REVIEW: Swamp Thing #1 (of 6)

Writer: Len Wein
Illustrator: Kelley Jones

C'mon, you guys, like I WASN'T gonna review a new Swamp Thing book? Especially one by Len Wein and Kelley Jones?
Please . . .

I know you all look forward to hearing about my love of giant vegetable monsters, and this certainly is no exception. Although I lean more towards Man-Thing in my adoration of shambling mounds, ol' Swampy was my first love. You've all heard the the tale of one of my very first comics, The Saga of the Swamp Thing no.14. This thing exploded my 7-year old brain and there was no going back. It introduced me to both Phantom Stranger and Swamp Thing, a deeper level of storytelling, wonderful art, and that sweet, sweet newsprint back issue smell.
You know the one.

Swamp Thing's latest foray into print punched me right in the nostalgia with an opening page that paints the portrait of our title character's Louisiana bayou home.

Madman Three-In-One

That’s right, three comics in one review. No extra charge.

Rocket Raccoon and Groot #1
Writer: Skottie Young
Artist: Filipe Andrade
Colors: Jean-Francois Beaulieu
Letterer: Jeff Eckleberry
Review: Madman

Groot, Rocket, Skottie Young . . . doesn’t matter. Sign me up. A “resistance is futile” moment if I’ve ever had one. I’m talking “almost forcing me to ‘woot’ on social media” level. Doesn’t matter, Marvel hit a home run with this brain child right here. Two of the most popular Marvel characters in the biz currently . . . I think they even made a movie with these characters. Doesn’t matter, Skottie Young gets my dollar every time with his epic variant covers. I don’t always variant cover, but when I do, I Skottie Young all day. Doesn’t matter, not even a little bit.

Highlights include: the new Guardians of the Galaxy, a mouse-like Rocket named Pockets, a Groot-like bushman named Shrub (and yes he “I am Shrub”s), Lord Rakzoon, and a feral graffitied Groot. Doesn’t matter.

REVIEW: Self Storage #3 (of 6)

Written & Created by: Clay McLeod Chapman
Illustrated by: Matt Timson
Review: Will Dubbeld

451 Media is a relatively new (to me, anyway) Indy company that popped up on my radar a couple of months ago. They had a few pretty enticing sales pitches, so I went ahead and ordered a few titles, including one about a werewolf biker gang, one telling the tale of a Dirty Dozen WWII squad of monsters a la the old DC Creature Commando books, and a whimsical little ditty called Self Storage.

Self Storage hooked me on its initial premise of a hapless schmuck who opens a storage locker and finds sequestered within a zombie girl.
Best. Storage Wars. Ever.
A down on his luck local yokel hoping to hit paydirt in an abandoned locker and finding a zombie girl is a pretty damn original pitch as far as I'm concerned, and I was in for the long haul.

REVIEW: Lone Wolf 2100 #1

Script: Eric Heisserer
Line Art: Miguel Sepulveda
Colors: Javier Mena
Lettering: Nate Piekos of Blambot
Review: Art Bee

In the 1990s the vampire movement started with the pale undead invading books, movies, comics, and other entertainment media, By the time we hit 2005 most of the public would throw up in their mouths at the mention of anything else featuring the creatures. At the turn of the century we saw the trend move to zombies, and as fun as it has been, I feel zombies are well on their down turn. Alas, we are struck with yet another zombie comic.

In Lone Wolf 2100 #1 we are faced with zombies of a different color. A virus infects millions of people worldwide changing them into people-eating mutations called "thralls". Look, I get that the writer is trying to be different, but you cannot put wool on a dog and call it a sheep. It is still a dog!

It really amused me when I saw printed on the inside cover “inspired by the manga Lone Wolf and Cub”. They didn’t vary from the title much, so does that mean the story is almost the same as well? Is this plagiarism? I haven’t read the manga title, but it makes me wonder.

REVIEW: Strange Tales #110

"Dr. Strange Master of Black Magic"

Story: Stan Lee
Art: Steve Ditko
Review: Will Dubbeld

The cinematic juggernaut that is Marvel drops a Dr. Strange movie on the world later this year, and we've seen our first photos of star Benedict Cummerbund, or whatever the chap's name is. I'm ecstatic over this, as a longtime fan of Stephen Strange, because Marvel hasn't struck out yet with a movie (although Thor 2, Iron Man 3, and Avengers 2 were by no means home runs) and I cannot wait to see the big-screen adaptation. We've already had a hilariously mediocre Dr. Strange telefilm in the late 1970s and I'm sure he's had some animated series guest spots, but until now the best motion picture version of Doctor Strange was the early '90s Full Moon Entertainment masterpiece Dr. Mordrid.

Which is a great movie. I don't care what anyone says.

In any case, it seems fair that we take a look at the good Doctor's first appearance courtesy of a Masterworks collection recently bequeathed upon me by my loving girlfriend for Christmas.
3 cheers for nerd girlfriends . . .

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.