Week In Review : Edgar Allen Poe's The Conqueror Worm #1 + Judge Dredd #1 + Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow #19

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.

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

Week In Review : Hawkeye #1 + Infected #1 + The First X-Men #1

Three more #1's folks! This week has been choc-full of new-comic goodness and we've got some doozies here for you today! The hotly anticipated Hawkeye and First X-Men as well as IDW's new offering. Enjoy!
- Always-helpful Akshay

Hawkeye #1 (Marvel)

Story : Matt Fraction

Art : David Aja (linework), Matt Holingsworth (colors)

(Reviewed by Anubhav Dasgupta)

Marvel is winning.

I can’t believe I typed that. I’m a harcore DC guy and I typed “Marvel is winning.”

Now, I don’t know a lot about Hawkeye beyond what I’ve read since the Heroic Age. I wasn’t really a fan until I read last year’s Hawkeye & Mockingbird by Jim McCann, which was amazing fun. But this one… it’s textbook. It’s brilliant. It’s so good that it makes making brilliant comics look easy.

This comic doesn’t have any epic fights between super-powered heroes or alien invasions or another stupid plot involving the Phoenix, rather it’s a human story. It’s what happens when Hawkeye isn’t 'Avengering'. It’s what Clint Barton does when he isn’t hanging around with Tony Stark or Steve Rogers.

Week In Review : Alabaster Wolves #4 + B.P.R.D. Hell On Earth The Devil's Engine #3 + Mars Attacks! #2

Another week over and one last lot of new comics folks!
Today our team breaks down three of the most interesting titles on the stands - Alabastar Wolves has been making some waves in horror circles under the pen of Caitlin Kiernan and BPRD has been like a juggernaut of insanity for the past year and is still going. And to wrap it up, we've got the utterly insane Mars Attacks comic!
Enjoy!

Alabaster Wolves #4 (Dark Horse)

Story : Caitlin R. Kiernan

Art : Steve Lieber

(Reviewed by Anirudh Singh)

Ah, Alabaster Wolves... So much potential, so much disappointment and yet so much hope. First off, I really like this series. It has a dash of myth and legends interspersed with a lot of interesting characters. On the downside we are dealing with a primarily Christian mythos here. Our heroine has a guardian angel, and I dont mean that in a metaphorical sense. She literally has an angel watching her back. Talk about real firepower.

As for the heroine herself well she manages to hold her own. A cheeky albino brat out hitch-hiking through the wilderness with a bird to keep her company and a kitchen knife to serve as a weapon. Not good odds I know, even with an angel watching your back. But she survives, rolling on from one near disaster to another near death experience. Monsters and ghouls are thick in this book, werewolves prowl the shadows. And the old rules of riddling are still held sacred.

Week In Review : Earth 2 #2 + Extermination #1 + Sweet Tooth #34 + Trio #2

Here you go folks, the wrap up on our picks from this weeks new releases!

Today we have a wickedly amazing mixed bag of comics - every single one unquestionably awesome and entertaining. This is maybe the highest scoring total for new releases in one post I'd wager! 

Enjoy!

Earth 2 #2 (DC)

Story : James Robinson

Art : Nicola Scott (pencils), Trevor Scott (inks) & Alex Sinclair/Pete Pantazis (colours)

(Reviewed by Anant Sagar)

Ladies, gentlemen and other species. Welcome back to Earth 2. And boy what a welcome it is!

It’s time for a match between Holt and Sloan. “TERRIFIC?” I thought, as I saw them. So basically Earth-1’s Mr. Terrific (this is the point where you go “oh that’s what terrific meant” ) has landed up on Earth-2 by accident, and right there waiting for him is Terry Sloan. The first Mr. Terrific from Earth-1, plain ol’ smartest man here. There's fighting, Sloan wins, cut to next scene! No that’s not a spoiler.

Picking up from last issue, Jay Garrick meets Mercury. Not Max Mercury – MERCURY like the roman god. And it’s time to power up. This issue is all about the birth of the Flash.

I like and don’t like the costume at the same time. Is that possible?

Also if you didn’t already know, ALAN SCOTT IS GAY! (No it’s not a problem for me, I just felt like writing in caps since it seems to be such big news these days) We catch a glimpse of him with his boyfriend.

Week In Review : Ame-Comi Wonder Woman #1 + B.P.R.D. Hell On Earth The Transformation Of J. H. O'Donnell + Star Trek TNG / Doctor Who : Assimilation2 #1 + The Ravagers #1

Back for more dear readers? Well we're as happy to be here as you are and we've got a new lot of fresh-off-the-presses comics reviewed just for you!

Ame-Comi Wonder Woman #1 (DC Digital)

Story : Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray

Art : Amanda Conner

(Reviewed by Akshay Dhar)

If you had told me months, weeks or even days ago that I would not only be reading but thoroughly enjoying a comic based on a really cheesy Wonder Woman statue created as a gimmick and be a proper fan by the end – I'd have smacked you sideways and sued you for defamation. And I would have been dead wrong.

The first big-awesome on this comic? It's created by the master-class team of Gray/Palmiotti/Conner that brought us the much-missed Power-Girl series (pre-reboot) that was and still is one of the single best heroine-centric series. Period. I admit openly that I'm overjoyed to find that amidst the mess that DC is making of a lot of titles that could be better and screwing-up the mainstream (not completely but a fair bit) titles, it's great to have a book that is lighter, more enjoyable and disconnected from the massive weight of history that DC just doesn't seem able to shake off for some reason.

Week In Review : Astonishing X-Men #50 + COBRA #13 + Dominique Laveau Voodoo Child #3 + Godzilla #1

Here we go folks, more comic goodness for you to read about - including one very in-the-news Marvel comic and some excellent non-superhero and spandex offerings. Enjoy and do feel free to let us know what you thought!

Astonishing X-Men #50 (Marvel)

Story : Marjorie Liu

Art : Mike Perkins (art), Andy Troy (colours)

(Reviewed by Akshay Dhar)

There has been a lot of hype prior to this issues release – all of it centred (as you can well imagine) on the marriage of Northstar (a.k.a Jean-Paul Beaubier) and his boyfriend Kyle. Let me put you at ease, no spoilers beyond saying that there is no marriage in this issue – thats next time around. This is just the build.

Overall a good issue and it continues the fairly stable and good run of stories this title has had since waaaay back when geek-dom's current messiah Joss Whedon launched it's first arcs and shot Shadowcat into space on a giant bullet.

In this issue we find the story continuing from last issue, with our heroes trying to track down the source of their troubles. Iceman, Gambit, Wolverine, War-bird (of the Shi'ar) and Northstar (the first 3 being reason enough for me to read this series!!) are on the trail of whomever sent the Marauders after them all recently and end up with more than they bargained for and still more questions with little in the way of answers. We even get a Black Widow cameo and more mysteries but it all does lead somewhere by the end – where that is we're going to have to, what else, wait a month to find out. We also have the relationship between Northstar and Kyle under further strain and with all manner of emotional drama – which in fairness is actually handled pretty well and all things considered, it felt pretty realistic. A difficult challenge for the best of writers when dealing with 'normal' folks and their issues.

C2E2: New Comic News!!

Good day one and all!

Apologies for a hectic week and not enough comic-y goodness for all of you (largely my fault, but I blame the IPL and various other things for our shortcomings!) but we intend to make up for it and then some in the days to come!

For those of you who follow this stuff, there's a HUGE load of comic news that came out during the recent Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, popularly known as C2E2 amongst fans. I've been keeping an eye on their news and announcements and have for you here a sumptuous feast of some of the most choice and tender treats to tickle your taste buds!

This post is a special recap where I've tried to put together as much of the news as possible for your geeking-out pleasure (in alphabetical order for general ease of use!).

So let's just get to it shall we?

To kick things off, from the strange and frighteningly awesome Avatar offices:

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Michael DiPascale’s new project announced at C2E2 is Hero Worship which will premier in July. Keith says that Avatar Press rarely does superhero comics, noting the exceptions by Warren Ellis, and Christos Gage, saying they don’t do them unless there’s something unique about them. He then describes Hero Worship a bit, telling us Zak Penn will be writing, and it’s a six issue miniseries and is about society’s worship of superheroes and how that can be used to screw the system. The main characters are Adam and Zenith. Adam is a normal boy and Zenith is a Superman-style superhero. Adam is Zenith’s biggest fan, and the book is not really about him, so much as the world around him.

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:

"Though this be madness, yet there is method in't."

In case any of you were wondering, this weeks title is a quote from Polonius, Hamlet Act 2. Hey I wouldnt expect a Shakespeare quotation in a comic review without it trying to be pretentious either but here it is amazingly apt.
If you'll but bear with me a little you might be intruiged.
Today we are gathered here folks to talk about a series that apart from its curious name did not appear to me to be anything but another Fables like rip-off or parody or some such and thus I avoided it for the first couple of issues.
Of course me being me I could not contain my curiosity (I swear if I was a cat Id be long out of lives by now!) and had to give it a shot - the book I refer to is an intruiging new title from the fine folks at IDW, which incidentally is one of the more interesting publishers out there in terms of alternative content. Like Image and Dark Horse these guys also publish a vast mix of things from books like Peter David's lovely, morally ambiguous, noir-like and fantasy laced Fallen Angel stories (I really like em, maybe one of these weeks if you guys are intrigued enough...?), some basic stuff like nicely rebooting the G.I.Joe franchise (better then that steaming pile of a movie...) - alongwith numerous other franchises they've been putting out nicely like Tank Girl, Underworld, 24, CSI, Tranformers, varied Doctor Who books including by Grant Morrison among many and recently even Godzilla! Then they have horror books like the 30 Days of Night series, carrying on TV properties like the Angel franchise (which I thought was so much better then its parent program 'Buffy') and of course completely independant and intriguing new titles like Fallen Angel and... the one which this post... is supposed to be about...
So on to the book then before I meander off again!