Chaos Campus: Sorority Girls vs Zombies #3 ~ Approbation Comics just sent me the latest two issues of their Scream-for-zombie-apocalypses comic; I'll review 'em one at a time, with issue #4 next week. This issue, following the two-part story that kicked the whole thing off, our trio of heroines - headstrong ass-kicker Jamie, kindly and oversexed Brittany, and Paige the only sensible one - head for the local convenience store to load up on supplies, where they bump into a couple of pairs of pop culture parodies (gleefully lampshaded), and naturally the whole situation winds up swarming with the undead. It's fast-paced and witty fun, with dollops of eye candy, and a fair bit of fourth-wall messing around in the vein of John Byrne's Sensational She-Hulk; at the same time there's method to the girls' madness, as in between joking and mayhem they've got their sights on tracking the zombie infection back to its source one step at a time. The issue is available to buy here at Indyplanet, where there are also six preview pages to check out.
Marvel Divas #1 ~ Marvel (any comic publisher, indeed) would love to score a hit with female readers - assuming women can be interested in comics at all (which various one-off successes say is true), the fact that comic readers are predominantly male means that there's a lot of female potential readers out there who'd buy comics, if only there were something that appealed to them the way current comics do to males. There are various approaches; this time, Marvel's going for a Sex and the City kind of thing, with this issue being, basically, just a bunch of heroines getting together and swapping gossip about their lives. Hellcat's written a book about her career, Captain Marvel (Monica, not any of the others) is avoiding Brother Voodoo, and Black Cat's down in the dumps following a relationship that didn't work out, and her business plans going nowhere; Firestar is mostly absent, only showing up at the end of the issue for a fairly gripping cliffhanger appearance. It's a lot of fun to read - the dialogue is lively and entertaining, but grounded in a solid sense of character (a la Joss Whedon's Buffy balance: you laugh at the dialogue, but at the same time you come to care about the people speaking it), and the art by Tonci Zonjic is light-hearted but also based in reality - it has an Amanda Connor feel to it. I wonder how this'll fare in readership numbers though - there's really no traditional action-based superhero story here, so the male readership may not take to it easily. I hope it does well though, since it's an entertaining beginning, and with some development in the next three issues it could turn out to be a gem.
Justice League: Cry for Justice #1 ~ I've been waiting for this for a while, since the 'group photo' cover showed up in that Wizard magazine a while ago - although it's a bit disappointing that this League is a miniseries rather than the real deal. Still, as well as its story this issue includes some background info from writer James Robinson that indicates that it'll be far from disposable, and in spite of having recently dropped Justice League of America because DC editorial wouldn't stop interfering with its poor writer Dwayne McDuffie, I'm considering the possibility of picking it up again when this story flows back into it. Speaking of editorial, it'd have been nice if they could've synched up things a little better - in JLA they were talking about "Hal and Ollie's League" months ago, and we're only now seeing it start. It's a good start though - in the aftermath of Final Crisis (so far one of the few acknowledgements of FC that hasn't demeaned itself in the process) Hal Jordan is dissatisfied with the Justice League, since Martian Manhunter and Batman have died and no-one's doing anything. Good point, when you think about it - the JLA comes off quite poorly when you're reminded that they haven't even bothered to do anything about Libra's mob. Ollie backs his best friend (over his wife, ouch) and the two set out to do something about the injustices that're bothering them. The issue then skips from one to another of the other characters who'll be involved - thus far the Ray Palmer (the former Atom), Mikaal Tomas (an earlier Starman), and Congo Bill. The rest of the team (including Batwoman, who I'm obviously mainly interested in), and the actual formation of the team itself, are left for the next issue, but I'm not too bothered by that - the writing is evocative and engrossing, and each character's segment is unique and interesting in its own way. Mauro Cascioli's painted art is eye-catching and dramatic as well - all in all, a very promising start.
Farscape: Strange Detractors #4 ~ This second 'episode' of the Farscape comic wraps up a bit simplistically, it must be said - in many respects it's almost a Star Trek: Voyager style 'reset button', with a seemingly awful situation resolved quick and easy thanks to a bit of super-technology. The Chiana/Jothee relationship saves the day with a sense of lasting repercussions, but even there it feels a bit repetetive - the "we can't un-say what we said" ending is something I'm sure Farscape itself alerady used in very similar circumstances, though it's been a while since I last watched the DVDs so I can't put my finger on the particular episode right now (though I'd take a guess it was 'Crackers Don't Matter'). On the up side the dialogue and characterisation remains strong - I can still easily hear the actors' voices in everything they say, quick wrap-up aside the whole thing continues to feel authentically Farscapey, and it's great to have Sikozu back on Moya.
Agents of Atlas #7 ~ They've stuck a quote from some review site on the cover of this one proclaiming Agents of Atlas the "best super hero book Marvel has running right now", and while I wouldn't have immediately said so, I'm having a tough time thinking of challengers for the title now that I come to consider it. I think all that's missing is that I find this title a little, well, quirky - it's not quite central to 'super heroes' the way Spider-Man or Captain America or the Avengers are; it's part of the Marvel world (indeed, it's handling its present Dark Reign tie-in status quite elegantly), but in terms of characters and story choices it's a little bit off playing in its own sandbox. That said, in quality it really is up there with the best - the writing is engaging and intelligent, immediately accessible but rewarding for readers who like to look for deeper meanings, the art (particularly Jana Schirmer's colours) is individual and exciting, there's lots of action and intrigue and a healthy dose of humour... it's difficult to think of anything missing. Namora gets some weighty material this issue, naturally, with her tryst with Namor; that accounts for 14 pages, and the next eight are another story (following on directly, but not connected to Atlantis and so on) spotlighting Mr. Lao, the resident giant gold dragon, which has a really fun mythic feel to it.
Invincible Iron Man #15 ~ The cover says it all - Madame Masque has Tony, and she's intent on making him hurt - and as last issue would lead you to think, Pepper gets caught in the middle, which is a very unpleasant place for her to be with the good guy suffering from a slowly disintegrating mind, and the bad girl really bad. It's a bit of a shame Pepper doesn't get to kick arse this issue, but even the best heroine needs her off days, otherwise she'd be boring. On the bridge side, Maria Hill remains awesome, even in her increasingly desperate and erratic state - she's displaying the kind of iron-willed cojones that results in the universe just giving up and letting her win, because anything else would cause too much trouble in the long run. And after the past couple of issues have cooled me on Tony a bit, this one picks him up - before Masque intervenes there are some very touching (emotionally, not like that - much) scenes between him and Pepper that remind you why he's in this comic. Besides the fact that he's the star, I mean.
