Bottalk Reviews

The Defiant crew, armed with swords, fight off Parasite infected station crew.  During the battle Sela arrives.  They fight the entire way to the reactor core and encounter Spock, still suffering from his mind meld.  Sela punches him.  A massive mother creature rises and Wolf attempts to kill her on his own.  Worf and Ro stand together against the mother creature. This is a very fight heavy issue.  The crew work together, with Sela joining them, against the parasites.  A welcome change from the constant bickering we've seen the past several issues.  I would have liked more of Spock, as he does nothing except get punched.   seven out of ten.

Sisko arrives at Utopia Planitia and is greeted by Commander Shaw.  Shaw is reluctant to help but eventually the Theseus undergoes a refit.  Sisko, Scotty and Shaw work together to get the ship ready to confront Gods.  With the modifications complete the ship activates its new drive and goes through the dimensional barriers.  At the Conference of the Gods we see some familiar... faces for lack of a better term.  They are hailed by Kore Soong, an agent with Aegis, who tells them they will be unmade.   Beverly Crusher having a moment with her picture of Wes was a nice touch.  At the Conference we see the Guardian of Forever, The Caretaker's Array, a Greek Temple (reminding us of Apollo) and several others I can't immediately identify.  Kore is an unexpected surprise, as we last saw her in the season two finale of Picard.  So perhaps Dr. Crusher will meet Wes.  This issue is maybe a bit too cameo/easter egg heavy.  But I'll allow it.   seven out of ten. 

A Free Comic Book Day prelude to Battle of the Black Stone: The Staring Sigil. Author avatar, James Allison (The Valley of the Worm, last seen in Zub's Conan: Serpent War), a 1930s pulp writer from Lost Knob aka Cross Plains, Texas who can recall the lives of his heroic past incarnations is startled by an unseen, unwelcome visitor, a phantom monster... possibly the vile Stygian sorcerer Koth-Serapis. Back to the Hyborian Age. We are Beyond the Black River. The new Aquilonian province of Conajohara, Fort Tuscelan on the edge of the Pictish wilderness. Conan and friends are fighting incredibly crazed, almost suicidal Picts. Conan decapitates their giant, he notices that the man mountain is wearing a bone necklace with a pendant fabricated from a fragment of the BLACK STONE incised with a familiar eye symbol. Conan's soul is instantly assaulted by a flashback consisting of the events from past issues (Conan the Barbarian #1-8). Solomon Kane, Dark Agnes de Chastillon, El Borak aka

Creators : Tranformers: Daniel Warren Johnson (Writer), Ryan Ottley (Artist), Annalisa Leoni (Colorist).  Void Rivals: Robert Kirkman (Writer), Lorenzo De Felici (Artist), Matheus Lopes (Colorist).  G.I. Joe: Joshua Williamson (Writer), Jason Howard (Artist), Mike Spicer (Colorist). Skybound's Free Comic Book Day entry this year is a nice treat, featuring three stories from their Energon Universe line - Transformers, Void Rivals, and G.I. Joe.  All three stories fit nicely into the on-going narrative, adding a bit more to the overall stories without being "critical" stories to read to get what's going on.  At the same time, you can easily read the stories in this issue without being lost.  The Transformer story deals with how Megatron ended up in Cobra-La and his awakening there.  Void Rivals deals with Hot Rod trying to track down the Quintessons while over in G.I. Joe, Duke is trying to recruit the Baroness to the Joe team.   The art in this issue, while done by dif

eBook by Shaun Hamill Cover once again by E. M. Gist  From Titan Books and Heroic Signatures Spoilers! Spoilers!  A prequel to Robert E. Howard's The Tower of the Elephant. Kordava, the capital city of Zingara. Barkeep, Mugido is watching a young Conan who is wearing trousers and a shirt. A bored, cash-strapped Conan is observing the ships floating in the harbour. Zingaran sailor, first mate, Flavio de Palma the Bold from the Fortune’s Dawn enters the watering hole, he offers the barbarian youth a fresh ale, employment and adventure. Sailing ships and the sea are still a mystery to Conan. Flavio is seeking mercenaries to safeguard a valuable cargo that needs to go to Aquilonia (one day Conan will sits upon the throne of Aquilonia). Apparently, the Shirkri River is squirming with pirates Flavio and Conan find the Fortune’s Dawn, a carrack with three masts.  It is Conan's very first time on a ship. Conan meets the crew: Lookout: Marco of the wooden leg Helmsman: Anen of the gold

The war continues! That’s right! With Robert Kirkman’s Void Rivals having launched Skybound’s new Energon Universe, noted writer/artist rolled-into-one Daniel Warren Johnson takes the reins on the linchpin of this new initiative, a brand-new Transformers comic series! Well, he maintains the reins on the writing of this series at least, as does Mike Spicer on colors. Jorge Corona takes over regular penciling duties with a style that barely misses a step from DWJ’s previous efforts. In this eighth issue, the Autobots and Decepticons reunite with old comrades on both Earth and Cybertron as Carly and Spike still struggle with their place in the conflict. How’s this “new” creative team doing? Plugging along, although Jorge Corona’s humans are a lot more exaggerated than DWJ’s were. His robots too for that matter, but it kinda works better for them than it does for the humans. As far as writing goes, DWJ does well with character moments, although if you actually like the direction these char

This is free, right? Oh totes! The FCBD Energon Universe Special contains three FREE stories- one for Transformers, one for Void Rivals, and one for G.I.Joe! The Transformers tale, written by Daniel Warren Johnson with pencils by Ryan Ottley, focuses on Megatron and how he ended up in Cobra-La custody. The Void Rivals tale, written by Robert Kirkman with pencils by Lorenzo De Felici, catches us up with our pal the Skuxxoid after his run-in with the Quintessons and introduces another classic Transformers character into the mix. Finally, the G.I. Joe tale, written by Joshua Williamson with pencils by Jason Howard, has Duke on a recruitment mission for his new team. All three tales seem rather important to their respective titles and hint towards where the story of the larger Energon Universe is headed and the closer intersection of these three properties. So should I pick it up? Did you not hear me? This is a completely free comic, so of course you should pick it up if you see it! If you

It is time to go back to the spinner rack to get the 2nd issue of the brand new Conan black-and-white mag!  60 spectacular pages of barbaric savagery printed on newsprint!  Inside this anthology you'll find the following treasures: A fresh new Pin-Up of Conan by Rafael Kayanan A fresh new Pin-Up of Conan by Gerardo Zaffino A fresh new Pin-Up of Solomon Kane by Nick Marinkovich Conan the Barbarian: Leaving the Garden by Jim Zub and Richard Pace Pesach the Plenty's wagons are brimming with goods, including his family, Conan is tagging along. We are in Shem en route to Argos. Pesach's young son mentions giants from The Frost-Giant's Daughter. Conan promises him more tales of his adventures in the future. Conan wants to leave the convoy behind, for the simple reason that he has debts to pay in Argos. Pesach offers Conan Corinthian spirits as an incentive to stay by his side. Pesach wants to sell his rare combustible (pitch derived from plants) in the port city of Messantia.

eBook by Brian D. Anderson  Cover once again by E. M. Gist  From Titan Books and Heroic Signatures Spoilers! Spoilers!  Mekahumet, a vermin less city south of the Shemite border, ruled by Boa constrictors and cats.  To pay off his debts, Arnold Schwarzenegger... oops, I mean Conan is now working for the Magistrate Lanitar. Conan is in Jabari Ishman's tavern and is offered poisoned beer. Pregnant pause. This gives birth to a bar brawl. Conan, as per his contract, dispatches every single guild assassin and thief inside the dive... in just minutes. He finds another mug of ale, this time untainted and downs it. The pleased Magistrate gives our Cimmerian another assignment. A super sexy noblewoman guides a concupiscent Conan to a small but superb armoury where he finds wealthy merchant Barathis Akken. The sword of Asgardian warrior Sven Orthan Half-Blood with its nice Northmen runes catches Conan's eye. Yulivaria, a dark sorceress, has kidnaped Barathis Akken's noble wife Gadran

Jim Zub's The Age Unconquered part 2: Far Shores and Fearless Men continues. We are still stuck in the Thurian Age aka the Pre-Cataclysmic Age.  The King of Valusia, Kull is having a vivid nightmare. Friendly large wild cats are asking his young savage self (last seen in Exile of Atlantis) to join the hunt. The lion wants a naked Kull (no leopard-skin loincloth for this dude) to return to his old village of the Sea-Mountain tribe... now debased by a spire made of BLACK STONE. Kull bypasses the spectres of the dead villagers and enters the tapering BLACK STONE structure. Kull sees his future selves and chieftain Brule, the Spear-Slayer in a hall of mirrors (last seen in The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune). Kull ages into a living corpse, but before dying he reaches the BLACK STONE, but it will not yield its secrets. The BLACK STONE self destructs, this kills the Atlantean King, peeling the flesh from his frame. The BLACK STONE tower explodes.  The capital of Valusia, the city of Valusia nic

After being destroyed multiple times Jake, Nog and Alexander begin the next redo of their alternate universe adventure... only this time everyone is frozen in place.  QJ appears and explains to the trio that he is a new kind of Q and wants to do things differently.  He can see that they are at a personal crossroad and wants to help.  The universe resumes and after trying to explain their situation to Captain Dukat, Tuvix mind melds with Alexander.  Tuvix confirms their story and with Jadzia, they come up with a plan to defeat the Breen.  After a short space battle the Breen ship is destroyed. As Jake and Alexander converse, Tuvix comes bursting into the scene under attack by Breen soldiers.  Alexander manages to charge the Breen and eliminate them... only for the next wave of soldiers to beam in. We get a bit more of exactly why QJ is doing this.  But only a small bit.  The crew still feels a weird jumble of characters from the different shows.  Shaw from season three of Picard shows

Creators : Joshua Williamson (Writer), Tom Reilly (Artist), Jordie Bellaire (Colourist) Story :  Colonel Hawk and Stalker are questioning Clutch about the whereabouts of Duke but Clutch refuses to answer.  As the Battle Android Troopers (B.A.T.) holds onto Duke, Destro comes out and offers Duke a job, talking about how weapons are the winners of war and claiming he knows nothing of the transforming jet (Starscream) that killed his friend but Duke doesn't believe him and head butts Destro and engages with the B.A.T. again.  Destro, along with Mercer and Scrap-Iron, decide to blow up the base as Duke continues fighting and, finally, defeating the B.A.T., realizing he just needs to outlast its battery (and something Destro realizes needs work).  As the trio drive away, they blow up the base and Duke is presumed dead, put forth by some news reports.  Duke wakes up handcuffed in a hospital bed when Colonel Hawk and Courtney "Cover Girl" Krieger arrive.  Hawk mentions he knows