October 2010

Comic Rack

It’s a new week so it must be time to talk about comics! Welcome to the RazorFine Comic Rack boys and girls. Pull up a bean bag and take a seat at feet of the master as we offer you this quick list of all kinds of comic book goodness set to hit comic shops and bookstores this week from all your favorite publishers including DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, BOOM!, Image Comics, and others.

This week includes Amazing Spider-Man, Authority, Batman & Robin, Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Cowboy Ninja Viking, G.I. JOE, Invincible, Irredeemable, Marvel Adventures Spider-Man, Secret Six, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Veronica, the first issues of Captain America: Man Out Of Time, DC Comics Presents The Flash Green Lantern: Faster Friends, Hawkeye & Mockingbird, Iron Man/Thor, Supeboy, Tron Original Movie Adaptation, Warriors Three, and the final issues of Red Hood: Lost Days, Tom Strong and the Robots Of Doom, Unknown Soldier and Young Allies.

Enjoy issue #103

Comic Rack Read More »

Superman/Batman: Apocalypse

  • Title: Superman/Batman: Apocalypse
  • IMDB: link

DC Comics and Warner Premiere’s follow up to Superman/Batman: Public Enemies improves on some of the flaws of the earlier film but still struggles to turn a comic arc from the Superman/Batman comic into a animated film.

The story picks up weeks after the events of Public Enemies when a meteroite lands in Gotham Harbor containing a confused female Kryptonian who causes havoc throughout the city before Batman (Kevin Conroy) and Superman (Tim Daly) stop her and realize she’s Kara Zor-El (Summer Glau), Superman’s cousin.

The story gets a little fragmented here as Kara’s attempts to make a home for herself in the Fortress of Solitude, Metropolis, Themyscira, Apokolips, and Smallville all end in destruction. Things aren’t helped by Darkseid‘s (Andre Braugher) army of Doomsday clones (feel free to groan your way through this part of the story, I know I did), her kidnapping and brief stay on Apokolips, before returning to Earth and finally taking up the mantle of Supergirl.

Superman/Batman: Apocalypse Read More »

Teen Titans #88

I’m not sure how long it’s been since I’ve picked up a Teen Titans comic, but it’s been awhile. This latest new beginning entitled “Team Building” is a good place for new readers to jump in. The team consists of Wonder Girl, Superboy, Kid Flash, Ravager, Beast Boy, Raven, and, if the final panels are to be believed Robin. (Please, oh please, let Damian stay on this team!)

The comic starts out with the team taking on zombie sewer creatures, but the meat of the comic comes inside Titans Tower and the interactions between various members. Those who have been reading the comic on a regular basis might feel like not enough happens here (other than the tease of Damian’s involvement), but for new readers this is a good story that gives you important nuggets of information about the various members and their relationships.

And it doesn’t hurt that it sports a cool cover and inside art from Nicola Scott whose work I loved (and miss) in Secret Six. This one’s definitely worth a look.

[DC $3.99]

Teen Titans #88 Read More »

Delivered with Conviction

  • Title: Conviction
  • IMDB: link

Conviction is based on a true story about a man (Sam Rockwell) wrongly convicted and sentenced to life in prison for a murder he did not commit. His sister (Hilary Swank), beginning her quest without even a high school diploma, spends the next several years of her life raising her two sons and struggling through college and law school to become the lawyer her brother needs. What may sound like a bad TV-movie of the week turns out to be so much more.

Screenwiter Pamela Gray and dirctor Tony Goldwyn deserve a fair amount of credit for finding a way to share this story without over-simplifying events or falling into an all too easy trap of caricature and cliché.

The film’s central core is the relationship between a brother and sister who love, rely, protect and never give up on each other. It’s the strong performances of Swank and Rockwell (as well as Bailee Madison and Tobias Campbell as their younger selves) that grounds the film as a compelling drama rather than just a feel good story about one woman’s fight against insurmountable odds.

Delivered with Conviction Read More »

Bruce Wayne: The Road Home – Oracle

The Insider and Oracle attempt to keep Vicki Vale alive before Ra’s al Ghul‘s hit squad (The Seven Men of Death) permanently silences the reporter. Oracle sends the reserves into battle (Batgirl, Manhunter, Man-Bat, Ragman, Hawk and Dove) while the once-and-future Batman tries to keep the nosy reporter alive.

Most of the action works pretty well, even if we are dealing with baddies not really worth caring about (and a few heroes which you could say the same). Although I’m glad for its inclusion, I wish the flashback to the days after Barbara Gordon was shot, including Bruce visiting her in the hospital and a quick montage of her training for her new role as Oracle, were handled a little better.

On the positive side, we do get 32 pages for $3 (not too shabby) and I am glad that this issue lets Barbara correctly recognize and identify Bruce (even if it does take her more pages than I’d like). The ending leads us to a big showdown between Bruce and Ra’s in the final “Bruce Wayne: The Road Home” One-shot.

[DC $2.99]

Bruce Wayne: The Road Home – Oracle Read More »