Reviewed By Adam A. Donaldson

For those in the know, the first Saturday in May is always an occasion to get up early head down to the local comic book shop and pick up some free comics. Here is a review of a few of the titles offered this year.

The Amazing Spider-Man – Marvel Comics

If you haven’t picked up a Spider-Man comic in a while, you might be out to sea with all the set up for Spider-Island and referencing to all of Spidey’s antics in the Avengers (actually, the line about charging super-battle damage to Tony Stark was pretty good). But really, if you want a good, solid Spider-Man story, you can’t get much better than the combination of the words of Dan Slott and the art of Humberto Ramos. Sure, the fight between Spidey and a hypnotized Spider-Woman enables the well-worn comic book hero-on-hero battle concept, but under Slott, Spider-Man is at his quipy best and Ramos art is dynamic and expressive. This is a really fun read.

Darkwing Duck/Chip ‘N’ Dale Rescue Rangers – BOOM! Studios

Although it’s not a new creation, these reprints of two of BOOM’s strongest selling books illustrate the care, dedication and imagination that the creative teams put in to these license properties. Darkwing Duck especially is a standout thanks to James Silvani’s very detailed art work with a living, breathing St. Canard as background to all the anthropomorphic animal heroes and villains. Writer Ian Brill also has a real ear for how the characters sound, and for bending and parodying classic comic ideas. Rescue Rangers is a lot of fun too, calling back a lot of the great tropes of the animated series, like Monterey Jack’s love of cheese and Zipper’s pictogram dialogue balloons. A nice comic for the kids.

Bongo Comics Free-For-All – Bongo Comics

Free Comic Book Day means the usual assortment of Simpsons short stories thanks to the fine people at Bongo. The main story in this issue features Ralph Wiggum as he repeatedly falls victim to the con games of the bully trio Jimbo, Kearney and Dolph. Ralph gets some good lines, like when he calls Comic Book Guy “Santa Claus” and salutes Kearney saying, “Okay Colonel.” But the ending was a little too Archie Comics for my taste. The Baby Krusty and Mr. Teeny bits were short and sweet and the final story about Bart, Milhouse, Martin and Nelson trying to sneak into the real circus, and not the Cirque du Soleil pastiche that the field trip was visiting, had it’s moments, especially when Principal Skinner called the quartet the “Four Boys of the Apocalypse.”

Richie Rich in Eruption Disruption/Kung Fu Panda – Ape Entertainment

I picked this one up purely because of the Richie Rich cover as it looked more like Johnny Quest than a tale about the titular boy with more money than he knows what to do with. But it was fun story about killing robots and a villain trying to make a volcano erupt. And who knew Cadbury was such a talented martial artist. The Kung Fu Panda story was also fun, and it served as a good reminder of how much fun that first Kung Fu Panda movie was, and hopefully how much fun the sequel will be. Plus, the Kung Fu Panda characters look pretty good in 2-D form as well.

Young Justice/Batman: Brave and the Bold Super Sampler – DC Comics

I think that if you’re a fan of the two animated series this comic is based on, than you will probably enjoy this split book as well. The Brave and the Bold story features a Batman-Flash team-up. Not my first choice of superhero team-ups, but still effective. Plus, Alfred gets to be snotty to some people badmouthing Bruce Wayne, which is always a plus. As for the other half, the Yong Justice comic reminded me a lot of the original Young Justice comic from the late 90s, just with that cool DC animated Universe art style.

Captain America-Thor: The Mighty Fighting Avengers – Marvel Comics

World War II era Cap and modern age Thor both find themselves taken back in time to the era of King Arthur and Camelot, where Loki has taken the place of Merlin and locked the old wizard up in an undisclosed location just so that he can get his hands on the Holy Grail. I loved the angry old man version of Merlin, and Loki spouting modern colloquialisms like “Don’t blow this for me, bro” as he tries to convince Thor to walk away. I’m not sure what the point of this book was, or why I’ve never heard before about Merlin’s magical belt, but hey, that’s why we read comics in the first place.

The Stuff of Legend/The Intrepid Escape Goat – Th3rd World Studios

The scant few pages of The Stuff of Legend in this book had me very intrigued. By Mike Raicht, Brian Smith and Charles Paul Wilson III, it tells the story of a boy kidnapped by a shadow creature that emerges from his closet, and how his toys come alive and follow him into a magical realm to rescue him. This is a book I’ve got to check out. The story sounds great and the art looks amazing. The second story, The Intrepid Escape Goat, is a little different in tone. Written and drawn by Smith, it’s a fun, almost Indiana Jones-style comedy adventure with a British-sounding goat in a suit. A different tone than The Stuff of Legend, but almost as fun and inventive.

Archaia One Shot – Archaia Entertainment

Archaia’s flagship title Mouse Guard actually doesn’t get the lion’s share of attention in this sampler of upcoming titles. That honour goes to The Dark Crystal, an origin story about the universe created by Jim Henson and company in the 1982 movie of the same name. The art by Brian Froud (who was a designer on the film as well) is well done and detailed with a delicate touch from the paint brush. Another Jim Henson story called A Tale of Sand is previewed. Henson worked on the script intended for a feature film during the 70s, but was forced to shelf it due to his commitments to The Muppet Show and Sesame Street. From what little we see and is described, it seems that Sand is going to be a must-read for Henson fans.

Written by :

Adam