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

Comic book review: King Conan Conqueror #6- A Kingdom of Dust

Writer: Timothy Truman
Artist: Tomas Giorello
Colours: Jose Villarrubia
Publisher: Dark Horse Comic
Released: 30th July 2014


‘But of what worth are power and the treasures it brings…if there’s no one to give them to?’

So says an elderly King Conan as he concludes his tale of the glory days of battle and how he re-gained his kingdom, and his Queen.

After the glorious battle, after the mighty sweep of his sword and vengeance gained, the defeat of his enemies and the destruction of the wizard Xaltotun, the book ends not with a celebration, but with a melancholy lamentation.

It’s that feeling of melancholy that I will remember the most from this latest take on Robert E. Howard’s Hour of the Dragon story. This final edition celebrates Conan’s victory with gloriously illustrated panels that depict the key moments of battle.

The standout panels are the destruction of the wizard himself, in a swash of blood and furious, aggressive muscular vengeance. It’s the colouring that does it here, but in the quieter panels there is a look in the eye of the elderly King Conan. Still mighty, still a towering colossus of coiled muscularity, but the eye, surrounded by scars, it is sad, very sad.

The good news is that this creative team is going to return. There are no details as of yet, but as soon as I hear about them I’ll put it up on my blog. I don’t usually announce comic book news here, but with this creative team working again on Conan; I’ll make a happy exception.

King Conan The Conqueror Part 6 of 6 is a book of blood, battle and glorious vengeance for our eponymous hero. It was a great victory, but now as an elderly King Conan re-tells the tale of his most glorious hour, there is no joy there, no celebration, no boastful elevation of his own legend. No, there is only sadness as he surveys the life he is now living, and how everybody he knew, admired, loved or hated are no longer of the world.

All that remains is a melancholy old King with a kingdom of material riches but with nobody to share them with. Worse still, he has no heir apparent to the Kingdom he spent his life’s energies and passions to secure, and as he looks over the body of his dead wife the past is all he has. The present is numb, and the future offers nothing but dust.


Rating: 10/10