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Ultimate Fantastic Four #5
Publisher: Marvel
Comics
Writer: Warren
Ellis
Pencils: Stuart
Immonen
Inks: Wade
Von Grawbadger
Doom- Part 5- After an attempt is made on their lives, the four decide
it’s time to take the fight to the instigator, their former
friend Victor Van Damme. From what Van Damme has seen of the 4 after
the accident he prepares for their coming, by garnering the support
of the townspeople around him and also preparing attacks aimed at
each of the members. From what he’s seen through his robotic
cameras, he’s ready, or is he? I am enjoying this book a bit
more than I thought I would, I really like the combination of Ellis’
writing and Immonen’s art. Sad to say, I will be a bit disappointed
when Kubert comes back on board after this arc, but I guess you can’t
have it all. My only real complaint with this book, you’re done
reading each issue before you know it. There are a couple of good
little moments in the book between Johnny (the Torch) and Ben (the
Thing), I’ve always enjoyed their immature relationship and
am glad to see it here. -KEVIN-
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Uncanny X-Men #449
Publisher: Marvel
Comics
Writer: Chris
Claremont
Pencils: Oliver
Coipel
Inks: Scott
Hanna
Viper is back and she’s looking for vengeance against Sage.
She sets a trap that leads all of the X-Men (at least the ones from
this team) to a revamped “murderworld” with the bait being
the Queen of England. As always, in “murderworld” things
aren’t what they seem. Same of the team members may not be themselves
and the Queen may not be quite what she promises to be. Someone please
let me know if I got any of this right, since the past two issues
have done nothing but remind me why I veered away from the X-Men in
the first place. There are way too many things going on to confuse
me. Perhaps it’s my advanced age, or my short attention span,
either way, this review is my best guess as to what is going on. I
did however like the art by Coipel. It’s a little rough in places,
but I think that’s a good thing. -KEVIN-
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Avengers #502
Publisher: Marvel
Comics
Writer: Brian
Michael Bendis
Pencils: David
Finch
Inks: Danny
Miki
Chaos Part 3- Four current Avengers appear on the cover of this issue
with the promise that one of them wont make it past page 22. Let’s
see, there’s Yellowjacket, Wasp, Hawkeye, and Scarlet Witch…hmm
eeny meeny miney mo- one of you has got to go. I think Bendis has
been doing some soul searching. If I were a psychiatrist, I would
probably think that young Brian, has concentrated every sour moment,
every disappointment and every bad thing that has happened in his
life into a bundle of rage and seems to have focused it on the Avengers.
Let’s look at the body count in just three issues, Jack of Hearts
(for real this time), Scott Lang (Ant Man- again if you count the
Alias thing), Vision (I’m counting that one since I’m
hard pressed to see him get out of that without some major reconstruction),
and now we have our latest victim. In case you haven’t read
the book or other spoilers, I’m not going to mention it here,
but I kind of figured who it would be and logically it makes sense.
Four bodies in three issues, somebody’s on a rampage, and based
on the last page, I think I know who finally. It’ll be interesting
to see how this pans out. I have a major complaint though, generally
I like David Finch’s art, but I think with everything going
on and all the background details, his artwork is getting lost within
itself. With so much detail in the foreground and background, everything
is beginning to look a bit generic and a little rushed. Other than
that, I think this will go down as one of the major storylines for
the series but may not be called a classic, unless something spectacular
happens next issue. I’m afraid that if things pan out like I
think they are everything is going to be obvious and it may take away
from the magnitude of things. We’ll see. -KEVIN-
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Conan #8
Publisher: Dark Horse
Writer: Kurt
Busiek
Art: Greg
Ruth
Letters: Richard Starkings and Comicraft
I want to start off this review by saying that I don’t normally
mention the letterer of a book. Not to downplay their contribution
or anything, but generally they seem to be a bit of an afterthought,
people concentrate on the story and the art. A story can still be
told without the use of “words”. I wanted to make a special
point to mention Richard Starkings and his work in this book. Normally
the words help convey, to the reader, what the art cannot, in this
book, the words do that, but they are so much more. The choices in
font and display that Starkings makes turn his work into art just
as much as the illustrations. That being said, this has been one of
the best “illustrated” books I have read in a long time.
I’ve not read anything related to Conan in over 15 years, not
that I don’t like Conan, he’s just not a character that
I seek out. I’ve heard nothing but good things about this book,
and since it’s the first part of the “Born on a Battlefield”
story, I figured why not give it a try (that and the beautiful yet
somewhat disturbing cover drew me in), I’m so glad that I did.
This issue tells the story of Conan’s birth and his early years.
Conan is thought of as special, because he was in fact born on a battlefield
in the heat of a skirmish. This is regarded as a good omen, but does
cause some jealousy with the people around him as he gets older. The
art by Ruth is wonderful and I think fits the whole tone of what I
imagine Conan to be, a bit gritty in some spots but clear in others.
I think it perfectly conveys the mood and tone of Busiek’s story.
I think I’ve found something to add to my pull list.
-KEVIN-
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Black Widow #1
Publisher: Marvel
Comics
Writer: Richard
K. Morgan
Art: Bill
Sienkiewicz
Two Words- Bill Sienkiewicz, this book is worth buying for that simple
reason. It’s been too long since we have seen his work regularly.
I remember reading the New Mutants back in the 80’s when the
Demon Bear saga was going on. The title went from art by Bob McLeod,
to Sal Buscema, and then you were visually assaulted by this guy named
Sienkiewicz. It was totally different than anything I had ever seen
to that point and it took me a while to get used to it, but it was
beautiful. It still is beautiful. I’d like to see it more regularly.
The seemingly endless amount of Marvel #1 issues continues. Natasha
Rominov is the Black Widow, former Russian Covert Ops but now retired
(if there is such a thing for the Covert Ops). It seems as if former
agents are dying (getting killed) and Natasha is on that list. After
an attempt is made on her life, she decides that she is not going
to wait around for someone to make a second attempt- she’s going
to find out what is going on. It is a nice simple start to a story
with enough background information to get the new reader up to speed.
This has been one of the better first issues that Marvel has put out
in some time (Astonishing X-Men excluded). If you like espionage,
even just a little, pick up this book, it makes for a good read. If
you want to see some of the best artwork around PICK UP THIS BOOK.
Not to take anything away from any of the other artists that are good,
but Bill Sienkiewicz is in a category all by himself. -KEVIN-
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All
Flee
Publisher: Top Shelf
Productions
Writer: Gavin
Burrows
Artist: Simon
Gane
Big stompin’ monster fun. It may not be for everyone, since
a lot of the humor is groan worthy, but it’s entertaining. It’s
a couple of short stories about a once great monster trying to help
shape and mold the next generation of monsters in the classroom. The
generation gap is definitely present. Good goofy fun. I’m sorry
I meant to say GOOD GOOFY BIG STOMPING MONSTER FUN. This book is definitely
good for a chuckle or two and it’s only $3.95. Top Shelf continues
to produce some of the most diverse quality titles out there, this
may not be the greatest example, but trust me, they put out some really
great stuff. -KEVIN-
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The Monkeynauts
Bucket & Dog Book One: Bus Stops, Bocce and Bows
By:Sarah E.
Becan
I apologize for just getting to these books, but life can get a bit
hectic. While walking around Wizard World this year (2004), I spent
a lot of time going through “artist alley” looking for
things that caught my eye. One of those or rather two of those were
these titles by Sarah E. Becan. Those of you, who know me, can guess
what originally caught my eye at her table. The first title is not
what did it. I picked up the two books because they both seemed so
different so I figured it would be a good way to see the range of
what she had to offer. Bucket & Dog consists of six cute little
strips revolving around Bucket and his “dog” (monkey).
I especially enjoyed the goofy eyes and facial expressions. The second
book (the one that caught my eye) is The Monkeynauts. Monkeys plus
astronauts equals something I had to have. According to her web page,
The Monkeynauts is the non fiction story of the monkeys they sent
into space before they decided it was safe enough to send humans.
It is allegedly typed out by Bombo the monkey. It tells the tales
of Gordo, Able and Baker, Sam and Miss Sam, Ham, and Enos (the first
living being sent up by the U.S). It also touches on the tragedies
surrounding some of the other primate participants. These stories
are all wrapped up in a nice little commentary. Both titles are enjoyable
in their own way. If you have a chance stop by her web page and check
out some of her work. She’s local so you don’t have to
worry about the intraweb giving you any trouble finding her, she’s
at www.jakze.com or www.bucketanddog.com
. Monkeys in space suits how can you go wrong? -KEVIN-
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Robin #130, Batgirl #56 and Cat Woman #35
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Bill
Willingham, Dylan Horrocks, and Ed Brubaker (respectively)
Pencils: Jon
Proctor, Mike Huddleston, and Paul Gulacy (again respectively)
Inks: Robert
Campanella and Rodney Ramos (Robin), Jesse Delperdang (Batgirl), and
Jimmy Palmiotti (Catwoman)
War Games: Act Two Chapters 5-7 To tell you the truth, I wasn’t
all that impressed with what was going on in the first act of this
multi title crossover. Over the years, I had grown tired of having
to buy so many titles in order to get a whole story. Too many times
in the 90’s massive crossovers took place as a ploy to just
sell books. I thought that this was going to be another one of those
attempts. In my opinion, it was headed that way that was until Robin
130, where the person behind the whole gang war was revealed. A character
that I thought had died a while back. It is good to see him back,
if you can call what he is up to good. He is maniacal and unforgiving
and is not above torture as a means to achieve his goals, unfortunately
the Spoiler finds this out first hand. It was revealed that the Spoiler
inadvertently set things in motion for the gang war and in her attempt
to warn people about what was going on, she tracks down Orpheus and
finds him dead and his killer waiting. Eventually he overcomes her
and begins going about extracting information. To her credit she doesn’t
give it up without a lot of “persuasion”. Meanwhile through
the other titles, everyone is looking for her while dealing with their
own problems. These three issues have renewed my faith in what DC
was trying to do. I don’t think that any other family of books
could carry such a story line as successfully as the Batman books
can. They proved it before with Officer Down and are following it
up nicely. What started slow is really heating up. I can now say I
like the direction this is heading in. Not to say I like seeing the
Spoiler go through what she does, but the story is really catching
my attention now. I hope she makes it.-KEVIN-
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Al n'
Ann's Collectibles
Store Hours:
Mon-Thurs
11:00am - 7:00pm
Friday
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Saturday
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Sunday
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McHenry,IL 60050
Phone
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