REVIEW: Superior Spider-Man #22-25: "Darkest Hours"

Writers: Dan Slott & Christos Gage

Pencils: Humberto Ramos

Inks: Victor Olazaba

Color: Edgar Delgado

Letters: Chris Eliopoulos

Review: Art Bee

The time has come to start looking back at some more recent back issues and, at this time, we are delving into part of the climactic Superior Spider-Man series that ended. Though I have never been as strong a Spidey fan as Madman (or for as long), my appreciation for the web-slinger has always been a part of me. Most of our culture is familiar (but often misquoted) with the mantra of,  “…with great power there must also come – great responsibility!” 

The feature of Doc Ock as Peter Parker/Spider-Man really tickled my antihero pleasure center and I had to jump on this series. 

From the start, we find Spider-Man’s mantra is so powerful that the memory has the potential to steer the will of Otto Octavious to a life of good…albeit skewed to that thin line between good and evil. 

Throughout the series we find Doc Ock modifying Peter’s life to suit himself, such as getting his doctorate and setting up a lab and army of minions. Many people start noticing changes in Peter Parker.

REVIEW: Fantastic Four #251

Story & Art: John Byrne

Lettering: Jim Novak

Coloring: Glynis Wein

Review: Will Dubbeld

Although I’ve an endearing love and respect for the Fantastic Four, I’m not very well-read on most of their publications.  The only back issues of any age in my collection growing up were the "Trial of Reed Richards" and the issue where they return from Secret Wars Battleworld with She-Hulk instead of Thing.

Other than that, I had the annual from The Korvac Quest and didn’t buy any FF until Dr. Doom flayed his girlfriend and turned her skin into hell-armor.

Which was pretty rad...

I’m sure I owned a few more scattered issues here and there, but horrible 1990s imagery and writing were effective deterrents against further purchases.

Sue’s boob-window uniform, for example, and Thing wearing a bucket on his head.

Just dumb.

REVIEW: The House of Secrets #127

Credits: See below
Review: Art Bee

Horror has been a genre close to my heart since I was about 11–years old and watched the original Amityville Horror. Though I don’t get terrorized by such things anymore, my appreciation of the feeling is still well into the high side of, “loving it.” When I was older my fascination for “witty horror” (my own label) skyrocketed with the HBO series, Tales from the Crypt.

For those not familiar, these types of stories have a short plot followed by a witty punchline from the narrator.

What’s funny is talking about it makes it sound a little dumb, but assuredly it is not.

DC’s The House of Secrets #127 has three such short stories in it. Each has a tragic end for the main character of the story worthy of each, as they all have less than desirable personality traits.
Enough jabbering! On with the…review.

REVIEW: Dazzler #1

Writer: Tom DeFalco

Penciler: John Romita, Jr.

Inker: Alfredo Alcala

Colorist: Glynis Wein

Letterer: Joe Rosen

Dazzler seems to be a pretty divisive character in that folks are either dedicated fans or think she’s dumb as hell.

Granted, the disco angle doesn’t do her any favors...

In any case, I find myself a member of the Dazzler fan club for two reasons:

Australia and Marvel Action Universe.

My first solid introduction to the X-Men was, to my recollection, the Outback era featuring a team of presumed-dead outlaw Muties. Wolverine, Storm, Rogue, Havok, and a few others maintained a secret Australian base and traveled via teleporting Aborigine.

It was pretty amazing, and Dazzler counted herself amongst those scrappy survivors.

Marvel Action Universe, on the other hand, was a Saturday morning programming block featuring oddball cartoons like Dino-Riders and RoboCop.

Of all goddamn things, yes, there was a kid-friendly animated adaptation of one of the most violent R-rated flicks out there.

One day, one beautiful day, there was an honest-to-god X-Men cartoon on the Marvel Action Universe.

Pryde of the X-Men.

REVIEW: The Tenth #1

Creator & Artist: Tony Daniel

Developer & Writer: Beau Smith

Inker: Kevin Conrad

Colors: Paul Mounts & Bongotone

Cover: Tony Daniel & Marlo Alquiza

Review: Art Bee

Please forgive us at The HCB; we have all had life issues that seemed to coincide and the best option was to take a bit of a vacation from writing reviews. Thank you all for your patience! You are all Rock Stars and we love ya!

Trying to figure out what to review from my boxes of comics was a bit hard, but The Tenth #1 jumped out at me. Thinking I had already reviewed it or another of the series, I searched the sites and found that I hadn’t. I then began kicking myself in the ass for not doing so before now. This series has a special place in my heart and I wish more had been done with the storyline and/or characters.

Warning! I will be spoiling this issue but the way the comic is done it won’t change your enjoyment. I have read this several times and each time the issue excites me.

Besides, some of the sweet details I will leave for you to discover.

The issue opens up with the escape of The Tenth from a secret facility of Darkklon Corp., which is owned, run, and founded by a creepy man, Rhazes Darkk.

The Tenth is the tenth experimental creature created by Darkk in efforts to transform the world into his twisted, unrealized utopia.

REVIEW: The Darkness #1/2

Credits: see below...

Review: Will Dubbeld

I was all in for the Image first wave, or at least most of it. It’s difficult to articulate how big a deal the schism, the coup, was when McFarlane and co. broke ranks with Marvel. These were the artists helming Spider-Man, the X-Men...

JIM LEE, FOR CHRISSAKES!!!

Needless to say, I eagerly swallowed my dosage of Spawn, Youngblood, Savage Dragon, and  WildC.A.T.s.

For one or two issues.

I rapidly discovered the talent behind the Image founders lay not in the writing as much as the art.

By a landslide.

With a heavy heart I largely abandoned Image due to some frankly bad plotting and scripts as many were flagship representations of what I grew to despise about ‘90s comicdom.

I’ve softened my stance a bit since then and will pick up the odd run of classic (“classic...”) Image books when the spirit moves.

Which brings us to The Darkness...

My main man and fellow HCB alum, Art Bee, is quite the Darkness aficionado and his enthusiasm prompted me to largely clean out the dollar box at my LCS of said title. Hopefully, I thought, there’s some gems to be gleaned from the stack of back issues. I’ve largely been a fan of Silvestri in the past so I optimistically dove in, starting with The Darkness 1/2.

REVIEW: Lilith Dark #1 – 4

By Charles C. Dowd

Review by Art Bee

Alterna Comics is a comic book company that has been blossoming in the pleasure center of my brain for a little while. The comic book Doppleganger first introduced me to this company and they seem to have a sinister strategy:  sell high quality stories on newspaper printed comic books and sell them at a buck fifty. To me that is a winning plan, and I am greatly appreciative of it.

Through this company, Dowd has presented us with a cute story about a girl, Lilith Dark, who has a very vivid imagination. Lilith entitles herself as Defender of the Innocent, Slayer of Beasties and is accompanied by her friend Dinozillus, a stuffed T-rex.

This character has been easy to like for her heart is akin to my own. She states it plainly:  her priorities are, “toys, candy, comic books, swords, and cupcake Tuesdays.”
Who can argue with those?

The story starts out with Lilith missing the bus to school while chasing a kitten into an underground labyrinth beneath a hollow, dead tree. There the real adventure begins.

In the second issue, Lilith’s two siblings, Becky and Dewey, end up following her into the dark maze as well. These two characters add much to the story as they are designed to enhance Lilith and her story. It was comical to see Becky stand before her own clothes closet, which is massive and filled to bulging, and claim she has absolutely nothing to wear.

What I like about this story the most is how it flows well from beginning to end. The pace does not waver much at all, and this is also something I don’t like about it. It’s nice to have a varying plot pace to keep things interesting.

The Lilith Dark mini-series uses clear plot points in addition to precise artwork to tell the story, which clearly makes this readable and enjoyable for all ages about 7 up (depending on reading ability). It is clear this comic line is aimed at a younger audience but, being 40 years old, it has been rather enjoyable for me to read. This just shows the quality of the writing and the expertise of the wordsmith.

My feeling about Lilith’s age is she’s about six or seven based on clues in the story, since I didn’t see evidence of anything to the contrary. I mention this because, at various times, this felt like events were happening in Lilith’s imagination. By the end this was not revealed, and all events in the story came to resolution with each of the characters.

Dowd has created a precise, albeit simple, style of artwork in this comic series. It is my belief that he is capable of more detailed artwork due to the accuracy and perfection that are present. It looks like he deliberately kept his work simple to appeal to a younger audience. In retrospect, if you are aiming at simple, make that work perfect. Dowd does just that.

I ordered all four of these issues directly from Alterna Comics for $6 plus shipping, which is a good price for four issues. Also there are package deals on the site for additional savings.

Their link is included in this review. Check them out and see what you may like. Their stories have a varied genre, so there is something for everyone. Lilith Dark was a refreshing read for me. Lately I have been a little burnt out on reading comic books, and this story was well timed to reset my interest. This was due mostly to the story’s D&D-dungeon feel.
Thanks Mr. Dowd and Alterna.