Graphic novel review: Jonathan Hickman's 'The Nightly News': No cult membership required

Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Artist: Jonathan Hickman
Publisher: Image comics
Released: June 2007

You’d think that a book such as this, about media manipulation and the role of powerful corporations owning and controlling both the mainstream media and their political puppets, would be right up my alley, but I really didn’t enjoy this book much at all.

I found that it was more of a research project by writer Jonathan Hickman put into a comic book format, with some cult members as the protagonists because I guess you have to have lots of gratuitous violence to make a comic book interesting, right?

Err, I don’t know about that, but what I do know is that this comic book wasn’t very interesting or insightful to me, at all. So, what does it tell us?

Cults are bad. No shit. Mainstream media journalists are career whores. No shit. Powerful corporate elite’s own and control mainstream politicians. No shit. Vaccines are poison. No shit. There is poison in our food. No shit. The television is lying to you, programming you. Again, no bloody shit Sherlock. I already know this stuff, we all do. Just because the corporate whore mainstream media is not discussing it, that doesn’t mean we don’t already know about it, because we do.

WE KNOW.

And what’s the point in portraying those that protest against corporate/media corruption as dangerous cult members that have been brainwashed into committing violent acts in order to further the agenda of yet another corporate elite? What is that saying? That all protest is probably being controlled, and if you want to protest you’ll be joining a mind controlled cult? That’s not exactly a good message, is it? It’s saying that you might as well not bother protesting. It's saying that you might as well stay at home and read silly superhero comics instead.

This is a largely unenjoyable book. It’s a book with overly stylised and annoying page layouts and far, far, far too much textual information per page. This information is presented like it’s shocking, like it’s some sort of secret revelation, when it’s really nothing of the sort.

Anybody with any epistemological curiosity already knows far more about this stuff than is presented here. This is media manipulation for beginners. The fancy pants page layout hides what is a largely formulaic cult story book with lots of violence and swearing, Chomsky quotations, people being Darwinian and ruthless and a message that is stating the acknowledged fact that mainstream media news bastards are lying to us all.

I know this book was released in 2006/2007, but this stuff wasn’t new then, and it’s very, very dated now, especially after the recent revelations by Wikileaks, information that just confirmed what we already knew anyway. This book dresses up fact as a conspiracy, and that's just how the corporate elites like it.

The book did get one thing right though. 'Chomsky's a fucking retard.' He sure is, and that's why he is in the position that he currently fills. An ageing gatekeeper, letting you feel like you're getting close, but then slamming the door shut when you threaten to break through the corporate/banking/education matrix.

Oh dear, and what happens next for writer Jonathan Hickman? He buggers off to a huge corporation (Marvel/Disney) where he will have a very soft and easy career writing escapist books about cold war era, anachronistic superheroes. If you want to get his latest polemic, super controversial and revolutionary mind expanding stuff then pick up the latest issue of Marvel’s Avengers. <<<<HUGE SIGH>>>>Way to go mate. You did a little bit of faintly anti-authoritarian stuff, and then it’s straight to easy Suburb Street working for one of the giant evil corporations you gently criticised in this book. There’s a two-word cliché for people who do that, and it really does apply here.

SELL-OUT.

There was nothing revolutionary about this book, at all. It was a depressing book about media manipulation and how there’s nothing that you can do about it. That is a lie, a lie that promotes learnt helplessness, the feeling that there’s nothing that we can do, so why bother even trying. We need to break through this destructive feeling of learnt helplessness because there is something we can all do about it. The solution is very simple, and that solution does not involve cult membership or violence. All we have to do to break the destructive cycle of corporate/media manipulation is the following. Turn off the mainstream media. Stop voting between left arse cheek and right arse cheek, and stop reading statist comic books like the Avengers. That’s all you have to do. No cult membership required.

Rating: 5/10 (For the information that the largely sleeping comic book fanboy readers might not know about, but really bloody well should do)

Horror comic review: Grimm Tales of Terror #3: Knife wielding nut-job on campus

Writer: Meredith Finch
Artist: Milton Estevam
Publisher: Zenescope Entertainment
Released: 17th September 2014


I enjoyed this book, but it would be amiss of me not to mention that it had serious structural flaws, with an ending that happened before it should have done, and some characters that weren’t properly developed or given satisfying story-line payoffs.

There was the added problem that all of the pretty girl protagonists looked very similar, apart from hair colour, and as the story was relatively short it was difficult to get a handle on who they all were as individuals. One girl was a daddy’s girl, and some of the others were worried about their grades, but that’s all there was to differentiate them. The problem was that the book was too short, and there were too many people in it. In horror one shots there isn’t enough room to properly develop numerous characters. Writer Meredith Finch tried to put a horror movie script into twenty-two pages of a comic book, and there wasn’t enough room to properly accomplish that.

One of the undeveloped characters in this book was a perverted lecturer who gave pretty college girls good grades for sexual ‘favours.’ That’s quite standard fare in stories about pretty college girls, but the book wasn’t long enough to fully develop his character and story-arc, so when he met his inevitable demise it fell flat because he wasn’t a convincing flesh and blood person. You see him briefly at the beginning, and briefly at the end. He is a teacher, and a pervert. That is all. That is not a human being. That is two-dimensional cardboard cutout.

The big moment in horror stories such as this one is the scene where the identity of the murderer is finally revealed. You expect a twist, but if it's done well it’s still a dramatic moment. You get that scene in this book, but it happens too early, leaving three unnecessary pages that were only included so that the Horror host could be fitted into the story at the end. It didn’t work.

The host should have been involved in the reveal, and she wasn’t. Her signature moment of whistling whilst the bad guys get their just deserts didn’t work out this time as she didn’t appear to care about a psychopathic knife murdering maniac at all. Instead she was more concerned with a lecherous teacher and making sure that he got what he deserved. That was a bit jarring to me. On a rising scale of moral wrongs surely hacking young girls to death with a knife ranks a few notches above being a perverted teacher? Yes, I know that being a dirty old git who exploits his pupils is pretty bloody disgusting and morally vacuous, but stabbing college girls to death with a big knife and leaving silly horror movie messages on the wall in their own blood must be a more serious crime, right?

I also had a problem with the character of the janitor in this book. Again, as you might expect, he was portrayed as a big old weird pervert, because obviously every single man that comes into contact with young females must be some perverted lech, right? Actually, come to think of it, the younger men in this book were portrayed as perverts as well, so it’s not exactly a man friendly book come to think of it. Anyway, the janitor character kept popping up, looking and acting like a big fat sweaty pervert (how was he not sacked on the first day of his job?), but we didn’t get any payoff to his story. Any half clued in reader would never take him seriously as being a real candidate for the murderer because he was too obvious, and as the book ended he was still mopping up, still looking like a pervert, and that was it. He was just there as a very obvious and very unsatisfying red herring. That’s frustrating to the reader, and I got the impression that the original script for this story had been massively edited, and because it was a one-shot story there wasn’t enough time and space in a comic book form to make it properly work.

This book was a three or four-issue script that had been crammed into a one shot comic. The panels were very large, featuring double-paged spreads of gruesome murder scenes etc, and it left them with nowhere near enough room to tell the story, as it should have been told.

The book was working against itself, but that didn’t stop it from being fun. The curvy girls were drawn very voluptuously, the pervert men were drawn very seedily and the reveal of the murderer, although a bit obvious to horror comic buffs, was a good moment anyway. It was a small surprise to me, and when it came I did smile. It came too early on in the script, but it was good.

I really appreciate Zenescope putting out these old style horror books. These are the kind of books that I grew up with, so they give me a strong sense of nostalgia that I really enjoy. It’s not just nostalgia though. I miss the old horror books. Why not bring them back? They used to be really good, and they can still be good today. Human nature does not change, and the thrill of reading a well-structured creepy, weird story with a delicious twist at the end will always be an enjoyable experience.

Plus, superheroes can get very lame, very quickly, especially when Marvel and DC are so bloody statist and corporate that all of the heroes are either government agents, stuck in dimension X or battling Nazi’s and cold war era Russians. Contemporary superhero comic books STILL cannot get to grips with a post 9/11 world and all of the NSA Police state bullshit that is turning western countries into bloody banker ran autocracies these days. Just imagine all of the great stories that a switched on horror writer could be telling today with all that has happened in the past decade. The world has become a horror story, so why not reflect that fact in the comics?

Grimm Tales of Terror #3 had structural problems, but I enjoyed it. It felt rushed and incomplete, and I would love it if they updated the genre somewhat. The events that unfold in this book have no relation to this day and age. They could have happened in 1960, 1984, 1994 or 2014. Things need to get updated. Things need to change, and that’s why I’m doing my very small bit by writing this blog. I want Zenescope to keep on putting out these horror books. I want them to get better. I want them to update the stories for a post 9/11 generation, and I want them to start connecting with the awakened, post mainstream media generation of these times. I know it’s asking a lot, too much perhaps, but it’s not going to stop me from asking. I love old style horror comics. Get the structure sorted out. Let the stories run for a few issues if you cannot tell them in one-shots, and throw in the odd reference to the surveillance state, poisons in our foods, illegal wars and corporate bankster owned political elite’s. Oh, and if you can cut out the anti man stuff, that would be nice as well, thanks.

Rating: 5.5/10

Comic book review: Sinestro- Futures End #1: A Parallax to ISIS

Writer: Cullen Bunn
Artist: Igor Lima 
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 24th September 2014


I’ve never been afraid to say controversial things. I’ve never been afraid to state the bloody obvious, even when everybody around me is doing their best to ignore it. That’s what political correctness and a life based on protecting a career does to you. It stops you from saying what you want to say. It stops you from saying what needs to be said. Well, I have no need to keep my mouth shut. If I see something that needs to be talked about, then I’m going to talk about it. I’m never going to win any popularity contests, so screw that. I’m not afraid. I’m not a coward.

So, here I go again. The character of Sinestro in ‘Sinestro- Futures End #1’ is a ruthless dictator who is keeping the most violent and destructive elements of society under control, caged where it belongs. But when you take Sinestro away, when you take the dictator away the beast is unleashed and society falls apart. The beast in this book is something called ‘Parallax.’ Sinestro controls it, stops it from destroying his home planet of New Korugar. But then a team of ‘liberators’ comes along. A team called ‘The Apex League‘ who talk ‘peace’ but end up unleashing the beast that is Parallax. That beast then acts exactly as you would expect it to act, it destroys the planet. Does that sound familiar to you? Does that sound like something that is happening NOW in the real world? I’ll spell it out.

Sinestro is Saddam Hussein. Sinestro is Colonel Gaddafi. Sinestro is President Assad. Parallax is Al Qaeda. Parallax is ISIS. The Apex League are the US and their coalition of the bribed and coerced. America has destroyed Iraq and Libya, and is currently attempting to destroy Syria. These deliberate acts of war have unleashing ISIS upon the world. The dictator Saddam Hussein ruled by fear, exactly as Sinestro ruled by fear. But now he has been removed, and Hell has been unleashed.

Why has America done this? It is not incompetence. It is deliberate. The beast is used to further the agenda of those who control the armies of ‘peace makers’ and ‘liberators.’ Who are these people? Who are the people that sent uniformed order followers to war, to unleash the beast that is now tearing the Middle East apart. Do you believe that their agenda is world peace? Do you believe that they care at all about the death, destruction and misery that they have deliberately unleashed upon the world?

Do you watch television? Do you read the newspapers? You know who these people are. They smile at you. They ask for your vote. They make you complicit in their evil. They give orders, and you obey them.

Yes, the out in front spokesmen and spokeswomen of the satanic elite’s give the orders, but they also receive them as well. Their orders come from a tiny number of 'elite' family’s hidden within the structures that they themselves have set up and funded.

THE UN, CIA, MI6, NSA, GCHQ, UNESCO, NATO, IMF, WORLD BANK, BIS, ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION, RHODES TRUST, CARNEGIE FOUNDATION, TRILLATERAL COMMISSION, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS, BILDERBERG GROUP. 

They scheme behind the scenes, giving orders to the bleached white teeth on your HD television screen. They create ISIS/Parallax, they unleash ISIS/Parallax, and they use ISIS/Parallax. That’s what they do. That is what they always do.

I’ll finish my review here. I’ve made my point. Think about it. There’s nothing more to say.

Rating: 9/10

Comic book review: Justice Inc #2- The Avenger is old and new, whilst Batman is just old, and old

Writer: Michael Uslan
Artist: Giovanni Timpano
Publisher: Dynamite Comics
Released: 24th September 2014


I’m reading this book for The Shadow, and if the other two characters bring anything to the table then that’s just a bonus. Issue #2 gave me some interesting insights into the character, personality and special abilities of The Shadow, so that alone is reason enough for me to both enjoy and appreciate the book.

Okay, so the art isn’t that special. There’s a lack of atmosphere in the shading, and the colouring is far too pastel and bright for my liking. But again, going back to The Shadow, he’s drawn exactly like The Shadow should be drawn, so that’s enough for me.

The story in issue #2 of Justice Inc is brief, as it should be in an issue #2. Most of the action takes place in-flight, with the character that will become ‘The Avenger’ going through his Bruce Wayne moment of horror that will come to define his subsequent crime-fighting career. The dialogue, again as it was in the first issue, is very amusing, but amusing without being silly and ridiculous as you’ll find in the dialogue of far too many mainstream comic books today. Oh, and there was a hint of a femme-fatale in this book, and I’m perfectly happy with that as every old fashioned pulp book needs a sexy bad femme-fatale to spice things up a bit.

Far too many comic books and comic book writers of today are stuck in the 1990’s, and are either unwilling or unable to negotiate the post 9/11 world that we are all living in today. Plus, the mainstream obsession with political correctness and it’s diversionary issues to do with race, gender and sexuality is depressing beyond belief, and makes most of the books put out by DC and Marvel today unreadable for any educated and awakened mind.  Justice Inc is not stuck in the 1990’s, and so far I detect no hint of Rockefeller funded liberalism in the book. Whilst Marvel stays in the 1990’s, trying to get attention by playing out tired old race and gender issues, Justice Inc is bypassing 1970’s feminism altogether by going back to the pulp days of the late 1930’s and 1940’s. It’s using the old heroes and personalities of that period, putting them all in the proverbial blender and having a good old time with the results of that delicious mix.

However, you must bear in mind that if you decide to take a chance on Justice Inc you’re going to get a story that is in no way contemporaneous with current geo-political events. This is a book set in the safe past with characters like Einstein and Howard Hughes, very well known historical figures that are uncontroversial, safe and easy to play around with in a comic book. It’s not a brave book. It’s a comic book that has taken elements of the pulp history of the comic book genre and decided to play out the old stories once again, but for a new audience. These are pulp heroes of the 1940's and that’s where their playground is, not a post 9/11 world, the world that we are all living in today.

If the majority of comic books available today were stuck in the 1940’s it would drive me absolutely nuts. I’m sure they’d be preferable to the liberal nonsense that dominates DC and Marvel today, but I’d still hate it, and every week on this blog I’d be calling them out on their inability to reflect the world of 2014. I give Dynamite comics a pass on this book for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I’m a huge fan of the Shadow, and anything with The Shadow in it is fine by me. Sure I’d like him to be brought into this NSA spying/criminal banks/ puppet politician’s era, but there’s something about his character that appeals to me. It’s probably because he’s independent, morally upright and utterly ruthless with criminal lowlifes. Secondly, this delving back into the 1940’s is interesting because it’s only being done in these Shadow books. I know it’s safe and easy, but at the moment it’s a nice change from the norm, and anything that breaks from the norm at the moment has to be good.

Setting aside my Shadow fandom for a moment, Justice Inc #2 is worth investing your time and money in because you are seeing the re-birth of a super hero known as The Avenger. That’s interesting as The Avenger is a character that has not yet been done to death. He’s an old character, but somewhat of a lost one, somebody who from what I’ve researched appears to be very interesting, and I welcome his reintroduction into the comic book world of today. Contrast that to the character of Batman who gets his origin story redone every couple of years or so in DC comics. Heck, the story is even being redone on mainstream television at the moment in a show called ‘Gotham.’ The Avenger is old, but new. Batman is just old, and old. Get the book because of the re-birth of The Avenger, that alone is good enough a reason to read it, but if like myself you are a huge fan of the awesomeness that is The Shadow, you’ll want to pick this book up as well.

Rating: 7/10

Comic book review: Criminal Macabre- The Third Child #1: Not for the young and messed up

Writer: Steve Niles
Artist: Christopher Mitten
Colourist: Michelle Madsen
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Released: 17th September 2014


The main protagonist of Criminal Macabre is a ‘Pill popping, alcoholic degenerate’ by the name of Cal McDonald. He has great hair, looks like a movie star, has a glass of whiskey in one had, a gun in the other, a cigarette perpetually dangling from his mouth and an air of super cool alienation and dissatisfaction with everything and everyone around him. In other words, he’s the kind of twit that can act as a dangerous role model for a lot of lost and lonely young men out there.

You know the kind of young man that has no direction in his life? The kind of man who cannot find his place, so he dives into books and sees a weird outsider like himself, but this outsider is cool, really cool, dark and interesting. This fictional character might be sick and alienated, just like the lost young man, but he’s really, really cool, and that’s what the young man wants to be. He wants to be cool, dark and interesting, not just messed up, lonely and bored. Looking for a role model he can identify with, he’ll find one here.

You can probably guess why I’m saying this, right?  I used to be the lost young man that I’m referring to here, and putting myself back into my old shoes of self imposed isolation and misery I can see myself getting a kick out of the character of Cal McDonald. That’s not to say that I would try to act like him, that I’d try to dress like him, try to talk like him. No, that would be too obvious. I was pretty stupid, but not that stupid. On a subconscious level I would more than likely identify with the character. See, I would say to myself. Just because you are a mess it doesn’t mean that you can’t be cool. The character is probably taking it even further than that. On one level he’s telling readers that the way to be cool and interesting is to be completely messed up. That’s bullshit. It’s a really, really terrible message to be putting out there into the world. Here’s a revelation.

THERE IS NO ‘COOL’ IN BEING A MESS.

Is the Cal McDonald character dangerous to young male readers? He kind of is you know. He doesn’t encourage you to change. He encourages you to wallow in your alienation and misery. Drink another drink, smoke another cancer stick, it’s cool you know? I’ll tell you what. I’ll let Cal McDonald explain himself in his own words:

“I’ll do what I want and when I want. Got it?”

“Why don’t you get off my back?”

“No, don’t touch me.”

"Is this an intervention?”

He sounds like a pretty messed up young man, doesn’t he? He sounds like a man with problems, with people trying to help him out, but he’s fighting against the help and fighting against his own self hate. Again, it’s very cool, very teenager, very young man, and it’s very stupid.

If you are an unhappy, messed-up, alienated young man, then don’t buy this book. You might enjoy it, but it won’t be doing you any good. You’ll probably end up identifying with the Cal character, and he’s not the kind of person that you want to be identifying with. He’ll end up giving you the deceptive belief that being messed up makes you interesting. That’s not how reality works. Being messed up does not make you interesting. It makes you sad, and pitiful and very, very lonely. And don’t kid yourself that girls have some kind of weird fetish for messed up, ‘dark’ and introspective personalities. They don’t.

Having got that monkey off my back I want to say a few nice things about the book as well, because it is not a bad book. The Cal character is funny, engaging and likeable. He’s the narrator, and when he talks it’s like he’s a best buddy talking directly to you. The book follows Cal and his buddies as they save the world from weird monsters whilst Cal looks super dashing and tormented in his long black trench-coat, with his designer stubble, spiky haircut and dangling cigarette. The story is simple, and Cal is cool. He is dangerously cool, but I’ve already discussed that.

I know I don’t always talk a lot about the art in my reviews, but that’s because I’m not an artist. I don’t want to give you a misinformed, uneducated view, so I keep it short and just tell you whether or not I liked it. What did I think about the art in this book? I liked it. The narrative is set at night and the colours along with the frenetic, almost casually unfinished style of pencilling works very well to create a super cool atmosphere perfectly in keeping with the Cal character. I enjoy art when it gets a bit rough, wild and wonky, and that style is perfect for this book.

Get this book if you want a brief splash of silly sick cool in your life, but don’t get it if you are a messed up young man. If you are, and if you are still under the misapprehension that being fucked up is going to make you appear to be cool and interesting then I wouldn’t bother with this one. Get something that celebrates health, not illness. Get something like Conan the Barbarian, a book that celebrates masculine pride and strength and getting your arse off of the couch and doing something with your life other than moping around feeling sorry for yourself.

‘Criminal Macabre: The Third Child’ is a book with a messed up protagonist that tells you that illness and disease is super cool. It’s a book that tells you that alcoholism and alienation is something to aspire to. The book is a liar. It’s not cool to be messed up, it kind of sucks, actually it sucks a lot. Look at the shaky old man who drinks by himself in the pub during the day as happy young families enjoy a lunch-break around him. That is the reality behind Cal McDonald, and it’s about as far from cool and interesting as you can possibly imagine. I did like the book though, dangerous as it is. The art is very stylish, the colouring is very nice and the dialogue is a lot of fun as well. Buy it, but only if you have successfully passed the messed up young man stage of your life.

Rating: 7/10

Comic book review: Justice League Futures End #1: Not even trying to be a good comic book

Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Jed Dougherty
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 17th September 2014


I guess that Jeff Lemire had a spare five minutes during his tea break, and as he’s wont to do these days, he’s crapped out another filler script for a mainstream comic book. I’ve read far too many blah Lemire books now. I don’t know how he’s getting away with it. Is it just a case of having a name and being able to pump out units like an assembly line loaded up with Chinese children? I think it is. He’s very quick, reliably uncontroversial, and I guess he needs the cash or something, because there’s nothing else you can say about his work here on Justice League: Future’s End #1. It was done by deadline. That’s the only praise that it deserves.

So what is it about? First off, it doesn’t have any of the top Justice League regulars in it. That means no Batman, no Superman and no Lex Luthor. Instead it features the Flash and Cyborg messing around on a Mars prison base. Yes, it’s Guantamano Bay in space. Well, without all of the torturing of inmates until they confess to being the Easter Bunny and Rumpelstiltskin of course.

Buy the book and you’ll get a one-shot story where the characters explain the plot and their motivations whilst they are fighting. This makes all of the dialogue complete ridiculous and impossible to take seriously. People don’t speak like that. Well, they do in a one-shot comic where you have no time to explain the context and character motivations.

Is this a skill? Is Lemire good at this kind of writing? If it was enjoyable, clever, emotionally engaging, socio-politically relevant, funny, sad or anything that would conjure up some kind of emotion then I would have no problem whatsoever with the laughable dialogue. The problem however is that this comic left me feeling completely indifferent. There’s nothing there, so how can I react to it? I guess I should applaud Jeff Lemire for knocking out a quick filler story. Congrats Jeff, but what about the readers?

I don’t want to be cruel about the art, as I’ve seen a lot worse. The story wasn’t at all engaging. That’s the main problem here. I felt like the art was a bit basic. It had the feel of a comic book designed for young children. The characters were cartoons. Their faces and bodies were all square jaws and muscles. I like realism in my books, and I didn’t get it here. That’s a personal thing of course. Some readers might enjoy the style, but it didn’t do anything for me. The backgrounds were lacking in detail, and the full-page panels that should have made an impact were noticeably lacking in any impact at all. There was no great creativity there, but somehow it fit with the story. A basic story had basic artwork. The feeling of a book being rushed out to hit a strict deadline was very apparent on every single page of the book.

Give Justice League a miss this month. It’s a filler book with a daft story about Captain Atom trying to break out of his Mars prison. He was very naughty, killing people to help people, a bit like our politicians really. It’s a pity we don’t have superheroes and a Mars prison base in the real world. It would have to be a big prison though, as this world is full to the brim with psychopaths in suits who are intent on killing people to save people. Wow, I just managed to say something about the book. At least it had one idea in it then. But taking it as a whole I wouldn’t bother wasting your time and money on it. It isn’t very good, and it’s not really trying to be either.

Rating: 3/10

Comic review: Ted McKeever’s The Superannuated Man #3- HE

Creator, writer and artist: Ted McKeever
Publisher: Image Comics
Released: 10th September 2014

It’s very easy to empathise with the character known as ‘HE’ in ‘The Superannuated Man.’ HE is surrounded by the inevitable endgame of Darwinian evolutionary theory. A wasteland where talking rats drink out of urinals, and humans are denigrated as evolutionary leftovers, anachronistic mounds of useless flesh that are to be looked at with suspicion and barely disguised disgust.

It’s a world of apathy, suspicion, overflowing trash, of seedy opportunism, triviality marketed as entertainment and a freak show circus for the degenerate baying mobs.

HE can try to stay away from the squalor, the filth, the godless, polluted mutants, but it always drags him back, out of his solitary hidden cave, back onto the litter strewn streets, where HE waits for the inevitable smack over the back of the head, a mugging, torture, pain. Well, it has to be better than nothing? Right?

HE is living in a world where human connectivity is dead. The animals have taken over. Charles Darwin is God now. HE feels old, lost, tired and disgusted with it all. HE has no direction. HE has no purpose. HE has no friends. HE has no family. HE has no soul mate. HE has no blood lust. HE has no desire to dominate. HE has no desire to use and abuse. HE is strange. HE is weird. HE just wants to be left alone.

‘You assholes couldn’t just leave things alone, could you? Just gone about your lives and left me the Hell alone.’

Of course they couldn’t. That is how the world of sick mutant animals works. A man who does no harm, who wants to be left alone, well that’s suspicious, right? He must be up to something. Best lump him over the head, just to be on the safe side.

I love this book. The artwork is beyond my descriptive abilities. Just take a look at the sample alongside this review. Is that not gorgeous? It goes without saying, though I'll bloody say it anyway, this is quite obviously a must buy book. You need to get it, now. Thank you Ted McKeever. You are a talented, talented man.

Rating: 10/10

Comic book review: Sheltered #11- The brakes are on, and it’s starting to drag

Writer: Ed Brisson
Artist: Johnnie Christmas
Publisher: Image Comics
Released: 10th September 2014


The main reason for me reading Sheltered was the hope that the craziness going on in the prepper camp, the craziness that has led to children killing their parents in preparation for the end of the world, would be revealed as a psychological operation designed by a three letter agency to demonise people who want to be independent and get off the satanic corporate control grid.

There were early hints that this could be about mind control and media demonisation when a couple of panels showed a very famous mind-control trigger book, that book being ‘The Catcher In the Rye’ by J.D. Salinger. I’ve been waiting eleven issues now for this thread to be developed.  Guess what? It hasn’t been developed at all.

Instead I have been reading a Lord of the Flies retread with kids getting crazy, picking on outsiders, fighting amongst themselves and slowly going insane. The end of the world hasn’t happened, obviously, and a couple of deliverymen have been killed. The kids are arguing, as you would expect, and that’s about it really.

Issue #11 is a very slow, ponderous drag (and it really is starting to drag now) through the inevitable plot process where the outside world begins to discover what is happened on the camp. It really isn’t very interesting anymore.

The characters seem tired and played out. Some cops make fun of the prepper camp, calling them ‘crack-pots’ and ‘Whackos.’ I would expect that kind of mentality from cops. After all, if you wear a uniform of the control system your indoctrination and mind control programming is going to make you demonise anybody that wants to break away from the cult that you are so proud to be a part of, and yes government worship is cult worship. It’s called statism, and its the most murderous and violent form of cult worship in world history. Cops are cult worshippers, as are soldiers, as are beaurucrats, as are politicians. Apart from that point, I find little of interest happening in this issue. There are no twists, no surprises. It’s by the numbers story-telling. Competent, but hardly enthralling to read.

The cops are going to find out what the kids have been up to, and that will be it. There will be another bloodbath, probably, to inject some action-based excitement into the final scenes, and what have we learnt? That we shouldn’t be self-sufficient? That we should live with chains around our necks and be good corporate slaves to a system that hates our guts and calls us names like sheeple and useless eaters? It’s all very depressing, isn’t it? I’m going to be a stubborn idiot and read the next few issues, just to see if the mind control aspect comes into fruition. If it doesn’t, and I’m 90% sure that it won’t now, then I see little point in this story at all. Okay, so you’ve updated William Golding's tale of savage humanity and bullying little brats for the prepper generation. Great, but what exactly have you achieved here? What have you said that hasn’t already been said before?

Rating: 4/10

Comic book review: Grendel Vs. The Shadow- Book One- Starring Grendel, the biggest douchebag in comic book history

Writer & Artist: Matt Wagner
Colourist: Brennan Wagner
Publisher: Darkhorse Comics/Dynamite Entertainment
Released: 3rd September 2014

I was a little confused with one of the lines in the opening segment of this book. A sociopathic asshole called ‘Grendel’ appeared to go through some kind of time travel device and whilst surveying a New York city skyline (I knew it was new York because it featured the unmistakable image of the Empire State building) asked, Where are the twin towers?’

My initial reaction was very favourable. Brilliant, I thought. I’m finally going to get a Shadow story set in a post 9/11 world. I’m finally going to see the Shadow deal with contemporary concerns like NSA surveillance, criminal wall-street banksters owning everything and everybody, illegal foreign wars based on lies, the deliberate collectivisation of a dumbed down, television watching slave population and all of the other nightmarish realities that are rapidly destroying America in 2014. But no, after reading on I quickly realised that the reference to the missing twin towers didn’t mean that he was in the present, no he was in the past, before they were built. In the 1930’s, and that’s unfortunately where the Shadow still was.

The obvious question then is, what era is this Grendel piece of crap coming from? After a quick Start Page search (I refuse to use the NSA search engine of choice Google) I learnt that this Grendel moron (I immediately took a vicious dislike to him) is a 1980’s creation by Matt Wagner. So rather than bringing him into the present day (which would make him far more relevant and interesting) I guess he’s still stuck somewhere in the 1980’s. That’s a choice of convenience. It’s the easy choice. You have your character staying in the safe 1980’s and you don’t have to talk about any of the issues that are effecting the world today. I hate it when my comic books do that. I find it cowardly, very cowardly.

Having got all of that off my chest I want to quickly state that I didn’t hate this book. It was enjoyable, and as long as you don’t think about things too much it’s a good little comic. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll list the pluses and minuses of the book, and see whether or not I can recommend it. First off, the pluses:

The colouring in the book is vivid, dramatic and very effective. It creates an atmosphere all of it’s own, and together with the BADDA BADDA BADDA textual sound effects (that was a gun) it’s almost like a cheesy episode of Batman from the 1970’s. It’s silly, very silly, with very bad villains and very good heroes. The plot is childishly simple to follow and the Shadow himself keeps popping up in the err, well Shadows with his trademark HAHAHAHAHA laugh. It’s a lot of fun, it’s just well, it’s a lot….silly.

The minuses of the book are very apparent. The female characters are either angels or sultry, seductive vixens. They are add-ons to the male characters, and that really does stand out in 2014 where female characters are portrayed as the protagonists. A lot of modern readers will hate that. I don’t hate it; I just find it a little strange, a little old-fashioned and a little bit insulting, even though I myself get fed up of contemporary comics where the females are always in charge.

The character of Grendel, as you’ve probably already noticed from my brief descriptions of him, is extremely unlikeable. The guy is pretty much the living dictionary definition of a complete and utter twat. A drug dealing kingpin who doesn’t value human life, at all. In this book he’s portrayed as a super dashing, ultra-cool, handsome, debonair, erudite Nietsche ubermensch. In other words, uggggghhhh, he’s repulsive and I want to see the Shadow hand his ass to him for two books straight. I can’t believe that this twat was a major character for so long in the 80’s and 90’s. What the Hell were people thinking, buying books about this repellent douchebag?

This assbag Grendel character comes across as a wish-fulfilment fantasy character for writer Matt Wagner. In this single issue Grendel uses his awesome acrobatic ability and the super technology of a knife on a stick to bring an entire Mafia family to it’s knees. Oh, and he’s also a brilliant author as well, somehow knocking out a society adored best seller in about ten minutes flat, and he’s extremely handsome and all of the hot girls want to sleep with him, obviously. Oh God, this is verging on the laughable. It’s like a bratty, twatty fourteen-year-old has written himself into a comic book. Aggghhh, unbearable.

So why did I largely enjoy this book? It wasn’t just the colouring, was it? Strangely enough, I think it largely was about the colouring, and the knowledge that the Shadow is lurking in the backgrounds just waiting to kick lumps of crap out of the bag of shite douchefarm known as Grendel. You know what? I’m going to get the next two issues of this book. Matt Wagner has made me hate his Grendel character so much that I want to hang around to see him get kicked out of the 1930’s and sent back into the safe, nowhere land of the mid 1980’s, hopefully to never return and darken the Shadow’s path ever again.

I would have been absolutely thrilled to read a book with the Shadow in a post 9/11 world, but I didn’t get it here. Hopefully somebody out there in comic book land is reading this rant/review and they can do that? Go on, be brave. DO IT. But for the time being I’ll take what Shadow action I can get. His red scarf looks really cool in this book, and I’ll keep on reading just to see him hand Mr 1980’s Grendel his ass in a handbag.

Rating: 7/10 

Comic book review: Transformers Primacy #2- Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy.

Writer: Chris Metzen & Flint Dille
Art: Livio Ramondelli
Publisher: IDW
Released: 10th September 2014

The story in issue #3 of Transformers: Primacy is a bridge between the context establishing issue #1 and a showdown between two titans of good and evil in issue #3. If you want to get ALL of the context behind what is happening now, then you need to buy the following two books (and I strongly suggest that you do):

- http://tfwiki.net/wiki/The_Transformers:_Autocracy
- http://tfwiki.net/wiki/The_Transformers:_Monstrosity

There is not much happening in issue #2. The Decepticons are getting ready for the big show-down and gathering their forces from all over the galaxy. The best part of this process is to see what happens when people/robots who subscribe to the brutally anti-human Darwinian ‘Survival of the fittest’ philosophy reach their inevitable conclusion.

It’s a philosophy based on perpetual war, and perpetual slaughter until only one is left, like that old Daffy Duck cartoon where he blows up an entire planet just to have the satisfaction of having one tiny rock as his own personal kingdom.

The main reason for purchasing Transformers: Primacy #2 however, is the lovingly rendered art and colouring by Livio Ramondelli. It’s dark, atmospheric, heavily shadowed and utterly compelling. It is artwork that needs to be taken in under heavy light, where you can examine every contour, texture and detail that is hidden away in the black atmospheric gloom. It’s perfect for the story being told, as you have to take your time with it, and that is exactly what you need to do with the story as well.

At the end of this issue the big battle has been set-up, and issue #3 is a must buy. Issue #2 does what it needs to do. It takes its time, puts all of the players into place and ramps up the excitement for what is to happen next.

Get this issue for the artwork alone. You won’t see the Transformers depicted as lovingly and artistically as this. A two page spread of the battling Metroplex and Trypticon is absolute gorgeous, coloured and shaded in apocalyptic black and with splashes of bright yellow explosions as they tumble into the city below it’s something to take your time with, to lay flat on your table and just plain enjoy.

This book always delivers, and if you haven’t yet had the pleasure then I strongly suggest you get yourself a copy as soon as possible. This was another one of those books that I wasn’t sure about, took a gamble with, and ended up absolutely adoring. It’s one of the best comic books on the market today, and every single panel is an absolute joy.

Rating: 8/10

Comic book review: Infinity Man and the Forever People- Futures End #1- A Surprise Emotional Hit

Story: Dan Didio and Keith Giffen
Art: Philip Tan
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 10th September 2014

I only got this book because of the absolutely awesome 3D front cover, and I joked to the guys in the comic book shop that I probably wouldn’t even bother reading it. That’s how little hope I held out for the story being anything that I would actually enjoy. But I was wrong. I love being wrong, it’s such a delight to find out that you didn’t know what you were talking about, and that you have discovered something wonderful and new. People should try being wrong a bit more often. It really is a lot of fun.

I knew absolutely zilch about the characters in this book, and the story has done exactly what it should do to readers such as myself. It has made me intrigued, made me want to find out more about these fascinating comic book creations. It helps that the art is fantastic, because it really is. The book centres on two characters, and they are beautifully pencilled and coloured. The elfin female character by the name of Dreamer is gorgeous. I haven’t seen such prettiness and grace in a comic book character in quite some time. I need to know more about that girl.

The script is clever, in that it uses one of the two characters as the entrance point into the story. This character is confused about what is going on, and he’s asking questions trying to unravel the mystery. It’s perfect for a new reader like myself, and he even shares my name (Mark). It’s a sign from the comic book multi-verse I’m telling you. Do you know what it’s saying? It’s saying, ‘Oy Mark, read this bloody comic.’ And so I will.

Apart from the story-telling structure and beautiful artwork this book has a wonderfully rich emotional core that emanates from every page. The two characters have emotional history with each other. There has been a betrayal, or has there? Things have gone wrong, but the emotional bond is still there. A single panel depicting tears trickling down the cheeks of a traumatised Dreamer tells a story that is bubbling just beneath the surface. This is how to connect with the reader on the most important level of them all, that level in the gut where you feel connected to the characters as real people. These are not silly comic book archetypes, they are real people with real emotions, and you want to root for them, cheer for them, and hope that they reverse their current predicament that evidentially is causing them so much pain.

That’s quite an achievement for one comic book, don’t you think? And when you bear in mind that this reader/reviewer is a complete newbie to the Infinity Man and Forever People universe that’s extremely impressive. I love it when I’m wrong. The contents of this book are just as awesome as the 3D front cover. I didn’t think that was it possible, but it is. I’ve just read it, and it’s bloody brilliant. Stick it on my pull-list. I can’t wait to dive headfirst into this wonderful new comic book world of Infinity man and the Forever People.

Rating: 9/10

Comic book review: Prometheus Fire and Stone #1- A very bad start to a very long event

Writer: Paul Tobin
Art: Juan Ferreyra
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Released: 10th September 2014

This introductory instalment of a seventeen issue, crossover event has to be good. Actually, it has to be very good.  It has to hook the readers into the story immediately and make them want to get every single issue of the run. It has to make the reader salivate in anticipation of what is going to happen next. It’s a teaser, a sample of the product that is yet to come.  If this issue fails to excite the reader then the entire crossover event is immediately in jeopardy. Issue #1 of Prometheus gets off to a very wobbly start. It then proceeds to trip, lose it’s balance, step on a banana skin and do a double somersault before landing flat on its face, arse in the air and pants around it’s ankles.

Why does it fall so spectacularly? There are a number of reasons. First off it fails to follow the last story (as seen in the big budget movie ‘Prometheus’) from its most interesting point. The movie ended on an unsatisfying note because it failed to answer the big question. If aliens created man, who created the aliens? You didn’t get that answer in the movie, and unless I’m very much mistaken it looks you are not going to get that answer here either.

Perhaps that question will be answered later on in the event, but there are no hints that this is where it’s going to go, and as that is the most interesting selling point of this entire arc why not hint about it here in the first issue? All I get from this first issue is the impression that we are going to get some Alien versus Predator fight scenes. That might be enough for some, but I want a bit more than that in my comics.

The dialogue in this issue felt a bit off to me as well. Sorry, that’s being a bit too nice. The dialogue felt very off. The characters were in witty banter mode and it felt completely unnatural. They were talking like characters in a cheap and cheesy action movie rather than as real people engaging in believable conversations with each other. The individual characters were impossible to identify with, as they were two dimensional, and drawn from the laziest of action movie cliches. The feminist liberal, sexually attractive, independently spirited young female leader. The overcompensating male chauvinistic macho show-off. The scientist with a secret. These people exist in bad movies, not in real life.

The art felt rushed, like it was half-done, like it was not quite ready for publication. Some of the backgrounds were lacking in colour and detail, the faces looked like rough sketches and the colouring was dull and lifeless.

The issue ends with a good cliffhanger, with the protagonists in danger from something lurking in the background. That’s good, but there’s a big problem. The problem is that the stilted characterisations and dialogue meant that I found it impossible to empathise with any of the characters, and I couldn’t care less about what happens to any of them.

It’s a horrible start to an event series, and a jumping off point already for this reader/reviewer. I’ll keep on checking out the other reviews, just to see if this event tackles the big question that the movie avoided, but at the moment I can’t find any reason to justify me spending my money on this long seventeen issue event. I really do hope it gets better, but this is no way to hook readers onto an event story that is going to play out over the next five months. The event needed a good start, but it doesn’t get it here.

Rating: 3/10

Comic book review: Grimm Tales of Terror #2- The greed of man meets eight legged judgement

Writers: Shane McKenzie
Artist: Przemyslaw Klosin
Publisher: Zenescope Entertainment Inc
Released: 3rd September 2014

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_from_the_Crypt_(TV_series)


If you enjoy reading old horror comics then this is a book that you’ll want to pick up. It’s very old fashioned, with the script reading like an old episode of ‘Tales from the Crypt’ with the bookend technique of a ghoulish narrator laughing at us stupid, vain and greedy human beings. Only this time we don’t get the Crypt Keeper telling the tale, in his place we get a busty postwoman who delivers death with a whistle.

I found this technique to be a little confusing in comic book form, as she didn’t have anything to do with the main story apart from igniting it. Plus the end panels of her watching over the death of a cruel rich guy had absolutely nothing to do with the main tale. It was a little bit confusing and not as satisfying as it could have been.

The main tale involves greedy treasure hunters and a giant spider. It’s not original, and it’s been done a lot better many times before. There were some problems with the three main personalities involved in the tale as well. They were more complicated than they needed to be, and because of the short nature of this tale there wasn’t enough time to fully develop the characters. There were hints that went nowhere, and when the characters met their inevitable demise the impact was somewhat lessened because I couldn’t get a secure grasp on who they actually were.

These tales should be simple. You need good guys, bad guys and a twist. This book had bad guys, more bad guys and no twist. I shouldn’t have enjoyed this book, because it had huge flaws, but there was something about it that I really did enjoy.

I liked the tone of the writing, the humour in the dialogue, the silliness, the fast paced nature of it, the excitement of following the protagonists into a creepy cave and the old fashioned sense of adventure and horror that it was all wrapped up in.

The art did not detract from the tale and some large panels of arachnid based horror certainly had an impact. It’s not going to win any awards, but some of the dark shading and torch lit panels of the explorers looked suitably atmospheric, daunting and creepy, and the postwoman character looked very alluring in her slightly too tight uniform. In my far from unbiased and slightly seedy opinion, if an artist can draw a ridiculously bosomed female in very tight clothes then he must be doing something right.

Grimm Tales of Terror #2 has its flaws, but it’s a very enjoyable book. It has the feel of an old-fashioned horror comic with a strong moral message at its centre, and with a conclusion where greedy and unpleasant characters get exactly what they deserve. It’s a nice way to spend ten minutes of your time, and if you enjoy your old style horror comics then I’m sure you’ll get a lot of enjoyment out of the book.

Rating: 7/10 (simply, because it was fun)

Jesus Christ as a metaphor for ‘truth.’

A lot of people now understand that Jesus Christ is a metaphor for the Sun, like the many Sun gods that came before him, but he has another metaphorical role that people might not be aware of. 

Jesus Christ is a metaphor for the truth. His entire life is about truth, and he comes to embody truth itself. This isn’t really an arguable point. Jesus even confirms this himself in John 14:6 where he says the following:

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” 

Barabbas, the choice of mankind

After Jesus is arrested something extremely significant takes place. It’s traditional that once a year on the date of the Passover festival one convicted criminal is set free. The man in charge of the prisoners (Pontius Pilate) gives the people a choice. Do they want to free Jesus or a ‘robber’ called Barabbas. A lot of people mistake this part of the story for anti-Semitism, but this is not the case.  

The crowd of people are not representatives of the Jewish people, they are representative of All people. We are that crowd, and we are being asked to make a choice. Do we want truth, or do we want lies? The crowd yells, ‘Give us Barabbas’ unanimously choosing lies over truth. That choice is our choice. The story of Jesus Christ is our story. 

The world CANNOT change until we reach a level of consciousness where we choose truth over lies. What is truth? It is moral truth, doing what is right over what is wrong. We all know what is right and wrong, what these moral truths are, but a lot of us choose to ignore them. By ignoring these moral truths we make the world what it is today. The world is not unfair. It is what we have made it. We get to choose, but at the moment we are still choosing Barabbas. 

Comic book review: Evil Empire #4- Say hello to the bad guys

Writer: Max Bemis
Artist: Andrea Mutti
Publisher: Boom Studios
Released: 27th August 2014


I know this review is a bit late, but I’ve just got around to reading the book, and I have to say something about it, late or not. If you read my review of Evil Empire #3 you’ll know that I absolutely loved the conclusion to that issue. It promised something more than I was expecting, something that is continued in Issue #4 where our punk rock heroine realises that she’s been played for a sucker by a devious politician. This issue introduces a creepy comic book style villain, and has the newly elected President of the USA giving a very crazy acceptance speech, a speech that is probably a bit too crazy:

‘We will be their Nazi’s, their Al Qaeda, their Sith, their Hydra.’

The Evil Empire has revealed itself, with the newly elected President of the United States telling America that it’s sick, and that he is going to cure that sickness whether they like it or not. How is that going to go down with the statist suckers that voted for him? My guess is that they’ll do what Barrack (Hope and Change) Obama’s supporters are doing now. They’ll be wilfully ignorant or try to blame somebody else for their cult leader’s lying ways. That’s how it usually works in cult mind control situations like political puppet worship. The followers cannot accept that they have been lied to, so they go into denial and make excuses for their beloved leader rather than look at the cold hard facts of what he has actually done.

I can envision some reviewers complaining about the nature of the speech made by the new president in this issue, as it’s so completely unlike the bullshit and platitudes nonsense you usually get from the professional liar scum politicians. I agree, it is highly unlikely that any politician, let alone a President would speak in this manner. That doesn’t stop me from enjoying this book though. The story is something that you don’t often get to read about in comic books, so I appreciate it as a refreshing change from the norm.

Evil Empire #4 is a full stop to the first stage of the story arc. Our punk rock protagonist has been played for a fool and the Evil Empire has been established. This issue feels like an end, so it will be interesting to see how it starts to kick into gear again. That’s a problem with this issue, that it feels like a full-stop and as we already know how the story ends (due to the frequent flash-forwards in time) it doesn’t really offer much hope for a happy conclusion.

The entire series so far has been exploring how America slipped into totalitarianism and became a moral vacuum, but now it has been explained there doesn’t appear to be any more story to tell. Is this a mistake by writer Max Bemis, or does he have something else up his sleeve? I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt here as I’ve really enjoyed his book so far, and I’ll be picking up the next issue just to see if he can inject some new life into a story that already appears to have been told.

Rating: 7.5/10

Comic book review: Justice League #33- Negativity and fear, a toxic real world combination.

Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Doug Mahnke
Colourist: Andrew Dalhouse
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 3rd September 2014


Batman thinks that he can control Lex Luthor by bringing him into the Justice League, but Superman is not so sure that this is a good idea. Batman shouldn’t be that stupid, but he has to be for the sake of future story-telling opportunities. Writer Geoff John’s is sacrificing plausibility to create drama. It’s like a soap opera where characters do ridiculous, implausible things just to make things more interesting for the viewers. Sometimes these moments cannot be explained, and you just have to ask your viewers/readers to go with it, because after all, this is all about creating interesting stories, right?

Geoff John’s tries to explain his moment of incredulity away with the old ‘Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer,’ cliché and to pretend that a whole lot of dumb isn’t dumb at all. It doesn’t quite work. It’s almost like he’s apologising for what he has to do to make the story more interesting. He knows it’s dumb, but rather than admitting it, he’s throwing in a cliché to try to explain away what he has to do.

I want my comic books to be a bit cleverer, a bit more original, or perhaps even just a little bit more honest than that. Be dumb if you have to be dumb. The readers will understand that you need to do it to make the story more interesting, but don’t use a lame cliché to try to cover your tracks. It’s insulting, and it really does stand-out as a moment when the writer doubts what he is doing and is trying to perhaps even make excuses to himself about what he has to do to move his story forward.

I’m not going to spend all of this review complaining about Geoff John’s though, because I really do find him to be a consistently enjoyable writer.  I love the way he writes characters, and even if the way his plots comes together seem a bit contrived they are always enjoyable nonetheless. This issue is a good example of that. The plot is not that great, and the end panel doesn’t make sense when you factor in what happens during the book, but there’s an emotional resonance in the story, showing how fear and negativity acts as a force of evil in the world.

John’s writes characters with personality defects very, very well. His comic book evil is a very recognisably real world evil. His characters are convincingly human and far more realistic than many of the simplistic heroes (save the civilians) and villains  (I want to see the world burn) that you often get in lazier comic books.

I really enjoyed some of the colouring in this book as well, and I’d recommend you pick up a copy just for the panels where Batman helps Jessica Cruz overcome the negative, fear based emotions that are causing her so much pain and anguish. The green colouring here is gorgeous, and together with the strong empathic writing from John’s it’s a standout part of the book that will long linger in the mind, even though the overall plot is a bit weak and unconvincing to me.

Pick up this book for the emotionally resonant character writing from Geoff John’s and the gorgeous colouring from Andrew Dalhouse. Some of the pencils look a bit off and the plot is contrived, but I can take the flaws, as there’s plenty within this book to enjoy.

Rating: 7/10