**spoiler alert** Black Leopard, Red Wolf has been described as an African fantasy epic comparable to Tolkien and Game of Thrones. Right, throw that I**spoiler alert** Black Leopard, Red Wolf has been described as an African fantasy epic comparable to Tolkien and Game of Thrones. Right, throw that Idea straight out the window it's a fantasy epic sure, but more in keeping with Neil Gaiman than anything else.
Heavily laced with African mythology we follow Tracker (the titular Red Wolf) Who after learning that who he thought was his father is really his grandfather, leaves his tribe and ends up on a quest for a boy (we later learn is a secret prince) who has been kidnapped by vampires. He falls in love with Leopard, a shapeshifer who believes than nobody loves nobody. We follow his epic journey battling with various demons and witches as we try and unravel the truth about the boy. We also follow his affairs, with mercenary Nyka who betrays him and prefect Mossi. Leopard popping back into the story throughout.
This is graphically violent and dark with a heavy gay bias. I found it quite misogynistic - Mossi at one point even pulls Tracker up on it and accuses him of hating women, but its a fair point - Nearly all the women in this are evil, from his incestuous mother to the various witches who kill babies, Sogolon the moon which who is a stranger to the truth, the boy's mother obsessed with power and the evil Queen of Dolingo... The only one possibly not evil woman is mercenary Nsaka ne Vampi - and Tracker hates her as well.
The writing style is full of flashbacks and little mini-time loops - you constantly jump forward and then have to fill in the missing time further on, while I'm sure this is meant to keep it interesting, it really slows the pace. OMG is this a slog. I can't even recall the last time a novel took me over a month to read. However the fact that it kept me interested says much. The mythology and imagination on this are staggering and I can't recall another fantasy to use African myth to such a great effect. The monstrous villains are also marvellously freaky and weird. In that respect this really is a breath of fresh air in the fantasy genre.
However, the story seriously drags and meanders a great deal. It is a bit of a slog, and the payoff when you get to it seems a huge anti-climax. I found it so hard to rate this because so much of it is awesome, original and innovative, but its so long and drawn out, female unfriendly and the writing style is very jumpy. I can certainly see why this has had a marmite effect on readers - its one of those you are going to love or hate....more
This is the best of the 1989 Hellraiser graphics so far.
The opening story The Ferryman puts a cenobite twist on the slave trade with excelently freakyThis is the best of the 1989 Hellraiser graphics so far.
The opening story The Ferryman puts a cenobite twist on the slave trade with excelently freaky art by Derek Yaniger.
Next up is a nice serial killer sting in the tail 'Dead Things Rot' by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola. I am a big fan of his and this really doesn't disappoint either on art or story.
The final story concludes Larry (Lana) Wachowski's Devil's Brigade African saga with Endoslung. From really poor beginnings the last two instalments of this have actually been quite good and this last part is suitably dark and haunting with its themes of genocide and racial cleansing. Russ Heath does the art here and his facial expressions are great.
With my Lips - the 1st sting-in-the-tail short is the highlight here, I love the stories set entirely in hell and this one is about a victim in love wWith my Lips - the 1st sting-in-the-tail short is the highlight here, I love the stories set entirely in hell and this one is about a victim in love with the female cenobite torturing him - the irony being he loves the torture, his hell being that she's in love with someone else. Rod Whigham's art on this really fits.
Next we go back to the Devil's Brigade linked 'arc' stories - the first of which is Larry (Lana) Wachowski's African Apartheid story which so far I've hated, but this is the best instalment of it to date, finally offering some sympathetic characters we can connect to - Denys Cowan does the art here and really stepped it up a notch - not bad.
The last Devil's Brigade tale takes us back to the misguided priest father Abadon. The story is a confused mess that's difficult to follow and it's really not helped by the art which is frankly hideous. Now I've always liked Sam Kieth - his depictions of Wolverine & Nightcrawler in Marvel Presents are really iconic - No idea what's going on here however, the faces are ugly and the design on the cenobite is as far from Barker's imagination as you can get - it's like some green granny witch-goblin.
Front and end illustrations are from Mick McMahon - again ugh.
So 1st half of this one solid, 2nd half not so good....more
The first story is the highlight in this one - 'Coming Home.' A cenobite is allowed to return home to entrap the soul of the brother who sold him out.The first story is the highlight in this one - 'Coming Home.' A cenobite is allowed to return home to entrap the soul of the brother who sold him out. Jimmy Palmiotti's art is rather good - the facial expressions are great.
After that though - bleugh. The next two stories deal with hell being accessed through a play script and a film. John Van Fleet does the art on 'The Haven on Hell Street' and I really hate his art style and the story is super dull - I think the only thing to recommend it is the idea that the road to hell is paved with good intentions - but honestly don't waste your time, there are far better stories that do this. 'Losing herself to the Part' at least features a cenobite. so-so art, but not too keen on the story largely because the victims seem to survive which just doesn't work for my concept of the hellraiser mythos. It plays with the idea of actors going through mental hell to give a convincing performance but sadly feels like a story in which the hellraiser content is merely tagged on.
The final tale 'Inside the Laager' is written by Larry (Lana) Wachowski (of Matrix fame) -sadly I truly loathed this one - it has barely any hellraiser content whatsoever and is a confused mess dealing with issues of racism and war - we jump back to zulu, forward to apartheid and then into the future? to neo-nazis. Joe Barruso's ugly art really does nothing to elevate this one.
Some of the interior full page illustrations between stories are gorgeous but the stories are pretty poor and this volume adds nothing to the hellraiser mythos....more
This anthology looks at Judicial systems outside mega city one.
So we have Becky Steel (Treasure's sister) as the Brit-Cit in Africa, who faces Ivory hThis anthology looks at Judicial systems outside mega city one.
So we have Becky Steel (Treasure's sister) as the Brit-Cit in Africa, who faces Ivory hunters and vengeful African gods, then we go to the Peruvian rain-forest to face giant mosquitoes, then we go to Japan to protect the royal family from assassins and finally time travel back to Shakespearean London.
This one's a very mixed bag. I'm never too happy with the portrayal of cultures outside Brit-Cit and the Big Meg, to often the stories rely on racial stereotyping and childish parody. While the stories here aren't that bad they aren't that amazing either.
I disliked the stories and characters on the African stuff - the best thing being Siku's bright and bold art, though even that really suffered in Fever of the Gods, becoming less defined.
I quite enjoyed Zancudo, but think that it could have benefited from being a colour strip which would have enhanced the freaky giant mosquito gods.
Tiger Sun, Dragon Moon was solid throughout, although neither the story or art blew me away.
And I'm still not sure what to make of the joyously bonkers time travel Deathwatch: Faust & Falsehood. Lots of fun literary & historical references and I loved things like the wind up bikes - absolutely hated Adrian Salmon's art however and it's about as far from Classic Dredd as you can get.
Overall Ok, but definitely not one of my favourites....more
Devlin Waugh is one of my all time favourite characters in the Dredd universe and this anthology is a hoot.
The first story Fetish - takes Dredd into ADevlin Waugh is one of my all time favourite characters in the Dredd universe and this anthology is a hoot.
The first story Fetish - takes Dredd into Africa after a witch doctor who has set a demon on one of the psi judges. He gets stuck in the middle of the desert and encounters Waugh who has to help him out - Styalised art by Siku gives Dredd a rather ugly look - huge jaw, small helmet but his depiction of the African location and Waugh himself is great.
In a mouthful of Dust, Waugh's friend has contracted a nasty supernatural STD and Devlin has to take his friend into the Arab desert to find a fabled lost city that can cure him - would have preferred colour to b/w for this, but still the story is fun.
Vile Bodies is a personal highlight for me - Devlin becomes infected when his latest lover turns out to be a chameleon he gets picked up by Jericho Strange and taken on board his arc of endangered species - he sends out a wave of lust and all the creatures break free to mate with each other giving rise to some very freaky sex scenes and some brilliant satire as Waugh has to kill the last survivors of some very nearly extinct creatures. Colin Macneil's art on this one is great.
All Hell takes Waugh into the Asian mythological 10 levels of Hell as a trio of villains want to unleash a swarm of demons - Loved this one as well - some superbly twisted art and creature design.
The last story Old Wounds seems a bit out of place - no Waugh. Dredd uses a journalist to help take down an untouchable gang leader - it's a solid story with fine art, it just doesn't really fit with the other tales here.
Overall I adored this volume. Devlin Waugh steals the show as always and the mix of mythologies and locations is really interesting. The woo woo weird, body horror and freaky art is also a delight. Not too much is made of Waugh's vampirism or Vatican exorcist status in the stories but there's more than enough else going on for that not to matter too much.
Hopefully we'll see a lot more of the character in the future. ...more
Xenogenisis had me for the first time questioning why I'm a huge X-Men fan. I hated everything about this one; the art, line-up, story, setting....
TheXenogenisis had me for the first time questioning why I'm a huge X-Men fan. I hated everything about this one; the art, line-up, story, setting....
The art is hideous - particularly Emma Frost - the ugliest I've ever seen her and the exaggerated breasts which manage to get into far too many panels are frankly just embarrassing. In your face isn't in it - she's leaning forward at every opportunity! Storm is again sexualised with an exaggerated figure and skimpy clothing.
A load of 'mutant' babies are born in Africa and since the X-gene only manifests at puberty, the x-men go and check it out. Cyke leads the team consisting of Storm, Beast, Wolverine, Emma Frost and Hisako. Not a great line up and handled really poorly. I hate Cyclops/Emma together because it seriously undermines Scott's character making him a totally pussy-whipped wuss. And in this he's worse than usual because the story is set in Africa and he has to defer to Storm as well. Hisako need not be there. Contributes nothing, no development of character - I've no idea what her powers are from this one. Wolverine and Beast aren't even handled well. The art of Beast is ugly and despite the fact that I love both these characters they really don't shine here having little development.
I hated the African setting and whilst it's clearly trying to make a point, I didn't think the Xenogenesis story was the best way to do this. Also disliked the supporting cast - N'Dingi in particular.
Bonus features include storyboard art and script for the first chapter which are useful in learning how comics are created.
Overall though this is my least favourite X-Men title to date. Yuck....more
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