Comics

G.I. JOE: A Real American Hero #287

G.I. JOE: A Real American Hero #287 offers a spotlight on several new characters including Sherlock, Multo, Black Hat, and Mongoose. who are sent to infiltrate Cobra Island in the Gulf of Mexico where Dr. Mindbender is turning the old Cobra headquarters into a casino (with a brand new lab conveniently located in the kitchen).

The first part of a multi-issue story, the issue is perfunctory without any real highlights. The Joes face a small bit of resistance here and there, and get to dress up as Cobra soldiers at one point, but the mission is carried off without a hitch. However, neither the truth of what Mindbender is after on the island nor value of the data Black Hat was able to download is revealed here. That, plus the absence of any big-name characters, leaves the reader with a somewhat incomplete experience.

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Deadpool: Black, White & Blood #4

Another issue collects three more Deadpool tales in black and white, and, of course, blood (also, oddly, cherry Kool-Aid). The creators of the popular manga Deadpool Samuari offer a story in “Samurai Version” in which Deadpool squares off with the Dipsoser (who turns out to be as disposable as his character name suggests).

In the weirdest story, Doop gets some payback on Deadpool’s various pranks in “Operation Payback!” by sending Deadpool on an odd space adventure.

The best story turns out to be “Cherry,” in which Deadpool accepts a job to deal with creature loose in the one of A.I.M.‘s evil laboratories on a volcano. The monster? A cross between the Kool-Aid Man and a dinosaur which turns out to be far more articulate than you’d expect. Dammit, Karl!

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The Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries #8

While attempting to eat at one of the few businesses still open on the rundown Gotham Waterfront, the gang runs into a ghost. The search leads Batman and Mystery, Inc. to investigate a former villain lair which has been bought out, along with much of the abandoned land, by a lottery winner with plans for revitalization… or that’s at least what the city wants to believe.

JH Development turns out to be Joker and Harley Quinn constructing a Joker World amusement park which they use to try and kill Batman and those meddling kids. While it’s unclear what the park is for (other than feeding the Joker’s vanity), the creepy super-villain attraction meshes well with Scooby-Doo themes. The villains are caught, and like all classic Scooby-Doo stories, the ghost has a rational explanation as well, leaving Batman the decision of what to do with Joker Land. Thankfully, a little branding goes a long way.

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Hellboy: The Bones of Giants #1

The four-issue mini-series adaptation of Hellboy: The Bones of Giants begins here with Hellboy and Abe Sapien sent to Sweden to investigate the discovery of what appears to be the smoking skeletal remains of the Norse God Thor. After picking up the hammer, Hellboy witnesses odd visions and becomes temporarily possessed. Even after regaining his senses, Hellboy is incapable of laying the hammer down and still seems mentally connected to the hammer’s pull leading the group to a cave in the mountains which has recently been disturbed.

Looking for help on the unusual situation Professor Edmond Aickman who isn’t exactly pleased to see Hellboy even decades after their previous encounter involving King Vold, but he is initially quite curious about the hammer although something concerns him enough to flee in the dead of the night. Just what has Hellboy stumbled into this time?

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Chilling Adventures in Sorcery

Archie Comics offers up this only sorta spooky anthology one-shot for Halloween. “A Walk Through Hell” works to tie the various stories together. It stars with an intern, who turns out to be Archie, getting Madam Satan lost on the River Styx. She spends the rest of the issue trying to get to through the gates of Hell but not before running into another Archie character with a story to tell.

I was a bit surprised there weren’t more stories here, expecting to see various other classic Archie characters. In “Living On, Part Time” Archie takes a job as a security guard at the Riverdale Arcade which turns out to be full of monsters in what’s hard not to see rip-off of Willy’s Wonderland. And in “Midnight Shack” the overeating Jughead is eaten by the leftovers he brought home.

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