2.141 (506) Shadowhawk vol 1 #1 ... Image ...

Continuing our trend from the previous few reviews, here is another first issue from one of the original Image co-founder - Jim Valentino. Now Jim has been the one that gets the odd critic approval more from his storylines rather than his artwork because he doesn't do much of that over-pouches, gigantic boobs with odd poses stuff (not that he didn't try every now and then)

Anyway he is one of my favorites simply because of the first 15 or so issues of Guardians of the Galaxy from before the movie with the original team. For some reason, when he started, before he developed his own signature style, the artwork is so cool with space faring types of people kicking all kinds of ass and the fast-paced action all the time

Unfortunately here in his own book, Jim lost all control and goes full fledged Jim. Now I loved his enhanced covers and I actually enjoyed the story but I think he would have benefitted from a good editor so that he doesn't come out too preachy

You see, Shadowhawk initially comes out like a tv series with a few limited series telling a larger tale which is great. And in this first issue, we are shown a number of sccenarios that hints at who Shadowhawk could be

At this point, we see someone dresses up, coming out and kicking the crap out of thugs of all sorts. And to ensure that Shad is a tough guy, his "thing" is to break the backs of the baddies ... here we mean literally he cracks the spine so that they will be paralyzed for life and can spend the rest of their lives regretting their action i.e. even less merciful than killing them. I guess that's grim and gritty, eh?

In the meantime, we all see all sorts of machinations but so far more or less, it's human level type of bad guys with a bit of low level supervillainy

Now allow us to skip the tale a bit ... basically if you follow this story, you will find that Shad is actually an African American who has been infected by some vicious asshole with the HIV virus. And as the story progresses he goes all over the Image Universe trying to find a cure ... yes ... it is that preachy ... regardless of what Valentino and team might say in the back pages of the books. Ah well ...

Rating: 5/10

2.140 (505) Savage Dragon ongoing #1 ... Image ...

Here we go again ... another embarrassing review moment as we checked and realized we have never done a single review on Erik Larsen's super awesome Savage Dragon series. This is one of two series that started the Image revolution that until today is still running, the other being Spawn. Now while I am not a big fan of Erik, neither do I dislike his work. There is a lot of energy in his lines and at this early stage of his career, his work has a lot of lines and details before he morph more and more into a Kirby-esque homage (see Dragon above #75) ...

Anyway if you start with this, it does feel like you are in the middle of a story. The good part is that there is sort of a one page flashback sequence somewhere in the middle of the story. Another good part is that there is not a lot of panels wasted on exposition on the origins of Dragon and the bad? It feels like you are in the middle of a story (hehehe)

Now on to the tale proper SPOILER ALERT at the start of this tale, and for many years, Larsen wants Dragon to have the same persona as Cable and Wolverine i.e. a man who cannot remember his past but that in no way takes or retracts from the reader's enjoyment of the series as it supposedly add a layer of "mystery" to the protagonist and in this case, Larsen made all the right calls because the series at the start is really enjoyable

We start with a Dragon who doesn't remember who he is or how he came to be the Dragon looking like that, all green, super strong, regenerative abilities and with a fin on his head. What is even more add is that before being found by a police officer in a burning field, a fully grown adult, there is no record in any of the news media about there ever having been someone like him and hey we are talking fin head okay? So mystery set and in place

Well, our police officer sort of placed him with a family member who then got iced by the super villains in Chicago and that is how the Dragon ends up as a police officer which is how we opened the first page of this comic

And in quick succession, we are shown how the Dragon is a bad ass by how fast he takes down nasty villains without even second's worth of hesitation employing violent means to win and to save lives, be damn with the consequences and the paperwork ... which when you even stop to think is weird ... because hey it is America, the land of being sued and suing

Hah

Aside from that, we also see that his first buddy, the police officer is quickly having huge personal stress problems that are hinted at here. And then as the Dragon wants to confront the powers of Chicago, he is being directed at other superpowered issues .. here we refer to Ricochet and her brutish mate ... SPOILER ALERT ... these are characters that are being introduced here who will then become members of Freak Force ... a team that will assist Dragon in future law enforcement ... so you know this is just a chance for gratuitous fighting but hey it's comics and that's what we want! Hahaha!

So is it worth the time? Yes if you like loads of action and a comic that takes more than 20 mins to read because each page? Has tons of words from balloons to this and that. Hehehe! Awesome!

Ratings: 6/10

2.139 (504) WildCATS vol 1 #4 ... Image ...

Wow this issue is just plain awesome. If you have followed this tale from 1 to 3, you will be left wondering how Lee and Co are going to finish the tale in just a normal sized issue but you know what? They did it and did it well to the point that it doesn't feel .. rushed or forced ... it's just that great

Now for those who have yet to read this but may be interested, please note that you should just look at the cover and enjoy that cover and stop reading this because this is a review not a preview and I do not want to spoil it for you but hey that cover? Wow, right?

Okay this is the end of the first arc of this new series and the players at this time are:

1. Wildcats - obviously
2. Youngblood - from Rob Liefeld's corner of the Image Universe as they are assigned to protect the VP of USA who is at that time possessed by alien baddies and this means, the blood were being used
3. Alien baddies
4. Alien and semi-alien mercenaries
5. Regular folks

So it's battle royale as the blood found out the truth and took sides with the cats to bring a world of pain on the baddies. They were close, very close to unleashing their ultimate weapon to take down our world. The price to stop this was high to the cats

And to my utter surprise, the battle actually ended with several pages left in the issue for us to get a feel of what is going to come next in this series and I am so glad it continued ... at least for the next dozen issues

Ratings: 9/10

2.138 (503) WildCATS vol 1 #1 ... Image ...

Wow I am so embarrassed to admit that while the CATS was my early fave from when Image comics launched ... until now ... at 503rd review only am I here doing this review. I checked our list and realized that for some odd reason, I did 2 and 3 and 0 but not 1. Why? No F-ing idea! Anyway, so here we are and so let's get started

Everyone who reads comics in today's world still knows Jim Lee. So I am not going to waste time extolling his virtues in terms of awesome pencilwork and storytelling abilities but instead I am going to say that he is paired with an awesome colorist of his era and this entire issue is well balanced from the subtlety to the bold color moments. Just plain great!

For the tale itself, well, as an opener, once again, there is great balance between introducing us to the main protagonists, the heroes, the villains and a few side plots. It opens with flashes of the past somewhere in Antartica where something happens but mind you if you read this series you will find that this flashback ties to a future issue and so this is relevant

Next up we are introduced to a midget, Jacob who starts off as a drunken street bum but within a few panels WOWZA we find out he is just a billionaire who enjoys slumming it and he has no recollection of who he was in the past until a weird looking silver lady found him and then with her assistance somehow made him into the billionaire that he is

Naturally at this point he supports her and her wishes. I mean, who wouldn't? But he still didn't believe her that he is going to be some sort of hero-saviour in the war amongst alien races. Yes, this is not about mutants but rather 2 alien races that crashed on earth years ago and each have grown hiding amongst the humans as humans developed and evolved. In addition, some of the alien spawn have intermarried with earthlings and their progeny now shows unique abilities

So with his wealth, our friend Jacob has been busy collecting these special individuals and housing them and training them to defend us mere mortals against the eventuality that some day, the bad aliens will come a calling

And who are the aliens? Well they are called Dire Wraiths ... nope that's from Rom ... they are called the Brood ... nah but they do look a bit like Brood but hey does it matter if the story line is awesome?

We are shown a few scenes into the baddies hideout as they too consolidate their moves and we are shown that amongst the baddies are 2 strong factions. One is muscle for hire and one, typically, world domination. So they are culling the weak from their world while planning to take over the world. That last page with the reveal of their mole in USA government? Rich!

Anyway to ensure that there is enough action, we also get to see the training of the good guys and a few small scum they encountered. For those who do not know the CATS the important members are:

Warblade - green hair and can stretch his hands like Mr Fantastic except he has these hands that can turn into metallic claws ala Wolverine

Maul - who can grow big and strong except the bigger he grows the dumber ala the old Hulk and he is purple too

Zealot - supposedly one of those good aliens who learned to fight and founded a sisterhood of warrior women who then went on to hire themselves in the world of men (say what). She is your obligatory bad girl dressed in her undies and wielding blades

Grifter - the loner who acts tough and wise cracks supposedly one liner funnies (though rarely do I find it funny) and jumps around shooting at things just like Gambit in his jacket

And then for the more boring members:
Adrian or Hadrian - the robotic guy who looks like human and can fly and shoot beams from his hand
Void - the silver lady who can teleport and supposedly very powerful but throughout the series we are rarely shown and thus rarely understood why she is supposedly very powerful as she is always taken down easily

There are a few more to go as the series progresses but for this issue, that's it. Good art, good story, good characters. If you haven't, then you need to read it

Ratings: 8/10

2.137 (502) Youngblood vol 1 #3 ... Image ...

If you thought our last review indicated a lot of goings-on, well, this next issue continues that trend. So for this review, let's try to list them like a fan's letter to the comic style with bullet points:

1. Cover - AWESOME. Regardless of what some may say about the posture or the shading, all I can say is that it projects so much awesomeness in terms of power and what each of the characters are all about that the pose actually works!

2. First part - the first few pages of this comic continues from the last with Prophet now taking on the SPOILER ALERT robotic bad guys supposedly sent from his future by his nemesis. Prophet has no choice because after his battle with Team Youngblood before teaming up with TY, they were exhausted and most of this encounter happens off panel and we see Proph as last man standing. Ah well ...

3. Next part - unfortunately we will have to wait for issue 4 to see the conclusion of Proph's side as we now jump to the main YB team headed by Shaft as they spend a few pages on downtime handling admin work

4. Side plots - naturally all good comics needed this and here we have creatures looking like Kombat in outerspace chatting away and gritting their teeth and posturing around

But guess what? All the above? Not even half of the comic. Now without further SPOILERS you can imagine actually how much is happening here in this comic - sub plots, main plots, characterization, all that and more and so many of these new characters would spin off into their own limited series and ongoing (short lived or otherwise). It's just amazing if you are a kid and getting your hands on an issue of a comic like this ... just plain ... wow!

Ratings: 8/10

2.136 (501) Youngblood vol 1 #2 ... Image ...

Admittedly, if you are to read this without knowing the history in detail of this issue's release, you would probably feel that it is somewhat dated especially in the colouring department and to a certain extent, the storylines but hey when this came out waaaaay back in the 90s, inspite of all this, it was HUGE. The sheer anticipation of what else creator Rob Liefeld can throw at us, his loyal fans, was simply AWESOME

In this issue, we finally, as the cover indicates get to see Prophet - and as typical comic teasing would have it - is he friend or foe? Well as far as we are concerned, that cover alone makes you want to turn the pages to find out because colouring aside, that is one awesome looking character

And when you turn to page 1, hey, guess what? More new characters in the form of the Berzerkers. At this point, I have no idea who these people are (but they are going to have their own limited series not long after their debut here so that should tell you a little bit more about their impact) but the fact that on page 1 you have them? Whoa!

As for the storyline proper, well, basically some superpowered earthlings were defending against an invasion from Darkthornn's dimension or some such place. And in the course of such things found someone encased in a tube (no this is not similar to the Avengers discovering Cap). However, while they debated long over it, before they know it, our man in the tube managed to be ... free ... and naturally with gritted teeth, a hard fought battle ensued. We see that Prophet is one tough cookie even though none expected him to be that fast or strong i.e. he is no Hulk or Quicksilver but his skills and ability to bear with the pain made him an opponent that gave the entire Youngblood team a run for their money

Oh yes, before we forgot, in this issue there is yet one more new character - Kirby the shortie who smokes and has like gazillion guns blazing every time! Hah!

Ratings: 6/10

2.135 (500) Star Wars 2015 #1 ... Marvel ...

It's our big FIVE HUNDREDTH review ... and how can we cover anything but the year's BIGGEST SALES comic - the new STAR WARS. Hehehehe! Enough with the caps, yes? Actually this issue would have been granted a 10/10 if not for the cover. Seriously. Look at it. Could they not find someone who can do better for such a monumental issue? How about someone like P Craig Russell/ Alex Ross/ Arthur Adams/ Bill Sienkiewicz? Right? Ugh!

Yes it is by John Cassaday but ... it still looks weak ... sorry!

Anyway, similar to our review of Vader, this issue takes place after the destruction of the Destroyer. So feeling that the Empire is going all over the place panicking and witch hunting, our friends in the Rebel Alliance realizes that here is yet another awesome opportunity to press home their advantage and go all out trying to kick the Empire's butt

The opening sequence is plain awesome as it feels exactly like the movie where after the rolling titles and summary we get a space ship zooming down to a planet. SPOILER ALERT. And before you know it, our friends Han/ Luke/ Leia is on a roll trying to infiltrate and destroy whatever they can get their hands on

Naturally to complicate things, they ran into a slave pen and being the good guys that they are, they try to accommodate. However, as if that wasn't enough, along comes Vader and this is totally unexpected. What was meant to be mayhem earlier is nothing when you add Vader into the mix. Here we get to see an angry Vader who coldly sacrifices his loyal troops just to proof his point. Just ... wow!

And lots of Stormtroopers get their chips cashed in too!

Suffice to say, the story and interior artwork are just perfect. Feels so good that it could have been taken off from panels in a movie!

Ratings: 9/10