Unknown Soldier #13 review

Unknown Soldier, to say the least, has been an eye opener. Since the story began a year ago, the story has dove into such complex themes like child soldiers, religious war and aid in third-world countries. The first arc was fantastic, the second was good, but had some problems, and now the third arc, a mini-arc has begun. Entitled "The Way Home," this arc expands on a character introduced in issue 7, who appears a coupple times through the "Easy Kill" arc, Paul. For this arc, Alberto Ponticelli, the regular artist is "having a much-needed break," is being replaced by the Ugandan artist, Pat Masioni.

The writing in this issue is strong, like the Unknown Soldier story has been so far, however some aspects of Dysart's writing feel a bit more contrived than they should, for example the reunion between Moses (the Unknown Soldier) and Paul and his convincing Moses to take him to his home showcases some of the faults in Easy Kill, possible but unlikely. Besides this though, the story is a tragic one of a boy who is "different" has had his life ruined by the LRA, and is now living in an orphanage. He runs into the Unknown Soldier and convinces him, showing that Moses is still alive in the soldier, to take him home, but the road is throgh the "most intense part of the war zone."

Pat Masioni makes a great fill in artist for Ponticelli for this issue. His art isn't fantastic muscley american comic book art, but it feels like, to me an man living in Canada, genuine African art, which is good considering the story takes place in Uganda, just east of were Masioni lived before, according to a letter in the back of the book, he was forced to flea to France. His art, definately not perfect, but still beautiful, and has a genuine feelign and look to it, when while combined with Dysarts writing makes this story feel like it could have actually happened in 2002.

Unknown Soldier #13 is a great comic, with fantastic art by the Ugandan artist, Pat Masioni and a great story by Dysart.

9/10

Blackest Night#4 review

I've got to admit, up to this point i haven't been enjoying Blackest Night as much as it seems i should be, maybe its because i'm not reading the lantern books, but then again a series should be self contained, but i've just had a feeling that Blackest Night isn't living up to its hype. The premiss of dead superheroes coming back from the dead, but out to kill their old friends sounds interesting enough, but the series didn't seem to support itself well. Maybe it was the magnificent art littered with kilometers of text, or the fact that the story felt like it wasn't focusing on any characters in particular, except maybe the Flash, or maybe the fact that this is a Green Lantern story with barely any Green Lantern in it. I'm not exactly sure why, but i wasn't enjoying Blackest Night like i should have been, that is until the Atom went into Al Pratt, the original Atom and ripped him apart. At about that point, the series, really broke off from its original feel and pacing and went from a series i was thinking of dropping, to one im certain i will read to the end. The cliffhanger in this issue, isn't just more Black Lanterns, it's someone much more important to the story who's arrival will seemingly change the course of the story (ever notice how no regular people were coming back? Not now.)

Final word: If you weren't reading Blackest Night, do it now and if you were on the fence, read issue 4 and everything will change.

8.2/10

Cowboy Ninja Viking #1 review

There are many different types of comic fans, some enjoy western tales have Jonah Hex, fans of Ninja's can read Daredevil, those who enjoy Vikings have Thor and image comic's Viking, people who enjoy insanity in their comics can read Batman, those who love split personalities, people who like playboy billionaire's can read Iron Man, but everyone who reads comics can enjoy this new selection from Image Comics, Cowboy Ninja Viking.

Aj Lieberman's and Riley Rossmo's is a comic that works well in so many ways. It has a non-chronological narrative which works well, giving it a Pulp Fiction feeling and makes the comic feel differently, in a good way, from most issues on the stands these days. The story of this issue is effective, giving a good introduction to all of the characters which will play out through this arc. The Cowboy Ninja Viking is recruited by an old accomplice, a doctor who has taken people with multiple personality disorders and made "Triplets" out of there three previous personalities. Duncan, the CNV is recruited to go after another rogue triplet, the Pirate Gladiator Oceanographer.

Rossman's art, is effective, utilizing a fairly typical image comics art style with only blue and some grays and black colours to convey the story. Sometimes the art feels like it takes bad angels and is compromised for the large dialogue, but while reading the story, thats not what passed through my mind, the story is so intriguing, so off beat that everything just meshed together nearly perfectly.

The comic is a crazy off beat one which will undoubtably intreats any one who reads it and will bring a smile to your face with its strange story.

8.5/10

The Marvels Project - A review

Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting are one of my favorite teams in comics today. What they've done on Captain America has been sensational, and now there's the Marvels Project. So far the series has been pretty good, but its mostly felt like set-up; however with issue #3, the story really feels like it's taking off.

Brubaker's writing is perfect for a story like this, his work with flashbacks has been one of my favorite parts of his Captain America, therefore a story that is entirely set in the past, the start of the Marvel Universe is perfect for him. This issue is great because all the characters and plot threads that have been introduced so far are starting to tie together, so now instead of feeling like different stories in one, The Marvel's Project is starting to feel like one complete story. Each and every thread in the story is enjoyable, although some, like the one following the Angel and the one following The Human Torch, stand out as the best in the issue. There are no real complaints that stand in this issue, aside from one part where the narration has a weird transition and how the story may feel a bit predictable to some, this is a nearly perfect issue in terms of the writing. Also this issue has some appearances by several old Marvel Comics places like Josie's bar, a Hotel named "Timely" and a certain Professor Erskine mixing a certain serum.

Steve Epting's art, like this series' writing is amazing. The layout to each panel is always masterfully done and his drawing style is stunning. Combined with Dave Stewart's colours, this issue is a real beauty to look at. Everything is easy to look at and easily understood, however the occasional character could be confused. Also I'm not the biggest fan of the way the Human Torch looks while on fire, and thing some ink should be incorporated in his design.

Overall, this is a great issue, with a few minor faults, 9.2/10

A re-review of Batman and Robin #5

Yesterday, I wrote a review for Batman and Robin #5, I said it was a terrible comic and a major disappointment. Although some of the art i terrible, I did not think my review fully through.

Batman and Robin #5 does not suck, in fact it is one of the best comics i've read in a month. The issue advances significantly the overall story, but it does have a problem. That problem is it's clarity.

This series has been one of the best books to read all year, and this issue does not disappoint, but like a lot of Morrison stuff, you might have to read it twice to understand it fully and that's why i gave it such a low score on my first review. I guess I was used to, with the first arc of Batman and Robin, having only to read the story once to get the full picture, but with the new artist, Morrison's writing changes up to more like it was in Batman RIP. What I had a problem with when I read the issue the first time was the introduction of the Flamingo. The way he was introduced was nearly like you had to know what he was and what he looked like before he arrived, which now that I think about it happens a lot in Morrison's Batman.

Although my opinion of the writing has gone up significantly, my opinion on the art is still low. The mass amounts of ink used to make the story feel dark, turn the page murky and hard to understand. As well, Philip Tan's face's are often out of proportion and his body's get messed up. It seems like he may spend so much time trying to get certain parts right, that his attention to detail on other parts is way down and his work as a hole suffers. OF course I like his art when it's done right, and it is in some panel, but the overall look brings the book down significantly.

Now that i've fixed up my review to one more accurate on my opinion of the book, i have to decide a new score. For this issue, i will assign two scores, one for writing and the other for art, and then find an average.

Writing, 8.5/10 Art: 7.3/10

Overall: 7.9

Final word: If Tan's work wasn't so inconsistent, and maybe if the writing was clearer, this book, would be much higher rated.

Daredevil #501 review

Daredevil, written by Ed Brubaker and drawn by Micheal Lark was one of my faveorite books. However when i read it, the Lady Bullseye and Return of the King arcs, i couldn't help but feel that Matt Murdoc didn't spend enough time as Daredevil and the writing never seemed clear, everything was wraped up in mystery to the very last issue and the resolutions were always quick. In Daredevil #501, Andy Diggle aviods many of these traps and establishes not only what Daredevil will be doing as leader of the Hand, as well he makes it feel like the co-stars of the series, Foggy and Dakota aren't just waiting around for Murdoc, but doing things of their own, which i felt wasn't in Brubaker's later Daredevil work.

The writing in this issue is strong, maybe even stronger than Brubaker's, everything flows well into eachother in the issue, and Diggle sets up his story well. One complaint I have is that the sacrifice if Izo feels a bit like a way to get rid of a character you don't want to write about, instead of incomperating him into the new story arc. The way Murdoc behaves in this issue and Izo, being quite familiar with the Hand seems a bit unbelieveable, but this is, even if it doesn't seem so at times, a superhero comic, so I can't complain too much.

The art in this issue, by Robert De La Torre, is quite exceptional. Compared to Micheal Lark's Daredevil work, i would rank this higher. Lark, has generally better proportions and more accurate backgrounds, but the way De La Torre picks his angles and how he gives expression to his faces, makes him the better artist for Daredevil. Scenes with the Kingpin and Lady Bullseye make Old Wilson Fisk look like and old man, think about how long he's been around, who's lost his way in the world and is trying to get back at his enemy one last time, the way Izo is drawn, you could nearly believe he was hundreds of years old and Foggy looks like how a lawer who fired his bestfriend from his law office, and has now realized that same man is running around with a group of ninja assasins. Ontop, the cover looks beautiful, and the colours have a powerful tone to them.

everything in this comic comes off perfectly, well aside from Daredevil's legs looking strange in a scene. This is a great version of Daredevil and I hope the quality in Diggle's run is the same as it is in this issue. For fans of Daredevil, or superhero comics in gerneral i higly reccomend that you read Daredevil #501.

9.0/10

Batman and Robin #5 Review

Batman and Robin #5 is the next chapter in Grant Morrison's Batman saga. The current arc is "The Revenge of the Red Hood" and the art is by Philip Tan, with Jonathan Clapion doing inks. As far as a series goes, Batman and Robin has been on of the most impressive series this year, however with issue five, the series takes a big drop in quality. When coming into this arc, i was already expecting a drop in quality from a change in artists, however, i was not expecting such a drop in the quality of the writing as well.

The Simplest way for me to put it is Batman and Robin #5 sucks.

With that said, I'll tell you why.

Throughout this whole series, each issue has been a blast to read, fast paced, interesting and always one of the best books to read. With issue 5, reading it becomes a chore, the art is dark and hard to following, resulting in often having to reread pages just to understand what has happened, there is barely any interesting developments; and Morrison's script goes on about pointless and unimportant things for the majority of the issue, like an intro about how Sasha or Scarlet goes regrets coming to America. Some of the dialogue includes Jason Todd going on about getting zits and going bald from wearing the Red Hood's helmet and how he's really a red head, none of which is significant to the story-line, and it just seems stupid. The book is just covered with action scenes in which nothing is accomplished, the two duo's fight, they part company, the soon after they fight again, and Jason confesses shooting Batman wouldn't do any damage, but then he does anyways, because it would hurt.

The art in this issue drags it down as well. I like what Philip Tan can do, but here, he constantly choses awkward angles and screws up the faces. As well, the book is too dark in appearance, and at times the setting seems to change without notice. As a result, the book is hard to follow and even harder to appreciate. Tan struggles especially on Damian's face, coming up with several hideous panels to behold.

Now that I've said that, I would still recommend picking this book up, just for completeness because i fell like this is just a slight drop in quality that will be repaired within an issue or two. This might just be an extreme case of how most stories tend to get a bit dull in the middle too. Hopefully Tan can fix up his pencils for the next issue, but if not after that , a new artist is on the way for issue 7.

4.5/10

Thor #603 review

Thor #603 is the penultimate Thor issue by current writer, JMS and artist Marko Djurdjevic (?), while this issue is in many ways just as good as any other issue in JMS' run, it feels slightly out of place, being paced much faster than any other issue in his run.

While reading Thor 603, it feels like the events that unfold in this issue, would normally, if JMS wasn't wrapping up his run, take up at least two more issues, but instead, the events that unfold seem rushed and aren't expanded on like they normally would be in a Thor book; however that's not necessarily a bad thing. In this issue, there's everything, the return of the Warriors Three, an awkward moment with Donald Blake, Sif and Mrs. Sooner, scenes with Loki and Doom plotting, big, evil things, Bill and Kelda, more Doom and Loki, and an interesting cliffhanger.

Another good thing about this issue, is the art. It's still Djurdjevick and not Coipel, but this is the best Djurdjevic's art's ever been in Thor. His expressions, his backgrounds, his machines, his costumes, everything looks great in this issue. As well, a new colourist takes over, Kevin Djurdjevic takes over, and makes the book even more beautiful.

All in all, this Thor is an amazing issue, out of 10, it's not quite a 9 but definitely above 8.5. This book is highly recommended and I cannot wait "30 days!" for the conclusion of JMS's fantastic Thor run.

8.9/10

First Entry

Well i've decided to start a blog to post my thoughts on recent comics i've read and other things relating to them. I hope someone reads them, tomorrow i'll start with the reviewing