Rant-Reviews: Just First Issues...and a Second One

New-ish Series

I thought it would make sense to review some series that are just starting up, are new-ish in that they tie-in with big ongoing events/follow-up other series, and talk about the second issue of a series as that is still pretty early-on and the comic is damn good. Proceed below for my rambling thoughts.

Firsts and a Second
X-Men/Fantastic Four #1
Chip Zdarsky writes his first X-book (in this new era the books have entered) with Terry and Rachel Dodson providing some great illustrations. This comic follows-up on some earlier allusions to how mutants are hoped to live on the island-Nation of Krakoa, and Franklin Richards is an immensely powerful mutant--but also the son of two members of Fantastic Four. The F4, despite being superpowered humans are still humans and the comic takes pains to not make the X-Men or Fantastic Four look like the, "Bad guys."

Franklin Richards apparently is a bit older due to events in another comic I did not read and is slowly losing his powers. This alarms the X-Men, who worry if that could bode anything for other mutants and think if he is now in his teens he can choose to live with his folks or on Krakoa. Meanwhile, the Fantastic Four are wary of mutants coming and taking their son before he's a fully-grown adult, regardless of his powers fading. This leads to some sharp dialogue from Zdarsky and excellently illustrated scenes of fighting when the disagreements get physical. It was a really enjoyable read all-around.
4 out of 5 stars.

Predator: Hunters III #1
This is a first issue but the third mini-series following a team of people who hunt Predators, so this ain't exactly new-reader friendly. Still, I've been digging this series. Most, "Predator," movies or comics are all about people trying to figure out what Predators are and what they want, this series has turned it on its head taking new characters as well as those from past "Predator," comics and have them be dedicated to hunting down the Predators who have made lives miserable before anyone else can be hurt.  I have a soft spot for the, "Predator," franchise and even if this series hasn't been amazing, it is consistently entertaining. Solid art, the story moves at a good clip, and I'm otherwise always pleased, so it is a good start to a new mini dedicated to the hunters of the Predators.
3 out of 5 stars.

Protector #1
A sci-fi comic set in a far-future where technology is mostly in ruins and the World is a weird post-post-apocalypse kind of place. That sounds relatively uninspiring, I know, but damn if the art in this comic doesn't keep my attention. A hodge-podge of a creative team (two writers--Simon Roy and Daniel M. Bensen--and three artists--Artyom Trakhanov, Jason Wordie, and Hassan Otsmane-elhaou) made this, but it overall works thanks to looking so snazzy. There are some interesting ideas of exploring future socio-cultural societies that give me hope for the plot to be more intriguing than it is at first glance, but I'm really just here for the art at the moment.
3 out of 5 stars.

Backtrack #1
This comic raises a lot of questions, but none of them are interesting enough for me to really want to follow-up. A bunch of people who can drive very well (former racers, getaway drivers, etc.) are offered the chance to undo a major mistake and fix their lives if they can manage to win a race being offered by a mysterious man who I'm already 99% sure is the devil or something like that. Why this race is happening isn't made clear, and when time-travel starts that makes things really wonky.

For a last-minute cliffhanger, there is a surprise reveal of a former winner maybe wanting to disrupt the race, and I see the general ideas at play here but nothing really, "Grabs," my attention. By the issue's end, you can see how this is going to be a comic with wacky locations each issue, racers trying to unify to survive, and the usual, "Big mystery," like something out of a television show such as, "Lost," or that new weird plane one, "Manifest." It just seems like there is an interesting idea in here (a race to undo your past errors) but then it tracks on a whole lot of formulaic stuff that makes me lose interest.
2 out of 5 stars.

The Man Who Effed Up Time #1
A lab assistant where they have a functional time machine with many strict rules travels back a week in time to try to make his life a bit easier and then all Hell breaks loose. The comic is about a man who messed/"effed," with time and boy howdy what a small gesture can do becomes apparent when we witness a World with a lineage of King Lincoln's ruling over pyramids and Dinosaurs used as transportation. The comic is funny in imagining such a zany World from one man altering time and I bet as attempts are made to fix everything it will all only get more humorously worse.
3.5 out of 5 stars.

Suicide Squad #2
The surprise reveal at the end of the first issue was that the group of rebels Task Force X (AKA the Suicide Squad) was hunting were in face the team's newest recruits, and writer Tom Taylor keeps the surprises coming. At the start of this comic, the opening seems to show all Hell breaking loose before Taylor cleverly reveals what really happened at the conclusion. It is just one neat moment is a comic packed with great dialogue and plotting.

Jumping around in time is a common conceit in comics, but Taylor adds enough wrinkles to this it piques my curiosity whilst he continues to stack twist-upon-twist like a layer cake. Artist Bruno Redondo supplies some awesome moments with his art as well, as this team that hates each other attacks their own squad as much as their enemies. We are only two issues in but I'm already hooked.
5 out of 5 stars.

Starting Strong (Sometimes)
These comics all are new-ish series and some do a great job with their beginning and others falter to really grab my attention. As long as there was more good than, "Meh," I'd say it was a pretty good day, however.

Suddenly Marvel is Really Big on the Fantastic Four and X-Men, For Obvious Reasons

Remember when Marvel claimed they were cancelling, "Fantastic Four," because it was comic that supposedly nobody read--with the cancellation happening right when the most recent movie (which was owned by Fox which at the time was not owned by Disney) came-out? It bombed, but that was because it sucked, not due to a lack of the comic. Also you may remember when Marvel was desperate to make the Inhumans popular as a newer-and-better-X-Men and even had plans for movie before that got scrapped and any concepts were dumped into a television show that lasted a season (and was quietly forgotten about by everyone so I forgive you if don't recall that)? Well, ever since Marvel and its parent Disney got the film rights back to the Fantastic Four they sure have been giddy about doing that big relaunch of the comic with the characters and having them pop-up in other books at assorted points; plus now that the X-Men have their film right's under a tight grip with Marvel/Disney those books have been having a renaissance too. Well, as if to further the point that thanks to having the movie-rights Marvel is pumped-up about the Fantastic Four and X-Men here comes a cross-over comic bluntly titled, "Fantastic Four/X-Men."

Now, the Fantastic Four and X-Men do not interact too much in the comics, but there is one big thing that unifies them which came about in the 1990's if my memory of that era serves me correctly. Franklin Richards, the son of Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic) and Sue Storm (the Invisible Woman) is in fact a mutant, and an incredibly powerful one. While he is just a young child he has abilities that are almost God-like when he doesn't try to block-off his powers lest he destroy reality. Now, the X-Men have of course recently established their own Nation for mutants and prefer that anyone who is a mutant goes and lives there, so that's created some friction between the X-Men and the Fantastic Four (touched upon briefly during the recent, "House of X/Powers of X," series where the Fantastic Four popped-by briefly) as while Franklin's parents may have powers, they ain't mutants--it was some weird space-stuff that gave them abilities along with Sue's brother, Johnny Storm (the Human Touch) and friend Benjamin Grimm (the Thing).

The new comic, "Fantastic Four/X-Men," will be written by Chip Zdarsky and have art by Rachel and Terry Dodson, so it's a solid creative team for sure. It is a four-issue mini-series so it also will not wear-out its welcome and most likely there will be other little mini-series in the future tying-in the X-Men with other heroic teams they may butt-heads with. It makes sense as the main X-Men books may be busy telling the epic yarn kicked off by, "House of X/Powers of X," and now continuing in like 8 different comics because--as I said--Marvel is suddenly really big on the X-Men now thanks to getting the film rights back. The comics that have been coming out with all these hero-teams have been pretty good, so I guess even if Marvel/Disney acquiring Fox and the hero-teams it owned the rights to is another example of corporate monopolization to the point where eventually 3 or 4 mega-companies will own everything, at least we get some more good comics out of it and eventually some flicks...right?

A Review of "Teen Titans: Earth One"

I Gave It a Chance...

I've read some of the "Earth One" books before and found them mostly unremarkable. However, Jeff Lemire tends to be a really strong writer and Terry and Rachel Dodson are a stellar artist-team, so when I was able to acquire this book for a good discount at a store, I figured I might as well give it a shot.

...and I'm Pretty Glad I Did!
I recently finished reading "Teen Titans: Earth One" and my first thought upon closing the book was how I felt intrigued in the story, but not fully sated in my curiousity. Now, that is both a positive and negative thing to think. It is positive because it means I enjoyed what I did get to read, but is problematic in that as the first volume in the story it should maybe feel somewhat satisfying in its conclusion--especially considering it may be some time before we get a new entry in the series (these "Earth One" books seem to be suffering from years between entries--we don't even have the 2nd volume of the Batman book anywhere in sight and it took a bit to get the 2nd for Superman).

Perhaps one problem is that because we are dealing with a team, everyone needs some time, "In the spotlight," of the book before coming together as a group, and that results in a big chunk of the book simply being setup and the preamble to our "Teen Titans" actually engaging in any action. It's a good thing that Lemire expertly writes the quiet difficult of being a teenager, from the awkwardness of puberty to feeling disconnected from one's parents, as if that didn't feel interesting half the book would have been an utter slog to get through.

The overall plot is a bit straightforward--a bunch of teenagers in a quiet Northwest-USA town start developing strange powers accompanied by experiencing mental-images of a strange female figure who we eventually learn (spoiler alert from here on out) is Starfire. These teenagers apparently were adopted youth who had grafts put on them that led to the development of their emerging powers--with "their" parents simply being employees of the shady organization that has been raising them. Well, almost all of them outside of Raven, a Native American whose spiritual abilities has resulted in her receiving messages from Starfire too, and being able to assist the Titans via a form of telepathy.

There are allusions to other Titan's stories that exist, such as the appearance of Deathstroke, but this is clearly in its own world (or are the "Earth One" comics all in the same Universe? Have we figured that out for sure yet?) that requires little-to-no knowledge of who the Titans are to enjoy the comic.

As for the artwork that accompanies the story, Terry and Rachel Dodson supply some stellar pencils and inks, giving everything an energetic and edgy style that fits well with tone of coming-of-age yet still having youthfulness. Cyborg's metallic attributes are drawn in a way that make it look effortlessly liquid-yet-slightly-solid and whenever Beast Boy (not actually ever called that in the comic, but yeah) leaps into action the smooth line-style makes him truly look in motion.

So yes, it is a great-looking comic and written well, but it still is annoying how so much time is spent introducing the characters, building a plot of how they want to fight against an evil corporation, and introducing a new destination for them to go to at the end of the book...and then it suddenly ending. I'm all for a good cliff-hanger, but come on, you leave us dangling like that knowing full well it might be a year or two before the next volume in this story comes out? At least show us the evil CEO we hear mention of, or explain what exactly Starfire kept saying she needed help for--throw us a bone!

Complaints aside about feeling a bit let-down by the ending I quite enjoyed "Teen Titans: Earth One" and would recommend it to anyone looking for a continuity-free way to get to know these characters better--just don't expect another entry in their adventures anytime too soon, if the track-record of other "Earth One" books is any indicator.
4 out of 5 stars.