The Voyages of She-Buccaneer #3 ~ I put this on my order at the comic shop some time ago, but this is the first issue to have arrived - I don't know why. Luckily it's not difficult to get up to speed with the story, with this issue containing a fairly discrete segment of the larger plotline, and the overarching details are filled in well enough along the way. Briefly, the She-Buccaneer - I don't think her real name is given in this issue, unless it's in the first few pages when I was still working out who was who; she's mostly just 'Captain' - is in search of a bunch of mystical gems, which when combined will somehow allow her to bring her lover Calico Jack back from the dead. The gems are scattered all over the world, but luckily the Cap'n has a fine ship - the Queen's Vengeance - and a crew of hard-as-nails pirates who're devoted to her; in this issue they're after a gem called the Eye of Kabala, currently in the hands of a powerful Sultan in Persia. There's a lot of story packed into the 28 pages, and writer Heidi Hughes' style manages to cover all that ground without short-changing the story, or rushing the important scenes - it's not often you get a sense of such a complete 'episode' in just one issue of a comic. The art - Will Hughes, with Elizabeth Hughes on colour - is playful and eye-candy-ish in parts, but there's a lot of detail and subtlety in it, bringing with it a more authentic feel than you'd expect just from the cover. Likewise the writing, which flirts with piratical speech - you know, all the 'me hearties' and 'yaaar' stuff - without going overboard and making it seem silly; in some ways, despite the supernatural goings-on, this feels quite historical. There's also a pin-up poster featuring Crystal Mantecon as the She-Buccaneer, and a fine figure of a pirate she is too (it's spread across the central pair of pages, with ads on the other faces, so you can take it out and stick it on your wall without losing any of the comic - good thinking there). Overall, I'd recommend this to anyone who liked Pirates of the Caribbean and wants to see a female-led equivalent.
Wonder Woman #25 ~ First off, I love the cover - down to the block of credits at the bottom of the movie poster, composed of all the editors, presidents, and vice-presidents in and around DC; very snarky. In the issue itself, the movie-making side of things meshes with the Queen of Fables side - which were a bit disconnected last issue - very smoothly indeed, giving Diana a surreal and exciting sequence of confrontations while also putting some well-deserved barbs in the sides of Hollywood. Diana's observation that "this thing is going to be the biggest bomb in film history" is a cute moment - and incidentally shows Gail Simone's ability to present Diana as both a timeless, legendary character and a woman very comfortable with the contemporary world - although, to be honest, the crud served up as Wonder Woman: The Movie, with its rewriting of her backstory, insulting interpretation of the Amazons, and ridiculously revealing costumes... well, it's bad, but there have been worse superhero movies already. Maybe Diana just hasn't seen Batman and Robin - smart woman, I wish I hadn't. The other storyline, built into the big battle, is Allison, who was introduced last issue - her friction with Wonder Woman is turned around, and their scene together at the end of the issue shows off some excellent writing, in its treatment of characters, and of Diana's place as a superhero that people look up to and how she deals with it. It ends on a delightfully whimsical note, which is a nice place to wrap this little arc up, with a biggie of a storyline about to break next issue.
Giant-Size Red Sonja #2 ~ Isn't is kind of weird that a 'giant' sized special doesn't contain any stories longer than a regular issue? I guess the various shorts cover a wide range of Sonja-related themes, but still, I was hoping for a big adventure. Anyway, what we get are five stories. 'Crimson Katherine' teams Sonja up with a woman who's pretty similar to herself, in her past, her becoming a warrior, and so on. It's a bit contrived a lot of the time, but the ending is interesting from Sonja's point of view, which helps it over the line. The other three stories are old material: 'The Wizard and Red Sonja Show' plays pop psychologist, dividing Sonja into five components, each represented by a different aspect of her, and interacting with one at a time; 'The Endless Stair' is a fairy tale/anti-love story kind of thing, heavy on moody atmosphere; 'Wizards of the Black Sun' is pretty standard fare, with Sonja venturing into a city that turns out to be a supernatural trap. The writing in the three old stories is a bit retro, but still enjoyable and high quality, while the recoloured art helps them seem a bit fresher than they might otherwise. For someone like me, who's new to Red Sonja, this is a fun issue to read - some stories I liked more than others, but they all had their entertaining points - but for someone who's read a lot more than I have, especially from the older stories, I'd imagine it might feel a bit cheap to slap a US$5 cover price on an issue that only has ten pages of new story in it.
I Was Kidnapped By Lesbian Pirates From Outer Space #3 ~ The girls have crashed on an uncharted planet, leading to all manner of goings-on - Marge and Velma get sent out to explore, bickering all the way, the adorably kooky Dr. Wendy is seeing to Susie, and the Captain is her amusingly impulsive and commanding self throughout. Meanwhile we check back in on Male Man, and meet his 'sexy personal assistant', the long-suffering Betty; the two of them set a course to rescue the stranded pirates, since Male Man's to dim to realise who they are. This title's webcomic heritage shows through, with most pages having a punchline somewhere on them - the Gaydar's various contributions to the story steal the show, although any scene with the Captain and Wendy together comes pretty close for comedy value, and Susie's nascent attempts at constructing a lesbian fantasy are pretty hilarious. The Diamond info on this title is being a bit quirky, with issues appearing and disappearing from shipping schedules - I hope they get their act sorted out, I'd hate to miss an issue. By the way, over at the I Was Kidnapped By Lesbian Pirates From Outer Space website, as well as all six issues and various other goodies, there's a comic starring Alice and Wendy in progress.
Final Crisis: Revelations #3 ~ God gave mankind free will, so life is about choice - in the absence of choice, there is only anti-life... or, to put it another way, every two-bit post-apocalyptic mutant/zombie/whatever movie you've ever seen. Luckily Rucka's had the sense to build something interesting into this tie-in, with the Angel of Mercy injecting some interest into the tired Spectre character, and making this slice of Final Crisis all about God versus... whatever it is the 'fifth world' is supposed to be. It's tough to really care about that conflict - gee, millennia of human religious belief versus a crappy sequel to the fourth world, which - let's be honest - had itself run dry of ideas years ago. Still, at least it's going through the motions of a debate, and Rucka writes Sister Clarice's narration with a sense of character that's easy to get involved in - she may be a newcomer, but there's potential for her to develop. Less so the Question, who largely sits this one out, and Batwoman, I hate to say, is wasted on another 'appearance' that does nothing for her character or backstory - seriously, they could've swapped her with practically any other DC superhero, and it wouldn't have made a lick of difference; there wasn't even much regocnition of her relationship with Renee, with Daria getting more of a mention. I'm not sure what the meaning of all this is, but I'm getting increasingly tired of waiting for it to turn up.
Bomb Queen V #4 ~ I was wondering when the next issue of this was going to show up. To sum up: Bomb Queen is holding Kino-chan of the Cape Watch superhero news site hostage (and doing unpleasant things with her) to motivate the remainder of Cape Watch, ambitious blogger Neil and old-school comic fan Scott, to dig up the dirt, especially secret weaknesses, on her current arch-annoyance White Knight, while in Knight's hometown someone's killing people, and they think it's BQ, and have hence imposed sanctions on neighbouring New Port City, which relies on them to supply basic goods (since New Port has the basic evils sewn up by itself). It's a lot going on, and since this is issue #4 of 6, not a lot gets wrapped up yet - it's a case of keeping all those balls in the air and spinning in interesting ways. BQ and Ashe (former demonic nemesis, imprisoned in housecat form) have a neatly satirical argument about everything going on, while Neil looks less reputable by the minute, and Scott and Dee Rail (adorably old school railroad-based heroine) investigate the 'perfect' town's secrets, predictably uncovering something nasty beneath its whitewashed facade. The contrast between New Port's in-your-face evil and Littleville's ominously cheerful appearance is the main show, underpinning everything going on, but with New Port and BQ having a lover's tiff, there are times when it seems that Ashe is right in accusing the Queen of "co-starring in her own book." Luckily she comes through in a big way in the final pages, setting up what's sure to be an explosive (and revelatory) showdown.
Secret Six #2 ~ There are two main elements to this issue: Batman and Catman facing off in Gotham, and the rest of the reduced Six busting the way into Alcatraz to rescue their target. Both come down to the strength of the writing - Gail Simone gives Catman an air of dignity that lets him face Batman and not be automatically overwhelmed (I've never really cared much for Batman anyway, but there's no denying that his popularity and place in the DC universe gives him a powerful force as a character), and Scandal, Ragdoll (or is it Ragman? I always get that name mixed up), Deadshot and Bane have some witty dialogue as they run through their prison-break plan, which keeps the humour going while also making each character seem individual and interesting in their own right. That seems to be Simone's thing - no character, no matter how minor or incidental, feels 'generic' in her comics. Plotwise a lot is still up in the air, but the bad guy (who I think is new) gets a really well-written, really menacing scene to close this issue out. I can't say yet whether I'm going to love this comic long-term - with only Scandal on the heroine-o-meter so far I can't help wondering if it's value for money for me specifically - but the quality is such that I have no hesitation in sticking with it for the length of this opening storyline at least.
T-Bird & Throttle #0 ~ This week's random pick - first issues (issue zero, in this case) are always tempting. This issue tells the origin of T-Bird, the big manly man hero on the cover (Throttle is just foreshadowed), but in quite an interesting way. Instead of showing his origin story plain, or doing it as a regular flashback from the 'present', the issue begins with T-Bird - astronaut Mitchell Maddox - already an established superhero, discovering that a comic has been written about him. Thus we get his origin in the form of the comic-within-a-comic; the switch from writer Josh Howard's art on the present-day pages to Otis Frampton/Frank Rapoza on the origin story is quite a neat touch, as the latters' art really does look like a more comic-y version of Howard's. What makes it intriguing is that T-Bird's origin had devastating consequences for his family, including his teenage daughter Emily, who's now living at 'Star Link Headquarters' with him, and the comic reveals details that T-Bird had kept from her so as not to upset her - so of course she's all kinds of upset now. And on top of that, via a brief genuine flashback, we see that the comic origin story isn't quite accurate - it's got the broad strokes right, but the one scene we see the reality of shows that there's more the comic doesn't know, which raises the question of what else they might have skimmed over. I'm not sure if the comic-within-a-comic format is just for the origin, or if it'll continue to be a feature of this title - I'd hope so, because the contrast between its straight-arrow superhero storytelling, and the more convoluted, more real-people situation behind the scenes makes it stand out from the crowd.
