Penny Century

Since Beatriz "Penny Century" Garcia is my favorite Love & Rockets' Locas, I'm very excited to see the advance solicitation for the new soft cover Penny Century - A Love & Rockets Collection. The Tome picks up from the last Jamie Hernandez volume Perla La Loca, which collects stories from the relaunched Love & Rockets volume 2 from 2001. It reprints all the Love & Rocket stories from that period in dramatic black and white, including the Maggie & Hopey Color Fun one-shot.

The most exciting inclusion is the long out-of-print Whoa, Nellie!, which was a female wrestling story about champs Xochitl and Gina and their fight to retain their title. The only major reoccurring cast member in that story was Maggie, though the wrestling backdrop was a strong secondary element of many early L&R stories. This story was also not reprinted in the recent Locas II Hardcover collection. The compilation takes its name from the often-nude, super-hero wannabe Penny Century. The story 'Bay of Three' recounts her odd origin, daydreaming of superpowers, and meeting horned billionaire lover H.R. Costigan. The volume also includes popular Ray, Maggie, and Hopey stories like "Hopey Hop Sacks" and "Everybody Loves Me Baby." The whole volume roughly collects half of the Locas II HC.

In my opinion, the soft cover collected volumes are the best way to read Love & Rockets. They are the easiest way to follow the reading order, and with the cheap price of $18.99, you can't find a better launching point for one of the most regarded independent comics of all time.

-Jon

Hulk Smashes Planet... Again!

Hey guys, do you remember that Hulk story arc from a few years back, that had the Big Green Machine exiled from Earth and sent to a planet full of violence and pain? It was the precursor to that Marvel event that had our buddy tearing through Marvel's finest like they were wet pieces of paper. Yeah... Well, it looks like Marvel and Lionsgate really wants folks to see just why the Hulk was so angry that he enslaved a few top-tier heroes and made them fight each other in a gladiatorial-type battle. To be honest, from what I've been told, there isn't much of a difference between the animated Planet Hulk and the comic Planet Hulk. I think that most notably, one of the more obvious changes deals with the fight that Hulk had with the Silver Surfer. Oh yeah, did I mention that Hulk has a legitimate fight with the Silver Surfer in the comic? Well, he does, but due to legal reasons, the Silver Surfer couldn't be used for the animation. (Thanks Fox) But instead of dropping that angle all together, Marvel and Lionsgate decided to replace the Surfer with Beta Ray Bill. That totally works for me. Beta Ray is awesome and is way more interesting than the Silver Surfer and Thor combined. (True Statement) Anyway, with that change aside, everything else seems to run it's course as it did in the comic. Hulk is put into a spaceship to take him to a planet full of vegetation, so that he can live in peace and not be a menace to Earth. That doesn't go as planned, and Hulk ends up landing on a savage planet where his healing factor is nullified. For the first time in a long time, the Hulk can be killed with relative ease... So, after the crash, the Hulk is found and is sold into slavery, where he eventually becomes a gladiator. And with a few other warriors, a plan is set into motion to overthrow the king of Sakaar (Planet name).

That about sums it up. If Marvel can keep up the same quality of work that was produced with the Hulk Vs films, then this should make for a great movie. There's going to be a lot of HULK SMASH in this one, and with HULK SMASH we get a lot of yelling and screaming. So I hope this is a loud one. Anyway, February 2nd marks the release of this DVD, enjoy it. Plus, if you're the kinda guy who hates seeing Bruce Banner take up half the movie, then have no fear as this movie is all Hulk, and nothing but the Hulk. No puny Banner.



-Fleet

Joe the Barbarian

I think Vertigo has done a smart thing by releasing their newer #1 issues for a buck lately. I think this did wonders for series' like the Unwritten, and Sweet Tooth, and may prove advantageous for the new Vertigo title Joe the Barbarian which sees Grant Morrison kickin' it old school with a non super-hero tale for the imprint that popularized him in the first place. Fans of Morrison may remember his take on the Doom Patrol, which became one of the first titles to be printed under the Vertigo name, and his super-trippy series, the Invisibles which was the prototypical Vertigo-style series. After re-launching the X-Men at Marvel, killing Batman in the regular DC universe, Morrison is bringing us a new, original story.

The story behind Joe the Barbarian is pure teen angst and alienation. Joe is a kid who is tormented by bullies and retreats into his own imagination like kids his age are often known to do. Joe uses drawing as on of his withdrawing from reality methods and has what is quite possibly the coolest attic room any teenager could ask for. Not to be limited to just another tale of teen-angst, Joe has a moment where his many action figures seem to reach out to him in what appears to be an all too real hallucination/ dream state about a coming war. This scene reminded me a little bit of the Imaginationland saga from South Park, but with more seriousness. The teen angst theme in Joe the Barbarian may feel all too familiar to a lot of comic readers since it is the story that a lot of long-time comic readers felt at that time in their lives (and have hopefully since gotten over.) with the problems of being raised by a single parent, being a social outcast, being under appreciated and ridiculed by your peers. This just wouldn't be a Grant Morrison story without a dose of weird trippiness, which is definitely what Mr. Morrison is best at.

All in all, I enjoyed the first issue. The art is fantastic, and the story isn't as overwhelmingly strange as most of Grant Morrison's earlier Vertigo work. I would venture to say that if you like the Unwritten, the Sandman, and Morrisons Vertigo work, then Joe the Barbarian is your cup o' tea.

-Jim

Monster Mash

With three issues into the Punisher – FrankenCastle story, I’m completely sold on the outrageous new direction. I know earlier on the blog, I expressed my reservations about FrankenCastle, stating, “I can’t tell if I think this is the stupidest story (idea) ever.” Though I still find it absolutely ridiculous, I tried to be open-minded and ended up loving Punisher as an undead monster.

Obviously, this is a huge departure for a Punisher book, and writer Rick Remender is asking a lot from long-time fans to stay onboard. Yet, Marvel also has the PunisherMax line to tell more classic vigilante stories and is covering their base readership. FrankenCastle simply allows Remender to explore Frank Castle in a more comic book-y manner, and perhaps encourage new Punisher readers, like myself, to embark on more outlandish adventures.

Honestly, Punisher – FrankenCastle is really more of a Legion of Monsters comic than a Punisher comic. Remender is just taking Frank Castle’s monstrous view on justice and punishment and literally transforming him into a monster, also making him team leader of the Legion. As a monster, Punisher does what he does best: kill villains he deems unjust. This is only magnified now that as a Frankenstein, Punisher is only cognitive while taking a 13-hour pill; otherwise he’s twice as crazy as human Frank Castle.

As a Legion of Monsters book however, Remender has established in just a few short issues an expansive B.P.R.D.-ish Monster world for the Marvel universe. The main plot follows the Legion reassembling the Punisher as Frankenstein, in order to get his tactical assistance in defeating a group of Japanese assassins set on “destroying all monsters.” Artist Tony Moore is the perfect fit for the book and does a fantastic job illustrating Man-Thing, The Living Mummy, Werewolf by Night, Molten-Man-Thing, and Morbius. Hell, he even gives the monster from the first cover of Fantastic Four a cameo appearance.

I’m not sure how long the Punisher will actually be relevant to the book, because Marvel could launch a great Legion of Monsters ongoing series from this. With the same creative team of Remender and Moore, I actually think it would be a more obvious success not having Punisher involved. However, for now, I’m reading Punisher and that’s saying a lot. The Punisher is a comic I’ve never followed issue by issue before. I’ve liked it so much I even think I’ll right the letters column, something I haven’t done since I was a kid. FrankenCastle is an interesting take on the Punisher and a terrific monster book.

-Jon

Milestone Forever

Are you as excited about Milestone Forever as I am? What's that? "What's Milestone Forever," you ask? It's only one of the coolest things to happen in comics, that's all. Let me ask you this; How many times have you been reading and enjoying a comic book, only to have it canceled well before the book was ready for the ax? Now ask yourself the same question, except this time, replace "comic book", with "entire company brand". Because that's what happened in the 90s with Milestone Media. And let us suppose that you don't know what Milestone Media is, or you're not sure what they put out... Well, I'm here to let you know that Milestone is responsible for the creation of a line of comics that featured minority heroes. And not just your typical fare of minorities, we're talking black, Latino, gay, transgendered, Asian, handicapped, and so on. Some of the titles of these books are as follows; Blood Syndicate, Icon, Hardware, Shadow Cabinet, Xombie, and Static.

If any of those names should sound familiar, it's probably Static. 3 years after the closing of Milestone's comic department, a children's cartoon arose in Static Shock. Essentially repackaging the Milestone lore into a more family friendly deal, that eventually ran for 4 seasons and found it's self established in the DC Animated Continuity. And I must stress, Static and and the rest of the Milestone comics weren't meant for kids at all. The Big-Bang incident that gave Static his powers in the show, is vastly different from the one that occurred in the comics. I'll save you the long-and-drawn-out story, but the short-version is that it involved a massive gang riot and experimental drugs. Let there be no mistake, the Milestone books were violent and were intended for mature audiences. But then... most of the popular 90s comics were for mature audiences... But nevermind that now... We've gotta move forward, and finally, DC has been thinking the same way.

What I neglected to mention earlier, was that Milestone was an imprint of DC comics. So, what that means in the simplest terms is that Milestone characters were not a part of the DC Universe. For the most part, DC just printed and distributed the Milestone books. That's it. I believe there was one crossover back in 1994, but otherwise, the two worlds stayed separate... That was, until DC's Final Crisis. The Milestone world was merged into the new DC continuity. As I understand, this was briefly dealt with in some Justice League issues, but Milestone Forever is here to go into more detail about the merging of worlds, as well as giving us closure to all of the books that were shut-down in the middle of a story arc. And so, this week, we get part 1 of a 2-part series, dealing with the return of Milestone characters. And it's only fitting that Dwayne McDuffie (Awesome writer/co-founder of Milestone Media) has returned with some of the Milestone artists to complete this tale as well as welcoming these cool characters in the the world of DC. Feb 3rd. Remember this day.

-Fleet

Game Over Man!

So the other day, I had the pleasure of being able to watch Predator 2 on a basic cable channel which, by the way, is more awesome than the first movie in my opinion. I hadn't seen it for close to 15 years and it's still as cool today as it was in 1990 when the outlook of the future of Los Angeles was even more cynical and bullet-riddled than it is perceived today. The cool thing about the Predator/ Aliens universe is that like a select few movie/ television franchises, it translates well to comics.

Dark Horse has expanded the Alien/ Predator universe in much the way it has for the Star Wars expanded universe and provides something of a showcase for up and coming or well established creators to tinker with the worlds coolest space beasties. Aliens in particular has seen interpretation by artist like Kelly Jones who does an Alien story like no one else can, one of my personal favorite artists Eduardo Risso has contributed an emaciated-looking but vicious Alien creature. Sam Keith, who created the Maxx drew what is probably my favorite version of the Xenomorph. In the Predator-verse, we get to see the ugly muthas' sense of honor, and a glimpse of their tribal society that was barely hinted at in the films. Comic legend Gene Colon has illustrated a Predator story as well as indie-legend Evan Dorkin who has written a couple of Predator stories in his time. Alien and Predator stories usually always make for a nice mini-series read.

The deadliest creatures in the known universe join other franchises like Star Wars, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer that Dark Horse has managed to continue at the same level of quality as the original material from film and television. I particularly recommend the omnibus editions of Aliens, Predator, and Alien vs. Predator which at only twenty five dollars a pop provide a good bang for your buck on some very entertaining stories about some of the most enduring modern monsters.

-Jim

The Day Reality Went Wild… Again! Proteus Returns

Artist John Byrne did some amazing things with his tenure on Uncanny X-Men. Some even consider him the definitive X-Men artist. The Byrne issue that has made the most lasting impression for me is Uncanny X-Men #128 from 1979. In the startling conclusion to the Proteus saga, titled “The Day Reality Went Wild,” the transparent villain literally warps reality around the X-Men, making the issue feel more like a bad acid-trip than a super-hero romp. Byrne had a lot of fun with the limitless potential of Proteus and turns the psycho’s final hurrah into a psychedelic “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.”

Proteus was the brainchild of legendary X-writer Chris Claremont. The misbegotten son of Joseph & Moria MacTaggart, Kevin manifested an insatiable mutant hungry for energy in his teens. To protect humanity from his tremendous power, Moria contained Kevin in her Mutant Research Centre on Muir Island, never to interact with humanity. Unfortunately, when the X-Men battle Magneto on Muir Island, Kevin is accidently released and goes on a killing rampage through Edinburgh, Scotland.

After his escape, Kevin doesn’t have a solid body and takes the name Proteus, after the Greek shape-shifting god, while he takes possession of the bodies of the towns-people for temporary hosts. His confrontation with the X-Men is monumental, lasting over several issues, which was uncommon for the time where plots concluded at the end of each comic.

The X-Men very narrowly escape the battle with their lives, and Wolverine takes the brunt of Proteus’ psychic warping, masterfully illustrated by Byrne. Wolverine’s metal claws are a key weakness to Proteus’ temperamental bodies, so he takes a headstrong approach to ending the menace. Time after time Wolverine attacks, but falls to his knees from Proteus’ mental attack, envisioning himself clawing his own intestines out or disintegrating into thin air. Byrne holds nothing back, and the images remain frightening even to today’s standards.

Though only appearing sporadically for the next few decades, Proteus has long since been one of the X-Men’s most frightening opponents. His recent return, as part of the resurrected undead in the Necrosha storyline (X-Men: Legacy 231 – 233), is just as unsettling as Claremont and Byrne’s original tale. This time faced against a team lead by Rouge and Magneto, the X-Men are no more prepared to deal with the formless monster. Writer Mike Carey choices Blindfold, an eyeless mutant, to be the new host for Proteus and his return is extra creepy in her fortuneteller-like body.

The original Proteus saga is collected into a pristine hardcover collection. The current story is ongoing in X-Men: Legacy. Get Ready for a mind-bender.

-Jon