Immortal Weapons #1 (Marvel, $3.99)
By Jeb D.
 
I have no idea what kind of commercial legs the Iron Fist franchise has left in it, but the first issue of this miniseries leaves no doubt that, artistically, it continues to flourish long after the original Brubaker/Fraction/Aja team moved on.
 
In the first of five issues that will (evidently) trace the history of the various Immortal Weapon fighters that were introduced in the Seven Cities of Heaven storyline, Jason Aaron (the name that seems to be on half the good comics I read nowadays) tells the life story of Fat Cobra to readers… and to the title character! I won’t spoil the details of how and why that takes place; suffice to say that the rotund one has had an up-and-down career as adventurer, womanizer, and glutton, and that a certain theatrical background is appropriate, as the masks of both comedy and tragedy adorn the story.  
 
The roster of artists handling the various segments is impressive, including Mico Suyan, Roberto De La Torre, Khari Evans,and Michael Lark, in keeping with the series’ use of assigning specific artists to tell different aspects or historical periods of a story. Suyan’s work on the framing sequence employs a nice variety of facial expression, and Lark’s fight scene is among the best work I’ve seen from him (that segment also brings me my new all-purpose catch phrase: “Hell’s Dentist!”).
 
One caveat: the history of Fat Cobra as presented here places him firmly within the Marvel Universe, and while I think it’s handled very neatly (with a couple of great jokes), I know that there are readers who’d prefer to keep series like this one away from the standard continuity. All I can say is that it really doesn’t derail the main thrust of the story at all.
 
The book also includes the first eight-page chapter of a new Iron Fist story, by Duane Swierczynski and Travel Foreman, that will continue through the series. It’s on the dark end of the current Iron Fist saga, but already quite moving after only eight pages.
 
Honestly, the only complaint I have about this book is that, like the Orson Randall tales, the main story moves so quickly through Fat Cobra’s history that we’re constantly being tantalized by references to adventures that I now REALLY want to read about! I mean, who wouldn’t want to learn more about a massive living weapon fighting Russian werewolves on the moon, or giving karate lessons to… well, I won’t spoil that one. But any time Aaron wants to expand on any of these, he’s got my four bucks.


FOUR AND A HALF OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS


[Raided] Captain Britain and MI-13 #15 (Marvel, $2.99)
By Jeb D.
 
The only good thing I can say about the cancellation of this book is that Marvel let Paul Cornell and Leonard Kirk wrap up the story in this final issue. That’s small comfort, though, for those who have savored Cornell’s heady mixture of magic and sci-fi, whimsy and acid wit, and big-time superheroing. In the last chapter of “Vampire State,” Dracula and his forces commit their all-out assault on Earth, with Britain’s heroes (even honorary brit Blade) rallying to meet them. And, amazingly, while Kirk unloads plenty of fantastical mayhem on the pages, there’s still room for him and Cornell to bring us the desperate strategy of a weary Pete Wisdom, the hard choices facing Blade, and Dr. Hussain, the reunion of Captain Britain and his wife, and the heartbreaking (literally) last stand of the Black Knight and his improbable lady love, Faiza Hussain, wielder of Excalibur, against Dracula himself. As a comics writer, Cornell’s a real find: his association with the current Dr Who TV series (he has written a couple of Hugo-nominated episodes of the series, and several tie-in novels) seems to carry over into his comics writing, in his ability (or, more to the point, willingness) to balance over-the-top action with unsettling darkness. I have no doubt that he’s got plenty more great comics ahead of him, but it saddens me that so few of us were able to support this particular cast of characters. Was the book too British? Was the title too long and unwieldy? Does just the name “Captain Britain” sound like a cheesy ripoff? I dunno. I do know, though, that anyone who missed the single issues can safely pick up the trade collections (presuming there is one more left to come), and lose themselves in Cornell’s wild, magical Britain, secure in the knowledge that they’re getting a complete, satisfying story.


FOUR OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS
 

[Raided] The Wonderful Wizard of Oz #8 (of 8) (Marvel, $3.99)
By Jeb D.
 
OK, I haven’t read an Oz book since I was a kid, and until recently, had no idea that Eric Shanower had ever tackled this material in comics form before this. So I don’t bring a lot of historical perspective to this series. All I know for sure is that Shanower, and artist Skottie Young, have reimagined  a timeless story (one that, for all intents and purposes, is practically a fairy tale now) in a stunningly vibrant way. Shanower’s sctript has, of course, had more room to work with than did the makers of the beloved film version, so he’s had room for Winkies and Kalidahs and Quadlings, and even manages a bigger role for the flying monkeys. While he carefully coaxes Baum’s story onto the page, Young brings it to a life that is very much its own. In this version, the characters are all expressive faces, flying hair and clothes, and loose, wild limbs. The neatly buttoned-up Oz that Judy Garland knew gives way here to something funkier and more ominous. Fairy tales often teach us to deal with the perils of growing up, and Shanower and Young have created an Oz that brims with the seductive danger of the uncertain future that adulthood represents for a child. I suppose this is one of those reviews that really sums up as “Get the collected edition when it comes out,” but even on its own, the concluding issue #8 brings fans who only know the movie the chance to venture through the China Country, watch our heroes (well, one of them) confront a Shelob-like spider, and to meet the Hammerheads, before Dorothy finally makes her inevitable return to a glorious, golden Kansas.  I know that Shanower and Young have adapted at least one more of Baum’s Oz books, and I can’t wait. The only reason that I’m holding off a full five-Viking recommendation for this book is that I’m saving it for the eventual hardcover.


FOUR AND A HALF OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS

 

Dethklok versus The Goon One-Shot ($3.50)(Dark Horse)
by Graig Kent

We have a few admirers of Eric Powell’s The Goon on our roster here as Thor’s Comic Column, but our Goon fans knew next nothing about Dethklok and didn’t feel comfortable with tackling this book. Thus the task fell upon me, and what a strange acquisition on my behalf, a one-shot crossing over a comic book character I don’t read with the characters from a cartoon show I don’t watch. Aye, but on both counts I’ve been meaning to address that.

For those that aren’t aware, Dethklok is the fictional heavy metal band from the Adult Swim cartoon programme Metalocalypse, but made kind of real after releasing a top-selling soundtrack record (a second album just released) and forging a successful live tour.  From what I’ve read about the show, it’s a satire on the cult of celebrity, lovingly riffing on heavy metal extremes, the depths that Dethklok go to in order to achieve their hard sound (often extrapolated from real stories from the ‘80’s Metal giants) as well as the lifestyles these pampered man-children lead as a result of their success (equally extrapolated from real stories), and the chaos they unwittingly trail behind them wherever they go.

The Goon, for those that aren’t aware, is a ribald supernatural horror action comedy, involving a big tough brawler named the goon routinely beating the living snot out of zombies and other evil creatures in a world nothing like our own. 

That the twain should meet isn’t altogether the most unholy of ideas.

Written and drawn by Powell (with input from Metalocalypse co-creator Brendan Small) Dethklok Versus The Goon is out-of-continuity for both series, but, from my limited exposure to either, in keeping with the attitude and mentality of both series, creating something farcical, juvenile and rather entertaining.

The book is centered more on Dethklok and less on the Goon, acting as harbinger for an ongoing series of their own appearing later this year. The insinuation is that there’s a cabal of high-powered global individuals that seek the elimination of Dethklok. In particular their member William Murderface is deemed to have been bred as the perfect anti-human, capable of being used by an evil sorcerer to warp the world into a twisted reality. The cabal sends a psychopathic murder clown after them just as the sorcerer strikes, sending the band into a temporal rift, winding up in the Goon’s local drinking hole.

Chaos ensues as Dethklok engage with the locals, including the Goon and his pal Franky, everything devolving into violence, brutality, and of course, heavy metal.

Powell negotiates two different illustrative styles at once, working Dethklok, their supporting cast and their settings with an stripped-down, flat, and cleanly animated feel, while the Goon, his cast and backdrops all have Powell’s typical style, with gradient colors, shading, and much more of a painted texture.

The story is manically paced, with far too many things happening to really keep it all straight in one reading.  Not really knowing the Goon or Dethklok, the book is still quite enjoyable but I’m sure the familiar with one, the other, or both, will glean even more out of the proceedings.  It’s just not keen enough to inspire immediate fandom to either property, but the cross-pollination of fans from one property to the other seems appropriate.

Preview.


THREE AND A HALF OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS


Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds #5 (of 5)(DC)($3.99)
by Graig Kent

I hate to say it but sometimes I think just ignoring a continuity problem may be the better solution than trying to come up with an explanation for it all. Geoff Johns has made a career out of playing with DC’s many continuity problems: reinstating the multiverse in Infinite Crisis; establishing a new, less-continuity burdened Hawkman; reviving Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps; incorporating Kingdom Come into the DCU proper; and now trying to make sense of all the different incarnations of the Legion of Super Heroes. Sometimes he manages to make these things work, other time it just feels like he’s creating more confusion.

Legion of 3 Worlds feels much like the latter, this final issue coming out three months after the previous issue and over half a year after it was originally supposed to wrap. The series promised to bring together the Paul Levitz-era Legion (which ended in 1989), the post-Zero Hour Legion/Legionnaires (which ended in 2004) and the recent Mark Waid revamp (which ended unceremoniously last year with Jim Shooter at the helm) battling against Superboy Prime and all their enemies, the stakes being nothing less than the fate of the universe, or something. I forget at this point. I’m not sure that Johns even really remembered what was really at stake here. By the end, it’s obvious that Legion of 3 Worlds had a purpose, of which telling a cohesive story was not a part.

By the end of the second issue, it became evident that two of the Legion of 3 Worlds were of little interest to Johns, and the face time that the non-Levitz-era Legionnaires were getting was far from equal to those which he had already used in his Justice Society and Action Comics runs. At the end of the third and fourth issues, the focus was even further divided with the returns of Connor Kent/Superboy and Bart Allen/Kid Flash garnering more of the book’s attention, with this final issue Johns bringing in all Legion iterations to face down Superboy Prime and the Time Trapper, dishing out some of the most unruly comic book science to explain it all. At the end, sending the various Legion home, Johns picks and poaches non-Levitz Legionnaires for him to keep around. So much of this series tengibly feels like a set up for what Johns wants to do with Superboy, Kid Flash and the Legion in his future writings.

The multiverse was once a convoluted beast, creating too much confusion and creating a difficult barrier of entry into the DC universe. The Crisis On Infinite Earths was meant to take care of that, but it only aroused more questions and ultimately became its own barrier, resulting a couple sequel events trying to clarify things, only to further muddy the waters. The resurrection of the multiverse allows for some easy dismissal of convoluted continuities, but just the same, keeping track of multiple iterations of the same character, or using the multiverse to further “explain” someone’s background (Bart Allen or Power Girl) is not actually all that clear. It’s like the bit from Monty Python and the Holy Grail about building a castle in the swamp, they keep sinking under the weight.

At the time this mini-series launched, it was insinuated that it was an important part of the Grant Morrison-driven Final Crisis event. But now, months after the end of said event and the final conclusion to this series, it’s quite obvious this has little, or rather nothing to do with it, and it’s a deceitful bit of hucksterism on DC’s part.

Is Legion of 3 Worlds isn’t without merit, Perez does seem to be having an utter blast, but it’s a frustrating, convoluted read for any casual DC fan, and even the hardcore will find aspects of it hard to swallow.


TWO AND A HALF OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS