Ten Grand #1 – Review

By: J. Michael Straczynski (writer), Ben Templesmith (art) and Troy Peteri (letters)

The Story: A hard-boiled PI gets involved with a demonic cult.

Review (with very minor SPOILERS): There’s not a whole lot to say about this comic.  The story is derivative and not reason enough to buy the comic, and while Templesmith’s art is pretty strong, you can get Templesmith art from various collected editions because he’s not really breaking new ground (for him) here.

So what makes me call the story derivative?  Well, the main character is a private investigator or hit man or something.  I guess most people would call him “hard boiled” because that’s a shorter word than “unshaven, dirty, rumpled clothes, heavy drinker, no family”.  Of course, this dude works out of the seedy side of town where he gets approached by a young woman who wants him to do a job. And (of course) she is earnest and (of course) she can only barely afford his fee and (of course) the case has some past connection to the PI.  It’s just very cliche and since it happens in the first few pages of the comic, your attention is already beginning to wander.

Witch Doctor: Malpractice #4 – Review

By: Brandon Seifert (writer), Lukas Ketner (art), Andy Troy (colors)

The Story: With Penny out of action and Dr. Morrow fatally ill, it’s up to “everyman” Eric Gast to save the day.

Quick review: The Witch Doctor series has climbed to a pretty high point in my monthly reading stack.  It’s one of those rare comics that I just KNOW is going to be good before I open it up.  The story will always be clever and funny and the art will always be sumptuous.  As such, it’s one of the few comics that I just sink into and read without a lot of note-taking about the direction of the plot, the plausibility of characters’ actions or flaws in the art.  That simplicity doesn’t mean it’s “the best” comic out there; there are a lot of comics I enjoy like The Unwritten or The Walking Dead or Punk Rock Jesus that cover some challenging material and make you “work for it”.  Witch Doctor is more like Saga: Just sit back and enjoy the ride.

Repossessed #1 – Review

By: JM Ringuet (writer/artist/colors)

The Story: A team-for-hire will rid people of possessions.

Quick review (with SPOILERS): This was a pretty entertaining issue.  How much you personally enjoy it will probably come down whether you enjoy demonic possession stories and how you view Ringuet’s art.

The story is pretty direct.  We meet a three-member team that you can hire if/when someone get’s possessed by a demon.  These folks go in there like Ghostbusters and deal with the demon.  The team has a holy(ish) man, a big bruiser with guns and a pretty woman whose role I am unsure of.  You hire them, they show up, kick-ass and the demon is gone.  Very slick and we get a decent amount of action in this first issue.  Some of the action comes from a scene that introduces the characters and their capabilities and the rest is related to what seems a larger story that involves Las Vegas and biker gangs.  Demons and possession aren’t really my thing, but if you enjoy this sort of story,  you’ll probably be satisfied.

Dark Avengers #4 (Dark Reign) – Review

By Brian Michael Bendis (Writer), Mike Deodato (Art), and Rain Beredo (Colors)

The Story: With Norman Osborn (Iron Patriot) and Dr. Doom busy confronting Morgan Le Fey in the past, the leaderless Dark Avengers must face La Fey and her demons in the present. During the battle, Clint Barton goes public with information regarding the Dark Avengers…

What’s Good: I know that Brian Michael Bendis’ writing is pretty divisive, but I found Dark Avengers #4 to be one hell of a fun read. And that’s almost entirely because the Dark Avengers have a team dynamic that makes good (and appropriate) use of Bendis’ style of dry, sarcastic humor and personality driven dialogue. It goes a long way towards masking the fact that, as far as plot is concerned, very little actually happens in the latest issue of Dark Avengers.

As for the artwork, Mike Deodato and Rain Beredo continue to do great things as a team. Dark, moody, detailed, and even, at times, sexy, the art helps to ease the pain of the $3.99 price tag a little bit. In short, Dark Avengers #4 is one good-looking book.

What’s Not So Good: For as much as I like the writing and the artwork on a technical level, Dark Avengers #4 feels somewhat lacking as a whole, especially considering that it costs $3.99. One reason is that it’s an extremely fast read that has a number of (visually impressive) panels and pages with little, if any dialogue. Sure it looks nice, but it makes the everything fly by. Another reason is that the issue is pretty light on plot. Things with Doom and Le Fey wrap up well enough, but it left me wanting more. In addition, it feels almost incomplete in some ways due to the rather abrupt ending. The ending works; don’t get me wrong, I just wish the stop wasn’t so damn jarring.

Also, on a side note, Dark Avengers is starting to feel a bit too much like Warren Ellis’ Thunderbolts.  While that’s not necessarily a bad thing considering how awesome the Ellis, Deodato, and Beredo run on Thunderbolts was, it wouldn’t hurt if the creative team put some more space between the two series in some way.  That said, I understand it might be difficult considering that Dark Avengers has the same art team and many of the same characters that Thunderbolts had.

Conclusion: There’s a lot to like about Dark Avengers #4, but considering how fast it moves, it’ll be up to you to decide whether or not it’s worth the asking price.

Grade: B-

-Kyle Posluszny

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

Mercy Sparx #1 – Review

By Josh Blaylock (Writer), Matt Merhoff (Artist), and Eduardo Medeiros (Colors)

The Story: Mercy Sparx is a sexy demon from Sheol, a place located between Heaven and Hell. Her once dead-end life now has purpose as she serves as a bounty hunter for Heaven by bringing in rogue angels living among humanity. In this debut, Mercy Sparx is tasked with bringing in the muse Serendipity, currently living on earth as D.J. Dip. It doesn’t exactly go smoothly.

What’s Good: This comic instantly makes a good impression, thanks to the memorable visuals by Matt Merhoff and colorist Eduardo Medeiros. The look seems to inspired by tattoo artwork and it perfectly fits the tone that writer Josh Blaylock seems to be going for. Along with the amazing art, the idea of Mercy Sparx alone, is interesting, having us look forward to the character’s development. While she comes across as fairly one-dimensional in this first issue, it is not difficult to see how her attitude and lot in life could lead to some compelling scenarios. Especially considering the divine powers she is dealing with. With angels, demons, God, and the underworld in play, the story could easily become much more than the sum of its parts. The concept that this book introduces so far could easily become much deeper than your average bounty hunter story.

What’s Not So Good: As stylish and fun as this book is, it does have some flaws that could be damaging in the future if not addressed early on. The most glaring problem is that the bounty hunting action does not flow quite as well as it should, something that could prove distracting if the series winds up being full of action. The other thing I noticed is that Mercy’s bad attitude could easily come off as annoying to some readers. While I have no problem with her tone this early in the series, she will need some added depth in order to become truly endearing. Neither issue I pointed out crippling at this stage of the game, but they are things that should be taken into consideration for the future.

Conclusion: Mercy Sparx #1 is a promising, fun debut for a character loaded with potential. If a sexy, bounty hunting, metal-head of a demon sounds interesting, be sure to pick this one up.

Grade: B

-Kyle Posluszny

The X-Files Special #0 – Review

By Frank Spotnitz (writer), Brian Denham (art), Kelsey Shannon (colors)

Like the forthcoming movie, I expected this book to be pure crap. It’s not that I hate The X-Files – quite the opposite – I love the series. Well, I love seasons 1-5, anyway. Anything that came after that was crap, in my opinion, so you’ll have to excuse my pessimism. Much to my surprise, this book is actually “not horrible”. There are some serious issues I have with the book, but all-in-all, I think many people will be pleasantly surprised with Frank Spotnitz’s offering.

The first thing that struck me was the look of Mulder and Scully. No, I’m not talking about the obvious photo tracing job by Brian Denham (which sticks out like a sore thumb), but rather how young they look. At the end of the issue, it’s said that these stories will be taking place between Seasons 2-5, and honestly, that makes the most sense – the show hadn’t spiraled out of control yet. But as a comic that could have tied into the movie or serve as a good primer (it even sports a cover that replicates the movie’s poster), this reversal in time feels like a missed opportunity.

The story itself starts off in a very creepy way, and the colors by Kelsey Shannon go a very long way in creating a foreboding atmosphere. (I’m purposely not spoiling any of the story because I know most of the people reading this review are going to buy this book anyway.) From there, the plot begins to unravel as Mulder adds the facts and makes his deductions. Scully doesn’t do much except for her normal analytical stuff (she examines a dead body) and skeptic routine. What’s jarring about this story is the awful expository dialogue provided by Mulder on more than one occasion. I think it’s safe to say that fans of The X-Files aren’t idiots. So why are we being treated as such? Not everything has to be spoon fed, and frankly, this pisses me off.

Luckily, the story is well paced and entertaining enough to (almost) overlook these problems. If you don’t mind blatant photo tracing, you’ll also love Brian Denham’s art which can be quite good at times. The last page says to be continued in X-Files #1 – but there’s no word on when that’s going to come out. And at this point in time, the soonest we’ll see it is November 2008 (or later). Why so long? For a good debut issue, this isn’t the right way to maintain your readership. Why do fans of this show continued to be jerked around? (Grade: B-)

– J. Montes

A Second Opinion

My complaint against previous X-Files comics were that Mulder and Scully weren’t drawn with the likeness of the actors. So the fact that the characters here are photo-traced is a plus for me. I really want to see Mulder and Scully’s likeness well represented in these pages – not some doodles that resemble them. That said, there are some panels that look overly stretched and they look bad on the page. Regardless of this, Brian Denham does a great job.

The dialogue can’t get any better than what we get here. It’s written by Frank Spotnitz, so he knows the characters by heart – how they talk and their mannerisms. I definitely could hear their voices in my head (I’m not crazy, by the way) as I read the story. Most of the elements that we’ve grown to love from the TV series are accurately reproduced.

There are several little details with the art that only die hard fans will catch, and because of that this first issue made a great impression on me. I’m happy to have new X-Files stories to look forward. (Grade: B+)

– Daniel Yanez

The Sisterhood #1 – Review

By: Christopher Golden & Tom Sniegosky (writer), Wellington Alves (illustrator) & Andrew Dalhouse (colors)

I bought this comic hoping that I would get a decent rip-off of Top Cow’s Magdalena and I wasn’t disappointed with that in mind. The story is about a group of specially trained nuns from the Order of the Holy Sepulcher whom perform exorcisms. The twist to this is that these nuns don’t kill the demons they exorcise – but instead absorb the demons, thus becoming part of their souls, imprisoning them, if you will.

The kicker here is if one of the nuns is killed or die an unnatural death, the demons get released again to the world. If one dies a peaceful natural death, the demons die as well. These nuns have a limited amount of demons they can hold, and when they’re “filled to capacity” they’re forced to retire to a secret sanctuary to spend their last days in peace. Too bad some Snake Eyes type of commando kills them all at their Greek sanctuary, releasing all the demons back into the world! Enter Sister Eden Parish, a young nun who in charge of solving the who’s and why’s of these assassinations.

I enjoyed this book a good deal. It’s not bad at all. It was probably unfair of me to compare it to Magdalena, because it stands completely on its own. The only major drawbacks for me was design of the assassin and the main character. They look almost the same, and it confused me for a moment. Maybe they’re twin sisters and we’ll learn it in issue #2. Please check the 9 page preview. I think you’ll enjoy it. (Grade: B)

-Daniel Yanez