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Post by thwhtguardian on Sept 30, 2021 15:48:53 GMT -5
Star Wars Adventures: Ghosts of Vader's Castle #2Written by Cavan Scott Art by Francesco Francavilla and Derek Charm Summary: When the Republic declines to search for her brother Milo, Lina Graf receives a dubious name from Princess Leia for help: Jaxxon. Plot: Cavan Scott's spooktacular Star Wars tradition continues this week and it's every bit as fun as the initial offering was. Continuing on with the framing narrative of Vaneé's attempt at resurrecting Darth Vader causing ripples in the Force that are giving various Star Wars denizens terrible nightmares. In this issue the nightmare belongs to none other than our favorite rabbit scoundrel, Jaxxon, and his nightmare is a great mash up 1950's atom age horror and Kaiju tropes which is a fun addition to that galaxy far, far away. It starts with a play on that common 50's trope of terror descending on the heroes when the village taboo is broken (even the Brady Bunch played on that one!) and ends up with Chewie and Jaxxon turning into giants and duking it out on Kashyyk and it ends with Jaxxon waking up after Han Solo joins the fray becoming" as large as his ego!" which was a great line. It's just a fun, campy romp that is a joy to read; if you're a fan of Star Wars( and especially fans of Jaxxon ::cough:: Confessor ::cough: and you aren't reading this book then you're really missing out. I've said it before, but it really bears repeating: the main Star Wars books may be published by Marvel but IDW's books are head and shoulders above them just about every month. Art: Like always, Francavilla's framing sections at the ends of the issue are utterly fantastic! Not only does he really nail Leia and Mon Mothma, but that image of Castle Vader literally eating the young adventurer Milo was just a sight to behold. As for the meat of the issue Derek Charm's work was nothing to sniff at either with his cartoony look pairing really well with Jaxxon's energy. You just can't help but smile at his deceptions of a giant Wookie and a humongous green rabbit having a royal rumble, which is just the way I always felt growing up watching Godzilla. Grade: 8/10 I really need to read some of these recent Jaxxon appearances. They're definitely a little lighter fare than the original Marvel story, but they have a Saturday morning cartoon kind of energy to them that I think fits really well. Of the Modern appearances the closest in feel to the original are probably "Rabbit Hunt" from Star Wars Adventures Annual: 2020 which featured Amaiza and "Hare-Brained Heist" from the 2019 annual which was a team up with Lando post Return of the Jedi. |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Sept 30, 2021 17:43:25 GMT -5
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #121Written by Sophie Campbell Art by Jodi Nishijima Summary: Raphael gets revenge on Old Hob...but the young weasel triplets Zink, Zanna and Mushroom still have feelings for their "Dada".
Plot: While Sophie Campbell's Mutant Town story has had a very slow and leisurely pace focused more on characterization than plot advancement but things are starting to pick up with Sally Pride taking on the Mutanimals. Raph has long had a love and hate relationship with Hob but it really came to a head here and I was really surprised not only but his flash of violence in capturing Hob but also that he has worked through his emotions to the point that he was able to realize that he was on the verge of going too far and stopping his attack all on his own which was a great moment for our favorite hot-headed turtle. While still not my favorite phase of the IDW Turtle epic it looks like things are looking up.
Art: While I love the way Nishijima does the cute scenes with the weasel triplets and the emotions on Sally's face are fantastic...her depiction of the Turtles has been my least favorite to date. While the round style of her faces is great for showing emotion it makes the turtles seem way too soft looking which goes against their warrior nature, and her lack of detail means that other than the color of their bandannas they are indistinguishable from one another which is a big no-no in my mind.
Grade:6/10 |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 1, 2021 14:32:36 GMT -5
So I liked Bigby and Batman a bit more than you did, though I agree with most of the criticisms you levels. I agree with you that I have no idea who the 'main' Robin is.. since he calls Tim and Steph.... I would have thought it was Tim otherwise. The look and personality didn't come anywhere near Damian and it wouldn't make sense for Dick or Jason to be in a Robin costume at the same time.
BUT...
Based on the bad guys and their names and the library and all, they're clearly doing something ala the Page Sisters and some of the other stuff I only vaguely followed from 'Jack of Fables'... I'm intrigued by that. So maybe that will play into the multiple Robin thing. Clearly, Batman was pretty out of character too. Willingham DID write Robin, so I'd think he'd know at least a bit about the who's who. Maybe this is not really Gotham.. maybe Fabletown is doing something to the local area? That'd be fun. (No evidence in the story on that, just faith that Willingham isn't totally clueless)
I thought what little screen time Bigby got was fine, though. I'd give it maybe a 4 or 5 out of 10, with potential upside.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 1, 2021 17:06:00 GMT -5
So I liked Bigby and Batman a bit more than you did, though I agree with most of the criticisms you levels. I agree with you that I have no idea who the 'main' Robin is.. since he calls Tim and Steph.... I would have thought it was Tim otherwise. The look and personality didn't come anywhere near Damian and it wouldn't make sense for Dick or Jason to be in a Robin costume at the same time. BUT... Based on the bad guys and their names and the library and all, they're clearly doing something ala the Page Sisters and some of the other stuff I only vaguely followed from 'Jack of Fables'... I'm intrigued by that. So maybe that will play into the multiple Robin thing. Clearly, Batman was pretty out of character too. Willingham DID write Robin, so I'd think he'd know at least a bit about the who's who. Maybe this is not really Gotham.. maybe Fabletown is doing something to the local area? That'd be fun. (No evidence in the story on that, just faith that Willingham isn't totally clueless) I thought what little screen time Bigby got was fine, though. I'd give it maybe a 4 or 5 out of 10, with potential upside. Zero was perhaps a bit harsh...but I still have no interest what so ever in reading more. And it's not that it's different than the "normal" Batman that bothered me, I liked that this was the Batman that exists in the Fables universe so differences are to be expected...but it was just so bare bones and disjointed that I don't feel like I care enough to learn more about those differences. Part of me was really hoping that this Batman was Batman from the Old Country and that comic book heroes were myths and legends that existed over there and the story would be about exploring super heroes as "fables" as a way of exploring Willingham's reflections on the medium...but there was nothing that intelligent here. |
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Post by Dizzy D on Oct 13, 2021 3:14:57 GMT -5
Didn't plan to get this, but I'm on vacation and I wanted something to read, so I picked this one up.
Inferno #1
Written by Jonathan Hickman
Art by Valerio Schiti and David Curiel
What Happened Before: Mutants have organized and live together now on the living island of Krakoa. Through a process of combining the powers of 5 different specific mutants, dead mutants are resurrected back on Krakoa whenever they die. The main threat to Krakoa is the organisation called Orchis, who have developed the advanced Sentinel named Nimrod. Despite various attempts, the mutants have been unable to destroy Nimrod.
Plot: Xavier and Magneto return to Moira MacTaggert and inform her that so far they have been unable to destroy Nimrod and question whether it's not possible to avoid war with Nimrod and if peace may not be a possibility. Moira restates that Nimrod and Destiny are both the biggest threat to the future of mutant kind. Nimrod as a physical threat and Destiny as a threat against the unity of mutantkind. She demands that Mystique is removed from the Council and that all of Destiny's genetic material will be destroyed.
Xavier and Magneto agree and try to introduce the idea of retirement to Krakoa's Council, but Mystique uses the opportunity to suggest a new member for the Council (two seats are empty after Apocalypse and Jean Grey left their seats): a newly resurrected Destiny.
The Good: This is mostly setup for this mini-series; a bit of who are all the major players in this story and where are they now.
It's good that the main plots of Krakoa vs. Orchis and Mystique vs. Xavier and Magneto progresses.
Also we get a few minor moments with other characters: a report by Dr. Cecilia Reyes suggests that Black Tom Cassidy is being influenced by being on Krakoa and Doug Ramsey and Warlock have a short conversation about Doug's wife. The most important part of the side-plots seems to be Cyclops stepping down as Commander of Krakoa's Captains (he's too busy with leading the new X-Men) and Bishop being his replacement. Also Psylocke is now the fourth captain, replacing Gorgon, who is not mentally fit for this position anymore after the events in Sword Of X.
As usual in this recent string of X-Men comics, it's nice to see some minor mutants that have not been seen for years and their role within Krakoa's society and also to see the Technet again (they are only in 1 panel as one of the attempts the mutants made to destroy Nimrod)
Schiti is a good artist, who gets to draw a lot of different characters and environments in this.
The Bad: Again this is mostly setup. Also I'm unclear on the timing of this issue: Storm and Nightcrawler are still having their old looks (Storm changed her look when she became Queen of Mars recently and Nightcrawler got a new look at the end of Way of X/Onslaught). Magneto is on the Council so that pretty much sets this after Trial of Magneto, I guess? Either way either that series or this series will make no difference to Magneto's position with Krakoa.
7/10: I say this a lot, but with all this recent "event"-series, it sets up their plots pretty well, but it's a question whether they will stick the landing. I do like the way the X-series have been doing their events after Sword of X, where it's just a limited series that does not interrupt the other titles directly. They just need to space them out a bit more.
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and you aren't reading this book then you're really missing out. I've said it before, but it really bears repeating: the main Star Wars books may be published by Marvel but IDW's books are head and shoulders above them just about every month.
