Who isn’t ready for the weekend, amiright? We hope your weekend is filled with many glossy pages (or screens) of comics outdoors for one last time this summer. Crack open that cold can and drink in this last weekend of the Summer because it’s all crashing to an end.
Looking for something to read as you slowly realize you wasted your summer away at the DMV and Dunkin Donuts? Maybe you were toiling away at the boat motor you never could get started?
Here’s some suggestions!
Mark Guggenheim (Arrow, The Flash, Amazing Spider-Man) teams up with Freddie E. Williams II and the tight bros at Legendary Studios (yes, that Legendary responsible for Pacific Rim, The Dark Knight Trilogy and so many more) to give us the smartest man in the world, The Infinite Adventures of Jonas Quantum #1.
Contrast that book with the most put upon robot in the world in former FOG! columnist, Ryan Ferrier’s D4VE2 #1, the sequel to his desk-jockey-robot-turned-hero book D4VE.
Of course, 98 pound weakling Marvel nerds exhaled a collective wheezy “yay” when they heard that Captain America: White from Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale was finally going to see the light of day and the $4.99 price point is totally worth it if you can’t wait for the collected edition.
I’m not shy when it comes to my love of the work that the CW team has done with Arrow and The Flash. I scoop up insider information on the shows like a Hoover in a hotel lobby from Twitter and have always enjoyed behind the scenes interviews with Marc Guggenheim.
Marc was also one of the weekly writers of Spidey when I had my resurgence back into comic book fandom so I always keep an eye out for his work.
What appears to be on the Millarworld model of writing a volume of comics custom built for an easy adaptation to the big (or small) screen is this very fun superhero story about the smartest man in the world.
A clever way of marking time in the book marks Jonas’ advanced intellect and milestones. Keep that calculator handy because you need to know that in the flashbacks on DAY 4800, Jonas is 13 years old and mastering time travel.
At 35, he cures Death.
The superheroing comes in as someone has broken into an off-world pocket universe and stolen his ‘Cure for Death’.
Jonas has powers, or has invented suits and gear to make him superpowered, can travel through time and there is plenty of action. Interacting with real humans, Jonas has some social problems but he seems to get by.
Great fights and action for the first issue, and as usual Freddie Williams is a master. Quite a great looking book with Chris Sotomayer on colors.
Five stars for me on this first issue for fans of über-smart heroes (Reed, Tony, Bruce) and the cliffhangers and high drama of Guggenheim’s TV work.
Loeb and Sale do it again, bringing their Masterful Marvel ‘Color’ books to the shelves.
Sure this one took a bit of time, but really who cares?
Having this book come out after two successful Captain America movies and two Avengers movies is not bad timing in the least.
The Simon and Kirby creation is given his own barrack-based origin in the pages of Captain America: White.
Bucky is introduced as he is a kid raised on the same base as Rogers, who sneaks to see Rogers transform into the First Avenger.
These bonds and relationships are what the team explores by reducing the heroes into a stripped down origin. Dum Dum Dugan, Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos are a presence in the book also, punching Ratzis in the teeth and ultimately winning the war.
When Cap awakens after his frozen slumber, it offers him a chance to reflect on his partner Bucky and what may have happened to him.
This shouldn’t be a hard sell to anyone who enjoys these ‘Color’ themed books or the Batman trilogy they worked on together.
Here also, Sale’s art is fitting for the time period of the Forties and Dave Stewart’s colors make it look like an unfurling flag at dawn. Really beautiful stuff here — and the oncoming promise of more issues to complete this story!
This issue reprints Captain America: White #0 from 2008 and an accompanying interview with the creative time conducted by letterer Richard Starkings (Elephantmen) also from 2008.
If you can’t tell from the (what we old-timers call) ‘Leet-Speak’ title, this is about a robot named DAVE. Take out the A, add a 4 and then another 2 to indicate this is the second volume. What the freak difference does it make?
None.
Do you need to have read volume 1 of D4VE to catch a vibe on what is happening here?
No, but you might want to after checking this issue out!
D4VE saved the world, and it’s a year later.
Oh, and this is robot world, no people here, everyone is an asshole robot or has an asshole robot or their dog is an asshole robot. (Everybody’s got one or is one).
The thing is, D4VE’s life is a constant struggle. Even after they built a gigantic robot statue of his asshole robot body in the center of the city, he still curses at traffic, is late for work (as a General in the asshole army) and has to deal with his ex-wife and her asshole new boyfriend robot FR3D.
When D4VE goes to pick up his son’s 5COTTY’s cool shit so he can stay at D4VE’s for the weekend with his friend BR4D, the dog PNUT is humping his leg and D4VE has literally been farted on.
Is any of this making sense? Do I sound angry? I’m not. This book is hilarious robot dick jokes and malcontent workers complaining at it’s finest.
I almost SKIPP3D this book, but I’m SO glad I didn’t.
Ferrier has comedy gold plated contacts here and the ending of this issue is what we have been waiting for all along.
From Monkeybrain to IDW, D4VE is ready to make the leap away from Bender humor and into a whole new world of dysfunctional robot families.
It’s like Sex Criminals without the sex or humans or cum. That’s a lie, it’s not like Sex Criminals at all, but I thought maybe Ryan would think that was funny.
Maybe I’ll get that in as a byline on the next issue or trade.
“It’s not like Sex Criminals at all”! — Forces Of Geek
