Category: Comic Reviews

What’s this? One minute, I see Batman has hit number 600 and all of a sudden, it has hit number 768… oh, I’m sorry. This is Detective Comics #768… For a second there, I thought I was being paranoid. In all seriousness, this review is about Detective Comics #768 and no, Batman didn’t skip a hundred-sixty seven issues… Of course, now that Detective Comics is presented in FULL COLOR as opposed to the limited palette they would use since No Man’s Land ended, the two series seem similar…

This issue of Detective Comics has Batman on the streets dealing with heroin dealers, while the Gotham Police Department attempt to track down the fugitive Bruce Wayne, who has “fled” the country… The fools! Little do they know their wanted fugitive is right under their noses… It’ll be interesting to see where this angle of Batman “shutting out” Bruce Wayne will go and how long it will last. I’m hoping it’ll be for quite a long time. The art is nothing too spectacular, but the locations and characters are recognizable at the very least, so I’m guessing that’s a good thing. The story and writing is typical Batman flair; there isn’t really nothing wrong with that.

If there is one complaint I would have to make about Detective Comics #768, it would have to be the use of full color. All I have to say is… WHY?! Mind you, Detective Comics was a full-colored book up until No Man’s Land was finished, but the limited use of colors was something that made Detective a unique book. It was a contributing factor to setting the mood of the book, because this is a book about a dark & corrupt city and its hero. Such an environment should not be represented with all these bright and fancy colors. Without the limited palette of the previous issues, Detective Comics may as well rename itself to Batman Series II, because the two series seem similar if you neglect the art. I guess the back-up story can get away with it, but most certainly not the main story. At least they didn’t bring back Robin 🙂

Detective 768 isn’t an amazing issue, but it’s not exactly a bad one, either. Because the limited palette normally associated with Detective Comics has been ditched, it is simply a decent book. Nevertheless, anyone who has been following Batman comics shouldn’t pass this one up. And if you want to “jump in”, I suggest you begin with Batman: The 10 Cent Adventure, and get the follow-ups to get up to speed. Worth your money.

When I picked up this book, I had assumed that this Taskmaster character was someone new, because I practically never seen this guy before in any other Marvel comic, despite another comic site stating he was a villain in Avengers. Considering I don’t normally follow Avengers, that’s somewhat understandable. However, when I flipped through some old comics I had, a Spider-Man issue (not sure which one) had the character name Taskmaster, but this particular Taskmaster didn’t really resemble the one in the new series. So this guy probably changed costumes for reasons unknown and now has his own mini-series.

Taskmaster is one of those series where it focuses on a no-good, mercenary-for-hire rather than the goody-goody hero. Although there are some of those types around, they aren’t really that plentiful. Since the main character is also seemingly a mercenary-for-hire, the whole plot seems rather intriguing, if not overdone. It’s not a kiddy book and it’s not that hard to follow the story. Taskmaster’s strong point has to be the art. It is drawn with somewhat of an anime-influence and the CG modeled backgrounds for certain panels are a nice touch.

I’m not too crazy about the title character. Here is a guy who could mimic any action he observes, assume the shape of any person, or replicate anyone’s voice without fraudulence, yet he carries a sword and gun? Surely, to fight guys like Iron Man, these abilities are more than sufficient. Only guys who are typical humans in a world of super-powered characters would such weapons. The other problem with the book is the story. I did say that it has an intriguing story because of the perspective, but quite honestly, this whole backstabbing scenario has been done one time too many already. Maybe over the course of the mini, things might end being different, but until then, the only thing that comes to mind is, “Where have I seen this before?”

For someone who enjoys reading these multi-part storyarcs or mini-series, Taskmaster is a good read. If you’re someone who enjoys a book with good art, this is also a nice book for you. However, those of you expecting the typical hero versus villain bash will be disappointed (there is a fight, but not much). If you can look past that, Taskmaster is alright.

(2025 Update – Fixed a whole bunch of typos that plagued the original 2002 review. My apologies for such a poorly edited piece of tripe. Now it’s slightly less poor.)

The Ultimates is Marvel’s latest entry in their “Ultimate” line of comics.  For the uninitiated, the “Ultimate” line can be considered to be a remake of classic Marvel characters, but with a continuity of their own.  So far, the only two remakes in the line are “Ultimate Spider-Man” and “Ultimate X-Men”.  There is also “Marvel Team-up” which has Spider-Man teaming up with other heroes and villains in the new “ultimate” universe.  Now here is “The Ultimates”, which is an Avengers remake.

The first issues of “The Ultimates” depicts Captain America’s final mission during World War II before being frozen for the next few decades (come on, it’s common knowledge by now).  If it wasn’t for the guy on the cover, you could have easily considered this as a war book.  The artwork is superb and the dark colors make for a fairly impressive interpretation of a battleground during World War II.  It makes you want to flip through the pages and admires the artwork.

Now when a new issue of an ongoing series is release, you expect it would have a good story, and Ultimates #1 doesn’t disappoint. This is a well-written and will encourage you to pick up the next issue.  It is a pretty straightforward read and anyone can get into it.

There aren’t’ any real downsides to this book, except for the Captain America costume in this issue.  I found it to be ridiculous.  Sure, it’s a little different, nut it makes you wonder if Cap was the pride of America or its worst fashion embarrassment.  This is only a minor complain that doesn’t hurt the book, especially considering that the costume is only a one-time deal.

For anyone who is interested in the Avengers or the “Ultimate” line of books, The Ultimates #1 is a great issue but even a new reader can enjoy this book.  It is well-written, great artwork and you can easily get into the story.  It’s still too early to tell for the series as a whole, but if the team behind the scenes can keep up with the quality of the first issue, it looks to be a promising series.

Image Comics was hoodwinked into giving Kevin Nash a comic book…

Actually, let me take that back…

Image Comics was hoodwinked into not only giving Kevin Nash a comic book, but also allowing Nash himself to WRITE the comic itself and let him do whatever he want… you know, I never got around to reading the Ultimate Warrior’s comic book – I only know of it through reputation alone – but I would have to assume that giving a wrestler creative control over the direction of his comic book, especially if he had no prior experience in the field, would be a very bad idea… and sure enough, here comes NASH to prove that very point.

The deal is this; it’s the post-apocalyptic future where the rich are rich and everyone else is left to fend for themselves. The world is a wasteland of despair brought about by a corporate scumbag’s deadly virus so that he could control the remaining food on Earth… but among the homeless rubble and those without hope walks a man – a legend – named NASH. This is the story of his struggles against the very evil Cyrus Storm and his Citadel to bring back hope to a populace that desperately needs it. Now whether he eventually accomplishes that task is left up in the air, as Image cancelled the series after two issues.

Listen, I enjoyed the Chaos Comics output of WWF stuff. I wouldn’t call it high caliber material, but in terms of taking the WWF characters and telling interesting stories with them… I think they did an admirable job. On the other hand, though, you have Kevin Nash, post-apocalyptic warrior in the same vein as Mad Max, except he’s much more vulgar in his actions and is not afraid to get it on with whatever female specimen he comes across, even if they end up trying to kill him or be killed afterwards. Honestly, this reads like every post-apocalyptic story ever written relegated to low-budget direct-to-video releases and probably would have slid under the radar if not for the guy whose name is on the marquee.

There’s a reason this thing only lasted two issues. The story isn’t very good, the writing borderlines on amateur, and the art is pretty bad even by Image standards. People say Kevin Nash is a pretty smart guy, but stuff like this feels like a counterpoint to that claim. You could probably find the issues for dirt cheap if you really need this in your life, but there’s nothing here that you can’t find in any other dime-a-dozen Image Comic but done way better.

Oh, by the way, a kid’s head gets blown off. You don’t see it, but it’s implied.

Just in case you’re still on the fence.

Waste of time. Don’t bother.

In 1999, the World Wrestling Federation did a deal with publisher CHAOS! Comics to produce a bunch of comic book based on their various WWF Superstars. This included a Undertaker series that lasted several issues, along with a few one shots based on Mankind, Chyna, and The Rock. None of these comics have anything to do with wrestling, but rather take these characters on zany adventures outside their comfort zone. Undertaker fighting actual demons… Rock dealing with fixed fights… Chyna doing bodyguard work for other people… that sort of thing.

And then there was the Stone Cold Steve Austin miniseries… yes, a miniseries that lasted four issues… and once again, this has nothing to do with Austin delivering Stone Cold Stunners to other WWF Superstars or giving beer baths to Vince McMahon, but rather we’ve got Austin in the role of mysterious stranger coming into a Texas town owned by a less-than-honest Texas owner doing bad things. Your classic modern-day western of sorts… except instead of mysterious strange, you have Stone Cold Steve Austin, who has the ability to command a small crowd of townspeople fearing for their lives to give him a Hell Yeah whenever he calls for it. It’s simply amazing.

I mean… hell, when you think about it, the story itself is rather pedestrian and uninteresting. There’s a certain mystery surrounding someone who was run out of town, but that’s secondary to Austin beating up thugs and not selling a damn thing. They throw attack choppers and biker gangs his way and he blows through all of them. This would have been fine for a one-shot, but four issues is stretching it and there’s only so many ways you can depict Stone Cold opening various cans of whoop ass and stomping various mudholes through many asses before it gets a bit tiresome.

There’s a reference to The Corporation – the faction headed by Vince McMahon – but don’t expect any other WWF talent to actually show up in these books. I guess there was no artist on earth who would dare draw HHH and his big gonzo nose. Speaking of which, the art is alright. The action bits are well depicted, seeing Stunners on the drawn page look somewhat impactful, and the layouts are fairly clean by late-90s comic standards.

It’s not exactly a great comic by any means. The joke pretty much runs itself through the dirt about two issues and by the time you reach the end, it’s just… eh. That said, if you ever wanted a comic about Stone Cold Steve Austin being a total badass who’s nigh impervious to pain, then this is the book for you. They’re an amusing curiosity if nothing else, but not much more than that… which more than sums up the entirety of the WWF/CHAOS! Comics partnership if I’m being totally honest.