Category Archives: Reviews
Review: Saga #10
I was disappointed with the last issue of Saga because writer Brian K. Vaughn took us away from the main characters at a very entertaining part of their story, choosing instead to focus on some of the side characters. And while I don’t take back my disappointment, I am definitely glad he did that, because Vaughn set up one of the most emotionally powerful scenes in the series yet. I cried out loud when I turned to the final page! Damn you, Brian K. Vaughn! Why must you hit us with all the feels? We’re only human. We can’t be put through an emotional wringer like this!
Saga #10
Saga #10 is absolutely perfect in every conceivable way. Vaughn brings together both groups of characters in an issue that brings to a head the various plot threads we’ve been reading over the past several issues. He does this by first showing us true love and then later breaking our damn hearts.
Comic Rating: 5/5: Great!
Vaughn should be teaching some kind of class on creative writing. The man is a master of building up characters and putting them together in highly entertaining and emotionally fulfilling ways. We only met Marko’s parents a few issues ago, but I love them already, and I love how they have quickly become such a warm and important part of the cast. A writer should be able to tell he’s got good characters when all I want to do is read them sitting around and talking about their lives. We get some of that in this issue, as well as some more parenting advice from Barr, but there’s also a lot of action, which is good too. If you can’t tell by the cover, we finally get Izabel back into the cast and everyone returns to the spaceship tree. Those are some very entertaining scenes.
The art by Fiona Staples is, of course, absolutely top notch. I can only hope she becomes one of the greatest artists in the industry after this series. The characters all look great, and she brings a real coziness to their confines. Staples also draws one incredible splash page that I’ll post later that is simply stunning. There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that she is perfect for this series after seeing that page.
And then when it comes time to break our hearts on the last page, Staples is more than up for the challenge.
Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more review!
Crysis 3 review
In my mind, Crysis is one of the most underrated first person shooters that I know of.
Released in 2007, the first Crysis went virtually unnoticed against such competition as Halo 3, Call of Duty 4 and Gears of War. It was a treasure waiting to be excavated by gamers like myself.
The protagonist was a member of a special unit of highly-trained soldiers wearing experimental “nanosuits” like the one shown above. The nanosuit offer a range of special abilities to be activated in-game, including super-speed, super-strength, a cloaking device, and armour-plating which added a refreshing new dynamic to the old “Supersoldier kills hordes of aliens” trope made popular by Halo.
Your unit in Crysis was sent to a remote island to fight a North Korean threat. The short version of the story is that the North Koreans in Crysis woke an ancient, hibernating alien race beneath the earth. Picking up where the first Crysis left off, Crysis 2 began with an alien plague that had wiped out much of Manhattan’s population and brought the city under marshal law. A new main character found himself in command of one of the aforementioned nanosuits, and the fate of New York City (and by extension, the world) rested on his shoulders as the Big Apple found itself being invaded by the alien threat unleashed in the first game: called The Ceph. He defeats the Ceph hivemind, and the world is saved…until now.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
When Metal Gear Solid was released on PSX, its combination of solid, smart gameplay and deep storyline made director Hideo Kojima a respected name among gamers. Followed by the success of three sequels and several portable renditions, it seemed that Kojima could do no wrong.
As such, fans of Metal Gear have been eagerly awaiting this week’s release of the next-gen spinoff, “Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.”
The game mashes Ghost in a Shell with Ninja Gaiden in a hack-and-slash beat-em-up with surprising depth. Starring the cyborg, Raiden (one of the central characters from Metal Gear Solid 2 and 4), Kojima took Metal Gear Rising in a new direction, providing fast-paced action and crisp, cutting-edge graphics, Rising was a step away from Read the rest of this entry
Review: X-Factor #252
Alright, alright, the Hell on Earth War is settling in nicely, and X-Factor remains a good read, but the potential for being overdrawn is starting to set in. This is part three or five of the big event (depending on if you count the prologue), and we haven’t made much progress as of yet. That’s not a problem, per se. But I’m starting to worry that writer Peter David has too much stuff planned, and that this story will become mired in filler and fluff until it grossly outstays its welcome. That’s what tends to happen with PAD’s big event stories, and I’m definitely worried for Hell on Earth War. So far, things seem to be moving forward well enough, but I definitely think there is reason to worry.
X-Factor #252
The story isn’t really resonating on a personal or emotional level with any of the characters. Everybody is kind of just doing stuff and then doing more stuff, with the only promise being that more stuff is definitely going to occur in the next issue.
Comic Rating: 4/5: Good.
The only real characters with any kind of real, personal connection to this story are Tier and, by extension, his mother Wolfsbane. But we barely know Tier. Prior to this story, he was a baby, so this is our first time getting to know him as a thinking, feeling adolescent. And, by extension, we don’t even really know Wolfsbane as a mother. We know she was pregnant for awhile, and was really broken up about abandoning Tier, but we never saw her spend any real time with the kid, at least time that wasn’t about running from danger or fighting. So we have no real experience with Tier, and no experience with Wolfsbane as a mom. So even their personal connection to the Hell on Earth War is really based on stuff we were told about, not something we were actually shown and experienced. The personal connection to the reader just isn’t there.
Likewise, everybody else in X-Factor is kind of just along for the ride. They also barely know Tier, and are kind of just helping him because it’s the right thing to do. There’s maybe been one line from Multiple Man about how they’ll protect him because he’s Wolfsbane’s son, but nobody has really said or done anything with Rahne to indicate that they’re going to stick by her side no matter what. They’re just there and fighting whatever bad guy shows up on the page. Even when their good friend and teammate Strong Guy is revealed to be a villain, it doesn’t seem to faze anybody. Nobody really cares that Guido has turned on them. He’s just the bad guy that shows up, so there’s a fight scene.
This cannot sustain a comic book story, especially not one that lasts as long as PAD usually does. I wouldn’t be surprised if we were still dealing with the Hell on Earth War come the fall. So I’m really worried about the pacing of this story. But at least, for now, it’s still an exciting read with a lot of cool action and adventure.
Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more review!
Review: Dead Space (The Graphic Novel)
The fine people at Titan Books have sent me a new stack of graphic novels, this time based on the Dead Space video game series. I’ve never actually played the games, but I’m more than happy to review good comics when I get them. We’ll start with the collected edition of Dead Space, written by Antony Johnston and drawn by Ben Templesmith. The series was first published as six separate issues in 2008. It’s a prequel to the first game, telling the story of the original Necromorph outbreak on the planet Aegis VII. I can’t say how well it ties into the first game, or what fans of the series might think, but I can say that it’s a pretty cool story, playing out like your typical space monster movie.
Dead Space
If you’re a fan of the Dead Space video game series, I think you’ll enjoy this prequel adventure. Non-fans might enjoy this gripping and claustrophobic monster tale, drawn with some very moody art.
Comic Rating: 4/5: Good.
This graphic novel plays out exactly like a good old fashioned monster movie, especially one in space. A far-off, isolated space colony discovers something mysterious and alien, it slowly starts to drive people insane and then finally everything explodes in gore, guts and reanimated corpses! That this graphic novel is a prequel instead of just an adaptation of the video game is a good idea. It tells its own story, and for fans of the series, I bet it would make a nice companion piece.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Dead Space games, they’re a series of third-person, survival horror shooters starring space engineer Isaac Clarke. They typically involve exploring dark and spooky environments that get more and more wicked and dangerous as the Necromorphs start taking over. It’s a fairly popular series, I believe, with Dead Space 3 released earlier this month. And like most good video game franchises these days, there’s a whole wealth of backstory to discover and pour over as you play. I know the first Dead Space game is littered with various tidbits of information about the breakout, and it appears that writer Antony Johnston has taken some of those clips and turned them into their own fascinating story.
This kind of comic is right up my alley. And there are two more Dead Space graphic novels to review at a latter date. For now, let’s explore Dead Space, which you can find on Amazon.com.
Henchman-4-Hire 