Comic Bento - September 2015 - Fight the Fight

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Submitted by Mike 'Ace' Maillaro on Fri, 10/16/2015 - 09:21

This month’s theme is FIGHT THE FIGHT, a box spotlighting some of the Comic Bento team’s favorites fighters. This was a fairly random collection, but you get five books and they are a great value, so it’s real hard to complain. You get over $80 of comics here for $25. And I enjoyed all but one book in the box.

I have to admit, I am much more excited about next month’s collection. It’s called “Masks” and it’s curated by Gail Simone!

X-O MANOWAR – Vol. 2: Enter Ninjak

Written by: Robert Venditti
Artist by: Lee Garbett
Inked by: Stefano Gaudiano
Colored by: Moose Baumann
Lettered by: Dave Lanphear

Published by Valiant
Cover Price: $14.00

Originally published as X-O Manowar #5-8

This was the only trade in this box that I have read before. But I love Valiant, so I was glad to reread these comics. I do think it's a little odd to include a trade from the middle of an ongoing series (they did the same thing with quite a few of the books in this month's box). But thankfully, Valiant always does a good job of making their books accessible to new readers.

X-O is the story of Aric, a Visigoth warrior who was kidnapped from 5th century Earth by an alien race called the Vine. Aric steals a powerful armor from the Vine and returns to Earth...only to find himself getting home in modern times.

The presence of this dangerous unknown force has gotten Earth’s governments attention. Also, the Vine has deeply infiltrated many government agencies, and they want the armor back. In this second trade, Ninjak is sent to defeat Aric and “recover” the X-O armor. He has been told that it is a terrorist with a stolen armor. After a few confrontations with Aric, Ninjak quickly realizes that he’s being manipulated, so he ends up forming an alliance with X-O to help take down Vince elements that have infiltrated British Intelligence.

A few years back, I had decided to go back and read everything Valiant put out in their first run in the early 90’s. While I enjoyed most of it, I kind of thought that Ninjak fell a little short of his potential. He’s a combination of a ninja and James Bond….how can they not work? But his old series felt real choppy and dull at times. I was very happy to see that in the new incarnation of Valiant they seem to have a much stronger handle on Ninjak. His appearances in X-O and Unity were great, and his ongoing series has been one of Valiant’s most consistent reads every month.

Since the theme for this month’s Comic Bento is “Fighting” this was a perfect book to choose. The fight scenes between Ninjak and X-O are pretty awesome. I loved that X-O considered Ninjak to be cheating because he refused to face him straight up. Ninjak is a tactical fighter, and he’s not going to try overpowering X-O as that would just be a lost cause. In the end, the two of them seem to find some common ground, though Aric seems determined to not like Ninjak no matter what.

X-O was the first book to come out when Valiant relaunched, and in many ways, it’s probably been the best series they have done. This book is written well, and the art is just gorgeous. As soon as I saw this book in this box, I felt I got my money’s worth for the month.

Score: 4.5/5

DAREDEVIL Season One

Written by: Anthony Johnston
Penciled by: Wellington Alves
Inked by: Nelson Pereira
Colored by: Bruno Lang
Lettered by: VC’s Clayton Cowles

Published by Marvel
Cover price: $24.99

I haven't read any of the Season One books before. Mostly because of the real high price tag. Yeah, it's nice that they come with a free digital code for the book, but it's still $25 for a relatively short graphic novel. I was expecting Season One to be a lot more like "Earth One," new versions of the characters with updated origin stories. But for the most part, in this book, they pretty much kept Daredevil's story intact. For spending this much money, you are better off just getting a few volumes of the Essential Daredevil.

I did like how the story was basically one long narrative about an attempt to shutdown a church in a corrupt land deal. In between, we see quick glimpses at Daredevil encountering villains like the Owl, Mr. Fear, and Purple Man. But it did feel a little disjointed at times, like they were trying to introduce a little too much at once.

I also don't think they did much to warrant a "new" telling of Daredevil's origin. Daredevil's story is pretty straight-forward, but it didn't make a lot of sense to me to charge $25 for this graphic novel. Granted, I didn't actually pay for this book as it was part of a $20 blind box, so it ended up being a great value for me. But I would find it hard to recommend this book if you were paying full price for it.

It was odd that Daredevil suddenly switches from the yellow costume to the red costume with no real explanation. It just seemed that if they really wanted to explore Daredevil's past, they could have taken the time to give the reader some kind of explanation beyond "Ha! My new costume scared this guy!"

As a bonus, you get the first issue of Waid's run on Daredevil in this graphic novel.

Score: 3.5/5

Highlander Vol. 3 Armageddon

Written by: Brandon Jerwa
Art by: Carlos Rafael
Colored by: Carlos Lopez
Lettered by: Simon Bowland

Published by Dynamite
Cover Price: 11.99

Originally published as Highlander 10-12

Highlander is a franchise that has taken a beating over the years. Long story short, Highlander is about a group of immortals that have been hiding among humanity for thousands of years. These immortals can only be killed by being decapitated, and if one immortal kills another they absorb all of their power. In the end, they are supposed to fight each other until only one is left standing, and then he would get some kind of big power called the Gift. At the end of the first movie, Conner McCleod (from the Highlands of Scotlands, which is where the title comes from) had killed off the other immortals and the Gift ended up being able to finally be mortal and raise a family. But since the movie proved to be popular, they quickly decided to ignore that ending.

The original movie is a classic, but most of the sequels are kind of awful (ironicly, the first Highlander movie I saw was the second one…which I liked at the time…though even I have to admit it’s pretty awful when compared to the first one). The TV series was decent, but for me, it’s always been hard to get into a Highlander story that didn’t feature Christopher Lambert.

Dynamite’s comics, like the movies, were all over the place. They did tell some good stories, but also some crappy ones. I am not sure if they knew the end was coming here, but it seems like they put together a real hastily thrown together final three issues here. Basically this takes place after Highlander: End Game. Connor McCleod allowed his cousin Duncan to kill in him order to take his power to enable him to defeat the bad guy of the movie. In Armageddon, Connor’s spirit is still strong in Duncan, acting as a mentor for him. Duncan finds himself captured by an immortal woman who is trying to force the other Immortals to fight each other to put herself in the position to take their power. Barring that, she seems willing to set off nuclear weapons to exterminate “normals” in large numbers.

It was strange to include this trade. It’s basically the end of Dynamite’s Highlander series, and everything felt rushed. When this comic originally came out, the TV series had been off the air for close to ten years. And since Endgame is pretty universally reviled, I can’t imagine there were a lot of people asking for a follow-up story. Brandon Jerwa seemed to do the best possible job he could here, but the material just isn’t all that engaging. They do seem to be tying up a lot of threads left over from the TV series, but unless you know the show, it is a little hard for a new reader to just jump in and follow them all that well.

The art here is pretty good, but it’s not enough to salvage this book. There is a lot going on here, and none of it seems to be all that well thought out. It feels like “we’re closing the doors, so we might as well do it with a bang.” Literally as nuclear devices go off. I did like the speculations of “what would a nuclear bomb do to an immortal” but it never gets followed up on.

Last month, I had complained that some of Dynamite’s trades from a few years ago seemed to be poor quality, and this was also the case here. The cover was basically hanging off of this book. And I can’t get over the cover price of $12 for 3 comics…especially since these just weren’t all that good. This was definitely the book I enjoyed least in this collection. Which is a shame, because I actually like Jerwa and typically enjoy Highlander.

Score: 2/5

Superman/Batman: Vengeance

Written by Jeph Loeb
Penciled by Ed McGuinness
Inked by Dexter Vines
Colored by Lee Loughridge and Dave McCain
Lettered by Richard Starkings

Published by: DC
Cover Price: 12.99

Originally Published as Superman/Batman 20-25

I had read quite a bit of Loeb’s Superman/Batman back when it first came out, but I think I had stopped reading comics entirely by the end of the Supergirl arc. I honestly had no interest in ANOTHER Supergirl. I was a fan of Matrix Supergirl, and I did enjoy the “Many Happy Returns” Supergirl that appeared at the end of Peter David’s Supergirl run. Adding another “classic” Supergirl made no sense to me, and it was one of the many reasons I had stopped reading comics again in the mid 2000’s. I did think Loeb did a good job with the character and this book, I just didn’t see the point.

This trade is a pretty wild story. It starts on a world of heroes who are Avengers homages. Superman and Batman show up and murder the Giant Man homage. It turns out that it’s all part of a giant master plan being run by Joker and Mister Mxyzptlk, which ends up involving Bizarro and Batzarro. The whole story is so big and over the top, but Loeb manages to juggle it all real well.

One thing I really enjoyed about Loeb’s Superman/Batman is that he takes the time to show the distinctions between the characters, but at the same time, makes it easy to understand how they can be friends and allies. They are very different characters with very different backgrounds and methodologies, but in the end, theirs goals are exactly the same. Even with all the craziness going on in this book, there is still plenty of that important thread.

Throughout this book, we get to see the Superman and Batmen of several different realities, including a gender-swapped one. Unfortunately, they don’t add a lot to the story. Actually, it just kind of made things cluttered, same with the inclusion of Darkseid. It was like Loeb wanted to squeeze as much as possible here. Like I said earlier, he did manage to juggle it all very well, but I do wonder if it could have been a little better story with less characters.

There was one thing about this story I really hated. It was far too easy for characters to leave the Source Wall. Superman is able to pull Darkseid free. And later, the Supergirls are able to pull Superman free after Darkseid traps him there. The Source Wall is supposed to be a huge ultimate consequence, but in this book, we find out if you have super-strength, it’s no big thing.

But for the most part, these are just small complaints. Vengeance was a really good read, and definitely makes me want to go back and catch up on the Superman/Batman issues I missed.

Score: 3.5/5

Executive Assistant Iris Complete First Volume

Written by David Wohl
Illustrated by Eduardo Francisco
Colored by John Starr
Lettered by Josh Reed

Published by: Aspen
Cover Price: $18.99

Originally published as Executive Assistant Iris Preview Issue, 0-6

This story was incredible! I don’t think I have ever read anything by Aspen, but I had been curious about this series for a while. In the world of Iris, there is a place called The Academy that takes in orphaned girls and trains them to be “Executive Assistants.” Not only are these women to fill the role of secretaries and concubines, they are also trained assassins in case their bosses need business to be taken care of in a more lethal fashion. Iris is in the employ of a Mister Ching, whose ambition has him sending Iris to murder longtime allies. Iris soon realizes that she’s in service to a maniac and works to remove him from power.

What I loved about this book was how original it was. The whole Executive Assistant concept was fleshed out brilliantly, and Iris was a great character. I have always been a big fan of beautiful women that can kick my ass, and Iris fit that criteria perfectly. I also liked that she could be real subtle too. The way she poisoned a rival in order to make it look like a heart attack showed just how deeply her training ran. Actually, she sort of reminds me a little of Ninjak. I would love to see a crossover between the two of them.

Iris’s struggle between her duty and what she knows is right made for a real powerful story here. I also liked the flashbacks to her life before becoming an Executive Assistant were really well done. They never took away from the flow of the narrative, and they always felt like they added something important to the present story. This book was just perfectly balanced, and I could not help but enjoy it.

My only real gripe was that her intricate tattoos didn’t make a lot of sense, especially with how much undercover work she was doing. I can’t see someone showing up with those kinds of tats and being able to seduce someone at a fancy dinner party. Seems like someone would realize she was out of place. From a visual perspective, the tattoos were great, but it just seemed like it would not have made a lot of sense in a practical matter.

But the writing and art on this book were close to flawless. Like I said, I have not read much by Aspen before, but I definitely will be interested in checking out more of the Executive Assistant books. I know they are available on Comixology, hopefully we can get one of Comixology’s huge sales on them so I can pick them up!

Score: 4.5/5

Overall: This month’s box was a great value and you got five trades. And other than Highlander, I thought they were all real high quality books. As I said earlier, I am really looking forward to seeing what Gail Simone has in mind for her “Masks” themed box in October. I already have mine ordered.

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