Comic book review: C.O.W.L. #4- Before our jobs were ‘outsourced’ to Chinese slave factories

Writers- Kyle Higgins and Alec Siegel
Artists: Rod Reis and Stephane Perger
Publisher: Image Comics
Released: 27th August 2014


This issue of COWL is the penultimate issue before the end of the first arc, so what it’s doing is setting up a few pins before issue #5 knocks them all down. There are quite a few pins, and if you start reading the book at this issue you’ll just be hopelessly confused by it all. This book isn’t exactly simple anyway, and I always take my time with it because everything is so subtle and the characters are constantly lying to each other. You don’t know who, or what to believe, and there are quite a few characters in the book as well, so unless you take your time with it, this book can be frustratingly difficult to decipher. I’m okay with that as I’m cutting back on the stupid Marvel and DC superhero books that I buy on a weekly basis and I have the spare reading time to take it slowly with this one, and re-read the pages that initially confused. It’s enjoyable, but it does take some patience and concentration.

The basic story here is that superheroes are on strike and as is usual with strike situations their bosses are looking to bring in replacements. Some of the striking superheroes are starting to question their union boss, and probably thinking about going free-lance, for the same selfish reasons that exist in the real world, because it will be the best for them as individuals.

There’s some investigation going on as well involving COWL weapons going to villains, and that’s probably the most interesting part of the story to somebody like myself, because it suggests that the leaders of COWL might be creating their own enemy in order to justify their existence. This brings to mind how the FBI creates ‘terrorists’ by giving them fake bombs. It also brings to mind how the US and EU have been giving military support and weapons to Al Qaeda in Syria (now known as ISIS) in order to justify invading Syria in order to stop the very people they have created.

The other three plot-lines in this issue involve a disenfranchised second in command, a psychopathic pervert who is tolerated because he is useful, and a superhero doing a bit of work on the side whilst the strike goes on because she is a girl-scout type who just waits to take down the bad guys. If it sounds like there’s a lot going on here then it’s because there is. It might be packing a bit too much into the mix for some, but it’s okay with me, as I mentioned before I have the time and so I’m reading this one slowly, very slowly.

The book ends with things kicking off, as it should do in this issue, and we’re guaranteed some riotous action in next month’s end of arc instalment. It’s all set in 1962, which I don’t like, because it’s 2014 now and I don’t see any reason why comic book writers can’t be brave and deal with contemporary issue and concerns that are happening in the world right now. I lived through a period in the UK when unions had power. They thought the law, and the law won. We have been living with the legacy of that loss ever since. In 2014 unions have been decimated, and workers rights are not what they used to be. We are now living in an era of zero hours contracts, a form of slavery that would have been impossible for employers to get away with during the 1960's and 1970's when they still had some power. What is this book going to say? That unions were destroyed by globalism? That as soon as the jobs were ‘outsourced’ to China and the politicians no longer needed to keep workers on side it was all over for them? Why say that? We already know that, and putting superheroes into it doesn’t change anything.

If you want to talk about unions why not set it in 2014 where they are struggling to get their voices heard against politicians that no longer need to listen to them? That would be really interesting and relevant to the lives of the readers as well. This is an interesting book, but it’s out of date. The art is great, and the characters are very recognisably human and realistic, but it’s a book about workers rights set in an era before most of the readers were even born.

I go back to the point I previously made. What is it going to teach us? That we no longer have any power, that the strength of the unions were destroyed and we have become socialised, collectivised slaves to big government, a big government owned and controlled by the banks and corporations that helped destroy the unions by shipping the work over to China? Don’t tell us what we already know. Tell us what we can do to change the situation as it is today.

I like this book, it’s a good book, but it’s superheroes, strikes and the 1960’s. It’s good, but it’s old, and no matter how clever they are with the plot and the characters it will only reflect what happened decades ago, what we already know happened, not what is happening today and what needs to be done to change things. History is great, but I don’t need to be reminded that the workers were defeated over fifty years ago. I already know that. I’m living with that legacy today.

Rating: 7.5/10

Comic Book Review: Black Science #8- Anarchy and Science

Writer: Rick Remender
Artist: Matteo Scalera & Dean White
Publisher: Image Comics
Released: 27th August 2014


Black Science is a book that I picked up mid-run for two reasons. Firstly, I didn’t have that many books to read this week, and secondly, I read the preview and it said something about ‘anarchism.’ Of course when ever people read ‘anarchism’ they get images of black face mask wearing goons chucking bricks through the windows of Starbucks, but you have to bear in mind that this image is about as far from anarchism as you can get. The black mask wearing goons are usually cops, or idiots paid by the cops to cause some chaos, thus giving the cops a reason to declare martial law and kick the crap out of all of those pesky, peaceful protestors who are concerned about banks raping and pillaging the planet.

Anarchism just means freedom from state control, or as it should be called, state imposed slavery. An anarchist wants people to live free from state-sanctioned coercion and the threat of imprisonment for the mere act of peaceful non-compliance, that’s all. You can see why the mainstream media demonises anarchists, can’t you? It’s simple. The anarchist wants freedom. The corporate whore mainstream media career obsessed journalist wants state-sanctioned slavery. I’ll discuss how this theme relates to the comic a bit later on in the review, but first off I want to briefly discuss the narrative core of the issue.

Black Science #8 has a very clever beginning with a first person narration helping the reader to build empathy for two children as they battle against weird alien creatures. The kids mouth the usual clichés about hitting back against bullies, but even though the message is verging on the cliché it’s still a good, positive thing to hear.

This action scene involving two apparently lost children fighting against a strange alien threat is duplicated at the end of the book. This means that the book begins with action and threat, and closes on action and threat. I like the technique as it gets the readers straight into the story and leaves them on a high as well. The middle section is not as exciting as the two sections with the kids, but I understand that this is a standard technique when writing comics. You begin and end with some action, and you put the slower, story/character based stuff in the middle.

This middle section consists of a team of ‘scientific anarchists’ having tense conversations before one of their previously taciturn members goes into narrative exposition mode, giving the readers a brief history of the strange device that they are all using. From what I can understand it’s an alien machine that causes more trouble than what it is worth. That’s where the ‘Black Science ‘ of the title comes from. This device appears to be alien technology that offers great benefits to those who possess it. The device offers huge technological advantages, but corruption inevitably follows.

This book is arguing that having high scientific technology in the hands of centralised human control systems is always a recipe for disaster.  Perhaps the only way to avoid disaster is to stop letting these centralised control systems exist in the first place? That’s where the idea of ‘anarchism’ comes into play.

This book is exploring what happens when a group of anarchist scientists get powerful technology that is usually only in the hands of the state. There is no such thing as an anarchist scientist who works for the state. These anarchist scientists must be working independently, free from state control. The question is, will they act any differently to the states that have always had this power in the past, or will human nature dictate that they act just as badly as their supposed opposites? I say ‘opposites’ because anarchists don’t use ‘Black Science’ technology to completely obliterate civilian populations, but states certainly do. The United States has done it twice quite recently, in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Black Science is a comic book obviously put together by an experienced comic book professional. Rick Remender has been doing this for a while now, and for an issue mid-way through the story-arc it is very easy to follow. The art has a frenetic energy. It looks dirty and exciting, and although it took me a while to get to grips with the underlying themes of the narrative I think I have it now.

Some of the readers of this review might think that I’m projecting a lot of my own ideas into this book, making it into something that I want to read, rather than what is actually there. Perhaps you are right, but that’s what all good art does. It makes you think about the important things in your own life, and you take and consume it to fit your own needs. This book surprised me. It’s a grower, a book that made me think, and after a couple of reads, and a good amount of time digesting what I had read I’m very happy to recommend it to all readers of this review. Of course I now realise what I have to do next. I need to get those first seven issues, and get my thinking cap on. I want to know more about this group of anarchist scientists, their philosophies and their individual personalities. It’s going to be a real pleasure to go through those previous issues and discover the context behind what has happened in issue #8.  I’m so happy that I took a chance on what I thought would be just another silly comic book about evil anarchists. It’s not that, it’s a lot better book than that.

Rating: 9/10

Television Review: The new Doctor Who- Statist propaganda and a lesbian lizard kiss

Episode title: Deep Breath- Part 1

Episode date: Saturday 23rd August 2014

The last time I sat down to watch an episode of Dr Who was a Christmas special so loaded with anti-man, anti-family, climate change nonsense that it put me off the programme completely. That was a couple of years ago, but now I’m back. A new Doctor has taken the helm, and as he’s older than you might expect for the youth obsessed BBC, I thought he was at least worth checking out.

How is the BBC going to sell an old Doctor to their soft, liberally indoctrinated politically correct (mind controlled, and relatively young) audience? After all, with the feminist liberal brigade everything is about the surface appearance of things. You know how it works with this crowd, right? Everything is about race, gender, sexuality, and if you don’t accept a hairy bloke in a dress kissing his Trans-gender bi-whateverfriend then you’re a homophobic bigot who deserves to be publicly shunned, right?

Oh, a lesbian lizard, how very PC. 

What they’ve done here with this new Doctor is transfer their liberal, politically correct, you must be tolerant of every kind of perversion nonsense into an age thing. In other words, you have to accept the new Doctor as being old, and if you don’t accept him you are the equivalent of a racist, sexist homophobe. Perfect, but will it work?

It will be interesting to see how the new Doctor does with the indoctrinated liberal PC audience, because when it comes to backing up their circle jerk words with actions, well that’s a very different story. The liberal brigade might talk about being colour/race/gender/age/appearance blind, but they are obsessed with these issues. Liberals live to feel morally superior, so they see race, gender and sexuality everywhere that they look, hovering like a hawk to pounce on anybody that says something that might be misconstrued as being a bit racist/sexist/whatever. The age discrimination thing might guilt them into staying for the first few episodes of the new Doctor Who, but will they really be able to see past his appearance? It would be like expecting them to see past skin colour or sexuality, and I honestly don’t believe that they are capable of doing that.

The most politically incorrect people in the entire world are the politically correct people themselves. They might tell themselves that they’ll keep on watching this old Doctor, but will their words actually match their actions for a change? We’ll see.

Please accept me.

As for the plot of this first episode for the new Doctor, it was the usual BBC sell this crap to the foreign market kind of stuff. You know how it goes? Set in Victorian London, with Mary Poppins accents and cobbled streets and bobbies on the beat. All very cliché and safe to do, like an episode of Top Gear or Inspector Morse. English but not really English at all. Like the old Wild West in America, but updated for the current politically correct times where you have to promote homosexuality as the norm.

Here we go again then, on to the gay stuff. It took about five minutes before they were promoting lesbian marriage in this one, and it was all portrayed like it’s completely normal, of course. One of the main characters was a lesbian lizard and they found a good excuse for having her kiss her wife (Yes, they called her girlfriend her wife), explaining it as a transfer of oxygen when it was a full on, girl on girl kiss. A subtle, mind control tactic through the BBC programming, as let’s not forget, this is a show for children, and normalising homosexuality is one of the top priorities of the BBC these days. Why are they doing this? Because that’s what the elite’s want in their western colonies today, the promotion of homosexuality and the break-up of the family.

The BBC is a propaganda wing of the New World Order. Every single household in the UK is mandated to pay for BBC statist ‘programming,’ whether they want to watch the pro-slavery, anti-family propaganda or not. The BBC programming has been designed to brainwash the public, to keep them dumb, scared, ignorant and reliant on Big brother government. It pushes the agenda of the elite’s with a satanic, evil malevolence. That agenda is to reduce the population and have the family controlled by the state. Strong, independent, honourable family orientated men are the biggest threat to the modern fascist state. That is why men are invariably portrayed as stupid, silly or evil on all BBC programming.

This guy was the best thing about the show

As for the new Doctor himself. On this show he came across as silly, childlike, bumbling, confused and reliant on strong, masculine women to help him out of a very obvious trap. At the end of the episode he was seen as being directly responsible for the death of the villain, a half man, half robot creature that was threatening the lives of the general public. This Doctor Who character is a very obvious stand-in for the state, with his loyal army of women helping him out. He has power over life and death because he is only doing what is best for the people as a whole. He knows what is best, because he is the authority figure. He is the people’s hero, their representative, their protector, and their god. Doctor Who is the corporate state and his female followers are the corporate enforcers. Good, loyal little soldiers, social workers, lawyers, teachers, television presenters and everybody else involved in the modern day system of slavery known as democratic, representative government.

The show did have some moments that weren’t completely repellent to me. Some of the banter between the Doctor and his assistant was amusing in a chuckle, chuckle, look at how clever the script writer is, kind of way, even if there wasn’t much substance there. I recall a brief mention of vegetarianism in the restaurant, and how eating meat probably isn’t a good moral thing to do, but it was just a clever aside, and it didn’t play into the plot of the episode at all.

The show, at least to me, felt a bit too long and the accent of the Doctor himself was disconcertingly weird. Scottish, but a lived in London for too long, so losing it, kind of thing going on there. There was an alien butler creature that was probably there to make the kid’s laugh, but for me he was the best thing about the episode.

That’s it, there’s nothing else to say about the show really. It was your usual BBC bullshit, and I won’t be watching the next episode. I had to check it out though; you know how it is? Know your enemy, right? In conclusion, it was just another wilfully ignorant BBC show aimed at the foreign market. Its main concern was selling an older Doctor to its young audience, and it did this by telling them that they would be bad, politically incorrect people if they didn’t accept him.  It had the usual BBC message that we are helpless victims who need to be protected by a benevolent Doctor (the state) with his feminist liberal, politically correct helper women. That was to be expected, as was the homosexual agenda, but is that even worth commenting upon now?  The BBC has a role to play, and you know what you are getting if you waste your time on their programming. A hippopotamus dump of statist propaganda and a lesbian kiss for all of the watching children.

Rating: 3/10 (for the amusing alien butler)

Yahweh and the God of the Bible

It is highly unlikely that the ‘God’ of the Bible is the creator of the universe. All evidence suggests that he is just another god in a long line of gods. He goes by the name of Yahweh, even though he tells Moses that he used to go by the name of El. The original god of Israel went by the name of El, so it looks like Yahweh is usurping this old god, claiming Israel's people as his own. Perhaps he really was El; just like he claims, but the suspicious change of name is left unexplained. Anyway, they don’t use the name El or Yahweh in the Bible, as that would give the game away. Instead, Yahweh has become ‘The Lord God.’ This new title gives the impression that he is the only god, which evidentially he is not.

Read the Old Testament and it’s very clear that Yahweh is not the only god, that’s why he’s so jealous and angry all of the time. This is particularly clear in the book of Ezekiel where an extremely pissed off Yahweh spends all of his time ranting and raving about how he’s going to reign down death and misery on his disloyal followers. This is obviously not the all-loving God of creation. It’s a petty, paranoid, angry and spiteful god who is desperately trying to get control over his disobedient tribe of followers. It’s exactly what you would expect from a little god battling for supremacy. Oh, another thing, check out the following verses from the book of Ezekiel:

Ezekiel and his encounter with the Annunaki

4 And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire.

15 Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces.

16 The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.

17 When they went, they went upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went.

18 As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four.

19 And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them: and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up.

What does that sound like to you? The all powerful, omniscient creator of the universe, or something that you would expect to see on an episode of Star Trek? I know what it sounds like to me. This ain’t God and his angels. It’s some bloke and his mates in a space ship.

The Council of Nicea create the Bible

This is no God of creation. It is a little god, most likely a low-level member of the Annunaki trying to get himself a group of compliant worshipers/slaves. He would have been forgotten about a long, long time ago if not for the Roman Empire and the Emperor Constantine’s decision to turn the cult of Yahwism into the perfect control system for his unruly people. And that’s how it has been since the Council of Nicaea put together the book known as the Bible in AD 325. A little Annunaki god turned into the almighty God, and being used as a control system by the slave masters of humanity ever since.

There is some truth in the Bible, on an astrological, philosophical and allegorical level, but the God of creation? Nope, he’s not in there. It’s a control system of the rich and powerful, that’s all. It’s bloody obvious, all you have to do is read the book for yourself. That’s what I’ve done, and it’s the only conclusion that I can come to.

Some people might be asking whether or not the real God is in the Quran? Here’s my reply: Of course he bloody isn’t. The god of the Quran is the same god of the Bible. It’s just another wing of Yahwism. This is not my opinion by the way. Allah and Yahweh is the same god under different names, like Yahweh and El. They both come from the same original source, that being a bloke called Abraham, the son of a Babylonian priest who started all of this Yahwism nonsense. All of this is freely available and accessible knowledge. Research it for yourselves.  I’m not saying anything controversial here; all I’m doing is stating some truths that a lot of people would prefer to ignore. Judaism, Christianity and Islam are all fighting over the same god. That god’s name is Yahweh. You’d think they’d get on a bit better with each other, wouldn’t you? But no, humanity loves a fight, and so they kill each other over minor details whilst ignoring the massive similarities in their control systems/faiths that really should unite them as a whole.

Yahweh was never God, he was a tribal deity promoted way above his original function. If you do more research on this topic you’ll find that Yahweh began his career as a frightened little hill god. That’s what the main picture above this article depicts, and don’t you think it looks more like a classic image of a UFO than a creator God anyway? It’s quite laughable really. Here’s a question. Where is Yahweh these days? He doesn’t appear to be here anymore does he? What do you reckon? Has he died? Is he still hiding up that hill? Did he ever even exist? Perhaps he was just made up by tribal leaders, and used as a control system in exactly the same way as the Romans used him?

If Yahweh was a member of the Annunaki he probably looked a lot like this

This is my opinion here, so please feel free to mock me. I’m reckoning that Yahweh was a low-level member of the Annunaki, and when they left, he left with them. Either that or he stayed behind and died many, many years ago, and that’s why we’ve heard nothing from him since. Either way, the Annunaki got what they needed from this planet, screwed it up big time, and then buggered off back to where they came from. We’ve been fighting each other over the mess they left behind ever since. Ain’t we just a big bunch of jokers, eh?

Oh, by the way, this doesn’t mean that there is no God, or an underlying collective consciousness, or whatever you want to call it, that binds us all together, giving meaning to our lives in this lonely, silly little realm of existence. That’s still out there, but that’s another story. All I’m saying here is that the deity known as Yahweh is not God. He never was, and I’m a bit surprised that so many people argue that he is. It’s not exactly hidden information. It’s all written down if you want to check it out for yourselves, and I suggest that you do. Don’t take my word for it. What the Hell do I know? I’m just a bloke who likes reading books, that’s all. I still recommend reading the Bible though. It’s a fascinating study of the history of human enslavement, and if you read between the lines you’ll find it an extremely valuable book that teaches us so much about where we are as a species today.


Links for further reading

Yahweh and El-
 http://contradictionsinthebible.com/are-yahweh-and-el-the-same-god/

Yahweh and Allah-
http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i7816.html

Ezekiel's wheels-
http://www.ufoevidence.org/cases/case493.htm

The Summerians and the Annunaki- 
/http://www.sitchin.com/

Comic book review: Justice Inc #1- The fascinating re-birth of The Avenger

Writer: Michael Uslan
Artist: Giovanni Timpano
Publisher: Dynamite Comics
Released: 20th August 2014

I had to re-read a couple of the pages in this book, going back over them a few times to fully understand what was going on, but it was a rewarding experience as the book was so enjoyable. What made it so enjoyable? Three things, the characters, the contemporary references and the fast moving tension filled script.

First off, the characters were fascinating to me. They are old pulp fiction comic book heroes from the 1930’s and 40’s, but there’s a wonderfully contemporary feel about them in this book. Writer Michael Uslan has been very clever here, using contemporary news stories to link the old heroes to the current times. I won’t spoil the plot, but it involves the Large Hadron Collider, a missing passenger plane and worm holes in time. These contemporary themes are mixed with old science fiction (H.G Wells) and Albert Einstein’s theories on the laws of physics and string theory. Add to the mix a very modern distrust of the government and a villain determined to use the powers of the occult to bring in a new age of mysticism and you have something that’s a little confusing, a little too packed, but something very interesting indeed.

I’m not going to get too carried away with the book at this stage as the art is not going to wow anybody, and the ending doesn’t really pack the punch that it should do, but there’s so much happening, and it’s such a joy to read. The research carried out for the production of this book must have been immense and the characters are so intriguing that I cannot help but be impressed by it all. There’s a lightness and air of fun about the script as well. It’s not lead weight and overly serious, it’s fun to read and the dialogue has moments of humour throughout (“It’s a dinosaur. A dinosaur I tell you.”).

After reading this comic book I went onto the Internet and did a bit of research about the character called ‘The Avenger.’ He sounds like a very interesting guy to me, so I’m absolutely thrilled that he’s back in contemporary comics, and I have my fingers crossed that he’ll be a huge fan favourite and stay around for a long, long time. I knew nothing about him before reading this book, but because of the way that writer Michael Uslan has re-introduced him, he’s become somebody that I’m very excited about. Please check out the link at the end of this review, and then read Justice Inc #1, and I’m sure you’ll agree with me on this point. I bought this book for The Shadow, but it’s the Avenger character that is going to keep me coming back.

I highly recommend this book, and even though the ending isn’t quite as strong as it should be, that’s not a big concern, as what has been established here is a template for what is to come next. It both fascinates and impresses me to see these old pulp heroes very cleverly brought into 2014, yet not seem dated at all. This is how to re-introduce old comic book characters and make them seem relevant to the world of 2014. I just hope that modern readers will take a chance with them. Justice Inc #1 is a clever book, an intriguing book and a book that’s just a heck of a lot of fun to read.

Rating: 8/10

For further information about 'The Avenger.' Please have a read of this fascinating info from our ever reliable friends at wikipedia-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Avenger_(character)

Comic book review: The Multiversity #1- Oh crap, this was no fun at all

Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Ivan Reis
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 20th August 2014

Reading comic books shouldn’t be a chore, it should be fun, but this book was a convoluted, tiresome, joyless chore from beginning to end. I had a quick chat with John, the owner of my local comic book shop (https://www.facebook.com/TheIncredibleComicShop), before I bought this book, and he warned me that it was no good, and by God was he right.

The book begins with a focus on an insular loser living in a little bedroom with a pile of comic books, sadly discarded childhood toys and a couple of packets of prescription drugs for depressive illnesses. Is this kind of person that writer Grant Morrison sees as buying his comic books? Sadly, it looks that way. There’s a brief mention of a comic book that curses it’s readers, just like the video tapes in that Japanese horror movie (The Ring) that was a big deal over a decade ago, but this really shouldn’t be the creative basis for a new DC comic-book event in 2014. Is this all they have? Geesh, I hope not.

This is another comic set in a no-time zone that could be anywhere between 1980 and 2014. There’s the usual comic book nod to our times with a computer console and what looks like a web-chat on a Internet forum, but make no mistake about it, this is a comic that reads very much like something that would have bored and confused me in the early 1980’s. There is nothing of our times here, and no attempt to even deal with any of the issues and concerns in a contemporary setting. It’s just another silly comic, and that’s not enough for me now.

The needlessly confusing narrative follows the comic book fan as he turns into a laughable superhero, who is more comedy figure than serious protagonist, and he’s joined in his adventures by his toy monkey in a pirate outfit. I’m not joking; this is what actually happens in the book. What the Hell is going on here? Is the guy hallucinating due to a combination of loneliness and over indulgence in his prescription meds? Probably, but I don’t really care. The character is paper-thin. There’s nothing here for me to relate to, no reason whatsoever for me to care.

As the book progresses it begins to read like the latest Sandman Overture book in that it’s about collapsing universes, but it’s nowhere near as interesting and the art is vastly inferior to the excellent work being done by J.H Williams III. It’s not bad art, it’s just blah, uninspired, exactly like the script of the book.

The different characters that are introduced in these collapsing universes come across as the sort of piss take that you would see on an episode of South Park. I couldn’t take any of them seriously, and I couldn’t force myself to care about any of them either.

The main man, apart from the drugged up comic book loser, is a black Superman. He’s also the president in his particular reality, and he looks suspiciously like Barack Obama. That’s a really dated thing to do in comic books now. Perhaps when Obama first came into power it would have worked, but not now. The real life Obama has been exposed as a globalist puppet and lying war criminal piece of crap, so having him portrayed as a comic book hero in August 2014 looks completely ridiculous.

I’m really struggling to say anything else about this book as it has a very noticeable hollowness at its core. There’s nothing there; there’s really nothing there at all. It’s just silly, and boring, and not that interesting and it has one joke about ‘cartoon physics’ that comes across as an awkward attempt at injecting some fun into it, but it’s really desperate because it really isn’t any fun at all.

John warned me about this book, telling me that it would be confusing, but I told him that I was okay with that as I only had three other books to read this week, and that I’d take my time and read it over a couple of times. That’s not going to happen. No way am I going to be reading this joyless book a second time over. One read was a chore, and if I have to read it again I’m going to suddenly fall out of love with comics and never want to read another one of them ever again.

I think I should listen a bit more to the wise words of John the next time I go into the shop, because he was absolutely right about this book. He told me that it was a confusing mess, and that’s exactly what it is.

Avoid this book. Don’t waste your time and cash on it. I hate to be so mean about it, but you’d think that a writer of Grant Morrison’s tenure, experience and reputation would know how to put together an enjoyable book in his sleep by now. I really enjoyed his work on Batman & Robin, but this Multiversity book is no fun at all. What he has done here is throw up a generic 1980’s child-lite confusing multi-universe bore-fest that is lacking in inspiration, completely unappealing and near enough unreadable. I'm really surprised that it's as bad as it is. What a bloody shame, Grant Morrison is usually a lot better than this.

Rating: 2/10

Comic book review: Lobster Johnson- Get the Lobster Part 5 of 5: Not very smart, but worth a quick read

Writers: Mike Mignola and John Arcudi
Artist: Tonci Zonjic
Colours: Dave Stewart
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Released: 13th August 2014

**********Spoilers in review**********

This end of the arc issue has our ridiculously named superhero dispose of the bad guys, in suitably dramatic fashion, and emerge from what must have been certain death with a quip and attitude intact. Along the way the puppet masters behind the main villain are disappointingly brushed over with a vague reference to mind-control and Russia, and the cops still don’t trust Lobster, even though he has revealed that their Police of Chief was a mind controlled villain.

That Chief of Police wasted a lot of money hunting down the Lobster, and it’s announced that the money will now be put into ‘Housing and Schools,’ because ‘There is very little evidence that the Lobster was ever a direct threat to the Police force.’ Sounds great, doesn’t it? But in the very next sentence it’s announced that the cops actually will still be wasting money on trying to hunt down the Lobster, just under something called the Federal Division of Investigation instead. So who’s paying for that then? I guess it’s okay because they have their own ‘special’ money that doesn’t come from taxes, right?

Yeah, it’s pretty stupid, and I had to read it a couple of times over just to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. I wasn’t. This is just an aside, but people must know that the main role of any Police Force is to control the people, not to protect them. The Police are corporate enforcers, and their role is to make sure that the slaves on the corporate plantation don’t get too uppity and start to challenge their owners. Perhaps if comic book writers realised this basic truism we might start to progress and get up to date with some of these stories?

The enjoyment to be had out of this run hasn’t really been the threadbare story; it’s been the artwork by Tonci Zonjic and colouring by Dave Stewart. The weakest page in this book is the bland front cover, but the interior art is really great, the action scenes in particular have an almost animated quality about them, and I give huge credit to Dave Stewart for this. Two panels standout in this book, and they are the two most important panels in the story, the demise of the villain, and the return of the hero.

So the story wasn’t up to much, it left me feeling a bit unsatisfied, but the hero himself, a moody recalcitrant, moral law upholder who does what is right and punishes those who deserve punishment remains a personal favourite. He’s stuck in the post WW1 period though, so you get no contemporary concerns here about lawless government, NSA spying, endless foreign wars for the benefit of the rich, and rapid expansion of a Police state in western countries where governments see their own civilians as their number on enemy. None of these concerns are explored here, and the socio-political commentary, out of a ranking of one to ten, is a big fat zero.

What you do get here though is a strong civic-minded individual driven by a duty to see the bad guys get what they deserve. He is a civilian, and he works for the people, not the corporate enforcers with their ridiculous uniforms, silly moustaches and ignorance about how the system really works to protect the rich and enslave the poor. Lobster has no special powers, just his own strength, agility, smarts and a team of dedicated people helping him out with the latest gadgets available in the 1920’s. Let’s face it, he’s Batman under a different name.

I’d prefer him to be getting the bad guys in 2014 rather than some time in the 1920’s, but I guess he’s going to remain in this safe comic book period with evil Nazi’s, Russian spies and the clearly defined good guys all having American accents. This period of world history is so beloved of contemporary comic book writers as they have uncontroversial, easily defined villains. They don't have to deal with all of the uncomfortable truths of today, with our own governments acting like comic book villains and our soldiers and Police forces mindlessly obeying orders just like the loyal and patriotic Germans did in the late 1930’s and 40’s.

That’s the biggest issue that comic book writers have to deal with in 2014, just who is the good guy and who is the bad guy now? They either don’t know, or they are being deliberately ignorant about it. That is why so many of these books still have old WW2 era Nazi’s, not the modern Ukrainian Nazi’s of course, as they’re on our side now, just like the ‘rebels’ in Syria. Oh, they are ISIS now, are they? Are they still the good guys now they are tearing children in half? We funded them after all, and look, they are running around in American army jeeps. And I thought we invaded Iraq because of terrorism, so why is it being over-ran by terrorists right now?

Do you see what I mean? Comic book writers need to get a handle on the contradictions of our time if they want to be relevant, and smart about what has happened to this world post September 11th 2001. This book isn’t very smart. It’s stuck in that safe Nazi ‘s and Communists period, and I guess that’s where Lobster will remain.  It’s not a particularly great book, but the art; dramatic colouring and strong character of Lobster himself makes it at least worth a quick read.


Rating: 6/10

Comic book review: Death Vigil #2- Fluffy, irrelevant and lightweight, yet it made me giggle

Writer and Artist: Stjepan Sejic
Publisher: Image Comics
Released: 13th August 2014

It’s the amusing dialogue that makes this book the amusing diversion that it is. There’s nothing particularly original, contemporary or socio-politically relevant about the book, so it’s never going to get a top rating from this reviewer, but it makes me smile and it’s not bashing me over the head with the usual feminist liberal agenda that so many comic books carry today.

I can forgive the cuteness, the fluffiness and the self-aware comic book puns and just read it, smile and leave it at that. Issue #2 clarifies the world that is being created, has a fight-scene interlude to break up what might otherwise have been an exposition heavy issue, introduces a new threat, and that’s about it really.

The characters are loveable and playful and self-aware and they all have great hair, and they are the cool little club that you wanted to join, but couldn’t find except perhaps on the television or in a comic book like this, and they all have cool names that are deliberately geeky, but chic in a hipster kind of way, and they all have cool special abilities, and the animals talk like those old Sandman comics, and they are saving the world, or something, and they look a bit Gothic like a My Chemical Romance video, and they live in a big College era type house, and I’m sure they’ll all have relationships with each other whilst battling the evil emo guys, or whoever the villains are, and it’s going to be a lot of fun, and the dialogue is post modern and witty, and the art is all swirls and double page magical lighning flashes as they swoosh into the night’s sky full of stars with horrible looking creatures biting at their toes.

Okay, so it’s lacking in originality and it’s not really saying anything, about anything. It’s set in a no time as well, a time that looks dangerously close to the mid 1990’s time setting so beloved (because it’s politically safe) of contemporary mainstream comic book writers. It could be 1978 or it could be 2078. The world is merely a backdrop for the cool get-along gang of Emo/Goth dead kids with cool haircuts and swiggly magic powers, but I’m reading it, and the dialogue is funny, and I need something fluffy every now and then, and it fits the bill nicely.

Death Vigil is an average, post-modern, fluffy comic book about skinny dead Goth kids who are far more interesting and verbally witty than their real world counterparts. Compared to my own world it's infinitely more appealing. I'll explain that world to you, the world that surrounds this man, and don’t worry about me. It doesn’t effect me now, not like it used to.

I live in a world of predictable drip, drip, routine, get old, get replaced, no wisdom here. A world of indifferent android people stuck in the ruts and routines of their own creation. Yes, when you compare the world of Death Vigil to my own imitation of life why would I not happily jump into this fluffy, amusing little realm, at least for a while?  The people there are very cool, they talk to each other about interesting things (not sport), they seem happy, they have a cool little gang and I’m really enjoying their amusing verbal interplay. It’s not exactly a revolutionary, matrix shattering, world changer of a comic book, but it makes me smile and that’s good enough for me.


Rating: 7/10

Comic book review: Transformers Primacy #1- Blasting a hole of relevance through the heart of mainstream comic book culture

Writers: Chris Metzen and Flint Dille
Artist: Livio Ramondelli
Publisher: IDW Comics
Released: 13th August 2014

Forget about the awful new movies and don’t worry about not being familiar with the previous two editions of this story line. This book is instantly accessible and if you enjoy it as much as I think that you will, you can always purchase the previous two books (Autocracy and Monstrosity) later on.

Transformers Primacy #1 is a lesson in how to nod to long-term readers whilst being reader friendly to those completely new to the book. It achieves this by having the characters talk about the past, but in broad-brush strokes where it’s not confusing at all. Whilst doing this it re-establishes the personalities and motivations of the main protagonists, whilst moving the plot forward and preparing readers for the inevitable confrontation that is coming.

Grimlock is a psychologically damaged war veteran. Optimus Prime is a reluctant leader who would rather challenge himself physically than deal with the burdens of running a state, and Megatron is a power-crazed individual who wants power at any cost. Grimlock is sick of war, and is damaged by both what he has seen, and what he has done. Optimus Prime exists to serve the will of the people, and has no interest in power for power’s sake. Megatron embraces evil, but he is afraid of truth. He doesn’t want to hear any lessons about the futility of endless war. Power and control is all to him, and he will do anything to realise his goals.

The artwork and colouring by Livio Ramondelli is dark, atmospheric and perfectly in synch with the tone of the writing. The robots are instantly recognisable from the old cartoons I used to watch many years ago, but they are given an edge of legitimacy by being enveloped in shadow, with bright eyes gleaming through the gloom.

Some reviewers might complain that it’s too dark, that the characters are not distinct enough from the gloomy backgrounds, that there’s too much shadow, but I would strongly argue that the atmosphere it creates of a dark, murky menace is perfect for the book. This is Transformers for an adult audience, and the artwork further enhances the feeling that this is serious-stuff, and not just a silly, brightly coloured cartoon story about toy robots. It really is outstanding, and shows the benefit of having the same individual doing both the pencils and the colouring.

The book, as mentioned in my introduction, is very simple. The context is established whilst three main characters are re-introduced, two weapons are uncovered during this first issue, and the scene is then set for the upcoming war of good versus evil.

The underlying socio-political themes have also been established. Grimlock, the tired war veteran is fed up of going to war. This ties into our own world in 2014 where the people in western countries are getting increasingly war weary. We have had over a decade now of war and people are starting to question all of the death and destruction caused by their largely unaccountable leaders.

Optimus Prime is a reluctant leader (the best kind of leader incidentally, and just the kind of leader that we lack in the real world) who wants to do the will of the people, but is this even possible?

Megatron is a control freak Darwinian psychopath (sadly, this archetype is more in keeping with our actual real world leaders) who intends to destroy the world, and re-build it as a giant prison camp, with him as the unopposed dictator.

This last point is the biggest issue of our times with western leaders seeming determined to get WW3 started with their war baiting provocations against Russia, a country with an arsenal of nuclear weapons. A war with Russia means nuclear war, and once again that is now looking like a terrible possibility. After the nuclear devastation of WW3 will come the age of the New World Order, one world government, one world army, one world currency and the planet Earth will become even more of a giant prison camp, all controlled by a tiny group of dictatorial families. That is the Hell that is being planned on planet Earth in 2014 by our own power crazed Megatons. That is what they want, and they will see the world burn to achieve their objectives. These are the concerns that I see being addressed in this book, and that is why it’s an essential purchase for every thinking comic book fan.

The previous two editions of this arc (Autocracy and Monstrosity) were full of socio-political allusions to the present world situation, and this book will be no different. Writers Chris Metzen and Flint Dille are posing questions about the nature of freedom and democracy, media manipulation, endless wars for resources, freedoms being erroded in the name of security and many other New World Order issues of our time that far too many other comic book writers appear unwilling, or unable to address. This comic book looks great, it’s well structured, intelligently written and it’s easy to jump straight into. Yeah, I know it’s a book about giant toy robots, but trust me on this one, it’s a good one and you don’t want to be missing out on it.

Rating: 9/10

Comic book blitz review: The Squidder #2- Pain, resentment, loss.

Writer: Ben Templesmith
Artist: Ben Templesmith
Publisher: IDW
Released: 6th August 2014

There is feeling of pain, resentment and loss about this book, a feeling emanating from it’s main character that in no way seems fake, forced or contrived to create the emotion that is flowing from it.

It’s the dirty, vomit coloured art, the stunted, not wanting to communicate, but communicating dialogue, the unsmiling faces, the feeling of being used or being the user, and a sense that those in charge, the parasites of the universe are not a million miles removed from the creatures that control our own.

All of these factors combine to make a book that’s a notch above a lot of the others that I read today. Issue #2 gives the reader an insight into the cruel, indifferent, parasitic squid, a priestess used as a conduit to control the enslaved masses, and a soldier who tried, but failed to beat the squid many years ago.

The villainous squid are detestable, the priestess knows she has been used, and wants revenge, as does the soldier. The humans they meet along the way are fighting amongst themselves for scraps from the table of their parasitic slave masters, much like a lot of the slaves do in our own reality.

It’s a sad book, a depressed book, but a rebellion is stirring. This issue is about the beginning of the fight back, where humanity begins to change what has happened to them, to plan, to conspire, yes because everything’s a bloody ‘conspiracy,’ now isn’t it? Especially reality, that’s the biggest bloody ‘conspiracy’ of them all.

Two individuals are conspiring to kick the parasite in the teeth and reclaim their lost humanity from the oppressive slave master parasite that has destroyed their world. Just two people, two seeds that are beginning to grow. Two people who are saying no to the parasite. Two people not fighting for scraps, but fighting the fat bloated master at the table. I’m up for that. Great book.

Rating: 9/10

Comic book review: Green Lantern # 34- Stop thinking Soldier, and get back to the killing fields

Writer: Robert Venditti
Artists: Billy Tan & Rob Hunter
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 6th August 2014

This isn’t a particularly great book, but it had one moment of interest. That moment being when the stand-in for the rule of uniformed, governmental authority, Hal Jordan, questions the legitimacy and existence of both himself and the organisation that he works for.

'I just got done fighting a war against who knows how many worlds that think the Green Lanterns are parasites. And here’s the thing: they might not be wrong.’

It’s a moment of doubt that’s quickly refuted by his brother, a brother who believes that we live to consume and that you shouldn’t think too much about whether war is right or wrong, you should just keep on fighting because of the families back home. It’s the old psychological warfare/propaganda tactic that the elite’s pump into the heads of every soldier. Every single soldier who has ever thought in any war is given the same line, do it for the children, do it for your family, do it to protect them from the evil that the enemy represents.

We don’t hear Jordan’s reply to his brother’s statist propaganda cliches, instead the book ends with that new threat. Is it the Russians? Well, it is in the real world isn’t it? There always has to be something new to fear. A new bogeyman for the eugenic elite’s to scare us with so they can continue to keep us enslaved. That’s how it works, that’s how it always works, and if there is nothing real to fear, they just invent something. The mainstream media plays along with it, as they are happy and willing partners in the control system of corporate/government slavery.

In this book the new threat is something to do with the return of the Black Lanterns. We see them mouthing something that sounds vaguely religious, and as we all know by now, the only religion allowable in the dying secular west of 2014 is an unquestioning devotion to government. And so the wheel of endless war continues, not just in comic books, but in the real world as well.

Leaving the statist war propaganda aside for a moment, I enjoyed the art in the book, the dialogue was a bit quip happy at the beginning with Hal Jordan sounded like a complete jerk, but there were light moments as well that were enjoyable to read.

This was a bridge book, there was a brief threat from a daft villain, then a chat on a hill, with a non-military man telling a soldier to get back to war, and to stop questioning what he is doing. That’s where it ends, with a new threat, and the military man preparing himself for more death and destruction. Will Hal Jordan continue to question his role? Let’s hope so, because that was by far and away the most interesting thing about this book.

Rating: 6.5/10

Comic book review: Alex + Ada #8- Government is not God, and ignorance is not Strength.

Writer: Sarah Vaughn and Jonathan Luna
Artist: Jonathan Luna
Publisher: Image Comics
Released: 6th August 2014

The most interesting section in Alex + Ada #8 was the first quarter of the book where the newly awakened android Ada discusses the benefits of being ‘Awake’ with Alex’s comfortably ‘safe’ Grandma. It’s the age-old question of giving up your freedoms for the illusion of security. A ploy that government always uses to take our freedoms away, arguing that the safest environment is a big prison camp, for our own safety, of course. You can also tie this discussion into the Tower of Babel moment in the Bible and the moment when man disobeyed God by eating from the tree of knowledge. Alex’s Grandma would rather live a life of safety and ignorance with her unconscious android partner than fight against the control system of government.

Alex + Ada, like all good books, is tapping into contemporary concerns, so although it’s set in the future, it’s actually dealing with the important issues of today. Government in 2014 western societies has become a synonym for God. I’ll explain that point. The vast majority of secular people living in the west today fear government and the punishments that they can bring rather than what they laughingly refer to as a ‘Flying Spaghetti monster in the sky.’

God is no longer feared, but government certainly is. Government has become God, and that’s how the criminal elite’s want things to remain, forever. Fear, ignorance, apathy and learned helplessness keep the people enslaved to government. In issue #8 of Alex + Ada, the grandma character illustrates these contemporary fears as she discusses her reasoning for living her life as a comfortable slave. Here’s some highlights of her reasoning, and how she justifies ignorance and slavery:

‘I couldn’t risk it. It would be only a matter of time before the government found out.’ (Fear of God/Government thus justifying not acting, or trying to change the status quo.)

‘I like the way things are. I didn’t want complications.’ (Living in a gilded cage has made her apathetic to change).

‘Is it wrong to unlock him when the world isn’t prepared for it.’ (Fear that change will lead to chaos, and therefore slavery is preferable).

These are three ways that people justify statism (slavery to government) in 2014. To me this book is not about human and android interactions in the near future. It’s a better book than that. No, this book is an exploration of what is happening in contemporary times, and how people justify slavery and ignorance. That is why it is an essential book. It is dealing with issues that need to be discussed. Issues about waking from ignorance and whether humanity is ready for it, or even really wants it.

I have no doubt that a lots of the readers of Alex + Ada will read the book and have the issues and concerns I’ve just mentioned fly a million miles over their heads. They will connect with the book on an emotional level, and be more concerned with the personalities involved than the underlying issues of freedom, ignorance, slavery and government becoming God. That is always the case, and that’s why Jesus talked in parables. People can understand on a subconscious level, and the seeds will grow in minds that are ready to understand. Some people will never understand of course, and other people just enjoy a life of slavery and ignorance. They want to stay asleep (as androids), as waking up is too difficult. It will force them to address questions about the world that they would prefer to ignore.

I’m one of those annoying guys that wants to be awake, and that’s why I do these reviews on my silly little blog. It’s not about comics, it never was. It’s about the bigger issues, and when I read a comic like Alex + Ada that is dealing with the same issues that I try to expose in these reviews it’s obviously going to make me a huge fan of the book. I hope that this rambling review has made a little bit of sense to somebody out there, and I have one last, concluding statement to make that I hope will shine a light on not only this book, but the state of the world as it is today. Government is not God, and ignorance is not strength.

Rating: 9/10 

Comic book review: Justice League #32- Lex needs to join the NSA

Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Doug Mahnke
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 30th July 2014

There are a couple of ways to read this book. You can read it as a silly childish comic about wacky people in silly costumes and try to pretend that you are a twelve-year old again, or you can be all adult about it and get angry at the statist assumptions and wilful ignorance of it all. 

I’ll split this review into two main sections. The first will look at the book as a silly childish adventure playtime slice of sickly sweet cake, and the second will look at it from an adult’s perspective. Here goes:

The narrative follows three groups, with an interdimensional evil threat lurking in the background. The first group is headed by a character called, ‘The Chief,’ and consists of psychologically damaged weirdoes with super powers. The second group is the Justice League, who are really brave and selfless, and spend all of the time saving poor helpless civilians, and the last group is headed up by Lex Luthor, a man who wants total power, and is prepared to do anything to get it. 

The story of Justice league #32 involves the later two groups struggling to gain control over a conflicted villain called Power Ring. There are fights, nice green art and the Justice League themselves don’t do a lot. I guess they’ll be more of a factor later on after the groups headed up by the Chief and Lex Luthor have a bit of a tussle next month. The best parts of this issue are the characterisation of a deeply insecure Elasti-Girl and some background information on the evil force hidden in a ring. There’s not much else happening, but the art is big and colourful and I guess more interesting things might happen later on.

Okay, time to put my adult-head on and look at this book with a bit of common sense. What we have in this book is three teams of government agents fighting amongst themselves for control. Lex Luthor is the corporate wing. The Chief and his band of misfits are the warped and untrustworthy intelligence agencies, and the Justice League are the order following boy scouts in the FBI, thinking they are saving the people, but largely unaware of the power struggle going on amongst the other two teams. As a comic about the Justice League this is a bit weak, as it means that they are the least important people in their own book. 

The best thing about this issue is the unintentional hilarity of the front cover, with Lex Luthor holding the costume of Batman amidst the headline-' Lex Luthor knows one secret. What will he do to learn them all?' I have an answer for that. He’ll join the NSA, and then he’ll get to know whatever he likes, and if anybody questions him he’ll call them unpatriotic and they’ll have to escape to Russia or spend the rest of their lives in prison. Well, that’s America in 2014, is it not? If Lex was in charge, that’s what he would do. Will we see this reflected in this comic book, a comic book that was written in 2014? What do you think?

Gathering both reviews together, and looking at this book in some kind of collective sense, I cannot completely leave my adult mind in the bathroom and enjoy it just as a silly comic book for a twelve-year old mind. The cover screams unreality, so it’s difficult to do that from the onset. However, as a comic for the very young, or the ignorant hipster type who likes to pretend that reality doesn’t exist, there are moments of humour and a couple of the female characters are quite interesting.

I cannot help but read the book as a silly cartoon though. I know it’s written primarily for adults, as very few children read comic books in 2014, but this really is a child’s comic book. It has big bright colours; silly characters and an overall feel of disconnection from the harsh realities of our time. It’s a ridiculous comic book. It’s stupid, it’s about funny cartoon characters, and it’s staying a billion miles away from any of the real issues and concerns that are happening in the real world today. 

Lots of comic book fans will love it of course, but that says more about them, their own mind-sets and priorities in life, rather than the objective quality of this book itself, and everybody knows they just put up those 10/10 review to get retweets on twitter.  I’m giving this book a slightly below average rating, not just because of the adult concerns I had with it, but because it’s not much fun, not very memorable, and the Justice League are a background team of uninteresting super idiot cops in their own book. It’s a blah book about government teams fighting for control, with the least interesting characters being the Justice League themselves. That’s not good, for a twelve-year-old mind or a 32-year-old feminist liberal hipster either. 

One last point. If Lex Luthor actually existed in the world today he’d be working deep within the US intelligence network. Why wouldn’t he be? He’s a smart guy and it would be the obvious thing for him to do. If he worked within the US intelligence network he’d be above the law, above prosecution and above suspicion. He could do whatever he liked, and further his corporate interests shielded by laws that he could write himself. That’s how it works today. If you have corporate power you are above governments, and certainly above super hero cops in their silly little uniforms. They work for you, and they are happy to do so. It would be nice to see that reality reflected in comic books today, but perhaps I’m asking for too much from comic book writers comfortably working within large corporations?

If the Justice League cared at all about human freedom they’d be tackling corporate/government complicity in crimes against the people, not rescuing cats from burning buildings as they do in this particular comic book. Is that harsh? Probably, but it’s the truth, and as I’m writing on my own blog here, and couldn’t give a toss about retweets on Twitter I’m going to say exactly what I think, and talk about realities that far too many people deliberately ignore. 

Rating: 5/10

Comic book review: Sherlock Holmes- Moriarty Lives #5- Occupy Moriarty?

Writer: David Liss
Artist: Carlos Furuzono
Cover artist: Francesco Francavilla
Publisher: Dynamite Comics
Released: 30th July 2014


This concluding issue of the re-emergence of Professor Moriarty, after his near death at the Reichenbach falls, offers one slightly confusing misdirection, before wrapping things up in a slightly disappointing, and pedestrian manner.

There's our hero, with a nice little hipster goatee

That’s not always a bad thing of course. Endings that twist and shock but make no sense are far worse than endings that fail to surprise. And anyway, the entire purpose of this book was to explore the character of Professor Moriarty, his philosophy, his morality and his methodology as well. It achieves those goals and along the way there was some fantastic dialogue coming from the mouth of the Professor himself.

Unlike a lot of real world (top-level) criminals that operate through the secret occulted family blood-lines that control modern day finance, corporations and government, Professor Moriarty appears to be a self-made villain. He might have inherited his evil in a genetic sense, but he didn’t need to be born with a silver spoon in his mouth to get where he is today. Everything he achieved in this book was without outside assistance. Surely if the man operated a global criminal empire of such power and influence he would be able to get word out, and get some help in the little town he found himself washed up and alone in?

No help came his way, and he didn’t ask for any either. Is he doing this to prove himself? Or is his criminal empire not as powerful as we might think? You’d think that the main spider in the web of criminal evil would be more powerful, wouldn’t you? You don’t see that here. What you see is a self-made man, the ultimate capitalist.

You can criticise the underlying ideological and socio-political assumptions made here. You can even call it out for naivety. Writer David Liss has bought into the idea that the world is full of self- made men, battling for control on a level playing field. I would strongly disagree, and argue that this is not the case. The world is ran by a tiny minority of rich families and populated by billions of poor families. It is a slave colony. The rich families get richer, and the poor families get poorer. And the middle families, they get sucked further down, not further up. Sure, there are exceptions to this rule, but exceptions just prove the rule itself.

The villain is a big fan of Guantanamo Bay

Occupy Wallstreet talked about the 1%. That 1% is not one man. It is a group of families that own everything and everybody. If Professor Moriarty really was the spider at the centre of a global web of crime, as described by Sherlock Holmes, he would be a part of the 1%, not just another 99 percenter, as he appears to be in this book.

Our crony capitalist playing field is not level, and these days it’s hard to argue that it is. It is a field where you can battle against the bloodline elite’s, or you can join their anti-human, satanic control system. Most chose to join it, some consciously, most unconsciously. From politicians, to bankers, to corporate leaders, to drug cartel kingpins, to child traffickers, to child ‘educators,’ to television ‘programmers,’ the evil that exists in this world today is organised evil, not a self-made lone evil as represented by an individual like Professor Moriarty.

That was kind of the point in Conan Doyle’s original stories, at least as I read it. Moriarty was rarely seen, and when he did appear he was an abstract figure who only communicated with Holmes, not Doctor Watson, the writer of the stories. Did Moriarty even exist? I would argue that no, he didn’t exist at all. The ‘Moriarty’ system operates through its agents, and one of those agents battled Holmes at the Reichenbach falls, but the system is not one man.  Moriarty represented a hidden power, rather than a hidden individual. It was not about him, it was about something deeper, more occulted than that.

The slaves are starting to question their masters

It’s a mainstream idea that the world is fair, and that the strong can rise to the top. All of the research and reading that I’ve ever done indicates that this is not the case. There is scope for change at the lower levels, and you can advance your position, but the top is fixed. You can join it of course, but you will be a servant, not a master. Just another slave to the control system, no matter how big your house is, no matter how pretty your wife is, and no matter how much money you have in your bank account.

‘Moriarty’ is not a man. He is the criminal system itself. The one percent that the Occupy movement have been trying to tell the world about.

Narratively speaking, this concluding issue of Moriarty Lives wraps things up in a fairly formulaic manner. The bad guy is defeated; there is some misdirection (that confused me, so it didn’t work), and a promise that perhaps we’ll see more of the Moriarty character in future Sherlock Holmes books.

I enjoyed the dialogue more than anything else in this run. It was very good, insightful even. The underpinning societal assumptions were problematic to me however. The art was average, at best, and the narrative ends on a slight down, rather than the up you would need to get readers really enthusiastic and demanding more from the Moriarty character. It was still a good read though. I enjoyed the interpersonal dynamics between Moriarty and his young apprentice, there are some valuable life-lessons in the earlier issues as well, and the cover artwork by Francesco Francavilla has been gloriously gothic, atmospheric and consistently excellent throughout the entire five-issue run.

Rating: 7/10