GODZILLA RIVALS MOTHRA VS HEDORAH IDW COMICS
While I am a sucker for anything Smog Monster related, (and I don’t care what the purists say, the VHS tape I owned was labelled SMOG MONSTER so that’s what I’m calling him!) this one suffers from the current trend of IDW Godzilla series. But lets not start bashing it just yet. Writer Josh Trujillo’s story is rather heartwarming and follows in the general parameters of a Mothra story. Including a pair of twins who sing the Mothra song, Mothra facing overwhelming odds, and of course an egg! The problem is that the story raises more questions than it answers. How did a microscopic bit of the Smog Monster end up on a meteor in space? What kind of uber wealthy person would think it was good idea to inject it into his body to fight off his tumors? How exactly did Mothra defeat/destroy the Smog Monster? Color me confused. And while a good portion of the human story benefits from Joshua Cornillon art, the monster scenes come out rather kid-friendly graphic novels that are currently all over the comic stores these days. Not that this is a bad thing, it’s just as a die-hard Godzilla fan, I’d like to see more of the 2012 Godzilla series. 7 out of 10 Grahams.
BIRDS OF PREY #10 DC COMICS
We’ve only reached part 2 of a 5 part story and I have to admit that I am rather lost. And while this second chapter of Kelly Thompson’s story does give us a load of backstory (and a really funny look at the inner workings of Big Barda!) it still doesn’t seem to piece together the right way. And while I understand these are different versions of the Birds of Prey (Thank you, multiple DC reboots!), I miss the 1999 series. So, story moving forward just not sure where we are going with this and why. 6 out of 10 Grahams.
DEATHSTALKER #2 VAULT COMICS
Again, Tim Seeley and Jim Terry prove that they have watched their fair share of 1980’s Sword and Sorcery B-movies as they hit the nail right on the head. Deathstalker tries to take on the roll of Paladin but quickly finds out that stories and legends of heroes are exactly that … stories. Battling pigmen is all fun and games until you get dispatched to defeat evil wizards. A brand new sword gets a work out, a friend gets killed, and a pigman feel sorry for the Deathstalker and buys him an ale. Good, not-so-clean fun for everyone. 9 out of 10 Grahams.
WORLD’S FINEST #100 DC COMICS
Call it a Flashback. Call it a Wayback. What I would call it is another moment when the people at the comic store know what you like and remember your birthday! And what a present left for me to review! With all the good things happening over in the current version of this title (Batman/Superman World’s Finest), it seemed appropriate to look back at a milestone issue of the series that started it all. On sale in January of 1959, comic readers found this milestone on their newsstands. Starting out as World’s Best Comics (for the first issue only) World’s Finest was an anthology book to end all anthology books as big time headliners Superman, Batman and Robin! And even though the page count had started to shrink by this time, we still not only got the Superman/Batman story but also Tomahawk and Green Arrow back up stories. So when we finished reading about Luthor’s attempt to take over the miniture city of Krypton City! Yep, that’s what I said Krypton City! Kandor had only come into being a few months earlier in the pages of Action Comics #242 and the world hadn’t gotten to the World’s Finest creative team! Back then continuity never got in the way of a good story. And speaking of a good story, when Green Arrow and Speedy meet a clown version of Green Arrow, they get to use some new gimmick arrows developed by the clown to defeat the thieves robbing the circus. And I can never get enough gimmick arrows! 10 out of 10 Grahams.
