BATMAN THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #3 DC COMICS
While having some interesting tales here, I can’t say that I’m overly enthused with this title. And while the Superman/ Hop Harrigan story made my little Golden Age face smile, it ended way too soon and with very little hoopla. The introduction of the villainous Mr. Baseball was a great reminder of how any quirk could lead to a new Bat-villain, it again ended too quickly. And in a New DC Universe simply overflowing with Batman titles, I keep hoping for something, well, non-Batman like. In the real world, I run across dozens of fan based hero team up stories that will never see their way into a comic title but yet these are the one’s that garner the most interest. This incarnation of Brave and the Bold is simply a grouping of what should be Detective Comics back up stories. That doesn’t mean they are not good because they are. They are just nothing new. I give it a 7 out of 10 Grahams.
GODZILLA MONSTERS & PROTECTORS SUMMERSMASH ONE-SHOT
IDW is back again with Erik Burnham & Dan Schoening mixing their strange cartoon manga art style with a one-shot to finish off their currect storyline. At least, I think that’s what this is suppose to be. And while entertaining, it has too much talking and technology and not enough kaiju butt-kicking. With story interludes done via a sort of You Tube video channel and a good ten pages spent having the children learning to communicate with Jet Jaguar. While I am all for trying out new ways of bringing back the Godzilla family, I’ve see it done better. While a necessary ending for the storyline, not much more to offer. I give it a 6 out of 10 Grahams.
UNDER A BLOOD RED MOON #1 AFTER DARK COMICS
From the strange folks that brought us Plan 59 From Outer Space and Flesh-Eating Cheerleaders From Outer Space, comes their newest venture into the monster/sci-fi genre and while being a bit of a mish-mash but it does have a lot going for it. Writer James Mascia presents us with an Earth that has been devistated by alien invasion after the invasion is over. Alien ships still scour the planet looking for humans to kidnap for some unknown purpose. In doing so they are starving out the vampires and werewolves clans on Earth. Can these natural enemies work together to fight off the the alien hordes and get their food supply back? This independant title is going to work on that answer. With Ihor Kalchuck splashing his color pallet over Vladamir Aleksic’s art, this has some interesting visuals and a bit of an adult theme. This one does have potential. I give it an 8 out of 10 Grahams.
CHAINSAW MAN BUDDY STORIES VIZ ENTERTAINMENT
Fans of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Chainsaw Man manga can be happy that writer Sakaku Hishikawa has scribbled up a four pack of prose featuring the beloved devil-hunting partners. Interestingly, this is a novel. Yep, lots and lots of words with a few images to embelish the story. It is made to be read front to back and left to right. And just in case you were only a part time reader of the manga, we’ve been given a character run down before the story starts to refresh our memories. The best thing I can say about this volume is that I believe the stories here could be turned into one-shot manga title shorts in the actual series. These short interlude stories remind me of those one and done comic stories that were used to cleanse the readers pallet before the next storyline would begin. While not a huge manga reader, this is a better interpretation for me as now that I have read these stories and gotten to interact with the characters, it has peeked my interest for the manga series. I give it an 8 out of 10 Grahams.