comickal: recently read, first issue edition
Because, for some reason, there have been a boatload of new series/miniseries started in the last two weeks.
Hotwire: Requiem for the Dead, episode 1 of 4, "Read Me First" (Warren Ellis/Steve Pugh; Radical)
Alice Hotwire is a detective exorcist for a metropolitan police department that discourages the use of the word "ghost" in favor of "blue-light"; said blue-lights stopped going to wherever they used to go about fifty years ago, thus forcing the world to deal with them. The metro police department is also undergoing upheaval because two of its own have been pulled from duty thanks to beating up teenagers during a protest, triggering city-wide riots. Hotwire is suspected of being the person who took and released the video showing the police brutality, and is scrupulous in noting to almost everyone who asks that the rules do not allow them to ask if she was the whistle blower, thus making everyone think that she is. In the meantime, the blue-lights have been getting more frequent and stronger, and Hotwire is trying to find out why.
The story is immediatly involving and engrossing; you want to know what's happening and why it's happening. And I love the way it just takes for granted the existence of an afterlife without discussing the nature of what it actually was. After all, the ghosts can't know somewhere that they've never been, right? And it's fascinating to see how a highly technological and scientific world has adapted to dealing with metaphysical events in a very physical way. Steve Pugh adapted the script from a story by Warren Ellis, and has done very well with that; in addition, he did all the artwork, which is weirdly spectacular. It's not quite hyperrealistic, but it's close, while at the same time looking possibly painted as well as very designed in a high-tech way in spots where appropriate. Highly recommended.
Jersey Gods (Glen Brunswick/Dan McDaid; Image): Zoe is thrilled to have a boyfriend for a major holiday for possibly the first time ever. They usually dump her just before the holidays, for one reason or another. But Emerson will be different! He'll be there! Right? ... Well, of course not. Meanwhile, out in Deep Space, the science heroes Barock and Helius are clearing out an area of some stray asteroids, and planning their after-heroics drink on a planet that Barock hates, but is going along with because Helius loves. In the meantime, back in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, Minog -- think cross between Ben Grimm and Thor, more or less -- appears in what rapidly become the ruins of a mall. He's been dispatched to cause havoc on earth to draw Barock and Helius, who patrol that sector, because ... well, actually, we don't know why yet. And, of course, Zoe is in the middle of the chaos. The story is intriguing, mostly in that "what the hell is going on here" sort of way. Oddly enough, at the moment, the story doesn't match the solicitation copy, although you can see more or less how it might get there. The art is pretty much a full on Kirby tribute, and it's a good match for the story -- then again, Kirby pretty much defined the look of the whole "gods come down to earth and wreak havoc" genre, so maybe it would have looked odd if it wren't that style. In any event, it's fun and intriguing enough that it's worth coming back, if only to see just how they wind up getting to the house in the suburbs. Recommended.
Bad Dog #1 (Joe Kelly/Diego Greco; Image): ...Oh, my, that was fun. Bad Dog is the story of bounty hunters Lou and Wendell. As in the bounty-hunter genre from time immemorial (or whenever it was created), they're not exactly poor, a bit down on their luck, a bit hard edged. Oh, and Lou's a werewolf, who can control his changes enough that he stays a wolf all the time. Apparently, he doesn't think all that much of humans and likes the wolves better -- unfortunately, the wolves aren't terribly fond of him. Lou also has a head in a bag in his refrigerator, for some reason. It basically takes every cliche you can think of and sends them thundering down the pike. Greco's artwork is very good; for something that's both fairly brown and fairly dark, the colors come out surprisingly saturated and lush in places. Again, I'm looking forward to see where it goes. Highly Recommended.
Soul Kiss #1 of 5 (Steven T. Seagle/Marco Cinello; Image): Lili (don't call her Lilian) is headed to an interview for a spot at a university, which might get her away from the hell of a personal assistant's job in Hollywood, when her car breaks down in a desert. After an unfortunate encounter, she finds herself possessed of an even more unfortunate ability. What that ability is does not exactly get explained by the end of the first issue (though, again, the solicitation copy tells you more than the issue. Unfortunately, this one doesn't quite work for me, at least not enough to keep up with the pamphlets. It's not that it's at all bad -- the writing's fine, and I like the artwork. It's just not really engaging. Lili's not particularly likeable, but then, given what she's going to have to do, it really would be asking a lot for us to like her. But in that case, you need to grab the reader with the situation, with the action, and it's all been too oblique at this point for that to work. Drop, possibly to trade.
The Mighty #1 (Peter Tomasi and Keith Champagne/Peter Snejbjerg; DC):
DC tries, once again, to launch a title on the DC imprint that's not part of the DC Universe, instead of putting it on Wildstorm where you'd expect it to be. It's an understandable effort; there are smaller stores that, especially these days, won't take something that's not mainline Marvel or DC. Unfortunately, DC has terrible luck launching non-DCU titles on that label (or any other, these days, for that matter), and I'm not sure that this will end that streak. The Mighty is the story of a superhero -- apparently the only one on the planet -- and his team. A sailor gets washed overboard during an atomic bomb test at Enewetok, and the radioactive water gives him superpowers. He becomes the superhero Alpha One, then forms a support team, of which Captain Shaw is the leader and Gabriel Cole is a member. We see how being a member of this team affects Cole's life -- as you might expect, it interferes at awkward times -- and we see that he has some sort of as yet not quite explained history with Alpha One. We also get hints of the cost of being a member of Omega Team for other and past members. And then the event happens near the end that effectively kicks off the series.
I do think it might have been better as a storytelling device if maybe they'd started at the end of the issue -- or even the end of the event -- and then looped back to the beginning. As it stands, the story is a bit uninvolving. Moderately intriguing, yes, but it doesn't quite grab you. To be fair, it looks like this first arc is constructed as a straight-up mystery -- we don't as yet have a villain running around saying, "Ha HA! Look what I did!", so it's likely that Omega Team is going to have to do a full investigation to figure out where to aim Alpha One. That's a bit unusual in superhero comics, and mysteries do usually start a bit slow. Snejbjerg's artwork is good. I guess I'll wait and see the state of the budget and my level of interest next month before I decide whether or not to go for issue 2. No recommendation.
Eureka #1 (Andrew Cosby and Brendan Hay/Diego Barreto; Boom!): Based on the SciFi network television series. If you haven't watched the series, the comic will be utterly baffling, since it doesn't bother to explain the characters or their relationships very well; if you have watched the series, it'll be a nice flashback to a time before this season, when Nathan was still alive. The story comes from Deputy Jo Lupo's past: a man has taken Carter's daughter Zoe hostage, and Jo is in the position of being the SWAT sharpshooter to take the man out. However, she recognizes him from her tour in Afghanistan, and is so shocked that she can't take the shot, so Carter winds up having to do it himself. This being Eureka, there's something special about the man, and everyone has to scramble to find out exactly what's going on. Barreto's artwork takes an interesting tack, vaguely invoking the actors without being too strongly character referenced. It's a fun read. Recommended if you watch the series; No Recommendation if you don't. (That said, I'm dropping to trade, because that's what I do with everything I'm interested in ehough to buy from Boom. Given that Boom only seems to publish miniseries, rather than continuing series, I've never understood why they persist in doing miniseries that much have seriously diminishing returns as they go on. But I digress.)
Hotwire: Requiem for the Dead, episode 1 of 4, "Read Me First" (Warren Ellis/Steve Pugh; Radical)
Alice Hotwire is a detective exorcist for a metropolitan police department that discourages the use of the word "ghost" in favor of "blue-light"; said blue-lights stopped going to wherever they used to go about fifty years ago, thus forcing the world to deal with them. The metro police department is also undergoing upheaval because two of its own have been pulled from duty thanks to beating up teenagers during a protest, triggering city-wide riots. Hotwire is suspected of being the person who took and released the video showing the police brutality, and is scrupulous in noting to almost everyone who asks that the rules do not allow them to ask if she was the whistle blower, thus making everyone think that she is. In the meantime, the blue-lights have been getting more frequent and stronger, and Hotwire is trying to find out why.
The story is immediatly involving and engrossing; you want to know what's happening and why it's happening. And I love the way it just takes for granted the existence of an afterlife without discussing the nature of what it actually was. After all, the ghosts can't know somewhere that they've never been, right? And it's fascinating to see how a highly technological and scientific world has adapted to dealing with metaphysical events in a very physical way. Steve Pugh adapted the script from a story by Warren Ellis, and has done very well with that; in addition, he did all the artwork, which is weirdly spectacular. It's not quite hyperrealistic, but it's close, while at the same time looking possibly painted as well as very designed in a high-tech way in spots where appropriate. Highly recommended.
Jersey Gods (Glen Brunswick/Dan McDaid; Image): Zoe is thrilled to have a boyfriend for a major holiday for possibly the first time ever. They usually dump her just before the holidays, for one reason or another. But Emerson will be different! He'll be there! Right? ... Well, of course not. Meanwhile, out in Deep Space, the science heroes Barock and Helius are clearing out an area of some stray asteroids, and planning their after-heroics drink on a planet that Barock hates, but is going along with because Helius loves. In the meantime, back in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, Minog -- think cross between Ben Grimm and Thor, more or less -- appears in what rapidly become the ruins of a mall. He's been dispatched to cause havoc on earth to draw Barock and Helius, who patrol that sector, because ... well, actually, we don't know why yet. And, of course, Zoe is in the middle of the chaos. The story is intriguing, mostly in that "what the hell is going on here" sort of way. Oddly enough, at the moment, the story doesn't match the solicitation copy, although you can see more or less how it might get there. The art is pretty much a full on Kirby tribute, and it's a good match for the story -- then again, Kirby pretty much defined the look of the whole "gods come down to earth and wreak havoc" genre, so maybe it would have looked odd if it wren't that style. In any event, it's fun and intriguing enough that it's worth coming back, if only to see just how they wind up getting to the house in the suburbs. Recommended.
Bad Dog #1 (Joe Kelly/Diego Greco; Image): ...Oh, my, that was fun. Bad Dog is the story of bounty hunters Lou and Wendell. As in the bounty-hunter genre from time immemorial (or whenever it was created), they're not exactly poor, a bit down on their luck, a bit hard edged. Oh, and Lou's a werewolf, who can control his changes enough that he stays a wolf all the time. Apparently, he doesn't think all that much of humans and likes the wolves better -- unfortunately, the wolves aren't terribly fond of him. Lou also has a head in a bag in his refrigerator, for some reason. It basically takes every cliche you can think of and sends them thundering down the pike. Greco's artwork is very good; for something that's both fairly brown and fairly dark, the colors come out surprisingly saturated and lush in places. Again, I'm looking forward to see where it goes. Highly Recommended.
Soul Kiss #1 of 5 (Steven T. Seagle/Marco Cinello; Image): Lili (don't call her Lilian) is headed to an interview for a spot at a university, which might get her away from the hell of a personal assistant's job in Hollywood, when her car breaks down in a desert. After an unfortunate encounter, she finds herself possessed of an even more unfortunate ability. What that ability is does not exactly get explained by the end of the first issue (though, again, the solicitation copy tells you more than the issue. Unfortunately, this one doesn't quite work for me, at least not enough to keep up with the pamphlets. It's not that it's at all bad -- the writing's fine, and I like the artwork. It's just not really engaging. Lili's not particularly likeable, but then, given what she's going to have to do, it really would be asking a lot for us to like her. But in that case, you need to grab the reader with the situation, with the action, and it's all been too oblique at this point for that to work. Drop, possibly to trade.
The Mighty #1 (Peter Tomasi and Keith Champagne/Peter Snejbjerg; DC):
DC tries, once again, to launch a title on the DC imprint that's not part of the DC Universe, instead of putting it on Wildstorm where you'd expect it to be. It's an understandable effort; there are smaller stores that, especially these days, won't take something that's not mainline Marvel or DC. Unfortunately, DC has terrible luck launching non-DCU titles on that label (or any other, these days, for that matter), and I'm not sure that this will end that streak. The Mighty is the story of a superhero -- apparently the only one on the planet -- and his team. A sailor gets washed overboard during an atomic bomb test at Enewetok, and the radioactive water gives him superpowers. He becomes the superhero Alpha One, then forms a support team, of which Captain Shaw is the leader and Gabriel Cole is a member. We see how being a member of this team affects Cole's life -- as you might expect, it interferes at awkward times -- and we see that he has some sort of as yet not quite explained history with Alpha One. We also get hints of the cost of being a member of Omega Team for other and past members. And then the event happens near the end that effectively kicks off the series.
I do think it might have been better as a storytelling device if maybe they'd started at the end of the issue -- or even the end of the event -- and then looped back to the beginning. As it stands, the story is a bit uninvolving. Moderately intriguing, yes, but it doesn't quite grab you. To be fair, it looks like this first arc is constructed as a straight-up mystery -- we don't as yet have a villain running around saying, "Ha HA! Look what I did!", so it's likely that Omega Team is going to have to do a full investigation to figure out where to aim Alpha One. That's a bit unusual in superhero comics, and mysteries do usually start a bit slow. Snejbjerg's artwork is good. I guess I'll wait and see the state of the budget and my level of interest next month before I decide whether or not to go for issue 2. No recommendation.
Eureka #1 (Andrew Cosby and Brendan Hay/Diego Barreto; Boom!): Based on the SciFi network television series. If you haven't watched the series, the comic will be utterly baffling, since it doesn't bother to explain the characters or their relationships very well; if you have watched the series, it'll be a nice flashback to a time before this season, when Nathan was still alive. The story comes from Deputy Jo Lupo's past: a man has taken Carter's daughter Zoe hostage, and Jo is in the position of being the SWAT sharpshooter to take the man out. However, she recognizes him from her tour in Afghanistan, and is so shocked that she can't take the shot, so Carter winds up having to do it himself. This being Eureka, there's something special about the man, and everyone has to scramble to find out exactly what's going on. Barreto's artwork takes an interesting tack, vaguely invoking the actors without being too strongly character referenced. It's a fun read. Recommended if you watch the series; No Recommendation if you don't. (That said, I'm dropping to trade, because that's what I do with everything I'm interested in ehough to buy from Boom. Given that Boom only seems to publish miniseries, rather than continuing series, I've never understood why they persist in doing miniseries that much have seriously diminishing returns as they go on. But I digress.)