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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – N-Vector (2000) #2
Did Wildstorm not get the likenesses in their “Star Trek” license or something? At first I thought it was just Cypress’s style, bringing a scratchy indie feel to a completely mainstream release, but now I’m wondering if it’s just because he couldn’t draw the actors. His artwork is a little static at times, especially for… 📖
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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – N-Vector (2000) #1
So this series is a continuation of “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.” I guess I’m glad I don’t care about the ending of the series being spoiled for me. I decided to read it because of Jeter, who’s a science fiction novelist of good repute, and because I didn’t realize–on seeing it in his bibliography–N-Vector… 📖
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Batman (1940) #342
Conway’s promise of a Man-Bat story–the one he basically wasted the entire previous issue setting up–is not realized here. And I make that observation even with the issue having two fight scenes between Batman and Man-Bat and a bunch of flashback recapping his origin. It’s a silly story, requiring the reader to once again accept… 📖
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Criminal 1 (February 2008)
Such a good issue…. Brubaker’s able to get more content in because he’s got an increased page count but also because he’s concentrating on doing a standalone story. It turns out it’s not exactly standalone, but the issue has a beginning, middle and end. There’s no messing around with being deceptive in the narrative, to… 📖
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Detective Comics 509 (December 1981)
Conway really lays on the melodrama for his resolution to Bruce and Selina’s romance–Catwoman’s still too much in the picture for her to be able to stick it out–but it still works somehow. The major part of the story is Catman coming back for revenge on Batman and Catwoman. This issue might be the first… 📖
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Detective Comics 508 (November 1981)
I’ve been trudging through Conway’s Batman comics the last few days–maybe the Irv Novick art on Batman is getting me down–so it’s nice this issue of Detective Comics is fantastic. It’s a completely absurd story about one of Bruce Wayne’s egyptologist friends going nuts and kidnapping Selina Kyle because he thinks they’re reincarnated Ancient Egyptians… 📖
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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – N-Vector 4 (November 2000)
Jeter runs out of space here a little. He’s got an exciting conclusion, but then he’s also got a big special effects conclusion (Cypress is disastrous as rendering it, unfortunately) and some more talking heads stuff. Also–and here’s why I was confused last issue. He’s got the station commander–Major Kira (you can’t refer to “Deep… 📖
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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – N-Vector 3 (October 2000)
This issue is the all action issue. Or close to it. I think N-Vector is most useful–not to discount its success as an episode of “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” it’s a fine episode of that television program–as an example of how television pacing can be adapted to comic books. The problem, of course, is… 📖
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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – N-Vector 2 (September 2000)
Did Wildstorm not get the likenesses in their “Star Trek” license or something? At first I thought it was just Cypress’s style, bringing a scratchy indie feel to a completely mainstream release, but now I’m wondering if it’s just because he couldn’t draw the actors. His artwork is a little static at times, especially for… 📖
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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – N-Vector 1 (August 2000)
So this series is a continuation of “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.” I guess I’m glad I don’t care about the ending of the series being spoiled for me. I decided to read it because of Jeter, who’s a science fiction novelist of good repute, and because I didn’t realize–on seeing it in his bibliography–N-Vector… 📖
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Batman 342 (December 1981)
Conway’s promise of a Man-Bat story–the one he basically wasted the entire previous issue setting up–is not realized here. And I make that observation even with the issue having two fight scenes between Batman and Man-Bat and a bunch of flashback recapping his origin. It’s a silly story, requiring the reader to once again accept… 📖
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Batman (1940) #341
It’s the ghost of Wayne Manor! Actually, it’s just Man-Bat. It’s Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon bickering! Actually, they’re both just upset about politics. It’s a guest appearance from Dr. Thirteen! A really boring one. Apparently, Conway wanted to do a Man-Bat story but also had an issue to fill. He pads this issue with… 📖
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Batman 341 (November 1981)
It’s the ghost of Wayne Manor! Actually, it’s just Man-Bat. It’s Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon bickering! Actually, they’re both just upset about politics. It’s a guest appearance from Dr. Thirteen! A really boring one. Apparently, Conway wanted to do a Man-Bat story but also had an issue to fill. He pads this issue with… 📖
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In the Loop (2009, Armando Iannucci)
In the Loop is a spin-off of a British show… I didn’t know about that connection when I watched it. I guess it doesn’t matter, since In the Loop is–apparently–something of a prequel. The show’s called “The Thick of It,” for those interested. Now, where to start. In the Loop is, without being specific with… 📖
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Batman (1940) #340
The cover announces Gene Colan on art, so does the title page, so obviously DC wanted to sell him on the book. But then why did they put him with Gonzales on inks? It barely even looks like Gene Colan. All the detail in the faces, for example, is gone. Except in close-ups and those… 📖
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Aliens vs. Predator: Three World War (2010) #6
Stradley really doesn’t “earn” his ending here. He decides, on the last issue, to make it all about the protagonist reconciling with her demons and choosing life. It’s inspiration and heart-warming and not at all the story he’d been writing up until this point. Only this issue and the previous one even hint at the… 📖
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Aliens vs. Predator: Three World War (2010) #5
Stradley compresses here. Weeks and weeks. Maybe even a month. It’s okay until he gets to the action part of the issue, which is then far less interesting than it needs to be. He follows the civilians (the protagonist’s sidekicks who haven’t really done anything since the first issue–oh, wait, her boyfriend’s there) for the… 📖
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Aliens vs. Predator: Three World War (2010) #4
The romance between the protagonist and the nerdy guy doesn’t work. He’s not really a nerdy guy, of course, because he used to be in the Marines. Or something. But he’s basically the nerdy guy. He’s even got a nerdy name–I think Die Hard ruined the name Ellis for anyone serious. But part of the… 📖
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Aliens vs. Predator: Three World War (2010) #3
Wow… it’s a good issue. All throughout I mean. There’s even a big action sequence at the end and it works. Probably because Stradley writes the sequence instead of just provides a list of actions for Leonardi to draw. As for the art, it’s still terrible. I might have to revise my opinion. Maybe Leonardi… 📖
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Aliens vs. Predator: Three World War (2010) #2
Whatever my problems with Leonardi–they go on and on–I have to give him credit. He draws a female character in, basically, a bikini and doesn’t do it with any of the cheesecake objectification most comic book artists would. In fact, I didn’t even realize it; it just seemed the right outfit. (It’s a human wearing… 📖
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Batman 340 (October 1981)
The cover announces Gene Colan on art, so does the title page, so obviously DC wanted to sell him on the book. But then why did they put him with Gonzales on inks? It barely even looks like Gene Colan. All the detail in the faces, for example, is gone. Except in close-ups and those… 📖
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Aliens vs. Predator: Three World War (2010) #1
It has a flashback. It has an actual flashback to explain the events in previous comic books to explain to the reader what’s pertinent. I tried the Dark Horse relaunches of Aliens and Predator. Both were atrocious on almost every level, but they also didn’t have any flashbacks to explain the ground situation to readers… 📖
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Aliens vs. Predator: Three World War 6 (September 2010)
Stradley really doesn’t “earn” his ending here. He decides, on the last issue, to make it all about the protagonist reconciling with her demons and choosing life. It’s inspiration and heart-warming and not at all the story he’d been writing up until this point. Only this issue and the previous one even hint at the… 📖
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Batman (1940) #259
So this crappy story is dedicated to the memory of Bill Finger. I guess it’s best to have a crappy story dedicated to your memory rather than you, since if you’re still alive, you might have to read it. This second team-up between Batman and the Shadow is amusingly weak (but better than the first,… 📖
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Aliens vs. Predator: Three World War 5 (July 2010)
Stradley compresses here. Weeks and weeks. Maybe even a month. It’s okay until he gets to the action part of the issue, which is then far less interesting than it needs to be. He follows the civilians (the protagonist’s sidekicks who haven’t really done anything since the first issue–oh, wait, her boyfriend’s there) for the… 📖
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Aliens vs. Predator: Three World War 4 (May 2010)
The romance between the protagonist and the nerdy guy doesn’t work. He’s not really a nerdy guy, of course, because he used to be in the Marines. Or something. But he’s basically the nerdy guy. He’s even got a nerdy name–I think Die Hard ruined the name Ellis for anyone serious. But part of the… 📖
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Aliens vs. Predator: Three World War 3 (April 2010)
Wow… it’s a good issue. All throughout I mean. There’s even a big action sequence at the end and it works. Probably because Stradley writes the sequence instead of just provides a list of actions for Leonardi to draw. As for the art, it’s still terrible. I might have to revise my opinion. Maybe Leonardi… 📖
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Batman (1940) #253
What an awful comic book. Not the art, the art is absolutely fantastic, making something of an Irv Novick convert out of me… but the writing is just hideous. O’Neil writes Batman as a thuggish cross between Spencer Tracy and a beach movie surfer–the Spencer Tracy imitation makes sense, since O’Neil “pays homage” to multiple… 📖
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Aliens vs. Predator: Three World War 2 (February 2010)
Whatever my problems with Leonardi–they go on and on–I have to give him credit. He draws a female character in, basically, a bikini and doesn’t do it with any of the cheesecake objectification most comic book artists would. In fact, I didn’t even realize it; it just seemed the right outfit. (It’s a human wearing… 📖
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Aliens vs. Predator: Three World War 1 (January 2010)
It has a flashback. It has an actual flashback to explain the events in previous comic books to explain to the reader what’s pertinent. I tried the Dark Horse relaunches of Aliens and Predator. Both were atrocious on almost every level, but they also didn’t have any flashbacks to explain the ground situation to readers… 📖
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Batman (1940) #112
So this issue has three Batman stories, two comic strips and a one page text story. That level of content is a lot different from today. The art’s fine… I suppose Dick Sprang, drawing ancient Rome in the second story, has the best panels (but just because of subject matter). As far as writing… it’s… 📖
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Batman 259 (November-December 1974)
So this crappy story is dedicated to the memory of Bill Finger. I guess it’s best to have a crappy story dedicated to your memory rather than you, since if you’re still alive, you might have to read it. This second team-up between Batman and the Shadow is amusingly weak (but better than the first,… 📖
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Batman 253 (November 1973)
What an awful comic book. Not the art, the art is absolutely fantastic, making something of an Irv Novick convert out of me… but the writing is just hideous. O’Neil writes Batman as a thuggish cross between Spencer Tracy and a beach movie surfer–the Spencer Tracy imitation makes sense, since O’Neil “pays homage” to multiple… 📖
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Batman 112 (December 1957)
So this issue has three Batman stories, two comic strips and a one page text story. That level of content is a lot different from today. The art’s fine… I suppose Dick Sprang, drawing ancient Rome in the second story, has the best panels (but just because of subject matter). As far as writing… it’s… 📖
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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?: Dust to Dust (2010) #5
Oh, I thought it was a five issue series. It’s an eight issue series. Hmm. Not sure I would have made that commitment after the second issue letdown. This issue is mostly action. There’s a lot of flashback from the rogue android. They call them rogues, not renegades. There’s a lot more of the Terminator… 📖
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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?: Dust to Dust (2010) #4
Now I’m reminded of A Scanner Darkly, the film adaptation, I haven’t read the book (also by Philip K. Dick). Something about the colors. It’s a brave move, to try to continue Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Roberson isn’t failing. The first issue just suggested he’d knock it out of the park, kind… 📖
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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?: Dust to Dust (2010) #3
With my expectations adjusted following the second issue, Dust to Dust is getting leveling off. Or at least it seems to be. Roberson has three distinct voices this issue–Reed, the empath, who has a second person narration. The android blade runner talks in the first person. He was a lot more interesting as a narrator… 📖
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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?: Dust to Dust (2010) #2
Unfortunately, the second issue is not as strong as the first. It starts off with some awkward second person examination of the empath. I can’t remember if I’m supposed to remember his name. The story’s split between three plots–the renegade androids, the “blade runner” and the empath who are pursuing them and a scientist who… 📖
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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?: Dust to Dust (2010) #1
First, let’s see if I can figure out how to describe the comic. Dust to Dust is a prequel to Boom!’s ambitious adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? That novel was adapted into a little movie called Blade Runner back in 1982. The novel’s popularity has never reached… 📖
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Batman (1940) #339
It’s a strange issue in a couple ways. Primarily because the Robin backup is some kind of life-affirming emotional origin of the character. It’s well-produced–Conway and Novick really make the reader pay attention to all the time shifts–and it’s trite and well-meaning. In other words, solid eighties mainstream work. Unfortunately, Novick’s art is better on… 📖
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Battlefields: The Tankies (2009) #3
The final issue of Tankies is even better than I remembered and maybe even imagined. I’m really glad I forgot the ending–Ennis gives it two finishes, one for the tank company, one for the colonel at command–and it’s just perfect. What the colonel’s ending does is a little different–Tankies is not just a standalone story,… 📖
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Battlefields: The Tankies (2009) #2
Oh, it’s lovely. Ennis has something of a narrative tree going here–he has his main story with the tankies, but then he’s got command’s story. Command’s story has a little to do with the tankies, but not much. It has it’s own subplot. I think maybe half the issue has nothing to do, immediately, with… 📖