Revolutionary War Dark Angel #1 – Review

by Kieron Gillen (Writer), Dietrich Smith (Artist), Ruth Redmond (Colorist)

The Story: Meet Dark Angel, a woman with rather great powers, yet with also a great responsibility to Mephisto of all people.

The Review: Reinvention and reintegration of older concepts are probably rather tough to do right. There are always older fans to please as well as potential newer ones, with a story that needs to be nostalgic yet also moves forward. It needs to introduce its key concepts without hammering them down to the readers. It’s all a matter of balance in order to interest everyone that might open this book up.

It’s why it’s always nice to see such talented people like Kieron Gillen bringing their wits with them in such endeavours. The British writer brings a lot of his charm here, yet also knows how to adapt his general style to one that is perhaps more suited to the tale at hands, with a very British sensibility brought to the action and humor.

One good aspect is the general way Gillen is able to put readers up to speed rather quickly on the powers, personality and quirks of the character in order to tell the story, presenting the concepts behind Dark Angel with a certain panache. Doing so in a prompt manner, Gillen is able to focus instead on the tale and how it connects to the general story behind Revolutionary War. He does not do so perfectly, giving only the opening and conclusion of his story a connection to the grander tale, yet the tale focusing on her plight and problem is interesting enough to provide plenty of entertainment.

Incredible Hercules #128 (Dark Reign) – Review

By Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente (Writers), Dietrich Smith (Pencils), Terry Pallot (Inks), and Raul Trevino (Colorist)

Some Thoughts Before The Review: The Incredible Hercules has disappointed me as of late. The series remains fun and humorous, but the storylines have been rather weak. If Hercules and Amadeus Cho weren’t so entertaining to follow, I probably would have dropped the book months ago. But since they are, I figured I might as well give Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente another issue or two to right the ship.

The Story: Incredible Hercules #128 is pretty much one big fight scene. Herc’s group, the Olympus Group, and the Dark Avengers square off in a battle filled with action and, unsurprisingly since Herc’s involved, comedy. Plot progression doesn’t really happen until the end, so in order to avoid a spoiler, that’s all I will say for this section.

What’s Good: As usual, Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente do a great job of handling the humor and character work that makes Incredible Hercules such a fun read each month. The writers’ efforts are complimented nicely by the art teams lively, cartoony visuals that keep the battle action-packed and, oddly enough, hilariously amusing. Watching The Sentry and Venom (Dark Spidey) get knocked around like Loony Tunes characters is quite satisfying.

What’s Not So Good: I wish the plot driving the big battle interested me more. The characters involved keep me reading, especially when the mythology behind some of them comes into play, but as a whole I can’t help but respond to the story with a resounding “Meh.” Maybe things will pick up next issue, but I’m not counting on it.

Conclusion: A Hercules flavored throwdown is always worth checking out. Just don’t expect much from the story.

Grade: C

-Kyle Posluszny

Incredible Hercules #127 – Review

By Fren Van Lente and Greg Pak (writers), Dietrich Smith (artist), Cory Hamscher (inker)

The Story: What the hell just happened?  It took TWO writers to come up with this!?  Aegis, a completely forgettable character from New Warriors, is apparently killed by a member of Hera’s dark pantheon to absolutely nobody’s regret.  Hera meets with Hercules, Amadeus, and Athena to talk about how much she dislikes them, and Norman “Are You Sick of Seeing Me In All Your Comics Yet?” Osborn shows up with the Dark Avengers to discuss how much he generally dislikes everybody.  There, I just saved you $2.99.  If you still want more though, read on…

The Good: I grinned at the idea of a Greek diner being used as holy ground for the gods to convene without fear of agression against themselves, and enjoyed Smith’s double page spread of the Dark Avengers, but those things aren’t nearly enough to justify buying the comic, especially when this title is usually capable of packing so much more value and entertainment into its pages.

The Not So Good: How about everything other than the previous two ideas I just mentioned?  I don’t know if this was a bizarre standalone issue, a “Dark Reign” tie-in forced upon the creative team, or the first episode of an inexplicable storyline, all I can say is that this is the first issue of Incredible Hercules that completely failed to entertain me.  Van Lente and Pak have done amazing work on this title and I’ve been singing their praises for months now, but this issue was an incredibly poor example of what they are otherwise capable of achieving.

Conclusion: A waste of the paper it was printed on.  You don’t need this.

Grade: D-

Tony Rakittke