A Fistful Of Comics: July 2013

  The other day I had a day off and this inspired a bright idea. "I know. I shall pop over to Forbidden Planet in Southampton and treat myself to a few comics."
 And so I did.
 I wish I'd taken my camera because for reasons as yet unknown to me, Southampton city centre is currently sporting a number of medium sized, excitingly decorated statues of rhinos.
*Shrugs*
 Anyway, I came away with a Clara Oswald figurine, a clutch of reading material that looked sorta interesting and (somehow) a wooden broadsword. It was on sale...

Mercy Sparx #1 (Devils Due Entertainment)

What's it about: Mercy Sparx is a devil-girl who secretly lives among humans, serving heaven.

Her task: Hunting rogue angels.

What did I think:  Well the cover looks like it would be perfect on a Rock album, probably something sleazy and AC/DCesque. So obviously I was going to buy it.

 And the first two pages open with a bang as we get a montage of Mercy laying the smack down on her previous targets.  But after that, I got a wee bit lost. 

 As it turns out, this is a relaunch of a title I've never read before so I occasionally found myself struggling to keep up with who these people are and what's going on. 

 It's done well enough that I'm going to see if there's a TPB out for Vol1 and I can see myself maybe picking it up if I see Mercy Sparx again. The artwork is decent, Mercy is a take-no-shit kinda devil-gal, there's an intriguing way to use Extreme Metal, and a comic where a devil-girl punts an angel in the naughty bits is, let's face it, already quite high up the Coolometer.

 A bit more research may be required but promising.

A devil girl gives an angel a shoeing. I'd buy any album that had that on the cover.

Chronos Commandos #1 (Titan Comics)

What's it about: You can probably guess from the cover. US commandos are sent back in time to the Age Of Dinosaurs to foil a dastardly Nazi plot.

What did I think: It's not a bad start I suppose, for some reason I couldn't get into it that much. I'm not sure why. The artwork is decent enough, the storytelling simple but respectable (March through jungle, fight T. Rex, fight Nazis. Home) The characters are a collection of WW2 cliches - probably deliberate -so I'm not sure how tongue in cheek this is meant to be.

It's just...

 It wasn't bad but given that I'm a sucker for anything involving WW2 or dinosaurs, I could have enjoyed Chronos Commandos more than I did.

Incidentally,  Titan Comics is a UK outfit so that might explain why the whole thing feels like something 2000AD might do.

Surprise!

Red Sonja # 1 (Dynamite Entertainment)

What's it about?  Red Sonja has a debt to repay to a king that once rescued her from slavery. Since his kingdom is in the path of a marauding army and his army was wiped out by plague, Sonja has a difficult task ahead of her. 

What did I think?:  I must admit to losing track of Red Sonja's timeline in recent years. First she was dead, then they brought her back as somebody else entirely who just happened to look the same and may have been a reincarnation, then they bounced back to the MK1version and her early career. For a while she was a queen then seems to have given up on that idea and (briefly) became a vampire.

 Now Dynamite are relaunching Red Sonja with acclaimed writer Gail Simone (Birds of Prey) handling  the story. I'm curious to see where she goes with it and whether she tries to dump the chainmail bikini while nobody's looking. 

 I digress. If you've read any of Dynamite's Sonja before this isn't too much of a stretch. Sonja being her usual badass self basically. I did like the scene where her new allies try and get her into a pretty dress though. The artwork is pretty decent throughout, that particular panel especially.

 And don't you think the poor thing looks absolutely knackered on the cover? 

I've only just noticed. What do those little plates on her thighs protect...exactly?

Uber #3 (Avatar Press)

What's it about?: 1945.  The Third Reich destroyed the Russian armies attacking Berlin with the superhuman Panzermensch. Now an Allied spy briefs Churchill while Hitler begins to plan his next move. 

What did I think?: I may have missed something important by not picking up #2. Oh well.

Again, quite a bit of talking about the Panzermensch but not much in the way of Nazi Superman action.  (Hitler uses one to make a point) Luckily the writers managed to keep me interested despite a lack of superpowered face-punching. 

  And the blonde lass on the cover yet again fails to make an appearance.

 Artwork: Decent. Story: Intriguing but better deliver some punchups soon.

 Hitler. One of history's top all-time utter wankers. 

Fearless Defenders 5 &6 (Marvel)

What's it about? Valkyrie and Misty Knight have their long-awaited showdown with the crazed Doom Maidens. But has Val managed to recruit enough new Valkyries to face the old ones in battle?

What I thought: If all else fails, get a bunch of people in spandex hitting bad guys. It that's not comics Rule ~1, it ought to be.  So here you get a decent pagga with a plot twist and an attempt at playing the Tear Jerker card that doesn't really work.  Nothing too deep but a respectable way to kill some time.

  Oh and She-Hulk has now cut her hair and started wearing trousers as well. 

God damn it, Marvel. I do not approve of this trend. 

Don't blame you, love. I'd leg it if I saw them bloody things too.

That's all folks.