Monthly Archives: February 2013

FEARLESS DEFENDERS #1 REVIEW

Marvel Comics, , , , , , ,

feardefend1

The Fearless Defenders #1, a new Marvel NOW! title, was released yesterday. Although the team, I mean non-team, will grow as the series progresses, this issue introduced its’ leaders, Valkyrie and Misty Knight.

VALKYRIE

  • Shieldmaiden
  • Defender of Asgardia

MISTY KNIGHT

  • Former police officer, turned private investigator
  • Bionic arm (right arm) built by Stark Industries
  • Feisty, street smart

Misty and Valkyrie were brought together by chance while taking on dead Vikings. Misty swiped an ancient Asgardian artifact and turned it over to Dr. Annabelle Riggs. The artifact turned out to be an Asgardian messenger spirit. Somehow the messenger was activated and began to sing.

The spirit awakened the dead Vikings from the Viking grave; the survey site of Dr. Riggs and her crew.

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As Misty began to fight the dead Vikings, Valkrye arrived and joined forces with Misty. The story ended with Valkyrie, Misty and Dr. Riggs preparing to go on a dangerous journey. Valkyrie warned that the messenger said the Doommaidens were rising and that it was Valkyrie’s fault.

lacracha 016I AM PROUD TO SEE A BLACK KICK-ASS FEMALE SUPERHERO IN THE FOREFRONT. This is rare. Storm is the only black leading female superhero that I’m aware of within the Marvel Universe.

We already know there’s a lack of black comic writers, male and female, in the comic industry. But to take a strong, black B-list female and put her in the front is definitely worth praising Marvel a thousand times. Well, more than a thousand I should say. I give Marvel my utmost respect at this time.

Misty’s style and appearance is what I’ve been looking for in comics for years. In a leading black female superhero, that is. Sharp, attention-grabbing costume, nice shape and beautiful looks. Not to mention a sassy attitude. Come on now, this girl don’t play. She takes shit off no one.

As a black female, I can fully appreciate this extraordinary woman being selected as a leader of a powerful team (I know, I know…non-team). For as long as I can remember, I’ve watched the comic industry to see if a black female superhero, besides Storm, would be given a chance. And now it has happened.

feardefend3Not only did Cullen Bunn bring two badasses together, he also brought two badass girls from two different worlds. He did a superb job at pulling that off.

Strong dialogue. Great pacing.

The only thing I didn’t like in the story is the kissing scene. The panel where Dr. Riggs kissed Valkyrie. That scene shouldn’t have made the cut. It didn’t fit into the story. See my More Storytelling and Less Politics Please blog.

Come on now. She met Valkyrie. She should have ran back inside that tent and grabbed her camera. The camera she used to record the messenger spirit. She should have held a photo session, autograph session or something of that nature. The background glow made the scene even worse.

Along with a great story comes great art. Excellent cover page by Mark Brooks.

Will Sliney and Veronica Gandini did an excellent job on the interior pages. I found each panel to be finely detailed. Great costumes. I especially like Misty Knight’s appearance. Her facial features, especially her eyes, appear lifelike.

I did a little research about Valkyrie and Misty Knight before the title was released, so I knew in advance the Fearless Defenders was going to be led by two strong, kick-ass women. I plan to read further about these two. Whenever I read a good story with characters I know little or nothing about, I always try to read upon and study their backgrounds to learn more about their histories.

VERDICT (drum roll please)

If you can’t tell by now that I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this series, then you need to read this review again from the beginning. Especially the parts about the well written story and the excellent artwork.

More Reviews on the Way

Uncategorized

Just a brief note to let everyone know I will be posting more reviews starting tomorrow. 

I can’t wait to read Fearles Defenders #1 tomorrow.  I also can’t wait to see how many My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic covers there will be!  Wasn’t there like 20 covers for the first issue?  I bought a regular cover for the kids and a variant cover for myself (they don’t know about MY variant so shhhh)!

I’m always open for suggestions, so if there is anything you would like me for me to review, just let me know.  Or if you would like to drop a line to say hello, that would be AWESOME!

By the way, what is everyone picking up on New Comic Book Day tomorrow?

More Storytelling and Less Politics Please

My Rants and Tantrums, , , , ,

The comic book industry has a massive reader base. From the “big two” to the smaller indie publishers, there’s a comic to suit every age. Superheroes, horror, romance, crime, fantasy, teenage, young children. You name it, they produce them. However, I feel the past year has been nothing more than a political arena to me.

It’s not about telling a story anymore. It’s about WHO is going to be in the story. Diversity in comics. You have some yelling, “There’s not enough minorities in comics.” Others are screaming, “There needs to be gays in comics.”

I got back into reading comics shortly before DC Comics released The New 52 titles. A few of those titles were minority-led. Static Shock, Mr. Terrific, Blue Beetle and Voodoo to name a few. Then we saw Marvel Comics Miles Morales, or black Spider-Man. I thought, “Good, more minorities are taking leading roles in comics.” For a moment I even thought everyone would be happy and forget about the politics. That didn’t happen. There’s always someone who has to oppose the situation. Not many people were happy about the changes being made to their “favorite” character. “Why kill Peter Parker and replace him with someone black?” I didn’t feel like getting caught up in that web, and not just because I’m terrified of spiders. So I kept my mouth shut (well I did run it a little bit. Okay okay I ran it like a faucet) and patiently waited to see what would happen next.

I really don’t know what happened next, or if anything happened at all with the above situations. I do know that nearly all the minority-led DC titles were canceled. Miles Morales? I don’t know. That’s wasn’t a title I was reading so it didn’t matter to me at all.

All is well right? WRONG. More politics. Now there are people kicking and screaming, “There needs to be gays in comics.” Gays in comics. Okay. What does that have to do with comics? Call me gay bashing if you want, I don’t care. I’m just telling it like it is. Some of the comics I’ve read are so overrated it’s sickening. There’s the X-Men story where there’s a gay couple. I haven’t (and don’t plan to) read it. I recall seeing an issue where the cover page is the wedding. It looked as if the entire Marvel Universe was there. Everyone looked happy and okay with it. I even saw Wolverine standing near the front. I was like, “What the f— is this sh-t? Harlequin Romance?”

Then there’s Young Avengers. Issue one was released last week. I REALLY don’t feel like talking about it. So I’ll have to refer you to my review of it. I almost ripped that book in half.

Why am I so mad? I’m not mad about the lack of minorities in comics. Or the lack of gays in comics. I’m mad because this political arena has gotten out of hand. It’s overrated. These comics are getting published with a lack of good storytelling. They throw a black character in this one, and a gay in that one. Then everyone (well almost everyone because I’m not a part of it) is okay with it. Remember that Marvel cover I mentioned above? About everyone being all happy at that wedding? Well that’s how it is in reality right now.

I’ve read so many reviews, blogs and comments from people giving high praises to this political bull. I have to question the validity of some of those reviews. I won’t name any in particular. I’m just saying that I wonder if these people are giving false praises, trying to please the LGBT community. Trying to win follows, likes, mentions or awards. Do they not realize that throwing homosexuals in a story just to say they’re in there is taking away from the story?

So what was all my ranting about in this post? It’s about the comic industry losing focus. It’s not about having a lack of minorities in comics, or a lack of gays in comics. It’s about a lack of focus in comics. Don’t mess up a good story trying to please everyone because I haven’t met or read about anyone yet that has been able to please everyone. It doesn’t matter what color the character is, just make and keep him/her strong in the story. It’s okay to have gays in comics but if it’s a superhero comic, then let there be some butt kicking. You know, superheroes vs. super villains. Like how comics used to be. How comics are supposed to be.

KABOOM! IT’S ADVENTURE TIME

BOOM Studios, , , , , , , , ,

advtimeAdventure Time.  Crazy and silly, yet funny.  When I learned it was going to be a comic book, my first thought was, “Awww man.  The kids are going to be fighting over who gets to read it first.”  When I bought the first issue, it wasn’t just the kids that wanted to read it.  My husband and I wanted to read it as well.  That’s because Adventure Time is loved by all ages.

Finn and Jake, Bubblegum Princess, Marceline, Lumpy Space Princess, Beemo and the Ice King were all strange and funny as always.  I’ll briefly review the first story arc which consists of issues 1-4.

The Lich has escaped and returned to seek revenge on everyone.  He has a magic bag that when opened, everything is swallowed into it.  His plan was to get everyone into the bag and throw it to the sun.  Once inside, the characters all land in different parts of the world inside the bag.  Finn and Jake landed in the same spot because they landed as a team.  They were in the Jakesuit.  The Ice King landed nearby.  Bubblegum Princess and Marceline landed on an island.  The entire Land of Ooo was swallowed.

The Desert Princess is a character I found to be very funny.  Although she’s made out of desserts, she claims to be the Desert Princess because of all the things she can do and make with sand.  She also had a crush on Finn.  The Ice King was looking for a wife and proposed to the Desert Princess.  Lumpy Space Princess was hilarious.  She was talking on the phone the entire time she was being swallowed into Lich’s bag.

Everyone worked together as a team to defeat Lich.  Finn, Jake and Marceline used battle burns against Lich.  Battle burns is a way of using words to fight instead of getting physical.  Finn and Jake learned to battle burn at the beginning of the story from Beemo.

The story is very well written.  The art (Shelli Paroline, Braden Lamb) is great.  There are comments from the writer, Ryan North, at the bottom of some of the pages.  They’re either references or just plain old funny remarks.  There’s also a mini comic at the end of the issues that are funny as well.

VERDICT (drum roll please)

Adventure Time is a must read comic.

SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #2 REVIEW

Marvel Comics, , , , , ,

ssm2
This issue begins with Spider-Man getting a public thank you from the college dean and Mayor J. Jonah Jameson.  He and Mary Jane goes out a few times but he got nothing more than a peck on the cheek at the end of each date.  As for patrolling the city, Peter Parker (you know he’s really Otto Octavius right) constructed spider-bots and placed them along his usual routes.  He keeps track of them with the patrol app he created.

MJ’s nightclub was raided (the first spider-bot alert) by vultures but she was saved by Spider-Man.  There was a tense moment between the two of them, but Spidey realized it was time to to let her go.

The story ended with Mary Jane telling Carlie about what happened between she and Spider-Man, then Carlie had a flashback of Doc Ock telling her that he was Spider-Man (ASM #700).

Superior Spider-Man #2 is well written, thanks to Dan Slott.  This issue couldn’t have been better.  Every page is a page turner, and I don’t say that often.  The pacing is perfect.  I like how Peter Parker is still around, although in spirit.  He follows Doc Ock and tries to dictate his every move.  Too bad Doc Ock can’t hear him.  I laughed so lough and hard while reading this issue.

Ryan Stegman did a superb job on the artwork.  I especially like the cover page and the splash page of Spidey and MJ, with Peter Parker in the background!

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THE VERDICT (drum roll please)

If you haven’t already started reading Superior Spider-Man then I highly recommend that you start.  I feel it’s the best Marvel Now! title I’ve read so far.