Comics

Comic Rack

/ / Comics

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, Archie, Dynamite, Image Comics, and others.

This week includes Action Comics, Amazing Spider-Man, Animal Man, Detective Comics, G.I. JOE, Hulk, Infinite Vacation, Invincible, Justice League International, Moon Knight, The Rinse, Stormwatch, Transformers, Usagi Yojimbo, X-Men, the first issues of 7 Warriors, Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes, Blood Red Dragon, Dark Shadows, Heart, Jack Avarice is the Courier, Pilot Season: Misdirection, Six Guns, Thor: The Deviants Saga, and the final issues of Crysis, Flash Gordon: Invasion of the Red Sword, Hack/Slash/Eva: Monsters Ball, and Witch Doctor.

Enjoy issue #152

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Secret Avengers #18

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secret-avengers-18-coverThis month’s issue is a fair bit better than last month’s disappointment as Steve Rogers, Sharon Carter and Shang-Chi travel into a Bad Continuum (a malformed dimension of a Multiverse) trying to stop agents of the Shadow Council from removing transmatter from the dimension which could be used as a terrible weapon in the Marvel Universe by transforming the Earth into a sun.

Aside from feeling far more like an Authority story than an Avenger story, the comic is pretty good including a well-designed M.S. Escher like world for our heroes to battle the members of the Shadow Council.

Writer Warren Ellis even gives us an appearance by Arnim Zola (a perfect villain for this type of story), the return of the Beast (who is given most the of monologue necessary to explain the situation), and a fun cameo by Reed Richards which allows the comic to end with Steve Rogers delivering a joke. Worth a look.

[Marvel, $3.99]

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Batman, Zatanna, and Monsters! Oh My!

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all-new-batman-brave-and-bold-12-coverI’m not sure why many of DC’s best comics come from their kids line or why it’s so hard for comic book shops to stock these, but when I find one I make sure to grab it. The latest issue of The All-New Batman: The Brave And The Bold features Batman and Zatanna and a whole host of cameos from lesser known DC heroes and villains who fit perfectly into a Halloween tale.

Batman calls on Zatanna to help him track down the person responsible for breaking into the House of Mystery and turning Abel into in a tree. Their search for the magic users responsible leads to battles Doctor Destiny and Mr. Mxyzptlk before the true culprit is unmasked.

The final battle gives us a super-sized throwdown between the conjured up villains (Man-Bat, the Monk, Dala, Blockbuster, Solomon Grundy, werewolves, monstermen) and Batman, Zatanna, and their friends (Deadman, the Spectre, Etrigan, Blue Devil, Swamp Thing, Tomcat). However, victory isn’t won with fists but with words as Batman starts to understand how to use the rules of magic to his advantage. Best of the week.

[DC, $2.99]

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Captain Atom #2

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captain-atom-new-52-2-coverThe comic opens with Captain Atom bombarded with “wave transmissions from all across the human spectrum.” Unable to deal with the overwhelming amount of information attacking his brain the hero retreats to the Continuum where Dr. Megala helps him regain control.

The second part of the comic is a little weird as it’s so obviously a Ray Palmer Atom story. Concerned with a dying boy in Kansas City, Captain Atom shrinks himself down to a microscopic level and erradiates the tumor growing in the boy’s brain.

Thankfully, the one part of the story I was dreading (the mutated dog creature) is given little more than a cameo here on the comic’s final page. I know we’ll get to that story at some point, but I hope it’s put off as long as possible.

Writer J.T. Krul continues to explore the limitations and abilities of the new Captain Atom. I’d still like a little of the old Captain to shine through this Dr. Manhattan makeover, but as long as that dog story is kept on the back burner I’ll keep giving this one a shot. Worth a look.

[DC, $2.99]

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Red Hood and the Outlaws #2

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red-hood-and-the-outlaws-2-coverIssue #2 of Red Hood and the Outlaws gives us a little more back story into the New 52‘s version of Jason Todd. Not only to we get an appearance by Talia al Ghul, but we are given a flashback to Todd’s introduction to the All Caste and his thoughts on his resurrection.

Writer Scott Lobdell seems be using the beginning of Judd Winick‘s Red Hood: The Lost Days where Todd was brought to life in a zombie-like state and later regained his faculties by a dip in a Lazarus Pit. How he was brought back to life without Superboy-Prime‘s reality punch (remember none of DC’s Crisis series happened in this reality) has yet to be explained.

I was a bit confused given the rewriting which allows Roy Harper and Starfire to accompany the Red Hood on his journey (it’s obvious he left for the quest alone at the end of the first issue). It’s a litle confusing. However, those who were up in arms over the first issue’s deception of Starfire should be a bit molified that she’s been toned down in this issue. Worth a look.

[DC, $2.99]

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