ZMD #6 (0f 6) (Red 5 – Grevious / Youkovibch / Dalhouse)

DRAKE is horrified to learn that the zombie he’s been sent to kill is his former commanding officer, now in league with his zombified wife. His U.S. platoon must join forces with the Iranians if they are to survive the Pentagon air-strike and the zombie army.

I know this book has been out for a few weeks, just deal with it .

If you didn’t know, ZMD is a story about the US Military using zombies as weapons and having everything go horribly wrong.  Well, I mean… wouldn’t it have to? I mean what could go wrong using the living dead created out of a biological weapon, right?

As far as the plot goes, the series as a whole has been very shifty – in the sense of first it’s a military action / drama, then it’s a zombie comic slashfest, then it’s more of the zombie suspense… and then in issue six, it gets sentimental?  There are good ideas here, it just got a bit schizophrenic and I think didn’t have the audience it should have because it couldn’t figure out what it wanted to be.

continue reading "ZMD #6 – A Surprisingly Emotional Ending"

Escape From Wonderland #5 (of 6) (Zenescope – Gregory / Spay / Ruffino)

Calie realizes that the choice she made has brought back her entire family. The world she left two years ago is back in place and everything is finally okay; in fact everything is finally great! The nightmare is over and a girl’s life is back on track. Did it all even happen? Was it a dream? Unravel the mystery as the conclusion to the epic series approaches, the surprises will pile up and leave you jaw-dropped. It’s time to learn the truth!

The  Red Queen and some of the other evil demented forces of Wonderland have come through the looking glass and have a strangle hold on the world.  Murder, chaos and terror are the menu of the day.  At the beginning of the issue, only Calie stands in the way of the Jabberwocky’s forces as they finally try to conquer the our “real world”.  In these 24 pages of story she finds allies she never dreamt of.

continue reading "EFW #5 – Jabberwocky Attack!"

click below for additions to the roster!

continue reading "Avengers Academy updated 3/12: Finesse and Hazmat!"

Introducing Veil (assuming this is not the blond from Heroes for Hire) and Striker (assuming this is not the jarhead bad guy from Force Works – yes, obscure).

With the coming Heroic Age, it looks like the Initiative is switching gears, changing it’s name and Marvel will now have a non-mutant vehicle (ala New Mutants) by which to introduce new characters to the Marvel Universe.  Coming in June!

Looks pretty damn cool to me!
Iron Man was my favorite movie two summers ago. It looks like it may repeat it’s performance this summer.

DC’s new internal structure changes has brought about a few major changes as far as talent in books go.  First, we heard that the uber-talented Gail Simone is going back to Birds of Prey and now JMS will be taking over both Superman and Wonder Woman… sigh, I guess The Twelve will never be finished.

open letter to DC fans from JMS himself -

One of my very earliest memories as a child is of watching one of the Superman cartoons created by Max Fleischer. In particular, a scene where Superman puts his cape around Lois Lane to protect her from an incoming tide of molten metal. I imprinted on that image like a baby duck, and a lot of what I laughingly call my personality was formed in that moment (which is why a cel-recreation of that image is one of the first things you see upon entering my home, before you get to the row of wall after wall covered with artwork by Alex Ross, Curt Swan and others, as well as just about every bit of Superman memorabilia ever produced).

continue reading "Straczynski to take on both Amazon and Kryptonian"

This came straight from the DC Source blog and it looks like Andy Kubert / Grant Morrison duo is doing a “Bruce Wayne through time” plot. After the over-the-top nonsense that was Final Crisis, I don’t have high hopes, click on image below for bigger version.

Official Press Release -  San Diego, CA – The critically-acclaimed and bestselling author of World War Z, the Zombie Survival Guide and The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks brings his unique and acclaimed style to G.I. JOE comics with a five-issue miniseries: G.I. JOE: Hearts & Minds, coming in May under license from Hasbro. The award-winning Max Brooks crafts a G.I. JOE series for an America at war, starkly contrasting intensely brutal portrayals of the dark side of the human condition with the light of hope in the most unlikely places.

“I tried to write a series as harsh and complicated as the times we’re living in,” said Brooks.

Exploring the effects of real-world war on the individual, every issue of G.I. JOE: Hearts & Minds features two chapters, each spotlighting a different G.I. JOE or COBRA character. Brooks pulls no punches from the very beginning, starting the series with chapters on MAJOR BLUDD and SPIRIT.

“This is the G.I. JOE book that isn’t about action figures. It’s about people like you and me,” said IDW G.I. JOE editor Andy Schmidt. “And that makes it even more chilling than any zombie novel could be, because this one isn’t about a plague–this one is about us.”

continue reading "Max Brooks to Pen G.I. Joe"

I really thought that moving CW’s number one show, Smallville, to make room for a vampire drama would be the death knell for Tom Welling and company.  I wasn’t the only one! Plenty of other comic and TV sites were certain the CE exces were just trying to kill the show by moving it a Friday night time slot. Sure it would rule Friday night, but odds of it making enough coin to support it’s large special effects budget were unlikely.

It seems that I stand corrected.

continue reading "Smallville Going to Season 10: I guess I stand corrected."

Over the last few weeks, Marvel has been sending out one-sheet teasers about the Avengers rosters as Marvel moves into the Heroic Age.  For the mainstream Avengers roster, we have the classic three – Captain America, Thor and Iron Man plus Spider-Woman and Hawkeye.  Today, the fourth was sent for the New Avengers – Jessica Jones joins the roster of Luke Cage, Wolverine and Spider-Man.  They have also sent out blacked out teasers for the Secret Avengers.

3/5/10 – Marvel just sent out the first real surprise in the new Avengers Line-up… Ben Grimm

Dingo #4 (of 4) (Boom! - Nelson / Biagini)

Tired of getting his ass royally kicked, Dingo goes on the offensive, with Cerberus, scores to settle, and plenty of (violent) family drama in tow. The riveting conclusion is here! A supernatural crime story in the vein of 100 BULLETS — from the writer of the hit series’ HEXED and FALL OF CTHULHU.

There is nothing worse than a pretty complex story that starts opening side-plot after side-plot with little or no conclusion (yes, my well-loved Heroes on NBC, I’m looking at you).  After last month’s #3, I was tad worried that Nelson’s Dingo was walking that way after the Cerberus revealed it’s true nature and we found out the treasure that Dingo was keeping from his demonic hottie of an ex (click below to see her cover) was a tattered part of a soul in a decrepit teddy bear.  Quite a few seemingly random side notes were written in the last two issues, but Michael Alan Nelson triumphantly brings it all together and closes out in a strong, fully-developed narrative.

continue reading "Michael Alan Nelson Has Solid Closure in Dingo"

The Oddly Compelling art of Denis Kitchen (Dark Horse – HC 200 pgs+, $34.99)

If you were to randomly enter any comic book shop in America and bring up the name Denis Kitchen you would get a wide range of reactions.  This range would vary from passionate fans who would praise him for being an iconic visionary who is a stalwart voice of freedom and expression in the industry to historians who see Kitchen’s work and career as a catalyst for the modern independent press to those who claim that as the founder of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund he had protected scoundrel-types and others who don’t deserve it… to those who possibly would say “Denis Kitchen, who’s that?”

continue reading "History and Interest Abound in “Oddly Compelling” Collection"