6
Sep
2012
Take It Or Leave It – September 05, 2012
Welcome to Take It Or Leave It, where each week I pick out new comics and tell you if they’re worth the price and you should take them, or if you should just leave them on the shelf.
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Black Kiss II #2 (of 6)
Ugghhhh. I really need do a bit more quality control on these picks. But the whole idea of this column is to try new stuff, I just keep picking duds. I picked this because it came bagged and boarded already, which usually means there’s crazy nudity going on, and it’s a Howard Chaykin Book, whose name I recognized from the early Marvel Star Wars books from the 70’s. While the artwork and inking is nice for a black and white book, I just couldn’t get past the story. This is apparently a sequel to a series he did in the 80’s that is just hypersexual. The main character got raped by a hermaphroditic demon and now hes a vampire with a giant dick terrorizing 1920’s Hollywood or something, I dunno. This is another one that just made me angry reading it. The writing isn’t very good, it’s trying to be deep and push buttons and be provocative, but it’s just meaningless filler between scenes of fellatio. Literally every page has some type of sex act depicted. This issue was better than the first one, which had everyone in a porno theater get raped by a woman with 12 penises, but I don’t know that that is saying much. Unless you have a very specific fetish for this type of stuff, don’t waste your time. Verdict: Definite Leave It |
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Damsels #1
I picked this on up because I’m a sucker for a J Scott Campbell cover and the idea sounded intriguing. A bunch of fairy tale damsels all team together to do something cool. Maybe they will later, but they sure didn’t in this issue. It was a bunch of people running around town or sitting in chairs in a castle. Even being the first issue of a new series, and the amount of worldbuilding that entails, this issue is just too busy and disjointed. Like six different arcs are going on all at once, and none of them really explain anything, or who any of the people involved are. I’m left with far more questions than I have answers for. I think this wants to be some kind of Grimm Fairy Tales type world, but for now it’s trying too hard. Zenescope took like 25 issues before it started flushing out and building their universe, and even then they did it very slowly. Maybe once things settle down around issue 6 or 7 pick this up, but for now, I’d just wait this out to see if it gets better, J Scott Campbell covers notwithstanding. Verdict: Leave It (for now) |
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Worlds’ Finest #0
Besides J Scott Campbell covers, another thing I’m a sucker for is girl team up books, doubly so when they involve Supergirl. I don’t really know much about all the Earth 2 stuff in New 52, but it’s not really needed. This is just some nice little background on both Huntress and Power Girl back when they were still on Earth 2. In particular, it’s about how they first met. It’s nice, but I feel this could have benefited from being a double sized issue, there just seemed to be a lot more to it, but I assume that is what is covered in the regular series. I really liked the art, with each girl getting her own artist that was similar, but different. Huntress’ art was all dark and brooding, while Power Girl’s was more light and airy, and it worked really well. One thing that kinda bothered me though was a shot of Huntress trembling with her knees buckling while saying “Mommy Noooo!” when she encounters her dead mother. Even though I don’t know her character well, most of my exposure to Huntress being in the Birds of Prey WB series, it seems out of character for the daughter of Batman and Catwoman to be that much of a bitch, regardless of what world she’s from. Besides that, I really liked the book. It’s a nice breezy read, that if you’re a fan of either character, you’d probably like. Verdict: Take It |
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Green Lantern Volume 5 #0
So apparently all it takes to be a Green Lantern now is to have the word “courage” tattooed on your arm? Is that it? Also, you’re a Green Lantern, what possible use would you have for a mere handgun. You wear the most powerful weapon in the entire DC universe! Besides the fact that he’s a car thief and a brown Muslim, we don’t really know much about the new Green Lantern yet. Hopefully that will be rectified shortly. At the beginning of the story, I felt like I was reading the script for the Robert Smigel/Jack Black Green Lantern movie that thankfully never got made because it would have been terrible. He doesn’t immediately seem worthy of the ring, but then again no one really stacks up well when compared to Hal. Pick this up just for the cultural significance, or for the 1 page epilogue that proves Hal and Sinestro aren’t really dead. Verdict: Take It |
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Lady Death #21
I have been reading this since Issue 1, but I am totally lost here. This book has pretty much had no story whatsoever for at least like the last 7 or 8 issues. There isn’t really much backstory that’s been revealed to tell. She was a human, but now shes in the underworld trying to fight her way back, but when she crossed over her powers were put into a bunch of crystals, but now her dead mother stole all the crystals and wants to kill her and get all the crystals of power herself, or something like that. It’s really turned into just a hack and slash adventure, where each issue Lady Death wears a tiny bikini and uses her giant sword to cut up a bunch of demons trying to find more crystals and fight her mothers evil army. Not that this is bad mind you, the art is really beautiful, but the writing just doesn’t seem like it has any direction or an endgame in sight. I’ll be at the Baltimore Comic Con this weekend, and I’ll probably run into writer Mike Wolfer at his booth or at the Avatar panel, so I’ll try to ask him about what the future goals are for this book (and also why it takes forever to make issues of War Goddess, but Lady Death always hits its ship date). If he gives me an answer, I’ll let you know. In the mean time, if you do pick it up, pick it up for the artwork, not for the story. Verdict: Probably Leave It |
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 JohnScott is the proud owner of a life size replica Captain Kirk Chair. He is a hoarder of Comic Books, Transformers, and Star Trek action figures. He attended Space Camp as an adult. He has taken vacations to the closing of the Star Trek Experience and the final night Shuttle launch. He has been known to yell at his television when the kids can't put together the damn statue in the Shrine of the Silver Monkey. When not writing for InsufficientScotty, he is a Software Engineer for a major healthcare communications company.
You can Email or follow on Twitter @NotEnoughScotty or Facebook |
