AVENGERS HALLOWEEN SPECIAL #1 MARVEL COMICS
With a wonderful nod to classic horror movies of the past, this delightful retelling does make for some Halloween fun. With a newly sighted Daredevil, an alien infected Fantastic Four and the Ghost of Wolverine, this one-shot displays some real creativity but by far the best has to be Captain America and Iron Man recreating the closing scenes from John Carpenter’s The Thing. Thrown in a cameo by Satana, the Devil’s Daughter in glorious black and white (as she was meant to be) and you’ve got a good night’s reading. I give an 8 out of 10 Grahams.
HEROES IN CRISIS #2 DC COMICS
I’m actually quite torn on this series. On the one hand, the story being presented here is definitely a thinking man’s story and I am definitely behind that style. But there is a sort of disjointedness to the story that lessens the appeal. The dialog during the autopsy of Commander Steel is humorous yet hits home. Nothing is revealed here except that the Flash know knows Wally is dead and he’s not happy about it. One new mystery however is what happened to Poison Ivy? I give it a 6 out of 10 Grahams.
BATMAN SECRET FILES #1 DC COMICS
While I’m not sure if this qualifies as a Secret Files edition, most of the stories here are creative and interesting. But by far, it is the Batman/Detective Chimp story that steals the show. It also shows that Tom Taylor know how to write a good chimp story. It also proves how this generation really needs a Brave and the Bold title! My only real complaint with the stories here is that most of them end and feel incomplete. I kept thinking that two pages got stuck together but I was constantly proven wrong. It is worth the price of admission however. I give it a 7 out of 10 Grahams.
DOOM PATROL #12 DC/YOUNG ANIMAL
What in the wild wild world of sports is going on here?! I honestly thought that the Doom Patrol had gone of hiatus after the Milk Wars. So when this little series one final showed up, I was intrigued. However, that quickly ended. Reading much like an early 1980’s comic ad for Dungeons and Dragons. This story acts as a go between explaining what happened to the Reynolds family before the rejoined the Doom Patrol for the big finale. The problem is that it isn’t all that interesting. The warrior, the mage, and the paladin join forces to attack the mysterious creature in the caves. After reading this book, it reminded me of why I stopped playing D&D all those years ago. Designing the playing fields was great and learning about obscure creatures was cool but the game itself was kinda boring. I give it a 5 out of 10 Grahams.
