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 : Daredevil #15 + Saga #5 + X-O Manowar #3

Welcome back fellow comic-addicts! It's been too long a gap and we're happy once again to bring back our weekly reviews! No wasting of your time here, let's just dive straight into some of this past week's releases and remember, more tomorrow!

Daredevil #15 (Marvel)

Story : Mark Waid

Art : Chris Samnee

(Reviewed by Anupam Sarkar)

In the previous issue, while trying to escape Latveria , Daredevil started to lose his senses one by one (thanks to Dr. Doom) and was finally captured by Dr. Doom's 'subjects'.

One of the best things that I love about Waid's take on Daredevil is the amount of characterization he puts into the character. For instance, in this issue, Matt Murdock realizes that he's starting to lose his senses. He can't feel, see or hear a damn thing. He's weak and so are his senses. Still, he tries to escape Latveria again to call Avengers for help. But, he get's shot and is captured.
You turn the next page, and suddenly Iron Man jumps in outta the blue. The issue ends with Iron Man rescuing Daredevil and giving a good hint to keep the readers waiting for the next issue.
This issue is not as good as its predecessors . Though, Waid's writing is flawless and he experiments with Murdock's senses, the issue is not very engaging compared to the previous ones. But keeping the con's aside, there are very few writers who are consistent with each every issue, and Mark Waid is one of them. Even his 'bad' issues are better compared to the other comics in the market.

The Dark Knight Rises (Movie Review)

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I have never seen people counting down to a movie by the hour, never seen people more reluctant to reveal spoilers or anything that normally appeals to so many people, most of whom are from the comic book writing/drawing fields and have worked on the character at some time in their career. If all of this is happening, one thing is obvious - Nolan and Co. have gotten it right. To say that this was the most eagerly awaited movie of the year would be an understatement, and an unfair one, at that!

Okay, let's begin with where the first two movies by Nolan had brought us.
Batman Begins introduced us to Bruce Wayne/Batman (Christian Bale), Alfred (Michael Caine), Lieutenant James Gordon (Gary Oldman), Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy) and Ra's Al Ghul (Liam Neeson). We get a glimpse into the world of the Batman and what makes him tick. We learn of his arduous training under Henri Ducard/Ra's Al Ghul, and most important, we see how Bruce conquers his greatest enemy, his fear. The Dark Knight introduces us to the primary force of chaos in Gotham, The Joker. We see allies turn into enemies, as Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) is disfigured and ruined physically as well as mentally, turning him into the homicidal Two Face. While Batman Begins was powerful on emotional content, The Dark Knight packed a punch with it's edge of the seat sequences, and the memorable performance of Heath Ledger as the Joker.

Comic Review : Vrica #3 (Chariot Comics)

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Story : Aniruddho Chakraborty

Art : Tarun Kumar Sahu

[Editors Note : If you want earlier issue info first, check out Anant's review of #1)

VRICA is a series set in the burbs of New Delhi, born out of the minds of our friends over at Chariot Comics. The story revolves around a tactical response team that has in its midst a super-soldier, his origins shrouded in mystery and some confusing facts which I'm still figuring out.

Countdown to The Dark Knight Rises - Prelude to Knightfall

Welcome back to another edition of Deciphering DC. With the Dark Knight Rises all the rage all over the media, I think it’s high time I gave the whole saga a comprehensive look. DC thought the same, and that is why we saw a collection called Batman vs Bane, that collected for the first time ever, Batman: Vengeance of Bane 1 and the miniseries Batman: Bane of the Demon.

Among other collections released were a reprint of Batman: Venom (see review here), with the first appearance of the drug of the same name, which the antagonist Bane uses and Batman: Birth of the Demon (see review here), featuring the trilogy of graphic novels featuring Ra’s Al Ghul, probably a major player in this enterprise as well. And finally, an expanded collection featuring the Knightfall saga and tie ins.

All the buzz on MARVEL NOW! in one place!

As we move now well past the halfway mark of Avengers vs. X-Men (a.k.a AvX) and head into the final stretch of this marathon of mindless mauling, big news arrives!

The good folks over at Marvel Comics have announced a huge new “game-changing” move they are calling Marvel Now! that will start to build momentum towards what they are calling a “soft” reboot.

What exactly is the purpose and nature of this reboot? Especially now? Is this just a ploy to get back at their chief rival, DC Comics, who had a hard reboot of their whole line and for the first time in ages beat Marvel in the sales numbers? Is it a genuinely thought out, brave and innovative move? Or is it just a hurriedly put-together gimmick because they have nothing else to do?

We don't know all the answers, but we are committed to bringing you as much information as we can so keep going past the jump for everything on this event out in the news thus far – and remember to stick around in the coming weeks for more!

Review : VRICA #1 (by Chariot Comics)

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Story : Katyayan Shivpuri, Aniruddho Chakraborty

Art : Pramod Bhramania

Editor : Aniruddho Chakraborty

Producer : Siddharth Vaidya

The comic book market in India, which is still in its nascent stage, is just like this very familiar city which we have so innocently encountered in texts, stories, tales, anecdotes and even myths and legends.

Yes my fellow Jedis and Siths, I am talking about the colossal City of the Gods. The Indian comic book market (and the industry) is like this behemoth city where the Gods and mythological creatures have literally galvanized all the creative processes. It is analogous to a city where Gods rule and those who have challenged their might have either gradually perished or caved ways for entries and additions of super natural elements and eventual manifestations of the almighty gods themselves. In such a precarious setting, Chariot Comics really tries to break the established existing norms and the so-called patterns. The poison Chariot picks for this herculean task is its first comic, titled VRICA #1.

So what is VRICA??