Cover 3 Review 10/10: Comic Con Creator Spy Showdown

Cover 3 Review 10/10: Comic Con Creator Spy Showdown

Cover 3 Review 10/10: comic con creator spy showdown breaks out amidst the most unlikely of scenarios, and Max Fields is swept up in the direst of consequences.

Should Max have ever agreed to moonlight for the CIA, however simple his role or staunch his patriotism?

cover 3, cover, cover mack, cover bendis, jinxworld, Brian Michael Bendis, Bill Sienkiewicz, David Mack, nick derington

Cover 3 crafts a deeply impactful conglomeration of art forms to flesh out the resonating characters masterfully.

Cover 3 from Jinxworld is Created by Brian Michael Bendis and David Mack, with Essad Sinns’ Art by Bill Sienkiewicz, Digital Coloring by Zu Orzu, and Lettering by Carlos M. Mangual, and a noir-esque Variant Cover by Nick Derington.

The following review of Cover 3 contains SPOILERS***** for the series.

We know from Cover issue #2 (read about it here, folks) that Max is tied to a chair and beaten for information by fellow comic creator Essad Sinns.

And yet the next book starts off with Max’s own comic, Ninja Sword Odyssey.

The son of the samurai-turned-ninja has his own story and it is progressing in the wake of his father’s death.

The words ring home: ‘In the night, we wore our cover.’

The young ninja learns the art of the brush, just as Max learns the art of the cover.

cover 3, cover, cover mack, cover bendis, jinxworld, Brian Michael Bendis, Bill Sienkiewicz, David Mack,

And then the story pivots drastically.

To space . . .

Cover 3 is edited, like Pulp Fiction, for gut-wrenching suspense.

An incredible dive into Max’s next project reveals an astronaut floating above a vibrantly water-colored planet who receives horrible, life changing news.

cover 3, cover, cover mack, cover bendis, jinxworld, Brian Michael Bendis, Bill Sienkiewicz, David Mack,

And then Essad is tearing into Max’s work, calling it ‘shit’ and hurling art pages across the room.

Max is tied to a chair, and his captor is menacing.

Yet the two peers rank on each other’s work, and it even touches a nerve in the interrogator, as he self-consciously asks if Max still likes ‘[his] painting.’

The scene is fantastically built within slate and black shadows, humor and intense danger, with an Ian Fleming-like feel.

When Essad wants to know what Max did next, he relays an awful experience.

On a blind date Max’s colors gradually fade, with his interest in the woman seated with him.

She cannot see, or take seriously, the beautiful connection between fans who want to ‘live in the skin of their favorite character . . . in the real world.’

And perhaps worse than that, she does not care that Max is moved by his own fans’ cosplay.

The comic book creator and fan boy (or fan girl) quips add enough true-to-life hilarity to give a touching account of the connection between artists and their appreciators.

And the painfully funny art of explaining to people with 9-5 jobs that artists working from home still work every day is all too true.

And it acts as further comedic relief (as many great thrillers need) amidst the damnable predicament.

Max is still caught and tied to a chair.

The reader needs to take a breath amidst the espionage intensity and the overbearing present condition that Max finds himself in.

We meet Julia as she greets Max at a comic convention in France.

She pushes Max to get to know Essad.

And Essad is not buying it.

The chair is knocked over and the beating commences.

Make no mistake, the realistic perspectives of the comic book creators, of the passionate fans, and the operatives, like Julia, drive this tale, like an Aston Martin DB5 furling bullets and speeding on.

Max’s art, past and present, combined with Essad Sinns’, is intertwined within Bendis and Mack’s tale so that it has significant impact on the protagonist and reflects emotions, actions, foreshadowing, and suspense.

The artwork, from panel to panel, page to page, speech-bubble to speech-bubble, forms a riveting and poignant experience.

Go grab this book at your LCS before it sells out! I have never seen a story told in this medium like this before.

POWKABAM Score For COVER 3 = 10/10

  • Writing: 10
  • Art: 10
  • Dialogue: 10
  • Innovation: 10
  • Intrigue: 10

“Cover 3 Review 10/10: Comic Con Creator Spy Showdown” was written by R.J. Huneke.

cover 3, cover, cover mack, cover bendis, jinxworld, Brian Michael Bendis, Bill Sienkiewicz, David Mack,

cover 3, cover, cover mack, cover bendis, jinxworld, Brian Michael Bendis, Bill Sienkiewicz, David Mack,

BOOKS OF MAGIC #1 Review 10/10: Magic Means Consequences

BOOKS OF MAGIC #1 Review 10/10: Magic Means Consequences

BOOKS OF MAGIC #1 Review 10/10: magic means consequences, so read cautiously, for the Books of Magic in Timothy Hunter’s hands hold a mysterious and a heavy burden for the emerging teenage magician.

Realism, mystery and suspense emanate from the story.

Vertigo’s magnum opus premieres what may be the best standalone storyline of the new brilliant Sandman series in BOOKS OF MAGIC, written by Kat Howard, Illustrated by Tom Fowler, Colors by Jordan Boyd, Letters by Todd Klein, Cover by Kat Carpenter, and curated for The Sandman Universe by Neil Gaiman.

The following review of BOOKS OF MAGIC #1 may contain SPOILERS***.

BOOKS OF MAGIC, Books Of Magic #1, tim hunter, sandman, neil gaiman, gaiman, kat howard, tom fowler

A Preview image of BOOKS OF MAGIC #2…

Books of Magic equal consequences.

What could go wrong when Books of Magic hold the keys to Tim becoming the most powerful magician in the universe?

At the start, Tim steps into a fairy tale and magicians show him the ways of magic throughout the ages of the universe.

Fowler’s art styles change dramatically as parts of Tim’s journey are revealed in an ancient wall carving, a fairy land, and even a Picasso-esque glimpse into the “End”.

One look conveys a Big Bang-like quality, but abstract and possible end of the universe, while Tim Hunter is then brought to a choice of “safety” or “magic” as panels become a tumbling deck of cards that are his potential life.

He wakes from that choice in class talking, “Magic! I choose…”

BOOKS OF MAGIC, Books Of Magic #1, tim hunter, sandman, neil gaiman, gaiman, kat howard, tom fowler

Howard’s strong grasp of the characters’ personalities is evident in the sharp, pointed dialogue.

We can all remember back to interrupting a teacher, maybe after having fallen asleep, and their ability to bring the class to attention.

Dr. Rose shuts down a bully, at least while in her class, instantaneously with a look and a sentence.

Timothy Hunter’s destiny is there, should he choose to the find path of magic.

And just because Tim makes the initial choice of initiation does not mean that he is miraculously gifted with powers or the ability to do anything magical.

Tim Hunter’s first attempt at magic is a failure.

He tries to impress his crush Ellie with paper shreds he says will become a magical flower.

Instead the paper he tried to conjure with crumbles to the ground, unchanged, as the bully makes fun of Tim’s “problems with [his] wand.”

Tim Hunter is a teenager living in London, insecure (as we all are or were), whose Mom and teacher have disappeared.

Dr. Rose replaced Tim’s teacher in a timely manner, and she may or may not be responsible for bloodily murdering her predecessor in The Sandman Universe 1 (see “Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman Universe 1 Unravels Dreaming” for a brief recap).

Dr. Rose reveals herself to Tim following his fistfight in the school’s hallway.

She explains that no magic comes without a cost.

It is an ominous note, especially considering she may not have his best intentions at heart (remember the bloodied predecessor).

But Dr. Rose does give Tim his first Book of Magic.

“Your destiny is to find your magic in books…” she says.

BOOKS OF MAGIC, Books Of Magic #1, tim hunter, sandman, neil gaiman, gaiman, kat howard, tom fowler

What a powerful concept!

But this, the first of the Books of Magic, is blank.

It will remain blank until he is ready.

Its first words are revealed and explain that, “Magic is neither good nor bad. Only its use determines its character. There are always consequences for its use.”

Tim is astounded and impatient and the book goes blank again.

The grim tone shifts toward a back alley where three hooded figures share a vision of Tim in a oil barrel.

They want to ensure that “some books must not be read.”

And with that we close on the outside of Tim’s home, with an assassin standing bye, with knives drawn, repeating the message of censorship.

And a furious Dr. Rose looks on at the hooded assassin . . . with her fist clenched.

When can I pick up Issue #2 from my local comic shop?

 

POWKABAM Score for BOOKS OF MAGIC #1 = 10/10

  • Writing: 10
  • Art: 10
  • Dialogue: 10
  • Innovation: 10
  • Intrigue: 10

 

BOOKS OF MAGIC, Books Of Magic #1, tim hunter, sandman, neil gaiman, gaiman, kat howard, tom fowler BOOKS OF MAGIC, Books Of Magic #1, tim hunter, sandman, neil gaiman, gaiman, kat howard, tom fowler

“BOOKS OF MAGIC #1 Review 10/10: Magic Means Consequences” was written by R.J. Huneke.

 

Superman #5’s Remorseless Zod Hits Home

Superman #5’s Remorseless Zod Hits Home

Superman #5’s remorseless Zod hits home, and in such an impactful way it changes everything.

Superman #5 is all about the entrance of Zod!

The following article may contain *****Spoilers from The Man Of SteelSuperman #1 – Superman #5.

Whether in Richard Donner’s Superman II cinematic cut, Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, or the decades of comic book takes and Superman canon, the infamous name of Zod rings bold and loudly.

Zod.

Zod the once-celebrated general of Krypton, Zod whose failed coup banished him from the planet he cared so zealously for to the Phantom Zone, Zod whose warrior-like philosophy oft crossed into barbaric territory, while remaining an extremely intelligent leader who inspired the adoption of his maniacal methods.

Superman #5 offers up a conflicted and unpredictable Zod.

As in many great stories, a good villain is a character with growth, in his past, present, and future.

The same holds true for Zod as he enters the Rogul Zaar fray.

In Superman #5: The Unity Saga Pt. 5, writer Brian Michael Bendis, penciler Ivan Reis, colorist Alex Sinclair, inkers Joe Prado and Oclair Albert, letterist Josh Reed, take a fascinating storyline with sensational visuals to deliver an epic twist that will have far reaching consequences for Superman.

And the variant cover by Adam Hughes is simply fantastic and a new favorite of mine!

Superman #5, superman, bendis, ivan reis, adam hughes, alex sinclair, joe prado, superman, zod, rogul zaar, general zod

The classic image of Supes taking the blasts of lightning across his chest and proclaiming: “It Still Tickles” against the black background is remarkable.

This issue starts with a nightmare … Zod’s nightmare.

It is actually a recurring vision of a unified Krypton reborn on Jakuul and the House of El set to ally with the House of Zod before an inky black invasion from the sky blasts Zod’s family to bloody bits.

It ends with Rogul Zaar leering over a bruised and battered General Zod, while Superman lies unconscious or dead nearby.

The General awakes, and he has a family.

And then his son informs him that earth is missing.

Wow!

As we re-enter the Phantom Zone, Zaar and his army of miscreants have torn up superman’s costume and bloodied his mouth.

This is eerily reminiscent of when Doomsday first started to take control during the colossal fight that would end in Supes and Clark Kent’s demise.

Rarely, do I remember Superman profusely bleeding, and never before Doomsday – please chime in here with comments, Eager Readers – especially in the first thirty or forty years or so of his history.

And rarer still is Superman’s impenetrable skin damaged enough that cuts him and results in profuse bleeding.

So, silly as it may sound, on page eight of this book I am extremely concerned for Superman.

He is leaning on a rock to stay upright, as crimson trickles down his arm, his leg, and spouts from his mess of a mouth.

Zod lands on the newly revitalized earth and forces Atom to use the Phantom Zone projector on him.

General Zod has willingly banished himself back to the Phantom Zone, with little hope to return to his family, especially based on his visions.

Zaar waits for the fleeing Superman to return.

And Superman allows himself to become enraged and ready to kill.

Superman #5, superman, bendis, ivan reis, adam hughes, alex sinclair, joe prado, superman, zod, rogul zaar, general zod

He knows he can destroy Zaar and the entire Phantom Zone if he really wants to.

Ma and Pa Kent appear to him briefly, almost like Jor-El in the Fortress of Solitude, to give him advice.

Here Bendis delivers a touching scene that tugs at the heart-strings.

“If tests were easy . . .” says Ma Kent.

“. . . They wouldn’t be tests,” says Pa Kent.

Superman has achieved his goal: he sacrificed himself to save earth and in so doing forever imprisoned Zaar.

It will surely mean death, because Superman will not become enraged enough to kill Zaar, not even for revenge.

But Zod will.

Zod is still consumed by revenge and hate.

He arrives, blasts the creature, and lands saying:

“I. Am. ZOD.”

The fight of the century just got even bigger and a new, unified Krypton may be at stake.

“Superman #5’s Remorseless Zod Hits Home” was written by R.J. Huneke; pick up your copy now at your local comic shop, like Red Shirt Comics.

Superman #5, superman, bendis, ivan reis, adam hughes, alex sinclair, joe prado, superman, zod, rogul zaar, general zod Superman #5, superman, bendis, ivan reis, adam hughes, alex sinclair, joe prado, superman, zod, rogul zaar, general zod

Stan Lee Inspired Us All: Celebrate His 95 Years

Stan Lee Inspired Us All: Celebrate His 95 Years

Stan Lee Inspired Us All: Celebrate His 95 Years.

There will never be another like Stan ‘the Man’ Lee.

It is a sad day and a joyous, for we must move forward in a world that Stan Lee no longer walks. But, thankfully, he left us with such a bevy of stories, conversations, smiles, Excelsior!’s, cameos, and teachings that we can celebrate a long-lived life that was filled with inspirational art.

The first book I remember reading on my own was a reprint of The Amazing Spider-man #1.

That comic was written by Stan Lee and drawn by Steve Ditko.

I got it out of a cereal box and that book inspired me as a four-year-old to start to write and draw my own comic books, forever shaping my life (I still have the comic too).

Spider-man became my first favorite superhero.

Today Stan Lee is my favorite superhero.

Stan Lee

And make no mistake:

Stan Lee is a superhero.

He was a teenager who embellished his age to help out on Captain America and other Marvel books in 1939, not long after the publisher’s inception.

He brilliantly stepped in when a short-handed Marvel Comics called upon him to write and edit.

Stan’s charm and wit and unending creative drive led to the co-creation of some of the world’s most influential mythic figures, from the X-Men to the Fantastic Four, to the world’s first African American superhero to get his own solo title, Luke Cage, to Peter Parker the spectacular neighborhood Spider-man.

We learned in the final page of Spiderman’s first comic book appearance that “…with great power there must also come — great responsibility!” and rarely have more powerful words been so succinctly written or as influential as Stan Lee’s caption in Amazing Fantasy #15.

And Mr. Lee has for the better part of a century continued to make a mark on that modern mythology.

When he did not create the characters he breathed new life into them and brought them down paths they had never dared travel.

When he was not writing or editing a book directly, he was still making decisions to keep the Gamma Rays flowing, and when he was not making decisions, he was very often holding the comic book figures and their stories up and shouting for all in the room to see.

Stan Lee

He traveled the world as an ambassador for reading, for making art, for fighting to improve the world through myths, for celebrating all things comics.

He made sure comic books were fun, were received, and were constantly striving for innovation.

And the kindness he received from all of his fans, all of his readers, and all of his fellow artists was reciprocated a thousand times over.

He genuinely loved the world and those in it.

And as he grew older, he did not cease this one bit.

I consider it an honor and a privilege to have spoken with Stan Lee and thanked him for what he and his work meant to me and to everyone whom he worked so hard to meet, graciously, even when he was in his nineties.

He spent hours upon hours meeting as many fans as he could.

He happily taught as part of a Smithsonian virtual comic book history class, The Rise of Superheroes and Their Impact On Pop Culture.

He continued to be a joy to as many of his fellow artists as he could spend time with.

He loved his colleagues, innumerable as they became over a nearly eighty-year career.

He understood how precious time is, and in his 95 years, he gave us everything he had and more.

To think that when I got to meet Stan, the legend, humbly smiled, almost sheepishly, as I thanked him ‘for doing this’ for ‘seeing so many people who are inspired by him’ . . . and he thanked me.

He thanked me!

He said: “Thank you very much for saying that. That really means a lot to me.”

He smiled and he talked to me.

So much of my work is touched by this man’s art.

He started me writing.

I am forever indebted to him.

And he was kind enough, no matter how much the handlers pushed him to work harder (even in his nineties), to take a little time to speak with me.

I am deeply saddened and in shock that he is no longer here with us today.

But I am also so happy that he and his works of art make the world a better place every day and will continue to do so.

In his writing, Stan Lee’s world building used real places, like New York City, and realistic characters to be more relatable to us.

His characters were fully fleshed out, were challenged with real social issues, and felt all the conflict and failure that we do.

They were human beings first and superheroes second.

On his watch, no matter how super the superheroes were, they were human beings first.

No matter how superhuman Stan Lee, a Superhero if there ever was one, was and always will be, he was human first too.

Thank you, Stan.

My condolences go out to the family of Stan Lee during this difficult time.

Stan Lee, Stan Lee 95, Stan Lee dies

“Stan Lee Inspired Us All: Celebrate His 95 Years” was written by R.J. Huneke.

stan lee

Invasion From Planet Wrestletopia 2: Earth’s Cage Match!

Invasion From Planet Wrestletopia 2: Earth’s Cage Match!

Invasion From Planet Wrestletopia 2: earth’s cage match! And it is literally underway once champion of a planet run by wrestling, Manifest Destiny, surrounds the earth in a steel cage.

The wrestling invasion is underway in this brilliant thriller/turn-buckle slapping comedy comic book.

Invasion From Planet Wrestletopia

The following review contains some ***Spoilers*** for Invasion From Planet Wrestletopia volumes 1 and 2.

Make no mistake, the extremely entertaining conglomeration of all things professional wrestling, great character development and backgrounds, and the meeting of two worlds: the wrestling for entertainment on earth and the planet Wrestletopia, whose civilization is built upon wrestling, makes for witty reading and eager page turning.

And the earth has become one GIANT cage match!

Invasion From Planet Wrestletopia 2: Two Worlds Enter One Leaves and issue 1 was written by Ed “the Carnage Artist” Kuehnel & “Masculine” Matt Entin, with Art by Dan “the Body” Schkade, Colors by Marissa Louise AKA “Col. Von Slamstein”, Lettering by A Larger World Studios (The North Hollywood Nightmares), Edited by “Hangwoman” Mariah Huehner, Design by Fred “DrShoNoLuv” Chao, and Published by Suspicious Behavior Productions, LLC.

For anyone who was at any point in their lives a fan of, or even lightly intrigued by, pro wrestling, Invasion From Planet Wrestletopia is a raucous tribute to an art form.

What started the earth’s sudden alien encumbrance?

Well a successful and cocky heel, the once great, and now broke and constantly fired from his gigs, ‘Rock & Roll’ Rory Landell declares his resignation from the leading wrestling company after learning he would not be getting the AWF Championship Belt promised him.

During the pre-match interview for a championship bout he is going to be forced to lose, Rory brashly declares the AWF does not matter, because he is the “Champion of the Universe.”

When the airwaves reach Planet Wrestletopia years later, its champion and ruler Manifest Destiny flips his wig.

He lands on earth, which is literally locked in a cage in orbit, and his wrestlers wreak havoc on the leaders of world as he calls out Landell.

Tight and dramatic writing brilliantly portrays the stigmas attached to pro wrestling, both good and bad.

The Invasion From Planet Wrestletopia books offer something fresh as marvelous art, intriguing characters, and a somewhat plausibly ridiculous plot provide both suspense, wonderful pasts of earth’s wrestlers struggling to make a living, how’s popping back in dislocated knees for realism, and carefully planned and engaging laughs.

The promoter’s favorite wrestler: a bear who cannot talk, but can get down the wrist and body hurling move to turn the tables on a wary heel in the ring.

Give Invasion From Planet Wrestletopia a Graphic Novel Heavyweight Championship Belt!

Invasion From Planet Wrestletopia, Invasion From Planet Wrestletopia 2

“Invasion From Planet Wrestletopia 2: Earth’s Cage Match!” was written by R.J. Huneke.