Secret Invasion: Front Line TPB

Secret Invasion: Front Line TPB
Writer: Brian Reed
Pencils: Marco Castiello
$14.99

Starting with Civil War, Marvel started including a Front Line tie-in book with their major crossovers (so, Civil War, World War Hulk, and now Secret Invasion). While the main crossover title deals with the major events, and the other tie-in issues deal with individual characters’ reactions to the events (i.e., Secret Invasion: Ms. Marvel is about Ms. Marvel’s story during the Invasion), the Front Line books have a unique take:

They deal with regular people in a Super world.

Secret Invasion: Front Line follows the stories of Marvel Universe citizens during the few days of Skrulls invading Earth. Ben Urich, from the newspaper Front Line narrates the story, through recordings he’s made as the events unfold.

I’ve really enjoyed the Front Line comics so far, and Secret Invasion’s version doesn’t disappoint. In just five issues, we’re invited to see the worlds of a police officer who’s been burned in the leg, a young nurse trying to do her job, a cab driver whose day went from crap to worse, and a teenage girl whose parents are separating. And we witness all of these characters coming together, and how they survive (or not) the Skrull Invasion.

It’s good times. Reading these tales, writer Brian Reed really brought more weight to the insanity of the Skrull Invasion – Rather than just seeing how Iron Man dealt with losing his StarkTech, or how Ms. Marvel was destroying monsters from another world, or how other heroes dealt with it, we get to see what would happen to you or I. Because, let’s face it; in the threat of an shape-changing alien invasion, I bet a lot more folks would run away than stand up and fight for the safety of the planet.

It’s also great to see Ben Urich’s reaction to people’s reactions to Norman Osborn taking control, and the beginning of the Dark Reign. Urich, as you may remember, wrote a book that ousted Norman as the psychopathic Green Goblin, and Mr. Osborn’s dealing with the situation is rather impressive.

So, if you want a complete picture of the Marvel Universe’s dealing with the Skrull invasion, I’d highly recommend checking this TPB out. But it’s mostly for completists and Marvel Universe uber-nerds, like me.

It seems as though I’ve only reviewed things I’ve enjoyed, so far… Maybe next time, I’ll review something that I think sucks…

They paved paradise…

Today when I got to Comic Zone, I couldn’t turn into the drive leading to the parking lot because they are TARRING our parking lot!

This is actually a good thing. I don’t think that parking lot has been tarred in over 10 years. It was full of cracks, the parking lines were completely eradicated, and it verged on being a hazard. So, I am very happy that we will have a beautiful, new tarred parking area.

However…. Wednesdays are usually our busiest day, and people are going to really want to come in to get to us today.

On a good note, though, the new Basha’s parking lot now has covered parking! So, as long as folks don’t mind walking a bit, they can at least keep their cars out of the sun.

THE Comic Book Store

A father and his daughter were just in the store.

His wife called him and asked where he was. He said, “I am at the comic book store.” I can’t tell you how that warmed my heart. WE are “the comic book store.”

And she obviously knew exactly what he was talking about.

I think that is great. I really LIKE being THE comic book store.

Changing store hours?

We had decided to change our hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays from Noon-8 pm to 3pm-8pm. We started it for May. Well, last Thursday, I was in the store early, so I opened a bit early, and sure enough, we had folks coming in at 2 pm.

Today, Sean forgot we had changed our hours, so he was here at noon. I got here at 1:00, and we had steady customers from the moment I got here today.

Perhaps we need to change our hours back to Noon – 8 pm, given the traffic.

This is a GOOD thing.

Odds and ends

This has been an odd week. Wednesdays are usually our busiest day. This week, Wednesday was one of our slowest days, and we did really well on MONDAY. Fridays are usually slow, but yesterday was incredibly good. Saturdays are usually our 2nd best day of the week. Today so far? Not so much. On the whole, though, it’s been a good month so far.

Tonight we have a video game tournament. Halo 3 for the XBox 360. Apparently quite a few people have expressed interest in participating, so the day may still turn around. First prize is the Halo graphic novel.

Last night I saw the new Star Trek movie. Wow, was it AWESOME! Makes me want to read the comics.

Dead Gear

Since we are a store, upon occasion, we sell things on consignment for people we know, or if we find something we think is really cool. Well, our good friends, Dan and Jenn were part of the band that played on FCBD – the Super Zero Hit Squad. In reality, that is simply an alter-ego for them, as the band that they have been promoting for a couple of years now is called Dead Gear.

You can see more pictures and hear their music here.  

We will be hosting their long-awaited CD Release party on May 16th. It’s going to be a blast!!!

So, of course, CDs will be available that night, and we will be carrying them in the store also.

New Mutants #1

New Mutants #1
Marvel Comics
Zeb Wells (writer)
Diogenes Neves (pencils)
Klaus Janson (inks)
Christina Strain (colors)

I missed New Mutants, the first time around. By the time I got into comics, New Mutants #100 was the latest issue, and, as X-buffs undoubtedly know, there was no New Mutants #101 – Rob Liefeld had transformed the book into X-Force.

I also missed New Mutants the second time around, in 2003 or whatever, because that was during my return to comics, and the series had just been canceled to be turned into New X-Men (which is not to be confused with Grant Morrison’s New X-Men, which ended that same year.)

So, I figured, “Hey, a new number one. That’s a good jumping-on point, right?” So I read it.

Essentially, the story is that all the original New Mutants who are still alive (Cannonball, Sunspot, Magma, Karma, and the returning Magik, hot on the heels of X-Infernus) are headed out to investigate a possible mutant power manifestation from a 7-year-old girl. And, as is the case in all X-books, trouble follows. And then Legion shows up (which isn’t really a spoiler, because all of the ads leading up to NM#1 say that the team is back to combat Legion).

Diogenes Neves‘ artwork is solid. Everybody is easily-distinguishable from everybody else, even when they’re all suited up in their funky new X-costumes. And, y’know, Christina Strain is totally my favorite colorist in comics today, so having her on board certainly doesn’t hurt.

And, it’s a solid first issue. It made me want to read issue two, and I’m very much contemplating buying the wraparound cover (pictured above) to add to my collection. And I just might, if we have any left by the end of the day, today.

After reading both #1 issues today, I’m more excited for New Mutants #2 than I am for Power Girl #2, even though I was more excited to read PG#1 than NM#1. I’m not sure if that’s because I’ve been an X-Family fan for over 15 years, or if it’s because Zeb Wells wrote a more intriguing story than Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti did. But, whatever the reason, I’ll be back to check out both of these comics, next month.

Also, Marvel totally has the first few pages of New Mutants #1 up on their website, if you want to take a look, yourself. Head on over to http://www.marvel.com/news/comicstories.7845.Preview~colon~_New_Mutants_%231 and check it out!

Power Girl #1

Power Girl #1
DC Comics
Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray (writing)
Amanda Connor (pencils & inks)
Paul Mounts (color)

So, let me get this out of the way: I am not a huge DC Comics fan. I never have been, as it seems the only IPs they ever bother to license out are Batman and Superman, despite their having so many more characters that, at least to me, seem far more interesting. The Green Lantern is one of those characters, and I’m very excited for the Blackest Night event, this summer. I’m also currently enjoying Green Arrow/Black Canary.

So today, with Power Girl #1 coming out, I thought I’d give it a shot. From what I understand (before reading Wikipedia’s entry on the character), Power Girl is the Earth-2 version of Super Girl, somehow trapped on Earth Prime. She was shuttled away off of Krypton-2 before it exploded, much like her cousin, Kal-El (Superman). Or something like that. What’s nice about this issue is that there’s a one-page recap of her origin, which essentially says, “Yo, my origin isn’t very important. It happened, but that’s not why you should care about me. You should care about me because I’m kind of a badass trying to make the world a better place.”

And, really, that makes me care about the character more than trying to explain her origin story. As X-Men Origins: Wolverine (both the movie and last week’s comic) have proven, delving too far into any one character’s back story can just leave you confused and give you a headache. In fact, one of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen creators make is try to explain the origins of characters whose origins REALLY aren’t very important; Wolverine isn’t cool because of what happened to him before, he’s cool because of how he acts NOW. Same with Gambit. Same with Cable.

And the same with Power Girl. Her origin is unimportant. She’s here, and she’s fighting monsters. As far as the issue itself goes, it’s okay. Amanda Connor’s art is gorgeous, but I feel like the story is just decent. Although that might be because I’d read half the comic in all the other DC comics that’ve come out in the last couple months… But it was interesting enough to keep me intrigued for issue two.

So, I’m not buying Power Girl #1 today, but I certainly wouldn’t fault anybody else for doing so. And there’s a pretty good chance I might go back and pick up the trade, after the first several issues have come out. It’s a strong start. We’ll see where it goes from here.

The Monday After

And luckily, Andy and Avery, as well as the EDGE 103.9 FM

 took lots of great pictures. 

Here is Andy with SuperGirl

And here is Avery with the Hulk.

For more pictures, you can go to the EDGE’s myspace site

Or to Andy’s website

It was actually a great day!  Everyone loved SuperGirl and the Hulk and lots of photos were taken. People LOVED having Tosh back – he sold out of all of his paintings and the comics he brought! And World Wide Villains were back too, and they also had a great day in sales.

The EDGE had a blast, and people loved having them there. And even after ALL of that, the Super Zero Hit Squad came in, dressed up like Bat-Dan and Robin, and rocked the house down.

For us ComicZoners, it was one of our best days ever. 

Transformers: All Hail Megatron

Transformers: All Hail Megatron #s 1-4, 6-10
IDW Publishing
Written by Shane McCarthy
Pencils by Guido Guidi and Robert Deas (issue 9)

“What a quizzical selection of issues,” you might be thinking to yourself.

Well, what had happened was, between shopping at my previous regular shop and opening my own store, I sort of missed a few comics, and apparently TFs: All Hail Megatron #5 was one of them. So I totally didn’t get to read it. But IDW released a 5-page teaser of that issue, and tfwiki.net is pretty much the ultimate Transformers resource, so I read their synopsis.

Anyways.

THIS is the Transformers comic I have been waiting for IDW to produce. Don’t get me wrong; the Infiltration, Stormbringer, Escalation, Devastation, and Revelation mini serieses, and the Spotlight one-shots are cool. Really cool. Some of them are amongst the best Transformers comics I’ve ever read. But, All Hail Megatron is the epitome of making this silly little child’s franchise a piece of mature entertainment.

Here’s the basic premise: The Autobots have been exiled to Cybertron, and Optimus Prime has been severely damaged. The Decepticons, meanwhile, have decided to take over the Earth and use its natural resources to create Energon (the Transformers equivalent of food), and use it as a central base of operations in their quest for Universal conquest. The Autobots on Cybertorn are embittered, having petty arguments amongst themselves, and accusing each other of being traitors. Also, they’re trying to remain a cohesive team and stand united in the face of adversity. Clearly, that part isn’t going very well. Also, Starscream is up to his usual undermining tactics. Except, this time, he actually manages to convince some Decepticons that he’s right. And, hoo-boy, does he seemingly convince the right Decepticons to convince!

But the best part about All Hail Megatron is that THINGS HAPPEN. One of the problems with most children’s cartoons (especially the ones designed to sell toys, like Transformers), is that the main characters mostly always stay alive. But in AHM, nobody is safe. Especially not the humans. In issue 6, the evil Decepticon Skywarp claims to have killed the population of Beijing, China. That’s over eight million people. Okay, even if he’s exaggerating? That’s a lot of people. The death toll is likely still in the millions.

Or, one of my favorite scenes is when some scared New Yorkers are hiding in the subway, and they hear a train. They’re thinking that this is their way out of there. But when the train arrives, it’s clearly Astrotrain, who transforms into his robot mode and KILLS EVERYTHING.

While you can totally see Starscream’s betrayal coming a mile away (because, you know, it’s Starscream), WHAT he manages to do, and the revelation of how the other Decepticons see him is somethingt that we never really got a chance to see, before this. And because IDW is allowed to kind of re-write TF history for this series, you may be surprised at who feels which way about the Decepticon Air Commander.

And when the Autobots find the OTHER faction trying to survive on Cybertron? Oh man, it’s quite a treat.

The only downside to this story is that you need to know what happened to Sunstreaker during the Escalation and Devastation series, and it sort of requires that you have a working knowledge of who the Transformers are, and why the Matrix of Leadership is important. So full-on TransNewbies may be a bit confused at first. But if you, like me, watched the original Transformers when you were a kid in the early 80s, this is the comic that you want to read. It’s literally as cool as you remember Transformers being, without too much stuff being changed.

I highly recommend this series if you have even a passing interest in the Transformers.