Comics

All Nighter #2 – Review

This series is a combination of teenage drama, weird and somewhat interesting characters and more teenage drama. All Nighter feels like the perfect comic for teenage girls and is an oddity on the shelves. Kit is a teenager with normal issues – school, her crush dating her friend and the murder of her mother by the hitman Kit hired still fresh in her mind. Just a normal teenage life with a few twists thrown in, as well as a new roommate who isolates herself from everyone with a secret.

Bring It or Keep It? – Silver Spoon

This time I’ll be taking a look at a comic called Gin no Saji or Silver Spoon, by Hiromu Arakawa. Silver Spoon is a rather new manga series that has thus far only been released in Japan as a weekly serialization in the magazine Weekly Shonen Sunday. Unfortunately, I can’t get too far without first providing context of the author’s previous work. For those not aware, Hiromu Arakawa is the author of another manga series called Fullmetal Alchemist, which ran from 2001 to 2010 in Japan and spawned two anime series. The franchise gained massive popularity with its tale of the Elric brothers, two young men who use the strange science of alchemy in a quest to restore the normal bodies they lost when attempting to revive their dead mother. All three incarnations have been released in multiple countries, including the U.S.

Marineman #6 – Review

Upon looking at an issue of Marineman, you would be forgiven for thinking it to be a blatant Aquaman rip off. A muscular blonde dude who wears orange and swims? Okay, let’s be honest, there is, at the very least, a fair deal of inspiration taken from the DC Comics hero. Fortunately, Marineman is not as derivative as it seems on first glance and is not wholly without its charms.

Who Would Win – Raven vs. Emma Frost

This is the second of our new versus
feature where we judge two superheroes for their strengths and weaknesses and
pit them against each other in a play-by-play to see who would be the one and
only winner.  This week we have
Trigon’s demonic witch daughter Raven
of the Teen Titans versus the White Queen of telepathy herself, Emma Frost. 

Manga 101 – Seinen Studies Part 2

Continuing from last time, we’re going to take a look at a few more quality seinen manga series. If you missed the first lesson, well, first off, that’s silly –
go read it. Second, seinen manga is how Japan refers to comic books
marketed towards older readers. They often use elements of realism, as
well as more graphic depictions of sex and violence than those series
made for younger readers. With no further need for introduction, let’s
get to the comics.

Artifacts #8 – Review

The
positive reviews coming from everyone about this comic baffle me. The
dialogue from everyone at secret-headquarters is terrible and the
characters mostly act way out of character. The only redeeming
qualities are the art and the interactions between Sara and Jackie –
both still having their own flaws. And warning, there will be spoilers.

With
the Hunter-Killer headquarters under attack by several hundred
Aphrodite VI’s with the combined effort of Cyber Force, the Artifacts’
bearers and Hunter-Killer are put to the test of battling against them.
During this massive fight Sara and Jackie go off on their own, with
the help of Jackie’s shadows, to find their kidnapped daughter Hope.

ICE #1 – Review

ICE #1 is worth the dollar it costs, despite its many flaws. Most characters either are shallow or lack dimension in their characterization, and the small doses of comedy attempting to weave themselves into the plot fail to make me chuckle in any way. Instead, it leads to me shamefully facepalming for them. The art also does nothing to enhance the appeal of the comic. The decent element of this issue that makes it surprisingly enjoyable is the story.

The issue’s first story revolves around a special group of officers – the Immigration & Enforcement agency (ICE for short), on a mission to protect people and led by Cole Matai.. A murderous rampage leads to the death of an undercover cop, which forces the team into action against a Mexican drug cartel to stop the killer.