DoctorFinger
10-19-2008, 11:45 AM
Welcome to Week Two of the Official Colony of Gamers Comic Book Reviews
Remember, these are NOT spoiler-free reviews.
Colony of Gamer’s Weekly Comic Book Reviews – Year 1 – Week 2
Ghostbusters: The Other Side #1
Reviewed By: Michael "Doctor Finger" Chauvet
Publisher: IDW Comics
Writer: Keith Champagne
Penciller: Tom Nguyen
Inker: Drew Geraci
Colorist: Moose Baumann
Letterer: Chris Mowry
Editors: Chris Ryall & Andy Schmidt
$3.99
http://colonyofgamers.com/images/comics/Ghostbusters-TOS-1.jpg
Humor is - in my opinion - one of the toughest things to do in a self-paced, performer-less medium like comics. Timing and personality are so important that any attempt immediately begins behind the 8-ball. Then you get Ghostbusters. One of the few great hybrid comedies. You watched the film as much for the laughs as the effects and action. So how does the feel of the films translate to the pages?
The book begins, and frankly stars, the ghosts. In this case a real underworld meeting between two rival gangs of ghosts. The Mafioso types are none too happy with the Yakuza types, each claiming one section of the city as theirs. It's into this meeting that the Ghostbusters, well bust. They drop some traps and catch many of the goons, but the big Mafia boos ghost manages to Posses Venkman. He tries to get the 'Busters to release his crew, but Ray lays him out with a haymaker instead. One problem: that displaces the ghost, but Venkman was out of his body too long and his spirit dissipates. The rest of the team takes his body back to the Firehouse. Physically he's fine, but he has no mental activity. Back in the ghostly realms, the Mafia don goes to his bosses for a consultation. Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel want to keep things quiet: hitting the living is too high risk. But Al Capone and Lucky Luciano don't want to let this act of disrespect go unpunished and call for an attack on the Ghostbusters. The Mob Boss re-posesses Venkman's body and leads the remaining Ghostbusters into a trap, where the ghosts use real guns to murder them.
Now that's an interesting way to end an issue: the main characters' bullet-riddled bodies lying on the street. Yeah, I know they won't be dead at the end of the series, but the subtitle "The Other Side" leads me to believe that they'll spend most of the story in the spirit world. But, ending aside, the whole felt a little flat. Mostly because the humor just didn't seem to be there. Oh, there were some jokes but they felt forced, and never really felt like a Ghostbusters thing anyway. The humor in the movies mostly hinged on the timing and personality of the actors, and that just doesn't translate here. Artist Eric Nguyen makes the cast recognizable without tying too hard to do caricatures of the actors who portrayed them. While I appreciate that - frankly it doesn't usually look good when artists try to 'do' famous people - some people may be turned off by the fact that Venkman doens't look exactly like Bill Murray. Again, I like the core conceit - the 'Busters versus the spectral mafia - but without the humor the book just doesn't live up to the lofty standards set by the films.
Bottom Line:
It's nice to see the characters and the conflict is interesting, but the humor that made the movies so much fun just isn't present here.
CoG Says: "Borrow It!" (3 out of 5 Cogs)
<img src="http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/CoG3.png" border="0" alt="" />
Stormwatch PHD #15
Reviewed By: Michael "Doctor Finger" Chauvet
Publisher: Wildstorm Comics
Writer: Ian Edginton
Penciller: Leandro Fernandez
Inker: Francisco Paronzini
Colorist: Carrie Strachan
Letterer: Wes Abbot
Editor: Ben Abernathy
$2.99
http://colonyofgamers.com/images/comics/Stormwatch-15.jpg
At one point not too long ago Wildstorm lived up to it's name. It was a place where creators with big ideas came to spread their wings. Warren Ellis, Alan Moore, Garth Ennis, Gail Simone, Ed Brubaker, James Robinson and Joe Casey all created books at the studio/imprint that really stretched the medium. Then the powers that be at DC and almost overnight Wildstorm became a duller place. Now, after yet another attempt to 'reinvent' the line, the Wildstorm earth is now a post apocaltptic nightmare. But there is one beacon of light, which began after the last revamp, and just may lead the way back to the line's glory days of big ideas. This may be heresy to some, but right now Stormwatch PHD feels like a book that would have fit in just fine in the line's heyday.
Stormwatch stars superheroes, but it's more like a techo thriller and espionage book than your usual capes & masks title. The remnants of the team operate out of their satellite, one of the few pieces of high technology working properly after the WorldStorm that devastated the planet. Their job is to try and save as many people as possible from the horrors they face, but things are tough. In this case, their intended rescuee is Jon Drake. Drake is being chased by a gang of mechanical horrors who want to steal his Halo battery, a source of almost unlimited energy that could fuel them for decades. Drake is saved by Stormwatch, but the news isn't good. Drake is the former head of the Establishment, which I guess is the UK's version of Stormwatch. Drake's old drinking buddy had been part of the old Soviet Science Cities, where the Russians had performed their worst experiments and housed their most secret projects. And now, because of the devastation brought on by the WorldStorm, one of them has awakened on Wrangel Island, in the Arctic Ocean near Alaska. The War Golem was designed as a weapon of Mutually Assured Destruction, to be activated automatically when conditions indicated that the Soviet Union had been destroyed. This creature has one purpose only: to destroy every living thing - down to bacteria - inside of the United States. There's also a back-up story featuring Mark Slayton, as a teaser for a future Team 7 book.
After a series of one and dones, now we get to the first multi part story and it sounds like a doozy. Before the WorldStorm the threat of something like the War Golem would be interesting, but with a limited pool of superhumans to fight it, as well as extremely limited tech, it's a much more daunting challenge. Now we get that great, horror/sci-fi threat but set against a Mad Max backdrop. How could you not love it? Fernandez' art is dynamic and fun, if a little overly dark in spots, but I think that may be the inker more than anything. Now I know what some of you are thinking, and no this book doesn't have that much to do with the supberb Stormwatch PHD book that spun out of the last Woldstorm revamp, sharing only a title and a single supporting character in common. But it has a similar 'feel', like they're doing something a little different and having fun doing so.
Bottom Line:
A really fun book that brings back that old school Wildstorm flavor (or is it flava?)
CoG Says: "Love It!" (4 out of 5 Cogs)
<img src="http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/CoG4.png" border="0" alt="" />
Quick Hits
Justice Society of America #19 - Justice Society vs. Justice Society vs. Justice Society!
Ultimate Origin #5 - "I'm Rick Jones, Bitch!" Yeah, so Rick Jones is now the herald of the Watchers. Whatever that means. A series that just didn't live up to it's billing.
Final Crisis: Rogues' Revenge #3 (of 3) - The Rogues rule. It's that simple. They'll never be the most popular villains on the block, but they're some of the most interesting in my opinion.
Remember, these are NOT spoiler-free reviews.
Colony of Gamer’s Weekly Comic Book Reviews – Year 1 – Week 2
Ghostbusters: The Other Side #1
Reviewed By: Michael "Doctor Finger" Chauvet
Publisher: IDW Comics
Writer: Keith Champagne
Penciller: Tom Nguyen
Inker: Drew Geraci
Colorist: Moose Baumann
Letterer: Chris Mowry
Editors: Chris Ryall & Andy Schmidt
$3.99
http://colonyofgamers.com/images/comics/Ghostbusters-TOS-1.jpg
Humor is - in my opinion - one of the toughest things to do in a self-paced, performer-less medium like comics. Timing and personality are so important that any attempt immediately begins behind the 8-ball. Then you get Ghostbusters. One of the few great hybrid comedies. You watched the film as much for the laughs as the effects and action. So how does the feel of the films translate to the pages?
The book begins, and frankly stars, the ghosts. In this case a real underworld meeting between two rival gangs of ghosts. The Mafioso types are none too happy with the Yakuza types, each claiming one section of the city as theirs. It's into this meeting that the Ghostbusters, well bust. They drop some traps and catch many of the goons, but the big Mafia boos ghost manages to Posses Venkman. He tries to get the 'Busters to release his crew, but Ray lays him out with a haymaker instead. One problem: that displaces the ghost, but Venkman was out of his body too long and his spirit dissipates. The rest of the team takes his body back to the Firehouse. Physically he's fine, but he has no mental activity. Back in the ghostly realms, the Mafia don goes to his bosses for a consultation. Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel want to keep things quiet: hitting the living is too high risk. But Al Capone and Lucky Luciano don't want to let this act of disrespect go unpunished and call for an attack on the Ghostbusters. The Mob Boss re-posesses Venkman's body and leads the remaining Ghostbusters into a trap, where the ghosts use real guns to murder them.
Now that's an interesting way to end an issue: the main characters' bullet-riddled bodies lying on the street. Yeah, I know they won't be dead at the end of the series, but the subtitle "The Other Side" leads me to believe that they'll spend most of the story in the spirit world. But, ending aside, the whole felt a little flat. Mostly because the humor just didn't seem to be there. Oh, there were some jokes but they felt forced, and never really felt like a Ghostbusters thing anyway. The humor in the movies mostly hinged on the timing and personality of the actors, and that just doesn't translate here. Artist Eric Nguyen makes the cast recognizable without tying too hard to do caricatures of the actors who portrayed them. While I appreciate that - frankly it doesn't usually look good when artists try to 'do' famous people - some people may be turned off by the fact that Venkman doens't look exactly like Bill Murray. Again, I like the core conceit - the 'Busters versus the spectral mafia - but without the humor the book just doesn't live up to the lofty standards set by the films.
Bottom Line:
It's nice to see the characters and the conflict is interesting, but the humor that made the movies so much fun just isn't present here.
CoG Says: "Borrow It!" (3 out of 5 Cogs)
<img src="http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/CoG3.png" border="0" alt="" />
Stormwatch PHD #15
Reviewed By: Michael "Doctor Finger" Chauvet
Publisher: Wildstorm Comics
Writer: Ian Edginton
Penciller: Leandro Fernandez
Inker: Francisco Paronzini
Colorist: Carrie Strachan
Letterer: Wes Abbot
Editor: Ben Abernathy
$2.99
http://colonyofgamers.com/images/comics/Stormwatch-15.jpg
At one point not too long ago Wildstorm lived up to it's name. It was a place where creators with big ideas came to spread their wings. Warren Ellis, Alan Moore, Garth Ennis, Gail Simone, Ed Brubaker, James Robinson and Joe Casey all created books at the studio/imprint that really stretched the medium. Then the powers that be at DC and almost overnight Wildstorm became a duller place. Now, after yet another attempt to 'reinvent' the line, the Wildstorm earth is now a post apocaltptic nightmare. But there is one beacon of light, which began after the last revamp, and just may lead the way back to the line's glory days of big ideas. This may be heresy to some, but right now Stormwatch PHD feels like a book that would have fit in just fine in the line's heyday.
Stormwatch stars superheroes, but it's more like a techo thriller and espionage book than your usual capes & masks title. The remnants of the team operate out of their satellite, one of the few pieces of high technology working properly after the WorldStorm that devastated the planet. Their job is to try and save as many people as possible from the horrors they face, but things are tough. In this case, their intended rescuee is Jon Drake. Drake is being chased by a gang of mechanical horrors who want to steal his Halo battery, a source of almost unlimited energy that could fuel them for decades. Drake is saved by Stormwatch, but the news isn't good. Drake is the former head of the Establishment, which I guess is the UK's version of Stormwatch. Drake's old drinking buddy had been part of the old Soviet Science Cities, where the Russians had performed their worst experiments and housed their most secret projects. And now, because of the devastation brought on by the WorldStorm, one of them has awakened on Wrangel Island, in the Arctic Ocean near Alaska. The War Golem was designed as a weapon of Mutually Assured Destruction, to be activated automatically when conditions indicated that the Soviet Union had been destroyed. This creature has one purpose only: to destroy every living thing - down to bacteria - inside of the United States. There's also a back-up story featuring Mark Slayton, as a teaser for a future Team 7 book.
After a series of one and dones, now we get to the first multi part story and it sounds like a doozy. Before the WorldStorm the threat of something like the War Golem would be interesting, but with a limited pool of superhumans to fight it, as well as extremely limited tech, it's a much more daunting challenge. Now we get that great, horror/sci-fi threat but set against a Mad Max backdrop. How could you not love it? Fernandez' art is dynamic and fun, if a little overly dark in spots, but I think that may be the inker more than anything. Now I know what some of you are thinking, and no this book doesn't have that much to do with the supberb Stormwatch PHD book that spun out of the last Woldstorm revamp, sharing only a title and a single supporting character in common. But it has a similar 'feel', like they're doing something a little different and having fun doing so.
Bottom Line:
A really fun book that brings back that old school Wildstorm flavor (or is it flava?)
CoG Says: "Love It!" (4 out of 5 Cogs)
<img src="http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/CoG4.png" border="0" alt="" />
Quick Hits
Justice Society of America #19 - Justice Society vs. Justice Society vs. Justice Society!
Ultimate Origin #5 - "I'm Rick Jones, Bitch!" Yeah, so Rick Jones is now the herald of the Watchers. Whatever that means. A series that just didn't live up to it's billing.
Final Crisis: Rogues' Revenge #3 (of 3) - The Rogues rule. It's that simple. They'll never be the most popular villains on the block, but they're some of the most interesting in my opinion.