If Only Media Empires Vibrated...
About the Author

Column Archive










Weekly Comic Reviews
6.2.2002 by Scott, every Thursday.


So, this week, I have been transferred to the graveyard shift at work. I am now a living vampire, hidden away from the sun and sleeping through the day. I am manually and forcibly changing my internal clock to a complete reversal of its natural state. I am over tired and ill from lack of sleep. My eyes burn from the monitor glare, and my hands shake as the sun comes up. I’m looking more and more like a heroin junkie, with dark, sunken eyes and shaking hands. But on the upside, am now able to watch the World Cup live on my days off.

On that note, Comics.

I picked up a few comics this week, some good, others disappointing. I’ll give a rundown of what I picked up and how they went over with me.

Forge #2 – Crossgen Comics. This is a neat idea from Florida based comics company, Crossgen. They put out two trade paperbacks a month, the aforementioned “Forge”, and another book, entitled “Edge”, which collect all of their monthly titles. This allows readers to follow the continuity through all their books easily and affordably, and they have less ads and are easier to lug around on the subway. Forge #2 features comic titles “The Path”, “Negation”, “Meridian”, “Sojurn”, and “Crux”, and makes them easy to follow. I’ve grabbed the first two books so far, and for less than fifteen bucks a piece, I feel I’ve gotten my monies worth. Also, the books are a good jumping on point for all the titles featured.

Origin #6 – Marvel Comics.
The finale in the mini-series that recounts the childhood of Wolverine left me wanting in more than one way. While the art, especially the cover art, was beautiful, the writing felt more and more rushed as the series went on. The character development stopped altogether in this issue, and the story ended far to quickly. Not to mention that the book was solicited for release in January and only came out in May. All on all this book was, and the whole mini-series was all hype, no content. Borrow it, but don’t buy it.

Powers #21 – Image Comics. This comic marked the end of the “FG-3” story arc. Writer Brian Michael Bendis writes bang on dialogue, and it just lends so much to an already well plotted series. While issues 22 will be a better place for new readers to jump on to this series, this book was really a good read. Even the art was above par, setting the mood and atmosphere of the story superbly. This was a series that I hade to be convinced into picking up, but has become one of my must-buys from month to month.

Ultimates #4 – Marvel Comics. Book four, and only on the last page here does something finally happen. I’ve heard many complaints that in this series, there is no action. I don’t mind. The art by Brian Hitch has been spectacular and solid, and Mark Millar has really delved into these characters, making them solid and three dimensional. The pace of this book, like the others before it, is steady and not rushed. The story is evolving slowly, but there is a feel of anticipation that is unshakable here. I have really been pleasantly surprised by this book, as when I bought issue one, I never expected to later buy issue four. The recreated Captain America, Iron Man, Nick Fury, Wasp, Giant Man, and Hulk are all fresh and fascinating, and this title has really shone compared to…

Captain America #1  – Marvel comics. This recently re-launched title, now flying under the Marvel Knights banner, had a huge amount of hype behind it. The cover art was pretty too, so I picked them both up. These books remind me of comics publish in the early forties, where the American heroes pounded the evil Germans. The new Captain America book is chock full of American propoganda. It has little content, and less vision. It’s a pass.

Well, that’s all for now.

Abayo!

Scott MacIver



Take a minute to fill out this nice form and give the nice columnist some nice feedback. Our columnists are volunteers, they do this for you, let 'em know you care.
Your message of love:

Your email address (optional):



Disclaimer | Email Us | Dance!
Text, images, design, and our groovy mojo are ©.
return to the top of the page





Warning: require(): http:// wrapper is disabled in the server configuration by allow_url_include=0 in /home/public/columns/includes/footer.php on line 3

Warning: require(http://www.tangmonkey.com/includes/ads.php): Failed to open stream: no suitable wrapper could be found in /home/public/columns/includes/footer.php on line 3

Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Failed opening required 'http://www.tangmonkey.com/includes/ads.php' (include_path='.:/usr/local/php/8.0.30-nfsn2/lib/:/usr/local/php/lib/') in /home/public/columns/includes/footer.php:3 Stack trace: #0 /home/public/columns/102301903144308.php(77): require() #1 {main} thrown in /home/public/columns/includes/footer.php on line 3