Tuesday, February 25, 2014

The Quest For Lost Comics; Rose And Thorn.

Why do we love to see movies and read books about psychopaths?
Is it the fantasy of total freedom from ethics and norms? Is it because we feel sorry or even relate to them? Or maybe its just the trill of reading about a human being who, in theory, is capable of doing anything.
Or maybe I'm just putting too much into it.
But lets cut to the case: One of my recommendations for Halloween-reading was the one-shot issue story Rose And Thorn by Tom Taylor (you can see the review HERE). I loved the story, and I was disappointed when I realized it wasn't a series. But I knew that there was a Rose And Thorn series written by Gail Simone. Getting it was difficult since it's not a TPB, but I was lucky enough to find it in a bucket with used comics at my nerdshop.
Rose Forrest (get it?) is a very violent and unstable young lady who are placed in a youth care facility, where she is a danger to the other girls, as well the guards.
A psychiatrist named Chistlow attempts to help her with a new kind of therapy, witch he has devolved himself. The therapy works... per se. Yes, he manege to stop her from being violent by splitting her psyche as a type of forced split-personality and therefor storing all the anger away in one psyche, but it unfortunately means that she can become even more violent if her sweet, kind "Rose" persona gets dominated by her angry, revenge-seeking "Thorn" persona.
So now that Rose has been signed out of the facility, Thorn now has her chance to hunt down her parents killers, as violent and disturbing as she is pleased, without worrying about the consequences.
Do I have to say anything but "Gail Simone" about this comic?
This is a mystery series, and pretty well done. Simone holds her cards close to the body, and we only get tiny bits of details every issue, until we have a full picture in issue six. We see Rose struggle with Thorn, who are as close to being a completely different person as it is possible to be when its part of once psyche. And it is a very different kind of split-personality, since its artificial.
I personally prefer the Rose And Thorn series written by Taylor, but really, you should check out bout of them. Its probably going to be harder to find Simone's series, since its older, but its honestly worth it. I'm probably going to put this one on this years Halloween recommendation-list.
That's all for now. I'm Waezi2, and hanks for wasting time with me.

Saturday, February 22, 2014

New Warriors retrospective issue 27-31

Remember when I said I would only review the 26 first issues?
No? Good, lets get on with it.
Even though Darick W. Robertson became the new artist for the series in issue 26, Mark Bagley still did the covers. Why? I have no idea, but its annoying. I liked Bagley's artwork better, and it honestly feels like the cover is giving me the finger, while saying; Nah-Nah, Bagley is only doing covers now!
NW issue 27 is not one of my favorite stories, mostly because it feels like it's a two-parter without, well, two parts. Its a tie-in to one of the most awesome crossovers I have ever read: Infinity War!!! What is Infinity War about?
... I actually dont remember. I just have a memory of it being awesome. I should probably get it from the library on of these days, or maybe just, you know, buy it.
Anyway, issue 27 focus on the two youngest members of the team; Speedball and their newest member; the twelve year-old man-mountain Rage. They are not part of the actual Infinity War crossover,  but they meet their evil doppelgangers, whom they must fight (evil versions of all the Marvel heroes somehow appear because of Infinity War).
I have two mayor problems with this issue:
First of all, I want to know what the heck is up with Robertson's artwork. Look at Speedy, he looks like some kind of Harry Potter monster who wants to suck out my soul!
And another thing: Remember when the Black Lanterns in Blackest Night used their knowledge to enrage or otherwise make their prey lose focus?
That's not happening here, and it really bugs me.
So its not that the issue is bad, its just that it feels like something is missing. The only consequences of it is that Rage realize he has a problem with anger (gee, what a surprise) and Speedball's father, who are BTW a layer, discover that his son is a superhero, and is under the false impression (like everyone else in the Marvel U) that it means that he is an vigilante. Witch he is not.
No, seriously, I looked it up. NO ONE in the Marvel U(except for the extreme types like Frank Castle) can be defined as vigilantesJust saying.
In my review of "Night Thrasher; Four Control" I commented on the problem with the lack of colored and female superheroes. So obviously, I'm quite pleased with the introduction and first appearance of Turbo in New Warriors issue 28. Mickey Musashiis is one of the two persons who shares the flight-suit and identity of Turbo, with the other on being her best friend Mike, the one who found the suit that once belonged to the man known as Torpedo.
We also see the start of what I refer to as the fall of Namorita. She has lately become responsible for a LOT of things. Her cousin Namor has diapered, witch means that she has to take his place as ruler of Atlantis, run Namor's company Oracle Inc, and somehow still find time to attend college and leading the Warriors while Thrash is off the team. No wonder if she is starting to crack.
Oh, and now I'm at it; can she really run a company, even though she doesn't have her education yet? Seriusly, I want to know. I guess its better explained in Byrne's run and Namor The Submariner (witch I never really got into, because I felt that Namor was a minor character in what was suppose to be his series).
And it's only getting worse for Nita.
Trans-Sabal is a fictional country at war that was Marvel's answer to the Gulf War. And since New Warriors was a series that took up a lot of serious themes, its reasonable enough that it is taken up.
But taking part in the war? I did mention that Rage was 12, right?
In the two-part story-line World War(even though its NOT a world war, but a civil war) the Warrior are on a mission to find the terrorist group known as Force Of Nature, but instead finds themselves in the middle of a war-zone.
We see the Warriors trying to tangle with the situation as best as possible, but it ends up messy, because in war, everything isn't black and white. The whole affair ends up with being the first of Nita's two big regrets.
The next story in issue 31 is about regrets, pain, loses, and how to deal with, or maybe more importantly bury your past. But most importantly of all; how Firestar got a new costume!
This is a thing in the New Warriors series; when something big happens in your life, like your grandmother die (oops, spoilers) you get a new costume. But frankly, it makes a lot of sense that Angel would get rid of her old costume, since it was one she got from Emma Frost. And even though I liked her first uniform a great deal, I really dig the new one, too. To bad she adds a leather-jacket to it later...
In the issue, we also have more character development, like Nova being embarrassed over having to split a bill for lunch with his new girlfriend Laura, and Speedball dealing with his parents divorce.
... Oh, and the Hellions are dead.
That's all for now. Next time, we will take a look at my favorite NW story-line; Forces Of Darkness, Forces Of Light!
I'm Waezi2, and thanks for wasting time with me.