Kirkman is Hardcore Sexy and he Knows It!

Hey guys.  Its Sunday May 20, 2012, you haven't heard much from me this week, and this is The Side.  I knew this day was coming.  I'm putting the brakes on having a set update schedule.  At least for now.  I'm a bit burnt out, and when I didn't have much of anything ready for the last two updates, that was pretty much a sign.


I'm still going to be doing weekly comic book reviews.  As for other stuff I'm not going to be posting as much.  Sure, I'll go after something if the mood really strikes me, or if something cool happens, or I want to review a movie.  Really, I've been having the serious itch to getting back to writing fiction and I've really missed that.  I don't have the luxury to still at the computer all day and type, so something had to give.


That's that.  Here's some nerdy stuff.

COMIX!!

Y'know, you take your kids and try to raise 'em right.  Try to teach them a proper trade.  Try to give them the means to fend for themselves.  Sometimes though, they just don't get it.  This is what we see in THIEF OF THIEVES #4, which focuses not on Conrad, but on his son, Augustus.  As we saw at the end of the last issue, the guy is in jail, and its his third strike.  As much as Conrad has his illegal act together, Augustus is the exact opposite, and that's plenty for a certain beautiful F.B.I. to use to put pressure on the kid.  We're still in the opening act of this story and getting to know all the players.  Spencer is really taking his time with this.  Issue one we met Conrad.  Issue two we met the ex-wife he wants back.  Issue three we meet the agent who wants to bring him in.  Now we meet his son.  This is an amazing example of taking your time with proper exposition and getting to know the characters and the world they're in, and still making it fun and interesting reading.  This story doesn't move incredibly fast, but there's so much really good stuff here that we're enjoying the ride.  Top notch work.  This continues to be one of the top new titles of 2012.


THE ACTIVITY #6 is a straight military thriller.  A seemingly easy mission into the democratic Republic of the Congo goes Tango Uniform in a big way.  No fancy spy-tech.  Nothing over the top.  One could easily imagine this story actually happening.  Its amazing.   There's a bunch of action, and its all so incredibly controlled.  Its another single issue story so if you go right now and grab a copy you can go into it completely ignorant of everything in the previous five issues, and have no trouble whatsoever.  The writing and artwork are incredibly tight.  This is real substantive storytelling without any flash and trash.  Really an amazing comic.


THE SHADOW #2 is a bit difficult.  The story is easy enough to follow and there's plenty of action.  Cranston and Lane are heading for China before World War II and Nazis ambush them on the flight.  Simple enough.  Writing is good.  The Art is good.  There's only one problem: The Shadow is a complete prick.  He's really an unrelenting one as well.  We don't see him acting nice, charming, or anything unless he's using it as a front as Cranston.  In his private moments with Margo Lane he's completely in "Shadow mode" in terms of attitude.  There's been that train of thought that Batman is the real identity and Bruce Wayne is the front.  I don't really agree with that, however this is that paradigm right to the core.  I'm kind of on the fence here.  I'm enjoying the story a bit,  but really don't like the main character.  I'm hanging in there for issue three before I make my final call as to if I'm going to continue with this title.  Its not a bad book, but i just don't know if its for me.


HARDCORE #1 starts up a sci-fi thrilled from Robert Kirkman and Brian Stelfreeze.  If you see Marc Silvestri's name on the cover, that's all he did: the cover.  No problem because still book is great.  We meet Agent Drake who is the pilot for a program which allows him to temporarily take over another person.  The tech unit that makes this happen is called a "Hardcore" and I'm not exactly sure why, but that's where the name of the book comes from.  The program is used by the government, buy its creator has different plans for it. .  This is the type of premise that I'd expect to see in a summer sci-fi movie.  Its clever, and sets up the conflict very well.  The pacing is that of a summer movie opening act.  We get enough to go on, a little bit about the characters involved, and then the hook sinks.  I'm really excited to see where this goes, so I'm all in.

MUSIC!!

This guy absolutely kills it.







Alrighty guys.  For now, The Side is retired.  More reviews next week.  Take care.