344. Weird War Tales #86 ... DC ...

From one war comic series to another, eh? Remember in the past 2 reviews I mentioned collection or compendium style of comics? Well this series is a prime example as all the stories are contained and in fact in each comic there are several types of stories including the one-pager and two-pager-s. Maybe back in those days of no internet/ colour TV and minimal entertainment such comics would work but today? When the price of a new Marvel is 80% more than the price of a movie and a comic can be read in 10 minutes ... not likely, bro!

First up, the Kubert cover is quite good ... as usual he is a hero when it comes time for emotions. Look at the fleeing soldier's face and the sergeant who is fading away. A few lines on the eyes and we get the message clearly on what each is feeling and thinking - awesome!

The contents of this issue is rather limited as it is divided into 2 stories of about equal length. The story on the cover is the second tale and like the cover, it is about a recovering GI who keeps saying that it is because of him that people disappear. And what he finally did as the world didn't believe him is touching and definitely worth a read or two

As for the opening story, sad to say, while interesting, failed to touch us as much as tale #2 did. It's about a fight on the seas where frozen ice floes drifted and something from another era emerged ... both parties naturally are confused ... and the ending is too predictable as it is viewed from the victors (read that as American) perspective

Ratings: 6/10

343. Star Spangled War Stories featuring the Unknown Soldier vol 1 #201 ... DC ...

You know how in war movies the good guys are always having it over-the-top lucky and easy? Well, no difference here in comics but hey it's all good because our thrill is seeing those men in Nazi uniforms get their comeuppance, eh? Hehehe!

Check out the opening sequence

Anyway in this issue, the war is no longer abroad but right at home as we see Germans coming into the country itself under disguise and then finding fellow sympathisers to their causes to rally together and create havoc

What's Soldier's duty?

Infiltrate and nab the bad guys only except in this case, the bad guys ... well, they are not black-n-white if you know what I mean and at the end of it all, it leaves the Soldier with a bad taste in the mouth. Aces!

Ratings: 6/10

342. Star Spangled War Stories featuring the Unknown Soldier vol 1 #198 ... DC ...

What a mouthful for a title eh? But the fact is that comics in the 70s and going through 80s had volumes where the stories and characters are more experimental. Experimental means in each comic there may be several stories - some are short (even a couple of pages) and some are serials continuing from each comic to the next and whichever character proves popular will have run of the mag or even promoted to his or her own solo mag

This is what happened even in Marvel - example Thor sprang from Journey into Mystery

As for my labelling this as volume 1, it is because to me after this long run by the Soldier, his next run was a 12 issue series followed years later by a 4 issue series in Vertigo

Now with that out of the way, isn't it nice we are not reviewing a number 1? Hah!

Also do note that usually the covers are not necessarily relevant to the interiors and in this comic there are 2 tales. First up is the Soldier who is facing execution for being a traitor to the allies. Cue: flashback as he went on a mission and thought it was a success oblivious to the fact that while he was running around trying to be clever, for once, the Germans have some tricks up their own sleeves

So naturally at the end of this tale, our Soldier escapes. Otherwise no next issue eh? But this is not the end as he then have to find a way to clear his name

Now I am not a fan of short tales but this issue's back up or flipside is awesome. It's about 3 soldiers who are injured. One who is blind, one who is without leg use and such. And the hospital they are recuperating is suddenly under attack. The way they work together to take down the Germans is just plain intelligent ... although I find the last bit trying to make light rather .. off because that makes this tale feel more like an afternoon cartoon serial where a moral is pounded into your head at the end of each episode, know what I mean?

Ratings: 8/10

341. Ultimate Avengers vol 2 #4 ... Marvel ...

You know how people used to (and still do I guess) make fun of Rob Liefeld's artwork about how many lines he used on his characters' faces? And how old he makes them? Well why do they not knock other artists like Yu? Is it because Rob was a phenom? Because if you look at this cover, the Spidey must be at least in his 40s or 50s with that gum/ teeth thing going on and all that unshaven look and ridges in his face ... hell he looks older than black Hulk (blulk?)

Sadly enough when you open the first sequence ... it is awesome featuring a character that you have no idea of knowing would appear unless you read the previous issue ... SPOILER ALERT? Nah I am helping them sell because the Ult A (sorry getting ridiculous to type Ultimate ... something or other ... each time) ... are kicking butts with Ult Ghost Rider and this Ghostie looks like the classic Dan Ketch chap with all those spikes!

So is that really our Peter Parker?

Hmmmm ... hehehe ... got you thinking now, eh?

Hmmm now what else can we share with you? O yes the other characters ... we get to see what Millar calls "serious" by having a sequence where the nasty ex-wife of Fury (sob sob) actually says why they divorce and it isn't her but the fact that Fury slept with everyone including her mother while she is away (say what)

And then we got a bit of Nerd Hulk ... doesn't do anything for me ... and I am not sure why the cover has Blulk when he doesn't make much of an impact here ...

And for fans of Iron Man, you won't like this as he made a cameo only because Black Ops is assisted by his brother who is apparently smarter and richer (you shitting me) and they hated each other ...

See? Millar-world

Ratings: 5/10

340. Ultimate Avengers vol 2 #1 ... Marvel ...

A while back ... when our reviews were in the late 200s ... we did a review of Ult A vol 1 and 3 ... now why did we skip 2? Because artist is Leinil Francis Yu. When Yu started on X-Men, it was sorta nice but as his star rose, he seemed to be intent on meeting deadlines and churning out as many pages/ books as he can and his art became more like drafts/ roughs ... at least in my opinion ... see his work on New Avengers for what we meant!

Now don't get me wrong. I may not be a fan of his work but I do like some of his work especially that High Roads series (try it)

Anyway, since we are in this back-2-back cycle of reviews, let's do this

As the cover clearly indicates, we are going to get a heaping of the Punisher and this issue is sure no letdown as we open with a blood bath, we got through a bloodbath of an interrogation and we end with more promises of violence to come

Basically, as the Punisher tries to take down all the mobs he can get his gunsight set on, one chap even under torture manage to indirectly set him up and thus to his absolute surprise, he had a run in with the Ultimate Cap. Naturally he got his shit handed to him and next thing you know, since this is Ultimate Nick Fury, he got himself a deal i.e. to be the leader of the Black Ops Ultimate team codenamed Avengers. Say what?

But the ending is cool as I didn't know that in the old world of Ult there are more than one Hulk!

Ratings: 6/10 (would have scored higher if it wasn't for Yu)

339. Iron Fist (1996) #2 ... Marvel ...

Sad cover ... even though it conveys the action within accurately, it lacked a certain OOMPH know what I mean? It seems like the artist is wanting to put too much on the cover and finally wasting the space. Now if he had zoomed in a bit more like say another 30% and we may not have that bubble circle thing and what-not the impact would have been far more effective

Anyway as per last issue, once again the writer tries to inject what he thinks is great story telling by including the usual mumbo jumbo that passes as watered down "oriental" philosophy ...

And it is from this that Danny now seeks to find his enemies and ... o yes before we forget ... guess who joins him? The two semi-useless kung-fu-wannabe chicks, Misty Knight (with a bionic arm) and Colleen Wing (a samurai sword). They are supposed to be good but somehow, in all their appearances, everyone else can upped them in a direct fight! Sigh!

The long and short of this tale is that at the end, Danny encounters his nemesis for one final fight to see who gets to keep the force of the Iron Fist and as you know this series is only two issues no surprises here who won

What is cool as I re-read this issue after years later is the cryptic ending where the defeated Steel Serpent goes out alone and the ending paragraph states "Somewhere, a mystical gate opens and closes." Now I now after this there are other Iron Fist mini-series but the huge short lived second ongoing series, Immortal Iron Fist that was largely enjoyable in its first 2 years had a feel as if it continued from this because we are to learn along with all the IF characters that there is indeed a mystery gate that they knew not about ... a mystical mystical gate ... hmmm

Ratings: 5/10

338. Iron Fist (1996) #1 ... Marvel ...

20 years ago (wow) back in the late half of the speculation boom ... where everything grim n gritty is considered cool to the max ... Marvel decided to roll out Iron Fist ... now at this point, his history is a complete mess with people almost similar names being Iron Fist, being dead, or perhaps not dead and what have you ...

Anyway forget all that!

All you need to know is that when martial arts were cool, Marvel had Iron Fist and Shang-chi. Iron Fist was featured in one of those mags that introduced new characters and proved popular to elevate himself to his first solo ongoing which lasted about a year or so ... and then with waning popularity and sales was sandwiched together with Luke Cage into one combined team called Heroes for Hire

As for his history, basically he was a kid when he lost his folks and was found by a special mystical city called Kun Lun. He was raised there including trained for his martial arts. At his coming of age, he challenged Shou Lou, a dragon and won and hence his chest is emblazoned with a dragon tattoo. Aside from martial arts, his power is to focus all his inner chi or energy to one of his fists making it super powerful but a feat like this would leave him weakened ... kind of like Ultraman who always wait until the end to unleash his zapping beams ahahahahahah!

Well, got that?

The artist here is Robert Brown (who) and inker is Rey Garcia. If you like your artwork full of lines and dots and splotches masquerading as details, then this works. However, I do believe given time, Robert would develop to be good on his own although I have no idea if he has done much more besides this

Anyway, the story opens with a depressed Iron Fist fighting a small platoon of mercenary thugs like people and him thinking long soliloquy about how his Iron Fist is not as powerful as it once was. So why was he attacked? It apparently, at first, seemed to him that everyone is after a gem stone that he encountered. Naturally, to make matters complicated, this is not entirely true because his one and only nemesis Steel Serpent, a fellow rival from Kun Lun is seeking a way to come back to our world and the world of the living

And behind all these shenanigans? There are others from Danny's past plotting away. Are they going to be friends once more and something nastier? Well, this is the first of two part limited series. I guess they want us to pick both issues up eh?

Ratings: 5/10