JENNIFER BLOOD Vol. 1

WARNING: Jennifer Blood is a Mature Readers Only series. 

Garth Ennis as far as I am concerned is possibly one of the most underrated graphic novelist. I know he is well known and has written some classic fiction in the past but as the final issue of The Boys reaches the stands I for one am looking forward to what he decides to do next. When The Boys was published under the Wild Storm (DC Comics owns it now) imprint Ennis and his artist, Darick Robertson were told by DC that they didn't want a mature series about superheroes as it would more then likely be against what DC wanted in their stable of titles. This left Ennis with the choice of taking the series, which had at that time only 6 issues. else where. Which as far am I am concerned it was good move. Both artist and writer then took the series to Dynamite Entertainment. Where the series has flourished over the past 7yrs.

By then there were talks about a The Boys feature film. Lots of interviews and discussion about a movie. which at the moment is still in the air. I have written a review on the first volume of The Boys. Which should be out soon. It is with Dynamite Entertainment that Ennis created his Jennifer Blood series.

Jennifer Blood, a pseudonym of the lead character, is a well crafted action thriller about a house wife who at night goes out to dish out her own justice on a family of Mob related criminals. The story is told through her own narration written in her journal. We follow this mother of 2 young children and a loving husband, Andrew, who are none the wiser as Jennifer. Every night Jennifer drugs her kids and Andrew, so that she can go about carrying out her vendetta on the local crime family. And like any other vigilante she leaves her calling card.

No matter what, Ennis writes, there is always a very strong first issue. And so in the first issue we follow Jennifer as she puts her family to bed and goes downstairs to the hidden enclave which houses weapons and spy equipment that might put James Bond to shame. Weapons from a simple glock pistol to a RPG (rocket propelled gun) and semi-automatic machine gun. Here in her hidden cupboard space she changes from a house wife to a black leather clad female Punisher. (NB: Ennis wrote several volumes of The Punisher through Marvel Comics Max imprint. The Punisher film starring Tom Jane was based on some of that series).
With a black wig to cover her blonde hair she takes off into the night in her Black SUV wearing dark sunglasses. And it is here that we start to see the very different character than the one while she was with her family. With her chosen weapon hidden away in the SUV, she drives to her first victims of her vigilante.

At first glance the first issue looks like a rip-off of a Punisher story. Jennifer Blood being the female Punisher. But its nothing like the Punisher. Jennifer Blood in her own right is a complex story about family, and the criminal under ground. Jennifer Blood is a strong female character. Which I like seeing in comics. Often to sell a comic book a first issue that is mature in content ends up having the female protagonist is over sexualised, but not so in Jennifer Blood. There is a good balance of mature content along with some of the crazy humor stuff Ennis is known for. But that does not take away from the story. I, for one really enjoyed the story.

This story like any many others that Ennis has written before or since Jennifer Blood, is worth the cover price. When you read through the first arc, Ennis only wrote the first volume on the on-going series, you will come to realise that Jennifer Blood is another original story that could easily be made into a movie, and I hope they do, because the whole first series can easily be adapted to a film script.
The artwork by Adriano Batista gives life to the series which the colorist, Romulo Frajardo Jr. clearly set out to show us to show the difference between Jennifer's day life and her night life, using light tones and colors for the Jennifer's day life and dark hues for the night activities. I found the art and color tones to be well planned out.
The first issue includes a two and a half pages of interview with Ennis about the series as well as  five pages of sketches showing the character designs. After Garth's 6 issue run the writing and art chores are picked up by Al Ewing and Kewber Baal. I had only bought the first 6 issues, all Tim Bradstreet 'Virgin Art' Retailer Incentive covers through my comic dealer. Having read all the issues this week, I hadn't even read the series until this week, I wish I had continued with collecting the rest of the series in print form.
If you are a fan of good crime action stories, then may I suggest that you read at least read Ennis' run. Al Ewing continues on with the series with the spirit of what Ennis began.

(ARU), Aruneshwar has a Bachelors Degree in Digital Media -Digital Film-making. Aru is writing and illustrating a graphic novel about the 30yrs of Institutionalised Slavery ofIndians in Fiji from 1885 -1915. He is a prolific script writer and writes in all comicbook genres which include several graphic novels for his own company,Rising Sun Comics. Aru also uploads a digital comic series on Facebook called, Zero as well as finishing off the lettering to his crime-noir graphic novel, The Circle. He is also trying to finish off coloring and lettering a superhero comic book mini-series he co-created with Mike Burbeck called, Incredi-Girl.

Wrath of The Spectre

Writer: Michael Fleisher

Artists: Jim Aparo, Frank Thorne, Ernie Chua, Mike DeCarlo, Pablo Marcos, Russell Carly

Collects: Adventure Comics issues 431-440, Wrath of the Spectre issues 1-4

Published by DC Comics

When I was a kid, my mom used to read me moral stories. Stories that would instill in me a basic sense of right and wrong. Someone (I can’t remember who, at this moment) said something like ‘In this universe, there is a right and a wrong, and that distinction is not difficult to make…lord knows he must have said it long, long ago, for we don’t live in a black and white world anymore – shades of grey prevail all over. I’ve always been interested in The Spectre…actually, scratch that – I’ve always been interested in characters whose basic costume is garish green – Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Poison Ivy, Count Vertigo, Swamp Thing – you get it. And The Spectre was one of them. After a short trade of the (criminally uncollected) Spectre series by John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake, I craved…no, make that hungered for more Spectre.

And with this volume, I got that, and a lot of other things, including the moral stories I write about above. This series combines a lot of things. It doesn’t have a lot of moral ambiguity (I’ll not fault them that, they came from simpler times) which was present in spades in the later series. Each Spectre series brought to the table something different. The Forties series (Jerry Siegel and Bernard Bailey) featured creepy, simplistic stories that worked. The late Eighties series (Doug Moench and Gene Colan) were eerie mystery stories, which had a weird charm of their own. The nineties series (John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake) intermingled real life politics and heavenly affairs. In the introduction to this book by Peter Sanderson, Mike says that he considers the stories as a kind of black comedy. I’d rather say that its Panchatantra meets Sherlock Holmes meets EC Comics.

Black Orchid by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean

Writer: Neil Gaiman

Artist: Dave McKean

Collects: Black Orchid issues 1-3

Published by Vertigo

Beauty, like vanity is fleeting. That is, in a nutshell, the message of this story. It isn’t a story as much as it’s the feel of a story. It was something fresh and new at the time it was released, and I daresay, almost twenty five years later, it still holds up perfectly well – if you see it for what it is. And what was it? Black Orchid was a little known character from DC’s stable of supernatural heroes whom I couldn’t be bothered to look up, not because I had doubts regarding the quality of the classic material (and in these days of new 52s and AvXs, I find myself visiting a lot of classic material), it was just so that I always had things to read that I knew to be reliably…good. Also, this was Neil Gaiman’s first outing across the waters, just as it was Dave McKean’s.

Just when she is at the cusp of a revelation regarding underworld proceedings in an ongoing investigation, Black Orchid is discovered. So as not to fall victim to the familiar trope of villains boasting their schemes giving the ‘hero’ time to ‘loosen their bonds’ or somesuch, the head goon immediately shoots her in the head. Black Orchid survives, just to face a fire which eventually kills her. Or it would have, had she been really alive….because, to purists, there is a notable difference between the words grown, bred, and alive. If there is, I don’t know what it is.

Week In Review : Deadpool #1 + Earth 2 #6

...and more madness for this week as we play catch-up! Other reviews for the week are HERE and these two wrap up our picks of the new comics this week. 

Stick around and we'll have more coming hot and fresh to your plate asap!

Deadpool #1 (Marvel)

Story : Gerry Duggan & Brian Posehn

Art : Tony Moore

(Reviewed by Anant Sagar)

(Insert Morgan Freeman voice here) “A new era dawns upon us. Marvel has begun its reboot. Although Deadpool believes it is not a reboot.”

Deadpool finally gets his Marvel NOW issue #1, and I couldn’t be happier! Now you’re probably wondering, “What? How is Anant happy with a reboot?”

It’s simple:

1. Deadpool is here. Giving him this series means he isn’t getting phased out. (like all his other titles, I miss Deadpool Corps and Deadpool Team-Up.)

2. Deadpool is fighting ZOMBIES!!!! And not just any zombies, Presidential Zombies.

3. His healing factor is back!!

Week In Review : 47 Ronin #1 + Before Watchmen Moloch #1 + Colder #1

Pardon the belated posts this week folks, the festivites of Diwali (amongst other things) had us terribly short on time and we were not able to post these up sooner! 

47 Ronin #1 (Dark Horse)

Story : Mike Richardson

Art : Stan Sakai

(Reviewed by Anubhav Dasgupta)

There is a saying that the tale of the Forty Seven Ronin is the definitive Japanese story. From what I’ve gathered, it’s a tale that more or less commands a huge chunk of their culture, much like our myths of Ram and the Mahabharata.

“To know the tale of 47 Ronin is to know Japan.”

And that’s not far off from the truth. 47 Ronin feels like a very Japanese tale. There are some stories that just feel classy, that feel noble, like Seven Samurai, Citizen Kane, Kumonoso Jo and this comic feels like one of those stories. It doesn’t cheat you with gimmicks and cheap shocks, but simply tells a story, and a good one at that.

Week In Review : Avenging Spiderman Annual #1 + Happy #2 + Masters of the Universe: The Origin of Skeletor OS

Avenging Spiderman Annual #1 (Marvel)

Story : Rob Williams

Art : Brad Walker (pencils), John Livesay (inks), Chris Sotomayor (colour)

(Reviewed by Anant Sagar)

The Thing and Spidey have been teaming up quite a bit lately. That and Spidey has a good relationship with the FF so this team up makes sense.

The good part about this issue had to be the art. Its fluid and the characters are really well drawn. Spiderman looks fluid and flexible and seems to jump from panel to panel with ease.

Having a team up with the Thing and throwing in the “Richards Kids”, Franklin and Val, makes it fun. Those kids are fun to read. The dialogues given to them made me laugh.

Superman: Eradication - The Origin of the Eradicator

DECIPHERING DC

Writers: Dan Jurgens, Roger Stern, Jerry Ordway

Artists: Dan Jurgens, Kerry Gammill, Jerry Ordway, George Perez, Dennis Janke, Brett Breeding, Art Thibert and Andy Kubert

Collects: Adventures of Superman issues 460, 464, 465, Superman issues 41, 42 and Action Comics issues 651, 652.

Published by DC Comics

Welcome to another edition of Deciphering DC as we continue our look into Superman as he runs through the nineties. The tone and feeling of the soap-opera stylings of a weekly book had been established some time ago to give us a more or less continuous story, as certain authors did carry on and advance a few plot points in their own series.
This would continue throughout the nineties, until every one of these creators would leave their titles. Jerry Ordway was the first to leave, then Roger Stern and finally Dan Jurgens, signaling the end of an era, all to be replaced by Jeph Loeb, Joe Kelly, Stuart Immonen and Mark Schultz to begin the "new look Superman" (best epitomized by Ed McGuinness' version of Superman). But here, we're get ting ahead of ourselves.

Week of October 24th Reviews : Bravest Warriors #1 + Deadpool #63 + Talon #1

IT'S TIME! ONCE AGAIN! FOR EVERYBODY!! TO COME ABOARD THE ZEROOOOOOO-DAY TRAIN!!!!
...so enjoy folks. Cheers.
- A-bit-embaressed-by-that Akshay

Bravest Warriors #1 (Boom Studios)

Story : Joey Comeau

Art : Mike Holmes

(Reviewed by Akshay Dhar)

Well it's safe to say I've never read a comic quite like this one. (And I picked this out of the 4 inaugural covers because I'm a huge Star Wars – original trilogy! – nerd...)

I should start by saying, “FANS OF ADVENTURE TIME, REJOICE!” For you see, this series is also created by Pendleton Ward, the brains behind that cult favourite series. And a pretty entertainingly bizarre creation it is indeed! We follow a teen-age interstellar/galactic super-group that is as kooky and quirky as any I've ever seen.

I've never really dabbled in Adventure Time, so this was a bit of an experiment for me and an exercise in trying out something out of my regular sphere – a good habit for anyone to have.

Week In Review : Cyber Force #1 + DC Universe Presents #13 + G.I.Joe:Snake Eyes #18

Another new week and more new comics! Welcome back and here's our picks of the weeks from amongst the flood, enjoy!- Editor

Cyber Force #1 (Image/Top Cow)

Story : Marc Silvestri & Matt Hawkins

Art : Khoi Pham

(Reviewed by Akshay Dhar)

It's interesting to see the relaunch of Cyber Force in the wake of all the other Top Cow Universe titles being given the revamp after all the madness over in Darkness, Witchblade and Artifacts.

I've been a big fan of most of the Top Cow books for a long time, but somehow Cyber Force never quite caught on as much – I keep meaning to sit down and reread the lot properly or some such, but never gotten around to it and now I'm glad!

This new volume of creator (and Top Cow founder) Silvestri's flagship team-book actually is off to a very promising start.

THE GOOD in all this is that we've got an intriguing new storyline that I think would be fun regardless of whether or not you've ever read the series before – creating a dystopic new future for us all that carries echoes of concerns we all have about the future of our world and society and throwing in a healthy amount of intrigue, mystery, twists, action and concepts. By the end I was very much wanting

Superman: Exile!

DECIPHERING DC

Writers: Roger Stern, Dan Jurgens, George Perez, Jerry Ordway

Artists: Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway, Kerry Gammill, George Perez, Mike Mignola, Curt Swan, Brett Breeding, Dennis Janke, John Statema

Collects: Superman issues 28-30, 32, 33, Adventures of Superman issues 451-456 and Action Comics issues 643 and Annual 2

Published by DC Comics.

Welcome to another chapter of Deciphering DC! After a lengthy gap comes the next collection in the monthly Superman series, made even more profound by the fact that the only Superman collection before this one, when it came out first, was the original Man of Steel collection....the other volumes were collected much, much later. There's a lot of catching up to be done from where we left off.

Superman: The World of Krypton

DECIPHERING DC

Writers: John Byrne, E. Nelson Bridwell, Dennis O'Neil, Cary Bates, Marv Wolfman, Elliott S! Maggin, Paul Kupperberg, Martin Pasko, Bob Rozakis
Artists: Mike Mignola, Rick Bryant, John Byrne, Murphy Anderson, Dick Giordano, Gray Morrow, Dave Cockrum, Michael W Kaluta, Dick Dillin, Marshall Rogers and Gil Kane
Collects: The World of Krypton 1-4, part of Man of Steel issue 1 and back up features from Superman issues 233,236,238,240,248,257,266,375 and Superman Family issue 182
Publisher: DC Comics

Welcome to yet another edition of Deciphering DC. Today, after a long hiatus, we take a look at the continuing saga of Superman's early years (earlier looks at post COIE Superman can be found here and here).

Some time after Superman made a splash with the explosive Man of Steel miniseries, John Byrne wrote three more mini series, with different artists, each chronicling a part of the Superman mythos. The World of Krypton was the first of the three, with breakdowns by Mike Mignola and finishes by Rick Bryant.

The Dark Knight Rises - Prodigal

DECIPHERING DC

Writers: Chuck Dixon, Doug Moench, Alan Grant
Artists: Mike Gustovich, Ron Wagner, Phil Jimenez, John Cleary, Lee Weeks, Graham Nolan, Bret Blevins, Mark Bright

Click to Enlarge

Welcome to the final edition of Deciphering DC's coverage of the colossal and epic Knightfall saga. Though Knightfall ended with KnightsEnd, the good people at DC saw it prudent to use this opportunity to bring forth the long out of print, perennially in demand Prodigal, where we see Dick Grayson donning the cape and the cowl as Batman for the first time.

The Dark Knight Rises - KnightQuest: The Search

DECIPHERING DC

Welcome to yet another edition of Deciphering DC. We continue our look at Knightfall, now focusing on KnightQuest: The Search. It follows Bruce Wayne and Alfred in their quest for Jack Drake and Shondra Kinsolving. This phase of the Dark Knight has never been collected, and chances are, it still won’t be.

The storyline crosses over three titles –

- Justice League Task Force issues 5 & 6 written by Dennis O’Neil (incorrectly solicited as David Michelinie on one cover) and art and covers by Sal Velluto

- Batman: Shadow of the Bat issues 21-23 written by Alan Grant, art by Bret Blevins and covers by Brian Stelfreeze

- Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight issues 59-61 written by Dennis O’Neil, art by Ron Wagner and covers by Norm Breyfogle

Christopher Nolan’s "The Dark Knight" trilogy : The Comic Connections

With The Dark Knight Rises having stormed theatres around the world and the epic trilogy coming to a close, there is a lot of discussion on various sites and pages about how much this trilogy is loyal to its comic book counterparts.
Well the good news is that it is to a large extent.

This article tries to prove how well the researched the trilogy was by showing all the cues, characters, story points and details that Christopher Nolan and his fellow writers adapted from various iconic comic stories/arcs to create a whole new Batman for a new age!

Click to Enlarge!

(It will either prove that, or that I'm an utter and total nutter who see's things everywhere that are just not there!)

I've tried to break these elements down and give you the titles of the stories/graphic novels/collections where they seem to have originated, of course only the movie-makers can know what's true and what's not.
But here, I ask YOU - think you know your caped crusader? Check this out and see what you knew and all the stuff you might've missed, the inspirations for some great movie moments.

The Dark Knight Rises - KnightQuest: The Crusade (Batman and Catwoman)

DECIPHERING DC

Welcome to yet another edition of Deciphering DC. Continuing our look at KnightQuest, this time we focus on the issues featured in the monthly title Batman and Catwoman. This review covers Batman #501-508 and Catwoman #6 & 7. All issues of Batman are written by Doug Moench and art by Mike Manley. The Catwoman issues are written by Jo Duffy and the art is by Jim Balent. All Batman covers are by Kelley Jones, while Catwoman covers are by Jim Balent.

DCnU 1st Year Anniversary Special #2 : The Best and Worst

DC's New-52's Best and Worst

DC's New-52 reboot completes one year this September. The much hyped retooling after the epic event that was Flashpoint, happened last year and created a storm of controversy, criticism and heavy praise, all at the same time. The effort brought some characters into the spotlight, while some fan favourite characters and their storyline were seriously altered.

To celebrate this long and intense first year, here is my compilation of some best and worst things the New-52 has brought to the fans at large.

Week In Review : Deadpool #60 + Fairest #07 + Green Lantern v5 #0

More new comics!! No blather, just enjoy!- Eager Editor

Deadpool #60 (Marvel)

Story : Daniel Way

Art : Salva Espin

(Reviewed by Anant Sagar)

Quick recap for those of you not up to date..

Deadpool, the merc with a mouth (and a healing factor as awesome as the legendary Wolverine), has lost his healing factor. He can’t super heal anymore.

Now the knowledge has reached the Deadpool hating baddie, Black Box, who's sent a bunch of villains who have “problems” with Wade after him - namely Black Swan (former awesome merc) and arch nemesis (of sorts) Black Tom Cassidy.

And now, onward!

When Wade was in school he liked to put a lit matchstick near his backside. Cut to the present fight, he puts a fuel pipe between his legs and a lighter near his a$$ and screams “I’m the Human Flamethrower.” Thus with the power of a flaming derriere, Wade defeats Black Tom and Black Box, and burns himself in the process.

DCnU 1st Year Anniversary Special #1 : Heroes Missing

DCnU : The Missing Pieces, the Heroes we've lost!

One year.

One long, year of the DCU New 52. One long year filled with roller coater ups-and-downs that have delighted and aggravated fans across the comic-readership spectrum.

There have been first attempts at crossover, some successful (Night of Owls, Rotworld) and some... not so much (The Culling, Basilisk Rising) and – so far – three waves of releases including the titular first wave of 52.

There are books I've loved and books I've hated and some that aren't quite in either camp – others still that started at one place and jumped to another. The point of all this is, dear reader, that it's been pretty crazy as you're well aware.

BUT! This first year over and DC releasing a whole slew of #0 issues this week, we're looking at finally getting at least some of the many questions about origins and continuity answered (hopefully) through these titles.

With this in mind, we here at Comic Addicts are starting a series of weekly specials that will cover various aspects of the DCnU, from reviews to top-10 style lists and others. Starting now! (so click ahead and read on!)

Batman: The Dark Knight Rises - KnightQuest: The Crusade - Batman: Shadow of the Bat

DECIPHERING DC

This week we continue our look at the entire Knightfall saga and today we take a look at the issues of Batman: Shadow of the Bat featuring KnightQuest: The Crusade. This review covers issues #19, 20, 24-28 of Batman: Shadow of the Bat. Issues 21-23 will be covered in KnightQuest: The Search, next week. All stories are by Alan Grant, while art is by Vince Giarrano on the earlier three issues and Bret Blevins on the later four issues. All covers are by Batman: Shadow of the Bat regular cover artist Brian Stelfreeze.

Are Reboots worth the RISK? (Part 2 of 2) : Marvel NOW?

(Continued on from Part 1 here.)

Okay so, lets get back to the real world and the current bombardment of the "NEW", "NEXT", "NOW!".

Usually when you hear, see or read any of those three previous words you would expect something, new, current and better, right? Well, sorry friend, but you are out of luck. Remember last year when all of a sudden Marvel decided to end the decades old run of the Uncanny X-men title and spilt it into Wolverine and the X-Men and renumber Uncanny X-men to #1 with Cyclops leading the team.
Wait.., Didn't this happen before? 
Yes, a similar thing did happen back in 1990s. I remember, because thats when I spent $100 of my wages every week buying comics, especially X-Men related books. There was a split with Cyclops,  'Blue Team' and Storm's 'Gold Team'. Preorder for that 'X-Men' book was 8 million but supposedly only 3 million sold. Which shows that the decision didn't pay off as was expected.

X-Men - 1991 series