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Review Date: Friday, March 30, 2012
Here in Bongo Congo
Good King Leonardo has decreed that we celebrate this
month's early and very warm arrival of Spring with
reviews of a wide variety of newly-arrived comic books.
So let's get right to it and see how this variety of new
issues fare: |
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Publisher:
Marvel Comics
Brian Michael
Bendis: Writer
Mark Bagley:
Pencils
Danny Miki:
Inks
Paul Mounts:
Colors
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Marvel has
added to its wide range of Avengers titles with
the recent issue #1 release of the new Avengers
Assemble title. While the storyline and concept
most certainly stand alone from the plot of
the Avengers motion picture scheduled for release
on May 4, the timing of the new comic book is obviously
tied to the marketing of the movie, particularly
since a movie advertisement is splashed across the
top of the issue #1 cover. The new series
is scripted by A-list writer Brian Michael Bendis
with pencils by Mark Bagley, inks by Danny Miki
and colors by Paul Mounts.
The issue #1 plotline kicks off with a new beginning
for the Avengers, as the current 14-member team
both celebrates and settles-into their brand new
skyscraper headquarters built for them by Tony Stark/Iron
Man and located in the heart of New York City.
On a parallel track, we witness a new group of international
supervillains named Zodiac forming to take-on the
reconstituted Avengers. The plot further
splits into two parallel storythreads. The
first sub-plot centers on The Hulk, who stumbles
across a U.S. Army convoy under attack in the Southwest
desert by an unknown assailant. The attack
unleashes a captive with odd water-based superpowers
who quickly flees the scene, leaving the Hulk (of
course!) to be blamed for the entire mess.
Our second sub-plot features Hawkeye and Natasha
Romanov/The Black Widow, who are dispatched as Avengers
members to Latvia to stop the anticipated theft
of an artifact. Heavy battle action erupts
as Iron Man and Thor join the pitched battle and
its revealed that Zodiac is behind the ongoing theft.
This is a decent quality and entertaining issue
#1 kick-off to the new Avengers Assemble title.
There's no grand Marvel Universe event series unfolding
here, just a well-presented story produced
by a veteran writer and skilled art team.
I liked the balance of sub-plots that Bendis weaves
into one overall story arc, starting with a new
team assembly effort/beginning for both the Avengers
and the group of bad guys, splitting-off into two
parallel smaller sub-plots and signaling by issue's
end that the battle will widen in next month's issue
to pull everyone on both sides into the fray.
It's also nice to see that an entertaining new storyline
can be produced within the basic storyverse of The
Avengers, without having to manufacture a huge,
new publishing mega-event in order to capture the
attention of readers.
As
a final review comment, its worth noting that the
22-page main story is followed by an 8-page preview
from issue #1 of the well-publicized new Avengers
Vs. X-men title, scheduled for sale in April.
The preview is very entertaining and piqued my interest
enough to recommend that all good Marvel readers
get in line early to grab a copy of this upcoming
new "battle of the A-list Marvel superhero teams"
comic book event.
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Buckaroo
Banzai: Tears Of A Clone #1
Publisher:
Moonstone Books
Earl Mac
Rauch: Writer
David Daza:
Art
Patrick
J. Williams: Colors
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Moonstone
has just released issue #1 of a 2-issue mini-series
entitled Buckaroo Banzai: Tears Of A Clone.
For those too young to remember, "The Adventures
Of Buckaroo Banzai Across The Eighth Dimension!"
was one of the leading cult hit sci-fi genre B-movies
of the 1980's. The film starred Peter Weller
as good scientist/Renaissance Man Buckeroo Banzai,
who led his merry band of eclectic sidekicks called
"The Hong Kong Cavaliers" in a movie adventure to
save the world from the alien reptile race the Red
Lectroids. The movie featured several well-known
1980's-era actors including John Lithgow, Jeff Goldblum
and Ellen Barkin. Apparently, Moonstone has
been publishing various Buckeroo Banzai comic titles
off-and-on since 2006, with this being the latest
two-issue edition.
The issue #1 storyline kicks-off by introducing
various members of The Hong Kong Cavaliers as they
attend a rock concert performed by Buckeroo.
The gang quickly learns that a clone of deceased
group member Penny Priddy exists and is performing
as a stripper at a nearby club. The mid-section
of the story focuses on Buckeroo and the gang
pulling her out of the club while confronting
the club owner regarding the origins of the clone.
The final third of the tale consists of a battle
scene between the heroes and the mysterious cloners,
who turn-out to be disguised Red Lectroids.
I've summarized the plot of this issue as briefly
as possible in order to focus my review energies
on warning all good readers to stay as far away
from this comic book as possible. The issue's
a disappointing failure for two reasons, the first
being a very disjointed plot presentation.
The story is just so garbled that I had to
backtrack three or four times through various story
sections just to summarize the basic story concept
in the brief paragraph above. But the biggest
failure here is the writer's decision to present
this tale as loaded-down with raunchiness; every
scene is brimming with pornograhic references, heavy
sexual themes and adult humor that isn't even
a bit funny. I knew we were in for trouble
when a lame joke about Buckeroo playing his concert
to raise money for a "juvenile herpes" charity is
beaten to death repeatedly for the first four pages
of the story.
I can't understand why someone would warp the cult-hit
kitchiness of the 1980's movie version of Buckeroo
Banzai by wringing-out all of the fun and porning-it-up
with this comic. I've got nothing against
adult story elements; the same story strategy
in the hands of a quality writer such as Howard
Chaykin can result in a comic book masterpiece.
Unfortunately, this failed attempt is so lame that
its actually more boring and weird than offensive
reading, although it is definitely a double insult:
both to the original fanbase of the
Buckeroo Banzai cult film hit and to the sensibilities
of modern-day comic fans, who certainly could enjoy
a well-crafted tale of this B-movie franchise without
the need to inject such creepy jadedness into the
story. But we've wasted enough seconds of
our lives musing over this comic. Run fast
and far away from this comic and enjoy all of the
other good stuff recommended this week by myself
and my fellow reviewers.
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Publisher:
Dark Horse Comics
Christos
Gage: Writer
Rebekah
Isaacs: Art
Dan Jackson:
Colors
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Among several
comics published within the "Buffy The Vampire Slayer"
franchise by Dark Horse Comics is an Angel &
Faith title, currently up to issue #7. For
those few fanboys and fangirls unfamiliar with the
various Buffy characters, Angel is the over 200-year-old
vampire who still has a soul and as such fights
on the side of good against demonic evil, while
Faith is a vampire slayer on par with Buffy herself.
Actor David Boreanaz played Angel both in Buffy
and in the popular Angel spin-off television series,
while actress Eliza Dushku played the emotionally-troubled
Faith in both t.v. series. An inside-the-front-cover
narrative explains that both of our heroes have
left the California setting of all things Buffy
and currently live and work in London.
Issue #7 is part two of a multi-issue story arc
entitled "Daddy Issues" and alternates between
two sub-plots. In one storyline, Angel
confronts his old vampire sidekick Drusilla, who
is living in London and has seemingly shed
her very evil ways. Having linked-up with
an odd demon, Drusilla channels the demon's
powers to ease the troubles of emotionally-damaged
London residents. Naturally, Angel mistrusts this
seemingly positive enterprise, resulting in much
conflict and mayhem playing-out between the pair in
issue #7. The alternating subplot is more
germaine to the story title, as Faith's alcoholic
father unexpectedly arrives from Boston for a visit.
Given Faith's troubled family past, the expected
trust issues play-out panel-by-panel; its inevitable
by issue's end that while Faith begins to accept
and trust her father, readers are exposed to
the beginnings of an obvious betrayal by the visiting
Dad which will likely take center stage in next
month's issue #8.
I'm on a personal all-things-Buffy roll at the moment,
having watched over the past three months the first
4 seasons of Buffy and the first season of Angel
on dvd. As I'm smack in the middle of the
Season 2 Angel dvd, I'm expecting only the highest
quality of entertainment from any and all of the
Dark Horse Buffy universe comics. I'm
happy to report that this comic book didn't disappoint
in meeting my expectations. Worcester native
Christos Gage brings his usual A-game scripting
to the title, providing us with a story that entertains
both for hardcore Buffy fans and those readers unfamiliar
with the structural details of the story franchise.
Most effective is Gage's decision to utilize the
t.v. show's structure of effective flashbacks
within story segments. As such, we have an
issue #7 storyline that advances the present-day
plot by flashing-back to 19th century details of
the relationship between Angel and Drusilla, adding
both understanding and richness to the consequences
of Angel's behavior in the present-day story scenes.
A final review shout-out is also due to the art
team, which does a solid job in conveying the facial
resemblances of the story characters to the well-known
actors from the television series. And I just
can't resist a quick tip-of-the-review-hat to writer
Gage for staying true to his Worcester roots and sneaking-in
brief Red Sox and Patriots remarks from Faith's
visiting Dad! So an all-around positive
thumbs-up review recommendation to add this entertaining
Angel and Faith comic book to your ever-expanding
new comic book issues reading pile.
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Publisher:
Millarworld Limited/Marvel Entertainment
Mark Millar:
Writer
Leinil Yu:
Art
Gerry Alanguilan:
Inks
Sunny Gho:
Colors
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Millarworld
Limited has recently added to the new comic book
shelves issue #1 of a new series entitled Super
Crooks. Already well-known for titles such
as Kick-Ass and Nemesis, Mark Millar scripts this
new title himself, with art by the team of artist
Leinil Yu, inker Gerry Alanguilan and colorist
Sunny Gho.
The concept of this new series is that after
getting fed-up with constantly losing every encounter
with the multitudes of heroes patrolling the
New York City region, electrical-powered bad guy
Johnny Bolt has an epiphany: why not assemble a
team of super crooks, get out of Dodge and set-up
business in a place outside of the normal patrolling
area of the superhero elite? Issue #1 details
the futility of the New York City situation,
portraying the consistently losing efforts of Johnny
and his criminal allies including his psychic fiance Kasey.
When their small-time elderly crook buddy Angel
gets in trouble with the Vegas mob and comes to
the pair for help, Johnny cooks-up the scheme to
gather-up the old crew and hightail it to Spain
as a potential Superhero free zone. As Johnny
utters in a very memorable line, Spain should work
for their plan because "I've never heard of a Captain
Spain, have you?" By issue's end, the trio
begins to execute their plan by calling their old
villain buddies and heading for Spain in next month's
issue.
I just plain loved the originality of this new comic
book. This is one of those concepts that's
both fresh and so obvious as a story idea that you
have to ask yourself why someone didn't come-up
with the idea before: why keep wacking your
head against the crimefighting wall of several
hundred New York superheros; in the real world,
some supervillains would have the brains to go somewhere
else, be it Indiana, the south of France or yes,
Spain, and only worry about the local human-powered
cops!
There are at least three additional strengths to
this series beyond the fresh story concept.
First is the very high quality of the artwork, including Leinil
Yu's art (on par with the likes of such luminaries
as Neal Adams and Adam Kubert) and Sunny Gho's always
wonderful color scheme. Secondly is writer
Mark Millar's talent in bringing us a first rate
story with credible, real-world dialogue.
And third is the decision by Millar to make these
guys sympathetic to the reader. These aren't
supervillains out to harm mankind; instead, we're presented
with characters who are small-time crooks looking
to burgle and rob for money, who just happen to
have a few psychic or superpowered abilities to
help them make a buck along the way. These
are just everyday crooks with the word "super" thrown
into their name for good measure. I suspect
we'll be rooting for these folk to make some bucks
as their adventures unfold in Spain.
Two quick final review comments. First, Millar's
credible and effective use of adult themes and language
in this comic book only further emphasizes
the ineptness of the creative team in the Buckeroo
Banzai comic reviewed above, who only deepen their
title's mess of a story by inappropriately mixing
adult topics into a failure of a storyline.
And secondly, after reading Super Crooks, I now
have to e-mail my cousin Michael in Spain and ask
whether Spain is as superhero-free as Millar proposes.
Perhaps our anti-hero Johnny Bolt is wrong and there
really is a Captain Spain fighting crime for Truth,
Justice and The Spanish Way!
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Contest
Winner Announcement!!!
Our latest contest challenged you to identify which
U.S. President is credited as being the inventor of the
coathanger. And our winner selected via a roll of
the contest dice from among a handful of correct entries
is (drumroll, please)...Kevin Browne, who correctly identified
President Thomas Jefferson as our jack-of-all-trades presidential
inventor. While the mass-produced wire hanger that
we're most familiar with today was patented in 1903 by Albert
J. Parkhouse, Jefferson invented the original wooden version
coathanger. In my own humble opinion, while Presidents
Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon sheparded ongoing funding of
our successful space program to the moon, Jefferson's effort
is the most useful achievement of any President on behalf
of everyday American life! Congrats to Kevin
who wins our first prize $10.00 gift certificate to That's
Entertainment!
New
Contest Announcement!!!
This
week's contest is our second consecutive challenge
featuring a presidential trivia question. Your challenge
is to e-mail us at Gordon_A@msn.com
no later than Wednesday, April 11 with the correct
answer to the following question: Which U.S. President is
famous (or infamous, depending on your point of view) for
having gotten himself stuck in the White House bathtub?
Supposedly, it took four White House staffers and a gallon
of butter to dislodge this Commander-In-Chief from his captivity.
And no, the answer is not Bill Clinton back in his overweight,
junk food-binging days! As always, in the event of
more than one correct entry, our winner of the first prize
$10.00 gift certificate to That's Entertainment will be
selected via a roll of the dice. Please note that
the gift certificate is redeemable for regular retail merchandise
or in-store ongoing specials, only.
That's all for now, so have two great early Spring yardwork
and comic book reading weeks and see you again on Friday,
April 13 Here In Bongo Congo!
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