Wildcats #26

“Desert Storms” (No Spoilers)

Wow! If you are a long time Wildstorm fan like me there are a ton of references and appearances in here that will make you giddy! Much like Christos Gage did in his run, Adam Beechen is finding great ways to incorporate old characters we haven’t seen in years.

Beechen is still juggling several stories but for the most part we get two stories here with two distinct themes. One is the more epic story involving the mysterious character Aeon and the majority of the other heroes. But the second is a more personal story as Warblade takes the nurse who helped him when he was wounded and they go to Earth to find her family. In the midst of all the grandness of the Aeon story, the Warblade story is more down to Earth and very human. I hope your heart is prepared for the outcome.

Ides of Blood #1

“Rome Of Shadow, Rome Of Light” (No Spoilers)

Here we’ve got a fresh offering from two new creators. As far as I understand, this is both Stuart C. Paul and Christian Duce’s first foyer into comics. I have to say, they’re beginning their comics career with a bang with this series.

I’m going to start with Christian Duce’s art. It is gorgeous! Combine that with Carlos Badilla’s moody coloring and you’ve got the perfect setting for this dark tale. Duce’s art is incredibly detailed, even when he’s drawing the city of ancient Rome. Duce also has a realistic style so it fits the story well, almost like a movie. Each shot is well chosen and believably conveys each scene as we progress through the story. He even does a good job of giving each character some defining facial features which makes it easier to distinguish them in an issue that is heavy on characters.

X-files/30 Days of Night #2

(No Spoilers)

I feel like I’m watching an episode of the X-files. That’s how much I think this creative team is nailing this mini-series so far!

I don’t just hear David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson’s voices when I read this, I believe that this is Mulder and Scully in an episode that I’m reading about instead of watching. There is a great opening scene with the two that is classic. The dialogue is spot on, the reaction of each character, and even the little goofiness that Mulder tended to have in the show. Everything about this screams X-files. I hope fans of the show are picking this up.

The Authority: The Lost Year #12

“Reality” (No Spoilers)

Here we are finally and so ends half (looking at you Wildcats) of the redemption for Worldstorm and this titled which had been put on hold since Grant Morrison left it in 2006. It has been a bumpy ride to say the least but it is very interesting how they chose to end this.

All of you who have been following our coverage of this title know that for the most part we’ve been really frustrated with it. Morrison had a strong start when he worked on it, so when Keith Giffen was announced to take it over it seemed like a good fit. Giffen, after all, had already written these characters several times. But somewhere along the way, it seemed that this series as a whole just started to fall apart. One thing that was evident was the story arcs were way too short. There were several alternate worlds that the team visited that were really cool but only lasted two issues. This led to a lot of great set up being resolved super fast in order to move on to the next alternate reality.