Ho Ho Ho

Christmas is so close I can taste it. This week has been a whirlwind so far, and it's only going to get crazier. However, I still got time to read some comics!

COMIC REVIEWS! 

                                                                                                    The Guild: Vork one-shot

The Guild creator Felicia Day continues expanding the hilarious universe of her web series with this latest issue. This time, instead of a mini-series following the misadventures of "Codex", we get one issue focusing on a different member of the Guild. The first installment features Vork, the leader of the Knights of Good, and his path towards learning to be a better leader.

Fans of the hilarious web series will eat this up, and the fact that Jeff Lewis, the actor who plays Vork, co-wrote the issue with Ms. Day only makes the story even more of a believable Vork tale. If you've been in the dark on The Guild, you owe it to yourself to check it out. I even put a link up for you (hint, it says "hilarious web series"). You don't need to be too involved in the web series to get the charm of this issue, and I can't wait for the next installment.

Batman, Inc. #2

Once again, I'm here to admit that I enjoyed the latest issue of Batman, Inc.  Bat-mastermind Grant Morrison's script is a fantastic adventure piece, and it actually concludes this issue! Yes, for the first time in what seems like forever, a Batman story has been told in only TWO ISSUES! Apparently Morrison's goal for this series to tell quick, action-packed Batman stories, and while it may be too soon to say, I think it's been working well.


Batman's battle with Lord Death Man continues, and the legacy of Mr. Unknown is revealed, which was a twist that I wasn't really expecting, and puts an interesting spin on the "detective" side of Batman. Essentially we learn that Mr. Unknown is now two different heroes. While the original Mr. Unknown became too old to fight crime physically, he still can use his detective skills. With this in mind, he has one of his employees become the Mr. Unknown that will go out and knock heads.  This revelation definitely was a surprise, and puts a whole new spin on the roles that both Bruce and Dick Grayson now play as Batman.

Yanick Paquette's art still shines, and his action scenes at the beginning of the book are pretty spectacular. No one can draw a giant squid sticking out of the side of a Tokyo building like this guy, and that moment in particular may go down as one of my favorite comic book moments of the year.  Batman, Inc. continues on its action-packed path, and for the first time in awhile I've been actually looking forward to a Grant Morrison Batman book wholeheartedly.

What If?: Dark Reign one-shot

After last week's bummer of an issue, we get another What If? story that starts off strong, but eventually fails to deliver. Unlike last week though, this issue was surprisingly predictable.

Back when Norman Osborne was in charge, during last years Dark Reign "non-event", Hawkeye made a threat in New Avengers that he was going to kill Osborne, stating that he couldn't stand by and let a known murderer and criminal be in charge of the country's security. Regardless of the fact that Spider-man should have been the one on the team to hold this viewpoint, Clint Barton eventually decided against killing Osborne. This issue of What If? asks "What if Hawkeye killed Norman Osborne?". Well guess what......he gets shot. Yep. The entire issue is just Clint Barton hanging out in Central Park, waiting out the whole bruhaha over killing Osborne. I honestly can't believe that Marvel let this issue go to print, as it honestly just kills time between Clint killing Norman and him getting shot and killed. We barely even get any reactions from his Avengers teammates! I really hope that next week's Siege themed issue is more worth my time, but at the rate this year's What Ifs?  have been going, I don't think that's going to happen.