GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #1

Well they were never famous, so I guess that gets me off the hook for having no idea who the Guardians of the Galaxy are. This is another re-boot, God forbid Marvel come up with some new super heroes. From glancing at the Wikipedia entry, this band of space heroes was created in the late 60's and ran as a back-up tale in various books. It did get it's own run a few years ago but I don't recall that at all. Basically, a guy from space shows up on earth at a farm and gets a chick pregnant then bolts. The kid is half space hero half earthling. He goes on to lead a group of space dudes that fight evil aliens. This current team includes Groot, a tree-man, a talking raccoon named Rocket Racoon, a big green beast, Draxx, and a hot chick warrior named Gomora. Marvel has a movie based on this hitting screens in August 2014...so I suppose they think people will still care about this book when it hits #18 (that's if it's on schedule). Marvel did bring their big guns to the party; writer Brian Bendis and penciler Steve McNiven. I think both are great but this book is borderline awful. First off, what's up with the main character's hair? Is the talking tree supposed to be funny? McNiven is not good at drawing cartoon characters and this is a bad choice of a book for him. Even Bendis seems to be floundering. The plot has the hero's father mad at him and some alien race attacking earth and Iron Man shows up. Just by adding a name superhero like Iron Man to this proves that Marvel has no faith in these characters. I loved the #0.1 issue but this issue is just bland. *

INVINCIBLE #101

I never stopped collecting/reading comic books...but there was a lull about five/ten years ago where I was a little oblivious as to what was going on. I always read Savage Dragon so I was in comic book stores and occasionally buying books...but when Brian Bendis was so popular he was name-checked on The OC I was a little unaware of what was going on. When I got back into the realm I heard/read a ton about The Walking Dead so I picked up #48 and enjoyed it and have read it ever since. I liked Kirkman so I picked up a copy of Invincible and it was okay but I felt totally lost so I picked up all the trades and got caught up. At a certain point I stopped reading Invincible for the sole reason that the library never got the latest trade paperback. With #100 looming I decided to get caught up so I read the "Viltrumite War" and the Dinosaurus saga and I just picked up #101 so I think I'll be reading this monthly from now on. It's about half as good as The Walking Dead...but I do enjoy horror books and zombies more so there is that caveat. As a superhero book, Invincible is good, not great. It's certainly colorful. Kirkman has a knack for a last page cliffhanger/reveal that's cool. In this issue we find out that Mark and his girlfriend will be keeping their child (she had an abortion previously). Mark's dad, Omni-Man, has been exiled on the moon. & Robot and crew are working hard to put the world back together. It's not the world's greatest comic book, but just the fact that it's #101 and it's only had one writer and two artists somehow makes it sweeter. I look forward to another one-hundred issues. **1/2

Short Reviews for Wednesday, March 13th, 2012

AGE OF ULTRON #2: Sure this "event" is a rip-off of The Terminator and probably a ton of other things but if you're gonna rip-off something at least rip-off something good. So Ultron, a robot, has taken over the world and is killing all the humans. Spider-Man and Captain America and Thor and a few others are left and struggling to survive in a destroyed New York City. Brian Bendis is writing and Bryan Hitch is drawing it. Last week's #1 had a foil embossed die-cut cover (or whatever it's called...it took me back to the early 90's). Very entertaining, although I don't like that this event is happening outside of all of the regular books. Hitch's artwork is good in spots, and #1 was better...but it's the best event I've read from Marvel in awhile. **1/2

CROSSED: BADLANDS #25: Garth Ennis is back writing an arc. Of course he has to add a gratuitous, gross-out scene for no real reason (it involves anal fisting...if you wondered). Outside of that, it's a pretty good issue that does a nice job setting up an intriguing story. Crossed has always been hit or miss. Ennis' stories have been better than David Lapham's. This series, Crossed: Badlands, had a stand-out with Jamie Delano's tale that took place in Florida. But even that devolved into a mess. The one problem with this particular issue is the art. Raulo Caceres is just not very good. But he's okay drawing the dark shit Ennis comes up with...so I guess it's good they found some unlucky soul to do it. **1/2

BATMAN #18: No more Joker. No more Greg Capullo. So...yeah, most expected a waste of an issue. It does seem to cement a new Robin, but it isn't all that compelling. **

THE WALKING DEAD #108: This issue introduces a new hero, a dread-locked black dude that owns a tiger. The current Negan storyline is the best thing to happen to this book since pre-#50, when the book was awesome. So it's another interesting chapter. ***