Comic Book Review: Project Superpowers Blackcross #2

The supernatural occurrences ramp up in the town of Blackcross. Is it good?

Warren Ellis continues to use multiple storylines, but where it succeeded in the first book it falls flat in this one. The first book succeeded in creating immense terror and horror. It didn’t need to tell a story or build up the characters. The horror aspect carried it. However, this second issue is missing the horror. I’m not running downstairs to check that my door is locked, covering my mirrors, or applying bars to my window. It just isn’t there.

Instead, there are a couple moments that are pure shock factor. They leave you more confused than before. It is quite difficult to figure out what is happening let alone why it is happening. This does have the effect of creating a huge mystery except there doesn’t seem to be any clues.

The characters themselves are a mystery as well. The ones Ellis introduced in the previous issue are all present in this one, but since the issue is so compact and there are about six different storylines, he doesn’t have enough time to properly develop them and in some cases the events that unfold don’t give him the opportunity to do so.

Continue reading at Adventures in Poor Taste!

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Comic Book Review: Project Superpowers: Blackcross #1

There are strange and sinister things afloat in the small, sleepy town of Blackcross. Is it good?

Here at AiPT we have done a couple of team reviews of notable horror books, namely Nameless and Wytches. However, Nameless didn’t really have any horror to mention and the horror in Wytches came from some gruesome drawings by Jock. I never felt a sense of unease or an itch to constantly look over my shoulder. In Project Superpowers: Blackcross #1 I am absolutely terrified. I am going downstairs, triple checking to make sure the door is locked, covering my mirrors, and applying bars to my windows.

It is a deep-seeded fear of mine to be under the complete control of another where they are able to do what they will with your body, while you are only able watch unable to make a difference. Warren Ellis and Colton Worley take this premise and use it as their hook to open the book. They don’t let their foot off the horror engine the entire issue.

Continue reading at Adventures in Poor Taste!

Affiliate link: Click here to get your copy of Project Superpowers: Blackcross #1.

Review: Trees #3

Trees #3 begins with a little bit of cat and mouse as Eligia stalks the Professor, who evaded her random assault in the previous book. The hunt leads to two different contrasting lifestyles, the one the Professor lives and the one Eligia is currently living with Tito and the apparent fascist gang.

The Professor is cordial and welcoming as he enters a bookstore and chit-chats with the owner about how her kids are doing. On the other hand, Eligia is accosted by a member of Tito’s gang, who forcibly wonders why she is not with Tito. The differences in the contrasting lifestyles are made apparent in Jason Howard’s artwork. The Professor is able to enjoy his café while he paints the piazza of Cefalu; he is greeted warmly by the bookkeeper who has a constant smile on her face. Meanwhile Eligia is in an alley where trash is littered on the ground and graffiti is etched across the wall. The two could not be in more different places despite being in the same geographical place!

Warren Ellis transitions from the Eligia and the Professor and back to a familiar face, Chenglei! Ellis also fully introduces the reader to the beauty living in the same apartment from the first book. Ellis is able to explore the fear of something completely new and different through seemingly casual conversation and in order to overcome the fear and get a true grasp of the experience you cannot look from the outside, but must put yourself into the shoes of those you are observing. One important fact of note is both Chenglei and the Professor are painting or drawing the Trees as they have become a part of their cities’ skylines.

Jason Howard turns on the suspense with some fantastic panels of a rundown house and Eligia’s act of breaking and entering. Howard does an excellent job of using the light to his advantage; it ramps up the anticipation before the inevitable encounter. There is one panel that does seem out of place where Eligia seems awestruck or even mesmerized, but then the next panel she continues in her crouched hunting position with a knife firmly gripped in her right hand.

The expected encounter after Howard’s suspense-building finally does happen and Ellis is top-notch with his dialogue, delving into the psyche of both the Professor and Eligia making the characters both compelling and interesting, something he was unable to do in the previous book. On top of making the characters engaging, he adds fuel to the fire of mystery by hinting at a future that seems destined to happen. Ellis and Howard are able to recapture the promise of the first book and develop characters the reader wants to know more about and an overarching mystery that continues to develop new ripples.

8.4	Howard’s art and Ellis’ storytelling create characters and a storyline that are both compelling and interesting.

Review: Trees #2

Trees #2 is lacking. It lacks action, it lacks compelling characters, even the plotline lacked in progression.

The story begins where it left off in Trees #1 at the research facility in the northern tundra. The main focus and driving point of the entire book are the strange black flowers that were growing on and around the research vehicle, Napoleon. Our researchers (who knows what they are actually researching) seem to be lacking information as well as having no clue about the local vegetation let alone whether they even checked their equipment before using it. What makes this even more infuriating is Mr. Marsh admits to having been at the facility for over two years!

One of the more forgiving and intriguing scenes is where we meet the gal who has just arrived at the station. Jason Howard does a good job of portraying the intense hangover she is suffering and the effect it is taking on her body and mind. What makes the scene so intriguing is why she is feeling this way. The reason: she drank something called akvavit in a type of initiation ceremony. (Too bad we don’t actually see the initiation.)

Warren Ellis finally takes the reader away from the station only to take them to another dialogue between a young rebel and his girlfriend in Cefalu. Their conversation is definitely more interesting than our researchers giving a little backstory and a bit of a lover’s quarrel. However the scene takes a turn for the strange, in the only action sequence when out of the blue our female attacks a lone stranger. The scene just makes one scratch their head and ask “What?”

Leaving Cefalu, Ellis introduces the reader to two new characters in Mogadishu, Somalia. Definitely the most interesting part of the book, where the title characters actually are discussed! Some much needed information on the Trees is revealed as to how they drastically affected the geographical landscape even giving certain governments more advantageous access to natural resources. This revelation by President Caleb Rahim opens up possible political intrigue. (But have to wait to see if it will unfold.)

Unfortunately, Ellis takes us back to the northern tundra, but this time Howard’s art is on display with some spectacular drawings showing off how dominant the Trees have become, making the mountains look like dwarfs in comparison. Our researchers are having a seemingly pointless conversation, until Mr. Marsh reappears and confirms exactly what the reader has already figured out and what was pretty obvious from the last issue. Ellis ends with “It Doesn’t Care” and honestly neither should anyone thinking about picking up this issue.

4.8	Ellis attempts to create some mystery, but one just ends up scratching their head, saying “Huh?” The book doesn’t progress, there is no action, and the new characters aren’t interesting.

Trees #1 Review

Trees #1 begins with a Bang, literally as the Rio De Janeiro Pacification Police  equipped with advanced technology specifically different types of drones hunts down a group of young people. The pursuit is short-lived as the title characters quickly take center-stage. The Trees are enormous and emit a green waste that wipes out entire city blocks. Jason Howard does an excellent job portraying the magnitude and dominance of the Trees in Rio de Janeiro.  The Christ the Redeemer statue is an ant in comparison.

Writer Warren Ellis takes us from the oppressed streets of Rio to a Manhattan skyscraper, where ironically (you will have to discover the irony yourself!) the reader is given a history lesson from Vince, a seemingly ambitious politician, about the struggles and difficult decisions the city faced after the arrival of the Trees.

Ellis takes us from the gritty canals and grim high rises of Manhattan to the colorful City of Shu, Special Cultural Zone to meet Tian Chenglei, an aspiring artist from a small village. The book takes a very interesting turn here as Tian enters the City. The City turns Tian’s senses upside down and inside out. He feels a “strange gravity” and enters an apartment complex renamed The Great Spaceship. It appears the Trees have affected the city in some manner. Are they perhaps terraforming the planet?

The reader is abruptly taken away from the colorful and tragic City of Shu to a wintery wasteland where Ellis introduces Marsh and Dr. Sida. The two appear to be conducting research on the Trees in North West Spitzbergen when they aren’t providing entertainment with their colorful conversation.

Trees #1 takes the reader on an adventure, jumping from locale to locale, giving the reader just enough to want to learn more about the ominous ever-looming Trees, and the people living on the ground trying to make sense of the new world around them. Tian defines Trees concisely when he says “I don’t really know what it is yet.” But this reader sure does want to find out!

8.2	Trees #1 is a decent opening act, giving the reader a taste of the world, but leaving many questions to be answered.