Batman: The Adventures Continue #13 - DC Comics

BATMAN: THE ADVENTURES CONTINUE No. 13, October 2020

Debatably depicting Jason Todd as a fully-fledged psycho, and containing a thoroughly enjoyable confrontation between the hired help of both the Joker and the Penguin, this third instalment to Alan Burnett and Paul Dini’s “Red Son Rising” surely must have landed well with fans of the “Batman: The Animated Series” when the digital first comic was released in October 2020. Sure, the Clown Prince of Crime appears to be a little too easy a target to get the drop on when he visits the Iceberg Lounge and is surprised by a sedative-dart firing Red Hood. But the pair have already previously met in this particular storyline before, providing Batman’s former Robin with plenty of intelligence with which to plan their all-too quick rematch; “It’s just half a dose. You’ll be out for hours.”

Foremost of Todd’s despicable acts however, has to be the way the anti-hero physically assaults the aged Leslie Thompkins when she catches him burgling her stock of medicines. Despite clearly being cross at her former friend’s intrusion, the elderly doctor genuinely appears to care for the young man’s well-being, and as a result any sympathy this book’s audience might have had for the malicious, mask-wearing hoodlum goes straight out the window when he savagely swats her away from him with one hand.

Easily this periodical’s biggest draw though has to be the aforementioned tussle between Mister Wing and Straightman. Sadly, this scene involving the two super-strong heavies duking it out is a little short-lived, yet their pulse-pounding bout of pugilism makes an excellent backdrop to the Joker’s explanation as to how he came to hire “one of those Captain White House guys” as Harley Quinn’s replacement. Indeed, one of this narrative’s most chilling elements is the way the homicidal criminal calmly recollects how he personally lobotomised his henchman with a scalpel and his “natural ability.”

Adding plenty of “Bam!”, “Crunch!” and “Smash!” to this comic’s shenanigans are Ty Templeton’s pencils and Monica Kubina’s colours. The collaborative pair do a particularly fine job of bringing the Penguin’s genetically-enhanced hatchling to life, with Mister Wing’s mix of white feathers and muscles making the massive bird-man dominate each and every panel in which he appears - even after the badly-beaten guardian has been smacked semi-conscious and is simply laying in a star-spinning stupor.

Writers: Alan Burnett & Paul Dini, Artist: Ty Templeton, and Colorist: Monica Kubina

Doctor Who [2020] #2 - Titan Comics

DOCTOR WHO No. 2, January 2021

For those readers of Jody Houser’s “Alternating Current” narrative whose heads weren’t already spinning from the plot’s incredibly confusing mix of different incarnations, companions, allies, and popular monsters, the American author’s inclusion of the villainous Skithra in Issue Two of “Doctor Who” as the supposed saviours of humanity will surely have done the job. Indeed, the sudden appearance of the extra-terrestrial scavengers as the Thirteenth Doctor’s apparent rescuers comes completely out of the blue, and arguably just makes an already convoluted plot packed full of long-winded interactions between characters who should never really meet in anything but the worst fan fiction, even more outlandish.

Of course, the explosions, death rays and subsequent foot-chases which follow the hive species’ prison break does at least imbue this comic’s seriously sedentary storytelling with some much needed energy and action. However, a lot of the dynamism generated by the Skithra’s shocking entrance is sadly soon diluted by the writer’s insistence of pairing their Queen up with the current TARDIS crew as they almost nonchalantly make their way back to the time machine and revisit the usually somewhat humorous set-piece of a new visitor describing the ship’s dimensionally transcendental interior as being “inside bigger.”

Quite possibly this twenty-two page periodical’s biggest disappointment though is the lack of chemistry shown between the Tenth Doctor and the Sea Devil enslaved Rose Tyler. The nineteen-year-old Londoner is understandably a little reluctant to believe a madman in a box who inadvertently lets slip that her still living parents should actually be dead. Yet that initial unease lingers throughout the couple’s uninspiringly long conversation, and doesn’t cease even after the heavily-armed young woman has entered the Gallifreyan’s spacecraft, and this comic’s audience have been subjected to another “bigger on the inside” scene.

Fortunately, for those bibliophiles able to negotiate such a debatably bizarre book, there is at least the enjoyment of looking at Roberta Ingranata’s artwork. The Italian does a very good job of sketching the central cast just as they would appear on the small screen, and captures all the awkwardness of the Sea Devils when they awkwardly lumber after their escaping workers whilst cutting down several of the humans’ scorpion-like rescuers in the process.

The regular cover art of "DOCTOR WHO" #2 by Peach Momoko

Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #8 - Marvel Comics

STAR WARS: BOUNTY HUNTERS No. 8, February 2021

Opening with a scintillating starfighter shoot-up over the skyline of Howlan City on the planet Qhulosk, and featuring a delightful guest appearance by a young Han Solo during his brief tenure as an Imperial pilot, Ethan Sacks’ script for Issue Eight of “Star Wars: Bounty Hunters” barely gave its readers pause for breath when it first hit the spinner racks in December 2020. Indeed, even when this comic’s action does momentarily quieten down to allow Beilert Valance to wander through the packed H’unn Cabaret Pit or ‘light-speed’ his way to “the intersection of the Corellian Trade Spine and the Hydian Way”, there’s still an almost palpable sense of nerve-tingling tension to be found within this book’s narrative as the reader never knows just what might be lurking around the corner for the cyborg.

This well-penned feeling of jeopardy for the ongoing series’ lead protagonist is particularly noticeable during the bounty hunter’s trip to Nar Kaaga and his business meeting with the truly treacherous Syphacc. Partially disguised by a large hooded cloak, the packed club seems a somewhat strange place for the former Chorin Slave to select for a meeting, but his dubious plan to unsuccessfully seek safety in so visible a venue at least means that there’s no shortage of options as to where the next attack upon the wanted human will come from; “Well, as much as the Unbroken Clan wants to get their hands on me to get to the girl -- Zuckusss and Four-Elloem would have to be sloppy to make a move in such a public place.”

Spookily however, despite knowing that someone will inevitably attempt to claim the price upon Valance’s head in the Pit doesn’t debatably diminish the sense of surprise when the thoroughly dislikeable Hondra decides to make his move. The young so-called killer is as arrogant as he is impotent, and many bibliophiles must have taken a lot of satisfaction in seeing artist Paolo Villanelli prodigiously pencil the annoyingly boastful brat getting taken down a peg or two by an extremely patient Beilert; albeit “the deadliest pit fighter out of Nar Kanji does make a very valid point that if he hadn’t unwisely wanted his target “to see who is pulling the trigger” he could easily have just shot the famous Bounty Hunter in the head without the man even knowing he was in danger.

The regular cover art of STAR WARS: BOUNTY HUNTERS #8 by Paolo Villanelli & Arif Prianto

Doctor Who [2020] #1 - Titan Comics

DOCTOR WHO No. 1, December 2020

Somewhat disconcertingly resuming the Time Lord’s adventures straight on from the final edition of “Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor” after a six-month sabbatical, Jody Houser’s storyline for this revamped comic book’s opening issue rather disappointingly smacks of being penned simply to appease a certain element within the franchise’s amateur fan fiction community, rather than being a serious attempt to replicate the BBC science fiction series’ televised exploits upon the printed page. True, the author definitely manages to capture the characteristics of this publication’s leading cast as depicted on the small screen, but its debatably difficult to take any plot seriously which throws the likes of the entire Tyler family, the Sea Devils, the Tenth Doctor and an alternative universe into the mixing pot without any convincing explanation; “That’s an incredibly simplified and not terribly accurate way to describe it, Ryan.”

To make matters worse though, this entire twenty-two page periodical is packed full of the so-called “charismatic and confident explorer” tediously trying to be amusing at every opportunity with some extraordinarily unfunny tongue-in-cheek gags. This persistent frivolity really ruins any sense of tension or threat throughout the entire magazine, with presumably it’s highlight of the Doctor and her “fam” being captured by a patrol of heavily-armed “Aquatic Silurians” simply seeming an embarrassingly silly set-piece once the Gallifreyan pretends to be a Human/Sea Devil Chief Liaison officer so as to unsuccessfully convince her captors to rebel against “their bosses.”

Lamentably, Houser’s narrative also feels like it is just something of a rehash of other people’s plot-threads, which frankly have all been done both before and better on either the telly or within a novel. Those readers old enough to remember Jim Mortimore’s book “Blood Heat” from the old “Virgin New Adventures” range will probably recall his highly convincing Silurian-dominated world once they lay eyes upon artist Roberta Ingranata’s prodigiously-pencilled panels of human survivors desperately fending off the Earth reptiles within this comic's dilapidated London. Whilst disconcerting duplicates of Pete, Jackie and their gun-toting daughter have already been seen in broadcast episodes such as “Rise of the Cybermen”, “Doomsday” and "Turn Left".

The regular cover art of "DOCTOR WHO" #1 by Peach Momoko

Warhammer 40,000: Marneus Calgar #5 - Marvel Comics

WARHAMMER 40,000: MARNEUS CALGAR No. 5, April 2021

Firmly fixated upon the titular character’s final battle against two of the traitorous trainees he once fought when he was universally known as just lowly Tacitan, this twenty-one page periodical’s plot certainly can’t be described as being unexciting or actionless. But whilst Kieron Gillen’s storyline for Issue Five of “Warhammer 40,000: Marneus Calgar” contains plenty of pulse-pounding power fist-based pugilism and several bucket loads of gory blood, its opening scene depicts the Chapter Master of the Ultramarines in such a dire predicament that arguably any plausibility that he could single-handedly survive the Khorne threat on Thulium Minor is immediately lost.

For starters, having endured his Thunderhawk’s horrific crash the Lord of Macragge finds himself stood facing both the double-headed, physically-fused incarnation of his former acquaintances, as well as a good half a dozen able-bodied Chaos Space Marines. These formidable enemies are all within spitting distance of Calgar, yet seem to make no effort at all to close the gap between them, preferring instead to ineffectively fire at the retreating Adeptus Astartes as he withdraws deep inside a nearby mining facility. 

True, as Marneus points out to his accompanying tech priest, the Lord Defender of Greater Ultramar is “a small army” in his own right. But considering that he is literally also just a stone’s throw away from the incredible firepower of a gigantic, super-heavy Daemon Engine of Chaos, it is difficult to believe even he could survive such close proximity to a great cleaver of Khorne, or a Skullhurler, or even a Daemongore cannon, if the “grotesque battle construct” had attacked him from this comic’s start; “Unleashing a torrent of burning filth at all that lies before the Lord of Skulls. It is capable of reducing whole armoured divisions to molten slag.”

Instead, the British writer pens a bizarrely unambitious conclusion which sees Jacen Burrows proficiently pencilling the Primaris Space Marine besting a mere handful of the Blood God’s most loyal acolytes within the ruins of a long-downed World Bearers vessel, before apparently being both outmanoeuvred and subsequently outfought by his heavily mutated main adversary. This climax is debatably made all the worse by having the Ultramarine willingly have one of his hearts pierced by the semi-naked Chaos Champion’s sword in a clichéd effort to get his hands on his opponent after deciding his Power Fists alone didn’t give him the reach needed to do the job.

The regular cover art of "WARHAMMER 40,000: MARNEUS CALGAR" #5 by James Stokoe

Shang-Chi #5 - Marvel Comics

SHANG-CHI No. 5, March 2021

Considering that this twenty-page periodical inexplicably begins with Sister Hammer suddenly invading London with an army of blood-drinking Jiangshi, Gene Luen Yang’s storyline for Issue Five of “Shang-Chi” must surely have made most of its readers sit bolt upright in both surprise and anticipation for a serious Kung-Fu fest. Regrettably however, the promise of an action-packed confrontation on the streets of the English capital between ancient Chinese vampires and the rapidly dwindling military never actually materialises, courtesy of the American author deciding instead to base this book’s focal point around a simple battle of wills rather than something replicating the frantically-fast action of Marc Forster’s 2013 American post-apocalyptic zombie action horror film World War Z.

Indeed, no sooner does a badly outnumbered Leiko Wu realise that her desperately needed reinforcements are actually the handful of armed MI-5 survivors already protecting her flanks, than “flashback artist” Philip Tan steps in with his prodigious pencilling to whisk the audience off to an infinitely less exciting spiritual world where Shang-Chi can ultimately show his little sister both the abject loneliness of the late evil sorcerer Zheng Zu, and the resultant futility of her all-conquering mission’s misguided motivation; “He will always be our father. But look at him, Shi-Hua! Not with a child’s eyes, but with your eyes now! See him as he actually was! A damaged old man, twisted by fear. And hate.”

Sadly, such a lack-lustre conclusion really does strike as a major anti-climax considering the potential of this publication’s pulse-pounding opening, and arguably even gets progressively worse following the utterly unconvincing revelation that the magical Jiangshi are somehow being controlled by implanted micro-chips rather than through the mystical means of them wanting to right an “unavenged grievance”. In addition, this five-part mini-series’ dissatisfying finale doesn’t even allow its two central characters to properly square-off against one another. Sure, an angry Sister Hammer eventually decides to swing her formidable hand-weapon at her brother when she realises he is “trying to empty my life of purpose”. Yet even this one-off assault is easily avoided by the Master of Kung Fu, who promptly then disarms his opponent without throwing a single punch in retaliation and impotently watches her flee into the River Thames.

The regular cover art of "SHANG-CHI" #5 by Marcus To & Sebastian Cheng

Strange Academy #8 - Marvel Comics

STRANGE ACADEMY No. 8, April 2021

Featuring a marvellous guest appearance by Rocket Racoon and Groot, as well as a rib-tickling cameo by the God of Thunder, Skottie Young’s script for Issue Eight of “Strange Academy” must have delighted those readers familiar with the antics of young Harry Potter and his Hogwarts friends in J.K. Rowling’s highly popular wizarding world. Indeed, certain elements of this twenty-page periodical, such as Agatha Harkness teaching her pupils “how to perform the Illusions of Ikonn” with various degrees of success, could mistakenly be seen as having been ‘lifted’ straight out from one of the successful British author’s fantasy novels; “Yes! I did it. I have produced three copies of this… Whatever this beast is called.”

Fortunately however, this comic’s narrative doesn’t exclusively concern itself with just giving an appreciative nod to “the best-selling book series in history”, but also adds plenty more mystery as to the identity of Doctor Stephen Strange’s unseen prisoner located deep within the basement of the Sanctum Sanctorum. Emily Bright’s temptation to open the inmate’s heavily barred door is arguably palpable in this well-penned scene, especially once the young mystic arts apprentice learns the detainee has spent the past two years locked away in the dungeon’s darkness and seems to be on the verge of actually agreeing with their argument to release them.

Debatably this book’s most engaging sequence though is the college’s off-world excursion to Templo Offdom - “a planet a tragillion miles from Earth.” Just as soon as it’s revealed that the students’ field-trip will be ‘aided’ by Rocket and Groot, every reader knows their quest to find the “scribbit” responsible for eating some long-lost mystical gems is going to end very badly, and Young’s subsequent tongue-in-cheek tomfooleries simply don’t disappoint. Frantically-paced and predominantly consisting of the adolescent magic users running for their very lives from a nest of giant-sized budgerigars, this ‘laugh out loud’ pursuit is finally brought to a close thanks to Zelma Stanton teleporting the entire class from out of danger and back to the Academy’s library at the last minute.

Adding enormously to both this book’s jolly tone and more sinister shenanigans are Humberto Ramos’ excellent illustrations. The Mexican penciller’s superb sketches of the multi-beaked baby scribbits and the various supernaturally replicated animals are dreadfully cute, whilst his collaboration with colorist Edgar Delgado to portray a truly grim gaol for Strange’s captive imbues Bright’s naïve exploration of Stephen’s foreboding basement with a disconcertingly dark ambiance.

The regular cover art of "STRANGE ACADEMY" #8 by Humberto Ramos & Edgar Delgado