The Goblin Chronicles #3

The final issue of this miniseries is out, with colors again ably provided by Will Terrell, Chief Hierophant of the Lubbock Sketch Club. Gorim the goblin, Zara the troll, Sprig the shapeshifter, and Gween the elf finally encounter the oracle and ask him how to defeat the Dark Queen, but his answer is pretty nonspecific. The group is ambushed by a trio of swamp monsters and forced to surrender to the Dark Queen, but the Four Realms have put aside their differences and are marching to battle against the Queen’s forces. The Queen casts a spell to start all the various races fighting each other, but the quartet of young adventurers manages to escape from the dungeon and free some of the leaders of the Four Realms. The leaders persuade their followers to turn their attentions back on the Dark Queen. Desperate for some way to stop the heroes, the Queen begins to summon the Host, a horde of demonic imps who can destroy everyone who opposes the Queen. Can Gorim, Zara, Sprig, and Gween stop the Dark Queen before it’s too late?

Verdict: Thumbs up. A charming and fun end to the series, with promises of more possibly on the horizon.

And speaking of the Lubbock Sketch Club, the First Friday Art Trail hits this Friday, August 1, and the Sketch Club’s artists are going to be featured at an art show at the Lubbock Garden and Arts Center at 44th and University. Remember, the Art Trail runs from 6-9 p.m. on Friday, and many of the artists from the Sketch Club will be displaying their works, including comics, prints, and sketches, at tables at the Garden and Arts Center. And their works will be on display throughout the month of August, too — some of them will even be for sale. So if you’re not able to make it out for the Art Trail on Friday, you’ll still have a chance to stop by and see their artwork.

And as long as we’re talking about Sketch Club events, don’t forget the Lubbock Comic Book Workshop on August 9th! It’s going to be a great resource for any aspiring comic artists who want to learn how to improve their artwork!

The Spirit #19

We get a trio of stories in this issue. First, the Spirit recounts how he bested a childhood bully and earned a lifelong friend. Second, Spirit tries to track down a one-handed criminal called El Leproso who may have turned over a new leaf. And finally, a comic book writer has been murdered, and three different artists claim sole responsibility. Can the Spirit figure out who the true killer is?

Verdict: Thumbs up. This is really a lot better than most of the Aragones/Evanier “Spirit” stories have tended to be, and I think the shorter stories are what’s responsible. Instead of trying to pad out 22 pages with lame jokes, we get shorter, more compact stories. I approve wholeheartedly, and I hope they keep the comic going in this vein.

Green Lantern Corps #26

Our core Corps members have been captured by the yellow-ring-powered Mongul and implanted with fear-inducing Black Mercy plants. Mongul lectures Mother Mercy about trying to betray him, then leaves like a sucker, while Mercy frees the GLs again. A terrific battle ensues, but the victory is finally won by the smallest of the Green Lanterns, Bzzd, an intelligent alien insect. Unfortunately, things don’t turn out so great for Bzzd, and the latest rings from both the Green Lanterns and the Sinestro Corps both seek out Mother Mercy…

Verdict: Thumbs down. Mostly a slugfest. We lose good characters like Bzzd, Mongul, and Duel. It all ends up feeling like I wasted my time reading it.

The Brave and the Bold #15

The cover just shows Hawkman and Nightwing, but Green Arrow and Deadman are also included in this team-up. Nightwing sends nearly all the world’s superheroes off to fight Trigon, but it’s just a ruse to get them off-planet when he hears Deadman’s story about Annuttara and his ghostly assassins. Yeah, Deadman is still alive — Green Arrow hadn’t really killed him, he just shot him and threw him off a mountain to give him a chance of getting back to warn the world’s heroes. But Nightwing doesn’t like the risk of getting a bunch of superheroes possessed and killed by ghosts, so he sends everyone away except for Hawkman, whose experience with past lives makes him an expert on ancient civilizations and ancient magics (Really? Whatever).

Meanwhile, in Nanda Parbat, Green Arrow is being horribly tortured and deformed by Annuttara, but Nightwing, Hawkman, and Deadman (who’s able to take solid form inside Nanda Parbat) attack, take out the ghost assassins, and try to free the imprisoned Rama Kushna. But they may have no chance of success after Nightwing throws himself off a cliff…

Verdict: Thumbs up. Good story, good teamwork. And I thought it was pretty cool how Nightwing and Deadman, both former circus acrobats, got to trade some carnie lingo back and forth…

1985 #3

It’s 1985 in a completely metahuman-free universe, and the dimension-hopping Marvel supervillains who’ve been hiding out in the old mansion outside of town are tired of hiding. As the police investigate last issue’s murders by Sandman and Electro, MODOK starts mind-controlling people to drown themselves in a lake, the Mole Man kidnaps a bunch of children, Ultron just starts slaughtering people, and none other than Fin Fang Foom lays seige to the town. Is there any hope for anyone? Not unless a bunch of superheroes start showing up soon…

Verdict: Thumbs up. I was actually getting a bit bored with this one, but it’s gotten a heck of a lot more interesting with the bad guys running wild. And I love the way they’re not being portrayed as comic-book villains — these are complete psychos with powers that no one on Earth has any way to counter. They’re not mere villains — they’re figures of absolute terror.

Birds of Prey #120

Continuing the confrontation from last issue, Manhunter thinks she’s got the stuff to take down Black Canary… but really, it’s not even close. Once Dinah has Kate dropped off back at Oracle’s HQ in Platinum Flats, she warns Barbara to back off of her, Green Arrow, and Speedy. Meanwhile, a character I’m not real familiar with, Infinity, uses her ghostlike powers to infiltrate the Visionary’s Silicon Syndicate. She discovers a very high-tech R&D lab which includes the corpse of the midget gadgeteer Gizmo… but it turns out he’s still fairly ambulatory. Babs scrambles Huntress to get Infinity to safety, while the Visionary and his goons get introduced to a nasty new competitor…

Verdict: Thumbs up. The entire issue is pretty enjoyable, but the bad guy who gets the brief walk-on part at the end is really gonna throw a spanner into the works.

 

Tiny Titans #6

This issue is, even by the standards set by the previous stories, uncommonly hilarious. We’ve got Blue Beetle and Supergirl getting introduced to the group; we’ve got another new crop of Titans, including Power Boy, Zatara, Li’l Barda, Lagoon Boy, Vulcan Jr., and Hawk and Dove; we’ve got Blue Beetle’s talking backpack; and we’ve got “At Home with the Trigons,” a tale of Raven and her demonic but loveable dad, Trigon.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Like I said, this one is just amazingly funny, especially Blue Beetle’s backpack antics and the wonderful banter between cynical Raven and her terrifyingly huggable dad. But if there’s anything that just puts it over the top, it’s got to be Li’l Barda.

 

Holy guacamole, someone call Cute Overload!

 

Marvel Adventures: The Avengers #26

The Avengers get recruited by the rudest aliens in the universe to help stop Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds, from eating a distant planet. Galactus and the Silver Surfer have the team on the ropes, until Ant-Man finds the Ultimate Nullifier — Galactus warns them that activating it would destroy light-years’ worth of outer-space real estate… so Spidey turns it on. D’oh! No, wait, actually, it just nullifies everyone’s power differences — in other words, it’s leveled the playing field, so Galactus can’t just wipe them all out. So instead, they all decide to play games to decide whether Galactus will be able to eat the planet. It sounds ridiculous, but it actually works very well. Everyone plays baseball, poker, and chess, but in the end, it’s easier just to find a new meal for Galactus…

Verdict: Thumbs up. Very funny stuff here, including Captain America’s not-so-inspiring speech, Galactus swinging a baseball bat, and just about every joke Spider-Man makes. Spidey even gets a rare display of intellect here, as he deduces the real function of the Nullifier. Lots and lots of fun here — I’m really glad Jeff Parker is back writing this comic.

Here’s a stack of links I’ve been saving up for you guys.

* Whatever happened to the kids from “Peanuts” after the comic strip stopped? Depends who you ask. I’ve always loved Peter Gillis’ version of their future. This one is probably a bit less likely, but anything that has a futuristic cybernetically-enhanced Charlie Brown killing off the soldiers from Beetle Bailey’s Camp Swampy is probably worth reading.

* The “Project: Rooftop” blog periodically gets artists to create a new look for famous comic characters — their latest project is a redesign of the Man of Steel…

* PETA, of all people, has picked out a list of the top animal-friendly superheroes.

* Maxo ponders whether the weakening economy will affect comics sales.

* Aaron Williams, creator of “PS238” and “Nodwick,” has a blog crammed with cool stuff? Muy excellente!

* Snell is not at all impressed with DC’s fairly weak attempts to catch up with Marvel’s work on digital comics.

* A short fan film about Power Girl trying to get a normal job. It’s pretty amazing how well the actress playing Power Girl embodies the character — I mean, sure, she looks good in the costume, but she really gets her personality perfectly.

 

The Goon #26

Bill and Charlie Mudd, a couple of dimwitted bog-lurks who are on the Goon’s side of the battle, are unexpectedly ambushed by Labrazio and the Zombie Master’s forces. Realizing that the Mudd Brothers couldn’t have been attacked unless someone was informing on the good guys, the Goon recruits the local orphans to infiltrate Madame Elsa’s burlesque parlor and see who’s been talking to Labrazio. The kids sneak in disguised as “a grown man with a mustache,” and proceed to clumsily hit on waitresses and demand brewskis… because isn’t that what grown men with mustaches do in burlesque houses? Anyway, they find out who the traitor is, and the Goon later tortures the poor stooge to death.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Things are still really, really grim and depressing, but there are still some great moments for humor, thanks to the kids and their awful disguise.

 

B.P.R.D.: The Warning #1

While Abe Sapien and a group of B.P.R.D. agents camp in the snow looking for the missing Ben Daimo, Liz Sherman, Kate Corrigan, Johann Kraus, and Panya the reanimated mummy conduct a seance to contact the spirit of Lobster Johnson. They’re rewarded with an eerie shower of Lobster’s calling cards and a mysterious name spelled out on a wall — a name that Panya is familiar with from the 19th century. It turns out that he’s the snake-festooned mystic who’s been haunting Liz’s dreams, so Panya goes on a telepathic quest to track him down.

Verdict: Thumbs up. It’s been a while since we saw a B.P.R.D. comic that was so completely dedicated to horror and creepy imagery — the pages with the downpour of Lobster cards alone are worth the price of the comic.

 

“The Dark Knight” is making pretty darn good money so far this weekend. Was there ever any doubt that it would make scads of cash?

Quick review: I liked it. Heath Ledger’s Joker is a revelation. Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey Dent and Two-Face is also just grand. Two-Face was always my favorite Bat-villain, so as long as he was better than Tommy Lee Jones, I woulda been happy. The movie sure was long, though.

Pre-movie trailers: “The Spirit” looks like complete festering monkey-poop. I don’t care who’s in it — it just looks awful. And it could’ve been awesome, if only someone would’ve surgically downsized Frank Miller’s impossibly gargantuan ego first.

But the trailer for “Watchmen”? That one looked fiiiiine.

I mentioned “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” earlier this week, but this is a good time to remind everyone about it, because the third and final episode is now online. Go watch it right now!

I just got done watching the entire thing, and it really was much better and deeper than I was expecting it to be. I thought it’d be a nice little distraction, lots of jokes, several nice songs… but I was repeatedly surprised by how great it all was. The music is really, really fun, and very catchy and singable — I’m sure a soundtrack is forthcoming, and it’ll probably be worth spending some cash on.

And it’s a lot more dramatic and exciting than I was expecting — by the end of the second episode, I hated Captain Hammer, just like Dr. Horrible, and was really looking forward to Dr. Horrible’s inevitable triumph over goodness and justice. Of course, dreams never come true the way you planned, and the bad doctor’s victory ends up being pretty depressing for everyone involved. Definitely not your typical musical…

So go watch it right now. And you’d better hurry — they’re taking it offline at the end of the day!

 

Captain America #40

It’s the new Captain America — Bucky Barnes — vs. another new Captain America — in this case, a resurrected and brainwashed replacement Cap from the 1950s. But it’s nowhere near a fair fight — the replacement Cap may think he’s the original Steve Rogers, but he’s a lot stronger and faster than Steve ever was. The fake Cap thinks the Bucky Cap is an assassin who killed Bucky in the ’40s, but when he learns that Bucky’s still alive, will his conditioning break? Meanwhile, Sharon Carter is fighting for her life against the Red Skull’s daughter, Sin.

Verdict: Thumbs up, but for once, I wasn’t overly impressed with what I was reading. Personally, I’m thinking this storyline has gone on for a really, really long time, and I’d like a bit of resolution sometime…

 

Wonder Woman #22

Trapped in a fantasy world, and fighting alongside Beowulf, Claw, and the Stalker, Wonder Woman is rapidly losing her soul, thanks to Stalker’s bizarre magic. Their only hope is to defeat the powerful demon D’Grth, who is assisted by Grendel itself. But someone is fated to betray them all… and what will happen when D’Grth makes his way to our world? Elsewhere, Agent Tessier has stumbled onto Diana Prince’s houseguests — a friendly band of albino gorillas from Gorilla City — and of course, a big fight breaks out, leading to Diana’s apartment getting completely wrecked…

Verdict: Thumbs up, but this is another one that I’d like to get finished up soon, preferably with some explanations that actually make sense.

 

Young X-Men #4

Ink is having a change of heart after betraying Blindfold to mutant-hating cyborg Donald Pierce — he goes out and gets new tattoos (one designed to give him telepathy) and prepares to help Wolf Cub and Rockslide take out the last members of the new Hellfire Club, Cannonball and Sunspot, formerly of the New Mutants. But Cannonball and Sunspot seem to be under the impression that the kids are the villains here — what’s going on? And Greymalkin, a mutant who’s previously not been seen much here, makes a surprise attack on Cyclops — or rather, on the guy who’s been pretending to be Cyclops. No, he’s not a Skrull — he may be even worse…

Verdict: Thumbs up. I was actually a bit more impressed with this issue than I’d been with the previous ones, and the big reveal on the fake Cyclops was pretty good, too.

Please be warned: Crazy people who really need to get a proper hobby have decreed that the Black Canary version of Barbie is “filth.”

“Barbie has always been on the tarty side and this is taking it too far,” the Christian Voice is quoted as saying by the tabloid The Sun. “A children’s doll in sexually suggestive clothing is irresponsible — it’s filth.”

In true tabloid fashion, The Sun’s headline reads, “S&M Barbie is lashed by the public.”

I think the following points should be noted:

1. Black Canary actually wears more clothing than Wonder Woman, which I guess means these people think Wondy is a filthy tramp.

2. Black Canary has worn the same general costume as the doll wears since her first appearance in the comics back in 1947.

3. Black Canary actually wears more clothing than the original Barbie back in 1959, which I guess means these people think the original Barbie was also a filthy tramp.

4. Depressingly, these people probably really do think Wonder Woman and Barbie are filthy tramps.

Heck, these are folks who think arctic-weight winter parkas are insufficiently modest, and who will say so, repeatedly and loudly, every time someone points a TV camera at them…

The “Christian Voice” should spend more time working to feed the hungry, nurture the sick, and comfort the afflicted, and a heck of a lot less time moralizing pointlessly about superhero costumes.