The Spirit #13

Okay. So this is a holiday book. It's only that the holiday covered in this book doesn't match the one on the cover. There are 3 stories in this issue with only the first issue being set during a holiday. And that holiday in question? Is it Christmas? Nope. It doesn't even take place in December. It's Halloween!

On that Halloween night, a gang of goons have just robbed a jewelry store dressed as The Spirit. Things are going good until they reach the tiger lion exhibit at the city zoo and the jewels have somehow wound up right next to a giant Bengal beauty.

Tale #2 has the Spirit helping out an elderly woman who is being targeted by literal grave robbers on the hunt for her uncle's missing inheritance. 

This issue wraps up with a story told entirely in symbols. There's a literary term for this; but I can't remember what that was. And I refuse to quantify it as emojis.

All 3 stories were good. I don't think I've ever read a bad story about The Spirit. There have been some that I had to read a couple times over as capers involving cons and double-crosses. That last story using symbols required a re-read but mostly because there are so many subtle elements that get lost when there are no words to be seen. 

Still, as much as I liked this issue, I feel gypped. That cover is a beauty done in conjunction with J. Bone (Archie Meets Batman '66) and the late Darwyn Cooke (The Twilight Children). And it's Christmasy, through and through. I would have been okay if only 1 of the 3 stories were Christmas themed or if the cover was Halloween themed. But I am unhappy with looking forward all year to this Christmas comic and discovering I should have read this in October. So I am gonna grade hard!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars. 

Batman: Ego and Other Tails.

  Darwyn Cooke. 
  Another Comic legend that passed away too soon. 
  Damn you, 2016.
  Ego and Other Tails is a collection of Cooke's foray into the world of the Dark Knight. 
   In the title story, Ego, Batman is pushed to his limits. Contemplating hanging up the cowl for good, has Bruce Wayne's Id battling Batman's Ego (or is it the other way around?) in a battle to the death. 
    The second main story is Cooke's Catwoman: Selina's Big Score. Tangling with the wrong crowd has lead to Selina Kyle faking her own death. But when a girlfriend of a mob boss lays out plans to a major transfer of laundered cash across the Canadian border, it means Catwoman must come out of retirement and organize her own crew. But when she does it will bring a deadly figure from past- and it's NOT Batman!
      An eclectic cover gallery and short stories involving small time thugs, a villain named Madame X, Commissioner Gordon, and the love-hate relationship of Batman and Catwoman complete this collection of tails- I mean tales.
      Of all the material in this book, I had only read the Selina story once before. I wasn't really a fan of it then. I'm still not quite a fan of it now. But I had a greater enjoyment of the artwork as when I first read the book, I couldn't tell the difference between Darwyn Cooke and Captain Cook. 
      The new material was great. Ego was very cerebral and the artwork match it quite well. A little creepy but it was a good creepy- like the enjoyment you get from watching a really good horror story. 

    Worth Consuming

    Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

The Twilight Children

   A small sea-side community has a bizarre history. From time to time, very bright orbs of light make appearances on the shore. Though they can be netted in, the orbs very seldom stick around for very long. But when the latest orb results in the blindness and new-found psychic abilities of 3 children, the town becomes host of oddballs such as a weary scientist, some really odd G-men disguised as vacationers, and a mysterious young woman with the literal ability to take men's breath away.
     I became interested in this book mainly for the art. The Twilight Children was one of the last projects of Darwyn Cooke (The Spirit) before he passed away from cancer last year. I'm familiar with the work of series writer and Love and Rockets co-creator Gilbert Hernandez. But the reason I wanted to read this book was more for the visual appeal.
      The Twilight Children has great characters, and I was engrossed by their affairs, foibles, and interactions as they try to uncover the mystery behind the orbs. But I feel like this story isn't over. At only 4 issues long, the story is pretty short comparatively and the even more mysterious ending just leads me to believe that this isn't the end of the Twilight Children. But a sequel just wouldn't be the same without Darwyn Cooke's amazing artistic style. 
     With strong sexual content, nudity, and language, this is recommended for mature audiences. Parents and guardians often think that if a book has kids in it as the main characters then it must be a kids book. That is really not the case, so parental discretion is advised for children under the age of 18- though really, this book wouldn't be rated any higher than PG-13 if this was a live action film.

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Future Quest #1 (Family Comic Friday)

  Normally when I review a book for Family Comic Friday, I make as many attempts as possible to find an all-ages rated book. However, this week, I decided to review a comic that was based on something from the 70s that would have been all-agesback in the day, but in it's rebooted form is now considered rated for readers aged teen and up.

    Earlier this year, DC Comics announced that they were releasing 4 new comics based on classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons from the 60s and 70s. The 4 titles were reboots of the Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, Wacky Races, and many more animated shows that adults from my generation just adored. Of the reboots, I chose the one that is considered by fans to be the least retooled (and closest to the original source material): Future Quest.

   The comic, being a reasonable facsimile to the original shows of which the characters that star in this series originated, has the crossover of all crossovers. When a series of temporal paradoxes explode over the Florida Everglades, Jonny Quest and his friends investigate. In these portals are characters such as Space Ghost, the Herculoids, Mightor, and many more of your favorite Hanna-Barbera action and sci-fi heroes from years past. But quick on Jonny's heels are the forces of his arch-enemy, Dr. Zin, and they have the tools  to collect the strange beings bleeding over into our universe and the resources to make them an army of unmatchable power!

    The brains behind Future Quest are X-Men: First Class' Jeff Parker, along with Adventures of Superman artist Evan 'Doc' Shaner, and living legend Steve Rude! They did a fantastic job bringing the heroes of my past into the present and made them exciting and new without changing the formula too much. Many reboots of cartoons from the 70s are done tongue-in-cheek or barely resemble the original with updated outfits or modern trends. Here, everybody looks classic but with just that little modern day touch of class and there's one very good reason for this- Darwyn Cooke.

    Just before Darwyn Cooke (Justice League: The New Frontier) passed from his horrible fight with cancer, he developed all of the designs of characters to be used in this book. As it is with all of his works, Cooke was very devoted to nostalgia but he wasn't afraid to change things up when warranted. Even though Darwyn didn't get to personally complete this project, his deft hand is evident in each and every panel.

     I loved this first issue. Was I 100% sure who everyone was or had a complete understanding what was going on? No! But, I liked what I saw and I and very much willing to continue with this series. Of the 4 reboot titles, this one spoke to me the most. There's no goofy Mad Max element or veiled allegory to the economic disparity of poor and the 1% as in Wacky Raceland or retooled The Flintstones. This felt like something that I would be proud to share to the next generation of readers and it's why I shared my review here with you now.

    Speaking of the next generation, this book is rated Teen. Under DC's personal guidelines, the book is recommended for ages 12 and up. But other than a couple of panels of mild violence, there's nothing really objectionable. Sex appeal is at a near zero. The language was extremely tame. The idea of inter-dimensional crossover between universes is perhaps the most grown-up thing in the book. I mean, we are talking about quantum physics here, folks.

    So if your child hands you a copy of Future Quest and asks you to A) buy it or B) read it with them- choose option C and do both! This was a fun trip down memory lane and I am sure that the guest stars that keep popping up over the course of this series will continue to thrill and delight. Who knows, for a Space Ghost Coast to Coast fan like me, I might luck out and get a chance to see my old buddies Borak and Brak!

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

A Sad, Sad Day...

                                                           Nov. 11, 1962- May 14, 2016

Weird War Tales #1

In this tribute to the 70s and 80s series of the same name, Darwyn Cooke and some of DC’s best writers and artists team up to produce a trio of ghostly war tales. Cooke’s tale is a romp involving zombie versions of Patton, Kaiser Wilhelm, and Napoleon as they participate in an annual war games of the dead. The only rule: No Hitler’s Allowed!

Then there’s a creepy tale about a sunken sub and a crewman who wouldn’t die. Lastly, a pair of childhood buddies turned grunts hide out in an abandoned barn, waiting for the advancing panzers to come wipe them out. Hopefully, the dinosaurs coming to their aid will get there first.

A fantastic issue. The Cooke story was the best and the Dinosaur tale was a close second. The submarine story was good, but I was confused by the ending. Still, this makes me wish Weird War Tales had never been cancelled.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Catwoman: Selina's Big Score

NOT WORTH CONSUMING

This book is a major disappointment. I love Darwyn Cooke’s stuff, but this book just isn’t up to snuff. It was as confusing as “Get Shorty”, with hard to understand past histories, this character backstabbing this other guy, the introduction of additional characters without any backstory. It’s just a big jumble, and with Selina Kyle starting off the story being “dead”, there’s no recap to help a casual reader of Catwoman tales, like myself, to understand what’s going on.

I say Don’t Consume It!!!