KFC Presents: The Colonel Corps

    The restaurant world is in peril! Colonel Harlan Sanders has forgotten his top secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices that make his famous fried chicken so famous. Without it, his Earth-3 counterpart, Colonel Sunders will be free to unleash his disgusting chicken recipe on the eaters of earth-1! With the help of speedster Jesse Quick acting as a conduit, the good colonel travels the vast multiverse amassing a league of colonels to restore the recipe to it's continuity and save eater's palette's worldwide!

    This is actually the sequel to a 2015 web comic called The Colonel of Two Worlds. How did I miss that one? Starring the Flash and Green Lantern, it was a KFC sponsored comic story that paid tribute to Flash #123 and introduced the comic book world to the multiverse. AND, it seems like the kind of outlandish stuff I love to read and collect!

  As a chef, I also love to collect those recipe books sponsored by famous brands and restaurants. They're pretty strange with things like SPAM baked spaghetti or Dole pineapple ring burgers. But I love their kitschy style and how bizarre they can be. This web comic is the DC comics version of those odd recipe collections. Just don't expect the Colonel to reveal to you his secret recipe.

    I'm not one for web comics, but this is the only way to read this dynamic story. Yeah, it's silly and pretty odd, but I loved it! There was a chicken version of Colonel Sanders for gosh sake! What the heck does his restaurant serve?!

    Take advantage of this strange read. The Colonel of Two Worlds is no longer available online and the only way to get a hold of the Colonel Corps is through the eComic site, Comixology. It's totally free and will on be accessible for a limited time. So check it out now while you can!
    
    Worth Consuming.

    Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.
 

Heroes For Hope Starring The X-Men #1

   A couple of days ago, I reviewed DC's Heroes Against Hunger, a benefit comic book released in 1986 to raise awareness and funds for famine relief in Africa. Unbeknownst to me until after reading Heroes For Hunger, it turns out DC was following suit after Marvel published their benefit comic a year earlier. Maybe had I known this, I would've read Marvel's offering first. But I was really looking forward to reading Heroes Against Hunger and chose it first instead. But hey, in the spirit of fairness, I went on and read Heroes For Hope afterwards.

    In this benefit special, the X-Men are facing their worst fears and they are trembling in terror and defeat. With the help of Rachel Summers and Storm, the mutants are able to regain their confidence. After the attacks, the X-Men determines that the offender is stationed in Africa and race to the region to prevent further damage. 

    Landing in Ethiopia, the X-Men come face-to-face with the horrors of hunger and famine and volunteer to unload planes laden with relief supplies. But the mutants will have to act fast because every minute they spend helping their fellow man, the unseen terror that assaulted them back at the X-Men mansion grows ever stronger.

    Geez- this was a stinker. I gave Heroes Against Hunger a solid rating, trying to be as impartial as can be. I tried to do the same with this book but Marvel didn't make it easy for me. Yes, dozens of legendary writers, artists, and editors got together and worked pro bono for this project- including Berni Wrightson, Alan Moore, Frank Miller, and The Man himself, Stan Lee. Why even the master of horror, Stephen King contributed 3 or 4 pages! But no matter how hard I tried, I just hated this book. 

     The plot was a mess. There was very little cohesion between the assortment of writers. Plus, I thought this book was supposed to be about hunger relief. But honestly, the famine in Africa seemed like an afterthought. Plus, most of this story takes place in the deepest darkest recesses of the minds of several X-Men, including Magneto and man was it dark! 

     I know that people dying of starvation isn't joyful stuff. But unlike DC's publication, this special was a giant downer. For a title called Heroes For Hope, the main characters sure are hopeless.

Sorry folks, but I just ain't on board with this one. Like they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions and the intentions behind this landmark comic were very genuine. However, I found that attempting to get through this rambling mess was hellish to say the least.

    Not Worth Consuming.

    Rating: 3 out of 10 stars.

Hilda (And the Stone Forest) #1, Free Comics Book Day 2016 Edition (Family Comic Friday)

  I haven't had a lot of time on my hands recently what with a job search and finally landing a new job this week. So for this week's edition of Family Comic Friday, I dug deep into my collection of Free Comic Book Day offerings to present to you this treasury from this year's giveaway event. 
   The title story is Hilda, an adventurous girl who along with her pet dog/fox Twig save a family of gnomes from a runaway yard. Yes, you hear me, a patch of grass grew legs and stole a home of magical creatures! As odd as it may seem, this escapade opens Hilda and her friends up to a world of magic, delights, and danger. 
    Then we have a story starring Akissi and her brother Fofana. They are a pair of siblings who live in a town in Africa and are one of the few families that have a TV. To earn a little pocket money, the duo are charging admission to see the latest episode of everybody's favorite superhero Spectreman. But when Dad unexpectedly shows up early from work, Akissi and Fofana will have to work fast to clear out the makeshift movie theatre or they're going to get busted!
    Lastly we have a story called Fantasy Sports. Here, a young girl scores the winning homerun in what appears to be a game of gladiator baseball. But when the ball comes back, it opens her up to unimaginable (and unseen) dangers. I didn't like this story by Sam Bosma. Well, that's not fair, I didn't understand it. I didn't understand really what the strange game the girl was playing, nor why her baseball came back. It doesn't help that the story jumps over a large period of time in which the girl is now older, complaining about stinking fish, and accompanied by a volleyball playing wrestler. 
     Hilda by Luke Pearson and Akissi by Abouet and Sapin were both really good and I want to read more of their exploits. There was a charm to Hilda's story and Akissi was laugh out loud funny. (See the third to last panel- it's brilliant!) The two stories, though very different from each other, opened my eyes to two new worlds that I really would not mind visiting again and again. 
     If you are interesting in reading more about these characters, you should look no farther than Amazon, your local comic book shop, or library. All three books are published by Nobrow Press. Akissi has been available for several months and Fantasy Sports is a series that started last year and now has 2 volumes. But Hilda, under the series title Hildafolk has been around since 2010 and about 7 books have been published.
    Hilda, Akissi, and Fantasy Sports are reccomended for readers aged 6-11 but adults will enjoy these tales. I highly praise Hilda and Akissi. But the jury is still out for Fantasy Sports and the implied amount of violence may be objectionable to some parents. So, reader beware and use your best judgement on that one.

   Hilda- Worth Consuming. Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.
   Akissi- Worth Consuming. Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.
   Fantasy Sports. Rating: 5 out of 10 stars.
    
    

Heroes Against Hunger

   The year was 1986. In the course of the previous 24-months, a group of British Rockers under the name Band Aid released a Christmas record in hopes of raising funds and awareness for famine relief in Africa. Shortly, Hollywood and Motown's hot stars did the same with 'We Are the World.' Then rockers from around the world conducted a series of concerts in both London and New York for the cause. Finally the entire nation got into the act and attempted to raise awareness by symbolically holding 'Hands Across America.'
    In the mid-80s, you couldn't throw a rock without hitting a fundraiser for hunger and famine relief in Ethiopia and the surrounding areas of Africa. Everyone wanted to get involved with the project, even those in the comic book industry. In late 1985, Marvel was the first to issue a comic with proceeds going to famine relief. (I'll be reviewing that book in the next couple of days.) But the book that got my interest was DC's version- Heroes Against Hunger.
    I was 8 or 9 when I saw in the back of some long forgotten DC title an advertisement for Heroes Against Hunger. The ad listed over 50 of the industry's best writers, artists, colorists, and editors and on the cover was Superman, Batman, AND Lex Luthor! I was hooked and I never found it!!!
    Let's jump to Winter of last year. At a comic book shop in Asheville, NC I was trolling the bargain bins when I found Heroes Against Hunger and I didn't just find it, I found 24 pristine copies of Heroes! I guess that's where my copy went, it just took me 29 years to get a hold of it.

   So let's look at Heroes Against Hunger...

   Superman is hard at work trying to make the fields of Ethiopia fertile again. But torrential wind storms are making the effort nearly impossible. In disgust, Superman flies off in search of help and comes across Batman. The Dark Knight is investigating the wanton destruction of several Wayne Foundation planes that were carrying relief supplies to aid camp. The World's Finest heroes decide to help the other with Superman investigating the source of the crashes while Batman is tasked with approaching a brilliant scientist who might have formula for making things grow again in Africa: LEX LUTHOR!
    Heroes Against Hunger was an interesting mix of sci-fi and reality. While the fantastic was quite good, the best parts of this book involved the horrors of the famine in Africa. I'm not saying that I reveled in the plight of others. Rather, the parts of this comic that explained the factors behind the famine in Ethiopia as well as the scenes of rage that not only Batman and Superman has against the atrocities experienced by the starving refuges but Luthor as well were superior and very much Worth Consuming.
    
   Oh, one more thing- I didn't really mention much about the writing and the artwork. It's kinda hard to say that one guy was better than another in a work like this. This was a total group effort done by individuals that weren't even in the same state, much less the same room,  with each other. The fact that this got made at all is a little bit of a miracle. 
   While the entire book told a story, it's not 100% cohesive. The writers seem to have different themes that they are trying to put across and some times it seemed like the action got repeated from time to time. Why even Superman looks completely different from page to page as does Batman. It's varying styles and voices and sometimes they don't segue well That's mostly an editing problem. But with superstar talents like Neal Adams, Jack Kirby, George Perez, and many more doing this for free, I can't really find much fault with the errors and nits. So, I'm going to rate this pretty conservatively.

   Rating: 9 out of 10 stars. 
    

Flashpoint: The Outsider #1

   In 1960, a city in India was mysteriously wiped off the face of the earth. There was only one survivor- a chalk-white newborn with armor plating skin. This babe grew up to be known as Michael Desai in the orphanages of Calcutta. Now he's the Outsider, the richest and most powerful man in India and a major power player on the global stage.
    But just who is the Outsider, really?
    From the cover and his appearance in issue #1 of Flashpoint, I thought that maybe he's Metamorpho. For one, the Element Man was a founding member of the Outsiders so I thought maybe that was the connotation.  Secondly, they both have a ghostly white face. But the man who was Rex Mason received his powers from a mystical orb while on an archaeological expedition in Egypt. The Outsider is born with his powers and his parents weren't effected by the orb. So, no, despite some similarities, the Outsider is not the Flashpoint equivalent of Metamorpho.
     Without giving away a major plot twist, to understand the pre-Flashpoint origins of the Outsider, you have to go back to the Batman comics of the mid-1960s. Go ahead, Google search him and after reading this issue, things will make perfect sense. But this guy is in no way your dad's Outsider!
      This issue is a shining example of why I love the multiverse stories of DC. They don't always follow the same archetype. Certain characters might have the same name but they often either have different origin stories or they're different characters altogether. (There are a few exceptions to this, of course!) I wish Marvel could see this way instead of thinking the best way to present their characters as new or different is either by making them a different sex or race. 
    The intentions are all well and good but the stories told are often the same with very little originality. Here, the Outsider is completely different from anything I've read in DC history and that makes this character a total mystery to me. A mystery that I want to come back to again and again. That's why I say 'Make Mine DC!"

    Worth Consuming

    Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Flashpoint: Grodd of War One-Shot

  Without the Flash around, Gorilla Grodd easily overthrew the rulers of Gorilla City and eventually all of Africa fell afterwards. Grodd should be ecstatic but something's missing. Without a challenge to his leadership, being the despotic leader of the world's second largest continent isn't as worthwhile as he thought it would be! Who would've thought that Gorilla Grodd would actually be happy without the World's Fastest Man to give him fits??? 

    Grodd of War is another entry in the Flashpoint universe but unlike the other tie-ins that I have read set in the Flashpoint, this issue is a one-shot. I hate that! This story was so good, so intriguing, and so original, I didn't want it to end. I really wanted this storyline to be a 3-part miniseries. 
    New Suicide Squad's Sean Ryan really outdid himself with this tale. There was such a level of pathos and gore in this one-shot. The third season of the Flash is supposed to take place in the Flashpoint and if producers of the CW show are mining the comics for ideas, I really hope that they strip this issue clean!
     It's that good! And the artwork by Ig Guara (Blue Beetle) is quite exceptional as well!!!

    Worth Consuming

    Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

The Secret Life of Pets

Have you ever wondered what your pets do when you are away from home? I think my cats invite the neighborhood squirrels over and binge watch Court TV. Plus it explains why I always lose my favorite book or shoes or the remote. So really, what are my cats doing when my wife and I are at work?

  Well, The Secret Life of Pets seeks to answer that age old question and I think that the minds behind the film did a pretty good job tackling it.

  In the city that never sleeps, when their owners are away, the family pet will play. But in the case of Max, a lovable short hair puppy voiced by Louis CK, he sits in front of his apartment door waiting for his owner Katie to return. But his blissful paradise is turned upside down when Katie returns home one day from the pound with a giant brown shaggy dog named Duke (Modern Family's Eric Stonestreet). It's not a smooth transition for the two and one day at the dog park, the two canines get into a massive fight and wind up lost in the Big Apple. Managing to lose their collars and being snatched up by animal control, the two rivals must work together if they have any hope of getting back home to their master Katie.

   Pets was a very cute film that had quite a few laughs. I could've done without the potty humor, which was surprisingly graphic. In the past, movies like this (involving lost pets) get really sappy and sad. The Secret Life of Pets thankfully isn't a tearjerker. It also was pretty unique and I didn't feel like I had seen it before. However, the main story of Max and Duke wasn't the most interesting part of the movie- it's all of the supporting players that made this film worth watching.

The laughs come primarily from Kevin Hart who voices a psychotic bunny who wants to see the overthrow of the human race and his gang of 'flushed’ pets. The pets from Max's apartment who conduct a rescue mission also garnered a lot of laughs, especially the very plump feline Chloe, portrayed by Man Up's Lake Bell.

   The Secret Life Of Pets was produced by Illumination Entertainment, the company behind the Despicable Me franchise. Be sure to get to the cinemas a little early as a short featuring those pesky yellow minions proceeds the feature. Mower Minions has the tiny helpers trying to raise money for a new blender by providing yard work for their neighbors. It was very silly but enjoyable none the less.

  Overall, I had a fun time at the movies today. The film's been out for 2 weeks already and the 2 pm showing I went to was almost sold out! Very impressive. I've been to blockbuster superhero movies on opening day and the theatre wasn't even full of enough patrons to man a baseball team. So give it a view and find out just what does happen in the secret lives of man's best friends.

  Worth Consuming

  Rating: 8 out of 10 stars