A Fistful Of Comics

The other day I took advantage of an afternoon off to trot up to Southampton and hit Forbidden Planet. I'm not really a serious comic collector these days but every now and again I'll treat myself, usually based entirely on whether the cover looks interesting. I like to think of it as the "Ooh. Shiny" method.
 Anyway, here's what I came back with and what I thought of each one.

The Prophecy Book Seven(Dynamite)

What's it about: A motley collection of heroes find themselves drawn together to battle the evil Kulan Gath and his minions.

 So far as I know, this is the first time Dynamite have tried a Massive Crossover Event and they certainly tried to include as many of their characters as possible: Vampirella, Red Sonja, Dracula and his daughter Eva, Herbert West, Reanimator, Pantha and Ash Williams all show up in this issue. Since the whole thing is happening over multiple time periods, Sherlock Holmes and Allan Quartermain get their own adventure back in the Victorian era too. 

 While the artwork is pretty good and Dynamite get bonus points for keeping the whole thing contained in these seven issues rather than forcing the reader to buy a dozen different titles, The Prophecy is OK but not spectacular and this climactic issue...isn't as climactic as you'd expect. Truth be told, once Sonja and Kulan Gath got face to face, the rest of the team might as well have sloped off home. Not bad for a first attempt I suppose and maybe it'll impress me more if I get the TPB and read it all in one hit. 

 

Violence!

 Next up, another outing for Dynamite's redhaired standard-bearer

Red Sonja - Unchained  #1 (Dynamite)

 What's it about:  After  the unfortunate events of the "Blue" one-shot, the Hrykanian hellcat has to leave town in a hurry. She's broke, her armour is in ruins and she's painfully aware that things could have gone better.

  But then Sonja happens upon a clutch of mercenaries about to do violent things to an unfortunate young woman and after the inevitable bloodshed, the rescued party has something of a proposition...

  Is it just me or is Dynamite's take on Red Sonja a lot darker and angrier than the old Marvel version?  She's hard to like sometimes.

  Anyway, this issue opens with our heroine in an unusually low mood but before she can really get started on the brooding, there's a gaggle of bad guys to methodically cut into chunks and that leads into the setup for the next caper. So a transition issue then, albeit one with a highly respectable punchup. I particularly like the way Sonja calmly plots out her plan of attack in a way Batman might approve of.   Artwork is OK but seems to have been given to one of Dynamite's B-team and whoever did the quality check before printing missed the dialogue boxes repeated on two consecutive pages.  Tut tut, Dynamite.  

 Good enough that I want to see the what happens next. 

Sonja gets ready to do some quality violence.

Moving on to Marvel now.

The Fearless Defenders #1 and #2 (Marvel)

What are they about: When an Asgardian artefact awakens a mass-grave full of pissed-off zombie Vikings, hero-for-hire Misty Knight finds herself fighting alongside ex-Defender Valkyrie. 

  When Val sets off back to Asgard to find out what the hell is going on, Misty and starstruck professor Annabelle Riggs tag along. 

 Turns out the original Valkyries are coming back to Earth and this is really, really not a good thing.

    I've been a fan of Valkyrie ever since I used to read The Defenders when I was a kid so as soon as I saw her on the cover it was a done deal. At some point she seems to have discovered the concept of "Trousers" but still gets her bras done by a blacksmith. 

 Again, decent artwork, dialogue with some nice fun touches, a story that makes me want to stick around and I suspect Val is going on a  recruiting drive so we might get to see some of Marvel's underused ladies. (Squirrel Girl hasn't done much lately. Just a suggestion)

 Although I suspect Wolverine is somehow going to find his way onto this team too.

 Shiiiittt...

I just got this mental image of Wolverine in an armoured cossie and lipstick. Somebody pass the mind bleach.  

Val meets Misty mid-violence.

And now, by way of contrast:

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic #2, #3 & #4

        

What are they about? When the evil Queen Chrysalis  kidnaps three young fillies, Twilight Sparkle and her friends must make a perilous journey to the Changeling kingdom to rescue them. In the process they will meet many things that eat ponies and find their friendship tested almost to breaking point. 

 This is a series about brightly coloured ponies so obviously you're never going to get "Watchmen" or "Dark Knight Returns" but the covers are a little misleading.  Once you get inside you have drama, suprisingly adult pop-culture references ("Of Mice & Men" and "The Shining" among others) and plenty of madcap humour. 

  The storytelling is simple, the artwork bright and expressive and The Mane Six are true to their cartoon incarnations but still surprisingly in-depth. It's also frequently bloody funny.

 In fact I'll come right out and say it: Out of everything here I enjoyed this title the most. 

Pinkie being...Pinkie.

More comics need cake.

And Twilight battles Chrysalis.

That's all folks.