I’m not sure why I think video game comics are going to be good. I keep trying (Gears of War, Metal Gear, Street Fighter, Halo) and I keep getting burned. This week God of War and Dragon Age were both forgettable as well. What franchises out there might make a good comic? Final Fantasy seems like a good candidate, no? Assassin’s Creed? Fallout? Surely, someone can do this. Moving on, here are your other candidates for Panel of the Week.
Blackest Night #8
Here marks the end of Sinestro the White Lantern. He lasted about 1.2 issues between the end of Blackest Night #7, Green Lantern #52 and the beginning of Blackest Night #8. After Nekron reached into Sinestro’s chest and pulled the white light Entity free I almost wanted to close the book. Several pages later we got a big splash page of all the big named DC heroes who have been revived at some point in their history spontaneously turn into White Lanterns. Presumably because they really, really wanted to. Blah, blah, blah, revive everyone who has died in the last few years and can I go back to my Marvel books now?
Dragon Age #1
I have played 70+ hours of Dragon Age in my time. At no point did I encounter a Hurlock with the chops that this guy has. He’s part Ninja, part Demon, and part Tolkien. If the Hurlocks of the game could scale walls and Batman your party I would never have finished the game. Sadly this was the only great part of this book. I was hoping for more out of the story after the epic epicness that was the game. Instead I got a young mage giving birth in a forest, by herself, in three panels. Looking no worse for the experience. This is almost irresponsible writing.
God of War #1
Here’s the other video game comic I picked up this week. I grabbed it off the rack, saw this first splash page, and immediately put on my best “OK, God of War, I see what you’re doing here” face. What I didn’t know was that the rest of this book is a bastardized version of the first 20 minutes of “300” viewed through the lens of a half dozen ‘grunge’ photoshop filters. Still, this first splash page, this is beautiful.
X-Men: Second Coming #1
Dana Carvey, back when he was still a viable comedian, once said in an interview that to keep a recurring character funny you have to keep ratcheting up the caricature and the absurdity every time your roll it out. By the end of his run on SNL his portrayals of characters like President Bush Sr. and Ross Perot were little more than drawn out catch phrases, silly faces, and buffoonery. Seeing the way X-23 was portrayed in this book reminded me of that interview with Carvey. We’ve got this girl Wolverine running around so let’s make her out Wolverine the original Wolverine. She’s lacking a moral compass. Watch out!
Punisher #15
I was sad to see Tony Moore leave this book. His art was just perfect for the escapist BS Marvel is pedaling with this Punisher title. The pencil work of Roland Boschi was a step down, but still sufficient. All that matters in this issue is that FrankenCastle rides a giant, red, fire-breathing dragon into a stronghold of Samurai warriors. This all before the zombie Nazi’s show up. When they do big Pun gets a couple stuck on his back. Not a problem when you have boomsticks.