Nice to have it all out in the open now
Feels good, actually.
I'll try to post more about comics. I've been doing rapid reviews on another board, I should star cross-posting them here. They tend to be fairly random though. I get my books weekly but I prefer to let them pile up. Some stuff I read as it comes out, like The Multiversity and Spider-Verse which I'm hugely excited about as I love multiverse stuff. Otherwise, I read a lot of series in chunks.
Here's the most recent lot of Rapid Reviews:
Ghostbusters Volume 5: The New Ghostbusters (collects Ghostbusters [2013] #1-4)
How on Earth did the Ghostbusters manage to catch anything without wrecking half the city?
Oh sweetie
.they didnt.
One by one, the Ghostbusters team are spirited away to a different dimension. Three months later, with no sign of their return, it falls to Janine, Kylie (the Extreme Ghostbusters character recast as Rays assistant), FBI agent Melanie Ortiz (definitely not a Latino Agent Scully, no way) and ex-con Ron Alexander (an old foe of the Ghostbusters who duplicated the teams proton packs in an earlier volume) to chase after the classic team, keep New York ghost-free and somehow keep Walter Peck from destroying the whole business.
Erik Burnham has been writing the Ghostbusters since IDWs Infestation crossover in 2011 and he has a good grasp of both the characters and their world. Its backed with Dan Schoenings wildly energetic cartooning. Over-exaggerated facial features and hairstyles that threaten to go full anime are the order of the day here, but it helps to get across the casts personalities. It goes a long way towards fleshing out the New Ghostbusters in particular, whose dialogue feels a little flat despite being filled to the brim with quips. It lifts near the end as the antagonists are revealed and the groundwork is laid for 2014s 30th Anniversary story Mass Hysteria.
This series treats only the two movies and the 2009 video game as canon, but other elements worm their way in throughout the story. Theyre not distracting, and theres no way I spotted them all anyway.
As a bonus, theres an extra story set in the Real Ghostbusters timeline, examining what happens to a ghost after theyre locked in the Containment Unit. At only two pages per issue, it needs to get through its story quick, but its entertaining and fun to revisit that world.
IDWs stable of licensed titles comes in for its share of flack, but I think its fair to say that they treat their properties with respect while adding their own details along the way. The New Ghostbusters sets up a raft of possibilities for the Boys in Grey and Im looking forward to digging into the rest of the series.
7.5/10
Predator vs. Judge Dredd vs. Aliens (collects Predator vs. Judge Dredd #1-3 and Judge Dredd vs. Aliens: Incubus #1-4)
2000 AD and Dark Horse team up to bring you this collection of The Galaxys Greatest Lawman vs. two of cinemas greatest monsters. The collection opens up with the Predator mini, in which the hunter stalks the streets of Mega City One, hunting the Judges for sport. As casualties mount up, Dredd is forced to turn to Psi-Judge Schaefer, a descendant of Arnies character from the original Predator. John Wagner is great as usual when it comes to his most famous creation, but the art by Enrique Alcatena has much the same problem as the IDW Dredd, it feels too clean for the setting even allowing for the Predators signature kills. Still, its worth it for the glorious stupidity of the final fight, involving mechas, psychic blood imprints and Dredd stripping down (but still not taking the helmet off) to have a good wrestle/knife fight with the Predator.
Incubus has a similar nod to past continuity in its ranks, as a young Judge named Sanchez plays a vital role. Theres less attempt to explain the history of the Aliens than the Predators, but theres less of a need to do so. They arrive, they kill people, they go on to kill more. The art is much better here though the writing is laboured in places, possibly due to the addition of Andy Diggle to help with the heavy lifting. Theres some seriously clunky dialogue here, coming as close to anime-style calling of attacks during the battles with the Alien.
Both stories are good fun, though they dont deal with the heavier themes of better-known Dredd arcs. As crossovers go, the novelty of the ideas carries the stories through some pacing problems and uneven dialogue.
8/10
New Excalibur: Defenders of the Realm (collects New Excalibur [2005] #1-7)
New Excalibur: The Last Days of Camelot (collects New Excalibur [2005] #8-15)
With Captain Britain joining the Illuminati in New Avengers, and a British Spider-Man and the Captain Britain Corps being a part of Spider-Verse, it feels like a good time to look through the adventures of the good Captain. Rather than being a full reunion of the Claremont/Davis team, this book sees Brian Braddock and Pete Wisdom joined by Sage, Dazzler, Juggernaut and Exiles favourite Nocturne. In this run of adventures, they face a team of X-Men with a dark secret, an attack from Albion and the other Captain Britain of 616 Lionheart and journey to Camelot to prevent Arthur and Merlins early death.
This is from around the time that Chris Claremont was slowly losing his grip (partially due to health issues) and while its not as bad as his Exiles run, its not nearly as good as the books 90s peak. The book suffers in collected format, like many modern Marvel books, by being unable to keep a regular artist so the image of the book is all over the place. The collection of characters just doesnt gel, theres no feeling of a team dynamic like the great team books. At this stage, Im just hanging on to get to Captain Britain & MI-13, which Ive heard nothing but good things about.
4/10
Future reviews may include:
Pathfinder: Dark Water Rising, Of Tooth and Claw, City of Secrets
Nikolai Dante: Too Cool to Kill
The original Suicide Squad series
And whatever else takes my fancy
