Singles Going Steady is Comics Bulletin’s weekly single issue review roundup.
Alien: Fire & Stone #1
(Chris Roberson / Patric Reynolds / Dave Stewart; Dark Horse Comics)
Aliens: Fire and Stone is the prequel comic set before Prometheus: Fire and Stone – that I also reviewed – and chronicles the misadventures of a group of colonists escaping Hadley’s Hope from the Aliens film.
This issue is very light on character development, as was the case with the Prometheus comic, and seems more interested in showcasing the Xenomorphs but, because entertainment does not exist in a vacuum, we’ve already seen what the Xenomorph can do – secondary internal proboscis mouth and all.
I would describe this effort from the highly touted Chris Roberson (iZombie) as “toe in the water” rather than getting your feet wet.
Spoiler Warning: I did appreciate that it answered the question immediately of where the Xenomorphs came from at the end of the Prometheus issue.
– Spencer Fawcett
A Town Called Dragon #1
(Judd Winick / Geoff Shaw / Jamie Grant; Legendary Comics)
And to think this book would be yet another one of those GoT/Vikings rip-offs…
Super-scribe Judd Winick (TV’s The Real World, Avengers World) does better to allow his epic art team of Geoff Shaw (Buzz Kill) and Jamie Grant showcase their best Inquisition, melting the pages of some of the most wondrous scales and scorched Norwegian battles yet.
The script takes a series of memorable flashback fights and gears them up for more interpersonal, current moments. The mayor wants to paint the town diner of Dragon, CO black — and fiery red and burnt orange — while a “man about his service” is none too fond of yesteryear. The former high school stud and Olympic Hero isn’t about to turn this melting pot into Disneyland, but soon has no chance once one of the townies goes AWOL.
The man has good reason, because there’s a lot of juicy conflict involving a not-so-Easter-egg on the horizon; “a lot” as in 50-pages that, you the reader, will only have to pay standard cover price for. With strong character personalities that match the strong facial expressions, a tasteful mystery that will only widen as the story goes, and spectacular dragon action not witnessed in comic pages before, the Monsignor can tell you geeks who fancy the sword-&-sheeth that your money here is well spent.
– Travis Moody
Butterfly #1
(Arash Amel / Antonio Fusso; BOOM! Studios)
Teach your daughter to shoot– because restraining orders, like governement-directed orders in Arash Amel‘s Butterfly, are just pieces of paper.
Butterfly’s lead, Rebecca, is no exception to this rule of good parenting before supposedly losing her Dad at a young age. Antonio (G.I. Joe: Cobra) Fusso‘s grey toned frames of this novel begin to close in on her while her mission begins to backfire on her, leading her to search for coordinates and the unexpected finding of a lifetime.
Overall this comic earns 3.5 stars, the artwork doing the majority of the story-telling while the dialogue and backwards butterfly effect story took the passenger’s seat in this part 1 of 4.
– Jackie Henley
New Avengers #24
(Jonathan Hickman / Mike Deodato Jr.; Marvel Comics)
Like Avengers #35 last week, this week’s NEW Avengers follows suit and jumps us 8 months into the future; here, we learn Namor may have made a poor decision aligning himself with ole purple face’s, Thanos, within the Cabal of nasty.
I know, shocking.
Plus we are given a glimpse of what the future has in store for Wakanda and the Black Panthers. Overall, this issue didn’t hold up as well following Jonathan Hickman’s (Fantastic Four) first post-time jump with Avengers, but that’s only due to the pacing and lack of interest in pages being denoted to Thanos killing a world of heroes we have never met.
Namor and Doctor Doom’s dinner meeting was enjoyable for the sheer depth that you get to see Namor hit rock bottom. Also seeing both Black Panthers go toe to toe with the Cabel will have you at the end of your seat. Unlike DC’s Future End – to which you know will never come to pass — “Time Runs Out!” is an enjoyable romp, and an appreciative attempt from Marvel to keep things fresh and exciting. Only time will tell where and how long we stay in the future while the Red Skull and Axis run rampart in the MU. .
– Lance Paul
G.I. Joe #1
(Karen Traviss / Steve Kurth / Jeffrey Veregge; IDW)
There is a new Cobra in town and he’s a peacemaker…. What? Plus, the Joes have been disbanded and are now trying to scrap together funds to stay afloat. Surely, this will sound like a topsy-turvy take on our favorite action figures.
Courtesy of Karen Traviss (Star Wars), with stunning interior art by Steve Kurth (Iron Man), the main issue your Apostle had with this first-one-out-the-gate is the amount of set-up and very little action coming at us. Lengthy political conversations of the funding future of the Joes unfortunately is not why we buy these comics. And the overall lack of Joes in the series has me questioning things. The one saving grace is the stunning line art thanks to ole X-Men Legacy artist Kurth. His work alone will bring me back for a second issue; let’s just hope the storyline starts moving somewhere fast.
Thank God for Steve Kurth” Fanboys agree.
– Lance Paul
Roche Limit #1
(Michael Moreci / Vic Malhotra; Image Comics)
I wish the word on the newest sci-fi noir from Michael Moreci (Hack/Slash: Son of Samhain) and Vic Malhotra (The X-Files: Year Zero) were better. As a rule, I’m a sap for a good genre-mash — particularly when it’s these two genres doing the mashing — but the good here never quite outmatches the bad and the ugly.
Set in a divy off-world colony on the edge of a spatial anomaly (given occasional handsomeness by Malhotra), the story eventually coalesces around an off-duty cop in search of her sister (the latest in a string of vanishing women), aided by underworld slickster Alex Ford. With a perpetual zinger in the chamber and the upper-hand in almost any situation, Ford emerges as Moreci’s favorite early on, which is unfortunate since it robs the ostensible heroine of her agency (I had to double back to see if she even had a name; the search was inconclusive), and more critically because it’s unclear WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE.
There’s no shortage of storylines, each setting up the expectation of eventually intersecting, but none sticks around long enough to make much impression or give a sense of what the stakes of this universe are or will become. Further harming matters, Moreci’s script which constantly twists and contorts in an effort at breezy wit, routinely falling shy of the mark. I sympathize with the guy; noir ain’t easy, but maybe it’s best left to those with a knack for it. 2/5 Stars, but only because I’m not a total monster.
– Alex Gradet