This is going to be a very short installment of Bullet Reviews mostly because we have so much coverage of the recently ended San Diego Comic-Con, also known as SDCC 2012, that I didn’t want to distract you from all the really sweet news that came out of this year’s event. So, while you all take in the awesome of news from Comic-Con, take a minute and check out these recently releases books: Eerie #1, Space: Punisher #1 and Transformers: Regeneration One #81!
EERIE #1 (Dark Horse Comics)
This week we get Dark Horse’s revival of Warren Magazine’s Eerie, a sci-fi/horror pulp style comic. Eerie was originally published back in 1966, just two years after they put out Creepy comics which Dark Horse also rebooted a while back. This premiere issue of Eerie contains four separate stories, three of which are in black in white, all hosted by the hideous Cousin Eerie. If you ever watched Tales from the Crypt then you’ll be familiar with the format.
When you read Eerie you can expect dark, violent, but also though provoking albeit cheesy tales. It feels like vintage science fiction and horror stories where you find some sort of unexpected twist at the end. I can’t say too much about any of the stories without giving too much away, but rest assured, if old school horror sci-fi is your thing you’ll enjoy Eerie#1. There are robots, explorers, aliens and a Franken-child. Some of the concepts left me with a bit of a “been there done that feel” but that also might just be because I’m getting old and have read a lot of sci-fi at this point in my life. Regardless, it was a lot of fun, and well worth the reasonable $2.99. Isn’t it great the Dark Horse usually seems to respect your wallet? -Zach Story
SPACE: PUNISHER #1 (Marvel Comics)
Written by Frank Tieri with art by the legendary (in my mind) Mark Texeria, Space: Punisher was a book that got a lot of negative backlash when it was announced. Why? Who knows, it was known from the start is this was out of continuity and pretty much being done because, well, why not? Marvel used to do stuff like this more often and, to an extent, the Marvel Vs. series of books have gone back to that but this one really does it.
In this reality Frank Castle is hunting down a group called The Six-Fingered Hand who was responsible for the death of his family. In the beginning of this issue he has found one of them, the Queen of the Sym-Brood-Ants (Symbiote/Brood amalgamation) and takes them out in traditional Punisher fashion. From here he goes to Starjammers, a bar run by Corsair and apparently frequented by the Thanos, Annihilus, Blastaar and…Boba Fett(?) of this reality. Here he is able to get the location of the man who will lead him to the rest of the Hand. These end up being more familiar faces with interesting twists that I really don’t feel like spoiling here.
Needless to say this book has turned out to be unique and entertaining, almost like the sort of comic books Marvel used to publish back in the day. I would love to see more books like this!
I was planning on only getting the first issue but I think I’ll stick around for the full 4-issue run! -Skott Jimenez
**Check out the full review by our own Kelly Cassidy!**
TRANSFORMERS: REGENERATION ONE #81 (IDW Publishing)
Everything old is new again. Picking up over 2 decades after Transformers #80 (Published by Marvel Comics) and following the Free Comic Book Day issue, ReGeneration One continues where the original Transformers series left off. Now, if you’re like me and you haven’t read the entire Marvel series, well, you won’t be completely lost because this issue is apparently designed to give readers a full view of this version of the Transformers reality.
The Decepticons have been all but fully defeated and Optimus Prime is once again among the living. While certain Autobots, like Kup, insist on hunting down and killing off the remaining ‘Cons, Prime seems distracted, perhaps something to do with the vision of a planet sized monster?
The kicker in this issue is towards the end when Kup and the Wreckers arrive on what’s left of Earth. They have no clue what happened but the discovery of Megatron kind of fills in the blanks, at least before Megatron blows up the Wreckers craft anyway.
The tone and the look of this issue is what TransFans have been waiting for. I’m not sure if I’ll buy it monthly but I’ll at least be getting they trades as they are released!!! -Skott Jimenez
And that wraps up another week! Let us know what you think about these books. Do you agree with our Bullets? Disagree? Now’s your chance to speak up! We have that comment section below just for that reason, you know.
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