Drums #1

Drums is a new series from Image that focuses on FBI agent Martin Irons while he investigates the death of an entire Voodoo or Santeria cult. 

Drums #1 picks up with a mysterious cult performing a ritual of sorts as a plea to their spirit protectors for aid in ridding them of a single evil spirit that has been plaguing them. The first eight panels do a very good job of visualizing the ceremony, with the last of the eight panels black with only the word “no’ written in ominous red ink to describe the evil spirit overpowering the the power of their ritual and ultimately killing them all.  Further along in the book, Irons comes face to face with the spirit who warns him that he will ultimately control the human race except, predictably, him. The spirit hints that he will witness “great things”.

El Torres’ writing is very dense and is a lot to take in, but it is very rewarding in the end. He goes to great lengths in this issue to educate the reader the religion of “La Regla Lucumi” within the confines of a comic book. That said, while Torres’ writing is a big strength of this book, it also a detractor of sorts. There is so much dialogue that it sometimes gets in the way of the story that he is trying to present and there is no real flow that a reader can get into. At points it feels tantamount to driving a car on a dirt road that is littered with bumps and ditches. As far a character development goes, Martin Irons is a honest, by the books lawman, which fits well because once this series takes off, it would of been an awkward proposition to fit in him struggling to cope with some past demons. Michelle Hernandez, an anthropologist and an advisor to the FBI on Afro-Caribbean religions, seems like she was only written to serve means to an end. What I mean by that is her only value lies in leading Irons to her contacts who also practice Voodoo, Santeria, or La Regla Lucumi. I don’t see her being of very much use once Irons starts making headway on this mystery by himself. 

The cover of this issue by Raul Allen is spectacular to say the least. As you can see above it is shaded in red with what looks like flames bursting from the woman’s eyes. Which is foreshadowing of the evil spirit or the devil, who will play a major role in this story. The art by the team of Abe Hernando and Kwaichang Kraneo is very reliant on shadows and darkness which sets the appropriate tone for a religious horror mystery. I would liken it to a cross between Neil Gaiman’s Sandman and fellow Image comic The Walking Dead. Paneling is good, dark panels against white pages is a fantastic choice. But there is a page where panels of dialogue alternates with panels that represent crimes scene photos. It would be really good if it was done better and didn’t seem like it was a bit forced. 

Overall, this is a very well done comic, especially for a first issue, and at 2.99 you are getting a lot of quality writing. Definitely a series that warrants a look by everyone. If you see it at your local comic shop you won’t regret dropping those three bucks on this.

OVERALL SCORE: 8/10

Batman Incorporated #6

This issue of Batman Inc. centers around a new criminal organization operating out of Pennsylvania meeting with a private investigator for the criminal underworld. They want details on the location of Batman, to kill him obviously and make their name know within the ranks of the seedy underbelly of the globe. Suffice to say that this set up a quick slideshow-esque flashback of how the Batman corps came to be.

Initially I wanted to mark up this month’s issue of Batman Incorporated as a disappointment based on the action that has happened in the past few issues. But when I thought about it, it was a great job of Morrison to slow things down and introduce us to the ensemble cast, such as bringing back former Bat Girl Cassandra Cain as Black Bat (the Batman Inc. Rep for Hong Kong) and The Outsiders (who consist of Metamorpho, Katana, Looker, Halo, and Freight Train) led by Tim Drake as Red Robin.

The issue flowed really well in terms of presenting the backstory, Morrison didn’t over complicate things, he stuck to the main point, which was catching readers up that might not of known who or what Batman Incorporated consisted of. While there being a lack of anything substantial happening in the present, Morrison does a great job of foreshadowing of events soon to unfold that will impact Batman Inc and the rest of globe immensely. Now, my main gripes with the writing is that while Morrison can write a great comic, he has some moments where you have to question what exactly he was thinking about that lead him to think some of this stuff was good. Starting with Joe Average and The Average Joe’s, in terms of names of criminal organizations they don’t come much dumber than that. A part of me thinks they were in Gotham solely because they got laughed out of Pennsylvania. Another instance is the less then awe inspiring introduction of Emoticon man and his team of cronies, who promptly were dispatched by Alfred, which might be step up from his pathetic name. The final issue I had was when Bruce for a few panels decides in the spirit of concealing his dual identities further, decides to troll the message boards of batman conspiracy theorists.

After the first three issues were drawn and colored by the team of Paquette and Lacombe, two of the last three issues have been done by the team Chris Burnham and Nathan Fairbairn. While I liked Paquette’s drawing skills, I always felt that Lacombe’s coloring was a bit too bright and glossy for what I think a Batman comic should look like. Fairbairn brings back the grittiness that is expected of a Batman book, and accentuates Burnhams drawing perfectly. If the series is indeed in the midst of art direction change then it is moving in the right direction with Burnham and Fairbairn. Overall, this is solid issue, not the best of the series, probably the worst, but that is a testament to how well Morrison has been writing this series so far.

1. Paneling: 7.5

2. Writing: 7

3. Dialogue: 8

4. Editing: 8

5. Art and Writing: 8

6. Illustration: 8

7. Inking and Coloring: 8

8. Art as a Whole: 8 

Score: 7.8/10

The Intrepids #3

For those who don’t know, “The Intrepids” is a six issue miniseries from writer Kurtis Wiebe and Illustrator Scott Kowalchuck, and it is distributed by Image comics. In describing “The Intrepids”, I find it best to describe it as a cross between Robert Rodriguez’s “Spy Kids” and Charles Dickens’ “Oliver Twist” meets DC’s “Teen Titans”. Getting down to brass tacks, at the heart of the story is a group of four orphans taken in by Dante, a mysterious but brilliant scientist, who trains them and gives them the technology that will enable them to be the crusaders of good against the scores of mad scientists that populate the globe.

We pick up this week at issue number three and seeing as the first two issues of this series were slow moving and sparsely packed with action, unlike what I was led to believe, I really was hoping this was the issue that picked up the pace. Unfortunately it still moved slow through the first half of the comic, with Crystal’s frustrations about her role on the team and her relationship with the adoptive, scientist father Dante. Once the second act of this issue rolled around, I was pleasantly surprised with the direction it took. My eons of patience with Wiebe’s writing style started to pay some serious dividends. Wiebe is a very slow starter when it comes to storytelling. It takes him a while to set things up and letting the story play out. For this reason, I wasn’t a fan of the first two issues and a part of this one. In the span of only a few pages, Wiebe turned the tables on what I was expecting, which was a few hum drum issues of teen spies handing mad scientists their proverbial derrieres, and took it into a far more interesting direction.

The art in this can be range from good to okay, never exceeding or falling short of thatrange. It follows a very interesting retro pulp-esque format in terms of illustration, which is works really well with its subdued colors against the white background. Although there are times there are where the panels contain a lot of detail and its impressive, other times that attention to detail can cause the panel to look a bit sloppy. Paneling follows the fairly simple left to right and top to bottom format, which works well for this because anything more would make it unnecessarily difficult to follow. Now the big problem with this was with the writing and editing of the panels where Crystal is discussing with Rose the concerns she has about Dante and the current state of things regarding him and the Intrepids. This is all done while they wrestle, I found it hard to believe that they could have such a flawless conversation without any gasps for air or stutters intruding. It was perfect to the point where it was unrealistic in a way and it detracted from the story a bit.

All in all, I feel that it is all uphill from here for Wiebe and his team of teenagers. This issues had its opportunity to fall flat but it rebounded and flashed a lot of promise for the final two issues of series. This, however, is something that is better off waiting for the trade so you can read it all in one shot and I believe thats where Wiebe’s style shines, when you can take it all in at once and process it all.  

1. Paneling: 6
2. Writing: 6
3. Dialogue: 5.5
4. Editing: 7
5. Art and Writing: 6.5
6. Illustration: 7.5
7. Inking and Coloring: 7
8. Art as a Whole:7