There are very few series I look forward to each month. This is one of the fortunate to make the cut. Along with Geoff Johns’ Action Comics, Paul Dini’s Detective Comics and select titles from Jeph Loeb and Brian Michael Bendis, I know with City of Dust I’m guaranteed a good read.
Steve Niles (30 Days of Night) has used the series thus far to craft a tight story within a compelling world. There’s no extraneous information. Every character, every concept and every panel is all there for a reason. 5 issues isn’t a lot to make a lasting impression with an original concept from a new publisher, but Niles and his assorted artists serve up quality by the shovel full.
City of Dust’s core concept is an intriguing one. In the future, creativity is basically abolished, with all religion and art banned so as not to corrupt the minds of the masses. Protagonist Philip Khrome is a cop who imprisoned his father years ago for reading him a fairytale, but now he is beginning to see that perhaps such stories aren’t as corrupting as the lawgivers say.
Issue 3 opens with a gruesome scene, of which this series is not shy of, as Khrome uses some old school CSI techniques to determine exactly what happened. His superior, Blake believes Khrome’s mind is slightly askew for not putting his trust in the crime scene bots, who say that there is no evidence amongst the bloody corpse. Facing suspension, Khrome walks away, with fellow cop, Sonja to check out an old evidence storage area. At the same time what appear to be werewolves brutally attack a high society ball. Khrome gets called into Blake’s office, but instead of receiving the expected, “You’ve gone too far! You’re off the case!” type scenario we’ve seen in every Steven Seagal film, Khrome gets a surprise. Blake takes his face off, revealing himself to be a Terminator-like android, created by Henry Ajax. Ajax was once a respected proponent of hi-tech gadgetry, but has now gone underground after being disgraced. Blake and Khrome visit him, surrounded by assorted monsters, and the importance of Khrome’s father in the story takes another step forward. The dramatic change in behaviour from Blake can only be attributed to him “saving face” in front of the other cops, due to the fact that moments later he’s pleasantly talking to Khrome like an old buddy. With Sonja, and now Blake, it seems Khrome’s allies are growing, but they still prefer to remain closet friends, lest they too get in trouble with the harsh authorities. This is never spoken, despite Khrome’s noir-like captions (which work well), so there is some assumption on the part of the reader, which is never a good move. However, the series’ concept and visuals rise above these minor storytelling distractions.
This isn’t the best issue so far, and has less of the supernatural elements introduced in the previous two issues. The art is also different, but not in a jarring way. Brandon Chng handles the art chores here, whereas it was Zid on the previous two. Both have a similar painterly style, with great textures and lighting effects, but Zid’s is the better of the pair. This issue is a slight mis-step in the series as it doesn’t really propel things forward until the last few pages, but with only two issues remaining until the conclusion, Niles will undoubtedly unleash a barrage of blood, and answers, upon us as the sci-fi scenario and horror elements finally meet head on, as tantalisingly promised in this series.
This issue goes on sale December 24.
At Meltdown Comics, a very cool comic shop, you can catch a peek at writer Paul Dini. The man has been closely related to the Bat Universe for the last 10 years, as the creator of Joker’s girlfriend Harley Quinn, a writer for the 90s Batman: The Animated Series cartoon, and the current scribe for Detective Comics, which has been so much better than Grant Morrison’s Batman work as of late. Official details below.
Touted as a great jumping on point for new readers, this extra sized issue guest stars all the different Avengers flavours. That would be New, Young, Dark and Classic. I think there’s also a Cinnamon. Written by Dan Slott and pencilled by Khoi Pham, this January 14 releasing special ish shows the new line-up, post Dark Reign. On the cover is the once-crazy (hopefully) daughter of Magneto, Scarlet Witch, Hank Pym in a new outfit to honour his wife Janet who died in the last issue of Secret Invasion and the female android created by Ultron, Jacosta. An intriguing mix of characters so far.
This is a good stand-alone issue, to be sure. It’s a simple one-shot, but it won’t reveal anything about The Darkness. It’s a very loose tie-in. Apart from one of the main characters being a medieval Darkness bearer, it could be just a generic sword and sorcery adventure. Written by Phil Hester with art by Michael Avon Oeming, Lodbrok’s Hand recounts the sad tale of Lodbrok, the captain of a Viking ship, who as a youth lost his hand. The crazy King Grimur was moving from village to village forcibly enlisting strong men in his army. When young Lodbrok’s family was taken, he, his magic-wielding sister Freydis and a few other youngens set on a harsh journey of revenge. They realise they’re outnumbered and outgunned, or rather, out sworded, so Lodbrok bravely, or foolishly, calls upon the creature known as the Black Captain. He’s big, he has goblin servants bonded to the oars of his ship, and he’s on Lodbrok’s side, for a price. A bloody battle ensues. Heads are cut off. Freydis dies.Two dragons fight, and Lodbrok learns the hard way what his victory means. The twist at the end, in which the Captain revives Freydis to serve him as a slave forever, rather than Lodbrok himself is a nice one and shows the maniacal assistance that The Darkness offers. It’s an amusing enough tale. The story is so simple that a 24 page one-shot is all that’s needed. Hester has the speech of centuries past down pat and while this isn’t Oeming’s best work (that’s in 
When an actor’s name appears on the cover of a comic, us fanboys become skeptical. Heroes hottie Milo Ventimiglia’s name is stamped on Rest from Devil’s Due and more familiar names like Nicolas Cage have had their input on comics, thanks to Virgin (who also had something in the works with Hugh Jackman. I guess we won’t be holding our breath for that one, thanks to their recent downsizing). Kevin Smith seems like the only name that makes fans flock to his comics, regardless of an inconsistent output. And do you notice how it’s usually the indie publishers that pull this? Marvel and DC don’t.
BOOM! Studios has wisely chosen a good, familiar franchise with Farscape and they’re not the only one. Dark Horse has Buffy, IDW has Angel and Doctor Who and Star Trek. TV franchises work, because they have a built in audience. They work even more when they’re faithful adaptations, in-continuity and carry on what the TV series began. Because Buffy has been promoted as the official next season by creator Joss Whedon himself, Dark Horse, and the industry, has been rewarded with a greater audience, and a new one at that. Hopefully BOOM! will have a similar response. I was never a huge fan of Farscape, but it has my respect for being a sci-fi series filmed in Australia and for using puppets. Thanks to the Jim Henson Company, no less! Well, Christmas Eve is the launch of the new Farscape comic, which picks up straight after the events of The Peacekeeper Wars mini-series. This was originally slated for a November release but has been pushed back to allow for some fine-tuning. The comic is written by Farscape creator Rockne O’Bannon and Keith R.A. DeCandido, with art by Tommy Patterson. Preview pages are below to give you a glimpse of John Crichton and co. once more.
Those loveable Dinobots were fan favourites in the Transformers cartoon in the 80s and hold a dear place in many Transfans’ hearts. Now, IDW, the current publisher of original Transformers comics, including tie-ins to the next live-action movie, are giving them the attention they deserve.
Bluewater Productions is bringing back its flagship title 10th Muse as part of the Ray Harryhausen Presents comic book line. The exciting new series, “10th Muse: 800”, is scheduled for a February 2009 release.
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