Showcasing the Essentials 04

Predator Omnibus Volume 1

Art by Various
Stories by various

After Dark Horse had a huge hit with their "Aliens" comic line they quickly scooped up the Predator franchise. The first mini is a direct sequel to the first Predator movie. Starring Arnold,He is now back in the city. And lots of strange deaths are happening. Needless to say the Predator is back and he aint happy. The second mini reprinted in this trade is Cold War,which has Arnold out in a cold cold area of Russia,and of course their is another of the Predator species there. There are 5 more stories reprinted in this hefty tome. And overall they are good to very good. The artwork is decent,nothing too flashy. And the writting is way better than most other comics based on movie properties. The trade is smaller than a normal trade,it is about the same size as your standard Manga trade. And since it is in color,the price is around $25. I got it cheaper thru Instocktrades.com. And if i ever find the next volume on sale I will pick it up.Predator Omnibus Volume 1 gets a B.

ET was a good video game Damn IT!!!!

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

Nintendo DS

I was a big fan of both of the X-men Legends and the original Marvel Ultimate Alliance games. Even if all three were not much more than a updated version of arcade classic Gauntlet with Marvel heroes instead of the standards of fantasy gaming. So when I heard about Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 coming out I knew I would have to pick it up. Well turns out the only gaming system I own that it came out for was the DS. I figured no biggie,I play my DS more than any other system I currently own. So off I go to my local Gamestop and after trading in a game that I hated I got this for about $15.First the good things. The graphics and sound is really good for a DS title.All the heroes/villains look like they should.Second the line up consisting of Thor,She Hulk,Iron Man,Sentry,Ms Marvel,Venom,Green Goblin,Hulk,Spider-man,The Thing,Storm,Luke Cage,Captain America,Wolverine and Invisible Woman,is a decent selection of heroes/villains. And there is alot more that you see in the game but can't play as.The storyline which is a mish-mash of the recent Secret war,and Civil War stories from the comics, is not too bad. I also enjoyed that after the first couple of missions you have to choose to be on Iron Man's pro registration side,or Cap's con registration side.The controls are also as good if not better than the previous 3 games in this series. But even with all that is good with this game the negatives far out weigh the positives. First of all there is multiple times were you will walk half way into a wall,or some other thing on the playfield. Second there seems to only be one level of difficulty. And last and the worst is the length of the game,on the first play through I choose Cap's side and it took me about 5 hours total to beat the game. So next play through I choose Iron Man's side and it took about the same amount of time. So to completely play through the game takes around 10 hours tops. Not nearly long enough for a game that retails for around $30.And besides not being able to choose certain heroes/villains there really isn't much difference in the game based on which side you choose. I am currently trying to decide if I should trade this game in,or give it to my cousin's boy who loves the Marvel heroes. So Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 for the DS gets a C+.

Showcasing the Essentials 03

Showcase Presents Warlord Volume 1

Story by Mike Grell

Pencils by Mike Grell

Warlord was an attempted by DC to cash in on the minor sword and sorcery fad that was happening in comics in the 70's. Marvel had a huge hit on their hands with Conan. Warlord is Travis Morgan a military man who's plane crashes through and open spot in the earth near the north pole,and he ends up in a world that is inside the Earth. Where the sun always shines. Kinda a cheesy concept,but in the capable hands of one Mike Grell it turned into a very long running series. In his first appearance Morgan meets the lovely Tara,a princess of a society that seems to be the most advanced in all of this world. The first 10 or so issues deal with him meeting people and traveling back to Tara's homeland. Along the way he meets up with Machiste,a King of another society,and Mariah,a Russian scientist that follows Morgan back to this hidden land. Early on he faces what would become his arch enemy Demios,a wizard that also knows about a lot of the tech that is laying around. Seems this world was settled by the remnants of the survivors of the lost island of Atlantis. After many adventures Morgan joins back up with Tara to learn that she is with child. And not too long after the child is born it is kidnapped by Demios. This leads to a multi-issue storyline . When Morgan finally confronts Demios,he ends up having to fight to the death with his rapidly aged son. After a long battle Morgan ends up killing his son,and it seems that Demios is dead. But all is not what it seems. Turns out Morgan only killed a clone of his son and the evil Demios is still alive. This Showcase reprints the first appearance of the Warlord,plus the first 28 issues of his series. Along with the good to great stories,it has some simply breathtaking artwork by Mike Grell. Most issues have a two page title splash that is just amazing.I ended up getting this hefty tome in the mail yesterday and read it all in one sitting. And now I can only hope they publish another soon. Showcase Presents Warlord gets a A.

Garth Ennis Mad Irish genius 01

The Boys Volume 1 The name of the game

Written by Garth Ennis

Art by Darick Robertson

The Boys is a creator owned series first published by the DC imprint Wildstorm. When it first came out I was not reading many comics and didn't bother to pick it up. Then the series was dropped by Wildstorm.This stirred up a lot of press for the book. And when it was quickly picked up by Dynamite Entertainment ,I went out and bought the first trade. The story is a world were superheroes are real. And there is a team of heroes that are sponsered by the government to keep and eye on the other heroes and make sure they don't get outta control. We start off with Wee Hughie an englishman who looks alot like Simon Peg,he is out enjoying a carnival with his girlfriend when she is accidentlly ran over by a super speed possessing hero who is chasing after a villain. This kills Hughie's girlfriend,and he settles into a deep bout of depression. After a few weeks he is contacted by Billy Butcher,the lead of the BOYS. Butcher has a huge grudge with all the various superheroes,and recruits Hughie to help make sure the heroes stay in line.Hughie agrees to temporarly join the team and meets the other members. Mother's Milk ,who seems to be the most level headed. The Frenchman,a small man who goes into major rages of violence. And The Female,a quiet asian woman who works on the side for various mafia types. This trade reprints the first 6 issues and is mainly about how Hughie decieds to join the team,and his first mission in which they send a warning to a team of super powered teenagers. Turns out this group of teens are sexual deviants and have almost no morals. After a quick fight,The Boys end up beating the shit outta the teens and Hughie accidentlly kills on of the teens. This causes Hughie to have second thoughts about being a member of the team. But thanks to a chance meeting of a cute blonde girl in Central Park ,he agrees to keep working with The Boys. This girl it turns out is the newest member of this universe's version of the JLA. And we see how this JLAish team is also full of some of the most dispicable people. The trade ends with the feeling that eventually The Boys and JLA parody will end up in a huge war. Garth Ennis is one of my fave comic storytellers,ever since I read the first issue of "Preacher" he has been one of the few writers that I will pick up anything he does. And he doesn't dissapoint. The trade is full of the usual Ennis black humor,and of course he street level way with words. Darick Robertson is an artist I hadn't seen much from before,but his art on this title is good. He is able to draw the various scenes of ultra violence ,and even his scenes of plain conversation are eye catching. Overall Boys volume 1 gets a A-.

TPB winners 02

Metamorpho Year One

Art by Dan Jurgens and Mike Norton

Story by Dan Jurgens

Metamorpho is one of my favorite DC heroes. He has the power to transmute any of the elements in his body into any other element. A pretty versitle power that over the years he has used to very interesting results.This is a trade paperback of the 2007,2008 mini series. It lasted 6 issues. The story is an updating of Metamorpho's origin,mainly to bring it into the modern age. Rex Morgan is a treasure hunter with his own reality show. The show is a huge hit and he decides to go out and try to find the legendary Orb of Ra. Rex's show is funded by Simon Stagg,a kinda evil billionare. Rex is in love with Simon's daughter Sapphire Stagg. And he figures with the ratings boost from when he finds the Orb will give him enough money to finally ask Sapphire to marry him. So Rex is off to find the Orb and along for the ride is Java,a prehistoric ape/man that works for Simon Stagg. Java double crosses Rex and leaves him to die inside a booby trapped pyramid. But Rex finds the Orb of Ra and is transformed into the chalky white skinned orange and purple clad Metamorpho the Element Man. Using he newly aquired powers,Rex escapes the pyramid and goes to get his revenge on Java and Simon. But outta his love for Sapphire he decides to let bygones by bygones and starts having adventures.The last few issues in this trade are all about the JLA confronting Metamorpho,mainly as a test to see if he is JLA material. Turns out he is,but Rex turns down the offer of membership. So ends Metamorpho Year One. The artwork by both Dan Jurgens and Mike Norton is very appealing. I prefer Mike Norton's art on this title to Dan's,but still both are very capable artists. One last thing about this trade I have to mention is,I got this trade in a kinda blind lot. IE I had no idea what I was getting in,but turns out it was worth way more than I paid. So not only was a surprised by a trade paperback that I was planning on buying,but it is also autographed by Mike Norton. Metamorpho Year One earns a solid A.

Plastic Man comedy adventure show

Plastic Man got his own saturday morning cartoon back in 1979. It lasted a couple of seasons then was syndicated untill the late 80's. Recently the entire series was released on DVD. And since I had fond memories of this show I ended up getting the first disc in from Netflix. The basic premise of the show was Plastic Man worked for the government,and had two sidekicks. The southern belle Penny,who had a major crush on Plas. And the hawaiian comedy relief Hula Hula,who was known for always having bad luck. So every episode Plas would get a message from the Chief and go out in his Plastic Plane,that had VTOL abilities, and fight crime. So far it seems like every show had two Plastic Man adventures in them. The first one is usually about 19 minutes long,and the second one is a little bit shorter. The stories are above average for the era,with lots of jokes that totally flew over my head when I first watched it as a kid. And the animation is the usually Ruby-Spears quaility. On this disc was a special feature that was a basic history of Plastic Man,and it also mentions a Plastic Man Pilot from a few years ago. They show alot of the conceptuial art and it looks great. Sadly this pilot was not picked up. The only main drawback to this dvd is the picture quailty. It seems that they didn't go in an clean it up at all, there is piles of debris and dust on the print,and it does kinda hurt the overall presence of the show. But considering that in all my years of collecting cartoons I have never found more than 5 episodes of this show out on the grey market,I will just have to be happy that this was released. Plastic Man Comedy Adventure show gets a B-.

Showcasing the Essentials 02

Showcase presents House of Secrets Volume 1

Art by Neal Adams,Dick Giordano,Gray Morrow,Alex Toth,Don Heck,Bernie Wrightson,Gil Kane,George Tuska,Micheal Kaluta,Wally Wood,Murphy Anderson,Jim Aparo,Sergio Aragones,Nick Cardy,Jack Sparling and various others

Written by Gerard Conway,Marv Wolfman,Len Wein and various others

This reprints issues 81-98 of the first volume of House of Secrets,which was a long running horror anthology title from DC comics. This title along with House of Mystery was used a lot as a place to try out new artists and writers. An average issue most of the time had four or so short stories of various lengths. Hosted by Abel,of Cain and Abel fame,he is the caretaker of the house of secrets and introduces each story with a short usually funny blurb. One of the things I love about this trade is that it is perfect for a quick pickup and read. I has held the top spot on the back of my toilet for almost a year now. Most of the stories have O Henry twist endings, and thankfully they are not always obvious from the beginning. The three main highlights to this collection for me are the origin of the House of Secrets,Swamp Things first appearance,and one panel gag strips by Sergio Aragones. The origin story is the first story in issue 81,with great moody art by Jerry Grandenetti and written byMike Friedreich. It tells how the House was built by Senator Sandsfield who was a few cards short of a deck and how every piece of material used to build it all came from Kentucky. A man buys the abandoned house for cheap and is trying to move it to Tennessee. But not too far from the Kentucky/Tennessee state line all hell breaks loose. The first appearance of Swamp Thing has stunning Bernie Wrightson artwork and was written by Len Wein. It is the Swamp Thing origin that most comic fans already know but with a few small changes. I have read this issue before in a reprint but find that Wrightson's artwork looks even better in black and white. Abel's Fables is the short gag strips by Sergio Aragones,and are very much like his gag strips you used to find in between the panels of Mad Magazine. Sure with so many stories there will be a few clunkers,and some of them just haven't held up. But over all 80% of the stories are worth reading,and it is a great sampler of many great artist. Some of whom are barely remembered now. Showcase presents House of Secrets gets a B.

TPB winners 01

Fables-Legends in Exile
published by Vertigo/DC comics

The first volume in the currently ongoing monthly series,Legends in Exile sets up a lot of the plot for the first few years of the series. Basic premise is every fairy tale,tall tale,or piece of folklore you have heard is true. And the characters from these tales live in a series of interconnected worlds. Some years ago a great evil referred to as the Adversary starts to take over the various worlds,and most of the characters are captured or killed. Some escape to the real world,The ones that can pass for human live in a Burroughs of NYC called Fabletown. The non-human ones live on a farm in upstate New York. Fabletown has it's own mayor who is Old King Cole,but the town is really ran by Snow White. Who is Cole's second in command. The fables of Fabletown self police themselves and the head of security is Bigby Wolf AKA the big bad wolf of Lil red riding hood fame. The story starts off with Snow White's sister Rose Red being murdered in her apartment. At first the main suspect is Jack,of Jack in the beanstalk,lil Jack Horner,and various other fables with a protagonist named Jack fame. Bigby is in charge of the investigation and over the next couple of issues find many clues. The Fables celebrate each year a holiday that marks when they left their homelands to come to NYC. And at this celebration Bigby reveals who the killer is,and it is a shock. This is the first storyline so it uses much of it time introducing us to the various main stars of the series. We find out that Sleeping Beauty,Cinderella,and Snow White were all married to the same Prince. Who it turns out is an incredible cad and has an ability to seduce pretty much any woman he wants. While truthfully not the best outta what i have read from the series so far,I am currently on the 5th trade, Legend in exile is a good read that has amazing artwork. And as you read the next couple of trades you can see where the author has laid the groundwork for the series. This series is written by Bill Willingham,who before I had read this I only knew from his 80's indy series Elementals. And has great artwork by Mark Buckingham. What I love about Buckingham's artwork is how he draws the females characters. While still gorgeous they don't have the over the top anatomy that most comic females have. They look like real life women,sure the are all very beautiful,but they still look real. My only real gripe about this series so far is the covers don't accurately portray what is happening in the issues. Most of the covers have a slightly surreal style,that kinda clashes with Buckingham's cartoony but realistic artwork. One word of warning this is a Vertigo series which usually means that it isn't for young readers,and this series isn't. With a fair amount of foul language and some graphic violence and some nudity I wouldn't let any kid under about 15 read it. But still Fables is a great series that thanks to Jamie D of WWW.comicgeekspeak.com for recommending. Legends in Exile gets an B+.

TPB losers 01

Batman Hush Volume one

written by Jeph Loeb

art by Jim Lee

Published by DC COMICS

This is the first of 2 tradepaperbacks reprinting the 2002-2003 12 issue storyline. For quite a few years now I have been hearing how this is the best Batman storyline in many years. Some have even compared it to Frank Miller's classic The Dark Knight Returns. I ended up getting both volumes as a gift last X-mas from one of my aunts. The story starts off with Batman rescuing a kidnapped child from Killer Croc. After he saves the kid Catwoman appears and steals the ransom money,Batman prosues her across the Gothem skyline. But somehow the rope he is swinging on is cut and he falls to the ground in the process fracturing his skull. Alfred the butler summons Batman's childhood friend,Thomas Elliot,who is now a well known brain surgeon. After Batman recovers he finds out that Poison Ivy had used Catwoman to steal the money. So he goes looking for Ivy. Him and Catwoman track her down to Metropolis. And discover that Ivy has taken control of Superman's mind. Using a Kryptonite ring,that Superman gave to Batman years ago in the chance that Superman goes evil or beserk,to keep Superman at bay. Catwoman shoves Lois Lane off a skyscaper and seeing his wife in danger snaps Superman outta the mind control. And he teams up with Batman and Catwoman to capture Ivy. Some days later Batman and Catwoman in their civilian indenties are attending an opera,when Harley Quinn shows up and in the fight someone kills Dr Thomas Elliot. It appears that Joker is the one that killed Dr Elliot,so Batman goes after him. Thanks to Jim Gordon and Dick Grayson,Batman doesn't kill Joker even though he seems to want too. This is also when we get the first appearance of a man with his face covered in bandages,He is referred to as Hush. And the story goes on from there. It is a basic who's who of all the main Bat villians. And after all the running around it turns out that Hush is really,Spoiler skip if you don't wanna know, Dr Thomas Elliot. The best part of the entire 12 issue run is a small part were at the end of one issue you are lead to believe that Hush is really Jason Todd,the second Robin who was killed by the Joker many years ago. While the artwork by Jim Lee is some of the best work he has done in many years ,the story fell flat to me. It felt like an idea I would have come up with while bored in 7th grade study hall. But then even though Jeph Loeb used to get all kinds of praise for his comic work ,the things I have read from him haven't impressed me that much. While reading both trades I was reminded of the first issues of the "Many Deaths of Batman" storyline from the early 90s. This was an issue where besides one word it had no other dialogue at all. I get the feeling that if Hush had no dialogue I might enjoy it more. Batman Hush Vols 1 and 2 get a C-. But the artwork by itself gets an A-.

Showcasing the Essentials 01

Essential Killraven

published by Marvel comics

Killraven is a mostly forgotten 70's sci fi series. First appearing in Amazing Adventures 18,May 1973. Killraven works on the premise that the War of the worlds actually happened,and the Martians come back in 2001 and take over the world. Jon Killraven is a child that is raised by the Martians to be a gladiator in the arenas. The storyline starts in 2018 when Killraven escapes from the slavepins and with a rag-tag band of humans fights back against the Martian overlords. This storyline runs from issue 18 of Amazing Adventures to issue 39,and covers 2 years in the story of the series. Killraven was created by Neal Adams and Roy Thomas,but sadly Adams only did the first 11 pages of the first issue. The rest of that issue was done by Howard Chaykin. By issue 21 Don McGregor takes over the writing duties and last till the final issue. The art chores passes from Herb Trimpe to Rich Buckler to Gene Colon. But finally at issue 27 P. Craig Russell takes over the art and besides a few fill in issues stays on till issue 39. One thing that Killraven is remembered for most now is the first interacial kisses in color comics. One thing I love about the series is how even though it is perfect for a child to read,it has multiple levels so that adults will enjoy it. Killraven mainly appears in Amazing Adventures,besides a one time appearance in Marvel team up. In that story he teams up with Spider-man who is traveling thru time. Sadly Killraven's run in Amazing Adventures was cut short. So in the early 80's McGregor is allowed to wrap up most of the main storyline in one of the first few Marvel Graphic Novels. This Graphic Novel has some of the best P. Craig Russell art I have ever seen. After the publication of this GN Killraven disappeared and didn't show back up till a Marvel Knights 2001 One-shot,that is written and drawn by Joe Linsner. While this one-shot has the best art ever for a Killraven story some plot point contradict stuff from the original run. I first encountered Killraven by his entry in the Deluxe Official handbook to the Marvel Universe. And never got to read any of the story until I bought the Essential TPB last year. So to wrap it up,If you are a fan of Sci-fi,space opera,or fantasy check out Essential Killraven. I give it a A.