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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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Remember Final Crisis? All the one-shots, the mini-series, the 3-D glasses, the dope covers, the slew of 4-dollar issues, and the heated debate afterwards are some of the things that marked the event in my mind. But there was one more little identifying mark wasn’t there? Like me, I’m guessing many of you would frequently hit the comic book shop during that event, ready to gobble up the latest FC issues, only to find that there were no new issues released as scheduled. Yes, I am referring to tardiness. But who am I to complain? I haven’t written anything for ACBR since July 12! If I had to wait a month for every single comic I bought, I would go nuts! (I guess that explains the weak amount of hits since the 12th)

The reason I bring up Final Crisis is because they rebounded from their problems and brought some kick-ass issues of Legion of Three Worlds (eventually). Despite the delays at DC, the Lo3W team still brought us a great product, and that is how I want to come back!

But I have been behind before, haven’t I? Those few of you who are frequent visitors to my measly website may have noticed that I am always playing catch-up with reviews. There are always a few titles that I am behind on even if I am caught up with almost everything. So how can I bring the quality work, be in the middle of a class session, keep up appearances at two jobs, and maintain a fairly healthy social life?

The answer is shorter reviews. I was looking at ACBR’s stats the other day and noticed that most of you stay on for less than one minute and then move on to another page. My guess is that you glance around, see if anything new piques your interest, maybe take a peek at the star ratings on the front page, and then move on to something else. It’s the internet equivalent of channel surfing, and I don’t blame you. I do the same thing. Chances are (if you are one of the 98% of ACBR visitors) you aren’t even reading this sentence. Shorter reviews would be good for both of us, wouldn’t it? I can get more points across, and you get more arbitrary info in the 30-60 seconds that you’re here.

Now if you are one of the 2% of readers that actually read, the few who make it to the bottom of a post; I’m not trying to diss you here. 98% might give me enough hits to make advertising potentially possible, but you are the 2% that actually make this fun for me. Cheers to you. If I feel strongly about a topic or a comic, I will definitely write more than just a paragraph or two. And if you think my opinion is unfounded (or not explained thoroughly enough), a couple visits to the forum page or a look-see at the few comments I have here will show you that I will reply to those that take the time to chat with me. Your much-appreciated and prolonged visits to this site can still be as fruitful as ever!

So far, I have really enjoyed working on the site, and this change to shorter reviews is to replace some of its monotonous ranting with some exciting discussion. I have some pretty interesting things coming up like Blackest Night, Tyrese Gibson’s Mayhem, Comic Con recaps/pics, the worst comic book ever written, more Tales of the TMNT, and tons of other junk for you to have fun wasting your time on. So tell your friends, add me on MySpace, follow my tweets, strap in, and get ready for ACBR to step it up!