REVIEW :: FOUR SERIES THAT I LIKE AND YOU CAN TOO!

November 8, 2010 at 8:50 am By:

American Vampire – After Stephen King vamoosed with issue five, Scott Snyder had to prove that he could carry the book he created on his own and two issues later he has more than done so.  The current arc is a beat police story, back dropped in the decivilized world of depression-era Vegas, and slowly seeps in the mythology built by the last story.  Rafael Albuquerque’s rocks sketchy and stylized big time.  American Vampire is utterly unique and succeeding in its ambitions.  The hardcover for the first storyline is out and #6 and #7 are on shelves now.

B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth: New World – The difference between a slight comic and an economical comic is spelled B-P-R-D.  On average, an issue of B.P.R.D. takes less than 10 minutes to read.  There is so much story and character and fantastic action packed into that sub-ten minute period that the feeling of being ripped off never enters the mind.  Guy Davis squiggles sublimely.  He tricks one into believing that drawing comics is easy because of the deceptive simplicity of his line work.  But, replicating his staging, his panel to panel flow, the subtlety of his character acting, and the purity of his monster design, it’s impossible.  There is only one Guy Davis.

Hell on Earth is the new operating subtitle for B.P.R.D. from this point interim.  It’s exactly what it sounds like.  The netherworld of weirdie Lovecraftian  mega monsters is seeping into this one creating mass destruction and a pervasive apocalyptic dread that charges the backdrop for the book.  New World (the subtitle for the subtitle) maps this landscape slowly and broadly.  The main story of New World is really a small one: Abe Sapien goes searching for an old teammate, finds him, and then the two of them go to find another monster.  Issue #3 the two of them fight a big black scary thing, for lack of a better description, with a pick-up truck full of weapons and that just rocks.  B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth: New World is three issues in and a great entry point for the series.

Justice League Generation Lost – This book has a tried-and-true storytelling engine: falsely accused fugitive (fugitives, plural, in this case) tries to capture the real culprit.  Every issue this group of mixed up heroes, mostly from the old Justice League International title, try to capture criminal Maxwell Lord but he always manages to get away to continue planning his evil plans.  The team has no one to turn to but each other and the scope of Lord’s plans keeps getting bigger and more labyrinthine.  Which brings up the question: HOW are they gonna stop Lord and clear their names? If you find yourself asking that, that means the story has got its hooks in you.  Generation Lost is 13 issues in, come over and scoop up a chunk, get caught up.

Thor (Main Ongoing) – Matt Fraction and Pasqual Ferry hit the book two issues ago (#615, #616) and are going for GRAND scale.  Scale not only in wideness of scope, and it is a wiiiiide scope, but scale in a musical sense; a series of highs and lows.  There is a musical score to this comic, you can hear intense drums when the World-Eaters descend into Alfheim, a violin playing a sad single note as pensive Thor reflects on his dead Loki, and then flourishes to life, with a choir I’d say, as Volstagg and his scientist friend drive through the ruins of Asgard.  It is a bit slow, but very ambitious.

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