BotTalk Reviews

Spoilers! Spoilers!  CHAPTER 35 (book 5 of 18): Mighty Spear Formation Kyoto. Tokugawa Ieyasu ((1543-1616). An homage to actor Shintaro Katsu (1931-1997)) looks on as Okumura Suke'emon (Keiji's closest friend) and Maeda Keiji are decimating the 400 Rōnin of Maeda Gen'i ((1539-1602). Magistrate of Kyoto, one of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's five commissioners). Hattori Hanzō ((1542-1597). Leader of the Iga ninjas. The Tokugawa general known for Edo Castle's Hanzōmon gate) stops Tokugawa Ieyasu from participating in the Kabukimono brawl. The Rōnins that are still breathing run for it.  Flashback! Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) and his men win The Battle of Okehazama. Okumura Sukeemon (son of Okumura Eishin) now runs the castle of Arako, as the tea-server in the tea ceremony, Okumura Sukeemon spills tea on Oda Nobunaga (a former Kabukimono), Keiji defuses the situation. CHAPTER 36: White Camellias Sutemaru tries to kill Maeda Gen'i with a grenade.  Maeda Gen'i challenges an u...

The new Predator (an alien Yautja warrior) ally of Cornelius and Zira kills the Mutant controlled Gorilla soldiers of General Ursus. Ursus, Doctor Zaius, Arch (the ANSA astronaut), Cornelius and Zira follow the Predator into the ruins of New York City. They are assailed by an illusion created by The Mutants (mutated human telepaths), unimpressed, the Predator walks right through the mirage.  St. Patrick's Cathedral. The Predator finds the Telepathic Mutants (Cronus, Crius, Helia and others) of the Forbidden Zone AND the missile he was looking for... the "Divine Bomb" of The Mutants. The Predator wants the vintage (two thousand years old) Alpha-Omega atomic Doomsday Bomb... to punish his peers who wronged him on Yautja Prime. Crius utilizes his telepathic powers to force the Predator to hunt: Ursus, Dr. Zaius, Arch, Cornelius and Zira. Will Arch and Ursus be able to obliterate the Predator with their fuel cells? What I did like: Magnificent covers by Stonehouse, Josemaria ...

On DS9 sometime in season 4, Miles O'Brien is called to an emergency to fix a holosuite but, because O’BRIEN MUST SUFFER! He is sucked into the room and disappears.  Elsewhere the station prepares for peace talks while Benjamin Sisko takes defiant off to investigate some mystery, leaving Worf and Jadzia Dax in charge. Another crewman is zapped into the room that took O’Brien. The station starts having power issues, and delegate issues, and ends on a cliffhanger medium close up of Jadzia. It is written in the Star Trek Franchise Bible that Miles O’Brien must suffer, and in this one he does and is now stuck and needs help. Honestly this could probably fit as a season 4 episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, it has the usual things you could want, natural character interactions and the plot flows steady and well.  There’s obviously going to be a part two, and the art is fine. This first issue sets the story up pretty well. I’ll give it an 8/10

CONAN & DRAGONERO part 6 (of 7): The Demon from Tarantia (chapter one) The ruins of Kuthchemes (from Black Colossus). Conan of Cimmeria and Ian Aranill reach the towering ivory dome of Thugra Khotan (the dark sorcerer who had reigned in Kuthchemes three thousand years ago). Outside the dome, the clan leader of the Cannibals (who is now a colossal demon, thanks to the wicked magic stored within the mystical jewels) grabs a snack and goes back into Thugra Khotan's mausoleum to devour it! To save their imprisoned children from being consumed, the Cannibal women help Conan and Ian infiltrate the dome via an underground passage. Dragonero skewers the clan leader, Conan decapitates the cannibal headman and our heroes repossess the stolen gems. Conan and Ian travel to Khemi (Stygian port on the southern shore of the River Styx), into the Western Sea, up the Khorotas River to Aquilonia, and reach Tarantia... where a vortex has appeared in the firmament. Conan and Ian discover that demo...

Story : Shipwreck meets up with Lara Croft, “the Tomb Raider” as she needs help getting to the Arbco Star shipping freighter on Cobra Island to hunt for a missing artifact. Destro’s forces are already there so the Joes send a team in to try to find the artifact, which has the potential to be really powerful.   The team encounters the Iron Grenadiers on the island and neither team uses weapons for fear of alerting the Blue Ninjas that are still in the casino.  Writing : The themes of this issue feel more like a classic Sunbow cartoon than the ongoing ARAH issues but not too bad. Lara Croft has been set up as an established character in the series with Shipwreck knowing her and both Destro and the Baroness having met her before. I did like that as it feels a bit more believable than her suddenly appearing in the series. Her franchise (Tomb Raider) is mentioned a few times ("oh, it’s the Tomb Raider") more as a nickname than what she goes by. I also enjoy the call back to the fr...

Story : Miles Mayhem (leader of V.E.N.O.M. (Vicious Evil Network of Mayhem)) is talking with Scott Trakker as they stroll through the woods and tells a bit about himself (worked with his father and the military). When they get to the Bladejet/Switchblade, Scott reveals he knows everything already and T-Bob (Thingamabob, Scott Trakker's robot) shows up and fights off VENOM. Matt Trakker and company finish off with Buddie Hawks when he gets notified that T-Bob is protecting Scott so Matt has Gloria Baker go first (still at Boulder Hill, which is near the school). Scott an T-Bob end up following VENOM as they look for him and he ambushes Sly Rax as the MASK team heads out.  Writing : At first I was wondering why a kid would go off with someone into the woods but once the story gets going we realize Scott knows exactly what he’s doing and has planned it out. T-Bob as been incorporated nicely into the series without being the annoying robot friend. And Scott is smart. He seems to be ab...

eBook by Matthew John Cover by Juan Alberto Hernández Chapter illustration by Patrick Zircher  From Titan Books and Heroic Signatures Spoilers! Spoilers!  The ship of Wulfhere the Skull-Splitter (a Danish Viking, chieftain of the Danes) is attacked by Kenric the Fair (Wulfhere's old Saxon nemesis) ship's. Wulfhere and Kenric are both seeking the ROMAN GOLD of the Picts, which lies concealed on the Isle of Swords (the Pictish island from "The Dark Man" by Robert E. Howard). An unnatural wave wrecks Wulfhere's ship on the shore of the Isle of Swords. The Skull-Splitter and Cormac Mac Art of Erin (Cormac the Wolf, a Celt, a Gael) are the only two of the crew to survive the beaching. Wulfhere and Cormac disguise themselves as Saxons, they discover that Kenric and his Saxons are already on the isle. Cormac and Wulfhere kill three Saxons. Picts appear, Cormac and Wulfhere surrender. At the Pictish settlement, Cormac and Wulfhere are shown the statue of The Dark Man (The...

eBook by George Mann Cover by Alex Horley (aka Alessandro Orlandelli) Chapter illustration by Patrick Zircher  From Titan Books and Heroic Signatures Spoilers! Spoilers!  We start with some poetry by Yrkonis. King Kull of Valusia is in his court, sitting on the Topaz Throne, next to his brother from another mother, Brule the Spear-Slayer. Jolanta of Elegaria manhandles the guards of Kull, she wants the King to help her find her missing sister (Nola) who is under the spell of a cult dedicated to a god of the sea (the cult of Piri'nach (an elder god of annihilation), the cult's emblem is an eye inside a flame). Jolanta saw a priest with a white skull visage... the sorcerer Thulsa Doom take her sister away. Kull, Brule and Jolanta go to the cult's temple (recently magically teleported from beneath the ocean back to land) in the port city of Alimantos, they kill the sentinels and enter the slimy structure. Wearing cyclopean breathing masks, three cultists drug the air of the te...

eBook by Steven L. Shrewsbury Cover by Guillem H. Pongiluppi  Chapter illustration by Patrick Zircher  From Titan Books and Heroic Signatures Spoilers! Spoilers!  The Kingdom of Hungary. A seasoned Solomon Kane arrives to assist Tamás (a follower of Martin Luther, an old comrade who like Kane was a galley slave of the Turks (The Footfalls Within by Robert E. Howard)). Kane meets Tamas' wife (Leena) and his ten-year-old daughter (Arina). Two guards of the Countess Elizabeth Báthory of Ecsed (1560-1614) try to kidnap Arina. Kane kills both guards.   Solomon learns that the Countess Báthory drained the blood of Tamas' older daughter (Stanca). Báthory bathes in blood to preserve her youth. Reverend Hermann gives Solomon a guard's cloak so that Kane can disguise himself. Kane arrives at the Castle of Csejte (Čachtice). Solomon saves a fifteen-year-old girl (Elisa, an orphan) from Marta (the Countess' cannibal maid). Solomon drowns Marta in Báthory's warm bath. Elisa ment...

Jim Zub's Cursed Shores Beyond part 3: Thralls of the Rift Deep beneath The Isle of Dread, the crew of the Briney Wren (Captain Quinn Corvaxis' shipwrecked ship) are the prisoners of Morley and a cult. Morley wants to offer Conan to his eldritch god/master...  Jaggta-noga (sorcerer Zukala's favourite demon from Kull: The Curse of the Golden Skull and Conan the Barbarian (1970) #5). Still on the loose on the island, playing the role of The Predator (1987), the infatigable CONAN OF CIMMERIA slays dozens of cultists (who need Conan alive for their ritual). Conan even takes the time to burn a big pile of his victims to draw even more cultists to him. The cultists somehow know that Conan dispatched Thulsa Doom in the past (way back in Conan the Barbarian (2023) #12). Valeria kills her torturer, and slips out of her shackles.  Giant humming crystals and an invocation from a servant of Jaggta-noga open a violet fissure in the firmament, tentacles grab Captain Quinn, like the previ...

Collects the complete Slaine heroic fantasy saga of prehistoric Britain and Eire (before the flood) scripted by Pat Mills, in order, in multiple large-format volumes!  The 2000 AD Definitive Editions are available in two versions: in paperback (available everywhere) or in gorgeous WEBSHOP EXCLUSIVE limited-edition embossed HARDBACK (only available from shop.2000ad.com). Inside this magnificent tome you will find the following stories: THE BATTLE OF CLONTARF (IN COLOR! art: Massimo Belardinelli. 23 April 1014, near Dublin. Brian Boru (High King of Ireland) and his Celtic soldiers are fighting a Viking (Norsemen) horde which is aided by El World demons summoned by Elfric Serpent-Eye (Viking Wizard King, a Dark El/Dev-El, a macrobe that can take human form, a Cythron agent). Murdach (son of Brian Boru) explains to Liag that he will be reborn, the Ever-Living Ones transfer Slaine's spirit to Murdach's body, Slaine warps-out and enters the fray. Elfric wounds Slaine, Slaine beheads ...

Guess who’s back! No not her, that was a given, or her, or him, no not him, and especially not her, and the less said about him the better. In the 25th Century… So Captain Seven is on the holodeck during a therapy exercise riding a 25th century motorcycle (excellent therapy) when they are called to the RevLav system to evacuate the four planet colony. After which they are called by Admiral Janeway to investigate the epsilon corridor (first seen in the Star Trek: 60th Anniversary Special!) and go beyond our galaxy. Problem is for every year over there five years pass in our galaxy. Thus begins a story that would have been perfect for the vaunted Star Trek Legacy tv series First off I like this art style. It fits the story in its look, and the story itself sounds like it may be as chaotic as the art. This may be the best start to a title they’ve done till now. So Lily Sato is back from her adventures with the Fenris Rangers. The enterprise is on the tail end of its 5 year mission, Jack C...

Transformed into the Wolf Man, Adam stands over his father.  But, holding the pentagram necklace, the Wolf Man backs off.  The detective forces Adam's father to chase after him.  They return home and the detective confronts him over the death of his wife.  The Wolf Man comes upon the detective as his father stands outside and shoots paint cans, which burst into flames.  The Wolf Man comes crashing through a window carrying the detective and is soon confronted by his father.  He holds up the pentagram, which startles Adam, then takes a shot.  After multiple shots Adam reverts to his human form.  He comforts his son and as police arrive, realizes that he was bitten in the confrontation and walks into the woods.   Little time to catch our breath in this issue.  We learn the werewolf heritage comes from the maternal side of Adam's family.  The pentagram does its job, but is Adam's downfall as his father uses it to take his life.  I...