Random Recommended Reading! All Star Western: Guns and Gotham

Random Recommended Reading! All Star Western: Guns and Gotham

The fourth RRR for you guys!

DC comics, bad ass western themed hero, let me just ask you one thing. Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk? I sure did when I bought this series. Man oh man, when the New 52 launched and ignored this title. It never struck me as something I'd like. But something came over me and I bought the first trade. I couldn't be any happier.

The Plot

The first trade covers two stories that Hex and Dr. Arkham go through. One is about a cereal killer loose in Gotham, the duo connects the killer to an organization known as  the "Crime Bible Followers". The second part sends Hex to the sewers of Gotham to look for a missing boy, and what they find is far from what they're looking for.

The western noir tone it has makes this book different from the capes. It's a nice change of pace! 

The Art

Man this art, it's gorgeous. Straight up gorgeous, the covers, the colors, it's all eye candy and it looks great.

from giant bat fights to people screaming, it's just a beautiful book!

The detail in gun fire, movement, etc. It all looks wonderful. Only thing that isn't the best...is Hex's iconic facial scar. While I understand it'd be hard to consistently draw, but in my opinion it changes from hideous to mildly ugly.

Dialouge

This is something I don't talk about enough in my RRRs, I should start. This book has a problem with it's "I" being changed to "Ah" and such. While I get that it's a Western book and people sounded like that. It just makes me stumble over it while reading.

It wouldn't be too bad if it was just random people. But Hex talks like that and many other important roles.

Action

There isn't heat vision, or batarangs in this book. But revolvers and Tomahawk will work just fine. The action feels like an old western spaghetti.

 

The blams and the gore is just the icing on the cake with this book. It's got story, action, wonderful art, even comedy( Dr. Arkham)!

Over all All  Star Western is an amazing series! I hope this book doesn't get overlooked by others like I overlooked it. So please. Do me a favor and yourself a favor and pick this series up ASAP!

 

Random Recommended Reading! Wolverine Weapon X: Adamantium Men

Random Recommended Reading! Wolverine Weapon X: The Adamantium Men

Hello and welcome to my third RRR!

So I've been on a Wolverine kick this past week and I don't know why! Scouring for some interesting stories I came across this shady story arc titled....

This five issue story puts Logan up to his greatest challenge, taking on Weapon X soldiers. A mysterious government group known as Black Guard has obtained the blueprints for the Weapon X experiments. The group plans to mass produce their soldiers to become the nations only form of security.

The Plot

At first I thought the plot was going to be very corny. But after reading into an issue or two I realized I was wrong. It's Wolverine fighting 12 Wolverine wanna be's with laser claws! The only gripe I have with this story is that they don't really specifies why they want Logan dead, other then they don't want any old Weapon X test subjects around. Logan's goal is very obvious, he doesn't want people to replicate Weapon X.

The Art

The art is pretty solid, Ron Garney's Wolverine looks nice. Only issue I had was with Logan's face, sometimes it looked like he had small thin eye sockets.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

This was a big hit and miss with me. Sometimes it looked very odd(left side), other times it looked, well, pretty bad ass(right).  But other characters were drawn just fine. Where this really shines for me is the coloring

We get nice pages like this. Where great color and are fuse into an epic fight. The covers are also very detailed. In issue 3 we see Task Force X looking at the reader in a night time jungle setting, the color empathize the eyes and energy claws gives it a kind of Star Wars/ Terminator feel to it. And it looks breath taking.

Action

It's a Wolverine book, need I say more? Every issue is evenly balanced with action and story. This book doesn't hold back on the action either. Nice panels of claws, blood, and laser claws happen quite often. Like the picture above.

The story ends with a twist when Wolverine needs to fight 11 of these super soldiers on an oil rig. But I wont spoil that for you!

Do yourself a favor and pick up Wolverine Weapon X #1-5

Random Recommended Reading! Code Name: Action

Here is the second RRR!

You like James Bond stuff? You like Dynamite Comics? Why not read Code Name: Action!  This new limited series published by Dynamite comics tells the story of Operator number 1001,a secret intelligence agent, as he is teamed up with the legendary Operator 5! There mission puts them up against an unknown foe who has been captures presidents, military officials, and other high power individuals and replacing them with doppelgangers.

Plot

The plot is pretty straight forward, but told in such a fun way, it works great. The pacing can be fast at some points, but over all a fun ride. It doesn't delve to deep into its characters, but it gives them a tad bit of mystery. Characters like Number 5 are cool and mysterious because of the lack of information explained about him. All we know is he is a legend in the agency. Does he need some deep #0 back story? No, the character is, interesting and funny enough to have you commented to liking him.

Art

Jonathan Lau's art is drawn very well in this series. The effects he puts on motion such as things hitting the ground, or people dashing gives it this manga feel to it.

It's the little effects like that, that give; at least me, the manga/ anime feel to it. But while the art is wonderful to look at, it's the covers. Whether it's Jae Lee's covers or Art Baltazar's covers, you just can't go wrong.

Both are just amazing to look at.

Action

The whole series feels like a James Bond movie. When there is action on panel, I can't help but make the James Bond theme in my head. It's nothing to crazy, except the jet joy ride! But it's over all fun to read. Of course some of the other masked vigilantes join the fray in this story, such as the Spider, Green Hornet, Devil, American Crusader, and more. Mix that in with a James Bond setting and you got a nice action packed comic.

Every issue is packed with chase scenes, stealth, fights, and story development. 

Please, do yourself a HUGE favor and pick this story up as soon as you can!

Random Recommended Readings! Godzilla Rulers of the Earth

Hello and welcome to Random Recommended Readings! Just a little idea I came up with to share various story arcs, cross overs, events, or even one-shots. Of course the big two are going to get love, but I want to focus a tad bit more on Image, Dark Horse, and IDW and such. Stories ranging from old to current, else worlds, to canon universes!

I plan to post at least 2 RRRs a week when I can, but when I do, I promise they'll be worth checking out.

To start off our first RRR, we'll be focusing on the Big G, the mean green Kaiju machine; of course you know him, Godzilla!

IDW's ongoing series focusing on a race on alien that want to(of course) take over Earth using the local Kaiju.

Now, why should you read this besides the fact that it's a Godzilla title?

Plot

The story takes on two different view points. One from a young news reporter following Godzilla around. And the other point of view is of a solider that fights against invading Kaiju. Both characters are nothing interesting in their own ways. Along with colorful side characters it feels a tad bit more realistic when they interact.

Now the idea of aliens invading Earth has been done to death in all forms of media. Godzilla comics, movies, and such are known for having aliens use Kaiju to fight for them. But in this series, the aliens are actually interesting. Sure they're not space cockroaches in human skin, or Xlians. But they have a uniqueness that seperates them from the rest. With alien weapons,tenticals, shape shifting and more, they're definitely a cool race.

Art Work

This is by far the best artwork for a Godzilla book IDW has ever done. In the past IDW series the art was, let's face it, pretty darn bad. But this series, the way the capture the emotion and detail in the Kaiju's faces lets you know what they're feeling. And it's over all just nice to look at when you have pages like this....

You just know it's going to be a good comic.

Kaiju Action

Man oh man, you get a lot of action in this series. First two issues it's Godzilla vs. American Godzilla! Next issues they bring in military to fight these small versions of-

Better slow down there! Don't want to spoil every thing for you guys. But you get a weeks worth of Kaiju action every issue. Unlike some where an entire issue will focus on the humans, there is an equilibrium in this series.

Plus if you've always wanted to see the underdogs get spot light, now's your chance to see it happen! You get Manda, Gezora, Orga, Varan, and so many other lesser known Kaiju in this series, hell, some times it's an entire issue focusing on them.

All in all the series has a nice amount of action and story, cool human characters, great art, and is just a straight up fun ride. I highly recommend reading this series if you're a Kaiju junkie like I am.
And only six issues into the series, it's not to late to hop aboard!

Check it out now!

Venom joins the Guardians

Seems like Flash is reaching for the stars when he joins the Gaurdians in their cosmic adventures. Along with Captain Marvel.

The idea is there, but will it really work? Sure the symbiote is alien, but we already know where they come from! It was already explained in

Fantastic Four Redesign

Guess who's going more edgy, more red, more black! Fantastic Four, with the relauch on its way, what are the FF going to be showing off in the relaunch? Red and Black

I got to say it's pretty bad looking. What was wrong with what they had? At least blue had a exploration tone to it, along with white looking like a science theme costume. But red is just too out there. In my opinion it looks dumb, I feel like the red and black scheme is something for the Thunderbolts to have, or a villains group.
But hopefully we'll get a good reason as to why they switch to red and black in the first issue.

At least we get Fin Fang Foom!

Up Coming Robocop One Shots

With the Robocop movie on its way. Boom!Studios will be releasing four brand new one shots.

1. Robocop: Beta #1
2. Robocop Memento Mori #1
3. Robocop: To Live and Die in Detroit #1
4. Robocop: Hominem Ex Machina #1

And of course the seventh issue to Robocop: The Last Stand. All four one shots will be set in the rebooted universe that the movie follows.

Solicits below.

ROBOCOP: BETA#1
Retail Price: $3.99
Author(s):Ed Brisson
Artist(s): Emilio Laiso
Cover Artist(s):  Greg Smallwood

• Alex Murphy was the first successful attempt at creating a man in the machine. But before he could rise, many had to fall.Through the eyes of the failed test subjects on the path to making a successful integration between man and machine, Dr. Norton is forced to ask whether the sacrifice of a few is truly the path towards salvation. His morality must come head to head with Sellars’ vision.

ROBOCOP: MEMENTO MORI #1

Retail Price: $3.99

Author(s): Frank J. Barbiere
Artist(s):  João Vieira
Cover Artist(s):  Chris Mooneyham

• When Alex Murphy goes under the knife,  his memories converge with reality. Perception is blurred and his mind tries to cope with the changes forced upon his very soul.  Through a distortion of the past, his present horrors loom over him.  The man within must be corrupted to make way for the future of America.

ROBOCOP: TO LIVE AND DIE IN DETROIT #1
Retail Price: $3.99
Author(s): Joe Harris
Artist(s): Piotr Kowalski
Cover Artist(s):   Piotr Kowalski

•  RoboCop is too good at his job. While the people love him, his ability to find and remove corruption puts fear into the corporate heads and government leaders.
• With OCP at the wheel, they will do their best to steer him away from the powerful corrupt leaders, and keep him on the lower-level criminals. But some crimes cannot go unpunished.

ROBOCOP: HOMINEM EX MACHINA #1
Retail Price: $3.99
Author(s): Michael Moreci
Artist(s): Jason Copland
Cover Artist(s): Riley Rossmo

• After a series of successful campaigns that cripple a portion of Detroit’s criminal activities, RoboCop’s system inexplicably goes down. While RoboCop’s consciousness remains, his control is gone.
• As crime rises in his absence, a paralyzed RoboCop must watch his city burn. For the first time, OCP will learn that control is in the hands of the man, not the machine.

Cataclysm:Ultimate Comics Spiderman #1 Review(Spoilers)

So with the title and the cover you get a feeling that the issue is going to be the aftermath or the continuation of Miles as Galactus attacks the city. But what we get instead is a issue on the events before Galactus shows up. It takes place after the ending of Ultimate Spiderman, which is fine. Just not in a Cataclysm title. While the issue bring the transition for the characters in the Ultimate Spiderman series to the event, it really doesn't have anything to do with the event till the last page.

If you want a continuation of the Cataclysm event, skip this issue, if you want a better ending to the Ultimate Spiderman series pick this up!

Cataclysm: Ultiamte Comics Spiderman: 3/5

Goblin Nation

Looks like the Superior Spiderman is going to be in some serious troubles with the new up coming Spiderman event. Goblin Nation! How is Otto going to handle Green Goblin when he takes over New York's underworld?
Solicits below.



SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #27.NOW
DAN SLOTT (W) • GIUSEPPE CAMUNCOLI (A/C)
Variant Cover by Mark Brooks
Sketch Variant by Mark Brooks
Animal variant by Jenny Parks
Blank Variant Also Available
“Goblin Nation” #1 (of 5)
• The so-called Superior Spider-Man has failed. Under his watch, the Green Goblin took control of New York’s underworld. This is all Otto Octavius’ fault. Now it’s his responsibility to take the Goblin down.
• Win or lose, this shall be Otto’s greatest battle. Whatever you do, don’t miss the first chapter of the biggest event in the entire Superior Spider-Man Saga!
• The End starts here. Superior Spider-Man versus… THE GOBLIN NATION!
32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #28
DAN SLOTT (W) • GIUSEPPE CAMUNCOLI (A/C)
Variant cover by Dave Marquez
“Goblin Nation” #2 (of 5)
• Goblins! Spiderlings! Super villains! Giant robots! It can only mean one thing: ASSAULT ON SPIDER-ISLAND!
• If you want to see people standing around talking, read another comic. Want to see heroes having a fist fight, go somewhere else?
• You are IN the GOBLIN NATION and this is ALL-OUT WAR!
32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99







KEVIN SHINICK (W) • MARCO CHECCHETTO (A/C)
Part two of the prelude to GOBLIN NATION!
• An all-out gang war with Spider-Man, Daredevil and the Punisher right in the middle!
• Kevin Shinick (MAD, Superior Carnage) continues as the new regular writer!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99








BONUS Superior Carnage Annual #1

SUPERIOR CARNAGE ANNUAL #1
CULLEN BUNN (W) • KIM JACINTO (A)
COVER BY RAFFA GARRES
• Cletus Kasady is behind bars! The Carnage symbiote is in quarantine! But we all know that’s never going to last, right?
• Cletus has been evaluated and imprisoned and even lobotomized! Carnage has been sampled and cloned and poked and prodded.
• But they’ve had enough! It’s time to get the band back together!
• A return to bloody, murderous form for the deadliest killer in the Marvel Universe!
40 PGS/RATED T+ …$4.99





With the return of Green Goblin AND Cletus, Otto is going to have some serious problems on his hands. Looks like the Spiderman universe is really picking up.

Martian Manhunter to the rescue! Justice League of America #9 Preview

A preview into the upcoming tie in to Forever Evil, Justice League of America #9  With the League members still trapped in the Crime Synicates prison, Stargirl and Martian Manhunter struggle to free their allies.

Justice League of America #9 will be released on Wednesday, November 13

Supergirl a Red Lantern?!

On February 5th, both Green Lanterns and Red Lanterns will be combined into one flip book! The issue will dig up the aftermath from Lights Out. Big things happened for the Reds, Hal allowing them their own sector to patrol in completely back fires.

Which sector did they choose? Only sector 2814, Earth's sector! Now it's going to be an all out battle between the two factions with Earth in the middle!

Also, looks like the Red Lanterns are getting some help from a very powerful friend....Supergirl!

The solicit for Green Lanterns/Red Lanterns #28

GREEN LANTERN/RED LANTERNS #28
Written by ROBERT VENDITTI and CHARLES SOULE
Art by BILLY TAN and ALESSANDRO VITTI
GREEN LANTERN Cover by BILLY TAN
RED LANTERNS Cover by STEPHEN SEGOVIA
On sale FEBRUARY 5 • 48 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Combo pack edition: $3.99 US
Don’t miss this amazing flip-issue with two covers at a special price of just $2.99! This DOUBLE ISSUE contains both GREEN LANTERN #28 and RED LANTERNS #28! With dozens of sectors in open rebellion against the Green Lantern Corps, Hal Jordan is faced with a crisis in the sector most important to him: 2814, home of Earth…as well as Ysmault, home of the Red Lanterns. Hal made a dangerous bargain with Guy Gardner, and now it’s time to pay up! Plus: Guy and the Red Lanterns take over policing Sector 2814! And you’ll want to keep reading RED LANTERNS next month to see what happens to their newest member: SUPERGIRL!

Possible Wonder Woman role in "Superman/Batman"

Not much is said on this subject, other then Warner Bros. is looking into a female lead for the upcoming Superman/Batman movie. The three actresses they're looking at is Gal Gadot from "Fast and Furious, Eldoie Young, from G.I. Joe, and finally; Olga Kurylenko from Oblivion.

The casting description reportedly reads “tall, brunette, athletic and exotic.” It seems like a close description of Diana. But seems a little too good to be true. Even if she was added into the movie, I'm sure they would add her name in the title. But only time will tell...

Source here!

Forever Evil #3(Spoilers)

So with the third installment in the event, what has changed? A lot actually!
The issue opens up with Batman explaining what happen to the League when the encountered the Crime Syndicate. Seems that Deathstrom was able to open up the matrix in firestorm and trap the Justice League, and JLA inside of him. But the issue kind of drops that within a couple of pages.

We then cut to Lex and Bizzaro attempting to track down the Crime Syndicate. They're both successful in establishing an up-link to know where they are at all times. Lex watches Ultraman and we are treated to a very lack luster and very disappointing fight. Also, I'd like to note, in this fight, the art went down hill real fast.

It's hilarious to see! But the issue is redeemed with a Rouges vs. Deathstorm and Powering fight. Major things happen in this one skirmish. Deathstorm is able to extract the power in Captain Colds DNA and make him powerless. As the Rouges try to escape, the portal is busted. Captain Cold is then shot out near Lex and Bizzaro. They propose to work together with Black Manta and Black Adam. It's an interesting team to see.

Over all this issue was okay. Nothing to fancy happened until the end of it. The story felt kind of slow and the action was sort and extremely boring. I know I said the Rouges fight redeemed the issue, only in the sense that we got to more of the Rouges be bad asses. The art suffers greatly here, as seen above. If that doesn't turn you off, you will need to read Rouges Rebellion to understand some parts of the issue. This event is alright so far, if I were you, I'd go with Cataclysm over Forever Evil.

Forever Evil #3: 2/5

Cataclysm #1 review (Spoilers)

So it's begun, the Ultimate Marvel Universe's last stand! Galactus has finally arrived and is hungry.
The story begins with Miles and Ganke in New Jersey, Miles is going on about seeing a giant man with a funny hat. Of course Ganke doesn't believe him un till Galactus shows up in the middle of the city. Of course Spiderman is the only one on the scene at first. Him being a street-level hero he can't do much to stop Galactus; instead, Miles tries to save as many people as possible till the Ultimates show up.

When the Ultimates do show up, it's a something to see. The art work is absolutely stunning, but the actual fight feels hopeless. It's already been proven that the mainstream universe Marvel is stronger then the Ultimate; so, how the Ultimates will handle such a threat will be interesting. It really makes you want to continue reading. You can feel the panic and chaos in the city and among the Ultimates when you see them stressed and worried about this cosmic threat they've never seen.

The art, story, and over all issue was good. Only minor gripe is that everyone has to bring up that Galactus is giant and has a funny hat it kind of takes the seriousness out of the story. Over all the issue is a great start off to the final battle for the Ultimate Universe.

Cataclysm: Ultimates Last Stand #1: 4/5

Breaking News

You thought Arrow was the only DC superhero getting a show? Wrong, CW just announced they're developing a script for an Hourman TV show! Executives for the up coming show will be Dan Lin, Jennifer Gwartz; while, Michael Caleo will be writing the script.

Hopefully this show will do good, I for one loved Hourman in Justice Society. But I don't think he's a big enough cape to pull off his on show, as sad as that is.

Source 

Hey there cool cats, this blog I've started is basically going to go over various comic book new through out the week! Giving you guys reviews, news, best battles of the week, sales figures, and various updates. With Forever Evil, Infinity, and Cataclysm: Ultimates last stand, it'll be hard for you guys to keep track of ever thing going on in your favorite universe. So, I'm here to help!

Tomorrow I'll be going over Cataclysm #1 and 

Forever evil # 3 for the major events going on, as of now. Along with other stories of course!