What happens when Wolverine fights a bunch of dragons? Probably something awesome. It’s too bad that would never happen, though by never happen, I of course mean it is completely happening. Marvel has released a few pages of the upcoming Wolverine #19, and they are certainly something you should see. Take a look at the fantastic art by Ron Garney.
After the less than impressive first issue, Batman: The Dark Knight has an entertaining and fascinating story despite some issues with plot points, some out of character behavior and some lackluster exchanges of dialogue. Does all of this Stop this issue from being good? No, but it keeps it from being as great as it should be.
After a brawl with Two-Face, Batman discovers several of his other iconic enemies have also been given some steroid-esque bodies. He begins to learn more about the drug causing this transformation and follows his only lead – a mysterious white rabbit.
After a promising first issue the second issue fails to live up to its predecessor, but is an interesting read with a great story shaping up and some artwork choices ranging from average to excellent. The characters are less entertaining and the dialogue can get too lengthy, but while far from perfect, the issue is solid.
The technologically advanced team of Blackhawks explore the site of an explosion and run into an armor enforced foe, Titus, who is working for a mysterious employer known simply as mother. With the help of an infected friend the team bring him in for questioning while their captain is chewed out for the Blackhawks’ exposure on the internet.
After watching Garth Ennis’s directorial debut for Stitched, I found myself thinking “This was a terrible waste of 15 minutes of my life.” It may have been a short film, but it felt much longer. The premise was boring, the characters were one-dimensional, and the action and gore were both very lackluster. When the comic was finally released, I decided to jump in with an open mind and give Ennis a second shot, despite my reaction to the film. Wow, what a mistake that was. Although Ennis managed to add a little more gore into his story this time around, he couldn’t manage to make the tale any more captivating, and I found myself thinking the exact same thing that I thought after watching the short film: What a waste.
It’s Halloween! How about a comic with demons and other spooky stuff? It may only be tangentially related to the holiday, but Angel & Faith #3 is as close as we’re bound to get. Also, it’s good. Sounds like a celebration to me!
We’re starting to get into this series’ run in earnest at this point and, once again, I am impressed by how well writer Christos Gage is able to keep the story moving along. Angel is still hitting the streets of England, looking for a way to revive Giles, and Faith is along for the ride. This is the issue in which they finally hit pay dirt on that goal, as they track down a demonic club owner known to possess a source of panacean demon blood. Amidst the action and clever dialogue, Faith is still the focus for our character development. We get plenty more introspective moments from her as she struggles to balance her badass hot chick image with her new role as a sort of badass hot chick Jiminy Cricket.
In the midst of the New 52, Marvel is bringing one of their flagship characters back to square one as well. Between “Planet Hulk,” “World War Hulk,” and “Red Hulk/She-Hulk,” the Hulk has been seeing a lot of changes and reboots over the last few years. This book is no exception. If you happened to join me for the end of Marvel’s Fear Itself #7, then you’ll know that after this event, Hulk and Bruce Banner are now two separate entities. What does that mean for the characters and the series? Let’s find out.
Last we saw Hulk (depending on which epilogue you read), he had mysteriously separated himself and Banner into two separate physical entities and then abandoned puny Banner in the desert. Well, it looks like some time has passed since then and both our boys have been busy. Hulk has found his way to a community of friendly yellow-skinned tribespeople and has joined them as a hunter and protector. We get some very cool shots of him destroying lots of monsters while waxing poetic about his life of persecution. This is not the simple-minded Savage Hulk, but the one we have seen lately who has a mind of his own and the intelligence to use it. Also, a sense of drama. Let’s call him “Brooding warrior who has the soul of a poet Hulk.” He even grew a beard. Yes, the simple life is good for our less-than-jolly green giant, but as he and we both know, it can’t last. Soon, there are drills, robots, and hot, no-nonsense secret agents with peculiar names coming out of the proverbial woodwork. And they want Hulk. Why? Apparently Hulk’s better half is showing his bad side.
Justice League Dark was the series among the New 52 that I was anticipating most. Featuring some great, but underutilized characters, in a series that deals with the magical crises facing the world that the Justice League can’t tackle is a great premise. Origins from DC’s Vertigo label only added to the potential. The first issue did not disappoint. Now that we are getting underway with the New 52, is Justice League Dark one of the series to take a sophomore slump or is there still plenty of magic left?
Continuing the story from the previous issue, Justice League Dark #2 works to set up who the starring characters are and how they come together to stop the threat posed by an insane Enchantress. Now that all the faces are introduced, author Peter Milligan allows a little closer look at the inner-workings of the characters and what specifically they are doing. Unfortunately, the team is still all separate, which means that we jump around from character to character instead of what we might see with a more singular focus, but the scenes are still handled very well.
