Task Force Z #6 - DC Comics

TASK FORCE Z No. 6, May 2022

Finally filling in a few blanks as to the formation of Two-Face’s government-sponsored undead super-team, this so-called “secret-origin issue” of “Task Force Z” certainly paints a convoluted picture as to Mister Bloom’s treacherous behaviour behind the scenes. Indeed, Daryl Gutierrez's anonymous creation appears to have ‘suckered in’ almost the entirety of this mini-series’ main cast with his deals, counter-deals and duplicitous manipulations; “Waller knew it before we did. But at least now we got confirmation. And that means we know what our mission is, Harvey. It’s time to kill Mister Bloom.”

Happily however, all these disconcerting revelations are rather neatly interspersed amongst the present-day happenings, which means that Matthew Rosenberg’s narrative never really loses pace when it momentarily flashes back to Doctor Walter Albrecht’s celebratory champagne in “a secret laboratory”, Senator O'Connor’s attempt to reignite his political career through resurrecting the dead, or the initial recruitment of Jason Todd as the “pretty face” of Dent’s macabre band of deceased criminals. Instead, these insights steadily explain just how Red Hood’s current mission is completely unravelling and demonstrate just how naïve the likes of Gotham City’s “half-melted, fully-homicidal former District Attorney” has been to trust an American politician “who is one @#&% hair from doing time.”

Of course, this twenty-two-page periodical’s biggest draw is probably the dramatic confrontation between the Dark Knight and his former protégé, as intimidated by the book’s pulse-pounding cover illustration by Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira and Adriano Lucas. This fraught conversation, which initially begins with the Caped Crusader running over ‘Robin’ with the Batmobile, really dives deep into the strained relationship between the two costumed crime-fighters, and it will doubtless come as no surprise to many of this comic’s readers that Batman soon knocks an increasingly angry Todd back to the ground so as to thwart the youth from “following very bad men down a very bad path.”

Helping with the storytelling for this particular instalment is artist Jack Herbert, who does a prodigious job pencilling all of Mister Bloom’s schemes with great aplomb. Furthermore, the Brazilian does a first-rate job of imbuing KGBeast’s downfall against Bane, Mister Freeze and Red Hood with plenty of pulse-pounding punch, especially once Anatoli Knyazev’s realises the futility of his predicament and activates his personal, self-destruct device.

Writer: Matthew Rosenberg, Artist: Jack Herbert and Colors: Adriano Lucas

Mississippi Zombie #3 [Part One] - Caliber Comics

MISSISSIPPI ZOMBIE #3, January 2022

Promising “some killer stories” as the zombie menace continues to threaten those residents dwelling within Mississippi, Bradley Golden’s third collection of brain-munching narratives provides an impressively broad range of tales, varying from a hapless postman simply going about his daily business in Pontotoc County, through to an apocalyptic sea-faring world where Augustus King stoically defends the river’s shores from flesh hungry cadavers whilst his ship sails towards the mysterious port of Commerce. Occasionally, such disparity in a book's line-up might be slightly off-putting to some horror fans, but in this instance all the different locations/time zones appear to be intrinsic to the various writers’ plots and are all clearly linked to one another by being set inside the Magnolia state.

Leading this latest anthology’s charge is Golden’s very own “Dog Eat Dog Life”, which essentially deals with an over-tired van driver mistreating a poodle after the beast bites him in the ankle. Initially, readers might feel the animal is entirely justified in subsequently leading a horrifying horde of zombies back to the vendor in revenge. However, with hindsight some may recall that it was the fluffy-white ‘Mutt” which actually started the fracas, and subsequently feel sorry for the mail carrier getting chomped to pieces by so many of artist Dan Gorman’s grotesque-looking cadavers.

Decidedly more complex is “All About Commerce”, which intriguingly continues a storyline first told in one of this title’s preceding graphic novels. Writer Peter Breau does a good job in bringing across the salty vocabulary of his piratical nightmare world and getting the good ship Mike Fink’s latest recruits up to speed with its crew’s hierarchy. Yet, it is probably the adventure’s fast-paced land battle between a pair of swashbucklers and the Undead, which will be viewed by bibliophiles as the yarn’s highlight; especially when it’s so well drawn by Harrison Wood. 

Rounding up this publication’s opening half with a disconcerting insight into a Mississippi-based male fraternity is “40 oz Of Death” by Jeff Carroll. This account of three boys visiting Madam Freak Shop to prove their strength of will is debatably as smutty as a comic can get without Jorge Cabotto’s illustrations crossing into full-frontal nudity. In addition, the script potentially does a fine job in misdirecting the audience as to where the ghoulish threat to the students emanates from.

Writers: Bradley Golden, Peter Breau & Jeff Carroll, and Artists: Dan Gorman, Harrison Wood & Jorge Cabotto

X-Men Legends #6 - Marvel Comics

X-MEN LEGENDS No. 6, October 2021

Packed with plenty of courtroom drama and sense-shattering shenanigans at the Latverian Embassy, Peter David’s script for Issue Six of “X-Men Legends” certainly delivers the goods when it comes to recapturing the atmosphere of the American author’s run as the writer on “X-Factor” during the early Nineties. Indeed, the opening scene of Havoc losing his temper with the police force when they overrule his promise that the local authorities “won’t open fire” upon the renegade mutants must have immediately taken most of this comic’s audience back to the days when Alex Summers and his team were still badly mistrusted by the government, even though the roster was salaried by the Pentagon.

However, perhaps this twenty-page periodical’s greatest ‘hook’ comes with its handling of Doctor Doom, and the disconcerting question as to whether the terrorists opposing the tinpot dictator are just as cold-heartedly evil as Victor or not. This conundrum as to where the readers’ sympathies lie is raised just as soon as Beltane is shown triumphantly displaying an unconscious Rahne Sinclair upon a crucifix on top of the consulate’s roof, and the sheer horror Valerie Cooper expresses upon seeing such an appalling sight.

Perhaps understandably, Wolfsbane guts the white-haired psychic within an inch of her life once she regains both consciousness and her wolf-form. But its then later shown that the rest of the ‘holier than thou’ fanatics feel their comrade-in-arms has been greatly wronged by the former New Mutant and try to take some moral high ground over Sinclair when they find her remorsefully sat at Beltane’s bedside in hospital. This self-righteousness is more than irritating and seeing as it comes at a time when the likes of Samhain were going to quite happily murderously massacre the embassy’s entirely innocent staff simply because "we have to show the world we're serious", arguably loses the 'freedom fighters' any empathy which their opposition to the heavily armoured monarch might have initially generated.

In fact, many bibliophiles will doubtless take a great deal of satisfaction from this publication’s final few panels, in which Todd Nauck beautifully pencils Rahne knowingly stepping aside for an enraged Doom as he enters Beltane’s medical room to doubtless enact a truly terrible revenge upon the Zefiro Clan for killing his subjects, defiling his New York City-based mission and even attempting to assassinate the Supreme Leader for the Kingdom of Latveria himself; “You dare bark orders at me? Do you still not appreciate the gravity of your situation.?”

The regular cover art of "X-MEN: LEGENDS" #6 by Todd Nauck & Rachelle Rosenberg

DC Vs. Vampires - Hunters #1 - DC Comics

DC VS. VAMPIRES - HUNTERS No. 1, July 2022

Guaranteeing “a blood-soaked one-shot tale of vampire violence”, Matthew Rosenberg’s narrative for “The Promise” certainly provides its readers with a fair amount of death, most notably when Robin goes on a headlong killing spree through the former Wayne Tower in a desperate effort to reach Alfred Pennyworth before the butler is immolated. But whilst such sense-shattering shenanigans are undoubtedly the highlight of this twenty-two page periodical, it is arguably the edgy relationship between the Son of Batman and the freshly-installed Vampire King which proves the most enthralling.

Indeed, the American author’s ability to capture the confident arrogance of Richard Grayson, seemingly heightened by his ascension to immortal omnipotence, is incredibly well-penned, and particularly comes to the fore at the very end of comic, when Dick demonstrates both his strong love for his former Butler, as well as a glimmer of compassion for his ‘brother’ Damian, by letting them leave the Seat of Power of the Vampire Kingdom unmolested despite the pair having tried to eliminate him; “No game. If I let you both walk out of here, you won’t get another shot at me. No matter how long you live or how hard you try.”

Ultimately however, what the vast majority of this book’s audience will probably be interested in is the vicious, closely fought battle between the central antagonists, and Rosenberg doesn’t debatably disappoint either. It’s clear straight from the start that Bruce’s boy is badly outmatched by his older, stronger and much more experienced opponent. But it also soon becomes apparent that the anger-fuelled adolescent has been trained as a deadly assassin for most of his life, and “always knew I’d be better than you when I got older.”

Similarly as strong as this publication’s script are the layouts by Neil Googe, which imbue all of its panels with plenty of energy. The British artist absolutely excels when it comes to depicting the pulse-pounding pugilism of Robin’s bout with a leather-clad Nightwing, as well as with the Martian Manhunter’s fracas against the fully-fanged Gorilla Grodd, Victor Zsasz and Wonder Girl. Yet it is probably the illustrator’s nice touches such as Damian cleaning his teeth with a dagger blade, or the Black Skull’s facial expression when he finds Pennyworth trapped inside a holdall which also help bring this comic’s considerable cast to life.

The regular cover art of "DC VS. VAMPIRES - HUNTERS" #1 by Jonboy Meyers

Task Force Z #5 - DC Comics

TASK FORCE Z No. 5, April 2022

Arguably giving Mister Bloom more spotlight than this mini-series’ main protagonist Red Hood, Matthew Rosenberg’s storyline for Issue Five of “Task Force Z” still must have proved a somewhat popular read when it was published in February 2022. In fact, considering just how disconcertingly dark the American author’s script gets as the gangly villain shockingly delivers Man-Bat’s severed head to Geri Powers at her company’s multi-storey headquarters, it is surprising that the “online repository of comic-book circulation data” Comichron only projected the book as being “DC Comics” thirty-ninth best-selling title of the month “based on a subset of retailer initial orders.”

Foremost of this magazine’s strengths however, debatably lies with the fascinatingly fraught relationship between Jason Todd and KGBeast, as the pair clearly don’t like one another and yet Batman’s young protégé still unsuccessfully endeavours to talk his way ‘out of trouble’ when their two opposing super-powered squads suddenly confront one another deep inside a secret laboratory. Anatoli Knyazev’s barbaric personality is especially well-penned, with the former Russian agent’s propensity for needless violence repeatedly coming to fore, most notably when he begins slowly disfiguring a helpless Red Hood at this comic’s conclusion with a combat knife; “Just because you know how this ends does not mean we can’t have some fun before then.”

Similarly as sinister though is Bloom’s aforementioned machinations as he continues to manipulate matters behind the scenes within Task Force Z, even whispering an instruction to kill into a zombified Man-Bat’s ear when it momentarily appears that his team leader has actually managed to convince both Celia Shelley and Knyazev to talk things through. Indeed, considering that “A Whole Lotta Characters Goin’ On” also contains plenty of examples of Amanda Waller’s murderous intrigues, it’s genuinely difficult to discern which of two antagonists is actually acting the more Machiavellian throughout this mini-series.

Perhaps therefore this publication’s only slight quibble comes with some of its artwork, which seems to occasionally shift in style just enough to potentially bring the odd bibliophile out of the book. It’s unclear just why editor Paul Kaminski required four different illustrators to work on this edition, but regular penciller Eddy Barrows’ heavily lined panels are so distinctive that even the slightest variation to his technique disconcertingly catches the eye, and resultantly can momentarily distract the reader from the sense-shattering shenanigans occurring upon the printed page.

The regular cover art of "TASK FORCE Z" #5 by Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira & Adriano Lucas

G-Men United #1 - G-Man Comics

G-MEN UNITED No. 1, May 2021

Somehow cramming American politics, prejudices, violently opposing perspectives and legislative procedures all within the confines of a single twenty-page comic book, Rik Offenberger’s Issue One of “G-Men United” definitely does a fantastic job in depicting just how diverse and immersive his fictional universe of super-powered crime-fighters is. Indeed, it is arguably hard to imagine what else this publication could contain, considering it takes its audience to major disasters, the heavily-armed headquarters of a horde of notorious master villains, a mesmerising fantasy land inhibited by green-skinned fairies, a world which transforms its visitors into cartoon caricatures, and a potential planetary invasion from some Hellish domain packed full of viciously-fanged demons.

True, all four of this magazine’s stories are somewhat short-lived and resultantly rush the reader straight through their exhilarating combat sequences without much in the way of context or exposition. But such is the raw energy of the storytelling that most bibliophiles should easily be able to accept the brevity of each adventure’s ‘set-up’, and happily dive head first into the action alongside the likes of Pocahontas, Terror Noir and Sergeant Flag; “Me and Rex were handling security for the Kawaii delegation to the U.N. And Rex, the big oaf stepped on a squad car.”

Perhaps this comic’s greatest asset though lies in just how many questions it raises as to how its vast cast and locations came to exist in the first place. For example, Earl Wajenberg’s “The Fifth Time” does a fairly good job in briefly explaining how The Energist came to gain his staggering ability to “manipulate basic forms of energy”. However, the tale of him rescuing Irene from a building full of similarly strong criminals arguably merely acts as an appetiser for the audience, with many doubtless wanting to know much more about what actually happened to “Uncle Dan” when he mysteriously disappeared for a few months and returned looking ten years older..?

Happily, this book’s layouts, predominantly pencilled by Johsua 1:9 Holley, is also rather engaging, being somewhat reminiscent of the illustrations found inside the old Eighties “Games Workshop” role-playing game “Golden Heroes”. In fact, the artist’s panels on “Into The Halflands” genuinely help imbue Flag’s character with considerable humour, especially as the red, white and blue garbed government operative is clearly unhappy with the mission he’s been assigned, and ultimately ends up having his fears confirmed when he’s being chased by a large, somewhat cuddly-looking, Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Writers: Rik Offenberger, Earl Wajenberg, & Jim Burrows, and Artist: Joshua 1:9 Holley

ZVRC: Zombies Vs. Robots Classic #4 - Image Comics

ZVRC: ZOMBIES VS. ROBOTS CLASSIC No. 4, June 2022

Providing its readers with a story taken “from the only Zombies Verses Robots Annual”, as well as the ten-part “Tales Of ZvR”, this super-sized reprint certainly contains plenty of content for those fans new to Chris Ryall and Ashley Woods’ vision of a post-apocalyptic world where large, heavily-armed automatons wage an eternal war against large hordes of the walking undead. Indeed, despite its relative brevity “Winter” tells such a disconcerting tale about a team of subsisting scientists cold-heartedly sacrificing their less-intellectual brethren to a mass of flesh-hungry cadavers in a supposed effort to save Humanity from the plague, that it is probably worth this publication’s cover price alone.

Furthermore, the narrative is told in such a clever way that it initially appears that the semi-malfunctioning machines who locate the underground laboratory are going to be the villains of piece rather than its inhabitants; especially when the ‘idiotic’ androids completely blow up the bunker’s reinforced steel entranceway rather than permit the coverall-wearing survivors the time needed to open it manually. Such a subversion of expectations genuinely adds to the horror of the situation as its slowly revealed to the gun-toting machines that the researchers are murderously feeding people ‘without doctorates’ to their ghoulish experiments, and any sympathy generated for the frustrated professors in having to negotiate with their paranoid programmed rescuers quickly evaporates.

Disappointingly however, unlike this limited series’ previous three instalments which contained an enjoyable combination of both fresh material and stories that haven’t seen the light of day in a decade, this periodical perturbingly feels simply like the “Eisner Award-nominated duo” just haphazardly grabbed some of their newer stuff and sixteen of the Australian artist’s splash-page illustrations in a desperate effort to pad out a fourth book. So seemingly desperate a sales ploy will be genuinely frustrating to those bibliophiles who already own the pair’s “ZvR” title from 2015, particularly as the selected tale about a boy aimlessly wandering around his featureless local landscape with his pet droid is probably the least interesting of the storylines seen within that series; “No c’mon, boy, time to go be brave adventurers! I bet we won’t run into any trouble at all…”

The regular cover art to "ZVRC: ZOMBIES VS. ROBOTS CLASSIC" #4 by Ashley Wood