Sci Fi Ramblings

By John J. Joex

The Dollhouse Epitaphs comic book from Dark Horse just made it to its fifth issue, and I have to say I have really been enjoying this continuation of Joss Whedon’s TV series Dollhouse and wish that he had taken this approach when the show was still on the air. For those unfamiliar with the ill-fated series that eked out two shortened seasons, it followed the Rossum corporation that had turned several people into “dolls” who could have custom-made personalities imprinted on their minds. The series took place in the present-day world and the “cases” the dolls were assigned to which could vary from romantic interludes to hostage negotiations. Two episodes from the series, though, looked at the near future when Rossum had turned this technology viral and had reduced the majority of the population to mindless yet violent zombies (an interesting twist on the zombie-pocalypse theme). This is where the story really got interesting and this is where the comic book picks up.

In the comic, penned by series veterans Jed Whedon, Andrew Chambliss, and Maurissa Tancharoen, we follow Echo and several other of the series regulars (including the schizophrenic Alpha) as they seek out the tech that will reverse what Rossum has done. This provides for a rather gripping post-apocalyptic tale, much different than the “imprint of the week” stories the TV series delivered in its first season or the conspiracy-laden tales from year two. True, you needed those to set up the post-apocalyptic setting, but they could have done that through flashbacks and given us a series with storylines in both the before and after settings. That approach I believe would have made for a more engaging series and would have attracted more viewers and a more devoted following. Unfortunately the show as it was (which was apparently hampered by tinkering from the FOX execs) never really caught on and I’m not sure many fans followed the story into the comics. And it appears that issue #5 of the comic will be the last, but there’s still plenty more story to tell. Whether Dark Horse will continue this later (which seems unlikely because the letters column suggested it was cancelled) or whether the creative team takes this to another company remains to be seen. But I would definitely like to see more of this story and wish that they had taken this approach for the get go.

Among other comic book series that I have been following lately, the Kirby Genesis books have proved interesting, though I’m still not quite certain how much I like them. The main title, Kirby Genesis, has thrown together a plethora of characters that Jack Kirby created in his later years such as Captain Victory, Silver Star, the Ninth Men from the Secret City saga, as well as some others that he worked on but which never saw publication. This series brings them all into the same universe and creates a storyline that throws them all together as it leads up to a climactic confrontation. It’s nice to see all these Kirby creations, but it’s sort of like taking his imagination and turning it on us with a fire hose. Definitely a case of comic crossover overload.  However, the series does introduce us to quite a number of characters and groups that could live on in their own spin-off series and Dynamite has already gone that direction with Kirby Genesis: Captain Victory and Kirby Genesis: Silver Star (and Kirby Genesis: Dragonsbane will follow shortly). Of the two (both of which have only had one issue), I see a lot more potential in the Captain Victory strip. It looks like this one might follow a similar route to Kirby’s Fourth World books from the 70’s and he had written in some tenuous links to that pantheon in the original series published by Pacific in the early 80’s (which suggested that Victory was the son of Orion and grandson of Darkseid, referred to in the comic as Blackmass). I will definitely keep following Captain Victory for now and the upcoming Dragonsbane (which will mine Norse and Greek mythology for its characters) should be worth picking up as well. Haven’t decided where I stand on the other Kirby Genesis titles at this point, though.

I have also been following the Atlas revival with the three titles Ardden Entertainment has released so far: Phoenix, The Grim Ghost, and Wulf. These have all been okay so far, but less that spectacular, with The Grim Ghost disappointing the most at this point. That one just seems muddled and too distant from its original premise which showed some promise (where an executed bandit worked for Satan bringing evil souls to Hell). Phoenix and Wulf have both improved on their original books and both provide at least an entertaining distraction. All three books are now leading into the inevitable cross-over series: Atlas Unified which should come out some time this month. I’ll pick that one up and probably stick with Phoenix and Wulf for a while, but I can’t say that I’m hooked at this point.

By John J. Joex

The Jericho comic book series continues with yet another excellent issue that moves the story into high gear as all of the plotlines come together for the final resolution of the tale. But just as I was turning the last few pages and wondering how they could possibly wrap this up in the current issue I see: “to be continued”. And no further explanation beyond that. Did they plan on leaving us hanging, or is another issue planned? I can’t find a darn bit of information on the IDW website and they still bill this as the final issue of the mini-series. Is another mini-series planed, or will we be left out on a limb once again? My first thought when I saw the “to be continued” was that this meant the series would now turn into an ongoing title. But I can’t find anything suggesting that to be the case. I will continue to check for more information and report back with what I find on the status of potential future issues.

Anyway, back to the comic book itself. As I said, this was another excellent issue even if it did feel a bit rushed and did gloss over several parts too quickly. I’m not quite certain I understood why an outbreak of violence would crop on in Vicksburg, MS after the J&R aid would arrive (maybe because they lent the support the U.S. had reneged on?) and why bombing raids along the Mississippi river would demoralize the population and lead Columbus to surrender. But as I have said before, I think they are rushing through some of the explanations because they have to cram so much into only a few issues. It really would be great if this did turn into an ongoing title because maybe then they would have the luxury of slowing the pace down a bit and filling in some of the loose ends. In any case, this issue keeps up with the quality we have seen thus far, we just have to hope that we have not been left hanging on this story for now a fourth time (after the Season 1 cancellation, Season 2 cancellation, and Devil’s Due mishaps) with no idea whether it will continue. Stay tuned for more information.

You can read my full synopsis of Issue #6 and the previous issues at our Jericho Season 3 Page

Order Jericho Season 3 Issue #6 from TFAW.com

By Sam Christopher

Chronologically:
DC’s latest “Big Event” reaches its jumping off point in The Flash #12, titled simply “The Road to Flashpoint” Part Four. Here we have Bart and Barry Allen battling it out with the time-spanning cop known as… Barry Allen. Allen—the time cop from the alternate dimension—has decided that Allen—the boy from the future who is currently the DCU’s Kid Flash—is the “time anomaly” around which all the time trouble is centered, so Allen—the CSI who was dead and is now the current DCU Flash—has to convince Allen—the aforementioned time cop—that Allen—the aforementioned kid from the future—isn’t the real problem. Confused? It’s not really that tough to follow since we’ve seen it all before. Frankly, it seems as though this entire new The Flash title is just another excuse for time travel stories that are kind of interesting but never seem to be completely resolved in any meaningful way… kinda like Booster Gold. Having said that, I still see a lot of life left in this book, the Flash “family” being more interesting than the Booster Gold “family” in general and the Flash himself being a far more exciting character than BG in specific. I am getting tired of the Reverse Flash suddenly being the most powerful character in the DCU, though. Don’t believe me? Check out…

…Flashpoint #1, where our ol’ buddy Eobard Thawne has apparently spoken. Oh, wait, excuse me, I think the proper way to write that is “~SPOKEN~”; I mean, the guy IS creating an entirely new universe with a simple statement that “It all changes. Now.” I’m not even sure the Spectre or the Golden Age Green Lantern could have done that. Anansi could. I don’t know. It just seems to me that defeating a depowered Flash would take all the fun out of it from Thawne. Just as it seems to me that all Barry has to do is jump off a building and he’s got R-Flash right in his mitts. (For the uninitiated, Eobard can’t let Barry Allen die or it undoes his own personal timeline.) At least Barry gets his mother back in this one. I really don’t know what to think of all of this yet. It isn’t bad, just already done. I guess we’ll see.

We continue the adventure of the new Loki in Journey into Mystery #623, wherein the Child-God of Evil has to “rein in” some help for what is going to befall Asgard in the Marvel event Fear Itself. This is a really cool story that makes use of the legend of Thor gaining control over Toothgrinder and Toothgnasher to further the current story in a way you’ll see coming but still enjoy reading. Kieron Gillen and Doug Braithwaite are doing a fantastic job on this title, melding Marvelized Norse legend with current Marvel storyline seamlessly. I’m still not overly thrilled with Odin’s seeming hatred of all mankind portrayed in the FI title—as a matter of fact, I hate it—but this title isn’t hurt too much by it. And I am genuinely interested in seeing how the new Loki intends to try and help the Gleaming City and the Asgardians as well as genuinely afraid this is all leading to some lame reassertion of the original Loki consciousness in the new one’s body. Please don’t do that, guys. Please give us something new and just continue the impressive beginning you’ve given us so far. All we can do is ask, folks.

Next, we see the return of Jason Todd in “The Streets Run Red” Part One from Batman and Robin #23. I will be the first to admit that I have come to like the Jason Todd DC’s given us over the past couple years,m although I am still angry with them for disenfranchising those of us who voted for the little clod’s death all those years ago. (I mean, really, what was the point of having us all vote if someone was just going to pop up one day and undo the whole damn storyline with a… yeah, okay…) Anyway, I have enjoyed him as the Red Hood and this story is just a continuation of that. I am a little confused, though, as to why he’d want to leave a place with the Joker in it, especially with Mr. J still alive, but maybe he figures he can do more “good” being able to move more freely in the Gotham prison system than in what has to be tighter security in Arkham (although you’d barely be able to tell it from recent issues of Gotham City Sirens). Either way, looks like a good beginning to a good story for the Dynamic Duo. Much better, in fact, than the return of Two-Face in the “Pieces” storyline which began in Batman #710, or the “Secret History of Gotham City” we got in Batman: Gates of Gotham #1.

Then we have the IDW series, Rocketeer Adventures #1, in which A-List talent tackles Dave Stevens’ creation in various stories. This is the kind of thing I hate telling you too much about. If you didn’t get it, GET IT! If your comics shop is sold out, TELL THEM TO ORDER MORE! If they won’t order more or can’t get it now, BUY IT SOMEWHERE ELSE! Just do it, you can thank me later.

This week, BOOM! Studios’ twin second helpings, Planet of the Apes #2 and Clive Barker’s Hellraiser #2, delivered the goods. PotA is a little mechanical in continuing the search for the assassin of the Lawgiver as Alaya goes to the prisons to release an old friend of her father’s. Apparently, this guy learned his soldierly craft from General Urko, although he doesn’t have so much disdain as hatred for humans. CBH #2 shows us a cadre of “monster hunters”, people who have been touched by the Cenobites, who track down the devices that call the beasts of Hell forth in the Hellraiser Universe. A little more original and better put together than the PotA entry, although they both have their charms.

Finally, we have The Mighty Thor #2. Not a bad story but I keep wondering where Fear Itself fits into all of this. Interesting so far, though. Still have the sinking feeling that the Silver Surfer will stand up against all of Asgard next ish, having all the gods on the ropes at once. But maybe not. Maybe we’ll get to see Galactus try and invade the Realm Eternal next month. I know what I have said about writer Matt Fraction in the past but I am nothing if not fair. I can give him chance after chance, especially since I consider him to be a talented writer for the most part. If anything, I just think there’s a lot of two-dimensional thinking in comics today and he is just a part of that. Doesn’t mean he can’t break out of that, though. Besides, it’s Thor. It’s going to have to get REALLY BAD for me to leave. First Thunder bad, in fact.

By Sam Christopher

Marvel trotted out the second installment in its latest massive crossover event in Fear Itself #2. Odin is still leading the Asgardians in… running away. He promises them he knows what’s going on, that he has seen all of this before and dealt with it all before, and that Earth must be razed once and for all. Twenty bucks says Earth survives this storyline. Look, I know I have pretty much always been critical of Matt Fraction’s writing, but it’s because of things like this. You know what I think the problem is? And this is part of a larger problem that encompasses a lot of comics these days. When the Second Age of Marvel writers came along in the ‘70s, with Roy Thomas and company, it was populated by people who had immersed themselves in comics. They were concerned with making an entertaining narrative that fit in with what had gone before. In other words, they generally expanded on what had previously been shown rather than turning it on its head at every turn. Think about the history of the X-Men—which I don’t even read. Look at the narrative from the ‘60s to the early ‘80s and look at what’s come since. None of it makes any sense any more because it seems that every writer just has to put his or her “stamp” on the titles rather than just building on what we’ve already seen. Fear Itself feels weary and dreary because the Asgardians are running away and Odin is acting very strangely in the face of this threat to Midgard plus it feels like we see the entirety of Earth threatened with total destruction by an implacable and undefeatable enemy every year or so. And don’t get me wrong here, DC does the same kind of thing, only their malady of late seems to be their writers thinking we all just HAVE to know their thoughts on politics. Superman denouncing his US citizenship in Action Comics #900 was just short-sighted and stupid. It reminded me of the hand-wringing idiocy behind the non-use of the phrase “Truth, Justice, and the American Way” in the film Superman Returns. I know all this is a little far afield but I can’t help what I think. Or what reading certain things reminds me of. Getting back to Fear Itself, I do have some hope for the title, and even the event—although I will not be buying any ancillary books—as Fraction is a talented writer despite my general misgivings. I have hope that we will find that Odin isn’t what we think he is or just doesn’t mean what he says here.

I also hope that Fraction is paying attention because Robert Rodi is showing everyone what a cosmic Thor tale should look like in Astonishing Thor #4. This whole thing with Ego, the Living Planet, and his doppelganger “brother”, Alter Ego (imaginative name, I know), is reminiscent of The Mighty Thor around the 130′s-160′s. I just love it. It’s filled with new ideas building on the old without invalidating everything else we have ever read about the characters involved. It also allows the God of Thunder to “let his hair down”, as it were, and just cut loose. One of the hardest things about reading a character like Thor is to see him on Earth battling villains he should flatten by looking at with mean intent and having to pretend he’s having a tough time with said villains in order to make the story interesting. We don’t need to have that here. One more ish. Cannot wait.

Switching pantheons, we move to praise for Herc #2, where the Lion of Olympus battles the Hobgoblin and gets some very unexpected help from the latter’s employer, Wilson Fisk. Of course, along the way, Hercules pounds the Joker… er, the Hobgoblin… into submission and makes a star of himself on the internet. Another good story and fun setup for more of this series by Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente with some excellent artwork by Neil Edwards.

By John J. Joex

This one-shot comic acts as a prequel to the ongoing Dollhouse comic series that Dark Horse will launch this Summer and it gets the story going in the very direction I would like to see it follow. For those who need a refresher, Dollhouse was the Joss Whedon television series that ran for two short seasons on FOX about people (“dolls”) who can have their minds imprinted with any personality. It was an interesting concept, but it never really soared, hampered in part by its presence on one of the broadcast networks which meant it could never really explore its adult themes. The series took an apocalyptic turn, though, with the final (DVD only) episode from its first season as well as its Season 2 finale. These two episodes (the “Epitaphs” storyline) look forward to an apocalyptic future where the doll technology turned viral and reduced the majority of the population to mindless or murderous “zombies” (an interesting twist on the zombie-pocalypse them). After watching the series finale, I wrote a piece on this site suggesting it would have acted as an excellent pilot to a new series set in this apocalyptic setting. Joss Whedon apparently read that post (being one of the millions who visits Axiom’s Edge every day) and stole my idea, so I will be calling my lawyer soon . . . Okay, so he probably didn’t steal my idea, but apparently we were on the same wavelength, and this new comic series will explore that storyline that originated in those two episodes from the series.

This prequel issue pretty much just sets the stage and actually gives us very little of the Dollhouse setting we saw in the television show. We see how the viral imprints begin to spread and lead to widespread chaos. Then we follow a small group of desperate survivors trying to make sense of what has happened while also trying to find some refuge from the mayhem that has spread across the country. And then it ends as we come face to face with one of the pivotal characters from the TV series. All in all, it gets thing off to a good start and sets up what looks like a promising book that taps into one of the better ideas from the original show. Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, who also wrote for the TV show, pen this issue and deliver a great script. The first issue of the ongoing series comes out in July (you can pre-order it at this link) and this one-shot prequel is still available from TFAW.com.

Order Dollhouse Seasons 1 and 2 on DVD from Amazon.com:

By Sam Christopher

The latest chapter in the history of A World Gone Ape began this week with BOOM! Studios’ Planet of the Apes #1. Taking its cue from John Huston’s portrayal of the Lawgiver in Battle for the Planet of the Apes (a much different portrayal than “Pearl Forrester’s” assay of the same role in the eighth season of Mystery Science Theater 3000), this new storyline begins with the Lawgiver being assassinated by a lone human in a ninja outfit, a lone human who has evidently studied a little history—no small feat in a world devastated by the “Ape War for Independence”—most notably the Lincoln assassination. There is, of course, a general uprising among the simian population and apparently a lot of bigotry and prejudice in a place where the Lawgiver always says that “apes and humans have lived together in friendship, harmony, and peace”. I HATED this development in the overall storyline of the Planet of the Apes. I had always hoped that the very notion of a simian Lawgiver who rules over a place where apes and humans live together meant that the timeline had been changed by Cornelius and Zira’s interference in the past… I read that somewhere a long time ago and it appealed to me. Oh, well. But don’t let that be taken as a mark against this new series. Writer Daryl Gregory has done a good job getting this tale started and it is an interesting beginning. Also, artist Carlos Magno does a good imitation of Pete Woods here and there (and that’s no bad thing), really keeping the story moving and giving us distinct characters to look at. With Rise of the Planet of the Apes coming out later this summer—which we can only hope is better than the awful “reimagining” of the original we were given in 2001—this may be the beginning of a new Ape craze.

In keeping with the new book theme—albeit from a few weeks back—we move to the BOOM! Studios new project, Clive Barker’s Hellraiser #1. Now this first ish, and presumably this entire first story (unless this is a mini), is credited as being written by Hellraiser-verse creator Barker and Christopher Monfette. This is a good thing for BOOM! as the Clive Barker name will undoubtedly help with sales, and a good thing for the reader as the Clive Barker style of writing has always been the mark of quality. Quality that is certainly evident here. Seems everyone’s favorite cenobite, Pinhead, has tired of bringing pain and delight to the thrillseekers and foolish children who summon him and his cohorts through the puzzle box and wants to be released from the service of Leviathan. Pinhead wants to return to life and attempt to earn his way into Heaven. We’ll see. This is a good start for this tale, with typically superior writing from the aforementioned team (don’t know much about Monfette, honestly, but with Barker there I can’t see any way they go too wrong) and some solid, near-perfect artwork by Leonardo Manco. Not too sure about the “Masterpieces” 16 page preview in the back. Looks all right, I guess, and I’ll probably give it a shot when it comes out but there was just something about the art that I found off-putting. It was kinda… EC-retro. Which means it’ll probably grow on me after I look at it for a little bit.

My only other comment on BOOM! this week is on Incorruptible #17, where Max is outraged that someone with money would give it to him instead of setting up someone else to be the dictator of Coalville. No joke. Max goes on and on about how terrible it is that Bellamy would put his wherewithal behind Max rather than appoint a “town czar” or something. Max even goes so far as to call the guy (horror of horrors) “Ayn Rand”. If Max is really so worried about conditions in Coalville, why not take the guy’s money and do it all yourself? Is there really that much good to be gained from adding a level of bureaucracy to the whole thing? Or, if Max doesn’t trust himself and doesn’t trust the motives of Bellamy (something I don’t argue with), why not make Alana the “town czar” (because czar’s have historically been so good for the common people to live under)? Just something I couldn’t help thinking as I read the book.

More Comic Book Reviews at This Link

By Sam Christopher

Okay, a month or so ago (more or less), IDW launched a new series filled with giant lizards and all manner of destruction with Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters #1. Since the second ish came out this week I thought it a good time to comment on both. I love Godzilla! Have since seeing him fight the Smog Monster at the drive-in as a kid. Since then I have seen most of the films, although the last one I saw at a theater was Godzilla 2000. This new series relaunches the monsters of Toho, giving us a new beginning point for them and for us. The first ish shows Gojira’s rise from the ocean depths and being turned into the modern-day equivalent of a fire-breathing dragon by Japan’s launch of a nuclear weapon to try and keep him from Tokyo. The second ish continues the tale, showing us that other monsters are rising around the world and the reaction to the new developments by our governmental leaders. And it’s pretty much what you’d expect: They bitch and complain at each other instead of actually getting anything done, although we are led to believe that “one side” is superior to the other because the authors apparently believe it to be. Still a pretty good first couple chaps, though, by writers Eric Powell and Tracy Marsh. There’s also some good art by Phil Hester making this a good package for fans of Godzilla and comics in general.

Also, Moonstone FINALLY gave us what appears to be a monthly series for a fun character with The Spider #1. And this series is more along the lines of traditional comics storytelling as opposed to the “widescreen” format the previous Spider outings were. The Spider tale in this ish, “Death Siege of the Frankenstein Legion”, is something along the line Batman and the Monster Men, with Richard Wentworth donning the garb of his alter ego to save his lady-love from a mad scientist and his daughter. There’s also a backup feature starring a character called Operator 5. I don’t know very much about this character, I don’t even know a lot about The Spider for that matter, other than what I’ve read from Moonstone and various snippets here and there through the years (I know, for instance, that The Spider character was instrumental in the naming and creation of Marvel’s Spider-Man even though the two characters are obviously vastly different), but I know that these stories are fun to read and well-drawn. The Spider tale here is written by Martin Powell, with some excellent art by Pablo Marcos. The Operator 5 story is by Gary Phillips and Roberto Castro.

More Comic Book Reviews at This Link

By Sam Christopher

Azrael’s comic may have ended but his story hasn’t. Michael Lane turned up in Batman #708, ostensibly to stop The Crusader—a villain who thought he was God’s messenger and that it was his Holy Mission to kill the pretender, Lane, before learning the error of his ways—from visiting holy retribution on Gotham City. The Crusader says he’s had a “vision” and that this is his new Holy Mission (one would think he would’ve learned the last time). He sees GC as a modern-day Sodom and/or Gomorrah, a city filled with vice and sin that needs to be destroyed. The Crusader has also decided that it is his mission to aid and follow the lead of Azrael since he now sees Lane as God’s true messenger. This is good and bad: Good because Lane puts an end to Crusader’s reign of terror, bad because Lane only does so to pass judgment on the three Bat Family members who show up in this ish: Batman (Dick Grayson), Catwoman (Selina Kyle), and Red Robin (Tim Drake). We also see the sinister Ra’s al Ghul hovering in the shadows with a messenger of Allah, Fireball. And then there’s a mysterious civilian floating around. We see this guy at the beginning of the issue and he is apparently of some import to Grayson… or the story… or maybe they’re setting up the next storyline already (but don’t believe that; I read this whole story and he does come into play here).

The second installment comes in Red Robin #22, where we get what amounts to 22 pages of Tim Drake telling us why he doesn’t believe in God. It’s basically because bad things happen to good people. Of course, Tim also spends the entire book trying to keep innocent (welllllll… so far as we know) people safe while also trying to keep Gotham’s corrupt Mayor Hady from being killed by Azrael. The whole ish is kind of mechanical from a story sense, which is understandable. As an interior piece of the overall tale, this installment’s job is to move the reader along more than offer any astounding revelation. And get us to the third book of the tetralogy, in Gotham City Sirens #22. Here we see Selina’s sister, Magdalene, showing up and giving Catwoman a chance to “save” herself from the cat-demon that Maggie believes has taken possession of her body. How can Selina accomplish this? All she has to do is stab her sister to death, sacrificing Maggie in the name of God. You can probably guess where this goes. One thread both installments advance is the need for the heroes to get Jennifer Lane, Michael’s sister-in-law, involved, giving Michael something else to think about as he passes judgment on the “wickedness” of Gotham.

And it all ends in Batman #709, as the civilian from the first part bears witness to Grayson’s personal failure as a child. This failure, along with Drake’s and Selina’s from the last two installments, seemingly dooms Gotham until Dick plays his trump card, asking Lane to submit to the test of enduring both the Sword of Sin and the Sword of Truth at the same time. This is where we finally reach the conclusion of the story and maybe a turning point for both Azrael and The Crusader; we’ll have to see on the last point. This was a very good story all in all, although I would have liked to have seen Damian as Robin here, with Ra’s al Ghul’s involvement.  The storyline was crafted with care by writers David Hine (Batman #708 and 709), Fabian Nicieza (Red Robin #22), and Peter Calloway (Gotham City Sirens #22). The art was very well done, too, with Guillem March handling the Batman installments and Freddie Williams III and Andres Guinaldo doing excellent work in Red Robin and Gotham City Sirens, respectively.

By Sam Christopher

I make it no secret that Thor is my favorite comics character. Has been since the moment I realized he was a comics character. When I was a kid Marvel had a very good way of handling him, making him a superhero more than a god. They hinted at it from time to time—Avengers #148 (I think), where he’s fighting Attuma, has a good example of this—and his own book, of course, was rife with the other Asgardians and even Olympians and representatives of other pantheons, but the Thor of the ‘60s and ‘70s was much closer to being an Avenger than a God of Thunder. Later, Thor’s godhood would be brought to the fore and this is where the problem comes in. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love this aspect of the character and his cast, but it is apparently very difficult for writers to grasp. J. Michael Straczynski, a great writer in a couple different mediums—his run on Amazing Spiderman notwithstanding—did a good job constructing an interesting way to restart the series and bring the characters back to life after Dan Jurgens (who is not a bad writer) screwed up things so badly with The Reigning (Worst. Storyline. Ever.) that Marvel had to kill off all of Asgard and everyone in it, and Kieron Gillen did all right with the stories he had after Straczynski’s run, but there were problems even during these runs. And the World Eaters storyline of Matt Fraction… hmph. I guess my main problem with this tale is the ending, from Thor #621, where the World Eaters relive The Last Days of the Justice Society and then into the new Marvel event Fear Itself #1, where Odin shows a level of contempt and outright hatred for humanity that leads one to wonder why he would ever have overseen our creation in the first place (that is their cosmology) or why he would ever have vied with the Celestials to safeguard us from them. There was also the lame Watcher-Odin exchange about the “Final Prophecy”, which was just too reminiscent of “You have seen The Reigning?” to not elicit a laugh of derision.

On the plus side of all this, there’s the new Greg Pak-Fred Van Lente-led Herc #1, where the Son of Zeus makes his debut as a mortal after a few thousand years of immortality (having apparently learned that he’s “only immortal for a limited time” as the song says). Luckily for him, he still has some of the weapons and magical artifacts, such as the Shield of Perseus, and some worshippers who still pray to him for aid. Pak and Van Lente show once again they have “The Gift” for writing this character and Neil Edwards does a very good job with the artwork, although there are a couple places in the ish where Herc looks more like Kevin Matchstick than anyone else. Now that I think of it, if anyone has to take over for these two writers on this book, I think Matt Wagner would be an excellent choice—but then I could say that about almost any book. The point here is that Hercules, whether god or man, has absolutely been used near perfectly of late. His series, the Incredible Hercules, was consistently my favorite Marvel title during its run and this is a good start to this new title.

And speaking of excellent beginnings, the aforementioned Kieron Gillen has teamed with artist Dougie Braithwaite to deliver a fantastic start to a new storyline in Journey into Mystery #622. This is something readers of Action Comics of late will be familiar with, as it is the story of the greatest enemy of the usual hero of this series. I only hope they keep this new version of Loki as he is, rather than trying to shoehorn him into the “old Loki’s” character or, much worse, having him suddenly be transformed into the original as part of some lame “master plan”. They tell us here that there is a plan by the original afoot but I really hope they let what was told here be the truth (I know, I know, it’s Loki, but I would hope he could at least be honest with himself). The characterizations here of the Warriors Three (especially that of Fandral and Volstagg together) and Thor, along with that of the young Loki, were spot-on and engaging. This just looks to be a great series that makes me hopeful for the rest of the Asgardian titles, as does Astonishing Thor with its more cosmic Thor tale—which is also what appears on tap for the new Fraction Thor series.

By John J. Joex

Finally! After a bit of a delay, issue #5 of Jericho Season 3 hits the stands! And it is yet another good one in this comic book continuation of the Jericho television series. In this one, John Smith shows why it is worth the efforts of Jake and Hawkins to break him out of jail and the people of Jericho step up to hep Major Beck after Major Patrella was murdered on his watch (read the full synopsis at this link).  For the most part I enjoyed this issue, but I felt like they rushed through quite a number of things and practically left our heads spinning with the amount of story that the issue crammed in. But then they are trying to get a lot done in just six issues (just like the second season tried to get a lot done in just seven episodes). I also was not quite convinced that Pete would have agreed so easily to turn himself in and confess. But then we did not see the convincing done by Eric and the others to bring him to this decision (we only get a brief recap). Just one of the ways they cut corners to fit everything in. And at this point, I am wondering how well they will be able to wrap this story up in only one more issue. They have set up a lot to follow, so let’s hope they don’t try to resolve everything in just the 22 pages allotted to issue #6. What I am hoping is that they will give us a partial resolution to some of the story threads then set up a continuation into another mini-series or (even better) an ongoing comic series. In any case, this issue keeps up the quality of the ones that preceded it (despite its whirlwind pace), and it definitely has me looking forward the the upcoming finale.

Read more about Issue #5 and the previous issues at our Jericho Season 3 page

Order Issue #5 from TFAW.com.