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Dark Horse Presents (1986) #86
The issue opens with a sci-fi story–from Watt-Evans and Robinson–about a female space traveler who finds a world filled with adorable little creatures out of a Disney cartoon. It turns out they’re very amorous to the human female, which provides for a rather amusing story. Watt-Evans’s story is well-paced and always thoughtful. There are the… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents (1986) #85
This issue might be the first where there’s nothing great, but nothing bad. Everything is just solid. In fact, everything is ambitious too. Well, except maybe Star Riders, which appears to be a tie-in to a roll playing game. Johnson and Dringenberg’s opener is about an Imperial Japanese artist who’s a little too good at… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents 86 (June 1994)
The issue opens with a sci-fi story–from Watt-Evans and Robinson–about a female space traveler who finds a world filled with adorable little creatures out of a Disney cartoon. It turns out they’re very amorous to the human female, which provides for a rather amusing story. Watt-Evans’s story is well-paced and always thoughtful. There are the… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents 85 (May 1994)
This issue might be the first where there’s nothing great, but nothing bad. Everything is just solid. In fact, everything is ambitious too. Well, except maybe Star Riders, which appears to be a tie-in to a roll playing game. Johnson and Dringenberg’s opener is about an Imperial Japanese artist who’s a little too good at… 📖
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Immortal Weapons (2009) #5
You know who David Lapham can’t write? Danny Rand. You know who he has as his de facto protagonist? Danny Rand. John Aman—the Prince of Orphans—is secondary to his own issue. Lapham even writes an adventure for Danny and Luke with a wacky miniature villain. I guess Aman gets the opening scene but…. Worse, it’s… 📖
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Immortal Weapons (2009) #4
There’s the Swierczynski I was expecting… turning in a completely useless issue. Tiger’s Beautiful Daughter gets the feature. Swierczynski’s so wrapped up in his Amazon warrior women story he neglects to mention a) the name of the Heavenly City and b) how they could possibly have an Immortal Weapon. It’s nonsensical, but also bad. Swierczynski… 📖
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The Swarm (1978, Irwin Allen), the director’s cut
I had the misfortune of trying to watch Irwin Allen’s director’s cut of The Swarm. As I understand it, Allen’s director’s cut simply adds a half hour of terrible dialogue, completely overshadowing the killer bee aspect of the film. I’m not sure how much better a shorter version of the film would really… ahem… be,… 📖
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Immortal Weapons 5 (January 2010)
You know who David Lapham can’t write? Danny Rand. You know who he has as his de facto protagonist? Danny Rand. John Aman—the Prince of Orphans—is secondary to his own issue. Lapham even writes an adventure for Danny and Luke with a wacky miniature villain. I guess Aman gets the opening scene but…. Worse, it’s… 📖
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Immortal Weapons 4 (January 2010)
There’s the Swierczynski I was expecting… turning in a completely useless issue. Tiger’s Beautiful Daughter gets the feature. Swierczynski’s so wrapped up in his Amazon warrior women story he neglects to mention a) the name of the Heavenly City and b) how they could possibly have an Immortal Weapon. It’s nonsensical, but also bad. Swierczynski… 📖
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Immortal Weapons (2009) #3
Who’s this Rick Spears guy and why have I never heard of him before? His origin of Dog Brother #1 is fantastic. He opens it in late nineteenth century Hong Kong, where Dog Brother is something of a myth. Spears’s protagonists are these two orphans, trying to navigate the gangs, the British and the poverty.… 📖
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Immortal Weapons (2009) #2
What a stinker. The whole thing plays like a bad Marvel horror comic from the seventies, with a team of mercenaries (they have matching outfits, of course) out to retrieve a spider. It’s not any spider, it’s one of the Bride of Nine Spiders’s spiders. There’s a bit of a continuity break, showing the Bride… 📖
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Immortal Weapons (2009) #1
Could this story be more depressing? Aaron does a decent job on Fat Cobra’s backstory—though he doesn’t go enough into defining Fat Cobra’s Heavenly City. He buys his way back into it at one point and buying one’s way back into a Heavenly City seems a little common. Then there’s all the retconning of Fat… 📖
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Immortal Weapons 3 (November 2009)
Who’s this Rick Spears guy and why have I never heard of him before? His origin of Dog Brother #1 is fantastic. He opens it in late nineteenth century Hong Kong, where Dog Brother is something of a myth. Spears’s protagonists are these two orphans, trying to navigate the gangs, the British and the poverty.… 📖
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Immortal Weapons 2 (October 2009)
What a stinker. The whole thing plays like a bad Marvel horror comic from the seventies, with a team of mercenaries (they have matching outfits, of course) out to retrieve a spider. It’s not any spider, it’s one of the Bride of Nine Spiders’s spiders. There’s a bit of a continuity break, showing the Bride… 📖
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Immortal Weapons 1 (September 2009)
Could this story be more depressing? Aaron does a decent job on Fat Cobra’s backstory—though he doesn’t go enough into defining Fat Cobra’s Heavenly City. He buys his way back into it at one point and buying one’s way back into a Heavenly City seems a little common. Then there’s all the retconning of Fat… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents (1986) #83
Lloyd’s got a very well-illustrated story here. It’s a thriller–con artist out to murder his rich wife–told after the fact (guess what, the husband gets busted through a very Hitchcockian twist). The art’s more important than the story. Lloyd gets the tone perfect. If it were a longer piece, with more characterization, it might be… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents (1986) #82
Well, Hermes’s slump continues. Campbell’s problem might be the villains—the Eye of Fate (or something… the skeleton head guy) is a lot more interesting than anyone else in the story than the Eyeball Kid. So we want the Eyeball Kid to win (even though Eye of Fate doesn’t) and Eye of Fate to win… but… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents 83 (March 1994)
Lloyd’s got a very well-illustrated story here. It’s a thriller–con artist out to murder his rich wife–told after the fact (guess what, the husband gets busted through a very Hitchcockian twist). The art’s more important than the story. Lloyd gets the tone perfect. If it were a longer piece, with more characterization, it might be… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents 82 (February 1994)
Well, Hermes’s slump continues. Campbell’s problem might be the villains—the Eye of Fate (or something… the skeleton head guy) is a lot more interesting than anyone else in the story than the Eyeball Kid. So we want the Eyeball Kid to win (even though Eye of Fate doesn’t) and Eye of Fate to win… but… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents (1986) #81
I’m not sure what happens this installment of Hermes. It almost seems like a bridging installment. Hermes, who hasn’t really had a lot to do since the first installment, is preparing his attack and the supervillains are splintering. It’s a fine installment, but it’s the first one where Campbell didn’t “wow” me. The opening story,… 📖
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Mystery of the 13th Guest (1943, William Beaudine)
About two minutes after I finished watching Mystery of the 13th Guest, I realized no one ever solves the titular mystery. There’s a mysterious thirteenth guest in the first scene; the guest is absent and his or her identity is never revealed. Tim Ryan’s police lieutenant is supposed to be sort of dumb (but smarter… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents 81 (January 1994)
I’m not sure what happens this installment of Hermes. It almost seems like a bridging installment. Hermes, who hasn’t really had a lot to do since the first installment, is preparing his attack and the supervillains are splintering. It’s a fine installment, but it’s the first one where Campbell didn’t “wow” me. The opening story,… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents (1986) #80
Are there Art Adams fans out there? He’s not bad, but his faces are awful. I’ve never seen someone vary his perspective of a face so much—it’s like he does these three dimensional faces, except the nose. The nose is 2D. I guess he drew the monsters well. Monkeyman & O’Brien is not terrible. It’s… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents (1986) #79
Ever have a friend who could draw really well? Moeller’s art on Shadow Empires is like a friend who can draw well. He takes time with it, he works at it… but it’s still totally not ready for the big leagues. It’s somehow even rougher than some of the worse art Presents has published. The… 📖
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Green Hornet Annual (2010) #1
What a pointless fill-in issue. Maybe the regular series was shipping late? Hester doesn’t do a terrible job–he certainly is able to pace the annual better than the regular series–but it just fills in a question or two no one asked about the original series. What happened to Britt’s girlfriend and what happened to his… 📖
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Green Hornet (2010) #10
Smith finally figures out how to pace a comic book. It’s a shame he does it for his last issue. There’s a lot more Smith-type humor in this issue, which both works and doesn’t. As for his revelation Mulan is a lesbian…. It opens up certain possibilities but closes off a bunch of other ones.… 📖
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Green Hornet (2010) #9
Ugh. What’s worse than Smith doing three action scenes and calling it an issue? Doing one and, essentially, a chase sequence and calling it an issue. Sure, there’s some of his banter between Britt and Mulan, but it’s barely banter. What’s far more interesting about this issue is the supervillains. The young Japanese guy has… 📖
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Green Hornet (2010) #8
Smith requires the reader to forget everything he or she has learned about Kato in the previous seven issues and assume he’s an idiot. He’s an idiot and he gets killed because he acts like an idiot, not a genius strategist. The entire issue is something of a wash. For example, the corrupt mayor who… 📖
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Green Hornet (2010) #7
Smith does a little bit more with this issue. He at least brings in the bigger storyline with the bickering father and son Japanese supervillains. Smith’s very obviously influenced by the Burton Batman movies here in terms of plot. Regardless of what problems the two have, Smith’s cast his Britt Reid into Burton’s Bruce Wayne’s… 📖
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Green Hornet (2010) #6
Smith’s doing the movie montage in full effect this issue. He’s even got a wacky sidekick for the Green Hornet–a white guy who acts Chinese. I think it’s supposed to be hilarious. Smith frames the issue around Britt’s training, his first crime fighting efforts and his costume. There’s some bickering with Mulan too (it’s not… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents 80 (December 1993)
Are there Art Adams fans out there? He’s not bad, but his faces are awful. I’ve never seen someone vary his perspective of a face so much—it’s like he does these three dimensional faces, except the nose. The nose is 2D. I guess he drew the monsters well. Monkeyman & O’Brien is not terrible. It’s… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents 79 (November 1993)
Ever have a friend who could draw really well? Moeller’s art on Shadow Empires is like a friend who can draw well. He takes time with it, he works at it… but it’s still totally not ready for the big leagues. It’s somehow even rougher than some of the worse art Presents has published. The… 📖
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Green Hornet Annual 1 (September 2010)
What a pointless fill-in issue. Maybe the regular series was shipping late? Hester doesn’t do a terrible job–he certainly is able to pace the annual better than the regular series–but it just fills in a question or two no one asked about the original series. What happened to Britt’s girlfriend and what happened to his… 📖
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Green Hornet 10 (December 2010)
Smith finally figures out how to pace a comic book. It’s a shame he does it for his last issue. There’s a lot more Smith-type humor in this issue, which both works and doesn’t. As for his revelation Mulan is a lesbian…. It opens up certain possibilities but closes off a bunch of other ones.… 📖
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Green Hornet 9 (November 2010)
Ugh. What’s worse than Smith doing three action scenes and calling it an issue? Doing one and, essentially, a chase sequence and calling it an issue. Sure, there’s some of his banter between Britt and Mulan, but it’s barely banter. What’s far more interesting about this issue is the supervillains. The young Japanese guy has… 📖
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Green Hornet 8 (October 2010)
Smith requires the reader to forget everything he or she has learned about Kato in the previous seven issues and assume he’s an idiot. He’s an idiot and he gets killed because he acts like an idiot, not a genius strategist. The entire issue is something of a wash. For example, the corrupt mayor who… 📖
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Green Hornet 7 (September 2010)
Smith does a little bit more with this issue. He at least brings in the bigger storyline with the bickering father and son Japanese supervillains. Smith’s very obviously influenced by the Burton Batman movies here in terms of plot. Regardless of what problems the two have, Smith’s cast his Britt Reid into Burton’s Bruce Wayne’s… 📖
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Green Hornet 6 (July 2010)
Smith’s doing the movie montage in full effect this issue. He’s even got a wacky sidekick for the Green Hornet–a white guy who acts Chinese. I think it’s supposed to be hilarious. Smith frames the issue around Britt’s training, his first crime fighting efforts and his costume. There’s some bickering with Mulan too (it’s not… 📖
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Blind Fury (1989, Phillip Noyce)
I’ve been meaning to see Blind Fury again for twenty-one years or so. For a while, I assumed it would be pretty good (not entirely trusting my opinion at age ten) because Phillip Noyce directed it. Unfortunately, Noyce directs it with all the enthusiasm of a cologne commercial. It’s not like there’s much he could… 📖
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Green Hornet (2010) #5
It’s interesting Smith made the villains the Japanese, which makes the comic seem dated… even if it takes place in the future. Smith’s never made the time period work. This issue is–except the villain reveal–an all action issue. It shows off the Black Beauty’s technology (for those unaware, the Black Beauty is the Green Hornet’s… 📖