worm is a fantastic poem by Poe. It highlights the
tragedy of man - that all our works of glory, all our deceits and all
our lies and half truths that lend weight to our illusion of the
world, are naught but food for the Worm to feed on. For death is the
ultimate result of life. The circle that completes us. And all the
Gods and Angels and Demons are but an audience. Feasting their senses
upon the tragedy of Man's circular loop. A loop of death and life.
Every one should read it some time.
Until then
I suppose this comic book will suffice, but only barely so. The
artwork is amazing. A real visual treat. And I do believe the artist
bled for this one. But the story itself is as moving as a rock. It is
theatrical and pleads to the emotions alright, but it is nowhere even
close to the kind of grand danse macabre Poe let loose by his
simple verse. The writing itself is well constructed, but once again
lacking a good story to follow leaves this comic ultimately hollow.
Which is a
tragedy in itself. Though not one monumental enough to appease the
Conqueror Worm
SCORE :
5 / 10
Judge
Dredd #1 (IDW)
Story :
Duane Swierczynski
Art :
Nelson Daniel & Paul Gulacy
(Reviewed
by Akshay Dhar)
It was
bound to happen. After the big release of Dredd 3D and
the renewed interest in (arguably) one of the longest and most
consistently followed franchises in comics and (definitely) in the
world of British comics, someone was bound to try and make a new
comic around the iconic character.
And now we
have it.
Short
bursts of intense story-telling, action, evil afoot and Dredd angry.
I'd say they hit a lot of the high points of a Judge Dredd story with
this first issue.
It's split
into two equally good stories : the first lays the seed for what will
likely be the over-arcing plot of the issues to come that follows
some kind of robotic rebellion or possibly something different but
equally problematic that gets into the hive-mind, unified AI network
of the whole of Mega City One – the first notable result is pretty
messy here, what with a rapid-fire fruit tree, thugs, explosions and
a gunfight. The second story is shorter and seems to follow a similar
line of machine error (sort of) but in a far more subtle and dark way
– I wish I could elaborate more but that would be telling!
The art in
the 1st segment is nothing special to be honest. It's not
bad. But it's not great either. I suppose for this kind of thing it
doesn't really need to be, but it could definitely be more
interesting. The strange thing is, I can't pin-point anything
specifically that is weak or flawed in the layouts or design and
such, just something very lack-lustre about some of it. Though, the
saving grace for this comics' art is the 2nd story which
has a much better look and feel and the art complements the emotional
state of the story itself and the characters are well rendered.
Benefit of
the doubt art-wise for future issues, story-wise I'm pretty happy
with it. Still not too crazy to have an aimless rebooted new version
of Dredd – but I get the need because who wants to really ask
readers to wade through backstory of a character thats been around
over two decades. Granted it's not all needed really, but it does put
folks off, it's why they rebooted DC post-Flashpoint.
If you
like action comics with a nice, dark sci-fi twist – I think this
book shows potential in it's inaugural issue.
SCORE :
8 / 10
Snake
Eyes and Storm Shadow #19
(IDW)
Story :
Chuck Dixon
Art :
Alex Cal (art) & Romulo Fajardo Jr. (colours)
(Reviewed
by Anant Sagar)
Target
Snake Eyes part 4.
So Snake
Eyes is on the run. From the good guys and the bad. We’re not quite
sure who he serves or who he’s helping.
But
Scarlett seems to have found evidence that he may be working a
deep-cover op. (that’s 'deep undercover' for the uninitiated)
Any-hoo,
some excellent artwork to see here. Beautiful sceneries from
Cambodia. A decent storyline, which involves Cobra hunting the
Arashikage ninja clan in the jungles. Helix hunting for Snake Eyes.
And a whole mess of other pieces added here and there.
The
central storyline is still working out well, however all the side
stories are starting to confuse me a bit.
It makes
for an interesting read if you are following Snake Eyes and Storm
Shadow, otherwise it simply makes for a visual treat.
SCORE :
8 / 10
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