Star Trek: The Next Generation, Through The Mirror, Review by Case Wright

Posted on October 10, 2018 by casewright

Happy Horrorthon!!! We are back in the eeeeeeeeevil Star Trek universe! Why is it evil? Obviously, it’s because they have beards and follow strict capitalist principles with a healthy dose of militarism.

Before I get into the story, I want to write that David and Scott Tipton do a good job of not having the mirror universe characters seeing themselves as villains. This may seem obvious, but it’s actually very common – especially in comics. For example, Stan Lee once had Magneto lead a group of mutants with the moniker of Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. I get that the X-Men thought they were evil, but why would Magneto?

This volume: Through the Mirror brings our Mirror Universe to the Next Generation universe our youth for supplies and plunder. Bearded Picard is faced with blockades from rival species in his universe and needs materiel and plunder to fuel his war machine in order to bring the Terran Empire back to its former glory before Emperor Spock made them go all drum-circle kumbaya…bleh.

My main complaint with the Volume Two is actually in the first installment. It opens with Worf investigating the theft of precious minerals from a mining colony in the “good universe”. He sees the thief and nearly catches him. This is a recurring issue with volume 2; the story should be only from the perspective of the mirror universe characters. There is simply too much of the “good universe”. They also have the “Good Universe” find an Andorian Ship that has been attacked by Evil Picard after the fact. WHY? Show us the Evil Planning, Show us the Pirate Picard attack, Show us why they believe they are justified. We bought the book; therefore, we are invested in these anti-heroes. The story could be great if we just get to bathe in their villany. Don’t judge them. This is their code. This is their society. They don’t see themselves as evil and neither should we. We can only judge them as evil if they violate their own code of morality not ours. This isn’t our universe. The good universe should be treated like MSG a little is … ok… too much and you vomit.

Back to the story, Pirate Picard lures the good enterprise into a trap, hoping to seize it. They fail, but they failed too much. It should’ve been more of a draw with a push to the evil universe. Scott and David – the evil guys are your heroes. They need to win at least a bit. You can have a close game, but don’t have them get their ass kicked because it makes it too much of a Good Next Gen story. The other knock is that they left Evil Barclay behind, dragging us back unnecessarily into the good universe. You are thwarting them waaaaay too much.

It’s time for Evil Picard to kick some ass, but it in a good way. Is it just for wealth for Pirate Picard? I don’t think so. In this universe, the Terrans see themselves as Superior like the British or Roman Empire. Therefore, when the Klingons and Cardassians took back a lot of the Empire they likely took many Human captives as slaves. This must be disgustingly unacceptable to Pirate Picard or any Terran Empire member. Have them liberate a planet, rescuing Human captives. From their perspective, they are not only NOT EVIL, but good because they are reasserting rightful human dominance to their universe. If you have to, make some propaganda posters with Pirate Picard. Make it personal for Pirate Picard. Maybe Picard’s brother joined the fleet and was captured? Make it personal! Go for it! Have Pirate Picard risk it all: mutiny, the ship, the Terran Empire to liberate and rescue his brother and nephew Robert. It would be epic!!!!! You have an unending depth that you can give Pirate Picard. Give him his version of humanity.

This volume was ok, but they are not fulfilling some great story potential here. This could be a great way to reboot the series. Just remember: They Don’t Consider Themselves Evil.

Star Trek: The Next Generation, Mirror Broken- Review By Case Wright

Posted on October 8, 2018 by casewright

Happy Horrorthon!!! This review is going to be a deep dive into eeeeeeevil nerdism. I understand that not everyone reads this site is a techie nerd, BUUUUUUT I think we have a healthy plurality. Nothing is better than to merge an evil universe with my love of Star Trek.

I’m going to give brief recap of the Star Trek Mirror Universe. There’s a parallel universe in Star Trek that basically capitalist/imperialist. In that timeline, humans are aggressive and conquered the Vulcans. You can tell they are evil because they are avaricious and have beards- Think if Seattle/Portland went less drum circle and went more Roman. It’s common to kill your superior to advance in the chain of command, it’s totally capitalist, and more fun in some ways because it’s a lot less model UN and much more Model Viking.

The evil universe never appeared in the Next Generation, but it did appear in Star Trek: The Original Series and then the second tier properties of Enterprise, Deep Space Nine and Voyager. In those second tier properties, they set up a timeline that when the “Good Kirk” encouraged Spock to be reformist, it worked. Too bad for Earth because the Empire got attacked by the other Alien Races we conquered and now Humans are pushed back to their solar system and will likely to be conquered.

Where there’s life, there’s hope. In this comic, the writers Steven and David Tipton imagine if Jean Luc Picard was an uncompromising badass who is determined to bring the Terran Empire back to its former glory. How does he do this besides being really JACKED? Picard sets out to steal the Galaxy Class Enterprise. This creates a great heist story, but it’s also super fun because it explores all of the old characters from the Next Generation and I mean ALL! There are character that were all but extras in Next Generation that are featured in the background of the book. There are so many interesting takes on our old heroes. Barclay is cunning, Data is experimenting with Borg-technology, and Geordie has his paramour from Next Gen, but she’s an alcoholic. It’s so fun to go down this rabbit hole.

Back to the story, Picard assembles our familiar crew and seizes the Galaxy Class Enterprise for his own. He could just take off and be rich, but he doesn’t. Through some cool maneuvers, Picard decimates the Klingons and Cardassians …..nooooooo not the ones with large posteriors …. the ones with the krinkly heads. Anyway, they go on war rampage and look like they might actually get to restore the Terran Empire!

TERRANS UNITE!

American Vampire – Review by Case Wright

Posted on October 6, 2018 by casewright

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I got my computer back!!!! Happy October Horrorthon!!!

In every sport or endeavor, we can think of our stars: the paragons. Stephen King is an unquestioned master of horror. In comics, Scott Snyder looks down from that pyramid as well. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Scott Snyder a few times and you would never guess that he was the greatest comic book author in a generation.

I went up to Scott at the Emerald City Comic Con to have him sign my trade paperback. He was surprised because my trade was not rare at all, but I wanted him to know that I loved his art so much that I wanted it signed, regardless of worth. Because of that, he took out time to talk to me even though there was a line of autograph hounds. Stephen King, on the other hand, I have no idea what’s he’s like in real life. I have a hunch that he’s like most people I have known from Maine: DIY, tough, and fair.

American Vampire was a Supergroup: both King and Snyder wrote this book with the beautiful art of Rafael Albuquerque. They took the genre of the Vampire and, much like the theme in the story, they made it evolve. The result was a trio of interconnected revenge stories with wonderfully flawed heroes and anti-heroes. The artists forced you to root even for Skinner Sweet – a man who thinks he’s not only above the law, but beyond it. Skinner Sweet typifies the American Id: dangerous, violent, and oddly fair within his code.

The book opens with two struggling starlets in the 1920s Hollywood: Pearl and Hattie. Pearl is all-in with the art; whereas, Hattie is more of the hack opportunist. They are staying in a cheap apartment complex where a mysterious stranger hangs around. Pearl is invited to Hollywood party where it turns out she is the main course for a host of hungry vampires. Near death, the mysterious stranger finds her dying and he makes her like him: An American Vampire. A vampire, unlike the relics of europe, he can walk in daylight and has few if any weaknesses. When Pearl rises to her new undead life, she goes on a rampage of revenge to destroy those who stole her humanity. Yes, I just got chills too!

The story flashes back to the old west where a lawman, Book, has captured Skinner Sweet, but not for long. He busted out in an awesome train attack by his gang. This is where we learn about the haughty European vampires and how they are arrogant, weak, and in our way. Sweet tells Book that he sent poison to his wife, engendering Book’s revenge story against Sweet. During the train attack, Sweet is turned into a Vampire and when he eventually rises Sweet and Book are sent on a collision course of revenge against the other.

There’s more revenge in this book than a Sicilian novel. It must be burned into my Italian DNA to love these revenge stories, but there’s more to it that my accident of birth. Revenge stories tap into the universal of what makes us human. We’ve all been wronged and we have all wondered what it would be like to mete out own justice and live by our own law. Skinner Sweet is not as much evil as he is part of civilization; he’s the American ID of our rugged individualism. Pearl’s character is part of society, but must seek out her own revenge because as a vampire, she is unable to use society to bring her justice. As the story unfolds, it’s clear that Pearl and Skinner Sweet are the most honest in their quest for revenge because at times Block uses his badge to hide behind his vendetta. In all three stories, the vendettas are so satisfying and pure. This book is rage distilled to its purest form.

Harrow County – Countless Haints, Review by Case Wright

Posted on October 3, 2018 by casewright

Happy Horrorthon!!! We are in the thick of it folks. October is happening! We’re all eating things with pumpkin flavor, baseball’s in full swing (pun intended), and we all get into trying something scary.

There are few things that truly scare me as much as clowns do, but I’d rather sit on Bozo’s lap than live one solitary moment in Harrow County. Harrow County is a comic series by Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook published by Dark Horse. Saying this comic is scary is like writing that Charles Lindbergh dabbled in flying planes. After the first few pages, I was thoroughly creeped out and turned on all the lights in my home.

The story revolves around Emmy, a nearly adult woman, who is discovering that she is not an ordinary farmer’s daughter, but terrifyingly powerful witch. Years earlier, Emma’s “mother” Hester was an evil witch with the powers of Satan. The townsfolk weren’t too fond of all of her child sacrifices and dark arts so they decide to shoot, stab, hang, and burn Emma’s “mother”.

*Slight Spoiler*—- Emma learns that she is the born again version of Hester and not an actual daughter. Emma was born from murder and vengeance and Harrow County is about to reap the whirlwind.

The art of this story is so off-putting and chill-inducing. Their eyes pull you in as if you are one of the townsfolk being judged and co-opted by good or evil. The story has a wide streak of ambiguity; it never allows you to fully see the true good or evil of any the characters after the first five pages. In essence, the characters are real. They are you neighbor, your brother, your sister: imperfect and conflicted. This duality is exemplified by Emma’s only a friend a ghost or “Haint” who is actually bifurcated. One half of the friend acts as Emma’s bodyguard: pure rage that is only muscle akin to the Human Body figures from biology class and the other half of her friend is a kind and scared bag of skin who acts as a guide for Emma. The bifurcated friend is a great visual example of our rage that hides just under the surface of all people.

This story is scary as Hell. Go Buy It!

hc skin friend

4 Shots From 4 Films: Happy Birthday, Spider-Man!

Posted on August 1, 2018 by Jedadiah Leland

It was 56 years ago today that The Amazing Spider-Man made his first appearance in the 15th issue of Amazing Fantasy. After being bitten by a radioactive spider, Peter Parker developed super power but it was not until his uncle was murdered that Parker learned what it meant to be a hero.

With great power comes great responsibility and, as these four shots from four films demonstrate, movie stardom! Over the years, Nicholas Hammond, Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland have all played America’s favorite web-spinning super hero.

In honor of Spider-Man’s birthday, here they are

4 Shots From 4 Films

The Amazing Spider-Man: The Chinese Web (1979, directed by Don McDougall)

Spider-Man (2002, directed by Sam Raimi)

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014, directed by Marc Webb)

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017, directed by Jon Watts)

In Memory Of Steve Ditko

Posted on July 6, 2018 by Jedadiah Leland

Self-Portrait of Steve Ditko

To many of us longtime comic book fans, Steve Ditko was an enigma.

We knew that, as the original artist on The Amazing Spider-Man and as the creator of Doctor Strange, Steve Ditko was responsible for much of Marvel’s early success. Though he would never make a cameo appearance in an MCU film and the mainstream media will probably always continue to act as if Stan Lee is solely responsible for every character in the Marvel Universe, true fans know that, without Steve Ditko, Benedict Cumberbatch would never have cast as spells as Doctor Strange and Tom Holland would never have swung through New York as everyone’s favorite web slinger.

We all knew of Steve Ditko’s talent but the man himself remained a mystery. He rarely gave interviews or made public appearances, saying that he preferred to let his work speak for itself. And what work it was! With Spider-Man, Ditko’s art captured not just the excitement of fighting criminals and saving the world but also the angst and anxiety of being young and overburdened. With Doctor Strange, Ditko brought magic, both literally and figuratively, to the Marvel Universe. Filling the pages with surrealistic images and out-of-this-world creations, Ditko kept Marvel relevant even as youth culture made the transition from the optimism of the Kennedy era to the drug-influenced psychedelia of the late 1960s.

Ditko left Marvel in 1966. The exact story of his departure are unknown. Perhaps, as a committed and outspoken Objectivist, Ditko chafed at the editorial restrictions that Marvel put on his work. While Stan Lee wanted to sell comics, Steve Ditko wanted to reach minds. After leaving Marvel, Ditko worked for several different companies, including Charlton and DC. (He even returned to Marvel in 1979 and regularly contributed freelance work to the company.) The best-known of his later creations was Mr. A, a reporter-turned-masked-vigilante who dispensed of criminals with uncompromising justice.

Despite his reputation for eccentricity, most people who worked with him described Ditko as being personable and cheerful. According to Charlton’s Frank McLaughlin, “He was a very happy-go-lucky guy with a great sense of humor at that time, and always supplied the [female] color separators with candy and other little gifts.”

On June 29th, Steve Ditko was found dead in his New York apartment. Rest in peace, Mr. Ditko. Thank you for sharing your imagination with us.

From The Amazing Spider-Man #33:

In Strange Tales, Ditko introduced my favorite of all of Marvel’s “cosmic” entities, Eternity:

And finally, the character who may have been closest to Ditko’s worldview, Mr. A:

Rest in Peace, Steve Ditko (1927-2018)

Posted on July 6, 2018 by gary loggins

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The world lost a true artistic visionary when Steve Ditko passed away at age 90. He had supposedly been dead two days before his body was found in his New York City apartment, an ignoble ending to one of comic book’s most unique artists, the man who co-created Spider-Man and Dr. Strange, two characters currently riding high in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That their spiritual father should leave this mortal coil so anonymously is a tragedy, and a crying shame.

Ditko’s work will never be mistaken for a Jack Kirby or Neal Adams, or any of their myriad imitators. His art was deceptively simple, yet so complicated in its execution. He’s all angles and motion, with lots of empty spaces. His was a style all his own, a style that fans loved for its singularness. Ditko, after a post-war stint in the Army, entered the comics field in 1953, working…

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TOMAHAWK Fights The War of Independence – in Comic Books!

Posted on July 4, 2018 by gary loggins

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There weren’t very many comic-book heroes (super or otherwise) whose adventures took place during the Revolutionary War era. In fact, I can only think of one – DC’s Tomahawk, who made his four-color debut in Star-Spangled Comics #69 back in 1947. Tomahawk fought not only the British, but Indian co-conspirators in the pages of Star-Spangled and World’s Finest, getting his own book in 1950, which had a 140 issue run until folding in 1972.

Writer Ed France Herron and artist Fred Ray produced the bulk of Tomahawk’s tales, and being a comic book there were some sci-fi elements added during the 50’s, and campy super villains in the 60’s. Tomahawk even introduced America’s first superheroine Miss Liberty, a frontier nurse by day who fought alongside Tomahawk in 22 issues. In honor of the July 4th holiday, here’s a gallery of covers chronicling the thrilling stories of Tomahawk:

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This 4th Of July, Make The World Safe For Democracy With These Patriotic Super Heroes!

Posted on July 2, 2018 by Dazzling Erin

This 4th of July, while celebrating America’s birthday, don’t forget that there was a time when superheroes not only starred in movies but also made the world safe for democracy! From World War II, here is a gallery of patriotic super heroes fighting for the freedoms that we enjoy today!

Not even the most powerful of heroes could do it alone. For that reason, when they weren’t beating the enemy in their own backyard, they were encouraging their readers to support the armed forces by buying war bonds.

Over the course of World War II, 85 million Americans purchased war bonds totaling an estimated $185 billion.

Finally, what other way to end this patriotic post than with a musical tribute to the Star-Spangled Man With A Plan?

And to all the real, flesh-and-blood heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice to save the world from tyranny, thank you.

Pulp Fiction #2: The Man of Steel Turns 80!

Posted on April 17, 2018 by gary loggins

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On April 18, 1938, National Publications presented Action Comics #1, showcasing typical comic book fare of the era like master magician Zatara, sports hero Pep Morgan, and adventurer Tex Thompson. And then there was the red-and-blue suited guy on the cover…

Yes, it’s Superman, strange visitor from another planet with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men… who can change the course of mighty rivers… bend steel in his bare hands… and so on and so forth! Eighty years ago tomorrow, Superman made his debut and changed the course of mighty comic book publishers forever. An immediate hit with youthful readers, Superman headlined his own comic a year later, spawned a slew of superhero imitators, became a super-merchandising machine, and conquered all media like no other before him!

Wayne Boring’s Superman