Previews ~ Heroine news of interest: Final Crisis: Revelations #3 (p61) has a very welcome Batwoman on the cover (and by the sound of it, she'll actually be in the comic, unlike the Gotham Underground farce); Cyblade (p164) makes its debut, as one of the two titles to win the first Pilot Season contest - I reviewed the Pilot Season: Cyblade issue here, and yeah, I didn't think it any great shakes, but I'll give this a shot anyway; Chaos Campus: Sorority Girls vs Zombies (p200) begins, with the double-sized issue #1, the first half of which I advance-reviewed here thanks to Approbation Comics kindly sending it to me, yay!; Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose (p226) reoffers issue #44 signed, and issue #50 in a gold foil cover version, for ardent collectors (can't say the gold means much to me, but I'm toying with ordering the signed #44); Mercy Sparx #1 (p240) is solicited, which is kind of odd since I thought it already had been; and Virgin has a graphic novel called Timeslip (p348), promising to do some interesting stuff with time travel. And (not really heroine-related, but notable anyway) JLA/Avengers (p84) will be available as a trade paperback - crossovers don't really come any more ambitious than this one was, so it'd be worth picking up if you don't have it already.
In merchandise, there's a Watchmen Silk Spectre bust (p122), a Mary Marvel bust (p128) with Mary doing one of her patented innocent/titillating poses, Barbie will have a Wonder Woman version (p438), the super-articulated Kendra from Buffy the Vampire Slayer is reoffered (p442), Deanna Troi (p450) is reoffered as part of the Picard/Troi wave, and the Star Wars: Clone Wars line will no doubt include all manner of Ahsoka Tano (p482 for instance) - she's Anakin's apprentice, talk about getting the short straw, poor girl. Oh, and there's a two-pack of Worf (in his early DS9 uniform) and Gowron (p448), neither heroines of course, but I adore DS9 so I'm getting all the figures anyway, male and female.
Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose #51 ~ The Labyrinth, a kind of made-to-measure trial by fire, comes into full play this issue, as Tarot ventures into it for her duel with Thornwic over the fates of the family accused of murdering fairies. It's quickly obvious that the whole Swordsman idea is more subtle than just creating an equal-but-opposite character for Tarot to fight - as the duel progresses, the staging and timing of the combat suggests a connection between the two much deeper than that of mere adversaries; I have my suspicions (which Tarot's own narration, regarding herself and the Labyrinth, seem to confirm), but I'll keep them to myself for now. The potential of the conflict between the two to have an intellectual/philosophical basis, foreshadowed in the first issue, is largely moved into subtext - they're all-out brawling, but the arguments of morality between them are there, and I'm hopeful they'll return to the surface during the finale. Also intriguing are the actions of Tarot's supporting cast during the battle - Boo Cat is simply out of her depth, Pooka bravely (and almost suicidally) jumps in to protect his mistress, and after a few issues' absence from the title, Jon turns up again, adding a new layer of subtext to Tarot's fight, and what it reveals about her. This arc has one more issue to go - so far it promises to bring to light some themes of Tarot's character that have been part of her since the beginning, and it'll be interesting to see whether we get a return to the status quo, or whether this arc will herald a shift in the position Tarot occupies in relation to the balance between the mortal and fairy realms.
As always, the art is luscious, with the Labyrinth providing a suitably spooky, layered setting for Tarot's warm, vibrant form and Thornwic's enigmatic darker shades to fight it out in. Their duel of magic near the beginning is a stand-out moment, with Holly G's colours really selling the lighting effects of the thunderbolts flying about. The usual bonus material fills out the issue after the 22 story pages - a spell page, several photos and letters from fans, and of special interest a sneak peek at the Tarot statue underway (I've got my pre-order in - this'll probably be the costliest bit of merchandise I've ever bought, but there's no way I'm missing this one).
Contract #1 ~ I reviewed this back here (thanks to A First Salvo sending the PDF to me), but since it was an advance review I kept the plot details vague so as not to unfairly spoil anything. Now issue #1 is here, let's get to work. The setting is the future - humankind has moved out into space, and taken with it all sorts of fun stuff like mega-corporations, extortion, and profit-driven mercenaries. If you have a job that requires guns for hire, you post a contract with the Guild plus your maximum price, mercenary companies bid on it, and the lowest bid gets the contract. Our story concerns Stellar Rangers Inc., a small mercenary firm consisting of 'CEO' Jessie Garrett, a no-nonsense woman with a soft spot for sentimental jobs, Panzer, a cyber-enhanced mahyem-causer who gets his kicks smashing stuff on cue, and Tsumi, an apathetic multi-skilled jack-of-all-trades who Jessie motivates to make something of himself. Jessie - big-hearted as mentioned (though amusingly wry about it) - takes on a low-paying job, passing it off as quick money, but it turns out to be anything but when the kidnapped child they're trying to recover winds up in the hands of very unsavoury, and very powerful, organ merchants.
Garan Madeiros and Charles Shell tell a fast-paced tale, kicking off with a fight and a shock, taking a moment to flashback to the mission's beginning, and then continuing on to track down the people who took the child via detective work and an old acquaintance of Panzer's, with sci-fi liberally sprinkled throughout. The three characters work well as a team, both plot-wise and in terms of what they bring to the storytelling experience - Tsumi is methodical and efficient, keeping things moving, Panzer is continuous comedy, and Jessie provides the leadership and focal point that keeps the two working on track. The main story - 20 pages - is drawn by Dave Ross, who brings a dynamic, slightly gritty style to things, a down-to-earth feel that's augmented by moody colours - it's here that Contract's wild west feel is at its strongest. The five-page 'Delicate Touch' story - also featured in issue #0 - has pencils by Kevin Sharpe, cleaner and more sci-fi-ish; he'll be pencilling the upcoming Jessie Garret one-shot (the Tsumi one-shot is featured in this month's previews, p190). Then there's a 12-page story, 'Milk Run', with Sal Veluto on art - a nice blend of the two styles, which feels contemporary, detective-story-like; this story is part of the plotline featured in the main story, touching on one of the sci-fi concepts it'll use. As bonus material, there's a three-page preview of issue #2 - Ariel Padilla, who'll be the series's regular artist, provides clear, exciting work, though I think 'Fusion', on colours, count improve a bit on handling Padilla's backgrounds, which often have very little block shadow. There's also an info page featuring character bios, a brief run-down on key planets, and definitions of some of the sci-fi-speak, full-page pin-up art by Tsai Lim (in colour) and Oliver Nome (black and white), a mailbag page, and a thank-you page for various supporters, including Heroine Addict, yay! The US$3.99 cover price is above standard for a 22-page comic, but this is a forty-two page comic not counting the inside covers, and none of them are ads.
Justice Society of America Annual #1 ~ When we last saw Power Girl in Justice Society of America #17, she'd been shot through a wormhole by a well-meaning (but increasingly erratic) Gog, who'd decided she was lost. To no-one's surprise, he sent her 'home' - Earth-2, where she originated- which is where this Annual picks up the tale. It's a good use of the Annual format - this story isn't integral to what's happening in Justice Society, but it's a significant off-shoot of it, so whether readers ignore this and concentrate on the primary title, or buy this for completeness, they should be satisfied either way. In two 18-page 'chapters' Power Girl finds herself back where she came from, but not so much 'home' - Earth-2 has moved on while she's been away, and she herself has changed too, making it disconcerting and frustrating for her to be back among familiar surroundings, yet unable to fit in the way she used to. At the same time, she's stumbled into a crucial moment for Huntress, her once best friend, whose fiancé has been horribly mutilated by the Joker, and who plans to do what Batman wouldn't do and kill the villain for good. It's an engaging story - though it's not exactly a pleasant read, as Kara's frustration is easily felt by the reader if you relate to her - but you have to know your DC lore to appreciate the Earth-2 characers we meet, in various new incarnations of old names. Also, while Jerry Ordway's pencils have an appropriate retro feel to them, I just can't bring myself to like how he draws Power Girl's face - even taking into account artistic license, I'm going to call it off-model in no uncertain terms. She just doesn't look like Power Girl as Dale Eaglesham draws her in Justice Society - and with the whole point of this story being that Kara has become something new in her new world, a visual link back to her 'current' self, among the retro-styled Earth-2 characters, seems almost mandatory, and thus a sorely missed opportunity. A nice bonus of this issue, though, is a two-page spread by Eaglesham and Wade Von Grawbadger of the current Justice Society sitting for a group portrait - it uses the almost traditional joke of the painting (shown in the corner, with the artist - a self-portrait by Eaglesham? I wouldn't know, but it seems intended to be someone of note) being the usual formal sitting, while in reality everyone's goofing around with a variety of character-based sight gags on show. Incidentally, on Cyclone Costume Watch, her tank top's turned white again.
Ms. Marvel #29 ~ The battle of Manhattan continues, with Carol taking on the Super-Skrull army solo for a while, before Agent Sum manages to catch up to her, whereupon the two join forces to save lives and drop a spanner in the Skrulls' plans. There's a lot of spectacle in this issue - Carol taking on the giant-sized Super-Skrull, primarily - but it also works as an interesting example of the kind of 'Initiative' superhero that Marvel's been on about for some time, as Carol juggles her duties as an emergency worker, more or less - rescuing people from the danger zone and coordinating their evacuation to safety - with her duties as an ass-kicking superhero, involving invading aliens and blowing them to bits. I'm really liking this story arc - Carol is up against a Herculean task, with dozens of demands on her, enemies all about, way too many innocents in danger, and no matter how many she saves, the raw fact is that she can't save everyone, but just has to do the best she can against impossible odds - and instead of angsting, she thoroughly throws herself into it. This is Carol at her best, and I think this success for her - because despite the overwhelming odds, she's acting in the best traditions of superheroes - will form a solid foundation for future story arcs, with her actions now - valiant, but also ruthless by necessity at times - something she'll both draw strength from, and be affected by.
True Believers #1 ~ This was an unexpected gem. Its entry in Previews a couple of months back musn't have made a big impression on me, because I didn't remember much besides its title (maybe I just wasn't reading carefully - Previews is a big book, it's easy to zone out), and I admit, I mainly picked it up this week because of the curvaceous cyber-babe on the cover. But there's a lot more to this than eye candy (although she gets down to a bikini by page four) - it's a smart, ingenious take on a superhero team book, with Payback, the curvy data-based one, and her team 'True Believers' using their infotech and superpower skills to track down and expose society's dirty secrets. This issue shows us their MO as they target a group of rich sadists who kidnap prostitutes, dose them with narcotics and Mutant Growth Hormone, and watch them blindly beat each other senseless in a modern day gladiator arena - needless to say, the unsavoury perverts are brought satisfyingly to justice. Then the main story kicks into gear, with a SHIELD briefing on the team, which both lays out their powers clearly (more or less - SHIELD doesn't know everything), goes into their tactics and motivations, and links the story into the wider Marvel world. The comic is a neat mix of vigilante justice and modern-day information warfare, and along with the intriguing personalities of the heroes, makes a fun and fresh addition to Marvel's stable of heroes and teams. It's scheduled to run for six issues - I'll be buying them, and based on this one, I hope when the miniseries is done we'll see more of the True Believers, either in subsequent series, or guesting in other titles, where there's any number of ways for them to plausibly pop up.
Gearz #1 ~ I think 'quirky' best sums this up. By way of a bureaucratic foul-up, Karen Chugg - a bright-spirited and geeky teenage girl, about as far outside the 'in' crowd at school as can be - is sent not the robot dog she'd bought (because allergies to pretty much everything preclude her having a 'real' pet), but three ultra-capable robotic bodyguards intended for the President. The 'bots (dubbed Marcia, Jan, and Cindy - Karen's a Brady Bunch fan) fix on Karen as their VIP, and dedicate themselves to blending into her environment and protecting her from her enemies, which basically amount to mean cheerleaders and so on. As fate would have it, there's a genuine threat lurking within the school, so all the Brady Bots' inbuilt blasters and other assorted weaponry doesn't go to waste. The comic starts out jumping back and forth in its timeline, mimicking Karen's scatterbrained narration style - as she jumps ahead, then stops herself and goes back to explain, so do we. It's a bit confronting for a new reader, when the animation-esque visual style leads you to suppose this'll be a fairly accessible read, but after a few pages it's pretty easy to go along for the ride, and everything you need to know is explained, sooner or later. The dialogue can be a bit stilted sometimes - most notably the Bots tend to talk in cheesy robot-speak (with a 'breep!' every now and then), which seems a bit perculiar for such advanced creations and thus comes across as heavy-handed comedy - but there's some clever writing too, so it's not without merit overall. The art is highly stylised, and leans heavily on bright colours - a bit overwhelmingly at times - but again there's good work in there, especially cute touches in how the Bots take on Karen's surface personality as part of their 'assignment'. The cover price, US$3.99, is high for 22 pages, but the production values are solid, and as a bonus there's an extra two-page spread following the story showing concept sketches of the Bots, and other characters.
New Avengers #43 ~ Taking a break from the 'backstory' issues, we drop back in on the Savage Land, where we last saw Ka-zar and the delectable Shanna, with Spider-Man hanging around, confronted by the Captain America that came off the Skrull ship. Everyone assumes he's a Skrull and... well, no surprise, he is. But the lovely twist of this issue is not just that he doesn't know he's a Skrull (Battlestar Galactica's done the 'unknowing sleeper agent' already, after all) but that he'll never know he's a Skrull - he gave up his identity completely, without hope of regaining it, to fulfil this suicide mission. It raises two fascinating points: one, wow, the Skrulls are really committed to this game, huh? Incidentally, I really enjoyed the scenes between Pitt'o Nili (the Skrull) back before he took on Cap's identity, and Empress Veranke (always a welcome sight, whether she's herself or human-form) - the sense of commitment, cultural imperitive, dignity even, in the Skrulls really enhances the whole event. Two: if a Skrull is completely transformed, as this guy was - supposedly never to return - does that mean they'd not have any inbuilt programming to betray the other Earth heroes? Could such a Skrull be, essentially, a genuine hero to Earth? Obviously the Skrulls have put them in certain places for their own purposes, but they've manipulated humans too - it doesn't make them irredeemable. If it turns out Mockingbird really is a Skrull after all, but one of these total-conversion Skrulls, would it really matter? Whatever she used to be, if she's now Mockingbird, and won't revert back, that may well make her 'genuine', in a sense. But others may not see it that way - it'd be sadly ironic to see characters like her executed for what they were, not what they are now.
Devi/Witchblade ~ A copy of this - which I'd missed when it first came out a few weeks back - unexpectedly materialised on the comic shop shelves (maybe someone ordered it, and then didn't pick it up, who knows), and though the first issue didn't impress me much, I picked it up just out of completeness. I'm still not raving about it - it's a fairly standard team-up kind of story, with a disposable bad guy bringing our two heroines together, them mistakenly battling each other for a bit, then uniting to take down said bad guy - but this issue has more going for it than the first. For starters, Mukesh Singh really lets loose with some terrific art, now that Devi's on the scene and her brand of mythically pyrotechnic powers are in play - Singh doesn't really seem comfortable with the mundane real world, which the focus on Sara in the first issue favoures, but here it's all subterranean myth-cities and half-shadow legions of undead, and there's lots of pages worth owning just for their own sake. Secondly, the obligatory mistaken-identity battle between Sara and the Devi (which, given the Witchblade's visual similarity to stuff Devi has to deal with, is at least a bit forgiveable) resolves quickly without eating up too much page space, leaving plenty of time for the two to have an interesting time working together and demonstrating their differnces and similarities as they pursue Lord Tama. The past link between the two (natural enough, given that both Devi and Witchblade have had many past bearers/incarnations) is touched on, but I'd have liked to see it played up a bit more - with this being more or less a stand-alone story, not hugely important to either ongoing title's continuity, I'd have liked to see their past selves have a lot more impact on the present, maybe even echoes of those personalities coming to the fore during their team-up. Still, can't have everything. It's still not that great, but this issue salvages a lot of respect after the lacklustre first one.
