Comicstache

This was a very interesting issue. I really appreciate that this series is often able to catch me off guard and do something unpredictable. There were at least two large plot twists in this issue that I didnt see coming. That always makes for a fun read.

There were three main storylines going on in this book and Im sure that those threads are meant to all tie in in the next issue which they tell us will show why this arc is called "Explosiontown".

The first storyline is the one of our main protagonist and his best friend Margaret as they continue to search for places on Earth where they can recharge Wizord's magic. The second is the newly unmagical Ruby Stitch's first wonderinngs alone in her new world. Finally, the third is Sizzajee's tournament in the Hole World to determine who will go destory Earth and Wizord and Ruby along with it.

Wizord's story for the most part, did not take up a lot of time in this issue, but the ending revelation was probably the most important. Although Wizord has been severed from magic, he has been able to continue to recharge himself. Mostly by going to large gatherings of crowds that believe in and or root for something and that crowd experience of wonder and excitement transforms into magic and a longer beard for Wizord.

Margaret Wizord's confidante begins checking into the places that they had previously visited and discovers that they are all closed down. They had realized as they charged up at a baseball game that as soon as Wizord was done charging, everybody cleared the stadium. This leads to the realization that Wozord isnt just recharging off of that faith and excitement, but is actually sucking it dry. WHAT!!!???? Believe it or not i was completely caught off guard. I did not see this coming. Add on yet another moral dilemma to Wizord's existence in our world.

Ruby Stitch's story arc in this issue was my favorite. First, she is using a baby app on an iPad to learn English. I was so moved by that because she is so excited to use it and not at all ashamed. She is also going around looking for places from which to suck the magic. Although she does not manage to find such a place in this issue, she feels that she almost does and i found myself rooting for her. She may in fact be my favorite character over Wizord and Margaret.

The last storyline about Hole World tournament also ended with a bit of a twist. The last two contestants are Botchko and Violet, two wizards having an affair. Their plan is to have one of them win, then they will be together, Botchko will leave his wife and theyll be the Hole World power couple. Speaking kn the shadows, Botchko insists he should win since no one would believe is Violet beat him. She takes that comment to heart and shows him up in the ring... In fact, Im not entirely sure how it works... but I think she kills him... much to everyone's surprise. This of course means she will be the next one to confront Wizord and possibly also Ruby Stitch.

This was not my favorit issue, but it was still very good. It simply suffers from being the build up issue, where so much action is promised but we turn the last page feeling unsatisfied because... we have to wait another month. But I will definitely be reading it in a month. And if this issue caught me off guard, i can only imagine whats in store.

IDW Comics has been given the rights by Disney and Marvel to make a comic book for kids. Just so you know, it’s definitely for kids.

I feel like I have to make this clear: I know that the comic book is for kids. But I also acknowledge that that is why I don’t like it. The stories are boring and just hyjinks and the art is simple and made to look more cartoony than I like. I know... it’s not for me.

They include two stories. Both of them with a beginning middle and end. Story 1: Finn chases a rat around Starkiller base for 10 pages. Story 2: K-2SO baby sits 3 wookie babies. That’s it...

Nonetheless, I read it because its Star Wars and I love Star Wars. And who knows? I may have kids some day and this would definitely be a great way to get them into comics. But until then... I’m just gonna suffer through it.

This issue starts off with something I had never even considered could happen with all this: Darth Vader facing down a droid being controlled by the spirit of a Jedi. Of course, we know Vader wins, but it’s still cool that it even happened.

In the escape of the chaos, Triple Zero and BT run off with Yonak, the Rodian cyborg. Now when I say run off, I mean that they take control of him, most likely through intimidation. Then they use his underworld contacts to piss people off so they come to see Yonak. Unfortunately, it is all just a ploy for Triple Zero and BT to unleash their serial killer ways.

Vader, of course, does defeat Rur, but not after Rur attempts to use his power of taking over machines to try to take over Vader. Vader laughs and tells him it’s been tried before and he has improved his safeguards. I love that he references his battle with Cylo in Darth Vader 24 and 25. In the end, he kills the Rur droid and takes the crystal back to Palatine, who puts it in a vault with a number of other artifacts that have us all wondering... what could those be? (And I don’t like to be negative, but I HATED how Palpatine was drawn in this issue).

Black Krrsantann, we discover has run off to the outer rim and has traded his former masters in to be trained as gladiators... by him! Revenge is a dish best served hairy.

And Aphra? Well, she leaves with a ton of artifacts to both The Shadow University and the Museum of Bar’leth and splits up her discoveries. The Shadow University promises a future favor and the museum offers her some good money. She takes that money and goes on a beach vacation to Zeltros, where she’s served alcoholic drinks by a sassy looking waitress droid.

Of course, it could never end that way and she is found by the friends of the other archeologist she killed in issue 1. Of course, she doesn’t look worried.

This was a good wrap up issue. It almost feels like they’re going to stop, but I know they aren’t. I would say the biggest weakness was trying to wrap everything up so tidy and quickly. It seemed a little rushed and quite a bit too lucky. Nonetheless, it was good and in keeping with the characters.

Oh, boy! Here it is! Im putting it at the top.

My prediction: This is the final arc we will get that takes place before The Force Awakens. This issue was fantastic, especiaally for being the first part of an arc. It was clearly setting things up, but it did so much more than that.

First, we get to see Lor San Tekka. Thats right! The first voice we hear in The Force Awakens, we get to hear again. Even more exciting was the tie in to the prequels with him appearing on Cato Nemoidia. I thought showing that Cato Nemoidia became the world of vaults after the rise of the Empire was very sensible. (And makes me wonder what else they might be hiding.) In the end, he gets ccaptured, but thats good cause it means C-3PO's spy droids can finally find him.

Threepio is quickly informed of his whereabouts and quickly rushes through the secret base of the Resistance looking for Leia.

The first pperson he runs into is Poe Dameron who is jusy getting back from a ride in a basic T-70 XWing. He is surprised when he finds BB8 has been getting his ship fixed up with the help of another astromech, Ivee. It then implies that there is a romance going on between BB and Ivee... start the fanfics.

One romance that is not going so well is Snap and Karé's. Karé senses the approaching storm of the battle with the First Order and breaks things off with Snap. She uses a line about how the Jedi had nothing to do with attachments and that let them make the right decisions. To say the least, Snap doesnt applaud that part of the Jedi philosophy.

Finally we get to see that Jess Pava is worried about the new nickname the astormechs have given her, "The Great Destroyer". She tries to meet with them to get to know them. Only BB8 sticks around and gibes her the thumbs up that made our hearts laugh in the Force Awakens... at least we think its a thumbs up... Jess is not so sure.

For the record, i think it is brilliant of Charles Soule to play off the audience confusion of that gesture in the film. Half my friends (myself included), were sure it was a thumbs up while the others were sure it was a middle finger. This comment of Jess' plays off of that little fandom quibble. So brilliant.

Finally

Finally C-3PO finds Leia as she is commenting about how small The Resistance is and how complacency is The First Orders greatest weapon. She calls Black Squadron together and gives them the mission they have always had: Go get Lor San Tekka.

I can not wait to see where this arc goes (other than Cato Nemoidia, obviously). I am so sure we are finally gonna be lead into the first scene of The Force Awakens which leaves me with one question... will the series end... or are Poe Dameron's post-8 adventures just around the corner?

“Powering through” is how I would describe my relationship with Black Science. I have only read it in its trade paperback form, and what would always happen is I would have trouble getting through it and then all of a sudden the last page would leave me on a cliffhanger and I would HAVE to know what happened so I moved to the next one. I’m happy to say, On the fourth Black Science I finally got an incredible emotional payoff. Here now onto the Fifth, True Atonement, I am finding that the payoffs keep on coming.

If I remember correctly, 4 ends with Grant having come to terms with the fact that he has been a horrible father and husband due to his narcissism and, having created a new flying Pillar (inter-dimensional travel tool) and gotten the locations in the Onion (map of all the dimensions) of where his team members ended up, he flies off to make up for all the mistakes he made.

True Atonement opens up on his daughter, Pia’s, location. She has arrived in a dimension with three warring faction and she helped broker a peace treaty for the first time in thousands of years. She is considered a Goddess and is engaged to marry the prince of one of the three cultures. The way she brought them together was to take a relic that each of them had that were made to be together and it creates a super relic. As they are celebrating the reemergence of the omnimid (the super-relic) Grant Mckay comes flying down in his Pillar... and destroys it.

His daughter is distraught that he was so easily able to ruin the one thing she accomplished. She has always hated him for his self-absorbed narcissism and this obviously is the last straw. She tries to help the cultures find common ground and hold the peace together even as they begin to accuse her of having this be the plan all along.

A dinner is thrown to come up with a way to fix it and also to have Grant McKay to apologize and explain how he managed to destroy the omnimid. While they discover that if they are able to recover the Oxen Heart from a which that no one ever survives, Grant accidentally gets drunk and causes a horrible scene, groping the breasts of one of the other cultures goddesses... much to the horror of his daughter.

Having no other recourse, to prove he will do whatever it takes to save the life his daughter had built, he takes a horse named Spaghetti and charges off after the Oxen Heart. Pia meanwhile talks to her fiance and complains that her father is always a screw up. Nonetheless, he is able to reason with her and she follows after her father.

Grant arrives at the home of a little old lady who is overly courteous and feeds him and offers him shelter and some advice about being a parent. He nonetheless tells her about his mission to retreive the Oxen Heart in order to show his love to his daughter and she explains that it is an evil thing and the witch is dangerous. Pia then shows up and the lady makes a comment about forgiveness being difficult but neccessary, then goes outside for something leaving the father and daughter to talk. It is during this conversation when they glance over on the shelves and find... the Oxen Heart.

The lady returns and reveals she is the witch and that she will give Grant the Heart... in exchange for the one thing he holds dear: His Intellect. He agrees and the witch gives  him the heart, takes his intellect and disappears with the words “my love shall grace you at the Great Barter to come.” Its likely we will see the witch again.

Grant’s giving up of his intellect for his daughter is one of the most emotional things I have ever seen in this series so far and I was truly moved.

They return and the peace is restored and Grant tells pia he will leave and never come back since she is happy there. While preparing to navigate to his next missing crew member, Pia comes into the ship and says he’s going with her so Grant changes course and takes them back to the real world home.

As they walk back to their old house where they left Grant’s wife Sara, they really talk and bond and even with Grant’s average intellect, he is able to make Pia understand that he loves her and is proud of her. When they reach the door, Grant says he can’t face his wife and leaves and as Pia opens the door she finds Kadir, a villain from the previous stories, there with her mother who is delighted to see her. Grant is then assaulted and taken to prison by Mr Block, a villain from a different dimension making his way into ours with Kadir’s help and Mr Block is the one pulling the strings.

ONce Grant is secured Block returns to the Grant house and tells Pia they have concocted a lie where Grant went crazy and killed his son and his crewmembers and that Kadir is the real hero. Having just now finally come to love and appreciate her father she says she’ll fight, but after threats are made against her mother and father, she agrees to go along with it.

The last part of the book doesn’t actually end on a cliffhanger, but a few things do happen. Firstly, we discover that Block is mining all the dimensions for anything new and interesting and making tons of money. ONe of the things he find begins to grow and make the most over the top violent claims. Nonetheless, he keeps it alive.

At a party, Sara accidently calls Kadir Grant, thus inciting him to visit Grant in prison and beat him nearly to death claiming the whole time that he has and always will love his wife better than Grant ever could. This is how it ends.

This book is the first Black Science trade I could not put down. The story was tighter and more emotionally driven than ever before. The characters are stronger... Remender really brought his A-Game to this arc. This is the payoff I have been waiting for.

Hello again. This is the next post in my catching up to the Valiant Universe Timeline, a little project I’m doing of trying to read all Valiant universe trades in order of their release. I came up with this idea after hearing that they would be the next comic book publisher to try to bring their superhero universe into film. While Marvel and DC have gigantic libraries that it would be almost impossible to catch up on, Valiant, though it has been going on since 2012, is still comparably smaller and so I decided I’d give it a whirl. This review is on the last of the Origin story trades in the original Intro to Valiant Universe heros: the New Orleans-based SHADOW MAN!

The original Shadowman we are introduced to is not the one we will be getting to know, but his father. He is fighting a villain we learn is named Darque and that villain pushes him through what at this time we know is some dimensional rift. Current day Shadowman’s mother, pregnant with him and wearing a very noticeable talisman, is leaving New Orleans to get away from it all. And that gets us to the current one.

He is named Jack Boniface. I was extremely happy to see that he was drawn as a mixed race character. He travels all over learning the secrets of his past, as he grew up in foster care and knew nothing of his parents. His search brings him to New Orleans where a police investigator helping him uncovers his parents dossiers. They are criminals.

On the other side of town a pair of officers meet our main villain. As they walk into a broken down bar, they find bodies strewn about and suddenly the bodies begin to come together to create a being that calls itself Mr Twist and then fires small flesh worms at them that take control of their bodies. Yes. That’s what hes up against.

Upon finding out that his parents were criminals, Jack takes the talisman his mother gave him and exasperatedly throws it into the ocean. We are then introduced to his allies, “the good guys”, Dox and Alyssa, who know that if they can now feel him (the talisman was masking his magical signature), so can the bad guys.

And they do find him, in the guise of the cops Mr Twist took control of. They quickly reveal themselves, grabbing him and when he tries to escape, they shoot him. This is when he goes to another dimension and meets what we later learn is called the loa or spirit that makes him Shadowman. The issue ends with him in his new appearance facing down the flesh cops.

The beginning of the second issue brings all the characters together as Dox and Alyssa, together called the Abettors, coming barrelling through in a car firing bullets with etched in magic. As the three fight off the two flesh monsters, both are eventually vanquished by removing the little flesh worms. One wriggles back to its master while the other is captured by Dox for study.

As it slithers back to Mr Twist, he is getting the finishing touches of a suit done before revealing that his goal is to consume souls until he reaches a certain amount that allow him to do a certain something. We learn this because he is talking to a member of the Brethren, named Lionel and reminding him that though they asked for him to be brought to life, they are not in charge of him, which bothers Lionel both for the obvious of now having the control, and the other hand of realizing just what the Brethren have unleashed.

Our hero, meanwhile, is waking up to discover that he is back in his normal body, and his body is whole and unbroken, though his clothes show bullet wounds. He is confused as to what happened and goes back to work at the voodoo museum, only to be confronted there by Alyssa who shows him that there is magic and what he thought happened last night was not a dream. Personally, I thought they cold fire hand thing was very Moses and Egypt, but that’s just me. The two then go to where Dox, a brilliant small person, is working on dissecting the little flesh worm and there they start to explain to Jack some of the workings of magic, though it’s clear he is not getting it.

On the other side of the dimensional veil, we discover that the original villain, Darque is in a netherworldy university and has been learning some very dangerous magic from a “professor” who he then kills so that they can be the only keeper of the knowledge. HE then telepathically communicates with Mr Twist as they reveal that they are trying to shatter the barrier between the real world and this nether world Darque is in, and that now that Shadowman has been revealed, Mr Twist much personally dispatch him. Being a villain, he is happy to oblige, and the issue ends with him appearing in Dox’s home due to the flesh worm giving away the position and having been easily let inside.

Issue three starts with a 1 on 3 battle of Mr Twist fighting Jack, Dox, and Alyssa, who don’t seem to be able to make much of a dent. Dox continues to fight and shooes away Jack and Alyssa so that he can learn to bring out his Shadowman. As they run out they discover the front door is blocked by the Brethren who begin to fire at them. Seeing no other option, Alyssa stabs Jack with a broken piece of glass hoping to jolt the Shadowman to life. Instead, they are both taken to a new dimension we learn is called “The Deadside”.

They are separated upon their arrival. Alyssa awakens to find herself surrounded by soulless ghosts, while Jack is awakened by a voodoo faced monkey who tells him more about the Deadside and also that there is someone there he needs to meet.

Meanwhile, Dox is being questioned by Twist and Lionel who discover that he has tattoos on his body that contain gargantuan amounts of magic. Twist lets us know that this means that he does not need to continue consuming souls and can get the remaining magic he needs from drawing it out of the tattoos on Dox’s body, moving forward the urgency of the plan.

In the Deadside, Alyssa is fighting off ghosts who, being soulless, simply hunger for a soul and Jack is taken to meet the Shadowman from the beginning, who is guarding the portal to our world from Darque or any other bad magic that wants to get through. Though it is never expressly said in the conversation, it is clear that this is Jack’s father. He tells Jack that he gave him the talisman so that he could have a choice to not be the Shadowman because his father knows what kind of sacrifices it requires. Jack nonetheless takes on the mantle listening to Alyssa’s screams and knowing he wants to save her. And, having fully joined himself to the loa, he finds Alyssa and begins defeating the ghosts.

The issue ends with Twist explaining to Darque how he is going to use Dox to open the way.

WE then see the end of the fight with the ghosts in the Deadside as Shadowman destroys them easily. However, Alyssa, having fended them off for so long, seems to have died. However, Shadowman is able to revive her and they set about trying to find a way back.

We are then finally introduced to the rest of the Brethren, a small cabal of humans in the top of large industries, who clearly believe that working with Darque holds the keys to them gaining some sort of imortality.

Twist, finally putting his plan into action, opens a portal using Dox’s tattoos and welcomes his master to come on through. Surprise! Shadowman and Alyssa walk through instead. As they fight they begin to realize that as much as Shadowman destroys Twist’s flesh, he continues to fight. He then rushes Shadowman and they both go through the portal to the Deadside.

THis last part gets complicated. Twist, it turns out, is jsut a huge spell to be able to get into the Deadside so he can open another door for Darque to get out of the netherworld he was in, and from the Deadside, Darque would be able to more freely move through to the real world... I know.

However, the Deadside is Shadowman’s realm and knowing that Twist is all flesh and pieces of humanity, he calls the ghosts who orignally attacked Alyssa to eat him up. They do and Darque is blown back into the other netherwold and Shadowman and the Abettors rush back to the real world.

Once there, they congratulate each other on a job well done and Dox reminds them that the Brethren are still out there and have just been delayed.

All in all, this is not my favorite of the Valiant superheros. It is good. There’s some good lines, the art is great, but despite that it is clear they tried to add emotion to it, i didn’t feel invested in the Shadowman. If anything, I would say that this suffered from what we’ve come to see in a number of superhero comic books and movies: The Origin Sydrome. In other words, the hero just spent to much time trying to figure out how to be the superhero and I found myself exasperated at how long it took for him to truly become the Shadowman. However, I will be reading the next chapter and perhaps with this backstory it will more deeply resonate.

It’s inevitable. Corporate synergy at its most obvious. There had to be a Rogue One Marvel Miniseries, just like the Force Awakens before it, and the entire saga before that. However, what The Force Awakens Marvel adaptation showed us was that a new version of a story... didn’t have to be new in any way. Fortunately, Rogue One is choosing to add more in the comic book than we got in the fantastic film from December.

I enjoy that it starts out with something people from the old Expanded Universe have been clamoring for from the new books: a Character page. Now it doesn’t have everyone, but we immediately get a rebellion dossier on Jyn Erso, Saw Guerrera, Galen Erso, Captain Casian Andor and K2-SO.

It opens with the same prelude as the film. WE get Galen and his family on Lah’Mu where Krennic finds him, kills his wife, orphans his child, and takes him back to the Empire. I’m probably not gonna go into the stuff that’s in the film too much.

It then moves to our first EXTRA scene. WE get a page that features Galen Erso telling Imperial pilot Bodhi Rook that he is making a planet killer and that now that he knows, Bodhi can choose to make the big decision or can go on pretending he had no way to prepare for the inevitable evil of the Empire. Bodhi Rook really is the hero of Rogue One. I don’t know if it comes across that way in the film, but I think narratively, there’s no way around it.

The next extra scene is Jyn Erso being put into a cell on the Wobani Labor Prison planet. She is then threatened by her cellmate. A great way to start off her twenty-year sentence. However, it does give her a bit more of a witty personality than she had in the film, so while that’s fun it is a liiiiiitle inconsistent.

Bodhi Rook then returns as we get to see his desertion from the Empire. Its actually a little less dramatic than you would think... at first. He simply lands a ship on Jedha and walks away. However, he goes looking for Saw Guerrera’s merry band of Rebels, and that’s when his adventure really begins. Pretty much he starts yelling that he needs to see Saw and they look at him like he’s crazy.

If you’re at all familiar with the story of Rogue One, you’ll see this comic moves pretty fast. We’re only on page 9 of 32.

This is when we meet my favorite character from Rogue One: Casian Andor. We meet him in the same way as the film, except for a couple extra minutes before when we see he arrives on the planet dressed as an Imperial. Of course he escapes after killing his contact who tells him about the deserted pilot talking about a planet killer.

The rest of it you’ve seen in the movie. I’d be very surprised if someone was reading this comic that hadn’t seen the film. We see Jyn’s rescue. Her meeting with Mon Mothma. Her leaving the planet with Casian and K2. Krennic’s meeting with Tarkin.

Finally, it ends introducing us to Baze and Chirrut as they realize the Imperials around them are acting funny.

It’s really fun to get to see additional scenes. The art by Emilio Laiso and Oscar Bazaldua is fantastic and very true to the film and the characters. I really enjoyed it.

One of the biggest and best ongoing series from Image Comics is East of West. My fiance and I have been reading them together and are just about caught up to the current issue. We’ve been reading them in the trade paperback volumes and we are absolutely entranced by the story and characters given to us by Johnathan Hickman and Nick Dragotta. Here is a breakdown, as brief as I can make it about the movements and moments found in Volume 5, issues 20-24.

In this issue we get to really meet Doma for the first time. The efficient assistant to the President of the Union (Alternative Universe North East America), she has been in the book for almost the entirety of the run, but up til this point has always appeared as little more than a toadie for the overwhelmed President. The main point of this one is to expand her backstory and her motivation.

The President has been sending emissaries to The Nation (Alternative Universe Indian Tribes that have banded together and populated the mid-US). They have been sent back in pieces. Desperate to open a dialogue she sends Doma, her personal assistant, hoping that her closeness to the office will start the conversation and keep her from being killed.

We are treated to a scene of a flashback where the now dead Mao is talking toa group of people called the Widowmakers, saying that they are early twenties people brought together to act as a body guard unit for the leader of The Republic (Alternative Universe California made up of mostly asians). We are given a close up of one of these Widowmakers who has been sent as an emissary of the Republic to The Nation as he is arriving.

This Widowmaker is accompanying the Shaman to back to The Nation after the Shaman made a deal with the new Mao that The Republic would support The Nation in their war with the Union in exchange for the two Widowmakers to be in the Nation to keep an eye on some things. They walk in and state that position very aggressively to the Leader of the Nation who says they talk too much, but that he doesn’t mind knowing for sure who his friends and enemies are.

It is then that Doma arrives bearing gifts. And she is greeted with the same violence that the previous emissaries were. Doing some fast talking, she gets herself down from assassination to mutilation and being sent back. As she is being beat up (and making comments about how “her father hit her harder”), the Widowmakers, who were standing by witnessing the scene, brandish their weapons and holds it to Doma’s throat asking her if she still has value while also halting the beatings.

It is then that we are treated to the end of that flashback scene with the same Widowmaker being trained by the old Mao. Mao is mentioning that not only are the personal guards, but also are going to act as sleeper agents and spies and then we are treated to a glimpse of... dun Dun DUUUUNNN... Doma... being trained as a Widowmaker. PLOT TWIST!

This next issue is very very very very very dialogue heavy, but doesn’t really move the plot forward that much.

In issue 21 we are shown a meeting among the Chiefs of the Nation in which they have discovered that Doma Lux and the Widowmaker are getting it on and are trying to figure out what it means. Half of them are then prepared to not trust the Union or the Republic, but the rest think it’s just sex or thanks for the Widowmaker stopping the beatings.

The Chief of Chiefs then says he’s tired of talking and is going out to the wilderness to a forbidden place where he can talk to the old gods. He does and speaks with him in  a dream and the god, wearing the skin of his brother says that he has seen the future and the Nation’s city is fallen, but that it can be fixed with one simple tribute. He then asks if the chief is willing to sacrifice himself or wants to gamble with all of the lives of his people.

A day later, he goes back and tells Doma Lux to go back to the President and make sure she stays in her confidence and to wait for direction from either the Nation or the Republic about what to do and then the Widowmaker taps in a morse code of sorts that he will protect her however he can.

And that’s the end... admittedly, like I said... not a lot of movement, but a lot of talking.

Thus begins issue 22. It follows an issue that was very heavy on dialogue. This issue has.... 1 talk bubble. Just 1.

It is all art. And it is a beautiful example of sequetially art. In other words... what comics should be. In it we get to see an assassination attempt on Mao while she is in the bath. It is not clear who is attacking her. They break into her palace, destroy her room and then when she is not there, they find her in the bath. He handmaidens sacrifice themselves for her and then she owns the faces of her attackers while naked. Its an amazing sequence. Only one escapes and then is killed by a handler who sends the text message FAILURE just before warriors of the Republic jump into his hiding place and kill him.

The final page is the leader of the Confederacy (alt universe southern states) receiving the FAILURE text message and commenting that that complicates things.

That’s all that this comic is but it keeps you on the edge of your seat and is literally one of the most action packed single issues of a comic book that may exist. If anyone wants to give me a copy of the single issue of this signed by Nick Dragotta, please and thank you.

The next issue continues and we discover that the Confederacy contracted an international japanese sydicate to assassinate Xiaolin Mao. The leader of the confederacy drones on self importantly to distract that representative of the syndicate while his niece and assistant serves the guy poison tea, killing him. Finally, he invites her to a meeting of the Chosen (a multinational group of world leaders who believe their job is to bring about the Apocalypse).

We are then shown a scene of the prince of the Kingdom of New Orleans (alt universe New Orleans) opening the vaults of one of the kingdom’s treasuries. In a previous volume the President of the Union had asked the Prince of the Kingdom for a loan and he decided to do it so that he can have something to hold over their heads.

Doma Lux shows up to take possession of the three tons of gold and then jets off back to the Union.

The Prince is then immediately confronted by his father’s Vizier’s who says she saw what happened and knows the King did not approve. The Prince gives her a counter offer: she can be his queen and help him take over the Kingdom.

He also then reveals that he is a Chosen and wants to be honest with her about that. He also comments that the reason he wants her is because he once had a friend who was a chosen and got it but that that friend had disappeared. Turns out that friend was Wolf, an Indian confidant of Death.

The next issue moves on to show how the Chosen were called to their next meeting.

Now, the Prophet, Ezra, is a freaky dude. When the temple of the Apocalypse was destroyed he ate the Gospel and believe himself to be the living word. He is attended by a demon that he grew on his body. He is writing individual messages for each of the chosen tattooed on the backs of humans who he then feeds to his demon. Like i said, he’s a freaky dude. He calls the President of the Union, the Prince of the Kingdom, the Leader of the Confederacy, Xiaolin Mao of the Republic, the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and Bel, the leader of Texas which has pretty much otherwise been destroyed.

We are also showed a scene with the Horsemen in which they read their message from the Prophet and talk about how they raised him, but now he thinks he’s in charge and is an idiot. They don’t like him. They also seem to be doing some kind of ritual involving changing their bodies, but we don’t get to see the result of that rite.

We finally get to see my favorite character, Death, who is still looking for the son he had with Xiaolin and he is being temporarily abandoned by his attendees Wolf and Crow who also feel they have been called somehow to this meeting of the Chosen. Crow reveals that she has seen that he will find his son and destroy those who took him from him. They then ride off.

Our final scene is with the governor of the defunct state of Texas. He and the last surviving Texas Ranger are pretty much the last representation of Texas and they get the message sent to them by the Prophet. They are surprised to receive it as they have pretty much been unempowered. They decide to go and the Ranger makes it clear that he is out for blood.

This is such a great series. I can’t wait to see where they go. They do all they need to to tell fantastic complicated stories and have great art. I love it.

It started off as a great idea for a book and I was extremely excited. However, between the last two issues, I’m afraid it’s become something as a miss in execution. Indistinct art style and 2 dimensional characters have kept it from leaping out at me the way I thought it would.

OUr main character was in the Underneath (killed) and comes back. This was to prove that she could. The coroner asks her if she can go back to get his wife’s soul. She refuses to be killed again. We later find out her body and mind are with the coroner, but her soul is missing. I assume that that is why she has such dead eyes, however, most of the characters do due to the art style.

Meanwhile, a zombie guy has made it to the undertaker’s shop and when a couple guys try to break in, he klls them.

Our main character finds the the three people who killed her family and after a shoot out, managers to kill them all. Then another person sneaks up behind her and cuts her throat. She dies and sees her family in the Underneath, but then is brought back to life before she can get them. She wakes up left out in the wilderness for dead.

There’s very little actual plot that happens. A large portion is made up of a shoot out. The large amount of exposition in the front of the book doesn’t really add to the investment in either of the two main characters. As excited as I was for this book, and despite that there are only two more issues, I will not be finishing this series.

The most tragic thing that could ever happen to a man, nay, a wizard has happened. Wizord’s beard has disappeared, along with his ability to use magic. And all his old wizard friends, including his ex-lover, are after him. What a place for a wizard to be.

The story opens not with our protagonist however, but with the aforementioned ex-lover. She is in the Hole World and she seems to be performing a spell. Not just any spell, but a hardcore spell involving lots of rubies, memories of Wizord falling for her and her not reciprocating, and some amount of self-cheering. IN the end, she says that she “done DID it” and is wielding an awesome ruby sword.

Elsewhere in the Hole World, we get to see something I love to see in a creative universe: a map! It’s a map of all Sizzajee’s realms and how they are divided among the other wizards. In it he is seeing that some tiger people have learned of Cornwall’s death and are trying to take over the area. Sizzajee is very worn down but cutting Wizord off from the magic and asks Ruby Stitch to go take care of Cornwall’s place. When she questions him he says she won’t need to save her strength for Wizord because he took his powers away.

That’s when we get our first look at the power-starved Wizord. He’s drunk. Also, since the loss of power took his beard away, he’s wearing a fake beard, which makes its way all over his face during this scene. Margaret is trying to comfort him, but he’s rather inconsolable. He wants to be drunk and he knows that there is no way for him to get his magic back. It is then that he turns his head to the tv to see the pop star he helped made Johnny Platinum talking about how great he is and how he is gonna make the world a better place. This upsets Wizord and he goes on a verbal tirade. He reminds Margaret, and all the people videoing him with their phones (I thought that was brilliant), that they are soon to be dead because he was the only one who could protect the world and now that he couldn’t, soon he would be assassinated and then the world would be destroyed. To end his tirade he becomes extremely emotional and says he misses Ruby Stitch.

She has just made her way to Cornwall’s where the cupids are trying to defend the castle against the tiger people. You can imagine how that’s going. They mention that they have brought in extremely intense tanks which is odd for them. Ruby Stitch is ready to go.

Meanwhile, Wizord is drunkenly hitting on barwomen. Margaret drags him out of the bar after seeing something in the newspaper, luckily for the poor bargirl.

It turns out that Margaret managed to discover a theatre showing of Titanic and it effects Wizord emotionally. He describes it as magical. It is then that Margaret has him remove his fake beard and he sees that there is some magic fuzz growing back. WIth what little magic he has recovered he conjures a Eucalyptus leaf for Margaret, which I thought was very moving. This section was actually pretty emotional in its way.

As they walk home, Margaret says she knows places to discover more magical wellsprings and Wizord begins to seem optimistic again. That’s before he opens the door and finds an investigative team.

The issue ends with Ruby Stitch using that big sword to disintegrate the tank the tigers had as well as a large portion of their army. She seems surprised at how powerful it is, and now that that task of keeping that realm in line seems just about done, she gonna turn that power sword towards WIzord.

THis was a really great story telling issue and personality development issue. Just more of the best. 

So a Wizard has come to New York and become something of a celebrity. Then he does something that’s probably just a little too far. Then again, if he hadn’t done it the world would have soon been dead... Then again, to tell the world that, he would have to admit that destroying the world had been his original intent before humanity charmed him. Such is the drama of Wizord and Curse Words.

Wizord has a lot of explaining to do. (Un)fortunately for him, everyone he needs to explain things to has just been placed in stasis and shrunk to microscopic size. He reminds his Koala buddy Margaret that he is not a monster. That’s why he made sure they stayed alive... such as it is. He’s determined to fix this. And his ex-buddies watching from the Hole World are determined to fix him.

Dark Lord Sizzajee, ex-girlfriend Ruby Stitch, and ex-dudepigbro Botchko are discussing why Ruby should be the one to destroy him and then later the world. She insists that she is his equal and moreover, knows his secrets do to their “pillow talks”. Botchko seems unconvinced and interestingly calls Wizord THE DOOM STAR. I’d love to know where that nickname came from. One thing that surprised me is how non-classical these guys talk. For some reason they seemed old-school Lord of the Rings timeless type wizards, however, they use phrases like, “Your man has a plan”, “needs to go”, “straight-up” and “pretty shitty” just to name  few. That was a cool creative decision.

Wizord needs more power. Wizord’s power comes from freely given or exchanged sapphires. This causes him to seek out Mr. B (I can’t spell his name), an old military warlord who wears the largest sapphire in the world, The Great Star of Colombo, around his neck. He offers the old warlord one wish in exchange for the sapphire. The warlord says “Make me 20″. Margaret takes Wizord aside and advises that that much time for such a bad-intentioned man could be enough for major evil to happen in the world. Wizord is clever though. He makes 19 more Mr. B’s so that he is now 20. His word is kept and the inevitable happens. All the Mr B’s kill all the other Mr B’s. An interesting little commentary on the corruption of great power and bad intention.

Meanwhile, we see Ruby Stitch return to what I believe is her main castle world. It is inhabited by cardinal bird warriors and she keeps a large ruby there that was given to her by her ex-lover, Wizord. As she remembers the night that he turned it from a sapphire to a ruby, she takes out a hammer and smashes it. I’m not gonna lie, this scene... I don’t understand what its purpose is. At best, its showing that she’s over Wizord and has no sentimental feelings towards him? Perhaps when she smashed it it gave her more power? That’s probably what it is. She’s juicing up to beat him down.

The next scene is just one page, but I think it may be extremely important. In it, Sizzajee is lamenting Wizord and proclaiming that his next actions will hurt, although I’m not sure if he means for himself or for Wizord. He is on top of some kind of machine from which extend 9 differently-colored cords. One is already broken, leaking, and dying. That one is Cornwall, most likely, as it is his signature pink. The more interesting thing being that now we know there are probably 9 wizards in the universe... and Sizzajee has a knife poised on the big blue one.

The next sequence is extremely emotional and really touched me. In it, Wizord tells Margaret why he shrunk and froze all the people in the world that saw him kill Cornwall. He doesn’t want the world to be afraid of him and up to this point, he hadn’t seen much fear towards him in the world. Then he killed another Wizord on public tv. He knows that he was saving the world at that point, but if they thought for a second that he was a threat, not only would he have the HOLE world after him, but he could also have the WHOLE world after him. His monologue is beautiful and I would go so far as to say that its pretty character defining.

Wizord just wants to help people and bring them joy and feel like he’s not the terrible person he had been on other worlds. Thus, instead of using the world’s largest sapphire to juice up like Ruby Stitch, he uses it to create a world for the frozen people in his pocket where everything they could ever want exists. He gives them pretty much heaven. Poetically, that is his last act before Suzzajee’s knife cuts through Wizord’s blue cord of the magic machine....

Feeling he’s done right by everybody, he announces that creating a heaven took all his power, but it was worth it. Then he falls to the ground. He can’t feel the magic any more and worst of all... his face is bald. That’s right. No power beard.

This is such a good series. A great sense of humor, fantastic world building, real stakes, real drama and ethical dilemmas. I love it. But I’ve always loved Charles Soule’s writing and I’m falling in love with Ryan Browne’s art. A few slightly difficult parts in this issue to understand as they build their universe, but all in all a really solid book.

I was gonna cover this new ongoing from series from Charles Soule and Ryan Browne in one foul swoop, but I just can’t bring myself to do it. So, instead of getting a lump sum and broad thoughts on the three issues that have been released so far, I am gifting you all with my deep thoughts on each issue one at a time. I know, you’re enchanted.

We are introduced to our protagonist, the not-so-subtly named Wizord. It may surprise you to discover, he is a wizard. His introduction is probably one of the most timeless introductions I have ever seen. We first meet him sitting at a desk, a koala at his shoulder asking an unknown party the line, “So... You want to see a magic trick.” Time. Less. We also quickly get Wizord’s three rules: “NO CURES NO WARS NO LOVE”. (It has since been revealed by writer Charles Soule that it is not that he can’t do those things, just that he chooses to abstain from that magic.)

We turn the page to discover that joining him in his office is a young guy named Johnny One. He’s a pop star and he wants to be platinum. No, not have a platinum record. He wants to physically be platinum. Wizord warns Johnny that if this happens, it is hard magic and things could go wrong. Johnny is not stifled in the least and Wizord lets him have it with the business end of the staff.

After the spell is complete, Johnny is platinum and the extremity of the magic has broken Wizord’s sunglasses. I’m making a prediction now, that those glasses are always gonna take a beating in this series. Johnny at first is elated that he has everything he wants... til he realizes he has everything he wants. Being now made out of metal, he can’t feel anything and he starts to freak out, even as Wizord pats himself on the back for the level of skill it took. And that’s when, as it says on the back of the book and on the inside of the first page, “then it all went to hell”

An explosion rocks the office building, Johnny Platinum is thrown out the window and we get introduced to the second wizard of Curse Words, Cornwall. This wizard is probably my least favorite thing about this issue. It’s mostly the design and believe it or not, the over-compensating mustache. Also, the weird pink fru fru attire. I’m not a fan. Fortunately, SPOILER WARNING, he doesn’t make it through the issue.

It’s here that we get Wizords backstory; at least as far as when he arrived on Earth. He arrives in New York, naturally. His rat friend (who eventually becomes his koala friend) has been scouting New York for 5 years and prepared a place for him to conduct a special spell. He is discovered by a pair of mounted police officers, who, not knowing what to make of him, begin to laugh, inspiring his wrath and causing him to turn them into statues and steal one of their horses.

The rat shows him an abandoned tower that suits his needs and he begins to look for supplies in a vitamin shop which has all the minerals and such he needs to begin making potions. Here he puts on a translation spell so that he can understand people and is surprised to find that they show no fear of him. I would also like to take this moment to give a shout out to letterer Chris Crank, for the way he rearranged the English words to make them seem like gibberish in the way that other languages sound.

As he continues to mix the potion, he is unable to get the thought that people do not fear him out of his head. Due to hunger, he takes a walk outside and talk to a hot dog vendor, who explains to him that all the people he sees are free people who can spend their time as they like. This throws Wizord off as it’s revealed very briefly that he comes from a place of slavery and masters and nobles in which he is always the master.

He begins to explore more of the City going to a library, movie theater, aircraft carrier, etc and begins to feel some remorse about his ultimate purpose on Earth. This comes to a head where, in the middle of the spell that would end the world in the name of Lord and Master Sizzajee, Wizord stops himself and decides that he does not want to vanquish the world and despite Margaret’s warnings, he decides to make due with whatever consequences come.

He then begins to turn over a new leaf, revealing himself and his power to the world by unfreezing the mounted police he froze upon his arrival. He gets himself a haircut, (except for his bear, which seems to be protected somehow) gets some well tailored fashionable clothes, pumps up his profile with a rat turned koala, a motorcycle and the cushy office space from which he begins to use his magic in a way he never has before... for good.

We are treated to a two page spread showing all his great deeds including stopping wildfires, creating food for starving villages all over the world, reuniting long lost children, etc. All the while, he refuses to do anything that has to do with cures, wars and love. We also get to see that he has quite a Twitter following as the pictures are interspersed with tweets. The most notable of which are the ones from an @wazord225 who is obsessed with Margaret the Koala and wants to be a koala. I am somewhat interested to see if that character comes up further down the storyline. In any case, that’s when we get caught back up to the present.

As they fight throughout the streets of New York eventually ending up in a baseball stadium, we get treated to a conversation between two unknown parties. One, Lord Sizzajee, says that he sent Cornwall because he knew whoever he sent would be killed by Wizord and Cornwall was the one he could most do without. A good thing that he had that perspective because he does die. I’m not certain yet, but it seems that the different wizards have different stones that power their magic and they can’t come in contact with a stone of another of the wizards. Thus, when wizard crushes up the sapphires Platinum Johnny paid him with and blows them in Cornwall’s face, he goes down.

As he dies, Corwall tells the people in the baseball stadium, and likely the whole watching world that Wizord is evil and there to destroy al lof them. Wizord replies that he is tired of being Sizzajees slave and wants better for the people of the world of which he has recently become a citizen. He then kills Cornwall violently, to the dread of all in attendance, and we are introduced visibly to Sizzajee who acknowledges that Wizord has become his enemy.

We then get to see the Hole World where Sizzajee lives and also another of the wizards, a satyr called Botchko and Ruby Stitch who it is mentioned at one time had a romance with Wizord. She wants to take him out (in a bad way).

Finally, in an attempt keep the people from freaking out, Wizord reluctantly shrinks the entire baseball stadium and flies off with it in his pocket even as he tries to apologize to them and remind them that his main purpose is to help.

I love the world building that Charles Soule does in one book. You now know that other worlds exist, as well as one with multiple other wizards (how many could there be?). Wizord’s already got himself into a jam both in having picked a fight and made a huge PR mistake. Brimming with humor and potential as the story goes further, this is a high recommend and no wonder that this issue went into a third printing.

This is the first of a series I’m going to be doing starting from the very beginning of the 2012 Valiant Entertainment reboot. I’m going to be reviewing the Trade Paperbacks of every Valiant story in the order they came out. My local comic shop owner is a huge Valiant fan and talked me into giving them a try. Especially considering that there is now lots of news coming out about Valiant superheroes getting their own movies soon, I thought this could be a fun exercise. So without further ado, the first Valiant Entertainment release and, who I’ve discovered is one of the most successful comic book frontmen: X-O Manowar.

I’m going to be talking in very broad strokes due to this being a long form book. We start out by meeting Aric of Dacia, a Visigoth prince in the midst of a war with the indominable Roman Empire. As we meet him as he makes an ill-advised charge on the Roman line, we learn that he is headstrong, self-confident and never backs down from a fight, even if the timing might not be right. We also meet his good friend Gafti, the man who tries and often fails to be his patience. In the battle, before they are able to retreat, his father is killed and as a good Visigoth would, he declares vengence on the Romans.

Soon, the enemy is sighted near the camp and he leads the charge again with little more information than a shadow. However, as they begin to fight, they discover their rivals are not Romans, but laser-blasting, green-blooded aliens who far outmatch them in fire power. Meanwhile, while the Visigoths are realizing they are in way over their heads, a few of the aliens are stalking through the camp and changing out human babies for alien babies taking on the form of the child they are replacing. I’m sure that’s going to come into play soon.

The aliens return to their ship and alert their leader, Commander Trill, that the plantings were successful, at which point they drag the surviving Visigoth warriors into the ship and take them from their homes. Obviously, this includes Aric and Gafti. When they arrive they are taken to be slaves, however, Aric, being somewhat clever, had a piece of sword in his mouth and cuts his bonds and those of his friend. Momentarily free, they race across the colony ship of the species we discover are called The Vine, and try to get a handle of what just happened to them.

Inevitably, they come across a ceremony where a priest brings up a Vine warrior and a metal ball opens to become armor that tries to fit onto the warrior. Amazed at this, the Visigoths watch until they are suddenly found, knocked out, and taken to slavery with the others. What they don’t see is that the armor kills the Vine warrior who it deemed unworthy. Caged with other slaves, Aric vows to take that armor and other Vine weapons, escape, return home and use the advanced technology to destroy the Romans.

To say they least, they first issue really brought me in. The weird duology of a barbarian surrounded by alien technology is a fun idea, plus with all the vengeance and such, there’s lots of good drama.

We open to our hero dreaming of his wife. However he wakes to discover he is still a slave of the Vine. His job is maintaining plant life that they refer to as the Offspring. The conditions are oppressive, as are the taskmasters. The Vine show that they have a strange perspective of beating the slaves and referring to them as animals, all while revering and honoring the plants.

Ever the hero, Aric finds himself defending another slave against a beating by a Vine taskmaster. Once subdued, he is made to pay a high price as the soldier cuts off Aric’s left hand. Thrown back into the cage, he bandages it as best he can. Time passes, we don’t know how long. They continue to work but the captured humans slowly put together a plan to break free of their captors.

One night, they do it. Attack, take a hand of a Vine in a break of justice for Aric and use it to open the doors to their cages. Running through the colony with nothing let to lose they pick up alien weaponry as they head closer and closer to the armory. As they enter the armory and see the original armor they saw all that time ago, Aric approaches it, remarking how odd it is for an armory to only have one suit of armor.

It is here we learn that some of the Vine are strict believers in the armor of Shanhara. Others, such as Commander Trill, believe it is all a fable. As they break into the temple (not armory) they see that Aric has put it on, much to the chagrin of the priest. And while it taxes it physically as it did the warrior from before, it does not kill him. Using the built in weaponry in the one right hand that he now has, he destroys the soldiers that rush in as the Vine priest bows to him declaring him the Chose One of Shanhara.

Let’s be honest, this is what it was all leading up to. I mean, he had to get the armor or the title and cover art were gonna be really misleading. However, now that it happens we feel like we’re really in the midst of a great story with his extraterrestrial rivals unsure what to think of their holy artifact’s union with him and his thoughts still on returning to Earth to defeat Rome, Aric, in his X-O Manowar armor has just turned the tide of his life.

As he continues to battle his way out of the Vine colony ship, we begin to discover just how many great benefits and powers the armor has. First, he is essentially invincible against the projectiles of their weapons. Plus, he has a projectile weapon of his own built in to his hand. He also discovers that he can understand the Vine as well as hear the armor speaking to him somehow. Even more amazing, the armor regrows his missing hand. I was wondering if that was gonna happen because he never appeared one-handed in the covers.

They continue to fight their way out until Gafti is mortally wounded. There he leaves his friend with the following meaningful blessing “May you live until there is no one left to fight.”

The Vine throw grenades and finally destroy most of the escaping prisoners. This enrages Aric who unleashes another new power of the suit, a guided missile rocket, which tears up a bunch of the warriors. It is then that Commander Trill appears in his own armor and Aric recognizes him as the one who took him from Earth and from his family and his fight against Rome. He breaks the glass of the armor intending to kill him, but Trill is fast and places not one but several grenades on the Manowar armor. They explode, the ship explodes... but the suit survives.

As Aric floats through space and the Vine begin aiming missiles to end him, he wakes with visions of his wife and begins yelling the name of who, to him is still his greatest enemy: ROME! As the Vine fire, Aric and the X-O Manowar armor of Shanhara worshipped by the Vine... disappears... and reappears right where Aric asked it to. In Rome. However, now it is present day.

He lands with a large WHOOM in the Colliseum in front of a number of tourists to whom he orates his return and his intention to destroy them and retake his wife and family. As a Roman ploice unit surround him and point there weapons, he mistakenly believes he has found his way back to his war against the Romans... and takes flight to destroy them all.

I admit, I did not expect the time travel situation. I wonder if that means that time passed in a different way while he was aboard the Vine ship or what exactly happened. The fact that he, a barbarian in an alien suit of armor found his way to a tourist attraction in present day Rome is pretty crazy but extremely intriguing, especially with what he does next.

As the curtain rises on this final chapter of this volume, we meet Admiral Xylem, Commander Trill’s superior and the highest ranking person aboard the colony ship. As you can imagine, he is upset that the ship is unfit for travel and the the armor has been effectively stolen by a slave. Xylem mentions after talk with Trill and the priest that he wishes to take back the armor, but will destroy it if that seems to be the necessary case.

Aric, surrounded by police of the city of Rome, begins attacking in a big, fat way. He shoots his lasers at the men. He looks down on the city of Rome and almost unleashes himself, when he is hit by a missile from a jet. The pilot, as you can imagine, is surprised when the target does not die, but rather flies over and destroys the plane. A second comes over and Aric lands right on top of it and yanks the pilot out. There, in the airspace above Rome, the Visigoth of all Visigoths learns that Rome is no empire, but just a city and while he wants to believe he is being lied to, the armor reveals to him that he has just missed Earth’s last 16 centuries. He flies the pilot to the ground and begins asking what happened to the war. He discovers that Rome is now small and the visigoths no longer exist. He then flies off to the north... but we don’t know where. If I had to guess, he’s flying home.

We are then introduced to Alexander a clearly rich playboy living in New York who shuts down his sex party when he realizes that the armor has been disvoered in Italy. There is then a meeting of the holograms of a number of Vine people with human skins. Xylem informs them that he is headed to Earth to reclaim the armor and it is their job to try to use their influence to get it back before he arrives. Alexander volunteers to lead that mission and as Xylem signs off, another Vine tells Aliexander that this could be the ticket they need to be invited back to live with their own kind again, thus upping the ante for the Vine.

This is how the first Volume ends and I can’t wait to read the second. I have also heard that as you read more series and issues, the universe is incredibly connected and I am hoping to be able to see those intricacies unfold. This was a fun book if a tad introductory and thus over-expositional. A big shout out to Robert Venditti for the story and Cary Nord for the art. I’m not gonna lie, some of the full page stuff was breath taking.