Comic Reviews

Brightest Day #3

It’s Brightest Day time! With DC publishing a bi-weekly miniseries surely there is a powerhouse of excitement that sets up these characters for their own hit series… yeah right. What’s happening here is that DC has lost all momentum and missed its chance to give the stars of the series their own successful titles.

In each issue one of the characters gets “benched” with only a few pages to tell their story. This time it’s Martian Manhunter that’s sitting on the bench. He mind links with the dog of the family that was murdered in the last issue and what he finds shocks him! Manhunter takes the dog to live with the daughter of the scientist that brought him to Earth.

Mystery Society #1

Searching for a purpose in life is a difficult thing. Finding someone to share a bond with in life is an equally daunting task. That’s one thing Nick Hammond and Anastasia Collins have, a very special bond. Something that this husband and wife share with each other within their exclusive Mystery Society.

Reporters for GNN, Tom Thomas and Jessica Finch introduce co-founder of the Mystery Society, Nick Hammond. He is being escorted to Hover maximum security prison to be sentenced for a string of charges. Ranging from breaking and entering to grave robbery. But before the charismatic Nick Hammond starts his stint, he breaks his long silence to the press and feeds into the media pandemonium and shares some of the secrets that his Mystery Society holds.

Thunderbolts #144

Luke Cage steps into a leadership role as he puts together a new group of Thunderbolts—a team of villains trying to reform into becoming heroes. Previously the group was run by Norman Osborn and used as a Black Ops team. With Osborn out of the way Steve Rogers asks Cage to step in and be a role-model for these villains that have lost their way.

Luke is transported to “The Raft” a maximum security prison for people with super powers. To appear unaffiliated with the prison, even though he is, he jumps from the government quin-jet into the prison. Unbreakable skin also means unbreakable legs as he slams into the ground. Luke meets his first recruit, The Ghost, a villain that suffers from mental conditions and only speaks with people when he’s wearing his mask. He’s quick to jump on board with Cage and even promises not to try to kill Tony Stark. After all, his previous attempt was what landed him in prison.

Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard #1 – Review

Mouse Guard Legends is the newest miniseries to entail the Mouse Guard franchise. The new four part series is not a continuation of the previous two volumes. Legends is a series of short stories that has several writers involved in the epic series. The writers include: Jeremy Bastian, Ted Naihef, Alex Sheikman, Scott Keating, and yes the great David Petersen creator of the franchise.

The stories take place in a tavern in Barkstone, Fall 1154, two years after the events of Winter 1152. In the bar, we are introduced to Carver, an old mouse that comes regularly to the tavern to drink. Carver has accumulated a hefty bar tab due to his drinking habit over the last two seasons and the owner, June, has called in the tab. Carver is not the only one that owes money in the bar; other regulars quickly become unhappy by June’s decision. So June decides to make things interesting, but what does she do? She creates a contest within the bar and the best story gets their tab cleared. There are some ground rules however: No complete truths, no falsehoods, and it must be a tale that she’s never heard.

CodeBreakers #3 – Review

Foster’s mysterious past with Remy, Stan’s captor is finally revealed. Lindsay hacks the C.I.A.’s computers to find information on Remy a.k.a. The Information Broker. In doing so she stumbles upon a transcript testimony from a young undercover agent hired to write a code for him. It details his experiences with Remy and his wife, Ella. The young agent stayed at Remy’s house and wrote code day in and day out while studying the business. The longer he stayed the more code he wrote, and the more in love he became with Ella.

After capturing a C.I.A. agent, Remy gives the undercover agent a final test. He and the undercover agent brutally torture the man as he describes his family. In the end Remy gets his code but losses everything else. The C.I.A. raids his warehouse forcing the Information Broker to detonate explosives planted inside. Worse still, Ella, hangs herself out of fear of continuing to live with Remy. The undercover agent turns out to be Foster.

Irredeemable #14

After spending an entire issue recapping the first twelve issues, Irredeemable returns, getting the story back on track. Unfortunately, there’s no sense of how much time has passed since issue twelve when the Paradigm were captured by the U.S. Military. We open with Cary and Orian crossing dimensions via their human sacrifices. It’s unclear why they were in Orian’s dimension, but it does piss Cary off that people were killed in order to get them there. Orian tries to ease his guilt by assuring him that both parties killed were evil men, one a hit-man the other a sex offender. Cary has teamed up Orian in order to avenge his brother that was killed by the Plutonian.

Secret Avengers #1

If there’s one man at Marvel that you want crafting a secret history for the Universe its Ed Brubaker (Captain America, Daredevil). The Secret Avengers are Marvel’s newest covert ops team with a most unusual ensemble. The team includes: Steve Rogers (former Captain America), War Machine, Beast of the X-Men, Valkyrie, Black Widow, Sharon Carter, Moon Knight, Nova and Ant-Man.

The issue begins with Black Widow and Valkyrie undercover as call girls. They’ve infiltrated Roxxon’s headquarters in the Middle East. They’re there to capture a dangerous item known as the Serpent Crown. Valkyrie lets her warriors nobility get in the way of the mission and blows their cover. It doesn’t really matter when you have Steve Rogers on the team. He breaks through a window and the three of them dispose of the Roxxon guards, attaining the Serpent Crown.

Earp: Saints for Sinners #0

The United States has finally collapsed… again. The second depression has ushered in a new era that very much resembles the Wild West. Hackers from all over the world have made it so that cash is the only trust worthy form of money. And the government passes a law to make dueling legal. Guns sales increase, but violence does not. As the story says, “People are less likely to be foolish if they know someone’s holding a gun.” Yes, in fact, the West is back and with it so are the Earps and the Pinkertons.

RoboCop # 4

Dynamite comics Robocop #4 is the conclusion to the first story arc of the Robocop series. In issue four we see that Murphy has already been synced to the machine that will restore his memories. As soon as Murphy is hooked up he’s greeted by the recently deceased Dick Jones. Murphy is confused with what is going on, until he realizes that he sees the old man that ran OCP. The old man has an offer for Murphy. He offers him a chance at being human, in exchange for his body. There is a catch though, the body that the old man is offering, is his own. Murphy has to make a decision whether or not to be human or a machine.

While all that is happening between the old man and Murphy, Mason Volger is currently fighting for his life against a brand new weapon from OCP the ED-309. That’s right; Odenkirk and OCP were setting up Volger to be killed. His death would show Old Detroit and the rest of the world what a city ran by OCP looks like. Volger and his men are being slaughter, the remaining members try to convince Volger that he should flee to fight another day. Volger, being the ultra macho man decides that fleeing is not the answer. He charges the 309’s and in a blaze of glory takes two of them out before becoming a Martyr.

Cold Space #2 – Review

Mulberry is back! After the crazy events of the first issue Samuel L. Jackson… Sorry, Mulberry, returns for more space hijinx! Mulberry accepts employment with one of the local gang leaders. This is after he’s beaten the crap out of half of the gang he employs. To prove his skill to the gang, he exchanges flirtatious dialog with a prostitute. The dialog concludes with the prostitute throwing a deck of playing cards in the air and shooting them to make a full house. This is only made apparent in the ending sequence of the page. The panels leading up to the reveal consist of Mulberry’s profile looking at something. The reader is to assume that shooting is taking place somewhere within the blank stares.