Dragon Age #1-
If you like mages, pirates and are hopped up on the slithery and swashbuckling Conan by Brian Wood, then you’re in for a treat here. Game of Thrones you say? Well come hither because there are alliances, kingdom transgressions, kings and naysayers…all at each other’s throats here and the regal yet majestic gore subtly slipped in by artist Chad Hardin makes for a royal time. King Alistair embarks on a mission to find his missing father, rumoured alive, and with his trusty and wily aide and confidante, Isabela, there’s a lot of action and glorious battling swamped onto the story by David Gaider and Alexander Freed. There’s a cavalier notion in this book that needs to hit your eyes as Alistair finds that this age of terror never fails to send new threats his way. It’s a remarkable opener and puts some medieval joy back into comics. (9/10)
Spike: A Dark Place #1-
As implied in the title, our titular hero, Spike, endures the heartache of that fallout with Buffy…yet again…where he retreats to nurse and mend his broken heart…doused in extraterrestrial R & R. This really baffled me. It’s a bit odd but then again, it’s hard to get a good story once the series ended on TV to me. Paul Lee’s pencils are grainy, rough and work nicely as Spike’s remedial actions are quirky, surly and brooding. Vic Gischler, Marvel’s Vampire-lover and scribe, got a nice handle on the Brit here…but sadly, the story of Spike’s drunken anecdotes as he recovers…falls a bit by the wayside as alien frogs, spaceships and cockroaches seem to show that maybe there’s no real idea pitched for the vamp. It’s mundane at times and ends pretty underwhelming and obvious. It’s hard to watch him piss away with this supporting cast in space, where the only kicks you catch are Manchester United references. (5/10)
Planetoid #1-3
If Cable met A.I. which met Terminator: Rise of the Machines…which melded with the Bermuda Triangle…you’d get this. Silas finds himself bound to a planet where machinery rules man until he finds himself a savior leading a tribe to a hopeful salvation. He elevates the encampment into a society with no political undertones and moral upheavals in one of the simplest yet profound comic I’ve read in a while. There’s strength in this simplicity by Ken Garing who writes and sketches the book. It’s a pretty formidable tale of the plans to ascend into something more while trapped on the planet…and it’s clear Silas is eyeing an exodus off the rock. But at what price? It’s a book for the intellect and the hopeful…great art and a potent plot…can’t ask for more! (10/10)
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