Geek Of The Week : Secret One: Teeth, With Which To Eat # 1

Now We Eat

Secret One: Teeth, With Which To Eat  #1 from Image  is a conspiracy tale dealing with the government, a corrupt private security firm, and corporate espionage.

The story opens with Mr. Dunn being visited at home late at night by a masked interrogator. Beaten and tied to a chair, Mr. Dunn is informed rather matter-of-factly by the intruder that before they can begin to communicate clearly that two things need to happen. The second thing is that the two of them in the room are not the only people who will be affected by this meeting. The masked then presents photos, names and addresses of Mr. Dunn’s family, a very effective tactic to break him down. The first thing was that the intruder needed to impress upon Mr. Dunn how serious he is. And he is rather persuasive with a pair of pliers to efficiently get his point across.

The following morning Mr. Dunn meets with his attorney to try and figure out what he should after his frightning encounter. Coincidently, the counselor’s firm is having a visit from their security company to go over some services that they have recently delivered. After which the security firm’s representatives impress upon the board members how important it is that they upgrade to their expanded swervices package. They make their point by telling the board how easy it was for them to access their offices, bypass their firewalls, and access their records. All of them.

The pitch seems to be rather effective demonstrating how important the security compnay’s enhanced security package can be. But it has the feeling that perhaps the security company in angling for more than just selling more services. They may also be trying to gain influence in Washington.

Later, the attorney arranges a meeting between Mr. Dunn and one of the security company’s representatives from the earlier meeting, Mr. Grant. Mr. Grant impresses upon Mr. Dunn that his late night visitor means that business. And that his firm can help Mr. Dunn with his problem, but they are very expensive. Grant is able to clinch the Deal with Mr. Dunn, however, Grant actually is playing against Dunn. Grant is working with Dunn’s visitor and is setting Dunn up.

Secret One: Teeth, With Which To Eat #1, written by Jonathan Hickman is an intriguing read. The story sets up the whos in the story, but is building up a mystery by leaving out the whats and whys to be discovered later. This is an interesting story that has me eager to read the next issue. The artwork on the issue is impressive. Ryan Bodenheim is the artist on the issue, with Michael Garland handling the colors, and Rus Wooton doing the lettering. The art team does an exceptional job of story telling and created a comic book that looks incredible. The coloring for the issue is quite interesting and unique in the way that it paints panels with an overall hue, but then at times it uses splashes of another color for a dynamic effect.

Secret One: Teeth, With Which To Eat #1 is a fantastic read. The art and story create an engrossing comic that keeps you moving through the pages. This comic book is a must read.

The Indiephile : Danger Club # 1

All It Took Was Three Months

“Three months ago. The universe was in deadly peril. The world’s greatest heroes were summoned into space to battle reality’s ultimate evil. our mentors. Our guardians. Our parents. Our teachers. They left. And they didn’t come back.”

That is the chilling set-up to Danger Club #1 from Image Comics. With the heroes gone the younger generation of heroes move in to fill the void. The initial results aren’t good as one character, Apollo, an extremely powerful deity forms a group that he calls the New Olympians. in order to gain membership to this group you are pitted in brutal combat against another member. if you survive then you are admitted into the ranks of Apollo’s army, which seems more intent on increasing his power then improving the situation in the world.

Apollo is opposed by a quartet of heroes, Kid Vigilante, Robot 9, Fearless, and The Magician. They see the harm that he is doing, and they won’t stand for it any longer. This leads to a battle with the New Olympians. Apollo and Kid Vigilante are locked in a savage battle thats a little reminicent of Superman and Batman in The Dark Knight Returns. Leaving Apollo broken, Kid Vigilante makes a stunning revelation. The heroes that left Earth lost to whatever it was they fought in space. And its still coming. Kid Vigilante leaves the gathering of young heroes with an ultimatum, help prepare to defend the world, get out of the way, or be taken down.

Danger Club has an interesting premise and the short introduction had me hooked instantly. I want to see where Landry Q. Walker will take this story, and I’m anxious to see what happens when the threat arrives on Earth. The art by Eric Jones and Coloring by Michael “Rusty” Drake,with lettering by Richard Starkings and Comicraft’s Jimmy Betancourt,  is engrossing with it’s display of action and blood, and with capturing emotions in the characters. And while I enjoyed this first issue, I felt like I like was missing something. 

I like that there is some mystery behind what happened to the heroes, and I don’t need that part explained to me. Sometimes it can be good to leave people wondering and using a little of their imagination. And I like that there is some history between the characters, even if its not explained.  However, I feel like I’m missing part of the story. With the book opening with Apollo already in power and many characters cowering under his power, and kid Vigilante’s group is already formed and having a plan that they’ve been waiting to spring, I feel like I missed an issue. And while there is plenty of action, I wish that there was a little more background. I want to see what the world is like right now. Is it just business as usual even though the heroes are gone, or is this supposed to be something of an apocalyptic setting? And what of the villains on this world? I hope that future issues will reveal more of the world to us.

Overall I enjoyed this comic and I recommend buying it. This is a comic book that is worth following to see what else will unfold.

Geek Of The Week : The Intrepids # 1

Dante, a genius mechanical engineer, rescues four children from the streets and gives them the chance at a life with adventure and purpose. Years later Doyle, Rose, Chester, and Ms. Crow have become special agents with honed skills and augmentations that they use to stop the terrors that mad scientists unleash on the world.

The Intrepids #1 opens with the quartet attempting to infiltrate a Russian research facility. When the stealth action doesn’t go to plan, it becomes a guns blazing, jet packs flying fire fight. And if being pinned down by snipers isn’t bad enough, Ms. Crow and Doyle find themselves having to take down a rampaging cybernetic bear that comes crashing in on them. some big punches, and a perfectly placed bullet down the bear and allow for the team to make their escape.

Later, Dante debriefs the team about Doctor Mutovin, and his experiments to implement cybernetics in animals. And while they investigate further into that case, Dante informs the team that they will be going after his former partner, Doctor Koi. During their college years, Dante and Koi developed technology to replace people’s lost limbs. But Koi wants to use the technology for military purposes. When they can’t reconcile their differences, Koi steals their prototype and destroys their lab. They plan to track Koi through an associate of his, the mercenary Darius Dread. They have a lead on Dread, and if they can capture him, then they can find Koi.

This is a fun read. Its high octane action, with a sci-fi pulp kind of feel to it. Kurtis J. Wiebe writes a stroy that throws you into the action right away. As you are getting a taste of what this team is, there are flashbacks peppered through out the issue to give you a little more background on Dante, Doctor Koi, and of how Ms. Crow was taken in by Dante at a young age. This was a good introduction to the series, and hopefully future issues will continue to add more to the backgrounds of the characters.

Scott Kowalchuk is the illustrator on the issue, with Justin Scott on colors, and Frank Zigarelli is the letterer. The art looks great. Its a more cartoony style of art that’s a little reminiscent of Darwyn Cooke. And the color schemes add a lot to this issue. The colors for the present day scenes look terrific. Then when there is a flashback scene of Ms. Crow’s early time with Dante, those pages have warm yellow and orange tones washing over the page. And then the flashback with Dante and Koi has a cold tone to the page. The colors really add a lot to the overall art and story telling of the comic. Between the more adrenaline fueled scenes, and the quieter character moments, the art team presents top notch story telling in a good book.

This is one of the best comics that I’ve read so far this year.

Geek Of The Week: Skull Kickers # 1 – 2

Skull Kickers from Image follows the adventures of two rough and hearty mercenaries through a fantasy landscape. There’s a hot tempered, leap before looking dwarf, and a hulking human pistolero who is the calmer of two heads. Through the first two issues the characters go unnamed, a little reminiscent of Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name character, but that detail will be filled in later.

The series opens with the heroes right away neck deep in a brawl with a lycanthrope baddie. The two double team the creature, and use a little improvisation to dispatch the creature. Of course an adventure like that has to be followed up with a stop at the local tavern the next morning. We get a sense of the characters here as the dwarf is quick to throw a fist, and the human is the calm in the center of the whirlwind and has to hold his partner back. This prelude sets the characters in place and leads into the main story.

The chancellor of the realm is visiting the city when he is violently assassinated. The lieutenant of the guard orders his men into action and places a large bounty on the assassin. And of course the sound of the reward sends our two mercenaries flying into action. They corner the assassin, but the killer manages to escape.

The story takes curious turn the next day when the chancellor’s body is being held for investigation against the wishes of the officials who want to proceed with burial rites. The dwarf is quick to negotiate a deal to obtain the body for the royals, which seems to be a simple smash and grab job. However, they’re caught by surprise when they arrive later to find that they’re interrupting grave robbers with a monstrous zombie on their side. The monster escapes with a bag full of bodies, but the skull kickers take a prisoner. After a little creative interrogating, the prisoner talks and sends the mercs on the zombie’s trail.

Lacking supplies and transportation for the road head, the skull kickers happen upon a caravan of travelers, and muscle their way into some donations. But the travelers are hiding some secrets, and the mercs look to be heading into a trap.

Through the first two issues Jim Zubkavich is telling a fun, rollicking romp of an adventure. There’s plenty of action coupled with humor to make Skull Kickers an enjoyable comic book. The way that the artwork is rendered gives it an anime type of feel. The combination of the line art with the coloring gives it the look of cell animation. Edwin Huang and Chris Stevens provide the pencils, with Huang also doing the inking. And Misty Coats does the coloring, with Marshall Dillon handling the lettering. With the story, character design, and over all art, reading this comic is like watching an animated movie.

This is a fun comic book adventure. It might seem a little free roaming, but its a good introduction that sends the skull kickers off on their first quest. If you like sword and sorcery types of fantasy, then you should be reading this book. Skull Kickers is off on an adventure, join them for the ride.

Haunt

Recently I read Haunt #1 by Image comics. The story opens on a pair of brothers, Daniel, a not so holy priest, and Kurt, a special ops soldier. Daniel’s introduction opens the story. He’s a priest who smokes, shows up late for confession, and has regularly scheduled engagements with a hooker. The issue only needs two pages to give you a feel for the type of character that he is. Kurt is deadly effective at his job, but he is haunted by what he has to do. It is also apparent from the begining that that there is a rift between the brothers.

At the center of the first issue is a flashback to Kurt’s last mission. He’s sent into hostile territory to resue a doctor. Kurt is shocked and repulsed when he finds out about the experimentation that the doctor has been performing. He forgets about his mission, leaves the doctor behind, and leads a group of the experimentees to freedom. That proves to be his down fall.

Kurt is captured and tortured because of a package that he left behind. Ultimately it leads to Kurt’s death, but not his end. He reaches out to contact his brother with a warning from beyond the grave. Daniel is irritated by his brother’s reappearance, and doesn’t believe that it is truely him, yet he gives in and goes to visit Kurt’s wife. While he is there more men with guns show up. As the bullets fly Kurt and Daniel under go some sort of transformation and together they become Haunt.

Haunt is the co-creation of Robert Kirkman and Todd McFarlane. Kirkman wrote the issue while Ryan Ottley provides the pencils, McFarlane handles the inks, FCO Plascencia provides color, and Rickard Starkings of Comiccraft does the lettering.

I hesitated to buy the issue when I first heard about it, but this past weekend I decided to pick it up and  give it a read. The first issue put a few pieces into place, but does not layout the entire situation. I liek the way that Kirkman sets up the first issue. He doesn’t give you an all encompassing origin story with the first issue, instead he gives you a few questions and wants to bring you along for the answers further down the road. There is also some good characterization with the brothers in this comic.

McFarlane became a super star artist several years ago when he was working on Spiderman for Marvel comics, and continued to build his reputation with his own creation, Spawn, which is also published by Image comics. He hasn’t handled the art chores on a comic book for a long time, and I would think that having him attached to the book would bring it a lot of attention. I wonder if people will be dissappointed to see that McFarlane isn’t penciling this comic book, but instead is inking it. It shouldn’t be a concern for anyone who opens the book. Ottley is doing fantastic work on the book. And MacFarlane is complimenting his pencils nicely with the inks. Plascencia does an excellent job of setting different moods in the different scenes with his colors. The book comes together nicely, but there is one piece that is lacking, the cover by Todd McFarlane. I think that the cover is fairly generic, and feels like a retread of an old Spiderman cover.

The cover gave me the impression that this comic book would be lackluster, and it is the main reason why I put off trying it for a while. And I think that there is Venom vibe to Haunt when he is first revealed. However, after reading the first issue of the comic, I think that they are telling a good story, with excellent art, and I want to see how it unfolds. Haunt is worth giving a try.

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