Review - Supergirl Being Super #1

Supergirl: Being Super #1 - 

DC Comics

 

Written by Mariko Tamaki

Pencils by Joëlle Jones

Inks by Sandu Florea

Colors by Kelly Fitzpatrick

Letters by Saida Temofonte

 

There have been many versions of Supergirl across all of media. We've had the unsure, the naive, the angry, the girl and the woman.  How to define Supergirl is a debate that still rages on, but everyone agrees on one thing:  She is a strong woman who deserves a spotlight.  Fans enjoy the CW TV series like how grounded Kara is.  DC Comics turns back the clock a bit and changes a few things in a new comic series, Supergirl: Being Super, with a nearly all-female creative team. 

 

We start off with a high school aged Kara who seems to be leading the life of a normal teenager.  The story is also narrated by Kara, so we get a bit of internal monologue as well.  There is a change to her origin story, which I won't spoil here, but I will say it is not all that unfamiliar.  We get to find out a lot about Kara's life, her friends and something heartbreaking that she is struggling with.  For the longest time you'll read this book and be surprised about how...for the lack of a better word...normal, it really is.  An abnormal teenage girl with a secret, struggling with everyday problems.  Then, on her "birthday", something starts happening to Kara.  That's when everything starts to take a very odd turn.  Normal becomes next level very fast, and there in lies the cliffhanger of this first issue.

 

I did not want to spoil any of this super sized first issue, so it was necessary to be short on details.  I will say that I got lost in the story that Tamaki created.  We were all teenagers once, and even as a guy, I felt like she was trying to show the readers what the life of a teenage girls is like.  Normally in these situations, you keep waiting for something to happen.  This time, I didn't feel that at all.  Tamaki was telling a deeply personal story of Kara Danvers, and it was captivating.  Combine that with the gorgeous art by Jones and it just all felt right.  When the inevitable happens in any superhero story, and things go sideways,  you deeply care about what is happening to each of the characters you have been introduced to.  I know that Supergirl has already had her Rebirth, but I feel like this is the story I was looking for all along.  The only thing that upsets me about this book, is the fact that it is a limited series.  Supergirl fans, Kara Danvers fans, need more of this.

 

RATING:  PULL / BUY 

Review - Divinity III: Stalinverse #1

 

Divinity III: Stalinverse #1 - 

Valiant Comics

 

Written by Matt Kindt

Pencils by Trevor Hairsine

Inks by Ryan Winn

Colors by David Baron

Letters by Dave Lanphear

Cover by Jelena Kevic-Djurdjevic

 

Divinity has always been a solid story for Valiant, but often seems overlooked (in my opinion.)  Valiant has their main characters, and we love them, but from the start of the Divinity series you could make an argument that it was in the Top 3 of anything Valiant is putting out.  After gaining some press in Divinity II with the inclusion of Vladimir Putin, this unconventional sci-fi space epic is about to take a different turn of sorts.  Welcome to the Stalinverse, and the start of Divinity III.

 

Right when you open this book, you get a great timeline of what has happened in the Stalinverse up to this point, highlighted by key events on different years.  That allows you to jump right into the story without needing to have any filler.  I will warn about this MINOR SPOILER, just in case this isn't clear by the cover.  You WILL see some of the Valiant characters that you know, but definitely not the way you've seen them in the past.  Their presence is quite clear, and sets the tone for just how bleak things really are at this point in time in the world.  The first issue centers around Colin King (you know that name too), who is tasked with the security of the world and making sure that allies are staying loyal to the Union.  We find out a lot about those loyalists, but we also find out more about Colin than expected.  His role seems quite clear, and then suddenly, things take a fairly big turn. Maybe it will surprise you, and maybe it won't, given who we are talking about.  There is another player in this story that King pays a visit to towards the end, that may be the key to what happens next.  I will not reveal who that is, but if you've read Divinity or Divinity II, you will know exactly who it is.  It's where they are and what they say to close out the first issue that proves troubling.

 

I love Matt Kindt's work, but there's just something about the teaming of him and Valiant that I feel brings out the best in him.  The way he balances all the different personalities in this book, and the raw emotion of the state of the world, really keeps you drawn in for this entire first issue.  Surprises can often be used as a crutch to hide sub-par story telling, but not in this book.  Kindt weaves them in as critical moments at critical times in a way that really give them maximum value.  Then you add the team of Hairsine and Winn, who really take the mood that Kindt has set and run with it.  There's a particular page where there is a test of loyalty, and the way it is presented is both tragic and incredible.  Stepping outside of their comfort zone in this third arc, Divinity is a winner once again.  I can't wait to see how the players interact and how this world continues to change in future issues.

 

RATING:  PULL / BUY 

Review - Optimus Prime #1

Optimus Prime #1 - 

IDW Publishing

Written by John Barber

Art by Kei Zama

Colors by Josh Burcham

Letters by Tom B. Long

If I asked you to name a Transformer right now, which one pops in to your head.  Whether he's your favorite Transformer or not, Optimus Prime is probably the first image you see.  Even someone who is barely familiar with the Transformers has at least a passing familiarity with him.  Any diehard Transformers fan (like myself), we have been through a lot with Optimus over the years, haven't we?  Well, now that Revolution has passed and the Hasbro worlds have officially combined, the leader of the Autobots finally has his own ongoing series.  So let's roll out for Optimus Prime #1.

This story takes place in two different time periods:  today and four millions years ago.  The flashbacks, for lack of a better term, set the tone for Optimus himself and the ideals that he brought to the present day.  At the same time, some things never change.  Trying to deal with and find a cohesive relationship with humans is still challenging.  Something happens at the beginning of the issue, in present day, that makes things even more complicated in post-Revolution Earth.  If those two things weren't enough, something else seems to be coming to cause a whole other set of problems.  Optimus has a team by his side, with some familiar faces, but all seem to agree that they will follow him in whatever he decides.  It's the weight of that burden that is really hammered home in this issue, and just how long Optimus has really been dealing with that.  Sure we have a cliffhanger ending in this first issue, but there is so much going on in a whole other sense, that there is so much to look forward to in the next issue.

Speaking for myself, and I'm sure others would agree, John Barber did a fantastic job with Revolution.  I think we've gone on at length on our show and here on the website about that.  What he's done here is move that forward, but also backwards.  He's telling us a story of the life of Optimus Prime, somewhat mirrored in what is going on in our world right now.  The best way I can describe it is, it's like merging exactly what is going on with our current political climate with the exact opposite, and having this end result that leaves you wondering how the world responds to it.  The weight of Optimus Prime is so palpable in this first issue, and Barber really hammers it home in the flashbacks.  We really get to find out who Optimus Prime was and why he believes what he does today.  That can be somewhat dismissive and uninteresting in storytelling, if not done correctly.  Here it is a compelling and necessary part of the ultimate main protagonist. If that isn't enough, the art by Zama completely sends me to the time of the Transformers that I love.  It has an 80s quality to it that is clean and so amazing.  It also almost feels like a found footage time capsule moment, where you're watching it through a video camera you found buried by time.  Transformers as a whole is a bigger brand than Optimus Prime.  Given time, though, I think this has a real shot to be right at the top of the greatest stories of Optimus Prime that has ever been told.

RATING:  PULL / BUY 

Review - Shadows On the Grave #1

Shadows On The Grave #1 - 

Dark Horse Comics

 

Written by Richard Corben

Art by Richard Corben

 

Nostalgia is not hard to come by these days in most genres.  Want a World War II epic?  There seems to be a  new one at your finger tips at least one a year.  The list goes on and on, except when it comes to the horror genre.  The Tales From the Crypt revival is coming to TV, but what about in the comics world?  Dark Horse takes aim at just that kind of vibe in this new series, Shadows On The Grave by former Eisner Award winner, Richard Corben.

 

The first thing that caught my attention was the narration (you actually get introduced to both narrators in the beginning of the book), and the fact that we are getting FOUR mini-stories.  The first is about a strange puppet master, the next about a vacation gone wrong, another about a combative married couple and finally a story about an ancient land of kings.  Each story is unique and creepy in it's own way, with a few of them leaving you feeling very uneasy throughout.  It's actually a compliment for me to say that there are a couple of specific things in these stories that I really hope I forget before I fall asleep tonight.  The last story looks like it may actually be continued, so I will be very interested to see how the second issue is structured.

 

To me, this issue seems very much like an old school horror feature you'd find at an old cinema.  Pay for your ticket, get several shows and creep yourself our for a few hours.  Whether you're a fan of a Tales From the Crypt style, something like Twilight Zone or even an old radio horror drama, this book seems to have it all.  There is also a very specific detail about the art that I won't spoil, only because I'm curious how other readers will react to it.  As for the art, even though Corben draws the whole book himself, he gives each story it's own unique style of art to go with the setting.  Every detail has been crafted out here by Corben, and it shows you why he is a past Eisner winner.  Without a major focus on gore and guts, this book is the kind of horror that is just missing in the genre right now.  I hope this keeps up the trend that the first issue has started.

 

RATING:  PULL / BUY 

Review - M.A.S.K. #1

M.A.S.K. #1 -
IDW Publishing
Written by Brandon Easton
Art by Tony Vargas
Colors by Jordi Escuin
Letters by Gilberto Lazcano

When IDW brought the Hasbro universe together in Revolution, even though my expectations were high, even I didn't think it would be as much of a success as it has been.  The way they flawlessly brought it all together, made everyone  matter and play off of one another, was nothing short of amazing.  Well...it's over now.  So, now what?  Now we dive in with the group who hasn't had their own book in a while, the Mobile Armored Strike Kommand.

This book definitely picks up where Revolution left off (so minor spoilers if you haven't been reading), so we know what has happened with the team and Miles Mayhem.  The team themselves also finds out that some of that misfortune is going to follow them, whether they were at fault or not.  So the first issue deals a lot with what they are going to do now and where they are going to base their operations to go after Mayhem.  One thing that really stood out in this issue to me was the team building and how everyone just felt like they were coming together as a strong unit.  A couple of the team members also bond over some similar circumstances, and even throw in a Star Wars joke.  If you're a M.A.S.K. fan like I was from the 80s, you already know what's coming, and we DO get to see a look at them.  If you're new to the story, let's just say that who you see at the end of this book sets up what is going to be a long battle of epic proportions.

I never had any doubt that Brandon Easton would be able to take the ball and run with it in the early going of this series.  The way he added depth to the team in the early going, and had them dealing with instant adversity, really made the story interesting right out of the gate.  It's not easy to follow up a major arc like Revolution, but the strength of this book shows me that this was the right choice to be the first one up.  Fico Ossio did an amazing job on art for the group in Revolution, and Tony Vargas doesn't miss a beat here either.  So if you loved Revolution, and you love the Hasbro universe, this is exactly what you were hoping for.

RATING: PULL / BUY