REVIEW: Daredevil #1

Writer: Charles Soule
Artist: Ron Garney
Color Artist: Matt Milla

When Marvel first dropped the list of their post Secret Wars books I had a real hard time caring about most of them. Not for any particular reason really. I knew right off that there was no way I could afford every book with their four to five dollar price tags, but that’s nothing new as Marvel can really crank the titles out. The X-Men and Avengers books pretty much went straight to the chopping block along with the new Inhumans book; I did however pull one super-team book in Guardians of the Galaxy. Great decision by the way. I passed on the new Hulk book too because the title makes me cringe and honestly if it’s not Banner, then I don’t care. I went with the new Venom book because I love Venom and I don’t care who is wearing it. I added Carnage because . . . Carnage. Howard the Duck’s novelty ran out for me after a couple issues of his last series. All the Spidey related books were a given except the Web Warriors because no . . . just no. There were a few wildcards that I was undecided on . . . Black Knight, Hercules, Scarlet Witch, and Daredevil. The owner of my LCS sold me on Hercules. I decided to go with Daredevil. I’ve always liked the character, and it had been a good while since I had read any DD books. Turns out my wildcard picks were spot on. I’ve found Hercules pretty entertaining and DD didn’t disappoint me either.

REVIEW: Hercules #1 & 2

Writer: Dan Abnett
Artist: Luke Ross
Review: William R. Davis, Jr.

Marvel is pretty self aware of where their flagship titles fall, and so apparently is writer Dan Abnett. Hercules is now an immortal with an all-new identity crisis, attempting to find a way to be useful in a modern world that has forgotten the heroes and villains of mythology. It is an interesting take on the superhero, but not a new one. Silver Surfer was well known for dealing in self-reflective, philosophical meanderings, and Geoff Johns recently wrote some issues of Aquaman that poked fun at his B-List status.

Personally, my taste in comics would prefer the high fantasy approach, but I may be the only one I know still reading Conan the Barbarian, so there’s that. Take comfort in knowing that Peter Jackson is still doing his best to ruin the genre for everyone, and Thor in its current format is completely unrecognizable from the Thor we all used to know and love. It could still be the mainstream answer we’re looking for if the trend of re-launching entire universes continues to sell books, but there are a lot of “What ifs” and speculation in that scenario. Dark Horse is the only publisher with a pure contribution, doing a great job with the Conan series despite lack of readership. It should be able to whet your appetite a bit until the inevitable great resurgence. Perchance to dream, anyway. Current comic book fantasy genre prognosis: dismal.

REVIEW: Huck #1

Writer: Mark Millar
Artist: Rafael Albuquerque
Colorist: Dave McCaig
Review: Art Bee

Lately it seems I can’t find a bad comic to review. December is no exception, but I will try to find one next time to smear against the wall. This month I was thrown a title from Image called Huck. The name made several images race through my head and almost all of them involved some back-country character. Guess what? My dart is in the green circle. That’s right, a dart board reference.

This is nothing less than a jewel from Mark Millar and is one of his classic hook-setting first issues. Please don’t think me a fan boy of Millar. I respect his work, but many of his efforts do not get deposited in my comic folder each month. Huck might just be the first one to which I will subscribe (let the hate mail commence, artbee@thehammondcomicsblog.com).