Captain America: Steve Rogers #10 - Marvel Comics

CAPTAIN AMERICA: STEVE ROGERS No. 10, March 2017

Frustratingly flitting between events in pre-war New York City and those of the ‘present day’, much of Nick Spencer’s script for Issue Ten of “Captain America: Steve Rogers” must have driven its 40,051 strong readership to despair with its choppy carousel of short-lived set-pieces. For whilst this twenty-page periodical does include an admittedly painfully prolonged chase scene which depicts the dethroned Maria Hill fleeing incarceration on board the S.H.I.E.L.D. Hellcarrier Iliad, its entire opening half actually consists of little more than six-panel sequences that leap about from an adolescent titular character serving hot drinks to Doctor Abraham Erskine and General Phillips in a diner, to numerous political deliberations involving Internal Civil Tribunals, Senate Majority leaders and Hydra.

Fortunately however, once Annie’s bright red purse is snatched “from behind the bar” and the thief cornered down an alleyway by a well-meaning young Rogers, the American author finally starts penning something worthy of the ‘emotional investment and audience involvement’ the former “Progressive Charter Party” politician has aspired to create since first revealing the “most trusted and revered figure in the Marvel Universe” as a “Hydra loyalist”. In fact, it’s disconcertingly hard not to feel a genuine sense of pride for the badly battered Steve, as he unfalteringly hands his friend her stolen purse back and ‘wins’ the respect of both Erskine and Phillips as a result; even if fans of the title know that this bloodied teenager is ‘the ultimate betrayer’ and was actually planning on poisoning the “German Jewish scientist” just moments earlier.

Equally as diabolically enthralling is Spencer’s portrayal of the Sentinel of Liberty as he visits comatose victim Jack Flag with every intention of killing the helpless hospital patient via a syringe full of poison. Solemnly paced, and all the more visually impactive on account of Rachelle Rosenberg’s red-hued palette, it’s easy to imagine this publication’s audience collectively holding their breath as the First Avenger, on the verge of committing a most murderous act, gravely acknowledges that the badly injured “minor patriotic hero” “deserved better than this.”

Sadly, such moments of high tension and compelling apprehension are badly let down by this comic’s artistic quartet of Jesus Saiz, Ted Brandt & Ro Stein, and Kevin Libranda. Substandard at best, at least when its Albacete-born illustrator isn’t pencilling the book’s flamboyantly visualised ‘flashbacks’, the poorly rendered figures and crudely-sketched facial features disappointingly drag down the quality of this magazine’s storytelling and even negatively impact upon Roger’s heinously gripping attempt to cold-bloodedly kill his occasional partner, Harrison.

Writer: Nick Spencer, and Artists: Jesus Saiz, Ted Brandt & Ro Stein, and Kevin Libranda

Conan The Slayer #9 - Dark Horse Comics

CONAN THE SLAYER No. 9, May 2017

Wisely sticking predominantly to Robert E. Howard’s Thirties script, the success of this “Dark Horse Comics” adaption of “The Devil In Iron” arguably rests far more upon the shoulders of its artist than Cullen Bunn’s pen. In fact, the book’s weakest moment, when Conan stumbles across one of Khosatral Khel’s “shaven-headed priests” emerging from a secret tunnel and spouts a mercifully short-lived nonsensical soliloquy, appears to be the only time the Cape Fear-born author ill-advisedly steps markedly away from the adventure’s original text; “Is my fortune good or bad? Bad. Always bad. Except when it is not. Heh. And then it is worse.”

Fortunately, such a heavy reliance upon the pencilling ability of Sergio Davila is not, for the most part at least, misplaced, with the Spaniard’s rendering of the “deserted Dagor” reborn into a green-stoned city, proving to be a particular feast for the eyes. Similarly impressive, is the Cataluna-born illustrator’s rendering of Khel himself. Phenomenally physiqued, being more than a muscular match for the Cimmerian, the red-hued giant appropriately dominates every panel in which he appears and actually seems more formidably alive within Issue Nine of “Conan The Slayer” than he actually does on Howard’s printed page.

Indeed, considering that this particular instalment not only covers “the transmutation of the being men called Khosatral Khel” from out of the Abyss and his subsequent creation of the City of Dagon, but its bloody fall at the hands of its slaves, the Yuetshi as well, it is disappointing that the ancient demon isn’t given more ‘screen time’. Certainly the subjugation and subsequent revolt by the “fierce and brutish people [who] appeared on the shores of the sea” would have been a more interesting area for Bunn to explore, rather than his ham-fisted aforementioned attempt to depict Conan supposedly philosophising over his poor luck.

Sadly however, Davila does seem to struggle to consistently pencil the barbarian’s savage facial features, and resultantly, more than once portrays the incredulous adventurer as some sort of doe-eyed caricature that would not look out of place within the pages of a manga magazine. These momentary lapses are thankfully only occasional, yet disappointingly permeate the entire publication and only seem to disappear as the artist reaches the periodical’s epic conclusion when the Cimmerian hurls his sword point at Khel’s exposed chest and disbelievingly watches his blade shatter upon contact with Khosatral’s impenetrable flesh.

Script: Cullen Bunn, Artist: Sergio Davila, and Colors: Michael Atiyeh

Nemesis The Warlock #4 - Eagle Comics

NEMESIS THE WARLOCK No. 4, December 1984

Arguably devoting far more time upon the titular character’s arch-rival, the supposedly slain Tomás de Torquemada, than the series’ lead protagonist, Issue Four of “Nemesis The Warlock” must still have delighted it’s ‘schoolboy’ fanbase due to Pat Mills’ spine-tingling premise of having all the galaxy’s human prisoners being guarded on a planet ruled by giant, talking spiders. Indeed, it’s hard to think of a more terrifying fate for the misguided Terminators of Terra, than living out the rest of their lives under the baleful eight-eyes of intelligent arachnids; “It is a judgement on us for not heeding the words of Torquemada!”

Frustratingly however, such a diabolical fate for Mankind’s murderously, blood-thirsty warriors is simply hinted at to begin with, on account of "the godfather of British comics" deciding to start this tome by ‘filling in’ the background as to just “what made Torquemada the way he was”. Admittedly, this short-story depicting a young Tomas being treacherously sold into alien servitude only to escape by biting the tongue of a Manticore, certainly gives the ‘damaged’ adolescent plenty of grounds for hating both extra-terrestrials and the humans who collaborate with them. But for such a momentous tale it is disappointingly brief, and in no way lives up to the expectations set by Jesus Redondo’s sense-shattering splash illustration depicting Brother Baruda fending off a huge black ‘eight legs’, which so promisingly precedes it.

Somewhat contrarily, the Ipswich-born author’s subsequent attempt to resurrect “the most cruel human of all time” within the space of five pages seems incredibly ponderously-paced; especially when six panels alone are dedicated to Sister Alvit playing a game of charades with the other Battle-Maidens due to her being “forbidden to speak”. Surely it would have been far better to have truncated such a sequence, and either provided the narrative with some additional sense-shattering ‘footage’ of the savage battles taking place on “Zonar - planet of the Fachans”, “Remora - planet of the Tritons”, or Garuda - planet of the Rukhans, "who fly into action on their hippogriffs…”?

Regardless, Mills’ script for this thirty-two page anthology really ‘pulls out all the stops’ once Baruda “and four of the toughest Terminators” inject “themselves with a diluted dose” of spider venom and climb the prison’s poisonous web wall. In fact, the party’s pulse-pounding race through the jungle is superbly penned (and pencilled by Redonda), with its “thousands of wild spiders” slowly culling the escapee’s meagre number in all manner of gruesome and agonisingly unpleasant ways…

Script: Pat Mills, Art: Jesus Redondo, and Color: Ian Stead

Star Trek: Boldly Go #8 - IDW Publishing

STAR TREK: BOLDLY GO No. 8, May 2017

Despite featuring the sort of ‘run of the mill’ plot that wouldn’t have looked out of place within the pages of a “World Distributors Limited” Seventies ‘Star Trek Annual’, Issue Eight of “Star Trek: Boldly Go” must still have pleased the majority of its readership with Mike Johnson and Ryan Parrott’s mixture of asteroid-based gunplay and Jefferies tube tribulations. In fact, the creative duo’s opening ‘salvo’, featuring James Kirk phaser-fighting his way onto the bridge of an assassin’s space shuttle is undoubtedly the highlight of this twenty-page periodical’s script.

Sadly however, this initially pulse-pounding, and subsequently engaging tale of “diplomatic disaster” is rather frustratingly ruined by the two-parter’s narrative resting upon a Starfleet cadet’s ability to mind meld with the dead body of the Romulan Ambassador. Admittedly, the Vulcan race’s ability to read the thoughts of comatose people is actually documented within the American television franchise itself. But never before has this ‘transference technique’ been shown to conjure up the thoughts and feelings of the dead before, and resultantly rather smacks of the collaborative writing team reaching out for a rather contrived plot device in order to help them lazily resolve their storytelling.

Just as bizarre is Shev’s amazingly quick, and utterly inexplicable relationship reversal with the Andorian Ambassador. In this adventure’s previous instalment it was made abundantly clear that the cadet’s father was far from happy with both his son’s “decision to attend Starfleet Academy” and the blue-skinned boy’s failure to seemingly put his family/race first. However, now his offspring has been found innocent of assassinating Joltair, the stern faced politician unaccountably states he no longer believes Shev to be a “fool” and for some unfathomable reason even begrudgingly acknowledges that perhaps there is some merit to the youngster’s chosen career; “I cannot say that I am in complete agreement… But you will always have a home on Andoria.”

Described by Group Editor Sarah Gaydos as a “guest artist” who “wraps things up with her dynamic style in a tale guaranteed to keep you guessing”, Megan Leven’s illustrations for this particular publication are certainly “cartoony”. Yet whilst such a label could well be (mis)construed as being highly ‘dismissive of the penciler’s drawing skill’, on this occasion it simply means that the action, whether it be Kirk acrobatically leaping from asteroid to asteroid on account of his "hours spent watching the women's Zero-G volleyball team at the Academy, or Spock's monotone discussions with the Romulans, is cleanly drawn and competently rendered.

The regular cover art of "STAR TREK: BOLDLY GO" No. 8 by George Caltsoudas

Captain America: Steve Rogers #9 - Marvel Comics

CAPTAIN AMERICA: STEVE ROGERS No. 9, March 2017

Advertised as featuring the titular character “searching desperately for Kobik” and subsequently reaching “out to a hero that can help — Avril Kincaid, the all-new Quasar!”, it’s not really clear whether this twenty-two page periodical’s publisher, “Marvel Worldwide”, were as confused and discombobulated by Nick Spencer’s script as the comic’s 42,637 strong audience must have been. Indeed, considering that Issue Nine of “Captain America: Steve Rogers” is also supposedly meant to contain “a threat from beyond the stars [which] pushes an already-weakened S.H.I.E.L.D. to the brink” it's generally hard to reconcile the story promised with the disjointed, and utterly unrelated shenanigans printed inside.

For starters, the aforementioned Kincaid doesn’t appear within this comic from start to finish, and rather than focusing on the living embodiment of the Cosmic Cube, Steve Rogers is decidedly busy battling the Cult of the Darkhold alongside Union Jack on the Scottish Highlands. There also appears to be little which can threaten Nicky Fury’s old espionage, special law-enforcement, and counter-terrorism agency if Maria Hill’s boast of a “planetary defense shield” which provides the planet with “a truly impenetrable force field”, can be believed…

Admittedly, such an outrageous difference in content as to what was marketed doesn’t necessarily mean that this bizarre compilation of events from 1940, now, “days earlier”, now, 1940, now, then, now, then, now and 1940, isn't an entertaining read. Au contraire, as Captain America’s bloodthirsty battle with an imprisoned Arthurian demon genuinely provides plenty of pulse-pounding thrills and spills. But much of this book’s enjoyment is ruined by its failure to live up to those initial expectations, and arguably made all the worse by the horribly choppy narrative Spencer insists on penning for the comic; “But you never cared about the book, did you?”

Just as disagreeable are Javier Pina and Andres Guinaldo’s illustrations. The duo’s mismatched pencilling styles consistently ‘jolt’ the reader out of the action each and every time the pair replace one another, and proves especially annoying towards the conclusion of Hill’s trial, when the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. is suddenly drawn as looking like some dislikeable, arrogant, self-righteous, sneering braggart, rather than an operative who is fighting for her career (and probably liberty) and doing the best job she believes she can in the current circumstances.

The variant cover art of "CAPTAIN AMERICA: STEVE ROGERS" No. 9 by Jack Kirby

Captain America: Steve Rogers #8 - Marvel Comics

CAPTAIN AMERICA: STEVE ROGERS No. 8, February 2017

Disappointingly dropping to the sixty-third best-selling title of December 2016, at least according to “Diamond Comic Distributors”, Issue Eight of “Captain America: Steve Rogers” must have come as a major disappointment to many of its presumably bewildered 38,610 fans. For whilst Nick Spencer’s script does at least provide some semblance of action-packed entertainment, in the guise of “the fourth Chitauri wave to hit us this month”, it’s narrative arguably would have made little sense whatsoever to those readers who hadn’t perused the twenty-two page periodical’s “opening crawl”.

Indeed, Avril Kincaid’s supposed importance to the titular character’s diabolical plans to spread Hydra’s ideals “throughout the world” had never really been hinted at before within this series, and yet the American author suddenly would have this title’s audience believe the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent is actually “central” to Cap’s covert plot for planetwide domination? Obviously someone “who was given the cosmic-powered Quasar gauntlets” is without doubt “one of the most powerful players on the board”, but why couldn’t the ‘Marvel exclusive’ writer overtly weave such a thread into the comic’s actual storyline rather than lazily include such a significant sub-plot into the text of the book’s foreword?

Equally as perplexing is just why Captain America is suddenly found on board the orbiting Alpha Flight Station supposedly waiting to have a meeting with Director Hill and Captain Marvel, when the tale’s previous instalment ended with the First Avenger literally revealing to Doctor Selvig he secretly held Baron Zemo captive within the Danish scientist’s laboratory? How does Rogers fighting an extremely tenacious extra-terrestrial invasion force in outer space logically follow such a sensational cliff-hanger? So remarkable a change in situation seems remarkably staged, and appears to have been penned simply to allow the contrived, rather talkative storyline a chance to include some ‘super-heroic’ fisticuffs, and subsequently provide Kincaid with a terrific opportunity to demonstrate just how omnipotent she is; “Yeah, but -- Whoa. She’s incredible. That kind of power --”

Eventually, all these unanswered questions and bizarre explanations even seem to get too much for S.H.I.E.L.D.’s former Cosmic Cube consultant himself, who towards the end of the comic exasperatingly exclaims “I don’t understand” when the Sentinel of Liberty fails to convince him that he was “off fighting monsters in space” simply to evaluate the Chitauri’s performance as a potential winnower “of an overpopulated world”. In fact, Erik’s open-mouthed incredulity at Steve’s claim that the alien insectoids’ attempted invasion of Earth is down to him and his possession of an alien queen, can only have been rivalled by the astonishment of this book’s audience at just such a statement…

The variant cover art of "CAPTAIN AMERICA: STEVE ROGERS" No. 8 by Mike Deodata

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Mirror Broken #0 - IDW Publishing

STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION: MIRROR BROKEN No. 0, May 2017

Fans of the “talented Human Starfleet systems diagnostic engineer” Lieutenant Reginald Barclay, must have initially been extremely pleased with David and Scott Tipton’s script for Issue Zero of “Star Trek: The Next Generation: Mirror Broken”. Indeed, the comic book writing team’s handling of the evidently nervous and unconfident ‘Federation’ officer is arguably perfect to the point where one can readily imagine actor Dwight Schultz bumbling about the starship, stammering out his lines.

Sadly however, this particular twelve-page publication is actually set within the “Star Trek” franchise’s deadly alternative Mirror Universe, at a time when “Captain Jean-Luc Picard will stop at nothing to get his hands on the Terran Empire’s newest starship, the Enterprise”, and that means that ‘murder is the only means to power’ aboard the I.S.S. Stargazer. Such a lethal ‘kill or be killed’ environment seems a strange backdrop to focus upon so “extremely introverted” a character as Reg, and resultantly, Lieutenant Barclay “makes some surprising decisions” in order to survive, including the disconcertingly cold-blooded slaying of one of his senior officers; “I see you took my advice. Good. The woman’s ambition needed to be curbed.”

Admittedly, this “Free Comic Book Day” edition’s “familiar face” is “stronger than the Barclay we saw on the television series”, and the Tipton brothers’ dark re-imaginings of Picard, Tasha Yar, Counselor Troi and Mister Data, certainly provide plenty of ‘what if’ speculation as to the events which ‘corrupted’ them. But it's still hard to reconcile the “relatively low-ranking” Reg depicted within this magazine to that of the mild-mannered junior grade engineer which made so many “TNG” appearances; especially when this title’s authors unconvincingly argue that both incarnations share the same “gifts” and inherent liabilities, it’s just the “looking glass” incarnation has apparently “learned” to be an assassin…

Fortunately, J.K.Woodward’s photo-realistic artwork for this mini-series’ introductory tale is favourably eye-catching, if not a little wooden in places where the “Fallen Angel” illustrator has probably focussed far too closely upon replicating the appropriate actors’ facial features than concentrating upon the natural gait of his figures’ dynamic movement. In fact, it is probably because of the American painter’s enviable ability to capture the likenesses of all the television series’ leading cast members that this book’s audience can so successfully hear their respective voices throughout the comic's dialogue.

Writers: David Tipton & Scott Tipton, and Art & Colors: J.K. Woodward