The new Doombot?

Before I start, I’d like to say just a few words about this man right here. You see, not only can he pull off some mean cruise control speak (which is talking in caps for you kiddies who don’t get the reference), but he’s also a narcissist and a technological genius. So much so on the last two that, in his free time between being holier than thou and having a strangely heterosexual obsession with a man who goes by the name of Richards, he likes to build these things called Doombots. The thing about Doombots is how they look and act exactly like their creator. This can cause a few problems, such as not knowing when you’ve fought the real Doom and when Doom won’t own up to a loss (we all know Squirrel Girl didn’t fight a Doombot, Doom). So whenever something happens with Doom at the center he always has something to fall back on.

Random superhero: “Hey man, you blew up my home and mercilessly slaughtered my family!”
Dr. Doom: “Lol, wut? Wasn’t me man. It was a Doombot. Sorry about that though.”

Guns. Lots of Guns.

A quirk about me is that I love to read supplemental material. Properties like Star Wars do a good job of putting out books of character biographies, weapons histories, schematics, cross-sections, and everything like that. Sometimes it’s interesting to see what actual model of laser pistol Han Solo carries around, or how exactly lightsabers work. You can imagine my enthusiasm when I found the Punisher Armory. Published across 10 issues from 1990 to 1994, it chronicled nearly every piece of weaponry that the Punisher used. Through captions, we got to hear Frank’s thoughts on them.

Suburban Glamour. Prepare to increase your indie cred.

A tale of Magic, Mystery, and Underage Drinking. That is what is promised on the back cover of the first issue of this new 4 issue series from Image. It delivers on that promise, I will grant it that. This book is a fun read from”Phonogram“co-creator Jamie McKelvie, it does however suffer from a few problems.

Spawn: Your creator is still with you.

Todd McFarlane is a genius. No, not in the writer sense; but in the artist, the creator, the visionary sense.

About a week ago I headed towards a local comic store (Anime Hurricane which carries a great comic selection along with some assorted weeaboo stuff) to pick up a copy of Omega: The Unknown #1. I had missed out on it the previous week and asked them to order it for me. They told me I had to wait another week which was fine with me. I Got my weekly purchases and chatted it up with other customers. I got into a conversation with one of them about Spawn.

Besides obviously mentioning Alan Moore’s AMAZING Spawn #8 (pick it up, very easy to find), we talked about the very best of the series and how McFarlane had influenced comics since his debut. He recommended Spawn #10 to me. I didn’t pick it up that week since I needed the cash I had left, but I did yesterday. It is one of the best issues of any series I’ve ever read. For those that don’t know, Spawn #10 was written by Cerebus creator Dave Sim, who collaborated on the issue with Todd McFarlane. Basically, all you need to know is that Cerebus shows up (anything else would ruin the issue for you) but there is one line in it that spoke to me.

… are back in town

 

When power corrupts the mightiest on earth, it’s the Watchmen who stand up to fight. When power corrupts the Watchmen, well then you call in The Boys. A brutal series by the master of extreme violence Garth Ennis (Preacher, Judge Dredd), it looked like this title had been canceled before it was given a real chance to find its audience. Luckily, for me and you, it has been given a second chance and is continuing to shape up into a series you won’t want to miss.

Originally published by Wildstorm, an imprint of DC, “The Boys” was canceled after only six issues due to its graphic nature and it anti-superhero slant. It certainly didn’t help that some of the superheroes that were being lampooned had a large number of similarities to DC icons. DC, however, allowed Ennis to buy back the rights to “The Boys” and in February of 2007 Dynamite Entertainment picked it up and has since put out a trade paper back and 4 more issues, with more to come.

 

Amy Fairchild reviews Promethea

Alan Moore.

 

If you didn’t just say FUCK YEAH BEARD KING! out loud or in your head, you’re probably at the wrong blog because Alan Moore’s awesome and has created more epic win comics in the last ten minutes than most writers do their whole lives. Just to name a few, his run on Green Lantern Corps created Mogo and the prophecy of Blackest Night, setting the seeds for the epic Sinestro Corps crossover 20 years later. V for Vendetta and The Bojeffries Saga were essential in establishing that Europeans could write comics. Then there’s Watchmen, which I won’t even get into because I’d waste this whole entry talking about things you guys already know. What I’m gonna talk about here is some stuff he did for Wildstorm-Then-DC under the America’s Best Comics imprint called Promethea. Yes, I know he did a lot of comics under ABC, but this is what really stood out to me. It’s a modern fantasy thing where instead of superheroes they have what they call Science-Heroes, which serve the same purpose, they’re just a lot more…Let’s call them “flamboyant”.

Anyway, Timid Mousy Female Nerd College Student #238, Sophie Bangs, is doing a report on a meme called Promethea that shows up randomly throughout history as both an urban legend that supposedly exists and a metafictional character in this world’s myths, books, comic strips, et cetera. As it turns out, the reason this happens is because Promethea is a living story, a sort of demigoddess, and when humans write about her, the writer or someone connected to the writer sort of fuses with a bit of the demigoddess’s essence and can then transform into a sort of fusion between that person and Promethea’s personality with an appropriate appearance.

So this Sophie kid ends up becoming the new Promethea, and the one tasked with ending the world, and Comic Books ensue. I can’t say a whole lot more without ruining the story. So let’s pretend I’m a real journalist for a moment and review it.