Monsters and Old Heroes

Ah, comics. I realize I haven't reviewed any in a long time. That's down mainly to not having anything really significant to say. Not that that has ever stopped me before.



I only read B.P.R.D now in trades, since I really am trying to cut out monthly books altogether. (Insert laughter here.) I just finished this one mere minutes ago, and it was just superb. I enjoyed the previous collection--Garden of Souls--but this time around it was nigh all out action, with buckets of gore, two monsters, and the death of a main character. There is such a deep and wonderfully dark mythology with Mignola's universe, both here and in Hellboy, and after years of reading and re-reading it, I think I'm getting a solid handle on it. Until the next trade, that is.

As well, this one has the Wendigo, which still creeps me out. Ever go for a walk in a forest at night, with a full moon beaming down through the branches, and have someone tell you that particular Native American legend? Trust me--don't.



Another fine, fine issue. The Dredd story this time around--Road Stop-- has our 70 year old Judge babysitting a bunch of citizens in a hotel while a rad-storm rages outside. Unfortunately, the hotel is run by two creeps who butcher their guests to feed some monster in the basement. Oh, and evil mutants have arrived to kill everyone. And did I mention the rad-storm has knocked out communications, so Dredd is on his own? Awesome. The other stories in the prog--Savage, Dead Eyes, The Ten Seconders, and Dead Signal--are also high quality, no frackin' nonsense science fiction. The Ten Seconders really stands out--it's a post apocalyptic world where 'gods' rule the earth (essentially superheroes), with a collection of men and women doing their best to kill them off. (They're called 'the ten seconders' since that's usually how long they last fighting a god.). Just brutal stuff. And maybe it says too much about me that I love it. Maybe my mommy didn't love me. Sniff.



I love Golden Age heroes. I love the pulps. So I'm currently enjoying the hell out of this series. I admit that I at first thought this series was a homage to the Golden Age, and that these were characters created by Alex Ross and Jim Kreuger. But no--these are characters from lesser known comics from the GA, heroes I honestly had never heard of. To which I say: God bless Wikipedia.

This issue seemed a little stilted, though, since Ross and Kreuger are trying to juggle a lot of narrative shiny balls here--pushing forward the storyline, while introducing the small army of old time heroes. This time we get to see The Death Defying 'Devil (who actually used to be called Daredevil, but they've removed the 'Dare', added a ', and probably saved themselves a call from Marvel Legal)and the Flame, who doesn't do much but whine about his girlfriend and set fire to the Hollywood sign. We also meet Samson (is he the original?) and the Scarab, who reminds me a lot of the current take on Blue Beetle. And did you know that Patricia Highsmith, who wrote The Talented Mr. Ripley, used to write The Black Terror back in the Forties? Love to Wiki again!