Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor #4 - Titan Comics

DOCTOR WHO: THE FOURTH DOCTOR No. 4, August 2016

Selling a reasonably respectable 7,187 copies in August 2016, this penultimate instalment to Gordon Rennie and Emma Beeby’s myth-laden magnum opus finally places the titular character at the very centre of the action, and resultantly starts to decisively explain what a living Medusa was doing imprisoned within a labyrinthine catacomb in “Greece twenty-four centuries before the modern day”. Admittedly, this twenty-two page periodical still provides a modicum of ‘screen-time’ for Lady Emily Carstairs and “her small army of Scryclops”, but for once, the mini-series' episodic narrative predominantly focuses upon Doctor Who and both the bohemian's nervy exploration of the his cavernous surroundings with Athena, as well as the Gallifreyan's simultaneous scientific clarification as to the nature of the “particularly vile -- predatory alien species” which they’re facing.

Indeed, one of the book’s more tensely-felt moments is arguably when the Time Traveller unknowingly begins enlightening his Victorian London-born companion as to the alien’s ability to petrify its prey “in a basic form of quantum-locking… so the creature can feed on them at its leisure, drawing from their life energy”, just as the grotesque-looking extra-terrestrial is about to sate her ravenous appetite upon Sarah Jane Smith elsewhere; “Miss Smith! Oh my heavens, No!” Mercifully, such an ill-fitting demise for “one of the Doctor's longest-serving companions” is averted by the poorly-timed audible exclamation of a mortally wounded Odysseus James, yet even so, despite its readers knowing full well that the female reporter must most-assuredly outlast her stony state, the scintillating scene still conjures up the plausible possibility of the “dogged investigative journalist” dying “rather deep underground”.

Sadly, the survivability of this comic’s “expert” in chrononautology is shown to be an entirely different matter, as the hapless Professor James desperately tries to defend his daughter from a brutish one-eyed giant, and pays for his surprising bravery by having his calcified left side heart-breakingly pulverised into rubble. Of course this murderous act finally raises Carstair’s character to indisputable odious villainess, as opposed to her previous status of simply being a misguided widower dangerously desperate to do all she can to rid herself of both her debilitatingly blighted physical transformation and restore her dead family to her side. However it still comes as something of a shock considering the blustering buffoon has previously ‘grown’ into such a likeable aged coward.

Disappointingly though, Issue Four of “Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor” does seemingly still fall into the trap debatably a few of the Time Lord’s television serials succumbed to, by bringing its well-working exploration of myth and legend to a disconcerting end with the Gallifreyan’s teleportation aboard a giant alien’s spaceship. This unoriginal plot-twist really does jar with the claustrophobic aura of nightmarish monsters tirelessly chasing after the comic book’s cast through ancient Greece, especially as Brian Williamson pencils the heavily-bearded all-powerful celestial as a space-faring incarnation of the god Zeus…

The regular cover art of "DOCTOR WHO: THE FOURTH DOCTOR" No. 4 by Mark Wheatley

Hal Jordan And The Green Lantern Corps #44 - DC Comics

HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS No. 44, Early July 2018

Featuring a truly gripping opening as the demented Darkstar Tomar-Tu suddenly surprises Keith Kenyon’s alter-ego inside Central City’s Iron Heights Penitentiary, and cold-bloodedly murders Goldface whilst he's 'sleeping off' a custodial sentence for knocking “over a couple of jewellery stores”, Robert Venditti’s narrative for this inaugural instalment to “Enemies Closer” sadly soon degenerates into little more than a disinteresting recruitment drive for the Green Lantern Corps. True, the comic’s subsequent brief cameo from “the fastest man alive” is enjoyable enough, especially when it initially appears that Barry Allen's incarnation of the Flash will be teaming-up with Hal Jordan to further investigate the gold-skinned prisoner’s partial disintegration. But before long all the Florida-born writer’s plot actually provides is a string of scenes featuring fleeting appearances from the likes of Guy Gardner, Arkillo, Kyle Rayner, John Stewart and General Zod.

These word-heavy, dialogue-driven sequences would arguably be perfectly stomachable if they were interwoven between some pacier, action-orientated panels, yet as they stand the constant conversations and dreary discussions arguably do little to encourage any perusing bibliophile to keep on reading. Indeed, in many ways the former “Top Shelf Productions” author may well have been better served to simply have extended either the renegade Kryptonians all-too brief violent altercation with the “second African-American superhero to appear in DC Comics”, or alternatively bring forward the titular character’s cliff-hanger confrontation with the “boss turnkey” Atomic Skull, and leave part of this twenty-page periodical’s patter for its following publication; “You’ve miscalculated… You’re alone! One meagre ring against a family of Kryptonians gifted with the power of this world’s yellow suns!”

One thing Issue Forty Four of “Hal Jordan And The Green Lantern Corps” does not suffer with however, is substandard artwork. Whether it be Jordi Tarragona and Rafa Sandoval’s outstanding cover illustration, which rather delightfully seems strangely reminiscent of the classic “Judge Dredd” ‘I am The Law’ covers used for the “weekly British science fiction-orientated” anthology comic “2000 A.D.”, or Brandon Peterson’s boldly coloured, highly-detailed story-boarding, this book is a treat for the eyes. In fact, what little energy this magazine potentially generates, such as Joseph Martin’s sensational entrance to thwart Hector Hammond’s shock escape from Stryker’s Island, is debatably due to the “X-Men spinoff” illustrator rather than anything which Venditti himself has penned.

The regular cover art of "HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS" No. 44 by Rafa Sandoval, Jordi Tarragona & Tomeu Morey

The Immortal Men #2 - DC Comics

THE IMMORTAL MEN No. 2, July 2018

Despite giving its readers with some modicum of tantalisingly slow exposition concerning “the last of the Immortal Men”, James Tynion IV’s script for this second instalment to his “The End Of Forever” story-arc simply doesn’t stop providing its audience with sense-shattering action-packed shenanigans until its final panel, and even then the twenty-page periodical frustratingly stops mid-way through a captivatingly concentrated chase sequence. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine a more intense comic book reading experience than this “New Age of Heroes” publication, as the “emerging meta-human named Caden Park” runs for his very life from slavering demonic dog-creatures, a truly terrifying cold-blooded murderer who seemingly delights in the sadistic nature of killing innocents with a blade, and a missile strike which “breaks every immortal treaty, going back six thousand years.”

Fortunately though, none of this pulse-pounding pace actually ever gets overly-tiring, even if its intensity could arguably leave its readers as physically out of breath as the plot’s “point-of-view protagonist”. The New York City-born writer appears to know precisely when to weave some of his more sedentary scenes into the publication’s furious mix, and actually uses them, such as those based within the invisible Realm of Conquest, to help clarify what the various cast member’s rationalisation is for their animated antics; “My brother is playing some unknown game. It is imperative that we beat him at it before it’s too late.”

Perhaps this book’s most surprising and enjoyable highlight however, is the emergence of Roderick Clay as an innovatively determined protector of the Park family. Having left A.R.G.U.S. to take a more “cushy private-sector gig” and “never have to deal with super-powered freaks and monsters again”, the pistol-toting private investigator not only ‘rescues’ his employer’s son from the ‘clutches’ of the Immortal Man by crashing his car into the mysterious being’s anachronistic taxi cab, but also then goes on to make a last stand against a quartet of The Kill’s ferociously-fanged Bloodless.

Just as impressive is the transfer of pencilling responsibilities between this title’s co-creator, “DC Publisher and master artist” Jim Lee and Ryan Benjamin. The “digital production” illustrator somehow manages to provide Issue Two of “The Immortal Men” with a unifyingly strong imitation of the Korean American’s widely-regarded style, and resultantly the transition from the title’s previous cliff-hanger where Caden was supposedly facing a gory death in the jaws of the Infinite Woman’s savage pets, smoothly flows into this comic’s subsequent opening, which portrays the terrified young man plunging headlong through a spookily deserted underground tube line.

Storytellers: Ryan Benjamin & James Tynion IV, and Inker: Richard Friend

V-Wars #6 - IDW Publishing

V-WARS No. 6, October 2014

Clearly designed to be a supposed “perfect jump-on point” by “IDW Publishing”, this ‘revamped’ Issue Six of “V-Wars” seemingly ‘parks’ the franchise’s prior ‘obsession’ with the duplicitous delicacies of diplomacy, and instead provides an initially forthright fiction about a mass-murdering blood drinker who simply needs to be tracked down to his lair by Big Dog and receive “a bullet in their brain pan” before the fanged psychopath can kill any more hapless diners. Such a straight-forward story set within Jonathan Maberry’s ordinarily complicated “escalating battle with vampire terrorists” must have made a refreshingly enthralling read for this book’s insubstantial audience in October 2014, and certainly contains plenty of hackle-raising horror as Victor Eight deploys “to a research facility near an old mine” only to discover the location’s “small team of geeks here to study the environmental impact of using old copper mines as dumpsites for toxic waste” have been brutally beheaded. Indeed, the New York Times best-selling author’s narrative creates a palpable taste of terror in the mouth as his pens the so-called “top gunslingers” apprehensively scouring the cave system’s catacombs, and finding little more than blood trails, dismembered corpses, as well as half a dozen reasons for the heavily-armed military unit to foolishly split up.

Admittedly, the American anthology editor eventually imbues his script with a substantial element of political intrigue in the shape of “about a million dollars-worth of airlock” incongruously buried deep underground, as well as a heavily-financed computer-driven scientific research laboratory which immediately convinces Professor Swann that his party is well out of their depth. But by this point, any perusing bibliophile who may have inadvertently picked up this twenty-page periodical was probably as likely to return the book to its spinner rack as the Vampire Counterinsurgency and Counterterrorism Field Team’s commander was of getting a radio transmission signal “upstairs” so as to “call this in.”; “Maybe it’s iron ore in the rock blocking the signal, or maybe we’re being jammed.”

Sadly, this opening instalment to “All Of Us Monsters” is arguably somewhat let down by Marco Turini’s rather messy-looking story-boards, especially those pencilled by the Italian artist once the foul-mouthed Big Dog starts scrapping for his life at close quarters against the formidably-powerful Nelapsi he’s been searching for. Undeniably dynamically-driven, and packed full of the frantic-pace one who expect from the veteran soldier’s desperate, breathless attempts to stay off “the lunch menu”, the Pulp Factory Award-winner’s scratchy sketching style still jarringly strikes as being far less attractive to the eye than this comic title’s rested regular illustrator, Alan Robinson.

Writer: Jonathan Maberry, Artist: Marco Turini, and Colors: Jay Fotos

Savage Tales: Vampirella #1 - Dynamite Entertainment

SAVAGE TALES: VAMPIRELLA No. 1, May 2018

Just what “Dynamite Entertainment” was trying to achieve when it decided to print this $4.99 “one-shot” is arguably a little confusing. On the one hand the title’s Robert Hack drawn cover is clearly a deliberate homage to John Buscema’s grisly painting for the old “Marvel Comics” Conan book from the Seventies, and resultantly conjures up images of “violent barbarians”, blood-drenched beheadings and an entertaining mix of sword and sorcery. Whilst on the other, the periodical’s contents disappointingly appears far more akin to something found within the comic book publishing imprint’s back-catalogued series “Savage Tales”; a bi-monthly which featured both “the most savage stories that comic creators have ever told”, as well as “a rotating cast of characters and creators”, and was rather unceremoniously cancelled after just ten issues.

Indeed, one of the most frustrating elements to this book is that it is shamelessly (and as far as the magazine’s front page is concerned anonymously) padded out with a ten-year-old reprint of Doug Murray’s two-part tale “Valaka” from the aforementioned abandoned title’s run. Admittedly, this back-up feature is disconcertingly the highlight of “Savage Tales: Vampirella” with its terrific tale of revenge, treachery, swordplay, manacled damsels and demonic rituals. But considering that this particular publication supposedly spotlights Forrest J. Ackerman’s co-creation, the 'paying public' must surely have rightfully expected its entire contents to focus upon their vampiric super-heroine, rather than see her replaced by some dubiously duplicitous two-faced villain from yesteryear? 

Sadly, Erik Burnham’s lead narrative involving the one-time “horror-story hostess” isn’t even all that original either, with the lead character yet again finding herself in a strange land with no memory as to how she got there, why she was immediately attacked by a quartet of unruly-looking well-armed ruffians, or how to fully utilise her array of formidable powers. Such disorientation genuinely smacks of Paul Cornell’s incarnation of Vampirella from 2017 and unsurprisingly requires “the daughter of Lilith” to once more stealthily enter a foreign city in disguise, simply in order to ascertain what untoward magical machinations are taking place to its mind-controlled inhabitants.

Inconsistent, yet predominantly pleasing to the eye, this comic’s artwork by the combined creative team of Anthony Marques, J. Bone, Fernando Ruiz and Daniel HDR at least provides some modicum of entertainment. Packed full of gore and internal organs at first, as the scantily clad protagonist rips asunder a party of ill-meaning ruffians, the quality of the illustrations decidedly deteriorates the closer the action gets to the conurbation’s snake-like ruler, and only seems to ‘pick back up’ in time for the female vampire to settle herself upon her dead opponent’s throne, having torn his astonished head off…

Writer: Erik Burnham, and Artists: Anthony Marques, J. Bone, Fernando Ruiz and Daniel HDR

Star Wars: The Last Jedi #1 - Marvel Comics

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI No. 1, July 2018

Positively publicised by “Marvel Worldwide” as an adaption which features “never-before-seen scenes of your favourite characters”, this opening instalment to “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” arguably must have delighted the vast majority of its audience, including those who had already watched “the highest-grossing film of 2017”, with its noticeably new sequences and ‘extended shots’ from an earlier version of the movie’s script. Indeed, such is his narrative’s focus upon Luke Skywalker’s desperate desire to “achieve true solitude”, that Gary Whitta’s main aim for this over-sized thirty-page periodical would actually seem to have been to provide readers with a much deeper insight into the personal demons of actor Mark Hamill’s character, and the all-powerful hermit’s surprising, long-term aim to close himself “off from the energy that binds me to all living things everywhere.” 

Of course, this comic's innovatively intimate opening insight into the Jedi Master’s heavily-troubled mind, which depicts a sullen-looking Vader's son suddenly realising "someone... has found me" despite his self-imposed solitude, soon pales in comparison to the author additionally taking “full advantage of the comic book medium” by providing Luke a ‘genuine’ opportunity to mourn “the death of his close friend Han Solo” courtesy of a grief-sharing embrace with Chewbacca. But the entirely original introspective look at Obi-Wan Kenobi’s aging apprentice undoubtedly makes the Force-sensitive’s subsequent shocking refusal to acknowledge Rey’s presence on Ahch-To slightly more understandable; “Um… Master Skywalker? Master Skywalker? I’m from the resistance, your sister Leia sent me. We need your help. Hello?” 

Fortunately however, the former “ACE” magazine games journalist doesn’t provide this extra exposition at the cost of the publication’s pulse-pounding pace, and still manages to capture plenty of the sense-shattering shenanigans seen during the Resistance’s evacuation of the planet D’Qar. In fact, Po Dameron’s questionable decision to ignore his general’s direct order and ‘sacrifice’ the lives of numerous pilots in order to bring about the destruction of a spaceship with “more firepower than a dozen destroyers” is one of this magazine’s highlights.

Sadly, the same cannot be said for Michael Walsh’s irregular-looking, amateurishly-angular artwork, which disconcertingly fails to attain a level anywhere near that of Whitta’s notable writing success. Clearly able to pencil an excellent Gial Ackbar, as well as an explosion-packed, intergalactic space battle, the Canadian’s somewhat cartoony drawing style disappointing fails to capture a lot of the plot’s tension and suspense, especially when an enraged Kylo Ren continuously smashes his infamous combat helmet into a wall or an irate Leia Organa physically slaps a certain "skilled X-wing fighter pilot" around his 'arrogant flyboy' face before demoting him to Captain.

Writer: Gary Whitta, Artist: Michael Walsh, and Colorist: Mike Spicer

Moon Knight #193 - Marvel Comics

MOON KNIGHT No. 193, May 2018

Whilst Max Bemis undoubtedly lived up to his pre-print promise of having some “very weird” plans for this series with his script for Issue One Hundred And Ninety Three of “Moon Knight”, this sixth and final instalment to the lead singer’s “Crazy Runs In The Family” story-arc arguably fails quite miserably in its aim to create an “ultimate nemesis” for the titular character with its portrayal of the Sun King as being little more than a plain, unbalanced madman whose only as powerful as his confidence in Amon Ra is strong. In fact, far from being “the Joker to his Batman”, or even a plausible “ultimate bad guy who’s his polar opposite in pretty much every way”, Patient 86 ultimately must have struck the majority of this comic’s 20,383 readers as merely yet another disappointing addition to the Fist of Khonshu’s frustratingly impotent Rogues Gallery; “Never trust a madman to do a mercenary’s job.” 

Just as perplexing as the primary lyricist’s underwhelming main antagonist, who despite his formidable fire-starter super-power is ultimately bested by a bare-chested Marc Spector in a ritualistic fist-fight, is just why the silver-shrouded crime-fighter is even participating in the brutally sadistic ceremony anyway. True, Marlene is being held a prisoner on Isla Ra, and her deranged captor does seemingly plan to “hunt down your daughter after I strip off your flesh.” But none of that explains why, having beaten Bushman and an entire boat-load of criminals within an inch of their lives, the former U.S. Marine suddenly surrenders himself to being systematically brutalised and tortured once he arrives on the tropical island. Surely it would have made far more sense for Moon Knight to have stealthily infiltrated the despot’s small collection of huts and rescued his lover that way..?

Instead however, Bemis would have his audience believe Spector agrees to being repeatedly sliced, mutilated and bloodied just in order to say a touchingly sentimental farewell to Diatrice’s mother, before engaging Amon Ra’s host inside a fiery circle of night-time combat. Such unconvincingly abnormal behaviour, especially in one who as a hardened mercenary has already experienced death and been “returned to life”, is then made all the worse by the American author suggesting Marc’s ordinarily unconquerable will can be despairingly broken just because he loses a tooth and some hair during his clash with the bearded pyro-maniacal psychopath.

Quite possibly the only successful element to this disconcertingly contrived conclusion, is Jacen Burrows’ pencilling. It is quite clear from the quality of the San Diego-born illustrator’s bone-cracking pugilistic panels just why he has been one of Max’s “favourite artists for years and years” and reminds him “of artists like Steve Dillion”. Yet even the Sequential Art degree-holder seemingly struggles when drawing the “faint firings” of Moon Knight’s synapses, especially a less than flattering portrait of Diatrice which is supposedly meant to inspire Moon Knight to defeat his opponent with “the power of crazy!”

Writer: Max Bemis, Artist: Jacen Burrows, and Inker: Guillermo Ortego