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Star Trek: Voyager - Homecoming #2 review

The Voyager crew meet in sickbay and discuss the situation.  Part of the command crew attempt to retake Main Engineering.  B'Elanna Torres hits a plasma conduit that should disintegrate Species 8472 on contact, but fails.  8472 destroy the main deflector, rendering Voyager unable to open a rift back home.  The team surrenders and, leaving Seven of Nine behind, are taken to meet the Hierarch of Species 8472.  Kathryn Janeway's meeting does not go well and after B'Elanna finds the data they need to open a rift home Janeway tells her to delete it. Species 8472 kinda has a point here.  Janeway aided the Borg in their conflict.  They didn't follow First Contact procedures.  They also never bothered to learn their real name, they just continue to use the Borg designation.  This issue feels somewhat rushed but it does make Species 8472 seem as threatening as they were during their first appearance.  Though, you would think they would have more...
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Universal Monsters: The Invisible Man #3 review

The experiments continue.  Dr. Jack Griffin takes a room in an unsavoury part of town and tests the invisibility serum on a boy living on the streets.  Instead of complete invisibility it simply makes his outer layer of skin disappear.  After months he is reduced to a living skeleton and finally, a pair of eyes that seemingly float in the air.  Finally achieving total invisibility the street urchin knocks Jack unconscious and escapes.   Again the theme of feeling like an outcast in society, invisible to the upper class, is present.  Jack spends much time simply sitting and trying to be invisible in public places by simply not moving, not drawing attention to himself.  The pressure continues to mount though, as his fiancé seems to find his increasing absence, attention lacking and his boss demanding to see results.  Going from animals to humans for experimentation is a logical step.  We shall see how the newly invisible Tommy uses his ability...

Godzilla: Escape the Deadzone #3 review

Another Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - The Seeds of Salvation #2 review

The submarine crew manage to escape from 'squid thingies' and enter some sort of underwater structure.  Making their way inside they encounter people covered in strange vines until they discover Christine Chapel's friend, Jinare, covered in the same vines and seemingly possessed by some entity.  In orbit, Nyota Uhura manages to decipher an ancient symbol.  It states the planet is a prison for the entity.  It then detects the Enterprise and sends multiple ships to intercept.  The robot, D-6... is annoying.  It feels like a character from a completely different show... like a Marvel character... full of quips that are supposed to be funny or endearing but fall flat.  Our actual Star Trek characters also feel off... like they were written by someone who has only seen a handful of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episodes.  Scotty especially feels very ADHD. five out of ten.

Return to Skull Island #4 review

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - The Seeds of Salvation #2 review

And now in part 2, the away team goes deep underwater only to discover a city ruled by... vines? Meanwhile on the ship, Uhura attempts to translate writing the sensors picked up in the ice, writing that could signal doom for them all! And here we are with part two in which they go looking for Jinare only to find The Terror Beneath the Seas. But at least no one’s bored at this point. Meanwhile in space the Enterprise faces its own problems and crises to solve. It keeps the pace from the first issue while giving us a mystery on the planet for both ship and away team to solve. 8/10

G.I. Joe #12 (2024) review

Creators : Joshua Williamson (writer), Marco Foderà (artist), Lee Loughridge (colorist), Rus Wooton (letterer). Story : Duke is talking to General Hawk about making sure that the team is focused on the giant robots and not just Cobra.  Beachhead, Flint and Lady Jaye are breaking out Jodie "Shooter" Craig from a Darklonian prison which she has her own reasons for being there.  And at Cobra HQ, Major Bludd joins Cobra while Destro and Mercer figure out ways Cobra Commander could be brought down.  Writing : An interesting story, as we get a couple of "bookends" with Duke and then Destro, with the main story being breaking Jodie out of jail.  We're a year into the comic and we've been slowly building up the Joe team and, in the process have really been getting to know our G.I. Joe characters.  Williamson is carefully concocting this world for us but doesn't want to cram everything in it at once.  He's able to craft good exposition into the story to move ...

Conan: Comrades review

eBook by Brian D. Anderson Cover by E. M. Gist  From Titan Books and Heroic Signatures Spoilers! Spoilers!  Central Kush. Conan and others are protecting their employer Marisova Mella, Mella's caravan full of silks and linens, Mella's wife Shayistra and young Joni (Shayistra's secret lover). Kushite mercenaries attack the convoy! Titus Havarius (also a Kushite) saves his Cimmerian friend's skin once again. Mella gets murdered. The attackers retreat. Titus suspects that Mella's wife hired the killers to kill her husband. Shayistra refuses to pay Conan and company, Conan threatens her gigolo and to make her mariticide known to the magistrate... they get paid in gold. Conan, Titus, and the Hyrkanian cousins: Asher & Cabil leave the caravan for the small village of Albon.  Titus has to leave Conan, he is wanted back home. Kush. Conan and twenty soldiers of fortune are now working for Lord Gulan Adria to end a siege. Lord Adria had seized nearly all the harvest of hi...

El Borak: The Siege of Lamakan review

eBook by James Lovegrove   Cover by Jim & Ruth Keegan Illustrations by Patrick Zircher  From Titan Books and Heroic Signatures Spoilers! Spoilers! Pamir Mountains (Tajikistan, Central Asia). The Texan adventurer, gunslinger know as El Borak ("The Swift") aka Francis Xavier Gordon saves an English rug merchant and his guide, Aarav Choudhury (a Pundit explorer) from carnivorous snow leopards. The soldier of fortune from El Paso, knows that they are actually Crown servants... clearly British military spies.  British Lieutenant John Stock comes clean that they are on an intelligence mission. Stock, just like Gordon, wants to know more about the ruler of the remote city of Lamakan who stands against the Russian invaders... Queen Zohra. Gordon, a self-appointed "keeper of the peace", feeds the starving Stock and Choudhury. Major Andrei Razin (not the singer, not the hockey coach) and a military unit have been sent by Tsar Nicholas II to stamp out Zohra's rebellio...

Barbara (ばるぼら, Barubora) review

A seinen manga by Osamu Tezuka  Spoilers! Spoilers!  CHAPTER 1: The Department Store Woman (Shinjuku Station (Tokyo, Japan). Young, warped, famous novelist Yosuke Mikura meets Barbara, a mysterious fuuten/vagabond who is a chronic alcoholic and the youngest daughter of Mnemosyne. Mnemosyne? The Greek goddess of memory who previously had nine daughters (all muses) with Zeus? Will Barbara be able to make Mikura realize that he's romancing a mannequin (Maname Sugata)? "Chanson d'automne" and "Le ciel est par-dessus le toit" by Paul Verlaine get quoted. The 1973 Japan National Railways strike, Bacchus (Roman god) and "Pavane pour une infante défunte" by Maurice Ravel get mentioned.) CHAPTER 2: The Woman and the Dog (Will Barbara be able to make Mikura realize that he's romancing the Afghan Hound (Sonya) of Rumi Nagahama (Hiroyuki Yotsuya's fiancé)? The Box Man by Kobo Abe, Guillaume Apollinaire and Franz Kafka get mentioned.) CHAPTER 3: The Bla...

Godzilla #3 (2025) review

G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #321 review

Creators : Larry Hama (writer), Chris Mooneyham (art) Story : A high-tech blimp approaches the Pit as Snake-Eyes and Dawn return and put on their ear protection for small-arms training.  Before the Joe team can shoot it down, the blimp begins a sonic attack on the Joes, disabling most.  Dawn and Snake-Eyes then don jet packs and take the fight to the airship, eventually overcoming their foes. Writing :  This is a special "anniversary" issue of the original Silent Interlude (G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #21) which appeared 300 issues ago.  Like that original issue, this one has no word "balloons", however, Hama is able to craft an interesting story without using any text. Art :  Mooneyham is on top of his game in this issue.  With the story relying solely on his art, he really brings his A game.  Details are crisp and the colors are spot-on.  We can easily tell who each classic Joe character is and see some classic vehicles throughout the story. ...

Conan the Barbarian #25 (2023) review

Jim Zub's The Nomad: A Tale of Conan the King A mysterious migrant arrives in Tarantia, the capital of Aquilonia, he tells the guards that he wants an audience with Conan. High councillor, Publius and King Conan (the Ruler of Aquilonia) welcome the pale stranger. To obtain his "gift", Conan needs to offer his cadaverous visitor three days of hospitality. Conan is well aware of Melnibonéans (Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melniboné appeared in Conan the Barbarian (1970) #14 & #15), so he gives the frail drifter the benefit of the doubt, a chamber and servants. Day 1 of the stranger's stay. Pallantides, the General/Commander of the Black Dragons (the king's guardsmen) thinks that Conan has gone mad. Could the offbeat foreigner be a white wolf in sheep's clothing? Conan defeats Pallantides in a sparring session. Day 2 of the stranger's stay. Queen Zenobia informs her Cimmerian husband that the newcomer is making her and her servants nervous... the nomad ...

Godzilla: Here There Be Aliens #5 review

Star Trek: Lower Decks #12 (2024) review

And now the conclusion! The crew is in 1985 on Earth attempting to find extra whales to help keep the species alive in the 24th century, along for the journey are the two beluga whales, will they find these whales and make it back? For some reason there’s a Klingon ship in orbit! For reasons! This second part is an improvement over the first part if nothing else. The landing party manage to find a way out to sea, they manage to wrap everything up and for some reason there’s a Klingon ship in orbit as well that they dispatch easily as it’s a 20th century Klingon ship. For all that, the plot is pointless and throwing in a Klingon ship (for reasons!) doesn’t add anything to the story, not even tension, it’s at least an enjoyable read where you’re at least not bored and just wondering when it ends. At least it moves along if just a bit rushed, but they only have so many pages to wrap this story up, at least this time they avoided the usual time tropes of pointing out how weird and crazy th...