My Week In Comics: November 27, 2009

By the time you’re reading this, you’ve probably already gotten the last two Lantern ring replicas from your favorite local comic shop. For those who haven’t yet, Green and Red are out right now. Try this for fun: Say the Green Lantern oath slowly and loudly while slowly slipping the Green Lantern ring on your finger. Ignore the stares you get…you just became a goddamn Green Lantern!

But I digress. New comics this week! Let’s see what I got myself into!

It’s pretty stupid of me to get Blackest Night #5 without actually getting numbers 1 to 4, but aside from getting a discounted price for a Green Lantern ring if you buy the issue, the buzz around this particular ish made me curious. And this time, curiosity didn’t kill anybody. The entire spectrum of Lanterns have come together (whether they like it or not) to stop the threat of Nekron, while the rest of DC’s big guns arrive to try to stop the rest of the dead from doing any more damage.

I’ve never read a lick of Green Lantern before getting this ish, but Geoff Johns delivered by giving us some great character moments from all the Lanterns. Larfreeze in particular just became a favorite of mine. Greedy little bastard!

Shocking revelations on the nature of death in the DCU (“You’re still connected to [death]. To me.” Nekron snarls in one panel), a shocking “resurrection”, and an ending that just spells ‘we’re fucked’, bodes ill for the rest of the DCU, but not for this book, which gets a well-deserved 4 out of 5.


Queen Sonja #2 breaks it down with a breather of an issue, with Sonja’s prisoner from the previous ish fleshing out some of the history behind some very bad country with a douchebag for a king. Sonja doesn’t like it one bit (like all good bikini-clad warriors do) and decides to teach them a lesson only the She-Devil with a Sword can provide. Never thought I’d love a ‘story’ issue like this, but writer Joshua Ortega makes it interesting enough to keep me reading. When Sonja proclaims that an entire country just gained ‘a most dangerous enemy’ (i.e., her!), you just know it’s about to get good. That, and Mel Rubi’s smokin’ hot rendition of Sonja, gives this book a 4 out of 5.


Invincible Iron Man #20 opens up with a hologram recording of Tony Stark laying down his ‘last will and testament’ to someone off-panel. Like about 10 pages of it. It’s all well and good, though, because not only does Tony back-sass Osborn like crazy, he also lays down plans to revive him from his vegetative state, and he wants Iron Man, Thor and Captain America together to clean Osborn’s mess after. Can anyone say Siege?

Not much happens this issue, but I’m guessing this is the part where it all goes to hell for Osborn and co., and I’m loving the very prospect of defeat for these very bad people. This gets a 3 out of 5.


Finally, we come to Image United, a very ambitious project involving the original seven founders of Image Comics, along with some help from Robert Kirkman. The very thought of all these comic juggernauts coming together to basically do an artjam of a comic (with each creator drawing the characters they created, save for Whilce Portacio, for reasons you can probably research yourselves) blew my brains. I’m in this for my main man Whilce, and I’m happy that despite not having access to Wetworks for this story, the character he does draw is the focus of the story!

Good or bad, the story reads just like pure, distilled 90’s. Bad guys start trashing major cities in what I assume is America, and the Image heroes' solution is EXTREEEME violence and bad puns. But Fortress, the guy in the green and violet (ugh) suit is sensing that something is very wrong, and he needs all these heroes from all these different worlds to make it right.

If you have no connection to these characters, the book might be confusing, but if you want to see what an artjam from the most popular 90’s artists looks like, that's all you'll probably get out of it. I’d get this for nostalgia, if nothing else. Aside from the sheer awesomeness of seeing the Image founders drawing their own characters in one comic (never thought I’d see Velocity as done by Marc Silvestri again!), nothing much is explained, and the only hook they have to get you to buy the next issue is that if they don’t unite against this unseen threat, they are all going to die. We’ll give this issue another shot, but they better have more Witchblade in there if they want me to keep buying! This one’s a 3 out of 5.


An altogether satisfying week for comics, and that’s all I can hope for these days. If you think there should be more Witchblade in the next issue of Image United, or just want to talk about my choice of words in this blog post, leave me a comment below and let’s discuss! Thanks for reading.

ROTF Decepticon Bludgeon Review

With Transformers Universe taking an indefinite hiatus, Transfans can only get their fix from Hasbro’s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen movie line, which is currently putting out new figures and tons of repaints long after the movie has gone from theaters.

Bludgeon (Decepticon Bludgeon to you copyright fans) is the latest Voyager class bot to come out of the ROTF line, and to be honest I’m impressed and downright psyched by what Hasbro has done to please both G1 fans and the casual movie-former lovers: they took a character so undeniably old-school and made it fit both the G1 and movie aesthetic, ultimately bridging both. He’s like the Barack Obama of TFs!

Now I’m not much of a Transformers wiz, having only started collecting TFs this year, but all I know is that back in the G1 days, Bludgeon was a samurai ghost robot, which for all intents and purposes is already awesome in and of itself. He was a Pretender, a smaller Transformer that hid under a larger shell. Bludgeon’s outer shell was a skeleton in samurai armor, and inside he was a robot that transformed into a tank. I don’t know why he thinks he can fool anyone by dressing up as a giant samurai skeleton, but Decepticons aren’t exactly known for smarts, only firepower, which Bludgeon has a metric ton of.

His alt-mode is a “jungle tank” according to the back of the box,, but us nerds know its actually a Japanese Type 90 tank. His turret rotates the full 360 degrees, something even ROTF Megatron was incapable of doing.

The machine gun on top of the turret also rotates, and it rolls on surfaces great. You haven’t even transformed him yet and you’ve got a great looking and highly playable toy tank!

Transforming Bludgeon is a pretty involved process, but the engineering spent on this toy to turn it from a tank to a samurai robot is nothing short of impressive.

There are a lot of things to flip over, turn around and break in two, but in the end you get a toy that really looks like an undead robot samurai, instead of Hasbro just giving some robot a samurai sword and helmet and calling it a day.

Paint-wise, I love his shade of green on the tank, and the garish orange probably highlight his spectral nature. He’s got a Mech Alive feature, where the turret breaks in two to reveal a sheath for one his weapons, which I’ll get to in a minute.

Articulation is pretty limited, including a lack of waist swivel, but you can make the most out of what’s there. He’s got a neck swivel, swivel shoulders, arms and legs, double elbows and hinge knees, and you can get a pretty good variety of limber moves you expect a samurai to do!

Speaking of which, you can’t be a samurai without a sword, and Bludgeon gets to have the biggest-ass sword of all. Pull out the gray tip of the tank turret for his nodachi (long sword), and his Mech Alive feature brings out his wakizashi (short sword). You can store both through holes on his right hip just like a real samurai. Mad respect for Hasbro for going out of their way to put in these little details that really make Bludgeon more than a toy.

They’re both made of pretty soft plastic which is too bendy for my taste, but I guess it’s a blessing in disguise…it’s a bitch to get them in Bludgeon’s hands. Dude’s got grip! But once he’s armed, some poor Autobot’s about to become sashimi!

I never liked the movie aesthetic, to be honest, and the news of Universe phasing out made me ultra-sad. But Bludgeon gave me hope that we can get good, classic characters out of the movie line’s extended run. This big undead samurai robot is an awesome toy, with appeal that reaches across borders. You gotta respect the way of the samurai!

It's not out in the Philippines yet, but I got him from a specialty store in Greenhills for pretty much SRP. Once he drops, get him fast!

Yellow Lantern Rings are out!

Just got back from Planet X Comics in Glorietta 4 and it's confirmed: the first of the Lantern ring replicas have landed. Tons of Yellow Lantern rings over there! Get it for 40php when you buy the latest issue of Doom Patrol (Doom Patrol #4, a Blackest Night tie-in issue) out this week, or just buy it outright for 60php.


Would have loved to buy Doom Patrol and support the books, but its either just 60php for the ring alone, or 165php for the book PLUS 40php for the ring, which is equal to WAY more than 60php. Never thought math would be this useful to me for once in my life!

More pics below.

My Week in Comics: October 30, 2009

Hey, you're still reading! Good! Come on, you gotta see what I got myself into this week!

Holy shit, a comic book about Jennifer Love Hewitt's Music Box comes out this week?! Man, that is SO bought! Wait, what? It's literally about a haunted music box that makes people do crazy shit whenever they listen to it? Talk about misleading titles, man!

Kidding. Though I could sit here all day making lame jokes about Love Hewitt and her music box (which I just went and did...damn), you'd be surprised to know that the comic itself isn't as bad as people might expect of Hollywood actor-penned comic books, though this is not so much Hewitt's written work as it is her brainchild, since veteran comic book writer Scott Lobdell wrote this particular story. Here, the Music Box in question is a bloodstained, haunted MacGuffin, whose power to make people's dreams come true at the cost of their sanity is addictive and, ultimately, deadly.

As expected of IDW, the atmosphere is thick here, as if there's a long bass note all throughout the story as the poor soul caught in the Music Box's grip slowly loses his grip with reality. Helping bring the point home is Michael Gaydos' distinctively gritty art, which makes for an unsettling experience of a comic. I guess what I mean to say is Jennifer Love Hewitt's Music Box #1 is surprisingly good, and I enjoyed it more than I expected. This one is an easy 4 out of 5.


If there's anything Hannibal Tabu and I agree with, it's that Nova has been skirting the 'good enough' territory for months now, but Nova #30 changes all that with so much awesome stuffed in one comic that paying just P165 for this ish should be illegal. Solid action, characterization and art from Nova newcomer Kevin Sharpe, makes this one of the best Nova issues so far. his book's a 4 out of 5.


And then we come to Queen Sonja #1. In case you didn't know, I dropped Red Sonja months ago since I wasn't feeling the storylines and the revolving creative teams didn't help in keeping my attention. But now with Queen Sonja, Dynamite plans to "return to Red Sonja's roots" with a new a creative team that not only boasts of the definitive Red Sonja artist Mel Rubi, but also a promise of staying on board for more than 1 issue!

One thing's for sure: Queen Sonja is damn good. I haven't smiled while reading Red Sonja in a long long while that I'm afraid my face has forgotten how to, and each page of Queen Sonja consistently rocked my face clean off instead. It's like all this time I was reading fake Sonja comics, and this was the real freaking deal. The action is fierce and fun to look at, and Sonja reads like a warrior who absolutely loves her job, and looks damn good doing it. Mel Rubi, you are a delight.

To top off this awesomecake of blood, blades and bikinis, Queen Sonja includes a reprint of Red Sonja: She-Devil with a Sword #1, featuring old-school Sonja as told by legends like Roy Thomas, Esteban Maroto and Neal Adams. It's a great reprint of one of Sonja's first solo stories, and I can't believe I was born 30 years too late to read it. Every panel was a work of art...totally inspiring.

An awesome main story plus an awesome reprint, all at the price point of a 22-page comic? The math speaks for itself. Go get this comic right the hell now. This gets a worthy 5 out of 5.


Wow, it's been a while since I've had an awesome Week in Comics! Anyway, think Red Sonja isn't so hot? Think Jennifer Love Hewitt is? Leave a comment and let's discuss. Thanks for reading!

My Week in Comics: October 24, 2009

Okay, I admit, when I saw that there was a comic called Cowboy Ninja Viking coming out this week, the motor functions governing my hand automatically went and sent it to my pull list. There’s just something about awesome mashups that make my eyes roll into the back of my head. So does C.N.V. #1 deliver?

For the most part, yes. In the book, people called Triplets exist, highly-trained killers with multiple personality disorders. It’s all well and good until you find out that the personalities they have are coincidentally some of the most badass archetypes in history. A triplet might be a Pilot Surgeon Knight, for instance, and you’ll never know until he’s operating on your guts with a two-handed sword at 11,000 feet. The main character is a Triplet named Duncan, the titular Cowboy Ninja Viking, and all he wants is to be left alone. But a shady organization wants to use his skills to hunt down rogue Triplets, and he soon finds himself rushing headlong into a confrontation with one of the most dangerous of them all.

I think I’ve been spoiled by too many mash ups, because though C.N.V. provided an entertaining premise to start with, it suffers from not taking advantage of the possibilities of having someone with cowboys, ninjas and vikings in their heads. That, along with confusing layouts, dialogue and art that makes it hard to know who the hell is talking to who, makes C.N.V. an incomprehensible, confusing read.…though the thought of Duncan facing off with someone as kooky as a Pirate Gladiator Oceanographer next issue is making me geek out, even just a bit. This one gets 2.5 out of 5.


And now we come to Invincible Iron Man #19, one of the last issues to Matt Fraction’s Dark Reign magnum opus, World’s Most Wanted. Fraction’s been hitting his stride the whole storyline through which, if memory serves me right, happens only once in an indigo moon. In the ish, Pepper Potts, Black Widow and Maria Hill is about to punk H.A.M.M.E.R. so hard, and Norman Osborn finally catches up with Tony Stark!

Forget about whatever book you’re picking up for your Osborn fix, Fraction’s crazy homicidal asshole potrayal of Norman Osborn is total cash. I’m tired of seeing his smug face pretending to be a hero everywhere else…in Invincible Iron Man, Normy is megalomania personified, and it makes the fact that he’s about to get what’s coming to him that much sweeter. Also, Larocca and D’Armata are matching Fraction’s game, with amazing art and effects that bring the "action movie look" home.

I often get too spoilery in my reviews, but not here. I’m actually telling you to just pick up Invincible Iron Man #19 right now and see for yourself. Trust me, the last few pages are worth more than the 3.99 cover price. Shit, you should even reserve #20 while you’re at it, because by the last panel you’ve just got to know what’s gonna go down next. This is a solid 5 out of 5.


That’s it for my late Week in Comics. Agree? Disagree? Think Norman Osborn’s the sexy shiznay and got nobody to tell it to? The comment box below is your best friend. Leave me a note and let’s talk about it. Thanks for reading!

Start the day right, COBRA-style!

So here's Alodia cosplaying as a hot, Asian Baroness.

Day = right.

Yes, I know I'm contributing to the madness that is Alodia (which I promised not to do), but I can't help but point out that she can actually be damn hot even if she doesn't wear those garish blonde wigs all the damn time!

Today, you can be as awesome...

...as Nick Fury bursting through a wall, guns ablaze, while riding no-handed on a rocket-powered motorcycle.

Shirtless*.

*Only if allowed by your school, office and/or place of work.