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Post by thwhtguardian on Feb 24, 2021 15:30:20 GMT -5
OFF THE RACKSWhere real readers post honest reviews.  |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Feb 24, 2021 18:42:40 GMT -5
Usagi Yojimbo: Wanderer's Road #4
 Story and Art by Stan Sakai Colored by Rhonda Pattison Cover by Peach Momoko Summary: Collecting ":Blade of the Gods" from Usagi Yojimbo v.1 #10 we see Usagi and Jei meet for the first time...in color!
Plot/Art: Although these new colored editions are no doubt a great way for new readers to get in on classic Usagi stories, I dropped this series earlier as although the coloring was neat I already had these stories(sometimes even in three different versions!) but when I saw this new cover by Peach Momoko I just had to stop and check it out. For one, although I do adore Stan's usual I style I find that I love seeing other people take on his world, I think it's down to the fact that Stan has always been on the art through all these years that it's just special when someone else takes a whack at it and Momoko's fluid anime style is wonderful to look at. What I really love is that it's similar enough to Stan's own look that it isn't jarring, but it has a greater sense of fluidity to it that it has its own unique feel. On top of that the story inside is a great issue to revisit as Jei has always been one of my favorite antagonists for Usagi. The only negative that I can come up with is that although Pattison's color pallet is true to the way the world of Usagi has looked in the past under Tom Luth's brush the bright, primary color forward pallet just didn't fit well with the tone of this story. As Dave Stewart has shown over the years, you can tell a horror story and still have a pallet of bright primary colors; the trick is balancing them with enough inky blacks, and while I wouldn't want to alter Stan's original art to incorporate more shadows I do think a greater balance was needed to create that darker mood of the story.
Grade:7/10 |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Feb 25, 2021 18:54:50 GMT -5
Batman: Black and White #3Written by Tim Seeley, Bengal, Bilquis Evely, Nick Dragotta and John Ridley Art by Kelley Jones, Bengal, Bilquis Evely, Nick Dragotta and Olivier Coipel Summary: Some of comics best and brightest bring us views of Batman's future in this Black and White special. Plot/Art: The third installment of Batman: Black & White landed this week, and while I was super excited to get my hands on this book as I loved that it had an overarching theme(the future of Batman) I hate to say that this chapter didn’t live up to my expectations. While I expect these kinds of anthologies to be a little uneven this was especially so as I only really enjoyed two of the five stories which is pretty slim. Strangely, in most of my feelings on past issues of this book and earlier iterations I often felt that when I didn't like a story it came down to the art but here I really liked the style of all the artists( though Bilquis Evely was a little too busy) but found the stories to be lacking. However, ultimately I'm still glad I got this as the stories I did like were truly excellent. In Tim Seeley and Kelley Jones' "Unquiet Knight" we got a story that really played to Jones Gothic style in a tale about Zatana exorcising the ghost of Batman from Gotham! Light on details of Bruce's passing the story was sold rather on the fantastic idea Bruce continuing to haunt Gotham because Gotham haunted him in life. A spectral Batman prowling the streets of Gotham long after his death is just such a fun concept and that Zatana would be the one to heal his unquiet spirit was really fitting. I don't know what your ending to Batman, but this definitely became mine. The second story was written and illustrated by Bengal and it was a fun, but straight forward story of Batman taking on some random mooks while reflecting on if they're meeting the ideals of their father...but the twist was that this Batman wasn't Bruce Wayne, he was Damian and instead of the hard, dystopian hero we got in Morrison's future we got a fun, well adjusted hero here which was great. I think the big selling point on this segment though was the art which was by far my favorite. Bengal had such a clean, simplistic look that really took full advantage of only being able to use black and white for the pallet:  If every story was as good as these two this easily would have been a ten out of ten... but as it was I can only give it... 6/10 |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2021 11:26:42 GMT -5
Batman: Black and White #3Written by Tim Seeley, Bengal, Bilquis Evely, Nick Dragotta and John Ridley Art by Kelley Jones, Bengal, Bilquis Evely, Nick Dragotta and Olivier Coipel Summary: Some of comics best and brightest bring us views of Batman's future in this Black and White special.
I agree with your review. This issue was disappointing for me. I really liked the first 2 issues but this one had lackluster stories that did not feel worthwhile. Plus I did not like the art style in several of the stories. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Feb 26, 2021 21:42:39 GMT -5
Wow, can I have that Usagi cover on a poster, please?
My books this week:
Kaiji Score #4 : Nice finale (if predictable) to a fun, unique comic. I'll definitely pick it up again if there's a second series.
Future State: House of El #1 : Not at all the conclusion of Superman: World at War as promised, but rather a story set a few generations in the future... what happened at War World was mentioned in passing, I suppose, and the new Black Racer was there, but no other connection. This is another of those stories that feel like it would fit in nicely with that year or two they did all elseworlds annuals... I guess that's all DC is now?
Namor: King in Black #4 : The Dark Tide arrive at Atlantis... looks like the big fight will come in the last issue. Not as much character stuff as I was hoping, but still worth reading, I think.
Also grabbed a Trade:
Realm vol. 1 : I had got an issue of this a while back and thought it looked interesting, but too slow to develop. The premise is society falls when some sort of fantasy world collides with our own... the style and setting feels like they're going for a fantasy version of TWD. After reading the whole first trade, there's still just random its and pieces of things, and not really any sort of solid thing to grasp. There's a group of main characters, but they killed 2 of the group off, and other than that they're going to Kansas City we have no idea what the deal is. That's fine for an issue or two, but by the end of a whole trade I need something more.. probably won't get the next one unless it's cheap somewhere.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Feb 27, 2021 16:42:44 GMT -5
Wow, can I have that Usagi cover on a poster, please? My books this week: Kaiji Score #4 : Nice finale (if predictable) to a fun, unique comic. I'll definitely pick it up again if there's a second series. Future State: House of El #1 : Not at all the conclusion of Superman: World at War as promised, but rather a story set a few generations in the future... what happened at War World was mentioned in passing, I suppose, and the new Black Racer was there, but no other connection. This is another of those stories that feel like it would fit in nicely with that year or two they did all elseworlds annuals... I guess that's all DC is now? Namor: King in Black #4 : The Dark Tide arrive at Atlantis... looks like the big fight will come in the last issue. Not as much character stuff as I was hoping, but still worth reading, I think. Also grabbed a Trade: Realm vol. 1 : I had got an issue of this a while back and thought it looked interesting, but too slow to develop. The premise is society falls when some sort of fantasy world collides with our own... the style and setting feels like they're going for a fantasy version of TWD. After reading the whole first trade, there's still just random its and pieces of things, and not really any sort of solid thing to grasp. There's a group of main characters, but they killed 2 of the group off, and other than that they're going to Kansas City we have no idea what the deal is. That's fine for an issue or two, but by the end of a whole trade I need something more.. probably won't get the next one unless it's cheap somewhere. Yeah, Peach's work is really fantastic. I love her covers like crazy and I think she has a book coming up at Marvel where she does the interiors too. I was confused by House of El too, it didn't connect at all with the War World story as was promised. That said, though it didn't finish that earlier storyline it was interesting enough in its own right. When I first started reading I didn't think it stood a chance in hell at feeling like a cohesive story in a single issue, but despite leaving with wanting more from these characters it and moving a little too fast it was a fairly satisfying read. I definitely feel like this would have been much more epic if it had a whole year to breath though, so ultimately this is one of those stories that was hurt by shoving it all into two months. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Feb 27, 2021 19:33:34 GMT -5
Indeed! House of El felt like it would be a great Prestige mini, given, oh, maybe 3 or 4 issue. As it was, by the time one figured out who was who it was over.
Seems like perhaps maybe if it was going to be a year long thing maybe we got the beginning and the end and lost the middle?
Looks like Peach Momoko has done a ton of variant covers... definitely a cool style. She's also doing a X-Men series that they're calling a Prestige mini, which I thought only I used these days... that's kinda neat.... looks like maybe an out of continuity thing.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Feb 28, 2021 16:52:09 GMT -5
Indeed! House of El felt like it would be a great Prestige mini, given, oh, maybe 3 or 4 issue. As it was, by the time one figured out who was who it was over. Seems like perhaps maybe if it was going to be a year long thing maybe we got the beginning and the end and lost the middle? Looks like Peach Momoko has done a ton of variant covers... definitely a cool style. She's also doing a X-Men series that they're calling a Prestige mini, which I thought only I used these days... that's kinda neat.... looks like maybe an out of continuity thing. Yeah, that X-Men book was the one I was thinking of! I remember seeing her do Psylock in a feudal japan type setting, and I think that's part of this book. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Feb 28, 2021 20:20:14 GMT -5
The cover is definitely Psylocke, so I'm sure that's it. Looks like it could be a good trade
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