REVIEW: The Darkness vol. 1 #1

Story: Garth Ennis
Pencils: Marc Silvestri
Inks: Batt
Colors:  Steve Firchow
Letters: Dennis Heisler
Review: Art Bee

The shame  you only wish to see on my face is present only because I’ve realized in my time with HCB there is only one review of any Darkness title bearing my name (and at all). This will now be remedied. In December, 1996, my feet carried me into DNC Comics in Kokomo (it has long since closed down), and my eyes beheld an intoxicating title on the shelves. For me The Darkness #1 was like the first shot of heroin...purely addictive. The book had many features that grabbed my attention from the start.

This first issue kicked off a long-term intellectual property Silvestri had been sitting on for a long time. With Image well on its way to success, this issue unveiled that vision. The focal character of the series is the main attraction for me. Jackie Estacado is an enforcer for a large mafia family headed by Don Franchetti. Jackie is a cool, collected badass with little to fear. Here is one of my favorite exchanges in all of comicdom:

Bartender: “Mm. You know, this being the late twentieth century and all, taking advantage of the mentally retarded is generally frowned upon…”
Jackie: “She’s not retarded--!”
Bartender: “Jackie, I just heard you promise to get her a walk on part on the Simpsons.”   

REVIEW: Cloak and Dagger #1

Writer: Bill Mantlo
Penciller: Rick Leonardi
Inker: Terry Austin
Letterer: Ken Bruzenak
Colorist: Glynis Oliver
Review: Will Dubbeld, a.k.a. Identity Crisis

I've always thought Cloak & Dagger were under appreciated characters in the Mighty Marvel roster. Understandably, from a certain point of view. A couple of superpowered teen runaways are certainly not as dynamic as Iron Man or the X-Men, and I'm not sure the book ever found its target audience. They're great characters though. Underutilized, to say the least.

There was, however, a sweet spot in the '80s that afforded Cloak & Dagger a taste of the limelight. Whether it was capitalization on the War on Drugs movement or some other opportunistic move, the duo enjoyed a miniseries and subsequent ongoing book.
Short lived though it may have been...

The premier issue opens with the pair rescuing teen girls from...
I'm unsure how to eloquently put this...
A Times Square sex shop?
You know the type. That 1970s-80s, seedy, red light district type of establishment that fits right into Taxi Driver.
"XXX GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS!", and the like.
The kind of place where you drop 50 cents into a slot and raise a curtain to reveal an undulating lady...
It's really quite cringe-worthy but not in that lowball sleaze way. In a way that forces the reality upon you of such places existing in the real world. It's a fantastic open, full of harsh reality and populated with lowlife scumbags who'd fit right in to a Frank Miller book.
I was astounded at the approach, to be honest. Mantlo makes no bones about the fact that these are underage girls working in the sex industry, not with innuendo or oblique references, but flat-out telling you they're in pornography.
I don't know if the angle was public awareness, but I'm surprised this was approved by the Comics Code Authority. In any case, kudos to the creative team.   

REVIEW: What If…? Vol 1, #30

“What if Spider-Man’s clone lived?”

Writer: Bill Flanagan
Artists: Rich Buckler, Jim Mooney, Pablo Marcos
Colorist: Roussos
Review: Madman

I don’t know why I do this to myself. I’ve been over the clone thing for, ohhhh, give or take 25 years, but that doesn’t matter because Marvel likes to milk the clone-cow to death…
Way past death in some cases. As in the cow shuffled off its mortal coil in the mid-90s and they’re still squeezing that mummified udder. In fact, for some great reason Marvel decided that Ben Riley needs not only make a triumphant return to the funnybooks, but he needs his own title…
Fantastic Four doesn’t get a book but Marvel decided the Earth would cease to spin if there were no Ben Riley books. I haven’t glanced at the series at all. Total boycott. A line has been drawn, and I will ignore that book until long after I’m dead.

I knew this comic would just end up making me turn green and rip my favorite corduroys, but none the less it is a What If…? book.  It did involve Spider-man, and plus! There was an untold tale of the Inhumans inside…
Ok, I didn’t really care so much about that last point but to be honest I just felt, petrified udder or not, this is something I definitely “needed” in my collection.  That “need”, no matter how dirty it made me feel, made it ok...just this once.          

REVIEW: X-Men #32

Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Pencils: Andy Kubert
Inks: Matt Ryan
Colors: Kevin Somers/ Digital Chameleon
Letters: Bill Oakley
Review: Art Bee

Upon looking through the posts on this site it was abundantly clear there is a lack of X-Men reviews, so it’s my pleasure to rectify this oversight. While digging through my box of said comic issues one of my favorite X-Men covers glistened in my eyes with one of my favorite mutant characters, Psylocke (shown at left). This issue is the second of two installments in the “Soul Possession” story arc. If any of you know anything about this amazing character, she actually gets exciting AFTER this issue, but this issue concludes the why.

Prior to this issue, Psylocke, Elizabeth “Betsy” Braddock, was just a strong telepath with the unique ability to form a blade consisting of psychic energy capable of disrupting the nervous system and accessing memories. Mojo and Spiral have always had a particular interest in Miss Braddock and, at one time, they hijacked the young telepath and fitted her with robotic eyes to spy on mutants. Without going into a lot of details, Psylocke washed up on the shore of The Hand’s secret island without her memories. The Hand’s leader, Matsu’o, wanted to restore his brain-dead girlfriend, Kwannon (ninja assassin), so he made a reckless deal with Spiral. The two were taken to Spiral’s Body Shoppe for restoration. Spiral fused the pair into a shared mind, body, and powers but separate personas. Spiral then sent Psylocke to Matsu’o and Kwannon, now Revanche, to the X-Men.
Wasn’t she so nice?    

REVIEW: What If…? Vol. 1, #14

"What if Sgt. Fury had fought World War2 in outer space?"

Plot: Gary Friedrich
Script: Don Glut
Art: Herb Trimpe
Inks: Pablo Marcos
Colors: D.R. Martin
Review: Madman

My LCS got in a few issues of What If…? the other day with a collection they purchased, and I managed to snag a few, including this gem. The first thing that grabbed my attention was the nifty cover with Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos battling it out with some aliens in outer space. Then I noticed the title… who in their right mind would be wondering what if Fury had fought WW2 in outer space? How does that even pop into someone’s brain-box?
...but now that you mention it I definitely need this hypothetical question answered. I need to know so I can go about the rest of my existence without feeling deprived of knowing how Fury smokes his cigar in space.

I had pretty high hopes for this book as far as entertainment value goes, but honestly I found reading this book more of a chore than a score. The writing was pretty meh, and I really had to focus to stay moderately interested in Don Glut’s contribution with the writing. That being said I was a wee bit more into the artwork, but not by much, as both the artwork and colors came off as pretty flat and muddled.
Now granted this book is from 1979, but people were doing some pretty nifty artwork in the 70’s, and it just didn’t come together here.              

REVIEW: Strange Sports Stories #5

Review: Will Dubbeld

So, everyone enjoys some variety of sports. Baseball is the correct answer, but all manner of folks follow football, racing (car, horse, dog...), jai alai, and the like.
Hell, keeping tabs on a Magic: the Gathering tournament could be, in the loosest terms, considered sports.
Very loose...

DC Comics realized this and thus was born Strange Sports Stories.
That's actually pure speculation on my part. It's just as likely this comic was born of the same logic that brought us Space Cabbie. Throw it against the wall and see if it sticks.
Evidently Strange Sports Stories stuck, for awhile anyway.

Come along, dear reader, and see how strange we can get.

"Hockey-Mask of Death!"

Story by: Frank Robbins
Art by: John Rosenberger

So, this story could very well have appeared in Haunt of Vault of Ghostly Fear in the Castle of Horror, but it landed in Strange Sports Stories.
Thank. God.

This is essentially a mystery/revenge story centered around a French-Canadian lumberjack named Jacques Le Duc and a phantom hockey goalie. Not even kidding.
Jacques is known as "Beeg Jacques", mostly because this comic was written when it was still acceptable practice to take full advantage of accents and pidgin English attributed to foreigners.

Chris Claremont would beam with pride at the flagrant, "oui!", "sacre bleu!", and (of course) "mon dieu!", that runs rampant through the story.            

REVIEW: Awesome Holiday Special vol. 1 #1

Fighting American
Writer: Alan Moore
Pencils: Steve Skroce
Inks: Larry Stucker
Colors: Awesome Color

The Coven
Writer: Joph Loeb
Pencils: Jeff Matsuda
Inks: Jonathan Sibal
Colors: Donald Skinner
Review: Art Bee

Last year I wrote a review on the series, The Coven, which was produced by Awesome Comics. Awesome Holiday Special double issue was an intriguing buy at the time. I bought it for The Coven portion which turned out to be lame. This entire comic book is a much like a Hostess Snowball. Some people like the coconut marshmallow outside, others savor the cake inside, but very few seem to like the whole thing. I guess that is why it’s made to come apart so easily.

The Fighting American portion of the comic book looks like a rip-off of Marvel, but it is a slap in the face to Marvel. Fighting American was first published in 1954 by the writer-artist team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby for Prize Comics and has resurfaced on and off since. Rob Liefeld restarted the series shortly after leaving Image Comics and starting Awesome Comics. Marvel brought a lawsuit against him for infringement of their Captain America property, which failed. This “Merry Christmas” story was just that from Liefeld to Marvel. This can be seen at the end of the story where Fighting American and “The Thunder God” are shown and deliberately drawn and dialoged to impersonate Captain America and Thor. In my opinion, this was an asshole move on Liefeld’s part, and I have no love for the man.