3.5 Razors

Winter Soldier #6

The Winter Soldier #6The Winter Soldier‘s investigation into the missing third Soviet sleeper agent leads the the discovery that Leo Novokov was awoken 12 years prior during an earthquake and has been loose in America ever since.

Intercut with S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s investigation we get flashbacks into Leo’s time spent on the streets, attempting to make sense of a world that doesn’t fit his shattered memories – until he learns of the Winter Soldier and is contacted by an ex-KGB agent Boris Kolchek and starts to put the pieces together.

With the Soviet Union gone, and unwilling to work for a bitter remnant of the Cold War such as Kolchek, Novokov begins making his own plans which include drawing the Winter Soldier out of hiding after his apparent “death.” In order to do so he’ll destroy someone from Bucky’s past.

Although this storyline doesn’t appear to have Doombots or gorillas with machine guns, it’s setting up to be very much an old fashioned spy thriller. Worth a look.

[Marvel, $3.99]

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Fairly Legal – The Complete First Season

  • Title: Fairly Legal
  • tv.com: link

fairly-legal-complete-first-seasonIt’s odd that Universal waited this long to release the First Season of Fairly Legal on DVD just as the Second Season is winding down. The three-disc set includes all ten episodes of the first season including an extended version of the Pilot episode.

Sarah Shahi stars as Kate Reed, a former lawyer turned mediator, who will spend the entire season in a battle of wills with her stepmother (Virginia Williams), and in a constant dance with her ex-husband (Michael Trucco), while working at her recently deceased father’s law firm.

Over the course of the first season Kate will help a man (Paul Schulze) wrongly imprisoned for more than half of his life, solve disputes for a grumpy judge (Gerald McRaney), help an illegal immigrant (Christina Vidal) who served honorably in the U.S. Military stay in the country, save her friend’s (Brittany Ishibashi) wedding when her father’s (Clyde Kusatsu) insistence on an iron-clad prenup which threatens to ruin it, and solve a dispute between an adoptive father (Scott Holroyd) and grandmother (Kathleen Gati) involving a young girl (Olivia Steele-Falconer) after her mother’s death.

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Morning Glories #19

morning-glories-19-cover“P.E.” concludes as we catch up to Hunter being chased through the woods by a knife-wielding Zoe who is out to kill him just as she has killed the young girl who fancied him moments before. Last issue gave us some insight into Zoe’s motivations, and the final issue of the arc helps fill in some of Hunter’s past as well.

We get flashbacks including more instances of the young man’s trouble with time and the slow death of his mother in a hospital. We’re also given a last second twist and the introductions of new characters who have apparently been searching for one of the Morning Glories students for quite some time.

The issue doesn’t give much away, but it’s certainly memorable as by the final page the first of our original six characters will meet their end. Worth a look.

[Image, $2.99]

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Before Watchmen: Minutemen #1

before-watchmen-minutemen-coverWhen DC announced its plans for Before Watchmen, a new mini-series set in the world Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons created more than 25 years ago, but without their input, I was, like many, not too keen on the idea. Of all the titles suggested the only one that piqued a little interest was Minutemen.

Written and drawn by Darwyn Cooke (and that’s really enough for me to give it a shot), the first issue of Before Watchmen: Minutemen is little more than a reintroduction to the characters we learned about in Watchmen. Told through the eyes Hollis Mason, the first Nite Owl, as he is putting the final touches his memoirs “Under the Hood,” we meet each of the Minutemen (Sally Jupiter, Hooded Justice, Silhouette, Dollar Bill, Mothman, The Comedian) through Mason’s narrated flashbacks.

Although it doesn’t really give any new information about the characters the setting and characters are a perfect fit for Cooke’s writing and art. Worth a look.

[DC, $3.99]

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Fairly Legal – Force Majeure

  • Title: Fairly Legal – Force Majeure
  • tv.com: link

fairly-legal-force-majeure

Justin’s (Michael Trucco) surprise gift of two tickets to a private concert of a Brazilian singer/songwriter (Josefina Scaglione) impresses Kate (Sarah Shahi) but has unintended consequences when the limo on the way to a private party afterwards with the star leads to her arrest after drugs are discovered by the police.

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