Sheena, Queen of the Jungle (2007 Series) #4

January 22, 2008

Quick Rating: Fair

Sheena prepares to make her stand

Writers: Steven E. DeSouza & Robert Rodi
Line Art: Matt Merhoff
Colors: Bob Pedroza & Wes Dzioba
Letters: Brian J. Crowley & Crank!
Editor: Mike O’Sullivan & Stephen Cristy
Cover Art: Joe Linsner (Cover A); Frazer Irving (Cover B); Tim Seeley (Covers C & D)
Publisher: Devil’s Due Publishing

Laura Jeffries and the rest of Caldwell Industries continue their pursuit of Sheena and Bob Kellerman this issue. We get a little more backstory on Jeffries and the company, and Sheena prepares for a last stand.

While there isn’t really anything bad about this book, it doesn’t feel particularly original. Sheena and the environmentalist are good. The big, mean corporation is bad. Sheena asks nature for help. She communes with the Earth. Which the company is apparently out to destroy. Repeat. Yeah, this is an old character (she was co-created by Will Eisner, after all), but the way to give an old character new life is to make it somehow fresh and unique. This is essentially the same plot we’ve seen played out in a dozen movies, TV shows and comic books. It’s executed well, but it still feels like it’s going through the motions.

The artwork is considerably better. Merhoff, Pedroza and Dzioba do a very good job on Sheena herself and the myriad jungle scenes, plus a nice reveal inside the office building. Merhoff has a nice talent for emotion as well, shifting scenes from comedic to serious and vice versa based on the expressions on a character’s face. It’s a talent that not enough comic book artists have.

This is an okay book. It’s just not really a refreshing one.

Rating: 6/10

Xombi (2011 Series) #3

June 1, 2011

Title: Exit Strategies (The Ninth Stronghold Part Three)

Writer: John Rozum
Art: Frazer Irving
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Cover: Frazer Irving
Editor: Rachel Gluckstern
Publisher: DC Comics

David Kim, aka Xombi, has run into a bit of a problem. Marantha, a particularly nasty entity, has been cut loose, and David is cut off from his more effective allies in the heat of battle. When Marantha pulls off a strike that would be fatal to anybody else, the question rises – can even David’s nanites pull him back together? It seems likely that this book is on its way out, with the massive restructuring of the DC Universe announced on May 31, but it’ll be a real shame if there’s no home for David Kim at all. He’s an intriguing character in his own right, and in three issues this has easily turned into one of the most innovative, bizarre titles in the DC Universe. Although Xombi himself is a sci-fi based character, the story and world he inhabits falls more in the realm of the supernatural, even horror. John Rozum easily melds the elements together, making for an engaging story and characters that are just plain fun to read about. Frazer Irving brings his decidedly bizarre style to the character and his world, and even manages to make characters like Nun the Less and Nun of the Above – very similar visually –distinct. And tough broads at that. Although the cancellation of this book has not been announced, it’s hard not to see writing on the wall. After just three issues, I’ll miss it. It fills a very distinct, unusual place in the DC Universe that nobody else is touching on these days.

[Update: Since this review was written, the full 52-title DCU roster was announced and, sadly, Xombi isn’t part of it. Writer John Rozum will stick with the Milestone heroes, though, taking over a new Static Shock series.]

Rating: 8/10

Marvel Holiday Special 2006

December 3, 2006

Quick Rating: Good
Title: A.I.M. Lang Syne and other stories
Rating: A

A look at Christmas in the Marvel Universe.

Writer: Andrew Farago, Shaenon K. Garrity, Scott Gray, Mike Carey, Jeff Christiansen
Art: Ron Lim, Roger Langridge, Mike Perkins
Colors: A. Street, J. Brown, A. Crossley
Letters: Dave Lanphear
Editor: John Barber
Cover Art: Frazer Irving
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics once again delves into its rich history and pulls out a handful of Holiday tales for 2006. While not quite as good as last year’s special, there are a few good stories here, and a special bonus treat – the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe entry for Santa Claus.

The book starts (and middles and ends) with “A.I.M. Lang Syne,” a perplexing story about an A.I.M. New Year’s Eve party gone wrong. This is really the only clunker in the book, which leaves you wondering why it’s even here. The story is presented in short segments, one or two pages at a time, scattered in-between the other features. And it doesn’t work. It isn’t a framing sequence for the other stories, it’s not a story that is strengthened by showing the other tales in the interim, it’s as if the editor simply decided to cut it up for no reason. And even that wouldn’t be so bad if it were a good story, but it’s pretty boring.

“How Fin Fang Foom Save Christmas” is far better. Picking up on the Fin Fang Four special from last year, Scott Gray and Roger Langridge show us a down-on-his-luck dragon wandering the streets of New York, only to stumble headlong into a new bizarre attack by the forces of Hydra. This is a funny story, well worth the read, that actually draws out some real sympathy for Fin Fang Foom, which is a sentence I never thought I would type.

“A is For Annihilus” is next. Home alone while the rest of the Fantastic Four is out Christmas shopping and making merry, Ben Grimm gets bored (which is a terminally bad thing at the Baxter Building” and winds up accidentally freeing Annihilus from the Negative Zone. The story is told in an alphabetical rhyme scheme by Mike Carey, which occasionally feels forced, but overall works for the purposes of the comic book. Mike Perkins’ artwork, with colors by A. Crossley, is quite good, and the story is given a sort of brownish wash that makes it feel like you’re reading out of an old book.

There are a few more features in the book, most notably the OHOTMU page for Santa Claus himself. Jeff Christiansen does an especially good job with this entry, blending in the historical life of St. Nicholas, myths of Father Christmas from around the world and Santa’s appearances in Marvel comics throughout the years (even appearances in the old parody comic, What The?!) to give us a nice, cohesive history for the character as he exists on Earth 616. We also get three “cut-out” ornaments celebrating Civil War, Planet Hulk and Spider-Man: Back in Black, which are nice enough except that no one would ever cut them out and, even if they did, the paper is too flimsy to really hang them from anything. The book concludes with a cover gallery of other Marvel Holiday Special editions over the years.

It’s a pretty good package, with only the A.I.M. story falling flat, and something that Marvel fans will enjoy for the holidays.

Rating: 7/10