Reviews: G.I. Joe Special Missions Vol. 1; H20; Kiss Kompendium

G.I. JOE SPECIAL MISSIONS VOL. 1 (IDW, 2010; softcover)

Collects G. I. Joe Special Missions Nos. 1-7 and material from G. I. Joe: A Real American Hero No. 50 (cover dates August, 1986- August, 1987)

This was the more realistic offshoot of G.I. Joe, devoid of the sillier aspects that had started creeping into the main series and TV shows at this time. The Joes combat terrorists and go on covert operations. There is more violence, and people actually get killed, unlike the main series where a vehicle can explode and the driver survived the wreckage unharmed. I am not criticizing that aspect of the comic or cartoon since they were intended for small children, just noting the more "adult" tone of this particular series.

Larry Hama's scripts are quite a bit different than on G.I. Joe, A Real American Hero. Herb Trimpe turns his typically fine artwork, which is marred here by IDW's lackluster restoration. There are pages that look fine, others where the lines look like one of the Joes used a bazooka to obliterate them. Some of the re-coloring has a gradient shading to it not found in the original issues, which is highly annoying to me.

H20 (Liquid/ Dynamite, 2010; softcover original graphic novel)

I saw an ad for this in the back of Untouchable Vol. 1 and decided to give it a go. The story deals with Earth in 2250, where after a decade of droughts and man's intervention, water becomes the world's most precious commodity. Wars are fought for it, etc. It's interesting and plausible, and makes for an entertaining read. I guess that's all that you can ask for when reading a comic book, right? I'm not exactly shouting from the rooftops for everyone to buy this, though.

The whole thing basically reads like a storyboard for a movie that I wouldn't spend $9.00 to watch. It's almost like the creators made this as an elaborate pitch to Hollywood so that they could option it for a movie.

KISS KOMPENDIUM (Harper Collins, 2009; Hardcover)

Collects Marvel Super Special Nos. 1, 5, Kissnation, Kiss: Psycho Circus Nos. 1-31, Kiss Nos. 1-13 and selections from Kisstory (cover dates September, 1977- September, 2003)

In the world of Kiss, bigger is always better. Going with that logic, the Kiss Kompendium is easily the best there is. This book is a monster, clocking in at 1,280 pages, being as tall as a DC Absolute Edition or EC Library Edition, with superb paper and sewn binding. If production values alone made a book great, then this would be the greatest book ever made. Unfortunately for Kiss, this is not the case. These are the worst comic books that I have read in a long time. 

There are moments where it's enjoyable (the dated but lovable Bronze Age goodness of the Marvel Super Specials, Clayton Crain's early artwork on the later issues of Kiss: Psycho Circus), but most of this book was such a chore to read. It took several months of on again, off again reading for me to make it to the end. I take no joy in writing this because I am a lifelong Kiss fan, but these comics are for masochists only. This book reprints all of the Marvel, Dark Horse, and Image Kiss comic books in one "handy" package.

Reviews: Untouchable Vol. 1; Batman & Robin- Batman Vs. Robin; Classic G.I. Joe Vol. 8

UNTOUCHABLE VOL. 1 (Dynamite, 2010, softcover original graphic novel)

This is the format of the future, kids, at least as far as hard copy comics go. A beefed-up 'prestige format' from the days of yore, this is like a 1/3 trade on nice paper with a cardstock cover. Radical does the same thing, offering 50+ pages of story, in this case $5.99 MSRP. When you compare that to DC's 20 pages for $2.99 and Marvel's 22 pages for $3.99, you can begin to see where this is going. Plus, titles tend to have diminishing returns. If this were a 5 or 6 issues mini-series it might not make it, but people are more willing to stick around for 3 bi-monthly books like this.

Mike Carey and Samit Basu deliver an Indian (no, not Native American) flavored tale with a creature that reminds me of the Nabu from Avatar. Ashok Bhadana's artwork is unbelievably gorgeous. The hybrid of pencils and computer "painting" give this a lush, detailed look and feel. The story works and I want to read the rest of it. I'm not sure if I will trade wait or not, though. Bluewater has been cancelling many of the titles that I have been trade-waiting on (the second Vincent Price Presents trade, Black Scorpion), so I am re-thinking my format preferences for the smaller publishers.

BATMAN & ROBIN: BATMAN VS. ROBIN (DC, 2010, hardcover)

Collects Batman & Robin Nos. 7-12 (cover dates March- July, 2010)

Issues 7-9 were Blackest Night tie-ins and were not done by the regular creative team of Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly, so the quality was way down. Thankfully, things picked way back up with Issue 10. I am not reading all of these various Batman titles and tie-ins about the disappearance of Bruce Wayne through the ages, but I was able to follow this well enough. This ends on one helluva cliffhanger, and Volume 3 hardcover is featured in this month's Previews, so I guess that I am on board.

Terror Inc. Nos. 1-4, 8 (Marvel, cover dates July, 1992- February, 1993)

I will read almost anything if it is cheap or free, in this case these issues which I found in the .10 box at Big Ben's Comix Oasis in Allen Park, MI. They were blowing out the .50 box back issues for .10 a piece, thousands of them. I spent three hours in there one day after work, piecing together an entire run of Nightmask in F/NM and nice chunks of the '90s Morbius The Living Vampire series, among other treasures. I had never even heard of this title, but for .10, who cares? I grabbed what was there.

The basic concept of the series is that Terror, a bounty hunter whose origin is not revealed in any of these issues, somehow can use the body parts of other people and gain their abilities and memories, i.e. an Olympic runner's legs help him run fast, etc. This is black humor big time, filled with gore and an air of '90s "extreme"-ness. Amusing for a dime, but at full cover price...probably not. The artwork is typical '90s scratchy garbage. I like looking at old ads and checklists in these back issues. I was staggered by how many crappy titles Marvel produced back then. Then again, I am staggered by the amount of crappy titles that Marvel produces today. The more things change...   I look forward to reading today's "lost" masterpieces out of some .10 box in 2030.

CLASSIC G.I. JOE VOL. 8 (IDW, 2010, softcover)

Collects G. I. Joe: A Real American Hero Nos. 71-80 (cover dates May- Late November, 1988)

I had already abandoned ship when these issues were originally released, so this was all-new to me. The linework and restoration are spotty throughout the book. Most of it looks fine, but there are some pages that you can tell were not re-colored by "hand". All comics are colored on computers these days, including collected editions like this. The colorist matches the original color palette as closely as possible, and there are two methods to doing this. One is by hand, very time consuming but very nice, and the other is to let the computer fill in the shapes, which often obliterates linework. This is the case here. Also, some of these issues were scanned in poor resolution, with pixelated linework being the result. While nowhere near as bad as Volume 6 or 7 (or some of the later ones...reviews forthcoming), it still annoys the ***t out of me because I know that this is laziness and not the limits of technology. Every other company has long since learned how to collect Classic (read: pre-digital file) material properly, so why can't IDW?

The stories are fun, action-packed, never a dull moment fare. Writer Larry Hama is a genius with these characters, even making the mandated insertion of new characters and vehicles (toys) seem plausible. Marshall Rogers (of '70s Batman fame) even alternates artwork duties with Joe stalwart Rod Whigham.

This book smells fantastic, with it's toxic yet pleasing aroma undoubtedly being the result of that magical Korean printing. It smells much like the Chinese printing, which I have characterized in the past as such: The result of asbestos tiles, lead paint chips, and mercury from recalled thermometers. The Korean printing has one extra delightful ingredient, though: the tears of the children forced to make these books in sweatshop conditions. It's funny how in these issues Roadblock bashes a motorist who doesn't drive an American vehicle, and there are a few other pro-American references in this title, and now these things are printed in Korea.