Book Report: COBRA #1

Let's be honest, the GI Joe team always beats Cobra. In the comic book world, however, Cobra may have just won the battle. Released this week, Cobra #1 is, from start to finish, everything you could want in a comic book featuring almost exclusively-bad guys. It's very easy, and pretty much now the norm, for comics starring villains to portray the villains as misunderstood heroes and make the audience sympathize with them. That is not the case here. The Cobra agents are EVIL people and pull out all the stops to claim the ultimate prize-becoming the new Cobra Commander. Writer Mike Costa handles the story very well, while throwing in a ton of nice-OK, not really NICE-character moments. And I have to be honest, while I've never been a fan of Antonio Fuso's art in the past, he really hits it with this book. The only drawback? You really need to be reading GI Joe to get the full story of what's going on in this issue.

Flash Gordon: Invasion of the Red Sword #2 Review

-It's getting hard to keep writing good stuff about this comic. In this second chapter of Arddens's second Flash Gordon mini series, the story gets moving. Not to say that it didn't hit the ground running in the first issue, but this issue really picks up the pace. Tremendously. I hear a lot of complaints about the price of comics, but story-wise, writer Brenden Deneen packs about six months worth of a Marvel comic into this one issue of Flash Gordon. There's massive amounts of cliffhangers, a great many mysteries are set up, and the team of Brenden Deneen and artist Eduardo Garcia have really hit a home run with this series. Remember how comics used to have you holding your breath when you were a kid? Yeah, it's like that.
10 out of 10!!!!

Snake Eyes #1 Review

Who's the most bad-ass character in comic book history? Right. Wolverine. Who would somebody send to kill Wolverine? Snake Eyes. Yes, that's how formidalbe Snake Eyes is. So, why is it we're just getting a solo Snake Eyes series now, in 2011, almost 30 years after his action figure debut? I can't answer that. BUT, when I can tell you is that it's worth the wait.
-You get exactly what you'd expect and what you'd want from a Snake Eyes comic-ninja moves & awesomeness. I'm not sure time-line wise where this book fits in. It flashes back to Cobra Civil War #0, but I'm guessing it takes place before last week's GI Joe #1, due to spoilerish reasons that I won't get into. We join Snake Eyes, Helix, Alpine and Iceberg on a mission to find an enemy that is holed up in a really remote arctic area. And best of all? You get to see Snake Eyes being Snake Eyes. I really don't know if it was writer Chuck Dixon or artist Robert Atkins that choreographed the action, but whoever did, deserves a salute. It's never confusing, and always entertaining. The only thing I didn't really care for in this issue was the art in the flashback sequences. Yikes.
-I give this issue 4 out of 4 (ninja throwing)stars!