Fractal Matter

INTERVIEWS

Kristy Bratton chats with Tom Sniegoski about his new book A Kiss Before the Apocalypse

FILMS

Iron Man –Russ Sheath tells us what he thinks about the latest comic book film.

FEATURES

Russ Sheath and friends take a look at the latest version of the Incredible Hulk.

Trailer Park: JuneMo Ali takes a look at some trailers for this summers films.

BOOK REVIEWS

Kristy Bratton reviews the newest book from Tom Sniegoski, A Kiss Before the Apocalypse

John Reppion takes a look at The Bleeding Horse and Other Ghost Stroies

In Blankety Blank fact and fiction don’t so much blur as they collide like lovesick Sumo’s fired at each other from cartoon cannons.

COMIC BOOK REVIEWS

Invincible Iron Man - Joining Fraction on art duties is Salvador Larroca. The style is very much in keeping with what we’ve seen from Larroca recently in both New Universal and Uncanny X-Men

Young X Men #1 - The first instalment of the series starts up with the eyeless seer Blindfold seeing a new X Men team being formed.

Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment - The story begins with the birth of Buddha and the subsequent death of his mother, which leaves his father, a regional King, reeling and determined for the young Prince to reach his full potential as a ruler.

War is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle - After a brutal summary of the development of aerial warfare, which is stunningly illustrated by Chaykin, we are introduced to the central character, the mysterious and very gung-ho Lieutenant Karl Kaufmann.

The Dark Tower: The Long Road Home 1 - No one was too sure what to expect from last year’s The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born series. How would King’s work be translated to the comic medium?

Young Liars #1 - The book begins with the gateway character Danny Noonan telling the reader the action that has occurred before the opening.

Punisher War Journal #18 - Fraction and Chaykin are a perfect team in this series. Fraction delivers a tale that does not have Frank Castle in the story

Writer: Marc Guggenheim
Artist: Yanick Paquette
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $2.99

Review byFrank Davis

Young X-Men can almost be viewed as an arbitrary title. It is an X Men spin-off that seems to fit oddly into the current X-Men publishing plan. To be honest, the book is very much one with a tone that is lighter than the rest of the X-line. There is danger and the promise of death in these pages, but in the overall structure of the first issue the impression that fun is present in the face of adversity is in bold display. If anything it is a natural evolution of the X Men concept, one which has a joy that the other X-books lack, and which the creators, Marc Guggenheim and Yanick Paquette, appear to both find a joy in creating. This is a comic that, like Young Avengers, will surprise readers and keep them captivated.

The first installment of the series starts up with the eyeless seer Blindfold seeing a new X Men team being formed, a team in which one member dies at the hands of a classic X Men foe. The issue does not spoil the mystery, but it allows the reader to build speculation. Blindfold does not know why or who will build this X Men team, but she is right. Cyclops goes around the world in a manner similar to that of Professor Xavier in Giant Size X-Men 1. It is an intentional homage that manages to toss some curveballs in the execution of the recruitment, since in almost every scene with Cyclops, he is preventing some form of violence. The mission after the gang is assembled is to try and stop a new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants with ironic and surprising members.

The writing by Guggenheim is very strong. He understands that these characters are not full fledged superheroes, and that they will not sound it or act it. Each character has a distinct voice, but scene stealers seem likely to be the veteran characters like Blindfold as concerned mother hen, Dust as prudish but effective and Rockslide as jovial giant. If people do not love Rockslide, it might be because he is a very happy mutant, which doesn’t quite sit with the current situation, but I found it a nice contrast to see. The new characters do not form an impression right away, good or bad, but are there to be grown organically by Guggenheim as he builds the series.

Yanick Paquette’s art is expressive, well executed and at times funny. He balances humor, action, distinct body types and even the occasional bit of gore, in an elegant manner that fits the title and is an example of an artist continuing to evolve and grow with every new assignment.

Young X-Men is a worthy book to read and try out. It is a book that has the strongest writing of Guggenheim’s career, some truly attractive line art by Paquette and a story with a distinctly different tone from the rest of the X-line. So go and read it before it becomes a phenomenon, which it just might.

With 2008’s onslaught of super hero and comic related movies just around the corner, comic fans and cinema goers have a lot to look forward to this summer. With Iron Man, Indiana Jones, Batman, Hellboy all on the radar it’s easy to lose the second Marvel release this summer second silver screen incarnation of the jade giant, namely The Incredible Hulk.

Starring Ed Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, William Hurt and directed by Louis Letterer (Transporter, Transporter 2) the Incredible Hulk picks up where 2003’s ‘Hulk’ left off. With a sparkly new cast and the promise of more action and less naval gazing than its Ang Lee directed predecessor the question on everyone’s lips is, will it be incredible when the movie is released on June 13.

With the release of the first Incredible Hulk trailer, FM contributor Russ Sheath sat down with manager of Ace Comics Louis ‘The Dark’ Knight and the south west’s favourite archaeologist Bryn (Bryndianna) Morris to watch and discuss the trailer in magical high-def and decide if its second time lucky for the Green Goliath.

The trailer

Trailer:

Windows Media:
http://ukpress.waytoblue.com/media/video/the_incredible_hulk_trailer_330k.asx
http://ukpress.waytoblue.com/media/video/the_incredible_hulk_trailer_850k.asx http://ukpress.waytoblue.com/media/video/the_incredible_hulk_trailer_1500k.asx

Real Media:
http://ukpress.waytoblue.com/media/video/the_incredible_hulk_trailer_330k.ram
http://ukpress.waytoblue.com/media/video/the_incredible_hulk_trailer_850k.ram
http://ukpress.waytoblue.com/media/video/the_incredible_hulk_trailer_1500k.ram
Quicktime:
http://ukpress.waytoblue.com/media/video/the_incredible_hulk_trailer_330k_meta.mov
http://ukpress.waytoblue.com/media/video/the_incredible_hulk_trailer_850k_meta.mov
http://ukpress.waytoblue.com/media/video/the_incredible_hulk_trailer_1500k_meta.mov

Bryn: It is Ed Norton isn’t it he is a good actor? Eric Banner isn’t a bad actor by any means, but Ed Norton is a good actor.
Russ: He does have some credibility.

B: Is that Liv Tyler?
Louis: She is good at looking wet.
R; Is that matey boy from Rob Roy?

L: Tim Roth and there’s General Ross.
R: William Hurt.
L: Good actors do not make a good film.
L: They drop Bruce out of the helicopter, like in the Ultimates. There are a couple of Ultimates nods in the trailer, or things that could be perceived as being nods, which isn’t a bad thing.
B It’s a good trailer, they have basically given you the whole film.
L: effectively, yeh.
R: I thing with this is that it’s going to be like, well if you are not a comic book geek you will see this one and have seen a CGI Hulk already and say, hmmmm, we have seen this how do you improve on that.
L: You don’t have a giant amoeba at the end for a start.
B: I like his Dad, when he bit open the cables at the end.
R Surely to attract the mainstream you will have to show them something different?
L: I think you are giving the general public too much credence, I don’t think they will remember a whole 4 years ago or however long it was.
B:They made a lot of Ang Lee being the director.
R:It bought some credibility to a super hero movie.
B: In this one it looks like they have taken the bit from the comic where he goes off and meditates to get control. What prompts that?
B: I was just thinking about the first film and it’s about Bruce Banner discovering about his Dad killing his mum and about his fight against the military, in this film it still has the military and the abomination. Maybe it will be more about his voyage of self discovery.
L: It doesn’t seem quite so heavy, and being a melodrama it (the first movie) got heavily into the whole family thing.
R: This one has echo’s of Ultimate Wolverine / Hulk and that arc by Bruce Jones and John Romita Jr.
L: It does seem more comic booky and not in a bad way. It doesn’t seem as heavy as the Ang Lee one, it got quite into melodrama.
R: Basically, the end of the trailer undoubtedly shows you the big show down at the end of the movie. So what happens for the remaining hour and a half of the movie? in this new one, I am hoping maybe the next trailer will show its going to be more of an action movie and of course Tony Stark and Nick Fury are supposed to be in this movie too.
L: It does seem to be a mishmash of Marvel lore, Ultimate and marvel universe.
L: If it is Ultimates influenced, I hope he, Mark Millar, doesn’t do a walk on like Stan Lee does. Who would Mark Millar be in a Hulk movie?
L: what would a Marvel movie be without a Stan Lee cameo? Millar would be solider no’ 2 who gets squished by a tank.
R: He could have been the Abomination as the Scottish accent is almost the same as a Russian accent.
R: But Do we like the trailer?
B: Well they haven’t done anything wrong, it looks ok. It isn’t getting me as excited as Iron Man, and that this will be a great movie.
B: It doesn’t have that’ wooooha’ feel to it like Iron Man does.
R: Does that look a better Hulk than the last movie, I think it does from the outset, it’s what you want from a Hulk movie…HULK SMASH!
L: The CG is incredibly impressive, I’ll give them that.

R: Its more of a Dale Keown Hulk than any of the others.
B It’s definitely CG, it feels like I am watching Gears of War.
L At least he isn’t having some weird fight with his Dad.

R: Ed Norton, good or bad?
B: He is a good actor, I am still waiting to see him do something funny, he is effeminate enough to not be obviously….a super hero.
R: Tim Roth good or bad?
L: You don’t get to see anything of him
B:Is he the Russian assassin, the abomination?
R Yeh. I always think he is a poor man’s Gary Oldman.
L: Liv Tyler, Bless. Why couldn’t they get Jennifer Connelly back, she is a better actress and better looking. I do think that William Hurt is inspired casting.

R: I liked the guy who was General Ross in the last movie, what’s his name?
R: He was in We were Soliders once, and Road House
L, B: Patrick Swayze?
L: Having seen the trailer about the Incredible Hulk I am more interested than anything else as it seems a more traditional take on the hulk than Ang Lee’s.
B: I probably would have gone anyway.
R: It made me more reassured about the hulk, I like the look of the hulk and that it seems more comic orientated and has more nods to the Ultimates.

B: When you think about the trailer for The Dark Knight, they didn’t show a lot of the Joker, why here have they shown the ‘big reveal’ already which I guess will be the Abomination. They aren’t holding anything back.
R Maybe that’s the plan, to show this isn’t the same as Ang Lee’s Hulk, that its action orientated and less melodrama.
B I would be more inclined to see Captain America if I thought it was based on the Ultimates.
R: Really?
B: Yeh, it would be a great way to build towards an Ultimates movie.
L:Maybe you have hit on something there, it could be all about the super soldier syrum and be part of a story that builds towards the Ultimates or Avengers movie.
R: Fanboys.
A big thanks to Bryn and Louis for contributing, The Incredible Hulk is in Cinemas everywhere on June 13.
Official Press Release.
THE INCREDIBLE HULK

THE INCREDIBLE HULK kicks off an all-new, explosive and action-packed epic of one of the most popular superheroes of all time. In this new beginning, scientist Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) desperately hunts for a cure to the gamma radiation that poisoned his cells and unleashes the unbridled force of rage within him: The Hulk.

Living in the shadows—cut off from a life he knew and the woman he loves, Betty Ross (Liv Tyler)—Banner struggles to avoid the obsessive pursuit of his nemesis, General Thunderbolt Ross (William Hurt), and the military machinery that seeks to capture him and brutally exploit his power.

As all three grapple with the secrets that led to The Hulk’s creation, they are confronted with a monstrous new adversary known as The Abomination (Tim Roth), whose destructive strength exceeds even The Hulk’s own. And on June 13, 2008, one scientist must make an agonizing final choice: accept a peaceful life as Bruce Banner or find heroism in the creature he holds inside - THE INCREDIBLE HULK.
IN CINEMAS EVERYWHERE JUNE 13

Cast: Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth and William Hurt
Directed by: Louis Leterrier
Writers: Edward Norton, Zak Penn
Based on Characters Created by: Stan Lee & Jack Kirby
Producers: Avi Arad, Gale Anne Hurd, Kevin Feige
Executive Producers: Jim Van Wyck, David Maisel, Ari Arad, Stan Lee

Writer – Deepak Chopra/Joshua Dysart
Artist – Harshwardhan Kadam
Publisher – Virgin Comics
Price - $ 2.99

Review by Ross

Deepak Chopra is one of the founders of the virgin comics line, and also one of the most prominent translators of Eastern philosophy and religion into a language that mainstream western culture finds easy to digest. This series, beginning this month from Virgin comics, is an adaptation of one of Chopra’s books Budhha: A story of Enlightenment, which was received to general critical praise on it’s release last year. The book, and this series in turn, is a fictional re-telling of the life of Budhha, a tale which should by all accounts be pretty engaging.

The story begins with the birth of Buddha and the subsequent death of his mother, which leaves his father, a regional King, reeling and determined for the young Prince to reach his full potential as a ruler. What follows is a series of rather mystical and spiritual encounters, with mystics, wanderers and sages, all of which leads the king to believe he must shelter the boy from all forms of suffering and pain lest he be driven to leave the palace and help the world.

As a single issue this comic is generally quite unsatisfying, and unless Indian mysticism appeals to you then you are unlikely to find much here to engage you. The dialogue and scripting is pretty solid, there’s nothing to stilted or out of place, but at the same time none of the characters or places are very engaging. I found myself reaching the end of the issue not really caring what happened next, which doesn’t seem a great way to end a first issue.

The art has a free hand sketch style too it, which together with the very pastel colouring, makes the whole thing look like your viewing it through some kind of dream like mist. If this is deliberate, in order to emphasize the looking back to the past aspect of the piece, then it works well. If it isn’t deliberate then it’s just very distracting. Either way it serves to make the whole thing look and feel very cartoon like, which removes a great degree of the gravitas from the story. I can’t help feeling I should be thinking that the life story of one of the foremost religious leaders in history is a serious and meaning full thing. The chosen artistic style here essentially puts it on the same level as Saturday morning kids cartoons and somehow that just didn’t sit right with me.

Given the scale of the story being told here, and that it is adapted from a much longer, non-serialised novel, it is possible that when the other issues emerge, and the whole story is in place, that it will be more absorbing to the reader and gain some of the weight that I can’t help feeling the tale deserves. In the meantime this first issue just didn’t encourage me to stay around and find out.

Written by D. Harlan Wilson
Published by Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2008

Review by Mo Ali

Welcome to ‘Vulgaria’, situated somewhere in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In this all-consuming and totally suppressing locale, Rutger Van Trout is up to his Dutch neck in problems: first off, his daughter is probably a porn-obsessed nymphomaniac, his son may well be a werewolf, his wife’s skeleton is possibly haunted, and the neighbourhood is very definitely awash with crazed denizens and freakish superheroes - and Trout’s own desire to turn the family estate into a three-ring farm has now become a full-blown obsession.

Just as things couldn’t possibly get any more complicated for the Van Trout family, Vulgaria’s suburban community is targeted by a new breed of blood-letting serial killer - his name is Mr. Blankety Blank, and he’s all set for a killing spree…

In Blankety Blank fact and fiction don’t so much blur as they collide like lovesick Sumo’s fired at each other from cartoon cannons, resulting in a pseudo-biographical romp interspersed with fictional histories, strange quotes, haikus, and plain ludicrously fun happenings.

Following in the footsteps of Kurt Vonegut, Percival Everett and Steve Aylett, D. Harlan Wilson continues on from the ‘plaquedemic’ shenanigans of his previous novel Dr. Identity with this next slice of refreshingly Bizarro goodness, turning his razor-sharp attention and wit to American Suburbia and the concept of the Memoir.

With wickedly amusing chapters, such as ‘ A Short History of the Handlebar Moustache’ and many quotable bits ( “carcasses bleed at the sight of a murderer” ), Blankety Blank takes surrealist fiction into new and very interesting directions.

Intelligent, funny and unrelentingly vicuous, Blankety Blank is surreal SF satire of the best kind, and it demands your attention.

Writer: Garth Ennis
Artist: Howard Chaykin
Publisher: Marvel Comics Max
Price: $3.99

Review by Ben Crofts

After the misfire that was their work on Punisher #50, this opening issue is a very strong demonstration of how good the Ennis-Chaykin team can be, as we are thrown into the bloody world of World War I. As to the nature of aerial combat in this era, the best summary can be found in Blackadder Goes Forth: .

“Darling: I think we’d all be intrigued to know why you’re called the Twenty Minuters. .

George: Oh, Mister Thicko. Imagine not knowing that. .

Flashheart: Well, it’s simple! The average life expectancy for a new pilot is twenty minutes.” .

What War Is Hell tells us is that you would be lucky to last even those twenty minutes! .

After a brutal summary of the development of aerial warfare, which is stunningly illustrated by Chaykin, we are introduced to the central character, the mysterious and very gung-ho Lieutenant Karl Kaufmann, who in conversation with his superiors makes several startling comments that suggest he may not be who he claims to be; or even that he truly knows where he is and the nature of what he wishes to be involved in.

Kaufmann’s deception is uncovered by Captain Clark who finds his orders to be forged, but Clark only realises it as Kaufmann is about to join the rest of C-Flight on an introduction to the local area. He attempts to stop the flight but runs into the propeller, which also destroys the orders. With nothing to stop him flying, Kaufmann takes off but quickly loses sight of his fellows. He then sights an enemy plane, targets and destroys it. What was unexpected was that his victory would be more of an execution than a fight. Sobered by the reality of aerial warfare he makes it back to the base where he finds the rest of the flight were shot out of the sky! He asks how and is told the Germans have better planes and pilots.

Throughout this wonderfully drawn first issue, it is indicated that Kaufmann is a deluded glory hound but the aerial execution brings it to its zenith, for after sneaking up and shooting the enemy to pieces, Kaufmann is distraught. The other plane was supposed to fight, to engage – not sit there and die! The illusion of glorious warfare in Kaufmann’s head evaporates in a shower of blood and body parts. When he returns to the base he is already a shadow of his former self, which state of mind compounded when he finds out about his comrades’ fate, which could so easily have been his own, and that he has no way out. .

Although Ennis is known for producing good war stories, this is something of a departure for him in that there’s a brutal sense of life being cheap, so characters are only seen briefly, often before dying. Despite this, they are effectively established due to Chaykin’s expressive artwork, which conveys the personalities of the various players very well in a very short amount of time. Nor, in Kaufmann, do we have what appears to be a heroic character, instead we have to put up with an unsypathetic and boorish buffoon; yet by the end, we have a somewhat different character. The only question is how he will continue with it all given the reality of it. .

It is hard to say how good the series will prove to be, but this is a strong opener and an excellent example of both Ennis’ writing, which can be far better when he reins in the dark humour, as he does here, and Chaykin’s art. The depiction of World War I is very well done, with the aerial theatre mirroring the ground war: Both are very effective mincers, slicing up lives by the score, with your chances perhaps being slightly better on the ground! All in all, if you are after something a little different from the usual comic stories, consider giving this a try.

Creative & Executive Director: Stephen King
Plotting & Consultation: Robin Furth
Script: Peter David
Art: Jae Lee & Richard Isanove
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $3.99

Review by Ben Crofts

No one was too sure what to expect from last year’s The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born series. How would King’s work be translated to the comic medium? Would it lose too much in the transition? Would the art work? Would readers familiar with the Dark Tower novels bother reading it given it covered some known material, albeit in a new form? The fact Marvel have continued with a second series by the same team says it must have been successful enough, but maybe now the series is about to head into new territory, it may scale greater heights of popularity.

For some, David’s script in the first series was a bit too wordy, but in my view, the style worked well. It gave the book a very different feel to any other comic I read, and showed a sense of pride in the series’ literary origin. There was no crude simplification of the dialogue just because the story was being told in a comic. The feel was the same as the fantasy-western mix that flows through the novels, so there is going to be an odd rhythm to the words, as it’s meant to be a story set in a world akin to, but distinctly different from, our own.

The other element that made the series stand out was the stunning artwork of the Lee-Isanove team, the image of Roland at sunset in the first issue being particularly iconic. Yet every image in the series was of a comparably high quality. It’s heartening to see this has not changed, as the team deliver all manner of new visuals, from Roland’s descent into Maerlyn’s Grapefruit to a pursuing posse, onto an immense waterfall and a sinister military installation. Each one unique, but perfectly composed.

So what of the story? It picks up where The Gunslinger Born ended, Roland’s ka-tet has to flee Hambry, his love Susan Delgado has been burnt to death and they are pursued, with the posse led by the last of the Big Coffin Hunters. Things take a turn for the worse when Roland shoots the malevolent orb, only for a creature to reform from the fragments and quickly attack him, ensnaring his consciousness! Not only that but Cuthbert and Alain have to deal with the problem of the shot alerting the posse. In the brief engagement that follows, they manage to kill Clay Reynoulds horse and so slow their pursuers just enough to escape, after which they have a stroke of luck and find a river they can use to lose their trail. Elsewhere Sheemie has ended up at a weird place called the Dogan, where he somehow activates some kind of robot and it isn’t one that looks to be good for his health!

Once again following in the style established by The Gunslinger Born the issue has a text piece at the back by Robin Furth, which goes into the history and nature of the Dogan and is accompanied by illustrations from Isanove. There are also a number of sketchbook pages, which really highlight the respective skills of the artists involved. On the one hand Lee’s pencils are exquisitely detailed, but seeing them on their own also emphasises how much Isanove brings to the imagery with the colours he applies.

My only concern is that the story may dwell a bit too much upon Roland’s battle with Maerlyn’s Grapefruit, but future solicits indicate that whilst it continues, it looks to develop in a way that will take it beyond a standard haunting plot that it could so easily be. That is to the good, because the last thing the series needs is the prospective reader thinking they know how the plot goes; to a degree this is good, but not if it goes so far as to kill interest in the title. Hopefully the second issue will be radical enough to dispel any such impression now this installment has got events moving.

So to buy now or get the collection later? Well, you can wait for the collected edition but I won’t because, without being the least bit unfair to the many excellent artists whose work features in other Marvel titles, the Dark Tower series is the best looking book I know of. It fuses style and depth in a way I don’t find anywhere else. The combination of main story, back-up text story that links to the main narrative, plus a creative section makes for a great comic that remains quite unique, and thus becomes a top priority purchase that I look forward to each month. A pity this arc is only five issues but I’ll enjoy it greatly while it lasts!

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/indianajonesandthekingdomofthecrystalskull/

Heroes don’t die, they just get older - and whole lot grumpier. Such is the case for Doctor Henry Walton Jones Jr., better known to all as that treasure hunting, snake-hating archaeologist Indiana Jones. His escapades have been daring - from tackling the nefarious plans of Nazi mystics in ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark‘, taking on bloodthirsty child-stealing cults in ‘Temple of Doom‘, to dealing with those troublesome Nazis once more as they hunt for the Holy Grail in ‘The Last Crusade‘.

Its been a long wait for the next thrilling instalment, but now Indiana Jones returns, in a movie with a title thats as long as the wait itself: ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull‘.

This fourth film is set in the late 1950’s, with an older Indiana (Harrison Ford) having to contend with Soviet agents led by the villainous ‘Spalko’ (Cate Blanchett), the return of former lover Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) and the possibility of a son he never knew he had. The hunt is on yet again, this time for the titular ‘Crystal Skull’, a powerful relic from the Mayan civilisation that may be extra-terrestrial in origin.

The trailer recounts the past exploits, ‘triumphing over the armies of evil’ and so on, before we get to an out-of-shot Indiana picking up his fedora and the sillouette shot that is an inevitable part of the ‘Indiana Jones’ effect. All hell breaks loose, with Indiana being chased through a top-secret relic-filled warehouse (last seen in ‘Raiders…‘) by agents of the Soviet Union. Whip-cracking and swingiing from many light-fixtures is the order of the day, and we see signs of the fallible nature of the character, as he mis-judges a landing and slams backside-first into a truck windshield.

There’s explosions, car chases, strange ruins, more explosions, wise-cracks a-plenty and angry savages as Indiana Jones tries to survive this very latest adventure.

Superhero Movie

Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/weinstein/superheromovie/

Superhero Movie is a comedy film that spoofs (unsurprisingly) the genre of Superhero movies. Spoofs and parodies can be tricky to get right, but as is the case with recent atrocities, they can be flimsy excuses to jam-pack as much ephemeral cultural references and teen titillation as possible into one movie.

This time round we have a spoof on the likes of movies such as Spiderman, Fantastic Four, X-Men and Batman, among others; Rick Riker (Drake Bell) is a high school kid who gets bitten by a genetically mutated dragonfly, developing superpowers as a result. He becomes a crimefighter, ‘The Dragonfly’, and first on the list of duties is taking on the villain Lou Landers (Chrisopther McDonald), aka ‘The Hourglass’, who has the ability to steal a person’s life-force and begins to gain immortality.

Although the movie is meant to spoof all such genre films, the trailer shows that the Spiderman movie seems to be the biggest influence; we get the scenes of Dragonfly saving the damsel in distress in a dark alleyway, chasing after the school bus, the visit to the genetically-enhanced dragonflies, and the accident that gives our protagonist his powers, realising he can climb up walls and so on, with the inevitable slapstick and costume-difficulties that are a staple of ‘the spoof’.

Its worrying when the only mildly funny thing shown in the trailer involves someone getting stabbed in the hand with a fork, even if it is the villain.

The Happening

Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/thehappening/

We end this month with M. Night Shyamalan’s newest ‘event’ movie, enigmatically (or perhaps lazily) titled ‘The Happening‘. Shyamalan has become somewhat familiar for his supernaturally themed films, as well as over-familiar for the ‘twist ending’ plotlines that have featured in a number of them. This new movie - written and directed by Shyamalan - stars Mark Wahlberg, and concerns a global environmental crisis; focussing on one family trying to survive a mysterious epidemic and the mass hysteria that ensues.

The trailer opens with a teacher (Wahlberg) as he discusses the inexplicable disappearance of honey bees, during which we begin to see the effects of a strange ‘event’, something that’s causing people to die, or maybe to kill themselves once they’ve become infected. Speculations as to what is happening and the cause - high on the paranoia list being terrorism - lead to mass exodus and hysteria as the infection spreads further and further.

Is it a disease? Or some other unknown force? Whatever the heck it is, it’s causing Mark Wahlberg to look really really concerned.

There’s a danger that this will be another ‘gimmick’ movie, where style wins out over substance, and its true that Shyamalan’s movie record has gone from good (Sixth Sense) to not-so good (Lady In The Water), but ‘The Happening’ could be a return to form for him.

Written and drawn by David Lapham
Published by Vertigo/DC
$2.99

Review by Frank Davis

The new crime serial by David Lapham, Young Liars is Lapham returning to the crime genre ; a genre in which he has built a reputation on exploring the human cost of crime. It is in a way a third act to his Stray Bullets series and his standalone tale Murder Me Dead; continuing his theme about ordinary people deep in extraordinary crime, the cast of Young liars cannot be trusted because no one will admit to the shooting of character Sadie Dawkins.

The book begins with the gateway character Danny Noonan telling the reader the action that has occurred before the opening. We find out that Sadie Dawkins got shot in the head and because of this she has delusions of grandeur, which allows her to be invincible. She gets into fights and likes to have a good time out wherever the music is loud and fast. With Sadie and Danny there is Don Diego, a transvestite that plays straight man to the fights, Ceecee, the girl of truly low expectations and Truman, the guy with the silver spoon and a heart of gold. With all these people, Danny is convinced that one of them got Sadie shot and the mystery of Young Liars is who did it.

The story by David Lapham is fast and kinetic; the visceral nature of the tale delivers the vibe of how a night club evening can be both scary and energizing. The pages ooze the atmosphere of a good hard party with all the sex and violence that such a night out can have. The storytelling is very functional yet authentic. Young Liars brings an authenticity and joy that has been lacking in the comic stands, and that a reader can fall into and so be happy to see this story through. There is even a subplot involving Sadie’s father that is creepy and awkwardly funny.

The artwork cements the storytelling by giving the proceedings a sense of identity, style and place. The art also helps Lapham clarify and enrich his story in a way that indicates to the reader that there is one person driving the bus and if someone does not like it, well that’s too bad!

Young Liars is a book that is fun for the party-goer in all of us. Here, Lapham introduces and builds on a good mystery, with a supporting cast that is both compelling and distinct, and with a McGuffin that is simple yet can be contorted into whatever Lapham wants. This makes Young Liars a book worthy of a regular serial read.

Writer: Matt Fraction
Artist: Howard Chaykin
Publisher: Marvel
$2.99

Review by Frank Davis

Matt Fraction’s Punisher War Journal has been one of Marvel’s best reads since it premiered out of Civil War. In this series, you get Punisher stories that are very different in tone and style to others featuring the Punisher, and whatever else published by Marvel in general. With the addition of Howard Chaykin as the interior artist, the style and quality have been brought up to a very high standard and the first chapter of the long awaited Jigsaw arc delivers an opening story that changes the way people will view Frank Castle’s greatest foe.

The story opens with a pawn shop owner being strapped to a chair and a man in a suit talking to him about very random things that make no sense. Whilst this happens two cops clean out an evidence locker filled with guns. The stories then intersect and you see Ian - the former police officer thinking he is the Punisher - his shrink (also in Punisher garb) assisting him in his mayhem and Jigsaw, revealing himself to the audience; and an important piece of how Frank Castle lost his family, and how that relates to the cat-and-mouse game that Punisher and Jigsaw play.

Fraction and Chaykin are a perfect team in this series. Fraction delivers a tale that does not have Frank Castle in the story, but is a presence in every page. Jigsaw and his cabal are informed and become the ‘Funhouse Mirror’ to Castle’s mission and deliver with great skill why they are dangerous. Most writers would try and deliver base villainy, but Fraction humanizes Jigsaw and company, and gives them a reason for their grudges.

Howard Chaykin has been drawing a lot of Marvel books as of late but, for the most part, the books he has illustrated have not fit his art style. His layouts have been a bit restrained and his figure work looked uncomfortable, but with his work on War Journal, Chaykin has gotten out of his ‘drawing superheroes’ phase; and in drawing a series with a more realistic tone, Chaykin has allowed himself to work with the full range of his production talent to deliver work that is on par with American Flagg. Backgrounds are filled with detail, the anatomy is realistic and the style and forward motion is very prevalent. The return to artistic form makes this reader very happy.

Overall, Punisher War Journal continues to deliver the high levels of comedy, action and twisted bad behavior one comes to expect form Matt Fraction’s work. The first chapter of Jigsaw is a single issue that is a high water mark for both Fraction and Chaykin fans, and all of them should make the effort to go and seek it out.