A world of four color magic arrives every Wednesday.
Stories and adventures of heroes and villains, good versus evil.
Tales that entertain and excite by talented writers and artists.
Here are my thoughts Among The Panels.
Dark Gods #1
Writer: Justin Jordan
Artist: German Erramouspe
Publisher: Avatar Press
Price: $3.99
Dark Gods #1 is an inventive look at how Gods, as we know them, existed before we created them.
As culture was driven to create Gods, our need for them helped let these beings into our world.
A story that starts with a corporate espionage spirals quickly out of control when our main character, Resnic, is almost sacrificed to mad demons in the basement of the company he works for. The opening pages are expressed nicely on top of the normal feeling world that Resnic resides in.
The reveal of what is really going on is nicely done and kind of horrific, in the good way.
Some of the best things about this book is the way the writer, Justin Jordan, explains how the Gods became to exist.
He leads us through a history lesson where snakes have always played a part in some kind of origin story. Since this was the case the evil group that inhabited the snakes became known as The Serpent.
Where there is evil there is also those who will rise up to try and counter it the best they can; in this story that force is known as the Storm.
Justin seems to really have a great idea here; the constant battle of good vs evil seems fun to toy with and he did a great job presenting it in an opening issue.
We get this entire back story through the inner monologue of Resnic while we witness him being attacked by ravenous demons. He eventually escapes his peril with the help of a well-placed phone call and some cryptic speech that hurt the demons over the phone. He is rescued at the zero-hour by a badass girl wielding a shot gun.
This story is really stellar and the mix of religious aspects with the modern world works well to keep you interested.
Another stand out thing about this book is the art. The artist German Erramouspe does a fabulous job walking us through all of the different time periods within the story. The change in tone and esthetic from page to page is refreshing and downright cool. The only thing that I personally felt was unneeded was the couple of the depictions of naked women during the flashbacks scenes. I get this type of thing when it adds to the situation of the story but for me it felt like it detracted from the great art styling already present on the page but really that’s the only thing that felt out of place.
Otherwise a really great start to an intriguing story about the reality of evil in a modern world. They have a great thing brewing on these pages and I hope to see more from them very soon.
Score: 4 out of 5
Rasputin #1
Writer: Alex Grecian
Artist: Riley Rossmo
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99
There is a lot that can be said about Rasputin #1 by Alex Grecian and Riley Rossmo but the only one that seems to fit it best in my mind is beautiful.
Rasputin has been drifting through stories for many years and he has been depicted in a myriad of different ways but this incarnation of him seems genuinely awesome.
We enter this story on the night where all of his best friends gather for dinner to try and murder him.
He is aware of this and while he is pondering it he thinks back to when he was young.
We get to see him chopping wood in the snowy landscape of Siberia. His father, a giant of a man, is shown to be a rough and violent man. They make sure we don’t see any good at all within him. There is a scene where he arrives home and without any provocation throws a log at his wife who was cooking some kind of stew across the room. She spits in his face and he then beats her to death in front of Rasputin and then pours himself a bowl of stew. After he’s done he gets up and Rasputin rushes over and with some kind of unexplained magic ability he brings her back to life and heals her.
One of the best things about all of this is that there is almost no written dialoged at all. The art is so amazing that when we see this violence going on it speaks better than any words can. It was a great choice to limit the writing in these moments.
After healing his mother he rushes out to find his father. They are out in the wilds of Siberia and then are attacked by a giant bear. Rasputin’s father tries to fight it off with an ax but they both end up mortally wounding each other. Rasputin saves the bear instead of his father. We are then whisked back to the present day of the story and the dinner begins. The abrupt ending leaves you grasping for more and waiting another month to get just another short taste of the story is like torture.
The writing and art in Rasputin #1 are hard to match anywhere.
It just has the vibe and feeling of something great and long-lasting. The light color pallet of the snowy Siberian landscape and the darkness of the house scenes in the present day are wonderful. The colorist, Ivan Plascencia, really elevated the already killer art of Riley Rossmo to a whole new level. This book is so art heavy and it’s astounding how well they do. I’m so excited for choosing to read this one.
I really look forward to seeing how these talented creators take this story. It can only grow greater.
Score: 5 out 5
Roche Limit #2
Writer: Michael Moreci
Artist: Vic Malhotra
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $2.99
Roche Limit #2 expands the world we were exposed to in Issue One.
This issue gives us more background into the characters we know and drops more insight into some of the people we only know by name.
This issue opens with some exposition from Moscow, the villain that was mentioned in the last issue. He is a kind of weirdly nostalgic character whose mannerisms are kind of archaic in the sense of talking about old Japanese swords and the universe like they hold wonder and mystery beyond what we can see. It’s a wonderful opening to this story because he comes off as inspiring and philosophical but that is dashed on the reefs by him explaining that his real ambitions are to get the recipe behind the Recall drug.
It’s a masterful character design and introduction. In this introduction we also learn that Moscow is the one stealing the girls and providing them to the strange scientist in the first issue.
From there we jump over to our characters from the first issue sitting in car talking about what to do next.
Alex says he knows someone who might be able to help find Bekkah. The person who might help him is Gracie whose main mission on Roche Limit is to protect young girls. After a quick conversation and a yelling match between Alex and Sonya, Gracie accepts the deal for help. Sonya doesn’t want anything do with Alex until he explains how he knew her sister. It turns out that he was in love with her. He really hadn’t spoken to her since they had a fight and she said he was going to back to Earth and that’s when she went missing. He explained that he has a bomb attached to his heart and if he ever tries to leave it will kill him. He is a slave to Moscow and when he eventually figures out the recipe to Recall, Moscow will kill him. She forgives him and they continue their search. The ending of this issue is kind of shocking so I won’t ruin it here, but trust me it’s really great.
This issue is just as good, if not better, than the first issue.
That is always refreshing in the comic book industry. I feel that a lot of times when the first issue blows you out of the water the next few are half as good but still are interesting but this one stays fresh all the way through.
Seeing the art of Vic Malhotra brought me right back to where I needed to be. His style is so perfect for this kind of story and it seriously could hold its own without any writing at all. That being said, the writing by Michael Moreci remains as solid as ever. The way he crafts the way his characters talk feels realistic. They are not archetypes they are all fluid and interesting. They feel like real living humans and I have to say that takes talent.
If you missed the first issue, go back and pick it up because this is shaping up to be an amazing series and you don’t want to be left in the interstellar dust.
Score: 5 out of 5
Axis Carnage #1
Writer: Rick Spears
Artist: German Peralta
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $3.99
Marvel’s Axis event sounded interesting to me but through the landscape of comics it was lost to me until now. If you don’t know what’s going on right now I’ll explain it quickly.
There was a massive event that caused the Marvel Universe to shift on its axis and when this happened it changed our favorite villains into heroes, well sort of.
Axis Carnage #1 was clever and well put together.
I remember when Carnage first hit the scene and caused the Spider-Man universe to explode with popularity once again. He is just such a disgusting and vile villain that it feels good to watch Spider-Man kick his ass from page to page.
This time however he is no longer a psychopath and that is really hard for him to deal with.
Rick Spears does humor well and in this issue he makes Carnage into a Deadpool-like character who doesn’t really understand what it means to be a hero.
Some of the things he says are laugh out loud funny in the context of the story. There is scene where he hears a woman screaming in the night and he rushes over to save her. His first instinct is to cut the woman in half but he quickly changes his mind. He lands on the idea of a damsel in distress from years of watching television. Carnage punches the man who grabbing the woman so hard that his eye pops out of his head. The woman falls to the ground and another man with a knife shows up to save the girl and Carnage cuts off this man’s hand. The woman explains that he was her pimp. Carnage, realizing that being a hooker is illegal, punches the woman in the face. Right after he checks to see if her eye popped out, it didn’t, he counts this as a good deed. This type of thing is what makes this comic work.
The B story is about Sin Eater, who is a masked man who kills sinners and eats their souls. This story is not as compelling as the humorous nature of Carnage’s but with they collide at the end it all falls together.
Spears’s writing is super in this title. He manages to make Carnage likeable which I think is pretty hard to do because he used to be so easy to hate. The Spider-Man jokes he pulls out really help push this comic along.
The only thing I think that hurts this book is the art. German Peralta’s art is really great but I felt that I wasn’t a good fit for visualizing Carnage. The soft edges and thick line work makes Carnage look too solid. I feel like the reason Carnage worked well back in the day was because he looked like dripping blood, fluid, and he was scary. Here, Carnage’s art kind of looks like he is just wearing a suit like Spider-Man does. It just feels a little off but only where Carnage is concerned. All the other characters look great and work well together there is just something off with Carnage to me.
Other than my weird feelings on the way Carnage looks this was a really fun read and a great new direction for one of the scariest and most brutal characters in the Marvel Universe.
Score: 3.5 out of 5
Baltimore: The Wolf and the Apostle #1
Writer: Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden
Artist: Ben Stenbeck
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Price: $3.50
When I saw Mike Mignola’s name on the cover of this book I became excited. I hadn’t read any of the Baltimore series before this issue so I was kind of going in blind. I also didn’t do any research before-hand so that I would stay fresh and experience it with little to no knowledge of the type of world Baltimore was based in. I think this was a very good choice on my part.
Baltimore: The Wolf and the Apostle #1 is a magnificent story that came out at the perfect time.
Who doesn’t love an elegantly gruesome werewolf story right before Halloween?
I know I do.
They open the book on a man of the faith lying in bed covered in bandages. Another man, dressed all in black, enters and wakes the bandaged man. The moon is full and present in the window above the now awake man. He is startled by the moon and we then become away that he is or is afraid that he might be a werewolf. The Man in Black asks what happened and then we go back in time to get the full story.
The story is a sad one full of violence and some pretty grisly murders of religious leaders. The “Wolf”, as they refer to him in the story, is out to devour men of cloth left and right. The thing that worries everyone is that he is doing it out in the open and is so brazen in the way he does his killings.
He is trying to send a message like a man instead of like the beast they think he is. The group that is called into track and kill the beast is called the Inquisition. They follow the trail of carnage to an old abandoned castle at the top of a hill. As soon as they start poking around they all become aware that they were not the ones tracking the beast but instead were lured there to be picked off one by one.
This books ends abruptly but since it’s only a two-parter we don’t have to wait too long to see what’s going to happen to our group of travelers. Mignola and Golden have created a supremely spooky tale wrapped in mystery and horror. This book feels like a child of Hellboy and with the art of Ben Stenbeck it looks like it as well.
Stenbecks art is more simplistic then most but manages to really convey great emotion and terror within every panel. Each page looks better than the last and when we get to see the werewolf for one brief panel it sticks with you long after you have turned the page. The writing and art are top notch and this book is good from word one.
Baltimore: The Wolf and the Apostle #1 is a great first part a fantastic two part idea. Too bad they both didn’t come out before Halloween so you could add it to your spooky night reading list. I am sure that when this book is done it will fall right in line with the rest of the work coming out of Dark Horse with Mignola’s name tied to it. In my eyes he never fails and this is another win for him.
Score 4.5 out 5
