Articles tagged with: Comic Book

Since I was a child, I like sci-fi themes of aliens invading Earth and the always initially losing human side struggling to survive and counter-attack. V, War of the Worlds, Mars Attacks... So I decided to give a try and bought The Eternaut as a compilation (the comic strips originally appeared on newspapers in 1957).

Set in Buenos Aires, a family and their friends are playing at the house when a sudden snow storm beings, apparently killing people upon touching any snowflake. They survive, forge some improvised sealed suits and begin exploring for answers as to what happened. Soon they will find that the snow was just the first strike of an alien force that seems to want to erase human life from the planet.

I love not reading/watching spoilers so I'll stop there the plot description, but it got me intrigued until the end. The drawing is fine, black and white but detailed and evocative of the story being told, and the comic keeps the orignal small 3-4 pages weekly strips so there are lots of cliffhangers to keep you eager of reading what happens next. The plot is quite imaginative for the times it was written and, despite the obvious political underlaying message, overall is an enjoyable science fiction tale.

Note: Preparing this review I learned that there is an official sequel and a remake (with more violence and political content), I might try to get a hold of the sequel. Further follow ups seem to be of lesser quality and not from the original author (who sadly dissapeared).

Posted on 2018-04-03

After the events of Will of Iron, Revelations covers the second volume of the series. This time the story and pacing does increase, maybe opening too many branches. Why I think that? Well, because we have as foes now Chaos Space Marines, Chaos human cultists, Traitor space marines, The Fallen, Eldar Harlequins and even Necrons! And inquisitor Sabbathiel arrives and seeks the Dark Angels...

The drawings are once again spectacular, so well done the comics seem worth even only for them. Fantastic coloring, great use of lights... is a pleasure for the eyes. One thing that I liked is that we get to see more imperial interiors than usual: an inquisitor dorm "room", Space Marine penitence areas and other places you don't usually see many images of.

With its ~90 pages feels short again (and of course we're left with some cliffhangers) but I liked it more than the first volume. If you get it alongside the first volume or already own that one, go for this volume 2.

Posted on 2018-02-01

In this comic book, Arkham Asylum has been taken by Joker and other inmates. They have hostages and want Batman to go in, so he does that and enters to face not only his classic incarlelated antagonists but also his own fears and "internal enemies". At the same time, we'll learn the dark history behind the creation of the asylum itself.

A different comic, quite dark, even sad, with long line drawings sketching and shaping the characters but almost never sharp enough to distinguish details. I liked it.

If to complain about something, would be for the length, I had a 20th anniversary edition and half of it are scripts, sketches and notes from the creators, fooling myself into thinking that the comic was bigger and, while not short, is definetly shorter than I initially expected. Maybe was just the wish for more.

Posted on 2017-11-09

I recently read Aliens: Rogue. I as wary, because I love both Aliens and Predator worlds and I recently experienced the horror of reading recent comics who destroy the lore and setting thanks to the (more or less) recent movie Prometheus; They are so bad I'm not even going to waste time writing the reviews, just stay away from them.

Anyway, back to this title, it was a nice surprise. An aliens comic like the old ones, with twists and fresh ideas but without polluting the core concept of aliens. A scientist on the brink of madness has apparently been able to tame Aliens, by genetic engineering. And even more terrible, he's been able to "build" an alien king. But of course things never go 100% well and hell breaks loose.

Interesting and well drawn, I enjoyed it.

Posted on 2017-05-27

Between breaks from latest Zelda videogame, I got my hands on all numbers from Warhammer 40,000 latest comic,Will of Iron. Counting the free issue that came with White Dwarf it's 5 issues. Dark Angels versus chaos with the Inquisition in between is a classic in the WH 40k lore but could result in an engaging tale. Sadly, it falls behind on this wish.

The story is lacking more thrill, more action. The plot advances but not much, and while the artwork is really great (including the alternative covers), pretty comics aren't everything when overall it feels like a bottle half-filled with air. Even reading all the issues together, I get the feeling they copied the main idea of comics of delaying by splitting action in many issues, when here should fit better a graphic novel, where story advances at a faster pacing. I've read lots of mini-series (e.g. Alien and/or Predator) and here just feels things were hacked out for the future.

Dialogs are not bad but just mentioning 2-3 classic Dark Angel topics (pretty much everyone knows now about The Fallen) feels like exploiting once and again the distinctive mark of this Space Marines chapter, instead of exploring something different. There are some known characters here and there but as satellite pieces.

Not bad but I'd say to wait until there is a second "season" so the story really progresses.

Posted on 2017-04-22