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,