Howard The Duck #7 - A Review

It's all very simple.

Howard The Duck is a detective. He got hired by lawyer Jennifer Walter (aka She-Hulk) to track down one of her clients. Said client is a high-rolling rich jerk named Gary Stark (no relation, though he pretends there is) who mysteriously disappeared doing high-roller rich jerk stuff.

Howard recruits his "good friend" Spider-Man's boss (aka Peter Parker, but also secretly Spider-Man) to help them with a sting to figure out where Gary Stark went. This attracts the attention of D.A. Matt Murdock (aka Daredevil, but also secretly Matt Murdock), who has his own reasons for tracking down Gary Stark. And when Gary's trail leads to the Savage Land, they all have to go hitch a ride with Steve Rogers (aka The Senior Citizen Formerly Known As Captain America) so they don't violate the UN rules on traveling to The Savage Land!

See!  Totally simple!  It isn't until the geeks with the dinosaur-controlling helmets show up that things get complicated...


Guest artist Kevin Maguire is in fine form here. Nobody draws a great facial expression quite like Maguire and he is given ample opportunity to exercise his gifts for physical comedy throughout the issue. The color-art by Joe Quinones and Jordan Gibson bring the verdant wilds of the Savage Land to life perfectly, resulting in some amazing looking backgrounds.


This may not be a Giffen/DeMatteis comic book, but you'd never know it from the script. Chip Zdarksy's script seems to be a love letter to the BWA-HA-HA! days of comics, with all of the established characters played as overblown parodies of themselves and Howard stuck in the middle as the only sane man, er duck! How much you enjoy this issue may depend upon how willing you are to tolerate Spider-Man telling his amazing friends that they suck but I personally found the whole thing hilarious!

Dallas Sci-Fi Expo 2014 - Sunday, Part One

Closing up the Saturday show-report, I forgot to mention how Jeremy and I closed out the day - meeting Karen Gillan.  While the lines were as crazy as the lines for Stephen Amell most of the day, the crowd after 6 pm had died down to something quite manageable.  We didn't get much time to talk but I did get an autographed photo and was able to communicate how much I loved her work without drooling over myself That's not hyperbole - I have a weakness for red-haired women and Scottish accents, making Karen a double-threat to me.

Sunday, I had three major goals.  Meet Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy, get something signed by Justice League artist Kevin Maguire and take as many cosplay pictures as possible.  I was successful on all three counts.  But as I worked on editing pictures the night before, I decided to add another goal to the day - premiere a cosplay I had joked about doing but never seriously contemplated. 

Why not?  Well, it was a cosplay idea that spun out of a joke between friends on Facebook.  But then I figured - what the hell?  Anyone who gets offended by my doing an intentionally cheap cosplay based on a joke that made a lot of my friends laugh isn't worth considering.  I'm not disrespecting all the people who spend a lot of time and money and effort on their costumes - just having a laugh at a figure who could stand to be taken a bit less seriously. 

So that is why I cosplayed Alan Moore.



And for those of you who are wondering why Alan Moore is reading a Little Lulu comic, it's a reference to Alan Moore's cameo on The Simpsons, playing himself in the episode "Husbands and Knives".



Of course there are dangers in being Alan Moore. For one thing, it really annoys the Oracle cosplayers.


"I told you! I wrote The Killing Joke as an Elseworlds! DC Editorial made it canon!"
"Don't care. Leave. NOW."
Actually, that's my friend Dianne - who was part of a group of ladies who were recreating Adam Hughes' Women of DC print.  We'll be seeing more of them a little later on.  But before I got pictures of them, I was lucky enough to get a number of other good pictures.



Judge Anderson from 2000 AD and a young lady with a most creative costume - a classic comic-book version of herself. Her dotted-make-up was meant to simulate four-color printing.



Edward Kenway from Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag.


Jayne and Kaylee from Firefly.


Doctor Midnite.


Harley Quinn


Harley and Ivy, together again.


I took a picture of this Drow lady a year ago. Alas, it seems her cosplay group that I linked to last year no longer exists. Still a great costume, though.

Injustice: Gods Among Us #19 - A Review

Injustice #19 is the first issue to feature art by the great Kevin Maguire.  On the off-chance you're unfamiliar with Maguire's previous work (see my reviews of World's Finest for some of his most recent work), know that he's probably most famous for his work on Justice League with Keith Giffen & JM Dematthias.  He's also, in my opinion, the greatest artist working today when it comes to drawing facial expressions - a specialty that we see showcased throughout this issue.



The script by Tom Taylor switches between two different stories.  In half the story, we see Billy Batson, Boy Blogger interviewing various people on their opinions regarding Superman and his regime taking more drastic actions to insure world security.  In the second half, we see the incident that prompted this questioning - a battle between the Justice League and Black Adam.  The battle leaves Billy questioning both his own judgement as well as The Wisdom of The Solomon, leading to a surprising conclusion.


If you haven't read an issue of Injsutice before now, this is a fine one to start with.  The story is well-paced and the interweaving of Billy Batson's interviews with the big battle proves an effective conveyance for both this issue's stories.  The artwork is as grand as you'd expect from Kevin Maguire. Overall, it's worth far more than its' 99 cent asking price.

World's Finest #12 - A Review

For sheer variety, one cannot beat World's Finest in the art department.  Every issue of this series has boasted multiple professional art teams and this issue is no exception.  The action of the issue is divided into three acts, with each art team fielding a different section.  They are all excellent, defying description.  I would discuss them in more detail but, sadly, this issue did not identify which artists are responsible for which acts.  I can identify Kevin Maguire's work in the first act, easily enough, but I cannot identify the rest.  I think it sufficient to say they are all fine artists.


I'm not sure who is in charge of overseeing the New Gods at DC Comics now, so I'm not sure if I should credit Paul Levitz with the disturbing new take on classic baddy Desadd.  Darkseid's torturer has never failed to be creepy, if not outright disturbing depending on his writer.  Levitz kicks that portrayal up to 11, having turned Desaad into an emotional vampire who seems to literally feed on the feelings of others.  The new, more monstrous appearance also conveys Desaad's otherworldly nature, creating the first villain in this series who truly felt like a credible threat to Power Girl and Huntress. 


World's Finest is a must read for all fans of good art, good stories and books based around strong women.  This issue is a poor one to jump on with but I'd encourage anyone curious about the series to pick up the first TP collection.  I think you'll be glad you did.

World's Finest #10 - A Review

I'd like to say that World's Finest #10 continues the trend of this series standing on its' own merits but I can't.  The sad truth is that for the second month in a row the on-going storyline treads water and nothing much happens.  Writer Paul Levitz deserves credit for doing the best he can with what seems like an editorially-mandated tie-in to recent events in the Batman family of  books.  Still, one can't help but shake the feeling that we're waiting for the go-ahead in other titles before this one is allowed to progress.


This issue sees Karen Starr (a.k.a. Power Girl) and Helena Wayne (a.k.a. Huntress) continuing to investigate why billionaire industrialist Michael Holt seems to have taken a sudden interest in attacking Karen's businesses.  Unbeknownst to them (but knownst, to us, to quote Mel Brooks), the fault lies with Holt's dishonest underlings - not Holt himself.  This isn't immediately clear, however, unless you're one of the dozen or so people like me who read and remembered DC Comics short-lived Mister Terrific series.  This is odd, given that this series had done such a good job of explaining away everything you needed to know until recently and very rarely required you to be reading any other comics in any case.

The vignette where Huntress drops everything to go and mourn Damian Wayne is a larger problem.  While they explain the recent death of the youngest Robin well enough, I find it hard to believe that Helena would feel the need to mourn Damian in person.  Levitz does a fair job of trying to explain away the apparent conflict as being part of Helena's on-going conflict regarding the Batman who raised her on another Earth and her feelings regarding this Earth's Batman and his completely different family  Sadly, despite Levitz's best efforts, it doesn't ring true to me and the emotion when Helena realizes she's being watched by her not-Father is the only honest emotion in the whole scene.


At least the artwork situation has stabilized somewhat, with Kevin Maguire the only artist and inker on this issue.  Nobody can put emotion into a face like Maguire.  While I may quibble over how Helena should be feeling in the wake of her half-brother from another dimension whom she only met once before dying, I can't deny that Maguire does a fine job of displaying those feelings in his artwork.

Is this comic bad?  No, but it's not as good as it once was and it's definitely not a good issue to jump in on.  Would I recommend it?  Only if you've been reading it steadily so far.  Will I keep reading it?  For another month or two, at least.

World's Finest #7 - A Review

If an award was given out for the comic book Most Likely To Offend PETA, World's Finest #7 would be a contender.  I don't think I've seen so much violence directed at a group of wolves in a comic book outside of some Conan The Barbarian stories. 

Whyfore the lupine pain affliction?  Because one half of this comic depicts Huntress and Robin (Damien Wayne) fighting their way through a forest to one of two locations that has been stealing money from Bruce Wayne and these wolves are apparently incredibly hungry and desperate for a meal.  This portion of the comic is ably illustrated by Kevin Maguire - he of the BWA-HA-HA era of Justice League and the most outrageous facial expressions this side of Earth 2.


The other half of the comic, illustrated by the great George Perez, is similarly action packed.  It focuses upon Power Girl as she follows the trail to another location and deals with an equally dangerous threat.  In this case, the threat is a group of child soldiers packing what appears to be alien weaponry.  This offers Karen the challenge of having to deal with a threat non-violently while facing a foe who could potentially hurt her.


Perez and Maguire are are skilled as ever.  This continues to be one of the best-drawn books on the market today.  Paul Levitz's scripts make it one of the best-written as well.  If this issue has a flaw, it's that the pace is somewhat leisurely compared to how the series started and it feels somewhat flat as a result despite the high-action content of the issue.  Still, this series has been firing on all eight cylinders for so long that I can forgive a slow issue and still recommend this comic without hesitation. 

World's Finest #6 - A Review

World's Finest is one of my favorite books.  Month after month, I can always count on it to give me several excellent and exciting action scenes, some amazing illustrations and leave me laughing at least once.  Such are the wonders of this book that it can make even the horribly annoying Damien Wayen tolerable, though I suspect that's because his visual depiction, as drawn by artist Kevin Maguire, puts me in the mind of a tween version of Namor The Sub-Mariner.


The main focus of this issue is upon Huntress - Batman's daughter on the alternate world of Earth Two - having it out with Damien Wayne, the current Robin of Earth One.  The former has been stealing from Bruce Wayne to finance her activities in this strange new world.  The later is intent on stopping her, little caring about any connection they might have despite some curiosity about her mixing the fighting styles of Catwoman and his father.

The other half of the issue, focusing upon Power Girl, follows Karen Starr - the more fun-loving and wild of our two protagonists - as she continues to work toward finding a way back to their home world.  This section is a lot more fun than the extended fight scene between Huntress and Robin, though the later bits of it do hint at something deadly serious to be coming soon.  Paul Levitz balances both storylines perfectly.


This book has the single greatest art team of any book on the market right now.  I don't know now long DC Comics can allow not one but two great artists of the caliber of Kevin Maguire and George Perez to work together on one title but hopefully it will be for many years yet.  Both artists have crisp, clear, classic superheroic styles but are different and definitive enough for their sections to be distinct and enjoyable on their own merits.  I can't recommend this book enough. 

World's Finest #0 - A Review

World's Finest #0 takes us back into the early days of the new Earth 2. The plot depicts the early lives of both Supergirl and Robin, long before they became lost in time and lost in space, becoming Power Girl and Huntress on another Earth. The issue introduces us to both young women in the midst of their training, concluding with their first official team-up.



Curiously, the personalities of the two women seem to have reversed as time went by. Helena Wayne, who previously presented herself as something of a by-the-book stick-in-the-mud seems to be the more rebellious of the two women in this issue, disobeying her father's orders about training in the first place then running off on her own into a danger zone over her father's objections. By contrast, Supergirl seems to be more of a goody-goody, following her older cousin's orders not to get involved except under very exact circumstances - an attitude that seems completely at odds with the outgoing playgirl we've seen Kara become in earlier issues! It is a subtle change but it does make this issue more interesting for the long-time readers. And it doesn't seem unlikely to suppose that Helena might become more serious in the wake of her father's death as Kara might become a little wilder without her all-seeing cousin holding her back.

Paul Levitz's script does a good job of establishing both characters for new readers and establishing some previously unseen common ground between the two. Both women wish to follow in their respective father figures' footsteps but simultaneously feel stifled by their fathers' desire to protect them and keep them out of harm's way. The only downside to all this is that Levitz does such a great job of portraying these relationships, you don't want them to end... even though they already have. Would it be too much to hope for a book set in the early days of Earth 2 depicting Bruce and Selina's homelife? I think Helena may die of embarrassment but it would amuse the hell out of me.



It occurs to me that I may have done Kevin Maguire a disservice in my reviews of the previous issues of this book. Whenever I spoke of the art, I almost always focused on Maguire's gift for depicting expressions and making conversations appear dynamic while focusing upon George Perez's flair for depicting action. I did not mean to suggest for a moment that Kevin Maguire is incapable of drawing a fine action scene and this issue proves that.




I've said it before and I'll say it again - this book is a must read for all fans of quality comics. The scripts are uniformly excellent. The artwork is always of the highest caliber. All in all you'd be hard-pressed to find a better value for your comic-buying bucks.

World's Finest #4 - A Review

As before, this issue of World's Finest splits itself between flashbacks of our heroine's arrival on Earth and their battles in the modern day. This issue, however, marks the first time we really get inside the head of Helena Wayne a.k.a. the Huntress and the first time we get a mention of her infamous mother.



Helena has been far from a cypher in her portrayal thus far but most of the scenes we've seen her in have depicted her in the heart of the action - a place she clearly prefers to be. Being her father's daughter, she's not given to introspection so it's nice that we finally get a look at the vulnerable side she keeps in the shadows and learn that Catwoman was just as much an influence on her as Batman.




The only real flaw World's Finest has is that it's action sequences are the least interesting part of the book. As a menace, the villain just isn't as interesting as the mystery behind who he is and what his connection to Earth 2 is. That would be a death sentence for most superhero comics but thankfully the rest of the book makes up for that fact. The bits with Power Girl fighting a giant radioactive monster aren't bad - just atypical. Still, with two legendary artists and some of the finest scripts Paul Levitz has ever written, this book is a must read for all fans of the genre.

World's Finest #3 - A Review

It's becoming very difficult for me to review World's Finest. This is not, I should note, for any negative reason. Paul Levitz's scripts are as finely crafted as ever. The artwork of George Perez and Kevin Maguire is finely drawn as ever. But the leisurely pace of the opening storyline is making it rather difficult for me to find anything new to say about how wonderful it all is.

The plot from before continues, with Power Girl and Huntress fighting a radioactive villain, who has now been enlarged by the energy he absorbed and grown to Godilla-worthy proportions. Coincidentally, this is all happening with a stone's throw of Tokyo. Intriguingly, this villain seems to be a dimension hopper like our two heroines and may have come from Earth 2... or somewhere else!

As before, George Perez handles the superheroic action set in the present while Maguire draws the flashbacks detailing the women's lives shortly after coming to Earth. This is an unusual arrangement on a major comic but it is one that plays to both artists' strengths. Perez is one of the great modern masters of superheroic action working today. And, for what my money is worth, nobody can draw humorous, character-building scenes like Kevin Maguire. The only real negative is that - as a fan of Gail Simone's Birds of Prey - this newer, more prudish Huntress doesn't sit well with me. I understand they are different women and different characters. That doesn't stop me from missing the sassier Helena Bertinelli.

Bottom Line: This book is a must read for all fans of quality comics.

World's Finest #2 - A Review

 World's Finest #2 delivers more of the quality storytelling and amazing artwork that we saw in the first issue.  Paul Levitz continues both concurrent stories from the previous issue - one set in the present day which features Power Girl and Huntress tracking down a radiation-empowered super-villain and a flashback which shows how the two heroines came to establish themselves in new lives and new identities on a strange new Earth.


As before, the art duties are split between master artists Kevin Maguire and George Perez..  Maguire, who for my money draws the best facial expressions in all of comics, handles the flashback scenes with his usual skill. By contrast, Perez handles the modern scenes with his usual highly-detailed, high-action style.  Most books would be lucky to have one artist of such caliber - to have two such artists makes this book a special one indeed.



You actually could jump in on the series with this issue.  But why should you when your local comic shop probably still has a few copies of World's Finest #1 left?  Either way, whether you start with Issue 1 or 2, you should be reading this book.

Huntress & Power Girl: World's Finest #1

 

Five years ago and another world away, they were the next generation of heroes - The Maiden of Might and The Girl Wonder.  But an alien invasion claimed the lives of their mentors and left them stranded on an Earth that was similar to their own but where the Age Of Heroes was just beginning.  Assuming new identities, the two friends began to make their way in this strange new world.  One became a captain of industry and a power in the tech sectorr.  The other became an urban legend, who preyed upon the predators in the darkest corners of their new home.

 

Today, the woman known as Karen Starr is despondent.  The technology she had hoped to used to find a way home has been destroyed, along with her new lab.  The one thing that survived intact?  A new costume she had made for herself, deciding her best friend was right about getting back in the saddle and being a hero again.  Karen Starr is now Power Girl.  The woman born Helena Wayne, the former Robin of another world, is now The Huntress.  Together, they are the World's Finest Heroes!

 

Following up on the heels of Earth 2 and spinning-off somewhat from the short-lived Mister Terrific series and Huntress mini-series, World's Finest - much like it's main characters - manages to stand on its' own, despite where it came from.  A neat flashback explains away the duo's origins and connection to the Earth 2 book while the opening interlude explains Karen Starr's status as a billionaire playgirl and her connection to the inventor Michael Holt, whose technology just went "boom" at one of her labs.  It would be easy for this series to get caught up in minutia but Paul Levitz  prevents the story from getting bogged down in its' concept or set-up. 

What really sells the book is the relationship between Helena and Karen.  The friendship between the two is established quickly and while it is made clear that the two disagree on a number of things, they still have a great deal of mutual respect for one another.  Both Karen and Helena are presented as distinct personalities, with Karen being the more adventurous of the two and Helena being more reserved.  Levitz, who also wrote the recent mini-series that introduced this new take on The Huntress, deserves a lot of credit for what he has done here. 

The artwork is, in a word, amazing.  Not content to put one top-notch artist on this title, DC Comics gave us two - George Perez and Kevin "I Can't Believe I'm Not Working With DeMatties and Giffen Again!" Maguire.  Perez handles all the scenes set in the present.  Maguire handles everything in the flashbacks.  Both artists have distinct but complementary styles so while the division in the artwork is obvious, it is not jarring nor contradictory.  Admittedly, I am a bit biased as a fan of both artists but I think this is one of the best-looking books DC Comics has put out all year.

In short, World's Finest lives up to its' name!  It is a must-read title for anyone who likes strong female protagonists and good artwork.  Highly recommended.