This week I review and dissect the first issue if the newest Image series Alpha Girl, the latest addition to the world of Captain America, Winter Soldier and a preview of the beginning of the Star Wars universe in Star Wars – Dawn of the Jedi. All in this week’s Comic Roundup!

Alpha Girl #1
By Jeff Roenning and Robert Love

As the year goes on, I’m starting to realize that if you want a diverse, fun line up of titles month in and month out, Image is the place to be. From The Walking Dead to The Strange Talent of Luther Strode to the resurrection of the Extreme Universe, Image literally has a book for anybody. It continues this month with the launch of Alpha Girl, a different look at the apocalypse. (more…)

The saddest thing about all the recent press for Red Tails are the bitter fanboys who seem to be using it as a chance to rage against George Lucas for the recent Star Wars Blu-ray release, rather than talk about what is a very important film.

Yes, Red Tails happens to be the long-in-gestation passion project produced by the creator of Star Wars. But like The Tuskegee Airmen it portrays, George Lucas also faced great adversity… in Hollywood, to the tune of paying for the $58 million film out of pocket.

The film is a pulpy look back at the 332nd Fighter Group in World War 2, The Tuskegee Airmen, also known as the Red Tails due the distinctive paint on the tails of their planes. The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African American military aviators in the United States armed forces. This film focuses on a very specific period in the history of the Airmen to give audiences the most bang for its buck.

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This week marks the 50th installment of this little review column I like to call the Comic Roundup. To celebrate, I review the new Michael Bay’s Transformers and Scarlet Spider series and the return of Rob Liefeld’s Prophet. Plus, next week we reboot with a brand new #1 (just kidding)! Enjoy!

The Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye #1
By James Roberts and Nick Roche

After 125 issues of IDW’s Transformers (if you add up all the miniseries and monthlies), this month sees the franchise heading off in new directions with two new ongoing series and new creative teams. The first book out of the gate is The Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye and it is not what you would expect. (more…)

This week the Roundup reviews the finale of the Little Mermaid arc in Grimm Fairy Tales: Myths & Legends, the return of Shinku to the stands and the first issue of the new Wolverine and the X-Men: Alpha & Omega miniseries.

Grimm Fairy Tales: Myths & Legends #11
By Raven Gregory, Matt Triano, Marlin Shoop and CA Gutierrez

Of all the Zenescope titles, Grimm Fairy Tales: Myths & Legends continues to be one of the most accessible for new readers and one of the best. Taking a Legends of the Dark Knight approach, the book will have a different arc every 4 or 5 issues, but with seeds that connect them all together masterfully planted by regular writer Gregory. (more…)

Contest Closed!

Ever since his first appearance in The Crystal Shard in 1988, Drizzt Do’Urden has been one of the most popular characters in the world of fantasy literature. With his twin scimitar blades, ebony black skin and white mane of hair, he captured the imagination of gamers everywhere and became more than just a character on a page. Along with the heroes of the Dragonlance trilogy, he put Dungeons & Dragons novels on the map and made most of them must reads for fans of the game as well as lovers of high adventure.

Now Drizzt makes his return in the second chapter of the Neverwinter trilogy, named, appropriately enough, Neverwinter. R.A. Salvatore picks up where book one, Gauntlgrym, left off and shows us a Drizzt entering a new phase of his life, which is part of what makes this such a great read.

Salvatore gives us a Drizzt at a crossroads in his life. The last of the Companions of the Hall has fallen and for the first time the Dark Elf is truly alone. It makes for a fascinating, intense read that takes a new and different look at one of the oldest characters in the world of Forgotten Realms fiction. It’s what made it stand apart from other books starring Drizzt that I have read; you really feel like you get inside his head and you are watching the birth of a new Drizzt that is beginning, as he calls it, “a new road”. (more…)

Contest Closed!

This past year saw a lot of big events play out at a variety of comic book companies.

From Marvel’s Fear Itself to DC’s The New 52 to IDW’s Infestation crossover, comic publishers were looking for ways to bring in new readers and keep existing fans interested and happy. One that definitely delivered on its promise was Zenescope’s first Grimm Universe event, The Dream Eater Saga, the first half of which is now collected in trade paperback.

For Zenescope’s first company wide crossover, they were looking for a way to bring together the various casts of their Grimm Fairy Tales family of titles. They found it in the unspeakable horror of the Dream Eater.

In volume one, he has been released into the world and he is coming for anyone who has supernatural powers. Now the members of the Grimm Universe find that they have to work together to stop this ancient evil or it will mean the end of all that they hold dear.

The trade collects the prelude, The Dream Eater Saga #1, the Piper, Wonderland, Neverland and Salem’s Daughter one-shots as well as Myths & Legends #6. And the whole shebang is written by none other than Raven Gregory, one of the best writers currently working for Zenescope.

He manages to move the story along as a fairly brisk pace, putting the players in position and scaring the crap out of the reader more than once as we go along. But Gregory also uses each issue as a way to introduce the reader to the cast. It was something I didn’t even realize he was doing till I reread the entire storyline in one sitting. In that way, the Dream Eater Saga is the perfect introduction to Zenescope’s Grimm Universe. Give someone this book and they’ll have all they need to jump right into the rest of the titles in the line.

The art side of the book is handled by a who’s who of Zenescope artists, none of
whom will be strangers to regular readers. Some of the highlights are the prelude with art by Anthony Spay and the Neverland chapter with art done by Marco Cosentino.

Regardless, all the artists do a great job of visualizing the story and creeping out the reader (just wait till you see what happens in chapter one. Talk about freaky).

The Dream Eater Saga is modern horror comics at its best. After you finish reading it leaves you with a slight uneasy feeling in the pit of your stomach and an urge to check under the bed. Leave your lights on and enjoy.

Zenescope was nice enough to provide us with a copy of The Dream Eater Saga Volume 1 to give away to one lucky Geekadelphia reader! Just leave a comment about which Zenescope title is you favorite.

We’ll pick a random winner at the end of next week. Please make sure to leave an e-mail address with your comment and books can only be sent to addresses in the United States and Canada.

As we enter 2012, you know what the Roundup’s New Years resolution is? To write more comic book reviews! This week I give you the lowdown on the new direction in Witchblade, Batman – The Dark Knight and the debut of Alan Davis on Captain America.

Witchblade #151
By Tim Seeley and Diego Bernard

Last month saw the end of an era as Ron Marz ended his 70 plus issue run on Top
Cow’s flagship book Witchblade. Now the title enters a new era in a new, post Artifacts universe with a new creative team in Seeley and Bernard. That’s a whole lot of new for such a long running comic. What’s the end result? (more…)

I caused the end of an established franchise, but I wasn’t that bad guys!

Alright, let me start this off by saying these aren’t the best games of 2011. In fact, they are far from it. When I think about the best games of the year, titles like Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Gears of War 3, Fallout: New Vegas, L.A. Noire, Dead Space 2, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, etc.

The games I’m about to ramble about? These are the best, tragically underplayed games. The titles you ignored because they got poor reviews or were released in the wake of large blockbuster titles (some in the midst of several). Games that had immediate price drops on Amazon and made you suspicious of their quality. Games that I actually enjoyed.

So read on, and feel free to hate. And if I missed a game you think should be included, leave it in the comments. I’m always looking for new games to play. Especially underrated ones.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine – Like I said in my review of this title back in September, Space Marine was the biggest gaming surprise of the Summer, end of story. And now that 2011 is coming to a close, I can say that it was the surprise of the year, at least for me. When THQ asked me if I wanted a review copy of this game, I scooped it up with intentions of just writing up a quick giveaway with some brief impressions (sorry guys!). I really didn’t think I’d end up playing it all the way through, as I assumed it was going to be… well, bad.

Man, was I surprised.

An intense third person shooter, Space Marine delivered a surprisingly engaging narrative (despite me not understanding much of the Warhammer lore), beautiful, albeit very dark and dreary landscapes, and voice acting that was shockingly decent. I poured a lot of time into the title, and tried to nab every achievement I could. The multiplayer was a little meh, but the single player campaign was engrossing enough to forgive that fact. And if you’re like me and seldom bother with multiplayer, it’s a moot point anyway. (more…)

As we all get ready for the big holiday, the Roundup also found time to put a few reviews in your stockings. This week I look at the first part of Avengers: X-Sanction, the first volume of Archaia’s new Storyteller series and the first issue of the New 52 debut of The Ray.

Avengers: X-Sanction #1 (of 4)
By Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness

When I first heard that Jeph Loeb would be bringing Cable, one of my favorite characters, back to the land of the living, I cringed inside. The man has been responsible for some awful comics over the last few years and I had no desire to read anything by him anytime soon. (more…)

night light

Even though Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is the fourth installment in the franchise, it may very well be the best film to come out of the series since it debuted back in 1996. Brad Bird, who is better known as a mainstay at PIXAR and the director of The Incredibles, gives us a refreshing and humorous sequel that really shows what a property such as this can be in the right hands.

I checked out the film in Philly’s own Tuttleman IMAX at The Franklin Institute.  Not only do I feel this is this the optimum experience for seeing the film, due to quite a few action set pieces shot in the IMAX format, but it is also the only theater in our area lucky enough to be screening The Dark Knight Rises Prologue… which is well worth the price of admission alone.

The film stars Tom Cruise once again as IMF agent Ethan Hunt, this time out to save the world from a nuclear holocaust after he is framed for blowing up the Kremlin. He does this with the help of Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton and the always-hilarious Simon Pegg. If the main baddie happens to look familiar to some of you, it’s probably because he is played by Michael Nyqvist, who also played Mikael Blomkvist in the Swedish film adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Simon Pegg steals the show and gives the film some severe geek cred while Tom Cruise is well… Tom Cruise.  Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol succeeds by being well aware of what it is, and not taking itself too seriously. The film is often times almost a parody of itself, which makes some of the insanity just a little easier to swallow at times. I really enjoyed this film much more than the last 2 films before it.

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol gets a 3.75 our of 5 stars.

Local game developer Cipher Prime, award winning creators of the games Auditorium and Pulse, have recently released an updated version of their addictive music/puzzle game called Fractal. Featuring colorful graphics, cool music, various play modes, and deceptively simple gameplay, Fractal will keep you hooked for hours.

Fractal’s main campaign starts you of creating “blooms”, which is when you connect a group of similarly colored pieces called fractals to create a giant hexagon cluster on the board. For every bloom you create, you also are rewarded with music. The more blooms you take off the board, the more music you hear within the level.

The catch is that you only have  a certain amount of fractals to put on the board while also trying to achieve a certain amount of points per level. As you move through the campaign, the difficulty certainly ramps up. Multiple colored fractals pop up on the board, suddenly making the player have to be aware that the upcoming fractal might destroy an attempted bloom combo.

While playing Fractal I was reminded of the game Lumines, but while that game had a style of gameplay very reminiscent of the classic puzzler Tetris, Fractal feels like it’s own thing. It has its own style  and pace. The campaign doesn’t have you trying to complete a level within a certain timeframe, nor does it suddenly ramp up the speed of gameplay. It all comes down to the player. How the player decides to interact with the level determines the tension and complexity of each level. Needless to say you can discover multiple ways of creating blooms within a level which certainly ups the replay value of the game. (more…)

Have you ever wondered if there was a whole other world, which existed just outside of your comprehension? Neil Gaiman did, and the result is 1996’s Neverwhere. Auntie Beeb is releasing all six episodes, plus so much more, in a special 15th Anniversary DVD set.

Neverwhere is a trippy view of “London Below,” the world that exists in parallel to our own. The story follows Richard Mayhew (Gary Bakewell), who stops to help an injured woman over the protestations of his fiancée. The woman is actually a dweller of London Below named Door (Laura Fraser), whose entire family has just been murdered and is being chased by the menacing assassins, Mr. Croup (more…)