The Web #1 Review - save your money.

The Red Circle one shots were very mediocre but I thought I’d at least give the new creative teams a try for the first issue of the ongoing series, but unfortunately they couldn't hook me in.

It’s a shame because The Web One Shot performed the best out of the 4 Red Circle One Shots released so I had good expectations for this issue but it was a totally boring . I can’t even really remember what happened except that we find out The Web is in love with his dead brother’s girlfriend, and then....nope it was so dull I forgot.

The cover is deceiving as you hope the art is going to be as cool as that, not so I'm afraid, it's just regular cartoony superhero stuff. Not bad, just not very good.

The Hangman backup was just as useless as it just re-hashed all the info we learnt about him and his powers from the previous Hangman One-Shot. Avoid this and save your 4 dollars for something a bit more exciting folks.

Hex's score: 1 out of 5.

Mega mini reviews!

I’m so behind on my comic books because there has been so many I’ve picked up in the last couple of weeks I haven’t got round to reading them all yet. Due to that some of these reviews might be for older comics (I’ve lost track to be honest), but I want to try and do as many mini reviews as I can from now on so here we go:

Batman and Robin #3 - Review

Really really great. The usual thick layering of Morrison’s Batman work continues. Like his run on Batman, Morrison’s comics don’t always read that great as single issues but read together they are fantastic. Pyg as a villain is insanely sick and brilliant and my fav Batman villain for a long time. Quitely also does great work here (and I’m not generally a fan). Stand out scene was when Pyg had Robin tied to the chair and danced provocatively in front of him before Damian responds by saying “You just redefined ‘Wrong’” – Fan-fucking-tastic. Damian rocks.

4 out of 5

Detective Comics #856 - Review

The great work here continues. This really is one of my favorite titles. It is just so beautiful. Rucka pulls no punches when it comes to Kate’s sexuality and I love that. The story is intriguing, but discussion with the supporting cast can be a little confusing, if like me you had never read any story with Kate Kane/Batwoman before. Like Pyg in the pages of Batman & Robin another great addition to the villains of Gotham is the haunting Alice.

Finally The Question back up should not be ignored, this is the best co-feature DC is producing, and like the books namesake is a great little detective story.

4.5 out of 5

Red Circle: The Shield #1 - Review

Ummmm…. It was okay, But I was expecting more after the last issue (The Web) that was pretty good.
So the story goes that the main character is injured in the army. The US government then save his life by attaching liquid armor to his skin that can be absorbed into his body. It allows for super strength and flight amongst about a hundred other things. It’s basically really ridiculous. The little story hook is that the Shield’s father is actually alive (when the Shield believes him dead) and appears to be connected in the background of the Shield project some how. An average read. I’ll try the first issue or so when the regular series hits but I’m not too excited.

2 out of 5

Dark Avengers #8 - Review

Cyclops as the new mutant Messiah! A bit hypocritical really, as at the end of this issue the X-Men raise their ‘Utopia’ island from the sea and declare they want mutants to be separate from humans on the main land, but isn’t that what Magneto did with Asteroid M and what the X-Men are meant to fight against? Anyway, I loved this issue, the best of the cross over so far. Emma and Namor show their true colors to Osborn, which will lead into the big fight finale one-shot between the Dark Avengers and X-Men. It was played well, and rocked. Fraction did a really good job on this issue. All I want to know is what happened to Beast? He sort of disappeared in the middle of the issue, I hope we find out in the next chapter, he looked so sad with his little cat eyes.

4 out of 5

Wolverine Origins #39 - Review

Romulus is here! Finally this is what I have been waiting for. This title was pretty shit form day one but ever since Dark Reign it’s been pretty good. This was a chapter where a couple of big X-Men villains die. Romulus, for those of you who haven’t been reading this book, is the mastermind behind every shitty event in Wolverines life, ever. How are connected? Why has Romulus been doing this to Wolverine? Not sure yet. But he looks like he could be Wolvie’s dad or granddad or something. GIVE ME THE ANSWERS NOW! Or at least next issue… please!!!!!

4 out of 5

Check back tomorrow for mini reviews of Blackest Night Superman #1, X-Men Legacy #227 and more!

Red Circle: The Web – mini review

Red Circle: The Web #1 - Review

Writer: J Michael Straczynski
Artist: Roger Robinson

Well, after two pretty slow Red Circle One-Shots, this just got good. This was actually the issue I was least looking forward to because I thought the idea of the character was pretty stupid, i.e. a superhero who can be contacted via the internet to help solve your problems. Well I was wrong and this issue was great. It sets up some personal tragedy for our main character, features him finding out what a real hero needs to be and introduces a couple of cool arch enemies for the character. Our hero is a mega rich playboy whose invested his wealth into a hi tech command station and a costume that has more gadgets than Iron Man including increased strength and flight, just a shame about the colour scheme. This was a great one in done superhero outing and I hope the great work continues for the last Red Circle one shot featuring The Shield.


Hex's Score - 4 out of 5.

More Mini Reviews - Last weeks books

Uncanny X-Men #514

A good chapter in this cool little cross over. Summers steps up and starts putting teams of various X-Men in tactical positions for the final show down. Emma’s true involvement with Osborn is still unclear to me. The Daken/Bullseye ruck was fun, it’s only a matter of time before that really boils over. The art and coloring are really great, writing too, but I would like to see more of Dark Beast and the captured mutants to find out what’s going on there. Hopefully that will be explored next chapter.

Blackest Night: Batman #1

Ummm… I was a bit disappointed with this. It was okay but I think after two great chapters in the main Blackest Night series I was expecting more of the same big action and dark horror, but this didn’t really have it. It mainly sets that up for next issue, and there was too much focus on Deadman for me, and him jumping from body to body. He could easily been given a co-title. Not sure if Tomasi’s writing of Dick and Damian was right for me either, I know the action will be coming next issue, so I look forward to that.

Red Circle: Inferno #1

Really nice art, sketchy and dark, but no real story of how Inferno ended up the way he is, or why he looks completely different when he changes to Inferno (i.e. goes bald and grows a moustache!). Could have been another chapter of Hangman as he was featured a lot, and used well, though the extent of his powers seem unclear. I’m not sure on this series. First issue is all origin for Hangman, this issue has none at all for Inferno. The Web is featured next. Lets see how that issue turns out, but this one is probably another pass.

Red Circle: The Hangman #1 - Review

Red Circle: The Hangman #1 - Review

Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Art by Tom Derenick

Hex’s score: 2 out of 5

I have been intrigued about the Red Circle line since it was first announced, having not picked up the previous Impact line from DC (which mostly featured the same characters) the idea of new vigilantes and heroes for the DCU written by J. Michael Straczynski appealed to me.

So the first issue arrived last week and started off with the Hangman. I liked the cool design of the character and looked forward to reading this so much that it was at the top of my stack, but by the end of the book I was a bit disappointed.

Why? Well it started pretty good, our main character Dr. Dickering is a doctor in the Union army during the American Civil War who is captured behind enemy lines by the confederates and sentenced to be hanged for spying, even though he was actually delayed by attending to an injured confederate soldier. This is where the story goes a bit down hill for me.

Upon his death he is met by a spiritual servant of either Satan or God, this is left unclear to our hero but he has to choose whether to continue to the after life, the risk that it could be Heaven or Hell, or take the chance to work for his unknown employer as an avenging vigilante for all time. He obviously decides the latter and we have a brief glimpse of his legendary tales through the ages battling evil. We jump to the present where the Hangman by day is a head doctor at a hospital emergency ward and at night morphs into the hangman to continue his work against evil.

Now the first thing that bugged me about this issue is that we see the Hangman battling some thugs and getting shot. We learn that he is basically immortal, and that right there limits the stories that can be told about him. Why are we really going to care about the dangers this character may be in if he can never die? The second irritating thing is that he only changes to the Hangman at sunset, like a Werewolf or Vampire; he can only come out to play at night? Why? The last thing that annoyed me was the main character has a Tony Stark style moustache by day, but when he turns into the Hangman the moustache disappears!?!? What’s the point of that? He either rocks the facial hair or not. It's just pointless.

The art was pretty nicely done by Derenick (apart from the moustache issue) but all in all this was a pretty generic origin issue. I’m not sure why I should have expected anything else but I just wanted the issue to hook me on to the character a little more and get me more excited about his future adventures. Right now I’m only mildly interested. This is definitely not an essential pick up. I will continue with this Red Circle One-Shots to see how I feel after the introduction of all the new characters in the Red Circle family. Next up is Inferno, hitting this week.

The Hangman #1 – Preview

Over at DC’s blog The Source they have posted a cool 7 page preview from the first issue of the new Red Circle line; The Hangman.

The solicitation reads:

J. Michael Straczynski’s re-imagination of the Red Circle heroes begins here, with JMS teaming up with artists Tom Derenick and Bill Sienkiewicz to introduce The Hangman to the DCU.
The Civil War was one of our nation’s bloodiest conflicts, but one of the participants remains alive. Union doctor Robert Dickering found himself on the wrong side of the battle lines, and despite his heroic efforts to save a Confederate soldier, he also found himself on the wrong end of a noose. But when a shadowy power offers him a chance at immortality — with the caveat that he must roam the Earth, saving the lives of wrongly-condemned innocents like himself — Dickering agreed, and becomes the mysterious Hangman. But it doesn’t stop there, friends. We’ve got a first look at the issue right here.

THE RED CIRCLE: THE HANGMAN #1 hits 8/5.

I’m really excited about these Red Circle one-shots and the ongoing series for some reason. I think all the characters look very promising.

You can view the preview here.

So have a look guys and let me know what you think. Will you be picking this up based on the preview?

Red Circle round up

Newsarama has exclusive interviews with the creators for the up coming Red Circle line of books. If your interested in picking up the new DC titles these interviews are worth a look as the creators talk a bit more about what they intend to do with the new characters.

Inferno - http://www.newsarama.com/comics/060918-Jerwa-Inferno.html
Hangman - http://www.newsarama.com/comics/060918-Hangman-Derenick.html
The Shield - http://www.newsarama.com/comics/060924-Shield-Trautmann.html

The Web - http://www.newsarama.com/comics/060917-Robinson-Web.html

Artist Roger Robinson talks The Web @ Newsarama

Nice interview with artist Roger Robinson about his upcoming gig on The Web for DC. There are some nice preview pages here also and Roger is a really good penciler. The Web ongoing will have a Hangman co-feature & The Shield ongoing will have an Inferno co-feature both due out in September. I’m looking forward to these new series and to reading about new (in a re-imagining sense) characters and as they are new characters the scope of the stories could be endless, you don’t know what to expect, which I like.

The above pic by Robinson is really cool, (except the action figure legs, whats that about!?!?) so I'm expecting good things on the art side of the series.

Read the full interview here: http://www.newsarama.com/comics/060917-Robinson-Web.html

Last Red Circle teaser from DC – The Shield

Click image to enlarge.

Latest Red Circle teaser from DC - The Web

Click image to enlarge

The charcter is written like a bit of a dick it seems but the modernisation of the web theme could be good. We'll have to wait and see.

Hangman Teaser from DC Online

Click the image for a close up

Of all the Red Circle characters announced, I think Hangman looks the most promising. I'll be picking up all the one-shots. Anyone else? Hangman is due out 5 August.