Review: 'Knuckleheads' #6 Waises the Woof

An issue of Knuckleheads costs less than a 20oz soda. That should be enough to get you to give it a go, no matter what the rest of my review says. I can guarantee you that you've spent more on comics that are far, far worse than this. How many issues of Spawn did you buy out of obligation before you dropped it from your monthly pulls? Exactly. Knuckleheads is about as close to "no risk" as comics come.

Click to purchase on Comixology.

Do you like to laugh? Of course you don't. Like I said, you used to read Spawn. But if you're willing to give laughing another shot, you might want to give Knuckleheads a try. If you don't laugh, it's digital, so you don't even have to worry about giving the comic away to some little kid who likes baby ha-ha comics. Like I said, no risk.

Knuckleheads #6 makes a good jumping-on point, with Trevor Trevinski exploring the extent of his cosmic powers -- and learning an amazing new ability! -- while his pals (well, one pal and two near-strangers who've gotten sucked in to Trevor's world over the course of the first five issues) capture it all on an iPhone. The set-up in the previous issues is that Trevor is the possessor of the Crystal Fist, an artifact resembling brass knuckles but made from otherworldly crystal. As a person, he's a half-assed superhero, but the actual power of the Crystal Fist makes up the other half for him (most of the time). In his earliest outings, Trevor fights a giant reptilian monster then armed rednecks -- clearly writer Brian Winkeler knows how to raise the stakes.

Artist Robert Wilson IV is a deft cartoonist with a sly sense of timing (and Jordan Boyd's colors make Knuckleheads look like a book that should cost more than one dollar). I especially appreciate that everyone has different, distinct faces to go with their personalities -- hey, just like in real life! (It sounds like a given, but you'd be surprised how many artists don't do this.) There's a two-page gag in #6 that's especially clever, and I hope there are more jokes that depend on visual storytelling as the comic continues to strengthen.

That's something else Knuckleheads does besides "be funny." It gets better with every issue. Let's say you don't read Spawn. Maybe you read books like Superior Foes of Spider-Man or Hawkeye or even the DeMatties/Giffen run of Justice League. If that's the case, then Knuckleheads should be an easy sell. This is totally in your wheelhouse. It's digital, so you don't even have to worry about some little kid who likes baby ha-ha comics stealing your precious Knuckleheads collection. (Unless you buy it collected in print, available July 22! I can't help you then. Good luck.)

Panel from Knuckleheads #6, art by Robert Wilson IV. Winkeler & Wilson IV/Monkeybrain.

Review: Riddle Me This! Is 'Batman '66' #1 One of the Best Digital-First Books?

Hey, a dollar is a pretty good price for a comic these days, even a digital one. It brings the price back around to disposable, impulse-buy entertainment, which appeals to me, considering my formative years as a fan were spent spinning the racks at Stop-N-Go for interesting art. It was right around this time as well that I got into the charm of live-action Batman reruns as part of an afternoon block that included The Monkees and Green Acres on a Houston UHF station.

Through some odd back-room licensing red tape, the Batman TV series hasn't really been exploited in the way that other beloved superhero television shows have (there's still no DVD release of the show). Some change was made last year when Warner Consumer Products reached an agreement with Fox (the show's rights-holder) to license the show for toys, books, and more - including a digital-first comic available through Comixology. Sometimes, when a property is trading so heavily on nostalgia, there's a lazy delivery of only what's to be expected. It's rote. The name is often enough to sell, so there's little interest in actually doing something interesting with the property.

Batman '66 #1 is nostalgia done right. It's a candy-colored book that had way, way more kinetic action than I expected, and way less cornball nods to what a modern writer might imagine as "campy." God bless Jeff Parker. This is a two-fisted, action-packed Batman book sprung from the spirit of the 1960's show, but revitalized with a real buzzing sense of caffeinated energy to every one of Jonathan Case's pop-art inspired panels. This is a dollar well-spent.

The '66 adventures are shorter by page count than a regular comic, but it still feels meaty due to the interaction with DC's new DC2 digital technology. DC2 enhances the reading experience (similar to Thrillbent's line) with panel swipes that affect the overall pacing of the story. Instead of viewing a page and all of its elements all at once, a gesture can bring dialogue to a dialogue-free panel. Another gesture across the same panel, and a new character might show up or objects in the panel might explode. Instead of Batman '66 feeling like a quick read, the tech makes it feel like a slick read.

It's light on plot (Riddler interrupts an award ceremony to loot its wealthy patrons), but so perfectly executed, from price-point to function to the use of its license, that it's a shame we haven't been reading Batman comics just like this since 1966. It's also a perfect all-ages Batman book without an ounce of kiddie condescension. It's the Caped Crusader and the Boy Wonder at their most idealized, most colorful, and most lovingly super-heroic, reflecting the elasticity of the character and a time when the "Batman voice" sounded less like a growl and more like Adam West.

Advance Review: 'Catalyst Comix' #1 Revives Comics' Greatest World

In the early 1990's every publisher had to have their own superhero line, because that's where all the money was. Dark Horse, till that point the acclaimed home of creator-owned fare and strong licensed books like Alien, launched "Comics' Greatest World" (CGW from here on), a series of $1 books paired into four groups of four, each spotlighting a quartet of superhero concepts in four different fictional cities. The most high profile of these titles was Barb Wire (due to the Pamela Anderson film), but a few more went on to some measure of cult success (mostly X and Ghost, both of which have been resurrected by Dark Horse within the past year).

I followed this stuff back when it came out, and even I have a hard time remembering who is who or what the hook was for certain books. Catalyst Comix #1 is like running into someone who totally recognizes you, but you can't place their face at all and it bugs you that you can't remember more. I know I read Catalyst: Agents of Change back in 1994, but I've retained almost no knowledge of these comics that I know I liked at the time. I think it was supposed to be the CGW version of the Justice League, with heavy-hitter Titan in Superman's leadership role.

This is a fresh start on the material, so there's no worry about catching up with the old stuff - I just wish I could compare and contrast a little better. Catalyst Comix is structured like an anthology, featuring three different stories about the same cataclysmic event - the arrival of an apocalyptic entity called Nibiru ("Nibiru is release! Nibiru is decay! Nibiru is extinction! Nibiru is!" reads Joe Casey's charming, intentionally overblown prose). Titan's lead-off touches upon the consequences of superhero mass destruction in a way that feels timely in the wake of Man of Steel's controversial finale. The second story is a slightly more metaphysical and hard sci-fi introduction to the space-faring character Amazing Grace. The third tale brings the Nibiru event to a street level as two more brutish, wildcard anti-heroes are called into action by a government agent. 

Cover art for Catalyst Comix #1. Dark Horse Comics.

If I was going to make comparisons (and I am!), maybe those 1994 comics are the wrong place to look anyway. Catalyst Comix #1 really reminded me more of the recent stuff coming from Rob Liefeld's reboots at Image Comics, namely Prophet and Glory.  These aren't quite underground alt-comix, but they are alt-superhero comics and they offer a viable, curious alternative to the squarely down-the-middle superhero stuff from the Big Two.

Part of this is due to the artists chosen for the stories. Dan McDaid, Paul Maybury, and Ulises Farinas work from Joe Casey's sturm-und-drang scripts with the assured craft of veteran cartoonists. All three have distinct styles that compliment each other when viewed page-to-page in the anthology format. The tie that binds is that they're all left-of-center artists - certainly not experimental or off-putting, but not working in the blandly mainstream American comics idiom. It feels to me like publishers are starting to expand their idea of what superhero books can look like (Marvel's recent Alpha: Big Time is a great recent example of this, and I can't help but think web comics may have advanced the palate of the American comic book fan. This is a subject worth further exploration away from the confines of this specific review.) Catalyst Comix #1 looks different from other books, and it deserves your attention for that.

Neither of Joe Casey's most recent projects (Image's Sex and Bounce) have tickled my fancy, which is more of a matter of personal taste than harsh criticism, but Catalyst Comix looks to be a little more in the vein of his Kirbyesque opera Godland. The bombast in Catalyst is more charming than tedious and really does flavor this book with something a little different than anything else on the rack. It's not a book as easy to get into as either of Dark Horse's other CGW reboots, the recent hyper-violent X relaunch nor the supernatural mystery Ghost. The drawback of this three-story format is that none of the individual shorts quite get the time they need to really hook you. It's missing a bit of editorial clarity in that way - tell me why this book should exist and why I should care, outside of it being just another brand revitalization. They could be doing something much more memorable with these characters this time around than they did in 1994, and my hope for Casey and company is that the potential in Catalyst Comix #1 to forge a new off-kilter superhero universe is fully realized as the series progresses.

Review: 'Godzilla: Rulers of the Earth' #1 Kicks-Off New Ongoing Series

I've been quietly curious about IDW's Godzilla monthlies for a while now. I would say I'm a casual G-fan - I can name about 90% of the Toho monsters on sight, but I can't identify Godzilla by the periods identifiable in his many costume changes. I know more about Godzilla than some, but considerably less than the hardcore fans.  It's just something to consider as I give my two-cents on IDW's latest, Godzilla: Rulers of the Earth. I'm no expert here, but I like fun comics and I like Godzilla. This first issue seems to land right in the middle of that Venn diagram.

Variant cover for Godzilla: Rulers of the Earth #1, art by Art Adams. IDW Publishing.

Artist Matt Frank's cartoony figure work shares a similarity with Todd Nauck, but you don't buy a Godzilla book for Hogarth-level renderings of the human form - you buy it for the big monsters, and that's where Frank really shines. His kaiju are big and mean and have a life to them that draws the reader's attention. We need the humans to propel the story, but every page without a monster is practically begging to be turned as quickly as possible.

Most of the action here centers around a conference in Hawaii, with scientists trying to make sense of the recent influx of "megazoological" findings. Some of the big guns are off the map (Mothra, Rodan), while others, notably Gigan and giant spider Kumonga, are still tearing things up without interference from modern military forces. Of course Godzilla is in here as well, and he squares off against a monster I really didn't expect to see in one of these comics.

More faithful than Marvel's late 1970s attempt at Godzilla comics and more sci-fi fun than Dark Horse's Godzilla from the 90s, writer Chris Mowry and Frank are making the best of the license. Rulers of the Earth is supposed to be ongoing, and there's a level of untapped potential in long-form serialized Godzilla stories. The creative team has enough time on their hands to make the human characters worthwhile, yet it's the biggest challenge ahead of them because few are buying these books for interpersonal character drama. They already have the monster-smashing down - is it asking too much for more? Maybe so. This is Godzilla: Rulers of the Earth after all, not Random Scientists: Watchers of the Rulers of the Earth. Who needs people, anyway?

Quick Thoughts: Taking a Look at Marvel's 'Big Hero 6' Comics

Sometimes writing about comic book movies is a lot of fun, and sometimes it is WORK.  Nobody has really been paying much attention to Marvel's upcoming animated flick Big Hero 6, and since I cover the Marvel Studios beat at Movies.com, I took it upon myself to read the most recent 2008 mini and the original first issue that kicked the property off in 1998 (titled Sunfire and the Big Hero 6, itself a spin-off from Steven T. Seagal's short late-90's Alpha Flight run).

I wasn't a fan. Scott Lobdell's original mini-series just barely skirts an uncomfortably stereotypical "ah-so, most honorable reader"  line, and he's further weighed down by Gus Vasquez's noticeably rookie pencils. Veteran writer Chris Claremont and manga artist David Nakayama teamed up for the second mini in 2008, and while it's arguably improved, it's still a bit of a mess. The series is about young Japanese operatives who never really gel as a team, sent on a mission to protect mysterious artifacts by a Japanese Nick Fury surrogate named Furi Wamu (she's even missing an eye). I never got the impression that any of the creators involved on any of the Big Hero 6 minis had any kind of handle on the team's personality or larger purpose. Claremont makes a noble attempt at more light-hearted fare than what he's known for, but the five issues just aren't particularly inspired. There's a lot of visual manga cliches as well, such as having all of the characters spend an issue in their beachwear.

Now, despite not liking the characters or the books themselves, I actually still have high hopes for the movie. One of the bad things about the property on the page is that it's still a bit of a blank slate. That makes for tedious reading after a fistful of issues, but it also means that a movie has free reign to approach the team in a way that matters. Maybe the Disney movie will kick off new interest, and we'll see a worthwhile ongoing Big Hero 6 book in 2014?

You can read about the film and the characters of Big Hero 6 in my Countdown column at Movies.com.

Quick Thoughts on 'Shadowman' Vol. 1

I'm rooting for Valiant. I like their enthusiasm and I like their branding. I like that the company was revived by Valiant fans, who are dedicated to producing quality material. I also like trade paperback collections that are $9.99, which was the perfect price point for me to pick up their first Shadowman volume. I read X-O Manowar every month, and I tried out the first issues of Bloodshot (too military and needlessly violent for my tastes) and Shadowman. Shadowman #1 was frustrating because the hero didn't turn up until the final page of the book, and the first issue failed to tell a whole story. I feel like a first issue should reveal the hero, his powers and motivations, and give me some sort of complete beginning, middle, and end, so that I can get an understanding of what I'll be buying into on a monthly basis. Shadowman, while sporting competent writing by Justin Jordan and appealing art by Patrick Zircher, was good enough to intrigue me, despite not delivering what I'm looking for in a single issue. I kind of knew then that I'd be picking up the trade.

​The positives? The supporting cast is strong, as is the villain, Master Darque, who turned out to be my favorite part of the book. The downside is that as an introduction to Shadowman himself, it leaves a lot to be desired. He's not as three-dimensional as the two characters who assist him, and his powers are ill-defined and nebulous (at least in this first outing). If you already have a taste for mystical superheroes there's a good possibility you'll find the little mysteries of Shadowman's world more involving than I did, and I recognize that my indifference here may be chalked up to my own personal taste and not that the comic itself is bad, per se, because it's not. Shadowman is a perfectly acceptable action comic that just didn't get its hooks in me in the way that I'd hoped. Your mileage may vary.