Beware Spoilers Ahead!

My reviews do contain spoilers about the main stories but I do attempt to keep them at a minimum. I will not reveal any major plot points or twists unless stated at the beginning of a review.

Sunday 25 December 2016

What You Wanted For Christmas Vs What You Got


Christmas is one of my favourite times of year, with all the food, family and fun its hard not to enjoy the festive season. But despite what the Whos from Whoville tell you one of the best parts of Christmas is the presents and anybody who says otherwise is a liar. While of course its always the thought that counts when it comes to presents sometimes for nerds it can be a bit of a struggle to get what you ask for from family members that just don't get it.

What you asked for:

Punisher comics


You've been watching Dare Devil and its reminded you that The Punisher is pretty cool and it sounds like something you'd really like to get into and bring a little violent diversity into your reading library.

What you got:

Classic The Phantom

You're not really sure how Grandma messed this one up but rather than the violent and frightening Punisher you get a man running around in purple spandex through the jungle. Maybe Grandma read this when she was young but it's best to just say thank you and read it anyway.

What you asked for:

DC Animated movies

Despite DC's inability to make a decent live action movie they are absolutely killing it with their animated stuff with Batman Assault on Arkham (a.k.a. The good Suicide Squad movie) and Batman Under the Red Hood being some of their finest work.

What you got:

Suicide Squad the extended cut

You need to forgive this one because your aunty probably thought that the animated stuff was for kids so she got you that "fun colourful looking movie with the Joker in it". We all saw it and it was fine but even the extended cut with an extra 11 minutes of footage doesn't come anywhere close to how good the animated ones are.


What you asked for:

The Avengers

Everybody loves the Avengers, we all saw it at the cinema, we all loved it and it introduced so many people to the Marvel Cinematic universe and by extension the comics.

What you got:

The Avengers

Your younger brother is a jerk and you know he did this on purpose, his birthday is coming up so start plotting your revenge.

What you asked for:

A Squirrel Girl Doll/action figure

You started reading the new series this year and there is nothing like the cherry optimism of Squirrel Girl to brighten your Christmas day.

What you got:

A squirrel doll

..... Thanks Mum..... it's great....

What you asked for:

Comics, movies, toys and all things nerdy:
Everybody has their preferences whether its Marvel, DC, Dr. Who, animation or video games, you like what you like and that's okay.

What you got:

The love and support of your family and friends

Think less of what you wanted and more about the effort and thought that everybody put into getting you gifts, it is very hard to buy the correct thing when you don't really understand what you are looking for. My brother loves sport and I know if he asked for something for Christmas that I would either need him to show it to me or I would probably get the wrong thing. So Just remember they tried, they love you and are trying hard to support your hobby.

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas full of love and joy.

Sunday 4 December 2016

Afterlife With Archie Volume 1


Afterlife With Archie Volume 1

Afterlife With Archie is written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, art by Francesco Francavilla, letters by Jack Morelli and published by Archie Comics. When I think of Archie Comics the first thing that comes to mind isn't usually Zombies, black magic, death, incest, sex and violence but that is exactly what Afterlife with Archie delivers in a spectacularly gory fashion.


The comic begins with Jughead desperately racing his beloved dog, Hot Dog, to Sabrina after Hot Dog was hit by a car. Jughead hopes to use Sabrina's magic to heal Hot Dog but it is too late as he has already died from his injuries. Sabrina, moved by Jughead's grief, uses forbidden magic from the necronomicon to bring Hot Dog back to life. Hot Dog does come back to life but not as the same lovable dog he was before, biting Jughead when he tries to greet him. Like all good zombie stories this bite ends with much more than a simple tetanus injection. The consequences of the Jughead's zombie dog bite becomes shockingly apparent at the big school dance the next evening.



The art of Afterlife With Archie is incredibly different from anything you'd expect from an Archie comic, be it classic Archie or the recently rebooted Archie. Afterlife is reminiscent of a Noir Film with a lot of emphasis on shadows, angled panels toned with blue, red or yellows. Afterlife manages to be extremely violent without showing much violence leaving the most gruesome details to the readers imagination.



The thing that makes Afterlife so different from any other Archie comic (besides the zombies) are the characters. while the characters personalities are mostly intact, Archie being the brave hero, Veronica the spoilt rich girl, Betty the sweet girl next door and Jason and Cheryl still trying to make trouble for the gang, a lot about the characters have been made much darker. Some of these changes include Betty and Veronica, usually good friends in the Archie comics, are now bitter enemies, it heavily implies that twins Jason and Cheryl have an incestuous relationship, friends Ginger and Nancy are hiding a secret homosexual relationship with each other with a few love triangles thrown in for good measure.

What is it with weird twins?
Archie comics have done strange crossovers such as Archie vs Predator, Archie meets the Punisher Archie vs Sharknado but usually keeps its happy go lucky tone, Afterlife throws that sugary sweet tone completely out the window from the first page setting it completely aside from any other Archie comic. Afterlife with Archie will be a hit with anyone who is a fan of post apocalyptic stories or zombie stories but may lose more traditional Archie fans due to its dark tone and reworking of the characters.



I give Afterlife with Archie 4 out of 5 Zombie Jugheads



Find out more about Afterlife with Archie here.

Sunday 6 November 2016

In The Local Pocket #8 - Collateral - Dear John Issue #1


Collateral - Dear John #1 Vacant City

Collateral - Dear John is written by Matt Nicholls and illustrated by Lee Taylor and self published. Everybody loves superheroes and everybody wants to live in a world with superheroes flying through the skies and defeating the bad guys. It sounds great to live in a world with superpowers if you are one of the superheroes saving the day and involved in the action, It sounds a lot less fun if you were just a regular person who's life is constantly being interrupted and endangered by these Superheroes.



Collateral begins with an incredibly violent depiction of a child being gruesomely crushed as they watch a superhero fight a villain above the city. It turns out that this is a PSA commercial warning civilians that if there is a super powered battle around they should flee for their own safety. A young man named Scott shuts off the TV in disgust while his mother, Mary, warns him that paying attention to those PSAs could save his life one day. Mary's husband, John, soon arrives home and walks straight to the bedroom without uttering a single word. Mary goes to check and John admits that once again he is unemployed. John has not lost his job because he is a poor worker, had a disagreement with his boss or because the company is downsizing, John has lost his job because a Super Villain destroyed the building he worked in. This is not the first time John has been unemployed due to the damage and mayhem caused by those with super powers.

Aww is this going to be a superhero co-OH MY GOD!!

Collateral is done entirely in fine black lines and has a sketchy look which is an interesting style although it does make it a little difficult to tell certain characters apart at a glance. Collateral has no colour other than the extremely bright red of the blood in the opening pages but the most eye catching feature is by far the paper. Collateral is not on plain white background but rather the background has a yellow weathered appearance that makes me think of an old dilapidated building. The background is by far the most striking feature of this comic and coupled with the sketchy art gives Collateral an incredibly unique style and makes it a visual delight.



We don't learn much about John, Mary and their three children Scott, James and Timmy but we do learn a lot about their relationships with each other which is what grabs the reader in the first issue. Mary seems like the average wife and mother trying to make the best out of a bad situation doing her best to reassure her husband and sons that everything will be okay despite their hardships. Something that I love about the character of Mary is that she is oddly concerned about her family swearing and constantly tells them off for it. At first I thought this was an odd choice but as I reread the comic it is a great example of how Mary is trying to keep life normal for her family as they have so many worse problems than foul language yet its still a way for her to keep things together. John is a man clearly pushed to the brink and desperate to make ends meet for his family in the face of constant and uncontrollable set backs.

The concept of people dealing with the aftermath of superhero collateral damage is an idea that has been done before but usually from a comedic angle. Collateral - Dear John takes an emotional angle from the first issue and if the tone of the first issue is anything to go by it promises to be an emotional ride.

I give Collateral - Dear John 3 out of 5 crisis moments



Find out more about Collateral - Dear John here and read it online here.

Monday 10 October 2016

All Star Western Volume 1 Guns And Gotham - Uglier than sin and just as fun



All Star Western Volume 1 contains issues 1-6 written by Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray, art by Moritat, colours by Gabriel Bautista, letters by Rob Leigh, published by DC Comics and is part of the New 52 collection. I don't read a lot of ongoing DC titles and I've never really fallen in love with any of the titles or characters with one exception. There is one DC character that I always love to read, buy any merchandise they are on and will always have a special place in my heart. I'm talking about Jonah Hex, I love reading about that rough, morally ambiguous, gun slinging bounty hunter and his antics, finding him one of the most interesting, enjoyable and appealing characters.

Look at this badass!
All Star Western mainly follows the story of Jonah Hex but also has shorter ongoing stories about characters such as El Diablo and The Barbary Ghost and while I do quite enjoy The Barbary Ghost comics I want to talk about the star of the show Jonah Hex's stories. The story begins in Gotham city in the 1880's with Gotham being a rapidly growing and developing city. Dr. Arkham (yes that Dr. Arkham) has been employed by the police to help solve the increasingly gruesome murders of several local prostitutes. Despite already being unwanted by the local police chief Dr. Arkham decides to bring in more help on the case and brings in the infamous bounty hunter Jonah Hex to help him traverse the increasingly treacherous underworld of Gotham City. Jonah Hex gathers his information in his own typical style and a few broken bones, bribed prostitutes and death threats later Jonah has his information. Of course because this is Gotham, Hex and Dr. Arkham realise that they are not just searching for a single killer but an evil organisation that follow the "crime bible".

I feel like this message may be for Hex
Jonah Hex is deeply damaged both physically and mentally as Dr. Arkham constantly observes and yet this is part of the character's appeal. Hex is not a hero but not a villain, he is firmly somewhere in the grey area between. And although he does the occasional good such as giving a prostitute money to not work while a killer is on the loose and giving a rich boy a harsh lesson about abusing the poor, a kindness he didn't need to give either, Jonah Hex is really only concerned about his next bounty and his next drink. Despite all his flaws Hex is such a well written character that you want him to succeed and follow him on his journey. Dr. Arkham is completely out of place in Hex's world, being a doctor he usually deals with the aftermath of violence rather than being involved himself. Dr. Arkham often seems more of a hindrance than help throughout the comic but he is written well enough that between his narrations and mannerisms as a bumbling fish out of water he isn't a complete annoyance.

The art of All Star Western uses really thick line work and uses a lot of red, orange and brown tones that fits well with the industrial look of developing Gotham and the overall grim tone of the comic. The scarred half of Hex's face is as gruesome and horrifying as always but overall his skin has a weathered look that you would expect to see from someone who has spent most of his life riding around in the harsh sun. Something I noticed is that the artist seems to really enjoy doing the faces and hair of young women as they are fresh faced and rosy cheeked compared to the harsh lined look of the faces of the men. The backgrounds are wonderfully done, usually with large amounts of detail or using some fantastic colours and textures.

Between the old house and the dead bodies this page just has so much detail
I'm not entirely sure why Jonah Hex appeals so much to me perhaps it is because he is not a black and white good or bad kind of character or maybe because its just enjoyable to read something dark and gritty sometimes. Whatever the reason I can't get enough of the scarred bounty hunter and find it is something I often go back and reread it every so often.


I give All Star Western Volume 1 4 out of 5 drinking Jonah Hexs



Find out more about All Star Western here.

Not from the comic but something I found hilarious

Giant Days #19 - We Are Gonna Talk About It



Giant Days #19 is written by John Allison, pencils by Max Sarin and published by Boom! I really enjoy Giant Days and have been reading it back since issue 1, which I have reviewed before, my first logo was even based off the original cover of issue #1 by Lissa Treiman. It's a great slice of life comic about 3 women, Daisy, Susan and Esther, enjoying their time at university (set in England) and despite the funny and slightly goofy art style of the comic it is not for children and has made it clear on numerous occasions dealing with some fairly adult stories involving drugs, sex, relationships, sexuality and heartbreak. However in Issue 19 they decided to use a storyline that I feel was handled so poorly that it is bordering on offensive, this particular issue involves drink spiking.



During a three day music festival Susan, while getting drinks for herself and Daisy, bumps into someone from her old hometown called Cowboy, he distracts Susan and drops a pill into her drink. At this point I stopped reading the comic for a moment having two concerns. One, that this lighthearted comic was about to get very dark, and two, that this comic was about to very poorly handle a serious issue. Fortunatly the fun lighthearted comic did not get extremely dark, unfortunately it very poorly handle the concept of drink spiking. Daisy and Esther begin looking for Susan and find her stuck in a porta-potty absolutly freaking out and high as a kite from the spiked drink. What follows is a comical series of events as they attempt to traverse the music festival and help their drugged and hallucinating friend. The problem is that it shouldn't be funny.



While the whole situation is played off for laughs and I do honestly see that it is supposed to be funny drink spiking is a very serious issue that many women (and men) fear. In reality Susan's friends should have taken her straight to the medical tent at the festival and contacted the police, they have no idea what she has been drugged with or how it will react with the alcohol she had been drinking. It goes without saying that it is very VERY illegal to give somebody drugs without their consent, and very VERY dangerous to leave a drugged and disoreinted person wandering around a music festival where they could easily be injured or attacked in their drugged state. Cowboy recieves no real repercussions for his actions with Susan later seeing him laying in a puddle of mud so drugged up that he doesn't remember his own name when really he should be arrested.

Not even close to what I'd call justice
Giant Days has actually had a main character take drugs before with the very sheltered Daisy taking drugs with a friend at a club. This story was done well, with Daisy volunterly taking them herself, clubbing with her friend and then later being taken home and put to bed by said friend. This story was funny, did not advocate yet did not condem the use of drugs with neither Daisy or her Friend, who offered the drugs, coming off in a negative or positive light. That story involving drugs was done tastefully the story in issue 19 is not. If the story was done with Susan taking the drugs in a different way such as asking someone for an asprin and accidently taking the wrong pills out of their bag or accidentally picking up the wrong drink that someone had intentionally mixed their pills with or hell even just deciding to take the drugs voluentarily the story would have been funny but when you add that horrifying and shocking layer of having her drink spiked just takes any humour out of the story.



Drink Spiking is not a rare crime, in Australia between 2002 and 2003 there were an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 incidents of drink spiking with only a portion of these being reported to the police. One of the most common types of drink spiking is called "prank spiking" where the victim is not attacked in any further way, which is what happens to Susan in the comic but simply because she is not attacked further doesn't make it a harmless prank. It sends a terrible message that simply because Susan was not hurt that the situation is funny or not harmful and that the perpetrator shouldn't be reported, it is a crime anyway you look at it.

Fortunately Susan had friends to take care of her
My way of thinking when it comes to comedy or any art form is (straight from South Park) It's either all okay or none of it is, however that doesn't mean I need to find it funny. If a writer or artists wants to make a comic that is entirely dead baby jokes it is their right to do so but hopefully they won't have to think to hard when they are wondering why their sales are so low. I will still read Giant Days as I really enjoy the relationship of the charaters and the adventures they get into and the kinds of issues they usually deal with and I don't think the story was intentionally inapproprite or offensive, It was simply a poorly conceived plot device used to tell a story.

Find out more about Giant Days here.

Sunday 18 September 2016

Snotgirl #1 it's snot that bad



Snotgirl is written by Bryan O'Malley, art by Leslie Hung, colours by Mickey Quinn, letters by Mare Oromo and published by Image Comics. I originally intended to pick up Snotgirl for a friend of mine, who suffers from allergies, to try and introduce her to comics but I thought I should have a quick skim through just to see if I thought she would enjoy it and well, Snotgirl is mine now and I'm not giving it to my friend. Maybe I'll let her borrow it from me.



Lottie Person is a stylish, gorgeous and fun fashion blogger that is better than you in every way and she knows it or at least that's what Lottie's social media would have you believe, the truth however is far less glamorous. As far as anybody knows Lottie's life is picture perfect because the most important thing to Lottie is keeping any side of her that isn't perfect, especially her severe allergies, hidden away in the depths of her snotty tissue filled bedroom although she thinks that maybe her new allergy medication might put an end to this hidden part of her life. Lottie is at a strange time in her life while her fashion blog is popular nobody recognizes her, she makes plans with her friends that then ditch her at the last moment and her "estranged boyfriend", Sunny, is seeing someone *gasp* younger. Lottie thinks that maybe her luck is turning around and she will get the happiness a beautiful and fashionable person like herself deserves when she meets Caroline the "cool girl" and decides to go out for drinks. All is going well with with Cool Girl until Lottie spots someone she didn't expect to see.



Lottie is vain, egotistical, catty and don't we just love her for it. While Lottie is completely sure of some aspects of herself, such as how beautiful she is and her knowledge of whats cool and whats not in fashion, Lottie absolutely screams insecurities clearly evident in her refusal to show any imperfect moment of herself to anyone and her immediate idol worship of Cool Girl and her carefree attitude. While Lottie is not the nicest person in the world she still has an appeal that makes you want her to be happy. I think Lottie taps into the part of every person that hides a part of themselves from the world making it pretty hard to not feel at least a little sympathy for her.

I've had friends cancel on me with poor excuses but damn Cute Girl thats cold
Snotgirl is an incredibly colourful comic with all the main characters fantastically coloured and different in their designs working with their individual styles. The backgrounds are either blank or with minor detail but one of the things that I like the most about the art style of this comic is that any characters in the background that aren't Lottie or the people that play a role in her life are done in a single colour with little detail. I think that the lack of colour and detail on background characters is fantastic way of showing that in no uncertain terms that, to Lottie anyway, these people are unimportant making it very clear that Lottie's world revolves entirely around Lottie.

Look at those unimportant blue people
Snotgirl was actually a lot better than I expected. If you've seen my Facebook or Instagram you know that fashion isn't exactly something that ranks highly on my list of priorities so I wasn't too sure that it would be for me but I was pleasantly surprised. Snotgirl may not hit the spot with everyone as it is heavy with social media references and gen Y lingo but even if it doesn't seem like the thing you'd usually be into I'd suggest giving it a try as you may be surprised like I was.

I give Snotgirl 3.5 our of 5 Half-caf cold brew with non fat almond milk and one pump of lavender syrup coffees.


Find out more about Snotgirl here.

Sunday 14 August 2016

The Local Pocket #6 - Nevermorrow

I was lucky enough to get a sneak preview at the unfinished, let alone published, Never Morrow. Never Morrow is written and illustrated by Chris McQuinlan and self published through Kickstarter. There are still a few days left on the Kickstarter so if you hurry there is still time to pledge for your own copy for as little as $3.

Never Morrow begins with the crew of a spaceship waking up after time in cryosleep as their ship approaches a previously undiscovered planet. As the crew take their positions, the ship's landing gear fails causing it to crash land on this new uncharted planet. As the dust settles the only survivor is Professor Mannix and the ships A.I. Ozma. With few options Professor Mannix leaves the ship with Ozma and searches the plant for intelligent life that may be able to help. It doesn't take long for Professor Mannix to realise that something is very wrong on this peculiar planet.

The copy that I was given the chance to read did not have the completed art so I will be making my assessment of the art by the promotional material and panels already released. The design of the ship is very different from the standard sleek and streamline spaceship and has a boxier look, that I can only describe as a flying USB, and is a much more interesting design than the standard sleek "sports model" style space ships that is so common. The design of the Ozma drone is essentially just a floating camera with fins but is still adorable and somehow manages to give the little A.I. computer heaps of personality.

Never Morrow is focused entirely on professor Mannix who is full of a mixture of wonder and apprehension about the uncharted planet. As I was reading I originally found it very strange that Professor Mannix decided to leave the ship immediately after the crash landing, paying no attention to the bodies of the unfortunate crew. But as Mannix traverses the terrain the professor is struck with a sudden realisation that everyone else is dead and the only one left is the A.I. Ozma. After reading the moment where Mannix has the sudden realisation of the true gravity of the situation made me think that leaving the ship immediately and ignoring dead is similar to how a person in shock would react and gave Professor Mannix a huge amount of depth very quickly.
Professor Mannix

Being familiar with Chris' other work Never Morrow is very different from what I expected which is no way a criticism. I really enjoyed Never Morrow and I can't wait to see it all put together, polished and finished.

It is very difficult to give a rating to an unfinished comic so from what I've seen so far I give Never Morrow 4 out of 5 Ozma drones

Find out more about Never Morrow here and pledge on Kickstarter here.
See more of Chris McQuinlan's work here.

Sunday 31 July 2016

Big Trouble In Little China Volume #1



Big Trouble In Little China (BTILC) volume #1 contains issue 1-4 is written by Eric Powell & John Carpenter, art by Brian Churilla, colours by Michael Garland, letters by Ed Dukeshire and published by Boom! studios. Big Trouble In Little China was originally a John Carpenter movie staring Kurt Russell released in 1986 and it is one of those terribly cheesy so-bad-its-good kind of movies, seriously if you haven't seen it go watch it, right now, this is a blog you can come back anytime, I'll wait. I was so excited when Big Trouble In Little China was announced as a comic the first thing I did was sit down and watch the movie. Fortunately the first volume does not disappoint.


I would strongly recommend seeing the movie before reading the comic as it introduces all the characters and, as the comic picks up almost immediately after the movie ends, makes the story much easier to understand. The story begins with Jack Burton finding the monster from the final scene stowed away in his truck, the Pork Chop Express. Jack learns that this monster is now bound to him as he killed its last master Lo Pan and names him Pete. Jack decides he will figure out what to do with Pete later as he is heading back to China Town for the wedding of  his friends Wang and Mao Yin and to seek the advice of the wise Egg Shen. Jack arrives just in time for the ceremony before it is interrupted by the Wing Kong (the rival gang from the movie) and their current leader Qiang Wu, a servant of the movie villain  Lo Pan, who kidnaps Wang. Jack, Egg Shen and the monster Pete have to journey through the "midnight road", one of the many Chinese hells, to retrieve the souls of the three storms and return them to Qiang Wu in exchange for Wang's life.


The comic perfectly captures the personality of the good old Jack Burton as though he was pulled straight out of the movie and pasted onto the page. He is the same arrogant, goofy, naive, lovable idiot that he is in the movie and still constantly refers to himself in the third person. The comic gives a little more background into the character of Jack revealing pieces of his past giving the character more depth without taking away the lovable fool aspect. Egg Shen is still the wise mentor who seems to be the only one with any real idea of what is going on. All of the different characters they come across in hell are both bizarre and hilarious keeping with the light hearted tone of the comic.



The art has a very grungy look with almost a rushed unfinished look to it with a lot of backgrounds missing details or missing entirely with just colours and no detail at all. I wouldn't classify the art as bad by any means, I expected a little more detail.  Despite my criticisms on the lack of detail the art still is enjoyable and the characters are clearly recognisable as the actors from the movie. Although one thing that does annoy me is Jack's disappearing and reappearing facial hair this for me is a little similar to changing eye colour and bothers me more than it should.


Big Trouble In Little China keeps all the fun and silliness of the movie and tells a new and interesting chapter that fits perfectly with the existing story. If you liked the movie then you will love the comic and the wider world and story it provides.

I give Big Trouble In Little China 4 out of 5 Pete kisses

Find out more about Big Trouble In Little China here.

Sunday 17 July 2016

In The Local Pocket #7 - 5 Seconds


5 Seconds


5 Seconds is written by Sydney local Stephen Kok, illustrated by P.R. Dedelis, colours by Peyton Freeman and self published through Kickstarter. As a child I always wanted time travel powers, more than any other super power, but I wasn't greedy about it. I only wanted to be able to rewind or see into the future by about 10 seconds so I could change my answer to a question or change the outcome of an awkward situations. So when I read the concept for 5 seconds I was pretty interested, being able to see five seconds into the future could be an incredibly useful super power.


5 Seconds begins with our two main characters, Ellie and Jake, on the phone as Jake reveals his newly discovered talent, he can see five seconds into the future. Jake, rather adorkably, asks Ellie on a date so he can demonstrate his new found powers to her. During their coffee date Ellie tests Jake's new talent with a deck of cards discovering that he can see exactly five seconds into the future. Jake decides that the local casino may be the perfect place to test exactly how well his powers work despite Ellie's concerns of running into a "Joe Pesci" type character and possible repercussions from the casino. Unfortunately for Ellie and Jake they should have been more concerned about the criminal in a tough spot who overheard their conversation and thinks that perhaps he may also be able to cash in on Jake's new ability and follows them to the casino to see the proof for himself.


The three main characters are Ellie, Jake and Lucas the criminal. Ellie and Jake interact really well together as they explore Jake's newly discovered precognitive powers. Often character's in comics (and most stories in general) immediately accept unbelievable claims that are placed before them and its refreshing to see a character actually test their friend's power as Ellie does in 5 Seconds. After Jake proves his power Ellie plays the part of a great supportive friend. Lucas is in no way a good guy but he does actually have some motivation as to why he decides to go after Ellie and Jake as he is in a desperate situation and in trouble with even worse people. It's refreshing to see a bad guy written with more motivation than "is a bad guy" and makes the reader feel at least a little sorry for them or gives some explanation as to why they are doing the things they do.



5 Seconds incorporates a very interesting art style to show past, present and future explained in a foreword by Ellie and Jake. Sepia is used for past, regular colours for present and a whitewash kind of style for the future, this is a creative and practical way to easily tell the time periods apart including clearly showing a vision of the future that happens in the past that sounds like it would be complicated but with this system is easily understandable. The art of 5 Seconds is bright, colourful and seems to have a bit of an anime influence with clear facial expressions that are emotive and easy to read.



A lot of comics waste time with an origin story of the protagonist's powers but 5 Seconds has none of that and decides to just skip any reason for the powers and just cut straight to the story. Skipping a power origin actually works in this case but 5 Seconds is still an origin story as Jake learns to control and use his powers and I'm already excited for the sequel that has been confirmed and you can keep track of here.

I give 5 Seconds 3.5 Decks of cards


Find out more about 5 Seconds here.

Sunday 22 May 2016

DC Super Hero Girls #1


DC Super Hero Girls is written by Shea Fontana, art and letters by Yancey Labat, colours by Monica Kubina, and published by DC comics. I picked up DC Super Hero Girls #1 at Free Comic Book Day.  It came out of the "kids box" choices and honestly, don't kill me but I wanted to cut it up and make badges out of it because I thought the designs of the characters were so cute. I thought I should probably at least have a quick glance through before I started the chopping and was presently surprised by the quality of the comic, so much so that it has been saved from my badge maker..... For now.


Super Hero Girls takes place in a universe where both superheroes and villains attend Super Hero High. They train in superhero related classes such as sparring in Coach Wildcat's P.E. class, Super Suit class with Mr. Crazy Quilt, all overseen by Vice Principal Grodd and Principal Waller. The first issue follows Supergirl as she worries about finals and a problem that all high schoolers face, bullies. Supergirl begins to panic about her final examinations and runs away to her Uncle Johnathan and Aunt Martha's house and confides in them about her fears as they encourage her to head back to school. On her way back to school Supergirl is attacked by an unknown assailant who is also going after the other super hero girls.

Being for kids the characters are not exactly full of depth and personality, nor do I think we are going to be seeing things such as Harley Quinn's abusive backstory. That being said I feel sometimes it's appropriate to forgo things like this when the comic is aimed at children. The comic includes well known characters such as Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Supergirl, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy and some less known characters such as bumblebee and Katana. There are some fantastic little Easter eggs in the comic such as Comet Supergirl's horse in her Krypton flashback, Batgirl's personal computer is called Oracle, teachers being older heroes and villains such as Gorilla Grodd, Amanda Waller, Wildcat and Crazy Quilt and many well loved characters making appearances as background characters.

A huge and constantly debated issue in comics is its representation of women, especially in regards to unrealistic body shape and unnecessarily revealing costumes. Despite that, DC Super Hero Girls has done a fantastic job of making the characters and their costumes recognizable without having them over sexualised or inappropriate for children. The characters are made to look more like teenagers, without the ridiculous breasts or micro waists that plague their grown up counterparts. Their costumes are still clearly recognizable, but made not only more casual with things such as hoodies and sneakers but far less sexualised than their other series.

While DC Super Hero Girls is for children it is pretty enough and has enough Easter eggs to keep adults helping their children read it interested. It is a great starting point for children, especially little girls, to begin reading their first comic with well known and popular characters and as a bonus you can get dolls and action figures with these awesome kid friendly costumes.

I give DC Super Hero Girls #1 3 out of 5 super heroines.

Find out more about DC Superhero Girls here and order yourself a set of dolls here or at Target.