Bummer; No, "WILDCATS," Comic in the Foreseeable Future

Warren Ellis and Jon Davis-Hunt did a stellar job with their weird reboot of the Wildstorm Universe in their book, "The Wild Storm," which also had an amazing spin-off, "Michael Cray," by the talented Bryan Hill and N. Steven Harris. It was announced there would be a book taking-place after, "The Wild Storm," that would run six issues and be scripted by Warren Ellis with art by Ramon Villalobos, it was to be called, "WILDCATS." I keep using the word, "Was," instead of, "Is," because the book was announced as delayed, then Warren Ellis said in his newsletter (always a good read) that the book was essentially cancelled/dead/not coming out anytime soon.

It is unclear if Ellis is more to blame for this or Villalobos and neither have said anything mean about the other as they both are quite nice fellows. What is clear however, is that as of right now, "WILDCATS," ain't happening, and that is a bummer for someone such as me who always enjoys Ellis' writing and Villalobos' artwork. Maybe someday we will get it in some form, but for now this is just disappointing.

Rant-Reviews: #1 Issue Fun!

More First Issues!
I enjoy when I discuss comics that have been running for awhile, but I know readers like my discussion of #1 issues as it helps them know if a book is worth jumping-on at the start. We of course know you can't always judge a book by its first issue (or a show by its pilot, etc.), but it gives us a solid foundation to at least know what we're getting into. With that in mind, let's review some debut issues of comics!

Starting at the Beginning (Obviously)
Cemetery Beach #1
A new series from writer Warren Ellis and artist Jason Howard, who have worked together on, "Trees," for publisher Image as well (they claim more issues of that will eventually come-out) and if that is a mostly slow-moving and plot-filled series, this is like the polar opposite of that. We open with some exposition via a man captured in a strange prison we are told is on a planet discovered in the 1920's when rich folk discovered a way to colonize other worlds. We get that sprinkling of story that he's here to report on it for the original Earth and then he escapes--the rest of the issue is basically balls-to-the-wall action full of gunfire, explosions, and the like. It's a solid first issue but I actually wouldn't have minded more story-content before everything turned to blood-and-bullets. Ellis and Howard make a solid team however and I imagine as future issues are released more will be explained. As it is now, not a bad start.
3 out of 5 stars.

Border Town #1
One of the first books to come out from the reborn/rebooted Vertigo line at DC, "Border Town," has some amazing art by Ramon Villalobos and some solid--if at times slightly clunky--writing from Eric Squivel. It is about a young teen forced to move to Arizona and has to deal with ignorance and the emergence of supernatural forces in the area. Squivel sets-up a fascinating story but sometimes the characters seem to talk in ways that just don't sound natural. Someone will start-up with a weird monologue that sounds more like an essay than speech (making a good point, but still just sounding weird), or just odd little things like that. Still, Villalobos' art always is just stupendous and the majority of the comic is highly enjoyable. It's well worth a read and hopefully a good sign of what's to come from the newly-revitalized Vertigo line.
4 out of 5 stars.

Rags #1
A new book from Antarctic Press, I was sadly really underwhelmed by it. Solicitations made it sound as if the book would be a mixture of saucy artwork and zombies, but while there is some of that, the book is just sunk by how horribly unlikable all the characters are and the lack of much of any plot. Our protagonist, Rags (a nickname) is mean, cruel, and unpleasant. Some survivors she runs into are almost all awful, a flashback of how Rags lost a fiance who also was a jerk feels like it  could've kicked-off the book instead of for some reason being at the end of the issue. Also, the general story is just a bland, "Zombies have ruined everything and we need to fight to survive," that has been done countless times over and either needs some really good scripting to work or else it'll seem dull and fall flat--this ain't no, "The Walking Dead." It's a shame as the art is solid and the colorist uses an interesting mixture of black-and-white with hints of color to give everything a neat appearance. Besides looking decent however this was a pretty unpleasant experience of a book to read.
2 out of 5 stars.

Plush #1
Another book from Antarctic Press, but this one I liked a lot more. Written and illustrated by Holly Daughtrey, it is a sweet little comic about a crafter of plush dolls named Carrie who makes a living creating cute plush figures but is pretty depressed a lonely. Through an undetermined magic one of her plush dolls comes to life and it makes her happy--after she is naturally suspicious at first. The comic is drawn in a cute manga-style and has a pleasant feel-good story to it that I enjoyed reading. I'm curious to see how Carrie will handle keeping her unique new, "Pet," a secret and will eagerly pick-up the next issue!
4 out of 5 stars.

Poser #1
Waxwork Records is a company dedicated usually more-so to records (hence the name) and music-related items, but they've been putting-out some comics now that generally (understandably) have music as a a big element to the stories. That trend continues with, "Poser," a horror yarn about a brutal murderer from the 1980's known as, "Poser," who has become an urban legend of sorts. After a prologue set in the past introducing us to the story, we jump to the present to see some 20-somethings dealing with the usual drama of life before it becomes apparent that the, "Poser," may very well have returned to kill and terrify everyone. It's a sufficiently brutal and scary horror comic that more than accomplishes its goal of being both reminiscent of 1980's horror movies (the Poser has a look straight-out of that era of monster-flicks) while adding-on a modern element with the politics and technology of today. It was some great stuff and any fans of horror as well as the musical arts are sure to enjoy it.
4 out of 5 stars.

Crowded #1
Another Image title, this is a comic with a killer concept but which seems a little unsure what exactly to do with it. Its the near-future and basically everything is crowdsourced or sold as a service now--not too far from the kind of world we are living today. People use apps to hitch rides, rent their car out, walk dogs, buy an hour of someone's time just to hang-out (not for anything raunchy), get a tutor, be a bodyguard, and take out a hit on someone--yes, you read that last one right. That is what brings us to the point of our story, as a young woman named Carried suddenly finds a lot of people have contributed to fund to have her assassinated. This results in her seeking-out a bodyguard  named Viv who needs to protect her for a month before the app has the contract on her life expire. It's a dark concept presented in a humorous manner but a twist at the end of the issue was a little predictable for me--Carrie put out the hit on herself in the app to see who would pledge funds they'd contribute if she got killed, that way she knows who she can't trust anymore in life.

The thing that makes this twist just barely work for me is that Carrie seems surprised just how many people hate her. The entire apartment complex she lives in, every single so-called friend, random folk she's aggravated. The extra twist-to-the-twist is kind of fun though, and the bodyguard character Viv seems to have a lot of interesting aspects to her even if Carrie just seems kind of evil. It's a decent plot to accompany a very clever idea for a world like ours but a little bit more, "Wrong." I'm intrigued enough to at least give the second issue a look-over.
3.5 out of 5 stars.

Last in Firsts
There you go, an assortment of new first issues that ranged in quality from impressive to underwhelming. I hope I inspired you to try a new comic-series or two out because after all, if only the first issue of a book is out you can easily start reading it!

Why Aren't More People Reading and Talking About the New, "Nighthawk," Comic?

Seriously, why are people not discussing this? I mean, I found the first issue decent but felt it could do more. Then, lo and behold, a superb second issue and equally stellar third come out. I will admit I understand this version of Nighthawk has a lot of baggage. First he was a Marvel Max character (in, "Supreme Power,") then via, "Secret Wars," he was brought into the Marvel Universe with a bunch of other survivors of alternate realities who currently have a really sub-par comic known as, "Squadron Supreme." So yes, there is a lot going on with the character of Nighthawk, but the great thing with this comic is you really, really, don't need to know any of that.

In this comic it is laid-out that Nighthawk is a crime fighter who is like Batman, but if Batman were eternally pissed-off because his parents were targeted by murderous racists. Besides that the rest is ancillary to the greatness of the, "Nighthawk," comic outside of when one character mentions how in his other team-focused comic he killed Namor. He's a billionaire in Chicago who protects the innocent via brutal means but with the twist that the establishment really hates him (unlike Batman who in most comics has a begrudging degree of respect with police, politicians, and so forth), so it isn't too imposing a comic to get into--please don't worry.

The comic, "Nighthawk," has amazing writing by David Walker and beautiful artwork by Ramon Villalobos  (who absolutely killed-it on the Secret Wars-related X-Men mini-series, "E is for Extinction,") and is jam-packed with action, tense plot, and all kinds of political commentary. Kudos to Marvel for allowing this creative team the editorial freedom to have Nighthawk going up against a corrupt businessman who talks just like Donald Trump and literally says how he wants to, "Make America Great Again," in-between disparaging minorities. Nighthawk also beats-up corrupt cops who brutalize black citizens and otherwise is the kind of hero that would make Fox News froth at the mouth.

The thing is, Nighthawk doesn't hate cops, he just hates corrupt, terrible, and racist people. He works with someone on the police force who realizes that our hero wants to do more good than bad. Plus, Nighthawk may be a more extreme Batman in that he won't hesitate to kill people, but he doesn't always purposely want to harm others, he just is willing to go farther in his goal of protecting the innocent (with the comic itself admitting he is maybe already going too far). this idea is further expressed by how there is a serial killer who is targeting exclusively white victims that had a history of hurting or killing anyone of color--and Nighthawk is worried that a serial killer on the loose in this manner doesn't upset him as much as it should.

It just astonishes me that sometimes people say they want more, "Mature," super-hero comics that discuss grown-up issues, and here is one from a huge publisher getting far too little attention. It talks about racism, police brutality, gentrification, how our legal system is broken and mistreats people of color, and as I mentioned, looks really really good thanks to Villalobos. I am excited for when issue #4 comes out later this month and plan to continue following the comic closely--it is too good a read to miss out on!
5 out of 5 stars (for issues #2 and #3).

Rant-Reviews: Sex, Politics, and Zombies

The Things We Love and Hate

Almost all of us love sex, and almost everyone hates politics or at least certain aspects of it. We both love and hate zombies too. I wanted to do a post discussing comics that touch upon these subjects in various ways, so here we go!

Nudity, Voting, and the Living Dead = A Fun Time!

Sex #28

Joe Casey continues his ever-so-slow build of tension with this series that is still incredibly weird, but now is starting to show more of an overall arching plot that has taken awhile to become apparent.Plus, in its process of forming a story it has revealed to be holding quite a rewarding to those who have played close attention. The seemingly simple concept of what happens after a man named Simon Cooke retires from being a city's super-hero--The Iron Saint--morphed into tale of competing gangs, mid-life crises, and of course lots of sex (I mean, that is in the title).

This issue moves us ever-closer to the possibility that Cooke maybe isn't done being a hero which is a bit ironic as the always-fascinating back-matter which features the musings of writer Joe Casey talks about how he is feeling disenfranchised by mainstream super-hero comics lately. Piotr Kowlalski supplies the usual incredible art to compliment the increasing wild-vibe of this series, and I undoubtedly am excited to see where things continue to go.

4 out of 5 stars.

Citizen Jack #6

This comic jumped around so much for me, alternating between being a really clever and funny look at the absurdity of politics to being so on-the-nose that it was less funny than it was obvious. This issue concludes the mini-series but makes it clear more will most likely be on the way. It also throws in a joke about how other politicians have made deals with devils that I should have seen coming but did not. This was a series where I kept seeing lots of potential within and it occasionally was hilarious or clever, but in the end this petered out a bit. Perhaps the sequel its clearly setting-up will be good with Jack as our President.

2.5 out of 5 stars.

Nighthawk #1

I was interested when this comic was announced as I enjoyed the, "Supreme Power," comics until they sort-of trailed off and died (before the comic's world officially dying). The idea that one character escaped that reality and came to the main Marvel Universe is an interesting one (and he's part of a team full of refugees from other worlds as, "Squad Supreme" explores), and I quite enjoyed reading about this Nighthawk before in the older comics. This isn't a Marvel Max book anymore so swearing is blurred out, but the illustrations by Ramon Villalobos are sufficiently brutal as to remind me of those previous comics. Writer David Walker gives us a good balance of Nighthawk out being a super-hero killing white supremacists (who readers of "Supreme Power" know are responsible for his parent's death) and his civilian identity (his real name is Kyle Richmond but he can't use that on this Earth as there is another Kyle Richmond/Nighthawk too).

Watching Kyle balance his life between fighting criminals and then fighting corrupt businessmen is entertaining. Speaking of those businessmen, one wants to force out the residents of affordable housing out so he can build condos, and our hero wants to help fix-up them up, which is interesting with its introduction of class and racial elements into the book. I look forward to writer David Walker having that element more in the story as much of the first issue was focused more on Nighthawk fighting folk than his day-time activities. The political-stuff with Nighthawk's regular life always fascinated me as much as if not more-so than his heroics, after all, but this was still a solid start.

3.5 out of 5 stars.

Afterlife with Archie #9

Everyone else reviewing this has already cracked all the good jokes about how long the waits are between issues, so I won't do any and simply say that yeah, it is pretty absurd. I has gotten to the point I dropped the, "Sabrina," book--which is another horror title in this line but set in a different continuity--due to its delays, figuring I'll read it in trade sometime. That said, I just won't ever quit, "Afterlife with Archie," even with its laughable delays as the book is just so good, so dark, and generally wild (plus it helpfully sums up the story so far at the opening for all of us who are bit hazy on things). Finally living up to its hint of Betty's life being in danger that the arc's title has carried, it seems that Reggie may be the threat the comic long hinted he was. I've always thought of Reggie as being a bit of a sociopath so having the comic discuss that, shut the idea down, but then bring it back with a vengeance was clever. Francavilla is the perfect artist for this book, providing amazing moody tones full of dark hues and drama. There just isn't much else to say besides, "Afterlife with Archie," is amazing no matter how late it always happens to be.

5 out of 5 stars.

Was it Good For You Too?

Whether you're making love, picking a politician, or fighting off some zombies, I hope you're happy and satisfied--although with politics the odds of you actually being satisfied are slim-to-none. After all, in sex and politics a lot of people get screwed. I know, that's a terrible pun to end this article on, but it's the one I chose. Maybe I should have done something zombie themed? Oh well. Wait, I've got it! Politicians are like zombies, they....um....damn it.

Tales From the Dollar Bin--Secret Wars: E is for Extinction #1-#4

There are comics which are worth incredible sums of money, but so many of the most interesting, tragic, or just downright weird can be found for a simple dollar or less in a store's "dollar bin". There, comics that never gained much popularity can be found alongside those that sold so much as for a copy to be worthless. "Tales From the Dollar Bin" aims to explore these comics, be they a single issue or an entire run of a series. From the great to the miserable, some of the best treasures and worst nightmares can be found in those infamous boxes. Let's have a "tale" now...
One of Many Unique Series (if That Statement Makes Sense)

Marvel's event, "Secret Wars," brought with it many unique series. I know that almost sounds like an oxymoron, but the paradox did occur that many books came out with most being surprisingly odd and interesting. Be it Law-and-Order-styled, "Thors," comic, or the dollar-bin title I'm going to discuss today, a slew of strange and intriguing comics were released to tie-in with, "Secret Wars," that varied in how much they actually related to the event or just were a fascinating surreal read. Stores also ordered  way too much of the, "Secret Wars," comics so I was able to find all four issues of the mini-series, "E is for Extinction," in the same dollar bin.

"E is for Extinction," draws its name from one of the story-arcs that occurred during Grant Morrison's amazing, seminal, and just plain spectacular run on, "New X-Men." In this run he introduced all sorts of characters who were positioned as being the next generation of X-Men, gave us surprising twists such as mutants becoming more of a common minority as opposed to feared and hated freaks, a genocidal and outdated Magneto who learns the idea of him is more powerful than his actual self, and otherwise completely re-vamped and changed the concept of X-Men in the Marvel Universe.

Such a good number of issues came from Morrison and his artistic collaborators.

So, of course once he was done Marvel basically undid all of his efforts through events that lowered the mutant population, altered major twists (he killed Magneto and Marvel said, "Nevermind,") and otherwise ignored all that Morrison did besides keeping Cyclops and Emma as a couple, and using the wild plot-point about Charles Xavier having a twin sister as a story aspect Joss Whedon picked-up and ran with for his also-great stuff on, "Astonishing X-Men," that I remember fondly despite its many delays. Still, even if Marvel shuffled almost all the characters Morrison introduced to the side, spat on his story ideas, and ignored everything awesome, it still was a stellar run of stories, kicked-off of course by his, "E is For Extinction."

Here We Are

So here we are now, in a, "Secret Wars," influenced Universe that draws immensely from Morrison's time on the comic, taking some plot-points to the conclusion he hinted at (the former X-Men are now old and useless in this new world) while changing some others in fascinating ways (Xorn had been a fake mutant created by Magneto in Morrison's comics, here he is real, and characters such as Sublime show up). The young mutants that Morrison introduced to us are now indeed the X-Men, with everyone from Beak, to Quentin Quire (thank God Jason Aaron brought Quentin back for some X-Men works as he is a good character, I forgot to mention that aspect of Morrison's run eventually sticking around), Martha the floating brain, and everyone else popping-up. Heck, they even got Ramon Villalobos to provide Frank Quitely-like art (Morrison had Frank Quitely often on his run) and Chris Burnham to write (who can also draw and his own art-style is a bit like Quitely's too).

The entire four issues really read as one big love-letter to Morrison with its usage and alteration of concepts he brought us over a decade ago that still feel fresh today. Because these things continue to have a new vibe, that makes this comic seem just as much ahead of its time as Morrison's stuff and like a reverse time capsule from an alternate universe--"Hey, this is what comics are like where the X-Men did get older and stories evolved in the way Morrison plotted."

Magneto is revealed to be evil, but that's only the start of problems.

The plot  itself involves the younger X-Men coming into conflict with the newer ones, as a Magneto who seems to have reformed himself after the death of Charles Xavier of course turns out to not be that innocent, but in the greater scheme of things is actually a lesser threat than many of the villains who emerge. There is some discussion of the, "God," Doctor Doom and the alternate worlds play a role, but one really would not have to read, "Secret Wars," to be able to enjoy this--I would say that it actually is more important to be familiar with  Morrison's, "New X-Men," to get maximum enjoyment out of the references and allusions than anything else.

A Bit of a Shame How Things Worked Out

Reading this comic from the dollar bin is a tad bittersweet as it shows all the better ways things could have worked out. Marvel absolutely flooded the market with some good, "Secret Wars," comics but there were so, so many, and some stores ordered too much that they can be bought incredibly cheaply. Grant Morrison's X-Men comics were amazing but Marvel chose to undo nearly every single thing he contributed. A comic series like this shows the directions Marvel could have gone with their works but chose not to--and many people may have ignored a mini-series this great as there just was too much in the way of, "Secret Wars," books that seemed to matter little in regards to the main storyline.

From reading a comic such as this and considering the history it draws from--as well as the possible future, one can wonder what could have been to the same degree as what could be. "E is For Extinction," deserved more respect from Marvel the first time the comics used that title, and a fascinating blend of homage, remix, and original ideas such as the, "E is for Extinction," we got in 2015 as a part of, "Secret Wars," deserved more respect from readers as opposed to being just another of the surprisingly solid tie-in comics that suffered due to the sheer amount of books and the horrendous delays the main comic faced. It is sad, but in all honesty you can generally expect a mixture of joy and sorrow when it comes to telling....a tale from the dollar bin!