Reviews - Review - FA Online

Magneto 1

I’ve read a few one-offs lately where the purpose of their existence is unclear. I am imagining editors deciding they want, say, a Magneto one-shot and handing the job to someone, ignoring their protests that they have zero ideas as to what to do with one issue with that character.

BPRD: Hell on Earth: Gods 1

I admitted the other day that I had never read Hellboy before, so you won’t be surprised that I was unfamiliar with the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense spin-off. Actually, I don’t feel a great deal more familiar with them after reading this, since none of them appear until the final panel.

Invincible Iron Man 500.1

This is the first of Marvel’s .1 sequence of issues over the next couple of months, intended to provide jumping-on points for new readers. I plan on trying most of them, as they will be new to me. I’ll be interested to see if they really are comprehensible for someone who has been out of touch for ages on most of the Marvel Universe, and interested to see how many keep me coming back for the subsequent issues.

Berlin 17

Berlin is a comic set in… Berlin. It is set in the early years of the 20th century, with this particular issue occurring in that awkward period between the onset of the Great Depression and the Nazis’ assumption of power. So we are in the last days of Weimar Germany.

Wolverine Goes to Hell

Deeply unimpressed as I was by Aaron’s start on Ultimate Captain America, this bargain collection of the first three issues of his Wolverine tempted me to try again. It is better, but I am still not terribly keen.

Ultimate Avengers v3 #6

I’ve enjoyed this series. I said in a recent Shazam! review that I think writers taking on existing characters need to think about what makes them special, what their particular requirements and opportunities are. I know Mark has created most of these, but clearly the Ultimate characters are variations on established stars.

Mickey Mouse 304

Unlike Carl Barks, Disney’s other great comic book artist, relatively little of Floyd Gottfredson’s work is readily available. This makes the reprinting of two early works in this comic especially welcome.

Hellboy: The Sleeping and the Dead 1

Strange confession time, before I start this: I have never read a Hellboy comic. I’ve seen and enjoyed both movies, and I’ve always liked Mignola’s art, so I can’t explain this. This two-issue series seemed a good way to sample it.

DMZ 60

DMZ is a Vertigo title set in a near future America in which the USA is caught up in a civil war between redneck libertarian gun nuts and the brutal military-industrial complex who control the central government. The series is set in New York, which is some kind of frontline or demilitarised zone between the two sides. I suppose the idea is to show First World readers what modern war is like, by bringing an Iraq-style maelstrom home to that most quintessentially American city.

Shazam! 1

The first impression inside is that either some weird meta move is being pulled, or someone fucked up the colour registration, as much of it is out of focus. I am pretty sure it’s the latter. If that was the worst I could say about this dreary, vacuous comic, maybe that wouldn’t be so bad, but it’s terrible throughout.