Usagi Yojimbo #145

Usagi Yojimbo #145Finally my rabbit ronin withdrawal is at an end. Usagi Yojimbo has returned! After three years of the series on hiatus writer/artist Stan Sakai returns to bring us the further adventures of Usagi Yojimbo with with first issue of a new three-issue arc “The Thief and the Kunoichi” which will reunite Usagi with a few familiar faces.

Usagi Yojimbo #145 begins with not one but two different thieves robbing merchant Inoyue’s heavily-guarded compound. The realization that neither is alone in the dead of night creates friction between the two thieves which eventually leads to guards and a nearby wandering ronin getting caught up in the night’s festivities.

Revealing Kitsune to be the less bloodthirsty of the the two thieves, the comic ends with the unmasking of Chizu as the other with Usagi likely being forced to step-in between the two women for the apparently worthless scroll that led to the night’s events unraveling. It’s good to see Usagi back in action, and entangled in another of Kitsune’s messes, once more. Best of the Week.

[Dark Horse, $3.50]

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Coming Soon – Batkid Begins

  • Title: Batkid Begins: The Wish Heard Around the World
  • IMDb: link

Here’s the first trailer for the new documentary looking back at the Make-A-Wish attempt to transform the city of San Fransisco into Gotham City for one day in November of 2013 in the most elaborate project the foundation has ever attempted to answer the request of a 5 year-old diagnosed with leukemia. A rousing success, it is estimated that perhaps as many as 12,000 took the streets of the city to urge Batkid’s adventures on while social media brought in support from around the world. The film is scheduled for release in select cities on June 26th.

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Battle Creek – Sympathy for the Devil

  • Title: Battle Creek – Sympathy for the Devil
  • IMDb: link

Battle Creek - Sympathy for the Devil

The series finale reveals the pivotal moment of Milt’s (Tad Hamilton) FBI career when a figure from his past hellbent on revenge shows up in Battle Creek. Still trying to hide his past from his new colleagues, Milt requests only Russ’ (Dean Winters) help in locating the man who blew up his car (with Milt inside). With Milt hiding the truth, there’s no immediate back-up when both he and Russ are kidnapped by the would-be killer who has a personal grudge to settle with the FBI agent.

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Astro City #23

Astro City #23In the first half of a two-issue storyline Astro City writer Kurt Busiek and artist Brent Anderson put their own spin on DC’s Gorilla City with the introduction of a talking ape from a hidden city filled with intelligent talking apes who arrives in Astro City with plans on becoming a drummer but quickly learns why that may be problematic and that he may have more potential as a hero.

As a fan of the Silver and Modern age Flash comics I’ve always loved Gorilla City and it’s fun to see Busiek and Anderson come up with their own version of bizarre world set not in the jungles of Africa but in an impossible jungle climate hidden away in the middle of the Antarctic.

As is true with almost all of the comic’s best storylines, Astro City #23 leaves the reader wanting more of the central character’s story and Sticks’ adventures in his new home. Thankfully we will be getting at least one more issue with the simian hero/drummer, but from what we’re given here I’m hoping that won’t be all we see from the character for the foreseeable future. Worth a look.

[DC, $3.99]

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Daredevil – Rabbit in a Snowstorm

  • Title: Daredevil – Rabbit in a Snowstorm
  • wiki: link

Daredevil - Rabbit in a Snowstorm

Daredevil continues to develop the underworld of Hell’s Kitchen in another episode that touches on the unseen motives of a mysterious new player’s power grab. In terms of the season arc choices made here further basic plot points and character development in the increasing tension between Daredevil (Charlie Cox) and Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio), but it terms of logic for this episode “Rabbit in a Snowstorm” leaves more than a little to be desired as Wesley‘s (Toby Leonard Moore) recruitment of Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) to defend a killer (Alex Morf) of their organization on self-defense charges doesn’t in any way help the Kingpin (who had already bought the jury), certainly doesn’t do any damage to the lawyers, don’t make the case look any more legit (because absolutely no one is paying attention to it), and only further reveals pieces of the mysterious adversary for Daredevil to eventually hunt down and hear the name “Wilson Fisk” for the first time.

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