Comic-book Catch up #4

Featuring Ms Marvel #3, Tomb Raider #3, Lazarus #8

Ms Marvel #3

Kamala Khan is experiencing the backlash from sneaking out. Her parents are upset, she’s still upset with Bruno. Bruno has his own mayhem happening, his brother asks him to steal from his register at the convenience store. Zoe is getting all the attention for getting saved while Kamala tries to get a grip on her powers and ends up in hiding even though she’s the hero in this story. She’s worrying she’s outgrowing her life “like a pair of pants that no longer fit” and in the next moment she’s confronting both teenage drama and an armed robber head on. G Willow Wilson writes teenage well, and she provides insight to the way that Kamala’s culture separates her from others in Jersey City, but also how it bonds her with her friends. She questions authority but is realistically insecure and charming. 

Tomb Raider #3

We’re treated to a bit more backstory on the hard hitting Reyes. In Dublin, her daughter is in imminent danger from the Solarii cult. They want the artifact Lara stole. Only, she still doesn’t remember it. She tries to lie, but the cult members don’t buy it. Suddenly, someone takes aim and shoots the gangsters and Lara breaks a glass over someone’s head. Meanwhile, Sam is in trouble. Lara and Reyes make a break for it, with the men in hot pursuit, Reyes and her daughter split from Lara (I love when characters don’t all orbit the main protagonist, btw. So Reyes calling Lara out on being the cause of this, on being bad luck. Worthwhile). Lara clubs a goon with the a busker’s guitar and grabs his gun. Reyes’ daughter says she was too mean to Lara. Lara finds out that Sam has been taken and throws down, but one goon sneaks up on her- she averts disaster but causing a soccer riot. But the goons just keep coming. Luckily, Reyes shows her daughter what it means to be loyal and double backs for Lara, with a “Don’t thank me, it was Miss Manners here.” And Lara declares they’ll go back to Yamatai to stop this and save Sam.

Sam Nishimura has the best answering machine message of all time. “I’m either off shooting an award winning documentary or passed out drunk. You know what to do.”

Lazarus #8

The first 5 were amazing, a new series with so much promise. One with a female lead (and still more females with their own agendas) that creates a world that is bleak, violent and corporate. One of all out class warfare. How could I not be in love? But the momentum has slowed, flashbacks to Forever’s childhood bog down the series instead of advance it. Currently, Forever is looking for and IED while the Barretts are looking to go get jobs with the Carlyles, they’re headed for Denver. Them and everyone else. Like pioneers travelling to a new frontier, to their last ditch effort: the road is hard. Worse when Forever finds that Denver is the target of this attack. But her father refuses to cancel the lift. Forever is in a race to stop the plot in the final pages. but it won’t be resolved til next month. 

Lazarus #7

Lazarus has consistently been one of my favorite series. I love dystopians. I love female leads. i love the “what ifs” of impossibly stratified classes and corporate wealth that elevates families into royalty… and dumps everyone else into poverty so extreme that there’s no escape. It’s impressive… and yeah, it’s depressing. 

The review for last issue is here.

So I’m a huge fan and we’re getting into some meat now. The Barrets, an impoverished Midwestern family who recently lost everything in a flood is travelling to Denver for “the Lift” they are hoping to get jobs working for the Carlyles …but so are alot of people, so many that they clog up the highway as they make their way on horseback. They are attacked in the night and their daughter, Leigh, is killed and the father is shot.  

Forever is interrogating the woman who ‘distracted’ the guards so that her friends could steal materials to make a bomb. She doesn’t care about threats of prison or torture. But Johanna offers her something different.. a better life. A make over, higher social status, acting classes, a job. Is it an offer to good to refuse?

We also get another glimpse into Forever’s training with Marisol. I think Forever kills her. It’s so heavy. Greg Rucka is stopping my heart with this one. Next issue Forever will be at “the Lift” and since she’s becoming more aware of the atrocities both inside and outside of her family I expect her to get into a lot of trouble. But her training tells her that if her family needs someone dead… she must abide. Will she sympathize with the “waste” or will she stay true to the Carlyles? 

The faux advertisement for Morray cellular service on the back page is a nice touch. Corporate empires = global take over. It’s terrifying and awesome. 

Nerd News-day Tuesday

Comics Alliance featured an essay about IDW’s “sexualized” PowerPuff Girls #6 variant cover that got pulled in the dust up. It pretty much summed up my feelings on the matter, but NBD if it outraged you. There’s a lot to be mad at about out here. What you can’t be mad about is Eric Stephenson an Image comics publisher throws down for the ladies and tells writers and retailers alike that women WANT comics, be inclusive and they will come.

Of course, dumb-dumbs everywhere think that female supes can’t handle a movie of their own. But, well, tough shit. Black Widow’s getting her own movie. Slated for sometime after summer 2015, it appears Black Widow will get a movie before the illustrious Wonder Woman (because Marvel > DC, just saying). Although the new Black Widow comic book series didn’t thrill me, I think if they did this with a little more 007 flair, I could really get into it. And, come on admit it, the first Captain America movie was sub par and everyone is seeing this one because Marvel cinematic universe is a steam roller at this point +special effects +ScarJo is there. A Black Widow movie would do just fine. (PS Scarlett Johansson is expecting her first child, congrats!) But a recent essay on Storm over at KissMyWonderWoman  about Storm made me think about how rad it would be to have a X-Men movie that followed Ororo and Yuriko. They became fast friends under Claremont’s pen, and it would make sense since Yuriko followed Wolverine to the US after The Wolverine. I’m just saying: you should make that. Come on 20th Century Fox.

We get details about Terminator: Genesis (2015), which will revisit big moments from the first 2 movies. So it’s not remake, but an in continuity retcon. I think. According to MovieHole:

“Firstly, we will indeed be revisiting the events of the original 1984 film again. The ‘Terminator’ from the future will arrive on earth, attack some punks (keen to see who they get to play ‘Bill Paxton’), and then slaughter his way through a bunch of Sarah Connors’ – until he finds the correct target. And all the characters that appeared in the Cameron original, like Detective Hal Vukovich (played by Lance Henriksen in the original), Lieutenant Ed Traxler (played by Paul Winfield way back when), Sarah’s roomie Ginger (Bess Motta in the ’84 film) and, yep, even Pugsley the Iguana, return. So, yep, we’ll likely get to see Schwarzenegger back in the leather jacket and cool sunglasses he wore in the original. And, of course, Kyle Reese (Courtney) volunteers to go back to 1984 and save Sarah – just as he did first time around. But don’t expect everything to work out like it did in the original.. something is going to play out different.”

How (or ‘if’) they’re going to explain the THREE decades older Schwarzenegger, reprising his 1984 role, I don’t know. Which of course makes Hugh Jackman’s recent comments about his days as Wolverine being numbered slightly ironic. Days of Future Past will be his 7th time as the adamantium boned hero since 2000’s X-Men. Jackman recently told IGN “Look, that’s inevitable, man. Anyone who thinks they’re indispensable in this business is fooling themselves.”

And it all comes back to Marvel heroes again: Pumped for Agents of SHIELD’s return tonight? Bill Paxton drops in for tonight’s episode. Check out Comic Book Resources interview with Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tanchareon where they discuss May and Ward’s relationship, epic guest stars and tiny hints about what’s in the works. Still not OFFICIALLY renewed, though.

Photos from Sin City 2: A Dame to Kill For emerge, the older -and blonder Jessica Alba is smoking hot as usual. ❤ ❤ Jessica Alba.

Comicbook Catch-up Extravaganza! Numero Dos!

Featuring Army of Darkness vs. Hack/Slash #5, Lazarus #6, Ms. Marvel #1

Army of Darkness vs Hack/Slash #5

I’ve really enjoyed this series. Despite the chronic late release of the issues it really maintained momentum for me because I loved LOVED seeing Ash and Cassie play off of eachother. The 2 badasses breaking heads with their unconventional weapons, enemies and friends from each series. Fun. Good. This one flew in the frigging face of all of that. The end of last issue featured their hook-up. Cassie’s in a committed relationship with Margaret- so one of two things spring to mind for me: 1) she’s trying to confuse Ash or 2) the writer is a shallow idiot who thinks bisexuals are all sluts. Either way she’s deceitful. 

The duo get to Ancient Greece, turns out Britt the cult leader went back in time and met with Akakios who was an alchemist and “created the principals that the cult followed” and icing on the cherry hate cake? He killed Cassie’s old partner Vlad. They throw a wild party in Ancient Greece to attract Akakios and his cult and deadites and they burn ’em to a crisp. Cassie goes berserker and beelines for Akakios himself, “Changing the past is bad” Ash says, Cassie KO’s him and he knows he’s been played. But not only did she play Ash…she played Margaret. To “Bring back the only thing she ever loved. Vlad.” 

WHAT THEE FUCK?

Thankfully, issue 6 is the last. Because fuck all that shit. Ash and Cassie are now enemies at odds for possession of the Necronomicon.

Ms. Marvel #1

Kamala Khan, teenage supe, writer of Avengers fanfic, shapeshifter and Muslim. Her family is varying degrees of assimilating and she just wants to be a “regular teen” like her classmates and go to parties. So she sneaks out to a party with boys and booze on the waterfront. Her BFF Bruno tries to get her out of there, and she’s all “MYOB” and storms off.. then a crazy for starts to permeate the area. Kamala Khan gets KO’d and has a drugged out dream about the Avengers, and her homegirl, Captain Marvel. And she wishes, “I want to be beautiful and awesome and butt kicking and less complicated. I want to be you.” And Carol Danvers says, “All right, kid. As fate would have it, you’re about to get the kind of total reboot most people only dream about.”

Epic debut. Kudos to G. Willow Wilson for calling out concern trolls and stereotypes. So pumped to find out what’s up with the fog, or what’s up with Captain Marvel being her fairy godmother. I repurposed that photo from Jeremy Roberts’s deviantart. http://jprart.deviantart.com/art/All-New-Ms-Marvel-412376037

Lazarus #6

Flashback again, to mini-Forever doing pushups on her thumbs and conjugating Latin verbs, she’s taking her training with Marisol too far.

In the present she wakes up to an alarm, takes her regimen and then she receives the text again. “He is not your father, this is not your family.” Joanna is still sporting a black eye and playing innocent. Flash to Montana, we see the family whose home was destroyed. The cost to rebuild will have them taxed out for the foreseeable future. Back in LA, a woman propositions the guards in exchange for food and others break in and set up a device to hack the keypad. They steal canisters of acetylene. Forever catches them in the act, but she directs her wrath at the guards taking advantage of a hungry woman. Forever asks her where the others have taken the canisters. And the Barrets leave Montana for Denver in hopes that their children can work for the Carlyles. Will this play an integral role? Will they start an uprising? Will Forever discover what’s really happening outside of her family? So many questions. 

Rucka has built this insane world. It’s bleak, it’s dark… and sadly, it’s very very real. Carlyles have infinite wealth and resources and meanwhile we see families giving up all they’ve got, their time, their dignity, their land, their children, they sell themselves out. It’s very blood and guts, but no major revelations this issue.

Lazarus #3

Forever Carlyle is in Magdalena, Mexico after being “taken” by the Morray family.

This happens:

Yeah, Forever is such a bad ass that it gives me indescribable joy.

She hands over her gun without much ado, but when pressured to give up her blade… uhhh… she teaches them the meaning of “dis-arm.”

The Morray’s Lazarus, Joacquim, and Forever look pretty tight.

Back in California, Jonah is arguing with Forever’s doctor to tell him where Forever is. He won’t. But he is giving hourly updates to her father.

Forever and Joacquim are bonding over being the only Lazarus’ they know and all the weird implants and engineering they’ve had done by their families. They had been ordered to kill each other, and in quite Shakespearian fashion, they are totally sweet on each other.

Jo and Jonah are upset that Forever is talking peace with the Morrays when they want war. Jo decides that they will kill Forever and frame the Morrays and that will be war.

But she’s the Lazarus, she can’t be killed.

Some revelations are made before the Morrays and Forever, representing the Carlyles come to a trade agreement. Joacquim escorts Forever back and they start to get a little close, a tender moment for our tough guys …before the earth beneath them goes KABOOM!

Forever Carlyle… the Lazarus, ultimate weapon with no ability not to obey her family, a tool created… who has a crush. What will become of Joacquim? Will Forever get free-will (in so much as free will can exist)? What’s Jonah’s angle?

The most bad ass opening possible, and some insight into Forever’s character, what life is like for the ultimate weapon.

http://familycarlyle.tumblr.com/

Greg Rucka continues to be my extra-favorite with his responses to fan letters …”We’ve found the variety of responses to Forever’s design to be… interesting. To those who have a problem with her strength, size and relatively modest bust (in comic art-style terms, at least)… get over yourselves.”

Chew Vol. #6

Chew came recommended by Kiss My Wonder Woman who has an awesome blog that you should look at when you’re done looking at mine. Anyway, I had to start with volume 6… well, no that’s not true. They had other volumes that weren’t volume 1. But this one was called “Space Cakes” and I’m having a dystopian-future-outer-space thing happening over here right now. 

CHEW: Volume 6: Space Cakes

While Tony Chu – the cibopathic federal agent with the ability to get psychic impressions from what he eats – clings to life in a hospital ICU, his twin sister Toni steps up to take center stage. Toni is cibovoyant, able to see the future of anything she eats, and, lately, she’s seeing some pretty terrible things.

 

I don’t even know how to review anything as weird as this. It was really enjoyable. Dear God was it original. And hilarious. 

So this was my first time ever reading CHEW and Toni is not usually the main character, her ability is also a bit different than her brother’s. If you also have no idea what’s going on here, she goes around biting people to see their future and has been known to lick psychotropic frogs, she’s a riot at parties and a NASA special agent.

A meeting with an old friend has her hunting down a gangster that runs an illegal chicken restaurant speakeasy that’s serving up psychotropic chicken/frogs or chogs or fricken, whichever you prefer. Oh yeah, no one can eat bird meats because of bird flu.

 

Then somehow NASA agents team up with the FDA and USDA to find a vampire via a victuspeciosian (a beautician who can transform people temporarily using food products). There’s another chicken involved here also, a deadly bionic rooster that is a USDA agent.

I can’t really make this make sense so I’ll just say:

 

You should check out CHEW

(Volume 6 collects issues #26-30, plus the blockbuster spin-off one-shot that stole America’s heart, Chew: Secret Agent Poyo)

Check out the comic so you can get excited that this thing is going to maybe possibly be a TV show!