We have an all comic review show this week and Eric chose Checkmate #23 as the book of the week and is wondering why he hasn't been reading this book more. We also discuss Justice League of America, Countdown, Robin, Mighty Avengers and more!
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Written by Greg Rucka & Eric Trautmann
Art by Joe Bennett & Jack Jadson
Cover by Kalman Andrasovfsky
I've picked up random issues of Checkmate in the past and can admit that it's always been a fine book. I thoroughly enjoyed the "Checkout" storyline as well. For some reason or another I've just never bought the book on a regular basis. However this week provided me the opportunity to jump on at the beginning of a new story arc and I can tell you I'm on board for the foreseeable future.
This comic hits all of its marks. It has great espionage stories without trying too hard or being overly dramatic like some television shows. The cast of characters also play well off one another. This issue revolves around Checkmate trying to get one of their undercover agents out of a Kobra stronghold. In order to accomplish this with minimum loss of life, they must enlist the most unlikely person to be involved in shady government operations...Superman. It's great seeing how Clark works with Sasha and the rest and the conflicts Clark has about getting his hands dirty. Really it would have been more reasonable to see someone like Batman in this role but I love that it was Clark who was tapped.
Rucka creates a great story here that anyone can jump into without having read the book in the past. I'm sure this story will pay off even more for longtime readers but I'm happy that with a book that has such a large cast and is fairly reliant upon DC history, anyone can jump on here.
Bennett and Jadson do a terrific job on the art. While not overly complicated, the art is reminiscent of Rags Morales with a slightly more "developed" look to it. They especially did a great job portraying a "darker" Superman.
This book did a great job of drawing me in and providing an intriguing story that will have me coming back for more next month. Kudos for also giving me a sneak preview of the new Titans book in the last several pages too!
DC comics has released the cover to the first issue of Final Crisis and it looks pretty sweet. I've been pretty vocal about not liking this idea but I'll try out the first couple of issues. J.G. Jones' is a skilled artist and these covers are looking good(although I think they may be a slight knock off of John Cassaday's Astonishing X-men variants)But good nonetheless!
Logan's back and here's the first image from the X-men spin-off Wolverine. Due out next May, The movie will explore Wolverine's past while also giving him reasons to keep having Berserker rages. After X3 I can't say I'm too excited about this but Jackman does create a great on screen Logan.
Damn I'm excited for this. As we promised, here is the new Indy trailer posted by newsarama.com. I really can't wait!
And check out the official site for more!
Eric was more than happy to choose Nightwing #141 as the book of the week because of the powerhouse team of Tomasi and Morales. We also discuss Ms. Marvel #24 and find out who's a skrull, Uncanny X-men #495, Teen Titans Year one #2 and more. In comic news we talked about Trinity the new upcoming weekly from DC comics by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley and we finish off the show with our top 5 picks for the most inspiring moments in comics, the moments that had influenced the industry and the readers.
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Written by Mark Millar
Pencils by Bryan Hitch
Inks by Paul Neary
Colors by Paul Mounts
Letters by Rus Wooton
I've read the Fantastic Four on and off ever since I started reading comics but this has to be the first time that I've been excited about a new FF run. Don't get me wrong, there's been some great runs over the years and the book has been really good recently but the FF has never received a lot of attention and buzz and I've always loved that about the book because it's great to have a solid book but some really good stories have been told in Fantastic Four lately and you also want people to take notice of that.
That being said, Millar and Hitch do a great job and making fans excited about the Fantastic Four again. I was worried about the Ultimate team moving over to the FF because it's Marvel's first family and I want it to stay that way. Millar is known for being over the top and pretty mature and that's something that I don't want to see in a Fantastic Four book and I'm happy to say that this has the makings of a great family based FF run.
Millar seems to have a great grasp and appreciation for the characters and it really shines through in the book. The personalities are spot on and there are several moments in this issue that made me laugh at loud. I've never had a single bad thing to say about Bryan Hitch and I still don't. His art is amazing, I love his facial expressions and his detail is astounding! There is a page towards the end of the book that is unbelievable.
This was a great comic book and something that you don't see in the industry too often. The Fantastic Four represents the softer side of superhero comics and that's probably why it never stands out and I hope Millar and Hitch will bring new readers on board. This was just a fun read and it made me feel like I was 10 years old again, being in awe of these great superheros and wishing I had an uncle Johnny and uncle Ben.
