Comics

Tom Strong #3

Alan Moore's hero, Tom Strong, fights a surly bunch of universe-conquering Aztechs who're trying to take over his Earth! He defeats their surly technology by making an alliance with their pet AI and freeing it to unleash a big can of whup-ass on the Aztech ruler. Hmm. You know, this is the second issue in a row that Strong-boy has gone and made friends with a nigh-omnipotent computer being. Not to mention the fact that the villain conveniently violates two of the Evil Overlord rules - "I will never create any being more powerful than I am." and "I will treat any creature that I control through science or technology with respect and kindness, so that when it eventually escapes its bonds, its first thought will not be revenging itself upon me." Personally, I was hoping for a violation of "Under no circumstances will I ever, ever consume any energy field larger than my head" but alas, some things are not to be.

Battlestar Galactica volume 3 number 1

So, I bought the newest Battlestar Galactica comic book, an... why is everyone looking at me like that? Mmm. Cheese-a-riffic! The art's a bit weird, though, and doesn't convey a sense of action very well, so despite the wondrous cheese, I doubt this one will keep my ever-flighty attention.

Finals #1

It's 'Finals Week' at the Illuminati University, and... Okay, so it's not REALLY the IOU campus, but it's the same general idea. Students abusing each other and the laws of physics (and good taste) in an effort to pass their all-important finals. The school run by an administrator who's quite, quite mad (after having been scarred by a nuclear detonation from a past year's final...) and believes entirely in a Darwinian philosophy... Our main character is a film school student with a rather... unique... idea for a final project. Unique as in "hard to accomplish". And his personal life is no great shakes either, what with his girlfriend (a Comparative Religion major) starting up a cult... and being hounded by would-be acolytes, one of his room-mates devolving himself into an ape, another room-mate building a (working) time machine, and the only one who regularly comes through with the rent is the last room-mate, a Criminal Justice major (who pays his share with suspiciously red-stained bills...). Hmm. A DC mini-series that looks like it won't suck...

Birds of Prey #9

Standard superhero fare of the non-sucky kind. Nothing to surl about here. Mmm. Skin-tight outfits...

Top Ten #1

Another Alan Moore comic, this one's got a city where everyone has super-powers. Everyone. And they don't just act normally, they all dress the part, even though they're still living normal lives, so to speak. Sixties-esque costumes abound, and the architecture of 'Neopolis' looks like the designers were quite, quite mad... and they are, too. Our Heroine for this particular comic is a rookie in the city's police force (which is made up of super-humans, of course... but then, so is the city baseball team), with the moniker Toybox (snicker) who carts around a whole bunch of little, animate robotic toys. Apparently being a tech-based hero is 'OK'. With lots of neat little touches, Top Ten seems to be a pretty darn cool comic, and a lot better than the other story out currently with an "Everyone has Super Powers" premise (that being Earth X, or How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love X-Angst).

Trekker #1

More sci-fi pap from Image Comics. It was okay until they started some weird pretentiousness about passing a test of character or something towards the end. Dude, they don't even talk like that on Star Trek any more.

Cosmic Ray #1

MORE sci-fi pap from Image Comics. Albeit in Black & White. And it's not all THAT bad, in a sort of vaguely pulp serial way. It's just not particularly stellar.

Trouble Express #4

We-ell now. Urm. I'm all for creator-owned comics, see, but... but... the plot! So wooden! Wargh! Okay, we've got the Surly Mercenary Guy. The Surly Mercenary Girl. The Surly Employer. The Surly Utterly Invincible Battle Android Created By The Surly Employer. In this episode, we get the Surly Employer sending the Surly Mercenary Girl to steal something from the Surly Mercenary Guy's quarters while he's out chatting up the Invincible, yet Surly Battle Android. And then the Surly Employer decides she doesn't REALLY want the McGuffin, so she sends the Surly Mercenary Girl to put it back again. And then the Surly Mercenary Guy discovers the break-in on his quarters upon returning from his 'date' with the Invincible Battle Android 'O Surl, and then goes and gives the McGuffin to the Surly Employer for no particularly good reason. Um. And, well, that's pretty much how it goes.

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