I grew up on the Ninja Turtles. I remember the first thing I would do on each and every Saturday morning would be to turn on the TV and watch the Teenage Ninja Turtle cartoon show. After that I would either pop in the VHS of the first, second, or third live action movie (yes, I liked the third one) or sit down on the living room floor and team my Ninja Turtle action figures up with the Batman ones and have them face off against Shredder, the Joker, and their hordes of WWF wrestler goons. Since then, both the turtles and the Caped Crusader have come a long way for me, as I matured into darker and more adult entertainment material. But somewhere between my cool bed sheets and Batman R.I.P., I lost contact with Leo, Mikey, Donny, and Rafe (Ralph isn’t the pronunciation I’m accustomed to); that is until now.

Tales of the TMNT takes the turtles a few steps further than the way I remember them, and pits them against more evil and formidable foes and situations. I knew it was a whole new ballgame when I saw the four-character-long strands of punctuation in the Casey Jones dialogue. But this isn’t a bad thing. I can still enjoy the old Batman Animated series just as much as Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader; and the same goes for Tales of the TMNT.

This issue brought me a character who is totally new to me (ie: not Shredder, Bebop/Rocksteady, or Crane), the Hun. Apparently, the Hun used to be a fearsome gangboss on the streets of New York, dating back to Casey Jones’ adolescence. Since then, he had been apprehended by the fuzz; and, by the beginning of Tales 56, has escaped their custody. Though he is not the kind of villain that I am at all used to seeing in the TMNT world, I think the Hun is a good villain for my entrance into the Mirage universe. He’s the brutish type of bad guy that can challenge Casey and the turtles physically without temporarily altering the character traits of my favorite quartet. That’s right! Screw you, Fantastic 4!

It seems unfortunate to me that Tristan Jones hasn’t been discovered in the mainstream comic book world just yet. It’s obvious from this issue that he has a real knack for creating a believable dialogue between characters that speak as if they were actually a part of our culture. Sometimes I’ll read works by Peter Tomasi or Geoff Johns and think they’re so amazing when they describe complicated plot features explained by characters like Batman, Martian Manhunter, or the Guardians; but their expertise is limited to those types of characters. Check out my reviews of Green Lantern Corps lately, and see my opinion of the way Tomasi makes Guy Gardner act. Jones does it so much better. I’d bet that I would have a fonder appreciation for Lantern Gardner if the character was written by Tristan Jones.

All of the art comes in the form of original pencils. Sure, it’s cheaper; but it’s also a pretty cool way to read a comic. It really allows you to appreciate the work that all comic book artists put into the material that you don’t even have to spend of full hour’s worth of minimum wage to own. Despite the lack of color, Paul Harmon still does justice to all of the characters. Hun is scary, Casey Jones is badass, and the look of the Ninja Turtles still displays the subtle mix of funny and cool that must be hard to master. Bravo!

In a nutshell, this isn’t the type of story that I remember the turtles starring in; but it’s the type that I look forward to fining out more about. I had always thought that they could never be put into a more grown-up format, but Jones and Harmon really proved me wrong. I have to throw out a thank you to Tristan, who reintroduced me to the most beloved characters of childhood and brought them to all of us in a form that will be impossible to outgrow.

(4/5)

[ad#LinkUnit_468x15]

FCA Dance is one of those rare comic books that is both annoying and ingenious at the same time. As I read through it, I couldn’t believe that the author would introduce the main characters with a close-up shot of an iphone or have the narration dictated to the reader through twitter posts. Lame, right? Then I took a good long look at my own iphone and realized that the majority of readers who have found my website have done so through twitter. Everything clicked!

The protagonists of this story are the members of the Super Young Team which consists of Most Excellent Superbat, Big Atomic Lantern Boy, Shiny Happy Aquazon, Shy Crazy Lolita Canary, and Well-Spoken Sonic Lightning Flash. These have to be the dumbest names I have ever seen in my relatively short experience with comic books, but I’m pretty sure that’s the point. The Super Young Team was probably the most annoying part of Final Crisis for me, but I can be honest. I didn’t get it then, and I’m only starting to get it now.

Writer Joe Casey is taking over the writing of the SYT for Grant Morrison who created the characters during 52. In Dance we see the characters enter their new satellite headquarters which is commercially funded by a group of investors that we have yet to really learn about. As they get a tour of their new base of operations, their sleazy publicist tells them all about the preplanned party that is to take place in the latter half of the issue. The party is attended by celebrities that attained their status through no virtue of their own; celebrities like Paris Hilton or Kevin Federline.

Think of what the issue contains: iphones, Twitter, dumb celebrities, emo crushes, Japanese cultural influences, fortune and glory without hard work, thick layers of advertising, product placement style of promotion, and plenty more. These definitely do not describe everything about me personally, but these are the marks of our generation. It’s hard to say whether or not a work of art accurately displays a culture until we give it about a decade or so and go over it again with the benefit of hindsight. I think, I am going to read this series in the future and remember what it was like to live in 2009.

The art is alright. I think penciler Chriscross was a good choice for this series. It seems as though he is pretty good at displaying motion within a single frame; which is absolutely essential for displaying a fast-paced culture like our own.

Again, half of the things about this comic annoy me, but half of the things about the culture of my generation annoy me as well. I can’t really get mad at Joe Casey for calling them how he sees them. I will definitely go back and read Final Crisis again once the revelations of this storyline are exposed.

(4/5)

[ad#LinkUnit_468x15]

I’m going to be honest and say that I really don’t know too much about Wonder Woman, the Metahuman Affairs Unit, Amanda Waller, Tom Tresser, or anyone else that fits into that group. That being said, Escape 1 was very confusing for me. But even if you know what’s going on with all of that, you will probably still find yourself scratching your head a bit while flipping through the psychedelic pages of this issue.

We begin with agent Tom Tresser awakening in a dreamy world with seemingly robotic women serving him his favorite breakfast. Luckily Tresser lives in the idealistic comic book world in which people start asking the questions before they start enjoying the omelets. Upon further investigation, Tresser learns that he is not in a room at all. He’s in the twisted inner workings of someone’s imagination.

As tresser learn more about the levels of imprisonment that he is trapped in, we understand less. Wonder Woman is a disassembled piece of equipment, words in the narration become replaced with [word deleted] or [name deleted], and Omacs seem to be the only ones who know what is going on.

Clearly, this series is going to be unforgiving to people like me; those who aren’t acquainted to the DCU in its entirety, those who tend to lean towards Batman or Green Lantern, or those who like their mysteries served straight up. I don’t like wondering what I am supposed to be wondering, but that’s the feeling I get when I read Escape. Unfortunately, such a feeling prevents me from getting emotionally attached to the characters involved, and I find myself not really caring if Tom Tresser escapes or not.

The art in the book is a bit disappointing as well. The cover has an impressionist style to it that complements the euphoric undertones of the story; however the art on the pages utilizes a more tie-dye look to try to convey Tresser’s funny feeling. It doesn’t quite work.

The only reason I am reading this series is to try to keep up with what is going on with the DC Universe and learn about characters that are new to me. If you don’t really care about any of the characters mentioned above, then there is no real reason for you to read this issue. If you do, maybe you will like it more than I did.

(2.5/5)

[ad#LinkUnit_468x15]

Two days ago, Battle for the Cowl ended with a bang. I would be lying if I told you that I was happy with the way that it ended, but I suppose it wouldn’t be completely truthful if I said I was unhappy with it either. All of the plot lines begun in BftC 1 and continued in 2 are still in full swing by the opening of this final chapter.

We also find out on the title page that all of those one-shots and connected minis weren’t very necessary at all. We could just as easily not read them and still picked up number 3 and knew exactly what was going on. I guess they were at least a fun ride, for the most part. The rest of the issue is spent on the tying up of the Jason Todd side of things and the setting up of the few new monthlies that will be spawned from Bruce Wayne’s profitable demise.

One question you might be asking is what happened with the whole Black Mask thing? Well, you aren’t going to find an answer to that in this issue. It seems that the thread of the storyline with Black Mask was probably a set-up for what is going down in the new Batman and Robin series or the next story arc in Batman comics. We’ll see.

Despite the disappointment, this issue contains some serious excitement. No, I’m not too happy about Damien’s role in this grand new order, but the final showdown between the new Batman and the old wannabe Batman was absolutely intense. The storyline and the way that everything ends up is probably exactly the way that you imagined it when you initially started reading the first issue; and, like I said, there is not a single morsel of closure with the Black Mask situation.

Tony Daniel’s art was easily the most enjoyable part of this series for me. I’m sure it’s pretty cliché that my favorite work in a comic book was in Hush by Jim Lee, but this series really rivals that. Obviously, the combined cover work appear to be some sort of homage to that of Lee’s work with Hush, while the work inside displays the same sort of quality.

Overall, this series seems to be a foreshadowing of what’s to come in the DC universe: stories and art that excite us and satisfy us combined with directional forces moving in ways that we aren’t at all happy with. But we aren’t making the managerial decisions for DC,; all we can do is make our voices heard with the comics that we buy. As for me, I’ll keep buying the comics. I enjoy the amazing artwork and the ability of these recent stories to keep me on the edge of my seat. In the meanwhile, all I can hope is for DC to decide that they have tortured us enough and bring the DCU back to a place that we all can enjoy.

(4/5)

[ad#LinkUnit_468x15]

May second of 2009 was free comic book day, and (like many of you, I’m sure) my girlfriend and I flocked to the comic book shop to browse through the various free comic books and choose the issues among them that we would take home without paying a cent. For many, the adventure was a one-time trip, whose final destination was a small stack of free comic books to sit on the shelf. But for me, the trip was the first of many that would end several tens of dollars later with a larger stack of Blackest Night comic books to show for it at the end. So what I am trying to say is, Blackest Night 0 was the highlight of my free comic book day.

I’m guessing that BN0 is not necessarily a must-read in order to understand what will go on in the event series that will officially premiere this July, but I’m sure that most people (like myself) who have not been completely immersed in the Green Lantern World for the past few years will appreciate it’s benefit as an introduction to what the hell is going on.

The free issue begins, “There was darkness. Then there was light. And the war between them began.” As far as I know, we have been witnessing the battle between rival colors of the spectrum of light for years and year; and finally, we are about to see the REAL battle. From the omens contained between the lines of BN0, we can see that Blackest Night should be one hell of a ride.

Unfortunately, that is all this issue really is, omens. There isn’t really an story here beyond a sorrowful Hal Jordan reminiscing about his fallen allies in a Gotham City graveyard. So there you go; nothing crazy really happens here, but for a free comic you get more than you bargained for. There is a lot of talk about Batman, Martian Manhunter, and Aquaman that should give us a good idea of what we should be looking forward to this July.

In terms of at, the issue looks pretty cool. It has the dark looks that we should expect out of a title like Blackest Night, and some scary frames that we of course expect out of power driven by death. The last half of the book contains my favorite part, which is a quick reference guide to the various spectrums of the power ring world. Each pages depicts a different class-photo style shot of the different lantern corps, the key players in each, their driving emotion/virtue/etc, the history, and their homeworld. The only corps we don’t get much information about is the Indigo Tribe, but I think we aren’t supposed to know too much about them just yet.

I know how annoying event comics could be to us comic shop patrons. Some of my friends avoid them altogether because they know that their primary purpose is to sell us more comic books, get us to buy crossover issues, and engage us to new lines of product. But who cares? We know we are getting sucked in and we like it. If DC didn’t think that this series was going to be a cash cow, they wouldn’t have given this issue to us for free. Like some of you out there, I really don’t mind. I’ll be biting my nails until July.

(4/5)

[ad#LinkUnit_468x15]