Broken Frontier

Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters #1

By Tonya Crawford

Horror in the Himalayas as a Buddhist monastery comes under attack. Fortunately this monastery was once home to the Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters. Unfortunately the original hamsters are unavailable which leaves the ‘B’ team to come to the rescue. Do Lucy, Jean-Claude, Arnold, Rock and Steven have what it takes?

Writer Keith Champagne takes up Don Chin and Parsonavich’s original characters and situations and then goes on to (as the title says) the next generation of silliness, sarcasm, and satire. Champagne does seem to get quite a bit of joy out of poking fun at action movie clichés and characters and that clearly comes out in the pages. Artist Tom Nguyen joins in on the mirth with some spot-on visual caricatures and puns. He manages to handle even the humorous action sequences with an artistic splash.

Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters is a wonderful excuse for some wickedly funny parody and silliness. If you are in the mood to have your funny bone tickled then this is a title for you.

Keith Champagne (W), Tom Nguyen (P & I), Dynamite Entertainment, $3.50

All-Star Batman #8

By James Wortman

Frank Miller continues his retelling of Robin’s origin in this issue and further explores the first few hours following the death of Dick Grayson’s parents. This installment opens with a disturbing display of misogynistic violence courtesy of the Joker, whom Batman has learned may be responsible for the orphaning of his new ward.

There are some interesting points in the narrative, including a Hal Jordan cameo and Dick Grayson’s quest for an alter-ego, but the "gritty for the sake of gritty" story never lives up to Jim Lee’s phenomenal artwork. The characters here look phenomenal; unfortunately they all speak with teeth-clenching sound-byte bravado. After eight issues, it’s still unclear why we should continue reading, particularly when Miller is far more talented than this book suggests.

While Miller may have given us some of the best Batman stories ever told, this series suggests that he has grown tired of Gotham City altogether.

Frank Miller (W), Jim Lee (P), Scott Williams (I), DC Comics, $2.99

Army of Darkness #6 (ADVANCE)

By Tonya Crawford

Ash may have ended the Deadite reign under Evil Ash but the world is still a post-apocalyptic nightmare and a new threat is looming on the horizon. Of course, "chosen one" Ash is as obnoxious and clueless as ever. If he’s really the savior of humanity then the Earth is in a lot of trouble…

James Kuhoric and his writing partner Mike Raicht play around with some old post-apocalyptic society clichés, add heavy doses of snarky humor to the mix to try to entertain but ultimately it just isn’t enough. After three movies and several comic book mini-series’ there is a feeling of "been-there, done-that" with Ash’s adventures. There is nothing really new here and even the jokes and one-liners are retreads. Artist Fernando Blanco manages to create some visual interest though by mixing a rubbery, comedic, over the top style with the more gruesome, horror elements, reminding readers of the mix of horror and black humor in the original movies.

Army of Darkness: The Long Road Home is, in the end, one that probably only the most die-hard fans of the series will enjoy. There is little new under the sun and the lead character’s casual arrogance has lost most of the goofy charm that endeared movie and comic book fans.

James Kuhoric and Mike Raicht (W), Fernando Blanco (P & I), Dynamite Entertainment, $3.50

Dark 48 #1

By Dave Baxter

A "rage" virus that targets the Y chromosome is released into the lower 48 states of the US of A, and now an all-women commando team heads into infected territory to reestablish order and hopefully sus out a cure.

Talk about derivative. Y the Last Man, 28 Days Later, very Halo-esque troopers in the lead… On the one hand, the conceit allows for an all-female military action cast inside a post-apocalyptic setting, but on the other hand… it’s just freaking derivative. The women characters only once or twice stand out from each other, the action is relatively tame, the caption box narration overplayed, and the cliffhanger ending places the book, unconditionally, inside Y the Last Man territory.

The art by Daniel Indro and Joel Seguin is as solid as all Digital Webbing books, polished, beautiful, though nothing breathtaking, nothing to overlook the tired nature of the primary plot. Steven O’Connell, in this issue’s afterword, waxes thoughtful on "how he gets his ideas", and while he doesn’t deny source material, he doesn’t exactly admit to Dark 48 being a pure pastiche of contemporary pop culture genre fiction, which it irritatingly is. Only one more issue to go, too. That just doesn’t get a recommendation from me, no matter how much I thought this book would be a special surprise "find".

Steven O’Connell (W), Daniel Indro (P), Joel Seguin (C), Digital Webbing Publishing, $3.99

Marvel Zombies 2 #4

By Sal Pane

Robert Kirkman delivers the best issue of Marvel Zombies 2 yet and it’s all thanks to the return of one hero: Colonel America. But this isn’t the Colonel you remember from the first miniseries, this one has a bit of a Frankenstein vibe going on. Mix him in with the regular cast of warring zombies and you’ve got yourself hilarious results.

This month the zombies vie for control of Reed Richards’ inter-dimensional transportation device in hopes of finding an endless amount of universes to feast on. Kirkman ratchets up the laugh count from previous installments but artist Sean Phillips, whose zombie renderings are usually superb, drops the ball a bit this month. He repeats a few of the panels during the main action sequence. Pay close attention to Spidey as he webs Phoenix in the face in exactly the same way on two separate occasions.

The bottom line is the Marvel Zombie franchise has been around long enough for you to know whether or not it’s up your alley. It’s not a high concept. It’s the characters you know and love as zombies and you’re either sick of that gimmick or still willing to shell out three bucks for new installments. My advice is if you’ve been reading for this long you might as well see how it plays out. All others should wait for trade or just move on to Kirkman’s superior Walking Dead.

Robert Kirkman (W), Sean Phillips (P & I), Marvel Comics, $2.99

Narcopolis #1

By Dave Baxter

Jamie Delano returns to comics for the first time since his abruptly cut-short Vertigo series Outlaw Nation, but this once-trailblazer is showing his Stegosaurus spines. A futuristic dystopian world based on wide-spread drug culture to satiate the masses, inaccessible lingo based on said drug culture, and a maverick rogue hero that looks to bring it all crashing down through blood and charm and snark. What was the epitome of cool twenty years ago just doesn’t cut it anymore.

To be honest, Narcopolis seems crass, uninspired, and mean like a bully. Delano creates a magnificent new future slang that pervades the every word of dialogue in this new book, but slang based entirely on drug use and an inbred single culture sans all subculture isn’t terribly interesting. Especially as cyber-drug-crazy-s&%t became a yawn-inducing conceit shortly after Gibson’s Necromancer debuted back in the 1980s; no one else coming forth to top that seminal masterpiece but only reiterate it.

The protagonist of Narcopolis is a charming a-hole, which is rather trite and cliché; he holds all the cards, and will of course be righteous in his every motive and blood-thirsty move, to "wake up" the drugged-by-choice inhabitants of the imperfect totalitarian oppressive regime. Maybe this story will have some nice V for Vendetta grey areas, but it sure doesn’t seem like it, and even if it did, that would just put us back into been-there, done-that bedding. Does anyone in comics have anything evolved to say about this struggle between security and personal responsibility?

Jeremy Rock has clean, Avatar-looking art. It’s good, but it’s so indelibly "Avatar" that it doesn’t really come across as being anything else. Looking back over my three mini-reviews this week, I realize that they all persist in crabbing about regurgitated ad nauseum comic book concepts. Sad to say, but it’s true: where did creativity go? When did every writer become a one-note instrument, a one-trick pony, a single-entry encyclopedia? Blech. What a depressing week for comics.

Jaime Delano (W), Jeremy Rock (P & I), Greg Waller (C), Avatar Comics, $3.99

Project Superpowers #0

By Dave Baxter

Alex Ross and Jim Krueger put forth yet another world full of super-heroes, Golden Age to the Modern Age, filled with deconstructive takes on nostalgic conceits, driven by omnipotent mysterious narrators via everything-you-know-is-wrong mind-bending and not entirely coherent expository monologues. The entire "X" trilogy for Marvel, Justice for DC, and now this — is it really worth it?

For a dollar, and a nearly full-sized story to go along with it, it’s definitely worth checking out to make an informed decision, but I have to say, for myself: "No!" (exclamation mark included). The story almost distinguishes itself from Krueger’s past maxi-series epics, with a cool core concept of Pandora’s box (though it’s actually, and in this case rightly, an urn) being the cause of all the world’s superpowers (the embodiment of hope) and also evil. When one hero is charged by his spirit ancestors to return all evil to the urn, but also all hope, he moves to do just that, sacrificing more than any other hero can bring themselves to. But of course, it’s a feint and double-feint, though not, sadly, comprehensibly so. Just as in Krueger’s X trilogy, with Death and Thanos and Mar-vell and Mephisto all "lying" and "deceiving" and blah blah blah, so, too is Project Superpowers plagued by grandiose schemes that hardly make logical sense, but only work within a highly disbelief-suspended bridge between story and readership.

The art by Doug Kaluba and Stephen Sadowski is good lookin’ and cookin’, but appears in a style that maintains a similar sensibility to Braithwaite’s work on Justice and the latter Xs. I wish this book held any sort of unique or even original quality to it, but it plumb doesn’t. It’s precisely what we’ve gotten before: different names, different costumes, same in-retrospect (what with a few versions come and gone) stupid sort of story. I say: yuck. No more of this crap. Christ, Krueger, try something — anything —different.

Jim Krueger w/ Alex Ross (W), Doug Kaluba and Stephen Sadowski (P & I), Captain Moreno (C), Dynamite Entertainment, $1.00

X-Men #207

By Sal Pane

The concluding chapter of the first X-event in a decade begins with all the players in place: the X-Men, Marauders, baby and even Predator X have all been brought to the same battleground. However, does a knock down drag out fight necessarily translate into a satisfying ending?

Overwhelmingly the answer is yes. There’s been some weak points in the thirteen part epic, namely the near absence of the Purifiers and Mr. Sinister past the midway point, but for the most part Messiah CompleX has told an incredibly engaging tale. Some fans may have issues with the fact that it ends a bit ambiguously and spins out into a breadth of titles a la Civil War, but I have to admit, I’m really excited for the upcoming direction of the X-books, especially Cable, and I haven’t seriously read anything mutant related - Whedon’s continuity removed Astonishing notwithstanding - since Generation X.

There’s a lot of truly shocking moments to be had in this month’s X-Men including the final fate of Predator X and the showdown between Cable and Bishop, Cable and Cyclops and Cable and pretty much everyone. Although a few of these status quo shakeups feel like sensational shocks that will be retconned within months, many of these plot threads will be guiding the direction of the X-Men universe for the rest of 2008. If you have any desire to read the X-Men at all this year you owe it to yourself to check out Messiah CompleX, the best X-crossover since Age of Apocalypse.

Mike Carey (W), Chris Bachalo (P) Tim Townsend (I), Marvel Comics, $2.99