Blood Blade

Sometimes I read books that aren’t comics. I know, it may go against the grain a bit. People assume comic book readers need the pictures to read, because their tiny brains can’t comprehend all the words. In the case of a 3 year old, I would agree. In my case, I tell those people to “eat it”.

Blood Blade is the first in what I hope to be a 600 book series. The author, Marcus Pelegrimas, has created a very cool world, blending vampires, werewolves, and making those creatures his own. First off, I like vampire crap. No, I don’t shop at Hot Topic, wear makeup, and say things like “I become the night, and the night becomes me, for it is now that I shall feed to quench my thirst.” In fact, people who fit that description need a good push down a long flight of stairs. It would be positive for two reasons…

1. They may get some sense knocked into them on the way down.
2. It would be funny.

What the hell was I talking about? Oh yeah, vampires. Love ‘em! Werewolves? They creep me out. It’s the whole transformation thing. Pelegrimas captures that creepiness in bone-popping detail, and creates some cool moments visually. That’s what I want to address with this outing: throughout the entire book, I could visualize everything. Some authors bore you with so many details that the characters are bland. Some engage in a dialogue-fest that becomes convoluted. Blood Blade is an excellent balance of action, detail, character development, and butt-kicking.

Positives: Paige and Cole. These two characters have great chemistry, and didn’t annoy me in any way, shape, or form during the story. The action sequences are phenomenal. Mysonik makes you really hate him because he is such an a-hole. The Full Bloods are legit scary.

Negatives: I finished the book. That means it is over, and I have to wait until this fall for the second book. Good news? This is the kind of book I will read again prior to the next book arriving on the shelves.

5 out 5 stars.

Sabbatical

Taking the weekend off from the internet sounds like a fun experiment...until you actually do it. Maybe that's why I am up before 6 am posting this.

Anyway, lots of stuff coming up this week. Captain America, dumpster diving with Wetworks, Doctor Who, and whatever else I can think of at the last second. Until then, here are a couple cool pics...

Dumpster Diving: Deathblow #1-2

Welcome to the first installment of "Dumpster Diving". What is Dumpster Diving, you ask? Well, even if you aren't asking, I'll tell you anyway. This is when I go back through some comics I either haven't read yet, or I read them a LONG time ago and forgot about them.

I tend to have a memory that contains the most recent week's information, so I don't remember much.

We will grade these on 2 different scales. If I have read an entire story arc, we will do a simple 1-10 rating, with 10 being high. If I did not read the whole arc (as is the case with this entry), we will employ The Regret Scale.

The Regret Scale is similar to a 1-10 scale, with 1 meaning I saved myself from a hell so real and complete, that I want to take time out to smell the flowers, do charity work, hug my loved ones, and do all I can to improve the world around me. A 10 grading means that I want to walk off of a cliff because I did not continue on with the storyline.

Deathblow #1-2. The cover date is December of 2006 and January of 2007. Why did I sit on this for so long?? Our creative team features a story by Brian Azzarello and art by Carlos D'Anda. Let's give it up for them!

Azzarello wrote the Joker graphic novel, impressively, I might add.

These two issues find Mr. Blow being rescued by the U.S. military, as he was missing and presumed dead for 6 years. GREAT splash page with the helicopters.

Upon his return, I think I am supposed to walk away believing that he has been mentally re-programmed or some such nonsense. He is reunited with a family that he does not remember, talks to a talking dog (WTF), and seems to go apeshit by the end of issue #2.

I feel like the premise of the story was pretty good, and had I continued reading the story, it would have probably made more sense. As it stands, since I was not roped in right away, I will leave my Deathblow collection at #1 and #2.

Artwork: very solid. Some of it was pretty awesome, yet very dark, and I get it, it's a dark book.

The Regret Scale: 6. Take it or leave it. Had I read it when I was buying them, chances are high I would have continued.

What I bought, week of 4/13/2009

Without titles: Vigilante #5, and Battle for the Cowl #2.

Green Lantern

First of all, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) is my favorite superhero of all time, bar none. Ever since I was a little nerd I wanted a power ring. Now that I am a pushing-40 nerd, the recent revival of GL is awesome.

I have a friend who has picked up GL, and this blog is for him.

You need to collect two books: Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps. These two books are very closely intertwined, and when there is a crossover, they continue into each other.

I will give you the mega-quick version.

Way back in the 90's, DC sucked, and made Hal Jordan (pictured) go batshit crazy. He killed fellow lanterns and became the villain known as Parallax. Why did he do this? He was distraught over his home town, Coast City, being blown into oblivion by the alien Mongul during the whole Reign of Supermen storyline (after Supes died). A little odd, considering how grounded Jordan was just the issue before the new "creative" team took over.

Anyway, the Corps was gone, all that was left after Hal killed everything was a guardian who gave the ring to an earth-man, Kyle Rayner. Kyle was written like a Spider-Man type everyman. I call this "The Stories We Shall Not Speak Of".

So Hal, as Parallax, enjoys a run as one of DC's villains, acts like an ass, and finally redeems himself by reigniting the sun in a (forgettable) mini-series called Final Night. Yay, Hal dies a hero. Excuse me while I go puke.

Hal then serves as a host for The Spectre, God's spirit of vengeance. In Hal's case, he becomes a spirit of redemption. After Hal's Spectre series gets canceled, the way is paved for Green Lantern: Rebirth. GET THE TRADE PAPERBACK NOW.

Long story short, excellent mini-series, with Hal ditching the Spectre (or getting ditched) and returning to life. He also flattens Batman with one punch when Batman was being a hardass (their relationship soured after Hal turned bad). This also showcases the return of Sinestro, former GL, and current cold-blooded nutjob. What of Parallax? Parallax turned out to be the yellow impurity hanging out in the central power battery, where all GL's powers come from. Kilowog (former GL) becomes a GL again, and along with Jordan, Kyle Rayner, John Stewart, Guy Gardner, and Kilowog (I hope I am not missing anyone), they take care of Parallax.

This paves the way for the return of the Green Lantern monthly, and the Green Lantern Corps mini-series "Recharge", which brings back the Corps.

Key books to read, ALL OF THEM. Okay, at least The Sinestro Corps War. Unbelievable story. Also the Year One arc, as it has implications going into the current Blackest Night storyline. Now there are multiple-colored lanterns encompassing the color spectrum...Blue for hope, Red for rage, Yellow for fear, and so on.

Better detail is listed HERE.

These are, in my completely biased opinion, the best books on the shelves.

Next up, dumpster diving into Deathblow #1 and #2.

I Love Mediacom

Actually, by "love" I mean "loathe". My cable is down at home. When I am not on a portable device anymore, we will keep this blog on life support.

What I bought this week...

Gears of War #1-5

MILD SPOILERS

Gears of War is an amazing video game. Same for Gears of War 2. The gameplay, story, visuals...ahhh, it's just simply awesome. So when I heard about the Gears comic, I was excited!

Gears of War is a Wildstorm comic brought to us by writer Joshua Ortega and artist Liam Sharp. Before we look at what is shakin' with Marcus Fenix and company, I will say the art is quite good. Sometimes with video game or movie/tv adaptations, I have found the art to be stiff...as if the artists were just copying an old photo James T. Kirk onto paper. Not so here. Liam Sharp draws some cool grubs! Mr. Sharp has an interesting background.

The story kicks in 15 years after E-Day and two months after the lightmass bombing. If you read that and have no idea what the hell any of that really means, then go out and buy an Xbox 360 and pick up the games. Play through them, then read these comics.

We are following a new Gear, Jace around as he and Gil are two newbies in Delta Squad. The series dives right into the action and, if you've played the game, you feel like you just completed some of the levels as you read along. This series has great action, and decent character development. My biggest complaint is it's a quick read. That's just me, though. The art is so good, I have flipped through the issues several times to take more of it in. Jace, the new guy, gets some creativity points for landing the helicopter the way he did in issue 3. Also in issue 3, the name of the settlement they run into was amusing.

Cole is Cole, and Ortega does a nice job with him. Baird is an a-hole worse in the comic than in the game. The jury's out on that right now. Issue #6 wraps up this story arc, so we'll follow up.

I would recommend this series to a fan of the game. It's fun, and as I said has good action. The story isn't life-altering, and is a touch predictable. 4 out of 5 stars. Visually, this book is great.
Next up: a recap of Green Lantern! Heading into Blackest Night, Hal Jordan and his fellow Lanterns are going to be put through the wringer. We've got Blue Lanterns, Orange Lanterns, the Sinestro Corps (yellow), Red Lanterns, The Star Sapphires...craziness! Actually, I was a little apprehensive when I heard of all these different colors. First off, I hate Skittles, secondly, I have to admit Geoff Johns has really pulled it off. More next time!

Ahhhhh, yes.

Welcome to the blog!

Well, it's official! After a lot of fanfare, anticipation, and a lot of work from various agencies, this blog is up and running!

Okay, there was no fanfare, anticipation, and no agencies were involved. In fact, as of right now, no one knows this blog exists. That's okay...start at the bottom, right?

Oh, look! I already have a question from a reader!

Q: What the hell is this blog about??

A: First, thanks for writing. Secondly, this blog is where I will discuss comics I am reading and pretend that other people give a shit.

Coming up in this blog: Gears of War issues 1-5, the state of Captain America, Green Lantern, and I will dumpster dive into comics I started buying but never read.

Stay tuned, suckers!