Shipping List for September 08, 2010
September 8th’s shiplist is up, take a look!
Bank Street HeroClix for September 2010
Thursday, September 2nd – A Boy and his Dog: Build a 400 point team using characters with the Kid or Teen keywords and characters with the Animal keyword. There must be an equal amount of kid/teens and animals on your team (i.e. 2 kids & 2 animals).
Saturday, September 3rd – Watchmen Modern Age Tournament. There will be a $15 entry fee for this tournament, but you will be playing for a chance to win one of the brand new Watchmen Collector’s Boxed sets. Build a 400 point team under the Modern Age construction rules.
More events will be posted again next week!
Shipping list for September 1st, 2010
Hey guys, the September first shiplist is up, take a look!
Buffy: The Vampire Slayer Season 8 – Riley One-Shot
Title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8: Riley One-Shot
Author: Jane Espenson
Artist: Karl Moline
Publisher: Dark Horse
Rating: 13+
Release date: August 18, 2010
Verdict: 9/10
For those of you who are reading Buffy Season 8, but may not have watched Buffy while it was on the air, Riley is a member of the extended “Scooby” team and was a series regular in the 4th and part of the 5th seasons of the TV show. After season 3 of Buffy wrapped, David Boreanaz, who played Angel (the love of Buffy’s life), left the show as a spin-off staring him was commissioned. The characters of Buffy, Willow and Xander all left for college, and in Buffy’s first semester she meets and starts dating Riley. At first he was just a handsome dude to look at, but then as the 4th season arc really heated up, we got to see that Riley was actually a highly trained government operative who was working with a special military group that was set up in Sunnydale to fight the growing Vampire threat. This was a big thing as it was the first evidence that the government in the Buffyverse was aware of the Vampire/Monster threat that had been plaguing the southern California town for years.
When Riley’s arc ended, instead of killing him off as Joss Whedon is known for doing, Riley instead goes away with an elite government team to continue to fight the good fight. He actually pops back up on the series in the sixth season while in the midst of tracking a big time demon. By this point, Riley has moved on from Buffy. He is married to a girl named Sam, who is also a demon hunting government operative, and he’s seemingly happy. This was the last time we would see Riley on-screen in the Buffyverse, but he would return in the season 8 comics just a few months ago when he was revealed to be a double agent for Buffy stowed away within Twilight’s, aka Angel’s, inner circle. Now, at long last, we get the Riley one-shot special to detail what else we’ve missed.
Riley’s story opens up to him and his wife Sam strolling through the corn fields of Riley’s family farm in Iowa. Riley and Sam are talking about their future, with Riley talking about taking a portion of the farm and starting a family, and Sam trying to convince Riley to help out Buffy and continue to be a general government sponsored bad-ass. From this we can tell that this story takes place before Riley’s earlier appearances in season 8. The issue follows Riley and Sam as they are drawn into specific set of co-ordinates in order to meet the mysterious Twilight (earlier revealed to be Angel) so Riley can become Buffy’s secret double agent on then inside. Other than the Riley story, the “b” story of this on-shot is actually Angel go over his plans. We get a closer look at why he’s using all the subterfuge with the whole Twilight identity, and we get further insight into his real plans for the rest of the run of season 8.
I really enjoyed this issue. The entire season 8 series in general has been quite good, but these little asides masterminded by Whedon and executed by Whedon-ites, former Buffy/Angel writer Jane Espenson in this case, have been great. More than any other comic book I’ve ever read, this series has really felt well thought out from start to finish. Whedon has taken the whole Executive Producer role for this whole thing quite seriously, and has really brought the role to the next level. It’s probably a bad place to start reading Buffy Season 8 with this one-shot, but for those who have been reading, this issue is an absolute must. Real answers were given, and the fire that is my burning desire for the remainder of the series has been stoked. Bring on the Whedon-penned final arc of season 8 and make way for season 9. Look for Buffy Season 8 #36, the beginning of the final 5-part arc in the next few weeks, brought to us by Joss Whedon and Georges Jeanty. What did you guys think? As usual, let’s hear from you in our handy comments section below J .
Shipping list for August 25, 2010
Howdy! The August 25th ship list up, give’r a look!
Final Flight – Ex Machina: The Final Issue
Title: Ex Machina #50
Author: Brian K. Vaughan
Artist: Tony Harris
Publisher: DC/Wildstorm
Rating: 18+
Release date: August 18, 2010
Verdict: 10/10
Six years ago when Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris’ Ex Machina #1 graced the comic stands, we were in a slightly different world. George W. Bush was seeking re-election, or ‘election’ depending on how you view the 2000 presidential race. The War on Terror was still in full swing, people were obsessed with “Swift Boats”, and there were no mainstream comic books dealing with politics, even though politics were all that anyone really cared about. The very idea of a comic book series dealing with modern politics wasn’t even out there. Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson’s amazing 60-issue Vertigo series, Transmetropolitan, dealt with politics and politicos, but the setting was in a not so distant dystopian future where the worst of humanity was on display on every street corner. It was a hyper-realized world. But not BKV’s Ex Machina. Ex Machina was here and now, in a world only slightly askew to ours with a person only slightly more fantastical that what already exists out there. Ex Machina was going to show us the way.
The revelation at the end of the first issue that the main character, Mitchell Hundred, the only superhero in this other world, was able to save one of the twin towers from falling on September 11th was the single greatest reveal that I believe I’ve experienced in all my years of reading comics. The reveal by Zemo that the Thunderbolts were actually the disguised Masters of Evil wasn’t bigger. The revelation that Spider Jerusalem survived his degenerative disease wasn’t bigger. This was that huge. The only revelation that was bigger was what we got to see happen in Ex Machina’s final issue: Last week’s #50.
Since Ex Machina was technically told as a series of flashbacks looking back from the end of Hundred’s term in late 2005, we’ve been wondering about Mitchell Hundred’s fate this whole time. He ran as an Independent in the 2002 New York mayoral election, so we were always wondering if he was truly a republican or a democrat. This question is answered. We know that if he did run for president, like it was alluded to, he wouldn’t be able to run until the 2008 election, so what was he doing from 2006-2008? We know he only stood one term as Mayor. This huge question is answered. What was the source of his freaky “able-to-talk-to-machines-power”? This was answered. What’s with all the parallel Earth’s encroaching on Hundred’s Earth? This was answered. We got a lot of answers, but really not a happy ending.
In the last few issues leading up to this big final issue (48 pages without adds), we started to realize that this series was not really going to end with a “happy ending”. BKV spells it out perfectly on the first page of this issue, “Happy endings are bullshit. There are only happy pauses.” And boy was this true. A happy ending wasn’t in the cards for just about any of the characters we grew to know and love in the course of this series. I will go so far as to say that other that Dave Wylie, Hundred’s deputy Mayor, no one is really happy at the end of this story or even has a chance at happiness. Dave became the Mayor following Hundred, but even that doesn’t mean he was happy. Just that he had a chance. Having to follow a super-hero in the role of Mayor was probably no cake walk.
So when all is said and done, I would say that I liked BKV’s Y-The Last Man better as a series, but this final issue for Ex Machina, was the best “final issue” of any series that I have ever read. I loved the finale to Preacher and I loved the finale to Transmetropolitan, and as I said before, I loved the ending to Y-The Last Man, but this ending to a book that was supposed to feel as though it occurred in the real world, was by far the “realist”. As the man said, in reality no one’s ending is a happy one. The only happy times are the pauses in between the many endings. Sound off with your thoughts in our comments section below. Let us know what you thought of the series as a whole as well as the last issue J .
Shipping list for August 18, 2010
Hey guys, I just got the August 18th ship list up, bit late this week, we were at Otakuthon! Sorry about the delays.
Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #1
Title: Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors
Author: Peter Tomasi
Artist: Fernando Pasarin
Publisher: DC Comics
Rating: 13+
Release date: August 11, 2010
Verdict: 9/10
Spinning out of the goodness that has been the Brightest Day, DC Comics has finally released that Guy Gardner starring Green Lantern book, Emerald Warriors, written by Green Lantern Universe co-plotter Peter Tomasi, late of Green Lantern Corps, and featuring gorgeous artwork by up and comer Fernando Pasarin.
Issue #1 opens up with Guy Gardner hanging out in his apartment on Oa where he starts recording a message to an unknown recipient, when out of the blue his ring lets him know the location of a stolen item he has been actively looking for. From here Guy takes to the spaceways and does his “cop thing” in grand Guy Gardner fashion by smashing the bad guy’s hoopty into rubble. And when I say rubble, I mean rubble. Guy took this opportunity to conger up a huge baseball bat with his ring, and then treated the bad guy spaceship like a piñata!
Ever since this series has been announced, Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi have hinted at a pact made between Guy Gardner, Ganthet (the Oan guardian who wears a Green ring now), and Atrocitus (leader of the Red Lanterns of which Guy was a member for a short time) in the pages of Blackest Night as well as in Green Lantern Corps. Maybe I just missed it, but the details of the pact were never revealed. The only thing Gardner said was that if he went through with this, then any relationship that he has with Hal Jordan would basically be at an end.
We then cut to Guy Gardner as he is in the midst of a meeting with the Guardians. He spells out a plan that would involve him heading out into the unknown sectors and doing some “Lewis & Clarking”. Guy’s argument was that what the guardians don’t know can in fact hurt them. The Guardians agree and Guy says thanks and heads out. After meeting with Ganthet in a secret area of Oa and discussing their “plan” with Atrocitus, but still giving no actual clue as to what their plan is, Gardner heads back to his place to finish the recording. While he’s doing this, I noticed that the symbol of the Red Lanterns was in his eyes, and he starts to leak some blood from his mouth just like the Red Lanterns do. Does this mean that deep down, Guy still has some of that Red Lantern mojo inside him? And who was that recording for? Hal Jordan? Kyle Rayner? His ex-girlfriend Ice? This series is shaping up to be a good one. Ever since Guy took center stage in the Green Lantern Corps series, I’ve been waiting for him to get his own solo book. So far so good! What did you guys think? Sound off in our handy-dandy comments section below J .
Ultimate Comics Avengers 3 #1: The Event?
Title: Ultimate Avengers 3 #1
Author: Mark Millar
Artist: Steve Dillon
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Rating: 16+
Release date: August 11, 2010
Verdict: 7/10
When Mark Millar and Marvel Comics announced that he would be returning to their Ultimate Universe to pen 24 more issues of the Ultimate Universe’s Avengers, the Ultimates, Mr. Millar stated that it was going to come out in 4 sets of 6 issues, and each set of issues would act as a major event in and of itself. They would be “Summer Blockbuster” events. Every one of them. And each 6 issue set would be penciled by The Cream of the Crop of A-List artists. Well, Ultimate Avengers 3 just premiered and I think Mr. Millar was exaggerating.
This series is being drawn by the incomparable Steve Dillon. Steve is not exactly who I think of when I think of “A-List”, but on the other hand, I would definitely classify him as one of my ”One of my Top 10 Favourite Pencilers of All-Time” category due to his work on series like Preacher, Punisher and Punishermax. “A-List” usually would mean guys who show up in Wizard’s Top 10 list every month, but I digress. Mr. Dillon is the man, and his clean straight-up style is exactly what this arc needs.
This run of the Ultimate Avengers starts with a scene straight out of blaxploitation films like Dolemite and Black Dynamite. When you open to the first page we are treated to a scene with Blade, the Vampire Hunter, in bed with leopard print sheets surrounded by three… “loose women”…in a hotel room somewhere. I mean, I could all but hear Isaac Hayes humming in the background. From here we know that this arc is going to be dealing with Vampires, because why would a badass mofo like Blade be present otherwise? Right? Well it turns out that everyone in the room was a Vampire, so Blade does what he does best. Dispatched them with extreme prejudice accompanied by pithy remarks.
From there, the issue takes a slight detour. We move on to the origin of a new Daredevil. A guy named Ray Connor has just had an accident identical to the one that blinded Matt Murdock, but with Murdock dead, who can this kid turn to? Murdock’s old teacher Stick that’s who. Master Stick takes on the kid’s training, and voila! A new Daredevil is born. From here we learn, quite graphically, that vampires have been turning super-heroes into other vampires, and stuff is about to go crazy. The first super powered person that we see turned into a vampire will make you realize how big this is going to be. If the same thing wasn’t happening over in the main universe’s X-Men books, it would even seem kind of original. Hopefully this run is better than Ultimate Avengers & Ultimate Avengers 2 were, as I found them kind of boring. Head on over to our handy comments section below and let us know what you thought of this issue and the whole “Millar back in the Ultimate Universe” thing J .
Shipping list for August 11, 2010
Hey guys, I just got the August 11th ship list up, take a look!