Austin Comic Con - Part Three

Sailor Moon


Chell from Portal.


Captain Marvel, Bullseye and Elektra.


The Green Hornet and Kato.


The Fourth Doctor and Link.


Classic Star Trek crew.


Hit Girl.


Nightwing and Harley Quinn. He was much more excited about meeting Green Arrow than she was.
He also lamented that everyone kept calling him Batman. I was one of the few who recognized him!

Speaking of Harley, here's a nice dress inspired by Harley Quinn.


Steampunk Poison Ivy, The Greatest American Hero as a baby, Darth Vader as a Tween Girl and Grifter.
Somewhere, someone just had an idea on how to make this into a fan-fiction story.


I shall pose for your picture, for Doom likes the cut of your green cowl.
Then Doom will return to his quest for an ultra-rare Doctor Hooves variant figure!
It shall be mine! So swears Doom!


Ariel - here seen with a newly working pair of legs - was working at the booth for Silver Leaf Costumes.


No, Babydoll! Watch out for No Face!

Team 7 #0 - A Review

I never read any of the original Team 7 comics. Come to think of it, I've read precious little of the original Wildstorm Comics period. I know enough of the base concept of the original book - an elite US government team formed in response to the appearance of the first superhumans. Eventually, they were experimented upon themselves with several members of the team going insane and/or committing suicide.

Team 7 #0 starts out with this same base concept, as team leader John Lynch speaks to an unseen audience. Lynch speaks of the alien menace that nearly stole a part of Metropolis (as seen in the opening arc of Action Comics) and the failure of the government's Steel Soldier project to deal with the menace. Lynch then describes his dream of an elite team of agents that will be capable of meeting the challenges posed by the apperance of these new super-beings. The rest of the issue shows Lynch's two best agents - infiltration expert Dinah Drake and operations expert Kurt Lance - as they go about recruiting the rest of Lynch's wish list.

The team roster reads like the Who's Who of Covert Ops in the DCU. Tactician Slade Wilson. Weapons Expert Alex Fairchild. NSA Analyst Amanda Waller. Special Forces/Conman Cole Cash. Thrown into this all-star lineup are three newcomers - Jack-Of-All-Trades James Bronson, Master-Pilot Summer Ramos and Military Intellligence Expert Dean Higgins.

I have to approve of the concept of this book on general principle. One of the biggest problems many readers had with The New 52 universe was the sheer number of covert US government organizations. A book like this exploring how things got to that point was sorely needed and writer Justin Jordan seems prepared to explore not only how the government and military changed in the face of the metahuman threat but also how several key players evolved in the face of that challenge.

Don't think for a second that means this is going to be a dull treatise on how various branches interact! Jordan's script is focused firmly on the action and the set-up for more action. He gets the basic facts of each character's background presented but doesn't spend much time developing their personalities. Granting that's usually not the purpose of a Zero issue and that most of these characters are well-established in the minds of most comic readers, it is somewhat bothersome that we know little about Summer Ramos apart from she's a good pilot and she's apparently crazy. Hopefully there will be deeper development in later issues.



The art by Superman penciler Jesus Merino, with inks by Rob Hunter and Norm Rapmund is well executed throughout. The story is told well, flowing naturally from panel to panel And each character has a clear design, so there is little trouble telling who is who even in the far-shot action scenes.

I'm not sure this is a book I'll be picking up in the future. The general dark tone of people seeing superheroes as something to be afraid of rather than something to be inspired by also doesn't do a lot for me. Still, fans of the original Team 7 book as well as books like the oriiginal Suicide Squad will likely find a lot to enjoy here. This is a solid-looking title, even if it isn't my cup of tea.

52 Pick-Up - Week Two, Part Two

GRIFTER #2 - Cole Cash tries (and fails) to explain about his alien abduction and the aliens in disguise all around them. After getting attacked by the aliens again and digging himself in deeper, Cole escapes only to be attacked by his own brother, who has been sent by the federal government to kill him. This one is falling back to "Wait For The Trade" Status. It is very well written and the art is good but it's paced like a marathon and I like my monthly books to have a little more speed to them.


MISTER TERRIFIC #2 - This issue is hard for me to summarize because so much happens in it. Seriously, I don't think any book in the New 52 manages to throw out as many interesting concepts and ideas as this one. It's very much like a good Doctor Who episode. The art is a little bit sloppier this time around but it's not bad. And while Power Girl fans may be disappointed that Karen Starr doesn't have any super-powers (yet) she still proves herself to be intelligent and a cool-hand in a difficult situation. Also, the new baddy - Brainstorm - is a close second to The Mirror as the best new villain of the New 52 line. Definitely on the pull list.


RESURRECTION MAN #2 - As with the original Resurrection Man series, this issue focuses upon an amnesiac Mitch Shellley as he's trying to remember who he was. He's tracked down by two super-powered female assassins, who call themselves "Body Doubles", who apparently know who Mitch is and have some previous relationship with him. This is a change from the original series, where the Body Doubles were just two ordinary women turned assassin who took the job to track down and capture Mitch Shelley. These changes are academic, however, and this is another solid title that is definitely going on my pull list.

Grifter #1 - A Review

We open on a blonde man on an airplane who is hearing voices in his head, which are talking about killing him. Despite all appearances to the contrary, he is not crazy. This is our hero, Cole Cash. A flashback reveals that Cole is a confidence trickster – the titular Grifter – and that he was abducted off the street while on the way to meet his girlfriend/partner after pulling a con. His abductors were some form of alien being, who referred to him as a host, and Cole was just barely able to escape with his life. The experience left him with an ability to sense when someone is an alien in a human body and to overhear the aliens’ telepathic communications. By issue’s end, we learn that Cole is apparently ex-military and that top men are nervous about what his apparent PTSD breakdown may expose and send a special agent – Cole’s own brother – to deal with him.

This issue drops us in the middle of it and doesn’t let up for a section. The plot is fairly standard Science-Fiction 101 – the alien menace masquerading as normal humans to invade from within – but we rarely see this sort of thing in a superhero book. The action sequences are amazing on their own but what I really love this book is how writer Nathan Edmondson is able to subtly introduce us to Cole Cash as a character with very little of the info dumps used by other writers on other New 52 titles.

The artwork is damn good too. Most of Cafu’s previous work has been on Superman titles and this book does have a good, traditional superhero comic look, with lots of thin lines and light inks by Jason Gorder. There’s a danger in a book like this of going too dark with the artwork, with the coloring palette being too muted or the inks being too heavy. Thankfully, the art team avoids this and creates something that is appropriately atmospheric and heavily detailed yet seemingly streamlined.

I know next to nothing about WildC.A.T.s, so this is another one of the few New 52 titles I was able to go into completely virgin, as it were. So if you’re a long-time Grifter fan who wants to know how much things may have been changed, I’m afraid I won’t be much help. What I can tell you is that this is one of the best of the new comics I’ve read so far and that it won me over with one issue.