22. Crimson #1 to 6 ... Image ...

When artist Humberto Ramos got famous after doing a terrific 2-year run on DC's Impulse, it was with writer Brian Augustyn. Back then, Ramos has this cartoony style of drawing almost manga-influenced artwork. He has his own visual signatures such as everyone having big feet and the way Impulse thinks (not word balloons but picture balloons) that made many a page literally LOL

So when he joined phase 2 of Image, he created this wonderful title and showed all how far his artwork has improved. For me, personally, out of the entire 24 issue run, I only preferred this first 6 issues before his artwork went too "stylized"

Anyhow, the story is about Alex Elder, a teenager who is having the usual angst issues when he got attacked by a roving band of vampires ruled by a lady who marks her tits with X. I know, I know. However, our boy Alex got picked up by a monkey looking chap named Ekimus and he turns out to be older than everyone's great grandfather potentially a creature stretching back to the days of the Garden of Eden

It is at this point that you know the story is going to be huge and the scope of story telling magnificent. So as Alex starts to learn about his new life as a vampire, events began unfolding around them ... angels, vampires, demons and o-so-much more kept on piling one on top of the other leaving Alex to wonder who is on the real "right" side ... and whether he should ... cave in on the temptation to drink human blood

The artwork here is fantastic ... and Alex's costume from issue 2 onwards for a few issues is funny!

Ratings: (9/10) not a perfect 10 because most of the covers are sadly lacking

21. Brigade vol 2 #1 to 3 ... Image ...

And now for the other half of the story from Bloodstrike! I called this vol 2 because there is a miniseries before this but to me, personally, this is where Brigade starts because the artwork from here on out is such a HUGE leap from the miniseries ... that and also my first Image comics that I bought is Brigade vol 2 #1 and Pitt #2 and I loved both to bits! Read and re-read and passed around my uni campus ... hehehe ... aaaaah memories of my younger days, eh?

Anyway, this series is great because ... well check out that cover ... seriously I don't care what people say about posing and grimacing ... come on! It's a cover and how often in Marvel and DC you get the same too, right? Marat Mychaels just ROCKS this cover!!!

As for the story ... well it opens up with the team coming back from a mission that is from the limited series with one member gone ... when they hit home base, instead of behaving like normal ops people ... the team leader dismisses everyone for r n r ... now rather than being grateful, the lady of the team got bitchy and questioned him on the importance of debriefing ... yeah right! Bitch! So naturally she gets ONE in the head! Bitch! Sorry ...

And from then on, it's Brigade versus Bloodstrike with Brigade getting their asses whupped. So many shots and shocks at every turn of the page

I do not want to spoil it for you by saying who got captured and who bit the bullet but there are certainly some shockers and naturally with the depleted resources, our nasty posturing team leader goes on a recruitment drive. And consistent with his generally snarling behaviour, so is his style of recruitment. I tell you, it's a riot! But hey, even though inspite of all this? I loved it. I thought the attitude was so over the top, it was fun

Ratings: 8/10 (2 points for cover alone!)

20. Bloodstrike #1 & 2 (vol 1) ... Image ...

Say what you want about 90s comics and the subsequent implosion of the speculator market ... but at the start of it all, the focus was on doing comics that fans and professionals enjoy, not critics and speculators. So before people who shouldn't be pencilling were actually given jobs and paid to boot, we have such wonderful comics as Bloodstrike and Brigade

What's cool about this?

It's a crossover with Brigade the regular series so  there is an actual storyline of a sort! Hahaha!

Anyway, the first cool thing is that cover with the "blood splatters" on a hardstock cover! Damn but do I love enhance covers and a signed one is just a special bonus. Hahaha!

Issue 1 is basically an introduction. We see that Brigade has a "mysterious" pony-tailed leader who loves tons of guns ala Cable. Then there is the short guy with the nasty attitude and a wee bit psychotic (think Puck and Sabretooth with Wolverine mask). After that you have the girl with 4-hands (hmmm), Shogun a Jap guy with a battle suit and finally another chick whose power is to freeze you by touching. So if you shoot her from afar she is dead! Hahahhhahaha! Lame ass power!

Anyway the villain is some fat guy who wants to and is taking over a secret govt installation. So our Bloodstrike is teleported to the outer perimeter. And all they do is just charge and shoot everyone and win! Yaaaaaaay! But then at the back of it all, they are going to be assigned a task and that is to take out a renegade super powered team called Brigade whose leader is the brother of Bloodstrike's leader. And with 2 teams that has about the same mix of attitude and firepower, issue 2 starts off with lots of fighting, grimacing and posturing and ends on a similar note. Again - yaaaaaay!

It's juvenile, it's fun, it's lots of blood and teeth splattered gratuitously! Don't think so much. Just enjoy and best of all it introduces some new artist named Dan Fraga (awesome work)

Ratings: (7/10)

19. Battle of the Planets #1 to 12 ... Image ...

This is one of those nostalgic guilty pleasures. I remembered watching the cartoons on late afternoon local TV but honestly was never a fan of BOTP so never followed it regularly unlike say Masters of the Universe or Thundercats

But I digress

When this series first came out with its gorgeous Alex Ross covers, I had a try and must admit that there is enough in the storyline to make me give it a serious try. Seeing as how hard it is to find on the racks, I bought the first TPB (thanks for the poor production values that sees pages falling out after 1 read guys!) and in the end, got the entire series in floppies

So, covers aside, the interior artwork works a treat. It's not hyper realism nor overly manga/ anime style. But just perfect for this. And as for the story itself, we get to see the 5 kids being assembled and trained to use the fighting machines against other monstrous machines. In terms of villains, we have the classic tv bad guy who is supposedly a guy ... aliens maybe? who wears both lipstick and heels. Hahaha! I had forgotten about this. I guess they were "ahead of their time" eh?

And let's not forget all the goon squads of the bad guys ... imagine baddies with guns who couldn't defeat 5 kids with almost no weapons ... that's how pathetic they were. But that's the fun of these weekday afternoon cartoons, yes?

The only ones that still didn't make sense is why recruit the little shrimp and the tubby lard guy as part of the team. Aside from diversification, it really serves no purpose in a fighting team to get them

Ratings: (6/10)

18. Backlash vol 1 #1 to 5 ... Image ...

The main reason anyone should have for picking up this series is (at that time) upcoming artist: Brett Booth! This guy can draw the heck out of anything! Of course you can see the facial features are limited and stiff but hey the guy is starting out. In terms of details and the action sequences? Awesome!

 As for the story, we have the title character who used to be the trainer for Stormwatch (UN sanctioned super team) who is now operating on his own with others for whatever reason. As the series progresses, we find out that he is extremely long lived because he is half-human, half-alien and part of the wildCATS gang of aliens

Amongst his abilities are the psychic whiplash and jumping/ punching/ kicking. Once in a while he will also transform into cloud to get away from situations that he found himself in way over his head. On the supporting cast, the initial, is a new lady love, who has this symbiote attached to her that gives her a sort of body armor

But hey, like we said, just buy the damn book because it was a hit when it came out so it means lots of copies were printed and back issue prices were not that high. You will love it. At least buy the first 5 issues to try okay?

Ratings: 9/10 (artwork)

17. Ash vol 1 #0 to 6 ... Event Comics

Event Comics is a short lived publication house formed by 2 ex-Marvel chaps way back during the comics boom of the 90s: Joe Q and Jimmy P. Fortunes have been great for these 2 since then with Joe Q sitting at the top of the Marvel Comics House in-charge of everything for many, many years while Jimmy P has off and on collaborated with others on a host of writing duties in DC

So how does this stack-up? Well Joe is a fantastic artist ... mainly on covers ... IMHO (sorry!). I mean, before this, the guy was doing X-Factor and it was never a huge hit, right? So what makes everyone think he could cut it here? Naturally his own creation didn't last long and this series is about all it lasted. Sigh!

When you look at the images here you will find that the covers will certainly catch the eye of anyone browsing the comics racks which is fantastic. Yet once you flick through the pages with its many tiny panels and tons of texts, it sort of weighs down the reading experience as Joe's art already feels like a little too heavy

For what it's worth, here is the story: Ash is about a chap named Ash who is a firefighter. One day, he found out he could transform into another huge chap who controls heat/ fire and shoots out these whips from his hands. Of course, the "fun" is in finding out who this other chap is, why Ash doesn't share the same memories as this other chap and who are the baddies racked up and lined up against Ash and whether they have something interconnected with Ash's other personality

And that's it in a nutshell. I bought this off and on from the back issue bins, never in a hurry to finish it or even read it after admiring the covers. Took me a few years to actually read each of them!

Ratings (9/10) covers
Ratings (3/10) everything else

   

16. Alpha Flight ... vol 1 # 1 ...

When this series first hit the stands, there were not like new titles every single month. So it was a big thing and hey it's by then hot creator John Byrne and it's a teambook. I remembered that it was so popular I couldn't even get a copy off my newsstands. I hit every single newsstand and bookstore that is within biking distance and found none. In fact, I didn't get a single issue until like after first year run is over! It was that popular

So now that I have it in my greasy pizza and KFC fingers, what do I think of it?

AWESOME!

For those who actually have no idea who is Alpha Flight, these are characters introduced in the pages of X-Men which at that time is on top of sales charts and would go on to dominate for years to come! And X was done by John Byrne with Chris Claremont. Basically with all superheroes generally in USA (and specifically USA), Flight is Canada's answer to USA. However, to make them different, unlike the Avengers/ Defenders/ Champions/ FF, here we have a team who actually embodies the culture and what-not of their countries and on top of that, their govt dept that are their sponsors/ handlers have so many agendas up its sleeves to make you wonder who is the ultimate baddie! But hey, that's the fun, right?

Roll call time:

Guardian - leader and guy who designed his own battle suit that allows him to fly, shoot beams, protective shield and super strength

Sasquatch - brainy scientist type who can transform into a shaggy abominable snowman

Shaman - doctor who embraced his tribal roots and become a mystical magician

Puck - short acrobatic guy ... and that's pretty much it actually!

Marrina - odd looking lady who can live and breath under water. Swims fast, strong, sharp claws and can do wonders with water though not controlling it like others

Snowbird - lady RCMP (read that as policewoman y'all!) who is half human and half child of the ancient Canadian "gods". She is generally flying about using her shapeshifting powers

Aurora and Northstar - twins - flight - Aurora has a split personality between sexy slut and ultra conservative school teacher while Northstar is arrogant with a temper kinda like Quicksilver

And in this first issue, we do not waste time seeing them formed as that is told in bits and pieces since they have already appeared in other comics as guest stars. Basically one of the ancient demons of the northern lands is making a comeback and one by one our disassembled heroes are being caught up and called back to duty to protect Canada. And when the villain named Tundra grows larger than whole mountain ranges, you are sort of left gaping what can the team do, right?

Well for once they used brains here to defeat the demon!

And it is all done in one extra-pages issue not 6. And though perhaps a little more could have been done for the action scenes ... it still reads as excellent and one of the best number 1 ever!

Ratings: (10/10)

15. Adventures of the Rifle Brigade vol 1 #1 to 3 ... Vertigo ...

To all my readers of this blog (all three of you? Hahahahaha!), my apologies for being away for nearly 3 weeks. It's not that I gave up on this but rather I have a very legitimate (long-winded) reason (not excuse). My stupid external HDD that I was using to monitor my stuff (like which review has been done and what-not) crashed on me while I was travelling. So I had to wait until I got home, sort out the critical stuff of my life and then all the fun stuff ... unfortunately, I haven't done back up since end of Sep ... so it means about 2 months of my life has just gone up in fumes ... including this novel I was writing all 300 pages of it!!!!!!! ARGH!!!!!

That aside, we are returning to this reviews blog with a vengeance. I have a stack of goodies from diverse genres lined up ... and unlike all mainstream publishers (read that as Marvel and DC) ... we are not renumbering or relaunching or whatever but just plunging it on! Let's get on with this!

Okay. This review is a book by Garth Ennis and frequent collaborator on art Carlos. I LOVED their work and this, it is no exception (in fact this miniseries is so successful that there is a collected edition and a sequel)

The setting is in Europe during WW2 where the Brits (Allies) needed a crack commando team that will do all sorts of over-the-top dangerous, weird, strange so-called missions. So they assigned a team under a "captain" who is not the typical upper-crust officer type. With him are a real assortment of weirdos - bagpipe lover, giant sized guy who says one word, a number 2 who is man-crushing on his boss and what-not. You get the picture

And to match them off, they have a bunch of Nazis who thankfully are not depicted as superugly ala most of early DC war mags where Americans look like decent man's man but Nazis are just pigs ... when we know it probably ... should be the reverse? Hahahah! Just kidding. People are people regardless of nationality

Anyway in this series, the boys got to know each other, no time for training before they are dropped smack in the thick of the action. The enemy has got problems of their own. And before you know it, anyone and we meant anyone can bite the dust even before the book ends. Remember this is an Ennis book

I am not going to tell you about the mission. If you have read a novel/ comic/ watch a war movie, you have seen the usual except that here everything is larger than life with a sadistic comedic twist. Guaranteed enjoyment as long as you can stomach some of the more graphic violence but with art that is realistic yet a combination of cartoony it softens the impact and works well

I loved it (9/10)

Anyway,

14. Star Wars: X Wing: Rogue Squadron #15 ... Dark Horse ...

Off and on, I will pick up the odd issue of a Stars Wars comics especially if it has Stormtroopers on the cover. Why? Because you know inspite of the armor and their supposed training, they somehow cannot shoot even the side of a barn and with one zap from any blaster, they dropped dead to the floor. So what's the point of the armor right? Hehehe!

As for this book, well, the numbering sequence is 15 but again thanks to the sub titles or whatever, this is also 3 of 4.

What's important is that you do not need the earlier chapters to read. Artwork interior is workmanlike and stiff but what's a  decent read is the story. We have some challenges going on in a world far away from the one we know. And as people conspire to kick out the Empire, it appears that the Empire is also busy masquerading as different enemies just to dig out info and cause instability because as we are told, divided? We fall

In this chapter, I have no idea how the cover relates to the interior because this scene doesn't appear and that little girl or woman? I cannot identify her with those within. But there is a high born lady who loses her temper and surprisingly with one hand she can even punch and slap the baddies until body armour cracks! How's that? I have no idea. Hehehe

Ratings: (5/10) only because of cover and the many deaths of cannon fodders within

13. Silver Surfer (1987) ... #70 to 74

You will note that for this review I didn't bother with which volume and this is because there were too many short-lived runs of the Surfer. Suffice to say, this is, as far as I know the longest ever run and you know why??? Becaaauuuuuuse ........ You have the awesome artwork of RON LIM!!!

Ron is born to draw this book, I kid you not. Just check out the covers below. All that shiny metal work and the energy signatures and lovely space backgrounds! I wished Ron would go and do another space faring book because I would soooo pick it up. Now don't get me wrong. I am NOT a Ron Lim fan. This is because his style didn't work for me when he doesn't do cosmic heroes like his run on Spider-Man Unlimited (Ugh!). So when I say he rocks on this book, boy does he ever!

Okay.

Basically I have reviewed the end issue 75 earlier in my personal blog. So here is the first 5 chapters. Hehehe! Going backwards, I know

Alright, the Surfer realizes that in his quest for heralds, and the challenges he faced in getting loyal employees, Galactus has now in his service a complete psychopath by the name of Morg. Morg is the type that has no problems serving Galactus because his entire life is one of service and his services has always been to fight and kill. And with Galactus? He gets to kill whole planets. So what could be better, eh? On top of that, always looking for ways to gain greater power in order to serve whoever is more powerful, when the opportunity comes to gain greater power than even what Galactus granted him, Morg goes all out for it

So knowing that alone, he has no chance against Morg, Surfer begins his quest by finding those who will join him i.e. all the former heralds of Galactus including a baddie, Terrax. As Galactus had warned Surfer off and shielded the ship from his cosmic senses, Surfer even when and rejuvenated a robot form named Airwalker whose robotic senses can detect where Galactus' world ship is

And so begins their earnest quest by recruiting, chasing after and finally clashing with Morg first and foremost while trying to get Galactus to see reason! This is a simple tale told in 7 parts and yet it doesn't feel like decompression storytelling because of all the action scenes and those beeeeaaautiful artwork!

For this entire arc? I gave it a 9/10 ... many may disagree with me but ... UP YOURS! Hahahaha!

12. Shadowman vol 4 #5 to 9 ... Valiant

First up, I didn't even know that this latest relaunch is volume 4! I have always thought there was 2 volumes before this. Ah well ... it just goes to show that for some reason, through my 30 years of comics collecting, Shadowman in its original incarnation was not on my pull list or discount searching list

Anyway, here in the now, this is tradepaperback vol 2 collecting issues 5 to 9 and they are roaring from the word GO! Patrick Zircher provides art and for those who know, it means you are going to get pages that have great storytelling yet with enough posturing and line detail work and for this book, it works .. it works majorly, at least for me!

So this second TPB is a straightforward continuation from 1 and as it is not your typical superheroics, I strongly recommend everyone to go get vol 1 first. Hey! It's valiant. Vol 1 comes at huge discounts anyway so no harm starting in on the ground, right?

Okay?

Good. Spoilers ahead. In this second chapter, we see our protagonist, Jack learning more about his parents and the people he finds himself with while simultaneously trying to cope with the force that is now within him. Unfortunately it is not on his own schedule as many forces come into play.

First is Mister Darque who has ended up in the realm where dead spirits roam and he is constructing something horrifying down there as his dreams of grandeur are indeed huge and crazily delusional. On the other side, there is lord of the undead, Baron Samedi and he is being given another stab at our world as well thanks to the machinations of Darque

So it's team ups galore and backstabbing at every turn as our new hero goes to town and trying hard to do the right thing and hoping not to fail. Because failure? Equates a heavy price!

(7/10)

11. GI Joe (Image) vol 1 #1 to 4

GI Joe had its first long run from the House of M and was a hit in the 80s before dying off and then relaunching at the House of I for another decent run before once again, recently moving house ... more or less. So this here is the first arc of Image's run

Why I chose these first 4? Because if you have seen the movie (part 1), this is more or less the inspiration with the tiny microscopic bugs that can eat through stuff including humans. Naturally the movie amped up the special effects and damage plus slide in backstories whereas the book continues where it left off

So in this relaunch, we have Destro making a play off to be head of Cobra all thanks to Cobra Commander never seeming to be successful inspite of the fact that he has had plan after plan of spending money and lives over the years! Makes sense, right? Even politicians get voted off. Except that in Cobra, well, there is no election, sort of, of the traditional sort

And that is the backdrop happening while on the front, Destro and the team take it all the way to the White House. We know they are not gonna win too but hey it's the comics. However, the big question here is "Who is Destro"?

It's a nice story, with enough going on (notice I didn't mention the Joes because ... well they are simply too bland and predictable) ... decent artwork too ... to make me continue collection for a year or so before DROPPING this hahahaha! Yup I am also one of those who dropped this title as it became repetitive. Sorry!

Ummm let's see ... what else? O yes. Love the J Scott Campbell covers and every issue has one in front by Campbell and a backcover quite frequently a painted cover. So in that sense you get more bang for your buck

For these 4 issues? I give them an overall 6 + 1 for the lovely covers

10. Captain America vol3 #2 to 6 ... Marvel/ Image ...

Recap time: for those who were not collecting comics in the 90s, after the superstar artists went on to found Image, within a handful of years, Marvel contracted 4 of its titles under the Avengers family to the Image group of Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld's studios. Captain A is an Extreme studios production. Issue 1 I have covered it under my old blog

Okay?

Okay

If you type in Rob Liefeld, you will find TONS of people ridiculing him and this particular run of Cap A is definitely being used as examples of how bad his work can be. I admit that his proportion is way off here. Many times, the characters seemed too stiff such as the running scenes where everyone seemed to be flailing their arms wide for no reason. And as for facial? It's always mouth wide open or snarling with saliva dripping or spittle flying out of the mouth

But stop for just a minute. Stop concentrating on nitty gritty and just read the comic as what it is meant to be: comicbook entertainment; not a masters class artwork. Sure there are some comic artists like P Craig Russell who does work in the classical sense but that's the beauty of comics ... to each his own and the best part of Rob's work is that it has a very real sense of energy to each panel that makes you flip the pages to see what happens next and he is especially not shy when it comes to action scenes! Hence that's why I love this man's work regardless of what others may say

Some of the people who trash Rob ... can shockingly then proclaim to like manga! I mean isn't that generally over-exaggerated cartoony with almost no background? Sigh!

As for this series, the reason I am covering issues 2 to 6 is because it ends first arc and also Extreme studios involvement. So after issue 1, we see Steve Rogers finally accepting the shield back, finally accepting the fact that his current life is a lie including his so-called family (LMD) and went back to serving his country because ... he is needed, bitches!

Why?

Because good old Nazi influenced agenda is back and they are trying to recruit the youth to join their manifesto. So Rob's Cap A goes out to find the source of all this trouble and kick their asses. Joining him is an athletic young girl who will end up as a Bucky to Steve's Cap. She comes from a broken home where her elder brother (skinny dude) joins his mate serving evil Nazis and boy is his mate huge! Built like a house (literally) ... we also get lots of classic villains like the Red Skull and Master Man!!

There's lots of teeth gnashing and snarling, lots of spittle flying, lots of blood squirting, leaps, jumps, kicks and punching going on. And that's how Rob ends this arc. No apologies required, brother, this is just one killer arc of a book and honestly ... this is the first time I collected Cap A on a regular basis ... not from vol 1 or 2 (sorry Ron Garney sort of killed the work of the writer for me no offence meant pal) ... but this, Rob's run! Cheers (7/10)

9. Classix X-Men vol1 #1 & 2 ... Marvel ...

Back in the olden days, when Mutant titles were largely limited to only Uncanny X-Men and much, much later the New Mutants with the occasional mini or limited series, this series came out to remind us of why the X-people were such a hit the second time around. Do bear in mind that this is before the internet. Hence, we could not illegally or legally download and read past issues unless we buy them from the back issue bins. And when something is a hit, you can just imagine the prices, right?

So Marvel came out with this and I, for one, was happy. We have a beautiful new cover, each and every issue, courtesy of Arthur Adams and an additional short story from guest artists.

For this first issue, it is basically the tale of how the new X-Men was formed by Cyclops after he found himself free from Krakoa, the living island. So he set out to form a new group, train them and then go to Krakoa to free the rest of the old X-Men

After the adventure is over, the old team decided to leave Xavier's and try living a normal life. Cyclops remained to guide the new team.

This is back in the days before decompression story telling. And this is one tale that felt too rushed! A minimum of three issues would have been great with issue 1 spent recruiting and training, 2 for the big fight, 3 for conclusion and some quiet reflection scenes


Issue 2 is where the new team gets a taste of life as an X-Men. They were alerted of a threat and out they went to stop it. At least, this is not a tale of mutant against Magneto but rather ani-men (animal men). Yes, it does look and sound corny but it's a fast paced tale and there is someone guiding the baddies. For those totally not in the know, get ready for a shocking ending as this issue serves to show us that in the new X-Men, not only is the new team more international and higher on the power range but unexpected things can happen

For the value of the original story, I would have gladly rated them a 9 or 10 but with those covers and the extras? A definite 10

8. Power Pack vol 1 #12 ... Marvel ...

There was a time, a little experiment called Power Pack survived a full five years plus. Why was it an experiment? It was a book about a family where the kids gained super powers without the parents' knowledge. So while some are excited and want to be heroes, others just want life to continue as is. And in the midst of all that, as their powers came from aliens, there are the aliens intruding into their lives. During the height of its popularity, many fanclubs spawned with fanzines that went beyond the original 5-year-run. This was before the age of the internet. Imagine people from all over communicating via slow mail, sending artwork and short stories to be collated, printed and mailed back to all the members!!!

That was the type of book Power Pack was - inspiring fierce loyalty amongst its readers

And off and on, I did buy the comic though I was not a regular reader (but I could always refer to my sister's stash!)

Try this if you don't believe me on how good it can be. Number 12 marks the first full year and normally, during comics of that era, you get a double sized issue but here, it isn't. It's a continuing saga of the lives of the 4 kids and their sentient spaceship. As the cover shows, the Morlocks are the featured (so-called) villains of the piece and here, while what they do may not seem so bad in the books but if you think about it, it's horrific!

One of the Morlocks is lonely, an old lady whose kids are killed by humans. As she can project her emotions, that made life with her a nightmare. So some of her Morlock friends decided to go to the surface world to kidnap some kids for her and they needed kids with powers. Hence, the Power  Pack. On top of that, amongst the Morlocks, there are those who can scramble the kids memories and even twist their features to "uglify" them to Morlock styles. Ugh!

That's the crux of this story - child kidnapping. Naturally the remainder of the team had to rush to rescue and recruited X-Men Kitty and Nightcrawler along the way for a showdown below

The ending is quite sweet and touching and I do not wish to disclose it here but hope that you will seek this book out and give it a try (8/10)

7. The Mighty Thor vol 1 #352 and 353 ... Marvel ...

Right-o. In view of Thor: Dark World movie sequel being played in the cinemas right now, I am going back to the source material to let all of you who DO NOT read comics know that you should. Why? Well if you go back to this particular arc by Walt Simonson, it basically starts from the 330s and builds up with its climatic conclusion in 353 and the aftermath for easily another 10 or so issues. However, as I have reviewed earlier issues in my main blog, for this I am choosing the final 2 parts of the story thrust

352 is one long fight issue kind of like the middle chapter of LOTR. Basically we have Malekith's plans coming to fruition as he assisted the fire legions of Surtur to break free from their entrapped prisons and rained forth on planet Earth. We see loads of heroes in cameos fighting side by side with military, SHIELD and even regular policemen to defend the march of the fire people while in the end, they realized along with Thor that the only way to stop them is to go to the source and fight on both fronts.

First is the frigid winter that is clouding over Earth trying to break back the early days of our existence i.e. ice sheets with next to no creatures. And to do this, they have to fix the Casket of Ancient Winters

Next is to send all the aliens back to where they came from and also to close down the portal so that no more fire enemies can come charging through the portal

And finally, the heroes' quest? To fight against Surtur in Asgard

As you can see, we have so much going on in the 22-pages that will leave everyone waiting with bated breath during its original monthly run

The action is unbelievable and Walt's artwork is perfect. Everyone looks huge and muscular but not over the top like the Image boys not saying that Image is not great but Walt here gives simple lines that convey power. And let's not forget the lovely sound effect balloons. Here it is awesome and not just run of the mill Ka-Boom

6. Uncanny X-Men vol 1 #187 & 188 ... Marvel ...

And now we come to the big one: the Uncanny X-Men, the start of my comics addiction and the start of modern comics mania! How many years was there only ONE mutant title? And how many years did the mutants rule the top of the sales charts? And wasn't the X-Men cartoon a huge hit? And so was the movie that led to huge revival of all comic movies, right? Hehehehehe! Yes, I know, my opinion.

Anyhow, 188 was my first purchase from the newsagents at Hutton Lane (see? I still remember even though it was way back in the 80s) and the earlier issue was from Mile High back issue bins.

This tale of the X takes place as the X-men have gone through some harrowing times and seeing their ranks severely depleted until it is hitting almost rock bottom. Cyclops had departed. Storm had lost her powers. Wolverine had gone off to Japan with Kitty. So who is left? Nightcrawler and Colossus with recently joined Rogue. Yup 3 people and 2 are more of the super-strength and near invulnerable department - rather limited eh?

And still these 2 issues rocked!

We have the team recovering from their hard earned victories especially a recently depowered Storm and what should happen except that after their guest-starring roles in Rom the Spaceknight, Rom's enemies the Dire Wraiths (aliens using sorcery) should come invade the X-Men's books. That's apparent in 187 and that's also what was slowly but surely happening across the Marvel books as the threat of the Dire Wraiths is finally coming to a boil

On a subplot end (it's by Claremont so you know that there will be tons of subplots that may take years to sort out), we have Rachel Grey (new to our timeline)
overhearing a debate amongst the X-Men and lashes out when she hears that Jean Grey is dead! You see, the X-Men has no idea that in her timeline, Jean is Rachel's mother! Yup, that's the X-universe for you. So not much in terms of a threat in 188 but more of an intense soap opera which is fine ... it's entertaining and makes them a wee bit more relatable than say ... DC heroes of that time ... hehehe!

I loved it and easily rated 187 a 7-pointer while 188 gets an 8-pointer

5. X-Factor vol 1 #4 ... Marvel ...

It had to happen, eh? A Marvel Mutant title review. Hey! I was a Marvel "zombie" fanatic call it whatever you want when I was growing up in the 80s. There was no Image or Dark Horse then and as for the alternative/ undergrounds, where the heck do you find them on those spinner racks by the drugstores and what-nots? None, that's what. It's either DC or Marvel and somehow, Marvel heroes are more relatable ... to me, that is

So X-Factor ... the original run staring the original X-Men ... somehow they are never that popular. The original X-Men run hit a sales snag and with them as X-Factor, same shit was going to happen. I don't know why ... like is it because the characters are lame? Or because of writers? Or artists? But whatever the cause, even this run of the original X-Men came to its end around 70 before a new crew comes onboard and so far, subsequent to this, whenever you have them 5 reassembled, they do not last

Still ... the first 2 years worth and the final few issues were great. And issue 4 is an example. We have decent, workable artwork - no wow factors or beautiful splash pages here but it's fine. The story continues to develop subplot showing us how the public reacts to the creation of X-Factor Inc, the mutant hunting group that the X-Men is posing as. Then we see Angel's buddy, Cameron Hodge who is advising them (waaaay before he was revealed to be a psychotic nutjob) ... and we get glimpses of something bigger (Apocalypse in his introduction story arc) in the background

Now amidst all these there are still enough pages for us to get to know a new group of villains ... except that they met Ms Frenzy who is ... super strong (whoa like we haven't seen this before) ... but again it works. I actually enjoyed this and have read it several times over the years. It's one of those told-in-one that is a nice comic to flip through

And Frenzy is hunting for someone inside X-Factor Inc. As the cover shows, she basically thumps them ... HARD! So if you have the opportunity, go buy this on the back issue bins or download somewhere (not illegally of course) and read it

Our ratings? A 7

4. Youngblood vol 1 #6 ... Image ...

Why did I do a review starting with this issue? Well for those of you who are loyal Liefeld fans, you already know but for those who don't, that's because after launching Image with a host of titles from his Extreme studios, our main man Liefeld took time off and when he finally came back, he started off with this issue. Hence why I chose this issue

Oh yeah and it has a beautiful wraparound cover and one of the best ever interior art by Rob. For all those who enjoy trashing Rob, please skip this particular review, okay? Or you can find other sites to do this in

So ... aside from a re-charged Rob who actually didn't rush the art for this issue and every panel is complete especially the main characters i.e. they don't all have the same teeth gnashing expression ... what else has this issue got going? Tons!

First up, we get a glimpse into each of the main characters private life (not to the X-Men style limit though) and then before you know it, an attack, some action scenes and a new character who is ... Shaft's dad? Badrock's dad? Diehard's creator? Ahahahahaha! I am not going to spoil it for you if you have not read this yet and am thinking of getting it. Just BUY the book. You can find it easily online at Mile High Comics.

If you like your comics fast paced, full of frenetic energy and plot that moves, then this is definitely the right book for you and check out those colours and quality glossy paper! ARGH! (8/10)