BotTalk Reviews

SOLOMON KANE: THE SERPENT RING part 2: Deliver Us into Evil.  São Manços mission, Jesuit ministry up the Kwanza River, Kingdom of Ndongo, Africa.  Jesuit priest Father Goncallo is writing to his provincial superior, Leonel Florencio, about Mbondu's ghastly discovery: the skull of a Serpent Man (straight from the King Kull tales). Sha-Kabet, priestess of Set appears on his doorstep. She demands that the cranium be returned to her. Sha-Kabet introduces Father Goncallo to his evil double/twin. Father Goncallo tries an Exorcism Prayer on the diabolical duo, this flatters the sorceress so much that she incinerates Goncallo with his own oil lamp.  Ghetto Vecchio, Republic of Venice.  Diamanta and her father, Abramo Bensaid learn from a maimed Kane that Paolo Laurenti (Abramo's brother by marriage) has "passed on". Solomon keeps mum about the specifics.  Abramo tells the Puritan about the ancient and accursed Serpent Ring of Thoth-Amon. Flashback begins: Birgu aka Citt...

Creators : Joshua Williamson (writer), Tom Reilly (artist), Jordie Bellaire (colorist), Rus Wooton (letterer) Plot : Duke and Cobra Commander fight it out, both physically and with words as Cobra Commander is ready to detonate the Brain Bomb.  Cobra Commander also reveals he is aware of the robots (Transformers), surprising Duke.  Meanwhile, the rest of the Joes are trying to escape in a helicopter while Destro is chasing them down in a F.A.N.G. [Fully Armed Negator Gyrocopter].  Clutch  convinces the Baroness to turn around to retrieve Duke, surprising Destro who orders all the troops back to Springfield before the bomb detonates.  Duke is able to stop Cobra Commander, though suffers injuries in the process and tells the Commander that Cobra may live on but not with him, prompting Cobra Commander to stop the bomb.  Before Cobra Commander can kill Duke, the Joes show up.  The Commander tells Duke he hopes they meet again and escapes.  In Springfie...

Creators : Andrew Krahnke (writer), Francesco Segala (art) Story : Roadblock is on a mission to rescue a captured G.I. Joe team member from Cobra as they are traveling through an arctic environment.  The two of them then need to escape from additional Cobra assets trying to kill them and eventually try to contact the Joe team to get them out of there.  Writing :  Wow, without any words, this story really nails down the character of Roadblock.  Here's a big, tough guy willing to stick his neck out to help his fellow Joes.  On top of them, he gets to use his .50 caliber "Ma Deuce" machine gun and even pulls up a recipe to make!  Krahnke is able to incorporate all of these things, along with some nice action, into this issue.  Art :  Segala really nails the art in this.  To be able to hold Roadblock's signature gun, he needs to be a big, beefy guy and that's how he's drawn.  All the colors pop, nothing is too over shaded or saturated on the...

Helen goes to the museum to see the unearthed princess.  She talks to the voice inside her head.  Someone reads from an ancient scroll and Helen feels the call.  The voice addresses her as Ankh-Es-En-Amun (Her Life Is of Amun).  Eventually Helen comes face to face with Ardeth Bay and we see a flash of them in ancient Egyptian garb.   Very little happens this issue.  And I do mean little.  Mostly Helen talks to the voice and has conversations that go nowhere or seem of little importance.  The comic just meanders along until Helen and Ardeth come face to face.  This is extremely disappointing.  I'm open to a new interpretation of The Mummy, but this lacks any thrilling moments, drama or intrigue.  We get one page of some mild horror.   Four out of ten.

The Enterprise catches up with The Phoenix.  Benjamin Sisko, Beverly Crusher and Kahless escape in spacesuits as the ship collides with the Enterprise, which also provides them a way in.  They are immediately confronted by Tom Paris and Harry Kim.  Kim dies but Tom manages to wake up from his Lore manipulated reality and joins Sisko.  They eventually come face to face with Worf and Alexander.  Alexander wakes up as well and after a short battle joins Sisko and they make their escape in a shuttle.   This issue seems a bit messy.  The method of waking up from Lore's reality is almost too simple.  Kahless simply strikes them with his sword.  So why don't they just go around hitting everyone with it?  So far this event has not impressed me very much.  And at the risk of repeating myself, we have seen better and more interesting alternate reality stories across various episodes of Star Trek.   six out of ten.

Creators : Leonardo Romero  (writer), Cris Peter (art) Story :  Spirit is investigating some strange happenings in a forest - lots of injured animals with claw marks. He discovers an old research facility deep in the woods and discovers the metal monstrosity that is terrorizing the forest.  Spirit works with Freedom (his eagle) to stop it.   Writing : Continuing the Silent Issue month, Leonardo takes a fan-favorite classic character and dedicates a whole issue to him.  While Spirit has been featured pretty heavily in the on-going series through the year, many times he's regulated to being in charge of the defence of the Pitt.  Here we get to see Spirit being a tracker and warrior.  Spread throughout the issue are hints as to what's going on as well.  And, as a nice feature as well, it's a rare G.I. Joe comic where the Joes aren't fighting Cobra.  Art : Art is top notch.  From the beginning and laying hints as to what is happening to the ...

Jim Zub's Twisting Loyalties part 4: Purged Zula, guardian of the grasslands, is sure that Conan, who speaks with a forked tongue, is a servant of Set in disguise. Conan tries to convince Zula otherwise. Zula transforms back into a panther, then into a woman (from Conan the Destroyer (1984)). Conan swears to Zula that he has never worshiped the snake god and that he has never set foot in Stygia. Zula informs the Cimmerian that his aura is tainted/cursed by dark magic and that his soul is in jeopardy. If Conan wants his spirit to be saved he'll have to reach Zula's ancestors' ancient monument, an immense "Olmec" stone head. Zula transforms into a harmless raven and takes flight, Conan follows on foot. We get two flashbacks, one from The God in the Bowl and another from Conan the Barbarian #18. Conan rapidly climbs to the top of the stone head, an amazed Zula starts his True Form ritual. Zula will try to exorcise the Set poison from the Cimmerian. If Conan canno...

At Bozeman Montana; Benjamin Sisko, Beverly Crusher and Kahless steal The Phoenix, Zefram Cochrane's experimental warp ship.  Sisko intends to travel to the Bajoran Wormhole but after consulting a star chart, discovers it does not exist in this reality.  In space the Maquis attack Worf's fleet as Spock details how the Vulcans managed to overcome being assimilated by the Borg.  Lore becomes unhinged at the Vulcans constantly being a problem in every universe he creates and detonates a star in an attempt to defeat them.  The Maquis fleet is destroyed and Lore gives Worf a new mission, track down Ben Sisko.   Meanwhile, Hoshi Sato discovers T'Lir. This was a very busy issue.  With The Phoenix being stolen and a fleet battle between Worf's Starfleet and Spock's Borg.  His explanation of how the Vulcans managed to overcome the assimilation process was quite clever I thought.  At this point a lot of our characters, like Worf, are simply a corrupted exag...

Creators : Dani, Dan Watters, Brad Simpson Story : Jinx has infiltrated a Cobra airbase and set a charge to blow up a Cobra Night Raven S3P, before it can carry out a mission.  In trying to escape, she runs afoul of Crimson Guardsmen and a Night Creeper.  Fighting her way out with a time bomb ticking, Jinx must make use of all her skills to get away before it blows up. Writing : Being the second in a month-long run of "Silent Issues", paying homage to the original silent issue (GI Joe #21), the Jinx issue can take place at any time after Jinx was introduced to the team (or maybe before?).  There are no named characters besides her in this and we then only see some Crimson Guards and a Night Creeper.  It's a pretty self-explanatory story; one we've seen in action movies countless times - the hero needs to escape before the time bomb they planted blows up.  As that, it's not anything too original.   Art : Overall, not a huge fan of the art in this issue. ...

Who do you belong to? Nobody! With Robert Kirkman’s Void Rivals having launched Skybound’s Energon Universe, noted writer/artist rolled-into-one Daniel Warren Johnson takes the reins on the linchpin of this initiative, the flagship Transformers comic series! Well, he maintains the reins on the writing of this series at least, as does Mike Spicer on colors. Jorge Corona has taken over regular penciling duties with a style all his own but this issue sees Ludo Lullabi fill in for a Megatron solo story! Sooo, we’re NOT following up on last issue’s cliffhanger? Nope! You’ll have to wait another month to see the fallout of the return of Megatron, because DWJ decides to give us some backstory on how Megatron became the mad, bad dude we’ve barely seen so far! He brings in the Quintessons here, who haven’t featured much in this book but play a big role over in Void Rivals, so it’s nice to see some cross-continuity ties to the larger Energon Universe. In an effort to perhaps provide some insight...

And they’re on the Titanic ocean liner! And really, they’re kinda foggy on the details about the Titanic except for Brad Boimler who should know overachiever that he is. So off to another zany adventure and finding out how they get out of this one! Where they run into the bridge crew who tell us they are chasing a mysterious hooded woman who’s going through time and causing chaos like some kind of time travel chaos demon, and so combined, the crew work to figure out a way to save the day millions of years in the past. First off I just want to point out that a Dark Sith rebel without a cause Beckett Mariner got old after a while on Lower Decks, temporal psychosis seems fun and streaming trek is missing a huge opportunity to make a Temporal Wars Star Trek. Just saying, we love time travel. But instead we get academy and I’m getting off topic. This was a good conclusion but I could live without the Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home time travel heads thing. I get it, we all love Star Trek IV ...

In a new reality created by Lore, Benjamin Sisko works a menial job and is plagued by dreams of the reality we all know.  He is attacked by Kahless.  As they struggle his memories fully return.  Meanwhile Worf and Alexander track down and battle rogue elements opposed to Lore.  Elsewhere, Lore directs Data on the creation and continued maintenance of his new universe.  As Borg forces gather in the Delta Quadrant, Sisko and Kahless approach the Phoenix Warp Ship in Bozeman Montana.   This is the big crossover event story the two Star Trek ongoing books have been driving towards for months.  And... honestly it is a mess.  You have the familiar faces of both books scattered across the galaxy.  Some in familiar places, others completely out of place and seemingly out of character.  I have to assume at some point the two crews will come together, realize Lore is the enemy, and defeat him.  But this reality under Lore holds no interest fo...

Creators : Phil Hester (Writer/Penciler), Travis Hymel (Inker), Lee Loughridge (Colorist) Story : In a war-torn city, a mother and her son see figures fall out of a crashing helicopter.  Beach Head is fighting off Cobra troops that tried to capture him.  He gets seriously injured when one trooper tries to use the mother as a shield but is able to defeat him.  The mother and son drag Beach Head to their home and try their best to fix him up.  The son goes out and retrieves some of the Cobra gear and the mom trades it for a GPS system.  The vendor sells her out to some Cobra troops and Alley Vipers come looking for Beach Head, as he's trying to use the GPS to send a signal out.  Beach Head engages in a cat and mouse game, trying to take out the Alley Vipers.  The mother and son provide assistance but when it seems like the Alley Vipers have them, a Joe Tomahawk arrives and Beach Head and the mom and son are saved. Writing :  So this is an interestin...

Creators : Larry Hama writer/breakdowns), George Roussos (colorist), Steven Leialohla (finishes). Story : Storm Shadow arrives at a Cobra castle with a captured Scarlett, much to the surprise of Cobra Commander. High above, Snake Eyes makes a parachute jump out of a Lockheed C-130 Hercules towards the castle.  Storm Shadow imprisons a defiant Scarlett while Destro sees that the computers have picked up an intruder.  Snake Eyes lands and begins to take out some Cobra troopers while Scarlett begins her escape and Destro looks over his "chess board" with custom chess pieces of various Joe and Cobra characters, pondering the Baroness' piece.  Scarlett is able to escape and quickly overpowers a surprised Storm Shadow while Destro leads some troopers to the roof to deal with Snake Eyes, who fools them into going in the wrong direction.  Storm Shadow gathers red ninjas while Scarlett steals a COBRA C.L.A.W. and makes her escape.  Snake Eyes finds Scarlett's oubliette p...