Axiom’s Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy

By Sam Chrisopher

Before getting to comics, let’s start with the final Hulu Award choices. This has been a sometimes arduous process for me, as I just don’t watch much tv for a reason, but all in all it has been fun. And I have discovered shows like SpaceRip through this awards program that I probably never would have seen otherwise. I know I’ve referred to it as “the tyranny of the Hulu Column” from time to time but to tell the truth I’m actually looking forward in some ways to the next <smack!>… what the?!?… I’m sorry, one of my hands just slapped the other one. Weird! Anyway, what was I saying? Oh, yeah, (we’ll just skip that last part) here are the final two Finalists:

Best Comedy Clip: Only one real choice here for me-

Shaun of the Dead: Throwing Records

Best Non-comedy Clip: This category really comes down to two choices for me. I’ve said before and I repeat here that I will not vote for a politician lying to me, no matter his skin color. MLK’s speech would be a nice choice except that we—and I mean especially those who so vociferously proclaim their love for him and his ideas—don’t follow what he said. And I’m not getting into a full-blown thing here on this so that’s all I’m going to say right now. Now for the two: The Field of Dreams clip is a tear-jerker, and from one of the two or three best baseball pictures ever; the Psycho Shower Scene is a true watershed in American filmmaking—the younger horror film watchers today, with their virtual immersion in sex and gore, simply have no true idea of the impact this scene had when it was first released. They’re both deserving, but only one changed the face of graphic storytelling-

Psycho: Shower Scene

On to the comics:

First we a have A Tale of Two Comics. These comics are tied together by a storyline, the fact that they both stem from the same character, and their price (this month). Incredible Hercules #126, a title which used to be Incredible Hulk before the Planet Hulk storyline, is a double-sized Origin of Hercules Issue (double-sized… for $3.99. Remember that.) “Prince of Power”, written by Fred Van Lente (Action Philosophers, Amazing Fantasy) and Greg Pak (Marvel Nemesis, Skaar: Son of the Hulk) and penciled by Rodney Buchemi (Marvel Adventures, Super Heroes, Marvel Adventures: Avengers), is an excellent look at the early life of Heracles, the hard-drinking hedonistic opportunist who led Mankind away from the superstitious worship of gods and into the Age of Reason. No, really! There’s also a prose “story so far” segment showing the history of Hercules in the Marvel Universe. And an Amadeus Cho backup feature, “The Search for Kirby”, by Pak and Van Lente with Takeshi Miyazawa (Spiderman Loves Mary Jane, Runaways) art. All in all, a good jumping on point for new readers and good character development for us old hands.

Then we have the Jade Giant’s new title, Hulk, with its 10th issue, a regular sized comic with sold ads that they charge $3.99 for (and I won’t embarrass marvel by asking why this price disparity between this two comics; they’ve shown a distinct inablilty to answer that question of late). If you remember the miniseries Contest of Champions or the original Secret Wars you know the basic story here. All I will say is: Offense wins games, Defense wins Championships.

Star Trek: Countdown #2 also hit the stands this week. God, I want to like this book. I really, really, really do. <shakes head sadly> But the writing is just so bad. I mean, on Vulcan we now have a Praetor, a Senate, and a Science Council? And the Science Council is dominant? So… why do they need the same government already in place on Romulas (that’s how they spell it here) and the same one in place on Krypton? And do you think they’ll change those after Romulas (when in Rome—and, yes, I fully understand what a sad pun that is) suffers the same fate as Krypton? Now, in all fairness, other than the “Friends, Romulans, countrymen…” garbage from the first ish, and the fact that I still don’t really understand why Nero is more angry with Spock and Kirk—who’s already dead here—than the Romulan Senate, I don’t want to lay this all at the feet of writers Mike Johnson (Superman/Batman, DCU Halloween Special) and Tim Jones (Judge Dredd: The Megazine) here, as they were handed a story plotted by the writers of the new film, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, so I don’t know which team to blame here. Let’s just hope the new film is better worked out than this prequel.

Other comics:

Angel #18- How does a vampire who has very publicly rescued an entire city from Hell—literally—relax and continue his “normal” life? We don’t know if he can yet. But novelist Kelley Armstrong (novels Bitten, Personal Demon) and Dave Ross (Alpha Flight, Birds of Prey) are attempting to show us.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold #2- Matt Wayne (Static, Icon) and Phil Moy (World of Warcraft, Prime) bring us “Attack of the Virtual Villains”, in which Bats and Blue Beetle (a character that writers in this venue seem to looooove) enter the video game “Craft of War” to battle a man who only exists in virtual reality. Kinda makes you wonder why he wants to steal money. In the prologue, Superman makes his first appearance in the B:TBATB-verse.

Dr. Doom and the Masters of Evil #2- I have no idea what’s going on here but it’s funny.

Fantastic Four #564- The FF family goes to visit Reed’s cousin in Scotland for Christmas. Unfortunately, the cousin apparently lives in a cross between the towns from the films Dagon and Hot Fuzz. Every time I saw a cop in the story I heard the chant “The Greater Good” in my head. At least there was no mention this month of “Doom’s Masters” (does seem an odd time for the family to take a vacation, doesn’t it?).

Green Lantern #38- Part Four of “Rage of the Red Lanterns” finds Hal Jordan being “recruited”—“recruited”, “hijacked”, “possessed” what’s in a word?—by the Red and Blue Lantern Corps at the same time, while Carol Ferris becomes a Violet… well, we’ve seen this before , they just had a different name for it.

Justice Society of America #24- Billy returns to The Rock of Eternity with the JSA in tow only to find Black Adam, Isis, and… Mary Marvel (who really needs to change her hair stylist <shudder>). And the “return” of a character we never thought we’d see in the first place. (But we have seen him before)

Mighty Avengers #22- Poor Quicksilver! Can this guy ever catch a break?

New Avengers #50- I never thought I would say this but: I LOVE CLINT BARTON!!! With the rash of bad writing—only way to explain Norman Osborne’s rise to “respectability” (he does work for the government, let’s not go overboard)—I doubt Barton’s plea will make much difference but it was appreciated. (Still don’t understand how Osborne’s stolen Stark Tech works… but then I did mention something about bad writing, right?)

Orson Scott Card: Ender’s Shadow: Battleschool #3- continuing the adaptation of the books all sf fans should read.

Skaar: Son of the Hulk #8- First the Silver Surfer, and now…? And poor Axeman… well, not really.

Superman #685- Supes leaves Earth to live on his homeworld’s last known remnant. Mon-El hangs around to protect Metropolis while the Big Red “S” is away. No word who has dibs on Lois. Also, the UN shows us all once again why no one should listen to them: How the hell do they plan to enforce a ban on Kryptonians?!? Now I wish Kandor had stayed on Earth.

Wonder Woman #29- Part Four of “Rise of the Olympian” is virtually Genocide-free. There is, however, an act of war and a wanton murder, a warning, a threat, and a betrayal. All of this as prelude to a birth coming next month.

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Feb 23rd – Farewell Birds of Brey, Brave and the Bold