Category: Comics

Amish Otaku, Comics, Marvel

Civil War

 
 

If our country’s police officers and soldiers need proper education and training before we let them go out and defend our nation or police our streets to keep them safe from danger, why should super heroes be any different? A man with the ability to stick to walls and shoot webs can do so unsupervised? What about someone who can grow to the size of a small building? Or someone who wears a suit of armor with capabilities rivaling a nuclear warship? Why should they be allowed to go about their business in total anonymity without any rules or regulations or consequences? That’s the question raised in Civil War. The answer merely tears the Marvel Universe apart.

The mini-series opens with a group of young, attention-grabbing heroes launching their own raid on a house where a team of super villains is hiding. In order to gain maximum publicity for their captures, the heroes have enlisted a reality television team to capture every moment. Unfortunately, the villains were more than capable of holding their own against the heroes and one of them, Nitro, blows up the city of Stamford, CT, killing hundreds of innocent people. Continue reading “Civil War”

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Amish Otaku, Comics

Lost Gems: Some Comics You May Have Missed the First Time

Shade

Peter Milligan and Chris Bachalo took the Steve Ditko character, completely twisted him around and came up with something totally new, brilliant and original … for the first 50 issues, at least, and then it went down the tubes.

Rac Shade is sent to Earth from the planet Meta in order to track down and fight Madness, which has invaded America as the Scream. Shade used his Vest, which allows him to turn thoughts into reality, to take over the body of Troy Grenzer, a murderer in the electric chair. But the only one he has a chance to convince to help him is Kathy, the daughter of the couple Grenzer killed. In a beautiful twist of type at which Milligan excels, when Kathy finds her parents freshly murdered, her boyfriend Roger wrestles Grenzer and is killed by the police because he’s black and the cops automatically assumed he was the criminal. Continue reading “Lost Gems: Some Comics You May Have Missed the First Time”

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Amish Otaku, Comics

Top Ten of 2007

This is my one-year anniversary with Amish Otaku and I thought I’d celebrate the occasion by writing something for the first time in, oh, six months.

2007 was another great year for comics. In my opinion, these were the best of the best.

10. Star Wars: Legacy
John Ostrander and Jan Duursema. Dark Horse Comics
This is the Star Wars series fans have been waiting for. Thrusting the series one hundred years into the future, the creative team has a lot more free reign, instead of just worrying about what to do with Han, Luke and Leia. I’m a huge fan of the original trilogy characters, but there’s only so much you can say with them before you age them too much or contradict continuity and have the fans up your ass. Ostrander has kept enough ties to characters we love (Artoo is still around and the main character is a Skywalker descendant) but has also redefined the “rules” of the Star Wars universe. The result is an exciting continuation of the Star Wars saga that appeals to fans of the original trilogy and those who prefer new characters in the expanded-universe stories. Continue reading “Top Ten of 2007”

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Amish Otaku, Comics, Devil's Due

The Legend of Drizzt: Bane of the Spider Queen

 
 

Originally published in 1990, R.A. Salvatore’s Dark Elf Trilogy set in the Forgotten Realms shone like a beacon in the fantasy genre. It was, and still is, comparable to Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings and Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman’s Dragon Lance series and – like those – is still being sold in nearly every major bookstore today.

Then, in 2005, Devil’s Due Publishing (traditionally known for their G.I. Joe and Transformers comics) began releasing a comic adaptation of the story with a script by Andrew Dabb and wonderfully detailed pencils by Tim Seeley. Continue reading “The Legend of Drizzt: Bane of the Spider Queen”

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Amish Otaku, Comics

Wanted: No More Heroes

The super-hero comic is something I normally stay away from. Maybe I just got bored with all the spandex, good intentions and the fact that you almost always knew the good guys were going to win. But a comic about super-villains? Now that I’ll give a chance.

Mark Millar’s Wanted is the story of 24 year old Wesley Gibson. He’s an average, under-achieving, timid loser. He goes about his life getting picked on by his boss, spit on by his neighbors and cheated on by his girlfriend (with his best friend no less).

But everything changes when he finds out he’s the son of one of the world’s most feared assassins and super-villains “The Killer.” And if that’s not enough The Killer’s been killed and Wesley stands to inherit everything – the name, the millions and his father’s place in the world-wide criminal fraternity – if he can fill the shoes. Continue reading “Wanted: No More Heroes”

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Amish Otaku, Comics, Vertigo

Pride of Baghdad: Ain’t No Pride When You’re Dead

By Dave Ginolfi

When this book was first given to me to check out i was excited but for some reason it lay stagnant in the back seat of my car for months. There it lived amongst cd’s and empty bags of fast food from late night hunger raids. What a diamond in the rough it truly became.

I was in a position where I desperately needed reading material. I was in the waiting room at a dentist’s office. With nothing but 101.3 The Rose and the smell of old people to occupy my time I decided to get sucked into a colorful world that reminded me of the Lion King with a twist of Steven King.

This book was so vivid if read fast enough it seemed to come to life. That’s also it’s only flaw – its length. Although it’s short, it’s also very fulfilling but getting close to the characters is hard as it comes abruptly to an end. Continue reading “Pride of Baghdad: Ain’t No Pride When You’re Dead”

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Amish Otaku, Comics

Top 5: Best Comics of 2006

By Andrew Goletz

5
Ultimate Spider-Man

This series has been on my “best of” lists since its inception, and this past year proved the book showed no signs of aging. The creative team of Brian Bendis and Mark Bagley broke Marvel Comics’ record for longest duration of a creative team on a superhero book with their 103rd issue last month. Consider that creative teams jump ship every six issues or so. Or how about the fact that this series would be more likely to come out twice a month instead of the all-too-familiar late issues plaguing books today? The same creative team, almost never late, working together for more than 5 years.

Ultimate Spider-Man is a retelling of the story of Spider-Man, updated with current sensibilities. The series doesn’t invalidate Marvel’s other books featuring Spider-Man, but offers a separate take in its own “Ultimate” universe free from decades of historical and continuity constraints and is an ideal book for those who are new to comics. Continue reading “Top 5: Best Comics of 2006”

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