Comics I bought This Week: June 6, 2007

A little bit better week at the comic shop I picked up three comics:

The Lone Ranger 6 - A nice western.

Buffy Season Eight 4- Let's see how the first story wraps up

Supernatural Origins 2 - I liked the first issue.

Plus I picked up a hardcover.

Exit Wounds" by Rutu Modan

It's published by Drawn and Quarterly. It looks good. I'll let you know how it is. I still haven't read the Conan hardcover I bought last week. Sometimes I like to let a book hang around unread for a while. It gives me something to look forward to reading.

Week Twenty One of my reviews of recent DC Comics.

Manhunter "Trial by Fire" TPB - This collects issues 6-14 of the series "Manhunter"

After reviewing comics for which I only have a few parts of the whole story I'm glad to read nine issue in a row. Manhunter is a new version of an old super hero. Now Manhunter is a woman and a federal attorney working out of LA. Plus she doesn't mind killing the evil people she battles.

All in all a good series. The first story in the book mixes super heroics with courtroom drama. It doesn't have the detail of an episode of Law and Order but captures the flavor in an interesting way. The second story deals with some others who used the Manhunter name in the past and leads into DC's Omac project story line that happened a couple of years ago. That was the less satisfying part of the book but it wasn't bad.

Manhunter uses a special staff that has super powers but she doesn't know where it came from or what it can do. It surprises her with new powers every now and again. An old plotter's trick to create some mystery for sure but not used as a crutch.

Being a DC comic and collecting nine issues there are, of course, four pencilers and three inkers. But they are all competent with similar styles so the story telling doesn't suffer. The coloring is also solid and helps to unify things. Over all Manhunter is a nice effort and offers some solid super hero action.

Warren Ellis: Blackgas 1-3 - Not a DC comic but an Avatar comic this was passed on to me by a friend. I bought the first issue last year when it can out but not the other two.

Blackgas is a zombie story that takes place on a small island off of the New England coast. There is lots of gore, violence and flesh eating zombies but it left me a bit cold. There is nothing wrong with it I just found all the explosions and gunshots dull. I liked the first issue best before all the action happened as they were letting us get to know the characters. After the zombie action started the characters no longer mattered as they were just fighting for their lives as in every zombie movie you've ever seen. For zombie fans only I say.