By: Chuck Dixon (writer), Alex Cal (artist), J. Brown (colors), Shawn Lee (letters), Carlos Guzman (assistant editor) & John Barber (editor)

The Story: Cobra has taken over a sovereign country and is driving the civilians out!  The Joe’s have to stop them.

Five Things: 

1. Cobra is a pretty compelling enemy. - The best thing about the GI Joe relaunch at IDW (which is a couple of years old now) is how they have and are handling Cobra.  They’re not some out-in-the-open enemy and have been more of a rumor until very recently.  The Joes have a hard time even convincing people that Cobra is real.  In some ways, Cobra is kinda like a pre-September 11th Osama bin Laden; certainly a lot of folks knew who he was, but there was disagreement about whether he was a serious threat to the US or just an annoyance spouting venom in Afghanistan.  Combine this mystery with the fact that the main Cobras are all really interesting and you almost find yourself rooting for them over the very vanilla Joes.

2. Overall thrust of the story remains good. - Going with my first comment above, this is a good overall story: Murky criminal/terrorist organization, no one believes they’re a threat and the first thing they do after going public is to overthrow a sovereign country!  Wow!  That really steps up the treat level for Cobra!  You could understand how with their cool technology that Cobra could be a major nuisance, but this story is showing that they have a magnitude to them as well.  And, since any story is only as good as its antagonist, this Cobra Command story arc is opening a lot of possibilities.

3. Can’t really get behind this art anymore. - Unfortunately, Alex Cal’s art has gone from “competent” a few issues ago to “problematic”.  He seems to be drawing 2 or the 3 Joe books right now (this and Snake-Eyes) and while I presume that IDW started him working on these ahead of time, this art looks more rushed than his first issue.  Why IDW would dump such heavy art chores on a fairly new artist is beyond me.  Cal does draw some characters fairly well and sticks to a realistic style that will be pleasing to most GI Joe fans, but his action scenes leave a lot to be desired (i.e. you can’t tell what is happening) and his characters lack any sense of energy (i.e. they look posed).  Also, lots of depth problems in these panels between the characters and their backgrounds.  And, I’d stop doing splash pages.  Cal’s art would be better if it was smaller and allowed fewer opportunities for error.  Note to editor: Caption boxes telling us who the characters are would be appreciated.

4. Storytelling is too depressurized. - While I do enjoy the story, I really don’t think this needed to be a 9-issue story arc.  Actually, there never should be a 9-issue story arc.  And this is coming on the heels of the Cobra Civil War crossover that was ~18 issues.  I can’t imagine any comic story I’ve ever read that needed to be this long.  Cut these to 4-5 issues and make it snappier.  Let’s see what happens next!

5. Three titles as one. - It’s also problematic that the three GI Joe titles have blurred together.  I can’t imagine this makes them more enticing in this comic market.  IDW might get SOME people who hop on to check out a event/crossover, but if the quality is anything less than stellar, they’re going to drop ALL of these titles.  I like that the three comics exist in the same universe AND that they take place at the same time, but I don’t think they should interconnect to the extent that they’re one big story.

Conclusion: Good overall story concept, troubling art and it’s too depressurized.  Is it any wonder the sales numbers are dropping?

Grade: D+

-Dean Stell

Follow Dean on Twitter.

Follow WCBR on Twitter and Facebook.

By: Kevin Eastman and Tom Waltz (writers), Dan Duncan (art), Ronda Pattison (colors)

The Story: Allez ninja, allez ninja, allez!

The Review: It’s been rather fascinating to watch the development of IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Co-creator Kevin Eastman and script-writer Tom Waltz have been combining elements from the Turtle’s original comic series and the first cartoon show, as well as bringing in some new twists and concepts for this new on-going title. Yet despite letting the origin go on for five issues, many of the ideas have felt under-developed. I’ll get into the elements I think have been rushed in the Musings, but as I haven’t been reviewing this series until now, I think it fair to just review this issue on its own. And honestly, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #6 is pretty good.

The writing in this issue is very tight. The Turtles are out on patrol when they sight a pair of ninjas chasing a mysterious Frenchman. They follow, allowing us to see the brothers interact as a group. The chemistry between the four is great, and if there are some cheesy lines like “These dudes take their Ninja Vitamins today, or what?” and, “Holy guacamole…”, well, this is the Ninja Turtles after all. However, the Turtles are physically so close to their quarry during the chase that I found it hard to believe the ninjas never heard the Turtles banter. At the end of the chase, things turn deadly, and despite internal disagreements, the Turtles don’t step in to help either side. They’re left with an ominous warning from the Frenchman, and the lingering question of whether they did the right thing by not interfering.

In the aftermath of their run-in with the ninjas, the Turtles regroup with their sensei, and Donatello expresses some disbelief at Splinter’s account of their origin. Splinter claims they are all the reincarnated spirits of a feudal Japanese family, killed in an internal power struggle of the Foot Ninja Clan. The reader is left with the question of whether this is accurate, or a by-product of the psychotropic drug used on Splinter when he was a lab rat. It’s good use of dramatic irony, and a bold move to throw doubt on a character that has basically been portrayed as infallible since his creation.

The rest of the issue cuts between some short scenes with Baxter Stockman, Casey Jones, and April O’Neil. Though hardly taking up any room in this issue, each scene manages to inform us more about the characters, forward each character’s story, and provide enough closure to be contained in one issue while promising stories to come. It’s an impressive show of restraint that hasn’t really been seen from this series, which has somewhat felt like it’s been written for the trade until now.

The art team continues to turn in solid work. Dan Duncan’s exaggerated style conveys an excellent sense of movement and flow to the action scenes, though it must be said that his work with the mutants is somewhat better than with the humans. The colors from Ronda Pattison are a perfect match to the series: gritty enough for slums and sewers but bold enough for mutants and ninjas. I was concerned that her subtle distinctions between each of the Turtles would be unnecessary now that they’re sporting the different-colored headbands, but the colors are actually subtle enough to simply reinforce their individuality while not becoming distracting.

Conclusion: After a clumsy if enthusiastic start, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #6 may be the issue where the series finds its stride. If you’re a Turtles fan from any era, I can highly recommend this issue. If you’re not, this is a good place to check out what the franchise has to offer.

Jumping on point?: Yes. Actually, this may be a better jumping on point than issue #1.

Grade: B+

-Jim Middleton

Some Musings: -Casey Jones continues to be the most well adjusted hockey-playing, criminal-beating, son-of-an-abusive-alcoholic you have ever met. He’s polite, thoughtful, self-motivated and has no problem with anthropomorphic reptiles storming into his house and beating his father…at all

-I can suspend my disbelief enough to buy that the Turtles are either reincarnated spirits, which explains their incredibly quick development, or that the mutagen has enabled incredible ninja powers somehow. What I cannot believe, however, is how either one of these ideas explain fully formed personalities, a perfect contemporary-English lexicon, and Donatello’s encyclopedia-like knowledge. In the original comics, all these things had years to develop. But here? Couple of months, tops. Maybe they’re just reincarnated spirits from the 2003 cartoon.

-Another rushed plot thread to add to the list is Raphael’s inclusion in the group. He fits in perfectly now, and you would never guess the guy was separated from his brothers for months, having no idea who he was. There’s a lot of good character development here that the creators seem to want to skip over, just so they can write the characters they way they’ve traditionally been written. If that’s so, why bother with the new origin at all?

By: Mike Costa (writer), Alex Cal (artist), J. Brown (colors), Neil Uyetake (letters), Carlos Guzman (assistant editor) & John Barber (editor)

The Story: Cobra has taken over a SE Asian country.  The Joes want to stop them and the new Cobra Commander’s lieutenants are fighting amongst themselves.

Three Things:

1. The story is really kinda rocking. – There’s a LOT to enjoy about the “story” aspect of this comic and the overall Cobra Command story-arc.  For one thing, we readers don’t know what to expect at all.  That is so rare in comics.  Not only is IDW’s GI Joe universe pretty new (~40 issues) since they completely rebooted it a few years ago, but to say that the naming of a new Cobra Commander ushered in a new status quo would be a huge understatement.  In comics, “classic” villains become less frightful the better we get to know them.  Sure, some writers are still able to pull a rabbit out of the hat and make Joker scary, but having a villain who is still 90% unknown is WAY more effective.  I love that we have no real idea what the new Cobra Commander is up to; he clearly has a plan, but he isn’t sharing it with us yet.  And, all the other classic Cobras like Baroness, Destro, Major Bludd, etc. are new enough that we don’t really know what to expect from them either.

2. Shame about the art. – I’ve been mostly complementary about the job that Alex Cal has done of the last few GI Joe issues he’s drawn, but this was a big step back.  Large chunks of the comic are still solidly “competent”, but there are a few other places where the sequential storytelling just falls apart.  Basically, if the panel consists of a head or a person talking, the art is fine.  But if there is action, there are problems.  One arises during a big Snake Eyes and Agent Helix fight where I couldn’t tell what the hell happened because a few panels were unclear.  IDW has been putting some inexperienced artists on these Joe titles and I think they’d be better served by going back to a 8-panel grid as the basic storytelling tool.  Gotta walk before you can run!

3. Flat colors would be better. – Along the lines of keeping to basics, it really wouldn’t hurt this title to ditch the highlighted colors and go back to something flatter.  With the exception of Destro’s head and Cobra Commander’s faceshield, I challenge you to show me one panel in this book that is improved by the highlights.

4. Well written. – It’s easy to lose sight of this while appreciating the cool over-arching story or being disappointed in the art that isn’t holding up its end of the deal, but Mike Costa writes very nicely.  There isn’t a lot to say about it, but the dialog flows nicely from panel to panel.

Conclusion: This is a really good story that is being let down by below-average art.  It’s a shame, but it shows how hard it is to do a high quality comic book.

Grade: C+

-Dean Stell

Follow Dean on Twitter.

Follow WCBR on Twitter and Facebook.

By: Chuck Dixon (writer), Alex Cal (artist), J. Brown (colors), Shawn Lee (letters), Carlos Guzman (assistant editor) & John Barber (editor)

The Story: The Joes must react to the first big act of the new Cobra Commander.

Four things: [SPOILER WARNING]

1. Beginning of a new crossover story. - Coming out of the Cobra Civil War where a new Cobra Commander was selected (the winner was whoever killed the most Joes), we had to wonder: What will the bad guys do next?  Well…..they’re taking over a damn country!  Not a big country like the United States or Germany, but a little country that no one cares about.  There are….of course….real world parallels.  Should the Joes be given unlimited resources to fight bad guys in a country that nobody cares about?  IN real life, should we care about bad guys in Somalia and Afghanistan?  It’s always nice to see comics tickle current events.  I also give IDW huge props for numbering this Cobra Command crossover.  If they’re going to cross over, I want a sequential reading order and not just a bunch of titles happening under a banner.

2. Love the vibe of secret Cobra. - I LOVE that in this GI Joe universe that Cobra is a secret organization.  They’re not outward and overt, but kinda behind the scenes and emerging.  That makes it much more difficult for the Joes to fight them (or even get the resources to fight them) because people question how real and dangerous this Cobra organization is.  Again, there are real world parallels and regardless of how you personally come down on current (real world) events, it’s fun to see a comic that is relatable.

3. The Joes need a charisma injection. - Man…..Cobra is a MILLION times more interesting that the Joes.  If I were an impressionable 20 year old, would I want to join GI Joe where they’ve spent the last year getting slaughtered, losing their fancy equipment, having their “secret” bases exposed and where all the hot women are fascinated by a celibate ninja OR would I want to join the team that is kicking ass, has cool red and black helicopters, everyone has a snappy costume and features the open-minded Baroness?  Is it any wonder that Cobra seems able to recruit?  Seriously, I know it’s just part of drama to grind the Joes down so that we can enjoy watching them “win” at some point, but they look so wimpy an ineffective right now whereas Cobra has a very appealing swagger.

4. Alex Cal steadies the art. - I’m a complete art snob (and art collector), but GI Joe is one series of comics that doesn’t need to have glorious art.  This is a comic where I’m mostly here for the word balloons and the art just needs to be competent sequential storytelling.  Unfortunately, IDW may have gotten TOO cheap with some of the artists they’ve used recently because in some cases you couldn’t even tell what was going on with the action.  I wasn’t previously familiar with Alex Cal’s work, but he does a great job.  I wish the coloring was a little less highlighted, but otherwise it is a very attractive book and I never had a difficult time telling what was happening.

Conclusion: Cobra Command kicks off with a pretty solid issue.  The only real complaint is that the Joes look so pathetic and ineffectual that I find myself cheering for Cobra and their cool uniforms and equipment (and the Baroness).  But, this issue lays out an intriguing conflict and I’ll be very curious to see if the Joes develop some competency and fix the problem.

Grade: B-

-Dean Stell

Follow Dean on Twitter.

Follow WCBR on Twitter and Facebook.

By: Kevin Eastman & Tom Waltz (writers), Dan Duncan & Mateus Santolouco (artists), Ronda Pattison (colorist)

The Story: Sorry Turtles, no one delivers pizza on Christmas Eve.

The Review: Much like my experience with Static Shock, I knew the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a cartoon long before I read them in comics, and even longer before I discovered they actually started out in pulp.  To this day, I still look back on the Turtles with a kind of fond wonder.  When you consider the very premise behind them, it’s rather amazing they took off at all, much less the multimedia success they’ve become in the last couple decades.

Reading this Eastman-Waltz penned series, it seems like there’s also room for the Turtles to grow as characters beyond the gimmicks and syndication.  Not having read prior issues, I can’t say if this one is a good example of the kind of thing you get on the series all the time, but it’s surprisingly cogent, intriguing stuff, with nary a catchphrase to be seen.

This issue dives into the origins of Master Splinter, which turns out more complicated and violent than I remember.  For one thing, his story begins centuries before the Turtles ever came into existence, in feudal Japan.  As you might imagine, this means his narration here in the present day required a spiritual reincarnation or supernatural circumstances of some kind, which alone moves the series into more sophisticated territory.

All the indicators point to a plain-and-simple reincarnation, however.  It can’t be a coincidence Hamato Yoshi had four sons, each with a distinctive personality which parallels with one of the Turtles.  Nor can it be a coincidence that his sons inherited his skill in martial artistry, and the Turtles seem to have an natural instinct for the fighting arts.  Both Donatello and Raphael note their training feels more like “fine-tuning something we already learned,” so the connection to Yoshi’s sons seems pretty strong.

If so, that makes Splinter’s affectionate interaction with the Turtles all the more emotional.  My memories aren’t perfect, but I don’t recall the spry rat being that obviously expressive toward his protégés.  To see him encouraging his “sons” and telling them how much he cherishes them—well, call me sentimental, but it’s actually quite moving, especially given how gruesome and tragic Yoshi’s last moments with his sons in old Japan turned out to be.

We only catch a brief scene with April O’Neil (a college student in this iteration), who seems set to run into one Casey Jones, a guy who loves hockey but struggles with the books.  It’s not clear what role either of them will play in the ongoing adventures of the Turtles, but the fact April’s offering tutoring in exchange for self-defense lessons and Casey finds “crackin’ dudes in their skulls” second nature probably means they’ll get a piece of the action in time.

Duncan has a squashy style of drawing characters, which works perfectly for a series featuring humanized animals (and vice versa).  He gives their faces an almost Claymation flexibility, allowing them some supremely endearing expressions.  Santoluoco’s attention to period wear and architecture makes the scenes in feudal Japan quite convincing, and the way he makes all the characters’ faces kind of pointy has a distinctly Japanese aesthetic.  Pattison does her best to differentiate the Turtles by their skin color, but since I’m not color-nuanced, I still had a hard time telling them apart without their color-coded eye-masks.

Conclusion: It takes some craft and much love to make a bunch of oversized, mutant turtles who like pizza into credible protagonists, and that’s exactly what the creative team has done here.  I’m happily onboard for now.

Grade: B

- Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: - Can I just say how happy I am to see a hockey jock (besides The Office’s Michael Scott) in fiction for once?  The whole world doesn’t play American football, folks!

- I dare anyone to look up the NYC area code and dial the number April put on her ad.  Bonus points if you hit a sex and/or suicide hotline.

By: Mike Costa (writer), Antonio Fuso & Werther Dell’edera (art), Scarletgothica (colors), Shawn Lee (letters) and Carlos Guzman & John Barber (editors)

The Story: Now that the new Cobra Commander has been named, how will the remaining high-level Cobra operatives organize themselves in the new organizational chart.

Five Things: 

1. Fuso is doing the best art on the GI Joe books right now. - With the exception of whatever book Robert Atkins works on and Fuso’s art on Cobra, the GI Joe books have had some really problematic art.  It isn’t even a question of, “I don’t care for the style.” but more of a “What the hell just happened?  I can’t tell with this storytelling!”  Fuso has no such problems.  His style is simple and angular and I don’t think anyone would ever call it “beautiful”, but the storytelling is perfect and his characters tell the story that needs to be told.  Sometimes it’s easy to overlook those basics, but given the problems that some of the other GI Joe books have had, I really appreciate what Fuso is doing in this issue.

2. Cobra is a much more interesting book than GI Joe. - It’s just more fun to watch the bad guys as their plans are so much more interesting than anything the Joe’s are up to.  Even though there is a new Cobra Commander, you wouldn’t expect that the other A-lister Cobras would just mindlessly fall into line behind the new guy.  No sir, they’re all got their hopes and dreams and schemes.  All the plotting makes for a very interesting read (especially now that the art is telling the story so nicely).

3. This issue is kinda between major events. - This issue feels a little like it’s killing time.  We just hit the climax of this Cobra Civil War event with the naming of the new Cobra Commander (after the various A-list Cobras were duking it out to be the new Commander by killing as many Joes as possible).  But, we aren’t quite into the next story cycle yet.  So, this issue is between story beats.  For what it’s worth, Costa does use the time to establish the major baddies like Major Bludd and Baroness in the new status quo, but there still isn’t a lot going on.

4. How much money does IDW save with these photo covers? - These photo covers that feature a photo of a GI Joe toy just suck (such as this one of a Cobra Commander action figure).  I guess it saves money, but I took pictures like this when I was a kid by posing my toys in the back yard.  It’s just a LONG removal from the old days when Dave Johnson was doing some of the first IDW GI Joe covers or even the nice ones that Robert Atkins has done for them recently.

5. The stakes still feel high. - This Cobra Civil War event has featured so much death that the stakes feel really high.  Granted, most of the dead Joes have been C-listers at best (I honestly haven’t heard of most of them).  But, just by giving them names and then killing them, it makes the world feel more dangerous for the “name” characters like Scarlet, Duke, Snake Eyes, et al.  It isn’t that comics MUST feature death to be important, but it’s hard to take the Joes or Cobra seriously as “elite soldiers” when bullets are firing everywhere, but no one is getting shot and killed.  It strains credulity because elite solider hit what they’re shooting at (usually right between the eyes).  So, slap some names on the redshirts and kill them.  I wish Marvel would do the same things with C-list X-Men like Anole or Husk.

Conclusion: A nice little issue with good art that is kinda between stories.  There isn’t anything really wrong with the issue, but it isn’t ambitious enough to be “awesome” either.

Jumping on point?: This really takes place after the climax of the Cobra Civil War and the new Cobra Commander is in place.  This isn’t a bad place to hop on to try the next story cycle.

Grade: C (with a smile)

-Dean Stell

Follow Dean on Twitter.

Follow WCBR on Twitter and Facebook.

By: Chuck Dixon (writer), Casey Maloney (pencils), Juan Castro & Chris Dreier (inks), Simon Gough & Romulo Fajardo, Jr. (colors), Neil Uyetake (letters) & Carlos Guzman & John Barber (editors)

The Story: Snake-Eyes and Duke try to find a cure for a Cobra engineered bioweapon.

Four Things:

1. Generally been enjoying GI Joe comics recently. - I don’t know how this happened.  I read some of the old Marvel GI Joe series when I was a kid and had enjoyed the GI Joe/Cobra series from IDW featuring Chuckles as a spy within Cobra.  But, something clicked in me that I needed to read this Cobra Civil War series a few weeks ago and via the beauty of digital comics I was able to mainline the whole story in a week or so.  And, it’s a really good and strong story.  There’s one big caveat with the books that I’ll get into below, but the storyline behind the GI Joe books is pretty hot.

2. Snake Eyes busting the place up. - This story is pretty basic: Cobra has released a bioweapon and Duke has also been infected.  So, Snake Eyes and Duke go charging into the Cobra lab facility to find the cure.  Duke has some kind of armored hazmat suit that’s kinda cool.  And they fight all kinds of Cobra troops with Snake Eyes being all bad ass, and that’ definitely cool.  There really isn’t a whole lot of subtlety to a comic like this and there are plot holes galore (what happens to the Vipers if they shoot Duke’s suit and the virus spills out?), but it is exciting to read.  Duke is in really bad shape and IDW has demonstrated that they’re not afraid of death.  A LOT of GI Joe’s have been killed recently and a few “named” Cobra guys too.  So, this issue isn’t something you can read thinking, “Oh sure…..Duke will be fine in the end because it can’t end any other way.”  That threat of DEATH adds some weight to these scenes of Snake Eyes fighting all these Hasbro-toy-line inspired Cobra bad guys.

3. The art is pretty challenging. – There isn’t much redeeming about this art.  This isn’t just a case where I’m being an art snob and wanting everything to look like it was illustrated by Top 10 artist…..it’s that half the time I couldn’t really tell what was going on.  The storytelling is way too disjointed and that’s problem that is pervading the GI Joe books right now.  Gotta do better on the storytelling.  It really makes you appreciate that storytelling isn’t a given in comic books.  IDW really owes the property better.  On the other hand, even an art snob like me can enjoy this comic because I don’t expect a GI Joe comic to have great art.  In this case it really is about the “story” and as I mentioned above, this issue is all about whether Duke will die or not.

4. Unclear where this happens in the whole Cobra Civil War timeline. - Maybe it’s because I mainlined the other Cobra Civil War issues and that’s ~21 issues spread among GI Joe, Cobra and Snake Eyes, but I don’t know where this story fits.  All throughout this storyline, the Snake Eyes issues have been somewhat off to the side, but it would be nice to know if this is before or after the new Cobra Commander has been named.

Conclusion: This is a comic that succeeds mainly due to the editorial decisions that IDW has made that major characters CAN die.  So, as readers, we’re legitimately worried about Duke.  And, it’s always fun to watch Snake Eyes killing a ton of Vipers!  These things help the comic to overcome some problematic art (but just barely).  This isn’t a good comic, but it does have it’s redeeming features.

Jumping on Point?: - No way.  You should either go back to issue #6 (which is the beginning of this Snake Eyes/Duke story) OR read the whole Cobra Civil War (which is great) OR just wait until the Cobra Command storyline starts in a month or so.

Grade: D+

- Dean Stell

Vescell #1 - I didn’t count the pages in this first issue from Image, but it felt like it was ~40 pages and took a long time to read.  And, it was a hell of a lot of fun.  The action revolves around an agent of the Vescell Corporation.  Vescell specializes if transferring the consciousness of a person into a new body, so it’s handy for wives looking to leave husbands, criminals on the run, etc., and this agent is charge of spiriting them away to Vescell’s labs unseen so they can begin their new lives.  That part was kinda cool, but also the fact that this agent has a HOT girlfriend who is stuck in some demon-realm, but can be channeled into the bodies of the living– that was neat too.  And the agent has a tinkerbell like fairy helper/partner who he shoots out of a gun at the bad guys.  Lots of R-rated sexual content too, if that’s your thing.  Very enjoyable.  Can’t wait for the next issue.  Grade: B+

Rocketeer Adventures #4 - Here’s a candidate for miniseries of the year!  This was another strong entry in this series featuring short Rockteer stories told and drawn by some of the best in the business.  This issue features (among others): Dave Gibbons, Tony Harris (wow!), John Arcudi, Brendan McCarthy & Ashley Wood.  These are great fun stories and I wish IDW would keep it rolling because I’ve loved every minute of it.  Grade: B+

The Vault #2 – I usually hate comics that read like movie pitches in comic form, but I don’t care. The Vault is fun stuff.  Even though I don’t think there is much original going on here, I really enjoyed this issue that featured a treasure hunting team that dug up something that should have been left in the ground.  Bad things are happening how!  If you’ve enjoyed Mummy movies or The Thing from Another World, you’ll probably get a kick out of this comic.  And, it’s only 3 issues, so there isn’t much to stop you.  Grade: B

Skull Kickers #10 - This series is just flat fun.  I think we might have learned the names of our dwarf and his hulking buddy, but given who gave us the names, I’m not sure they can be trusted.  The plot in this cycle has to do with our duo running afoul of a bunch of nasty pixies in the best swords and sandals fashion.  The high-point in this issue was when the dwarf got shot with an arrow and is bleeding all over the place (the sounds effects say, “Squirt, Squirt, Squirt”) and he urges his companion to plug the wound with a dead squirrel.  If that sounds like your kind of humor, you should read Skull Kickers.  I really like the art by Edwin Huang too.  Grade: B

Fear Itself: The Deep #3 - Boy have these Fear Itself tie-in series sucked!  But, The Deep has been a bright spot.  This isn’t a groundbreaking issue that changes the universe or anything, but it is well written by Cullen Bunn and nicely drawn by Lee Garbett.  It features characters who I enjoy like Lyra, the Savage She-Hulk and Loa (from the X-Men), but also manages to redeem a few characters I don’t usually like (Dr. Strange, Namor & Silver Surfer) as they battle the Fear Itselfed minions of Attuma.  As I said, most of the Fear Itself miniseries have been shit, but this is worth buying. Grade: B

Last Mortal #4 - This wasn’t bad, but it does warrant a big “meh.”  I guess the black and white art was kinda catchy, but there was never anything about the story that captured or held my interest as we came to the conclusion of this series.  The young loser who can’t die is on a mission to get answers and retribution for the death of his loser buddy.  I think I just don’t want to read stories about losers, perhaps?  Main characters need to be a little more likable than this kid because I just can’t root for a protagonist who is such a waste of skin.   Grade: C

Epoch #1 - Your enjoyment of this is going to depend largely on how much you groove on stories of Biblical angels and demons walking among us.  I really don’t care for that type of story, so it just came off as really pretentious seeing this cop who is realizing that he has powers that he wasn’t previously aware of and that his father, Gabriel (hint, hint), might not be quite the old douchebag he’d thought.  If you like angels and demons, you might like this, but I probably should have read the solicitation text more closely.  Even the art didn’t quite click with me.  It looked like it kinda wanted to be Capullo-like, and I love Capullo, but this just left me cold.  Grade: C-

- Dean Stell

Follow Dean on Twitter.

Follow WCBR on Twitter and Facebook.

By: Robert Bloch (original story), Joe R. Lansdale & John L. Lansdale (comic adaptation), Dave Wachter (art), Alfredo Rodriguez (colors), Neil Uyetake (letters) & Bobby Curnow (edits)

The Story: A young orphan makes an Faustian bargain.

What’s Good: The art is great!  In fact, it was the promise of sequential art from Dave Wachter that caused me to buy the comic since I generally don’t read many comic adaptations or licensed properties.  If you aren’t familiar with Wachter’s art, you should really check out The Guns of Shadow Valley web comic.  For those unfamiliar with Wachter’s style, his style reminds me of a looser Bernie Wrightson (at least to my untrained eye) and I love artists who use brushes because I think the art (generally) looks more alive.  Wachter’s story telling aspect of the art is very spot on, each scene opens with great establishing panels.  Those establishing panels are so important because they’re what make it clear that a the boy and his father are walking in a trainyard at night and not in some other random location.  Another thing helping this issue is that the color art is also very well done and is in a quasi-flat style that works with Wachter’s inking and there are none of those offensive highlights that you find in mainstream superhero comics.

As for the story itself, I wasn’t previous familiar with the subject material, but it tells the story of a boy being raised by his single father who is a railyard worker until the father dies.  The boy becomes an orphan (and has typically lousy experiences) until meeting the titular Hellbound Train and making an interesting Faustian deal with the conductor.  It sure seems like the boy has made the clever deal that will outsmart old Scratch, but everyone thinks that right?  As I said, I’m not familiar with the original Bloch subject matter, but this adaptation reads very well and is nicely paced.

What’s Not So Good: Nothing really.  The art is great, the story flows nicely, etc. so there is nothing wrong with this first issue.  My only complaint is that it felt a little quick such that I actually counted the pages to confirm that this wasn’t a sneaky short comic. In fact, it’s a full-length 22 pager (actually, 22 pages is LONG now that Marvel/DC are cutting to 20 pages).  Maybe it was just that the storytelling was so effortless that it felt short?

Conclusion: A really nice first issue if you’re into period comics or the supernatural or Faustian bargains.  You can’t beat the art and the scripting is smooth as well.  Definitely recommended.

Grade: B

-Dean Stell

Follow Dean on Twitter.

Follow WCBR on Twitter and Facebook.

By: John Cassaday, Laura Martin, Chris Mowry, Mike Mignola, Dave Stewart, Mike Allred, Laura Allred, Jim Silke, Kurt Busiek, Michael Kaluta

The Story: An anthology of stories about Dave Stewart’s Rocketeer by an All-Star cast of creators.

What’s Good: Just look at that list of creators!  I’m not even a huge Rocketeer fan, but when you can get interior pages by Cassaday, Allred and Kaluta along with pin-ups by Mignola and Silke in one package, it is just a no brainer because the art is of such high quality that the writing becomes almost irrelevant.

All three short stories are really quite good.  As I said, the stories don’t matter that much:  ”Yeah! Rocketeer saved Betty from criminals!”  But, the art is really the star.  Allred just kinda does his normal outstanding thing where his soft and nuanced lines work so nicely together with Laura Allred’s colors.  They’re a neat team because you can just see the benefits of working together with a colorist on an artistic project rather than working through an editor with a colorist multiple time zones away (as with most modern comics).

But, it was a real treat to see the work from Cassaday and Kaluta.  Cassaday, who we know and love from works like Planetary and Astonishing X-Men, has mostly been doing covers for a while; and a LOT of those covers have been miserable (google “Shadowland covers” if you doubt me).  So, it was a huge treat to see him back in most of his glory.  This isn’t quite  as tight as his work on Planetary, but it is probably 90% of the way there.  Kaluta was also a treat.  Half of the time when you see interior pages from him now days, they are asking him to draw monsters and demons, so it was super cool to see him doing a WWII era story where everything is so grounded.  Kaluta draws a beautiful Betty.

Speaking of drawing a beautiful Betty: Jim Silke goes all Norman Rockwell for his pin-up.  Gorgeous!

What’s Not So Good: Didn’t love Mignola’s pin-up.  He draws a great Rocketeer, but I’m not sure I wanted a one-eyed zombie in the panel with him.  Oh well…

Other than that, I just can’t think of anything else that someone would find fault with this book.

Conclusion: This is a must buy for comic art fans.  I’m so glad that IDW got this level of talent to dust off the Rocketeer who hasn’t been used much (or at all) since creator Dave Stevens died years ago.  I think Stevens would be happy with this effort.

Grade: A

-Dean Stell