Bullet Reviews #67

This week’s Bullet Reviews are mine…ALL MINE!!! mwah-HAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!! Er, ahem, I mean, this week’s Bullets are brought to you courtesy of me: Skott. With everything else going on I enjoyed being able to take a break and share some thoughts on the following books: Fables #119, Journey Into Mystery #641, Mars Attacks #2, Marvel Zombies Destroy! #5, and The Walking Dead #100

FABLES #119 (DC/Vertigo)
Cubs In Toyland nears its conclusion as Therese is losing herself in this mad world of broken toys. She is getting hungry because she isn’t a toy and the only edible thing in the kingdom is the recently defeated Tiger…another death of a great characters. But is this part of a plan? Because once she begins to eat the tiger she remarks that she doesn’t like raw meat and she demands the next part be cooked. When told there are no trees from which to get wood to make a fire she tells them some of the toys are made of wood.

Meanwhile, Dare continues to try to save his sister and seemingly begins to hallucinate. Is he really losing his mind or is there someone there that we can’t see? I do recall there being another cub, Ghost, who is little more than the wind itself. Could Ghost be there, whispering in Dare’s ear, helping him along? And has he finally figured out what the one thing in Toyland that isn’t a toy and fix it is? I really hope he doesn’t have to fix his broken leg, that’s going to hurt a lot!
Next issue if the conclusion of this story and I cannot wait to see what happens! This is going down as one of my all time favorite, as well as one of the darkest, stories in the Fables series! I love that I can’t easily guess where Bill Willingham is taking this series!

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #641 (Marvel Comics)
In this issue we bid a fond, and sad, farewell to Leah, Loki’s longtime companion and foil as her whole reason for existing finally comes to a head.

Loki helps bring peace to Otherworld but not in the way he was expected to. Instead of helping those he was sent to help, he helps the Manchester Gods in their bid to control all of Otherworld. The other Gods surrender and what follows is a form of peace, which is what Loki was sent to create in the first place so he did what he was supposed to do. But at least it seems that all the Manchester Gods want to do is update and modernize the faiths of old. It’s the engine that powered their cause that’s the problem. The engine that Loki himself put into place during Fear Itself: Surtur!

As we near the end of Kieron Gillen‘s run on this amazing series, I have to reflect on what an enchanting and entertaining ride this has been. He has taken a concept that shouldn’t have succeeded, a series using a classic name starring a kid version of a classic villain, and made it work. No, he did more than that, he elevated this series and the character of Loki to new heights and has made this forever one of my favorite runs of nearly any book I’ve read in over 20 years. The next four issues will be just as amazing but will be bitter-sweet at the same time.

Finally, I can’t end this without heaping worthy praise on the beautiful and hypnotic cover of Stephanie Hans! This cover is print worthy to be sure! Just look at it!!

MARS ATTACKS #2 (IDW Publishing)
The Attack continues! This issue continues setting the New Universe for Mars Attacks as it jumps back and forth between today and 50 years ago. We find that one Martian was captured and forced to help the humans by giving them information on Mars weaponry. Later, the weapon doesn’t work the way we wanted it to…but it worked perfectly for the Martians. We discover than not everyone we see may be human anymore as the Martians have tech that allows them to perfectly mimic the look and feel of any human they want. This tech it used to assassinate leaders around the world while the American President is saved by the man who first saw the Martians back in ’52.

It’s still going through the ‘set up’ process while laying the foundation for this New Universe of Mars Attacks, I kind of hope it wraps up soon or starts to give way to more forward motion on the story and less direct set up but regardless, it’s still a great read!

Also out last week was the Mars Attacks! Heritage Trading Cards. Your chance to experience the legendary cards first hand and much more including a New Universe sub-set that helps to fill in some spaces with this new series. There was even a reference in this issue about something that happened on one of the New Universe cards! Very well-played!

I have my box and I love it!

MARVEL ZOMBIES DESTROY! #5 (Marvel Comics)
The Peter David written series concludes and the fun is non-stop! Howard The Duck, Dum Dum Dugan and this reality’s Loki race against time to stop the Nazi Zombies from leaving their reality and entering others, including the 616! As the members of the Ducky Dozen fall one after another, it’s down to just these few and one or two others to stop this madness once and for all. Their only solution is an A-Bomb and the hopes that Taxi can find something to use as transport to get them the heck out of their. Loki has his final battle with Zombie Thor and it doesn’t end well for the God of Mischief.

They finally return to the 616 but they also bring the other realities Captain America with them. The Red Skull was slowly eating him, to prolong his ‘victory’ but we all know what happens when a zombie partially eats someone…

As a long time fan of the Marvel Zombies franchise, I have to say that this is the first time in a long time that I’ve enjoyed a Marvel Zombies series this much, from beginning to end. Peter David is now officially on the list of names I will look for when a new Marvel Zombies project is announced. He did a perfect job on this book. The bad taste that Marvel Zombies Supreme left in my mouth  is officially gone! Bring on more!!

THE WALKING DEAD #100 (Image/Skybound)
This one came out over a week ago and the images in it still haunt me. They advertised that this would be one of Rick’s darkest moments and they weren’t kidding. Thing it, it was one of the darkest moments for readers as well as we were viciously reminded of The Rule: Just because you’re a main character doesn’t mean you are safe.

In this issue Rick is forced to face two very big things. First: Negan is a monster, possibly a bigger monster than the Governor ever was…possibly, and this monster has taken all control away from Rick. Since the series began, Rick was the leader and now, for now, he’s not the leader and has no power. He can’t even keep everyone alive. This brings us to the second issue: The death of… well, I’m not going to say because this is one series I won’t spoil. Let’s just say a long, very long, lasting cast member gets to meet Lucille face to face. Lucille isn’t a person either… it’s a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wired. This give us what is possibly one of the most shocking and violent deaths in this series since Lori and Judy were killed. The scene froze me in my tracks and the panels by Charlie Adlard haunted me for the entire day. I really shouldn’t have saved this book for last.

Congratulations to Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard and everyone else who worked on this series. 100 issues for a black and white comic book that features no superheroes and is about a group of people trying to survive in a world ruled by zombies is a near impossible feat. The books broke records and is now the best-selling single issue since 1997 AND has gone into a second printing! My hat goes off to everyone on the creative and publishing staff. Give yourselves a round of applause!

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.

Hey, check out those links on the left! Share Bullet Reviews on Facebook, Twitter (#BulletReviews), Google +, Stumble Upon, Digg, and Pinterest The more you share the more Contest entries you get.  How cool is that?