Choker #6 – Review

By: Ben McCool (writer), Ben Templesmith (art) and Tom B. Long (letters)

The Story: Private Investigator Johnny Jackson has his final showdown with the mutant vampires and corrupt cops in Shotgun City.

Review: It might be cliché to point out the delays on this title, but those delays are very germane to this review.  The first issue came out in February 2010.  That was before I started writing for WCBR and still ran my own comic review blog.  Back then, I said that the art in Choker #1 was kick ass and that the story had promise.  I gave it a 7.2/10.

But, a lot of time has passed. Choker #4 came out in October 2010 and Choker #5 was in January 2011.  So, we’ve only had 2 issues of this comic in the last 18 months.  That’s enough time that anything but the broadest themes of the story have dribbled out of my mind.  I remember that there is this hard-boiled P.I. named Johnny Jackson.  Jackson is a former cop and is working on a series of grisly crimes committed by folks jacked up on some drug that turns them into kinda vampires.  Oh and corrupt police are involved and the corrupt police are using some kind of super-steroid called Man Plus.  That’s about all I remember.  What’s lost for me are all the little relationships among the characters that would make the climax of this issue strike an emotional chord.  I just can’t remember if I’m supposed to be cheering for Jackson’s Deena Pilgrim-esque partner??  I can’t remember if his sidekick is sympathetic or dorky?  I feel like I should be happy about the outcome, but it just didn’t resonate for me.

Now, it could be that this will read a lot better in trade.  And, I could go back an reread my single issues.  But honestly, with the backlog of comic material in my house, something has to be pretty damn special to elbow its way back onto the reading list as a refresher due to publishing delays. And I’m not sure Choker is that special.  It’s nice, but it’s simply not the greatest thing ever.  Certainly it isn’t good enough to kick my current back issue project (rereading ROM Spaceknight) to the side.

Quick Hit Reviews – Week of Jan 5, 2011

Here at WCBR we all have pretty extensive pull lists.  Every week, despite our best efforts, there are a few comics that get read, but don’t get the full review treatment.  Without further ado…

Avengers: The Childrens Crusade #4 – I’m enjoying this series as much as anything with an Avenger’s tag on it.  The big news is that the Scarlet Witch is back…. kinda.  The story is lots of fun as we have Wiccan trying to save his mother and the rest of the Young Avengers trying to save Wiccan, while Wolverine tries to kill Wanda, etc.  Just really good stuff.  Cheung’s art is also just top shelf material.  He draws a great Wolverine.  The only thing that has me a little concerned is that this is issue 4 out of 9.  With a bimonthly schedule, it’ll be done around November-ish.  So far, this title has been fun enough that the continuity alarm isn’t going off, but I wonder if they’ll be able to sustain that feeling once Marvel cycles through their next FEAR ITSELF event.  Grade: A- — Dean Stell

Thanos Imperative: Devastation #1 – I had mixed feelings going into this issue.  For all the bitching and moaning from fanboys over Marvel scaling down their cosmic franchise, I kinda felt it was time.  I enjoyed the cosmic stuff, but didn’t think the Thanos Imperative was setting the world on fire.  It was a fine miniseries, but nothing that screamed: You must continue to tell cosmic stories!!!!!  So, I figured this one-shot would be a kind of death-rattle for the cosmic line-up.  WRONG!  It was really awesome!  The basic story is that Cosmo the dog is carrying out the last wishes of Starlord (Peter Quill who died at the end of Thanos Imperative).  Peter had urged Cosmo to continue the Guardians of the Galaxy, but with heavy hitters and not the cast offs that the Guardians were.  So Cosmo ropes in Gladiator, Silver Surfer, Beta Ray Bill and a few other A-listers to form a few team.  I’m excited.  The only thing holding this issue back from getting an A was the art.  I just don’t think this is what Sepulveda was born to draw.  Grade: A- —  Dean Stell

Choker #5 – I quite enjoy the Bens (McCool and Templesmith) miniseries from Image and think it’ll be a great read in trade.  We’re really close to the final resolution of this series and while I’m (honestly) a little confused by some of the machinations going on and who is who, I’m still enjoying it. Templesmith’s art is just one of a kind and is perfect for this type of dark noir infused tale of steroids gone overboard.  The corpse vacuum even makes a return!   The thing hurting this series is the release schedule.  It’s not realistic to say, “they should have all 6 issues in the can before they solicit the comic at all” because the creators kinda need that cash flow to finance the creation of the next issue.  I just wish that the single issue buyers who are at least partially funding the creation of the art got a less punctuated reading experience than the folks who kept their money in their pocket and waited for the trade.  We should get a better experience than the folks who sat on their wallet, but we don’t.  That just seems backwards to me.  Grade: B — Dean Stell

Iron Man – Thor #3 – This comic was pretty good as we see Tony Stark trying to resist the High Evolutionary’s grand plan to make Tony a new “God” and then Thor gets into the act.  I think this would be fun if you just absolutely need more Thor or Iron Man in your life and Eaton’s art is really nice to look at.  The biggest negative for me in this issue is how the heck Diablo got powered up to the point where he could hang with Iron Man, Thor and the High Evolutionary.  He is a a career B-lister who got taken out by Black Cat a few months ago in ASM.  There’s nothing wrong with this comic, but it is an average Big 2 superhero comic.  Grade: C  — Dean Stell