Two Weeks of Reviews

OK, so after curb-stomping the volcano (no picture for it :P), I've got myself two weeks worth of comics. Now, I know, it's a lot, so I'll just review em by week, in alphabetical order. So, without further ado, because these have been delayed for enough as it is, let's get on with the reviews.

- Last Weeks -

Blackest Night: Directors Cut
So, unlike what JT said, I bought this. And it was OK. But then I'm a sucker for anything involving sketchbooks and the like. Though the sketchbook was disappointed when compared to Final Crisis' sketchbook, which had a lot more of the design process and all that. Plus, there was no Jean Loring, Ralph and Sue Dibney or ones like Air Wave and the like. Which was odd. And only two, maybe three at the most, unused characters. Shame really, cause I really like that kindof thing. But that's me, the designer ;) The rest of the stuff was pretty useless really, save the two unused scenes, which I can see why they weren't used, though the Rainbow Raiders one was pretty damn funny.

Green Lantern #53
OK, so, like my GLC review down below, which I wrote before this because it was more fresh in my mind, and because I had it in front of me while this one is at home, I felt this one was just a set-up issue. I mean, sure, it was fine for what it was, setting up the Lantern plot points for the next few issues and all that, but the artwork was eh, not a lot really happened and Indigo-1 didn't appear at all. Oh, and Saint Walker (with SAINT BARRY, shamelessly stealing from X here) in all of 2 pages I think. But Larfleeze with his Guardian, now that, well, slightly creepy there, you know? Though a tad odd. Gives Luthor up, then comes back right away and sees him again. Erm, did I miss something here?

Kato: Origins #1
OK, so this was a nice little tale that's going to be happening for a while - part mystery, part origin, all period. It's nice, gives some background on Kato, who, being part of the whole Green Hornet stuff, I know nothing about, so it's all good to me. I do wonder how much this actually is accurate to the original stories - does anyone know?

The Spirit #1
I thought I would give this one a go, having never read any of stuff on the Spirit before, not seeing the movie (which I'm told was beyond pondscum on stuff you don't want near your eyes). It was alright as a beginning tale, but nothing brilliant. It did leave me wondering why the crooks couldn't catch the Spirit when he was having a meal with the commissioner in broad day light… And the Second Feature was just, er, odd. Not a fan of the art style, and I just couldn't really tell what was happening.

X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back #3
Now, this is the big un of last weeks stuff - the series where they're butchering one of my favourite characters. But, and it seems odd saying this, it wasn't too bad. The story makes more sense, there seems to be an actual tale involved in making her father a villain and her mum a weird ass fairy chick woman. I mean, I could actually tell what was happening for the most part, though whether it was just me or not but the artwork seemed a tad different, not as good as the last two instalments. The X-Men were still written strangely, and Rockslide just looked off in this one, especially on the final page. Oh, and X-23 just annoys me SO very much. You don't get to say that, you don't get to act like she's a horrible person and you're just an annoying character who either just insults others or smashes things because she's emo. That's the only two things I've ever seen her doing, and she just annoys me.

- This Weeks -

Detective Comics #864
OK, now this one I was pleasantly surprised with this one. I was disappointed to learn that Batwoman would not be in Detective Comics anymore, and yet forced to continue reading the Question even as Renee was destroyed as a character in the Second Feature story. But, the main feature was actually quite good - some good moments with Arkham threatening people, although still no explanation for his wacky ol' Black Mask antics. Or how Dick figured it out using the bullets (I still don't get that you know). The Second Feature did just annoy me, I'm not liking where they're going with these characters, but at least it was better than before, and they don't just reveal their identities to every single damn smuck, villain and hired hit-man that comes their way. And I suppose it's always nice to have Vandal Savage, as he hasn't appeared in that much (from my knowledge) - Final Crisis: Revelations (was that the name? I never read it myself), Outsiders: The Deep and now this. Not a truly unique character, but an immortal who isn't emo - now that's unique ;)

Gotham City Sirens #11
Ok, so I called the bit with the Hyenas, Ivy was acting even more of a bitch than normal (surprise surprise there), and this was the normal strong, enjoyable Sirens story with the usual art. If you've been following anyone who read this blogs blog, you'll know this is a good and consistent series which you're already reading.
Does seem a bit odd that this one has been going on for almost a year, but it deserves it - it's a good series, and totally deserves it's own spin-off TV show ;)

Green Hornet #3
OK, part 3 of Kevin Smith's tale of Green Hornet, that was gonna be a movie at some point. Well, I liked this story, though it was a tad predictable after the main even happened. Seems a bit of a shame, but it had some good moments, although it did use the standard old man kicks ass trope. But it did it well, so I suppose that's alright then. The artwork seemed a bit off on a couple of panels, like someone else had done it. But apparently not, so, hmm, just a bit odd.

Green Lantern Corps #47
This was a pretty good setup/ending series, concluding the Blackest Night stuff and beginning the Brightest Day story. And anyway, it was worth the price of admission for seeing Arrisa and the Guardians. Not as good as Red Robin curb-stomping Damian, but it was a good scene.

Husk
Now, this was an impulse buy that I saw on the stands, had a flick through and it looked interesting. It's a French made comic translated into English, and I gotta say, either something was lost in translation, or someone was taking advice on how to write a story by Grant Morrisson and Felicia Henderson. I mean, sure, the story was good, just confusing, and it was all self contained in it's 48 page goodness. Artwork was passable, nothing truly special.

Teen Titans #82
OK, still no impressed with this series. And it seems as if the writer doesn't actually like Aquagirl - she lists Wonder Girl, Raven, Bombshell, Blue Beetle, Beast Boy, Miss Martian, but not Aquagirl or Static. Er, what? And that's on the second page. Plus she wasn't on the cover, yet Static was. Though Cyborg wasn't. And it just gets worse from here. Usual stilted and bad dialogue, unexplained and confusing panel changes. What did Beast Boy turn into to save the Titans - the Phoenix Force? And a Dragon later on? Since when could Gar do mythical animals? And all of them and they couldn't stop fat Superman T-shirt wearing man? Man, these Titans are seeming lamer and lamer each issue… Wasn't impressed with the Ravager Second Feature bit - just no.

The Rise of Arsenal #2
Urgh, do we have do this? I'd much rather read Pixie Strikes back having a baby with Final Crisis then this. Now, I now that's an odd metaphor, but at least those stories made a form of sense of where they were going, and that's saying something, considering my disdain for the direction Marvel are taking with Pixie. So, what happened with this atrocity anyway?
Roy's on drugs, dreaming of failing Lian, pissed off with Ollie for killing Prometheus when he should have done it, annoyed with Mia for not keeping Lian alive, he gets his robot arm then decides he's gonna break his bow because he can't shoot straight and then get attacked by Cheshire because he let Lian die.
A by the numbers idiot plot that I pretty much predicted would happen because I could see straight away the idiotic direction DC are taking with the Arrowclan, and I knew that any old writer could write this awful stuff. It's not a good idea, it's not a good plot, and it's just a damn stupid direction for many a character. I suppose ending my reviews on this horrible horrible comic, and so here's some more and good news. Well, maybe for me anyway. You'll see what I mean when ya read em ;)

Now, I was having a bit of a money spending splurge, which was a really bad idea considering my bank account, but hey, I wanted a sortof treat, and they have looked interesting for quite a while. And so I've bought the Mystic Arcana series (Magik, Black Knight, Scarlett Witch and Sister Grimm). Now, I haven't read it yet - just haven't yet. I've already read seven comics today, and wanted to just do the reviews and have a nap ;)

Now, on a final and completely different note, the releases of the pictures for the new X-Men seem quite quite odd. Have you seen the line-up? Just over half of them are actual mutants, huh. Novel… Still, least Psylocke being a member is always good.





















Oh, and the actual final note. We get Iron Man 2 a week earlier than you guys in America. Ha ha - sucks to be you :P Cause I'm seeing it tonight perhaps, and then on Sunday and Tuesday with some different mates I know. Two to three times, and you won't have seen it once. Now that's a two finger salute that would really annoy you Americans. Ha ha :P

Crossover post?

By popular demand (all of one request for each drawing), here we are. One quick doodle, and one quick Photoshop, to tie in with Jason Todd's blog (right here), and the other because I was unhappy with the original and told to do it again. So I did. Still not happy with it, but it was a rush job, as I just couldn't get it how I wanted :/ Ah well, you win some, you loose some, and today my drawings are just dire...

So yeah, without further ado, to coincide with JT's Spider-Man Noir review, here is my, well, drawing of a themed Spider-Man:




















Isn't it horrible? :D Oh, and here's my Cassandra Cain picture. Another bleh...

From Paper to Machine - the Fairy Tale ;)

I apologise for being slack today in replying - I was busy at work for alot of the day, and then got sucked into doing a drawing Miss Megan Gwynn, aka Pixie. Now, obviously I had to spend time and effort on her, what with her being my favourite Marvel character ;) Damn happy with how the wings turned out ^^
Now I just have to dread the Pixie Strikes Back #3 issue :/

The hand-drawn version:




















The digital lineart version:





















And then finally, the coloured version:

Nekron updated

Well, since I'd done the drawing, and I needed to test my tablet and CS4 at home (hadn't had a real chance to use CS4, and hadn't got the tablet working on the old laptop), but now I had, and the best drawing to update was the one I was unhappy with. So here's Nekron again, but done on the computer.

I still think the scythe is too small though :/

Quick-ass Nekron sketch

I don't know why, but I felt like drawing Nekron today. Was just looking up some Blackest Night/Brightest Day stuff, and boom, yep, let's draw Nekron :D I'm not too happy with the left leg (it's squashed around the hip), the scythe (it looks too weedy) or the face (I couldn't get the contours right), the arms aren't right, but it was a quick sketch, so I didn't really care :D it's really quite bad, but hey, it's a nice sunny day outside, and I need to do my shopping *shrug*

This weeks comics in a review?!?!?

Me? Doing some reviews? Say whaaaa? Yes, I know! Well, it's because I got my new laptop last week, and I was setting it up then. Nowadays I can actually use my preferred method of this (which is actually just TextEdit - a nice text editor with a spell checker ;)), which is always good :)

Batman 698
Tony Daniel sure loves his mystery men villains. Now, is it just me or is he also making the villain seem to actually be Riddler? I'm surprised that Tony has stopped drawing these issues, maybe he was too rushed doing both on his last run which caused the quality to slip? Here's hoping so. But I do like Guillem March's art - liked it in Sirens and I like it here. And why does everyone atm insist on Gordon calling Batman - can't he do anything nowadays?
The plots pretty mundane really, another case of showing that Dick is not Bruce, even though last issue it showed he was truly ready to be Batman (finally). At least B&R didn't have much of that, even if it did inflict Damian even more upon us… If you're wondering what I'm talking about, see the subtext - Dick needs Riddler to work everything out, that odd dream sequence and more.
I'm pretty indifferent to this really, and I don't like where DC are taking Riddler either. This arc will probably be done just in time for Bruce to retake the mantle. Urgh, another thing that wasn't needed. If I'd killed a character, I'd make sure they were dead, unless they truly was a story to tell (of course, there are a couple) and the reasoning on their return has to make sense - Bruce's doesn't, and it's happening so soon after he 'died'. But of course Bruce HAS to be Batman, otherwise the casual fans won't understand what's going on, we can't have him 'Dating Catwoman', which means no T&A shots of Selina etc etc.
And now I've deviated from a comic review into a rant against the current state of Batman comics. Whoops. Wasn't hard though, which is a tad disturbing. Mind you, it's easy to set me off on comic book rants - key topics include stupid storylines, using female characters to sell comics to idiotic horny buggers (I will probably do a proper post on this at some point, it's a key topic I feel quite strongly about - something I will never subscribe to because I just don't understand WHY it appears to be necessary nowadays), writers ruining characters (Immonen!!!) and people with the inability to draw (Federico Dallocchio.)

Green Arrow 32
Speaking of which, I'd much rather have Athena turn me into a spider or a Gorgon cause she's crazy than have to look at this guys art. Extreme? Yes. Painful to look at? Yes. Then it's acceptable *nods*
This story was stupid, but at least it didn't have Roy and Ollie fighting. But I'm sure that's gonna happen at some point. J.T. Krull seems to be a good writer, but quite likely hamstrung by the editors. But some of the things are just stupid. You'll know what I mean when you read it.
GAH

Human Target 3
Well, as per the last 2 issues, I liked this un. Nice art, good silly cheesy action movie like story, yet the main character is pretty genre savvy ;) was slightly disappointed with the shorter than usual Scars story, but hey, that's the 'backup' feature, as it were...

Brightest Day 0
OK, so yeah, I liked this, it shows the vague beginnings of the plan for Brightest Day. Just a few things though:
* They'd better not be making Aquaman emo. ARGH
* How'd they capture Thawne? I don't remember that happening in Blackest Night…
* What IS Maxwell Lord up to?
* I'm glad they're keeping J'onn pretty much the same, with a tinge of hope. It's nice
* How old is Hawk? History finals? O_o and Dove seems like she can fly?
* Is that Kyle's ring of Jade? What's that thing in the top left corner of the same page?
And it seems as if Sinestro is going to be doing the all powerful White Light route again. Fair enough, I suppose

And on the other series covers:
* Brightest Day itself - it's nice Mera is appearing more, but posed like that? Granah
* Green Lantern/GLC - surprise surprise on that plot - but the Indigo's don't appear to be out of the picture yet
* Green Arrow - well, since the ending of Green Arrow, perhaps it'll be Ollie travelling the world, ala a sortof Hard Travelling Heroes thing, perhaps with Speedy tagging along? Nice cover too
* The Flash - yawn. Move along
* JL: Generation Lost - cool, but why are they the only people who remember Max Lord? And isn't Captain Atom dead?
* Birds of Prey - so it's a real Bird themed group this time, with Huntress being the odd one out. Now, I never read the old Birds, so what exactly did Lady Blackhawk provide the group with? And put some proper clothes on Huntress. Grumble…
* Titans: Villains For Hire - I've already talked about this one elsewhere, but it looks interesting and it's written and drawn by the same guys who did Ink, which I liked

Batgirl 9
For the finale there's not much of a review, cause it's Batgirl. It's funny, story is good, and even though I never read Oracle: The Cure (which I heard was terrible), it made sense. Good as always, and am glad Lee's back on art - it seems slightly different to normal, but hey, it's still good. No real complaints here, and no Chris Yost in sight! ;)

Slightly more comic related

Right, because I'm a lazy arse when it comes to my own reviews and generally just comment on others now (because we're reading mostly the same anyway ;)) - I'll perhaps get back into a routine if there's a good un. Or I'll review straight after I've read em, without looking at others posts first. Probably a good idea. What does everyone else think?

Anywho, on a fan-art related matter, I've been doing some drawing today, and found a unfinished drawing I'd forgotten about as well. I do mean to finish it at some point, but my goodness, it is a complicated one.

In the end I got to getting inspiration from X's favourite series ever, and then decided I would change the characters round a little bit. I gave up after I found Pixie not going how I wanted (quell surprise on that character choice, eh? ;)). But I did get Wolfsbane with a sword (I imagine her as the new Vaklyrie), shamelessly stealing from a classic WW pose, Husk in a mix of her normal and AoA costume, and the basis of what I might do with Pixie. When finished it'll include Psylocke, Namor, Emma Frost and the Stepford Cuckoos as well, and then some others who I haven't decided on yet... Any choices guys?
















Then I thought I'd treat you guys to the madness that is my room :P well, my desk anyway. It's a bit of a mess, and a squeeze, and is the first time in a little while since I drew at my desk. And yes, that is a RotF Ravage on top of my PS3 :D













































Finally, this is the drawing I found. It's a elegant Lolita princess, for use in an RPG game world akin to Final Fantasy or something. She'd use a bow, with her quiver being in the bottom of her umbrella




















This will be my last post of the day, even though it's 5pm I'm tired and want to go back to bed. Which means waking up for work tomorrow. So yeah, go figure...

A non-review and some more knowledge of my universe

I feel I should do a review of something, but nothing came out this week that was really notable that hasn't either already been covered by others, or something I can't really say more except go buy it (Great Ten, of course). I dunno, I think it's an after effect of Blackest Night - I'm a bit burnt out by everything, tired while bored at the same time. Weekends last a bit too long for my liking nowadays - not much to do over them.

Ah well, instead of whining, let's have a look at what is atm, just known as my 'combined team'. It's a group of superheroes from all walks of life, and all teams. Some run their own teams, some don't do huge amounts of hero work, some are still learning how this all works. So, he's a teeny tiny summary of 25 of my characters

Asguardian (Asguardian weapon wielder, celebrity gym instructor)
Cheshire (perpendicular universe cat woman, psychologist)
Daemos (the Night Stalker if he used every method provided)
Dracula (iron crusader of the night)
Depth Charge (aquatic amnesiac environmentalist, jailbait lover)
EVGA X-18 (biologically powered robot from the stars)
Focus (time lost alien hybrid)
Gaia (silent moral guardian, queen of the earth)
Hades (Olympian deity in human flesh)
Hellfire & Brimstone (human volcano, former villain)
Honeybee (mystic bee queen)
Marlowe (child detective in a man's body)
Night Child (Victorian vampire, valediction in waiting)
Odin (one-eyed detective archer)
Omega (flying brick optimist, the first public superhero)
Orchid (man in woman's body, secret keeper)
Paladin (heavenly soldier)
Ronin (blacksmith footballer with a penchant for the Japanese arts)
Scarab (heat beam eye blasts with too much interest in insect armour)
Skeletron (time travelling cop, not anyone's chosen one)
The HIVE (another universe's psychic triplets)
Valkyrie (mentally addled criminal's daughter)
Voltage (undercover electrostatic cheerleader)
25 (15M 11F 1R)

A Fan Art Drawing post

What happens when you get someone who's back on their drawing roll, has tones of ideas at his disposal, and a huge amount of paper?

A fan art drawing of Miss Martian of course! If you don't know who that is, for shame. SHAME!

Next up will be Ultimate Psylocke, depending on when I draw her. In both these cases they're sortof practice for my own character, Orchid, whose story is so very complicated I can't be bothered to explain right now. But yeah, for now, enjoy my take on our fish out of water White Martian:

I'm not entirely satisfied with the hair, and definitely not with the face. But hey, it's hard to draw braided beaded hair dammit. And faces, well, I hate drawing faces ;)

Gordon's Alive!

aka, don't read this if you haven't read Blackest Night 8. And no, this isn't a April Fools thread. Trust me on that

Just a short one really, because I just want to say, BOOYAH! THE Arthur Curry is back among the living, as is our favourite Manhunter from Mars. OK, yeah, it was quite good, a good end to a series that dragged on for far too long. But now for the niggles, wiggles and tidbits that I come across when I read a comic.
Man, I think about these things a bit too much sometimes...

* Why is Black Hand considered a bigger threat than the Anti-Monitor?

* Why did they let Sinestro/Larfleeze/Atrocitus go? And where'd Scarecrow go?

* Nekron is such a pussy really. He's actually quite damn pathetic...

* White Lantern Corps costumes were pretty damn cool. As are MM and Aquaman's new costumes (similar to their old ones, but different enough all the same)

* The White Light resurrected those who died in anger, or who weren't at peace during their time in death. Hence no Sue/Ralph Dibney etc. Though that's just my theory.

* What happened with Maxwell Lord? He just kindof faded away...Erm?

* Wait wait wait. Deadman's 'face' was a mask? I thought it was his corroded body given ghostly aspect...

* According to the checklist, they're restarting Green Arrows comic? I'm pretty sure that times in with the end of Rise and Fall. I'm assuming Roy becomes the new Green Arrow. So what's gonna happen to Ollie? Or are we just gonna have three Green Arrows at once, like the Flashs?

* and finally, could the Star Saphires stop dressing like Pink Hookers from Space that I wouldn't touch with a two mile long barge pole?