Reviews

Kick open the door. Kill the monster. Steal the treasure. Screw over everybody you come in contact with. Welcome to the world of Munchkin. The book features four stories set in and around the world of the game, featuring Spyke, Flower, and all the other characters, monsters, and settings players have come to love.

eave it to a project helmed by Jonathan Hickman to be impeccably designed. The first issue of The Dying & The Dead brings together long-time collaborator Ryan Bodenheim as artist, colorist Michael Garland, and lettering duties by Rus Wooton for a whopping 60-page issue; and the sheer amount of information conveyed is akin to a freight train dropping from the sky at terminal velocity. In a good way, I assure you.

As of late, Bat group editor Mark Doyle has added books to the bat-ecosystem that have captured a similar type of magic previously only on Fox Kids programing. Gotham Academy has been a prime example of it. Issue four continues to unfold the institution’s connection to Gotham’s lore through the lens of adolescence.

REYN #1 does quite a bit of world-building for a first issue, in fact the very first page has an astonishing amount of information contained in several narration boxes. The scene opens in a place known as the Barrens: a cracked, dry wasteland bereft of life, save a few leafless tree skeletons. Through the dust clouds emerge an armored rider whom the narration calls a Warden.

Powers by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming is a book that’s moved around a lot. It started as a DC pitch, then came to life at Image, and found a home under Marvel’s Icon imprint. With the book getting ready to make its big move to PlayStations everywhere, (We watched the first episode today and it’s dynamite!) the powers behind Powers are back with a new ongoing series that doesn’t miss a beat.

Burning Fields is an analog combination of old school horror like The Thing in combination with the geopolitical drama of a Zero Dark Thirty. Where it plants its feet and sets itself apart is in the perpetual insecurity these pages bring and that is far from a bad thing.

Action Lab Entertainment might not be a familiar name to you but they’ve got great books like Molly Danger and Nutmeg under their belt. The studio continues to further sharpen already edgy ideas with their newest book Holy F*ck.

Project Superpowers: Blackcross #1 Writer: Warren Ellis Artist: Colton Worley Colorist: Morgan Hickman Project Superpowers had a few different titles published by Dynamite around 2008-10.  The line is...

The 10-month gap between issues might be deterrent for anyone who’s been following this series since issue one. However there’s enough in issue five to justify the wait. If we scored books this one would come in damn near perfect.

There’s X-Men, Xzibit, the band X (if you get the reference I'll buy you a soft pretzel if you're onsite at SDCC), and there’s Dark Horse Comics vigilante simply known as X. Since the characters reboot under writer Duane Swierczynski and artist Eric Nguyen the series continues to be a rollercoaster of highs and lows.

Justice League: Throne of Atlantis is the animated film follow up to last year’s Justice League War that introduced the New 52 to DC Animation. The last few movies have been a roller coaster of quality. Flashpoint Paradox was excellent while War and Assault on Arkham suffered from execution problems. While the film has a few standout moments Justice League TOA doesn’t quite parallel the emotional strength of its Geoff Johns Aquaman source material.

With the highly anticipated next chapter of the game set to release later this year, DC Comics is continuing to capitalize on Warner Bros acquisition of the property with a prequel comic book series. Releasing first digitally, Mortal Kombat X will bridge the gap between the game released in 2011 and its follow up this year.