New from IDW: 5/7/2014

Black Dynamite #2

The parody on the previous Blacksploitation series actually surprised me. The book stays true to it’s nearly Grindhouse level of action and story, while remaining interesting on a slightly deeper narrative level. As per the usual, Black Dynamite is back fighting against the forces aiming to keep the black man down. In this case, it isn’t the establishment, but the Illuminati. I found our hero refreshingly and one-dimensionally awesome. He has this feeling, like a paladin for the African-American civil rights movement, even going so far as to sign his checks over to “the black community.” I really loved this comic, and will most likely continue reading it in the future.

The Crow: Pestilence #3

This series adds a few interesting things going for it. First off, the Santa Muerte angle is a great change from the singular weakness the Crow usually suffers from; the crow. The other interesting element is that the Crow’s brother has been avenging him from within the gang that killed him, and has just heard that Salvador is still alive. This series seems a bit short on the poetic prose that previous Crow’s, from both film and comic, has had a tendency to use.  The scene with the car is a little reminiscent of the  climactic scenes common to the series, with a far less satisfying outcome. It might be unfair to compare Pestilence to it’s forefather by the great James O’Barr, but it falls short of the mark.

the Illegitimates #5

As can be expected from most spy thrillers, The Illegitimates #5 has a lot of faces and they all have their own angle. The event in question, the energy summit, feels an awful lot like the Mutant Summit at the end of the first X-Men movie, complete with a super weapon aimed at the people present. With not one, but two people playing their own angles, one on each team; one in space and the other aiming to arrest their enemy. The oddest and most surprising traitor is revealed on the final page. An interesting read, but a bit homogenous, without anything setting it apart.

Jinn Rise #10

The final issue in the first volume of Jinn Rise ends with a bang.  The greatest decision comes from the young boy Yunus, and his control over freeing the Jinn to save the world, but chance delivering it into the cruel hands from Jinn. Jabal, the resident Jinn member of the team has been a paragon, but another member, the person responsible for bottling them in the first place, does not trust the rest. The final battle is joined early, and is most certainly climactic. With the first volume over, readers have time to breath, but the creator has big plans, referring to the first volume as his, “Star Wars: A new Hope”

The Maxx Maxximized #7

Well, apparently The Maxx is even more strange than I remembered it. This month, the Maxx and Julie are exploring the down under when a new, enormous gray creature steps into the world. In the “real world”  a girl by the name of Sarah has been bribed by a talking block of clay into delivering it to Julie’s apartment. Inside, the gray monster and the Maxx are fighting, but mostly running from, a large black isz. The antics in this fight are funny, and the Maxx’s self-narration is always a fun read. Julie is on the verge of remembering her past while Pitt, the gray monster, sees only Timmy’s in the field of small gray isz that has them cornered in the down under. As always, a strange book to read, but always entertaining. Solid read.

Power Puff Girls #9

If you took the arguments you normally have with your friends about you favorite music, and sprinkled some sugar, spice, everything nice, and chemical X on it, you’d have this issue of Power Puff Girls. With the Cartoon Network equivalent of the New Direction in town, villains appear to be coming out of the woodwork to stop them from performing. A punk rock rendition from the Rowdy Ruff Boys degenerates into a full on front-stage super brawl before being stalled out by the entrance of the Boogie Man. Who would have guessed he loved Disco so much? Short, sweet, and fun, Power Puff Girls is a fun read for fans and children alike.

Rocky and Bullwinkle #3

Oh the puns and Irony! This entire issue seems to based entirely on capitalism.  Pottsville, the clearly communist parallel, claims to own the moon and begins charging the world for it. Hijinks ensue, involving a moose, a squirrel, and some scrootching. A brief intermission also delivers a story about the naïve Dudley Do-Right. Who, completely unwittingly, swindles the criminal Snidely Whiplash out of his vast wealth of con-earned money. The best part of reading these nostalgic books is that when you’re reading them, you hear the old voices from the cartoon series they are based on. If you were expecting depth, you chose wrong. If you were looking for some funny books, you came to the right place.

Sinister Dexter #6

The first story in this month’s Sinister Dexter is deliciously pulpy. The guys are hired by a diplomatic bureaucrat to hunt his friend who is a little…unusual. The antics of both of our hired guns are grin worthy and the pay off is a complete and entertaining story. The second story was actually incredibly well done. The writer describes the gunfight that our heroes are having in just the terms of guns, ammo, and ballistics, which made for such a fresh read. The final story actually advances the main narrative with a new character with some handy gadgets and quite a bit of ambition. I would recommend this comic to anyone who likes action movies and witty banter.

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