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Celebrities aren’t usually great at playing the part of Renaissance man. In my opinion, singers generally try to dabble in acting a bit more than they should. Among the many who have tried, few (such as Will Smith or Jamie Fox) actually make it big and do a great job with it. Tyrese Gibson is speedily making a name for himself among those few who can successfully transfer themselves into the acting game, but now he is taking things one step further and adding his name to the writing credits of a monthly comic title.

To be fair, I have no idea whether he actually wrote any of Mayhem, or if his name is just a sales tactic for Image. From what I can gather, it seems like he did. When Quentin Tarantino stamped his name on a movie like Jet Li’s Hero, one could easily tell it was just marketing because: 1- The movie had already been released overseas and 2- Mr. Tarantino never lifted a finger to promote the movie other than to sign the release to put his name on posters and trailers. Gibson, on the other hand, has been promoting like crazy for this book ever since its conception.

The protagonist of Mayhem, whose likeness seems to be based on Tyrese, is a man named Dante who is out for revenge on criminal kingpin who goes by Big X. From there, you can pretty much imagine what type of story this is and where it is going right? Well, not exactly. The story does seem pretty cliché. Two action scenes are broken up by a quick visit to a local church to atone for the preceding and ensuing violence. Concepts like this added to other formula ingredients like endless streams of black-suited bad guys, a sexy accomplice, and a rich old white villain might lead you to believe that this story is pretty run-of-the-mill; but appearances can be deceiving.

The first clue that Mayhem is more than meets the eye is that it is contained in the comic book medium. While the plot may seem familiar, try to imagine the last time you saw action like this on a page rather than a screen. Also consider the more original bits of plot and character. Because this is a monthly title, fun mysteries and surprises are added to the story to keep us interested enough to buy the next issue. I won’t ruin them for you, but I will tell you that they are original and genuinely engrossing. I am honestly looking forward to the developments in the characters of Dante, Felicia, and Big X as the story continues.

I won’t lie to you and tell you that Mayhem is innovative or thought-provoking. More than anything, it seems to be an exercise in adrenaline-fueled entertainment, but it doesn’t claim to be anything else. And that’s refreshing! It’s still too early to tell whether or not Dante’s character will endure and become one of the more notable and recognizable characters in this industry that eats new heroes for breakfast, but I do believe that it is worthy of its status as the newest addition to my pull-list at the comic shop.

(4/5)

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I have mixed feelings on Outsiders 20. So far I have really liked Peter Tomasi and Lee Garbett’s run, The Deep. Each issue seemed to have plenty of info, plenty of action, and plenty of surprises. I can’t say that this issue was no good just because it didn’t have any surprises. I guess when you get to the conclusion all the cards are on the table, and it’s just a matter of how you play them.

The Outsiders is a team composed of some of the least popular characters in DC, but Tomasi really brought them up to the best they can be. I said before (and I’m standing by it) that Ousiders: The Deep has been my favorite read for months. Even when I hadn’t gone to the comic shop for three weeks and came home with a fat stack of books, this was the first one that I delved into.

In this issue, we get to see a dope villain team-up with Ra’s al Ghul and Vandal Savage, the two immortal bad asses of the DCU! My one complaint is that we just didn’t get to see enough of them before the end of this arc. Issue 18 ended with a glimpse of Savage while issue 18 had him meeting up with Ra’s. Why couldn’t their plans have been included or at least alluded to in the previous issues? I can’t complain though, because I was pretty distracted in the meantime with the Deathstroke excitement.

I’m not sure if these two plan to continue their work on this title with a new story arc, but god I hope so. Tomasi has really kept me excited with the outsiders month after month, while I couldn’t see anyone drawing these characters other than Mr. Garbett. Few pairs of artists seem to work as well together as these two do, and it would be a shame to see them split up.

Ps- Long live the Creeper!

(4.5/5)

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There are more than enough problems to go around in the conclusion of Emerald Eclipse, as things start wrapping up for the emergence of Blackest Night. Just as the Alpha Lanterns were able to provide the final push in quelling the riot in the sciencells, the Green Lanterns look up to their beloved Oan sky only to see that it is beginning to fall apart. Trouble is on the way!

Soranik Natu (still on Korugar) is having trouble dealing with her daddy-issues (what child of Sinestro’s wouldn’t?) while Arisia and the newly empowered Daxamites are able to finally kick the last of Mongul’s faction of the Sinestro off of Daxam. Most of the issue however is spent on Lanterns Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner standing up to the Guardians’ execution order of the attempted sciencell escapees.

Over the past few months, I have given Peter Tomasi and Pat Gleason a pretty hard time for their (in my opinion) shortcomings on the Emerald Eclipse story arc. I didn’t care for Tomasi’s seemingly short attention span, nor for Gleason’s stretched out character faces. The strengths of these two as a team seemed to be action. In this issue (and the past couple), I have noticed that I do like how well Gleason can draw a large scene like the outdoor execution and argument sequence.

All in all, Emerald Eclipse was an ambitious story with quite a bit going on and simply not enough space in each issue to address it all. I am still fairly new to this title, so that might just be how it has to go. Maybe someone could point out to me the reason I preferred Sins of the Star Sapphire over this arc.

(3/5)

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Geoff Johns gives us one final prologue before Blackest Night with Green Lantern 43: Tale of the Black Lantern. Secret Origin showed us a tiny bit of the beginning of the Black Hand, and Hal Jordan (and the Spectre) hit him pretty hard in Green Lantern Rebirth. Now we finally get to see what happened that would make William Hand an eligible candidate for the Black Lantern Corps.

Johns’ writing combined with Doug Mahnke’s pencils make for one hell of a comic book. It seems as though Johns has been writing everything for DC comics lately; so much in fact that his name’s presence on the cover of a TPB recently inspired a friend of mine to point at the aforementioned paperback and yell “Go Away!” Luckily, I am not yet as jaded as he is with Geoff’s fantastic work, but it would be nice to see some new blood tackle some of the larger events in the DCU.

GL 43 does as it advertises in providing a good starting point for Blackest Night to take off from. I have read BN 1 and Tales of the Corps, and I can’t wait to let you know how I liked them! Stay Tuned!

(3.5/5)

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Among the many decisions that the honchos over at DC have made regarding Batman titles was their refilling of the Detective lead role with Batwoman. While I would rather have Batman filling this role in this title, the mixing-up of things over at DC is beginning to get exciting to me. That being said, I think I can forgive them for changing this one up so drastically.

Katherine Kane is a Batwoman who is much different from our old Batwoman, Barbara Gorden. For starters, she doesn’t provide much of a love interest for the men in Gotham; but most lesbians wouldn’t. Her heart still seems to be held by Renee Montoya, the Question. Conveniently, the second feature (similar to the Manhunter second feature in Streets of Gotham)is a neat little story starring the Question herself.

Kane is pretty new to New Earth. As far as I know we have only seen her in 52 and Final Crisis (maybe a handful of smaller titles as well). Much of that time was spent on the Crime Bible which foretells the significance of her own death. So in her first issue in Detective Comics, Batwoman is hunting down the new leader of the thirteen covens that use that bible as their religious text.

The story is pretty dark, and J.H. Williams III’s art works with it wonderfully! I have heard a lot of praise for Williams, but unfortunately I am not sure as to whether or not I have seen his work before. Well now I see what all of the fuss was about. Williams’ artwork is really top-notch. One can not only easily see the changes in the mood of the story as Kane moves between her personas, but appreciate the style and depth of everything that there is to see on every page.

Rucka’s writing is lamentably not my favorite. I do think that the story is interesting and has the potential to go in several directions; however I am pretty sure of what the surprise will be on the first page of the next issue, and I’m not so enthusiastic about the exploitation of sex appeal as an interrogation technique. As far as race and sexuality are concerned, DC has always been at the cutting edge of the progressive movement to appreciate different types of people. It seems like we should all be beyond the whole thing with chick super heroes relying on the ol’ T&A rather than skill. But hey, he’s the one getting paid to write, not me.

Despite my predispositions, this really did turn out to be a cool issue. I can definitely say that I am satisfied with what Detective Comics has got going for itself for now, but I think that this Batwoman thing should be temporary. As a character, Kane seems to have a few great arcs in her that could carry the title for quite awhile, but I don’t think she will prove to have the staying power of a character like Batman or Superman. Sure, it may not be fair that I am comparing such a new character with the big boys, but this is a big boy title. Batwoman and her writers need to be able to hold up to Detective Comics standards, and so far I don’t think that the great art makes up for the rest of the comic falling just short of being great.

(3.5/5)

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