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The Immortal Iron Fist 9 (November 2007)
Koblish’s flashback pages start all right, but in the second set, he draws Wendall Rand rapidly punching and it looks like he’s got eight arms. It really drags one out of the narrative. The principal story, with Danny losing his match in the competition so he can go out and save the world, moves a… 📖
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The Immortal Iron Fist (2007) #8
The big Enter the Dragon fight competition starts off here… only there’s not a matched fight. Instead, we get to see Danny in K’un-L’un. It’s interesting, sort of, to see Danny trying to acclimate. But he’s mostly trying to figure out what’s happened to Jeryn (his mix of Alfred and Lucius Fox). Turns out Jeryn’s… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents (1986) #30
Oh, good, Race of Scorpions is back and just as incomprehensible as always. It turns out the mysterious stranger is really the brother of the evil emperor. There’s palace intrigue, an assassination attempt, machinations, it goes on. And it’s still awful. Maybe the writing’s a little better. Or it’s at least more understandable. Luke and… 📖
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The Immortal Iron Fist 8 (October 2007)
The big Enter the Dragon fight competition starts off here… only there’s not a matched fight. Instead, we get to see Danny in K’un-L’un. It’s interesting, sort of, to see Danny trying to acclimate. But he’s mostly trying to figure out what’s happened to Jeryn (his mix of Alfred and Lucius Fox). Turns out Jeryn’s… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents (1986) #29
I remember when Homicide started it was all right. It finishes here (I hope) and Arcudi’s dialogue is so laughably bad, I can’t believe I ever had a nice thing to say about it. While my inclination is to pause and mock it, I think I’ll move on. Murphy’s back with another prose story with… 📖
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Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (1994, Don Coscarelli)
I watched Phantasm III because I wanted to see what Coscarelli would do without studio interference on a Phantasm sequel. Apparently, what he decided to do was add an annoying little kid who kills people (they’re bad people, but they’re people just the same–and it’s never clear he was in any physical danger) and a… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents 30 (June 1989)
Oh, good, Race of Scorpions is back and just as incomprehensible as always. It turns out the mysterious stranger is really the brother of the evil emperor. There’s palace intrigue, an assassination attempt, machinations, it goes on. And it’s still awful. Maybe the writing’s a little better. Or it’s at least more understandable. Luke and… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents 29 (May 1989)
I remember when Homicide started it was all right. It finishes here (I hope) and Arcudi’s dialogue is so laughably bad, I can’t believe I ever had a nice thing to say about it. While my inclination is to pause and mock it, I think I’ll move on. Murphy’s back with another prose story with… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents (1986) #28
The Concrete story goes on forever. It has some of Chadwick’s better art in a while, but also some Liefeldian body mechanics. It’s metaphysical nonsense about the environment. These Concrete stories are best as time capsules–things haven’t gotten any better in the last twenty years. Zone debuts this issue; Kraiger’s illustrating is fine. The story’s… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents (1986) #27
Duranona wraps up The Race of Scorpions here and threatens a second series. The story’s mostly nonsensical, partially due to the lack of perspective but mostly because of the writing. The conclusion relies on the reader being able to identify a character from the first chapter when he’s drawn in miniature. At least it’s over… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents (1986) #26
Arcudi has sort of taken reality and chucked it out the window of Homicide. I mean, I assume he’s basing the story about the assassin who eats his victims’ eyes on a real case… but it’s not believable the same detectives who had the cannibal case are going to have this one. And he’s done… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents (1986) #25
Duranona has something like two action scenes this part of Race of Scorpions. Two completely incomprehensible action scenes. Did the editor see something different or did they really get this material in and think it’d look good? At least this installment doesn’t rip off Star Wars. Speaking of incomprehensible, Davis is back with a new… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents 28 (March 1989)
The Concrete story goes on forever. It has some of Chadwick’s better art in a while, but also some Liefeldian body mechanics. It’s metaphysical nonsense about the environment. These Concrete stories are best as time capsules–things haven’t gotten any better in the last twenty years. Zone debuts this issue; Kraiger’s illustrating is fine. The story’s… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents 27 (February 1989)
Duranona wraps up The Race of Scorpions here and threatens a second series. The story’s mostly nonsensical, partially due to the lack of perspective but mostly because of the writing. The conclusion relies on the reader being able to identify a character from the first chapter when he’s drawn in miniature. At least it’s over… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents 26 (January 1989)
Arcudi has sort of taken reality and chucked it out the window of Homicide. I mean, I assume he’s basing the story about the assassin who eats his victims’ eyes on a real case… but it’s not believable the same detectives who had the cannibal case are going to have this one. And he’s done… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents 25 (December 1988)
Duranona has something like two action scenes this part of Race of Scorpions. Two completely incomprehensible action scenes. Did the editor see something different or did they really get this material in and think it’d look good? At least this installment doesn’t rip off Star Wars. Speaking of incomprehensible, Davis is back with a new… 📖
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The Immortal Iron Fist (2007) #7
Fraction and Brubaker take a break here to focus on one of the previous Iron Fists. They present the story like a fable and get really cute with it. I don’t think the cuteness necessarily has to do with the Iron Fist in question being female, but because she’s got a goofy, sweet but stupid… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents (1986) #24
And here debuts the licensed property… Aliens. Luckily, it’s a really decent eight pages. Nelson and Verheiden almost make it feel like it’s just a comic book, not a movie tie-in. What’s really interesting is the aliens. Nelson’s able to draw so much fluidity into his own creatures, when he’s got to draw the movie… 📖
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The Immortal Iron Fist 7 (August 2007)
Fraction and Brubaker take a break here to focus on one of the previous Iron Fists. They present the story like a fable and get really cute with it. I don’t think the cuteness necessarily has to do with the Iron Fist in question being female, but because she’s got a goofy, sweet but stupid… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents 24 (November 1988)
And here debuts the licensed property… Aliens. Luckily, it’s a really decent eight pages. Nelson and Verheiden almost make it feel like it’s just a comic book, not a movie tie-in. What’s really interesting is the aliens. Nelson’s able to draw so much fluidity into his own creatures, when he’s got to draw the movie… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents (1986) #22
Seriously, a short story? I guess Andrew Murphy provides his own illustrations, but his story is a prose future story about cloning. Not a very logical one either (how do the clones age, for example). I guess it’s not the worst prose story I’ve ever read in a comic, but am I making a compliment?… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents (1986) #21
I hate to say it, but Ron Randall’s gotten better. Not as a writer, of course; Trekker has actually gotten to be worse written since Dark Horse Presents started. The story this issue is practically unintelligible. On the other hand, Randall’s inking has gotten a lot better. The art’s still not so great, but the… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents 22 (September 1988)
Seriously, a short story? I guess Andrew Murphy provides his own illustrations, but his story is a prose future story about cloning. Not a very logical one either (how do the clones age, for example). I guess it’s not the worst prose story I’ve ever read in a comic, but am I making a compliment?… 📖
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Muppet Sherlock Holmes (2010) #4
Storck wraps it all up, which is a little sad–a sequel does not seem to be in the offing. He does tie it all together nicely here, though I’m not familiar enough with “The Musgrave Ritual” to know how close he sticks to it and the conclusion, from “The Final Problem,” is expectedly loose. Mebberson… 📖
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Muppet Sherlock Holmes (2010) #3
I can’t decide if this issue is the strongest or if it’s just the one where Gonzo solves the case…. The opening titles establish the cast–Kermit and Piggy are now permanent additions (Piggy’s Irene Adler now impersonating Mrs. Hudson, which is a great way to keep her around)–and it certainly seems like Muppet Sherlock Holmes… 📖
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Muppet Sherlock Holmes (2010) #2
The second issue is as nice as the first. Storck doesn’t use “Muppet Show” standards (he did in the first issue for a great narrative device), but he does insert Kermit’s Inspector Lestrade–sorry, Inspector LeStrade–into the story. I don’t think Lestrade was in “A Scandal in Bohemia,” but he’s around here, a third wheel affixed… 📖
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Muppet Sherlock Holmes (2010) #1
Now here’s a lovely comic. Mebberson’s art alone makes Muppet Sherlock Holmes worth picking up–oh, she does the colors too. I was just going to say how great the colors work in the book. Her renditions of the Muppet characters, particularly the expressions, really bring them to life. It’s not something I think about a… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents 21 (August 1988)
I hate to say it, but Ron Randall’s gotten better. Not as a writer, of course; Trekker has actually gotten to be worse written since Dark Horse Presents started. The story this issue is practically unintelligible. On the other hand, Randall’s inking has gotten a lot better. The art’s still not so great, but the… 📖
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Starborn (2010) #1
Starborn is an adolescent male’s fantasy world come to life (well, an adolescent male “grown up”). The protagonist is in his twenties, writes sci-fi books no one will publish and has a crush on his childhood next door neighbor. Of course, it turns out his sci-fi books are true and his next door neighbor is… 📖
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The Switch (2010, Josh Gordon and Will Speck)
I suppose if someone wanted to think really hard about it, there’s something to be said about adapting short stories for Hollywood. Jeffrey Eugenides’s source short story was in The New Yorker. Is it ripe for mainstream Hollywood adaptation? Given the adaptation, The Switch, failed at the box office, one might say no. But then… 📖
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Muppet Sherlock Holmes 4 (November 2010)
Storck wraps it all up, which is a little sad–a sequel does not seem to be in the offing. He does tie it all together nicely here, though I’m not familiar enough with “The Musgrave Ritual” to know how close he sticks to it and the conclusion, from “The Final Problem,” is expectedly loose. Mebberson… 📖
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Muppet Sherlock Holmes 3 (October 2010)
I can’t decide if this issue is the strongest or if it’s just the one where Gonzo solves the case…. The opening titles establish the cast–Kermit and Piggy are now permanent additions (Piggy’s Irene Adler now impersonating Mrs. Hudson, which is a great way to keep her around)–and it certainly seems like Muppet Sherlock Holmes… 📖
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Muppet Sherlock Holmes 2 (September 2010)
The second issue is as nice as the first. Storck doesn’t use “Muppet Show” standards (he did in the first issue for a great narrative device), but he does insert Kermit’s Inspector Lestrade–sorry, Inspector LeStrade–into the story. I don’t think Lestrade was in “A Scandal in Bohemia,” but he’s around here, a third wheel affixed… 📖
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Muppet Sherlock Holmes 1 (August 2010)
Now here’s a lovely comic. Mebberson’s art alone makes Muppet Sherlock Holmes worth picking up–oh, she does the colors too. I was just going to say how great the colors work in the book. Her renditions of the Muppet characters, particularly the expressions, really bring them to life. It’s not something I think about a… 📖
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Starborn 1 (December 2010)
Starborn is an adolescent male’s fantasy world come to life (well, an adolescent male “grown up”). The protagonist is in his twenties, writes sci-fi books no one will publish and has a crush on his childhood next door neighbor. Of course, it turns out his sci-fi books are true and his next door neighbor is… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents (1986) #20
This issue is a sixty-four page giant–only most of the extra is filler. They could have gotten away with a lot less pages. The Mr. Monster story is real short (and lame). Gary Davis has a short space alien story showing he’s read some Arthur C. Clarke (it’s long, wordless filler). Rick Geary’s got a… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents 20 (August 1988)
This issue is a sixty-four page giant–only most of the extra is filler. They could have gotten away with a lot less pages. The Mr. Monster story is real short (and lame). Gary Davis has a short space alien story showing he’s read some Arthur C. Clarke (it’s long, wordless filler). Rick Geary’s got a… 📖
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Dark Horse Presents (1986) #19
Finally; it only took eighteen issues, but this one is essential reading. It’s not as simple as there not being a weak story… every single one of them is good. I suppose, in this company, the weakest is Badger’s Mask. It’s starting to get old, with no real plot progression. He’s also doing the ink… 📖
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The Immortal Iron Fist (2007) #6
What Brubaker brings to his Marvel work is a retro vibe. His good comics feel like familiar seventies comics modernized. What Fraction brings is a smart blockbuster. His comics feel like big Hollywood movies written by John Sayles. Lots of set pieces, sure, but lots of humanity. I’m not sure this issue is the perfect… 📖
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The Immortal Iron Fist (2007) #5
The Travel Foreman back up art really does not work here. Well, some of it does, but when he flashes back to Orson’s origin… it’s awful. Ed McGuinness proportions. Yucky. It’s such an awkward flashback, it tears the reader out of the book. The book needs the flashback to work not just for Orson’s emotional… 📖