The Sixth Gun #30 – Review

By: Cullen Bunn (writer), Brian Hurtt (art), Bill Crabtree (colors), Douglas E. Sherwood (letters)

The Story: The gang seeks medical/spiritual attention for Becky after she is overcome from using The Sixth Gun too much.

Review (with minor SPOILERS): I came away from this issue feeling disappointed and unfulfilled.  It’s a little difficult to capture “why” this issue comes up short, but I think it has to do with where TSG stands as a series and decompressed storytelling.  Ugh–decompression..  At 30 issues, the series is mature: we know the characters and we know the stakes; now we need to get on with the story.

The Sixth Gun #29 – Review

By: Cullen Bunn (writer), Brian Hurtt (art), Bill Crabtree (colors), Douglas E. Sherwood (letters)

The Story: The gang is back together.

Quick Review (with minor SPOILERS): This was a tidy little issue of The Sixth Gun.  For the most part, it served to mop up the leftovers of this Winter Wolves story arc.  Honestly, this hasn’t been the most enjoyable story arc, but it still had a nice ending in this issue.  After so many months, it was nice to see the entire gang gathered again but it was kinda a bummer to see the damage that events have inflicted on our heroes: Drake is weakened, Becky is pissed at Kirby, etc.  There’s also a bit of humor as 9 foot-tall mummy, Asher Cobb rummages for suitable clothing to wear on their trip back into town.

Overall, the first half of the issue just serves to recap the action of the story arc and establish the new status quo.

The Sixth Gun #28 – Review

By: Cullen Bunn (writer), Brian Hurtt (art), Bill Crabtree (colors), Douglas E. Sherwood (letters)

The Story: Becky & Drake continue their battle with the Wendigo while Gord, Kirby & Asher Cobb ride to their rescue.

Review (with SPOILERS): This hasn’t been the strongest storyline for The Sixth Gun.  It’s a simple matter of dilution because we’ve had a two-issue concept that was spread over 5-6 issues.  But, this issue provided a pretty snappy ending for the arc and made me hopeful for the future of the comic.

The Sixth Gun #26 – Review

By: Cullen Bunn (writer), Brian Hurtt (art), Bill Crabtree (colors), Douglas Sherwood (letters)

The Story: Drake and Becky deal with a Wendigo.

Quick review (with SPOILERS): I only recently picked up The Sixth Gun after a recent Comixology 99-cent sale.  Last issue (#25) was my first reading the comic monthly and while it was a good issue, it wasn’t “great”.  In that issue, the art was at it’s typical level of greatness, but the story didn’t have that snap I recalled from gorging on the first 24 issues in a week’s time.  In the back of my mind I worried a little that I might not enjoy this series as much in single issues….

The Sixth Gun #25 – Review

By: Cullen Bunn (writer), Brian Hurtt (art), Bill Crabtree (colors), Douglas E. Sherwood (letters)

The Story: Becky and Drake are trapped in mystically frozen Fort.

Review: Well….that figures.  A couple of weeks ago, Comixology had a sale where all back-issues of The Sixth Gun were 99 cents.  I bought them all because a few of my comic friends loved the series and it sounded up my alley.  They were right!  It’s a great series that I should have been reading all along–“Deserving of the hype” and all that.  But just when I add The Sixth Gun to the list of titles I regularly review, it tosses a ho-hum issue at me.

Strange Tales II #3 – Review

By: Nick Bertozzi, Chris Sinderson, Terry Moore, James Stokoe, Benjamin Marra, Tim Hamilton, Kate Beaton, Bill Crabtree, Dean Haspiel, Toby Cypress, Michael Deforge, Alex Robinson, Eduardo Medeiros, Harvey Pekar, Ty Templeton, KT Smith AND Jody LeHeup (editor)

The Story: An anthology of short stories about Marvel characters told by indy creators.

What’s Good: Are you curious to see a young Thor who keeps losing Mjolnir because it doesn’t have a strap on it yet?  Would you like to see the kinda girls Reed Richards dated in college?  Any interest in watching the Silver Surfer play cards with a bunch of Skrulls as his master devours their planet?  How does Rogue get out of trouble if she breaks one of Professor X’s favorite vases?

If the answer to any of those was “yes” you should make a point to check out Strange Tales 2.  This is the last issue of an anthology series in which Marvel brings in indy creators and let’s them write/draw short stories about Marvel characters.  “Indy” is a confusing word in comic circles and I think a lot of people use that to mean “not Marvel or DC”.  The majority of these creators are doing things like writing comics under their own imprint, doing webcomics, etc.  In my mind, this is what “indy” means.

As with any anthology, some stories are better than others.  It really doesn’t get any better than the three stories to start this issue.  First we get a story by Terry Moore that shows a young, recently exiled Thor who is having some trouble with Mjolnir.  This story is just hysterical.  That is followed by a James Stokoe riff on Silver Surfer playing cards with Skrulls (who look a lot like his Orc Stain orcs) as Galactus ruins their world.  Might as well get in a last game of cards, huh?  Then we get an awesome Benjamin Marra story featuring U.S. Agent at his boastful, womanizing best as he takes down a terrorist “who’s been genetically spliced with the DNA of a velociraptor!! And if that weren’t enough, he has a nuclear warhead strapped to his back!!  We call him Terror-Saur!!” Of course, he lives in Terror-stan and is threatening the American way of life.

If tongue-in-cheek isn’t your thing, there are also somewhat touching stories about Reed Richards, Michael Morbius, The Thing and a few others.

Mostly though, this issue succeeds because it has a few memorable stories in it where you just say, “That was awesome!”.  And hopefully it inspires to check out a few of these really talented people’s other works.

The Weird World of Jack Staff #2 – Review

By: Paul Grist (writer & art) & Bill Crabtree (colors)

The Story: In a very non-linear and confusing way, we follow the story of of Jack Staff (“Britain’s Greatest Hero”) who seems to have forgotten himself right at a moment when his country needs him!  At least I think that’s what the story is about….

What’s good: This comic has a very hip vibe to it.  I kind of like all the various characters that Paul Grist is throwing at us, such as “Becky Burdock: Vampire Reporter.”  What’s more, I like the art, which is very reminiscent of Hellboy or BPRD.  I usually don’t like that artistic style, but I found myself really enjoying this comic from an art standpoint.  Perhaps it is because Hellboy/BPRD limit themselves to the colors brown and gray whereas Jack Staff has all sorts of bright colors that entertain someone such as myself who likes bright and shiny things.

Mercy Sparx #3 – Review

By Josh Blaylock (Writer), Matt Merhoff (Pencils), and Bill Crabtree (Colors)

Some Thoughts Before The Review: The first two issues of Mercy Sparx hinted that there may be quite a bit of depth to the new series beyond the slick concept of a devil-girl hunting rogue angels. However, writer Josh Blaylock has so far seemed more interested in letting Matt Merhoff go crazy with drawn out fight scenes as opposed to actually getting to the real meat of what Mercy Sparx is going to be all about. While I have enjoyed the brutal, fairly creative devil-girl vs. rogue angel action, the story needs to move beyond that in order to keep me hooked for the long term. I know the debut mini-series ends next month in order to pave the way for the ongoing. Whether I make the jump to the ongoing will largely depend on how things develop as the mini wraps up.

The Story: A meeting with Pastor Collins leaves Mercy quite upbeat as it seems her task on earth is finally complete. The elation is short lived however as the she-devil learns that her task wasn’t exactly heaven sent. It turns out more is at stake than Mercy could have realized.

What’s Good: I hoped for more story and that’s exactly what Mercy Sparx #3 delivers. The character, world, and series instantly became a lot more interesting upon learning the true nature of Mercy’s job. And while the plot twist isn’t exactly original, the stylish artwork and interesting character design leaves me looking forward to the future of the series. In addition, the twist puts Mercy in quite an interesting position heading into the conclusion of the mini-series/ launch of the ongoing. In other words, it looks as though Mercy Sparx could have a very bright future.

What’s Not So Good: There is quite a bit still up in the air regarding the plot developing through the mini-series. A fairly large amount of questions have yet to be answered and while I’m sure they will be addressed in the future, it makes it difficult to judge how satisfying the mini-series will ultimately end up being. Another negative worth mentioning is how the plot twist is both predictable and quite generic. Sure, the whole idea works and lends itself well to an ongoing, but I hope that there ends up being more to the series in the long run.

Conclusion: Mercy Sparx continues to be a fun series that gets by largely on its cool concept and attractive, stylish visuals. If you’ve liked it so far, I’m sure you will end up liking where the series goes next. In my humble opinion, Mercy Sparx is a keeper.

Grade:  B

-Kyle Posluszny