Welcome Back! April is looking promising as the first week brings us a lot of great releases. Last week, I chose a couple of random books to go head to head and this week I have my review and the winner. I also have some fresh new recommendations for you to pick up, so read on to see what they are.
Vampirella Army of Darkness TPB (Dynamite)
If you missed this one, now is a good time to check it out. The Vampirella crossover books have been highly entertaining and this one is no different. Set during the events of Army of Darkness, Ash gets an incantation wrong that pulls Vampirella into the timeline.
“Infected by Deadite magic, Vampirella stalks the halls of Lord Arthur's castle, unable to control her thirst. Even if that time-lost chucklehead Ash can free her of the demonic mutation, can he convince his allies - primitive screwheads that they are - that she shouldn't be burned at the stake?”
Bloodlines #1 (DC)
DC has always done a pretty good job publishing books with a much darker tone under the Vertigo imprint. Bloodlines is being published under DC and the ongoing series is going to be part of the shared Universe. I’m pretty excited to see where this goes and how it ties in to the DC universe.
“When a meteor crashes to Earth, bringing with it an unspeakable alien presence that terrorizes a nearby small town, the lucky ones die first. As for the rest, they find themselves locked in a hellish struggle for control of their bodies and their minds. This isn't just an invasion. It's an infestation. What would you do if the greatest threat to humanity was hidden away inside you?”
Grizzly Shark (Image)
From the pages of a 2010 black and white one shot Sea Bear and Grizzly Shark, the shark returns in this all new series with the original one shot followed by all new stories. Although the first issue is a reprint of the one shot, this time we get it in full color done by Ivan Plascensia. If you missed out on Grizzly Shark now is the time to check it out.
Last week I picked two new books to battle it out for a spot in the ComiCombs. These are by far the most random books I have chosen and the stories couldn’t be more different. This made for an interesting transition between the books. So which one did I pick?
I was excited to read something different from Jason Aaron. If you’re not familiar with Aaron, he’s known for his work on Southern Bastards, he’s had a great run on the current Thor book and is writing the new Star Wars series. I have to say, Men of Wrath was not what I was expecting. The story is very linear. An aging hitman named Ira Rath takes a job that leads him to his son. I really enjoyed Ron Garneys art. He does a great job with the action in this book and there is a lot of bloody action within the panels.
Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (which I will refer to from now on as Kurosagi) was a blind pick for me. I was intrigued by the premise so I decided to give it a shot. The story is about a group of college students with some strange talents that allow them to fulfill the wishes of the dead. Each chapter in this book is a different “delivery”. A few of these chapters are really messed up but there’s a lot of light hearted humor within the pages to balance the tone.
I was disappointed by each chapter or “delivery” in Kurosagi bring self-contained. Men of Wrath, although very linear, was one story told over the course of several issues. While I’m not opposed to the format of Kurosagi, I just wasn’t a fan of how little character development there was within the book. Men of Wrath was also very light on the character development. So after reading both of these books I seemed to find more disappointment than anything. So which book was the least disappointing?
Men of Wrath, having such a talented creative team behind it just couldn’t impress in the way the rest of their portfolios do. There was a severe lack of character development here to the point where I was just reading to get to the end. Kurosagi, while disappointing in the way it lacked character development, was easy enough to get into with the format. This book reminds me a lot of Scooby Doo. I can’t really explain it much better than that. It is basically a much darker version of Scooby Doo with a nice twist. Each of the stories in vol. 1 are entertaining and if the book keeps the same format through each of its 14 volumes, anybody can pick this up from any point and just enjoy the stories.
So there you go. Make sure to come back next week when I will have two more books for you to get familiar with before going head to head as well some awesome picks for your pull list!
-Creature of the ComiCombs
No comments:
Post a Comment