Several weeks ago I won some comics in a London Super Comic Con twitter competition. Hurrah. I have finally read them and so here come the reviews. They are all pretty old so there's no real danger of spoilers.
The
Walking Dead 100
This was surprisingly good. Given that I enjoyed volume 1 of The Walking Dead, and thought vols 2 and 3 were extremely boring and by the numbers, I'm quite pleased with this. However it is far more violent, in feeling as well as action, than I expected. I guess part of that it that is the 100th issue, and events are ramped up for 100th issues, but man alive, this was a bit shocking. One of the characters gets his head mashed (I mean literally mashed) with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. There's very little zombies in this, it's all human led violence. The build up to the scene gave it a greater sense of inevitability and horror. It kind of reminded me of the way that George R R Martin kills of his characters. So it's well written and well delivered, but I don't want to read it again.
The Waking 1
Utter shit. Absolute dross. Published by Zenescope so the cover is all zombie tits and ass and the inside is all moody crap. With a sex crazed wife who insists on sex every hour. Her husband is clearly traumatised by this but of course 'the man who doesn't want sex' is just a joke. Ugh. Absolute crap. This deserves burning.
Bedlam 1
This is written by Nick Spencer, who I only knew from that one Supergirl issue he was involved in. This is a 44 page comic and the quality of the pages is superb. It's a bit of a confused comic, but confused in a deliberate sense. The reader is meant to be as mixed up as the events, I think. The villain is Madder Red, a batshit crazy serial killer. Then there's a dude who I think is meant to think he's Madder Red, but may not be. There's a hostage situation, an arrest, threats of suicide and murder and some street muggings. It is incredibly well put together, very well written, and the art is something else. Half of the pages are reds and greys. The rest are muted and everyone looks a little ill.
This is a really great comic and has made me reconsider Image's reputation. If the rest of their books are like this then I get why they are such a big deal and I am now very tempted to check out the rest of their offerings.
Shuddertown 1
This is another crime comic. Again, really great art. Our hero is a cop with 4 dead people on his hands. All appear to have been killed by someone who died at least 2 days previously. There is a long monologue about truth and about how the hero sets people free from lies. It's a good comic, possibly a great comic, but it's not for me. I just don't like crime stories that much.
Revival 1
I don't like crime stories except for the occasional times when I do, and then they blow my socks off. Like Revival. Man, this is a-mazing. I will be buying the rest of this series. There's a town in America where dead people keep coming back to life. There's a cop and her sister and an old lady who keeps pulling out her teeth but they keep growing back. There's an FBI investigation into biological terrorism and there's an old pensioner who keeps hitting on women half his age. This book is amazing and I will be adding it to my pull list.
Star Trek/Dr Who crossover 7
This was pretty crap. I'm not really a fan of spin off comics, or Dr Who this really isn't for me. The art is pretty - it's painted and everyone looks like the actors. But I do not care for it. Not one jot.
Criminal 1
It's another crime comic, this time with a corrupt cop. The main villain is looking after one of his dad's mates, who is a heroin addict and has Alzheimer's. I didn't really care for it.
Valiant 2013 sampler
Utter shit. I don't like any of Valiant's stuff, and in fact we reviewed Harbinger on the last episode of Radio Bamf and I explained why I thought that series was dross. None of the other offerings in this sampler make me more impressed with the publisher.
Marvel Zombies 5
I loved this! I thought I'd hate it, I thought it would be a gimmick, but no, I loved it. It is really good fun. It has the robot from nextwave calling people fleshy ones. It's set in the old midwest. There are adverts for a Dazzler ongoing in it. I liked all of this. I will be tracking the rest of the series down.
Avengers 1
This is dated July 2010. It's issue 1 in yet formation of an Avengers team. It's pretty bog standard. OK for what it is, but really suited towards current readers who are familiar with the characters. I'm not fussed.
