DEADPOOL TEAM-UP #2 MARVEL COMICS
This week we find out if the proof is in the pudding! As we get the second issues of several new titles. Sometimes first issues can be totally great while other times they can start out slow. So I always wait to see what I get with the second issue. Case in point, Deadpool Team-Up. And while I give writer/penciller Rob Liefeld credit for trying to incorporate the Marvel/Remco Toy Line collaboration Crystar and Weirdworld which first appeared in the one and only issue of the black & white Marvel Super Action magazine in the 1970’s before hopping over to Marvel Premiere #38. And being a big fan of lost and forgotten characters, I really love the attempt. And this is all Liefeld pencils but there is something missing. I was a really big fan of titles like Marvel Team-Up and Marvel Two-In-One when they had multi-issue stories featuring guest after guest but this story seems forced and with very little substance. And next issues not so surprise guest, the Hulk, is brought in so randomly that it has no real meaning. (Plus the fact that Marvel has been advertising his involvent in the story since the covers of issue one. And while it might just be that I have grown accustomed to Ryan Reynolds, this Deadpool seems to be lacking some of his humor and charm. This is obviously a Rob Liefeld pet project but I can’t help but wonder if someone else had done the story how it might have turned out. 7 out of 10 Grahams.
SURVIVAL STREET THE RADICAL LEFT #1 DARK HORSE
Writers James Asmus and Jim Festante return us to the dystopian world of Survival Street in this follow up series. And honestly, it’s still just as creepy as rebel muppets try to save mankind from itself. Only now, they have patially succeeded and the results are not good. Like any group with good intentions, the infrastructure to keep moving forward just isn’t there and things start to slide backwards. And artist Abylay Kussainov’s take on muppets, puppets, and the sing song world of television chilren’s shows is almost spot on. Not a feel good book and definitely one to make you think, this is a title to read during the daytime. 8 out of 10 Grahams.
WEREWOLF BY NIGHT #2 MARVEL COMICS
Once again, a title that has to be sold in a sealed plastic bag for your safety and mine, And another issue can’t seem to persuade me that this is going to be the Jack Russell Werewolf title that’s going get me back to my happy place reading Marvel’s monster titles of the 1970’s. Throwing in a special guest to invoke better times when the Moon Knight first appeared on the scene, managed to keep the thin ice from shattering but it is still is starting to crack around the edges. Spinning out of the Blood Hunt crossover and throwing at us a new Darkhold, a new villainous cult with the Hood and new Darkholders, there is a slight touch of the old stories but I don’t think it’s going to be enough. 6 out of 10 Grahams.
GODZILLA THE ENCYCLOPEDIA TITAN BOOKS
Encyclopedia … a book or set of books giving information on many subjects or on many aspects of one subject and typically arranged alphabetically. Oh My Giddy Aunt! Someone loves me and more importantly, they get it. Not only is Shinji Nishikawa’s masterpiece a prime example of the perfect encyclopedia, he hasn’t missed a trick. Starting with the Showa Era of Toho’s Godzilla Universe, this book goes from Era to Era presenting just about everything a Godzilla fan should know. From all the Godzilla variants to all of the supporting Kaiju cast! Gabara, he’s in here! Minilla (or Minya as we call him at our house – English dub you know.) – here! The Toho version of King Kong – here! None of the Godzilla Universe up until 2018 is missed. Heck, we even get a comic representation of the infamous cut for American audiences (and realisticly unnecessary) “boob” shot from 1975’s “Terror of Mechagodzilla is in here! This is an invaluable research book and just a lotta good fun! 10 out 10 Grahams.
ALL NEW COLLECTOR’S EDITION #54 DC COMICS
Bigger, better, and a perfect example of DC’s ‘thinking outside the box’ during the 1970’s! For us comic fans back then, these were giant sized comics and we were cool with that. And incorporating a story by verteran scribe Gerry Conway with Jose Luis Garcia Lopez and Dan Adkins to illustrate it was genius. But for those of us paying attention, this was an altogether gem of a book as it featured the Golden Age Superman and Wonder Woman! You know how we know? How about Superman fighting Japanese Zeroes? Wonder Woman facing off against Nazis? The Manhattan Project? References to the JSA? Oh yeah, this one’s a doozy! And although Garcia Lopez’s art make it impossible for you to tell which Superman and Wonder Woman, we have here (probably due to the DC Style Guide of the day), the whole story is straight out of World War II. The only real error that I noted was on the inside cover where in Superman’s brief history. All good Golden Age fans know that the Golden Age (or Earth 2 if you prefer) Superman’s Kryptonian name is Kal-L not Kal-El as it is shown. Other than that, this is a ripe fruit plucked from the past. 10 out of 10 Grahams.