She's not there, Zombies got her

ROAMERS! Its Friday, July 22, 2011, I had me some comics this week, and this is The Side. let's jump right to it.

COMIX!!

THE WALKING DEAD #87 continues to deal with the fallout from the "No Way Out" arc. This book is like a giant soap opera with people occasionally dying horribly. There's the whole deal with Abraham and Rosita. He left her for Holly. Now Rosita is staying with Eugene. Eugene doesn't know what the hell to make of it. Andrea and Rick are getting closer, but I don't know if this is just two people who have been through a lot together, or if there's something romantic there. At the same time there's some unrest in the residents of the community who aren't happy with Rick and company being in charge. Rick's somewhat off his nut and obviously is feeling very guilty over what happened to Carl. There's also the gut twisting end of this issue. This book is so addicting. Its a big cast with all these very well-rounded characters, and just a ton of stuff going on. And sure there's a bit of zombie killing, but that's what gets you in the door. You show up because zombies and fun, you stay because Robert Kirkman is writing the hell out of this book.

ZATANNA #15 left me wondering what the heck I has just read. Not that the issue itself was confusing in any way, but its was obvious that it was a filler issue. The only thing really saving it was Jamal Igle's fabulous artwork. I usually try not to drop too many spoilers in my reviews, but I'm making an exception due to extreme WTFery. Zee's relaxing after a show and a big arrow crashes through the window and hits her vocal chord. The arrow was shot by one of a group of witch hunters who wasn't trying to hit her vocal chord. That's a weirdest lucky miss I've ever heard off. Zee tries to escape through a hidden passage under the floor of the room, which was pretty convenient. After some pursuit, Zee buys enough time for a magic salve to heal her arrow damaged vocal chords, at which point she sends the witch hunters back in time to the Salem Witch Trials where they are killed horribly as she watches. No wonder she's going to be in the JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK series after the reboot. Perhaps word of this will get around like the mind-wiping thing. Those people were stoned and burned at the stake and she does nothing about it? I think that's about enough to get your hero card pulled. I'm still waiting for the final showdown with Brother Night that now I get the feeling we'll never see. This is just a shame. Paul Dini had a pretty cool thing going, but there's been so many guest writers that it never really hit a solid direction. Still, its always been an entertaining series, at least until this issue. I think they're just going to let it sputter until the impending cancellation. Its a shame.

RED KNIGHT #1 is a decent first outing. Premise is a kid wants to be a superhero when he grows up. We see that he is a superhoer when he grows up. He has a couple of superhero buddies that he does the crime fighting thing with. There's some crooks that are selling a black market compound that gives people superpowers. The heroes interrupt a police sting operation, and chaos ensues. The writer, Justin Cristelli, tries not to beat us over the head with exposition, which its hard to do with a new book and a new character. Unfortunately it leaves things a little to up in the air so I was at the end of the issue with a ton of questions about our main character. Having a few questions about a main character is fine, but I have no clue how he got his powers, the extent of his powers, or what this guy does when he's not fighting crime.The artwork needs a bit more rendering to it to really solidify what's going on. Its a very "liney" style, which is fine if your comic is going to be in color. However in a black and white book we need a bit more grey to make things look solid. This isn't a bad book for a first effort. There's room for improvement and I'm sure one they get a few issues under their belt they'll have something really good going.

MUSIC!!

Heard they used this tune on that TRUE BLOOD show. Never seen it myself, but this is a great take on a classic tune.



That's all for me. Be back here Sunday, for my thoughts on CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER.