The current Arc, I Against I, is shaping up to be yet another great story line.

When last we left Heath Huston and Nicholas in Hatchet Job #5 (issue #21) they were sucked in to a black hole while attempting to escape from the planet Neavsivia. Now they are stranded on an unfamiliar planet where they attempt to survive it’s harsh conditions.

I really love the looks of the civilization that Heath encounters on this new world. It seems to be a mix of an old Western town and a futuristic palace city. I’m not sure why, but I have a thing for alien civilizations that resemble towns from the Wild West… they intrigue me.

Rick Remender continually manages to keep me engaged throughout each and every issue, and by the end leaves me wanting more. I can’t wait to see where this story is heading.
Honestly, if you are not reading Fear Agent, I highly recommend that you pick up the trades. If you’re like me, you’ll be hooked on the monthly issues.

You can preview the first three pages of I Against I at the official Dark Horse Comics website.

Heroes for Hire is a group made up of 8 teammates: Misty Knight, Colleen Wing, Black Cat, Shang-Chi, Tarantula, Humbug, Orka, Paladin. Most of these characters are virtual unknowns in the Marvel Universe.

Heroes for Hire #3 (which came out way back in October of ‘06) is particularly wretched. In issue #2 Iron Man sent the Heroes out to talk some sense in to Captain America, I’m assuming the idea being that Captain America’s closest friends can’t reel him in, so surely these people you’ve never heard of can.
While on the mission, Paladin betrays the team, bombing the room with knockout gas, and apprehends Cap.
Issue #3 picks up with Misty Knight giving Paladin a beating. After several panels we find out that Paladin is actually Captain America in disguise… he swapped costumes after Shang-Chi beat up Paladin. Cap’s reason for not passing out from the gas? He held his breath, of course!
A brief conversation ensues and Misty fails to convince Captain America. Iron Man flips out after finding out that he got the wrong Cap’n A and yells at Misty. The looming sub-plot (that is actually going to be the main plot), which involves Skrull organ transplants thickened and the issue finally ended.

The art (Francis Portela and Billy Tucci) is stiff which makes the characters feel emotionless, and the dialogue (written by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti) seems as though it was written by a child. For the most part, Civil War has been a decent read. Heroes for Hire is useless. In some aspects it feels like a cheap knock off of DC Comics’ Secret Six… I’m just glad #3 is the last Civil War crossover. Needless to say, I won’t be reading future issues.

Each issue features the Spectre killing off the worst of the worst in criminal scum: rapists, child molesters, and mainly murders are among the victims of the Spectre’s unique brand of blind justice.

The issues move fast, but are always interesting and feature well written dialogue. The side story of Crispus Allen adapting to his new un-life is entertaining, and the arc, which happens to be a murder mystery, is intriguing.

Brian Azzarello has done an amazing job on the art and David Lapham is a great writer.

Then, there’s the bonus crap in the back of each issue: Dr. Thirteen.
I really wanted to like this story. It has all of the elements of classic 1950’s campy horror: vampires, pirates, yeti, Nazi chimps that live in a jungle in the arctic…
However, the dialogue is rather cliche and the story is taking too long to get to the point. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not slow moving, it’s actually very quickly paced… but that’s the problem: it’s running in circles.
The third installment felt like the first and second repeated with different characters. The story feels rushed but frozen, like a person trapped in the woods who rushes to get out, but simply winds up tracing their footsteps again and again in one big circle.

I’m simply not getting it… perhaps it will pick up, but I doubt it.

Don’t let Dr. Thirteen prevent you from enjoying Tales of the Unexpected. It’s just a ‘bonus’, not the main tale. This series is definitely worth reading, especially if you’re a Spectre fan.

If you’re like me, you have no idea who Starro is. A quick trip to Wikipedia helped to shed some light on this .
The short of it is, he’s a starfish like creature who first showed up way back in 1960 in The Brave and the Bold #28. This was also the first appearance of the JLA. So Starro is their oldest enemy.

This comic holds up to the previous 3 issues as being very well written and having pretty good looking art.

I do have a complaint though (don’t I always?):
Superman attempts to remove one of these mini-Starro things from a dude’s neck. He can barely pry it off, Wonder Woman even offers to lasso it to help yank it out. Supes ends up breaking off a leg instead.
A few pages later the Red Arrow easily shoots these Starros off of several people’s necks with his arrows. This would imply that the Red Arrow’s shot is more powerful than Superman’s pull… interesting plot hole.

Other than the mini-complaint, I really enjoyed the comic. If you’re not reading this title yet, I encourage you to track down the first four issues and give it a read.

The current story arc seems to have drawn to a close (or at the very least gone over it’s peak) in Walking Dead #33. It has definitely left our small band of explorer / heroes in bad shape, and while one is missing a body part, one has sever mental trauma, and one has a lot of physical and mental trauma, they all made it out with their lives.

This story arc as a whole was pretty unexpected. Spotting a helicopter which lead to a town made up of mentally unstable sociopaths was crazy enough… finding out that their self-proclaimed governor kept his zombie daughter leashed to a wall, stages fights between residents and new-comers in an arena surrounded by chained zombies and watched by town residents, and likes to rape his women victims was almost over the top.

Kirkman made a bold decision in chopping off Rick’s hand. At first I thought this was a terrible choice… after all, a hand is something that won’t heal. Rick is permanently damaged. However the more I think about it, the more I like this turn of events. Rick is somewhat of a mainstay in the book. He and his wife are the only characters that seem safe. Chopping off a limb makes you think that Kirkman might be crazy enough to kill Rick after-all.

While I do feel this story has pushed the limits, and the art has been absolutely outstanding, I did think the rape of Michone was a bit harsh. Even that I could deal with. What really felt unnecessary was the fate of the Governor as dealt by Michone in retaliation to her own torture (this included having his eye plucked out with a spoon, the chopping off of his man-bits, the dismemberment of his arm, and a few other pretty horrible things). Issue #33 was a payback issue. It was gratuitous in violence and nothing more. While one could argue that the Governor got what was coming to him, I would argue that he got a bit too much. I was actually a little sickened while reading this and didn’t feel a sense of closure. Rather I felt that Kirkman was trying to appease his readers for the shocking treatment of Michone by one-upping it on the Governor.

Up until this story arc I have felt that Walking Dead is one of the greatest stories in comics, currently not so much. Things have taken a turn towards shock value which feels very cheap.
I’m actually happy to see this story draw to a close and look forward to moving on to bigger and better things. If only the group would just get motivated to leave the prison for good and get back to some exploring…

In this issue of Detective Comics, Batman must stop Doctor Phosphorus from killing convicted criminal Rupert Thorne. Dr. Phosphorus was thought to be dead… killed at the hands of Ted Knight. But, like all good comic book characters, he’s not really dead… he’s just more powerful and ready to exact vengeance on the world… starting with Thorne & CO.

The art in this issue is very distracting in a bad way. I’m not sure if Marz is to blame, or if Luciana Del Negro (inker) is the guilty party. Or perhaps John Kalisz (colorist) should be taking some of the heat. All I know for sure is the thick outlines and faded colors (in-particularly seen in the faces and flesh tones of each character) give this issue a very cheap look.

The writing was no better. I hate to ruin the ending for any poor sap who wasted their money on this issue and has yet to waste their time on reading it as well, but I have to finish the rant out by commenting on the finale (stop reading if you don’t want to spoil the “surprise” ending). Batman defeats Phosphorus with Baking Soda. On one hand this is somewhat inventive… baking soda being a fire retardant. On the other hand it comes off feeling like an advertisement for baking soda. When Batman gears up to punch Dr. P in the face, he says “Baking Soda. They say it has one hundred different household uses. Call this one hundred and one.” KRACK.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Bruce Wayne and Alfred have an interchange on the final page of the comic that relates to this magical powder. This exchange between Alfred and Wayne is horrific. Bruce makes mention of the beignets tasting “a little off” to which Alfred replies that he was “half way through making these” when he realized that Wayne stole the Baking Soda. Bruce, with a disgusted look on his face asks what was used instead. Alfred tells him that salt was used as a substitute to the baking soda, but he will happily make something else to replace these (since they taste like horse crap). Bruce responds with a cheesy pun (which I won’t waste your time on here) and the final panel is a drawing of Wayne Manor. The end.

If McGraw was anything more than just a fill-in for this title, I would drop it on the spot. If you haven’t bought this comic yet, absolutely do not waste your money.

For a limited time Review Me is basically handing out free money for signing up… all you have to do is write a review on Review Me within 72 hours of accepting the assignment. I was a little apprehensive at first since this is strictly a comic book blog, but I also want free money. Call me a sell out, call me greedy… you can call me $30 richer which will help me to buy even more comic books to review on this site that you read for free.
At any rate, Review Me is a very cool concept. The system has a nice simple design to match it’s simple business structure. The only thing I’m a little frustrated with, but not at all surprised is that there is no Comics sub category which you can list your blog under. It’s hard for me to praise Review Me very highly since I haven’t had much experience with it. For a guy like me who does comics, I would say that the chances of turning a nice profit are slim to none… what on earth would people pay me to review (besides comic books… hint hint)?

If Review Me turns out to be anything like Text Link Ads then I’d say it has a bright future. I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes.

Side note:
Fear not. My site will not become littered with advertised falsified reviews. There are two things I plan to live by if the opportunity to review another site presents itself.

1. I will always inform my readers that I am doing a paid review.
2. I absolutely will not pull any punches. If I think something sucks, you’ll be sure to find that out in the review.

The original tale involved Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent boarding a cruise ship along with Lois Lane. A fire breaks out and they each have to save the day, save Lois, and catch a jewl thief. This tale also involves the three characters aboard a cruise ship, but rather than a fire breaking out, there is a pan-dimensional rift where Owl Man and Ultraman show up, along with Superwoman and two Deathstrokes (see update at the end of this article). The overall story has a silly, over-the-top feel, but it is done very well. In fact, it offers an explanation for it’s silliness at the very end which I will not spoil for you. The front cover hints at this outcome in it’s title “a re-imaginary story”.

If you’re a fan of the monthly Superman / Batman series and haven’t picked up the annual, be sure to get a copy. Also, if you enjoy lighthearted stories that have no impact on later issues, this is a comic for you.
If you only enjoy comics with a serious tone, steer way clear of this comic because you’ll be very disappointed.

Personally, I really enjoyed reading this comic (I even laughed out loud a couple of times). The rivalry between Superman and Batman was nicely portrayed. I came away with a longing for a monthly series featuring retellings of older issues. Nicely done!

Update: It was brought to my attention that in fact there was one Deathstroke and one Deadpool which is awesome (Deadpool being a Marvel character that is almost identical to Deathstroke). This makes the book way more hilarious and I can’t believe that I overlooked that detail (cut me some slack… the two characters are basically twins. On top of that, they never say his name… I just figured he was an alternate Deathstroke).

First off, I don’t think the current story for this title can be judged on a single issue basis. It’s obviously a story that will take a few issues to fully flesh out, and I’m OK with that. The best stories don’t get summed up in a page or two. The pacing is actually pretty nice, and the dialogue is excellent.

Previously I was nearly ready to cancel my “subscription” to the series because of the unexpected progression of the story, but I’ve come to enjoy it actually. Still, I’m sticking to my guns on the whole picking of members thing: it’s really getting old. For those of you who don’t know: Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman have been sitting in the Batcave for two full issues rummaging through photos of various super heroes attempting to decide who will be in the new Justice League of America. This may be a necessary vehicle to drive the story, but it feels more like a lame way of writing the Big Three out of the story for the time being.
I’m not completely obsessed with these characters and don’t feel that they have to be featured throughout the issue… but it’s really boring to watch them vote on the members. It’s like watching a bunch of geeks sit around a table at a comic book convention trading cards.

I’m going to give this issue a higher rating for story than issue #1, mainly because it was a bit more interesting… but also because I was a bit harsh with my initial assessment of the series as a whole.

I would recommend checking the series out as it’s redefining the Red Tornado and setting the stage for events to come quite nicely.

In this issue we get to see Savage feed Cheshire and Dr. Psycho a plate of grilled Solmon Grundy, which Savage himself partakes in as well. He does this to punish them (Grundy included) all in one shot for failing him. Maybe I’m just going soft, but I found this to be rather over the top. The rest of the comic consists of a large fight between the Doom Patrol and the Secret Six.

As a whole, the series has been feeling more and more disjointed. The Savage story seems contrived and last minute. I’m sure it was planned from the start, but it’s just really lame.

I expected more out of Secret Six. It had a very interesting direction but apart from the first issue has failed to meet my expectations. At the end of it’s six issue run, I will post an over all review of the series. Perhaps reading in succession will change my perception.