Review: Deadpool vs. X-Force #3

Duane Swierczynski, Pepe Larraz and Nolan Woodard left the reader in China at the turn of the 20th century, a fact which Deadpool is happy to remind the reader. The opening page starts off right with a good chuckle and uses a creative word bubble and the occupying images to replace Cable’s understandable profanity.

Swierczynski keeps the smile on your face as Deadpool tests out his fancy new toy, forcing Cable to march in lockstep and even salute. Unfortunately the story takes a turn for the unbelievable. Deadpool’s toy has absolutely no power over Cable at all; his marching and saluting are all a ploy in order to smooth-talk the mercenary into spilling the beans on his plan. Deadpool, playing the villain, is happy to oblige in a monologue explaining why he meddled in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and now China.

While Deadpool explains his masterful plan, Pepe Larraz maintains the torrid action-packed pace the previous books have set; there is an action scene on almost every page! Boom-Boom is launching fireballs at American forces while Cannonball flies alongside of his namesake tossing revolutionaries through the air. Warpath and Domino are smashing both Confederate cannons and Union techno-monstrosities. The best scenes are with Deadpool, whether he is tearing apart Chinese infantrymen with his gun, sword, or boot or brawling with Cable. Larraz does a great job with Deadpool’s facial expressions especially one scene where Cable reveals his charade and Deadpool knows what is coming: a hurting. However, there was not any “holy crap those fireballs look as if they are flying off the page” moments as there was in the first book.

Nolan Woodard’s colors, especially his use of light when he focuses on Boom-Boom, adds an emotional touch to the story, the reader has not experienced before. He also keeps up the good work with his explosions and gun fire using shades of blue, green, yellow, orange and red to create and denote the different types of explosions and gunfire.

Swierczynski keeps the book entertaining and lively with Deadpool’s commentary and even gives a nod to veteran readers of Deadpool. The most amusing section comes towards the end of the book. Swierczynski pokes fun at the way comics use the asterisk to denote a language translation. The dialogue, though some may deem childish or immature, is effective and had this reviewer laughing.

Swierczynski leaves a huge shocker that few will have seen coming and sets the stage for the grand finale in the fourth and final book.

7.0	The book is not strong on plot, but nevertheless is fun and exciting to read.

Review: The Life After #2

The weird gets weirder in The Life After #2.

Writer Joshua Hale Fialkov explores the strange world of suicide Purgatory, where the main protagonist Jude has found himself. Luckily for Jude he has a guide in the form of Ernest Hemingway, who like Jude is “awake.” Hemingway explains a bit about the place in which Jude has found himself and why people are jumping off bridges -– mainly because that is how they ended up in suicide Purgatory in the first place.

Read more at Adventures in Poor Taste.

Review: The Fade Out #1

Ed Brubaker weaves a tale of mystery, intrigue, and straight-up lies in the first issue of The Fade Out. The opening sequence is creepy as all get out and seems to bluntly imply Brubaker will be lying to the reader, but this truth does not really sink in until about halfway through.

Read the full review on Adventures in Poor Taste.

Review: Genius #3

Marc Bernardin and Adam Freeman begin Genius #3 with an absolute shocker. They take the reader back in time to when Destiny was only 12 or 13 years old and reveal a kid who is not trying to blend in as she was in Genius #1, but is instead taking her first steps on the road of violence.

Check out the full review at Adventures in Poor Taste!

Review: The United States of Murder Inc. #4

The beginning of the story once again begins with a stroll down memory lane; this time Bendis takes us to New York City circa 1971. The power of the Five Families is front and center as they confront a stock broker, who has not been paying his dues. There is no tolerance for failure and the mob’s justice is carried out with the swift chop of a machete. Bendis does an excellent job of fitting in the harsh mob brutality, a quick criticism of the stock market, and the displaying a grand vision all in a page and a half!

Bendis also does not make the mistake of confusing the reader with an out of place time jump. He allows Oeming and Taki Soma’s combination of beautiful artwork and eye-catching color to make his job easier. Oeming emphasizes the grandiose nature of the Five Families’ vision with a large chandelier and craps dice flowing across the page on a sprawling casino floor. Taki Soma’s coloring from the past to the present creates a stark contrast allowing the reader to know they are in a different time even without the prompt informing the reader they have left the past.

Not only does Bendis create fantastic transitions between time and location, he weaves a gripping story throwing multiple curveballs and twists edging the reader closer and closer to the edge of their seat. The comedic breaks are perfectly timed and break the tension between Jagger Rose and Valentine. After an intense battle sequence Valentine references looting the dead bodies as if he just killed an epic boss in World of Warcraft. Rose even makes a veiled Star Wars reference: “Who really did shoot first?”

Leaving Valentine and Rose, Bendis uses the second half of the book to create intense drama whether it is the interrogation of Madonna Gallo or a heated moral discussion on how to preserve the peace not only among the Five Families, but also with the Feds. Bendis weaves an excellent dialogue among the Bonavese Family leaders; he casually drops one of the biggest shockers the story has seen yet!

The only complaint is the transition between three panels. The panels are set up where two are stacked on top of each other while the third is to their right. The reader must read down the first two panels before moving to the larger third panel. They use the same panel setup on the following page, but it flows much better since Bendis places his bubbles at the bottom of the larger panel rather than on the top. It throws the reader for a loop if read out of order and forces them to reread the panel.

9.4	Bendis and Oeming give us their best book in the series! If you are not reading this, you should be!

Review: Genius #2

Marc Bernardin and Adam Freeman take the reader out of the war zone and into the press room to unveil another level to Destiny Ajaye’s genius. The war will not only be fought in the streets, but will also be fought in the living rooms of the everyday American watching the late night special or browsing the internet.

Representing the media, Bernardin and Freeman introduce Izzy Cortina, a rough and tumble editor who demands results. She is all about breaking the news and will go to whatever lengths to do so, and does she ever! She jumps out of a helicopter into the South Central streets after her pilot refuses to land fearing being shot down by the LAPD or the gangbangers.

In the meantime, Destiny is still engaging the LAPD on the ground and leading her gangbangers, while her videos go viral on the internet and are picked up by Izzy’s news channel. Destiny’s talents are on display from the mixing of chemicals in the creation of explosives to deftly handling a sub-machine gun all the while keeping her eye on the bigger picture. She juggles everything perfectly forcing the hand of LA’s SWAT team.

Bernardin and Freeman do a wonderful job of adding realism to the story incorporating talking heads arguing over the morality of the “South Central Siege” as well as including leaders such as Al Sharpton and Jim Brown discussing how they will address the situation. They also briefly touch on police corruption. These details add the extra touch in reinforcing the believability of the story.

The book builds to an excellent climax with Destiny and her gangbangers coming to a head with LAPD’s SWAT team. Afua Richardson’s action sequences are up to par whether it is bullets riddling gangbangers or cracking the shield of a cop in cover. Her use of highlighting the characters in certain panels reinforces the emotions of the characters, whether Detective Grey is in orange yelling to pull the officers back or a mother and her two kids highlighted in blue are taking cover from the gun fight. She also does not use traditional panels throughout the book, but on one page has the flow set up wonderfully from a kitchen setting blending into a bird’s eye view of the city with cars burning and police vehicles looking like ants. The page doesn’t end there, but also shifts to Destiny armed with a rifle on the rooftop to a picture of what she is seeing through the scope. Richardson does this a number of times and each time the story flows effortlessly.

Following the battle with SWAT, Bernardin and Freeman leave an excellent cliffhanger that will challenge Destiny in a way the reader has not seen yet and test her genius once again!

8.4	Bernardin and Freeman add another layer to Destiny’s brilliance and, coupled with Richardson’s artwork, improve upon an already entertaining series.

Review: The Squidder #2

Shifting focus from world building and brutal action scenes in the opening book, Ben Templesmith instead turns to developing an intriguing and complex story centered on character development. He introduces a number of new characters which help drive the story and push the Squidder upon his hero quest.

The first character Templesmith introduces is the Squid Priestess, a pawn used by the gangs to obtain power. However, she is much more than first described. Her conversations with the Squidder are the main focal point of the entire book and allow the reader to experience the emotional suffering of both her and the Squidder. The dialogue also exposes the Squidder’s driving motivation, his hate for the Squid, which in this reviewer’s opinion is really only a mask for his love of humanity embodied in the haunting visions of his wife Fiona.

The other two characters Templesmith introduces are members of the Squid, the first being Queen 59B and the second being the Dark Father. These two characters ooze evil in how Templesmith has drawn them. Queen 59B takes the appearance of a humanoid with horns sprouting from her head and spikes protruding from her back. These do not take away from her soft, feminine features, which remind one of a succubus. The Dark Father is the opposite of Queen 59B in that he is a mass of tentacles and eyes hanging from a ceiling. Some of the tentacles flow down taking the shape of a skinless human with two massive horns arising from his skull. Not only are these creatures creepy to look at it, but humans are merely playthings to them. At one point, Queen 59B gifts the Dark Father a decapitated head, which is still screaming, pleading to be killed. The Dark Father adds the head to a growing mass of human flesh he refers to as “our masterpiece.”

Templesmith intersperses the character development with a glimpse into the past of Earth and the battles before hope was lost, as well as some action sequences with the Squidder. The action sequences, though not as shockingly brutal, still hit home when the Squidder decapitates a man with sniper rifle. A battle weakness is also revealed in a skirmish with the local gang when Templesmith draws his intestines flowing out of his stomach.

One of the weaknesses of the story is Templesmith’s use of a prophecy involving the Squidder, making him unique not because of genetic experimentation or his combat prowess, but because of an over-arching divine plan. The introduction of the prophecy is also a tad confusing when the Squidder has two very different reactions, one matter-of-fact and the second anger, all in the same panel.

7.3	Templesmith’s artwork once again steals the show; however the character development and the emotional connection to the Squidder are a close second.